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.”

People HATE this movie!

It’s got a confounding score on RottenTomatoes. It has 80% on the Tomatometer, the average of critics’ reviews, in this case 192, and a 37% audience score, with in excess of 1000 ratings. That’s enough data to be definitive.

Sometimes foreign shows have a lack of data. So you don’t know whether to trust RottenTomatoes. And oftentimes, the lowbrow public can’t handle a foreign show, so the critics’ ratings might be high and the hoi polloi’s low. But for a mainstream movie?

And that’s exactly what “I Care a Lot” is. A Hollywood production, made for opening weekend and hopefully longer. Almost high concept, and not purely authentic. A slice of life, but no one’s life who you know. It’s a caper, it’s an adventure, it’s a ride.

But now we no longer have to go to the cinema to see it!

Yes, I never would have paid to see “I Care a Lot,” because unless it’s truly legendary, I no longer trek to the theatre, it’s a bad experience, in toto. The movie plays at a specific time, always inconvenient, you’ve got to get there, you’ve got to endure the trailers…and the audience.

As for films needing to be seen on the big screen…

A couple of months back we got one of those LG OLED TVs. I thought it was completely unnecessary, we’ve got a top of the line Samsung from way back in 2007, LCD, which they no longer make anymore, I was wowed by the picture until…

We set the up LG.

It cost $2600. Felice blanched. I thought it was ridiculous.

But then I read an article that said if you just wait, the sets go down in price as the year progresses. There are new sets introduced in January at CES and…

The price went down to $2100. Still too much. But then just after Halloween Felice got the itch, she needed to get it. Me? I have trouble pulling the lever on almost any purchase, and as I said above, I thought it was completely unnecessary, I could not imagine a television better than the old trusty Samsung. We have a later Samsung model, an LED, top of the line, and the picture is nowhere close to the original 2007 one.

So I went online to buy the TV, and just that day the price declined to $1800! So then the question became who to buy it from. I believe in Amazon. But Felice was all uptight about removal, a service Amazon does not provide. Turns out Best Buy delivery is free, and if you pay just a bit more, they’ll detach and remove. But if you want the new one installed, you had to wait in excess of a month. So we bought it from Best Buy and I booked an installer from Thumbtack I’d used before. I swear by Thumbtack. Costs are cheaper and the people are so afraid of getting a bad rating they over-deliver.

And I’m glad we booked the installation, the mounting was easy, but the key was the installer tuned the set, since he installs these on a regular basis, he’s got the settings down. Which is good, because the thing came with no manual. As for all the built-in features, the apps, Alexa… I’ve learned they’re unnecessary. Because as the TV ages the apps on it are not updated, because streaming services write for new devices. Best to get a Roku. Which updates itself automatically. Which is better than the TV itself, which usually features an unbelievably slow chip.

So the guy set up the TV and my jaw dropped. I had no idea that a picture could be this good. I come from the school where unless the TV is broken, you continue to use it, the one in my office is a Panasonic from 2009. But it turns out I am wrong, the upgrade is worth it.

And if we were going to spend this much money, I had to be sure, was this set the best available? Everybody says so. Yes, the LG CX series. They just updated it, but the upgrades are superfluous. You want a 65″ set. A 75″ is a huge step up in price, basically a grand. As for anything smaller? Believe me, you want the 65″.

And sure, it’s 4k, but almost nothing is in that format. But the DETAIL! I could see the hairs on Rosamund Pike’s face.

Rosamund Pike. I never got it. She didn’t fit the image I had in my mind in “Gone Girl.” But here she is utterly amazing. Award-worthy. Which is one of the reasons I finally decided to watch this movie. I had it in the back of my mind, but since she won the Golden Globe… I know the Globes are ersatz and I hate to admit it swayed me but I was a bit reluctant to watch because everybody I knew who saw it HATED IT, just like on RottenTomatoes!

And Felice wanted me to turn it off after seven minutes. She saw where it was going and she didn’t want to go any further down this road.

But I was digging it.

Because of the production values. Because it was a MOVIE!

I prefer streaming series, there’s more character development. Also, all movies made for television are substandard, they’re made on a budget to fill a programming slot. They’re commerce, not art. They’re almost an insult, a time-suck.

But not “I Care a Lot.”

The money was spent. I felt just like I would at the theatre, only I was at home, starting at 8:25 PM. Do you know any movie that starts at 8:25 in a theatre? I’d been planning to fire it up at 8:05, but then my older sister called. And she said she hated it too. But I wanted to dive in anyway.

So it starts off with this rap about winners and losers. That is, what does it take to win?

That seems to be why the critics liked the film, for the social commentary.

As for the public? They had problems with the ending. I did not. Actually, I could pretty much see where it was going very early on. I was satisfied with the conclusion…

But really, it’s about the ride. Rosamund Pike is just so BAD!

Maybe you know some winners. Some billionaires. Some CEOs.

They did not get there by accident, don’t listen to a word they say, it’s all b.s., if they really told you what it took to make it to the top you’d be horrified! My father reinforced this to me again and again, he said SCHNOOKS GET SHAT ON! It’s a rough world out there, and if you’re not fighting to get ahead…

I can’t do that.

First, you’ve got to be good with people, you have to know how to smile and manipulate them. Business friends, that’s just what they are. It’s mutual masturbation to hopefully get where you want to go. If there was no money involved, no career advancement, you probably would never hang out with these people.

And then there are the winners.

First and foremost, you must play to win. You cannot be conciliatory, you’ve got to go for the jugular. But true winners know not to be aggressive and in your face all all the time. Most are charming, cunning, you think you’re set and then they knife you in the back.

Oh, don’t tell me I’m jaded and inaccurate. It’s like Jack Nicholson in that old movie, YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

And the twist starts with Dean, the lawyer. Leverage. Intimidation. Do you get scared, or do you want to stand up to the man? And the man doesn’t have to raise his voice, he can get his message across quite quietly.

As for women? Pike nails this again and again. How men have tried to intimidate her and have threatened her ad infinitum, but when push comes to shove…

Yes, there’s a feminist angle here too. And a lesbian relationship. So for those that say Hollywood is out of touch, behind the times, not in “I Care a Lot,” maybe not on Netflix.

So, at first you’re dazzled by the production values, the cinematography. And just when you think you’ve got the plot nailed, it switches. And then becomes a cat and mouse game. And towards the end it gets kind of ridiculous. Which is why on an absolute scale this movie is just a solid B. But in a sea of mediocrity, a solid B is worth your while. As for grade inflation? Those at the top know grades are irrelevant. They don’t care about degrees or pedigrees, that’s how the inadequate puff up. It’s what you deliver, what you’ve got. You don’t have to shine it up, either it radiates on its own or it does not, either it’s worth something or it is not.

So you can watch “I Care a Lot” as a conventional movie, and be pissed it doesn’t work out the way you want it too.

Or you can watch it as social commentary. And it does this quite well, without constantly banging you over the head.

Or, you can just strap yourself in and go on the ride. A ride without the corners cut off, like so much in today’s world, afraid of offending somebody they smooth off the edges and make it safe and ultimately unwatchable. But the truth is Rosamund Pike has got an edge inside so sharp it can cut through almost anything. But she covers it with a smile, with platitudes, and she gets her way. You know how this is, you sit around with your friends complaining about the person from your group who made it and left you behind. They’re now jive. They’re different. No, they were always this way, they just wanted it more than you, THEY NEEDED IT!

Rosamund Pike needs it. Money is everything to her. And for most people it is. Of course, intellectuals will watch the movie and ask WHAT DOES ROSAMUND PLAN TO DO WITH ALL THAT MONEY? You know people want to win the lottery, but then what? You can only buy so many houses and cars, there are twenty four hours in a day, how are you going to fill them? Drinking and drugging and…that gets old really quickly. No, you want to work, for the camaraderie, for the social interaction. Then again, who do you want to play with? Those at the top never play the lottery, they know the odds are against them, it’s a rigged game. No, they create the game, or bend the rules of the one they’re involved in. They need better odds. And the triumph is almost as rewarding as the cash. As for the cash? The successful want it for power more than for what it can buy. And respect from their peers. Who know they’re someone to pay attention to, because they know what it takes to make it that far, to get that rich.

So, about two-thirds of the way through this flick I couldn’t wait to recommend it. But when it drove to its conclusion, I was wavering. Now?

I don’t need to hear that you watched it and didn’t like it. Like I said above, MOST PEOPLE ARE WITH YOU!

But if you used to live to go to the movies, for the experience, to be led along by a sleek production, that’s what “I Care a Lot” delivers. If you saw it on the big screen you’d enjoy it, or hate it, just as much, you’d never say it was a TV movie, you’d never say it was cheap.

So it’s almost nostalgia, for those who remember movies in the days before they were all fantasies, with special effects and superheroes.

But in this case, it’s just a click away, on the flat screen, for you to watch.

“I Care a Lot” is not empty calories. It may not be wagyu, but it’s definitely not Burger King. It’s more akin to filet mignon. It delivers.

Maybe you’ll like it. I CERTAINLY DID!

https://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-oled65cxpua-oled-4k-tv

Responding to what Sasha Brown said, Bob, he’s right on about life on the road and the toll it takes, and the dedication it requires. Sometime in the mid-70s I came to realize that the artist was simply a money pump for the labels, the managers, the agents. I was travelling with, as I recall, five other musicians in my backup band, a sound engineer, a road manager and a truckload of gear.

His tale of driving back and forth across the country resonated. We were flying, not driving, but they had us playing — on consecutive nights — Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC. In that order. I was paid a LOT of money that week, but it all went out the windows to everybody else.

I wasn’t only a member of a band, I HAD a band. They got paid first, I got paid if there was any money left. I came to realize that on the first night of the week I was working for the Manager; on the second I was working for the Agent; the third paid the Band; the fourth went to the Hotels; the fifth to the Airlines. And IF there was a sixth night, I might get to keep a bit. I was making music, but my REAL job was to pump money out of the pockets of the public and into the bank accounts of the Industry.

I’ve been making music for something like 58 years now, and I still love it, can’t wait to get back on the road (though I’ll certainly keep up Rockport Sundays, my Patreon subscription series) — but I’m no longer beholden to record companies and managers, and am doing much better financially than when I was. All that glitter is expensive!

Tom Rush

Rockport Sundays: https://www.patreon.com/TomRush