Spotify Playlist: https://spoti.fi/3rAuBXq

THE LATE SHOW

Everyone I’ve ever known has wished me well
Anyway, that’s how it seems, it’s hard to tell
Maybe people only ask you how you’re doing
‘Cause that’s easier than letting on how little they could care
But when you know that you’ve got a real friend somewhere
Suddenly all the others are so much easier to bear

Now, to see things clear it’s hard enough, I know
While you’re waiting for reality to show
Without dreamin’ of the perfect love
And holding it so far above
If you stumbled onto someone real, you’d never know

You could be with somebody who is lonely too
(Sometimes it doesn’t show)
He might be trying to get across to you
(Words can be so slow)
When your own emptiness is all that’s gettin’ through
There comes a point when you’re not sure why you’re still talking
I passed that point long ago
(Long ago)

LATE FOR THE SKY

Now, for me some words come easy
But I know that they don’t mean that much
Compared with the things that are said when lovers touch
You never knew what I loved in you
I don’t know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be

DEAR LANDLORD

Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don’t underestimate me
I won’t underestimate you

SIGN ON THE WINDOW

Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids who call me “pa”
That must be what it’s all about,
That must be what it’s all about

IT’S ALRIGHT, MA (I’M ONLY BLEEDING)

Advertising signs that con you 

Into thinking you’re the one 

That can do what’s never been done 

That can win what’s never been won 

Meantime life outside goes on 

All around you

While one who sings with his tongue on fire 

Gargles in the rat race choir 

Bent out of shape from society’s pliers 

Cares not to come up any higher 

But rather get you down in the hole that he’s in

MONEY TALKS

Show me a man who says he can live without bread
And I’ll show you a man who’s a liar and in debt.
There’s no one alive who can’t be purchased or enticed
There’s no man alive who wouldn’t sell for a price,
Money talks and we’re the living proof,
There ain’t no limit to what money can do
Money talks, money talks.

BABY I’M A STAR

Hey, look me over
Tell me do you like what you see?
Hey, I ain’t got no money
But honey I’m rich on personality
Hey, check it all out
Baby I know what it’s all about
Before the night is through
You will see my point of view
Even if I have to scream and shout

Baby I’m a (star)
Might not know it now
Baby but I are, I’m a (star)
I don’t want to stop, ’til I reach the top
Sing it (we are all stars!)

SHOWER THE PEOPLE

You can run but you cannot hide
This is widely known
Now what you plan to do with your foolish pride
When you’re all by yourself alone

Once you tell somebody
The way that you feel
You can feel it beginning to ease
I think it’s true what they say
About the squeaky wheel
Always getting the grease

Better to
Shower the people you love with love
Yes and show them the way that you feel
I know things are gonna be just fine
If you only will, what I like to do to you

IF HE’S EVER NEAR

They say just once in life
You find someone that’s right
But the world looks so confused
I can’t tell false from true

… And love’s so hard to find
In this state of mind
Oh i hope I’ll know him
I hope I’ll know him
If he’s ever near

LIFE DURING WARTIME

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,
This ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey,
I ain’t got time for that now

Transmit the message, to the receiver,
Hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas,
You don’t even know my real name

I’M BAD, I’M NATIONWIDE

Well I was rollin’ down the road in some cold blue steel
I had a blues man on the back, and a beautician at the wheel
We going downtown in the middle of the night
We laughing and I’m jokin’ and we feelin’ alright

Oh I’m bad, I’m nationwide
Yes I’m bad, I’m nationwide

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM LIFE

What do you want from life
To kidnap an heiress
or threaten her with a knife
What do you want from life
To get cable TV
and watch it every night

There you sit
a lump in your chair
Where do you sleep
and what do you wear
when you’re sleeping

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?

DON’T TAKE ME ALIVE

I’m a bookkeeper’s son
I don’t want to shoot no one
Well I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don’t take me alive
Got a case of dynamite
I could hold out here all night
Yes I crossed my old man back in Oregon
Don’t take me alive

THE FINER THINGS

While there is time
Let’s go out and feel everything
If you hold me
I will let you into my dreams
For time is a river rolling into nowhere
We must live while we can
And we’ll drink our cup of laughter

TUNNEL OF LOVE

Well, it ought to be easy, it ought to be simple enough
Yeah, man meets woman and they fall in love
But this house is haunted and the ride gets rough
You’ve got to learn to live with what you can’t rise above
If you want to ride on down, down in through this tunnel of love

REAL LOVE

Darlin’, I know I’m just another head on your pillow
If only just tonight, girl, let me hear you lie just a little
Tell me I’m the only man that you ever really loved
Honey, take me back in my memory place
When it was all very right, so very nice, so very nice

MY OLD MAN

My old man, he’s a singer in the park
He’s a walker in the rain
He’s a dancer in the dark
We don’t need no piece of paper from the city hall
Keeping us tied and true no, my old man
Keeping away my blues

SONG FOR SHARON

A woman i knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
And so far from satisfaction

PHIL COLLINS

Just as I thought I’d make it
You walk back into my life
Just like you never left

Just as I’d learned to be lonely
You call up to tell me
You’re not sure if you’re ready
Oh, but ready or not, you’ll take what you’ve got and leave

Oh, leave me alone with my heart
I’m putting the pieces back together again
Just leave, leave me alone with my dreams
I can do without you, know what I mean

YOUR TURN NOW

The moon was yellow

And the sky was cool 

The night can make a promise of love

Or it can make you a fool 

Would anybody know it If the real thing shined?

You’ve seen so many movies 

You’d probably think it was a line

SOMETHING SO RIGHT

When something goes wrong
I’m the first to admit it
I’m the first to admit it
But the last one to know
When something goes right
Well it’s likely to lose me
It’s apt to confuse me
It’s such an unusual sight
I can’t get used to something so right
Something so right

Tune in today, July 27th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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

“As Virus Cases Rise, Another Contagion Spreads Among the Vaccinated: Anger – Frustrated by the prospect of a new surge, many Americans are blaming the unvaccinated. A tougher stance may backfire, some experts warn.”: https://nyti.ms/3BPGJZ6

How come we’ve got to be nice to them when they’re not nice to us!

I can’t stop following the news. That’s where all the action is. It was in the arts in the twentieth century, movies and music, and in tech from the late nineties until the early teens, but now it’s all news. And all we hear is we need to stop talking about it, stay in our lanes.

That’s right, wankers keep telling us it’s the same as it ever was when it’s not! Democracy is at risk. Call it creeping fascism. Call it creeping authoritarianism. But whenever you bite back, all we hear is cries from the right, the same people who had their panties in a twist when they were called deplorables!

They were and are deplorables, that’s right. If Hillary Clinton had only had a backbone and doubled-down, she might have won. But she was so busy triangulating and trying to appease that her mealy-mouthed approach satisfied almost no one and she lost.

And who won? A lying bloviator whose acolytes refused to hold him accountable, impeached twice he skated and then he pardoned all his lackeys. Consequences? Zero!

I thought there would be riots in the street when they eviscerated abortion. But nothing ever happens. It’s the right that’s out protesting, not the left. If it doesn’t directly affect you, people don’t care. But this covid thing? It affects everybody!

Never have I felt more powerless. The news reports the heinosity but absolutely nothing happens. I went to the L.A. Holocaust museum and was stunned to find out the truth/reality was printed in the newspaper. But since Americans were here and not there, and most weren’t Jewish, people shrugged their shoulders and nothing happened. It’s not radically different today.

The problem is most people are not in the crossfire. They think they know what is going on on the right, but truly they have no idea. And the truth is you’ve got a bunch of crazies, religious in the belief of their cause if not truly religious, or both, circling the wagons, arming up, changing life for those around them and willing to fight to the death to insure their way of life dominates.

States keep passing these anti-voter laws under the falsehood that there’s voter fraud and the U.S. Senate can’t even get together and pass a law embracing people’s right to vote! That’s like saying captains are only giving life preservers to those who are rich and taking them away from those who are poor and there’s nothing you can do about it. As for the Republican heavy Supreme Court, good luck with that. The court of last resort is tilted, it keeps telling us there’s no racism in America and no voting protections are needed. Huh?

Whenever things don’t go the right’s way, whenever it looks like they might not go their way, they’re up in arms, crying, loudly. Never mind their insane agenda being promoted everywhere, one of hatred and exclusion. But try to call them on it and all you hear is FOUL!

That’s right. We’re supposed to respect the unvaccinated. We’re supposed to love them. We’re supposed to try and understand them. But there’s no reciprocal effort! We’re laughable snowflakes. Communists. Who are ending life in America as we (they) know it.

And Joe Biden blows the whistle on Facebook and what do all the media outlets say? FOUL JOE! Blame the people, not the institution. So Joe backs away. EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU GET DISINFORMATION ONLINE, PRIMARILY SOCIAL MEDIA, but when Joe states the truth he’s at fault. Why?

I hear from these people every day. They tell me not to be afraid, to go out and live my life like they do. Meanwhile, their unvaccinated brethren are getting infected and overwhelming hospitals. But it’s not them yet. And then you have the mother whose kids got covid who is still refusing vaccination.

And there are all these excuses. It’s not approved. It might have unknown side effects in the future. It’s got chips in it. Forget the truth, they’ve got a fountain of misinformation which they believe in and are not backing down. And it’s not only about vaccinations!

They’re not getting the shots. Will we stop hearing all this b.s. about how to appeal to them? It’s like a baby refusing medical treatment by crying, saying they haven’t had the procedure before, are you gonna listen to a baby or force them to do the right thing?

So they do focus groups. Of people who say they’re open to vaccination. And what do they find out at the end, THEY’RE NOT! It was all a ruse. To make you think we can make progress, that they can be swayed, when they can’t!

And any effort we take to convince them otherwise is criticized for being too harsh. We can’t knock on their doors, that’s like the Gestapo. As for papers/vaccine passports? That’s like a fascist country. Talk about one’s head spinning. These are the same bozos who keep telling us their bodies are temples and we can’t tell them what to do while they insist we can’t have abortions. It’s ridiculous on the surface.

And I’m abused with falsehoods every day. They’re laughing at me. They’re telling me to take ivermectin, a parasitic primarily for animals, every day and covid will just go away. Presently all the studies say otherwise but I’m scratching my head wondering why these people are always promoting cockamamie unproven therapies, like hydroxychloroquine, which turned out to have a negative effect, when the highly researched and tested covid vaccines must not enter their bodies, it’s too high a risk.

Those on the right, and they’re the lion’s share of the unvaccinated, have already divided the country, it’s them versus us, end of story. But on the left we’re all kumbaya, trying to put our arms around those who want no part of us, to make them feel included. Is this the next military strategy, love our enemy?!

Macron had enough in France. Bottom line, without proof of vaccination you can’t live a public life, you’re excluded from buildings and events. But we can’t do this in the U.S. As a matter of fact, Republican state governments have already passed laws outlawing anti-covid behavior. Meanwhile, their guy, the one whose name begins with a “T,” did his best to act like an autocrat, and the rest of us just had to suffer, tough noogies. Biden still has national powers, but he won’t use them, for fear of pissing people off. Did this ever cross Trump’s mind? NEVER!

Delve into right wing media. It’s all hate all the time. The left is excoriated. And not in subtle tones. And Biden’s words are twisted.

“Opinion: In the real world, Biden is tough on Cuba. In the right-wing world, he’s pro-Communist.”: https://wapo.st/378NB5G

And that’s from Max Boot, a noted conservative!

So here’s what has to happen folks. Zero tolerance, just like on the right. If someone won’t get vaccinated, read them the riot act. Make them squirm. Level the hatred on their shoulders that they direct towards us. Is it going to undermine discourse in America? Of course not, there is none!

Let’s draw the lines perfectly clear. If you haven’t been vaccinated, you can’t work at a hospital/in health care and you can’t work in any government job. End of story. Black and white. Because THE REST OF US are sick of being AT RISK!

Just like those people who won’t get measles shots relying on herd immunity. Why do we keep doing the heavy lifting for the lazy takers? Let’s turn the right’s anti-welfare rhetoric on its head!

And start passing laws saying you can’t go to a show without a vaccination card period. The concert industry refuses to address this issue, but the “Washington Post” did.

“Summer music festivals have returned – just in time for the latest coronavirus surge”: https://wapo.st/2Vc5bmM

The young and unvaccinated are mingling, spreading covid, but we must have our music, the show must go on, all we get is crickets from the concert industry! And since it takes days at a minimum to find out if you’re infected, causation is rarely explored, superspreader events just continue.

And you won’t die if you get it anyway. WRONG! Even babies are dying. Until it happens to them they don’t believe it’s true.

But now it’s happening to US!

This is war folks. Stop backing down. Stop being fearful of alienating people who don’t agree with you and will never agree with you. The only way out of this is truth. Isn’t that what Superman said, “Truth, justice and the American Way”? I doubt Superman would be immune to covid, after all kryptonite got him. Truth is not misinformation on Fox and online. Justice is not a Supreme Court telling us everything is hunky-dory and no intervention is necessary. The American Way is not what the unvaccinated are preaching. The American Way is about coming together for the good of everybody, without it there’s no chance of beating covid, you don’t even have a country!

That’s what we’re fighting for right now, our country. But one side keeps telling you to put down your arms. And the leaders on the left are all about appeasement, like Neville Chamberlain. Therefore the real issues, the hard work, is kicked down the line in the name of “peace” and then it’s ultimately too late to achieve.

Chamberlain believed England was safe, when the truth was nothing of the sort.

General Milley warned of a “Reichstag Moment” but instead of addressing the issue, those on the right say the armed forces shouldn’t weigh in on politics.

It’s always the same, obfuscation, rules, but when we bring out the big rule book, when we want to create laws protecting society, it’s NO GO!

Fight. I’m not telling you to pick up arms, I’m just telling you to stop being somnambulant. They’re coming for you and your way of life. You think you’re immune, but you’re not.

How about saving the real America, one of many colors, one where immigrants are embraced and aid us not only in picking crops but pushing technological boundaries. One in which you’re free to live your life as a gay or trans person if you choose. One in which we can acknowledge the racial sins of the past. Is that asking too much? NO! But our words keep getting twisted by the right, they want to drag us all into the hole they’re living in, where it’s every person for themselves and you depend on the church to get you through. These people are even buying fake religious health insurance, thinking they’re covered when they’re not!

They keep telling us to have faith in ourselves. Well, it’s about time we do so. We know this anti-vaccine behavior is insane, putting us all at risk, and enough with the carrots, now comes the stick. They talk about a political wall, we need a social wall, excluding all these unvaccinated idiots from everyday life. No school, no nothing. Get the jab, then we can talk!

HBO Max trailer: https://bit.ly/373tWUQ

This is the second documentary on Action Park. I didn’t think I needed to see it, but waiting for Felice to come home I dove in.

Warning… This thing is made on the cheap, with commentary by comedians. But the truth is it’s a real life Jackass, where you don’t have “stars” like Johnny Knoxville doing it for the money, but regular people doing it for fun. You remember fun, don’t you?

Ever been to a water park? I guess at this point it’s like vaccination, either you’ve jumped right in or never will. But the truth is they’re damn fun. They started in the eighties. I remember driving into the heat to go to Raging Waters one night. The best time for amusement parks is always near closing time, the lines evaporate and you can go down your favorite ride ad infinitum. That’s how I got over my fear of inverted roller coasters, riding Magic Mountain’s Revolution three times in a row, it would have been more, but they threw us off to close the park.

Not that I’m into amusement parks these days. I can’t remember the last time I went to one. And today they’re mostly vomit wheels. Whether you get scared or not, your body is gonna take punishment.

But you can be scared by nature, kind of like how little kids like to play with cardboard boxes more than the toys they contain. Kind of like the twenty foot cliff at Action Park. Doesn’t look that high from below. But near the end of the show, they give the diver’s perspective, and unless you’re an Acapulco cliff diver, you’d think twice.

And the truth is at Action Park there was no supervision. No one to make sure you didn’t jump onto someone else in the water, and that always bugs me, water safety is paramount, but the attractions themselves? FASCINATING!

So the bottom line is the creator of Action Park, Gene Mulvihill, was a crook. Through and through. I’ve worked for one, a sociopath. They’re big dreamers, they don’t believe the rules apply to them and they run through employees because it’s hard to be loyal to someone who is insane.

The best part of the story is how Mulvihill deals with the law. He creates his own fake insurance company. He fights every lawsuit. And if he loses, good luck collecting. He was almost judgment proof in his own twisted way. And since the community was making so much money off of him, since he brought tourists to the area, they were loath to crack down.

So…

I don’t know what it was like growing up elsewhere, but in the sixties New York radio stations would blast ads for amusement parks. They were never close. You’d have to get your parents to drive you, and my parents never would. Then again, when I was in grade school the day classes ended my mother and Ted the obstetrician took us all to Rye Beach, aka Playland Park. They had this circular ride, you stood against the wall, and then the floor dropped out, you were held up by centrifugal force. I was too scared to go on that, and the Wild Mouse…you know, where the car is attached to the track in the middle, so you think you’re going over the edge and at the very last minute you don’t.

I came to love the Wild Mouse at Lake Quassapaug, now called “Quassy,” when I went with the school summer playground group, you had to earn enough points, but I was much older then. Eleven and twelve.

So, there’s so much b.s. in the commentary, about this being the last time kids roamed free, but the truth is prior to the baby boomers’ kids, kids did run free. As long as you were home for dinner, it didn’t matter where you went. And it’s not like your parents quizzed you when you got home. And you always got injured, stitches were a regular feature of the summer. If you didn’t get stitches or break a bone you got no respect, you just weren’t putting it on the line enough, you weren’t engaged, and we all wanted to be engaged. Back when all the action was outside as opposed to inside, like it is today.

And if you have any money today, the summer is about enrichment. Your kids go to sleepaway camp at first, but when old enough they go save the whales in some faraway place or take computer classes at universities, it’s all about looking good on your college applications. But then there are those who work, or laze around, and those are the kids who populated Action Park. There wasn’t a single adult in evidence!

So it comes down to the rides. Ever been on an alpine slide? They’re very cool. The first one in America was at Bromley Mountain, in Vermont. They held distribution rights. And the game is to ride the whole thing without pulling on the brake. If you’re going fast enough you fly through the air. It’s quite a sensation.

But that paradigm has been killed, maybe because too many people were killed, or at least maimed. Flying off the track was a real possibility. Now they’ve got “mountain coasters.” Same concept, except now the sled is attached to the track and you can never break free. You can go fast, but your life is never in danger.

There were three alpine slides at Action Park.

And then they had the Colorado Rapids ride. When you grow up you always want to ride the rapids, especially if you live in the metropolis, far from any raging water. But instead of making it a float trip, Mulvihill made it an actual rapids ride, with all the attendant risks. In addition it was crowded, and you could be bumped off your raft or get into fights… Put a bunch of teenagers together and you’re always gonna have fights.

A water tube that shoots you out ten feet in the air? I’m ready to go on that right now!

Jumping into the water from a swinging rope? We dreamed of living that rural life!

But it wasn’t only water. There were also autos. But unlike at Disneyland, there was no rail keeping you from driving off course. That was a thing back then, they had a Grand Prix track in the Valley, then again it was never cheap and I never went, but I wish I had.

And then a speedboat ride, where you piloted your own vessel! I mean they’re really cooking, with only the banks keeping you in place.

In other words, Action Park was a THRILL PARK! It was far beyond amusement. It required judgment, because you could get hurt, and many people did!

That’s the big story. As well as the loop which you see and want to ride, but are too scared to. It’s a deal you make with yourself, you go to the theme park and if a ride is scary, you convince yourself it was designed by engineers, licensed by the state, there’s no way it could fail. But not at Action Park…

So the amazing thing is all this happened thirty five years ago. Seems like yesterday to me, but it’s not. Pre-cellphone, pre-internet was truly a different generation. There was so much less SUPERVISION! You can’t even commit petty crime anymore, there are cameras EVERYWHERE! That was a big thing as a youth, stealing and breaking minor things. I’d like to tell you otherwise, but I’d be lying.

And not only is Rikki Rachtman representing MTV at the park, on either side of him are members of Alice In Chains. Jerry Cantrell is still around, Layne Staley O.D.’ed over two decades ago! But here Layne just looks like a suburban doofus out for fun in the sun.

I knew the story, from the previous documentary, I’d seen the rides, but I still kept watching. Because of the freedom, of the rides. And the truth is the older you get, the more prone to injury you become, and it takes longer than ever to recover. But if you’re young, bruises are a fact of life. You get banged up and get up. The hurt lasts a couple of days at most.

So the truth is Action Park wasn’t much wilder than so much of America’s entertainment facilities, it’s just that the rides were dangerous and it was close to New York City, millions of people, so many went there and experienced it.

And the truth is Gene Mulvihill was ahead of his time. He bought the Great Gorge and Vernon Valley ski areas and created Action Park for summer revenue. Ergo those mountain coasters now populating ever more ski areas. And they all have zip lines. And none of this is cheap. And some mountains make more in the summer than they do in the winter!

But this is not a business story so much as an emotional story. You know the commentary is overblown, but you’re taken back to a different time, which is so appealing. When risk was part of life. And I’m talking physical, not viruses on your devices. Your parents insisted you leave the house during the summer, you couldn’t stay inside. And you had an endless tan and were like a fish in water and you lived for envelope-pushing activities.

Hell, maybe that’s why I’m a skier. The thrill, the excitement, the riding of the edge, knowing that you could get hurt at any time.

But really it’s the freedom. No one is in control but you.

By time Action Park opened I’d already moved out west. So I never went. And I never went to Lion Country Safari before that, another advertised “mecca.” Why they were all in New Jersey… Bon Jovi legitimized the state but you’ve got to know, if you live in New England, New York, you look down on New Jersey. Don’t shoot the messenger, but it’s true.

So if you’re still a child at heart, if you still like to be exhilarated, feel alive, you’ll be titillated by Class Action Park. I wouldn’t quite say engrossed, but it’s hard to turn off. Doesn’t matter if you ever went there. It’s evidence of a bygone time.

Something is lost in every great leap forward. And with technology it’s a sense of freedom, privacy. Not only were your parents clueless, you could move across the country and no one had any idea what you were up to, everybody you ever knew was not just a click away. The world was bigger, there were more holes to fall in. And in truth I like the new world better, but I’m fully aware of what has been sacrificed. And a lot of it is evidenced in “Class Action Park.”