FX/Hulu trailer:

I was mesmerized for about half an hour, and then…

We’d been unable to find a satisfying series. Well, we watched “The Empress,” which is an interesting Netflix show about the Habsburg dynasty and the magical Empress Elisabeth married to the young Emperor Franz… I was trying to remember some of the facts from Modern European History, the AP course I took in high school, but the teacher was boring and so was the book and after applying to college…I can’t say that I took it seriously.

“The Empress” was intriguing, although not fast-paced. If you’re looking for a lot of dialogue, this is not your show. But the sets were utterly amazing! And the history…the details may be fiction, but basically it’s all true.

Then we tried the highly recommended Mexican series “The Dead Girls” on Netflix and for the first fifteen minutes it mesmerized me even more than “The Lowdown,” but then…it had a tone problem. Was this a gritty series or a farce? We haven’t watched further to find out.

But the settings of both “The Dead Girls” and “The Lowdown” are similar in that they’re off the beaten path. “The Dead Girls”…I love these shows outside the city in Mexico and South America. The streets may not be paved, there may be an outdoor food stand/restaurant on the corner, it’s extremely visceral. As for “The Lowdown”…it’s set in the outskirts of Tulsa…that’s right, “livin’ on Tulsa time.” And the makers of this show are aware of Tulsa’s musical history, the first episode ended with Leon Russell’s “Stranger in a Strange Land.”

So…

What we’ve got here is Ethan Hawke as a self-styled “truthstorian”…

Other than the images, which were so rich in hi-def, this was the other element that drew me in, because I know people like this. In that if you enter their lives into a ledger, there’s not much to show, but they’re far from stupid and they truly believe in their ideas and their future. I mean everybody need a code to survive, a belief in a path forward, otherwise you’re just sitting somnambulantly on the couch watching television.

You come to Los Angeles to make it. It’s different from New York City in that there’s no admission fee, no criteria, no C.V. needed to play. You could have dropped out of college for all people care. This is not finance requiring a college degree, L.A. is the land of hustlers, and some make it, most don’t, and then there are others that manage to keep their heads above water in the business, and the business is entertainment.

On the way up everybody’s got a story. Usually puffed-up. They’re selling themselves, their ideas. And most of them are full of sh*t, but that doesn’t mean they don’t tell a good story.

And if you live in the hinterlands, where there’s no delineated game, you make up your own…with your own playing field and rules. That is what Ethan Hawke is doing as Lee Raybon. He’s all about divining the truth and laying it down, meanwhile running a rare bookstore that never seems to make a sale. Oh, he’s got an ex and a kid, and the kid, “Francis,” is fantastic…an early teen with just enough savvy not to have the wool pulled over her eyes, she’s paying attention, she wants to participate, she wants to be involved.

As for her mother, Samantha…she’s had to learn the score, had to learn that as good a tale as Lee tells, he’s not to be trusted, and his dreams are just that, dreams. Samantha is not a femme fatale, but a survivor.

As for Jeanne Tripplehorn as Betty Jo… I thought she was out of action for a while, I certainly hadn’t seen her, but I checked online and she’s been acting…this is no longer the seventies when you’re aware of and have probably seen everything an actor has done.

And Tripplehorn leans into the plot. And this is where “The Lowdown” starts to falter. Because the plot is somewhat traditional. Good vs. bad, righteous vs. evil. If only a more innovative plot could have been devised.

So, as you watch you realize every episode has a formula. Ethan/Lee pokes his nose where it shouldn’t be and ends up in deep trouble, which he escapes from in the end. It becomes predictable and ultimately laughable. The jeopardy, the tension…you’re just wondering how Ethan/Lee is going to be saved, not whether he will be.

And as real as some of the characters are, others are so two-dimensional as to be cartoons. The two ex-cons providing security for the bookstore…nobody is this dumb, even dumb people.

The images are fantastic, and so is Hawke. Until…he gets himself in these situations. He’s got a lot of personality, which he trades on…the educated loser, but then he starts playing too broad with the stupid comedy and…

We only pulled up “The Lowdown” because we couldn’t find another full series to watch. My policy is binge only, I refuse to be subjected to the week by week dribble… what, are we living in the 1980s? Is this “L.A. Law”? Or “thirtysomething”?

Then again, I was thinking about “thirtysomething” while watching “The Lowdown,” because in that eighties show the tone was consistent. Striving baby boomers, dealing with relationships, marriage, children, careers… “thirtysomething” felt real. The more “The Lowdown” plays out, the less real it appears.

Will we watch the ensuing episodes?

We would have if they were all available now, but this show is not good enough to have me yearning to see them, to see what happens, which is clear anyway…ETHAN HAWKE/LEE RAYBON TRIUMPHS! It’s as predictable as a sitcom. Whereas remember when Gary died in “thirtysomething”? There was no way you could see that coming.

So, “The Lowdown” has the elements, it’s just the way they’re put together that is unsatisfying. It’s got interesting characters, but their interaction is so predictable…

Yes, this is FX, and they get kudos for producing higher brow fare, but “The Lowdown” could be higher, but it’s not. When you strip away the images and the character actors you’ve got a retread plot, and what fun is that?

Skechers Slip-ins: Arch Fit 2.0 – Simplicity 2: https://bit.ly/46AgaJ3

Voila! They fit and they’re PERFECT!

I just thought you might like to know.

As for me…

I’ve got OCD, I’m weary of opening a package, in this case trying shoes on, because the odds they’re going to be what I want…

This is one of the perils of getting old, experience. When I drove BMWs… I can’t think of a single time I didn’t go back after getting service. There was always something screwed up. But I had my Saabaru serviced at Subaru of Sherman Oaks two weeks ago, and they did everything they said they were going to do, it’s PERFECT!

As for the bill…

I haven’t driven a German car for twenty years, but you budget at least a grand for every service visit.

In this case, I needed a major service, you know, with spark plugs. And with that comes the brake fluid change and upon inspection it was determined I needed new brakes all around. I budgeted $3500 in my mind. But the grand total was…$1,636.94, so low at first I didn’t believe it, but when it was confirmed to be accurate, I started to smile.

And then I thought about it. How much can you charge a Subaru customer? They’re not giving the cars away, but they’re far from expensive. As for going to the dealer… They see my car day in and day out, whereas an independent does not. As for an independent Subaru mechanic…

I’ve become friends with the majordomo of the service department, Daryl, the best mechanic I’ve ever encountered, he can diagnose and fix ANYTHING!

So Daryl gave me a complete education on how a service department works. All the mechanics are independent contractors. They are their own businesses. They have to buy their own tools and…

California changed the law a few years back, such that there’s a floor of compensation, so if things are slow or you are slow you’re guaranteed pay for forty hours a week. How many mechanics don’t reach this threshold? Just a few. But they’re on their way. And no one ever leaves, because the compensation is so damn good. At BMW, the head mechanic always left and set up shop for himself. But not at Subaru of Sherman Oaks!

Which is the perennial #1 service department. So your mileage may vary at your Subaru dealership, but one other thing Daryl told me is the cars just aren’t breaking anymore, and it’s affecting their bottom line.

Now I watch endless car repair videos on TikTok, and all the mechanics, ALL the mechanics wince when they mention BMW, and the rest of the German companies too. First and foremost because too many parts are made out of plastic and need to be replaced, and second, getting to the part that needs to be replaced might cost a small fortune. So I’m feeling pretty good about my car, but you can never predict the future.

Anyway, I was anxious when I drove the car away from the shop, fearful I’d have to go back.

And I waited all day for these blinds guys to come and do a repair and I was anxious they wouldn’t get it right, but it turned out that the manufacturer sent the wrong parts and…don’t ever buy from 3 Day Blinds, NEVER!

So, Felice texted me my shoes had arrived. And my anxiety started to ramp up. What are the odds they’re what I wanted. I never got to try them on. I kept telling myself that worst case scenario I’d go down to Whole Foods to the Amazon drop-off return and order the pair I tried on at the store, but…

After going to FedEx to drop off last year’s iPhone I came home and…

I knew I had to open the box.

I was immediately happy that just as Google’s AI had told me, the shoelaces were adjustable, unlike on the more popular model, meaning you can tighten or loosen them like a regular shoe. 

And new shoes are laced tightly, and I was going to loosen them up to get them on, like I do with the rest of my shoes, but…

Then I thought if I’m buying them to slip-in, I SHOULD TRY SLIPPING THEM IN!

I didn’t expect it to work, the shoes were laced so tightly…

But I slid in no problem! I didn’t crunch the heel like I do with all the rest of my shoes if I try this.

And the fit was…PERFECT!

And I could feel the support, the stabilization, the ARCH FIT!

I really couldn’t believe it, they’re exactly what I wanted, and how often does that happen, especially when you’re buying blind.

SO, if you’re looking for a walking shoe…

The Simplicity 2 has the most cushioning in an Arch Fit walking shoe.

Meaning…you can get more cushioning, but those shoes are not made for walking, they have softer, more pliable soles, unlike the stiff sole of a walking shoe.

And, of course, you get the stabilization.

And, once again, Skechers are not the best athletic shoes available, they’re made for a price. But if you don’t want to pay that price…

As for those who only buy their shoes on sale… The joke is on you, because you really want to buy the best model for the activity you’re doing…shoes are not just shoes, there’s a difference. It’s kind of like when you shop for a mattress, the salesman always says you spend a third of your life on it, do you really want to cheap out? You’re wearing shoes most of the day, don’t you want the right ones for the activity?

You’d be surprised how many don’t care.

They may be happy, then again…ignorance is bliss.

You may not want to buy a new electric car, but when it comes to buying a used automobile…

America’s isolation is leaving it in a backwater. Especially when it comes to electric cars. If there were no tariffs on Chinese EVs, they’d wipe out the American manufacturers overnight, they’d dominate sales in the U.S. They’re that advanced, they’re that good and they’re not that expensive.

But as a result of our present Administration, the focus is now on coal and traditional fossil fuels. And this has become a tribal issue. Elon Musk may make electric cars, but really they’re for the coastal elites who believe climate change is real.

But your beliefs are no challenge to your pocketbook.

Used EVs are a stealth incursion into the market, they’re how electric cars are going to come to dominate the U.S. fleet. While GM and Ford are icing their EV investments/production, and as the conventional wisdom has people deciding on hybrids, the supposed best of both worlds, everybody is ignoring the obvious…

EVs REQUIRE ALMOST NO MAINTENANCE!

If you follow the news, used EVs are selling prodigiously, at below the price of equivalently aged used gasoline vehicles.

Now in the past, you didn’t want to buy a used EV, the technology was moving too fast. Which is why those with bucks lease their electric cars…I mean what are the innovations right around the corner, how long are the companies going to support the software?

But we’ve hit maturity in batteries. In excess of 300 miles per charge is de rigueur, never mind the Chinese offering more for less with a new technology.

Now as a result of this belief in innovation, a zillion cars are coming into the market after the expiration of three year leases. And they’ve become too attractive to pass up. That’s how cheap they are. And people who would never have considered an electric car are purchasing them. And once they drive them and don’t encounter the endless repairs of a typical used car…

Word of mouth will spread and everybody will want a used electric vehicle.

Buying a used vehicle, which is where all the action is, because the average price of a new one is over 40k, is a crapshoot. It’s just a matter of when they’re going to need maintenance. Some expected, some not.

There’s the new timing chain at somewhere between sixty and a hundred thousand miles. And that’s not cheap, but you can foresee that.

But the other items…

Every car I’ve taken over 100,000 miles has needed a new radiator.

I mean every car needs new brakes at some point, but a new fuel pump? New injectors? You’re buying a time bomb when you purchase a used car, what if this was not the case?

That’s the story with eclectic cars. The batteries are good for 300,000 miles or more. You’re not going to have any engine repairs, there are almost no moving parts.

As for a hybrid… It’s really the worst of both worlds. You think you’re winning, but the bottom line is your machine still has a gasoline engine which needs traditional maintenance and is subject to breakdown, WHO WOULD WANT THAT?

A lot of ignorant buyers.

This is like digital photography. We heard it was coming for the better part of ten years. But it never did. Kodak continued to flourish. But seemingly overnight, digital photography took hold. Same is going to happen with electric cars.

So someone complains to you about the repairs to their car, but you’re going to tell them you have no problems, because you drive an electric car.

All the focus has been on NEW electric automobiles, whereas the penetration, the growth, the ACCEPTANCE, is going to come from USED electric automobiles.

As for running out of juice:

“See How E.V. Road Trips Went From Impossible to Easy”

“Long drives that were once effectively impossible with an electric car have become doable. Routes that once required careful planning now have abundant fast chargers.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/09/29/upshot/ev-chargers-road-trip.html

And the pace of charger installation has picked up:

“America Keeps Adding EV Chargers. Will There Be More Drivers to Use Them?”

http://bit.ly/46HdoAk

As for Chinese battery technology:

“Five-Minute EV Charging Is Here, but Not for U.S.-Made Cars – CATL’s and BYD’s rapid-charging technologies underscore China’s dominance in the EV sector, a technological priority for Xi Jinping”

http://bit.ly/3WmMRnc

You can’t stop the hands of progress. You can bury your head in the sand, but that does not mean that time does not march on, that innovation ceases.

This is what the public wants… Not electric cars per se, but maintenance free USED CARS!

You hear the story all the time… My car broke down and I have no way to get to work. Or my car broke down and I don’t have the money to fix it. Those complaints are kaput with electric cars. Who wouldn’t want a used electric car?

Sure, they won’t have the latest innovations, but nor does your used gasoline car. And they may not be able to get the latest software, but the old software is good enough to keep them running.

All this news about the death of the electric car because of the elimination of governmental subsidies is just plain wrong. There are now enough used electric vehicles in America to create a market… People are clamoring for them. And what sells everything these days is word of mouth, and word of mouth on used electric cars is about to become DEAFENING!

1

This completely cracks me up. I wrote about my retail experience, it didn’t even occur to me that I’d be inundated with recommendations for shoes!

I did get a good number of people commiserating with me, telling me how everything’s locked behind glass at the chain drugstores, how online shopping is better, but those e-mails were dwarfed by those recommending shoes. With ATTITUDE!

I guess I didn’t make it clear enough… I wanted to buy Skechers because they’re slip-ons and cheap. Skechers is a mid-level brand at best.

As for top of the line…

Have you been to a Nike store recently? Nike, and now all its competitors, makes a shoe for every activity. Literally. A shoe for the missionary position and a shoe for doggy. Really, it’s that extreme.

As for which one you should buy…

Most people default to a running shoe, because of its snazzy looks and thick foam sole. But it might be the completely wrong shoe for the activity they’re doing.

Now in the old days, in the seventies, when Nike started, running shoes were just about all they sold. They eventually got into tennis, to compete with the Adidas Stan Smith, but…if you weren’t buying Chuck Taylors, you purchased a running shoe.

And Nike eclipsed Adidas and its perennial number two, Puma.

The Oregon company trumpeted breakthroughs. First, the waffle sole…which were actually designed using a waffle iron…and then air cushioning.

And then Nikes, et al, became everyday footwear and the market exploded.

Kind of like jeans. We couldn’t even wear them to school. You definitely didn’t wear them in restaurants. So there were the usual brands…Levi’s, Wrangler and Lee were the big three.

But as jeans crept into everyday life, the upscale designer jean took hold. To the point where today there are a plethora of jeans styles available. Skin tight, wide…it’s hard to keep track of what’s in fashion.

As people started to wear athletic footwear everywhere, new brands got into the game, like L.A. Gear, never mind the amplification of Reebok’s business, and the majors doubled-down. Shoes were a fashion item, but now with all the revenue, traditional players could grow their portfolio.

So…

I always bought the top of the line Nike. Period. It was a running shoe and  I wore them 24/7. I had Adidas Roms back in the early seventies… But they kind of proved the point. With a gum sole, if you used them on the tennis court, they wore out very quickly.

And even a pair of Puma banana shoes. Be the first on your block, I was!

And before that, I had a pair of Tigers, now called ASICS, when NO ONE could buy them, they were exotic.

But after a number of pairs of top of the line Nike running shoes, “Consumer Reports” gave a rave review to Brooks, with its varus wedge.

And then… “Consumer Reports” went deep, acknowledged what the companies were doing, making so many different models for so many different uses, and they pointed out which shoe was the correct for each use, and told you which shoe to buy in that category.

One big point they made is that if you are walking, do not buy a running shoe. A running shoe has a higher heel. And, a walking shoe needs to have a stiffer sole, because with running and walking you strike the pavement differently.

And for walking, which was my main use, they pointed to this one specific Nike.

But being Nike, they updated that shoe every year, with different tech innovations. And I bought them and…then they got cheap and then they stopped making them, so…

Going back to “Consumer Reports,” doing more research on the now available internet, it was declared by the experts that the definitive walking shoe was the New Balance 928. And I bought them.

They are not expensive, but they’re not cheap either. Right now they retail for $159.99 and it’s hard to get a discount.

Presently, it’s the 928v3. That’s right, the third version of the same model, and I’ve had all three. The second one was a bit narrow, but the third is back to the standard. And unlike Nikes, New Balance shoes do not fall apart. Then again, because of this you may not realize that the foam in the sole is compressed and therefore you need a new pair. I realized this was true when I went to BottleRock with an old pair, figuring they’d get dirty, and then donned a new pair thereafter. Night and day! As a matter of fact, I just bought a brand new pair of 928v3’s for the same excursion as the Skechers. But unlike the Skechers, you can’t slip them off and on, not without reaching down and holding the heel open.

So…

2

Now if you ride the lift and ask your companion how they like their skis, they will universally tell you THEY LOVE THEM! I have never ever found this rule to be broken. Literally every person I’ve ever asked about their skis testifies, emphatically.

But I figured out the answer back in the sixties… THEY PAID FOR THEM! Furthermore, they probably haven’t been on anything else. And believe me, every ski has a different character.

I checked when I was in Vail, I’ve got eleven pairs of skis. So when I’m riding the lift and someone asks me about what I’m on, I give them a full-blown review, which is usually more information than they want. But believe me, there is no ski that is great in everything. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a pair that are bad on the groomers, too stiff for the bumps, but in corn snow, THEY’RE GENIUS!

And skis make a huge difference. Not that most people know, because they’ve only skied on one or two brands at most.

Probably the most popular ski these days is the Nordica Enforcer, which I consider to be blah. As a matter of fact, the shop guy I mentioned yesterday refused to sell them because they were so mediocre. Ultimately, he stocked a few so if someone came in he could say he carried them, but he usually steered them into a Stockli or K2.

The Nordica Enforcer is stiff and dead. Two layers of titanal (not titanium, just a specific kind of aluminum alloy). You can’t out-ski them. Meaning no matter how fast you go, they won’t start to flop around. Concomitantly, with said stiffness they’re much harder to turn and much less playful than the competition, and the stiffness in the bumps… An expert skier can ski on anything, but why do all that work? I like a more lively ski.

Which is all to say most people e-mailing about their shoe of choice haven’t done a ton of research, they haven’t owned every brand, they just bought what’s on their feet and THEY LOVE THEM!

Forget getting the right shoe for the right use. They look good. They’re fashionable. They’re HIP!

Like ON shoes. You know, the ones with the soles with the cut-outs, they’re everywhere. They are not cheap, but they are ubiquitous. And they are good shoes. And they make a few models. But are you using the right shoe for your activity? I doubt it!

And then there are the HOKAs. The hip shoe before the Ons. Good shoes. Famous for their thick foam cushioning and flashy colors. But almost everybody I see in HOKAs is wearing a running shoe. And at this point, HOKA does make a walking shoe:

https://www.hoka.com/en/us/mens-walking/

(They make women’s walking shoes too.)

But these are not the ones with the flashiest of colors. Those are the running shoes, which everybody buys, because they like the look. Fashion.

But people bought them and therefore they’re the best, THEY LIKE THEM!

And then there are the kiziks. I can’t tell you how many people e-mailed me about the kiziks, because like the Skechers (some Skechers, not all), they are truly hands-free slip-ons, which the Ons and HOKAs are not… You may be able to slip into them, but compared to a Skecher or kizik…

But I said in my piece I was looking for a mid-level shoe. For a specific purpose. Like I said above, I just bought a new pair of New Balance 928v3s for $159.99. The Kiziks you want cost  up to $200 a pair. And the dirty little secret is as easy as they might be to get on, their forte is not cushioning. They do sell two sub-hundred dollar shoes, but those are truly casual items, you don’t want to do a lot of walking in them. Once again, you CAN! They’re just not the best tool for the job.

Which brings me back to the Skechers.

3

Arch Fit.

What is that about. It’s a stabilization shoe. Sounds like something your podiatrist would recommend, but…are you a pronator?

Most people don’t know. But a pronator… Go to a store, just by looking at the soles of your shoes a qualified salesman can tell you. To make it simple, very simple, you’re rolling off your big toe, which is probably why your feet hurt!

But with a stabilization shoe…

I found this out by accident. Because the top of the line Nike running shoes back in the nineties were all stabilization shoes. They embedded a piece of plastic in the sole to hold your foot straight, a little cage. And they WORKED!

Which was why I was interested in the Skecher Arch Fit shoes. Because I am a pronator and it makes a difference.

So after writing my screed yesterday I went to the Skechers site and…

It was incomprehensible.

I wanted a cushiony shoe with Arch Fit. All those people you see walking in those thick foam-soled shoes, almost none of them have stabilization, they’re made for running, not walking, and therefore your ankle can roll and you can fall and…

The Skechers site has a shoe finder. But the problem is the results it generates are either too broad or too narrow. And it will also populate the results with shoes that don’t fit your criteria… They want you to buy SOMETHING, they don’t want you to leave their site empty-handed.

But I just couldn’t figure it out, I kept changing the criteria and that’s when I saw anything you bought on the site was 20% off. And Skechers are cheap to begin with. Now in the store there was no discount…

But I didn’t want to buy them directly from Skechers, how long would it take to get them? I use Amazon Prime, and get things sometimes the same day, usually only a day or two later. But I didn’t want to pay full price.

And that’s when I found out NO ONE sells Skechers for full price online, EVERYBODY gives you a discount! But, once again, what model to buy.

It’s a whole new set of criteria on Amazon, and I’m completely flummoxed and about to give up when I stumble upon what seems to be the perfect thing. The Men’s Go Walk Arch Fit 2.0-Grand. They were selling like hotcakes, which is a good sign. Over a hundred a month, with 722 reviews.

You want the one everybody else does. It’s tried and true.

And I put them in my cart, but…

There were two other walking shoes, with many fewer sales, what about them?

I’m thorough, like I told you.

So I went back to the Skechers site. On the Skechers site, the shoes had almost the identical descriptions, I could not figure out the difference.

So…

It was time to Google. And sometimes this works, and sometimes it does not. I asked “Skechers Go Walk Arch Fit 2.0 Grand or Simplicity.”

And lo and behold, AI came up with a lengthy answer. And everything was identical until the very bottom. You can adjust the laces with the Simplicity, you can’t with the Grand!

What are the odds the store clerk knew this?

ZERO!

I won’t even trouble you with the width issue… Not only do you not want to buy wide if you’re medium, but you don’t want a relaxed fit if you want to walk in them. That’s right, it’s that complicated.

So I bought the Simplicity. And what did this purchase cost me?

Before tax?

$73.50. 30% off the list price of $105.00.

As you can see, these shoes are not even half the price of the ones everybody was e-mailing me about. And unlike them, these are cheap shoes that are machine washable… And they’ve got stability and good cushioning and you can SLIP THEM ON!

Which is why I was looking at Skechers to begin with!