The Last Five Years is a song cycle by Jason Robert Brown about the five-year rise and demise of the marriage between Jamie Wellerstein (played by Steve Copps), a writer, and Cathy Hiatt (played by Kelly Copps), an actor. Steve and Kelly Copps are a married couple in Real Life.

Jason Robert Brown goes Merrily We Roll Along–the Stephen Sondheim musical told in reverse chronological order–one better. Cathy appears at the start of the musical as a broken-hearted wife whose marriage has ended. Jamie shows up as Cathy leaves the stage as a twenty-something writer looking for someone like Cathy five years in the Past. In alternating scenes, Cathy tells her story in reverse chronological order while Jamie tells his story in chronological order. The pair meet together for a duet in the middle of the musical and then the stories go their separate ways.

If you haven’t experienced a Jason Robert Brown musical, the songs are basically musical monologues sung by the characters to tell their stories and move the action along. In a post-musical session, Steve Coops told the audience he found Jason Robert Brown’s songs “dense.” I agree.

The Last Five Years with its twin trajectories–one going up with optimism and hope–the other going down with heart-break and disappointment–concludes with a bittersweet ending. GRADE: B+

MUSICAL NUMBERS:

• “Still Hurting” – Cathy
• “Shiksa Goddess” – Jamie
• “See I’m Smiling” – Cathy
• “Moving Too Fast” – Jamie
• “A Part of That” – Cathy
• “The Schmuel Song” – Jamie
• “A Summer in Ohio” – Cathy
• “The Next Ten Minutes” – Jamie & Cathy
• “A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home to Me” – Jamie/Cathy
• “Climbing Uphill/Audition Sequence” – Cathy
• “If I Didn’t Believe in You” – Jamie
• “I Can Do Better Than That” – Cathy
• “Nobody Needs to Know” – Jamie
• “Goodbye Until Tomorrow/I Could Never Rescue You” – Jamie & Cathy

Today Trump gets Inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States. Then what? Many fear Trump will lash out at his “enemies” using the full force of the Department of Justice and the FBI to “investigate” the January 6th Committee members and the witnesses who testified about Trump’s actions to reverse a free and fair Election.

If I was Liz Cheney, I’d accept a Pardon from Biden. The same for Cassidy Hutchinson, who provided damning testimony about Trump and his White House goons. Knowing Trump, we should all expect Revenge and Retribution starting today. What are you going to do to get through the next four years?

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Acknowledgements — ix

Author’s Note — xiii

Prologue — xv

Part I: Grow

Early days — 3

Changes — 16

High school — 28

Part II: Become

The Washington start — 39

Legislative affairs — 50

Impeachment — 56

Winter 2020 — 66

Chief of staff — 78

Part III: Transform

Empowered — 101

A seat at the table — 120

On the trail — 127

Fall campaign — 143

The election — 170

December — 177

New Year — 191

January 6 — 202

Part IV: Enough

The end — 223

Life after the White House — 239

Served — 248

Pulled back in — 262

Depositions — 271

The woman in the mirror — 281

Second chance — 301

The whole truth — 308

Adrift — 330

Home — 340

Epilogue — 353

Bibliography — 357

Photo Credits — 361

The Vegas line on the Ravens vs. Bills game started out with the Bills being a 1-point favorite. Twenty-four hours later, the line shifted to the Ravens being 2-point favorites. Either way, this Playoff game is going to be a close game. The weather will be cold–temps in the teens at game-time–but no snow in the forecast…yet.

The Kansas City Chiefs are 8-point favorites over the Houston Texans. Who do you think will win these games?

Bob Dylan just turned 80 years old on May 24, 2021. He also sold the rights to his music for $300 million. Universal Music purchased Dylan’s entire songwriting catalog of more than 600 songs in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of a single act’s publishing rights. With all this going on it seemed like the right time to read a couple of Dylan biographies.

Clinton Heylin’s Behind the Shades Revisited was published in 2001 and takes Dylan up to the dawning of the new Century. Dozens of interviews with Dylan’s friends and enemies are woven into Heylin’s chronological narrative. Heylin quotes Dylan quite a bit, too, in this 700+ page biography.

Several aspects of Bob Dylan stand out in Heylin’s books. First, Dylan can’t read or write music. He never learned during his 60 year career. Dylan doesn’t like the recording process. He doesn’t come in prepared or with a plan. Everything is improvised. And, as you might expect, many of the band members who worked on the recording sessions with Dylan, hated this “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” style. Some refused to play a Dylan session again after going through the painful process once. And, for most of Dylan’s recording career, he never had a real producer. Those “producers” who tried to guide Dylan in the studio were mostly ignored.

Clinton Heylin’s new book, The Double Life of Bob Dylan (2021), presents newly released archive material about Dylan’s life from 1941 to 1966. Clearly, Heylin is in the process of writing more volumes based on this new information. Heylin spends a lot of time (and words) on Dylan’s relationships with women. In my opinion, Dylan treated many of these women cruelly. Dylan led Joan Baez on while pursuing Sara Lownds (who he eventually married). “As one journalist delving into Dylan’s prime life wrote in 1990, ‘There are a lot of different women he sees, from all different walks of life. But they all tend to have one thing in common. They’re invariably very weird or very intense.'” (p. 709)

Dylan also believed whatever happened on his musical tours didn’t matter to his marriage. So, of course, he had sex with dozens of women during his many tours. Heylin covers all of Dylan’s tours, but has supreme contempt for the DYLAN AND THE DEAD tours. Heylin is not a fan of The Grateful Dead and describes the music generated from these events as terrible. After listening to the concert CD of Dylan and The Dead I have to agree.

From the Sixties on, Dylan abused drugs and alcohol. That might explain the decline of his musical talents and the mediocre songs he wrote in the 1980s and 1990s. Winning a Nobel Prize has more to do with Dylan’s early work than his later work. If you want to know about Dylan’s life, these two fat volumes supply all the facts you’re looking for. Are you a Bob Dylan fan? Do you have a favorite Dylan song? GRADE: A (for both books)

Kate Phillips stars as the First-Ever Female Detective in Male-Dominated Victorian London in the re-titled Miss Scarlet. The first four seasons on PBS, the title was Miss Scarlet and The Duke. “The Duke” was Inspector Wellington (Stuart Martin) who had romantic inclinations towards Miss Scarlet. But, last season, Wellington took a position with the New York City Police Department and in the first episode of the current season, Wellington decides to stay in NYC.

Which opens the door for Wellington’s replacement, Detective Inspector Blake (Tom Durant-Pritchard). Diane and I like Kate Philips as the struggling Miss Scarlet. The mysteries are not baffling, but they are challenging. Victorian London never looked so good (or shabby) and there’s a bit of humor mixed into the investigations.

Miss Scarlet is not must-see TV, but it’s entertaining and clever. GRADE: B

Back in the early 1960s, I was an avid reader of DC comics. The Flash was my favorite, followed closely by Green Lantern. But, I was also fond of Adam Strange, a man from Earth who traveled to the planet of Rann by means of a “Zeta-beam.” Adam Strange falls in love with Alanna and spends much of the comic book series saving her and her planet from invasions of weird aliens.

I also enjoyed the stories by Gardner Fox and the scintillating artwork by legendary Carmine Infantino. Most of the Adam Strange stories had a mystery within them that Strange needed to solve in order to save the planet.

This is the second Archive Edition of Adam Strange and I found it just as enjoyable as the First Archive Edition. If you want to take a walk down Memory Lane, this is a good place to start! Did you have a favorite comic book series as a kid? GRADE: A

Last week, Cap’n Bob wrote an enthusiastic comment about Joan Osborne’s version of “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” the classic Jimmy Ruffin soul song. I looked for my copy of Osborne’s Breakfast in Bed (2007), couldn’t find it, so I ordered another copy (you have no idea how many times this happens!).

Breakfast in Bed features six original Joan Osborne songs and covers of soul songs from the 1970s and 1980s. The album concludes with two songs from  Standing in the Shadows of Motown: Martha and the Vandellas‘ “Heat Wave” and Jimmy Ruffin‘s “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?” plus a Bonus Track, Curtis Mayfield’s “Everybody Needs a Friend.”

Cap’n Bob is right about the marvelous version of “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” Joan Osborne sings. Almost as good is Osborne’s rendition of the Hall & Oates hit, “Sara Smile.” If you love this music as much as I do, you’ll enjoy Joan Osborne’s mellow interpretations of these wonderful tunes. Are you a Joan Osborne fan? GRADE: A

TRACK LIST:

1. “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” (Gerry Goffin, Barry Goldberg)
2. “Ain’t No Sunshine” (Bill Withers)
3. “Midnight Train to Georgia” (Jim Weatherly)
4. “Baby Is a Butterfly” (Osborne)
5. “Breakfast in Bed” (Eddie Hinton, Donnie Fritts)
6. “Cream Dream” (Osborne)
7. “Natural High” (Charles McCormick)
8. “Heart of Stone” (Osborne)
9. “Sara Smile” (Daryl Hall, John Oates)
10. “Eliminate the Night” (Osborne)
11. “Break Up to Make Up” (Thom Bell, Linda Creed, Kenneth Gamble)
12. “I Know What’s Goin’ On” (Osborne)
13. “Alone with You” (Osborne)
14. “Kiss and Say Goodbye” (Winfred Lovett)
15. “Heat Wave” (Holland–Dozier–Holland)
16. “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted” (William Weatherspoon, James Dean, Paul Riser)
17. “Everybody Needs a Friend” (Curtis Mayfield) (bonus track)

Barry N. Malzberg died December 19, 2024 after a fall. He was 85. During his long writing career, Malzberg wrote in a number of genres, principally Science Fiction, and remained a critic of SF publishers for much of that time.

Malzberg was also a very good editor. Neglected Visions (1979) celebrates mostly forgotten Science Fiction writers. Malzberg’s detailed Introductions to these stories puts the writers into context and suggests reasons why their careers lacked growth and recognition.

Malzberg quotes H. L. Gold (editor of Galaxy) who admired Wyman Guin: “Wyman Guin has the intellect of a Heinlein, the sensitivity of a C. L. Moore, the guts of Philip Jose Farmer…combined with ideas so profoundly original they are decades ahead of the field.” (p. 153) And, after reading “My Darling Hecate” I suspect you would agree with Gold as I do.

Some of these writers, as Malzberg points out, simply stopped writing. Kris Neville for example. Others are complete unknowns like Peter Phillips and Norman Kagan. The prolific Christopher Anvil (aka, Harry C. Crosby), Malzberg writes: “has only himself to blame for his relative anonymity, for he is a maddeningly uneven writer.” (p. 35) But with “Mind Partner,” Anvil hits it out of the park!

My favorite story in this collection is F. L. Wallace’s “Delay in Transit,” a story where interstellar communications is a key factor. If you’re in the mood for forgotten writers who deserve a Second Chance, give Neglected Visions a try. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• vii • Introduction (Neglected Visions) • essay by Barry N. Malzberg
• 1 • Clerical Error • (1956) • novelette by Mark Clifton
• 35 • Mind Partner • (1960) • novelette by Christopher Anvil
• 65 • Ballenger’s People • (1967) • short story by Kris Neville
• 77 • The Hunting Lodge • (1954) • novelette by Randall Garrett
• 109 • Lost Memory • (1952) • short story by Peter Phillips
• 122 • Junior • (1956) • short story by Robert Abernathy
• 130 • Laugh Along with Franz • (1965) • novelette by Norman Kagan
• 153 • My Darling Hecate • (1953) • short story by Wyman Guin
• 171 • Delay in Transit • (1952) • novelette by F. L. Wallace [as by Floyd L. Wallace]

It took almost five years to make, but James Mangold, director of A Complete Unknown, persisted through the Pandemic and other delays to produce one of the finest movies of the year.  Timothée Chalamet convinced me that he could play Bob Dylan (aka, Bob Zimmerman), a talented unknown from Hibbing, Minnesota who arrives in New York City to make a name for himself. Timothée Chalamet did 35 songs live on camera, including guitar and harmonica work. A recent BBC review called Chalamet “completely believable, better than the film itself.”

Mangold’s expansive Johnny Cash biopic, the 2005 film “Walk the Line,” focused on a much longer storyline. “A Complete Unknown,” based on Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties (2015),  focuses on four critical years in Bob Dylan’s life. The story starts with a 20-year-old Dylan’s arrival in New York City and ends with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan shocked the crowd with electric instruments and blew up his image as a folk singer. 

Edward Norton is excellent as the intense folk singer, Pete Seeger. Both of the women who played Dylan’s girl friends, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, show more compassion for Dylan than Dylan showed them.

Are you a Bob Dylan fan? GRADE: A

SONG LIST:

• Highway 61 Revisited: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• Mr. Tambourine Man: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• I Was Young When I Left Home: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• Girl From The North Country: Performed by Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro
• Silver Dagger: Performed by Monica Barbaro
• A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• Wimoweh (Mbube): Performed by Edward Norton
• House of the Rising Sun: Performed by Monica Barbaro
• Folsom Prison Blues: Performed by Boyd Holbrook
• Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right: Performed by Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro
• Masters of War: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• Blowin’ in the Wind: Performed by Timothée Chalamet and Monica Barbaro
• Subterranean Homesick Blues: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• Big River: Performed by Boyd Holbrook
• The Times They Are A-Changin’: Performed by Timothée Chalamet
• When the Ship Comes In: Performed by Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton

Andrew Leigh has been a Professor of Economics at the Australian National University and served in the Australian House of Representatives. His How Economics Explains the World is a clear and concise guide to a topic most people don’t understand. Leigh uses examples and stories to make his points. Here’s a good example:

“In 2005, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald vividly illustrated [economic principles]…by trading his way from a red paperclip to a house. First, he traded his paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. Then he traded the pen of a hand-scrulpted doorknob. Then he traded the doorknob for camp stove. This went on until his fourteenth and final trade: swapping a movie role for a small house. At each step, MacDonald valued the new item more highly than the old item–but he traded with someone who valued the old item more than the new. MacDonald didn’t just get himself a house–he did so through fourteen trades that made another person better off.” (p. 158)

Trade tends to improve the economic state of both parties. That’s why Trump’s plan to impose tariffs (taxes) on trade is a Bad Idea. Some ideas that seem good have Unintended Consequences. You would think shifting from a hunter-gatherer mode to an agricultural society would be an improvement. But, that brings changes:

“The societies that emerged from the agricultural revolution were often highly unstable. During its 500-year history, the Roman Empire had seventy-seven emperors. Half were murdered, and still more died in battle or by suicide. Just one-third of Roman emperors died from natural causes. In one exceptionally brutal eighteen-month period, Nero died by suicide. Galba was murdered. Otho died by suicide and Vitellius was murdered.” (p. 18)

That kind of carnage was unknown in hunter-gatherer societies that were always on the move. Later, more violence sprung up in what we mistakenly consider “civil societies”:

“….[Shakespeare lived] in an age of slavery and superstition. During the 1500s and 1600s, nearly one million people were killed for the crime of witchcraft.” (p. 43)

Without regulation, abuses grow. “Heroin was marketed by Bayer from 1898 to 1910 as an over-the-counter cough suppressant. Cocaine was added to Coca-Cola until the early 1900s. In 1913, one expert claimed that nearly a quarter of the US doctors were addicted to morphine.” (p. 80)

Of course, economists can be colorful characters, too. Take John Maynard Keynes, the originator of Keynesian Economics, for example: “Keynes was a collector of Picassos, Renoirs and Matisses, and an investor who was multimillionaire by today’s standards. He kept diaries of his sexual exploits (with men and women), recording sixty-five encounters in 1909, twenty-six in 1910, thirty-nine in 1911, and so on.” (p. 89)

Ignorance of economic principles is not bliss. “…Mao [Zedong] demanded that people eliminate sparrows, on the basis that they ate grain. The campaign called on people to make so much noise that the sparrows died of exhaustion. Millions of sparrows died, which meant that they were not around to eat the locusts that devoured much of the following year’s crop. Eventually, Mao imported 250,000 sparrows from the Soviet Union to restore the eco-system. Crop losses contributed to a 40% drop in rice and wheat output between 1957 and 1961, and a famine that killed tens of millions.” (p. 118)

Andrew Leigh wrote How Economics Explains the World to help us live a better Life. I think he succeeded! GRADE: A