It’s all about income inequality.

So I’m talking to Shep Gordon and he tells me not to leave the hotel without security. My sister says to bring no watch, to be wary of cellphone theft. And then the “New York Times” writes about yellow fever. WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?

I’m not the paranoid type, but if you plant a kernel in my brain…

I went for a typhoid shot, because of my pemphigus I could not be immunized against yellow fever, I’m traveling with Cipro…but none of them are a match for a gun.

Which are illegal to own in Brazil.

But that does not keep the criminals from holding you up, shooting you if you protest.

But the cops won’t go up into the favelas to pursue the offenders. They’re not paid enough. And are they paid by the criminals? And the convicted don’t get euthanized, there’s no death penalty. And because they’re so impoverished, the government lets them out early, there’s no life in prison so…

At least that’s what my driver told me.

Brazilians are like Canadians, they’ve got the gift of gab. Put a dime in the jukebox and you’ll hear amazing stories. From the left and the right. There’s agreement on the problems, but not on the solutions.

But underneath this all is corruption.

So we’re driving up to the concrete Christ and I see a billboard for “The Mechanism.” Has the driver seen it?

OF COURSE!

And it’s on Netflix to boot. All these companies have international penetration, except for Apple Music, which required credit cards and American money in a country where most people don’t have them. So Spotify took off. Deezer is #2. We’re so U.S. focused, but it’s a great big world out there.

Where most people don’t speak English.

Back in the seventies, you traveled internationally and there was a language barrier. But go to France now and you have no need to speak French. And many people love the U.K. because we share the same language. But I like places a little more exotic, and despite so many speaking English, most in Rio don’t. And it gets very basic, it’s not so easy to buy a hamburger, it’s hard to order at all. And sure, one can get by, but it’s humbling, I wish more could experience it, it gives you perspective.

So there’s a brouhaha about “The Mechanism.” It’s fiction, but thinly-veiled, and if you’re on the wrong side of it you’re complaining, but everyone agrees there’s corruption.

But despite being aware of Trump, they don’t know that we’re freaking out now too. Sure, we can walk after dark in so many neighborhoods in the U.S., but if you don’t have a college degree, you can’t even get a job as a receptionist. There’s no upward mobility for the underclass, and that results in…

Tension.

America is sliding into third world territory.

So we drove up the mountain into the park, where the vegetation was so thick if there wasn’t a road, you’d have no way to get out. And as we’re jetting around the corners in the Corolla I’m getting nervous. One false move and we’ll fall thousands of feet, it’s just that steep. Meanwhile, my driver is turning to talk to me, checking WAZE…should I just shut up?

That’s another thing, they’ve got 4G, all the tech comforts we do. We’re not that far ahead.

And then I took the train up to the concrete Christ. Had to scale a series of steps to get there, but when I was up….

You don’t want to have agoraphobia. It’s amazing what a steep drop it is. And you can see so much. And nobody is speaking English.

After that we went to the BBQ restaurant, Fogo de Chao. Where I stuffed myself. When they slice the meat off the skewer, it’s juicy, it’s succulent, you cannot stop.

And the traffic back to Baja…

It’s kind of like L.A. There are so many famous places. Like Copacabana. And Ipanema. WHERE’S THE GIRL? Records come alive.

And it’s getting dark and I wonder if they have daylight savings time.

OF COURSE! IT ENDED IN FEBRUARY!

That’s right, we’re upside down!

And then it started to pour…

You try to get ahead. My driver dropped out of college and then was a musician and then bought a car, which he immediately switched to natural gas, to save money. His father lost his job at the bank, bought a taxi license and within two years, Uber was everywhere. My driver said his dad “had a hard life.”

And his girlfriend, who he met on Tinder, after spending two years kissing twenty-odd frogs, is studying psychology but lives next to a favela.

Hmm…

Meanwhile, the big sound here is country music. Not ours, but from the Brazilian hills.

Like I said, it’s the same, but different. I’m doing my presentation today and some of my laugh lines are not registering, because audience members are listening to simultaneous translation, into Portuguese. Really twists your head.

And everybody’s young and excited. They’re optimistic.

With a base layer of pessimism.

You want to climb above, you want to work. And the dream?

My driver wants to go to America. But he’s got no angle.

Most people want to stay. After all, Brazil is a huge market, about the size of the continental United States, with hundreds of millions of people here. High rises, beaches, EVERYTHING!

They don’t need us to survive.

Then again, the conference organizer told me he was a Trojan, and one of his gigs was in business development for Live Nation in Brazil.

You see globalization already happened, that ship already sailed. And those who own it are going to prosper in the future.

As for Brazil, Marcelo told me it comes and goes in waves. Everything was looking up, especially before the Olympics, but there were government lies and lack of execution on social initiatives and then things got bad.

But he’s convinced they’ll get good again.

But according to the Petrobras guy I spoke with, “PetroBrasil” in “The Mechanism,” it’s only best if you’re privileged. He got his job via a government test. 90% of the public couldn’t take it, they were uneducated, but maybe smart.

And there you’ve got America, where the educated class perpetuates, marries each other and uses its connections to get ahead. Eddie Lampert didn’t come from money, he went to Yale and his roommate’s dad got him a gig at Goldman Sachs. Did you have these opportunities?

Probably not.

Which might be why you voted for Trump. While the privileged classes, both Democratic and Republican, don’t want to sacrifice, don’t want to lose anything they have, they want to keep the door shut.

It’s all anybody wants to talk about, it doesn’t take long for conversation here to stumble on to politics, corruption, government.

Just like the U.S.

So when you say you’re sick of talking Trump, of D.C., the joke is on you. Our future is at risk.

And you could influence it, just like Jose Padilha did with “The Mechanism.”

That’s the potential of art, it can change the discussion.

Don’t relinquish your truth in pursuit of faux dollars.

Happiness comes from pushing the envelope.

And so does power.

I’m so full of steak, I may turn into a cow…or a chicken or pig, I ate them all at this BBQ restaurant by the water. They do it differently here, it’s more well-done, not medium-rare, but the items are so tasty you cannot stop, especially since I hadn’t eaten anything all day. And now I’ve got to run to the opening ceremonies for Rio2C so…

This week’s podcast features John Dick, who you don’t know but you should. Mr. Dick runs a polling company out of Pittsburgh called Civic Science. They gain their data via online quizzes, since no one picks up the phone anymore, and his insights are truly fascinating. I met him on these AXS TV Grammy prediction telecasts, Mark Cuban is on the company’s advisory board. Furthermore, almost all the tech companies you know buy data/insight from Civic Science. AND, John puts out a weekly newsletter of insights, only one, he doesn’t overload you like me, it’s on Saturday and if you want to receive it e-mail him at: jd@civicscience.com

Go to it.

I’ve got to jump in the shower!

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Well they tell me it’s only a dream in Rio
Nothing could be as sweet as it seems
On this very first day down

You land and you get inspired. Happened to James Taylor, it’s happening to me.

Back when car stereo was a thing, before automobiles had multiple speakers, never mind USB ports, you upgraded the system in your car. In 1985 I drove my new BMW directly to Auto Stereo Warehouse for installation of an Alpine head unit, ADS speakers in the doors and rear deck, and two giant ADS amplifiers in the trunk.

It sounded incredible. I guess you could get something better, but only if you were a competitor and dropped twenty grand, not that my system was cheap, it was the best a reasonable person could purchase. I’d hesitated, but then my shrink said that driving around in my car listening to music is what I liked to do most, for another person it was an extravagance, but for me it was a necessity!

And this was before CDs in cars, although a few years later I bought a changer for the trunk, at this point you made tapes, and my Nakamichis didn’t sound right so I went to Adray’s and bought an Aiwa and started duplicating from my vinyl. And one of the albums I copied was James Taylor’s “That’s Why I’m Here,” his last reasonable statement.

That’s right, artists burn out, I’ve got my theories. Mostly I think they believe their success will solve all their problems and when it doesn’t they can’t do it anymore. Furthermore, the more your world broadens the less your work means, it gets you out of your neighborhood and you get caught up in the trappings and it’s impossible to get back to the garden.

At the time I was out of work. I was playing golf and driving my new car. And I vividly remember driving on San Vicente, east, towards 26th, and hearing “Only A Dream In Rio.”

More than a distant land over a shining sea
More than the steaming green

These flights are not long enough. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but I use their length to catch up on my reading and I got hooked on this book “The Immortalists.” If you start it don’t get turned off by the gay narrative…it expires. You see people put books down, when I buy them I finish them, I made that deal with my Kindle. And you can’t say anything without fear of backlash these days, and my point is there are still people squeamish about homosexuality and my point is don’t let it turn you off to this book.

And it’s funny how story triumphs. Too many highbrow books put plot in the rear seat. The intelligentsia pooh-pooh the fare the masses pore over, but sometimes the crowd is right.

And after typing in the lounge in Miami I walked to the plane.

And that’s when I was confronted with confusion, people disregarding the group numbers, boarding at will, bantering in Portuguese. I was just about to leave our shores.

And then the in-flight map told me I was over Key Largo and soon we were in uncharted territory. Americans go to Europe, maybe Mexico and the Caribbean, but South America is a no-no.

But the best place I’ve been in the past decade was Bogota, I felt so ALIVE!

And as the plane descended I was confronted with jungle and mountains, not what one expects when going to a city.

And the jaunt from the plane to customs was the equivalent of a 10k, but when I emerged into the sunshine it was warm and…

Different.

Tons of traffic.

And an ice cream vendor in the middle of the freeway.

And another person walking in the breakdown lane.

And rows and rows of concrete blocks that housed the poor.

And I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Actually, I’ve been to Kansas. Back when they still paid for schools.

And I’m stunned at the news on my phone. Between the teacher protests and the swooning stock market it appears we are headed for an Arab Spring of our own. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, supposedly everybody had a flat screen and was satiated, but that turned out to be untrue. First the poor and uneducated revolted and now those with more, who can see the landscape, students and teachers, are picking up the torch. Meanwhile, government and business are in free-fall, they’ve got no idea what’s going on, they thought they ruled and now they don’t.

But I’m in a foreign country where there are millions of people unconcerned with the goings-on in the United States.

And I’m always worried how I’ll be treated.

But they sent me a driver and gave me a suite. And now I’m looking out at the water, elated and confused. How can you still be so far away and be the same person?

But maybe not.

Travel changes you. In unexpected ways. You meet people, see how others live, and your world is enlarged. You thought you knew everything, now it’s apparent how little you do know. And the more you learn the more you realize you’ll never know.

But knowledge is power.

And experience leads to power.

And at the end of the day the trappings fall away and it’s just about what’s inside, who you are and where you’ve been, your ability to opine on this mystery called life.

“Only A Dream In Rio”

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“Live Nation Rules Music Ticketing, Some Say With Threats”

A big nothingburger.

You might remember David Carr taking down Tribune management. A surgical strike revealing unknown information that could not be ignored.

This is not that.

The problem with today’s society is legs, as in longevity, as in staying power, as in staying top of mind. But in a world where movies play for weeks rather than months and this morning’s news is forgotten by tonight and Trump’s faux pas are in the rearview mirror shortly after they’re revealed if you want to make a big splash and last…

You’ve got to tell us something we don’t know.

And the NYT article failed to do this.

Furthermore, it failed to educate the public as to the realities of ticketing.

You can’t get a good ticket at face value. That’s the story in ticketing, that’s what people are concerned with. But truthfully, there have been plenty of stories about this and the public no longer cares, except for a sliver of fans who believe they should be able to buy front row tickets at face value the day before, everybody else knows it’s a game of pre-sales and connections and resales and if you don’t know this you probably only buy once a year, and should we have that much sympathy for you when we don’t protect you in other areas? Come on, if you want to buy a car and do no research into the game you’re gonna get ripped-off, same deal in tickets.

I’m not lauding this game, but this is what the business wants. Because oftentimes the only profit in the show IS the ticketing fees, promoters give the rest of the revenue to acts. The de-emphasized point in this article is Live Nation’s other revenue streams, most notably sponsorship. Live Nation rolled up a ton of festivals and sold opportunities to Madison Avenue, for this you’ve got to laud them, not excoriate them.

As for AEG… It let Live Nation buy FrontGate. Can you force a competitor to double-down? It appears not.

But the truth is concert promotion is a mature business. And the profits come from disruption, not fighting the last war.

The last disruption was festivals. It was a way for promoters to make much more money. The barrier to entry was low, but it turned out without deep pockets you oftentimes couldn’t make it, which is why LN and AEG dominate here now. If you want to solve today’s problems, innovate, don’t regulate.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster won the last war. What is the next war?

I’m not sure. Virtual reality? Private overpriced concerts? Come on, the arena experience, the default in this business, is absolutely terrible, you can see the act on the big screen but it sounds like crap. And the truth is people are willing to pay beaucoup bucks to be up close, why not let them?

Or maybe it all goes destination. Once upon a time Vegas was for oldsters. Then came Branson and now current acts play Sin City. Why not make the fans fly in as opposed to dragging the acts all over the globe, doing drugs to stay intact, to the degree they can.

And when it comes to ticketing…

Ticketmaster is notoriously built on spaghetti code. Creating the new on top of the old is not only difficult, but oftentimes impossible. Steve Jobs transitioned Apple from OS 9 to X, but that was a leap most punters are unaware of the difficulty of, it was herculean.

So…

We’re gonna see breakthroughs in ticketing. And whether Ticketmaster achieves those…

That’s a more important story than this NYT one. VCs laying down dollars to topple the edifice. Better wins, not always, but usually. Ticketmaster took down Ticketron by allowing you to pick your seat. AND paying the buildings. Could there be a new economic model? Believe me, a venue and or team will switch if they can make more money, they don’t care who appears in their building if their bottom line is better. And sure, you can fight the old war with old ways, bundling, threatening to withhold, but it’s hard to see a systematic effort by LN here, there’s no smoking gun, certainly not one that will energize the government, which is always two steps behind and a dollar short. The government always gets it wrong, with Microsoft…then again, the European Union is positively cutting edge with its privacy concerns . You think you live in the greatest country in the world, but that may be untrue.

The game changes.

Microsoft ruled with Windows and Explorer. Then Google made search that worked which generated an advertising juggernaut and then Facebook came in and stole its thunder, hell, does anybody go past the first search link anymore?

So when it comes to ticketing…

The issues are…

Facial recognition. Do you think that’s just to open your phone? If you’re buying an 8 instead of an X, you’re missing the point, and staying behind.

Security. The #1 issue in promotions today. Who cares what you book if no one comes.

Transferability.

There are a lot of issues, a lot of runway in ticketing.

But none were discussed in this article.

As for Jared Smith’s response… It was eloquent and delineates the issues better than the NYT, befitting someone who does this every day, but it got no traction:

“Ticketing, Vertical Integration and the NYT’s Recent Article”

But that doesn’t matter, because neither did the NYT article. Which didn’t tell the insiders anything they didn’t know and wasn’t sexy enough to grip the outsiders.

A failed opportunity, not even a bunt.

When you get people’s attention deliver.

Or don’t play.