And Tommy doesn’t know what day it is

They upgraded me to first class. That’s right, I checked in and was walking towards the plane and the clerk stopped me and asked me if I was traveling alone, and she gave me a new ticket. And the paranoid person I am wondered if it would be an aisle, alone, like I had in business class.

In this case I got a whole room.

Once again, it’s not like it looks in the pictures. You’ve got a compartment, with a thirty inch screen, with more movies and TV shows than you could watch in a year, with British series that haven’t made it across the pond yet, along with flowers and a desk lamp and a vanity mirror and room to stretch out and I only wish it was longer than a three hour flight. You press a button and the doors close and you’ve got your own private area, your own private Idaho, but on this A-380, not a B-52, the service is so attentive that for a long time you don’t want to close the doors. The food was Indian and scrumptious! What did Americans add to cuisine, hamburgers? Well the assorted dips, and the chutneys to go along with the curry, were extremely savory.

Now back to Dubai, I forgot to tell you that they had free Wi-Fi, fast enough for video, that’s what the banners said. And free ice cream. I chose chocolate chocolate chip, it was better than Haagen-Dazs. That’s right, for everyone, right in the concourse, courtesy of Emirates.

And there were more of those white-robed gentlemen on my flight. How do they keep the robes so clean? If it were me, one meal and it’d be toast. And I’d like to tell you the derivation of the attire, but I’m an American, and we know nothing. That’s right, been nowhere, done little, but convinced we’re the experts, like the blowhard at the party you can’t wait to get away from. That’s one thing about life, there’s always someone who knows more, who’s seen more, and once you realize this you’re a citizen of the world, then again statistics tell us Americans don’t even move to a different state anymore, they can’t afford it. As for all this bashing of the U.S.A., that’s one thing that’s great about our country, the ability to question, to stand up, the thing that Trump is trying to eviscerate. Every day people tell me I’m an idiot online, why can’t the President handle it. If you play to your naysayers you’re missing the point. You’ve got to stay the course. Then again, do the masses agree with your course? We’re gonna find out in November, then again, on the flight over I read a story about a southern city decreasing the number of polling places in African-American neighborhoods, makes me wonder if the game is rigged. Actually, it is. Which is why you should have voted for Hillary so we didn’t end up with the right wing Supreme Court we’ve got now, it was always about the Supreme Court, and you blew your chance because Hillary was phony. She was, she turned me off by saying her favorite book was the Bible, but people are complicated and if you can’t accept them warts and all, if you can’t look past the gotcha points, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble in this world. And I could rant further about politics, but you don’t want to hear it, but it’s the story of our age. Musicians used to be concerned, before they weren’t whored out to corporations, when the draft had everybody on the same side. It comes down to whether you believe in a welfare state, if you don’t…you’re not on my team. Bye!

So it’s hot in Mumbai and rainy too. It’s the monsoon season. Vishal told me there are three seasons: summer, winter and monsoon. That it’s humid during the day yet temperate at night. And he spoke perfect English, I know no Hindi or any other dialect/language used here. But Vishal did tell me sixty percent of the people speak English.

And I landed after three in the morning, but just driving to the hotel I got the vibe, why westerners are entranced by the country. It’s different, yet inviting. And although Vishal told me it was perfectly safe, they did check under the hook and inside the trunk before letting us through the gate, which reminded me about terrorism in the past, but if you go through life afraid, you don’t live, why are Americans now so afraid?

And my room is very nice with a view over the water but sans a desk. You don’t find a hotel room in America without a desk. And the free Wi-Fi…I think I’m gonna have to pay for faster speed. And supposedly Uber is readily available. And I heard prices are cheap, but I do little research before I travel, I always Google once I arrive, once I’m excited.

And I’m excited and happy now. I’m twelve and a half hours from Los Angeles, a full day of travel. I’m literally halfway around the world, and already my eyes have been opened.

P.S. The above lyric is from the song “Christmas,” from the Who’s rock opera “Tommy,” does anybody under thirty know that? The double album was not released to great fanfare, the song “Pinball Wizard” came out a few months before, but did not run up the chart. But “Tommy” built over time and became a landmark to the point the band played the Metropolitan Opera House. I saw them perform it at the Fillmore East. Watching Keith Moon was stunning, it was like he was two drummers. And I feel that “Tommy” is fading away, younger people prefer “Quadrophenia,” just like some prefer the White Album or “Abbey Road” to “Sgt. Pepper.” But “Tommy,” like “Sgt. Pepper,” was the breakthrough, it was a quantum leap forward, it was beyond conception. Anybody can follow in the footsteps, but can you jump ahead and be a leader, go where the people want to even though they are unaware? Then you’re truly an artist.

P.P.S. And that’s right, my Mac says it’s Tuesday August 21st, 4:46 AM, but I left on Sunday and although I slept some on the flight to Dubai I’m not exactly tired and it’s the middle of the night, thank you Billy Joel, and I’m gonna read and try to fall asleep, but I wonder how long it will take to adjust. Usually going east is hell, whereas going west is not. But going to India…you can go either way, since it’s right smack dab in the middle, how’s the jet lag gonna be? I’m gonna find out!

P.P.P.S. The toilet seats in Dubai were heated, so your tushy would feel all warm and fuzzy!

P.P.P.P.S. I drank from the water fountain in the Mumbai airport and I’ve been freaked out about it ever since. That’s what everybody tells you, don’t drink the water! And I was rationalizing it was the airport, but then they told me not to drink the water from the tap in my hotel room and…I’ve been OCD’ing about it ever since. I came with a full complement of medication, but I don’t want to use it!

P.P.P.P.P.S. I forgot to tell you about the bathroom in first class! I know, this P.S. thing is getting kinda ridiculous, but my brain is somewhere over the ocean despite my body being here and I forgot to tell you this, and so much more that hasn’t occurred to me yet. Anyway, the first class Emirates bathroom even has a shower! It is literally bigger than my bathroom at home!

It’s dark here. In more ways than one. Trumpers would freak out. I was the only Anglo in my section on the plane, and when I went through security… There was a guy in one of those white suits which rednecks would call a dress and one thing’s for sure, I’m not in Kansas anymore. Actually, I’ve been to Kansas, more than once, many times, in fact. My two best college buddies were from there. And KC is up-to-date and modern and the U. is on seemingly the only hill in Lawrence, which is quite large and steep, and the rest of the state is not as flat as depicted. Sure, there are no mountains, but the landscape rolls a bit. And the people who voted to cut taxes and starve the government along with education there…

Would be freaked out in Dubai. Where everything is truly up-to-date, in the twenty first century.

As for the darkness… It was only seven o’clock, what’s up? Then I wondered if I had it backward, maybe it was seven a.m. and it was gonna get light soon. I mean fly in a tube for fifteen plus hours and you’re all screwed up. As for the vaunted Emirates airline… It was very good, but not as great as Cathay Pacific, not even as great as Singapore. The flight attendants were from twenty nations and the food was tasty and there was a lounge in the back but the truth is it’s still an airplane, you get inside and it feels cramped, no matter what the pics online show. Then again, it was an A380, a double-decker, an Airbus. Now Airbus has made Boeing up its game, but the point is not everything great is made in the U.S., and the A380 is pretty great, first and foremost it’s QUIET! You can read, you can hear yourself think, there’s not that constant whooshing sound.

But let’s start with the lounge.

No, let’s start with getting to the airport. They send a car. That’s right I flew business, fly in the back of the plane for a day and it’ll take you a month to recover. I know, I know, this separates the men from the boys, the rich from the poor, but the left wing is constantly dumbing itself down and the right wing is constantly luxuriating in its riches and it’s no crime to get ahead, as long as you carry those less fortunate along with you.

But it took almost as long to get to the Tom Bradley International Terminal as it took to get from my house to the airport. How are they gonna accommodate more passengers in the future? Damned if I know. And checking in… There was a father wrapping his son’s snowboard in plastic tape, to protect it. I’m not sure it would, but then they ended up taking it on the plane with them anyway.

And in the lounge, they have a prayer room, right next to the bathrooms. And a greeter, just like Wal-Mart, made me wonder if I could leave my bags unattended, did I ever tell you I was paranoid about my stuff, even though at this late age I think I could tolerate losing it all? But not my data, never my data.

And then on the plane a guy wanted me to trade my aisle single seat for a center double, facing the wall. Come on, at these prices? You should have booked earlier. He ended up getting another guy facing the wall to switch, and then he never ever talked to his wife across the aisle, amazing.

And after catching up on the Sunday “Times,” why is it I read the paper slower on the plane, am I fearful I’ll run out of things to read, I started reading this book “The Family Tabor,” by Cherise Wolas, I read about it in the “Book Review” and downloaded it to my Kindle in the lounge. Luke sent me his autobiography, but I’m not taking a hard copy on the plane, I’m already carrying too much stuff.

And “The Family Tabor” is about a middle class family in crisis, middle class crisis, the kind the self-deprecating call “white people problems.” But the truth is existential issues are the worst. Just as a poor person can only think about money, someone who is depressed or without love or who can’t sleep or who has committed crimes can’t get their issues out of their heads. It’s all interior dialogue, rotating the characters, and I’m about forty percent through and not absolutely sure I can recommend it, but it’s a great antidote to the endless preaching by the supposed winners in this world. You keep telling us you have it all, and then we scratch the surface and find…you don’t.

And the A380 is like a lumbering bus on the way up, and although we hit some turbulence over the North Pole, when we gained altitude it was like riding a couch, and although the landing in Dubai was heavy, it was a good experience but as I said above, I was stunned to find Dubai in darkness.

Turns out they do not have Daylight Savings Time.

As for the airport…

Makes America look like a second class country. You see they were afraid of us, our freedom and cash and wherewithal, then we became afraid of them… How is it going to turn out? Well, there’s more of them than there are of us, think about that. You can only keep your finger in the dike for so long before the dam bursts. Kinda like globalization, we’re citizens of the world today, and if you don’t like it, give up your mobile phone and flat screen made in Asia and your cars made in… Wait, just wait, that’s what Trump’s trying to do, make it all “Made In America”! But countries that do this fall behind, best to outsource, but you can’t say that here, er, there, you’ve got to keep wrapping yourself in the flag and saying U.S.A, U.S.A! Meanwhile, the people yelling this loudest have never been anywhere else, Denmark is pretty damn good, as for Dubai…

I’m not gonna leave the airport, but the airport…

It’s like living in the future. The elevators hold thirty people. There are waterfalls, the place is clean and…

Silent.

Yup, that was a note on the screen before we left the plane, that Dubai’s airport has no announcements, although they did have some on the train to the B terminal and I just heard some prayer music, but it’s absent all those gate announcements that no one listens to anyway. We live in a self-serve world, where you’ve got to be aware, not only know how to fix your electronics and sites, but navigate yourself through this world.

It’s different here. The bathroom has a water sprayer next to the toilet, in case you don’t use paper…

And for some reason it’s dark in the lounge too, which supersedes any in America, even the rebuilt American and AmEx ones. Is it the oil? What is paying for all this?

I think it’s the oil.

Meanwhile, American airlines are trying to get Trump to cripple Emirates, since it’s supported by the government, but Trump can only look backward, allowing more coal emissions. Why is half of America so backward? Did you see that article about Google trying to sell self-driving technology to Detroit and the carmakers saying no? Because they’re selling fashion, the exterior, but it’s the interior that counts. Kinda like the YouTube stars, if all you’ve got is how you look, telling others how to look, you’re gonna be in trouble. Of course there are models, of course there are Kardashians…then again, the Kardashians are all about business, entrancing and ripping-off the lemmings. That’s the America we now live in, whereas the rest of the world has woken up and is focusing on electric cars and… There’s a guy in the WSJ, Holman Jenkins, who can’t stop beating up on Tesla. I’m not gonna defend Elon Musk or the company’s financials, but I will say that Tesla single-handedly got the rest of the world’s carmakers to get on the electric bandwagon, the leader being BMW, once again a foreign company, whereas Ford can only say it will sell SUVs instead of cars, you give the people what they want and then suddenly, they don’t want it anymore. Steve Jobs had it right, you win by selling people what they NEED!

There is no brass ring. There is no gold star. All the trappings of making it in the past are gone. Today, you make it in your own mind, and that’s all that counts. The scoreboard has been blown apart. And we don’t even pay attention to the same statistics. You’re charting your own course. If you’re in it for the glory, for the world domination, you’re delusional.

Let’s start with the Oscars. They lost touch with the public to such a degree that they had to institute a new “Popular” Oscar, aka “The Popcorn Oscar.” Baby boomers, who control the Academy, were operating on a past paradigm, one wherein movies drove the culture and winning was an acknowledgement of your peers that you were great. Today television drives the culture, and unless you make superhero flicks you’re gonna have a hard time getting financing. The studios want something dumbed-down, that will play around the world, in multiple languages. So you can go for the money or…make a movie that might receive awards that no one sees. Kinda like all the recent “Best Picture” winners.

And then there are the Grammys. Forget Neil Portnow’s tone-deaf comment about “stepping up,” anyone can make a mistake, but the fact that Portnow was not up to speed on #MeToo, could not read the changing of the guard, could not see that women need to be respected and included, is a demonstration of how out of touch the organization is. But that’s secondary to the awards themselves. Used to be you got a bounce, in the age of streaming that’s nonexistent, everybody who’s interested has already heard your music. Furthermore, the Grammys have a long history of giving the awards to the wrong acts. Always behind the times, anointing name recognition rather than artistic merit. As for those competing in the lesser categories, they are truly delusional, they think that Grammys make a career, but the truth is you make a career in your mind, as I stated above.

And then there was the story in “The New York Times.” But today forty percent of the public believe the “Times” is biased and evil. And forty percent believe the same about “The Wall Street Journal.” There is no paper of record in the public’s mind. And only a few million people are paying attention to either of these outlets. Youngsters don’t read the newspaper, whether it be physical or virtual, they get their news on the fly, from multiple sources, where it originated does not matter. The point being a great review in a major newspaper has to satisfy you only, because the rest of the world is unaware and doesn’t care.

Same deal for TV news. Most people don’t see it, check the ratings, they’re miniscule. And the entertainment programs…people know those are bought and paid for talking heads, they’ve got no credibility. Hell, TMZ has more credibility than “Entertainment Tonight” or wherever you get your gossip on the flat screen today, at least TMZ is unafraid of offending anyone. But it’s a small subset of the public which tracks the gossip anyway.

And then you’ve got the “Billboard” charts. They’re adjusted for reality, only their adjustment remains years in arrears. The only thing that counts is total number of streams, but that’s not what they count. As for albums, if you trust that chart you make ’em, because it’s got little connection with the real world.

And the Spotify streaming chart, true data, shows what is popular on the service, but it doesn’t necessarily correlate with what’s happening live, where the true bucks are. Spotify won’t truly tell you the hottest acts in America.

As for road grosses… Not everybody’s on the road, not everybody plays the biggest buildings and not everybody charges the same for tickets. Furthermore, people lie. They paper the house, all kinds of shenanigans so they can say they’re the biggest, but the public has realized there’s something rotten in Denmark, and MSG and Staples too.

As for a record deal… Labels don’t sign you and keep you, unless you’ve got continued success. Furthermore, you’ve got to prove you’re worthy on your own before they’re interested!

All the trophies, all the achievements of yore, mean very little today.

And if this depresses you you’re missing the point. The point is we’re only going into the future. If you complain about streaming, if you complain about high ticket prices, if you bitch about the way things are and argue for a return to the past…the past is never coming back. And the ball always moves, the landscape always changes, fifteen years ago it was all about piracy, heard much about piracy recently?

So, if you want to know if you’re on the right track, ask yourself.

If you’re compromising to appeal to others, stop, they don’t really care.

Your goal is to gain an audience of a size that satiates you and take people on a trip.

You get to decide how many people is enough. You get to decide how much money is enough. You get to decide what to play. There are no rules, especially in a world where the gates are wide open. If you don’t make hip-hop or pop music terrestrial radio doesn’t care about you, and you should not care about them.

This is a complete change from what came before. Used to be it was a pyramid, with a very defined, narrow top. Now, get in the game and you realize the top has been blown apart, there are a zillion roads and they don’t meet at the same center. It’s not doing blow in the eighties, where it’s all about getting into the bathroom with a small coterie, no one even knows who the coterie is anymore, it doesn’t exist, there are many coteries!

And you’ll hear contrary opinions, from those propping up the old game, being paid by the guards of the old game. But they’re to be ignored.

Used to be you could promote yourself to success. But today, when everybody’s being spammed to death, that doesn’t work.

As to being famous for nothing, like Paris Hilton and the Kardashians, they did it and you can’t repeat it. Kinda like Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” name your own price promotion, one and done.

You create your own game and decide whether you’re winning at it.

It doesn’t matter what people outside your game think.

And people will inundate you with markers, compare you to others, don’t fall for it.

This is the new normal. Endless choice. Endless routes. Endless cottage industries.

Don’t mistake this for the “long tail.” Everything might be available, but that does not mean anybody is interested. You can create it and no one cares. You’ve got to be great, you’ve got to resonate, this is no time for amateurs. And the amateurs drop out and are forgotten anyway. Even the social media/YouTube stars. That paradigm is dead. It’s too hard to maintain attention when there’s nothing at the core, you’ve got to set yourself on fire for people to care, and you’re working around the clock. So you’ve got to have a talent, that’s hopefully unique, and you’ve got to build it brick by brick. This is not the eighties, when if you got on MTV you’d made it. Now you can be on MTV, Fallon and the nightly news and you still haven’t made it!

Think about that.

And know you’ve got to go your own way with your own markers and you can succeed, but only a few do, in any enterprise. It’s easier than ever to play, but harder than ever to succeed.

But you start by knowing the landscape.

That’s the first thing they teach you in sports, the rules.

These are the new rules.

Abide by them.

I didn’t see you there.

This band is completely under the radar, yet their entire tour went clean, the upper deck at Staples was full, what was going on?

I’m not sure I can tell you, but the girls got it, they understand, they were in attendance and…

They knew every word.

It’s not like the band’s been hidden from view, but it’s been eons since they had a big hit. What’s driving this?

I don’t know.

Could be Brendon Urie’s appearance, his sexuality, he could be a fantasy.

But the music is definitely rock and it definitely has melody and…

If you went you’d get it. Even if you were unfamiliar with the material, about halfway through the nearly thirty song set you’d find yourself singing along with the choruses, shimmying.

What gives?

Baby boomers are no longer in control. Sure, they go to see the aged acts but not only do they not break bands, they’re unaware of new bands and can’t fathom that decades have gone by and young ‘uns are developing favorites of their own.

It’s not like Panic! is brand new, they’ve been around in excess of a decade. We think of modern acts as evanescent, but that’s untrue, how long have Jay Z and Beyonce been around? Then again, we hear about the twosome constantly, we never heard about Panic!

It’s an internet act. That’s right, you can play to your fans and do quite well. Actually, if you’re playing to everybody you’re missing the point, everybody is not paying attention.

Not that Brendon did not give them their money’s worth.

Sure, there was production, but it was clear who was the star, twisting and dancing at the end of the runway that protruded from the stage.

The band was like one you’ve never seen.

There was a male guitarist, a male drummer, but…

A woman bass player and three women string players and three male horn players.

I’ve never seen a conglomeration like this before.

Then again, Brendon starred in “Kinky Boots”… That used to be a role for those with no traction, those who could not sell tickets, but ever since Billy Joe Armstrong appeared on Broadway, not only does it sell tickets, it’s seen as a feather in your cap. Forget the Boss on Broadway, that’s a victory lap, Brendon Urie on the Great White Way is part of the ascension.

But how do they know every word?

THEY LISTEN!

That’s right, we keep hearing that kids today have short attention spans, that could not be more untrue, they have incredible shit detectors, but if they find something they like, they’ll play it, spend time with it, ad infinitum.

It wasn’t very much different from the rock shows of yore. Filling the Fillmore. There were three acts, I’d never even heard of Hayley Kiyoko, and she’s never had a hit, but all the tracks from her new album “Expectations” are in seven figures on Spotify, plenty are over twenty million. And for the record, there are fewer plays on YouTube, that’s right, the behind the times music industry keeps talking about the “value gap,” but the truth is kids are on the paid streaming services, and don’t forget that Spotify’s only one of them.

Could Panic! have made it without a label?

Doubtful, since they were so young when they started and it was a different era.

But the label is not sustaining the act, the fans are, and it all happens on the internet.

The future is here.