There’s a feeling I get
When I look to the west

And my spirit is crying for staying.

It’s palpable. The feeling you get when you enter the gig, the performance space, after they’ve checked your ticket and you’re inside, where it’s all happening. No different from years ago, when I was still in my teen years. That’s the magic of music, it ties in with your young spirit.

Actually, at lunch, I was the oldest person there. And then it occurred to me, I didn’t see myself that way. They saw me as old, I just saw myself as one of the assembled multitude. But it’s all about going with the flow. Felice’s mother is 94, but what keeps Ginny young is her friends, she’s got as much gumption and get up and go as any youngster.

And the millennials are into food. That’s one thing we missed in my heyday. My father was a gourmet, he was all about getting the best and eating out at fine restaurants, but if you went to a gig you got a boiled hot dog on a stale bun. Although it was a $1.50. Today’s lunch was as good as a Four Seasons buffet. Well, not quite, but close. But it’s de rigueur for millennials.

But their festivals are different. Ours were held in a big field with poor security and so-so sound. There’s are micro-managed with so many options.

So Life Is Beautiful is set in downtown Las Vegas. Forget the slots, forget the Strip, it’s as if they hollowed out a city and plopped a rock festival inside. That’s Tony Hsieh’s mission, to renovate the city. That’s another millennial credo, giving back. But it’s got to be real. Too many corporations pay lip service and today everybody can sniff out a fake.

So it’s unlike Coachella, unlike Bonnaroo, you don’t go away to the festival, it’s right at your doorstep. So you walk around the city blocks and it’s like a bombed-out amusement park, like being in Freedomland today. With neon signs from motels that no longer exist. Sculptures from a futuristic era more akin to “2001” than 2018.

And some of these sculptures are permanent. Like the fire-breathing dragon, like the curve of cars.

And it is hot, but not as hot as I expected it to be. That’s right, Dark Sky says it’s 99 degrees, but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s the angle of the sun. It is not brutal. Although the producers are anxious about the heat.

They don’t come from the music business. William Barker, the Chairman, comes from finance, comes from tech. He runs a fund of a half billion. But he got roped into this and he’s trying to apply a tech perspective to a music festival.

Now everybody selling is a hypester. Steve Jobs being the greatest of all time. He’d say something was innovative when in truth it was copied. But Barker told me he was using data from the app to adjust on the fly. That’s right, you download the app and then the promoters track you. I know, I know, there are privacy concerns, and you can turn the tracking off, but the team uses this data to adjust. They bring in more cooling stations, see what is popular for next year.

They’re all about change on the fly. On a whim they gave away popsicles upon entry. Simple idea, but sourcing those items was not.

Nothing is set in stone.

And they’re building a brand, it’s not only about the festival.

But Tony Hsieh is revitalizing downtown Las Vegas.

So while the techies are denigrated, it’s Elon and Jeff that are pushing the envelope in space. And Jeff and Marc have made a push into publishing. And Tony is trying to save a city. Funny how the values of the traditional corporations and their leaders are not the same.

We live in an era of giving back.

We live in an era of experiences.

Life Is Beautiful is not your parents’ festival. First and foremost it’s not only about music. There is comedy, I want to see Michelle Wolf, but even more there are art exhibits and food trucks and so many other diversions. It’s a theme park for those who’ve outgrown Disneyland.

And Coachella and Lollapalooza have the brand names. And a bunch of festivals have been cancelled this year. But in its sixth year, Life Is Beautiful is profitable. Actually, last year too. Before that, money was lost. Concert promotion is not for the faint of heart. And consolidation in promotion has been the story of the past twenty years. But a few independents are going their own way, and that’s where the innovation lies.

So sure, there are masses of people. Sure, you don’t know all the acts. Sure, it takes an effort to come.

But when you are here you feel something, a fire deep inside that you thought was flickering or burned out. It’s not exactly hope, but your identity. Welcome back to the garden.

I’m just a son of a son, son of a son
Son of a son of a sailor
The sea’s in my veins, my tradition remains
I’m just glad I don’t live in a trailer

“Son Of A Son Of A Sailor”
Jimmy Buffett

But I do now! I’m spending the weekend in an Airstream at Tony Hsieh’s downtown Vegas experiment in small living. That’s right, the Zappos king lives in a trailer park.

People and access. That’s what it’s all about. Wankers think it’s about acquisitions. Oldsters think it’s all about lifestyle. But if you want to get excited, if you want to surf the possibilities, you’ve got to know people, you’ve got to work the connections, you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time.

Happened to me by accident. I was on the Summit Series cruise. Those guys tracked me down, they were buying a ski area, that was the draw. And I was speaking on the aforementioned cruise and a friend knew Tony, and we went up to his suite.

Funny with rich people. It allows them to live life on their own terms. Go where they want to go, talk to who they want to. And one thing about the rich and famous, you don’t want to fawn, you want to treat them normally, because nobody else does. And when we went to dinner I engaged Tony in conversation and heard about his Harvard roots and how he got from there to here and when we were back on the mainland he shot me an e-mail inviting me to come stay in his trailer park.

REALLY?

He said to really get it, I had to stay for a week. And what is the right week in Vegas, the summer’s really damn hot and the winter is the ski season and then I tore up my arm and needed surgery and I got pemphigus and had to go to the hospital and there was never a time until…

Now.

I’m here in Vegas for the Life Is Beautiful festival. I figured it was a good time to stay in the trailer park. But it turned out it was full up. But Tony e-mailed me Monday night and asked if I wanted to stay, he had a vacancy.

You’ve got to know, I’m bad with quick decisions. If we’re in a crisis, I’m good. If it’s life and death, you want me on your team, I’m a good survivalist. But if it’s a notch below that, I want to evaluate all the possibilities, I don’t want to get it wrong, and as a result it takes me a long time to make a decision, sometimes too long. Felice is impulsive. She doesn’t always get it right, but she moves forward whereas I get stuck. Sometimes a whole list of decisions piles up and I realize I’m not moving forward but the OCD shrink is working with me to decide, knowing that I’ll get it wrong sometimes, I hate to get it wrong.

So I’m e-mailing Tony and Mimi for more details. It’s like “Let’s Make A Deal,” do I want to give up my hotel room for a trailer? That’s another problem I’ve got, I’ve learned the first room the hotel gives you is often substandard and you have to negotiate for a better one, so I’m always anxious when checking in, but all Airstreams are the same, right? So I took the leap.

And I also like to prepare for trips, get myself psyched. But I’ve been so busy I just showed up at the airport and sat next to a sick man on the plane raising my anxiety ever so high, and it was a very hard landing and then here I was, in the City of Sin, the Desert Oasis, Viva Las Vegas!

I hate Vegas. It’s got no class. Money talks, and only money. But in the past few decades the food has improved and the entertainment has become first rate and up-to-date but we took the long way home, far from the strip, in a stretch limo with only me in the back.

And the limo driver couldn’t find Fergusons, i.e. the trailer park, and was driving the wrong way down a one way street when we were pulled over by security which took me to the vaunted yellow door. Whereupon I…

Entered an area little different from the house on “Big Brother.” Trailers circled around fake grass and a bunch of space age furniture and a pool and I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Tony told me it was his second trailer park. The first one was across the street. They worked out the bugs and started over, they realized they needed a pool and then he thrust a carrot in my hand and told me to hold it in my dominant hand. I was completely flummoxed. Was I supposed to eat it?

But he steered me forward until I encountered a huge black llama that I was supposed to feed the carrot to. DOESN’T HE KNOW I’M AFRAID OF ANIMALS? I’ve never had a good conversation with an animal, and they can smell my fear and are always drawn to me and the llama started chomping on the carrot and I was afraid it was gonna bite my hand and then I dropped the rest of the orange vegetable on the ground and everybody was talking to me and I was overwhelmed. I had to pee and eat, did I talk now or later? That’s another thing about life, do you stay where you are or take a chance on something better which might be worse? But I still had my suitcase and computer and then I was taken to my trailer. That’s right, I’m not lying, I’m staying in a trailer. We never did this growing up, my father was not the camping type.

And after quizzing Mimi and Garrett about what was going on here and how the trailer worked we walked to the common area where there was food and conversation and the air of summer camp.

I talked to the head of marketing for T-Mobile. He told me that iPhone prices are high because Apple has gotten rid of incentives, that if I’m looking for a deal, I’m not gonna get one. And that the new iPhone works on new spectrum and this is great for the company.

And then I bonded with the guy who’s #2 or close to it who’s in charge of the brand. After hearing I was in the music business, he told me all about the acts he’s worked with. Justin Bieber was exceedingly nice, music was very important to T-Mobile.

And then I was introduced to this couple who’d just sold their company Skip Hop to Carter’s and made a bundle and the husband told me he was in tech in the nineties in New York and that’s how he knew…

Everybody.

It’s a community. It looks big, but it’s not. Just like music, although music is a bigger pool than it used to be.

That’s how Mike knows Tony.

And Ellen told me they spent a lot of time in Asia and we compared travel notes. And I know it sounds elitist and feel free to judge me but this is manna from heaven in my world. You don’t know how many unfulfilling conversations I have. My generation is retiring, they’re on the downside. And people are proud of their little worlds. But these people are going somewhere. Sure, they’re younger, but they’re still hungry and can analyze the issues and this is the modern world, where you wiggle your way up the food chain. Pedigree only goes so far, prestige education only goes so far. You ultimately enter the world and then…

WHAT HAPPENS?

When done right music touches souls, but it’s a dumb business. Ask a bigwig if they can define “algorithm.”

And I don’t want to go into banking, I don’t want to be an entrepreneur selling a product, but I love to hear the stories, I love to learn how people got from there to here. I love talking to smart people no matter where they come from.

And this is a conclave of smart people.

FOT. Friends of Tony.

Hanging out in a trailer park.

“Tour Entrepreneur Tony Hsieh’s Airstream Park – HGTV”

(This is the old trailer park in the video. The new one is very similar, but with a built-in pool, more fake grass and a covered dining area/living space.)

“Son Of A Son Of A Sailor” – Spotify

“Son Of A Son Of A Sailor” – YouTube

Echo Sub Bundle with 2 Echo (2nd Gen) Devices – $249.97

It’s 2003 all over again. When hardware was king and just as you got used to your latest iPod they improved it, only this time Cupertino is behind the curve selling niche items for mucho dinero and Amazon is going downmarket to own the world.

In case you missed it, Amazon just announced a tsunami of Echo products. Everything from a microwave to a car device and a DVR. This makes Tim Cook’s overlabored two hour pronouncements look like yesteryear. That was Steve Jobs’ game in an old era. Today Amazon dumped so many products it’ll take weeks to digest them.

Voice control. Apple was there first, and now the company is last. That’s the power of the individual, as in Jobs is gone. But Jobs was famous for turning on a dime, missing the memo and then leapfrogging the competition. Whereas today’s Apple is all about the niche ecosystem based on its brand, and how long will that last? You can’t even play Spotify on your HomePod, and why buy one of those when you can get a whole music system for two hundred fifty bucks!

I like the cheap plugs, for $25 anything electrical can be voice-controlled. Forget mixing and matching technologies, to quote the seer, “It just works.”

Unlike Tesla. The cars are riddled with defects in a world where we expect the first iteration to be perfect.

But this is a stealth move by Amazon, with its ecosystem of commerce and entertainment attached, did you see the bigger screen in the new Show? Amazon is gonna own your world, to a great degree it already does. I’d rather order from Prime than go to the store where too often my chosen product is not in stock.

The future is here now. Video took over from text and now voice is trumping them all.

Imagine just speaking the song you want to hear…

Well, as a matter of fact, that ability was pioneered on Amazon Music’s app and now Spotify has copied it. Your library is in the cloud. Your playlist is in the cloud. You just have to ask for it!

And unlike Apple, Amazon is offering its products for cheap. Apple is so busy protecting its margins that it’s leaving customers out. Do I really want to invest four figures for a phone? I know, it’s a computer, but you do feel a bit ripped-off, right?

Instead of establishing a monopoly and defending it, the Apple Way, Amazon is opening their devices to everybody with the hope that through sheer ubiquity and ability to interface they’ll end up with a monopoly anyway.

And whereas only a couple of Apple products have ever failed, Amazon and Google fail all the time, but they keep plowing forward. They get it wrong, and they get it right. Like with the Fire Phone. Most companies would hide their tail between their legs and retreat, but not Amazon.

Is this good for the world?

Voice control is. Make things easier and people will pay, especially if they’re perceived as cool.

But so much power in the hands of one company under the direction of one man?

Bezos seems to be able to accomplish more than anybody in Washington. And he single-handedly resurrected the “Washington Post.”

Just when you think we’ve seen all the tech tricks…

There are more.

Goin’ down…down, down, down, down, DOWN! As Don Nix so famously wrote.

What did they used to say, tweeting would save event television? That live was everything?

Utter hogwash.

You’ve got to read the pundits’ comments on why the Emmy ratings tanked. The shows were too sophisticated, they didn’t feature meat and potato actors, the performers are left wing… Bottom line, NOBODY WANTS TO WATCH!

The music business got over this. They learned it was a world of niches, other than the Grammy Awards, which are coasting on the payments of CBS and will lack innovation until the contract runs out and the whole enterprise craters.

Welcome to corporate America, where no one has a stake and as long as you’re getting paid, you don’t care and the goal is to hit your bonus. I was at lunch the other day with a futurist, he specializes in disruption, he’s been advising banks, telling them that within five years the banking landscape will look completely different, the internet will rule, that most millennials have never been in a branch and they’re sick and tired of the charges and what do the CEOs say they’re gonna do? NOTHING! Because they’re all on short term contracts and if they take action it will hurt their numbers and their stockholders will freak.

That’s how the techies stole the country in the first place. Everybody in charge was asleep at the wheel, believing change was never gonna come, that they were entitled to their business.

What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where the hottest medium, i.e. television, has horrific ratings for its awards show?

One in which we all watch different shows and need another life just to watch television there’s so much product.

And why watch? If you’re interested, the highlights will be all over the web and you can find out who wins instantly.

This is a funny process to watch. Sports were king. But as soon as people get the right to cancel ESPN they do. That’s the main motivation for cutting the cord, the ridiculous fee paid for the sports channel that nobody watches. Hell, the old wave sports ESPN covers are uninteresting to the millennials. They’d rather watch gaming on Twitch or wherever.

Awards show are obsolete. And as Howard Stern said they’re for wankers. If you need an award to validate yourself you’ve got much bigger issues. The best so often don’t win, and the winners aren’t remembered. So why do we need awards shows ANYWAY??

With my precious viewing time I don’t want to be locked into a multi-hour self-congratulatory show. At least MTV had it right in the old days, the awards were secondary to the show. But now not only have the VMAs been eclipsed, but MTV too. Who wants to wait to see a video? Those are on demand items online. Same deal with radio. But every time I say radio’s tanking I’m inundated with lifers who tell me I don’t get it and their stations are burgeoning. Then I go to an event and ask how many people’s kids listen to the radio AND NO ONE RAISES THEIR HANDS!

Radio can be reinvented, be about news and talk and interaction. And the music stations need culture, but we see none of this on the terrestrial band. As for digital, do you know ANYONE who listens to Beats 1? I’m sure Zane Lowe is regretting his move to the service. Hell, Tuma Basa had a far greater impact at Rap Caviar. Then again, Beats 1 was hatched under Jimmy Iovine, hear his name lately? He’s been banished to the backwater, because he’s just too old and doesn’t get it. He not busy being born is busy dying.

And contrary to the ridiculous concept that today’s audience has a short attention span, look at the bingeing of multi-episode shows. People just have an incredible shit detector. They tune out if it’s not great. Come on, admit it, how many times have you pulled up a vaunted show and watched an episode, or even ten minutes, and shut it off and never returned. But you’re supposed to tune in at an appointed time to see this lame show that is so self-centered it appeals to nobody? And even if it appealed to the audience, few would still watch it, because WHY?

Why should I?

TV is not scarce. Awards are not scarce. And we’re all stars of our own movie. Just look at the number of YouTube videos uploaded every day, every MINUTE!

Maybe awards shows are history, like vaudeville, like variety shows. To everything there’s a season, turn, turn, turn. Unlike the Oscars, TV is in its heyday, we’re all addicted. Fewer movie tickets have been sold every year, grosses only go up because prices are higher. And the content is narrow.

But on TV you can see EVERYTHING! There’s a channel, a show for every interest. I’m not big on research, but at least Netflix uses its data to make the shows people want to watch. Netflix knows what I like. Do the Emmys know what I like? Of course not, they’re holier-than-thou. That’s the entire entertainment industry before disruption.

Then again, the music business believes we’re only interested in a narrow slice of product, at this point hip-hop. Give Netflix kudos for making a broad spectrum of shows and PROMOTING THEM! Do you see Spotify promoting that which is not popular, just because it’s GOOD?

No.

So ignore the caterwauling. The TV business is healthy, and will only be more so in the future. Because it reflects real life, even better than the old king, music. Sure, some channels are gonna go by the wayside, there’s a limit to how many outlets a customer will pay for, but we live in a nation addicted to the flat screen.

But that does not mean it cares about the Emmys.

I LOVED Merritt Wever in “Godless.” Jeff Daniels played against type and knocked it out of the park in the same series. They deserve awards, they were better than the show itself. You’re’ telling me we’re reverting to the millennial ethos where everybody gets a trophy? That the tripe on the networks should be rewarded? If you think the people propping up those shows don’t have high-speed internet and DVRs and Netflix you’re wrong. Ain’t that Hollywood, they’ve got contempt for everybody else. But the truth is the audience is more sophisticated than the purveyors. It was no different during the era of Napster. But oldsters still want fans to buy and listen to entire albums, it’s like they’re living in 1979.

We live in an overbooked, on demand culture. It takes a lot to reach us and if you don’t hook us we move on. We’re willing to go deep, but only when we want to. We need entertainment, but not necessarily yours.

Welcome to the new reality.