Virgil Wander

Everybody’s going somewhere. And the truth is if you’re not, you’re being left behind. But it used to be you could have stasis, have a job, earn a living, not get rich and not be poor, kinda experience life as it comes to you.

Like Virgil.

Virgil lives in Greenstone, Minnesota, north of Duluth. And at the beginning of the book he drives his Pontiac off the road and into the lake and if weren’t for a bystander rescuing him…

Virgil ends up with a head injury, and it changes his perspective.

Now I’ve been to Duluth, one of the last outposts before wilderness. It can be winter in the middle of summer, the lake is as forbidding as the Pacific at times. The wind blows, and don’t forget, the Edmund Fitzgerald embarked from Duluth.

I love that song. Along with Dan Fogelberg’s “Old Lang Syne.” I like story songs, although Harry Chapin’s were at times a bit treacly. Yet Gordon Lightfoot’s opus is completely different from today’s hits. It feels like it was cut up in the Great Lakes, it makes you feel something. The wind in your hair, the nip at your collar, you feel fully alive. I’m not saying that I want to be in Minneapolis today, but I have experienced double digits below zero. And as long as it doesn’t last too long, you sit inside overheated buildings and feel fuzzy, along with being warm. In our tech-ridden world, it illustrates that Mother Nature is still in charge. That’s one thing about being out in the elements, in the wilderness, you realize how insignificant you are, you think you matter, but you really don’t, like George Carlin said, save yourself, the Earth will be here long after you’re gone. Possibly without human inhabitants, as a result of global warming, but we believe everything we do is so important, and it’s not. What’s important is that moment in “Same Old Lang Syne.” We think about the old ones, and when you run into them, it’s bittersweet.

Now I found “Virgil Wander” on Amazon, it was one of the Best Books of 2018. Actually, I trust Amazon more than the major publications, than writers themselves, because they too often recommend titles to make themselves look good, unreadable stuff that makes you feel inadequate for being unable to fathom it. And I’m always looking for new books. I was on a run of bad ones for a while, but that has changed. I read Rebecca Makkai’s “The Great Believers.” It’s about the AIDS crisis in Chicago, but it’s more than that, and so readable. It’s lauded, and deservedly so. And “Late In The Day” by Tessa Hadley, which is a little less readable than “The Great Believers,” but the plot gets you going. The reviews say it’s comedic, but not by my standards. It’s about two couples and one husband dies and…I’m not gonna ruin it for you.

But the book that rang my bell most was “Virgil Wander.”

You see I download the samples to my Kindle.

I know, I know, you abhor the device. But kids are not addicted to bookstores, which will continue to die, and you’re victimized by inventory at the store and it’s easier to research titles online than comb through the shelves, and how do you know what’s good, by the blurbs? Ain’t that a laugh.

And I rarely read non-fiction. Because most of it can be summed up in a sentence, and a lot of it is wrong and it doesn’t ring that humanity bell. Of course there are exceptions, like “Educated. Read that immediately. But I wonder what the author’s gonna do next.

So I read the sample and really enjoyed it so I went back to Amazon to see who this author Leif Enger was. And I was immediately thrown off by the typeface of the book cover, it seemed to portend a story from a galaxy far far away in the past, but it turned out Mr. Enger wrote a legendary book, “Peace Like A River,” in 2007 that I’d never heard of, but the reviews were stellar, so I decided to dive into “Virgil Wander,” I bought it, long after midnight, when bookstores are closed.

And I became enraptured in the Greenstone world.

Lake Superior threatens on the shore, and then there’s a bluff and beyond that…nothing, plains. The thing about Minnesota is, as cold as it is in the winter, that’s how hot and muggy it is in the summer. But you can live there. Minneapolis is au courant, culturally bubbling, Prince is not the only hip thing to come from the city. And the lakes and the living…

Once again, most people have never been there. But maybe you’ve been outside the metropolis, you’ll get “Virgil Wander,” or maybe you’ll want to move there.

Virgil owns a cinema. No, he calls it a “movie theater.” But he’s not making any money. Oftentimes fewer than ten people are in the audience, since not only are movies dying, but Greenstone too.

So he works as city clerk. That’s a truism of the hinterlands, many people have multiple jobs, you just can’t pay the bills otherwise.

So eventually something big happens. But along the way, it’s a number of small events. Sure, some death, but mostly characters damaged and imperfect in a world where everybody’s doing their best to appear streamlined and together.

And now I don’t want to tell you more.

There’s a moment of misunderstanding, but you don’t realize it until deep into the book, but it made my heart sigh when the truth was revealed.

Not that that’s the number one plot point, but “Virgil Wander” is like life, there are many things going on, few of them major.

So I think you should read it. Especially if you’re a victim of the polar vortex. Just download it on your Kindle…oops, to the Kindle app on your iPad, phone or computer, you don’t have to leave the house, you can cocoon up with a book that will make you feel connected, not inferior, that there’s more to life than becoming a millionaire, that there are rewards in just waking up every day.

I recommend it.

“Don’t help elect Trump, you egotistical, billionaire assshole! Go back to getting ratioed on Twitter. Go back to Davos with other billionaire elites who think they know how to run the world.”

A protester to Howard Schultz at a book signing event last night.

Howard Schultz Against the Hecklers

For two years we’ve been hearing about the disillusioned and downtrodden who voted for Trump. The media has been flagellating itself, bending over backward to atone for completely missing the 2016 election. But is this same media now missing the concomitant beliefs of the younger generation and dispossessed on the left?

Actually, it’s kind of funny, the left wing press is the left wing candidates’ worst enemy. The mainstream media does not stop looking for gotcha moments with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Conventional wisdom is we need a centrist to bring us all together, is this right?

Music was the anti in the sixties. Led by the biggest group ever, the Beatles.

The seventies were a victory lap.

The eighties were about MTV and the ability to reach more people and make more money than ever.

The nineties were about hip-hop, learning that everything N.W.A. and Ice-T said on their albums was true.

The aughts were about disruption, the mainstream’s inability to cope with the internet. It was about tech more than music.

In the teens, the tech wars are over and it’s all about money. There’s supposedly not enough in recordings, so ticket prices are exorbitant and acts are in bed with corporations. That’s the goal, to get some of that deep-pocketed money and ultimately become a brand yourself.

The end result has been the marginalization of music, the content is no different from the superhero/cartoon movies, and its impact on the culture is even less. Oh, you’ll see financial stories, but doesn’t that prove the point?

There’s an incredible backlash against billionaires and corporations, but musicians don’t stop cozying up to them, and don’t stop lauding them.

Meanwhile, concerts are productions, material, whereas music at best is ethereal. Music is secondary to the total effect, which is why so often it’s on hard drive.

I’d say we need a reset, and we’re gonna get one.

The unrest is palpable. The public is underserved. The music industry believes as long as there’s a hit parade, that something is moving/selling/streaming, it’s healthy. But this is untrue. It’s ultimately about resonance. And the Beatles and the British Invasion turned the music industry into a cash tsunami because of the tunes, not because of the demo, not because of some technical revolution. Albums had been around for a while, the Beatles, et al, finally found a use for them.

So most people feel shut out of the music industry. It’s impenetrable, and when you listen to the “hits” you find them unappealing.

So you watch television and listen to the oldies.

Speaking of which, the Eagles own the biggest selling album of all time, and they’ve never done a sponsorship deal, they’ve never sold out, and today, decades later, they play stadiums!

There’s this myth that today’s younger generation is not offended by having acts sell out. This is patently wrong. First and foremost they want someone to identify with, screw aspirations, they’re just trying to put food on the table and pay down their student loans. And yes, pre-teens may still be mindless, but not those who’ve hit puberty. David Hogg is a bigger star, a guiding light brighter than any musician. Sure, some hate him, but isn’t that the point, wasn’t that the effect of the rockers of yore? Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath were disdained with vigor before being seen as warm and fuzzy years later. They didn’t bend to be accepted. As for the theatrics of Alice Cooper, it was all in service to the youngsters’ outlook, ever hear “Generation Landslide”?

The labels are asleep. The musicians are asleep. The talk is of television and competition shows. The number of followers, the number of likes. Whereas sheer honesty shines through.

But slower than ever.

But someone who breaks all the rules will be accepted. Someone who doesn’t dress up, doesn’t depend on big production in the studio or on stage. Someone whose resonance radiates.

Sounds like Bob Dylan. Sounds like Peter, Paul & Mary. Sounds like the rest of the folkies.

But if you look back, you can see that folk era led to not only the music of the sixties, but the cultural changes of the sixties.

We’re at that moment right now.

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday January 29th, on Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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Netflix makes hits.

Streaming music services do not.

The latest example of this is “You.” A failure on Lifetime, it’s a viral success on Netflix. As of two weeks ago, 40 million households had partaken of an episode within a month of “You” launching on Netflix. On Lifetime, it barely broke a million. Proving, once again, that distribution is king. The show’s the same, the service is different.

You see Netflix promotes its own shows. I don’t only mean the shows it produces, but rather than depend upon outside sources to drum up viewers, it’s a closed ecosystem, it’s self-perpetuating, Netflix promotes shows on its own service.

As do network and cable, but you can’t fast-forward, you can’t shut the ads off, and they end up irritating you, to the point you root against the shows.

So when you sign in to Netflix you see one show promoted. And under that you see what’s hot and you get the feeling you’re on a website as opposed to a service. That you’re in control, that you get to choose, that someone has done the curating for you, and what’s out of sight is out of mind…when locked into Netflix you don’t care what’s happening on the five hundred channels and the competitive streaming services.

But music streaming services are different, they’re just distributors, like the record stores of yore, and that paradigm no longer works today, we need someone to tell us what to listen to, whom we trust, who has a great track record.

Actually, that’s why Tuma Basa and Rap Caviar were so successful. But Tuma left to join Lyor in the black hole of YouTube and has never been heard from again, proving once again that distribution is king.

But there’s only one Rap Caviar…not only has Spotify been unable to replicate that playlist, neither has any competitor.

You see it’s the streaming music services’ obligation to break records. The truth is they are a replacement for both retail and radio. And they’re leaving the public in the dark.

On the home screen should not be the usual suspect popular hit, but a track that people SHOULD hear, that would break if people only listened to it. With a new one once a week, so people would tune in to see it.

And maybe a Hot List, of at most five tracks, of different genres.

Streaming music services are abdicating their power.

And how about consumer ratings?

Netflix screwed theirs up by going from a one to five star system to thumbs up or down, now almost everything gets a great rating, but when you’re interested in a show and it gets three or three and a half stars, you steer away, or go in with your eyes open, ready to grab the remote and tune away.

We need ratings on streaming music services, so we know what to pay attention to and what not to, to add coherence.

But streaming services are afraid of scaring away the suppliers. But the system today doesn’t work for customers, and they’re the gods of all commerce.

We need streaming music services to point the way.

As for Discover Weekly, it’s great, but you get the feeling you might be the only person listening to this track you’ve found, and in the era of social media you want to connect, you want to be part of the group, that’s why I watched the first episode of “You.” Not my thing, I won’t watch more, but now I can play, go to parties and talk like an authority, know what the hubbub is about, never underestimate the appeal of belonging.

And I don’t expect streaming music services to make and promote their own product. First and foremost, it’s a terrible business without catalog. But the truth is they’re much more powerful than the major labels. Wanna mess with a major? Threaten to cut them off, like the government shutdown, we can see how much money was lost, how many lives were ruined. The major labels depend upon streaming music services for survival, they’re the lion’s share of their income, so the services can flex some muscle, they don’t have to be that afraid.

But they’re all techies, who just don’t get soft skills. They’ll tell you about the algorithm, they’ll tell you about efficiency, they just don’t focus on the music itself. As for their vaunted curators…drones who provide the same number of tracks every week, as if music was a production line in China.

So it’s hard to make sense of what’s going on.

But sense will eventually come. When the streaming services own their responsibility and start breaking tracks, of all genres, when they start being active instead of passive, when logging in to see what’s happening is the same as logging in to Netflix.