TV: The Prolonged Puberty of Teen Idols

Last Wednesday, the highest rated network show was CBS' long running BIG BROTHER series.  The only real surprise was that, nipping at its heels, was the debut of FOX's new series BH90210.  A few more viewers (.12 million) and it would have beat BIG BROTHER.  What may be most amazing about Wednesday night is that 14 million people were watching the broadcast networks on a summer night -- that's because they are programming for summer finally.



When we started reviewing here nearly 15 years ago (15 in January), we would talk about how the networks were giving away viewers.  Not bleeding them mind you, but giving them away.  Basic cable stations like USA were programming shows in the summer -- IN PLAIN SIGHT, for example.  And the broadcast networks were largely sleeping on the job.

July 31st, VARIETY quoted FOX ENTERTAINMENT president Michael Thorn stating a new reality, "You will see a variety of order patterns in comedy and drama. It's a 52-week business, and we are really looking at our schedule and looking for ways to be more opportunistic about the way we launch shows."

It's certainly taken them long enough to voice that reality.

Last Wednesday, ABC, CBS, THE CW, NBC and FOX had two hours of new programming -- CBS, ABC and NBC had three.  The most competitive was the second hour where BH90210 debuted.

What is BH90210?  Many were hoping it was the return of Brenda, Kelly, Donna, David, Steve, etc.  It wasn't.   What Jenny Garth and Tori Spelling had sold the distributor on was that they and other original 90210 castmates would play spoofs of themselves in a faux reality show (though aren't all 'reality' shows pretty much faux reality?).

Along the way to filming, Luke Perry died.  He'd played Dylan.  Promotion for the show included stressing that he would be remembered in the first episode.  That may have helped ratings.  It may not.  What everyone is pretty much watching for is the return of Shannen Doherty.  Shannen played Brenda on the original series and she and Luke Perry were the show's super couple (Brenda and Dylan) and the show's biggest stars.

Shannen left in season four.  Her father was ill and she was on a phased out schedule but then wanted to remain with the show.  The producers didn't want that.  Was she that out of control?  Apparently not.  There were shooting delays but nothing like what Bruce Willis pulled on the set of MOONLIGHTING, for example.  Episodes were finished on time.

It was popular to hate her and many did.  Many also liked her.

Her co-stars could have saved her but didn't want to.

Why?  Maybe jealousy.  If you're the beautiful Jenny Garth wondering why your character isn't the most popular, maybe you don't see Shannen off the show as a bad thing.  If you're the ridiculous Jason Priestley, maybe you're eager to see her go as well.

Shannen can act.  And people want to see what happens when she acts opposite these old cast mates.

Which is why episode two (tonight) will do well in the ratings.  How episodes after (it's a six episode run) will fair will be the real test to determine whether or not BH90210 has a second season.

In the first episode, everyone gushed over Luke Perry.

Which is how you knew the show was full of s**t.  Luke never met a moment he couldn't work the word "f*g" into and he started that while he was first appearing on the show.  For his homophobia on full display, read the 1992 VANITY FAIR cover story and note how he is the injured party -- not any person who is gay and struggling in a homophobic world.

Luke couldn't act.  That's reality.  He could pose.  But he couldn't act.  We were kind when he died.  We didn't write about how hard we laughed when idiots on Twitter started saying he was the James Dean of his generation.  We laughed.  But we kept it to ourselves since the wounds were still fresh for so many.

But he's dead and the loss of another homophobe is no real loss at all.

From the VANITY FAIR article, let's Luke speak for himself:


Especially in show business: it’s a fag-o-rama! The gay people who bother me are the ones who are offended that you take notice that they are gay. To me, it should be as open to conversation as anything else. But because I’m the handsome leading man, everybody wants to get in my closet and find out I’ve been a fag. ... I can understand why Tom Selleck sued the Globe. Because that’s business. People think Tom Selleck’s gay, then they’re not going to be showing up to see his movies. They just took a lot of money out of his pocket.


Again, the loss of another homophobe is no real loss at all.

Luke thought he'd have a career after 90210.  He really didn't.  He worked from time to time but nothing memorable.  In 2006's "TV Review: Windfallen Perry and Gedrick," we noted the bomb that was WINDFALL:

There's the fact that he's married, the fact that she's married. Too many facts and, frankly, not enough heat to justify the tears she works up over the whole non-tragedy.

You'd be crying too if you were caught in a lose-lose triangle with Gedrick and Luke Perry. Perry plays Nina's husband Peter. Perry hasn't ballooned the way Gedrick has. He more or less looks the same. Even his "hair" more or less looks the same. (We feel like we may be spoiling Christmas for a few die hards, but it does require comment.)

Some might argue he's "still the same." He does do exactly the same thing in this role that he did in the one that brought him to national attention -- which is sad not only because the two characters have different names but also because they have very different life experiences.

When he shot to fame, Perry was bad boy Dylan on 90210. He (wisely) left the show when he got tired of too many "Let me explain the moral" storylines. He (unwisely) returned to the show. Here he (unwisely) uses the same squint, pursed lips and head tilt. The three externals are pulled out of mothballs but he's never thought of exploring the interior which is why his performance is as hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny.

It's not the role of a young man beginning a journey but Perry plays it as though it is. It wasn't all that convincing on 90210 but, for the first seasons, the pull-her-pigtails-and-smirk non-performance benefitted from his co-star Shannen Doherty who brought a lot more to the scenes than she was ever given credit for. "We work together," Perry once infamously replied when asked what his relationship with Doherty was like. And did he like her? "We work together," he repeated.

Parrilla is who he works with now and there's nothing but dialogue between them onscreen. It's a bit hard to get worked up over Nina's 'conflict' of whether she should leave her boring husband for a boring ex-boyfriend but the editing may distract some. When Perry begins slamming fists and doing his earnest, slow, loud voice, water cooler critics may hail it as "acting" and start humming "Papa Has A Brand New Bag," but the reality is that Felix has the same bag but far less tricks.

But Luke was treated like God in the reverent response the cast gave at the mention of his name.  They're meeting up at a reunion for the fans.  And Luke's not there.  Nor is Shannen.  She's saving animals.  But she does appear via the internet and, when she speaks, it's hard not to notice how much hatred Jason Priestly and the ridiculous Gabrielle Carteris pour into that scene.  Is that really how Carteris, the current president of SAG-AFTRA wants to be seen?

Let's talk about some good things you see.  Jenny and Tori planned well for themselves.  They can carry this concept and do.  They are delightful.  The same is true of Brian Austin Green and Ivan Sergei (he's playing Tori's husband Nate).  They are wonderful.  We can even find nice things to say about Ian Ziering's acting.

But that's really where the traffic stops.

Who are we leaving out?

Jason Priestly.

In a photo that's outlived any of his performances -- and is also more memorable than his acting -- Jason stood next to Luke.  Both were shirtless, both wore Vietnamese conical bamboo hats, both had cigarettes in their mouths, both had their blue jeans pulled down around their ankles and both were wearing boxers.

The takeaway from the photo was that Luke was a man -- leg hair, chest hair, pit hair, bulge in the front of his underwear -- while Jason was a Ken doll -- smooth all over, a hairless terrier who packed nothing in the front of his shorts.

The years since passed slowly but between his butt scenes in CALENDAR GIRL and later films COLD BLOODED and LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND, Jason finally began to sprout big-boy hairs.  More likely, he'd just stopped shaving them.  There's something very sad about a 21-year-old 'man' playing a 15-year-old boy (which was what he did on 90210).

Though he finally sprouted big boy hairs, he never learned what to do with a big boy body.

Watching the first episode of BH90210, that was so obvious.

Though he was given more storyline than any other character on the spoof (he's now a director, he punches out actors he directs, his wife is his publicist, he thinks he loves her but he sleeps with Jenny at the reunion -- not because he loves Jenny . . .).  Dostoevsky didn't provide that much backstory for Sonya and Rodion combined in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.

He had so much to play but, being Jason Priestly, he couldn't play any of it.

Teen idols -- especially pre-teen ones which is what Jason once was -- have a hard time in real life.  They're loved for being chaste.  Little girls and little boys not yet having sex watch these vapid, paper dolls and fall in love with the idea of love.  When they grow up a little, they're ready for boys who will do the nasty.  These boys are a step above the teen idols but they're preaching chastity, as ROLLING STONE once observed, their message is "the beastie is there but we'll keep it on a leash."

Jason excelled at Brandon because Brandon was nothing back then.  Now that he's expected to have had a life and experience, Jason can't convincingly act the role.

He honestly reminds us of another teen idol a friend directed a few years ago.  It was a play and the actor had been a teen idol on TV.  He'd been cast -- for what his name once was -- in a juicy part but it was the lead and he had all these ideas about what he shouldn't do.

He couldn't let down his fans, he explained over and over.

The director tried everything to get a performance out of him.  Nothing worked.  He tried brainstorming and he even invited the actor to dinner with us where we could all brainstorm.  To every suggestion -- even something as mild as 'act from the crotch' -- he would give a reason why his fans wouldn't want to see him do that.  He stuck to his guns and gave a text book example of a bad performance.  The critics that did bother to review it were not kind.

Fade out.

Fade in four years later and we're leaving a party and waiting for the car when he walks over (he was actually working parking -- is it too harsh to add "not very convincingly"?).  How are we?  How is he?  Pleasantries quickly dispensed with, he's been thinking recently, he says, about that performance and all the suggestions so many people made for him to develop and discover the character.

"If I had it to do over now," he told us, "I'd probably do at least half of those suggestions."

But that's the thing about these teen idols.  There are no do overs.

There's only the moment that they're given a chance.  Instead of seizing the moment, they're paralyzed by the thought of doing anything new and trapped in the prolonged puberty that first brought them to fame.

That's Jason Priestly.  No amount of behind the scenes work by Tori and Jenny is ever going to change that.

So You Think You Know The Classics

Forget fourth graders, are you smarter than a liberal arts major?  Test your knowledge this go round and find out.




Below you will find the opening paragraph or paragraphs to six classic books.  Can you identify them?

Wait, we'll make it easier for you.

After the six excerpts, there are eight possible books that the six can be from.

Can you match them up?

1) They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.  But we were not in their ranks.  The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother, 'because she pretty like pretty self' Christophine said.
She was my father's second wife, far too young for him they thought, and, worse still a Martinique girl.  When I asked her why so few people came to see us, she told me that the road from Spanish Town to Coulibri Estate where we lived was very bad and that road repairing was now a thing of the past.  (My father, visitors, horses, feeling safe in bed -- all belonged to the past.)


2) The Lie Detector was asleep when he heard the telephone ringing.
At first he believed it was the clock ordering him to rise, but then he awakened completely and remembered his profession.
The voice he heard was rusty, as if disguised.  He could not distinguish what altered it: alcohol, drugs, anxiety or fear.


3) On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel.  Deferential palms cool its flushed faced, and before it stretches a short dazzling beach.  Lately it has become a summer resort of notable and fashionable people;  a decade ago it was almost deserted after its English clientele went north in April.  Now, many bungalows cluster near it, but when this story begins only the cupolas of a dozen old villas rotted like water lilies among the massed pines between Gausse's Hotel des Etrangers and Cannes, five miles away.


4) I have never begun a novel with more misgiving.  If I call it a novel it is only because I don't know what else to call it.  I have little story to tell and I end neither with a death nor a marriage.  Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too ad the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.  It is a sound instinct of the common people which persuades them that with this all that needs to be said is said.  When male and female, after whatever vicissitudes you like, are at last brought together they have fulfilled their biological function and interest passes to the generation that is to come.  But I leave my reader in the air.  This book  consists of my recollections of a man with whom I was thrown into close contact only at long intervals, and I have little knowledge of what happened to him in between.  I suppose that by the exercise of invention I could fill the gaps plausibly enough and so make my narrative more coherent; but I have no wish to do that.  I only want to set down what I know of my own knowledge.

5) I did not realize for a long time that I was dead.
And that reminds me of a story: There was once a beautiful young panther who had a co-wife and a husband.  Her name was Lara and she was unhappy because her husband and her co-wife were really in love; being nice to her was merely a duty panther society imposed on them.  They had not even wanted to take her into their marriage as co-wife, since they were already perfectly happy.  But she was an "extra" female in the group and that would not do.  Her husband sometimes sniffed her breath and other emanations.  He even, sometimes, made love to her.  But whenever this happened, the co-wife, whose name was Lala, became upset.  She and the husband, Baba, would argue, then fight, snarling and biting and whipping at each other's eyes with their tails.  Pretty soon they'd become sick of this and would lie clutched in each other's paws, weeping.


6) When the fair gold morning of April stirred Mary Hawley awake, she turned over to her husband and saw him, little fingers pulling a frog mouth at her.
"You're silly," she said.  "Ethan, you've got your comical genius."
"Oh say, Miss Mousie, will you marry me?"
"Did you wake up silly?"
"The year's at the day.  The day's at the morn."
"I guess you did. Do you remember it's Good Friday?"
He said hollowly, "The dirt Romans are forming up for Calvary."
"Don't be sacrilegious.  Will Marullo let you close the stores at eleven?"



A) W. Somerset Maugham's THE RAZOR'S EDGE.

B) F. Scott Fitzgerald's TENDER IS THE NIGHT.

C) Alice Walker's POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY.

D) John Steinbeck's THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT.

E) Jean Rhys' WIDE SARGASSO SEA.

F) Katharine Anne Porter's SHIP OF FOOLS.

G) Anais Nin's A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE.

H) Toni Morrison's BELOVED.



Success?  You've identified all six?  Well call your parents and tell them that you finally were able to put that liberal arts degree to good use!

As for those of you that didn't identify all of them or are not sure you identified them correctly, below is the key.

1) is E.

2) is G.

3) is B.

4) is A.

5) is C.

6) is D.

Jim's World

To NETFLIX or not to NETFLIX, that is the question.  Unless it's 2B or not 2B -- a question Bugs Bunny asks in 1959's A WITCH'S TANGLED HARE.

I saw that cartoon last weekend.  While not watching NETFLIX.  I was watching what I watch when I watch: HULU.

We -- Dona and I -- were using SLING because that's what we had.  We had to get the double package -- Blue and Orange? -- because I had to have ESPN and that was only one of the packages and the cartoon channel that we had to have for our daughter was on another package.  In addition, we did the movies add-on that gave us EPIX and TCM because we wanted TCM.

We share a house with Ava and Jess and their child.  And Jess said we should really consolidate.  We all had individual NETFLIX accounts that we started with back in college and back when NETFLIX was a DVD provider.  I added HULU PLUS along the way because Mike got me into FRINGE and when FOX created a paywall -- you had to be a cable subscriber to watch the programs at their website and, if you weren't, you waited 7 days after a show aired before you could watch it.  In its last two seasons especially, there was no way in the world I was waiting seven days -- going around cutting friends and co-workers off with "I haven't seen it yet! Stop talking!" -- to see the episode that had already aired.  So I got HULU PLUS -- the paid service and you could watch FRINGE the day after it aired.  There were other benefits too but I don't remember them.

What I liked about SLING was that you could watch on demand, yes, but you also had these channels you could watch live.  I prefer live.  I like to call my dad, for example, and we'll both be watching the same thing while we talk -- maybe a baseball game, maybe a sitcom like THE NEIGHBORHOOD.  Now with SLING, we really couldn't watch a network show.  SLING had TBS, ADULT SWIM, TNT, etc.  It didn't have ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS or THE CW.

Someone suggested PHILO and we kept SLING while we tried PHILO out for a week.  Same problem -- no broadcast network.  Also no TCM.

Then we heard about the upcoming HULU PLUS LIVE -- or whatever's called.  It would have live streaming of broadcast network channels, it would have TCM and ESPN.  Those two, plus cartoons for our kid, were why Dona and I got SLING to begin with.

So we waited for the launch of the new HULU service.  I have not been disappointed.  Nor has Dona.  Like Stan, we don't see movies much on NETFLIX anymore.  When they had their deal with STARZ, it was different.  In fact, gather round, young 'uns, the first thing NETFLIX ever streamed was STARZ.  I remember Dona doing her queue -- where you'd put the DVDs you wanted NETFLIX to send you next -- one day and calling me over.  NETFLIX was streaming STARZ.  Right there on the computer.  Was that not the weirdest?

It was.

And when NETFLIX was in its early days as a streaming channel, their deal with STARZ provided them with a rotating list of good films.  But they broke off that deal, promising new deals were on the way, and never got around to being a place to go to stream movies again.

Now my point here is that we love HULU LIVE PLUS whatever so much that we even added STARZ.  Why STARZ?

Who is EPIX programming for?  Their movies are really dull and boring.

I want to see THE MASK or THE DUCHESS AND THE DIRTWATER FOX.  A film that will make me laugh.  And forget Goldie Hawn on EPIX because they don't really like actresses on EPIX -- very few of the films they offer star women.

My mother always says, ''There's not a bad day that a Goldie Hawn film can't get you out of."  I'm not joking, she says that.  And it's true.  If you're bored or sad -- I'm not talking someone just died, I'm saying you're missing a friend that moved away or something -- PRIVATE BENJAMIN, FOUL PLAY, PROTOCOL, WILDCATS, OVERBOARD, DEATH BECOMES HER, SHAMPOO, CACTUS FLOWER, etc, can't make you feel better.

That's true of a good Jim Carey comedy as well.  Sadly, he hasn't made a good one since ME, MYSELF & IRENE.

Maybe if NETFLIX ever made that film they promised -- DIVAS? -- with Goldie, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, there would be something worth watching on NETFLIX?

As it is, there's no reason to watch films on NETFLIX.  Their new films have been dull and embarrassing.  I can't think of any of them -- except the Pee Wee Herman film -- that was actually something I'd ever watch again.  And they've made how many movies?

And don't forget their TV series.  I don't watch those.

SENSE8 was a great show and they cancelled it.  Now they've cancelled SANTA CLARITA DIET.  Any show you like is going to get cancelled.  I fully expect NETFLIX to axe Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin's GRACE AND FRANKIE next.  When that does happen, we're cancelling our subscription.  Jess has already cancelled his, Dona's cancelled her subscription as well so it's just mine we are using.  (Ava has a subscription to every streaming service -- as does C.I.  They have those subscriptions to cover TV for this site.)

I won't miss NETFLIX.  Most of their shows are embarrassments.  Oh, look, she's a hooker and an S&M queen but she's also hot on the trail of a murderer!  The writers spend all their time exploring their own personal kinks while stealing plotlines from MURDER SHE WROTE.  No thanks.

PERSON OF INTEREST is a show I watch on NETFLIX.  NIKITA is a show I watch on NETFLIX.  Those aren't shows NETFLIX created.  One aired on CBS, the other on THE CW.

They are shows with twists and turns and with great casts and great writers.

Unlike the bulk of crap NETFLIX keeps churning out, these shows are actually original.

That's it for me and NETFLIX.

I stream all the time, on the TV, on my cell, on my laptop.  But I really go to HULU.  Over and over.

I'm either watching something live streaming on HULU or something on demand.  I thought not having COMEDY CENTRAL live would bother me (it's an on demand selection with HULU) but it hasn't.  Also, you can stream it live on the free service PLUTO.

But I'll stream TBS or TNT or one of the broadcast networks live.  I'll stream TCM if they're not being idiots.  Or I'll switch over to ON DEMAND and watch MODERN FAMILY or AMERICAN DAD or THE SIMPSONS or HERE'S LUCY or THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW.  There's never a "I can't find anything to watch!" moment.

Recently, the business community has finally noticed what Ava and C.I. have been writing about here for years: the NETFLIX model is not sustainable.  They still have not shown a profit.  And now they're subscription base is no longer increasing.  They've had to use junk bonds to stay afloat.  I don't know how anyone ever thought this was a successful business model.

Once upon a time, I would have been very bothered if NETFLIX went under.  Now it's not only outlived its purpose, it's spent way too much effort spitting on those of us who embraced its programs.  SENSE8, man, that was major.  That cancellation was major.  And there's no point to root for a show anymore.  Joel McHale's very funny show was probably the cheapest to make and that didn't let it stick around either.  NETFLIX is so eager to glom on to faded talent -- as opposed to creating their own -- that that's where they've put their money.

They made their choice and their choice was not their subscribers.  I think we'll see more and more people leaving NETFLIX and see their stock drop more and more until they have to announce that they're shutting shop (FILM STRUCK?) or that they've been absorbed by some other company. And no one will miss it -- NETFLIX spent the last few years driving most of us away.

Ty's Corner

So there I was, all prepared to read a few e-mails and respond, maybe spend some time pursuing "wrestler boners" on GOOGLE IMAGES -- always good for many laughs but, every now and then, also offering a certain erotic charm.  But I got stumped by an e-mail from a guy named Joseph which asked, "What am I not watching?"

I replied to him but haven't heard back and it's been two days.

Was he e-mailing to start a game?  "Guess what shows I'm not watching?"  If so, (a) would I be able to successfully guess the non-watched and (b) if I did so, what prize would I win.  Oh, and (c), would I have to pay taxes on the prize?

As I puzzled over it, I wondered, what if he was asking for tips?  Like what show should he be watching that he's not?

Rebecca and Stan (and Ava and C.I.) would recommend ANIMAL KINGDOM which wraps up the current season next Tuesday on TNT.


Is that what Joseph meant?

Or maybe he meant what is out there, streaming wise, that he's not watching but could be?

As Jim points out in his latest "Jim's World," if you like COMEDY CENTRAL, you can stream it on PLUTO -- a free streaming service -- stream it live.  PLUTO also has movies (from PARAMOUNT) and classic sitcoms and news and information programs . . .

Another free service is TUBI.  It's on-demand.  Their catalogue is updated from time to time.  I tend to grab the classic films when I visit.  Bob Hope's MY FAVORITE BRUNETTE is something I watch there.  (Yes, it's a public domain film and you can also find it on YOUTUBE.)  And CRACKLE is still Sony's free channel.  It's where Jerry Seinfeld's car show started and where it will probably return when NETFLIX goes under.

I asked Ava and C.I. if I was missing anything and they said I could pass on that some episodes ("some!") from the first five seasons of THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW were now available on ROKU's site -- for free.  I didn't know ROKU had free offerings -- and, yes, I use a ROKU stick on my TV for my streaming so I'm always at the ROKU home page of TV services to pick from.

Maybe that's the sort of thing that Joseph was asking about?

"What am I not watching?"

Joe, I honestly don't know.

Tweet of the week -- more math

 Margaret Kimberley Retweeted

Ajamu Baraka‏Verified account @ajamubaraka 10h10 hours ago

In a report issued by the Center for Economic and Political Research it was documented that U.S. economic sanctions that reduced importation of food and medicines resulted in over 40,000 deaths occurred between 2017 and 2018. Where is the "squad," Sanders, CBC on this racism?

15 replies146 retweets307 likes

 

 

Tweet of the week mathematics

Bernie Sanders‏Verified account @BernieSanders Aug 8

The inventors of insulin sold the patent for $1. A vial costs $6 to make. Drugmakers sell it for $300 a vial in the United States. That level of greed is scandalous, it is outrageous, and when we win it is going to end.

/>

3:14

1.24M views

6 Miles: Life and Death

1,078 replies10,937 retweets32,421 likes

 

 

Who do you believe on Epstein: NY Times or WSWS?

From WSWS:

The World Socialist Web Site and the New York Times could not be more different. The New York Times has billionaire backers, corporate advertisers and millions in revenue while the WSWS relies on readers like you. This is the most important difference: while the New York Times tells the lies of the ruling elite, the WSWS fights for the truth.

Donate

The New York Times is engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the mysterious death of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who operated an underage sex ring used by some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people. A Times headline today reads, "Epstein Suicide Conspiracies Show How Our Information System Is Poisoned: With each news cycle, the false-information system grows more efficient." The article attacks all those who fail to uncritically accept the narrative put forward by the Times. Contrast this to what the WSWS wrote in today's perspective: The American oligarchy, which includes both the owners and the editors of the New York Times, fears that a scandal implicating members of the elite in child prostitution and related sordid activities may have a politically explosive character. They are concerned that the exposure of foul play in Epstein’s death may lead to the same type of political revelations that his removal was intended to prevent. The Epstein affair is not just a tawdry scandal, one among many. It is a significant political event. It demonstrates the nature of the US ruling elite, which is no less capable of the most heinous crimes than the Saudi sheiks who organized the butchery of Jamal Khashoggi. Every great revolution in history has been preceded by similar scandals, in which the criminal and reactionary character of the old ruling class reveals itself, and that class is exposed for what it is: a cancer on the body politic.

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The World Socialist Web Site is exposing the lies of the Times. And unlike the Times, we cannot rely on wealthy backers to fund our efforts. We need you. Become a monthly donor today or make a one-time donation to help us expose the conspiracies of the ruling class and its corporate media propagandists.

Thank you, The WSWS

This edition's playlist

1) Judy Garland's ALONE.


2) James Blake's ASSUME FORM.



3) Dionne Warwick's SHE'S BACK.


4) Dionne Warwick's THE WINDOWS OF THE WORLD.


5) The Beatles' SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND.



6) Sam Smith's THE THRILL OF IT ALL.



7)  Chaka Khan's HELLO HAPPINESS.




8)  Cat Powers' WANDERER.


9) The Mamas and The Papas' THE PAPAS AND THE MAMAS.


10) The Beatles' ABBEY ROAD.