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!
My New Year’s promise, via Dennis Goris:
I post this every year but here again, Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions, 1943.
I rarely publish anything AI here but am making a bold exception here on this new example just arrived last night 1) as a major Nick Drake fan 2) and because there is literally no footage of him that has ever existed, singing or otherwise 3) it’s based on actual famous (for those few of us) photographs of him, here come to life 4) and it features one of my two or three favorite Nick songs, and with John Cale. I wonder what you think of it (and again, I am generally very anti-AI).
Repeating this as today is the historic day: New post at my “other” Substack, Today marks the 80th anniversary of the most bizarre, yet revealing, football game ever: played on a killing field near ground zero in Nagasaki by U.S. all-star teams just months after an atomic bomb destroyed half the city, killing 80,000 or more, nearly all of them civilians. I’ve posted several times about my current PBS film which will be re-aired widely next month (you can watch free streaming right now) but I have not until now published a blow-by-blow on the actual game. So check it out if you wish.
Today’s Toons
Luckovich
de Adder:
Clay Bennett:
Duquette:
Photo Finish
“As 2026 takes flight, off Piermont, N.Y. “
Knowing what the Nick Drake video was, an AI fantasy, I found it quite beguiling. What a great song and performance! Thanks, and thanks for the posts. I always look forward to it.
Happy New Year! May the coming year be a canvas of beautiful moments, a tapestry of cherished memories. May your heart be filled with love and gratitude. And may peace surround you and yours. Thank you for all you do!