https://tinyurl.com/mpradk6n

I want to tell you about this book. But I can’t recommend you read it.

It’s called “Wellness,” and it’s by Nathan Hill. Reviews have been excellent, Oprah has even endorsed it, but the main reason I got it from the library, the main reason I dug in, was because I positively loved Hill’s previous book “The Nix.”

“Wellness”? Not as much.

My queue is backed up, I’ve got so many books I want to read, and “Wellness” is a tome, 689 pages. And the style is kind of funny, in that not that much happens, a lot is backstory or interior monologue and it’s off-putting, you want to put the book down. But then you pick it back up again and it resonates and then it doesn’t… That’s right, you’re hot and cold.

Well, I should be saying I’m hot and cold on the book. And the worst thing about it is it does not call out to me, or hasn’t until this point, I’ve got a couple of hours left, I’m about 80% in, it’s hard to commit to. My main reading time is after eleven, after Felice goes to bed, when it’s dark out and incoming slows down. And I can usually only read if I turn my phone off. But sometimes I’m addicted to my phone and there goes the rest of the evening. Oh, I don’t usually go to bed until two, used to be four, and you can judge me all you want, but as they said about Yogi Bear…”He will sleep ’til noon, but before it’s dark, he’ll have every picnic basket that’s in Jellystone Park.” Anyway, I don’t care. I’m separate from you anyway. The other. I don’t fit in, can’t be a bro, and I’ve made peace with that. Not that there are not people on my wavelength… But usually they’re musicians, artists.

So, it’s taking me even longer to read this long book, because I have trouble dedicating the time to it. But then…

Hill starts depicting these suburbanites, upscale suburbanites, who are into their affirmations, their positive beliefs, you know, the kind when you’re ill will talk to you about natural medicine, tell you to see a naturopath rather than an MD. And you can’t convince them otherwise, because it’s now part of their being, and they don’t want you to rain on their parade, they just can’t hear anything negative. Actually, I get that a lot, people telling me to stop being negative. So let me get this straight, I’m supposed to give up my filter, just be the pretender, a smiling idiot who professes to love everything? No, I’m looking for excellence, and when I find it… That’s why I’m writing this entire screed now.

So you’ve got two people in college who find each other, ultimately at a rock club, and one is from nowhere Kansas and the other comes from a long line of…what turns out to be robber barons. And over time the money has been washed, people see the family as established, and forget the heinous activities they took part in, or instigated themselves. And Elizabeth wants no part of this. But Hill goes on for pages about Elizabeth’s family’s backstory, and it’s so well done, so on it, that I almost believed that it was real. It was history, it’s just the names and the faces were changed, this is how so many made their fortune.

But there’s also endless waxing on the prairie, how easterners don’t understand it. This goes on for pages, it’s all part of Jack’s backstory.

And there is a story. Not of Jack and Diane, but Jack and Elizabeth. In the nineties, in Chicago, when the indie scene was flourishing. But this is not a rock book, do not read it expecting so, that’s just an element. And then the book jumps to modern times…

There’s so much social commentary. There’s the issue of relationships. And so much more, seemingly every hot button issue in society, from Big Pharma to sex to…

And then, about two-thirds of the way through, there’s an explanation of the algorithm, actually seven algorithms, the ones that Facebook and Google employ.

It’s kind of an aside. Kind of like the political stuff in “Anna Karenina.” There’s an overlay of story, of Jack’s father, but what we’ve got here is… The best explanation of algorithms I’ve ever seen.

Oh, we all know everything’s run by algorithm online, but we don’t know the thought behind them, how they work on a granular level, how they’re tweaked, and this book explains it. In your mind you can literally see Mark Zuckerberg and his troops coding. All the games these companies play, to hook you and then drop you, to play with your emotions… If everybody read “Wellness” there’d be revolution. Truly. Forget Cambridge Analytica, that’s a sideshow compared to this. And it’s all made up, not exactly true, but therefore even more true.

That’s why you read fiction.

The bottom line is these companies are manipulating us in ways we can’t even conceive. It’s a giant game and we’re just the players, just rats in a cage that they’re trying to get us to stay in, so they can make more money.

I know, it sounds simple, and you know all this, but really you don’t. It’s much more nefarious than that.

And then Hill goes into how people get convinced of falsehoods and then they Google these falsehoods and since the falsehood is linked to more than the truth it’s the number one hit and the searcher feels they’ve got reinforcement. They go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, they’re convinced. QAnon may be laughable to you, but when you read this section of “Wellness” you’ll understand exactly how it happened. You’ll almost have sympathy for these people, who’ve been sold a bill of goods. The mainstream media is the enemy, I’d bet more than half of Americans decry it, so it’s a free-for-all online and…

God, every issue in society is in this book, and it’s so well done and researched. Like placebos and NIMBYS and…

I just can’t recommend the entire book. And to be honest, the part about the algorithms is a little dry. But when Hill is on he’s a master, you’ll marvel. That he did all this research and is laying it out. Poking fun at our society while part of it.

What can a poor boy do?

These are the questions of our society. Who we are and how we interact. This is one reason music does not define the zeitgeist, because it’s somehow foreign to what really matters to us. We’ve got these devices in our hands, that are tailored just to us, everybody’s got a different feed, and although the companies do their best to make the experience addictive, it’s inherently addictive. And you know why, first and foremost? Because of the people. Meeting people, making friends, is harder the older you get. But on the internet everybody’s laying it on the line. You feel an intimacy, it’s visceral, something that music does not deliver. It’s not about numbers, it’s not about grosses, it’s about a feeling, an opening, a way to look into life, both yours and others’, that’s what the music lacks, because it’s not honest.

And when you say to put the phone down… Well, don’t go to the movies, don’t watch television, don’t read books… Online is another medium, but even more enticing. There’s so much to learn, so much to see…

It starts on page 492, under the heading “The Needy Users – A Drama in Seven Algorithms.”

Hell, I’ll list them:

1. The EdgeRank Algorithm

2. The Needy User Algorithm

3. The Pattern Recognition Algorithm

4. The Page Rank Algorithm

5. The Deep Learning Artificial Neural Network

6. The Screen Interaction Algorithm

7. The Chatbot

Hill, or his publisher Doubleday, should do a public service and put this section of the book online, for free. And everybody in America should be forced to read it, those in Congress and those in school and those at home who think they know what is going on and don’t. Very few know what is really going on.

But you’re gonna have to pay attention, if your mind drifts you’ve got to go back and concentrate. And…

I’m in on a secret. That’s what “Wellness” delivered. That’s why you read, not only for the fulfillment, but the advantage.

Enough.

Re: The Only Girl

Well holy fucking sh*t!  Hi, it’s Robin. A couple business associates sent me what you wrote and you can’t imagine – or maybe you can – what it means to me.

The book was such a commercial flop (though it did better in Great Britain) that it wrecked me in a way. I never found out – or asked – what happened. The publisher seemed hot on it then all of a sudden a small run, no book tour, little publicity. Ghosted. My editor went on vacation (later someone told me they heard she had breast cancer) and my publicist moved to another house.

So maybe just bad luck. But I really think the answer lies somewhere in your having written “you may not like Robin Green…”. They must have done a focus group and no one did. I know when the proposal went out one New York male editor who didn’t like it gave it to his female editors to check his instinct and all their comments registered a definite distaste for me. They thought I was bragging on myself. One guy on Amazon complained I hadn’t been a drug addict or been sexually molested so what’s the point of a memoir? F*ck them all.

But own husband didn’t like it. It put us in couples therapy. I haven’t written a word since.

And then your letter. It is some kind of miracle to have found such a reader. I loved the book now here was someone, widely read and respected I’m told, who loved it too. I can’t thank you enough. Maybe I shouldn’t even be trying, but as you may surmise, even with the wisdom of age, restraint is not my strong suit.

Okay, I’ll stop. But just one more thing, okay? What you wrote made we want to think about writing again, and I thank you very much for that.

My inbox is full of people defending the Stones, and that’s just sad.

First and foremost, my article wasn’t really about the Stones, it was about hype/publicity in general, although I did employ the Stones as an example. But they’re not the only ones, only the most egregious, especially because they used to be considered dangerous, as the other. Don’t let your daughter sleep with a Rolling Stone? Now your grandmother wants to sleep with a Stone and youngsters don’t care.

But the reason I’m writing this is I’m always stunned when fans defend their ancient heroes. You can’t say a single negative thing about them, they’re inviolate, based on what they’ve produced previously. Not only is that insane, it disappoints me that these people haven’t grown up, can’t think for themselves, still need to put others on a pedestal to make their lives complete. Because if their heroes had clay feet, where would they be?

We were young once, and oftentimes stupid and naïve. The goal in life is to experience, to take chances, to develop, to progress. But too many can’t do this, they can’t let go of who they once were, furthermore they’re afraid of the future. And I’ll place all this b.s. about the digital age in this box too. The smartphone is here, everyone’s now connected, it’s exciting, but you keep telling us to go on a digital detox while you still use your flip phone… The joke is on you.

But it gets even broader. Did you see the story in the news about electric cars being a political issue, that the right is against them? What, you want to preserve the dominance of fossil fuels and pollution?

“Electric Cars Were Already Having Issues. Then Things Got Political. The 2024 race for the White House reignites debate over EVs”: https://tinyurl.com/2z8kdrn3

But it’s even worse, because the Chinese are paragons of electric car excellence. They’re gonna eat up the market. Warren Buffett got the message, he invested in BYD, and he’s probably older than you are, but you’re inured to the past, you can’t let go. And not everything is us vs. them.

The most interesting story I read in the past two weeks was this:

 “China’s E.V. Threat: A Carmaker That Loses $35,000 a Car – Chinese electric vehicle companies like Nio are pulling ever further ahead, partly through government support but also through rapid technological advances.”: https://tinyurl.com/3vxkz5uj

That’s really all you have to know, the headline is enough. I’ll make it quite simple, in China the GOVERNMENT is underwriting, subsidizing, electric car development. In the U.S. we can’t even have a working government, never mind subsidize industry for the future. Hell, someone just wrote a whole book about it, excerpted in yesterday’s “New York Times Magazine”: 

“Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America – For decades, spending on the future put the nation ahead of all others. What would it take to revive that spirit?”: https://tinyurl.com/2t8scj62

It’s simple, St. Reagan declared the government the enemy and the goal of the right is to eliminate federal spending, and on the left many want lower taxes too, the narrative has gone off course, far from the right direction, because it’s government investment that has made America what it is today, can you say INTERNET?

Yes, that was a government defense program.

Our government is gridlocked and we’re falling behind. We used to spend a ton on R&D, on fixing, on improving America. But no longer, because you earned that damn money and you’re entitled to keep it and the government wastes bucks. But this book makes it clear, if you spend you waste, not every investment pays off, just ask a venture capitalist. But no, we must not invest in anything.

This is not the country I grew up in.

But my generation, I’m disappointed in it. The Gen-X’ers too. Because they’ve refused to grow up.

You know, like the rock writers who still have long hair and wear a motorcycle jacket. Don’t you know the rest of us are laughing at you? You’re anything but cool, you’re frozen in time, and you never even rode a motorcycle, never mind never played in a band.

It’s bad enough that the bands are frozen in time, but do you have to be too?

That’s one weird thing about growing up, you realize these musicians are just people. Some stayed artists, kept exploring, like David Bowie, but most just rested on their laurels, once they made it they were afraid to risk.

These bands don’t care about you. Not whatsoever. In truth, most successful people, the rich you adore, never mind the musicians, don’t want to hang with you, they don’t want to be friends with you, they just want your money to support their lifestyle. They want to live behind gates, never fly commercial and vacation on private islands. They want nothing to do with the hoi polloi, despite constantly praising their fans. It’s a joke. But it’s on you.

I mean you’re in your fifties, sixties and seventies and you’re still looking to Mick and Keith for guidance? Mick, a man who loves money and the fabulous lifestyle much more than you. And Keith is a bit more admirable, but he seems to be the only drinker and drugger who survived, the rest of them succumbed to their vices.

But maybe you’re drinking and drugging yourself, thinking you’re cool. They call marijuana (or its bogus highfalutin’ name “cannabis”) dope for a reason, because it makes you stupid. Come on, that’s one of the amazing things about growing older, all the stoners of the past, they’ve gone straight. And so many drinkers are now sober. And you know why? Because they realized these substances were impairing their lives, killing them. But you still revere the rock and roll lifestyle. I get it if you’re a teenager or a twentysomething, but at this age? You’ve got to be kidding.

You see these people grew up and you didn’t. I mean if you want to go to the show to hear your favorites, be my guest. But don’t tell me about the deeper meaning. It’s a show, that’s it. There are people to believe in today, but they’re not musicians.

And then the inane e-mail about how Spotify killed the music business, it’s the devil! Now let me get this straight, the physical world of twelve songs for more than ten bucks on a plastic disc was going to survive? The iPod didn’t survive, and it was launched in the twenty first century! The landline has been superseded by the cellphone. But no, music must remain static, the way it used to be, because… Nothing stays the same except you!

It’s one thing if you’re in one of these bands and you blow back after I diss you, I completely understand that, although I’d never do it, that’s rule number one of the internet, you never respond, never fight back, it just pours gasoline on the fire. But it’s the people not mentioned, who aren’t in the band, who never worked for the band, never worked anywhere near the music business who defend these musicians so prodigiously.

You can’t say anything negative about a star of the past because..?

You can say negative stuff about a politician, or a movie star, but since a musician once spoke from their heart, impacted the culture, they get a pass for all time?

Believe me, it’s scary growing up, maturing. Talk about satisfaction, I can name a bunch of streaming series that deliver more than the work of any musician. Because music has changed. As the world has changed. Musicians used to be as rich as anybody in America, that’s no longer the case. And to make money they’re whoring themselves out, which was my point to begin with, which is damn sad, assuming unlike them you grew up.

Are you really that immature? Are you really wearing blinders?

Let’s see, you have aches and pains. You can’t run as fast, if at all. But in your brain you’re still twenty years old, living under a paradigm that evaporated half a century ago.

That was my point. We live in a new world, and you must adjust for a new world. But the key thing if you’re an artist is not to sacrifice your values, assuming you had any at all to begin with. Those are the bedrock, the attitudes, the beliefs, who you are at the core. I mean the Stones hanging with Jimmy Fallon? Make me puke.

What did John Lennon sing?

“I just believe in me, Yoko, and me, and that’s reality”

Lennon was in the biggest band in the land, in the entire world, and he could see the emptiness at the core. That it’s all about the individual, that the mania is bogus.

“And so, dear friends

You’ll just have to carry on

The dream is over”

Don’t you get it? You were told to think for yourself (by George Harrison too!) and you just couldn’t do it. It was too heavy a lift, too much responsibility.

Now Joe Walsh once said that the challenge wasn’t dying at twenty seven, but living. Who knows what John Lennon would be like at eighty. He’s lucky, his image is frozen in the past. But Walsh was a serious alcoholic and cleaned up. I once sat in a bar with him in Vancouver and he was drunk and nasty, but that’s not the sober Joe at all, and he can still play, even better.

And Don Henley cut his hair. But you’re still wearing it long. Why?

I’ll make this simple…

GROW UP!

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/48bk7zfw

“Space Captain”:

Joe Cocker – “Mad Dogs & Englishmen”

 

“To Cry You a Song”

Jethro Tull – “Benefit”

 

“Don’t Let It Bring You Down”

Neil Young – “After the Gold Rush”

 

“Fire and Water”

Free – “Fire & Water”

 

“Brand New Day”

Al Kooper – “Easy Does It”

 

“Gallows Pole”

Led Zeppelin – “Led Zeppelin III”

 

“The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show”

The Band – “Stage Fright”

 

“Stray Cat Blues”

Rolling Stones – “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out”

 

“Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers”

Firesign Theatre

 

“Hollywood #1”

Thunderclap Newman – “Hollywood Dream”

 

“What Now America”

Lee Michaels – “Barrel”

 

“Mother’s Daughter”

Santana – “Abraxas”

 

“Box of Rain”

Grateful Dead – “American Beauty”

 

“Do For the Others”

Stephen Stills – “Stephen Stills”

 

“Gasoline Alley”

Rod Stewart – “Gasoline Alley”

 

“Domino”

Van Morrison  – “His Band and the Street Choir” 

 

“Have You Seen the Stars Tonight”

Jefferson Starship – “Blows Against the Empire”

 

“Superstar”

“Jesus Christ Superstar”