The Tiger Woods Doc

I'm in the middle of this.

Been a strange day. First and foremost it was raining, which means snow in the mountains, Mammoth got over a hundred inches, not something you can fathom if you live on the east coast, if you live anywhere but California, where it doesn't snow often, but when it does it dumps, unlike in Colorado, where you get constant dustings, 2" here, 3 or 4" there.

And when it rains in L.A., the whole city shuts down. Well, it's kinda shut down anyway, traffic is lighter than it normally is. Normally rush hour is a drag that must be factored into potential trips. But there are no traffic jams these days. And this was important because I had to go to Ralphs to get my Covid vaccine.

I got three opinions. My hematologist said to get it as soon as possible, that even though my B cells would be nonexistent, the vaccine might work on my T or NK cells. My psychiatrist said to get it immediately because the future was unclear. And that we all might need a booster anyway. My internist said to wait a month, wait for my body to generate some B cells after the Rituxan infusion, so I could get a proper immune response, form some antibodies, however low in number.

I went with the majority, somewhat reluctantly, but then Ralphs canceled my appointment and it was moot.

Scrambling for an appointment is a thing. You hear from a friend or a relative, in this case my sister Jill, you go to the site and the time slots are gone and then it's a matter of how fast you can type, how fast you can fill in the boxes, to see if now you can get an appointment. And I was a pro, they were evaporating fast, but I got 'em for me and Felice.

But before that I also got them at a different Ralphs for a much later date, for January 29th instead of the 17th. Thank god I did, because I didn't heed Jill's warning the next time around, to ignore what the site said, that it was health care workers only, and not over 65, but she was right, the reservations were valid, but I only realized this after the fact, when nothing was available. Thank god I had the prior reservations, because nothing continued to be available.

But last night there was a big story in the L.A. "Times' that Ralphs was canceling appointments...and I got nervous. But I called Ralphs and they said I was still on the schedule, not that I wholly believed it, especially after all the stories of unavailability in this morning's news.

Oh, if you're playing outside L.A., let me make this clear. California said anybody over 65, which I am, could get the shot, but it didn't apply in L.A. County, and then it did.

So I went to Ralphs today...where nothing was happening. I expected a line, some commotion, but it turns out they only vaccinate 15-20 people a day. So the process proceeded leisurely, and I had time to talk to the injector, a pharmacy student, who told me Ralphs was only canceling appointments after February 7th, you see the store had to kick back 10,000 shots to the city, and that I would get a second shot, they would call me...he convinced me, but now that I think about it I'm not so sure.

And when Felice returned from getting her shot ninety minutes later, we fired up Bill Maher. Normally I'd go hiking, but tonight it would be way too muddy. And the show was disappointing. They didn't touch on GameStop, and Bill wasn't familiar with the Jewish Space Lasers Van Jones was talking about, a story which broke Thursday, but I guess it's hard for everybody to keep up these days, to know everything.

And when Bill was done, we fired up "Deutschland '89" on Hulu. It's the version with subtitles.

Now the problem with these shows is you can't remember what happened in the previous seasons, in this case "Deutschland '83" and "'86." So it's confusing. Just as bad is "Spiral," they're dripping out two episodes a week. And it's hard to remember from one week to the next. I hate these companies, let me binge. The same way I hate the "Billboard" album chart. Huh? Just add up the streams, please, instead of coming up with complex formulas to service the record labels who rarely advertise in the magazine anyway. 80% of revenue comes from streams, which are all individual tracks, but the chart? The chart references albums, ridiculous.

And after watching two "Deutschlands," Felice was taking a break so I started surfing the services. I do this on a regular basis, to see what is new, which is how I found "Deutschland '89." And after coursing through Hulu and Netflix, Felice still hadn't returned, so I decided to check out HBO Max, it's now on the Roku.

And that's when I saw the Tiger doc. I walked in on Felice watching it earlier in the week and Tiger's caddie was talking and it was fascinating, I decided to start from the beginning.

Tiger's father is waxing rhapsodic, how his son is going to change the world, not only in golf, he's going to be a great humanitarian.

And after Earl drones on...they show Tiger in a jail cell. Quite a juxtaposition.

And when Felice returned to the living room, we decided to stay with the phenom as opposed to going back to Germany.

Come on, when you were a kid didn't you want to be famous? Didn't you look up to the stars? Didn't you think if you were on TV your life would work?

Well, this is how boomers felt before all the child actors got arrested, before today, when everybody is trying to gain a following online.

You grow up in the suburbs and...you dream of something more. I'm envious of those who grew up in L.A., it was all at their fingertips, they could gain knowledge of the game, which took me years to figure out in my twenties.

Then again, there are people who grow up in the suburbs and stay in the suburbs. But that was never me, I wanted to get out, I needed to get out, California was always my dream and I was going. Staying in town sounded like death, get a job and...repeat what your parents did, their lives? No way.

But it wasn't until I was almost thirty that I realized for most people the dream died, they were happy going along and getting along. Not me, I wanted more, much more.

And it turned out there was so much I couldn't do. Practicing law? I'm too much of a perfectionist for that. If I made a mistake, I'd affect someone's life and be horrified. And the truth is the only people who can get thorough legal service are those who can pay, for the work of the large firms or the specialty firms. In L.A. there are scores of firms for every specialty. Law was not for me. Nor was regular business. I'm not cut out for that either. It's all about getting along, being jive, playing the mental game, the work is secondary. I learned this the hard way. To me, the record had to be its very best. But to my superiors? Everybody had to be happy, you didn't want to ruffle feathers, I didn't understand that whatsoever.

So I've got to work for myself, I've got to be a lone wolf. Because if you work for anybody else inherently there are limits. Unless you're top dog. But how many people did you have to kill to get there? Most people have no idea how business really works, how people end up at the top.

Tiger ended up at the top.

And he sacrificed his complete life for it. He played no other sports, he had no friends, and when he finally had a girlfriend, his parents made him break up with her, cut off all contact in a letter after three years. You see they were afraid the girlfriend was going to impede Tiger's progress, that he wouldn't get to the destination.

Now I never envisioned having a wife, kids and a house. But I certainly never wanted to be so focused that there was no room for anything else.

And Tiger's father is training him. Pushing him. It's relentless.

But it was his mother who carried the big stick. She set the limits, and if you crossed her, there was going to be trouble.

Now one thing that has always bugged me about Tiger is if he hits a bad shot, he can get angry, he can throw down his club. I was taught etiquette in golf was key, by my mother, at the public course, she loved to play golf. But Tiger lived in his own bubble where winning was everything, he was Vince Lombardi on steroids.

And he and his mother made fun of Phil Mickelson. That he was twenty pounds overweight and didn't practice as hard as Tiger.

Now the truth is I know a lot of famous people. And fame comes with a lot of perks. Old school fame, based on talent, comes with a lot of money, and if you don't blow it...and if you're a musician you can continue to tour and you get your ASCAP/BMI and...

But fame won't make you happy, no way. And if you lose too much of it, people make fun of you, call you a has-been. It's a tough row to hoe and very few people know the inside game. Instead you've got fans who support you, but irritate you. Sometimes you don't want to hang out and sign autographs. Tiger plays and he's endlessly signing autographs, it's a burden, and anybody who's famous will tell you...one false move, give one fan a bad look, don't pay fealty to them, and they'll hate you and talk about you whenever your name comes up for the rest of their lives, it's their brush with fame, and you didn't come through. Talk about the pressure...but it's nothing like playing sports, certainly golf, which no one plays perfectly.

But few athletes are well-rounded people. They do something physical, whereas...artists have to experience life to express themselves, it's part of the process, and how you express yourself is important, which is why when you're just the face of a committee production...it's hard to have faith, it's hard to believe, unless you're a mindless fan entranced by the fame, just like Tiger's army, some of whom hated blacks, but Tiger wasn't seen as black.

Not even to himself.

But there are some other athletes who set the record straight. That Tiger can call himself a Cablinasian, but no matter what he says, most people see him as black. There are immutable truths, but somehow Tiger felt they didn't apply to him.

And then there were the enablers, first and foremost Nike. To Nike you're a product, and the only reason they're interested is to sell stuff. You're fungible, there's always another athlete coming down the pike. And Nike presses the button and...whew, suddenly you're everywhere!

It used to be this way in the music business, back before the internet and the fracturing of society. Actually, Tiger would never be as big if he started today. Then again, everybody's interested in a phenom, remember when Steph Curry started hitting all those three-pointers? People who had no idea where the Warriors played were now following the story, just like non-golfers followed Tiger Woods.

So... They're setting up Tiger's infidelities. Turns out his father and his friend the golf pro were horndogs, married, but playing the field. And it's not like Tiger had any other role models, these were almost the only people he had contact with!

But Tiger was made to self-destruct. It always happens. You can only stay that focused for a while, then the world creeps in and you re-evaluate and...

They reference how much bodily effort Tiger puts into his swing, they ask the question of whether it would hurt his back. Tiger just had his fifth back surgery and...once you go down the back surgery road, you never get completely better, surgeons never really tell you this, they live to cut, and they'll cut again if you want them to. But, the truth is the body breaks down, and injuries come primarily from overuse. You can't really overuse your mind. Which is why my father always focused on it, whenever I spoke of being an athlete he'd go berserk, and discount any time spent pursuing my goal, he considered my two years in Utah a waste. I don't agree, if anything I learned I didn't want to live that life. But this was long before the rich got richer, when you could work at a bank or become an entrepreneur and pull away from the rest of society, and the truth is today's smart kids know this, they don't want to start at the bottom, they want insurance, they want a job, they'll put their dreams aside because they don't want to be broke. And never forget, for every Tiger Woods, of which there is one, there are thousands of wannabes that you've never heard the name of.

So this documentary is riveting. I didn't watch the Michael Jordan doc because I lived through it, I watched way too much basketball in the nineties. I felt the same way about Tiger. None of the reviews of the Tiger doc conveyed the experience of watching it. The talking heads talk and...it's like listening to audio Dead Sea Scrolls. And you see everybody's job, and wonder where they fit in, and where you fit in. Years have gone by, people look old. Happens to the best of us, unless you check out early, O.D. And you can get plastic surgery, but like Lowell George sang, you're just fooling yourself. Your interior doesn't care about your exterior work, and to young people you're a joke. It's extremely rare that you don't look done, that you look natural, and people know and make fun of you behind your back. That's the truth.

So, the golf pro at the Naval course... He just lived a life. He's not famous. And there are a bunch of writers, some very articulate, but unless you read the sports pages back then, most specifically "Sports Illustrated," you don't know their names. And sports writing, like music criticism, has fallen on hard times. "Sports Illustrated" was sold, it's not the same magazine, and who wants week old sports news these days? Today it's just the facts, no one is paying big bucks for sports writing like they used to. Same deal with "Vanity Fair," the new editor produces a lame magazine. But the truth is... Condé Nast cut her budget severely, so the best writers have gone elsewhere.

So you watch this documentary and your whole life flashes in front of your eyes. Tiger started almost at birth, but it's too late for the rest of us, that ship has sailed. So you evaluate your choices, try to feel good about them, but... This Tiger documentary also disincentivizes you to achieve goals you wanted to. Rich, famous, the best? People pay attention to you for a minute, and then they move on. And when your time is done, and it's done for almost everybody, you're forgotten. And the biggest of stars can soon be nonentities. Ask a kid about Johnny Carson. Who?

So the Tiger documentary is quite an achievement. It's anything but a rote telling of the events of his life. And it's much more than a melodrama. It's about life itself. And you only get one. What do you want to do with it?

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Brexit Update

It's the tyranny of the ignorant, and the misinformed.

Every day there's a new story about the perils of Brexit now that it is here. Today's concerns the British car industry:

"British Auto Industry Risks Slow Decline After Brexit - Lacking a strong domestic battery industry, Britain may be left behind by the shift to electric cars.": https://nyti.ms/3t5QZbu

Then there was that story about the marginalization of Britain when Scotland and Northern Ireland secede, which you know is going to happen, they don't want to sacrifice the benefits of being part of the EU, which are gargantuan, never mind the touring industry being hobbled by the lack of consideration in the ultimate deal, Boris leaving musicians high and dry, needing papers to travel outside the U.K.'s borders.

"Brexit and COVID have slammed the not-so-United Kingdome. Its survival may be in danger": https://lat.ms/39shekt

How did this happen?

First and foremost, there are no longer authorized sites of truth. Oh, sites of truth still exist, but they're dwarfed by alternatives with an agenda, oftentimes promoted by the politicians/stakeholders themselves. Everything in the world is cult of personality today, so if you believe in the act/performer/politician, they can do no wrong. Say something negative about Taylor Swift at your peril, never mind Donald Trump, the haters will come out in force. Furthermore, there's a concomitant denigration of all alternatives. To cultists life is a zero sum game. If they succeed, you can't, and they need to succeed, they will succeed at all costs.

And institutions are unprepared for this.

Used to be we not only counted on publications to inform the populace, but to set the course of conversation, to impact policy. Now you can write all you want in the "New York Times" or the "Washington Post," but the effect will be minimal, it's just another voice in a sea of voices. Used to be the hoi polloi could relax, put politics and business on the back burner, because they believed their elected officials were competent and they would be kept in line by the media. That is no longer the case. If anything, politicians and the media are now beholden to the wiles of the web. As for the newspapers...they see themselves as separate to their detriment. They're so busy being fair and balanced that they have no agenda and have little effect, other than Rupert Murdoch's properties. You can rail all you want about Fox News, but you cannot deny it changed our political landscape, our country. And Murdoch bought the "Wall Street Journal," giving the right its authoritative news source, such that all other voices don't need to be heard, you can live in the right wing bubble.

Now on television we've got MSNBC on the left, but it started too late, and the agenda is different. MSNBC is about pointing out flaws, Fox News is a cry to action, it's an indoctrination, it's a cult, it's us versus them, and being a member of the tribe is more important than seemingly everything else in life.

Meanwhile, the left continues to be disorganized, continues to fear not only the right, but its own constituents.

So why are so many ignorant?

Because they were left behind by advancements, globalization. They do not have the education to be retrained in technology to any productive level, they used to work with their hands and made a good living and they can't balance the realities of life. They want all products made in their home country, not knowing that irrelevant of available resources, the end result is that products will jump in price, are they ready to pay $2500 for a flat screen? NO WAY! They want it all, and they don't want to pay for it. Like the concertgoer who believes they're entitled to sit in the front row at face value for every show. The demand drives the price up and still demand outstrips supply, there are only so many front row seats, but they feel entitled to one! Two!

So you get left behind economically. One thing's for sure, you don't want any of your cash spent helping others, you're already crippled enough. Taxes must be lower, welfare must be diminished, they're sick and tired of paying for it. Forget the fact that these people may pay little or no income tax, forget the fact that blue states might overpay so red states can have more government programs, that's too wonky, it doesn't feel right, in today's world feelings are everything! That is why the left is so hamstrung, it's afraid of hurting anybody's feelings! Meanwhile, the right has banded together to prevent the left from...ruining the country? The left has been labeled socialist, and in a world where everything can be contained in a slogan, it's easy to rally the troops if you create one. Your agenda must be short and comprehensible. So, we know what the right stands for...the left? We're still arguing about it!

But now that there are so many ignorant, uninformed people out there, there's this canard that they must be played to, they must be satiated. Which is like listening to the passenger tell you there's no chance of hitting the iceberg. Expertise is demoted, because it might hurt someone's feelings, no matter the cost. The tail is wagging the dog!

And truth is fungible, facts blew away in the wind. Everything's a sport, you either win or you lose, and just like the Astros and the Patriots cheat to win, everybody believes this is fine in other aspects of their life. Meanwhile, Robert Kraft gets caught red-handed, and gets away with it.

That's another way to rile up the troops, speak of inequities, income inequality, even though your professed policies may hurt them more...they don't care, if they're even aware, they're willing to take one for the team!

Meanwhile, institutions continue to play by the old rules until they're disrupted, as if it's a surprise the masses won't be coming after them eventually. Then again, everybody lives in a bubble, no one can truly comprehend the world, so usually you don't see it coming, like the election of Trump to begin with.

There's no center anymore. Turns out our elected officials have clay feet. They're no longer heroes, they're just regular people. So, we have individuals paying fealty to the cult, as they do their best to kill the leaders and the followers, the soldiers of opposite cults.

And very few with any actual power are aware of this, so government and corporations are always behind the curve, buffeted by these changes, which happen deep online, it's a full time job keeping track of what's going on, and even then you still don't know. Meanwhile, tell the truth to someone in power and they'll ignore you, they're so busy making money today that they can't conceive it will be different tomorrow. And usually they're just a cog in the machine, they didn't start the company, they know how to manage, they've got no vision, so it's not surprising when they're disrupted.

And to achieve their goals...the cult leaders lie with impunity. It started with Clinton, Trump just amped up the paradigm, took it to the max. Remember when you were afraid of lying in court? Very few feel the need to be honest anymore. Certainly the bigshots don't.

And there are no consequences, there is no court of truth. And the world moves so fast that what happened yesterday is already forgotten. Trump foments an insurrection...yeah, but that was WEEKS AGO! Let's go for unity, it's not that bad, but if you try to undermine the nation itself, democracy, if you're doing your best to steal an election, which is what Trump did, shouldn't there be consequences?

Of course not. Because unlike in sports there are no referees. Or they're part of the tribe themselves. Yes, to become a Trump judge you essentially had to take a loyalty oath. Vote our way, that's more important than your qualifications, than the truth.

So there are constantly eruptions all over the world. And they are rarely contained. There's not enough manpower, and certainly not enough truth, to do so. Furthermore, you can't change anyone's opinion, even if it's been proven wrong, it's anathema to show weakness in today's world, you never admit you were wrong, unless you're someone with no real power doing a mea culpa and going into rehab.

There's no there there anymore!

So, Boris and Nigel's team won. Hooray! And by time the consequences are truly felt, they'll be long gone. And when things go wrong it won't be their fault anyway. That's the blame game, personal responsibility is out the window. Not only are you not responsible, if you lose someone needs to make you whole...can you say WALL STREET?

Media should know it is the most powerful influencer around. Being a traffic cop is not enough, you must have an agenda, you must do your best to sway minds, democracy depends upon it.

And cyber warfare must be elevated above physical warfare. Wars are fought online today, and without Russia's influence online, Brexit never would have happened in the first place!

As for institutions... Rules are propped up as if they still apply. What was written in the Constitution 250 years ago is truth, just like the Bible, inviolate, so forward progress is impeded. Such that governments can't take swift action to address ills. Ills are always addressed, if not propagated in the first place, by corporations, outsiders, private citizens, often online. They're nimble and uninhibited. And if you make your message sexy enough, it can go viral and outweigh the truth. We learned this years ago, people slow down to see the car crash. Now everybody is slowing down to see the wreck online all the time. We're fed incendiary material, irrelevant of its truth, and its purveyors say they're not responsible while they hoover up our information and sell it to advertisers, our privacy has been lost in the process, but these titans are too rich and powerful to hobble. As for the proletariat, it's been sold the fantasy that it too can become as rich and powerful, not realizing there are only so many seats at the table, and over the past two decades the table has become smaller and smaller, and more static.

The fix will not come with government, unfortunately. The fix will come from outside, those who dig up the facts to begin with. But this requires them to toot their horns and gather their tribes just like their opponents have, but that seems sleazy and opposite the ethos established eons ago.

Come on, do you have faith the people in D.C. know what they're doing? You've lost faith in everybody but your cult leader and his or her minions. As for those who think they're above it all, who refuse to participate, the joke is always on them. You need a smartphone, you need internet access to be informed, to play, to understand, to protect your interests. While you're disconnected others are plotting to truly take away your freedom, but you're unaware until it's too late, when it's in the process of happening or already has.

There are so many people. Many more than politicians. So, you either become a cult leader leading the people, or you're victimized by them. And, if you decide to become a cult leader, be ready for the slings and arrows. AOC wants to speak her truth and she gets death threats. Meanwhile, the consequences for Cruz and Hawley speaking their nonsense are nonexistent.

But America is better prepared for the future than the U.K., an island nation with limited resources, that got a boost from banking which is now emigrating.

This is what happens when facts are ignored, when feelings reign, when the ignoramuses are riled up and appealed to.

And the worst is yet to come.

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Brian Wheat-This Week's Podcast

Brian Wheat is the bassist for Tesla and he has a new autobiography, "Son of a Milkman." We chart the arc of Tesla's career, from fame to breakup to today, when they're making more money than ever, but we also delve into Brian's anxiety and depression, which he hopes will aid others to recognize their issues and get help, knowing they are not alone. In addition, we cover Brian's friendship with Jimmy Page, his passion for Victorian houses, his love of Italy... As my engineer remarked, talking to Brian was like hanging out in the recording studio, you'll feel like an insider!

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brian-wheat/id1316200737?i=1000506867614

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2A1btHK6ueTs3tQN0QrPQq?si=3mwlmtmsSl28sqoAGxXCMw

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brian-wheat-81178610

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brian-wheat-81178610

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brian-wheat-81178610




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GameStop

It's the tyranny of the masses.

Just when you think you're invulnerable, it turns out you are not.

The biggest story this week is not happening in the U.S., but Russia. I.e. Navalny. We don't have people like this in America, those willing to put everything on the line, risk their lives. The Capitol rioters? They can't stop blaming everybody else, they want to skirt responsibility, meanwhile Navalny is owning his "crime." He was safe, in Germany, but he returned to Russia where he was immediately arrested because he loved his country more than money, and it was being ruined by Putin. And how did Navalny ultimately challenge the regime? HE POSTED A YOUTUBE VIDEO! All about Putin's palace. Now Vladimir, believing he's immune, and not spending time online with the hoi polloi, broke the number one rule of the internet...YOU NEVER EVER RESPOND! You punch up, not down. And if you're attacked from below, you don't react because you just amplify the message, and in the process you end up looking small and losing. Meanwhile, if you never say a thing, the story dies out. Yes, the internet is based on virality, and if there is none, it's like nothing ever happened. Putin denied he owned the palace. And Mr. Invulnerable, King of the Universe, had a chip taken from his statue/identity, and you can never recover from this, because your faux pas lives online FOREVER!

Now Navalny is not loved by everybody, but Putin's foes are banding together against him, the same way Trump's enemies banded together against him so he lost the election. Trump can't believe it, isn't he all powerful, don't things always go his way? But it turns out the people, the public, always win in the end.

So it started with music. MUSIC? What has that got to do with GameStop and Wall Street?

Plenty.

You see music was the canary in the coal mine for digital disruption. The movie played in plain sight, the labels consistently played their hand poorly, with lawsuits and more, suing their customers, until Steve Jobs and then Daniel Ek rescued them. Yes, they were too stupid to rescue themselves, they were poster boys, and they were all boys, for hubris. It couldn't happen to them, they were the starmakers, look how much money they made on overpriced CDs! And that was a big motivator to trade files, it turns out fans were sick and tired of being overcharged for one good song on an album, and given the opportunity to revolt, they did.

Same thing with GameStop.

Now disruption has slowly worked its way into seemingly every other industry, and in each and every case not one of the major players decided to get ahead of it. Netflix disrupted television. Disney seems to have survived, its streaming platform is the beneficiary of a catalog of children's content, evergreen. But every other outlet? GOOD LUCK! They're all dependent on the new, as for HBO's vaunted catalog, most everybody who cares has already seen it, and the shows of the past two decades age in a way that children's programming does not.

So then they came for Wall Street.

Now Wall Street has been boosted since the eighties, as a matter of fact it's Oliver Stone's movie "Wall Street" that clued in the hoi polloi.

And it only got worse. Not only did the rich get richer, the poor got poorer.

And then Wall Street blew up the economy in 2008, paid no price as the public was kicked out of its homes, never mind losing its jobs and its savings, and the banks got government money to boot! God, if only that happened for the rest of us, FAILING UPWARDS!

And for the last four years, Trump kept telling us Wall Street is the economy. This is patently untrue, it's essentially legalized gambling, controlled by the house. It's Vegas, and the regular folk just can't win, the odds are stacked against them, BUT WHAT IF YOU CHANGE THE GAME!

People kept being told to shut up and invest in index funds. To trade on your own was anathema. To leave the game to the big boys. Meanwhile, the big boys kept making more money while in most cases building nothing. Prior to Reagan Wall Street was seen as the funder of the economy, a distributor of cash to those who needed it, it was the engine of innovation. But now Wall Street is a giant casino where the products are invented by the institutions themselves, you can make gobs of money investing in products that have no basis in physical reality, that the average person can't understand, but the average person knows they're falling further and further behind every day.

So how does this GameStop story turn out?

PEOPLE LOSE MONEY! Just like they did in the music business.

In the music business there were tons of startups, seemingly all of which failed, or close to it.

But the story of the internet is there's a new idea that is popularized and everybody gloms on and if the idea, the platform, the app, doesn't crater completely, only a few end up winning in the end, the rest drop out.

So what's going to happen here is the individuals, those on Reddit, those who drove GameStop up, are gonna lose their shirts. It's gonna happen overnight. Same deal with BlackBerry and AMC. Sure, some will profit, but most will not. And the losses will be spread so far and wide that there will be no government rescue, like there was for the street in 2008, and most people will lick their wounds and go home, vowing never to play again, but not all of them.

So it started with Napster.

But then came the Arab Spring. A fruit vendor with a college education and no future finally had enough and stood up, almost like Navalny. End result? One Middle Eastern regime fell after another. Now eventually, too many returned to authoritarianism, in some cases even worse than before, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

The people are in charge, never forget it. Disruption happens when the people get ahead of the institutions. And the new game is always more equitable for the masses, whereas the old game saw concentration of capital within a very few.

So, Wall Street, making money on the internet, didn't see that the internet would be its downfall. Trading is not rocket science. And the rocket scientists who got involved were all about math, which was beyond the knowledge of the old school traders, but now...

You see the math is based on fundamentals. Ultimately, in the long run, all of Wall Street is based on the fundamentals. And what is confounding the people on the street is the hoi polloi don't care about fundamentals! They only care about making money, which is the ethos of Wall Street, never mind the takeover artists bankrupting Toys-R-Us and so many other employers of many while they end up enriching themselves, having borrowed the money for the purchase, layering debt on the target and paying themselves endless fees. They always talk about "efficiencies," but the truth is almost all companies are aware of the street and are running more lean and productively than before, so what happens is the bankers just come in and squeeze more, to get their money. There's no investment in the future, oftentimes there's no money for investment at all, the debt payments are too high, and when the whole thing blows up, workers, usually making bupkes, are out of a job. How do you think that feels, to be out on your own, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?

So, the internet allowed people to play on Wall Street. Companies were built, fees were lowered, all in an effort to get the public to invest more. But it all backfired, because some people figured out how to rig the game with these new tools. A company's share price doesn't have to reflect its true value, no way. But if you invest and the stock goes up, you've made money! So who cares what the company is really worth? It's gambling, which, once again, is what Wall Street has evolved into.

So, the people taught Melvin a lesson. I mean come on now, shorting a losing company makes good business sense. But not if people flip the script, want you to pay for your excesses. Like in the music business. We constantly heard there would be no more music, people were killing the industry, and now so much music is being made that most of it goes unheard, and those playing by the old rules believe their careers should generate cash when they don't. There are winners and losers, and they're different from the ones they were before. If you're not disrupting yourself, you're gonna find yourself without a chair at the table.

So, like I said, many people trading can't stomach the losses, so they will be out. But not all of them. Now, Wall Street will have to take into account what the Redditors, or whatever platform they employ, are doing. Turns out the Redditors are more powerful than any bank, even Goldman Sachs.

Expect the usual suspects to continue to bitch, to continue to go to D.C. with their lobbyists to continue to rig the game in their favor. But like Putin and Navalny, it's too late for that, the horse is out of the barn, people are paying attention, you can't get away with what you did before. Even worse, you must adjust your behavior for these new players.

Yup, Wall Street was so smart, so siloed, so ignorant, that it thought it was above it all. Now it found out it is not.

But it all comes down to information. And the truth is the public now has information as good as the insiders.

You can only push people so far until they rebel. And usually there's a spark, oftentimes serendipitous, sometimes led by an individual, that rallies the public to take action, and then everything is up for grabs.

Putin put his enemies out of business and rewarded his cronies. Just like Trump. And his disinformation media misinformed people to their disadvantage, but then that pesky internet came along to punch holes in his armor. This is the story of internet disruption. The public is not only your customer, but your partner, treat people poorly at your peril.

The question is why the whole country hasn't rebelled.

But pundits kept telling us Bernie was unelectable. Possibly so, but not his heirs. The public is sick and tired of being dictated to to their disadvantage. People can only be pushed so far. Don't be distracted by the right wing nutjobs, it turns out people came out all over the country, all over the world, to protest against the mistreatment of Black people. Did we see the spontaneous generation of equal crowds on the right? No way!

Now in much of the world authoritarians continue to misinform the public. But it's more difficult than ever, because of that damn internet. And sure, the net can also distribute disinformation, but that's mostly because the fat cat business people who control the platforms are beholden to money, not truth. Now Mark Zuckerberg is in the crosshairs.

You see the game plays out the same way across all platforms. This is the result of the wiring of the world. We can band together to right a wrong.

That's what the Redditors are doing to Wall Street right now!

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Cathie Wood

She's the biggest female rock star on the planet.

WHO?

For far too long music has played to the lowest common denominator, losing its purchase on the intellect of society. One of the reasons music blew up after the Beatles was because the acts were seen as intelligent beacons distilling the vast world for their fans. You needed to know what Bob Dylan and the Beatles had to say. You don't need a musician to tell you which way the wind blows today, they've got no idea. Furthermore, the focus is on cash, and the music business has been on the losing end of this battle for decades, certainly since the turn of the century, you see you just can't make that much money in music, at best you can influence society, speak truth to power, but in truth the nitwits pursue their branding opportunities and corporate tie-ups when in reality all the innovation is elsewhere, like in tech, and banking.

BANKING? Isn't that the scourge of society? I'd agree. But Cathie Wood is all about disruption, while the record companies missed the internet two decades ago, and still rely on the aging terrestrial radio to sell their product, Cathie Wood is investing in companies like Tesla, pushing the cause of electric cars further. Isn't that what we need, more optimists, more people pushing the planet into the future instead of wanting to jet back to a past that never existed run by ignorant, uneducated people who are afraid of the bogeyman and therefore want no change?

Cathie Wood runs Ark Investment Management, and in the past year the value of Ark Innovation's ETF rose 176%! It has grown 500% since its inception. That's better than Vivendi, that's even better than Spotify!

The biggest star of the year is not human. Platforms are bigger than individuals, it's just that musicians don't want to admit this, they keep railing against Spotify when not only did the streaming service rescue the music business, it was built with the help of the majors who mostly cashed in instead of riding the rocket ship into space! That's what's wrong with music today, corporatization. The execs have no significant ownership position, they do what's right for themselves, which is always short term results. Why invest in multiple albums over multiple years, that won't help your yearly bonus, and you might be out before the rewards are reaped. The music business was started by renegades, independents. Then it was corporatized in the seventies but the same players were in power. So much money was made in the eighties as a result of CDs and MTV that all the industry could do was count its cash. Then Bob Morgado blew up Warner Music in the nineties and acts were signed for a record and dropped within a year and then the whole thing cratered twenty years ago. The acts are inherently independent. The managers are independent. That's where the innovation starts. As for the roll up of management companies...how many of these companies have discovered and nurtured talent, that's for outsiders!

As for platform innovation... TikTok can create a bigger hit than radio. And the labels have no control over it, really, they don't, although they're trying. Did you see the success of the sea shanty artist?

"TikTok star behind 'Wellerman' sea shanty craze quits job as mailman - 'Oh my God, I was a postman on Friday. I have just signed to the biggest record label in the world,' Evans told fans on TikTok.": https://nbcnews.to/2NGzRZF

And the industry thinks people only want to hear hip-hop and pop.

But TikTok is a lightweight compared to Robinhood. Robinhood is the breakout artist of the year!

HUH?

Robinhood is a personal trading platform. Turns out that's much more interesting than listening to today's music, and it's interactive, that's something the music business still doesn't understand, if anything it wants the fans' hands off their records! And Robinhood is all about money. Mostly about individuals losing it, but it's more interesting, more real than anything on TikTok.

So we keep on hearing about the glass ceiling, how women are kept down. And this is true, but the focus is always on high profile people at high profile companies, not entrepreneurs who've not only created the paradigm, but tower above others, like Cathie Wood.

Most of recent investing has been passive. You buy an index fund, set it and forget it, active was old school But then Cathie Wood comes along and flips the script and cashes in, doing it by investing in Tesla, Zillow and Crispr. Do you even know what Crispr is? Probably not, but it just might save your life.

Wait, aren't we supposed to revere the nitwits in the celebrity pages, be influenced by them? Don't they call themselves influencers?

And the influencers are almost always uneducated hucksters working 24/7 hustling a buck. These are the people we want to laud?

Now there's no guarantee that Christie Wood will continue to remain hot, especially now that Tesla has been added to the S&P 500. But, once again, investing is for professionals, the amateurs almost always get cooked, like on Robinhood, but it's their own damn fault, they don't know anything, they're just flying by their wits, running on emotion, but that rarely leads to success.

So, unlike a lot of Wall Street bankers, Christie Wood and Ark are building something, investing in our country. And it may sound dry, but you need money to live on and...I'm sick and tired of the tail wagging the dog, of mass culture playing to the lowest common denominator.

Now to tell you the truth, I'm not that interested in the stock market. But I am interested in stars, people who create something where there was nothing before. Especially when they employs intelligence, as opposed to luck.

Our nation is completely upside down. We keep playing down when we should be playing up!

There need to be more feature stories on Cathie Wood. She should become a household name. So people realize that education and paying your dues is the best road to success. And that if it happens quick in life, it usually dies just as fast. Cathie Wood is a role model, unlike many of our entertainers. We're sending people the wrong message! Experts are considered elite. And elites are seen as the problem in our country when the truth is elites make all the money and run the damn country. Sure, it would be better if the underclass had more money and opportunity, and the elites in many cases have held them from it, but the key is to lift people up, not dumb them down.

Cathie Wood is somebody you should be following.

@CathieDWood

Cathie Wood is now pushing the envelope, investing in space!

"Cathie Wood's ARK Invest plans 'ARKX' space exploration ETF to tap the growing industry": https://cnb.cx/36fqoyU

Get the overall story here:

"ETFs Aren't Just for Indexes Now That Active Sees the Light - The success of Cathie Wood's exchange-traded funds revives investor interest in stockpickers - and asset managers' hopes for higher fees.": https://bloom.bg/3qVMUVu

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From FM To AM-SiriusXM This Week

Album acts that crossed over from FM to AM. (And the track that did it.)

Tune in today, January 26th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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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Herrens Veje (Ride Upon the Storm)

https://bit.ly/2LXsuwy

Parents can ruin your life.

I never remember a time when I wasn't going to college. It was drilled into me from birth, along with the concept of becoming a professional, my father wanted me to be prepared for life, but the sixties and music interfered with that. Now during high school, good grades were important, for that was how you got into college. Do you see many schools are dropping the SAT? Hard to believe if you're a boomer. Anyway, once I got to college my parents never asked me what my grades were, as long as I passed, that was cool. Although grading at Middlebury was notoriously strict, three B-minuses and a D put you on the Dean's List. But when you applied to graduate school with your crummy grade point average no one factored in your alma mater, no one even knew Middlebury, not until they had that riot over Charles Murray a couple of years back, before that when I would say where I'd gone to college...on the east coast people would say, "Isn't that in Connecticut?" and on the west coast I just got blank stares. That's one of the reasons I love Southern California, where you went to college doesn't matter, to a great degree you don't have to have gone to college at all, assuming you're working in the entertainment field, which is notoriously hard to stay in, careers are brief, if you have one at all.

So other than going to college, and becoming a lawyer after two years as a starving freestyle skier, my father had no other requirements. As for my mother? She just didn't want you to stay home and be lazy, she insisted I sign up for every cultural opportunity at college, and there was endless cash for movies and concerts, and I went more than regularly, as an adult almost to a movie every night.

But my experience doesn't seem to be most people's. I'd always read about kids who left home at eighteen, who sometimes never even spoke to their parents again. But they didn't come from Jewish families. Today kids never truly move out, whether it be physically or emotionally, they speak or Facetime with their parents every day. With inane questions about laundry...assuming they don't live close enough to dump it on their mother. My parents were too busy living their lives. In college there was a call once a week, usually Sunday, when the rates were low, until everybody called on Sunday and the rates went back up. But if a Sunday was missed, then it would just be two weeks between calls, they didn't need to check up on me.

But this is not the case with Johannes.

I had a girlfriend whose father tortured her. Led her down one path and just when she was in the groove, he'd shut the door. He'd hold money over her head, we'd end up talking about it all the time. He was on the continuum, but he was not quite as bad as Johannes.

We're going to start a new streaming series tonight. I expect to do twenty or thirty minutes of research before we begin, on top of the hours I invested previously. I don't want to waste my time. And last week I gave Felice four options:

1. "Tehran"
2. "Baghdad Central"
3. "Criminal Justice"
4. "Herrens Veje"

I was surprised she chose "Herrens Veje," did she really want to watch a Danish show about a priest and his two sons?

Then again, the cop shows grow old, and Felice has a limited tolerance for violence, so "Herrens Veje)" it was.

I really didn't know much about it. I had it listed under my Top of List list with two pluses after it, but I'd forgotten what it was about, but no other show had two pluses and I did a bit more research and I wasn't completely titillated, but I decided to let Felice choose, I almost always choose (although it's Felice who says to stop, if a series is not to her liking).

Scandinavia... Denmark is the most southern country, but just like the east coast environment I grew up in, it's oftentimes gray, and what goes on inside is more important than what goes on outside. Actually, this is something I love and hate about Southern California. Everybody's so into the external here that I can dismiss it, as being completely phony, but when I look to have an intellectual, analytical conversation, like Christian has with Mark, it is not so easy to find. Yes, on the east coast people talk on a higher level, and they want to be friends, but that comes at a cost, the constant judging and the weather.

But when Christian and Marc talk long after midnight...it reminded me of late nights in college, there's nothing I like better than to talk until we're talked out. That's another thing sorely lacking in my life in Southern California.

So, Johannes is a priest in a long line of priests. Nine generations, in fact. And he wants his sons to continue the legacy. Is this who they really want to be? IT DOES NOT MATTER!

And Johannes is played by Lars Mikkelsen. You know him as Viktor Petrov in "House of Cards." I didn't buy him in that role, the substitute Putin. And then Mikkelsen was in "Borgen," with seemingly the same attitude, I had a hard time not seeing him in "House of Cards" while I was watching it. But in "Herrens Veje"? Mikkelsen is completely believable as Johannes, a man who knows everything and tells everybody how to live their life.

The two sons are tortured. Christian jumped the track and is living a life of incompletion, and August has become a priest, because that's what you're supposed to do, but Johannes controls August too.

You know this kind of dad...something good happens to you and they spin it as something bad, to the point where you question your own choices, to the point where you hesitate telling them anything. The whole family is beholden to Johannes, August's only ally is his doctor wife, but she can see Johannes clearly and is wary of paying dues and becoming a member of the cult.

Now the first season has a couple of hejiras that will blow your mind visually. In one location there's action, in the other serenity, but you're watching and you're stunned they spent this much money on locations for a TV show. This is a first rate production.

For the Danish market.

We don't really make TV shows like this in America. Not even movies anymore. Where not that much happens and what does is mostly cerebral. So if you're looking for fast-paced action, "Herrens Veje" is not the place to find it. But if you're looking for emotional interaction, turmoil, if you're willing to investigate your life and your choices, it's a home run. And unlike a movie, it's got twenty episodes to stretch out into, so the story can go deep.

Now the second season is not as good as the first. There are only two stellar episodes, so I'm giving you permission just to watch the first season and stop. But if you make it that far, you won't be able to, you'll want to know what happened, how people handle it, you'll be hooked.

And since the show is Scandinavian, there's nudity and sex, they're not uptight about showing those there. Actually, I think the internet is gonna make America less puritan... Remember when famous actresses didn't want to do nude scenes? Well, if they're gratuitous that's one thing, but they're not gratuitous in "Herrens Veje."

And what is life about anyway? In America it's about reaching a goal, or being on the bottom struggling, trying to keep your head above water. We're all in each other's business, it's a giant pecking order, we're always trying to measure up. But this is not the paradigm in Denmark...maybe because of the great safety net, you can afford to be who you want to be and that's enough, assuming your parents will let you.

And the show gets so many things right. The woman who says she's not interested but really is. And then the man finds himself caught between two lovers feeling like crap wondering what to do.

And who is the right person for you anyway? And can you truly divorce your family, should you?

Other than Lars, you won't recognize a single actor, other than maybe Christian Tafdrup, who played the young TV exec in "Borgen," and is the same sleazy jerk here. It's almost like there's a whole 'nother world outside America. And that's just the point, there is! You watch "Herrens Veje" and you realize people are people, just like Depeche Mode sang, but there are variations on the theme, and by the time the series is over you're yearning to travel, that's one of the benefits of foreign shows, assuming Covid is tamed and we can ultimately go places.

You know whether you're the audience for "Herrens Veje" or not. If you never went to a foreign movie, if you abhor subtitles, steer clear. But if you constantly find yourself analyzing life, wondering about your direction and choices, this is right up your alley.

Too often shows that approach this sensibility are passion projects of name brand actors who we can't believe in the roles and the focus is on everything but the story, there's no room for nuance.

But there's plenty of room for nuance in "Hessen Veje."

"Herrens Veje" is the kind of show that will have you thinking, you'll start analogizing elements of it to situations in your own life. And it's not predictable. In America, the good guy always wins, it always works out in the end, but in ""Herrens Veje"..?

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Shuggie Bain

https://amzn.to/39UAxSE

This is an incredible book.

I'd been reading S.A. Cosby's "Blacktop Wasteland," and it was mildly interesting, although my mind still did wander, I'd get a hankering to look at my phone, I'd go down the internet rabbit hole, I'd force myself to get back to the book and then I'd repeat the process.

"Blacktop Wasteland" ultimately got better, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Both of these books I got from the library, via Libby. My mother would never buy a book, she would always reserve them at the library, so the concept of purchasing a hot book hot off the presses...it never happened in our household. Actually, one of my great disappointments in my life is my mother's birthday presents. She'd always send me something I was not truly interested in. Even worse, she'd send remainder books, you know those that had failed or gone out of print, that were sold on a table for a buck or two. If the title was in my wheelhouse, she'd send it to me, usually two or three, since they were so cheap, I remember one on ice cream...it was unreadable, that's why it was on the discount table. But at least I got birthday presents, but I'm getting ahead of myself once more.

So I became inured to library unavailability. I doubted the library had the book I wanted to read, and if it did, I might be able to get it soon, in six months, or late, in a year, when it was already out in paperback. That's another thing I don't understand in today's market, paperback books. All the scuttlebutt during Covid has been the collapse of movie windows, simultaneous showing on streaming services, but in books, windows still exist, you're supposed to wait a year for a discount version. Don't they understand you strike when the marketing is hot, when everybody is aware of it, when you can build on the buzz?

No.

And now I'm getting further off point, because to tell you the truth I'm not feeling it right now, I'm trying to work my way into it, to get you to feel how great "Shuggie Bain" is. Most people just say to read something. Reviews tell you what happened. I want you to FEEL something, and if you align with this feeling, then the book is for you.

"Shuggie Bain" is not for everybody.

"Blacktop Wasteland" is a genre book. I didn't expect that, because there were such serious accolades, which typically genre books...crime, mystery, thrillers, romance...don't get. Not that I knew it was a genre book before I jumped to "Shuggie Bain."

You see, "Blacktop Wasteland" I'd reserved a few months back, when I did research and reserved a slew of books via Libby that seemed interesting but I wasn't champing at the bit to buy. This included "Shuggie Bain," but "Blacktop Wasteland" became available in the regular queue, and I had it for three weeks, I jumped the line for "Shuggie Bain."

Like getting a vaccine appointment, Libby requires constant attention if you want to play the game to your advantage, if you want to get what you want early. And checking the Libby app at least once a day now, I saw that "Shuggie Bain" was available for seven days, which made me wince. Why? Because I was so backed up, I had so many books in my mental queue, but I knew these opportunities were rare, so I clicked and downloaded "Shuggie Bain." And since I only had it for seven days, I started it.

I can't say I was immediately hooked.

You se it starts at the end. And it's dark. But then...soon, thereafter you go back in time and it's light. You go from the rooming house to the apartment, where the ladies are playing cards. And that's when I really got addicted.

"Shuggie Bain" is set in Scotland. Not only will you not know the definitions of some words, there's a ton of slang that you cannot look up in the dictionary, but you can ultimately understand the meaning.

"Shuggie Bain" is the story of the downwardly mobile. The lower class descending into poverty. Wait, wait, WAIT! This is not some nonfiction tome that you must read to better yourself, to become aware of how the other half lives, then again, if you've got a problem with poverty and the ills it engenders, "Shuggie Bain" is not for you.

So what you've got is a beautiful mother who wants more. You can trade on your looks, you'd be surprised, if you know anybody that good-looking I'm sure you're aware of this. The only thing is looks will get you in the door, but to go to the head of the class, you need more. But in a world where no one makes it to the head of the class, looks are a trump card. But Shuggie's mother Agnes has got a flaw, she's an alcoholic.

I hate giving anything away, it takes a few pages to figure this out, but if I didn't say this you'd have no idea what the book is about.

I don't really want to say more.

But I will say, we live a fast-paced life of notoriety. That's everybody's goal in the twenty first century, to be noticed. Either you're proactive or reactive. You're an influencer on YouTube or a hater on Twitter, or maybe both. No one resides in the peanut gallery anymore, everybody is active, at least those under the age of forty five. You believe you can make it, and if you can't, then nobody else should.

The Bains are going nowhere. They're surviving. Oh, they've got their laughs, they've got each other, but their dreams are positively pedestrian, and minimal. Shuggie hasn't seen much of Glasgow, never mind the rest of the world.

So despite the foreign words, you find yourself getting hooked. It's not just me, but Felice too. It's the story. Too often today's vaunted literature focuses on language and not story, that is not the case with "Shuggie Bain." You're constantly drawn back to it, you want to know what happens, not only in the plot moving forward, but how the characters feel about it, what changes they go through, how they cope.

And if you're willing to open your insides, which fiction does best, you'll find yourself somewhere along the line. Were you bullied in school? Did you think appearances were everything? Were you an isolated daydreamer or part of a gang or... Life is universal in so many ways, we're all human beings, and even though we rarely reveal our flaws, we know them, as well as our life-changing bad experiences. Sure, there are memoirists who detail all of this, but they've got a different agenda, they believe if they lay it all on the line they'll be saved, most people believe if they reveal their warts they'll go to the back of the line, and this is anathema when you've spent so much time trying to get to the front. We live inside our brains. And in "Shuggie Bain" we get inside others' brains. Which ultimately makes us feel more connected. You can read "Shuggie Bain" alone and ultimately feel a bigger part of society, more enmeshed in its fabric than if you had a house party that lasted all night. Yes, most of us walk through life feeling unseen.

So, one of the reasons I did not buy "Shuggie Bain" was because it won the Booker Prize. I'm fearful of award-winning books. I'm fearful of all awards. Because there's almost always an agenda. Historically the Booker Prize winner is not the best book, or the most readable book, but something different that insiders can anoint to feel good about themselves, oftentimes the winner is inherently unreadable. In music and movies we usually go the other way, the bland is anointed and the edgy is ignored. And it's the edgy that live on.

But in this case the award is well-deserved.

So, should you read "Shuggie Bain"?

Well, chances are you don't read any books at all, and if you're a guy, you read nonfiction, as if the lessons of successful people, if studied hard enough, will translate to you. They won't. Actually, you'll learn more from fiction, it's truer to life.

But if you read fiction...

If your idea of a book is something easy, that can be consumed in a day or two, "Shuggie Bain" is not for you. "Shuggie Bain" takes some time, which is one of its best features, it doesn't wear out, it doesn't end, the story goes on, and on, just like life.

If you're a fan of genre fiction, and a great percentage of what sells is such, if you think reading is Stephen King or John Grisham..."Shuggie Bain" is not in your wheelhouse.

If you resist fiction because it's too highfalutin', made for an audience that you are not a member of, that's oftentimes the case, but not with "Shuggie Bain."

"Shuggie Bain" is an adventure, the best one I've gone on this year, at least when it comes to books, I've seen a few streaming shows that are in this neighborhood of quality, and they're not the ones everybody talks about. People are sheep.

Not that "Shuggie Bain" is outside and exotic. If you click the link above, you'll see that "Shuggie Bain" has a four and a half star rating and 3,085 reviews on Amazon, both of which are significant, this is a popular book, not one of those trendsetting albums you keep reading about and then listen to and don't get.

And "Shuggie Bain" is not a movie. It's less about action than internals. Not that there's not action, and who knows, in today's streaming world they greenlight so much that you'll probably end up seeing a visual reproduction, but it will never come close, because you can't shoot pictures of what's inside people, their thoughts and emotions.

But the book will have you creating a whole landscape in your mind. I could positively see it when I was reading it. Clearly. Even though your mind may depict it differently, that's the essence of reading.

And after finishing "Shuggie Bain" Friday night, I picked up "Blacktop Wasteland" again yesterday. I hit the action, I finished it, but it was wholly unsatisfying. So there were innovative plot twists, the crimes didn't play out the way I thought they would...but I'm not a criminal and I'm not a plotting mastermind, but I am human and that's why "Shuggie Bain" resonated so much.

This would have been much better earlier in the week. But I didn't want to write until I finished "Shuggie," for fear the book might get worse, which happens a lot, but does not in this case. I'd keep reading and get to a plot point and then smile or wince believing this is exactly how life works.

Not that your life will resemble that of the Bains.

So at this point I've either intrigued you or I haven't. If you buy a book to read over months, don't get it. But if you buy a book to get hooked and go on a ride, go for it. It's not easy at the very beginning, but you'll find yourself getting obsessed soon, the people, the story, "Shuggie Bain" is irresistible.

Right now, the Kindle version of "Shuggie Bain" is $8.67. That's a bargain. The hardcover is $27.00 and the paperback is $14.53. This is how e-books should be priced, but too often are not.

And if you've never read an e-book...I implore you to buy a Kindle right now: https://amzn.to/3sU1NsX It's an investment of only $89.99. And with Libby, you can even get books for free!

DON'T listen to the haters. FORGET their excuses, they tried it, they don't like it, they get headaches, etc... It's just complete B.S., the truth is they're addicted to print books, IGNORE THEM!

And if you've got an iPad and like to read that way, give it a go, use the app, you don't even need to buy a Kindle. HOWEVER, the reason you want a Kindle is because of the technology, which is different, I'd explain it but the screen is not like your computer, phone or tablet, e-ink is made to be like paper, the lighting will not tire your eyes.

Now I feel like I did writing about digital file music twenty years ago. Do you see how that played out? Today CDs are worth NOTHING! I get e-mail from people asking me what to do with their collections, no one wants them, they're worthless. E-books have been here for over a decade. The publishers and the government forced prices to become inflated, hobbling adoption, but reading on electronic devices is not only the future, it's here now.

Start with "Shuggie Bain."

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