“Put Donilon on the phone.”

That’s the quote of the day.

Takes a woman to do a man’s job. While wimps like Schumer kept saying their hands were tied, Pelosi set the bait last week, when she went on MSNBC and countered Biden’s statement that his nomination was a done deal, he was continuing to run.

And then Pelosi pierced the bubble.

“One ally said that Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden in a recent call that she had seen polling data suggesting that he could not win, and the president had pushed back, saying he had polls showing otherwise.

“Ms. Pelosi, never shy in such situations, challenged him on that.

“‘Put Donilon on the phone,’ Ms. Pelosi told the president, referring to Mike Donilon, the president’s longtime aide, according to people familiar with the exchange, which was reported earlier by CNN. ‘Show me what polls.’”

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

You don’t want to argue with the data.

And speaking of the data, you need to subscribe to Nate Silver’s “Silver Bulletin”:

https://www.natesilver.net

All data is not created equal. But even worse, all data analysis is not created equally. This is what is happening with AI. The problem isn’t hoovering up data, it’s trying to prevent the model from hallucinating. Google had to pull back because of this. In other words, can you trust AI? Not yet! So when you see a result in your search engine, don’t accept it at face value. Because it may be wrong. Dig deeper, or you might end up with egg on your face.

Silver has made his name with his model that averages the polls. And so far, no one has been able to do it as well. (Read Silver’s takedown of the new 538 model here: 

“Why I don’t buy 538’s new election model – It barely pays attention to the polls. And its results just don’t make a lot of sense.”

https://t.ly/OlpV3

Silver left the “New York Times” for greener pastures at ABC, establishing 538.com, but that was a financial failure and the entertainment behemoth refused to renew Silver’s contract, so Silver went independent, on Substack, and he’s asking for money, but in truth his e-mail is free, and you should sign up.

This is the information age, and you need all the information you can get. Now is the time to sign up for the “New York Times”, if only for the next three months, because the Gray Lady has been breaking this story.

Save me the blowback. I’m just trying to help you. Democracy does die in darkness, and you want to shed some light. Scott Galloway took a huge swing at MSNBC last week and he’s positively right. Every time I’ve  tuned in Lawrence O’Donnell since the debate…speaking of hallucination, you’d think Biden is triumphing. Cable news is inherently biased, that’s how they get eyeballs, ratings. And unless there’s an assassination attempt or something gigantic to which they can send a film crew, they do almost no reporting, only opinion, and that gets old, very old.

And regarding the straight dope, every Democrat must read Bret Stephens’s recent piece in the “Times”:

Free link: “The Secret of Trump’s Resurrection.” – https://t.ly/2mRY3

The landscape has changed, and too many on the left refuse to acknowledge this.

Turns out life is too hard for too many people. Sure, the economy is good, if you own stock, as long as you don’t have a service job.

Rightly or wrongly people are sick of others gaining a seeming advantage, whether it be via affirmative action or immigration. As for pronouns… This has got to stop. Along with trigger warnings. The pendulum has swung back. Too many on the left can’t see which way the wind blows.

This is why the Democrats’ reluctance to put the stake in the heart of Biden after the debate, letting three weeks go by, is so bad. It makes them appear weak, whereas Trump appears strong.

Don’t shoot the messenger, literally.

Bottom line is you’re college educated, you think you know better, and the disadvantaged and less financially secure know you do.

In other words, we’ve got a repeat of 2016. Trump is more in touch with the public than the Democrats. How did Biden squander success?

Once again, read Stephens’s piece.

But know that the cavalry is coming.

There are leaks that Biden will announce he stops running on Sunday, that he won’t endorse Kamala Harris. Take all that with a grain of salt, but know that James Carville is right, that if Harris is handed the torch the Democratic public will be deflated. They were left out of the decision to anoint Biden’s second term run and they won’t like being left out of the decision this time. They’re just like the Republicans, sick and tired of being dictated to, told by those in power that they know better.

So what happened here?

Well, of course we had the disastrous debate.

But then came the aforementioned “Times” with its editorials and opinion columns, from the aforementioned Carville to Clooney. People have been talking about the power of Fox News for decades, why can they not accept that the “Times” has power?

And then came the drying up of the money. Recent donations have been anemic. Turn off the spigot and you end the race. Period.

But you need someone to put the stake in the heart, of in this case Biden.

Or maybe it’s like a bullfight, a number of knives and then a deep gash by Pelosi.

But this illustrates how out of touch our leaders can be. Biden has done almost as much to hurt the country as Trump has. If Biden is out of touch on the polls, refuses to face facts that all of the hoi polloi can see, what else is he delusional on?

So for nearly a week it’s been all Trump/RNC, all the time.

But the best piece I saw on this was in the “Atlantic”:

“STOP PRETENDING YOU KNOW HOW THIS WILL END – The failed assassination of Donald Trump might not have any lasting effect on the election or politics in general”: https://t.ly/sU0zD

Bingo. Not only does no one know, everything lasts less these days.

Kind of like the assassination attempt itself. If you lived through JFK and MLK and RFK you know that coverage was wall to wall, the only thing on TV, but in today’s multifarious world you saw the headline and then…moved on. The media keeps telling us how big a deal it is, but is that the way the average person feels?

The despicable two-faced Vance is young and smart. He duplicates Trump, but he’s a bulldog who can press the case. Where is the Democratic bulldog?

That’s what we’re going to find out.

One thing is for sure, Biden’s replacement will be much younger, with a greater facility with the language, and will be absent at least some of Biden’s baggage.

Stop saying the Republicans’ success is based on white nationalism, that it’s racism at the core.

What is it going to take for Democrats to accept reality?

Once again, it takes a pro to win. Which is why Trump lost in 2020. And once Minnesotans had seen Jesse Ventura govern, they wanted no more.

So you can stop saying you want Michelle Obama, or Oprah Winfrey, or even Clooney. Now is the time for a pro.

Harris ran a terrible campaign in 2020 and didn’t get a single delegate.

As for her inclusion on the ticket as VP… The “Wall Street Journal” had this right: 

“The Mess Democrats Have Made, Kamala Harris Edition – Imagine if Biden had chosen a Vice President for competence rather than identity politics.”

Free link: https://t.ly/rbj0y

Did Biden ever contemplate that Harris might have to replace him, and this would be unpopular with most Democrats?

But you keep telling me women and Blacks will cashier the Democratic candidate if it’s not Harris. Based on what? Nobody gets everything they want, ever hear of taking one for the team?

Maybe Harris ends up the candidate, but let’s get the public involved, let’s put it to a vote, let’s squeeze out the Republicans’ hold on publicity.

Pelosi won because she’s a pragmatist.

It’s time for Democrats to embrace that viewpoint. If you think Trump is so bad, concentrate on winning, that and no less.

Biden is finally toast. Funny that he didn’t even realize it until today. But he’s gone. Kaput. Out of the way. The Democrats are getting a do-over. Take out the flashlight and pore over every nook and cranny of potential candidates’ lives and careers. And when we end up with the candidate…

We all need to rally around them. Period.

It will be time to shut up.

But if you kept supporting Biden after the debate…

As we said in the sixties, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.

You learn, you adjust on the fly, that’s the only way you succeed.

The game starts NOW!

Gary Spivack is the talent buyer for the Danny Wimmer Presents rock festivals. Hear how the lineup is built.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gary-spivack/id1316200737?i=1000662620656

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/f1e8fa98-ce73-414c-923a-947193aae744/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-gary-spivack

 

The number one recommendation according to my inbox is “Line of Duty,” which is a fantastic series, I wrote about it here: 

Line Of Duty

In 2021 I also listed it as #4 in “Best Series On Amazon Prime-In Order”, here:

Best Series On Amazon Prime-In Order

You can watch the first five seasons on various services (check justwatch.com), but if you want all six seasons, you must subscribe to BritBox. “Line of Duty” is all about “bent coppers,” and it’s one of the strongest word of mouth series extant.

I combed through the rest of the BritBox recommendations and I came up with the following list. Once again, these shows might be on different services outside the U.S., and just because a series is English, that does not mean it is on BritBox.

You know that unless it has a score of 80 in the Critics category on RottenTomatoes I don’t watch a series. There’s just so much to see, and so little time. All of these reach this threshold. In the numbers posted, the first is the Critics Score and the second is the Audience Score. I know RottenTomatoes is imperfect, but I’ve found it to be the most useful metric. (Certainly better than personal recommendations, which I find to be wildly inaccurate, people are passionate about series that are oftentimes mediocre…if you enjoyed it great, but that does not mean I necessarily will. I take my television watching very seriously, it eats up so much time, I don’t want to waste it.) If there is no RottenTomatoes rating in one of the two categories, you will see “—”

One more thing… When I write about streaming television I get much more feedback than I do when I write about music.

In no particular order:

THE TOWER – 100/83

We started here because of the 100 Critics rating. This is not a huge investment, there are two seasons, the first has three episodes and the second has four and each is forty five minutes long.

The series is based on books by Kate London, not that I know who that is. It stars Gemma Whelan, whom dedicated followers of U.K. TV might know, but I did not. Interestingly, Whelan made her bones as a comedian, but this is a straight, dramatic role.

Wilson is the heart of the series, but the supporting actors are up to her level. You don’t see this cornucopia of faces in an American series. Everyone is not beautiful, but in some cases that makes them more believable (like Fat Elaine, who owns this moniker even though Wilson’s Sarah Collins blows back).

“The Tower” is not revolutionary. It’s somewhat predictable, then again there are twists and turns, and the second season is more dense and better than the first. All in all a winner. Not the best series I’ve ever seen, but definitely a cut above.

 SHETLAND – —/83

KAREN PIRIE  – 91/85

SHERWOOD – 100/73

GRACE  – 80/62

WALLANDER  – 88/89

NO OFFENCE   – —/92

CRACKER  – —/93

VERA  – —/82

THE RESPONDER  – 100/76

THE THICK OF IT – —//93

STONEHOUSE – 95/74

HATTON GARDEN – 86/—

WHY DIDN’T THEY ASK EVANS – 100/76

LUTHER – 88/88

INSIDE NO. 9 – 100/93

MIRANDA LAMBERT “AIN’T IN KANSAS ANYMORE”

Spotify: https://t.ly/kgkqt

YouTube: https://t.ly/3s0_I

This is a hit, even though it sounds like sh*t on Spotify and Amazon. However, “Ain’t in Kansas Anymore” sounds great on Qobuz! It’s all compressed, squished together on Spotify, and in Amazon Ultra HD it’s a bit clearer yet bottom heavy, whereas on Qobuz it’s much cleaner and the instruments are separated, it sounds like music, whereas on the other services it sounds like it’s coming out of the dashboard on an AM radio, and does anybody listen like that anymore? Even country fans have great car stereos. As a matter of fact, just like power windows and A/C, every car now sold has a reasonable stereo, but tracks are still being mastered for the old way of listening.

Yes, this is a country record. But it’s not that far from a rock record. Take the twang out of Miranda’s voice and punch in some guitars and you’ve got an anthem, the kind that used to blast out of the speaker when you drove your Camaro listening to AOR radio back in the seventies.

First and foremost it’s got a hook. It ain’t rocket science folks, even though with so many of today’s tracks missing the target you’d think it was. You hear that fiddle and you can’t forget it. And it’s right up front, introducing the song, it’s the anti-skip strategy necessary in today’s overloaded economy.

But there’s also melody in the verse. And attitude. She’s singing like she believes it, like she wrote the words, there’s that essence too often lacking in today’s written by committee tracks, although Miranda did have two co-writers.

And the chorus is memorable. With multiple voices. It’s the kind of number you sing along with, thrilled just to be alive. This isn’t music for your head, but your heart, which is directly attached to your genitals. Not that it’s directly sexy, it’s just that it enlivens you, makes you feel powerful, like all those rock anthems of the past.

And then there’s the post chorus, the na-nas, that’s the sound of the summer, something simple, not playing to the last row, but evidencing its own glow.

The words are simplistic, verging on stupid, but when did that really matter? First and foremost comes the sound.

And it’s not like “Ain’t in Kansas Anymore” is made to last, it’s of the moment, but with so many pandering tracks missing the mark it stands out, like a flower.

As for the movie it comes from, “Twisters,” the original wasn’t that good, so I wouldn’t bet on the sequel. But you never know.

As far as terrestrial radio play, chart numbers, that’s a controlled market. Who knows if the song will triumph, PDs look for reasons not to play records. But if you’re a fan of country music, if you’re a fan of classic rock, this is the sound you know and covet, it rings the bell.

DAVINA MICHELLE “ALL IS OURS”

Spotify: https://t.ly/Evfow

YouTube: https://t.ly/I7tWZ

WHO?

I didn’t know either.

I follow Mikaela Shiffrin, probably the greatest ski racer of all time, on Instagram Reels. Honestly, I watch more Reels than TikTok, because they’re shorter, however the Reels algorithm sucks, you end up seeing the same videos over and over again, which doesn’t happen on TikTok.

So if you don’t know, Mikaela is engaged to her Norwegian boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, another great racer who had an horrific accident last season, putting his future career in jeopardy, for a long time he couldn’t even walk.

And Mikaela posts reels of her and Alexander working out, on the beach, skiing, from all over the world. And Mikaela’s personality…

She is not a jock. And I know, I’ve been around these people. Too often the strong silent types, never mind uneducated. Mikaela is very verbal, alive, she screwed up at the Olympics and gave long responses to probing questions by commentators, she didn’t slink away.

And another thing Mikaela loves to do is dance. As well as play hits of the day on the guitar. A veritable renaissance woman I tell you! 

No, not really, she’s just a typical twenty nine year old who happens to have paid her dues to become an athletic great.

Anyway…

I came across this video of Mikaela and Aleksander working out and dancing, and the song registered immediately, I loved the pre-chorus, and it too contains a hook. AND IT WASN’T EVEN IN ENGLISH!

So I looked up Davina Michelle. Turns out she’s Dutch. Had a number one hit in her home country.

Wait a second, IT IS IN ENGLISH! But since Davina Michelle is not singing in her native language, it takes a bit to realize this.

You know, the first language of the world, English. We rule, don’t we?

Well, not anymore. It’s not the seventies and eighties anymore, with the internet and streaming media hits are popping up all over the world.

So how did Mikaela discover “All Is Ours,” which isn’t even a hit, at least not yet.

Well, Mikaela spends months in Europe…

But most people don’t even know about developing acts in the U.S.

“All Is Ours” is a trifle, but it’s a very catchy trifle.

Instagram Reel: https://t.ly/EEchN

GOOD NEIGHBOURS “DAISIES”

Spotify: https://t.ly/0omq9

YouTube: https://t.ly/khX3o

Once again, WHO?

THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE A WIKIPEDIA PAGE!

I love this song, and you will too if you’re a fan of early eighties English stuff, you know the one hit wonders on MTV. It’s catchy, with electronic sounds. And even spacey at times.

Trying to learn more about the act, I found this video on YouTube, a live version of “Daisies” performed at the Village Underground in London:

https://rb.gy/5cf98l

Well, the more I watch it I realize it’s not really live, then again, none of those videos in the eighties heyday were either, and this slots right in.

I have no idea if this was all staged, whether they selected the girls down front, but the vibe is infectious, it’s no different from how it used to be, when you had to go to a club to see it, to feel it, when you listened to the radio, read the throwaway rag to find out where the new English sensations were playing, you just had to go.

Now “Daisies” is a new song, but “Home” does have 227,678,123 streams on Spotify.

We don’t have acts like this in the U.S. It’s a cultural thing.

I could go on, but listen to “Daisies” and you’ll either love it or hate it, from the very beginning. It’s a direct descendant of Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” and so many of those cuts way back when, but not imitative, it’s fresh. This is the kind of tune that could revolutionize music in America, the way Wham! and so many acts did all those years ago.

“Daisies” draws you in. It doesn’t alienate. It makes you happy, it excites you.

You’re not being TOLD to be excited, the effervescence is baked into the track.

It crosses genres, from pop to rock. It’s got modern sounds.

I don’t want to overhype it, “Daisies” is not revolutionary, but this is the sound that made music the most powerful medium in the eighties. We tuned into MTV just to see it. Radio fell in lockstep, spinning the tracks. It made you optimistic, this music is the antidote to today’s dark pessimistic days, and it’s not a trifle like the Davina Michelle cut, it’s more than that.

Is there more to come or is Good Neighbours just a modern day Haircut 100?

I DON’T KNOW!