WHY ISNT LIFE HOW IT USED TO BE?

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as you may know, i run the worlds best howard stern facebook group.

one of the things that im constantly debtating about is deleting posts that whine that howard isnt the same howard as he was when he was throwing baloney on the asses of strippers or yelling at the FCC or having women sit on a giant vibrating… well… device.

the same could be said about this blog or me or you or anything. shit changes. get over it.

i am so blessed that i was invited to be part of the college of creative studies when i was a lad because creativity has been top of my mind for a long time. and especially the dynamic of how creativity changes as we age.

in music it seems like most artists have a spurt of creativity when they’re young and it dissipates as they get older. listen to Bruce Springsteen’s first three records compared to his last three and a lot of the experimentation is long gone and Bruce is far from the only example of this happening. indeed there seems to be only a few exceptions to this rule

tom waits, bob dylan, and neil young.

in rap it seems like only kanye continues to push his own boundaries in dramatic ways but i could be wrong i dont know a lot of hip hop. but lets bring it back to the busblog.

i know i dont experiment here as i used to. i dont for a million reasons including the fact that i just dont care any more. in the day when blogging was poppin and i would get millions of readers and 40-50 comments on every post i felt like the only way i could compete with alllll the other blogs in the world was to do Anything i could to stay relevant and interesting and vibrant.

now i am one of the last blogs that does this almost every day.

so who cares if i do something interesting or “new”, who’s gonna read it?

and in a way i dont want that many people reading it (murphys law, catch 22) because i dont want to be misunderstood and have that affect my livelihood. its all very complicated.

now back to howard. im sure at 65 years old theres part of him that wouldnt mind throwing a slice of luncheon meat at someone from time to time, but i think he’s gotten that out of his system. and if he does it now people will complain and say he has run out of ideas. you can never win.

but you can.

you win by doing. you win by going to work every day (or in his case 3x a week) and putting out a show and relating to people and connecting to people and doing the damn thing. dancing with the one you brung ya.

last night i was reading about HBO and how now that they are owned by AT&T have all this extra money and they wanna compete with Netflix. and i thought maybe i should try to work with someone to bring Howard a Charlie Rose type interview show thats just a big round table and Howard and a guest. Letterman did a short version of this for Netflix, but America knows Dave as a great interviewer, not everyone knows that Howard is even better.

and i thought, someone has probably tried to get howard to do it but for whatever reason thats not his thing. what is his thing? painting? he loves to paint. so maybe get howard to interview great artists for a month. then the next month SNL alumns. then musicians. it could be a whole thing that compliments his work on radio.

so the question is, do i know a producer who could help me with this?

the answer is. yes i probably do.

sleeping is over rated

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as are the Brewers. imagine you host a fan fest… a convention for all your fans to come to celebrate the team, get autographs, buy crap, get up close and personable.

but then imagine that even though theyre wearing uniforms with numbers on them you also need them to use nametags.

poor poor milwaukee

cubs fans terrorize them. they flock up there for cubs games. it’s only a 90 mile drive. it’s closer than isla vista is to hollywood.

brewers knocked the cubs out of the playoffs this year, then lost to the dodgers, who then lost to the red sox.

but the cubs were hurt and the brewers played perfectly. which wont happen again. which is why they’re more salty about the cubs than vice versa.

ok 6am, time for bed

sonny i la vista who’s that

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thats him.

thats me?

thats you.

thats true.

thats him?

that’s me.

i’ll be.

the isla vista part we get, but why sonny? its usually foggy there.

bc its not about sunny its about sonny

the least talked about springsteen character of all time for some reason

sonny?

sonny.

I got a ’69 Chevy with a 396
Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor
She’s waiting tonight down in the parking lot
Outside the 7-Eleven store
Me and my partner Sonny built her straight out of scratch
And he rides with me from town to town
We only run for the money, got no strings attached
We shut ’em up and then we shut ’em down
Tonight, tonight the strip’s just right
I want to blow ’em off in my first heat
Summer’s here and the time is right
For racin’ in the street

We take all the action we can meet
And we cover all the northeast state
When the strip shuts down we run ’em in the street
From the fire roads to the interstate
Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece,
Some guys come home from work and wash up,
And go racin’ in the street

Tonight, tonight the strip’s just right
I want to blow ’em all out of their seats
Calling out around the world, we’re going racin’ in the street

I met her on the strip three years ago
In a Camaro with this dude from L.A.
I blew that Camaro off my back,
And drove that little girl away,
But now there’s wrinkles around my baby’s eyes
And she cries herself to sleep at night
When I come home the house is dark
She sighs, “baby did you make it all right?”
She sits on the porch of her daddy’s house
But all her pretty dreams are torn,
She stares off alone into the night
With the eyes of one who hates for just being born


For all the shut down strangers and hot rod angels,
Rumbling through this promised land
Tonight my baby and me, we’re gonna ride to the sea
And wash these sins off our hands

Tonight, tonight the highway’s bright
Out of our way, mister, you best keep
‘Cause summer’s here and the time is right
For racin’ in the street

today we went into a true discount store

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they had like five or six racks outside their door with clothes for $2 and $5. so i went in.

amber stayed out front because she was in heaven. the store was named something in spanish.

i do not know spanish.

i see racks of pajama bottoms. my favorite. everythings $3. i get two pairs that look like they should have always been that price, but one of the tags is still on it and says $32. are you kidding?

but then i go the wall. i see shirts. i am up to my nostrils in shirts but i see a tag on the shirts too. all walmart tags that say $9. these people are selling them for $3.

imagine youre a shirt and somehow all the customers of walmart pass on you. impossible you say? this shirt says $4 now.

still not cheap enough for me.

todavía no es lo suficientemente barato para mí.

but i did buy an extra tall curtain, so no crazy ass fools try to peep inside my dreamland.

some dude tried to break into my apartment

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it was 5am. i was trying to get the Oscar noms on my tv. i use Roku on my sets and i figured the Academy via YouTube would bring it to my biggest screen in the living room.

when in the window behind the tv i see this dude with a cigarette peering through. my cats noticed too and perked up. even they havent seen people in my little courtyard at that hour… looking in to us.

he went to the door and you could hear a key or something in the lock. was he trying to pick it? then the door handle rattle.

i perked up. i said,

yo this is not the door you want.

it rattled again. i said.

i WILL BLOW THAT FUCKING DOOR DOWN BEFORE I LET YOU IN

dude logic. i was improvising.

he kept fiddling with it and i got my baseball bat and called 911. heres why. only thing i have of value in my house is amber and a 5 pack of Old Style. if he’s outside the cops can get him. if he gets inside i want the cops to know the description of the one to bring to jail.

it took a suprisingly long time to explain to the operator what was happening. she asked all these detailed questions like weight. who am i, a circus freak on the midway? its dark and hes wearing a black leather jacket. he could have a six pack or a pony keg in there. i just hope he doesnt have a gun.

then it took a suprsingly long time for the cops to come. half the oscar noms were announced. spike lee was probably already picking out which sneakers he was gonna be wearing for oscar sunday.

when they did come they crossed paths with him but because he was carrying a guitar case and mumbling that he was waiting to get an uber they let him pass by.

they got to my door and i said, thats him.

they looked at me as if to say, waiting on an uber is the get out of jail free card.

i asked, is it against the law to try to break into a house? cop said yeah. but no one was arrested.

and now ive gotta see a melissa mccarthy movie where she isnt trying to make me laugh?

my neighbor texted me today saying he owes me a steak because the drunk was his friend i said make it two steaks i nearly killed him.

he said bet.

happy mlk day

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what most non americans probably dont realize is even though mlk day is a national holiday and everyones supposed to have the day off,

for some reason a whole lot of america still has to work on mlk day.

in 1999 there was still four states that refused to acknowledge the holiday. the only reason arizona observed it starting in late 1993 is because they lost the Super Bowl in early 1993 because no one wanted the big game in a state so racist they would rather not have a fucking day off.

both amber and i had the day off this year, which was a treat because i was able to sleep in and we casually got it together and eventually made it out into the world. it was really windy, a little cold, but traffic wasn’t terrible. still way more cars than there should have been.

my belief is most people don’t get the day off unless they have a federal or state gig. and thats sad. what more does a guy have to do for people to really just give it up to him?

ironically, heres what i want to do next year. i want to drive around LA from 9am to 5pm and talk to people and see if they got the day off. i’ll leave their employers out of it because im not trying to shame anyone. i just want to show people how weird it is that we have a day off for a black hero, maybe the black hero, and people have to take a PTO day if they want it off, or they have to lie by calling in sick, or… they just work.

some holiday.

my favorite magazine, black webmaster called me

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they wanted to interview me for their 50 over 50 issue. i was all, wtf.

they said anyone over 50 in IT grew up without the internet, without cell phones, and without very good computers, and still ended up in tech.

that was interesting to them.

i said, I KEEP TELLING YOU IM NOT REALLY IN TECH. but they never listen.

Black Webmaster: What makes a good team?

busblog: a good team usually has a strong but flexible leader, and a variety of people who can do multiple things well. and the best teams communicate well, trust each other and like one another.

BW: How do you get a team to like each other?

busblog: if it’s truly a team they will love each other naturally. being successful helps.

BW: You are known for being brutally honest. Did you ever wish you were White?

busblog: maybe it was different for me since we were the only black family in town, but from an early age i recognized the advantages that i had over my friends. and even though my relatives taught me what to look out for from others, they were from the South, and those things weren’t happening where we lived outside Chicago. what i did envy was long hair.

BW: Long hair?

busblog: i thought it looked cool. maybe the movies and tv shows were convincing me that it was cool, but i bought into it. i do remember wanting long hair when i was a kid. that changed when i was at my first boy/girl party. 6th grade. a bunch of girls cornered me right after we played spin the bottle. one after another they wanted to feel my afro. 6-7 of the prettiest girls in school playing with your hair and noone else’s will do wonders for you. i never wanted a haircut again. and i never wanted to be anything but me.

BW: That sounds good but, that’s hard to believe.

busblog: i had this uncle, he reminded me of Snoop Dogg before there ever was a Snoop Dogg. coolest dude ever, in my eyes. his life ended tragically but when he was alive he would drive me to the store in his car which had an 8-track and a separate EQ that lit up, especially so at night. One thing that always stuck with me. He said, “don’t ever forget, you have soul.”

farewell sweet swanny

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When I was a lad, I wasn’t a Steelers fan, despite my aunt and uncle flooding me with Mean Joe this and Franco Harris that (they lived in Pittsburgh, and were very proud of those teams in the 70s).

But I was amazed at the beauty and grace Lynn Swann exhibited out on the football field. When he was near the ball there was no violence, no mayhem. It was peaceful and slow as he leapt in the air and suddenly very fast and overbeforeyouknew it.

For some reason he has dismissed the legendary USC Song Girls from performing at the school’s basketball games and he won’t say why. 

The only theory that makes some sense, though not much at all, is he was perturbed that during the end of the football season, when 100k fans were chanting to fire the football coach, word got to him that some of the Girls were caught joining in on the fun.

So instead of firing the coach, he’s firing the young women. 

And if you ask me, it’s suicide by cheerleader.

My guess is Lynn Swann realizes that being in charge of USC, right now, in the midst of so much turmoil, hither and non, is far more insane than Dallas’s Doomsday Defense or the Monsters of the Midway. 

That shit was nothing compared to whatever this is now. 

Swann was part of 4 Super Bowl Champions (he never got that one for the thumb). He’s an NFL Hall of Famer. But as Athletic Director in the 21st century, where your best players leave far too soon and the pressure allows you every little time to turn things around, it takes a very different skill set to be great. 

Which is why no matter what the cheerleaders do, you don’t fire them unless you are the one wanting to go gently into that good night.

Lynn Swann is 66 years old, wealthy, respected and knowledgable. He’s also a black Republican. There are many paths he can take once he resigns, which I presume will happen soon. 

If I were him I would volunteer my services with Betsey DeVoss to bring Physical Education back to public schools the way it was when the Steel Curtain was doing damage on frozen tundras. 

That is the legacy he deserves. Not that of cheerleader killer.

here’s a tip for lyft that uber would never mimic

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poor lyft, stuck in a race for the bottom as uber continually makes the ridesharing market unsustainable and unprofitable

im sure lyft doesnt want to be giving away rides just to match uber’s craziness, but do you really want to be known as the 2nd most expensive rideshare company?

for a while lyft could differentiate itself from uber, among drivers, because lyft was the only one that allowed tipping, and even put it in the app.

but now that uber – once their founder was forced out of the company – has tipping, lyft no longer has that big advantage as being known as the company who gives a shit about its drivers.

so heres my idea: introduce Pre-Tipping

Install a pre-ride tip button in the app that cannot be revoked and the driver sees before he accepts the ride. this will

  • encourage drivers to get to the pickup spot faster
  • make the driver happier during the trip
  • inspire a good vibe in the car where now the pax can ask for a lot more. Aux cable? Fine.

drivers’ attitude and alertness can change with as little as $2 because this does not eliminate the post-ride tip.

if the passenger was going to tip anyway, then do it all upfront. make a friend. be a hero. and guess what, the driver is gonna feel like he sorta owes you when you tip upfront. that is the best time to tip! it will inspire better service and deliver a more enjoyable experience.

and if Lyft really wants to market it right, they would call it a Stoke.

Lyft: where you can Stoke your driver even before you meet.