Goodbye To 2017-Hello 2018-Happy New Year-Podcast 690

As the year closes time for a look back at 2017. Some of the experiences, helpers, clients and some big thank you’s. Any look back also includes a look ahead. In Goodbye To 2017-Hello 2018-Happy New Year-Podcast 690.

Fast Changing World

The theme of 2017 for almost everyone seems to be fear and anxiety in a fast changing world. Boy is it changing fast. Biggest change in 2017? Our politics. Still, there was a lot of great travel and fun this year.

These days things change so fast. One story that is still with us? The so called Russian Hack and the Russian Collusion story. The media is still trying to predict the future, getting stories wrong or advocating for a point of view. It’s a theme of the podcasts this year and we’ll talk about it in Goodbye To 2017-Hello 2018-Happy New Year-Podcast 690.

The Truth Is On The Back Roads

With all the talk about political civil war and surreal protests this year, travel on the backroads of this country convinces me the real America is significantly different from the America we hear about in the media in general. There were some great trips this year. Sturgis, the Air Show, a crumbling home town and more. Too bad Burning Man didn’t happen for the Bob Davis Podcasts in 2017. Maybe next year. In Goodbye To 2017-Hello 2018-Happy New Year-Podcast 690.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Principles

Political fighting was all the rage this year. Especially relevant is the fact that most of the partisan bickering was free of principles. This was a year in which both mainline political parties seemed to have forgotten what they stand for. Good thing I can talk about small business and the role of the podcaster helping people in business.

Opening Up

This was also a year in which I started a podcast specific to Yoga, which has really enhanced my life in these crazy times. I’ve experienced some big personal losses this year. Between yoga and travel podcasts, it became clear to me there is a whole world out there which doesn’t turn on political develops in Washington. Thank God. In Goodbye To 2017-Hello 2018-Happy New Year-Podcast 690.

Thanks To Everyone

Whether its analysis, business, yoga, travel, storm chasing and the eclipse it’s been a big year for me. There have also been a number of great local stories to cover as well. Thanks to the clients, contributors, subscribers and listeners who make podcasting a great medium and help The Bob Davis Podcasts everyday.

Happy New Year!

Sponsored by Brush Studio in The West End Saint Louis Park, and Ciro 3D Motorcycle products and Accessories

Goodbye To 2017-Hello 2018-Happy New Year-Podcast 690

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Why Burning Man Still Sucks 2017-Podcast 616

In Why Burning Man Still Sucks 2017-Podcast 616. March 29th, 2017. Noon Pacific Time. Burning Man 2017 tickets on sale. Already did my ‘burner’ profile. 2 weeks ago waited on line to register for the ticket sale. Third year in a row. All out for tickets to the biggest party in the universe. Out in the Nevada desert. August 27th to September 4th.

Gonna Get My Burning Man Tickets!

Tick tock. One minute to 12 Pacific. Count it down. Here we go. This won’t take long. I won’t have to cancel the big client meeting at three in the central time zone. I’ll get on. Get my tickets. Smooth as silk. A friction free transaction. Forty-Five minutes later I’d canceled the meeting. Oops, tickets sold out. In Why Burning Man Still Sucks 2017-Podcast 616.

Scalpers

Quick Internet search. Stub Hub has tickets at double the price. Frustrated. Angry. Must have done something wrong. Maybe I should register for the STEP program like last year. Yeah. Or maybe call some ‘burners’ in Chicago. If you ingratiate yourself with the ‘burner’ community you might be able to score some tickets from someone who isn’t going to use theirs.

Jeff Bezos Party of 20? Come right in

Remember. Tickets to burning man in the general sale are 400 plus dollars and nearly 100 dollar for a vehicle pass. There’s a final sale coming up. Those tickets are 1200 dollars. What’s under my skin is the way Burning Man is sold. Over Sold and Under Delivered. Clearly there’s a lot of people who want to go and can’t get tickets. Fix it. Find out about my experience trying to buy tickets in Why Burning Man Still Sucks 2017-Podcast 616

We’re Hippies. Really rich hippies

This year Burning Man will gross 43 million dollars from ticket sales alone. They say It’s something you need to experience. A city in the desert. A culture of possibility. A network of dreamers and doers. Oh wait that’s the commercial. Reality is you’ve been waiting for 30 minutes for the kid with dreadlocks who can’t remember whether you ordered a strawberry smoothie or an emerald peanut butter…for the third time.

Not Radically Inclusive

Why Burning Man Still Sucks 2017-Podcast 616. Burning Man still sucks because if you’re wealthy enough to buy a thousand dollar ticket from some ticket reseller, which I am told Burning Man ‘doesn’t endorse’, you’re a ‘burner’. Part of a ‘radically inclusive experience’. Yeah. No. “A citizen of the worldview that is Burning Man. May it be encountered everywhere”. It won’t.

Drive a Maybach Motor Home? Coming out from Santa Rosa for the week to do some acid? Like the old days before, you know, all the corporate stuff. You’re in! Welcome Burners. And all your cash. A unique and distinctive culture awaits people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, but not us working stiffs.

Welcome To The French Revolution

Ten principles for Burning Man: Radical Inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification (which basically means no sponsors), Radical Self Reliance, Radical Self Expression (although any and all media ‘projects’ have to be pre approved), and on and on. It reads like the French Revolution’s ‘Rights of Man’ Declaration. You know the one where the peasants are crushed and everyone ends up living through Thermidor II.

Stupid Rules At The Radical Burning Man Festival

And the rules. Don’t run that noisy generator at night. If your truck is old bring plywood to catch the oil dripping from that nasty crankcase. Watch out for the undercover cops checking up to see that you’re not trafficking. Be careful of your carbon footprint. Oh by the way, Burning Man has a bigger carbon footprint on average than the dirtiest of the dirty polluters. Don’t worry about that though. Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Burning Man is a symbol of the possibilities of Silicon Valley. That’s why I wanted to go. A temporary society built on the ‘No Rules’ Punk and Anarchist pathos. Sadly the Burning Man approach to customers is basically ‘so long suckas’. So yes. Sadly, Burning Man is in fact a symbol of the possibilities of Silicon Valley.

America We Have A Problem

Yep All this tech. We’re On It! Really good at customer service. We give you an experience. We’re here for the environment. We use cloth bags. We Care. The truth is you wait on the phone or on line for service for hours. You can’t get a seat at the Genius Bar and they’re just going to tell you to buy a new iPad. No one cares about your problem because you’re not Jeff Bezos. Steve Jobs is turning over in his grave.

I thought these burning man guys were really smart savvy artists and computer geniuses. Turns out they’re just a bunch of idiots. Despite all the tools available they can’t figure out how to create an event with a seamlessly positive experience for people from the first contact and ticket sale, to the event itself, to heading home happy after its over. And then there’s the police state thing. Customer satisfaction? Oh wait. That would be capitalism. Let’s talk about it in Why Burning Man Still Sucks 2017-Podcast 616.

Yes, I know this is sacrilege but…Sponsored by X Government Cars.

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