Quick Note: As you may know, my latest film, “The Atomic Bowl:Football at Ground Zero—and Nuclear Peril Today” has been airing over PBS stations this past month and streaming via PBS (key links and more here). A companion e-book has been available but today it is also published as a paperback, and you can read more or order here. Thank you. And subscribing to this newsletter still somehow FREE.
Waking up to this:
Plane carrying EU’s top leader targeted by alleged Russian GPS jamming
The plane landed safely, the spokesperson said. A source familiar with the situation told CNN the pilots landed the plane using paper maps.
Lot of movie action at Telluride this weekend beyond the Springsteen bio-pic that we featured yesterday. For example, Ethan Hawke is screening his doc on the great Merle Haggard, “Highway 99.” And Claire Foy is starring in an adaptation of one of our favorite books, “H is for Hawk.” And there’s a new doc about Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, a show on which I appeared last month. More to come.
“I live union. I eat union. I think union. I see union. I walk it and I talk it. I sing it and I preach it.” – Woody
On Labor Day, this chart kind of says it all.
Also revealing, and focusing on an incident that helped spark the rise in opposition to unions in America: My recent PBS film, “Memorial Day Massacre.” The Emmy-nominated film that I wrote and directed, is no longer streaming though you can still watch the preview here. Or you can go to the main site for the film, where you can also read background and see early responses from notables. It is also available for schools, community groups and libraries and via DVD here at The Video Project.
It runs 27 minutes and is introduced by Studs Terkel, narrated by actor Josh Charles, produced by Lyn Goldfarb. The companion book is at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s the first oral history and features everyone from wounded strikers to observers Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn, Dorothy Day, John Hope Franklin, even Ayn Rand, and more.
Briefly: Chicago police shot 40 steel strikers and supporters (mainly in the back) and killed ten in 1937—and then the only footage of it, from Paramount News, was suppressed until a famed investigative reporter and crusading U.S. senator brought it to light. Still, no police were punished. The lessons and effects remain strong today as union activity surges again.
Laugh or cry or something in-between but this may be the last time The Who (that is, Pete and Roger) ever do “Baba O’Riley,” in NYC, at MSG on Saturday night. Pete still with signature windmill.
Marching Songs for Labor Day
Marianne Faithfull with stunning version of Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.”
Surprising “Solidarity Forever” from Leonard Cohen, 1970, at a sound check.
The great Paul Robeson, dreaming that he saw “Joe Hill” last night
Springsteen visits “Youngstown” live
Rosanne Cash channels Woody on “I Ain’t Got No Home?”
The Kinks pay tribute to their just-a-working-man “Uncle Son”
“I work for the union”: Richard Manuel cutting masterpiece “King Harvest” with The Band
From Tunes to Toons
Thank you sir. Happy Labor Day to you and all.
Happy Labor Day Greg!! Thanks for all your efforts.