*The judges will also accept “When The Mitt Hits The Fan”
Inside the Senate chamber, Republican senator Mitt Romney of Utah casts the lone dissenting vote in his party during the impeachment balloting. Before just four senators who chose to watch in person, the 72 year-old senator gives the speech of a lifetime. Not just his. Ours.
Watch as Mitt Romney gets choked up explaining that taking an oath before God is very important for him: "As a senator juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am." pic.twitter.com/J8UnFsYoKS
At least in the moment, this is the political equivalent of that dude in Tiananmen Square standing up to that tank back in the summer of 1989. But history will be very kind to Romney for having the courage to choose integrity over party loyalty.
Two days in a row, President Trump thought he’d be taking a victory lap and instead was upbraided first by Nancy Pelosi and now by Romney. As for the latter, his act of defiance took far more courage because it meant he had to break ranks.
And Romney’s fellow GOP senators all agree with him; they’re just too craven to stand up to the Bully-in-Chief for fear that their careers as GOP politicians will take a fatal blow. And maybe they’re right. Mitt’s simply too rich and too old (and he already lost his presidential run 8 years ago) to care.
All it takes is one decent human being to foment a revolution.
Kirk Out
Granite-jawed actor Kirk Douglas, most renowned for starring in Spartacus and for being the father of Michael Douglas, passes at the age of 102. Douglas was born in December, 1916, nearly five months before the day on which this year’s presumptive Oscar winner, 1917, takes place (April 6, 1917).
Other Douglas films to catch: Paths Of Glory and The Bad And The Beautiful.
Mayor B (But Which One?)
Seems that the Democratic race for president will be impacted mightily by one if not two men who answer to Mayor B: South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg, who appears to have inched out Bernie Sanders (by 1/10 of a percent) in the Iowa caucus and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who is running laps around all the other candidates in terms of ad spending.
Of the two, we think the incumbent hates the idea of facing Bloomberg, who turns 78 on Valentine’s Day, more than Buttigieg, 38.
Speaking of B-list candidates, we predict Joe Biden will be out of the race by mid-March. He’s the “No one can agree on any toppings, we’ll just get a plain cheese pizza” candidate, which might have worked before the entire Burma mess/Trump power play move. Now we feel people are just tired of it all. You read it here: Biden will drop out soon after Super Tuesday.
Run The Canyon
Here’s the story, from Outside magazine, of the nascent Canyon X Half-Marathon that is staged each November near famed Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona, on the Navajo Nation land.
If you have a trail-running and/or natural wonders jones, this race may be for you. But it’s not easy to reach. About a 90-minute drive north of Flagstaff, we reckon. But you’ve seen the pics of Antelope Canyon, yes you have.
Five Films: 2010
1. The Social Network: It opens with the greatest break-up scene in recent memory, as Rooney Mara tells Jesse Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg that the reason he’ll never be a great catch has nothing to do with his height or his jawline or his athleticism or his inability to be accepted into an eating club. It’s because he’s an asshole. It’s Sorkin at his very best. The rest of the film glides off this incredible opening scene.
2. True Grit: A remake, with Jeff Bridges in the John Wayne role as Rooster Cogburn. For those of us who never saw the original, this more than suffices.
3. 127 Hours: How interesting can 100-plus minutes of our protagonist literally being stuck between a rock and a hard place really be? Turns out, pretty interesting. How many of us would cut off our own arm in order to survive? I think I’d take the “L” there.
4. The Fighter: The ultimate “If he fights again, I’m taking the kids to my sister’s” film. But man, how outstanding is Christian Bale in this movie! He’s battling Ryan Gosling for best male actor under the age of 50.
5.The Town: Ben Affleck tries his hand at “Hey, what mighta happened to my character from ‘Good Will Hunting’ if Will did move away and I stayed behind? Not a classic, but there are some memorable scenes here. My favorite is when Jon Hamm shakes down Blake Lively. They’re both terrific in small roles.
Never saw: “Inception” or “Toy Story 3.” As for “The King’s Speech,” good but I’d rather binge-watch The Crown.
Editor’s Note: The author is one of my oldest and closest friends. We got to be good friends as RAs in our dorm senior year and that friendship has blossomed in the decades since, our lingua franca being music. If I were to compile a Greatest Hits of people I know, Randall would definitely make Side 1.–J.W.
*****
“….This is a song about two people trying to find their way home. ….this song’s kept me good company on my search, and I hope it’s kept you good company on yours.”
Bruce Springsteen – 4/27/1988 Introduction to Acoustic “Born to Run”, Chimes of Freedom
A few months ago my 24 year-old son moved to Vermont for a new job. A few days after making the journey— as he moved into a new apartment, new job, new life—he excitedly told me that he had found a cool local record store, and that he bought himself a turntable. The first album he bought was a doozy: Bruce Springsteen – Live 1975-1985. As I envied him the experience of hearing that sprawling 5-LP boxset with fresh ears— as I had for the first time in my South Bend down room on a cold November afternoon in 1986—I thought of a couple dusty boxes of albums that have moved with our family numerous times since we started our odyssey together in 1991. So, when we met him in upstate NY at my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, we brought along my collection of about 120 albums.
We started sorting the albums together, making piles and talking about the ones I thought he’d like the most. Some were familiar to him, but many were not. For me, each flip of an album cover brought back specific memories— of my life, my friends, my family: things we did, places we went that I thought I’d forgotten. I was also struck by surprisingly clear memories of the many varied reasons these works of art worked their way into my life— and how in the process they somehow wound up shaping that life into something different.
My collection spans artists and genres ranging from the 50’s to the 80’s, but my album acquisition “window” was actually quite narrow— with the prime years being roughly from 1978 (late middle school) to 1985 (early college years). Before 1979, I listened to music on the radio; starting in 1985, convenience and market forces shifted my purchases to cassettes and then just as quickly to CD.
Quite a few of the albums in “my collection” were inherited from my sister Kelly. Four years older than me, she mainly collected 45 rpm singles of Top 40 hits – but she also had some really great albums. The music I heard through that common wall between our bedrooms was the “gateway drug” that got me the start I needed – and has fueled years of listening, collecting and loving music ever since.
Faced with this broad array of albums spread across the floor, my son laughed and asked me a simple question: “So – where should I start?” Initially, I was hesitant to impose my bias onto his own musical journey. At the same time, I was equally anxious for him to find the gems – and avoid some of the more “peripheral” LPs in the collection he’d find if he wandered through these boxes without a compass of some sort. Wouldn’t want him to get the wrong idea about his Dad (I’m looking at you, Grease soundtrack) So, I offered him this list – my crème de la crème, the top 20 albums from my vinyl collection.
20: Highway to Hell – AC/DC (Key Track: Highway to Hell)
19: Van Halen – Van Halen (Key Track: Runnin’ with the Devil)
Despite my sister’s tastes leaning more toward 70’s easy listening/AM radio soft-rock hits (Seals and Crofts, The Carpenters, Bee Gees, Manilow…), it turns out Kelly could ROCK. These songs grabbed my ears and shook my head; they sounded nothing like what she usually played – and they sounded even better when you played them REALLY LOUD! I began to hear music in a whole new way, and an awkward middle school kid was introduced to a concept I now know as “Swagger”. I didn’t have that word in my vocabulary just yet, but these bands and their music were confident, cool, tough, dangerous, mysterious, and wild. Music started to shape the way I walked, the way I talked, how I saw the world, and how I saw myself. I certainly failed miserably in my clumsy attempts to channel what these guys had – but it didn’t matter. At least now I finally knew what I was shooting for.
18: Briefcase Full of Blues – Blues Brothers (Key Track: Hey Bartender)
Watching, remembering and quoting the best bits from SNL was one of the most important things my friends and I did together each week. I was never really sure if the Blues Brothers were meant to be taken seriously as “music”, or if it was all just one big joke – a skit that just kept going. In the end, there was no denying the chops and groove of that ridiculously talented band (I learned over the years that it pays to read liner notes and connect the dots) and how compelling and cool John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd were fronting that group. Turns out they were for real.
17: Beauty and the Beat – Go Gos (Key Track: How Much More)
Medium Happy has made the case for The Go Gos a number of times far better than I can, but I bought this album based solely based on their video for “Our Lips Are Sealed”. They were good looking, fun, talented (writing their own music, playing their own instruments) and sounded like nothing else in their time. The album as a whole delivers, pure pop/rock magic; they sound like a lost 60’s girl-group rebuilt for the 80’s, and they still sound great today, 40 years later in the 20’s.
16: The Cars – The Cars (Key Track: Good Times Roll)
Area Records was my regular “dealer”, and as far as I was concerned the coolest place on earth. A few of the guys who worked there were actual musicians in actual local bands; cool music always playing from the big system behind the counter, and the walls were covered with record promotions and posters. I browsed their racks for hours, reading and re-reading album covers – and my wishlist was always a long one. Whenever I had $7 or more in my pocket, I’d get myself to Area Records to get the next one on my list, adding to my small collection. One. Album. At. A. Time.
So, I am sure I went to the record store that Saturday afternoon in 1978 with a decent idea of that I was going to buy. But as I flipped through the stacks, I got up the nerve to ask the guy at the cash register what was playing over the speakers. He said “New band out of Boston called the Cars; they’re really cool”. Done. One of the best debuts ever, and the new wave was underway.
15: The Alarm – The Alarm EP (Key Track: For Freedom)
A few years later, now in high school, my browsing/flipping habit brought me to another unexpected find. The cover photo shows four silhouettes reflected in a puddle in brown and black; even though the photo had few really clear details, they have an undeniably Euro/Punk look – like a band of soldiers fighting for some justice. Flip it over, and the five-track listing confirms this hunch: “The Stand”; “Across the Border”; “Marching On”; “Lie of the Land”; “For Freedom”. That was enough for me – Sold! They never became the next U2 or the Clash like they seemed poised to do for a time, but they were earnest, talented and had something to say. The live club track “For Freedom” absolutely jumps with sweaty beer soaked pub intensity.
14: Especially for You – The Smithereens (Key Track: Behind the Wall of Sleep)
Another band I learned about through video; I saw the clip for “Behind The Wall of Sleep” on MTV in college, and to this day it is one of my favorite rock/pop songs. Many years before Google made this stuff easy, it took me a really long time to understand the reference of the mysterious dream girl who “had hair like Jeannie Shrimpton back in 1965”. This debut album showcases a great New Jersey band whose pop songwriting chops and jangly Mike-Buck guitars somehow never got them the level of fame and acclaim I thought they deserved.
13: One For the Road – the Kinks (Key Track: Lola)
12: Live at Budokan – Cheap Trick (Key Track: Clock Strikes Ten)
11: LIVE – You Get what You Play For – REO Speedwagon (Key Track: Keep Pushin’)
The live album was often the best value (songs/$) and a way to get started with a band. You get the biggest hits (played slightly faster than in the studio); along extended intros, guitar solos and drum solos. But for me, the primary appeal to me was the vicarious thrill of hearing rock bands laying it all out there for their adoring and screaming fans – and wishing you were there to experience that magic yourself.
If you know these groups primarily by their later/lighter work and “power ballads” (“Come Dancing”, “The Flame”, “Keep on Loving You”) – which are incidentally their biggest hits, you’re missing out. These collections are incredible revelations of bands who could really rock, who built their fan bases over years of playing live and winning over their audiences one by one, night after night. I know – and I hate to say it; but I really do like their old stuff better.
10: Alive – KISS (Key Track: “Black Diamond”)
At a time when the only real musicians I’d ever seen perform music live were the reception band at my cousin Linda’s wedding, the existence of a band like KISS on the same planet as me completely captured and consumed my pre-teen imagination. The makeup, costumes, fire, explosions, drums on risers – and the loud, dark, heavy music they played. I used to stare at the grainy photo of the Detroit crowd on the back cover of the album – and the fans who look now as if they came straight from the set of Dazed and Confused. Did they have any idea what they were about to witness together? Was there any experience as life-changing and DNA re-arranging that could compare with a KISS concert? I was certain there wasn’t, and I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to join a crowd of the faithful at a real rock concert and see for myself.
9: I Don’t Want to Go Home – Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (Key Track: “I Don’t Want to Go Home”)
My first real rock show in 1980 was nothing like a KISS concert. No pyro, loud guitars, explosions or flames in a huge arena. This was well-oiled bar band playing a gig for the local college at a small theater in my hometown. The costumes these guys wore were wide brimmed hats, colorful suits and skinny ties. They looked like small-time gangsters; cool, but maybe a couple years out of date. No Ace Frehley guitar solos and power chords; the musical highlights of this R&B/Soul/Blues/Jersey Rock and Roll show were played on the trombone by a guy called “LaBamba” and harmonica solos by the lead singer – Southside Johnny. Like I said, it was nothing remotely like a KISS concert – and it turns out I had been wrong in how I thought seeing a great band live could “change my life”. I’d underestimated that notion; by a longshot.
This album joined my collection the next morning. The liner notes on the back cover described a Jersey Shore music scene that sounded far too cool to be real, populated with colorful characters whose dedication to their music and their lifestyle together made them sound more like soldiers in some righteous cause than mere musicians. “It was music as survival, and they lived it down in their souls, night after night”. The essay was written by a guy I’d never heard of, apparently some friend of Southside Johnny – named Bruce Springsteen.
8: Dedication – Gary US Bonds (Key Track: “This Little Girl”)
A year later, it’s 1981 – and Bruce Springsteen is my favorite rock star. (Full disclosure – he still holds that position 41 years later and counting…) I’m consuming everything I can get my hands on from Bruce Springsteen, going back to his 1973 debut up to his latest release at the time, the sprawling double album The River.
I read in Circus magazine that Bruce and fellow E Streeter Steve Van Zandt were working together on a “comeback” album for an old 60’s rock and roll guy named Gary US Bonds (at that time floundering on the oldies circuit at a whopping 42 years old!) Bruce used to play his early hit “Quarter to Three” as an encore in his live shows – which I’d seen dozens of times on HBO from the No Nukes concert film.
Comprised of some songs left over from The River sessions and some well-selected covers, this album finds Springsteen sharing his talent, reputation and his band to help Gary US Bonds launch a second career arguably stronger than his first. For fans of Bruce Springsteen, this was a welcome jolt of “new” Bruce music; the album leverages the classic E Street Band sound throughout. In essence it is an E Street album with a different lead singer.
7: Glass Houses – Billy Joel (Key Track: “You May Be Right”)
My sister really liked Billy Joel, and she played his records quite a bit. But songs like “Piano Man”, “Movin’ Out”, and “Just the Way You Are” were not rock and roll to me. Late one night I came across a video of this band in their new-wave suits with skinny ties and new guitar driven songs, with Billy Joel jumping around his piano and shadow boxing like a reborn Jerry Lee Lewis. I bought Glass Houses with birthday money, and can still recall the thrill of hearing the first track open with the sound of shattering glass and the intro riff to “You May Be Right”. It still hits me the same way today; I’ve never gotten tired of it. The adolescent rock and roll bravado of wooing a girl with a shrugging claim that “You may be right, I may be crazy; but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for….” Irresistible to a 14 year old trying to look/act/be cool.
6: Road to Ruin – Ramones (Key Track: “I Just Wanna Have Something to Do”)
I was aware of the Ramones as the NYC leaders of the “Punk Rock” movement, but that was it. In 1980 I saw “Rock and Roll High School” on HBO, and then I followed their handy monthly program guide to be sure I was there to watch it again as many times possible. Not the whole movie; mostly just the scene early in the film where the Ramones roll into town in a convertible , driving up to the theater where they are playing their big show. The was before MTV made its way into my house, and this “music video” for “I Just Wanna Have Something to Do” is 3 minutes of greasy 3 chord Ramones Punk/Rock/Pop. The movie isn’t great; it’s a cartoon-like high school farce about a cartoon-like rock band – and so it’s actually pretty great.
5: Damn the Torpedoes – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Key Track: “Refugee”)
The best album from my sister collection, and Tom Petty’s best (as least up until Wildflowers, nearly 20 years later). I read in a magazine once that the Heartbreakers were “the best band this side of E Street”, and the similarities between the two bands and the two singers/songwriters leading them are many. Medium Happy and I agree strongly on this one. Talk to anyone between 20 and 70 about music, and I doubt you’ll find anyone who will say they don’t like Tom Petty. Now name another artist/singer/band that has the same universal and unanimous appeal…..
4: Blow Your Face Out – J Geils Band (Key Track: “Musta Got Lost”)
The stereo in my bedroom was always tuned to WCMF 96.5/96 ROCK from Rochester NY. I came into the middle of a song where this guy was telling a crazy rhyming story about trying desperately to win back his woman…. “you gonna be playing bingo all night alone, that’s why your sitting there by your telephone – and you know that she ain’t going to CALL YOU!” It was the brilliant introduction to what WCMF deejay Brother Weeze told me was the live version of “Musta Got Lost”.
The album is a total houseparty, and the band as masterful, funky and fun as any you can name. This was several years before they had huge MTV hits with glossier, polished songs like “Centerfold” and “Freeze Frame”. The J Geils Band released three live albums between 1972 and 1982; taken in order they measure the band’s journey from bluesy/funky/R&B bar band to a period of selling out arenas. They are all amazing – but this double album is my favorite.
3: Men Without Women – Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul (Key Track: “Forever”)
In September 1982, Bruce released his stark acoustic album Nebraska. For fans starving for several years for new Springsteen music, it’s fair to say this release was a bit of a shocker – and even a disappointment on its first listen. No E Street Band, no electric guitar – these desperate songs about criminals and people struggling were not going to be played at anyone’s party. For that album we’d have to wait almost two more years.
One week after Nebraska’s release, Bruce’s guitar player released his first solo album. Springsteen’s right-hand man and consigliere Steve Van Zandt (also a founding member, primary songwriter and producer of the Asbury Jukes) rechristened himself Little Steven and formed a big band with horns called the Disciples of Soul. Building on and ultimately perfecting the signature Jersey Shore sound of the Jukes, this album is rich with raw and stinging guitars, shimmering horns, and songs sung with soul, passion and commitment.
Nebraska has gone on to be cited as one of Bruce Springsteen’s crowning achievements, and I don’t disagree. But for this 17 year old, Men Without Women was the album spending time spinning on my turntable.
2: Making Movies – Dire Straits (Key Track: “Tunnel of Love”)
I first heard this album coming out of my friend’s car stereo one cool but sunny afternoon in early spring. A group of us tossed lacrosse balls in our High School parking lot. We told ourselves we were trying to get a little head start on the upcoming season, but we were really just talking and laughing about things that High School friends do. I remember missed passes that bounced away, only to be stopped eventually in the piles of dirty gray snow piled under the light posts and outlining the parking lot. We’d argue over who needed to “get on their horse” and chase the ball – was that a missed catch, or a bad pass?
I recall the details of that afternoon every time I listen to this album. Is it that this collection of seven songs is just simply so expertly written, played and arranged/produced? Because it is. Or is it because this music just happened to serve as the soundtrack to one of those days in our youth that – looking back – was actually pretty much perfect, even if we didn’t know it at the time? Of course, its both.
1: Darkness on the Edge of Town – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Key Track: “The Promised Land”)
I got my first copy of my favorite album from the local public library; I taped it onto cassette and played it to death in our car stereo, on my portable AM/FM/Cassette “boombox”, and in my vintage Walkman. This album includes some of Bruce Springsteen’s most classic songs and enduring themes of struggle, faith, resolve and determination. It’s also one of the band’s best sounding albums. If you listen to The Promised Land starting at 1:40, you get what I believe is the most perfect distillation of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s magic in a one minute musical passage. It’s all there: tinkling piano, swelling organ, stinging guitar, roaring saxophone, concluding with a harmonica refrain into the song’s final chorus.
This album – and the numerous live bootlegs of the ’78 tour/era – represent what I consider the peak creative output of my favorite artist and his band. The songs on Darkness inspire, challenge, and celebrate. There’s a Darkness on the Edge of Town – but we face those challenges with resilience and defiance.
A few weeks after getting the boxes of records to Danny, we made our first visit to his new apartment in Burlington. After a quick tour and dropping off our bags, he asked me to check out his record player. He told me he really loved the way it sounds – far different from the wireless Bluetooth speaker streaming tracks from Spotify we would typically use.
He asked what I wanted to hear, and I deferred; “Your choice – let me know what you think sounds good.” He grabbed a disc, dropped the needle, and a couple snaps and pops cut through the speakers. And then I heard the familiar drum riff that kicks off “Badlands.” I turned it up a bit louder and broke into a broad smile. “You’re right,” I said. “It sounds great!”
At the conclusion of Donald Trump’s State Of White America speech, House majority leader Nancy Pelosi tore up his speech. I’d like to say that while I consider Pelosi’s defiant act “inappropriate,” I am going to choose to not hold her accountable in any way for it. And I believe that she has learned her lesson.
Also, I may have been suspended from Twitter for suggesting that if it’s between Rush Limbaugh and lung cancer, I’d give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to lung cancer.
John Lewis is a civil rights hero whose skull was fractured by state troopers with nightsticks on the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Rush Limbaugh, his new neighbor on the list of Medal of Freedom recipients, is a racist hatemonger. Don’t just take my word for ithttps://t.co/Jc797OLVp5
The Dodgers land 2019 American League MVP Mookie Betts in a trade with the Red Sox, who are no longer apparently interested in winning. Betts is 27, and pairing him with 2019 National League MVP Cody Bellinger makes the Dodgers the team to beat in the N.L., if not all of baseball this season.
The Astros remain the team to bean, but the Dodgers are the team to beat.
Saline Solution
Well, we can at least thank this white parent for demonstrating why this parents gathering in Saline, Michigan, was necessary. For the record, I have a grandfather from Italy who spoke broken English at best and a step-grandmother who never learned English. I imagine this man, who seems about my age, may have similar ancestors. Amazing how hateful Americans can become in just a generation or two.
Question Mark
Three weeks after securing a $4.3 million contractual guarantee for remaining Michigan State’s football coach through January 15, Spartan coach Mark Dantonio retires. On social media Dantonio thanks Sparty nation for helping make his dreams come true. I’ll say.
Dantonio, who finishes 114-57 in East Lansing (a perfectly on the mark .6667 win percentage), also exits one day after new NCAA allegations surface against him and his program. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
This Is Everything
This is what real love and appreciation looks like.
Watch this incredible moment as Jane Goodall and team release a rehabilitated chimp back into the wild. pic.twitter.com/NCUA8hTesN
There may be no more aptly named person on the planet than Jane Goodall. The moment here when the chimpanzee hugs her… that is everything in life worth striving for. What a stunning and beautiful moment. Give love. Give life.
Five Films: 2009
I might not have five films for this year, and yes, we should’ve waited and put The Hurt Locker in 2009. Here we go…
The Hangover: Bradley Cooper is terrific (“I should’ve been a cop”) and of course Zach Galifianikis steals the film (“I didn’t know they gave out rings at the Holocaust”). Then there’s the unexpected touches, such as Mr. Chow or the very dirty wedding singer. Definitely a rewatchable, even though you know where Doug is.
Inglourious Basterds: I don’t think of this as a great movie so much as a decent Tarantino film with three outstanding and tense scenes: the opening inquisition of the French farmer, the strudel scene, and the pub scene. I still don’t understand why Diane Kruger is not a bigger star. Christoph Waltz was a total unknown but he put a stranglehold on the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Crazy Heart: Jeff Bridges, in an Oscar-winning role, is like what Nic Cage’s Leaving Las Vegas character mighta been if only he could play the guitar. Was Kris Kristofferson too old for the role he was born to play (again)? Note: One of two great songs in this film, “The Weary Kind,” was written and performed by Ryan Bingham, which is also the name of George Clooney’s character in Up In The Air (also released this year). I actually like “Fallin’ and Flyin'” much better, and it’s a far more radio-friendly pop confection, but Oscar didn’t even nominate it cuz it’s not sad enough. Colin Farrell as Bridge’s former protege who makes it big is an unlikely likable character.
District 9: Nothing like a little dystopia and an allegory on racism and apartheid to entertain us. This is so well done. If you haven’t seen it, trust me, it’s worth it.
Adventureland: A sweet and poignant coming-of-age film about working at a C-list amusement park during the summer after high school. Starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart but Ryan Reynolds’ been-there-humped-that amusement park vet is worth keeping your eye on.
Never saw: “Up.” Saw-but-it-hit-too-close-to-home: “Up In The Air.”
*******
Quick Hitters: “The Joy Of Cooking Naked” is the New York Times story that will ruin your appetite… Tesla stock soars as much as $165 yesterday before crashing in the final 20 minutes of trading; it opened yesterday at $882, peaked at $968.99, and then dropped back down to $887, or $105 more than it had closed the day before. We saw a note on CNBC’s “Fast Money” that said you could have put in a call for TSLA over $900 that would’ve cost you five cents–a nickel!—and paid off $100. Which is to say that if you spent $100 on that call you’d now have $200,000. That’s rather insane, no?… Pete Buttigieg seems to have been the winner in Iowa, but then Donald Trump didn’t win in Iowa four years ago in the Republican caucus, so; it’s only just begun, folks; and like him or not, approve of his buying into the race or not, Mike Bloomberg is the candidate who will most get under Trump’s skin…
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said all Americans should “stand proudly” during the national anthem, and publicly chastises those who don’t as disrespectful of the troops. https://t.co/NBptiSRyQQ
I’m sorry, why was everyone angry with Colin Kaepernick again?
Starting Five
Iowait
From Des Moines to Dubuque it was caucus chaos, as a new app and a phone hot line failed. Only the Democrats could hold an election/primary/caucas consisting of no one but their own and still fail to produce a winner.
STOP EVERYTHING and listen to this. You'll understand exactly what the problem is (not kidding). pic.twitter.com/w3sL0a1d1u
Pile this on top of what promises to be an incredibly robust day in the stock market and tomorrow’s impeachment acquittal vote and it all adds up to one incalculably insufferable State Of The Union speech later this evening.
The race for the presidency has only just begun and the Donkey party have already made asses of themselves. This is like playing Monopoly and you’ve just been ordered to go back 3 spaces.
Up Schiff’s Creek
History will not be kind to Donald Trump.
Because truth matters. Right matters. And decency matters.
It may be midnight in Washington, but the sun will rise again.
The Democrats are also going to lose tomorrow in the Senate chamber, but at least congressman Adam Schiff will earn an A+ in oration and rhetoric. This is a brilliant speech, but alas, it’s a little bit like having the Rolling Stones open for Baby Shark. Still worth a listen.
Trail Oregon
In Storrs, No. 2 Oregon doesn’t just overcome the ordinarily insuperable home-court advantage the Huskies own (last loss: 2013) at Gampel Pavilion, but the Ducks rout them: 74-56.
The Ducks led 10-2 early and rarely did UConn ever get the lead lower than that the rest of the night. It was 19-12 in the waning seconds of the first quarter, UConn ball, and then Oregon got a steal. The Ducks pushed it up court, made the extra pass, and one of their bigs took a three just before the buzzer sounded. Swish. 22-12. Ball game.
Geno witnessed UConn’s ugliest night ever in Gampel. Things you never thought you’d live to see
Geno Auriemma, who donned a Kobe Bryant shirt under his blazer, had NEVER seen his Huskies lose by this much in the 30 years of Gampel’s existence (1990). And to watch them be out-UConn’ed on their home floor…. surreal.
Oregon is a fascinating squad. Sabrina Ionescu is their recognized first-team All-American, but then there are the Sabally sisters (Satou and Nyara, the former of whom put up 17 and 10) of Berlin; 6’5″ Lucy Cochrane and 5’9″ point guard Jaz Shelley of Australia; 6’4″ forward Ruthy Hebard (22 and 12) of Fairbanks, Alaska; and guard Holly Winterburn of England.
Oh, and this shouldn’t matter, but Geno was never shy about understanding it doesn’t hurt to have strong, attractive and feminine players: the women on this Ducks team are “gaw-jus!”
This wasn’t the most talented team to ever visit Gampel Pavilion, not at all. But it was a confident one, one that recalls losing to UConn in the Elite Eight in Bridgeport a few years back, and this is also the weakest Husky squad Geno has fielded in ages, perhaps even back to 1990.
Bueckers, a 5’11” guard from the Twin Cities area, is considered the nation’s No. 1 recruit
Paige Bueckers, a high school senior from Minnesota considered the nation’s top player who has been committed to the Huskies for two-plus years, cannot get there soon enough.
“You Don’t Support The Troops”
This essay from Drew Magary on medium.com is freakin’ tremendous. And if you think what he is saying is unpatriotic, try again. He’s actually calling out the legions of faux patriots who think that someone else’s suffering and sacrifice gives them the right to puff out their chests and bellow, ” ‘Merica.”
If someone ever hires me to teach a journalism class (and why haven’t any of you???), this essay is being taught to my students. This is how you write an opinion piece. God bless you, Drew Magary!
Five Films: 2008
Coming off the century’s best year, 2007, you have to be prepared for a minor let-down. The good news is that it’s not as precipitous a fall that faced the protagonist of our No. 2 film on this list (fortunately, he never found out how that would’ve felt).
In Bruges: Come for Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson’s bittersweet and doomed friendship but stay for Ralph Fiennes’ hilarious turn as a mob boss. What a wonderfully idiosyncratic little film, and our favorite ever set in Belgium.
Man On Wire: The true story of the most audacious non-violent criminal enterprise perpetrated by foreigners upon the World Trade Center. Again, bittersweet to see this after 9/11 as it harkens to a more innocent era in the U.S. and abroad. It’s hard to believe this really happened, yet I remember it as a boy. What stays with you after you see it is the perpetrators of this prank looking back and realizing that the planning and execution was the most thrilling time of their lives.
The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow directs the most tense and least jingoistic film made about the Iraq War. There must be a metaphor about this all blowing up in our faces, no?
Slumdog Millionaire: An implausible yet delicious plot conceit sends us on our way into a boy’s struggle for survival in India overlapped by his highly unlikely and suspenseful climb to the summit of a quiz show. Wondefully told, magical and harrowing at the same time. The kind of story Frank Capra would have loved to tell.
Gran Torino: Go ahead, take my car. Clint Eastwood plays Dirty Harry in the suburbs of Detroit.
Almost made list: “Taken.” Never saw but want to: “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Never saw but don’t need to: “Doubt,” “The Reader,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Synecdoche, New York.”
Odds and ends: The coronavirus has now been responsible for more deaths (427) than the 737 Max (346), but don’t worry, NRA: You’ve still killed more Americans in 2020 (1,387, and that excludes suicides) than the coronavirus and 737 Max combined… Yes, we’re taking a victory lap on yesterday’s Tesla (TSLA) call, where it was up $129 (or 19.89%) and it’s already up another $111 (14%) in today’s pre-market. Now here’s today’s stock tip: roll some of those earnings and any pocket change you have into Disney (DIS), which reports after the bell and just announced that it will be releasing Hamilton as a movie (with the original cast…it was filmed their final week together a few years back, so it’s not like Rent where they got the cast back together 10-plus years later) in October of 2021. I’ll be surprised if Disney’s not up at least 5 to 10% between today’s opening minutes and tomorrow’s. And if you can afford to pass up a 5 to 10% gain over one day, good for you.
Burying the lede: We can’t (afford to). Our very successful restaurant, which had been in operation since World War II and whose owners also owned the building in which it was housed (read: they did not even have to fork over a ridiculously high monthly rent), closed last month. We employees were given three days’ notice. Three days. Oh, and a $200 “severance” for remaining the final three days. Turns out the owners—three generations of the same family, all still living—got an offer they couldn’t refuse (and not in the Corleone way) and decided they’d rather be full-time landlords and/or retirees. Rent, I hear, will be approaching $100K per month on the restaurant. Yes, you read that right. So, we’re retired. Again. As Arthur Fleck would say (or dance to), “That’s life/That’s what people say…”
Late Friday night, the Senate votes 51-49 against hearing witnesses and receiving evidence. Not against impeachment. Against witnesses.
As Bill Maher put it, “Republican senator Lamar Alexander is retiring and 79 and that still wasn’t enough cover.”
The takeaway: from here on out, the Republicans will do whatever it takes to remain in power, law be damned. Just think: If they have a majority in both the House and the Senate, there’s a chance they can simply impeach any future Dem. president they want just based on, excuse the ironic pun, trumped up charges.
K.C. Takes LIV
When they go high, we go J Lo
The San Francisco 49ers took a 10-point lead on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV. How could they be so dumb? The Chiefs recovered from being down 24-0 in their playoff opener, then trailed by 10 in the AFC Championship game, and then again by 10 last night in the fourth quarter. You’d think someone would have learned by now to force the Chiefs to set the pace.
You know, as concerned as I am about the geographic inaccuracy here, I’m also fine with this guy keeping the word Missouri out of his mouth. pic.twitter.com/2FqetDRK3Z
(The president does not know which state Kansas City is located in, but again, I’m just a coastal elite pointing this out and after all the president loves America cuz he said so)
There’s more than a little of the old Notre Dame Box in there. The spins are an especially inspired touch. https://t.co/FGOeRS1ZH3
You’ve probably already seen this bit by CBS This Morning‘s Tony Dokoupil, but if you haven’t, I encourage your viewership. A few observations:
–Notice how dead the mall is. In my teens, the suburban mall was the town square. It’s what the High Street was in renaissance-era England, what Main Street was in Eisenhower’s USA. Malls were places of congregation. Go back and watch the first 10 minutes of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Now? Malls are dying. And in a way, that’s sad as you are currently staring into the screen that is the substitute for community.
–Notice how no one is close to being correct. The majority of Americans have no understanding of just how great the disparity is between the top 10% and the rest of us, how concentrated the wealth is.
–Notice the rich private equity guys, John Sheffield and Mark Tedford. They own and operate a private-equity firm in New Canaan, Conn., called Valley Ridge Investment Partners. Pro tip: hedge fund managers love to name their companies after objects in nature as if their operation is holistic and organic when what it’s really all about is making the wealthy even wealthier. Greedy Bastards Investment Partners is more on the nose, but you’ll never see it.
–Anyway, one of them uses the logic that the people with all the wealth just worked harder. That’s the same straw man that CNBC’s Joe Kernen uses. So let’s take that logic out for a walk. An emergency room surgeon had to take the MCATs, to get into medical school, to pass the boards, graduate from medical school, and then do at least four years of post-grad residency. He or she earns an average of $320,000 per year. Which is a very good living. But you know what? My guess is that Sheffield and Tedford earn 10x that.
Now, yes, each earned an MBA but my gut here tells me that they didn’t work harder than the ER doc to get where they are. The taxes that folks like Warren and Sanders are proposing are not targeting the ER docs or even the plastic surgeons whose income is closer to $1 million. It’s going after people worth $50 million or more. There’s no comparison.
On Valley Ridge’s website, they actually state one of their principles as being “believe in doing well by doing good.” So I’m trying to imagine a birthday party they’re invited to where 2 of every 5 people don’t get a piece of cake but one guy gets four pieces. Is there any party or place where that would be seen as anything but naked avarice?
You’ve heard me preach this before, but for the folks in back: The concentration of wealth’s main goal is to concentrate the wealth even further. And to keep all of those outside the gates happy they use (then… and now) religion and (now) team sports to placate the masses. Add in sub-standard education to keep them ignorant and then play up nationalism and militarism so that they’ll be dumb enough to want to fight wars that aren’t actually about protecting their homeland, which is a good way to skim off thousands of future sperm donors from the population. It’s a devious but wonderful plan and it’s worked for centuries for various empires.
If and when there is an eventual revolt, it won’t be centrist or logical. It will be violent and extremist, which is how you got the Bolshevik revolution. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Nor should it.
I can only speak for myself: I don’t care if the richest 1% remains that way and has so much more money than the rest of us; but they should pay way more in taxes than they currently do or else they should pay their work force better. One way or the other, it’s going to come back to bite them in the ass.
Listen Up: Tesla!
The namesake
So… last Friday the stock market plunged nearly 600 points. And you know what Tesla stock did, after having already shot up 100 points since Tuesday? It went up another 10 points.
It’s up 26 points (dollars) in pre-market trading this morning. We may not be on Yacht tracking yet, but we’re here to tell you as we told you back on January 7 when TSLA was trading at $450 and we urged you to buy (for your own benefit): BUY TESLA!
Even now. Even at $676.
A few things: A London newspaper or two has stopped taking ads for oil companies… Jim Cramer has said he’ll stop recommending oil stocks… the groundhog came out yesterday announcing that there’ll be an early spring but as anyone who’s spent the past month in New York City already knows, it’s basically been late March all winter… the vehicular energy of the future, the near future, will be batteries; gas stations will go the way of the hitching post… meanwhile, autonomous driving is slowly taking over. As Josh Brown noted on CNBC on Friday, cars are incrementally doing more of the work that we humans used to do (warning us if we’re too close to a car in front of us or if we’re straying outside of our lanes) and we don’t seem to mind because we’re too busy swiping right on Tinder on our phones… autonomous driving will be the way of Uber and Lyft (more profits if you don’t have to pay your drivers), which is why you may also want to consider investing in them, but it’s also probably that those companies will lean heavily on the leader in the class, Tesla.
I don’t know if Tesla is a once-in-a-lifetime stock, like say Apple or Microsoft, but it is a once-in-a-decade stock, like Netflix or even Amazon. It was only four years ago when people were saying Amazon’s price was too frothy at nearly $700 per share. It’s now almost 3 times that at $2022.
Don’t listen to what President Trump and his hoo-ha red-state Senator sycophants are saying about “clean, beautiful coal” or oil and gas. The big money, the smart money, is preparing for the future. And they are investing in clean energy. It’s our last, best hope. And no company currently better embodies that than Tesla.
Maybe you passed on Tesla as it broke through $500. And $600. It’s going to be a $1,000 stock, maybe even this year. It’s not too late. Help me help you.
UPDATE: Tesla closed at $642 on Friday. Right now, 19 minutes into trading on Monday morning, it’s up $56 per share to $698. Should break through $700 this morning.
Five Films: 2007
In terms of quality at the top, this may be the best year, the SEC West, of the century. Every one of these films I’d gladly watch again, although I might need a milkshake before I sat down for No. 3.
No Country For Old Men: Easily makes my top five of the past two decades and the one Best Picture winner of the lot I wholeheartedly agree with. Who is Anton Chigur? Is he a killer for hire gone rogue? Or is he fate? Call it.
Charlie Wilson’s War: I don’t know why this movie did not receive more love when it was released. You’ve got two all-times in starring roles (Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts) and the late great Philip Seymour Hofman stealing every scene he’s in. An Aaron Sorkin script. This was not even nominated for Best Picture. WUT!?! Highly entertaining while also providing a history lesson from not so long ago (one we are in danger of repeating b/c we didn’t pay attention).
There Will Be Blood: Paul Thomas Anderson is showing off more than a little here, with set piece scenes such as Paul Dano’s superb sermon scene and, of course, the final scene (“I drink your milkshake!”). The film feels as if Giant that had a fling with Citizen Kane. It’s excellent, but the first two films on this list have more viewer-friendly stories to tell.
Michael Clayton: We love to think of George Clooney as charming and funny, a reincarnation of Cary Grant. From the little I know, Grant’s darkest roles came in Hitchcock thrillers. Here, Clooney, having come off an outstanding but unglamorous role in Syriana, is again playing the black sheep hero. Except this time he wins. This is a highly underrated film.
Zodiac: This is such a terrific David Fincher-y film, with outstanding performances by Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr. The Zodiac killer tale never came to a clean end as he was never apprehended, and that leaves the third act of this film a little flat. But there’s so much that’s so good.
