Black Myself

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3pYqBh4

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3r0tQWx

You know it when you hear it.

And I only had to hear Amythyst Kiah's "Black Myself" once and I got it. Long before it was over.

But there's no place for "Black Myself" in today's music world, it falls between the cracks. Sans beats, more about melody than rhythm, even though there's a sexual tension radiated throughout the number, "Black Myself" doesn't qualify for hip-hop world, even though, as the title says, Amythyst Kiah is black herself.

As for pop... They want someone shiny singing platitudes with studio trickery, the sounds in that genre are built on electronic platforms and then the whole enterprise is buffed to brilliance, whereas "Black Myself" is rootsy and real, totally organic.

Actually, there's a natural place for "Black Myself," 70s AOR radio. That's right, rock. "Black Myself" would sound just great in that mix, but that format no longer exists. As for the radio format known as Active Rock, the tracks on that chart are a far cry from 70s AOR, it's mostly male and more like Metallica than Led Zeppelin, it's all anger all the time, subtlety is out the window, and there's more rhythm than melody.

"Black Myself" is not a new song, as a matter of fact it was nominated for a Grammy last year. Huh? Yup, I hope your Grammy nom and victory mean a lot to you, because they don't mean much to anybody else, normally it's just a circle jerk amongst the people in that genre, some of the most unheard music ever created has nominated and won Grammys, and most of it does not truly deserve attention, but "Black Myself" does.

That's the thing about music, if you can explain its appeal you're a highly-educated muso who is detached from the ethos of popular music, which is usually created by people who can't read or write music and are playing on feel, dreams, what comes into their heads.

Now the original "Black Myself" on the album "Our Native Daughters" is good, it's just not great, not superlative, you might not need to hear it more than once, but then we get back to the fact that you've never heard it to begin with. In the first decade of the twenty first century if you made it people would find it, if it was great, we eventually knew about it, but not now. And the major labels and the media spread the idea that the Top Forty is as dominant as it ever was, when nothing could be further from the truth, it has never reached fewer people and meant less, but we can't stop reading about it and the shenanigans of the nitwits who perform this music written by committee, all the soul is excised, but there's plenty of soul in "Black Myself."

Sure it's about the song, but even more important are Amythyst Kiah's vocal chops. As soon as you hear her you're stopped in your tracks and are paying attention, because a voice this good is rare, despite people competing on television all over the world.

So I was playing Jeff Pollack's weekly playlist of five songs, which is the exact number, any longer and I rarely check it out, there's just too much material. Welcome to the era of the tyranny of choice, there's so much that we end up not buying at all, not listening to new stuff.

And I'm listening to Jeff's playlist and I'm hearing what's au courant, fast-forwarding through the first three numbers, but I let track four, "Black Myself" play. Once again, once Amythyst starts to sing you're immediately woken up. And sure she's black, and gay, but that's got nothing to do with what you hear on the track, as a matter of fact as powerful as the lyrics are, they're secondary to the power of the track.

This is what we used to sell. Funny how we're into experiences but people think what the audience wants is perfection, whereas what people really want is authenticity, they want to feel the humanity, which "Black Myself" contains in spades.

So, this new, rockier version of "Black Myself" produced by Tony Berg was released over a week ago and it's already a raging failure. It's got 6,812 views on YouTube and 115,625 streams on Spotify. Those are the numbers of a wannabe, but Amythyst Kiah is not, a wannabe, she's got it, the music in her. But there are so many wannabes that those who've got it, who are firing on all cylinders, can't get the notice they deserve.

Amythyst Kiah is an original. Holding nothing back. The message and the music punch you right in the gut and also...

Below the belt. Rock didn't need words to convey sex, the music itself was enough. And it's enough in "Black Myself."

P.S. Del Amitri never really made it on A&M, chances of them breaking through on Cooking Vinyl are nonexistent. But if you can get through the endless intro of "It's Feelings" and the verse to the change....that change will hit you right in the heart, with that emotion of seventies country rock, even though Del Amitri is Scottish. And "Close Your Eyes and Think of England" is good too. Got to give these cats credit for soldiering on, hopefully their fans are keeping them alive, because they won't break much wider in today's market, but just like with "Black Myself" there's a much wider audience for this music, it's just that there's a disconnect between it and the potential audience. And I'll also go on record that these two tracks are as good, if not better, than all that music Del Amitri made when they were fighting for attention, then the band was self-conscious, they were feeling the pressure for a hit from the label, but now when no one cares they can stretch out and be who they want to be, and I dig it, and you might too.

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2PbKW5z

YouTube: https://bit.ly/2MspuIy

P.P.S. "Black Myself" is made for vinyl and big rig stereos. Vinyl is rich, this sound can't be conveyed in the earbuds/headphones most people use today, but with full-range speakers with accuracy and punch...whew!

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David Fishof-This Week's Podcast

David Fishof started out booking bands in the Catskills, then he dropped out of college to become a sports agent, representing household names like Lou Piniella and Phil Simms, and then he switched to music, putting the Monkees back together, signing Ringo Starr to do his All Starr Band shows, creating the Happy Together tour, promoting "Dirty Dancing" on stage and more! Now Fishof has segued into producing the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp and during Covid he's been promoting master classes with rock stars. Yes, David Fishof is an energetic entrepreneur who makes things happen. This is his story.

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

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-fishof/id1316200737?i=1000510604810

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6T0tTcjIunG4gXdX10G4au?si=ITWRQe5fRUGmX1NRJ_vrZg

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

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


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A Coney Island Of The Mind

Lawrence Ferlinghetti died.

Does anybody know who that is now?

Back in the sixties they did not teach to the test. You still could not go to public school in the metropolis, but if you lived in the suburbs, there were fewer than thirty kids per class and there was enough paper for the mimeo machine and plenty of money for school supplies.

Not that we loved school. Does anybody really love school?

And by time I got to high school they had the track system. Actually, it started in junior high, but they were more devious about it. There were ten classes per grade but the numbers were out of order, so it wasn't clear who was smart and who was dumb. Supposedly. If you cared, you could figure it out. But in high school the classes were ranked 1-4. 1 was the top. 2 was smart but not super-smart. 3 was...really bad, either you were intellectually challenged or a delinquent. And 4...meant you were truly mentally retarded. That's the term they used back then anyway, before the advent of euphemisms, before we started giving people false hope and still taught that the world was a vast and ugly place and you'd better prepare for it. 1's & 2's went to college. There was enough money to place the 4's in training programs. But if you were a 3...you fell through the cracks, good luck.

Anyway, unlike in junior high, you weren't with the same people for every class. And you weren't necessarily the same number for every subject. But if you were a Jewish suburbanite chances are you were in all 1's, because if you didn't do well in school you could not come home, or when you did you'd be beaten to a pulp. Believe me, it happened. There was no "time out." Our parents were not our best friends, they truly had no idea what was going on with us. And optimism reigned.

So it all came down to which teacher you had. And believe me, I had a lot of bad teachers in high school, but I found even worse ones in college. At least in high school they focused on teaching. In college, where everyone had a Ph.D., many professors thought they were too good to teach, and were lousy at conveying the subject to boot. That's how I ended up becoming an art history major, the teachers in that department were alive, they'd talk about ice cream shops around the corner from museums, they allowed questioning, irreverence, but...

Most of what I learned I learned in high school, because the teachers were better, more stimulating. Oh, don't get me wrong, I learned a lot outside the classroom in college, but inside? To a great degree a giant waste of time.

But anything went in high school. Once again, no one was teaching to the test. In New York they had the Regents, and we had have annual achievement tests but the results were never released to us, they were for internal purposes only.

And if the teacher was great, it was amazing what you could learn. When I was a freshman I was failing algebra, it was so boring, the teacher sent a note home to my parents and you can imagine what happened after that. But as a sophomore I had a different teacher and got an A+. You can jump through the hoops all kinds of places, but whether you learn anything is something different.

Anyway, my sophomore English teacher, Mrs. Hurley, was hip.

First and foremost she was in her twenties. Now that was much older when you were a sophomore, but Mrs. Hurley had a fashionable short haircut and wore au courant clothing and she was a culture vulture. She'd tell us what plays she went to over the weekend, movies. And we'd go on field trips too. Not that there were no limits. If you tested them, Mrs. Hurley would discipline you. But if you did the work, it was a wild adventure, that was probably my most stimulating class in high school.

And we studied Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Most people hate poetry. Because they can't understand it. But you can understand Ferlinghetti. And Ferlinghetti was unfettered, he didn't write with the audience in mind, he wasn't worried about who he offended, he just needed to speak his truth.

He's associated with the Beats, he was the first to publish Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," but in reality he came from the generation before.

Ferlinghetti was highly-educated. Back when education was about expanding your mind as opposed to preparing you for a job at McKinsey or the bank. No one gave a rat's ass what would happen after college. You were gonna enter the world and figure it out. And if you had a stupid job, well your mind could drift while you were doing it and you could pay the bills and explore and test limits when you were off the clock.

So, Ferlinghetti moved to San Francisco and opened a bookshop with a buddy, they each laid down $500. That's how City Lights was born.

Do people still make a pilgrimage there?

Used to be San Francisco was exotic. Three hours away. Not only was California not denigrated, most people didn't even think about it, it was another land, it might as well have been a different country. Except for the fact that's where the entertainment came from. We were aware of that.

So, at first City Lights was a paperback bookstore. And then it became a salon and a publisher. You'd hang out there. Not just scanning the titles, there were chairs, you could have a meeting. It was an epicenter of modern culture.

Have you read Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"? You need to. It's the story of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and...the amazing thing is it happened only a few years before, but it's like it all happened on another planet. Today it's about conforming. Or making money. Or both. Intellectual development is tertiary at best. And too many people who profess to live the life of the mind have just checked off boxes, they cannot think, and it all comes down to thinking. You don't need a college degree to know how to think. Then again, many people need help. But with the right background, the right surroundings, you too can learn how to test limits, to push the envelope.

Not like today. Today rebellion is based on falsehoods. The San Franciscans of yore would laugh at this, shake their heads. Because facts were accepted, they were well known, it was what you did with those facts that mattered. And every convention was up for grabs, if you did something because someone told you to...you were still in school, you certainly weren't living on the west coast.

We don't have these provocateurs today. There's no money in it. But these people didn't care about money. As long as they had enough to live.

So that's why all that great art came out of the sixties. It wasn't a vacuum, art led the public, business was for old men in suits. If you wanted to know what was going on you listened to a record, or went to a movie, or read poetry. That's where truth was. Life truths.

Now I'm sure there are schools that teach Jay Z's lyrics today. And Jay has had some great things to say. But like in so many other avenues of life, the past has been forgotten. Today's sports heroes have no sense of history, it's well-documented, now it's all about the present. And we must march forward, but we cannot forget the past.

What if today's students still studied Ferlinghetti? They wouldn't be so willing to be on reality television, to be used and abused as fodder for the brain dead. No, if you see the possibilities, you can expand your own mind.

You can go online and read some of Ferlinghetti's poems.

But you probably don't have the time.

But we had nothing but time. We were bored. We came up with things out of thin air to entertain us...

"but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling
mortician"

These were famous lines in Mrs. Hurley's class. I know them as well as I know Beatle lyrics. They're at the end of the poem "Pictures of the gone world": https://bit.ly/37GvpRK

And that world is truly gone. But it has informed me. And so many others.

If you read Ferlinghetti, you know where Bob Dylan came from. Read "I Am Waiting," it's a very short step to Dylan's sixties work: https://bit.ly/37KoYwY

Is Dylan sui generis or just a man of his time, an exponent.

Study history...the great discoveries were in the air. If someone didn't invent it, another person would have nearly simultaneously.

That's what it was like in the sixties. It was a cauldron of creativity.

"A Coney Island of the Mind" was published in 1958.

You can make a strong argument that it all started there.


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Morgan Wallen

When are we gonna let this guy out of the doghouse?

Let's get very specific here, and leave emotions aside. What Wallen said is vernacular that is used in the black community all the time, the N-word is a part of hip-hop culture and employed on recordings. That does not make Wallen's usage right, but it does speak to intention.

Now let's be clear. Only black people have the right to use the N-word. They have reclaimed the use of a derogatory term and switched the meaning to be positive for themselves. Kind of like Donald Trump and "fake news." No, I do not think they're equivalent, I'm just broadening understanding of what went down here.

So what we've got is a hip-hop culture so pervasive that an ignorant guy from Tennessee used the N-word to say goodbye after a night of drinking. If you'd asked this idiot, he'd have said he thought he was doing nothing wrong, that it was a term of endearment. Watch the video, too many people are commenting without having seen it: https://tinyurl.com/2y9ylgjw

If the goal is to educate people and have them change their behavior, at this point Morgan Wallen is being done a disservice. He issued an apology video, I suggest you watch it: https://tinyurl.com/yyx2sa7e The original was posted to Instagram, where people speak to each other unfettered. Instagram is the public square of today, not the "New York Times" or CNN or Fox, to their ignorance and chagrin. Instagram even supersedes Facebook, although they are both owned by the same parent company. And, Facebook skews old while Instagram skews young, to active music listeners who are aware of Wallen.

So, what is the appropriate penalty for Wallen's crime?

Well, for the politically correct police, for media insiders, for those who have contempt for someone with a southern accent, it seems to be expulsion forever! Wallen's career must be killed just like Billy Squier's. As for those Dixie Chicks, they were excised by country radio. And that was wrong. But let's not rewrite history, the Chicks doubled down, they were the opposite of conciliatory. That was their choice. My only point is these are false equivalencies.

So what message is the holier-than-thou cancel culture sending Wallen fans? That they're ignorant and to be laughed at. Their feelings should not be considered at all. So, you've got a huge swath of Americans giving Wallen no break, and another huge swath embracing Wallen, to a degree as a protest.

And there's no umpire in music. No one to mete out the appropriate punishment. So is Wallen going to be excised from the airwaves and playlists forever? When does he get out of music jail?

Maybe Wallen should apologize directly to those who've dropped him. Individually. Cumulus, iHeart, Big Loud and the streaming companies who have demoted him. Come on, what is worse than standing up in front of your parents, or the school principal, and admitting you're wrong? Talk about shame. But if we never let Wallen back he and his fans will become embittered, the problem will only get worse.

Now the truth is if Wallen had employed an anti-Semitic trope, this would be more difficult for me. Then again, if Jewish culture was so pervasive that Wallen used a term that showed he was influenced by it and embraced its language as his own, that would be different. Once again, Wallen was not using the N-word as a put-down, and if you think otherwise, you yourself are ignorant.

The truth is Morgan Wallen is the best thing to come down the pike for country music since Chris Stapleton. But Stapleton is 42 and Wallen is 27. Stapleton kicked around in the fringes of the spotlight before he broke through. Wallen was essentially nowhere and then he got somewhere. And believe me, being thrust nearly instantly into the public eye is quite discomforting and alarming. You want to be famous, but you've got no idea that people and the media are out to get you, anybody with a profile has experienced this, it's good copy, it garners eyeballs.

So Wallen is the best thing to happen to country music since Chis Stapleton because his music is more authentic than what Nashville has been selling. Nashville has been pandering for years. Talking about trucks, family and babies. As if no one involved ever swore or crossed the line. Instead of homogenizing himself for the radio, Wallen sounds like he's from the country, he's got a twang, he's closer to the roots of the music than anybody presently on the airwaves. What Nashville is purveying is middle class safe, when many people are struggling.

As for country music itself...too many commenters are too good for the format/music. They think it's hicks singing unpalatable songs. But they have universities in the south, there are smart people in the south, just because they talk differently we're going to take them off the playing field?

The public has spoken. Morgan Wallen's "Dangerous" has been number one for six weeks straight. Not that the public is always right, but when was the last time we had a white musical artist speaking from the heart that has resonated at this level? I can't remember!

Cancel culture has gotten out of control. There's a cabal of people looking for infractions, trying to get everybody to check themselves, to subdue their behavior. And it's not only speech, it's books and movies too. You just can't do that, someone might be offended.

I'm not saying everything is okay, but that the line is unclear, and until we push back instead of backing down and discuss where the line should be we're doing our culture a disservice.

Do I think what Morgan Wallen said was right? No. Do I think he should be penalized for his behavior? Absolutely. But does it have to be black and white, does Morgan Wallen have to be deleted from mainstream behavior forever?

This country is divided. And it's very clear that one side is being fed disinformation on a regular basis. And if you're not scared, you must be on the side trading in falsehoods. Wallen got caught partying during Covid and was kicked off SNL. That was the right move, but SNL let him back on! As for his partying... Too many citizens are victims of unending falsehoods such that they don't know what the truth is. All these right wing "news" outlets saying Covid is a hoax and masks don't work... Who do we hold responsible, them or those they're speaking to? By keeping Morgan Wallen in the doghouse we're just reinforcing the beliefs of those we should be embracing, saying the left is intolerant and one false move and you're out. That everyone should hew to their dictates. Statues of Confederates torn down? Yes. Renaming schools with the moniker "Abraham Lincoln"? Ridiculous. If we continue with this zero tolerance policy no one will be free, no one will pass. Because the truth is we are all human and we make mistakes, if not in the public eye, at least in our family and communities. Imagine if we could never recover from those statements.

I call for Morgan Wallen to IMMEDIATELY be reinstated on radio and streaming service playlists. Let this be a teaching moment. Let these outlets put out press releases saying what the point is, that it's been made, and they're embracing Morgan Wallen back into the fold, because America is one big tent and we all need to get along, that we all make mistakes, but they are all different and should engender different penalties and Morgan Wallen has paid the price.

And he has. Come on, this scandal will be part of his career forever. It will be on his Wikipedia page for time immemorial. It will be in plain sight. It will fade, but it will be there. Wallen made a mistake, but he was not being aggressive and poking society in the eye. He was just drunk and ignorant and he should know he can't say that.

I think he now does.

And many more people do too, especially his fans.

But if we continue to nail Morgan Wallen to the wall, the tide will turn, the accusers will lose more than the offender. What did Don Henley sing, that it was about forgiveness?

We need some of that here now.

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Bad Company-SiriusXM This Week

Tune in today, February 23rd, 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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Artists Respond

From: Tom Johnston
Re: Re-Bad Company


I'm a little late here, but the fact that Paul Rodgers, in any given format….Free, Bad Company etc isn't in the Hall is a travesty. He is the best Blues Rock singer I've ever heard and I've heard and played with some of the best. He's a great guy, down to earth, easy to get along with, who has a gift (timing and tone, showmanship) and isn't afraid to let it rip. Always a fantastic show with Paul and Simon Kirke. I did love Andy Fraser's bass playing as well. And Paul Kossof and Mick Ralphs were both great players with different styles that complemented the pure rock those bands put out with Paul Rodgers leading the charge!

Tom Johnston

_____________________________________

From: Paul Brady
Subject: Re: Trick Or Treat

Hi Bob,

Thanks for digging out Trick Or Treat again…and the fulsome praise. Bonnie Raitt hits the stratosphere when she opens up in the second verse!

Not sure where you heard I was managed by Paul McGuinness but that wasn't the case, though we are passing acquaintances.

At the time I was managed by Damage Management out of London.. whose other act was Dire Straits. It was David Bates of Fontana Records UK who put me with Gary Katz. 

We started in A&M studios and the Village Recorder in LA, moved to Bearsville NY and mixed in the Hit Factory NYC. It was a whole new and hugely enjoyable experience, working with the heavy gang. Gave me a lot of confidence. You're right  there never was a breakthrough cover of 'Can't Stop Wanting You', though it was recorded by Johnny Hallyday on his 1994 album 'Rough Town' featuring, among others, Bonnie's long time bass player Hutch Hutchinson. I'm still at it, writing and recording and, until Covid, playing live. Too late to stop now!

Stay well and keep on telling it like it is.

Paul Brady

_____________________________________

From: Steven Page
Re: Steven Page Live From Home XLI

Thanks so much for coming to last night's show and for writing about it. I'm so glad that the best part for you was the same as it is for me - the folks at home, singing along, kibitzing in the chat, and even playing along on their own instruments! It blows my mind that we're at forty-one shows now, with no sign of letting up, as this incredible community of people from all over the world keep showing up every week and honestly, I'm only a small part of the whole thing now and I love that. At Christmastime, the audience set up a gift exchange for each other, without my involvement at all. Their holiday gift to me was a surprise video of fans playing and singing one of my songs, "The Chorus Girl," which I re-ran last night. The Patreon has been a great plus as well, where, for $5/month, folks can re-watch or catch up on any past shows they may have missed. 

Last year, after seven years of writing and prep and workshopping, my first musical, Here's What It Takes, was in rehearsal at the Stratford Festival in Canada, where it was supposed to open in May and run all summer. Obviously, that, along with any touring plans, disappeared and I went home and tried to figure out what to do. Lots of musicians were doing livestreams on Facebook and Instagram, but with the help of my friend Dan Mangan and his company Side Door (sidedooraccess.com - check them out), I tried out doing a paid Zoom livestream and was hooked. I have my screen set up so I can see 49 people at a time, so it doesn't feel like I'm singing into a void. Instead, I watch folks singing along, or making dinner or doing yard work and we all feel some connection that doesn't normally happen in online concerts. 

After a few shows with Side Door, I started doing them on my own (well, not entirely - my wife, Christine, runs the Zoom and the Discord server upstairs). I started working at making the audio and video as good as possible, and have tried to make each show as different from the week before. That's the part that's really different from touring - on the road, with a completely different audience every night, the set list needs to be a fairly consistent balance of hits with some newer stuff added in, which makes each show necessarily similar. With the weekly livestreams however, many of the audience are regulars, so I've learned to stretch and do stuff I'd never have done otherwise: I've played every album, both BNL and solo, in order, I've done every b-side, covers, holiday songs, new stuff - with a running tally of 210 different songs so far. You're right that it's definitely geared toward the die-hard fan, but we all are welcomed and will soon feel like they're among friends, in-jokes and all. For me, and for so many of the audience, Saturdays are something to look forward to and the shows give us a chance to reset. It's done wonders for my mental health! I have no idea how this might change the way I play shows once we're all together in person again, but I know all of this has forever changed my relationship with my audience in a truly positive way. I miss my friends and family and I miss being on the road, but I'm happy to have found some silver lining.

Best,

sp

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Love Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEJJdLshxM

This show got mixed reviews.

So I pulled up HBO Max on the Roku to watch a legendary drama that I'm not going to name, because I'll just get feedback telling me to watch it. But before I dug in, I decided to check out the offerings. I do this on the streaming apps on a regular basis, I want to know the landscape. And I saw a line listing HBO Max originals. This intrigued me, because I didn't think there were many. However I could scroll and there were more than I thought. And many I knew. But what was "Love Life"?

I clicked through to see. It was a relationship show. I love those. So I decided to watch.

There was a British woman doing the voiceover so I believed it was a U.K. show. Then again, when the characters started to speak, they were definitely American, and the show took place in New York City. As for the lead, I'd never seen her before. She was cute, and she was imperfect. She had a bump in her nose, not very big, but when she turned sideways, you could see it, and usually these comedies, which is what "Love Life" turned out to be, are peopled by 10's. Quite often as a result of surgery, but they're unbelievably beautiful, better looking than anybody you went to high school with. And if you're further down the looks scale, you're the butt of jokes, or the smartest one in the room. Yes, stereotypes.

And I can't figure out who this lead actress, who is so damn good, is. So I stop the show and look her up.

It's Anna Kendrick. Oh yes, now I can see it. Why couldn't I see it previously? Maybe it's the hair. And I always considered Kendrick a serious actress, I first encountered her in the George Clooney vehicle "Up in the Air." I thought she was slumming in the "Pitch Perfect" movies, which I've never seen, but as I scanned her filmography, I found much of her work was in flicks not considered highbrow.

Oh, one other thing. In this show Anna is incredibly skinny. Yes, she's short, but you can see her thigh gap, her legs are like sticks. Can I say all that? I don't think so, in today's world it's called "objectification." Then again, they're selling us looks in these shows, although much less in the foreign series I tend to watch. So I google to see if Kendrick has anorexia. I find no links, but I do end up viewing a clip of "Pitch Perfect" and she's ultra-skinny there too. And if she's this skinny on screen... How much can Anna Kendrick eat, she must be hungry all the time. What kind of message are they sending to women?

So, you can compare "Love Life" to "Sex and the City." But unlike Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Kendrick is believable in the role. Candace Bushnell, who wrote the original "Sex and the City" articles, was a smoky bombshell. All you had to do was look at her, and especially after she spoke, you got it, Bushnell radiates sexuality. Parker does not. Parker can be sunny and cute, but sexy is not what she's selling. Not that Kendrick is selling sexiness in "Love Life," she's selling personality, she's wholly alive, imperfect, but you're drawn to her.

So in the first episode, Kendrick has a one night stand. The guy gets her digits but never texts. Oh, the agony. We've all felt it. Nothing else matters, are they gonna reach out? This is depicted so well in the show. And then there's the issue whether you can take the initiative, especially if you're a woman.

So, Kendrick ends up having a relationship with someone who places their job first and having had too much to drink, the two of them get into it. This is another place we've all been. The evening started out fine, then the liquor flowed, and what comes out shouldn't. Kendrick's significant other labels her a "tour guide" and she takes offense. Certain things cut to the bone, certain things you can't take back.

And the relationship ends.

And I'm not sure if this is a show where every episode is a new guy, or whether they're building to a lasting relationship that leads to marriage and children and... Am I gonna watch another episode?

I do further research. On RottenTomatoes "Love Life" blows 64% on the critics meter, and 83% on the audience one. I prefer the reverse, I tend to trust the critics. Streaming TV is laden with popular shows that people love that are pure dreck. And all the reviews say the show is "slight." Hmm...not a ringing endorsement. So I decide to go further, I decide to read the actual reviews, however dangerous that might be. Dangerous because reviews are legendary for revealing the entire plot. I start at the bottom, with the conclusion, I try to read as little as possible to get a feel for whether the reviewer is thumbs up or down.

And most of the critics are laughing at the show. Kind of snide. Except for one. And now I'm torn. Are the critics right and I should move on, or are they so jaded they can't see genius? Well, not exactly genius, but that which deserves attention.

You see "Love Life" gets relationship nuances down cold. In a way I rarely see.

And most streaming is crime focused. Or thriller. Comedies are rare. And "Love Life" is not "Ted Lasso," where what appears to be shooting low is actually playing on a higher level. "Love Life" is straightforward, it either works on the surface or it does not.

But it does!

Screw the critics, I'll watch another episode.

And in episode two Kendrick gets involved with her ex-boss. This happens all the time. The guy has a crush, but not until circumstances change do they act on it. And Anna is a good girl, but not so good she won't go with the flow, sex is not taboo. But is he really, officially divorced? You'd be stunned how many people say they are and are not. And until they are, you don't want to be involved with them, they haven't gotten over the final hump which affects you so deeply, even though those in the process are unaware of or deny this.

And Anna is going with the flow until...

Like a good girlfriend, she accompanies her boyfriend to the suburban house where he grew up for his dad's wake.

No, there's something that happens before that! Kendrick and boyfriend are eating dinner at a restaurant, having a good time, and a woman approaches the table and the boyfriend instantly falls into a comfortable conversation with her and...never bothers to introduce Kendrick. This can be a faux pas, but it can also be a sign, that you're just not that important to them, or they're ashamed of you.

But Kendrick is game and engages this woman, who complains about her work, even though she's playing at quite a high level. And then this woman asks Kendrick what she does for a living and Anna has to lie, and then the other woman picks up on this lie and says they've got to get together to talk business and...thank god this woman finally gets up and leaves.

Kendrick feels inadequate. She's working catering jobs. Is she just a wannabe? She thought she was doing so well, living in the city, having this boyfriend, but is she really nowhere? Her boyfriend and his woman friend seem so grown up, Anna puts them on a pedestal and can't quite tear them down, as she's still sharing an apartment with roommates, trying to get it together.

So at the wake... The boyfriend doesn't introduce her again. And she's lost, but trying to do her best in a situation where she's got no reason to be there other than the connection with the boyfriend. She does her best, is game, introduces herself to someone, but they don't care, they punch the clock on her. And then Kendrick decides to help out in the kitchen, but then the family treats her like the help! And then Kendrick has too much to drink and...

The ex-wife shows up.

And the family treats the ex-wife like a goddess. The ex-wife tells an off-color story and the room erupts in laughter. Kendrick stands up and tells a story and you expect her to make a fool of herself, having had too many drinks, but the truth is what she says is ultimately poignant, well done, but there are crickets, no one reacts, there is silence.

And then the boyfriend ends up dumping her. He tells her he just isn't ready for a new relationship, even though the two of them have been together for months.

And Kendrick returns to the flat where her roommates are shocked to see her, they haven't seen her in such a long while, they thought she was gone forever. This is how it happens in young love, you put your friends aside, and then you find out you need them. Oh, that's another scene, where this ex-boss boyfriend, who is not that much older than her friends, is bored and acting sheepish around them. He doesn't want to party, he came all the way from Brooklyn and paid for everybody's dinner, can he just go home and sleep?

I've been there too. On his side. You're involved with someone younger, you think you're hitting it off, and then they want to do something you outgrew years ago, what do you do?

As you can tell, I'm really enjoying "Love Life." I couldn't fall asleep thinking about it. I could have burned through all ten episodes last night.

And that's the funny thing about all the reviews, all the critics complain and then say they ended up watching all the episodes. Why? No one said it was a hate-watch, they just couldn't let go. You don't find this kind of truth everywhere.

But maybe the series gets worse. Maybe I'll stop watching.

But why was there no buzz on "Love Life"?

Because it was released last spring, as the first HBO Max original. And it being HBO critics expected brilliance and with so few subscribers at the time, people didn't even have access, there couldn't be any word of mouth, if there was even gonna be any.

You know whether this is your kind of show. Don't put it down and call it a rom-com, because that's not what it is, it's not a chick show, it's a relationship show, about the interaction of men and women. And that's ultimately what it comes down to. You know the paradigm. The couple has been together for years and then one spouse wants to leave, saying they're sick of getting no attention, of having the other work all the time. And what does the overworking spouse always say? For sure, one thing they never say is good riddance! No, they start falling on their sword, they say they'll change. And if given a chance they backslide. And after the inevitable breakup, without a relationship, they're devastated, they can barely function, all they can focus on is what they've lost.

So you know whether you want to check out "Love Life" or not. Either what I've said above has intrigued you or it has not.

As for HBO Max, it's now on the Roku. The streaming device of choice. Sure, I watched on the iPad app before, but now it's so much easier. As for a subscription...chances are you have one anyway. Because HBO is oftentimes baked into a cable offering. That's the way they tier them. Chances are you're not paying the fifteen buck retail price, which has me scratching my head why AT&T doesn't lower the HBO Max price, but my point is you probably have access. Download the app and sync your subscription. It used to be harder, but let me just prepare you... You want your cable company e-mail address and password, and you want your smartphone in your hand.

Maybe you'll like "Love Life."

So far I'm loving it!


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Judas And The Black Messiah

Watch the trailer first, it's less than two minutes and you'll feel the power: https://bit.ly/3qGRt6r

One person can make a difference.

There's a scene in this film, after Fred Hampton gets out of jail, when he's speaking about revolution and it's so powerful, you feel it in your living room, watching on the flat screen.

Ironically, the biggest revolutionary talk these days comes from the other side of the racial/political spectrum, the right wing whites. They were pissed off then, back in '69, they're even more pissed off now. Electing a black president was just too much for them.

Despite the media campaign, there is no buzz on this movie. Maybe because it's on HBO Max, maybe because newspapers, traditional hype, just doesn't move the needle these days. You need to hear it from a trusted friend. And not a single friend has e-mailed me about "Judas and the Black Messiah." Then again, how many people have HBO Max? How many people have HBO subscriptions and don't realize they get access to HBO Max for free?

Toby Emmerich was right. Warner Brothers pictures have to stream. You can say he made a mistake by not asking permission, but twenty five years of tech have taught us that if you ask permission, you get bogged down in discussions and change never happens. We saw this in the music business. All the change ended up coming from outside the industry, because the labels refused to sacrifice the CD, with its premium price. Steve Jobs sold files, and then Daniel Ek streamed tracks, and without those two recorded music revenues would be zippo today. But those who profited under the old paradigm still believe we can jet back to the past and they can make all that money they used to. Kind of like the white people fantasizing about a return to a prior era that wasn't so good to begin with.

But Emmerich's move was hampered by the AT&T brass, who don't understand economics. AT&T is trying to satiate its legacy customers, in this case cable and satellite systems. But does Best Buy still sell music? Gradual change never works in today's marketplace. Apple TV+ has greater mindshare than HBO Max, even though it's got a fraction of the content. Because of it being an arm of Apple, never underestimate a brand halo, and it's $4.99 a month, and most people get it for free. HBO Max costs three times as much, and didn't Spotify and a zillion websites teach us that you give it away for free and after people become hooked you charge? Yes, Daniel Ek has said again and again that he's not getting rid of Spotify's free tier, because it's a gateway to subscription. You monetize after people get hooked.

So, nobody's watching "Judas and the Black Messiah," and everybody should.

But it's a flawed film. What you want to see is the Fred Hampton story, but half of the movie is the story of an FBI informant and the truth is this all happened over fifty years ago, and even if you lived through the era you're hazy on the details. During Black History month, less than a year after the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, these actions are seen as equivalent to 1/6 by right wing whites. As if any and all protest is equal. Blacks have been fighting for equal rights for hundreds of years. But a black man became president and then these whites decided it was necessary to overthrow the government. And if the Democrats don't get rid of the filibuster, the next president will be a Republican, because of the diminution of voter rights. But, D.C. is afraid of throwing the long ball, of getting ahead of the issue as opposed to always being behind, passing a national voting rights act to supersede the shenanigans of these state governments.

So, Fred Hampton believes in people power. He brings different factions, of different colors, together and progress is so clear that the FBI and Mayor Daley's police must take him off the playing field.

Now back in the sixties the perception of the Black Panthers was that they were scary. But with hindsight we can see in many ways they had it right. Fred Hampton was about providing meals for kids and today welfare is hobbled because if you give anybody a dollar it's seen as a heinous handout as opposed to a lift into a better life. Even worse, what if people do get a better life, won't the whites lose out? That's what they think.

The scuttlebutt for the last few days has been about Ted Cruz, as if by ganging up on him he'll lose his senate seat. But the joke is on the left and the media, the right is rock solid, these people believe democrats will get rid of democracy and that they must fight with all their might for a delusional dictatorship, one party rule to protect freedom. But a black person is not free to complain. Any person of color. The most hated person in D.C. is AOC. Because she's a woman and she has a voice and she's sick of the old-boy network where nothing gets done. Push the envelope and you're always a target, you need to shut up and get in line.

But that was not the ethos in the sixties. In the sixties you were supposed to think for yourself and let your freak flag fly. Everybody under thirty was a democrat, truly, most of them. But time and greed have brought people back to the right.

Now one thing that bothers me insanely is all this b.s. of "Thank you for your service." I was taught to hate cops, they were the pigs, and if you watch "Judas and the Messiah" you'll know why. Today police departments are still bad and many in the force are aligned with the white supremacist movement, even showing up in person on 1/6. Fred Hampton got shot, but Donald Trump skates without consequence. Did you see the poll in today's "USA Today"? 46% of Republicans would jump ship from their party to join Trump in a new one: https://bit.ly/3pIQfGl Everybody keeps saying Trump has learned his lesson, but he's only been further empowered.

As for service thanks... How about questioning those who sent soldiers into harm's way. Cheney and Kissinger skate while the enlisted get PTSD and are forgotten except for occasional kudos.

Yes, seems like in fifty years everything's gone topsy-turvy.

People need to be reminded of how it used to be, they need to be inspired, and "Judas and the Black Messiah" will light a fire in their belly.

Daniel Kaluuya is phenomenal as Fred Hampton, Oscar-worthy.

And the supporting cast is excellent.

And there's even a final credit number by H.E.R. featuring horn flourishes reminiscent of the era that would help drive viewership in a bygone era, but that paradigm is dead, "Fight For You" doesn't even have two million streams on Spotify, which is essentially nothing, in mindshare or money. But if you listen to "Fight For You" you will be inspired, that's music power, too often sacrificed in today's downbeat, defeated world. Today it's either hedonism or complaints. But people can't be called to action by pessimistic negativity.

Once again, "Judas and the Black Messiah" doesn't hang together perfectly as a film. We need a Netflix series on the Black Panthers, ten episodes to teach today's younger generation, as well as their elders, exactly what happened in the sixties, but now the focus is on the misdeeds of Woody Allen, because when it comes to politics, we feel powerless.

"Judas and the Black Messiah" takes you back. It opens a window to the past. To a vibrant era where everything was at stake and you felt you could make a difference.

Like Fred Hampton.

"Fight For You":

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2NReEMv

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pGA6kE


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