Drummer extraordinaire Keith Carlock has been Steely Dan’s man on the skins for decades. Hear the story of how he made it from Mississippi to the big time!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/keith-carlock/id1316200737?i=1000631849077

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/475e0f43-391f-4260-a31d-66fd0a18488a/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-keith-carlock

“The Only Girl – My Life and Times on the Masthead of Rolling Stone”: https://tinyurl.com/5xcn4xum

I’d never heard of this book, never mind its author, Robin Green.

Then again, I had. I saw her credit for years, as a writer and executive producer on “The Sopranos.” What? That’s quite a career!

Now this is not a self-published tome, it was put out by Little Brown. But it flew under my radar, and whether or not I read these rock books, I’m certainly aware of them. But in the brouhaha after Jann Wenner’s unfortunate remarks, an article I read went through the various books about “Rolling Stone” and said this was the best. Huh? I immediately reserved it at the library, I wasn’t going to buy it, what were the odds I’d even read it.

But I did. I finished it in less than 24 hours. Primarily because Robin Green delineates the era better than any book written by a person in music.

Yes, the sixties… They’re fading. But if you were alive and kicking, it was the opposite of today, it was an era of possibilities. And you certainly didn’t live your life by rote. Green graduated from Pembroke, which was to Brown as Radcliffe was to Harvard, and then…tried to fly straight in New York City, but on a whim moved to California with an old boyfriend.

Come on, do you know anybody who graduates from an Ivy and makes career decisions on a whim today? Hell, people have their careers planned out before they even take a class. And the goal is to make money. To set the world on fire. Personal fulfillment? That’s way down the list. But in the sixties and early seventies, that was everything.

And you could afford to meander. You could live on minimum wage. And not only did people do this, they were itinerant, as in moving from place to place. You didn’t fly across the country, you drove. You didn’t just see places on the internet, you went and experienced them up close and personal. And if a friend was going somewhere, even hundreds of miles away, you might decide to accompany them, and it might change your entire life.

So Robin is in Berkeley working a day job, and then she finds out she has a connection at “Rolling Stone,” so she borrows a car and drives over the bridge for a meeting with this bloke where she offers herself up as a secretary, a low level employee, she just wants to get in the building, to be close to the action.

But this guy doesn’t understand it. Why would she want such a lowly gig, didn’t she have more ambition, why didn’t she want to write for the magazine?

It had never occurred to her.

But she had a meeting with Jann, who found out she was an assistant to Stan Lee at Marvel during her brief tenure in New York, and he said if she wrote an article about Marvel and he liked it, he’d pay her five cents a word, if he didn’t, he’d kill it and pay her half. And seeing as how she was going to the east coast anyway, she took the gig.

And it became a cover story.

And from there…

I remember Robin’s story about Dennis Hopper and “The Last Movie,” it was in one of the early issues after my subscription to the magazine took hold. And its creation is retold in this book, and Hopper doesn’t look good. So many don’t look good, not even David Chase, Robin lays it down straight.

And you may not actually like Robin, but she was there, she lived it.

She had sex with many men. One night stands. She wouldn’t submit her story about the Kennedy children to “Rolling Stone” because…

But these were the days. Before AIDS. During women’s liberation. When women were demanding and living with the same power as men.

Green is far from subservient, she was one of the boys, but she maintained her female identity.

Green writes about the legendary “Rolling Stone” conference at Esalen. About Hunter Thompson. About the trials and tribulations of the “Rolling Stone” staff. It didn’t play out pleasantly for so many of them. But they were bedding each other, even if they were married to other people.

As for this focus on sex… You’ve got to know, at this point sex before marriage was seen as taboo, even divorce was. But the birth control pill came along and everything changed. There was freedom.

Green ultimately is demoted from the masthead of “Rolling Stone” after refusing to deliver that Kennedy piece and she went to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and then moved to Los Angeles and once again worked at a low level until she caught fire in TV. And this ultimately led to “The Sopranos,” and more.

This is not a typical tell-all. It’s more than the facts. And Green can certainly write. But it’s like it never came out, no one ever talked to me about “The Only Girl.” That’s what Robin was, again and again, the only girl amongst a group of men.

You’ll have a hard time putting “The Only Girl” down, especially if you lived through that era, the years have been bastardized and pooh-poohed, but if you read Green’s book, you’ll learn how it all really went down, from a perspective you don’t usually find. You’ve got men writing about the era, and you’ve got people who weren’t there writing about the era, but Robin Green was there, and she holds nothing back.

There’s just something about this book. It’s not like it’s hot or sexy, yet it’s far from dry. It’s kinda like a peek into Robin Green’s brain, her inner world. A perspective you don’t get too often, especially without judgment and a moral.

When looking for the Amazon link I saw that right now they’re selling the Kindle version for $3.99. That’s not much of a commitment. But if you do buy it, I know you’ll read it, I know you’ll finish it. Because you want this perspective. You want a book that is more than I did this and that, met this person and that. You’re thinking all the time, and so is Robin Green, but she laid her inner feelings down.

A big thumb’s up! 

P.S. This book is not only about “Rolling Stone,” actually the best parts are about her family and friends and growing up in Providence. And it does go into “The Sopranos” and…just wanted to let you know.

It’s happening again. What my parents warned me about. Anti-Semitism.

My inbox is overflowing. Overwhelmingly in support of what I wrote about Gaza. But you know what so many of those e-mailers said? DON’T USE MY NAME!

And there you have it in a nutshell. Yes, I blame the Jews. Not Israel, but the assimilated Jews in America who stood by during the heyday of BDS, during the rise of pro-Palestinian sentiment, while the perception changed, from poor Israel to poor Palestinians.

“Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing early Wednesday morning that no Israeli strike, either by air, land or sea occurred near the hospital at the time of the deadly explosion. He said the Israeli military would soon publish the radar information, footage and a recording of militants in Gaza assigning blame to Islamic Jihad, a group aligned with Hamas.

“Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour accused Israel of carrying out the strike and lying. ‘Now they change the story to try to blame the Palestinians. It is a lie,’ Mansour said during a press conference at the U.N. headquarters.”

https://tinyurl.com/5u626rkd

That’s from the “Wall Street Journal,” you could read it if you wanted to but you won’t. Because the truth is irrelevant today, now it’s only about perception.

I mean who are you going to believe? One of the most technically developed militaries of the world? Or the terrorist group in Palestine?

It’s easy. Of course the Israelis are guilty.

And none of this would have happened if the Israelis hadn’t decided to retaliate, right? I mean even if it was a wayward, failed Palestinian rocket, would they be shooting off rockets if Israel didn’t threaten to invade? Get it straight, Israel is the aggressor here. The poor Palestinians have just been trying to live their lives quietly and those damn Jews upset the apple cart. They’ve got no compassion. They want to see every Palestinian desiring to return to their homeland dead. If only they wanted peace, a two state solution…

WHAT?

My inbox says all that. And I’ve never had this many people unsubscribe in one day, never. And after posting this I’m sure I’ll lose the same number, if not more. But I’m not writing for those people, I’m not writing for those taking the side of the poor Palestinians, I’m writing this for you silent Jews, afraid of suffering individually. I mean haven’t we seen this movie already? Never mind the Nazis, but in Charlottesville, never mind terrorism in Pittsburgh?

Yes, I’ve gotten e-mail from people keeping their kids home from school, because they’re Jewish. Others afraid to go to synagogue, even though there are armed guards at the temple.

But you sit there silently, trying to stay out of the fray. Fearful of blowback. Yes, you who let the pendulum swing, who got fat and happy, seeing Israel as a safe technological juggernaut. You thought you were assimilated. But you haven’t gotten those e-mails I have, talking about anti-Semitism in this supposedly Jewish dominated business.

But you don’t want to get involved. You don’t want people angry with you. You don’t want to lose friends.

Forget the wimpy executives, who are only concerned about their paycheck, where are the Jewish artists? You can’t take a stand? You are who people listen to, if not now, when?

But the executives need to stand up too. I’m imploring you. If I can take the risk, you can too. We have each other, and we need each other, but now we are divided.

That’s right, whatever and if ever the truth about the hospital bombing comes out one thing is for sure, the image of Israel and the Jews will continue to decline, and it will only get worse.

As for those Jews at colleges and universities… They’re complacent, they didn’t live through the ’67 and ’73 wars, never mind Munich in ’72. They align with their Palestinian brothers, knowing nothing of the history of the region, only knowing that the Palestinians have a good case, and they do, BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

I’m not going to sit here and say Israel is perfect. But one thing I will say is it’s our last best hope if we are Jewish, it’s the only place we can go and not be persecuted. And if it goes by the wayside, it’s just a matter of time before they come for you.

I mean have you studied history? Again and again the Jews have been the scapegoat, and been exiled and limited in business and killed and you think just because we have the internet it can’t happen again? IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN!

Think of authoritarianism… We thought those days were through. And Poland just turned left, but what about Italy? Never mind Hungary? This was not supposed to happen, democracy was supposed to gain momentum and rule, but just the opposite seems to be happening.

So on my birthday a few years back I went to the Holocaust museum in Los Angeles. And they had reprints from the L.A. “Times.” And contrary to conventional wisdom, people knew! Yes, the repression of the Jews, their ghettoization, the stripping of their rights, their need to wear Jewish stars… WE KNEW! And what did we do? Nothing, not for a long while. And after the war the truth of the concentration camps was revealed, but now we find out the Holocaust didn’t really happen. And the Jews need to shut up anyway, because other people died too. It’s kind of like saying there’s no more racism, get the Blacks to agree with you on that one. But even the Blacks hate the Jews. Don’t tell me you don’t, do you think I’m polling each and every African-American? But the facts are there. Jews are the enemy, just ask Kanye.

Yes, Jews are the cause of all the world’s problems, don’t you know? And if they’d just let those damn Palestinians live in peace… And give them back their country while they’re at it, everything would be groovy. Iran would be happy and Lebanon would be happy and…ARE YOU DREAMING?

But you are asleep. Because you’re afraid to get in the fray.

But I don’t care if you’re mother’s mother was Jewish and nobody else, when they come looking, you’re going to be considered Jewish, there’s no getting away from it. You think you’re immune, but you’re not.

So can all you wusses out there, afraid of having your names revealed, stand up and be proud to be a Jew? Stand up to the misinformation?

Of course it’s a thorny issue. And the Israelis haven’t always been right, but they haven’t been celebrating the death of Palestinians, whereas it’s vice versa on the other side.

I won’t even talk about all the times the Palestinians were offered their own country as part of a two state solution..,

That’s another type of e-mail that drives me wild. The “risk-takers” who tell me that everybody just needs to believe in peace. That if we all sat down the problem could be solved. That we need a two-state solution. Don’t you get it, Israel has agreed to all that, it’s the Palestinians who are holding us back, who will only be happy when Israel ceases to exist, when the Jews are driven into the sea. Don’t think those are metaphors, that’s Hamas’s charter!

This is only the beginning. As this war progresses, Israel is going to look worse and worse, just you wait. It’s going to be even harder to be a Jew. The right has turned on Ukraine, what are the odds every American is going to side with Israel? And yes, there are Christians who support Israel because that’s where Jesus lived, but if you think this means they’re sympathetic to the Jews…

It is happening. Right now. We Jews are losing purchase, we’re losing power, we’re losing the argument, it’s going in the wrong direction. But you think it’s all happening over there, that it doesn’t affect you.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

WAKE UP!

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

From: Michael Fisher

Subject: Re: Gaza

“But that’s the society we live in. Where money, your job, triumphs. Tell me how that works for you when you’re rounded-up and put in a ghetto.”

Exactly. You should’ve added “and dragged off and murdered”. I’m African-American and German. My mother was German. I was born in Germany and grew up among plenty of “Ex-Nazis” and their children.  I grew up hearing what they said. To this day when I’m in Germany (I was there in the beginning of the year) I keep hearing “Well, you’re half black, but at least you’re not a Jew”. I’ll hear that from Germans who will usually present themselves as completely pro-jewish. So, don’t get it twisted. Anti-semitism is still around, rising and virulent. And it’s deadly. Anti-Black racism is about “keeping Blacks in their place”. Anti-Jewish racism (Anti-semitism) is straight up about genocide.

Michael 

_______________________________________

From: Jason Hess

Subject: Re: Gaza

A few years ago, My daughter was bullied in high school for being Jewish by pro Palestinian students. You know what the administration did? They said they were trying to have honest conversations about the issues. This is response to my daughter getting pictures of Hitler and being told that all Jews are racist animals. So you know what I did? I sued them in federal court at tremendous personal and emotional expense. I took a stand. I am no hero but almost everyone told me to let it go. But I could not do it Bob. We settled and received an apology. I hope I had an impact but I doubt it. They all hate us. But we must keep fighting.

Jason

_______________________________________

Subject: Re: Gaza

Bob, 

I read your news letter daily. Sometimes it’s too long. But today u got it right. I have lived as a Jew with anti semitism my entire life. From having pennies thrown at me in middle school to being ridiculed because I am a female JEWISH lawyer. I remain a proud Jew, maybe not religious, but I know I am a Jew. Each day at my previous job, now retired, I tried to have a Holocaust moment and explain to my associates that every day I say NEVER AGAIN. You got it right. We killed innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With war comes consequences. Hamas started it. Let Israel and the US if necessary finish it. Those hostages are goners their lives are done even if saved. They will forever suffer. The time is now. So shut up and stop crying for innocent people. Let’s get this job done the way we should have when people walked my relatives to ovens. It’s time. 

Thanks for reading

Gail LEVINE

A proud Jew

_______________________________________

From: Ronli Tzour

Subject: Re: Gaza

Thank you for speaking out, Bob.

It’s nauseating to see fellow jews say nothing.

It’s nauseating to see non-jews say nothing.

It’s nauseating to see people I called friends, people I still have to work with, people that were in my home liking and sharing posts that are riddled with misinformation.

And it’s nauseating when I reach out to explain why what they’re engaging with is straight propaganda or incorrect and they simply, don’t respond.

Our babies are beheaded. Our women raped then butchered. Our families erased. Our college kids mourn our slaughtered, behind them is a group of pro-Palestinian students screaming at them how it’s justice. Our houses are being marked with ‘Jew’ or Magen Davids to indicate jews live there. Our businesses are being trashed either physically or accounts are being unfollowed or spammed with hate. Our flags are being burned in the name of another statehood and there are chants of our genocide and yet in Israeli marches – we sing about how we just want peace for Israel and dance around together. There is video evidence of all of this.

People don’t want to see what’s happening. They want to blindly hate Israel and jewish people. They want to believe we’re evil, no matter what we do.

We are seeing the 1930s play out in front of our eyes. People watching our Instagram stories but won’t say anything to us or on their own socials is the equivalent of their not-so-distant ancestors just watching jews thru their windows being rounded up..

Thank god we have our own defense force to help us in 2023. Never again is now. And truly (and I mean this from the bottom of my soul and from my long line of actual resistance fighter ancestors), f*ck anyone that believes any differently. Too harsh? Too bad.

In multiple jewish group chats I am, we are discussing: Removing our mezzuzahs from our doors. (We dont want to.)

Is it safe to wear our Magen David necklaces? (No, but we’ve dusted them off and are now constantly wearing them.)

Do people need security to walk them to synagogue? (Yes, in LA there is a volunteer group that walks families to synagogue whenever they need – let alone the amped up security at synagogues to begin with.)

Amongst many, many other things but these barely just scratch the surface.

May peace be with us soon, may all of our families stay safe, may the 150+ hostages make it back to us alive and unharmed, may we never know this kind of terror again, and may Hamas be eliminated forever.

Our hearts are so broken and also so angry. I will never understand this level of hate that has been unleashed.

Thanks again for speaking out, Bob. We need more people to use their voices, too.

Am yisrael chai –

Ronli Tzour

_______________________________________

From: Gary Lucas

Subject: Re: Gaza

Thank you for this Bob. We’ve all been there—even in a supposedly Jewish-dominated music biz.

Years ago when I was a copywriter at CBS Records, I really wanted to get into A&R, but found it to be a closed shop (especially for a guy who had played with Captain Beefheart).

After much badgering, the Jewish head of A&R at Columbia told me:

“Bring me a hit first, and then we can talk about hiring you.”

So in 1986, I’m in the UK with my English-Jewish wife visiting her family, and while there ventured forth into UK record company-land in search of a hit for Columbia.

I lined up a meeting with the head of A&R at London Records, who was a very affable fellow.

I told him Columbia had just done a licensing deal with Geoff Travis’s  Rough Trade Records—and did he have any potential hits for us to license?

He proceeded to play me the soon to be released new single by The Communards, a cover of Thelma Houston’s smash “Don’t Leave Me This Way”.

This new version had “hit” written all over it.

He told me they are about to make a deal for America, but that if Columbia wants in…

He gives me a cassette to take back and play for my guy. His parting words as I leave his office are :

“What’s the matter with Columbia—do they just want to do a deal with a bunch of Jews??” (Geoff Travis is Jewish).

I don’t know if he knew that I was Jewish or not. Perhaps he just thought he was being funny–but I was seriously offended.

Nevertheless, as I wanted an A&R gig, I swallowed my pride and said nothing–which I regret to this day.

When I got back to NYC, I duly delivered the cassette to my “rabbi”, and gave him a big pitch on The Communards—and he duly threw the tape in a drawer…next!

A few months later this song is #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts. I felt more than vindicated re my A&R instincts, but whatever.

A few years later, partially out of frustration with the record biz, I left my day-job of 13 years to become a full-time artist.

And I did a collaboration in London with Alabama 3—huge Beefheart fans who had recently been schmeckled vis a vis their song “Woke Up This Morning”–part of the very warp and woof of “The Sopranos”—

which their manager licensed away forever for a pittance in a one-time buy-out with HBO.

While doing this session for their new song about the Great Train Robbery, “Have You Seen Bruce Richards Reynolds”

(you can hear it here, I’m on National steel bottleneck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QbmRgKuWa8 ),

they played me another new track entitled “Hello I’m Johnny Cash”, whose lyrics consisted of lines from various Johnny Cash songs.

In settling up on the phone with their manager for the session the next morning, I mentioned how much I enjoyed their Johnny Cash pastiche, and he said:

“I’m sure some Jew lawyer from New York will try and sue us for that”.

Ouch!  I should have said something right there again, but as I wanted to get paid…

Anyway, you could say maybe it’s just a UK thing. Maybe it was just crass Jew-baiting.

But we all know too well that anti-semitism is worldwide, it sucks, it ain’t going away—and we should call it out for what it is whenever it rears its ugly head.

Gary Lucas

NYC

_______________________________________

From: Lynn Crosswaite

Subject: Re: Gaza

Yes! Right on! I’m losing my mind over the pro-Palestinian marches. We need Doron!  Send in Doron and his crew to obliterate Hamas off the face of the earth! 

Lynn

This is a magical show. With a guest star so left field and so right it’ll stun you when you see him on the screen.

Well, now that I’ve given him such an intro it won’t, but when this Argentinian series suddenly shifts locales…it’s a complete surprise.

So what we’ve got here is the aged dandy Manuel, who earns his living as a restaurant/food critic. He’s got kids, but has little interaction with them. He had a relationship with Grace, but he’s too difficult to be with. It’s just him and his housekeeper in his densely decorated home. He’s afraid of dying, but almost has one foot in the grave.

“Nada” is slow until it isn’t. There isn’t a lot there until there isn’t. But ultimately it is very satisfying. It’s on Hulu and…

Don’t put it at the top of your list, it’s nothing like “The Bureau,” or “Master of None”…I could name twenty series you should watch before “Nada,” but if you’ve seen the heavyweights and are looking for something different…

It’s set in Buenos Aires. And South America is foreign to the U.S. What I mean is most Americans know more about Europe than they do about the continent just south of them. And Americans always believe foreigners are living an inferior life, that no one outside their country’s borders is sophisticated. But Buenos Aires is certainly sophisticated and cultured, and you get to see a bit of the city, but really this is a character study.

And a food study.

One of the highlights is when Manuel describes the three levels of consumption. I won’t ruin it, but I will say that a meal can be an artistic experience. Now in truth, America has come a long way in the past twenty five years, you can get more than hot dogs and popcorn at the stadium, they’re even selling daily passports to the Atlanta airport, so you can sample the food and shops, but this does not mean Americans have a sophisticated palate.

Manuel is all about splitting the hairs. And that resonated with me, because I’m the same way. I don’t care if it made a lot of money, I don’t care if everybody anoints it as great, I want to start from zero and make my own evaluation on an absolute scale.

I guess it’s that excellence is so satisfying. Like when my car’s just been serviced and it’s running perfectly. As a matter of fact, my car is in the shop right now and they gave me a brand new Outback as a loaner. I’d never buy it. The center of gravity is too high and the suspension is too soft, why does everybody want an SUV? To sit higher in an inherently unstable machine? Fashion and industry profits have everybody buying an SUV/truck when they’d be better serviced with a sedan, but people can’t go against trends, conventional wisdom. When the turbo in my ancient machine is turning, when all four wheels are pulling, when I’m accelerating or going around a corner, it’s a thrill, it’s a high.

Like the right pair of skis. As someone said, there’s no such thing as a bad pair of skis these days. But the right ones? It’s such a sweet experience.

And the same thing with food. When they nail it…

It’s not about quantity. And it’s not about complication. That’s one of the points in this movie, a simple country soup can be exquisite. When it is made with love and experience and…

This is what life is really about. These tiny moments of elation. When Manuel eats something spectacular he’s elated, if it’s just a bit off, he’s disappointed, no matter how good it is. He says he’s only got so many meals left in his life, he doesn’t want to waste one.

I understand that. Actually, right now I’m paralyzed. Because I don’t want to waste time with the time I have left. I don’t want to be blind and miss it. I want to eat up life. But there are so many things, so many people, who are unsatisfying, or not satisfying enough and…

I hear people rave about this act or that. But I’ve seen that act, the first time around, the comeback and then on the endless tour and really, they were great in the beginning and now they’re running on fumes and nostalgia is overrated. I don’t want to be calcified, talking about what once was. But everything important to me is denigrated by my cohorts. Technology? It’s the enemy, right? Man, all the people I know who are afraid of AI who don’t really understand it.

That’s another thing, the misinformation. Got to blame technology, communication methods, for that. My inbox overflows with people citing incorrect facts. They could just google the truth, but then they’d be disillusioned, because they’d realize what they’ve been spewing is wrong, and their self-identity can’t handle that.

So one ends up feeling alone, on their own adventure. At least I do. I find my connection in streaming TV. I’d like to find my connection in music more, but the purveyors are brands, not artists. They’re fearful of complaints, they don’t want to alienate anybody. They’re more like Procter & Gamble than John Lennon.

And Manuel can’t even get along with his friends.

Assuming you’ve got friends, who are alive and kicking. You learn to live and forget, but not Manuel, he’s irascible and it’s funny except he’s the person paying the price.

You know people like this, who are convinced they’re right, always. And when you inform them of possibilities, new items or methods of behavior or anything new they don’t want to hear it, they’re comfortable where they are. When did everybody become afraid of the future?

And on one hand Manuel knows what a pain in the ass he is, it’s one reason he stays isolated. But his heart can be warmed.

And he does have status. Everybody knows who he is, he eats for free, but caught up in his quest for the mountaintop he doesn’t realize he’s pissing people off.

But the show is slow at the beginning. Not so slow it’s akin to watching paint dry. But it’s not intense, vivid, not that much happens. You just see Manuel living his life. But as the episodes unfold…

“Nada” is not a big commitment. It’s five half hour episodes. But you won’t watch it and forget it. You’ll continue to think about it and talk to people about it, just like I am doing here.

I can’t say I know of another series like “Nada.” Maybe a couple of movies, but they’re a different paradigm from series. And isn’t that what we’re looking for, the new and different? Wasn’t that the story of Barbenheimer, killing the sequels?

But many are happy with what was, what they know. But the real stimulation is that which is riding the edge, off in the distance, that’s what gets your brain going, cogitating, and feeling.

I don’t want to overhype “Nada,” it’s just that it’s a special show. I can’t see them making it in the U.S. We need more. Beautiful people acting irrationally…wait, that’s not only TV, that’s real life! Today it’s Britney Spears getting an abortion, yesterday it was Kanye and his new wife in Italy. These people live on publicity, their whole lives are based on being in the public eye. And not only do so many follow them, they want to be them. Sounds like an empty life to me. Kinda like Taylor Swift. She’s setting all these attendance and gross records. Kudos, that’s fine with me. But who would want to do the work? The same show, week after week, for years on end? I’d rather do something better with my time. It’s one thing if you’re trying to make it. Swift ends up in the public eye, she’s certainly famous, she’s America’s darling, but what exactly is it like being her? I mean on the inside?

That’s what’s interesting, what makes people tick, their motivation… This used to be part of the musician ethos. People were 3-D. More of a scan, actually. It wasn’t about the image, but the interior. Kind of like David Crosby… He went on the road spewing anti-Trump vitriol and said he didn’t care if he lost fans over it, he didn’t want those people at his shows. I don’t care if you agree, and David was a difficult guy, but that’s someone with an identity, a backbone, and he wasn’t compromising for anyone. He wasn’t dancing, he wasn’t doing commercials, he wasn’t toning down his speech or behavior. That’s the life of an artist, more than chart positions and awards.

I guess you’ve learned more about me than “Nada” in this screed. But maybe that’s the point, “Nada” is getting me to open up, to deliver my feelings and wants. You might have the same experience.

Trailer (only watch if you need convincing, because it reveals too much): https://tinyurl.com/4xp8srux