What a great evening!<\/p>\n
We took the gondola into town…\u00c2\u00a0 You go up, and then you go…DOWN!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like a thrill ride, definitely an E-ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 So steep.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t wait to come here to go skiing.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, we’re on the gondola with two other people.\u00c2\u00a0 One a stoner bike rider and the other a fortysomething woman.\u00c2\u00a0 And they accuse us of being Californians.\u00c2\u00a0 Which ultimately leads to Felice saying that I’m originally from Connecticut.<\/p>\n
"Where?"<\/p>\n
Fairfield.<\/p>\n
"Me too!"<\/p>\n
It was the rabbi’s daughter.\u00c2\u00a0 The one who caught my sister skipping Sunday school.\u00c2\u00a0 I had to dial up my mother from the ‘dola, to tell her the story, she’s calling Arnie in the morning.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Verizon works here.\u00c2\u00a0 Solid bars, all the time, everybody on AT&T is frustrated…<\/p>\n
Anyway, when we got down we walked a block to La Marmotte.<\/p>\n
Telluride is like a toy town.\u00c2\u00a0 A Swiss village in the Rockies.\u00c2\u00a0 You feel instantly at home.<\/p>\n
And we found our posse sitting outside.\u00c2\u00a0 Coran Capshaw, his main man Jason Colton and promoter Don Strasburg.<\/p>\n
I should have filmed it, even though Coran’s all about off the record.\u00c2\u00a0 Hanging with these guys one couldn’t help but get EXCITED about the music business.<\/p>\n
Strasburg is saying how he’s killing it in the under 2,000 seat venues.\u00c2\u00a0 Talking about bands that are in some instances barely on my radar.<\/p>\n
And Jason told me about his act Blind Pilot.\u00c2\u00a0 They were featured on NPR on a Saturday and immediately sold 1,400 units.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the most powerful mainstream medium.\u00c2\u00a0 When I refused to go to Culver City to be on the radio, Laura Sydell told me they reach more people than the network news, that their cume was 18 million.\u00c2\u00a0 Whew!\u00c2\u00a0 All I know is when I’m on NPR, my inbox fills up.\u00c2\u00a0 From people not on my list, who I grew up with, or went to college with.<\/p>\n
All the press is about stealing music, about shitty shows with low attendance.\u00c2\u00a0 No one denied these facts, but everyone pointed to a whole ‘nother business, not reliant on airplay, where music sales are secondary to the gig.<\/p>\n
Music is alive and well.\u00c2\u00a0 Tonight’s dinner made me hopeful for the future.<\/p>\n
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