She’s the biggest female rock star on the planet.

WHO?

For far too long music has played to the lowest common denominator, losing its purchase on the intellect of society. One of the reasons music blew up after the Beatles was because the acts were seen as intelligent beacons distilling the vast world for their fans. You needed to know what Bob Dylan and the Beatles had to say. You don’t need a musician to tell you which way the wind blows today, they’ve got no idea. Furthermore, the focus is on cash, and the music business has been on the losing end of this battle for decades, certainly since the turn of the century, you see you just can’t make that much money in music, at best you can influence society, speak truth to power, but in truth the nitwits pursue their branding opportunities and corporate tie-ups when in reality all the innovation is elsewhere, like in tech, and banking.

BANKING? Isn’t that the scourge of society? I’d agree. But Cathie Wood is all about disruption, while the record companies missed the internet two decades ago, and still rely on the aging terrestrial radio to sell their product, Cathie Wood is investing in companies like Tesla, pushing the cause of electric cars further. Isn’t that what we need, more optimists, more people pushing the planet into the future instead of wanting to jet back to a past that never existed run by ignorant, uneducated people who are afraid of the bogeyman and therefore want no change?

Cathie Wood runs Ark Investment Management, and in the past year the value of Ark Innovation’s ETF rose 176%! It has grown 500% since its inception. That’s better than Vivendi, that’s even better than Spotify!

The biggest star of the year is not human. Platforms are bigger than individuals, it’s just that musicians don’t want to admit this, they keep railing against Spotify when not only did the streaming service rescue the music business, it was built with the help of the majors who mostly cashed in instead of riding the rocket ship into space! That’s what’s wrong with music today, corporatization. The execs have no significant ownership position, they do what’s right for themselves, which is always short term results. Why invest in multiple albums over multiple years, that won’t help your yearly bonus, and you might be out before the rewards are reaped. The music business was started by renegades, independents. Then it was corporatized in the seventies but the same players were in power. So much money was made in the eighties as a result of CDs and MTV that all the industry could do was count its cash. Then Bob Morgado blew up Warner Music in the nineties and acts were signed for a record and dropped within a year and then the whole thing cratered twenty years ago. The acts are inherently independent. The managers are independent. That’s where the innovation starts. As for the roll up of management companies…how many of these companies have discovered and nurtured talent, that’s for outsiders!

As for platform innovation… TikTok can create a bigger hit than radio. And the labels have no control over it, really, they don’t, although they’re trying. Did you see the success of the sea shanty artist?

“TikTok star behind ‘Wellerman’ sea shanty craze quits job as mailman – ‘Oh my God, I was a postman on Friday. I have just signed to the biggest record label in the world,’ Evans told fans on TikTok.”: https://nbcnews.to/2NGzRZF

And the industry thinks people only want to hear hip-hop and pop.

But TikTok is a lightweight compared to Robinhood. Robinhood is the breakout artist of the year!

HUH?

Robinhood is a personal trading platform. Turns out that’s much more interesting than listening to today’s music, and it’s interactive, that’s something the music business still doesn’t understand, if anything it wants the fans’ hands off their records! And Robinhood is all about money. Mostly about individuals losing it, but it’s more interesting, more real than anything on TikTok.

So we keep on hearing about the glass ceiling, how women are kept down. And this is true, but the focus is always on high profile people at high profile companies, not entrepreneurs who’ve not only created the paradigm, but tower above others, like Cathie Wood.

Most of recent investing has been passive. You buy an index fund, set it and forget it, active was old school But then Cathie Wood comes along and flips the script and cashes in, doing it by investing in Tesla, Zillow and Crispr. Do you even know what Crispr is? Probably not, but it just might save your life.

Wait, aren’t we supposed to revere the nitwits in the celebrity pages, be influenced by them? Don’t they call themselves influencers?

And the influencers are almost always uneducated hucksters working 24/7 hustling a buck. These are the people we want to laud?

Now there’s no guarantee that Cathie Wood will continue to remain hot, especially now that Tesla has been added to the S&P 500. But, once again, investing is for professionals, the amateurs almost always get cooked, like on Robinhood, but it’s their own damn fault, they don’t know anything, they’re just flying by their wits, running on emotion, but that rarely leads to success.

So, unlike a lot of Wall Street bankers, Cathie Wood and Ark are building something, investing in our country. And it may sound dry, but you need money to live on and…I’m sick and tired of the tail wagging the dog, of mass culture playing to the lowest common denominator.

Now to tell you the truth, I’m not that interested in the stock market. But I am interested in stars, people who create something where there was nothing before. Especially when they employs intelligence, as opposed to luck.

Our nation is completely upside down. We keep playing down when we should be playing up!

There need to be more feature stories on Cathie Wood. She should become a household name. So people realize that education and paying your dues is the best road to success. And that if it happens quick in life, it usually dies just as fast. Cathie Wood is a role model, unlike many of our entertainers. We’re sending people the wrong message! Experts are considered elite. And elites are seen as the problem in our country when the truth is elites make all the money and run the damn country. Sure, it would be better if the underclass had more money and opportunity, and the elites in many cases have held them from it, but the key is to lift people up, not dumb them down.

Cathie Wood is somebody you should be following.

@CathieDWood

Cathie Wood is now pushing the envelope, investing in space!

“Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest plans ‘ARKX’ space exploration ETF to tap the growing industry”: https://cnb.cx/36fqoyU

Get the overall story here:

 “ETFs Aren’t Just for Indexes Now That Active Sees the Light – The success of Cathie Wood’s exchange-traded funds revives investor interest in stockpickers – and asset managers’ hopes for higher fees.”: https://bloom.bg/3qVMUVu

Album acts that crossed over from FM to AM. (And the track that did it.)

Tune in today, January 26th, 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

https://bit.ly/2LXsuwy

Parents can ruin your life.

I never remember a time when I wasn’t going to college. It was drilled into me from birth, along with the concept of becoming a professional, my father wanted me to be prepared for life, but the sixties and music interfered with that. Now during high school, good grades were important, for that was how you got into college. Do you see many schools are dropping the SAT? Hard to believe if you’re a boomer. Anyway, once I got to college my parents never asked me what my grades were, as long as I passed, that was cool. Although grading at Middlebury was notoriously strict, three B-minuses and a D put you on the Dean’s List. But when you applied to graduate school with your crummy grade point average no one factored in your alma mater, no one even knew Middlebury, not until they had that riot over Charles Murray a couple of years back, before that when I would say where I’d gone to college…on the east coast people would say, “Isn’t that in Connecticut?” and on the west coast I just got blank stares. That’s one of the reasons I love Southern California, where you went to college doesn’t matter, to a great degree you don’t have to have gone to college at all, assuming you’re working in the entertainment field, which is notoriously hard to stay in, careers are brief, if you have one at all.

So other than going to college, and becoming a lawyer after two years as a starving freestyle skier, my father had no other requirements. As for my mother? She just didn’t want you to stay home and be lazy, she insisted I sign up for every cultural opportunity at college, and there was endless cash for movies and concerts, and I went more than regularly, as an adult almost to a movie every night.

But my experience doesn’t seem to be most people’s. I’d always read about kids who left home at eighteen, who sometimes never even spoke to their parents again. But they didn’t come from Jewish families. Today kids never truly move out, whether it be physically or emotionally, they speak or Facetime with their parents every day. With inane questions about laundry…assuming they don’t live close enough to dump it on their mother. My parents were too busy living their lives. In college there was a call once a week, usually Sunday, when the rates were low, until everybody called on Sunday and the rates went back up. But if a Sunday was missed, then it would just be two weeks between calls, they didn’t need to check up on me.

But this is not the case with Johannes.

I had a girlfriend whose father tortured her. Led her down one path and just when she was in the groove, he’d shut the door. He’d hold money over her head, we’d end up talking about it all the time. He was on the continuum, but he was not quite as bad as Johannes.

We’re going to start a new streaming series tonight. I expect to do twenty or thirty minutes of research before we begin, on top of the hours I invested previously. I don’t want to waste my time. And last week I gave Felice four options:

1. “Tehran”

2. “Baghdad Central”

3. “Criminal Justice”

4. “Herrens Veje”

I was surprised she chose “Herrens Veje,” did she really want to watch a Danish show about a priest and his two sons?

Then again, the cop shows grow old, and Felice has a limited tolerance for violence, so “Herrens Veje)” it was.

I really didn’t know much about it. I had it listed under my Top of List list with two pluses after it, but I’d forgotten what it was about, but no other show had two pluses and I did a bit more research and I wasn’t completely titillated, but I decided to let Felice choose, I almost always choose (although it’s Felice who says to stop, if a series is not to her liking).

Scandinavia… Denmark is the most southern country, but just like the east coast environment I grew up in, it’s oftentimes gray, and what goes on inside is more important than what goes on outside. Actually, this is something I love and hate about Southern California. Everybody’s so into the external here that I can dismiss it, as being completely phony, but when I look to have an intellectual, analytical conversation, like Christian has with Mark, it is not so easy to find. Yes, on the east coast people talk on a higher level, and they want to be friends, but that comes at a cost, the constant judging and the weather.

But when Christian and Marc talk long after midnight…it reminded me of late nights in college, there’s nothing I like better than to talk until we’re talked out. That’s another thing sorely lacking in my life in Southern California.

So, Johannes is a priest in a long line of priests. Nine generations, in fact. And he wants his sons to continue the legacy. Is this who they really want to be? IT DOES NOT MATTER!

And Johannes is played by Lars Mikkelsen. You know him as Viktor Petrov in “House of Cards.” I didn’t buy him in that role, the substitute Putin. And then Mikkelsen was in “Borgen,” with seemingly the same attitude, I had a hard time not seeing him in “House of Cards” while I was watching it. But in “Herrens Veje”? Mikkelsen is completely believable as Johannes, a man who knows everything and tells everybody how to live their life.

The two sons are tortured. Christian jumped the track and is living a life of incompletion, and August has become a priest, because that’s what you’re supposed to do, but Johannes controls August too.

You know this kind of dad…something good happens to you and they spin it as something bad, to the point where you question your own choices, to the point where you hesitate telling them anything. The whole family is beholden to Johannes, August’s only ally is his doctor wife, but she can see Johannes clearly and is wary of paying dues and becoming a member of the cult.

Now the first season has a couple of hejiras that will blow your mind visually. In one location there’s action, in the other serenity, but you’re watching and you’re stunned they spent this much money on locations for a TV show. This is a first rate production.

For the Danish market.

We don’t really make TV shows like this in America. Not even movies anymore. Where not that much happens and what does is mostly cerebral. So if you’re looking for fast-paced action, “Herrens Veje” is not the place to find it. But if you’re looking for emotional interaction, turmoil, if you’re willing to investigate your life and your choices, it’s a home run. And unlike a movie, it’s got twenty episodes to stretch out into, so the story can go deep.

Now the second season is not as good as the first. There are only two stellar episodes, so I’m giving you permission just to watch the first season and stop. But if you make it that far, you won’t be able to, you’ll want to know what happened, how people handle it, you’ll be hooked.

And since the show is Scandinavian, there’s nudity and sex, they’re not uptight about showing those there. Actually, I think the internet is gonna make America less puritan… Remember when famous actresses didn’t want to do nude scenes? Well, if they’re gratuitous that’s one thing, but they’re not gratuitous in “Herrens Veje.”

And what is life about anyway? In America it’s about reaching a goal, or being on the bottom struggling, trying to keep your head above water. We’re all in each other’s business, it’s a giant pecking order, we’re always trying to measure up. But this is not the paradigm in Denmark…maybe because of the great safety net, you can afford to be who you want to be and that’s enough, assuming your parents will let you.

And the show gets so many things right. The woman who says she’s not interested but really is. And then the man finds himself caught between two lovers feeling like crap wondering what to do.

And who is the right person for you anyway? And can you truly divorce your family, should you?

Other than Lars, you won’t recognize a single actor, other than maybe Christian Tafdrup, who played the young TV exec in “Borgen,” and is the same sleazy jerk here. It’s almost like there’s a whole ‘nother world outside America. And that’s just the point, there is! You watch “Herrens Veje” and you realize people are people, just like Depeche Mode sang, but there are variations on the theme, and by the time the series is over you’re yearning to travel, that’s one of the benefits of foreign shows, assuming Covid is tamed and we can ultimately go places.

You know whether you’re the audience for “Herrens Veje” or not. If you never went to a foreign movie, if you abhor subtitles, steer clear. But if you constantly find yourself analyzing life, wondering about your direction and choices, this is right up your alley.

Too often shows that approach this sensibility are passion projects of name brand actors who we can’t believe in the roles and the focus is on everything but the story, there’s no room for nuance.

But there’s plenty of room for nuance in “Hessen Veje.”

“Herrens Veje” is the kind of show that will have you thinking, you’ll start analogizing elements of it to situations in your own life. And it’s not predictable. In America, the good guy always wins, it always works out in the end, but in “”Herrens Veje”..?

https://amzn.to/39UAxSE

This is an incredible book.

I’d been reading S.A. Cosby’s “Blacktop Wasteland,” and it was mildly interesting, although my mind still did wander, I’d get a hankering to look at my phone, I’d go down the internet rabbit hole, I’d force myself to get back to the book and then I’d repeat the process.

“Blacktop Wasteland” ultimately got better, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Both of these books I got from the library, via Libby. My mother would never buy a book, she would always reserve them at the library, so the concept of purchasing a hot book hot off the presses…it never happened in our household. Actually, one of my great disappointments in my life is my mother’s birthday presents. She’d always send me something I was not truly interested in. Even worse, she’d send remainder books, you know those that had failed or gone out of print, that were sold on a table for a buck or two. If the title was in my wheelhouse, she’d send it to me, usually two or three, since they were so cheap, I remember one on ice cream…it was unreadable, that’s why it was on the discount table. But at least I got birthday presents, but I’m getting ahead of myself once more.

So I became inured to library unavailability. I doubted the library had the book I wanted to read, and if it did, I might be able to get it soon, in six months, or late, in a year, when it was already out in paperback. That’s another thing I don’t understand in today’s market, paperback books. All the scuttlebutt during Covid has been the collapse of movie windows, simultaneous showing on streaming services, but in books, windows still exist, you’re supposed to wait a year for a discount version. Don’t they understand you strike when the marketing is hot, when everybody is aware of it, when you can build on the buzz?

No.

And now I’m getting further off point, because to tell you the truth I’m not feeling it right now, I’m trying to work my way into it, to get you to feel how great “Shuggie Bain” is. Most people just say to read something. Reviews tell you what happened. I want you to FEEL something, and if you align with this feeling, then the book is for you.

“Shuggie Bain” is not for everybody.

“Blacktop Wasteland” is a genre book. I didn’t expect that, because there were such serious accolades, which typically genre books…crime, mystery, thrillers, romance…don’t get. Not that I knew it was a genre book before I jumped to “Shuggie Bain.”

You see, “Blacktop Wasteland” I’d reserved a few months back, when I did research and reserved a slew of books via Libby that seemed interesting but I wasn’t champing at the bit to buy. This included “Shuggie Bain,” but “Blacktop Wasteland” became available in the regular queue, and I had it for three weeks, I jumped the line for “Shuggie Bain.”

Like getting a vaccine appointment, Libby requires constant attention if you want to play the game to your advantage, if you want to get what you want early. And checking the Libby app at least once a day now, I saw that “Shuggie Bain” was available for seven days, which made me wince. Why? Because I was so backed up, I had so many books in my mental queue, but I knew these opportunities were rare, so I clicked and downloaded “Shuggie Bain.” And since I only had it for seven days, I started it.

I can’t say I was immediately hooked.

You se it starts at the end. And it’s dark. But then…soon, thereafter you go back in time and it’s light. You go from the rooming house to the apartment, where the ladies are playing cards. And that’s when I really got addicted.

“Shuggie Bain” is set in Scotland. Not only will you not know the definitions of some words, there’s a ton of slang that you cannot look up in the dictionary, but you can ultimately understand the meaning.

“Shuggie Bain” is the story of the downwardly mobile. The lower class descending into poverty. Wait, wait, WAIT! This is not some nonfiction tome that you must read to better yourself, to become aware of how the other half lives, then again, if you’ve got a problem with poverty and the ills it engenders, “Shuggie Bain” is not for you.

So what you’ve got is a beautiful mother who wants more. You can trade on your looks, you’d be surprised, if you know anybody that good-looking I’m sure you’re aware of this. The only thing is looks will get you in the door, but to go to the head of the class, you need more. But in a world where no one makes it to the head of the class, looks are a trump card. But Shuggie’s mother Agnes has got a flaw, she’s an alcoholic.

I hate giving anything away, it takes a few pages to figure this out, but if I didn’t say this you’d have no idea what the book is about.

I don’t really want to say more.

But I will say, we live a fast-paced life of notoriety. That’s everybody’s goal in the twenty first century, to be noticed. Either you’re proactive or reactive. You’re an influencer on YouTube or a hater on Twitter, or maybe both. No one resides in the peanut gallery anymore, everybody is active, at least those under the age of forty five. You believe you can make it, and if you can’t, then nobody else should.

The Bains are going nowhere. They’re surviving. Oh, they’ve got their laughs, they’ve got each other, but their dreams are positively pedestrian, and minimal. Shuggie hasn’t seen much of Glasgow, never mind the rest of the world.

So despite the foreign words, you find yourself getting hooked. It’s not just me, but Felice too. It’s the story. Too often today’s vaunted literature focuses on language and not story, that is not the case with “Shuggie Bain.” You’re constantly drawn back to it, you want to know what happens, not only in the plot moving forward, but how the characters feel about it, what changes they go through, how they cope.

And if you’re willing to open your insides, which fiction does best, you’ll find yourself somewhere along the line. Were you bullied in school? Did you think appearances were everything? Were you an isolated daydreamer or part of a gang or… Life is universal in so many ways, we’re all human beings, and even though we rarely reveal our flaws, we know them, as well as our life-changing bad experiences. Sure, there are memoirists who detail all of this, but they’ve got a different agenda, they believe if they lay it all on the line they’ll be saved, most people believe if they reveal their warts they’ll go to the back of the line, and this is anathema when you’ve spent so much time trying to get to the front. We live inside our brains. And in “Shuggie Bain” we get inside others’ brains. Which ultimately makes us feel more connected. You can read “Shuggie Bain” alone and ultimately feel a bigger part of society, more enmeshed in its fabric than if you had a house party that lasted all night. Yes, most of us walk through life feeling unseen.

So, one of the reasons I did not buy “Shuggie Bain” was because it won the Booker Prize. I’m fearful of award-winning books. I’m fearful of all awards. Because there’s almost always an agenda. Historically the Booker Prize winner is not the best book, or the most readable book, but something different that insiders can anoint to feel good about themselves, oftentimes the winner is inherently unreadable. In music and movies we usually go the other way, the bland is anointed and the edgy is ignored. And it’s the edgy that live on.

But in this case the award is well-deserved.

So, should you read “Shuggie Bain”?

Well, chances are you don’t read any books at all, and if you’re a guy, you read nonfiction, as if the lessons of successful people, if studied hard enough, will translate to you. They won’t. Actually, you’ll learn more from fiction, it’s truer to life.

But if you read fiction…

If your idea of a book is something easy, that can be consumed in a day or two, “Shuggie Bain” is not for you. “Shuggie Bain” takes some time, which is one of its best features, it doesn’t wear out, it doesn’t end, the story goes on, and on, just like life.

If you’re a fan of genre fiction, and a great percentage of what sells is such, if you think reading is Stephen King or John Grisham…”Shuggie Bain” is not in your wheelhouse.

If you resist fiction because it’s too highfalutin’, made for an audience that you are not a member of, that’s oftentimes the case, but not with “Shuggie Bain.”

“Shuggie Bain” is an adventure, the best one I’ve gone on this year, at least when it comes to books, I’ve seen a few streaming shows that are in this neighborhood of quality, and they’re not the ones everybody talks about. People are sheep.

Not that “Shuggie Bain” is outside and exotic. If you click the link above, you’ll see that “Shuggie Bain” has a four and a half star rating and 3,085 reviews on Amazon, both of which are significant, this is a popular book, not one of those trendsetting albums you keep reading about and then listen to and don’t get.

And “Shuggie Bain” is not a movie. It’s less about action than internals. Not that there’s not action, and who knows, in today’s streaming world they greenlight so much that you’ll probably end up seeing a visual reproduction, but it will never come close, because you can’t shoot pictures of what’s inside people, their thoughts and emotions.

But the book will have you creating a whole landscape in your mind. I could positively see it when I was reading it. Clearly. Even though your mind may depict it differently, that’s the essence of reading.

And after finishing “Shuggie Bain” Friday night, I picked up “Blacktop Wasteland” again yesterday. I hit the action, I finished it, but it was wholly unsatisfying. So there were innovative plot twists, the crimes didn’t play out the way I thought they would…but I’m not a criminal and I’m not a plotting mastermind, but I am human and that’s why “Shuggie Bain” resonated so much.

This would have been much better earlier in the week. But I didn’t want to write until I finished “Shuggie,” for fear the book might get worse, which happens a lot, but does not in this case. I’d keep reading and get to a plot point and then smile or wince believing this is exactly how life works.

Not that your life will resemble that of the Bains.

So at this point I’ve either intrigued you or I haven’t. If you buy a book to read over months, don’t get it. But if you buy a book to get hooked and go on a ride, go for it. It’s not easy at the very beginning, but you’ll find yourself getting obsessed soon, the people, the story, “Shuggie Bain” is irresistible.

Right now, the Kindle version of “Shuggie Bain” is $8.67. That’s a bargain. The hardcover is $27.00 and the paperback is $14.53. This is how e-books should be priced, but too often are not.

And if you’ve never read an e-book…I implore you to buy a Kindle right now: https://amzn.to/3sU1NsX It’s an investment of only $89.99. And with Libby, you can even get books for free!

DON’T listen to the haters. FORGET their excuses, they tried it, they don’t like it, they get headaches, etc… It’s just complete B.S., the truth is they’re addicted to print books, IGNORE THEM!

And if you’ve got an iPad and like to read that way, give it a go, use the app, you don’t even need to buy a Kindle. HOWEVER, the reason you want a Kindle is because of the technology, which is different, I’d explain it but the screen is not like your computer, phone or tablet, e-ink is made to be like paper, the lighting will not tire your eyes.

Now I feel like I did writing about digital file music twenty years ago. Do you see how that played out? Today CDs are worth NOTHING! I get e-mail from people asking me what to do with their collections, no one wants them, they’re worthless. E-books have been here for over a decade. The publishers and the government forced prices to become inflated, hobbling adoption, but reading on electronic devices is not only the future, it’s here now.

Start with “Shuggie Bain.”