APPLE

It’s over folks. In tech, he not busy growing is already dying. The landscape is littered with companies that dominated once and failed thereafter. And dominance is key. Something Apple no longer does. Samsung and Huawei and Android are eating into the iPhone business and Cupertino’s computer numbers are going in the wrong direction, the company having waited too long to update product and…the Watch is a sideshow, Hollywood won’t let Eddy Cue in and hubris and lack of vision have left Apple moribund. Don’t look at today’s numbers and the company’s size as being indicative of future success. The iPhone has hit a wall in China, in the U.S. with carriers no longer subsidizing handsets adoption of new phones will be low, because an iPhone 6 is good enough. Investors look at revenue, margins, how much can be made in the short term, but it’s the long term that really counts.

INSTAGRAM/SNAPCHAT

You cannot beat the established player without a great leap forward in infrastructure or features. Sure, there’s a ton of runway for Snapchat Stories, but no one is complaining about functionality, as they did with MySpace before Facebook usurped its audience. Beware of companies extending their brands, trying to eat up the market share of an upstart. It illustrates lack of vision, and as we established above, vision is everything in tech and execution comes thereafter.

AMAZON

Jeff Bezos is the most powerful person in music, it’s just that the industry doesn’t know it yet. Bezos is building an empire via Prime. It won’t be long before you can get all the major labels’ content for “free” with Prime. And people are cheap. Once you can get expedited shipping and movies/TV and music for one low price… First came Prime, then came the Echo. The Echo is a stealth product that will only enhance Amazon’s bottom line, not only can you speak your purchases, you can consume your content. “Alexa, play the Beatles.” Done.

FACEBOOK

It’s all about the ads. Facebook has the best mobile system. The odds that Lowell McAdam and Verizon can compete? Very low. You want to bet on the young players willing to stay up all night and do anything to win. Read “Chaos Monkeys,” this is how Facebook beat Google Plus. There’s too much old school thinking about tech, brick and mortar concepts that don’t apply. It may be hard to start an automobile company, but it’s not that hard to establish an app, especially when you can host it on Amazon Web Services.

ALPHABET

Larry Page is in charge. Never underestimate the power of the founder. Remember when Howard Schultz stepped back from Starbucks and the company faltered? That’s coffee, not a complicated product, like chips. Theoretically Schultz’s successor should have sailed on smoothly. But the successor didn’t have a feel for real estate and Starbucks wasn’t righted until Howard Schultz came back. Eric Schmidt was pushed aside. Adult supervision was unnecessary. Where is John Sculley today? Now investors do their best to grow the founder, who has a vision that can’t be replaced. Alphabet may have failures, but it adjusts on the fly and has so many assets and is moving forward on mobile advertising… It’s a winner.

WeChat

USA! USA!

Well, no.

Read this article:

“China, Not Silicon Valley, Is Cutting Edge in Mobile Tech”

While we’re trying to adjust to chip cards, people are paying via WeChat in China.

America is going in the wrong direction. Free trade is good. Not America First, but WORLD FIRST! Sure, America may have the best economy, but if we isolate ourselves from the rest of the world it’ll be our loss. The losers in a world economy must be helped, but you can’t go backward, that’s death.

TESLA

Only in America can one person die and a whole industry be hamstrung.

That’s right, one idiot crashes his Tesla because his hands are off the wheel and he’s watching “Harry Potter” and then the clueless government comes in and tries to regulate, the know-nothings in the press weigh in as if…they know anything.

So many cars already include elements of autopilot. Like your speed-adjusting cruise control.

When it comes to tech the government is always behind. And should stay out, especially in the development period, the government just doesn’t understand. After a period of establishment maybe antitrust is an issue, then again, movement/change happens so fast that by time you regulate a company it’s no longer so powerful, can you say Microsoft?

Forget whether Tesla will dominate, it single-handedly brought cars into the electric era, and with Solar City Elon Musk is addressing climate change, not that the merger will definitely pay dividends, it looks like Musk is saving Solar City but… Our nation is built on progress and innovation and when we hamper people it’s ultimately to our own detriment. And, did you notice Elon Musk was an IMMIGRANT!

And self-driving cars are the FUTURE, and will be here before you know it. Kind of like digital photography, we heard about it for over a decade and then seemingly within a year film died. It’s coming folks.

BITCOIN/APPLE PAY

They’re nascent products in a wide open landscape. Virtual currency will rule, as will mobile payments. Will these two particular entities dominate. IT DOESN’T MATTER!

FACEBOOK LIVE

The whole internet is going to video, this is what low cost high speed bandwidth has wrought. New, unforeseen applications are coming. Real time video is only one of them. Google/YouTube got caught flat-footed, it didn’t see this happening.

TWITTER

Too much talk about a company as opposed to an idea. Real time news is here to stay. Will the provider be Twitter or another entity? Doesn’t matter.

Turn Of The Decade Playlist – Spotify

From the eighties to the nineties, when rock still ruled, before MTV went totally big budget pop.

That’s right, rock used to dominate on TV, and TV dominated the airwaves, determined what we heard on radio too. And although Michael Jackson broke the color line, rap/hip-hop didn’t start to infiltrate the mainstream until the nineties, that’s when “Yo! MTV Raps” really gained traction.

And then the entire landscape was muddied at the turn of the next decade, from the nineties to the aughts, because of file-trading, people were combing for the favorites they never owned and the obscurities, the live and alternative tracks, that titillated them.

And now we live in an African-American dominated culture, rap/hip-hop is even bigger online, in streaming, than it is in sales. And all those white people…they’re wondering where their rock has gone! Even their children have gravitated to the urban sound.

Except for the whites listening to country. Hootie may have crossed over, but that’s a lily-white empire. It’s Trump versus… That’s right, the musical landscape mirrors the political landscape. The young ‘uns who have no problem with gay marriage or intermarriage have glommed on to a polyglot sound that plays internationally. And the older whites, raised on rock, despise this music and hold on ever more closely to what once was.

Interesting.

Now grunge came along and replaced the music listed below. But since grunge, no white sound has dominated. Rock has become marginalized. Even worse, the sound itself is no longer mainstream. Once upon a time Led Zeppelin was considered heavy metal, Black Sabbath was at the bleeding edge, but their sound resembles the Partridge Family compared to what’s metal today. And the old rockers were all about great singing frontmen with a dollop of melodicism… Melodicism takes a back seat in today’s rock. If you’re looking for something you can sing along to, migrate to country, it’ll embrace you with open arms.

But for a brief period we were all in it together, on MTV. And the below sounds had their heyday back then.

“Paradise City”
Guns N’ Roses

“Sweet Child O’ Mine” was the initial hit, but “Paradise City” is the heart and soul of “Appetite For Destruction.”

GNR had been banging around L.A. for years, the hype was tiresome, the album eventually came out and then…not much. It wasn’t a stiff, but it didn’t burgeon. I kept it at arm’s length until I heard it over the in-store sound system at Tower Records in Westwood. It was undeniable, I bought it. This only happened twice in my life, the other time with Genesis’s “Wind & Wuthering,” which I heard at Licorice Pizza on Wilshire and purchased.

But eventually MTV played “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” and the band built and built, “Welcome To The Jungle” came back from the dead, but the apotheosis was “Paradise City,” with its almost seven minute live video with Axl in that white jacket…

“Dust N’ Bones”
Guns N’ Roses

From the follow-up, the two CD “Use Your Illusion,” “Lies” didn’t count.

This is an Izzy Stradlin song, he was the glue that kept the band together, he leavened the sound, he added the soul, and the act hasn’t been the same since he left, this year’s so-called “reunion” is ersatz.

“Youth Gone Wild”
Skid Row

I remember Sebastian Bach had this tattooed on his arm.

This track introduced the band with the impossibly good-looking frontman. Before the rap wars, there was an east coast/west coast rock war, between not only the acts, but the labels, between Atlantic and Geffen…

“18 And Life”
Skid Row

Even better than “Youth Gone Wild,” this song and its dark video dominated on MTV. Not exactly a sell-out hair band ballad, this was “meaningful” and its melodic chorus hooked you.

“I Remember You”
Skid Row

The last hurrah, before Skid Row devolved into in-fighting and fell apart.

And the reason I’m including Skid Row, other than this great track, my favorite of theirs, with a chorus I sing to myself all the time when I not only think of old friends but how they don’t seem to remember me, is because they opened for GNR at that famous week-long run at the Forum after “Appetite.”

It was the hottest ticket in town. Staples Center didn’t exist. The Forum had not been redone. There were no cell phone cameras, but there were big screens, it was the first concert where the women bared their breasts, it was positively Dionysian.

And Skid Row opened and…

GNR took forever to come on next.

Skid Row mostly sounded like noise. But GNR triumphed, they will never be that good again. They dominated the rock scene, it was a homecoming, a coronation, the youth had gone wild and taken over, certainly within the building!

“Seventeen”
Winger

They were a joke. But that did not mean they weren’t adored by those in flyover country, who couldn’t tell what was credible and what was not.

This is their version of “Youth Gone Wild,” only with a lot less danger and gravitas. Still, it’s hooky.

“Can’t Get Enough”
Winger

You’re probably listening through headphones, or crummy computer speakers.

But if you’ve got a big rig, if you have the original CD (I had the CD single and played it incessantly), put it on and crank it up and your whole house will shake.

This is Winger’s peak. Powerful.

But what I remember most is…

Going to my friend’s bachelor party at the Hollywood Tropicana. No, not the breakfast/lunch place attached to the motel, but the strip club which featured…mud wrestling.

It wasn’t really mud, but it was brown. And the women were topless, albeit surgically-enhanced. One of the more bizarre evenings of my life. But when this came over the stereo, and strip clubs are sonically-reinforced, it all worked, at least for four minutes.

“Modern Day Cowboy”
Tesla

Jeff Keith may not have the pipes of his east coast competitors, but Tesla was a much better band than Winger and White Lion and the rest.

The initial LP made an impact, but it did not go nuclear. It’s totally solid, this is probably the best-known cut, but if you want to go deeper listen to “Changes,” “Little Suzi” and “Cumin’ Atcha Live.”

“Love Song”
Tesla

The follow-up “The Great Radio Controversy” was not as consistent, but the peaks were higher. And this was the highest.

A minute plus intro led into a sunrise on a beautiful field, this was a softer number with an edge that both boys and girls could like. And when the “live” video hit MTV this went stratospheric.

Love is all around you, yeah
Love is knockin’ outside your door
Waitin’ for you is this love made just for two
Keep an open heart and you’ll find love again, I know

It’s true. You may feel lost and lonely, alone in your house, living your dreary life. But the truth is out there there’s someone just like you, just dying to connect. And if you can get over your preconceptions, your hang-ups, if you just go with the flow, don’t screw it up, you too can be happy.

You’re not too fat, too ugly or too poor. Just be honest and you’ll be stunned what doors open. Today’s society might be all about in-your-face marketing, with social media winners boasting, but the truth is we’re all insecure inside, and if you reach out…you’ll definitely touch someone.

“Lazy Days, Crazy Nights”
Tesla

This is much heavier, but not only does it get your head banging, you find yourself thrusting your arm in the air and singing along.

But I love those lazy days and crazy nights
It’s my way, it’s my life

Truly. Even now, during the height of the summer. I don’t really relax, don’t really feel comfortable until the sun goes down and the world becomes my own. When the hoi polloi stop working and we night owls can take over.

Back before the internet, before cell phone cameras, you went on the road and it was an adventure with only the stories left in the wake. That’s one of the reasons you wanted to make it, to go on the road and partake. But today you’re just too scared, it’s just endless gigs in search of dough. But yesterday…

“The Way It Is”
Tesla

CD players were programmable. But few rarely did, program that is. It was just too complicated, kind of like setting the VCR. But I did, program. The above three Tesla tracks on endless repeat.

“The Way It Is”
Tesla

From “Five Man Acoustical Jam,” the surprise hit, the inspiration for MTV “Unplugged,” then again, so many claim that title.

However, this is one of the most magical albums of all time. They say that “Live At Leeds” and “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” are the best live albums, I’d dispute that, “Five Man Acoustical Jam” is far superior.

The hit was the cover of the Five Man Electrical Band’s “Signs.”

But this is my favorite cut on the LP.

Even though we could never seem to work things out
I still love you just the same, I do
I miss your smile and that sparkle in your eyes
You’re so beautiful, never change

She’d left me. The following year was the hardest of my life. Then I found new love.

But I still missed her.

“Up All Night”
Slaughter

A forgotten band. On Chrysalis, when John Sykes ran the label, before he became a radio majordomo.

Up all night
Sleep all day

That’s the life the rock stars used to live, me too. They didn’t get up for commercial appearances, to enhance their brand. The “Today Show”? That’s for pussies.

This is an anthem, and you’ll be stunned at how powerful it still is twenty five years removed.

“Fly To The Angels”
Slaughter

There are two versions of this on the CD, electric and acoustic, both good.

But the acoustic is the best. It makes me smile just listening to it, even though it’s a sad song. It’s just that Mark Slaughter’s vocal had such power and so much meaning, you’d crank it up and there’d be no space left for anything else in the world, and isn’t that the power of music? Forget the endless playlists in the background, what I want is one song in the foreground, turned up so high that I can just stand there and stare at the stereo in the belief that I’m a winner and my life works.

“Tangled In The Web”
Lynch Mob

This is from later, from the spring of ’92, Nirvana and Pearl Jam had wiped the slate clean, so this had less impact than it would have if it had come out a couple of years before.

George Lynch was a refugee from Dokken, back when how well you played the guitar determined where you were on the pecking order. And if you don’t find the intro to this song infectious, if it doesn’t make your body writhe like you’re a living funhouse mirror, you’re too uptight for me.

If you leave me lonely
If you take away the things that I love
Got a bad emotion
Tangled in the web of your love

Women rule the world, men are just putty in their hands.

Come on, Rupert Murdoch married Jerry Hall?

I’m not saying women aren’t underpaid, I’m not saying some bad actors don’t take liberties with women they shouldn’t, but I am saying most men need your support to survive, you can bend them to your will, because we’re tangled in the web of your love and lost without it.

“Miss Mystery”
Black ‘N Blue

If “Tangled In The Web” was a bit late, “Miss Mystery” was a bit early, it’s from ’85.

There’s a secret sauce here. The song was co-written by Jim Vallance, who was making his bones with Bryan Adams and it was produced by Bruce Fairbairn and engineered by Bob Rock, before they broke through big with “Slippery When Wet.”

Mutt Lange’s legend is receding, Fairbairn’s is almost completely forgotten, unjustly. Canada was and still is a hotbed of musical creativity and excellence. Fairbairn was its number one producer, starting with the for locals only Prism and then moving on to Loverboy and ultimately the aforementioned Bon Jovi and Aerosmith and Van Halen.

This is poppy, but it’s powerful, it walks a line that Def Leppard had established. And the truth is there are fifty year olds all over the world who live for this sound.

“Nobody’s Fool”
Cinderella

They were on Mercury, they were not photogenic, but Tom Keifer and his bandmates are underrated, to the degree they’re rated at all.

“Rock Me”
Great White

I’m not sure they belong. Truth is this came out at the same time as “Appetite For Destruction,” which skewed the whole sound. But, fans of this are probably fans of both.

“Round And Round”
Ratt

And if we want to go back even further, to ’84, we have this, Ratt’s breakout and peak all in one, with that famous Milton Berle video to boot.

This was the warning shot.

The old fogeys had ruled previously, those who’d made it in the seventies, from Rod Stewart to Tom Petty, MTV was an A&R station aware of its legacy. But then came Duran Duran from the U.K. and Ratt from Los Angeles. New acts were taking over. And they did. New sounds were constantly crippling old ones, putting them on the scrapheap. Don’t like today’s music? Just wait a couple of years and it will be completely different.

But not anymore. Music has been pretty similar this entire century. MTV doesn’t air music videos and radio is disconnected and fighting for its life. Used to be the media outlets needed new sounds to keep people tuned in, and there were acts all over the world fighting to dominate, when being a musician was the peak desire, before money became everything, before the models all wanted to date rich technologists.

“Why Hollywood babes are trying to bag a tech titan, not a rock star”

But change is coming.

Rockin’ Vibes – Spotify playlist

Do you know this band Kaleo? They’re from Iceland and now signed to Atlantic and they’ve played SXSW and…they’ve got two tracks with over twenty million plays on Spotify.

I’ve never heard of them.

I started with “Discover Weekly,” and discovered that unsung, never broke through Bob Schneider definitely has the goods, check out his cut “Han Solo.” And my personalized playlist had a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band cover of “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” a “Basement Tapes” song made famous by the Byrds but still unknown by so many. And there was a great Emmylou Harris song “Bluebird Wine,” but too many of the songs I already knew, even if they were amongst the best of the acts’ output, hell, how did the algorithm know to pick out Arc Angels’ “Sent By Angels”? And I LOVE Aerosmith’s “Seasons Of Wither” and the Cars’ “It’s All I Can Do,” but they’re from the seventies and I want to hear something new.

My “Discover Weekly” playlist did include Courtney Barnett’s “Three Packs A Day,” but even though it was better than the rest of her output I’d been exposed to it didn’t move the needle, it was edgy music for young people, not radically different from what I used to listen to.

But then I discovered “Rockin’ Vibes.”

Spotify keeps changing/improving its interface, on a regular basis there are new features. And now they recommend playlists and tracks based on what you’ve listened to previously, kind of an ongoing “Discover Weekly.” And…it’s all so overwhelming, there’s so much stuff. I was about to default to my usual playlists, the “United States Top 50” and “Hot Country.” But…

Too many of the “Top 50” are tune-outs and too many of the “Hot Country “are repetitious, not groundbreaking, serviceable, but ultimately a waste of time.

So I decided to dig deeper.

Spotify was recommending “This Is: George Harrison.” That’s right, I’d been listening to “All Things Must Pass,” the title track, I had a hard week and I started to write something but…

And there was “This Is: Eagles,” which I perused, but I know all that stuff.

“Classic Acoustic” was interesting, but like I said, I wanted to hear some new stuff, stuff I didn’t know.

And that’s when I stumbled on “Rockin’ Vibes.” Could it have a worse title?

The first track was “Take Me Down,” by the Pretty Reckless, and it was pretty good.

Huh? Isn’t that Taylor Momsen’s band? Aren’t actors supposed to suck at music? “Take Me Down” wasn’t cutting edge, but it was hooky, I most certainly got it.

And then I discovered Kaleo’s “Hot Blood,” with that guitar sound that has you twisting in your seat that I like so much. Once again, not revolutionary, but really good, I got sidetracked, that’s when I went down into the rabbit hole, learning about Kaleo.

And when I went back to “Rockin’ Vibes,” I was stunned, everything was GOOD!

Some of the bands you’ve heard of.

Some of you have not.

But there was nothing I wanted to fast-forward through.

That Band Of Horses track, “Solemn Oath,” I can listen to stuff like this for a very long time.

And Jeff Beck put out a new album which had no impact, he was totally wrong to fire Harvey Goldsmith as his manager, Harvey knew how to raise a ruckus, and I’ve heard this cut, and am somewhat disappointed by the vocalist, but if you’re not wowed by Beck’s guitar work you don’t like the six stringed instrument. When he starts to wail it’s like God has come down from heaven and is converting you just by doing his act, it’s irresistible.

And you can tell what all the buzz is about by listening to St. Paul & The Broken Bones’ “All I Ever Wonder.”

And then there’s the underrated deserving of praise Bob Moses, with “Tearing Me Up.” There’s no place for this on Top Forty radio, no place in our all promotion all the time in-your-face culture, but if you’re human, if you come home and want to relax, this will do it for you.

And then there was that band I’d never heard of, the Quaker City Night Hawks, I played “Beat The Machine” and I couldn’t stop playing it.

Rockin’ Vibes is a REVELATION!

If you’re a rock fan looking for new music who just can’t fathom the Top Forty, if you feel you just weren’t made for these times, you’ll be stunned to find there’s a playlist just for you.

What I’d like is a festival of just these acts, where each played three cuts, maybe four or five, I’d go for that, bands would truly break out of that, that’d be different from the casual clusterf**ks with the same acts playing across this great country of ours.

There’s still too much music to digest. “Rockin’ Vibes” is six hours and fourteen minutes long, it contains a hundred tracks, but it’s definitely worth listening to.

Maybe all of us who are fans of this music can agree this is our playlist and elevate these acts to the tier they deserve.

Or maybe not.

“Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice”

Jim Urie recommended this book. Yes, the man who used to run Universal Distribution, the guy who was featured so prominently in the Tower Records documentary. And I didn’t expect it to be good, after all, it was released over a year ago and I’d never heard of it, but…

I started the sample chapter just so I could tell Jim I did, give it a shot, but I was immediately hooked and I believe you will be too.

“Red Notice” is the story of one Bill Browder, whose grandfather ran for President as a Communist, whose parents were real lefties, who became a capitalist in reaction to all that.

Bill went to Stanford Business School. All the press goes to Harvard, Kellogg and Wharton, but the graduates of Stanford have an advantage, it’s about a small team throughout your education and you use these relationships…

Bill did not use these relationships, because he didn’t want to do what they all wanted to do. He wanted to work in Russia. Back before the wall fell and Communism imploded. “Red Notice” is the TRUE story of his exploits, and the hair will rise on the back of your neck as you read it.

You see Putin was after Bill Browder. For making so much money in Russia by revealing corruption.

Well, that’s not how he started. Actually, Browder started in Poland, as a consultant, on a bus deal, he worked his way to Russia, after getting Edmond Safra to invest in his fund. You see, Browder figured out the Russian stock market was incredibly undervalued, and that shares distributed to the public were actually more valuable than preferred, voting shares.

You don’t have to know anything about finance to read this book, never mind enjoy it. It’s really about how one man finds an edge and exploits it. Do you have the insight, do you have the balls?

Most don’t have the insight, that’s the failing of our educational system, we don’t teach people how to analyze, we teach to the test, to our society’s detriment. It’s only at the elite institutions that analytical skills are taught. I’ll give you an example. At Middlebury there were no objective tests, no multiple choice, no true/false, every test was a three hour essay exam, you had to argue your case.

And you hung with people who argued all day long.

But when I went to college back in the seventies, this was long before the era of entrepreneurship, this was when life was about personal fulfillment as opposed to cash. Browder is interested in the cash. And when you make that much, people don’t like it. His lawyer got killed.

That’s right, I’m reading the book feeling inadequate, how I don’t take these kinds of risks, and then the attorney is beaten to death in prison and I tell myself if that’s the cost, I’m out.

And Browder echoes this sentiment in the end.

But before that…

The first half of the book is an adventure story, as in going to different places and having one. I love when Browder and buddy crash the World Economic Forum in Davos. Success is about chutzpah.

The second half is about trying to get justice for the fallen attorney. And it’s not as good, it reads as self-justification, even if Browder’s motives are pure.

But it’s all true.

Sure, we heard about Putin and Sochi, even about Ukraine, but “Red Notice” will give you a feel for the corruption throughout Russia, it will make you glad you live in the United States, it will make you anxious every time Donald says something positive about Vladimir.

“Luckiest Girl Alive”

“Red Notice” is a better book. It calls out to you when you’re lying in bed, going through the day’s travails.

But it’s tough to put Jessica Knoll’s “Luckiest Girl Alive” down.

“Luckiest Girl Alive” is fiction. It’s billed as a mystery/thriller, and there’s an aspect that hits that chord, but really…it’s an expose on high school and outsiders.

Do you feel like an outsider?

I most certainly do. I attribute it to my dad, who never adhered to the conventional wisdom, who always went his own way. Listen to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast “The Big Man Can’t Shoot” on this subject:

“The Big Man Can’t Shoot”

Turns out the underhand free throw is much more efficient than the overhand one. But people are too embarrassed to use it.

As for Gladwell’s “Revisionist History”…it’s extremely well done, make it your number one podcast, a position it usually holds on the chart. HOWEVER, Gladwell has an agenda. And it’s usually one of taking the top people, the elite, down. That’s a thread throughout his work. That those who go to top universities falter, that you can get just as good an education at a state school and can possibly achieve greater career goals because of the lesser competition. In the episode “Food Fight”, Gladwell takes a swipe at Bowdoin College, says not to go there, because of its great food. That Vassar is the better choice, even if it serves inferior food, because it has more Pell Grant attendees. But that’s not the only mark of financial aid/helping the underprivileged. Bowdoin helps the poor by having need blind admissions and giving a ton of money in financial aid. Furthermore, the food program is self-sustaining, there’s no endowment money used. But Gladwell has an agenda. And when confronted, he doubles down on Twitter, going on about steak and lobster dinners, even though that’s only twice a year and on the second date it’s mostly paid for by attendees, the families of Bowdoin graduates. But never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

And the fact is Jessica Knoll WAS raped. It came out much later, that’s right, “Luckiest Girl Alive” features a rape, but it’s got so much more than that. It’s got…the privileged versus the wannabe. The marriage for safety. And the desire to prove to those who put you down that you’ve made it, using your success to prove your worth.

“Luckiest Girl Alive” sometimes is so inside and obtuse in its language and sentence construction you don’t know what is being said. I read slowly, for content. And in this case I found it’s best to keep reading, most is revealed. It’s kind of like listening to a teen tell his or her story, a convoluted trip through an amusement park that only exists in their own mind.

But…

The emotions are so right.

You want to fit in, so you make one bad choice after another.

Kids are vicious, they bully.

And those with money win in the end.

And the end of this book is marginally unsatisfying. But the trip there…

If you weren’t popular in high school but wanted to be. If you think you are entitled to recognition but no one else sees it that way. If you…

Want to know how the east coast thinks…

“Not everyone is flush on the Main Line, but the priorities are certainly different than the kind I’d grown up with. Education, travel, culture – this is what any pennies pinched should be used for, never flashy cars, loud logos, or personal maintenance.”

If you grew up on the Main Line, in Philadelphia, or any other enclave of east coast pretentiousness, you’ll understand this completely. If you didn’t… This is the ethos of those who truly run America. Start here. But even more amazing is those who adhere to this ethos don’t know that other people see the world differently. TiFani’s mother drives a leased BMW, she’s got to, for her image. She makes sure TiFani is wearing makeup, the mother always has her look on. I never encountered this viewpoint until I moved to the west coast, where image oftentimes trumps substance.

But not really.

“Luckiest Girl Alive” is a good ride. Just enough plot to keep you moving forward, but it’s the insight that grabs you.

So many of today’s vaunted books don’t hit the high note, they ultimately disappoint. And sadly, “Luckiest Girl Alive” does too. But not as much as this summer’s “Sweetbitter,” which gets better towards the end, but is vastly overrated, as is “The Girls,” which is essentially unreadable, because of the endless digression into description, but…

In order to review a book you have to read it. And that takes a lot more effort than listening to a song. So, most people are excluded. But those who remain are members of a secret society. And when they tell you about something and it resonates you smile.

Someone e-mailed me about “Luckiest Girl Alive.” I spent the last twenty four hours reading it.

I can’t think of a better way to spend a day.