This one is different. This is less of an interview than a conversation. As if we were at dinner and you were listening in on us batting the ball back and forth, covering topics as varied as Sirius XM to prog rock to the Canadian health care system.

Jake Gold was the manager who built the career of the Tragically Hip. He was also a judge on “Canadian Idol.”

We’re still experimenting here.

Hope you enjoy it!

Bob

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Can’t start a fire without a spark

And all this time we were waiting for the musicians to lead.

Illustrating not only the vacuity of the “artists,” but the lack of impact of their wares.

In the sixties and seventies, even up into the eighties and nineties, the culture was driven by music.

And for the last twenty years it’s been driven by tech.

Now it’s driven by politics.

That’s what people really want to talk about, the government, their rights, opportunity… But oldsters set in their ways believe paradigms go on forever, but they don’t, and time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for you or me.

It always happens this way. A minor incident turns into a major conflagration. Whether it be the killing of Archduke Ferdinand that set off World War I or the self-immolation of a fruit vendor in Tunisia that set off the Arab Spring. There was something in the air, all it needed was a trigger.

And sure, this is about gun rights, but it’s more than that, it’s a frustration with the status quo, the youth of this country are fed up with the expedience of their elders, who’ve sold out to their pocketbooks. What happens next?

They shot a black man in Ferguson… But he was just black. It didn’t register with the white people.

They started deporting immigrants, the white people thought they were safe.

But now their children are getting shot up in schools and..?

Trump blinks, months after the Vegas tragedy he stands up for the banning of bump stocks.

In Tallahassee the state government ignores the younger generation.

You do this at your peril.

It’s always the young who initiate change. Whether it be their protests against the Vietnam War or their embrace of Napster on high speed campus networks that almost nobody had at home.

This is the bleeding edge, pardon my bad pun.

So what can you do? What happens next?

Change. Comfort is transitory. For far too long America has been about individuals getting theirs with no consequences, and those more cohesively minded, those who have been left out, are unhappy about this.

Trump’s election fostered the #MeToo movement. If the pussy-grabber in chief hadn’t won women would not be pushing back, males would not be falling, men would not be questioning their behavior, and if you don’t think men are now thinking twice, you’re not one.

The more you take away people’s rights, the more you force them to give up hope, the more impotent you make them, the more you foster resentment and ultimate upheaval.

Interestingly, the music business has been anti-upheaval, the entertainment business at large too. There’s been more protest against digital disruption than in any other field. The producers believe they’re entitled to their remuneration. The artists want to go back to what once was. Only that’s never going to happen.

It’s time to put your bank account in the rearview mirror. It’s time to stand up and fight for what’s right. It’s time to join the community as opposed to trying to stay safe alone in your hole.

This train has left the station. While you’re selling merch, they’re selling ideas.

And ideas always win.

They’re the only thing that matters.

“An American Marriage”

I could not put this book down.

For the last three days I’ve been sitting in a chair getting an IVIG drip. Not a great way to spend a holiday weekend, but to be truthful when you work for yourself the weekdays are holidays and the weekends are downtime you endure, e-mail slows down, people fall back into their lives, and you long for the action.

The first day is always the same, the Benadryl and the steroids make you foggy and tired and it’s hard to do just about anything. I watched that movie “Mudbound” on my iPad. Don’t.

And I finished that book “The Glass Castle” on day two, when my brain came back. I always thought it was a fantasy, and I hate fantasy, but after reading “Half Broke Horses” I cracked it. Turns out it’s the story of the author’s upbringing. It resonated because…let’s just say I know that life, I know someone who was brought up that way. Can you ever shake your roots? I don’t think so.

And “Half Broke Horses” is the thinly fictionalized prequel, about the rambunctious grandmother in a different time. Do spirited people always triumph or is the spirit squeezed out of them? I’m not sure. But your goal is to keep your spirit alive. I’m not being religious here, but when you stop thinking you make a difference, when you think nothing matters and you can’t accomplish any more, you’re done. But as we age, we oftentimes think this way.

And looking for additional books to read I stumbled upon “An American Marriage.” It was the reviews that intrigued me. I didn’t know it was an Oprah pick. But if this is what she’s into, I’ll now read everything she recommends.

So what we’ve got here is the story of married African-Americans.

Atlanta is the black Hollywood. Certainly in hip-hop. And as hip-hop secures its place in the national consciousness, the world consciousness, Atlanta rises ever higher. Once upon a time we listened to the Allman Brothers play “Hot ‘Lanta,” but now…

And how much do I know about the black experience? Not much.

The protagonist is a man with swagger, who comes from little but graduates from college and is gonna set the world on fire. But he’s a bit of a playa, he steps out, he’s imperfect. But lovable just the same. It’s these chiaroscuro characters that entrance me. Because we’ve all got shades of light and gray.

The woman he’s married to is somewhat cold and reserved and hot-headed. She’s a prize, but you never know if you really have her.

And then something happens.

I won’t tell you what it is, even though it happens surprisingly early in this book. But it tests the marriage.

“Marriage is between two people. There is no studio audience.”

If you’re doing it for the public, if you’re marrying a trophy wife so others will be impressed, the joke is on you. Because no one really cares. And you’ve got to be with this person all the time. Find someone you can be yourself with, who understands you, who gets you.

“Much of life is timing and circumstance, I see that now.”

You learn this as you age. The timing’s not right. They were married when you were single and now they’re not but the spark is not there, no matter how hard you try.

And that’s not the plot of this book, but it made me think of that. You can intellectualize all you want, try to bend the will of the gods, but you can’t, you can only drift down that lazy river and paddle a bit.

And then there’s the issue of who you should be with.

And the sense of duty.

It’s all so complicated and much of what comes across the transom is just plain wrong. We see the people on TMZ and think life is about following your instincts, your wishes and desires. But those can get you in big trouble, baby. You’ve got to hold back, but to what degree?

There’s a device in this book that is riveting, the letters between the characters.

And there’s the modern device of multiple viewpoints.

But mostly there’s the story of people. Time marches on, what do you do, how do you live your life, can you ever turn back the clock?

And for a moment there the book got sappy and overblown and I thought it was building to a predictable ending but it didn’t. It surprised me, it was real.

This is not “Gone Girl.” This is not a thriller.

Rather this is the story of modern life. Being black in a world where you always have to be on guard. Being married in a world where you never really know if you have somebody.

You may think it’s chick lit.

Then again, if that’s your viewpoint you probably have a problem with intimacy. Because feelings…expressing them is what relationships are all about.

I recommend this. The added bonus for whites is the insight into black life, without the sugarcoating.

But this is not a racial story, this is a people story. And we’re all people. It resonates.

Icarus

I thought this was a movie about Lance Armstrong.

But it’s not.

We knew Lance was doping because of the kerfuffle with that one test, the one that was thrown out. And the words of Greg LeMond, who said scientifically there was no way Lance could win, because of his inability to process oxygen. Yes, I followed this. LeMond was excoriated and Armstrong was venerated until…

It’s always until.

And there was some hype about this Oscar nominated documentary but it slid right off of me, even though I get all the publications it was hyped in. Because it’s hard to believe anything in a world of sales. It’s a symbiotic relationship between media and entertainment, it’s not hard news so we’ll fudge, say something is good so we can get access down the line. Kinda like the promoter has to take the bad band to get the good one.

But then a friend with no dog in this hunt, who saw the flick on a screener, a man who sees absolutely everything, is more qualified to vote than any member of AMPAS, told me it was his favorite movie of the year.

So I checked it out on Netflix.

Now despite the written word triumphing online, the truth is we live in a visual culture, people don’t believe something until they see it, and when they see “Icarus”…

You’re not exactly sure where the flick is going. Actually, the director himself was not exactly sure where the flick was going. He was an amateur bike racer who wondered if he doped whether his results would improve. He reached out to the doping bigwig at UCLA, who invented so many of the anti-doping tests, and this man said yes to involvement and then he said no and then he hooked him up with his Russian friend Grigory Rodchenkov, who immediately started to help the director over Skype.

And you think you’re watching a nobody on a lark, trying to prove a point that you already know, kinda like Morgan Spurlock in “Super Size Me.” But then the movie turns into something different, something very different, because this Russian gentleman…

Breaks the story of the Russian Olympic doping wide open.

And probably you’re O.D.’ed on the Olympics, you really don’t care, but this is not about the Olympics, but Russia.

And Russia is all over the news this week. Our President considers Vladimir Putin a friend, he thinks the Mueller investigation is much ado about nothing. And then you watch “Icarus” and your eyes bug out.

You see in America we’ve been sold a bill of goods, a myth, that we live in a democracy where truth wins out and honesty reigns and if you just put your nose to the grindstone it will all work out.

But if that was ever true, it’s not now.

Ignore the naysayers. ignore the Trumpers. Ignore the blowback. It’s our country to save, and it’s at risk.

You see these people lie. All the time. And since Trump got elected the “left wing” media calls him on it, but the right wing does not, and since so many only pay attention to the right wing they’ve got no idea what the truth is. That the tax cuts are not good for individuals. That Trump is tied-up financially with the Russians. And I’m willing to let Trump stay in office, but as he does our democracy is fading away. We’re becoming just like Russia.

Where Putin lies and kills his enemies and throws his hands up and says we’ve got it wrong, he’s honest and forthright and our accusations are inaccurate and we’re dreaming. And you watch him and you wonder, how far is this from our own country? Where the Ambassador to the Netherlands denies making comments that are already on tape?

But Putin is not that stupid.

So this Russian scientist… They arrest him and put him in a mental institution, but they release him to help with doping at Sochi. And they’re not satisfied with beating the test, they devise a way for the KGB, which is now called the FSB, to literally replace all the samples. So Russia wins more medals than ever and with the public’s surging support Putin invades Ukraine and the rest of the world does nothing about it.

And then when incontrovertible evidence comes in the IOC lets the Russians participate in Rio anyway.

So the scientist sneaks out of Russia. And his assets are stripped, his colleague is killed, his direct connection up the food chain, only three away from Putin, resigned and is under criminal investigation, and the man in charge was promoted to Deputy Prime Minister and Putin denies, denies, denies.

Kinda like it is in the United States today.

Don’t take my word for it. Don’t defend Trump or his right wing cronies, just watch this documentary.

We’re in search of greatness. In a world of plenty, we want very little. I’m combing Netflix and finding too much product which does not rivet me. But then I stumble on “Icarus” and my adrenaline starts to flow and my blood starts to boil and I wonder how in a country where everybody’s focused on celebrities nobody knows all this. It washes off of you when you see it printed endlessly in the paper. But when you watch the scientist involved, when you see the pols deny, when the scientist has to go into the witness protection program you sit up and get scared and wonder what you can do, how you can push back, you’re stunned that this is happening in the world.

But it is.

One person can make a difference. It hurt him financially, but Greg LeMond was right.

The Russian scientist, Grigory Rodchenkov, turned the sporting world upside down.

And it was all because a novice documentarian wanted to go faster on his bicycle.

You can make a difference, truly. That’s the story of America, that’s the story of the world, how one person can move mountains. If right is on their side.

But too many people believe in expedience, staying quiet so they can get ahead, even though lying never works out in the end.

This is not the fastest movie ever made. But it’s one of the most important of the year. All the attention is paid to the Hollywood wankers, with their worldwide productions of sci-fi fantasy, when it’s the work of relative nobodies that changes the course of history. Who cares if Steven Spielberg made “The Post,” that was then and this is now and Bryan Fogel’s achievement eclipses that of Hollywood’s most revered director. Because Fogel thought outside of the box, he never backed down, he pursued the story, not the cash.

He made a statement.

You should spend the time to watch it.

It will change your life.