Tune in tomorrow, April 6th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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Use it right away. My OCD has me ordering/acquiring things and afraid to use them, for fear they’ll get tarnished. Best to break them out right away, otherwise you’ll end up questioning yourself later why you took so long to use them.

Research, but make a decision. The great thing about the internet is there are so many resources. First and foremost Amazon. Note that no matter what the product is, it’ll have some one star reviews. Some people cannot be satiated, or they hate the product in principle. Then again, if they all complain about physical/usability defects, don’t buy it. Some electronic gear fails right out of the box, but most doesn’t. Play the odds. And research on “Consumer Reports” and the “Wirecutter” also. As for other review sites…be wary, oftentimes there’s a compromise under the surface, it’s a paid site or they’re taking kickbacks or… If it’s an exotic product, do not trust any of these outlets except Amazon, where the people who actually buy the gear review it. CR and the “Wirecutter” are middlebrow, they appeal to the masses. You’ve got to find reviews from people who are just as into the product as you are.

You get what you pay for. I’m not saying there’s any problem with getting a deal, but if you buy a Mercedes-Benz or a BMW elements are featured that are often unavailable in not only cheaper products, but other brands completely. If the extra 10% means something to you, if you get satisfaction from it, if the extra 1% means something to you, go for it, assuming you can afford it. Don’t listen to the naysayers saying you’re wasting your money, the enjoyment you will get from cutting edge products is worth it if that’s your personality, if that’s what you want.

Don’t ever lease a car unless you are rich, or your company is paying for it, or your accountant advises you there are huge tax advantages. Sure, you’re driving a new car, but you end up with nothing. Having said that, we are in a very challenging era, electric vehicles are going to wipe out gasoline ones seemingly overnight, no one knows exactly when that will be, but it’s gonna happen. So, if you’re buying an expensive gasoline automobile to drive for twenty years, the joke is now on you.

When in doubt, buy the name brand. It’s got a better service network, it’s seen more customers who have revealed more flaws. Otherwise you’re an early adopter, which sometimes works and sometimes does not.

What seems like a stretch financially today looks like bupkes tomorrow. Real estate is not fungible, every property is different, so if you find something you really like, extend your budget. In certain markets, like Southern California, real estate is one of the best investments. It can crash every seven years or so, but it always bounces back. In other markets…this may not happen, but you get the luxury of living in the house. Having said that, NEVER buy the most expensive house on the block, its value will be dragged down by the properties near it.

Electronics have a shelf life. Sure, you want to take care of them, but use them fully, because chances are they’ll be superseded technologically long before their physical life ends. You can use the old product, but you won’t want to. There’s no need to buy a point and shoot camera, if you want high quality photos lay down for a good one, which is in the neighborhood of $500 to $15000, otherwise it’s a waste of money.

Don’t be afraid of breaking your iPad OS. Or your Mac OS either. It’s essentially impossible. Take risks, make mistakes. Of course Windows is not quite as solid, but it’s light years better than it used to be, however it is prone to phishing scams and viruses. As for the same on Macs? Theoretical, but I’ve yet to find someone who’s encountered one in the field, forget the antivirus software, chances are you’ll just slow down your operating system.

You can’t beat the cable company. It’s digital, the physical analog filters of yore are long gone. And the wheeling and dealing of the past is mostly gone. Just pay. And if you don’t want to pay… You’ll still need an internet connection, and chances are your cable company will sell it to you at a high price and throw in the TV channels for free. The only threat to this model is 5G mobile carriers. T-Mobile has an interesting product, check it out if it’s in your market and your connection is slow, otherwise cable can’t be beat, certainly not for speed. This is the problem with monopolies, which most cable companies were granted back in the seventies for wiring the neighborhood.

Buy the cheapest computer in the product line or the most expensive. Either see your laptop/desktop as disposable, or a long term investment. And always upgrade from the base model, oftentimes it doesn’t have enough storage to even upgrade the operating system in the future, never mind enough RAM to avoid slowdowns. You need a minimum of 16GB of RAM, no matter what anybody says.

Life may be short, but it’s also very long. At some point you’ve got to save for the future. If your company offers an IRA, use it. Too many boomers thought they could work forever, and now they can’t get a job and they don’t have enough money and there’s nowhere they can make more.

DON’T TAKE SOCIAL SECURITY UNTIL YOU’RE 70, NO MATTER WHAT ANYBODY SAYS! You’re gonna need the extra cash when you get old, and chances are you’re gonna live that long. Get a service job, do anything to avoid taking social security early. As for dying before the crossover point…no one wins all the time, NO ONE, and the opposite, losing, running out of money in the future…is disastrous.

Most people are full of crap and not worth listening to. They only know what they know, which is not much. They feel good that they can blow hard on different subjects. You’re best off getting info from someone who tells you they don’t have all the answers, or someone who is truly an expert in their field, but still, cross-check what they have to say online.

Do your best not to waste time on social media. Facebook is a trap. Furthermore, if you’re posting, all you’re doing is building a worthless monument to yourself. As for Twitter, don’t post at all unless you’re famous…no one will see it.

There’s some amazing stuff on the flat screen, but it’s dwarfed by tripe.

Believe the odds. If an operation says it’s got a 95% success rate, that means it doesn’t work, or doesn’t work fully, for 5%, and I’ve been in that 5%, more than once. If doctors ever told you what was really involved in surgery, you’d never do it. Having said that, you can’t be too scared to get better. See your doctor for a physical each and every year, no matter what anybody says, you’d be amazed how much can change in a year, you can develop cancer, I know from experience. And it’s better that you catch it early, you don’t want to be Warren Zevon.

You’ll reach a point where the game does not matter. You’re striving for decades, building your “resumé,” and then you get to the point where you’re in high school again, no one cares what your job used to be, that you have a certain amount of money, unless you’re truly rich.

Be aware that you’re jumping through hoops, and that ultimately the hoops might be meaningless. Being good at school does not mean you’ll be successful in life. Devoting yourself to the corporation does not mean you’ll get a raise or be promoted.

If you work for yourself you eliminate the bureaucracy, which is important if you’re not good at kissing ass and socializing.

If you’re not the best in a narrow field, find another field.

You’re an individual, no one thinks exactly like you, no one completely understands you, so factor that in in the decisions you make.

Your body tells you when you’ve made the wrong decision, go against these feelings at your peril.

Everybody knows the truth. The braggart, the person who rubs you the wrong way, who you think everybody else likes, people know the score, the joke is on the braggart/self-promoter themselves.

Think for yourself, question authority. Don’t forget, these “authorities” are just people, prone to failure just like you.

Individuals who change the world don’t have mentors and don’t do internships.

Online every outlet is equal. There’s usually only one victor in each space. And they’re so good you want to use them. It’s not about building competitors to Google or Amazon, but channeling and limiting their efforts. If you buy it from Amazon you’ll get a refund no questions asked. Buy it from someone else… Same deal with Google, its search is so good there’s no need for a competitor. It’s not like Bing or DuckDuckGo are physically closer, they’re all just a click away. Best to make Google take privacy seriously.

Nothing is forever. Not IBM, not a hit act…

You don’t want to be the mascot. You can brag about who you hang with, but these people will never truly respect you.

“American Dervish”: https://amzn.to/3sNRaYh

“Infinite Country”: https://amzn.to/3rS1u0a

“American Dervish” is the first novel written by Ayad Akhtar, who wrote one of last year’s absolute best books, “Homeland Elegies.”

It’s not as good.

When you get into something, you want more of it, you want to go on an excursion into the past, find out everything about it. Which is how I felt with Akhtar, and for a while there, I was hooked by “American Dervish,” because of the plot. That’s primary in a book, well, secondary to readability, which is sacrificed too often by both the erudite and the wannabe. But if you’ve achieved the baseline, if you can write, then it’s all about story, and too often writers, too often schooled in MFA writing programs, sacrifice story in the place of description and metaphor and… The truth is, if you want to be acknowledged by your peers, you must make a literary statement. Which means most of what sells is not written by these people. It’s a small, self-congratulatory cabal. The big sellers…yes, they’re often tripe, and forget the nonfiction memoirs, but what the public wants most, what people want most, is STORY!

And that’s what riveted me about “American Dervish.” Early last week I didn’t want to go to bed, I wanted to find out what happened, between the beautiful Muslim and the mesmerized Jew. Oh, you can see it coming, I’m not giving much away, but the truth is the plotting of “American Dervish” is ultimately superseded by the religious elements, the deep explorations of Muslim religion and life. And this is interesting, but the balance is off. Still… Some people are so attractive they have a glow, a charisma, it’s natural beauty, with minor imperfections, not the plastic surgery beauty of Hollywood, you never want to sacrifice your individuality, it’s death. Mina is irresistible to both men and women.

“American Dervish” is bookended by a narrative that is nearly irrelevant. So, if you start, you think you know where the book is going, but you really don’t. What’s it like to be young and impressionable, torn between believing and not, swallowing the edicts whole, believing in a specific version of the afterlife of not only yourself, but your parents. It’s easier when you pay fealty to the doctrine, you don’t have to think for yourself, unlike Hayat’s doctor father Naveed. Naveed is enlightened, but he’s also imperfect. And all of this parallels Ayad Akhtar’s real life, this is very thinly veiled fiction, like so many novels. Still, if you loved “Homeland Elegies”, you should check it out.

But really, I’m writing this about Patricia Engel’s “Infinite Country.” It’s strangely riveting.

To tell you the truth the publisher sent me an advance copy, not that I know why, and eventually I threw it out, yes, I have to throw out books, do you know how many are sent to me? Well, I donate them, but still…

And then they sent a hard copy. If someone constantly pushes you to read their book… I don’t think that works. The reader has to decide to delve in by themselves, and then they’re either hooked or they’re not, and usually they’re not, most books just aren’t good enough, it’s the truth, sorry. And like with music, people want to send their book to you like they want to send their CD, it makes them think they’ve done something, irrelevant of the ultimate results, in a virtual world physical actions have personal meaning when too often they shouldn’t.

But this hard copy of “Infinite Country” arrived before the publication date, I held off diving in until it was available in the marketplace and I could see what readers had to say. And it was all good.

And the truth is “Infinite Country” is not one of those books that hooks you immediately, but somehow you can’t put it down, you want to go back to it. You see in today’s overbearing, overwhelming world, it takes you to a complete other space, to Colombia, and back to the U.S., to the ignored people, the undocumented.

And yes, you can read “Infinite Country” as a polemic, but that’s not what it really is, rather it’s personal, a ground level examination of the feelings of people who go unnoticed, but live on the planet nevertheless.

I’ve been to Bogota, the weather is perfectly described here as eternal autumn, it’s weird, but if you’ve been there it will resonate.

And although crime and craziness has improved in Colombia, it’s still not as safe as most western countries. You’re alert all the time. As for upward mobility? The odds are so long as to be essentially impossible. And reading “Infinite Country” I wondered what it would be like to grow up alone, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone. It made me think about most Americans…they do what they have to to survive. If that negatively impacts others, that’s their problem, caveat emptor. The salesman will lie to make the sale. The rich will cheat on their taxes to keep their money. What we’ve learned in the past few months, the past four years, is that America is held together by a very thin thread, it could tear apart at any time. No one feels obligated to do anything, the law is up for grabs, the fact our nation works at all is stunning. But what if you weren’t entitled to a say, because you were undocumented, and if you raised your voice…you risked deportation. That’s another point in the book, the undocumented are labeled criminals, when the truth is they’re anything but, they’re afraid of being sent back to where they came from!

The book is set in both Colombia and the U.S., with alternating viewpoints, and the truth is we all see the landscape differently. And the mores of America are different, you strive to get ahead, marriage is part business deal, unless you’re part of the underclass, uneducated. But in Colombia, in this book, so many people are struggling, looking for any ounce of happiness.

Every location comes alive. You feel like you’re there. You want to know how all the threads come together, and you think you know how it will play out, but ultimately it doesn’t.

So, “Infinite Country” shoots low, it’s personal where most books are broad, so they appeal. But it’s the personal that truly resonates. I don’t want to scare you away by telling you “Infinite Country” is an immigrant story, because it’s so much more than that, and we won’t have an Oprah-level “American Dirt” controversy because the author has Colombian roots.

“Infinite Country” is not very long, fewer than 200 pages, it’s not a big commitment.

But I’d tell you to read it digitally. The physical book seems like such a waste. I constantly wanted to search and highlight but you can’t search a physical book, other than by flipping the pages, which is very inefficient, and there’s no dictionary built in. And what do you do with it when it’s done? I’d say to give it to someone, but most people stack their books to impress others, especially on the east coast, it’s a feature of your Zoom call. But really, these people have not gotten the message, which their children have…that it’s not about what you own, but who you are, we live in an on demand world and you’re responsible for the cleanliness of the planet. They talk about all the energy that goes into creating and selling NFTs, what about physical books? The paper, the printing, the shipping, the returns…

I’ll get down off the pulpit. But I hate when oldsters want to preserve a past that no longer makes sense. Sure, I can see physical coffee books, even though most people read them once, if at all, they’re there for display, but the truth is information is digital. Music is digital. This is how we consume in the twenty first century.

But we’re still people under the skin. With the same problems.

Ultimately it’s about the people in “Infinite Country.” Their experiences, their viewpoints, their hopes and dreams, their losses. We can relate to humanity, and I could relate to “Infinite Country.” I read it in two days, because I wanted to read it, and it’s stuck with me, much more than “American Dervish,” much more than almost any recent book I’ve read.

I guess corporations really are people. Or at least more powerful than people. And government too while we’re at it.

This is a sea change. Used to be government told corporations what to do, and people agitated and protested for change. But people have lost their individual power since the advent of the internet and government is so busy cozying up to business, giving tax advantages to locate in their state or town, that the script has flipped.

Our heroes, those who gain attention, run corporations, mostly techies, who are seen as cutting edge even though they’re cutthroat, and everyone at the bottom of the pyramid is paying fealty to those at the top, running the enterprise. Think about it, we collect sneakers, not records.

Americans have sacrificed their souls, and they’re looking to corporations to do their dirty work.

Not everyone. Stacey Abrams made a difference in Georgia. Only most people are unaware of her efforts. As for those lauded as being ubiquitous, they are not. Most definitely not musicians. Now, more than ever before, you can tune out someone’s music, there’s a good chance you’ll never encounter it. Used to be we all listened to the same radio stations, now younger generations don’t even listen to the radio, despite the constant drumbeat from the industry telling us otherwise. Everybody is on their own personal hejira, and if you’re not on their path, they don’t know about you and don’t care about you.

But it’s worse than that. The corporations have all the money. They’re the only ones who can provide a big score. You can’t make that much money in music, as an artist, your only hope is to hook up with a corporation in a sponsorship deal, essentially sacrificing your credibility, or selling clothing or perfume or merchandise, which muddies the water, after all aren’t artists supposed to be outside the straight business world, the antithesis of everything it stands for?

And since everyone’s looking for a buck, who provides them is key, and that’s the corporations. Everybody in America knows who runs Facebook and Apple, but even people in Los Angeles have no idea who runs the movie studios, never mind who runs the record labels. As for Live Nation, much of its revenue comes from corporate sponsorship. And Dodger Stadium seems to be the only edifice without a brand name attached. Even buildings themselves, they cannot go naked, tenants insist on advertising their presence on the facade.

This does not mean the individual has no power, but in a nation where it’s all about tribes, few are willing to stand alone. You’re supposed to sacrifice your rough edges to fit in. As for rough edges, most of the music purveyed has them to the point of unlistenability, except for the bland pop tunes that fill the airwaves and stick to no one. Come on, the greatest feature of Demi Lovato is she O.D.’ed. She’s a celebrity more than a music star. But she is pushed in front of us when there’s not really any there there. As for Ariana Grande…acts like this used to come and go, they were not triumphant, they were not lauded by the press, but in a world where there’s no one with any traction to hold up, media steps down and raises the profile of these wankers. As for the men? It’s about sex. And vapidity. In most cases base without irony. And you wonder why the public is dumb, who are their thought leaders?

And the corporations all have lobbyists. They write the laws in D.C., LITERALLY! And at first tech companies did without them, but no longer. In addition, the nitwits in Congress don’t understand their business, they hold informative hearings and then do nothing. You’ve got to laugh if you’re a Silicon Valley titan.

Quick, count how many languages iOS and Android come in! Meanwhile, half the country believes America comes first, it’s the Greatest Country in the World!, but they haven’t been anywhere else. And the other half wants to bring back manufacturing while they go to the big box store for low prices, abandoning the local merchant.

And although Zuckerberg is the most high profile tech exec, he’s in our lives every day, his stature is equaled by Elon Musk, who single-handedly revolutionized the car business. If you want to be hip, you buy a Tesla, you don’t talk about some nincompoop artist. Elon and his troops worked for years before they got traction, they even created and sold the now departed Roadster. Meanwhile, we’re supposed to believe barely pubescent musical acts are leaders who have something to say that we must pay attention to. As for their elders… Used to be a badge of honor to be educated, now everybody is dumb. You don’t have to go to school to learn, but most of these people know where the tattoo studio is, they can’t name the fifty states, never mind what goes on in them. If this makes me sound like Andy Rooney, the point is today’s younger generation has no idea who Andy Rooney was, and there is no replacement. The most powerful man in “news” is the charlatan known as Tucker Carlson, and if you believe what he has to say not only are you uninformed, you have no powers of analysis. As for the power of the corporation…people thought the power was in Bill O’Reilly, but it turns out it’s in the time slot, owned by Fox.

If you want to get anything done in this country you’ve got to get the corporations on board. The people nudged Delta and Coca-Cola in Georgia. Too late, of course, but corporations are not risk takers, they’re worried about jeopardizing their fortunes.

But twenty five years have taught us that disruption is inevitable, and most corporations have woken up and realized they depend on the customer, the individual, and they’d better satiate them. Of course these same corporations are cozying up to government, unlike artists, corporations can be two-faced. And unless their CEOs get into a sex scandal, their daily behavior is ignored, it’s not sexy enough for the gossip rags. Better to promote the powerless slaves as opposed to those who truly control the levers of power.

As for TV and movies… These actors have committed one faux pas after another during lockdown. The inane Gal Gadot-led “Imagine” video. Imagine an educated actor who could take the temperature of the public and use whatever power they truly have for good. But no, it’s about publicity. These people are so out of touch with the hoi polloi it’s laughable, the corporations know their customers, their fans, better. You can’t see the country from behind a gate, inside a private jet. Turns out the rank and file are more in touch than the celebrities!

And probably the most famous celebrity is Kim Kardashian. At this point better known than her sometime to be ex Kanye West. Kim knows when you’re selling, first and foremost you must look good. And if God doesn’t deliver, save up for plastic surgery, because it’s how you look, not who you are. And the real money is in selling stuff. There’s always a corporation behind the stuff, and then you too can become a billionaire at 21 like Kylie. But what are you gonna do with the cash anyway? Party? That’s unfulfilling, you burn out on it. But we’re told every damn day that the highest level of social status is to be able to party with the glamorous and beautiful. Hell, food has more power than these idiots. Yes, there’s an entire food CHANNEL! As for music, it’s left the flat screen. You’ve got the “Great British Baking Show,” which bonds viewers who talk about it, and then you’ve got the Grammys that no one wants to watch. The “Baking Show” illustrates the power of the nobody, the “Grammys” illustrates the emptiness of the somebody.

Zuckerberg stands up to the government.

An artist caves.

Apple produces the sleekest, most beautiful products from scratch, plastic surgery is unnecessary. You believe in your phone more than you do the music it might play. We put our faith in the inert, because people have sacrificed their genuineness, they sway with the wind.

But celebrities use drugs, and they’re cool! Well, how cool is marijuana gonna be when it’s legal everywhere, and we’re just about there. Most of marijuana’s appeal was it was illegal. Come on, that’s what you want in life, to puff a drug that makes you somnambulant. But maybe you can’t cope with today’s culture, you need a time out. At least alcohol makes you want to connect and party, even though too much ruins your life. Meanwhile, the heads of the tech companies are biohacking, they’re not succumbing to drugs and alcohol. Then again, Elon Musk is using Ambien, but he can’t sleep because HE’S WORKING TOO HARD!

But who wants to work at the dumb service jobs offered today, where you watch the clock until your sentence is over. As far as the corporate titans, check their CVs. They didn’t drop out of high school, or go to the local community college, they all went to blue chip educational institutions, and they might have dropped out of Harvard, but you can’t even dream of going to Harvard, never mind have your father buy a building so you can get in.

I love my iPhone Pro Max 12 and LG OLED TV more than any new artist. The artists complain they’re being ripped off, that the world is unfair, that we owe them success, and if they break through, they act like the rest of the celebrity class, clueless. I applaud excellence, the entertainment business is built on mediocrity. Come on, most of the Netflix shows go straight into the dumper, they’re worthless, if they make something too highbrow you tune out. So they feed you this crap via the algorithm because it’s too much effort to find the good stuff yourself. You depend on the corporation to do the hard work for you. And I’m a Netflix booster and believer in spite of its faults, because it’s fighting for ME! Yes, dropping all shows at once as opposed to the inane policies of HBO and Apple who don’t understand THERE IS NO WATER COOLER, WE’RE SIPPING H20 FROM OUR PRIVATE BOTTLES! Assuming we’re in the office at all. Word of mouth works differently these days, but the out of it antiques in charge of these enterprises are so removed from reality that they’re clueless. But not Reed Hastings, who we all know by name.

Yes, that’s another thing about corporations, they can be run by clueless individuals. Computers don’t run companies, people do, often self-serving. But we still laud the enterprise, because we’re desperate for something to believe in.

That’s life on this planet today. Everything’s on demand at your fingertips, and that’s convenient, but the question of the ages remains, WHAT IS LIFE ABOUT?

In America it’s consuming. He or she with the most toys wins.

That’s a joke.

But even worse, the average citizen doesn’t have the tools to understand life, they’re misled into religion by charlatans, they don’t even know how to think for themselves. They do what they’re told, consume. And those who provide the products, the corporations, rule.

As for the government… When a fake real estate tycoon “runs” the country and congresspeople believe in QAnon…who can have faith in D.C?

That’s how we got this problem to begin with. The Republicans gerrymandered to the point where they’re overrepresented in government and then they ram through these anti-voter rights laws based on the falsehoods spewed by the orange one and his minions. People are afraid to cross Trump. Why? Individuals wouldn’t stand up to him in government, they were afraid of retribution, they’re all saying so now, like Dr. Birx, and you’ve got elected officials still saying the election was stolen, and the guy who came out and said it was the most secure election in history got fired. Who can believe in these people? NOBODY!

So, we need the corporations to set them straight. Newfangled corporations get on the bandwagon right away, but even the old lumbering ones realize that power lies with the public, not the elected officials and…

There’s chaos. And the only people who can save us are…CORPORATIONS!