Well, I guess they never read “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Someone with no guilt is a sociopath. They may be nice to others face to face, but they’ll do what ever it takes to get what they want, casualties be damned.

We live in a sociopathic society.

How did this happen?

First, America lost its place as the inviolate, the undisputed leader. It started with Nixon and then Trump put a stake in its heart by removing the U.S.A. from compacts under the notion of “America First.” Just like “Loughlin First” and “Huffman First” and “Rich But Not Famous First.” You don’t get there by luck, and to stay there you have to continue to employ an edge. They try to assuage their guilt via charity, but even Trump didn’t complete the circle on that. They feel they’re entitled.

And we eat it all up until we don’t.

It was Reagan and the global economy that blew this country up. Reagan made greed good, Michael Douglas just articulated it in a movie. Suddenly there were people richer than the rest. And by time we hit the twenty first century it was clear you could not get to the destination unless you had certain privileges. Mostly, an elite education and connections. Funny how everybody at Harvard, not implicated in this scandal, helps each other. As for getting an MBA, that’s what it’s all about, who you meet, who you can leverage, what you learn in the classroom is nearly irrelevant.

And then came globalization. Inevitable and to our advantage. But not everybody’s advantage. If you weren’t educated, you were left behind. Oh, we heard about lottery winners, athletes, but the rank and file saw their gigs go overseas and suddenly they couldn’t afford the lifestyle they were accustomed to. They ended up divorced and on drugs.

But the elite considered them throwaway people. Not only the right wing elite, the left wing too. That’s why Hillary lost, she was out of touch. The scary little thing is the left wing elite is still out of touch. They think they earned their position. They worked hard, ’round the clock, and they want the benefits.

As for those people in front of them, they’re bending the rules, so why shouldn’t they?

Bill Gates is lauded for his philanthropy today, but let’s put him on the stand and ask him why he charged computer companies for Windows even if they didn’t put it in the box.

Or Steve Jobs. Cancer got him, but we want to know about his anti-poach agreements.

And when it comes to taxes, it’s open season, both corporate and personal. Hell, Romney paid a lower percentage than the worker bees. He paid people to manipulate the rules.

Just like these parents.

So that’s where we live, in a nation of greased poles. And it’s so competitive and so tough that if you kick someone down, if they get lost in the shuffle, well, that’s the cost of doing business.

As for business…

My second thought upon reading of this aberrant behavior was the price for the students. But as more news leaked out and we learned of the antics of “influencer” Olivia Jade Giannuli, I knew she too was in on the scam. Hell, all the students were, despite what is said. You know if your application says you’re an athlete. And you know if you lie to get extra time on the SAT. But we’ve got to protect the children. Maybe ultimately forgive them, but their wrists should be more than slapped, they should be kicked out of school immediately. Yup, instead of having the charmed life on the up and up they believe is their due.

Olivia Jade wanted special treatment so she could continue her “job.” She was overseas when school started. I remember going skiing with my parents and missing a week of school freshman year. I never did that again, I never caught up. Then again, I went to a school where every test was an essay, I still have dreams of needing to pass Spanish in order to graduate, despite having never gone to class. Foreign languages are the worst, because you can’t b.s. if you don’t know the language.

So I went to an elite college. It didn’t pay any financial dividends. It’s a small group of schools that do. Hell, no one west of the Mississippi had even heard of Middlebury until some students rioted recently. But that’s fine. Because in real life you make it on your wits.

But I did get to meet a lot of rich people. It taught me how to act amongst them. And that was worthwhile.

As for the classes… I learned how the world really worked. Old farts warding their power over you.

But there was an Honor Code.

There’s no honor in the world today.

My first thought upon reading the news was what was going through the minds of these parents? Are they completely amoral? There’s a school for everybody, and maybe your kid should go to the appropriate institution.

But they don’t want to disappoint little Avery and Brooke, so they deliver matriculation.

But the joke is life is long. What are you gonna do when the sunlight fades? I mean can you imagine the Kardashians as old people? They might end up rich, but what are they going to do all day? Read? Go to art museums? College is a foundation of your identity. Where you develop who you really are and discover what options you’ve got.

Believe me, nobody will be interested in Olivia Jade ten years from now, maybe not even ten minutes.

Then again, we’ve bastardized college by turning it into a glorified trade school.

And why is it USC that’s always in trouble?

And why don’t we banish athletics? What’s that got to do with learning?

Supposedly it builds character. But when the athletes are privileged and take different courses and don’t graduate, and the coaches make more than the professors, how can we call it an education?

And it is about money. Everybody wants it. Which is why these people took the bribes. All day long we’re bombarded by those with more than us, much more, we want our piece of the pie.

And then people lie on the stand, after placing their hand on the Bible.

And even though we were taught you would be caught, in most cases you’re not.

You’re protected by your fellow criminals. And there’s not enough law enforcement. Hell, Trump skated on his taxes. It’s easy to do when they keep diminishing the IRS. Then again, the elite only wants law enforcement to protect us from the underclass.

And here we have the big lesson. Why our country is divided.

Because the game is rigged. That’s the real education you need in life.

You’ve got to know someone to get a job. Look the other way when your boss behaves badly. Look out for yourself, because nobody else is.

So the rank and file lose traction and wake up being unable to pay their bills as their kids still live at home and…

And what?

They lower corporate taxes and the companies just give the savings back as dividends. There are no jobs created, no investment.

The rich can’t be penalized because they’re the “job creators.”

As for celebrities, everybody’s a brand now. If you’re just an actor, the joke is on you. You’re making baby products or health products or makeup… And the reason Gwyneth Paltrow is hated so much is because people are angry it’s not them. Believe me, those without cash are not thinking about Gwyneth, they can’t afford the entry fee.

But they can vote.

But they vote against their interests because they haven’t been educated enough to divine truth.

Meanwhile, the blame is put on teachers’ unions and everybody should be able to go to a charter school while the government pays for religious education and…

I read “The Tell-Tale Heart” in high school. Mrs. Hurley’s sophomore English class. That’s public school for you. She tested the limits, she didn’t give us a pass. She took us to the theatre, exposed us to Ferlinghetti, not for one moment did we think about our future business opportunities, we were there to LEARN!

You can learn all day long. That’s what’s great about the internet, it’s at your fingertips.

But these same elites keep decrying the smartphone, that’s been the big article on the “Times” for weeks, the guy who lived without his smartphone.

That’s like somebody living without Instacart or Uber.

The smartphone levels the playing field, gives power to those without it. Which is why in China they control it.

But that’s the elites, with their disinformation campaigns.

And the truth is no one is listening to anybody else. Falsehoods rule, they’re uttered by the President on seemingly an hourly basis, so why should you hew the straight and narrow?

Now the celebrities are cooked. The stink of this scandal is gonna stay with them forever. Just like the #MeToo perps.

As for their kids… Hell, Lizzie Grubman wised up, she took herself off the front lines after her bad behavior. Maybe Olivia Jade needs to have her internet privileges taken away, since she knows no responsibility. Make her be just a regular person from here on out.

But those with the real money, the rest of the abusers:

College-admissions bribery scandal: See full list of those charged

You don’t know ’em, they’re gonna get away with it.

Sure, they’ll be pariahs in their communities for a minute. But the truth is their circle does the same kind of thing, it’s all about an edge, the truth is people will applaud them, even if it’s only internally, wonder why they didn’t think of that.

And our country will soldier on.

In Iceland, they put the people who blew up the economy in jail, then they started over and the country is flourishing.

Nobody who crashed the economy here in 2008 went to jail. We were told it would hurt the economy.

Then Manafort doesn’t even get four years.

Are there two Americas?

You bet.

And we’re not moving towards the middle, we’re spreading apart.

Used to be your word was your bond, character was everything, education was a badge of honor, speaking to your identity and integrity.

Now a diploma is just another possession, part of your personal trousseau. Along with your smartphone and brand name clothing and followers online.

I’d say we have to get back to the garden, but it’s scrub because of global warming and we’re too busy eating junk food.

So, be forewarned, it’s every person for themselves these days.

It’s open season. The lesson of this episode is not to hew the straight and narrow, but to plumb the edges.

Ladies and gentlemen…START YOUR ENGINES!

Is today.

1

Well, spring is here
I feel it in the air
The world is turning green

“Spring Is Here”
Wendy Waldman

Actually, it was white in Colorado last week. At this time of year you never know, you can get slush or firm, but you don’t expect thirty inches of new snow. John was scared of the powder. Strasburg wanted to go into the trees. Felice didn’t even go out. But it felt like winter to me, and I love the winter. The warmth of coming inside after braving the cold. Having dinner at Sweet Basil, where that pork chop was served, as the wind swirls and the flakes fly.

But the snow was heavier than it was in December. And when the sun came out, the last few vertical feet were soft. And one day it even rained at the bottom, even though this never happened in the old days.

And when I got back to SoCal, it was still locked in its severe winter, i.e. the fifties. Heat was still required. Yesterday it even rained a bit. But when I exited the house today…

It was spring.

Not by the calendar, we’ll have to wait another week. But I could feel it, it was undeniably spring.

The wind is sweet
I smell it everywhere
And I know that God must be smiling

It was the angle of the sun, as the Beach Boys would put it, the warmth of the sun. And the wind, which was brisk, but not cold.

It brought me back to the east coast, where the seasons are definable, when I rode my bike to Keith’s house on the first moderate day only in my Yankees jacket and my mother put me in the tub to warm me up when I got home.

Major League Baseball didn’t start until April, but we were watching the Grapefruit League on TV, in black and white, and as soon as the field dried out, we went out and played. One person pitched, the other batted, then we’d run after, and ultimately walk after, the ball. It was a while before there were enough boys to play a game, but that didn’t stop us.

But that was back before we realized there were only so many springs, and so many falls.

After a minimal ski season last year, I was looking forward to a long one this year. And I’ve gotten plenty of days in so far, forty one to be exact, but I expected it to continue, I’m not ready for the world’s rebirth.

And Mammoth will be open until the Fourth of July at least, one of the benefits of living in California, you can surf and ski on the same day, and corn snow is my favorite, but still, it’s another year down the drain, I want to put on the brakes.

2

The first Wendy Waldman album, “Love Has Got Me” is a classic.

The second had growing pains, with part of it cut in Muscle Shoals.

And the third was completely ignored, but not by me.

It was stripped down instead of produced, it was sparse and intimate. But I didn’t hear it for nearly thirty years. It was lost in a divorce, not mine, and it was out of print, so it never resurfaced until…

Napster.

Without Napster you don’t have Spotify. You no longer have the ability to hear all the world’s music at your fingertips for one low monthly price.

And at first I was thrilled by the live tracks on Napster. I remember being wowed by the Samples’ “When It’s Raining.” And then that version of “Can’t Find My Way Home” by Bonnie Raitt. And then I started looking for personal rarities, songs I knew by heart but had lain dormant for years.

That’s when I tried to excavate Wendy Waldman’s eponymous third LP.

It had no hits. But so many of the LPs of yore did not. They were personal statements.

And the opening track, “Western Lullaby,” was on the greatest hits collection, it was the most known.

But it’s the stuff like the ultimately anthemic “Wings” that embedded themselves in your soul. Back when music had melody and was not rhythmic.

And then there was “Constant Companion.” Which sounds like lying on your bed contemplating your life. You know the opportunities, but you’re not quite ready to take action. And if it’s just you alone, you can make it with this music.

And the closing cut is a cover of the folk classic “Green Rocky Road.”

But the song that resonates most is “Spring Is Here.”

In the pre-iPod days, when everything was still difficult, when all the software was not integrated, we Aspenites were all gifted Rios, which I didn’t use until I put Napster on my computer, i.e. Macster. This was long before the iTunes Store.

But when I downloaded “Spring Is Here” I decided to break out my Rio. I wanted to transfer the track to it.

Which required me to install third party software and plug the Rio in via the USB port and drag and drop and watch the bar complete all the while wondering whether it would work, back then you still had to be a mechanic, you didn’t expect it to work the very first time, which is why the iPod was ultimately so successful.

And when the bars were complete, I disconnected the Rio, plugged in some headphones and pushed play. VOILA! That elation of instant success, the ability to hear my songs, MP3s, on the go.

And when I heard “Spring Is Here” I literally jumped up from chair and started dancing. It was nearly midnight but I opened the front door and danced on the sidewalk outside. I felt so good.

Like I do today.

Spring Is Here

P.S. You won’t listen to the playlist, you’re too busy, inundated with not only music, but news, TV and social networking. And you don’t want to feel a party of one, what is listening to this music gonna do for you? We’re all alienated today, looking to connect in the wilderness. Yesterday society was much more coherent and you were alienated from it, if anything you were looking to extract yourself from the scene with music, believing only the musicians understood you. But back when music was scarce, we listened to the albums we bought until we knew them by heart, and that was a good feelin’ to know. And if you like singer-songwriter music, this is for you.

P.P.S. Wendy Waldman never made it as a solo artist. Ultimately she succeeded as a producer and songwriter. But when I compare her forgotten LPs to what passes for hit stuff today I shake my head. By time “Wendy Waldman” was released, in ’75, opportunities were receding for those without hits, AOR radio was codified and dictated. Maria Muldaur had success with one of Wendy’s songs, but she didn’t break through. A song doesn’t have to be a hit to be great. But you’ve got to have experience and talent to make it so.

P.P.P.S. Wendy is still working. She’s studying classical composition at Cal State Northridge. You see it wasn’t about the riches and the fame, but the music. Which is why the thread of credibility runs through her work. We can tell if you’re doing it for the right reasons.

Tune in, Tuesday March 12th, on Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive

We want to see ourselves.

For all the reality television, there’s very little truth, very little real, it’s all edited to make people look much worse or better, for drama. And this has infected the internet and normal conversation too. People only project their best selves on Instagram, for fear they’ll misstep and become Jerry Maguire. One false move and you’re branded forever online. You may not even be able to get a job. So for all the communication we’ve got these days, a low percentage of it is truth.

Sure, we’ve got great stories on Netflix and HBO, it’s just that we don’t see ourselves on the screen.

But we do in Pamela Adlon’s “Better Things.”

No, not all of us have a history of acting. But we’ve all got a history of interacting with the world.

She’s alternately in love with and pissed at her kids. Her house is a mess. As is her life. She’s so busy raising her family that her love life is challenged and she depends on her friends to get her through, as her mother is a continuing challenge, believing everything is okay while she is fading. The parents become the child and the child becomes the parent…assuming they all live that long.

My favorite part of the first two episodes is when Adlon dreads being left alone with the other parents, having to make small talk. Maybe she has social anxiety, but mostly she just can’t relate to them, she feels different. That’s how it used to be in music. Or maybe with the creators thereof. It’s where those who didn’t quite fit in went to be honest and let their freak flag fly, an alternative path to riches rather than jump through the hoops of education. I gave up the first semester in college, when the pre-med guy went to the professor to grub grades. I got a B- in Anthropology, and it being an essay test in high school you could get it to a B no problem. But I’d had enough of that game. And when I discussed it with a classmate, wondering why we needed good grades to begin with, he said to get into a good graduate school. Right there and then in my brain I said I’M OUT!

You see there are those who play the game and those who do not. And those who do always look down at those who don’t. What, they think the rules don’t apply to them? That they can be different? And they lord their success and two cars and a garage over those who go the alternative way, but what they don’t understand is it is not a choice, you just can’t go straight, you don’t fit in.

But like Bob Dylan said, you’ve got to serve somebody, and there are regular injustices. Like the wanker director insisting Adlon pile among the dead and cough differently. While he sits in the tent and raps with his sycophants.

As for the movie set… That’s exactly the way it is! In real life you’ve got the cast and crew hanging around, only what’s in the frame is different. And it looks unreal to everybody but the cinematographer. And it ain’t glamorous unless you’re working on a studio pic.

As for shopping for college…that’s what they do these days, and parents always embarrass their children. And my older sister insisted her son get a fake I.D. to go to college.

And kids always abandon their parents when given a better option.

Adlon is loud and edgy in a world where everybody’s striving to be quiet and demure. She laments that she’s aging, but she accepts it. She’s just trying to hold it all together, hoping her kids turn out all right, that’s the dream, not becoming a tech millionaire or someone on the red carpet swanning for the press.

Now this show is on FX. And unless you study TV, which is like studying records/music in the old days, you’re probably unaware of it.

Even worse, if you pull it up on demand, you’ve got to endure the commercials.

FX is not where the show should live. But you go where people pay you.

Furthermore, you might get lost on Netflix, with its plethora of product.

Then again, it’s frustrating to watch a series. Maybe it works for HBO and “Game of Thrones,” but in this world where we expect to have everything at our fingertips, it’s frustrating to have to wait week by week. “Better Things” could be “Russian Doll” if they dropped all the episodes at once. The thought is you get water cooler moments if you drip it out week by week. But in our overcrowded society it’s a wonder if anything gets traction. You just hope that enough people are infected that they talk about it, and get others to talk about it too.

You watch Adlon and you want to be her friend. Even though you know she’d be friendly to you and not want to be your friend. That’s Angelenos, they’re surface friendly. In New York, you meet someone once, you say you’re going to get together and you do and become fast friends. In L.A. you say you’re gonna connect and you never do. It comes up again when you bump into each other, but you never hang. Everybody’s got their own world out here.

You can tell I’m infatuated with this show. Even though it’s imperfect. The second episode was not as good as the first, and so far it’s all we’ve got. But it is Pamela Adlon’s vision. She is a real person. They only made one of her. In a world of conformity she’s got sharp edges. And that’s why we get hooked.

Better Things