And Now You Might Call it 'Prison-Gaetz' Scandal

Plus: Sam Cooke and Woody Guthrie on Jesus and Good Friday. A new John Lennon solo set and a Brandi Carlile memoir. Also, where Bob Dylan found his "Chimes"-- and the return of "Aqualung."

A warning from Woody as he sings his “Jesus Christ”: What happens when you come to town “and the working folks around believe what you did say.” Half a century later, U2 covered it here….Coming tomorrow in my weekend post, from my memoir-in-progress, the first of two close encounters with Kurt Vonnegut Jr., this one in 1970. Comment, share, subscribe (it’s still free).

The Onion: “New Evidence Reveals Christ Lounged In Tomb For Extra Hour Before Finally Rising From Grave.”

Today’s Headline of the Day, from Bloomberg: “Facebook Built the Perfect Platform for Covid Vaccine Conspiracies.”

Already an “X” congressman: More bad news for Matt, as Gaetz-gate turns into Floodgaetz…as cash payments to girls turn up…a sugar daddy sex site and procurement claims….Plus: “Some of the men and women took ecstasy, an illegal hallucinogenic drug, before having sex, including Mr. Gaetz, two people familiar with the encounters said.” And from CNN: “Gaetz allegedly showed nude photos and videos of women he said he’d slept with to other lawmakers, including while on the House floor….One of the videos showed a naked woman with a hula hoop, according to one source.” And those he showed them to did…what? Repubs who now want to get rid of Gaetz are leaking--but are so stupid they don't realize how bad it makes them look.

Below, the great Steve Brodner’s take from his Substack:

Wash Post: '“Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, his deputy and three members who guarded Roger Stone exchanged nearly 20 phone calls over 3 hours on Jan. 6, coinciding with the first assault on police barricades and spanning the time the three breached the building.”

We’d forgotten former GOP leader (and eventual anti-Trumper) John Boehner was writing a memoir, but today Politico has a lengthy excerpt that does not disappoint, as he rips the far-right takeover of his party. For example, on the 2010 midterms: “You could be a total moron and get elected just by having an R next to your name—and that year, by the way, we did pick up a fair number in that category.” And:

By 2013 the chaos caucus in the House had built up their own power base thanks to fawning right-wing media and outrage-driven fundraising cash. And now they had a new head lunatic leading the way, who wasn’t even a House member. There is nothing more dangerous than a reckless asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone else. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz.

Argh, from NY Times: “Nearly every state now finds itself in a race between vaccinating its residents and succumbing to a new wave of Covid-19 cases. The U.S. has entered a disconcerting phase of the pandemic: Vaccines are rolling out quickly, but upticks in cases, partly driven by the new variants, raise the prospect of a new surge.” Michigan one of biggest concerns.

Brilliant takedown of Fox fool Alex Berenson and his Covid claims by The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, here.

Live performances are returning to New York City, starting today. Theaters, comedy clubs and other arts venues can open at 33% capacity, with a limit of 100 people indoors and 200 outside. Artists are eager. “We had more comedians than we can use vying for spots,” said the owner of the Comedy Cellar.

New York and New Mexico just legalized pot, and more than 1 in 3 Americans live in states where marijuana is legal. Yet, reminder: weed remains illegal by federal law and still classified as a “schedule 1” drug.

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Bishop Reginald T. Jackson and other Georgia faith leaders just announced a national boycott, starting April 7, of Coca-Cola, Home Depot and Delta — all Atlanta-based — over the state’s new voting laws. It could eventually extend to other companies including UPS, Aflac, Georgia Power and UBS. Hollywood studios quiet so far.

Books

A memoir coming from one of our faves, Brandi Carlile, who is now featured in NY Times profile.

The book is a vulnerable document, not just because it exposes the most tender parts of her upbringing — the title refers to wounded, discarded horses sold off so cheap even the Carliles could afford them — but because the very act of writing surfaced her insecurities around her own literary education. As she charts in the book, Carlile was held back in middle school, placed in special education classes and finally washed out in the 10th grade. She told me that she sees the memoir as her honorary diploma. She hopes that it will banish the recurring stress dream she has where she materializes, nightmarishly, back in her old high school. In the dream, “I’m there, I’m 35, and everyone else is 17,” she said. “And I’m, like, really gay and freaked out…..

“I’m always going to need to find a way to explain to people that I don’t think I belong here, but I am here,” she said. “I think I’m always going to be coming out of the closet, you know what I mean?”

Here, with one of her heroes, the late John Prine….

Music

My note yesterday calling Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom” one of his greatest songs caught the eye of friend Stu Levitan, who sent me his excellent unpublished ms. detailing the history of how and when Bob wrote it back in early 1964. One thing that jumped out at me was famed folkie Dave Van Ronk claiming in his memoir that the song originated with Dylan asking him to sing over and over a song from about 1895 that his grandmother used to sing, “Chimes of Trinity” (the church with its tall steeple near the WTC that would become iconic in aftermath of 9/11). Naturally, I sought it out on You Tube and, presto, it appears in a few versions, and indeed some of the lines and some of the tune certainly appear to have been “borrowed” by master borrower Bob. “Tolling for the outcast / tolling for the gay/ tolling for the millionaire / and friends long passed away.” Here is one version, which gets more and more familiar sounding as it moves along and reaches the 1:30 point….

Coming this month: a 50th anniversary re-issue with extra discs of John Lennon’s first, and maybe greatest, solo lp (produced with actual restraint by Phil Spector). Here’s a prime lovely cut and new video….

Film/TV

Okay, you may not want to admit it but you probably kind of miss not having heard the once-omnipresent Tull classic “Aqualong” in years. Well, here’s your chance to rectify that with a new 50th anniversary animated video directed by a young Iranian aimed at exploring the homeless/refugee crisis….

Good update here on what’s happened in the Romania health care system since one of best movies of past year, Collective, now up for two Oscars, was made. Sadly, the answer is: little good. In fact, at least 20 have died there in two Covid ward fires in the past six months.

Hulu will produce a documentary series based on The New York Times’ much-admired (and debated) "1619 Project," to be produced by Roger Ross Williams….A Wild, Wild Country update coming soon to Netflix.

Song Pick of the Day

And now, for Good Friday, one of Sam Cooke’s greatest performances, on his mid-’50s gospel classic with the Soul Stirrers, “Were You There When They Crucified the Lord?” Let us also note Phil Ochs’ “Crucifixion.” Only time will tell if we are here Sunday for Leon Russell’s “Roll Away the Stone.”

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.