I get it.

I read about a year ago that yoga pants were eclipsing jeans, that’s what “Bloomberg Businessweek” said, and they rarely get it wrong.

This was confusing. Wasn’t Lululemon on the verge of bankruptcy, having made clothing that was too sheer, where you could see women’s derrieres?

Although I always found stretchy material to be somewhat see-through, undies visible, but I didn’t think too much about it. I mean the pants were on the market for months, it took that long for people to figure out there was a problem?

I’m a jeans and polo shirt kind of guy. That was a big breakthrough in high school, the ability to wear jeans to class. But back then we called them “dungarees.” And by time I was a senior you could learn sans socks. But jeans were our uniform. I preferred Lee, never Wrangler, sometimes Levi’s.

And then the designer jean tsunami hit and lifted all boats. I bought pairs of Chemin de Fers, never Sasson, but definitely Guess. Jeans were forever…

Until yoga pants.

Now let me tell you, we men have no problem with yoga pants. Once we figured out what they were. The way they hugged your curves. But I don’t pay attention to fashion, I read about yoga pants before I could pick them out in the wild. And then I had Felice point them out to me, nice, but I didn’t care.

Until we went to Lululemon.

They opened a store in Vail, right across the street from the condo. Felice wanted to visit, I tagged along. I didn’t even KNOW they made men’s stuff, but waiting while Felice shopped I tried stuff on.

And decided to buy a pair of shorts.

It was a whim, something you do on vacation. I could wear them in Vail, nobody would notice, there’d be no cred at risk.

But now I wear them all the time.

That was my first pair, which the cleaning lady burned with an iron. Melted, that is. And she was apologetic, but there was no point in excoriating her, I’d just buy another pair.

But you couldn’t get them.

I thought this was a fashion issue, whatever you like they stop manufacturing, but they were out of stock!

Now the model I wear is just above the knee. But they didn’t even have the short-shorts available. That’s right, this year in Vail the store was wiped clean. But the clerk was a maven, he was going to open a store in Oklahoma in days. He checked inventory. They had one color in Santa Monica, a few online. And I meant to buy them immediately…

But I didn’t.

And Santa Monica was wiped out and they had one color available online so I clicked.

And now I can’t take them off. BECAUSE THEY’RE SO COMFORTABLE!

I know, I know, you’re supposed to look good, that’s what it’s all about, especially in Los Angeles. But first and foremost you’ve got to FEEL good, at least I do.

The material is soft and stretchy, it doesn’t irritate my skin. Since I’ve gotten my new pair I’ve worn them every day, for weeks. (Of course I wash them, don’t even think otherwise.) And I regret when I have to wear long pants, and am thinking that maybe I should buy some long pant Lululemons (no, the men’s are not hip-hugging).

So either you’re in the know or you’re not. Either you get what I’m talking about or you don’t.

Once upon a time you had to dress in black, that was the rock and roll ethos. Before rock died and everybody listened to different music and didn’t care about what you were wearing. The older you get you realize no one is really paying attention to you, unless you’re famous, and I’m not, and if you are they love you until they hate you and then you’re nobody and irrelevant once again.

So I guess you’d call this a sales pitch.

But it’s really a testimonial.

Lululemon is not cheap.

But like divorce, IT’S WORTH IT!

The Works Short – WARPSTREAM 11″

“Rolling Stone, Once A Counterculture Bible, Will Be Put Up for Sale”

And sooner or later
Everybody’s kingdom must end

“The King Must Die”
Elton John

That’s where I found out about Elton, “Rolling Stone,” but Elton soldiers on, “Rolling Stone” is headed for the dumper. Like “Men’s Journal,” sold to “The National Enquirer”‘s David Pecker, which in one issue under its new owner lost all credibility, lacked any soul, any lengthy riveting article of the stripe that used to make the subscription worthwhile.

Now I can reminisce, about me and the mag, cheering for it and its outsider status and then watching as it became mainstream along with its coverage of Patty Hearst.

But the future is in front of us. And anybody who continues to look back, is doomed.

That’s what Jann Wenner did. He kept satiating an old audience that fell off and failed to cater to a new audience that just didn’t care.

Who is the cultural guru of the last twenty years of the twentieth century?

It wasn’t anybody in radio, which followed trends.

And it wasn’t anybody at the record companies, which stopped investing in careers and went for flash.

I’ll argue it was one man, with a team of sometimes unheralded charges, and that’s Tom Freston, who ran MTV Networks.

You see Freston realized you’ve got to burn the past to enter the future. Something that Wenner didn’t even try until way too late, shortening its best feature, its record reviews, to compete with “Blender”‘s bits before it was revealed that Felix Dennis’s music magazine fudged its circulation numbers, and then bit the dust.

Or, as the bard so often lauded by Wenner once sang…

He not busy being born is busy dying

The original VJs were the biggest stars in youth culture, even bigger than the musicians featured in the videos they played.

But what did Freston and his team do?

FIRED THEM!

They were too old. MTV made a conscious decision to appeal to the same young demo consistently.

And the outlet learned that videos got lousy ratings, MTV started airing half hour shows, the game show “Remote Control,” and the reality series “The Real World.” And the oldsters bitched but the youngsters ate it up.

And then Sumner Redstone blew out Tom Freston, after handing Tom the reins of Viacom.

And what happened?

Viacom tanked.

Meanwhile, Freston invested in “Vice” and overseas TV outlets and looks like a seer.

Jann Wenner looks like a self-satisfied blowhard.

This is not about the UVA debacle. This is not about the decline in print advertising. This is about a man who refused to believe the future was coming.

Now let’s credit Jann. He started “Rolling Stone.” There were competitors, but they all failed. The power of the individual can never be underestimated.

But Steve Jobs eliminated the floppy and legacy ports.

And “Rolling Stone” refused to go online and looked no different than it ever was, as it turned into “Mojo,” albeit with crappier writing.

You can live on your heritage in the arts. Copyrights have value.

But not in tech. And not in news. You have to look forward, you have to destroy your past to have a future.

And Jann Wenner was living in the past.

Now don’t lament the sale and the eventual irrelevance. Because the magazine is already irrelevant. Music does not drive the culture, the oldster players don’t do anything new of value and although Matt Taibbi is a star, he’s in a ghetto of blah, like having Einstein preaching to six year olds.

Taibbi will continue. As did Tom Wolfe, as for Hunter Thompson…he just burned out, but he’s certainly radiating.

But those were different days. when talent was revered and seen as bigger than the executive. But in the moneyed culture of today it’s the business person who is considered to be a rock star, with their riches and perks, and the artists take a back seat. Furthermore, the artists try to imitate the business people, and if you think this is untrue you’re unaware seemingly every successful artist invests in startups and has a perfume and clothing line and it would be enough to depress you if you weren’t scrambling to put food on the table to begin with.

We need to believe in something.

Once we could in “Rolling Stone.”

Now we can’t.

There’s a vacuum.

Won’t anybody fill it?

How do they expect us to buy thousand dollar phones?

The left has a messaging issue. It also has too many elites who believe they worked so hard to get ahead that they don’t want to sacrifice anything they’ve got. As a result, the right’s disinformation campaign has triumphed. And the left keeps complaining a record they released a year ago should be at the top of the charts, even though it stiffed.

Watch Robert Reich’s explanation of economics.

Oh, that’s right, he worked for Clinton, he’s a bad guy, you can’t pay attention. Whereas the left keeps evaluating your ideas. That’s another conundrum. How the right won’t even look at the left’s ideas or media, while the left is subjected over and over again to the right’s opinion. The right has labeled the media biased to such a degree that we end up with false equivalencies. The left says the earth is round and the media amplifies the right’s perspective, that it’s flat, and therefore issues like climate change remain open questions, when they’re not.

And now, in the wake of the hurricanes, you’ve got the left begging the right to address the issue of global warming, but the right won’t do it, because the open question is baked into their viewpoint by inane commentators with an agenda and the reasonable righties in Congress are afraid to speak up for fear of being excommunicated, or primaried, which is the same damn thing.

So, if you watch Reich’s video, all of one minute and forty one seconds, you’ve got the time for that, right? In between posting on Instagram and watching YouTube? The second of seven economic fundamentals he utters is:

“Consumer spending accounts for 70% of all economic activity in the United States.”

And the wealthy can’t and don’t buy two hundred cars and go out for ten restaurant meals a night and utilize fifteen hotel rooms when they go on the road. So, if the middle class has money, it spends it, and improves not only the economy, but fattens the pockets of the rich.

And at this point the rich are not comprised of those who inherited their wealth, but those who made it. A consumer society definitely helps them.

But we’ve been sold the canard that the wealthier you make the rich, the better the middle class and poor do. So how’s that been working out?

IT HASN’T!

But the right not only has its media-mongers, but an army of regular people who have been taught to fight back. They’ve been enabled with disinformation and they’ve been militarized. Look at what happened in Charlottesville. And the right’s response? ANTIFA! It’s like walking into a destroyed kitchen and having the eight year old perp point to his nonverbal baby brother and saying it’s HIS FAULT!

Or blaming the baseball loss on the shortstop who missed the ball and didn’t allow any runs to be scored instead of the home run hitter who forgot to tag the bases on his round trip.

This is the world we live in.

Because the right is organized, it gets the word out.

Whereas the left is self-satisfied and sits there and cries that it’s right while nothing happens. As their media organizations are so busy bending over backwards to appear fair that they let the right run away with the ball. The “New York Times” hires righty Bret Stephens and the “Wall Street Journal” hires lefty…

Oh, it doesn’t.

And now the right bitches that MSNBC is biased when we’ve been harangued by right wing b.s. for decades on Fox. Rachel Maddow wins the ratings war and all she gets in response is epithets. Think about that.

So we live in a country where the poor and those left in the middle class are alienated and falling behind and the left, although a better deal for them, doesn’t give them a seat at the table and we end up with…

Trump.

Even worse, you end up broke.

So the left has to fight back. And what I mean by that is not yelling, but having a multi-decade playbook. Its own Federalist Society. A recognition that this is a war for the heart and soul of our country and if you don’t get your ideas out…

Robert Reich’s video couldn’t be more simple. Grade-schoolers could understand it.

But Republican Congresspeople want to cut taxes on the wealthy. And are getting away with it because they’ve got a bastion of blowhards spreading disinformation. We’ve got to keep hearing the story of how Rush Limbaugh said the hurricane was a hoax, until he fled by private jet out of Florida, hell, we kept on hearing about Hillary’s e-mail server. And no e-mail server scandal is gonna keep your ass safe when North Korea blows nukes into America.

Could happen.

Thank god the rich are immune, with their tax cuts.

OF COURSE NOT!

We’re all in this together. Drop a bomb and we all suffer.

Leave most Americans without spending power and we all suffer.

But the downtrodden are the problem. They overextend, they don’t manage their money, they didn’t pick themselves up by their bootstraps. No investigation goes into hiring practices that leave everybody as an independent contractor sans benefits. Yes, the problem is TAKERS!

You’ve got to hand it to the right, they know how to deflect and point fingers.

So, when they gain power…

They can’t accomplish anything. They’ve achieved their goal. They rule. But it turns out their disinformed constituents love public benefits, like Obamacare and FEMA.

So, if you’re on the left, fight back. Post Robert Reich’s video everywhere. Don’t be a snowflake, and by that I mean, endure the blowback from the right, they’ve been trained, you need to toughen up and train yourself, because this is a war and you’re losing.

And it’s got less to do with guns and ammo than messaging.

The left feels it’s right and lays back.

The right keeps hammering the same old b.s. day after day after day.

Robert Reich-“The next time you hear someone say we need to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, mention these 7 economic fundamentals”:

The next time you hear someone say we need to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, mention these 7 economic fundamentals. pic.twitter.com/b6yfSBjYZr

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) September 17, 2017

Shout, shout, let it all out

The younger generation is oblivious to MTV. Back when it was still labeled “Music Television,” when it drove the culture, when everybody knew the hits and they were bigger than ever before, even than in the sixties.

You see now there was only ONE radio station, and we were all tuned in. If anything, radio followed television, and with KROQ personnel programming, the sound on television was anything but calcified and AOR stations started dropping like flies. No one thought KMET could ever fold, rock was forever, but it flipped and became smooth jazz.

Now when MTV launched, you couldn’t get it. That’s right, in August of ’81 not everybody had cable, and not every cable system had MTV. So when you went to someone’s house and they did…

It was like going on AOL for the very first time. You couldn’t help but stare. You’d watch for hours and hours. Some bands were resuscitated by the format, but others were brand new, like Culture Club, like Duran Duran, like Tears For Fears.

Now before MTV became ubiquitous, when it was still 1983, Tears For Fears made its debut. And KROQ played “Pale Shelter.”

But when the next album came out, “Songs From The Big Chair,” in 1985, MTV was everywhere, ultimately this was the summer of Live Aid, which is remembered most as MTV’s anointment of arrival, of meaning, of even gravitas, and that year, Tears For Fears ruled.

So what you’d do back then is…

After seeing a hit or two or three on TV, you’d buy the album, and “Songs From The Big Chair” did not disappoint.

And immediately you’d make a tape. Some people would buy tapes to begin with, but anybody with any audiophile cred knew prerecorded cassettes sucked, they were duped at high speed on crummy tape and you could buy a Maxell or TDK and roll your own that sounded much better, which I did, and inserted into my Walkman as I rode my bike down to the beach.

It was still winter, it was still blustery, but “Songs From The Big Chair” kept me pedaling. It was a private experience, one I recalled instantly as these songs were played last night.

At this point the most famous song from the LP is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” which the band opened with.

But it was the encore that truly resonated, that had me thrusting my arm in the air and singing along.

Can you sing along to today’s music? Is it a personal anthem that makes you feel powerful? Is it a comment on society that a mass of people believe in?

Come on, I’m talking to you, come on

It was a different era. At best, the millennials were just being born. Being a silent sheep in the mass was yet to come, boomers and Gen X’ers were individuals, who had no problem speaking up for themselves.

Shout, shout, let it all out, these are the things I can do without

Alienation. Thinking for oneself. Belief you’re entitled to something better. These were the ESSENCE of our music way back when. It’s hard to believe in today’s divided era, but it used to be the youth were all on one side, against the establishment, and we felt if we kept pushing the envelope, things would work out for us.

All of this went through my head last night.

I was running on nostalgia, with quaint memories of yesteryear, and then Tears For Fears lit into “Shout” and the past and the present merged, I remembered the power of…

Rock and roll.

But Hall & Oates were a party.

Now you’ve got to understand, the upper deck was full. And many contemporary acts can’t do that. I asked Rob Light why, and he said it was fifty year old nostalgia, the audience had just reached that age and wanted to remember when.

But only a few years ago, Hall and Oates played to 1,500, never mind 15,000, as they did on this mostly arena tour.

You see their time has come.

How did this happen? Was it “Live From Daryl’s House”? Their new manager Jonathan Wolfson? Or did everybody suddenly agree, all these years later, after denigrating them for decades, that the band was great. Kinda like the Carpenters. They’re crapped on, and then Karen dies from the criticism and everyone agrees they were stupendous. Huh?

Now there aren’t many acts like Hall and Oates. I can’t think of one. White boys who straddle the line between soul and rock and roll. But experiencing them last night I thought of their R&B side, they’re from Philadelphia, home of MFSB, and when you hear that sound…

You can’t help moving your body, dancing, feeling good.

The floor at Staples was seated.

But everybody stood. They didn’t worry about aged knees. The music lifted them, literally.

And stunningly, it was half men. Hall & Oates is not a chick thing. And maybe Tears For Fears brought out guys, but I saw guys without women standing and dancing together. Kind of amazing. That something so far from the mainstream really IS the mainstream.

So the story of Hall and Oates is they put out a single that didn’t hit until years later, i.e. “She’s Gone,” and then labored in the wilderness until they switched labels, from Atlantic to RCA, and broke through with “Sara Smile.”

Both of which they performed last night. It was an all hits revue. With one track from “War Babies,” which was a welcome respite, for leavening.

How many other acts can play a headlining show where each and every number is a certified hit?

You can count them on few fingers, my friend.

And the last couple of times I’ve seen Hall and Oates it was outside.

But they belong inside. Because of the nighttime party atmosphere. The sound is trapped, you start to sweat, you’ve got the music in you.

And they played ’em all. From their cover of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” to the track that made me rush out and buy their album immediately, “Rich Girl.” Now that’s a hit, something that drives you to listen to it incessantly.

And “Rich Girl” was as fresh as ever last night.

But what put the show over the top, what had me grinning like a goose, was the finale…

YOU MAKE MY DREAMS COME TRUE, WHOO, OO!

You see Hall and Oates could not follow their hits. They went fallow. Within years they were playing clubs, I saw them at the Roxy! And then, when they looked completely done, toast, they released an album in the summer of 1980, pre-MTV, produced by themselves, that slowly went NUCLEAR!

At this point they were playing it safe, with the Cynthia Weil/Barry Mann/Phil Spector classic. Once an act resorts to covers, you know they’re lost.

But there are exceptions to every rule. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” stalled at number 11, but within a few months the wholly original “Kiss On My List” went to number one.

And then they were off to the races.

It was the following album with the MTV video, “Private Eyes,” the single was everywhere.

But not as much as “I Can’t Go For That,” which became a cultural staple. NO CAN DO!

And last night Daryl broke in the middle and said everybody had a line.

And I knew exactly what he was talking about. At some point you’ve got to say no. Which in today’s world is taboo. But that’s what got Trump elected, too many left behind people who the elites shun who said I CAN’T GO FOR THAT!

Oh, of course it was more complicated than that, with racism and delusion but…never forget, the elites rule the world but they’re out of touch.

And that was a hit on 1984’s “Big Bam Boom,” along with “Method of Modern Love.” And in between came “H20,” with “Maneater,” “One on One” and “Family Man.” Whew! It was a MACHINE!

Which engendered a label switch to Arista, which put the band in the ground.

But the public was through, the backlash had begun, and Hall and Oates were in the wilderness.

But why? Why is it when you’ve got so many hits the cognoscenti turn against you? It’s happening right now with Ed Sheeran, it’s like they want you to be less talented, just like them.

And Daryl Hall has paid his dues. He’s gonna be 71.

And Oates played music long before the Beatles broke.

They were not chasing fame, they were chasing the SOUND!

And it took them years of effort and experimentation to break through, and then they came back, AND NOW THEY’VE COME BACK AGAIN!

They got a new agent. A young ‘un who wasn’t around the first time. He said they needed to play Madison Square Garden.

No promoter would buy the show. Finally, a west coast outfit stepped in. The band made concessions.

And almost half the house sold immediately.

Now when I used to go to shows, it was a religious experience. We’d sit in chairs and marvel at the band, hearing the records we knew so well, kind of like watching Tears For Fears.

But Hall and Oates is something different. It’s a celebration. Of life.

You are alive, right? You can move, right? You do want to feel good, right?

So the fourth single from 1980’s “Voices,” the one released after “Kiss On My List” went to number one…

Starts with this funky keyboard intro, that sounds like the synthesized 80s married to the soul of the sixties, that’s got you up and twitching like a Mexican jumping bean.

And the verses resonate and the chorus is catchy, but the magic is in the break…

Well listen to this…

And the chords drop down, the song completely changes and then…

I’m down on my daydream
Oh, that sleepwalk should be over by now
I know

Ah YOU!

It’s that exclamation that puts it over the top. Because unlike too many pretenders Daryl Hall has the music in him, it’s not only about the pipes, but the HUMANITY!

I’m not sure what my dreams are anymore. Get old enough and not only does the brass ring become hazy, you’re not sure grabbing it will satisfy you if you grip it anyway. We live in a dissipated culture with no center, overwhelmed with input with no variation based on veracity or worth, and we end up beaten down and disoriented.

But then I was singing along with a nearly forty year old cut which sounded fresher than what’s on the radio today and all I could think was…

Hall and Oates were making my dream come true.

LISTEN TO THAT!