History is being rewritten. The seventies are now seen as the advent of the blockbuster era, the decade that launched “Jaws” and “Star Wars,” which changed the paradigm forever, to not only high concept fare purveyed during the summer months, but high grosses too. If you’re not swinging for the fences today, you’re not in the game at all.

But it didn’t used to be that way.

It didn’t used to be that the Third Street Promenade was the epicenter of entertainment. As a matter of fact, Santa Monica was sleepy, all the traffic was east of the 405, walk down the Promenade and you might encounter tumbleweeds on your way to the $2 movie, no, all the action was in Westwood, just south of UCLA, where you could not get a parking spot and all the films opened.

Let’s see, how many movie theatres were there in Westwood?

Well, there were the Manns and the UAs and the… Nine edifices and more screens. And the Mack Daddy was the National, you entered on floor one but then ascended to floor two, where the seats poured down to a giant screen. That was the number one theatre in Los Angeles, possibly the world. But it no longer exists. It was torn down, L.A. is constantly reinventing itself, and for those of us who remember those days…we cannot forget when Westwood ruled and the movies did too, when the idea of lining up an hour before just to see the latest Brian De Palma flick was a common event. Movies were our lifeblood. Punk came along and put a dent in corporate rock, new wave too, but the movies didn’t waver, they paid dividends right up until…

“Heaven’s Gate.”

Now the focus has been on how that flick killed United Artists, but it goes unsaid that after that flop the artists lost control, the studios took the power back. And sure, Spielberg got his own way, but he was never one of the auteurs, I’ll even argue he’s a hack. He sold entertainment, slick stuff, whereas the greats from that era, their work had edges, it touched our souls.

Let’s start with “The Last Picture Show.” Peter Bogdanovich’s masterpiece. Dark and in parts unseemly, with a naked Cybill Shepherd to boot, watching that flick made you want to go to Texas, because it was so different, unlike the suburbs where I grew up, the movies were a window into an alternative universe.

And you can say “Paper Moon” was more mainstream, but really, creating a Dust Bowl flick in black and white? No one likes to leave any money on the table anymore, they fear alienating part of the audience, they won’t take risks, which is why the movies have faltered.

Oh, I know… You’re going to point to the small flick that floats your boat, the record that penetrates your brain, but what you don’t realize is back then the HITS did this. There was an experimental marginal fringe, but the best and the brightest were given free rein and told stories we just could not get enough of.

Like “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” where Jeff Bridges lit up the screen and jump-started a career. Shot in Big Sky country, you marveled at the world created, you had no idea who Michael Cimino was, but you knew the flick was good.

And we did know who the directors were, they were stars often bigger than the actors. Like Francis Ford Coppola. Not only is the “Godfather” saga probably the best movie ever made, Coppola continued to test limits and I went at noon to the Cinerama Dome to see an unspooling of “Apocalypse Now” months before it opened wide, it too played for a week, just like the “Deer Hunter.”

“Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” might have gotten little respect, but the buzz on the “Deer Hunter” was deafening. This was before DeNiro was a star, most people had never heard of Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken was an unknown, but the rap was the flick affected you emotionally, it wasn’t a thrill ride but a saga. Funny how the humanity’s been sapped out of art, it’s all sheen, but back then character was as important as plot, and when you saw the “Deer Hunter”…

We did, my girlfriend and me, at the National, where it played for Oscar qualification, tickets were sold in advance. It was during law school finals but it was an unmissable event. We had no idea what to expect, but after seeing it we could not sleep, it affected us so much, the same way you drove home in silence after seeing your favorite band live, you were numb, you wanted to wallow in the experience.

So, we were all waiting for “Heaven’s Gate.”

Which is not as bad as they say it is, the legend eclipsed reality, before the film even opened. Kind of like the new “Ghostbusters,” which is already considered a flop. The truth is everything great triumphs after that much hype and notoriety, and if the female “Ghostbusters” is good the online brouhaha will be forgotten. But it probably isn’t, so it’ll stiff. Like “Heaven’s Gate,” which was just not good enough.

It’d be one thing if Michael Cimino made another movie right away. But he became a pariah and then a recluse, a bombastic self-righteous jerk who no one wanted anything to do with.

But the interesting thing is he was there at the apotheosis and the death. “Deer Hunter” was a long movie before three hour running times were de rigueur, it was all his vision, there was no source material, nothing to hook us other than word of mouth, the lunatics had taken over the asylum, the directors ruled. And then, after “Heaven’s Gate,” it was a return to what once was, light fare, only this time with a huge focus on hoovering up dollars.

And it’s only gotten worse. Entertainment was always a business, but other than in TV, the most mindless of media in the sixties, today entertainment is solely about the bottom line. We revere those who make the money, executives are king, everything’s gone topsy-turvy.

Michael Cimino died. After removing himself from the dialogue, after having so much plastic surgery he became unrecognizable. We don’t know whether he had that much self-hatred or was transitioning, right now we don’t even know why he died, but we do know he’s a footnote, known for bankrupting a studio and nothing more.

But studios were built on the backs of artists. And whether it be Quentin Tarantino rescuing the Weinsteins or… The spoils still come from the artists, those who are hated by the suits, because their genius can’t be quantified, you can’t put the odds of success in a spreadsheet, you’ve just got to trust them, these oddballs who wouldn’t fit in anywhere else but can hold the whole world in thrall.

Michael Cimino didn’t make that many movies. But he was more than a one hit wonder. And instead of being decried, he should be lauded. He was a highly educated guy who wanted to make films as opposed to money, he didn’t go to Wall Street, make an irrelevant app. He didn’t want to compromise, he wanted his vision on screen, he was in pursuit of greatness, which we rarely see anymore, despite all the protestations from Kanye and the rest that they’re pushing the envelope.

He was from a different era. When art ruled. When no one lived in a gated community. When the movie people flew first class, not private. When we not only saw the movies, but talked about them, endlessly. When people not only knew who acted and directed, but edited and shot too.

We’ll return to those days, when we give artists more rope, when we venerate them to the point the best and the brightest will leave money on the table to enact their vision. When society changes its values, when we realize it’s all about us as opposed to them.

BuzzAngle MidYear Report

In other words, Spotify, et al, beat YouTube, et al. There were 114,226,566,336 audio streams and 95,172,077,123 video streams. Last year there were 54,961,808,648 audio streams and 77,297,473,064 video streams. Audio streams increased by 107.8% and video streams by 23.1%.

But the music industry is still fighting the last war. Focusing on YouTube and the supposed “value gap” when the truth is consumers have moved on to Spotify and Apple Music…because of convenience, because of the social element, that’s where their friends are, because of playlists, because video is a lousy way to listen to music.

I’m not saying that What-A-Mole should not be eliminated, that one takedown notice shouldn’t be enough. I’m just saying that after nearly two decades the music industry and its adherents have not figured out the future, they’re still stuck in the past, somewhere they want to return to which we’ll never inhabit again.

Music on YouTube was a way station. A gap-filler. Spotify wouldn’t launch in the U.S. before all the major labels were on board, which they weren’t for years, as a result YouTube satisfied the demand. But music on YouTube will fade out. Forget about it. The goal of the music industry should be to get everybody paying for Spotify, Apple Music, et al. Instead, the musicians are bitching, saying what people want, Spotify, et al, is junk, and YouTube is the problem. Huh?

We need a free tier, on demand online access, to eviscerate that is to sign your death warrant. Some people will never pay, some are just casual users, don’t leave them out, make them into fans. And believe me, most acts want free on demand, the same way they all paid indie promotion fees in the last century. Without them, you’re nowhere.

But it turns out active users will pay for music. Because not only are they fans, they love the convenience! And if you don’t know that free Spotify is hobbled on the mobile handset, you haven’t used it. But that wouldn’t be new, most people pontificating have never gotten down into the pit to see what’s really going on. You can’t pick and choose on the handset. And the handset dominates, to focus on the desktop is to be left behind, like YouTube, which is a crummy music service on the mobile device.

This is how it always works. People will pay for utility, for convenience and features. Are you really gonna give up your Discover Weekly playlist? Are you really gonna give up being able to hear every track extant and share it easily with a co-subscriber? It’s about lock-in. YouTube has done a horrible, essentially a nonexistent job, with audio lock-in. So it is being passed by. Not hard to understand, since no one there seemed to understand music and be passionate about it.

But they are music believers at Spotify and Apple Music. And the listeners can FEEL this, they want to belong, and this is a good thing!

As for getting paid…

Let’s work on increasing the publisher’s share, which is tough, because it’s gonna come from the label’s share.

And let’s glorify these services, encourage everybody to sign up, not via exclusives on Tidal, but via functionality. Exclusives hurt growth, they cause anger, they muddy the waters, but then again, the music industry can’t get out of its own way, can’t do what’s right for the customer, it’s inured to fighting for an edge, an advantage, making short term money and forgoing the long.

So bitching about YouTube payments is like bitching about desktop computers. They’re both in the rearview mirror.

Don’t fight the last war, look to the future.

And the great thing about Spotify, et al, is even at this late date most people don’t know how they work, they don’t know you can sync tracks for offline use. There’s a lot of highway in front of us, let’s drive down it!

P.S. Scroll down in the report and you’ll see that pop wins. Don’t argue with the facts. The reason you’re not making as much is they don’t want what you’re recording.

P.P.S. Vinyl is for oldsters, for niche. Except for Adele and twenty one pilots, the top ten is dominated by the aged and the deceased. Investing in vinyl is like placing your future in the hands of septuagenarians. Vinyl is a gnat on the ass of streaming. It’s a souvenir. Sell it if you can, but don’t rely on it.

P.P.P.S. Rock is dying. It’s dwarfed by pop, hip-hop and R&B. Rock split into so many sub-genres, many of which are derivative, that it lost touch with the public. Wanna succeed in rock? First and foremost write a hit, something undeniable that crosses over. You don’t get to create a sixty minute album without hooks and expect to get paid beaucoup bucks in the streaming world. Now, more than ever, you lead with the hit.

I blame Reagan. And then Bill Clinton put a stake in the heart of the middle class, all in an effort to save his job.

The right wing intelligentsia lauded Reagan’s “accomplishments” to the point where they cannot be challenged. In a disinformation campaign they slapped highways and buildings with Reagan’s name, as if that would cement their hold on the public consciousness. And the left wing intelligentsia pointed to the economic run-up during Clinton’s reign as evidence of his “accomplishments.”

And in the process our country became bifurcated, the land of haves and have-nots.

And this has all come home to roost with the ascension of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Sanders has faded because Hillary was reasonable, whereas the Donald’s competitors were all paying fealty to an elite that had lost touch with the rank and file. However, Hillary’s beliefs are in question, which means that…

Trump could win in the end. Because he’s preaching revolution, whereas Clinton wants more of the same. And that same is not working for so many inhabitants of this great country of ours.

It’s not about immigration.

It’s about jobs. Give someone a good job, allow them to not only pay their bills, but prosper, and they’ll embrace change, because it’s working for them. But change hasn’t worked for the lower class, the middle class, for decades, so they’re ready to revolt.

And it’s laughable that Democrats are attacking Trump, they just don’t get it, the way to win is by appealing to Trump’s voters, his constituency, those ignored by the Republican party for far too long as it satiated fat cats, moneyed interests, while ignoring Joe Public.

But Bill Clinton played to these same movers and shakers. And the left wing intelligentsia stood by as unions were eviscerated, education funds were slashed and tax advantages were given to the rich and powerful. The Democrats were like Britain, or France, in the run-up to World War II… They could see what the Republicans were up to but they were reeling in the wake of Reagan and the Bushes, the right wing takeover of the debate on Fox News and talk radio, and wanted to cocoon as opposed to fight battles, losing all the while.

Germany and Italy were in dire straits after World War I. What did Hitler and Mussolini do? Give the public jobs! Building infrastructure, putting food on the plate and currency in the pocket. Obama refused to ask for more stimulus money, listening too long to Larry Summers, and the Republicans felt there should be pain, that you needed to earn success, knowing nothing about economics, talking about the imminent rise of interest rates when they fell and stayed low to the point where if you have money in the bank you’re falling behind.

Both parties lost touch with their constituencies. The little people, who make this country work.

Mark Zuckerberg does not make this country work. Neither does Lloyd Blankfein. You need people to not only do jobs, but to consume, to put money into the system, but in the veneration of the fat cats anybody working for a living wage is viewed as a chump, their only option of getting ahead being the lottery or reality TV.

And you wonder why our country is in trouble.

Hillary may lose to Trump because her message is unclear. Four more years of the same? That’s not what the disadvantaged want. As for Trump’s insane economic policies, trade barriers and the renegotiation of debts, speaking to the idiocy of these elements misses the point, he’s saying he’s gonna fix the problem, whereas the Democrats just say to be afraid of him. Huh?

Manufacturing isn’t coming back to America. Running to the left on this is missing the point. People need to be given jobs, retrained for today’s work force, earn a living wage.

And sure, some of Trump’s followers may decry the safety net, because they’re working so hard and are not sacrificing. You know who isn’t sacrificing? Wall Street. Hedge funders who pay capital gains rates on ordinary income. Trump’s followers do want Social Security, they do want health care, but they want to believe their interests are acknowledged, that they have a seat at the table, and right now they don’t.

Everybody’s making fun of them. Listen to the holier-than-thou left wing, from Hillary to the “New York Times” on down. Telling people they’re stupid for supporting Trump. But maybe they’re smart, maybe they’re sick and tired of being paid lip service when they end up with nothing.

The game is rigged. And when it is, you turn over the table. And that’s Trump’s play, not Hillary’s, and you wonder why he’s got traction. Who cares if George Will abandons the party, the party abandoned the voters years ago. And this happened on the left too, I’d like some of that Hillary speech money.

We’re going down a bad path folks. The people in Washington have achieved their goal, which is to have us fighting amongst ourselves and missing out on the real issues, the primary benefits. Whether it be online hate or anti-immigrant sentiment, the have-nots are hating those they have access to. Hell, you can’t even shake Justin Bieber’s hand after the concert anymore, reach and have influence on your Congressperson, those do-nothings earning a paycheck far in excess of what they deserve, with a Cadillac health plan to boot? Throw the bums out. That’s what the Trump defenders want. That’s what the Bernie followers desire. Instead, they’re told to lay down their arms and get in line… Who exactly does that appeal to?

America is all about opportunity, that’s the essence of its dream. And that opportunity has not only been squandered, it’s been decimated. Trump says he wants to make America great again and what his followers hear is a return to prosperity.

And you’re laughing at all of them.

When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. Which is why the disadvantaged took the UK out of the EU and their across the ocean brethren are agitating for Trump.

A change has got to come.

What kind of bizarre world do we live in where you overpay for college, unable to discharge the debt in bankruptcy, solely to get in line for a job. That’s the dirty little secret of higher education, it’s not about learning, it’s about getting a leg up. And at the elite colleges making relationships, establishing a network that the rank and file can never penetrate.

So know two hundred plus years after the founding of our country we’ve hit a crossroads, it is not business as usual, we cannot secede from the world, we cannot go backward.

But we can come together, we can unlock the gates and let everybody in.

We can hug our brothers and sisters and lend them a hand.

The only way out of this is through unity.

And if Hillary wants to win, she’s got to start bringing people together.

Otherwise, the Democrats are going to discover the mob rules.

And they’re not in control of it.

Happy Holiday.

I love the sensibility!

I love that he’s a nerd, with a brain, but can’t help himself from being uncool. He’s a regular guy, albeit Indian, as opposed to the good-looking charismatic holier-than-thou personages we’re overwhelmed by and feel inferior to on TV and in movies. It’s like we don’t count, even though we’re on this planet, eating and pissing and making passes too. It’s like you’re either rich or good-looking, famous, or you don’t count. Or do you?

I only knew the name, Aziz Ansari, until I heard him on Howard Stern. Whereupon he told a story about hanging with a famous woman who ultimately ignored him, who didn’t respond to his outreach thereafter. Sound familiar? It certainly does to me.

And then he sold out Madison Square Garden.

But I still wasn’t paying attention until I was looking for something to watch on Netflix. I go by the reviews, not by the ones from the critics, but those of the people, I figure enough people see something you get a feel. Although I did try that Maria Bamford series first. Do you get that? I don’t. I loved Patton Oswalt’s character but she was so self-conscious and the plot was so convoluted that I decided not to continue.

That’s when I began with Aziz’s show, “Master Of None.”

It’s imperfect, not fully-baked, it’s a way station to something better. There’s your 10,000 hour rule right there, will the suits give you a chance to get better?

I looked him up on Wikipedia, saw he started at NYU. It’s amazing how long you have to do it to get noticed.

So there’s an Indian sensibility. A minority sensibility. Do you blow the whistle or ride the imperfections, the hate, to a better life? Do you suck it up or do the right thing? We’re all trying to get ahead, but we don’t want to sacrifice our identity, our beliefs, in the process.

And the show feels fully modern. With the texting and tech. Too often art lives in the past, but when we recognize the present we feel comfortable.

And the sexual adventures, shall I say MISADVENTURES, ring true too. Aziz is making an effort, but is so often failing. He’s flailing. Taking advice from fellow nerds. It’s the opposite of the Steve McQueen/Leonardo DiCaprio paradigm wherein women are falling all over the star. And when Aziz can’t get over the fact that Claire Danes, the restaurant critic, actually likes him, wants to be with him, and he keeps telling her he wants to savor the moment…it’s one of the most uncool moments in cinematic history. But it’s real.

Aziz gives hope to nerds everywhere. He’s not beautiful, not unattractive, just kind of…blah, normal, like you and me. He’s got to win on his personality, which he’s constantly shining. But that doesn’t always resonate.

And the show doesn’t always flow. But ideas are brought forth, and they resonate, and that makes you feel so good.

This is what happens when distributors give creators free rein. And it is all about distribution, the show would not be as successful on YouTube, never mind shortened to a Vine. Netflix gives you a platform, your odds of being seen are higher.

Nerds have inherited the earth because we have the tools, we can communicate, and we’re sick and tired of having the uneducated nitwits trounce us. You can’t make it Hollywood if you’re ugly or plain, unless you play ugly or plain, are the butt of the joke. But Aziz doesn’t want to be the butt of the joke.

And I know it’s the second decade of the twenty first century but “Master Of None” has got a seventies sensibility. After the revolution of the sixties. When we knew what happened and were adjusting, when we knew we couldn’t be famous. Whereas today there’s much more desperation, many more sharp elbows, the endless self-promotion is deafening.

“Master Of None” is small work. But it gets stuff right. And in today’s world where we’re all connected yet feel so lonely that’s a revelation.

Watch it!

Master Of None