No Biggie: Just Airline Safety Inspectors Sent Home

(Associated Press) Nearly 3,000 aviation safety inspectors are being furloughed by the Federal Aviation Administration as part of the government shutdown, the union representing the inspectors said Monday.

The inspectors check to make sure airlines are maintaining their planes safely, conduct inspections at airports of planes and pilots, and visit domestic and foreign repair stations where airlines send planes for major overhauls, among other safety jobs, said Kori Blalock Keller, a spokeswoman for the union, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists.

Union officials initially thought the FAA had made a mistake when they received word of the furloughs, Blalock Keller said. But FAA Administrator Michael Huerta confirmed the inspector furloughs in a phone call with union officials Monday, she said.

Mike Perrone, the union's national president, said he is "outraged that the FAA would consider aviation safety inspectors as playing anything but a pivotal role in protecting the safety of the American public. Furloughing this critical workforce is neither in the best interest of the economy nor the oversight of this country's aviation system."

We Welcome Their Hatred

Another good night for the classic FDR excerpts.   Audio for one here ("Government by organized mob") video for another below.

Buddy, Gonna Shut You Down

GOP theme song?  "Shut it off, shut it off, buddy gonna shut you down."  A warning on the current crisis from the Beach Boys with early hit "Shut Down."

Hollywood Exploits the Bomb

Interesting piece today at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on how, in contrast to movies of olde, present day "action" flicks merely exploit nuclear danger and don't make it palpable or thought-provoking.  Frankly, I did not know that The Wolverine with Hugh Jackman had a key scene set during the Nagasaki blast--and I am usually up on all that.   I've written two books about The Bomb and film:  Atomic Cover-up on the U.S. suppression of historic film footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Hollywood Bomb, about the censorship of the film movie epic (right up to Truman), from MGM, in 1947.

In the Wolverine clip note:  Nagasaki bomb did NOT go off over its target, the harbor, but up one of its valleys.  This cut the death toll in half--to about 75,000.   Also: There were only a couple hundred Japanese troops in the city at the time...

Rosa's Cantina

Here's full Marty Robbins version of "El Paso" which not only was featured in "Breaking Bad" last night but also provided "Felina" title.  It was a #1 hit for like six weeks when it came out--and at Crawdaddy writer Tom Miller found Rosa's Cantina for us.

Hillary Film Axed

Charles Ferguson announces that the much-debated CNN film on Ms. Clinton has been shelved.  It's quite a tale, and here's the conclusion.  Also, in update, NYT has big piece now.  Ferguson 

After approaching well over a hundred people, only two persons who had ever dealt with Mrs. Clinton would agree to an on-camera interview, and I suspected that even they would back out.

This, of course, was the real consequence, and probably the real intent, of the announcements by the RNC, Philippe Reines, and David Brock. Neither political party wanted the film made. After painful reflection, I decided that I couldn't make a film of which I would be proud. And so I'm cancelling. (Not because of any pressure from CNN -- quite the contrary.) It's a victory for the Clintons, and for the money machines that both political parties have now become. But I don't think that it's a victory for the media, or for the American people. I still believe that Mrs. Clinton has many virtues including great intelligence, fortitude, and a deep commitment to bettering the lives of women and children worldwide. But this is not her finest hour.

A High Note on 'Sopranos'

We finally finished re-watching all of "The Sopranos" episodes last night in order from season one.  (Oddly, we almost went to see the new Gandolfini flick in the afternoon.)  Certainly a revealing and rewarding way to do it and, yes, I'd forgotten so much (e.g. Adriana getting whacked much earlier than I'd thought).  The Cleaver movie pitch and shoot was wild and, of course, Chris and Little Carmine's sit-down with Ben Kingsley in Hollywood, and the swag bags, could hardly be funnier.  In final episode we see A.J. listening to Dylan's "It's Alright Ma" in his SUV--before it explodes in flames.  And so on.

Naturally, after final episode, I searched and found what claims to be--and seems to be--"the definitive" take on the final shot.  So, yes, I'd say the show did have the finality that some are now claiming it lacked--comparing it unfavorably to the close of "Breaking Bad."  Read it here, and the clip below.  No, I've never owned a Members Only jacket so don't look at me.

Journalistic 'Disgrace' in Shutdown Coverage

My new piece at The Nation.

Plus: Dave Weigel debunks GOP claims that Democrats have been just as bad as holding them "hostage" in previous debt ceiling debates. 

Raising the debt limit always been unpopular, and tough to explain to voters. A few times, Democrats balked at raising it for a few days to make a point, then caved in. Many more times, they've just voted for the damn thing. John Boehner's Republicans have only ever agreed to raise the debt limit if they won major policy concessions from the president. Both parties don't do it. One party does it.

Scahill-Greenwald Team Up

Big AP story just now on two of the best diggers, Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald, joining forces to probe top secret U.S. "assassination" program, which could mean a lot of things and cover a lot, or not.  Here's the AP scoop:

Jeremy Scahill, a contributor to The Nation magazine and the New York Times best-selling author of "Dirty Wars," said he will be working with Glenn Greenwald, the Rio-based journalist who has written stories about U.S. surveillance programs based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"The connections between war and surveillance are clear. I don't want to give too much away but Glenn and I are working on a project right now that has at its center how the National Security Agency plays a significant, central role in the U.S. assassination program," said Scahill, speaking to moviegoers in Rio de Janeiro, where the documentary based on his book made its Latin American debut at the Rio Film Festival.

"There are so many stories that are yet to be published that we hope will produce 'actionable intelligence,' or information that ordinary citizens across the world can use to try to fight for change, to try to confront those in power," said Scahill.

Man's World? Still?

New commercial aired on SNL with a bit of this, in smooth version, so you might enjoy the sweaty original.  Shorter version.  I can also recommend the live Van Morrison version.

The Coming Thing

N

YT's Sunday review section not only gives us an assessment of Bob Dylan's chances for a Nobel--but also a full exploration, so to speak, of the current thinking on women and "spontaneous orgasm."  Yes, it was once embraced, so to speak, then debunked--by Masters and Johnson, who get their own show on Showtime tomorrow night--and now gaining fresh respect.  "At Rutgers, Dr. Komisaruk expanded his research to brain scans. In 2003, the first images confirmed the earlier study. Pleasure centers lit up more or less identically whether the women reached sexual highs by hand stimulation or by erotic thoughts."  And then there's Tantra....

Ring Them Nobels

Big NYT op-ed just up by Bill Wyman (no, not the Stones' bassist) on Bob Dylan's strong candidacy for Nobel Prize.  I've pushed Leonard Cohen for this, since unlike Bob he is an honored novelist and poet (beyond song poetry).  Anyway, Wyman lists the strikes against him and the many plusses.

Concludes:

If the academy doesn’t recognize Bob Dylan — a bard who embodied the most significant cultural upheaval of the second half of the last century — it will squander its best chance to honor a pop poet. What other songwriter would remotely qualify? Joni Mitchell or Leonard Cohen? Perhaps. Randy Newman? Chuck D? (In truth, the only other pop artist with work as timeless as Mr. Dylan’s is Chuck Berry — but that’s an argument for another day.) With his superstar peers either silent or content to collect the big bucks playing ingratiating stadium shows, this artist, iconoclastic and still vital, demands that we take the product of his muse on his own terms, and refuses to go so gently.

Fathers' Day

Probably few know that "The Father of Modern Jazz" and "The Father of Country Music" recorded a song together one day in 1930.  Here Louis Armstrong re-creates his session with Jimmie Rodgers--aided by another legend, Mr. Johnny Cash.

How the Media Is Getting Gov't Shutdown and Debt Ceiling 'Debates' Wrong

Probably the smartest thing you'll read today, from James Fallows.  He hits media on this but does provide links to a few folks who have gotten it right.  Read the whole thing as he traces a historic fiasco we haven't seen in decades, maybe over a century, but here's excerpt:

As a matter of journalism, any story that presents the disagreements as a "standoff," a "showdown," a "failure of leadership," a sign of "partisan gridlock," or any of the other usual terms for political disagreement, represents a failure of journalism and an inability to see or describe what is going on....This isn't "gridlock." It is a ferocious struggle within one party, between its traditionalists and its radical factions, with results that unfortunately can harm all the rest of us -- and, should there be a debt default, could harm the rest of the world too...

In case the point is not clear yet: there is no post-Civil War precedent for what the House GOP is doing now. It is radical, and dangerous for the economy and our process of government, and its departure from past political disagreements can't be buffed away or ignored. If someone can think of a precedent after the era of John C. Calhoun, let me know.

Shutdown Looks More Likely

Bulletin just now from NYT:  "House Republican leaders presented their rank and file with a proposal for a one-year delay of President Obama’s health care law and a permanent repeal of its tax on medical devices to attach to the Senate’s bill to keep the government running through Nov. 15. If accepted by the Republican caucus and passed by the House, the package would all but assure that much of the government will shut down on Tuesday. Senate Democratic leaders have made clear that they will accept no such scaling back of the health care law."

Call for Help?

Homeless man and ad for new iPhones, NYC, this week. 

Band Aid Coming

Great to see new box set of The Band's complete legendary 1971 live performances at New York's old Academy of Music (I was there) that came in the old Rock of Ages double-record set, which Robbie Robertson re-mixed--plus he talks of a new Basement Tapes set, hopefully including some of the dozens of still-unreleased songs (I have all the bootlegs).   Here's one of the greatest live performances by anyone, from the Academy of Music gig.

Friday Cat Blogging

There's a long history of this going back to near the beginning of blogging, though not so common today.  So here's my version of ultimate cat blogging--a famous lion on steps on NY Public Library yesterday evening. 

Now a Video Documents Near-Nuclear Disaster in 1961

I've covered the new book on nuclear weapons accidents in the U.S. by Eric Schlosser, and then the release of a document, via The Guardian, proving how close we really came--very--to a detonation in North Carolina in 1961 that could have killed millions on the East Coast.   Now The Guardian, also via Schlosser, posts an "official" video that documents the accident, along with this story.  Of course, the near-miss was kept hidden from Americans for years--and how close we came until this day.  Sclosser tells The Guardian that the significance of the video was that it "conclusively establishes that the Sandia weapons lab itself was concerned about the risk of accidental detonation. Their own experts said that disaster was prevented by a single switch that they knew to be defective." See my book and ebook  Atomic Cover-up.

Flat Iron Building at Sunset

Tonight in NYC.

Denby Hits Harvard on Hollywood-Nazi Book

My new piece at The Nation.  Below:  Chaplin's classic Hitler-kicking-the-globe and finale speech in The Great Dictator. UPDATE  Harvard University Press and author Ben Urwand respond to criticism and stand by book.  Urwand has apparently also written to The New Yorker and awaits publciation.

Do the Rubber Duck

Jimmy Fallons and The Roots did a cool tribute to "Sesame Street" last night but still could not top one of my favorite songs from the 1990s (remember, my son was still an infant)....

Israel's Nukes

My new piece at The Nation: Will Iran's Call for No Nukes Inspire U.S. Media to Finally Probe Israel's Nuclear Program?

New from Leonard

Mr. Cohen debuts new song live.

Good Conduct Awards

What happens if you set an orchestra up on streets on NY and put up a sign that reads, "Conduct Us."

A Ted Seller!

With 21 hours to kill in his non-filibuster anti-Obamacare filibuster,  Sen. Ted Cruz resorted to quoting from Dr. Seuss's immortal "Green Eggs and Ham" (which sounds like a Texas recipe to beat a hangover).  This inspired a 1000 Twitter parodies--and, I now note, a surge of sales for the good doctor's book, riding it to #597 on the chart of Amazon bestsellers.  But Cruz seems more like all Cat in Hat, no cattle. And note this:  “The moral message of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ – to the extent that it has one – is completely at odds with what Cruz was trying to achieve,” says Seuss biographer Phil Nel, a professor at Kansas State University.   You know: try something first before you reject it.

Next:   DVD sales of Sean Penn in Sam I Am?

AIPAC, and Congress, May Kill Iran's Nuclear Compromise

Andrew Sullivan probably nails it.  Truly, the hawks in Israel, and AIPAC, probably prefer the current tensions--any easing and they'd have to give up their dreams of bombing Iran.  And U.S. (and certain NYT reporters) yoked to it, seemingly.

The Greater Israel lobby will do all it can to prevent any conceivable deal that could ensure Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy – the sine qua non of any breakthrough. Which means they aim to kill diplomacy to get the war they have been wanting for more than a decade. In this sense, AIPAC is the American equivalent of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in terms of scuppering any possibility of genuine peace, by refusing to treat Iran as anything but a pariah state. Israel, meanwhile, sits on a couple hundred nuclear missiles aimed in part at Iran. But that inconvenient truth cannot be uttered on Capitol Hill.

D.C. Shooter As Rampage Began

FBI has released startling footage of Aaron Alexis arriving at the Navy Yard, assembling shotgun, and starting to roam the halls looking for victims.  Plus photos here, including etchings on shotgun.

That 'Turning Point' TV Moment

NYT with an interesting piece today on a key moment in TV history--you may find this hard to believe--which simply involved an alleged mix-up of babies on the popular Dick Van Dyke show.  I probably watched it at the time.   It featured a good gag--Dick and wife Mary Tyler Moore think they may have come home from the hospital with the wrong baby, but when the possible other couple shows up at their door, they are....black.  You'll need to read the story to make sense of this probably.  But here's the clip below--the other couple arrive just after the six minute mark.

Iran's Leader on the 'Holocaust'

The day after his UN appearance, he calls the Holocaust clearly a 'crime,' in CNN interview, and also sends greetings to Americans.   But does not back off view on Israel policy vs. Palestinians.

Asked in the CNN interview about his view of the Holocaust, Mr. Rouhani said, “Any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis created towards the Jews, is reprehensible and condemnable.

“Whatever criminality they committed against the Jews, we condemn,” he said. “The taking of human life is contemptible. It makes no difference whether that life is Jewish life, Christian or Muslim. For us it is the same.”

At the same time, Mr. Rouhani also condemned the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, without referring to Israel by name. Repudiating crimes like the Holocaust, he said, “does not mean that on the other hand you can say Nazis committed crimes against a group, now, therefore, they must usurp the land of another group and occupy it.”

Plame Speaking on Female Spies

Our favorite former (outed) CIA analyst, Valerie Plame, reviews for the Wash Post in a slide show plus captions ten portrayals of female CIA types from Claire Danes to Halle Berry to Naomi Watts (as Plame).  So who gets the "reality" prize? Hint:  As I'd guess, Zero Dark Thirty gets the booby prize, so to speak.

'After Tiller'

Name of new must-see documentary on the handful of physicians still doing late-term abortions and death threats.

For Ted Cruz

Van Morrison and Rogers Waters, "Comfortably Numb"--your lips move, but can't hear what you're saying....

Bono Does Bill

He rolls out a swell Bill Clinton imitation and Bill responds (but not by singing "The Real Thing").  Note:  This is my "fundraising week" here at Pressing Issues--which receives no funding beyond the sales from my books and ebooks.  So please consider purchasing one, from the long list at the right side of this blog, with e-books just $2.99 to $3.99.  Thanks.

Hey, Babe, Take A Wal(K) on the Wild Side

If you're a baseball fan, you may remember the publicity around the recent discovery of a few seconds of new (old) home movie footage of Babe Ruth in his prime at Yankee Stadium, striking out.  Also, a glimpse of Lou Gehrig.  Coverage noted the efforts by archivists, and Keith Olbermann, to  pin down when it was shot.  Now the NYT just reported that the code has been cracked.  See their write-up and video here.  It has link to the blog of guy who cracked the code. The date:  September 9, 1928.  Other Babe footage follows.  See part of my baseball card collection from that era here.

Train in Vain?

The great Amy Davidson with piece at The New Yorker on what she sees as The Coming Hillary for President Train Wreck.  A strong warning from a smartie who says she'd really like a woman president but Hillary's "debts" may come back to haunt her.  And people forget--she lost to a longshot in 2008, why should it be different this year?

Koch Fueled

That "Creepy Uncle Sam" anti-Obamacare commercial funded by Koch Brothers with a different message:

Meet the 'Goldberg'

Ace pianist Jeremy Denk, who I interviewed for my Beethoven book (he has since become a semi-regular New Yorker writer), coming out with his much-awaited take on Bach's Goldberg Variations,  and has already written well and wittily about.  How read more and listen to much of it at NPR site.

The Biggest 'Boner'

I've known about Keith Olbermann's obsession with "Merkle's Boner" for many years.  No, he's not (as far as I know) a porn fan.  It refers to one of the infamous moments in baseball history, and Keith marked its 105th anniversary last night on his new TV show.  He even produced, at the end, the very ball retrieved by Johnny Evers that day so he could touch second base and get an out call on Merkle.  Keith owns the ball.  I also know, from corresponding with Keith a few years back, that his personal email address then (maybe even now) starts with "Merkle."

The play involved the young Giants' first sacker failing to touch second base after a game-winning hit plated a runner at home.  All it did was cost the team the pennant.  Merkle was forever known as "Bonehead" and you'll learn some other amazing facts about his career in Keith's report below.  And following his new piece, see segment he did decade ago, which closes with him interviewing actor playing...Christy Mathewson!

Here's Johnny...and Two More

NYT with tribute to Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" today with his famous take, and covers by Brandi Carlile and Keb Mo.  Amazingly, I had featured Brandi's version here a couple months ago after spotting it on Austin City Limits.    Love Dylan in his unreleased basement tape just as well.  Here is Brandi again: 

The 'New Normal'--Surrendering to Gun Violence

Joe Nocera at the NYT, one of the few writers who did "keep up the drumbeat" for gun control for months after Newtown with daily lists of gun deaths (which I've often cited in my frequent posts), is back with a column that hits the way most just shrug over another mass slaughter. 

What has been most stupefying about the reaction to the Navy Yard rampage is how muted it has been. After the horror of Newtown, people were galvanized. This time, the news seemed to be greeted with a resigned shrug. “Is this the new normal?” David Gregory asked Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association on Sunday on “Meet the Press” on NBC. It’s sure starting to feel that way.

Dancing with...Beethoven?

Have never watched "Dancing With the Stars" or any of that stuff, but as a Beethoven guy (see book and film) and Bill Nye watcher (with my son long ago), it's probably my duty to post Bill donning a Ludwig wig and dancing to the disco version The Fifth tonight.

We Almost Lost The East Coast

UPDATE Monday:  Now they've figured out what the fallout effect might have been if the H-bomb had exploded (see left).  And that's just on bomb, folks.


UPDATE:  I mentioned the Schlosser book (below) and covered in a longer piece at The Nation, but now comes a bombshell, so to speak: Schlosser, perhaps to add publicity for book, gave The Guardian the FOIA document he obtained that outlines the single worst (near) nuclear accident here in the U.S.  Their story just now by Ed Pilkington opens:  "A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that the US Air Force came dramatically close to detonating an atom bomb over North Carolina that would have been 260 times more powerful than the device that devastated Hiroshima.

The document, obtained by the investigative journalist Eric Schlosser under the Freedom of Information Act, gives the first conclusive evidence that the US was narrowly spared a disaster of monumental proportions when two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina on 23 January 1961. The bombs fell to earth after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in warfare: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged, and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage.

Fallout might have killed millions along the East Coast right up to NYC.  Of course, the U.S. lied about all this for decades.  The great cover-up after Hiroshima helped lead to this, as chronicled in my Atomic Cover-up book.

Earlier:   Eric Schlosser's much-awaited book on nuclear accidents in U.S. (from losing that H-bomb in 1961that might have detonated--we were lied to about that--to the 1980 silo catastrophe) published today.   See good summary here and first chapter.   And you wonder why I've written so much on nuclear danger--maybe more than anyone--since early 1980s.

Will McAvoy Pens a Note

Twitter is still aflame over favorite homicidal-drug-dealing son Bryan Cranston losing to Jeff Daniels (!) for best actor in the Emmy sweepstakes.  Get over it, folks.  I have my own love/hate relationship with The Newsroom but Jeff is great.  Moving on:  The top Louisville newspaper ran a letter to the editor from a W. McAvoy which was word for word from a recent Newsroom.  They soon pulled it but check out the readers' comments for some fun reactions, such as:   "I found myself laughing hysterically this morning as I was glancing over the forum and 'GOP Requirements' caught my eye. I read the article, and found myself feeling as if I had heard it before. Then, when I saw 'W. McAvoy, 40222' I knew I had heard it the previous Sunday. I must say, shame on the C-J editorial staff for not catching it. But then again, not everybody watches HBO. On the other hand, I completely agree with [the fictional] Mr. McAvoy's statement."

Oscar and Walt

Forget about Oscar and Felix.  Of Bert and Ernie and Oscar.  What if Oscar Wilde actually had sex with Walt Whitman one afternoon on his famous visit to America?  Well, there's some evidence that they did.  True or not, it is told in a very funny manner here.

When He's 64 (Like, Now)

When I met Bruce Springsteen on MY birthday in 1972 he had just turned 23.  I remember thinking he seemed a bit younger than that.  Anyway, here we are 41 years later, and he turned 64 today.  Even the president sent him greetings.  So in tribute The Beatles original version of "When I'm 64"--in the proper key as recorded.  McCartney, they say, asked it to get cut in a higher key and/or sped up a bit to sound more "rooty tooty" to fit concerpt of the Sgt. Pepper album.   Much prefer this:

Neil's Tribute to Phil Ochs

Don't miss, from recent Farm Aid,  amazing opening Intro, Neil Young talks about Phil Ochs killing himself, hails him as one of our greatest poets, talks back to impatient guy in audience ("I work for me"), then sings Phil's "Changes."   I knew Phil a little in the 1970s, as he fell apart, sweet guy when not crazed.  Last saw him swinging a golf club over his head at a party at Bill Kunstler's.  Sad. 

The Whore Truth

Correction of the day from London daily paper.  The wonder is that it took more than six weeks to run:

"In our diary article 'Museum finally signs its deal to be fine and dandy' (August 7, 2013) we referred to the exhibition of the late Sebastian Horsley’s suits at the Museum of London and the Whoresley show, an exhibition of his pictures at the Outsiders Gallery. By unfortunate error we referred to Rachel Garley, the late Sebastian Horsley’s girlfriend, who arranged the exhibitions, as a prostitute. We accept that Ms Garley is not and has never been a prostitute. We offer our sincere apologies to Ms Garley for the damage to her reputation and the distress and embarrassment she has suffered as a result." (photo by Nick Cunard)

So Much for Arms Control

On this day in 1949, the U.S. announced--it made the top of the NYT--that it had detected the first Soviet atomic explosion several weeks earlier, see photo at left, which the Soviets thought they'd kept secret.    (Here's how we did it.)  So now the arms race was really.   Truman's refusal to compete with the Soviets rather than cooperate on control of the atom--as the scientists and others suggested--did not keep them from their own weapon, and then the H-bombs (their agents in the U.S. helped that along).   Meanwhile, as I explore in my Atomic Cover-up book,  the U.S. kept the American public largely in the dark on the key aspects of the effects of the bomb, and longterm dangers...

Ray Left His Stamp

New Postal Service "forever" stamp for Brother Ray goes on sale today.

Next: The Thin Red Lion?

Kitty ventures outside for first time, as filmed by Terrence Meowlick in his inimitable style.  (h/t Andy Mitchell)


Terrence Meowlick from Knock Bang Boom on Vimeo.

WikiLeaks Reviews WikiLeaks Film

The Fifth Estate is finally about to open, after debut at Toronto film fest, and no surprise, WikiLeaks folks, as far as we know, not happy with it.  They've obtained various scripts including what they say was the  near-final one and claim friends saw it in Toronto and noted a late change or two--so in any case they are, they say, basing their critique on the finished film, more or less.  Read the script and the critique details here.   Besides claiming inaccuracies about DDB and his role and deeds, there's this:

• Julian Assange was never in a cult, but THE FIFTH ESTATE claims that he was.
  
• Julian Assange does not dye or bleach his hair white, as claimed in the film.
  
• While these interpolations may serve to enhance the dramatic narrative of the film, or to build an enigmatic or interesting central character, they have the effect of further falsely mythologizing a living person as sinister and duplicitous.

Trailer below:

Naturally Hicks Is There

UPDATE:   NYT with Q & A with Hicks on how he did it.  Was at framing shop next door when it went down.  Wife brought helmet and added camera equipment from home pronto.  Amazing.

Earlier: Tyler Hicks, who always somehow seems to be at the hottest of hot spots and war zones when things explode, did it again today, improbably being just outside the mall in Nairobi when the bomb went off.  NYT has gallery of his shots here.   Includes up-close photos of dead bodies and police with guns drawn.

Beached

The Beach Boys offer, "Summer's Gone."

Kristof Still Wants War

Sunday update:  Believe it or not, the sequel to the sequel: In new column, Kristof AGAIN calls for air strikes against Assad forces, despite the chem weapons agreement. 

Wednesday update:   Believe it or not, the sequel:  In his new column today, from refugee camp, Kristof STILL comes out for U.S. airstrikes, despite our apparent win on maybe getting rid of Assad's chemical weapons.  Yes, I get the humanitarian impulse, but he continues to appear blind to the likely negative after-effects. 

Earlier:  Believe it or not, Nick Kristof, often admirable in the past, in new column tonight, is still calling for bombing Syria.  He argues that we simply must oppose crossing red lines in the use of inhumane weapons--yet in earlier column he supported the use of atomic bombs against Japan, killing at least 120,000 women and children and 50,000 others (and see my book here).  Kristof's hero Nelson Mandela pointed out how U.S. STILL suffers--around the world--from stain of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In today's column (in a separate note he reveals it was written as the deal to get rid of Assad's arsenal was just about wrapped up), Kristof makes this argument:

A missile strike on Syrian military targets would result in no supplemental budget, so money would come from the existing military pot. In any case, the cost of 100 missiles would be about $70 million — far less than the $1 billion annual rate that we’re now spending on humanitarian aid for Syrians displaced by worsening war and by gas attacks.

If a $70 million strike deters further gas attacks and reduces the ability of President Bashar al-Assad to bomb civilians, that might actually save us money in humanitarian spending.

Also notice how he is charging Assad with "presiding over" deaths of 100,000, even though most counts claim the rebels have slain up to half that number.   And admits "some" of the rebels "are vile."   Maybe three or four, you know. Artful.

Finally, he dishonestly  ignores the fact that if Obama had followed his call last week (and that of his colleague, Bill Keller) and started firing cruise missiles we would have already no doubt killed an untold number of innocent Syrians.  Also  we would not have the current agreement to get rid of all of Syria's chemical agents without bloodshed--which our bombing would not have come close to accomplishing.   Also, this agreement will, if carried out,  eliminate the chance of those weapons falling into al-Qaeda hands.  Also, there will be no Assad retaliatory strikes and our bombs will not inflame much of the rest of the Muslim world against us.

In a tweet yesterday, Kristof crowed that the "threat" of bombing that he backed was working and this produced the Syria/Russia offer.  Fair enough except--if Obama had actually gone ahead with the bombing already, as Kristof wished, there would have been no such offer. 

Garland of Poses

I knew songwriter/singer Garland Jeffreys a little back in the mid-1970s in the West Village, just after his heralded debut solo album (which had some reggae-influenced stuff)  came out and we raved in Crawdaddy.  You might know his song "Ghost Writer" from his acclaimed 2nd disc.   Fun guy, good guy.  Now he's written an op-ed just posted at NYT on his songwriting process forty years later.   Here's one of best songs from that debut, which was supposed to be a hit single:

First Song of the Autumn

And it simply has to be the Kinks' wacky 1967 "Autumn Almanac." And then a tune for every season, the gender-bending "Lola" from 1970.

Uppie No Downer

So let's mark the birth on this date, in 1878,  of Upton Sinclair, famed socialist muckraking novelist (and one of the best-known Americans around the world during his heyday), author of The Jungle and--leftwing candidate in what I called "The Campaign of the Century" in my Random House book of that title, when he led grassroots crusade for governor or California in 1934.  He won the Democratic primary in a landslide--and to defeat him, big business, Hollywood and conservative Dems and GOPers went out and invented the modern political campaign, turning their dirty tricks over to a new breed of "spin doctors" and "political consultants."  And Irving Thalberg created the first "attack ads" for the screen.  To see them, and much more, go here. 

Why Smart Phones Are Toxic...

For kids and sad adults, like Louis CK, as he explains (with some help from Springsteen).

Talking Like a Pirate: Dock Ellis's No-Hitter--On Acid

I missed "Talk Like a Pirate Day" yesterday (this is where you say arrrrrgh), but if you've never seenOne of the great moments in baseball history, 1970, captured in hysterical animation and famed Pittsburgh Pirate, Dock Ellis,  narrating. 

Troy Davis, Two Years On

Two years ago tomorrow Troy Davis was executed in the most controversial state killing of this decade.  Democracy Now! is marking it today with a special programs and posting an excerpt from new I Am Troy Davis book.   My own e-book on the history of capital punishment in the USA--right up to the Davis case--is available here.

Guns: The View from Abroad

The great Charles P. Pierce has been in Ireland, sitting in pubs and visiting the race tracks and all those other fun things.  But he weighs in today on the view of epic gun violence from abroad.  Read the whole thing, it's not long, but here's the closer:

But this kind of thing -- an armed madman obtaining deadly weapons legally -- is so pointless that it seems alien. It seems to be taking place in an alternate reality. Other countries simply don't have these events. Or if they do, they have them so rarely that when one occurs, as it did in Australia, the country gets very tough on firearms and changes its laws. The Teachable Moments actually teach something. It is more than odd to be sitting in another country, watching the news scroll by, and to realize that your country, the one that your grandparents braved a leaky boat and the North Atlantic to get to, is a country that has several of these events every couple of years, and accepts them as part of the cost of those essential freedoms your grandparents sought. From this vantage, it is very much like my country is part of another world.

Chicago Mass Shootings

Just reported,  at least 11 gunned down in Chicago at one site tonight, on or near a basketball court, including a kid, age 3--at least four in critical condition and five serious.   Local TV report here includes footage. Updates here. Locals call it "Chiraq."  See Twitter feed of local reporter:  @Schlikerman

The Napalm Girl, the Photographer and The Crop

Michael Shaw has long run a very valuable blog on photographic images, usually related to news or politics, called Bag News.  He has a terrific post now on the famous Nick Ut photo from Vietnam of the girl running from a napalm attack (she has already been hit), Phan Thi Kim Phuc.   Like me, he was not aware of the major cropping that it got right away and forever--the rightward one-third (see left).   Michael thought it interesting that what was cropped out (quite deliberately?) was a U.S. military photog fiddling with his camera, seemingly unconcerned with the terror of the children near him.

But see the comments section below the story.  Of course, some say it was simply and wisely cropped to emphasize the main action.  Then someone says the photog on the right was a well-known U.S. journo named David Burnett who was re-loading film and he can't be blamed for that.  Then Burnett himself  arrives to say, no, it is a Vietnamese photog.  Then someone else say he spots a U.P.I. stencil on the helmet.  Anyway, read the whole thing.  (Film footage of the same burned girl, and a burned baby.)

Rebel Rebel

Tonight from (who else?) McClatchy, a much-needed dose of reality for the McCains and Kristofs of the world.  Yes, it's not just Assad vs. the U.S. backed "rebels"--the Islamist extremist are also attacking them.

On Wednesday, extremists captured the north Syrian town of Azaz, killing eight Free Syrian Army troops and support personnel and effectively blocking a primary supply route from the nearby Turkish border to Free Syrian Army forces in Aleppo. Turkey closed the border crossing Thursday, while Free Syrian Army forces battled to regain control.

Fierce fighting also was reported in Deir el Zour, close to the Iraqi border, where extremists reportedly captured a number of Free Syrian Army fighters.

The confrontation had been growing all summer between the Islamists, who took control of large parts of eastern Syria early this year, and the Free Syrian Army, which has been begging the U.S. for arms so it can seize territory from the Assad regime and displace the radicals.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/19/202655/us-backed-syrian-rebels-being.html#.Uju2iSTmXw4#storylink=cpy

Why Didn't D.C. Shooter Buy That AR-15?

Late Thursday Update:  NYT just now corrected article.  However, they did not change Michael Schmidt's claim that the shooter tried to buy the AR-15 and was stopped by the law, and that is the key part.  But if not prevented because he was out of state, as they'd falsely reported, then why?  Here's the correction:  "An article on Wednesday about the gunman in the Navy Yard shooting, using information from senior law enforcement officials, misstated a provision in Virginia state gun law. Out-of-state buyers must provide additional forms of identification to purchase a high-capacity AR-15 rifle; the laws do not prohibit the sales of all AR-15 rifles to all out-of-state residents."

Thursday Update:   Just saw another cable news report that states as fact that gun control law worked in Virginia to keep shooter from buying AR-15.  NYT has not changed its story.  This is a major claim so it will be interesting to see if it holds up, despite the below. 

Update: Talking Points Memo talked to same lawyer I mentioned below and now he denies that Alexis tried to buy the AR-15.  Mediaite talked to a salesman at the store who says the same.  We'll see if that holds up and NYT corrects story.

Earlier: Interesting media tussle now over the question:   Did Aaron Alexis try to buy an assault rifle at that Virginia shooting range and if he did why didn't he end up with one?   If he did have an AR-15 on MOnday--instead of the shotgun he did buy, with only 24 shells--the death toll almost certainly would have been much higher.

The NYT, as I noted last night, broke the story that he had fired off a few rounds from the assault rifle at the range but was prevented from buying it because Virginia state law restricts such sales to out-of-staters.  So he bought the shotgun.  They even feature the role of the law right in the headline ("State Law Prevented Sale.....")  But a Washington Times reporter, who has used the shooting range in the past, charged  that there is no such law in Virginia and her sources claim Aaron didn't even try to buy the AR-15, and she demanded the Times correct its story.   It has not.   This morning the CBS News site has a story that falls somewhere in-between, stating that he did try to buy weapon but was rebuffed--for an unknown reason.  NBC said a lawyer for the shooting range/gun store said he didn't know if Alexis did try to purchase the AR-15.

Surely the owner of the range will clear this up soon.

The World's Best Blueberry-Banana Muffins

Or maybe the best, period.  I've fancied myself a good cook going back more than 30 years when we still lived at a kind of food epicenter on Bleecker Street in the West Village.  I've never posted a recipe here before but this one is simple and I thought I'd experiment and see if anyone cares.  Happy not to do again, but here goes.  Next (if there's popular demands): Senegalese Chicken Soup.

Mitch's Blueberry-Banana-Pecan Muffins

(adapted from Paul Prudhomme without his usual excessive NOLA butter and sugar, and with my own additions)

--Preheat oven to 375 degrees
--Melt a stick of butter
--Briefly roast a half cup of pecans, or more if you like, then break into small pieces
--Mash 3 large bananas
--Pour the butter into bowl, drop in two eggs and stir
--Add 3 tablespoons of buttermilk or yogurt
--Add 2 teaspoons of baking soda
--Add  1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
--Add 2/3 cup of sugar--I used half white and half brown but do what you like
--Fold in 1 1/2 cups of flour--I used 1/3 white, 1/3 whole wheat, 1/3 corn, but do what you like
--Add 1 cup (or more if you like) of blueberries

(If you want a bit of a topping crumble up some more pecans and make mix with some brown sugar)

Use your muffin tin.   Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, no more.  Makes about a dozen. 

Jon on Guns

Stewart tried again last night.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Hitting Obamacare--With Uncle Sam as Pervert Doctor

You may not believe your eyes (or, given the atmosphere today, maybe you will), but check out one of the creepiest commercials ever, the first in a promised series by a major anti-Obamacare group.  It features a young woman who has just signed up for coverage spreading her legs in the doctor's office for an OB-GYN exam--and a leering Uncle Sam doctor pops up between them.

Sudsy Work But Someone's Got to Do It

But did you expect it to be James Fallows?  He not only sought out the home of the (consensus?) best beer made in the USA, but took some photos (before he keeled over, maybe) and just wrote about it  at The Atlantic.  Admits it is Beer Porn. Still won't reveal how company got its name or name of brew.  And you might have to drive to plant to buy any.

When U.S. Troops Were Exposed to Atomic Bomb in Japan--Weeks Later

As usual at this time of year, I've posted dozens of pieces about the atomic bombing (before and after) of Japan in August 1945.  Here's a story, from my book Atomic Cover-Up,  on what happened, a month later, when the first U.S. troops arrived. 

On September 8, General Thomas F. Ferrell arrived in Hiroshima with a radiologist and two physicists from Los Alamos, ordered by Manhattan Project chief General Leslie Groves to return to Tokyo the following day with preliminary findings. There was some urgency. It was one thing if the Japanese were dying of radiation disease; there was nothing we could do about that. But sending in American soldiers if it was unsafe was another matter.

Three days later, Farrell announced that “no poison gases were released” in Hiroshima. Vegetation was already growing there.

The first large group of US soldiers arrived in Nagasaki around September 23, about the time the Japanese newsreel teams started filming, and in Hiroshima two weeks later. They were part of a force of 240,000 that occupied the islands of Honshu (where Hiroshima is located) and Kyushu (Nagasaki). Many more landed in Nagasaki, partly because its harbor was not mined. Marines from the 2nd Division, with three regimental combat teams, took Nagasaki while the US Army’s 24th and 41st divisions seized Hiroshima. The US Navy transported Marines and evacuated POWs, but its role ashore (beyond medical services) was limited.

Most of the troops in Hiroshima were based in camps on the edge of the city, but a larger number did set up camps inside Nagasaki. Because of the alleged absence of residual radiation, no one was urged to take precautions. Some bunked down in buildings close to ground zero, even slept on the earth and engaged in cleanup operations, including disposing bodies, without protective gear. Few if any wore radiation detection badges. “We walked into Nagasaki unprepared…. Really, we were ignorant about what the hell the bomb was,” one soldier would recall. Another vet said: “Hell, we drank the water, we breathed the air, and we lived in the rubble. We did our duty.”

A marine named Sam Scione, who had survived battles on Guadacanal, Tarawa and Okinawa, now arrived in Nagasaki, sleeping first in a burned-out factory, then a schoolhouse. “We never learned anything about radiation or the effects it might have on us,” he later said. “We went to ground zero many times and were never instructed not to go there.” A year later, on his return to the United States, his hair began to fall out and his body was covered in sores. He suffered a string of ailments but never was awarded service-related disability status.

The occupying force in Nagasaki grew to more than 27,000 as the Hiroshima regiments topped 40,000. Included were many military doctors and nurses. Some stayed for months. The US Strategic Bomb Survey sent a small group of photographers to take black-and-white photos of blast effects. By all accounts the Americans were charmed by the Japanese, thankful that the bomb might have helped end the war and profoundly affected by what they witnessed. “In the back of our minds, every one of us wondered: What is this atomic bomb?” a Nagasaki veteran later testified. “You had to be there to rea1ize what it did.” After describing the horrors, he added: “We did not drop those two [bombs] on military installations. We dropped them on women and children…. I think that is something this country is going to have to live with for eternity.”

Not every American felt that way, of course. A staff sergeant who served in Hiroshima named Edwin Lawrence later recalled thinking, “The Japs got what they deserved.” What he remembered most vividly was the constant smell of charcoal in the air. Mark Hatfield, a young naval officer in 1945 and later a longtime US senator (known for his opposition to the Vietnam war), would reflect on his “searing remembrances of those days” in Hiroshima when a “shock to my conscience registered permanently within me.” Much of his legislative and personal philosophy was “shaped by the experience of walking the streets of your city,” he wrote to the mayor of Hiroshima in 1980, adding that he was “deeply committed to doing whatever I can to bring about the abolition of nuclear weapons.”

The biologist Jacob Bronowski revealed in 1964 that his classic study Science and Human Values was born at the moment he arrived in Nagasaki in November 1945 with a British military mission sent to study the effects of the bomb. Arriving by jeep after dark he found a landscape as desolate as the craters of the moon. That moment, he wrote, “is present to me as I write, as vividly as when I lived it.” It was “a universal moment…civilization face to face with its own implications.” The power of science to produce good or evil had long troubled other societies. “Nothing happened in 1945,” he observed, “except that we changed the scale of our indifference to man.“

When Bronowski returned from Japan he tried to persuade officials in the British government and at the United Nations that Nagasaki should be preserved exactly as it was. He wanted all future conferences on crucial international issues “to be held in that ashy, clinical sea of rubble…only in this forbidding context could statesmen make realistic judgments of the problems which they handle on our behalf.” His colleagues showed little interest, however; they pointed out delegates “would be uncomfortable in Nagasaki,” according to Bronowski.

More than 9,000 Allied POWs were processed through Nagasaki, but the number of occupation troops dropped steadily every month. By April 1946, the United States had withdrawn military personnel from Hiroshima, and they were out of Nagasaki by August. An estimated 118,000 personnel passed through the atomic cities at one point or another. Some of them were there mainly as tourists, and wandered through the ruins, snapping photos and buying artifacts. When the servicemen returned to the United States, many of them suffered from strange rashes and sores. Years later some were afflicted with disease (such as thyroid problems and leukemia) or cancer associated with radiation exposure.

Little could be proven beyond a doubt, and all of their disability and compensation claims were denied, despite the efforts of a new group, the Committee for US Veterans of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Killing Their Own, a book published in 1982, charged that their experience “closely resembles the ordeals of a wide range of American radiation victims, consistently ignored and denied at every turn by the very institutions responsible for causing their problems.” The military had long declared that radiation dissipated quickly in the atomic cities and posed little threat to the soldiers. A 1980 Defense Nuclear Agency report concluded, “Medical science believes multiple myeloma has a borderline relationship with exposure to ionizing radiation. That is, there are some indications that exposure to radiation may increase the risk of this disease, but science cannot yet be sure.”

 In the years that followed, thousands of other “atomic vets,” among the legion who participated in hundreds of US bomb tests in Nevada and in the Pacific, would raise similar issues about exposure to radiation and the medical after-effects. The costs of the superpower arms race after Hiroshima can be measured in trillions of dollars, but also in the countless number of lives lost or damaged due to accidents and radiation exposure in the massive nuclear industry that grew to astounding proportions throughout the country in the 1950s and 1960s.

But the long-overlooked military personnel who entered Hiroshima and Nagasaki—key players in one of the last largely untold stories of World War II—were truly the first “atomic soldiers,” and how many may still be suffering from their experience remains unknown.

For more, see Atomic Cover-up. 

Father Along

Cool new political ad for young guy running for Congress--featuring his father, who is a Tea Partier.

Raise High the Box Office, Carpenters

Weinstein company announces it will release this week an updated "special edition" of its not-so-special J.D. Salinger doc, adding detail about his relationship with very young women over the years.  Seems inspired by criticism from one of those women, who is featured in the doc, that the film downplays the emotional damage he did to the women.  Also, Weinstein now promises a drama also on Salinger, pre-Catcher.  Milking it.

Fly Like An Eagle

What you'd see if you could ride on the back of an eagle for a couple of minutes in the mountains.  Don't know back story, but Geek has some here, video below.  We'll presume no-eagles-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film.  No claim yet that it's faked.   You do see a shadow on the ground near the end.  Also hear a couple of little "squawks."  (Note: John Ashcroft's classic tribute, h/t Tommy Vietor.)

Obama Orders Strike Against...Ginger Cat?

As purr orders. 

Hot Commercial

This heartwarming-plus-noodles Thai TV spot, for a mobile company, is worldwide sensation, with 7.7 million hits in one YouTube version (with subtitles) alone.

Tom Friedman Goes Pink

There have been a lot of classic ledes for Tom Friedman over the year but today's may take the cake--or the Swiss chocolate in this case.  At least he didn't ask the cashier for his common man opinion on a big subject, his usual manner.  Here we go:

I was at a conference in Bern, Switzerland, last week and struggling with my column. News of Russia’s proposal for Syria to surrender its poison gas was just breaking and changing every hour, forcing me to rewrite my column every hour. To clear my head, I went for a walk along the Aare River, on Schifflaube Street. Along the way, I found a small grocery shop and stopped to buy some nectarines. As I went to pay, I was looking down, fishing for my Swiss francs, and when I looked up at the cashier, I was taken aback: He had pink hair. A huge shock of neon pink hair — very Euro-punk from the ’90s. While he was ringing me up, a young woman walked by, and he blew her a kiss through the window — not a care in the world.

Observing all this joie de vivre, I thought to myself: “Wow, wouldn’t it be nice to be a Swiss? Maybe even to sport some pink hair?” Though I can’t say for sure, I got the feeling that the man with pink hair was not agonizing over the proper use of force against Bashar al-Assad. Not his fault; his is a tiny country. I guess worrying about Syria is the tax you pay for being an American or an American president — and coming from the world’s strongest power that still believes, blessedly in my view, that it has to protect the global commons. Barack Obama once had black hair. But his is gray now, not pink. That’s also the tax you pay for thinking about the Middle East too much: It leads to either gray hair or no hair, but not pink hair. 

Meeting Roy Orbison--and a Springsteen Connection

Folks, as some may know, I finished my first novel (see first chapter at that link) about a month ago and today I am wrapping up a memoir of my many years at the legendary Crawdaddy, for nearly all of the 1970s.   It's, of course, a very personal look at the decade, from rock 'n roll to film,  politics and social protest, titled This Ain't No Disco.   Here's the current Intro and, below, small excerpt, about meeting Roy Orbison in 1974, more than a decade after I helped organize a local chapter of his fan club in junior high.  The book, of course, includes for the first time the full story of meeting Spirngsteen--in Sing Sing--and 1972 and then helping to write the first major piece about him (and our friendship for years after). 
**

Not sure how it happened, but it came to my attention at Crawdaddy that Roy had finally signed with a new label, Mercury, after ten years with faltering MGM, the label that had seemingly driven him off the rails after he signed a mega-deal with them (he even starred in a crappy movie) after “Pretty Woman.”  When I contacted Mercury’s publicity director, he told me Roy was going to Chicago to talk to the press about an upcoming “comeback” album.  Would I like to meet him there? 
     Naturally, I said yes.  What a story.  Back when he could still hit the highs, lick the lows and invigorate the in-betweens, Roy had sold 30 million records.  He helped keep rock alive in the early 1960s before the British invasion, and played top bill to the Beatles and Rolling Stones in England.  On the other hand, he’d lost his wife Claudette in a motorcycle accident—after he named a hit he wrote for the Everly Brothers after her—and two kids in a fire, and hadn’t been high on the charts in over ten years.
    In Chicago—my first trip there since surviving the ’68 Democratic convention and “police riot”—the publicist introduced me to a very polite Orbison, already in trademark sunglasses on a dark night,  at the hotel.  Then we drove off together in a limo to dine with Mercury execs and then hit a club show starring Ray Manzarek, the former keyboard hinge of the Doors.   It turned out that the “Caruso of rock” was incredibly soft-spoken. “Oh, isn’t that awful?” Roy asked incredulously, barely glancing at the old, wrinkled fan club photo that I produced out of my shoulder bag. Actually, he didn’t look all that different from the guy in the photo, except he’d put on a few pounds, was wearing shades instead of horn rims, and had combed his pompadour over his forehead, as if still paying homage to his friends, The Beatles.
    When we got to the restaurant, the P.R. guy pulled me aside and advised, “Keep it clean—they tell me he’s very religious. And don’t mention the accidents [involving his wife and kids].  They really destroyed him.”  The dinner took place on the 91st floor of the new John Hancock building.  Someone from Mercury pointed to a spitball on the ceiling, courtesy (he said) of another act on the label, Rod Stewart.  The menu was in French.  “I’m generally satisfied with cheeseburgers,” Roy revealed.
    Then it was off to a Gold Coast club called PBM for Manzarek and his loose, probably drunken, set.   Joining the entourage was speedy Danny Sugerman, a former rock writer who had managed the Doors after Jim Morrison’s death and was now writing lyrics for Manzarek.  (Danny would later pen a bestselling Doors bio, manage Iggy Pop and marry Fawn Hall—yes, that Fawn Hall, of Oliver North fame). Roy chatted with one of the other members of our group about the cult Antonioni film, Zabriskie Point, which kind of surprised me. A cineaste? 
    In the ride back to the hotel, Roy said that his musical tastes these days ran to soft-rock or country, and mentioned Olivia Newton-John and Barbara Fairchild.  It was a long way from Jerry Lee Lewis. “Nobody fractures me,” he said.   He had recently attended a concert by his old buddy Elvis Presley in Tennessee, and “it was terrible.”  As for Roy, “Some of those old songs are bad, but we do them bad like they were.”  But he still sang “Crying” as if for the first time:  “I think the secret to my lasting success is that I’m not trying to be too clever, too progressive.”
    Over the next five minutes, Roy told wonderful anecdotes about his interactions with: Elvis, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan.  How many others in the world could do that?   Sample:  He once made a backstage deal with the Rolling Stones in London before they came to the U.S.  He would sing his worst song, “Ooby Dooby,” from his early days, that night if they would do their worst song.  He kept his end of the bargain, they did not. “So to make up for it,” he added, “Mick gave me a silver cigarette case inscribed with Ooby Dooby.”  
    The cab ride was mercilessly cut short by our arrival at the hotel.  We made plans for meeting the next morning. It was only 11:15, but Roy argued, “I’ve got to go beddy-bye now if I’m going to be any good for you tomorrow.”

The following morning the room-service waiter awakened Roy with a knock and we found him in the darkened room just out of the sack already decked out in his trademark shades.  Roy pulled the curtain open,  then puttered around in his green velvet robe, somewhat less mythic than the night before, the bulk of his body sitting incongruously on pale spindly legs, the diamond ring on the little finger of his right hand gleaming with past success.
    We talked over the table as he ate breakfast, starting with his childhood down in Wink, Texas,  later getting hooked up with Buddy Holly’s producer Norman Petty and then, via Johnny Cash, with the legendary Sun Records boss, Sam Phillips.   More anecdotes.  Buddy Holly was not “uppity.” The Everly Brothers passed on what would become his first giant hit, “Only the Lonely.”  Yes, “Crying” was based on a true story.  When he went to England to top a tour with the emerging Beatles for several weeks, who had not yet come to the U.S., he saw their placards all over town and asked, “What is this crap?” only to discover that John Lennon was standing right behind him.  (Roy, being Roy, had apologized profusely.) 
    Very shortly he grew so impressed with the Beatles—“not technically that good but they had a fresh look”—that he told them to get to America as soon as possible, despite their fears, predicting they’d go over great.  He even turned down a chance to handle their U.S. representation. Then he came home and told everyone, including Brian Wilson, gently, that the Beatles would be the biggest group in America in a few months (“I have the clippings to prove it”). 
    Well, I could have listened to this forever, but I was there to cover his latest comeback, so I asked about the new recording.  At the Mercury office I’d heard the first, countryish, single and, while “Sweet Mama Blue” was very pretty, it lacked  the sock of early Orbison—as if he was still battling to get The Voice back (he’d had some heart ailments).  Roy seemed pretty relaxed about it, perhaps more pleased with the record’s existence than the assurance of major success. And he had never stopped making money from sales and tours abroad, in any case. “I think I’ve got possibly 20 years of good singing and record-making left,” he advised.
    When he got back home, he asked his record company send me an original 78 rpm of “Ooby Dooby.”  Also:  He asked me to write the liner notes for his album (see upper left).  Done and done.
    As it turned out, “Sweet Mama Blue” did, in fact, bomb.  I interviewed Roy again over the phone and he said, “It’s already a hit record to me.  It’s done so much more than what I had done like two years ago. Hit records are important to me, and I don’t want this to sound like a cliché, but I’ve had my share of them.”  No kidding.  But was The Voice still there?  “You’ll have to put this nicely,” he pleaded, “because I’m not egotistical in any sense…the voice is ten times what it ever was.  The Orbison tag, the Big Sound, whatever you call it, it’s all still there.”
    It would take a few more years, but eventually, Roy would prove his voice was still there--with the Traveling Wilburys.

For several weeks, in writing the Orbison article, I had immersed myself in vintage Roy the Boy and was hyping him to all of my friends.  One of them, fatefully, was Bruce Springsteen. 
    A year before his Born to Run breakthrough, Brucie was still far from a household name. Let’s put it this way:  No one called him “The Boss,” not even the band members.  He continued to provoke a rapturous response to his live show, but his second lp, The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle, had inspired so-so reviews and sales.  My rave for that record in Crawdaddy, I was told by one inside source, had helped keep Columbia from dropping him from the label.  That meant they still had him when Jon Landau wrote his career-changing “I’ve seen the future of rock ‘n roll” review of Springsteen live, after seeing Bruce in a Boston club when he was touring between albums.  
    A couple of times, Peter Knobler and I tooled up the Palisades Parkway to visit Bruce at the 914 Studio in tiny Blauvelt, N.Y., where he recorded his first two albums and was starting on Born to Run, with some difficulty.  Work was going very slowly and members of the band sometimes slept overnight in the parking lot. At least there was a diner almost next door.  (In an amazing coincidence, fifteen years later I would move out of New York City with my wife and son—to a house just  over the hill, from the long-shuttered studio.  The diner’s still there, however.) Then Jon Landau started to seize production duties from Mike Appel, and shifted the recording to Manhattan.
    In those days, I’d come down to the Jersey Shore to hang out with Bruce a bit.  One weekend we got up at 5 a.m. to trek out to the famous flea market in Englishtown where we both bought boots.  That night we hit a late showing of the concert film, Let the Good Times Roll, starring Fats Domino, Little Richard and other ’50 stars—Brucie’s favorite musical era.
    Another night, with Peter Knobler, we drove to Philly to visit a club where Miami Steve Van Zandt, who had not yet joined Bruce’s band, was playing with The Dovells (of “Bristol Stomp” fame).  When we arrived there was this quirky surprise: The club, which had seen better days, was not only owned by one of Bruce’s boyhood DJ idols, Jerry “The Geator With the Heater” Blavat, he was also spinning tunes between sets.  The Geator, you might say, was the original “Boss,” as his long ago nickname was “The Boss With the Hot Sauce.”
    Only about three dozen folks were in the audience, but band members were still working the young women crowding the stage. Van Zandt was dressed in a cheap white suit and mugging right along with the Vegas wisecracks from the lead singer (better pay days were to come for Steve).  The rail-thin Geator was also playing to the crowd, sending out Motown and Spector tunes to “The girls from Morristown!” among others between sets. Suddenly he shouted out to the beefy bartender, “Macho Joe!”  Or was that “Nacho Joe”? Then: “Fur burgers!  All you guys got to see these girls from Morristown!” 
    As the Dovells moved back to the stage, Brucie approached the Geator, reached out to shake his hand and introduced himself, after Glavat failed to recognize him. Following a brief chat, the Geator was now pumping Bruce’s hand and pounding him on the back,  announcing to the crowd, “Girls, we got a star here!  My man, my man, Bruce Springsteen!”  A few minutes later, Bruce told us that he sensed Blavat still did not know who he was but had invited him on his local TV show that week. Small potatoes but he was tempted, calling it, with that big laugh, a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
    Equally memorable for me: A touch football game with all of the E Streeters, plus Miami Steve and girlfriends on a July 4.  That night Bruce drove me back to New York in his classic ’56 Chevy convertible, busting the speed limit continually. On another occasion, while I  cowered in the back seat of a Jaguar with my date, Knobler challenged Springsteen (in a Galaxy) to a drag race on some dark, nearly-deserted Jersey highway.  Bruce was up for it, and soon both cars were nearly hitting 100.  Approaching a car in front, Knobler eased for safety, giving Brucie (who disappeared into the dark) the win.
    On one visit to Bruce’s  apartment, he sat at an upright piano and knocked out a bit of the tune that would become “Born to Run.” To illustrate how the guitar for it should sound on record, he played an old Searchers song on his cheap phonograph, maybe “Every Time You Walk Into the Room.” He vowed that “Born to Run”  would be his first Top Ten smash, or he’d die trying.
      
When Bruce was in Manhattan, visiting music stores or recording or stopping by the Columbia bunker, he would sometimes stop by the Crawdaddy offices down on Fifth Avenue, and Peter and I would entertain him for awhile.  One day we had an epic “catch” with a tennis ball up and down West 13th Street as his red-haired girlfriend Karen watched, baffled.  Then there was the night we had an extra ticket for the once-a-year Yanks/Mets exhibition game and off we went, sitting behind the screen at Shea Stadium as he rooted like a little kid.  Indeed, he was a former player.  I learned that night what his line “Indians in the summer” from “Blinded By the Light” came from: The Indians were one of his Little League teams.
    One afternoon I took Springsteen  to our room in back that had a sound system and played him most of a Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits album,  Of course, Bruce was well aware of Roy—and professed to love my Roy profile in the magazine--but, like most people, probably hadn’t heard much of his old hits lately.  He was blown away, and listened to a couple of songs again.  Then I lent him my album.
    Next thing I knew, via the Jersey grapevine: He had made a Roy tape off my album and the E Streeters were playing it on their tour bus all the time.  Bruce started performing Orbison songs during his soundchecks and  encores on stage.  One time I visited him back stage at, of all places, Philharmonic Hall in New York (he was opening for someone) and, across the room, he wordlessly greeted me with the opening notes of “Pretty Woman” on the guitar: Da-da-da-da-dum. My new theme song.
    The following year, lo and behold, what shows up at the start of the opening track “Thunder Road” on Born to Run:  What was destined to be one of Bruce’s most quoted lines ever.  “Roy Orbison singin’ for the lonely/ hey that’s me and I want you only.”  I never got a chance to confirm my role in helping to inspire it, but hey, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
 

Fresh Air from Linda Ronstadt

She sat down with Terry Gross today--yes, she can still talk if not sing--and here's the audio.  Plus a lengthy group of excerpts.  On  men, drugs, sex, Emmylou, Hank Williams, more.  And one of my favorite Linda moments below--back in the days before auto-tuning and fake live singing.

Hipster Cop Returns

The NYT in new piece covers today's Occupy rallies in town, marking the 2nd anniversary, and I'm sure some will complain about the allegedly smallish crowds.  Getting the most attention, however, at the end is:  the return of the famous Hipster Cop, Rick Lee, who actually always just had the cool nickname without really looking like a hipster (left).  The Times offers a full report on what he wore today, down to the Brooks Brothers wingtips.

My book on Occupy was first one and still holds up as only day-by-day record (with hundreds of links) of early days: "40 Days That Shook the World."