https://spoti.fi/3BPZrCf
As the email stated, the topic this week was YOUR Song of the Summer, and it was of all-time, and...
It's easy to list songs with "summer" in the title, or summer in the song's lyrics/story. But in truth, a good number of summer songs were actually released in the winter.
But what you've got below is the songs that remind ME of summer. I can see exactly where I was when I heard them, they make my life come alive. And just about all of them were hits over the summer. Ergo, MY Songs of the Summer.
The list is not comprehensive. I mean how many songs can you play in a one hour radio show, even thirty second snippets, which is what I do, not many. But these are the ones that came to my mind first.
I won't exactly say your mileage might vary, I KNOW your mileage will vary. You've got your own memories. And in truth, I've got no specific memories of listening to "Summer in the City," even though I've heard it a zillion times, but I can still see standing by the pool in Lancaster, PA, hearing "Doo Wah Diddy" come out of the radio. Likewise, "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" at Jennings Beach, coming out of the transistor in the "pavilion." And riding my Raleigh with the transistor slung over the handlebars waiting for and then exulting in hearing "California Girls." And sitting in my sister's apartment in Brentwood looking out towards the ocean listening to "One of These Nights." And finally liking a Carpenters song when I heard it on the AM-only radio in my '63 Chevy convertible, sans A/C, driving for the City Directory and...
You get the point.
_________
Summer Rain - Johnny Rivers
Hot Fun in the Summertime - Sly & the Family Stone
A Hard Day's Night - Beatles
Help! - Beatles
I Get Around - Beach Boys
The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena) - Jan & Dean
See You in September - the Happenings
Satisfaction - the Rolling Stones
Hello, I Love You - the Doors
Doo Wah Diddy - Manfred Mann
Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain) - Grand Funk Railroad
Hold Your Head Up - Argent
The Bitch Is Back - Elton John
Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull
Love Is Alive - Gary Wright
What Do You Want From Life - the Tubes
A World Without Love - Peter and Gordon
Do You Love Me - Dave Clark 5
Little Children - Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas
House of the Rising Sun - the Animals
I Can't Help Myself - Four Tops
I Got You Babe - Sonny & Cher
For Your Love - the Yardbirds
Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire
California Girls - Beach Boys
Paperback Writer/Rain - Beatles
Along Comes Mary - the Association
Wild Thing - Troggs
Sweet Pea - Tommy Roe
Sunshine Superman - Donovan
Yellow Submarine - Beatles
Somebody to Love - Jefferson Airplane
Light My Fire - the Doors
All You Need Is Love - Beatles
Carrie-Anne - the Hollies
Little Bit O' Soul - Music Explosion
Stoned Soul Picnic - 5th Dimension
Pictures of Matchstick Men - Status Quo
Hush - Deep Purple
Grazing in the Grass - Friends of Distinction
Honky Tonk Women - Rolling Stones
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
Mama Told Me Not to Come - Three Dog Night
Make It With You - Bread
Yesterday Once More - Carpenters
Signs - Five Man Electrical Band
Rocket Man - Elton John
Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress) - the Hollies
School's Out - Alice Cooper
Sealed With a Kiss - Brian Hyland
Kodachrome - Paul Simon
Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
Long Train Runnin' - the Doobie Brothers
Live and Let Die - Wings
Rock the Boat - Hues Corporation
Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
Jive Talkin'- Bee Gees
One of These Nights - Eagles
Take it Easy - Eagles
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty
Miss You - Rolling Stones
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Emotional Rescue - Rolling Stones
Every Picture Tells a Story - Rod Stewart
Piece of My Heart-Big Brother & the Holding Company
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Saturday 17 September 2022
Delhi Crime-Season 2
https://www.netflix.com/title/81076756
It's not as good as the first, but still a cut above most TV series (and movies too!)
Chalk it up to Shefali Shah, "Madam Sir." If you can't get over Sidse Babett Knudsen in "Borgen," you should check out Shefali Shah. They're completely different, Knudsen is selling sensuality and softness that Shah does not evidence. However, they're both strong characters, strong women in a man's world.
Shah plays Vartika Chaturvedi, Deputy Commissioner of the police. And Delhi...is essentially unpoliceable, according to this show. I love the establishing shots, of an almost endless low-rise landscape. Makes me want to go there, but Felice says I say this about all the foreign shows we watch.
I've been to Mumbai, and there are a lot of similarities. Most especially the traffic and the motorized rickshaws. They're like ants in Mumbai. Swarms of them, going in and out of traffic. And with three wheels you know they're inherently compromised safety-wise. But it's every person for themselves in India. Actually, the same is true in America, but we didn't know that until Covid.
So Vartika, i.e. Madam Sir, is in charge of an investigation of brutal break-ins at the residences of wealthy people. They can't figure out who did it, never mind the motivation. And I could tell you about the twists and turns, but I don't want to give anything away.
But, Shah plays Vartika seriously. She's competent, and self-directed, and admits what she doesn't know, and is loath to play the games of her male superiors who are concerned first and foremost with optics.
Vartika is the voice of reason in an unreasonable world.
Can't say that I've seen an equivalent portrayal in American productions. Because even if the woman has the lead role, she's glamorous. Whereas Vartika is just a person in the world doing a job. Like most people. Sure, it's an elevated job, but in Hollywood productions you can see the divide between those on screen and the rest of us. Or else you've got a beautiful actress slumming, like Charlize Theron in "Monster." The Oscars eat this stuff up, but I can't say I watched the film and didn't see Theron playing the role, the same way I always see Meryl Streep in her roles, too often the acting is too studied.
But Shefali Shah is more natural, living in her skin.
So I live for these TV series. Movies won't do it for me, they're too quick, too much is left out. I love to turn out the lights and get involved. Commit. But too often what you see is just not good enough, you're watching it but not involved in it. Whereas the shows I like feel almost real.
Everything about "Delhi Crime" is a cut above. Not just the acting. It was not made on the cheap, but unlike in Hollywood the cinematography does not eclipse the story.
And India is the land where the rich and poor live right alongside. And how do you move up the ladder? In America, we've been sold the fiction that there's upward mobility, if you just work hard enough, but that's statistically untrue, compared to the European countries. Oh, for the first time in my life some of these other countries appear equal to the U.S. We can't get anything done and the dog is wagged by the tail of the minority and there's no free health care. HOW CAN THIS BE?
So if you watched the first season of "Delhi Crime," you should watch the second. And you can watch the second without watching the first, but there's no reason to do that.
And being a streaming show, not all episodes are cut to length, to fit time constraints. Some are thirty-odd minutes long, and others nearly an hour. And there are only five episodes. Which is a disappointment, because they go so much deeper in the first season. But you can blow through "Delhi Crime 2" in a day or two, it's not a huge commitment.
You can watch it in English, the default, but I'd say to switch to Hindi with English subtitles, so much of the show is in English anyway.
Once again, you know who you are, you know if this appeals to you. It's a self-selecting group. There are two camps. Those who turn on the flat screen to find something to watch and those who turn it on because they plan to watch something, those who are looking for entertainment, and those who are looking for more than empty calories, who want to bite into the steak, chew a bit, have their food marinate in their mouths.
Forget that it's an Indian production, it's not very foreign, because people around the world are now more similar than different, and the characters ring true more than they do on most TV.
And, once again, as a result of the binge model, you can see it all at once. I'm sad it's over.
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It's not as good as the first, but still a cut above most TV series (and movies too!)
Chalk it up to Shefali Shah, "Madam Sir." If you can't get over Sidse Babett Knudsen in "Borgen," you should check out Shefali Shah. They're completely different, Knudsen is selling sensuality and softness that Shah does not evidence. However, they're both strong characters, strong women in a man's world.
Shah plays Vartika Chaturvedi, Deputy Commissioner of the police. And Delhi...is essentially unpoliceable, according to this show. I love the establishing shots, of an almost endless low-rise landscape. Makes me want to go there, but Felice says I say this about all the foreign shows we watch.
I've been to Mumbai, and there are a lot of similarities. Most especially the traffic and the motorized rickshaws. They're like ants in Mumbai. Swarms of them, going in and out of traffic. And with three wheels you know they're inherently compromised safety-wise. But it's every person for themselves in India. Actually, the same is true in America, but we didn't know that until Covid.
So Vartika, i.e. Madam Sir, is in charge of an investigation of brutal break-ins at the residences of wealthy people. They can't figure out who did it, never mind the motivation. And I could tell you about the twists and turns, but I don't want to give anything away.
But, Shah plays Vartika seriously. She's competent, and self-directed, and admits what she doesn't know, and is loath to play the games of her male superiors who are concerned first and foremost with optics.
Vartika is the voice of reason in an unreasonable world.
Can't say that I've seen an equivalent portrayal in American productions. Because even if the woman has the lead role, she's glamorous. Whereas Vartika is just a person in the world doing a job. Like most people. Sure, it's an elevated job, but in Hollywood productions you can see the divide between those on screen and the rest of us. Or else you've got a beautiful actress slumming, like Charlize Theron in "Monster." The Oscars eat this stuff up, but I can't say I watched the film and didn't see Theron playing the role, the same way I always see Meryl Streep in her roles, too often the acting is too studied.
But Shefali Shah is more natural, living in her skin.
So I live for these TV series. Movies won't do it for me, they're too quick, too much is left out. I love to turn out the lights and get involved. Commit. But too often what you see is just not good enough, you're watching it but not involved in it. Whereas the shows I like feel almost real.
Everything about "Delhi Crime" is a cut above. Not just the acting. It was not made on the cheap, but unlike in Hollywood the cinematography does not eclipse the story.
And India is the land where the rich and poor live right alongside. And how do you move up the ladder? In America, we've been sold the fiction that there's upward mobility, if you just work hard enough, but that's statistically untrue, compared to the European countries. Oh, for the first time in my life some of these other countries appear equal to the U.S. We can't get anything done and the dog is wagged by the tail of the minority and there's no free health care. HOW CAN THIS BE?
So if you watched the first season of "Delhi Crime," you should watch the second. And you can watch the second without watching the first, but there's no reason to do that.
And being a streaming show, not all episodes are cut to length, to fit time constraints. Some are thirty-odd minutes long, and others nearly an hour. And there are only five episodes. Which is a disappointment, because they go so much deeper in the first season. But you can blow through "Delhi Crime 2" in a day or two, it's not a huge commitment.
You can watch it in English, the default, but I'd say to switch to Hindi with English subtitles, so much of the show is in English anyway.
Once again, you know who you are, you know if this appeals to you. It's a self-selecting group. There are two camps. Those who turn on the flat screen to find something to watch and those who turn it on because they plan to watch something, those who are looking for entertainment, and those who are looking for more than empty calories, who want to bite into the steak, chew a bit, have their food marinate in their mouths.
Forget that it's an Indian production, it's not very foreign, because people around the world are now more similar than different, and the characters ring true more than they do on most TV.
And, once again, as a result of the binge model, you can see it all at once. I'm sad it's over.
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Friday 16 September 2022
Inventory
That's what they call concert tickets. You put up a show, and the tickets are inventory. And all summer the talk has been about Springsteen tickets, flex-priced, going for four figures, but the rest of the shows?
Live Nation, a public company, has produced fantastic figures. Business has been beyond healthy, but going forward?
My eye caught this article on the front page of today's "Wall Street Journal":
"From Shortage to Glut: Scotts Miracle-Gro Is Buried in Fertilizer - Scotts ramped up production during the pandemic, then consumers shifted and retailers slashed orders, leaving a pile of inventory. It's now trying to dig its way out.": https://on.wsj.com/3RRr3fI
This story has been in the business press for a couple of months now. How these companies produced so much product and the public didn't want to buy it.
There are various factors. People were stuck at home during the pandemic and now they're not. I'm sure you've read about the disaster Peleton has become. Not that it wasn't predictable. If you don't have an idle exercise machine in your house you've never bought one, and many haven't! People are excited at first, then their interest wanes, and then they don't even realize they've stopped. They take a day off, and then two, and then they're out of the routine and they've got a new clothes rack. I mean how big a market was there for Peleton to begin with? Look at all the publicity about GoPro. Like everybody needed one. Now the stock is off 90%. Give the company credit, it's moving into services, but...it'll never reach the heights of the dreams of investors. Then again, professional investors get in on the ground floor and can make a profit on the spread long before the hoi polloi realize their mistake.
So, there's too much clothing, there seems to be too much of everything but cars. The companies couldn't meet demand, they ramped up production and then found out people were no longer interested. Is the same thing going to happen in the concert business?
Here's the relevant passage from the WSJ article:
"Versions of this story are playing out across business sectors, where makers of everything from clothing to kitchen appliances have gone from trying to catch up to demand to buckling under the weight of their own inventory, in a matter of weeks. Now many companies are cutting jobs, idling plants and working to undo many of the other steps they took to ensure they would have enough products to sell."
In a matter of weeks!
If you're an insider, you know that the past year has been an up and down one in terms of ticket sales. What I mean is they're moving, then they're not, then they are again... Are we ready for a slowdown?
There's another article I read today:
"Is there room for yet another major music festival in SoCal? Primavera Sound is about to find out": https://lat.ms/3qH8aQK
The "Los Angeles Times" is famous for switching headlines, if you Google, the headline is: "Primavera Sound debuts in L.A. amid shaky festival market - Launching any music festival is risky, but between inflation and an oversaturated market, the upcoming L.A. edition of Primavera Sound faces..."
Headwinds, because I wasn't even aware of it! And awareness is the first hurdle.
Then there's the bill, the price and the location.
If you read this story, you'll find the true story insiders also know, that a lot of festivals canceled for stated reasons were really pulled down because they couldn't move tickets. A festival is an investment, for both the promoter and the attendee. Not only is the question how many we need, but the price. Festival costs are high for the public, even ones that don't require lodging and long distance transportation, I mean how much are you going to pay to stand with the unwashed for days?
Historically, certain acts are recession-proof. Most definitely the ones who have hot records right now. Then you've got the superstars... But the superstars have been around, many people have seen them already. As for the smaller acts, moving up to larger buildings, who are not guaranteed sellouts...their hard core fans need to see them, but everybody else can pass when it's deemed too expensive.
And like with the products the WSJ is talking about, there was an absence, now there's a glut. There were no shows, now there are too many. And many of the tickets were sold before the pandemic, those shows are playing now, so the future?
Does not look so bright, you do not have to wear shades.
As for prices... In the LAT article it references that people are waiting for costs to come down! Below face value, when scalpers, whether they're professional or amateur, need to get rid of THEIR inventory!
Concerts are all about disposable income. Concert prices keep going up, if for no other reason than costs are going up. Is there a point at which people stay home? I think there is. I'm not saying the business becomes a dumpster fire, I'm just saying some people will be hurt.
And the concert business is opaque, almost all show business is. They don't want you to know, because it's all about image with talent.
And there are no guarantees, concert promoters don't know, they're always taking risk. And they certainly don't know what is going to happen after the first of the year.
And the response to the LAT writer is L.A. is a walkup town. No, historically that is not true. However, urban acts historically do more walkup business. In truth, the public is guarded. The mania is gone. People have blown their wad, they've got no idea what's down the pike for them either. Inflation bounced back, mortgages went to 6%. If you have any money, you're scared, if you've got none...
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Live Nation, a public company, has produced fantastic figures. Business has been beyond healthy, but going forward?
My eye caught this article on the front page of today's "Wall Street Journal":
"From Shortage to Glut: Scotts Miracle-Gro Is Buried in Fertilizer - Scotts ramped up production during the pandemic, then consumers shifted and retailers slashed orders, leaving a pile of inventory. It's now trying to dig its way out.": https://on.wsj.com/3RRr3fI
This story has been in the business press for a couple of months now. How these companies produced so much product and the public didn't want to buy it.
There are various factors. People were stuck at home during the pandemic and now they're not. I'm sure you've read about the disaster Peleton has become. Not that it wasn't predictable. If you don't have an idle exercise machine in your house you've never bought one, and many haven't! People are excited at first, then their interest wanes, and then they don't even realize they've stopped. They take a day off, and then two, and then they're out of the routine and they've got a new clothes rack. I mean how big a market was there for Peleton to begin with? Look at all the publicity about GoPro. Like everybody needed one. Now the stock is off 90%. Give the company credit, it's moving into services, but...it'll never reach the heights of the dreams of investors. Then again, professional investors get in on the ground floor and can make a profit on the spread long before the hoi polloi realize their mistake.
So, there's too much clothing, there seems to be too much of everything but cars. The companies couldn't meet demand, they ramped up production and then found out people were no longer interested. Is the same thing going to happen in the concert business?
Here's the relevant passage from the WSJ article:
"Versions of this story are playing out across business sectors, where makers of everything from clothing to kitchen appliances have gone from trying to catch up to demand to buckling under the weight of their own inventory, in a matter of weeks. Now many companies are cutting jobs, idling plants and working to undo many of the other steps they took to ensure they would have enough products to sell."
In a matter of weeks!
If you're an insider, you know that the past year has been an up and down one in terms of ticket sales. What I mean is they're moving, then they're not, then they are again... Are we ready for a slowdown?
There's another article I read today:
"Is there room for yet another major music festival in SoCal? Primavera Sound is about to find out": https://lat.ms/3qH8aQK
The "Los Angeles Times" is famous for switching headlines, if you Google, the headline is: "Primavera Sound debuts in L.A. amid shaky festival market - Launching any music festival is risky, but between inflation and an oversaturated market, the upcoming L.A. edition of Primavera Sound faces..."
Headwinds, because I wasn't even aware of it! And awareness is the first hurdle.
Then there's the bill, the price and the location.
If you read this story, you'll find the true story insiders also know, that a lot of festivals canceled for stated reasons were really pulled down because they couldn't move tickets. A festival is an investment, for both the promoter and the attendee. Not only is the question how many we need, but the price. Festival costs are high for the public, even ones that don't require lodging and long distance transportation, I mean how much are you going to pay to stand with the unwashed for days?
Historically, certain acts are recession-proof. Most definitely the ones who have hot records right now. Then you've got the superstars... But the superstars have been around, many people have seen them already. As for the smaller acts, moving up to larger buildings, who are not guaranteed sellouts...their hard core fans need to see them, but everybody else can pass when it's deemed too expensive.
And like with the products the WSJ is talking about, there was an absence, now there's a glut. There were no shows, now there are too many. And many of the tickets were sold before the pandemic, those shows are playing now, so the future?
Does not look so bright, you do not have to wear shades.
As for prices... In the LAT article it references that people are waiting for costs to come down! Below face value, when scalpers, whether they're professional or amateur, need to get rid of THEIR inventory!
Concerts are all about disposable income. Concert prices keep going up, if for no other reason than costs are going up. Is there a point at which people stay home? I think there is. I'm not saying the business becomes a dumpster fire, I'm just saying some people will be hurt.
And the concert business is opaque, almost all show business is. They don't want you to know, because it's all about image with talent.
And there are no guarantees, concert promoters don't know, they're always taking risk. And they certainly don't know what is going to happen after the first of the year.
And the response to the LAT writer is L.A. is a walkup town. No, historically that is not true. However, urban acts historically do more walkup business. In truth, the public is guarded. The mania is gone. People have blown their wad, they've got no idea what's down the pike for them either. Inflation bounced back, mortgages went to 6%. If you have any money, you're scared, if you've got none...
--
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HP Envy 6455e
I'm so proud of myself.
I bought a new printer. I didn't want to, but the old one no longer printed in color. And then it printed blurry black and I put two new cartridges in and it didn't fix the problem, after cleaning the heads and doing the rest of the procedures in the app, and I decided to buy a new one.
I haven't bought a new printer in over a decade. I've GOTTEN a new printer since then, a couple, in fact I've got at least one in the garage. But there's an issue of them working with the latest operating system.
I'm on a Mac. There, I said it. Hate me if you want, I can handle it. I've also got a Windows machine, but like they say, it's unintuitive. You can learn the procedures over time, but it's just not natural.
As for Macs... If you've got one, you've got an iPhone. I don't think I've ever met a Mac user with an Android, but now I'll get e-mail testifying to the fact. Bob, you ignorant slut... But, you might have read, actually, probably not, with so much info in the pipeline these days, that the iPhone population in the U.S. now exceeds the Android population. iPhone penetration is going up in the U.S. Which is not what prognosticators predicted. Word was it was only a matter of time until Android killed iOS, just like VHS killed Beta. But that's why you live, for the surprises. That's what I've been thinking about the war in Ukraine, the election in the U.S., you never really know what's gonna happen. It's kind of like baseball, long and drawn out but no matter what happened in the previous eight innings, a team can come from behind and win in the ninth, there is no garbage time like in the NBA or NFL, a comeback is always possible, I've seen it. As for the rules changes... I'm down with the pitch clock, I'm even okay with the bigger bases, but the ban on shifts... God, I remember shifting back in Little League, it's part of the game, is baseball turning into football, where the rules constantly change and the rules supersede the play at times? I don't know, but you don't go to war on statistics by eliminating them, you adjust accordingly.
ANYWAY, when it comes to printers, there's always an issue of drivers. And Apple releases a new OS every year. And too many printer companies don't update accordingly. Which is why I go with the biggest, i.e. HP, because having the most market share they must put out new drivers at the same time the OS is released. Whereas if you have a Canon or Brother or Sony or Epson this may not be the case, usually isn't the case, Apple is a sliver of their business.
Oh, I left a loose end. I've been foggy for weeks. Did you see that article in the "New York Times" about the end of fog in San Francisco: https://nyti.ms/3UgIBU9 I don't know, I've been overwhelmed. It was hot and now it's fall. Politics swings from side to side. It's hard to keep one's mind straight. But the reason I haven't bought printers is they come for free with a new computer! That used to be the promotion. After all, the money is in the ink. But the printer companies are doing their best to change that paradigm, with different approaches, more expensive printers and cheaper ink and...
Oh, that's another thing. Inkjet won. I started off with a laser, with Postscript, remember that, and Aldus Pagemaker? That machine cost thousands, today you can get a laser for hundreds, ah, the march of progress, but not one in color.
And word used to be that inkjet wasn't sharp enough. And then we all decided it was. But parents bitched about the cost of ink. I didn't, I mean how often do you even print anymore?
Well, during the pandemic I printed cards for Felice, there are some good ones online. But like I said, my printer stopped printing color, so some cards were unusable and...
I decided to bite the bullet. I bought the HP Envy 6455e. Why they call them Envys, I've got no idea. No one has ever envied an inkjet printer, except maybe for those large format ones in print shops, which are not called Envys anyway.
As for which model HP... You don't want the base model, it's too slow. And you don't need the best model. I ended up spending close to $200. I could look it up, but that's not the point of this screed, the point is all about scanning.
So Macs no longer come with printers. And I'm wondering about buying a new Mac. I need two. A laptop, to go on the road with... And a desktop. Believe me, it's hard to use a 15" screen when you're used to 27". But now Apple has gone to new chips, and I've got one in my iPad Pro, it's spectacular, but my iMac5k works just fine, I mean I always max out my machines. But they're pushing it into the sunset. Yup, can't use the latest OS. I'm still getting security updates, but... And I don't want to buy one of those new Mac Studios until they fix the display, it's a rip-off. And believe me, you're always best using the Apple product, interoperability is built-in. Which is now the game, the ecosystem. I mean come on, when you see someone with a green bubble in iMessage? Oh, that's another thing people don't know, because there's so much to know. iMessages are blue because they go over the internet, they don't use your cell service, but when they do, when you're out of internet range but still have cell service, they appear green, yes, even on an iPhone.
So...
The machine arrived.
Used to be you judged a product by its weight, its heft. That old LaserWriter of mine was in the neighborhood of fifty pounds. Today's printers? Better hold on to them before they fly into the sky. They're light, Rube Goldberg contraptions, you're stunned that they work at all. You can see the gears, everything is so flimsy, then again, you didn't pay much.
And... Setting up an HP on a Mac? Wow, they've taken all the guesswork out of it. You don't even have to read the manual, you just follow the prompts and then...
And then you must decide whether you want Instant Ink. That's why there's an "e" at the end of the name. You see if you agree, you can't ever use another type of cartridge other than brand new, original HP ones. But if you agree, HP will send you some free ink and monitor your machine to see when it needs ink and...
PRIVACY!
Do I really care that my printer company monitors the number of pages I print?
Oh, I'm trying to fight back. You estimate how many pages you're gonna print, because at first the cartridges are free. So I estimated a ton, so I got the extra large cartridge, which may last me years. I think I'm beating HP. As long as I remember to unsubscribe after six months, and I've got it in my calendar.
As for using bogus cartridges... That's not my style, I'm into the genuine article. As for being able to repair my products... This is a ridiculous construct. Because for almost all of these products, it's cheaper and easier to replace than to repair. Even your flat screen TV. Breaks, and you toss it. Just about everything. The repair costs almost as much as a new one, and then it breaks again, it's happened to me, with a copier, I no longer fix anything, I don't trust the repair people! As far as fixing it yourself... Nobody wants to do that.
But there are people on Android because they believe in extreme customization, despite having a hard time getting updates to the operating system and dealing with security issues. And there are those who will buy remanufactured ink cartridges. As for repair... You bring it to a shop anyway, no one does it themselves.
But truth is irrelevant, people have decided everything must be repairable at a cheap cost. If this were ever come to be, and it won't, everybody will end up paying, the products will become more expensive! Screws instead of glue and...
The printer works. There was huge gratification in that. Although the paper tray is quite small. And the buttons, well they're lights, have no words on them and I'm still not sure what all of them mean.
And I've had to print some important stuff, even in color, that the old machine wouldn't have, so I'm feeling good about my purchase until today...
Today a doctor sent me forms. Why can't we move to computer forms, where I can type in the values on my screen? Why do we still have to print, fill in with pen and scan. I mean it's amazing how far we've come, the internet is de rigueur, but we've still got miles to go.
Like I figured they wanted me to mail the forms back, but they wanted me to E-MAIL THEM!
All good, but that meant scanning almost twenty sheets!
Ah, the HP scanner software...
First and foremost, why is there always that horizontal line in the middle, huh? What does that represent? You know, in the picture of your document.
So, you launch the HP software, pick the picture of a scanner and then...
You're confronted with a whole bunch of choices. You think the defaults are cool, but you'd be WRONG!
First and foremost, dpi is 75, which is positively eighties, you want 300, it's been the standard for decades.
And why is the default the Downloads folder? There's no downloading involved! I change that to Desktop.
Oh, and you can name the document right in the app! Took me years to realize that, I always renamed them in the Finder.
So, it's always a learning curve when I go to scan, but today... Was I really going to hand scan twenty pages? There must be a better way.
I mean the Envy came with a document feeder. But does it work for scans?
That's where Google comes in. I started to do research. To see if it was POSSIBLE!
Turns out it was! But the instructions were worthless, I was wasting time.
So I went to the app, examined the choices.
Turns out you can change the Scan Mode from Flatbed to Document Feeder! Who knew!
Man, I'm starting to get excited.
So, I put my paper in the document feeder, which it took me a moment to find, turns out you've got to pull back a cover which I thought was permanent to access it. The cover is the feeder when it's opened. Believe me, they've thought a lot about this, after all, they've had years to work on the design.
And I'm smart enough to know that the paper's going to flip over, I think I'm feeding it right, and then...
It all starts to work. God, I can do something else while it's scanning! No time wasted, isn't technology great!
But, I decide to check the scans along the way. Which I'm always anxious about. If you started computing in the eighties you know anything can go wrong. That was the big breakthrough of OS X. You couldn't break it! I'm still uptight when I update anything, I remember when the odds of success were way less than 100%.
And I check the first scan and...
It's blank.
Well, maybe that was a test scan. I was futzing around trying to make it work at first.
But then I checked the later scans...THEY WERE ALL BLANK!
I hit cancel. And it stopped scanning but kept feeding, and I was too uptight to pull the pages for fear of getting them out of order, they were not numbered, and...
I align the pages correctly and start again.
It works beautifully! But when I check the results, they're upside down. Not the worst result, but still... I opened them all in Preview and reoriented and saved them.
And then I had about five more pages to do and I got it right.
IT WAS A TRIUMPH! I FELT SO GOOD ABOUT MYSELF!
It would have been easier to do it just one by one. Because there was research involved, trial and error, time wasted, whereas I knew how to do it manually.
And document feeders are notoriously wonky. I mean is it worth the bother?
But I did the research, analyzed the app, experimented and got it right. VICTORY!
And I know you don't care, but I know you understand. We live for these moments. Where we make personal progress, where we figure things out, where we're set for the future.
That's another thing about people... They get old and they don't want to learn new tricks. I know so many people who won't use their banking app. For fear of... I'm not exactly sure what. I mean not only do you have a name and a password, they send you a text to authenticate and...
I mean there's nothing worse than going to the bank. Talk about wasting time... It's people who are afraid of technology and merchants with a zillion checks, makes me want to kill myself.
The app will even send physical checks for you! But why bother, when you can send the money electronically, even use Zelle for instantaneous transfer to your friends.
And you can check your balance if you're into that kind of thing.
And I do my best not to write a check, not after my IRS payment was stolen out of the mailbox right in front of the post office, some guy changed it to his name. Believe me, the internet is here, it's no longer newfangled. It works.
But help is almost nonexistent. You can't even pay for it with most sites and products. First they rationalized it by saying they were giving you the product for free, and why should they, like with social media. Then the philosophy spread to physical products too. You want 'em cheap, this is what you get! NOTHING!
And people are unbelievably cheap. They'll change airlines for a buck. And then they'll get on last and ask you to switch from the aisle seat up front you paid for to a middle seat in the back so they can sit with their kids. PAY FOR IT!
Anyway, I paid for my HP Envy 6455e. And now I'm using it to the fullest. Feels so good!
But your mileage may vary.
I bought a new printer. I didn't want to, but the old one no longer printed in color. And then it printed blurry black and I put two new cartridges in and it didn't fix the problem, after cleaning the heads and doing the rest of the procedures in the app, and I decided to buy a new one.
I haven't bought a new printer in over a decade. I've GOTTEN a new printer since then, a couple, in fact I've got at least one in the garage. But there's an issue of them working with the latest operating system.
I'm on a Mac. There, I said it. Hate me if you want, I can handle it. I've also got a Windows machine, but like they say, it's unintuitive. You can learn the procedures over time, but it's just not natural.
As for Macs... If you've got one, you've got an iPhone. I don't think I've ever met a Mac user with an Android, but now I'll get e-mail testifying to the fact. Bob, you ignorant slut... But, you might have read, actually, probably not, with so much info in the pipeline these days, that the iPhone population in the U.S. now exceeds the Android population. iPhone penetration is going up in the U.S. Which is not what prognosticators predicted. Word was it was only a matter of time until Android killed iOS, just like VHS killed Beta. But that's why you live, for the surprises. That's what I've been thinking about the war in Ukraine, the election in the U.S., you never really know what's gonna happen. It's kind of like baseball, long and drawn out but no matter what happened in the previous eight innings, a team can come from behind and win in the ninth, there is no garbage time like in the NBA or NFL, a comeback is always possible, I've seen it. As for the rules changes... I'm down with the pitch clock, I'm even okay with the bigger bases, but the ban on shifts... God, I remember shifting back in Little League, it's part of the game, is baseball turning into football, where the rules constantly change and the rules supersede the play at times? I don't know, but you don't go to war on statistics by eliminating them, you adjust accordingly.
ANYWAY, when it comes to printers, there's always an issue of drivers. And Apple releases a new OS every year. And too many printer companies don't update accordingly. Which is why I go with the biggest, i.e. HP, because having the most market share they must put out new drivers at the same time the OS is released. Whereas if you have a Canon or Brother or Sony or Epson this may not be the case, usually isn't the case, Apple is a sliver of their business.
Oh, I left a loose end. I've been foggy for weeks. Did you see that article in the "New York Times" about the end of fog in San Francisco: https://nyti.ms/3UgIBU9 I don't know, I've been overwhelmed. It was hot and now it's fall. Politics swings from side to side. It's hard to keep one's mind straight. But the reason I haven't bought printers is they come for free with a new computer! That used to be the promotion. After all, the money is in the ink. But the printer companies are doing their best to change that paradigm, with different approaches, more expensive printers and cheaper ink and...
Oh, that's another thing. Inkjet won. I started off with a laser, with Postscript, remember that, and Aldus Pagemaker? That machine cost thousands, today you can get a laser for hundreds, ah, the march of progress, but not one in color.
And word used to be that inkjet wasn't sharp enough. And then we all decided it was. But parents bitched about the cost of ink. I didn't, I mean how often do you even print anymore?
Well, during the pandemic I printed cards for Felice, there are some good ones online. But like I said, my printer stopped printing color, so some cards were unusable and...
I decided to bite the bullet. I bought the HP Envy 6455e. Why they call them Envys, I've got no idea. No one has ever envied an inkjet printer, except maybe for those large format ones in print shops, which are not called Envys anyway.
As for which model HP... You don't want the base model, it's too slow. And you don't need the best model. I ended up spending close to $200. I could look it up, but that's not the point of this screed, the point is all about scanning.
So Macs no longer come with printers. And I'm wondering about buying a new Mac. I need two. A laptop, to go on the road with... And a desktop. Believe me, it's hard to use a 15" screen when you're used to 27". But now Apple has gone to new chips, and I've got one in my iPad Pro, it's spectacular, but my iMac5k works just fine, I mean I always max out my machines. But they're pushing it into the sunset. Yup, can't use the latest OS. I'm still getting security updates, but... And I don't want to buy one of those new Mac Studios until they fix the display, it's a rip-off. And believe me, you're always best using the Apple product, interoperability is built-in. Which is now the game, the ecosystem. I mean come on, when you see someone with a green bubble in iMessage? Oh, that's another thing people don't know, because there's so much to know. iMessages are blue because they go over the internet, they don't use your cell service, but when they do, when you're out of internet range but still have cell service, they appear green, yes, even on an iPhone.
So...
The machine arrived.
Used to be you judged a product by its weight, its heft. That old LaserWriter of mine was in the neighborhood of fifty pounds. Today's printers? Better hold on to them before they fly into the sky. They're light, Rube Goldberg contraptions, you're stunned that they work at all. You can see the gears, everything is so flimsy, then again, you didn't pay much.
And... Setting up an HP on a Mac? Wow, they've taken all the guesswork out of it. You don't even have to read the manual, you just follow the prompts and then...
And then you must decide whether you want Instant Ink. That's why there's an "e" at the end of the name. You see if you agree, you can't ever use another type of cartridge other than brand new, original HP ones. But if you agree, HP will send you some free ink and monitor your machine to see when it needs ink and...
PRIVACY!
Do I really care that my printer company monitors the number of pages I print?
Oh, I'm trying to fight back. You estimate how many pages you're gonna print, because at first the cartridges are free. So I estimated a ton, so I got the extra large cartridge, which may last me years. I think I'm beating HP. As long as I remember to unsubscribe after six months, and I've got it in my calendar.
As for using bogus cartridges... That's not my style, I'm into the genuine article. As for being able to repair my products... This is a ridiculous construct. Because for almost all of these products, it's cheaper and easier to replace than to repair. Even your flat screen TV. Breaks, and you toss it. Just about everything. The repair costs almost as much as a new one, and then it breaks again, it's happened to me, with a copier, I no longer fix anything, I don't trust the repair people! As far as fixing it yourself... Nobody wants to do that.
But there are people on Android because they believe in extreme customization, despite having a hard time getting updates to the operating system and dealing with security issues. And there are those who will buy remanufactured ink cartridges. As for repair... You bring it to a shop anyway, no one does it themselves.
But truth is irrelevant, people have decided everything must be repairable at a cheap cost. If this were ever come to be, and it won't, everybody will end up paying, the products will become more expensive! Screws instead of glue and...
The printer works. There was huge gratification in that. Although the paper tray is quite small. And the buttons, well they're lights, have no words on them and I'm still not sure what all of them mean.
And I've had to print some important stuff, even in color, that the old machine wouldn't have, so I'm feeling good about my purchase until today...
Today a doctor sent me forms. Why can't we move to computer forms, where I can type in the values on my screen? Why do we still have to print, fill in with pen and scan. I mean it's amazing how far we've come, the internet is de rigueur, but we've still got miles to go.
Like I figured they wanted me to mail the forms back, but they wanted me to E-MAIL THEM!
All good, but that meant scanning almost twenty sheets!
Ah, the HP scanner software...
First and foremost, why is there always that horizontal line in the middle, huh? What does that represent? You know, in the picture of your document.
So, you launch the HP software, pick the picture of a scanner and then...
You're confronted with a whole bunch of choices. You think the defaults are cool, but you'd be WRONG!
First and foremost, dpi is 75, which is positively eighties, you want 300, it's been the standard for decades.
And why is the default the Downloads folder? There's no downloading involved! I change that to Desktop.
Oh, and you can name the document right in the app! Took me years to realize that, I always renamed them in the Finder.
So, it's always a learning curve when I go to scan, but today... Was I really going to hand scan twenty pages? There must be a better way.
I mean the Envy came with a document feeder. But does it work for scans?
That's where Google comes in. I started to do research. To see if it was POSSIBLE!
Turns out it was! But the instructions were worthless, I was wasting time.
So I went to the app, examined the choices.
Turns out you can change the Scan Mode from Flatbed to Document Feeder! Who knew!
Man, I'm starting to get excited.
So, I put my paper in the document feeder, which it took me a moment to find, turns out you've got to pull back a cover which I thought was permanent to access it. The cover is the feeder when it's opened. Believe me, they've thought a lot about this, after all, they've had years to work on the design.
And I'm smart enough to know that the paper's going to flip over, I think I'm feeding it right, and then...
It all starts to work. God, I can do something else while it's scanning! No time wasted, isn't technology great!
But, I decide to check the scans along the way. Which I'm always anxious about. If you started computing in the eighties you know anything can go wrong. That was the big breakthrough of OS X. You couldn't break it! I'm still uptight when I update anything, I remember when the odds of success were way less than 100%.
And I check the first scan and...
It's blank.
Well, maybe that was a test scan. I was futzing around trying to make it work at first.
But then I checked the later scans...THEY WERE ALL BLANK!
I hit cancel. And it stopped scanning but kept feeding, and I was too uptight to pull the pages for fear of getting them out of order, they were not numbered, and...
I align the pages correctly and start again.
It works beautifully! But when I check the results, they're upside down. Not the worst result, but still... I opened them all in Preview and reoriented and saved them.
And then I had about five more pages to do and I got it right.
IT WAS A TRIUMPH! I FELT SO GOOD ABOUT MYSELF!
It would have been easier to do it just one by one. Because there was research involved, trial and error, time wasted, whereas I knew how to do it manually.
And document feeders are notoriously wonky. I mean is it worth the bother?
But I did the research, analyzed the app, experimented and got it right. VICTORY!
And I know you don't care, but I know you understand. We live for these moments. Where we make personal progress, where we figure things out, where we're set for the future.
That's another thing about people... They get old and they don't want to learn new tricks. I know so many people who won't use their banking app. For fear of... I'm not exactly sure what. I mean not only do you have a name and a password, they send you a text to authenticate and...
I mean there's nothing worse than going to the bank. Talk about wasting time... It's people who are afraid of technology and merchants with a zillion checks, makes me want to kill myself.
The app will even send physical checks for you! But why bother, when you can send the money electronically, even use Zelle for instantaneous transfer to your friends.
And you can check your balance if you're into that kind of thing.
And I do my best not to write a check, not after my IRS payment was stolen out of the mailbox right in front of the post office, some guy changed it to his name. Believe me, the internet is here, it's no longer newfangled. It works.
But help is almost nonexistent. You can't even pay for it with most sites and products. First they rationalized it by saying they were giving you the product for free, and why should they, like with social media. Then the philosophy spread to physical products too. You want 'em cheap, this is what you get! NOTHING!
And people are unbelievably cheap. They'll change airlines for a buck. And then they'll get on last and ask you to switch from the aisle seat up front you paid for to a middle seat in the back so they can sit with their kids. PAY FOR IT!
Anyway, I paid for my HP Envy 6455e. And now I'm using it to the fullest. Feels so good!
But your mileage may vary.
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Your Song Of The Summer-This Week On SiriusXM
Your favorite summer song of all time.
New day, new time, new channel!
Tune in tomorrow, Saturday September 17th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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New day, new time, new channel!
Tune in tomorrow, Saturday September 17th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Thursday 15 September 2022
Marcus King-This Week's Podcast
Guitarist/singer/songwriter Marcus King is so open and honest it will blow your mind!
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/marcus-king-102083616/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marcus-king/id1316200737?i=1000579559555
https://open.spotify.com/episode/05UOrI0GQHjl1RRuewA1hQ?si=qJzhsCjoRvS5prU_7LzEBw
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/e94b3723-3346-456a-baac-7650f44a7520/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-marcus-king
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/marcus-king-206753864
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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/marcus-king-102083616/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marcus-king/id1316200737?i=1000579559555
https://open.spotify.com/episode/05UOrI0GQHjl1RRuewA1hQ?si=qJzhsCjoRvS5prU_7LzEBw
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/e94b3723-3346-456a-baac-7650f44a7520/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-marcus-king
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/marcus-king-206753864
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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
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Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Wednesday 14 September 2022
Jean-Luc Godard
1
You've got to be a boomer (or older!) to know who this guy is.
Maybe youngsters have heard the name, maybe those ensconced in college level film studies are aware of his work, but Godard is definitely in the rearview mirror. Dying of assisted suicide, he was a man out of time.
How to set the stage for the sixties... As time has gone on, the decade has been decried, as degenerate and excessive, but if you lived through the times you know otherwise.
Anything was possible.
That was the environment we grew up in. The fifties were in black and white, the sixties were in color. And it was all happening, everything was up for grabs.
Today we sympathize with youngsters and their college debt and lack of career opportunities. They can't make it here. As for those in film studies, they're the minority, most are pursuing careers. Don't confuse film studies with going to USC to learn how to MAKE films, I'm talking about analyzing the art form itself, that's the goal. No one wants to analyze anything anymore, they just want to plow ahead blindly, pledging allegiance to a list of beliefs that they never question.
So the turn of the decade began with the Kennedy/Nixon election. I remember going to school the next morning and arguing with my second grade classmates as to who won. Sure, this situation was trumped in 2000, with Bush and Gore, but instead of the end result leading us back to the past, Kennedy emerged triumphant and started ushering us into the future, from day one. He didn't wear a hat at his inauguration, his wife was a babe who spoke a plethora of languages, and what is overlooked is that when he took office he was 43. A mere pup. Whereas today out of touch septuagenarians fight for power and no one wants to give it up, doing their best to exclude the younger generations and hold back progress.
But you might speak of the Biden legislative victory just recently. Kudos to him, but Jackie Kennedy took network TV viewers on a tour through the White House, focusing on art.
Because art was everything. There were no billionaires. There was plenty of racism, but the wheels were turning there too.
Our rabbi went down south to protest. It was the opposite of mine for me. The goal was to lift everybody up. No child left behind. Ultimately it was not only about civil rights, but the right to pre-school, the right to meals in schools, the right of opportunity. All those initial tech seers, from Steve Jobs to Bill Gates? They were boomers, they were raised in a can-do world.
And there was the race to the moon and...
There was cinema. People even stopped calling it "the movies." The discussion became about FILM! And you've got to credit Jean-Luc Godard as a progenitor of the movement. The French New Wave. They questioned what cinema was and what it could be.
Meanwhile, Hollywood was turning out dreck, depressed about the power of television, the studios went broad and movies had less impact on the culture until...
All those young filmmakers were exposed to Godard, et al.
Once again, it was about possibilities. Rules were made to be broken. Even narrative arc. You didn't watch a movie and instantly forget about it, you left the theatre thinking and...
You definitely went to the theatre, it was a religious experience. It's where the action took place.
And in 1964 there was a concomitant great leap forward in America with the Beatles. Music and movies drove the culture, it was undeniable.
2
So the first Godard movie I saw was "One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil)." Yes, it starred the devil himself, Mick Jagger, along with his merry band of night crawlers known as the Rolling Stones. But it wasn't a Stones flick, they were just in it, AND GODARD REFUSED TO INCLUDE A COMPLETE PERFORMANCE OF THE SONG!
Eventually the movie came out with a complete rendition of the opening track on "Beggars Banquet at the end" but this was against Godard's wishes.
And it took a while for the film to be released, such that when it came out, it was the era of "Let It Bleed." However, one thing is for sure, it was not the typical movie, it didn't even hang together, it was an experience, a statement, that you were trying to figure out as you watched it, not wanting to write your interpretation in indelible ink for you weren't exactly sure, you had to mull it over, not only discuss, but argue about it, with your friends.
Yes, we argued about movies.
I saw "One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil)" at the County Cinema, where I'd previously seen a double feature of "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love." This was right after "Goldfinger," when the entire nation, the entire world, was Bond crazy. Turned out we were too young to get in, so my sister called my father FROM A PAY PHONE, he came down and bought a ticket, ushered us in and then went back on the street to resell the ducat. There were no child restrictions in our household. Nothing was too prurient or intense for us to experience. It was a great big world and if anything our parents wanted to expose us to it.
The County Cinema was a single theatre. And it was a dump. Almost all of the theatres were. When the lights went out what difference did it make? It was all about what was on screen.
3
So when I was in college I took a course in French film. We used to laugh about this, there couldn't be a course in American film at Middlebury, that was too lowbrow. And I remember first seeing Georges Méliès's "A Trip to the Moon," and soon thereafter Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player" (before Elton released an album with a similar title), and seemingly every picture featured Jean Gabin, previously unknown to me or my classmates, he was our new hero. And there was the slight yet intense Jean-Louis Trintignant, and there was Marina Vlady.
WHO?
She was the star of Godard's "Two or Three Things I Know About Her," however we referred to it under its French name, "Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle," after all, it was Middlebury.
And the thing about Marina Vlady was...she was not an American movie star, slick and made up to be flawless. She skewed normal, albeit attractive. And the film had no conventional narrative arc. The fourth wall was broken. And, AND, as the professors who taught this course couldn't stop emphasizing, THERE WAS A 360 DEGREE PAN!
You see that nowadays, but not before Godard, and not that often thereafter. Godard didn't care about the rules, he wanted to create art unfettered, do it his way, DO YOU KNOW WHAT AN INSPIRATION THIS WAS TO US?
Not far different from the late sixties and seventies in music. The acts gained control of their music. They recorded in studios far from the corporate tentacles, and oftentimes they could cut whatever they wanted and the label had to release it. And let's not forget they gained control of the covers and inner sleeves!
The artists were king. And as long as the money was pouring in...
Yes, labels had house hippies to explain the music to the execs.
As for Godard and the French New Wave... It took a while to reach Hollywood. Film students were all over it, but they had no access to 35mm film, they couldn't afford it. Movies have always been expensive to make, Godard, et al, made them cheaper but it took a while for the major studios to loosen the purse strings.
And we first got "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate."
And then the youngsters came to the fore, Coppola, Bogdanovich, the list is endless. If you wanted to know about society you had to go to the movies.
And we did. Many of us multiple times a week. Films were platformed, they opened in New York and L.A. and then spread to the rest of the country over months. And conversation about them lingered too.
And you went to see the foreign films. The art houses flourished.
You not only had to see Godard and Truffaut, but Chabrol, Rohmer and Resnais. And Ingmar Bergman too. We saw "The Seventh Seal" at Middlebury, talk about leaving the theatre with more questions than answers... (Worst was "Last Year at Marienbad," which we also saw in that class.)
And "The Seventh Seal" introduced us to Max von Sydow, long before he gained notoriety in Hollywood productions.
And it wasn't only Bergman, it was Jan Troell. His "Emigrants/New Land" films illustrated how Scandinavians moved to Minnesota, to find a place with weather just as bad as the place they'd left (I stole that joke from comedian Diane Ford).
4
Now foreign film didn't die in America until the turn of the century. Along with all film. First it was Hollywood productions. The internet ushered in an era of cacophony, but at least we had the movies in common, you went just to have something to talk about with others.
But the movies were so bad, people stopped going.
Some still go to the art house for foreign flicks on the weekend, but there's a plethora of product oftentimes at high expense and...
No one argued over the cost in the days of yore. If you have an opportunity to see godhead are you gonna say no?
Not that it was always godhead, but we were building our mental library. We were becoming experts without even trying.
And today?
Well, you've got to see Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's 2011 flick "A Separation." Forget what comes after, even if it's been nominated for an award, "A Separation" sits far above the rest of us work.
Yet, the dream died.
But the dream used to be alive.
We used to know who ran the studios. Who gave the green light. Do we get "The Godfather" without Robert Evans? Well, he'd tell you no.
Now we don't know and we don't care.
Godard stood in solidarity with the protesters in France in 1968. Today, anybody with dough wants to stand on the sidelines, they don't want to jeopardize their career.
Jean-Luc Godard talked the talk and walked the walk.
But he did come from a rich family.
Wealthy families... They produce a huge number of entitled nincompoops, but they also produce many of our artists. Without having to worry about food and shelter, they test the limits.
At least they used to. Now it's all about capital preservation and lifestyle. The scions of the rich are risk-averse.
Now it's about the gross as opposed to the art.
5
So you can see a facsimile of the Grateful Dead on the road, but most of what was huge in the sixties isn't even a sideshow. Boomers grew up with the films of the thirties and forties, today's youngsters believe anything made before this century isn't worth watching.
Some gods have been completely forgotten. The Marx Brothers? Kids don't even know who you're talking about.
But they can tell you all about Elon Musk and the other financial titans. And sure, it's great that the means of production is in their pockets, but they're not making art with their iPhones, but commercials for themselves, their greatest desire is to become an influencer.
The whole world has flipped. All those liberal arts majors who sustained the artistic community? They're laughed at. College is to get a job, not to broaden your mind.
We're old.
But we remember.
And sure, it's nostalgia, but...
The history of tech in the last two decades far surpasses that of film and music. Hands-down. Things change, and in the entertainment world the corporations regained control of the "art" form and they have no intention of relinquishing it.
As far as rebelling... God, you can't even get noticed these days, that's the hardest part, never mind start a movement.
Not that it can't happen, but...
It did happen sixty years ago. And one of the leaders was Jean-Luc Godard. Not always an admirable man in his personal choices and behavior, he lived for what was on screen.
And we did too.
And when I saw Jean-Luc Godard passed away something died inside of me. Maybe it was that hope and possibility I was referencing above. That belief that there is honor in being the freak, the outsider with the unpopular opinion spewed from the heart. Someone's got to take chances, someone's got to go against the grain, otherwise we have stasis.
Which is what we've got today.
But those old films still exist.
You've got nothing to learn from the superheroes in the blockbusters. But you've got plenty to learn from the work of the true superheroes of yore, people like Jean-Luc Godard who pushed the envelope. Thank god their work is still available for people to see and be influenced and inspired by.
I certainly was.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
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-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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--
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You've got to be a boomer (or older!) to know who this guy is.
Maybe youngsters have heard the name, maybe those ensconced in college level film studies are aware of his work, but Godard is definitely in the rearview mirror. Dying of assisted suicide, he was a man out of time.
How to set the stage for the sixties... As time has gone on, the decade has been decried, as degenerate and excessive, but if you lived through the times you know otherwise.
Anything was possible.
That was the environment we grew up in. The fifties were in black and white, the sixties were in color. And it was all happening, everything was up for grabs.
Today we sympathize with youngsters and their college debt and lack of career opportunities. They can't make it here. As for those in film studies, they're the minority, most are pursuing careers. Don't confuse film studies with going to USC to learn how to MAKE films, I'm talking about analyzing the art form itself, that's the goal. No one wants to analyze anything anymore, they just want to plow ahead blindly, pledging allegiance to a list of beliefs that they never question.
So the turn of the decade began with the Kennedy/Nixon election. I remember going to school the next morning and arguing with my second grade classmates as to who won. Sure, this situation was trumped in 2000, with Bush and Gore, but instead of the end result leading us back to the past, Kennedy emerged triumphant and started ushering us into the future, from day one. He didn't wear a hat at his inauguration, his wife was a babe who spoke a plethora of languages, and what is overlooked is that when he took office he was 43. A mere pup. Whereas today out of touch septuagenarians fight for power and no one wants to give it up, doing their best to exclude the younger generations and hold back progress.
But you might speak of the Biden legislative victory just recently. Kudos to him, but Jackie Kennedy took network TV viewers on a tour through the White House, focusing on art.
Because art was everything. There were no billionaires. There was plenty of racism, but the wheels were turning there too.
Our rabbi went down south to protest. It was the opposite of mine for me. The goal was to lift everybody up. No child left behind. Ultimately it was not only about civil rights, but the right to pre-school, the right to meals in schools, the right of opportunity. All those initial tech seers, from Steve Jobs to Bill Gates? They were boomers, they were raised in a can-do world.
And there was the race to the moon and...
There was cinema. People even stopped calling it "the movies." The discussion became about FILM! And you've got to credit Jean-Luc Godard as a progenitor of the movement. The French New Wave. They questioned what cinema was and what it could be.
Meanwhile, Hollywood was turning out dreck, depressed about the power of television, the studios went broad and movies had less impact on the culture until...
All those young filmmakers were exposed to Godard, et al.
Once again, it was about possibilities. Rules were made to be broken. Even narrative arc. You didn't watch a movie and instantly forget about it, you left the theatre thinking and...
You definitely went to the theatre, it was a religious experience. It's where the action took place.
And in 1964 there was a concomitant great leap forward in America with the Beatles. Music and movies drove the culture, it was undeniable.
2
So the first Godard movie I saw was "One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil)." Yes, it starred the devil himself, Mick Jagger, along with his merry band of night crawlers known as the Rolling Stones. But it wasn't a Stones flick, they were just in it, AND GODARD REFUSED TO INCLUDE A COMPLETE PERFORMANCE OF THE SONG!
Eventually the movie came out with a complete rendition of the opening track on "Beggars Banquet at the end" but this was against Godard's wishes.
And it took a while for the film to be released, such that when it came out, it was the era of "Let It Bleed." However, one thing is for sure, it was not the typical movie, it didn't even hang together, it was an experience, a statement, that you were trying to figure out as you watched it, not wanting to write your interpretation in indelible ink for you weren't exactly sure, you had to mull it over, not only discuss, but argue about it, with your friends.
Yes, we argued about movies.
I saw "One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil)" at the County Cinema, where I'd previously seen a double feature of "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love." This was right after "Goldfinger," when the entire nation, the entire world, was Bond crazy. Turned out we were too young to get in, so my sister called my father FROM A PAY PHONE, he came down and bought a ticket, ushered us in and then went back on the street to resell the ducat. There were no child restrictions in our household. Nothing was too prurient or intense for us to experience. It was a great big world and if anything our parents wanted to expose us to it.
The County Cinema was a single theatre. And it was a dump. Almost all of the theatres were. When the lights went out what difference did it make? It was all about what was on screen.
3
So when I was in college I took a course in French film. We used to laugh about this, there couldn't be a course in American film at Middlebury, that was too lowbrow. And I remember first seeing Georges Méliès's "A Trip to the Moon," and soon thereafter Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player" (before Elton released an album with a similar title), and seemingly every picture featured Jean Gabin, previously unknown to me or my classmates, he was our new hero. And there was the slight yet intense Jean-Louis Trintignant, and there was Marina Vlady.
WHO?
She was the star of Godard's "Two or Three Things I Know About Her," however we referred to it under its French name, "Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle," after all, it was Middlebury.
And the thing about Marina Vlady was...she was not an American movie star, slick and made up to be flawless. She skewed normal, albeit attractive. And the film had no conventional narrative arc. The fourth wall was broken. And, AND, as the professors who taught this course couldn't stop emphasizing, THERE WAS A 360 DEGREE PAN!
You see that nowadays, but not before Godard, and not that often thereafter. Godard didn't care about the rules, he wanted to create art unfettered, do it his way, DO YOU KNOW WHAT AN INSPIRATION THIS WAS TO US?
Not far different from the late sixties and seventies in music. The acts gained control of their music. They recorded in studios far from the corporate tentacles, and oftentimes they could cut whatever they wanted and the label had to release it. And let's not forget they gained control of the covers and inner sleeves!
The artists were king. And as long as the money was pouring in...
Yes, labels had house hippies to explain the music to the execs.
As for Godard and the French New Wave... It took a while to reach Hollywood. Film students were all over it, but they had no access to 35mm film, they couldn't afford it. Movies have always been expensive to make, Godard, et al, made them cheaper but it took a while for the major studios to loosen the purse strings.
And we first got "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate."
And then the youngsters came to the fore, Coppola, Bogdanovich, the list is endless. If you wanted to know about society you had to go to the movies.
And we did. Many of us multiple times a week. Films were platformed, they opened in New York and L.A. and then spread to the rest of the country over months. And conversation about them lingered too.
And you went to see the foreign films. The art houses flourished.
You not only had to see Godard and Truffaut, but Chabrol, Rohmer and Resnais. And Ingmar Bergman too. We saw "The Seventh Seal" at Middlebury, talk about leaving the theatre with more questions than answers... (Worst was "Last Year at Marienbad," which we also saw in that class.)
And "The Seventh Seal" introduced us to Max von Sydow, long before he gained notoriety in Hollywood productions.
And it wasn't only Bergman, it was Jan Troell. His "Emigrants/New Land" films illustrated how Scandinavians moved to Minnesota, to find a place with weather just as bad as the place they'd left (I stole that joke from comedian Diane Ford).
4
Now foreign film didn't die in America until the turn of the century. Along with all film. First it was Hollywood productions. The internet ushered in an era of cacophony, but at least we had the movies in common, you went just to have something to talk about with others.
But the movies were so bad, people stopped going.
Some still go to the art house for foreign flicks on the weekend, but there's a plethora of product oftentimes at high expense and...
No one argued over the cost in the days of yore. If you have an opportunity to see godhead are you gonna say no?
Not that it was always godhead, but we were building our mental library. We were becoming experts without even trying.
And today?
Well, you've got to see Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi's 2011 flick "A Separation." Forget what comes after, even if it's been nominated for an award, "A Separation" sits far above the rest of us work.
Yet, the dream died.
But the dream used to be alive.
We used to know who ran the studios. Who gave the green light. Do we get "The Godfather" without Robert Evans? Well, he'd tell you no.
Now we don't know and we don't care.
Godard stood in solidarity with the protesters in France in 1968. Today, anybody with dough wants to stand on the sidelines, they don't want to jeopardize their career.
Jean-Luc Godard talked the talk and walked the walk.
But he did come from a rich family.
Wealthy families... They produce a huge number of entitled nincompoops, but they also produce many of our artists. Without having to worry about food and shelter, they test the limits.
At least they used to. Now it's all about capital preservation and lifestyle. The scions of the rich are risk-averse.
Now it's about the gross as opposed to the art.
5
So you can see a facsimile of the Grateful Dead on the road, but most of what was huge in the sixties isn't even a sideshow. Boomers grew up with the films of the thirties and forties, today's youngsters believe anything made before this century isn't worth watching.
Some gods have been completely forgotten. The Marx Brothers? Kids don't even know who you're talking about.
But they can tell you all about Elon Musk and the other financial titans. And sure, it's great that the means of production is in their pockets, but they're not making art with their iPhones, but commercials for themselves, their greatest desire is to become an influencer.
The whole world has flipped. All those liberal arts majors who sustained the artistic community? They're laughed at. College is to get a job, not to broaden your mind.
We're old.
But we remember.
And sure, it's nostalgia, but...
The history of tech in the last two decades far surpasses that of film and music. Hands-down. Things change, and in the entertainment world the corporations regained control of the "art" form and they have no intention of relinquishing it.
As far as rebelling... God, you can't even get noticed these days, that's the hardest part, never mind start a movement.
Not that it can't happen, but...
It did happen sixty years ago. And one of the leaders was Jean-Luc Godard. Not always an admirable man in his personal choices and behavior, he lived for what was on screen.
And we did too.
And when I saw Jean-Luc Godard passed away something died inside of me. Maybe it was that hope and possibility I was referencing above. That belief that there is honor in being the freak, the outsider with the unpopular opinion spewed from the heart. Someone's got to take chances, someone's got to go against the grain, otherwise we have stasis.
Which is what we've got today.
But those old films still exist.
You've got nothing to learn from the superheroes in the blockbusters. But you've got plenty to learn from the work of the true superheroes of yore, people like Jean-Luc Godard who pushed the envelope. Thank god their work is still available for people to see and be influenced and inspired by.
I certainly was.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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Re-The Lumineers
Thanks for writing this Bob.
What has been core for Wesley and Jeremiah from the beginning is that they are true songwriters driven by creating full ALBUMS. In our age of disposable content they are consistently producing art that will live far beyond any one moment. That authenticity translates, fans feel it and own it. It also materializes into a captivating show that can move tickets because the set is not driven by any one song.
In 2012 in one of your newsletters you made mention of the band with the context "They're on Dualtone!!". Ten years and four albums later, they still are and we couldn't be prouder.
Kudos to any incredible team and a once in a generation band.
Paul Roper
Dualtone
__________________________________________
Hey Bob –
I am glad you caught the article and took the time to shine some light on the recent successes of The Lumineers. I wish I could say you have just been out of the loop, but you captured the exact reaction I've been hearing about the band for over a decade.
This year in particular the band has risen to another level and I've made a point to cover a lot of shows and get industry folks out to see it in person, and the comments are always the same…
"Holy shit I had no idea"
"This is a SHOW"
I think the disconnect has been due to the fact that artist development isn't flashy. It is hard work. It doesn't get press. It doesn't get clicks. These guys have worked their asses off for 10+ years to get to this point and did it the most difficult way possible.
And while you mentioned that it is all about the music, and that is true, it is only a half-truth. It is all about the SHOW. That has been the key to the band's touring development. That is the special sauce.
Wes and Jer's vision has always been crystal clear when it comes to the live presentation. Every last detail about the show is considered and mulled over, and that comes through in the final performance. The music and show are more in line with Tom Petty and Springsteen than anything else. Authentic, catchy, well-crafted songs and the live show to back it up…
And we've always kept ticket prices reasonable, knowing that if we got people in the room they would be converted. I can say with 100% confidence there is not one person who has been to a Lumineers show that felt like they didn't get their money's worth. They may not love the music, but nobody is leaving the show saying "I can't believe I paid $X for that." Live music is supposed to be entertaining. So, if a casual fan leaves a show feeling they got a good value on their experience, there is a strong chance they will come see the band again. That's it…it's not complicated. It just takes a LONG time to get to the point of playing stadiums.
It also helps, as you pointed out, that the team is a well-oiled machine all pulling in the same direction, which is very rare. Not only Activist and MTG, but Dualtone (their label since day one), Jim Merlis (their publicist since day one), Richard Grabel (their attorney since day one), Rit Venerus (their business manager since day 1.5), and Sara Full (their TM/PM).
If you're trying to build a career slowly over a decade, it only takes one bad apple on the team to poison the well; to cast doubt on decisions made or someone playing politics to try and further their own agenda with the band. We all know how that goes…
So, when we started looking at 2022 touring Coors was a no-brainer. We had sold 55K+ tickets at Fiddlers on the last cycle. And when the idea of Wrigley came up, we decided it was time to make a statement. And I hate the term "statement play", because most of the time it isn't. But the guys (and team) put their asses on the line when we decided to play Wrigley.
I don't know if you noticed, but there wasn't another show at Wrigley the weekend we played, and you have done this long enough to know what that means. It ain't cheap to play a stadium. And it is damn near impossible when you aren't sharing expenses with another show. There was a real possibility we could do 60%-70% business and the guys would be going home with a payday that was more in line with playing The Riv than Wrigley.
But to the band and team's credit, we knew it was time to make people notice. We had been flying under the radar for so long when it comes to industry attention, the entire team was on board with taking a shot.
And it worked. (phew)
The Pollstar article isn't mainstream, but we didn't need mainstream coverage. Fans know about the band and the show. The story needed to be told to folks like yourself. People who have been doing this for decades and didn't know what this band was about.
You asked who put the Pollstar thing together. Besides our publicist, Jim Merlis, the reason that issue is so thick is because of Louie and his team, Sara Winter-Banks in particular. She found out what the record number of ads was for a Pollstar issue and she was on a MISSION to beat it. I watched her badger a venue GM to sign a napkin committing to a full-page ad. She burned up the phones, laying down just the right amount of pressure to get everyone on board.
And I feel like that is where Louie and MTG differ. When they are in, they are IN. And they aren't "in" on many acts, so their team is more dialed than any other when it comes to the nuts and bolts of making a tour successful. When they are on board, they take ownership and pay attention. Louie is a larger-than-life figure, an absolute legend in the industry who makes shit happen. But you don't get there (or stay there) without a team than can execute the finer details at the highest level. And he will be the first to point his finger towards his team when asked about the success of The Lumineers.
So again, thanks for taking the time to give the band some ink. It is what we have been missing.
Hope to see you at Soldier Field!
Best,
Joe
JOE ATAMIAN
WASSERMAN MUSIC CHICAGO
__________________________________________
Regarding the Lumineers and "paying their dues… starting out at the bottom" -
I grew up in the town next to them, we're about the same age. Wesley and Jeremiah are actually from Ramsey, NJ. It's a small, compact area in the shadows of NYC, where really - sports are king. Especially for the youth and gaining notoriety within your local community. A county high school athlete of the week is illuminated in the brightest of lights while the artists were considered the freaks, which was totally fine by us because it was the freaks who rose above while many of the athletes ultimately fell hard. But Wesley & Jeremiah woodshed and then woodshed some more. Quietly. In turn, it proved how passionate and sincere they were about their craft.
We had a mutual friend who owned a bar in a neighborhood area of the city. It was a sports bar, of course. The Lumineers would play there, just to have a chance to play. Often to a handful of people. Sometimes for only staff and passersby. Then…. they moved to Denver (W & J), the music became simplified, refined and clear. The launch of Mumford & Sons helped in terms of timing. But my point is, the Lumineers just never stopped. People were and are attracted to them because of the no frills. What you hear on the record can also be played on an acoustic alone, outside of the ball park. They touch important subject matters and have forged genuine relationships. One of them happens to be with a younger group called CAAMP, a band the Lumineers have now taken under their wing, and happen to be in a very similar genre. Go figure.
Your letter poses a question. Where we are to think there's a confusing or complicated answer. But really - it's very simple. The Lumineers are just sincere. I highly doubt they'd ever want another "Ho Hey". They're storytellers who are happy to share an old one, but seem more excited to tell new ones that are based off fundamental strengths.
Where we are? I don't know where we are. But it will be okay.
- Jeff Gorra
Artist Waves
__________________________________________
Bob, I'm a community college teacher/writer/filmmaker. This week once again I screened the Lumineers' short film The Ballad of Cleopatra for a couple of my classes. It's 24 minutes long, it strings together a few music videos, but it's NOT a music video. It's a film. It's worth your while if you haven't seen it.
It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXsQJhoauxc
They tried it again with their album III with less success. It's longer and darker.
See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPO_UfJieKs
My point is the Lumineers aren't just doing the same old thing. Not only are their albums old school ALBUMS, but they're telling cohesive stories.
I haven't connected as much with their latest release--and I'm not sure if there's a film to go with it. Can they do it another time?
Check these out if you haven't, particularly the first one. I keep exposing college students to it because I want to spread the word. Most of them know the Lumineers, but they're blown away by the film.
--Joe O'Connell
__________________________________________
I've probably seen over 1000 shows in my lifetime and The Lumineers at MGM last month in Las Vegas was one of my favorites. Their music is a feeling, a vibe, that to me I associate with road trips through America. Their production and visuals were top notch.The whole experience was very cinematic. A true performance where the music itself spoke louder than all the outside BS artists use to cover up what they lack. It's classic storytelling with a classic sound that is built to last the depths of time. Their music will never get old to me, which is saying something when nowadays I'll rip through an album once and never go back. The Lumie's music will be around for a long time, and hopefully the band too.
Cheers,
Blake Nania
Co-Founder We The Beat
Las Vegas, NV
__________________________________________
I ended up seeing the Lumineers because my daughter was sick and had to took her friend. I was blown away. The dynamic and the delivery of their music was powerfully simple and completely captivating in the arena setting. They made the room feel small. To be clear, i change the channel when Ho Hey comes on because I've heard it too many times. But live...they're incredible. They totally won me over and I'm jaded. I believe the reason why they're selling stadiums as large as they are is because they have a deep connection with their fanbase and it's been growing for 20 something years.
Matt Butler
__________________________________________
Hi Bob, we just saw The Lumineers in Austin (the new Moody Center) last month and it was an incredible show — one of the best acts we've seen over the few years. You read it well. They create a vibe. And while we love their music, it took us by surprise. We had seen them 8+ years ago when they broke and their stage presence and performance has improved SO much. Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites and the entire band put everything into their show, running around the stage, dancing, etc. to every song. Unlike many bands where only the singer comes alive, everyone in the band is energetic, comes out front to play for the crowd and pulls the audience into the show. There's an authenticity to the band, even if they play the same setlist at every stop. They have honed their live act so much over these past years. So it's not a surprise to me after being there that they are selling out stadiums now.
It's so rare these days for bands to put that much into a show night after night….
Bands can learn a lot from The Lumineers live.
Dave Kroll
Austin, TX
__________________________________________
Because they put on a great show! They convert the side liners. I was one but I went with my wife 6 years ago and was blown away by their show which was not flashy in any way shape or form. It was for the fans and they played their freaking hearts out.
Good for them.
Jeff Sackman
__________________________________________
I got to The Lumineers through a beer spot.
Phil Brown
__________________________________________
They play long, they sound great live and they connect with the audience. What else do you want?
Thanks, Tom Quinn
__________________________________________
I think that their popularity has remained partially because their songs seemed to have been played at every wedding since 2012. Wedding DJs can keep bands alive. It certainly is the case with Bollywood tunes in Asia.
Kevin Connors
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What has been core for Wesley and Jeremiah from the beginning is that they are true songwriters driven by creating full ALBUMS. In our age of disposable content they are consistently producing art that will live far beyond any one moment. That authenticity translates, fans feel it and own it. It also materializes into a captivating show that can move tickets because the set is not driven by any one song.
In 2012 in one of your newsletters you made mention of the band with the context "They're on Dualtone!!". Ten years and four albums later, they still are and we couldn't be prouder.
Kudos to any incredible team and a once in a generation band.
Paul Roper
Dualtone
__________________________________________
Hey Bob –
I am glad you caught the article and took the time to shine some light on the recent successes of The Lumineers. I wish I could say you have just been out of the loop, but you captured the exact reaction I've been hearing about the band for over a decade.
This year in particular the band has risen to another level and I've made a point to cover a lot of shows and get industry folks out to see it in person, and the comments are always the same…
"Holy shit I had no idea"
"This is a SHOW"
I think the disconnect has been due to the fact that artist development isn't flashy. It is hard work. It doesn't get press. It doesn't get clicks. These guys have worked their asses off for 10+ years to get to this point and did it the most difficult way possible.
And while you mentioned that it is all about the music, and that is true, it is only a half-truth. It is all about the SHOW. That has been the key to the band's touring development. That is the special sauce.
Wes and Jer's vision has always been crystal clear when it comes to the live presentation. Every last detail about the show is considered and mulled over, and that comes through in the final performance. The music and show are more in line with Tom Petty and Springsteen than anything else. Authentic, catchy, well-crafted songs and the live show to back it up…
And we've always kept ticket prices reasonable, knowing that if we got people in the room they would be converted. I can say with 100% confidence there is not one person who has been to a Lumineers show that felt like they didn't get their money's worth. They may not love the music, but nobody is leaving the show saying "I can't believe I paid $X for that." Live music is supposed to be entertaining. So, if a casual fan leaves a show feeling they got a good value on their experience, there is a strong chance they will come see the band again. That's it…it's not complicated. It just takes a LONG time to get to the point of playing stadiums.
It also helps, as you pointed out, that the team is a well-oiled machine all pulling in the same direction, which is very rare. Not only Activist and MTG, but Dualtone (their label since day one), Jim Merlis (their publicist since day one), Richard Grabel (their attorney since day one), Rit Venerus (their business manager since day 1.5), and Sara Full (their TM/PM).
If you're trying to build a career slowly over a decade, it only takes one bad apple on the team to poison the well; to cast doubt on decisions made or someone playing politics to try and further their own agenda with the band. We all know how that goes…
So, when we started looking at 2022 touring Coors was a no-brainer. We had sold 55K+ tickets at Fiddlers on the last cycle. And when the idea of Wrigley came up, we decided it was time to make a statement. And I hate the term "statement play", because most of the time it isn't. But the guys (and team) put their asses on the line when we decided to play Wrigley.
I don't know if you noticed, but there wasn't another show at Wrigley the weekend we played, and you have done this long enough to know what that means. It ain't cheap to play a stadium. And it is damn near impossible when you aren't sharing expenses with another show. There was a real possibility we could do 60%-70% business and the guys would be going home with a payday that was more in line with playing The Riv than Wrigley.
But to the band and team's credit, we knew it was time to make people notice. We had been flying under the radar for so long when it comes to industry attention, the entire team was on board with taking a shot.
And it worked. (phew)
The Pollstar article isn't mainstream, but we didn't need mainstream coverage. Fans know about the band and the show. The story needed to be told to folks like yourself. People who have been doing this for decades and didn't know what this band was about.
You asked who put the Pollstar thing together. Besides our publicist, Jim Merlis, the reason that issue is so thick is because of Louie and his team, Sara Winter-Banks in particular. She found out what the record number of ads was for a Pollstar issue and she was on a MISSION to beat it. I watched her badger a venue GM to sign a napkin committing to a full-page ad. She burned up the phones, laying down just the right amount of pressure to get everyone on board.
And I feel like that is where Louie and MTG differ. When they are in, they are IN. And they aren't "in" on many acts, so their team is more dialed than any other when it comes to the nuts and bolts of making a tour successful. When they are on board, they take ownership and pay attention. Louie is a larger-than-life figure, an absolute legend in the industry who makes shit happen. But you don't get there (or stay there) without a team than can execute the finer details at the highest level. And he will be the first to point his finger towards his team when asked about the success of The Lumineers.
So again, thanks for taking the time to give the band some ink. It is what we have been missing.
Hope to see you at Soldier Field!
Best,
Joe
JOE ATAMIAN
WASSERMAN MUSIC CHICAGO
__________________________________________
Regarding the Lumineers and "paying their dues… starting out at the bottom" -
I grew up in the town next to them, we're about the same age. Wesley and Jeremiah are actually from Ramsey, NJ. It's a small, compact area in the shadows of NYC, where really - sports are king. Especially for the youth and gaining notoriety within your local community. A county high school athlete of the week is illuminated in the brightest of lights while the artists were considered the freaks, which was totally fine by us because it was the freaks who rose above while many of the athletes ultimately fell hard. But Wesley & Jeremiah woodshed and then woodshed some more. Quietly. In turn, it proved how passionate and sincere they were about their craft.
We had a mutual friend who owned a bar in a neighborhood area of the city. It was a sports bar, of course. The Lumineers would play there, just to have a chance to play. Often to a handful of people. Sometimes for only staff and passersby. Then…. they moved to Denver (W & J), the music became simplified, refined and clear. The launch of Mumford & Sons helped in terms of timing. But my point is, the Lumineers just never stopped. People were and are attracted to them because of the no frills. What you hear on the record can also be played on an acoustic alone, outside of the ball park. They touch important subject matters and have forged genuine relationships. One of them happens to be with a younger group called CAAMP, a band the Lumineers have now taken under their wing, and happen to be in a very similar genre. Go figure.
Your letter poses a question. Where we are to think there's a confusing or complicated answer. But really - it's very simple. The Lumineers are just sincere. I highly doubt they'd ever want another "Ho Hey". They're storytellers who are happy to share an old one, but seem more excited to tell new ones that are based off fundamental strengths.
Where we are? I don't know where we are. But it will be okay.
- Jeff Gorra
Artist Waves
__________________________________________
Bob, I'm a community college teacher/writer/filmmaker. This week once again I screened the Lumineers' short film The Ballad of Cleopatra for a couple of my classes. It's 24 minutes long, it strings together a few music videos, but it's NOT a music video. It's a film. It's worth your while if you haven't seen it.
It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXsQJhoauxc
They tried it again with their album III with less success. It's longer and darker.
See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPO_UfJieKs
My point is the Lumineers aren't just doing the same old thing. Not only are their albums old school ALBUMS, but they're telling cohesive stories.
I haven't connected as much with their latest release--and I'm not sure if there's a film to go with it. Can they do it another time?
Check these out if you haven't, particularly the first one. I keep exposing college students to it because I want to spread the word. Most of them know the Lumineers, but they're blown away by the film.
--Joe O'Connell
__________________________________________
I've probably seen over 1000 shows in my lifetime and The Lumineers at MGM last month in Las Vegas was one of my favorites. Their music is a feeling, a vibe, that to me I associate with road trips through America. Their production and visuals were top notch.The whole experience was very cinematic. A true performance where the music itself spoke louder than all the outside BS artists use to cover up what they lack. It's classic storytelling with a classic sound that is built to last the depths of time. Their music will never get old to me, which is saying something when nowadays I'll rip through an album once and never go back. The Lumie's music will be around for a long time, and hopefully the band too.
Cheers,
Blake Nania
Co-Founder We The Beat
Las Vegas, NV
__________________________________________
I ended up seeing the Lumineers because my daughter was sick and had to took her friend. I was blown away. The dynamic and the delivery of their music was powerfully simple and completely captivating in the arena setting. They made the room feel small. To be clear, i change the channel when Ho Hey comes on because I've heard it too many times. But live...they're incredible. They totally won me over and I'm jaded. I believe the reason why they're selling stadiums as large as they are is because they have a deep connection with their fanbase and it's been growing for 20 something years.
Matt Butler
__________________________________________
Hi Bob, we just saw The Lumineers in Austin (the new Moody Center) last month and it was an incredible show — one of the best acts we've seen over the few years. You read it well. They create a vibe. And while we love their music, it took us by surprise. We had seen them 8+ years ago when they broke and their stage presence and performance has improved SO much. Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites and the entire band put everything into their show, running around the stage, dancing, etc. to every song. Unlike many bands where only the singer comes alive, everyone in the band is energetic, comes out front to play for the crowd and pulls the audience into the show. There's an authenticity to the band, even if they play the same setlist at every stop. They have honed their live act so much over these past years. So it's not a surprise to me after being there that they are selling out stadiums now.
It's so rare these days for bands to put that much into a show night after night….
Bands can learn a lot from The Lumineers live.
Dave Kroll
Austin, TX
__________________________________________
Because they put on a great show! They convert the side liners. I was one but I went with my wife 6 years ago and was blown away by their show which was not flashy in any way shape or form. It was for the fans and they played their freaking hearts out.
Good for them.
Jeff Sackman
__________________________________________
I got to The Lumineers through a beer spot.
Phil Brown
__________________________________________
They play long, they sound great live and they connect with the audience. What else do you want?
Thanks, Tom Quinn
__________________________________________
I think that their popularity has remained partially because their songs seemed to have been played at every wedding since 2012. Wedding DJs can keep bands alive. It certainly is the case with Bollywood tunes in Asia.
Kevin Connors
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Tuesday 13 September 2022
The Lumineers
They're playing STADIUMS?
I've seen this band. Earthy, roots-based, completely different from what's in the Spotify Top 50.
And it's not like there's any buzz. They haven't had a radio hit in YEARS!
Welcome to the 2022 music business, which now resembles the movie business William Goldman wrote about...NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING!
For years we're subjected to articles about the brilliance of Merck Mercuriadis and his Hipgnosis song empire. A masterstroke, perfect timing, and then the FT prints a takedown so severe that anybody paying attention is now aware the company has been unable to purchase new songs for a year! We keep reading that publishing is burgeoning, but...
It really all comes down to numbers. The investment versus the stock price. It's all financial. That's why everybody invested in it! Hipgnosis is not like the entertainment vanity investments of the past, rolling the dice in the hopes of making money but fully aware the odds are long...no, people expected a good, steady return from Hipgnosis.
When interest rates were low. And despite the ups and downs of the present stock market, having crashed just today, there are much better places to put your money than song publishing, unless you're looking for a steady return for the long haul. Then again, no one can predict the lifespan of a song, however everybody on the inside does know that avenues of revenue keep increasing.
As for the charts?
Completely skewed by physical product. The biggest act of the year, of the past twenty months, is Morgan Wallen, but you see no "Vanity Fair" spread, he's still toxic to the media intelligentsia, but the fans love him!
So back to the Lumineers...
They haven't had a hit since 2012, their very first one, "Ho Hey," nearly a novelty song that one would think would live and then die like the engine on a Blue Origin rocket.
Sure, there's some success on Rock radio, but that's like being big in Peoria... Who the hell knows? I mean who are the Luddites listening to rock radio? They've got no Sirius, they've got no Bluetooth, they really want to endure the formatted playlist and endless commercials?
Oh, that's another thing I'll tell you, everybody is number one somewhere. I know, because they e-mail me. Like I'm #1 in the banjo played in the bathroom category of advance orders on Amazon. Chart numbers have become ever more worthless.
Except for the Spotify Top 50, the true definition of what is listened to most in America. However, you don't see the Lumineers featured therein, nothing like them, what is going on!
I mean the dinosaurs can sell tickets. And the WSJ told us that young acts can sell big venues, but they're talking phenomena, like Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, most people can't even name the two key members of the Lumineers, they've got no idea there are two key members, they've got no idea how many people are in the band!
But the promoter is Louis Messina.
Who believes in...
Work.
Who knows what keeps this septuagenarian going, it can't be money, then again, everybody can use more money. And it's not like there's a public chart where he shines. Almost none of America knows who he is. But Louie has vision. He works with a small number of acts, and builds them up to huge numbers.
Of course there was George Strait, never mind all those decades back in Texas at Pace, but really the eye-opener was Kenny Chesney. This country bumpkin is selling out stadiums in the north?
And Taylor Swift would not be as big as she is without Louie.
And then Louie picked up Ed Sheeran after he opened for Swift. Louie told me about talking to Ed in the bus, closing him, in that folksy way he has with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Louie doesn't push, he just lays it out there and you feel the magnetism, you've got to join forces.
And then there was Eric Church and...
It's a juggernaut I tell you. BUT THE LUMINEERS?
Every other act Louie has worked with in the past decade or so had a slew of hits, but not the Lumineers.
Who are managed by Bernie Cahill. A man with a law degree and a friendly yet upscale demeanor. But my point here is he's not known as a force of nature who burns up the phone lines, who instills fear, who trades favors to help build his act. This is not David Geffen, this is not old school. The Lumineers are more akin to Dave Matthews than a usual suspect.
And Coran Capshaw build the DMB into a monolith. But let's not forget there were those VH1 hits...
And it's not like the two Lumineers are poster boy youngsters. One is 39 and the other is 36. When the major labels specialize in promoting those just crossing the line of puberty. There's no flash...THERE'S NOT EVEN ANY PAN!
Not that I knew the Lumineers were selling out stadiums until I read the latest "Pollstar," which is thicker than the magazine has been in years.
You see everybody who's ever worked with the Lumineers had to buy an ad, to ensure that they'd work with them again in the future!
But who put this all together?
You see it's not the information in "Pollstar" which is so interesting, it's the COMMITMENT! That's what the movers and shakers look for, they want to know the act and its team are committed to breaking the artist and keeping them on top, they want to believe that the light is on somewhere, and it's not at a Motel 6.
Then again, paying your dues, starting out at the bottom.
There's an article by Roy Trakin talking about a TikTok connection on "Ophelia," which made it all the way up to #66 when it was released back in 2016. Although it did go to #5 Rock, and I do remember hearing it on SiriusXM's Spectrum, but...
But, "Ophelia" now has 800 million streams on Spotify. Maybe TikTok did help, it does have a more active user base than any terrestrial radio station.
And it's not only "Ophelia," the Lumineers have seven triple digit million tracks on Spotify. Not that anybody ever talks about them.
Isn't that today's law, stay in the game? God, I did hear the Lumineers mentioned once in the past month, but before that...IT WAS EONS!
What is going on?
IT'S A SEVENTIES STORY!
The act's career arc is disconnected from the usual suspect outlets, it's not about radio or TV, it's about the band and its bond with its fans, who keep increasing in number.
But it's really about the music. A type of music that gets almost no ink, no kudos... The only rock we hear about is the Foo Fighters, other than the legends, and the Foos are paint-by-number not for the ages but maybe the best in a very shallow pool.
How can we live in a hip-hop nation if the Lumineers are selling out stadiums?
Well hold your horses here, it was only two stadiums. One in their hometown of Denver but the other was in Chicago, James Bay was on the bill in the Windy City, but he's not going to bring all those fans to Wrigley Field.
It was the Lumineers.
All the rules have been broken, there are no rules.
Except for one...
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!
And if you want to last, almost definitely you're going to start small and grow. And you've got to play so many gigs that you learn how to put on a show, that's more than a rote recitation of the record. And you've got to have a well-oiled machine behind you, not only Louie and Bernie but the band's agent, Joe Atamian.
This is the opposite of everything we read about. Where it's got to happen fast. And if you have a brain and it doesn't, you give up and go to graduate school. Hell, play music and you could miss your entire twenties, maybe thirties, and never be able to catch up with those who were once your peers. It's a walk into the wilderness.
We read all about social media marketing plans. All this stuff they say is necessary, how you have to promote yourself, but the Lumineers don't do this.
And it doesn't matter if you don't like the Lumineers' music, this is about those who do! We no longer live in a monoculture. Those who you like and those who you don't like can live side by side in today's world and their audiences may never intersect, or maybe they will.
Then again, those who go to see the Lumineers expect the show to be live, not on hard drive. They're not looking for choreography, they are looking for energy, they're looking for the music to set them free, to take them away from this crazy world we live in. And that's harder to do than it appears. Because to truly succeed you've got to go against the grain in a me-too society.
Something is happening here. I just wanted to hip you to it.
"Blackstone-backed song rights machine suffers growing pains - Rapid expansion of Hipgnosis Songs Fund stalls as higher interest rates start to bite": https://on.ft.com/3qCxqrg
"Look Out Boomers: The Next Generation of Arena Stars Is Coming - While the Stones and Springsteen show few signs of slowing down, newer and younger artists are selling out massive venues.": https://on.wsj.com/3eOlS1f
--
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I've seen this band. Earthy, roots-based, completely different from what's in the Spotify Top 50.
And it's not like there's any buzz. They haven't had a radio hit in YEARS!
Welcome to the 2022 music business, which now resembles the movie business William Goldman wrote about...NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING!
For years we're subjected to articles about the brilliance of Merck Mercuriadis and his Hipgnosis song empire. A masterstroke, perfect timing, and then the FT prints a takedown so severe that anybody paying attention is now aware the company has been unable to purchase new songs for a year! We keep reading that publishing is burgeoning, but...
It really all comes down to numbers. The investment versus the stock price. It's all financial. That's why everybody invested in it! Hipgnosis is not like the entertainment vanity investments of the past, rolling the dice in the hopes of making money but fully aware the odds are long...no, people expected a good, steady return from Hipgnosis.
When interest rates were low. And despite the ups and downs of the present stock market, having crashed just today, there are much better places to put your money than song publishing, unless you're looking for a steady return for the long haul. Then again, no one can predict the lifespan of a song, however everybody on the inside does know that avenues of revenue keep increasing.
As for the charts?
Completely skewed by physical product. The biggest act of the year, of the past twenty months, is Morgan Wallen, but you see no "Vanity Fair" spread, he's still toxic to the media intelligentsia, but the fans love him!
So back to the Lumineers...
They haven't had a hit since 2012, their very first one, "Ho Hey," nearly a novelty song that one would think would live and then die like the engine on a Blue Origin rocket.
Sure, there's some success on Rock radio, but that's like being big in Peoria... Who the hell knows? I mean who are the Luddites listening to rock radio? They've got no Sirius, they've got no Bluetooth, they really want to endure the formatted playlist and endless commercials?
Oh, that's another thing I'll tell you, everybody is number one somewhere. I know, because they e-mail me. Like I'm #1 in the banjo played in the bathroom category of advance orders on Amazon. Chart numbers have become ever more worthless.
Except for the Spotify Top 50, the true definition of what is listened to most in America. However, you don't see the Lumineers featured therein, nothing like them, what is going on!
I mean the dinosaurs can sell tickets. And the WSJ told us that young acts can sell big venues, but they're talking phenomena, like Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish, most people can't even name the two key members of the Lumineers, they've got no idea there are two key members, they've got no idea how many people are in the band!
But the promoter is Louis Messina.
Who believes in...
Work.
Who knows what keeps this septuagenarian going, it can't be money, then again, everybody can use more money. And it's not like there's a public chart where he shines. Almost none of America knows who he is. But Louie has vision. He works with a small number of acts, and builds them up to huge numbers.
Of course there was George Strait, never mind all those decades back in Texas at Pace, but really the eye-opener was Kenny Chesney. This country bumpkin is selling out stadiums in the north?
And Taylor Swift would not be as big as she is without Louie.
And then Louie picked up Ed Sheeran after he opened for Swift. Louie told me about talking to Ed in the bus, closing him, in that folksy way he has with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Louie doesn't push, he just lays it out there and you feel the magnetism, you've got to join forces.
And then there was Eric Church and...
It's a juggernaut I tell you. BUT THE LUMINEERS?
Every other act Louie has worked with in the past decade or so had a slew of hits, but not the Lumineers.
Who are managed by Bernie Cahill. A man with a law degree and a friendly yet upscale demeanor. But my point here is he's not known as a force of nature who burns up the phone lines, who instills fear, who trades favors to help build his act. This is not David Geffen, this is not old school. The Lumineers are more akin to Dave Matthews than a usual suspect.
And Coran Capshaw build the DMB into a monolith. But let's not forget there were those VH1 hits...
And it's not like the two Lumineers are poster boy youngsters. One is 39 and the other is 36. When the major labels specialize in promoting those just crossing the line of puberty. There's no flash...THERE'S NOT EVEN ANY PAN!
Not that I knew the Lumineers were selling out stadiums until I read the latest "Pollstar," which is thicker than the magazine has been in years.
You see everybody who's ever worked with the Lumineers had to buy an ad, to ensure that they'd work with them again in the future!
But who put this all together?
You see it's not the information in "Pollstar" which is so interesting, it's the COMMITMENT! That's what the movers and shakers look for, they want to know the act and its team are committed to breaking the artist and keeping them on top, they want to believe that the light is on somewhere, and it's not at a Motel 6.
Then again, paying your dues, starting out at the bottom.
There's an article by Roy Trakin talking about a TikTok connection on "Ophelia," which made it all the way up to #66 when it was released back in 2016. Although it did go to #5 Rock, and I do remember hearing it on SiriusXM's Spectrum, but...
But, "Ophelia" now has 800 million streams on Spotify. Maybe TikTok did help, it does have a more active user base than any terrestrial radio station.
And it's not only "Ophelia," the Lumineers have seven triple digit million tracks on Spotify. Not that anybody ever talks about them.
Isn't that today's law, stay in the game? God, I did hear the Lumineers mentioned once in the past month, but before that...IT WAS EONS!
What is going on?
IT'S A SEVENTIES STORY!
The act's career arc is disconnected from the usual suspect outlets, it's not about radio or TV, it's about the band and its bond with its fans, who keep increasing in number.
But it's really about the music. A type of music that gets almost no ink, no kudos... The only rock we hear about is the Foo Fighters, other than the legends, and the Foos are paint-by-number not for the ages but maybe the best in a very shallow pool.
How can we live in a hip-hop nation if the Lumineers are selling out stadiums?
Well hold your horses here, it was only two stadiums. One in their hometown of Denver but the other was in Chicago, James Bay was on the bill in the Windy City, but he's not going to bring all those fans to Wrigley Field.
It was the Lumineers.
All the rules have been broken, there are no rules.
Except for one...
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!
And if you want to last, almost definitely you're going to start small and grow. And you've got to play so many gigs that you learn how to put on a show, that's more than a rote recitation of the record. And you've got to have a well-oiled machine behind you, not only Louie and Bernie but the band's agent, Joe Atamian.
This is the opposite of everything we read about. Where it's got to happen fast. And if you have a brain and it doesn't, you give up and go to graduate school. Hell, play music and you could miss your entire twenties, maybe thirties, and never be able to catch up with those who were once your peers. It's a walk into the wilderness.
We read all about social media marketing plans. All this stuff they say is necessary, how you have to promote yourself, but the Lumineers don't do this.
And it doesn't matter if you don't like the Lumineers' music, this is about those who do! We no longer live in a monoculture. Those who you like and those who you don't like can live side by side in today's world and their audiences may never intersect, or maybe they will.
Then again, those who go to see the Lumineers expect the show to be live, not on hard drive. They're not looking for choreography, they are looking for energy, they're looking for the music to set them free, to take them away from this crazy world we live in. And that's harder to do than it appears. Because to truly succeed you've got to go against the grain in a me-too society.
Something is happening here. I just wanted to hip you to it.
"Blackstone-backed song rights machine suffers growing pains - Rapid expansion of Hipgnosis Songs Fund stalls as higher interest rates start to bite": https://on.ft.com/3qCxqrg
"Look Out Boomers: The Next Generation of Arena Stars Is Coming - While the Stones and Springsteen show few signs of slowing down, newer and younger artists are selling out massive venues.": https://on.wsj.com/3eOlS1f
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Monday 12 September 2022
Indian Matchmaking-Season 2
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3U3ZQrH
The cast: https://bit.ly/3U2srh4
You've got to watch "Edge of the Earth" on HBO. It's produced by Teton Gravity Research, which made its bones in the ski world, but that was a reason I was going to skip it, I mean I've seen so many of their productions.
But nothing like this.
There are four episodes. It's not a huge commitment. And to be honest, I haven't even seen the fourth one, about surfing, I keep up on the water sport, I read that Kai Lenny story in the "New Yorker":
"Kai Lenny Surfs the Unsurfable - The big wave surfer tackles some of the most fearsome swells on the planet. On the surface, it looks like he's just having fun": https://bit.ly/3BcdfoO
The article is written by William Finnegan, who wrote 2015's "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life": https://amzn.to/3xhHUjz This is a cult book, albeit a large cult, the printed word equivalent of "Endless Summer," and if you've ever been in the water you'll dig it.
And the first story is a skiing one. Featuring Jeremy Jones and company in Alaska. This is very cool, primarily because I've been there, it's so forbidding. And snowboarder Jeremy Jones is doing god's work, he's had his own climate change lobbying group, Protect Our Winters, for years: https://protectourwinters.org
But it's the second episode that will have your eyes truly bugging out. Kayaking a never before navigated stretch of river in the Ecuadorian jungle. You truly start to get scared.
But not quite as scared as you will be watching that woman solo climb that peak in Kyrgyzstan. I mean the falling rock alone!
And wanting more of this, I decided to check out "Edge of the Unknown" on NatGeo, which I pay for via my Spectrum subscription.
Good luck getting my Roku to see it. I got in on my iPhone, but that screen's too small, and once you're in on your iPhone you can't keep setting up the Roku... I gave up, end of story.
But in an outdoor mood, I switched to Outside TV, which I get via my "Ski" subscription. Long story, you pay extra for more articles and then they dropped all the physical issues but one and it's a giant rip-off but you can watch Warren Miller movies, and I like the old ones, so I put in about a half hour, but then I was getting bummed, feeling so old, so I decided to go to Netflix, to check out what was going on.
I do this on a regular basis, on all the services, to check out their interfaces, to see what they're promoting, and I was scrolling down and I saw...
"Indian Matchmaking."
I knew there was a buzz on the first season, and having a second season means people watched it, and I doubted Felice wanted to view it, and since she was out of the house I dove in.
I was immediately hooked.
This is not the show you think it is. Arranged marriages. Rather, it's the story of single Indians whose parents think they're too old not to be married so they hire a matchmaker and...
What you've got to know is nobody is poor in this story. A small percentage are in India itself, most are in America, their parents have immigrated and...
There's an hilarious story of a guy in Nashik, a few hours from Mumbai. NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE THERE!
But who'd want to live with this guy anyway. He loves chickens, all he talks about is chickens. His family makes equipment for farms. He's got an American MBA, but no wife.
That's another thing about the cast, you get the impression they all did what their parents told them to do. They're not liberal arts majors, they're not artists, they're all professionals, in search of the big bucks. and other than the cardiologist, THEY'VE GOT NO SELF-KNOWLEDGE!
Let's start with Nadia. She's a babe. But emotionally stunted. An adolescent. The funny thing is they've all hired Auntie Seema, the matchmaker, who flies in from Mumbai, which everybody keeps calling "Bombay," which flummoxed me, to get them a partner. So they haven't figured out the relationship game and Nadia's hooked up with the perfect guy, but she blows him off because he wasn't physical enough with her. But then he says she told him from the start to go slow, to stay away!
Yes, the odds of any of these people hooking up...
And then Nadia goes for someone totally inappropriate, years younger, Auntie says no and...watch to see what happens.
And then there's Viral, an only child in North Carolina. Who keeps telling us how successful she is. Flies all over the country for work, owns her own home, has no debt, and wants someone...
Exactly like her.
Now anybody who has ever been in a relationship knows that you don't want someone exactly like yourself, it never works, but Viral is delusional. She lists so many criteria!
And then Auntie comes back with the matches' "biodata," a glorified Wikipedia page on each potential date. Viral's complaint? She googled the guy and he didn't look exactly like he did in his biodata photo. PICKY!
Oh, they're all so picky, except for the aforementioned cardiologist, Arshneel, in Cleveland. He's up for anything.
First date?
A woman in the Bay Area who works in finance. But she's never ever been on a date with an Indian before, and Arshneel wears a turban, how is that going to work out?
And then Auntie hooks him up with this dentist in Chi-town and... She's only been in America for a decade, so despite being cute and alive, will she blend in with his friends?
Shital is a babe. 38. With no prospects for marriage.
Like everybody else on this show, she wants it all. And, once again, no one could fit all her criteria.
And then there's Vinesh in Miami. He's a nice guy. His family is constantly cracking jokes, which bugs Auntie, but turns me on, I'd feel right at home, and...
He's set up with a nurse from L.A. and...
Sure, there's rejection and heartbreak, but there is some connection. And the most reasonable people are punted and...
The number one criterion is that the date get along with their intended's family. Usually, that's the first meeting, you're thrown directly into the fire. But...
The Indians have something right here, getting along with the family is very important. Siblings talk about in-laws who will take them to appointments and... It's much more than looks.
But everybody wants that too.
And then, interspersed throughout the series, you see people who've been married for a long time who got hitched via arranged marriages. Sometimes they only saw their spouse-to-be for five or fifteen minutes. AND THEY'RE ALL SO HAPPY! Maybe this is a selected group, but...
I forgot to mention Aparna!
Not a guy alive would want to be involved with this woman. Never mind no one being good enough for her.
Her friends are more broad-minded, especially Sophie...
Aparna grew up with Sophie in Houston. Sophie is Korean-American, but she moved to India and...she's uber-into astrology.
They all are, it's a key factor in determining compatibility!
And the face reader! I used to think I could judge a book by its cover, I found him fascinating.
And the one wedding was such a to-do, you've got to see it.
But really you've got to watch "Indian Matchmaking" to see the delusional yuppies who want to get married but really don't. Auntie keeps telling them they can't have 100%, that 60-70% is great, but they keep saying they're entitled to have it all!
And no one is backing down, they defy Auntie all the time.
This ain't a fake show, like the "Bachelorette," rather it's the story of America with an Indian twist. We work hard to lift ourselves up, and we emerge above and find out we're alone, and too many people think they can find a spouse just like they got an "A" in the course. Like relationships are school.
Then again, they have so much to learn.
God, you know if you're a candidate for this show, if you're into GOT and "Lord of the Rings"...chances are this won't be your cup of tea.
But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, it's only about people. We're all the same, looking for the same stuff. And it's so interesting to watch other people fumble trying to figure it out.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON!
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--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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The cast: https://bit.ly/3U2srh4
You've got to watch "Edge of the Earth" on HBO. It's produced by Teton Gravity Research, which made its bones in the ski world, but that was a reason I was going to skip it, I mean I've seen so many of their productions.
But nothing like this.
There are four episodes. It's not a huge commitment. And to be honest, I haven't even seen the fourth one, about surfing, I keep up on the water sport, I read that Kai Lenny story in the "New Yorker":
"Kai Lenny Surfs the Unsurfable - The big wave surfer tackles some of the most fearsome swells on the planet. On the surface, it looks like he's just having fun": https://bit.ly/3BcdfoO
The article is written by William Finnegan, who wrote 2015's "Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life": https://amzn.to/3xhHUjz This is a cult book, albeit a large cult, the printed word equivalent of "Endless Summer," and if you've ever been in the water you'll dig it.
And the first story is a skiing one. Featuring Jeremy Jones and company in Alaska. This is very cool, primarily because I've been there, it's so forbidding. And snowboarder Jeremy Jones is doing god's work, he's had his own climate change lobbying group, Protect Our Winters, for years: https://protectourwinters.org
But it's the second episode that will have your eyes truly bugging out. Kayaking a never before navigated stretch of river in the Ecuadorian jungle. You truly start to get scared.
But not quite as scared as you will be watching that woman solo climb that peak in Kyrgyzstan. I mean the falling rock alone!
And wanting more of this, I decided to check out "Edge of the Unknown" on NatGeo, which I pay for via my Spectrum subscription.
Good luck getting my Roku to see it. I got in on my iPhone, but that screen's too small, and once you're in on your iPhone you can't keep setting up the Roku... I gave up, end of story.
But in an outdoor mood, I switched to Outside TV, which I get via my "Ski" subscription. Long story, you pay extra for more articles and then they dropped all the physical issues but one and it's a giant rip-off but you can watch Warren Miller movies, and I like the old ones, so I put in about a half hour, but then I was getting bummed, feeling so old, so I decided to go to Netflix, to check out what was going on.
I do this on a regular basis, on all the services, to check out their interfaces, to see what they're promoting, and I was scrolling down and I saw...
"Indian Matchmaking."
I knew there was a buzz on the first season, and having a second season means people watched it, and I doubted Felice wanted to view it, and since she was out of the house I dove in.
I was immediately hooked.
This is not the show you think it is. Arranged marriages. Rather, it's the story of single Indians whose parents think they're too old not to be married so they hire a matchmaker and...
What you've got to know is nobody is poor in this story. A small percentage are in India itself, most are in America, their parents have immigrated and...
There's an hilarious story of a guy in Nashik, a few hours from Mumbai. NOBODY WANTS TO LIVE THERE!
But who'd want to live with this guy anyway. He loves chickens, all he talks about is chickens. His family makes equipment for farms. He's got an American MBA, but no wife.
That's another thing about the cast, you get the impression they all did what their parents told them to do. They're not liberal arts majors, they're not artists, they're all professionals, in search of the big bucks. and other than the cardiologist, THEY'VE GOT NO SELF-KNOWLEDGE!
Let's start with Nadia. She's a babe. But emotionally stunted. An adolescent. The funny thing is they've all hired Auntie Seema, the matchmaker, who flies in from Mumbai, which everybody keeps calling "Bombay," which flummoxed me, to get them a partner. So they haven't figured out the relationship game and Nadia's hooked up with the perfect guy, but she blows him off because he wasn't physical enough with her. But then he says she told him from the start to go slow, to stay away!
Yes, the odds of any of these people hooking up...
And then Nadia goes for someone totally inappropriate, years younger, Auntie says no and...watch to see what happens.
And then there's Viral, an only child in North Carolina. Who keeps telling us how successful she is. Flies all over the country for work, owns her own home, has no debt, and wants someone...
Exactly like her.
Now anybody who has ever been in a relationship knows that you don't want someone exactly like yourself, it never works, but Viral is delusional. She lists so many criteria!
And then Auntie comes back with the matches' "biodata," a glorified Wikipedia page on each potential date. Viral's complaint? She googled the guy and he didn't look exactly like he did in his biodata photo. PICKY!
Oh, they're all so picky, except for the aforementioned cardiologist, Arshneel, in Cleveland. He's up for anything.
First date?
A woman in the Bay Area who works in finance. But she's never ever been on a date with an Indian before, and Arshneel wears a turban, how is that going to work out?
And then Auntie hooks him up with this dentist in Chi-town and... She's only been in America for a decade, so despite being cute and alive, will she blend in with his friends?
Shital is a babe. 38. With no prospects for marriage.
Like everybody else on this show, she wants it all. And, once again, no one could fit all her criteria.
And then there's Vinesh in Miami. He's a nice guy. His family is constantly cracking jokes, which bugs Auntie, but turns me on, I'd feel right at home, and...
He's set up with a nurse from L.A. and...
Sure, there's rejection and heartbreak, but there is some connection. And the most reasonable people are punted and...
The number one criterion is that the date get along with their intended's family. Usually, that's the first meeting, you're thrown directly into the fire. But...
The Indians have something right here, getting along with the family is very important. Siblings talk about in-laws who will take them to appointments and... It's much more than looks.
But everybody wants that too.
And then, interspersed throughout the series, you see people who've been married for a long time who got hitched via arranged marriages. Sometimes they only saw their spouse-to-be for five or fifteen minutes. AND THEY'RE ALL SO HAPPY! Maybe this is a selected group, but...
I forgot to mention Aparna!
Not a guy alive would want to be involved with this woman. Never mind no one being good enough for her.
Her friends are more broad-minded, especially Sophie...
Aparna grew up with Sophie in Houston. Sophie is Korean-American, but she moved to India and...she's uber-into astrology.
They all are, it's a key factor in determining compatibility!
And the face reader! I used to think I could judge a book by its cover, I found him fascinating.
And the one wedding was such a to-do, you've got to see it.
But really you've got to watch "Indian Matchmaking" to see the delusional yuppies who want to get married but really don't. Auntie keeps telling them they can't have 100%, that 60-70% is great, but they keep saying they're entitled to have it all!
And no one is backing down, they defy Auntie all the time.
This ain't a fake show, like the "Bachelorette," rather it's the story of America with an Indian twist. We work hard to lift ourselves up, and we emerge above and find out we're alone, and too many people think they can find a spouse just like they got an "A" in the course. Like relationships are school.
Then again, they have so much to learn.
God, you know if you're a candidate for this show, if you're into GOT and "Lord of the Rings"...chances are this won't be your cup of tea.
But when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, it's only about people. We're all the same, looking for the same stuff. And it's so interesting to watch other people fumble trying to figure it out.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT SEASON!
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
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Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story
https://amzn.to/3xiW8AK
How much do you know about rap?
Unlike in the pre-internet era, it's easy to ignore great swaths of music today. Many are hip-hop haters. Therefore they know nothing about the scene, never mind Atlanta and Lil Baby, but if they read this book...
Now there might be some people who read "Rap Capital" and know everything Joe Coscarelli is talking about, but there aren't that many and I'm not sure they're going to read this book anyway. You see "Rap Capital" is not a gossipy tell-all, rather it's an in-depth analysis of the history of the Atlanta rap scene up until today. And more.
It starts off with an explanation of Atlanta. How there are different areas, all with their own names.
And then it tells you about the lives of Black people in Atlanta.
It's not inner city a la metropoli like NYC, it's not high-rise, it's more like L.A., as in single family dwellings. And some of them are where drugs are sold, these are called "trap" houses, i.e. "trap" music.
Atlanta is the epicenter of Black culture in America. Not that you'd know this if you don't listen to hip-hop. Even if you follow politics, you're thinking about all the white areas surrounding Hot Lanta. But this book is not about elections, it's about cultural influence, and when it comes to hip-hop, it's NYC, L.A. and Atlanta, and one can say that Hot Lanta leads.
So what is it like growing up in Atlanta?
Good chance you were raised without a father.
Good chance are you were involved in street crime from a young age. It's not easy to fly straight. All the influences, and the need for MONEY! If you want money, you need to find your own way.
As for the traditional way... One of the rappers in the book talks about how many college graduates end up back in the hood with minimum wage jobs. You see it ain't so easy to get out. So you make do with what you've got.
"Rap Capital" is the best explanation of street culture I've ever read. As in why do all these young Black men end up dealing drugs, end up being involved in crime. BECAUSE THERE'S VERY LITTLE OPPORTUNITY!
And the amount of money you can make...
I can't get over the story of the dealer turned rapper showing up with 300k cash for his first video. You can make a ton of dough dealing, but you can also get caught and go to jail, and you can also get killed. Many do.
Die that is.
As for going to jail... It seems everybody has! You read about these rappers being in and out of jail, "Rap Capital" will give you an understanding of the landscape. It's not like you're an instant star, you've got to SURVIVE first!
And the interesting thing is so many of the rappers are crossover artists, from the street to the studio. Yes, drug dealers who have no interest in recording step up to the mic because the entrepreneurs behind the scene believe they have good tales to tell. Read "Rap Capital" and you'll see hip-hop as primarily a storytelling medium.
Not that there aren't some stupid lyrics. Then again, most of the acts have very brief careers. And you can be a star in Atlanta only, via mixtapes. You either know all the hits, or you're oblivious. It's a culture.
Reading "Rap Capital" you can see why rock is dead. Rock used to be somewhat similar, as in there was a scene, which bubbled up from the streets. Sure, everybody wanted to have their say and get rich, but you didn't start at the top but the bottom, you had to impress your peers first. And believe me, no one is hanging on the words of the latest rock act these days.
Rap is the way out.
And its stories appeal to not only the Black community, but the white.
And there's an unbelievable amount of money to be made. Lil Yachty made double digit millions in eighteen months. You see recordings are only the beginning, the jumping off point. Sure, it's great if you can gain notice and make money from streaming, but the real cash is in public appearances, and sponsorships and... If it can be monetized, they're interested. The credibility comes from escaping the streets. Ripping off the establishment is the goal, whereas rock became the establishment!
And you've got to work unbelievably hard, around the clock.
And they're recording ad infinitum. It's not like they've got ten tracks demoed and they go into the studio with a producer. They carry around hard drives, see a studio and go in and rap for a few hours and the end product might never see the light of day. They're honing their chops, unlike so many on the white side of the business.
And the real star is Coach K. Who I first heard about from Steve Barnett, when he ran Capitol. He hipped me to his power. You align with a power player...
And you don't always succeed.
Marlo gets a deal with Republic, releases a single that doesn't make it and is dropped and goes back to the streets, and it's hard to ignore the streets, there's so much money to be made. AND RESPECT!
And like I said, there is history. The gang that ran Detroit and Miami infiltrates Atlanta. How many people are in the Atlanta police gang department? SIX! That ultimately changes and the gang is busted but before that there is a string of strip clubs where records are broken and...
This is a foreign world.
But it's impacting the entire world.
Read "Rap Capital as anthropology. Irrelevant of the acts and how successful they end up being.
You're making your own way. Your goal is to find a way to be rich without being on the street.
And don't get the idea that these rappers are fungible, the story is the successful ones are uber intelligent.
And unlike rock, rap understands the street. When to flood the marketplace with product and when to hold back.
Coscarelli spent four years reporting this story and you feel like you're embedded in Hot Lanta when you read it. You can feel the streets. You get an idea of how the tracks are made and what makes them successful.
As for the mansions and automobiles... THEY'RE MAKING THAT MUCH MONEY!
Can you make as much money as a professional athlete does?
Probably not, then again the athletes are investing in hip-hop. It's all intertwined. Like I said, it's cultural.
As for the major labels... They come last. They skim the cream. And they're not always necessary. Deals are made when they're financially right. This is a street phenomenon. And if you're successful, you end up with your own label.
It's fast cars and fast money and if you've always been scared of the inner city, of Black people, of rap, you should check this out. You'll know so much more when you do.
The reporting is exhaustive. But only by going to the micro level can you fathom people's hopes and dreams and their experiences. What it's like to grow up poor and want more, with the white man wanting to keep you in jail, at least on probation, when the only way you can make bank is to be on the streets...
In truth, not everybody will finish this book. Because it is so detailed. But if you do, you'll be one step ahead of everybody else. You'll know what is truly going on. Maybe even more than those who profess to be hip-hop experts.
You'll be dining out on the book for a week. Telling all the incredible stories to your friends.
Atlanta is hiding in plain sight, still most people don't see it. But if you read "Rap Capital," you will.
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
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To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
How much do you know about rap?
Unlike in the pre-internet era, it's easy to ignore great swaths of music today. Many are hip-hop haters. Therefore they know nothing about the scene, never mind Atlanta and Lil Baby, but if they read this book...
Now there might be some people who read "Rap Capital" and know everything Joe Coscarelli is talking about, but there aren't that many and I'm not sure they're going to read this book anyway. You see "Rap Capital" is not a gossipy tell-all, rather it's an in-depth analysis of the history of the Atlanta rap scene up until today. And more.
It starts off with an explanation of Atlanta. How there are different areas, all with their own names.
And then it tells you about the lives of Black people in Atlanta.
It's not inner city a la metropoli like NYC, it's not high-rise, it's more like L.A., as in single family dwellings. And some of them are where drugs are sold, these are called "trap" houses, i.e. "trap" music.
Atlanta is the epicenter of Black culture in America. Not that you'd know this if you don't listen to hip-hop. Even if you follow politics, you're thinking about all the white areas surrounding Hot Lanta. But this book is not about elections, it's about cultural influence, and when it comes to hip-hop, it's NYC, L.A. and Atlanta, and one can say that Hot Lanta leads.
So what is it like growing up in Atlanta?
Good chance you were raised without a father.
Good chance are you were involved in street crime from a young age. It's not easy to fly straight. All the influences, and the need for MONEY! If you want money, you need to find your own way.
As for the traditional way... One of the rappers in the book talks about how many college graduates end up back in the hood with minimum wage jobs. You see it ain't so easy to get out. So you make do with what you've got.
"Rap Capital" is the best explanation of street culture I've ever read. As in why do all these young Black men end up dealing drugs, end up being involved in crime. BECAUSE THERE'S VERY LITTLE OPPORTUNITY!
And the amount of money you can make...
I can't get over the story of the dealer turned rapper showing up with 300k cash for his first video. You can make a ton of dough dealing, but you can also get caught and go to jail, and you can also get killed. Many do.
Die that is.
As for going to jail... It seems everybody has! You read about these rappers being in and out of jail, "Rap Capital" will give you an understanding of the landscape. It's not like you're an instant star, you've got to SURVIVE first!
And the interesting thing is so many of the rappers are crossover artists, from the street to the studio. Yes, drug dealers who have no interest in recording step up to the mic because the entrepreneurs behind the scene believe they have good tales to tell. Read "Rap Capital" and you'll see hip-hop as primarily a storytelling medium.
Not that there aren't some stupid lyrics. Then again, most of the acts have very brief careers. And you can be a star in Atlanta only, via mixtapes. You either know all the hits, or you're oblivious. It's a culture.
Reading "Rap Capital" you can see why rock is dead. Rock used to be somewhat similar, as in there was a scene, which bubbled up from the streets. Sure, everybody wanted to have their say and get rich, but you didn't start at the top but the bottom, you had to impress your peers first. And believe me, no one is hanging on the words of the latest rock act these days.
Rap is the way out.
And its stories appeal to not only the Black community, but the white.
And there's an unbelievable amount of money to be made. Lil Yachty made double digit millions in eighteen months. You see recordings are only the beginning, the jumping off point. Sure, it's great if you can gain notice and make money from streaming, but the real cash is in public appearances, and sponsorships and... If it can be monetized, they're interested. The credibility comes from escaping the streets. Ripping off the establishment is the goal, whereas rock became the establishment!
And you've got to work unbelievably hard, around the clock.
And they're recording ad infinitum. It's not like they've got ten tracks demoed and they go into the studio with a producer. They carry around hard drives, see a studio and go in and rap for a few hours and the end product might never see the light of day. They're honing their chops, unlike so many on the white side of the business.
And the real star is Coach K. Who I first heard about from Steve Barnett, when he ran Capitol. He hipped me to his power. You align with a power player...
And you don't always succeed.
Marlo gets a deal with Republic, releases a single that doesn't make it and is dropped and goes back to the streets, and it's hard to ignore the streets, there's so much money to be made. AND RESPECT!
And like I said, there is history. The gang that ran Detroit and Miami infiltrates Atlanta. How many people are in the Atlanta police gang department? SIX! That ultimately changes and the gang is busted but before that there is a string of strip clubs where records are broken and...
This is a foreign world.
But it's impacting the entire world.
Read "Rap Capital as anthropology. Irrelevant of the acts and how successful they end up being.
You're making your own way. Your goal is to find a way to be rich without being on the street.
And don't get the idea that these rappers are fungible, the story is the successful ones are uber intelligent.
And unlike rock, rap understands the street. When to flood the marketplace with product and when to hold back.
Coscarelli spent four years reporting this story and you feel like you're embedded in Hot Lanta when you read it. You can feel the streets. You get an idea of how the tracks are made and what makes them successful.
As for the mansions and automobiles... THEY'RE MAKING THAT MUCH MONEY!
Can you make as much money as a professional athlete does?
Probably not, then again the athletes are investing in hip-hop. It's all intertwined. Like I said, it's cultural.
As for the major labels... They come last. They skim the cream. And they're not always necessary. Deals are made when they're financially right. This is a street phenomenon. And if you're successful, you end up with your own label.
It's fast cars and fast money and if you've always been scared of the inner city, of Black people, of rap, you should check this out. You'll know so much more when you do.
The reporting is exhaustive. But only by going to the micro level can you fathom people's hopes and dreams and their experiences. What it's like to grow up poor and want more, with the white man wanting to keep you in jail, at least on probation, when the only way you can make bank is to be on the streets...
In truth, not everybody will finish this book. Because it is so detailed. But if you do, you'll be one step ahead of everybody else. You'll know what is truly going on. Maybe even more than those who profess to be hip-hop experts.
You'll be dining out on the book for a week. Telling all the incredible stories to your friends.
Atlanta is hiding in plain sight, still most people don't see it. But if you read "Rap Capital," you will.
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