Peace And Love

Riding around in a Volkswagen van
Thinking ’bout the people upside down in Japan

I grew up on three-quarters of an acre, not uncommon in the suburbs, and I distinctly remember lying on my back staring at the sun in the backyard contemplating if I just dug deep enough I’d end up in Japan, although I wondered if it was a direct shot, or whether I’d end up in India or Russia…

Lying on the floor just playing my guitar
Trying to find the chords for ‘Just The Way You Are’

We all had guitars. We’d sit in front of our Dual turntables with pitch adjustment, tune our records to our instruments and try to figure out the chords, writing them down on yellow legal pads.

Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont
Open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant

And now I’m laughing.

For some reason the Apple app lists songs by artist, I know, it’s confounding, but that’s when I found out I had so many Fountains of Wayne songs on my phone, all from the album “Welcome Interstate Managers.” You know how it is, there’s an album that catches your attention that you play and end up knowing, this is the one, with “Stacy’s Mom.”

It was a big hit on MTV when that still mattered, before it bit the dust in the wake of video online.

Funny how songs go through your brain. And you need to hear them. That’s how it was with “Peace and Love” the past few days. I’d also been singing “All Kinds Of Time” to myself too, which got some action with the NFL, but I knew it before.

And I’m doing my back exercises marveling at the sound and lyrics of these Fountains of Wayne songs thinking how it used to be different, how music television could rescue you from obscurity, how labels paid for you to get it right in the studio, how erudition used to have a place in the music business before everybody with a brain went into tech or finance.

Actually, Williams graduates Darlingside are following in their fellow alumni’s footsteps, have you heard their track “Hold Your Head High,” it’s worth it, not that Darlingside is the exact same band, it’s just that they’re smart: https://spoti.fi/2KNFjb2

Maybe it started with Frank Zappa, in the rock era anyway. You cracked up when you heard the words. “You Didn’t Try To Call Me”… “Status Back Baby”…

Being smart was not anathema. And unlike Gene Simmons, no one was bragging about how intelligent they were, you could just hear it in the music.

Maybe it was a different era, when we had all kinds of time. When we’d lie on our beds, on the floor, and stare at the ceiling as we listened, over and over again. Now people are overscheduled, they’re getting pings on their phone, they never disengage, marinate in the experience. Maybe this is why TV is so big, you’ve got to pay attention, for an hour, for the series you’re watching on binge.

And the funny thing is I enjoy these Fountains of Wayne songs even more now than then, sure, it’s nostalgia for my own life, but they hearken back to a comprehensible era, when you could make fun of the mainstream and there was enough cohesiveness for people to get the joke, when if you could write lyrics and music with changes, imperfect vocals could be overlooked, whereas today people sing bland songs perfectly, or have thin voices and forgettable lyrics.

Maybe it takes money.

Maybe it takes education.

Maybe it takes promotion.

Maybe it takes a willingness to question.

Maybe it takes a willingness to go on your own path.

But now Adam Schlesinger paints on a much smaller canvas, in theatre and television.

We need people like this up front.

That’s fame.

The turning point was reality television, most specifically “The Real World,” suddenly you could be famous for nothing. You could trump up your personality, argue, and the edgier you were, the more attention you gained, can you say PUCK?

Concomitant with this was the era of the afternoon talk show. Where the more outrageous you were, the more Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones were interested in exposing your story.

Sure, it didn’t last, but you got your fifteen minutes. You could put it on your resume. Not for a job, but as a notch in your belt in this game we call life.

Then came “The Jersey Shore.” Not only were they outrageous on camera, but they opened clubs, they made a few bucks before they returned back to the suburbs. This was after “Survivor” and “Big Brother.” Contestants on those shows thought they had careers, but they didn’t. Now players knew it was evanescent, but they didn’t care.

Then we had the apotheosis, the Kardashians, who were not only famous for nothing, they became rich in the process! Telling fake stories while denying their plastic surgery. WATCHA GONNA DO?

If you’ve been following the news, there’s a big kerfuffle re affirmative action. In NYC, do the underprivileged get to go to good schools, displacing the Asians? And are the Asians unfairly excluded from Harvard? And these are real issues, deserving debate, but they couldn’t be further afield from the fame for nothing crew. That’s America today, those on a trip to somewhere and those on a trip to nowhere, and the nowhere people want their moment and the somewhere people just can’t understand it.

In today’s “Times” there’s a story on the Cash Me Outside girl. You probably know this meme. A young girl with no good path, who got breast implants at thirteen, utters a phrase in Ebonics on “Dr. Phil” and not only is she instantly famous, the entertainment whores sign her up and she gets a record deal at Atlantic. If your parents are not cracking the whip, keeping you on the straight and narrow, you say to yourself…I WANT ME SOME OF THAT!

And there’s a whole internet complex ready to scoop you up. You “promote” yourself on Instagram and other social networks, hoping to gain enough followers so you can sell out to advertisers in sponsorship and ultimately cross over to TV. Meanwhile, the somnambulant press keeps trumpeting the antics of these idiots, promoting them as the new stars when the truth is almost none of them last, they get their moment and… We need news outlets, but it turns out they haven’t adjusted to the modern paradigm, just reporting is not enough, you’ve got to have a viewpoint, which is why Fox News is so successful. Furthermore, news outlets show no vision, they have no idea of where it’s all going, never mind the impact of their coverage. Meanwhile, bottom feeders like BuzzFeed take up the slack, one thing they know is their audience, they know where the culture is going, so you can’t evade the clickbait, meanwhile old stalwarts like “People” and “The Enquirer” are trying to follow along.

There’s endless conversation about political fake news on Facebook when that’s de minimis compared to the CULTURAL fake news on the site. Hell, even the upper middle class, those with graduate degrees, are boasting online. They want to let their compatriots, their “friends,” know how much better their lives are. Meanwhile, most of America sits at home pissed and depressed, feeling inadequate.

And no one likes their opportunity stolen, so they vote for Trump, believing he’ll make things right, that you can have no CV and be a millionaire and no one will get in your way. Yup, you’re gonna be famous, and if the immigrants get a chance, if the Chinese get a chance, if the CANADIANS get a chance, your odds will be lower.

I know it sounds idiotic, that the same people playing the new game want to jet back to the old, but that’s what Making America Great Again is all about, even though it wasn’t so great at the time they’re reminiscing about, they certainly couldn’t get famous on the internet.

They’d have to go to school, do the hard work.

But now if you graduate from college you’re qualified to become a receptionist, that’s right, you can’t get that gig without a degree.

Meanwhile, rappers are advertising brands you cannot afford.

And those playing by the old rules have contempt for you, as they’ve got it for those above them on the totem pole, the financiers who create nothing and the techies providing few jobs.

So what is your option but to try and become famous. You’ve got a phone, posting is free! Maybe at the cost of advertising and your soul and your future, but the other route is riddled with potholes.

And if it all fails you can go on drugs. Heroin is cheaper and cleaner than ever. And hell, you can order fentanyl on the internet. And if Prince and Tom Petty O.D. that’s just a path worth taking, you’ll be famous in the afterlife!

RIVER: SEASON 1

Never underestimate the power of great acting.

I’ve got all kinds of time for great, a little time for good, and no time for the rest…whether it be TV, music, sports, food… That’s the world we live in, one where time is precious and we’re overloaded with options. Our entire lives are tyrannies of choice, which no one is willing to address. There’s too much news, never mind too much Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Is Instagram the end of civilization or what? For a while there, I was loving that the internet brought reading back. But with broadband came video, and now with smartphones comes pictures. Maybe I’m just not a visual guy. But is anybody on Instagram doing anything but bragging? I know, I know, I’m overstating the case, there is some good information there, but two-dimensional promotional images just don’t hook me.

And we all follow different tweeters and we don’t listen to the same music and we don’t watch the same TV either.

This week’s story is Amy Adams’s new HBO show. The L.A. “Times” was not enthusiastic. The other reviewers seemed to have their thumbs up but I’ll be honest, I don’t read any reviews through and through, at least not until I finish a series or a book, because they give away the PLOT! What I love is the surprise, getting into a boat and going down the river. If you tell me what I’m gonna see, what fun is that?

And I’m not free the same time every week, which is why I won’t watch a network or cable show. Of course I can record it or watch it on demand, but my time doesn’t come in one hour chunks. I either have no time, or want to stretch out. The show of the summer is “Killing Eve,” Bywater and Wilson have raved, Benedek too. I pulled it up on demand, watched an episode, got hooked, and then saw it was still in process. I’m gonna wait until it’s done. Because I like to rip through the episodes, I like to get in the mood, turn off the lights and the phone and get involved.

So I was searching for a new series to binge on.

And the truth is almost all of them are crime dramas. And I’ve got no problem with crime, just the absence of other genres. Maybe they’re too hard to do. Like that Alan Ball/Tim Robbins show on HBO, what a piece of crap that was, at least they didn’t renew it, and to be honest I could only make it through one and a half episodes. And I know they’ve got “Succession” now, but… I can watch “Ozark” in a day or two, but I’ve got to watch a family argue about money over months? What’s so special about THAT?

And I’m a believer that foreign television is always superior. In America we try to milk it, overseas they oftentimes get it right, don’t go on too long, and the actors and actresses…oftentimes look like real people, you can imagine yourself in their world, whereas I’m never gonna be accepted by the TMZ people, first and foremost I don’t want to get plastic surgery, and I abhor a world where looks are everything. And the secret is if you get old enough, you come to learn looks don’t matter, not that much, you have enough experiences to discover other qualities are more important, like loyalty, compassion, the ability to manage money… Meanwhile, you’re prettifying yourself to get attention, who you gonna draw? As for Tinder… You’ve got to feel pretty good about yourself to play, or put up a doctored pic. But now we’re getting back to the Instagram paradigm. It’s about the one percent, only in this case it’s all about looks.

And Stellan Skarsgard has a pot belly. Nicola Walker has a cute smile, but she’s never gonna be in “Vogue” without airbrushing. No one is beautiful, everybody is imperfect, “River” reflects the world, which is why it hooked me.

And the darkness. The vibe. The rain. The train. If you’ve been to London you’ll get it, if you haven’t you’ll want to go, if you live there, you’ll nod your head.

So, the show is about dead people. And seeing dead people. Isn’t it fascinating that M. Night Shyamalan could never make another great picture, some people only seem to have one in them. Or more than that, and then burn out, like Francis Ford Coppola. Spielberg gets all the attention, but it’s Coppola who transcended, who is truly an icon. Come on, compare “The Godfather” to “Jaws.” A mechanical shark to an Italian family? And I could go further, but you get the point.

And “The River” is not “Apocalypse Now,” but it rings more true than almost any Spielberg film, because Spielberg is all about the image, whereas it’s truly about story, that comes first, the look comes second.

And the story is told by actors. And Stellan Skarsgard is believable. He’s tortured, yet brilliant. He doesn’t believe in the expedient, only the truth. Are you willing to sacrifice victory in pursuit of truth? Seemingly no one in America is, especially in sports, everybody’s looking for an edge, if they don’t get caught they win, but can you sleep at night? Edgar Allan Poe had it right in “The Tell Tale Heart.”

So I researched. So many sites. From the “New York Times” to the “Thrillist” to…

And my top pick you had to buy.

And my number two was on Hulu, which I refuse to subscribe to, it’s my own personal protest, if Hulu launched before Netflix, maybe. But I want to stick a knife in the side of TV, which believes they’re just going to recreate the old paradigm in the new world, peck me to death by ducks, have me paying a couple of hundred dollars once again.

And then I found on Rotten Tomatoes they ranked the best Netflix shows. And “River” got 100%. That’s quite a number. Although I just found out there weren’t that many reviews.

But I cross-checked the show after watching two episodes. Consensus is it’s a winner.

And the truth is I’ve seen the blue chips, the ones on Amazon and Netflix anyway. And I find that too many people’s recommendations don’t reach me. Once again, they promote what they like, when I search online and find the numbers are bad. Yup, you can argue with statistics, but you can’t argue with the fact that I have so little time.

And the truth is the seventies were a golden age of film. The late sixties too. It was an art form. The grosses were not printed in the newspaper. But after “Jaws” and “Star Wars” showed how much money could be made, and the auteurs flopped, the studios regained control and it’s never been the same. Whereas on Netflix and some cable outlets they give creators complete control. Creators know best, although they might drive you over the cliff.

And I want to check out that Brazilian show “3%.” And that Japanese zombie series. And all the comedies on Netflix are duds. But life is dramatic, my idea of escape is to see truth on screen. Make me feel like I’m living another life. Grip me to the point I can’t think about anything else.

Right now, “River’ does that.

P.S. It’s from 2015 and there’s only one season but we live in an era where being first no longer matters. Actually, that which explodes upon launch rarely sustains. We’re looking for land mines. To blow up our paltry lives. We live for entertainment. It’s our king. Never forget it.

Spotify

YouTube

I ignored the hype.

But then I got hooked by the banner on Spotify.

Oh, you can turn it off. Over to the right, in grey, it says “Hide Announcements,” and then these banners will disappear, but do you want them to?

I don’t want to read another story of a musician wise beyond his or her years. Yes, there was that story in the “Times” the other month, I always glance, skim a bit, since this is my world, but I don’t go online and listen, because if I did I’d have no time left at all, and so much of what is promoted is not worth a listen, at least not in a world where the history of recorded music is at your fingertips. But a banner on Spotify? You had to convince the powers-that-be that your music has value and you’re supporting it.

And to be truthful, I don’t know how many subscribers got this Spotify banner. But I did read all about the backlash to the Drake “Scorpion” banner. And on one hand I get it, but on another I don’t. I mean how hard is it to ignore? But truthfully, it was overdone, in a race to compete with Apple Music, in order to placate Drake, in order to have a big first week number, which is no different from the old system, but promoting Snail Mail?

This is not a review in the newspaper, not a review on Pitchfork, not a street team infecting my inbox/social media. Rather, the largest music company on the planet, the one the most people listen to, is giving real estate to this unknown act, I’m gonna listen.

And I was surprised, I didn’t immediately click it off.

Now only two types of music are promoted. Well, three. Starting with the least important is the oldsters running on fumes with new music, which often goes unlistened to, no matter how good a job the PR person does. And then there’s the hip-hop, and the pop. It’s gotten to the point where if you’re not a fan of those genres, you tune out all music promotion, you’ve been burned too many times.

And then you hear something like Snail Mail.

I don’t want to know she’s from Baltimore, I don’t want to know she was a hockey fanatic, I DON’T WANT TO KNOW SHE’S NINETEEN YEARS OLD, I just want to listen to the MUSIC!

And that’s what I did when I clicked through, I scrolled through to find the most played cuts. And I started with the two in seven figures (that’s over a million for the math-challenged), first “Heat Wave,” figuring it was a good chance it was a cover.

But it’s not.

Now I know nothing about this act, I’ve done no research, I don’t plan to spend a ton of time, all I know is there’s a blond girl in the picture. But there’s a vibe that resonates, something dark, which appeals to me, especially in an era where everybody’s telling me how much better they are than I am.

And then came the guitars.

Wait a minute, is this rock? Made by a woman? Why isn’t the world all over this?

Not that this is Jade Bird. I can’t say there’s an immediate hit, something I can point you to that you’ll get immediately. But as I’m listening to “Heat Wave,” there’s a break with guitarwork and I’m thinking if this was 1977, music fans would be all over this. Because that’s the way it was, there was a scene, you were a fan and if someone got a major recording contract, you’d pay attention.

But Snail Mail’s album “Lush” is on Matador. That’s the world we live in, the majors want NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!

To their detriment. They’re too busy chasing “hits,” and leaving the rest to indies, to acts doing it all by themselves, which is why Spotify could make headway going straight to acts, or vice versa. Meanwhile, all the hype Matador did was essentially useless. Because print and NPR don’t move the needle. BUT A BANNER ON SPOTIFY DOES!

That’s right, it’s an endcap on steroids. Because there’s only one record presented, which you can’t ignore, unless you turn announcements off, but why would you do that, you’d be living in the wilderness!

I’m feeling low
I’m not into sometimes

You don’t want to be second best, you don’t want to be a booty call, you want to be PRIMARY, but even though you say no, that does not mean you still don’t hurt, still don’t desire, still don’t fantasize.

So now I’m doing research, because I’m hooked by the MUSIC!

That’s when I realize I was exposed to the hype and ignored it.

And I pulled up the lyrics. And they weren’t revelatory, but there were some nuggets, like the lines above at the end of “Heat Wave.”

Now the lyrics are about teenage/twentysomething problems. Where is my place in the world? Do you like me for who I am? But it’s such a change from what is being forced down our throat.

I don’t know what happens, I don’t know if Snail Mail breaks through. But I’d go to see the act, essentially Lindsey Jordan, at the Troubadour, in a club without a big screen, where it was solely about the music, like it used to be.

So, just when you give up hope, you’re inspired. Hopefully this can translate to politics.

And on one hand it’s scary, Spotify has so much power. But at least it’s promoting worthy material as opposed to spewing falsehoods like those in D.C.

So, used to be if you were a music fan, you were a fan of an act, not a hit. But an act had to have something to say, had to stand for something, had to be authentic, their tunes couldn’t be written by committee, they had to be the blood-writings made after opening a vein.

There is definitely something here, it sure ain’t exactly clear.

Start with “Heat Wave.” Click to “Pristine.” Let it play through to “Speaking Terms.” This is indie rock, but well-produced and well-played enough not to be too far outside, and Lindsey Jordan has a more than serviceable voice.

THANKS SPOTIFY!