Jimmy Dore and Aaron Maté Discuss Robert Mueller’s Testimony

Three parts to this video, from last Saturday’s [July 27, 2019] “Solid Chat Saturday,” were published to YouTube by weekend’s end by The Jimmy Dore Show.

Host Jimmy Dore and guest Aaron Maté discuss the recent testimony of former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller.

Here they are:

‘Diane Schuler wrong-way crash: 10 years ago, carnage on the Taconic’

July 26, 2009.

The 2009 Taconic Parkway crash which killed intoxicated driver Diane Schuler, at age 36, and seven others, was ten years on this day.


Below is a link to a report on this published this week:

Diane Schuler wrong-way crash: 10 years ago, carnage on the Taconic




This was the subject of a 2011 documentary, on HBO, There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane.

(It is available on HBO Go.)

Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’

July 21, 1989.

That is, according to Wikipedia, the date in which Spike Lee’s most famous film, Do the Right Thing, was released in U.S. theaters.

I was 17, one month short of turning 18, when the film was released.

It was a great film about racial tensions in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

Along with Spike Lee, the film also stars Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Nunn, Rosie Perez, John Savage, and John Turturro.

It was one of the most well-respected films of 1989, a terrific year which also included the following titles: Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone); Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore); Crimes and Misdemeanors (Woody Allen); Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir); Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant); Enemies, A Love Story (Paul Mazursky); The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves); Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson); Glory (Edward Zwick); Henry V (Kenneth Branagh); The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker); My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan); Parenthood (Ron Howard); Roger & Me (Michael Moore); Say Anything... (Cameron Crowe); sex, lies, and videotape (Steven Soderbergh); The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito); When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner); and, the winner of the Oscar for Best Picture, Driving Miss Daisy (Bruce Beresford).

Do the Right Thing was named No. 1 on the year-end Best of 1989 lists by film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. It garnered Oscar nominations for Lee in Best Original Screenplay and Aiello in Best Supporting Actor. (Lee was one of the co-writers who, in February 2019, won the 2018 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his most recent film BlacKkKlansman.)

Criterion Collection is re-releasing Do the Right Thing on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, July 23. The cover art is what appears above. Below are two clips from the film. The first has striking opening credits. The second is a powerful statement on stereotypes.

‘Why “Incremental Change” Is Worse Than No Change At All’

This Medium piece, “Why ‘Incremental Change’ Is Worse Than No Change At All,” by Caitlin Johnstone was published last weekend.

It came to my attention on Monday, July 15.

I decided to make it the No. 1 blog topic for Friday, July 19, 2019.

(A second topic follows.)

Here is the link: Why “Incremental Change” Is Worse Than No Change At All.

This past Tuesday, July 16, 2019, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced nominations for the 71st Emmy Awards (scheduled to be broadcast on Fox, Sunday, September 22, 2019).

The nominations were for prime-time television excellence from the 2018–19 season.

Leading the way, with a brand-new record of 32 nominations, the most number of nominations for a regular series for a given season, is HBO’s Game of Thrones.

That is one series I made a point of watching. The other two, which were not on Emmys’ radar, were ABC’s The Good Doctor and CBS’s NCIS.

I used to watch lots more in the way of regular television series when I was younger. (And I had plenty of opinions on the Emmys.) Now, I do not get much involved. In fact, I like not taking on much because, after some time, it can feel like a job. I don’t want that. So, I like being lean.

What I find interesting about these overall nominations is what has been observed, in “Notes On The Emmys: What It Takes To Get A Nomination And Why It Helps To Be On HBO Or Netflix,” by Deadline’s Pete Hammond. Much of what he points out has me also thinking about U.S. politics. And if you read the piece, you will understand why that is.

Here is the link: Notes On The Emmys: What It Takes To Get A Nomination And Why It Helps To Be On HBO Or Netflix.

‘Amazon Prime Isn’t Always The Answer’

Monday and Tuesday, July 15 and 16, 2019, are promoted by Amazon as “Prime Day.”

I have been told, from time to time, by my aunt, to whom I am close, that the day has just about arrived—and I may come across some deals.

It has not been on my mind. But, over the past weekend, I happened to come across this insightful piece by Manoush Zomorodi, who relates her experiences, and that she finds it to be not worthy.

Here is a link: Amazon Prime Isn’t Always The Answer.

• FLASHBACK: July 12, 1979 • The Deaths of Singer Minnie Riperton and Music Genre Disco

40 years ago on this date, July 12, 1979, were two pieces of news from the music industry.

One was the death of singer Minnie Riperton, at age 31, from cancer. Riperton, married to music producer Richard Rudolph, was the mother of comic actress and Saturday Night Live alum Maya Rudolph.

Born November 8, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, Riperton hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Chart in April 1975 with “Lovin’ You.” It was written by Rudolph and Riperton.

Her other songs included “Lover and Friend,” “Memory Lane,” “Simple Things,” and “Young Willing and Able”.

The five-octave singer’s 1974 album Perfect Angel, which was co-produced by her husband with Stevie Wonder (who recently made news, at age 69, of needing a kidney transplant), peaked at No. 4 and reached U.S. Gold.

She was nominated, posthumously, for two Grammys for Female R&B Vocal Performance for her album recordings Minnie (1979) and Love Lives Forever (1980).

Minnie Riperton was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1976. She was a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society and was awarded American Cancer Society’s Courage Award by then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Above is video of Minnie Riperton. (I was looking for interviews of her. She was a guest more than once on the syndicated The Mike Douglas Show. But none of it applies to inclusion in this blog topic.) The last two are tributes or remembrances of her by Stevie Wonder, who met her in 1971 and appeared on a September 1979 episode of the syndicated Soul Train, and daughter Maya Rudolph, in the first of a four-part video, published to YouTube in 2017.

Here is reading material: Wikipedia — Minnie_Riperton.




The second death, although it was the beginning of the death of a particular phenomenon, was to the music genre: Disco Demolition Night.

This happened on a Thursday double-header, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, between home team Chicago White Sox and visiting team Detroit Tigers.

The first video, below, is from ESPN. It does a good job, in terms of sports, summarizing how that Major League Baseball team’s ballpark became the site of such a spectacle.

I was 7, exactly five weeks shy of turning 8, years of age. So, how the death of disco—I was told it was just a fad which died—was not something I learned of for years with regard for such details.

Below are materials covering this event, which I think speaks to a lot of human nature—and it is not at all a pretty picture—from that day in 1979.

Reading material: Wikipedia —“Disco Demolition Night”.

Videos:

‘Majority Backs “Medicare for All” Replacing Private Plans, if Preferred Providers Stay’

Here is a link to the report:

Majority Backs ‘Medicare for All’ Replacing Private Plans, if Preferred Providers Stay





Here are two videos responding to this report:

Summer Break

Good timing!

July has arrived.

I wish everyone a Happy Independence Day this coming Thursday, July 4, 2019.

This will be made available, for everyone to post comments, for the entire week.