What did Tom Hanks say in "A League Of Their Own", "There’s no crying in baseball"?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, attempts don’t count in music, but they do in TV.<\/p>\n
Kinda like the new Springsteen song.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all dark and dirty, but once is enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget the e-mails telling me it reminds listeners of Tommy Tutone, "Radio Nowhere" just doesn’t possess that elusive magic.\u00c2\u00a0 That made you stand up at attention when you heard "Born To Run", never mind "Wild Billy’s Circus Story".\u00c2\u00a0 When you paint by numbers, you can get us to move our bodies.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want to own us, you’ve got to create a record that captures the zeitgeist, that is just fucking perfect.\u00c2\u00a0 Like "She Loves You" or "Love Me Do".\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind "Satisfaction" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit".\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t convince someone to love a track, that’s a conclusion they have to come to by themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 And there’s no formula.\u00c2\u00a0 I was elated when I heard "Over The Hills And Far Away" on XM this evening.\u00c2\u00a0 But when "Carouselambra", one of my favorite tracks off "In Through The Out Door", came out of the speakers, I had to switch channels.\u00c2\u00a0 After all these years it’s clear, it’s just not good enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy was best in the beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, he had a comeback with "Physical Graffiti", but that perfect darkness, that was captured best on the first two albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially the first.\u00c2\u00a0 IV was the peak, the apotheosis.\u00c2\u00a0 When you get it perfect, it’s hard to do it anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Where do you go from there?\u00c2\u00a0 Ultimately, to extended numbers and simplified romps.\u00c2\u00a0 Which gives us "Kashmir" and "The Rover".\u00c2\u00a0 But "Down By The Seaside" was maybe the last hurrah.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t EXPECT IT!<\/p>\n
What do we expect?<\/p>\n
The same old thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Curiously, right now in music.\u00c2\u00a0 But especially in TV.\u00c2\u00a0 And now movies.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, movies are the worst.\u00c2\u00a0 If you go to see Hollywood fare you’re looking for escape, because that’s all there is.\u00c2\u00a0 Who cares if Brad Pitt is a star, the pictures he makes are such trifles that they’re forgotten right after you see them.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas on TV, they’re now trying to test the limits.<\/p>\n
And just when we were about to switch allegiance to Showtime, HBO makes a comeback.<\/p>\n
Credit Larry.\u00c2\u00a0 The reviews might not have been A+, but when he showed up at Super Dave’s house, i.e. Marty Funkhouser’s, Bob Einstein’s, Albert Brooks’ brother’s, I started laughing uncontrollably just like I did during the first five seasons.\u00c2\u00a0 And when that cigarette hit the garbage can, I knew that we were going to once again live the saga of the marble rye, when everything in the episode was tied up neatly in the end.\u00c2\u00a0 Larry David was the genius in "Seinfeld".\u00c2\u00a0 Without him, the series fell flat.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I told him this at the AMC in Santa Monica one afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 And his reaction was STRAIGHT OUT OF CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM!\u00c2\u00a0 He said I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT!\u00c2\u00a0 I’M A PRODUCER, I WANT THEM ALL TO BE GOOD!\u00c2\u00a0 And as he scowled and bought a ticket, I was left dumbstruck, I thought I was paying him a compliment.\u00c2\u00a0 But this was before we knew who Larry David really was.<\/p>\n
And when I was done with his show, I fired up the other series that had debuted that evening, "Tell Me You Love Me".\u00c2\u00a0 You know, the one where everybody takes off their clothes, where even Jane Alexander gets naked.<\/p>\n
I was not prepared.<\/p>\n
Oh, I’ve seen tits and twats before, but the subject matter…<\/p>\n
This show is painful to view.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a bit like watching paint dry.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s SLOW!\u00c2\u00a0 I almost turned the TV off five times.\u00c2\u00a0 But the latter few were because I was starting to get flipped out.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d HAD that relationship.<\/p>\n
This show could only be created by a woman.\u00c2\u00a0 Only a woman could be this honest.<\/p>\n
We live in a land of meaningless diversions.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s believed Americans can’t handle the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only does the entertainment business protect us, the government does too.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t want to see the truth, we might get scared.<\/p>\n
The truth really is scary.\u00c2\u00a0 But everybody knows it.\u00c2\u00a0 Do they want to face it?<\/p>\n
What do you do with a jealous spouse?\u00c2\u00a0 You’re devoted, but it’s never enough for them, they believe that waitress you’re talking to is going to become your new girlfriend.<\/p>\n
And on the surface, your relationship looks great.\u00c2\u00a0 All those people treating you like a loving couple don’t know that sex is uneven, that orgasms are elusive, that masturbation eclipses coitus.<\/p>\n
You want a baby more than you want your spouse.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you get it, your husband becomes a second-class citizen, no matter how much he reads to the children, he’s not doing enough, only you understand them, they care about you most.<\/p>\n
In your twenties, you’re doing it everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 Your fights never eclipse your arguments.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re so passionate, you gloss over the bad times.\u00c2\u00a0 Until…<\/p>\n
Is marriage forever?\u00c2\u00a0 Does ANYBODY know what’s going on?<\/p>\n
"Tell Me You Love Me" has got an east coast feel.\u00c2\u00a0 As opposed to being set in La-La Land, where everybody goes to therapy.\u00c2\u00a0 Those on the east coast are closeted.\u00c2\u00a0 They rest on their graduate degrees and family pedigrees.\u00c2\u00a0 Problems are shoved under the rug.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you shoving problems under the rug?<\/p>\n
While you worry about your record’s SoundScan number is your wife fucking her yoga teacher?\u00c2\u00a0 Or are you fucking your assistant.\u00c2\u00a0 Or is nobody fucking anybody, even though you talk about sex all the time.<\/p>\n
Are you at the end of your rope, believing you have no options?<\/p>\n
Are you afraid to get out of your relationship, however bad, because you don’t want to be alone?\u00c2\u00a0 Or, in the alternative, are you not getting into a relationship because you don’t want to be hurt, AGAIN!<\/p>\n
Do you know what it feels like to put your fingers down a woman’s pants?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s de rigueur when you’re in a relationship, but watching this show you’re reminded of the sensation, which is in your memory bank, but might have been papered over, so you don’t despair.<\/p>\n
I had issues with my spouse to be.\u00c2\u00a0 But I never give up.\u00c2\u00a0 I stayed the course.\u00c2\u00a0 Through the wedding.\u00c2\u00a0 All the way until she left me, which I knew she’d do BEFORE we got married.\u00c2\u00a0 But what did I know?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to take chances, RIGHT?<\/p>\n
And what is most important?\u00c2\u00a0 Compatibility, trust or hot sex?<\/p>\n
If you hated "thirtysomething", you won’t like "Tell Me You Love Me".\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re twenty five, and barely beyond puppy love, it won’t tickle your fancy either.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you’re in your late thirties, or older, you’re gonna freak when you watch this show.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve been there.\u00c2\u00a0 The stolen sexual moments, and the absence thereof.\u00c2\u00a0 The connections and the crossed wires.\u00c2\u00a0 When Sonya Walger stormed out of the therapy session, I was brought back to that exact moment.\u00c2\u00a0 When my old girlfriend stood up in the therapist’s office, announced she was done, slammed the door and never returned.\u00c2\u00a0 You can imagine how trepidatious I was about going back to our shared apartment.<\/p>\n
And breakups aren’t that easy when you live together.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you don’t, they’re constantly right around the corner.\u00c2\u00a0 Your love can retrieve their toothbrush and some underwear and suddenly they’re gone from your life forever.<\/p>\n
All we see in the media are winners.\u00c2\u00a0 And sometimes I feel like a winner too.\u00c2\u00a0 But not all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, I can’t relate to the folks who are constantly upbeat, telling me how great life is.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it’s not that way.\u00c2\u00a0 I know, I’ve spent a lot of time on this mortal coil.<\/p>\n
I have no patience for automatons.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m interested in those with more questions than answers, who are trying to figure it all out.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who can see the conflagration coming, but still aren’t sure whether they want to leave, or explode and stay.<\/p>\n
Our nation is made up of those suffering silently.\u00c2\u00a0 Rather than live a life of quiet desperation, tune in "Tell Me You Love Me", you’ll find out you’re not alone.<\/p>\n
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What did Tom Hanks say in "A League Of Their Own", "There’s no crying in baseball"?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, attempts don’t count in music, but they do in TV. Kinda like the new Springsteen song.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all dark and dirty, but once is enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget the e-mails telling me it reminds listeners of Tommy Tutone, "Radio Nowhere" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-eW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}