Songs with “Change” in the title.

Tune in Saturday June 17th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Netflix trailer: https://tinyurl.com/24ch5693

This is INSANE!

You may not care about bicycle racing, but you’ll be riveted by this series.

Netflix has established a formula. It started with “Drive to Survive,” its series on Formula 1. The first season the big kahunas don’t want to participate, so you get the viewpoint from the underdogs, who get a lot of screen time. And then the series comes out, blows the sport up, and everybody wants in. Will “Tour de France: Unchained” blow up bicycle racing?

Well, it’s already huge in Europe.

This was shot last year, 2022. And you see the riders and management wearing masks, even outdoors. It’s like they’re not privy to the insanity of the anti-vax, anti-mask movement in the U.S. Just before this was shot, I was entering a hotel wearing my mask, an upscale hotel, and a self-satisfied patron exited through the front door and insulted me, one for whom the vaccine didn’t work. And unlike too many, I know numerous people who died from covid, and numerous people who’ve never completely recovered, their taste has not come back, for years.

Yes, Europe. You watch this show and you want to go.

So I’ve about given up on Formula 1. Because it’s about the car, not the driver. I wish everybody would drive the same damn machine, then it would be interesting. But Red Bull’s sled is head and shoulders above the rest. They could win every race of the year. How interesting is that?

But bike racing is like basketball. As in equipment is secondary. In basketball all you’ve got is your sneakers, in bike racing your bike, but in truth most of them are similar. It all comes down to the riders, and the team. Yes, the Tour de France is a team sport.

I feel like I went to a college people don’t understand. One wherein sports were secondary. At this elite level there are no athletic scholarships. Then again, the coaches lean on the admissions people for a couple of recruits. And they lay out the dough for anybody who can’t afford the ticket price. Sometimes this is athletes. But it’s all Division III. Which is kind of like comparing AA to the Major League. Not that there are not good athletes in Division III, but if you’re planning to go pro, it’s not the place to be.

Unless you ski.

Middlebury is Division I in skiing.

Now if you’ve followed this, and I doubt you have, certain large universities have doubled-down on their programs, like CU and UVM, so it’s hard for the smaller, no scholarship schools to compete. But then there’s the dirty little secret, if the skier is really that good they’re on the national team, they don’t ski for the college. And alpine skiing gets all the glory, you know, where they go downhill, funny how most Americans are now aware of Mikaela Shiffrin, deservedly, but they couldn’t name a single nordic skiers. As in cross-country and jumping.

Cross-country is brutal.

And cross-country is connected with bike racing. And when I went to college the best cross-country ski racers went to Europe for the summer, to compete in bike races. And these superstar athletes said one thing… You can’t win, because the Europeans are all doped-up.

That was the seventies.

Say it ain’t so Joe. Lance Armstrong had many convinced he didn’t dope. But he did.

Would you want to do this to your body?

Well, if you’re educated, if this is a sport as opposed to a living, no. But these Europeans… They’re groomed from a young age, this is all they’ve got. Hermann Maier was a bricklayer before he won those World Cups. Talk about desire to succeed.

So are today’s bike racers clean?

They say so, but I’m not laying down any guarantees.

And if you’re familiar with doping… It’s not what you think it is, it’s not a pill that energizes you during the race. Rather it’s drugs that allow you to recover faster, so you can train ever harder. And when you watch these guys ride… If you did the same, you’d need a week to recover. If not more. But these guys get back on the bike the very next day.

Now I always followed the Tour de France from arm’s length. I read the daily standings in the newspaper, I knew how the sport worked, but “Tour de France: Unchained” is a whole ‘nother level.

First and foremost because of the danger!

I had no idea they crashed this much. You’d see pictures in the news, figured some riders had bad luck, but not the winners. It appears that everybody crashes. And the way the sport works, unless you’re injured beyond repair, which is a definite possibility, you pick your bike back up and you still might be in contention.

Or not.

And the peloton… A word that’s been popularized by an exercise bicycle… Fans know it’s the group of riders, but until you watch this series you have no idea of the closeness and intensity. It’s like a giant swarm of bees flying down the highway. One false move…and you’ve got a crash.

And the crashes can be so serious!

So the teams have names that are hard to understand and remember. This is a sport of sponsorship. And big money. And the people involved only want to win.

You don’t usually get this peek into professional sports. The coaches, the managers, they don’t really care about you. You’re a cog in their machine. And if you fail or get hurt they excise you and don’t think twice. They say you’re a family member until you aren’t. These managers are singularly focused on winning…

This ain’t amateur sports. You might as well be a computer. But you’re flesh and blood, and that comes with all kinds of complications the team brass wish were not present.

So, in order to win the race, at the end, after all the stages…

You must play for the team. You must sacrifice so one single rider can make it to the top.

Homey don’t play that in the U.S., where at the professional level in sports, it’s about individual glory. You might be able to win a stage, but you’ve got to hold back and help your team. It kills you on the inside. But you’re not well-rounded enough to win the overall race, so this is your role.

And there’s even rope-a-dope.

And the riding itself… It’s long and hard. You’ve got to see these guys race over the cobblestones, never mind in the rain. As for the climbs… Man, these guys are riding straight up the Alps. You can’t even fathom it. And everybody says it’s a brutal sport of survival, it’s not about fun so much as pushing your body beyond its limits. Believe me, you’ll watch and you won’t believe you could do it.

And unlike football players, or even the gym-rat baseball players of today, these riders are whippet-thin. They’re not bulked-up, the extra weight is a detriment. It’s all about those muscles baby.

Incredible.

In truth, the Formula 1 drivers are athletes. But they’re not in the league of the bike racers. Maybe ultra-marathon runners come close, but they don’t race every day for weeks.

And if you’re a fan you can get up close and personal. The routes are long, pick your spot, you can see everything.

But even weirder, there’s no cop holding you back. A rider is climbing the mountain and people are surrounding him on the road.

Meanwhile, the team manager is riding in a car behind, imploring you via your earpiece, ready to deliver a new bike if yours breaks.

And it’s these little moments that are incomprehensible to Americans, because we’re so rules-based. Pushing the rider to get momentum after a crash? That’s legal. You can hand them goodies, gel-paks and water and ice. And sometimes they even hold on to the sill of the car.

In most sports it’s all about the start. Frequently the contest is won or lost at the very beginning. But not in bike-racing, there’s a mass of riders and if you’re in the middle or back you’re not doomed. As a matter of fact, everybody rides together in the peloton until…they don’t.

Of course there are time-trials too, where you ride alone against the clock. But even in those you’re going so damn fast that you might crash.

It’s a weird country we’re living in in America. Education is anathema. How much money you’ve got determines your standing in all verticals. You’re seen as more intelligent, more insightful the more money you’ve got.

But it’s the European Union that’s fighting the big corporations. Call it socialism, call it whatever you want, but there’s a better safety net and a more advanced competition ethos. Not that it’s perfect over there, but it’s far from the backwater you’re told. Hell, it used to be a desire of all college students to go to Europe, whether it be for a semester abroad or to ride the rails in the summer. Now it’s all USA! USA! Nationalism on parade. Too often blind nationalism. Head stuck in the ground, refusing to learn from others. You don’t have to be them, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them.

And we popped the extra five bucks for 4k, and it’s worth it. Subtle, but worth it. And you can burn through all the episodes, they weren’t dripped out week by week, unlike “Happy Valley,” where I can’t remember what happened from one week to another. And in truth, we’re only halfway through, but I’ll still get some bozo telling me what happens in the end. I’ve already forgotten last year’s winner, because it’s more about the contest than the winner in sports these days.

It’s so basic, so human, it’s a microcosm of society.

Utterly fascinating.

Riveting.

And you’ll be yelling and screaming like it’s live.

And even though it all happened a year ago, that’s what makes the show so great, like a great book or movie it’s timeless. The lessons remain the same.

This show is leagues beyond the sports programming on every other network. Makes you wish Netflix aired them all. It doesn’t, but when it does, it gooses the enterprise. And bike-racing is worth watching. The problem with ski racing is it’s one at a time. But when they’re all out there on the road together, in the peloton, WHEW!

P.S. Yes, a lot of it is in French, you need to read subtitles. But didn’t you know that’s hip? That the younger generation watches everything with the subtitles on?

“Why Do All These 20-Somethings Have Closed Captions Turned On? – As automatic captioning on TikTok and creative audio descriptions on Netflix go mainstream, so does accessibility”: https://tinyurl.com/4e8t4r5k

“Biden spotlights Live Nation, Ticketmaster pledge for transparent pricing – Event ticketing companies will move to “all-in” pricing after mounting pressure.”: https://tinyurl.com/3endmw3u

THEY’RE NOT JUNK FEES!

And Live Nation doesn’t give a sh*t.

This is what it costs to put on a show. It’d be like buying a house and then finding out you had to pay for utilities and upkeep. Would you feel ripped-off? NO, THAT’S WHAT IT COSTS TO OWN A HOUSE!

And there are taxes too.

Which is why some people rent. No headaches. Sure, there are poor people who can barely pay the monthly fee for their lodging, but these same people are not going to concerts either, let’s forget them, just like the political parties do. If you ain’t got money, we don’t care. Especially if you don’t vote.

And then there are rich people who rent because they’d rather not tie up their capital or use it to greater effect elsewhere. The value of real property doesn’t always go up. Read the Friday “Wall Street Journal” “Mansion” section… Oftentimes these celebrities buy property and take a loss on the sale. As for those inflated asking prices, they rarely get them. This is not like buying a Chevy, this is like buying a Stutz Bearcat. A unique item, of which there are very few. What’s it worth to you to own it? And how bad do I want to sell it? This is a true negotiation.

Then again, everything is negotiable. The rich people know this, the poor do not. Even at the department store, make an offer.

Here are some tips:

“How to Negotiate Better and Get What You Want (Without Looking Like a Jerk) – The trick is to change your framework and the language you use”: https://tinyurl.com/xhd9uafs

That’s from the “Wall Street Journal.” You have to spend money to make money, if you think news is free, you’re uninformed. You start out with your peers, but to rise in business you have to know the landscape, you have to know the facts, that’s what puts you ahead of everyone else.

My favorite story on this concerns my concert promoter friend. He wanted a new Cayenne Turbo. They’d just changed the model, new ones were in the neighborhood of 175k. The Porsche dealer was advertising a lightly used one for $125,000.

My friend offered 99k.

The salesman went NUTS! And when he finally calmed down, the concert promoter told him he negotiated for a living, that the salesman should make a counteroffer.

Bottom line, the promoter got the car for 109k.

Believe me, the dealer wouldn’t have let the car go at that price unless it wanted to. Unless it made a profit or needed to get it off the lot. How do you get a fair deal?

When an agent floats a price for a gig, you don’t accept it, you work with it. Then again, superstars can dictate.

And these same superstars are the ones everybody wants to see, and they dictate concert prices, 100%!!!!!!!

Ticketmaster doesn’t set the prices, this isn’t their function whatsoever. Live Nation, the promoter, works with the act to establish ticket prices, but the act has final say. Then again, if the numbers don’t work, Live Nation or any other promoter can back out.

But the money the act gets leaves no net. The acts take all the money. How do the promoter and the building get paid?

Ergo the fees.

You pay tax on what you buy. No one sells at cost unless their inventory is distressed or they’re going out of business. When you say you want to buy a ticket based on what the act is paid, you’re asking to buy at cost. So nobody other than the act can make money. Would there be any promoters if this happened? Of course not!

So now we’ve got Biden trying to get rid of junk fees. Can hotels survive without charging you a resort fee? I’m not sure. If not, they should bake it into the total price. Concert promoters, venues and ticketing companies are not nickel and diming you, it’s just that the act wants to come out smelling like a rose, wants to say they have nothing to do with these fees, that they’re a rip-off and they don’t approve.

Talk about two-faced.

As most of these acts are. The promoter keeps them in business. Most make little from record sales. And the promoter not only risks all the money, the upside is small. But let’s blame them and the ticketing company for high prices.

In other words, of course Live Nation is for all-in ticket prices. IT’S THE ACTS THAT DON’T WANT IT!

As for being confronted with fees at the end of the ticket-buying procedure… Bottom line, go or don’t. This isn’t widgets, every show is unique, either you want to go or you don’t, either it’s worth the price with fees included, or it’s not.

As for enticing you with a low price up front… Seems that the main complaint the public has isn’t the fees so much as getting a ticket at all!

So, if the fees are baked in, the public no longer gives the price a second thought. They’re not concerned with how much it cost for the bumper on the car, or the mirror, or the oil in the engine… Auto manufacturers don’t break these out, because without them there is no car. If you analogize this to the music business, the car dealer would be in sympathy with the end customer. Complaining about the manufacturer, how they’re charging too much, that the dealer has no responsibility for the bumper or the oil or the windows. But the manufacturer would say that without these elements, once again, there is no car!

Without the fees, there is no show. It’s just that simple.

And if they’re baked-in, which Live Nation has said it is willing to do for years, the public stops thinking about them. When I go to the gas station they don’t tell me how much the additives in the fuel cost, there’s one price per gallon. And it’s been high for the premium I need in California, but do I bitch? No, except for a moment there when I was stunned gas was over $7 a gallon last year, I just fill up the tank and move on. And I did buy gas at $7. Because I want to drive! No one is forcing me to.

So the loser in this eradication of “junk fees” in ticket prices is…

THE ACTS!

This is good for the promoter, the venue, the ticketing company and the concertgoer.

But the dirty little secret is despite all their complaining about the fees, the acts aren’t making a dollar less. They’re just crybabies employing subterfuge.

As for those out there complaining that ticket prices are too high… Then don’t go! Should everything in the store be available to everybody? Should first class cost as much as coach? Is everybody entitled to a Rolex?

You get to make a choice.

This is capitalism.

And the irony is government has nothing to do with ticket prices. Biden really accomplished nothing today. He just forced the acts to go along with what the promoters have been willing to provide.

The price remains the same.

Even if the song doesn’t.

Much ado about nothing.

What can you say about Bebe? She first came to notice as the girlfriend of Todd Rundgren. She had a daughter, Liv, with Steven Tyler. Listen and you’ll hear stories about not only those two, but Ric Ocasek, Elvis Costello, Mick Jagger, Albert Grossman, Bob Dylan, Jack Nicholson… Bebe is anything but arm candy. She is vocal and full of life and the boys loved, and still love, to hang with her. And she’s still making music as an artist herself! It’s been quite a life, and this is her story.

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/d829de09-19fd-448c-81a3-64687c8984fa/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-bebe-buell

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/bebe-buell-304472072