Adam Schlesinger

https://spoti.fi/341X6kY

Now wait a minute, didn't they tell us this was not going to happen? That if you weren't over 65, the odds of dying from Covid-19 were slim, but if you were over seventy to watch out?

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From: James Risk
Re: News Update-Day 20

My 22 yr old daughter, Phoebe, lost a male friend from High school days to Covid 19. Went to the hospital with symptoms and they told him to go home where he died a week later. JR

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Speaking of which, you might have seen the post by Alan Merrill's wife Johanna Ha, about his/her experience:

https://bit.ly/2USi41r

It seems that the coronavirus is like Hollywood, as William Goldman so famously said: "Nobody knows anything."

OF COURSE people know something, but in this era where you choose your own newsfeed, you may be exposed to information that is incorrect. And since our schools teach to the test, few have the power of analysis, the ability to read all the articles and construct your own educated opinion. And one thing's for damn sure, you're on your own.

I still get "National Geographic." I saw it in a doctor's office, read it there, and decided to subscribe once again. The new issue just came yesterday. One half is the optimism about climate change, the other is the pessimism about climate change. It's interesting, there are two front covers, you flip the magazine to read each half. Are we gonna have to wait until rivers dry up and people die of heatstroke before we address climate change? The youngsters are on this, it's their number one issue, but they're dismissed because they don't vote, even if they register their turnout is low. Furthermore, they're no match for the fat cat lobbyists representing multinational corporations.

I'm sure you've read about Trump lowering the auto emission rules. It's been bright and clear at night in L.A., supposedly in every metropolis, doesn't this demonstrate that auto emissions are an issue? And Trump's goal is to restrict California from making its own more stringent laws, even though California's efforts have caused other states to enact their own laws and inspired manufacturers to make fifty state cars. But the kicker is, in Europe and Asia, they're going in the other direction, they're driving everybody into electric cars. Trump is single-handedly making the United States into a second-class nation under the rubric of making it great again. How great can it be if you're dead or choking on pollution?

Now, Trump is freaking out. Now, he's saying everybody is gonna die. Now, DeSantis is closing down Florida, he said he was waiting for Trump's green light...but didn't Trump say it was all up to the states? And if that is so, how come California can't have its own auto emission rules?

I know, I know, I'm beating up on Trump.

But the best thing I've read about this today is by my frenemy Kara Swisher:

"Fox's Fake News Contagion - The network spent too long spraying its viewers with false information about the coronavirus epidemic": https://nyti.ms/2wVXoxx

Bottom line... Swisher and her doctor brother could not convince their 80-something mother to self-quarantine, BECAUSE FOX WAS TELLING HER OTHERWISE!

This is the country we now live in, where science can be contradicted by a feeling, where news is about profit and scoring points for your team, and educated people are seen as elite and therefore must be written off.

Like Adam Schlesinger.

Schlesinger and his Fountains of Wayne bandmate Chris Collingwood met at Williams, one of America's finest institutions of higher learning. And this intellect and education informed the band's music. The lyrics were far from "moon in June." The audience was so dumb, they didn't realize "Stacy's Mom" was tongue-in-cheek!

Honestly, it took me a while to get into Fountains of Wayne, the inspiration for which was even featured in "The Sopranos," a nod to the act. But the third album, the one that actually contained "Stacy's Mom," "Welcome Interstate Managers," is a big favorite of mine, if you listen you find it hard not to sing certain songs at certain times.

Rock and roll is dumbed down. Hell, it took a long time to accept Frank Zappa, but now there's no humor extant, it's all about bludgeoning the listener over the head with heavy sounds and dumb lyrics, but if you actually went to college, if you can actually cogitate, your experiences are wider and FOW referenced them.

But in rock and roll you put on your leather jacket, make the devil horns and denigrate everybody with a brain.

But it wasn't only the lyrics, but the hooks too.

I'm gonna make a playlist, I'm gonna put it at the top of this screed.

I'm starting with "Peace and Love," the groove is so great you'll like it even if you don't listen to the lyrics:

"Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont
Open up a bookstore or a vegan restaurant"

If you grew up in the Northeast corridor, if you went to college prior to the turn of the century, you're smiling and laughing simultaneously,

Then there's "All Kinds Of Time," which the NFL used in its promotion, when you hear it, you'll remember.

Then, "No Better Place." You've been left, alone...this song nails it, without being dreary and maudlin.

And then "Hackensack." He's nowhere, but she's somewhere, and he's still waiting for her. This is akin to George Jones's "Never Stopped Loving Her Today, but for those who grew up north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

And then "Valley Winter Song" and "Fire Island."

And of course, "Stacy's Mom."

And Tom Hanks built an entire movie around "That Thing You Do!"

And of course Schlesinger co-wrote the songs for the Broadway version of John Waters's "Cry-Baby," and so much more!

I didn't know Adam.

But listening to "Hackensack" tears came to my eyes, because we'll never be graced by Schlesinger's genius ever again, and he was far from done, he was heavily involved in "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."

I'm just plain mad.

Someone could have prevented this.

Who knows, maybe Adam Schlesinger had underlying conditions, but I do know the "leaders" of this country worried about themselves and not the public. And what the public lives for is art, other than sex, everything else is superfluous, but music never gets any respect.


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