From: Sechman Scott
Subject: Re: Formula 1: Drive To Survive
Bob,
WTF?
My lady subscribes to your newsletter.
I come downstairs today and she's in front of the TV watching this show. I was taken aback, as I have to force her to watch Angels games that are required viewing here in NC since I'm an Anaheim ex-pat.
I said "Why are you watching a racing show?"
"Lefsetz wrote about it", she replied.
"I saw that he did…what episode are you on?", I asked, expecting something like Season 1, Episode 2. (I mean, I am with her all day long except when I have a gig…of which I had two, this week).
"I'm on Season 2, episode 2".
I was shocked. "When did you have time to watch 12 episodes?"
"While you were at the your gigs."
It's like you furnished her with visual crack, Bob. She's hooked on this shit. She won't stop.
I refuse to start a series in the middle, so I am left to my own devices until she's finished with it. Depending on how extreme her withdrawal symptoms are, she may watch it again, when I take on Season 1, Episode 1.
I blame you, dude.
Scott
________________________________________
From: Frederick Lyle
Subject: Re: God Gave Rock And Roll To You
Bob -
Back in 1984 I lucked upon a Russ Ballard song called "Voices." I had the job to find and integrate the music played on "Miami Vice."
Half the song was perfect and the other half felt like filler.
Emmy Award winning music editor (for this episode) Jerry Cohen, sliced and diced the track to fit the scene.
Don Johnson himself feels that the Russ Ballard "Voices" sequence was the best music segment we ever did on "Miami Vice."
Thanks for filling in where Ballard came from.
Fred Lyle
__
Note: Watch "Miami Vice" segment: https://bit.ly/3vvU3yh
Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3fWAAAr or YouTube: https://bit.ly/3wHKtsw
________________________________________
From: Lizzz Kritzer
Subject: The Ignorant Pay The Price
?
Now you know 3 (couples who outlived their money). Mom is 94 and Dad is 97....both will hit 100. They ran out. And I got stuck with the bill.
________________________________________
From: Tim Pringle
Subject: Re: The Ignorant Pay The Price
I can remember getting the polio vaccine in church when I was very young. I've gotten a Covid vaccine and I'll be 63 in June. My sister-in-law who is probably eight or nine years older than I am had polio. Her leg was horribly disfigured and she walked with a limp her whole life. I noted in one of your prior emails was is a discussion about the scourge of polio which is now for the most part gone due to the polio vaccine vaccine. I'm still shocked at how uninformed people are these days.
________________________________________
From: Mike McCann
Subject: Re: Personality
Hey Bob,
From the VERY small world file.
I interviewed Lloyd Price at my house in 2017. Why would the legendary singer, who lived in Pound Ridge (Westchester County) come down to Fairfield?
Turns out that he was an active participant in a Bowling league at Nutmeg Bowl, the lanes near the Villa Ave Stop & Shop. I'd spoken with him on the phone -- and was planning to meet him somewhere near his home around the time his final album came out when he mentions that he kept fit by bowling in this league... When I heard Fairfield, I was pleasantly shocked. So, yes, Lloyd Price was a guest in my dining room where we recorded a 40 minute conversation.
A terrific performer and very gracious gentleman. I enjoyed speaking with him and seeing him perform at the Cutting Room in NY.
I wasn't aware he was ill until I saw the obit late Friday night.
I'm saddened by his passing.
Mike McCann
________________________________________
From: Phil Brown
Subject: Re: Personality
You missed something very important about Lloyd Price: After getting screwed out of the royalties on Lawdy Miss Clawdy he owned all the copyrights on all his songs. Administered them himself, too. No publisher to take half. Ahead of his time.
________________________________________
From: Garth Cartwright
Subject: Re: Personality
Hi Bob,
nice to see you honouring Lloyd Price's passing.
Apparently Lloyd not only held onto his publishing he also owned his masters - at least the ABC ones (but he might have purchased his Specialty masters at some point, I believe). The publishing royalties off the 3 hits you mentioned kept him in real comfort - he lived in upstate NY - and allowed him to pursue all manner of business ventures (some more successful than others) and avoid having to grind it out on the Oldies circuit. When he did do a show he apparently did a good one - but he only performed when he felt like it. He put his business sense down to learning from his mother as she ran a fried fish shack and being advised while drafted to make sure he owned as much of himself as possible - someone in the military told him this. Lawny Miss Clawdy was one of those songs that presaged the rock'n'roll revolution - no surprise that Elvis, Little Richard and The Beatles all recorded it.
________________________________________
From: Robert D'Angelo
Subject: Re: Personality
I think I first heard the song personality at one of Marie Kauffman's (Murray the K) rock 'n' roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramont when I was in high school. Performed live, no lip-synching with about $200 worth of audio equipment for each of the many acts. I worked back stage as a gopher for $3.00 for a six hour day, but it was cash.
Subject: Re: Data
Hi Bob,
I notice this as I hunt for a journalism job too. They're looking for people to write to SEO and trends, and while that's good sometimes, it leads to a lot of lazy content out there. In my main fields of writing - music and sport, both things you mentioned - there are great stories that will never be told, because the data suggests no one reads them, which means no one will be hired to write anything than pieces for search engines.
Samuel Draper, London
________________________________________
From: Jeremy Hammond
Subject: Re: Data
For good data - try counting the goosebumps….
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Friday, 28 May 2021
Thursday, 27 May 2021
God Gave Rock And Roll To You
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2SDkP9i
YouTube: https://bit.ly/34vPgRv
1
Many people believe this is a KISS song.
Argent released two albums to crickets before they broke through. No one was waiting for the band, today they would have gone out as the Zombies, just like Led Zeppelin started out as the New Yardbirds, sans name recognition you're starting at zero.
As for the Zombies?
They'd had legendary hits, but they were years before, except for "Time of the Season" from "Odessey and Oracle," which Al Kooper rescued from the dustbin and made a hit after the band had broken up. Meanwhile, Rod Argent may have written "Time of the Season," but Colin Blunstone was the frontman, the vocalist, then again all of the Zombies' success occurred prior to the explosion of rock rags, back then most people hadn't even heard of "Rolling Stone," which might have launched in 1967 but truly didn't hit critical mass until the seventies.
But Argent was a different band. In this case, the frontman was Russ Ballard, who was also the primary songwriter. And the end result sounded nothing like the Zombies, but there was a certain magic, which eluded the public.
The first album, the eponymous "Argent," contained one of the best records of all time, "Liar." Doubt me? Pull it up, the dynamics alone will close you. A year later, Three Dog Night" covered "Liar" and made it a hit, and that take is pretty good, but the dynamics, the ethereal sound, is absent.
As for the second Argent album, "Ring of Hands," a year later Three Dog Night included "Chained" in their 1972 LP, "Seven Separate Fools," but it wasn't a single and...I'd see Argent albums in the bins, but I never ever knew anybody who owned one.
And then came "Hold Your Head Up."
1972... Let me see, that summer also saw the release of "Thick as a Brick." In the U.K., T.Rex was dominant, and David Bowie was exploding with "Ziggy Stardust," never mind the debut of Roxy Music...but those acts took a long time to cross the pond. Interesting how they're all English.
And so was Argent.
Now by 1972, every hamlet had an FM rock station. And free-form was history, the music was programmed. And what they were looking for was instant smashes, tracks people would get on one listen and clamor to hear again.
That was "Hold Your Head Up." The ethereal squeal of the intro followed by the pounding drums entranced you immediately, and then when the guitar riff was introduced, you were completely sold. And then Russ Ballard emerged atop it all and the cake was baked, the whole concoction rose.
This was the era of the extended track. The album version was six minutes and seventeen seconds long, it was cut down to just over three for AM radio after it had such an impact on FM, it blared out of car windows ALL OVER THE WORLD, this is the rock that has been pooh-poohed by the critics, those rewriting history, but this was the music that dominated back then, when it became about bigger and bigger shows, when politics was fading and only the sound remained. All Argent had to do was follow it up.
2
"God Gave Rock and Roll to You"?
The title alone will swear you off the track. Sure, the Jesus movement had fomented, but tying in religion and self-congratulation, the power of rock and roll...it was all just a bit too over the top, to the point of appearing ersatz.
Needless to say, the track stiffed. And since Argent had little commercial history to speak of, so did the album, "In Deep."
The act made two more albums on Epic, even one on RCA, but it was almost like they didn't come out, there was no attention, no radio action, and Russ Ballard left after "Nexus," the band's 1974 follow-up to "In Deep."
Ballard went on to be a songwriter, he also recorded, not that anybody seemed to know, but he's got enough classics in his catalog to be living on royalties. Yes, in addition to "Liar" and "Hold Your Head Up," he also composed "New York Groove" for Ace Frehley, "You Can Do Magic" for America, "Winning" for Santana, and even "I Know There's Something Going On," from my friend Frida's first English solo album, produced by Phil Collins.
Rod Argent went behind the scenes to work with Tanita Tikaram, who had a big MTV track "Twist in My Sobriety," and then promptly disappeared.
Argent's cousin, bass player Jim Rodford, decamped for the Kinks.
And drummer Rob Henrit ultimately followed him, after doing some session work.
But then something strange happened, in 1989 the stoner comedy "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" was released and succeeded smashingly. And then there was a sequel, "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" in 1991, and this being the twentieth century, there were attendant soundtrack albums for both flicks, and the one for "Bogus" featured cuts from Slaughter, Megadeth, Primus and KISS. And the KISS track was a cover of what was now called "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II." One can argue quite strongly this is perfect KISS fodder, over the top bombast, subtlety is excised, Paul Stanley is singing with all the power of his lungs, the band sludged through this forgotten song and gave it the attention it deserved, it was ultimately released as a single and also included in a subsequent KISS album. Today everybody knows "God Gave Rock and Roll to You"... Well, not Gen-Z. Maybe some millennials. This sound is out of fashion, but it still had dominance until the turn of the century.
3
So I was driving on the freeway today, twisting the steering wheel of my four-wheel drive car, not able to avoid the influence of "Formula 1: Drive to Survive," and I'm listening to the radio.
The news is scary and too often repetitive.
Howard's on vacation, although I did enjoy hearing them beat up Memet again.
So ultimately I switched the channel to Classic Vinyl. And "Roadhouse Blues" started pouring out of the speakers, the subwoofer thumping as Jim Morrison got himself a beer and I contemplated how great this basic song is, played constantly on classic rock stations today, even though the album it opens, "Morrison Hotel," was pooh-poohed by critics.
And then...maybe I switched to Deep Tracks, but on one of those rock stations, after pushing some buttons, I heard the inimitable sound of Argent's "God Gave Rock and Roll to You."
And now I'm really in the groove, I turn up the stereo, not only does this original version of the song sound fresh and exciting, I'm gaining new insight, even though the cut is almost fifty years old.
Yes, God gave us rock and roll, or maybe he didn't, but we've certainly got it, but it doesn't mean what it did back in 1973 when this cut was released.
As for loving our friend and our neighbor...a sixties hangover back then, an impossibility today, peace and love are out the window.
But it was the second verse that truly resonated.
"If you want to be a singer or play guitar
Man you've gotta sweat or you won't get far"
That's how it was, it's not how it is. We saw the Beatles, we all wanted to be one, but the lift for almost all of us was too heavy. We had to learn to play, to write and we needed to be good-looking, we got guitars but most gave up, or turned into hobbyists, but not everyone...
The best song about this is AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)," but art is not a competition, these tracks exist side by side quite nicely, both ultimately coming from the same spot, the same feeling.
But it was the line thereafter that stuck out.
Funny you can know a song by heart and then you hear it again and it reveals itself even further...
"'Cause it's never too late to work nine to five"
YES! You can sell out whenever you want. McDonald's is always looking for workers. Never mind low level office jobs. If you want to give up, go straight, the world is ready for you, you're not losing a step, because if you're working nine to five there's no upward mobility, there's no career. And in truth, most of the English musical stars were facing work in the factory, that kept them focused on their careers. So why not stay the course?
"And if you're young then you'll never be old
Music can make your dreams unfold
How good it feels to be alive"
I don't feel 68. I was in a Zoom conference with the immunologist yesterday and he mentioned my age and I thought to myself...THAT'S NOT ME! When someone verbalized it, I internalized it, I'm old, how in the hell did that happen.
But I only own one suit. One pair of real shoes. I'm living my fantasy life. Sure, the music business might have moved on, to dreck, but I haven't, nor have so many of my brethren.
And I'm zipping along beyond the speed limit, not a cloud in the sky, enveloped in this wonderful sound and all I could think was how great it was to be alive.
Because someone gave me rock and roll. Maybe God, maybe Ike Turner, we can debate the origin story all day long, but it's here...
And so am I!
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YouTube: https://bit.ly/34vPgRv
1
Many people believe this is a KISS song.
Argent released two albums to crickets before they broke through. No one was waiting for the band, today they would have gone out as the Zombies, just like Led Zeppelin started out as the New Yardbirds, sans name recognition you're starting at zero.
As for the Zombies?
They'd had legendary hits, but they were years before, except for "Time of the Season" from "Odessey and Oracle," which Al Kooper rescued from the dustbin and made a hit after the band had broken up. Meanwhile, Rod Argent may have written "Time of the Season," but Colin Blunstone was the frontman, the vocalist, then again all of the Zombies' success occurred prior to the explosion of rock rags, back then most people hadn't even heard of "Rolling Stone," which might have launched in 1967 but truly didn't hit critical mass until the seventies.
But Argent was a different band. In this case, the frontman was Russ Ballard, who was also the primary songwriter. And the end result sounded nothing like the Zombies, but there was a certain magic, which eluded the public.
The first album, the eponymous "Argent," contained one of the best records of all time, "Liar." Doubt me? Pull it up, the dynamics alone will close you. A year later, Three Dog Night" covered "Liar" and made it a hit, and that take is pretty good, but the dynamics, the ethereal sound, is absent.
As for the second Argent album, "Ring of Hands," a year later Three Dog Night included "Chained" in their 1972 LP, "Seven Separate Fools," but it wasn't a single and...I'd see Argent albums in the bins, but I never ever knew anybody who owned one.
And then came "Hold Your Head Up."
1972... Let me see, that summer also saw the release of "Thick as a Brick." In the U.K., T.Rex was dominant, and David Bowie was exploding with "Ziggy Stardust," never mind the debut of Roxy Music...but those acts took a long time to cross the pond. Interesting how they're all English.
And so was Argent.
Now by 1972, every hamlet had an FM rock station. And free-form was history, the music was programmed. And what they were looking for was instant smashes, tracks people would get on one listen and clamor to hear again.
That was "Hold Your Head Up." The ethereal squeal of the intro followed by the pounding drums entranced you immediately, and then when the guitar riff was introduced, you were completely sold. And then Russ Ballard emerged atop it all and the cake was baked, the whole concoction rose.
This was the era of the extended track. The album version was six minutes and seventeen seconds long, it was cut down to just over three for AM radio after it had such an impact on FM, it blared out of car windows ALL OVER THE WORLD, this is the rock that has been pooh-poohed by the critics, those rewriting history, but this was the music that dominated back then, when it became about bigger and bigger shows, when politics was fading and only the sound remained. All Argent had to do was follow it up.
2
"God Gave Rock and Roll to You"?
The title alone will swear you off the track. Sure, the Jesus movement had fomented, but tying in religion and self-congratulation, the power of rock and roll...it was all just a bit too over the top, to the point of appearing ersatz.
Needless to say, the track stiffed. And since Argent had little commercial history to speak of, so did the album, "In Deep."
The act made two more albums on Epic, even one on RCA, but it was almost like they didn't come out, there was no attention, no radio action, and Russ Ballard left after "Nexus," the band's 1974 follow-up to "In Deep."
Ballard went on to be a songwriter, he also recorded, not that anybody seemed to know, but he's got enough classics in his catalog to be living on royalties. Yes, in addition to "Liar" and "Hold Your Head Up," he also composed "New York Groove" for Ace Frehley, "You Can Do Magic" for America, "Winning" for Santana, and even "I Know There's Something Going On," from my friend Frida's first English solo album, produced by Phil Collins.
Rod Argent went behind the scenes to work with Tanita Tikaram, who had a big MTV track "Twist in My Sobriety," and then promptly disappeared.
Argent's cousin, bass player Jim Rodford, decamped for the Kinks.
And drummer Rob Henrit ultimately followed him, after doing some session work.
But then something strange happened, in 1989 the stoner comedy "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" was released and succeeded smashingly. And then there was a sequel, "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" in 1991, and this being the twentieth century, there were attendant soundtrack albums for both flicks, and the one for "Bogus" featured cuts from Slaughter, Megadeth, Primus and KISS. And the KISS track was a cover of what was now called "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II." One can argue quite strongly this is perfect KISS fodder, over the top bombast, subtlety is excised, Paul Stanley is singing with all the power of his lungs, the band sludged through this forgotten song and gave it the attention it deserved, it was ultimately released as a single and also included in a subsequent KISS album. Today everybody knows "God Gave Rock and Roll to You"... Well, not Gen-Z. Maybe some millennials. This sound is out of fashion, but it still had dominance until the turn of the century.
3
So I was driving on the freeway today, twisting the steering wheel of my four-wheel drive car, not able to avoid the influence of "Formula 1: Drive to Survive," and I'm listening to the radio.
The news is scary and too often repetitive.
Howard's on vacation, although I did enjoy hearing them beat up Memet again.
So ultimately I switched the channel to Classic Vinyl. And "Roadhouse Blues" started pouring out of the speakers, the subwoofer thumping as Jim Morrison got himself a beer and I contemplated how great this basic song is, played constantly on classic rock stations today, even though the album it opens, "Morrison Hotel," was pooh-poohed by critics.
And then...maybe I switched to Deep Tracks, but on one of those rock stations, after pushing some buttons, I heard the inimitable sound of Argent's "God Gave Rock and Roll to You."
And now I'm really in the groove, I turn up the stereo, not only does this original version of the song sound fresh and exciting, I'm gaining new insight, even though the cut is almost fifty years old.
Yes, God gave us rock and roll, or maybe he didn't, but we've certainly got it, but it doesn't mean what it did back in 1973 when this cut was released.
As for loving our friend and our neighbor...a sixties hangover back then, an impossibility today, peace and love are out the window.
But it was the second verse that truly resonated.
"If you want to be a singer or play guitar
Man you've gotta sweat or you won't get far"
That's how it was, it's not how it is. We saw the Beatles, we all wanted to be one, but the lift for almost all of us was too heavy. We had to learn to play, to write and we needed to be good-looking, we got guitars but most gave up, or turned into hobbyists, but not everyone...
The best song about this is AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)," but art is not a competition, these tracks exist side by side quite nicely, both ultimately coming from the same spot, the same feeling.
But it was the line thereafter that stuck out.
Funny you can know a song by heart and then you hear it again and it reveals itself even further...
"'Cause it's never too late to work nine to five"
YES! You can sell out whenever you want. McDonald's is always looking for workers. Never mind low level office jobs. If you want to give up, go straight, the world is ready for you, you're not losing a step, because if you're working nine to five there's no upward mobility, there's no career. And in truth, most of the English musical stars were facing work in the factory, that kept them focused on their careers. So why not stay the course?
"And if you're young then you'll never be old
Music can make your dreams unfold
How good it feels to be alive"
I don't feel 68. I was in a Zoom conference with the immunologist yesterday and he mentioned my age and I thought to myself...THAT'S NOT ME! When someone verbalized it, I internalized it, I'm old, how in the hell did that happen.
But I only own one suit. One pair of real shoes. I'm living my fantasy life. Sure, the music business might have moved on, to dreck, but I haven't, nor have so many of my brethren.
And I'm zipping along beyond the speed limit, not a cloud in the sky, enveloped in this wonderful sound and all I could think was how great it was to be alive.
Because someone gave me rock and roll. Maybe God, maybe Ike Turner, we can debate the origin story all day long, but it's here...
And so am I!
--
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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Jonathan Taplin-This Week's Podcast
Jonathan Taplin started out as the road manager for the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and Judy Collins and then he became the tour manager for the Band. Along the way he worked with Bob Dylan and the Band at the Isle of Wight and helped produce the Concert for Bangladesh. Subsequently, Taplin produced Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets" and brokered the sale of Disney and... Tune in to hear what was really happening in Woodstock with Bob Dylan and the Band and so much more!
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/jonathan-taplin-84270471
https://www.amazon.com/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast/dp/B08JJV3D1Q/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bob+lefsetz+podcast&qid=1622140088&sr=8-
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/id1316200737
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1IvPKsihR9mK8dMLOasrXZ?si=RaFCU6HZRY2V_VzC-PdOVA
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https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/
https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/jonathan-taplin-84270471
https://www.amazon.com/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast/dp/B08JJV3D1Q/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bob+lefsetz+podcast&qid=1622140088&sr=8-
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/id1316200737
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1IvPKsihR9mK8dMLOasrXZ?si=RaFCU6HZRY2V_VzC-PdOVA
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Wednesday, 26 May 2021
Data
Maybe the pendulum has swung too far.
Data is ruining baseball. Turns out it's best to only let starting pitchers go five or six innings. And have fielders adjust position based on the batter's entire history of plate appearances. And since the pitchers are speeding the ball at 100 MPH consistently, the batters are employing upper cuts to try and hit home runs.
There have been a record number of strikeouts. Innings go by with no one on base. It's turned into a game of home run derby. An already slow game is getting slower because of more pitches. Baseball is being ruined by data. New rules could possibly effect change, infielders would have to stay on the dirt, moving the mound back and lowering it...but to a degree you're messing with the essence of the game.
The twentieth century was all about modernism in architecture. The frills were eliminated and you got very efficient, square boxes. But people got tired of square boxes, and as a result frills returned, most notably the arch with the notch at what was then known as the AT&T building. As for painting... The minimalism of the sixties has now been superseded by post modern artworks. Whether frivolous, like those of Jeff Koons, or... We had no pictorial images, now we do again. Is this what needs to happen in the arts in general?
The data has to be interpreted, but right now it's believed that we need to pay attention to the spikes. If people go to see superhero movies, that's what we'll make. End result, the human pictures, all of the rest, went to streaming, with a different model. It's not about the heat, the numbers of an individual show, but the collective, as long as enough people continue to subscribe, they'll make a vast cornucopia of product.
The same thing has happened in the music industry. If you've got streams, hits, data that can be gleaned online that illustrate you've gained attention, then you get signed and pushed and the focus is on you, irrelevant of the content/style/quality of the music. Independent objective judgment has been thrown overboard for data points, all in pursuit of end dollars. What this is doing to the music industry at large is never addressed. More eyeballs, more money, good. Slow start, little data, bad. But now the music industry is turning into the superhero world of the movie studios. And the truth is despite the grosses of those cartoon pictures MOST people never ever see them! In fact, many people have sworn off the theatre-going experience completely, never mind the sticky floors, the talking and cellphone use, the overpriced concessions and the endless advertisements and trailers. It's not a great experience and the pictures are not worth it. But the film industry never analyzes the product, it just looks at the grosses, the data.
It's much harder to promote a musical act that has quality but no data. It's an uphill climb. So, record labels no longer do this. Furthermore, the three major record labels are all publicly-owned companies. The end result being that everyone who works there is an employee, and they've got short term thinking, this is very different from the Jerry Mosses and the Chris Blackwells who signed what appealed to them and then worked to spread them. Hell, Blackwell single-handedly blew up reggae into a worldwide phenomenon. And the truth is the Marley slog was not easy, there was press, but the first three albums didn't sell that well, the live album injected some excitement but it wasn't until the turn of the decade, into the eighties, that Bob Marley became the icon he is, with the attendant reverence and continual raining down of dollars, even after his death!
Or then there's the Grateful Dead, overanalyzed, but it was known as a road act and it wasn't until "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty" that the public at large got the message, multiple albums into their career, never mind these record sounding different from what came before.
Just because it sells that doesn't mean it's good. We've always known this, but now data has skewed the production of music. You don't practice an instrument alone in your room for a decade, struggle with multiple acts before you find the right formula and gain traction. No, teenagers are stars, those who've paid no dues. They employ modern technology to create something their cohorts, other young people, react to. As a result, labels sign and promote them and most of the world scratches its head asking itself WHAT HAPPENED TO MUSIC?
And the tracks are constructed on an assembly line, the bolt of inspiration that created some of the best tracks of all time has been excised.
So if you want to build a factory, a distribution system, data is extremely helpful. But when it comes to art, and baseball is art, you can get to the point where data hurts the product to its ultimate detriment. Who wants to go to a boring endless game? Who wants to listen to mindless tripe, especially when the acts come and go nearly instantly and they're all whored out to corporations, or corporations themselves. The Weeknd is a big success and then he goes to work with Max Martin. And the truth is Martin is so good that he can make a hit for almost anybody, you or me. And my point isn't to criticize the brilliant Martin but rather the vaunted Weeknd... You did it yourself, you made it yourself, but to continue this way would be too risky, so you bought insurance, you employed Max, you shaved off the edges of your identity to make sure you had the data, i.e. the streams.
If we looked at the data they never would have made almost all of the shows representing the golden era of television in streaming. If you look at the numbers, it's the high concept dreck that gets all the views, don't think just because a show wins awards that most people watch it, that's patently untrue! But at least there's high quality stuff for the rest of us. And the truth is not everything Netflix or Amazon produces succeeds on either an artistic level or a data/views level, but unless you're constantly pushing the envelope, you end up with bland product and you lose the public. Kind of like network TV. Trying to appeal to everybody, i.e. the data, they appeal to fewer and fewer.
This is a big issue. And disruption always comes from outside. With Netflix. With the publishing companies buying catalogs. Universal may have bought Dylan, Sony may have bought Simon, but without Hipgnosis and the rest of the indies these deals never would have happened.
The music industry keeps on believing it can hoover up anything that is successful. But not only is this untrue, many people are not making music at all, because the lift is too high, they get no respect, certainly no help, all anybody wants to know is the numbers, the data, and the truth is everything that starts outside starts with low numbers, and change can take decades to take effect, like the legalization of marijuana.
Yes, the data is killing baseball. And movies.
And music too.
It's just that those drinking from the trough of data don't want to question themselves, it's anathema to speak negatively of anything making money. It's all numbers, there's no soul, and certainly in music, that's what attracts listeners, soul. But that's gone.
Data is ruining baseball. Turns out it's best to only let starting pitchers go five or six innings. And have fielders adjust position based on the batter's entire history of plate appearances. And since the pitchers are speeding the ball at 100 MPH consistently, the batters are employing upper cuts to try and hit home runs.
There have been a record number of strikeouts. Innings go by with no one on base. It's turned into a game of home run derby. An already slow game is getting slower because of more pitches. Baseball is being ruined by data. New rules could possibly effect change, infielders would have to stay on the dirt, moving the mound back and lowering it...but to a degree you're messing with the essence of the game.
The twentieth century was all about modernism in architecture. The frills were eliminated and you got very efficient, square boxes. But people got tired of square boxes, and as a result frills returned, most notably the arch with the notch at what was then known as the AT&T building. As for painting... The minimalism of the sixties has now been superseded by post modern artworks. Whether frivolous, like those of Jeff Koons, or... We had no pictorial images, now we do again. Is this what needs to happen in the arts in general?
The data has to be interpreted, but right now it's believed that we need to pay attention to the spikes. If people go to see superhero movies, that's what we'll make. End result, the human pictures, all of the rest, went to streaming, with a different model. It's not about the heat, the numbers of an individual show, but the collective, as long as enough people continue to subscribe, they'll make a vast cornucopia of product.
The same thing has happened in the music industry. If you've got streams, hits, data that can be gleaned online that illustrate you've gained attention, then you get signed and pushed and the focus is on you, irrelevant of the content/style/quality of the music. Independent objective judgment has been thrown overboard for data points, all in pursuit of end dollars. What this is doing to the music industry at large is never addressed. More eyeballs, more money, good. Slow start, little data, bad. But now the music industry is turning into the superhero world of the movie studios. And the truth is despite the grosses of those cartoon pictures MOST people never ever see them! In fact, many people have sworn off the theatre-going experience completely, never mind the sticky floors, the talking and cellphone use, the overpriced concessions and the endless advertisements and trailers. It's not a great experience and the pictures are not worth it. But the film industry never analyzes the product, it just looks at the grosses, the data.
It's much harder to promote a musical act that has quality but no data. It's an uphill climb. So, record labels no longer do this. Furthermore, the three major record labels are all publicly-owned companies. The end result being that everyone who works there is an employee, and they've got short term thinking, this is very different from the Jerry Mosses and the Chris Blackwells who signed what appealed to them and then worked to spread them. Hell, Blackwell single-handedly blew up reggae into a worldwide phenomenon. And the truth is the Marley slog was not easy, there was press, but the first three albums didn't sell that well, the live album injected some excitement but it wasn't until the turn of the decade, into the eighties, that Bob Marley became the icon he is, with the attendant reverence and continual raining down of dollars, even after his death!
Or then there's the Grateful Dead, overanalyzed, but it was known as a road act and it wasn't until "Workingman's Dead" and "American Beauty" that the public at large got the message, multiple albums into their career, never mind these record sounding different from what came before.
Just because it sells that doesn't mean it's good. We've always known this, but now data has skewed the production of music. You don't practice an instrument alone in your room for a decade, struggle with multiple acts before you find the right formula and gain traction. No, teenagers are stars, those who've paid no dues. They employ modern technology to create something their cohorts, other young people, react to. As a result, labels sign and promote them and most of the world scratches its head asking itself WHAT HAPPENED TO MUSIC?
And the tracks are constructed on an assembly line, the bolt of inspiration that created some of the best tracks of all time has been excised.
So if you want to build a factory, a distribution system, data is extremely helpful. But when it comes to art, and baseball is art, you can get to the point where data hurts the product to its ultimate detriment. Who wants to go to a boring endless game? Who wants to listen to mindless tripe, especially when the acts come and go nearly instantly and they're all whored out to corporations, or corporations themselves. The Weeknd is a big success and then he goes to work with Max Martin. And the truth is Martin is so good that he can make a hit for almost anybody, you or me. And my point isn't to criticize the brilliant Martin but rather the vaunted Weeknd... You did it yourself, you made it yourself, but to continue this way would be too risky, so you bought insurance, you employed Max, you shaved off the edges of your identity to make sure you had the data, i.e. the streams.
If we looked at the data they never would have made almost all of the shows representing the golden era of television in streaming. If you look at the numbers, it's the high concept dreck that gets all the views, don't think just because a show wins awards that most people watch it, that's patently untrue! But at least there's high quality stuff for the rest of us. And the truth is not everything Netflix or Amazon produces succeeds on either an artistic level or a data/views level, but unless you're constantly pushing the envelope, you end up with bland product and you lose the public. Kind of like network TV. Trying to appeal to everybody, i.e. the data, they appeal to fewer and fewer.
This is a big issue. And disruption always comes from outside. With Netflix. With the publishing companies buying catalogs. Universal may have bought Dylan, Sony may have bought Simon, but without Hipgnosis and the rest of the indies these deals never would have happened.
The music industry keeps on believing it can hoover up anything that is successful. But not only is this untrue, many people are not making music at all, because the lift is too high, they get no respect, certainly no help, all anybody wants to know is the numbers, the data, and the truth is everything that starts outside starts with low numbers, and change can take decades to take effect, like the legalization of marijuana.
Yes, the data is killing baseball. And movies.
And music too.
It's just that those drinking from the trough of data don't want to question themselves, it's anathema to speak negatively of anything making money. It's all numbers, there's no soul, and certainly in music, that's what attracts listeners, soul. But that's gone.
--
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Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Today's Music Business
You've got to watch the HBO "Generation Hustle" episode on scam rap, on Teejayx6. The music is terrible, he can't rap on the beat, yet he signs a big deal with Atlantic Records. Why? BECAUSE OF THE DATA!
Used to be record labels developed talent. They scoured the landscape looking for skilled people and then nurtured them, recorded them, promoted them and then repeated the process until the act either broke through or didn't, and was dropped.
That's not how the music business works today.
The business changed twenty years ago, with the advent of the internet. Then all talent was available to all people. You couldn't find someone no one else was aware of. Then it became about signing talent, not only the best deal, but enthusiasm and...
All that still counts, still applies in fact, but now the music is irrelevant, it's how can we capitalize on what the individual has already created!
Forget Spotify, if you're uploading tracks to Spotify you missed the memo, the joke is on those placing 60,000 cuts on the service every day. The truth is no one is listening, and if they are, it's in very small numbers. And the data is totally transparent, everyone can see that no one is listening, so you're dead in the water. Which is why today everybody gets started on social media.
Social media is fluid. It changes every day. It's not so much about creating a track that everybody listens to ad infinitum, but something so outrageous that people take notice, train-wreck value is the most important criterion, you want something the viewers can tweak to their own advantage, utilize to garner views for themselves. That old saw that you don't want people messing with your music? Completely out the window! If they can't mess with it, if they don't mess with it, you're never going to make it.
So, the best place to start is TikTok. The beauty is you don't even need a complete song. You need thirty seconds at most. Just the hook(s). And the old paradigm of polishing until you get it right? That's history too. If something doesn't work, you just make something new. It's amazing how many people don't get this, keep beating a dead horse. If there's no reaction, then change direction, the public controls success, and if it's not interested, forget about it. Doesn't have to be a big number, the number just has to keep on going up.
But forget those caught up in the past. We're living in the future baby.
So, if you get some traction on TikTok, or Instagram, or one of their many clones, you must make sure you've got additional places for people to lay their hat, to spend their time. The number one place is YouTube. That's where you post the complete song. Yes, if you're in this to break big as a recording artist you might only need a clip for TikTok, but you've got to be ready with a complete song in case someone is interested. And let's be clear, the song itself is irrelevant, it's all about THE DATA!
Record companies don't care whatsoever what they release, just as long as it makes money. And if they believe they can make money with you, they'll sign anything, literally anything.
Actually, this paradigm started in the eighties, credit Doug Morris. He'd take a record, get it airplay in a market, and if it sold at the store, he'd double down, if not, he'd move on to a new record. Because it's all about sales/streams/money, never forget that.
And then, Morris instituted a research department. Where employees looked at what was selling in a market, and if they found something unsigned, they'd go deeper, they'd check it out, possibly sign it, like 2 Live Crew. No one thought that Luke Campbell and his buddies were especially good, but they created controversy, got attention, they could sell product, and did. The fact that it was essentially one and done? Atlantic didn't care, it just moved on to new acts.
After infecting Warner with this process/thinking, Morris went on to Universal and Sony, and in case you're not a student of the game, that's all three major label groups, they all think this way now.
But now it's on steroids. Because the public can create the noise itself, the tools are at people's fingertips, and labels can hoover up the data. So there are many more potential acts and a hell of a lot more data, and if you've got the numbers you've got a deal!
Every other musical avenue has been marginalized. If you go to a label and try to get a deal based on the strength of your tunes, you're SOL. Even if they're good, it's too hard for the label to break you, to spread the word, to get a fire started, that's your job. And the truth is what gets started online is that with train-wreck value, so if you want to make it in today's music business...
Of course there are other genres, they just don't put up the big numbers, generate the data that hip-hop and pop do, and therefore the major labels aren't interested, it's just too heavy a lift. Sure, try to make it by playing live, but there aren't that many places to play, the idea of going to the local bar to hear a group play their original music is almost nonexistent. In an on demand world where only the great survives, people don't have the time, never mind the interest.
But there are scenes, focused on festivals, which then generate heat for acts that can tour alone or together in multiple markets. And sometimes there's good money there, but the labels don't care, because they only want to generate streams, that's where their money is generated. They do call them RECORD companies, as in RECORDING!
On the other side we've got the public. Kids don't see music as manna from heaven, the ten commandments of life, they see it as grist for the influencer mill. And everybody wants to be an influencer. And it's very fly by night. Who's big today probably won't be big tomorrow. You generate a lot of product to make bank now and...you whore yourself out along the way, the scammers in the above episode partner with a household name artist to promote their scam, she took the money, why not? Well, she lost the scammers' number after the people who got ripped off complained, but...there's so much noise in the channel and she's dependent on the hit so it all doesn't matter so much.
As for Teejayx6 himself? I'm not sure he's a scammer at all, I think it's all a hype, a promotion, a way to gain attention, generate data and get a record deal. The attention is more important than the music.
So that's the game. If you're scratching your head wondering who cares...that's just the point. The music business is still running on the aura of the power of music from decades past, that's not the music business today. Not that you'd expect the labels, or the media, or anybody else eating at the trough to blow the whistle, no, that's your job. And forget getting consensus and overthrowing the game, you can't get enough mindshare to do that either. So, chances are you're at home watching television, or going deeper into your own hobbies. Meanwhile, music, at least mainstream music, has become laughable.
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Used to be record labels developed talent. They scoured the landscape looking for skilled people and then nurtured them, recorded them, promoted them and then repeated the process until the act either broke through or didn't, and was dropped.
That's not how the music business works today.
The business changed twenty years ago, with the advent of the internet. Then all talent was available to all people. You couldn't find someone no one else was aware of. Then it became about signing talent, not only the best deal, but enthusiasm and...
All that still counts, still applies in fact, but now the music is irrelevant, it's how can we capitalize on what the individual has already created!
Forget Spotify, if you're uploading tracks to Spotify you missed the memo, the joke is on those placing 60,000 cuts on the service every day. The truth is no one is listening, and if they are, it's in very small numbers. And the data is totally transparent, everyone can see that no one is listening, so you're dead in the water. Which is why today everybody gets started on social media.
Social media is fluid. It changes every day. It's not so much about creating a track that everybody listens to ad infinitum, but something so outrageous that people take notice, train-wreck value is the most important criterion, you want something the viewers can tweak to their own advantage, utilize to garner views for themselves. That old saw that you don't want people messing with your music? Completely out the window! If they can't mess with it, if they don't mess with it, you're never going to make it.
So, the best place to start is TikTok. The beauty is you don't even need a complete song. You need thirty seconds at most. Just the hook(s). And the old paradigm of polishing until you get it right? That's history too. If something doesn't work, you just make something new. It's amazing how many people don't get this, keep beating a dead horse. If there's no reaction, then change direction, the public controls success, and if it's not interested, forget about it. Doesn't have to be a big number, the number just has to keep on going up.
But forget those caught up in the past. We're living in the future baby.
So, if you get some traction on TikTok, or Instagram, or one of their many clones, you must make sure you've got additional places for people to lay their hat, to spend their time. The number one place is YouTube. That's where you post the complete song. Yes, if you're in this to break big as a recording artist you might only need a clip for TikTok, but you've got to be ready with a complete song in case someone is interested. And let's be clear, the song itself is irrelevant, it's all about THE DATA!
Record companies don't care whatsoever what they release, just as long as it makes money. And if they believe they can make money with you, they'll sign anything, literally anything.
Actually, this paradigm started in the eighties, credit Doug Morris. He'd take a record, get it airplay in a market, and if it sold at the store, he'd double down, if not, he'd move on to a new record. Because it's all about sales/streams/money, never forget that.
And then, Morris instituted a research department. Where employees looked at what was selling in a market, and if they found something unsigned, they'd go deeper, they'd check it out, possibly sign it, like 2 Live Crew. No one thought that Luke Campbell and his buddies were especially good, but they created controversy, got attention, they could sell product, and did. The fact that it was essentially one and done? Atlantic didn't care, it just moved on to new acts.
After infecting Warner with this process/thinking, Morris went on to Universal and Sony, and in case you're not a student of the game, that's all three major label groups, they all think this way now.
But now it's on steroids. Because the public can create the noise itself, the tools are at people's fingertips, and labels can hoover up the data. So there are many more potential acts and a hell of a lot more data, and if you've got the numbers you've got a deal!
Every other musical avenue has been marginalized. If you go to a label and try to get a deal based on the strength of your tunes, you're SOL. Even if they're good, it's too hard for the label to break you, to spread the word, to get a fire started, that's your job. And the truth is what gets started online is that with train-wreck value, so if you want to make it in today's music business...
Of course there are other genres, they just don't put up the big numbers, generate the data that hip-hop and pop do, and therefore the major labels aren't interested, it's just too heavy a lift. Sure, try to make it by playing live, but there aren't that many places to play, the idea of going to the local bar to hear a group play their original music is almost nonexistent. In an on demand world where only the great survives, people don't have the time, never mind the interest.
But there are scenes, focused on festivals, which then generate heat for acts that can tour alone or together in multiple markets. And sometimes there's good money there, but the labels don't care, because they only want to generate streams, that's where their money is generated. They do call them RECORD companies, as in RECORDING!
On the other side we've got the public. Kids don't see music as manna from heaven, the ten commandments of life, they see it as grist for the influencer mill. And everybody wants to be an influencer. And it's very fly by night. Who's big today probably won't be big tomorrow. You generate a lot of product to make bank now and...you whore yourself out along the way, the scammers in the above episode partner with a household name artist to promote their scam, she took the money, why not? Well, she lost the scammers' number after the people who got ripped off complained, but...there's so much noise in the channel and she's dependent on the hit so it all doesn't matter so much.
As for Teejayx6 himself? I'm not sure he's a scammer at all, I think it's all a hype, a promotion, a way to gain attention, generate data and get a record deal. The attention is more important than the music.
So that's the game. If you're scratching your head wondering who cares...that's just the point. The music business is still running on the aura of the power of music from decades past, that's not the music business today. Not that you'd expect the labels, or the media, or anybody else eating at the trough to blow the whistle, no, that's your job. And forget getting consensus and overthrowing the game, you can't get enough mindshare to do that either. So, chances are you're at home watching television, or going deeper into your own hobbies. Meanwhile, music, at least mainstream music, has become laughable.
--
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--
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Harmonica Songs-SiriusXM This Week
Tune in today, May 25th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.
Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863
Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive
Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive
If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive
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Monday, 24 May 2021
Re- Formula 1: Drive To Survive
My wife hates sports but loves reality TV shows with a great narratives.
We watched 8 episodes of Series 1 of this on Friday and ended up watching qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix together today (and she has NEVER watched a sporting event with me). We're going to watch the race together tomorrow.
This show is great because it's about all the amazing stories of the 20 drivers that fill the 20 hottest seats in the sporting world (well the 19 apart from Lewis Hamilton, whose story we already know)
I had taken so little Interest in F1 since Hamilton and Mercedes had become dominant and didn't realise that Bernie had sold out to Liberty Media. Now I understand why this show and F1 is going to grow to another level. It's like sport and Simon Cowell's X Factor rolled into one.
Sports' narratives are all the rage: the stores behind those that compete at a high level but aren't necessarily the winners.
This series can be filed alongside the more modest show about Spanish Soccer made by Amazon called "Six Dreams" which also celebrates great sporting stories.
Once again you're bang on trend Bob.
Best
Gordon Charlton
__________________________________
Entranced by it! Got my 6yr old son to start watching Races with me Sunday mornings. Can't wait to travel the world with him to see a race one day.
Netflix is driving culture.
charly salvatore
__________________________________
This is one of the best shows on TV! I'm amazed more people aren't talking about it. We got addicted as a family to the first season, the one you are on, during lockdown and we just finished season 3. We didn't know a thing about Formula 1, didn't even know who Lewis Hamilton was other than a famous race car driver, and now we are dying for more! You will love each season more than the last. And it will confound you how one team and one driver can be so dominant in a sport that seems relatively even in technology and human capacity. But not so. And thus this is the only sport I know of where we spend most of our time rooting for teams 2-6.
The access is incredible. So smart of this sport to humanize everyone involved. Especially when trying to expand beyond its stronghold everywhere outside of the US.
Glad you found this and gave it a chance.
Larry Weintraub
__________________________________
Never thought I'd see you talking about f1! There's so much history, scandal, and drama to sink your teeth into. The show is great and how I got into it as an American a few years ago. It's a bit over-dramatized but it's helped so many Americans get into the sport and it's all because of Liberty. They opened the sport to the people, making the drivers and the teams (and their stories) more accessible. The previous owner was apparently behind the times and wanted to keep everything behind the curtain (like the record labels, what a coincidence!)
Smoothie
__________________________________
I got into Formula 1 in my teens thanks to the emergence of Jacques
Villeneueve, but like a number of other Canadian fans my interest in
the sport waned as he faded. Years later while on tour, my Production
Manager is telling anyone who would listen to check out this show
and...now I watch every race..most qualifiers...even practice
(practice!) whenever I'm able. I heard that season 3 of Drive to
Survive went to #1 worldwide on Netflix when it debuted earlier this
year, while races on TV are hitting record ratings levels in the US,
UK, and Canada, surely thanks in major part to Netflix. Can't say I'm
surprised.
Paul Gagnon
Toronto
__________________________________
Just a tiny detail but the reason why neither Ferrari or Mercedes feature much in the first season is because they refused and wanted to protect their image. The first season was so successful on NF and as you rightly point out, generate so much interest for F1 that they agreed to be part of it afterwards.
Pascal Degove
__________________________________
I was going to F-1 races starting in 1973 so I am a true believer, but Netflix hit it out of the park with "Drive to Survive" I know three different people who wouldn't go to a car race if you paid them who are now intensely following F-1 directly as a result of this series.
The reason you see very little of Lewis Hamilton in season 1 is because Mercedes and Ferrari would not agree to the terms of access. After they saw the success of the show, they quickly changed their tune.
Enjoy the season this year. It's shaping up to be a huge battle between Hamilton and Verstappen. BTW you may or may not know this, but Lewis Hamilton is mixed race. His mother is white and his father is from Grenada. Just add his name to the other great mixed race individuals who excel in their chosen professions. I.e.: Prince, Derek Jeter, Barack Obama, Naomi Osaka, Kyle Larson (race car driver) Tiger Woods.
Regards,
Jan Burden
__________________________________
Glad to read you dig it! Season 2 has more teams: from the success of season 1, and the exposure the pilots received, Mercedes and Ferrari accepted to be filmed. Season 3, during the pandemic, is the best so far; can't wait for you guys to watch it!
Thanks to this show, seems like more Americans are interested in this sport (my friends are looking at the results, have their "favorite" drivers). This season there will be a race in Austin, Texas in October and next year we'll have the Miami Grand Prix!
Thomas Duport
__________________________________
I was so skeptical when Liberty bought F1 from Bernie Ecclestone. I thought, oh no, it's going to become another NASCAR, but to their credit, they have made it more accessible and fan friendly in the best way possible. Yes, their streaming app has a ways to go before it's as good as the MotoGP app (another global motor sports extravaganza that is virtually unknown to American audiences), and sometimes the gap between the well-funded teams and their lesser-funded brethren is still too stark, but the sport is far more engaging than it's ever been. Tremendous advances in driver safety, where now it's rare that a driver gets hurt let alone killed, unlike the 60s and 70s, have kept the focus on drivers as world class athletes as opposed to odd balls with a death wish (no offense to the pioneers of the sport who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of motor racing). Kudos to Netflix, in particular their executive Brandon Riegg who spearheaded the effort, for creating an extraordinary and humanizing series that has done more to promote F1 than anything else in recent memory. It's almost better than watching the racing! (Almost). All we need is some women behind the wheel and hopefully that's just a matter of time.
Chris Day
Los Angeles, CA
__________________________________
100% agree with you, Bob. My brother turned us on to Formula 1 on Netflix a few months back. We were instantly hooked. My wife maybe even more than me, and she's not in any way a car person. She's drawn to it by the backstories, the glamor and the money.
You mentioned the in-pavement cameras from WWS, but what about this show? They have cameras literally everywhere, not to mention the radio chatter between driver and crew. It pulls you right into the experience.
For sure, it's a not to miss little gem on Netflix.
Check this out on some of their salaries!
https://www.sportingfree.com/f1/formula-1-pit-crew-members-salaries/
Burke Long
__________________________________
One of the best series on Netflix. Only gets better with each passing year. And Hamilton, and Mercedes, definitely become more involved in the filming over the next 2 season. I do believe they realized their miss from the 1st season. Great show. Actually made me care about and start watching f1, hadn't since the days when I was a child and spent Saturday's tuned to Wide World of Sports and Jackie Stewart…
Funkright
__________________________________
Spot on! I've been an F1 fan for 26 years, but the Netflix show is better than watching the whole season. This show is a much-needed condensed version for the person who hasn't the time to watch every F1 Event. I watch it all, but I have little interest in other sports, so that's just me. But the show is a well-produced summary of the stories, athletes, family backstories, politics, and excitement between the lulls of cars parading quickly through each track. Today's drivers are so much more skilled than when I started watching in '96. There are less offs and shunts because these drivers are indeed well-oiled clean-living athletic machines! I got my wife to watch F1 when we met on the premise that you she wouldn't see much in the way of bad-boy off-track behavior, cheap shots, course language and negative character flaws that show themselves in other pro sports (e.g. drugs, drunken foolishness, assault etc.). Which has been refreshing that that story line is still mostly true in F1 - these drivers have to live on a clean edge in body and mind to have a chance to participate in F1 let alone win.
Eric Neumann
__________________________________
devour this entire series, without missing Lewis for a second. There is SO much content! The money! The safety! The tech! My god, the amounts of it are grotesque and enviable in comparison to any other sport. Not one of these people want to see another die just to race another day. And it is so well-produced, as if they couldn't care if you're interested. They are telling their stories. Hamilton could be a whole season, but they've captured what he's truly up against: a psychotic 16 year old that knows his car probably won't kill him. Whoa.
Terry Gottschalk
__________________________________
Bob,
I was never a car guy…just never had any interest. Until I watched Drive to Survive. And I am hooked….obsessed even. I find myself reading about tire composition and slipstream dynamics. The science and engineering make as much of a difference as driver skill level. Fascinating sport. And the Netflix series made these drivers reality stars.
F1 is one of the biggest $$$ sports globally, and the drivers are huge stars in Europe…but has historically not taken hold in the US. That is about to change. The new Miami GP, and a rumored Northeast US GP set to be announced soon….we are about to see the rise of F1 in the US…and these drivers will become US celebrities.
The power of Netflix!!!
Glad to hear you are now a fan!
Rudy Falco
Longtime Lefsetz reader.
BabaBooey!
__________________________________
Yup - it's the noise. Used to go to Grand Prix at Brands Hatch when I was a kid...you could wander around the pits for an extra five bob (shillings) and even get Graham Hill's autograph if you were lucky - mesmerizing. and then I went to the last US Grand Prix in Austin (pre-pandemic); a great local hook-up and some moxie (...like the old days of just walking into any gig if you carried a metal briefcase!) and I was up in the Director's box. It was fantastic...and, as ever, the noise. And the champagne. And Hamilton. And my brother beside himself with jealousy back in the UK.
F1 is the Dog's Bollocks. NASCAR pales mightily by comparison.
Hugo Burnham
__________________________________
My wife and I randomly watched season 1 of Formula 1 last Spring and were instantly hooked. We binged season 1 and 2 and waited anxiously for the arrival of Season 3 and were not disappointed. We were not race car fans then. I don't know that we are race car fans now but we looking at the race results every second Sunday.
Steve Waxman
__________________________________
Ken Hensley, one of the founders and keyboardist for Uriah Heep was deep into F 1 about the same time as George Harrison. I believe I recall him mentioning George in that context. Ken is still touring Eastern Europe, both as a solo and with his own band, from his base on the south coast of Spain.
Norm Willis
__________________________________
F1 is akin to touring the biggest rock n roll show In the world , the drivers are the rock stars and as you'll discover it's a game of big boys with their toys generally reserved for wealthy families who can put their boys through the years of go carting to be eligible for a spot in this circus of power .
In Lewis Hamilton's story as you'll see he came up the ranks with no money plus being a black kid he was not expected to go all the way in a very much white bread profession .
Anyways it's an extraordinary series with some extraordinary statistics on how they tour this behemoth of an operation.
Gunter from Haas is the standout I think with the hardest gig , Toto is the tactician and Christian Horner is the fallen king of the grid since the resurgent Mercedes but he has the pop star wife in tow .
Great series
Warren Bernard Amster
__________________________________
A co-producer friend of mine got me to watch Drive To Survive. He's an F1 fan, and after I binged this series, I became an F1 fan. I even downloaded the F1 Mobile game for my iPad Pro. I'm watching the races and playing the game - all because of that damn show and how engrossing it was.
The pitstops are incredible with how fast they can switch tires and a front wing. Usually in about 2 seconds. AMAZING!
The question I have is also about the money. I see a lot of it going out, but is the air-time worth that much that it offsets what is spent? This is also a concern expressed by Hamilton in a recent interview. Claiming that the sport will no longer allow poorer families (i.e. those who are even millionaires) to compete in the future as now multiple billionaires are buying their son's way to the top.
I've also told several people they need to watch the series, it's that good.
Jody Whitesides
__________________________________
Hell Yeah! It's amazing can't wait for the next season!
Julien Jorgensen
__________________________________
Same!!
I got instantly hooked!
It's so good!
I watched all 3 seasons in 2 weeks.
Word is season 4 is coming 2022.
I've always been interested in Indy.
But it's not the same.
We have an Indy series road race coming to Nashville this year.
I've looked into tickets.
I can't wait to go.
Alex Torrez
__________________________________
The following two seasons are even better. And the last one, just out this year, is my fav, as it's more about the characters and not the race. It made me a fan. Today, Monaco, was amazing!
Sincerely,
Edwin Rojas
__________________________________
Bob - love the series too. You think it's an elitist sport and you learn some of its best drivers come from working-class families. And the pressure! Podium is akin to an add at KIIS FM (if that were still a thing). By the way, is there a bigger star than Lewis Hamilton??? F1 reminds me that my sandbox is not the center of the universe and that cool can exist outside of America.
Joe Reichling
__________________________________
I look forward to checking out F 1. Went to Watkins Glen with George Harrison. Got into all the pits, met all the drivers.
Bob Meyrowitz
__________________________________
"Remember when George Harrison got into F 1? He was on to something…."
Yes, indeed. Especially the single "Faster" commemorating the two Swedish F1 drivers Gunnar Nilsson and Ronnie Peterson.
Nilsson died of testicular cancer just one month after Peterson's fatal accident at Monza…..
Best,
Morten Dahlgren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster_(George_Harrison_song)
__________________________________
You are totally correct about the F1 series. There are numerous YouTube videos about F1 economics, logistics, etc. This one explains the unbelievable amount of money involved, where it goes and some interesting side deals with certain teams.
https://youtu.be/WapYLi67EyA
James C. Jankowski, FAIA
__________________________________
The movie Grand Prix and media comps to the Edmonton leg of the Can Am series in 1969 got me hooked, and motor racing has played a big role in my life ever since.
Among other assignments, I had the good fortune to be pit reporter for the 1987 Detroit GP, the last Formula One street race in the Motor City. That weekend, I interviewed the great Ayrton Senna several times. He was driving for Colin Chapman at Lotus at the time, and his talent was already obvious to anyone who followed the sport. His death at Imola in '94 was a significant personal loss.
Years later, while chief announcer at Heartland Park Topeka I conducted several long form interviews with the great American driver and car builder Dan Gurney. The deeper I dug, the more fascinating the sport became for me.
If you haven't yet read Adrian Newey's memoir "How to Build a Car," I highly recommend it. Newey designed the car Senna died in, and he was raked over the coals by the civil authorities in Italy after Senna's death, and seriously considered quitting racing entirely. But, he persevered, and is now considered by many to be the greatest aerodynamicist and race car designer of all time. He is clearly still at the top of his game because he designed the Red Bull car with which Max Verstappen currently leads the F1 world championship.
I submit that part of the appeal of motor sports is death always lurking in the background. I was in the paddock at Montreal the year Ricardo Paletti was killed in only his second Grand Prix start. Anyone who says racing fans enjoy watching drivers die is massively misinformed. To the contrary, the joy we experience around racing is watching supremely talented, committed and courageous individuals overcome their fear as well as the laws of physics... and as cheesy as it sounds, every time they bring the car home safely, they do in fact cheat death.
Jack Casey
Dr. Jack M. Casey, Gen. Mgr.
WERS-FM, Boston, MA
__________________________________
I have been a fan of Formula 1 since the early 90's. I loved Indy cars and used to take my kids to some of the races. But as you pointed out, due to infighting and big egos, the Indy series was forced into two separate factions and lost its luster. It lost me as a fan and others too.
Enter F1 into my life. The greatest and most sophisticating racing cars in the world, and road racing on proper circuits with different kinds of turns, elevations, and long straightaways. Forget ovals, this is positively thrilling. And the races are short enough to hold your interest—about an hour and half. I've gotten my whole family into it, we all root for different drivers and teams. We even buy hats and jackets.
It used to be hard to find on TV but now it's easy, usually airing on ESPN2. Just record the races (which take place all around the world) and watch at your leisure.
Once I was in England on business and got to go to David Gilmour's birthday party. I've been friends with David Gilmour and Nick Mason for years having worked with them so closely on all the Pink Floyd projects. The event was held in a large hall and looked like a bar mitzvah or wedding party—large round tables and chairs with fancy centerpieces and a stage for the band. The best part was, the band that was going to play was David's! It was the group he put together for the On An Island album and tour.
As you can imagine the place was filled with rock royalty. But I looked over and saw former Formula 1 Champion, Damon Hill there as well. The Floyd's are big F1 fans and over the years have raced period F1 cars themselves. In fact, Nick has a whole car business renting out cars from his renowned collection for commercials, movies, etc.
By that point in my life, I was plenty used to all the rock guys and although I was looking forward to having a chat with some of them, I made a beeline for Damon. I wanted to hear about F1 from the horse's mouth.
Mr. Hill was so pleasant and so approachable I was almost in shock. I told him I was a big fan, and asked if he wouldn't mind a couple of questions. "Sure," he said, genuinely open for having a conversation. I asked how a driver could keep his concentration up for an entire hour and a half, for over 50 laps, knowing where every turn is, gearing up and down accordingly, all while watching traffic and at speeds exceeding 180 mph.
He explained, "It's like you get into a zone, it's all you think about. What sustains your concentration throughout an entire race is the knowledge that you are in a life and death situation—one wrong move and the consequences can be much more dire than just having a few cars pass you by."
I asked if he still raced and again was shocked about how honest he was. He could have easily thrown his scarf back over his shoulder with a rock star attitude letting me know that he was the great Damon Hill. But again, he was very genuine.
"No, racing is a young man's game. When you are younger, you have no fear. When you get older and have a couple of kids, you realize more the chances you are taking. You can't win with those thoughts in your head."
Then he told me something really funny. "You know, Dave and Nick race period F1 cars. They have fun but sometimes think they are real race car drivers. They are real race car drivers the same way as me going into my garage, playing with my band, and thinking I'm Pink Floyd!" Ha, ha, ha. The great Damon Hill turned out to be a quite a lovely fellow.
That conversation also reminded me of one I once had with Gilmour. I told David having grown up in L.A. in the '60's and having raced a bit on the streets in my 390 fastback Mustang that I always felt I had the potential to be a great racing driver. He enlightened me with this reply.
"Rap, the difference is this. When you drive, people are always telling you to slow down. When you are in a real race and you are pushing the car and yourself to the absolute limits, feeling like you are going around turns on just two wheels and could spin out at any second, and then you pull into the pits and they tell you, 'You have to go faster,' that's when you'll know if you are a real race car driver or not." Gulp!
The Formula 1: Drive to Survive series is fascinating, and I guarantee you if you watch a Formula 1 race, you will be sitting on the edge of your seat!
Paul Rappaport
__________________________________
Welcome to the club, Bob!
Frank Poe
__________________________________
Honestly the best show I have seen in years, so addictive
Adrian Kelly
We watched 8 episodes of Series 1 of this on Friday and ended up watching qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix together today (and she has NEVER watched a sporting event with me). We're going to watch the race together tomorrow.
This show is great because it's about all the amazing stories of the 20 drivers that fill the 20 hottest seats in the sporting world (well the 19 apart from Lewis Hamilton, whose story we already know)
I had taken so little Interest in F1 since Hamilton and Mercedes had become dominant and didn't realise that Bernie had sold out to Liberty Media. Now I understand why this show and F1 is going to grow to another level. It's like sport and Simon Cowell's X Factor rolled into one.
Sports' narratives are all the rage: the stores behind those that compete at a high level but aren't necessarily the winners.
This series can be filed alongside the more modest show about Spanish Soccer made by Amazon called "Six Dreams" which also celebrates great sporting stories.
Once again you're bang on trend Bob.
Best
Gordon Charlton
__________________________________
Entranced by it! Got my 6yr old son to start watching Races with me Sunday mornings. Can't wait to travel the world with him to see a race one day.
Netflix is driving culture.
charly salvatore
__________________________________
This is one of the best shows on TV! I'm amazed more people aren't talking about it. We got addicted as a family to the first season, the one you are on, during lockdown and we just finished season 3. We didn't know a thing about Formula 1, didn't even know who Lewis Hamilton was other than a famous race car driver, and now we are dying for more! You will love each season more than the last. And it will confound you how one team and one driver can be so dominant in a sport that seems relatively even in technology and human capacity. But not so. And thus this is the only sport I know of where we spend most of our time rooting for teams 2-6.
The access is incredible. So smart of this sport to humanize everyone involved. Especially when trying to expand beyond its stronghold everywhere outside of the US.
Glad you found this and gave it a chance.
Larry Weintraub
__________________________________
Never thought I'd see you talking about f1! There's so much history, scandal, and drama to sink your teeth into. The show is great and how I got into it as an American a few years ago. It's a bit over-dramatized but it's helped so many Americans get into the sport and it's all because of Liberty. They opened the sport to the people, making the drivers and the teams (and their stories) more accessible. The previous owner was apparently behind the times and wanted to keep everything behind the curtain (like the record labels, what a coincidence!)
Smoothie
__________________________________
I got into Formula 1 in my teens thanks to the emergence of Jacques
Villeneueve, but like a number of other Canadian fans my interest in
the sport waned as he faded. Years later while on tour, my Production
Manager is telling anyone who would listen to check out this show
and...now I watch every race..most qualifiers...even practice
(practice!) whenever I'm able. I heard that season 3 of Drive to
Survive went to #1 worldwide on Netflix when it debuted earlier this
year, while races on TV are hitting record ratings levels in the US,
UK, and Canada, surely thanks in major part to Netflix. Can't say I'm
surprised.
Paul Gagnon
Toronto
__________________________________
Just a tiny detail but the reason why neither Ferrari or Mercedes feature much in the first season is because they refused and wanted to protect their image. The first season was so successful on NF and as you rightly point out, generate so much interest for F1 that they agreed to be part of it afterwards.
Pascal Degove
__________________________________
I was going to F-1 races starting in 1973 so I am a true believer, but Netflix hit it out of the park with "Drive to Survive" I know three different people who wouldn't go to a car race if you paid them who are now intensely following F-1 directly as a result of this series.
The reason you see very little of Lewis Hamilton in season 1 is because Mercedes and Ferrari would not agree to the terms of access. After they saw the success of the show, they quickly changed their tune.
Enjoy the season this year. It's shaping up to be a huge battle between Hamilton and Verstappen. BTW you may or may not know this, but Lewis Hamilton is mixed race. His mother is white and his father is from Grenada. Just add his name to the other great mixed race individuals who excel in their chosen professions. I.e.: Prince, Derek Jeter, Barack Obama, Naomi Osaka, Kyle Larson (race car driver) Tiger Woods.
Regards,
Jan Burden
__________________________________
Glad to read you dig it! Season 2 has more teams: from the success of season 1, and the exposure the pilots received, Mercedes and Ferrari accepted to be filmed. Season 3, during the pandemic, is the best so far; can't wait for you guys to watch it!
Thanks to this show, seems like more Americans are interested in this sport (my friends are looking at the results, have their "favorite" drivers). This season there will be a race in Austin, Texas in October and next year we'll have the Miami Grand Prix!
Thomas Duport
__________________________________
I was so skeptical when Liberty bought F1 from Bernie Ecclestone. I thought, oh no, it's going to become another NASCAR, but to their credit, they have made it more accessible and fan friendly in the best way possible. Yes, their streaming app has a ways to go before it's as good as the MotoGP app (another global motor sports extravaganza that is virtually unknown to American audiences), and sometimes the gap between the well-funded teams and their lesser-funded brethren is still too stark, but the sport is far more engaging than it's ever been. Tremendous advances in driver safety, where now it's rare that a driver gets hurt let alone killed, unlike the 60s and 70s, have kept the focus on drivers as world class athletes as opposed to odd balls with a death wish (no offense to the pioneers of the sport who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of motor racing). Kudos to Netflix, in particular their executive Brandon Riegg who spearheaded the effort, for creating an extraordinary and humanizing series that has done more to promote F1 than anything else in recent memory. It's almost better than watching the racing! (Almost). All we need is some women behind the wheel and hopefully that's just a matter of time.
Chris Day
Los Angeles, CA
__________________________________
100% agree with you, Bob. My brother turned us on to Formula 1 on Netflix a few months back. We were instantly hooked. My wife maybe even more than me, and she's not in any way a car person. She's drawn to it by the backstories, the glamor and the money.
You mentioned the in-pavement cameras from WWS, but what about this show? They have cameras literally everywhere, not to mention the radio chatter between driver and crew. It pulls you right into the experience.
For sure, it's a not to miss little gem on Netflix.
Check this out on some of their salaries!
https://www.sportingfree.com/f1/formula-1-pit-crew-members-salaries/
Burke Long
__________________________________
One of the best series on Netflix. Only gets better with each passing year. And Hamilton, and Mercedes, definitely become more involved in the filming over the next 2 season. I do believe they realized their miss from the 1st season. Great show. Actually made me care about and start watching f1, hadn't since the days when I was a child and spent Saturday's tuned to Wide World of Sports and Jackie Stewart…
Funkright
__________________________________
Spot on! I've been an F1 fan for 26 years, but the Netflix show is better than watching the whole season. This show is a much-needed condensed version for the person who hasn't the time to watch every F1 Event. I watch it all, but I have little interest in other sports, so that's just me. But the show is a well-produced summary of the stories, athletes, family backstories, politics, and excitement between the lulls of cars parading quickly through each track. Today's drivers are so much more skilled than when I started watching in '96. There are less offs and shunts because these drivers are indeed well-oiled clean-living athletic machines! I got my wife to watch F1 when we met on the premise that you she wouldn't see much in the way of bad-boy off-track behavior, cheap shots, course language and negative character flaws that show themselves in other pro sports (e.g. drugs, drunken foolishness, assault etc.). Which has been refreshing that that story line is still mostly true in F1 - these drivers have to live on a clean edge in body and mind to have a chance to participate in F1 let alone win.
Eric Neumann
__________________________________
devour this entire series, without missing Lewis for a second. There is SO much content! The money! The safety! The tech! My god, the amounts of it are grotesque and enviable in comparison to any other sport. Not one of these people want to see another die just to race another day. And it is so well-produced, as if they couldn't care if you're interested. They are telling their stories. Hamilton could be a whole season, but they've captured what he's truly up against: a psychotic 16 year old that knows his car probably won't kill him. Whoa.
Terry Gottschalk
__________________________________
Bob,
I was never a car guy…just never had any interest. Until I watched Drive to Survive. And I am hooked….obsessed even. I find myself reading about tire composition and slipstream dynamics. The science and engineering make as much of a difference as driver skill level. Fascinating sport. And the Netflix series made these drivers reality stars.
F1 is one of the biggest $$$ sports globally, and the drivers are huge stars in Europe…but has historically not taken hold in the US. That is about to change. The new Miami GP, and a rumored Northeast US GP set to be announced soon….we are about to see the rise of F1 in the US…and these drivers will become US celebrities.
The power of Netflix!!!
Glad to hear you are now a fan!
Rudy Falco
Longtime Lefsetz reader.
BabaBooey!
__________________________________
Yup - it's the noise. Used to go to Grand Prix at Brands Hatch when I was a kid...you could wander around the pits for an extra five bob (shillings) and even get Graham Hill's autograph if you were lucky - mesmerizing. and then I went to the last US Grand Prix in Austin (pre-pandemic); a great local hook-up and some moxie (...like the old days of just walking into any gig if you carried a metal briefcase!) and I was up in the Director's box. It was fantastic...and, as ever, the noise. And the champagne. And Hamilton. And my brother beside himself with jealousy back in the UK.
F1 is the Dog's Bollocks. NASCAR pales mightily by comparison.
Hugo Burnham
__________________________________
My wife and I randomly watched season 1 of Formula 1 last Spring and were instantly hooked. We binged season 1 and 2 and waited anxiously for the arrival of Season 3 and were not disappointed. We were not race car fans then. I don't know that we are race car fans now but we looking at the race results every second Sunday.
Steve Waxman
__________________________________
Ken Hensley, one of the founders and keyboardist for Uriah Heep was deep into F 1 about the same time as George Harrison. I believe I recall him mentioning George in that context. Ken is still touring Eastern Europe, both as a solo and with his own band, from his base on the south coast of Spain.
Norm Willis
__________________________________
F1 is akin to touring the biggest rock n roll show In the world , the drivers are the rock stars and as you'll discover it's a game of big boys with their toys generally reserved for wealthy families who can put their boys through the years of go carting to be eligible for a spot in this circus of power .
In Lewis Hamilton's story as you'll see he came up the ranks with no money plus being a black kid he was not expected to go all the way in a very much white bread profession .
Anyways it's an extraordinary series with some extraordinary statistics on how they tour this behemoth of an operation.
Gunter from Haas is the standout I think with the hardest gig , Toto is the tactician and Christian Horner is the fallen king of the grid since the resurgent Mercedes but he has the pop star wife in tow .
Great series
Warren Bernard Amster
__________________________________
A co-producer friend of mine got me to watch Drive To Survive. He's an F1 fan, and after I binged this series, I became an F1 fan. I even downloaded the F1 Mobile game for my iPad Pro. I'm watching the races and playing the game - all because of that damn show and how engrossing it was.
The pitstops are incredible with how fast they can switch tires and a front wing. Usually in about 2 seconds. AMAZING!
The question I have is also about the money. I see a lot of it going out, but is the air-time worth that much that it offsets what is spent? This is also a concern expressed by Hamilton in a recent interview. Claiming that the sport will no longer allow poorer families (i.e. those who are even millionaires) to compete in the future as now multiple billionaires are buying their son's way to the top.
I've also told several people they need to watch the series, it's that good.
Jody Whitesides
__________________________________
Hell Yeah! It's amazing can't wait for the next season!
Julien Jorgensen
__________________________________
Same!!
I got instantly hooked!
It's so good!
I watched all 3 seasons in 2 weeks.
Word is season 4 is coming 2022.
I've always been interested in Indy.
But it's not the same.
We have an Indy series road race coming to Nashville this year.
I've looked into tickets.
I can't wait to go.
Alex Torrez
__________________________________
The following two seasons are even better. And the last one, just out this year, is my fav, as it's more about the characters and not the race. It made me a fan. Today, Monaco, was amazing!
Sincerely,
Edwin Rojas
__________________________________
Bob - love the series too. You think it's an elitist sport and you learn some of its best drivers come from working-class families. And the pressure! Podium is akin to an add at KIIS FM (if that were still a thing). By the way, is there a bigger star than Lewis Hamilton??? F1 reminds me that my sandbox is not the center of the universe and that cool can exist outside of America.
Joe Reichling
__________________________________
I look forward to checking out F 1. Went to Watkins Glen with George Harrison. Got into all the pits, met all the drivers.
Bob Meyrowitz
__________________________________
"Remember when George Harrison got into F 1? He was on to something…."
Yes, indeed. Especially the single "Faster" commemorating the two Swedish F1 drivers Gunnar Nilsson and Ronnie Peterson.
Nilsson died of testicular cancer just one month after Peterson's fatal accident at Monza…..
Best,
Morten Dahlgren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster_(George_Harrison_song)
__________________________________
You are totally correct about the F1 series. There are numerous YouTube videos about F1 economics, logistics, etc. This one explains the unbelievable amount of money involved, where it goes and some interesting side deals with certain teams.
https://youtu.be/WapYLi67EyA
James C. Jankowski, FAIA
__________________________________
The movie Grand Prix and media comps to the Edmonton leg of the Can Am series in 1969 got me hooked, and motor racing has played a big role in my life ever since.
Among other assignments, I had the good fortune to be pit reporter for the 1987 Detroit GP, the last Formula One street race in the Motor City. That weekend, I interviewed the great Ayrton Senna several times. He was driving for Colin Chapman at Lotus at the time, and his talent was already obvious to anyone who followed the sport. His death at Imola in '94 was a significant personal loss.
Years later, while chief announcer at Heartland Park Topeka I conducted several long form interviews with the great American driver and car builder Dan Gurney. The deeper I dug, the more fascinating the sport became for me.
If you haven't yet read Adrian Newey's memoir "How to Build a Car," I highly recommend it. Newey designed the car Senna died in, and he was raked over the coals by the civil authorities in Italy after Senna's death, and seriously considered quitting racing entirely. But, he persevered, and is now considered by many to be the greatest aerodynamicist and race car designer of all time. He is clearly still at the top of his game because he designed the Red Bull car with which Max Verstappen currently leads the F1 world championship.
I submit that part of the appeal of motor sports is death always lurking in the background. I was in the paddock at Montreal the year Ricardo Paletti was killed in only his second Grand Prix start. Anyone who says racing fans enjoy watching drivers die is massively misinformed. To the contrary, the joy we experience around racing is watching supremely talented, committed and courageous individuals overcome their fear as well as the laws of physics... and as cheesy as it sounds, every time they bring the car home safely, they do in fact cheat death.
Jack Casey
Dr. Jack M. Casey, Gen. Mgr.
WERS-FM, Boston, MA
__________________________________
I have been a fan of Formula 1 since the early 90's. I loved Indy cars and used to take my kids to some of the races. But as you pointed out, due to infighting and big egos, the Indy series was forced into two separate factions and lost its luster. It lost me as a fan and others too.
Enter F1 into my life. The greatest and most sophisticating racing cars in the world, and road racing on proper circuits with different kinds of turns, elevations, and long straightaways. Forget ovals, this is positively thrilling. And the races are short enough to hold your interest—about an hour and half. I've gotten my whole family into it, we all root for different drivers and teams. We even buy hats and jackets.
It used to be hard to find on TV but now it's easy, usually airing on ESPN2. Just record the races (which take place all around the world) and watch at your leisure.
Once I was in England on business and got to go to David Gilmour's birthday party. I've been friends with David Gilmour and Nick Mason for years having worked with them so closely on all the Pink Floyd projects. The event was held in a large hall and looked like a bar mitzvah or wedding party—large round tables and chairs with fancy centerpieces and a stage for the band. The best part was, the band that was going to play was David's! It was the group he put together for the On An Island album and tour.
As you can imagine the place was filled with rock royalty. But I looked over and saw former Formula 1 Champion, Damon Hill there as well. The Floyd's are big F1 fans and over the years have raced period F1 cars themselves. In fact, Nick has a whole car business renting out cars from his renowned collection for commercials, movies, etc.
By that point in my life, I was plenty used to all the rock guys and although I was looking forward to having a chat with some of them, I made a beeline for Damon. I wanted to hear about F1 from the horse's mouth.
Mr. Hill was so pleasant and so approachable I was almost in shock. I told him I was a big fan, and asked if he wouldn't mind a couple of questions. "Sure," he said, genuinely open for having a conversation. I asked how a driver could keep his concentration up for an entire hour and a half, for over 50 laps, knowing where every turn is, gearing up and down accordingly, all while watching traffic and at speeds exceeding 180 mph.
He explained, "It's like you get into a zone, it's all you think about. What sustains your concentration throughout an entire race is the knowledge that you are in a life and death situation—one wrong move and the consequences can be much more dire than just having a few cars pass you by."
I asked if he still raced and again was shocked about how honest he was. He could have easily thrown his scarf back over his shoulder with a rock star attitude letting me know that he was the great Damon Hill. But again, he was very genuine.
"No, racing is a young man's game. When you are younger, you have no fear. When you get older and have a couple of kids, you realize more the chances you are taking. You can't win with those thoughts in your head."
Then he told me something really funny. "You know, Dave and Nick race period F1 cars. They have fun but sometimes think they are real race car drivers. They are real race car drivers the same way as me going into my garage, playing with my band, and thinking I'm Pink Floyd!" Ha, ha, ha. The great Damon Hill turned out to be a quite a lovely fellow.
That conversation also reminded me of one I once had with Gilmour. I told David having grown up in L.A. in the '60's and having raced a bit on the streets in my 390 fastback Mustang that I always felt I had the potential to be a great racing driver. He enlightened me with this reply.
"Rap, the difference is this. When you drive, people are always telling you to slow down. When you are in a real race and you are pushing the car and yourself to the absolute limits, feeling like you are going around turns on just two wheels and could spin out at any second, and then you pull into the pits and they tell you, 'You have to go faster,' that's when you'll know if you are a real race car driver or not." Gulp!
The Formula 1: Drive to Survive series is fascinating, and I guarantee you if you watch a Formula 1 race, you will be sitting on the edge of your seat!
Paul Rappaport
__________________________________
Welcome to the club, Bob!
Frank Poe
__________________________________
Honestly the best show I have seen in years, so addictive
Adrian Kelly
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The Ignorant Pay The Price
"CDC Ramps Up Research on Highly Contagious Variant from India": https://bloom.bg/348lYs6
The ignorant pay the price.
"Lauren Boebert stated there hadn't been a single COVID-19 death in Texas since mask restrictions ended in March. Data shows thousands had, in fact, died.": https://yhoo.it/3fVATvt
The joke is on them, all the ignorant yahoos who believe the government is the enemy and you can make up all the facts you want. Their lack of knowledge, their refusal to face facts, just might kill them, if they are not dead already.
I'm addicted to the news. They call it the information age, and there's so much information out there it's staggering. If you want to know what is going on, you can. You'll probably know more than those in Congress if you have the will to read and pay attention. Or, you could be all about lifestyle, tune out the news and be out of the loop, to your detriment.
I subscribe to the Apple News. You probably don't. It's ten bucks a month. My inbox is filled with people who refuse to pay...for cable, for Netflix, for the news. They think they're superior when the truth is they're just cheap. Sure, some people can't afford these outlets, but most just have other priorities...I mean how much does that alcohol cost you a month, that cannabis that's now legal is uber-expensive. Then again, if you didn't work hard in high school you probably never got into a good college and there's a good chance you didn't graduate anyway, but the only person who is paying the price is you.
Yes, personal responsibility, the right has been arguing for it for eons. And now the age is upon us.
Being a baby boomer, people talk to me all the time about taking social security. They think it's their money, they're afraid of not getting it back, so they take it early, to their extreme detriment.
"The Biggest Mistakes People Make With Social Security - One of the most common and costly: worrying about dying too soon": https://on.wsj.com/3vskOUc
That's behind a paywall so unless you're a subscriber to the "Wall Street Journal" you can't read it, but if you did it would pay off in spades, preparing you for the life of retirement.
Here's the blue chip quote:
"Social Security is longevity insurance, he (Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff) says. That is, it offers protection against running out of money as we age. People don't do break-even calculations when they buy home insurance, because they are protecting themselves against a catastrophic event like a fire. They shouldn't do them with Social Security either, he says."
But I've never ever heard anybody say this in real life. They're all doing the math, making sure they don't end up on the losing side, dying before they break even. Yes, they could wait until 70 to take Social Security and die in five years and have been better off taking it years earlier, but it's not about income, as stated above, IT'S ABOUT NOT RUNNING OUT OF CASH! Sure, you could die at 75, but let's say you live to 95, are you gonna have enough money left? I know two couples, family friends, who did not. They outlived their money. Thank god they had children with extra, otherwise they'd have been SOL.
But people don't go to authorities when they make decisions, they listen to the scuttlebutt, they ask their friends, and way too often their friends are just plain wrong.
So if you read the above Bloomberg article, you'll find that the Indian variant is thought to be 50% more transmissible than the U.K. variant, which shut down the U.K. and infected people in the U.S. And the problem is, not enough people are vaccinated. Trials have shown that the Pfizer and Astra Zeneca vaccines protect against the Indian variant, but Idaho, Wyoming and Louisiana have only vaccinated 35% of their people, Mississippi and Alabama only 30%. They feel their beliefs, their religion, will save them, good luck with that, it doesn't work for cancer, why should it work for Covid?
The most memorable article I've read this month was in the "Los Angeles Times" about Patagonia: https://lat.ms/2RGwNiv You know, the company that provides all the fleece vests for the Fortune 500. Not anymore, they don't want to be associated with that element, hurts their credibility. Think about that, every musical act whores itself out to the highest bidder and an outdoor gear company based in Ventura, California refuses to take proffered money...but it's working for them. Turns out taking a stand is good for business.
"The retailer figured out a key lesson early: For all the corporate hand-wringing about losing customers, boycott threats are often limited to just that. If you make products that consumers want to buy, your brand can function as a political platform with little risk to the bottom line, brand strategists say. Even the free publicity of a backlash can be advantageous."
Patagonia made shorts with the tag "Vote the Assholes Out," they sold out quickly.
Patagonia "says there has never been a material sales decline when it has dabbled in contentious issues."
And:
"'It's worth losing a few customers — we always gain more when we take one of these positions,' spokesperson Corley Kenna said. Plus, a tweet pledging to boycott doesn't automatically equal a lost sale: 'Everyone says they're a customer, but the truth is, if we had all of those customers, we'd be a lot bigger.'"
But the piece-de-resistance is after donating to Planned Parenthood Patagonia told all the complainers that phoned in that for every negative call the company received, they donated another $5 to Planned Parenthood. Needless, to say the calls stopped pretty quickly.
But all these musical acts are afraid to take a stand for fear of pissing off a potential customer. They're dead wrong, it helps them!
But even worse is the government. If you read Michael Lewis's book "Premonition," you'll learn that the CDC is a retro political organization not to be trusted. Which is why it dropped mask requirements, to appease the wankers.
The same wankers watching Fox.
I just went to the Fox website, did they have anything about the Indian variant, a need to get a vaccination? Of course not, the headline was about Obama sucking the Democrats dry. Laughable, if the outlet's adherents weren't risking their lives.
Everybody in government is afraid of pissing somebody off, they're afraid of the saber-rattlers, the anti-vaxxers, they believe if they double-down they'll pay the price, getting voted out of office. But as you can see from Patagonia above, that is patently untrue. Taking a stand bonds your believers even closer to you.
How Covid vaccinations became a political issue I'll never know. Trump has been vaccinated, and Tucker Carlson won't say he wasn't, which means he was, but they're preying on the ignorant, demonizing taxes when the truth is red states get a disproportionate amount of government money. But don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
"Why So Many People Are Resisting Vaccination": https://nyti.ms/3oR4Tww
This "New York Times" article goes back to the history, because you learn from the past, right? Wrong! First and foremost the fact that this essay is in the "New York Times" means that many people will discount it outright. Funny that so much of Fox's programming is based on reacting to what's in the "New York Times," but that's because Fox has got no real newsgathering operation.
"Early in the 20th century, it was not uncommon for children to suffer the agonies of infectious diseases or witness family members who did. Children got terribly sick and died at home. Their survivors — including some of our grandparents and great-grandparents — were intimately acquainted with the sights, sounds and smells of dying and with the deaths of siblings or their own small children.
Thankfully, those traumatic experiences are long past us. Americans born after the mid-20th century belong to the vaccine-spoiled generations. Most probably don't know what diphtheria is or that it was a leading cause of childhood death in the United States before immunizations became widespread. Nor can they imagine being parents helplessly watching their small child cough to death from this bacterial infection."
People don't realize the benefit of vaccines BECAUSE THEY'RE SO DAMN GOOD! They've never known the rage of diseases that used to occur. But with no knowledge of the past and an aversion to facts, they don't know that the reason these drug companies delivered the Covid vaccines so quickly is that they've been working on them since the SARS outbreak nearly twenty years ago. But it's better to trust your gut rather than the facts. Better to trust faux news outlets like Fox. Better to trust your friends, your tribe...but aren't these the same people who keep saying that you need to take personal responsibility, take care of yourself?
Meanwhile, they don't want you to have an abortion, but they do nothing about protecting people from Covid-19. But logic is a twentieth century concept at best.
So everybody should be vaccinated, for their own damn good, never mind everybody else. But no, under pressure governments are opening up their cities and states because they're wary of the backlash, hell, Newsom is being recalled. But it's California that's waiting to take off masks. Meanwhile, California has the LOWEST infection rate in the country, 3 per 100,000. The top of the list, the worst? The aforementioned Wyoming, with 14 per 100,000. As for the Swedish model, putting your head in the sand and shutting nothing down? They've got the worst infection results of any country in Scandinavia, by far. But you probably don't know that, having read the headlines a year ago.
So we've got a country that hates elites, hates education, hates facts and is poorly informed. Not every citizen, but way too many. And the tail is wagging the dog. Hell, there should be a law requiring everybody to be vaccinated. As for the stories about bad reactions and deaths, almost all are apocryphal, or twisted... Yup, they got the vaccine and immediately died...BUT IT TAKES TWO WEEKS AFTER THE SECOND SHOT FOR THE VACCINE TO WORK! Yeah, but if you say that you're undermining your point.
This is literally life and death. The country is reopening in a rush yet a powerful variant is knocking on the door. Maybe it'll never arrive, maybe it'll be like all those hurricane warnings, false alarms, until you get Katrina and Sandy.
If you're sitting at home not paying attention believing somebody else is taking care of the problem you're sorely mistaken. It's truly your responsibility to keep up on the news, the facts. And yes, you can trust the "New York Times" more than your buddy. The "Washington Post" and "Wall Street Journal" too. They have huge teams doing their best to get it right. Do they occasionally get it wrong? Of course! But that does not mean you should ignore them and trust the rabble-rousers.
It's your call.
And your risk.
I've got to ask you punk, do you feel lucky?
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The ignorant pay the price.
"Lauren Boebert stated there hadn't been a single COVID-19 death in Texas since mask restrictions ended in March. Data shows thousands had, in fact, died.": https://yhoo.it/3fVATvt
The joke is on them, all the ignorant yahoos who believe the government is the enemy and you can make up all the facts you want. Their lack of knowledge, their refusal to face facts, just might kill them, if they are not dead already.
I'm addicted to the news. They call it the information age, and there's so much information out there it's staggering. If you want to know what is going on, you can. You'll probably know more than those in Congress if you have the will to read and pay attention. Or, you could be all about lifestyle, tune out the news and be out of the loop, to your detriment.
I subscribe to the Apple News. You probably don't. It's ten bucks a month. My inbox is filled with people who refuse to pay...for cable, for Netflix, for the news. They think they're superior when the truth is they're just cheap. Sure, some people can't afford these outlets, but most just have other priorities...I mean how much does that alcohol cost you a month, that cannabis that's now legal is uber-expensive. Then again, if you didn't work hard in high school you probably never got into a good college and there's a good chance you didn't graduate anyway, but the only person who is paying the price is you.
Yes, personal responsibility, the right has been arguing for it for eons. And now the age is upon us.
Being a baby boomer, people talk to me all the time about taking social security. They think it's their money, they're afraid of not getting it back, so they take it early, to their extreme detriment.
"The Biggest Mistakes People Make With Social Security - One of the most common and costly: worrying about dying too soon": https://on.wsj.com/3vskOUc
That's behind a paywall so unless you're a subscriber to the "Wall Street Journal" you can't read it, but if you did it would pay off in spades, preparing you for the life of retirement.
Here's the blue chip quote:
"Social Security is longevity insurance, he (Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff) says. That is, it offers protection against running out of money as we age. People don't do break-even calculations when they buy home insurance, because they are protecting themselves against a catastrophic event like a fire. They shouldn't do them with Social Security either, he says."
But I've never ever heard anybody say this in real life. They're all doing the math, making sure they don't end up on the losing side, dying before they break even. Yes, they could wait until 70 to take Social Security and die in five years and have been better off taking it years earlier, but it's not about income, as stated above, IT'S ABOUT NOT RUNNING OUT OF CASH! Sure, you could die at 75, but let's say you live to 95, are you gonna have enough money left? I know two couples, family friends, who did not. They outlived their money. Thank god they had children with extra, otherwise they'd have been SOL.
But people don't go to authorities when they make decisions, they listen to the scuttlebutt, they ask their friends, and way too often their friends are just plain wrong.
So if you read the above Bloomberg article, you'll find that the Indian variant is thought to be 50% more transmissible than the U.K. variant, which shut down the U.K. and infected people in the U.S. And the problem is, not enough people are vaccinated. Trials have shown that the Pfizer and Astra Zeneca vaccines protect against the Indian variant, but Idaho, Wyoming and Louisiana have only vaccinated 35% of their people, Mississippi and Alabama only 30%. They feel their beliefs, their religion, will save them, good luck with that, it doesn't work for cancer, why should it work for Covid?
The most memorable article I've read this month was in the "Los Angeles Times" about Patagonia: https://lat.ms/2RGwNiv You know, the company that provides all the fleece vests for the Fortune 500. Not anymore, they don't want to be associated with that element, hurts their credibility. Think about that, every musical act whores itself out to the highest bidder and an outdoor gear company based in Ventura, California refuses to take proffered money...but it's working for them. Turns out taking a stand is good for business.
"The retailer figured out a key lesson early: For all the corporate hand-wringing about losing customers, boycott threats are often limited to just that. If you make products that consumers want to buy, your brand can function as a political platform with little risk to the bottom line, brand strategists say. Even the free publicity of a backlash can be advantageous."
Patagonia made shorts with the tag "Vote the Assholes Out," they sold out quickly.
Patagonia "says there has never been a material sales decline when it has dabbled in contentious issues."
And:
"'It's worth losing a few customers — we always gain more when we take one of these positions,' spokesperson Corley Kenna said. Plus, a tweet pledging to boycott doesn't automatically equal a lost sale: 'Everyone says they're a customer, but the truth is, if we had all of those customers, we'd be a lot bigger.'"
But the piece-de-resistance is after donating to Planned Parenthood Patagonia told all the complainers that phoned in that for every negative call the company received, they donated another $5 to Planned Parenthood. Needless, to say the calls stopped pretty quickly.
But all these musical acts are afraid to take a stand for fear of pissing off a potential customer. They're dead wrong, it helps them!
But even worse is the government. If you read Michael Lewis's book "Premonition," you'll learn that the CDC is a retro political organization not to be trusted. Which is why it dropped mask requirements, to appease the wankers.
The same wankers watching Fox.
I just went to the Fox website, did they have anything about the Indian variant, a need to get a vaccination? Of course not, the headline was about Obama sucking the Democrats dry. Laughable, if the outlet's adherents weren't risking their lives.
Everybody in government is afraid of pissing somebody off, they're afraid of the saber-rattlers, the anti-vaxxers, they believe if they double-down they'll pay the price, getting voted out of office. But as you can see from Patagonia above, that is patently untrue. Taking a stand bonds your believers even closer to you.
How Covid vaccinations became a political issue I'll never know. Trump has been vaccinated, and Tucker Carlson won't say he wasn't, which means he was, but they're preying on the ignorant, demonizing taxes when the truth is red states get a disproportionate amount of government money. But don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
"Why So Many People Are Resisting Vaccination": https://nyti.ms/3oR4Tww
This "New York Times" article goes back to the history, because you learn from the past, right? Wrong! First and foremost the fact that this essay is in the "New York Times" means that many people will discount it outright. Funny that so much of Fox's programming is based on reacting to what's in the "New York Times," but that's because Fox has got no real newsgathering operation.
"Early in the 20th century, it was not uncommon for children to suffer the agonies of infectious diseases or witness family members who did. Children got terribly sick and died at home. Their survivors — including some of our grandparents and great-grandparents — were intimately acquainted with the sights, sounds and smells of dying and with the deaths of siblings or their own small children.
Thankfully, those traumatic experiences are long past us. Americans born after the mid-20th century belong to the vaccine-spoiled generations. Most probably don't know what diphtheria is or that it was a leading cause of childhood death in the United States before immunizations became widespread. Nor can they imagine being parents helplessly watching their small child cough to death from this bacterial infection."
People don't realize the benefit of vaccines BECAUSE THEY'RE SO DAMN GOOD! They've never known the rage of diseases that used to occur. But with no knowledge of the past and an aversion to facts, they don't know that the reason these drug companies delivered the Covid vaccines so quickly is that they've been working on them since the SARS outbreak nearly twenty years ago. But it's better to trust your gut rather than the facts. Better to trust faux news outlets like Fox. Better to trust your friends, your tribe...but aren't these the same people who keep saying that you need to take personal responsibility, take care of yourself?
Meanwhile, they don't want you to have an abortion, but they do nothing about protecting people from Covid-19. But logic is a twentieth century concept at best.
So everybody should be vaccinated, for their own damn good, never mind everybody else. But no, under pressure governments are opening up their cities and states because they're wary of the backlash, hell, Newsom is being recalled. But it's California that's waiting to take off masks. Meanwhile, California has the LOWEST infection rate in the country, 3 per 100,000. The top of the list, the worst? The aforementioned Wyoming, with 14 per 100,000. As for the Swedish model, putting your head in the sand and shutting nothing down? They've got the worst infection results of any country in Scandinavia, by far. But you probably don't know that, having read the headlines a year ago.
So we've got a country that hates elites, hates education, hates facts and is poorly informed. Not every citizen, but way too many. And the tail is wagging the dog. Hell, there should be a law requiring everybody to be vaccinated. As for the stories about bad reactions and deaths, almost all are apocryphal, or twisted... Yup, they got the vaccine and immediately died...BUT IT TAKES TWO WEEKS AFTER THE SECOND SHOT FOR THE VACCINE TO WORK! Yeah, but if you say that you're undermining your point.
This is literally life and death. The country is reopening in a rush yet a powerful variant is knocking on the door. Maybe it'll never arrive, maybe it'll be like all those hurricane warnings, false alarms, until you get Katrina and Sandy.
If you're sitting at home not paying attention believing somebody else is taking care of the problem you're sorely mistaken. It's truly your responsibility to keep up on the news, the facts. And yes, you can trust the "New York Times" more than your buddy. The "Washington Post" and "Wall Street Journal" too. They have huge teams doing their best to get it right. Do they occasionally get it wrong? Of course! But that does not mean you should ignore them and trust the rabble-rousers.
It's your call.
And your risk.
I've got to ask you punk, do you feel lucky?
--
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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Sunday, 23 May 2021
The Plot
https://amzn.to/34cGw2B
I loved this book until the very end.
Meaning I loved everything about it but the ending. Which I foresaw early, then thought I might be wrong about, but ultimately it turned out I was right.
But that does not mean "The Plot" is not a great read.
Genre books. I've given up on them.
You know, books where the genre supersedes the story, as in mystery and romance and... You know what you're going to get, it's only the names that change. Sure, the plots are different, but oftentimes that's all you've got is plot, frequently these books are slightly dressed-up screenplays, with serviceable writing at best, it's all about moving the story forward, but not in "The Plot."
"The Plot" is this season's hot book. Right now it's just the media that is talking about it, but unless something comes along and supersedes it in the next month or two it will be the book of the summer, at least the genre book of the summer.
Two books ago I read Peter Swanson's "Every Vow You Break," a lauded mystery/thriller, in this case released back in March. And I loved the set-up, about a woman getting married, wondering if her choice was correct. They develop the backstory and then...it becomes ridiculous, I almost didn't want to finish it. Truth is stranger than fiction, but you'd never find anything resembling this in real life, no way, like in too many genre novels, I swore I wouldn't read another.
And then I got a notice from Libby that I could skip the line and get "The Plot" for seven days, so of course I clicked yes. At this point I'm not going to buy a genre novel, unless the buzz is so heavy, like with "Gone Girl," which is the best I've encountered in the last decade, but the writing is at best serviceable, whereas that in "The Plot" is nearly literary.
That's what they call highfalutin' books, "literary fiction." Nonfiction? It gets no respect in New York, except for its sales figures, it's all about coming up with a story out of thin air and laying it down with highbrow language and making points about life along the way. And in truth, literary fiction is the best when it rings the bell. But too often those working in this vein are products of MFA programs, and their originality has been excised and they're all about choosing the right words as opposed to refining the plot, and all fiction is about the plot, never forget it. A great plot can supersede bad writing, the opposite is never the case.
And that's just the point of "The Plot."
But I don't want to get ahead of myself, I don't want to reveal too much.
So Jake is a product of the MFA assembly line, and he's had fleeting success but now he is teaching. Usually graduates don't even have fleeting success. The goal is to get a gig teaching to feed your writing habit. So what you've got is unsuccessful writers teaching wannabes and if you're scratching your head right now, you should be. Then again, one has to give author Jean Hanff Korelitz credit, she asks the question whether writing can be taught, I don't think so. Sure, you can teach people the basics, like they do in seventh grade, how to write an essay, but to be a great writer that people want to read? You're born with that. It's an outlook, a desire...not so different from making music. It's a calling, an inner tuning fork, you know instinctively how to put things together, how to do it, not that you don't get better with experience. But the point is everybody can write a book, but not everybody can write a book that people want to read.
And Korelitz covers this too. You see there's an entire community of MFAs, spending all their non-writing hours discussing the publishing industry, angry that someone else is having success when they aren't. It's no different from music. If you're in the industry you're in the trenches, talking about stuff that the average person doesn't care about, even though it's vital to you. And then there's the secondary layer, the so-called wannabes, who are convinced the system is rigged against them. Hell, I constantly read about these acts complaining that they can't make a living on Spotify and I've never heard of them. And then I check their stream counts and they're unbelievably low. They're no different.
But the difference is people care more about music. Books are a smaller world. But in case you don't know, the biggest world is gaming, something baby boomers pooh-pooh, it outgrosses every other entertainment medium. And right now, music does not drive the culture, there's a business, but music is not where you go to find out which way the wind blows. Bjorn of Abba has been complaining you can't make any money as a songwriter if there are eight writers on a composition, doesn't that prove the point right there? Imagine eight people writing one book! But Bjorn is right about a couple of things, first and foremost that songwriters have been screwed by streaming, but the labels are not going to cough up any of their points, even though they own the big publishers, a buck is a buck, they don't care where it comes from as long as it doesn't go to somebody else. But Bjorn also says that today songs are now more memorable than the artists who perform them, he commissioned a study. You can check out what he has to say here: https://nyti.ms/3vfUdda Bottom line, the reason music blew up fifty-odd years ago was because the audience believed the songs were channeled by the artists, representing their hopes, beliefs and desires, but if they're created by committee...then it's like a network TV show. Which is why when music is done right it's the most powerful artistic medium, directly from the artist's heart to yours. But it's rarely done right today.
And Jake teaches at a third-rate college which is making its bread by teaching wannabe writers who will never be successful. Yes, Korelitz constantly comments on her industry and it's refreshing, you rarely see anybody poking holes in the fabric where they live and make their bones, which is why almost everybody in the music business will say that today's music is as good as that of the past, which everybody knows is untrue, and as a result credibility is sacrificed and the audience moves on. But when politicians say what you see on TV is wrong, that you can't believe your own eyes, the public no longer trusts those selling, they think they'll say and do anything to succeed, and unfortunately that's true, what we can hope for at best is the growth of the power of truth-speakers throughout life, then again no matter what you say there's someone who will come up with a website that says otherwise.
So Jake is a has-been who is barely scraping by, and then he steals the plot...
Sounds like I'm giving this away, but it's right up front in all the hype.
So it makes it sound like it's an inside story, but "The Plot" is not, you don't have to be a writer to appreciate it. Yet there's a lot of writing philosophy contained in it, which I found refreshing, because once again Korelitz doesn't just parrot conventional wisdom.
So it becomes a hunt for information. But the information is secondary to the story, as in Korelitz sets the scene so well that what happens in certain situations is secondary to the enrichment, the satisfaction of actually reading the passages. Almost always when you're reading these genre books the writing serves solely to move the plot forward, you find yourself frustrated, you just want to get the goods, but not in "The Plot."
So I don't get all those people who devour one mystery after another, almost all of them are unsatisfying. But if that's your chosen genre, go for it. But if you're a hesitant reader, maybe you should start with "The Plot," it is rewarding. Then again, it does not stoop to the level of the lowest common denominator reader. What I mean is it's not like reading a comic book, you do need a level of concentration and comprehension.
And there's the device of the book in the book, contrasted with the factual story, you get confused, and that's part of the experience. What really happened? You're not always so sure.
But I was sure how it was gonna turn out.
But that was executed pretty well, yet unfortunately foreseeable.
So I finished "The Plot" in twenty four hours, I was excited to tell you about it until the last ten percent. And in a genre novel the last ten percent means a lot.
But up until then...
I loved this book until the very end.
Meaning I loved everything about it but the ending. Which I foresaw early, then thought I might be wrong about, but ultimately it turned out I was right.
But that does not mean "The Plot" is not a great read.
Genre books. I've given up on them.
You know, books where the genre supersedes the story, as in mystery and romance and... You know what you're going to get, it's only the names that change. Sure, the plots are different, but oftentimes that's all you've got is plot, frequently these books are slightly dressed-up screenplays, with serviceable writing at best, it's all about moving the story forward, but not in "The Plot."
"The Plot" is this season's hot book. Right now it's just the media that is talking about it, but unless something comes along and supersedes it in the next month or two it will be the book of the summer, at least the genre book of the summer.
Two books ago I read Peter Swanson's "Every Vow You Break," a lauded mystery/thriller, in this case released back in March. And I loved the set-up, about a woman getting married, wondering if her choice was correct. They develop the backstory and then...it becomes ridiculous, I almost didn't want to finish it. Truth is stranger than fiction, but you'd never find anything resembling this in real life, no way, like in too many genre novels, I swore I wouldn't read another.
And then I got a notice from Libby that I could skip the line and get "The Plot" for seven days, so of course I clicked yes. At this point I'm not going to buy a genre novel, unless the buzz is so heavy, like with "Gone Girl," which is the best I've encountered in the last decade, but the writing is at best serviceable, whereas that in "The Plot" is nearly literary.
That's what they call highfalutin' books, "literary fiction." Nonfiction? It gets no respect in New York, except for its sales figures, it's all about coming up with a story out of thin air and laying it down with highbrow language and making points about life along the way. And in truth, literary fiction is the best when it rings the bell. But too often those working in this vein are products of MFA programs, and their originality has been excised and they're all about choosing the right words as opposed to refining the plot, and all fiction is about the plot, never forget it. A great plot can supersede bad writing, the opposite is never the case.
And that's just the point of "The Plot."
But I don't want to get ahead of myself, I don't want to reveal too much.
So Jake is a product of the MFA assembly line, and he's had fleeting success but now he is teaching. Usually graduates don't even have fleeting success. The goal is to get a gig teaching to feed your writing habit. So what you've got is unsuccessful writers teaching wannabes and if you're scratching your head right now, you should be. Then again, one has to give author Jean Hanff Korelitz credit, she asks the question whether writing can be taught, I don't think so. Sure, you can teach people the basics, like they do in seventh grade, how to write an essay, but to be a great writer that people want to read? You're born with that. It's an outlook, a desire...not so different from making music. It's a calling, an inner tuning fork, you know instinctively how to put things together, how to do it, not that you don't get better with experience. But the point is everybody can write a book, but not everybody can write a book that people want to read.
And Korelitz covers this too. You see there's an entire community of MFAs, spending all their non-writing hours discussing the publishing industry, angry that someone else is having success when they aren't. It's no different from music. If you're in the industry you're in the trenches, talking about stuff that the average person doesn't care about, even though it's vital to you. And then there's the secondary layer, the so-called wannabes, who are convinced the system is rigged against them. Hell, I constantly read about these acts complaining that they can't make a living on Spotify and I've never heard of them. And then I check their stream counts and they're unbelievably low. They're no different.
But the difference is people care more about music. Books are a smaller world. But in case you don't know, the biggest world is gaming, something baby boomers pooh-pooh, it outgrosses every other entertainment medium. And right now, music does not drive the culture, there's a business, but music is not where you go to find out which way the wind blows. Bjorn of Abba has been complaining you can't make any money as a songwriter if there are eight writers on a composition, doesn't that prove the point right there? Imagine eight people writing one book! But Bjorn is right about a couple of things, first and foremost that songwriters have been screwed by streaming, but the labels are not going to cough up any of their points, even though they own the big publishers, a buck is a buck, they don't care where it comes from as long as it doesn't go to somebody else. But Bjorn also says that today songs are now more memorable than the artists who perform them, he commissioned a study. You can check out what he has to say here: https://nyti.ms/3vfUdda Bottom line, the reason music blew up fifty-odd years ago was because the audience believed the songs were channeled by the artists, representing their hopes, beliefs and desires, but if they're created by committee...then it's like a network TV show. Which is why when music is done right it's the most powerful artistic medium, directly from the artist's heart to yours. But it's rarely done right today.
And Jake teaches at a third-rate college which is making its bread by teaching wannabe writers who will never be successful. Yes, Korelitz constantly comments on her industry and it's refreshing, you rarely see anybody poking holes in the fabric where they live and make their bones, which is why almost everybody in the music business will say that today's music is as good as that of the past, which everybody knows is untrue, and as a result credibility is sacrificed and the audience moves on. But when politicians say what you see on TV is wrong, that you can't believe your own eyes, the public no longer trusts those selling, they think they'll say and do anything to succeed, and unfortunately that's true, what we can hope for at best is the growth of the power of truth-speakers throughout life, then again no matter what you say there's someone who will come up with a website that says otherwise.
So Jake is a has-been who is barely scraping by, and then he steals the plot...
Sounds like I'm giving this away, but it's right up front in all the hype.
So it makes it sound like it's an inside story, but "The Plot" is not, you don't have to be a writer to appreciate it. Yet there's a lot of writing philosophy contained in it, which I found refreshing, because once again Korelitz doesn't just parrot conventional wisdom.
So it becomes a hunt for information. But the information is secondary to the story, as in Korelitz sets the scene so well that what happens in certain situations is secondary to the enrichment, the satisfaction of actually reading the passages. Almost always when you're reading these genre books the writing serves solely to move the plot forward, you find yourself frustrated, you just want to get the goods, but not in "The Plot."
So I don't get all those people who devour one mystery after another, almost all of them are unsatisfying. But if that's your chosen genre, go for it. But if you're a hesitant reader, maybe you should start with "The Plot," it is rewarding. Then again, it does not stoop to the level of the lowest common denominator reader. What I mean is it's not like reading a comic book, you do need a level of concentration and comprehension.
And there's the device of the book in the book, contrasted with the factual story, you get confused, and that's part of the experience. What really happened? You're not always so sure.
But I was sure how it was gonna turn out.
But that was executed pretty well, yet unfortunately foreseeable.
So I finished "The Plot" in twenty four hours, I was excited to tell you about it until the last ten percent. And in a genre novel the last ten percent means a lot.
But up until then...
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