{"id":2366,"date":"2009-10-31T12:29:11","date_gmt":"2009-10-31T20:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2366"},"modified":"2009-10-31T12:29:11","modified_gmt":"2009-10-31T20:29:11","slug":"letters-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/31\/letters-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve got three things on my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 A television show, a book and a record.<\/p>\n

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM<\/span><\/p>\n

Larry’s a repentant dick.\u00c2\u00a0 Jerry’s a comic who walked away and married someone else’s wife and hasn’t been as funny since.\u00c2\u00a0 Until last Sunday night.<\/p>\n

This season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is different.\u00c2\u00a0 Larry’s pushing it further, even he’d let go before this.\u00c2\u00a0 And every episode has been Seinfeldian, multiple plots with a final, unforeseen, hilarious outcome that ties up threads you’d either forgotten or figured had been left behind.\u00c2\u00a0 The hyped construct of the "Seinfeld" reunion has figured less prominently than advertised.\u00c2\u00a0 But last Sunday night opened with Larry and Jerry at facing desks at the CBS studio in the Valley, writing the show.<\/p>\n

Which I’m sure will never be written.\u00c2\u00a0 But the banter!<\/p>\n

I watched "Seinfeld" when it was still the "Chronicles", from the very beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d been catching Jerry on TV for years, talking about the "check out" line at the supermarket.\u00c2\u00a0 The show started out good, it eventually got great, but the final two seasons, after Larry left, it went downhill, the jokes were too broad, there was no longer the incisive truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Which left one feeling that Larry was the genius.<\/p>\n

But last Sunday night, it was clear that Jerry was every bit as responsible as Larry, he was a genius too.<\/p>\n

When these two riffed in the office it was like seeing Lennon play off McCartney.\u00c2\u00a0 Two finely-honed comic sensibilities riffing on the fly.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like being in the dressing room at the Cavern Club, watching John and Paul write a song.\u00c2\u00a0 So thrilling, you hoped it would never end.<\/p>\n

Watching the Beatles on "Ed Sullivan" made millions pick up the guitar, hoping and praying they too could become rock stars. Watching Larry and Jerry tear it up, not histrionically, just being themselves, not worried about playing anything so stupid as a game, made me want to run down to Radford and join them.\u00c2\u00a0 The irreverence, the wit, the sensibility.\u00c2\u00a0 In an entertainment industry where everyone calculates what will work, kisses butt to get their chance to purvey dreck, these two are on their own journey, having created possibly the best sitcom of all time, and stunningly, still able to do it.<\/p>\n


THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

"’Driving a Porsche is like fucking a model,’, he says, and he would know. ‘It will never feel as good as it looks.’"<\/p>\n

If you pay attention to the scuttlebutt, the problem in our industry is there’s no artist development.\u00c2\u00a0 Like it’s something you buy at the supermarket, like it’s some secret ingredient you mix in to make the cake bake.<\/p>\n

Artist development.\u00c2\u00a0 That means "success" at the label.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen to how they spent a year or two breaking this act on the same damn album.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas artist development truly means creating an act so great that people still want to see them decades on, and stunningly, none of these one album wonders ever reach this level of success.<\/p>\n

Artist development is about failure.\u00c2\u00a0 Missed chances.\u00c2\u00a0 Disappointments.\u00c2\u00a0 Face it.\u00c2\u00a0 If the album was that good, that it would close anybody, the act would become an instant superstar.\u00c2\u00a0 But, the record isn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 And to insure it gets close, dicks like Clive Davis hire hands to give the appearance, the sheen, the patina of quality.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s like when GM makes a car that looks like a Toyota.\u00c2\u00a0 The outside might bear a resemblance to the Japanese item, but inside it’s a bunch of crap.<\/p>\n

Greatness is about desire.\u00c2\u00a0 And a ton of hard work.\u00c2\u00a0 Usually done when no one is paying attention, or very few.\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s got the patience for this?\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not the label, and very few acts either.<\/p>\n

And it’s not solely about being in the game for a long time.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not 10,000 hours logged distractedly, it’s endless hours testing yourself, pushing limits, trying out new stuff to figure out what works and being ultimately great at it.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if you’re a bar band playing "Louie Louie" or "Sweet Home Alabama" every night for ten years straight, you’re still a bar band, you’re not the Beatles.<\/p>\n

This Jonathan Tropper book is SO good that you read slower and slower, not wanting it to end.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s got truth on every page.<\/p>\n

It’s his fifth.\u00c2\u00a0 And the one just before this, "How To Talk To A Widower", misses significantly.\u00c2\u00a0 The plotting is good, but the book’s got no soul.\u00c2\u00a0 I figured Tropper was on a downhill slide.\u00c2\u00a0 Then he surprised me with "This Is Where I Leave You".<\/p>\n

This is artist development.<\/p>\n

In a world where they cancel television shows after one episode, where hit albums rarely sell a million, the country has lowered its expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 Sellers try to convince you something’s great when it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you stumble on to something that truly is, and you say EUREKA!<\/p>\n

I’m stunned how many people have read "This Is Where I Leave You".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s word of mouth that sells everything great.\u00c2\u00a0 Hype, marketing, is bullshit.\u00c2\u00a0 What did that guy say in that e-mail?\u00c2\u00a0 Ashton Kutcher has 3.7 million Twitter followers and his last movie grossed $250,000 and his new TV show got canceled?<\/p>\n

LETTERS HOME<\/span><\/p>\n

The hardest part of looking back is the mistakes are all your own<\/span><\/p>\n

Woulda, coulda, shoulda.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s got an excuse.\u00c2\u00a0 They changed the rules, I’m a bad test-taker, it’s unfair!<\/p>\n

Maybe you’re just a loser.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you just made bad choices.\u00c2\u00a0 Call me when you’re fifty years old and that tattoo has started to fade on your saggy bicep.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll blame it on your friends, who got you drunk, society, that made skin art hip, you won’t own responsibility, almost no one does.\u00c2\u00a0 Either you’re a winner, a Wall Street prick, entitled to your bonus, or you’re on the street, broke, saying you got screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more complicated than that.\u00c2\u00a0 Did you go to college, did you learn a skill, can you think, did you give yourself a chance?\u00c2\u00a0 And while you’re lying, cheating, scheming your way to millions can you really sleep at night, knowing that your transactions are bankrupting the country, adding to our nation’s infrastructure not a whit?

Now I work in a place with some other girls<\/span>
And we’re all doing all right<\/span>
We raise our kids and our jeans still fit<\/span>
Sometimes we go out at night<\/span>
Yeah, I’m twenty nine years young today<\/span>
And I’ve lived it to the bone<\/span>
And I just wanted to send you this letter home<\/span><\/p>\n

She left home at eighteen with her high school paramour.\u00c2\u00a0 Got married and started a family.\u00c2\u00a0 But those youthful indiscretions, those youthful ideals, do they trip you up or do you live a life that’s free and easy?<\/p>\n

You know the answer to that.\u00c2\u00a0 The older you get, the more you get beaten down.\u00c2\u00a0 Life is hard.\u00c2\u00a0 What looks so easy when you’re a teenager becomes almost impossible as the years slide by.\u00c2\u00a0 In high school you wanted to be a famous athlete, a movie director, date desirables.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s almost impossible to do one of these things.\u00c2\u00a0 It takes incredible focus, incredible desire, incredible sacrifice to achieve almost anything.\u00c2\u00a0 Like writing a great song.<\/p>\n

It’s not easy.\u00c2\u00a0 There are the changes.\u00c2\u00a0 And then you’ve got the lyrics.\u00c2\u00a0 Try writing verse…\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll have newfound respect for Bob Dylan.\u00c2\u00a0 A great song encompasses all the feeling, all the emotion, the complete story of a novel.\u00c2\u00a0 And oftentimes, you write a great one and few pay attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Because despite the protestations of the industry, they want great records, not great songs.\u00c2\u00a0 Something infectious, with very little nitty, sans gritty.\u00c2\u00a0 Flash is more important than substance.\u00c2\u00a0 Who cares if it looks like a Ferrari and drives like a Chrysler?\u00c2\u00a0 By time the public figures out, we’ll be selling something new!<\/p>\n

Although raucous, and ultimately upbeat, Wendy Waldman’s "Letters Home" is not the story of an unblemished winner.\u00c2\u00a0 The protagonist left home, had babies and then her man left her.\u00c2\u00a0 So many changes that she couldn’t write to her mother and tell her the story.\u00c2\u00a0 If you share everything that happens to you with your mother you’re one of those ass-wipes who considers your parents your best friends, someone so coddled he hasn’t confronted the harsh reality of the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Life hurts.

Yeah, Jimmy found somebody else<\/span>
He told me that one New Year’s Day<\/span>
He said he felt like a man with her<\/span>
And I watched him drive away<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to feel like a man.\u00c2\u00a0 And I don’t.<\/p>\n

Who do I want to blame?\u00c2\u00a0 My family, ruled by estrogen as opposed to testosterone?\u00c2\u00a0 A school system that accelerated me beyond my emotional development?\u00c2\u00a0 A college that was about book-learning and didn’t prepare me emotionally?<\/p>\n

What does being a man entail.\u00c2\u00a0 Earning a living?\u00c2\u00a0 Paying a mortgage?\u00c2\u00a0 Having children?<\/p>\n

Or do we all feel like little kids?<\/p>\n

I’m not sure.\u00c2\u00a0 But feeling adolescent as opposed to adult, this line, "He said he felt like a man with her", flashed through my brain and I ran to the computer, dialed up "Letters Home" and played it thirty times straight.\u00c2\u00a0 The same way you used to get behind the wheel, lower the windows and mash the accelerator when you just couldn’t figure life out, before gas got expensive and the highways became so crowded you couldn’t go anywhere anyway.<\/p>\n

Jerry’s excellent.\u00c2\u00a0 Needless to say, Larry is too.\u00c2\u00a0 Tropper hit one out of the park.\u00c2\u00a0 But music, when it’s done right, trumps all other art forms.\u00c2\u00a0 In a three minute concoction you’ve got all the emotions of life, you’ve got a power that gets you through.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve got three things on my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 A television show, a book and a record. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM Larry’s a repentant dick.\u00c2\u00a0 Jerry’s a comic who walked away and married someone else’s wife and hasn’t been as funny since.\u00c2\u00a0 Until last Sunday night. This season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is different.\u00c2\u00a0 Larry’s pushing it further, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-media","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Ca","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}