Still somehow free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.
Little time, just cartoons, movie trailer and music today.
Saw a preview of terrific new doc, on that NYC escapee owl, Flaco, that we (and millions of others) followed closely three or four years back, “Wild Inside.” Favorite part: when he started looking into NYC apartments from fire escapes and railings. And the debate continues: was it correct to let him him “live free” but very dangerously for a year instead of being captured and brought back to safety in the zoo?
Penny Lane, the veteran director, said after the screening that she just happened to be friends with the guy (seen in film) who first spotted the owl on a NYC sidewalk. And she was already something of a “birder” herself so a natural subject for her. Of course, we are reminded of the current saga of the two camera-ready bald eagles in California, Shadow and (the late great) Jackie.
Here’s trailer. Coming to theaters and HBO. And see my photo down below.
Music Pick
Frankly, as my age, never heard of her nor the song, but here from The New Yorker this week (h/t David Hazan):
Ella Langley, a twenty-seven-year-old country singer from Hope Hull, Alabama, with bangs so terrifically thick and ponderous they evoke dense, pre-thunderstorm air, recently broke a major Billboard record: her single “Choosin’ Texas” is now the longest-running non-holiday song by a solo woman artist, having spent seventeen weeks atop the Hot 100. (Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” part hymn, part shopping banger, has logged twenty-two weeks at No. 1 since its release in 1994—long may she run.) “Choosin’ Texas” first crested the chart in February. But it’s been sitting at No. 1 since July 4th, all but guaranteeing its eventual anointment as this year’s Song of the Summer, a specious title that nonetheless gets critics salivating, in part because there are so few opportunities to witness cultural omnipresence these days—to have a pop song mean something to a large group of people at the exact point in the year when we’ve been collectively humbled by heat….
Pleasant enough, but a couple of oldies from Lucinda and Emmylou.
From Tunes to Toons
Ann Telnaes on a few possible additions to ICE’s shock gloves:
Anderson:
Ohman:
Goris:
KAL:
Sack:
Horsey:
Photo Finish
From my camera to you: In honor of Flaco, a cousin named “Boogie,” in Goshen, N.Y.
Impressive how you translate today’s realities into quick, understandable thought bites. Great job.
Great music, as always, but I especially love your owl photo.