‘Ever wanted to be someone else? Now you can….’
That line was the promo to the movie, “Being John Malkovich” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120601/
The movie featured a little door on the 7 ½ floor that lead into the mind of actor John Malkovich.
But just for fun, let’s change the script a little. Let’s say that you’ve discovered a similar little door in the wall underneath your desk; a portal to another dimension of reality that leads not into the brain of John Malkovich, but directly into the mind of Microsoft Co-founder, Paul Allen.
Wouldn’t it be fun, just for a week or so, to step through that door and see what’s on the other side?
It is true that Paul Allen is a remarkable person. But he also has a very, very interesting life. So let’s step on in and take a slice of life tour through the “Paul Allen Experience.”
…………
Now, before we go, let me brief you a little about the world you’re about to enter… Let’s start with the basics:
Here’s a copy of this year’s Wired, Time, Seattle Magazine and Discover. As you can see, you’ve been interviewed, dubbed a “hero,” pictured on a magazine cover, hailed as one of the world’s most influential and chosen as “person of the year.” The Brain Institute you founded a few years ago just made a major scientific breakthrough, but it’s not the first time you’ve tried to change the world. A couple of years ago you helped to jumpstart the private space travel industry with a really brilliant spaceship designer, Burt Rutan. You’ve been renovating the city of Seattle for awhile now. And then there’s that “Basic” thing you invented years ago and that company you co-founded with Bill Gates that nobody ever seems to forget about. And, of course, the story’s not over yet; you still have a few ideas up your sleeve.
What you do: You are the CEO of some really big companies, you have a few gazillion dollars in pocket change, you own 2 professional sports teams, and things are going really well. A couple of years ago your football team went to the SuperBowl. And your basketball team is not doing too badly either (more on that later).
What you own: You also own—well—a lot of stuff. In addition to some other toys and some really valuable art, you are also in possession of a few Megayachts, (the 414 ft. one is parked in Australia right now), a submarine and a couple of nice jets that take you to your many gorgeous mansions in beautiful cities all around the world.
What’s happening now: A month or two ago you were partying with a few celebrity friends at the Cannes Film Festival when you discovered that your basketball team, The Portland Trail Blazers, had just won the NBA lottery, entitling them to the first choice in the NBA Draft. The news created such a frenzy of excitement among Trail Blazer fans that your team sold 3000 season tickets in one week, thereby reviving a phenomenon called “Blazermania.”
And, oh yeah, you like to play the guitar.
————————————————————–
O.k., let’s get started. You are entering the “Experience” on June 28, 2007. And as Paul Allen, you and your staff have a few decisions to make……
1….On June 28th you choose the number one Draft pick—phenom Greg Oden—for your basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers. Click on the Trail Blazers link below and choose the icon that says “Portland Selects Greg Oden” to watch the actual moment the choice was made, how it aired nationally and how the fans reacted. http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/2007_draftcentral.html
The Experience: Watch the excitement generated by a simple phone call—a phone call that you got to make because, well, you’re the owner of the team.
2….Afterwards, with a little extra pocket money, you, Blazers owner, Paul Allen, do a little player trading and buy up a few more hot draft picks, just to make sure that you make it to the NBA Finals this year. http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/Trail_Blazers_Acquire_Draft_Ri-230217-1218.html http://www.nba.com/blazers/news/Trail_Blazers_Acquire_Steve_Fr-230245-1218.html http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=118340914108691400
The Experience: This is real-life NBA Monopoly, and you own the bank.
3….A few days later, on the 4th of July, you jet off to Europe to attend an exclusive party, the Dom Perignon Oenotheque 1993 International Launch hosted by Karl Lagerfeld and super model Claudia Shiffer, held at a private mansion in Paris. Some of the celebrities who join you there include Jude Law, Ralph Fiennes, Paz Vega, Maria Bello, Pedro Almodovar, Zhang Ziyi and Mia Maestro. http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/domperignon/28866/
Your date for the evening is a beautiful French actress named Aure Attika. See … http://pro.corbis.com/popup/Enlargement.aspx?mediauids=%7b506e9a89-3fe0-4739- adad-7272d984af66%7d%7C%7bffffffff-ffff-ffff-ffff-ffffffffffff%7d&qsPageNo=1&fdid=&Area=Search&TotalCount=302&CurrentPos=2&WinID=%7b506e9a89-3fe0-4739-adad-7272d984af66%7d and dvdtoile.com/Filmographie.php?id=6993
The Experience: Need I say more?
4….On July 7, 2007, you’re in London, backstage at Wembley Stadium with British actor Ricky Gervais and a group of young friends. You’re at London’s Live Earth Concert, one of a number of concerts that were hosted around the world to raise awareness about climate change issues.*1 The upbeat concerts, which featured more than a 100 music artists and celebrities appearing across the globe, were organized by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, and attended by billions of fans, including over 10 million who watched it via MSN streaming video. The reason why you’re backstage at Wembley right now is that you were invited by your friend Al Gore to perform at the concert too.
http://www.liveearth.org/?p=226
http://www.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2007/07/08/live_earth/index_np.html http://www.wireimage.com/searchresults.aspx?cbi=3342&s=al%20gore&sfld=C http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-07-05-live-earth_N.htm http://www.wembleystadium.com/events/pastevents/liveearth.htm
So, several minutes later, you and a number of other Bass guitarists from rock bands like Foo Fighters, James Blunt, Madonna, Bloc Party and Beastie Boys are introduced by newly reunited Spinal Tap* and brought onto the Wembley Stadium stage. The stadium is packed, and as you look out over the sea of fans jamming to the music, you begin to play Spinal Tap’s tongue-in-cheek song, “Big Bottom” on your guitar, accompanied by Spinal Tap and all of the other musicians onstage.
Here’s the video —-(Note: you’re the guy in the baseball cap)
Scroll sideways to video #58 Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom” (You’ll have to wait a moment for the menu to appear—there’s a commercial that appears first. The menu is on the left…..”play clip” segment 57-63.) http://entimg.msn.com/i/ExperienceData/p1-7/us/x.htm?sh=LiveEarth&ep=le_london
The Experience: Check out that crowd—is that cool or what? You’re a rock star, man!
And now we’ve come to the end of our tour. We hope that you’ve enjoyed the Paul Allen Experience.
Before you go, don’t forget to take a souvenir photo of your trip… (see Gettyimages link below).
Thank you, come again….
Footnotes:
* Http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/ BTW, “This is Spinal Tap” is one of the funniest movies ever made–if you haven’t seen it yet, you’ve got to check it out. The reunited group that performed at Live Earth was the actual rock group from the movie…..
*1 You’re quite an environmentalist in your own right, and here’s the proof:
Your “OneWorld Challenge:” http://www.seattleyachtclub.org/Sailboat/sycAmCup/Public%20Releases/sycAmCupPRO6-17-02/
You invest in alternative energy companies: http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=22595&hed=Startup+Chases+Nuclear+Fusion§or=Capital&subsector=VentureCapital
Over 14% of Allen Family Foundation charity $$ goes towards environmental causes.
http://www.pgafoundations.com/TemplateMain.aspx?contentId=12
And, your Vulcan Productions movie company produced a PBS show on the issue: http://www.pbs.org/strangedays/episodes/onedegreefactor/
*2 Six Degrees Trivia:
Your new one degree connections include the musicians who performed at Wembley Stadium for Live Earth London:
| Beastie Boys | United Kingdom | Hip-hop/Rap |
| Black Eyed Peas | United Kingdom | Hip-hop/Rap |
| Bloc Party | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Corinne Bailey Rae | United Kingdom | Pop |
| Damien Rice | United Kingdom | Rock |
| David Gray | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Duran Duran | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Foo Fighters | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Genesis | United Kingdom | Rock |
| James Blunt | United Kingdom | Pop |
| John Legend | United Kingdom | R&B/Soul |
| Kasabian | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Keane | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Madonna | United Kingdom | Pop |
| Metallica | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Paolo Nutini | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Pussycat Dolls | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Razorlight | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Snow Patrol | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Spinal Tap | United Kingdom | Rock |
| Terra Naomi | United Kingdom | Rock |
(From http://liveearth.msn.com/artists )
July 12, 2007 at 6:11 am
You’re probably a god in your own right, and liked by more people than Bill Gates.. LOL
July 12, 2007 at 6:29 am
LOL!!! Thanks for the comment, Mawe!!! 🙂 All of the above occurred within about 10 days—can you imagine what this guy’s life is like? He really is a pretty remarkable person…
July 13, 2007 at 5:37 pm
[…] money can buy just about everything, even a guest appearance as a bass player at Live Earth, during the Spinal Tap performance of Big […]
July 14, 2007 at 12:18 am
Hey, Blue Hole–thanks for the comment!
I can understand the impression you have—Paul Allen is rich, so he must have bought his way onto the stage—that’s where you’re coming from, right?
I guess that’s what I’d think if I didn’t know more about Paul Allen, but it’s not true–it really isn’t.
Allen didn’t pay anyone to get up onto that stage—by performing at Live Earth London, he wasn’t catching a thrill, but doing a favor for a friend.
Paul is a friend of Al Gore’s—Former U.S. V.P. Al Gore asked Allen to play his guitar onstage that day as a favor. It was a real honor that Paul Allen accepted, not the other way around.
The “experience” comments were my impressions, not necessarily Paul Allen’s—to me, looking at that crowd of fans(did you see that video??)–to me that is just extremely cool, but Paul Allen has performed in front of many audiences with many, many rock stars quite a few times, so I can’t say for sure that it was his reaction too.
The purpose of this blog, in addition to the 6 degrees thing, is to try to tell you a little bit more about Paul Allen, this really mysterious, eclectic, remarkable guy whom nobody understands–and one of the things you probably don’t know is that the guy who co-founded Microsoft is also a pretty talented musician in his own right.
Allen has released an album with his own rock group, Grown Men; he’s performed with Buddy Guy, Carlos Santana, Dan Aykroyd, Peter Gabriel, Mick Jagger, U2, Usher—and a lot more–you name it–he’s probably had a jam session with any musician that you can think of.
And the truth is he’s pretty good.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that money had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Thanks again for writing—I always appreciate comments from non-spammers. I hope you’ll come again!
July 15, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I was at the opening of his EMP in Seattle, with the famous smashing of the Chihuly guitar. I was also rather amazed by his ability to control helicopters swooping down on his Eurythmics friends during their set. He made a call from the stage and voila: the helicopter left and Annie and Dave returned. But one of the biggest problems I have with Paul is that he filed for bankruptcy on the Rose Quarter stadium here in Portland. That was pretty unethical. Still, your site is interesting, and I’ll be back.
July 15, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Thanks, Alan! I appreciate your nice comments!
That is cool that you got to see the EMP opening—I really wish I’d been there to see him smash that guitar. I heard the whole thing was pretty awesome.
I’m glad that the stadium situation has been resolved—what a difference a year makes–eh? That was a difficult time for everybody, but it’s pretty cool what’s happening now with the Blazers. I think that all things considered, Paul Allen has been a terrific owner.
Anyway, thanks again for writing, and I’m glad you’ll be coming back!!!
September 14, 2007 at 2:25 am
[…] Paul Performing at the Recent Live Earth Concert: Scroll sideways to video #58 Spinal Tap’s “Big Bottom” (You’ll have to wait a moment for the menu to appear—there’s a commercial that appears first. The menu is on the left…..”play clip” segment 57-63.) http://entimg.msn.com/i/ExperienceData/p1-7/us/x.htm?sh=LiveEarth&ep=le_london and https://within6degrees.wordpress.com/2007/07/12/being-paul-allen/ […]
October 1, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Hey guys, look what I found. This is a wicked auction where you can get signed guitars and other cool signed items from the Virgin Festivals. Just go to http://www.ebay.com/virginunite. All of the proceeds go to charity too. Check it out if you want to win cool stuff for some awesome prices.
http://www.ebay.com/virginunite
January 8, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Check out this Youtube video of Spinal Tap’s performance at Live Earth.
Check out the base guitar player in the back—the tall guy with the baseball cap—doesn’t he look familiar? 🙂
January 30, 2009 at 2:07 pm
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