This week’s new releases include Portugal. The Man, Young Thug, Lord Huron, and more, plus reissues/expanded records by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, The Living, Mary Wilson, & Tom Petty, plus Paul McCartney & Sharon Van Etten tributes. [Spotify]
“Her mother blackmailed her, her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini stole from her, and shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was violent and abandoned her for Jackie Kennedy.” The true story of the legendary soprano Maria Calas in… [The Guardian]
Merry Clayton, a backup singer/solo artist best known for “Gimme Shelter” and one of the highlights of last week’s Spotify playlist (with her new record, her first in decades), was the subject of this eye-opening New York Times piece in the Sunday print edition. “She first made the connection between faith and music at age 3 when she sang the spiritual ‘I’m Satisfied’ in her father’s church. Located in her birth city of New Orleans, the congregation drew stars of the gospel world from Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers to Mahalia Jackson. ‘They called me “little Mahalia,”’ Clayton said.” [NYT]
Books
“This scorching novel, a never-before-seen masterpiece by Richard Wright… written between his landmark books Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945), at the height of his creative powers… would see publication in Wright’s lifetime only in drastically condensed and truncated form.” [Library of America]
Politics
“It’s not just churches like MacArthur’s and Feucht’s; smaller churches may be quieter about it, but they too defy the rules. In my own town, after visiting churches that were open and seeing maskless people sing in small windowless auditoriums, I asked a local leader what was being done about enforcement. On a condition of anonymity, they told me, ‘You don’t want to be the person who goes head to head with a church, even if they are killing people. You can’t win.’” - Lyz Lenz, via [Men Yell At Me]
How do you feel Biden is doing as President. Here’s a “report card” on his first 100 days (as if that arbitrary marker has ever meant anything.) [The P-Word]
Film/TV
John Devore on the Robocop… animated series?? Did this really happen or is it like the imaginary 1994 film “Shazaam”? Find out on… [Humungus]
Newsletters may be shorter for a while. A few people have been consistently contributing but now Brian is about to sign a book deal and he will be quite busy till the fall, so… keep at it!