https://t.ly/tU5nO

The first section of this book is positively mesmerizing. I’m not sure I’ve seen this situation detailed so well previously, at least not recently.

You know how it is, when you feel a connection. And you wonder if they feel it too.

There hasn’t been any conversation about it. You’re twisting in the wind, do they feel the same way you do?

I was riveted.

The best book I’ve read recently is not “Dream State,” but “The Slip,” which is billed as this year’s “Corrections,” and Ron Charles of the “Washington Post” said you’re going to love it or hate it, just like everybody seems to do with Jonathan Franzen books.

HOWEVER, “The Slip” is in no way smug. As a matter of fact, it’s great. Except for two things. One, it focuses on boxing. That’s the not the entire plot, but it figures in pretty bigly, so if you find that a turnoff… (Yet the boxing is not macho, this is not the gym culture of a movie.) And I found the ending unsatisfying.

Therefore, I recommend you read “Dream State” before “The Slip,” but I’m not giving two thumbs way up to either of these books, neither is a slam dunk, but both are a huge step above most of the stuff out there.

These are not genre books, they are not mysteries, never mind romance novels. They’re about life, people and real world situations. Which I find to be the most rewarding reading.

As for “Dream State”…it’s about average people doing average things. What I mean is no one is setting the world on fire to the point where they’re featured in the news. The people are not unsuccessful, but normal, like most, which is what makes the book so interesting.

And your dreams and choices… How do those work out for you? You wake up and one day you realize this is your life, and most of it is behind you, and did you do what you wanted to do, did you achieve what you wanted to, did you make the right choices? And everybody weighs “what if” to a degree, if they’d gone down the other path…

I kinda want to write about some of the plot points, but I don’t want to ruin it. But I will quote a few lines.

“But greatness was cruelty, it was passion, it was Self at the expense of everything else.”

This is what no one tells you, this is what the average person doesn’t realize. It takes EVERYTHING to make it, you can’t have a normal life. You may portray a normal human being in the media, but don’t confuse that with the truth. If you’re not willing to sacrifice everything but your dream, you won’t make it. And if you’re truly trying to make it, if you’re playing on an elite level, everything else is secondary: love relationships, kids… Believe me, this is true, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

“…and losing his glove had made him weirdly depressed”

Your good mood can evaporate in an instant. They’re out skiing and the glove is lost and they’re in the mountains on a day it is dumping and everything is looking up and then suddenly it looks down. This is the nature of life, your spirit can crash in an instant. And what’s worse, then everybody criticizes you for being down. You’re in a gorgeous environment, how can you be depressed?

“Life was a long, incompetent search to get back to a feeling you had when you were six.”

Isn’t that it? The sense of wonder and magic?

“If you look for a meaning, Tarkovsky once said, you’ll miss everything that happens.”

You’ve got to jump in, you’ve got to experience. This is the problem with too much MFA writing, the authors are detached, trying for big themes instead of getting into the story. I read for story, I watch for story, the big meaning can be contemplated afterward. This is the scourge of elite education, focusing on analysis instead of experience. What I want to do is experience it like I’m six, like above.

Turns out “Dream State” is an Oprah book.

When I read it, I thought it was a Jenna book, which was why I was reluctant. The stuff Jenna recommends is often a reasonable read, a decent ride, but a bit too lowbrow. Reese’s stuff is one step better, but Oprah always recommends stuff if not exactly highbrow, at least serious…as in the person can write and there’s a level of intelligence emanating from the words, Oprah’s books are never a waste of time. And neither is “Dream State.”

Netflix trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaE5_704KUo

Did you watch today’s Formula 1 race from Silverstone? It was the best of the year!

Usually I fast-forward through the competition, otherwise it’s just too boring in a whiz-bang world. I keep my eye on the leaderboard and when there’s movement, I slow down the recording and replay it. But not today! Today I watched all the way through.

I’m a Hamilton guy. And his switch to Ferrari has not looked so wise with the results of his old Mercedes teammate George Russell this season. However, Hamilton has been improving and he had a great practice session on Friday and nearly as good a qualifying session on Saturday, but Verstappen squeaked by to take the pole in front of the McLarens, the team with this year’s fastest cars.

I like Lando Norris, but I actually prefer his teammate Oscar Piastri, it’s his intensity, Australian humor  and driving skills this year.

However, what made today’s race so interesting was THE RAIN! The fact that they even drove in this stuff was amazing. I mean the drivers could barely see! And it became a game of strategy, pitting and switching tires and there were two great moments… When Verstappen spun out, falling back many places and ruining his race, and Hulkenberg ending up third.

HOWEVER, this is about bike racing. “Unchained” is similar in format to “Drive to Survive,” but there are differences.

First and foremost, “Unchained” can be more confusing. You see there are many more teams. And each team has many more participants. So it’s a challenge to lay out the series, they bounce from team to team, narrative to narrative, but you get into the groove and enjoy it nonetheless.

Now I’d recommend watching the previous two seasons to catch up on some of the personalities who were focused on in the past but don’t get the spotlight today, it will add flavor. 

And to tell you the truth, I’m not sure I remember who won last year, although I think I do, but…

I’ve come ’round on Tadej Poga?ar. I used to think the Slovenian was a prick like Max Verstappen, but now I think that was a matter of him speaking in English. Poga?ar is not overconfident and snide, he’s got a sense of humor.

As for Jonas Vingegaard… I supported the Dane when he was the underdog, I have sympathy re his comeback from his crash, but now that he’s won…he doesn’t evidence much personality, he can be vulnerable, but he’s more of a machine.

In case you’ve never followed the Tour de France, it’s not that complicated. There is an overall winner and then there are winners of the stages, i.e. the individual races, which are usually twenty one in number. As for the mountain stages… The effort involved in climbing is staggering and the downhills are scary. And then there’s the gravel stage…it ultimately lives up to the billing.

This is a dangerous sport. They’ve got little more than helmets protecting them. It’s kind of like basketball in that equipment is not really a factor, it comes down to the athlete themselves. How good are they.

There’s raw genetics/biology, not everybody can win, you need the right oxygen consumption number to succeed.

But to a degree it’s a team sport just like basketball, no matter how good you are, you can’t win the overall unless your team helps you.

As for the individual teams, each has drama… It comes down to money and results.

But the riders are human. They are not machines like in F1. As for psychology…does it really make a difference, can you really implore someone to win? Doesn’t look like it.

So what you’ve got is these lean riders who are in incredible shape and then these old farts who drive around in support cars or sit in buses, acting like fat cats when in truth, they’ve got little to do with the results. The team principals do not have the airs of Toto and Horner, and since the bikes are not a huge factor, it all comes down to the rider, who has even more importance than he does in Formula 1.

As for the vistas… It’ll make you want to visit France, if not even move there.

I can’t exactly explain why these foreign sports are so fascinating to me. Maybe because in the rest of the world they mean so much. But it also comes down to the way Netflix constructs these shows, the storytelling and the drama, to the point where you can already know the results and still be on the edge of your seat.

I used to watch a lot of sports. Even though my brethren boomers are deep into baseball, I don’t have enough time to watch games. As for the NFL… I watch one game a year, the Super Bowl, as it’s a national rite, the injuries, especially the head injuries, are too bad for me to rationalize.

And one of the reasons the NFL eclipsed the MLB was because of the speed and the intensity, which both Formula 1 and bicycle racing have in spades. These two shows have brought me back from the sidelines, maybe because they’re absent the rah-rah macho of most American sports. They’re intriguing. But like in all sports, the athletes are disposable, they have their moments and then they’re gone. It’s very weird, there’s little loyalty, it’s all about winning, you have your era and then you’re done, it’s cutthroat, you can’t drive or ride into your sixties.

But along the way…

Tune in Saturday July 5th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

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

This is my streaming tip of the weekend.

There are four seasons and last night we only finished the first, but I want to tell you about the show because I couldn’t wait to watch it last night. That’s what I’m looking for in a series, the same thing I’m looking for in a book, something that calls out to me throughout the day, that I just can’t wait to get back to. That’s the experience I had with “The Convict.”

It’s a Polish prison drama on MAX. Turned off yet? The funny thing about watching something with subtitles is after a while, you’re convinced the actors are speaking English.

Anyway, “The Convict” is a women’s prison drama. But this ain’t no “Orange Is the New Black,” with elements of levity, no, this is much darker, much more real, more akin to “Oz.” However “Oz,” although intense, never really escaped from the screen into your heart. You knew you were watching a show. And you could tell that they were making the show for you. This is American television. Whereas “The Convict”? It plays that much more real.

Then again, “The Convict” is based on a true story. How true? It’s very rare that a movie or series is faithful to the source material, the truth, but it does add a level of gravitas, the far-fetched premise doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

So at first you’re concentrated on the workings of the prison.

It’s all the things you’ve heard about, are familiar with, the cellmate who dictates, the clique that’s in charge, but the inmates are much more believable, and much more malleable. Instead of being baked into their identities, they waver and then change.

And the warden…he’s in control. The outer world doesn’t matter much.

But then the outer world starts to intrude. This is what makes the series so great. What exactly IS happening outside the prison walls, what is the truth behind the surface? There’s a tension between these two locales, these two stories, that raises the show above the traditional prison drama.

They’ve made them since the dawn of movies. Usually broad and titillating, in the Howard Stern adolescent way. But not “The Conflict.” These are definitely women.

There’s so much more… One thing that struck me is how much someone in regular life can change while you’re incarcerated. It’s kind of like when you break up with someone and then reconnect, even months later, especially years. They’re different. They’ve had different experiences, it’s changed them, they’re no longer on your path. You meet at a moment in time and merge your pasts and enter the future together, bonded. But you can’t recreate that moment in time once it has passed and there’s been a period of time away from each other…this series demonstrates this concept better than most, it stimulated my thinking, let my mind wander into the past and the future, pondering the puzzle of my life.

Now this couldn’t be further from July 4th or politics. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Trumper or not. You can dig in and enjoy “The Convict.”

How did I know it worked? Because I was suddenly wary of opening our front door, wondering what would be outside, whether I should trust the person ringing the bell.

And since you don’t know the actors, they seem to be the people in a way they are not in American productions. We see Meryl Streep in that role. Even Sydney Sweeney. But in “The Convict,” that’s really them, right?

Feels like it.

“The Convict” is entertainment. At times intense, never boring. I don’t know what the following three seasons will bring, but this one…like I said, how great is it to be almost unable to wait ’til the end of the day so you can turn on the TV? That’s the feeling “The Convict” inspired.