Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films, including the current “The Atomic Bowl.” Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of those books, thanks. Or recommend this Substack to a friend!
Once again, somewhat limited posting due to post-holiday travel, but here you go. Heard Lyle Lovett’s classic “Fat Babies” in the car yesterday for first time in years, and it made me think of this:
Fat babies make me sick
Fat babies make me ill
All that fat baby drooling
And that fat baby smell
Heather Cox Richardson on response to Trump’s Christmas rantings about the newly found 1 million Epstein documents and his consciousness of guilt:
Even before Trump’s evening post, in Meditations in an Emergency, Rebecca Solnit noted that it seems “clear that there is likely something in the files that further incriminates” Trump, an observation with which scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder agreed. He added: “Horrible as the facts at hand are, there must be something else, something verging on the unimaginable.”
The slow drip of the Epstein files, Solnit writes, is “undermining loyalty to Trump as nothing else has, and it is an important part of how the Trump regime and the Republican Party are falling apart before our eyes. This does not mean that the Trumpists are powerless,” she continues, “they are flailing and grabbing for all the kinds of power that they can.”
But “Trump appears to be disintegrating, rotting, collapsing before our eyes, mentally and physically, and Republicans in Congress—first of all with the vote to release the Epstein files—are breaking from him.”
Meanwhile, Trump unveiled plans for new MARBLE arm rests for seats at his renovated Kennedy Center. And you know how much you’d love a cold, ultra hard “rest” for your arms and elbow…..Yesterday we reported on guy canceling his Kennedy Center concert, today’s update:
Kennedy Center Chief Threatens Legal Action Over Canceled Christmas Concert
The musician Chuck Redd called off the annual Christmas Eve performances after the Kennedy Center board added President Trump’s name to the performing arts center.
Since two of my five favorite albums of the year are from Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy, I thought I’d go back to a pair or phenomenal tunes from their Grammy-winning collaboration from about 15 years ago.
First, Tweedy arranged and produced fantastic old hymn “In Christ There Is No East or West” (some know from the John Fahey guitar instrumental several decades ago).
And Jeff-penned modern classic “You Are Not Alone,” here in two versions:
Someone did an In Memoriam for musicians lost this year, goes on for nine minutes but quite complete and as with similar ones you will be surprised about those you did not know about or forgot about…
From Tunes to Toons
Dennis Goris:
Bramhall:
Sheneman:
Davies:
Photo Finish
From my camera, “After the Storm, Off the Hudson, Tarrytown”
The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all.
An especially, beautiful photo today. Thank you.