Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3l0cQNO

Note: The most played track in my iTunes library, with 249 plays, is the acoustic version of James McMurtry’s “We Can’t Make It Here.” The playlist contains the studio version. You can hear the acoustic version here: https://bit.ly/3v3KC9H And you should.

Tune in today, March 9th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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

The internet killed MTV.

Have streaming television, social media and on demand music services killed the Grammy telecast?

I’ll say yes.

In case you missed the memo, which you probably did, since you obviously missed the show, Golden Globe ratings tanked by 62%.

Now we can say they were hobbled by Covid-19.

Then again, aren’t awards shows exhibited in the middle of winter when everybody is supposedly home, a prisoner of their television set?

But people don’t tune in for the winners, but for the dresses!

Well, now you can get your fill of fashion online, on demand.

But there are TV and movie stars!

But they’re no longer heroes in a world where everybody can be a star and everybody is equal, where no one is perceived as better than anybody else, except by the young nitwits who are not going to sit through a three hour telecast anyway.

The awards telecast is history. At least as a ratings/revenue bonanza. They’re predicated on the fact that we care who wins, which we don’t, and that we have limited access to the stars, which we don’t, if anything they’re overexposed. Also, trying to be everything to everybody is a failed paradigm that has been sinking since the advent of cable TV, never mind streaming outlets.

Come on, who wants to watch the Grammy show?

It’s not like Trevor Noah sends hearts in the younger demo pitter-pattering. And the older demo doesn’t stay up late enough to watch this show. As for those in the middle, Gen-X’ers…they want to see eighties acts, not the fly by night performers of today. As for millennials? They’re the generation that grew up with hip-hop, maybe if a show skewed their way they might be interested, but that’s not the case.

Furthermore, mainstream music has never meant less. Used to be we all listened to the same acts, watched the same television, but that’s history. You can be a fan of a streaming TV show that no one else you know has watched. What are the odds that your favorite act is actually gonna appear on the Grammy telecast? Low.

Give Ben Winston credit, the show skews young, but this is the generation that cares least about TV, that may not even have access to broadcast television, they don’t pay for cable and see no need to fiddle with an antenna. As for highlights? Those are available online the next day, if not instantly, you never miss anything in today’s connected world, assuming you care to begin with.

MTV had it right with the VMAs, at least back in the beginning, before they were solely hypefests for album drops. Yes, when it becomes solely about promotion the public feels it, is turned off and abandons the enterprise. The show and the viewer must be one. It’s a silent pact. Once you’re trying to pull the wool over the audience’s eyes…and today audiences are more sophisticated than ever. Anyway, MTV knew the awards show format was broken, so they made it about the spectacle, not the awards themselves. We remember Uncle Miltie and RuPaul, not anybody who won that year. Meanwhile, for decades we’ve been subjected to “Grammy Moments,” duets no one is interested in and no one cares about. We live in a coarse, no limit society, when you play it safe no one’s interest is piqued, especially when you create content that is insipid.

As for the Grammy organization itself, it has lost all credibility. The voting system is opaque and years of infighting, the Deborah Dugan debacle and excoriation by every hip-hop titan of note has made the whole enterprise smell like doo-doo. In a world of MeToo and Black Lives Matter the Grammys circled their wagons, refused to air their dirty laundry and said they can fix their problems themselves. Yeah, LIKE A POLICE DEPARTMENT!

Used to be we could accept that network television was bland and safe. But no longer. You used to watch HBO for boobies, they called it Skinemax, but now full nudity is available 24/7 via Google…skin is not enough to sell a TV series, you’ve got to have more. And music is certainly not enough to sell an awards show, it’s available everywhere, if anything the problem is we have too much music in our lives, we’re overwhelmed with music!

Not that anybody at the Grammys knows any of this.

This is no different from tech, from Clay Christensen’s rules in “The Innovator’s Dilemma.” The only way to survive disruption is to disrupt yourself. And if you don’t, you’re on your way out, you will be superseded and forgotten.

But CBS has trouble getting eyeballs at all, network TV ratings themselves keep dropping, and the Grammy organization is inured to CBS’s cash, that’s what keeps the organization alive. That’s right, without CBS’s money, the Grammys are nothing, they don’t stand alone, they’re tools of the network and the major labels. Oops, I told the truth! But the truth is the younger generation who the Grammys depend on to watch have known the truth for years already, the Grammys appointment television? Why bother to watch at all!

It’s sad. Seeing these alta kachers parade the same formula year after year. It’s kinda like those old black and white reefer and sex movies they show in schools. The kids laugh at them, they’re completely out of touch. And in case you don’t know, the D.A.R.E. campaign was a complete failure.

Now if the Grammys were smart, and forward-looking, which they’re is not, it’s an old fart organization run by males, they would ask themselves what their mission is. Is it to provide perks for those on the board? To make a TV show? To raise money for charity? Or to shine a light on musical achievement.

That’s its true mission, the music.

And the truth is finally the Grammys are somewhat in touch. Yes, wait long enough and the world comes to you. In other words, it’s the eighty-odd categories that now matter. The emphasis should be much more on the down ballot awards, they shouldn’t be shunted to a separate broadcast. The truth is by exhibiting the work of the supposedly less popular, viewers will be intrigued, because they might actually learn something, might find they’re interested in these other genres.

Then again, that still might not work as a TV show, in a world of narrowcasting, maybe the Grammy telecast, assuming there even is one, needs to be broken down into fifteen or thirty minute segments.

And maybe it should not only be about performances. It should be about creativity. Yes, people tune into television when there’s STORY! There’s no story in the Grammys. It’s just awarding the overexposed. How someone made it. Their challenges. That would be interesting.

This is not rocket science, it just requires some of the innovative thinking employed to make great music. It requires a blank sheet of paper. We’ve lived through two plus decades of technological innovation, yet the Grammy telecast has remained the same… That’s a recipe for a DECLINING DISASTER!

https://vimeo.com/394734657

Pound for pound the Israelis make the best TV.

Canada and the U.K. punch far above their weight in music, but when it comes to TV series, there doesn’t seem to be a bad Israeli show, at least not one I’ve seen.

The best is “Prisoners of War.”

But really, for me it all started with “In Treatment,” the HBO therapy show that was lifted from the original Israeli series. And when HBO tried to extend it, beyond the initial two seasons of “BeTipul,” they failed. You just can’t recreate the Israeli ethos.

And what is that exactly?

A world where character is more important than action, where only so much money can be made so you focus on getting it right as opposed to getting rich. Where budgets cannot cover special effects, so it comes down to the script.

Of course “Fauda” has action, but that’s not what sells the show, it’s Doron and the rest of the characters. It all seems real. They’re fighting for a cause, and they could die tomorrow.

And there are so many other shows. “False Flag” on Hulu. “When Heroes Fly” on Netflix. “Srugim.” And of course “Shtisel.”

I preferred “Srugim” to “Shtisel,” but they’re both really good. And in “Shtisel” Akiva wants to marry Elisheva, but she’s tainted by being a widow two times over, and his family just won’t accept her.

Elisheva is played by Ayelet Zurer. Ayelet Zurer is the star of “Losing Alice.”

Zurer radiates intelligence, emotion, without even saying much. You’re drawn to her, she’s beautiful. Until she’s paired with Lihi Kornowski in “Losing Alice.” Kornowski is young and vibrant and makes Zurer appear to be the housewife she plays. Amazing juxtaposition. You sit there and watch and wonder what attraction really is.

And it works the other way too. Everybody wants to sleep with Gal Toren, who plays movie star David. But the truth is David and Zurer, Alice in this show, are supported by David’s mother, who knows no boundaries.

That’s a concept that is talked about in psychology that is addressed too infrequently, but when you see it, you immediately recognize it, whether it be in a TV series or real life. There are just certain people who cross lines with impunity, they don’t even think about it.

Like Sophie, played by Kornowski. She’s young and attractive and manipulative. She gets what she wants. And she doesn’t care what it takes to get it. Blurred lines? We’re not talking about Robin Thicke here, we’re talking about real life.

Every male has experienced this. Someone out of your league shows interest in you. How do you behave? Usually you play along in the moment, and maybe savor the experience a bit thereafter, but you know it was a one time deal.

Unless it’s not.

If they approach you again, if they want to continue, how do you deal with this? Some people run away. Some people go further until they freak out and pull the ripcord. Some people go all the way to the end, and ruin their lives or at least put a big dent in them.

Do you fly straight or take risks? Everybody does drugs, should you? Marijuana is essentially legal, does that mean you should smoke too? And if offered cocaine or mushrooms… Where do you draw the line? Some people never cross it, they stay on their side of the fence. They’ve paid their dues in pursuit of the life where you jump through hoops and you get what you deserve, but then some of these people are tempted. Like doctor Tamir in this show. Or Jeff Bezos. Are these women really interested in you, do you really have a chance?

Mo stayed with John Dean. To everyone’s surprise. But usually this is not the case.

Women are smart. And some know their ticket is their looks, and they expire, and they want to make the most of them while they can, like Sophie.

And, like Sophie, there are plenty of people who didn’t fit into the system, couldn’t get into the right college, couldn’t qualify for the course, but that does not mean they’re not smart. Oftentimes they’re much smarter than the achievers, because street smarts always trump book smarts, every single day.

So will you roll with the cool people to feel cool yourself, even though you’re really not, for the adventure, or..?

You could get in trouble. Alice does here. Even if you’re not trying, there could be a random police check that could net you.

They’re swimming at night and all I hear is my father’s voice in my head, DON’T!

Don’t ride on the back of cars.

Don’t dive into lakes in the dark.

I’m still here, a lot of people who did the above are not. I can still remember the stories growing up, I can still remember where they happened. But I’m neither rich nor famous, whereas people without portfolio came to Hollywood and made it. Yes, some O.D.’ed, like Don Simpson, who no one even talks about anymore. Some bounced from one tragedy to another, ruining their lives, like Jan-Michael Vincent. And you wouldn’t get in trouble if you had those roles, if you had the cash and the adulation…but playing it safe you can’t get the cash and the adulation.

And where are the boundaries in relationships? That sexy talk between friends, is it just talk or is there really something underneath, that you’d act on if you both weren’t married. And if you both weren’t married would you be interested in each other anyway?

Truthfully, we’re only half way through “Losing Alice.” And it’s not the best show I’ve ever seen, but I am hooked, I am not straying, we watched four episodes straight and if Felice hadn’t needed to sleep, I’d be on episode five right now.

Genre shows… They dominate streaming services. It’s much harder to write real life, real characters, something that reflects regular existence.

Like when you cross a boundary in your marriage and you can’t tell your spouse but the telltale heart is beating heavy inside, you can’t get your transgression off of your mind, acted so well by David in this show.

And life is boring and presented with a little excitement…are you really going to refrain from dipping your toe in?

Can you balance work and family. What are the costs?

Somehow they nail all this in Israeli shows. Maybe because Israel is a small country, like Canada, like the U.K., unburdened by the hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. who believe they live in the greatest country in the world. But if you’re not the behemoth, you pick and choose your entry points. Theoretically everybody can write a script. But can everybody write a good one?

And another pleasure of watching foreign TV is you see the same actors again and again, you’ll watch anything they’re in. Like Audrey Fleurot, in “A French Village” and “Spiral” and more. And Ayelet Zurer.

The truth is there’s a plethora of product out there and very little is great. And with everybody fighting for attention much of the great is hidden.

And “Losing Alice” is on Apple TV+, which everybody seems to have a free subscription to, but the ink goes to the business of the channel as opposed to the shows on the service.

So I’ve never heard anybody talk about “Losing Alice.” I found it doing research. And honestly the fact that it was Israeli was a plus. I didn’t even know it had Zurer in it until we watched it.

And like I said, “Losing Alice” is not fantastic, but much of the TV fare is mediocre. Made for a lowbrow audience which believes subtitles are anathema and three-dimensionality is hard to achieve, so why look for it. Most of the series you hear about are lousy, it’s just that there’s so much money invested the producers hype them, you don’t hear about the rest.

So you’re on your own.

Tonight we found “Losing Alice.”

Just when I was worried we’d hit all the highlights.

P.S. Watch “Losing Alice” in Hebrew, with English subtitles, not the dubbed version.

https://amzn.to/3v2tdxR

If this were a record, it would be the album of the year.

I’m not talking about a worthless Grammy, I’m talking about the one everybody would be talking about, would be wowed by, something that would push the envelope and herald the dawning of a new age.

Kind of like “Nevermind.”

But even after that we had “Jagged Little Pill.” Twenty five years later, Alanis Morissette is safe, but when you first heard “You Oughta Know” it was dangerous, talking about giving head in a theatre? This twenty one year old was not only intelligent and incisive, she was provocative and confident and unwilling to observe perceived boundaries. Push the boundaries today and you fear being canceled, misunderstood. Hell, all breakthrough artists are misunderstood at first. I’m talking about ones who have an impact, change the culture, don’t just sell tonnage.

Have you listened to this Julien Baker album?

For those not paying attention, it’s the holy grail of 2021. And then you push play and you immediately scratch your head…THIS? Now it becomes more palatable as it plays on, but not so much that you want to listen to it. In the old days, albums like this were promoted properly. As fringe, possibly approaching the center. When you promote them as mainstream you do the public a disservice. You just turn people off to new music. We’re looking for one listen wonders, like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the aforementioned “You Oughta Know,” that you have to listen to again and again, that become phenomena.

And speaking of phenomena… Morgan Wallen just notched his eighth week at number one. They keep releasing new product, but people still want Wallen. And if you divorce yourself from his faux pas/misstep/bad behavior and actually listen to “Dangerous” you’ll know why. And why do critics always excoriate that which is mainstream? Just because people like it doesn’t mean it is bad. But if critics like what everybody else does how can they feel superior, then they’re no different from the hoi polloi!

And it was a review that got me to reserve Chang-Rae Lee’s “My Year Abroad,” not that I could remember what it was about when Libby told me I could skip the line and have seven instead of the usual twenty one days to read it.

I was hooked right away.

Reading “My Year Abroad” I did not think of this crazy world of ours one bit. Not Biden, Trump, Covid… It took me away, and not only was that a relief, it made me want to go deeper. Actually, the plot did, it was so WILD!

Now the writing is kind of dense. As in if you like to breeze through a book and catch all the meanings and references, “My Year Abroad” will not satisfy you. Sometimes you have to reread a paragraph to know what is going on. Other times you just plow forward hoping for the best. But one thing’s for sure, you want to keep reading!

Do you say no or yes?

The truth is the rewards are in saying yes. But so are the dangers. Go off course and you can have exciting experiences, even make a big buck, but you could also O.D. or be killed by gangsters. Unfortunately I usually say no. But the winners say yes. Tiller says yes, he doesn’t check himself, he’s all-in.

But Tiller is positively average. He doesn’t go to the best college, he’s not the best looking. He doesn’t live in the best part of town. Nor is he a self-hating upper middle class person, afraid of evidencing any wealth, nor is he a holier-than-thou poor person, thinking they’re better than the rest of us just because they’re broke. Which is why the upper middle class is constantly self-denigrating, because if they flaunt their possessions or their lifestyle they’re going to be excoriated, especially online.

Not that anybody is paying attention to Tiller.

So the book opens with him meeting Val in the Hong Kong airport and then making a life with her and her eight year old boy. Yup, one chance encounter and his whole life changes.

Just like his meeting with Pong.

And really, all that’s just the set-up. And I don’t want to tell you any more because the twists and turns are what make “My Year Abroad” great. And the story is enough, but the wisdom sprinkled throughout bonds you to the book, because of the insight. Today either you’re playing to the masses or afraid of the masses. You’re either one of the group or letting your freak flag fly. But what if you’re so inconsequential, no one cares about you? That’s Tiller. And his insights are our insights. Those of us who don’t count, who don’t matter, but wonder what is truly going on.

“the 2-iron-thin ladies, who might eat just two jumbo shrimp out of five”

Makes you crazy! You’re at some restaurant, the shrimp cocktail is exorbitantly priced, and these ladies leave most to be thrown away. You want to rush by their table and steal them. They believe they’re superior, because they’re controlled. But get these same women home alone with a cheesecake or some other dessert and you’ll see different behavior. Wait, is that sexist? Have we come so far that the truth is off limits? Can we only think about this stuff and not write it down? As for a 2 iron, if you’ve ever played golf, it’s the hardest iron to hit, except for the 1, which is extremely rare. The head is small and vertical and…thin.

“You’d think the town would be bedbuggy with its hard-driving, self-overscheduled students, but they almost exclusively stay on their idyllic campus because there’s no time left for them to do anything else.”

He’s talking about a college in New Jersey, but that was my experience at Middlebury. If you went to the bar in town on a Sunday or Monday night…crickets. Those nights were for STUDYING! As if some book could substitute for life experience.

“Lots of overcharming, overarticulate children.”

You’ve met them! Their parents are well to do boomers. The kids have been enriched since birth. They don’t have jobs during high school, they go save the world, or study in England. And you can talk to them just like adults!

“Or protein-loaded broccoli for all those steadily starving vegans.”

You need protein to survive, never mind so many other nutrients. But these holier-than-thou vegans think they do not!

“Val wasn’t poking at her phone or listening to music or sipping a takeout coffee, which at this point are pretty much the compulsory modes for any Frist World human being.”

Come on, hang out in an airport lounge. Anywhere between stops in life, if there’s a free moment, people are staring into their phones.

“the moms who aren’t yet single-parenting”

Get it? They’re on the way to divorce. They’re gonna do it alone.

“Be greedy in your appreciations.”

Soak up life, be proud of it. We’re constantly told to keep ourselves in check. To be seen, not heard. Not to be loud. But the rewards of life come from being all-in and aware of what’s going on.

“I wanted to say something suitably salty, to connect and not have to connect in the way men do…”

They never outgrow this, boys continue to be boys, snapping towels, making scatological jokes. And you grow up and if you’re one of them, you have no idea there’s any other way. But if you’re not one of them, if you’re a loner, not popular, the kind of kid others make fun of, you feel completely different. You want to reveal your feelings, to the bros this is anathema. To play in their world you must not be serious, you must be looking for the laugh in every endeavor, you must twist every encounter into a sexual reference…

“though part of me was unsettled by all the male bonding, being raised and educated in a well-to-do progressive enclave and demographic that championed egalitarian ideals like inclusion and justice.”

These people can’t wait to go to college. And if you move up the educational food chain, there is no bro-ness at the top. There are popular and unpopular, but other than the jocks, intellect is key, along with analysis. Then again, when some of these boys graduate they adopt the language of the bros to survive in the business world.

“I noticed how to the man Spideyface and his guys were exceedingly polite and solicitous, with none of the rudeness or crass behavior you might expect from semi-gangsters but are more likely to get from the finance and corporate types, who are the real gangsters in this world.”

People have now realized this. We’re waiting for the screw to turn, for the world to flip, for these self-righteous pricks to get their comeuppance.

“breathe her in like she was a freshly baked Toll House cookie.”

You get the picture? Appeal to you? YES!

“because when a real song arises between you there’s not just a connection but in fact a sudden breach in the world, an opening that lets you touch a mystery.”

If only all those people waxing rhapsodic about Julien Baker could coin the above, nail the experience.

“the kind who can’t do anything or go anywhere without a full round of social media due diligence.”

You’ve got to see what your peers think. God forbid you take a risk on a new place.

“She was very frugal but smart about it, unlike her husband, who cut corners no matter what.”

This is how you become rich. You don’t downsize across the board. You see what can be cut and what cannot. You don’t want to cut that which will grow, but the money spent on appearances and good times? You can drop that right away. 

“I believe this happens to a lot of men my age. One is quite settled in every regard, but you look around your circles and wonder if you’ve made any truly close friends.”

Without women, most men would be home alone, every night. Or be on the couch with a guy talking women and sports and no true feelings. The truth is women have girlfriends, best friends. As they get older, most men do not.

“The thing about crazy folk is that either they’re truly crazy or they know something nobody knows, or can even detect.”

This is SO true. But you don’t know it unless you spend a lot of time around a crazy person. In so many ways they’re inadequate, they can’t function in society, but somehow they can see right through you, detect the flaw in a situation, it’s eerie, almost supernatural. Either you know this or you’ve never experienced it and probably never will. Freaky.

“I assumed that he’d ply me with the data-heavy information download that marks an autodidact…”

People feel inadequate, substandard, less than because they didn’t get a college degree. So they read and educate themselves and they’re constantly talking about what they’re consuming, whereas those who’ve actually graduated never talk about their college courses. That’s in the past.

Now the truth is all of these insights are secondary to the enjoyment of “My Year Abroad.” It’s really about the plot. The roller coaster. Only this roller coaster is out in the desert and you’re riding it at night in the pitch black and nobody knows you’re doing so and nobody cares either.

Welcome to real life.

Social media is a ruse, it’s just a way to fight our loneliness. Our constant companions are our brains, our minds, and we’re in them all the time. And everybody keeps telling us we’re missing out on the show. And then we feel even worse, as outsiders.

This book is the story of one little life. And the truth is every life has twists and turns worth telling. But most of them go unheard. Which means when you read this book about an ordinary guy who sometimes enters the extraordinary realm…you pay attention, you can resonate, you share a common bond.

Now I had no idea who Chang-Rae Lee was, but after finishing the book I decided to do some research. There was a review in the “New Yorker,” which gave away a ton of the plot and put the book in the context of Lee’s other work and then poked holes in the novel, pointing out its flaws, its inadequacies.

Have you ever hung with a household name beauty? They’re imperfect, they’re flawed, all human beings are. So, books are not evaluated by these wankers for the reading experience, instead they’re held to some standard no one can meet that is agreed upon by the New York cognoscenti, who never really reveal what the rules are. They’re like rock critics. But since books sell a fraction of the number of records, and take longer to consume, albeit not being repeatable, these royals get away with it. The same way the bosses at the ever consolidating publishers get away with their insane pricing model. Yes, the hardcover edition of this book is only ninety nine cents more expensive than the Kindle version. Even though there’s no printing, shipping or returns with digital assets. The music business is in a frenzy over NFTs and the book business is smugly doing its best to keep its marginal business stuck in the pre-internet era. To the point where aforesaid wankers can’t even acknowledge genius when they see it.

Was every track on “Jagged Little Pill” or “Nevermind” an A+? No, but that doesn’t matter. These acts were hewing to their own standard, not anybody else’s, that’s what made them so fresh.

“My Year Abroad” is fresh.

Here’s the deal. You can read the sample chapter free, that’s what Amazon provides. You can even check it out on your smartphone, and everybody’s got one of those. So I don’t want to hear from those idiots who said they bought the book and disliked it. You don’t have to do that anymore. And truthfully, few of my own readers have even gotten this far. But those who have are looking for a nugget, something special, something to make their little lives complete.

And that’s “My Year Abroad.”