White Gold

2008-05-01T11:37:00.003-05:00

One thing I never anticipated when I wrote a $120 book and tried to get start-up for the label carrying it was the abject fear that people have for ideas that no one else knows about.

Are there very, very important ideas that no one knows? History says, of course, lots of them.

Will these ideas almost effortlessly make some people rich and improve the living conditions of billions of others? History says naturally.

But I'll admit I have no idea how to get the truth that I stumbled upon understood.

I've explained it rationally, historically, economically, in human terms and emotional terms.

I've translated it into uptight business-speak for the suits and into woe-is-me victimhood for starving artists. I've appealed to ego, compassion, the gods of money, the environment--whatever I think will work.

The truth is that there are few reasons NOT to embrace floating prices on untangibles. Because they will not only achieve what we think of as "saving the environment", but also make our jobs many times more enjoyable, grow our economy by a huge factor, and make room for those currently forced out of the tangible/intangible economy.

Oh, did I mention that they will provide us with a multifaceted, mature, rich, fun and varied culture beyond our wildest dreams and allow our children to do what they like rather than grinding a life out as lawyers and middle managers.

I don't see a downside--any short-term dip in spending in other consumer sectors will be massively offset by a rapid rise in the earning power of most people on earth. What allowing untangible prices to float will do is create a new, round, top to our current socio-economic pyramid.

Which will create upward momentum around the base, where most overt conflict in the world takes place.

But from what I can tell, artists don't want to be successful, nor businessmen, really. They want to be NOT ALONE. (They feel lonely and want to moderate whatever causes they THINK could exacerbate that.) They actually want to be with--within the safe and understandably rational confines of whatever community to which they pledge allegiance--but to admit that requires vulnerability, which they have been well trained to avoid at all costs.

And taking a significant enough risk to really change the game--which is the only way to truly and permanently be WITH (if any spiritual traditions are to be believed)--takes risking being alone.

If you're normal and succeed, you subjugate your self--causing alienation.

If you're normal and you fail, you're fucked.

If you're weird and fail then you might alienate people and be fucked.

If you're weird and you make it, of course, you get love, attention, money and all that other stuff that artists and businessfolks work for.

On your own terms.

You bring the world to you.

Looking for one true believer.

If you see business as a spiritual pursuit AND understand that that should make you more money more enjoyably than seeing it as unholy and divisive, then please contact me.

Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you made your own money. Maybe you have enough to know that protecting it as fervently as you have is making you boring and stiff.

Maybe you just understand rationally that you'll never go without food, shelter or clothing.

Maybe you're tired of being rich and scared. You did what was expected of you and never felt the sense of "arriving" that you thought was promised. Even though others see you as arrived.

Maybe you just don't give a fuck anymore.

I don't know.

Hell, maybe you just want to be rich, free and safe.

White Holes

2008-04-22T16:12:00.007-05:00

Physicists are starting to theorize about the existence of white holes.

What's a white hole?

Take a black hole and turn it inside out. Instead of being so dense that it sucks in and destroys everything around it, a white hole is so light (?) that it constantly creates new energy, light, matter--whatever (untangibles if you ask me--and have been following my physics-themed posts).

There's no coincidence that White Gold is named White Gold. It's structured to act like a white hole--even though I named it seven or so years before I ever heard of white holes.

The whole idea is that is you go through the horror of the unknown and learn to master your own fears, you will eventually gain access to the permanent, ever expanding core of what's going on. And will experience joy, growth, money, love--whatever it is you seek--in limitless quantities.

White Gold the corporation assumes that the detritus of such an exploration--the record/produce/story/map and simultaneous proof--will be invaluable to those interested in growth in any and all forms.

Basically, the idea is that if people will go through Basquait's trash for shit he threw out and his grocery lists, pay $50K for a pair of ripped and stained vintage Levis, buying $1.7 mil Bugattis, and watching cheap home videos of Timbaland and Busta Rhymes in the studio fucking around--then there is a market for a truly creative corporation that approaches commerce itself like a canvas.

Creative works--music, movies, books, tv shows--magazines and the like will be the core, but the satellites will be clothing lines, management tomes, consumer electronics, furniture--anything we feel like. Content, values and craftsmanship all exist on a continuum--having manufacturing standards doesn't negate your creative if you've got integrity. Lighten up folks. It's supposed to be fun.

Do anything!

White Gold is the first but these Uber Brands are the future. Brands that take other brands and give them meaning. Well, that's old school terminology--these brands will simply emanate light. And attract those interested in bathing in that type of light.

Like graffiti artists doing shit for Nike but bigger. This time we'll be pimping (very lovingly and relaxedly) them instead of them pimping us. We'll outsource to Nike and take the swoosh off. Have Lexus building cars with our name (or not) and our values. Have Savile Row working for us.

This is about having artists in control of the whole shebang and subordinating the suits, rather than having the suits in charge and subordinating the artists.

That's what people want. And that's what they'll pay for now that the suits have proven themselves incapable of generating enough high quality content to sustain interest.

What, did they think us artists wouldn't get better at managing accountants and directing lawyers?

They certainly haven't gotten any better at making art--they don't have the time.

I don't give a fuck about telling someone off. I don't often do it, but I'm not afraid of a fucking CEO with his own island. He's probably a scared child with an iron-clad work ethic and an overwhelming, though thoroughly repressed desire for rest, play and fun. In other words--a sold-out punk.

And we make better beats, movies, books--all premium, all true, all real and all premium.

No counter-culture moping victim pimps and no mainstream chipper alpha dog whores.

Just straight razor's edge. (With props to both Somerset and Occham.)

There's the future for you. It will be financed by allowing content prices to float--$14 songs, $24 movies, $160 DVDs, etc.

If you want in, hit me up.

2008-04-22T12:42:00.003-05:00

Let's do one for the numbers people.

Profits have been moving from the tangible to the untangible as long as economic activity has taken place. Everyone's hot on intangibles at the moment, but those aren't dick compared to what untangibles will do once they're allowed floating prices.

Exxon/Mobil has a P/E (Price to Earnings) ratio of around 13, Google has a P/E of around 40. Why are people so willing to pay a premium for a company that returns smaller earnings? Because they own the intangible future.

And Exxon Mobil is burdened with the tangible past.

Exxon Mobil makes a hell of a lot more money and many fewer people want to own their stock.

Google has mastered the intangible realm like Exxon mastered the tangible one. But everyone's so far up Google's ass, they can't see that the intangible age is just as doomed by the march of progress as the tangible age and its toxic oil wells.

What's funny is that those who should be in the best position to capitalize on the value of quality untangibles are trading with P/Es around those of tangible companies. Time/Warner, Sony, Dreamworks--these content companies are all duking it out with the manufacturing sector with P/Es around 12.

No one wants to own them.

Why? Because even if they deliver the high quality content that the developed world is increasingly starved for, they won't make anything. Because--say it with me now--content prices are arbitrarily fixed. The market knows this and values the companies accordingly.

But you and I know that a company that really owned the untangible future would trade at a P/E of what--80? 120? A couple thousand? It's upside would be almost unlimited.

And, unlike the speculative oil, gold and biotech stocks with massive downsides (which tend to have high P/Es), mining the soul is a guaranteed return. Once you know how to do it. Not all land has mineral wealth, but every soul is gold.

Another way of looking at this is that the best artists rarely, if ever become irrelevant during their lifetimes. Pollack painted dribbles for years and they go for millions each now. There was never a demand problem. Still isn't.

The same is true for mass content--the best mass content is often consumed over and over. Books taught and canonized. Songs re-bought in greatest hits packages, licensed for movies, etc, etc, etc.

Whoever owns the first publicly accepted premium content company will be sitting on a money printing machine the likes of which we've never even considered.

Look at it this way--because I know you might be too scared to even buy and read The Love Artist--or take the word of the author that it's the book to do it:

Look at it this way--even if The Love Artist fucking sucks. And by sucks, I mean is a piece of absolute shit..

Even then, what would three million in advertising to introduce the world to the idea of premium content do?

It would attract the best works by the best artists. As a label.

A label that made $14 a song instead of $.99 could pay the artists 4, 6, 8 a song and still crush iTunes, Interscope and all the pretenders to the throne.

It could pay writers $60 a book.

Sure, you say, they could release it on their own and make all the money, why do they need White Gold.

I'll tell you this about artists: we don't want to do any fucking paperwork. We don't want to print and sell our shit.

We want to fuck around and make more. Like Henry Miller said--we're like trees, and once we drop a piece of fruit, we're so over it it hurts. We want birds and deer to come and eat it--and carry the seeds miles away--but if it's up to us, we'll just let it rot. That's how uninterested in transportation and distribution we are. We just go on making the tastiest and most nutritive fruit possible. Let someone else package and sell apple sauce.

Look, if you're in business, you're in management. And if you're in management you know that the name of the game is talent.

And if you're into talent, you know that money and freedom is all there is.

But if content makes money, it's mainstream drek. If it has..

Aw, fuck it. If you pussies haven't felt it yet, you just won't get it.

But remember this: I'm appealing to your most base greed. You haven't even read my book--I'm not appealing to any artistic instincts or taste. I don't give a fuck about that. I'm appealing to your greed and desire for more money, an easier life, to leave something for your family.

To make money.

I can make you Paul Allen times 50.

And I've described how in exhausting, rational detail. In your language with math.

If you've given up on your dreams to make money and you don't even want to make the maximum money--then what the fuck are you? If you've embraced life as toil and reward and don't even want the rewards, what do you believe in? Pain?

Y'all some kinky motherfuckers.

Don't you want a front row seat to the most important and most flexible brand of the coming millennium?

Cimbing Stairs

2008-04-21T12:52:00.002-05:00

It strikes me that life is like climbing a set of stairs--or walking somewhere.

The West has told us that all that matters is getting to where we're going--or else why walk at all?! So around here, we ignore the scenery--try to get past it faster.

And we certainly have a point.

The East, on the other hand, insists that as we're walking at the moment, where we're going is immaterial. Which, of course, is true as well. But why not at least head for places with even better scenery as long as we're enjoying it? Why not go visit shit we've heard great things about? Why not investigate what we want--as long as nothing matters anyway?

It's not too hard to see that here in the 3rd millenium, what we're going to do is shake them both and say: "Yo, mothafuckers! It's both!"

And maybe add a quick "Get over yourself." Damn.

The question remains, though, which one to use as our primary reaction to things. Which one to favor and hold more holy. For certainly we aren't bad-assed enough yet to speed like we've been doing and dawdle smelling flowers at the same time. Maybe some day, but not quite yet.

Like computers, our attention doesn't quite parallel process as efficiently as it does singularly focus.

The rent is due, and the couch is feeling relaxing, do we believe or get scared?

We have missed rent before. Even starved and hurt. The question is real.

And there's a series of paintings calling. And a few songs percolating.

You have paintings to sell, but none have sold so far.

You've been at it ten years and haven't sold shit.

Faith or fear?

Which will render you a man and which mighty mousey?

The Love Artist

2008-04-09T09:33:00.002-05:00

As far as I can tell, I am the world's first self-descirbed love artist.

There are a few others. There's a conceptual artist and yoga teacher who owns www.theloveartist.org (I own theloveartist.com). She runs workshops as a love artist--and promises better fucking, which is great--but I don't see much in her site or work that goes beyond Kundalini Yoga and a somewhat hippie/liberal/romantic notion of love as being really nice.

Annie Sprinkle has a site called loveartlab.com, which is surprisingly boring for such a vaunted performance artist. For a fee (I assume), she and her partner will hold a cuddle-in--where they install a bed and have bystanders cuddle between them on it for minutes at a time.

Which sounds like hell to me. To me, that doesn't even sound intimate--let alone like fucking--let alone loving. Why is being touched by strangers love? (Unless you're on X maybe.)

But I do like that the notion of a love artist is bubbling up in the collective unconscious.

So what's my claim to fame? Or at least origination?

I started writing my book The Love Artist around 1995. The first thing I got was the title. And then, laying in the grass at my family summer house, I asked myself: "what the fuck is a love artist?".

If I had come up with an answer, I wouldn't have needed to write the book.

But I couldn't, and so I did.

What was interesting was that, if anything, I started off with a fairly conventional notion of being nice to everyone as being loving, and had that repeatedly dashed on the rocks. Like it was being beaten out of me. (And believe me, I was as nice and as big a pussy as you would have met.)

It turns out that love can just as easily tell people to fuck off, when that's what needs to be said.

Love is loving yourself--it's just like oxygen masks in airplanes in that respect--you can't really do it outward until you know how to do it inward. Which is why so many well-intentioned attempts go awry: i.e. welfare, trust funds, being a "giver", putting others before yourself, etc.

And so many supposedly hateful approaches work so smashingly: capitalism; individualism; boundaries, borders and fences; taking, etc.

There are lots and lots of manipulative people out there and if you're "being nice" to them, then you're spreading emotional molestation, not love. Showin 'em the hand is love.

I published The Love Artist in 2000 and bought theloveartist.com shortly after. It wasn't until after I put it out that I learned all the money and fucking stuff about love.

It's all wrapped up into one neat little ball. Money, fucking, love.

And any artist who pretends to be dealing with one without EXPLICITLY and OPENLY addressing the other two is full of shit.

A nice artist. And likely better at theory than painting, writing or making music.

Always go by the work. Even with me. Don't give me shit for how clever, witty or "smart" I am. None of that means shit. Though concepts are of more importance than ever, conceptual art itself is bullshit--just reasons the mind makes up to cover a lack of talent, a fear of venturing into the truly unknown and wordless frontier. If it's valuable, then it's applicable. And should have examples in abundance.

An artist trying to sell theory is like a real estate guru trying to sell seminars. If the shit really worked, why is he running around teaching it instead of logging in from Bermuda for an hour every third day and doing the damn thing?

Read a fucking poem, check the paintings, buy the book. I'm off to get my hair cut.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water..

2008-03-28T11:26:00.007-05:00

But that motherfucker might be dedicated--mind, body and soul--to dying of thirst.

AKA: The Two Second White Gold Primer:

1. All prices for mass content are fixed. (i.e. all songs are $.99, all movies $10, all magazines around $4, all DVDs $24, all TV and radio free, etc.)

2. Fixed pricing (or socialist) systems yield unnecessarily low quality products.

3. Our culture is unnecessarily (and massively) worse than it should be.

4. Allowing content prices to float, as we do in every other sector of the economy, will result in a wide range of cultural content at all quality levels and at all price points.

5. Floating content prices are inevitable, but they can be sped along, most notably by buying the only premium mass content product available in the market today--my book, The Love Artist, available at $120 from the White G store. Even if it is the worst book ever written (and it's not), making it a "story" and allowing it to become mediated will positively impact our culture. economy, the environment, and our daily life more than all the fucking Adornos and non-profits combined.

(Remember, non-profits don't make any money, they must be funded by old world activities like oil, direct advertising and software. Non-profit growth must be predicated by growth in corporate profits, period.)

[For explicit reasoning and numbers on all this, just dig into the blog. This isn't a hope or a wish or a viewpoint, but a concrete, predictable mathematic certainties. I'm going to run through it without much proof for the sake of speed and rhythm. --I'm not busy, but I know you are.]

Right now we have a fast food culture. Very low price points demand that products reach the broadest range of consumers. So the 18-34 demographic os overserved and most other smaller niches--including very wealthy, very loving, very conscious and more mature consumers--are underserved or not served at all.

Artists who think that they have escaped the economy usually just use whatever perspective they have gained to fight the economy. Resulting in two kinds of culture: a vapid and committee-approved mainstream and a depressed, angry and bitter counterculture, which claimes to want to destroy the mainstream but really just sharpens and improves it by providing a valuable pool or new ideas, feelings and fashions from which to draw.

Ultimately, neither the mainstream nor the counterculture is valuable to mature, responsible, loving grown-ups--the consumers with the most money to spend and arguably, those in need of a culture most desperately.

Art and culture--love--cannot succeed without vulnerability and neither the mainstream nor the counterculture delivers more than the smallest amount absolutely necessary to sell (or, in the case of the counterculture, to be conferred by insiders as "authentic").

Neither feels safe enough to do much new or valuable. To take significant risks. So our culture grinds to a standstill. And no incentives (money, love, recognition, security) exist to draw new practitioners into the mix.

Put it this way--being depressed and wearing all black is as culturally risky in 2008 as being perky and going to church was in the 1958. Not at all. The counterculture, which prides itself on being the sole arbiter of modern authenticity, is as fake as a Barbie knock-off.

A mohawk means nothing. Nor do ripped jeans, nor does no bra, nor do piercings or tattoos. They are all well-mediated poses.

Only love, vulnerability, taking risks, exploring and expressing desires--only these are real, valuable and risky. The only problem is that as these are not rewarded anywhere more highly than the status quo, they have little incentive to grow. Our culture is growing--as quickly as our 18-34 year olds are growing culturally.

But there are people and populations who are growing much faster. And who have already gone through and graduated from what those folks have gone through.

Our culture sounds like a skipping record because it never graduates anyone. It just stays in high school and college. (And the often confused first years after.)

A book that's real will likely only appeal to the small portion of society that's real, meaning, at $14 a copy, that it MUST fail. And that the writer will be forced to labor for years and years (a good book takes years to write) to subsidize another one. Which must fail as well.

The same is true for songs, movies, magazines, televisions shows and all mass medium arts.

To grow up, the counterculture must get real about its desires for love, fucking, money, fame, attention and stability. It wants health, security, home ownership, insurance, new cars and all the rest. And it must confront its own infatuation with fixed price systems (socialism) and communalism in general to grow. And it must own up to that. Because currently individuals must leave the culture (or be banished) when they admit these verbotten desires.

(And don't worry, the mainstream has just as many fears to confront.)

Whoever has the balls to face these fears--and can understand that cultural content MUST eventually grow in both price and quality--will make a shitload of money.

I'm currently looking for $3 million in start up money. To create the first and only premium content company. The products are ready. The marketing campaign writes itself:

$120 for a book? Are you f$%^ing crazy?!

Yes, compared to what you think is sane, I am.

And I will be ridiculously and overwhelmingly (again, by your standards) compensated for introducing the world to a new standard. It's been done many times before and will be done many times again.

The only difference is that you know about it beforehand.

And can make an investment that makes the Google IPO look like a dud.

After all, they're just the pipeline maintenance company.

We own the oil, baby.

Spring Ahead

2008-03-09T16:59:00.003-05:00

Read the Julian Schnabel piece in the latest Vanity Fair.

I was grooving until it mentioned that he was condo-ing his own building out.

What the fuck??!

I don't think he's a good painter, or even film-maker, for that matter (though the value of Basquiat is pretty unquestionable)--but he's an important enough artist historically and globally that he should be living in his own fucking house!!?

I guess he should have stayed in the unique arts, like painting, and stayed away from the mass arts, like movies, where the money even for the best is shit.

If I were you I would be ashamed to live in a world that treats it's artists so poorly. What a fucking joke. The sold-out hedge fund hand job geeks get their own islands and the only visual artist who even matters (even though he's leftover grunge at this point) is taking on roomers like the fucking broke British aristocracy. Now ain't that some Cherry Orchard shit?!

The poor bastard probably doesn't even have dental insurance. He owns a Picasso and doesn't even have dental insurance.

Ha. You can't even make money being a SUCCESSFUL artist.

Must mean the collapse of the old order in nigh.

Buy your leather pants now.

Motherfuckers.

2008-03-09T16:13:00.004-05:00

It's all consumption.

That's all I can figure given that the universe is growing at an ever accelerating rate.

That our job is to be like flowers--to consume whatever we want and let go of (or produce/excrete) whatever we're done with.

And not worry about it.

In fact, it may look like we can't do anything different.

Everyone gets caught up on consumption in the material plane, but that's actually the lowest form of consumption. Just like matter is the lowest form of energy.

My suggestion: (not that anyone has ever asked), my suggestion: consume the highest quality possible. Exactly what you want. And don't give a fuck about the fall out.

But just remember that the things you value most are high quality feelings. And that those are free for your to create and consume at all times. Not that consuming those should slow you roll--or stop you from shopping for whatever else your heart desires.

Just don't deny yourself a nap--or four months off--any more than you would an ice cream or new car.

Actually, an ice cream is likely just a substitute for you nap. You don't like how it makes you feel--just the taste.

The law of the universe is constant growth. Accceleration. That's physics, not metaphysics.

It's very helpful to look at natural systems. Production in all plants and animals is to get rid of waste. Consumption is healthy and primary, production somewhat necessary but secondary.

Our first breath is in, our last is out.

And hidden right under our noses is the truth: we can't take it anymore.

We get tired when we can't take, not when we can't give.

Don't stop taking.

The world was promised to be filled with the anti-christ in the last days. We just never thought that it would be us that was allied with the wrong side. We never thought it would be us that tried so hard to be pious that were spreading cancerous disbelief like it were some sort of balm.

It doesn't matter anyway. It's all growth. There's nothing we can do to stop or even slow our growth. In fact, it looks as though everything we do accelerates it.

So go ahead-believe or disbelieve. Consume or produce. Do anything you want.

But just remember that it's what you wanted to do.

And doing anything you want to do can only lead you to a more clear understanding of what you want.

And sooner or later, once you "can't take it anymore", you'll just give the fuck up and do what you actually want.

Want as in feel like that second--like take a left instead of a right--not want as in some grand scheme or plan of your life.

You know, all those things your mom told you were wrong.

Relaxing. Goofing off. Consuming. Indulging desires.

Giving up, letting go.

Whatever..

Hello? McFly?

2008-02-08T10:36:00.001-06:00

There's a whole lot more to talk about, but it's worthless if you haven't grok'd and swallowed the below post. Read it as many times as you need to.

Then spend a weekend or two fantasizing wildly what you'd do if your pissant three million could return several hundred million doing absolutely nothing.

And then take a day off work and think about who you would want to have dinner with once you were the financier of the world's most loving and creative corporation (not to mention most lucrative).

Then, put on some man pants and grow a pair.

History is not for the meek.

Then grunt or some shit.

There's plenty left to do once you're ready to move on.

The History of the World Starting Tomorrow

2008-02-06T11:47:00.006-06:00

Here it is--as simple as I can put it.

The economy is made up of three sectors: tangible goods, intangible goods and untangible goods.

Tangible goods are things like pistons or ball bearings, or cars.

Intangible goods are things like energy and intelligence.

Untangible goods are things like creativity, caring, love, relaxation, and soul.

World history has been made up (so far) of three distinct periods--each corresponding to one sector of the economy. (You could just as easily say one sector of the world but let's keep it economic for the moment.)

>>>

The tangible age was characterized by cause and effect physics. Human mastery of cause and effect physics led directly, by the end of the Renaissance in Europe, to a society where two or three percent of the population was free from a "nasty, brutish an short" existence.

This small percentage of the population enjoyed education, rights, political representation, protection from arbitrary harassment and many other modern conditions. Though they may or may not have been happy.

These gains took between 1,000 and 10,000 years and benefited perhaps a million people.

The majority of these gains were achieved only after intellectuals put their lives on the line to challenge superstition, the authorities of the time, and the church to implement reason.

>>>

The INtangible age was characterized by probability theory, or quantum physics.

Human mastery of quantum physics led directly, by the end of the 20th century, to societies where most of the population was free from a "nasty brutish and short" existence and enjoyed access to education, relative material safety, the latest technology, political representation, etc., etc.

They may or may not have been happy.

These achievements took around 100 years--and benefited perhaps a billion people.

And were garnered only after artists and inventors challenged the superstition of social norms.

>>>

What few people realize is that the quantum age has been as massively disproven by Hubble as Newton's tangible age was by Einstein.

We just don't know what's next.

Until now, that is.

>>>

Quantum physics said that the universe should be shrinking.

Experiencing negative growth.

But we know mathematically, from the observations of Hubble and others, that not only is the universe not shrinking, it's growing.

And not only is is growing, it's rate of growth is accelerating constantly.

This is hard to fathom, as we're at the height of our love affair with quantum physics. We have adapted relativity in a fundamental way into our philosophy, our ethics, our politics, our economics, our spirituality, our education, and our popular culture.

Relativity, post-modernism, probability, the critical method and REASON have become what superstition and the Catholic Church were to 1400s era Europe. The sole arbitrator of salvation.

We believe that global warming, the trade deficit, violence in the middle east and inner city gangs can all be solved with enough study, repression (usually called discipline), hard work and education.

With the proper application of the critical method.

What we don't know, and will soon learn, is that it is the critical method itself that exacerbates if not causes these problems.

>>>

If the tangible world is represented by material things: stuff..

And the intangible world is represented by the somewhat quantifiable, somewhat mysterious energy and intellect (or reason)..

Then the the UNtangible world is represented by feeling. Emotion. Pleasure. Enjoyment. Mystery. Being. In whatever form we choose to slice it.

And it may be that untangibles are all that exist--and that the tangible and intangible worlds are just frozen untangibles.

This would be very similar to what we learned about the material world when Einstein told us that matter (the tangible) was nothing more than frozen energy (intangibles).

A more accurate description of reality may be that both matter and energy are simply frozen untangibles.

>>>

If mastering the tangible world got a few percent of us rich at the end of the Newtonian era (in all the ways one can get rich tangibly)..

And mastering the intangible world got most of us rich at the end of the Quantum era (in all the ways on can get rich materially and intellectually/energetically)..

Then mastering the untangible world will most likely make just about all of us rich materially, energetically/intellectually AND creatively/spiritually/emotionally.

>>>

And, as the rate at which we learn and share information appears to be accelerating along with the universe--that is by a factor of at least ten with the introduction of each new paradigm--we should reasonably be able to expect that it will happen in a period of ten or so years.

If the tangible era returned it's rewards in a thousand years or so (it could really be much longer).

And the quantum era returned it's rewards in a hundred or so.

>>>

Then this next burst of growth, advancement, and unimagined solutions will likely happen in ten years or so.

>>>

Once the ball gets rolling, that is.

>>>

Blasphemy, you say.

No, no, no.

>>>

How very quantum of you, I reply.

How very, very quantum.

>>>

Let me tell you--your rational mind--exactly how it will happen.

The consequence of these numbers will so challenge your current authority--your reason--that it's likely your emotion will over-ride your reason and you will willingly blind yourself to the very simple, almost common-sensical and certain mathematics of these facts.

>>>

Being quantum children, we were raised to believe, as if it were god's own truth, that to gain anything a sacrifice is required.

This is the gospel of the material world--both tangible and intangible.

(Note: one suggestion of how much more efficient untangible growth will be is that both the tangible and intangible are still somewhat tangible--and thus require friction, drama, energy and difficulty to move and change. The untangible world, on the other hand, requires no friction or additional energy to move or change. In fact, it may move and change--that is grow--on its own. In tangible and intangible science, entropy rules, in the untangible, growth and order seem to be the constants.)

The intangible world told us we had to sacrifice much, much less to gain what we wanted (in relation to what the tangible world told us we had to sacrifice), but it never asked if somehow there were gains to be made without sacrifice at all.

Thus, religions told us in the 1970s that we had to think positive thoughts to attain salvation. Whereas a lifetime of purity of thought and deed was required in the 1790s. Similarly, becoming a millionaire required generations of toil in the 1800s, where just 100 years later it could be done fairly routinely with readily available education and 10 to 20 years of serious work.

I would suggest that these diminishing sacrifices extended to many if not most aspects of human growth.

>>>

In science the quantum age told us that we could know EITHER the position OR the velocity of a particle.

In our personal lives it meant we could EITHER have money OR time. Either great sex OR intellectual stimulation.

But these "truths" are no more true than the tangible age's "truths" that we could never have money NOR time. That we could never have great sex NOR intellectual stimulation. That we could never rise above the position of our parents. That we could never live like kings. That we could never afford sanitation, universal education or freedom for everyone. That we could never rest without starving.

Even though we came to have all these things in a very short time once we accepted that the heresies of our time were what we really wanted all along.

>>>

And I can tell you exactly how and why the unfathomably wonderful, rich, enjoyable and pleasurable world that all this data points to will be created.

And, even more importantly, how it will be paid for.

I can tell you exactly what it will mean for your life individually and what it will mean for our collective lives socially and culturally.

It's an unbelievable sight to be sure.

Suffice it to say that we are as blind to what is coming very, very quickly as our 1890 relatives were to the car, universal suffrage, nuclear energy, the creation of the middle class, planes and air travel, unions, desk jobs, phones, cell phones, ball point pens, computers, leisure time, vacations, desk jobs, retirement, sane health care, modern dentistry, clean municipal drinking water, free K-12 education, Microsoft millionaires, home ownership, clean air, consumer protections and all the other amenities of modern life that we now accept as our birthright.

Except that their gains were largely material and energetic/intellectual and ours will be material, energetic/intellectual AND emotional/creative and spiritual.

That is, where they got time, energy and stuff; we'll get time, energy, stuff and meaning.

>>>

I started by describing the world in economic terms for a very specific reason.

This isn't a scientific exposition or a social plea, but a hard-nosed economic revelation.

What I'm about to describe will make billions of people billions of dollars.

It will allow even more to live lives happier and with more "free" time than any society has ever even hoped to posit.

This is an economic opportunity along the lines of getting in on General Electric before Edison.

Or Microsoft before Bill Gates hired Paul Allen.

Or Google before...

You get the idea.

It's neither snake oil nor New Age hooey.

>>>

I don't want you to want this because it's nice, but for what it will mean concretely to the lives of you and your family.

From here on out.

>>>

Starting tomorrow.

>>>

We have a glaring and blatant economic hole in the very middle of our economy that is responsible for everything from the trade deficit with China to the environmental destruction we see all around us.

And a whole lot more.

This systemic price aberration is so small and seemingly insignificant that it has gone unseen for a hundred years.

Not a single economist knows of it's existence. Even though they must be blind not to see it.

And it reveals hedge funds as sluggish and lazy investments.

It will make even menial workers in developed nations rich. And laborers in undeveloped ones middle class.

And, just like the Catholic Church after the Renaissance, the normal, square, economy will experience an incalculably massive loss in status, power, clout and importance after this aberration is discovered.

GE, Microsoft and Google may even be reduced to the status of the Catholic Church today in five or ten years--fighting for their very existence.

MIT and Stanford might just wither on the vine.

Such is the nature of growth.

It is exactly when an entity is at it's strongest--and seemingly invincable--that it is most likely to render its environment inhabitable.

And die off completely.

Just like dinosaurs.

>>>

And it is precisely THROUGH weakness and vulnerability (in relation to the previous environment) that a new entity adapts thoroughly enough to become dominant in the new, previously thought to be uninhabitable, environment.

>>>

This pricing aberration lies, as you have likely figured by now, in how we price untangibles.

Think about it:

In the tangible age we valued material goods based upon their demand but refused to allow intangible goods--that is reasoned ideas--to be valued at all.

We did this by suppressing "blasphemous" speech, writing, conversations or artwork and killing or silencing everyone who attempted to value them.

In the quantum age, being somewhat more enlightened, it wasn't suppression of others that kept us blind from the truth, but REpression of ourselves.

We repress desires, dreams, enjoyments, relaxation, creativity and mystery. We schedule free time, mediate the unmediated, and insist upon reasons, measures and sense.

>>>

But, as history shows (despite what Machiavelli said), the longer an entity is oppressed, the more likely its overthrow attempt is to succeed.

Or--more accurately--the more likely it is that the oppressor will crumble under its own weight and be unable to survive in the resulting environment.

And, the more completely it was oppressed, the more likely it is to thoroughly and permanently replace the system that kept it down.

Which is why the only significant surviving authoritarian regimes are the ones that have allowed their people to change with the times--to reform and have piecemeal advances. (The rest are backwaters and eddys--essentially overlooked and unloved statistical deviations that become more likely to effortlessly "right" themselves every day).

>>>

Where this emotional repression meets the physical world--where the rubber meets the road and we make our self-denial universal and enforceable social denial is, as I mentioned before, in how we price our untangibles.

>>>

What the fuck is an untangible price?

$14.99 is an untangible price. $.99 is an untangible price.

There really aren't very many.

That's the problem.

$10 is one.

$14 is one.

$24 is one.

And free is one.

>>>

Those are the prices of compact disks, downloaded songs, movie admissions, paperback books, hardcover books, and network television and radio.

Respectively.

DVDs are usually around $24.

Cable TV $30 a month.

Magazines $4.50 or so.

>>>

These are all socialized, or arbitrarily fixed prices.

In fact, almost all our untangible goods, sometimes described as content, are sold at fixed prices.

Based not on consumer demand, or quality, or value--or even the creation costs--but, on nothing.

(They're actually based on what it used to cost to print and distribute books and records. Which is entirely arbitrary in relationship to the value and costs of the content.)

>>>

All content in today's global economy is priced arbitrarily.

Arbitrarily low.

Which means we CAN ONLY have a disposable, fast food culture.

And this is our silent Inquisition.

Our invisible Berlin Wall.

The barrier that's killing us and teaching us how much it means to be alive and free at the same time.

Which means that it's crumbling as we speak.

>>>

What we'll find when it's gone is meaning.

Enjoyment.

Time.

Pleasure.

Wonder.

Joy.

Happiness.

--Plentiful and high quality untangibles.

And they will all be profitable.

>>>

In fact, just as high quality intangibles are now among our most profitable goods, high quality untangibles will become the same.

Except that in a new era, the definition of profitable will be radically reworked.

Upward.

>>>

Just as thinking rationally overtook physical labor and superstition in the quantum age..

So will feeling enjoyably overtake thinking in the coming age.

>>>

It's what we want.

And eventually we'll pay for it.

Through higher, floating, content prices for books, movies, tv shows, songs and the like.

Call it the Inspiration Economy.

>>>

We don't worship celebrity because we're vacuous..

It's that we can't quench our thirst for ANYTHING ANY artists do because we're so desperate and hungry for the untangibles they allow themselves to consume and and create. (And those that we imagine they allow themselves--not a huge percentage of our current culture workers allow themselves many high quality untangibles-it simply doesn't pay.)

>>>

Interestingly, it's our very fear of launching sustained explorations into the realm of the untangible that keeps the untangibles we do have superficial and trite.

We won't pay for anything deeper than Bruno and Carrie Ann's Dance Wars.

Or Brittany Spears--may god bless her.

Some try to go deeper, but they do so knowing that they will shrink their audience.

And that that directly equals economic and career failure.

With the price of a song fixed, the only way to grow as an artist--measured by any means--is to sell more.

Making better or different songs, to the degree that it will or may shrink your audience, is failure.

If, that is, an artist expects to enjoy modern amenities such as love relationships, health insurance, housing and reliable transportation.

>>>

Because they know the gig from day one, these artists--who in essence subsidize our culture by providing untangible value for which they are not compensated--have a strong tendency toward depressing, oblique and incomprehensible work.

They also have a propensity towards exhaustion, burnout, overdose, premature death and mental and social problems.

OFTEN IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO THE QUALITY OF THE GIFTS THEY DISPLAY.

Not only do we not reward them at market rates--or competitive rates when looked at from the perspective of other industries--but we tax them with an insatiable demand to know every detail of their personal and mental life.

They make themselves vulnerable to subsidize the creation of our most valuable goods and we hire helicopters and photographers to follow them night and day.

To glean any possible detail they might have left out of their work.

That is literally insane.

>>>

Counter-culture artists work a little differently.

Since they know they will not be rewarded financially or intellectually, they extract their payment up front in untangibles. They demand a badge of authenticity and realness--they demand that the audience admit their spiritual inferiority. WHich is why so many half-assed artists come off as arrogant. They are.

I'm almost always surprised by the willingness on the part of audiences to swallow this bullshit and enforced self-hatred but I guess it's a clear indication of just how hungry people are.

>>>

From an economic point of view, all of this he said, she said bullshit isn't wrong, just inefficient.

The time artists spend protecting themselves, the energy used working barriers, defenses and detours into their work, the extra money audiences spend learning about artists outside their chosen mediums (why not reward more information INSIDE their chosen mediums?), the time spent touring because recording doesn't pay, the time spent designing t-shirts or working a day job when one would rather be creating--or even resting--all create an enormous intellectual, economic an dcreative drag on our culture.

Which is why it's often months or years between decent ideas these days. And the decent ideas seem to be getting smaller.

This is what happens in any socialized system. It gets weaker and less productive until it crumbles.

>>>

This is market ignorance.

A fundamental, systemic inefficiency that cannot survive in a free, growing and diversifying world economy.

>>>

Based on the gains of the material and quantum eras, I'd estimate that fixed prices on untangibles are costing us trillions every year.

Though it's likely much higher.

And that's just in dollars. The costs in lost intangibles (energy) and lost untangibles (feelings) are much, much higher.

In a very concrete way, THIS is why you hate your work.

You can't love it.

If you loved it, we've all agreed that you'd do it anyway. Which is completely untrue--you don't have any free time (another untangible) but whatever.

This is also why the world economy is moving upside down. With the cultural freedom of the US growing the least, the relative freedom of Europe in second place and the often authoritarian and superstitious developing world first.

So tell me--why isn't this like a drop out earning more than an MBA?

How the fuck could the dollar be below the Euro? Below the Loonie? When we invented not only their social and political system but also half their technology?

China isn't using ANYTHING but technology created in the West (in a general sense) and management techniques pioneered here. How can they be using them more efficiently--how could they be growing more quickly--unless there was an airtight cap on the system?

Unless the next phase or economic growth was arbitrarily retarded somehow?

Remember, the universe only grows--and the economy does the same thing. So how could is be slowing down in the most developed nations when the 100,000 year trend is acceleration?

You tell me. I'm serious. This is math, not art. Why would the first person to the gold mine--who owns all the stakes and licensing operations--why would his rate of return be falling while miners Joe, Bob and Harry--fresh off the train (that the old timers own); and renting tools, housing and expertise; are going gangbusters?

>>>

Fixed untangible prices ensure that no one can work in the untangible sector profitably.

Meaning that they MUST make a living in the intangible and tangible sectors.

Meaning that since they cannot profit from the consumption of inspiration and time, they MUST consume energy (the hallmark of the intangible age) and tangible resources.

Even the Rolling Stones lose money in the studio writing songs.

They must pay for whatever time they spend writing songs touring with large numbers of semis and pumping out thousands of watts of energy to plastic cup consuming audiences.

If an artist--if anyone--wants to live in a developed nation, they MUST consume energy and natural resources (intangibles and tangibles) at an ever-growing rate.

It's an economic imperative.

There is simply no other way to make money--to grow.

Consuming and producing inspiration, creativity and other untangibles doesn't pay.

It can't in the economic system we've set up.

So even the best bands and song-writers are really just moving companies and beer garden entertainment with killer advertising.

They don't make money off their songs but from touring and playing live where people want them to.

You'd think artistry would be more green--and in places where prices aren't fixed--like painting and sculpture--it is. But in the mass mediums--which comprise most of our untangible activity these days--it certainly isn't.

>>>

Oh, you're an economist yourself, huh?

You want numbers?

Alright, you little bitch.

You whore at the teat of critical thinking.

Who is so critical that you can't even believe your own system of pricing and economics.

Your own fucking math.

(What the fuck are you if you worship at the altar of reason and can't even apply it completely? Who are you if you're a capitalist that hasn't even fucking committed to demand? Not much I'd suggest.)

I'll give you your fucking numbers.

Because by now, it's obvious that your copious emotions--mostly fear--have shut down your rational capacity.

The intellectual in the fetal position as the true force of the universe rears it's confusing, wonderous and beautiful head.

(You thought the truth was cute and homoginized? That it could be contained and controlled? Explained? Reasoned? Dammed and channeled? Taught in classes that met at 8:30 every Tuesday morning in the same off-white clasroom with flourescent lighting? Peon.)

Just remember you're getting this for free, you fucking pussy. That I advertised it and brought it to you.

You didn't track me down.

You weren't interested and started a conversation at the grocery store.

You didn't respond to my emails or buy my book that did it instead of explaining it.

You waited for me to explain it in your language and serve it up lukewarm.

You claim to be on a search for the truth but will only look where some sell-out punk who has already failed will pay you to look.

Did you even miss a single meal?

Were you ever late on your rent?

Did you go without health insurance?

Have faith that god would find a way?

Did you give it even a year?

Did you do what you wanted once all the way?

Just remember that I spent ten years under the fucking pavers of your bullshit working to bring it to your stingy ass and you didn't give a fuck until I cleaned it off and painted it to look like the bullshit you considered real.

Just remember that you--collectively--didn't give a fuck and still don't that I'm living at home with my mother at 40 just to do this shit.

You haven't paid me a dime and will likely try to find new ways to keep from doing so.

And remember that you still won't believe tomorrow--when you wake up, turn to your warm and relaxed still sleeping wife and wonder momentarily if you should believe or not.

When you step in on your kids and are hit with the full-blown wonder of just their existence.

You will know how valuable all that is--with every fiber in your being--and yet you will do nothing.

You will leave and go out and insist to everyone you meet that the truth you experienced that morning was worth shit and that you, out and about, afraid and faithless, alone and empty, hopped up on coffee and muffins, being smart instead of happy--is what is valuable and true in this world.

And go on about being either the pimp or the whore that you have agreed to be.

>>>

I will give you numbers.

>>>

You fucking piece of shit.

>>>

From 1000 AD to 1870--during the material era--the world GDP grew by a factor of roughly ten. (From $117,000 million to $1,100,000 in 1990 dollars).

Or it doubled (very roughly) every 250-300 years or so.

>>>

Over the next hundred years of the quantum era, from 1870 to 1973, it grew from $1,100,000 million to $16,100,000 million.

Or by a factor of 16.

Meaning it doubled roughly every 25 years.

>>>

As each of these rates correspond with the scientific paradigms that defined the periods during which they took place, it's no leap to suggest that the world economy could easily double every 2.5 years or so with the introduction and application of an entirely new scientific paradigm that takes into account and properly values the untangible, which from all evidence is the underlying basis of growth/value/power in the universe as we know it.

>>>

So what is this untangible paradigm?

Ha, that's what I won't give away.

Not for free.

Not before lunch anyway.

I will tell you that in science it's known as dark matter and dark energy.

And is estimated to comprise at least 96% of the universe.

Vastly overpowering and constantly overriding all tangible and intangible forces such as gravity and electricity.

Every iota of matter and energy in the universe--down to the gravity that hold your feet to the ground and the friction that allows your heart to pump (and all the rest)--are immaterial in terms of who's controlling the show.

If matter and energy ruled the universe it would be shrinking.

And we know that it's not only growing but accelerating.

Meaning that this mysterious energy is in charge in a massive and comprehensive way.

Meaning that introducing it into our culture, economy and social structures is likely to yield proportionately valuable results.

>>>

We "know" nothing about it.

Maybe because there's nothing to know.

Maybe because we are it but refuse to BELIEVE.

Or even suspend our comfortable disbelief.

Would this mean that, scientifically, we are able to overcome forces such as gravity and seeming certainties such as friction and decay?

It would appear so.

If you look at the situation from an entirely rational point of view, that is.

>>>

Rationally it would appear that whatever we are is much, much, much more powerful than gravity, decay, inertia, illness, and just about all the other material and energetic limitations we have chosen to artificially accept as our reality.

>>>

But we haven't even allowed content prices to float yet.

So we shouldn't have to worry about any of that weird shit for at least another two and a half years.

Bitch.

What the fuck are you going to do to make money?

2008-01-10T12:23:00.000-06:00

The universe has had one question for me for the last 28 (or so) years:

What the fuck are you going to do to make money?

2008, Bay-bee

2008-01-06T17:42:00.000-06:00

I don't do resolutions. Too Judeo-Christina guilt. What's wrong with us? Nothing.

With the only thing even holding us back from permanent bliss is the idea that there's something wrong with us.

Fear, baby, feear.

Conditional love.

I'm more of the unconditional school. And when I say unconditional, I mean unconditional unconditional. Not your run of the mill, think good thoughts and maybe have a good weekend New Age hooey.

So, with that in mind, here's what I want this year.

And please realize that I want all of this to come into my life calmly and gently. ANd I want it to come to me--no shopping, searching, working, hoping or praying.

In return, I'm more than willing to do what I want the entire year. Moment by moment, day by day.

I want a house. And not just a place to drop my shit--I want a palace. Since we're starting at the top, let's put it somewhere where real estate is prime. ANd I want lots of windows, radiant heating on the floors, stainless steel appliances, granite, marble, ceramic tile--the whole nine. New roof, double paned windows, walk in closets, etc.

Ideally it will be downtown and I'll clear the rest of the block and make an estate of it. Some underground parking and a theater, but the house doesn't have to be too crazy ten to twenty mil should do it. The land is what's gonna be the kicker.

In my garage I want a Lexus LS430h. In either gold or red. With leather seats, the upgraded rims, the ML sound system, etc. And a matching Lexus hybrid SUV. If they make them.

I want new furniture. I say new, but really I want furniture. As I've been living at my moms for the last 5 years, I don't have squat. A couple items, most of which can be sacrificed for the cause. I want a red leather living room set and nice, large Persian rugs, handmade. probably in tribal style.

I want two new motorcycles. I'm happy with my CBR600, but want a new one in better condition. I realize I've spent my whole life conserving, economizing and skrimping. SO much so that it's likely fucking upu my art.

I want a Harley Heritage Springer--maybe with ape hangers, definitely chromed out and in red/wine, with one of the old school tractor or police seats--and I want a Honda CBR1000RR. Red, natch.

I want someone to option my book for a movie. Could be the gy who has it right now, could be someone else. Doesn't matter to me. I've long since stopped trying to make horses drink. Most of these motherfuckers can't even admit they're dying of thirst.

I want to sell enough books to bring in $50K a month, after taxes. And I'll need a line of credit around $5-10 mil to get the whole operation up and running.

Actually, I'll likely need more than that. Let's just say $50 mil.

Which means I'll need to be making a whole lot more than $50K a month. So let's say a mil a month, after taxes.

I want high end clothing labels and consumer goods producers to approach me about making custom products for White Gold. Without their branding.

The initial White G line: Borrelli jeans and cashmere sweaters, Nike sneaks, Red Wing boots (if, that is, they can still make them like they used to in the 60s, right now they're looking a bit harried and grunge--even at $250 a pair). As mine would likely cost a couple thou a pair, they should have the time and money to put their best people on the case.

That's what White G's all about, by the way. If you've come in late--high end mass production shiznit. Starting with the core--books, music, ideas, images, televison, film..

And surrounding that with the cell phones, cars, shoes, tunics, socks and undies we all need to do out thang.

Top of the line, mass produced and even outsourced (to the best manufacturers in the world) classic American culture, design and stuff.

Then White G designed cars, stereos, and just about anything else. We'll handle the ideas-the un and intangibles--they'll handle the tangibles. We'll pay them more than they get for their top of the line stuff.

North Face should make the down. I haven't settled on anyone for the leather goods yet--but check back.

I want a beautiful, light, open, airy warehouse space for the offices. All the manufacturing and distribution will be handled by third parties but we'll need a home base for the nut crunchers and accountants. In house counsel, point people, aspiring VPs and contract killers. I've actually got my eye on one nearby, but there could be a better option out there.

I want a couple-ten thousand of studio gear. Make that $50 grand. Plus another $50 for the build out. Aw, hell, while we're doing it, let's do it right. A mil for the studio, plus another mil for the property.

It should be in a big building with an upstairs for a painting studio. We'll put the video production stuff over at the office with the suits and nut crackers. Might as well have a post-production lab as well. If we're going to be doing movies. We'll also need a floor for the web guys. They'll might need a small skate ramp or something. Nah, scratch that, that's too 90s dot com--they can skate on their own time.

Of course we'll need room for sewers and design people. Storage for one-offs and samples, etc. Within a few years we'll likely need several buildings next door for furniture, product design and the production companies--film and TV. (Question, will those even be different things in the future?)

What we'll have on site will be small compared to what we do. It's likely best to have most of the workd farmed out--but some producers may like to have computers and tools around, of course, and bring their people in. Whatever works. It's not like they're making cars.

Well, they will be, but maybe not on site.

Actually, maybe they will be making them on site. Mock-ups and models anyway. Who knows--but one warehouse should do it for this year.

This and our business model, along with the most powerful and fastest growing brand in the world should be enough to pull the best designers, hustlers, producers and creative folks. Artists as well. As long as they're over their money/punk/counter-culture hangups. Which I think pretty much everyone under 26 (who didn't grow up with money) is these days.

We'll need a couple hundred thou for goodies as well. Panasonic DVX-100Bs, Mac Pros, MacBook Pros, all sorts of editing and effects software, plasmas, huge monitors, etc. Maybe a music studio for HQ as well--it would be nice to have my own and one for other artists so I can leave my stuff up on the board, etc.

As I mentioned, I want all this to come to me. I want to get more myself and more relaxed while I blow up. More fierce and a better negotiator as well. Working with Hollywood rats and clothing kooks might not look like it would further my enlightenment, but it's got to or everything's for shit.

The whole deal is that someone makes a company where the head is more relaxed, happy, joyful and fun than the feet. Or make that--where the whole thing is alive, present and doing the damn thing.

While dealing with precedent-setting contracts, shipping qualtity, putting the screws to Chinese factories, etc.

We've got to see it as a spiritual pursuit or it's all for naught.

I can't wait to show the Mark Cubans, David Geffens and Jay-Zs of the world how much money they could have made if they hadn't sold out so fucking cheep.

If they spent absolutely no time pandering to the least common denominator.

Let the fucking lowest common denominator come to us. This won't be any RockaWear $60 hoodies with Donal Duck all over 'em.

I'm'n'a show these motherfuckers how to be grown.

And have 50 rethinking his branding approach.

Peece in 08.

My dinner's ready.

Best of Chicago/2007 Cont.

2007-12-29T20:04:00.001-06:00

Number 92 at Tank Restaurant--corner of Broadway and Argyle. --if you like that Thai soup with the coconut milk, this will pretty much blow your doors off. Tom Ka Gai is basically nectar of the gods and this Vietnamese version with tarot root, basil and all the fixins makes it seem flat and palid. What? Sublime.

Jibaritas at the Boriquen Cafe on 1700 block of California. --when you invent a sandwich that then becomes popular around the world you're probably doing something right. Originally made here for the owner's Puerto Rican father while he was visiting, you can now buy one in most major cities! Get the Jibarita instead of the Jibarito--the difference is maduros (sweet plaintain) instead of regular plantain and it makes a big diff. The sandwich, btw, is a steak sandwich, smothered with garlic sauce and mayo on fried plaintains instead of bread. Put a little of their homemade hot sauce on it and just go ahead and order two with yellow rice. Be warned, tho--no first dates, no pizza grease dabbers and no tuxedos--it's so greasy you can almost ice skate. Keep it real!

Other reasons to love the Chi:

We're so bad we got our own dance. Footworkin' and stepping. Not that I do either one, but I love living in a city as big and rich enough with love that folks are doing it for themselves in the early 21st century. Do your mu-fuggin thang.

The same with trains. They're not my preferred means of transport, but there's an unfadeable charm involved when one goes by overhead.

Real estate prices. What other major international city can you buy a house for $250K for? Hell, the last apt I looked at was a block or two from the L, 2.5 miles from Whole Foods, less than a mile from the lake and a 1300 SF 2Br with Den and dining room for--wait for it--$219K. And taking offers. And yes, it was redone in '03. Hardwoods, granite, 20 windows, fireplace--the whole bit.

The people. --Except for the occasional kook who will pound on the hood of your car while cutting you off (true story--from out the driver's side window)--the folks are pretty fucking down home. It takes a lot to rile them. They usually don't honk and are suprisingly friendly, amiable and all around happy. Doing tha damn thing.

2007 Love--Black Nerds and White Gs

2007-12-23T16:34:00.001-06:00

Might as well start in on the best of 2007.

This may also be a "things I love about Chicago" list as well, just cause I've been thinking about doing something like that for a minute.

Musique:

Dude N Em--Watch My Feet --how often can you make 150 BPM hip hop, introduce a new dance style, rep your hometown and get signed? These mo-fos make it look easy. Plus they wear heavy metal spike wristbands.

Enur and Natasja--Calabria 2007 --how often can you be one of the best dancehall DJs in the world, be from Denmark, be overwhelmingly revered in JA, and get on hip-hop stations in the US? Did I mention that the main beat is a single sax note?

Kanye--Kane did it agin. In his own words, he got more pop, more big and more black. It'd be hard to argue with him on that one. Can't Tell Me Nothing is a fave, but Stronger is solid and Good Life grows on ya. Do your thing baby.

Lupe--Superstar is the st-hit. Plus check out youtube for his freestyle of The Cool ("lupe cool freestyle"). Chilling. And don't tell me shit about slam poets--especially if they still sound like Alan Ginsburg. One of the few (two) albums I bought.

Band of Horses--Funeral --It's hard for us white folks to overcome our ennui long enough to really bang shit these days, but I love the Willie Nelson-esque way baCK on the beat lyrics. Depressing but nails the shit out of it.

Cool Kids--Black Mags --What ever happened to just having fun? Ask the cool kids.

MIA--Boyz --I can do without the post-whatever pseudo-communal politics, but she sure knows her way around a futuristic Indonesian banger. Plus, probably the only member of the indie-rock world in good standing that I'd even consider fucking--Marc Jacobs endorsement nonwithstanding (hey, I don't expect perfection).

Timbo--Shock Value --Three or four bangers on that puppy. Just hope they weren't stolen from Arabic pop samples without clearance. Plus he did the beat for..

50 Cent--AYO Technology

Lil Mama--Lip Gloss --What part of kick don't you understand? I take mental sound engineering notes every time I hear it. Nuf said.

Rihanna--Umbrella

The Fratellis--Chelsea Dagger --White! But they're from Ireland so it's likely they escaped the Puritanicanical crush. Is it really so simple that if you're white you're going to sound uphhfy unless you overtly want to fuck? If that's the case--count me in.

I'll give honorable mentions to Duffle Bag Boy by Player's Circle and Whatever You Want by Nicole Scherzinger, just cause they're so 60s stone soul stomp'd and fuckable respectively.

Cultcha:

What I liked most about 07 was the solidification of the whole black nerd, white g thing. The world really is unifying right before our eyes.

It's not just Kanye doing a remix with Fall Out Boy, but how honest he is about it.

>Since they ain’t Black
>When they get money they don’t ball out boy
>They just buy tight jeans till they nuts hang all out boy
>They figure they dress tight
>So we gon dress tighter
>He dress white, so we gon dress whiter

Some day us white folks will work our way up to the same level of immediacy and honesty.

Or maybe not.

It has not escaped me that a lot of this is germinating in the Chi. Kanye, Lupe, now Dude N Em (who can't really be called nerdy, xcept that they are self-consciously fun enough to get white luve) and the Cool Kids (who, but for their beats and vocal registers would be indie). (Juice, too, but he didn't put anything out this year--and he's too busy trying to be record label hard to express his true nerdness/intellect--even though all the real money's in being either a black nerd or a white g.)

And, of course, the original self-proclaimed wigger: Billy Wimsatt, who extolled the virtues of being a young white guy running around the ghetto, and encouraged suburban kids to move to the hood. (They are, but possibly not like Billy imagined.)

He was from the S. Side in Hyde Park, where the U of Chicago is. Where--very interestingly--Milton Friedman championed free markets and got called lots of names long before 100s of millions of Chinese had been lifted out of poverty by market reforms..

Is it all related?

I think absolutely.

Or rather, I think that there's nothing that's not true.

What it is, it is.

Geography being the same as anything else. What something looks like being as true as what it smells like, how it feels, or what it stands for.

East and West are the external, global representations of the two hemispheres of our minds.

And the middle easy--whoops, I mean the middle east--is where neurons and ideas come together to nurture and grow (Iraq was where some consider the biblical garden of Eden to be). Which makes it either heaven or hell, depending on how well tuned your shit is.

And it can just as easily be easy as hard. Depending on how knuckleheaded you/I/we R.

The web is our global mind. And it matters little what politicians tell the youth--if they have access to youtube, they'll want the future no matter what.

Wherever sex, the economy, personal growth is repressed, problems develop that overwhelm the controls put upon the desires. (Gotta name check the Catholic Church and Islam here, though most all of us do the damn thang.)

And, with a little REAL motherfucking faith..

(ie: that god/the universe loves you enough to make your strongest desires as motherfucking holy as your weakest ones.)

And a few minor economic tweaks..

(ie: letting prices on content float).

We should be able to deliver that shit we've all been dreaming on so long we don't even believe ourselves anymore.

Barack and his "purple" politics are a manifestation of the same thing: a hybrid.

The only thing that ain't up to snuff is business. Because it won't allow prices to float on it's most loving, most eastern and most loving creations: culture.

Us white folks are holding on tight. Hoping against hope that we'll all become nice enough, non-profit enough, or whatever that we won't have to give up on regulation--repression--and instead can think our way to a future that somehow FEELS more loving.

Instead of feeling our way to it, duh.

Which is impossible, of course.

No matter. There's not a dam built that's stronger than little old water.

And no matter how strong your cherry orchard, the aristocracy's days are numbered.
So get your licks in now as a middle management pimp. There will soon be scores of much richer, much more powerful artists who can use you to watch their books.

Hell, I could use you.

White G out.

E

Why Wait?

2007-12-08T11:42:00.001-06:00

I'm starting to see business not as competition but as the expression of mutual desires.

Sounds like new age hooey but it's actually true.

A sale isn't where confrontation or competition occurs, but where mutual desire can be established beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Everyone is on the same side--we all have things we have and things we want.

When two people communicate and establish a mutual desire--and establish enough trust to complete an exchange--a sale happens.

As Puritans, we've repressed our desires so that we believe business unholy--because, like a kiss, it leads to the expression of greater desires unless leashed and bound.

But the overwhelmingly loving and feeling-rich universe will not be thwarted. And putting a lid on our sexuality, creativity, finances--or anything else just makes them that much more valuable. And thus that much more likely to occur.

Like the Catholic church. Squash sex in your priests and you ensure that you will be dealing primarily with sex for years and years to come. Unhappily, of course, but that's all part of the process.

If we won't give ourselves what we want then we must atone for our belief that the universe is a repressed, unfriendly, dry and cold place. Because it's not and as long as we believe that we'll continue to make choices that don't bring us what we want.

And there's nothing else to learn but what we want. We can learn that by always getting it or by never getting it--it doesn't matter to the universe. But as soon as we start to sell out we start to ensure that we'll have a price to pay to buy back in.

Ain't nobody our mommy or daddy--not even our mommy or daddy once we're grown. We want to be autonomous and free and powerful. And many jobs, bosses, clients, mates, and kids (not to mention our real mommies and daddies) might not take that lying down.

So at some point we'll have to contradict them in deed, word or belief.

Both comfort and strife build the same thing--belief. If you can't feel it happy and comfey (goo goo ga ga), then you'll learn to feel it depressed and hurting. And then, like Adam and Eve, maybe you can realize what you had in the first place. And learn to take it and motherfucking bounce it before any painful clarification is necessary.

The universe is overwhelmingly energetically rich, plentiful, and loving. In terms of feelings especially. And if we don't feel that then we must ask ourselves what we have done our of lack of faith that has caused us to veer from the true path?

It's no coincidence that economic growth, personal freedom, human rights and sexual expression all follow the same general growth rate historically.

And that the most sexually frustrated countries are also among the most economically frustrated. Frustration is frustration.

(It also gives a fantastic glimpse of how much growth potential still remains for those of us in the "developed" West--cause ain't none of us getting actually fucked like we want. We just got the actual tvs, computer and porn--the simulations of fucking--we want.)

What we learn through every transaction--economic, emotional, sexual, friendly and energetic--is how to grow. What we want, that others want the same thing--and where we share values and where our tactics diverge.

And through every repression--well, repression doesn't actually exist, just like production doens't really exist. It's just another form of enjoyment, like production is another form of consumption.

That's why white people so kinky, yo.

They love repression. They get off on it.

They enjoy and relish it.

And god bless them, it's what they've given their lives to explore.

And it's a very, very valuable enjoyment.

Perhaps one of the most. It has allowed them--us--to eat like kings, drive cars, heat our homes and enjoy the cleanest water and some of the best health care in history.

It's not all there is--not in it's current form anyway--but it is very valuable. From a spiritual perspective as well.

What repression is fundamentally is keeping one's energy to one's self. The same thing monks and yogis do.

And this allows one to be of great service to one's self and others.

But one doesn't have to be chaste to keep one's energy to one's self. Not at all.

In fact, we can't go much further even trying. I'm not sure the Taoists knew this, but they sure developed the practice of cultivating intimacy while keeping to one's self. (Interesting that keeping to one's self sounds like a problem in the blown-wad West.)

The universe is an endlessly energetic place. This is a scientific fact. A constantly expanding place that is entirely made of energy.

(Energy itself doesn't seem to grow, but dark energy, which is more fundamental and likely makes up regular energy, does appear to--it remains constantly dispersed while the universe grows--thus it not only grows but it's growth is accelerating.)

The long and the short of this scientific fact is that eventually we'll have all the time, energy, stuff and resources we want.

And all the love, sex, feelings, focus, intellect, etc.

And--and this is a big and--this time may have already come!

That is, we may already have everything we need. Just like the new agers insist. (Even though they never really believe it. When pressed even many of the smartest among them will say that not everyone can do what they like every day and get paid for it. Fuck, some of them even think that new age preaching is more important and valuable than the art they crave. This, of course, is because content prices are fixed--so our economy can't support art at the level that accounting, lawyering and all the other stuff we're tired of is supported. Real estate prices grow at lawyer rates and all of a sudden half the art is angry and the other half is tired. The remaining, third half is hurried. The other forty seven halfs never even get executed. Because those who would execute them don't believe they could afford dental care or their kids on an artist's salary. And they're exactly right. Ain't none of us stupid--we all do the fucking math--and we all do it correctly. So we all know that in our current economy you cannot do what you want and succeed financially. Because literally desire does not pay.)

Anyway--this time may be past. And if it's not past, it's rapidly passing.

Just like technology--an expanding universe means that there's more to grow.

If it's 1000 whatevers today and growing at 1% per day, then tomorrow it's 1010 and growing at 1.1%!

And just like compound interest, this is going to bring us all very, very enjoyable retirements.

More so if we know this and invest energetically in what we believe in--that is our desires (also known as following your bliss)--but eventually universally, as a birthright.

The question to us all is do we want it now or do we want to wait?

Dude

2007-11-26T11:05:00.001-06:00

There was a guy from Bear Stearns, or one of the biggies on TV the other day bemoaning that the US was now borrowing from developing countries and at their mercy over conditions they might set to let us borrow--just as we used to set the terms when we lent money out.

Dude!

What I find amazing is that no one questions that economic development has reached a dead end. Why on earth should oil countries be growing faster than fully diversified economies (with enormous oil reserves)? That's like a kid with an MBA, who also works out, growing more slowly than the star linebacker.

Sure--maybe for five or ten years--while the linebacker goes pro, blows his brains out with coke and does steroids..

But after 20, 30, 40 years?

And off into the forseeable future?

No, no , no, no.

After 20 years the linebacker is arthritic with an enlarged heart and fat deposits. His ex has half the money and his income has tanked. He's selling tires at best. Maybe has a car dealership. Hundred of thousands a year--maybe.

The MBA, on the other hand, is just getting into the real money. Making a couple mil. a month if he's really leveraged his shit right--taken as significant mental and emotional chances as the linebacker took physical ones.

Developed economies have better networking, better infrastructure--everything.

So why on earth don't they grow faster?

Don't scientists who start off with the most current knowledge have the most to gain from new developments? Why don't inventors--who are right (not the quacks)--make more than those who are just churning stuff out? Going through the motions?

Isn't what the 20th century proved is that brains are more valuable than muscles?

So why is the developed world falling behind? (And it's not just in $$--we also aren't any happier than Masai tribesmen in Kenya according to recent studies.)

So what the fuck are we working so hard for?

--If we're falling behind economically and haven't gained anything spiritually!!?

Dude.

From a Germs, Guns and Steel perspective, what the world is learning--is competing on--is not technology, or money, or brawn, or natural resources--but on life.

On everything.

So why shouldn't a newer culture reflect that better like a new car has better gas mileage, fewer emissions and lasts longer?

Why shouldn't a developed nation be better in every respect?

And--even more importantly--why shouldn't backward polities like China and Saudi Arabia want to enter the modern world? And why should they get a pass with manufacturing and oil money while their cultures remain woefully anti-human?

(Saudi Arabia, in case you're having a sensitive moment, still sentences rape victims to beatings--as in a recent case where a gang rape victim was sentenced to 200 lashes for being in a car with a non-male relative.)

Why should cultures like this get any part of modernity's money?

More to the point--why shouldn't a culture with democracy built-in do better--by every measure--than a state run dictatorship that kills people, restricts their movements, encourages them to inform on each other and in general is small-minded, petty, crass, fearful and crazy?

It's not like they're just trying new stuff out. The rest of the world has been there and fought person by person to extricate themselves from that position. Often at great personal risk.

The answer is that we've allowed humanities most highly valued offerings to slip through the economy.

That is, we don't economically value what we spiritually value.

And that is art.

Without the world valuing art as highly as it does even socks (hit song .99, cheapo socks $2.99) the Chinas of the world must win.

Control and authority must win--because it makes for more efficient material production and more stable natural resource extraction. Not higher quality, but more efficient and stable. Meaning that if they take our continuing mechanical advancements and implement them, they'll beat us who develop primarily advancements and have the additional costs of freedom, elections, environmental protections, etc.

Cultural advancements are sold at $14.99 per book and .99 a song no matter how valuable they are to others and the material goods that cultural advancements end up improving are valued at market rates.

If the economy has gone from agricultural to industrial, and physics from Newtonian to quantum--then the next age is creative.

Cultural if you will.

Developed nations already produce the most important, most highly valued and most influential modern culture in the world--it's just that they're sold off at break-even prices.

I'm surprised that China and India don't accuse us of dumping!

What with all the cheap, crappy movies, songs and slopped together tween lifestyles we fart around the world.

Why not make some real shit, yo?!

We've got the Hyundais and Chery's--why not make a Lexus? Or a Lambo?

Then no one will be talking about the poor developed nations at the mercy of fucking China of all places.

They don't even let people move there. (Move there as in a Chinese person moving to another city--no one wants to go live there--because they're fucked socially and politically. Why do you think people are hiding themselves in storage containers to get out?)

A Think

2007-11-24T11:54:00.000-06:00

I woke up thinking was about god.

And advanced physics.

Throughout history, our notions of god have been almost locked to our popular notions of physics.

In the Newtonian Era, we believed that we would suffer great and unending consequences for any transgression--much like the cause and effect determinism that our scientists were working on.

In the Quantum Era, things got a little more relaxed and a little more probabilistic. (If that's a word).

If you were generally good, you'd probably go to heaven.

But even more than notions of god and heaven, what we thought of the universe seemed tied directly to our popular physics.

In the old days, the universe was hard and limited but predictable. If we could just figure out all the causes, then the effects would surely follow.

God was just and things seemed to make sense, even if life was brutal.

In the quantum days, all hell broke loose. Literally.

Everything became relative and that just dumped us into a morass of post-modernism and wishy-washyness. Where everything (content included) seemed to be just as important as everything else.

Meaning went away with certainty.

What's interesting is that what we think of god as being seems so directly tied to the growth of the universe.

A just but strict god presided over the relatively simple expansion of the universe during the Newtonian Age.

There was expansion, but it was hard--very dependent upon meeting strict criteria and working one's ass off.

And this could be said for any type of expansion--physical, economic, personal or social.

And these conditions were the exact same as those required for salvation--narrow as the razor's edge.

During the Quantum Age, we thought the universe was shrinking.

And similarly--most of the things that we valued most--that is family time, love, meaning, community, a sense of self and place, a stable identity, happiness..

Most of these things shrank.

Right along with what we thought the size of the universe was doing.

Our wallets grew, as did our houses, our education, the number of people we were feeding, etc., etc...

Everything we could see grew--from our cars to our wardrobes..

But we felt great shrinking feelings.

None of our incredible expansions did anything to allay the growing fears that we were screwed--both personally and immediately and generally and long-term.

As the universe shrank and god went away.

Even as we were becoming more powerful, more loving, including more people in decisions, etc., etc..

What we believe in is global warming, strife and horror movies--failure.

And we believe that greater alarm and worry is the solution to these situations.

Yikes.
_________

The most fascinating part of this is that since the 1920s, scientists have known that the universe is expanding.

And since the 1990s, they have known that it's ONLY expanding and accelerating.

This fact hasn't sunk into the popular consciousness yet, but it's as solid as any we've got.

Right up there with 2+2=4.

So, what must this new paradigm mean to our conception of god?

--To what we think of the universe and how we experience what's going on around and inside of us?

It must mean that it's about to lovingly explode and accelerate.

That god, meaning, true value--whatever you call "good" by your own measure of things--is turned around and ready to roll.

Or--more likely--that it's been rolling for all eternity and we're finally catching up in understanding.

But global warming, you say..

War, the deficit, rising oceans, growing economic divides, civic unrest, school shootings, rates of depression in developed countries..

All a product of late Quantum Era confusions.

And all symptoms of things sorting themselves out like a scab that itches.

Pick it or leave it--it's still going to heal.

What if all our problems are symptoms of believing that we are faced with an either-or world (either particles or waves, either momentum or position, either money or love, either family or community, either self or other) and that we must choose?

And of the belief that every choice has negative repercussions--that each choice necessitates limitations and the loss of something that we felt we wanted?

(By the way--the dire predictions of the Quantum Age have become so dark that most no longer believe that either choice will lead to salvation--that is enjoyment--just a slightly more survivable future.)

And what if the reality is that we really can have it all?

What if the reality is that we do already have it all?

And the only thing preventing that from existing in our lives..

No--not even that..

What if there is nothing preventing that in existing in our lives?

What if it does exist in our lives and is only becoming more present?

What if it only exists in our lives and is this truth is manifesting more and more every single moment?

The universe doesn't grow because it's been through hard times, it just grows.

It doens't grow because it studies, works hard, and puts its mind to it.

It just grows.

If the true nature of the universe is growth, then god is literally coming for us.

The world is coming to us.

And we don't need to meet a single requirement to enjoy it.

Not a single one.

I know you likely think that this type of thinking is the devil itself.

But it's a historical fact.

What if it was our unhappiness itself that was messing with our happiness?

What if it was our belief in shrinkage itself that was preventing our growth.

As far as I can see, it's all shrinkage and growth.

Bad and good, poor and rich, unhappy and happy, loss and love, fear and bliss--

Shrinkage and growth all.

Only that shrinkage doesn't really exist.

At all.

And that we are only accelerating.

Only growing.

The universe is only expanding--and it's accelerating constantly--only growing more every moment.

Meaning that our own little universes are likely only doing the same thing.

We may not be able to remain aware of that certainty as constantly as it is occurring, but that doesn't mean we ever stop.

The universe doesn't stop accelerating just because scientists aren't measuring it.

Or just because they undertake to test a conflicting theory.

So who's to say that the same isn't true with us?

That as above isn't as below?

That as we feel loss, separation, pain--shrinkage--we're not still in reality accelerating?

Seems pretty accurate to me.

And it appears that the dawn of the Warm Age--or the Dark Age if you want to name it after the scientific discovery that spurred it (dark energy)--will prove this once and for all.

We've endured the teenage years of doubt, separation, frustration and rage (and the naivite of childhood).

And now we get to be adults for the duration.

Fuck Em

2007-11-14T11:16:00.001-06:00

One nice thing that floating content prices will allow--ignoring thieves.

Right now, as the 18-34 demographic is the only one that pays in music, film, tv and other mass content, artists, labels and studios have to kiss the ass of those who do the most piracy.

They think they can't raise prices so they try to cajole those who would just as soon steal their shit as even lift a finger to pay 88¢ for it.

They have to continually court those who do them the most damage and cost them the most to deal with.

Seriously unhealthy--culturally, economically, socially, emotionally and artistically. In any natural system, a producer's revulsion with the values of a given audience of consumers would lead to a greater distance and perhaps more maturity on the part of the producer.

Not so with music, where artists who get more into getting stolen from are rewarded.

"Oh, we'll just tour more. Sell T-shirts more."

An attitude of "the customer is always right" in art makes that artist a pussy, and worthless, but that's the line that artists must more and more toe to succeed under a fixed price system.

For whatever reason, we want our artists at our knees, begging for us to pay attention to them. (And, of course, adapting an arrogant enough attitude that we think they aren't begging us.)

Radiohead, for instance (who I don't think have been artistically relevant since OK Computer). People are stealing too much so we'll drop the label (where we had complete creative control), work more ourselves and give our produce away.

It's like a dysfunctional relationship that both sides have embraced.

And--just like a co-dependent, abusive love relationship--disgusting to watch from the outside.

You're supposed to ignore those who manipulate you (or give 'em a little verbal beat down and then step), not kiss their ass.