And Hollywood wonders why this was a box office disappointment?
There have been reams of pages utilizing "One Battle After Another" as an illustration of a failure of the audience, that people just won't come out to see a great movie. Having now watched it on HBO...
I was hipped by Harold that it was a disappointment. He went to see it in the theatre. Something I choose not to do. Not only do I find the experience passé, how do you expect me to sit for two hours and forty two minutes without getting up to pee? If you want to make a series, do so, but don't give us these lengthy, extended films that are a chore to watch in one sitting.
Now I've recently thought that Leonardo DiCaprio was overrated. However he was good here. But Sean Penn? He's the new Meryl Streep, you can see the preparation, you can see the acting, the ultimate result being that the portrayal just doesn't ring true. The walk? Both bow-legged and stiff? Maybe if you're in your twenties... I mean he's signaling the rigidity of the character, but it ends up making viewers wince...this is why people decry Penn, he takes himself so seriously. I loved Willa's put-down of him, about the tight shirt and the lifts in his shoes, but it's hard not to square that with the real Penn.
But Benicio del Toro has never been better. Confident yet understated.
The acting in all was pretty good. But the plotting?
I didn't read Pynchon's "Vineland," although online research tells me the film is not faithful to the book. But the first issue the flick has is TONE! You want to take it seriously. Is this a commentary on immigration? I mean there are no laughs at first. Except maybe for when Teyana Taylor's Perfidia Beverly Hills first encounters Sean Penn's Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw. The plot seems so fantastical, an underground rebel organization akin to the Weathermen, one which we don't have today (don't tell me Antifa is equal, Antifa is not even an organization!), taking violent action. The inspiration for putting their lives on the line is not made clear. And then they're robbing banks... Is this like the Symbionese Liberation Army?
And then sixteen years go by and you start to wonder...is this like a Mexican drug lord movie, like "Sicario," or is it a family drama and...why should I care so much?
I know, I know, the reviews talk about the humor. And there is some, but it's not like I was laughing out loud, I smiled at most.
And then it's a chase movie.
But all the critics have waxed rhapsodic. Maybe this is why they no longer have pull. If an adult went to the theatre to see this based only on reviews, if they didn't consider themselves a cineaste, they'd be angry, they'd want their money back, and they would not journey to the theatre soon thereafter, if at all.
This is not what the public wants. This faux intellectualism. It's not as bad as Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master," then again, his previous film, "Licorice Pizza," had tone and not much more...but at least the tone was consistent.
Do I think "One Battle After Another" would be best seen on a big screen? Sure. The cinematography was rich. But I watched it on an iPad and I didn't feel that I was missing anything. Then again, the intelligentsia will say that's why I didn't love it. Hogwash.
Let's say that theatrical is for event movies only. It is no longer a broad-based business. If anything, what is purveyed by Netflix and the other streamers is superior. And now you've got Tinseltown's knickers in a twist regarding Netflix's acquisition of Warner Bros. The two main fears being that Netflix will make fewer films and those they do produce won't be distributed theatrically.
This reminds me of nothing so much as Napster. You had the record labels and old farts saying that the CD was superior, that no one would want anything better, need anything better. But now computers and cars don't even come with a CD drive, on demand streaming is king, and vinyl is mostly a souvenir, don't let the press persuade you otherwise.
Why can't Hollywood do what Spotify did and get ahead of the market?
Oh, that's right, that's what Netflix did. It switched its formula from rental to streaming and there was public outcry, people loved their DVDs! Ask them today if they even have a DVD player! And then all the studios licensed their product, building Netflix's business, and Netflix started production itself. This is Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma write large. If you don't disrupt yourself, someone else will!
When I think back on 2025, the best production I saw was "Adolescence." Notice that despite all the ink spilled about "White Lotus," no one is talking about that anymore, it was formulaic when "Adolescence" was not. And we can talk all about the one extended shot technique, but that was secondary to the plot and the performances. I still think about "Adolescence," it raised issues in our culture today. Am I going to think about "One Battle After Another" tomorrow? No!
Sometimes the wisdom of the crowd is right. Not always, but if you're in the business of commerce/money as opposed to pure art, you should look at what the people say.
And don't crap on the public too much. People do not want retreads, they always want something new, they're open to something new, the fact that the purveyors don't give it to them is something else.
There might be an audience for superhero movies, there might be an audience for the Spotify Top 50, but most people don't even bother, they're not even shrugging their shoulders, they just don't care, these productions don't speak to them.
And did you read in the "Wall Street Journal" today about the lack of melody in today's popular music? Once the mainstream goes on something you know there's a problem:
"Has America Lost Its Melody? - Something changed in popular music around 2005. I suspect it reflects a change in the country."
Free link: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/has-america-lost-its-melody-0ec9fc31?st=1yjWtD&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
This is how Lou Pearlman ate the labels' lunch with Backstreet Boys and NSYNC! The majors weren't selling this stuff, there was no competition. All the A&R people were too hip. Just like they're too hip to sign something today that's pure melody, laden with hooks...it just doesn't get them off.
The record labels lost touch with the public years ago. That's why the business is stale. And theatrical films are almost laughable.
Do I think they spent a lot of money on "One Battle After Another"? Do I think everybody involved gave it their best? Yes. But I also think it was the emperor's new clothes...didn't anybody see that this production didn't appeal to enough people to make a profit? That the movie is flawed in tone and ultimately indescribable? Is it action, romance, comedy...so much is thrown in that the audience can't ultimately be engaged, never mind that there is nothing to take from the flick.
And if you think "One Battle After Another" is an allegory about today's political scene... Yeah, right. And today's revolutionaries don't even fight with violence, they fight with technology, computers, the internet...but everybody involved in this picture is an old fart invested in old ways. Hell, I'd like to see a movie about Ukraine's homemade drones and how they're attacking Russia's vulnerabilities, that's modern warfare... Not some nincompoops out of the sixties who look so out of date they're laughable. And I'm not laughing with the filmmakers, but at them.
First and foremost it has to be an enjoyable experience. No one cares about the look and the performances if the story isn't great. Same deal with music... Without a good song, it doesn't matter how good the playing is.
The film industry needs the equivalent of the Ramones and the punk bands of the seventies, revolting against the overproduced rock of the day.
Oh wait! We've got that, on TikTok and YouTube. Instead of criticizing these platforms, creators have to study them, to see what is so attractive about these videos.
And I'll bet most of the reviewers saying how great "One Battle After Another" is, and those at the studio too, don't even have a TikTok account, they're out of touch with the public. The public is ravenous, if it finds anything good it will embrace it and spread the word.
"One Battle After Another" is not it.
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Saturday, 27 December 2025
Friday, 26 December 2025
"New" Songs-SiriusXM This Week
For the new year.
Tune in Saturday December 27th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Tune in Saturday December 27th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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The Seymour Hersh Documentary
Netflix trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CxEnECKs9U
Wow.
I was going to write about another Netflix documentary, "Breakdown: 1975," but when the ending reflected the attitudes of today...I lost the inspiration.
You see there's no snow in Colorado. Just the stuff they made back in November. Since then, not only has it been too warm to make more snow, it hasn't snowed for three weeks. The news has been pretty widely disseminated, but don't conflate what is going on in California to what is happening in the Centennial State. As of this writing, Mammoth has gotten 67" already from the Golden State storm you've been reading about, and it's still snowing! And that's not completely atypical for California, where they have these insane dumps and then days and days of sunshine. In Colorado it's an accumulation of a few inches here and a few more there and you end up with three hundred plus inches at the end of the season. But not this year.
Now my policy is to go out each and every day. But on Monday...
It's more crowded here than I've ever seen it. Bombers and beginners. The slopes are frightening, a straight-liner missed me by mere inches. But later in the day, just before I was done, I was just above the entrances to chairs 3&4, below the SLOW banners, and I saw this snowboarder about ten to fifteen feet away and I yelled out DON'T HIT ME! She was barely moving, I was completely stopped. And then she ran right into me.
I haven't been out since.
Of course she skied away. And when I got up from my fall, my butt hurting and my knee a little bit too, I raced down to confront her. She just smiled and said she was skiing, she didn't apologize at all.
And there you have it in Vail, Christmas 2025. It's supposed to snow one inch tomorrow, and then six the day after and...I'll go back out, but really, that's not enough to make a truly significant difference.
So I've been reading and last night we finished "Pluribus" (am I the only one who doesn't get it?) and today I decided to fire up Netflix and watch the 1975 documentary.
And this smorgasbord of images is great, however it always bothers me when they interview those who were not alive back then to testify... But everybody's afraid if they only feature old farts, youngsters won't watch. And for a minute there, I thought every American needed to watch "Breakdown: 1975," to see the way it once was, when movies were necessary viewing, at the theatre, but... The film fudged the dates, it just wasn't 1975, and then said the era was over with "Jaws," which was untrue, and then featured right wing blowback and the gas emptied from my tank.
So I decided to watch the Seymour Hersh documentary, "Cover-Up." Once again, WOW!
Now thinking about it, what struck me most about this doc was when Hersh referred to himself as an outsider. That's it in a nutshell. Now, more than ever, society doesn't like outsiders. And people don't want to be outsiders, they don't want to be out there alone, never mind victimized by online abuse, so they take a side and stick to it. Seemingly everybody in America, from musicians to corporate executives...they hold their head down and don't make waves because they don't want to suffer the consequences, even if they're right.
And Hersh has been right many times.
Of course he's also been wrong. But that's the nature of the game, if you're never wrong, you're playing it to close to the vest, you're holding back too much. I guess you could say the same thing about musicians, when you get inspired and what you've created is too far out for the record company, if you're afraid of alienating fans, that's what you should include, that's what you should release, because that's what changes the world, not what is expected.
So you get Hersh's story... His upbringing, his acceptance at the University of Chicago almost by accident. And I hate to piss people off, but that college experience helps form him, makes him who he is, because in that elite hothouse there are smart, educated people who challenge him, who want to wrestle with ideas, who inform and teach him too.
And then he becomes a reporter.
His "cases" are legendary. There's the My Lai Massacre.
No one wanted to believe it. And then Calley was released from jail soon after conviction...just like the January 6th protesters. Didn't matter what you did, if you supported the war... And Hersh posits that the story hadn't leaked despite so many knowing about it because it was de rigueur, it happened all the time.
And if you ever thought Henry Kissinger was a hero instead of a war criminal... Wow a third time. He had a cozy relationship with the "New York Times," they printed what he dictated while he was responsible for so much heinous stuff that people were unaware of. (At least until Hersh arrived.)
There's Watergate...
You'll watch "Cover-Up" and be disillusioned with the government. But the weird thing is today, the administration is doing all this stuff openly that they used to hide.
But the generations have changed. Boomers were taught to question authority. If you do that today, you can't get a job at the bank, and then you can't join the country club and...
When you're outside looking in and it doesn't add up, oftentimes you're right, which is why this Bari Weiss/"60 Minutes" thing is so important. If we can't depend on the news to bring us the truth...
Then again, today most people get their information online and are convinced of inane conspiracy theories that end up overshadowing the real ones. Even Abu Ghraib...we all saw the images. Today, the news site you click on, the one that aligns with your views, may not even post a story that doesn't comport with the orthodoxy... Fox News got the message, when it started challenging Trump it was losing viewers to even more right wing outlets, so it got with the program.
Everybody gets with the program, but not Sy Hersh.
And this documentary is a bit different from most. It's not a linear retelling of Hersh's life. You ultimately get some details of his growing up, but what you've really got here is his greatest hits, and his reluctance to do this movie at all.
So "Cover-Up" is the documentary all Americans need to see. And since it's on Netflix, many more people will see it than if it debuted in the theatre. You only get publicity once, and if people can't partake immediately, they forget about a movie when it's finally available for streaming, it's not only no longer new, there's a tsunami of additional product and...
Netflix is smart. "Cover-Up" came out today, when most people are on vacation and have the time to watch it. "Cover-Up" cuts to the heart of not only the government, but life in these United States. On one hand it will leave you numb, on the other suspicious of the government. And you should be suspicious of the government, and corporations too...Hersh gets into Gulf & Western and in the process it's revealed that the editor he reports to, who doesn't want to run Hersh's business stories in the "New York Times," has crossed the line too. And what does the editor say when confronted with his behavior? That his lawyer said it was okay. And then Hersh responds that that's what he hears every day from those he's investigating.
I can't recommend "Cover-Up" enough. Not because it's the best documentary I've ever seen, but because it raises issues that are not being raised elsewhere, and it illustrates you can make it, have a career, challenging conventional wisdom. Just don't expect to be honored by the company or be invited for drinks at the bar...
But if you have the cojones...
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Wow.
I was going to write about another Netflix documentary, "Breakdown: 1975," but when the ending reflected the attitudes of today...I lost the inspiration.
You see there's no snow in Colorado. Just the stuff they made back in November. Since then, not only has it been too warm to make more snow, it hasn't snowed for three weeks. The news has been pretty widely disseminated, but don't conflate what is going on in California to what is happening in the Centennial State. As of this writing, Mammoth has gotten 67" already from the Golden State storm you've been reading about, and it's still snowing! And that's not completely atypical for California, where they have these insane dumps and then days and days of sunshine. In Colorado it's an accumulation of a few inches here and a few more there and you end up with three hundred plus inches at the end of the season. But not this year.
Now my policy is to go out each and every day. But on Monday...
It's more crowded here than I've ever seen it. Bombers and beginners. The slopes are frightening, a straight-liner missed me by mere inches. But later in the day, just before I was done, I was just above the entrances to chairs 3&4, below the SLOW banners, and I saw this snowboarder about ten to fifteen feet away and I yelled out DON'T HIT ME! She was barely moving, I was completely stopped. And then she ran right into me.
I haven't been out since.
Of course she skied away. And when I got up from my fall, my butt hurting and my knee a little bit too, I raced down to confront her. She just smiled and said she was skiing, she didn't apologize at all.
And there you have it in Vail, Christmas 2025. It's supposed to snow one inch tomorrow, and then six the day after and...I'll go back out, but really, that's not enough to make a truly significant difference.
So I've been reading and last night we finished "Pluribus" (am I the only one who doesn't get it?) and today I decided to fire up Netflix and watch the 1975 documentary.
And this smorgasbord of images is great, however it always bothers me when they interview those who were not alive back then to testify... But everybody's afraid if they only feature old farts, youngsters won't watch. And for a minute there, I thought every American needed to watch "Breakdown: 1975," to see the way it once was, when movies were necessary viewing, at the theatre, but... The film fudged the dates, it just wasn't 1975, and then said the era was over with "Jaws," which was untrue, and then featured right wing blowback and the gas emptied from my tank.
So I decided to watch the Seymour Hersh documentary, "Cover-Up." Once again, WOW!
Now thinking about it, what struck me most about this doc was when Hersh referred to himself as an outsider. That's it in a nutshell. Now, more than ever, society doesn't like outsiders. And people don't want to be outsiders, they don't want to be out there alone, never mind victimized by online abuse, so they take a side and stick to it. Seemingly everybody in America, from musicians to corporate executives...they hold their head down and don't make waves because they don't want to suffer the consequences, even if they're right.
And Hersh has been right many times.
Of course he's also been wrong. But that's the nature of the game, if you're never wrong, you're playing it to close to the vest, you're holding back too much. I guess you could say the same thing about musicians, when you get inspired and what you've created is too far out for the record company, if you're afraid of alienating fans, that's what you should include, that's what you should release, because that's what changes the world, not what is expected.
So you get Hersh's story... His upbringing, his acceptance at the University of Chicago almost by accident. And I hate to piss people off, but that college experience helps form him, makes him who he is, because in that elite hothouse there are smart, educated people who challenge him, who want to wrestle with ideas, who inform and teach him too.
And then he becomes a reporter.
His "cases" are legendary. There's the My Lai Massacre.
No one wanted to believe it. And then Calley was released from jail soon after conviction...just like the January 6th protesters. Didn't matter what you did, if you supported the war... And Hersh posits that the story hadn't leaked despite so many knowing about it because it was de rigueur, it happened all the time.
And if you ever thought Henry Kissinger was a hero instead of a war criminal... Wow a third time. He had a cozy relationship with the "New York Times," they printed what he dictated while he was responsible for so much heinous stuff that people were unaware of. (At least until Hersh arrived.)
There's Watergate...
You'll watch "Cover-Up" and be disillusioned with the government. But the weird thing is today, the administration is doing all this stuff openly that they used to hide.
But the generations have changed. Boomers were taught to question authority. If you do that today, you can't get a job at the bank, and then you can't join the country club and...
When you're outside looking in and it doesn't add up, oftentimes you're right, which is why this Bari Weiss/"60 Minutes" thing is so important. If we can't depend on the news to bring us the truth...
Then again, today most people get their information online and are convinced of inane conspiracy theories that end up overshadowing the real ones. Even Abu Ghraib...we all saw the images. Today, the news site you click on, the one that aligns with your views, may not even post a story that doesn't comport with the orthodoxy... Fox News got the message, when it started challenging Trump it was losing viewers to even more right wing outlets, so it got with the program.
Everybody gets with the program, but not Sy Hersh.
And this documentary is a bit different from most. It's not a linear retelling of Hersh's life. You ultimately get some details of his growing up, but what you've really got here is his greatest hits, and his reluctance to do this movie at all.
So "Cover-Up" is the documentary all Americans need to see. And since it's on Netflix, many more people will see it than if it debuted in the theatre. You only get publicity once, and if people can't partake immediately, they forget about a movie when it's finally available for streaming, it's not only no longer new, there's a tsunami of additional product and...
Netflix is smart. "Cover-Up" came out today, when most people are on vacation and have the time to watch it. "Cover-Up" cuts to the heart of not only the government, but life in these United States. On one hand it will leave you numb, on the other suspicious of the government. And you should be suspicious of the government, and corporations too...Hersh gets into Gulf & Western and in the process it's revealed that the editor he reports to, who doesn't want to run Hersh's business stories in the "New York Times," has crossed the line too. And what does the editor say when confronted with his behavior? That his lawyer said it was okay. And then Hersh responds that that's what he hears every day from those he's investigating.
I can't recommend "Cover-Up" enough. Not because it's the best documentary I've ever seen, but because it raises issues that are not being raised elsewhere, and it illustrates you can make it, have a career, challenging conventional wisdom. Just don't expect to be honored by the company or be invited for drinks at the bar...
But if you have the cojones...
--
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, 25 December 2025
Jerry Kasenetz
I feel vindicated! According to the obituary in the "New York Times," Pete Townshend considered "Yummy Yummy Yummy" one of his favorite songs when it came out. And I loved it too! I even bought the single! And singles were made to be played over and over, until the vinyl turned grey, and mine did... I even took it along with me to Providence when we went to visit our cousins on some holiday, I was the only boy there, I sat in the corner of the room alone and listened...
You've got to know, everybody hated bubblegum music.
Scratch that... Bubblegum music had a huge audience amongst the young and brain dead, who had not shifted to album rock, which had its biggest triumph with "Sgt. Pepper," which had no singles at all, in the same year that the 1910 Fruitgum Company released...
"Simon Says." I hated that song! It was stupid!
1967 was not only the year of "Sgt. Pepper," it was also the year of "Disraeli Gears" and "Are You Experienced," both of which you had to own to hear, at least until the summer of '68, when "Sunshine of Your Love" crossed over, "Purple Haze" never did.
1967 was the year of FM rock's birth. First in San Francisco, then in New York. And believe me, I was a listener, I owned all those albums, but if you lived anywhere else you were a victim of AM Top 40 radio. Most people didn't even own an FM radio... That band was seen as traveling short distances and featuring classical music. As for cars...good luck finding one with an FM receiver back in '67.
So the hipsters not only knew the albums of the burgeoning album rock scene, but the Top 40 too. Upon which they placed judgment. And there were a lot of great tracks in '67, like "Dance to the Music" and "Respect" and "Soul Man" and...nobody bought the albums of these acts (don't write me and tell me you own one, the bottom line is the album phenomenon started with white rock, period). Stuff that those in the know could listen to and enjoy. But "Simon Says"? That was going backwards! That was a return to the pre-Beatle era. That was the kind of commercial dreck labels put out today, commerce as opposed to art.
And the following year's "1, 2, 3, Red Light" was just as bad, if not worse.
Bubblegum music was foisted upon the public by the team of Kasenetz & Katz. They were the stars, the bands were faceless, they usually didn't really exist, although concoctions were formed to go on the road and hoover up money.
But back in '67... "Rolling Stone" launched that year and didn't gain mainstream traction for almost half a decade thereafter. Meaning...there wasn't much information about these two producers and their productions, all we had were the records. It was not like today, where you can go deep down the rabbit hole on the internet.
But it was more than straight bubblegum. Kasenetz & Katz had their first hit with the Music Explosion's cover of "Little Bit O' Soul" earlier in the year of 1967, before anybody had even heard of bubblegum, never mind "Simon Says." And "Little Bit O' Soul" was seen as credible, it was infectious without being saccharine, it got respect. It fit into the Texas oeuvre of Doug Sahm and...even though the band was from Ohio.
And after the run of bubblegum was just about done, in 1969, Kasenetz & Katz had a hit with Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'." Which had the rough-throated vocals of FM rock matched with an undeniable hook of a chorus and a driving beat. These were not saccharine, clean-cut boys who'd barely crossed the line over to puberty, these were definitely men, there was a sexual undertone, and an organ solo and a guitar solo... If only today's acts could write a song so infectious. Yes, that's what Kasenetz & Katz specialized in, infection...you heard their songs and you could not get them out of your head.
Now I didn't know until the internet filled in the gaps that 10cc worked with the producers, even participated in the records before they were called 10cc...they used the money to build Strawberry Studios in Manchester.
But Kasenetz & Katz's epoch faded except for one last gasp with Ram Jam's version of "Black Betty," which was big in the heartland, not so much on the coasts.
But their benefactor, Neil Bogart, really hit his stride in the seventies. After parting ways with Buddah and forming Casablanca he stumbled with his initial release, a Johnny Carson compilation, but then struck gold with KISS and Donna Summer and more.
What Bogart did best was promote. As for the money and where it went... Well, Polygram ultimately swallowed the label. And although Bogart started over with Boardwalk, the times were different. The full force promotion of yesteryear no longer worked. Bogart could will a hit. Well, not exactly will it, but create such a field of distraction and excitement that people paid attention, and hits ensued.
It was a different era.
Well, not completely different from today, which is cottage industry. Kasenetz & Katz came from nowhere, they established a foothold with the help of Bogart and more. Today, you've got all the tools at home, you don't need a major label deal, you can post and get views and listens and make money and most people have never even heard of you or your music. But back in '67, it was different. There was a threshold. Either you had a record deal or you did not. And either you were on AM radio or you were a sideshow... FM came along to rescue the sideshow, make it the main show, but before that...
"Yummy Yummy Yummy"...
I constantly have acts and their retinue tell me to give a record a few spins, to live with it.
Nothing like that was a hit back in the days of sixties Top 40. If you didn't get it on the first listen, didn't die to hear it again on the radio, didn't need to go to the store to buy the record to hear it whenever you wanted to...you weren't in the game, no one was interested, not the stations or the public.
And unlike today, records didn't last a long time. They were hits and then they were done, replaced by new hits...not that you ever forgot the old ones. You played them to death until you could listen no more, but they were indelibly imprinted upon your brain.
As for "Yummy Yummy Yummy"...it had a driving beat. And then a nasal vocal that did sound straight out of the bubblegum canon, but then there was a change...
"Ooh love to hold ya, ooh love to kiss ya
Ooh love, I love it so"
The singer took it up a notch, lost his nasality, and then there was a chorus of backup vocalists, making the whole thing sweet.
And then the driving beat once again, with stabs of emphasis.
And the second time through the verse the backup vocals were littered throughout, everybody was having a good time. There was exuberance!
And then came the nonsense lyrics...
"Ba, da, ba, da, da, da, da
Ba, da, da, da, da, da"
And then the modulation up! And even more emphatic vocals.
And an outro with the "Ba, da, ba" backup vocals and the lead singer testifying on top...and when it fades out all you can do is take it from the top once again.
And if you don't get it...
You're too hip for the room. You're the same person who believes "Metal Machine Music" is a masterpiece, who listens to music with your head as opposed to your heart, who is worried about what others think about your taste while simultaneously bullying them into believing your word is gospel.
In other words, you need to take "Yummy Yummy Yummy" on the surface. Shut off your brain and just let the music...
Infect you.
Kasenetz & Katz infected the entire world.
Legendarily, those behind the scenes make most of the money, the acts that front the songs end up famous with the name and oftentimes little else. Then again, Kasenetz & Katz were not only the producers, in many cases they were essentially the act.
Leaving the question... How did they do financially?
Now the truth is bubblegum music has never faded away, those songs are still played, so there's publishing money, assuming they took an interest, and it being the sixties they probably did.
And assuming they continued to get paid by the record company... You complain about streaming royalties? Good luck getting paid at all by indie labels in the past.
Now did they sell their interests?
I don't know... Maybe some deep research will tell me, but all I know is those records were hits over half a century ago and they're still part of the fabric of society today. So whoever owned the rights/income stream has done very well. What seemed as disposable, transitory back then, turned out not to be. Which is why I always tell acts not to sell their songs, their babies. Certainly when they're young.
So a piece of music history died this week. You may not have known Jerry Kasenetz's name, but if you're a student of the game, he and his partner Jeffry Katz are LEGENDS!
And I still smile when I hear the Music Explosion, Crazy Elephant and Ohio Express hits. They're part of my life. AND I AIN'T APOLOGIZING FOR IT!
--
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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You've got to know, everybody hated bubblegum music.
Scratch that... Bubblegum music had a huge audience amongst the young and brain dead, who had not shifted to album rock, which had its biggest triumph with "Sgt. Pepper," which had no singles at all, in the same year that the 1910 Fruitgum Company released...
"Simon Says." I hated that song! It was stupid!
1967 was not only the year of "Sgt. Pepper," it was also the year of "Disraeli Gears" and "Are You Experienced," both of which you had to own to hear, at least until the summer of '68, when "Sunshine of Your Love" crossed over, "Purple Haze" never did.
1967 was the year of FM rock's birth. First in San Francisco, then in New York. And believe me, I was a listener, I owned all those albums, but if you lived anywhere else you were a victim of AM Top 40 radio. Most people didn't even own an FM radio... That band was seen as traveling short distances and featuring classical music. As for cars...good luck finding one with an FM receiver back in '67.
So the hipsters not only knew the albums of the burgeoning album rock scene, but the Top 40 too. Upon which they placed judgment. And there were a lot of great tracks in '67, like "Dance to the Music" and "Respect" and "Soul Man" and...nobody bought the albums of these acts (don't write me and tell me you own one, the bottom line is the album phenomenon started with white rock, period). Stuff that those in the know could listen to and enjoy. But "Simon Says"? That was going backwards! That was a return to the pre-Beatle era. That was the kind of commercial dreck labels put out today, commerce as opposed to art.
And the following year's "1, 2, 3, Red Light" was just as bad, if not worse.
Bubblegum music was foisted upon the public by the team of Kasenetz & Katz. They were the stars, the bands were faceless, they usually didn't really exist, although concoctions were formed to go on the road and hoover up money.
But back in '67... "Rolling Stone" launched that year and didn't gain mainstream traction for almost half a decade thereafter. Meaning...there wasn't much information about these two producers and their productions, all we had were the records. It was not like today, where you can go deep down the rabbit hole on the internet.
But it was more than straight bubblegum. Kasenetz & Katz had their first hit with the Music Explosion's cover of "Little Bit O' Soul" earlier in the year of 1967, before anybody had even heard of bubblegum, never mind "Simon Says." And "Little Bit O' Soul" was seen as credible, it was infectious without being saccharine, it got respect. It fit into the Texas oeuvre of Doug Sahm and...even though the band was from Ohio.
And after the run of bubblegum was just about done, in 1969, Kasenetz & Katz had a hit with Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'." Which had the rough-throated vocals of FM rock matched with an undeniable hook of a chorus and a driving beat. These were not saccharine, clean-cut boys who'd barely crossed the line over to puberty, these were definitely men, there was a sexual undertone, and an organ solo and a guitar solo... If only today's acts could write a song so infectious. Yes, that's what Kasenetz & Katz specialized in, infection...you heard their songs and you could not get them out of your head.
Now I didn't know until the internet filled in the gaps that 10cc worked with the producers, even participated in the records before they were called 10cc...they used the money to build Strawberry Studios in Manchester.
But Kasenetz & Katz's epoch faded except for one last gasp with Ram Jam's version of "Black Betty," which was big in the heartland, not so much on the coasts.
But their benefactor, Neil Bogart, really hit his stride in the seventies. After parting ways with Buddah and forming Casablanca he stumbled with his initial release, a Johnny Carson compilation, but then struck gold with KISS and Donna Summer and more.
What Bogart did best was promote. As for the money and where it went... Well, Polygram ultimately swallowed the label. And although Bogart started over with Boardwalk, the times were different. The full force promotion of yesteryear no longer worked. Bogart could will a hit. Well, not exactly will it, but create such a field of distraction and excitement that people paid attention, and hits ensued.
It was a different era.
Well, not completely different from today, which is cottage industry. Kasenetz & Katz came from nowhere, they established a foothold with the help of Bogart and more. Today, you've got all the tools at home, you don't need a major label deal, you can post and get views and listens and make money and most people have never even heard of you or your music. But back in '67, it was different. There was a threshold. Either you had a record deal or you did not. And either you were on AM radio or you were a sideshow... FM came along to rescue the sideshow, make it the main show, but before that...
"Yummy Yummy Yummy"...
I constantly have acts and their retinue tell me to give a record a few spins, to live with it.
Nothing like that was a hit back in the days of sixties Top 40. If you didn't get it on the first listen, didn't die to hear it again on the radio, didn't need to go to the store to buy the record to hear it whenever you wanted to...you weren't in the game, no one was interested, not the stations or the public.
And unlike today, records didn't last a long time. They were hits and then they were done, replaced by new hits...not that you ever forgot the old ones. You played them to death until you could listen no more, but they were indelibly imprinted upon your brain.
As for "Yummy Yummy Yummy"...it had a driving beat. And then a nasal vocal that did sound straight out of the bubblegum canon, but then there was a change...
"Ooh love to hold ya, ooh love to kiss ya
Ooh love, I love it so"
The singer took it up a notch, lost his nasality, and then there was a chorus of backup vocalists, making the whole thing sweet.
And then the driving beat once again, with stabs of emphasis.
And the second time through the verse the backup vocals were littered throughout, everybody was having a good time. There was exuberance!
And then came the nonsense lyrics...
"Ba, da, ba, da, da, da, da
Ba, da, da, da, da, da"
And then the modulation up! And even more emphatic vocals.
And an outro with the "Ba, da, ba" backup vocals and the lead singer testifying on top...and when it fades out all you can do is take it from the top once again.
And if you don't get it...
You're too hip for the room. You're the same person who believes "Metal Machine Music" is a masterpiece, who listens to music with your head as opposed to your heart, who is worried about what others think about your taste while simultaneously bullying them into believing your word is gospel.
In other words, you need to take "Yummy Yummy Yummy" on the surface. Shut off your brain and just let the music...
Infect you.
Kasenetz & Katz infected the entire world.
Legendarily, those behind the scenes make most of the money, the acts that front the songs end up famous with the name and oftentimes little else. Then again, Kasenetz & Katz were not only the producers, in many cases they were essentially the act.
Leaving the question... How did they do financially?
Now the truth is bubblegum music has never faded away, those songs are still played, so there's publishing money, assuming they took an interest, and it being the sixties they probably did.
And assuming they continued to get paid by the record company... You complain about streaming royalties? Good luck getting paid at all by indie labels in the past.
Now did they sell their interests?
I don't know... Maybe some deep research will tell me, but all I know is those records were hits over half a century ago and they're still part of the fabric of society today. So whoever owned the rights/income stream has done very well. What seemed as disposable, transitory back then, turned out not to be. Which is why I always tell acts not to sell their songs, their babies. Certainly when they're young.
So a piece of music history died this week. You may not have known Jerry Kasenetz's name, but if you're a student of the game, he and his partner Jeffry Katz are LEGENDS!
And I still smile when I hear the Music Explosion, Crazy Elephant and Ohio Express hits. They're part of my life. AND I AIN'T APOLOGIZING FOR IT!
--
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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Damian Kulash-This Week's Podcast
Mr. OK Go.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/damian-kulash/id1316200737?i=1000742674669
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7C0tIvWDq9h5PJhRSYHcBe?si=ntI6nPhjQOefhODCqXh0VQ
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/damian-kulash-314670701/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/500badd5-c4b7-429e-810a-14fd9cbbf833/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-damian-kulash
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
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To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/damian-kulash/id1316200737?i=1000742674669
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7C0tIvWDq9h5PJhRSYHcBe?si=ntI6nPhjQOefhODCqXh0VQ
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/damian-kulash-314670701/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/500badd5-c4b7-429e-810a-14fd9cbbf833/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-damian-kulash
--
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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--
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Wednesday, 24 December 2025
Bleak House
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yljq4z-uU0
I didn't read it either...
But I did read "Tale of Two Cities" in high school...you know, it was the best of times and the worst of times (kind of like today, although I think we're leaning towards "worst"). And "Great Expectations" with Pip. But that's it. As for reading Dickens in college... It was part of a course that required you to read books up to a thousand pages at the pace of one a week and if I actually did all the reading...I'd have no time to do anything else.
There have been all these stories recently how even in college students no longer read entire books. But the dirty little secret is always what college you go to. If you go to a classic liberal arts college, believe me, you will. As for studying business at a multi-university...I don't know. Then again, my classic New England upbringing leaves me with a different view of college from most people today. College was not a place you went to to get a job, but to enrich your life.
Now I could go on a rant here about education... You do know that despite hating on teachers' unions the goal of many is to starve public schools, to replace them with parochial schools... But I feel like I'm living in bizarroland. I just grew up in the middle class suburbs. Where education was treasured. And I won't say necessarily rigorous, not for everybody, but I assumed this model continued to dominate, now I know that is not the case. And just one more thing here...although I don't understand sending your kids away to prep school, I will say they get a much better education there. I was stunned at how well read my prep school compatriots were at Middlebury.
Not that I feel totally warm about Middlebury... I've mellowed, but it took me ten years to get over that place. It was a hothouse of conservatism where the students jockeyed for position and...the real world was not like that, god...if you just showed up every day you ended up ascending the job ladder quickly.
Anyway, I hope the title of this spiel doesn't turn you off, because this 2005 BBC production of "Bleak House" is definitely worth your while.
Now before this we watched "Eddington," which had a big buzz when it was released over the summer, there were articles and conversation but I'm not going to to go to the theatre... Once again, for many reasons, but...I find I can't slow down enough to enjoy the picture, if nothing else. I can't go from working steadily to calming down on demand.
Anyway, RottenTomatoes rates "Eddington" at 69/65 and I'd say that's exactly right. Which is why I'd refrained from watching it previously, my threshold is 80, but the film continues to pop up in my reading so we delved in.
"Eddington" rang my bell at first, it's a perfect depiction of the maelstrom we presently live in, with beliefs on the left and the right, arguments between the young and the old, but they throw in everything, including the kitchen sink, it's overplotted, and you end up disappointed at the end.
Which is why I found myself on Metacritic researching TV series. Once again, I like the character development in series, the greater depth, even though the educated classes, Hollywood royalty, still think movies are the sh*t.
So I'm looking at the best TV series of all time on Metacritic, and not far from the top I find a 2005 remake of "Bleak House." And wanting to watch something good, we dove in.
Now you can watch "Bleak House" on multiple platforms. We watched it on Amazon... As for the ads, there's a thirty second one before every episode and that's all, so you don't have to pay the $2.99 to get rid of them. I can afford $2.99, but I find it an insult. Just give me one overall price, stop pecking me to death like an overaggressive duck. If you want to see where you can see "Bleak House," just go to justwatch.com Ah, here's the page:
https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=bleak%20house%202005
So this 2005 series is not the only edition of "Bleak House," but this is the one that was rated so well on Metacritic. It stars Gillian Anderson.
Now as I said previously, science fiction is not my thing, so I never watched "The X-Files," I wasn't really familiar with Anderson's work. But she was so good in "The Fall," I became a fan. And you should watch "The Fall": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(TV_series)
And Anderson is great in "Bleak House," but she's far from the only draw. It's a cornucopia of great U.K. actors. You've seen Anna Maxwell Martin in so many productions...you may not recognize the name, but you'll know her instantly by her face. Charles Dance as Mr. Tulkinghorn is an intense villain, without becoming two-dimensional. It even features a young Carey Mulligan. This is not an American series with stars showing off, oftentimes sans acting skills. This is a primer in great acting.
Anyway, the plot is...
There's a legal case regarding a will that's been going on for years, but everybody whose put their faith in a payout has had their life ruined by this focus.
And then there's the heritage of Anna Maxwell Martin's Esther Summerson.
But, there is tons of plot, tons of twists and turns. You see a huge issue that would be resolved in the very last episode in an American series and then you're stunned when the truth comes out much earlier...where is the story going to go?
Meanwhile, it's all set in mid-century England, the 1800s, and you've got vast income inequality, the idle rich living in luxury and the poor living in squalor. Actually, it's not that different from today, even though we've pulled back from the extremes.
So there are issues of money, but also passion and honor and...
Don't be scared off by it being Dickens... You'd be interested no matter who wrote it
The avarice. Everybody's trying to get ahead, whether it be the drunken landlord Krook or the invalid carried by chair Smallweed.
Do you let young lovers live their impassioned lives impulsively or does the elder try to slow their lives down, having learned how life plays out over his years.
And can you restrict your passion, your love for another, even if society frowns on it?
And then there's the power wielded over those who have no standing.
The surprises are plentiful.
My only regret is one of my favorite actors, John Lynch...
Well, I don't want to give anything away, I'll just say I wish he was featured more in the series.
You may not be hooked immediately, but within two or three episodes you will be, you'll be drawn to the TV because you want to know what happens. And you'll be surprised by what happens.
And on one hand you'll be taken away from today...but so many of the same issues are in play in the twenty first century.
"Bleak House" was written as a twenty episode serial over a year and a half. Which means Dickens had to keep the reader interested, on the edge of their seat, wanting to know what happened.
Don't let a knee-jerk aversion to Dickens prevent you from watching this series. It's a BBC tour-de-force.
And much better than all the vaunted American productions of 2025.
--
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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I didn't read it either...
But I did read "Tale of Two Cities" in high school...you know, it was the best of times and the worst of times (kind of like today, although I think we're leaning towards "worst"). And "Great Expectations" with Pip. But that's it. As for reading Dickens in college... It was part of a course that required you to read books up to a thousand pages at the pace of one a week and if I actually did all the reading...I'd have no time to do anything else.
There have been all these stories recently how even in college students no longer read entire books. But the dirty little secret is always what college you go to. If you go to a classic liberal arts college, believe me, you will. As for studying business at a multi-university...I don't know. Then again, my classic New England upbringing leaves me with a different view of college from most people today. College was not a place you went to to get a job, but to enrich your life.
Now I could go on a rant here about education... You do know that despite hating on teachers' unions the goal of many is to starve public schools, to replace them with parochial schools... But I feel like I'm living in bizarroland. I just grew up in the middle class suburbs. Where education was treasured. And I won't say necessarily rigorous, not for everybody, but I assumed this model continued to dominate, now I know that is not the case. And just one more thing here...although I don't understand sending your kids away to prep school, I will say they get a much better education there. I was stunned at how well read my prep school compatriots were at Middlebury.
Not that I feel totally warm about Middlebury... I've mellowed, but it took me ten years to get over that place. It was a hothouse of conservatism where the students jockeyed for position and...the real world was not like that, god...if you just showed up every day you ended up ascending the job ladder quickly.
Anyway, I hope the title of this spiel doesn't turn you off, because this 2005 BBC production of "Bleak House" is definitely worth your while.
Now before this we watched "Eddington," which had a big buzz when it was released over the summer, there were articles and conversation but I'm not going to to go to the theatre... Once again, for many reasons, but...I find I can't slow down enough to enjoy the picture, if nothing else. I can't go from working steadily to calming down on demand.
Anyway, RottenTomatoes rates "Eddington" at 69/65 and I'd say that's exactly right. Which is why I'd refrained from watching it previously, my threshold is 80, but the film continues to pop up in my reading so we delved in.
"Eddington" rang my bell at first, it's a perfect depiction of the maelstrom we presently live in, with beliefs on the left and the right, arguments between the young and the old, but they throw in everything, including the kitchen sink, it's overplotted, and you end up disappointed at the end.
Which is why I found myself on Metacritic researching TV series. Once again, I like the character development in series, the greater depth, even though the educated classes, Hollywood royalty, still think movies are the sh*t.
So I'm looking at the best TV series of all time on Metacritic, and not far from the top I find a 2005 remake of "Bleak House." And wanting to watch something good, we dove in.
Now you can watch "Bleak House" on multiple platforms. We watched it on Amazon... As for the ads, there's a thirty second one before every episode and that's all, so you don't have to pay the $2.99 to get rid of them. I can afford $2.99, but I find it an insult. Just give me one overall price, stop pecking me to death like an overaggressive duck. If you want to see where you can see "Bleak House," just go to justwatch.com Ah, here's the page:
https://www.justwatch.com/us/search?q=bleak%20house%202005
So this 2005 series is not the only edition of "Bleak House," but this is the one that was rated so well on Metacritic. It stars Gillian Anderson.
Now as I said previously, science fiction is not my thing, so I never watched "The X-Files," I wasn't really familiar with Anderson's work. But she was so good in "The Fall," I became a fan. And you should watch "The Fall": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_(TV_series)
And Anderson is great in "Bleak House," but she's far from the only draw. It's a cornucopia of great U.K. actors. You've seen Anna Maxwell Martin in so many productions...you may not recognize the name, but you'll know her instantly by her face. Charles Dance as Mr. Tulkinghorn is an intense villain, without becoming two-dimensional. It even features a young Carey Mulligan. This is not an American series with stars showing off, oftentimes sans acting skills. This is a primer in great acting.
Anyway, the plot is...
There's a legal case regarding a will that's been going on for years, but everybody whose put their faith in a payout has had their life ruined by this focus.
And then there's the heritage of Anna Maxwell Martin's Esther Summerson.
But, there is tons of plot, tons of twists and turns. You see a huge issue that would be resolved in the very last episode in an American series and then you're stunned when the truth comes out much earlier...where is the story going to go?
Meanwhile, it's all set in mid-century England, the 1800s, and you've got vast income inequality, the idle rich living in luxury and the poor living in squalor. Actually, it's not that different from today, even though we've pulled back from the extremes.
So there are issues of money, but also passion and honor and...
Don't be scared off by it being Dickens... You'd be interested no matter who wrote it
The avarice. Everybody's trying to get ahead, whether it be the drunken landlord Krook or the invalid carried by chair Smallweed.
Do you let young lovers live their impassioned lives impulsively or does the elder try to slow their lives down, having learned how life plays out over his years.
And can you restrict your passion, your love for another, even if society frowns on it?
And then there's the power wielded over those who have no standing.
The surprises are plentiful.
My only regret is one of my favorite actors, John Lynch...
Well, I don't want to give anything away, I'll just say I wish he was featured more in the series.
You may not be hooked immediately, but within two or three episodes you will be, you'll be drawn to the TV because you want to know what happens. And you'll be surprised by what happens.
And on one hand you'll be taken away from today...but so many of the same issues are in play in the twenty first century.
"Bleak House" was written as a twenty episode serial over a year and a half. Which means Dickens had to keep the reader interested, on the edge of their seat, wanting to know what happened.
Don't let a knee-jerk aversion to Dickens prevent you from watching this series. It's a BBC tour-de-force.
And much better than all the vaunted American productions of 2025.
--
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Buckeye
https://tinyurl.com/2mtd3e2e
If you're looking for a respite from this mixed up, muddled up, shook up world...
I recommend this book.
Which I was hesitant about in the beginning, because it's a "Read with Jenna Pick." Not that I knew this when I reserved it on Libby a few months back after reading a review in the "New York Times," but oftentimes the books Jenna recommends are relatively lowbrow and unsatisfying, I won't quite say time-killers, but I'm looking for soul-fulfillment in my reading more than just warm feelings.
But not long after I started I stopped. And then read and stopped again. Because, you see, one of the characters was clairvoyant.
Maybe that's not the exactly right word. Becky can connect with people from the past. A spiritualist? I don't know, but I've got no time for this stuff...I'm rooted in reality. And for that reason I've got absolutely no interest in fantasy and rarely am entranced by science fiction. I know, I know, you like "Dark" and so many streaming shows...but they're not my thing.
So I'm going to read a 451 page book that turns on a character communing with the other side?
I don't think so.
But giving "Buckeye" one more go I got hooked. Turns out that the spiritualist element ends up being a relatively minor theme in this saga about America. Which starts just prior to the Second World War and then plays out through the lives of the earliest baby boomers.
Based in Ohio...in sleepy Bonhomie, you ultimately see the town flourish in the boom of the fifties and sixties. If you lived through this era, you recognize the optimism, and then the looming Vietnam War. That's one thing young 'uns never had to worry about...getting drafted. Never mind fighting and dying or coming back with no acceptance, no kudos. The government was disconnected from the public just like today, but instead of fearing you were going to get shipped overseas to fight, now you're worried about being deported.
Now not everybody is born to set the world on fire. Today's "news" is littered with people trying to become rich and famous. The opportunity is vast, even though the odds are low. But just living your life was enough back in the late forties and fifties. You wanted a marriage, kids, a job, good times.. Being average was not a sentence, but what most people wanted and were happy with.
So we've got the war. Actually three wars... II, Korea and Vietnam. And the men who go and either come back or don't. And the women wait for their return.
And the depiction of the World War II era...
One of the hottest recent books is Kristin Hannah's "The Women"...which is phenomenal when it deals with war, but is nearly two-dimensional when the main character returns to the U.S. This is not "Buckeye"... "Buckeye" focuses less on what happens overseas, although it does a good job, but when the focus returns to the U.S., it's far superior to "The Women."
So if you liked "The Women"...
"Buckeye" is a saga. It doesn't start where it ends up. Kind of like the new John Irving book "Queen Esther," an orphanage figures into the beginning but the plot does not remain there...(I loved the Irving book at first, but it gets twisted up...you're on your own with "Queen Esther.")
So you've got the orphan who...
"Buckeye" ends up a family drama. With everything from work to passion to internal despair...just like regular life, just like your life.
In a world dominated by "news"...there's more real life, more truth in "Buckeye" than what you'll find online.
I don't want to overhype it, but I love this kind of book...that takes me into another space, separated from everyday reality, yet makes me contemplate life all the while.
As I look at Amazon right now, it says "Buckeye" is:
"ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, People, Minnesota Star Tribune, Chicago Public Library"
But no one has ever mentioned it to me.
Yet it is a best seller.
So if this is the kind of book that appeals to you, one that is not hard to read but tells the story of life...
"Buckeye" is perfect for this period of holiday limbo, you will lose yourself in it.
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If you're looking for a respite from this mixed up, muddled up, shook up world...
I recommend this book.
Which I was hesitant about in the beginning, because it's a "Read with Jenna Pick." Not that I knew this when I reserved it on Libby a few months back after reading a review in the "New York Times," but oftentimes the books Jenna recommends are relatively lowbrow and unsatisfying, I won't quite say time-killers, but I'm looking for soul-fulfillment in my reading more than just warm feelings.
But not long after I started I stopped. And then read and stopped again. Because, you see, one of the characters was clairvoyant.
Maybe that's not the exactly right word. Becky can connect with people from the past. A spiritualist? I don't know, but I've got no time for this stuff...I'm rooted in reality. And for that reason I've got absolutely no interest in fantasy and rarely am entranced by science fiction. I know, I know, you like "Dark" and so many streaming shows...but they're not my thing.
So I'm going to read a 451 page book that turns on a character communing with the other side?
I don't think so.
But giving "Buckeye" one more go I got hooked. Turns out that the spiritualist element ends up being a relatively minor theme in this saga about America. Which starts just prior to the Second World War and then plays out through the lives of the earliest baby boomers.
Based in Ohio...in sleepy Bonhomie, you ultimately see the town flourish in the boom of the fifties and sixties. If you lived through this era, you recognize the optimism, and then the looming Vietnam War. That's one thing young 'uns never had to worry about...getting drafted. Never mind fighting and dying or coming back with no acceptance, no kudos. The government was disconnected from the public just like today, but instead of fearing you were going to get shipped overseas to fight, now you're worried about being deported.
Now not everybody is born to set the world on fire. Today's "news" is littered with people trying to become rich and famous. The opportunity is vast, even though the odds are low. But just living your life was enough back in the late forties and fifties. You wanted a marriage, kids, a job, good times.. Being average was not a sentence, but what most people wanted and were happy with.
So we've got the war. Actually three wars... II, Korea and Vietnam. And the men who go and either come back or don't. And the women wait for their return.
And the depiction of the World War II era...
One of the hottest recent books is Kristin Hannah's "The Women"...which is phenomenal when it deals with war, but is nearly two-dimensional when the main character returns to the U.S. This is not "Buckeye"... "Buckeye" focuses less on what happens overseas, although it does a good job, but when the focus returns to the U.S., it's far superior to "The Women."
So if you liked "The Women"...
"Buckeye" is a saga. It doesn't start where it ends up. Kind of like the new John Irving book "Queen Esther," an orphanage figures into the beginning but the plot does not remain there...(I loved the Irving book at first, but it gets twisted up...you're on your own with "Queen Esther.")
So you've got the orphan who...
"Buckeye" ends up a family drama. With everything from work to passion to internal despair...just like regular life, just like your life.
In a world dominated by "news"...there's more real life, more truth in "Buckeye" than what you'll find online.
I don't want to overhype it, but I love this kind of book...that takes me into another space, separated from everyday reality, yet makes me contemplate life all the while.
As I look at Amazon right now, it says "Buckeye" is:
"ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, NPR, People, Minnesota Star Tribune, Chicago Public Library"
But no one has ever mentioned it to me.
Yet it is a best seller.
So if this is the kind of book that appeals to you, one that is not hard to read but tells the story of life...
"Buckeye" is perfect for this period of holiday limbo, you will lose yourself in it.
--
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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Monday, 22 December 2025
The 60 Minutes Video
"BREAKING: Here's the 60 Minutes Segment Trump and CBS News Executives Don't Want You to See - Hours before it was set to air last night, CBS News executives pulled the segment, but Canada's Global TV app received it prior to broadcast."
https://www.thereset.news/p/breaking-heres-the-60-minutes-segment?brid=B5tlw2JeGMed9O2l7reARA
This reminds me of the record companies and Napster. By suing the file trading company, by trying to keep the record business in the past, the labels amplified the story to the point where not only everybody in America knew about Napster, they wanted to try it! People secured broadband just to download files! And once you used Napster, there was no way you could go back to the overpriced CD for one good track model.
Now the labels could have looked into the future, tried to get ahead of the public. This is what Spotify did. People had never used streaming, they didn't believe it would work, but when they tried it, they adored it... AND SPOTIFY SINGLE-HANDEDLY SAVED THE RECORD BUSINESS!
But you can't say that, because Spotify and Daniel Ek are the devil, don't you know? They're keeping people whose music the public doesn't want to stream in quantity from making beaucoup bucks. MEANWHILE, those artists whose music is streamed prodigiously are making more money than ever before (assuming a bad record deal doesn't have their label siphoning off most of the revenue).
It probably never occurred to Bari Weiss that this video might be leaked. I mean it existed... And the funny thing is, after suing people who leaked albums early, the artists and labels figured out that getting noticed at all was the problem. We had unannounced drops. The story wasn't the hype, but the underlying material...is it good enough that people want to pull it, listen to it?
Now I stopped watching "60 Minutes" years ago, and if there wasn't this brouhaha, I probably wouldn't have watched this segment either.
But Bari Weiss poured gasoline on a smoldering fire and now the conflagration is burning worldwide and I watched the video... And it looks bad, really bad. But if Bari Weiss hadn't tried to bury it, most people would have never seen it, after all, Trump is flooding the zone and no outlet has universal mindshare.
This is just another straw on the camel's back. This "60 Minutes" piece is not going to cause a revolution unto itself. But like the renaming of the Kennedy Center, it will stick in your craw. It just doesn't feel right, so much doesn't feel right.
Now everybody is expendable. Elise Stefanik just realized this and rumor has it that Kristi Noem is on her way out. The only person who needs to survive is Trump.
And it's not only his cabinet, but the citizenry at large. Doesn't matter if you're MAGA or an extreme lefty... Trump is out for himself, look at all the money is family has made since he's been in office.
It's a matter of more and more people waking up.
And you never know when they will.
It's not like prices suddenly jumped, they were high and going higher, but "affordability" rose to the surface, it's the number one issue in America today. And it is a problem...just go to the grocery store.
So what is going to bubble up to the surface next?
I don't know.
But if you're playing a team sport, if you're defending Trump to the death, the joke is on you, you just haven't realized it yet.
As for Bari Weiss and her billion dollar cronies, they don't understand the power of the public, they don't understand they can't enforce their will upon people willy-nilly. Furthermore, they are vulnerable. These techies, they're not heroes, they're ZEROES!
Bari Weiss was too stupid to know that the video would out. Because she's so busy sucking at the tit of the monied class that she doesn't fully comprehend the internet, which is denigrated by seemingly every publication run by Boomers and Gen-X'ers.
It's laughable. The internet is here, as are smartphones. And if you're putting down the phone that just means you've got less information, and he or she with the most information wins, always.
Say you're not on TikTok. Rail against social media. Decry youngsters staring at their phones... But the joke is on you, the internet addicted are plugged-in, they're much better informed than you, they know how the world turns.
But you know better.
Everybody knows better when in fact they know very little. If you were on TikTok you'd know this, the man on the street interviews are horrifying.
It's all of a piece...news, music, streaming TV... After all, Apple not only distributes music, it commissions television shows... And Paramount and Netflix are duking it out for Warner Bros. You can't separate politics from media and vice versa. This is the world we now live in.
As for music... It used to have something to say... But where are the artists today? Alone and afraid, hoarding their dollars.
Oh, I'm not going to play nice. Decorum is for losers. If you just want to read stuff you agree with...
The joke is on you.
But right now, the joke is on THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES!
P.S. Don't e-mail me that the video is no longer at the above site (right now it's still available). CBS will do its best to kill distribution, the video has already been taken down in places...but it will never die.
P.P.S. Don't self-satisfiedly complain that an article I'm linking to is behind a paywall. If you can't afford $12.99 a month for Apple News+... The old saw that information wants to be free... You've got to pay for it, and if you don't, you're out of the loop. You pay for Netflix, why not the news?
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https://www.thereset.news/p/breaking-heres-the-60-minutes-segment?brid=B5tlw2JeGMed9O2l7reARA
This reminds me of the record companies and Napster. By suing the file trading company, by trying to keep the record business in the past, the labels amplified the story to the point where not only everybody in America knew about Napster, they wanted to try it! People secured broadband just to download files! And once you used Napster, there was no way you could go back to the overpriced CD for one good track model.
Now the labels could have looked into the future, tried to get ahead of the public. This is what Spotify did. People had never used streaming, they didn't believe it would work, but when they tried it, they adored it... AND SPOTIFY SINGLE-HANDEDLY SAVED THE RECORD BUSINESS!
But you can't say that, because Spotify and Daniel Ek are the devil, don't you know? They're keeping people whose music the public doesn't want to stream in quantity from making beaucoup bucks. MEANWHILE, those artists whose music is streamed prodigiously are making more money than ever before (assuming a bad record deal doesn't have their label siphoning off most of the revenue).
It probably never occurred to Bari Weiss that this video might be leaked. I mean it existed... And the funny thing is, after suing people who leaked albums early, the artists and labels figured out that getting noticed at all was the problem. We had unannounced drops. The story wasn't the hype, but the underlying material...is it good enough that people want to pull it, listen to it?
Now I stopped watching "60 Minutes" years ago, and if there wasn't this brouhaha, I probably wouldn't have watched this segment either.
But Bari Weiss poured gasoline on a smoldering fire and now the conflagration is burning worldwide and I watched the video... And it looks bad, really bad. But if Bari Weiss hadn't tried to bury it, most people would have never seen it, after all, Trump is flooding the zone and no outlet has universal mindshare.
This is just another straw on the camel's back. This "60 Minutes" piece is not going to cause a revolution unto itself. But like the renaming of the Kennedy Center, it will stick in your craw. It just doesn't feel right, so much doesn't feel right.
Now everybody is expendable. Elise Stefanik just realized this and rumor has it that Kristi Noem is on her way out. The only person who needs to survive is Trump.
And it's not only his cabinet, but the citizenry at large. Doesn't matter if you're MAGA or an extreme lefty... Trump is out for himself, look at all the money is family has made since he's been in office.
It's a matter of more and more people waking up.
And you never know when they will.
It's not like prices suddenly jumped, they were high and going higher, but "affordability" rose to the surface, it's the number one issue in America today. And it is a problem...just go to the grocery store.
So what is going to bubble up to the surface next?
I don't know.
But if you're playing a team sport, if you're defending Trump to the death, the joke is on you, you just haven't realized it yet.
As for Bari Weiss and her billion dollar cronies, they don't understand the power of the public, they don't understand they can't enforce their will upon people willy-nilly. Furthermore, they are vulnerable. These techies, they're not heroes, they're ZEROES!
Bari Weiss was too stupid to know that the video would out. Because she's so busy sucking at the tit of the monied class that she doesn't fully comprehend the internet, which is denigrated by seemingly every publication run by Boomers and Gen-X'ers.
It's laughable. The internet is here, as are smartphones. And if you're putting down the phone that just means you've got less information, and he or she with the most information wins, always.
Say you're not on TikTok. Rail against social media. Decry youngsters staring at their phones... But the joke is on you, the internet addicted are plugged-in, they're much better informed than you, they know how the world turns.
But you know better.
Everybody knows better when in fact they know very little. If you were on TikTok you'd know this, the man on the street interviews are horrifying.
It's all of a piece...news, music, streaming TV... After all, Apple not only distributes music, it commissions television shows... And Paramount and Netflix are duking it out for Warner Bros. You can't separate politics from media and vice versa. This is the world we now live in.
As for music... It used to have something to say... But where are the artists today? Alone and afraid, hoarding their dollars.
Oh, I'm not going to play nice. Decorum is for losers. If you just want to read stuff you agree with...
The joke is on you.
But right now, the joke is on THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES!
P.S. Don't e-mail me that the video is no longer at the above site (right now it's still available). CBS will do its best to kill distribution, the video has already been taken down in places...but it will never die.
P.P.S. Don't self-satisfiedly complain that an article I'm linking to is behind a paywall. If you can't afford $12.99 a month for Apple News+... The old saw that information wants to be free... You've got to pay for it, and if you don't, you're out of the loop. You pay for Netflix, why not the news?
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60 Minutes/Bari Weiss
Everybody can't do everything.
My inbox is littered with people saying not to use their name. As if the average citizen in New Jersey has to worry about Trump's revenge. (Then again, maybe they do...)
They call this a "chilling effect." Bedrock in Constitutional law. Something might look benign on the surface, but have the unintended result of stifling speech or action by Americans.
Americans are ShuttingTFU for fear of retribution by Trump.
Actually, our nation is so fractured that many people refrain from making statements if they don't comport with conventional wisdom, even if they believe they are correct. You don't want to support Israel instead of Palestine...(Did you see Chappelle's statements over the weekend, reinforcing the divide between Blacks and Jews?) You've got the woke left, the anti-DEI right...we can't even have a debate in America anymore.
Even about music...
W. David Marx has a new book "Blank Space," which refers to the hole in culture that we've experienced in the recycled twenty first century. He references "poptimism"... You know, the junk that dominates Top 40 that true fans of music used to decry. Now, that stuff is considered good, criticize Taylor Swift or BTS at your peril. Their minions will attack you. And the main reason you can't say anything negative is because of the MONEY! If it makes a lot, it's good. Period.
And you wonder why so many have checked-out of popular music, don't listen at all...
As for "musicians," did you see yesterday's "New York Times" article talking about the influence of Britney Spears?
"Gen Z's Pop Breakouts Danced in Britney Spears's Footsteps in 2025 - Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae and Addison Rae's music is influenced by the superstar who shot to fame before they were born. They've learned lessons from her hard times, too."
I'm not going to dignify this article with a link, never mind a free one. It's the end of music when Britney Spears is seen as a paragon of excellence, someone whose legacy is worth referencing, never mind exalting. Britney Spears had one great song, "...Baby One More Time," a certified smash that I went out and purchased just to be able to hear on demand. But that record had little to do with Spears, it was written, and co-produced with Rami Yacoub, by Max Martin, who is the biggest star of the past thirty years... Can you say "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)"? While the top line artists have recycled themselves and the past, Martin has evolved, no producer since the Beatles has had this long a run making different styles of music than Martin. Sans Martin, Taylor Swift is a country artist. It was Martin who brought her into the mainstream with "1989," who is propping Swift up on her latest album... Martin is the star machinery behind the popular song.
And you can't get a modern musical star to make a statement, take a side, for fear of alienating some potential audience member. This ain't art. The job of art is to challenge convention, surprise people, make them uncomfortable. Today's artists just give listeners more of the same, and we read about their vapid lives in massaged publicity efforts.
And we've got the wannabes... Just because it's now easy to create and post music online that does not mean you deserve to be a professional musician. And I can't even say that! I'm pissing on people's dreams! Truly, I hear from people all day long that musicians should be guaranteed a living, that the system is stacked against them... Hogwash, if you're good, you're surviving. BETTER than you did in the old days. More people are making more money in music than ever before. But if you don't say that everyone deserves a chance, that Ticketmaster is screwing the artists and the public, you're a pariah.
Which brings us to Bari Weiss.
You might have seen John Oliver's takedown, but the article you need to read that got much less fanfare was recently in "New York":
"L.A. Woman - Bari Weiss left New York five years ago under a cloud of infamy. Her exile in Hollywood paved the way for a triumphant return."
https://apple.news/ABwYAe3IBTL6_rbA9v9zPkQ
This is the music business article you should read. This will tell you more about how to become a success than any of the fawning tripe you read in "Rolling Stone" and elsewhere. You see first and foremost Weiss is a businessperson. Who charmed contacts to become a star and ultimately a multi-millionaire and head of CBS News. These are the skills that make someone successful in the U.S. today.
Do you have access to household names? Do you know how to charm them?
This is what you learn in college, this is what elite breeding and education yield. You've got to be able to speak their language, manipulate them, otherwise you're just a pawn in their game, truly.
As for becoming a star... Bill Maher says in this article that he made Weiss one, and I've got to say he probably did. He gave her all that exposure.
And now she's head of CBS News. Which is like Andy Lack becoming head of Sony Music. Remember the rootkit controversy? Maybe not... But Andy Lack came from news to get the trains to run on time at Sony, and then he nearly ruined the company with this fiasco and more. Just like Bari Weiss is doing at CBS News.
You know... The reporters at "60 Minutes" are amateurs, no match for the insight and skill of Bari Weiss...
This is like saying your middle schooler is ready for the NBA!
Like no one in TV news knows anything.
And unlike the wimpy, brain-dead, fearful musicians (people hate when I criticize musicians...but why should they be off limits, can't I implore them to lift themselves and the music up?), the "60 Minutes" producer responsible for this pulled story barked back... Saying she reached out to the Trump administration and that it hadn't responded, that the story was screened five times and was cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. Furthermore, it was ADVERTISED! Was Weiss now giving Trump a KILL SWITCH?
But Bari Weiss said the story wasn't complete, that it wasn't ready...
Because it nailed the Trump administration, and CBS is part of Paramount and Paramount wants to own Warner Bros. Period.
Have you been following this story? "60 Minutes" settled with Trump on a specious claim so that the Ellisons could buy Paramount. But now Trump is wavering, he's been attacking "60 Minutes" again... The game is to get Trump to put the kibosh on Netflix's acquisition of Warner so that Paramount will get it. Period.
Don't think otherwise.
As for the news... Who can you trust?
That's where we've arrived. Our institutions have crumbled. Not only because of Trump, but the string-pullers referenced in the Bari Weiss article linked above.
Meanwhile, there's so much news, from oil tankers in Venezuela to killing the offshore wind industry to sending a special envoy to Greenland that this "60 Minutes" story is now being buried under the tsunami of everyday B.S.
As for Weiss... Like a pre-internet dolt, she has gone on record today defending her position, believing her elite status is such that she's entitled to do things her way...
That's America. The rich and powerful don't even live in the same world as the hoi polloi, they fly private, live behind gates and have contempt for those who are not in their circle. Weiss is too stupid to know that by doubling-down she's undercutting not only her own reputation, but that of CBS. If anything was required here it was a mea culpa... But Weiss believes she's bigger than the game, bigger than the institution, just like when she cried foul at the "New York Times." How come Bari Weiss knows so much and we know so little?
Now most of the rich and powerful refrain from publicity unless it is manipulated by a team, they don't want you to know how evil they are, and how they've arranged their finances so they pay few taxes to boot. But Bari Weiss is bigger than the system, she knows better.
And you and me?
WE'RE SCREWED!
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My inbox is littered with people saying not to use their name. As if the average citizen in New Jersey has to worry about Trump's revenge. (Then again, maybe they do...)
They call this a "chilling effect." Bedrock in Constitutional law. Something might look benign on the surface, but have the unintended result of stifling speech or action by Americans.
Americans are ShuttingTFU for fear of retribution by Trump.
Actually, our nation is so fractured that many people refrain from making statements if they don't comport with conventional wisdom, even if they believe they are correct. You don't want to support Israel instead of Palestine...(Did you see Chappelle's statements over the weekend, reinforcing the divide between Blacks and Jews?) You've got the woke left, the anti-DEI right...we can't even have a debate in America anymore.
Even about music...
W. David Marx has a new book "Blank Space," which refers to the hole in culture that we've experienced in the recycled twenty first century. He references "poptimism"... You know, the junk that dominates Top 40 that true fans of music used to decry. Now, that stuff is considered good, criticize Taylor Swift or BTS at your peril. Their minions will attack you. And the main reason you can't say anything negative is because of the MONEY! If it makes a lot, it's good. Period.
And you wonder why so many have checked-out of popular music, don't listen at all...
As for "musicians," did you see yesterday's "New York Times" article talking about the influence of Britney Spears?
"Gen Z's Pop Breakouts Danced in Britney Spears's Footsteps in 2025 - Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae and Addison Rae's music is influenced by the superstar who shot to fame before they were born. They've learned lessons from her hard times, too."
I'm not going to dignify this article with a link, never mind a free one. It's the end of music when Britney Spears is seen as a paragon of excellence, someone whose legacy is worth referencing, never mind exalting. Britney Spears had one great song, "...Baby One More Time," a certified smash that I went out and purchased just to be able to hear on demand. But that record had little to do with Spears, it was written, and co-produced with Rami Yacoub, by Max Martin, who is the biggest star of the past thirty years... Can you say "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)"? While the top line artists have recycled themselves and the past, Martin has evolved, no producer since the Beatles has had this long a run making different styles of music than Martin. Sans Martin, Taylor Swift is a country artist. It was Martin who brought her into the mainstream with "1989," who is propping Swift up on her latest album... Martin is the star machinery behind the popular song.
And you can't get a modern musical star to make a statement, take a side, for fear of alienating some potential audience member. This ain't art. The job of art is to challenge convention, surprise people, make them uncomfortable. Today's artists just give listeners more of the same, and we read about their vapid lives in massaged publicity efforts.
And we've got the wannabes... Just because it's now easy to create and post music online that does not mean you deserve to be a professional musician. And I can't even say that! I'm pissing on people's dreams! Truly, I hear from people all day long that musicians should be guaranteed a living, that the system is stacked against them... Hogwash, if you're good, you're surviving. BETTER than you did in the old days. More people are making more money in music than ever before. But if you don't say that everyone deserves a chance, that Ticketmaster is screwing the artists and the public, you're a pariah.
Which brings us to Bari Weiss.
You might have seen John Oliver's takedown, but the article you need to read that got much less fanfare was recently in "New York":
"L.A. Woman - Bari Weiss left New York five years ago under a cloud of infamy. Her exile in Hollywood paved the way for a triumphant return."
https://apple.news/ABwYAe3IBTL6_rbA9v9zPkQ
This is the music business article you should read. This will tell you more about how to become a success than any of the fawning tripe you read in "Rolling Stone" and elsewhere. You see first and foremost Weiss is a businessperson. Who charmed contacts to become a star and ultimately a multi-millionaire and head of CBS News. These are the skills that make someone successful in the U.S. today.
Do you have access to household names? Do you know how to charm them?
This is what you learn in college, this is what elite breeding and education yield. You've got to be able to speak their language, manipulate them, otherwise you're just a pawn in their game, truly.
As for becoming a star... Bill Maher says in this article that he made Weiss one, and I've got to say he probably did. He gave her all that exposure.
And now she's head of CBS News. Which is like Andy Lack becoming head of Sony Music. Remember the rootkit controversy? Maybe not... But Andy Lack came from news to get the trains to run on time at Sony, and then he nearly ruined the company with this fiasco and more. Just like Bari Weiss is doing at CBS News.
You know... The reporters at "60 Minutes" are amateurs, no match for the insight and skill of Bari Weiss...
This is like saying your middle schooler is ready for the NBA!
Like no one in TV news knows anything.
And unlike the wimpy, brain-dead, fearful musicians (people hate when I criticize musicians...but why should they be off limits, can't I implore them to lift themselves and the music up?), the "60 Minutes" producer responsible for this pulled story barked back... Saying she reached out to the Trump administration and that it hadn't responded, that the story was screened five times and was cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. Furthermore, it was ADVERTISED! Was Weiss now giving Trump a KILL SWITCH?
But Bari Weiss said the story wasn't complete, that it wasn't ready...
Because it nailed the Trump administration, and CBS is part of Paramount and Paramount wants to own Warner Bros. Period.
Have you been following this story? "60 Minutes" settled with Trump on a specious claim so that the Ellisons could buy Paramount. But now Trump is wavering, he's been attacking "60 Minutes" again... The game is to get Trump to put the kibosh on Netflix's acquisition of Warner so that Paramount will get it. Period.
Don't think otherwise.
As for the news... Who can you trust?
That's where we've arrived. Our institutions have crumbled. Not only because of Trump, but the string-pullers referenced in the Bari Weiss article linked above.
Meanwhile, there's so much news, from oil tankers in Venezuela to killing the offshore wind industry to sending a special envoy to Greenland that this "60 Minutes" story is now being buried under the tsunami of everyday B.S.
As for Weiss... Like a pre-internet dolt, she has gone on record today defending her position, believing her elite status is such that she's entitled to do things her way...
That's America. The rich and powerful don't even live in the same world as the hoi polloi, they fly private, live behind gates and have contempt for those who are not in their circle. Weiss is too stupid to know that by doubling-down she's undercutting not only her own reputation, but that of CBS. If anything was required here it was a mea culpa... But Weiss believes she's bigger than the game, bigger than the institution, just like when she cried foul at the "New York Times." How come Bari Weiss knows so much and we know so little?
Now most of the rich and powerful refrain from publicity unless it is manipulated by a team, they don't want you to know how evil they are, and how they've arranged their finances so they pay few taxes to boot. But Bari Weiss is bigger than the system, she knows better.
And you and me?
WE'RE SCREWED!
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