Reading · Mitch Santell · RSS Amplifier

Most people look at the trends and the statistics, and I don’t look at life that way. What do I do? My view is that I look at each person as a whole individual. Why? I don’t know their pain, I don’t know their story, I don’t know what they are going through.

Each day can be its own universe.

For me?

Family has been my life.

Love has been my life.

Music has been my life.

In 2026, we are once again witnessing a huge transition for humanity.

What do I mean?

Humanity stands at the crossroads of how it will move forward and we all have our own “lens” of how we see things.

Take a deep breath, look around and if you need to say to yourself “WTF,” you have every right to do so.

There is a life we learn with and a life we live with.

Recently I started working with a new songwriter who unfortunately lost her daughter in the hospital because of the medical protocols.

Throughout the 48 years that my Parents (RIP) were married, my Dad used to say to me all the time “if it’s not your wife and it’s not your life, everything else will work out fine.”

The past 10 days have been horrific.

I’ve been to the emergency room not once but twice with my wife.

Sometimes my friends ask me how long the honeymoon period of my marriage lasted for…

…and my answer is always the same: 20 years.*

*The honeymoon period of my parents’ marriage was 20 days as my Dad (RIP) fell in the kitchen of his apartment

Now, I’ve been married for 40 years, so you might think to yourself, WTF.

**Michael Jams Santell (Back in the day, teenage years).**

We married in 1986, lived in an apartment for one year, 15 minutes from my wife’s mother, bought our first home in Covina, California in 1986, and had our first child, Michael James Santell in 1987.

The music business may suck in 2026, here is why:

I fell in love with my wife at first sight on August 11, 1984.

We started dating in 1985 because I was renting a room in Redondo Beach with 3 other guys and I remember climbing out of the window, running down the street to ask my wife if she would go out on a date with me.

When it comes to Family, we emigrated from Poland in 1899. My Great Uncle Alfred Santell was born in 1895. My Grandfather, Martin James Santell was born in 1900. After moving to San Francisco, our Family was in the 1906 earthquake and lived in Golden Gate Park for many months while our Family in Southern California, had to pick them up by horse and carriage.

Charles Farrell, Janet Gaynor, and Alfred Santell. (Tess of the Storm Country, 1932).

**If you remind me, I can tell you why this was “A Fox Picture.”**

If you want to know more about Alfred Santell, you will find him on the IMDB database:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0763453/?ref_=fn_t_1

My Grandfather Martin James Santell, was born in 1900.

When he moved with his brother Alfred Santell to Santa Monica California in 1906, years later my Grandfather (RIP) was the first assistant director on dozens and dozens of films that Alfred Santell directed. Unfortunately, all of the scripts, budgets, photos, daily reels and so on, were destroyed in a fire back in the day so our family no longer has a record of them.

**Richard Alfred Santell, Rose Santell, Shirlee Santell, and Martin James Santell**

Post notes: I write here on Substack and treat it like a big notepad. Why? Substack changed their algorithm and I have already lost over 100+ free subscribers. Going forward, I will start writing more on WordPress. It is simply that I love the interface here at Substack, and if they had not changed their algorithm, I’d have over 10K to 15K+ Subscribers, so it is what it is.

As a.i. (artificial intelligence) continues to “dominate our technology,” a lot like the dot com boom in 1999, you can’t make this stuff up!

By the way, I attempted to become a “founding paid subscriber” to another Substack but Substack would not let me.

Why? Because the NWO took over post WW2, and I don’t know which algorithm is running this platform.

A commentary on the a.i. shift happening now:

For those that want to know what is happening in the music business, this is the big shift. Why? Shift Happens!!

Shift Happens~February 11, 2026

Comments