Linda Ronstadt Returns to Sonora in New Memoir
Plus the usual political hot takes and humor, and music from Neil Young, Chuck Berry, Joan Armatrading, and Greta Gerwig doing Judee Sill.
Yes, my alma mater is in the NCAA “brackets” right now but I am hoping that in the tournament below Common Sense College or Vaccines State take the title. Although Mr. Potato Head can’t be counted out—the Idaho star plays a sweet game—but likely would get mashed in a showdown. Enjoy, then maybe subscribe—it’s still free!
News & Politics
That Georgia sheriff who claimed the spa shooter just had “a bad day” previously posted a photo of a racist shirt blaming “Chy-na” for the pandemic. Meanwhile, The Onion’s headline: “Sympathetic Police Know What It’s Like To Have a Bad Day and Kill People.”
Trevor Noah on the slaughter: “America does this time and time again. A country that wants to fight the symptoms and not the underlying conditions—racism, misogyny, gun violence, mental illness. And, honestly, this incident might have been all of those things combined, because it doesn’t have to be one thing on its own. America is a rich tapestry of mass-shooting motivations.”
More than 22 percent of the U.S. population has gotten one dose of a Covid vaccine, compared with about 8 percent of EU residents, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. Covid cases are rising sharply in many European countries including Germany, Italy and Poland. Then there’s this strong heading for Molly Jong-Fast's latest Daily Beast column: "Rupert Murdoch Got His Shot but Fox News Wants You to Die to Own the Libs."
Who’s a good boy? Biden announces banished dog Major to return to White House! Another famous dog updated at The New Yorker site this week:
Rep. Mo Brooks, who should be indicted for urging the January sedition, instead will announce today his run for the soon-to-be-open Alabama Senate seat—with Stephen Miller (remember him?) at his side.
Love this headline here on a possible Ohio Senate candidate: “J.D. Vance Joins the Jackals: How the path-breaking writer became a Trumpist troll.”
As some Democrats talk about creating a filibuster exception to pass election reform with 51 votes, Sen. Joe Manchin threw cold water on the idea: “No. No. No. That’s like being a little bit pregnant maybe.’”
White supremacist propaganda reached alarming levels across the U.S. in 2020, according to a new report that the Anti-Defamation League provided to the Associated Press. “There were 5,125 cases of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ and other hateful messages spread through physical flyers, stickers, banners and posters, according to Wednesday’s report. That’s nearly double the 2,724 instances reported in 2019. Online propaganda is much harder to quantify, and it’s likely those cases reached into the millions, the anti-hate organization said.”
Also today the NY Times relates:
A new intelligence report delivered to Congress on Wednesday by the Biden administration warned about the rising threat of militias and white supremacists, adding urgency to calls for more resources to fight the growing problem of homegrown extremism in the United States.
In particular, the intelligence assessment highlighted the threat from militias, predicting that it would be elevated in the coming months because of “contentious sociopolitical factors,” likely a reference to the fallout from the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob and the increasingly partisan political climate.
A paid ad from Amazon in today’s Politico Playbook newsletter: “Three years ago, Amazon raised its starting wage to at least $15 an hour, and recent studies show that it doesn’t just benefit Amazon workers—it raised average hourly wages in the area by 4.7%.”
Media Border Hassle: NBC warns, “Border Patrol officials have been told to deny all media requests for ‘ride-alongs’ with agents along the southern land border; local press officers are instructed to send all information queries, even from local media, to the press office in Washington for approval; and those responsible for cultivating data about the number of migrants in custody have been reminded not to share the information with anyone to prevent leaks, the officials said.”
Samantha Bee opened her show last night with tough segment on violence against women:
Congress voted 413-12 to approve legislation awarding Capitol Police and other law enforcement with Congressional Gold Medals for protecting the Capitol on 1/6. All 12 NO votes were Republicans including dependable deplorables Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Thomas Massie.
Film
Going nuclear: I have noted here that my film, Atomic Cover-up, will have its world premiere at the Cinequest Film festival March 20-30—but from feedback I can see there’s some confusion over your ability to watch. Like most major festivals, Cinequest (normally hosted in San Jose) has gone virtual this year, but there is this big advantage: You don’t have to be in a theater out there to see the films! You can watch online, for a ticket price of just $3.99. Not only that, but the ticket gives you the freedom to watch any time during those ten days. Go here to read more, watch trailer, buy tix. Or watch trailer here.
Music
Yes, there will be a “51st anniversary” re-issue of the fine if belabored C,S,N & Y album, Deja vu. Now there are some details on what’s added.
The box set is packed with gems and highlights, including Nash and Joni Mitchell’s intimate ‘Our House’ duet on piano (he screws up halfway and exclaims, ‘Shit!’ with Mitchell erupting in laughter), the Stills rarity ‘Ivory Tower,’ and a 10-minute alternate take of Crosby’s ‘Almost Cut My Hair.’ Demos of Crosby’s ‘Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves)’ and ‘Laughing,’ two tracks that would wind up on his solo debut If I Could Only Remember My Name, are also featured.”
In fact, there are two whole discs of outtakes and “alternates.” On the other hand, here’s a typical Crosby reaction: “I don’t really give much of a shit about that.” Here’s a treat, a demo of Neil’s “Birds” with Graham singing harmony, after asking if he’s in tune (was he ever?).
Sorry to say, ‘70s songwriter Judee Sill, never broke through and then suffered a tragic fate. She never appealed to me that much back then (though we hailed her at Crawdaddy) or now, but I am happy to link to this lengthy new Rolling Stone profile. Below here’s Greta Gerwig singing Judee song in Greenberg, probably the most exposure she’s ever gotten until now. And here’s one of the better-known Sill songs, “Jesus Was a Cross Maker.”
The seemingly ageless (but not quite) Chuck Berry died on this date in 2017 at the age of 90. Of dozens of possible song vids that might mark the occasion, I will pick just one, with a particular favorite tune, “Promised Land.” And see if you can decode the “racial” references to the towns or regions he is skipping or escaping to (entire dissertations have probably been written about that). Do younger rockers appreciate the debt they owe to this man?
Books
Just announced by my pal Steve Wasserman at Heyday out in Berkeley—he will be publishing a new memoir by his friend Linda Ronstadt late next year.
Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands—a collaboration with Lawrence Downes, a former editor and editorial writer for the New York Times, and Bill Steen, a noted author and photographer whose grandfather came from the same Arizona town as Ronstadt’s—is a love letter to Ronstadt’s Mexican American roots. It tells of her coming of age in the world between Tucson and the Rio Sonora region of northern Mexico, presented through stories, photographs, and recipes. It will also include watercolor illustrations by Linda’s father, the late Gilbert Ronstadt.
“There’s a Mexican story that isn’t often told,” said Ms. Ronstadt, “about the desert and the families who live there. It takes cooperation and ingenuity to survive and build a beautiful life in such a harsh environment. This is Arizona, where I was born, and Sonora, where my soul is anchored.”
“Heaven to me is a long ride with Linda and Bill from Tucson into Mexico and down along the Rio Sonora,” said Downes. “There’s deep beauty and mystery in these borderlands, and those two know how to take you there. When you’re with them, you listen and learn, laugh and get hungry, and then you eat. If we could have done it, this book would have no words, just Linda’s voice, Bill’s photos, and plates of carne asada and frijoles and bottles of mescal bacanora.”
Song Pick of the Day
Surely one of the most underrated artists from the 1970s—and a trailblazer in male-dominated rock of that time—Joan Armatrading (who was still touring not long ago). Below, “Down to Zero” live.
Greg Mitchell’s film, Atomic Cover-up, will have its American premiere at the Cinequest Film festival March 20-30. Go here to read more, watch trailer, buy tix. He 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. 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.