From Dylan and Woody to 'South Park' and Hegseth

Plus the usual cartoons, Nina Simone, and controversial new Netflix flick.

Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films. Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of my books, thanks!

More of a quickie on this day after.

First, The Daily Show imagines a new medical TV series like “The Pitt” but called “RFK Hospital.”

The latest disgusting attack by Trump on a (female) reporter yesterday at a presser: “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?...You’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.” (Exchange with CBS reporter on vetting of National Guardsmen shooting suspect.)

But at least South Park is back. Rolling Stone:

Among the many members of this Trump Administration to be spoofed on the current season of South Park — easily one of the wildest yet — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has so far been spared. That is, until last night. During a Thanksgiving-themed episode titled “Turkey Trot,” Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor and military servicemember, was depicted as an Instagram Reels-obsessed content creator sent to town on Trump’s orders to free Peter Thiel, who you might recall was arrested in the previous episode. “Don’t just make a bunch of content. Like, actually go and do something,” South Park’s Trump tells Hegseth.

Elsewhere, the town is planning to host a 5k Turkey Trot that is, naturally, sponsored by Saudi Arabia. The only caveat? Contestants can’t speak ill of the Saudi Royal Family.

Included was this brief song, see below:

Pete Hegseth is a f*cking douche

Acting like a tough guy

Posing around the world

Making lots of content

Like a teenage girl

I’ve been following this controversy for many months and now the film is dropping today at Netflix, “The Stringer.” It claims that one of the most famous photos of our lifetime, the fleeing “Napalm Girl” in Vietnam, has been falsely attributed to an AP photog. AP has stood firm I’ve read much of the evidence and agree with them—but I have not seen the film, just excerpts and reports, so open to persuasion. But there is much that questions it. Trailer:

As a massive Dylan and Woody fan, I have watched and re-watched the bedside scenes with them many times from last year’s drama “A Complete Unknown.” But I’d forgotten the scene below from the “Alice’s Restaurant” movie with the real Pete Seeger and Arlo visiting Woody and singing to him (his classic “Pastures of Plenty’) near the very end of his life. It’s extremely idealized—Woody by that point was totally gray, immobilized, a shell of a man with advanced Huntington’s chorea. But it still got to me.

Speaking of Dylan, coming in February:

A few of the tunes:

1. A HARD RAIN’S A-GONNA FALL - THE STAPLE SINGERS

2. EVERYTHING IS BROKEN - BETTYE LAVETTE

3. JUST LIKE TOM THUMB’S BLUES - NINA SIMONE

4. GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY - NATALIE COLE

5. IT AIN’T ME BABE - MAXINE WELDON

6. IT’S ALRIGHT MA (I’M ONLY BLEEDING) - BILLY PRESTON

7. THE MIGHTY QUINN - SOLOMON BURKE

8. RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 & 35 - MERRY CLAYTON

Here’s the inimitable Nina singing “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.”

From Tunes to Toons

Clay Bennett:

KAL:

Steve Brodner:

Photo Finish

Continuing our new feature, from my camera to you, let me know what you think. Today: “Cypress Tree Tunnel, Point Reyes, CA.”