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After Charlie's first ski trip everybody said I need to get him back on skis soon so I wanted to go one more time before the season is over. Last week I called up a more local mountain asking when the season ended and their last day open was this past weekend.
Conditions were not great for serious skiers. Most trails were closed. Those open were very narrow and riddled with dirt spots. By the afternoon, with temps in the 50s, things were pretty slushy. But for newbies it was great because it was empty. We were the only people in the rental area. We were first, literally, up the lift and Charlie and I exclusively owned "Little Chief" (see lower-right of trail map) for 3 or 4 runs. No lines for food, bathrooms, nor lifts.
Charlie was bored after going down Little Chief 7 or 8 times and wanted to move on. I was hesitant since he still prefers to go straight on as fast as he can until he needs to do "pizzas" (called "snow plowing" when I was kid) and not gracefully ski in control side-to-side. So I told him if he can stay behind me we can go on a different slope but if I see him we can't. I proceeded to ski as slow as I could and it took him 3 runs to stay behind me the whole way at which point we moved on.
Asked the guys at the lift and a random ski instructor what the next best bet was and they recommended the "Pennsylvania" tail. It also happened to be the only other "green circle" open. So with a little trepidation on my part (not sure if fearing for myself or Charlie) we went up the long lift. The video below is from our 3rd run down that trail. First couple runs started with me in the lead but learned if Charlie fell I didn't realize into much farther ahead. "Daddy, help me get up" meant walking 30 feet uphill in skis.
With him ahead though introduced a problem I didn't think of until it happened…me falling. I went down. He didn't notice and kept zooming out of site. A little disconcerting. I mean if he was going to wipe out into a tree I'd want to see it, right?
I then taught him to occasionally look back at slower points. I also need to explain "green circles" vs. "blue squares" vs. "black diamonds" because you don't want to make a wrong turn at a fork.
At the bottom of each run he didn't ask "Can we go again?" He asked "Can we ski all day until they close?" After 10 or so runs of the Pennsylvania trail he wanted to try something else. There were no more "green circles" open so I apologized. He broke down crying because he wanted to do another hill he saw people skiing down and he refused to accept he wasn't ready for a "blue square." I asked a random instructor what they recommended and they said Tomahawk (blue square) is actually pretty easy especially with the snow melting and running slow. So I gave in to the tears and sure enough the first half Tomahawk was quite easy. About 2/3rd down though the incline deepened dramatically. The two of us are at the top of the incline standing. Staring. Fearing. (okay, just me fearing.)
I'm about to suggest removing the skis and walking down but Charlie took off. It was a lot of snow-plowing, falling, snow-plowing, falling at first and then he got ballsy and just shot down straight away like a mini-rocket. It took me forever. Later while looking at a trail map I noticed that Lower Tomahawk was actually a black diamond!!! Charlie was quite proud of himself but very upset because I wouldn't let him go down that again.
The video below is the last video I'll be taking of him skiing for a while unless I invest in a helmet cam. After another day of skiing Charlie is unequivocally a faster skier than I am. As day progressed he was doing more true skiing and less just snow-plowing his way down the hills. And he was getting faster and faster. Even without camera and trying to avoid crashing into people I can no longer keep up with him. I didn't tell him that because I didn't want it to go to his 5 year-old head. But next season when he's taking lessons I may take some too. (Or maybe I'll go without him.) I figured it would be a little while before I needed to worry about my skill improving enough to keep up with him and I'm surprised how wrong I was.
I was recently asked via email if I felt there was potential "for a [pay] subscription model for on-line news since apparently print is dying." While composing reply figured I just post it as a blog entry so others can chime in.
Print isn't "apparently" dying in my opinion. It is unequivocally dying. iPad like devices will be the final nails in the coffin. Not saying iPad is end all. But that type of technology will continue to evolve. There are OLED digital displays that you can bend and roll-up. Check out image of a digital display that rolls into a pen.
Large format (size of magazine, not cell-phone) feather-weight hand-held digital screens will be ubiquitous as is internet access. Why would anyone...
-kill trees
-make paper
-print on paper
-ship paper
... when each of the above has both economic and environmental costs and the ultimate solution is less convenient.
Print is dead.
But to answer the question I believe there will be successful pay models for content previously distributed primarily in print. But the content needs to be good enough to pay for. I recently read a MarketWatch editorial on the subject. An excerpt:
So if you drink the Kool-Aid, you'll be reading Newsweek and Time and all the dying print magazines and newspapers on the iPad.
No matter that you are not reading these journals now. For some unexplained reason you'll want to read them on the iPad. How does that make any sense?
The big publishing companies that think that their success or failure is totally dependent on the content delivery mechanism will be in for a surprise. The big winners on the iPad, if any, will be the feet-already-wet publications that have learned from long experience how to produce reader-friendly content for the screen.
I personally agree although I don't think it is exclusively an issue of producing reader-friendly content for the screen. I think it also important to have good, exclusive content worth paying for. I subscribe to Time Magazine. If I had a future-generation iPad-like device I'd easily pay a little less for the digitally distributed version that I didn't have to rotate in my briefcase each week and carry to the curb to recycle.
Note, I wrote "pay a little less." It is ridiculous that it costs more for a digital version of a book on the Kindle or iPad than a paperback version. There are virtually no variable costs (beyond licensing or royalties) associated with the digital distribution of a book, movie, song, or 'newspaper' article. Read Chris Anderson's The Long Tail. There shouldn't be any long term expectation from news media that a digital subscriber will generate same subscription revenue as a print subscriber. But they shouldn't need to. The costs are less.
Another personal hypothetical example of pay-worthy content: I currently subscribe to Bass Player Magazine and it's the only magazine where I've kept every back issue since I've subscribed. There are lessons I might get to someday. Transcriptions of bass lines I may eventually be able to read and play.
Somewhere among my pile of 50 or 60 issues is the transcribed bass line from Young MC's "Bust a Move" which was, by the way, written and performed by Flea. It's just a short 8 bar vamp. If for fun I wanted to play it the big pain in the neck solution would be going through all the issues looking for it. A lesser pain would be going online, searching for which issue, then manually looking for that issue.
Preferably I could just search for it on my iPad-like device. Of course, the Bass Player app should then have some friendly "sheet music" view that makes it easier to view and play from the published music. In a heart-beat I would convert my current subscription to digital if it meant access to archives (and I'd recycle all my archaic print versions).
Just like the music and tv industry previously, those distributing content meant to be read, as opposed to listened to or watched, need to not whine about their inevitable demise, but rather keep their content relevant and unique and best leverage new technologies for its distribution. And then people will pay for it.
Why I downloaded streamed it: While my decade long endeavor to be a bass player has become a mockery, one thing I can credit to the (hopefully someday) hobby is that it changed the way I listen to music. For example, I'll pay more attention to isolating the different instruments (especially the bass), and often try (and fail) to discern chord progressions. Over this time period Led Zeppelin, previously to me just one of many great classic rock groups, has become one of my favorites largely due to the bass of John Paul Jones. Next time you have the occasion, try focusing in on the bass of a whole Zeppelin album and you'll see why.
Of course I was intrigued by the March 2010 Bass Player magazine cover featuring Jones and his new band Them Crooked Vultures. The magazine features a full interview with Jones and from the interview pre-amble:
A collaboration between Jones, ex-Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters frontman David Grohl, and Queens of the Stone Age principal Josh Homme, Them Crooked Vultures takes the '70s-era riff rock of Jone's youth and blends it with punk-rock energy courtesy of drummer Grohl. For his part, Homme taps the sludgy depths of his stoner rock past to create melodic hooks as piercing and direct as gamma rays.
Rhapsody's review: Vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme, drummer Dave Grohl, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones -- now that's one hefty batch of ego, mojo and ridiculous talent. To purists, this triad of rock godliness may seem like a sign of the apocalypse; to others, it's an inevitable union of some of rock's most prominent figures. The trio's self-titled debut is sludgy, suggestive, stripped-to-the-bone raw: Zeppelin's blues and boogie get seduced by QotSA's narcotic lure, wanton sneer and heavy strut. Each member sticks to his respective role, so there are no real surprises here, just good, clean devilish rock.
My take: I'm not sure my opinion is even necessary for this one as the last sentence of Rhapsody's review sums it up well.
Why I downloaded streamed it: I was pumping some iron the other day and in a workout-to-rap mood, but I was a little tired of everything relatively new. Eminem, 50 Cent, Kanye, et. al. Yawn. I briefly entertained some sort of internet radio (Rhapsody hip-hop-station or Pandora) but I've found for working out I'm most motivated (or distracted) with music I know. So I decided to go old…as old as I can remember. A quick search on the Rhapsody app on my phone brought me right back to 1984.
Rhapsody's review: With his classic debut album, (and the first full-length released by Def Jam), hip-hop pioneer LL Cool J became a full-blown rap superstar. Backed by chunky '80s beats courtesy of ultra-producer Rick Rubin, Uncle L comes through with timeless mega-hits such as "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and "Rock The Bells."
My take: It was over 25 years ago and I remember it like it was, well, 25 years ago. I walked down into the basement of my friend Mel's home and there on the floor he sat with a pile of LPs. I don't remember all of them. One was a Whodini record and one was LL Cool J's Radio. Before listening to any I knew this was something different just by the pictures on the artists on the album covers. To this point my record collection consisted largely of groups like The Police, Rush, Genesis, The Cars.
Then Mel dropped the needle on Radio and I was blown away. There are probably only a handful of times in life where you hear music that sounds like absolutely nothing you've ever heard before and this is perhaps the only one I remember. I couldn't say "this sounds sort of like…" because there was nothing in my personal listening history that resembled this in any way. It wasn't a cappella but there wasn't any traditional instrumentation. No guitars. No piano. The background "music" was funky drum beats and the noises a record made when you "accidentally" scratched it. There was no singing. But it wasn't speaking. It was just over-the-top different. And I liked it.
That week Mel was dating a girl named Yyvette (or maybe he previously had) so the lyrics of "Dear Yvette" instantly became part of our vernacular. Too shy to hit the dance floor of the teen alcohol-free dance clubs Mel would drag me to, "You Can't Dance" was adopted as a personal anthem. "I Can't Live Without My Radio"…"Rock the Bells"…"I Need a Beat". Classic. Classic. Classic.
I don't recall whether I was allowed to borrow the LP to make a copy on cassette, or we made a copy right there. But that cassette was played often and represents my first rap / hip-hop album. Besides being an iconic album for myself, Radio was also the first album released by Def Jam records and was one of the first records produced by legend Rick Rubin who subsequently and successfully worked with everyone. In 2007, for example, Rubin won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work with The Dixie Chicks, Justin Timberlake, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Green Day, and Johnny Cash.
The album was released pre-video-era, or at least pre-hip-hop video era but I did find some footage of 18 year-old LL doing "I Can't Live Without My Radio" on Soul Train. Also discovered a VHI Hip Hop Honors tribute with "Rock the Bells" performed by the Roots, Eminem and DJ Jazzy Jeff in the role of Cut Creator. Enjoy [below].
As an addendum, it was the early 90s and after having a few drinks during happy hour I grabbed some food at the McDonald's in Union Square. While paying there was all of a sudden some massive hysteria and yelling…"oh my god. LL Cool J". His limo pulled up in front and as I'm leaving, there he is, walking in, relatively alone. (This was apparently before it was en vogue for rappers to shoot other rappers.) With no inhibitions as a result of happy hour I pretty much walked up him, said something stupid but complimentary, and held up my right hand for a chest level bro handshake…which he returned. That was Cool.
11 is a luxury football table for discerning lovers of the world’s favourite game. After a full year of careful planning and development it has now gone into limited production.
11’s sweeping curves reflect the beauty and grandeur of today’s modern stadiums, while its atmospheric lighting and chromed metal players capture the excitement and drama of a classic sporting encounter.
Each individually numbered table is meticulously hand-finished to the very highest standards by skilled European craftsmen.
This award-winning design was first showcased at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2008. After attracting much critical and public acclaim, it has now been developed for limited production.
Over the years I've shared a few foosball tables, my favorite still being the $73K table where you can have the faces of the dudes (or dude-ettes) customized by sending in photos of your friends and family.
This one, at a mere $30K, takes the cake in terms of gaudiness. Perhaps it would be must have if I were pimping out my home for an episode of Mtv Cribs. If by chance you were thinking of picking one of these up for me for the holidays, I don't want to seem ungrateful, but perhaps you can save the money and get me the $73K table next year? The wood would go better in my basement than the gold.
More pictures, including a less gaudy white and aluminum version, on their web-site.
Why I downloaded it: One day when rounding up my library with some old school hip-hop - specifically looking for Licensed to Ill - I noticed an album from the Beastie Boys that I had never heard of. The review (next paragraph) piqued my interest.
Rhapsody's review: Playing The In Sound From Way Out! to unsuspecting Beasties haters has been a popular parlor game since its release in 1996. Now comes an excellent and similarly groovy sequel, and it's just as likely to wrong-foot those few friends you still have who continue to disparage the Boys' talents. As jazz funk albums go, this probably isn't going to excite or offend serious jazzheads too much, but for the less educated among us it's a fun diversion from the Beasties' normal canon, and you can never have enough Hammond organ in your life.
My take: Ever been dragged by Hersh and Matar to a slightly off the beaten path - say west of Gramercy Park in NYC- lounge? That's the vibe given off by this instrumental and non-stereotypical-Beastie Boys album. Kind of funky. Somewhat jazzy. A good compliment to a martini. It's the type of music that'll provide a good, hip backdrop but won't distract from conversation. Tunes to "mix up" in a cocktail party playlist.
