Spotify: https://t.ly/8tnXr

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Who knew this was out?

Jackson Browne’s got a great publicist, both the “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal” had articles about the fiftieth anniversary of “Late For The Sky.”

Now if that doesn’t freak you out, half a century.

I first heard “Fountain of Sorrow” driving my sister’s Pontiac to her graduate school class at USC. It was a gray, nearly rainy day. (Well, this was before I realized it may look like it, but it almost never rains in L.A.) It was wistful. I’d just graduated from college. What did the future hold? I was free, but it’s weird jumping the track, being released, out of the game for the first time in your life, no one looking over your shoulder, telling you who to be, telling me how I was doing it wrong.

I bought the first Jackson Browne album, not entitled “Saturate Before Using,” after seeing him open for Laura Nyro at the Fillmore East. Alone with his guitar, I got it. And that’s rare when you don’t know the material.

It doesn’t get much better than “Rock Me on the Water.” Even though the hit was “Doctor My Eyes.” Listening all these years later that piano part is pretty magical, but it was the quieter numbers like “Song For Adam” that truly sealed the deal.

And, of course, the second album had “These Days” and Jackson’s version of “Take It Easy,” but there were no hits, I wouldn’t say his career had stalled, it just wasn’t moving forward. Jackson was grinding it out on the road, like most acts did in the early seventies, how they do now. Outside New York and L.A. you could get a ticket. For some reason you owned the record and you needed to get closer, you needed to hear these songs live, and it was a magical experience, only for the people in the room, there was no recording device in your pocket, never mind selfie machine.

But then came “Late For The Sky.”

Which also wasn’t a hit.

And FM radio airplay didn’t really gain traction until the next album, 1976’s “The Pretender,” with the title track fitting the Burkhart/Abrams paradigm, jaunty enough for the hinterlands, flyover country, yet still meaningful enough for the coasts.

And then came “Running on Empty.” An album of new material recorded on the bus, in hotel rooms. The rock press was at its peak, the title track was a tear and “The Load-Out/Stay” was ubiquitous.

This was Jackson’s peak. Commercially.

“Hold Out” got some action with “Boulevard.” The title track of “Lawyers in Love” ditto. And although it seems decades later that “In the Shape of a Heart” was a hit, statistics tell us otherwise. But it became one of Jackson’s standards, as he continued to march forward, not quite in obscurity, but not in the MTV mainstream.

And then came 1993’s “I’m Alive.” A complete return to form. Of a piece with the early albums. Quiet, acoustic, meaningful. Very strong. But when the public did not accept it overwhelmingly, Jackson went back to the band, making rock records.

And there are two cuts that stand out for me. “About My Imagination” from 2002’s “Naked Ride Home” and the title track of “Looking East” from 1996. But you have to be a dedicated fan to know them. I’d posit most of the people at the live shows don’t know them.

But they still come out to see Jackson.

And in the early part of the century, Jackson performed a master stroke. He recorded all his well known material acoustically. And released it in two packages. And went on tour with nearly twenty guitars doing the recordings in concert. Truly magical. If you don’t know those albums, you should. And then came the duo record with David Lindley, who used to go out on the road with Jackson in his earliest travels.

And then more studio work. It’s a rock band, it’s not like the first three albums, it’s not like “I’m Alive,” but boomers go out and see him. He doesn’t tour as much as James Taylor, but he’s out there. He appeals to women and men. It’s more than the hits. It’s about getting in touch with an era when music truly had meaning, when it spoke to your soul.

Great. But there’s nothing new.

And then this. 

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Now in truth acts have putting out live albums in Japan forever. And unlike Cheap Trick’s “Budokan” LP, most of them were never released in America, the acts didn’t want them to be, they were marketing efforts to solidify the Asian fan base.

But then along came Napster. And a plethora of live material appeared, It was thrilling. And then this same stuff appeared on YouTube and became less special, there was just too much of it. It’s not the double live album event of the seventies.

But now the “Times” is saying there’s a new live Jackson Browne album? I didn’t believe it. But I pulled out Spotify to look it up, AND THERE IT WAS!

Now this music works best when you’re doing nothing else, when you’re relaxed, when you can focus and own it. Today music is background, the soundtrack of your life that you’re documenting via your smartphone. whereas yesterday we were nothing and the acts were everything, heroes, gods.

And I’m digging the music, researching the album, seeing if I missed the hype. But there was none. It’s almost like this “Live in Japan” album was a stealth release. Were there more?

And that’s when I found “Running Down the Road (Live 1972).”

No, this can’t be, this must be a mistake.

Now in the old days, back before Spotify was in America, when Tidal was named WiMP and based in Norway, there were all kinds of albums like these on those services. But once streaming gained traction, the artists and labels cracked down, they didn’t want this stuff out. BUT HERE IT IS!

Spotify link: https://rb.gy/tmlmmb

Now this is like a Dead Sea Scroll. If you’re a member of the Browne cult, you must listen to this. You’ll be stunned. This was Jackson in his nascent days, sans even David Lindley, far from smug and satisfied, just doing his act and trying to win over the audience. There’s a vibrancy.

And speaking of the piano in “Doctor My Eyes,” when you hear it played by Jackson as he accompanies himself the song breathes, is alive in a way no studio recording could ever be. Listen to the piano playing at the end most especially.

And Jackson even plays “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” which is astounding if you know the “Solo Acoustic” records. There someone in the crowd calls out for it, Jackson says he didn’t write it, tries singing it and has a problem with the lyrics, as in he doesn’t believe in them, and stops. I thought the audience member was just confused, but it turns out Jackson really did do “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”

But I’m writing about “Live in Japan.”

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Well, the first track I had to listen to was “Looking East.” I love the studio take, but the “Solo Acoustic” version is a twisting, turning gem. I’ve listened to it a zillion times.

The take on “Live in Japan” is closer to the studio take. Faster, but Jackson’s right out front, the band doesn’t overshadow him, which in the recent shows I’ve seen has been a bit of the case. Jackson blends in, he’s a member of the band, whereas here he’s the complete act, he’s the one.

“The Barricades of Heaven,” also from “Looking East,” has become a live staple. It’s kind of a sequel to “Running on Empty,” or more accurately, a prequel.

“Running down around the towns along the shore

When I was sixteen and on my own

No, I couldn’t tell you what the hell those brakes were for

I was just trying to hear my song.”

This was 1964. Before Laurel Canyon. When California was still a dream, when people were living freely out there while we were still playing by the rules on the east coast.

And this take opens the album, and the band is there but it’s just perfect, it’s the best live recording of Jackson with backup that I’ve ever heard.

Of course there’s “These Days.” Which we heard from Jackson and Gregg Allman in the fall of ’73, before the song became a staple. Actually, Allman’s take made it one.

And this live album is not a traditional greatest hits set, which is part of what makes it so interesting. There’s a great take of “Call It a Loan,” from 1980’s “Hold Out” and it’s richer, with more meaning than the studio version. It comes alive.

And “I’m Alive” is there too.

And more.

But really, it’s the listening experience. Old, but new. New, but old. Sure, the songs are not brand new, but nor are our old friends from way back when, we knew them so well, even if we no longer talk to them every day.

And Jackson has not been embraced by the younger generations like Joni Mitchell, then again there’s still time. Jackson did get Covid, but he’s not had a near-death experience. And as much as I love “Blue,” I’d also take “Late For the Sky” to that desert island, along with AC/DC’s “Back in Black.”

So pull up “Live in Japan” on your streaming service. When it’s quiet, when you can concentrate. In your living room on a lazy Saturday afternoon, or blasting alone in the chamber of your car on a longish drive.

It’s in the music, it’s a feeling. It’s captured, it’s there.

It’s hard to describe.

But it’s not much different from that day in 1974 when I heard “Fountain of Sorrow” on Western Avenue.

My life story has been mostly written. But I’m still the same alienated f*ck looking for music to complete me. The sun is setting, but I’m alive.

The music changed me. It still changes me.

I’m running with too much baggage, but I’m still running.

And I don’t run alone, but with a tune in my head.

And that tune in my head sounds like this.

They got Tupac, didn’t they?

This is not a failure of law enforcement, this is a failure of COMMUNICATION!

Tell everybody guns are cool and the government is the enemy of the people and what do you expect?

And then you’ve got Elon Musk asking on X why this doesn’t happen to Harris and Walz and when confronted with the blowback he deletes the tweet and says it’s all a joke. Explain to me how that works again?

If you want to be horrified, or if you just want an adjustment, you need to read yesterday’s excerpt from the new book about Donald Trump and “The Apprentice”:

“The Star-Making Machine That Created ‘Donald Trump’ – The inside story of how the producers of “The Apprentice” crafted a TV version of Mr. Trump — measured, thoughtful and endlessly wealthy — that ultimately fueled his path to the White House.”

Free link: https://t.ly/u9X6Z

This is not dense, like the article on Roberts and the Supreme Court in the same edition, this is easily read and I highly recommend it, but since it’s so hard to get people to click through, let me just give you a few quotes:

“The first thing they noticed was the stench, a musty carpet odor that followed them like an invisible cloud. Then they spotted scores of chips in the finish of the wooden desks and credenzas.”

And:

“The place did not exactly buzz with energy either. Fewer than 50 people worked at Trump Organization headquarters in midtown Manhattan. At the office’s spiritual center, Mr. Trump’s own desk bore no evidence of work, no computer screens or piles of contracts and blueprints, just a blanket of news articles focused on one subject: himself.

And:

“‘He would fire the absolute wrong person,’ recalled Mr. Braun, who came to recognize the times when Mr. Trump ‘had no idea what was going on, and he would just make something up.'”

It’s a myth baby, TV sold it and America bought it.

And then the disenfranchised turned over America’s table.

Let’s be clear, Clinton was out of touch. Hell, the Democratic party is still out of touch, I haven’t yet recovered from how they covered up Biden’s foibles, thinking we’d buy that he’s spry and up to the job in his eighties. And we had a media that bought it, as if we can’t see the truth with our own eyes.

And the truth is that Trump has been inciting violence for years. Rile people up and you get results. These people are doing God’s work, at least that’s what they believe.

And then you’ve got J.D. Vance. Unlike Trump, Vance is actually smart, even though his book was fiction and he worked with Peter Thiel and knows about as much about the rank and file as Prince William, never mind his brother.

This is what the Trumpsters don’t understand. Trump and Vance can’t be on your side because they never experienced your side, they’ve got no idea what it is, they don’t live that way, and in the case of Trump, never has. This is not Bernie Sanders up from nothing.

It’s not like the past has not been prologue. January 6th was enough.  But we had the Bundy standoff before that. All kinds of people who think the rules don’t apply to them. Destabilizing the government. So they can…

Exactly what? Bring chaos to the country at large?

Kind of like the death of Roe v. Wade?

Sure, it’s sad we live in a nation where rogue actors take pot shots at our officials, but let’s stop with the kumbaya. Sure, there are mentally ill independent actors, but even they are inspired by the news they’re exposed to. Like that child sex ring run out of a pizza parlor.

The Democrats don’t know how to fight back. Call a spade a spade. They say to wait until it works its way through the courts, which is interminable and too many of the Trump judges rule in his favor.

How come Trump knows it’s about hearts and minds and the Democrats don’t?

And I don’t care how many Secret Service people you put on Trump, if someone wants to get him, they will. That’s how the world works. No one is safe. This is just another demonization of the government. Hell, the Mafia can’t keep people safe and crime is their business! The only way to stay completely safe is to never go outside your bunker, and surround that with concertina wire and security. And that’s no way to live.

It’s everybody’s fault but theirs. The immigrants. Unless you’re descended from a Native American, you’re an immigrant too. And just like the Nazis incarcerated everybody with a hint of Jewish blood, even if they went to church, if we went back far enough you’d be considered an immigrant too.

As far as being a real American… What exactly does that mean? I’m here, I’m a citizen, I’m not real?

But it gets worse than that… The WaPo predicts the Republicans will take over the Senate. Why not, when the two Dakotas get four Senators between them. Same deal with Wyoming.

And there’s the Electoral College. The game is rigged for Republicans but it’s still not enough for them.

So you hate me and you hate the Democratic elite. Fine. What’s your solution for school shootings?

Once again, I don’t care how many ARs you’ve got, you’re no match for the government, which can squash you like a bug. Stop with the fantasy that guns can keep the government in line.

As for assault rifles… Everybody’s so afraid of alienating a minority of the public, a minority of gun owners, that no action can be taken. This is just like the inane politicians who flipped and now pay fealty to Trump. You may be keeping your job, for a while anyway, but you’re making things worse, not better.

Did you read the story in Saturday’s “Wall Street Journal” about Ford’s CEO being freaked out by electric cars in China?

“What Scared Ford’s CEO in China – Jim Farley is changing strategy to combat what he calls an ‘existential threat’ from  China’s electric carmakers”

Free link: https://t.ly/R7DII

Bottom line, if it weren’t for protectionism, China would soon own our car market. This is not Yugos, this is electric cars and some hybrids priced low with features you can’t even dream of.

But what are we told? We need more oil! Drill, baby drill!

And if you don’t like the news in the right wing paper of record, here’s an equivalent piece in the left:

“Trump’s Obsession With Oil Could Destroy America’s Auto Industry”

Free link: https://t.ly/zoaOy

Share the above two articles with everybody you know.

We need a moon shot, an equivalent to JFK’s promise to put a man on the moon in the sixties, something we actually did, when the U.S. was still a can-do nation.

People don’t understand the problem. You make it a movement. You need a better name than “The Green New Deal.” It has to be about saving America, if you want to make America great again this is how you do it, as opposed to fantasizing about a past era that wasn’t so good to begin with and will never come back.

People don’t know the truth. And therefore they act on falsehoods.

And my inbox is inundated with lefties decrying the “New York Times.”

But the joke is on them. You want to compete with the “Times,” do your own reporting. Furthermore, most of the complaints are about the Op-Ed pages, which are inherently opinion.

So it’s not only those on the right who don’t get it.

And we’ve got parents who don’t want schools to shut out cell phones because… They want to be able to get in touch with their progeny in case of a school shooting. How upside down is that!

This is the nation we now live in. Where everybody’s living in fear.

While they feel powerless.

And then some martyrs, uninformed and uneducated, decide to take matters into their own hands.

Trump is responsible for the assassination attempts. Period. But in the topsy-turvy world we live in, they’re blaming it on Harris and Walz. Is there no truth left?

You can’t be afraid of the other side.

God, I wish Kamala Harris would speak English, say under Biden things have actually been pretty good, better than all the countries in Europe. Lower inflation… You’ve got to own your victories instead of running away from them. Own your truth if you want to win. Start running on Biden’s record. The question isn’t whether you’re better off today or four years ago, the story is how we beat Covid and not only survived, but thrived! That’s quite an accomplishment.

As for vaccines… They protect against death. Every study says that.

Where fewer people were vaccinated there were more deaths.

When are people going to start telling the truth?

Oh, you get it on social media.

Like that woman who responded to former Trump White House personnel chief John McEntee who said no women were “bleeding out” as a result of abortion bans:

Check this out: https://t.ly/m2LS2

Meanwhile, Harris keeps asking us for money for TV advertising. Who in the hell is watching linear TV, and how many of those people have not made up their minds?

But as a matter of fact, the Harris team is deep into TikTok, you can read all about it here:

“The ‘feral 25-year-olds’ making Kamala Harris go viral on TikTok’: https://t.ly/yv0jN

All the action is online and the left wing elite keep telling us to get off our smartphones. How do you think you get the message out today?

I’m just irritated because everybody in the news yesterday was dancing around the issue, talking about the shooter instead of the target. Yes, it’s interesting another person wanted to take out Trump, but can you focus on Trump, can you stop being afraid, and can you speak in plain English?

The right can stay in its bunker, refuse to believe the truth.

And the left can be afraid to say the truth.

But I’m not.

Trailer: https://t.ly/8_M5q

If this happened in America…

We’d still be talking about it and we’d never get over it.

What you’ve got here is a documentary on the Nova Music Festival, you know, in the Israeli desert on October 7th, where people were killed, raped and taken hostage.

Now the truth is war is not like in the movies. There’s no soundtrack. There’s no arc. No buildup to a crescendo. The sun is out, the light is bright, and WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING!

The rockets are in the air… And no one is concerned. First and foremost, many attendees are high. This is Israel, the land of the Iron Dome. You’re safe, right?

Wrong.

Now we’ve been taught that not only is the United States the greatest country on the planet, but those in the rest of the world are the other. Maybe we’ll let some people from England and Ireland pass, after all they speak the same language. But what is astounding, what you’ll notice right away, is these people are just like you and me.

Assuming you’re in your twenties.

This is before commitment, obligation. Before the big job. Before marriage and kids. When you’ll drive all night to a location you just learned about to party until the sun rises, and even thereafter.

They’ve got tattoos, stringy hair. And they radiate intelligence and awareness and togetherness. This is not class warfare, this is kumbaya.

And then…

Not only are revolutions now televised, but so is war. Everybody’s got a smartphone camera, documenting their life.

We remember the seven o’clock news footage of Vietnam. Canned for our consumption. There was a filter between what was going on over there and what we learned over here. As a matter of fact, stories would leak out and no one would believe them, because the U.S. was the almighty, we didn’t lose wars, we had the money and the power, and it was just a matter of time before we conquered.

Only we didn’t.

Turns out weapons are no match against hearts and minds.

So what happens is twenty three years ago the Twin Towers fall down, 2,753 people died, along with 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania and…

In retaliation we invaded Iraq. Which held no responsibility for the terror attack.

But someone had to pay!

So if you watch this movie, and most people won’t, because it’s launching on 9/24 on Paramount+, a streaming outlet so crummy that the parent company was sold at a near fire sale price (but it is on BBC2 on 9/26), and we’ll pay for Netflix, and Amazon Video is baked into Prime, but beyond that everything is expendable, and Paramount+ is way down the list of desirability.

And most people don’t want to see this stuff.

First and foremost they hate the blood. There’s a warning at the beginning of the film, but what ensued was not what I thought would be shown. You’ve got people literally running for their life, you’ve got people being shot… Once again, it’s not orchestrated like a Hollywood movie. It’s just hours and hours of…

Being on your own.

The IDF was caught flat-footed, no one knew what was going on. The attendees were calling law enforcement, and if they could even get through, the people they spoke to didn’t believe them, certainly were not amped up about it.

So first and foremost you’ll be confronted with the security lapse. The vaunted Israeli military… Failed. Someone was responsible.

And then there’s Hamas.

When you see them cut the fence and storm through with their rifles, out for blood… I can’t imagine anybody watching this and siding with them, unless you’re a member of Hamas yourself.

This is what the Israelis are up against.

But somehow the script has been flipped. Israel is seen as the aggressor.

Not that I’m going to change your mind if you believe otherwise. This is a nation where Tucker Carlson proffers a Holocaust denier who lauds Adolf Hitler and denigrates Winston Churchill. And even the right wing “Wall Street Journal” has excoriated Carlson for this, but now he’s got a Top Ten podcast and a chip on his shoulder after being sidelined by Murdoch so good luck getting him to change his ways.

And then there’s Fox itself.

I recommend you read the article “How Fox News sane-washes Trump” in today’s “Washington Post.” Here’s a bite:

“The quotes cited feel very Earth-2 to anyone not steeped in the right-wing ecosphere — ‘big win,’ ‘best closing,’ ‘this race just got tighter.'”

Free link: https://wapo.st/4dm6pOV

My inbox is filled with stuff like this. Pointing to the number of views of Trump’s debate closing on YouTube… That’s one of the talking points, along with railing against ABC and the moderators, which makes no sense if Trump truly did clean the floor with Harris.

But my point here is in a world where there are multiple news sources, and people only consume what they agree with, one cannot change people’s views on the war in Gaza. Impossible. I haven’t been able to do it.

Then again, how important is it to most people?

Of course it’s about antisemitism, because you don’t see equivalent protests about the deaths in Syria and Sudan, but if you’re a member of the group attacked…

Just like Black people tell their kids to beware of “driving while Black,” we Jews are brought up being reminded by our parents about antisemitism.

Of course it’s worse for the Blacks, because they’re easily identifiable. But any minority ultimately comes up for abuse. It can be as simple as living in a northern city as opposed to the rural south, or even living in California. Not that I want to make all these equal, I just want to illustrate that if you believe you’re immune, you’re dreaming.

Or as Martin Niemöller so famously put it:

“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

So most people won’t be incentivized to watch “We Will Dance Again.” You’ve got to have Paramount+, and if you’re not an EDM fan, or a Jew, why take the time?

Used to be different. In the three network era. If it made it on to TV, millions of people saw it. That’s something we lost with cable and the internet.

But once you see Hamas in the movie… Your opinion might change. You still might talk about innocent Palestinians, but this is what the Israelis are up against. Not only did Hamas attack out of the blue without provocation, they employ a vitriol and complete lack of feeling for humanity that thank god we do not see in the U.S. But if you watch this movie, you do see it. Which is why people should.

I could give you my position on the Gaza conflict…

Hell, I’ll tell you that I’ve got no time for Netanyahu and the settlements, but when terrorists are challenging your right to exist, what are you supposed to do?

From the river to the sea baby, they want Israel annihilated.

But you might not agree.

But that’s the modern world, you’ve got your news and you assume mine is as narrow and biased as yours, therefore my opinion is dismissible. There is no truth, never mind agreement.

But these images don’t lie.

We can’t even convince Trump voters to investigate his behavior, what odds do we have that the views of the pro-Palestinian faction can be changed?

I will tell you that BDS was founded by the Palestinians, it took root on college campuses and the kids eating up their info are the same as the social media influencers on the payroll of Tenet Media, funded by the Russians. Better to be angry and take a side, and double-down, as opposed to try and survey the landscape and see what is really going on.

Am I going to defend everything Israel does?

Absolutely not. They were undercutting the Supreme Court before this all happened. And the religious right that has pushed the settlements and the rightward policies of the government…thank god their children now have to go into the army. What’s fair is fair.

You’ve got talking heads in this movie say they’ll never forget it. This day, what they saw. And you hear this all the time, but…

When Hamas is throwing hand grenade after hand grenade into your shelter, when you wake up and find out you’re covered in dead bodies, no wonder people have survivor’s guilt, no wonder some of the survivors have committed suicide in the ensuing year.

As for one of the hostages from the Nova festival, at the end of the film it’s said that Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken captive, his fate unknown, but now we know he’s dead. Shot in a tunnel 65 feet below ground by Hamas.

This is what the Israelis are up against. This is what Hamas has been doing with all the money sent to aid the citizens of Gaza. This is the uncomfortable truth the pro-Palestinian people refuse to acknowledge.

But those damn Jews.

Loud-mouthed and entitled. Who do they think they are?

They’re just like you. They want to live in peace and prosper. But this lifestyle was threatened. What do you want them to do?

I don’t know if you can eradicate Hamas. I don’t know if you can get rid of the tunnels. I don’t know if you can get rid of hatred of Israel in Gaza. It’s thorny.

But this war is not one-sided.

Let me ask you again, what would you do if you were attacked, if your loved ones died? What is enough for you to put down your arms, to stop fighting? You’re never going to forget your fiancé. Are you ready to swallow your pain, put down your arms, get over it?

That’s what I’m asking you.

And when you watch this movie you might ask yourself this question too.

But in an age where there’s a firehose of media, it’s hard to get people’s attention for anything. Herd mentality rules. The American cowboy, the rugged individualism this nation was built upon, has been sacrificed for groupthink.

You’re entitled to your own opinion.

But get back to me after you watch this movie.

This is forever.

You can’t manufacture virality. Remember “Gangnam Style”? People weren’t even interested in the follow-up video. Quick, name it! (It’s entitled “Gentleman,” and if you know that you’re entitled to automatic qualification for the next hobby horse nationals. Meanwhile, “Gentleman” does have 1.6 billion views on YouTube, but that does not mean its impact lasted. Everybody checked it out, and then… Meanwhile, “Gangnam Style” has 5.2 billion views. If you’ve seen the trick once, that’s enough.)

But “Gangnam Style” hit before TikTok, before participatory media became everything. You just don’t want the word to spread, you want people to use the basics to create something new, you want them involved, you want them to OWN IT!

You don’t fight hoi polloi creation, you embrace it. The more time people dedicate to making clips with your content, the longer your content lasts.

So an individual spreading the word is not enough. Sure, if you’re the very first, you can get props, assuming anybody knows, and most people don’t care.

And sure, some of the eating pets pics and videos were released immediately and gained traction, but it took a little time for the great ones to appear…half a day? Remember the cycle is short. Which is why you want something that lasts forever, but this is rare.

Like last night’s VMAs… Remember when the VMAs were not only the talk of the town, but the world? Milton Berle and RuPaul. A spontaneous interaction. The appearance of Pee Wee Herman not long after his arrest. Is anybody talking about last night’s VMAs? I’ve seen news stories, but there’s no social media virality, whereas I’m still cracking up over pics and videos of pets in my feeds.

And it’s not only my feeds, it’s my email and iMessages. Everybody wants to play. Because it’s so ridiculous.

Do I think Trump’s statements will negatively impact his campaign?

Well, so far nothing has.

Then again, the Democrats have changed their strategy. Rather than try to be serious, they’re standing at arm’s length and making fun of Trump. This started with “weird.” And when Trump was going off the rails on Tuesday night, Kamala held her hands to her chin and smiled in a way school kids do when the object of their attention doesn’t realize they’re committing a faux pas, that they’re a laughingstock.

Of course Trump doubled-down, by entering the media room and doing his own spin. Talking about how he won the debate and quoting numbers to that effect. When you’re going down you don’t fight, you take a break, hope that it blows over.

Now in order to go viral today not only do you have to create content that the public can utilize to create new content, you need to be in the game constantly.

This is a paradigm older acts complain about and younger acts don’t think twice about.

You never know when your lucky break will come. You never know what will cause your lucky break. But talk to anybody who’s ever had one and you’ll find out…the action that caused the break was never the one they anticipated would do it. The well-planned action, crickets. The one you do reluctantly, on a whim, that spreads. When you’re less invested, your attitude reflects this. It’s the difference between a studio recording and a live one. The former is studied, worked over. The latter is spontaneous, you can capture lightning in a bottle.

And one thing that is at the heart of most virality is humanity. Click tracks and building a record instrument by instrument reduce this, as do multiple writers and remixes/effects. You want to be able to polish it, because getting it right out of the box, with just the basics, is so difficult to do.

The reason so much music does not resonate with the public is because it’s lacking humanity. Not in the lyrics, although there can be a problem there too, but in the basic music. We’re so far from the garden that people expect that four decade old 808 sound on every record. Where’s the surprise?

Records are the essence of virality. If they contain that humanity and capture the zeitgeist. And this is why sixties tunes and classic rock over index in the culture. It was about experimentation, it was about being different, the public couldn’t stop paying attention.

So Trump is in the news 24/7. And it’s been working to his advantage. In that he still takes up most of the air in the media.

But Trump has veered so far from the truth that he was just begging for someone to push him over, he was ready to topple like Humpty Dumpty.

The “Access Hollywood” tape had legs, might have sunk Donald if it weren’t for Comey reopening investigation into Hillary’s server. But we’re used to sex scandals. And the public can’t participate in them, own them. But comedy?

Keep throwing things against the wall and something will stick. But you don’t know what it is and if you’ve lost track of the plot beware.

Other than J.D. Vance, no one is defending the inane idea that immigrants are eating cats and dogs in Ohio. Furthermore, Trump and his team illustrated that despite Truth Social and his tweeting, they really don’t have a grip on the internet. The net is full of b.s. and scams. And you can get away with forwarding this crap to like-minded, narrow-visioned friends, but when you put it into the world at large…it’s going to be scrutinized, and debunked.

Turns out this election is not about the issues, but the penumbra, and Trump and his team didn’t realize this. No one wants to hear about fracking, even taxes or the border, they want to see the two candidates wrestle, they’re waiting for one to touch the third rail. And wrestling is a good analogy, in that it’s scripted entertainment, fake. And Kamala was pretty scripted Tuesday night, and it was her off the cuff stuff that resonated most. As for Trump… When he went off script he lost all of us.

So if this stops being about Trump and Harris and what they stand for, and becomes about how laughable Trump is, that might be to Harris’s advantage. No one wants to be associated with a laughingstock. Even Fox said Harris won the debate. Only in Trump’s deranged mind was he the winner.

So, remember, ink is one thing, virality is another. Don’t point to how many stories you’ve got on Google, pull up Instagram and TikTok and X and see how often it comes up in your feed. That’s the measure of virality.

And this is what the mainstream doesn’t understand and to the degree it does hates it. Because that means they’ve got no control. And let’s be clear, they’ve got less control than any time in history!

Most people in America can’t even name two songs by Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, the Weeknd…but if you paid attention to the press, you’d think they’re ubiquitous. But all of the public doesn’t want the same thing.

But this election is binary, so there’s amazing focus. And it’s the only game we’re all focused on. Forget music, forget the NFL, everybody’s got an opinion on the election. And when Trump steps in it and then doubles-down on something that was not vetted that is almost impossible to believe, people are going to notice.

You remember the Kennedy assassination. You remember 9/11. You’re going to remember that Trump said immigrants were eating cats and dogs.

Now if you’re Tiny Tim, if you’re an influencer, all publicity is good publicity. But if you’re selling the aforementioned humanity, if you have any credibility, this is not true. Be wary of doing things off brand with the hopes of virality.

This is what we live for in a controlled country. The unexpected. The spontaneous.

We’ve had two big events this year.

One, Biden dropping out.

Two, Trump telling us that pets are in peril in Springfield, Ohio.

Trump gets the trophy here. He’s the strongman who rang the bell at the county fair. But he doesn’t even realize it. If he did, he’d make fun of himself, neutralize his words.

Trump is built for a passé era. When you could deny, deny, deny and stay above the fray. No one is above the fray anymore, we’re all in it together, and if you don’t have a sense of humor about yourself, you’re ripe for excoriation.

I can’t stop laughing at the posts. The pictures of cats dressed up as law enforcement. Others talking about the risk to pets. The warnings to stay away from Springfield.

This is genius.

But it’s not helping Trump. He didn’t have to lay out this craziness, but he’s lost touch with the public.

Don’t you do the same.