Obama Returns, Young Men and Fire and Today's Cartoons

Plus John Oliver pursues Justice.

Still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

You may have heard that Obama appeared in finale of Larry David’s pretty pretty pretty mediocre mock-history HBO series over the weekend for another try with the Tan Suit so here is the seven-minute segment:

Also on HBO, John Oliver last night on Trump’s DOJ:

One of great story songs of our time, based on one of the best non-fiction books, was James Keelaghan’s “Cold Missouri Waters,” a brilliant re-telling of the Mann Gulch wildfire disaster via Norman Maclean’s “Young Men and Fire” (highly recommend that slim book). The aftermath led to important safety measures for those fighting such fires elsewhere. Now the folks at Nieman have provided a lengthy dissection of the song and interview with the far from famous songwriter. Here is the best-known version, with historic images, from Cry Cry Cry, the folkish group made up of Richard Shindell, Lucy Kaplansky and Dar Williams. About 25 years ago, I shouted out a request for the song at our little local folk club and Shindell obliged.

From Tune to Toons

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Goris:

Bagley:

Bramhall:

Wexler:

Andedson:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you: San Francisco Skyline