This show is FABULOUS!

I wish I could recommend comedies, but despite the lack of recognition, comedy is much harder to do than drama and I just can’t find streaming comedies in the league of these exquisite dramas. I don’t want network fare on Netflix, I don’t need no “Kominsky Method” or “Grace and Frankie,” my time is too valuable, I want something that will entice me, ring my bell, prevent my mind from wandering, something I’ll think about after it’s over.

I think “Giri/Haji” has little traction because of its name and sometime use of subtitles. I’ve got to give credit to Netflix for not renaming it “Duty/Shame,” the English translation, you’ve got to be true to the material.

So what we’ve got here is a crime drama mixed in with a family drama mixed in with a relationship drama. Few projects cross all these boundaries, hit all these notes.

So the basic story is a Japanese cop goes to London to look for his gangster brother.

As America has become more ethnocentric, as the chest-thumping chant of USA!, USA! has become ever louder, few people have passports and the desire to travel to a foreign country is not top of mind, especially if they don’t speak English there. And speaking of English, talk to any resident of the U.K., they travel incessantly, have been nearly everywhere, maybe it’s a remnant of the empire era, and now it’s harder after Brexit. Europe for the weekend? Maybe not, too much hassle.

Which is just to say the footage of Japan makes me want to go there. It’s so foreign yet so normal. Too many Americans believe other countries are backward, but watching this Japan just seems like an analogue of the U.S., you can see how people could live there and not give a second thought to the U.S., makes me wish I spoke Japanese.

So there’s the story.

And then there’s the acting.

Will Sharpe as Rodney is positively astounding. He jumps right off the screen. And like true-life people you’re alternately drawn to him and repelled by him. The night wherein he rings everybody he knows and nobody’s available…we’ve all been desperate like that, at least I have. And how he hates it when the sun comes up…if you’re a night owl, nothing is worse.

And Charlie Creed-Miles as Connor Abbot… You’ve seen this guy, he inhabits his character so well you believe he’s really the person. The intensity and the humor all wrapped up into one, the ability to sneer and then smile…you smile every time he’s on screen.

And Kelly Macdonald, who is just shy of classically beautiful and therefore ever intriguing, embodies a single woman in the city, with a good job and questions about love.

As for the Yakuza…

The Japanese Mafia. Masahiro Motoki as Fukuhara doesn’t look that old or scary, and then he tightens his face and becomes quietly ferocious.

Not that everybody else is not good, it’s just that the above performances truly stand out.

But it’s not only the acting that wows and inspires, theatrical film level cinematography is employed, with split screens and animations and…

Now the violence can be truly intense, so be forewarned.

And I never had a brother, but this makes me wonder whether blood is thicker than the law.

And the show reinforces that so much is grey, or like the title of that book we read in high school, it’s all situation ethics.

Is the ending as satisfying as the ride?

I won’t give anything away, I’ll just say when you’re finished with this eight episode journey e-mail me and tell me what you think.

“Giri/Haji” is a winner.

Today’s Rarities

“Old Mister Time”
10cc

I’m a huge 10cc fan. I bought the first album when it had traction across the pond, but none here. “Rubber Bullets” was the best Beach Boys-style track I’d heard since “Back In The U.S.S.R.” But the band didn’t have a hit in the U.S. for years, until they released “I’m Not In Love” on “The Original Soundtrack” in ’75. And then they promptly slipped back into irrelevance. The follow-up, “How Dare You,” had no impact, and then the band split in half and it was Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman who continued under the moniker 10cc and they had a huge hit on “Deceptive Bends” with “The Things We Do For Love,” a masterpiece that those who did not know the band considered throwaway pop, but do you know how hard it is to write a hit, one with a sing-songy chorus, that resonates, that just isn’t of the moment? NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE!

Being a huge fan I purchased the follow-up “Bloody Tourists” when it came out in ’78. The opening cut, “Dreadlock Holiday,” was a smash seemingly everywhere but the States. I knew every note on “Bloody Tourists” by heart and went to see the band at the Santa Monica Civic and sat in the fifth or sixth row and was elated, the surprise was Rick Fenn and his exquisite guitarwork. But it’s “Old Mister Time” that plays in my head when I think of “Bloody Tourists.” Eric Stewart ultimately sang with McCartney, he had such a pure voice, and it’s evidenced here. This is the kind of music from the album era that doesn’t fly today, moody stuff that is made just for you to listen to, alone in your house.

“Johnny Hold Back”
Charlie

Terry Thomas is now known as a record producer, he worked with the Brian Howe Bad Company, with its bombastic yet satisfying tracks “Holy Water” and “How About That,” as well as Foreigner and Tommy Shaw. But first he was the creative spark behind Charlie, which failed in America because it was on the Janus label, back when what label you were on truly mattered. This album, “No Second Chance,” is the best one and it’s playable throughout and if you dig this, listen to the title track and “Guitar Hero (False Messiah).”

“L.A. Dreamer”
Charlie

What the hell, this is the key track from the follow-up to “No Second Chance” entitled “Lines,” from back when singing about L.A. was a thing, remember “Hollywood Nights”? (In those Hollywood Hills!)”

“Sunset People”
Donna Summer

When I practiced law back in the seventies, my boss represented a couple of band members who had written songs on “Bad Girls.” I’d always dismissed Donna Summer as disco, back when that was a bad word, but one of these players gave me a copy of the “Bad Girls” double album and other than the title track and the opener “Hot Stuff,” this is the cut that resonated, it’s so moody, once again, mood has no place in today’s hit music.

“Blue Desire”
Silencers

I lobbied for this band for years, but it didn’t help, but Jimme O’Neill is a star in France and moved there to capitalize on it, go where your audience is.

I still remember the first time I heard “A Blues For Buddha,” the second LP, the opening cut was coming out of the speakers as I sat in a car with RCA promotion man Kevin Sutter in the garage at the Le Parc Hotel. The song was “The Real McCoy,” and I got it IMMEDIATELY! “A Blues For Buddha” became my favorite LP, I couldn’t stop playing it. And then I went back to the debut, with the radio track “Painted Moon.” Most people think the first album is better, I could argue that, but start with “Blue Desire,” if you like that then play “A Letter From St. Paul” and “Possessed” and…THE ENTIRE ALBUM!

That’s the first album, “A Letter From St. Paul,” “A Blues For Buddha” is not on Spotify.

“What Comes After”
Stories

Back from when a pure voice was not excoriated, Ian Lloyd sings better than anybody who ever appeared on a TV singing show. If you like this, also listen to “Love Is In Motion” from the same LP, “About Us.”

“Cinnamon”
The Storys

I’m shocked! This is finally on Spotify, after I checked for a decade. This is CSN music, Southern California, country-influenced stuff. Listen at least to the chorus and hang in there, if you make it all the way through you’ll need to hear this track again, and again and again.

“I Am So Ordinary
Paula Cole

Long before she had the title track of “Dawson’s Creek.” Listen to the lyrics, a perfect description of what it’s like when you believe you’re just not good enough.

“Long Road Out of Eden”
Eagles

It’s been thirteen years since the Eagles released their first new work in decades via Walmart. Many bought it, no one seems to remember it. It’s the title track that’s the keeper, if you’re a fan of “Hotel California,” if you’re a fan of Don Henley’s lyrics/insight, this is for you. Once again, made for a dark room at night. This is an epic, and all ten minutes of it satisfy.

Now we know why the underclass voted for Trump.

You’ve got time on your hands, fire this up. Log in to Netflix and then click on “Dirty Money” and then click on “Slumlord Millionaire.” Watch and you’ll think the system is rigged against you.

And it is.

The mistake Jared Kushner made was to marry into a famous family and then become part of Trump’s inner circle. The truly rich know it’s best to keep your name out of the news, publicity delivers trouble. But new money wants acceptance. Or at least new players with old money want acceptance, so they buy and bully their way into the inner sanctum of society and no one busts them, because the story sells advertising for media and those at the tippity-top don’t throw shade at each other, it’s an unwritten rule of the club, violate it and you’re out forever.

So, Jared Kushner runs his father’s real estate company. The only thing is it’s based on fraud and milking the tenants. Do I think the Kushners are the only real estate barons who do this? OF COURSE NOT! But like I said above, Kushner stepped into the spotlight and this is the result, bad publicity and a hit to the bottom line.

Well, he’s leveraging his White House connections to get government loans and…

We can argue about the behavior of this President and his entourage but it doesn’t matter, because whatever is said the water is muddied by his acolytes, today there are so many outlets with so many opinions, you yourself can even become a broadcaster, that truth is an elusive concept. Sure, Trump capitalized on it, but think of all the falsehoods people spew all day long from information, oftentimes discredited, they garner online. Like vaccines cause autism. There’s absolutely no evidence this is true, the research of the doctor who came out with the initial report has been discredited. But if you send someone to Snopes, they say that site can’t be trusted, so here we are…to the point that even his lack of foresight with the coronavirus might not hurt Trump, I think it will, but maybe not.

Because of the elites.

The left wing, the Democrats, have forsaken their core constituency, working men and women. All you’ve got is highly educated weasels dividing up the pie themselves, who might pay lip service to those below them, but really have contempt for them.

There’s this guy in Kushner’s apartment complex in Baltimore… He’s struggling, being hit with late fees on his rent, but he voted for Trump. He says it’s because Trump’s a businessman, but…

One do-gooder does a better job of holding Kushner and other real estate barons to account than the entire New York City government, with tons of people in the building department. So, when Republicans say the government is ineffective, here’s your evidence. And why should you pay taxes for such an inefficient enterprise? Better to keep that money for yourself, after all, unlike the elites, you need it, it’s the difference between having a roof over your head or not.

Of course this guy is voting against his interests, but when you see him attempt to read you remember him from school, assuming you even went to a public school, before all the elites sent their kids to private schools or established charters that left the dumb and bedraggled out.

So if you went to public school, you remember elementary, wherein all the students hung together, wherein you knew everybody, wherein everybody was kind of equal. But, you knew certain people were smarter than others.

And then you get to junior high, now called “middle school,” and then high school and they bring in more students and they separate the classes based on intelligence and it’s obvious who the losers are. And they’re not happy about it. The smart kids run everything, and insult the dumb all the while. These elites are the exact people running the Democratic Party, do you know what these laborers in underpaid jobs say? SCREW YOU!

But it gets even worse. The Republicans have gutted the IRS so even the rich aren’t held accountable. The Kushners don’t even have certificates of occupancy for their buildings, they break the fire code, but the government never cracks down on them, why fund the government at all? And when the Kushners are finally fined, it’s chump change.

The rich Republicans hide. Like Robert Mercer, one of the biggest Republican donors. He was outed for supporting Trump (and spending so much money), and there’s now been press about his riches and donations, but the only press we really get about funders is George Soros is the devil. That’s right, the Democrats play defense as the Republicans go unscathed. Hand it to the Republicans, they’re organized. Forget the Supreme Court, Trump has remade the entire federal court system, populating it with right wing judges, frequently very young, sometimes with no experience.

But this is the weeds when you’re working for a living, have mouths to feed, if you’ve got any free time at all you just want to fire up the flat screen and be entertained, you don’t want to delve into the doings of the rich people who control the government.

The truth is almost all of the great fortunes were not made completely legally. Corners were cut, and what’s even worse, relationships with the government or lack of government oversight usually let these builders get away with it.

The elite have gotten their way, they’ve nominated Joe Biden. Joe ain’t gonna make them suffer, it’ll be business as usual, and Joe can express compassion for the underclass, but will he do anything for them? OF COURSE NOT! The poor will get some token relief and the rich will just keep on raping and pillaging.

Now if this were the sixties and there were only three networks this documentary would have huge consequences. But today, with four networks, a bunch of cable outlets and numerous streaming services nothing gets to the top of everybody’s mind…NOTHING! This is how the music industry thinks so small. The Spotify Top 50? The hit parade has less penetration than ever before, as for the other genres people are interested in…it’s too much effort to make that money so the major labels abstain, and since there are so many marketing messages newbies can’t get their message heard anyway.

But now we’re all at home. And the funny thing is we’re so weirded-out by the isolation that we’re connecting with everybody we know, whether it be by text, e-mail or phone. And we’ve got free time, which we never had before, too much free time. So, things can get traction that never would before.

Everybody has access to a Netflix account. Take an hour of time and watch this documentary. I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, this is how the world works, and the more people talk about it the more possibility there is of change.

Which brings me back to Bernie Sanders. The elites decimated him. Sure, the young didn’t come out to vote, but why should they when the game is rigged, when the elites gang up to preserve their way of life. And let’s not debate Sanders, just the things he stands for. Should everybody have medical insurance? OF COURSE! Do the corporations abuse their power? OF COURSE! Should there be no billionaires? OF COURSE!

But the rich have all the power and they’re not letting the poor in on the action. But if we all watch this show and talk about it…

That’s another reason why the poor vote for the right. Without hope you cannot sustain, you cannot go on living. So, if you can dream of becoming a billionaire, that resonates, at least there’s a target, others make it, why can’t you?

You can’t. It’s like playing the lottery, almost no one wins.

And as all sophisticates know, the lottery is just a tax on the poor. Those who have money don’t play it because the odds are too low. But if you’ve got nothing, playing feeds your hope.

And then the money is supposed to help schools but they siphon funds from the school budget and the end result remains the same.

Sure, we’ve got to get rid of the Orange Menace.

But we need change.

I’m telling you, I’m losing hope.

“Sgt. Pepper”

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday March 17th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

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