Politics, Music and New Films from Wes and Spike

Plus the usual cartoons. Birthday greetings from Dylan. Cajun classic.

May 20, 2025

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. At Blue Sky and Twitter: as @gregmitch. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.

Lot to get to today, quite a variety so we will hop around, here we go….

Here is Jon Stewart’s weekly monologue on The Daily Show last night:

Not a big Wes Anderson fan, but his new film purportedly skewers “the oligarchy,” we are told. Here is a one-minute teaser with a perhaps Trumpian Benicio Del Toro. We don’t know if Qatar gave him the plane. The nun is his daughter.

Speaking of oligarchs: Even though I am huge Kurosawa fan, I did not know that there’s a remake of his classic “High and Low” coming in a few days from Spike Lee called “Highest 2 Lowest.” This review certainly raises doubts in my mind but who knows (it will be in theaters for two weeks and then to Apple + right away). In the Toshiro Mifune role, Denzel Washington plays the wealthy exec whose son gets kidnapped by a scuffling young man, but in this version Denzel is owner of a hip hop music label and it’s NYC not Yokohama.

Enjoyed this Bob Dylan social media post yesterday sending good wishes to Pete Townshend on his 80th: “Happy birthday Pete. Who’s the new boss? Is he like the old boss? Have you met him yet? Say hello to Roger.” No reference to wishing he died before he got old.

Then there’s the “60 Minutes” segment this week on one of my longtime favorite musical forms and culture, New Orleans cajun and zydeco:

One of my favorite Cajun songs from the great Beausoleil which sort of introduced me to the genre back in the late-1970s before the attention brought by Paul Simon…