“Feel Good”: https://bit.ly/3kNVOTO

My friend John started testifying about “Slow Horses.” He was a fan of Mick Herron’s books. He testified about the Mick Jagger theme song. But I had no frame of reference, knew nothing of what he was talking about.

But John kept mentioning it. And scrolling through Apple TV+ I saw it. And decided to watch it.

This is the Gary Oldman show. Cops in England. Well, actually MI5. It’s a high class production, visually rich, acting impeccable, but Felice fell asleep in the first episode. But we watched another. I was impressed that Apple commissions such highbrow product. But there was absolutely no buzz on it. Maybe because Apple rolled out episodes week by week. Sure, if something is an instant hit this can build buzz. But if something is left field, without HBO exposure on cable TV, one of just a very few projects, it is lost in the shuffle. But maybe it’s just not worth the buzz.

And then we switched to “Feel Good.”

It was on my list, I could not remember what it was about, but I rechecked with “RottenTomatoes,” and its ratings were 100% critics, and 90% audience. Really doesn’t get any better than that.

So we dug in.

I guess we’re inured to mediocrity. The songs in the top ten. The genre movies. It’s a smorgasbord of professionalism. But creativity? Envelope-pushing? Jaw-dropping? That’s almost nowhere to be found.

Why?

Because both creators and purveyors are worried about getting ahead of the audience, being uncommercial, sent to purgatory. So we get endless safe, like “Slow Horses.” But “Feel Good”…

Now it’s not much of a commitment. Two seasons. Twelve episodes. All under half an hour.

But there’s a segment of the public which won’t bother to tune in. They can’t handle it when two women have sex, even though Mae considers herself non-binary, not sure whether she’s a boy or a girl. But Mae is not only magnetic, she’s real. That’s right, “Feel Good” is a thinly fictionalized version of comic Mae Martin’s life. And to tell you the details… Would undercut the viewing experience, so I don’t want to.

Are there some clichés in “Feel Good”? Yes, the character Phil, like out of a TV sitcom, well-played as the third wheel, but he doesn’t ring true in any way, he sticks out.

But Mae. And her life and quandaries. And the relationship issues. BINGO!

Doesn’t matter whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual or any kind of human relationship, they’re all the same…insecurities, issues of mutuality.

Our viewpoints are skewed by most music and TV. Where there is a male, but sometimes a femme fatale, who dictates, who rules a world they believe they dominate. No one dominates the world, and everybody has insecurities.

Come on, is the other person into you? Are you behaving correctly? Are you moving too fast? Or too slow?

And every person is different. You can say the same thing to two different people and get vastly different reactions. One can reject you, feeling offended, the other can reject you because you’re moving too slow.

Mae is screwed up. But in truth, we’re all screwed up.

Mae wants to feel connected. Is she just needy? Does who she’s involved with matter?

I’ve never heard of Mae Martin. But in “Feel Good” she emerges fully-formed. I cannot fathom how she created her own show and got it so right. The dialogue, the feelings. Being true to her vision. She hasn’t had the rough edges sanded off. She’s genuine, and you can feel it, it shows on screen.

This is not “Friends.” Not that it’s heavy, in most instances it’s light. But “Feel Good” is not superficial. To have a sustained relationship is nearly impossible. If you’re together with someone for years you’ve weathered so many crises to get there, or one person is just internalizing their feelings and staying silent. There are the misunderstandings. Miscommunications.

I don’t want to say any more, but Mae Martin and “Feel Good” are what the internet and streaming explosion promised but didn’t deliver.

Yes, now everybody can make and distribute music. Has this generated any left field superstars, taking us to unknown places that wow us? No.

But Netflix…

Come on, Netflix was HBO on steroids. At HBO creators heard no, at Netflix they heard yes. And only by saying yes, trusting in creators, can you end up with something like “Feel Good.”

Now I was reading in the paper about Netflix’s new game show with Howie Mandel… This is where Netflix is losing the plot, literally, trying to be all things to all people. Its original programming started out highbrow, the outlet doesn’t need the lowbrow, it may think it does but it doesn’t. HBO stands for something, Netflix used to, but now it’s muddying the water.

Netflix doesn’t need the detritus. People will watch smart shows. You just have to lead them to them.

The problem with Netflix is not the lack of new, great product, but the fact that the average customer is unaware of most of it. Like “Feel Good,” which premiered in 2020 and concluded in 2021. I’d never heard of it, or maybe I read about it and forgot about it. No one ever told me about it. But it’s there, just waiting for you to partake.

It’s the new and different, the outside that resonates. And this is true over and over and over again. “Squid Game.” “The Tiger King.” The phenomena can’t be categorized, they are truly must watch TV.

Stop lauding HBO and Disney with their anemic new streaming offerings. Sure, catalog goes a long way, but it creates no buzz, builds no shows, especially if you’ve got so new few shows available. Today people devour product. They eat it up nearly instantly. And then they want more. They want to jump from show to show, the flat screen is not the idiot box, far from it, TV is the most dynamic creative medium extant today.

As for allowing a free, ad-laden tier… That’s hogwash. There aren’t that many people who want to endure the commercials. Look at the Spotify numbers re listening. It’s the paying customers who spend all the time on the service. And Charlie Ergen just said the ad-supported TV model was broken, with fifteen minutes of spots an hour.

As for Netflix’s subscriber loss…

Now all the numbers are in. Seemingly every technology company took a hit, even Amazon. What happened? The world opened up. Covid restrictions evaporated. Everybody isn’t sitting at home, in front of the TV.

But Wall Street only sees numbers. And Hollywood thinks it is in control of the audience when in truth it is vice-versa.

Watch “Feel Good.” Maybe only in little chunks, it might overwhelm you. But when it’s over you won’t forget it, and you’ll tell everybody you know about it.

Like me.

My inbox is blowing up with missives from the right wing. They’re not cautious and they’re not pretty. They’re agitated and explosive. Which means what I said resonated with them. Their goal is to shut me up. Their goal is to shut everyone up who doesn’t agree with them. They want you to believe you’re whacked, don’t understand, should stick to what you know and better be ready for consequences.

This is not what happens when I write something that pisses off the left. Takes a long time for the lefties to respond. And it’s whiny. And internalized. It’s focused on the issue, not me. It’s action free. Non-threatening. Coming from a defensive position as opposed to an offensive position. Passive, not active.

Now one of the big problems we have in society is people are uninformed. They only read and see that which agrees with them, and the algorithms at Google and Facebook ensure this is the case, after all they want you to use their products, they want you to be addicted, they want your time, they don’t want to piss you off.

But if you read/watch a cornucopia of information you get a much more broad insight into what is going on.

I point you first to the piece by Erwin Chemerinsky (dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law) in the “Los Angeles Times” on May 2nd:

“Op-Ed: The brazenly political Supreme Court shows it will strike down abortion rights”: https://lat.ms/3KPj5PG

Here’s the most important section:

“‘Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.’

Every aspect of this statement is wrong. The reasoning of Roe, a 7-2 decision that was repeatedly reaffirmed by the court, was not weak. For decades before Roe, the Supreme Court held that the liberty of the due process clause protected fundamental aspects of privacy and autonomy. Prior to Roe, the court had protected liberties such as the right to marry, the right to procreate, the right to use contraception, the right to control the upbringing of children and the right of every person to choose ‘whether to bear or beget a child.’

Roe followed these decisions with the common sense realization that laws that prohibit abortion and force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will are intrusions on her autonomy and privacy. Unless the court is going to repudiate all of the other privacy rights, it is impossible to deny that laws prohibiting abortion also intrude on a woman’s liberty.”

Next I point you to Aaron Tang’s (a professor of law at UC Davis) piece which is also in the “Los Angeles Times”: 

“Op-Ed: The Supreme Court Flunks abortion history”: https://lat.ms/3KOwEPt

All of this is pure gold. It refutes Alito’s screed with facts.

“But the most shocking aspect of the leaked opinion is something else entirely: the glaring historical mistakes that pervade its supposedly originalist analysis. Contrary to the draft’s conclusion, for as long as America has existed, so too have abortions — in most cases free of any form of criminal punishment.”

You should really read this Tang article because it completely refutes Alito’s analysis. Which is that there’s no constitutional right to an abortion and therefore it must be thrown back to the states to make or not make law.

You see the Republicans got out there first, with their spin. That the Justices’ hands were tied, that they were only doing what was required. And this has been repeated ad infinitum. As for the other side…the only thing that has gotten traction is Alito’s quotation of Sir Matthew Hale, who “had at least two women executed for witchcraft and wrote a treatise supporting marital rape”: https://bit.ly/3MYlNUN This is like taking legal advice from Charles Manson.

In other words, Alito is cherry-picking what he wants from history and assumes the general public will just buy what he is saying and move on. Betting if there is any correction at all, it won’t get much amplification, never mind traction.

Which brings me to S.E. Cupp’s segment on CNN: https://cnn.it/3MWw3fY

Every lefty must watch this, to see the right’s strategy, they’re on the same page, they’re saying that the leak of Alito’s draft opinion is worse than January 6th, really! Watch this to know what you’re up against. This is a machine with talking points it keeps hammering again and again to the point where its audience knows and believes what is said, irrelevant of veracity. Ever have an argument with someone who has got the facts wrong? That’s what my e-mail is like. I mean if we can’t agree on the facts, how can we have a discussion?

And Putin’s strategy is to tire you out with misinformation so you’ll give up and stay home.

This is not all by accident, it is planned. And the right wing has its vocal troops in alignment.

Where is the left wing? 

HOME ALONE AND SCARED!

“Don’t let someone tell you to be optimistic. This requires a rethink. Something out of the box. A long ball thrown. All this bs about the system and protests are just that. We need a general strike, or something else dramatic. The system is rigged against us and to believe the system will save us is fallacious.”

I wrote that yesterday to a friend whose wife felt he was defeated. And that that was not helping the cause.

Don’t be optimistic.

Don’t go out and protest.

Don’t think that someone else will do the job.

Do not believe the government and its elected officials will solve the problem.

To protest in the street is too sixties. That’s what we did before we could reach the world with one keystroke. Furthermore, the Trump era showed us it didn’t make any difference, the bad actors just went on their merry way and ignored the mass gatherings.

And I’m not saying to employ the internet for a fake consciousness-raising program. Like the Ice Bucket Challenge, and that’s a good one. Changing your picture on social media, retweeting something, that does little good, don’t bother.

But you could employ cyberwarfare.

Now let me go back. I’m not advocating breaking the law. But you may have to in order to move your ball down the field, especially when someone else has rigged the game.

It’s not like this is the first time democracy has been in peril.

And what does the public do when it doesn’t get its way, when the minority, and frequently the wealthy, lord their policies over them?

THEY GO ON STRIKE!

Let’s start there, every Monday everybody in America who is pro-choice refuses to go to work. Donezo.

But I may lose my job!

If you’re not willing to risk your job, you’re not dedicated to change. And there is strength in numbers. Maybe only a few people stop working the first Monday, but as the Mondays ensue, the group will grow and grow until…

Let’s be clear, it’s Disney’s employees that made the company stand up for LGBTQ rights. So, DeSantis passed an inane law that will raise taxes on his constituents to punish Disney. And what has Disney done? FIGHT BACK! Yes, Disney says under the agreement it signed with the state, Florida can’t change the law without paying it a billion dollars. And now residents of Disney’s domain are suing Florida. Why is everybody so fearful of losing something that they cower instead of fighting back? The right fights back, but not the left. Or when it does there’s so much infighting that those fighting back are ostracized.

You’ve got to cause disruption. Didn’t we learn that in the first decade of this century? It was Shawn Fanning who brought the music business into the modern world. Those in power at the labels wanted no change. But the people did, they were sick of paying double-digit dollars for CDs with only one good track. Was Napster breaking the law? Ultimately a court decided it was copyright infringement, but then KaZaA, without a centralized database, came online and the legal questions got ever more complicated.

I could recite the history of the evolution to music streaming but it was third parties, not in the industry, pirates in some cases, who pushed the ball forward. Yes, there were economic consequences. But the future we’re in now…record label revenues are up, manufacturing costs have been eliminated and some people got lost in the shuffle but others have done very well. Furthermore, the customer can now get the history of recorded music for ten bucks a month, ain’t that great!

But when it comes to the big issues, politics, and abortion, the Democrats have to color between the lines, they’re afraid of touching the third rail. And when a Republican does, they’re embraced by the party, can you say Matt Gaetz or Madison Cawthorn or Marjorie Taylor Greene? And then you’ve got Kevin McCarthy, who is denying what he said even though it was recorded! Do you expect to beat these people by playing by the established rules? You can’t.

As for cyberwarfare… Attack anti-abortion organizations. Any institution involved in restricting access to abortion…is in the crosshairs. The loonies on the right think guns will ensure their freedom, hogwash, he or she who employs technology controls the country, never forget it. Put a few hackers on the case and there can be turmoil nearly instantly. As far as stopping it, they haven’t found the Supreme Court leaker yet, and even if the culprit is found the legal system works very very slowly. Didn’t we learn this with Napster, et al? That the ball keeps moving even though you sued?

And the right protests at abortion clinics with guns. Pro-choice people have to block access to right wing institutions physically, this will gain much more attention than showing up at some federal building with a flag.

And the effort must be continuous. What happened today is gone tomorrow in the internet era. Ukraine is already back to being the top headline, three days later! That’s right, abortion has been pushed down. That’s yesterday’s news.

Trump keeps propagating his b.s. story about the election being stolen…

The left wing cries once and goes home.

It’s not like the strategies aren’t extant.

As for Fox News…  Go surround Tucker Carlson’s home and studio in Maine (or Rupert Murdoch’s!). Piss him off. Prevent him from broadcasting. This guy believes he’s got a free pass. It’s legal to protest, go for it.

And it’s not about the number of people you gather, but getting news traction. Passive general protests don’t even get above the fold coverage anymore.

Almost all of the creative people are on the left. They can’t come up with any ideas?

Netflix employees are afraid of what Dave Chappelle says about trans people. I’d think they’d be more upset about the lack of abortion rights. Make Netflix stand with them. Or else…they go on strike.

All those corporations, who’ve oftentimes given money to anti-abortion causes…they must be made to testify, to take a stand, pro-choice. It’s not like they haven’t taken stands on social issues before, long before the government. Like providing benefits to non-married same sex partners. If you expect the government to lead…

The newspaper will print the facts.

It’s up to the public to take action.

And the public has so many options, so many tools in its belt.

And the story of history is one person changing its course, revealing truths. Whether it be Daniel Ellsberg or Edward Snowden or the leaker of Alito’s draft.

Yes, they leaked, the court will never be the same. The processes have been perverted. Have you been paying attention the past couple of decades? The right has been perverting the cause of justice constantly!

And the Supreme Court Justices are just people, they are not gods.

Sure, it would be great if there were term limits. All this stuff the process won’t deliver.

But people will change, when you force them to, when you make life so difficult they’ve got no option, at least not an economic one.

Yes, it all comes down to economics in America. Every single thing. Which is why the revolt has been so tempered so far. People with enough money…they’re worried about where they’re going on vacation, the travel industry is through the roof. And they know they can fly young Ava or Aurelia to another state if they need to terminate a pregnancy.

If you don’t make the people with money suffer, you’ll never get real change.

I’m not saying to be violent.

But I am saying passive protest is passé. When Martin Luther King, Jr. was agitating for equal rights there were three TV networks and tens of millions of people watched!

And there’s been white backlash for eons. Don’t take away my chance, my job, anything. No one can lose anything in America anymore. Talk about socialism…I’m entitled to my job, my income, don’t tax me…I could go on and on.

Not that I want to muddy the waters. Let’s start first and foremost with abortion.

Coming out as gay…that helped ensure gay rights. Some women are coming out with their abortion stories… Hell, maybe if these wankers found out their sister had an abortion, or their hero, they’d re-evaluate their position. Remember, the fight against opioids only really gained traction when the sons and daughters of middle and upper class whites got addicted and died.

You’ve got to bring it home.

We live in an information age, we can use information to our advantage.

The “New York Times” printed victims of 9/11 in their pages, how about victims of abortion, day after day after day. The deaths of yore, never mind the more recent terminations.

But we’ve got to be together, organized. The right gets everybody in line, why can’t the left?

Oh, the left is a supposed big tent, that accommodates all voices.

Well, someone needs to make a decision and get everybody on the same page. And that person is a leader. Someone who can motivate the troops. And believe me, this is a war.

So far democracy is losing. The changes will come to your front door. Better to start battling now before it’s too late.

The first half is all about Ukraine/Russia/defense and the second half is all about Skunk’s musical career. You may or may not know that Skunk has worked with the defense department for decades. As for his musical endeavors…hear the inside story on Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers and more!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jeff-skunk-baxter/id1316200737?i=1000559688213

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/62f407b7-ed6e-4b29-a00c-605edc451667/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-jeff-skunk-baxter

https://listen.stitcher.com/yvap/?af_dp=stitcher://episode/202931650&af_web_dp=https://www.stitcher.com/episode/202931650