Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 244

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

One of the great videos:  the very young du Pre, Barenboim and Zukerman, with the ghostly movement "The Ghosst."  Note:  My book with Kerry Candaele--and 2nd screening of "our" film on the Ninth Symphony coming this Wednesday in San Luis Obispo.   NYC in October.

Babbling Brooks 'Disgraceful' This Time

I've been tougher on David Brooks than most, stretching back years, decades, so glad to see the great Amy Davidson of the New Yorker call a spud a spud--labeling Dave's now infamous column about inherentlymentally weak Egyptians "disgraceful." Just one bit:

Maybe Brooks didn’t mean it the way it sounds—the way it is written, in plain language. The echo here is less Kipling than it is Al Campanis, who in 1987 said that blacks in baseball didn’t have the “necessities” for managerial jobs. What Brooks can’t claim is that it’s unfair to take his words amiss. Those two sentences are unsalvageable, and if they don’t convey what Brooks believes then he should take them back and apologize.  

Plane Truth

Amazing photo right by plane crash in San Francisco this afternoon,  by well-known passenger David Eun (the former Samsung exec and more).  He's tweeting updates @Eunner.  Re-posted here.    Sheryl Sandberg was on flight but switched planes at last minute--to get bonus miles for family!  Unconfirmed that two died, at most,  and a few dozen injured but vast majority of over 200 in fine shape.   Update:  2nd photo below that, from passenger who sent to his daughter @eunicebirdroh to post. 

A 'Pastoral' Day

Beat the heat and  enjoy Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, the "Pastoral," in what my esteemed buddy Tim Page calls its greatest rendition, via Klemperer--who died 40 years ago today.

Hunka Hunka Burnin' Nixon

"Drunk History," the popular Funny or Die feature, comes to Comedy Central this week (there's even a piece in NYT tomorrow), with one segment, inevitably starring Jack Black, recreating, sort of, that famous day when Elvis met Nixon (and got a narc badge). 

When I visited the Nixon Library out in California to research my book about 18 years ago, I was amazed at how many items for sale in the gift shop there carried the photo of the two men shaking hands--on t-shirts, coffee mugs, dinner plates, refrigerator magnets (I still have one).  Links to real-life meeting.  P.S. There's also a very funny Hollywood flick on the meeting.

Executions: It's a Gas, Gas, Gas?

Missouri, like some other states, upset about new roadblocks to killing condemned prisoners.  Gosh, if it's not those pesky lawyers and judges, it's the recent unavailability of drugs for the lethal injections or new legal roadblocks to using same.  So Missouri threatens to bring back the even more cruel gas chamber--it's preferred method from 1937 to 1965.  For a history of capital punishment in the USA, and current debates, see my recent ebook, Dead Reckoning .

Shot in the Head, for Protesting

NYT just posted this video from Cairo and background here from journalist, who says he supported coup but outraged by military shooting protester in head at close range.   Hard to see actual shooting but you do see the guy in front of fence on street, and then crumbling.

Fired Up, To Protect Property

Great Tim Egan piece at NYT on the real story of the 19 firefighter deaths in AZ--losing lives to protect summer homes and retirement villas, knowingly built or bought in top fire areas.  Naturally, the homeowners (many no doubt anti-government zealots) then demand that the public-funded firefighters do something to protect them. 

The homeowners know that living in fire country is different from living in the heart of a city. They know the elements — timber, grass, brush, wind, heat, lightning — and the difficult terrain mean that shiny fire trucks cannot arrive at their smoking doorstep on a minute’s notice. They’ve made a pact with combustible nature, a gamble.
And yet, once a galloping afternoon wind transforms a smolder into a sprint of flames, these homeowners expect the best of the best to be on the scene.

Porn Again

First trailer for upcoming film about Deep Throat "icon" (as they bill her) Linda Lovelace just out--there are a couple biopics in the works, this is the one titled Lovelace with Amanda Seyfried (and the likes of James Franco, Chris Noth and Chloe Sevigny).  James Franco as Hugh Hefner!  And apparently they include the famous Sammy Davis Jr. incident.  Okay, no jokes about it maybe being "overblown."   I certainly am old enough to have lived through that era, though I imagine many today know "Deep Throat" only as a Watergate-related figure.  Lovelace was manipulated and exploited and became, at least briefly, a feminist heroine for speaking out.  I presume the movie will end there--without the coda when she attacked feminists and voluntarily returned to porny pictorials.

Fireworks Tragedy in California

At Simi Valley event, they suddenly went sideways into crowd, injuring over 30.  They claimed they stopped immediately but you'll see plenty getting shot upwards afterward.