Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 134

Watching the Detectives

UPDATE   Today, writer at The Atlantic calls it the "best show on TV," and explains why.  David Fincher, eat your heart out.

Earlier: Everyone's buzzing about one of the great TV film/series feats ever--the six-minute-plus tracking shot, without a cut, that came near the end of last night's True Detective.  As you may know, I'm a big fan of the show and loved the first three episodes.  For me, nearly everything else about the series tops the kind of third-person-shooter focus of this clip, but one has to admit it is one frigging great piece of film-making.  Note:  It shows a rather improbable raid by a biker drug gang, which Rust Cohle (M.M.) has joined for this night as a means to getting to a serial killer.  The tracking shot start at the 40-second mark:

Paging Rust Cohle

Proud of my son, Andy Mitchell, out in L.A. with Ayzenberg, for creating, for Warner Bros. and Techland, brilliant trailer for much-anticipated "Dying Light" game.  Just posted today after months of work.

How the Beatles Integrated the Gator Bowl

Amazing tale, new to me, by reporter who traveled with the Beatles on tours of America in 1964 and 1965.  It describes how the lads learned that their upcoming concert at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville would be segregated--not unusual at the time but news to them.  "No fucking way" John replied and Paul was just as adamant, and others agreed.  With the date approached the boys chilled out in balmy...Key West (left).  John was pictured relaxing in the pool with a black girl group, which further enraged Southerners.  But there they learned that the promoters had caved--and the concert would be integrated. 

Shirley Temple, R.I.P.

The child star of all child stars passed away Monday night, still "only" 85.  Like other boomers, I first saw Shirley Temple via TV airings of her old movies during the 1950s, then followed her later, surprising, career as a GOP fundraiser and diplomat under several Republican presidents. right up to George H.W. Bush.   But my closest connection to her came as one of the featured celebs in my book, The Campaign of the Century (which, ahem, won the Goldsmith Book Prize).  The book explores the riotous and highly influential campaign for governor of California in 1934 waged by muckraking writer Upton Sinclair--leading one of the great populist movements ever, EPIC (for End Poverty in California).

He swept the Democratic primary and would have won the race if not for the groundbreaking union of big business leaders, conservative GOPers and Dems, religious leaders, and most of the Hollywood moguls.  Irving Thalberg even went out and created the first attack ads for the screen--faked anti-Sinclair newsreels.

Anyway:  the book also shows how Shirley Temple, then the country's most popular film star, was wooed by the right-wing moguls to get her--at age five--to come out against Sinclair and endorse Frank Merriam, the dull incumbent.  It's a pathetic, if funny, tale and ultimately she, sort of, did go along with that.  "It may hearten the cause of conservatism," a wire service reported, "to know that Shirley Temple has decided, after grave deliberation, that she disapproves of the Sinclair EPIC philosophy and is backing her opposition with a day's salary, even if she can not with a vote." Unstated was that this day's pay was not a request but a demand from the studio. Jean Harlow had recently caved in the same manner.

And so a lifetime as a key Republican was set...Shirley re-appears as a lively character in the new musical based on my book, Campaign of the Century.

Binge Reading

NYT with piece today on book publishers following the success of Netflix and other TV services which release an entire series of a program at one time for "binge" watching (see: House of Cards this week).  So they've started making large numbers of books, or at least trilogies, by the same author available at the same time.  So, keeping that spirit, let me point out that you can order a dozen of my books or e-books, from over the past twenty years, and binge on them (if you wish)!  Well, not quite the same thing, maybe, but you will find most of them pictured on the right side of this blog, with links to each and more also here. 

Watching the Detective

Everyone's buzzing about one of the great TV film/series feats ever--the six-minute-plus tracking shot, without a cut, that came near the end of last night's True Detective.  As you may know, I'm a big fan of the show and loved the first three episodes.  For me, nearly everything else about the series tops the kind of third-person-shooter focus of this clip, but one has to admit it is one frigging great piece of film-making.  Note:  It shows a rather improbable raid by a biker drug gang, which Rust Cohle (M.M.) has joined for this night as a means to getting to a serial killer.  The tracking shot start at the 40-second mark:

Feeling Spent

Last year I wrote about the online poverty-simulation game called Spent--yes, you read that correctly--that offers players this challenge: You're a single parent who's just lost your home and job, and you're down to your last $1,000. Now choose wisely enough among your limited options so that you won't end up homeless. It was developed by Urban Ministries of Durham, which maintains a homeless shelter, and the North Carolina-based ad agency McKinney. More than 2 million have played it since its launch in 2011, and the only way I've ever "won" is by forgoing health insurance and "extras" like fresh food. At least the Affordable Care Act is supposed to help with one of those issues.

But with 4.8 million American earning only minimum wage, there's a perilous number of people who can't possibly stay afloat--let alone "win"-- in this economy. The New York Times has teamed up with Pro Publica to show exactly how the deck is stacked against minimum wage earners by creating a state-specific interactive feature where you, as a single, childless worker, enter the amounts you spend on everything from housing to taxes. Then it shows you how many more hours a week you'll need to work--or how much you'll have to go into debt--in order to make ends meet. 
The site notes with some understatement that  "you may find that even your rock-bottom expenses aren’t met and that you have to work more hours, pay your bills late, borrow money or do without."
To millions of Americans, that's no game. --Barbara Bedway

U.S. Wants to Drone Kill But Must Pause

Fascinating AP story by Kimberly Dozier on this brave new world: The U.S. has allegedly IDed an American citizen helping al-Qaeda to plan to strike USA and is ready to drone strike him dead but now has to go through certain channels--egad!--so must wait.  The issue, as usual, is,well, read on:

Four U.S. officials said the American suspected terrorist is in a country that refuses U.S. military action on its soil and that has proved unable to go after him. And President Barack Obama's new policy says American suspected terrorists overseas can only be killed by the military, not the CIA, creating a policy conundrum for the White House.

Two of the officials described the man as an al-Qaida facilitator who has been directly responsible for deadly attacks against U.S. citizens overseas and who continues to plan attacks against them that would use improvised explosive devices.

New World Order, Downton Edition

The Washington Post's chief economics policy writer, Steven Mufson, has an eight-point primer on how the financial travails of Downton Abbey's Grantham family and its servants reflect our current financial upheavals. 
Viewers should recognize their own precarious economic times in Mrs. Patmore's epic struggle to master the new technological advances invading her kitchen, Molesley's downward mobility from butler to footman, and Lord Grantham's inept investments that result in the loss of nearly all his wife's fortune. (Mufson points out that a 21st-century Lord Grantham would likely have fallen for subprime mortgages or perhaps a Bernie Madoff feeder fund. His son-in-law did talk him out of investing with that most compelling American businessman, Charles Ponzi.)
At least Lord Grantham--unlike, say, CEO Peter "Workers don't starve in a capitalist economy" Schiff--does feel a social and moral obligation toward the people working on his estate. He allows the son of a deceased tenant farmer to remain, and loans him the money to pay the back taxes.  
But Mr. Molesley's situation--during a time of 12 percent unemployment-- is perhaps most emblematic of the 21st- century precariat. The article quotes Harvard economist Eric S. Maskin: “I see Molesley as the 1920s counterpart of the contemporary highly skilled worker in manufacturing — left behind by changed circumstances." (h/t nakedcapitalism.com)

Meanwhile:  Pigs are to supposed to save the bacon of the Grantham family, as Lady Mary herself punned in last night's episode that had her mucking about in pig slop as she helps to pump and carry water to the newly delivered but accidentally  dehydrated pigs (a knocked-over trough sets the potential catastrophe in motion.)  The Guardian, wanting to confirm the validity of that premise,  checked in with farmer Bruce Garside, who loaned his own pigs to the show. He indeed confirms the premise, but notes "an economically viable pig operation – not to mention one that could save a castle – would probably have to be a bit larger than the one you see on Downton."--Barbara Bedway

First Look

The new Pierre Omidiyar media project (with Glenn Greenwald) just launched its first effort, its digital magazine, The Intercept.  Leads with Jeremy Scahill and Greenwald on "NSA's Secret Role in U.S. Assassination Program."   Greenwald, Scahill and Laura Poitras also offer a welcome.

Our focus in this very initial stage will be overwhelmingly on the NSA story. We will use all forms of digital media for our reporting. We will publish original source documents on which our reporting is based. We will have reporters in Washington covering reactions to these revelations and the ongoing reform efforts.

We will provide commentary from our journalists, including the return of Glenn Greenwald’s regular column. We will engage with our readers in the comment section. We will host outside experts to write op-eds and contribute news items.

Twitter feed @the_intercept.  Scahill and Greenwald appeared on Democracy Now! this morning.

The WikiLeaks official Twitter feed responded:  "Why has # Firstlook not released full documents for today's story? A bad precedent to set right out of the gate."