Please allow me to introduce myself...

Where culture and politics meet, sometimes humorously

Greetings, and thanks for taking a look, as I navigate during this pandemic from Subterranean Homesick Blues to Substack. Even after subscribing, you will, of course, want to know what’s likely to ensue (especially if you have not followed my Twitter or Facebook feeds), so here’s a brief preview. Apologies to those who may know much of the bio part of what follows.

Music: Every day you will be greeted with a song (often with video), which may be well chosen considering that I was the #2 editor at Crawdaddy from 1971-1979. While the selections will often go back to that decade or before, I am also a huge fan of, say, Jason Isbell and Brandi Carlile. And look for exclusive excerpts from a rough draft of my memoir-in-progress of the Crawdaddy years, including when I helped “discover” Springsteen in 1972. Finally, note that I have also co-produced an acclaimed film, and co-authored a book, about Beethoven, so look for a little Ludwig, my droogies. See way down below for today’s first song pick…

Politics & Media: Plenty of this, often with humorous daily barbs, from the lessons of the insurrection at the Capitol forward into the Biden years. I’ve written four books on key American elections—The Campaign of the Century was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever on an American election—plus media failures on the Iraq war, the horrors of capital punishment, and the dangers of nuclear weapons from 1945 to now. The Tunnels, on escapes under the Berlin Wall, was a recent bestseller and now prepped for a major movie. As for the media: All of my books have major media components. I was the editor of Editor & Publisher from 2001 to 2009 and then wrote the media blog at The Nation for five years.

Films: I watch more indie, foreign and doc films than most and will provide recommendations (or critiques). I’ve also just finished writing and directing my first film, Atomic Cover-up, on the suppression of shocking footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which premiered in Europe this month and was recently submitted to a dozen U.S. film festivals. The Campaign of the Century has also just been optioned for a movie drama. My New York Times article last month reviewed how the new Fincher movie, Mank, portrayed the Upton Sinclair campaign that I explored in that book. My current book, The Beginning or the End—on the battle over the MGM movie on the atomic bomb—was selected one of the “21 Best Books of 2020” by Vanity Fair.

Photography: Yes, I will subject you almost daily to one of my images which some people, at least, think are pretty cool.

Well, I’ll leave it at that for now. (Note: Those with gmail may find this sent to your Promotions file at top). I hope you’ll “share” down below (or subscribe if you have not) and I look forward to your comments on any post. See you again soon, I hope. And here’s today’s first song pick, Woody Guthrie’s “All You Fascists Bound to Lose,” with Rhiannon Giddens.