https://t.ly/YePv9

I’m writing about this book because it’s so readable.

No, that’s not the only reason. Also because everybody involved is not a winner. Most books written about Jewish families… Everybody’s solidly middle class, or upper middle class, it’s a land of opportunities, despite the tsuris. But the Cohens?

The father is a Holocaust survivor. A soft man who is happy he’s alive but is not setting the world on fire.

So his wife, who put aside her education to marry him, does low level jobs to pay the bills… She’s just paying the bills, working to stay alive. I’ve had jobs like these, thank god I do not work them anymore. Where all you can do is stare at the clock. You count how much money you’re going to make, how you’re going to spend it. To think so many live this way.

And there are two daughters. One pretty and one smart.

And the mother is a shrew and they want to get away from her and…

It’s kinda like regular life. In that everybody has big dreams and somewhere along the line you find out you are where you are, which is not where you wanted to be, are you happy, can you reinvent yourself?

That’s the amazing thing about life, you can reinvent yourself. It’s really hard, but you can do it. You have to shake off the past, oftentimes you have to put yourself in new situations, make a whole new group of friends… Who are trustworthy, who spur you on, but just when you think you’re on the same page, bonded together…

But the heart of the story is the husband of the older daughter. A non-Jew, a traveling salesman…

I guess we live in a world where everybody can be a star. Literally, you can do this today, anybody can build a presence online. But there are a lot of people just living their lives. Doing amazing things, both good and bad.

So I’m reading this book and…

I can’t put it down. I didn’t love Jami Attenberg’s hit book, “The Middlesteins,” and this book is somewhat slight, but it’s dark and average in a way most books are not. Most are fantastical. Or written in miniature, small lives in small places in detail.

And “A Reason to See You Again” is not about losers. Then again, who are the winners and the losers?

Once again, this book is very very readable. Unlike “The Emerald Mile.” “The Emerald Mile” is an achievement, a great book, but there are big words and you have to commit. “A Reason to See You Again” cuts like butter. That’s what people don’t realize about writing, the first criterion is it must be readable.

Now finishing “A Reason to See You Again” and wanting more I researched Attenberg’s other books and I found out she had a memoir with stellar reviews entitled “I Came All This Way to Meet You” and…

It too cuts like butter.

But it’s not the typical story.

Attenberg went to Johns Hopkins. But then she had an endless series of low level jobs on her way to becoming an author. And a ton of experiences. She was one of the first to move to Williamsburg. She talks about drugging and drinking and screwing but… You don’t get the impression she’s one of the cool girls, someone you could never know or meet. Rather she seems just like you, but with different choices.

Especially in today’s era, where everybody’s on a career track.

And there are certain incidents in the book… Deep into it there’s the story of a physical assault and the fallout and….

Attenberg is living in the real world, when so many writers put forth the image that they are not. They’re members of a club, separate from the rest of us, writing for each other.

The fascinating thing is you read these novels and you wonder about the authors, who they are exactly. And now there’s this memoir and you get so much information but what is Jami Attenberg like in real life and…is she really just like you and me but she just wrote it all down?

So if you’re a reader, I recommend “A Reason to See You Again,” because it’s so damn readable. If you only read one book a year, no. If you’re a guy, who doesn’t like to look inside, stay away.

But I went down the rabbit hole with Jami Attenberg and I can’t stop thinking about her and her work.

Trailer: https://t.ly/2cKBr

You’re going to want to watch this show.

Unfortunately there are only two episodes of the second season available, but boy did they entrance me.

It’s kind of like pornography, you know it when you see it, you know it when you experience it, your focus starts to narrow, the rest of the world is excluded, you’re all in, invested, it’s not so much that the story is real as you want to believe it is real, this is what you’re looking for, top flight entertainment.

Now there was a previous season… All about the end of mining in Nottinghamshire. What do people do when all the jobs go away?

But even more it’s about the people themselves, their relationships.

Now in the second season…

Lesley Manville stars. One of the best British actors. She’s living alone now, deciding whether to sell her house and move on. And on one hand she seems like a sensitive flower, but… The ex-cop who comes by, he kinda wants to ask her for a date but can’t quite screw up the courage, even though he’s a big handsome guy. And she calls him out on it, gets into the details, lays it all out on the table, ultimately deciding to go on the date anyway, but making it all clear what is going down.

Then there’s the sheriff. Who is not only a woman, but gay. Are people really that modern, do they accept this? Not really. How does she navigate the hurdles.

Does she want to approve a reintroduction of mining? The area has been through so much. The loss of jobs. The illnesses and death from black lung. Sure, there will be jobs for youths, but at what cost? And how long is this new mine going to last anyway.

And then there are those behind the new mine. Big thinkers. They exist in every burg. And no matter what they say, they’re not altruistic, they’re in it for themselves.

And underneath all this is…

The youth. With no future. Dealing drugs and…

There’s a murder and this is when it gets interesting. Because it brings out the warring families from the woodwork. How are they going to handle this. Are they going to battle each other?

And it’s the spouses of the two men who run the families who are so powerful, so riveting, so amazing. Monica Dolan as Ann Branson… They don’t have actresses like this in American shows. Let’s just say her body is not perfect, she’s built somewhat like a barrel. Yet with a pretty face and a good blonde hairdo…which bucket do you put her in? Is she like the girl next door, is she the lower class girl you were always afraid of in high school, she can be warm and yet strong as steel and then…

There’s her counterpart, Daphne Sparrow, played by Lorraine Ashbourne, she’s…a bit worse for wear, her face is dried-up, lined…just like you’d picture someone from deep in the heart of England, who may not have eaten enough vegetables, who was exposed to too much pollution. She’s thinking. She has a good streak, but really is she just bad?

And the police… Do they even know what is going on, are they trustworthy?

I’m telling you about “Sherwood” because what it delivers is what English TV does best but does not always achieve, a direct gritty truth. It’s something that American TV just cannot capture. America just can’t get gritty right. Even if the landscape is gritty, the actors are not, it’s not believable. But you believe the people are who they are in “Sherwood.” A mix of those living in the present and those lost in the past.

And I’m always on the outlook for great stuff. And when I see it I want to tell people about it, so they can share the experience.

There’s a hierarchy. “Sherwood” approaches the top. I write about other series, “Rivals” is not in the league of “Sherwood.” “Murder Mindfully” is ultimately a comedy, whereas “Sherwood” is dead serious.

I’m not telling you so you will tell anybody else, I just want you to have the same experience I did, sitting in front of the screen, in the dark, wholly engrossed, edgy, involved, knowing that TV when done right is oftentimes better than hanging with your friends, going out to dinner, it can be more real than real.

Like “Sherwood.”

We’re not as civilized as we think we are.

Work with me here.

We were watching a TV series last night… Well, it’s “Gangs of London” on Netflix, we’re only two episodes in, so don’t tell me what happens, but the interaction of the gangs, who are not teenagers but closer to Mafiosi, got me thinking…

You see when you’re in high school you get beat up, you’re the object of derision.

Actually, it starts earlier than that, usually junior high. There are always some people so odd, so off the radar, that they’re ignored, but if you think you might want to be a member of the group, you either are or you’re not. And if you’re not…

What you’ve got to know about guys is they’ve got a tribal mentality. They love a group. You see it in sports. And within this group…you don’t want to speak up, you don’t want to contradict, you want to go with the flow. This is the original bro mentality. There are advantages: camaraderie, friendship, an entire life, but you must conform.

Unless you’re the leader.

There’s always one or two leaders. Who steer the group. Sometimes they’re evil, sometimes they’re reasonable and over time, as they age, they extricate themselves from the group and are well-adjusted adults. But usually, those in power like their power, and this is how they live the rest of their lives, by lording it over others.

And underneath them are the good soldiers. Who will do whatever the leaders tell them to do. Who will not cross the leaders, who pledge fealty. Talk to one of these soldiers about the leader and they’ll wax rhapsodic, no matter how negative someone from the outside may perceive this leader. It’s a cult, akin to a religion.

So…

What do they say, the nerds inherit the earth?

You’ve got Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. Even Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

Remember, Peter Thiel killed Gawker for outing him as gay. This is how the rich nerds do it, the ones who did well in school, jumped through all the hoops, got all the money. They play within the system, it’s built for them, they bend the rules, they get what they want.

And those of us reading the news, those of us who were educated at fine universities, see their power and believe they rule.

And they do.

But not to the extent we believe they do.

Now if you’re on the wrong side of the divide in high school, you may get beaten up. Happens all the time, physical violence. But there’s an understanding that once you become an adult, the law applies, this is no longer possible, you will pay the consequences, so everybody colors within the lines.

But this is patently untrue.

The educated, the rule-abiders, think that society is defined, that they’re safe, but they’re not.

Or maybe you could say when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.

So we’ve seen the feminization of society. I’m not saying that #MeToo was wrong, I’m not saying that it’s a level playing field, that women are not disadvantaged, I’m just saying if you’re a member of polite society, educated, you’ve been taught that you must be sensitive, that girls are intimidated in class, over and over you’ve been told what a brute you are. And most of the people in polite society have bought this.

But not everybody else.

Not everybody in America went to college. Not everybody’s on a career path. Not everybody has an IRA, not only thinking about retirement, but planning vacations years in advance. A whole hell of a lot of people are just living in the moment. And to tell you the truth, it ain’t much different from high school.

You work at the factory. You even work at Walmart… You’re going nowhere fast, but there is a hierarchy, there is a gang. And you go out drinking, and you hang on weekends and…

There might be a bar fight. Other physical violence. Maybe the police are even called. But spending a night in jail… Is anybody caring about their résumé?

This is the divide in America today.

So men without portfolio are acting just like the guys in “Gangs of London.” They’re looking for status, they’re looking for power. And it doesn’t come from a degree, or ownership of certain items, it comes from your personality, your power, your bullying, your intimidation.

Even worse, so many of these qualities even permeate polite society, amongst the educated, within Fortune 500 companies. You’ve got to belong to get ahead. And if you don’t play by the rules you’re blackballed.

This even happens in the music business. I could tell you names, of people who can prevent you from getting a job… But either you know them or you do not.

But this is not the perception of the college educated, some of whom are the elites, some of whom are not.

And never forget, those with less always have contempt for those with more.

So yes, all this is going through my brain because of the election. Because of the misperception of Harris and those who supported her. They had no idea of the mentality of most men. And the backlash that was brewing.

Oh, don’t talk to me about abortion, don’t get into the issues, just listen for a change.

Most Harris supporters did not. I’ve got an inbox of e-mail proving this.

Somewhere along the line the impression was given to educated women that the landscape had changed, but in reality it had not. Well, women get more college degrees than men, women have gained advantages, but men have not fundamentally changed. As a matter of fact, with less opportunity, it’s gotten worse.

And you can see evidence of this all over the place. Hell, look at Active Rock… Those bands are not for everybody, but a subset, of alienated men. Sure, there are female fans, but… Hell, so many of these Active Rock performers have gone on record as being Republicans. What have the educated classes ever done for them but look down on them?

So we live in the land of disorder. Chaos. In a world they keep telling us is quantified, stratified, laid out, easy to grasp.

And this is not the case.

But it’s all subtext. You can’t write this. You can’t own this. Even though post-election some have. Because it’s taboo. Societal taboo. There’s a certain way men must act, and it’s not only in the news, but all over social media, pull up TikTok and you’ll see endless women complaining about the behavior of men.

So how do we foment change?

Well, first and foremost by owning it, the truth, what is happening, not what we want to happen. We must not drown out the voices of those who disagree. Sure, we may be able to educate them, but without listening we just push them further away.

And we have to own the fact that on certain biological levels, men are men. We need to stop insisting everybody become a metrosexual. Nice, soft. Decrying anybody who is not cleaned up with a good job.

I’m not defending these men. I’ve been victimized by them my entire life. To this day. I can tell you about going against the group, even in seemingly non-threatening social situations. You follow the leader, it’s an unsaid rule. You show up on their schedule, or else…

You’re ostracized, you’re done. Your inbox goes cold. They talk sh*t about you behind your back. You are not one of them, you are the other, you are to be wary of.

Forget that all breakthroughs come from the lone individual. That’s something completely different, that person doesn’t need a tribe.

And a tribe is not about innovation or change, but keeping order.

The only way we can make progress is by bringing these men in these tribes closer…stop ostracizing them, making fun of them, putting them down. We need to bring them in as opposed to putting them out.

But we must never ever insist they be just like us. That’s how we got here, by dictating, by believing we had the answers, that we we’re better than them.

Now the bottom line is deep down inside every man believes they’ve got something, a spark, a power. This is the essence of being a gang leader. To become a doctor you need a degree, so much more. So many of the modern professions…you need to jump through hoops, you just can’t get it instantly.

But hanging with a group of men… All you need is your personality and drive. Comes out everywhere, on the golf course…everybody’s jockeying for position, making fun of others.

The media industrial complex makes like this doesn’t exist.

But it does.

Spotify: https://t.ly/d5xxT

YouTube: https://t.ly/hXF-F

1

I’ve given up on politics. Sure, I read the headlines, but now I’m detached, I’m going to see how it plays out, I’m going to live my life, take a respite from the eight year long movie that had me riveted.

Which means I’m not ping-ponging between the news channels on the satellite dial. It’s back to music. Oh, what a long, strange, trip it’s been.

However, how do you find new stuff?

JOHN MAYER!

John Mayer’s got a channel on SiriusXM that pays for the monthly subscription all by itself. What it is is his favorites, interspersed with his own tracks. And the favorites of a musician are different from the favorites of a deejay. A deejay needs to feel good about themselves, needs to know they’re building a flow, is worried about their taste, for others will judge it. A musician? Music is a calling, they’re just exploring, Mayer is turning you on to stuff HE’S listening to. And in most cases it’s not in the Spotify Top 50.

But it’s all over the map. No specific genre. Could be old, could be new. But it doesn’t stop with classic rock. As a matter of fact, when I tuned in today whilst on Sunset Boulevard, John was giving an introduction to Madonna’s “Cherish.”

I LOVE THAT SONG!

He talked about playing it via Bluetooth when he was down on the playa in Mexico with Dead and Co. Being in the shower. These private listening experiences are the best, when you’re in a trance, that no one can break, just you and the music, it energizes you.

There’s a point in “Cherish” where… It zings back and forth… Hell, I’m not a musicologist, if you were here right now, I’d point it out. These are emphasis points, and they get me every time. So often it’s the little things that put something over the top, make it great. Then again, there’s also the cheery melody…something too often absent from today’s hit parade.

So then I turn onto Beverly Glen, knowing I’ll hit traffic at the top, below Mulholland. And now it’s one of Mayer’s numbers emanating from the speakers. And it’s not fully clicking, but at the end there’s this guitar part, with this delicious tone, it was exquisite.

And now I’m in bumper to bumper traffic. Up a hill. Red on the map. And my car… Does not have good low end torque. I know how to drive a stick, I’ve been doing so since I graduated from college. I could power my BMWS up La Cienega, you know, the steep part, up to Sunset, no problem. But this car… You pump it and it doesn’t engage, it slips backward, it stalls… They knew they had a problem, they improved it the following year, they added that low end torque, and ultimately they put in a hill-holder, but my car ain’t got those. And people pull right up to my bumper on these hills and it makes me uptight and…

John’s playing a song I don’t know that starts ringing my bell.

Now you’ve got to know that they played soul music on AM radio back in the sixties, a lot of it. But albums… Let’s just say soul was a singles world. Albums were a rock thing at the time. We can argue when that changed, maybe with Stevie Wonder’s “Music of My Mind” back in ’72?

Now there were all Black stations, in the inner city. But this song “Fool for You” by the Impressions…I’d never heard it. Turns out it was released on the album “This Is My Country,” the act’s first for Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom Records, back in ’68.

Now you’ve got to know we knew who Mayfield was, but the soundtrack to “Superfly” truly made him a household name. Blaxploitation was its own genre. “Shaft” and its instrumental had preceded “Superfly,” they were both huge hits, but “Superfly” doubled-down, did “Shaft” one better 

The song “Superfly” was as cool as Ron O’Neal’s performance in the movie. “Superfly” was the “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” of ’72. People who had no interest, who were not paying attention, heard the song once and got infected, they couldn’t let go…they had to buy the album, you had to hear it ad infinitum, you couldn’t take it off the turntable…this was a hit record. And in its own way, “Freddie’s Dead” was just as good, what a groove. And “Pusherman”…  This is music that you lock on to instantly, that becomes one with you, that may be foreign on the surface, but you throw off all your preconceptions and join the tribe.

But how good was “Fool for You” really. Did it merit an essay, or would I just be trying to play to my audience, writing about music… Mayfield’s vocals were indelible, so sweet, but not a ton happened in the record…worked great on Mayer’s show, but…

I was happy I was being turned on to a song I hadn’t known previously, this is what my detachment from politics is yielding.

And then…

2

The road flattens out, I no longer have to ride the clutch and the accelerator pedal simultaneously. And in a shorter time than I thought, I made the turn onto Mulholland, which was flowing speedily, I was in a good groove, and then the song switched to…

There was so much information in the readout…

“Raphael Saadiq/Rob ‘Fonksta’ Bacon – ‘Something Keeps Calling'”

This is WAY out of my wheelhouse.

And at first it’s just like “Fool For You,” a hook, repeated, but there’s also a sweet vocal, which is resonating, it’s penetrating, and the sun is setting as I’m driving west and I’m starting to self-check…wait a minute, is this a great song?

And then all of a sudden the track switches, to a guitar solo. Maybe this is why Mayer knows it. This guy is WAILING, TASTEFULLY!

The guitar… We got to a point where it was about how fast you played, how many notes, everybody was showing off, but this guy, he’s in tune with the track…it’s part of the canon, could be out of yacht rock, it’s got a lot of touchpoints, then again at one point he’s sustaining, that’s like a regular rock record, and then the lyric starts again…

“Something keeps calling”

And now I’m nodding my head. I’m past the point of no return. When I ultimately park my car, turn my engine off, I’m still singing the lyric in my head.

Raphael Saadiq… Wasn’t he in Tony! Toni! Toné?

Not really my bag. But he’s moved on from that group. But I didn’t think he was making music like this. That doesn’t play to the strictures, it’s like he’s just doing what he wants to do, the way it used to be done, commerciality be damned.

But this Rob “Fonksta” Bacon… Is he the singer or the guitarist? You can never really know with these featured players. I mean I know Saadiq sings, and I assume it’s him, but I ultimately get to my computer and Rob “Fonksta” Bacon…

Doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Doesn’t even have a website.

He’s on Instagram. He’s a guitarist.

I’ve never heard of him before. But he’s been around long enough to have a nickname.

Now it turns out that John Mayer is not the only person who knows “Something Keeps Calling”… It’s got 15 million streams on Spotify. But to tell you the truth, don’t be too impressed, you’d be stunned how many cuts have this number of streams that you’ve never heard of. But obviously some people know this record. As far as the other twelve songs on the album, only two even break a million streams, one at 2.4 and another at 1.7.

And the album, entitled “Jimmy Lee,” came out in 2019. How does Mayer know it? I certainly don’t. But he turned me on to it.

And Raphael Saadiq hasn’t put out any solo work since. And that’s five years. Does Columbia even want to make another record?

But this track… Play it once and you might as well play it twenty. It’s not “Superfly,” but it’s on the continuum.

So maybe we’re hitting a new era, or maybe I’m hitting a new era, maybe this is when music triumphs once again.

And I’m thinking about John Mayer… His cred, his image, has only grown since he’s stopped having hit singles, it never used to be that way.

But it’s a brand new world.

And today Mayer was entry point.

“Something keeps calling”

That’s what we’re looking for, something that calls out to us. And it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t call out to you, as long as it calls out to somebody. The world has changed. Not everything worth hearing is a hit, and the business is truly driven by those not making hits, just doing it their own way. How many of the Spotify Top 50 could sell out the Sphere?

“Something keeps calling”