Las Vegas has variety. Enough to make your head spin! (Photo of your MYBA host, Kirk Horsted, as taken by son Jesper Horsted.)

Because my son plays for the Las Vegas Raiders, I finally made it there for a game and some quality time with my boy. Since the game was the season’s last for the team—and they didn’t make the playoffs—I was gifted with family hangout time after the game for a few days. While not my first rodeo in Vegas, I was, naturally, blown away by the place.

You want attractions and entertainment you had no idea existed? Go there. AREA15 (“A Wanderland of Art, Music & Amusement) is where my faces photo happened—and offers just one example of a venue that will both delight and overwhelm.

So…a more thorough (though not tell-all!) travelog with some pics is in order and will post on these pages in coming days. (Working title: What happens in Vegas?) For now, the photo above offers a teaser-metaphor. Because indeed, your head spins when there. Stimuli abounds such that one rarely knows what to look at. A silly grin can happen, sometimes for unidentifiable reasons.

BUT…As travel destinations go, well, it’s an acquired taste. Some people love it—millions have moved there! In fact, the population has grown nearly 7-fold since 1980, now sitting at nearly 3 million!  And who knows how many tourists are there? It felt like another 3 million.

It’s always good to BreakAway and experience new things. And Las Vegas DOES know how to throw a mean party. But after leaving Las Vegas, I also had to agree with Saint Dorothy: There’s no place like home.

Finally, something we all agree on: It’s a new year! So for starters, let loose your inner artist. You’ll feel better and everyone will love it!

Lose weight? Too old and tired. Work out more? Been there, done that. Keep a cleaner house? Who cares!?!

Try some simpler, sillier ways to seek sanity this year and BreakAway from the daily grind, the dark daze of winter, and that post-holiday ennui. Though not all bold, brash, or breakthrough, they may help you have a livelier year and be a better YOU!

1. Get crafty. Kids love to make things. You’re still a kid at heart, right? (See photo above: $1 Store candle holder, epoxy, shiny stuff. Voila!)
2. Make beauty. Maybe your downtown has gone dystopian. But your yard, home, and office can easily be a place of grace. Noticing beauty (it’s everywhere) feels good, too.
3. Start a zenny hobby. A favorite writer of mine carries on about birds, seasons, nature. He’s turning me into a laid-back birdwatcher. Who knew!?!
4. Try a brainy hobby. Some say our brains start rotting as we get older. I can attest! Maybe it’s time to join the legions of cross-puzzlers, or at least tune into Jeopardy now and then!
5. Save some bucks. How? There are countless, EZ ways! Cancel spendy apps and subs. Cook your own (or chase happy hours). Drive less. Skip Taylor and support local entertainers (She’ll still love you).
6. Eat better. The bunnies know. Carrots are good for you. And there are a million ways to cook them. Remember: Fast food isn’t good…Good food isn’t fast.
7. Party better. Oh sure, some of those beers (etc.) have fewer cals and carbs. But hey! There’s a beer revolution going on! And new bars and eateries that need support. Life is short; drink decent wine.
8. Caretake loved ones. Ask for same. We need each other—the most important thing we have.
9. Resist the screens. FACT: Just about everyone you know spends more time on screens than the year before. Help us break that tragic trend. Reality is 3D. So…
10. Go outside. THEY say that your mental health bumps up measurably with just 30 minutes a day outdoors. You’ll feel refreshed, and the birds will notice you.
11. Escape to somewhere new. A recent Daddy Date with my daughter to a nearby small town was delightful, eye-opening, and just plain fun. Next up: A dessert? An island? A campground?

Hope to see you there. And … Happy New Year!

Dark daze ahead? Probably. So take that trip sooner than later.

Many times, when someone returns from vakay or BreakAway, I’ve asked the cliché question, “So what was the best part about __________?” Usually, the answer is, “The people!”

That’s great. And it means that you did more than sightsee, museum-hop, and imbibe. It also suggests that, with any luck, people every are awesome. I mean, friends have even offered that answer after visiting some countries that we Americans tend to fear and loathe.

• People rock…but does Planet Earth want 8B?

Yet, how often have you travelled somewhere that you know—and maybe have been able to visit all your life—only to experience shock at how crowded the place has become? The development, the cars, the lines, the destruction of nature. I honestly can’t think of anywhere I know well (and like) that has escaped this unfortunate fate.

So sometimes I don’t want to go those places as much. And when possible, I schedule carefully to avoid crowds and chaos.

The planet groans every time it registers another birth.

~ Paul Simon, Born at the Right Time

One wants to avoid being nostalgic. What’s the future in that!?! So my conclusion is: GO. Now. Take the kids, the SO, your friends. Make the best of it and find your quiet spaces. Oh yeah, I’d like to start a movement called STOP THE BUILDING. But since that rarely works, see that dream destination before the water is polluted, the cottage is a condo high-rise, and the people are packed in like smelly sardines.

The world population was ~ 3B when I was born. And at the time, ZPG (Zero Population Growth) had traction, especially among Tree Huggers. We’ve almost tripled. The trees are falling.

But if you are kind and curious, people everywhere will still hug you. And will still be the best part of your journey.

Keep the faith.

Want to be one of these euphoric fans? You need to master Ticketmaster. Good luck with that…

Ever wonder why rock stars suddenly smash a perfectly good guitar? It’s because they failed to get tickets to a show they really wanted to see because of Ticketmaster. They’re not alone. I see a LOT of live shows. And also have too many smashed guitars.

Taylor Swift is coming to town, and it’s the hottest ticket in, like, forever, dude. Lucky for me, I didn’t even TRY to get a ticket, though I would like to be there. Just thinking about trying to score nearly provokes an anxiety attack. How can they be so inept? So inconsiderate? So blatantly carefree about how much everybody hates them?

Yep, they’re even getting sued by fed-up fans. Standing O for that!

As written up countless time in this here blog, live music is about the best BreakAway around that doesn’t require a suitcase. Heck, it’s PROVEN by SCIENCE to be even better than yoga!

Since the beginning of dirt, it remains one of the most exciting, sacred, and coveted BreakAway experiences around for millions…billions?…of people. Few rituals can take you so far away from whatever ails you, bond you with an instant tribe of like-listening besties, and (usually) take you back home to reality in a matter of hours.

Whoever is responsible for passing out those communion wafers better respect the cosmic power they hold. And the easy money they can make by simply not f*cking up too bad. TM fails at all of it. ALL of it! (Except for the making money part. In$ane amounts, increased exponentially since TM and Live Nation inexplicably were allowed to merge in 2010.)

Can you say (and lose at) MONOPOLY?

How bad is it? A Rolling Stone expose on the concert industry (TM) found that only ~25% of the tickets sold directly even get into the average Joe/Jane’s hands. The rest? Brokers, bots, crooks, reselling platforms… And oh, by the way, guess who owns and runs one of the biggest of those? TM.

So…TM is going to sell you tickets, complete with all sorts of huckster-ish presales, secret codes, $$$$ credit card front-of-line perks—things that sucker fans into thinking they have a fair and real shot to get good seats at a fair price. But that rarely happens any more. When it does, call it dumb luck. And enjoy the show. Cuz next time? Who knows?

(Let’s not even mention their fees. We’d run out of swear words immediately.)

And yet, long before official sellout—and sometimes before tix even go on sale—jump online, and there are thousands of seats for sale. Many of them by TM or some subsidiary (or some exec’s nephew). For insane prices. It ain’t right.

It’s not the first time we gullible, innocent consumers have been snookered big-time. But it’s one of the worst. And no one is doing anything about it. Oh sure, a few senators face the camera (not the music) and say, “We really oughta fix this!” Then they go back to fund-raising, or free lunch, or whatever they’re (not) doing.

{CONFESSION: I once saw a US senator come in late to a big, sold-out show. With a posse of about 20 people. Take primo seats. And look so-o-o-o bored and out of place. They left early…and were followed out by thousands of livid, glaring faces. I’m still grossed out.}

Meantime, as fans with a credit card, we keep fighting for a seat, screaming into the abyss, and then maybe somehow showing up at the show to have a blast anyway. Because (in my case in recent years) we’ll do almost anything to see McCartney, Madonna, Simon, Springsteen…once more or maybe for the first and only time. After all, they are the musical gods that have provided the soundtrack to our lives.

{Insert commercial: PLEASE generously support your local artists and venues. I mean, I saw a GREAT show in a dive bar for…FREE…last week. Everyone was happy, including the performers. Their pay? Whatever we threw into the empty pitcher that got passed around.}

Something—everything!—is wrong this pitcher. I mean picture. I’m glad I don’t have a daughter with her heart set on seeing Taylor. But my heart goes out to the millions of parents in that position. Your kid may fault you. But TM is to blame. We deserve better.

This concludes today’s rant. Stay tuned for the encores.

Rock on and thanks for listening…

A year ago, I travelled to Portland, OR to watch my daughter play college soccer. THANKS to other parents, I was driven to the out-of-town game, introduced to tailgating under tarps in the rain, and screaming into frosty air throughout 2 wins in 2 days. Thanks, folks!

Funny: As I stumbled on this picture today, I had to dig into (what’s left of) my memory. Where were we, again? (A coffee shop on the way to Willamette.) Why are there other references to our soccer team? (Other parents must have gotten there first.) What am I thankful for? (My post-it says: Jesper and Elsa.)

The world is crashing and burning with things to worry about. Fortunately, “there is so much to be thankful for” also. In this season of thanks, remember to say “thank you” often. And remember to go through your old photos now and then. You’ll be thankful you did.