Your opinion counts. But if you express it, expect blowback.

There is no center. You are in charge as much as anybody.

Theoretically you can reach everybody, but it’s nearly impossible. Be thrilled you have followers/fans at all. If they’re bonded to you, they’ll spread the word on you. But it will be an ultra-slow process.

No one helps you on the road to fame without payment, other than your fans.

Mainstream media means less than ever before, and it really only reaches oldsters, who tend not to react. If you’ve got an oldster audience, a publicist will take your money, might even get you some ink, but you’re better off knowing who your audience is to begin with and e-mailing them.

Everybody believes they’re powerful and count. So, if you try to imply that you’re more powerful than they are, bigger in any way, expect blowback. This is what the internet has wrought, everybody’s got a voice, and just like politics are divided, every issue and everybody has a take. If you’re playing for everybody to like you, you’re doing it wrong, that just means you’re blanding it down to nothing.

Skill is underrated but ever more valuable. If you know how to play your instrument, that counts. But, the studio is also an instrument. As are turntables, creating samples and working synths.

The hit parade is dominated by the young, but never has the hit parade meant less.

Spotify hits don’t necessarily translate into ticket sales. Proving, once again, that listeners are fans of the track, not the act. Everything moves ultra-fast in today’s society. So, you’re big today, and forgotten tomorrow.

The channel is cluttered. You can cheat, by aligning yourself with someone with a bigger audience, but it’s going to be a long hard slog.

If you don’t rap, if you’re not hip-hop, if you don’t base your music on the 808, you will be considered second class, the recording industry and the media that feeds on it will laugh at you. But the laugh is on them.

Careers are made on the road. I know, I know, for most of this decade careers were made on the internet. But with so many tracks and so few genres exposed on hit charts, the best way to make it is by slogging it out on stage. Also, it used to be festivals were only about the headliners. Now, the smorgasbord is a key attraction. You don’t want to play at noon to nobody, but if you can appear in the middle of the afternoon or later, there are a lot of grazers who will check you out. Be sure to play every festival extant. Other than the biggies, like Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, ACL and Outside Lands…the festivals tend to be local. In other words, your music will be new to the audience. You might get complaints from business people you’re overdoing it, but not from people who are just discovering you.

The Covid-19 era is about recordings. Now is the time to dig deep and do your best work. Don’t lose touch with your audience completely. Do the occasional live stream. But if you can afford it, pull back and double-down on your material, maybe even release some rehearsal tapes or some video from the studio, assuming it won’t inhibit your creative process.

If you make your living on the road and you’re struggling, don’t complain, get in bed with your audience. You’re now on their level, worrying about your job, whether you can make it through, whether the government needs to send more money. Don’t worry about offending anybody. Turns out most at home are on the same page. Just look at the polls. The protesters on the Capital steps get a lot of ink, but most people are at home and are scared.

Sympathy, not outrageousness, unless outrageousness is your stock in trade.

You can always learn. Now is the time to get better at your skills.

3-D. A musician is a person. You have interests. The more you talk about them, the more people will bond to you. Sure, some may ignore you, because they just don’t care, but those who do will be stunned that you’re just like they are.

Fantasy music about a superior lifestyle doesn’t work today. Covid-19 knows nothing about wealth or skin color, we’re all in the same boat. If you can structure your material around humanity, now is the time.

Don’t keep telling people you’ve written your best song ever, that it’s your best work. No one believes that tired trope anymore. Sure, reporters reprint it, but no one is reading the words of those reporters. Let the material speak for you.

Instant notoriety means less than ever before. You dropped the track and everybody’s talking about it! But is everybody listening to it more than once? Sales metrics are irrelevant. Now it’s all about long term acceptance.

The landscape is no longer cohesive. Every genre is its own lane, more and more. Because the other genres don’t appeal to listeners, they want to go deep into what they’re into. Yes, there are those in the younger generation who hop genres, but as the world has become more cluttered, this happens less and less. We see this evidenced in the world at large. You’re pro-Trump or anti-Trump, no one is in-between. No one is wishy-washy, everybody’s got an opinion. People want someone to believe in, hopefully it’s you.

She’s nobody from nowhere.

You’ve got to listen to this podcast

“The Big Steal”

It’s all about Putin’s kleptocracy.

A reader recommended it. It’s about the transition in Russia from communism to autocracy, with a bit of supposed democracy in between. We keep reading about Putin’s crimes, but they never get any traction. I remember “Vanity Fair” did a whole piece on graft in the creation of the infrastructure at Sochi, but it was too soon, it was pre-Trump, if you read it today…

Then again, despite having a moment, which actually lasted twenty years, the written word is fading again, being superseded by pictures on Instagram and audio on podcasts. Yes, the technology has gotten to the point where phones have better cameras than the ones you used to buy separately and if you stream at all, you have an unlimited plan, so why not listen to a podcast in the car?

Actually, if you’re pressed for time, you can get away with listening to just the first and seventh episodes of “The Big Steal.” The first sets the stage, tells you what is going on in Russia. The seventh covers Putin’s disinformation campaign, which he uses to upset democracy throughout the developed world.

If you listen to the entire podcast you’ll also learn that Russia has no money and Putin’s all bravado. He’s the world’s richest man, but he knows if he loses power he’ll be broke, but he’ll probably be killed first. So, he holds on to power with an iron fist.

“The Big Steal” is utterly fascinating. It covers Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act and “Red Notice,” which I’ve written about before,

Red Notice

but the podcast gives more context, it’s not so personal, knowledge is power, and it’s also thrilling, you’ll listen to “The Big Steal” and pontificate about it and Russia to all your friends.

Sarah Kendzior calls Trump’s administration a kleptocracy.

Not that I knew who she was. I knew she wrote that book “The View From Flyover Country,” but that was it. Actually, I knew the book, not her name. But then my friend and webmaster Jeff told me to DVR her on Seth Myers. She was hyping her book, but late night shows are all about humor, ever since David Letterman, there’s no substance, and Jeff apologized for her the lack of protein in her appearance and sent me her new book “Hidden in Plain Sight” and…

I was intrigued.

It always happens this way. For all the hype in the media, we really only trust our friends.

So I saw Sarah was appearing on last week’s L.A. Bookfest, and playing around on my phone in a funk, I decided to pull up the stream.

Sarah was in conversation with Connie Schultz, who is married to Sherrod Brown.

Now one thing you’ve got to know about the book business is it’s positively ancient. It’s still living in the last century. Not only is its goal to protect physical, believing price points are everything, despite music and streaming TV proving otherwise, but its marketing is positively lame, it doesn’t know how to get the word out. Watching a book event is like viewing an SNL skit. These people take themselves so seriously, what world are they living in?

That was the host, who threw it to Connie.

And Connie and Sarah are acting so friendly. There’s been a bunch of stories recently how countries run by women have done much better in the coronavirus era. And one thing about women, they converse differently from men. For all the alpha females in TV dramas, for all the “Housewives” shows, most women are enthusiastic and want to get along and have no trouble being friendly and making conversation, whereas with men it’s all about climbing the totem pole, or you can see them being obsequious, kissing ass.

So, Connie asks Sarah questions and I’m intrigued. Because Sarah is so normal, she’s not media-trained, and she says things that are taboo.

Like she has no hope. Didn’t Obama run on hope?

And she also said we’re all waiting for someone to save us, we believe there’s some bigger power that’s gonna stand up to the insanity, but that is patently untrue.

And I’m watching Sarah and I realize…

She’s a rock star.

And I was going to tell you this last week, but they took the video of the Bookfest down, and I felt you had to see it to get it.

The truth is it takes longer than ever to make it. Sure, you can be hyped by the machine and get some traction, but the machine always needs something new, which means you’re suddenly old, and forgotten.

And my inbox is inundated with musicians bitching. Angry their cheese was moved, that the pre-internet label deals no longer exist, and pissed that they’re not stars.

They’ve just got no perspective.

Sarah Kendzior has been at it for YEARS! She’s 42, and she didn’t get any real traction until 2010. Now I’m here telling you about her, because you should know.

She lives in St. Louis. The aforementioned flyover country.

The truth is there is no flyover country anymore. Everybody’s got broadband and mobile. But the coasts pooh-pooh the people in-between. They think they’re irrelevant and have no clue what is going on. And then suddenly Sarah says Trump is gonna win in 2016 and collects her essays in “The Flyover Country” and she’s Hillary Clinton’s big expert after she loses the election.

You see people are drawn to truth. We all know it, very few say it. And those who do say it oftentimes have no commitment, they say it and move on, whereas to have impact you’ve got to do the hard work.

Sarah has a Ph.D. In anthropology. Her thesis was all about autocracy in Uzbekistan.

I bet you can’t find the country on a map, but that’s not the point. While you were home practicing your instrument, honing your craft, angry that no-talents were usurping your place in the hit parade, you were paying dues, you were taking steps on the long road to a career. You want it right away, anything easy is not worth having, you’ve got to work hard to get to your goals.

So, we live in a world where expertise is pooh-poohed and if you live in St. Louis you’re irrelevant. Sarah was actually contacted for a story about rural America. She told the producer that St. Louis has 3 million residents. That’s how dumb those on the coasts are.

But it gets worse.

But before I get there, I was sold on Sarah Kendzior by watching her on the L.A. Bookfest. Proving, once again, you’ve got to give it your all each and every time, because you never know who will be watching.

And chances are you’re gonna have to give it your best for years before anybody significant notices. Because there are just that many media messages in a world where people are already overwhelmed. They need great, but they haven’t got time to wade through the detritus to find it. But when they do, they tell everybody about it, like I am doing with Sarah.

So, Jeff sent me the new book, “Hiding in Plain Sight.” And it’s hard to get into a book. Getting over the hump is the hardest part. But I was intrigued, I’m not much for non-fiction, but I kept going back to it.

And I wanted more.

So I listened to her podcast, “Gaslit Nation.” And Sarah said she wasn’t worried about her reputation. HUH? Isn’t your reputation what you’re protecting, isn’t it everything?

Also, Sarah has death threats. Because if you speak the truth, those in power don’t like it. Believe me, I know.

So, last Sunday I wanted to write about the path Sarah Kendzior took to becoming a rock star.

Today, I want to talk about what she’s saying.

First and foremost, not only does she live in St. Louis, she’s on the borderline between Gen-X and the Millennials, and no one wants to listen to those people. And she’s married with two kids.

In other words, Sarah Kendzior grew up through all the turmoil. The switch to the internet, the consequences of income inequality, the economic crash.

Her first gig after college was at the “New York Daily News.” Paid 40k in 2000.

Today that job is done by an unpaid intern.

After getting her doctorate, she was ready to interview for an academic job. She couldn’t afford the trips on her own dime, and when she brought this up she was told to ask her parents.

That’s a big theme of “Hiding in Plain Sight.” How the elites control everything. It’s a club, and they protect each other, and you’re not in it.

“Hiding in Plain Sight” is heavily researched, with footnotes. Sarah is constantly railing that despite facts, no one in mainstream media followed up on these stories. She posits writers don’t want to alienate their brethren. Yes, the privileged class, those with money who went to good schools, have now permeated everything…government, finance, media, entertainment.

Come on, you see the talking heads on TV. They’re all impeccably groomed, speaking in the same monotone. It’s all gravitas all the time.

Meanwhile, hell goes on all around them.

Those are the reporters. The pundits? The opinion shows? They’re buffoons, usually discounted because they’re one-sided and one-sided only.

And at this point Sarah is invited on these shows. Not that people can hear the truth, not that they can amplify the truth. As for pundits…she’s got a friend who was a regular guest who is now broke. You see you do it free for exposure. But the dirty little secret is the exposure usually leads to no monetary reward.

Sarah goes into Ferguson. How the media’s coverage was a drive-by. They didn’t go where the action was and interviewed interlopers and then disappeared, even though the problems persist. Sarah lives five miles from Ferguson. But people don’t want to listen to her, but the coastal experts who control the media.

Now we’ve got right wing bozos like Milo Yiannopoulos, who blew himself up and then disappeared. And bomb-throwers like Ann Coulter who just want attention, and to get paid for it. They’re cartoons. To the point where you tune out, because you’re sick of the Animaniacs.

But that’s what Putin wants. To muddy the water of truth and to get you so overwhelmed that you tune out.

Forget Russia interfering with U.S. elections, sans Putin there’s a very good chance that Brexit never would have happened. Trump may only get four years, but Brexit is FOREVER! Impacting the finances not only of the U.K., but the remaining European Union!

Not that Sarah only attacks Trump. She goes after Obama. Because the truth is Obama was compromised too. And Biden wants to return us to a past we’re not enamored of. But Sarah says we’ve got to vote for Biden. Not that she thinks Trump will leave.

You see Sarah Kendzior keeps going back to her education, her Ph.D., her study of autocracies. We keep saying it can’t happen here, but it is!

This is not about tribes. This is not about protesting, which she believes is essentially useless today, because the criminals in charge of things know they’ll never be held accountable, why should they listen to whiners?

This is about our country. Irrelevant of whether you consider yourself to be on the right or the left. There’s an elite club, of corporate titans, financiers, government officials, the media and Jeffrey Epstein who control the world, you may think the voters do, but they don’t. And they absolutely do not want to give up power. They’ll do whatever they want, tell you whatever you want to hear, but nothing is gonna change. You’re busting your ass to stay afloat and if they don’t have cash, their buddies will take care of them.

This is a perspective we have not heard. From someone living in the Midwest, of an ignored age. It’s refreshing.

Do I agree with absolutely everything Sarah Kendzior is saying?

No, but I’m absolutely sure it’s her truth, that’s she’s not sugarcoating anything, not telling any lies to get ahead.

It’s been going on for forty years folks, and Sarah has blown the whistle. The rich have gotten richer, the government has been stripped and the powerful are ever more so.

You want to believe someone is on your page. That there’s someone to listen to, to inspire you, who is not a product of plastic surgery made for consumer consumption. Someone real, just like you, who has a 3-D life, who just wants a better future for her kids.

That’s Sarah Kendzior.

P.S. Yes, that L.A. Bookfest video is down, so I recommend you listen to the episode of Gaslit Nation wherein Sarah talks about “Hiding in Plain Sight.” There’s some amateurish girl talk at first, and the interviewer can go on for too long at times, but the essence is there:

Hiding in Plain Sight: Sarah Kendzior Answers Your Questions

P.P.S. Or don’t do any of the above, don’t read her books, listen to her podcast, move on down the line. But now you know her name, you’ll be aware the next time you see or hear it. That’s how you build a career these days. By hacking away forever, being as great as you can be all the time, and waiting for word to spread. And believe me, if you’re great and telling the truth, people will notice.

“Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America”

Bloomberg:

“Hollywood’s Most Exclusive Club Is Password-Protected on Zoom – Agent Richard Weitz produces Quarantunes-combination concerts and house parties for the glamorous and homebound.”

“Los Angeles Times”:

“Inside Zoom’s exclusive A-list, invite-only, money-raising-juggernaut quarantine party”

“Rolling Stone”:

“Hollywood’s Exclusive Zoom Parties: Creators Share Top Moments – From Kermit the Frog singing with Josh Groban to Alex Rodriguez attempting to buy the Mets mid-stream, Richard Weitz’s Quarantunes has brought celebrity flare to the quarantine”

If it’s so damn good, make it available to all.

This is what’s wrong with America. The elite telling the punters that they’re inconsequential, not good enough, not smart enough, not connected enough, not rich enough to get into the club.

In case you’re out of the loop, and if you’re in the entertainment business I doubt you are, an agent at WME has been holding private Zoom parties with his daughter and they’ve become the in-club of in-clubs in this Covid-19 era. Household names galore, from Gavin Newsom to Alex Rodriguez to every performer you’ve ever heard of, from Luke Bryan, to Jackson Browne to Gal Gadot to…

Supposedly they’re fundraisers. Fine, the public doesn’t have any money? Last time I checked, there are a lot more members of the hoi polloi than there are richies. And, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren proved that they can raise just as much money from the public as the fat cats and corporations if the cause is right.

Once upon a time, musicians railed against corporations.

Now they are corporations. They go on about their fans, but then they can’t turn down a private, have no backbone, will do anything for money and opportunity…meanwhile, their fans, who truly keep them alive, get nothing more than lip service.

Welcome to celebrity culture in the twenty first century.

It’s not only D.C. that is whacked, but Hollywood too.

WME/Endeavor…a house of cards that even Wall Street wouldn’t buy. Meanwhile, Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell get $160 million each. That’s right, the company can’t go public, but they still got their dough. And if you’re following the Writers Guild fracas…the scribes are complaining that you can’t be both buyer and seller. Every client is entitled to his own attorney, you’ve got to sign off on conflicts if you want to use the same lawyer, but those rules are irrelevant in the talent agency world, because Endeavor needs to make that money, never mind that Silver Lake Partners is a major shareholder. And private equity is never a charitable operation. It’s based on outsized returns to its investors, the goal is to hit a home run, no, forget that, a grand slam, outpacing the stock market and other investment vehicles at large. Do you think the writers are gonna get a piece of that upside? Ari and Patrick did, but even the agents did not. As a matter of fact, they agreed to forgo income for lucrative payments when the company went public, which it was unable to do, which it’ll probably never be able to do, not in this incarnation.

Talent representation doesn’t scale. So, assets like the UFC are purchased. So, talent becomes second class, the agents who represent talent become second class, but it’s just too bad, you shouldn’t complain, you should be thrilled that you get to work with these titans of the universe!

Which leads us to this week’s biggest rumor. That Marc Geiger is negotiating to jump to Spotify. Who knows what will happen, but it’s demonstrative of turmoil in the ranks. After all, how much money can you make agenting anyway? Better off to jump to Spotify which is eager to invest in any music avenue that will throw off profits, that scales, as opposed to its main streaming service.

Now in a world of billions, the rich and famous cannot interact with each and every person. But they don’t need to lord it over us peons that they have access and we do not. That’s so 1990s, so velvet rope.

In other words, if you’re just an average citizen you’re screwed. You’ve got to go to work at the grocery store while the rich get delivery. The Aspen Institute gets relief money, despite its gargantuan endowment, meanwhile your employer gets none. Not only is the system rigged, they’re rubbing your nose in it!

I’m not saying every party has to be open to the public.

But I am saying during a pandemic, you don’t employ your PR people to publicize your behavior. Furthermore, if reporters get wind, you can refuse to participate, just say no. But Richard Weitz can’t say no, he’s enjoying being the talent, getting the fame, as opposed to those he represents. Now he too can be a star! What a bunch of hogwash.

It’s a floating club and you’re not in it.

And the truth is if you’re anyone in Hollywood, you can get an invite. If you make the call, if you promise you’ll deliver in return… It’s a world of favors, you scratch my back and I scratch yours…but is this really a club you want to belong to?

I’ve been to private events that have gotten no publicity. Because those who’ve held them insisted upon it. So, everybody involved in Quarantunes could keep quiet, but no! That’s not the goal, the goal isn’t even the fundraising, the goal is to show how cool they are!

As for being invited myself…

I haven’t been.

But I’m savvy enough to know if I was I would not brag about it. The blowback would be insane. That’s another problem with the people in Hollywood and D.C., they’re completely out of touch with the public. I interact with people all day long. You don’t want to boast that you’re rich and privileged, they despise you for it.

Our entire nation is upside down.

Let’s look at the corporate titans, paid their double-digit millions. In order to maintain those paychecks, they used profits to buy back shares, so their stock would go up. So when a crisis occurred, there was no money in the coffers, they had to go begging to the government for relief, for OUR money! After all, most of these corporations are international outfits that pay little or no taxes, and we’re supposed to be fine with this because they’re our employers…huh?

The rich get lower taxes, and we lose services. There’s not enough money for schools, never mind arts programs in those schools. Art is superfluous, it’s only for the privileged who can afford enrichment programs.

And there’s no national conscience. Complain about inequality and you’re labeled a socialist, you’re excoriated for class warfare. Don’t they get it, that there’s already class warfare?

If Richard Weitz were smart and insightful, and he’s neither, he would immediately post these Zoom parties on YouTube for the public to consume shortly thereafter, with a button to donate to boot. He’d take suggestions for performers from the regular people, the little folk. Hell, he could even turn it into a competition, with an ongoing chart. Hell, he could base the chart on donations. But NO! Quarantunes isn’t about money but exclusivity. Richard Weitz and his minions are part of the problem, not the solution. And they need to be called out.

That’s another problem, members of the club refuse to criticize, refuse to cry foul because they’re afraid they won’t be invited next time.

Who’d want to be a member of this club of tone-deaf wankers constantly telling us they’re better than we are?

Not me.

Prisoners of War – hulu

This starts out so slow and so violent that you may not make it over the hump.

But you should.

“Prisoners of War” is the Israeli series which inspired “Homeland.” But they’re not identical. Not that I would know, I’ve never watched “Homeland.” I don’t go for episodic TV, I control my appointments, I’m sick of Hollywood telling me how to consume my media. Kinda like Quibi, refusing to put its mediocre fare on television, refusing to allow it to be shared. And what did Jeffrey Katzenberg blame the failure of his platform on? Covid-19! Quibi was dead on arrival, but those with dollars who invested in this abortion are not savvy users of the internet, they did not know the paradigm had changed, they’re aware of money, but not human interaction.

“Prisoners of War” is about human interaction.

And so much more.

You see the three Israeli soldiers were gone for 17 years. They were just reservists, out on a weekend call. Kinda like “Gilligan’s Island,” but with much more intensity and much more meaning.

They’re fighting for their lives every day in Israel. The Arabs attack and they retaliate and…it’s endless.

The only thing we’re at risk of in these United States is Covid-19, unless of course you’re a minority, an African-American, Asian or Latino. Latinos are screwing our country by trying to cross the border illegally. The Asians? They’re to blame for Covid-19. As for African-Americans… You can’t even go out for a jog safely. You’ve got to be hyperaware at all times.

But the white people in the United States? They think they’re immune, that nothing can touch them, that they’re entitled to rule forever. To the point where nitwits strap on guns and mingle with their brethren demanding governors open up the nation so they can die. I kid you not. There’s a war going on in America, and it’s not against Covid-19. As a matter of fact, we already lost that one. What’s the first rule of warfare? Know thy enemy. Can you say those in charge knew the coronavirus? I think not. As for freedom…where does it end. Should you be able to shoot a black man because he peeked in on a construction site? Or if they’re just walking around and you’re scared? To fight Covid-19 we have to all be in it together. Actually, there was a story how in eastern Europe everybody locks down…because they’ve experienced so much hardship in their lives that they understand it. Hardship in America is not getting a trophy, or not getting into the college of your choice. Our perspective is way off.

Not that Israel has it all together. The religious right is oftentimes out of control. But what critics of the nation just can’t fathom is that Israel can only lose once, and then it’s over. The country’s sheer existence is on the line every damn day. And its citizens’ too.

Not that I want to make this an exploration of the Middle East at large. That’s a waste of time just like debating Trump. You see, the Israelis stole the Palestinians’ land and they’ve got to give it back. Forget the anti-Semitism lurking under all this, the truth is there’s been an ongoing campaign to sell this perspective, especially for the last two decades. To the point where Jews are threatened on college campuses here in the States. That’s right, we can’t get along here, never mind over there.

But all our causes here are external, it’s not us. We’re fighting for others. What if you’re fighting for yourself, what if your life is on the line?

“Prisoners of War” is not “Fauda,” certainly not the third season of the Lior Raz show. The first two seasons of “Fauda” ended with no winners. Illustrating the flaws of both the Israeli and Arab positions. The third was very much pro-Israel. But “Fauda” was all about action, whereas “Prisoners of War” has long stretches where there’s no action at all.

You see “Prisoners of War” is mostly about the internal, feelings, relationships… Kinda like those people who break up and say they’re over it instantly. They’re either lying, or sociopathic. That’s not how human beings work. We’re riddled with feelings. We have nightmares. But we rarely share them.

“Prisoners of War” covers so many issues of relationships. How you pine for someone for years, and then when you finally get back together…it doesn’t work. Timing is everything in relationships.

And humans are riddled with questions of loyalty. Did they do the right thing, do they have any friends, are friendships more important than..?

And just like the Israelis, the Arabs are people too, with their own complaints. But where is the baseline vis a vis the two countries. That’s another issue…do you have a future in Syria? Or…

This show is so well done that you cannot predict it. You think you know where it’s going, and then not only does it go a different way, but in a fashion you could not imagine. This is not American TV, all about the image with little about the soul. That’s right, if you want to know about the soul over here you’ve got to watch cartoons, literally. Like “The Simpsons” or “South Park” or a Pixar movie. They have more humanity than the blockbusters. Because human beings can’t speak their truth. And our high concept shoot-’em-up, comic book blockbusters are just what we want…mindless entertainment, so we can go back to advertising ourselves on social media and consuming.

If you’ve ever been to Israel, you know that they don’t dress up. That’s another thing that will stun you, no one’s wearing a suit at a bar mitzvah. It’s too damn hot and what you wear doesn’t represent who you are. In America, if you put on a fancy suit and drive an expensive car you’re immediately seen as a winner, even though you’re oftentimes not. And, even if you make all that money, you’re not immune to heartbreak. Come on, how many of the winners still have the same spouse? They keep trading up, as if there’s an ideal they can get to. They don’t have to put in the hard work to sustain a marriage, because there are endless opportunities. Oftentimes, their main characteristic is bravado. That’s right, they can brag, but they never cry. Unless they commit a faux pas and have to go to rehab. Ain’t that America, if you go to rehab all your sins are washed away.

So the people in “Prisoners of War” are riddled by memories. That’s one way I envy the youth, it’s all new to them. As you get older you get worn down, you’ve had too many losses, you’re not willing to take the risk.

And what do you do to keep yourself whole? What do you invest your time in so you don’t have to look inside, at your little life.

And do you have a constitution, and do what’s right, or do you do what’s expedient? Because your whole life could go by while you’re doing what’s right and…

You see there’s no map in life, no playbook, no guarantee. You work your whole life to retire and then you die of a heart attack mere weeks after you’ve stopped working. At this age, I don’t count on a single plan, I’m always prepared for something to go wrong. If you can’t pick yourself up and soldier on… You’re gonna get in a car accident, you’re gonna have health problems, there’s nothing you can do to avoid bad things happening to you. Stay at home, and you’ll slip in the bathroom.

Have you missed your life? Have you kept yourself in a straitjacket because you did not want to make the hard choices?

You dream of something for years, and then when it arrives…now what?

You think if just one thing happens you’ll be saved.

You think that the rest of the world doesn’t matter. If you don’t go there, it did not happen. But then the Saudis kill Khashoggi and then invest in Live Nation. You can’t escape it.

The scenes in captivity are brutal. You can barely watch them. Which is just the point. And we’re just that brutal in the U.S. We waterboard people. We’re two-faced. We abhor torture, cry foul and then we torture. Huh?

We’re all just people, trying to get along. Can we rely on others? Do they lie to us? How do you keep on going in a sea of duplicity?

The horrors they experience in this show are far beyond the ones we experience here. Oh, we have school shootings, but the answer for many is more guns! Don’t address the issue, look to its causation, just up the ante! But if a loved one dies in one of these senseless situations, you never ever get over it, you’re a member of the walking wounded, meanwhile there are people who deny the event ever happened! What next, you weren’t even born?

Now the reason HBO and streaming eclipsed network were because they employed a different model, Netflix most especially. When you try to reach the broadest number of people, you end up with something homogenized that most can’t even relate to. We have the same problem in music. Once the business people get involved, you’re screwed. If they could create the art, they would, but they can’t, so they lord it over you, the creator.

So, at this moment in time, if you want to feel human and connected, you’ve got to watch a TV show.

Hell, “Prisoners of War” nailed my divorce better than any other piece of art I’ve ever experienced. You see once you stop living together, your lives diverge. Sure, some people can get back to the garden, but most cannot. It’s just too hard, it doesn’t work anymore.

So the reason I even bothered to watch “Prisoners of War” is because it was rated the #1 international show of the last decade by “The New York Times.” Take a look, the vaunted “Killing Eve” is only #9. Fleabag is #13. “Money Heist” is #21. “Broadchurch” is #27! Wouldn’t you be interested in checking out #1? I mean what kind of show can top all of those?

One not like any of the above, even though some are great.

Yes, it’s subtitled. And as I said earlier, it can be unbelievably slow and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a television show with more violence. But you stick with it and it becomes part of your life. It’s no longer entertainment, you’re invested in the outcome. You can tell yourself it’s just a TV show when you get too scared or too anxious watching it, but it doesn’t work, because you care just that much!

So, “Prisoners of War” is a commitment. Don’t tell me you tried a few episodes and you think it’s crap. This is not hit and run, this is something more serious, you’ve got to dedicate yourself to the show, and when you do it’ll pay dividends.

Just like life.

“The 30 Best International TV Shows of the Decade – The 2010s saw a radical shift in the trade balance when it comes to television series. Our critic counts down the finest imports, from ‘Fleabag’ to ‘Strong Girl Bong-soon.'”