I’ve written about John Dick and his polling company CivicScience and even had him on my podcast: https://apple.co/2QEJdXd

Anyway, John has started a podcast himself, “The Dumbest Guy in the Room,” and this week I’m on it: https://spoti.fi/39qeR1m

I cover a lot of ground re today’s landscape and we address topics not covered in the newsletter, so you might want to check it out.

In any event, be sure to sign up for John’s weekly e-mail full of insights if you haven’t already: https://bit.ly/3rI45df

Speak from the heart, not the head. Go with what feels right.

The more you think about it, the greater the chance you’re sacrificing your authenticity.

You can play to the audience or yourself. The audience changes, you don’t. Either draw people to you for who you truly are, a unique individual, or get left behind when tastes change.

Go for the long money, not the short. The news is always about the short money, influencers, people whoring themselves out for cash, the long story is not sexy enough for the news.

You can’t oversell. Either people are drawn to you or they are not. Your work is the advertisement, people either resonate with it or they don’t.

The more fake the news is, the more sold out politicians are, the more people are searching for truth, this is what you deliver.

Don’t lie about the past to make yourself supposedly look good. Don’t say you grew up poor if you didn’t. Don’t say it was God’s plan, it never was. Own the hard work you put in. You’re a beacon, a lesson, people know when you’re obfuscating.

The entertainment business is built on hype. Everybody will want you to cave to the machine. Not only news outlets, but your record label, your agent and quite possibly your manager. Your team only gets paid when you get paid. Acts come and go, you’re one and done if you screw up. It’s hard to stand up to the experienced, but you must.

Don’t posit you’re better than anybody else, you’re not.

Let the art speak for you. Clothes and other imaging take away from this. Yes, the fashion shoot gets you more attention and free clothes, but people know that’s exactly why you did it, and they don’t have the same opportunities, and you and your work resonate best when you’re seen as equal to them.

Own the fruits of your labor. If you fly private, you earned it. Don’t try to hide the truth, there’s no benefit.

Are you into lifestyle or art? Sure, you can take a vacation. But if you hang with people just because they are rich, or famous, you’re doing a disservice to not only your image, but your fans. People resent billionaires. Sure, they want to be them, but they know that really there’s no chance, especially in today’s America. But if you go on the yacht, if you’re seen hanging with the titans of industry, it’s going to work against you.

Speak truth to power. Never hold back.

Don’t constantly weigh in on what’s going on unless that’s part of your art.

Don’t complain about your hard life, no one wants to hear it.

You’re someone who came from nowhere and made it. You’re not someone who made it to Hollywood and forgot your old friends and where you came from.

Collaboration muddies credibility/authenticity. It’s one thing if it’s a charity project, but if you’re bringing in ringers to have a hit, believe me, the audience knows this. If you can’t write a hit song, then fine, but you haven’t got any credibility to begin with. Do not equate stardom with credibility. There are plenty of stars who have no credibility.

Credible artists can sell tickets off cycle, they don’t need a hit to draw their fans, their fans are bonded to them all the time.

Admit your mistakes.

Ignore the rabble-rousers. People will bait you, try to get you to react, it’s a no-win game.

Love and loss, that’s what life is about. Feel free to write about it and talk about it.

Success delivers opportunities that the hoi polloi are not privileged to get. If they relate to who you are, go for it. If not, hold back.

Your inner tuning fork is everything, if it doesn’t feel right, it isn’t.

You channel truth. That’s your job. 24/7.

There’s nothing wrong with humor, but people should be able to get the joke.

Don’t brag.

Don’t constantly thank your fan base. You generated the success, not them. Own your success, you did it, in a world where it’s nearly impossible to do.

You’re not in a popularity contest.

Chances are you’ll be denigrated and ignored, for not playing the game the way everybody else does. People hate it when you go your own way.

You’re gong to suffer, both personally and commercially. It’s the nature of life. It’s much easier to sell out and play the game, but then you don’t have a lasting career.

In today’s marketplace the hardest thing to do is sustain. Anybody can have momentary stardom, people like to watch the car crash. But when the wreckage is pulled from the highway, they stop thinking about it.

Don’t be attached to old paradigms. Adjust or you die. Albums are for statements, if you’re not making one long one don’t hold back until you’ve got ten or twelve songs to have a release, drop material more frequently, there’s nothing a fan wants more than more material, deliver it, forget conventional wisdom, publicity, you’re building your fan base one by one, it’s an edifice, which only you can construct and you can own, don’t expect everyone else to pay attention.

Don’t pander.

Do the hard work, don’t cut corners.

Your work is everything. Don’t do something just because the experienced producer tells you to. They move on, you own the final product, forever.

Take chances, now, more than ever, your failures don’t haunt you.

You’re human, you react, you don’t want to be media-trained to the point where your rough edges are sanded off, then again, the media is always out to get you and always gets it wrong.

You’re making music for the loner lying in bed at night listening to your music to prevent suicide, not the team captain hanging with his buddies. Music is inherently personal. The broader it gets, the less authentic and credible it is. If you’re making music for the masses, for the playlists, to fit in, you’re doing it wrong.

Fans must feel like they own you, but don’t be controlled by them.

Everybody’s so different, but you haven’t changed. That’s success. And better not to change. More money means better meals and better wheels, for everybody, it doesn’t mean you’re fabulous and go to all the trendy spots and hang out.

Manipulation is obvious. Everybody knows reality television is fake, everybody knows the Kardashians have had plastic surgery. They’re selling a fantasy, there’s nothing credible or authentic about it. But when they’re gone, they’re done, your music should last forever, it should ride shotgun in the fans’ lives always.

Try to be nice to everybody, but if you’re overburdened or someone takes advantage, feel free to bark back. Ironically, the more you do this, the more credible and authentic you appear. People know you’re being hounded. Actually, fans tend to be respectful, it’s the loonies who stalk you, who want personal attention, ten percent of the public are loonies, and you never know who they are, and they’re in all fields, don’t play to them, but those who understand and respect you.

Do interviews/podcasts with those who have a reputation for credibility and authenticity. This is why an appearance on Howard Stern means so much, not because of the size of his audience, but because of the bond his audience has to him.

Constantly experiment and evolve. Staying in a rut is death. Furthermore, everybody experiments and evolves, that’s the nature of life, you don’t want to be seen as someone people listened to way back when, you don’t want to be stuck in time.

If you wear glasses off stage, wear them on stage, or wear contacts. Don’t stumble through life not seeing just to look better.

How you look can help you, but that’s not what you’re selling. The Beatles were beautiful, but they would have been successful even if they were ugly.

Live life. You can’t be authentic if you’re detached. Read the news, watch television, it’s inspiring. It’s in your down moments, when you’re not working, when you’re off the clock, that you’re most inspired.

Your job is to create art, not to be a star.

Don’t be swayed by trends, they’ll kill your career overnight. People still hate Rod Stewart for “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?,” never mind his “American Songbook” records. He forgot who his core audience is, and now he wants hit core audience to still care, most don’t.

Be organic, don’t manipulate the game. Don’t try to get someone on some new platform to use your material to create a success. Leave it to your fans.

You’re an artist, not a business person. We don’t want to hear about your tech investments, unless they’re passion projects. If you’re in it to get rich, you’re in the wrong game. You can make a lot of money in music, but nowhere near that of the Silicon Valley and tech titans. But, do it right and you can make the titans nervous. Facebook ruins the world but no artist will stand up to the platform for fear of alienating Zuckerberg, putting a dent in their exposure and future. You can attack bad actors, just don’t make it a crusade, that’s someone else’s job.

Don’t get behind every charity project unless that’s part of your image, part of your art.

Products are inert, art is not. So be wary of attaching yourself to products.

Endorsements are off the table, unless you truly believe in something and use it constantly. Which means chances are it’s not going to be one of the big products always looking for a celebrity endorser, but something more personal. Endorse Genesee, not Budweiser. Genesee is crap, but if you grew up in upstate New York and it was your beer of choice and you still drink it, go for it. An endorsement must be almost a joke, like “they’re paying me to say I use it, I use it all the time already!”

Let your fan club buy tickets early, not Amex holders.

Don’t worry about keeping ticket prices down, diehard fans will pay anything to see you, you’re worth it, don’t bitch about scalpers. But that does not mean you cannot say you’re using platinum to get rid of scalpers. Sometimes you have to explain high ticket prices. And also, like the ten percent of the public who are loonies, ten percent always think they should be able to sit in the front row for every show for almost nothing, ignore them.

Festivals… Play ’em. It’s a good way to reach a new audience. It may be the only way to reach a mass audience. There’s no stigma anymore. But if you’re gonna go on first, you must be just starting out, because almost no one will see you.

Don’t be afraid to live the life of a musician. You do it to get high and get laid, don’t stop, just don’t take undue advantage, don’t cross the line, assume everything is being filmed and act accordingly.

Drugs are not cool, your music is cool. If you’re working so hard you need drugs to cope, get off the road, stay home, chill out.

Your feelings are everything. Channel them in music and lyrics. 

Now THAT’S a rock star!

I’m trying to remember the first time I encountered Henry Huggins.

Back in the fifties, you didn’t learn how to read before you went to school, not even in kindergarten, reading was for the first grade. My younger sister Wendy always told us she could read at three, but I never truly believed her, maybe because I was jealous, that she was starting before me, that she’d jump ahead of me, and life is nothing but competition, you learn this at an early age, especially in families.

Miss Godfrey was our first grade teacher. At least that’s how I remember it. Do you ever lie awake at night trying to reconstruct your school history? Not only the teachers you had in elementary and high school, but the courses you took in college? I used to know them by heart, now they’re drifting away, like the faces of those in my graduating class at Andrew Warde High School. The fiftieth reunion was delayed. It’s been rescheduled, as Carly Simon would sing, it’s coming back ’round again, but I don’t think I’ll go. I’ll almost definitely not go. Reviewing the names on the class list I was reminded that I didn’t enjoy their company so much the first time around, why suffer another bite of the apple? But even worse, I don’t know who most of them are. They tell me that reunions are really about hanging with your friends, but if they were truly friends I’ve kept up contact, as for the rest…

So, they start you off with big letters. Then sounds, then words, and suddenly you’re reading. In retrospect, it’s a miracle. And these teachers have the patience of a saint, because not everybody gets it at the same time. And I never wanted to be a teacher, I didn’t want to be stuck in time, the students moved on, they stayed where they were. But the older I get the more I understand it, then again, teaching used to be a respectable, middle class job, now you’re fighting for survival, unless you live in one of those off the grid backwaters like Centerbury. There used to be a lot of them, remember Mayberry? But now, in truth, they no longer exist.

And when you finally get a hold of it, they pass out books. This was a different era, today no one wants to own anything, why should they, when what they want is at their fingertips, on demand, and you can always get the latest iteration, as opposed to something passed down over the years, oftentimes out of date. You remember that stamp in the front cover of school books. You had to write your name down. You saw everybody who had it before you. And if the book was really old, there were not enough lines, you had to enter your name beneath the grid. But even worse was the dates. I remember when it was a thrill reading books written in the sixties, woo-hoo! But most of the school books were years old.

But you had the sense of ownership. Which you were proud of. At least until you got to junior high and they made you cover the books, to protect them, tomes that were oftentimes well past their sale date anyway. Remember getting a brand new school book? That was a rare event.

But in first grade they don’t make you cover the books. Then again, you don’t take them home. They don’t have that many words on the page, you graduate from one book to the next, just a little bit more difficult, and about halfway through the year, when you’re up to speed, you get the “Weekly Reader.” I remember reading about the construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. I don’t think it was until I was an adult that I finally realized where it went. But the “Weekly Reader” was my first periodical, I’ve been hooked by periodicals ever since. In truth, I gave up reading books for magazines long ago, and I didn’t come back to books until Felice gifted me a Kindle back in 2009. I want something vivid, something up-to-date, information that I can use, that fills out my worldview. Then again, the internet is killing magazines, and in truth it’s about time, they’ve outlived their usefulness, it turns out very few had high standards of writing, and now that we can get what we want from experts 24/7…they seem quaint.

I also don’t remember the first time I went to the library. Fairfield Woods Elementary School had its own. Did your school? I think that’s a feature. But really, it was the downtown library that hooked me, there were two, the one for adults and the one for children. My mother used to dump me in the kids’ one while she did her business in the adult building, and I pulled books and discovered… Is that where I first encountered Henry Huggins?

You remember Henry, there was that damn donut machine. But back then they still spelled it “doughnut.” Talk about a vivid memory. Come on, you can see it in your mind. Having to eat all those doughnuts to find the lady’s necklace. It’s one of my most striking childhood memories!

Not that I ever related to Henry himself, I thought he was kind of a doofus. But, he had a life in his town and although it seemed more of a backwater than mine, he was living in a world where the big issues did not matter, where everything was personal, it was a kid’s eye viewpoint, and that I could appreciate.

And then I found out that Henry Huggins had an entire book!

I believe I first read a Huggins story in an anthology. Maybe in school, maybe in a library book, and then when I was cruising the aisles of the library…

I remember reading about the doughnut machine before anybody else in my class knew about it, and then everybody did. In truth, as much as you recommend books, you want them to be personal, you want to own them, you have a special relationship with them and you don’t want to share.

So I got hooked by Henry.

And that’s where I encountered Beezus, and Ramona.

Now in Beverly Cleary’s obits they focus mostly on Ramona…

Wait a second, it turns out my memory isn’t that good! I wanted to make sure I had their identities right, Beezus and Ramona, and doing research I learned that it was HOMER PRICE and the doughnut machine, not Henry Huggins! And Homer was kind of a doofus, but this now makes it clear, I discovered Henry Huggins at the library, all by my lonesome,

In today’s era of child enrichment, you feed kids books. But back in the dark ages, kids found them on their own. Assuming you were looking. You see some people learn how to read and the whole world opens up to them. And others see reading as a chore, something school makes you do, and turn off right away.

So, do you know what it’s like to find the travails of Henry Huggins all by your lonesome? Not through word of mouth, not by parental push, but purely via your own hunt fueled by curiosity?

You remember curiosity, don’t you? Too many adults have lost the ability to be curious, but if you’re a young kid, your whole life is consumed by curiosity, you want to know EVERYTHING! Life is a bazaar, that is sometimes bizarre, and you can’t get enough of it. The same thing is true as you age, and the discovery process can be just as enticing, it’s just that while they’re teaching to the test they leave this lifetime learning skill out, the ability to be interested, peel back the layers, analyze…

In any event, I read Henry Huggins long before the Beverly Cleary tsunami. It’s like I found her in her Hamburg days. Or maybe on the first single, before she broke big. But I knew she was great, and I had to read everything of hers that I could get my hands on.

But there was no internet back then. I’m stunned reading her bibliography, all these books I never came across, never mind one I did!

Yes, that was called “Centerbury Tales.” That’s where Henry and his compatriots lived. Maybe it’s an anthology, a greatest hits, but I’ve always remembered it, because even at that young age I knew it was a takeoff on “Canterbury Tales.”

Kind of like Henry Huggins himself. His name always reminded me of the character in “My Fair Lady,” Henry Higgins. I thought Beverly Cleary did this on purpose. Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. But that’s one of the great things about being a reader, you come with your own background, you add your own insights, which is why great songwriters tell you what you think the lyrics mean is just as important as what they do.

Anyway, “Beezus” was short for “Beatrice.” The only Beatrice I encountered growing up was Beatrice Foods, which made Dannon yogurt, which my father ate and I did not, back when yogurt was considered a health food. And when that royal family member was named Beatrice… It stuck with me, still does.

And it was Ramona who was the terror. A pain in the ass. Beezus was Henry Huggins’ contemporary, and when you’re in the single digits, age is everything. And the truth is every kid comes with their own personality, I didn’t learn that until recently, I thought you could groom them, make them your own, but that is untrue, you can stifle their personality, but you can’t eliminate it.

And Ramona couldn’t be stifled. Come on, you remember growing up. You’d be in a group and tell the younger kids, the hangers-on, to go home, you were going on an adventure and you didn’t want them to hold you back. At some point they’d cry and…if they came along, they always did. Then again, there was always a kid who could act like their elders, fit in, and they were embraced.

Also, as parents have more children they become less strict, and the younger ones have fewer boundaries and act out more, and without constant supervision they go their own way, get into their own trouble. Then again, does this even happen anymore? We were never supervised. We were told to go outside and not come back until supper. Playing inside? Illegal, only if it was dark or raining. Those were my mother’s rules, back before you spoke back to your parents, for if you did you paid the price, usually with a hand or the belt or the hairbrush or soap in your mouth. Yes, by today’s standards, we were abused children. But we survived. And survivors are always proud, they don’t want to make it easier for those who come after. Like the bar exam, they just shortened it, made it easier to pass, because not enough people could jump the hurdle in California, which was the highest in the nation. Then again, it’s progress.

But some things are forever. Most are not, but then there are Beverly Cleary’s books, not only read by new generations, but remembered by everybody who read them.

And the truth is you outgrow the books of your youth, your reading skills improve and you move on. Actually, it’s kind of a thrill, to have your world widened, to be able to comprehend more.

But getting my memories in order, I now remember Henry Huggins was not a doofus. He didn’t feel like a brother so much as a kid I’d like to befriend if I lived in his neighborhood. Funny how you find your level, your friends, your matches. For me, it’s people with an interior life, who are never the most popular.

So, Beverly Cleary died, at 104, quite a long ride, no complaints. And most of the obituaries talk about the arc, the transition from Henry to Ramona as the star, kind of like with Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. It was Huckleberry’s show, Yogi just had a feature, but you can’t keep a star down, they shine and…

I hope I’m not gonna die soon. You never know, people have been dropping like flies, some from Covid, some not. And it all makes you realize your time here is limited. Everything they tell you about life is true, it goes by in the blink of an eye. Life is short, but it’s also very long, quite a conundrum. And when the years go by, what do you remember? Oh, the stupid TV shows you watched. Maybe most of those you had sex with, their names fade too. But Henry Huggins, Beezus and Ramona…THEY’RE FOREVER!

That’s quite a skill, try to match that. You paid your dues, you built a career, and if you broke through at all, chances are it’s only your generation that is aware and cares about you.

But not Beverly Cleary. Her books mean as much to younger generations as they did to us. They lasted. There was no plan, it just turned out that way. That’s what happens when you start, when you do your best to be original, when you try to write truth as opposed to fantasy, when you’re concerned with what resonates as opposed to what impresses. If only we had more of this. This is what we’re looking for in all of the arts. Something different, out of the norm, something that does not pander, something that reverberates.

Like Henry Huggins. And Beezus and Ramona Quimby.

NOTE: DO NOT EMAIL ME WITH WHAT HAPPENS AFTER EPISODE 4. AS FOR SPOILERS BELOW, REALLY THERE ARE NONE.

We don’t make shows like this in America.

In America, your problems are always secondary. You’re told to be thankful that you’re one of the haves as opposed to the have-nots. Lucky you were born in the greatest country in the world. Of course, people are starving in Europe.

Although they aren’t anymore. But this is what I heard growing up. That’s why I had to finish everything on my plate. Last week it was reported that the average American wastes $3.50 in food every day. Why is our entire nation focused on what we put in our bodies? On one hand, chefs are exalted and cooking shows are triumphant, on the other we keep hearing that we’re eating all wrong, too much, and now we’re throwing it all away?

And it’s impossible to do it right. According to everybody else. You’re eating meat, you’re not eating meat. If you just don’t eat this one thing you’ll be healthy, why is everybody in our business when the truth is they don’t care about us?

Yes, your problems reside in the backseat, if they’re in the vehicle at all. Your tribe is more important, the fight between the enlightened and the ignorant. And now they’re demonizing private schools. Let me tell  you, even though I’ve got no kids, there’s not a parent alive who doesn’t want the best education for their kid, and if they can afford it, they’ll pay for it. I went to college where 45% of the students came from prep schools, and believe me they were prepared, they made me feel like I’d stayed at home reading comic books while they were getting educated in the classics. I thought you pronounced “Celtic” like the basketball team.

That’s another thing an elite education will teach you, how to interact with elite players. You’re sitting at home, believing you can make it if you try, but the truth is you probably can’t, because not only are you unaware of the game, you don’t understand the mentality of the players. I’ll give you a tip, if you meet someone famous…DON’T TALK ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS, DON’T TALK ABOUT WHAT MADE THEM FAMOUS!

But those who’ve been through the system always look back and tear down their exact experience. Which is a head-scratcher, you taught at the elite private school, now you want everybody to go to public school, why didn’t you teach in the public school to begin with?

And I went to public school, but that’s not the point. The point is the only truth that remains is your own, your personal truth. And I’m not talking about the big issues, the economy, I’m talking about your emotions, your choices, chances are you get no direction. And if you get direction, it’s heavy-handed. David Fishof told me he started his rock fantasy camp for doctors, they’re the biggest customers, they spent their whole lives doing something they didn’t want to. Really, they just wanted to be musicians, but their parents wouldn’t approve, and the path was not clearly delineated and the truth is most people would like to be told what to do rather than have to figure it out for themselves.

Like the super-religious.

That’s what “Shtisel” is about, the ultra-orthodox living in the modern world, trying to resist its temptations as they walk a path established for millennia. Orthodox Jews do that in America too. Education is focused on the Torah, not on math and social studies. You have a zillion children. And the government is your safety net. Makes me crazy when other Jews make Jews look bad. Then again, they’ll say they’re saving Judaism, and they may be right, intermarriage in America, the western world, is putting a huge dent in the Jewish population, Judaism just may fade out of its own accord, wouldn’t so many people be happy if it did.

But the Shtisel family lives in Israel. And the Shtisel family doesn’t want to tell everybody else how to live, they look down on everybody else, they just know how they and their tribe live. And you can try to leave, but years of indoctrination, life in the cult, will have you coming back. You yearn for freedom, but you can’t tolerate it. And that’s not only in religious families, think about all the dreamers who just can’t leave their hometown, they’re stuck in a rut, being who they were always supposed to be.

So, Akiva doesn’t fit the mold. Do you know what it’s like not to fit the mold? You feel the blowback everywhere. You can be the teacher’s pet, they dig that, but question authority and you’re out, you’re a troublemaker, even though all the Silicon Valley titans were rulebreakers, it’s part of the American ethos, to think individually and push the envelope, it’s astounding that so many people want to keep us mired in the past.

And you can have a parent who says they care about you, but really cares only about themselves, unless there’s a crisis. Shulem is focused on his job, as headmaster of the cheder, the school, it’s his complete identity, and when it is jeopardized…you cannot take away a man’s job, it’s defines their essence.

So, Akiva lives on emotions and it’s constantly getting him in trouble. He’s late to marry, but he wants a love match. Nobody else gets a love match! And at what age do you become betrothed? When you’re still in school, assuming, if you’re female, that you’re in school at all. It’s scary just to watch, you get married, start having kids, how are you supposed to feed them?

And they may not be endlessly studying, but the women are the heart of the family. The men can’t live without them, and although the wives are supportive, they end up making the final decisions, pushing the family forward.

But all the issues of humanity don’t evaporate just because you’re religious. Nukhem is depressed by personal loss, he can’t get off the couch. Hopefully you’ve never been there, too many have. And Racheli Warburg is rich, really rich, but it doesn’t solve all of her problems, she’s got nobody in her life, and your money won’t make you happy.

And Akiva can’t detach from the past, never mind move into the future.

Ruchami gets married to get out of the house, she gets almost no attention from her young husband who is constantly studying, but she wants what she wants, and that’s…a baby.

Nechama reconnects with her childhood love, their affection never waned, it resided in the back of their minds, just waiting for reignition upon running into each other again.

And people hide the truth, from not only others, but their spouses.

These are all the issues people have, all over the world.

Parents want the best for their children, which might not be the best for the kids. Parents are worried about image. Children are told what to do but can they ever break free?

And finding someone to love… If there were arranged marriages would there be so many mass shootings? Too often they’re perpetrated by those who can’t get laid. What if they could? But we live in a society where you’re either a winner…or everybody else. And if you’re everybody else, you’re ignored and told to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. How exactly do you do that again? I couldn’t have a long term relationship until I went to see a psychiatrist. How could I? I was constantly teased by my family, told what to do, no one satisfied them, and my father was anything but a man’s man, anything but a bro. If anything, my father was the anti-bro, chastising the groupthink and baked-in elitism of the bros. Yes, there are hierarchies not only in business, and if you’re not a member of the group, you’re forgotten. Akiva? Just marry someone and work at the cheder, that’s the family business, everybody else does what they’re told, puts their mind on hold, how come you can’t?

“Shtisel” came back for its third season this week. The last one was five years ago. Things have changed, not only in situation but age, people look older, more mature. And it’s been the highlight of my week so far. Because I’m yearning for truth, I’m yearning for the personal, I’m yearning to relate. Isn’t that what art is supposed to be all about, reflecting ourselves back at each other? You’re not gonna get that in “Peaches,” Justin Bieber’s juvenile new song:

“I got my peaches out in Georgia (Oh, yeah, sh_t)

I get my weed from California (That’s that sh_t)

I took my chick up to the north, yeah (Badass bi_ch

I get my light right from the source, yeah (Yeah, that’s it)”

And you know how many people it took to write that? Can anybody identify with those words? At best they’re aspirational, but really they’re just cartoon dreck. Yet, “Peaches” is #1 and is lauded by all music outlets. It’s like we live in a disinformation society. Same deal with TV shows. Everybody watches what is served up to them, by the network, cable outlet or Netflix algorithm. You can research to find out what’s great, but that’s too much effort, even though everybody lives on their mobile all day long.

Brian Wilson had it right over fifty years ago. He sang about being in his room. We all live in that room. You can hang with your bros, but at some point you’ve got to retire to your bed, what goes through your brain then? Or do you do your best to shut it off, with a mantra, or affirmations, or some other third world wellness b.s.

Yes, there are tons of people who will tell you how to live your life. But the challenge is if YOU can live your life, if YOU can make your choices. Most people are too scared to do this.

Everybody’s the same. No matter how rich or poor. We’ve all got the same problems, and we’re all told our problems are irrelevant, don’t amount to a hill of beans, that we must focus on bigger issues. But first world problems are just as significant as third world problems, if you’re living in your body and are aware. And the truth is you can never shut off your mind, just can’t be done.

The best art draws you in, you meld with it. You don’t watch it, you feel it.

I feel “Shtisel,” and the worst thing is in five episodes it’s gonna end, then what am I gonna do?

We’re all looking for that hit. And despite the plethora of information, of options, it’s very hard to find that connection, that stimulation, that feeling that makes you warm inside, that has you cracking a smile, opening your mouth and saying ahh…

Chances are you can’t relate to the “Shtisel” situation at all. Chances are you’re not Jewish, and chances are if you are Jewish, you’re not super-Orthodox.

But that’s irrelevant, you’ll connect with “Shtisel” just as much.

Art is best when it’s about people. And their truth.

Like “Shtisel.”