Positively: 4th Street, Pulitzers, Wim Wenders and Colbert

Plus the usual cartoons, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings and Stephen Miller as vampire.

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.

OKay, a lot to get to so let’s start: First, The Daily Show had a fun, fake if convincing film revealing Stephen Miller as vampire, “sucking the blood out of American democracy.”

Next, congrats to Ann Telnaes, one of our oft-featured cartoonists here, for winning a well-deserved Pulitzer yesterday—after quitting the Bezos-led Washington Post. Here is one of the cartoons in her submission:

I can also recommend this winning Gaza piece at The New Yorker, as well as fiction winning novel “James.”

Next, just out, a short film (four minutes) by the great Wim Wenders as he visits the school where the Nazis signed their unconditional surrender in 1945—leading to his plea re: Ukraine today.

Stephen’s monologue catches you up if you missed the latest Trump nuttiness, from tariffs to aid Hollywood to restoring Alcatraz. He did miss chance to call Trump “The Bald Man of Alcatraz.” Or “The Bird Brain of Alcatraz.”

Our two music picks today: We are surprised to learn in re-reading his “Chronicles” that Bob Dylan’s personal all-time favorite cover song was “Positively 4th Street” by Johnny Rivers.

Going to see Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings at Carnegie Hall tomorrow and wondering if they will play as an encore their not-their-usual-image “White Rabbit.”

From Tunes to Toons

There’s a major piece in The Atlantic getting a lot of attention, alleging a severe decline in culture (movies, music, books) this century, which includes these two illustrations taking off on classic paintings: