ALBUM OF THE YEAR: "Gift of Sacrifice" King Buzzo with Trevor Dunn.
I didn't expect to get much out of this other than the unpredictable wildly entertaining intrigue of King Buzzo. Minus drums and electric guitar, I wasn’t sure what you’d have beyond some intense strumming and stentorian, deep vocals. As it turned out – that’s not even close to what this album offers. My take: it's a gothic version of Who's next. Large anthemic expressions, but dark and memorable - each song slips into your brain and screws with the wiring, so you end up remembering each one, even when they haven't been played in days. King Buzzo is fast becoming a national treasure - we're all just waiting for the nation to catch up. I never know what he's really singing about, until he tells me. even then, I'm not sure.

SONGS OF THE YEAR.
This is hard because I would have chosen "Bird Animal" off the Buzzo record – a song that nails feeling you get from some weird unexplainable emotional event from the past. I can only describe it like missing a loved one, pet or butler.
Because i have more than one choice, I'll keep going:
-Art Feyman's "I’m gunna miss your world" is probably the best song of the year if you were picking it, and not me. Simplistic description: Electronica Paul Simon. Another expression of loss, but poppy. Could be about a parent or a parakeet. I don't know. but it’s a beautiful song and expresses sadness in a bouncy way.
-Hey Colossus's "Medal." Off one of the great albums of 2020 called Dances/curses. From that first lyric about severed head on the beach, the song barrels along an irresistible dirty riff. I don't know what it's about, but it repeats its chorus over and over at the end, to remind you what the song is called.

MUSICAL MOMENT OF THE YEAR.
Numun's song Transport has a sequence in there that transports you somewhere else. its from the short album "voyage au soleil," which i believe is about space travel because it contains dialogue from astronauts. I am not sure what organ/synthesizer is used that pulls you out of yourself, but when it hits, i find myself stopping whatever i'm doing and just dazed. It happens around 4:58.

MOVIE: it’s the best written piece of work in any entertainment medium, Straight Up.” Recommended to me by Armond White (thanks A.W.!), it’s a true love story that makes every romantic comedy look hopelessly banal. The main character is a young gay men who decides to date women purely for a mathematical reason: to widen the options from one to two, and increases his chance of not spending the rest of his life alone. Also, he hates bodily fluids, and that plot point approaches the idea of gay sex that is studiously avoided everywhere else. This movie is so incredibly written, I tell everyone to watch the film with subtitles, so you don’t miss the lightning quick, brilliant dialogue. And don’t be fooled into thinking this is simply about gays: it’s a straight up confrontation of the Hollywood lie perpetuated in movies, and sitcoms: that sexual novelty is not only sustainable, but you’re in the minority if you disagree. Straight Up offers a true old fashioned message – that without real love, you’re just repeating a cold ruthless biological process until you’re no longer appealing.

THINKER. No one has been more right on everything, and more influential than you think than Scott Adams. I am not going to run through the number of uncanny instances he's been right because you wouldn't believe it anyway. But he's the ONLY person who's been effectively correct on every twist and turn of the pandemic BEFORE the twist or turn took place.
But beneath these predictions is a greater lesson here: that the true success stories are often denounced because the "nature" of the success is initially deceptive. People dismiss Adam's influence because he's "the guy who draws Dilbert." But if you were to analyze how his unspecific and unassuming "talent stack" brought him to becoming one of the richest entertainers alive (yes, more so than 99.9 percent of your big name actors and musicians; i don't even need to google that; i know its true), you would then find the secret to success. How does one become successful and worldly influential? Is it aiming to become an icon known for one talent: can you be Michael Jordan? No you can't.
But you can be just as successful, or close to it, by doing a combination of other things. Public speaking plus mechanics plus design....what would that make?
Something pretty great. its the exponential nature of skills. We are too obsessed chasing one great thing, to see that 5 good things, will make you great. The mistake your brain makes is in cataloguing or assessing success. The secret to success is not a singular talent (it can be, but…), it’s the stew of talents you modestly assemble while everyone else chases that one BIG DREAM.
Adam's periscopes affect thinkers all over, alike - simply by plodding along: a man, a camera, a white board - that changes lives for the better.

CANARY IN A COAL MINE: Nearly every day I will throw Eric Weinstein's name into You Tube, hoping he's a guest on someone's show. If Eric were who he was now,in the 1970's he’d be better than Truman Capote: showing up on Merv, Mike and Johnny - blowing minds while also making the clueless laugh at his deceptive eccentricities. But there's nothing funny about whats on Eric's mind. In a throwaway sentence he can change your world.
I was listening to him harangue Lex Fridman on his podcast,, and he casually mentioned something so brain-changing that i sat up in bed and shook.
it had to do with the deprivation of meaningful opportunity causing havoc.
I’ll try to translate poorly from memory:
Weinstein's diagnosis of the idiocy rampant from Seattle to Soho rests on a dead end. What if you have promise, but there's no place to fulfill it? What if a greedy generation refused to give up their seats for the people waiting to get them. Couple that with activists and politicians who look at the present, and think the solution is to cut up the existing pie (taking from you and me), rather than consider making more pies tomorrow. You combine those two, and you end up civil unrest. What Weinstein predicted so far, has been correct: You don’t let people into your club: they create their own. Eric has been all over this since day whatever. I first discovered him on a Sam Harris podcast maybe 5 years ago. I came upon Harris accidentally. A review copy of his book was sitting in a pile at Fox and the name caught me. “Sam Harris.” Immediately – no joke – I thought, “so the guy from Star Search wrote a book?” Remember Sam Harris?? Go to Samharris.com to find out.

PODCAST;- probably the most retro but also relentlessly engaging podcast going right now is the one featuring Bret Weinstein and his Heather Heying --- a rollicking ride of entertainment predicated on facing the questions using the tool kit of evolutionary biology. The podcast is fueled by the genuine good nature of a happily married couple whose sizzling but serene brains operate out in open. you can follow the electrical impulses back and forth – a fun display of two great minds at play.
I don't see this podcast as strictly a lesson in evolutionary stuff. I see it as a model for relationships - the give and take. mostly the give. I never see a "take" from either. The dance of patience as they discuss bat skulls. You realize bat skulls have nothing to do with what you're getting out of this.
I predict big things for this couple. I hope they get rich enough to buy Evergreen and turn it into a real college.

PRODUCT. I might have mocked Peloton as a fat, moderately wealthy person’s coat hanger. After all - I go to the gym! I edited Men's Health! I know how this all ends up! No one uses home exercise equipment! It ends up in the garage, under the bed, or used as a murder weapon! Then there was that commercial from last year where the Peloton wife seemed like she'd entered a submissive cult. The media took it to pieces.

Then, my wife said she wanted one.I could have ignored it. but it was Christmas, and when your wife gives you specific hints on what she wants, you take it. My track record is horrible. I once bought Elena 8 pairs of shoes for Christmas, and she returned every pair. The bike arrived after Christmas, before the pandemic. I was fat. Rick Leventhal took a picture of me and my wife at Jesse Watters wedding, and i looked like a jar of mayonnaise in a suit.

The bike arrived. and when they set it up in front of me, I thought...what the hell.I snapped in the shoes. I took a 15 minute beginner's ride. What could 15 minutes do?
I nearly died. I had to sit down on the steps for 30 minutes to regroup. I just sat and I breathed. And breathed. I sweated more than an arsonist.

The next day I did it again. And again. And again.By March I had lost 20 pounds. By august, 40 lbs. I had exercised for 40 years; in clubs all over the world. Peloton figured it out. The equation is simple: Novelty plus surprise driven by talent. These people at Peloton – are fucking talented. And the programs are constantly changed and broken into bits: creating elements of novelty and surprise. So, you have talent, plus novelty and surprise. You take a 30 minute workout, and it’s over before you realize it. Sometimes it feels like magic – the true words of an addict.

There's something bigger going on here with peloton. and I’ve mentioned it on the five. It’s the secret to education. It’s actually the future of education. T Someone has to apply this model to basic education. Talented teachers beamed into your own home. That’s coming. It better be coming.

If we applied peloton to education: hire talented charismatic people to instruct you online on various things - from philosophy to language to math -- we would all be BATMAN. You could turn an 8 year old into a god by 16. Peloton made me healthier now than I was 20 years ago.
This is a replacement for school.
If peloton took over middle school, you'd need no high school or college.

As for the price of the bike - people will say, "easy for you to say - you can afford it."To which I respond - shut up.
I have worked out at gyms since i was 16. That’s 40 years. I paid monthly fees for 480 months. Some really cheap, some stupidly high (hello equinox). That has to be a few hundred grand, right?
I no longer do that. I paid 2500 bucks for a bike. I now pay 50 bucks a month for the classes. I lost 40 lbs. You tell me what the better economical choice was.

I look forward to that bike every morning because I love the people who work there. I adore Hannah Frankson – There is not a fake bone in that face. When she looks at you, you know she’s happy and means business. She gets me on that bike, and gets me to the end of every work out.

I am also a fan of Cody Rigsby - a big open bitch of a man who can make a 30 minute workout disappear in mere minutes. I do Peloton the way people watch the Five. If you have favorites, you look forward to them. You feel disappointed if they aren't there.

BEST TWEETS; the best way to find out who you think are the best, is to consider who you read the moment you see their name.
-hands down that’s redsteeze. He’s probably the most direct face-puncher on the site. He rarely, if ever, misses.
-Michael Malice - whose compassion is often misdiagnosed as cruelty. everyone benefits from the truth hard and fast. Time is bigger than money, or feelings.
-Mollie Hemingway. She has great instincts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen here be on the wrong side of anything.
-Frank Fleming, Babylon Bee: I assume they’re the same thing. But its finally nice to see something as good as the Onion do one thing better than the Onion, and that is, take no sides.
-Glen Greenwald. I never liked this guy, only because I didn’t like his politics. Then I realized he might not be political at all. Just a brutally honest asshole.

TV PUNDIT
There ‘s one I find increasingly enjoyable – Jesse Watters.
Its so funny: back in the day, I couldn’t stand him. When I was at Redeye -I found him repulsive -Watter was everything we made fun of. I used to see him in the green room for Oreilly, and he just came across as a shallow, stupid frat boy. But he’s far from that. I had no idea.
My dead friend Riley Gale used to talk about Jesse, saying what Jesse would deem accurate – “he’s got the most punchable face on the planet.” I also couldn’t dispute him. He was right.

But then something weird happened. Maybe it was the “mom texts” or just the idea of “coming into our own.” But Jesse figured out who he is. And he saw what his critics saw in him, without judgment. I don’t think you can underestimate the importance of that. Jesse’s critics made him richer. Made him smarter. And better. Jesse actually absorbed the criticism and was able to see the cause of it. And now, daily, on the Five, he lampoons himself.
This is not Colbert pretending to be a rightwinger; This is actually a real person in real time acknowledging what he is, and embracing it and admitting it to everyone. There is absolutely NO show on television other than the Five
Five where this exists. When Jesse says to the audience “I am about to say something that is designed to protect me from criticism,” you have just seen the most honest thing you will ever see on television.

MOST BRAVE: Dana Perino always picks a position that is often alone, which then sets her up for criticism by those who believe she didn’t join the fight at all. I salute Dana Perino for everyday struggling with the relentless tug to move toward a place she will not join until she can substantiate it. To criticize that is a luxury. It’s easy to believe an opinion and push it, if your credibility isn’t hinging on its truth.

WRITERS: I always look in the entertainment world – and the reason is simple: most of the writers there suck.They’re lemmings: unimaginative, callow, and meek. The good ones:

Armond White remains the most inciteful moralistic reviewer of films on earth. I disagree with him on at least half his choices, but he’s directed me toward the movies that mean something to me.
Kyle Smith is the most brutally honest assessor of the world. He can walk into a room of pretension and leave unscathed, the bodies piled up behind.
Great writing is about trust. Do you trust that person?
I trust Walter Kirn. When he writes about something, I have to read it.
He may be known for writing “up in the air” but that tells you little about who he is.He’s that guy in a movie who shows up halfway and tells the main character everything. And then you don’t see him again.

COMEDIANS Joe Machi. Joe...