What a difference a year makes.

Last year it was us versus them. This year…it’s every man for himself.

You remember 2012. When the Tea Party was battling the Democrats, when left wingers were scared out of their wits that automaton Mitt Romney would beat out Barack Obama for the Presidency. Now not only is that battle ancient history, we know it was irrelevant, because corporations run this country and the Supreme Court, installed for life, has been hijacked by a right wing majority and there’s nothing you or anybody else can do about it.

Have a different opinion? I couldn’t care less. Because opinions no longer matter. Now it’s about facts. Like how much money do you have and how much have I got. Did you get laid last night?

Yes, since the summer of 2012 hope has gone out the window, we’re no longer in it together, and one thing’s for damn sure, no one trusts television news.

All this b.s. about Fox and MSNBC. Neither covered Wendy Davis’s filibuster and that was ultimately irrelevant with Texas passing the bill anyway.

What is going on in America?

I’m tying to figure it out. And that seems to make me a party of one. Because everybody in mainstream media is so self-impressed, and myopic, I’m not sure they can even see the truth, never mind sacrifice themselves for it.

What we’ve got is a cable channel predicated on fantasy, with “Game Of Thrones” and “True Blood,” trying to be au courant and meaningful and missing the target by so wide a margin I’m not sure they know what the target is.

Something is changing in America. And it’s definitely not being televised.

What we’ve got is an incredible tumult, leaving everything up for grabs, and those with power and those who desire it are grasping at straws that will never stir the drink. They’re playing to each other instead of those with the power, the people.

We don’t trust NBC.

We don’t trust CNN.

We don’t trust Facebook.

We don’t trust Jay-Z.

Watching “Newsroom” tonight it’s clear they’re all in it for personal glory. And maybe that’s the ultimate point, that their hubris gets them into trouble, but why do we care to begin with?

Why should I care about your record? Because you made it? You’re just like Aaron Sorkin, so deep in your hole you’ve lost the plot.

It’s like we’re living in a post nuclear age, one of refugees, searching for sustenance. But all we’re fed is talking heads and advertisements for that which we cannot afford to buy or do not need. Will America right itself? Quite possibly. Will it be the land of the fifties and sixties, an egalitarian, socially mobile, near utopia? If you think so, you’re dreaming.

I don’t care what happened one or two years ago. Occupy Wall Street… That might as well be the “Macarena.” Goldman Sachs? No one thinks bankers will ever pay, that dream’s been forgotten, we saw the carnage, yet Matt Taibbi keeps writing about it and Aaron Sorkin’s making TV about it not realizing the problem isn’t education, but pessimism. We know the truth, we just don’t think we can do anything about it.

Change in America? It’ll happen the same way it did in the Middle East. With an unforeseen spark, a fruit vendor willing to sacrifice his life for injustice.

Sacrifice? Remember when young men went to Canada rather than participate in an unjust war within which they might get their ass shot off? Sacrifice today is when you forget to untag the photo on Facebook and you lose a job opportunity. As for Maggie being busted by a YouTube clip, this would never happen in real life, because no one’s that dumb! Is that how out of touch Aaron Sorkin is? That he doesn’t know how people really act?

When we get to the other side of this, people don’t realize it’s gonna be worse. All this hogwash about the opportunity on the Web? Oh, you can put your stuff up on Spotify and YouTube and tweet about it, but if you think anybody’s paying attention, you’re even more delusional than Sorkin. That’s the story of tomorrow, how everybody shrugs their shoulders and gives up and pledges fealty to the new gatekeepers, unbelievably powerful entities with all the eyeballs. Remember the old Internet, the nineties Internet, sans ads, where the worst thing you had to worry about was a pop-up advertisement? Today even the “New York Times” has full page ads covering its site. Advertising is so rampant online that this on demand world subjects us to more commercial messages than the old days of three TV channels and no remote control. The Web is all sell, all the time, and if you’re not tired of it, if you don’t think something’s rotten in America, then you’re profiting from it, big time, unlike the losers with Google ads on their sites earning bupkes.

It’s the Me Decade all over again. Remember Tom Wolfe’s era? When people had sixties hangover and focused on themselves, to the exclusion of everything else? Do you really expect me to care about these bozos on “Newsroom” taking themselves and their jobs so seriously? They’re laughable. I wouldn’t want to be them, the same way I wouldn’t want to be a banker, because I either want to be happy or do something that matters. And today no one wants to do something that matters, because they’re too busy trying to be rich.

Oh, there’s a patina of importance on “Newsroom,” but since we’re subjected to the real news 24/7, we have no trust for these self-promoters, not after we’ve experienced Judith Miller, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. We know it’s about the money. And if they weren’t making so much, if they weren’t invited to the right parties, they wouldn’t be in the business.

But the new gatekeepers will have it totally different. They’ll garner eyeballs through substance, not the smoke and mirrors and flash of today. And once they gain power, they’ll turn to the dark side, as the powerful always do.

Do you really expect NBC or CNN or Fox or MSNBC or any of the TV news outlets to matter in the future? They barely matter now!

And the truth about baby boomers is they don’t evolve, they pay lip service to the future and hang on to the past, riding the wave as long as they can until they cut out, swim to shore and start sipping pina coladas on the way to retirement.

The youth are inheriting the earth. It’s happening now. And they don’t believe in the old institutions. And they’re computer-literate in a way that the oldsters never will be. And they’re gonna build new institutions that will level those of the past.

But for now we’ve got to endure this inane chaos. Where those who don’t count, the baby boomers and their get rich quick children, are so busy amplifying their message that you can’t see the truth.

But the truth is we live in the age of the individual. That’s why you social network, to embellish your identity and feel good, how many friends have you got? You tweet the news so you can say you knew first, not because you really care. And just like Reagan channeled the discontent and swept into office upon it, a new leader, a new reality, a whole new paradigm is gonna emerge that will control us all, for better or worse, because we just can’t take this crazy myopic cash grab a minute longer.

Maybe it’s not the music’s fault.

Used to be you lay on your bed listening to music dreaming of a better life to come. One with friends, romance, all kinds of excitement.

Now you just log on to the Internet and hunt for these experiences. You know, the peak of a positive e-mail, a congratulatory tweet, a stimulating web page. The odds are low, but far from nonexistent if you participate. So you post, you give to get, this is the modern paradigm.

In other words, who’s got time for music that might be challenging, different, require more time to get into? And is the focus on live events their inherent transitory nature, is the fact you can make more money there than from records not a function of P2P thievery but a change in modern life?

No one asks questions anymore. Blame the educational system. Wherein the poor are passed through the most rudimentary of classes and the rich are prepared at prep school but abandon it all in search of cash, which is king in our society today. Did you read Amar Bose’s obituaries? You may pooh-pooh the quality of his speakers, but this guy refused to go public for fear of a board forcing him to compromise in the name of profits and said he had one house and one car and he didn’t need more money, he lived to think and invent.

Kind of like Douglas Rushkoff.

Last night I listened to his interview with Marc Maron on WTF and I found myself challenging all my preconceptions, gaining new insight into modern life, something that rarely happens in this sell or be sold society of today.

And that was one of Rushkoff’s points. That capitalists, corporations, have taken over the Internet, trying to replicate the pre-wired era, and the fit may be bad and the consequences may be worse.

Come on, you know what he’s talking about. The endless ads, the crazy self-promotion. Everybody’s trying to get attention, they want more, more, more, and there’s no time for the contemplated life, which is the essence of music. Unless it’s immediate, a one hit  wonder, driven by video, like PSY’s “Gangnam Style,” or wondrously infectious in its own right, like Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” In other words, musicians have it right, they’re asking listeners to jet back to what once was, only listeners are having no part of it, if they’re listening at all. They’re too busy tweeting and Facebooking and…looking for that hit that only music could give them. Meanwhile, everybody in the industry, and the musicians themselves, is focused on money, something which the techies do so much better. Maybe they should step back and take the road less traveled.

That’s what Rushkoff is saying. He advocates unplugging, going face to face. And I get where he’s coming from, but I like being able to connect with so many online. Yet he makes the point…what is the point of connecting with your second grade buddy in cyberspace. After you get the hit of dopamine, do you really want to continue, how many relationships can you have, isn’t there a reason you grew up and moved on?

Rushkoff advocates local focus. In monetary exchange. In agriculture. He says the old worldwide money game no longer works. In other words, if you’re a hero in your hometown, playing your music at every social function, are you ahead of the game, far in front of your peers looking for world domination but not achieving it?

Come on. Jay-Z’s album has already been forgotten. And all we really remember about it was that he came up with a new way to make money. What has this got to do with music? And some say Kanye’s message on “Yeezus” is important, but without a hit, everyone’s focusing elsewhere. So what are the chances for you? Would the public like to spend time ferreting out greatness, unplugging from the web to spend time with albums, or is that a quaint notion discordant with the times, where everybody can get a bigger rush from a text?

I wish I could say Rushkoff is as good a writer as a talker, but I’m finding his book slow going, because he doesn’t understand the bedrock of writing is readability, it doesn’t matter how good your ideas are if people don’t want to read them, but he does bring up a good point. Few people I know talk about music, certainly not those uninvolved making and selling it. They’re hooked to the rush of their devices. They only have time for that which they can network online about, driving the blockbuster business.

It’s worth thinking about.

I am.

Amar Bose: “‘Company directors who pay themselves dividends get enjoyment out of the money, but I wouldn’t have that,’ he said. ‘It’s not that I’m a good person. I am just doing what I enjoy the most. I don’t want a second house, I have one car, and that’s enough. These things don’t give me pleasure, but thinking about great little ideas gives me real pleasure.'”
—Los Angeles Times

Amar Bose 2: “And by refusing to offer stock to the public, Dr. Bose was able to pursue risky long-term research, such as noise-canceling headphones and an innovative suspension system for cars, without the pressures of quarterly earnings announcements.”
—New York Times

Rushkoff On Maron

“Present Shock”

My goal is not to die in the 405 reconstruction.

Let me explain this to you. The Democrats voted for stimulus, and money was appropriated to extend the carpool lane from deep in the San Fernando Valley so far south it’s a different time zone, assuming time zones changed from north to south, which they might as well, with traffic so slow in Los Angeles. And you might think this is a good idea, but that would mean you’ve never studied highway science, wherein it’s stated if you build it they will come, yup, if you make more lanes it’s only a matter of time before they fill up with traffic from citizens living ever further away.

So I’m against the reconstruction. Which has now lasted so many years I don’t expect it to ever end. I expect to see Kiewit workers married, having babies and dying before traffic ever flows freely again. Yup, Kiewit is the contractor, their yellow trucks are everywhere, that’s where the real money is, not in entertainment, I’m sure Mr. Kiewit is a billionaire.

So let me explain this to you. Realizing that L.A. is gridlocked almost as bad as Brazil, construction doesn’t start until dark, when reasonable people are safely home in bed. But I’ve predicated my whole life on being unreasonable, I’m a contrary, I come from the Yogi Bear school of life, I may sleep til noon but before it’s dark I’ll have every picnic basket that’s in Jellystone Park. In other words, you won’t find me in rush hour traffic, but when everybody’s car is in the garage, that’s when I ply the freeway, with the drunks and the professional drivers. And I’m on that freeway, the dreaded 405, every damn night, it’s the main route from Santa Monica to Felice’s house, her exit is Skirball, just a hop, skip and a jump before this endless construction, but now…

You can never figure out when exits are open or closed, never mind lanes. I’ve driven south to go north to have to go east to pack it all in and take Beverly Glen more than once. And I hate the loss of time, but even more I’m worried about my life.

Yes, what do they say, in a massive construction project they factor in the deaths? Yup, like if they build a skyscraper “x” number of people will die? I think they’ve made that same calculation with the 405, I feel my days are numbered.

Let me explain this to you. While they were fixing the Sunset bridge, I oftentimes got on in Bel Air, I think it’s Moraga, I don’t even pay attention to signs, I just run on instinct. But the problem is… You get on and your lane ends…instantly. And there’s no warning to those zooming down the track.

Now my car’s got a ton of power. Which is why I leave so much room between me and the car in front, to the point where people behind me flash their lights and beep their horn…I want room to maneuver. God forbid you drive a Chevette, you’re gonna get crunched.

Yup, you accelerate and the orange cones tell you your lane is ending but there’s no warning to those already in the lane that you need to merge and it’s so late at night they’re somnambulant. It’s a harrowing experience.

But it gets worse. Just last week they opened the new northbound Sunset on-ramp. Fantastic. Except they haven’t yet taken down the barriers, you swing around the corner and are injected into traffic blind… Yup, you can’t see through the concrete and the oncoming traffic can’t see you.

But Wednesday night was the worst.

Somehow they decided they needed to squeeze five lanes down to two at the top of Mulholland, where they had to completely rebuild two bridges to accommodate the two new lanes. Yes, that’s like tearing down your whole house to build a new bathroom, but that’s the way this inept reconstruction project was conceived.

Only one problem… I can’t see that my lane is going to end. There’s no sign. I’m just cruising along and I notice up ahead that…the cones seem to be encroaching upon my lane.

So I put on my blinker. I downshift, I look for my entrance point.

WHICH DOESN’T EXIST!

Big rigs, vans, everybody with their brights on is zooming down the one of two remaining lanes I’ve got to merge into.

This is finally it. What I’ve been dreading. Death. After years of reconstruction, my luck has run out.

What do I do? Run through the orange cones and wreck the undercarriage of my automobile and then figure out how to cross back through to merge again? Yup, the three lanes to my right are completely empty, god knows why they had to close them, but the orange cones are so tight there’s no way I can go from the wrong side to the good further down the road.

And I’m running all this through my brain, its calculations faster and better than a computer, and I’m completely flummoxed…if I force myself into the left lane will these drivers wake up, going 70 instead of the construction speed limit of 55, and move into the one remaining lane on the left? But there people are doing 80, oblivious to what’s going on, what if there’s no room?

And if I put on the brakes, how long before someone plows into my rear end?

So I’ve got the revs high, the pedal to the metal, and miraculously I squeeze in. I really can’t tell you how I did it. Reminds me of missing that rock in Val d’Isere, out of control on the ice, with nowhere to stop. My brain shut down, my body took over, I don’t know how I survived. Same deal Wednesday night.

And now I’m confronted with a big question. Do I ever take the freeway again?

I don’t want to be one of those people who stay on side streets, who take Beverly Glen or Roscomare, but I’m feeling my number is up.

And last night I decide, like a circus performer, I must take the freeway, to get over the fright. I make it on at Sunset and I move into lane number 2 to avoid a problem but it seems like I’m at the Nurburgring, because in lane number 1 everybody’s positively flying, oblivious to the changed conditions.

And the radio is blasting, I cannot take my hands off the wheel, it’s the soundtrack to my demise, it’s keeping me going, and just when I get in the clear, I hear it, the unmistakable, previously resistible, but now indelibly great intro to “La Grange.”

Sometimes it’s just about the sound, sometimes your brain just shuts down, thinking stops, and what pours out of the speakers into your ears keeps you alive.

“La Grange”

PHOTOS

Used to cost something and were shot sparingly and viewed in the future. Today, photos literally cost nothing and are oftentimes shot and discarded. I was stopped at a light in Brentwood yesterday and my eye wandered to see Dustin Hoffman cross Barrington. My first thought was to reach for my phone. In the old days, I would have been formulating the story in my head to tell in the future. Today, the picture tells the story (thank you Rod Stewart!)

MUSIC

Was something you listened to, now it’s something you use. You add it to YouTube clips, you integrate it with your projects, it’s all done very easily but copyright law has still not caught up with today’s uses, nor has the music industry.

CREATION

Used to be expensive and we felt anybody who’d made a record deserved attention. Now anyone can record, even on their iPad, and we need a reason to pay attention.

PHONE

Long distance was expensive, today you can video conference across the globe for nothing.

AUTOS

We used to want something that impressed others with its swooping lines and horsepower, now our vehicle is a badge of our eco-consciousness. You may buy a Porsche, but you’re gonna be judged negatively by the very people you’re trying to impress. If your car is not a hybrid or an electric, you won’t become a pariah like a smoker, but you’ll be close.

NEWS

We trusted the few sources we had. Now no one trusts TV news, other than the images displayed. What anybody says is seen as no different from wrestling. Now news is plentiful and the odds of being out of the loop are infinitesimal. Then again, we’re all on news overload so except for a few stories, like the Boston bombing, we tune out so much, figuring our friends will clue us in on what’s important.

COLLEGE

Was once seen as an eden for few that expanded your brain. Now it’s an overpriced haven for everyone to get a job.

SUMMER CAMP

Was where you had color war and made lifelong friends. Now it’s where you develop skills and build your college resume.

STEREO

Once upon a time you could only play your music at home, it wasn’t until the seventies that you could take it in your car. Today you expect all your music to be available everywhere you go.

INTERNET

You used to lament the downtime, you knew your provider’s telephone number by heart. Now, when the Internet goes down it’s akin to a blackout, a very rare event. Then again, why is it blackouts are more prevalent in the twenty first century than they were in the twentieth?

RICH PEOPLE

Hid and did their work behind closed doors. Today everybody who’s rich wants acknowledgement from the poor, it’s like they want to rub it into everybody else’s face how much better they are.

GOVERNMENT

Was a functioning body making life better for all of us. Has now been labeled a do-nothing enterprise and those elected on this premise are doing their best to live up to this description. Why run for office if your main goal is to stop legislation?

ABORTION

Easily had, all over our country. Now, unless you live in a northern metropolis, you’ve got to have money to get an abortion at the clinic not so close to you.

REPUBLICANS

Wanted to live free and die. Now they want to get in your business and tell you how to live.

APPLE

Going out of business then the triumph of the century and then a running out of gas has-been. Illustrating that perception is only key in art.

COMPUTERS

Used to crash and you used to know how they worked. Now your tablet never crashes.

LIGHT BULBS

Became political. Who knew that most of the energy dissipated as heat? If we can switch everybody to efficient LED bulbs, with fluorescents nearly passe, what other problems can we as a nation, with legislation, tackle and solve? In other words, when was the last time you heard someone bitch that they’ve lost their freedom because they can’t buy an incandescent?

ONLINE ADS

Went from nonexistent to de rigueur. Even nytimes.com has ads covering the entire site. The next business is charging people to make the ads disappear, YouTube would be more profitable that way.

YOUTUBE

Went from loss leader to profitable. That’s the value of deep pockets, they can think beyond today. And isn’t it interesting that the deep pockets in music can only think about yesterday, with execs needing fat paychecks and artists still clamoring to sell overpriced albums nobody wants.

EVANESCENCE

Nothing lasts anymore. Certainly not movies or music. TV has a longer lifespan because it’s built for the modern paradigm, needing to be in the consumer’s face week after week. Amazing that musicians don’t take heed.

MARKETING

Used to be the narrative to sell the product. Now marketing is the product.

HEADPHONES

Used to be rare and expensive, but are now cheap and plentiful, people own multiple pairs. First the product is democratized, then quality improves. So don’t bitch about today, think about tomorrow. Everyone will be able to hear your music in good quality, it’s just that you’ve got to give them a reason to listen to it.

KICKSTARTER

Was a way for the underdog to get financing, with the illusion of a profile. Now it’s where the already successful go to get way too much money, and as a result they’re killing crowdfunding. That’s the way of America, anything worth doing is overdone, and killed. If you don’t keep it small, you kill it. Kind of like EDM, will Live Nation and SFX kill it? They’re gonna try!