Cartoons Saturday, and Gospel Greats for Easter

Sam Cooke, Mahalia Jackson plus: Don Jr.'s nature show??

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE.

Warner Brothers may offer Don Jr. a nature show on Discovery? I can believe anything, except why they don’t show him shooting all of the large animals:

And latest from the Crazy Incompetent Clown Posse:

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An official on the administration’s antisemitism task force told the university that a letter of demands had been sent without authorization.

For Easter weekend, one of my favorite songs by young Sam Cooke in his mid-1950s gospel days with the Soul Stirrers, just about the greatest American music ever, the soul-shattering “Were You There (When They Crucified the Lord?)

And Mahalia Jackson’s version of the song a few years later, on the Ed Sullivan show, of all places:

Fascinating history of the song as per Wikipedia:

"Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)" is an African-American spiritual that was first printed in 1899. It was likely composed by enslaved African Americans in the 19th century.^] In 1940, it was included in the Episcopal Church hymnal, making it the first spiritual to be included in any major American hymnal. It is also unique in that it is the only African-American song included in the Catholic Church's Liturgy of the Hours. As reported in Howard Thurman's autobiography, the song was one of Mahatma Gandhi's favorites.

One more from Sam, another one of his greatest, “Must Jesus Bear That Cross Alone,” with an amazing 30 seconds of “Amazing Grace” thrown in:

From Tunes to Toons

Meanwhile, Putin celebrates Easter in his own way: