If you didn’t go to Yale or Harvard, if you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth, if you’re not boasting about getting no sleep because you work all day and go to charity events all night…

You don’t count in America.

Donald Trump’s election was a wakeup call.

And the mainstream media is still asleep.

I’m not talking politics, I’m talking culture. The “Times” is an echo chamber of self-promoters who believe their interests are relatable to others. I used to be a believer in the paper, but after it got the election so wrong, I’m reconsidering.

Because of the blowback, the writers for the “Times” don’t get any. They’re all faceless and clueless. I weighed in on the election and my inbox went nuclear. The Trump supporters came out of the woodwork with their hatred for Hillary and it was unrelenting. But if you’re in the ivory tower, you don’t hear these messages.

Used to be we blamed the media for shaming women.

Now it shames all of us.

Let’s forget Fox, with its agenda. What makes the “Times” a special case is it keeps telling us it has no agenda. That it publishes “All The News That’s Fit To Print.” But that’s not true, not at all, it prints all the news it deems worthy of those stories pitched to it by publicists. Other than wars and political shenanigans, the rest of the paper is fluff for those who are part of the club.

But most people are not.

This is different from television and online.

Television is about the money. Whores who will go wherever the cash is. They anoint stars who believe their press and the rest of us sit at home and scratch our heads.

Online is oftentimes lowest common denominator, it’s trolling for doofuses and the easily swayed, but America is all about the con-man, selling that which we do not need at inflated prices to the uninformed and uninitiated. And every once in a while the “Times” prints a how-to, but it’s a bone to those who don’t care anyway, because they know better, because they’re educated and have their own advisors.

So what’s a paper to do?

Either admit it caters to its audience or open the window to what’s really happening.

This is the conundrum of film. Wherein they make flicks appealing to base emotions yet trumpet highbrow product at awards time. And then self-congratulate when the live-tweeting paradigm makes their ratings go up.

But then the ratings sank. These shows have entertainment value at best, if they’ve got that. Who wants to watch a program about that which you do not know and do not care about?

Kinda like reading the “Times.”

The other day an athlete slid along a chairlift cable to save a suffocating skier, one who was being strangled.

“Arapahoe Basin: Daring Rescue from Chairlift, Unconscious Man Dangles By His Neck”

I’m not saying this is the kind of news the “Times” should cover, I’m saying it should dig down deep and ask what kind of person puts his own life at risk for another. That’s one thing the readers of the “Times” rarely do. They play it safe. They’ve been taught that from Day One. Let someone else do the dirty work. But how about those doing the dirty work?

How about saying no to those selling books and records and TV shows, who cares about the endless hype, and how about more investigative journalism on those who truly make this country work? Engineers keep crashing trains, how about a story on that.

Don’t tell me no one cares. How did we get to this point in our nation where everybody’s worried about the buck and efficiencies are key. That’s for techies, not newspeople.

I have no idea what’s going on in America anymore. Because there’s not one news outlet I can trust, that’s trying to get it right, everybody’s playing to their audience.

I don’t want to hear about a rich writer microdosing LSD to deal with her depression, a tireless self-promoter who’s selling a book…

I want to hear about a woman with no money and no high profile career who deals with depression every day. I want to see America in the news, not just the elite.

The elite have lost the plot. They’re busy arguing amongst themselves over identity politics, they’re no different from the bankers pissed they weren’t getting their bonuses in 2008. The elite feel entitled. They feel they earned it. What makes them so special?

If I have to read about one more party with famous names without portfolio I’m gonna puke. You built up these nobodies and now they’re stars in your firmament and what did they ever do, appear in a couple of movies?

But supposedly fame sells.

And Donald Trump is famous, I’ll give you that.

But those who elected him are not.

And the elite could dig down deep and invest in toppling the right wing juggernaut, but that’s just too much hard work. They’d rather point their fingers and feel superior.

Which road did you take? Did you sell out? Are you doing it all for the money?

Then the “Times” probably appeals to you. It gives you lifestyle tips, it makes you feel included.

But for the rest of us, even those who had advantages but questioned not only authority but our path going forward, the “Times” resonates less. It’s just another business trying to make bank by appealing to its core audience. Only in this case, it’s telling us it’s the source all the while, bedrock, the pulse of the nation, and that’s not true.

And for all you “Times” defenders…

What kind of country do we live in where we can’t criticize our institutions, try to make them better? That’s like saying you can’t criticize the President, you have to respect the office.

Utter hogwash.

And this is neither a right nor a left issue. This is an American issue. How the rich pulled away from the poor and believed they earned their status. Left behind the rest of us, laughing all the while, saying they know better.

And there’s nothing that pisses a person off more than telling them they’re not worthy.

And the problems of this nation are deeper than the “New York Times.” The self-reinforcing power of the elite is a danger. Most people have no idea how the rich truly live, the advantages they have, never mind being uninformed that college is free if you’re poor and smart and you want to go to the best schools.

Then again, we live in a nation where banks, which we trust the most, because they hold our money, stab us in the back. But Wells Fargo’s CEO had to deliver to Wall Street so he could get rich.

There’s this left wing canard that Trump will have his time and then we will return to normalcy. But that’s not gonna happen. Our problems are endemic, and we are not addressing them. From income inequality to opiate addiction it’s just getting worse. Because everybody’s retreating to their corner and saying they know better. You don’t want to help anybody else because you’re too busy helping yourself.

But the truth is these are not the values of the underclass, which lends a hand expecting nothing in return.

Come on, if you can’t pay your rent how much sympathy are you gonna have for a challenged news business that can’t stop bitching that someone stole their cheese? The same people laughing at you for being stuck in an old wave job and not waking up are asleep themselves!

We’ve got a lot of work to do on ourselves. We used to rely on artists to point the way. But now the artists are all tied in with corporations while they’re not bitching too, they gave up the ghost decades ago.

So it’s every person for him or herself in the USA, the supposed greatest country in the world. And we need leaders, but we also need honest commentators, who just don’t want to hang with their rich subjects but also get it right.

Who do you trust?

I’m just not sure anymore.

The right rankles the institutions and the left circles the wagons and I’m outside dumbfounded in a world where you tread water to fall behind and they keep selling you mediocre stuff that’s not soul-fulfilling all the while portraying the winners as kings and queens of the universe that we should pay fealty to and emulate even though there’s no path for most of us to the throne.

But the truth is the throne is empty. It’s a parade of pretenders. Cheaters employing subterfuge shouting us down, telling us about their glory.

And the “Times” soaks it all up and plays it back to us.

Flying private is nice. Vacationing in a third world country is enlightening. Access to the rich and powerful can be stimulating. But they’re no match for food on the table and rational discussion about where we are and where we are going.

We need more of that.

Layla and Assorted Other Love Songs

1

“Layla” was a stiff.

Clapton was not God, certainly not in today’s way, everybody did not know his name, he was not all over the papers, he was not Drake and he was not Taylor Swift, he was just a guitarist in bands who those paying attention knew of and were blown away by.

“Sgt. Pepper” might have caused the shift to albums, but it took years for radio to catch on outside the metropolis. There was underground FM in San Francisco and New York, but unlike today’s wired world, where they’ve got wi-fi in Dubuque, never mind cable, used to be if you didn’t live near the signal of the big city, which was approximately fifty miles, you were out of the loop.

But if you did… It was a cornucopia of greatness, a veritable smorgasbord of experimentation. The Bluesbreakers broke on college campuses, but Cream was embraced by these new FM outlets and eventually “Sunshine Of Your Love” crossed over to AM radio and became a ubiquitous hit but you only knew who Eric Clapton was if you were paying attention.

And most people were not.

Most people were listening to AM. But things were changing.

A gold album was five hundred thousand dollars in sales! The shift hadn’t been made to units. There was something happening here, but it wasn’t exactly clear, we were moving toward it.

Oh, I’m overstating the case a bit. Albums were moving, but usually only their frontmen were famous. Only a sliver knew who Jeff Beck was. As for Jimi Hendrix, he had no airplay whatsoever on AM radio. So music was a cult, that was exploding, the foremost evidence being 1969’s Woodstock festival, especially the resulting movie.

I’ll argue the film was the breakthrough. For the first time most people SAW these acts.

But they didn’t see Eric Clapton, he was not there.

But in the spring of 1970, having left Cream, having gone on an hejira with Delaney & Bonnie, Eric put out his first solo album. And few cared. It contained two exquisite cuts, “Easy Now” and “Let It Rain,” both of which were featured on FM radio, and two cuts that were not, but ultimately became even more famous, “After Midnight” and “Blues Power.” But he was just another guy trying to go solo, there was less buzz than there was for his previous acts. The record came and then went. Eric and his new group of merrymen absconded to Miami in the fall whereupon they set about cutting “Layla and Assorted Other Love Songs,” and when it was released in November few embraced it, after all, wasn’t this the guy with the middling debut? And why the name change to Derek and the Dominos?

2

Steve Jobs has nearly been forgotten. No one knows who Mitch Kapor was, even though he’s still alive. But the guitar-playing of Duane Allman survives. His is not a secret history, something only embraced by acolytes. You see Duane Allman is all over huge hits, and not only those of his namesake band. Duane not only presented Eric Clapton with the riff of “Layla,” HE PLAYED IT!

And he’s the one who makes the magic on “Anyday,” along with the organ of Bobby Whitlock.

Serendipity, it’s the essence of life. The great things happen when you don’t expect them to. That’s why innovation always comes from outside the system. Everybody else is on a path which is usually a rut. You’ve got to be open to stimulation, never mind change. There are all these new business rules about raising money and embracing failure but if you’ve paid your dues as a musician you’re always ready to take risks, and some of those risks have resulted in the greatest music of all time. A chance encounter, a chord change, they elicited inspiration that changed the world.

Because music can change the world. If you see it as art as opposed to business. If you reach for greatness. But in order achieve greatness you’ve got to hone your chops, practice, be ready. To the point where when Duane Allman showed up at Criteria Studios he was ready.

Derek had gone to see the Allman Brothers live. He was blown away and invited Duane to sit in. What resulted was the absolute peak of Eric Clapton’s career, not that the public knew, certainly not right away. Because the marketing channel said otherwise, because people are the last to know. Trust the makers first, the consumers last. As for those in the middle…they have no tuning fork, that’s one of the great assets of an artist, that inner resonance that says something’s right.

Or wrong.

So these cats sit in the studio with Tom Dowd and Albhy Galuten and they record a double album so good it still gets played today and I didn’t buy it. Because my budget was limited, I had to make a Sophie’s Choice every time I went to the record store. And if I popped for a double album, that meant I could buy even less!

3

It’s been grey in L.A. Which is rarely the case. And after being in Colorado I’ve been thinking about winter.

Winter is cold and snowy and miserable.

If you live in the northeast.

And in the winter of 1971 I was ensconced in Middlebury, Vermont, I was going to college, during winter term, when you only took one course intensively and at night…

You got high.

It was too cold to leave the dorm. At some time between nine and ten we’d descend to Dave McCormick’s room to party. I didn’t know Dave previously, someone clued me in. The lights would go out, the joints would pass and the records would play. We’d talk and listen. Music was not background back then, it was primary. And Dave played the “Layla” album. I can’t tell you how many great records I was turned on to because OTHER people owned them. I was always the man with the most, it was rare that someone had something I didn’t, but when they did…

I was curious.

Actually, not that curious to hear “Layla.” There was no buzz. But Dave was in control. And he dropped the needle nearly every night. And the song that reached me first was “Anyday.”

4

Last night I got a hankering to hear “Third Stone From The Sun.” It was long after midnight and I scrolled through Spotify and when I heard the mellifluous sound I was taken right back to my bedroom, in 1968.

You see we had a lot of time.

Sure, there was a telephone in the house. But not in my bedroom. And if you think I was gonna call some girl at ten p.m. and have the whole house listen in…you weren’t alive back then, you’ve got no idea what it was like. Music ruled, but the cutting edge was a society. You took the train to the Fillmore East to see your heroes. And you played the records ad infinitum, on headphones, the musicians were the only ones who understood you.

To the point where you knew every lick on the LP. And there were a lot of famous tracks on “Are You Experienced.” Certainly “Purple Haze,” and most definitely “Manic Depression” and the cover of “Hey Joe.” And the second side standouts “Foxey Lady” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” My favorite of the traditional songs was “I Don’t Live Today,” but I know every lick of the almost seven minute journey known as “Third Stone From The Sun.”

If you go to see the overrated Gary Clark, Jr., he sometimes inserts the riff in his music. You tingle, you’re thrilled. And before you get your knickers in a twist, the reason I zinged Mr. Clark is because he can play but he cannot write. Writing is a skill, that you work on, and when done right, the song is forever. And Jimi Hendrix’s songs are forever, it’s just that most people don’t know them, or not his versions. Funny that his most famous number this far down the line is a Dylan cover, “All Along The Watchtower,” but most people don’t know Hendrix wrote “Little Wing.”

Sting does a bang-up version of the song.

But the cover that broke through first was on “Layla.”

5

I’m changing my story. It was “Little Wing” that hooked me first, that was the track that got me into “Layla,” listening now I realize that, I never did get to it last night, it’s that powerful riff, which blew out of Dave McCormick’s speakers and filled the room, squeezed out anything contrary, any thoughts that would bring me down. The band’s reworking of Jimi’s number was exquisite, who’da thunk to remake it as riff rock? Still, my favorite number on “Layla” is “Anyday.”

Now if you’re confused, and you’re probably not, no one EVER referred to the double LP as “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” everyone just called it “Layla,” like the title track, which got some airplay but didn’t really break through for years. And if you’re pulling the project, it’s got many killers, “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Keep On Growing,” “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out,” “Key To The Highway,” “Tell The Truth,” “Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad,” the title track, the aforementioned “Little Wing” and…

“Anyday.”

It was right smack dab in the middle of side two. It started off on a tear, kinda like “Little Wing,” but faster, and then it got slower.

So I’m thinking about “Little Wing” and I pull up “Axis: Bold As Love” on Spotify, take a look at it and my mind starts to wander, I think back to the Derek and the Dominos cover, to Dave McCormick’s dorm room, and then I realized, I’VE GOT TO HEAR ANYDAY!

You were talking and I thought I heard you say
‘Please leave me alone’

I had no idea those were the lyrics. There was no internet, there was no lyric sheet, but all of this has surfaced via modern technology, reading along was a peak experience decades on, but not as much as…

Bobby Whitlock’s organ and Duane Allman’s slide guitar.

Yes, the vocal is intimate, especially with the dual guitars in the background.

And when everybody explodes in the pre-chorus it’s a revelation, no one throws in everything anymore, they extract elements from the kitchen sink and feature them, but here everybody’s wailing, like at a live show, and the end result is the record levitates any room it’s played in.

But that intimate interlude…

Well, someday baby I know you’re gonna leave me
When this old world has got you down

Now Bobby Whitlock, the cowriter, the keyboard player is singing, it’s these verses that bond you to the track, the riff is key, but it’s intimacy that puts it over the top.

So what you’ve got is a bunch of drug addicts in Miami making a record under contract doing their best to nail the music, thinking little about commercialism. As for the label, it’s far away, up in New York City, awaiting results, input is nearly nonexistent, because you’ve got to trust experts to do the job, and in this case everybody in the room was experienced, the players, the producer and those moving the faders.

And the end result was…

“Anyday.”

6

To break the glass and twist the knife into yourself
You’ve got to be a fool to understand
To bring your woman back home after she’s left you for another
You’ve got to be a, you’ve got to be a man

This is completely different from the modern ethos, wherein braggadocio is king.

We were a couple of years and a couple of changes behind our heroes. They tended to be born during the war, they had experiences we did not, and there’s wisdom and direction baked into these numbers, they were our bible, we were in school but I learned much more in Dave McCormick’s dorm room than I ever did in class.

And these records still exist. Available for anybody to hear. For free. Anyday.

Jim Gordon is in jail. Carl Radle is dead. Duane Allman, of course, too. Bobby Whitlock is still around, completely uncelebrated, funny how so many are hiding in plain sight, just like the bluesmen who inspired them to begin with.

And Eric Clapton…

It took a while for the public to catch up. “Layla” went nuclear and sustained. Clapton came back and retreated so many times one can no longer count. But everybody was paying attention, he had to live up to his rep, but in the fall of 1970, he was just doing his job.

Eric’s peaked since “Layla.” But it’s been different. Kinda like the Allman Brothers without Duane. Good, but in both cases Skydog put them over the top. He added a special sauce. He didn’t sing, he didn’t necessarily write, but he sprinkled his fairy dust and took these numbers into the stratosphere.

7

I’m no longer in college, and I don’t want to go back.

I’ve got an iPhone 7, I like having the world at my fingertips.

But part of me hankers for darker days. When I was more isolated and had to count on those around me. When there wasn’t a brand new hype every week, but the pace of product was more comprehensible, when you could slow down and in a stolen moment be grabbed by something great that you might have missed.

That’s right, I would have ultimately come to “Layla” even if I’d never met Dave McCormick.

But it would have been different. I wouldn’t have had “Little Wing” and “Anyday” hammered into me night after night, to the point where they’re part of my DNA…

I’d rather go back, I’d rather go back home

And I can. I just put on these tracks and I’m taken there.

I don’t want to go to the show, too often it’s creepy, people who weren’t there at the advent listening to those giving them what they want as opposed to giants descending from their spaceship to grace us with their mood and then disappearing.

That’s what’s wrong with Desert Trip. It was about us.

And back then, it was positively about them. They were Gods.

Eric Clapton lives to fish. Pattie Boyd just got married for the third time. We’ve lost our hair, we go to the doctor more than the show. But when we put on these tracks we remember…

That once upon a time music was the most important thing in the world. You didn’t go to Facebook, you went to the record store. You might have saved up for a better turntable, but that was about as far as your tech went. And most stereo systems were shite.

But what came out of the speakers was not.

WTF Episode-773 Bruce Springsteen

He’s so screwed up!

But so are you.

This could be the rock and roll moment of the year, equivalent to Bob Dylan’s speech at MusiCares back in 2015. Because rock and roll is a spirit, based on alienation, wherein if you speak your truth you believe it will set you free.

But it didn’t work for Bruce Springsteen.

He’s internalized. And on guard. It takes him a while to warm up. And he doesn’t talk like you or me. It comes out slowly. But while you wait, you realize…

This guy is thinking about it.

Nobody in public life does that anymore. Everything’s for show, everything’s for the cameras, everything’s for social media. Come on, YOU DOCUMENT IT! Believing everyone cares about your image, that the more people who flock to you the happier you’ll be.

But it didn’t work for Bruce Springsteen.

He got bitten by the music bug. The only thing I’ve seen similar is the internet bug. Back in ’95. When suddenly the whole country had to sign up for AOL to play. There’d been music, but when the Beatles hit, when they were on Ed Sullivan, an entire generation took up musical instruments and tried to speak their truth and become famous. Most gave up. Some soldiered on. Especially those with no other options.

Bruce Springsteen had no other options.

So he battles a mentally ill father and then the whole family abandons him, moves to the west coast for a better life and Bruce soldiers on in no-man’s land, trying to make it. A&R guys were not coming to Asbury Park, it was the land of cover bands. But Bruce could feel himself getting better. And when he listened to the radio, he thought he was just as good.

But he was nowhere.

And, of course, we know that Bruce Springsteen got somewhere. But that is not the story being told in this podcast. First and foremost it’s a story of isolation and detachment, just trying to survive in a screwed-up family. Putting up defenses. Not trusting good things even if they happen, never mind love.

And then hitting the wall. Becoming famous and realizing it solved none of his other problems, it didn’t make a life. Being thirty five and wanting a family but not knowing how to acquire one.

Life happens to you. You don’t control it. Bruce philosophizes and it’s like he’s inside your brain, saying what you feel, but nobody else is saying this stuff. Nobody else will show any weakness. Nobody else will say they’ve got many more questions than answers. No one else will say that being a star works on stage, but the rest of your life??? That can be torture.

Used to be we pored over the interviews in “Rolling Stone” for wisdom. When musicians were big thinkers instead of brands. Now it’s endless hype.

And Bruce Springsteen has done his share of hype too. For albums and projects that may not have deserved it.

But this is different. He’s selling a book, but unlike television the interview is extended. Unlike television there are no ratings. It’s akin to radio, it’s personal. You’re never gonna get the chance to talk to Bruce Springsteen, you can tell he’s wary of speaking with Marc Maron, because if you haven’t been burned by the press you have no fame, but once he gets going he just can’t help himself, he’s got to lay it on the line.

That’s what he did. That’s what made him famous. That was the essence. That was why we were drawn to him. And his brethren. They were driven to make it because not only were there no other options, they had to prove their worth. And once someone is paying attention, their heart’s desire, they cannot hold back. Because it’s not money they’re looking for, not really fame, but understanding. They want to be known.

Bruce Springsteen is in his sixties. He’s seen a lot. He’s finally comfortable in his own skin. So he can speak about the journey, the dead ends, what it takes to become a man.

Like Marc Maron, I’m still working on it. But listening to Bruce gives me insight. How you’ve got to adjust to what happens. And know you’ll get through no matter what. How to learn how to say yes and learn how to say no. How to exert some control in a world with no control. You’re guarded to survive, but ultimately you die inside.

This is not a tech world-beater telling you how he had an insight and now lives the life of a billionaire. This is someone you put on a pedestal, who’s been on a journey you can only dream of, but is broken inside and has spent the last few decades of his life trying to put the pieces back together.

It’s a privilege to listen. Because you rarely get wisdom, just posture and bloviating. Everybody’s trying to get ahead, everybody’s polishing their image and selling. But once upon a time, you got up on stage and…

That’s what built Bruce Springsteen’s reputation. Sure, he was on the cover of “Time and “Newsweek,” “Born To Run” got airplay. And eventually he was the king of MTV with “Born In The U.S.A.” But what broke Bruce Springsteen was the performances. The albums came alive. The show was anything but rote. He delivered, not for you, but for himself. He needed to prove it all night, that he was good enough, that he deserved attention, that you should pay attention.

And he did.

But it did not make his life work.

You may be too young to get the lessons imparted. You may be too busy being born to contemplate dying. You may not want to look at yourself as you blindly march forward.

But if there’s a crack in your system, if you put your head on your pillow and can’t fall asleep because you’re overwhelmed, unsure what path to follow…

You’ll find this podcast a revelation. You’ll feel a kinship. You won’t get answers, but you’ll gain the ability to march forward, in your own way, and isn’t that all we’re looking for?

1. No one is hip.

When someone makes fun of you for not knowing something, laugh it off.

The truth is in today’s overwhelming society no one can know everything. No one can see every movie, no one can see every TV show, no one can listen to every record. Used to be professionals would look at the “Billboard” chart and know every record. Now the “Billboard” chart is irrelevant, those trumpeting its importance are inured to the old ways, it’s too fluid, it’s not comprehensive enough and even though you can listen to the Spotify Top 50 can you do that in every genre? Absolutely not, and anybody who tells you otherwise is lying. Hipdom is a passe concept. We are all in the know in our own little universe. Wear your ignorance proudly. We live in an on demand culture. If you hear that something is good you can check it out, almost everything is at your fingertips. But usually you have to hear about it a few times before you bother, because you’re overwhelmed with input to begin with!

2. Go deep.

Find your vertical and revel in it. Being a grazer is passe. That’s from back when there were fifty channels and nothing on, but now there are five hundred channels and Netflix and Hulu and Amazon… What purveyors don’t know is we have to be grabbed instantly, no one has the time to stick with something, to find out if it’s good, to see if they like it. And don’t view this as a short attention span problem, view it as an incentive to up your game. To be great from the get-go and stay at that level.

As human beings we like to wallow and get to know people and entertainment and…

So, feel free to binge on the show. Or read up and participate in your favorite sport. The advantage in the new world is you can communicate with like-minded people, you can find your tribe online.

We live in an era where a little knowledge is not respected. But if you know a lot about one thing you become a resource. Put all these resources together and you have a functioning society. Instead of putting someone down for what they don’t know, investigate and find out what they do.

3. You can’t disconnect.

We cannot go backward. When you read about vinyl and the return to analog…ignore it. The vinyl fetishists are listening to reproductions of digital recordings on inferior equipment. Of course there are exceptions, tweaks with six figures invested listening to reissued analog recordings, and I’m fine with that, but what I’m not fine with is a media that keeps trumpeting the analog world. Vinyl records, books… Ignore the reactionaries, they can’t cope with change. The truth is digital is both easier and here to stay. We want to be able to buy a book on a beach. We don’t want to tote around a bag full of reading material. The fact that those in charge of the old school media are experiencing future shock is irrelevant.

And this affects art too. Which used to be experienced alone, oftentimes in the dark, we had time to kill. But now a big problem is people checking their cell phones in the theatre. And if you want to bitch about mobile phones I want you to give up instant access to your kids, the ability to make a restaurant reservation online…

The way to the future is not via the past. We don’t live in a disconnected, dreamy world. Which is why our music is not disconnected and dreamy. But that does not mean new twists on art cannot appear, and they will!

4. Nobody knows anything.

Don’t trust the media, don’t trust the bloviators, you’re on your own.

We used to have the illusion that people knew what they were talking about. Before we could go online and find not only a contrary opinion, but one further in depth. The problem with the mainstream media is it still believes it’s anointed. That it lords over us. But it doesn’t. We make fun of its bias, we laugh at its self-righteousness. These people don’t know, too often they’re talking heads. As for reporters… We’ve got people living the subject and testifying online, why should we trust someone with a notebook who showed up for an afternoon?

The establishment hates this. It doesn’t want to give up power. It doesn’t want to admit there’s chaos.

But there is.

5. We live in a world of self-education.

College is a joke. Diploma mills. A place where you go to get a sheet of paper that says you’re better than those who don’t possess it. Your greatest learning experience will take place outside of the classroom, interacting with different people.

So, if you want to get ahead, YouTube is your friend. Getting ahead is hard work, not cheating on the multiple choice test. All the information you need is hiding in plain sight, do you have the time to study it? Most people don’t. But if you do, you’ll get ahead, I promise you.

6. Analysis is king.

In a world where all knowledge is at your fingertips, it’s how you put it together, how you gain insights, that is king.

This is the mark of a smart person, someone who can make sense of the data. If someone is just shouting headlines, ignore them. We all have the same facts, what do they mean? They can teach this in school, but they don’t, except at the finest institutions. Which is why you want to go to the Ivy League. And you can! All the elite colleges are need blind, if you can meet the requirements, there’s no fee, assuming you can’t pay to begin with. But the rich don’t want you to know this, because they want a stranglehold on opportunity.

7. Experience is king.

Take every opportunity to travel, to meet new and different people. That was the downfall of the mainstream media in the presidential election, it was a self-satisfied echo chamber. People will surprise you. Everybody has a gift. It’s your job to uncover it.

8. Assets are passe.

Accumulation is for baby boomers. You need a mobile phone, with a fast connection, clothes, food, a roof over your head and some cash, that’s it. When you see someone spending on a car they cannot afford, laugh. You are your own status item, your possessions are irrelevant. So much is virtual, so much is on demand, so much has been commoditized. Spend your time developing your identity, not accumulating goods.

9. Relationships are key.

Watch all the online porn you want, hopefully it will get you through. But know that despite the virtual world connecting us, it’s the one on one human connections that sustain us.

10. The transition is happening.

The free-for-all piracy internet has faded. The every week a new hot app or website world has faded. We will have tech breakthroughs, but Trump and Brexit have taught us that our coming societal struggle is one of inclusiveness, how do we all live together? Finland just started paying a guaranteed wage. Even if manufacturing comes back to America, most of the work will be done by robots. What is everybody gonna do for a living? Billionaires live behind gates and fly private but are oblivious to the contempt the proletariat have for them. This division will not sustain, the walls must come down. Do your best to effect change, to work for equality, but know that the seeds have been planted, the issue is in the air, there’s a feeling that we’ve been sold a bill of goods and we can’t make it here. We keep hearing how stupid we are, how we need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, that the corporation is king. But now with opportunity reduced, we’re not buying it. It’s our country, and for too long we’ve been whipsawed by those who say they know better. But now we’ve discovered they don’t, they were just yelling louder. Accept change. Know that the past is history. But also know that you are in charge of the future, you are responsible. And if you’re getting high and taking yourself out of the game, the joke is on you. But the joke is really on those who keep telling us they know better. They don’t. You know as much as they do. You’ve got the tools at your fingertips. You are powerful. You are in control of your own destiny. You can make a difference. But only if you discard the disinformation and believe in yourself.