The biggest story in TV this week is “The Tiger King,” the seven part Netflix documentary that might look unappealing if you’re not a big cat aficionado, but the people are so whacked, you cannot take your eyes off it. The funniest thing is this was all happening under our noses and we were unaware of it, or at least I was, illustrating what a big country it really is and how stories fall through the cracks. We are only one episode in, but I can see why everybody is hooked, the players are neither totally good nor totally bad, and they’re so passionate about big cats and you realize everyone needs something to live for, but this? My inbox has been going crazy about “The Tiger King.” Somehow, big media has missed the mania, they’re still reviewing films when it’s about TV, especially while we’re all stuck at home. Meanwhile, have you noticed how newspapers no longer have a separate sports section, both the “New York Times” and the “Los Angeles Times” are folding a couple of pages into the front section. No one is playing, there’s nothing to talk about.

Before “The Tiger King,” we watched “The Valhalla Murders,” also on Netflix.

Now I wonder if “The Tiger King” is so big because Netflix is featuring it on its homepage. And it truly is big, it’s the number one show watched on Netflix. So do price and position always triumph? Imagine what might break on the homepage of Spotify or Apple if they weren’t locked up with relationships with the major labels. Then again, word of mouth would have been incredible on “The Tiger King” anyway, it’s just too bizarre and funny and jaw-dropping.

Today I finished Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and The Vile.” I cannot recommend it. It reads like a paste-up job, a completed jigsaw puzzle of his research. I don’t remember his previous books being this bad, but nothing is said unless someone said it or wrote it previously and as a result, the narrative suffers. However, I will say the book did take me away from the coronavirus, which I have to commend it for. A good book takes you to a special place, you almost feel like you’re in Churchill’s London, although there’s got to be a better book about that era than this one.

As for “The Valhalla Murders”…

It too was on the Netflix homepage. But it wasn’t on the top of my list. Because the ratings were just not high enough, and the reviews were not quite good enough. But Felice couldn’t resist the landscape and I must say, that’s a reason to watch this, especially as winter turns into spring. It’s hard to describe Iceland. There are these giant peaks covered in snow but they’re almost untouchable, almost unreal. We went at the end of 2018 for Airwaves and I’d go back in a heartbeat, one of the few places where everybody speaks English that really feels different.

So, the problem with “The Valhalla Murders” is it’s too linear, too focused, it’s like a much better network TV crime drama.

And then it’s not.

Because the people are complicated.

The show stars Nina Dogg Filippusdottir, who you will know if you watched “Trapped,” which you should, before this anyway. But Olafur Darri Olafsson, as Nina’s estranged husband in “Trapped,” puts that show over the line. He is a big bear of a guy, who is so understated, but you can see his mind turning. And he’s also a producer and screenwriter. The smaller the country, the more opportunities you have, and the stardom is smaller, so instead of being caught up in your fame, you can focus on your work.

So, after an episode or so of “The Valhalla Murders,” you realize there are concurrent stories running under the theme of the murders. Nina and her son, and her ex, and her mother. Did she work so much that she broke up her marriage? I’ll let you decide.

And Bjorn Thors, who is Nina’s counterpart in criminal investigation, is harboring history, which slowly evolves over the series.

And then there’s that landscape. Maybe you never lived where it snowed, maybe you hate the cold, but if you ever lived in winter the landscape will resonate. The long stretches of highway with nothing on either side but snow. And there’s one moment where an actor gets out of his vehicle without his coat and eventually walks into a building. That’s how it is if you live where it really gets cold, you kind of adjust, you don’t bundle up heavily for every sortie. Sure, you’re wearing a long sleeve shirt, maybe even a sweatshirt on top of that, but the cold is invigorating, especially on a sunny day.

So, in the era of peak TV, when there’s no way everybody can see everything, I would not put “The Valhalla Murders” at the top of your list. If you like police shows, “Spiral” on Amazon is far superior, they both feature subtitles, and maybe people find it easier to just watch Netflix, but I cannot stop harping on how good “Spiral” is.

Now I downloaded a sample of Emily St. John Mandel’s new book “The Glass Hotel.” Did you read her prior work, “Station Eleven”? In theory it’s not really my kind of book, as it is set in the future. I like hard core reality, neither fantasy nor science fiction, but “Station Eleven” is one of the best books I’ve read in the last ten years, even though it’s set in the future it seems so real, and the book is so readable.

But to tell you the truth, we’ll finish “The Tiger King,” but what I’m really waiting for is Friday, because…

OZARK COMES BACK!!

I feel like I’m in “Groundhog Day,” every day is exactly the same. Which is weird. There’s nothing in the schedule, I wake up, read the papers, get on the computer…

I am anxious about sending so many missives about the coronavirus. People unsubscribe when there are too many missives a day. Then again, I write on inspiration, and right now I’m inspired.

I hope you read Jessica Lustig’s piece in the “New York Times”:

“What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick With Coronavirus – Our world became one of isolation, round-the-clock care, panic and uncertainty – even as society carried on around us with all too few changes.”

Actually, I know Jessica, but I haven’t seen her in years. She worked at “Details” after the turn of the century, when I wrote a couple of articles for them. I went to New York, we went for lunch, we talked on the phone a few times and then I followed her from afar, as we all do these days, virtually stalking, staying in touch with people we know but no longer communicate with. I enjoyed her article a few years back about taking her family skiing at Mad River Glen.

This story started making the rounds yesterday, it was all over Twitter, I got a bit of e-mail about it. I clicked through on my phone and saw the illustration but not the author, and then, late in the day, I had time and the inclination to read it and noticed it was written by Jessica. Weird how we’re connected to people with the coronavirus. Expect more and more of this.

But what has got me writing at this very moment, before I’ve eaten breakfast, just after I woke up and checked my phone, is this:

“The Coronavirus May Make Trump Stronger – Gallup finds 60% of voters approve of his handling of the crisis. As usual, the establishment is clueless.”

I now take every poll with a grain of salt, especially after Trump’s 2016 election, but the percentage was so high, I decided to start reading.

Now this is in the “Wall Street Journal” behind a paywall, so many people will not be able to read it. Then again, people forget the other half of Stewart Brand’s famous utterance: “Information also wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable.” I pay in excess of $500 for my print and net subscription to the WSJ. Most people will not pay that, but business people will. These articles are not written for everyday people. Therefore, if you are cheap, or broke, you’re left out. Welcome to the present day. Then again, is it the same as it ever was? And this information is very valuable, so I’ll quote some of it here:

“One reason Mr. Trump’s opponents have had such a hard time damaging his connection with voters is that they still don’t understand why so many Americans want a wrecking-ball presidency. Beyond attributing Mr. Trump’s support to a mix of racism, religious fundamentalism and profound ignorance, the president’s establishment opponents in both parties have yet to grasp the depth and intensity of the populist energy that animates his base and the Bernie Sanders movement.

The sheer number of voters in open political rebellion against centrist politics is remarkable. Adding the Sanders base (36% of the Democratic vote in the latest Real Clear Politics poll average, or roughly 13% of the national vote considering that about 45% of voters lean Democratic) to the core Trump base of roughly 42%, and around 55% of U.S. voters now support politicians who openly despise the central assumptions of the political establishment.

That a majority of the electorate is this deeply alienated from the establishment can’t be dismissed as bigotry and ignorance. There are solid and serious grounds for doubting the competence and wisdom of America’s self-proclaimed expert class. What is so intelligent and enlightened, populists ask, about a foreign-policy establishment that failed to perceive that U.S. trade policies were promoting the rise of a hostile Communist superpower with the ability to disrupt supplies of essential goods in a national emergency? What competence have the military and political establishments shown in almost two decades of tactical success and strategic impotence in Afghanistan? What came of that intervention in Libya? What was the net result of all the fine talk in the Bush and Obama administrations about building democracy in the Middle East?

On domestic policy, the criticism is equally trenchant and deeply felt. Many voters believe that the U.S. establishment has produced a health-care system that is neither affordable nor universal. Higher education saddles students with increasing debt while leaving many graduates woefully unprepared for good jobs in the real world. The centrist establishment has amassed unprecedented deficits without keeping roads, bridges and pipes in good repair. It has weighed down cities and states with unmanageable levels of pension debt.

The culture of social promotion and participation trophies is not, populists feel, confined to U.S. kindergartens and elementary schools. Judging by performance, they conclude that people rise in the American establishment by relentless virtue-signaling; by going along with conventional wisdom, however foolish; and by forgiving the failures of others and having their own overlooked in return…

Attacks on the establishment aren’t always rational or fair. They can be one-sided and fail to do justice to the accomplishments the U.S. has made in the recent past. Populism on both the left and the right always attracts its share of snake-oil salesmen, and America’s current antiestablishment surge is no exception. But the U.S. establishment won’t prosper again until it comes to grip with a central political fact: Populism rises when establishment leadership fails. If conventional U.S. political leaders had been properly doing their jobs, Donald Trump would still be hosting a television show.”

I’m loath to mention Bernie Sanders’s name anymore because of the intense blowback. Democrats lay a litany of events in my inbox, the failure of young people to show up, Bernie and Cuba, they’ve bought the assassination of him and his candidacy by the NYT, WaPo and MSNBC hook, line and sinker and have missed the major issue, which is delineated above. They’re so concerned with beating Trump that they don’t realize…people are pissed about government not working for them and they are the problem.

There, I said it. As you can see from this article, the majority of America wants a revolution, and that may just lead to Biden’s loss in November, assuming he gets out of his bunker alive, with his brain intact. Joe’s got no purchase on the public scene at this time. By waiting a week to weigh in, Biden took himself out of the narrative. Timing is everything in life. If you want an analysis of that, read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers.” A certain behavior may not work in one era, and then be mind-bogglingly successful in another. Today, you fight it out online and people forget what you did today as they follow the narrative into tomorrow. Biden’s handlers do not know this because they are not internet-savvy, and I’m sick of blowhards inured to the system who think it’s politics as usual. I like David Axelrod, but he is not living in this decade.

The first rule of law is know thine enemy. Trump has been President in excess of three years and the movers and shakers still have no idea why he got elected, what his base wants. And it’s funny to me that I had to read a right wing newspaper to get the truth.

And the part about the trophies for losers, the “relentless virtue-signaling; by going along with conventional wisdom, however foolish; and by forgiving the failures of others and having their own overlooked in return.” is so right on. It’s a club, and you’re not in it. But what is even more fascinating is the last three decades have told us institutions can be overturned nearly instantly by disrupters from the outside, it never comes from the inside, but the outside. And then, when it happens, the inside says “who knew”? Obviously the disrupters. What’s unfathomable today is de rigueur tomorrow. Like a black President and legal marijuana.

I won’t overload you at this time, there are a number of other interesting developments, but the above two pieces stand out and I need to make you aware of them.

Time is of the essence.

While Republicans and Democrats are waging a war to decide when to restart the economy and the media is covering the battle, we are losing precious time to self-quarantine, to put a dent in the number of infected.

The best thing I’ve read today is Ezekiel Emanuel’s piece in the “New York Times”:

“Fourteen Days. That’s the Most Time We Have to Defeat Coronavirus – These decisive measures can prevent a decade of dislocation and extraordinary levels of death.”

Zeke lays it all out, but his wise advice is superseded by the battle between science and the economy, between freedom and “lock us up,” between one side hating the other so much and vice versa that nothing can be done.

Meanwhile, too many Americans are living in darkness.

Did you see Jackson Browne’s got it?

“Jackson Browne Tests Positive for Coronavirus – ‘It’s important for us all to be pretty forthcoming about what we’re going through,’ singer-songwriter says”

Browne’s crime? He flew back and forth to New York to do the “Love Rocks” charity show. Do a good thing and you pay for it.

Once again, Andrew Cuomo is leading:

“We’re Going to Get through It Because We Are New York”

Ignore the headline and watch the clip, Cuomo only goes on about the strength of New Yorkers at the very end. Before that, he talks about protecting our parents. Dan Patrick wants oldsters to die, Cuomo wants them to live.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

The canard is this is a coastal elite problem, that it just can’t happen at scale in the red states.

But there are now infections in every state of the union. Once again, just because you feel different, that does not mean you are.

Also, youngsters think they’re immune, but that is far from the case, it appears that a 12 year old died today of Covid-19 in California:

L.A. County reports first death of a possible coronavirus patient under 18 as COVID-19 cases top 660

I’ll be honest, today’s news just washed over me. I read the stories, but I was numb. But then I saw tonight’s “New York Times” editorial and I got agitated:

“Coronavirus Is Advancing. All Americans Need to Shelter in Place – The worst of the pandemic is yet to come. Listen to the medical experts. It’s time for a national lockdown.”

The “New York Times” runs the country. And now, with Bezos’s investment and Marty Baron at the helm of the “Washington Post,” the “Times” is getting a run for its money. Fox News does very little newsgathering, and neither does MSNBC, instead they reference what’s reported in the “Times” and now the “Washington Post.” As for other papers? “USA Today” is a meaningless pamphlet. The “Wall Street Journal” has cut stories short to fit the printed page, it’s a shame what they’ve done to the paper. Used to be the “Journal” was the business paper of record, no more. Now the “Journal” is the news source for Republicans. It’s got some worldwide and national news followed by pages of opinion, and then another section where there are brief stories about business. Oh, occasionally they go deeper, they break a story, but if it’s not business, the “Journal” is irrelevant, and oftentimes the “Times”‘s business coverage is superior, if for no other reason than it’s longer and more in-depth.

So, the editorial in the “Times” is trying to jawbone the country into taking action. But it’s going to take days for the “Times” editorial to work its way through the system, if it does so at all. I would say the President could push the button, but he took himself out of the leadership position by ceding decisions and implementation to the States. This has come back to bite him on the ass, because he’s got little power. Of course he could appoint a Covid-19 czar, but you just know it would be one of his cronies with no experience. Fauci is tolerated. We need the equivalent of a special prosecutor here. Oh, that’s right, Trump stonewalled Mueller and beat impeachment, not because the facts were in his favor, but because of the tribal loyalty of his fellow Republicans. Cool, but this is a HEALTH issue, that is not partisan, that involves all of us. Suddenly, it’s about Republicans and Democrats. Actually, that’s the tack the right has taken from the beginning, the virus is a hoax and it’s all about bringing down the President.

Well, just wait until people you know start dying. It’s gonna happen. And then we’ll see all this footage of families crying, it will be a national tragedy, but we won’t be able to blame Trump for dilly-dallying because it would be inappropriate.

This should not be a partisan debate, but it is. My inbox is filled with Trumpers angry I’m beating up on their guy. This is how we got into this mess, with outlets doing their best not to piss off these people, this is where false equivalencies come from. In what fakokta world do we have to stifle what’s right because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings?

As for Fox News, there’s no one at the helm, did you read today’s story about Rupert Murdoch?

“As Fox News Played Down the Coronavirus, Its Chief Protected Himself – The cancellation of an 89th birthday party for Rupert Murdoch highlights a disconnect between his family’s behavior and statements made on air by some Fox commentators”

Read the article, Rupert’s not in charge, Lachlan is. And Lachlan is nearly completely hands-off. We haven’t even been yelling at the right people!

As for self-quarantining…

What part about staying in your house do you not get?

I continue to hear from people who say they’re taking this very seriously, then they talk about the errands they run, the frequency with which they go grocery shopping and the people who come to their abode. Rupert Murdoch is taking it seriously, why can’t you?

This Is Tom Odell – Spotify

Tom Odell – Another Love – YouTube

“Another Love” was a hit everywhere on the continent, going to #10 in the U.K. and #1 in Belgium, as well as being #11 in France and Germany and #6 in the Netherlands. But in America? Crickets, the track did not chart.

I was reading this story in “Rolling Stone” about Elton John being appreciative of the Weeknd sampling his music and the article ended with this:

“and then John also expressed admiration for the next generation of talented U.K. artists following in his footsteps, including Tom Odell, James Blake, Lewis Capaldi and Sam Smith.”

Tom Odell?

So I fired up Spotify and heard “Another Love.” I was stunned, because Elton was right, Tom Odell is following in his footsteps, I love this music, nobody is making this at this level of quality in the U.S., even the singer-songwriters have gone all beats, chasing the trends, although mostly unsuccessfully. A piano and a vocal? How retro, how right!

Why does this stuff always come from the U.K? Not only Sam Smith with his giant hits, but Ed Sheeran, even though Ed plays nice with the beatmasters. Who is to blame? The musicmakers themselves, record labels or the radio or all of them?

Now “Another Love” was a hit back in 2012, and Odell has not had this level of success since, although he’s had charting records.

And “Another Love” is not perfect, it’s not “Your Song,” then again it’s better than so much of the dreck paraded as popular music today.

Popular. Now that we’ve figured out music distribution, now that recording revenue is going up, we need to focus on creativity and broadening the kinds of music paid attention to. But the big labels are only putting their energy behind hip-hop and obvious pop, and their publicity people are promoting these to media outlets which basically just puppet priorities or promote obscurities and radio is so tight and so reactive that all we get is pop and hip-hop, but there’s tons more out there, and some of it is really good.

The web is all about niches, narrow verticals, but for some reason the big music business and the media refuse to adjust to this change, they believe there’s one top ten that everybody in America is listening to, but it’s not 1965 anymore, never mind 1995, the internet blew a hole in that paradigm. However, in the U.K., maybe because there’s state-controlled radio, a much greater swath of music is exposed.

The first crisis we’ve got today is connecting the music with the listener, and so far the music industry has done a piss-poor job. Playlists were supposed to be the panacea, but they are not. Too many songs, too many skippable, who can endure so much crap? And what is promoted on streaming sites, that which gets banners, is the stuff the major labels promote, everything else lies in a backwater. With so much music out there we need to hear less, not everything is entitled to the same exposure, couldn’t these streaming services feature great music in other genres? Not a ton of acts in those genres, just one at a time, to make it easy for the audience to listen and embrace.

And then we need more people making quality music in more genres in America. In an era where everything is available, we gravitate to greatness, good is not good enough. Listen to “Another Love,” and then try the wannabes, you’ll hear the clear difference.

Now the funny thing is we saw this movie again after Tom Odell. Rag’n’Bone Man’s 2016 single “Human” was number one literally all over the world, but it was a stiff in the U.S. Columbia was so busy working the track slowly from format to format that it never broke through on the only format that matters, Top Forty. “Human” made it all the way up to #74 on “Billboard”‘s Hot 100, whew! And the funny thing is both these records were on Columbia, was it the marketplace or did the label blow it both times? And do you need a major label to push something and is that why we’ve been exposed to one-dimensional music ever since streaming services gained a toehold?