What deceased musician would you like to see come back to life?

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She doesn’t know the band. And Twitter is going WILD! I saw “Van Halen” was trending so I clicked through to see if a band member had died. Then I was exposed to this war that will live and die online and most people will never be aware of.

But this is not a diss of Van Halen. It’s a diss of a home-schooled seventeen year old “rock” star and rock itself.

You see Eilish has no need to be aware of rock history. Music has moved in a different direction.

It’s not because Van Halen is old. Hell, the British bluesmeisters, everyone from Peter Green to Jimmy Page, Cream to the Stones, were all influenced, inspired by, the Delta bluesmen from decades before. They wanted to go deeper, some ripped off the originals, a whole movement was generated, the post-Beatle era grew out of this direct connection of the U.K. to the Delta. Hell, teens used to be aware of Robert Johnson, and Bonnie Raitt constantly trumpeted the progenitors, still does. But is anybody in rock inspiring the younger generation of musicians? NO! Because the rock today is derivative, unoriginal, as if the basics were irrelevant. The British bluesmeisters added some riffs, some heaviness, but they didn’t speed the numbers up to near-Chipmunk speed with bad vocals. I mean you’ve got to have hooks, and is there anything wrong with verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge? Is there anything wrong with chorus/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge?

It’s like we’ve lost the wheel, or forgotten how to make fire. Rock was based on melody, changes… Hell, Deep Purple, owning one of the most famous riffs of all time, had more melody in their music than what passes for today’s rock…and although they featured various frontmen, one thing’s for sure, they could all SING!

Meanwhile, Adele sings songs with melody and becomes boffo at the b.o. As we’re supposed to think rockers are “dangerous,” because they have tattoos and big hair.

As for the veneration of youth…

Jimmy Page had spent years as a studio musician. The Beatles spent years woodshedding in Germany. What is this extreme focus on youth about? To the point where the Spotify Top 50 is actually a sideshow, check concert grosses if you doubt me, they’re dominated by classic acts at the top and anything but hip-hop and youth at the bottom, never in the modern era has there been such a disconnect between the recording industry and the public. It’s as if the hip-hop/youth fans are the 30% who will support Trump no matter what, and the brain-dead media just primes the pump with inane hype and the printing of the “Billboard” chart, just like the mainstream media telling us the Democrats can only win with a centrist…Trump is not a centrist, and he won, isn’t there a message there? Maybe that not only does the center not hold, but that it doesn’t even exist?

Today it’s about the penumbra, the trappings, the music is just a vehicle to brand expansion, wealth. But the dirty little truth is you can’t get that rich in music, if you want to make money there are much easier ways paying much larger dividends with much shorter odds.

And if you ask any of today’s “rockers” they all know Van Halen, it’s just that today’s rock is so small as to almost be unfindable… Not only have the rockers lost the plot musically, they’re anti-technology, Spotify is the devil…huh?

But Van Halen was a long time ago. Baby boomers will finally have to let go, and their Gen-X brethren shortly thereafter. They’re making new people every day, and they’re starting from scratch. Hell, I went to someone’s house and the girls were singing the songs they grew up with, the theme songs of TV shows from 2008! Ponder that one. As for the newer songs they sang…most of this pop dreck I don’t know and don’t care about, but they do.

Yup, we’re far from the garden. People who say today’s music is just as good and we’re just too old are just plain wrong. But that does not mean kids today care about our music. Then again, scratch a millennial and they’ll know the Beatles and the Eagles because their parents forced them to listen to them as they clothed them in Ramones t-shirts!

Now if you talk to Quincy, he’s all about bringing jazz back to schools. Maybe we need to bring rock back to schools. Oh, scratch that, there’s not enough money in schools for music, it’s just the three r’s all the time, as if in knowing how to think is irrelevant. Didn’t the Beatles implore us to think for ourselves? Hell, today’s youth is inundated with lowbrow, that’s their culture, that’s what the online influencers are all about, so you suddenly expect them to be highbrow in music?

Meanwhile, the School of Rock hums along.

So maybe Billie Eilish is just an outlier. Maybe her alternative upbringing left her unexposed to the bedrock of our culture, not only Fred Flintstone, but Van Halen.

I mean that’s my number one complaint about home-schooling, the socialization in public school far outstrips anything you learn in the classroom…how to get along, the different personalities…

Well hell, now that this kerfuffle happened, kids will check out Van Halen. Learn what it was like runnin’ with the devil. Then again, half of what Van Halen sang is illicit in the Me Too era.

One thing’s for sure, Billie Eilish has not seen Junior’s grades. She has not jumped rope on the schoolyard. She ain’t even hot for teacher.

But we were. This was our common experience. It’s there, written in the grooves for future generations to discover, just like the British bluesmeisters discovered the Delta originals.

Van Halen covered “You Really Got Me.”

No one’s covering old rock songs anymore, unless it’s old rockers looking for traction in today’s cacophonous world.

But you can have the best of both worlds.

Sure, Wolfie is right, you should check out Billie Eilish.

But listen to Van Halen first.

“Did ‘The Irishman’ Take a Bite Out of the Thanksgiving Box Office”

“Don’t blame Netflix’s ‘The Irishman’ for the Thanksgiving box office being down this year”

Just the fact they’re debating this proves the point.

“The Irishman” on Netflix was an event. Other than “Frozen,” was there a picture in the theatre you had to see?

Furthermore, platform releases died years ago, everything is day and date, that’s what Netflix affords!

You’re going to see this debate in the trades on a regular basis now. You see theatrical distribution is dying. Theatres don’t like it, the Academy doesn’t like it, many directors don’t like it, but the public LOVES being able to see fresh movies on streaming services.

Nothing has legs anymore. You’re here today, gone tomorrow. If your plan is to spread the marketing of your art for over a year, you’re out of touch and dreaming or you just haven’t gotten traction yet.

No one wants to be left out anymore. When you close the door…

The dirty little secret is today’s audience can miss anything. Nothing is so important everybody has to see it. Whether it be a movie or series, or the impeachment hearings. There are many offerings, we’re overwhelmed and we prioritize based on our own desires.

And one desire, which has nothing to do with technology, is to be a member of the group.

That’s what art affords, assuming you deliver it in a way that’s palatable to the audience.

And sure, there are boomers who will seek out an art house film after the first week of release, and sure, kid pictures like “Frozen” might last more than one week, but that’s because it didn’t fit into your schedule, or it was too crazy at first, with so many people going, or you were waiting for the feedback to make a decision whether to partake.

But streaming services allow people to partake INSTANTLY!

The movie business is swimming upstream in a country where Amazon’s focus is on SAME DAY DELIVERY! I’ve got to ask you, why go to a store? That’s why malls are dying. Shopping can be entertainment, but it’s time-inefficient. And the outlets have become so talent lean, nobody is working in the store and those who do are unfamiliar with the product/unhelpful.

But we’re supposed to wait months to see a flick on the flat screen?

The movie business has always thought it was different and the rules didn’t apply to it. They justified it by saying people “love” movies. People love story, wherever it’s exhibited people will watch. But today it’s got to be convenient.

And maybe even the business model is changing.

Hell, it’s changed for the talent. Pay is way down. Profit participation from dollar one gross? Essentially unheard of. The studios have loved making the movies bigger than the talent, they want the talent to be fungible.

So maybe you should just sell it to the streaming service for one flat fee. At least you’ll get to make what you want.

It’s a field day for talent, and it’s gonna last for a very long time. You see it’s kinda like concert promotion, there’s always someone to pony up the bucks if you won’t, maybe a casino, so talent fees never decline, rather they rise!

Streaming services are based on hits. Distribution is king, which is why Netflix is so powerful, but it needs talent/story to grease the wheels. And catalog is not the driver, despite Disney and HBO believing so, it’s all about new product.

And the streaming service can absorb a flop much better than a studio releasing a theatrical film. One flop does not make everybody unsubscribe.

And less hype is needed to promote. Maybe even putting something on everybody’s Netflix homepage is enough. So, you can forget the TV ads, the print, even a lot of the b.s. hype. It appears on your service, and the audience tells you whether it’s worth watching. Because of the BUZZ!

“The Irishman” had buzz on Netflix. It comes up in every conversation I’ve had this weekend. Not everybody agrees, we can argue as to the film’s merit, but we’ve all seen it or are going to see it and for the first time in a long time we’re all on the same page.

And we could finish it!

The “Morning Show” buzz is getting better, but most people partook of the early episodes and tuned out. It’s so much harder to resuscitate a flop than to grow a hit from kindling. Believe me, there would be early adopters who watched all of the “Morning Show” episodes right away and these people would tell everybody about it! Buzz starts with very few. And then it becomes a conflagration. That’s the power of the internet!

As for “Business Insider”‘s lame analysis of the dearth of hit movies…isn’t that the problem? It’s hard to create hit movies, and usually there’s only one a week and the rest flop/are forgotten.

It’s just like the economy, winners and losers. No one’s got time for losers in today’s multi-offering world.

You live and die in one day. The movie business hates this, as if it could break the will of consumers. I’ve got limited time, I go to Rotten Tomatoes, what is the consensus? Oh, I’ll take a risk on a film I’m very interested in if it’s in the eighties, maybe even the seventies, below that I’m out. Sorry, it’s like asking me to listen to your album ten times to see if it grows on me. NO! I don’t want to waste the most valuable resource I’ve got, which IS time.

Modern technology/streaming services allow you to reach EVERYBODY or at least the 160 million with Netflix accounts, never mind those sharing logins. Think of the power of this! If you succeed, your value goes up, both culturally and monetarily. Because it is a culture of winners. And those who win get richer.

“The Irishman” on Netflix is a breakthrough. And if theatrical distribution really meant that much, was so important, why did all that time in the theatre sell so few tickets and create a fraction of the buzz?

Movies are over in a day. Some albums are over in a couple of hours, Spotify can tell by the skip rates. But somehow the cabal of studio heads and exhibitors believes it’s gonna keep everybody locked in the past?

There will still be event pictures. Just fewer and fewer of them.

As for studios… These blowhards have been riding on their self-importance for far too long. Why do they get to decide what the public wants, why do they get to tell creators what to do? The streaming model is to give more options to more creators and let the public decide. Meanwhile, the studios are releasing fewer and fewer pictures (in fewer and fewer genres!) striving for blockbuster successes.

A blockbuster is something everybody sees and has an opinion on.

And today blockbusters are built on Netflix.

The recording business finally gave up trying to hold back the future, and revenues went up!

Make those pictures for streaming services, they need you! As to whether you will end up with as many profits… Just think about it, all those marketing costs you’ll save, why buy billboards? People are at home with the remote and the product is promoted right up front, there’s no way they can miss it.

This is a good thing!

He got what he wanted.

And he wanted me.

Some movies you never forget, like “Tell No One.” A French production of a Harlan Coben novel.

Yup, that used to be a badge of honor, going to foreign films, but now no one wants to read subtitles.

So I’m always looking for shows to watch. I like to dig down deep. I never watch movies on streaming services, I’ve even give up on them on premium cable, they’re just not satisfying.

And I can’t watch “Succession,” or “Ray Donovan,” or the rest of the shows people talk about on cable. That’s not how I watch TV anymore. There is no appointment, and then I fall behind and give up.

Now if the movies aired on TV day and date, I might just change my philosophy, but they don’t, and by time you can see them at home they’re no longer part of the discussion, they’re stale, there’s something new, in a world where it’s so hard to keep moving forward, I don’t want to go back, kinda like the Democrats who still think it’s 2016, who can’t see that we don’t want safe, we don’t want centrist, the problem wasn’t Wisconsin, or Michigan or Pennsylvania, it was Hillary and the DNC, the whole kit and kaboodle, there was nothing to believe in anymore, we were sick of business as usual. And sure, we hate Trump, but being against him is not enough, we need a leader who will take us into the future as opposed to the past. We don’t want dad, we want someone who will provide more than hope, someone who knows there’s no coming together, no kumbaya, we want someone with action.

But the media is afraid of action.

Actually, the media just tells you where you’ve been, oftentimes poorly. It’s not like the media could see the abuses of Facebook. It’s not like the media could see the entire internet revolution.

Which is overwhelming, right?

I just signed up for Apple News+. “New York” magazine wanted $70 for a year’s subscription, whereas I can get it on Apple News+ for ten bucks a month.

Along with a bunch of other magazines I’m interested in. And the fact that they all signed up for Apple News+, does that mean magazines are history? Yup, printed magazines are gonna die in our lifetime. Newsstand sales have already cratered. The outlets have all closed in L.A. The one on Cahuenga, the one in Brentwood, I don’t even know where you’d go to buy a magazine anymore.

But I love the information, I can’t get enough information, it’s my window to the world.

But the more you look, the more you miss, as in living. We don’t know what to do, pay attention or tune out. I mean what happens in D.C. is the story of our times, it affects our lives, but do we need to put our lives on hold to pay attention?

And then there are those who’ve tuned out who are uninformed.

No one’s at the wheel.

Which is why Trump got elected, at least one of the reasons, the populace wanted the trains to run on time, someone to make sense of the chaos.

But that’s impossible these days.

So society has devolved into tribal warfare.

I’m not talking about D.C., I’m talking about your own damn neighborhood, your own damn friend group. We’re all arguing all the time, because we feel both important and ignored, so we express ourselves, that’s what social media has allowed, the illusion that we all count, the sideshow of influencers…it’s no different from being on reality TV, you’re famous for a minute, if that.

Which is maybe why I like the nighttime.

Oh, I can switch my schedule, get up in the morning, but I hate it. Hate being exposed to the rat race.

And those people who wear the time they get up as a badge of honor. 4:30. 3:30. They want to get ahead of the game. But in today’s world, the days all run together, and you’re trying to beat the traffic and it makes me want to tune out, live in an alternative universe, the nighttime, when there are fewer cars on the road and the market and drugstore are uncrowded, when I get room to breathe.

Kinda like going to the movies during the daytime. Before mobile phones, never mind smartphones. You were in the dark, for hours, the rest of the world no longer mattered. It was like…

Bingeing series at night.

Somehow, it doesn’t work during the day. Kinda like how you can blow off everything on the weekend, but if you try to do so during the week you feel too guilty, like you’re missing out, you can no longer play hooky.

But streaming series are an investment. I do research, I want to know I’m not gonna waste my time. I’ve got no time.

George Drakoulias wants me to see Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” at the Landmark. No can do. It’s not the money, but the time. I’ve got to drive over there, park, buy my ticket, get there early so I can choose a decent seat and not worry about missing anything.

Then there are the patrons. Who feel entitled to talk, look at their phones, no matter what the rules are. Have you noticed that, the rules no longer apply? I mean if they don’t apply to the President, why should they apply to me?

And by time I get there, I’m no longer in the mood, I’m not up for seeing the picture.

But when it gets to Netflix next Friday night… I’ll watch it then, I’m a big fan of Noah Baumbach, have you ever seen “The Squid and the Whale“?

So I was planning to hike, but it was raining. And in the forties to boot. I know, I know, I could join a gym, but I’m not that kinda guy, if it’s not fun, I don’t want to do it. But I do want to be in shape for ski season.

So it was verging on nine and it was time to stream a series, which one?

Well, somebody e-mailed me about “The Bureau.” Gets great reviews online. But you’ve got to buy it, or subscribe to Sundance streaming, neither of which I want to do. Why in hell would I want to buy anything? I don’t want to own anything, like the millennials I just want to know it’s available when I want it.

As for paying another streaming service…that’s an insult. I mean they’re bleeding me to death already. And if I didn’t get them for free, there’s no way in hell I’d sign up for Apple TV+ or Disney Plus…can’t they bundle all the content together?

Not like the old cable systems, with fifty seven channels and nothing on…but just quote me a price for everything, like Spotify, make me an offer. And if you’re smart, make the price low, so people won’t think of unsubscribing.

Now every week the “New York Times” has a column “What To Watch.” And I don’t think we’ve got the same taste. Too often the titles are light. I like heavy, I want to sink my teeth in. I’m not looking for escape, I’m looking for reality, truth, I want that visceral hit, unless it’s a comedy, I’m down for that too.

And this week they suggested “The Five.” On Netflix. Based on the Harlan Coben book.

Just like “Tell No One.”

They think we’re addicted to the channels.

But we’re addicted to the creators. We want to believe, we want to follow, we want to invest. Do something great and we’ll hang in there for quite a while, because we’re looking for more.

And “The Five” delivers more.

You see Jesse disappeared. Twenty years ago.

Do you believe he’s still alive? Are the older kids who abandoned him responsible?

And “The Five” is just like “Tell No One,” it’s fast, there are blind alleys, and once you think it’s all surface, pure entertainment, there’s wisdom, depth.

Like Pru, whose finance bro husband wanted her and got her. But is that what she wanted? People have this power over others. If they want you bad enough, the desire is hard to resist, even though after they’ve caught you they’re frequently not that interested.

And who is guilty, and who is innocent?

And do you dedicate your life to bucks or service. That’s one thing they don’t tell you. Oh, they’ll tell you sand is gonna run out of the hourglass, but they won’t tell you that as you’re circling the board game of life, getting the diplomas, building the relationships for your career, getting married, buying a house and starting a family, you might be going down the wrong road, and get in so deep that there’s no turning back.

Regrets, that’s what you don’t want to have.

Most people can’t follow their dreams, it’s too daunting, they give up. Success is hard. And usually the biggest victory is its own trip into the wilderness. Kinda like those people trying to create winning apps today…that era is over, lock in to what’s next. You can’t see it. But the innovators can.

So these foreign shows, “The Five” is English, are so much better than their American counterparts. Everyone is not beautiful, they’re oftentimes dark in image, not only plot, they somehow seem more real. In the U.S. we venerate Meryl Streep, who we can’t separate from the role, she’s so studiously into the character…no one would try that hard, not even the people the role is based upon!

But in the U.K…in Europe. You don’t have to be beautiful, and many are classically trained and know how to fit in the background, not fight for screen time, not everybody can be up front and center. And the truth is you can be in the background and be a star, you just have to be happy in the role.

Jesse’s parents still have hope he’s alive. You can ruin your whole life waiting… It’s kinda like that John Lennon quote, how life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. But also there are psychological barriers, you can’t get over that breakup, you can’t get over your family of origin, you get defeated, you get blindsided, and you can’t pick yourself up that fast. Meanwhile, the years keep ticking by.

There’s never enough time anymore. I flew back from Australia for over fourteen hours, finished one book, read another from start to finish, got deep into one more…but there still wasn’t enough time, I wanted the flight to go on forever, so I could be in the cocoon, in suspended reality, able to go deep into what I wanted without feeling left behind, like I do every damn day.

So I don’t want to give anything away. I don’t want to be like those reviewers who think their duty is to recite the whole damn plot. What I like most about art is the surprise. Which is why I only watch movies and read books once. Once you’ve seen the trick, it’s never the same.

Isn’t that life? Aren’t we all looking for that adrenaline hit of something new?

Tonight I recommend “The Five.” Watch two episodes, you’ll be hooked or you won’t.

But don’t answer your phone, don’t even look at it, pay attention.

Attention pays dividends.

Harlan Coben’s The Five