We probably don’t bring you enough “Good News” so today we’ll let Mr. Sam Cooke do it. Then share, comment, subscribe, please. And note: introducing a new feature today at very bottom of this page—a Photo of the Day from my own camera, almost always from the past 15 years and from USA and Europe….
News & Politics
Stephen Colbert: “One interesting group of people refusing to get the vaccine: people who have gotten the vaccine. Because millions of people are skipping their second doses. I can’t believe it—Americans are saying no to seconds?”
Jimmy Kimmel on the Oscars show: “How can something so woke put so many people to sleep?” Jimmy Fallon: “It was as if the whole ceremony had just gotten its second Pfizer shot.”
The Onion quotes two alleged responses to Nomadland’s win. “Out of all the pictures I didn’t see, Nomadland was definitely the best.” And: “After spending the last year looking for work, this film was exactly the bit of escapism I needed.”
This headline topped Politico’s popular Playbook newsletter this morning: “IS TUCKER CARLSON LOSING HIS MIND?” What inspired this—after all of the previous outrages? Last night, Carlson said having children wear masks outdoors "should be illegal" and that the correct response from bystanders should be to "call the police" or "contact child protective services" immediately. He called it "child abuse" and said people are "morally obligated to attempt to prevent it." As Politico noted, Carlson may know better but “some of his viewers might not, which makes his appeal to snitch on mask wearers even worse.”
Stacey Abrams novel: Her forthcoming While Justice Sleeps (out May 11) is about a Supreme Court Justice who uncovers a deadly conspiracy involving the president of the United States, then slips into a coma. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s book on the 2020 campaign and more, Persist, coming next week. Random House to publish book by Rep. Adam Schiff this fall on the first Trump impeachment.
Meanwhile, an employee-led petition at Simon & Schuster demanding that the company stop publishing authors from the Trump administration (it recently signed Mike Pence) collected 216 in-house signatures and several thousand from outside, including well-known Black writers. Plus many publishing execs have signed an open letter which declared:
[N]o one who incited, suborned, instigated, or otherwise supported the January 6, 2021 coup attempt should have their philosophies remunerated and disseminated through our beloved publishing houses.
From Steve Brodner at his Substack:
Since few now see the paper’s editorials in print, and so don’t know what “Op-Ed” means (or meant), the NY Times is changing that historic designation to “Guest
Essays.”
Noam is where his heart is: The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas has released a new interview with philosopher, linguist, and social critic Noam Chomsky on the latest episode of Rolling Stone interview series, S.O.S. — Earth Is a Mess. Chomsky: “You can’t overestimate, we have maybe a decade or two, that’s it, in which we can decide to get the heating of the environment under control. If we don’t do it, we’re finished. It’s not that everybody’s going to die the next year, but we’ll be on a course that is irreversible.” Watch here.
No census humor: 2020 Census numbers just out mean almost certain pick up of GOP seats in red states next year while Dems will lose seats in Northeast, Midwest and even one seat in Calif. And Republicans have unified control of the congressional redistricting (i.e. gerrymandering) process in 18 states as opposed to 7 for the Democrats. Minnesota beat out NY for the final seat by a total of 89 people. Dave Wasserman: “NY state reported 1,941 COVID-19 deaths as of April 1, 2020—more than 21 times the margin it lost out on the House's final seat.” Other states losing seats: Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Oregon and Colorado pick up one but Texas gain two. Florida may sue because it expected two new seats and only got one.
Ryan for the Senate: Former presidential candidate Rep. Tim Ryan is first major Dem to throw his hat in the ring for open Senate seat next year. Moderately blue views may find appeal in moderately red state.
Top Biden adviser Brian Deese formally announced the proposal to nearly double the capital gains tax.
Last night, Shohei Ohtani became the first player since Babe Ruth to start a game as a pitcher while also leading Major League Baseball in home runs.
If you will recall: California election officials confirmed Monday that recall proponents collected enough valid signatures for a special gubernatorial contest this fall, so voters will decide Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fate.
Music
Born on this day in 1947: the great R & B singer (the “female Al Green” at Hi Records), Ann Peebles, known for “I Can’t Stand the Rain” and below the tremendous “I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down.” Room by room, baby!
Film/TV
For you Masters of None fans—I liked season 1, not so much season 2—there’s a new trailer for the much-delayed season 3 (due to sex abuse allegation against Aziz Ansari). This episode, and perhaps season, focuses on the Lena Waithe character, who featured in the show’s Emmy win for a great segment three years ago.
If you missed the new trailer for Questlove’s film—and you probably did since few watched the Oscars’ show—here it is now.
Nowhereland: China imposed a virtual blackout on news that Chloé Zhao had become the first Chinese native to be named best Oscar director for Nomadland but fans evaded censors on social media by blurring out her name or turning images on their sides.
Books
Thanks to friend Steve Wasserman, who runs Heyday Books in Berkeley, I received awhile back the galleys for The Magic Years, coming in early May by Jonathan Taplin. You may know his name from one of his two major careers: as director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC—or much earlier as tour manager for Judy Collins, Bob Dylan and The Band, and producer of Marty Scorcese’s Mean Streets and The Last Waltz, among other films. He also helped George Harrison pull off “The Concert for Bangla Desh,” partly by managing to get Eric Clapton to the stage, though ravaged by heroin and needing a fix (Phil Spector supplied some smack but it was judged inadequate, like his mix for Let It Be).
Just one tidbit, on that notorious earth-rattling day in the summer of 1965 when Dylan strapped on an electric guitar at Newport. I didn’t know it was Johnny Cash who handed Dylan an acoustic guitar and urged him to get back on stage to quiet the hooting crowd after Bob had stalked off. (“Play them a song, son.”) Taplin, at age eighteen, and working his first rock star job, was backstage to observe. Here’s Dylan that night, below, but it’s not the electric revolution but what he played after Johnny ordered him back out there: “Baby Blue.” But first he had to ask if anyone in the crowd had a harmonica. A couple of dozen soon rained on the stage.
Song Pick of the Day
Jackson Browne, just a few years back at the NPR tiny desk, with “Barricades of Heaven” and fine band (sorry, no Lindley).
My Photo of the Day
Last night’s Pink Moon (cue Nick Drake) rising over the Hudson and Tappan Zee Bridge below my home.
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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.Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Nice start to the day, except for the end of the world stuff, of course. Thanks for this.
Had not heard "Baby Blue" in a long time. Harmonica work on this cut is intricate and wonderful.