If this were on Netflix, it would be a big hit.
Every show has a backstory, and with "ZeroZeroZero" it's that the creative force is Robert Saviano, the same guy who did "Gomorrah," which I haven't seen yet, because it left Netflix.
It's unclear whether you can watch it on Sundance Now. Well, when you click through it says "Not Available," which I guess is definitive, but why is it still on the site anyway?
Turns out "Gomorrah" is caught up in rights issues, the wrenching transition of ownership of the Weinstein Company. At least that's what my e-mail says. I'm not gonna research every damn thing, I'm gonna rely on the gossip. Which, of course, begs the question what else I'll rely on the gossip for.
So somehow Amazon has screwed up its foray into streaming television. At this late date, people seem to know, at least subscribers, that it's baked into Amazon Prime. But maybe it's if something is completely free, or feels free, it gets no respect. Or maybe it's the less than sexy interface. Yes, I used that word, it's the first that came to mind, although I used to wince when everybody else used it. It's just that Amazon's interface is dull. And scrolling leads to incomprehensibility. In an effort to be all-encompassing, Amazon Prime is confusing. You see everything is not free, many shows require you to subscribe to a further service, which catches the viewer in the tyranny of choice where they go back to Netflix for a seamless experience.
Netflix hypes the show it's promoting right on the home screen. That's what you're confronted with first. Along with what's new, what's hot...
It's not that simple on Amazon Prime.
But people found "ZeroZeroZero." Just like they found "Gomorrah." Why wasn't it as big as "Narcos," is it that it's in a foreign language, or that Pablo Escobar was famous? Yes, there's been less excitement about "Narcos" in Mexico, but it's getting pretty good.
And there are narcos in "ZeroZeroZero."
It's really damn hard to do comedy, so much of what appeals on streaming services is drama. Police procedurals. Crime. I'm not exactly sure why viewers are drawn to these shows. Is it a vicarious experience, as in "there but by the grace of god go I," or "I'm too timid to live this life but I like to dream" or is it that these shows are easier to make, I'm not sure.
But I found out about "ZeroZeroZero" from Michael Rosenblatt. He raved. But that's not enough for me, TV series take up so much time, I quizzed him further, he doubled-down, and I ventured in.
Now the thing about "ZeroZeroZero" is it's a movie, albeit eight hours long. It's what we used to go to the theatre for, and sometimes still do, at least when the theatres were still open, not overcrowded with those seeking escape in the fantasy world of superheroes. "ZeroZeroZero" is big screen entertainment. The visuals are rich. The locations exotic. The acting first rate. The story...
"ZeroZeroZero" is entertainment. There are no lessons, no deeper meaning. Oh, you can dig some metaphors up, but that's not what it's really about. "ZeroZeroZero" is a ride for adults. Who've seen some of the world, know to a degree how things work, and want a story to take them out of their regular life.
There are three main locations. Mexico, Africa and Italy. And they're beautiful and fascinating. I'm afraid to go to Mexico because of the lawlessness of the cartels, but the landscape is overwhelming and the life... I like places that are different. When you've still got dirt roads, when you're still developing, that's when I'm interested. Once again, my trip to Bogota back in 2013 was the one that impressed me most, that I think of most. It wasn't all cushy, you could get shot, you could die, but that make you feel so alive.
And in Africa...
When you're outside of the U.S. the same rules don't apply, you don't always feel safe. Which is a good reason not to go, but it's also a good reason to journey abroad, it's exhilarating, you've got your wits about you, you feel alive.
So, "ZeroZeroZero" is about a drug deal.
Mexico provides the cocaine. The Lynwood family from New Orleans is the broker doing the shipping and the Mafia in Calabria, Italy is the customer.
Only there are struggles in each location. In New Orleans, a son has Huntington's, which you'll remember took the life of Woody Guthrie. In Italy there's a turf war in the family. In Mexico...there's a power struggle.
Actually, it's what happens in Mexico that is most vivid. Because the drug wars are real. People do die.
So on some level "ZeroZeroZero" is "The Wages of Fear," i.e. a story about the dangerous journey of an illicit substance. not that cocaine is going to explode.
So the usual rules of visual entertainment don't necessarily apply in "ZeroZeroZero." Those who can't die, the heroes of the story, the focus, sometimes do.
And there's this weird construct where events are foreshadowed, and then you go back and see what really happened. It's hard to explain, but it happens right in the first episode, you'll be caught off guard, but then you'll expect it.
And the acting is superb.
Andrea Riseborough as Emma Lynwood is cunning and can be an iron fist in a velvet glove and can also exhibit emotion.
Dane DeHaan is one of the few Americans in the series, he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio, but is more believable. DiCaprio always looks preternaturally young to me, it's always Leo, and he always seems too soft and smooth to play the role.
Harold Torres as Manuel...
It takes you a while to figure out his loyalties. But ultimately his strength and intelligence shine through. We're used to leaders being self-satisfied hotheads, but Manuel is not. He's got a vision, he's calm and collected...ultimately you can't take your eyes off him.
So, at first the stories are intermingled. But as you progress, locations/stories can make up nearly an entire episode. And this allows you to go into depth, and it's so satisfying.
And there are constantly roadblocks to execution. Some seem phony, but most seem real.
So what do we have here?
Kind of a seventies movie. Like "French Connection." Not with the same plot, but with a driving story that takes you around the world, where you align yourself with the characters and you're not quite sure how it's all going to play out.
Now the most prominent show Amazon Prime has is "Mrs. Maisel." And I dig it, but it's not for everyone.
"Mozart in the Jungle" won Golden Globes, but that was about the only publicity the series got. And when you watched it...it wasn't THAT good.
But "ZeroZeroZero" is something different.
Oh yeah, they don't explain the title in the series. But it's easily Googlable. I'll leave it to you.
The creation of shows, movies too, is a group effort. And it's expensive. And you can find yourself in the middle of it and realize you veered off course and cannot get back on the right path. It's different from music, which is best when it runs on sheer inspiration, and is unhobbled by too much input. And it takes much longer to make visual entertainment than audio. We're always hungering for more.
Of that which we like.
But we don't like that much.
I don't know if there'll be another season of "ZeroZeroZero." It's based on a book, and I don't know where that book ends. Then again, they've been making James Bond movies for years with no books. But Bond is now a joke, about gadgets and big forces whereas "ZeroZeroZero" is a smaller story about people, and they're not like you and me, but it illustrates how many stories there are on this globe, what makes the world turn.
So, when there's a hit in America, there's always a sequel, there's always more, and it's rarely as good as what came before.
It's different overseas, it can be one and done.
But honestly, I'd like more from these characters, I want to see where they go, how their lives and organizations develop.
"ZeroZeroZero" is beyond HBO. Because of the production qualities. HBO is television, so they usually focus on talking. "ZeroZeroZero" paints on a big canvas. And it's not "House of Cards," it's not throwing off lessons constantly, but you'll get hooked, believe me.
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Saturday 6 June 2020
Friday 5 June 2020
Collaboration
"History Will Judge the Complicit - Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?": https://bit.ly/3eVkFjO
This was the most e-mailed article in my inbox this week.
It should have been in "The New Yorker."
In case you missed it, the "New Yorker" and the "New York Times" got into a pissing match over Ronan Farrow's #MeToo reporting, to the point where even Matt Lauer came out of his bunker with a new tattoo to set the record straight. The "New Yorker" fought back. But Mr. Lauer's statement was compelling. He did not deny all of his behavior, but went into depth re certain accusations. But Lauer's been taken off the table, kicked out of the casino, he's just a news reader and he's been replaced by the analyst Farrow. But now Farrow's credibility is in question.
And then the "New York Times" took a hit.
Wednesday all hell broke loose, assuming you're on Twitter. You see the "Times" posted an opinion piece by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton entitled "Send In The Troops," and the staff broke the paper's rule and commented on its publication. But even more interesting were the outsiders with their analysis. To what degree was the publication of the opinion piece done to drive up subscriptions? You see news is a business. And the analysis said if the "Times" can appeal to more moderates, its numbers will go up. That's why you're on Twitter, for the analysis, for the insight you don't get from the constant assault of 30,000 feet news headlines all day long on TV and the web.
So, the "Times" did a mea culpa. Said the opinion piece did not meet its standards. Even worse, James Bennett, the editor in charge of the opinion section, said he didn't even read it. This is the plausible deniability Sarah Kendzior keeps going on about. It's like "Casablanca," you're positively shocked and you evade penalty. But Twitter also told us that Bennett was in line to become the next executive editor of the paper, now his ascension is in question, as it should be.
You see journalism is a game. Forget the talking heads, that's showbiz. Journalists are all about paying their dues and moving up the ladder. There's gossip and politics and infighting and what looks to you like a seamless product is not.
But it's so interesting that the Times employees broke the rule on commenting. It's kinda like the Facebook employees standing up to Zuckerberg. We're at that point, do you do what you know is right or are you complicit, to save your job, to continue to be a part of the enterprise.
Now despite the dearly departed Tom Wolfe excoriating the "New Yorker," it is held in the highest regard in journalistic circles. No higher regard than in the cabal comprised of the magazine's employees. And David Remnick improved the magazine, but it's rarely the heartbeat of America. The "Talk of the Town" is always slyly placed publicity. As for the feature articles...they're in-depth, but do they make a difference?
Anne Applebaum's article in the "Atlantic" makes a difference.
People make a difference.
Once upon a time, there was this magazine editor Clay Felker. He was the best in the business. He was responsible for "New York." He redid "Esquire." He created his own magazine, "Manhattan, inc." that was a cover to cover read.
Just like Marty Baron has lifted the "Washington Post" from second-rate to top tier.
But Marty did it with the help of Jeff Bezos.
And the "Atlantic" is doing it with the help of Laurene Powell Jobs.
Give both Bezos and Jobs credit, they're putting their money where their mouth is. They're laying it on the line in pursuit of a better world. And you can criticize Amazon all you want, but only the president believes Jeff is hands-on with the "Post." Murdoch's fingerprints are all over Fox News and the "Wall Street Journal," but it's the right that shoots as the left defends. And the "Times" has taken a hit, but it's not the only game in town.
So, I recommend reading the above article, but you must budget almost an hour. And most people won't dedicate that amount of time.
But in this case, there's a shortcut. You can listen to the NPR podcast. Pull up the NPR app on your favorite podcast platform, or you can listen on the NPR site. And, if podcasts are not your thing, you can read the transcript of the NPR interview. The podcast and transcript are here:
"Journalist Explains Why Republican Leaders Back Trump's 'Proto Authoritarian Cult'": https://n.pr/2XZyMO4
Now there's a dividing line in the public. Either you're open to new ideas, you check different sources, or you don't. If you're someone who remains in their silo, who believes all politics are tribal, that it's a team sport, you might not be open to Anne Applebaum's analysis.
Anne Applebaum is educated. And intelligent. And these are denigrated in today's society. If you got an elite education, you're not entitled to an opinion. Because chances are you're rich and lording it over us.
Unfortunately, in many cases that's true. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And if you have an elite education, unfortunately you are separate from the hoi polloi. Because you've been taught how to analyze.
This is what most Americans can't do. All they can do is gather the facts. But what do they mean? How do you merge all these facts, how do account for conflicting opinions? The dumbing down of America has consequences. And since public schools are underfunded and teach to the test, it's getting even worse.
So, Anne Applebaum uses Nazi analogies, but she says multiple times, the U.S. is not equivalent to Nazi Germany. But the point remains, why did everybody go along with Nazi policy, why were they complicit?
That's what Ms. Applebaum is analyzing here.
Her main analogy is Vichy France.
I recommend once again that you watch the series "A French Village." When it's all said and done, the Nazi collaborators...they were in trouble, they paid the price. Will today's Republicans pay the price for supporting Trump?
History will not be kind to them. But what Applebaum is dissecting is the slippery slope, the stories you tell yourself as you enable authoritarianism.
The article goes into the strange case of Lindsey Graham, how he sacrifices everything he believes in to support Trump. How he basks in the aura of the president after meeting with him.
There are many reasons people are complicit with authoritarians, and Applebaum goes into them, which is why you shouldn't let her story pass you by. She brings up every scenario, every motivation.
Why did the National Park Service doctor photos increasing the attendees at Trump's inauguration. Everybody knew it was a lie, but it's best to satiate the new president, give him a break. But Applebaum's point is it's not about the number of attendees, it's that Trump can lie with impunity, with no consequences. Which leads us to...
Impeachment. Everybody in the Senate knew Trump was guilty. Why did they not vote to convict him?
Well, they were playing a team sport. They liked being in office. And if they stood up, they'd be excoriated by Trump and primaried out of office.
Never underestimate personal motivation. It's rampant in America today. People do what is expedient as opposed to what's right. For themselves.
To stand up is to be an outcast. To be pilloried.
So people go along, they don't want to ruffle the feathers of those around them, never mind those in power.
Meanwhile, the person in power gains more and more power, and exercises it. To the point where you've got elected officials in Russia and Hungary, but they're powerless, the authoritarian rules.
And this is what is happening now in America. Threatening to use the military on the people it's supposed to defend, who are exercising their lawful right to protest, is akin to what they do in dictatorial countries. All in the name of law and order. Yes, the authoritarian says they're protecting the people as they take away their rights. And the truth is the authoritarian is protecting his or her self, not the people. Hell, look at Trump's response to Covid-19. He doesn't care about the people, he cares about himself!
Go online, argue with the Trumpers, it's a fool's errand.
You always have to go to the top. And in this case I'm speaking of D.C. These are the people who are in power, and they keep enabling Trump. As for the Democrats...they keep going on about the rules, say their hands are tied, but when it comes to right and wrong, when democracy hangs in the balance sometimes you've got to break the rules, like the reporters at the "Times." Otherwise, is the organization worth saving?
So start off with the podcast. Applebaum is not histrionic, and she does cover the bases. And listening you'll think...this could happen here.
Sadly, it already has.
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This was the most e-mailed article in my inbox this week.
It should have been in "The New Yorker."
In case you missed it, the "New Yorker" and the "New York Times" got into a pissing match over Ronan Farrow's #MeToo reporting, to the point where even Matt Lauer came out of his bunker with a new tattoo to set the record straight. The "New Yorker" fought back. But Mr. Lauer's statement was compelling. He did not deny all of his behavior, but went into depth re certain accusations. But Lauer's been taken off the table, kicked out of the casino, he's just a news reader and he's been replaced by the analyst Farrow. But now Farrow's credibility is in question.
And then the "New York Times" took a hit.
Wednesday all hell broke loose, assuming you're on Twitter. You see the "Times" posted an opinion piece by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton entitled "Send In The Troops," and the staff broke the paper's rule and commented on its publication. But even more interesting were the outsiders with their analysis. To what degree was the publication of the opinion piece done to drive up subscriptions? You see news is a business. And the analysis said if the "Times" can appeal to more moderates, its numbers will go up. That's why you're on Twitter, for the analysis, for the insight you don't get from the constant assault of 30,000 feet news headlines all day long on TV and the web.
So, the "Times" did a mea culpa. Said the opinion piece did not meet its standards. Even worse, James Bennett, the editor in charge of the opinion section, said he didn't even read it. This is the plausible deniability Sarah Kendzior keeps going on about. It's like "Casablanca," you're positively shocked and you evade penalty. But Twitter also told us that Bennett was in line to become the next executive editor of the paper, now his ascension is in question, as it should be.
You see journalism is a game. Forget the talking heads, that's showbiz. Journalists are all about paying their dues and moving up the ladder. There's gossip and politics and infighting and what looks to you like a seamless product is not.
But it's so interesting that the Times employees broke the rule on commenting. It's kinda like the Facebook employees standing up to Zuckerberg. We're at that point, do you do what you know is right or are you complicit, to save your job, to continue to be a part of the enterprise.
Now despite the dearly departed Tom Wolfe excoriating the "New Yorker," it is held in the highest regard in journalistic circles. No higher regard than in the cabal comprised of the magazine's employees. And David Remnick improved the magazine, but it's rarely the heartbeat of America. The "Talk of the Town" is always slyly placed publicity. As for the feature articles...they're in-depth, but do they make a difference?
Anne Applebaum's article in the "Atlantic" makes a difference.
People make a difference.
Once upon a time, there was this magazine editor Clay Felker. He was the best in the business. He was responsible for "New York." He redid "Esquire." He created his own magazine, "Manhattan, inc." that was a cover to cover read.
Just like Marty Baron has lifted the "Washington Post" from second-rate to top tier.
But Marty did it with the help of Jeff Bezos.
And the "Atlantic" is doing it with the help of Laurene Powell Jobs.
Give both Bezos and Jobs credit, they're putting their money where their mouth is. They're laying it on the line in pursuit of a better world. And you can criticize Amazon all you want, but only the president believes Jeff is hands-on with the "Post." Murdoch's fingerprints are all over Fox News and the "Wall Street Journal," but it's the right that shoots as the left defends. And the "Times" has taken a hit, but it's not the only game in town.
So, I recommend reading the above article, but you must budget almost an hour. And most people won't dedicate that amount of time.
But in this case, there's a shortcut. You can listen to the NPR podcast. Pull up the NPR app on your favorite podcast platform, or you can listen on the NPR site. And, if podcasts are not your thing, you can read the transcript of the NPR interview. The podcast and transcript are here:
"Journalist Explains Why Republican Leaders Back Trump's 'Proto Authoritarian Cult'": https://n.pr/2XZyMO4
Now there's a dividing line in the public. Either you're open to new ideas, you check different sources, or you don't. If you're someone who remains in their silo, who believes all politics are tribal, that it's a team sport, you might not be open to Anne Applebaum's analysis.
Anne Applebaum is educated. And intelligent. And these are denigrated in today's society. If you got an elite education, you're not entitled to an opinion. Because chances are you're rich and lording it over us.
Unfortunately, in many cases that's true. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And if you have an elite education, unfortunately you are separate from the hoi polloi. Because you've been taught how to analyze.
This is what most Americans can't do. All they can do is gather the facts. But what do they mean? How do you merge all these facts, how do account for conflicting opinions? The dumbing down of America has consequences. And since public schools are underfunded and teach to the test, it's getting even worse.
So, Anne Applebaum uses Nazi analogies, but she says multiple times, the U.S. is not equivalent to Nazi Germany. But the point remains, why did everybody go along with Nazi policy, why were they complicit?
That's what Ms. Applebaum is analyzing here.
Her main analogy is Vichy France.
I recommend once again that you watch the series "A French Village." When it's all said and done, the Nazi collaborators...they were in trouble, they paid the price. Will today's Republicans pay the price for supporting Trump?
History will not be kind to them. But what Applebaum is dissecting is the slippery slope, the stories you tell yourself as you enable authoritarianism.
The article goes into the strange case of Lindsey Graham, how he sacrifices everything he believes in to support Trump. How he basks in the aura of the president after meeting with him.
There are many reasons people are complicit with authoritarians, and Applebaum goes into them, which is why you shouldn't let her story pass you by. She brings up every scenario, every motivation.
Why did the National Park Service doctor photos increasing the attendees at Trump's inauguration. Everybody knew it was a lie, but it's best to satiate the new president, give him a break. But Applebaum's point is it's not about the number of attendees, it's that Trump can lie with impunity, with no consequences. Which leads us to...
Impeachment. Everybody in the Senate knew Trump was guilty. Why did they not vote to convict him?
Well, they were playing a team sport. They liked being in office. And if they stood up, they'd be excoriated by Trump and primaried out of office.
Never underestimate personal motivation. It's rampant in America today. People do what is expedient as opposed to what's right. For themselves.
To stand up is to be an outcast. To be pilloried.
So people go along, they don't want to ruffle the feathers of those around them, never mind those in power.
Meanwhile, the person in power gains more and more power, and exercises it. To the point where you've got elected officials in Russia and Hungary, but they're powerless, the authoritarian rules.
And this is what is happening now in America. Threatening to use the military on the people it's supposed to defend, who are exercising their lawful right to protest, is akin to what they do in dictatorial countries. All in the name of law and order. Yes, the authoritarian says they're protecting the people as they take away their rights. And the truth is the authoritarian is protecting his or her self, not the people. Hell, look at Trump's response to Covid-19. He doesn't care about the people, he cares about himself!
Go online, argue with the Trumpers, it's a fool's errand.
You always have to go to the top. And in this case I'm speaking of D.C. These are the people who are in power, and they keep enabling Trump. As for the Democrats...they keep going on about the rules, say their hands are tied, but when it comes to right and wrong, when democracy hangs in the balance sometimes you've got to break the rules, like the reporters at the "Times." Otherwise, is the organization worth saving?
So start off with the podcast. Applebaum is not histrionic, and she does cover the bases. And listening you'll think...this could happen here.
Sadly, it already has.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Thursday 4 June 2020
Music News
WARNER MUSIC IPO
The crime here goes back to 2004, when Time Warner blew out its record division for $2.6 billion.
Today Warner Music is valued at $15 billion.
Assuming you'd taken that $2.6 billion, invested it an annual rate of return of 10%, after fourteen years, i.e. today, you'd have $11.95 billion.
10% is a pretty good rate of return. Look at all the hedge funds in a negative position, that have gone out of business.
The sale of Warner Music back in 2004 was an ignorant one based on emotion.
Let's look at the company, comprised of Warner/Atlantic/Elektra and many associated labels.
There was the thought that the value of recorded music would go down to zero. And that no one would make music anymore because of the lack of remuneration. Well, one thing's for sure, today we've got too much music, furthermore, income is now going up after being halved, because of streaming. Proving that the music business itself is run by hustlers with no familiarity with tech or trends, and that Time Warner was a boondoggle from day one, after Steve Ross died the enterprise was run off the rails.
Let's start with the flawed merger with Time (which Ross was in favor of). A conglomerate with a future, based on its cable system, HBO and music companies, merges with a dead tree enterprise on its way down. Talk about not seeing the future, Time declined to nearly nothing and was then blown out. As for AOL...anybody who actually was online knew AOL was a walled garden and that the future was the worldwide web, with access to all via broadband. Once again, AOL went down in value and was blown out.
And they blew out the record division too. Even though it was the record division that generated all the profits that built the cable system.
You see music scales. If you have a hit, it costs very little to continue to sell that hit. In other words, costs are amortized quickly and then the rest is almost pure profit, especially in the era of digital, without production costs, never mind shipping and returns, and the era of streaming, where music lives forever and pays forever.
None of this was hidden when Warner Music was sold by Time Warner. It's just that the majordomos had no respect for music, they were building a TV empire that ended up being sold to AT&T, as if a conglomerate is the best place to put content. At least NBC, Universal and Comcast are essentially in the same business, i.e. visual programming. Furthermore, Comcast had the pipes to distribute said content. The synergy with AT&T and Warner is hard to figure out. The wireless business was not built on paid-for visual content. But, AT&T bought DirectTV, which anybody savvy would know was going down, because people would cut the cord, and the satellite service, no matter how good for the distribution of television, lacks a high speed internet component. But AT&T needs growth for Wall Street. Same deal with Verizon, which purchased AOL, supposedly for its ad tech, but that didn't play out, certainly not for the cost...proving that the history of the past three decades is technologists making marks out of traditional media empires, the truth being they just want to lay off their duds.
So, Warner Music has assets that will never go down to zero. Call it the history of recorded music, Warner has one of the best catalogs extant. People are gonna want to listen to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Stairway To Heaven" and "Little Red Corvette"...until the copyright runs out, which it never seems to, these tracks are gonna rain revenue for decades! It's even a better investment than real estate! You never have to refurbish the buildings, the tracks are evergreen forever!
But Richard Parsons and Jeffrey Bewkes seemed to be ignorant to this fact. Hell, Parsons came from Amex. As for Bewkes, he was enamored of TV. Proving, once again, even though there's no qualification to work in the music business, it does require expertise, it is a skill, and decisions should be made by those having said skills, with a clear vision of the future.
This IPO was just about Blavatnik getting his investment back, Warner Music doesn't need the money.
Then again, HBO, or Netflix, an independent company, needs to do a documentary on Len Blavatnik. Exactly how did he acquire this wealth? And now Blavatnik has laundered his reputation, by donating to cultural institutions, to seemingly every museum in London and $75 million to the University of Oxford for a new school of government.
What happened when Communism fell, when Yeltsin was in power, before the kleptocratic Putin took power? Maybe Blavatnik's billions are totally legit, but maybe not. But just like with Jeffrey Epstein, when a billionaire gives you money...you take it and shut up.
Then again, the people dancing to Ed Sheeran have no idea about all of this.
Then again, Warner could completely shut down the cost heavy investment in new music and still be worth many billions.
But new music is sexy, which brings us to...
IT'S STILL ROCK 'N' ROLL TO ME
https://bit.ly/3cyi11L
Bottom line, most of the money is in rock, not hip-hop.
That's what the stats say.
But whenever you employ Nielsen stats there's a question of reality. Like physical and tracks...do they really matter anymore?
But one thing is for sure, hip-hop is nowhere near as dominant as the major players and the major media say it is. This narrative is similar to the one that got Time Warner to blow out its music division sixteen years ago. The sky is falling, no one will pay! People only want to hear hip-hop music, the rest is irrelevant!
Only it's not. The other genres combined surpass hip-hop, and the same is true even if you throw in pop.
But now we've got a different metric, streaming and it is skewing perception.
Look at concert grosses. Rock overwhelmingly dominates. And there's a huge component of today's country, which is really just the rock of the seventies, albeit with bogus lyrics about church and trucks and family.
And not only in ticket sales is rock king, but merch too.
And if you've gone to any of these classic rock shows, it's definitely not all oldsters. As for kids not being able to pay these high ticket prices...the prices are only that high because the demand is so great!
Now in the old days a sale was a sale, whether you listened to a record or not was irrelevant. Records were promoted via radio and print, and only those promoted had a huge number of sales.
Print is nearly worthless. The eighties and nineties paradigm of TV is a joke and radio still promotes, but mostly the promotion of music is about internet word of mouth. But the truth is the youngsters have more time to waste online, and they've got more time to listen to music, so they stream their favorites ad infinitum and then the media anoints the Spotify Top 50 and says THIS IS THE MUSIC OF AMERICA!
But it's not.
Now what you hear on today's Active Rock radio does not resemble anything close to classic rock, it's noisy and discordant and oftentimes has poor vocals. As for Adult Alternative...a lot of those acts are inherently niche. However, both of these formats have a significant number of fans. But imagine if they were promoting acts that could write songs who had good voices...
Look at the classic acts. Not only could the Beatles write, they could sing! Same deal with the Eagles. Only on Active Rock and AAA is it believed you need no skills to survive. Sure, Bob Dylan's voice is questionable/an acquired taste, but he is the best rock lyricist of all time!
In other words, the niches are driving today's new rock off the cliff. And those who make it are playing to these niches, for these formats. Whereas if there was a push behind acts that covered the basics...
As our country grows more diverse, only in the music business do offerings and promotion get narrower. It'd be like Netflix only producing teen dramas. They might be successful, but most people would not tune in. They might even make money, but imagine how much more could be made if other genres were produced too!
That's today's major music business.
But music is so far ahead of movies and TV. For ten bucks a month, or a near equivalent around the world, you get the history of recorded music at your fingertips. And it is about subscriptions. Adobe went to subscription, Microsoft too. You charge less and charge forever. Stop paying and you've got nothing. People will pay. But we still have Nielsen factoring in sales. This would be like Apple factoring in how many people install their software via CD-ROM. Oh, that's right, it's all downloaded, the computers don't even come with CD drives!
But Nielsen is so backward because that's how the labels like it.
Proving, once again, all the innovation has been made by youngsters and outsiders.
Proving, once again, the conventional wisdom is wrong.
There's a story in today's WSJ comparing the value of Warner to Spotify. They're both in the music business, but their models are totally different. Music is the ultimate in scale. Spotify doesn't scale at all, it always has to pay sixty something percent in royalties, which is why Spotify is pivoting into podcasts, which is why its stock jumped after it acquired Joe Rogan's show.
But Spotify is looking to the future, the music business is always stuck in the past.
You're pissed Daniel Ek is a billionaire? Without Daniel Ek, Warner Music would be worth less than half.
But streaming was inevitable, because it's on demand distribution, which now rules the world. Apple and HBO dribble out episodes, Netflix delivers them all at once. On Spotify, you get it all and you get it now. Which is the way people want it.
I don't agree with all of Russ Crupnick's conclusions here. But he's the first person other than myself railing against the unending focus on hip-hop.
I've got no argument with the power of hip-hop, or its impact upon the market, but to believe it's the only sound people want to listen to is...
Myopic.
The crime here goes back to 2004, when Time Warner blew out its record division for $2.6 billion.
Today Warner Music is valued at $15 billion.
Assuming you'd taken that $2.6 billion, invested it an annual rate of return of 10%, after fourteen years, i.e. today, you'd have $11.95 billion.
10% is a pretty good rate of return. Look at all the hedge funds in a negative position, that have gone out of business.
The sale of Warner Music back in 2004 was an ignorant one based on emotion.
Let's look at the company, comprised of Warner/Atlantic/Elektra and many associated labels.
There was the thought that the value of recorded music would go down to zero. And that no one would make music anymore because of the lack of remuneration. Well, one thing's for sure, today we've got too much music, furthermore, income is now going up after being halved, because of streaming. Proving that the music business itself is run by hustlers with no familiarity with tech or trends, and that Time Warner was a boondoggle from day one, after Steve Ross died the enterprise was run off the rails.
Let's start with the flawed merger with Time (which Ross was in favor of). A conglomerate with a future, based on its cable system, HBO and music companies, merges with a dead tree enterprise on its way down. Talk about not seeing the future, Time declined to nearly nothing and was then blown out. As for AOL...anybody who actually was online knew AOL was a walled garden and that the future was the worldwide web, with access to all via broadband. Once again, AOL went down in value and was blown out.
And they blew out the record division too. Even though it was the record division that generated all the profits that built the cable system.
You see music scales. If you have a hit, it costs very little to continue to sell that hit. In other words, costs are amortized quickly and then the rest is almost pure profit, especially in the era of digital, without production costs, never mind shipping and returns, and the era of streaming, where music lives forever and pays forever.
None of this was hidden when Warner Music was sold by Time Warner. It's just that the majordomos had no respect for music, they were building a TV empire that ended up being sold to AT&T, as if a conglomerate is the best place to put content. At least NBC, Universal and Comcast are essentially in the same business, i.e. visual programming. Furthermore, Comcast had the pipes to distribute said content. The synergy with AT&T and Warner is hard to figure out. The wireless business was not built on paid-for visual content. But, AT&T bought DirectTV, which anybody savvy would know was going down, because people would cut the cord, and the satellite service, no matter how good for the distribution of television, lacks a high speed internet component. But AT&T needs growth for Wall Street. Same deal with Verizon, which purchased AOL, supposedly for its ad tech, but that didn't play out, certainly not for the cost...proving that the history of the past three decades is technologists making marks out of traditional media empires, the truth being they just want to lay off their duds.
So, Warner Music has assets that will never go down to zero. Call it the history of recorded music, Warner has one of the best catalogs extant. People are gonna want to listen to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Stairway To Heaven" and "Little Red Corvette"...until the copyright runs out, which it never seems to, these tracks are gonna rain revenue for decades! It's even a better investment than real estate! You never have to refurbish the buildings, the tracks are evergreen forever!
But Richard Parsons and Jeffrey Bewkes seemed to be ignorant to this fact. Hell, Parsons came from Amex. As for Bewkes, he was enamored of TV. Proving, once again, even though there's no qualification to work in the music business, it does require expertise, it is a skill, and decisions should be made by those having said skills, with a clear vision of the future.
This IPO was just about Blavatnik getting his investment back, Warner Music doesn't need the money.
Then again, HBO, or Netflix, an independent company, needs to do a documentary on Len Blavatnik. Exactly how did he acquire this wealth? And now Blavatnik has laundered his reputation, by donating to cultural institutions, to seemingly every museum in London and $75 million to the University of Oxford for a new school of government.
What happened when Communism fell, when Yeltsin was in power, before the kleptocratic Putin took power? Maybe Blavatnik's billions are totally legit, but maybe not. But just like with Jeffrey Epstein, when a billionaire gives you money...you take it and shut up.
Then again, the people dancing to Ed Sheeran have no idea about all of this.
Then again, Warner could completely shut down the cost heavy investment in new music and still be worth many billions.
But new music is sexy, which brings us to...
IT'S STILL ROCK 'N' ROLL TO ME
https://bit.ly/3cyi11L
Bottom line, most of the money is in rock, not hip-hop.
That's what the stats say.
But whenever you employ Nielsen stats there's a question of reality. Like physical and tracks...do they really matter anymore?
But one thing is for sure, hip-hop is nowhere near as dominant as the major players and the major media say it is. This narrative is similar to the one that got Time Warner to blow out its music division sixteen years ago. The sky is falling, no one will pay! People only want to hear hip-hop music, the rest is irrelevant!
Only it's not. The other genres combined surpass hip-hop, and the same is true even if you throw in pop.
But now we've got a different metric, streaming and it is skewing perception.
Look at concert grosses. Rock overwhelmingly dominates. And there's a huge component of today's country, which is really just the rock of the seventies, albeit with bogus lyrics about church and trucks and family.
And not only in ticket sales is rock king, but merch too.
And if you've gone to any of these classic rock shows, it's definitely not all oldsters. As for kids not being able to pay these high ticket prices...the prices are only that high because the demand is so great!
Now in the old days a sale was a sale, whether you listened to a record or not was irrelevant. Records were promoted via radio and print, and only those promoted had a huge number of sales.
Print is nearly worthless. The eighties and nineties paradigm of TV is a joke and radio still promotes, but mostly the promotion of music is about internet word of mouth. But the truth is the youngsters have more time to waste online, and they've got more time to listen to music, so they stream their favorites ad infinitum and then the media anoints the Spotify Top 50 and says THIS IS THE MUSIC OF AMERICA!
But it's not.
Now what you hear on today's Active Rock radio does not resemble anything close to classic rock, it's noisy and discordant and oftentimes has poor vocals. As for Adult Alternative...a lot of those acts are inherently niche. However, both of these formats have a significant number of fans. But imagine if they were promoting acts that could write songs who had good voices...
Look at the classic acts. Not only could the Beatles write, they could sing! Same deal with the Eagles. Only on Active Rock and AAA is it believed you need no skills to survive. Sure, Bob Dylan's voice is questionable/an acquired taste, but he is the best rock lyricist of all time!
In other words, the niches are driving today's new rock off the cliff. And those who make it are playing to these niches, for these formats. Whereas if there was a push behind acts that covered the basics...
As our country grows more diverse, only in the music business do offerings and promotion get narrower. It'd be like Netflix only producing teen dramas. They might be successful, but most people would not tune in. They might even make money, but imagine how much more could be made if other genres were produced too!
That's today's major music business.
But music is so far ahead of movies and TV. For ten bucks a month, or a near equivalent around the world, you get the history of recorded music at your fingertips. And it is about subscriptions. Adobe went to subscription, Microsoft too. You charge less and charge forever. Stop paying and you've got nothing. People will pay. But we still have Nielsen factoring in sales. This would be like Apple factoring in how many people install their software via CD-ROM. Oh, that's right, it's all downloaded, the computers don't even come with CD drives!
But Nielsen is so backward because that's how the labels like it.
Proving, once again, all the innovation has been made by youngsters and outsiders.
Proving, once again, the conventional wisdom is wrong.
There's a story in today's WSJ comparing the value of Warner to Spotify. They're both in the music business, but their models are totally different. Music is the ultimate in scale. Spotify doesn't scale at all, it always has to pay sixty something percent in royalties, which is why Spotify is pivoting into podcasts, which is why its stock jumped after it acquired Joe Rogan's show.
But Spotify is looking to the future, the music business is always stuck in the past.
You're pissed Daniel Ek is a billionaire? Without Daniel Ek, Warner Music would be worth less than half.
But streaming was inevitable, because it's on demand distribution, which now rules the world. Apple and HBO dribble out episodes, Netflix delivers them all at once. On Spotify, you get it all and you get it now. Which is the way people want it.
I don't agree with all of Russ Crupnick's conclusions here. But he's the first person other than myself railing against the unending focus on hip-hop.
I've got no argument with the power of hip-hop, or its impact upon the market, but to believe it's the only sound people want to listen to is...
Myopic.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Gaslit Nation
https://bit.ly/2Bsz7RG
My skin acted up.
For those playing the home game, I have pemphigus foliaceus. Google it if you want, but be prepared to bleed.
It took eighteen months and four doctors to diagnose. According to the organization, and there's one for every disease, the average patient sees five doctors in a year, proving that I'm my mother's son...as in it's illegal to be sick and if I just hang in there it will go away when the truth is if the medical establishment doesn't know what's going on keep searching, keep going to more doctors, because you are right and they are wrong.
And despite everybody e-mailing me their fakokta solutions, none of them work, because pemphigus foliaceus is an immune disorder, anything topical is palliative at best, in order to speak to the underlying condition you must get Rituxan, which is what they give lymphoma patients.
But the last thing I wanted to do was go to the infusion center.
But I did.
At first you're freaked out. They take your temperature. They don't allow anybody but the patient inside. And after being indoors for weeks, the thought of touching an unprotected door handle was overwhelming.
So, you sit in a chair for four to six hours as they drip this poison into your body, you go home and fall asleep and for the following three or four days you're off-kilter and then you're back.
And then you have to do it all over again.
That's right, two infusions exactly two weeks apart.
But the problem is you don't get the total beneficial effect for two months. Maybe you see some improvement in two weeks, a month should show results, but meanwhile, I'm itching up a storm, my legs are covered in giant red blotches, if I hadn't experienced this before, I'd be freaking out.
But the problem is since we're all at home, we've got too much time to think about our problems, there are few distractions. As for going out protesting...the dermatologist asked me if I was taking self-quarantining seriously, she emphasized how important it is.
So I'm home.
But at night I go hiking. Where fewer and fewer people are wearing masks.
Yup, Trump and his minions won. They don't look manly, what are the odds of infection anyway, let's all return to normal. And you may feel fine, but you're supposed to be protecting me, and you're not.
So I'm driving to the park last night, and I had to go when it was still hot, to beat the curfew, and Howard Stern is talking about Blackout Tuesday, how he grew up in Roosevelt, New York, which went from white to black seemingly overnight. And he's castigating those whites who are so self-righteous but who he knew would move immediately if a black family moved in next door. And it was so riveting, that I wanted to continue to listen.
But I was out of cell range.
So I pulled up Gaslit Nation instead.
Gaslit Nation is a podcast hosted by Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa. Sarah tweeted that the episode would be delayed because they wanted to get it right, they wanted to cover the insanity of our president and our country that had occurred in D.C. earlier.
And I remembered this. And downloaded the podcast. Usually I stream, that's what unlimited plans are for, but, like I said, I was gonna be out of cell range, for about ten minutes.
And at first it was just talking heads in my ears.
And then...
The episode is entitled "Reichstag Fire." Do you know about the Reichstag Fire?
Probably not, American schools are so busy teaching to the test that kids don't learn anything, they don't emerge fully-rounded citizens.
Anyway, Hitler took power, and then a month later there was this fire. The Nazis blamed the fire on the communists, when in truth it was a single perpetrator. But that didn't matter, Hitler, et al, quashed the communists, the resistance, so there would be no contrary opinions, and then immediately passed a law getting rid of most civil liberties. You had to keep Germany safe, right?
Now I don't want to make this about Hitler and Nazis, and that isn't the point anyway. It's all about authoritarianism.
And Kendzior and Chalupa are experts on authoritarianism. And that's where we're headed.
Forget the hoi polloi white nationalists and other Trump supporters, go straight to the top, go to Trump, that's where the problem resides.
In other words, be afraid, be very afraid.
You keep saying it can't happen here, and then it continues to do so. Wake up!
Sarah and Andrea walk you through the authoritarian playbook. Bringing out the military is a key element. And what is making me write this tonight is last night's stories of unbranded cops. Because Sarah and Andrea predicted this in the podcast I'd listened to just hours before! You don't know who is a cop and who isn't, who is on your side and who isn't, who to trust and who to not.
"A dangerous new factor in an uneasy moment: Unidentified law enforcement officers": https://wapo.st/2XyQYiD
So, Trump and his cronies are blaming the problems on antifa and other leftist organizations. This is conscious, truth is irrelevant, it's about scapegoating and eliminating dissent. You want to be safe from the rioters, right?
This is why involving the military is such a big deal. Force is needed to quiet opposing opinion.
But Mark Zuckerberg keeps saying disinformation is fine and "The New York Times" prints the Cotton opinion piece demanding the military be employed.
Sarah and Andrea rip "The New York Times" a new asshole. The paper was wrong about Iraq, it's wrong about so many things. It's complicit with those in power. And this is absolutely true, the "Times refuses to review Kendzior's new book, because it's just too dangerous, it might piss off the owners of this country.
And then there's the denial. Yes, those in power, both in D.C. and the media, keep saying they didn't foresee the troubles, and therefore they can't be held accountable. It's all about accountability. And I'm sure you noticed that they've arrested more people on the streets of Minneapolis than were arrested on Wall Street in 2008.
And isn't it funny that Trump couldn't get it together to fight Covid-19, but he lost no time jumping to action when it came to fighting dissent in the wake of the death of George Floyd. There you've got his priorities.
In other words, we're on the road to autocracy and the trusted sources are not to be, trusted that is.
I know, I know, this sounds like apocalyptic drivel, but you just couldn't conceive of what is happening now, whereas both Sarah and Andrea detailed it completely back in 2016, when Trump got elected.
But they're in their early forties and not part of the media elite.
That's right, Ronan Farrow is a hero because he stood up to big old NBC and then the "The New York Times" criticizes the accuracy of his work and there's a pissing match and now Blackout Tuesday supporters are hassling Alec Baldwin for launching his podcast with Woody Allen two days ago. He should have respected the blackout.
Alec bit back, said he thought Woody was innocent, after all the only place he's been convicted was in the court of public opinion and that he, Alec, is sick of politically correct behavior that achieves nothing.
In other words, we're not fighting over the major issues. The two Allens, Satchel (Ronan) and Woody, dominate the headlines in big media and no one is covering what's happening in the streets until there's outright revolt.
Change always comes from outside. New York and D.C. like it just the way it is. Furthermore, the right has been trying to cancel California, demonizing it because of its power, as goes California, so goes the nation, without the Golden State's economy, the entire U.S. craters.
So, the public has been neutered. Social media is pissed upon because that's the only place regular people can communicate.
So, now is the time to listen to outsiders. Listening to the "Reichstag Fire" episode of Gaslit Nation will be the most important thing you do today. Turn off the television, forget the minute by minute news, take an hour to get historical insight into where we are now.
Trump is not unique. He's just the latest in a long line of authoritarians. And one thing is for sure, he doesn't want the truth revealed. He doesn't want you to know about his dealings with Russia, he doesn't want you to see his tax returns, he wants no investigation into his administration's behavior and...
You sit at home and rely on checks and balances. From a do-nothing Congress and a right wing packed court system. Never forget, the Supreme Court handed victory in 2000 to Bush.
Write Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa off. Write me off. That's what you've been doing for decades, pursuing wealth and ignoring process, if you can understand it at all.
But now is the time to wake up, to understand our democracy is hanging by a thread. And that the Republicans won't save you, the Democrats won't save you, the media won't save you...
But you have to save yourself.
This one is on you. It's your responsibility. To educate yourself and act accordingly.
And there's no better place to start than with the "Reichstag Fire" episode of the Gaslit Nation podcast.
https://apple.co/2z7cCB6
https://spoti.fi/2Xy1pD9
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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My skin acted up.
For those playing the home game, I have pemphigus foliaceus. Google it if you want, but be prepared to bleed.
It took eighteen months and four doctors to diagnose. According to the organization, and there's one for every disease, the average patient sees five doctors in a year, proving that I'm my mother's son...as in it's illegal to be sick and if I just hang in there it will go away when the truth is if the medical establishment doesn't know what's going on keep searching, keep going to more doctors, because you are right and they are wrong.
And despite everybody e-mailing me their fakokta solutions, none of them work, because pemphigus foliaceus is an immune disorder, anything topical is palliative at best, in order to speak to the underlying condition you must get Rituxan, which is what they give lymphoma patients.
But the last thing I wanted to do was go to the infusion center.
But I did.
At first you're freaked out. They take your temperature. They don't allow anybody but the patient inside. And after being indoors for weeks, the thought of touching an unprotected door handle was overwhelming.
So, you sit in a chair for four to six hours as they drip this poison into your body, you go home and fall asleep and for the following three or four days you're off-kilter and then you're back.
And then you have to do it all over again.
That's right, two infusions exactly two weeks apart.
But the problem is you don't get the total beneficial effect for two months. Maybe you see some improvement in two weeks, a month should show results, but meanwhile, I'm itching up a storm, my legs are covered in giant red blotches, if I hadn't experienced this before, I'd be freaking out.
But the problem is since we're all at home, we've got too much time to think about our problems, there are few distractions. As for going out protesting...the dermatologist asked me if I was taking self-quarantining seriously, she emphasized how important it is.
So I'm home.
But at night I go hiking. Where fewer and fewer people are wearing masks.
Yup, Trump and his minions won. They don't look manly, what are the odds of infection anyway, let's all return to normal. And you may feel fine, but you're supposed to be protecting me, and you're not.
So I'm driving to the park last night, and I had to go when it was still hot, to beat the curfew, and Howard Stern is talking about Blackout Tuesday, how he grew up in Roosevelt, New York, which went from white to black seemingly overnight. And he's castigating those whites who are so self-righteous but who he knew would move immediately if a black family moved in next door. And it was so riveting, that I wanted to continue to listen.
But I was out of cell range.
So I pulled up Gaslit Nation instead.
Gaslit Nation is a podcast hosted by Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa. Sarah tweeted that the episode would be delayed because they wanted to get it right, they wanted to cover the insanity of our president and our country that had occurred in D.C. earlier.
And I remembered this. And downloaded the podcast. Usually I stream, that's what unlimited plans are for, but, like I said, I was gonna be out of cell range, for about ten minutes.
And at first it was just talking heads in my ears.
And then...
The episode is entitled "Reichstag Fire." Do you know about the Reichstag Fire?
Probably not, American schools are so busy teaching to the test that kids don't learn anything, they don't emerge fully-rounded citizens.
Anyway, Hitler took power, and then a month later there was this fire. The Nazis blamed the fire on the communists, when in truth it was a single perpetrator. But that didn't matter, Hitler, et al, quashed the communists, the resistance, so there would be no contrary opinions, and then immediately passed a law getting rid of most civil liberties. You had to keep Germany safe, right?
Now I don't want to make this about Hitler and Nazis, and that isn't the point anyway. It's all about authoritarianism.
And Kendzior and Chalupa are experts on authoritarianism. And that's where we're headed.
Forget the hoi polloi white nationalists and other Trump supporters, go straight to the top, go to Trump, that's where the problem resides.
In other words, be afraid, be very afraid.
You keep saying it can't happen here, and then it continues to do so. Wake up!
Sarah and Andrea walk you through the authoritarian playbook. Bringing out the military is a key element. And what is making me write this tonight is last night's stories of unbranded cops. Because Sarah and Andrea predicted this in the podcast I'd listened to just hours before! You don't know who is a cop and who isn't, who is on your side and who isn't, who to trust and who to not.
"A dangerous new factor in an uneasy moment: Unidentified law enforcement officers": https://wapo.st/2XyQYiD
So, Trump and his cronies are blaming the problems on antifa and other leftist organizations. This is conscious, truth is irrelevant, it's about scapegoating and eliminating dissent. You want to be safe from the rioters, right?
This is why involving the military is such a big deal. Force is needed to quiet opposing opinion.
But Mark Zuckerberg keeps saying disinformation is fine and "The New York Times" prints the Cotton opinion piece demanding the military be employed.
Sarah and Andrea rip "The New York Times" a new asshole. The paper was wrong about Iraq, it's wrong about so many things. It's complicit with those in power. And this is absolutely true, the "Times refuses to review Kendzior's new book, because it's just too dangerous, it might piss off the owners of this country.
And then there's the denial. Yes, those in power, both in D.C. and the media, keep saying they didn't foresee the troubles, and therefore they can't be held accountable. It's all about accountability. And I'm sure you noticed that they've arrested more people on the streets of Minneapolis than were arrested on Wall Street in 2008.
And isn't it funny that Trump couldn't get it together to fight Covid-19, but he lost no time jumping to action when it came to fighting dissent in the wake of the death of George Floyd. There you've got his priorities.
In other words, we're on the road to autocracy and the trusted sources are not to be, trusted that is.
I know, I know, this sounds like apocalyptic drivel, but you just couldn't conceive of what is happening now, whereas both Sarah and Andrea detailed it completely back in 2016, when Trump got elected.
But they're in their early forties and not part of the media elite.
That's right, Ronan Farrow is a hero because he stood up to big old NBC and then the "The New York Times" criticizes the accuracy of his work and there's a pissing match and now Blackout Tuesday supporters are hassling Alec Baldwin for launching his podcast with Woody Allen two days ago. He should have respected the blackout.
Alec bit back, said he thought Woody was innocent, after all the only place he's been convicted was in the court of public opinion and that he, Alec, is sick of politically correct behavior that achieves nothing.
In other words, we're not fighting over the major issues. The two Allens, Satchel (Ronan) and Woody, dominate the headlines in big media and no one is covering what's happening in the streets until there's outright revolt.
Change always comes from outside. New York and D.C. like it just the way it is. Furthermore, the right has been trying to cancel California, demonizing it because of its power, as goes California, so goes the nation, without the Golden State's economy, the entire U.S. craters.
So, the public has been neutered. Social media is pissed upon because that's the only place regular people can communicate.
So, now is the time to listen to outsiders. Listening to the "Reichstag Fire" episode of Gaslit Nation will be the most important thing you do today. Turn off the television, forget the minute by minute news, take an hour to get historical insight into where we are now.
Trump is not unique. He's just the latest in a long line of authoritarians. And one thing is for sure, he doesn't want the truth revealed. He doesn't want you to know about his dealings with Russia, he doesn't want you to see his tax returns, he wants no investigation into his administration's behavior and...
You sit at home and rely on checks and balances. From a do-nothing Congress and a right wing packed court system. Never forget, the Supreme Court handed victory in 2000 to Bush.
Write Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa off. Write me off. That's what you've been doing for decades, pursuing wealth and ignoring process, if you can understand it at all.
But now is the time to wake up, to understand our democracy is hanging by a thread. And that the Republicans won't save you, the Democrats won't save you, the media won't save you...
But you have to save yourself.
This one is on you. It's your responsibility. To educate yourself and act accordingly.
And there's no better place to start than with the "Reichstag Fire" episode of the Gaslit Nation podcast.
https://apple.co/2z7cCB6
https://spoti.fi/2Xy1pD9
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Robert Kolker-This Week's Podcast
Robert Kolker is the author of the best-selling book "Hidden Valley Road" (an Oprah's Book Club choice!) as well as the "New York" magazine article upon which the HBO feature film "Bad Education" is based and the book "Lost Girls," the film of which recently debuted on Netflix. First, we explore the mechanics of a book deal, how "Hidden Valley Road" came to be, and then we go deep into the essence of the story, about the Galvin family of Colorado Springs, with twelve children, six of whom became schizophrenic.
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bob-kolker/id1316200737?i=1000476777834
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ils8s6CDoKZr4tgtnLw0E
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=70179285
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Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bob-kolker/id1316200737?i=1000476777834
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ils8s6CDoKZr4tgtnLw0E
https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=70179285
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Wednesday 3 June 2020
Blackout Backlash
It's everywhere, covered in the NYT, WSJ and WaPo.
You see good intentions are no longer good enough.
And celebrities no longer get a pass.
If you stand for nothing, no one is interested.
This is the opposite of the past four decades, when it became about building your brand all over the world and maximizing your financial potential. Now, it's about saying no as much as yes, and realizing you're no better, no different from the people on the street.
We used to live in a two-tiered society. Those who had made it, who had power, and those who did not. And there was a very thin layer of those who succeeded, and they thought they were immune.
But as Bob Dylan sang in "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding),"
"But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked"
You see Trump has lost control of the narrative. As have the traditional media outlets. And no one is looking to the words of celebrities for truth.
We saw this first with Gal Gadot's "Imagine." It was immediately excoriated: https://nyti.ms/3crXU5n And now it's open season to react against those who are well-intentioned but clueless.
Naomi Klein talks about the shock doctrine, how momentous political events allow bad actors, i.e. corporations and the government, to institute change that benefits them and leaves the people out.
We're experiencing a shock right now, and everybody who does not align themselves with the people, whether it be in the street or in their minds, will be on the wrong side of history.
This is what Mark Zuckerberg doesn't understand. Even at Snapchat they're cracking down on promoting Trump: https://cnn.it/3eNn8wo This is a giant sea change, an end to false equivalencies, if you're not willing to re-evaluate everything, you're going to get lost in the shuffle.
And if you don't have an open mind, you're going to become a pariah, lose all your relationships and quite possibly your livelihood, like that drummer:
"DW Drums artist Hilary Jones unleashes racist rant online": https://bit.ly/3cvgYQ7
Now is the time to get on the side of the people, the masses, who've been abused too long.
And the abuse has come at the hands of the employers.
Contract work, gig work? Now is the time to make people employees, otherwise you're going to incur their wrath. Companies don't want to hire people as employees because they don't want to pay the benefits and they don't want to deal with firing them. But just like California cracked down on Uber and Lyft and other gig work, this cancer on our society will have to be treated or the employers too will become pariahs, just like the aforementioned drummer and Amy Cooper.
Same deal with individuals. Think before you speak, otherwise you could sacrifice your livelihood, your entire career. And sure, cancel culture is unfair, but it's a backlash over eons of abuse. If you think there's too much #MeToo, you don't understand that women are afraid to walk the streets, are on high alert at work, just imagine if you're an African-American woman!
But the right has been laughing about the special interest infighting of the left for years. And it's true, the left is not monolithic, but constituents' hearts and minds are in the right place, and now it's a time of hearts and minds.
Unlike the heartless Bill Barr. These people have to go.
And it's not only me, I'm sure you're aware of George Will's column:
"Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers.": https://wapo.st/2MqbKKR
I'm sure you're aware of the Lincoln Project, I'm sure you're aware of the latest ad:
"Mourning in America": https://bit.ly/2U28dqn
This is how it was in the sixties, you were either for us or against us. And you've got to choose.
I'm speaking to those who straddle both sides most especially. Who are left on social issues and right on fiscal ones. They're the same. I'm not saying you won't get rewards from working hard, but if you're paying a low tax rate, if you're the beneficiary of the carried interest rule, if most of your income is taxed at capital gains rates, if you make a lot and don't give enough away because you're protecting your lifestyle...you're in trouble. Both the NYT and LAT did stories how rioters have gone to Beverly Hills. Turns out the vaunted BH police force is no match for the people when they organize:
"Beverly Hills, Buckhead, SoHo: The New Sites of Urban Unrest": https://nyti.ms/3eJLLKz
And you don't need to be rich to organize, and you don't need to be famous. The tools are at your disposal, everybody counts, and if you dismiss someone...there will be backlash.
This does not mean everyone gets to play in the NBA, everyone gets to be rich... But it does mean we focus on the national safety net, we stop blaming people for their poverty and we do our best to lift people up.
People don't want to change, it's too hard.
But sometimes events force them to.
You don't want to evaluate your positions, you don't want to learn you're wrong.
And if you live in an echo chamber, it's to your detriment.
The right/left, Fox/MSNBC world no longer holds. First and foremost, because all the mainstream media outlets did not predict this and are not in control of the narrative. Chaos is not only in the streets, but in the national consciousness, what is truth?
And the fact that there were protests in over 140 communities for over a week... I lived through the sixties, protest was never that wide for that long.
As for patting yourself on the back for being so enlightened... Posting on social media... Don't kid yourself, you're not that important. Either be a leader, or get out of the way, the social media paradigm of gaining followers and likes is irrelevant. Think about it, none of that b.s. helped spread the word on the protests. It was mostly one to one, you talked with your friends, it was all about dialogue.
But we do need leaders.
But we're flipping the script. For too long we've said if you're rich you get a voice and your voice matters more than everybody else's.
Now, it's about intelligence, insight. The media believes it controls whose story is amplified, whose is boosted. But now, the people do that, the people have been in control of breaking acts, TV shows, every important story for over a decade now. The public broke "The Tiger King," the national media was caught flat-footed.
So, if you're resting on your status, check yourself.
You don't only need to learn the plight of African-Americans, but that of the poor, the underclass, the drug-addicted.
And this is not about voting. That's how the old guard dupes you into being under their control. Those in control of the system have to bend to the will of the people, like with the civil rights laws and the amendment to the Constitution that allowed women to vote. Those who are saying the Constitution is inviolate, and we must adhere to it, interpreting it as those who wrote it did, are on the wrong side of the future. Like I said, everything is up for grabs, even the Electoral College. The ground is shifting under your feet, this is an earthquake, your edifice might fall.
You might think we're going back to business as usual, that after we clean up from the protests everything will just be hunky-dory, but this will not be the end, but the beginning, it's the will of the people.
The will of the people has been subverted for years, how long do you expect it to last? There's a price for gerrymandering and voter suppression and team playing.
It's no longer us versus them, we're all in it together.
Like the cops who kneeled with the protesters, they realized the only way out of this is to all be on one side. Those who have force only will go down in defeat. Hell, even Trump and Barr's shenanigans are being blasted by some Republicans. Trump might sacrifice Barr, but he's never sacrificing himself.
But this is about much more than Trump.
We're sick of hearing about guns being needed by the public to keep order. I didn't see all those Second Amendment nitwits out in the street on the side of the police, no, they're just afraid. It's all puff and no substance.
And we're sick of hearing it's our fault that we're on drugs, that we're obese, as the government tears down healthy food guidelines in school.
We're sick of drinking tainted water, we're sick of climate change.
Yup, it's all up for grabs. You thought this was just about George Floyd, you're wrong, that was just the trigger, it's been brewing for decades.
And what we've learned in the internet era is the will of the people always wins. It always goes people's ways. You might be able to put your finger in the dike for a short time, but you're still gonna be overrun by the flood.
This is something you feel in your heart. You don't need to be out in the street, you don't need to be protesting. You know it's wrong. We've been sold a bill of goods since 1980, that if we just let the corporations run ragged the wealth would trickle down to the hoi polloi and everything would be groovy. But this did not happen, and this is still the paradigm. Hell, look at the most recent tax cuts.
And if you think people don't know all this, you're dreaming. People are informed.
Then again, they're misinformed. And the miscreants misinforming the public are crying now that social networks are cracking down on them.
But the truth is the social networks are going to crack down further. Zuckerberg is gonna cave, just you watch. Because he's ignorant now, saying there was no history to looting begetting shooting, but as he gains insight and the blowback sustains...
This is the story of today's America, the pressure. Change first, don't wait to be forced to.
Don't just cough up what you need to reluctantly, give workers what they deserve now. And I'm speaking to those self-righteous record companies too. How come acts can't own their records, writers own their books! How come profits can't be split 50/50? So Vivendi and Warner Music can make more on the stock market? That's one thing we've seen since Covid-19, the stock market has got nothing to do with economic reality on the street.
And right now, we're all on the street. You can't hide. Everybody knows the truth.
Wake up, it's judgment day.
"When Did Instagram Go Dark" We have mixed feelings about #Blackout Tuesday, too.": https://nyti.ms/3027qcN
"Opinion: Blackout Tuesday Backfired spectacularly. Five ways to support Black Lives Matter": https://lat.ms/2Y1MGiR
Why Some Black Lives Matter supporters are upset about those black squares on Instagram - Use the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday, not #BlackLivesMatter, they say, so vital voices are not drowned out.": https://wapo.st/3dwLrhV
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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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You see good intentions are no longer good enough.
And celebrities no longer get a pass.
If you stand for nothing, no one is interested.
This is the opposite of the past four decades, when it became about building your brand all over the world and maximizing your financial potential. Now, it's about saying no as much as yes, and realizing you're no better, no different from the people on the street.
We used to live in a two-tiered society. Those who had made it, who had power, and those who did not. And there was a very thin layer of those who succeeded, and they thought they were immune.
But as Bob Dylan sang in "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding),"
"But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked"
You see Trump has lost control of the narrative. As have the traditional media outlets. And no one is looking to the words of celebrities for truth.
We saw this first with Gal Gadot's "Imagine." It was immediately excoriated: https://nyti.ms/3crXU5n And now it's open season to react against those who are well-intentioned but clueless.
Naomi Klein talks about the shock doctrine, how momentous political events allow bad actors, i.e. corporations and the government, to institute change that benefits them and leaves the people out.
We're experiencing a shock right now, and everybody who does not align themselves with the people, whether it be in the street or in their minds, will be on the wrong side of history.
This is what Mark Zuckerberg doesn't understand. Even at Snapchat they're cracking down on promoting Trump: https://cnn.it/3eNn8wo This is a giant sea change, an end to false equivalencies, if you're not willing to re-evaluate everything, you're going to get lost in the shuffle.
And if you don't have an open mind, you're going to become a pariah, lose all your relationships and quite possibly your livelihood, like that drummer:
"DW Drums artist Hilary Jones unleashes racist rant online": https://bit.ly/3cvgYQ7
Now is the time to get on the side of the people, the masses, who've been abused too long.
And the abuse has come at the hands of the employers.
Contract work, gig work? Now is the time to make people employees, otherwise you're going to incur their wrath. Companies don't want to hire people as employees because they don't want to pay the benefits and they don't want to deal with firing them. But just like California cracked down on Uber and Lyft and other gig work, this cancer on our society will have to be treated or the employers too will become pariahs, just like the aforementioned drummer and Amy Cooper.
Same deal with individuals. Think before you speak, otherwise you could sacrifice your livelihood, your entire career. And sure, cancel culture is unfair, but it's a backlash over eons of abuse. If you think there's too much #MeToo, you don't understand that women are afraid to walk the streets, are on high alert at work, just imagine if you're an African-American woman!
But the right has been laughing about the special interest infighting of the left for years. And it's true, the left is not monolithic, but constituents' hearts and minds are in the right place, and now it's a time of hearts and minds.
Unlike the heartless Bill Barr. These people have to go.
And it's not only me, I'm sure you're aware of George Will's column:
"Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers.": https://wapo.st/2MqbKKR
I'm sure you're aware of the Lincoln Project, I'm sure you're aware of the latest ad:
"Mourning in America": https://bit.ly/2U28dqn
This is how it was in the sixties, you were either for us or against us. And you've got to choose.
I'm speaking to those who straddle both sides most especially. Who are left on social issues and right on fiscal ones. They're the same. I'm not saying you won't get rewards from working hard, but if you're paying a low tax rate, if you're the beneficiary of the carried interest rule, if most of your income is taxed at capital gains rates, if you make a lot and don't give enough away because you're protecting your lifestyle...you're in trouble. Both the NYT and LAT did stories how rioters have gone to Beverly Hills. Turns out the vaunted BH police force is no match for the people when they organize:
"Beverly Hills, Buckhead, SoHo: The New Sites of Urban Unrest": https://nyti.ms/3eJLLKz
And you don't need to be rich to organize, and you don't need to be famous. The tools are at your disposal, everybody counts, and if you dismiss someone...there will be backlash.
This does not mean everyone gets to play in the NBA, everyone gets to be rich... But it does mean we focus on the national safety net, we stop blaming people for their poverty and we do our best to lift people up.
People don't want to change, it's too hard.
But sometimes events force them to.
You don't want to evaluate your positions, you don't want to learn you're wrong.
And if you live in an echo chamber, it's to your detriment.
The right/left, Fox/MSNBC world no longer holds. First and foremost, because all the mainstream media outlets did not predict this and are not in control of the narrative. Chaos is not only in the streets, but in the national consciousness, what is truth?
And the fact that there were protests in over 140 communities for over a week... I lived through the sixties, protest was never that wide for that long.
As for patting yourself on the back for being so enlightened... Posting on social media... Don't kid yourself, you're not that important. Either be a leader, or get out of the way, the social media paradigm of gaining followers and likes is irrelevant. Think about it, none of that b.s. helped spread the word on the protests. It was mostly one to one, you talked with your friends, it was all about dialogue.
But we do need leaders.
But we're flipping the script. For too long we've said if you're rich you get a voice and your voice matters more than everybody else's.
Now, it's about intelligence, insight. The media believes it controls whose story is amplified, whose is boosted. But now, the people do that, the people have been in control of breaking acts, TV shows, every important story for over a decade now. The public broke "The Tiger King," the national media was caught flat-footed.
So, if you're resting on your status, check yourself.
You don't only need to learn the plight of African-Americans, but that of the poor, the underclass, the drug-addicted.
And this is not about voting. That's how the old guard dupes you into being under their control. Those in control of the system have to bend to the will of the people, like with the civil rights laws and the amendment to the Constitution that allowed women to vote. Those who are saying the Constitution is inviolate, and we must adhere to it, interpreting it as those who wrote it did, are on the wrong side of the future. Like I said, everything is up for grabs, even the Electoral College. The ground is shifting under your feet, this is an earthquake, your edifice might fall.
You might think we're going back to business as usual, that after we clean up from the protests everything will just be hunky-dory, but this will not be the end, but the beginning, it's the will of the people.
The will of the people has been subverted for years, how long do you expect it to last? There's a price for gerrymandering and voter suppression and team playing.
It's no longer us versus them, we're all in it together.
Like the cops who kneeled with the protesters, they realized the only way out of this is to all be on one side. Those who have force only will go down in defeat. Hell, even Trump and Barr's shenanigans are being blasted by some Republicans. Trump might sacrifice Barr, but he's never sacrificing himself.
But this is about much more than Trump.
We're sick of hearing about guns being needed by the public to keep order. I didn't see all those Second Amendment nitwits out in the street on the side of the police, no, they're just afraid. It's all puff and no substance.
And we're sick of hearing it's our fault that we're on drugs, that we're obese, as the government tears down healthy food guidelines in school.
We're sick of drinking tainted water, we're sick of climate change.
Yup, it's all up for grabs. You thought this was just about George Floyd, you're wrong, that was just the trigger, it's been brewing for decades.
And what we've learned in the internet era is the will of the people always wins. It always goes people's ways. You might be able to put your finger in the dike for a short time, but you're still gonna be overrun by the flood.
This is something you feel in your heart. You don't need to be out in the street, you don't need to be protesting. You know it's wrong. We've been sold a bill of goods since 1980, that if we just let the corporations run ragged the wealth would trickle down to the hoi polloi and everything would be groovy. But this did not happen, and this is still the paradigm. Hell, look at the most recent tax cuts.
And if you think people don't know all this, you're dreaming. People are informed.
Then again, they're misinformed. And the miscreants misinforming the public are crying now that social networks are cracking down on them.
But the truth is the social networks are going to crack down further. Zuckerberg is gonna cave, just you watch. Because he's ignorant now, saying there was no history to looting begetting shooting, but as he gains insight and the blowback sustains...
This is the story of today's America, the pressure. Change first, don't wait to be forced to.
Don't just cough up what you need to reluctantly, give workers what they deserve now. And I'm speaking to those self-righteous record companies too. How come acts can't own their records, writers own their books! How come profits can't be split 50/50? So Vivendi and Warner Music can make more on the stock market? That's one thing we've seen since Covid-19, the stock market has got nothing to do with economic reality on the street.
And right now, we're all on the street. You can't hide. Everybody knows the truth.
Wake up, it's judgment day.
"When Did Instagram Go Dark" We have mixed feelings about #Blackout Tuesday, too.": https://nyti.ms/3027qcN
"Opinion: Blackout Tuesday Backfired spectacularly. Five ways to support Black Lives Matter": https://lat.ms/2Y1MGiR
Why Some Black Lives Matter supporters are upset about those black squares on Instagram - Use the hashtag #BlackoutTuesday, not #BlackLivesMatter, they say, so vital voices are not drowned out.": https://wapo.st/3dwLrhV
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Tuesday 2 June 2020
Arts Update
DEUTSCHLAND '83
This was recommended by "The Week." And I recommend "The Week": https://theweek.com
But it's expensive.
The magazine world has completely changed, and it's even worse in the era of Covid-19. I.e. advertising has fallen off dramatically. But "The Week" was never based on advertising. So now, every magazine is expensive, look at the price of "The New Yorker" or "Rolling Stone"! Furthermore, you can get so many overpriced journals via Apple News+. But I recommend subscribing to "The Week," especially if you don't subscribe to many periodicals.
Anyway, "The Week" combs through all the news of the week and distills it down. Kinda like a Zagat guide, but more comprehensible.
I subscribed years ago, but thought there was a right wing bias. If there ever was, I no longer believe this to be the case. But be wary of the long condensed article at the back, oftentimes there's no context and you don't get an accurate picture.
Now I have subscriptions to almost all of the publications they quote, the NYT, WaPo, WSJ...but not all of them.
You can avoid all TV news (which you should, other than for images that are breaking) and all periodicals and just read "The Week" and be more informed than almost anybody you know. Buy it!
Now "Deutschland '83" has a tone problem. As in is it humorous or serious? It's about an East German spy invading West Germany. But it's not a James Bond movie, it's more of a delineation of the viewpoints...and the landscape is amazing! Makes you want to go to Germany.
And the story is true.
Not the set-up, with the characters, but the basic framework. I don't want to give anything away, but I didn't know the truth of this story, and I doubt many people will.
You get hooked.
And, East Germany is the land of the true believers. Kinda like Trumpworld, they're wearing blinders. Unfortunately, I think the Republican party is following Trump right off a cliff. What he did yesterday was indefensible, even the bishop was offended, and by defending him... What did the Beatles say, "Think for yourself"? This is the time of iconic leaders, those who stand up for what is right, followers will be burned. Everything is up for grabs and we're experiencing a giant reset. The ball is being moved as we speak. Zuckerberg is gonna stand up. The NYT is taking a firmer stance against Trump. And the Fox people have no idea what is going on outside their bubble. Which is why you want to get "The Week," to see what's going on outside your world. Information is power. Challenge your parents' precepts. Make your own decisions.
Do what's right.
Actually, that's the ultimate message of "Deutschland '83."
DEUTSCHLAND '86
I didn't know it existed. I thought "Deutschland '83" was a one time shot. But it turns out there's going to be a "Deutschland '89"! Word is it's going to be on Amazon, not Hulu like the previous two. And speaking of platforms, it's unfortunate the new Laurel Canyon documentary is on Epix. If you know nothing about the scene, you must see it. But you don't come away beaming and needing to testify. But there is so much more here than has been focused on previously. The impact of the Monkees, the players more than the TV show. And this doc takes you all the way up to the seventies, Manson and beyond, to the Eagles and when acts were making so much money they embraced more upscale digs and wanted more safety.
So, there's no tone issue with "Deutschland '86."
Its focus is on Africa and apartheid. East Germany was on the side of the oppressed.
Once again, the landscape makes you want to go there, South Africa is so beautiful!
"Deutschland '86" portrays the cracks in the East German system.
That's why you should listen to "The Big Steal" podcast. We don't realize what chaos existed in Russia between the fall of Communism and Putin. Everything was up for grabs. Watch the Showtime documentary now on Netflix "Operation Odessa" for further insight. "Operation Odessa" is nearly a romp, you'll have a hard time turning it off, but maybe that's another newsletter.
DOUGLAS
Hannah Gadsby's latest on Netflix.
No, it's not as good as "Nanette," but I still recommend it. Hannah Gadsby is so damn LIKABLE! She talks about being an autistic lesbian, but even if you're straight, you'll be drawn to her. And at the end she says we're all somewhere on the spectrum, which is probably true.
There's a big focus on Gadsby's haters. She doesn't wince and crumble, she pushes back, but the fact that she spends so much time on them is noteworthy. If you're in the public eye, you've got haters. And they hate so much that you become inhibited, you think before you write or speak, for fear of the backlash. You know exactly what the triggers are. And the haters are professionals, they're working the refs 24/7, especially the Trump supporters, I know from experience. Those on the other side? They'll complain, but not as vociferously, not every time, and they won't make it personal.
But that's the world we live in today. Everybody's gun-shy. Politicians and artists and... Whereas the public resonates with the truth. It's kind of the reverse of the Nixon era, the silent majority is actually left!
And, once again, like in "Nanette," Gadsby focuses on art, there's a whole section where they flash paintings and she whips out her pointer and makes comments. She needs to do a whole special just on art. She's very knowledgeable and her sensibility is unique and she makes art history come alive. Made me want to know more.
THE GIRLS FROM CORONA DEL MAR
https://amzn.to/303syz9
I could not put this book down. Not initially, but then I got hooked and had to sit and finish it all in one marathon session.
No, this is not as good as Rufi Thorpe's latest book, "The Knockout Queen," but in "The Girls from Corona del Mar" you see a reflection of how people really are. Their choices and the results. Life is long, you may think it's over immediately, but you can pivot, you can make new choices.
Not that there are no consequences of these choices. What is your character, what is your responsibility?
Thorpe's books are SoCal focused. And that's quite a different mentality from the east coast. On the east coast everything's serious, important. Parents hover over their kids, especially when it comes to education. On the west coast it's life and life only. On the east coast, it's about notches in your belt, as if at the end you'll get acknowledgement from the committee in white robes. Education does not insure success in labor life.
But that's another screed.
Once again, I refuse to delineate the plot, I don't want to ruin it for you. Books are private adventures, that you luxuriate in. When someone tells you what is going to happen, the experience is hobbled, you're ripped off.
When this book ends you'll sit there stunned with the truth. It's not so much what happens, but the reflection on life. You think you've got the game figured out, you think you're winning, you jumped through all the right hoops and...you find out at the end that you know less than you did at the beginning.
DEAR FANG, WITH LOVE
Don't read this. This is Rufi Thorpe's second book (out of three), it misses the mark, it fails. But the reason I mention it here is I became so enraptured with Thorpe's writing and viewpoint that I wanted more, I needed more, I wanted to explore, and that's why I kept plowing through her books.
Twenty five years ago, I cut out a quote in "Newsweek," when that was "The Week" of its day. I kept it right by my computer. It was inspiring. It was by Mitsuko Uchida, the Mozart pianist/expert. And I can almost quote it by heart, but the essence is she tells all her students to practice really hard, because there are very few great things out there, and if you're great, people will be drawn to you.
That's the absolute truth.
We're trying to find a new streaming series. Been through about three that haven't met the mark. Stopped after seven episodes of one. And there are some on Sundance Now and MHz and Britbox but I refuse to sign up for one more streaming service, it's an insult. It's worse than the cable bundle. Just quote me one price for EVERYTHING!
With the plethora of TV shows, it's stunning how few are truly great. And that's all I have time for. And when something is great, I want to go deeper, check out everything the artist has ever produced. It's no different from the sixties and seventies, there's just more stuff. There are very few gems. And I know, people e-mail me their mediocre material all day long. If it was truly that great, OTHER PEOPLE would be e-mailing me about it. In our self-promotional culture purveyors don't realize this. If you made it and you're telling me it's great, I ignore it completely, it's got no value, I need to hear it from someone else. But it's easier to promote online than to create great work. Every artist thinks they're entitled to time and eyeballs, but very few deserve attention. But if we find one who does, we tell everybody we know!
Like I'm doing with Rufi Thorpe.
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This was recommended by "The Week." And I recommend "The Week": https://theweek.com
But it's expensive.
The magazine world has completely changed, and it's even worse in the era of Covid-19. I.e. advertising has fallen off dramatically. But "The Week" was never based on advertising. So now, every magazine is expensive, look at the price of "The New Yorker" or "Rolling Stone"! Furthermore, you can get so many overpriced journals via Apple News+. But I recommend subscribing to "The Week," especially if you don't subscribe to many periodicals.
Anyway, "The Week" combs through all the news of the week and distills it down. Kinda like a Zagat guide, but more comprehensible.
I subscribed years ago, but thought there was a right wing bias. If there ever was, I no longer believe this to be the case. But be wary of the long condensed article at the back, oftentimes there's no context and you don't get an accurate picture.
Now I have subscriptions to almost all of the publications they quote, the NYT, WaPo, WSJ...but not all of them.
You can avoid all TV news (which you should, other than for images that are breaking) and all periodicals and just read "The Week" and be more informed than almost anybody you know. Buy it!
Now "Deutschland '83" has a tone problem. As in is it humorous or serious? It's about an East German spy invading West Germany. But it's not a James Bond movie, it's more of a delineation of the viewpoints...and the landscape is amazing! Makes you want to go to Germany.
And the story is true.
Not the set-up, with the characters, but the basic framework. I don't want to give anything away, but I didn't know the truth of this story, and I doubt many people will.
You get hooked.
And, East Germany is the land of the true believers. Kinda like Trumpworld, they're wearing blinders. Unfortunately, I think the Republican party is following Trump right off a cliff. What he did yesterday was indefensible, even the bishop was offended, and by defending him... What did the Beatles say, "Think for yourself"? This is the time of iconic leaders, those who stand up for what is right, followers will be burned. Everything is up for grabs and we're experiencing a giant reset. The ball is being moved as we speak. Zuckerberg is gonna stand up. The NYT is taking a firmer stance against Trump. And the Fox people have no idea what is going on outside their bubble. Which is why you want to get "The Week," to see what's going on outside your world. Information is power. Challenge your parents' precepts. Make your own decisions.
Do what's right.
Actually, that's the ultimate message of "Deutschland '83."
DEUTSCHLAND '86
I didn't know it existed. I thought "Deutschland '83" was a one time shot. But it turns out there's going to be a "Deutschland '89"! Word is it's going to be on Amazon, not Hulu like the previous two. And speaking of platforms, it's unfortunate the new Laurel Canyon documentary is on Epix. If you know nothing about the scene, you must see it. But you don't come away beaming and needing to testify. But there is so much more here than has been focused on previously. The impact of the Monkees, the players more than the TV show. And this doc takes you all the way up to the seventies, Manson and beyond, to the Eagles and when acts were making so much money they embraced more upscale digs and wanted more safety.
So, there's no tone issue with "Deutschland '86."
Its focus is on Africa and apartheid. East Germany was on the side of the oppressed.
Once again, the landscape makes you want to go there, South Africa is so beautiful!
"Deutschland '86" portrays the cracks in the East German system.
That's why you should listen to "The Big Steal" podcast. We don't realize what chaos existed in Russia between the fall of Communism and Putin. Everything was up for grabs. Watch the Showtime documentary now on Netflix "Operation Odessa" for further insight. "Operation Odessa" is nearly a romp, you'll have a hard time turning it off, but maybe that's another newsletter.
DOUGLAS
Hannah Gadsby's latest on Netflix.
No, it's not as good as "Nanette," but I still recommend it. Hannah Gadsby is so damn LIKABLE! She talks about being an autistic lesbian, but even if you're straight, you'll be drawn to her. And at the end she says we're all somewhere on the spectrum, which is probably true.
There's a big focus on Gadsby's haters. She doesn't wince and crumble, she pushes back, but the fact that she spends so much time on them is noteworthy. If you're in the public eye, you've got haters. And they hate so much that you become inhibited, you think before you write or speak, for fear of the backlash. You know exactly what the triggers are. And the haters are professionals, they're working the refs 24/7, especially the Trump supporters, I know from experience. Those on the other side? They'll complain, but not as vociferously, not every time, and they won't make it personal.
But that's the world we live in today. Everybody's gun-shy. Politicians and artists and... Whereas the public resonates with the truth. It's kind of the reverse of the Nixon era, the silent majority is actually left!
And, once again, like in "Nanette," Gadsby focuses on art, there's a whole section where they flash paintings and she whips out her pointer and makes comments. She needs to do a whole special just on art. She's very knowledgeable and her sensibility is unique and she makes art history come alive. Made me want to know more.
THE GIRLS FROM CORONA DEL MAR
https://amzn.to/303syz9
I could not put this book down. Not initially, but then I got hooked and had to sit and finish it all in one marathon session.
No, this is not as good as Rufi Thorpe's latest book, "The Knockout Queen," but in "The Girls from Corona del Mar" you see a reflection of how people really are. Their choices and the results. Life is long, you may think it's over immediately, but you can pivot, you can make new choices.
Not that there are no consequences of these choices. What is your character, what is your responsibility?
Thorpe's books are SoCal focused. And that's quite a different mentality from the east coast. On the east coast everything's serious, important. Parents hover over their kids, especially when it comes to education. On the west coast it's life and life only. On the east coast, it's about notches in your belt, as if at the end you'll get acknowledgement from the committee in white robes. Education does not insure success in labor life.
But that's another screed.
Once again, I refuse to delineate the plot, I don't want to ruin it for you. Books are private adventures, that you luxuriate in. When someone tells you what is going to happen, the experience is hobbled, you're ripped off.
When this book ends you'll sit there stunned with the truth. It's not so much what happens, but the reflection on life. You think you've got the game figured out, you think you're winning, you jumped through all the right hoops and...you find out at the end that you know less than you did at the beginning.
DEAR FANG, WITH LOVE
Don't read this. This is Rufi Thorpe's second book (out of three), it misses the mark, it fails. But the reason I mention it here is I became so enraptured with Thorpe's writing and viewpoint that I wanted more, I needed more, I wanted to explore, and that's why I kept plowing through her books.
Twenty five years ago, I cut out a quote in "Newsweek," when that was "The Week" of its day. I kept it right by my computer. It was inspiring. It was by Mitsuko Uchida, the Mozart pianist/expert. And I can almost quote it by heart, but the essence is she tells all her students to practice really hard, because there are very few great things out there, and if you're great, people will be drawn to you.
That's the absolute truth.
We're trying to find a new streaming series. Been through about three that haven't met the mark. Stopped after seven episodes of one. And there are some on Sundance Now and MHz and Britbox but I refuse to sign up for one more streaming service, it's an insult. It's worse than the cable bundle. Just quote me one price for EVERYTHING!
With the plethora of TV shows, it's stunning how few are truly great. And that's all I have time for. And when something is great, I want to go deeper, check out everything the artist has ever produced. It's no different from the sixties and seventies, there's just more stuff. There are very few gems. And I know, people e-mail me their mediocre material all day long. If it was truly that great, OTHER PEOPLE would be e-mailing me about it. In our self-promotional culture purveyors don't realize this. If you made it and you're telling me it's great, I ignore it completely, it's got no value, I need to hear it from someone else. But it's easier to promote online than to create great work. Every artist thinks they're entitled to time and eyeballs, but very few deserve attention. But if we find one who does, we tell everybody we know!
Like I'm doing with Rufi Thorpe.
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Cousin Bobby Comparison-SiriusXM This Week
Show Playlist:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2U5eEc9
Pandora: https://bit.ly/2XXVbeN
Tune in today June 2nd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2U5eEc9
Pandora: https://bit.ly/2XXVbeN
Tune in today June 2nd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Monday 1 June 2020
Blackout Tuesday
Could the music industry do any LESS?
I'm talking about the recorded music industry, the live business has been blacked out for months, with no light on the horizon.
But the labels...
Let me see... Warner, Sony and Universal. Keep congratulating yourself as you only sign and promote hip-hop and pop. Oh, don't tell me about the exceptions, own the truth. You're leaving out a whole swath of America, to the point that the "hit" music business means less than ever before.
Music has gone tribal. And the labels and the streaming services, everybody in the food chain, to a great degree the same players who were there pre-Napster, act like nothing is different. We've got forty hits, and the rest don't matter, just like black people in America.
Don't you get it? That the killing of George Floyd was just a flash point, and the hardships African-Americans must bear are only a part of the picture.
You see the U.S. is screwed-up.
There, I said it.
We're first in almost no category. But we keep hearing about freedom and comparisons to "socialist" countries that have health care and high taxes and...you wouldn't want that, would you? OF COURSE WE WOULD!
The music business is just like the Democrats and the Republicans and big media, they're following the story, they're not prepared to get ahead of it, they've been blind to the future for decades.
Come on, black music is the bread and butter of these three big labels and it took this to get them to say something? Where were they when Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner and the rest were killed. NOWHERE!
And this is not 1992, this is not the L.A. riots. Back then the first thing that occurred to me was Ice-T WAS RIGHT! N.W.A. too. They'd been telling us about police abuse for years, finally we woke up and confronted the truth.
In Los Angeles. The rest of the country thought it was a local problem. That it couldn't happen there. And now they're protesting in Salt Lake City? Have you been there? Cities and states don't come any more white. It'd be like preschoolers agitating for abortion rights, completely incomprehensible.
But maybe foreseeable.
Forget those that disagree with you. NOW! Of course Trump is still president, of course Fox News still has power, of course there are white nationalists, but the truth is there are more of us than them, but we let them set the agenda, whether it be reopening in the wake of Covid-19 or immigration or...
It's like parents complaining they're at the mercy of their children. When are left wingers gonna look themselves in the mirror and man-up?
Well, a whole bunch of them just did, and D.C. and the media think it's an isolated event, that will blow over.
No way!
They're protesting for change at Facebook today: https://nyti.ms/3cnIq2d Workers want Zuck to grow a pair and do the right thing. Ever hear of the right thing? I don't think so in today's mercenary culture.
So, where are today's anthems, that we can all rally around?
THEY DON'T EXIST!
I'm not sure if they could ever exist today, but the recorded music business has its head so far up its rear end that it can't see what is going on, that it's lost purchase on most of the public. This was proven by Adele, she sells ten times the number of records as anybody else but do we get more Adeles? NO WAY!
And now I'm in dangerous territory, you can't say anything against hip-hop or black people in the music business.
But I will.
Where are all the tracks speaking to the human condition, auguring for change? No, it's all about getting rich, the lifestyle, accumulating enough money to live behind a gate.
Except for the struggling. We don't hear from struggling basketball players, why do we keep hearing about struggling musicians? Maybe they're just not up to snuff, don't have the talent!
So why don't the black acts refuse to record for their labels until they hire more African-Americans? One thing is for sure, the artist has the power, ALWAYS! Where have the artists been as incomes go down and the white man rules? Crickets. Of course there are exceptions, but...
We just hear that Jay Z called the governor. Nothing wrong with that, but what does that mean?
The only words that have mattered have been those of Killer Mike: https://bit.ly/3gMKEvh But he was co-opted by the powers-that-be, he asked for calm when the protesters were not ready to be calm, unlike Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: https://lat.ms/36RllDL
No one likes to be criticized, but it's the only way you can hear the truth. Sycophants feel good, but the truth is what's important.
Kinda like Lady Gaga... She's being criticized for being out of touch with the times, wanting to dance and party while our cities are burning. Well, that was just timing. But, her album is being criticized everywhere for being a return to what once was, that it's safe. This is not what artists do, they keep pushing the envelope, changing, getting ahead of the audience. If you give people what they want they're gonna forget you. Because you've got to give them what they NEED!
And Lady Gaga is white, but Marvin Gaye was and Stevie Wonder still is black. And Marvin put out "What's Going On" and Stevie gained control of his recording career too and amongst his gems was "Living For The City." Ever listen to the break in that song? Same as it ever was. Blacks being arrested. But we've never heard Stevie say I'M A BUSINESS, MAN! It was always about the art.
And with Kanye it's all about himself.
And the white acts are just as bad. It's our selfish culture imbued with braggadocio. But the truth is not everybody can be famous, not everybody can be rich, WHAT ABOUT THEM?
And statistically African-Americans get the short end of the stick, but god forbid a white person sacrifice.
What exactly is the sacrifice in Blackout Tuesday? People won't work for ten minutes? What does that do? Where's the call to action? Nowhere, because the recorded music industry doesn't want controversy, it just wants to go on raping and pillaging like it always has. With opaque royalties.
As for the Viacom channels... This is free press, MTV and VH1 haven't meant anything in music for eons. What next, record stores going dark?
Do you really think ten minutes of silence is gonna change anything? Do you really think the public at large IS EVEN GONNA KNOW?
Music has power, but it's been totally abdicated. It's about having hits so you can get sponsorships, maybe even your own line of clothing and/or perfume and living a high lifestyle in St. Bart's. This is what you're selling? Many are even proud of their privates, even when they do them for dictators.
As for another concert, another charity single...
Concerts only appeal to a slice of the audience and singles flop, because they're always a bad song, usually a creepy ballad, a kumbaya moment for different genres to get together when the truth is they never coexist anywhere else, on concert stages, on radio... Bonnie Raitt always had legendary blues people opening her show. Laura Nyro employed Miles Davis. We don't see that cross-culturalization anymore.
But black music drives the youth, is the most defining musical culture, even though it's not as pervasive as the labels, radio and press tell us it is. So that's the conundrum, the youth love hip-hop but their parents seem ignorant of this. That's right, not only the president of the United States must sometimes have to stand naked.
So the whites control the corporations and the blacks are big in entertainment but entertainment doesn't matter. But last I checked, entertainment WAS ALL that mattered! Without culture, a country is hollow. Then again, they've eliminated all the music and art programs from public schools as Betsy DeVos gives money to the private schools.
But that story doesn't get spread.
But the protesters CAN FEEL IT! Their futures have been sold down the river! Do you really think this many white people would be out protesting with African-Americans if it was only about George Floyd? NO WAY! There were race riots in the sixties, but they were localized, and there were very few white faces, you'd only get white faces at antiwar protests.
Everybody keeps thinking they're immune. But no one is immune.
The hoi polloi get $1200 and all we keep hearing is about corporations that don't get enough. The focus is on the big companies, the economy must be saved. How about saying jobs must be saved? How about a living wage? How about free child care so those in poverty can be lifted up? How about free health care so breadwinners can continue to work?
No, these are all takers.
You see the government and media have been selling us falsehoods for decades. You're a winner, if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps you'll make it! But we can't even get the government to forgive school loans to veterans who were hoodwinked by for-profit institutions.
CAVEAT EMPTOR!
Yes, America is all about ripping you off. And selling an image that makes you feel worse about yourself. What's the latest, Kylie Jenner cheated and she's not really a billionaire? Is that really the role model we want, a young, uneducated nincompoop who just happens to be rich?
And Barack Obama is elected president and we think we've made headway. But he's so afraid of appearing the angry black man that he lets the whites walk all over him. Look at his pronouncements now, there's little emotion, little anger, because he'll be excoriated by the commentariat. WHO CARES ABOUT THE COMMENTARIAT? They're not in control of the country!
That's what we've learned in the past week. There's not enough government to control the mob. As for obeying curfews...let me see, Trump told all his followers not to wear masks, what makes you think people are gonna obey curfews?
The little people have to obey the rules, whereas the big people break them and go scot-free.
It gets worse and worse. Zuck is so myopic he can't do the right thing. And Jack Dorsey does the right thing and even the left gives him a hard time. Baby steps first. Unless you're so slow that you engender revolt. Yup, it's those in the public eye who have to make the first move, not some faceless people at the label going out for a smoke break.
So what we've learned here is the music business has lost its power. It used to reach everybody and there was no greater influence. Today, streaming TV gets all the attention and generates the most influence. Because that's where risk is taken, where outside voices are amplified, where real life is reflected.
Let me see... Have you ever even seen a Rolls? Unless you're in L.A. or Atlanta, probably not. Do you own a yacht? Do you even have a college education?
The recorded music business gets younger and younger... Tell me again what Billie Eilish knows about life, she was even home-schooled! She's got no clue what's going on, but we keep on lionizing her.
The Grammys kick out their female boss because the old men want no change. And you're surprised the doors in business are closed to outsiders? I thought entertainment was supposed to be fluid!
And the NFL's got few black coaches.
Yup, there's systemic racism.
But there's more than that.
There's income inequality and disinformation...
You're worried about Trump getting re-elected, by those who want law and order. Do you really think he'll stay in office and everything will be hunky-dory? OF COURSE NOT! You haven't seen riots in the street like you'll see if Trump wins, this weekend was just a dress rehearsal. And don't tell me these protests can be contained, they've been going on for days!
Those in power are clueless. You've got to fall in behind the negatively affected, learn and then take charge, support people.
But that's not what happens. Enlightened lefties self-flagellate, the right goes underground and there's no change.
Meanwhile, we keep hearing in the media that they nailed Harvey Weinstein.
Did they nail my boss at the trucking company?
You can spread any word you want to now. Whether you're with or against the protesters, whether you're for change or you're not. DOESN'T MATTER! The proletariat suddenly took control of this country. Trump couldn't see it and hasn't known how to react as he's huddled deep in the White House bunker. We keep hearing politicians' hands are tied, there's nothing they can do, and if you'd just vote...
I'm gonna vote, but I'm not hopeful for change. Because the truth is the elite of this nation have pushed the hoi polloi down so far that there's absolutely no way people can pick themselves up. But it's worse, they left people behind and then pissed on them, and told them they could be rappers or athletes. How much opportunity do you have in the inner city? They took money from the schools and you endure bullies and gangs outside your domicile and if you move to the suburbs the whites want you to leave your culture behind, to be just like them.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!
Can you find one person who predicted the riots and protests of the past five days? I can't. But I am a student of history, and it's all about flash points. We're in the middle of one. And one thing is for sure, we're not returning to where we were, no way. A new society will arise and I ask, are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
If you make 400k and pay all your taxes... That's not enough, you should be paying more, you should be giving money away, the system worked for you, make it work for everybody else.
If you're rich and you made it through your own hard efforts...CONGRATULATIONS! But just because you created some snappy software that does not mean you can solve the problems of the inner city.
Zuck gave money away...TO HIMSELF! I'd recite the details, but the truth is he avoided taxes, the money is not spent and he's still in control of it. That's what the government allows you to do. What does the government allow poor people to do?
You must obey the rules, stand behind the lines, when the media keeps clapping for outside rule-breakers like Elon Musk. What message are we sending here?
Oh, that's right, socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
It's not only the music business that is out of touch. All our institutions have lost touch with our citizens. So, they don't know what to do. They've been running unfettered for decades. They kept their cash overseas and when they were forced to bring it back they paid pennies on the dollar in taxes.
Meanwhile, you got $1200. How far will that go? That's dinner for music business people, if it even covers the bill.
You were lucky, think about those less fortunate.
Revolution always comes from the bottom. And the truth is we're in the midst of the revolution right now. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
I want to see Rob Stringer in the streets. Stephen Cooper. I want Blavatnik to offer up his private jet to fly leaders to D.C...
I want Fox News and the president and other elected officials to stop saying it's a few bad actors, antifa, white nationalists...there aren't enough of them everywhere to have been protesting in all these cities these past few days. This is the same logic they're using to hobble voting by mail...all those miscreants who are gonna abuse the system. Who are these people, aren't they the ones in office?
So if you want to do something, work towards a solution. Take a stand. Be unafraid of the man. Say you can do as opposed to you cannot. Lay down your money but speak with your mind.
This is judgment day.
Get ready.
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I'm talking about the recorded music industry, the live business has been blacked out for months, with no light on the horizon.
But the labels...
Let me see... Warner, Sony and Universal. Keep congratulating yourself as you only sign and promote hip-hop and pop. Oh, don't tell me about the exceptions, own the truth. You're leaving out a whole swath of America, to the point that the "hit" music business means less than ever before.
Music has gone tribal. And the labels and the streaming services, everybody in the food chain, to a great degree the same players who were there pre-Napster, act like nothing is different. We've got forty hits, and the rest don't matter, just like black people in America.
Don't you get it? That the killing of George Floyd was just a flash point, and the hardships African-Americans must bear are only a part of the picture.
You see the U.S. is screwed-up.
There, I said it.
We're first in almost no category. But we keep hearing about freedom and comparisons to "socialist" countries that have health care and high taxes and...you wouldn't want that, would you? OF COURSE WE WOULD!
The music business is just like the Democrats and the Republicans and big media, they're following the story, they're not prepared to get ahead of it, they've been blind to the future for decades.
Come on, black music is the bread and butter of these three big labels and it took this to get them to say something? Where were they when Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner and the rest were killed. NOWHERE!
And this is not 1992, this is not the L.A. riots. Back then the first thing that occurred to me was Ice-T WAS RIGHT! N.W.A. too. They'd been telling us about police abuse for years, finally we woke up and confronted the truth.
In Los Angeles. The rest of the country thought it was a local problem. That it couldn't happen there. And now they're protesting in Salt Lake City? Have you been there? Cities and states don't come any more white. It'd be like preschoolers agitating for abortion rights, completely incomprehensible.
But maybe foreseeable.
Forget those that disagree with you. NOW! Of course Trump is still president, of course Fox News still has power, of course there are white nationalists, but the truth is there are more of us than them, but we let them set the agenda, whether it be reopening in the wake of Covid-19 or immigration or...
It's like parents complaining they're at the mercy of their children. When are left wingers gonna look themselves in the mirror and man-up?
Well, a whole bunch of them just did, and D.C. and the media think it's an isolated event, that will blow over.
No way!
They're protesting for change at Facebook today: https://nyti.ms/3cnIq2d Workers want Zuck to grow a pair and do the right thing. Ever hear of the right thing? I don't think so in today's mercenary culture.
So, where are today's anthems, that we can all rally around?
THEY DON'T EXIST!
I'm not sure if they could ever exist today, but the recorded music business has its head so far up its rear end that it can't see what is going on, that it's lost purchase on most of the public. This was proven by Adele, she sells ten times the number of records as anybody else but do we get more Adeles? NO WAY!
And now I'm in dangerous territory, you can't say anything against hip-hop or black people in the music business.
But I will.
Where are all the tracks speaking to the human condition, auguring for change? No, it's all about getting rich, the lifestyle, accumulating enough money to live behind a gate.
Except for the struggling. We don't hear from struggling basketball players, why do we keep hearing about struggling musicians? Maybe they're just not up to snuff, don't have the talent!
So why don't the black acts refuse to record for their labels until they hire more African-Americans? One thing is for sure, the artist has the power, ALWAYS! Where have the artists been as incomes go down and the white man rules? Crickets. Of course there are exceptions, but...
We just hear that Jay Z called the governor. Nothing wrong with that, but what does that mean?
The only words that have mattered have been those of Killer Mike: https://bit.ly/3gMKEvh But he was co-opted by the powers-that-be, he asked for calm when the protesters were not ready to be calm, unlike Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: https://lat.ms/36RllDL
No one likes to be criticized, but it's the only way you can hear the truth. Sycophants feel good, but the truth is what's important.
Kinda like Lady Gaga... She's being criticized for being out of touch with the times, wanting to dance and party while our cities are burning. Well, that was just timing. But, her album is being criticized everywhere for being a return to what once was, that it's safe. This is not what artists do, they keep pushing the envelope, changing, getting ahead of the audience. If you give people what they want they're gonna forget you. Because you've got to give them what they NEED!
And Lady Gaga is white, but Marvin Gaye was and Stevie Wonder still is black. And Marvin put out "What's Going On" and Stevie gained control of his recording career too and amongst his gems was "Living For The City." Ever listen to the break in that song? Same as it ever was. Blacks being arrested. But we've never heard Stevie say I'M A BUSINESS, MAN! It was always about the art.
And with Kanye it's all about himself.
And the white acts are just as bad. It's our selfish culture imbued with braggadocio. But the truth is not everybody can be famous, not everybody can be rich, WHAT ABOUT THEM?
And statistically African-Americans get the short end of the stick, but god forbid a white person sacrifice.
What exactly is the sacrifice in Blackout Tuesday? People won't work for ten minutes? What does that do? Where's the call to action? Nowhere, because the recorded music industry doesn't want controversy, it just wants to go on raping and pillaging like it always has. With opaque royalties.
As for the Viacom channels... This is free press, MTV and VH1 haven't meant anything in music for eons. What next, record stores going dark?
Do you really think ten minutes of silence is gonna change anything? Do you really think the public at large IS EVEN GONNA KNOW?
Music has power, but it's been totally abdicated. It's about having hits so you can get sponsorships, maybe even your own line of clothing and/or perfume and living a high lifestyle in St. Bart's. This is what you're selling? Many are even proud of their privates, even when they do them for dictators.
As for another concert, another charity single...
Concerts only appeal to a slice of the audience and singles flop, because they're always a bad song, usually a creepy ballad, a kumbaya moment for different genres to get together when the truth is they never coexist anywhere else, on concert stages, on radio... Bonnie Raitt always had legendary blues people opening her show. Laura Nyro employed Miles Davis. We don't see that cross-culturalization anymore.
But black music drives the youth, is the most defining musical culture, even though it's not as pervasive as the labels, radio and press tell us it is. So that's the conundrum, the youth love hip-hop but their parents seem ignorant of this. That's right, not only the president of the United States must sometimes have to stand naked.
So the whites control the corporations and the blacks are big in entertainment but entertainment doesn't matter. But last I checked, entertainment WAS ALL that mattered! Without culture, a country is hollow. Then again, they've eliminated all the music and art programs from public schools as Betsy DeVos gives money to the private schools.
But that story doesn't get spread.
But the protesters CAN FEEL IT! Their futures have been sold down the river! Do you really think this many white people would be out protesting with African-Americans if it was only about George Floyd? NO WAY! There were race riots in the sixties, but they were localized, and there were very few white faces, you'd only get white faces at antiwar protests.
Everybody keeps thinking they're immune. But no one is immune.
The hoi polloi get $1200 and all we keep hearing is about corporations that don't get enough. The focus is on the big companies, the economy must be saved. How about saying jobs must be saved? How about a living wage? How about free child care so those in poverty can be lifted up? How about free health care so breadwinners can continue to work?
No, these are all takers.
You see the government and media have been selling us falsehoods for decades. You're a winner, if you pull yourself up by your bootstraps you'll make it! But we can't even get the government to forgive school loans to veterans who were hoodwinked by for-profit institutions.
CAVEAT EMPTOR!
Yes, America is all about ripping you off. And selling an image that makes you feel worse about yourself. What's the latest, Kylie Jenner cheated and she's not really a billionaire? Is that really the role model we want, a young, uneducated nincompoop who just happens to be rich?
And Barack Obama is elected president and we think we've made headway. But he's so afraid of appearing the angry black man that he lets the whites walk all over him. Look at his pronouncements now, there's little emotion, little anger, because he'll be excoriated by the commentariat. WHO CARES ABOUT THE COMMENTARIAT? They're not in control of the country!
That's what we've learned in the past week. There's not enough government to control the mob. As for obeying curfews...let me see, Trump told all his followers not to wear masks, what makes you think people are gonna obey curfews?
The little people have to obey the rules, whereas the big people break them and go scot-free.
It gets worse and worse. Zuck is so myopic he can't do the right thing. And Jack Dorsey does the right thing and even the left gives him a hard time. Baby steps first. Unless you're so slow that you engender revolt. Yup, it's those in the public eye who have to make the first move, not some faceless people at the label going out for a smoke break.
So what we've learned here is the music business has lost its power. It used to reach everybody and there was no greater influence. Today, streaming TV gets all the attention and generates the most influence. Because that's where risk is taken, where outside voices are amplified, where real life is reflected.
Let me see... Have you ever even seen a Rolls? Unless you're in L.A. or Atlanta, probably not. Do you own a yacht? Do you even have a college education?
The recorded music business gets younger and younger... Tell me again what Billie Eilish knows about life, she was even home-schooled! She's got no clue what's going on, but we keep on lionizing her.
The Grammys kick out their female boss because the old men want no change. And you're surprised the doors in business are closed to outsiders? I thought entertainment was supposed to be fluid!
And the NFL's got few black coaches.
Yup, there's systemic racism.
But there's more than that.
There's income inequality and disinformation...
You're worried about Trump getting re-elected, by those who want law and order. Do you really think he'll stay in office and everything will be hunky-dory? OF COURSE NOT! You haven't seen riots in the street like you'll see if Trump wins, this weekend was just a dress rehearsal. And don't tell me these protests can be contained, they've been going on for days!
Those in power are clueless. You've got to fall in behind the negatively affected, learn and then take charge, support people.
But that's not what happens. Enlightened lefties self-flagellate, the right goes underground and there's no change.
Meanwhile, we keep hearing in the media that they nailed Harvey Weinstein.
Did they nail my boss at the trucking company?
You can spread any word you want to now. Whether you're with or against the protesters, whether you're for change or you're not. DOESN'T MATTER! The proletariat suddenly took control of this country. Trump couldn't see it and hasn't known how to react as he's huddled deep in the White House bunker. We keep hearing politicians' hands are tied, there's nothing they can do, and if you'd just vote...
I'm gonna vote, but I'm not hopeful for change. Because the truth is the elite of this nation have pushed the hoi polloi down so far that there's absolutely no way people can pick themselves up. But it's worse, they left people behind and then pissed on them, and told them they could be rappers or athletes. How much opportunity do you have in the inner city? They took money from the schools and you endure bullies and gangs outside your domicile and if you move to the suburbs the whites want you to leave your culture behind, to be just like them.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!
Can you find one person who predicted the riots and protests of the past five days? I can't. But I am a student of history, and it's all about flash points. We're in the middle of one. And one thing is for sure, we're not returning to where we were, no way. A new society will arise and I ask, are you part of the problem or part of the solution?
If you make 400k and pay all your taxes... That's not enough, you should be paying more, you should be giving money away, the system worked for you, make it work for everybody else.
If you're rich and you made it through your own hard efforts...CONGRATULATIONS! But just because you created some snappy software that does not mean you can solve the problems of the inner city.
Zuck gave money away...TO HIMSELF! I'd recite the details, but the truth is he avoided taxes, the money is not spent and he's still in control of it. That's what the government allows you to do. What does the government allow poor people to do?
You must obey the rules, stand behind the lines, when the media keeps clapping for outside rule-breakers like Elon Musk. What message are we sending here?
Oh, that's right, socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
It's not only the music business that is out of touch. All our institutions have lost touch with our citizens. So, they don't know what to do. They've been running unfettered for decades. They kept their cash overseas and when they were forced to bring it back they paid pennies on the dollar in taxes.
Meanwhile, you got $1200. How far will that go? That's dinner for music business people, if it even covers the bill.
You were lucky, think about those less fortunate.
Revolution always comes from the bottom. And the truth is we're in the midst of the revolution right now. WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
I want to see Rob Stringer in the streets. Stephen Cooper. I want Blavatnik to offer up his private jet to fly leaders to D.C...
I want Fox News and the president and other elected officials to stop saying it's a few bad actors, antifa, white nationalists...there aren't enough of them everywhere to have been protesting in all these cities these past few days. This is the same logic they're using to hobble voting by mail...all those miscreants who are gonna abuse the system. Who are these people, aren't they the ones in office?
So if you want to do something, work towards a solution. Take a stand. Be unafraid of the man. Say you can do as opposed to you cannot. Lay down your money but speak with your mind.
This is judgment day.
Get ready.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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