{"id":327,"date":"2006-02-19T20:06:33","date_gmt":"2006-02-20T03:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/02\/19\/vail-day-five-coming-home\/"},"modified":"2006-02-19T20:07:11","modified_gmt":"2006-02-20T03:07:11","slug":"vail-day-five-coming-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/02\/19\/vail-day-five-coming-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail-Day Five-Coming Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

"2000 Light Years From Home"
The Rolling Stones<\/strong><\/p>\n

"Satanic Majesties" gets a bad rap.\u00c2\u00a0 Seen as a lame imitation of "Sgt. Pepper" at the time, it’s been almost completely forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody’s searching for all four Beatles’ faces in the 3-D cover.\u00c2\u00a0 The only song that was a hit, if you can even call it that, was "She’s A Rainbow".\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s pretty good.\u00c2\u00a0 As well as Bill Wyman’s "In Another Land" and the precursor to the subsequent masterpiece, "Beggars Banquet, "Citadel".\u00c2\u00a0 But the true keeper, the FM late night staple thirty-odd years ago, is "2000 Light Years From Home".<\/p>\n

This is a Stones that has been forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 Buried by the lame oldies act raping aging baby boomers who weren’t there the FIRST time around.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why we believed in the Stones.\u00c2\u00a0 Alone in the dark high as a kite listening to "2000 Light Years From Home" was us.<\/p>\n

On some level, Vail is 2000 light years from L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s the altitude.\u00c2\u00a0 The winter weather.\u00c2\u00a0 The snow.\u00c2\u00a0 But today, you take home with you.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’ve got a cell phone and a laptop, or maybe just a BlackBerry, home is wherever you are.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t have to return to your base to check your messages, you’re plugged in EVERYWHERE!\u00c2\u00a0 Which begs the question why you have to even LIVE in the metropolis.\u00c2\u00a0 Where you can’t drive anymore anyway.<\/p>\n

"Can’t Find My Way Home"
Blind Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of late night classics.<\/p>\n

I don’t think the kids have discovered this yet.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve Winwood made some inroads into the jam band circuit a few years back, but that’s an older generation.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not the teenagers sitting in front of their computers discovering Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Hendrix.<\/p>\n

Somehow Clapton gets the credit, whereas it’s really Stevie Winwood.\u00c2\u00a0 They both do the song in concert.\u00c2\u00a0 But Stevie’s version kills Eric’s.\u00c2\u00a0 He too can hit every note on the guitar, but his voice…that’s something that Derek can’t equal.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no comparison.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, it’s not only Derek who can’t compete…<\/p>\n

Well I’m near the end
And I just ain’t’ got the time
And I’m wasted
And I can’t find my way home<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, we were VERY worried we wouldn’t be able to find our way home.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, you see, there was a gigantic blackout in the Vail Valley yesterday at 10 a.m.\u00c2\u00a0 We were waiting for the Mountain Top Express.\u00c2\u00a0 And it suddenly stopped, and didn’t start running again.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is so rare with high speed lifts, which slow down so you can get on and get off.\u00c2\u00a0 Felice wanted to punt.\u00c2\u00a0 But then I noticed that the Vista Bahn, which we’d just exited from, was stopped.\u00c2\u00a0 As was the nearby Wildwood.<\/p>\n

And twenty minutes later, after the fifteen minute hiatus, after the Mountain Top Express started running again, we heard this STAGGERING noise as we approached the point of disembarkation.\u00c2\u00a0 One of diesel engines, struggling.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, all three lifts culminating at that point were running via alternative means.\u00c2\u00a0 The Back Bowls, our destination, to ski the groomed Headwall in Sun Up and then the never groomed before In The Wuides in Blue Sky Basin, were closed.<\/p>\n

We were flummoxed.\u00c2\u00a0 We headed down to Northstar with the teeming masses.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to go to Highline to ski the plowed Blue Ox, a black bump run groomed once a week, but the Riva Bahn Express was closed, was the Highline lift too?<\/p>\n

"Homeward Bound"
Simon & Garfunkel<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m sittin’ in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination<\/em><\/p>\n

Were they even selling any more tickets?\u00c2\u00a0 If we skied back to the bottom would we be booted off the mountain?<\/p>\n

The Host suggested we avoid the crowds and go to Lion’s Head.\u00c2\u00a0 Which we did.\u00c2\u00a0 It was inexplicably empty.\u00c2\u00a0 Which was good, but we’d skied it enough already.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, some of the snow was perfection.<\/p>\n

"I’m Coming Home"
Michael Hedges<\/strong><\/p>\n

There used to be a soft rock station in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 93.1 KNX.<\/p>\n

It went through phases.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes too wimpy, sometimes just edgy enough.<\/p>\n

It was on this station that I discovered Michael Hedges.\u00c2\u00a0 From the album that he first sang on, "Watching My Life Go By".<\/p>\n

If you’ve got more questions than answers.\u00c2\u00a0 If you see options at every turn.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t just venture forward blindly.\u00c2\u00a0 Buy this record.<\/p>\n

The song that hooked me was this.\u00c2\u00a0 With Hedges’ stinging guitar.<\/p>\n

Around 1, Felice wanted to go home.\u00c2\u00a0 To the condo.<\/p>\n

Rather than descend via Giant Steps, or Bear Tree, we went the other way, to the usually overcrowded Riva Ridge.<\/p>\n

Riva Ridge is Vail’s Spar Gulch.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, they’ve flattened Spar Gulch in the middle.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s less of a disaster area than it was in the seventies, when it was a V-funnel, the easiest way down from the top of Ajax in Aspen.<\/p>\n

At the bottom, Felice said this was the best run of the day.<\/p>\n

And it was.\u00c2\u00a0 Perfectly packed powder in the sun.<\/p>\n

Riva Ridge is one of Vail’s original runs.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s still its essence.\u00c2\u00a0 A wide tilted boulevard with just enough rolls, just enough changes to keep you entertained.<\/p>\n

"She’s Leaving Home"
Tori Amos<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is far from the best Tori bootleg on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if you’re into covers, Tori’s the queen.\u00c2\u00a0 Make sure you take "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" and "A Case Of You".<\/p>\n

I’d say leaving Vail was bittersweet.\u00c2\u00a0 But, really, other than obligations, there was no reason to come home at all.<\/p>\n

It’s a strange rhythm.\u00c2\u00a0 Skiing every day.\u00c2\u00a0 Wearing yourself out makes you feel good, like you did something, like you’re ALIVE!<\/p>\n

Getting off the grid is appealing.\u00c2\u00a0 There are millions of people not caught up in our city lifestyles.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they’ve got it right.<\/p>\n

"On The Way Home"
Neil Young<\/strong><\/p>\n

With modern transportation, sometimes you don’t even realize you’re away.\u00c2\u00a0 You might be a thousand miles from home, but somehow you still feel like you’re at home.\u00c2\u00a0 But driving to the Eagle airport, seeing the bands of red rock in the mountains by the highway, I realized I was in Colorado.\u00c2\u00a0 The Colorado of my dreams as a college student back in Vermont.\u00c2\u00a0 Part of me wanted to stay, having taken this long to get there.\u00c2\u00a0 On a regular basis.<\/p>\n

"Take The Long Way Home"
Supertramp<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best song on Supertramp’s breakthrough album, "Breakfast In America", which killed the band.\u00c2\u00a0 It was too pop.\u00c2\u00a0 This wasn’t the band of "Crime Of The Century".\u00c2\u00a0 Boppers now loved them.<\/p>\n

Still, when I hear that wailing harmonica…\u00c2\u00a0 And that high-pitched voice…\u00c2\u00a0 This was an FM staple before they ONLY played staples.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the ’94 earthquake anthem.<\/p>\n

Usually flights leave on time.\u00c2\u00a0 They push the plane away from the gate to make sure they keep their on time average.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if they stay parked on the tarmac for another half hour.<\/p>\n

But this American flight left an hour late.\u00c2\u00a0 They said they had to refuel.\u00c2\u00a0 Refueling takes an HOUR?<\/p>\n

And despite being a 757, despite being in the wide open Eagle, the plane took off like a much smaller jet in Aspen.\u00c2\u00a0 It shot straight up, and then did an almost instant 180, turning around and heading for California.\u00c2\u00a0 Up, up and away.\u00c2\u00a0 To clear the mountains.\u00c2\u00a0 Hitting turbulence every mile.<\/p>\n

"Mama, I’m Coming Home"
Ozzy Osbourne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before he became that cartoon on MTV, Ozzy was God.<\/p>\n

Oh, they gave credit to Randy Rhoads.\u00c2\u00a0 Who WAS great.\u00c2\u00a0 But how does that explain the nineties masterpiece "No More Tears"?\u00c2\u00a0 A headbanging record with as many gems as "Appetite For Destruction".\u00c2\u00a0 This was a big hit.\u00c2\u00a0 But, back before the album format died, when the non-radio tracks were still important, Ozzy included two killers on this record.\u00c2\u00a0 The Lemmy cowrite "Hellraiser" and the brain-savaging "I Don’t Want To Change The World".<\/p>\n

I don’t want to change the world
I don’t want the world to change me<\/em><\/p>\n

If that ain’t the rock and roll ethic.\u00c2\u00a0 If that ain’t completely different from the mission of today’s world domination-desiring acts.\u00c2\u00a0 The bands of yore broke through, became worldbeaters, based purely on their TALENT!\u00c2\u00a0 Not their game plan.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t keep great music down.<\/p>\n

If only the world took on Ozzy’s ethic here.\u00c2\u00a0 If everybody minded his own business.\u00c2\u00a0 If people stayed out of MY business, I’d stay out of theirs!<\/p>\n

"Long Ride Home"
Patty Griffin<\/strong><\/p>\n

All I’ll say is it’s tracks like this that give me hope.<\/p>\n

This is a masterpiece.\u00c2\u00a0 Along the lines of "Can’t Find My Way Home".\u00c2\u00a0 In an era when everybody’s shooting to be on the Super Bowl, to be in a commercial, thank god some acts are still staying true to their art.\u00c2\u00a0 Trying to tell their story.\u00c2\u00a0 Not worrying about the audience.<\/p>\n

If you don’t know this, I feel sorry for you.<\/p>\n

"My Hometown"
Bruce Springsteen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Funny how in the eighties a track like this could still become a hit.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is not my hometown.\u00c2\u00a0 Fairfield, Connecticut is.<\/p>\n

I still feel like a newbie out here, even though I’ve lived here much longer than I ever spent on the east coast.<\/p>\n

But those were formative years.<\/p>\n

Part of me loves L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 The options.\u00c2\u00a0 The Tommy’s Burger in the middle of the night.\u00c2\u00a0 The car dealership only blocks away.\u00c2\u00a0 The ability to buy everything I need within a drive.<\/p>\n

Then again, I can fly to Vail quicker than I can sometimes get to the other side of town.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, not quite, but close.<\/p>\n

I don’t see myself leaving.<\/p>\n

Then again, I wonder who I really am.\u00c2\u00a0 The person who lives here in Santa Monica, sitting in front of a computer all day, or the kid who had to go to college in Vermont, so he could ski every day.<\/p>\n

On some level, that old life seems meaningless.\u00c2\u00a0 And on another, it’s the only thing that has meaning at all.<\/p>\n

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"2000 Light Years From Home"The Rolling Stones "Satanic Majesties" gets a bad rap.\u00c2\u00a0 Seen as a lame imitation of "Sgt. Pepper" at the time, it’s been almost completely forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody’s searching for all four Beatles’ faces in the 3-D cover.\u00c2\u00a0 The only song that was a hit, if you can even call it that, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-5h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}