Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6AtgHxdvghUjcjdPX1VhWN?si=da3e2fea3814416e
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWKSoxG1K7w
The problem is it's not that good a song.
Then again, neither was "We Are the World."
My inbox is blowing up with missives about this new Springsteen number. And I applaud Bruce's effort, but it's no "Hungry Heart," as in it's not an instant, one listen banger. And what you need in the Spotify era is something that grabs you in fifteen seconds, or five, and "Streets of Minneapolis" does not... It's no "Ohio," with its fat guitar and anthemic lyrics, nor is it the equal of "Eve of Destruction," wherein P.F. Sloan's words and Barry McGuire's emphatic delivery created a track that transcended the radio. Nor is it Sly's "Everyday People," never mind Bob's "Blowin' in the Wind."
Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist. That's what's wrong with today's society, everybody's paying fealty to their team to the point they're myopic, can't see the forest for the trees, and it's not only Swifties and the BTS Army, it's Trumpers and fans of the Boss too.
The biggest story today is Tesla's numbers. Without an organized effort, running on sheer instinct and hate, the public has put a huge dent into the car company, to the point where sales are off significantly and BYD owns the volume crown. People want nothing to do with Musk, and they're voting with their dollars. And we can take the same approach to Trump.
Now "We Are the World" is a dirgey, nearly dreadful composition that has a reasonable chorus, but it was a massive success. In a different era. When MTV could reach and dominate the world, and everybody was against starvation. Is everybody against Trump? No, but like a rock band of yore, the fanbase is growing and today Neil Young came down on Verizon and Apple for kissing Trump's butt. That's the kind of leadership we need, Neil has credibility, as for the Boss...
Like I said, I don't want to get into a discussion of the Boss.
But it's hard to write a catchy song on demand. If it was easy, acts would have dozens of hit records, and they don't.
In the MTV era, marketing could trump quality. Not anymore. Today you've got to lead with quality.
So...
It's very simple. It's Grammy weekend, just like with "We Are the World" forty years ago, we've got to get all the nominees, the presenters, the stars of today, peopled with a few from yesteryear, into a studio to sing a song and... If someone can write an instant hit, great. But if not, we get everybody on a soundstage and they sing Edwin Starr's "War," with new lyrics.
"ICE
What is it good for?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!"
This song is such a slam dunk that Bruce has already covered it! It was an anti-Vietnam anthem. Just change the lyrics and...
You've got a background press story. The tale of the original song, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, originally performed by the Temptations. Starr and Whitfield and Strong are all deceased, their stories are ripe for the telling. By covering "War," there is instant backstory.
As for the recording...
You're part of the problem or part of the solution. The Boss can call up all of the stars and ask them whether they're going to participate. Who's going to say no to the Boss? And throw in Paul McCartney too. Trump does not only affect the U.S., hell, he's sending ICE to the Olympics!
No excuses. Either you show up and sing or we tell everybody you wouldn't commit. Force musicians to the forefront. Shame them if they won't participate. And just like with any benefit concert or record, once the superstars are on board, the lemmings come out in droves, not wanting to be left out, wanting the publicity.
As for producers?
It's a murderer's row. Dr. Dre, Rick Rubin and Andrew Watt. All behind the console.
As for the backing track, the musicians... These players all have backstories. Or, if time is of the essence, you can use the E Street Band.
"Streets of Minneapolis" is a one day phenomenon. How do you make your effort last?
One, by having a guaranteed hit song. Two, via the penumbra, the story, the background of the song and the participants and the recording thereof and...
But how do you promote it?
That's the problem, it's not like the days of yore.
So, every DSP has to be shamed into putting the song on its homepage, and keeping it there until...ICE leaves Minneapolis, or ICE removes its masks, or ICE is neutered completely, choose the limit.
As for Spotify... My inbox filled up with blowback about their ICE ads, this is an opportunity to make things right.
As for neutrality... Tim Cook isn't neutral, nor is Mark Zuckerberg or the aforementioned Musk, but somehow music DSPs have to be? No, that's about fear, pure and simple, they need to take a stand.
And then you've got the influencer army. A number at the studio recording, and then getting everybody to use the recording in their clips.
And instead of some lame kumbaya No Kings protest, we're going to assemble singers at the same time in all the major cities of America. Everybody's invited, from Boston to Honolulu. And at the same time, everybody is going to sing this new version of "War," en masse.
And if Netflix can defend Chappelle regarding his anti-trans and antisemitic remarks, they can have the making of video on their homepage. Maybe make them pay for the privilege, or get every streamer onboard, from Prime to Disney+.
As far as keeping the story alive, like I said, "War" is a hit! It's a record that never goes stale. This is a litmus test, just like with Jimmy Kimmel. Are radio stations too afraid to play this song for fear of retribution by the Trump regime?
It's time to stand up.
Or don't. But if you don't, you're on the wrong side of history. Keep defending ICE. Keep saying that Pretti was a domestic terrorist. Keep saying that Goode was asking for it. Keep denying the truth. Homey don't play that no more, even elected Republicans are switching sides.
It's time to get practical, enough with the virtue signaling, it's time to make a difference.
The real way to make change is to affect the economy. Just get everybody to stop buying, as Scott Galloway said. Put a hurt on the GDP. The nation runs on discretionary income, the people have the power, not the billionaires.
It's time to create our own bubble. Believe me, Fox News, the entire right wing blogosphere will not be able to resist talking about this song. And it's not going to look good when seemingly every musical star is on the other side. As powerful as Hannity is, he's no match for Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga.
So... This is easily doable.
But if it's not done, let's at least speak English, let's play by the rules. In order for a song to make a difference in today's world it must first and foremost be a one listen smash. Sans that, you're dead in the water. Once you've got the smash, then you can talk about marketing. As for news? What is on the homepage today is forgotten tomorrow, you need to create something that sustains.
If you're the kind of person who still can't handle the fact that I said "Streets of Minneapolis" was meh, that it was no "Streets of Philadelphia," which I heard once at a screening and couldn't get it out of my head, even though an official release was weeks away, you're part of the classic Democratic problem. Dems are so busy arguing amongst themselves that they can't get organized and make a difference. We have to worry about all the minority groups, give them a say, not offend them, become paralyzed to the point of inaction, like the DNC and those in Congress.
But they work for us. And it's time to show them where we're at. We need to take action.
Music has power, you've just go to use it.
Spotify is laden with tracks that are not listened to. You don't want to be one of those. And it's the oldsters who are against streaming, who think it's the devil. It's the youngsters keeping music alive. We've got to get them motivated by employing young acts. A few legends sprinkled in is fine, but...
Springsteen has already been neutered by the right. Been labeled. "Streets of Minneapolis" is only making those who are on his side feel good, it's not moving the needle amongst those still loyal to Trump, it's a press story. But a hit song made by people from the entire spectrum of music?
That's a start.
And we've got to start somewhere.
You never know when the whole thing will tip.
It starts with numbers and organization. And nothing is as powerful as music. LET'S USE IT!
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Wednesday, 28 January 2026
Tuesday, 27 January 2026
The Award
https://tinyurl.com/4336u2au
1
I finished this book Sunday night.
I started it Sunday morning.
I wasn't hooked at first, but then I got into it and...
I was going to write about it yesterday, but I had two hour long phone calls and I'm still wound up after those. They were personal, not business. One the follow-up to my annual physical (you should get one, no matter what anybody says), the other about money, but... I've been wound tight ever since.
I know this is the life of most people. But it's not the life of someone doing creative work. Someone in traditional business goes to the office, talks on the phone, answers e-mails, ultimately concludes and then does their best to decompress until they start all over again the following morning. But if you want to be creative...
I have my radio show on Saturday, and it takes at least a couple of hours to calm down from that, so by time I make it to Sunday, actually, for the rest of Saturday, I want to disconnect.
Now growing up in the sixties, the weekend was filled with activities. It was a roving party of family activities. It was almost like you lived in multiple houses...the parents were best friends and...
It doesn't happen that way anymore. You can't drop by unannounced. You might have seen that Sebastian Maniscalco bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CznoAW2k1I
People are afraid, they want to be safe. Furthermore, everybody's in touch all the time, via the smartphone. And if you don't respond right away, you're seen as either a pariah or...maybe you're ill.
So I feel kind of guilty laying low on the weekends. After all, this is when most people leave the house and participate. Then again, when I was in college, we used to say the weekends were for amateurs. The true believers, the true outcasts, knew that it was all about Thursday night, and Sunday and Monday were not bad either.
But as the years have gone by I find myself staying home more and more. And I'm wondering if it's my age, or an aftereffect of the Covid lockdown, I wasn't like this before, or it's just me.
Like Bob Dyan once said, I'm not going to tell you my hopes and dreams, because you'll laugh at me, you'll think they're far-fetched and grandiose. However...
I don't want to waste any time. And I was thinking about this. In the seventies, I'd go to the movies, constantly. That's where I connected. I was on the outside looking in. But now I'm on the inside, I can reach tens of thousands with the stroke of a key, and that feels so good. I don't want to let that go. But to be readable, to do something great, I've got to be disconnected, which I know is a conundrum, I've got to disconnect to reconnect, but that's the way it is.
So Saturday night, I finished reading this book "The Sisters." I tried once before, not really hard, but I decided to give it one more go and I got hooked. What you've got here is a story set mostly in Sweden, with the main characters half-Swedish and half-Tunisian. "The Sisters" is not a short book, and it creates a whole world. You get invested in the characters, all of whom have different dreams. The Tunisian father who wanted to set the world on fire, but ended up working on the subway for years and years. The girl who is the life of the party but just can't find her direction. Her sister who took a year off from college and found herself working for a decade in a job that was supposed to be temporary. The other sister who is too uptight to let loose, saving a dollar, making sure all i's are dotted and t's are crossed. What we've got here is normal people. Normal life. No one is famous, yet the people are not downtrodden. And it's a great antidote to America, where everybody's on the road to the top or the road to ruin. But after finishing "The Sisters" after midnight, I just couldn't get into "The Award."
2
And I wasn't doing such a great job of getting into it on Sunday either. You know how you can see the day slipping away? Knowing that you'll regret the time you've burned? I decided to commit, I wouldn't pick up the phone, and that's when I got hooked.
"The Award" is not a difficult read. But unlike "The Sisters," it does not center around everyman, rather a writer. They say to write what you know about, but if you're a reader of fiction you might believe that writing is the number one profession in America, when so many people don't even read books, never mind write one.
But the main character makes an amoral choice not long into the book and I winced. Because this character seemed otherwise reasonable, and I wouldn't do this.
But then...
"The Award" ultimately turns into a thriller. Which I didn't anticipate. And every aside, every throwaway from earlier in the book, comes back into play.
But the bottom line is "The Award" made me tense. Had me on edge. On some level I could see where it was going, on another it didn't go quite that way.
And then reading for hours, getting up to go to the bathroom, I was inspired, I wanted to write about what was going on in Minneapolis.
That is how it works. You have to do something else to do the thing you want to. You get inspired, it hits you. This is when all the great work is done. As for writing sessions, cobbling songs together, there is great work achieved by those methods, but it's the bolts of lightning that render the best stuff.
Actually, I saw this great Ray Bradbury video on TikTok. I certainly know who he is, I've got respect, but I've never read any of his books, science fiction is not my thing. But Ray said...
"Never went to college. Don't believe in college for writers. I think it's very dangerous. I think too many professors are too opinionated, and too snobbish, and too intellectual. And the intellect is a great danger to creativity. A terrible danger because you begin to rationalize and make up reasons for things instead of staying with your own basic truth, who you are, what you are, what you want to be. And I've had a sign over my typewriter for 25 years now which reads 'Don't think.' You must never think at the typewriter, you must feel, and then your intellect is always buried in that feeling anyway. You collect up a lot of data, you do a lot of thinking away from your typewriter, but at the typewriter you should be living."
https://www.tiktok.com/@contemporary.blueprint/video/7598973789455568183?_r=1&_t=ZP-93MD9UEsYpC
Eureka, that's it!
People talk about writing, how hard it is, how they like to have written as opposed to writing. How writing is really about rewriting. It's all intellectualized, and that's why it's not transcendent.
Writing, whether it be a screed or a song, should be channeling. The rest of your life is practice, background...when you sit down to create you've got to be uninhibited and inspired.
School is about squeezing the creativity out of you, making you conform. Writers are born, not made. It's a calling. You can learn how to do it, but you won't be great if you weren't born with the instinct, the passion.
As for MFAs... Some decent books come out of those programs, but they excise the inspiration, it's all about the rewriting, as it is for the main character in "The Award." Who has to question whether he is good enough, or whether he should give up.
He's got a girlfriend who believes in him. But he ends up losing the plot. And there's the legendary writer who lives beneath him who is a grade A a*shole, but no one says this out loud, for fear of being on the wrong team, never mind offending this legend.
As for the thrilling plot... Doesn't have to be a writer, could be anybody. The choices you make... One false move that seemed irrelevant yesterday catches up with you tomorrow.
"The Award" is a ride. I think it's the kind of book those on BookTok who brag they read a book a week like. This is not literature for the ages, this is plot. But it takes you away, not as well as "The Sisters" does, but there's that tension.
And when it broke I wrote "More Minneapolis." I was primed and didn't even know it. I was completely disconnected from society, and then I reconnected instantly.
But now I'm pissed I can't get enough distance, I'm caught up in the b.s. of the world, and when that is the case you can't get into the space you need to to do great work. And there are no tricks, you've just got to wait it out. To calm down, for the inspiration to return.
But I'm booked solid going forward and I might never have the time to write about "The Award," and I wanted to, but this does not have the tone I wanted to convey. Which is you're just an average person, reading a book, looking for a break, and then it happens, you get hooked, you're on the ride. You're there alone, in your own bubble, but you know the writer is with you. And it's different from a movie or TV series. But it's akin to a great record. But today's records are written first and foremost for commercial success, and that rarely works. You've got commerce, not art.
And we're looking for art.
But we don't want anybody to be an artist.
And most of those who say they're artists are not.
But we're still hungry, we're still looking for that resonance.
1
I finished this book Sunday night.
I started it Sunday morning.
I wasn't hooked at first, but then I got into it and...
I was going to write about it yesterday, but I had two hour long phone calls and I'm still wound up after those. They were personal, not business. One the follow-up to my annual physical (you should get one, no matter what anybody says), the other about money, but... I've been wound tight ever since.
I know this is the life of most people. But it's not the life of someone doing creative work. Someone in traditional business goes to the office, talks on the phone, answers e-mails, ultimately concludes and then does their best to decompress until they start all over again the following morning. But if you want to be creative...
I have my radio show on Saturday, and it takes at least a couple of hours to calm down from that, so by time I make it to Sunday, actually, for the rest of Saturday, I want to disconnect.
Now growing up in the sixties, the weekend was filled with activities. It was a roving party of family activities. It was almost like you lived in multiple houses...the parents were best friends and...
It doesn't happen that way anymore. You can't drop by unannounced. You might have seen that Sebastian Maniscalco bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CznoAW2k1I
People are afraid, they want to be safe. Furthermore, everybody's in touch all the time, via the smartphone. And if you don't respond right away, you're seen as either a pariah or...maybe you're ill.
So I feel kind of guilty laying low on the weekends. After all, this is when most people leave the house and participate. Then again, when I was in college, we used to say the weekends were for amateurs. The true believers, the true outcasts, knew that it was all about Thursday night, and Sunday and Monday were not bad either.
But as the years have gone by I find myself staying home more and more. And I'm wondering if it's my age, or an aftereffect of the Covid lockdown, I wasn't like this before, or it's just me.
Like Bob Dyan once said, I'm not going to tell you my hopes and dreams, because you'll laugh at me, you'll think they're far-fetched and grandiose. However...
I don't want to waste any time. And I was thinking about this. In the seventies, I'd go to the movies, constantly. That's where I connected. I was on the outside looking in. But now I'm on the inside, I can reach tens of thousands with the stroke of a key, and that feels so good. I don't want to let that go. But to be readable, to do something great, I've got to be disconnected, which I know is a conundrum, I've got to disconnect to reconnect, but that's the way it is.
So Saturday night, I finished reading this book "The Sisters." I tried once before, not really hard, but I decided to give it one more go and I got hooked. What you've got here is a story set mostly in Sweden, with the main characters half-Swedish and half-Tunisian. "The Sisters" is not a short book, and it creates a whole world. You get invested in the characters, all of whom have different dreams. The Tunisian father who wanted to set the world on fire, but ended up working on the subway for years and years. The girl who is the life of the party but just can't find her direction. Her sister who took a year off from college and found herself working for a decade in a job that was supposed to be temporary. The other sister who is too uptight to let loose, saving a dollar, making sure all i's are dotted and t's are crossed. What we've got here is normal people. Normal life. No one is famous, yet the people are not downtrodden. And it's a great antidote to America, where everybody's on the road to the top or the road to ruin. But after finishing "The Sisters" after midnight, I just couldn't get into "The Award."
2
And I wasn't doing such a great job of getting into it on Sunday either. You know how you can see the day slipping away? Knowing that you'll regret the time you've burned? I decided to commit, I wouldn't pick up the phone, and that's when I got hooked.
"The Award" is not a difficult read. But unlike "The Sisters," it does not center around everyman, rather a writer. They say to write what you know about, but if you're a reader of fiction you might believe that writing is the number one profession in America, when so many people don't even read books, never mind write one.
But the main character makes an amoral choice not long into the book and I winced. Because this character seemed otherwise reasonable, and I wouldn't do this.
But then...
"The Award" ultimately turns into a thriller. Which I didn't anticipate. And every aside, every throwaway from earlier in the book, comes back into play.
But the bottom line is "The Award" made me tense. Had me on edge. On some level I could see where it was going, on another it didn't go quite that way.
And then reading for hours, getting up to go to the bathroom, I was inspired, I wanted to write about what was going on in Minneapolis.
That is how it works. You have to do something else to do the thing you want to. You get inspired, it hits you. This is when all the great work is done. As for writing sessions, cobbling songs together, there is great work achieved by those methods, but it's the bolts of lightning that render the best stuff.
Actually, I saw this great Ray Bradbury video on TikTok. I certainly know who he is, I've got respect, but I've never read any of his books, science fiction is not my thing. But Ray said...
"Never went to college. Don't believe in college for writers. I think it's very dangerous. I think too many professors are too opinionated, and too snobbish, and too intellectual. And the intellect is a great danger to creativity. A terrible danger because you begin to rationalize and make up reasons for things instead of staying with your own basic truth, who you are, what you are, what you want to be. And I've had a sign over my typewriter for 25 years now which reads 'Don't think.' You must never think at the typewriter, you must feel, and then your intellect is always buried in that feeling anyway. You collect up a lot of data, you do a lot of thinking away from your typewriter, but at the typewriter you should be living."
https://www.tiktok.com/@contemporary.blueprint/video/7598973789455568183?_r=1&_t=ZP-93MD9UEsYpC
Eureka, that's it!
People talk about writing, how hard it is, how they like to have written as opposed to writing. How writing is really about rewriting. It's all intellectualized, and that's why it's not transcendent.
Writing, whether it be a screed or a song, should be channeling. The rest of your life is practice, background...when you sit down to create you've got to be uninhibited and inspired.
School is about squeezing the creativity out of you, making you conform. Writers are born, not made. It's a calling. You can learn how to do it, but you won't be great if you weren't born with the instinct, the passion.
As for MFAs... Some decent books come out of those programs, but they excise the inspiration, it's all about the rewriting, as it is for the main character in "The Award." Who has to question whether he is good enough, or whether he should give up.
He's got a girlfriend who believes in him. But he ends up losing the plot. And there's the legendary writer who lives beneath him who is a grade A a*shole, but no one says this out loud, for fear of being on the wrong team, never mind offending this legend.
As for the thrilling plot... Doesn't have to be a writer, could be anybody. The choices you make... One false move that seemed irrelevant yesterday catches up with you tomorrow.
"The Award" is a ride. I think it's the kind of book those on BookTok who brag they read a book a week like. This is not literature for the ages, this is plot. But it takes you away, not as well as "The Sisters" does, but there's that tension.
And when it broke I wrote "More Minneapolis." I was primed and didn't even know it. I was completely disconnected from society, and then I reconnected instantly.
But now I'm pissed I can't get enough distance, I'm caught up in the b.s. of the world, and when that is the case you can't get into the space you need to to do great work. And there are no tricks, you've just got to wait it out. To calm down, for the inspiration to return.
But I'm booked solid going forward and I might never have the time to write about "The Award," and I wanted to, but this does not have the tone I wanted to convey. Which is you're just an average person, reading a book, looking for a break, and then it happens, you get hooked, you're on the ride. You're there alone, in your own bubble, but you know the writer is with you. And it's different from a movie or TV series. But it's akin to a great record. But today's records are written first and foremost for commercial success, and that rarely works. You've got commerce, not art.
And we're looking for art.
But we don't want anybody to be an artist.
And most of those who say they're artists are not.
But we're still hungry, we're still looking for that resonance.
--
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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Monday, 26 January 2026
Kanye's Ad
1
I buy it.
I knew something was up when my phone rang at 3 in the morning. Nothing good happens in the middle of the night, on the phone anyway. My college roommate picked up the receiver to find out his younger brother had been killed in a car accident. Thirty years later, my best friend was on the line experiencing a Come to Jesus moment. In that he just could not handle all the havoc he'd wreaked.
I'd known the guy for twenty years, and didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary until we heard Kay Redfield Jamison speak. She wrote the definite book on bipolar disorder, "An Unquiet Mind," and after she was done talking my best friend's wife told me that was him. I didn't see it, but she was right.
He started to behave in a more and more grandiose fashion. He got into a fistfight with the manager of his club. And I won't say my friend was the softest guy in the world, but this was completely unfathomable.
And then he proceeded to lose everything. His wife, his money, even his car got repossessed. But he wasn't unduly annoyed, he was going to get his automobile back and he did and then...
The phone rang at 3 in the morning. Having been through my own troubles I stayed on the line. But I didn't want to let him go, because he never turned the corner. He never loosened up. He just could not fathom what he'd done, the effect it had on people.
I told him to call his psychiatrist in the a.m., only a few hours away, but the doctor wouldn't see him, because my friend owed him too much money.
And the phone rang at the same hour the next night. And there were calls thereafter. He just couldn't believe what he'd done.
I was worried, this guy couldn't be alone. He needed 24/7 attention. I suggested he go home, to the house he grew up in in another state, his mother was very compassionate.
He did. And a few nights later, as I was running out for the first Metallica show with their new bassist, the phone rang and it was him. I told him what I was up to. I spoke about the opportunities he'd have in the future, but he responded, "Not for me."
That was a bit eerie. But I rushed out.
And that night my friend committed suicide. The next morning a mutual friend called and before he could even get the words out, I knew.
2
I've only met Kanye once. It was in Chris Martin's dressing room, at the Forum. As you will remember, Kanye had gone on very late at Bonnaroo. I asked him about it. After all, conversation was free-flowing, Martin is the nice guy you see on stage.
And Kanye started talking in the third person. He said something like "Kanye does what he has to do." And more like that. It was very weird. Very non-backstage, off the record and loose as it normally is. I realized this guy was different.
And he had his ups and downs thereafter. Well-publicized. But someone who worked with him told me he was diagnosed bipolar, but wouldn't take his medication. Many people won't. Because it flattens you out, it gets rid of the highs.
When you're on a high you think you can conquer the world, do anything. Oftentimes when manic you need very little sleep. Furthermore, a lot of what bipolar people create when high is world class, trendsetting, definitive.
A high can last a matter of weeks, months, even years.
But then they crash. They always crash.
But those highs, they don't want to give them up.
And they don't want to believe anything is wrong with them either.
This is all well-documented, but most people don't want to read the documentation, especially if they're a man. You're supposed to buck up and fly right. You don't need the help of no stinkin' doctor, never mind medication, that's for wusses.
Only it's not.
3
Now Kanye's behavior was so out of control that even casual observers could tell he was mentally ill. Because no one acts this way unless they are. And for the record, an amazing number of artists/musicians are.
And in the process, Kanye lost not quite everything, but pretty damn close. He became a pariah, deservedly so. No one wanted to amplify his craziness.
As for what made Kanye seek help...
Was Kanye's bipolar disorder caused by the car accident he references? It's possible, but no one wants to believe they're mentally ill, that the cause is themselves, their chemistry, they're always looking for outside forces, explanations, to accept that they're less than perfect is very difficult.
Not that it matters. There is a diagnosis and Kanye got treatment and appears to be on medication...which you have to take for the rest of your life, and many people stop.
As for the dig at those who diagnosed him autistic... You've got to know, mental health is not like orthopedics, it's not as simple as diagnosing and setting a broken leg. There's no definitive blood test. What you've got is doctors, psychiatrists, who quiz you, do their best to get a reading, and then prescribe drugs...sometimes they work, it's a miracle cure, but sometimes you have to switch from one medication to another and the process is depressing unto itself. Because there are side effects. Some wear off in a few weeks, others never do.
But if you live in the big city, there are psychopharmacologists, who specialize in this. As a matter of fact, because of the low insurance reimbursement and the unwillingness of people to pay for therapy, most psychiatrists today do not do talk therapy, they just prescribe. And they've gotten better at it.
But most people get talk therapy from those without prescribing ability. Psychologists, social workers. And then there are those who believe they can shortcut the whole process by just asking their primary caregiver for an antidepressant, as if the psychopharmacologists have no special skill, not to mention almost always the pill is not enough, some quantity of talk therapy is needed to recover.
4
You cannot treat your own depression. As for your friends...they love you, they'll tell you you're okay, and oftentimes you are not. You need a professional.
But when it comes to bipolar disorder, the only thing that works is the medication, and if you don't take it...
Right now, Kanye appears to be taking it.
Does he want forgiveness? Does he want to be embraced by the public once again? Of course. But that's not the driving force here. It's the recognition of the havoc he's wreaked, the people he's hurt, now that he's stabilized he can see it, is mortified by it, and wants to come clean. Are we going to continue to penalize someone who has made the effort, is on the road to recovery and is completely honest about it? Why?
No, we should not. That does not mean you have to embrace Kanye. That does not mean you should not be skeptical of him in the future. That does not mean you should wipe the slate completely clean...
But this is not like an actor who makes a racist comment and goes to rehab. This is mental illness, and there's no easy get out of jail free card.
Then again, many Americans don't believe in mental illness, they think therapy and medication are unnecessary crutches. Oftentimes, they could benefit from such.
5
So, taking the ad in the "Wall Street Journal"...
I was surprised my inbox did not blow up about this today. But then I checked the Google news and the story has been covered, but...does everybody know? Does everybody care?
We don't need any specific musical star. Just as long as we have some. George Michael killed his career with his Sony suit. Most people have a peak, that they can never reach again.
Never mind how hard it is to reach the peak to begin with.
So one can be cynical and say that the ad was in the "Journal" because that's where the advertisers are, the movers and shakers of business, and it's these people Kanye wants forgiveness from. I mean usually today you control your own narrative via X/Twitter, most people don't even engage the mainstream press, that's old school. As for full page ads in major publications...that's for corporations, causes, not individuals.
So...
Give the man credit. For recognizing his faults and addressing them. That's more than most people do.
And being honest and laying it all out in public, when the goal of most, celebrity or not, is to hide their flaws? Kudos.
And if we can't forgive...
That's the problem with America today, one false move and you're out. Forever. People don't want to go on the record, they don't want to take the risk. Say the wrong thing and you're excommunicated.
Kanye was excommunicated. Should he be embraced warmly? Once bitten, twice shy. Only in this case, it's many times bitten.
But untreated bipolar disorder is a legitimate excuse.
But this screed is no guarantee Kanye will continue to take his medication, and if he doesn't, all bets are off.
Kanye has to continue to earn our trust.
But he's entitled to that.
He deserves the benefit of the doubt.
For now.
--
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I buy it.
I knew something was up when my phone rang at 3 in the morning. Nothing good happens in the middle of the night, on the phone anyway. My college roommate picked up the receiver to find out his younger brother had been killed in a car accident. Thirty years later, my best friend was on the line experiencing a Come to Jesus moment. In that he just could not handle all the havoc he'd wreaked.
I'd known the guy for twenty years, and didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary until we heard Kay Redfield Jamison speak. She wrote the definite book on bipolar disorder, "An Unquiet Mind," and after she was done talking my best friend's wife told me that was him. I didn't see it, but she was right.
He started to behave in a more and more grandiose fashion. He got into a fistfight with the manager of his club. And I won't say my friend was the softest guy in the world, but this was completely unfathomable.
And then he proceeded to lose everything. His wife, his money, even his car got repossessed. But he wasn't unduly annoyed, he was going to get his automobile back and he did and then...
The phone rang at 3 in the morning. Having been through my own troubles I stayed on the line. But I didn't want to let him go, because he never turned the corner. He never loosened up. He just could not fathom what he'd done, the effect it had on people.
I told him to call his psychiatrist in the a.m., only a few hours away, but the doctor wouldn't see him, because my friend owed him too much money.
And the phone rang at the same hour the next night. And there were calls thereafter. He just couldn't believe what he'd done.
I was worried, this guy couldn't be alone. He needed 24/7 attention. I suggested he go home, to the house he grew up in in another state, his mother was very compassionate.
He did. And a few nights later, as I was running out for the first Metallica show with their new bassist, the phone rang and it was him. I told him what I was up to. I spoke about the opportunities he'd have in the future, but he responded, "Not for me."
That was a bit eerie. But I rushed out.
And that night my friend committed suicide. The next morning a mutual friend called and before he could even get the words out, I knew.
2
I've only met Kanye once. It was in Chris Martin's dressing room, at the Forum. As you will remember, Kanye had gone on very late at Bonnaroo. I asked him about it. After all, conversation was free-flowing, Martin is the nice guy you see on stage.
And Kanye started talking in the third person. He said something like "Kanye does what he has to do." And more like that. It was very weird. Very non-backstage, off the record and loose as it normally is. I realized this guy was different.
And he had his ups and downs thereafter. Well-publicized. But someone who worked with him told me he was diagnosed bipolar, but wouldn't take his medication. Many people won't. Because it flattens you out, it gets rid of the highs.
When you're on a high you think you can conquer the world, do anything. Oftentimes when manic you need very little sleep. Furthermore, a lot of what bipolar people create when high is world class, trendsetting, definitive.
A high can last a matter of weeks, months, even years.
But then they crash. They always crash.
But those highs, they don't want to give them up.
And they don't want to believe anything is wrong with them either.
This is all well-documented, but most people don't want to read the documentation, especially if they're a man. You're supposed to buck up and fly right. You don't need the help of no stinkin' doctor, never mind medication, that's for wusses.
Only it's not.
3
Now Kanye's behavior was so out of control that even casual observers could tell he was mentally ill. Because no one acts this way unless they are. And for the record, an amazing number of artists/musicians are.
And in the process, Kanye lost not quite everything, but pretty damn close. He became a pariah, deservedly so. No one wanted to amplify his craziness.
As for what made Kanye seek help...
Was Kanye's bipolar disorder caused by the car accident he references? It's possible, but no one wants to believe they're mentally ill, that the cause is themselves, their chemistry, they're always looking for outside forces, explanations, to accept that they're less than perfect is very difficult.
Not that it matters. There is a diagnosis and Kanye got treatment and appears to be on medication...which you have to take for the rest of your life, and many people stop.
As for the dig at those who diagnosed him autistic... You've got to know, mental health is not like orthopedics, it's not as simple as diagnosing and setting a broken leg. There's no definitive blood test. What you've got is doctors, psychiatrists, who quiz you, do their best to get a reading, and then prescribe drugs...sometimes they work, it's a miracle cure, but sometimes you have to switch from one medication to another and the process is depressing unto itself. Because there are side effects. Some wear off in a few weeks, others never do.
But if you live in the big city, there are psychopharmacologists, who specialize in this. As a matter of fact, because of the low insurance reimbursement and the unwillingness of people to pay for therapy, most psychiatrists today do not do talk therapy, they just prescribe. And they've gotten better at it.
But most people get talk therapy from those without prescribing ability. Psychologists, social workers. And then there are those who believe they can shortcut the whole process by just asking their primary caregiver for an antidepressant, as if the psychopharmacologists have no special skill, not to mention almost always the pill is not enough, some quantity of talk therapy is needed to recover.
4
You cannot treat your own depression. As for your friends...they love you, they'll tell you you're okay, and oftentimes you are not. You need a professional.
But when it comes to bipolar disorder, the only thing that works is the medication, and if you don't take it...
Right now, Kanye appears to be taking it.
Does he want forgiveness? Does he want to be embraced by the public once again? Of course. But that's not the driving force here. It's the recognition of the havoc he's wreaked, the people he's hurt, now that he's stabilized he can see it, is mortified by it, and wants to come clean. Are we going to continue to penalize someone who has made the effort, is on the road to recovery and is completely honest about it? Why?
No, we should not. That does not mean you have to embrace Kanye. That does not mean you should not be skeptical of him in the future. That does not mean you should wipe the slate completely clean...
But this is not like an actor who makes a racist comment and goes to rehab. This is mental illness, and there's no easy get out of jail free card.
Then again, many Americans don't believe in mental illness, they think therapy and medication are unnecessary crutches. Oftentimes, they could benefit from such.
5
So, taking the ad in the "Wall Street Journal"...
I was surprised my inbox did not blow up about this today. But then I checked the Google news and the story has been covered, but...does everybody know? Does everybody care?
We don't need any specific musical star. Just as long as we have some. George Michael killed his career with his Sony suit. Most people have a peak, that they can never reach again.
Never mind how hard it is to reach the peak to begin with.
So one can be cynical and say that the ad was in the "Journal" because that's where the advertisers are, the movers and shakers of business, and it's these people Kanye wants forgiveness from. I mean usually today you control your own narrative via X/Twitter, most people don't even engage the mainstream press, that's old school. As for full page ads in major publications...that's for corporations, causes, not individuals.
So...
Give the man credit. For recognizing his faults and addressing them. That's more than most people do.
And being honest and laying it all out in public, when the goal of most, celebrity or not, is to hide their flaws? Kudos.
And if we can't forgive...
That's the problem with America today, one false move and you're out. Forever. People don't want to go on the record, they don't want to take the risk. Say the wrong thing and you're excommunicated.
Kanye was excommunicated. Should he be embraced warmly? Once bitten, twice shy. Only in this case, it's many times bitten.
But untreated bipolar disorder is a legitimate excuse.
But this screed is no guarantee Kanye will continue to take his medication, and if he doesn't, all bets are off.
Kanye has to continue to earn our trust.
But he's entitled to that.
He deserves the benefit of the doubt.
For now.
--
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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http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
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Sunday, 25 January 2026
More Minneapolis
It's January 6th all over again.
I don't know about you, but I found out about the storming of the Capitol online, on some news site, whereupon I immediately switched to video and watched the riot play out. That's what it was, right? A riot?
Everyone agreed. Trump was kicked off of social media platforms, the media testified as to the dark day in America, and Donald was impeached, for the second time.
But not convicted.
All right... But they were going to get him, right, make him pay for his sins?
Well, the spin years later became that 1/6 was a peaceful protest. That if Mike Pence had just done the right thing, none of this would have happened. As for the perps... Trump had nothing to do with it and weren't they just patriots? Why should they be denigrated, incarcerated for their belief in this great nation of ours? Trump let them out of the jails immediately, wiped the slate clean, and Ashli Babbitt, like Charlie Kirk, has been elevated to the level of a deity.
As for all those elected officials who decried Trump's behavior? They all fell in line behind the man when he was elected president once again. As for the investigation into his so-called crimes...asking for more votes in Georgia, the classified documents in Mar-a-Lago... Let's not go tit for tat. It's unjust for Trump to be prosecuted, because the Democrats do the exact same thing. And if Trump were somehow held liable, it would be open season for the Democrats when they get back into power. Jovial John Kennedy said exactly this on Bill Maher's "Real Time" on Friday night...as if you say it folksily enough, people will believe it. And when asked if Trump lost the election, Kennedy obfuscated, because if you go against Trump the clock starts to tick, it's only a matter of time before you become a pariah, before you're excommunicated. And it's not only politicos, Jamie Dimon now too. Never mind law firms and news networks.
So now we watch video of a man who was a nurse whose efforts were to aid a downed protester, who was waving a phone, not a gun, whose hands were on the ground, shot in cold blood. Video, just like 1/6.
And Trump and his cronies are telling us not to believe what we see And even the Fox News website referenced the difference between the government's viewpoint and the people's...but that's gone now, replaced by a headline about an ICEman being maimed by a violent mob.
That's right, the narrative is already changing. The sides are lining up. And it's them against us, the government against the people.
However, those who are frustrated with the government's actions have been told to vote, just wait to the coming election, when wrongs will be righted, never mind the big election in 2028. The only people who believe this are the elected politicians and the media that reports upon them. Nobody I know has faith in coming elections to right the ship.
So, there have been protests in Minnesota. And this ain't L.A., it's been below zero, but people have been coming out.
Now in the sixties, protests like this ultimately turned the screw. We got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ultimately the winding down and ending of the Vietnam War. As for the Voting Rights Act of 1965...that's been undercut by the Supreme Court, since we supposedly no longer live in a racist society, never mind Citizens United. Meaning the deck is stacked even if you are not stricken from the voting rolls, the odds are against you.
So what happens now.
As we all know, it's Pretti's fault. He should have just stayed home, like a good American, a heritage American (but with that last name, I'm not sure he qualifies...). And while he's at it, if he leaves his home he should carry I.D. Because this is the way it goes in America...
Only it doesn't. You don't need papers and you have a right to assemble. As for leaving your house... Trump is winning here. Nobody with money will stand up to Trump for fear of losing it, now the hoi polloi won't stand up to Trump because they're afraid of losing their life. Really, are you going to go to a protest now?
The crisis has reached a boiling point.
What do we know? TACO. Trump always chickens out. If he doesn't let one of his minions take the blame, he squirms and equivocates, because after all there are good people on both sides. Trump may bend a bit here, as he distances himself from the ICEmen responsible for Pretti's death... Like Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about having her eyes opened once she got out of the right wing bubble and read the rest of the press, Trump will say he had no idea.
But shortly thereafter it will be just like that Talking Heads song, same as it ever was.
So...
This is not an Arab Spring moment. Because not enough Americans feel oppressed. However they're doing it, many still believe in the ICE mission...never mind the racist beliefs underpinning many of these beliefs.
As for military in the streets... And whether we call them this or not, that's what ICE is, they can enter at will, and seemingly shoot at will... Don't you know that those northern cities are hellholes of crime and if the mayors just did their jobs, which they're not, no one would be shot, peace would reign?
Yeah, right.
So there are some who still believe in Trump. Although that edifice is being chipped away. Because of what's happening in Minneapolis. However, if you think this will change the course of Trump's behavior...
What do we know... Trump does what he says he will and he never truly backs down. Hell, he never sleeps...he's up posting on Truth Social in the wee hours of the morning.
So if you're expecting change...
What did we learn in the wake of the protests against the killing of George Floyd? That today Blacks are even worse off. The prevailing narrative is the demonstrations disrupted the nation...nothing was ultimately gained. So I ask you, will something ultimately be gained by the protests in Minneapolis?
Not much. After all, Trump had mention of his impeachments removed from the Smithsonian, he has no problem rewriting history. And when the dust settles, he and his flock will say whatever happened in Minneapolis, it was ultimately the public's fault. Probably incited by outside agitators. Because no American in their right mind would stand up against the mission of ICE, right?
Having said that, at least those protesters are taking action. But it gets worse, it seems that the only thing that will cower Trump is violence. Unless Congress wakes up, which I doubt it will. As for NATO coming to rescue the citizens of America...good luck with that. As for the 2nd Amendment, those guns are for Republicans, Democrats can't be trusted with them, as Pretti proves.
If your head isn't spinning now...
This is authoritarianism, this is fascism, this is a dictatorship. The Republicans say to stop using the H-word, but the truth is America today resembles Nazi Germany, even down to the detention camps that cannot be investigated.
It's a slippery slope. And never forget, Hitler had supporters too.
And I beg of you to read David French's piece in the "New York Times." For the record, French comes from the right:
"An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good"
Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/opinion/renee-good-ice-immunity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVA.TRLI.qL4NRc5PToME&smid=url-share
People felt life was pretty good in Nazi Germany, as long as they didn't come up against the forces of the government... Read this, it might be from the "New York Times," but like I said, French is from the right.
So the bottom line is whatever happens here if you expect Trump to change, if you expect major change in our country, you're dreaming, that's never going to happen. It's not like if ICE even backs off a bit Trump is going to let up on the rest of his heinous policies that negatively impact the populace. Why should he? He's in control. And the military is on his side. As for legislative power... They have the equivalent of Congress in Russia and Hungary too, doesn't make a difference.
So if you're all riled-up about the death of Alex Pretti...I'm with you. But if you think it's going to foment major change, you're dreaming.
For that more people have to be pissed off and more people need to take action.
Even Robert Reich is now calling for a national strike. Which I believe is appropriate before there are guns in the street, before more citizens are cut down in cold blood.
This is just the start, the true resistance to Trump. Forget the kumbaya pussy hats and No Kings rallies, they were parties that Trump ignored when he wasn't laughing at them.
No, to evoke change you have to hit them where it hurts, financially.
Now if you're a Boomer, you remember that in the sixties if a TV network got calls about "controversial" programming, they killed it. Oftentimes, in a nation of hundreds of millions, there were fewer than twenty phone calls. But the networks were afraid.
Corporations live in fear. All those overpaid CEOs kissing Trump's butt, they've got to see their businesses challenged, their stocks drop, that's the only thing that will get them to change course, the only thing they care about is money.
It's what runs America, which is why Trump wants total control of the Fed.
I'm not advocating violence, not at all. But I am saying that when people are up against the wall and are pissed enough, it happens, like with the Arab Spring. But life in that area of the world was much worse in terms of standard of living and opportunity than it is over here. So what will get the public to turn?
Let's be clear, what is happening in Minneapolis has not only gained people's attention, it has peeled Trump supporters away from him. So that's a start. But if the public doesn't take further action Trump will circle the wagons, declare victory and march forward, tightening the rope on your rights all the while.
Yup, you're losing them as I write this. You can watch Netflix and say it doesn't affect you, or you can realize if it doesn't already, it ultimately will, and it then may be too late.
This is just the beginning.
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I don't know about you, but I found out about the storming of the Capitol online, on some news site, whereupon I immediately switched to video and watched the riot play out. That's what it was, right? A riot?
Everyone agreed. Trump was kicked off of social media platforms, the media testified as to the dark day in America, and Donald was impeached, for the second time.
But not convicted.
All right... But they were going to get him, right, make him pay for his sins?
Well, the spin years later became that 1/6 was a peaceful protest. That if Mike Pence had just done the right thing, none of this would have happened. As for the perps... Trump had nothing to do with it and weren't they just patriots? Why should they be denigrated, incarcerated for their belief in this great nation of ours? Trump let them out of the jails immediately, wiped the slate clean, and Ashli Babbitt, like Charlie Kirk, has been elevated to the level of a deity.
As for all those elected officials who decried Trump's behavior? They all fell in line behind the man when he was elected president once again. As for the investigation into his so-called crimes...asking for more votes in Georgia, the classified documents in Mar-a-Lago... Let's not go tit for tat. It's unjust for Trump to be prosecuted, because the Democrats do the exact same thing. And if Trump were somehow held liable, it would be open season for the Democrats when they get back into power. Jovial John Kennedy said exactly this on Bill Maher's "Real Time" on Friday night...as if you say it folksily enough, people will believe it. And when asked if Trump lost the election, Kennedy obfuscated, because if you go against Trump the clock starts to tick, it's only a matter of time before you become a pariah, before you're excommunicated. And it's not only politicos, Jamie Dimon now too. Never mind law firms and news networks.
So now we watch video of a man who was a nurse whose efforts were to aid a downed protester, who was waving a phone, not a gun, whose hands were on the ground, shot in cold blood. Video, just like 1/6.
And Trump and his cronies are telling us not to believe what we see And even the Fox News website referenced the difference between the government's viewpoint and the people's...but that's gone now, replaced by a headline about an ICEman being maimed by a violent mob.
That's right, the narrative is already changing. The sides are lining up. And it's them against us, the government against the people.
However, those who are frustrated with the government's actions have been told to vote, just wait to the coming election, when wrongs will be righted, never mind the big election in 2028. The only people who believe this are the elected politicians and the media that reports upon them. Nobody I know has faith in coming elections to right the ship.
So, there have been protests in Minnesota. And this ain't L.A., it's been below zero, but people have been coming out.
Now in the sixties, protests like this ultimately turned the screw. We got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ultimately the winding down and ending of the Vietnam War. As for the Voting Rights Act of 1965...that's been undercut by the Supreme Court, since we supposedly no longer live in a racist society, never mind Citizens United. Meaning the deck is stacked even if you are not stricken from the voting rolls, the odds are against you.
So what happens now.
As we all know, it's Pretti's fault. He should have just stayed home, like a good American, a heritage American (but with that last name, I'm not sure he qualifies...). And while he's at it, if he leaves his home he should carry I.D. Because this is the way it goes in America...
Only it doesn't. You don't need papers and you have a right to assemble. As for leaving your house... Trump is winning here. Nobody with money will stand up to Trump for fear of losing it, now the hoi polloi won't stand up to Trump because they're afraid of losing their life. Really, are you going to go to a protest now?
The crisis has reached a boiling point.
What do we know? TACO. Trump always chickens out. If he doesn't let one of his minions take the blame, he squirms and equivocates, because after all there are good people on both sides. Trump may bend a bit here, as he distances himself from the ICEmen responsible for Pretti's death... Like Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about having her eyes opened once she got out of the right wing bubble and read the rest of the press, Trump will say he had no idea.
But shortly thereafter it will be just like that Talking Heads song, same as it ever was.
So...
This is not an Arab Spring moment. Because not enough Americans feel oppressed. However they're doing it, many still believe in the ICE mission...never mind the racist beliefs underpinning many of these beliefs.
As for military in the streets... And whether we call them this or not, that's what ICE is, they can enter at will, and seemingly shoot at will... Don't you know that those northern cities are hellholes of crime and if the mayors just did their jobs, which they're not, no one would be shot, peace would reign?
Yeah, right.
So there are some who still believe in Trump. Although that edifice is being chipped away. Because of what's happening in Minneapolis. However, if you think this will change the course of Trump's behavior...
What do we know... Trump does what he says he will and he never truly backs down. Hell, he never sleeps...he's up posting on Truth Social in the wee hours of the morning.
So if you're expecting change...
What did we learn in the wake of the protests against the killing of George Floyd? That today Blacks are even worse off. The prevailing narrative is the demonstrations disrupted the nation...nothing was ultimately gained. So I ask you, will something ultimately be gained by the protests in Minneapolis?
Not much. After all, Trump had mention of his impeachments removed from the Smithsonian, he has no problem rewriting history. And when the dust settles, he and his flock will say whatever happened in Minneapolis, it was ultimately the public's fault. Probably incited by outside agitators. Because no American in their right mind would stand up against the mission of ICE, right?
Having said that, at least those protesters are taking action. But it gets worse, it seems that the only thing that will cower Trump is violence. Unless Congress wakes up, which I doubt it will. As for NATO coming to rescue the citizens of America...good luck with that. As for the 2nd Amendment, those guns are for Republicans, Democrats can't be trusted with them, as Pretti proves.
If your head isn't spinning now...
This is authoritarianism, this is fascism, this is a dictatorship. The Republicans say to stop using the H-word, but the truth is America today resembles Nazi Germany, even down to the detention camps that cannot be investigated.
It's a slippery slope. And never forget, Hitler had supporters too.
And I beg of you to read David French's piece in the "New York Times." For the record, French comes from the right:
"An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good"
Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/opinion/renee-good-ice-immunity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.HVA.TRLI.qL4NRc5PToME&smid=url-share
People felt life was pretty good in Nazi Germany, as long as they didn't come up against the forces of the government... Read this, it might be from the "New York Times," but like I said, French is from the right.
So the bottom line is whatever happens here if you expect Trump to change, if you expect major change in our country, you're dreaming, that's never going to happen. It's not like if ICE even backs off a bit Trump is going to let up on the rest of his heinous policies that negatively impact the populace. Why should he? He's in control. And the military is on his side. As for legislative power... They have the equivalent of Congress in Russia and Hungary too, doesn't make a difference.
So if you're all riled-up about the death of Alex Pretti...I'm with you. But if you think it's going to foment major change, you're dreaming.
For that more people have to be pissed off and more people need to take action.
Even Robert Reich is now calling for a national strike. Which I believe is appropriate before there are guns in the street, before more citizens are cut down in cold blood.
This is just the start, the true resistance to Trump. Forget the kumbaya pussy hats and No Kings rallies, they were parties that Trump ignored when he wasn't laughing at them.
No, to evoke change you have to hit them where it hurts, financially.
Now if you're a Boomer, you remember that in the sixties if a TV network got calls about "controversial" programming, they killed it. Oftentimes, in a nation of hundreds of millions, there were fewer than twenty phone calls. But the networks were afraid.
Corporations live in fear. All those overpaid CEOs kissing Trump's butt, they've got to see their businesses challenged, their stocks drop, that's the only thing that will get them to change course, the only thing they care about is money.
It's what runs America, which is why Trump wants total control of the Fed.
I'm not advocating violence, not at all. But I am saying that when people are up against the wall and are pissed enough, it happens, like with the Arab Spring. But life in that area of the world was much worse in terms of standard of living and opportunity than it is over here. So what will get the public to turn?
Let's be clear, what is happening in Minneapolis has not only gained people's attention, it has peeled Trump supporters away from him. So that's a start. But if the public doesn't take further action Trump will circle the wagons, declare victory and march forward, tightening the rope on your rights all the while.
Yup, you're losing them as I write this. You can watch Netflix and say it doesn't affect you, or you can realize if it doesn't already, it ultimately will, and it then may be too late.
This is just the beginning.
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Saturday, 24 January 2026
Rod Stewart's Trump Video
https://www.instagram.com/p/DT3ddStD9Qr/
This is the most rock and roll thing Rod the Mod has done before his work with Clive Davis on those execrable American Songbook albums turned him into a wanker who'd do anything for a buck, anything to maintain his visibility in the entertainment firmament. Then again, aren't you supposed to get mellower as you get older? Seems like all those acts from the past have lost their backbone and are totally into lifestyle, and they stand for nothing. Who'da thunk it would be Rod who stood up to Trump? Then again, Stewart committed right away to Fire Aid and flew over from the U.K. to do it, he knows the power of Los Angeles and the power of music to make a difference.
So...
I must admit the script has flipped. In the sixties and early seventies the military was the enemy, didn't Graham Nash pen "Military Madness"? But this is not about an unjust war, rather about the men who put their lives on the line, and sometimes lose them. Something that silver spoon Donald Trump has never done. And Rod Stewart calls Donald a draft dodger and castigates him for talking smack about the British military. Funny how the EU crapped its pants when Trump said he wanted Greenland, whereas Stewart is going right for the gut, with gusto! He's not pussyfooting, he's speaking from the heart, and when you do it resonates, unlike the Spotify Top 50 crap that is about as fulfilling as cotton candy.
You can't get anybody with anything to risk to take a stand. Sure, my inbox is inundated with people sans traction writing anti-establishment songs, wanting me to promote them, but it's ultimately a career move, they want to break through, whereas those who already have are silent. Even worse, you get nincompoops like Jason Aldean doubling-down in support of the Orange Man. The tide is turning. Homey don't play that anymore. With ICE out of control, the winds have changed, have woken up the somnambulant public. Knee-jerk MAGA don't look that good anymore. Trump is out of control, unless we blow the whistle on him...
In one fell swoop, this guy has alienated the entire EU and UK. And Canada too. There's no going back...once bitten, twice shy. Twice bitten... Sure, Biden got back on the climate change bandwagon, he played nice with others, he healed the wounds, sewed together the ruptures that Trump created, however Trump has now done irreparable damage to the status and image of America. It's kind of like Billy Squier in that video...it killed his credibility overnight, and whatever credibility the United States still possesses is undercut by Mr. Trump's actions.
Now I'm not saying we're going to have a kumbaya anti-Trump song run up the chart. Those days have sailed. Even the "Wall Street Journal" wrote that we no longer live in a monoculture:
"The Rise and Fall of the American Monoculture - For most of the 20th century, pop culture was the glue that held the U.S. together. But what will it mean now that everything has splintered?"
Free link: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/american-pop-culture-history-ce8672f1?st=2mJmRF&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Then again, the power of music has been abdicated. If you're of the younger generation you don't expect your musicians to take stands, never mind risky ones. You look to them for fashion advice, where to party, these acts are empty vessels. They don't sing about being born in Gasoline Alley, they've forgotten their roots.
Music still has power. But you've got to exercise it. Rod Stewart has shown the way, and burnished his image in the process. God, this statement almost makes up for all those crappy Clive Davis albums. Because it's not about commerce, how much money you make, but the statement you make. That's what made music blow up. There was an entire culture.
Rod just turned 81 and doesn't give a f*ck. But didn't the rockers of yore not give a f*ck, that was the essence of their career! Standing up to the man. Today musicians are the man!
Stewart makes it clear. Trump was way out of line and needs to apologize. Something that Donald never does. But Stewart may be able to bring Trump to his knees. Because being shamed by a music legend is different from the blowback of the politicos and the media, which is just part of the game, grist for the mill.
So who else is going to put their career on the line? There's a benefit to being first. Adding your name at the end is the action of a Trump. And we don't need newspaper ads, we need statements. And then action. Not only can musicians do benefits, they can wiled their power in many other ways. They can refuse to play not only the Kennedy Center, but all of D.C. And Miami too. Make these people hurt. Make Trump capitulate, because he's completely out of line.
I mean they're protesting in -20 degree weather in Minneapolis, and they're doing it for you. You think you're immune, but you're not.
As we said back in the sixties, it's time to reclaim our nation, to take the power back.
As for all the Trumpers... I want you to defend what Trump said here, I want you to defend the killing of Renee Goode. Keep doing it. You're on the wrong side of history.
As for Trump's sycophants... Do you know what happened after France took back power, squeezed out the Germans during World War II? They killed the collaborators. Yup, that's just what they did, read "The Postcard," never mind reams of history. Being silent is being complacent. All you corporate titans, all you Republicans in Congress who are kissing this man's butt, you think you're gonna get away scot-free. I wouldn't be so sure.
Because money is no competition for art and those who make it. Art can win each and every time, as long as it speaks from the heart, has soul, is unfiltered and true. That's what the public yearns for, truth. And tonight Rod Stewart delivered it.
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This is the most rock and roll thing Rod the Mod has done before his work with Clive Davis on those execrable American Songbook albums turned him into a wanker who'd do anything for a buck, anything to maintain his visibility in the entertainment firmament. Then again, aren't you supposed to get mellower as you get older? Seems like all those acts from the past have lost their backbone and are totally into lifestyle, and they stand for nothing. Who'da thunk it would be Rod who stood up to Trump? Then again, Stewart committed right away to Fire Aid and flew over from the U.K. to do it, he knows the power of Los Angeles and the power of music to make a difference.
So...
I must admit the script has flipped. In the sixties and early seventies the military was the enemy, didn't Graham Nash pen "Military Madness"? But this is not about an unjust war, rather about the men who put their lives on the line, and sometimes lose them. Something that silver spoon Donald Trump has never done. And Rod Stewart calls Donald a draft dodger and castigates him for talking smack about the British military. Funny how the EU crapped its pants when Trump said he wanted Greenland, whereas Stewart is going right for the gut, with gusto! He's not pussyfooting, he's speaking from the heart, and when you do it resonates, unlike the Spotify Top 50 crap that is about as fulfilling as cotton candy.
You can't get anybody with anything to risk to take a stand. Sure, my inbox is inundated with people sans traction writing anti-establishment songs, wanting me to promote them, but it's ultimately a career move, they want to break through, whereas those who already have are silent. Even worse, you get nincompoops like Jason Aldean doubling-down in support of the Orange Man. The tide is turning. Homey don't play that anymore. With ICE out of control, the winds have changed, have woken up the somnambulant public. Knee-jerk MAGA don't look that good anymore. Trump is out of control, unless we blow the whistle on him...
In one fell swoop, this guy has alienated the entire EU and UK. And Canada too. There's no going back...once bitten, twice shy. Twice bitten... Sure, Biden got back on the climate change bandwagon, he played nice with others, he healed the wounds, sewed together the ruptures that Trump created, however Trump has now done irreparable damage to the status and image of America. It's kind of like Billy Squier in that video...it killed his credibility overnight, and whatever credibility the United States still possesses is undercut by Mr. Trump's actions.
Now I'm not saying we're going to have a kumbaya anti-Trump song run up the chart. Those days have sailed. Even the "Wall Street Journal" wrote that we no longer live in a monoculture:
"The Rise and Fall of the American Monoculture - For most of the 20th century, pop culture was the glue that held the U.S. together. But what will it mean now that everything has splintered?"
Free link: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/american-pop-culture-history-ce8672f1?st=2mJmRF&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Then again, the power of music has been abdicated. If you're of the younger generation you don't expect your musicians to take stands, never mind risky ones. You look to them for fashion advice, where to party, these acts are empty vessels. They don't sing about being born in Gasoline Alley, they've forgotten their roots.
Music still has power. But you've got to exercise it. Rod Stewart has shown the way, and burnished his image in the process. God, this statement almost makes up for all those crappy Clive Davis albums. Because it's not about commerce, how much money you make, but the statement you make. That's what made music blow up. There was an entire culture.
Rod just turned 81 and doesn't give a f*ck. But didn't the rockers of yore not give a f*ck, that was the essence of their career! Standing up to the man. Today musicians are the man!
Stewart makes it clear. Trump was way out of line and needs to apologize. Something that Donald never does. But Stewart may be able to bring Trump to his knees. Because being shamed by a music legend is different from the blowback of the politicos and the media, which is just part of the game, grist for the mill.
So who else is going to put their career on the line? There's a benefit to being first. Adding your name at the end is the action of a Trump. And we don't need newspaper ads, we need statements. And then action. Not only can musicians do benefits, they can wiled their power in many other ways. They can refuse to play not only the Kennedy Center, but all of D.C. And Miami too. Make these people hurt. Make Trump capitulate, because he's completely out of line.
I mean they're protesting in -20 degree weather in Minneapolis, and they're doing it for you. You think you're immune, but you're not.
As we said back in the sixties, it's time to reclaim our nation, to take the power back.
As for all the Trumpers... I want you to defend what Trump said here, I want you to defend the killing of Renee Goode. Keep doing it. You're on the wrong side of history.
As for Trump's sycophants... Do you know what happened after France took back power, squeezed out the Germans during World War II? They killed the collaborators. Yup, that's just what they did, read "The Postcard," never mind reams of history. Being silent is being complacent. All you corporate titans, all you Republicans in Congress who are kissing this man's butt, you think you're gonna get away scot-free. I wouldn't be so sure.
Because money is no competition for art and those who make it. Art can win each and every time, as long as it speaks from the heart, has soul, is unfiltered and true. That's what the public yearns for, truth. And tonight Rod Stewart delivered 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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Friday, 23 January 2026
The News-SiriusXM This Week
Where do you get it?
Tune in Saturday January 24th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
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Tune in Saturday January 24th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.
Phone #: 844-686-5863
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz
--
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--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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Into Dust
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6LYrGx5a39RNfXbNsaDcHq?si=3eb485a1d0b64e69
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04J0ihSeIuI
We're watching this BritBox show "Save Me" that Mike Mettler recommended. It stars Lennie Davis, who you might know from "The Walking Dead," but I never saw that series. However, I did recognize him from "Line of Duty," whose team is responsible for this show.
Lennie plays "Nelly," a charismatic man living in a council flat. Well, a number of council flats (which in this case are in a tower), because he's a Lothario, a womanizer, he's having relationships with four women at the same time...and then he gets busted.
Not that Nelly seems to have any means of support. Then again, everybody in this show except for Suranne Jones as Claire McGory is living on the bottom. Which is a reason Felice at times expressed exasperation... If you want someone to root for, if you want people you can relate to, if you want shiny happy people, "Save Me" is not the show for you.
So the lives of the characters revolve around the pub the Palm Tree, run by Stace (Susan Lynch...you'll recognize her if you're a fan of British TV)...they were all buddies growing up. And on one hand, I'm envious that they've got a clubhouse, that the relationships have been maintained, then again alcohol-fueled establishments ultimately lead to heated arguments.
Not that the more monied classes are doing so much better, Claire and her husband are living in an upscale modern house, she drives a Range Rover, but the underlying economics are sketchy...how many are living a life of illusion? If you pierce the veil there are very rickety underpinnings.
So this is one of these shows that's basically a search for a missing girl. And it's dark and intense and at the end of episode four of "Save Me Too," the second season, there's an intense, ultimately poignant moment and this song starts to play and it fits exactly, I'm mesmerized. I pause it and run for my phone to Shazam it.
I expected some modern English number, I was getting ready to be turned on to someone new. But the song was "Into Dust" by Mazzy Star. From 1993.
I've got that CD, somewhere in my garage. I've played a bit of Mazzy Star, I'm certainly familiar with the act's career arc, but I did not know this song. But it's far from obscure, turns out that "Save Me Too" was not the only sync. There's been a plethora of them. Not that I'd heard "Into Dust" before, or remember I'd heard it before.
And "Into Dust" had the feel of a toned-down version of Sinéad O'Connor's "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" from "In the Name of the Father"...as if it was cut in a sealed room distant from the rest of society. And "Into Dust" also sounded like the ethereal album rock from the U.K. and San Francisco in the late sixties...before everybody switched to FM and bombastic rock took precedence. Even "Disraeli Gears," which is known for its riff-rock "Sunshine of Your Love," had some of this feel. Then again, it was a different era. England was going from black and white to color, with those born during the war jumping off from the blues records they were influenced by. And in the U.S...you had a middle class of musicians who could make ends meet on almost nothing experimenting.
As for Mazzy Star...
You could categorize them, Wikipedia says they're part of the Paisley Underground, a descriptor I never quite cottoned to. These were acts that had a presence in Los Angeles, their albums would get reviewed in the "Times," be featured in "L.A. Weekly," but they didn't break through nationally, one can question whether they even truly broke through locally. But unlike most of those acts, Mazzy Star had a major label deal and major label press... But their music was not broken by the radio, you had to purchase it to get into it. And then they stopped making music but their legend continued and...here I am thirty five years after its release listening to "Into Dust."
Now no one is listening to the ethereal second side of Country Joe and the Fish's "I-Feel-Like-I'm Fixin'-To-Die." As for the hits of 1992, when was the last time you heard Kriss Kross's "Jump"? But "Into Dust" lives on. With a sound so foreign to the Spotify Top 50 that it's akin to essentially nothing with traction today...it's not country, it's not EDM, it's not alternative, it's not improvisational jam band, it's just...music.
Now when done right there's a chemistry between image and song that transcends the underlying number, never mind the images themselves.
Now if there was ever promise that this would be a feature of music videos, that was quickly quashed...well, there's the "Father Figure" video...but most music videos are not narrative works, touching part of your soul that everybody has that cannot be verbalized.
So it's an important moment when "Into Dust" plays in "Save Me Too." At times the music is playing and nothing is being said and nothing is happening, it's the music that sets the mood, it runs shotgun with the images...it's not background, it's equal.
"I could possibly be fading
Or have something more to gain"
Now unlike the second side of that Country Joe and the Fish album, none of whose tracks break seven figures, "Into Dust" has 78,908,103 streams on Spotify. And it's track #11, of 12. Which means people have found it.
That's the power of the modern era. For all the people bitching they can't get listens, that they can't get paid by streaming services, everything from the past is up for grabs, a land mine ready to be stepped on. Hiding in plain sight, ready to be discovered or pointed to.
"It was you breathless and tall
I could feel my eyes turning into dust"
That was what was happening. The meeting, the connection in "Save Me Too." But even though the words fit perfectly, it was more about the feel of "Into Dust" that resonated.
This is the essence of music. From the classical tradition on to today. It doesn't have to be in your face, you don't have to be able to dance to it, it's the mood it puts you into, it sets your mind free and envelops you in a cocoon of warmth all at the same time.
--
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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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04J0ihSeIuI
We're watching this BritBox show "Save Me" that Mike Mettler recommended. It stars Lennie Davis, who you might know from "The Walking Dead," but I never saw that series. However, I did recognize him from "Line of Duty," whose team is responsible for this show.
Lennie plays "Nelly," a charismatic man living in a council flat. Well, a number of council flats (which in this case are in a tower), because he's a Lothario, a womanizer, he's having relationships with four women at the same time...and then he gets busted.
Not that Nelly seems to have any means of support. Then again, everybody in this show except for Suranne Jones as Claire McGory is living on the bottom. Which is a reason Felice at times expressed exasperation... If you want someone to root for, if you want people you can relate to, if you want shiny happy people, "Save Me" is not the show for you.
So the lives of the characters revolve around the pub the Palm Tree, run by Stace (Susan Lynch...you'll recognize her if you're a fan of British TV)...they were all buddies growing up. And on one hand, I'm envious that they've got a clubhouse, that the relationships have been maintained, then again alcohol-fueled establishments ultimately lead to heated arguments.
Not that the more monied classes are doing so much better, Claire and her husband are living in an upscale modern house, she drives a Range Rover, but the underlying economics are sketchy...how many are living a life of illusion? If you pierce the veil there are very rickety underpinnings.
So this is one of these shows that's basically a search for a missing girl. And it's dark and intense and at the end of episode four of "Save Me Too," the second season, there's an intense, ultimately poignant moment and this song starts to play and it fits exactly, I'm mesmerized. I pause it and run for my phone to Shazam it.
I expected some modern English number, I was getting ready to be turned on to someone new. But the song was "Into Dust" by Mazzy Star. From 1993.
I've got that CD, somewhere in my garage. I've played a bit of Mazzy Star, I'm certainly familiar with the act's career arc, but I did not know this song. But it's far from obscure, turns out that "Save Me Too" was not the only sync. There's been a plethora of them. Not that I'd heard "Into Dust" before, or remember I'd heard it before.
And "Into Dust" had the feel of a toned-down version of Sinéad O'Connor's "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart" from "In the Name of the Father"...as if it was cut in a sealed room distant from the rest of society. And "Into Dust" also sounded like the ethereal album rock from the U.K. and San Francisco in the late sixties...before everybody switched to FM and bombastic rock took precedence. Even "Disraeli Gears," which is known for its riff-rock "Sunshine of Your Love," had some of this feel. Then again, it was a different era. England was going from black and white to color, with those born during the war jumping off from the blues records they were influenced by. And in the U.S...you had a middle class of musicians who could make ends meet on almost nothing experimenting.
As for Mazzy Star...
You could categorize them, Wikipedia says they're part of the Paisley Underground, a descriptor I never quite cottoned to. These were acts that had a presence in Los Angeles, their albums would get reviewed in the "Times," be featured in "L.A. Weekly," but they didn't break through nationally, one can question whether they even truly broke through locally. But unlike most of those acts, Mazzy Star had a major label deal and major label press... But their music was not broken by the radio, you had to purchase it to get into it. And then they stopped making music but their legend continued and...here I am thirty five years after its release listening to "Into Dust."
Now no one is listening to the ethereal second side of Country Joe and the Fish's "I-Feel-Like-I'm Fixin'-To-Die." As for the hits of 1992, when was the last time you heard Kriss Kross's "Jump"? But "Into Dust" lives on. With a sound so foreign to the Spotify Top 50 that it's akin to essentially nothing with traction today...it's not country, it's not EDM, it's not alternative, it's not improvisational jam band, it's just...music.
Now when done right there's a chemistry between image and song that transcends the underlying number, never mind the images themselves.
Now if there was ever promise that this would be a feature of music videos, that was quickly quashed...well, there's the "Father Figure" video...but most music videos are not narrative works, touching part of your soul that everybody has that cannot be verbalized.
So it's an important moment when "Into Dust" plays in "Save Me Too." At times the music is playing and nothing is being said and nothing is happening, it's the music that sets the mood, it runs shotgun with the images...it's not background, it's equal.
"I could possibly be fading
Or have something more to gain"
Now unlike the second side of that Country Joe and the Fish album, none of whose tracks break seven figures, "Into Dust" has 78,908,103 streams on Spotify. And it's track #11, of 12. Which means people have found it.
That's the power of the modern era. For all the people bitching they can't get listens, that they can't get paid by streaming services, everything from the past is up for grabs, a land mine ready to be stepped on. Hiding in plain sight, ready to be discovered or pointed to.
"It was you breathless and tall
I could feel my eyes turning into dust"
That was what was happening. The meeting, the connection in "Save Me Too." But even though the words fit perfectly, it was more about the feel of "Into Dust" that resonated.
This is the essence of music. From the classical tradition on to today. It doesn't have to be in your face, you don't have to be able to dance to it, it's the mood it puts you into, it sets your mind free and envelops you in a cocoon of warmth all at the same time.
--
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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Thursday, 22 January 2026
Re-Aging
Your post on saving money put a smile on my face. When I visited my parents in the desert I would often drive my father to run errands. Once I realized I needed gas and mentioned to my 80+ year old father that I had to find a gas station before taking him where we were headed. He told me to go to Costco because it was 25 cents a gallon cheaper. I told him that it was out of the way and for 20 gallons it was a $5 savings and that wasn't worth it to me because the line is often 30 minutes or more and my time is worth more to me than that. He said, "thats your problem, you forget where you came from and your attitude will only get worse and you'll eventually be throwing all kinds of money away!" I told him that I know exactly where I come from, it's just that I'm more focused on where I need to go. In the end, of course I went to Costco; saved $5 and waited a long, long time. As we were leaving he said "now, that wasn't such a big deal, aren't you glad you did that?" I said, "to be honest, no." And he said "to be honest, me neither" and we both laughed.
Andy Astrachan
______________________________________
Married 51 years, saving and planning on all the future traveling ahead.
Last year diagnosed with a bad blood cancer. Maybe a year or two left.
Live Now.
Dennis Brent
______________________________________
I am getting set to retire at age 60 and your column really spoke to me. Unlike you, I was moving with my family every few years so I never had a childhood home. Dad was always chasing after the better job - supposedly. But my mom was always the breadwinner because she was a nurse. Money was always an issue with four kids and never putting down roots. I learned to be tight with cash. I had a friend in college who would say, "McIntyre can stretch a buck until it screams."
It's hard to leave something I'm really good at. I know I could never get this job again at my current age. That's probably not the way to look at it.
Instead, I look at the fact that my two older brothers died during Covid. In another year or two I will have surpassed both of them in age. My mom died when I was 39. My dad died when I was 45. One sibling left. One daughter will be finishing up college next year. A great spouse.
Anyway … experiences. Go for the good ones. Everyone needs their own version of your ski jacket.
- Jody McIntyre
______________________________________
I'll turn 70 this year, and I'm financially comfortable, however, like you I've often found myself denying simple pleasures and saying, "nah, I don't really need that."
Here's something for you to think about: according to the CDC, the average life expectancy for a US male is 76 years. And the inescapable truth is the last few years will be characterized by declining health.
So take that ski trip NOW. Buy that convertible NOW. Do something nice for your kids NOW.
It's more important than ever to live in the moment. As Warren Zevon famously quipped about his cancer diagnosis, "enjoy every sandwich"
Dave Burgess
______________________________________
I loved this article—I swear I could have written it myself. You hit every topic perfectly: travelling, clothes, Gelson's, Costco, spending priorities, living life. I can relate to all of it.
I turned 72 not long ago, and I'm firmly at the "if I really like it, just buy it" stage of life. What's the point of living if you can't LIVE? I grew up with nothing—and I mean nothing—but I worked hard my entire life (and still do, because I enjoy it). At this point I just say to myself, what the hell is the point if I don't enjoy it while I'm here? Why should I be jammed into a horrible seat on a plane when I can pay for first class? Travelling is stressful enough these days—so screw it. The comfort, relaxation, and pampering are absolutely worth it.
I laughed out loud at the ski jacket story. I just spent a stupid amount of money on another Moncler winter jacket myself. I definitely felt a bit of guilt at first, but then I thought, I like it—just get it. Now I wear it all the time and love it.
The Costco gas story also hit home. I've got a few younger employees who laugh at me because I get up at 7:30 a.m. every Friday to fill up at Costco. I figure I'm getting three or four extra tanks of gas a year by doing that, so why not? I think what they find funny is that I'll do that—and then turn around and spend a ridiculous amount of money on a bottle of wine, clothes, or a great meal. ?? Oh well… it's all about priorities.
I found out last week that I need a triple bypass, so I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately. Fortunately, I'm in pretty good shape overall, so it should all work out. Thanks for the laugh, Bob—for me, your timing couldn't have been better.
Best Regards,
Jerry Van Dyke
______________________________________
The struggle is real Bob. Like you, I don't have kids and my siblings are financially stable, in other words, I don't need to leave any money behind. I am 67 and regardless of what my financial advisor says (I'm not going to live to be 97 as he would have me plan for) for the first time in my life, I can treat myself. I did everything I was supposed to, max contribution to my 401K and lived within my means. I bought a house that was significantly less than the bank told me I could afford. My parents grew up during the depression and were fearful that it could happen again. A case of Michelob and a rib roast at Christmas time was a big treat. Add in my Roman Catholic upbringing and you have a recipe for guilt and frugality. But I have finally realized that I can afford to do things that I always thought were out of reach, I just hired a contractor to do some work on my house that a few years ago, I would have done myself. I am planning to travel, if I see something that I really want, I buy it. You can't take it with you Bob, so the goal is to check out with no debt and about $8.00 in my checking account. Challenge accepted.
Michael Kimball
______________________________________
One of the things that happens when you get past 70 is you realize "I don't need any more pens, paper clips, shirts, underwear, socks, possibly even shoes, for the rest of my life." The more you buy, the more you have to get rid of, doing the Swedish Death Cleaning to prevent your kids from having to get a dumpster in the driveway to throw out all your "stuff". So I resist buying, at age 74. And why shoes? If you have 10 pairs, they don't wear out very quickly. You might be good for 10 years.
Preston Bealle
Darien, CT
______________________________________
Good article Bob. I am 67 and like you, I am more willing to splurge on things now more so than when I was younger. I have made the observation that once people hit their eighties they either have significant physical problems, mental health issues, or both which will significantly impact their ability to enjoy things they take for granted when younger. So, my plan is to go for it (in a thoughtful way) for the next decade, while my wife and I are still able.
I once heard some macro financial advice which advocated spending more freely on things that are important to you, and be frugal with those things that are not important. I think this is sound advice at any age.
Do things which make you happy, and put a smile on your face.
Don Weis
______________________________________
Say what you will, but Kirkland is a solid product. I wear their boxer briefs as they are almost as nice as Fabletics and I will use the 32 Degree Vests for outdoors because they hold up and cost $20.00, they rival North Face these days as NF shif the bed on their vests lately. They're long and bulky, they cheaper out! I will wear Costco and proudly. Take care, Bob
Adam Franklin
______________________________________
Beautifully said, Bob. You touched a lot of chords with this one.
I'm a Sam's Club guy (closer Costco is 190 miles away -- Sam's is 75 miles!)
I still have my Levi's jacket, bought in '77 at University with my own coin. I'd had Dickies and Sears before that -- endured the teasing. We couldn't afford the cool stuff.
I have a vintage wool Celtics jacket that, on my every few years Celtics game at the Gahden, draws comments from EVERYBODY as we find our seats. For a moment, I'm hip.
I'm picky about my chainsaws (Stihl), my books (hardcover or kindle ... no softcover), about my Jameson's and Guinness, the whiskey and beer, respectively, of my people.
We spent about $3800 on concerts last year -- can't do that again, but it was a treat: Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlisle, Karla Bonoff, Chicago, Willie/Dylan. Billy Bragg, others on the bucket list. Such fun -- I don't do merch; save on that.
Thank you for doing what you do. I read everything.
Best,
Kevin Ritcchie
Woods-of-Maine
______________________________________
All I can say is YOLO baby!
Make yourself a promise that the time has come to set yourself free from worrying about money. Not free from being responsible with it (which at this point you can totally trust yourself to do by rote), just free from all the anxiety money has taken up in your mind. You're not Bezos, but you're never gonna go broke. Isn't that wonderful?
If you ask me, not worrying about financial building and planning is one of the only bright shiny aspects of getting older. You've made the journey and you've arrived with whatever you have. Let yourself feel great.
You can't buy happiness it's true. But the occasional high quality purchase is not a waste. It can bring lots of joy and pride to your heart which can last a long time. Just like with that jacket. You didn't get had. You got something great. It was worth it.
Not having any money is a real problem to think about each day. Worrying about not having any money when you do have a little bit is only self-destructive.
So…enough with the guilt. I mean, if you don't relax and enjoy now, when?
Don't worry. Be happy.
Best,
Paul Gigante
______________________________________
Dear Bob,
As my good friend Jock, also in his 70's says, after all the years of saving, it's time to put the car in reverse. Not easy to make that shift, but it seems like the right thing to do....now.
Best,
David Epstein
Oakland
______________________________________
Thanks Bob,I saw Levis jeans for sale $20 at Walmart.Black Friday.So I bought a pair.Fit good 1 time when I put them on,and then they went all baggy and out of shape.Levis Signature.I didn't know Levis have a crappy brand.But I bought a pair of Amazon jeans,they fit after wearing them for a week.Who knew?I can't ski or go to shows anymore,so me and my dogs eat well.I don't know what else to pay big money for.I heard a woman say,when you hit 60,you don't need to buy anymore clothes.You have enough until you die.I don't agree.A new pair of black jeans,and a new black t-shirt feels so good to wear.Stay well Bob,snow is coming this weekend here in CO.Take a run for me,Ted Keane
______________________________________
I am of your vintage and my sport of choice is dressage. I do not even look at what I spend on my horse, my equipment, my show clothes, my truck and trailer and my mare's wardrobe of blankets for every occasion. If I added it up, I would get nauseous. Here is the thing. This activity brings me pure unrelenting joy. That joy is priceless, so cost be damned. I never feel more alive than when I am riding. I will be dead soon enough so living well now is worth any price. You are right on.
Kathy Marsh
______________________________________
My old college roomate did extremely well, TV production and as the infomerical king of LA. He's got a lot of money and just dropped $2 mill on a nice second home up here, but that same feeling of, 'what if', gets in the way. He has a great 8 year old MBZ and he said I can ride this one into the sunset. Then he sees a helluva a deal on that new one where the back seats recline (he'll never have the pleasure of using them unless he gets a chauffeur), but it's got everything. It's a helluva a deal at $155K. He calls and does the Jewish back and forth e.g. it's a waste, what am I thinking, but it's such a good deal. I just said; Steve, just buy the damn car.
I'm not in that situation, but I just can't buy full retail, it's not only against my/our religion but I see getting gouged as an insult. It's offensive to me. Perhaps if I had fu\*ck you money I might feel different but the for the clothes I need now, Costco is perfectly fine. And then there's Marshall's. I do like a good retail outing. A deal is satisfying.
I spent plenty at those great Melrose boutiques., but it's not so important anymore. Comfort is king. I like HOKA's which can be pricey, but I will wait for the sales. thanks for the Vita Rain Zero tip.
I will buy a main course at Whole Foods cause I want quality. It's about what we feel is important. Then there's the whole concept of wanting to hit the finish line with the fuel gauge on zero. You can't take it with you.
John Brodey
______________________________________
It's a tricky balance, this aging thing, Bob.
Biggest issue - man or woman.
In 12 years we'll enter a full decade where there are 8 women for every man. They will live longer. And they'll have less money because they always get screwed literally and figuratively.
In 12 years, a larger number of Boomer single moms will be homeless. Women will be sicker with no one to care for them. The men the same age will chase younger women - if they've got the money. So do these women save now - or do they end up in a homeless shelter?
That's because this so-called trillion dollar windfall coming from Boomers will fall very unevenly on their kids. The rich will get a lot richer. Everyone else won't. The wealth will be concentrated in just a few geographic areas. Everyone else will be out of luck.
And, you didn't even talk about the money sponge that destroys families - dementia. $100k a year for pretty awful care?
When I think of that, I'm with you. Enjoy it now. And if you run out of money and you are still "aware", you can ski off the cliff or swim out into the ocean.
Because like it or not that's what the Republicans have put in motion with the ongoing cuts to service and the massive tax cut gift to the already wealthy, Massive poverty for millions of Americans and entitled grandkids sitting back and soaking up trust funds.
That's my nickel's worth since we don't have pennies any more.
John Parikhal
______________________________________
It's a very common dilemma 99.9% of American's are faced with, even the uber wealthy (who, trust me, have PLENTY of their own legacy and estate planning issues, just look at how many wealthy legacy artists get stuck in mud and die intestate!)
I always repeat the same thing to every artist I work with - find the balance. A balance between enjoying your money and saving your money. Don't save it all, don't spend it all. It's even more important for artists to find such a balance given fluctuations in income. Years when you sign a new pub deal, or sign a new three-picture deal with a studio, be sure to save plenty to cover those in-between years when earnings may slip… COVID shutdown, WGA/SAG strikes a perfect example.
We will all die one day, but we don't know when. The psychology of money is something that is extremely complex. Americans see their peers flexing on socials, yet don't realize most of them are living on CC debt… we all have seen our parents/grandparents navigate the costs of assisted living and skilled nursing in their twilight… you DO NOT want to be the person who relies on your children or Uncle Sam late in life.
We are in a constant fight against inflation… it is imperative that your savings are maintaining buying power over the years, otherwise you WILL fall behind. Case in point the cost of education and housing today versus just a decade ago.
I make a recommendation to work backwards! Set a savings goal each month. Whether it's $1,000 or $100,000/month - everyone has a different capacity to save. Make sure you hit your goal each month, then whatever is left over, go enjoy it! Take that vacation, buy that depreciating boat… we work really hard, care for our loved ones, exert incredible mental and physical stress each day trying to get by in life… what is it for other than doing the things that make you happy… and if it costs money, that's ok.
Find the balance. Everything will work out in the end… don't feel scared about asking for help.
Julian Schubach,
SVP - Wealth Management
ODI Financial
______________________________________
I agree wholeheartedly! I'm in my mid seventies and have decided that I put money where it most benefits me. If it seems wasteful to others, I don't care.
My wife and I were fortunate to have good jobs, with good retirement plans. We did the hard savings when we were younger. That meant sometimes we had to do or have less. So why should I do that now.
Bob, enjoy the time you have now. I will, and I don't think anyone should judge me for it
Mitch Horowitz
______________________________________
Go for it, YOLO.
I take comfort in the fact that, while we don't know how much time we have left, every year that goes by is one less year that we have to fund. I figure that if I'm worth as much now as I was last year, then I'm basically living for free.
Best regards,
Darryl Mattison
______________________________________
I'm with you Bob. It's nice to get exactly what you want sometimes. Not almost what you want. Cause that's the thing you'll reach for for years, like your ski jacket.
I believe in spending money on the things that are important to me....I don't worry about what others think so much anymore. Some people are going to have something to say either way.
Jason Morris
______________________________________
I love Costco's vitamin water. $.50 a bottle versus $1.25. Sure, the flavor isn't exactly what you want but for that price delta I'll take it. Plus you get an extra 4 ounces with the Costco version.
Best wishes,
Kyle Kraus
______________________________________
Spot on Bob. I'm your age. Still, I can't allow myself to throw caution completely out the window and live like there's no tomorrow, but at the same time, I realize I will never have more health, relative wealth and time than I do now. So I've got to carpe diem. And speaking of Costco..My wife has always wanted to go to Tahiti and stay in an overwater bungalow. So on Christmas Eve I got up the gumption to take the plunge and bought a Costco Travel package. It cost a small fortune, but we will both remember the trip long after I've forgotten what it cost.
Happy trails.
Peter Angleton
______________________________________
Milt Olin said the difference between a good vacation and a great one is $1,000.
Hank Barry
______________________________________
I am 82. I work weekends as a PSIA certified ski instructor and have a Vail Epic pass NE only available over 80. To me, anyone in their 70's is a child pretending they are old.
Robert Lovenheim
Andy Astrachan
______________________________________
Married 51 years, saving and planning on all the future traveling ahead.
Last year diagnosed with a bad blood cancer. Maybe a year or two left.
Live Now.
Dennis Brent
______________________________________
I am getting set to retire at age 60 and your column really spoke to me. Unlike you, I was moving with my family every few years so I never had a childhood home. Dad was always chasing after the better job - supposedly. But my mom was always the breadwinner because she was a nurse. Money was always an issue with four kids and never putting down roots. I learned to be tight with cash. I had a friend in college who would say, "McIntyre can stretch a buck until it screams."
It's hard to leave something I'm really good at. I know I could never get this job again at my current age. That's probably not the way to look at it.
Instead, I look at the fact that my two older brothers died during Covid. In another year or two I will have surpassed both of them in age. My mom died when I was 39. My dad died when I was 45. One sibling left. One daughter will be finishing up college next year. A great spouse.
Anyway … experiences. Go for the good ones. Everyone needs their own version of your ski jacket.
- Jody McIntyre
______________________________________
I'll turn 70 this year, and I'm financially comfortable, however, like you I've often found myself denying simple pleasures and saying, "nah, I don't really need that."
Here's something for you to think about: according to the CDC, the average life expectancy for a US male is 76 years. And the inescapable truth is the last few years will be characterized by declining health.
So take that ski trip NOW. Buy that convertible NOW. Do something nice for your kids NOW.
It's more important than ever to live in the moment. As Warren Zevon famously quipped about his cancer diagnosis, "enjoy every sandwich"
Dave Burgess
______________________________________
I loved this article—I swear I could have written it myself. You hit every topic perfectly: travelling, clothes, Gelson's, Costco, spending priorities, living life. I can relate to all of it.
I turned 72 not long ago, and I'm firmly at the "if I really like it, just buy it" stage of life. What's the point of living if you can't LIVE? I grew up with nothing—and I mean nothing—but I worked hard my entire life (and still do, because I enjoy it). At this point I just say to myself, what the hell is the point if I don't enjoy it while I'm here? Why should I be jammed into a horrible seat on a plane when I can pay for first class? Travelling is stressful enough these days—so screw it. The comfort, relaxation, and pampering are absolutely worth it.
I laughed out loud at the ski jacket story. I just spent a stupid amount of money on another Moncler winter jacket myself. I definitely felt a bit of guilt at first, but then I thought, I like it—just get it. Now I wear it all the time and love it.
The Costco gas story also hit home. I've got a few younger employees who laugh at me because I get up at 7:30 a.m. every Friday to fill up at Costco. I figure I'm getting three or four extra tanks of gas a year by doing that, so why not? I think what they find funny is that I'll do that—and then turn around and spend a ridiculous amount of money on a bottle of wine, clothes, or a great meal. ?? Oh well… it's all about priorities.
I found out last week that I need a triple bypass, so I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately. Fortunately, I'm in pretty good shape overall, so it should all work out. Thanks for the laugh, Bob—for me, your timing couldn't have been better.
Best Regards,
Jerry Van Dyke
______________________________________
The struggle is real Bob. Like you, I don't have kids and my siblings are financially stable, in other words, I don't need to leave any money behind. I am 67 and regardless of what my financial advisor says (I'm not going to live to be 97 as he would have me plan for) for the first time in my life, I can treat myself. I did everything I was supposed to, max contribution to my 401K and lived within my means. I bought a house that was significantly less than the bank told me I could afford. My parents grew up during the depression and were fearful that it could happen again. A case of Michelob and a rib roast at Christmas time was a big treat. Add in my Roman Catholic upbringing and you have a recipe for guilt and frugality. But I have finally realized that I can afford to do things that I always thought were out of reach, I just hired a contractor to do some work on my house that a few years ago, I would have done myself. I am planning to travel, if I see something that I really want, I buy it. You can't take it with you Bob, so the goal is to check out with no debt and about $8.00 in my checking account. Challenge accepted.
Michael Kimball
______________________________________
One of the things that happens when you get past 70 is you realize "I don't need any more pens, paper clips, shirts, underwear, socks, possibly even shoes, for the rest of my life." The more you buy, the more you have to get rid of, doing the Swedish Death Cleaning to prevent your kids from having to get a dumpster in the driveway to throw out all your "stuff". So I resist buying, at age 74. And why shoes? If you have 10 pairs, they don't wear out very quickly. You might be good for 10 years.
Preston Bealle
Darien, CT
______________________________________
Good article Bob. I am 67 and like you, I am more willing to splurge on things now more so than when I was younger. I have made the observation that once people hit their eighties they either have significant physical problems, mental health issues, or both which will significantly impact their ability to enjoy things they take for granted when younger. So, my plan is to go for it (in a thoughtful way) for the next decade, while my wife and I are still able.
I once heard some macro financial advice which advocated spending more freely on things that are important to you, and be frugal with those things that are not important. I think this is sound advice at any age.
Do things which make you happy, and put a smile on your face.
Don Weis
______________________________________
Say what you will, but Kirkland is a solid product. I wear their boxer briefs as they are almost as nice as Fabletics and I will use the 32 Degree Vests for outdoors because they hold up and cost $20.00, they rival North Face these days as NF shif the bed on their vests lately. They're long and bulky, they cheaper out! I will wear Costco and proudly. Take care, Bob
Adam Franklin
______________________________________
Beautifully said, Bob. You touched a lot of chords with this one.
I'm a Sam's Club guy (closer Costco is 190 miles away -- Sam's is 75 miles!)
I still have my Levi's jacket, bought in '77 at University with my own coin. I'd had Dickies and Sears before that -- endured the teasing. We couldn't afford the cool stuff.
I have a vintage wool Celtics jacket that, on my every few years Celtics game at the Gahden, draws comments from EVERYBODY as we find our seats. For a moment, I'm hip.
I'm picky about my chainsaws (Stihl), my books (hardcover or kindle ... no softcover), about my Jameson's and Guinness, the whiskey and beer, respectively, of my people.
We spent about $3800 on concerts last year -- can't do that again, but it was a treat: Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlisle, Karla Bonoff, Chicago, Willie/Dylan. Billy Bragg, others on the bucket list. Such fun -- I don't do merch; save on that.
Thank you for doing what you do. I read everything.
Best,
Kevin Ritcchie
Woods-of-Maine
______________________________________
All I can say is YOLO baby!
Make yourself a promise that the time has come to set yourself free from worrying about money. Not free from being responsible with it (which at this point you can totally trust yourself to do by rote), just free from all the anxiety money has taken up in your mind. You're not Bezos, but you're never gonna go broke. Isn't that wonderful?
If you ask me, not worrying about financial building and planning is one of the only bright shiny aspects of getting older. You've made the journey and you've arrived with whatever you have. Let yourself feel great.
You can't buy happiness it's true. But the occasional high quality purchase is not a waste. It can bring lots of joy and pride to your heart which can last a long time. Just like with that jacket. You didn't get had. You got something great. It was worth it.
Not having any money is a real problem to think about each day. Worrying about not having any money when you do have a little bit is only self-destructive.
So…enough with the guilt. I mean, if you don't relax and enjoy now, when?
Don't worry. Be happy.
Best,
Paul Gigante
______________________________________
Dear Bob,
As my good friend Jock, also in his 70's says, after all the years of saving, it's time to put the car in reverse. Not easy to make that shift, but it seems like the right thing to do....now.
Best,
David Epstein
Oakland
______________________________________
Thanks Bob,I saw Levis jeans for sale $20 at Walmart.Black Friday.So I bought a pair.Fit good 1 time when I put them on,and then they went all baggy and out of shape.Levis Signature.I didn't know Levis have a crappy brand.But I bought a pair of Amazon jeans,they fit after wearing them for a week.Who knew?I can't ski or go to shows anymore,so me and my dogs eat well.I don't know what else to pay big money for.I heard a woman say,when you hit 60,you don't need to buy anymore clothes.You have enough until you die.I don't agree.A new pair of black jeans,and a new black t-shirt feels so good to wear.Stay well Bob,snow is coming this weekend here in CO.Take a run for me,Ted Keane
______________________________________
I am of your vintage and my sport of choice is dressage. I do not even look at what I spend on my horse, my equipment, my show clothes, my truck and trailer and my mare's wardrobe of blankets for every occasion. If I added it up, I would get nauseous. Here is the thing. This activity brings me pure unrelenting joy. That joy is priceless, so cost be damned. I never feel more alive than when I am riding. I will be dead soon enough so living well now is worth any price. You are right on.
Kathy Marsh
______________________________________
My old college roomate did extremely well, TV production and as the infomerical king of LA. He's got a lot of money and just dropped $2 mill on a nice second home up here, but that same feeling of, 'what if', gets in the way. He has a great 8 year old MBZ and he said I can ride this one into the sunset. Then he sees a helluva a deal on that new one where the back seats recline (he'll never have the pleasure of using them unless he gets a chauffeur), but it's got everything. It's a helluva a deal at $155K. He calls and does the Jewish back and forth e.g. it's a waste, what am I thinking, but it's such a good deal. I just said; Steve, just buy the damn car.
I'm not in that situation, but I just can't buy full retail, it's not only against my/our religion but I see getting gouged as an insult. It's offensive to me. Perhaps if I had fu\*ck you money I might feel different but the for the clothes I need now, Costco is perfectly fine. And then there's Marshall's. I do like a good retail outing. A deal is satisfying.
I spent plenty at those great Melrose boutiques., but it's not so important anymore. Comfort is king. I like HOKA's which can be pricey, but I will wait for the sales. thanks for the Vita Rain Zero tip.
I will buy a main course at Whole Foods cause I want quality. It's about what we feel is important. Then there's the whole concept of wanting to hit the finish line with the fuel gauge on zero. You can't take it with you.
John Brodey
______________________________________
It's a tricky balance, this aging thing, Bob.
Biggest issue - man or woman.
In 12 years we'll enter a full decade where there are 8 women for every man. They will live longer. And they'll have less money because they always get screwed literally and figuratively.
In 12 years, a larger number of Boomer single moms will be homeless. Women will be sicker with no one to care for them. The men the same age will chase younger women - if they've got the money. So do these women save now - or do they end up in a homeless shelter?
That's because this so-called trillion dollar windfall coming from Boomers will fall very unevenly on their kids. The rich will get a lot richer. Everyone else won't. The wealth will be concentrated in just a few geographic areas. Everyone else will be out of luck.
And, you didn't even talk about the money sponge that destroys families - dementia. $100k a year for pretty awful care?
When I think of that, I'm with you. Enjoy it now. And if you run out of money and you are still "aware", you can ski off the cliff or swim out into the ocean.
Because like it or not that's what the Republicans have put in motion with the ongoing cuts to service and the massive tax cut gift to the already wealthy, Massive poverty for millions of Americans and entitled grandkids sitting back and soaking up trust funds.
That's my nickel's worth since we don't have pennies any more.
John Parikhal
______________________________________
It's a very common dilemma 99.9% of American's are faced with, even the uber wealthy (who, trust me, have PLENTY of their own legacy and estate planning issues, just look at how many wealthy legacy artists get stuck in mud and die intestate!)
I always repeat the same thing to every artist I work with - find the balance. A balance between enjoying your money and saving your money. Don't save it all, don't spend it all. It's even more important for artists to find such a balance given fluctuations in income. Years when you sign a new pub deal, or sign a new three-picture deal with a studio, be sure to save plenty to cover those in-between years when earnings may slip… COVID shutdown, WGA/SAG strikes a perfect example.
We will all die one day, but we don't know when. The psychology of money is something that is extremely complex. Americans see their peers flexing on socials, yet don't realize most of them are living on CC debt… we all have seen our parents/grandparents navigate the costs of assisted living and skilled nursing in their twilight… you DO NOT want to be the person who relies on your children or Uncle Sam late in life.
We are in a constant fight against inflation… it is imperative that your savings are maintaining buying power over the years, otherwise you WILL fall behind. Case in point the cost of education and housing today versus just a decade ago.
I make a recommendation to work backwards! Set a savings goal each month. Whether it's $1,000 or $100,000/month - everyone has a different capacity to save. Make sure you hit your goal each month, then whatever is left over, go enjoy it! Take that vacation, buy that depreciating boat… we work really hard, care for our loved ones, exert incredible mental and physical stress each day trying to get by in life… what is it for other than doing the things that make you happy… and if it costs money, that's ok.
Find the balance. Everything will work out in the end… don't feel scared about asking for help.
Julian Schubach,
SVP - Wealth Management
ODI Financial
______________________________________
I agree wholeheartedly! I'm in my mid seventies and have decided that I put money where it most benefits me. If it seems wasteful to others, I don't care.
My wife and I were fortunate to have good jobs, with good retirement plans. We did the hard savings when we were younger. That meant sometimes we had to do or have less. So why should I do that now.
Bob, enjoy the time you have now. I will, and I don't think anyone should judge me for it
Mitch Horowitz
______________________________________
Go for it, YOLO.
I take comfort in the fact that, while we don't know how much time we have left, every year that goes by is one less year that we have to fund. I figure that if I'm worth as much now as I was last year, then I'm basically living for free.
Best regards,
Darryl Mattison
______________________________________
I'm with you Bob. It's nice to get exactly what you want sometimes. Not almost what you want. Cause that's the thing you'll reach for for years, like your ski jacket.
I believe in spending money on the things that are important to me....I don't worry about what others think so much anymore. Some people are going to have something to say either way.
Jason Morris
______________________________________
I love Costco's vitamin water. $.50 a bottle versus $1.25. Sure, the flavor isn't exactly what you want but for that price delta I'll take it. Plus you get an extra 4 ounces with the Costco version.
Best wishes,
Kyle Kraus
______________________________________
Spot on Bob. I'm your age. Still, I can't allow myself to throw caution completely out the window and live like there's no tomorrow, but at the same time, I realize I will never have more health, relative wealth and time than I do now. So I've got to carpe diem. And speaking of Costco..My wife has always wanted to go to Tahiti and stay in an overwater bungalow. So on Christmas Eve I got up the gumption to take the plunge and bought a Costco Travel package. It cost a small fortune, but we will both remember the trip long after I've forgotten what it cost.
Happy trails.
Peter Angleton
______________________________________
Milt Olin said the difference between a good vacation and a great one is $1,000.
Hank Barry
______________________________________
I am 82. I work weekends as a PSIA certified ski instructor and have a Vail Epic pass NE only available over 80. To me, anyone in their 70's is a child pretending they are old.
Robert Lovenheim
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George Massenburg-This Week's Podcast
Engineer/producer/equipment designer extraordinaire George Massenburg and six of his behind the board buddies will be hosting a series of live shows of studio tales in New York at the Sheen Center from February 3rd to March 1st.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/george-massenburg/id1316200737?i=1000746194532
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5G42G1Ib3U55TrNO6TnSx9?si=6mKsoz1YQdSVkkYP_j6TkA
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/george-massenburg-318712050
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/4ecc4f43-0884-4209-a3a6-f372a66c5ddf/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-george-massenburg
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/george-massenburg/id1316200737?i=1000746194532
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5G42G1Ib3U55TrNO6TnSx9?si=6mKsoz1YQdSVkkYP_j6TkA
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/george-massenburg-318712050
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/4ecc4f43-0884-4209-a3a6-f372a66c5ddf/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-george-massenburg
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Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Aging
I'm too old to save money.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a spendthrift, but as far as saving a dollar here and there...I'm giving up on that, or shall I say I'm TRYING to give up on that. I lived hand to mouth for so long it's very difficult for me to spend a dollar, for fear I won't make any more, but I was skiing with my old buddy Mini in Sun Valley back in 2019 and...
He said he didn't know how much longer he would be able to do this. He's four and a half years older than I am. We were buddies back in Utah in the seventies. He's a CPA, he ended up moving to the Valley not long thereafter and got involved in some real estate deals and with the mountain being mostly groomers, getting so little snow, he decided to become a ski instructor, just to pass the time, which he had to apologize for, back at Snowbird they were considered the enemy, sell-outs.
That day I was skiing on boards that I got at a discount. Twenty five cents on the dollar. Hard to pass up a deal. And I employed the same deal for the following pair but they weren't so good, they wouldn't hold on the ice, so I decided what I hadn't done in years...
I decided to pay retail.
I'd done this once before, in 2010. I was in this ski shop across from the gondola in Aspen, which has an amazing inventory of clothing. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I tried on this Descente jacket and...
My heart sang. And I hadn't had ski clothing in decades that I liked that much. But it was $700...so, no way.
But then I got to Vail and thought about it and had them ship it to me. And that jacket... I got compliments for YEARS! It was red, with this silver imaging on the shoulders, very subtle, and I'm in the Game Creek Club and someone in the lobby comments on it. And then in the lift line. I've still got it, the only problem is red fades in the elements, but I can't get rid of it, I actually wore it over Christmas, when the conditions were so terrible, it improved my mood.
So the next time I needed new skis, at the end of 2022, I quizzed the store expert ad infinitum. I skied four brands. I ended up buying what I never would have, but... Everybody in the store said as good as the 99s were, the 108s were better. But you don't need a 108 every day, so I was going to wait to demo those. And as I'm laying down my cash, I ask the guy what I should do, and he says I should just buy them, which I do, at full pop, and they were right, the 108s were even better than the 99s.
So...
I just went to Costco. I don't want to be cheap, but I hate getting ripped-off. So I go to Costco to buy their Vita Rain Zero, which is an inexpensive imitation of Vitamin Water Zero, in some cases worse, in some cases better, depends on the flavor. I just can't handle the price of the Vitamin Water Zero, not with how much I drink. But when I'm in Vail, and the Vita Rain Zero is unavailable, I pop for the Vitamin Water Zero.
I mean how long am I gonna live?
Bob Weir died at 78. Not one of my friends believes they're not going to live that long, no, way beyond that long. But maybe they won't. The Big C got Bob, it could get you. And then you'd ask yourself...do I have any regrets?
That's another weird thing about being 70... You're forced with the choice, assuming you're awake, and not everybody is...are you going to keep playing the game, compromising, or be who you want to be, do what you want to do? The pressure to conform is amazing.
So I pull up to Costco and there's no line for gasoline. Which happens never. And I was planning to get gas later tonight at the Chevron in Brentwood, it's safe there, and I'll pay extra for safety, but since there was no line...
And I saved seven dollars. My tank is not that big and it wasn't completely run down and I was feeling good and then I asked myself...what is seven dollars?
And the problem with going to Costco is too much looks too good. But if you haven't got a family of four+, the portions/sizes are almost always too big. Furthermore, although a deal, not all of the foodstuffs are top drawer. I mean they're adequate, but they're not...
Gelson's.
Gelson's is the expensive market in L.A. The general market. Erewhon is niche and health-based but I'm talking about a store where you can get everything, the name brands, even if they'll pollute your system.
I never shopped there in the nineties. I couldn't rationalize the price. And now it's still hard, but... They have a raw bar, and I find that seafood incredibly satisfying. As for the soda I drink... I probably could pay less at Smart & Final, but not only would it be an additional, out of the way trip, there's no guarantee they'd have what I'm looking for. So I pay for what I want at Gelson's.
Now I have trouble using Instacart, because the prices are such a rip-off, but I will go to Gelson's. And Whole Foods if there's something there I want. I mean I'm going to be on my deathbed lamenting that I ate crappy food?
You can stretch it from there...
Do you pay for premium economy, never mind business class. If you're flying across an ocean, it really makes a difference. It's hard to rationalize the cost, it seems like lighting your money on fire, but if you sit squeezed in the back it's going to take you days longer to adjust at your destination.
Now let me be clear. If you ain't got the money, you have no choice but to watch your pennies and compromise. And I'm not rich, but...exactly how much longer am I gonna live?
Unlike so many of my peers, I'm afraid of running out of money, that's why I waited until 70 to take Social Security. Sure, if I die soon, I will have lost the bet. But I don't care. I just don't want to be on the other end, broke. I've got no kids to take me in, take care of me... Two of my parents' closest friends ran out of money, one even after a reverse mortgage, thank god their kids could keep them alive.
As for travel... Part of me still would like to take the winter to hit every ski area in America or Europe. I can't rationalize the money, but even if I'm alive... I know people whose parents went on their last trip, even though they were only in their eighties, it was too hard after that.
And a friend promised me a couple pair of new skis. Great, but they need bindings. I could cheap out and buy the Markers, but the Looks are better. But a pair of the top of the line will cost me nearly $600. Most people would buy skis on sale, never mind the bindings, for that price. Right now Powder7 has a sale on 2026 demos near that number.
But the truth is the right tool makes all the difference, and it makes a difference to me.
I was skiing on a pair of skis in Aspen that would not hold on the hard snow. Even though they look pretty good. The same 99s referenced above. Most people would continue to ski on them, I'm going to trash them. Why push the limit and undercut my enjoyment?
I have friends my age who keep saving money...for what?
Now I can't rationalize the price of concert tickets, but I'm lucky, I can go for free. And you may needle me for this, but every business has free perks/access. Like if you're a ski instructor you get a huge discount on your equipment.
Obviously skiing is important to me. I'm not holding back, if I want it, I buy it. I was willing to buy a new jacket at full pop in December, but I didn't see anything I liked, so I didn't. But all those exclusive items, if you wait for them to go on sale, they're gone.
Now my dad always insisted on picking up the dinner check. Everybody was invited. I wish I could do that.
Then again, my father knew where every dollar was.
Then again, we never moved from the house I grew up in. We put on an addition, and then the money saved was put into trips and meals. What they now call "experiences." I mean you have to make a choice.
Or, you can clip coupons, thinking you're beating the system...but how much time are you going to waste? And the older you get, the more important your time is to you.
So I didn't mind saving money on gas at Costco, but if there were a wait I would have passed. Just like I won't line up for a Black Friday sale. I no longer buy what is on sale, but what I want...which is almost always more expensive.
Kinda like the clothes at Costco... I never give them a look, but I saw an ad on TikTok or Instagram Reels that they had UGG slippers for less than twenty bucks.
I find shopping for clothing overwhelming.
Then again, Lululemon is suing Costco, saying their pants are a rip-off of their design/product. The "Wall Street Journal" compared the two...turns out the Costco product is extremely good at a fraction of the price. But I'm gonna save money on this? It's like that comic Sheng Wang said...when you buy your clothes at Costco, you've given up.
I mean they had Wrangler jeans at twenty bucks. Very tempting, even though in the sixties Wrangler was for kids and girls. But do I need new jeans? I mean how often do I buy jeans? I might as well continue to buy them at the Polo outlet store...like I said, I don't need to be ripped-off, but I don't need to wear Costco clothes.
And maybe you do, which is fine. If it's not important to you, cool. But I still remember all those comments on my red Descente ski jacket, I still get a thrill when I see it in the closet, when I occasionally wear it.
So, inflation has made the value of a dollar incomprehensible. Prices are so high that it makes it that much harder to lay your cash down. However, I don't want to be like my mother, who had a cheap streak, even though she complained how cheap others were. My mother would just say the price was too high, she'd deny herself, not much, but you could sense her attitude.
But now she's gone and I'm still here. For how long I'm not sure. So I'm trying to ease up on the reins. Chart my own path. Spend when it's not easy for me and let it go. Hell, we stayed in a hotel room in Kyoto which was fantastic, but when I saw the bill... I'm embarrassed to tell you how much it was, and Felice ultimately said "I don't know what I was thinking..." I still haven't gotten over the amount. I mean the money you spend on lodging is gone, like the money you spend on concert tickets. But then I put it in perspective. Or I utilize the perspective. I'm going to save a dollar here or there? I mean relatively speaking it's bupkes. Live it up a bit, get exactly what you want.
That's what I'm trying to do.
It isn't easy, but I've made progress.
--
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Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a spendthrift, but as far as saving a dollar here and there...I'm giving up on that, or shall I say I'm TRYING to give up on that. I lived hand to mouth for so long it's very difficult for me to spend a dollar, for fear I won't make any more, but I was skiing with my old buddy Mini in Sun Valley back in 2019 and...
He said he didn't know how much longer he would be able to do this. He's four and a half years older than I am. We were buddies back in Utah in the seventies. He's a CPA, he ended up moving to the Valley not long thereafter and got involved in some real estate deals and with the mountain being mostly groomers, getting so little snow, he decided to become a ski instructor, just to pass the time, which he had to apologize for, back at Snowbird they were considered the enemy, sell-outs.
That day I was skiing on boards that I got at a discount. Twenty five cents on the dollar. Hard to pass up a deal. And I employed the same deal for the following pair but they weren't so good, they wouldn't hold on the ice, so I decided what I hadn't done in years...
I decided to pay retail.
I'd done this once before, in 2010. I was in this ski shop across from the gondola in Aspen, which has an amazing inventory of clothing. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but I tried on this Descente jacket and...
My heart sang. And I hadn't had ski clothing in decades that I liked that much. But it was $700...so, no way.
But then I got to Vail and thought about it and had them ship it to me. And that jacket... I got compliments for YEARS! It was red, with this silver imaging on the shoulders, very subtle, and I'm in the Game Creek Club and someone in the lobby comments on it. And then in the lift line. I've still got it, the only problem is red fades in the elements, but I can't get rid of it, I actually wore it over Christmas, when the conditions were so terrible, it improved my mood.
So the next time I needed new skis, at the end of 2022, I quizzed the store expert ad infinitum. I skied four brands. I ended up buying what I never would have, but... Everybody in the store said as good as the 99s were, the 108s were better. But you don't need a 108 every day, so I was going to wait to demo those. And as I'm laying down my cash, I ask the guy what I should do, and he says I should just buy them, which I do, at full pop, and they were right, the 108s were even better than the 99s.
So...
I just went to Costco. I don't want to be cheap, but I hate getting ripped-off. So I go to Costco to buy their Vita Rain Zero, which is an inexpensive imitation of Vitamin Water Zero, in some cases worse, in some cases better, depends on the flavor. I just can't handle the price of the Vitamin Water Zero, not with how much I drink. But when I'm in Vail, and the Vita Rain Zero is unavailable, I pop for the Vitamin Water Zero.
I mean how long am I gonna live?
Bob Weir died at 78. Not one of my friends believes they're not going to live that long, no, way beyond that long. But maybe they won't. The Big C got Bob, it could get you. And then you'd ask yourself...do I have any regrets?
That's another weird thing about being 70... You're forced with the choice, assuming you're awake, and not everybody is...are you going to keep playing the game, compromising, or be who you want to be, do what you want to do? The pressure to conform is amazing.
So I pull up to Costco and there's no line for gasoline. Which happens never. And I was planning to get gas later tonight at the Chevron in Brentwood, it's safe there, and I'll pay extra for safety, but since there was no line...
And I saved seven dollars. My tank is not that big and it wasn't completely run down and I was feeling good and then I asked myself...what is seven dollars?
And the problem with going to Costco is too much looks too good. But if you haven't got a family of four+, the portions/sizes are almost always too big. Furthermore, although a deal, not all of the foodstuffs are top drawer. I mean they're adequate, but they're not...
Gelson's.
Gelson's is the expensive market in L.A. The general market. Erewhon is niche and health-based but I'm talking about a store where you can get everything, the name brands, even if they'll pollute your system.
I never shopped there in the nineties. I couldn't rationalize the price. And now it's still hard, but... They have a raw bar, and I find that seafood incredibly satisfying. As for the soda I drink... I probably could pay less at Smart & Final, but not only would it be an additional, out of the way trip, there's no guarantee they'd have what I'm looking for. So I pay for what I want at Gelson's.
Now I have trouble using Instacart, because the prices are such a rip-off, but I will go to Gelson's. And Whole Foods if there's something there I want. I mean I'm going to be on my deathbed lamenting that I ate crappy food?
You can stretch it from there...
Do you pay for premium economy, never mind business class. If you're flying across an ocean, it really makes a difference. It's hard to rationalize the cost, it seems like lighting your money on fire, but if you sit squeezed in the back it's going to take you days longer to adjust at your destination.
Now let me be clear. If you ain't got the money, you have no choice but to watch your pennies and compromise. And I'm not rich, but...exactly how much longer am I gonna live?
Unlike so many of my peers, I'm afraid of running out of money, that's why I waited until 70 to take Social Security. Sure, if I die soon, I will have lost the bet. But I don't care. I just don't want to be on the other end, broke. I've got no kids to take me in, take care of me... Two of my parents' closest friends ran out of money, one even after a reverse mortgage, thank god their kids could keep them alive.
As for travel... Part of me still would like to take the winter to hit every ski area in America or Europe. I can't rationalize the money, but even if I'm alive... I know people whose parents went on their last trip, even though they were only in their eighties, it was too hard after that.
And a friend promised me a couple pair of new skis. Great, but they need bindings. I could cheap out and buy the Markers, but the Looks are better. But a pair of the top of the line will cost me nearly $600. Most people would buy skis on sale, never mind the bindings, for that price. Right now Powder7 has a sale on 2026 demos near that number.
But the truth is the right tool makes all the difference, and it makes a difference to me.
I was skiing on a pair of skis in Aspen that would not hold on the hard snow. Even though they look pretty good. The same 99s referenced above. Most people would continue to ski on them, I'm going to trash them. Why push the limit and undercut my enjoyment?
I have friends my age who keep saving money...for what?
Now I can't rationalize the price of concert tickets, but I'm lucky, I can go for free. And you may needle me for this, but every business has free perks/access. Like if you're a ski instructor you get a huge discount on your equipment.
Obviously skiing is important to me. I'm not holding back, if I want it, I buy it. I was willing to buy a new jacket at full pop in December, but I didn't see anything I liked, so I didn't. But all those exclusive items, if you wait for them to go on sale, they're gone.
Now my dad always insisted on picking up the dinner check. Everybody was invited. I wish I could do that.
Then again, my father knew where every dollar was.
Then again, we never moved from the house I grew up in. We put on an addition, and then the money saved was put into trips and meals. What they now call "experiences." I mean you have to make a choice.
Or, you can clip coupons, thinking you're beating the system...but how much time are you going to waste? And the older you get, the more important your time is to you.
So I didn't mind saving money on gas at Costco, but if there were a wait I would have passed. Just like I won't line up for a Black Friday sale. I no longer buy what is on sale, but what I want...which is almost always more expensive.
Kinda like the clothes at Costco... I never give them a look, but I saw an ad on TikTok or Instagram Reels that they had UGG slippers for less than twenty bucks.
I find shopping for clothing overwhelming.
Then again, Lululemon is suing Costco, saying their pants are a rip-off of their design/product. The "Wall Street Journal" compared the two...turns out the Costco product is extremely good at a fraction of the price. But I'm gonna save money on this? It's like that comic Sheng Wang said...when you buy your clothes at Costco, you've given up.
I mean they had Wrangler jeans at twenty bucks. Very tempting, even though in the sixties Wrangler was for kids and girls. But do I need new jeans? I mean how often do I buy jeans? I might as well continue to buy them at the Polo outlet store...like I said, I don't need to be ripped-off, but I don't need to wear Costco clothes.
And maybe you do, which is fine. If it's not important to you, cool. But I still remember all those comments on my red Descente ski jacket, I still get a thrill when I see it in the closet, when I occasionally wear it.
So, inflation has made the value of a dollar incomprehensible. Prices are so high that it makes it that much harder to lay your cash down. However, I don't want to be like my mother, who had a cheap streak, even though she complained how cheap others were. My mother would just say the price was too high, she'd deny herself, not much, but you could sense her attitude.
But now she's gone and I'm still here. For how long I'm not sure. So I'm trying to ease up on the reins. Chart my own path. Spend when it's not easy for me and let it go. Hell, we stayed in a hotel room in Kyoto which was fantastic, but when I saw the bill... I'm embarrassed to tell you how much it was, and Felice ultimately said "I don't know what I was thinking..." I still haven't gotten over the amount. I mean the money you spend on lodging is gone, like the money you spend on concert tickets. But then I put it in perspective. Or I utilize the perspective. I'm going to save a dollar here or there? I mean relatively speaking it's bupkes. Live it up a bit, get exactly what you want.
That's what I'm trying to do.
It isn't easy, but I've made progress.
--
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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Having Cultural Impact
Anybody can be famous. Many people can have success on the chart and sell tickets. But can they move the cultural needle? That is the question. That is where music has abdicated its power.
Hip-hop. The sound of the streets. As popular as it was, the true breakthrough moment was the L.A. riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. That's when white people realized everything that N.W.A. and Ice-T were saying about the police was true.
But you don't have to be political to have impact.
Two examples:
1. Steely Dan's "Aja."
It was the same two guys, but the sound was completely different. Nothing on "The Royal Scam" prepared the audience for the jazz-influenced "Aja," with its extended tunes. On paper, a disastrous career move. In reality, although sounding completely different from everything in the rock marketplace, the audience embraced "Aja," because it hungered for something new, an alternative to the corporate rock pablum that was being purveyed.
2. Joe Jackson's "Night and Day"
The rap on Joe was he was an imitation of Elvis Costello, even though his initial album, "Look Sharp," didn't sound the same and had unique messages that resonated with the public. Is she really going out with him? We haven't had that sensibility here since at least the eighties. Today everybody's a winner, no one's a nerd...unless they're embracing nerd culture, which is a joke, it's just another way of saying "Look, I'm cool!"
Anyway, repeating the same formula to less artistic and commercial success, Jackson put out "Jumpin' Jive," which the audience embraced, albeit not to the level of what had come before, but the audience believed acts were artists with something to say, and if they said it listeners should pay attention. Today the script is flipped. The track is oftentimes more important than the act, and how can you believe the singer has something to say when the song is written by committee?
Then Joe jumps even further from the beaten path. "Night and Day" was cool and jazz-influenced, when AOR radio was becoming calcified and MTV was starting to break through with one hit English wonders, which it filtered between bombastic acts from the previous decades who'd made videos to satiate the European market with its tight radio playlists. "Night and Day" sounded like nothing else on the radio, but it resonated with the public which demanded to hear it.
3. "Avalon"
Was a commercial failure in America upon its release in 1982. Roxy Music broke up once again thereafter. There were no singles. It was smooth when music was turning more edgy. It sounded like nothing else. If even confounded Roxy Music fans. But if you gave it a few spins, you entered a world unlike any other. The music set your mind free. When someone came to visit you put it on to spread the word. Instead of going for obvious commercial success, Roxy Music created an album that became a standard, that has lasted forever. It's just waiting there, like a land mine, ready to be discovered by younger generations.
Today the paradigm is different. The end goals are primary. I.e. fame and money.
Another thing lacking is the basics. As in education. I'm talking book-learning, not learning how to play your instrument. Today college is seen as a glorified trade school, if you don't get a gig upon graduation, the entire experience wasn't worth it. But in the days of yore, college was about expanding your mind, so you could put two and two together in a different way.
As for high school... Music and art have been excised and they're teaching to the text. They're smoothing off the rough edges in public schools...in private schools, except for the long established elites, coloring outside the borders has never been tolerated.
As for learning your instrument at Berklee... There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but pop music is about the brain, not the fingers. It's not about rote repetition, but thinking about how to come up with new ideas, or putting the old ones together in a new and different way. Which is why schools like Berklee very rarely produce stars. Because they don't have what the public is looking for. The public is looking for something different, something inspirational.
So if you're starting out today...
1. Consume culture voraciously. Read the news, watch TV and TikTok...you can't reflect life back upon the masses with insight unless you've got experience. Which is why youngsters under the age of fifteen make worthless music, they have nothing to say.
2. Read. Songs have lyrics. To make them interesting, you must have a basis in the written word.
3. Attend the best college you can get into. Not for status, because at the elite level it's not about the material but analyzing the material. You won't be helped by business and economic classes, probably not the sciences either. Everything the talking heads deride today is the basis of art that impacts and changes the culture. Talking Heads went to the Rhode Island School of Design... Doesn't this make you a chump, you can't make a living as a visual artist, right? Same deal with studying art history and English and... These are the students who change the world.
4. Art trumps money. Your job is not to sidle up to money, but to speak truth to it. And that's when people bond to you, when they can resonate with your position. As soon as you start parading your riches you've lost the plot. This was different in the days of yore because musicians were not supposed to have this much wealth and power, and then they achieved it, it was a middle finger to the man.
5. You have to be able to say no. If you say yes to everything, you have no backbone.
6. Credibility. It takes a lifetime to build it, one false move to eviscerate it. If it doesn't feel right, you shouldn't do it.
There's plenty of time to make it, you don't have to be young anymore...look at Chris Stapleton, and he's not the only one.
Just because the press gloms on to money, talking about grosses and ticket sale numbers, don't fall for this trap. They do this because those are quantifiable, cultural impact is not.
You have to go down the road less taken. You have to be willing to fail. Odds are you're going to fail. But these are the people who change the world.
If you're complaining you haven't made it, you probably don't deserve to. Furthermore, it's impossible to find a superstar who didn't have doubts, who didn't think of quitting. Deep inside you know if you're truly worthy, this century is about the false front, don't fall for it. It is called "popular music," which means if it's not popular... Yes, the music needs to be popular. So if some academic approves of it and no one else resonates, you're doing it wrong.
There is no roadmap. Your goal is not success so much as to change people's lives, make them think.
It's too big a challenge for most people making music today.
--
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,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
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Hip-hop. The sound of the streets. As popular as it was, the true breakthrough moment was the L.A. riots in the wake of the Rodney King verdict. That's when white people realized everything that N.W.A. and Ice-T were saying about the police was true.
But you don't have to be political to have impact.
Two examples:
1. Steely Dan's "Aja."
It was the same two guys, but the sound was completely different. Nothing on "The Royal Scam" prepared the audience for the jazz-influenced "Aja," with its extended tunes. On paper, a disastrous career move. In reality, although sounding completely different from everything in the rock marketplace, the audience embraced "Aja," because it hungered for something new, an alternative to the corporate rock pablum that was being purveyed.
2. Joe Jackson's "Night and Day"
The rap on Joe was he was an imitation of Elvis Costello, even though his initial album, "Look Sharp," didn't sound the same and had unique messages that resonated with the public. Is she really going out with him? We haven't had that sensibility here since at least the eighties. Today everybody's a winner, no one's a nerd...unless they're embracing nerd culture, which is a joke, it's just another way of saying "Look, I'm cool!"
Anyway, repeating the same formula to less artistic and commercial success, Jackson put out "Jumpin' Jive," which the audience embraced, albeit not to the level of what had come before, but the audience believed acts were artists with something to say, and if they said it listeners should pay attention. Today the script is flipped. The track is oftentimes more important than the act, and how can you believe the singer has something to say when the song is written by committee?
Then Joe jumps even further from the beaten path. "Night and Day" was cool and jazz-influenced, when AOR radio was becoming calcified and MTV was starting to break through with one hit English wonders, which it filtered between bombastic acts from the previous decades who'd made videos to satiate the European market with its tight radio playlists. "Night and Day" sounded like nothing else on the radio, but it resonated with the public which demanded to hear it.
3. "Avalon"
Was a commercial failure in America upon its release in 1982. Roxy Music broke up once again thereafter. There were no singles. It was smooth when music was turning more edgy. It sounded like nothing else. If even confounded Roxy Music fans. But if you gave it a few spins, you entered a world unlike any other. The music set your mind free. When someone came to visit you put it on to spread the word. Instead of going for obvious commercial success, Roxy Music created an album that became a standard, that has lasted forever. It's just waiting there, like a land mine, ready to be discovered by younger generations.
Today the paradigm is different. The end goals are primary. I.e. fame and money.
Another thing lacking is the basics. As in education. I'm talking book-learning, not learning how to play your instrument. Today college is seen as a glorified trade school, if you don't get a gig upon graduation, the entire experience wasn't worth it. But in the days of yore, college was about expanding your mind, so you could put two and two together in a different way.
As for high school... Music and art have been excised and they're teaching to the text. They're smoothing off the rough edges in public schools...in private schools, except for the long established elites, coloring outside the borders has never been tolerated.
As for learning your instrument at Berklee... There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but pop music is about the brain, not the fingers. It's not about rote repetition, but thinking about how to come up with new ideas, or putting the old ones together in a new and different way. Which is why schools like Berklee very rarely produce stars. Because they don't have what the public is looking for. The public is looking for something different, something inspirational.
So if you're starting out today...
1. Consume culture voraciously. Read the news, watch TV and TikTok...you can't reflect life back upon the masses with insight unless you've got experience. Which is why youngsters under the age of fifteen make worthless music, they have nothing to say.
2. Read. Songs have lyrics. To make them interesting, you must have a basis in the written word.
3. Attend the best college you can get into. Not for status, because at the elite level it's not about the material but analyzing the material. You won't be helped by business and economic classes, probably not the sciences either. Everything the talking heads deride today is the basis of art that impacts and changes the culture. Talking Heads went to the Rhode Island School of Design... Doesn't this make you a chump, you can't make a living as a visual artist, right? Same deal with studying art history and English and... These are the students who change the world.
4. Art trumps money. Your job is not to sidle up to money, but to speak truth to it. And that's when people bond to you, when they can resonate with your position. As soon as you start parading your riches you've lost the plot. This was different in the days of yore because musicians were not supposed to have this much wealth and power, and then they achieved it, it was a middle finger to the man.
5. You have to be able to say no. If you say yes to everything, you have no backbone.
6. Credibility. It takes a lifetime to build it, one false move to eviscerate it. If it doesn't feel right, you shouldn't do it.
There's plenty of time to make it, you don't have to be young anymore...look at Chris Stapleton, and he's not the only one.
Just because the press gloms on to money, talking about grosses and ticket sale numbers, don't fall for this trap. They do this because those are quantifiable, cultural impact is not.
You have to go down the road less taken. You have to be willing to fail. Odds are you're going to fail. But these are the people who change the world.
If you're complaining you haven't made it, you probably don't deserve to. Furthermore, it's impossible to find a superstar who didn't have doubts, who didn't think of quitting. Deep inside you know if you're truly worthy, this century is about the false front, don't fall for it. It is called "popular music," which means if it's not popular... Yes, the music needs to be popular. So if some academic approves of it and no one else resonates, you're doing it wrong.
There is no roadmap. Your goal is not success so much as to change people's lives, make them think.
It's too big a challenge for most people making music today.
--
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,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25
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