I missed Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds tour of America with Jimmy Page, 50 years ago. I also missed the Yardbirds blues-rock summer gig at the Kerrisdale Arena in the summer of 67. The great Eric Clapton had left the band by then, but I managed to catch him with Blind Faith in the summer of 69, and finally met him in 85.
Frustrated by yet two more cancelled Beck (featuring Rod Stewart) concerts in Vancouver, I finally made it to the Paramount Theatre in Seattle (without Stewart) in the summer of 72, Honolulu 73, and finally Vancouver in 75.
On July 11th 1984, the universe finally conspired for me to meet my favorite rock guitarist. Proof in the power of intention? Read on.
The promoters, the staff at the Pacific Coliseum, and even a doorman at the Four Seasons Hotel, were eager to tell me the good news -- he will be here in July. Rod Stewart featuring Jeff Beck. The promoter tells me there is a setback, and I have to make a decision.
Rod would step off the jet, and sit down to a press conference, while the rest of the band and crew would board a 50-seat bus and head straight to the hotel. I could wait for Rod with the limo, or act as a guide on the bus and help the inexperienced driver make his way to the proper spots at the hotel, and later to the venue for soundcheck, and so on.
Rod grew up loving football and music, and wanted a team-like atmosphere with all the transfers for himself and the band. Other than the press conference, they all travelled on the bus. This has never happened before.
When Beck's equipment manager, Al, learned that I was one of Jeff's biggest fans, he invited me to sit down, back stage, with the best guitarist in the world for ten minutes pre-concert.
I offered Jeff and Al a limo tour of the nightclubs after the concert, and they kindly accepted.
They got along great with a few of my friends at Richards on Richards, even though the music was not to their liking. The suggestion of all of us heading over to "Outlaws" Rock Club was met with great enthusiasm.
I invited one of the Vancouver reps from Billboard to meet us there, and this is the photo she took:
They spent another night in town before heading off to Calgary. I found out later that Beck and the keyboard player talked the hotel into letting the duo have a private jam-session in Annabelle's, the hotel disco club that had recently shut down.
Half a century later -- Beck, Clapton and Page are still active. The three greatest British guitarist's alive, in my opinion. Life is good.
From Jeff's soul to his fingertips -- I choke up every time viewed:
Jeff Beck - A Day In The Life (Live at Ronnie Scott's)
More about Eric Clapton and Ronnie Scott's at a later date.
Dow 20,000 Update
For those of you who do not buy into the idea that the Dow is going to 20,000 for technical reasons, and demand more fundamental proof before getting shellacked by the recognition wave -- last week was revealing.
Were you impressed by the news that Saudi Arabia is planning a "$2 Trillion Megafund for Post-Oil Era" (large enough to purchase Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway)?
Or how about the news that gold had its best quarter since 86, or that the Dow had its biggest quarterly comeback in 83 years?
Or that Canaccord founder Peter Brown sold his Point Grey mansion in Vancouver for $31.1 million, which is well over a $20-million profit?
As an aside, a friend tells me that a few Chinese investors are hiring helicopters from Abbotsford International Airport, and flying around the Fraser Valley looking for properties to buy. He thought something nefarious was going on when they kept flying back and forth over his estate.
The main story last week was the irrefutable evidence, based on Tesla's marketing success, that companies involved in the clean-energy marketplace have a very bright future.
Last December, I tweeted a short list of potential strategic partners, as well as a dozen of Bill Gates' friends (worth over a quarter trillion dollars) committed to investing in the clean living sector with his "Breakthrough Living Coalition."
https://mobile.twitter.com/peedeeheenee/status/679094823903756288?p=v
So where will the $2-Trillion fund and some of the Gates' richest friends put their money?
Elon's Coming, Hide your Hearts and your Analytical Skills
"I think the GIGAFactory would need to be expanded to TERAFactory, given the amount of preorders!"
--- Comment from Musk fan
You may still question Elon's plans to warm up Mars with a series of mini-nuclear explosions, or his part in a US$9.2 B plan to build a base camp next to Peary crater (lunar north pole) in the next decade.
We now know where he will raise at least part of the funding for these outrageous projects.
I pointed out late last year over at CEO.CA that around 460 institutional holders believed in Musk and Tesla. That did not stop a small group of shorters -- who were able to knock the shares down to $141 on Feb. 9, from a high of $286 in July. By Monday, TSLA was back trading at $250, and now have 606 institutions onside holding 87,440,300 shares.
It was a very quiet day for the Tesla bears on Friday. From 9 am to 9 pm, Tesla's pre-order sales dollar values rocketed from below $5 Bil to almost $10Bil by late evening.
Elon tweeted throughout the day.
From March 18th to the 29th: 5 tweets
From Thursday to Friday: 29 tweets
Saturday: 9 more: https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk?p=s
As the numbers were coming in he said he was "Definitely going to need to rethink production planning."
Elon's timeline:
9 am: Model 3 orders at 180,000 in 24 hours. Selling price with average option mix prob $42k, so ~$7.5B in a day. Future of electric cars looking bright!
11 am: Tesla's Model 3 already has 198,000 reservations ...and it totally lives up to the hype pic.twitter.com/8oEHA2wrVC
9 pm: Now 232k orders
By Saturday noon: 253k as of 7am this morning
A few other tweets:
- Model 3 orders, whether in store or online, are limited to two per person
- Adding several more countries to Model 3 order page tonight. Check for details, but will include India, Brazil, SA, SK, NZ, Sing & Ireland.
- Will include India-wide Supercharger network
Here’s what you need to know about the Tesla Model 3:
http://recode.net/2016/03/31/tesla-model-3-first-look/
"Tesla plans to add another 3600 superchargers and quadruple the number of destination chargers — for which partnering hotels, restaurants or stores have Tesla wall connectors — worldwide by the end of next year
Tesla expects to double its store locations — of which there are now 215 in Asia, North America and Europe — to 441 locations by the end of next year."
This is what our CEO.CA friend, Kristian de Groot from Green Metals had to say:
"I wonder how long the majority of the commodity pundits and experts will stay away from lithium because "it's just like rare earths or graphite in 20010/2011..."
Based on the steady numbers coming in, and Elon's estimation of $42k per car with the average options mix, I think he will see over $12 Billion in future revenue, and said so Saturday afternoon:
https://mobile.twitter.com/peedeeheenee/status/716365766921158656?p=v
Musk personifies the passion needed, and what someone who practices the "power of intention" is capable of achieving.
Talking our Books
$NXE NexGen: Once again the CEO.CA gang knocked it way out of the park. For months now, several of the posters collectively reminded me of Babe Ruth's called shot, where he pointed to the center-field bleachers at Wrigley Field. Judging by NXE's parabolic trajectory, the price (ball) may land way over on Lasalle Street.
One respected investor I know anticipates a $4 buyout, while another -- perhaps a more cynical one -- thinks it gets bought out early at $2.50. They both agree, it's going higher.
NXE has traded 400,072,672 shares this year, or $334,471,904 dollar volume at a average price of 0.836.
$PTM Platinum Group Metals: Almost hit @SotalyTober's $5.50 price target he made on February 16th. PTM managed to print $5.25 intraday on Wednesday, and was trading at $2.15 at the exact time Tober made the early call. He's getting rusty :)
$LIX LiTHIUM X: Traded 2 cents off of its all-time high Friday, before a new weekly close of $1.30.
In my "1974 All Over Again" piece from three weeks ago I stated:
"If the bottom is in, and the market can absorb all the 0.15 paper that comes free trading in 2 weeks, I will say, well played Takeover Kings."
They planned their work, and worked their plan, brilliantly.
What other deals will these itinerant serial mine-finders come up with next to drive the stock over $2?
$GGS Golden Secret: Added this one to the BeckDex50. It was announced on March 10th that Frank Giustra picked up a "lions share" position. It may take time, but one day this one will trade substantially higher. Period.
The BeckDex 50
$LIX $SBB $IDM $NXE $PTM $SKE $JEM $HPL $IDI $CCY $MCC $BOL $EAM $CAP $GSH $NFR $NGZ $NX $PGM $SXR $UWE $WML $WPQ $MRZ $KLS $BUS $CT $NXO $BAR $CIN $CT $DMA $GRG $ICG $MAG $WKM $RLG $RST $JEM $BAY $WLF $MSD $LAG $GPH $NEV $IN $TV $BTH $GLH $KRN $PE $KOR
The list is broken down into 3 categories: Under .25, Under .50, and Over .50
Under .25:
$RLG West Red Lake Gold Mines
Year High 0.21
Year Low 0.01
Last 0.14
Up 1300%
$GGS Golden Secret Ventures
Year High 0.29
Year Low 0.02
Last 0.24
Up 1100%
$MCC Magor Corporation
Year High 0.315
Year Low 0.015
Last 0.095
Up 533%
$DMA DiaMedica
Year High 0.25
2014 Low 0.035
Last 0.165
Up 375%
$HRT Harte Gold
Year High 0.345
Year Low 0.045
Last 18.5
Up 311%
$RST Rosita Mining
Year High 0.10
Year Low 0.01
Last 0.04
Up 300%
$JEM Jagercor Energy
Year High 0.08
Year Low 0.01
Last 0.04
Up 300%
$CAP Castle Peak
Year High 0.025
Year Low 0.005
Last 0.02
Up 300%
$SXR SGX Resources
Year High 0.025
Year Low 0.005
Last 0.02
Up 300%
$EAM East Africa Metals
Year High 0.12
Year Low 0.03
Last 0.10
Up 233%
$IDI Indico Resources
Year High 0.16
Year Low 0.02
Last 0.065
Up 225%
$BAY Aston Bay Holdings
Year High 0.32
Year Low 0.08
Last 0.24
Up 200%
$GSH Golden Share Mining
Year High 0.105
Year Low 0.03
Last 0.09
Up 200%
$MSD Moseda Technologies
Year High 0.365
Year Low 0.065
Last 0.18
Up 177%
$NGZ NRG Metals
Year High 0.12
Year Low 0.02
Last 0.055
Up 175%
$NX Noka Resources
Year High 0.26
Year Low 0.025
Last 0.065
Up 160%
$WKM West Kirkland Mining
Year High 0.095
Year Low 0.035
Last 0.09
Up 157% (New)
$WLF Wolfden Resources
Year High 0.21
2014 Low 0.045
Last 0.115
Up 156%
$HPL Horizon Petroleum
Year High 0.13
Year Low 0.01
Last 0.025
Up 150%
$NFR Northern Freegold
Year High 0.10
Year Low 0.04
Last 0.09
Up 125%
$UWE U308 Corp
Year High 0.07
Year Low 0.015
Last 0.03
Up 100%
$WPQ WPC Resources
Year High 0.08
Year Low 0.025
Last 0.05
Up 100%
$GPH Graphite One Resources
Year High 0.145 (New)
Year Low 0.065
Last 0.115
Up 77%
$BOL Bold Ventures
Year High 0.055
Year Low 0.015
Last 0.025
Up 67%
$PRS.H Prism Resources
Year High 0.095
Year Low 0.04
Last 0.065
Up 62%
$IDM IDM Mining
Year High 0.115
Year Low 0.065
Last 0.105
Up 61%
$LAG Laguna Blends
Year High 0.40
Year Low 0.08
Last 0.125
Up 56%
$SKE Skeena Resources
Year High 0.125
Year Low 0.055
Last 0.08
Up 45%
$NEV Nevada Sunrise Gold
Year High 0.38
Year Low 0.125
Last 0.18
Up 44%
$IN InMed Pharmaceuticals
Year High 0.405
Year Low 0.10 (New)
Last 0.125
Up 25%
$MRS
Year High 0.275
Year Low 0.05
Last 0.05
Up 0%
Under .50:
$WML Wealth Minerals
Year High 0.42
2014 Low 0.03
Last 0.285
Up 867%
$CCY Catalyst Copper
Year High 0.40 (New)
Year Low 0.10
Last 0.40
Up 300% (New)
$PGM Pure Gold Mining
Year High 0.295
Year Low 0.07
Last 0.24
Up 243%
$TV Trevali Mining
Year High 1.24
Year Low 0.245
Last 0.37
Up 51%
$BTH Breathtec BioMedical
Year High 0.55
Year Low 0.37
Last 0.425
Up 15%
Over .50:
$CRH CRH Medical
Year High 5.50
2014 Low 0.65
Last 4.33
Up 566%
$NXE NexGen Energy
Year High 2.00 (New)
2015 Low 0.40
Last 1.93 (New)
Up 382% (New)
$KRN Karnalyte Resources
Year High 4.15
Year Low 0.52
Last 2.49
Up 379%
$PE Pure Energy
Year High 1.03
Year Low 0.18
Last 0.70
Up 289%
$LTE Lite Access Technologies
Year High 1.80
Year Low 0.39
Last 1.50
Up 285%
$LIX Lithium X Energy
Year High 1.40
Year Low 0.35
Last 1.30
Up 271% (New)
$PTM Platinum Group Metals
Year High 7.40
Year Low 1.35
Last 5.00
Up 270% (New)
$SBB Sabina Gold & Silver
Year High 1.06
Year Low 0.30
Last 0.92
Up 207%
$KOR Corvus Gold
Year High 0.84
Year Low 0.33
Last 0.71
Up 115%
$MAG Mag Silver
Year High 12.95
Year Low 6.90
Last 12.33
Up 79%
$BAR Balmoral Resources
Year High 1.22
Year Low 0.33
Last 0.52
Up 58%
$GLH Golden Leaf Holdings
Year High 1.40
Year Low 0.39 (New)
Last 0.55
Up 41%