I’m rationing it. And lamenting the bottle I gave to my physical therapist.

Judy Tint hooked me up with Scott Goldshine of Zabar’s and he sent me a care package last week. There were bagels, rugelach, pastrami and nova.

And a babka.

Yes, that delicacy featured in “Seinfeld.”

To tell you the truth, prior to last week I don’t think I could pick a babka out of a lineup, or at least a pastry case. But when it arrived, memories came back.

Actually, Thursday night I was at dinner at Amy’s house, and she’d purchased a babka, but it was a pale imitation of the real thing, a loaf of cake with some chocolate swirls, that looked better than it tasted.

Unlike Zabar’s babka.

Now this is the tip of the year. I want you to run online immediately and order this babka, you’re going to experience a treat, your mouth will water, tears will come to your eyes as you slice bite after bite, unable to help yourself, at least I wasn’t.

So the package came.

Two hours later I returned to find almost all of it in the freezer.

My father froze bagels, but this stuff is best when it’s fresh.

But Felice did not grow up in a family like mine, where food was a highlight, along with travel. My dad constantly said we may not live in a big house, but we experienced the finer things in life. Everybody else had moved to Skytop Drive, everybody else had graduated from their cookie-cutter domicile to a custom home. But my father just added an addition, built by a cheap contractor, the ceiling tiles were constantly falling, but when it came to food, nothing was off the table, nothing was too expensive, nothing was too good for our palates.

And we gorged. Especially my dad. I didn’t find out he had gastric bypass surgery until two years ago, when my older sister Jill told me. He constantly exclaimed that they cut out two-thirds of his stomach as he grasped his belly and ran to the bathroom, but I thought the operation was for something else, it was way before my time.

And we were not dainty eaters. We did not hold back. You could never run out of food and you enjoyed what you ate, knowing that eating enveloped the essence of life. My mother may not have been a great cook, but when my father bought the food, when we went out to dinner, we were gourmands.

I freaked out. Reached into the freezer. Extracted all the goodies.

I waited for the bagel to defrost. Then I toasted it, which I’ve learned is anathema, but when it’s golden brown and the top is crunchy, mmm… I spread the cream cheese upon it and took bite after bite, being brought back to my youth, marveling at how good it was, how it lived up to my memories.

But then I attacked the babka.

I waited for it to defrost, at least a bit, it had only been in the freezer briefly. Bu I couldn’t really hold back. It was staring me in the face, ALL THAT CHOCOLATE!

That’s why you want this babka. You slice it and don’t see veins of chocolate, but entire minefields! Sometimes it’s chocolate all the way through. It’s the best thing I’ve eaten all year.

As for the mustard…

Mustard was never a drippy, yellow gunk in our household. As far back as I can remember, it was Grey Poupon. We didn’t need no man in a Rolls-Royce to convince us. Mustard had to have zing.

And when the seventies hit, we added Pommery, with its red wax atop a cork seal and its grains in the mustard.

Stunningly, in the foodie twenty first century you can buy Pommery on Amazon:

Pommery Meaux Mustard

To tell you the truth, you can eat Pommery straight from the jar, it’s just that satisfying. But it’s not good on everything. It overpowers too much food. And even though Grey Poupon is even sharper, it’s a quick bite that does not sustain, and it’s easier to spread.

And those two were enough until I experienced Zabar’s Deli Mustard.

I mean that’s why I gave one away, who needs this stuff? You know, a variation on what comes out of the pump at the baseball game. Or that crap they put on the table at delis. Declasse, not for me.

Yup, Heinz ketchup is definitive. The alternative when I was growing up was Hunt’s. If you went to somebody’s house and they served Hunt’s, you wondered why their parents didn’t get the message. Heinz was thick, Hunt’s was runny.

And along with the Heinz, in most houses you saw French’s mustard. You even see it in plastic packets at drive-ins. It’s yellow like you don’t see in nature and it’s got the tiniest of zings. It’s mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich.

But Zabar’s Deli Mustard…

It doesn’t look like much in its plastic bottle, it seems unnecessary, but it makes meats COME ALIVE!

I kid you not, I don’t know how it does it. I was always into the exotics, like Pommery above. But now I can’t live without Zabar’s in the house.

It’s thick, not runny. But unlike Pommery, it’s easily spreadable.

And unlike Pommery and Grey Poupon it never drowns out what it covers, it just accents it. It’s not exactly subtle, but it’s far from harsh. You will never put French’s on a hot dog again. And pastrami that often goes naked, to experience its full, pepperized taste, gains new flavor with Zabar’s Deli Mustard. The sauce brings out something hidden in the pastrami, they go together like husband and wife, bagel and cream cheese.

So here’s you assignment for today. It must be completed. You must go online and order Zabar’s babka right now:

Zabar’s Homestyle Babka

I don’t care if you’re Tara Westover who grew up in a Mormon household far from Jews.

I don’t care if you think most Jewish food is heavy and oftentimes dry, which it frequently is.

I don’t even care if you’re anti-semitic. Because after eating this babka you will be unable to hate Jews. That’s right, Zabar’s babka could engender peace in the Middle East… Well, I don’t want to get carried too far away, but it sure would bring us closer together over here.

And when you get it, cut a slice.

Now don’t be on a diet, don’t be one of those people who say something can be too rich. Don’t be thinking about calories. Just dig in, savor. And keep slicing and keep eating. This is a peak experience, what you live for. Trust me.

And while you’re clicking order the deli mustard too, it’ll make you smile every time you use it:

Zabar’s Deli Mustard

American Factory | Official Trailer

First they came for the unions. Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and ever since, “union” has been a dirty word, “Norma Rae” was released in 1979, during the Carter administration.

Then they lowered the taxes, telling us the wealth of those at the top would trickle down to the rest of us.

Then they told us since we had flat screens we didn’t need welfare.

Now it’s the politics of fear, all the time. And it’s not only coming from the right, but the left.

You should watch this documentary. It won the Oscar, it’s now on Netflix. If you think America can bring back manufacturing, you’re delusional. The Chinese are willing to work twelve hours a day, six days a week, with few safety precautions, while seeing their families once or twice a year. The unions established a shorter work week, the government instituted safety regulations, but now all we hear is regulations are hobbling business, and if we just relaxed them the jobs would come back and the economy would roar, even though robots do the work in the new plants, not people.

As for wages…

When GM was in Dayton, a worker made $29 an hour. The same work at Fuyao, its Chinese replacement, pays $12 and cents. Talk about changing your standard of living.

The Chinese billionaire tells Ohio he is helping the state’s economy, as he plots to replace the slow Americans with robotic arms. And, in a language almost all Americans can’t speak, the Chinese laugh that the Americans are inferior.

But it gets worse. The Chinese are trim and fit. The Americans are lumpy and out of shape. We can argue the causes all day long, but one that’s been established is the substitution of fructose for sugar. That’s right, corn syrup is cheap, sugar is not. And you’ve got to keep those farmers happy, even though despite all the hoopla about family farms, most of the growing is done by multinational conglomerates.

So, the workers at Fuyao want a union. Those who agitate for it get fired. Fuyao brings in a team that specializes in scaring employees not to organize. It’s all about fear. If you get a union, we’ll close the plant. That’s what the Chinese billionaire says. And people were out of work for years, they want to keep their jobs, even though they’re declining in number and turnover is humongous, because the work is so repetitive and back-breaking.

The politics of fear. It certainly has killed the union, but so much more.

It killed the raising of the minimum wage.

It killed Medicaid in states where the nation would pay for it. You see you cannot enable the takers, everybody must pull themselves up by the bootstraps, even though the elite in Varsity Blues are scamming their kids into college and Trump pardons his cronies. If you don’t think the system is stacked against you, you must be one of the winners.

And now it comes down to Bernie Sanders. Now it’s not only the right that is employing the politics of fear, but the left. Disgraced banker Steven Rattner is apoplectic, even though he already got his. All the opinion columnists in the “Times” are talking about how Bernie will lose and the country will continue to go in the wrong direction and if he wins, the Democrats will lose the Senate. And you wonder why Trump got elected.

The Democratic elite have seceded from the party. They stole the name, ran flawed candidate Hillary Clinton and changed the rules so Michael Bloomberg could debate. But they didn’t foresee what a bomb he would turn out to be.

Today Bernie Sanders wins handily in Nevada and the lead story in the “Times” is how his road forward is fraught with difficulties. That’s like focusing on LeBron’s theoretical injuries in the future as opposed to how well he is playing for the Lakers today. You see the “Times” is trying to mold your opinion, but the “Times” has lost touch with the public.

I hear from the public every day, all day long. That I’m a sh__head, that I’m on the right path. The idea of reporting for the “Times” and the rest of the print media is to go out and ask people on the street, they don’t live the life 24/7. As for TV…its focus groups are bogus.

So Bernie wins amongst people of color when they said he could not.

The great centrist hope Klobuchar barely registered, Buttigieg was an also-ran too. And Nevada is important, because it’s the first state that looks like the nation at large.

Either the above resonates or it does not. Either you want change or you do not.

The right doesn’t want change, it just wants a world where it’s every person for themselves and you cannot get an abortion.

But we thought the left was on the side of the people, lifting up those from the bottom, democratizing society. But no one can lose in the process of lifting others up. And the truth is the elites have contempt for the rank and file, don’t care for them, and this is one of the reasons Trump got elected.

But it is not 2016 anymore. We’ve seen the Trump movie. And most people don’t like it.

But the elites tell us unless we nominate an anointed centrist who will try and make America great like it was in 2016, the Democrats will lose the election. That’s right, these same outlets and pundits who called 2016 for Hillary.

I’m not trying to convince you if you don’t agree. Hell, there’s thirty-odd percent of the electorate that will vote for Trump even if he shoots someone in the street, as he said and certainly believes.

But there’s this idea on the left that we must look at traditional metrics to figure out the election. When the truth is they failed in 2016 and don’t apply today. It’d be like focusing on the manufacturing of cassettes in an era of streaming.

There’s something happening here. And it’s becoming ever more clear. Most Americans don’t like where the country is going, and are fearful of their future not only economically, but environmentally. Gradual change is history.

I’m enlightening you. The same people who said that MP3s would never replace CDs. The same people who decry screen time. The same people enamored of physical books. While you were doing your best to protect the past, which you decided was better, most people adopted new technologies and employed them to spread the word how things weren’t working out for them. Isn’t it funny that it’s the youth that are in the bag for Bernie.

So, don’t be afraid. The people are on your side. They’re gonna make change. And it might be wrenching, but it’s been a long time coming.

It killed Elizabeth Warren’s run for the nomination.

Warren was depicted as a true believer. Someone who knew who she was and stuck to it. Was anti-big business. Was on the little guy’s side. Even stood up for Medicare for all because it was the right thing to do.

And then she waffled.

And then she changed her opinion.

She was asked directly how she was going to pay for Medicare for all, multiple times, live on television, in a debate, and she evaded the question. This is exactly why we hate those in power…speak directly to us, give us a straight answer. And then, based on media blowback, she decided to delay the implementation of Medicare for all.

And now Senator Warren has put a stake in her heart by agreeing to take PAC support.

Now why should we believe her? She changed her take, didn’t stick to her guns, and is now taking fat cat money? WE’RE DONE!

This is a gross miscalculation. You speak to your base, you embolden your base, not the professional class. This is how news outlets and pundits make money…creating mountains out of molehills, creating controversies where there are none, being out of touch with the public.

Which is why Bernie Sanders is so successful. He doesn’t take the corporate money while railing at the rich, and his hoi polloi supporters generate more cash in contributions than the fat cats.

For twenty years we’ve been told to go for the money, that credibility doesn’t matter, that it’s fine to sell out, no one cares anymore. Maybe we had to see it played out on the main stage to reveal the fallacy in this message.

When you do a sponsorship deal, when you appear in ads, even when you start selling your own branded tchotchkes, you’re hurting your career.

Don’t confuse this with Kylie Jenner. The Kardashian/Jenner brand is business acumen, that is not the brand of a musician, an artist.

In other words, if you can’t say no, you’re rarely going to get to yes.

And the professional infrastructure of the music business is no different from the professional infrastructure of the media/pundit world. The infrastructure remains, the acts, the politicians, the players, come and go. Believe me, your agent will be in business long after you’re done, as will your label and quite possibly your manager too. They don’t need you, they just need somebody…to hype, to skim money off of. And they only get paid when you take the bait, if you say no, the agent does not get their 10%, the manager doesn’t get paid, nor does the label. They’re all telling you to do it, and the unsophisticated, those who don’t know themselves, do what they say.

They’ve been criticizing Elizabeth Warren from the get-go, she’s too harsh, she’s a schoolmarm. But with straight talk and a plan for everything she gained traction.

But she couldn’t handle being on top. This is what Bob Dylan always does best, he does not bend to how the wind blows. He confounds expectations, with cover records, he refuses to do his songs in faithful arrangements on stage, he realizes his reputation, his credibility, is all about pushing the envelope. Same deal with David Bowie. If he’d just stopped at Ziggy Stardust, he would not be a legend. But Bowie kept reinventing himself, and if he failed, he just kept on going, and then his aura, his credibility, supported him wherever he wanted to go.

Bernie Sanders has never changed his spots. This is what the media/pundit world hates most about him. You’ve got to play the game, but he hasn’t. Which is why Hillary Clinton put Bernie down. She made sausage, he should too.

And then you’ve got people like AOC. She doesn’t care that she’s excoriated, she just doubles down.

This is what those in power don’t understand.

I’m not a huge fan of Peggy Noonan, but unlike the rest of those in the “Wall Street Journal” editorial/opinion pages, she can sometimes be reasonable.

Regarding Mike Bloomberg, today Noonan said:

“Through Mr. Bloomberg’s longtime targeted philanthropy, through his relationships, quiet alliances, generosities and personal loyalties, he has a lot of leaders – mayors, other local politicians, people who run museums and civic organizations, who speak for ethnic, racial and professional groups – who support him. But those leaders don’t fully control their own followers and constituencies. Everyone who’s a leader of any kind now is in crisis: They don’t have a complete hold on their people and wind up following them as often as leading them.”

The Best Democratic Debate in Years

Bingo. Bernie Sanders is the first internet candidate. He speaks directly to his constituency, he bypasses the middleman. The other candidates don’t get it, constantly trumpeting their URLS. Your website is not a vehicle, it’s your essence, your base, your home, where your acolytes rally around you, excluding the media/pundit middlemen. Your website is a middle finger to the establishment.

And, as Noonan says, the tail wags the dog. That was the essence of Trump and now it’s the essence of Sanders.

And the media/pundit class doesn’t even get the anti-Trump furor correct. They think it’s a horse race, about statistics, when really it’s about emotions, feelings.

And we keep getting more statistics, more tea leaves read, about turnout, all the old metrics that don’t foretell the future in the new world. If you’re gonna vote for anybody but Trump, do you really have to run out to the caucus or just wait for the candidate to be decided upon and pull the lever?

And speaking of credibility, Michael Bloomberg’s Democratic bona fides dropped dramatically in the past twenty four hours as a result of his endorsement by Clint Eastwood. You remember, the loony-tune Republican who spoke to an empty chair at the convention. I mean if Bloomberg were really a Democrat, would he have gained Dirty Harry’s support?

Of course not.

Bloomberg believes if he’s got money he can pull the wool over our eyes. This is another thing the media/pundit class doesn’t understand. It no longer dictates, it can try and spin but frequently it doesn’t work, because the public can communicate online, peer to peer, generating a feeling that overwhelms the initial prognosis.

So Elizabeth Warren had a good debate. She should have doubled down on who she was. She should have mea culpaed her previous faux pas. Owned them and moved on. Instead, she dug a deeper hole for herself, all in the name of expediency, putting the end goal ahead of the process.

Everything today is a process, taking a long time. That’s why Bernie is where he is, he started long ago, and people became familiar with him in 2016.

So, the media/pundit class believes it’s business as usual. These are the same people who missed Trump, the internet, the same people who rail against technology, the same people who believe we live in a broadcast television world with advertisements as opposed to a streaming world sans commercials. Sure, Bloomberg’s millions got him name recognition, but when we finally saw the act, we wanted nothing to do with it. In the internet world, you follow the people, you don’t lead them, unless you start way ahead of them and wait for them to catch up, which was Steve Jobs’s paradigm. Jobs famously did no consumer research, he created what he wanted, what he thought people should have, and waited for them to catch up with him! As a result, Apple is the world’s most valuable company. And never forget, when Jobs came back to Apple the company was moribund. It wasn’t the iMac, that was only a start (which had no legacy ports if you remember). It was the iPod. Now Jobs was on a streak, people were listening to him. To the point where the iPhone killed BlackBerry and Palm, despite only working on a second-rate network, i.e. AT&T, and only working at EDGE speed and consuming tons of bandwidth.

You throw the long ball and you stick to your guns.

Bloomberg is a latecomer, an interloper, and that does not resonate in internet world. The media/pundit class needs an interloper to make the story more enticing, the public feels trampled and ignored.

It is not business as usual. Whether Bernie wins or not, whether a Democrat wins or not. Once the system begins to crack, it’s inevitable that change ensues. This is the story of Napster, this is the story of income inequality, this is the story of now.

The Glorious Sons are a rock band from Canada, where they have scored ten Top 5 rock tracks and have won two Junos (Canada’s Grammys) for Rock Album of the Year. They’re presently on tour north and south of the border, lighting up audiences at every stop. Listen as I talk to the band’s guitarist and lead singer, as well as their manager and label rep. They don’t believe rock is dead. After listening, you might not either!

iheart

spotify

apple

stitcher

You might want to fast-forward to 29:30.

The night before we did this podcast, I went to see the Glorious Sons at the El Rey.

It was like the seventies. This was a rock crowd. And half the attendees were women. And when the frontman, Brett Emmons, hit the stage, he played an acoustic number, solo. And then the rest of the band emerged and were instantly firing on all cylinders and Brett became a frontman. You remember rock and roll frontmen, don’t you? Unique individuals who come alive when they’re on stage and the spotlight shines upon them. Brett was animated, exhorting the audience to sing along…and they did, RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW!

So…

Is rock dead? Certainly seems like it. But if you listen to this podcast you might be swayed otherwise.

Unfortunately, Brett and his brother Jay could not do a good job of articulating their history and success. Jay barely speaks. Brett is fully alive, but to a degree he bounces off the walls.

And the night before, when the house lights came back on, I told the manager Jason Murray and BMG representative Nick Attaway I did not want to do a post mortem right then, why don’t they both come on the podcast to explain what’s going on.

I don’t think we ever got to the bottom of the previous night’s show, but we certainly got to the bottom of Jason Murray and Nick Attaway’s perspectives on the Glorious Sons and their own personal histories.

This is not rare. Oftentimes musicians are not articulate off stage. Which is why they need business people to plot and push the buttons. They’re two different sides of the coin. And if you want to be in the music business, you’ll listen to Jason and Nick tell their stories. And they’re all the same, struggling, working hard, refusing to give up, waiting for that one big break.

Jason starts at the aforementioned 29:30.