“Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels”: https://amzn.to/3AGwzKV

1

A couple of days ago, “Washington Monthly” published its college rankings. Which vary widely from those in the “U.S. News & World Report,” both of which are completely different from the rankings in the “Wall Street Journal,” which focus on outcomes, i.e. how you do financially after graduating.

Then again, are you going to college for the job?

Even better, go to a top-tier school for the status, that will open more doors than anything you learn in the classroom.

The progenitor in college status ascension is Boston University. BU got a new president, John Silber, who was hated by the students, but lifted the reputation of the school dramatically.

That was decades ago.

Then came NYU. A city school with zero gravitas is now a world class institution with prestige.

As is USC.

Once again, this didn’t happen organically. Rather there was a driving force, a man in charge, who rallied the alumni, leaned on donors, poached professors with reputations and hopefully grant money too.

USC used to be the poor sister to UCLA. Crosstown rivals, UCLA had the prestige, and USC was all about the money, to the point where at athletic contests UCLA fans waved dollar bills in the stands. Yes, if you were poor, you could afford to go to UCLA, you could lift yourself from the bottom to the top. Whereas USC was perceived to be the institution for those with wealthy parents.

Not anymore.

First and foremost, UCLA is not what it used to be. None of the California state schools are. Because of Ronald Reagan. He removed government subsidies. UCLA and Berkeley are better than ever, but they’re harder than ever to get into, because the schools need out-of-state money to pay their bills, leaving fewer slots for Californians. Supposedly, this year, the in-state population is higher, but…

An education is expensive. And if you’re going to pay for it you want the biggest bang for your buck. And USC has gone from a safety school to a status school. It’s hard to get accepted. Which is why all those parents used Rick Singer and bribes to get their kids in.

USC is a monolith. With a long tradition of insider trading. Not the Wall Street kind, but the alumni kind. There is a USC network in Los Angeles. It pays more dividends than having an Ivy League degree. And now it’s not only about the relationships, the school has cachet, that works all over town.

But USC has been in turmoil. It’s not only the Varsity Blues story, but…

2

That’s what “Bad City” is about. The misbehavior at USC and the L.A. “Times”‘s effort to uncover it.

Well, the effort of a few reporters to uncover it. Because the author, Paul Pringle, a longstanding L.A. “Times” reporter, claims that he was stifled by the brass, that the story was held back for eons and neutered before it was published.

Of course, the brass is now denying this. But the brass was blown out. Which has to be as a result of the HR investigation, otherwise why would they get fired?

There are a lot of issues in this book.

Actually, “Bad City” is two books. One, the story of specific scandals at USC, most notably those of a drug-taking, drug-supplying dean of the medical school, and the sexual abuse shenanigans of a school clinic gynecologist, but also the story of the inner workings of the L.A. “Times.” DO YOU CARE?

That’s a big question these days. With so many opportunities, so many places to spend your time.

At first “Bad City” is positively riveting. The story of a girl overdosing in the dean’s hotel room.

But then it becomes the chronicle of reporting the story.

And at the end, when it focuses more on the paper, it’s a bit less engrossing. Then again, I spent all afternoon finishing it.

Now L.A. is not a typical city. It’s a giant suburb. There is no center. And as a result much of what happens never permeates the populace. People just don’t care. Downtown is a foreign location. And with the L.A. “Times”‘s circulation crumbling, along with the viewership of the local TV news, most people have no idea what’s going on.

But this is not only in L.A., but in most burgs.

The only newspapers who have figured out the modern world are the “New York Times” and the “Wall Street Journal.” The “Times” by becoming the paper of record and focusing on digital subscriptions for years. The “Journal” by having a hard paywall, and being the only major paper with a right wing slant. As for the “Washington Post,” it’s been flailing recently, numbers are down. 

How many major newspapers can the U.S. support?

Certainly not as many as before. And in truth, the NYT does a very good job of covering California, not only in the paper itself, but with its daily California newsletter.

So…

Papers have been shrunk to make the numbers work. And once you do this you’re a second-class citizen, you’ve signed your ultimate death warrant. You provide less and fewer people pay for it and…

The L.A. “Times” has had multiple owners, a rash of crises at the top questioning its credibility, but…the reporters who remain are still dedicated.

That’s a main theme in this book. The reporters take their jobs very seriously. And unlike in most businesses, they don’t just cower to management. There are ethical rules, ultimately a union. The dictatorial style of management you see in tech does not fly in news.

And these reporters can only make so much money, so they’re dedicated to uncovering the truth.

But it’s expensive to produce news like this. And if you do break a story, your competitors are on it nearly instantly, so readers don’t have to subscribe to the production source to read it.

And now chances are you’re truly uninterested. Too much inside baseball. But let me just say as the old institutions are hobbled or die, the new institutions…do no reporting, they’re just opinion, and journalistic standards are irrelevant. They’re just about rallying the base, and if it involves lying, WHO CARES, the end result is what matters, WINNING!

Which is what USC did. The university circled the wagons, stonewalled, and quietly took care of its problems, letting offenders down easy, paying them big bucks along the way.

3

But if you read “Bad City” you will be fully disillusioned. The bad guys win all the time, and those who are supposedly the good guys are in bed with the bad guys!

It’s kind of like the private jet. If someone who owns one gives you a ride, you cannot say anything bad about them, ever, without fully severing the relationship. And the flight may have nothing to do with your core business, but ultimately there’s an intersection and…

This is how America works. The alumni of the Ivys, of USC, are almost secret societies, that pay dividends your entire life, which is why you want to get in to these schools to begin with.

Speaking of investigative journalism, did you read the NYT’s article on the Navy Seals?

“Death in Navy SEAL Training Exposes a Culture of Brutality, Cheating and Drugs – The elite force’s selection course is so punishing that few make it through, and many of those who do resort to illicit tactics.”: https://nyti.ms/3R7hwR9

Sure, the deaths are tragic, but the real story is everybody cheats to pass the test. They take drugs, slack when they think no one is watching, and what does the Navy say? These are the improvisational skills you need in combat!

Wrap your head around that one!

You have to cheat to get ahead. And everybody successful is doing it. And if you’re not, you’re a schmuck, you’re not going to make it. And if you’re an offender, good luck getting caught. Forget his tax issues, Trump took state documents home and insisted he was allowed to keep them, to the point where his attorneys even lied about their presence. And what does his team say? DON’T INDICT HIM OR THERE WILL BE VIOLENCE! Yup, Lindsey Graham said that: 

“Graham Predicts ‘Riots in the Streets’ if Trump Is Prosecuted”: https://nyti.ms/3B32ZAu

That’s how bad it’s gotten, loyalty trumps truth. As for lying in court…that ship sailed long ago.

All of this is in “Bad City.” You don’t finish it and think the good guys won, after all, even those who got blown out at USC got golden parachutes, and have avoided jail. Why should you do the right thing? Why not test the limits?

Forget USC, let’s talk about Putin, the robber baron who is quite possibly the richest man in the world who disappears naysayers and runs his country as if its population is comprised of children with no rights. Navalny is standing up, a few others. But no one at USC stood up, it was the newspaper that brought the malfeasance to light.

This is America. And in “Bad City” Paul Pringle does a good job of delineating it. And unlike in fiction, the story is messy, which real life always is. Which makes this book a bit harder to read.

Then again, it’s got the meat and the gristle. The riveting narrative and the at times boring explanation.

But unlike on TV, investigative reporting is slow. There are a lot of dead ends. And change happens slowly.

God, I wish it were different.

“The Book That Explains Our Cultural Stagnation”: https://nyti.ms/3AEj5z2

This book is not coming out until next Tuesday, but I can’t get Michelle Goldberg’s opinion piece out of my head.

For the record, the book is entitled:

“Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change”: https://amzn.to/3Q6g0NQ

Do you think today’s music sucks? That the studio movies are boring?

This is what EVERYBODY thinks other than those involved in the manufacture and distribution of said “art.” To the point where great swaths of the public have completely tuned out. Spotify might have a giant audience, but the major labels’ mindshare is ever-decreasing.

Even worse is the movies. Yeah, Covid is over, the theaters are open, AND ALMOST NO ONE IS GOING!

“Domestic theaters managed about $52 million this weekend, possibly a low in this century (before 2020) in actual dollars, and certainly the fewest tickets sold for much longer.”: https://bit.ly/3COQqdl

Of course there are variables, what is in release, weather, but one thing is for sure, this is a terrible number in a bad season whose only true bright spot is “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was a sequel.

And that’s just the point, the studios are taking ever fewer chances. And in TV you see so many reboots. Because it’s hard to start from zero and break through with a new idea, in music too, where we keep getting more of the same.

Ain’t it funny that the breakthroughs all come from outside the U.S., most noticeably “Squid Game.” Are you aware of the “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” phenomenon? I wasn’t, not until a few days ago. This Korean production was the most viewed on Netflix, with 77.4 million hours viewed. This even exceeds “The Sandman”!

Honestly, I haven’t seen “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” we’re still in the middle of “Salamander,” so I don’t know how different it is from U.S. fare, but it has caught on.

Yet Netflix is a limited platform, not everything is available, it’s not like Spotify. As for music…

Used to be there were insiders and outsiders. Hipsters and the hoi polloi. The hipsters were there first, oftentimes what they were into broke through to the mainstream, sometimes it did not. But one thing was for sure, the hipsters lorded their dedication and knowledge over you. You weren’t aware of this? You’re listening to that crap?

There were all kinds of bleeding edge phenomena that broke, and almost never instantly. The hipsters had to adopt it and it took years for the rest to catch on. Don’t confuse the sixties and seventies with the MTV monoculture era. MTV anointed hits and pushed them down everybody’s throats, we were all on the same page, and then the internet came along and blew it all up. And now we’ve got the same damn sounds for twenty years, and superhero movies that are suddenly tanking at the box office. There is listener/viewer fatigue, not that anybody involved wants to acknowledge this What is going on?

“Marx posits cultural evolution as a sort of perpetual motion machine driven by people’s desire to ascend the social hierarchy. Artists innovate to gain status, and people unconsciously adjust their tastes to either signal their status tier or move up to a new one. As he writes in the introduction, ‘Status struggles fuel cultural creativity in three important realms: competition between socioeconomic classes, the formation of subcultures and countercultures, and artists’ internecine battles.'”

 

Used to be you were outside, on the fringe, with a number of acolytes, just waiting to be discovered. Now you’re out on the fringe and you’re never going to be discovered. The link between hipsters and the rest of the population has been broken. We’re all overwhelmed. And we all discover things after the fact, like with “Attorney Woo” above. We don’t care what the hipsters have to say and we never hear it anyway! As for being a hipster, that’s no longer fulfilling, there is no club, or it’s very small, and your favorite does not break through. Ergo, all the positive reviews of mainstream product. The media gloms on to what breaks through, even though it’s the same damn thing over and over.

“The internet, Marx writes in his book’s closing section, changes this dynamic. With so much content out there, the chance that others will recognize the meaning of any obscure cultural signal declines. Challenging art loses its prestige. Besides, in the age of the internet, taste tells you less about a person. You don’t need to make your way into any social world to develop a familiarity with Cage — or, for that matter, with underground hip-hop, weird performance art, or rare sneakers.”

In other words there used to be a scene, which you might discover and become a member of, feeling and maybe ultimately being cool. You had to be a part of a scene to uncover its details, now you can do this alone, singularly, and then keep surfing to some other subject.

I can tell you about so many scenes from my youth. W.C. Fields came back. And then the Marx Brothers. You devoured their work, you quoted it, others were interested in what you were talking about, the scene grew.

That doesn’t happen today, or it remains very small.

Or, you blow up on social media, which is less about content than fame, and still so many citizens are completely unaware of you and your efforts.

Do I have answers?

I’m still pondering the questions!

Spotify and the labels could promote outside work. But they’re only interested in their bottom line, does it behoove them to do this?

I mean let’s talk about some of the biggest acts of the sixties. Do you think Cream was embraced from the start? No! Most people were still listening to AM ditties. Although “Sunshine of Your Love” from their second album became an AM hit, most people weren’t into the band for its album work until it broke up!

Yes wasn’t a hit out of the gate, nor was Queen. It’s not like their initial work sucked, it was just too outside for most people. And it’s not like they compromised, worked with hitmakers, rather ultimately the audience came to them! If anything, these bands continued to experiment, going down their own path.

And we had the indie scene of the nineties. With its fanzines. Ultimately Nirvana signed with Geffen and then the scene blew up.

That doesn’t happen anymore.

We’re waiting for spontaneous generation when in truth the true innovators aren’t even bothering to push the envelope, create at all, BECAUSE THERE’S NO STATUS IN IT, never mind money.

And you don’t gain status from being a fan of an act.

Concomitantly, those who’ve broken through have armies who don’t want to bring you into their BTS or Swift tent, and insult you for not being a member of their cult and not getting it. They don’t want you, never mind not wanting your questions. And there’s no great artistic development unless it’s analyzed and there are questions about it.

We live in a new world, and the major studios and labels are living in the old one. But it’s even worse, they’re releasing ever less monochromatic programming.

And the funny thing is we defer to the lowest common denominator. Used to be the brainiacs tested the limits, whether they be mathematicians or artists, today it’s all about dumbing the product down and serving the broad swath of the ignorant, who decry you for taking artistic productions seriously.

Don’t expect these questions to be bantered about. Because the people who run labels and studios aren’t art lovers, but business people, concerned with the bottom line, in this case their salaries and their bonuses.

We live in a society where questioning the status quo is taboo, where having an open mind is anathema, where you join your tribe and stick to it. And the only thing that breaks through is politics, because it has the greatest weight. Following an artist? Why? They’re inured to the money too, they’re not honest, they’re thinking about their sponsors. And they’re fearful of alienating any potential customer.

And if the truth can’t break through in politics, if people don’t want to hear it even if they’re exposed to it, not wanting to question their beliefs, what are the odds that something challenging, something new and different, can break through in art?

Very low.

This is the world we live in.

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3wIs418

Bruce Hornsby and the Range – “The Way It Is”

Elton John – “The King Must Die”

Billy Joel – “New York State of Mind”

Lee Michaels – “What Now America”

Gabe Dixon Band – “Five More Hours”

Leon Russell – “Delta Lady”

Randy Newman – “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”

Steve Winwood/Traffic – “Something New”

Donald Fagen/Steely Dan – “Your Gold Teeth II”

Allen Toussaint –  “On Your Way Down”

Dr. John – “Right Place Wrong Time”

Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”

Gregg Allman/Allman Brothers Band – “Come and Go Blues”

Jerry Lee Lewis – “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”

Little Richard – “Tutti Fruitti”

Fats Domino – “I’m Walkin'”

Billy Preston – “Nothing From Nothing”

Missy Higgins – “Where I Stood”

Ben Folds – “Brick”

Chris Martin/Coldplay- “Clocks”

Tori Amos – “Thank You”

Dresden Dolls – “My Alcoholic Friends”

Rufus Wainwright – “Foolish Love”

Andrew McMahon/Jack’s Mannequin – “Holiday From Real”

Rick Wakeman -“Catherine From Aragon”

Procol Harum – “Shine On Brightly”

Alan Price – “O Lucky Man”

Fiona Apple – “Criminal”

Sarah McLachlan – “Building A Mystery”

Al Kooper/Blood, Sweat & Tears – “So Much Love/Underture”

Mark Stein/Vanilla Fudge – “Take Me For a Little While”

Gary Wright – “Love Is Alive”

Howard Jones – “Hide and Seek”

Todd Rundgren – “A Long Time, A Long Way To Go”

Laura Nyro – “New York Tendaberry”

Tune in today, August 30th, to Volume 106, 6 PM East, 3 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive