Colbert Rides Again! Plus Sunday Cartoons

As we mark Dylan's birthday and a surprise live appearance by Neil Young.

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the 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.

Thought this was just a brief clip of Colbert’s visit to Monroe, Mich. more than a decade ago but no….turned out he did it on Friday, the day after his final CBS show and after-party, and it’s nearly a full hour of fun, with wing man Jack White and visit from Jeff Daniels plus a former Miss America. How did this happen? Well Stephen did say he was flying out for his brother’s wedding….One Facebook commenter claimed he could watch Colbert do this every night of the week from a different city…

Onward and…downward?

Amy Siskind: “He’s not just a bad president, he’s a bad human being. Who misses their child’s wedding to send Truth Social posts all day (because it was too rainy in NJ to golf).”

Megan Stack on the latest fake Iran peace “agreement”:

The Palestinians are still there. Gaza is still there. Whatever happens between Trump and Iran, whatever happens in Lebanon, the Palestinians will bear the brunt, because that is always the underlying project, and none of the power players ever stand up for them.

Ian Bremmer:

If concluded, trump-iran deal arguably the least worst outcome available to president trump. except for: 1) agreeing to those terms months ago. 2) not having gone to war in the first place. or 3) not having withdrawn from the iranian nuclear deal.

Steve Brodner:

Kamensky:

Music Picks

Rolling Stone:

Neil Young canceled all of his 2026 concert dates earlier this year, and has otherwise kept a fairly low public profile, but he reemerged May 22 for a surprise acoustic set at David Suzuki’s 90th birthday benefit concert, which was held at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Young played “After the Gold Rush” and “Heart of Gold,” marking his first live performance of any kind since the Painted Turtle benefit show on October 25, 2025.

David Suzuki is a prominent Canadian environmental activist, former host of CBC’s The Nature of Things, author of 55 books, and an emeritus professor at the University of British Columbia. Bruce Cockburn, Tara Cullis, Jane Fonda, Al Gore, Rick Hansen, Chantal Kreviazuk, Janelle Lapointe, Sarah McLachlan, and Danny Michel also participated in his birthday concert, which raised funds for the David Suzuki Foundation.

On May 29, Young and the Chrome Hearts are releasing the live album As Time Explodes. It documents their 2025 world tour, and features “Vampire Blues,” “Like a Hurricane,” “Ohio,” “Cortez The Killer,” and many other classics.

“Heart of Gold”:

Meanwhile, it’s the Bobster’s birthday (we’ve stopped counting maybe to slow down the march to end for both of us), so why not celebrate with the always great rendition—plus Soy Bomb sauce and Bob’s cool response—from the 1998 Grammys, for “Love Sick”:

Bob’s childhood home, by Steve Crawford:

From Tunes to Toons

Goris:

Bramhall:

Horsey

Ohman:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you, “Old Man/River,” Piermont Pier at sunset