Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 137

Forget Bill Nye

If only Rust Cohle had debated the creationist guy last night...  -- G.M.

Hard Knox

Sneak peak at upcoming film based on the Amanda Knox case, directed by Michael Winterbottom, with Daniel Bruhl and Kate Beckinsale:  "Face of An Angel."

Lego to the Video Tape

The Guardian creates the Super Bowl brick-by-brick.   Love the safety and the TD kickoff return, plus the grunts and groans and commentary. -- G.M.

Colbert Even More of a Riot Than Usual

Members of Pussy Riot on the show last night, mocking Putin and the whole idea of the man on a horse with his shirt off leading their country.  Fun give and take with Stephen.  Here's Part I plus more here in full show.


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Dylan's Favorite Car—And Bloomfield Tribute

Might not be a Chrysler.  In any case the title of his greatest pure rock song, from 1965, is "From a Buick 6."  Here are two "alternate takes."  They co-star the great Mike Bloomfield, who is celebrated with a new boxed CD set and DVD, released today.  Bonus:  Bloomfield on alt take of great overlooked classic flop 1965 Dylan single, "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"  (Robbie replaced him on released version, which I still have on a 45).   It stars at 3:50. -- G.M.

Dylan's Favorite Car?

Might not be a Chrysler.  In any case the title of his greatest pure rock song, from 1965, is "From a Buick 6."  Here are two "alternate takes."

Like Vets, Civilians With PTSD Poorly Treated

"Every war has its after-war," David Finkel writes in his new book, Thank You for Your Service, and now we know that trauma experienced in your own neighborhood has an afterlife in the body.

ProPublica reports on the growing body of research showing that civilians in America with traumatic injuries develop Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome comparable to war vets. Victims of violence, natural disasters or accidents can experience the flashbacks, nightmares, paranoia and social withdrawal emblematic of the condition.

But slow as the VA has been to aid vets with PTSD (see Finkel's book, or his article in The New Yorker, "The Return"), help for civilian victims is almost nonexistent. Only one major trauma center out of 22 surveyed with the nation's highest homicide rates, does any screening of seriously injured crime victims for PTSD. There is simply no money allocated to treat the roughly 8 percent of Americans who suffer from PTSD, rates that are of course higher in areas with high rates of violent crime. At Chicago's Cook County Hospital, which treats about 2,000 patients yearly for gunshots and other violent injuries, only a chaplain, a social worker and some social work interns are trying to see 5,00 people, according to the trauma center's prevention coordinator.

 A trauma surgeon in Jackson, Mississippi--where the per-capita homicide rate is higher than Chicago's--asks: 'If someone gets shot, and I save their life, and they can't go out and function--did I technically save their life? Probably not.'

When 'Loud Music' Produced...Racial Killing?

The latest NYT "Op-Doc"--an op-ed piece in the form of an online video--just posted on the tragic, and criminal, case in Jacksonville 2012 now approaching trial--older white man shoots and kills young black kid after complaining about loud hip-hop music coming from his car.  Claimed the kid had a shotgun, which was never found. -- G.M.

'Almost Famous' and 'Late' Hoffman

One of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's final films was, ironically, titled A Late Quartet.  Christopher Walken got most of the hurrahs--he deserved an Oscar nod--but Hoffman was also terrific as, literally, second fiddle.  Of course, I'd love because it centers around the playing of Beethoven's fabled opus 131 but it's actually a wonderful movie.  And streaming on Netflix now.  Trailer follows.  Below that, PSH as one of our old Crawdaddy writers, Lester Bangs, in Almost Famous.  UPDATE:  Cameron Crowe, another Crawdaddy writer, who directed the latter (semi-autobiographical) film, posted this today:

My original take on this scene was a loud, late night pronouncement from Lester Bangs. A call to arms. In Phil’s hands it became something different. A scene about quiet truths shared between two guys, both at the crossroads, both hurting, and both up too late. It became the soul of the movie. In between takes, Hoffman spoke to no one. He listened only to his headset, only to the words of Lester himself. (His Walkman was filled with rare Lester interviews.) When the scene was over, I realized that Hoffman had pulled off a magic trick. He’d leapt over the words and the script, and gone hunting for the soul and compassion of the private Lester, the one only a few of us had ever met. Suddenly the portrait was complete. The crew and I will always be grateful for that front row seat to his genius.

--G.M.

Happy Birthday, Bill

Williams Burroughs was born 100 years ago this Wednesday.  I edited his monthly column "Time of the Assassins" at Crawdaddy for two years in the mid-1970s.  I also arranged his famous cover story in that period based on his interview, in New York, with Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.  Here's writer's account of the day and cool picture, a variation of which we ran on the cover in color.

"Does the Loch Ness monster exist? Page said he thought it did. Skeptical, Burroughs wondered how the monster could get enough to eat. The conversation continued over enchiladas. Burroughs talked about infrasound, pitched below the level of human hearing, which had supposedly been developed as a weapon by the French military. Then on to interspecies communication, talking to dolphins via sonar waves. Burroughs said he thought a remarkable synthesis could be achieved if rock music returned to its ancient roots in ceremony and folklore, and brought in some of the trance music one heard in Morocco."  -- G.M.