Colbert Interview: On Final Weeks of Show and 'Authoritarians'

Plus our usual cartoons, Lucinda and Rosanne, plus Jack Antonoff picks greatest recording ever.

Yes, it’s still somehow free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of four films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.

No Colbert show this week, but a new NY Times piece on how he is approaching the final three weeks of his show.

Authoritarians don’t like anybody who doesn’t give them undue dignity. Comedians are anti-authoritarian by nature. And authoritarians are never going to like anybody to laugh at them. The number of newspeople who have said to me or Jon Stewart or any of the guys who do this, “God, I wish I could say what you say on air.” And we can. I think that upsets them. I think it might be upsetting that we really do not live in their world of principalities and powers.

And what’s next?

People have called to say, “Do you want to do X, Y or Z?” And I would say, like: “Hey, that’s great. I don’t think I could give you a good answer until I can really think about it.” It literally took me years to think enough about writing one script. And I put a lot of thought into it. And I feel good about what we’re doing, and I want to feel that good about everything I do. So when this is over and I have a little time to breathe, probably after turning in the first draft, too, of this thing, I’ll know then.

And now ponder, according to the Wall St. Journal, Amazon executives are discussing a reboot of :The Apprentice”, with the possibility of casting Donald Trump Jr. as the host. Full Story: https://on.wsj.com/49dw7FJ

Fade away or radiate? Axios reporting last night: “President Trump is slated to receive a briefing on new plans for potential military action in Iran on Thursday from CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper, two sources with knowledge tell Axios.”

Widely mocked for their list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, the NY Times today adds 11 more which adds some worthies plus some headscratchers.

Music Picks

Lucinda Williams rightly picked as one of 30 greatest American songwriters in that sketchy NY Times “survey” this week. One of her greatest songs, though, was written with….Woody Guthrie.

Songwriter/producer Jack Antonoff yesterday named the greatest recording ever—and the greatest segment of any song ever. Hint: guns and rosaries.

Sounds like a Johnny Cash song. Wonder why. John and Rosanne.

From Tunes to Toons

Davies:

Bramhall:

Ohman:

Luckovich:

Wuerker:

de Adder:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you: Great Egret seemingly staring across the Hudson at a train speeding north across the water.