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The great singer songwriter Jesse Colin Young has died at age 83.
Born Perry Miller in New York, Young managed to capture the eternal sound of summer, peace, and hippies in 1969 with “Get Together.”
The song remains an island, Young’s one big hit with his band the Youngbloods. Sometimes a one off hit is all you need despite lots of talent and many terrific records. “Get Together” with its refrain “If you hear the song I sing” just transcended radio. The production was gorgeous and dramatic but not overdone.
Jesse Colin Young did have a lot of records. He wrote a hit for Three Dog Night called “Sunlight,” the kind of song you hear and think, What is that? He used it to kick off his own live album, “On the Road (Live 1976).” It’s still one of those favorite songs and albums that makes you feel good. On it, he also performs a medley of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and “Mercy Mercy Me,” that remains outstanding.
‘The White Lotus’ Incest Kiss Is ‘Not Just for Shock’ Value and ‘Culminates in a Very Satisfying Way,’ Says Executive Producer
It’s not the first time today I’ve seen interviews in print, online, and TV in which the actors involved in last night’s smooch between blood-related brothers insist there’s a point to what happened.
Look, I don’t care personally, but there’s no satisfying ending to this story line. Unless, of course, you’re living way out on the edge. I’ve seen this coming week’s episode. When the rest of that story is told, viewers will be reaching for hard liquor. The Ratliff brothers go somewhere I’ve never seen on TV or the movies.
But maybe I live a cloistered life. Or it’s generational. Maybe incest is now considered cool, and we shouldn’t sweat it.
After Sunday there are two more episodes I haven’t seen. I guess this could all turn out to a porn dream. I doubt it. If the Ratliffs remain alive, and go home together, it’s going to be very difficult to sit at the same breakfast table. Lochlon Ratliff (played by Sam Nivola) would need therapy the rest of his life. The audience will, too.
It’s hard to believe that not one of the media people running today’s public relations for “The White Lotus” are unaware of the fallout from last night’s episode. I guess they’re just playing along.
As for the other big moment last night, Sam Rockwell secured himself an Emmy Award for guest star. Wow. His speech to Walton Goggins was on fire. Goggins was gaga just from listening to him. It was an actor’s master class.
All roads — or tracks — lead to Grand Central Station.
You may have seen videos of George Clooney taking bows for his new Broadway play, “Good Night and Good Luck.” Behind him, on the stage set, you’ll see a large half arched window, the kind that when you look up from the main floor take up the sides of Grand Central near the ceiling. What you don’t know is, the set is based on a still accessible real place with a broadcasting history.
A few weeks ago, Mark Saulnier, the chief architect of Grand Central, gave me a tour of the historic train station built by Cornelius Vanderbilt . We went up into the warrens of hallways, walked across cat walks that are set in those windows, and wound up at a private tennis club located officially — if stealthily– at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue. Looking down from way up high, Saulnier said, the scurrying train passengers really did look like ants.
The Tennis club, pretty much hidden from the public, used to be the home of CBS Radio between 1939 and 1964. It’s where Edward R. Murrow and his gang of broadcasters– the subjects of Clooney’s movie and now play — delivered the news to America, like election results (back when they were honored). Who knew?
We met Saulnier at an usual event at Grand Central’s Campbell Apartments downstairs off Vanderbilt Avenue. The ornate, restored lounge hosted a party given by Czech Vogue for their March cover star, Consuelo Vanderbilt-Costin. If Vanderbilt sounds familiar, it’s because Consuelo’s descended from a long line of the wealthy famous family. She was named after Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
How is the present Consuelo Vanderbilt related to the original Cornelius Vanderbilt? There are seven generations between them. It’s not easy to follow with Henry Louis Gates doing his show on PBS. But the original Consuelo was already the great-great-granddaughter, and she died in 1964 at age 87.The newer Consuelo is decades younger, seventh generation down and, of course, a philanthropist. She’s found Grand Central as her ancestral home since the avenue it’s built on is named for her family. There are plaques for Grand Central Station’s original builder, Cornelius, aka The Commodore, in the station. So that’s an easy connection.
What does Anderson Cooper know about this? That’s unclear. His mother, the late great Gloria Vanderbilt, was the Commodore’s granddaughter. Anderson is Consuelo’s third cousin, twice removed.
Michaela Seewald, Publisher of Vogue Czech Republic & Slovakia, gathered together fashionistas and influences from all over the world to honor Consuelo. Does she know about the Clooney-Murrow connection? She and Saulnier have become quite chummy as she takes clients and business associates all over Grand Central on tours. But even she will get a kick out of seeing the set of “Good Night, and Good Luck” on Broadway.
Consuelo is described as an Entrepreneur, philanthropist and international recording artist. She was recently featured in Elysian Magazine as one of New York City’s most influential and inspirational women, with a career as a singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur. She even has a jewelry line, Homage by Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, with HSN.
Who knows? If she’d been alive back when Murrow uttered his famous line, “Good Night, and Good Luck.” he could have featured her on his “Person to Person” radio show without going too far!!
Donald Trump went to the Kennedy Center today and slagged it.
He complained about the look of the building, the union, posed like Evita Peron on the balcony.
He brought along country singer Lee Greenwood, one of his cronies, to whom Trump will obviously give a Kennedy Center honor. Greenwood has exactly one hit, “Proud to be an American,” He’s made a fortune singing his xenophobic anthem at Trump rallies since 2016.
The whole thing was pathetic.
The Kennedy Center was designed by famed architect Edward Durell Stone and is considered an elegant, beautiful building.
Crass Trump wants marble, gold, and chrome like his other hideous projects. He wants a building in his own image. I’m sure he wants the Kennedy name off of it, replaced by his own reptilian nomenclature.
Trump has insisted over and over the Kennedy Center is in financial trouble, but it’s not. All their numbers are up after a tough time during the pandemic. He and his band of hooligans aren’t “rescuing” anything.
As for Greenwood, he’s a shoo in for Trump and the lackeys he’s placed on the board. Look for other unpopular honorees like Mel Gibson, Jon Voight, and Sylvester Stallone, other Christian acts, and so on. No “normal” artists will show up or even accept the honor under these conditions.
Trump: "We had Lee Greenwood wanted to sing a little song today. And because of the cost and the union structure, for him to sing a song just for the board it was gonna cost $30k. They wanted $30k to move a piano. So you can't have that. We're gonna fix it up." pic.twitter.com/4fpHj4rwW9
Carole King and many others have one. Now it’s time for a James Taylor Broadway jukebox musical.
“Fire & Rain” is the title, although the way audiences come to the theater these days they could call it “Shower the People.”
Taylor’s tremendous song catalog will be shaped into a narrative “August Osage County” playwright Tracy Letts. The show will be directed by David Cromer.
Unlike Carole King’s musical, “Beautiful,” there are a lot of dark periods that have to be addressed in this show. Taylor had a bad heroin problem that led to the end of his “fairytale” marriage to singer Carly Simon. There was a second marriage, and then a third to his current wife, which produced his two younger sons.
On the upside, a musical just about the early days of Taylor’s career could be fun. The recording of “Sweet Baby James” and “Mud Slide Slim” would overlap with “Beautiful” and feature Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, and other stars. Taylor was originally signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records as well.
Letts will also likely include Taylor’s musical family including brother Livingston and sister Kate, each of whom had strong careers of their own.
The show is in development so we probably won’t see it until 2027.
This year almost none of the films nominated for Oscars were still playing in theaters on Academy Awards night.
That was March 2nd.
To ensure none of the next group of nominated films will be in theaters in 2026, the Oscars will be held on March 15th, two weeks later.
Couldn’t they push them into April?
The good news is that Conan O’Brien is hosting the show again. He jokes that it’s just because he wants to hear Adrien Brody finish his acceptance speech.
This year’s Oscars broadcast was up slightly in the ratings, or down slightly depending on what numbers you go by. The main thing is, it was a terrific show, well produced and very entertaining. I do hope they return to featuring the Best Songs next year. Also, maybe we can have some legacy movie stars as presenters.
I guess now ABC can use a promotion with the tag line “Beware the Ides of March” if anyone still knows what that means.
The pop singer who’s now a father posted a message to Instagram that reads like a cry for help.
He says he feels like he’s drowning, “feeling unsafe to acknowledge it.”
Bieber’s mental health issues have been going on for some time now. It’s unclear if anyone is helping him or where this is all going. He’s semi-retired from show business at 31 years old. No music, no tours, nothing. Just odd posts.
Bieber was so unsympathetic as a young star that it’s hard to find sympathy for him now. But he’s clearly in trouble. It’s interesting that the person who found him and made him a star, Scooter Braun, has no connection to him now. And what happened to all the religious mumbo jumbo?
Donald Trump dumped this news at 12:30am Eastern Time.
To flood the zone even more with his crackpot declarations, the worst president in history announced tonight that he will not respect President Joe Biden’s pardons before he left office.
He called them “VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT.”
Of course this is illegal, but Trump is now spending his days ignoring the judicial system on different matters. He regards judges as his employees and doesn’t shrink from violating their orders.
Trump says — and this is all a lie — that Biden knew nothing about the pardons and they don’t count because he signed them in AutoPen. He says evenyone who was pardoned by Biden “should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level.”
Trump is not stupid. He knows this will take up all the air this week, letting him continue on his path of destruction. This is another misdirection, after so many.
After four weeks of very little happening, “The White Lotus” turned up the heat tonight.
Oscar winner Sam Rockwell turns up in Bangkok, where he’s a sketchy friend of Rick (Walton Goggins).
Rockwell’s appearance makes sense. He is the real life husband of actress Leslie Bibb, who plays one of the three women traveling together. (She’s the Trump voter, the one who knows Parker Posey from home.)
Rockwell delivers a speech to Ric over drinks that could earn him an Emmy award. It’s a self-revelation that will leave you gobsmacked.
Meanwhile, the implied incest of the last four weeks finally occurs. The Ratliff brothers — played by Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola — have a steamy make out session during their orgy romp with the two women played by Aimee Lou Wood and Charlotte Le Bon. Spoiler: it gets worse next week.
Rockwell will be back next week. Makes sense since Bibb was filming in Thailand for months. As for Ric, we know he’s up to no good. We see his plan forming tonight.
After next week there are only two more episodes. How will this all resolve? Who is the dead person floating in the water? After next week, it’s still hard to guess who’s the killer and who’s the survivor. This group, except for Belinda, is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
NY Post readers: the paper is lying to you about Trump’s polling numbers per NBC.
The poll says people disagree with everything Trump is doing except immigration.
Everything else is vastly unpopular.
Trump’s overall rating is 51% disapprove, 47% approve. It’s the second lowest approval rating for any president in 30 years. The lowest was during his first term.
are the pollsters asking these questions of minorities? Trump is erasing their history, and undermining them getting jobs or having any equal rights. It’s shocking to me that there aren’r riots at this point. And few Democratic “leaders” are doing anything.
