And away we go into another week. Don’t forget to hit those little buttons to Comment, Share or Subscribe (that’s what they are there for).
News & Politics
The Onion: “Minnesota Deploys National Guard Ahead Of Next Week’s Police Shooting.” And: “More Realistic Meat Substitute Made From Soy Raised In Brutally Cruel Conditions.”
Headline of the Day, from the NY Times: “What Will Happen When Americans Start Having Sex Again?”
If you missed: The gunman in the mass shooting that left eight people dead at a FedEx warehouse used two assault rifles that he legally bought last July and September despite his record with mental afflictions….More than 12,000 people have already died from gun violence in 2021.
Oath Keepers oaf told “60 Minutes” last night: “Our guys are very experienced. We have active-duty law enforcement in our organization that are helping to train us. We can blend in with our law enforcement.”
Republicans in Congress who said little or nothing about Jan. 6 insurrection are now up in arms over Rep. Maxine Waters calling on protestors to become “more confrontational” if Chauvin gets off in George Floyd case. Rep. Kevin McCarthy says he is studying penalties, nutcase Marjorie Taylor Greene wants her “expelled” and the NY Post calls for her “impeachment,” which cannot be done.
The ACLU of Minnesota said over the weekend that it has been "disgusted" by reports police officers have mistreated journalists covering protests there even after a federal judge granted its request for a temporary restraining order. "Freedom of the press is one of our most foundational principles as a democracy," the group said. "The press must be free to observe, record and document the protests... to hold police and our government accountable..."
Fun quote from Politico in weekend profile of Matt Gaetz’s horrid father: “Before Rep. Gaetz burst onto the national political scene as the sharp-tongued, attention-grabbing defender of Donald Trump, he was best known in Florida as ‘Baby Gaetz.’” And now this, as John Oliver might put it….
After Sean “Spicey” Spicer tweeted on Sunday, “Enjoy the rest of the weekend and don’t drink Coca Cola,” my old friend David Corn responded: “400,000 preventable American deaths happened due to Trump and he incited a murderous attack on the Capitol—and you worry about a soft drink.”
No Justice: Former Atty Gen. Bill “No Holds” Barr and new SCOTUS Amy Coney Barrett have reportedly inked book deals, the latter for a cool $2 million.
Assault & Battery: “Two men were killed in Texas,” NY Times reports, “after a Tesla they were in crashed on Saturday and caught fire with neither of the men behind the wheel, the authorities said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last month that it was investigating nearly two dozen crashes involving Teslas that either were using Autopilot or might have been using it.” Plus:
“It took four hours to put out a fire that normally would have taken a matter of minutes,” Constable Herman said, adding that it took more than 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish the fire. Regulators have raised concerns about the batteries used in electric vehicles.
What’s up, Doc? Anthony Fauci yesterday on future of J & J vaccine: “I would be very surprised … if we don’t have a resumption in some form by Friday.” Though possibly with warnings and restrictions. Half of U.S. adults have now gotten at least one shot of coronavirus vaccine.
Nice profilein NY Times on my friend and state legislator in Virginia, Danica Roem (we attended the same college as journalism majors decades apart) on trans rights. Danica was the first openly transgender lawmaker elected in this country.
Earth Day coming on Thursday.
Jack Shafer of Politico: "Partaking of a Substack column can be like drinking cow's milk straight from the teat instead of waiting for it to be pasteurized, homogenized and bottled by the dairyman.”
Music
On this day in 2012, Levon Helm, singer and drummer with The Band and then fine solo albums, died at the age of 71. Here from 1978, he sings and drums “Up on Cripple Creek.”
Forty-three years ago this week Sandy Denny collapsed or fell in London and died four days later. She was 31. This, below, was one of her last (and more obscure) songs--sort of her "Four Seasons"--and reveals, sadly, that her finest songwriting and singing, contrary to what some have suggested, probably lay ahead. Greil Marcus in his obit at Rolling Stone: "Denny was less a folk singer than a singer who meant to defeat time, and that may be why, in her strongest moments, no female singer of the last ten years could touch her. As with Van Morrison on 'Astral Weeks' and 'Veedon Fleece' no one else could go where she went." (Note: Gratified to report that Sandy’s daughter, Georgia Rose Lucas, shared the above on Facebook last night.)
GUEST PIECE: Last week I published the first contribution by a subscriber (Robert M. Herzog on a Patti Smith show in NYC last weekend) and said I would like to do more. So I’ve already received a few. Length should not exceed 400-500 words so keep that in mind in case you send something. Here’s today’s guest post, which might be titled “Satchmo and Me in Hawaii,” or maybe “Pops and Pot,” with a couple of surprise twists, by Christopher Strawn, who still lives out there.
February 26,1952, a month to the day before my fourth birthday, dawned sunny and bright on Lunalilo Street in Honolulu. Somehow, my father had finagled entry into the sound check for arguably the greatest entertainer in the world at the time, Louis “Pops” Armstrong. He phoned my mother from the Civic Auditorium and said, “Get the boys ready, I’m taking them to the show!” My mother says that, having been awakened from my nap with the news, I walked down the stairs singing “C’est Si Bon,” Louis’ current hit. My brother Richard, not quite five, and I walked the four or five blocks to the Civic Auditorium with my father.
During the show, we were standing right in front of the stage, my father carrying me and holding my brother’s hand. Midway through his set, “Pops” spotted me— after all, I had been a finalist in the 1949 Carnation Healthy Baby contest. He motioned for my father to pass me up on stage so up I went. Pops interviewed me a bit. He was tickled by my childhood nickname, Boo. He asked me what kind of music I liked and when I replied, “Man, I dig gutbucket!”, he nearly dropped me he was laughing so hard. After a few more questions, he passed me back to Cozy Cole who let me play the drums a bit.
I still have a memento, the lp Satchmo at Pasadena autographed Satchmo to Boo! Louis Armstrong, in his characteristic green ink. I can still feel the love that emanated from this wonderful man nearly seventy years later.
In late December of 1953, Louis Armstrong and the All-Stars returned to Hawaii after entertaining the troops in Korea and Japan. He and the band were scheduled to do a benefit for the March of Dimes and then play a two-week gig at the Brown Derby on Nuuanu Avenue in downtown Honolulu. Customs agents found a joint in a glasses case in the Armstrong’s luggage. Despite the fact that it was pretty much an open secret that “Pops” swore by two herbal remedies taken daily— marijuana and a powerful laxative called Swiss Kriss—his wife Lucille Armstrong said that the pot was hers.
This certainly deescalated the situation of having the world’s greatest entertainer, in town to do a benefit for the March of Dimes after having just entertained our forces in Korea, arrested for a joint. Against the advice of her attorney, Hiram Fong (the future U.S. Senator, 1959-1977), Mrs. Armstrong pleaded guilty and was fined $100.
The March of Dimes Concert went on as scheduled but because of the “bad publicity,” the owner of the Brown Derby, Eddie Sartain, cancelled Louis’ two- week gig. Sartain probably didn’t want any of that sort of publicity because five or six years later he was arrested and convicted for selling heroin. Pops, on the other hand, kept entertaining and bringing joy to the entire world until his death in 1971. —Christopher Strawn
Satch meets “Mack the Knife” back in the ‘50s:
Film
Happy to be featured (along with my "definitive book") in new PolitiFact hit on key distortions in movie Mank—after my recent post on that here and at NY Times, and Alex Ross in The New Yorker citing my work.
Wake me when they’re over: Disney next year will bring out a female Thor, a new Indiana Jones with Harrison Ford, and Black Panther and Avatar sequels.
Song Pick
On this date in 1980, R.E.M. played their first gig as R.E.M, in Athens, Ga. The Koffee Club show ended at 2 a.m. when police shut it down—the venue was unlicensed. Years later they covered Leonard Cohen, thusly, on “First We Take Manhattan.'‘
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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. His new film, Atomic Cover-up, just had its world premiere and is drawing extraordinary acclaim. 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.
Thank you Christopher Strawn for that wonderful Satchmo story!