Nothin’ But The Truth – Spotify

Nothin’ But The Truth – YouTube

There’s no room for white men in the Democratic Party, hardworking individuals who believe they’re doing the right thing and just want to feed their families, and drink a little beer…

That’s what Van Jones said on the David Axelrod podcast.

I’ll be honest, it’s been too surreal. Like we’re living in a sci-fi/horror movie, but when the monster comes on nobody laughs and the lights never go up, and you start to realize half of the audience is with you and half is against, and the half that’s against, they want their pound of flesh.

That’s right, it’s a “Merchant Of Venice” reference, hopefully they still teach Shakespeare in high school, although I skipped the bard in college because the egotist blowhard teaching the subject rubbed me the wrong way, I couldn’t imagine spending a whole semester with him.

And many people can’t imagine spending four more years with a Democrat.

That’s another thing Van Jones said in that podcast, that when he left Tennessee for Yale Law School the students in New Haven made fun of him, even the African-Americans, he didn’t know the words, he wasn’t as well read, he didn’t go to Stanford, never mind Andover, he was behind the curve. Jones decided to beat these wankers at their own game, by reading, which is what put these people ahead of him in the first place. And I experienced that firsthand, at Middlebury, I thought the guy pronouncing Celtic with a “K” was an uneducated nitwit, but it was I who was uninformed, I went to a college composed of 45% prep school graduates, taught me a thing or two, which most people never learn. That was the advantage of going to Middlebury, seeing how the other half lived. Most people never see how the other half lives. And the other half… In their NPR holier-than-thou attitude they become hatable, and are rejected.

Van Jones said that too. Very gently. I’m histrionic, he’s calm. And when he talked about fathers…

My mind was blown. You see you can’t be a man anymore, they don’t need men, and of course I’m overstating, but the truth is there’s no discussion of rape, not amongst reasonable people, it’s a third rail topic, taboo, and someone accused is guilty, in some cases even if proven innocent. And I don’t mean women aren’t taken advantage of, I’m not saying that when they come forth their lives aren’t ruined, all I’m saying is if you’re a man, you can shut up…

Or vote for Donald Trump.

There, I said it.

I don’t want to hear any more about the popular vote, or the lack of turnout. Donald Trump won, fair and square. By the rules as written. Try to change them if you want, but we couldn’t even pass the Equal Rights Amendment, good luck.

So, if we want change, we have to start with ourselves. We have to cast aside our own prejudices, be more accepting, let others into the tent, otherwise the Democratic Party is doomed. It can’t win with only the intelligentsia and the Latinos and African-Americans, Trump just proved that.

Not that I’m not scared, I’m scared plenty.

Did you see that story in the “New York Times,” about an increase in hate activity on campus since the election, brazen actions? Is it trumped up or real, who knows, because the truth is I can no longer trust the “Times,” not because the right wing denigrated it, but because it got it so wrong, and is so old school, believing the institution is more important than its employees. No, we live in a world of stars, and they keep leaving the “Times,” because there’s no room for them to stretch out and be them, whether it be Nate Silver or Frank Rich. All we’ve got left is faceless workers beholden to the Gray Lady, and that just sucks.

But the point is, we’re all Jews now, we’re all African-Americans.

Anti-Semitism?

Can I tell you about the time they spray-painted “Jew” and a Star of David on my garage? How did they know? I’d only been living in my abode briefly and hadn’t interacted with anybody!

Be very afraid.

That’s Tavis Smiley’s point, that we’re all African-Americans now, who’ve been enduring hatred and discrimination from time immemorial, now we know what it feels like. And we know you can never give up on fighting back.

But right now I’m reeling.

I certainly can’t believe in media institutions, it wasn’t only the “Times” that got it wrong, it’s like everybody ignored an entire swath of Americans. Not all Trump voters are bad people, but when they’re constantly told they are, when they keep ceding economic territory as the elites fight over microaggressions, they dig their heels in in protest. It’s kind of like rioters burning down their own neighborhoods. You might think it’s stupid, but when you’ve got nothing and no one’s paying attention you don’t care. And after the Rodney King verdict rioters invaded Hollywood. Are we safe in America or not?

I’m worried about the Supreme Court.

But I don’t think the average person even knows how it works. That the justices hold the legality of abortion in their own little hands, that they ride herd over voter laws and corporate donations and so much more. It’s always the fine print that’ll get you. But no one cares about the fine print anymore, but how could you, every time you download new software, which seemingly happens every day, you’ve got to agree to conditions that even a lawyer couldn’t decipher, that take away all your rights and force you into arbitration.

So…

I’m not sure where I fit in anymore.

And I’m not the only one.

But one thing I know for sure is Mac McAnally’s song “Nothin’ But The Truth” has been playing in my head this week. Because of these lines:

I was knockin’ around in the grocery store, baby
On the night of the last election

Songs hook us up to the universe, they not only build culture, they give us something to grab on to. And it only matters if the song is important to us, no chart or sales action can convince us otherwise, it’s an emotional response.

Mac McAnally was the new country hope. And with the launch of his eponymous label David Geffen decided to conquer all genres. He signed Mac. Mac’s album failed.

It came out in 1983. I’m holding the vinyl in my hands right now. This was just before CDs, I’ve still got all my records, not for the fidelity so much as the history, this is my life, I bought each and every one, I know them all. It may be worthless information to you, but it’s everything to me.

We was flippin’ the pages in the bookstore, baby
When I realized we hit the skids
I got a book about contraceptives
And you got a book about kids

Differences, they can break up a relationship.

But if you stay with “Nothin’ But The Truth” you find out that is not the case in this instance:

We’ve been together for so long, baby
We both have had the urge to leave
With our little white lies and our look away eyes
It is ourselves that we deceive
We believe that we might have done better
But we both know we could’ve done a lot worse
Were stayin’ right here
And it’s nothin’ but the truth we curse

We ain’t moving to Canada. Where it’s pretty good, in many ways better than the U.S.A., I go all the time, some of my best friends are from the Great White North.

But we were born here. Or we immigrated here. And we live here. This is our land, from California to the New York island.

That’s right, that’s a song, one both the left and the right know. From an era where our music brought us together as opposed to tearing us apart.

I love that Katy Perry stumped for Hillary, but I come up empty when I look for the message in her music, other than girl power, what is it?

And Beyonce… She’s taking a stand, but it’s so wrapped up in costumes and production, the penumbra, that the light has a hard time shining through. Once upon a time the music was enough, can it be that way again?

And as far as the great white hope Bruce Springsteen… He’s 67. He hasn’t had a hit in years. And I’m gonna go on record and say that his bio is damn near unreadable. Sure, he wrote it himself, but just because you’re a great songwriter that does not mean you’re a great book writer. But we keep hearing the same press that said Hillary couldn’t lose tell us that Springsteen’s book is a classic, even though I haven’t heard it brought up in conversation since the initial hype died down. That’s how it is today, they hype it and we forget it, it’s not important to us at all.

But Bruce Springsteen was important once.

We just need new artists to be important today.

And we need leaders, who watch the parking meters.

Artists are just signposts, vessels, they can point the way, but we need others to rise to the challenge, to do the work.

Say what you want about his policies, but one thing’s for sure, Bernie Sanders is a rock star, that’s his appeal.

And so is Donald Trump.

You might despise him, like Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas, or Ted Nugent, but the point is…they appeal to somebody, that’s how they got their fame, that’s how they got their celebrity.

The biggest star in the Democratic Party is Elizabeth Warren. Did you see her on Rachel Maddow last night? She was inspiring. Because she speaks the truth and fights back.

We need people to fight back, not just tell us how much better than us they are.

But that’s the America we live in, where the winners believe they’re entitled to their success, that the little people had nothing to do with it, that they didn’t purchase their wares, and the purveyors know better.

Let me tell you, you don’t need to go to Harvard to know which way the wind blows.

But it helps.

But the goal is not to get too big for your britches, not to forget where you came from, that’s what Van Jones’s dad told him, a man who was brought up in poverty and eventually became a school principal.

Live long enough and you’ll discover we’re all equal. Just because you had rich parents and went to a good school that does not mean your kids won’t get addicted to dope, your spouse won’t leave you, you won’t get cancer and you won’t go bankrupt. Bad stuff happens. And you’ve got to have compassion for others.

True, right now the right wing has no compassion for us.

But, we dug in our heels and lost.

Now it’s time to try a different tack.

Now it’s time to touch people’s souls.

With nothin’ but the truth.

Ep. 95 – Van Jones – The Axe Files with David Axelrod

“Tavis Smiley: Donald Trump Must Be Held Accountable”

“Campuses Confront Hostile Acts Against Minorities After Donald Trump’s Election”

“Senator Warren: ‘We stand up and we fight back'”

Leonard Cohen – Spotify

A great song can be sung by anybody. And even though two covers of Leonard’s work are legendary, Judy Collins’s “Suzanne” and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah,” it’s Don Henley’s cover of “Everybody Knows” that sticks with me, that I sing in my head again and again…remember when we could still sing songs?

Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows

Sound like our election?

I certainly think it does. I understand the poor feel screwed, that they’ve been left behind in the march to globalization and digitization, but I have a hard time seeing how cutting taxes on the rich will help them out. As for bringing back manufacturing to America…well, that’s fine if you want to pay $2500 for a flat screen that’s made by few people anyway, automation is king.

“Everybody Knows” originally appeared on Leonard Cohen’s 1988 album “I’m Your Man,” which had very little impact, because by this time the buzz was done. After the thrill is gone, after you’re no longer the critics’ darling, will you continue to compose? The greats do, Leonard Cohen did.

And seven years later, Don Henley included it on his greatest hits album, “Actual Miles,” one of three new compositions included to implore completists to purchase the LP, back when that was still a thing, buying albums.

And now it’s twenty one years later and most people have still not heard “Everybody Knows,” but it’s lying in wait, you will be slayed by its truth when you finally discover it. This is the antithesis of today’s hit and run music, this is a time bomb, a land mine, waiting to go off when you stumble upon it, a great song is forever, never forget that.

My mother asked me about Leonard Cohen. Which was kind of surprising, because despite her being a culture vulture, I was the pop music king, this was before our parents were our friends, before oldsters turned their progeny on to the Beatles, when to be on the same page as your parents was a rare event.

And the first album made an impact, back when records didn’t have to chart, didn’t have to have a single, to do so.

You should probably start here, with 1968’s “Songs of Leonard Cohen,” produced by the unheralded John Simon who’s been forgotten by the wankers inducting second-rate poseurs into the Hall of Fame while he midwifed some of the greatest albums in the modern canon.

And “Songs of Leonard Cohen” sounds like a Simon album, in that it’s got a slickness, with strings, that most don’t think of when they think of Leonard Cohen today, but it’s a document, seared into my brain and the culture.

Its most famous song is the aforementioned “Suzanne,” which cemented Judy Collins’ career, made her a star, transformed her from a folkie into a pop princess. Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” ultimately put her over the top, but it was “Suzanne” that turned the tide, it was unlike today, there was not a baby boomer who hadn’t heard it, despite it not being a hit single.

Suzanne takes you down to her place by the river
You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night forever

Notice the difference? This is unlike today’s lyrics, which are all about status and accomplishment, “Suzanne” is about life, which is why Leonard Cohen’s song resonated and still radiates, we’re touched by humanity, flash comes and goes, real life sustains. And Leonard’s version is even more subtle than Judy’s, it’s like there’s a poet in the corner singing his song, quietly, to the point where you’re intrigued and you want to get closer, you need to get closer.

And just when you want to tell her that you have no love to give her
She gets you on her wavelength and lets the river answer
That you’ve always been her lover

That’s the power of people as opposed to corporations, they’ll surprise you, you’ll think they have no effect on you and then you can’t live without them. And no recitation of the power of “Suzanne” can be complete without reference to the lyrics about touching her (and his!) perfect body with her mind. We’re all seeking perfection, and we find it in the less than perfect, a conundrum that’s part of the mystery of life.

And the two other songs that touched me from the debut, they all did, but the ones that immediately come to mind are “So Long, Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye,” my college roommate used to play that album again and again, and they were imprinted upon my mind. We now know who Marianne was, she recently passed, but back then it didn’t matter, we created a picture in our own mind, the songs were for us. And we never disconnect from those we love, certainly not emotionally, we never really say goodbye, which is why these partings are always so awkward.

Suddenly, with the success of “Songs of Leonard Cohen” Leonard was no longer a poet from the Great White North, he was a member of the pop firmament, no one had previously crossed over, still, he inhabited his own space, he always existed in his own rarefied world.

The follow-up, 1969’s “Songs From A Room” is most famous for its opening cut, “Bird on the Wire,” which was famously covered by Joe Cocker on his second album, his best, as well as the live album “Mad Dogs & Englishmen,” great songs were passed around, sung by everybody.

But Leonard Cohen’s commercial impact was waning with each LP. The second and third were produced by Bob Johnston in accordance with Leonard’s wishes, but the sounds were less accessible than the John Simon work, but each album had a standout track, on 1971’s “Songs of Love and Hate” it was “Famous Blue Raincoat,” which Jennifer Warnes made famous as the title track of her 1987 album, her artistic and commercial peak.

And then it was a journey into the wilderness, everybody knew Leonard’s name, he got press, but few acquired albums that got no airplay and therefore had little cultural impact. More people remember that 1977’s “Death of a Ladies’ Man” was produced by Phil Spector than any of the songs. I bought it, it was a curio, kind of like the Ramones album “End of the Century” that Spector also produced, equally a mismatch.

1984’s “Various Positions” included “Hallelujah,” a modern day standard, but completely ignored upon its release.

And 1988’s “I’m Your Man” included “First We Take Manhattan,” as well as “Everybody Knows,” the former the opening cut on that Jennifer Warnes album “Famous Blue Raincoat,” featuring searing guitar work by the dearly departed Stevie Ray Vaughan. You see the public might not have been listening, but the artists were, back when being an artist was just that, you weren’t in the hunt for corporate opportunities, you weren’t a brand, but a malleable mass in search of experimentation and satiation as well as riches. Pushing the envelope was key, and the music spoke for you.

The music was speaking for Leonard Cohen. Because he wasn’t speaking at all. He’d checked out, he’d gone up the road to Mt. Baldy, he’d joined a monastery.

There’s this illusion that rock stars live that life 24/7, but the truth is people are paying attention for a very short time, especially in the pre-Internet era, if you weren’t making hits and you weren’t getting arrested it was like you didn’t even exist. When I went to a birthday party in the Valley back in 2003 and Leonard was there he was just an old Jew in a hat, not someone who changed the tenor of the entire assemblage. He radiated a charisma, but he seemed self-contained, in his own bubble, you could lean in, but he was not leaning out, it was very different from the famous people who are looking for attention and adoration, it was like he knew something we did not, that the joke was on us, that money and fame were secondary to personal fulfillment, and that life was hard, and you did your best to soldier on.

And then Leonard Cohen lost all his money and went on the road and became an icon.

How weird is all this. If that woman hadn’t stolen from him, he might never have played live again, gotten all that press, those accolades. Funny how life goes. You think you’re in charge, but you’re not.

Leonard got a victory lap nonpareil. He just released a new album that got rave reviews.

And today he died.

So what are we left with?

The songs. He’s no longer here, but his work will live on, he’s got a legacy.

And what is that legacy?

Someone who did it differently. Who was in search of pleasure, who experienced the pain. Leonard Cohen was a seeker. Whether it be that foray to Greece way back when or up the hill to the monastery, he was looking for answers.

And now he’s revered for that.

Let that be a wake-up call. That despite all the emphasis on money, the constant social networking, life is really a mysterious adventure you go through alone, you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other, you’ve got to make choices, they’re only your own. And those who are willing to buck the trends, who do it their way, are the ones we look up to.

He was a charming poet from Canada, not the scion of a studio head in Los Angeles.

He followed his muse, it led him to a recording contract and the fruits that ultimately bore.

But when I think of Leonard Cohen today, I think of someone who was sui generis, who was birthed in an era where who you were was more important than what you did. A man who realized that telling his own personal story was more important than playing the game, that ultimately it’s not statistics we’re drawn to, but truth.

And like I said, there’s a lot of truth in “Everybody Knows.”

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody’s talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long-stem rose
Everybody knows

We all know the truth, we’re just afraid to speak it. That’s what we depend upon artists for, that’s why we’re drawn to them.

I feel like my father or my dog just died. I’ve been at loose ends for forty eight hours.

And when you’re in a spot like that, the only thing that resonates is music.

Leonard Cohen made music, and so much more.

He needed to express himself.

We needed to listen.

That’s how it goes.

Everybody knows.

You can’t say we weren’t warned.

He defeated all his Republican challengers. Brexit told us that the elites were out of touch with the rank and file. The disconnect is not only about economics, but attitudes, education, identity…

That’s right, you went to a good college and pulled yourself up by your bootstraps and…

Everybody else was left behind, and they don’t like it.

The left wing said it was about racism. Pure and simple. That Trump had awakened all the bigoted nutjobs…

But you can’t win with the bigots only. He defeated Hillary fair and square. How did the intelligentsia get it so WRONG?

First, the mainstream press thought people were listening to it. To these holier-than-thou talking heads who are paid millions to bloviate in a world where we get our news from the internet, not television… If you’re still watching TV for the answers, you ain’t got a clue. How did I know Trump was gonna win? Because early in the evening Nate Silver had him ahead. Said his odds were better than fifty percent. The same Nate Silver the “New York Times” let go, because the sports reporters didn’t want to cede turf. If you watched the “Times” odds for the last six months the Donald had no chance, Hillary had it locked up.

But she didn’t.

Not that Nate Silver is infallible. He missed the Trump phenomenon completely. He thought when the other Republican candidates started dropping out there’d be a rally around Rubio or another RNC-approved candidate. But that never happened. Nate said Trump’s appeal had a ceiling. That turned out to be untrue.

But at least Silver had the balls to admit he was wrong, to stand up to the “Huffington Post,” which said Hillary had a lock on the election, when it questioned Nate’s methods.

There are two lessons for you right there. Be willing to change and also be willing to stand up for what you believe in. And in this groupthink world we live in that’s very rare.

That was part of Trump’s appeal. He refused to play by the rules. He said racist stuff, sexist stuff, he committed faux pas after faux pas, he broke taboos. But what the inside the Beltway people and the mainstream media didn’t realize was that you hear this stuff all the time online, hatred rules, it’s a free-for-all with no decorum. So, people were not offended, they brushed these misdemeanors right off.

But Hillary was a bad candidate! And there was the Comey letter!

If you’re depending on those excuses to explain the Democratic loss you’re missing the point. This was not the usual race, everything the pols said counted did not. Trump had little infrastructure, almost no get out the vote effort, yet he won anyway.

Could Bernie have defeated Donald?

Maybe. But the same press that made fun of Occupy Wall Street refused to take Sanders seriously. The same cabal that let the Wall Street rapists not only escape scot-free, but triumph once again. That’s right, in the financial world it’s morning in America.

Maybe not tomorrow, when the markets tank, but…

The conundrum is that Trump’s victory will only make things better for the wealthy. Kind of like the old days, when Republicans ran against gay marriage so they could lower their taxes. But the Republicans own the narrative. And the narrative is that government is a controlling wastrel which bleeds money and that Hillary Clinton is a crook.

And the Democratic response?

Crickets.

Bill O’Reilly is accused of sexual harassment and he fights back, Fox News rallies the troops.

Democrats are accused of misdeeds and they become crybabies.

But it’s not so much that Clinton was a victim of misdeeds, rather she was out of touch with the public. People need hope. Without platitudes. “Stronger Together”? If that resonates with you, you must be part of Hill’s inner circle.

And Hill’s inner circle ran a traditional campaign, by the book. Like a record industry banking on resuscitating the CD, never mind the nitwits invested in vinyl. Times change, and you must too. The public embraced streaming, listens on YouTube and Spotify and Apple Music dwarf those on disc or file. But you can’t convince the old guard, no way.

So how do we get out of this mess?

First and foremost we’re headed for bad times. Trump is inexperienced and expertise is necessary to run any enterprise, just ask Jesse Ventura or Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose reigns were ineffective.

But they were both media stars.

Trump is a media star, anointed by television. In a world where celebrity is everything. Kim Kardashian is a talentless doofus, but she’s got more influence than anybody in Congress, she’s laughing all the way to the bank, it’s not like this wasn’t obvious.

And what’s obvious is we have to go back to sixties values.

I know, I know, that sounds insane on this day, but the truth is we have to help our brother, we’re all in it together. We’ve got to give the poor and disadvantaged a better education and a leg up, a helping hand.

Doubt me?

Then explain the phenomenon of Purdue Pharma. Which single-handedly created the heroin epidemic by stating that its product OxyContin was not addictive. That’s right, you start on Oxy and when you can’t afford it you move on to cheaper heroin. Meanwhile, Purdue got rich.

That’s the problem. The liberals got rich. They became fat cats. They used to care about the working man, now they want nothing to do with him. Sure, Dems may dominate Silicon Valley, creating the products that those in the red states utilize, but they want nothing to do with their users. Not only is there no tech support, these guys, and it is mostly guys, fly private and live in an alternative universe, and you think the underclass doesn’t know?

The underclass knows you can’t afford rent even if you do graduate from college, you’re living with your parents.

The underclass knows that the fortunate have contempt for them.

So the underclass decided to give the fortunate the middle finger.

First they came for your union, then they came for your welfare, are you really gonna believe in the spineless Democrats who refused to stand up for you?

I don’t think so.

Don’t get wrapped up in the cognitive dissonance. How these same people will be worse under a Republican regime, left to forage on their own. Citizens in burgs benefiting from European Union expenditures voted for Brexit, because they didn’t like being told what to do, they’d lost their identity, they wanted to reclaim it.

You’ve lost your job, you can’t find another one that feeds your family and you’re gonna believe the most inauthentic person alive is gonna help you out? That’s right, the Clintons triangulate, they do what’s expedient in a world that runs on instinct. You go with your gut, not the rulebook.

Donald Trump went with his gut, he burned the rulebook, and he’s having the last laugh.

The joke may be on us, but he’s now our President, and with a Republican Congress he’s gonna dismantle Obamacare and Dodd-Frank and people will be worse off. But they wanted change. They’re hurting. They’re open to anything new. Even a charlatan preaching false hope.

But if you want to be angry tonight, be angry at yourself. For drinking the media kool-aid. These are the newspapers we’ve got to save? Not only did they get it wrong, they’re operating in an echo chamber, they’re out of touch, maybe a new model is necessary. Be angry at yourself for not taking a stand against narcissism, for taking your piece of the pie and not giving back, for living on the fruits of the system.

Like musicians, whose goal is to sell out. One song of truth can have more power than any corporation. But no, these soulless “artists” would rather get paid. Everybody’s looking to get paid.

Don’t try to explain this by traditional metrics.

And even though I’m giving Nate Silver some credit, the truth is data did not foresee this. We thought everything could be mechanized, that 0’s and 1’s would save the world, when the truth is it comes down to people, and emotions, and no machine can compete.

Facebook was biased, Google is controlling what we know and see…

Well, if that’s true, how come these left-leaning organizations couldn’t elect Hillary?

No, the truth is we can never know what’s inside another human being, what they feel.

But we can see that most of America was disgruntled with the status quo, it wanted a reset, and it got it.

I can’t even contemplate tomorrow.

But I can see the seeds of discontent. The yuppie movement. The BMWification of the upper middle class. The flaunting of wealth. The separation of them from us.

We’re all just people folks.

One person, one vote.

And the people have spoken.

They want Trump.

My shrink saw it.

We don’t have that kind of relationship, one wherein he shares his personal story. It’s all about me, all the time, which I find a bit difficult, I tend to reflect the sun upon others. Ask somebody a question, show interest, and they’ll go on forever, they’ll tell you their deepest, darkest secrets.

But they won’t reciprocate. That’s the dirty little secret of people, they’re self-centered, narcissistic, if someone asks you about you they’re a keeper. And if you want to get ahead in this life, win friends and influence people, show interest, everybody wants to be known, they’re just waiting for someone to ask, tell somebody your story and you bond forever, never forget that.

But my shrink shocked me today, when I mentioned the Netflix show, a big smile spread across his face, he got excited, and that’s when I asked him, had he seen it?

He had.

I wasn’t going to. The hype slid off of me. Sure, it featured Winona Ryder, but all the reviewers said it was better than adequate but not top-notch.

But the populace felt otherwise.

Professional reviewers are toast. We depend upon the wisdom of the crowd. And oftentimes their interests don’t align. And TV shows are now akin to books, they’re hiding in plain sight until the word of mouth becomes deafening and we all tune in. This is not appointment television, this is land mines, waiting for you to step on them, to be blown away, to tell everybody about your experience.

A UTA agent told me it was one of the two best shows on television. The other being “Atlanta.” Are you feeling the buzz on that FX show? Starring the ubiquitous Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino? That’s one the critics have all aligned on, yet it hasn’t quite penetrated the public consciousness. That’s the world we live in, you can employ scorched earth publicity and either gain traction or not, in most cases not, like Gaga, or you can put it out there to little impact and wait for the public to make noise. And people love to embrace art and spread the word, it makes them feel good.

And I read that Stephenie Meyer couldn’t wait for the second season of “Stranger Things,” and I never read the “Twilight” books but I know she’s a fan, kind of like Elton, he not only makes the music, he LISTENS TO IT! So many artists are ME, ME, ME all the time and that focus has us either accepting or neglecting them, there’s no in between, but when they’re a fan like us…

So now I was ready.

Now “Stranger Things” was released on Netflix on July 15th. Let that be a lesson to you, don’t judge your results upon the first week. If you’ve made something great give it some time. Then again, there’s a tsunami of product and it might get buried, we live in challenging times.

So I’m late to the party, but it’s new to me. If you’re putting people down for being late adopters you’re living by twentieth century precepts. Today there’s so much stuff no one can keep up. Be thrilled someone ever comes on board.

And I love Netflix.

But it’s not what it once was. It no longer has an exhaustive catalog of flicks.

What I hate about movies is you can read about ’em but you can’t see ’em. I’m paying $150 to Spectrum, and I fire up my cable maybe an hour and a half a week. There’s the Netflix subscription and the Amazon Prime and I’m already paying for HBO… It’s like being pecked to death by ducks. Name a number for everything, please. We’ve got that in music, when are we going to get that in movies?

I was listening to Brett Easton Ellis testify about the Duplass Brothers’ “Blue Jay” in his podcast. It’s coming to Netflix, but I couldn’t wait. Because if you wait, you never see it, there’s always something new. So I paid. Five bucks. And felt ripped off. Because even though I’m a fan of Mark and Jay this movie was far from great, and I only have time for great. And I didn’t think “Stranger Things” was great at first, but I’m changing my mind.

Funny thing about some of these shows, it takes a while for you to get hooked. With “Stranger Things” I’d say it’s four episodes, by time you hit five you want to slow down the clock, you’re afraid it’s going to be over.

So, it’s made by the Duffer Brothers, who I’ve never heard of before. That’s one of the great things about art and the low barrier to entry, there are always new players on the scene, testing limits, pushing boundaries. And “Stranger Things” is a horror flick, a fantasy/sci-fi production, but it’s also a human drama, about high school and families and…

It’s a whole world and you get sucked down the rabbit hole.

Quite a respite from this election cycle we’re living through, where everybody disagrees and is hunkered down in their bunker, unwilling to listen or change. And that’s the power of art, it’s the ANTIDOTE!

Life is boring.

But that’s what makes it interesting. Everybody’s the lead in their own movie, everybody’s got a story, which brings us back to the opening of this diatribe but…

Will Byers disappears.

But Eleven has got superpowers.

And Matthew Modine has never been better, he finally lives up to his rep.

And the series is referential. Not only to so many horror movies made previously, but “E.T.,” with the three kids in search of…

Kids are hamstrung by their parents, yet they live in a relatively stress-free world unburdened by adult responsibilities.

Of course there’s bullying and status issues, but…

I abhor fantasy, yet I like a good thrill. You’re gonna wonder about some of the choices the characters make, but you’ll find yourself pulled in by “Stranger Things.” Winona Ryder might be recognizable, but almost everybody else is not, it’s kind of like the original “90210,” these actors have been plucked from obscurity to leave their mark and…

Netflix gives you the money to execute your vision. Something we used to do in the music business before the suits took over. The artists know best.

And the public knows when something resonates.

I heard Dana Carvey on Stern, one of the most entertaining hours extant.

But I pulled up Garth’s Netflix special and winced, he doesn’t know how to sustain, Dana can riff, and that’s about it. But the Duffer Brothers?

We live in exciting times. Despite all the hogwash about short attention spans, “experts” telling us to make it ever so much more brief, the truth is we want to go deep, we want to enmesh ourselves in the story.

But you’ve got to write it, you’ve got to birth it and finish it.

And…

“Stranger Things” is not the “Walking Dead,” a show that comes on once a week that we talk about the very next day. It’s something more sinister, like Cream or the rest of the album acts that didn’t cross over to Top Forty, at least not at first. “Stranger Things” is made for people who are digging, who want to go for the ride more than talk about it. It’s not for Instagramming, but for watching.

Some things remain the same, the public wants to be entertained, it’s got an insatiable appetite for quality entertainment.

And “Stranger Things” is that.

I’m not gonna tell you what happens. I’m just spreading the word. So that maybe you’ll take a chance and be happy.

“Stranger Things” is making me very happy.