I Read the News Today, Oh Boy
More outrage after a police shooting--and the use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine paused. Still, we have live music from the Stones, Bob Marley & the Wailers, and Lucinda Williams.
The usual hot news and politics takes, cartoons, latenight humor and song picks, and the usual request: Share, comment, subscribe if you have not (it’s still free).
Politics & News
The Onion: “Judge Asks If Chauvin Jury Minds Sticking Around For A Couple More Police Misconduct Trials.” Related: “Cadet Studying For Police Academy Exam Just Skims Over Deescalation Training He’ll Never Use In Real Life.”
After the Daunte Wright shooting in Minnesota: Recall that a previous case of a cop allegedly firing a gun instead of a taser was more than a decade ago when Oscar Grant was shot and killed in Oakland—later the subject of breakthrough film for Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station.
Stephen Colbert: “It’s dangerous when a policeman can’t tell if you’re holding a gun. It’s insane when they can’t tell if they’re holding a gun.” Trevor Noah: “Don’t you find it amazing cops think everything is a gun—except their own gun…. Like, we’re supposed to watch that and go, ‘Ah, OK. One time I used sugar instead of salt, so I can relate.’”
Hicks sits: NY Yankees outfielder took the night off, anguished by the Wright killing, and was ripped by many fans but backed by manager Aaron Boone.
Data: Mapping Police Violence; Chart: Michelle McGhee/Axios
Bad shots: “Federal health agencies on Tuesday called for an immediate pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six recipients in the United States developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within about two weeks of vaccination. All six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second woman in Nebraska has been hospitalized in critical condition.”
The CDC is calling on Michigan to "close things down" to stop the massive Covid surge, and director Rochelle Walensky said the state can't vaccinate its way out of a spike. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, after drawing early praise (and becoming a finalist for Biden’s veepstakes), has been foolishly resisting ordering more restrictions. Last week, she asked residents to take more “personal responsibility” to slow the outbreak, a position cheered by Republican lawmakers in the state.
After his Murdoch boss defended him from the ADL, Tucker Carlson doubled down on “white replacement” last night, stating plainly: "Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party's political ambitions. In order to win and maintain power, Democrats plan to change the population of the country." Even conservative Wash Post columnist Michael Gerson observes: “Nearly every phrase of Carlson’s statement is the euphemistic expression of white-supremacist replacement doctrine.”
Voters self-IDing as Republicans down to 25%, Gallup says, as number of independents gains.
I don’t want to discuss it: Oh, Domino, the world's largest pizza company, this week begins autonomous pizza delivery in Houston. Some customers who order from Domino's in Woodland Heights will be able to choose to have their pies delivered by an R2 robot from Nuro, the self-driving delivery company.
Headline of the Day, from the Daily Beast: “What Mika Brzezinski Did When She Read Trump’s ‘Bleeding Facelift’ Tweet.”
Wash Post: Biden faces pressure from Pelosi, Sanders over whether to double down on Obamacare or expand Medicare. “Pelosi’s office is pushing the White House to make permanent a temporary expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies that were included in the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation last month.” Sen. Sanders wants Medicare age lowered and coverage for dental and vision.
Stephen Colbert did a “speed round” of questions with John Boehner last night which produced everything from Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy as “good guys” to an update on his feelings about Ted Cruz: “Lucifer in the flesh” and “the most miserable son of a bitch I’ve ever met.”
First film project to take midnight train out of Georgia: In response to the restrictive voting laws of Georgia, director Antoine Fuqua and actor Will Smith are withdrawing the production of their Apple Studios slave drama Emancipation from the state, they announced today. Georgia offers generous tax incentives to Hollywood and has become a major hub for Marvel Studios, Netflix and other industry heavyweights. Next?
Music
On this date in 1971, the Stones released their “Brown Sugar” single off new album Sticky Fingers. Four years later, to announce kickoff of major tour—in what Mick would call their greatest promotion ever—we got word at Crawdaddy in our office at 13th and 5th Avenue in NYC that a Stones presser was to be held in a few minutes a few blocks south at the restaurant at 1 Fifth Avenue. Naturally I rushed down there—it was drizzling, as I recall—and awaited inside when suddenly there was some loud noise outside, and we all rushed out to find the Stones on a flatbed just up the block, playing and singing live, “Brown Sugar.” They rolled on, stopped for a bit, then kept going, and it was over soon, but it left this video (no, I do not spot myself in the crowd)….
And on this day in 1973, the Wailers released their classic Catch a Fire album, their first true U.S. release, which launched their own legend here and pushed the budding reggae trend to new heights. It also led to the tour that reached NYC and the epic Springsteen/Wailers double-bill that I wrote about this past weekend. Catch a Fire was was recorded in Jamaica with guitar overdubs in London. Tosh wrote two of the tunes and Marley seven. “Stir It Up” had already been a hit for Johnny Nash. I recall the odd original cover which you flipped up like a cigarette lighter (but never really worked well), quickly got axed and is now a collector’s time—still have mine. Here’s a highlight, “Concrete Jungle,” in case you’ve forgotten that Bob ranks in the upper pantheon of artists in our era.
And since you seemed to enjoy the Brandi Carlile cover of Elton yesterday, here’s a real gem, as she tackles the vocal challenge (even for her) that is Roy Orbison.
Song Pick of the Day
Just one of Lucinda Williams’ sex songs, “Essence.” Not purity of….nor strange love….
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.
I have to tell you, this is the best collection of thought-provoking stories based on today's issues mixed in with memorabilia, a person my age could ever hope to find. Speaking of hopes, I hope you don't mind me throwing in my own stories from the 1970s, when they seem to fit. I'm just so happy to find someplace where they might mean something to someone. I've been carrying them around for a long time. Thanks for this blog and for all the work you put into it.
I have a close-encounter-with-Mick-Jagger story to tell too, Greg. I hope you don't mind. In 1974 (after Sticky Fingers), I finished a graduate program at St. John's College and in January or February 1976 I got an invitation to a party hosted by SJC alum Ahmet Ertegun. I wasn't following Ahmet's career at the time, but knew he was very rich, did fundraising for the college and had something to do with music. Since the event would be held at Rockefeller Center, I splurged and bought a dress for the occasion, hoping I would run into my pal Liz Vagliano. I did. She was the only person I recognized. To put it lightly, Liz and I ran in very different circles. She was a classy Manhattan socialite married to a shipping magnet (and later to Feliz Rohatyn) and I was a ridiculously poor Long Island single mom trying to find a way to survive New York. I met Liz when she audited courses in the SJC graduate program one summer to prove to herself and her college-age kids that she could do it, even without previous college experience. At 40-50-something, she didn't want younger students to know she was in over her head, but she needed a little help with her final paper. I was 30ish and enjoyed her company. I thought she deserved a lot of credit. So, there we were. As the token elders at this shindig, we stood at one end of the room, probably drinking white wine, but definitely commenting on the pretentious appearance of several Johnnie alums, especially younger ones. The worst one of all had just entered this room with our host. This odd-looking fellow was all trunk and boney legs, with an unusually large head positioned over a mouth that might have been a sculptor's mistake. He wore a sweated-out white v-neck, extra tight jeans and a very long, very white silk scarf. I chuckled and whispered to Liz, "Look at that Johnnie coming in here trying to look like Mick Jagger or somebody!" She laughed. We clicked our wine glasses in agreement that no matter how hard they tried, Johnnies could never hide behind the masks of people who had actually done something. We loved our time at the school but agreed most of the students (but not us) were and always would be argumentative, self-aggrandizing bookworms with agendas.
Eventually, our host made it around the room and stopped in front of me and Liz. We introduced ourselves to Ahmet and he introduced us to Mick Jagger.