Maison du Chocolat<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 It was fascinating to hear him riff on music education, Felice’s world.\u00c2\u00a0 He lamented teachers married to excellence, performance of material that most people were not enamored of.\u00c2\u00a0 He boiled it down to a sense of mastery.\u00c2\u00a0 That by learning how to play an instrument, a child experienced a sense of accomplishment.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the message of music education, not exposing people to the classics or some extrapolation about IQ improvement.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s Seth’s gift, the ability to execute an insightful surgical strike, right to the heart of the matter.<\/p>\nAre people ready for it?<\/p>\n
Excellent question.\u00c2\u00a0 Seth told the story of Dean Kamen, creator of the Segway, amongst other inventions.\u00c2\u00a0 Dean started a robot competition, because he wanted to teach kids how to invent.\u00c2\u00a0 At first he tried to work through the established channels, then he just did it himself.\u00c2\u00a0 The way bands do it today.<\/p>\n
Equally fascinating was hearing Seth’s history.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s invested his 10,000 hours in the marketing world.\u00c2\u00a0 And that brings me back to Gladwell.\u00c2\u00a0 I asked Gladwell…\u00c2\u00a0 What if you put in 10,000 hours in one area, were you fucked if you wanted to switch directions?\u00c2\u00a0 Malcolm said you got credit.\u00c2\u00a0 And Seth said that winning in one area taught you how to be confident and win in another.\u00c2\u00a0 But what fascinated me most was that Malcolm said those who put in 10,000 hours were self-selecting.<\/p>\n
In other words, are you lazy or dedicated?\u00c2\u00a0 If you expect it to come to you on a silver platter, good luck.\u00c2\u00a0 If, like John Mayer, you’re willing to take a year off from school to practice the guitar (and have parents, in the case of Mayer, both teachers, who approve of this!), you’re on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re styling yourself in front of mirrors and entering singing competitions…\u00c2\u00a0 You show hunger, you show desire, but you don’t evidence any work.<\/p>\n
There are no easy solutions.\u00c2\u00a0 Seth was formulating marketing ideas before he was a teenager.\u00c2\u00a0 He only truly reaped the rewards of his investment in the past ten years.\u00c2\u00a0 The same way Gladwell was a reporter for "The Washington Post" for a decade before he went to "The New Yorker" and wrote "The Tipping Point".\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to pay your dues.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ve got to be willing to break rules, think outside of the box.\u00c2\u00a0 As Gladwell said last night, those in power, the Goliaths, have an investment in keeping you down.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to triumph, you’ve got to work hard and do it a different way, which may be even more valid.<\/p>\n
High on the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had, we bid adieu to Seth and flew upstairs to the legendary Studio 8-H.\u00c2\u00a0 Otherwise known as the home of "Saturday Night Live".<\/p>\n
Daniel Glass had received a phone call only weeks before.\u00c2\u00a0 Could his band Phoenix appear on April 4th?<\/p>\n
A Parisian band, whose lead guitarist is the father of Sofia Coppola’s child, Phoenix started off behind Air, had a major label deal, but didn’t break through. They’re starting over again with Daniel.<\/p>\n
Who heard their music and flipped, and when a song leaked to the Net, didn’t freak out, but went for the ride.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where KCRW was airing their tracks and SNL called.<\/p>\n
But there was one big problem.\u00c2\u00a0 VISAS!\u00c2\u00a0 The usual suspects said it couldn’t happen.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s all in who you know.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually, Daniel got hooked up with an attorney in D.C., who guaranteed the band could make it for the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 And delivered.\u00c2\u00a0 Funny how in the wake of 9\/11 we’re so afraid of the wrong people getting in, that almost no one can get in.<\/p>\n
The band’s dressing room was next to that of the host, Seth Rogen.\u00c2\u00a0 Although we rubbed shoulders, I didn’t bother to introduce myself, he doesn’t know me. And he seemed so serious!\u00c2\u00a0 Dressed in a suit.<\/p>\n
But when he came out to do promos with Fred Armisen and the band he was wearing his jeans and tennis shoes…\u00c2\u00a0 It was amazing.\u00c2\u00a0 First, he’s now skinny. Second, he’s got that chortling laugh.\u00c2\u00a0 Third, he turned it on for the camera.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re b.s.’ing, and then a take begins.\u00c2\u00a0 He adds the comic sauce…\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not just reading the lines, he’s making them come alive!<\/p>\n
The band ran through their two numbers on the famous Grand Central set.\u00c2\u00a0 With the list of train stops on the way to New Haven in the background.\u00c2\u00a0 This was the one photo I needed.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve seen that listing of "Fairfield" for decades and thought of home.<\/p>\n
And there’s a vibe, and it’s fun.\u00c2\u00a0 You realize if kids could come, they’d be inspired.\u00c2\u00a0 To be not only performers, but cameramen, sound people…\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine spending your whole life putting on a show!<\/p>\n
And on the walls are signed photos from every host.\u00c2\u00a0 Some living, some dead.\u00c2\u00a0 When I saw Madeline Kahn’s picture, I gulped.\u00c2\u00a0 The show lives on, long after the people who made it.<\/p>\n
And leaning on a large piece of furniture, I noticed the sign saying not to spill anything, for it was the desk for "Weekend Update".\u00c2\u00a0 I lifted the cover, and there it was!<\/p>\n
It’s not quite like it used to be.\u00c2\u00a0 Now everybody has access to the public, via YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the seventies, it was a ritual.\u00c2\u00a0 You got home early on Saturday night to watch.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only Aykroyd and Belushi, but the bands.<\/p>\n
Phoenix gave it their all.\u00c2\u00a0 You knew it would come alive with an audience.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s where music truly lives.\u00c2\u00a0 At the hall.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it’s less about P2P theft and more about getting back to our roots.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is something that penetrates you, that you feel.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a communal ritual.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes just between you and the artist, but live you can see them, you can look into their eyes, that bond in your bedroom suddenly comes to life.<\/p>\n
Cool day.<\/p>\n
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Spent the day in Rockefeller Center. First we met Seth Godin at Maison du Chocolat.\u00c2\u00a0 It was fascinating to hear him riff on music education, Felice’s world.\u00c2\u00a0 He lamented teachers married to excellence, performance of material that most people were not enamored of.\u00c2\u00a0 He boiled it down to a sense of mastery.\u00c2\u00a0 That by learning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-tE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1839,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions\/1839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}