Are you scared yet?

Tonight I am.

I’ve been very diligent. I haven’t seen a person face to face since I went to the drugstore on Monday the 16th. You see I don’t want to get it, and I’m fearful if I do I’m not gonna make it through.

Did you see that video from Spain? Of the guy sitting at a desk crying because they’re just leaving everybody over 65 to die? I’m over 65. And I have an underlying condition. It has to do with my immune system. No one really knows what is going on, it’s what caused my pemphigus. But both my doctors, my internist and my hematologist, are worried about it.

I’m not the kind to worry about health. Unless I freak out about it.

It was illegal to be sick when I was growing up. My older sister posits it was because my mother’s mother was a hypochondriac. If you were sick, unless you were literally dying, puking, writhing on the floor, you had to go to school. We also never ever got breakfast. My mother slept in. I didn’t think much of it, but then they said breakfast was the most important meal of the day. And now they’re saying it’s not, to fast as long as you can before you eat. Illustrating that science is a fluid subject, whereas Covid-19 is not. Sure, the doctors have some tools in their arsenal, but there is no silver bullet and the world doesn’t need any one of us, it can go on just fine without us.

My father died at 70, of cancer. He was shocked that he made it to that age, because his dad didn’t. As I’ve approached that marker…nobody lives forever, even Sumner Redstone has gone into hiding, and he was sure his regimen would keep him sentient and alive forever. But it didn’t. He’s compromised. Kind of like my mother, the dementia is creeping in, it was only a week ago that she could even wrap her head around the virus, and she told me this afternoon she was planning to go out to dinner. But didn’t the governor of Connecticut shut all the restaurants down?

Did you see that article in the “New York Times”?

Probably not. Everybody’s reading their own stuff, watching their own shows, it’s a full time job keeping up, but I’m doing it, I’m interested and I think I’m protecting myself with knowledge. Most people don’t know much. They’re just confident that they won’t get it and if they do they’ll pull through. WRONG!

Getting back to Connecticut… I grew up in Fairfield, on one side of the town was downtrodden Bridgeport, on the other upscale Westport, where Paul Newman and Bette Davis lived. So there’s this article in the “Times”…

“Party Zero: How a Soiree in Connecticut Became a ‘Super Spreader’ – About 50 people gathered this month in the upscale suburb of Westport, then scattered across the region and the world, taking the coronavirus with them.”

I’ve been thinking about this, now is the time you want to stay away from upscale people. Everybody’s social climbing, especially in Los Angeles, but it’s the upper class that does the most traveling, that intersects with the most people, that are carriers, that will infect you, better to live in a house with poor people, or lower middle class people, I don’t think there are any real middle class people left.

And sure, Tom and Rita came back to the U.S., they’re doing well. But did you ever wonder how they got back here? I assume they flew private, I could be wrong, but I know they want to avoid the risk, once bitten, twice shy. You can’t afford to fly private, you can’t even be seen in the emergency room, never mind get good treatment. There’s an ICU and a ventilator for Tom and Rita. You? Good luck.

And then there’s that article I just read in the “New York Times” app:

“As a generally healthy 45-year-old, I didn’t seem like a probable Covid-19 candidate.”

That’s another thing you find out, how painful the experience of being infected is. You’re uber-tired, and you’re struggling to breathe. Sounds horrible, and it is. But like every other illness, you have sympathy for the patient but then you move on, saying to yourself “I’m just glad it isn’t me.” But this time, there’s a good chance it will be. No matter how much money you have, whether you take supplements, whether you’re in good health today, Covid-19 doesn’t care.

And at this point in time, if it’s in the “New York Times,” a great portion of America ignores it, it just can’t be true, the paper is biased, with an agenda, it’s FAKE NEWS! No, it’s the most real news you can get. But this is where we are, the President has made it so there are no authoritative voices but his, and if you trust his…there’s a good chance you’re going to get infected.

But right now I’m not worried about politics, I’m not even worried about the insane states still in business with no self-quarantining of the population, no tonight I’m worried about human nature.

It’s kind of like sex without protection, you get caught up in the moment and the regrets come after that. Does a baby result? A good percentage of the time no, but I know someone who got a girl pregnant when he lost his virginity…it screwed his mind up so much he could barely function, and he got mononucleosis in the process, whether it was related, who knows.

And speaking of mononucleosis, I had the world’s worst case, at an age when most people don’t get it, 21, verging on 22.

Let’s see, it was 1976. And I was at this freestyle skiing competition at Keystone, in Colorado. And my friend injured himself severely trying to do a double flip but somehow he made his way back to Aspen. I went to visit him thereafter, he and two other guys lived in the basement of a house on Cemetery Lane. They had a party, everybody was in their early twenties, we shared a joint, even though I told myself I was never gonna smoke dope again…that’s where I got the mononucleosis, I tested at the limit for nine months, I kid you not. Was I thinking about this when I took a hit, of course not, have I thought about it since…of course!

I was in a down mood, it was a party, why not.

This is coming down to character, and I know you don’t want to hear that. Yes, the nerds did inherit the earth. Why? Because while you were out partying, losing your virginity, they were studying hard, so they could get into a good college and advance their lives. Of course you can become rich and famous without going to college at all, but that’s not my point. My point is these people applied themselves, and never went off course, they knew one bad grade could be the difference between getting into an Ivy or not.

Do you have the strength to stay on the course? Can you say no to the enticements? Can you do everything in your power not to be face to face with another human being until the end of May?

That’s what Bill Gates said it would take. It’s already been two weeks, you can make it. But if we don’t do this, Covid-19 will hang around until the end of the year. You either do it right now, or you pay the price.

I don’t want to pay the price.

Fear is setting in.

The big story today, of course, is the old/new 17 minute Dylan track, “Murder Most Foul.” This is a masterstroke, whether the timing of the release was conscious or not. In an era where everybody is doing one thing, the person doing the opposite is king. Everybody is postponing their album release date as they live stream from their home, Dylan didn’t live stream and put out new music. Furthermore, it’s the opposite of today’s music, it is not disposable. Today’s music is all about refining the track until it fits through the little commercial hole. Have you listened to the new Weeknd album? I tried. His vocals are great, and then you hear the TR-808 and you wince. Yup, I’m talking about those synthesized handclaps/drums. Why does every track have to have this? Used to be sounds were fads. And, the first time around, after people were infatuated with drum machines in the eighties, the big thing was to go back to real drums. All this to say that I spent a long time bouncing from playlist to playlist the other night and was dissatisfied. On Apple, the acoustic singer-songwriter playlist was filled with B-level talent at best. After hearing Tom Odell, who is neither Elton nor Dylan but is above the line, this dreck was laughable. Let’s go even further! Most of these people should not be playing music for a living and their music should not be on streaming services, they’re just cluttering the lane so we can no longer find the good stuff. And no one is interested in curating the truly good stuff, no one is taking responsibility. Used to be we had multiple layers of curation. First, who got signed by the label, second, who got played on the radio, third, who got ink. Very few acts ran that gauntlet. Today, there’s a thin layer of “popular” music and no one cares about the rest. The streaming services promote what the majors want them to, even if it’s not pay for play, because the majors are continuing to release product that the streaming services need, and the hill being too hard to climb, the labels only work what is easy, and then we’ve got a ton of people who shouldn’t be in the business bitching that they can’t get paid at the bottom. And you wonder why everybody talks about Netflix instead of music. No one in music is taking any responsibility, at least no one with power or a vision.

I could go on about this forever, but we live in a world where no negativity is allowed. We’ve got to be upbeat, we’ve got to say our affirmations, polish our personalities until…

We all fall off a cliff.

That’s what’s happening now, reality is sinking in. You’re gonna be in your house for a long time.

And you might just get the coronavirus.

And you, or people who are dear to you, might just die.

The best information about the coronavirus came from Bill Gates last night on CNN:

Part 4: Entire CNN coronavirus town hall (March 26)

Wait a while for the video to load, and even though Bill is not on screen right away, hang in there, he will be.

This is the opposite of the bloviating from D.C. Here we have an intelligent person familiar with science who has studied the problem and is telling the truth as opposed to what people want to hear. That’s the problem with politics, it’s worse than show business, these people are so afraid of blowback even though we all know the truth.

Speaking of truth, the definitive song on this is Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows.” And at this point, everybody seems to know that, but they do not know the definitive version, which is by Don Henley:

Everybody Knows Don Henley Spotify

Everybody Knows · Don Henley YouTube

Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

First it took a while to adjust to the new normal, staying home, figuring out what you were going to do for supplies.

Second, you had to figure out how to do your work remotely.

Third, everybody was connecting, it felt good to actually talk on the phone.

Fourth, there was this incredible focus on the news.

Fifth, your work started to slow down.

Sixth, there was not really dramatic news every day.

And now, and now, you’re freaked out. Are you gonna get it? Is someone close to you gonna die? You can’t wrap your head around what is going on. Everybody is really staying home and business is shut down?

Then there are the deniers, like the Governor of Mississippi, insisting life will go on, goddamit, and if people get sick and die, well, not that many people will die. Death is not something you get over, whether you are the deceased or you are left behind. If you’re dead, you’re done. If you’re still around, you can’t get the deceased out of you brain, you think about them for the rest of your life, and if their ending was tragic, it makes it that much worse.

So now, we think D.C. has lost control. And we don’t understand how the right resisted a big stimulus in 2008 but is cool with one now. Proving that everything is up for grabs. In other words, the only person you can rely on is yourself, and that’s scary.

And systems are breaking down. My doctor told me his patient called an ambulance and the EMTs wouldn’t take him to the hospital, the emergency room was just too crowded. Really, this happened.

And every day someone famous gets infected. Today, it was Boris Johnson. Yesterday, it was Prince Charles. As for the President and Congress…they’re not social distancing, are they immune? NO! One of them is gonna get sick and kick too.

And then there’s that pastor who said it was all a plot against Trump and then died himself:

“Pastor who claimed Covid-19 ‘Hysteria’ Was Plot Against Trump Dies”

It’s sunny in Southern California, but it’s not sunny in our brains.

But if you want to get through it, I recommend this video:

“Nathan Sharansky on Fighting the Coronavirus”

Meanwhile, back to Henley. Am I the only person who has had “The End Of The Innocence” playing through their head?

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn’t have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standing by

It seems so long ago, but it was only a couple of weeks ago.

We are in this together. Protect yourself and your loved ones, this will eventually end, and you want to be here.

Chief Membership & Business Development Officer of SOCAN, Michael McCarty is a member of the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame. McCarty started off as a recording engineer at Jack Richardson’s Nimbus 9 and had a long tenure running EMI Music Publishing Canada. Listen to Michael talk about the mission of SOCAN and changes in the music business. You don’t have to be Canadian to get this, it’s a worldwide business and Toronto is an epicenter of musical development.

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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!!