The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

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You can't buy it.

But the buzz is unbelievable. Readers feel triumphant, special, like they're members of a cult. Does this remind you of the way it used to be in the music business?

Start reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". Just buy it. Don't check with your friends, the price is not outrageous, give it fifty or a hundred pages.

Actually, it doesn't take that long. Far before that, you'll be hooked.

There's no video, no outrageous outfits like Lady GaGa, none of the penumbra that saddles music today. Remember when music was enough? That's how it is with Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy", the story is enough.

As soon as you finish "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", you'll buy "The Girl Who Played With Fire". Nobody stops at book one, hell, they're thrilled there's a sequel. Kind of like buying the first album by a new act, spinning it to death, and finding out there's already a second, just as good!

But imagine that second album ending in the middle of a song. That's what reading "The Girl Who Played With Fire" is like. You've got to read the third book, "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest" to find out what happened to Lisbeth Salander. Is she alive, is she dead?

I'm not telling.

But I will say that for a book that's unavailable in the U.S., that needs to be ordered via subterfuge, from the U.K., it's astounding how many copies I see in my everyday life. People carry them around like trophies. And when you interrupt them, to ask them about it, they greet you with open arms, they want to talk about the trilogy.

This is so different from the way the music business has played out, which is now like the cocaine 80's. Who's holding, can I get in the bathroom with the cool people to partake? The stars are behind a wall, playing a game known as fame, which is separate from their music, just read the gossip blogs to find out. And if you want to get closer, you can't, you just can't get a good seat. Because you don't have an Amex card or you're not rich enough or even after joining the so-called "fan club", you're still offered overpriced, shitty tickets.

People love the work, even people who haven't read a book in years. There's just something about the story, which isn't lowest-common denominator, which is not solely plot, which requires some intelligence to juggle all the characters and scenes in your mind.

Imagine a band that's truly great, that is sans hype, that makes it solely because of the music. Which then releases its next album on the Internet, but doesn't allow you to buy it. Can you imagine how fast the music would spread?

But, but, but, I need to get PAID!

The musicians are as bad as Wall Street robber barons. Starting out with how much money they want to make in a year, they rape and pillage to get it, not caring that they add not a whit to the social fabric. Hey, it's my new album, you've got to buy it! And come see me in concert, where I prance to pyrotechnics at far too high a price!

Books aren't featured in the gossip columns. Stieg Larsson can't do interviews, he's dead. But the work he left behind is creating a frenzy. Which is not being fed by the mainstream media, but the reading public. If anything, it's seeping into the press as a result of reader fanaticism. The way the newspaper used to be last on a new act, as opposed to first, today being whipped into shape by the label, hyped to death.

We've all been hyped to death.

But the "Millennium Trilogy" is something different.

Join the cult. You'll be fulfilled, you'll be proud, you'll be titillated, you'll be thrilled, the same way you were when you attached yourself to the great bands of yore.

The Press

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Did you read Frank Rich's column in the "New York Times" today?

Entitled "Obama, Lehman and the 'Dragon Tattoo', it's an indictment of the Wall Street robber barons via Stieg Larsson's best-selling book.

http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/21/opinion/21rich.html

Here's the key passage:

"'A bank director who blows millions on foolhardy speculations should not keep his job,' writes Larsson in one typical passage. 'A managing director who plays shell company games should do time.' Larsson is no less lacerating about influential journalists who treat 'mediocre financial whelps like rock stars' and who docilely 'regurgitate the statements issued by C.E.O.'s and stock-market speculators.' He pleads for some 'tough reporter' to 'identify and expose as traitors' the financial players who have 'systematically and perhaps deliberately' damaged their country's economy 'to satisfy the profit interests of their clients.'"

Where are those tough reporters? Lapping up the spin of Timothy Geithner's public relations team?

"Geithner's major calling lately has been a public-relations tour, with full-dress profiles in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and even Vogue, which filled us in on his humble 'off-the-rack' Brooks Brothers suits. Last week he also contributed a video testimonial to the on-air fifth anniversary celebration of Jim Cramer's 'Mad Money.' Like the heedless casino culture it exemplified, that CNBC program has long been back to speculative business-as-usual, pumping stocks as if the crash were just a small, inconvenient bump on the road to larger profits and bonuses."

Then I turn to the Style section of the "Times" and find Patti Smith on its cover, in a dress.

Who gives a shit about Patti Smith?

The "New York Times", that's who. A bunch of self-congratulatory tastemakers who have paraded the work of this third rate artist ad infinitum for decades, even more so now, even though she hasn't done a worthwhile thing since the seventies.

I bought all the albums, save me the hate mail.

The point is, the papers are skewed.

I know, I know, it's complicated. I'm quoting Frank Rich at the same time I'm decrying the paper's efforts... But my point is, we've been dictated to by the mainstream press for years, have you ever questioned whether their viewpoint is accurate?

Take the Michael Jackson Sony deal...

I received the following e-mail from a powerful music business attorney:

"Have you seen that crap about the Michael Jackson deal? It's everything you talk about in lazy mainstream media reporting.

I've had 2 reporters call me and they seem to have no skepticism at all. I mean, I know it's more than a record deal, but if it's primarily based around records, they'd have to sell more than 50 million to come out of the deal--that will only happen in this market if Michael dies again.

Then in every report, you read about how Sony sold 31 million MJ records last year, 'almost 2/3 of them overseas.' So you check US Soundscan (which a few reporters actually did), and it's 8.3 million units (according to those reports). Multiply that by 3 and you get 31 million? Not in my math class. These guys are so lazy they can't even multiply.

Like I keep telling the reporters, every deal I've ever done that I've read about is wrong, so why should this one be right? Besides, I've inherited deals that Branca did and were reported at about 3 times what they turned out to be when I finally saw the contracts."

Whew!

The Internet is just a constant warning that the old players want to keep their cash cows, want no questions asked, believe they're entitled to their money.

One can argue that Stieg Larsson wasn't first, but a public that rebelled against a major label system that overcharged them for nine tracks they didn't want in order to get the one they did.

People are just as pissed about Wall Street. Unfortunately, it's a bit tough for many to comprehend. But maybe reform isn't as distant as the mainstream believes, as long as bloggers and those in the know online keep hammering away, revealing the truth.

Money, Power & Fame

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I read a story on the airplane...

Not only am I not sure what time it is, I wouldn't even bet on what DAY it is!

I got off the airplane and my BlackBerry said 3:22 AM. How could that be? My watch said an hour earlier. Took me about twenty minutes to factor in Daylight Savings Time. Fucking BlackBerry can't figure out what time zone I'm in, but it can adjust for Daylight Savings Time?

Much earlier, as it rained outside, I had lunch on the twelfth floor of the Royal York with Roger Faxon, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing. They say these guys are clueless? Can't agree with you when it comes to Mr. Faxon. His views were practical, he had a handle on the landscape and informed me that EMI's record company and publishing company were two separate entities under the same umbrella, they were already divided, it had been a condition of Terra Firma's purchase. So when the whip comes down...

Which it inevitably will.

Then I journeyed with Jake to the airport, which was a clusterfuck nonpareil. The "Wall Street Journal" said to arrive two and a half hours in advance, ever since that terrorist incident at the end of last year travel from Canada to the States has been...well, let's just say they've gotten a lot stricter at immigration.

Not that it made any difference. My plane ended up being delayed by two and a half hours.

You see there was weather. Wind shear in T.O., our plane had to stop in Chi-town for more fuel after turning back, afraid of the waiting disaster at Pearson. As for NYC... Something was blowing really hard there too, flights were fucked up all day. Seymour told me he'd considered taking the bus. He had friends in for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he needed to get home.

THE BUS?

I couldn't quite envision it, Seymour Stein journeying like Joe Buck from T.O. to NYC. Only eight hours he said. THE BUS? I remember my parents making me take it from Connecticut back to college in Vermont. This was before every kid in America got a car when he turned 16, so his parents didn't have to schlep him around. I was scarred for life! Shit, if you want someone to strive for economic greatness, just make them take the bus. It's a window into a low class world that you're dying to escape. Shit, did they even HAVE buses anymore? I thought the companies followed the railroads into bankruptcy.

Last I heard, the flight to New York was canceled and rescheduled for 7 AM. Last I saw Seymour, he was heading for the gate. Maybe he should have taken the highway.

And after two hours of insight with Seymour, covering the history of the music industry from Sid Nathan to Lyor Cohen, he was replaced in his seat by Vince. Who I'd seen flying in the front of the plane on the way in.

NO, Getty Images doesn't pay for business class. Vince is EXECUTIVE PLATINUM! Shit, the CEO of Getty flies in the back of the plane. At least that's the ticket he buys. At least that's what Vince said.

And like Bonnie Raitt sang, the luck of the draw got me upgraded to one of the two empty seats in business class. Which was a godsend, having already spent the length of the journey to L.A. at the airport.

And the ride was bumpy. But I read an article in "Vanity Fair"...

Did you read Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker"? He worked at Salomon Brothers and told the story. One I've never forgotten. Of blowing up bankers all over the world. Yup, Goldman Sachs had to unload paper, and if someone in a far-flung country, or the keeper of the pension funds lost a bundle, hell, it was just business.

And it freaked Lewis out so much he quit, married Tabitha Soren and started following baseball.

Well, not exactly. He did end up marrying the MTV News queen. His most famous book is "Moneyball". But he's still an expert on Wall Street. He's one of the few writers who can make it comprehensible. Wow, you can read this story online!

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/04/wall-street-excerpt-201004

You're never going to read it online. Hell, you're probably never even going to read it. And that's just the point. The article is about Michael Burry, who figured out the mortgage market was gonna tank and bet against it. Burry was the leading edge.

But this story isn't about money. It's about dedication.

You see Michael Burry was passionate. He was a doctor, training at the hospital, enduring those endless hours, but still he found time to pore over prospectuses, study stocks and pontificate online. To the point when he went pro, some of the most famous traders in America found him, invested in him!

Let me make this clear. This is like making music in your basement and getting a call from Doug Morris or Timbaland or David Foster. But they don't want to mold you, they don't want to change you, they don't want you to do anything different, they just want A PIECE OF YOUR ACTION!

Yup, they found Burry on the Internet.

Isn't it interesting that warhorses in the music business will pooh-pooh the Net, saying you can't break an act there, that it comes down to radio and television, but the real money men are trolling for info online?

And how did Burry get so good at picking stocks? BY STUDYING!

Yup, doing the work.

This is Gladwell time.

We live in a country where no one wants to do the work.

Oh, I know that's an overstatement. But most people want to watch television. They want to focus on their image. Is it any wonder they're left behind?

Not that you need a formal education to make it. You can't learn the stock market in school. You've got to learn it on your own, like the music business.

And Burry's returns at his Scion fund are confoundingly large. It's all about value. He bets on fundamentally sound companies that are experiencing a bit of trouble. He hangs in there during the downward spiral in order to ride the roller coaster to the top, making beaucoup bucks along the way.

This is like investing in a band that may not look great, may need to woodshed a bit, may need to make three or four albums, but when it gets it together will be a gold mine. We can call it the Kings of Leon. We can call it artist development. We can call it ANYTHING but flavor of the moment.

That's the point. Are you willing to do it differently? Are you willing to do the work and come up with your own conclusions, your own solutions? That's Steve Jobs' way. When everybody said you've got to have open standards, he promoted closed systems. And now he's the big winner.

And Burry got so deep into it, figuring out when and what mortgage bonds were gonna tank, that he bought credit default swaps and made...enough money to buy your entire neighborhood. And the one next to you. And the one next to that.

By being brilliant. Even though so many investors said his plan was lunacy and wanted no part of it.

THIS is the American story. Not making a mix tape and partying with Paris Hilton and getting a photo in TMZ... Snooki is a diversion for the masses, the losers. Do you want to be a winner?

Winners start off in the wilderness. They do it their own way. They stick to their guns. They work incessantly and they never give up.

Whew. That just does not sound like enough people in the record business, on either side of the fence, talent or businessman.

We live in a confusing, crazy world. But one thing is constant. The winners pay their dues. And it's not solely time on the chain gang. No, there's a ton of anxiety involved. Questioning yourself, taking risks, sticking to your guns when no one believes in you.

It's every man for himself out there. Shouldn't be, but it is.

There's a safety net in Canada. In Sweden. That's the socialism you decry. But in the good old United States, the game is stacked against you. Those with power, with money, have erected walls to keep you out. And if you think kissing butt is the way to get ahead, you're delusional. It's not about how you can get signed, it's about how you can beat Universal at its own game. You've got to be smarter than Lucian Grainge. Believe me, these people exist. And they're gonna be the winners. They're the ones we're gonna be reading about in "Vanity Fair" five years from now.

SONG OF THE DECADE

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Yes, it's been ten years. And I'm not one for lists. But in magazines and newspapers decade-ending rankings have started to appear. Best movies, best TV shows and best songs. So I thought I'd weigh in.

"Some have maxed out all their credit cards Some are working two jobs and living in cars Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO See how far 5.15 an hour will go Take a part time job at one of your stores Bet you can't make it here anymore"

I've had a rough year. Financially.

After a disastrous nineties, I owe nothing. I live on a cash basis. I saved every damn cent I could, figuring it's hard to make a living on a freelance basis, and then the bottom fell out.

I'm not complaining. I've got my cash hoard. But it's depressing. Because almost everybody I know is broke, or close to it. I've even got a friend who put her stuff in storage and is bouncing from guest bedroom to guest bedroom, she just can't find a job.

They don't exist. Even if you want to work, you can't.

Your best bet is the network, those people you've known for decades. You can call and lean on them, if they still even have their jobs.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is paying record bonuses and their Chairman Lloyd Blankfein says the firm is doing God's work. He must pray to a deity I've yet to encounter, one who wants to see the populace suffer. Used to be Wall Street helped build America, now traders just profit off exotic investment instruments. Meanwhile, if we didn't prop up AIG, the banks would be bankrupt and their employees would be just like us, without a job and with no prospects. Hell, did you see that story in the "New York Times" about ex Lehman Brothers employees? They can't work.

Not that I've got sympathy.

"Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils The billionaires get to pay less tax The working poor get to fall through the cracks Let 'em eat jellybeans, let 'em eat cake Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps If they can't make it here anymore"

By time you read this our President, Barack Obama, a man who ran on the mantra of hope, may be getting us deeper into Afghanistan. Isn't Al-Qaeda in Pakistan? And, if the Soviets couldn't win there, why should we? A country owned by China with disastrous financials (that's us, in case you didn't recognize your homeland).

And if you join the armed forces to serve your country, to pay your bills, you're entering the Hotel California. It seems you can never leave. You wish you were a rock star, high on dope, as you jumpily wait for people to attack you one more time. Coming home to a country that pays you lip service, but doesn't give a shit. If you come home at all. And if you do return, you're probably so traumatized you figure suicide is the best solution.

"In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains That's done closed down along with the school And the hospital and the swimming pool Dust devils dance in the noonday heat There's rats in the alley And trash in the street Gang graffiti on a boxcar door We can't make it here anymore"

Not only have they ditched music in schools, now they're closing the libraries. Guess everybody's got to sit in front of the TV, paying media giants to have crap shoved down their throats. Elvis Costello sang about vapid radio? Well, they killed radio and now have us anesthetized in front of the flat screen, selling us products we don't need, that we put on credit cards that charge 29%. As for holding back... Didn't they say it was American to shop, that we were entitled? If we sacrifice, maybe that means the future truly is bleak. So, we consume until we go bust.

I try to have hope. Can't say that I achieve this state every day.

But one thing that helps me get through is James McMurtry's "We Can't Make It Here". Not only my favorite song of the twenty first century, but my most played. With over 200 plays in my iTunes library on the computer I superseded in 2006, and over 100 more since.

Sure, the lyrics are poignant, they're poetry. But there's a hypnotic groove that hooks me, that makes me want to play the song again and again.

There's an authorized electric version, but I prefer the acoustic take. Which James used to give away for free on his site, but now you can hear as backing to a clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug&feature=PlayList&p=8F9DB3A3A3F39061&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21

You don't have to pay a scalper to see James McMurtry. He's gonna play in the bar in your hometown sometime next year. But the paper won't make a big deal, there won't be a buzz. But the paper is going extinct and we haven't yet made a complete transition from Kara DioGuardi crap to real music.

Is it only about the money? What happens when the money runs out? Then what? When no one listens to Top Forty, when no one wants to go to the show. When the old criteria die, it comes down to the music.

James McMurtry got a break at the beginning. He did a number of albums on Columbia, his first was produced by John Mellencamp. But when his deal was done he didn't give up and go to law school, he didn't get an MBA, he didn't don a suit and go straight, no he went indie, he kept writing, he kept playing.

And if that ain't twenty first century, I don't know what is.

In the next month, we're going to be deluged with statistics. Telling us who the winners were. People who provided fodder for the system, that you consumed, shat out and forgot.

But great art is unforgettable.

"We Can't Make It Here" is unforgettable. Just as powerful as "Eve Of Destruction", but sans camp, it doesn't slide off of you, it penetrates your core.

How did we get here?

To a country where there are winners and losers. And the winners feel entitled.

It's not only Wall Street, the music game is not much different.

The stars can't sell recordings anymore so they've jacked up the price of concert tickets to the point where the average attendee only goes to a show once a year. Isn't that like only having sex once a year? Aren't you entitled to more? Don't you want more?

Those left at the label complain that the audience is a bunch of thieves. Never mind the overpriced CDs they sold with only one good track for over a decade.

And the wannabes only want to know, which way to riches?

Every day they e-mail me...how can I make money?

If I had the answer to that, I'd be rich myself!

But I do it because I want to, it's my passion. That's why I write. And as long as people read, I'm going to proceed. It's fine with me that you're partaking for free, because first and foremost it's about communication, hell, it's about attention, and I've got yours, and believe me, nothing thrills me, nothing satisfies me more.

I may be a lone voice in the wilderness, I may be the only person who says this, but I truly believe James McMurtry's "We Can't Make It Here" is the best song of this nascent century. It doesn't only sound good, it's got something to say.

"We Can't Make It Here" lyrics: http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com/we_cant_make_it_herelyrics.htm

Alternative acoustic take: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWRfBZY-ng&feature=related

Official video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv0q3cW3x1s&feature=player_embedded#

The Grand Finale of the Industrial Age

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Another great depression? Or the greatest-ever buying opportunity? Here's why...this economic mess is nothing like the 1930's, why it's time to start buying, NOW and what stocks will out-perform the coming rebound.

Don't let media's short-term, micro-view blind you to what's really going on in the world. Put aside fear and negativity and get ready to rake in unimaginably-huge profits as you cash in on the...3 unstoppable macro trends about to reshape the world.

In the next 15 years, we will gobble up more of the Earth's last remaining natural resources, than we did in any period in the past. This great natural resource binge will turn Wall Street on its head.

Rising commodity prices will start to bear down on every aspect of our lives...from the costs of our tomatoes to the price we pay to heat and cool our homes...from the value of our blue chips to the income we receive on our CD's...$2,700 gold...$9 gas...plummeting indices...soaring inflation...and plenty of bear markets.

But also, expect a commodity bull market, the likes of which we have never seen before, one that will dwarf every other that has come before it.

Last century we had three commodity bull markets. They were from 1906-23, 1933-53 and 1968-82. Each one was bigger, and wreaked more havoc, than the one that came before it. This final one promises to outdo them all. By the end of it, many things will be different.

Most paper assets will be shredded. Millions of American retirees will find themselves on the breadline. Vital commodities like oil, gas, uranium, cobalt, molybdenum will be greatly depleted. But almost all commodities whether abundant or not, wil no longer be cheap. In fact, their costs will become more prohibitive, that it will finally force industry to seriously develop new alternatives, like renewable fuels, and new industrial materials made from bio and nano-materials. But until that time comes, commodities will rule the day.

Commodities will inpact almost every area of your life. Whether you want to be invested in them or not, they are going to affect your assets...your lifestyle...your costs of living...the kind of car you drive...what kind of house you live in...your investments. They'll determine the fate and fortunes of companies, countries and individuals everywhere!

Commodities will make you rich. Or they'll make you poor. It's your choice.