Chris Christie sold 2,289 copies of his book “Republican Rescue.”

Now wait a second, this guy was EVERYWHERE! Does it really mean no one cares?

I think so.

But it gets worse…well, nothing could be worse, but… Billie Eilish sold 64,000 copies of her book, and Justin Timberlake’s “Hindsight” has sold 100,000 since its release in 2018. What does this tell us? Not only that selling a book can be difficult, but that being in the public eye, the beneficiary of reams of publicity, does not mean people will lay down their money for your work. Turns out fandom is oftentimes skin-deep. Of course there are superfans, who will buy every iteration of a CD and vinyl album, skewing first week sales so the public, even the media, thinks their work is a big success, but the truth is even some of our biggest heroes/icons/hypes are nowhere near as big as we perceive them to be.

Streaming is good for artists. Because the barrier to entry, to exposure, is so damn low. Don’t these wankers with few streams realize if it weren’t for Spotify, et al, almost NO ONE would be listening to their music! And the big acts benefit from this too. But just because an act has a track with a few hundred million streams, that does not mean it’s got a passionate fan base that will buy tickets.

Everybody is available, very few are desirable.

The media needs heroes to run up the flagpole, stars to influence somnambulant Grammy voters to nominate, but the public at large, do they really care? In most cases NO!

Where the rubber meets the road… There are very few automobiles with traction. Kind of like all those new electric car companies, the Wall Street IPOs…that’s all buzz, not reality. Manufacturing and shipping quality automobiles is not an easy task, never mind software and supply chain issues. You’d think Rivian is a powerhouse in the auto industry, but essentially it’s sold ZERO CARS!

Yes, we live in the age of data, and unfortunately data can be presented in a way to prove just about anything, to the point where facts no longer seem to exist.

And then there’s the spin. If people believe in QAnon, and are convinced Bill Gates has inserted microchips in covid vaccines, what chance do we have to get the truth to them re entertainers? Essentially none. Which is why entertainment has always functioned on smoke and mirrors. If Nielsen Soundscan was reporting troop deaths they’d give a lower value to those killed in tanks, and a higher value to those killed in a group, making the final number far from accurate, giving those who read them a skewed view, just like they do with album (sales)!

People don’t like reality. It hurts. Just ask Elizabeth Holmes. Let’s hope she gets convicted, but we already know there’s no truth in America anymore…you can’t even have faith in the Supreme Court, never mind some local court. Just like Steve Bannon’s bogus case scheduled to be heard on July 18th. Hmm… You’re arrested for robbery, if you can’t make bail your ass is in jail. But if you’re networked, in power, you skate, and in the end the President pardons you. I don’t care what you believe, but the truth is the public has lost faith in institutions.

Truth is Billie Eilish’s latest album is a stiff. She’s been superseded in the hearts of young people by Olivia Rodrigo, who will probably be superseded by someone else soon. And that’s fine, that’s the way it almost always has been, those who appeal to a younger demo, the boy bands, BTS, are flavors of the moment, they don’t last. But the media loves a story and those not living the reality 24/7 are prone to disinformation. The game in music is to last. Especially in the streaming era. And streaming is a way to make your name. Sure, you can get paid a ton if you have a big hit, but really it’s the road and other opportunities that generate your income.

Just like Miley Cyrus. Parents couldn’t get tickets for their kids. So the next tour went paperless and…turns out desire was just not that strong. It was a false mania, driven by scalpers. Which is why acts hate paperless, because too often it turns out demand is low, they can’t sell out.

It’s hard to get people to spend money. They’ve already got a subscription to a streaming service, they can check out your track, but lay down cash? Acts keep bitching that the new economics don’t work for them, but…who is going to actually buy their physical product? This is not the pre-internet era, with fewer than 10,000 releases a year. There are 60,000 new tracks A DAY, and it’s harder than ever to get noticed. Maybe you’re just not that big. But the truth is NO ONE IS THAT BIG! No one has the mindshare and reach of the pre-internet era, there are just too many options, and no one outlet where everybody is exposed to the same thing. If you’re bitching about streaming payments I hope you’re ready to give up your computer and jet back to 1988, because the world has completely changed and you must change with it.

Not that my words will make a difference. It FEELS like you’ve been ripped off, so it must be true. It FEELS like Billie Eilish is a big star, she’s got 97 million followers on Instagram, but she’s nowhere near as big as the perception.

And enough with the social media metrics, forget about the bots, the fakes, how many of those 97 million do you think actually see every post, even one post? How many never even check their feed?

At least in music the major label does not give you a deal until you prove yourself. Whereas in the book business they’re flying blind. They think these social media metrics are a reflection of hard core fandom, but they’re wrong.

Want to know if you’re a star?

Check your wallet.

Just like the corporate sponsors realized they were not getting their money’s worth sponsoring endless tours, the book business has been burned by social media stars and will tighten up the coffers.

So it all comes down to you. What you like, what you do. If nobody you know is talking about it, then it probably isn’t that big. Which is different from good, you can be good and go unnoticed in today’s topsy-turvy world. But if book publishers can’t get it right predicting success based on internet numbers, what are the odds politicos and pollsters truly know what is going on in America? Pretty damn low, ergo the Trump ascension. Chris Christie won as governor. But then he vacationed on a closed beach and uttered nonsense about Trump and he blew all his credibility. And the only people who didn’t realize this were those in the media! They should have said NO WAY to booking him. He’s toast, people don’t care about him, there’s no passion. And it’s all about passion. Without passion there is no sale. You want deep fans, who will stick by you, not looky-loos. Too many are caught up in the moment. Theranos’s idea was unworkable from the start, but fat cat oldsters, mostly men, were mesmerized by Elizabeth Holmes and invested nearly a billion dollars. And it turns out there was nothing there. Sometimes the truth is hiding right in front of your eyes. Chris Christie is a lug without fans, the public is not waiting with bated breath to read what teenager Billie Eilish has to say, and people were passionate about Justin Timberlake twenty years ago, when he was still in a boy band.

And Britney Spears is forty.

Can we please stop living in the past? It’s a changed world, but too many have not changed with it. The public was disinterested in Christie’s book, they knew the score. Forget publicity, if you want to know what is going on put your ear to the ground, listen to the people’s truth, but you might not want to hear it.

Dave Schools is the bassist for Widespread Panic. We discuss the band, but we also cover the “Get Back” documentary and Dave’s personal life and… Dave is quite the raconteur, you will be entertained and edified!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dave-schools/id1316200737?i=1000544433379

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/dave-schools-88894388

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

Trailer: https://bit.ly/31KuO1w

This show is strangely affecting. On one level it feels like fluff, on another you can’t stop watching it.

So “Red Oaks” is an Amazon Prime series. If you’re a student of the game, you might remember the hype. Paul Reiser is one of the stars and Steven Soderbergh is one of the producers, but I’d never seen it, never thought of watching it. Then a reader hipped me to it and I checked it out on “RottenTomatoes” and it had a 93% critics score and 94% audience score. How did I miss this?

Oh, that’s right, it’s on Amazon Prime.

Never forget the initial Netflix show was the excellent, highbrow “House of Cards,” one of the best series ever made (well, at least until the final season.) With that imprimatur of quality, your expectations rise, you’re looking for the next show.

The same thing happened with HBO. There was “Dream On” and “Larry Sanders” and then the silver bullet, the killer series, “The Sopranos.” Thereafter, Sunday night was for HBO. Not every HBO show is good, but there’s enough quality in the history to pay attention.

But Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime started low and has stayed there. Furthermore, its homepage is cluttered with other offerings, just like its retail site. If it weren’t cheap and convenient shopping on Amazon I’d switch, because now it takes me ninety minutes to figure out what I want to buy, what with the sponsored products and the other diversions from reality. So I wanted to buy an electric toothbrush. Well, the model numbers on the Philips site didn’t align with those on Amazon, and what I thought I wanted to buy was gonna be delivered in weeks as opposed to overnight, which is now the Amazon Prime standard, and I was completely flummoxed. After wasting an hour and a half, I ended up triangulating with Amazon Prime delivery, the number of reviews and the “Amazon’s Choice” badge. I literally had no idea exactly what I was getting, and when I opened the box I was surprised…HOW CAN THIS BE?

Distribution is king. Which is why you want your show on the platform with the most subscribers that will promote it for you. Apple TV+’s numbers are fading now that they’re charging, let them build the network, not you, go somewhere else. Then again, having so little product they promote their shows, they don’t get lost in the shuffle. Whereas on Amazon everything gets lost in the shuffle.

Bottom line, I hadn’t heard of “Red Oaks” but then I tuned in and it was a bright spot in these hazy, lazy, confusing days of Covid-19.

So what we’ve got here is a country club story. A Jewish country club, there’s no hiding behind other ethnicities like on “Seinfeld.” And you’ve got the aforementioned Paul Reiser as a Wall Street king and head of the club and he’s not trying to be loved by the audience like he usually is…and with this edge, he’s ultimately more believable and likable.

And you’ve got the poor Jews, Jennifer Grey and Richard Kind. Grey killed her career with her nose job but she does an A+ job of acting here. And Kind and his shtick are overexposed, but by the end of the series he’s three-dimensional and you love him too.

Their son is Craig Roberts as David Myers. Turns out Roberts is Welsh, not that you’d know that without looking it up. David is from a lower middle class family, his education is in limbo and he takes a gig at the Red Oaks country club as a tennis pro. Which brings us to…

ENNIS ESMER! The main tennis pro. Esmer is so good he carries the whole series, even though he doesn’t have to, there’s so much other talent involved. An overweight schmoozer and schnorrer with an indeterminate accent…you laugh and marvel at his performance, he steals the show.

Then you’ve got stoner Oliver Cooper, as Craig/David’s sidekick. A loser who parks cars and deals dope at Red Oaks.

As for the rest of the cast, there are tons of greats, they didn’t settle for second-rate, Gina Gershon is spot on as Reiser’s wife and comedian Freddie Roman is a crotchety oldster willing to speak truth when necessary.

So, what you’ve got here is an ongoing search for love. And Reiser and Gershon’s daughter, Alexandra Socha, is fantastic as the rebel artist living off her daddy’s money. She’s edgy, yet hungry for romance.

And Cooper, he consistently eyes the unattainable, employing bad judgment all the while.

“Red Oaks” is an extended teen movie in an age when they no longer make teen movies. They make teen HORROR movies, but the old romp… There are so many great ones, like “Can’t Buy Me Love,” on one hand lowbrow yet meaningful nonetheless. But in today’s blockbuster era, film companies are reluctant to green light anything that doesn’t appeal to everybody, that also has a fantasy aspect to it, never mind that comedy is hard to do.

Not that “Red Oaks” is as good as the classic film comedies, but it’s certainly better than traditional network sitcoms.

These are just people lost in the eighties, trying to figure out their future. Not everybody is going to end up on top, just like in real life, not everybody can be a world-beater. But you’re entitled to have some laughs along the way!

So don’t go in with high expectations. Just like you never went to a teen movie with high expectations. It was something to do, it entertained you, was a respite from everyday life. That’s how you should look at “Red Oaks.”

And it’s already old, it was made from 2014-17, but it was new to me and will be new to anybody else who hasn’t seen it, and being set decades ago it is inherently dated, that’s one of its charms.

“Red Oaks” would have performed much better on Netflix.

But I’m telling you, if the foregoing resonates with you, you’ll dig “Red Oaks,” at least until the final third season, with only six episodes. But you’ve got to watch those too to see how the story turns out.

That’s right, once you have a summer with hijinks there’s nowhere left to go. They have a plot twist for season two, but ultimately the story has been told, done, finito. But that’s all right, sometimes that’s all that’s there, no use beating a dead horse like on network. But what’s there…

It’s hard to explain. I can’t rave, you can live quite nicely never having seen “Red Oaks,” but it touched me, warmed my heart and made me feel good, and there’s always room for a series like that!

You want to watch it. Assuming you’ve seen the previous seasons and the five episodes of the third season that premiered in September, which were the worst ones ever, it seemed like they were just stretching the plot, and having to wait months for the final five…

Not that I knew they launched last Friday. I mean even Netflix hypes their shows in the media these days, but I didn’t come across the drop until I was researching newly launched shows. And having completed the series, not one person has e-mailed me about it. Not that this means none of the devotees watched the finale, but I bet some still don’t know it’s available.

“Money Heist”… A failure in Spain, its native country, yet a worldwide success. Netflix is laying down cash in all its territories, making local product so people there will continue to subscribe. And generally speaking, the content is superior to that made in America. Can you say “Squid Game”? Not that that’s one of my favorite shows, but it demonstrates the paradigm. “Money Heist” is not brand new, so there’s less hoopla, but it’s better than “Squid Game.”

So what you’ve got here is a Mamet movie sans the deeper meaning. In other words, the plot/tricks are convoluted and it’s an E-ticket ride…you buckle up and go for it. And if you’ve never watched, you’re in for a treat, but be sure to employ subtitles as opposed to dubbing, the story resonates so much more.

So what you’ve got is a criminal mastermind, the Professor, and his band of merry criminals. Misfits who’ve found their home on the wrong side of the law, where life is exciting, but can be short.

And you’ve got the police trying to thwart the Professor and his gang, yet the people align with the robbers. Everybody is anti the system other than those feeding off of it. It’s hard to have faith when you see billionaires getting subsidies while you’re broke. As a matter of fact, the best thing I read last week was in the “New York Times” “Sunday Review” section:

“Behind Low Vaccination Rates Lurks a More Profound Social Weakness”: https://nyti.ms/3pI7cTc

You want to read this. The article posits that low vaccination rates are a result of the loss of trust in the government and society. Ever since Reagan we’ve been told to rely on ourselves, that the government screws things up. This has affected our outlook, it’s every person for themselves, but also has affected our behavior re government programs, we don’t trust them. Forget the highfalutin’ people who get ink, those on government assistance, those at the bottom, see how the government promises but doesn’t deliver. The law says one thing, but reality is quite another. You’re supposed to have heat in your building, that’s what the law says, but there is none and despite your protestations it doesn’t get turned back on.

We can look at politics, but we also have to look at society. Our bonds are torn and frayed. We’re all suspicious of being ripped off. We all don’t want to go down a rung on the greased pole of life. It’s not just about vaccination, but so much more.

But “Money Heist” is a fantasy. And in these final five episodes there are a ton of flashbacks, so you get to see favorites from the past, like Berlin, yet the action moves along at a quick pace, unlike in the initial five episodes of the season. It’s a return to the “Money Heist” that hooked you in the first place.

Unfortunately, the last episode is a bit slow, more talking and less action, but the ending is satisfying.

So, binge away!