The Knockout Queen

This book is so wild.

When I was a freshman in college, second semester I took an English course entitled “The Picaresque Novel.” Now if you look up “picaresque” in the Oxford dictionary, it says “relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero.” I’m not sure every book we read in that class fit that description, but one thing is for sure, the main character in each book was different, one of a kind, didn’t fit in, was a leader of misfits or…

Now at Middlebury, 45% of the students came from prep school. They had it all wired, they knew things I did not. Like “Celtic” is pronounced with a “k” sound as opposed to the “c” of the Boston basketball team, and that you didn’t have to read all the books and you never had to turn a paper in on time.

As for the last…I eventually behaved that way too. You’ve got to be motivated to write a paper. Oh, that’s one more thing, there were no objective tests at Middlebury, no true/false or multiple choice, they were all three hour essay tests, and you had to write tons of papers. So, I’d feel the pressure the night before and write my paper, but…

It was a different era. Oh, how I wish I went to college in the computer age. Not only would I not be isolated in nowhere Vermont, I’d be able to print as opposed to type, or maybe just e-mail the finished result to the professor. You see that was the biggest challenge, when you were done scribbling, you had to type your composition. And although I studied touch-typing in high school, maybe the most valuable course I took, my typing was not yet perfect and if you made too many mistakes you had to start over and it was a real pain in the ass.

As for not having to read all the books…

That was wisdom, that was genius.

Some courses would assign you a thousand page book a week. Really. How could you do any other schoolwork, how could you even finish that book? And all this hoopla about online learning…I learned a hell of a lot more out of the classroom than in it. That’s why you go to college, to meet different kinds of people, to grow up, most of what you learn in the classroom is close to worthless, especially today when they teach you business crap as opposed to the liberal arts. Which is all to say I don’t think I read most of the books in that class that semester. Not that they were any good, not that I missed anything. But I did miss the first week of the semester skiing in Courchevel, and I never really caught up. And I am exaggerating, as everybody is wont to do, I read most of the books, but I distinctly remember not reading “The Ginger Man.”

But I did read “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.”

It changed my life.

That and “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” that summer.

It’s different now. Even by 1970 people would have rather recorded the Great American Album as opposed to writing the Great American Novel, but this was before blockbusters. Just like “Jaws” and “Star Wars” ruined the movie business, James Patterson and John Grisham ruined the book business. Suddenly, you could get rich writing a novel. Well, before the techies came along and added a bunch of zeros. So, today we’ve got genre books, mysteries, romance, and “literature,” which is the product of the writing schools wherein the writing supersedes the story and most of it is only read by a small subset of Americans as opposed to everybody.

That was not “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.”

Its main character is Gnossos Pappadopoulis. It was written by Richard Farina, who was married to Joan Baez’s sister Mimi, and he died in a motorcycle accident two days after the book’s publication. That was big news back then, today no one even knows who Mimi is, never mind reads this book.

You see it’s a combination of irreverence and alienation. The human condition. That’s what’s been lost in today’s mercenary society, everybody hides their identity to get along, to appear a winner, when the truth is being human is challenging, you’re living in your head, does anybody really know you, and does any of it really matter?

Neither of the above books are why I became a writer. That happened earlier, in the fall of my freshman year, but that’s a story for another day.

But “The Knockout Queen” is the story for today.

You see you have an alienated gay teenager whose mother is in prison for attacking his violent father. And this teenager is living with his aunt. And he befriends this tall, rich girl who lives next door.

And that all happens right away, I’m not really giving anything away. That’s what I hate about reviews, they just give a precis of the book, and that’s not what I want…what I want to know is if I should read it!

And I’m not recommending “The Knockout Queen,” because I don’t think it’s for everybody.

But if it’s for you..!

Come on, are you the type who likes to analyze, who takes nothing at face value, who feels like they exist outside the system?

Are you the type who believes life is rigged, never mind politics?

Are you the type who lives for adventure, even if it’s not gonna be posted on Instagram?

Are you the type who adds up the injustices, but soldiers on?

Are you the type who believes it’s just not gonna work out for you?

That’s a lot of us, but most of us don’t want to admit it.

So, by being very small and focused, “The Knockout Queen” becomes universal. Well, that’s overstating the case a bit, but you get what I mean, it speaks to the human condition.

What is said and the choices characters make and the way people act…it’s just like people you know in real life. The one who says they’ll do you any favor, even though they don’t really mean it, they just want points for saying it.

I guess what I’m saying is I was reading “The Knockout Queen” and I suddenly realized, THIS IS ME!

No, I don’t mean I was any character in the book, but it brought me back to who I once was. And believe me, there’s so much I don’t want to go back to from college. But me and my friends used to say, if we ever got rich, we’d establish a chair for “flipped-out literature.” We really said that, again and again. It was a rebellion against the conservatism of Middlebury. Where they didn’t want to know your opinion of the book, they just wanted you to study someone else’s opinion. So why read, you’re removing all the joy from the experience!

As for Rufi Thorpe, the author of “The Knockout Queen”…

The funny thing is when you read a book, you kinda feel like you know the author, And you’re drawn to find out more. Even though if you met in real life they’d want nothing to do with you and you’d find out they’re different from your preconception. But the beauty is you never meet them! You have your own fantasy!

Now most of celebrity journalism is based on movie and TV stars. Who literally play a role. There’s very little there there. Who cares what they’re saying or doing? And then there are reality stars, like the Kardashians, those are business stories, how did they hoodwink America to make all that cash…come on, would you like to hang with these people, the conversation would be inane! And then there are authors. They came up with the story, they’re in the book.

Rufi Thorpe said MFA programs were b.s. Not to go if you had to borrow money to do so. That they were a good place to go to have time off to write, but as for learning anything…

You see the U.S. is one big conformity system. They’re training you to get in line and be just like everybody else. But deep inside, we’re not. We feel different and we’re always wandering around like in that children’s book, asking ARE YOU MY MOTHER? We’re looking for someone who gets us, who is on the same page, who understands us.

And it happens rarely.

Ever try to change your friends? It can’t be done. Oh, you can fake it, but you can’t become a different person. Turns out the popular people are different. They’re fake and duplicitous and fabulous and you need to hang with someone else just as alienated as you.

So, I read “The Knockout Queen” and I was stunned to find someone on the exact same page as me! Once again, not the characters, but the sensibility…as in you’re marching through life and it doesn’t make any sense.

Rufi Thorpe said she wrote what she wanted to write. Which is where all the great stuff comes from. You can go to Nashville and learn how to write for country radio, but you won’t be an original. But originals are who we’re truly looking for! But the gatekeepers think you’re too dangerous, you’re not getting encouragement, and chances are even if what you do is great it’ll fail in the marketplace and…

I did not like the ending of “The Knockout Queen.” Primarily because people don’t change their spots that much. I felt Michael…turned into someone different, as did the Knockout Queen.

Oh, she’s 6’3″ but she’s neither beautiful nor popular. Personality is a factor. Some tall girls become models, and many others regret their height, like Bunny.

Now “The Knockout Queen” is not going to be the book of the year, read by everybody. A lot of book groups will abhor it, because it’s pretty downbeat and the characters are not so likable…it’s not light fiction. Oh, it’s not hard to read, you’re drawn to it, you get caught up and it’s difficult to put down, but it’s not about endless victories.

But there is humor. Life is absurd, sometimes all you can do is laugh.

So if you’re one of those people who wants to only read about music. Who wants to constantly bitch about Spotify. Who watches cartoon movies. I doubt you’ll like this book. It doesn’t give you any answers, it doesn’t pay any financial dividends. And it’s less about the story than the attitude, the viewpoint.

Then again, there’s some of that comic wildness that was in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” but instead of being 70mm, “The Knockout Queen” is 16mm, it’s home video, it’s shot on your iPhone and not posted online, it’s only for you.

I’m having a hard time diving into another book because I don’t want the feeling I got reading “The Knockout Queen” to go.

It’s so funny to live so long, see your dreams quashed, march forward somnambulantly and suddenly find out you’re the same person you ever were and someone else is on your page.

That’s how I felt reading “The Knockout Queen.”

Maybe you will too.

Jack Dorsey is standing up for all of us.

In other words, Trump fucked with the wrong asshole.

What was the Facebook motto? “Move fast and break things.”? The history of the internet is the techies do what they want and legacy entities challenge said change and in the middle of the argument, they lose all standing.

Happened in the music business. The record companies shut down Napster and lost half their revenue. You see the labels thought it was all about stealing, whereas it was about their flawed business model. Fans didn’t want to pay fifteen bucks for a CD with one good track. They wanted live cuts and rarities, a whole smorgasbord of music. So, Napster was shut down and KaZaA and lockers replaced it and the labels kept fighting the past, and losing all the while. Too much credit is given to the iTunes Store, that was a stopgap measure, it just allowed non-techies to pay for tracks, whereas the enlightened continued to file trade. It wasn’t until Spotify that pirates gave up (10% will never pay, Michael Eisner said that, and he was right) and revenues did a U-turn and started to climb.

You see you’ve got to give the people what they want.

So, the techies have all the power. Look at Google and Amazon, between them they own search, even Microsoft could not make inroads with Bing!

And conversation takes place and news is gathered on Twitter and Facebook and…the oldsters would prefer people consume at the trough of legacy media, i.e. print (and its apps) and TV. But youngsters have no need for physical, it’s old news, and they’re cutting the cord, they don’t even get Fox and MSNBC, never mind ABC or CBS, and if they do they don’t pay attention to them.

So, many say Trump got elected because of attention, and that to defeat him this has to be addressed. But Trump is good for legacy media businesses. Cable ratings have gone up, as have subscriptions to the “New York Times.” They’re not gonna crack down. They too are part of the elite and they cannot change their model. As a matter of fact, the “Times” bends over backwards to criticize Democrats, fearful of criticism from the right. Meanwhile, the “Wall Street Journal” op-ed pages are all right wing all the time and Fox believes there’s only one true view, fact-based or not.

So Jack Dorsey takes a stand when no one else with any power is willing to. And he’s not backing down, he’s leaning in, adding notices to more tweets, not afraid of the president.

I mean why should you be afraid of the president, he’s a paper tiger built on hype, there’s no there there.

But Pelosi and the news outlets just play the game as usual, say their hands are tied, that there’s nothing they can do.

But Jack Dorsey had enough.

Now few had a problem when Alex Jones was shut out of social media. Sure, some continued to defend his inane theories, but sympathy with the Newtown parents and…it was hard to look the other way.

But now that Twitter wants to shut down Trump…actually, not even shut him down, just establish a counterbalance…the attackers are crying foul.

This is like a cheater bitching that they’re no longer able to cheat. Even worse, they want the rules changed so they can continue to cheat.

Democrats are passive. They believe their hearts are in the right place so they don’t have to be educated on all the issues and they don’t have to play hard. But when someone challenges the whole game… That is what this is about folks. Even Trump said it himself! The fear is if everybody gets to vote, there’s no way in hell he, or any Republican, will get elected.

Meanwhile, the Democrats do nothing. They win the battle of votes, but lose the Electoral College. Meanwhile, Trump says he won the popular vote…and he’s got the biggest megaphone of them all, so his words have influence.

Zuckerberg wants out. He’s preparing for a future decades down the road. Without Instagram and WhatsApp he’d be up shit’s creek. He got caught in the crossfire hurricane of D.C. and the duplicitous little fuck is playing all nice with the establishment so he can continue to rape and pillage and hide under the pretense that he’s doing good. Come on, he’s got some secret algorithm that establishes what you can see on his site. And he charges people to be seen. And this is Mr. Neutrality who refuses to draw a line in the sand? He’s drawing lines all the time, just not in public.

Google is in a search war with Amazon, and Europe is always knocking on its door charging monopoly, its days of “Do no evil” are not only long behind it, it’s afraid of doing anything that gains more attention, for fear of being Microsofted. As for Microsoft… The browser wars were no match for the cloud storage wars. Microsoft pivoted and profited. As did the Republicans. The Democrats, they’re living in the past, telling everybody they’re enlightened as they get richer and richer and that you’ve got to support them when they’ve got no plan for rectifying the inequities pushed upon the public.

The DNC’s position is it’s a game of insiders. Only old people vote, so let’s concentrate on them and forget those who don’t cast a ballot. But the problem with this is eventually everybody gets old, and the younger generation and minorities have been screwed in a way they’ll never get over. So, when you don’t fight the big bad corporations that underpay them for gig work, when you don’t provide them health care, it’s gonna catch up with you eventually.

In politics they never throw the long ball.

In tech, if you’re not, you’re history.

So we can parse it however we want. We can add up the offenses on both sides. We can analyze the law. But not only is that irrelevant, that’s not how they do it in tech. In tech…they do what’s in their gut.

But tech is a game of musical chairs, and they’ve run out of extra seats. These are relatively mature companies without challengers. They’re their own establishment, albeit with different precepts.

So, Jack Dorsey decides to do what is right.

It’s just that simple folks. Forget the analysis. He had enough. His platform was being used to spread lies and to change our country and he decided to put his finger in the dike, he decided to take a stand when everybody else was afraid to. Furthermore, what he thinks and does matters, and the truth is in today’s world almost nobody’s opinion and action matters. You’ve got the right to say it, that does not mean anybody is listening.

So Jack Dorsey was mad as hell and wasn’t gonna take it anymore.

Trump bungled the Covid-19 response, and all the media and elected officials did was bitch, when they weren’t saying they had to be nice to Trump to get benefits. This is like an abused wife. You take it and take it and take it and…take it some more?

I don’t expect a revolution. Because people love their flat screens and smartphones too much.

Then again, the Supreme Court and the right wing said we live in a post-racial society where no voting protections are necessary and then innocent African-Americans are killed willy-nilly. Take that Tucker Carlson!

So, Fox can go off the rails because of the end of the fairness doctrine.

But now, in some bizarre twist, Trump wants reintroduction of a facsimile by fiat. Saying the left is inherently biased so he should be able to say whatever he wants whenever he wants.

Tell me where in the world this works.

And Dorsey has all the power, we’ve learned this over the past two decades, that government never understands tech and its wheels grind so slowly that by time D.C. acts, the cheese has been moved.

Sure, we can debate whether the changes Trump wants will hold up to legal scrutiny, but meanwhile, probably at least through the election, Jack Dorsey is in control of his platform, he can do what he wants, there’s nothing Donald Trump can do about it.

How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot?

America is the story of the power of the individual. One person can move mountains, one person can make change. They’re always acting on the right side, everybody knows the truth, even Trump, but almost everybody is afraid to stand up for it. But then you’ve got Martin Luther King. And you’ve got the techies.

You hate ’em. Because they changed your life.

The media hates Dorsey and Twitter because on the platform everybody gets a voice. And you don’t need the imprimatur of the New York media business to gain a following.

Meanwhile, as per usual, the masses are clueless. They believe Twitter is a cesspool filled with bots where irrelevant people go to argue.

That’s what they want you to believe. But if it was true, why would Trump be so pissed?

And you can’t teach most oldsters to do new tricks. As in Twitter is just too complicated for them. They finally figured out Facebook, even though everybody on the other side of the hourglass has abandoned the platform.

So, for four years we heard about bad actors interfering with the 2016 election. They even made TV shows about it, the woman from Cambridge Analytica came clean. But…after all that info, there can be no change, it must be business as usual. Huh? Jack Dorsey stands up to disinformation and now Trump calls foul? Especially after disinformation helped him get elected to begin with?

Jack Dorsey is a billionaire. But he’s acting like a kid in high school, who has been picked on too often. You remember high school, where you’re all in it together. No one’s in it together anymore in America. There are the rich and powerful and the poor and weak. And there’s the smoke screen saying if you’re poor it’s your fault, there’s a job for everybody and you’re just too lazy to do it.

But that job doesn’t pay the bills and…

Who is standing up for you and me?

Certainly not Joe Biden. He’s lacking in fundraising and internet traction, he can tweet but it’s like a tree falling in the forest, no one hears it. Which is why he needs to pick the right VP. Did you see Rachel Bitecofer’s piece on this:

Why a Biden Victory Hinges on Picking the Right Running Mate

Bitecofer called 2018 right, but she’s not part of the establishment, she hasn’t paid her dues, so the DNC ignores her.

That whole “meritocracy,” that whole business construct has been blown apart by tech.

The Republicans decided to throw over all their values and line up behind Trump, who appealed to the rich and the left out, you can’t let the Dems gain any yardage.

And the Democrats keep crying foul as the game is played, furthermore, it’s one in which there are no umpires or referees.

And then Jack Dorsey comes along and says he owns the game and this is the way it’s gonna be. Dorsey is playing Trump’s game and Trump doesn’t like it.

But I do. Because for once someone with money and power is doing what’s right as opposed to what’s expedient.

We need more of this. It’s the only way out of this mess.

The oracle from St. Louis, Sarah Kendzior is the author of the bestselling books “The View From Flyover Country” and “Hiding in Plain Sight.” You can see her in bits and pieces on MSNBC and Seth Meyers, but here we go deep, covering her life story, tales of self-publishing, fear of selling out to the man and her love of metal music. For a fresh and honest take on today’s political landscape, Sarah Kendzior is the one.

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He must’ve had a bad case of something.

Music has turned into news. There’s no filter, no trusted authority. There’s an endless firehose of material and no one can be trusted to separate the noteworthy from that which should be ignored.

But that’s not the way it used to be.

It was very simple…did you have a record deal?

I’m not talking about an indie. That’ll take your rights and give you bupkes. I’m talking about one of the well known majors, or one of their divisions. Who didn’t sign you for a single, but an album. Who promoted you as if you were gonna break through. Who signed you for five records, even if they only put out two, but you got a good push, like Moon Martin.

He got five. That’s how many albums John David “Moon” Martin had on Capitol. I bought three of them.

Now there was a scene in Los Angeles. In the mid-seventies it was punk in New York, but in the late seventies it was new wave in Los Angeles. And Moon Martin was considered new wave.

Although you could tell he was not. As in he wasn’t new. It’s hard to hide age. Even though everybody in the public eye lies about it. Yup, that record executive, that act, they’re perceived to be young when they’re old. And the truth is they’re old because that’s how long it takes to make it. The young phenoms are often products of the system, the idolmakers, whereas those who stick tend to have been kicked around a bit, took time to get their footing before they broke through, even though they wanted it more than the young phenoms, it’s all they ever wanted.

So if you go to Moon’s Wikipedia page, he was born in 1950.

But if you read some of the obits, he was born in 1945. Which makes complete sense. If for no other reason than his hair was prematurely gray nearly instantly. And there’s no way he could have played with Hendrix and Joplin if he was only 20, they died in 1970.

But Martin did.

Once again, there was not only a clear line between who was worth paying attention to, you either were a musician or you were not. If you weren’t, you couldn’t survive. You couldn’t play in cover bands, you couldn’t move to Los Angeles and scrap your way up.

Moon Martin was from Oklahoma. A state many had never been to, still haven’t been to, which we knew as the home of Leon Russell and his posse. Other than that…the state sat above Texas and had oil and..?

It was a bigger country back then. But a smaller world, because there was less in it.

So, Moon Martin moves to Los Angeles with his band Southwind. Not that I ever heard of it. He plays with Linda Ronstadt and hangs with Glenn Frey and then he got his deal. And when the album came out, the first, “Shots From a Cold Nightmare,” in ’78, we knew about it, because the rock press was still a thing, and he got coverage in the “Los Angeles Times,” before they cut the newshole down so small most people gave up their subscriptions.

And the truth is you saw Moon around town.

Music didn’t dominate bedrooms, it dominated clubs. And you went. Because staying home was anathema. Moon was a cut above, because he had his aforementioned record deal, he was a nascent star.

And then came “Bad Case of Loving You.”

By this time we’d already moved on to the second album, “Escape From Domination,” “Rolene” was heard on KROQ, back when that was a free form station, before the ROQ of the 80s, before the death of rock and the decimation of the station this year.

But at this point, Moon Martin was not famous for the Robert Palmer cover, but the Willy DeVille covers. DeVille also had a deal with Capitol, but he was from New York, and anything but earthy, it looked like the daylight would kill him, although I did see him once during the afternoon at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, but he was better at the Whisky, his natural environment. DeVille covered “Cadillac Walk” back in ’77, which is one of the reasons I bought “Shots From a Cold Nightmare,” I was a big fan of DeVille, and if you wrote his most famous song, you were worth paying attention to.

As for Robert Palmer… I’d already moved on. I started with “Pressure Drop,” with the delectable “Give Me An Inch,” and went back to the debut, “Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley,” with its killer opening medley, but “Some People Can Do What They Like” disappointed me.

It was the fifth Robert Palmer LP that contained “Bad Case of Loving You,” upon which Palmer, or most likely his record company, added “(Doctor, Doctor)” to make sure the audience knew this was the track and album to buy.

This was 1979. Six years and three albums before “Riptide” and “Addicted to Love.” “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)” was a radio hit. And it got played, all the time on AOR stations, you see this was before Palmer was seen as Mr. Suave, the cut was a blistering runaway rock track and it got the attention it deserved.

Actually, Moon Martin got a bit of MTV exposure, with 1982’s “X-Ray Vision,” but this was before Duran Duran, before everybody had the channel in their home, when pre-eighties acts could get a shot, and although it was cool to see him there, most people will never remember.

And then the Capitol deal ended. But we did not forget him. He had that major label record deal!

The last time I saw Moon Martin was probably about fifteen years ago, he was flying back from Canadian Music Week on the same plane. I did not go up to talk to him, he did not project airs, but he was on a level above me, he’d played in the rarefied world of rock stars.

Moon Martin died. TWO WEEKS AGO!

I just found out yesterday. There was no obit in the “Los Angeles Times,” no big story I saw anywhere. Just this tidbit, whose thread I followed back to obituaries.

They said Moon lived comfortably on his royalties. Can one big hit deliver that much cash?

Well, you got paid more in the old days. But these days, having written a classic rock cut, how much money could you make?

I don’t know.

I don’t know how he died.

All I know is Moon Martin sold his soul to rock and roll. He followed the music to the very last note. He died with his guitar strap on. It wasn’t a fling, something he did before law school. He had no desire to work at the bank. (Although let’s not forget Harry Nilsson was a teller!) It was all music, all the time.

That’s my generation, we got bitten by the rock and roll bug and could not let go.

It’s my brethren who are buying all those tickets to the classic rock shows. They’re not just reliving their youth, this is their identity!

And then there are those who dedicated their entire lives to the sound. Musicians. And people on the other side of the fence. For every famous manager you’d be stunned how many are starving, or people who once had a gig at the label… They can’t let go, they can’t leave the circus. They’re in it til they die.

Like Moon Martin.