one of the things i loved about the lenny kravitz memoir
is he talks about talking with miles davis
lenny’s godmother was cicely tyson
and she was married to miles at the time
so miles was sorta his godfather
which, damn
if i ever interviewed lenny thats the first thing id wanna get into
tell me everything miles told you about being cool
because it worked dude
Brew and Fish of Fishbone were supposed to be on a plane coming to LA
from DC
but it was canceled.
The ticket lady said we can fly you out in the morning
or you can roll the dice and try to fly tonight.
Just one of many fascinating tales this great musician told me.
in every one of her videos she seems so sad
and a lone
and desperately wanting love
i had to turn it off after a few minutes because she is just so so down
just a few years ago she was taking the world by storm
almost in a hyperactive way
and now that shes struck it big, is a multi millionaire
being flown to paris
free clothes for days
she mopes around like someone just shot her dog
and left behind a very confusing note that shes constantly contemplating.
i want to say: it’s so simple. find some friends. even if they’re famous.
and kiss them.
fucking a.
whats the point of being young rich and wonderful if you dont let someone in
while yr at it, let em all in.
then you’ll have something to film.
pretty sure i did pretty well in the interview
did i talk too much: yes.
was i excited to talk with someone who knew a few things? yes.
did i then use that confidence to call this podcast guest who has been hard to nail down?
yes.
did he say yes when i said, i can be over there by 5?
no.
he said, can you be here at 530?
it was a 90 minute interview
he made fun of my laughing, my socks, and how long of an interview it ended up being
but he appreciated the gift i gave him
im nardwuar over here n shit
and in trying to use the internet for clues
they looked at one suspect’s blog
and how he blogged like 3-4 times a week right until bitcoin got released
then his production went down to a trickle: 9-10 posts a year.
but heres the thing about blogging: it’s not easy.
and people quit all the time for lots of reasons
maybe he got a girlfriend
maybe he found a different hobby.
maybe he left when his audience shifted to facebook
maybe he was giving away too many clues as to what his real life was
or maybe he just ran out of ideas.
i remember in college, when robyn bell, my professor who pulled me out of letters and science
she said you need to go to the college of creative studies
i said ok but i have a question for you
i was 22.
i asked, since you teach at this college of creativity
can you tell me if creativity dries up?
she said no
i said then why do bands only have one or two good records?
she said
you should think about actual artists like painters
painters can paint well until the day they die
i said ok but what about rockers?
she said bob dylan has never made a bad record
and i said i cant wait to learn more.
to me whoever invented bitcoin was creative
and probably kept blogging
but not in the place these detectives were lookin
21 years ago i was part of a very small team that hired over 400 people.
i did my best as that Recruiter to try to see into the hearts of prospective employees
to see if they would like the job, work well with the crew, and be good to the customer.
you really only had a few minutes to make this determination
the few minutes you scanned the resume, the 20 minutes on the phone call
and the 60 minutes in the interview.
some people judged people with how they followed up if the process was taking long
but i didn’t.
the process should not take long. that was on me.
still, some prospective employees dressed provocatively in the interview
which, interesting as it was, a negative checkmark
some people were almost overly prepared, spitting back info about the company that clearly PR put on some dusty corner of the website
and even though it should have been a negative checkmark, at least they were trying
this blog is twenty years of a writer writing in
his
dusty little corner of the web.
i am an open person. i wish more were.
i appreciate when i stumble across something that seems so personal and real.
and i am sad there are fewer of those out there because
i think people are wonderful and we dont have that long to be examples of that.
this blog was weirdly launched a month before 9/11. it saw the first Black president and every episode of Lost.
it documents me going from disgruntled bus rider in a job that didn’t love me to watching the Cubs win the World Series
one game in person.
sometimes i worry that portions will be taken out of context and give someone a reason to give me more than a few negative checkmarks but
what i learned from hiring all those people
was sometimes i made the wrong choice.
of course its bound to happen with that many hires in a short period of time
but nobody wants to make mistakes like that.
this job tomorrow im pretty sure id be great at
and im pretty sure it would allow me to use some of the things i learned
from my last job
and take it to a different level.
and that is exciting.
but i dont know how that crew is,
and that dynamic, i have seen, makes all the difference.
unimately, i just want to be a good element
a positive check mark
among others.
i have a job interview next week for a job i really want
i want it for a few reasons including the fact that it is new technology
sitting on top of different ground breaking tech
mixed with social media and communities
right up my alley, right?
so you’d think.
i dont know if it’ll come up in this interview or if i get a second one with them, in that one
but i just wanna tell them
i just wanna be good.
i was debating with a stranger the other day about office dynamics
and say you have a staff of 300 people, how many are replaceable
and how many, if you lost them, you’d really notice them not being there
it was a terrible debate because these are peoples lives and careers we are talking about and shits bad enough
but when i was thinking about that particular place i had a hard time thinking about 10 percent that were truly irreplaceable.
for example, you cannot replace michael jordan, walter payton, or even sammy sosa – love them or hate them.
yeah you can start another running back, but there was only one Sweetness.
who doesnt want to be one of those 10%?
but do they work out like those guys did? do they study? do they take risks? are they courageous? are they always always always figuring out ways to improve and dominate their position?
and not in a nasty way, HIS NICKNAME WAS LITERALLY SWEETNESS
i want to be one of those 10%
i want to be one of the people someone says are you kidding, tony, i love seeing him here. fuck.
but how do you say that on a zoom call when the strangers are far from the camera in a meeting room?
you whisper
there was a time i woulda blown my top about such a thing
but im so much older now.
water under the bridge man
then a delivery didnt happen.
also frustrating. because wtf.
but when you think about the grand scheme of things
the ballet that we are forever dancing with each other
a slam dance at times,
you realize we should celebrate all the times we actually do connect
we should marvel when souls really do meet
because we do
the mom of a dear friend died
we talked about it today
and it put things in perspective.
most dudes have a hard time talking about things like this
especially some of the xbi dudes i hang out with
our i-aint-got-no-feelings-man facade is what gets us through the day
but sometimes we forget to trust each other
and just let the guard down a little
bc we bros, dude
i told him over and over, i am here for you
whatever you need, lemme know
but i dont even know if he would ask for anything even if i could ask.
a good friend who is a woman, however
straight up texted me and said
can you babysit tomorrow.
LOL
so that’ll be the first time ive done that
in maybe 40 years?
have i told you i have the greatest life
have i told you im the most grateful man in the world
because where i grew up i dreamed of this life and i never thought it was actually possible for a wretch like me
which rhymes with do you see that the price of that ticket is free
which rhymes with row bb means you on the floor, bb
have i ever told you that they put nachos and nd chili and cheese and sour cream in extra large popcorn tubs now
have i ever told you that shannon texted me this morning and asked if i wanted to go to the rock show and i said yes of course and she brought her daughter and i learned that rivers is her godfather
rivers the man with that crazy billy ray cyrus haircut and funny ass guitar
shannon and justin know how much i love weezer, as in so much, as in i knew every word tonight and every song and am hoarse right now from singing
and even though fall out boy and green day were on next i left after weezer because do you really need to have dessert after youve eaten two tubs of nachos, a beer, a coke, and a water?
have i ever told you that i used to see those palm trees when i was a teen, those very ones beyond the bullpen at dodger stadium and they looked so foreign and beautiful
and i said i want to go there.
i want to live there.
the same way you say that when you see pictures of hawaii for the first time
or when the prettiest girl in school sits down with you and you wanna be her friend
have i told you i never want this to end
i was so happy i walked home
through the packed parking lot
through echo park and lil joy
and then learned my favorite magazine had written to ask me if i wanted to interview
with them
on tuesday.
its from the Shot of Love sessions called “aint gonna go to hell for anyone”
where he says he’s good at manipulation and all these things
but what good is it if you go to hell?
over the last few days here, people from the future,
so many bad things happened in war and politics.
people who routinely call themselves Christians
did terrible things to their neighbors.
if you live in texas and you find out your neighbor is getting an abortion you can sue them for $10,000 and i think even have them arrested
and if someone like me drives them to the nearest abortion joint in Louisiana, I can get sued for $10k too.
WTF is that?
and the majority of the Supreme Court said works for us.
Christians said that.
i need to have a game show except it wont be a LOL ha ha game show like some ryan seacrest thing
it’ll be dark.
i will be the host.
SO YOU THINK YR A CHRISTIAN?
and i;ll ask about your favorite new testament verses
and then people will pop up and say oh hi marco rubio but what about this?
and he will have to explain why he totally fucked over the poor but let the rich get off the hook
right after the last commercial break there will be a
Redemption round.
all your sins can be forgiven and all your negative points can be erased
if you promise something
and it better be sincere.
because who cares about this dumb game show, lil marco
you should care about the man upstairs