By CHARLES ANDREWS
NO KINGS!!
Organizers estimated about 8,000,000 people took to the streets Saturday for this one. The previous one was pegged at 7M. Those seem like big numbers, but considering the U.S. population is very close to 350M, not so much. Other countries get a larger percentage of protesters over raising the price of a train or museum ticket. My guess is Stephen Miller whispered into that miraculously undamaged “bullet-shot” ear of the Orange Oligarch (Oh-no-you-don’t!), “Sir, Your Excellency, Your Grace, we won on Saturday! They got about the same number. People don’t really care, it seems. This is a huge endorsement of my… uh, your policies! This means 98% of Americans endorse what I’m… what you’re doing. Look at those numbers, those ratings! Congratulations, Your Omnipotence! Let’s celebrate! Cheeseburgers or chick-fil-yay, Your Healthiness?”
SM’S VERY WORST SM
Please don’t tell Rachel I wrote this; she will throw her glass half-full at me. Look, I struggle, as I’m sure many do, and ultimately I believe in the goodness and patriotism of the American people. I am still optimistic. But, really, what will it take?
He is doing everything he can to steal the next election, or two, or three. He has funded his own Gestapo with tens of billions in our tax money, told them they have total immunity, and made it clear when he didn’t even order an investigation over either of the two innocent citizens murdered by them (? – go watch the videos again, this time with your eyes open) on the streets of Minneapolis. Some 35 more have died in ICE facilities, with no explanation or investigation. Dozens of pregnant CHILDREN have been isolated in a Texas concentration camp where they will, by state law, NOT receive any needed medical attention that does not force them to give birth to another child. Citizens and immigrants, “legal” or not, are under virtual house arrest if they are afraid to even take the trash out, for fear of being grabbed and sent God-knows-where. A child cancer victim receiving life-saving treatment was taken from her family and sent away without her medication. A five-year-old in a bunny hat, for God’s sake. These children will be traumatized for life. Cruelty is the point. He is thrashing about like a wounded wild pig, through our treasury, grifting billions for himself and his billionaire buddies, from us, the taxpayers, and selling America out to the highest foreign bidder. Really, seriously, what will it take? How much more horrible will you let it get?
Yes, you. Me. The cavalry is not coming. The laws are not protecting us.
At this point, we should be organizing an unarmed army of 100 million to march on Washington and arrest and try the Trump cabal and every single Republican (including Fetterman). This didn’t have to happen, even though Trump was re-elected. We have a Constitution, we have laws. But when bully Trump ignored and broke them, the spineless GOP looked the other way. They said nothing. Because nothing was more important than keeping their jobs. And that is our real enemy: any politician, R, D, or I, who puts staying in power ahead of representing the people who in good faith sent them to Washington.
So only 2.3% of us are horrified enough at what OUR government is doing in our name, with our tax dollars, to even show up, with a sign? There is plenty each of us can do now. We have no more time. It will only get worse and harder to resist. Paul Revere has made his ride. We have been warned.
(Fondly dedicated to my late friend Jack Neworth, who passionately loved his country and his city by the sea and hated with a passion everything Trump has done. Jack devoted decades to writing about injustice and about the good people here who go unnoticed, in his “Laughing Matters” newspaper column. We need him more than ever now, but I think some divine force took him away before it got oh so bad. We’ve got you, Jack. We won’t let things die without a helluva fight.)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
HOT CLUB OF LOS ANGELES – The amazing quintet, a Django-style ‘30s-’40s group (for starters, but they go way beyond) whose across-the-board virtuosity never fails to bring a smile, tore it up last Saturday as they inaugurated the Audre Stage at the new Ruskin Group Theatre at the airport. It can host theatre but is also an intimate music venue, and now with their liquor license, it becomes a music club, but with the bar in the lobby, it is still a listening room. Hooray! Another great music venue right here in Santa Monica. I have never heard anyone walk away from one of their shows and say, “They’re pretty good.” Usually, it’s hard to say anything when your jaw is on the ground. Still at their years-long residency at the intimate Cinema Bar just outside Santa Monica, every Monday night. Mon 9 p.m., Cinema Bar, Culver City, no cover.
RECOMMENDED:
Tonight! – UCLA-USC College Night – You’re thinking, right, college kids, they’re probably pretty good, but I’d rather see the pros, but think about it, they’re passionate and putting all their time and energy into becoming great musicians, as soon as possible. My daughter graduated from UCLA in Ethnomusicology. They had one practice room devoted to sitars. She traveled with classmates and their professor to perform Bulgarian folk songs to Bulgarians at a big festival there. Herb Alpert built the building they all studied and performed in, and Kenny Burrell was head of the jazz department. And USC is famous for its Thornton School of Music. Not to mention the Bruin – Trojan rivalry. This should be more than good. Wed 7:30, 9:30 p.m., Sam First, LAX, $34.
TOLEDO DIAMOND – Who’s been showing up even longer than the Hot Club, with a very different but also virtuosic show? His decades-long Sunday night residency at Santa Monica’s Harvelle’s, the oldest blues bar in LA (almost a century!), is the stuff of myth. Toledo choreographs a truly unique show, a blend of ‘50s hipster jazz and his dancing dames and a most modern smokin’ hot band that gets better all the time. Toledo is perhaps the longest-running proof that Santa Monica is a City of the Arts. Sun 9 p.m., Harvelle’s, Santa Monica, $13.
TV RECOMMENDATIONS:
“THE DAILY SHOW” – Mon – Thurs 11 p.m., COMEDY CENTRAL.
“HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU” – You can learn a lot from this show, but, nah, it’s all about the newsworthy jokes and satire. Sat 9 p.m., CNN.
‘“DARK WINDS” – Why am I recommending this (highly recommending, actually) when this is the season finale? Because you can find the whole season on the AMC+ app. I think the previous three seasons are available on Netflix. So take a weekend and do yourself a favor and binge. There has never been anything like this, an accurate portrayal of the Native American culture, specifically the Navajo of NM and AZ, in a mystery series so incredibly well written and acted. Nearly everyone involved is Diné, but not out of any condescension. This is one of the finest acting ensembles I have ever seen, and I don’t understand how this was passed by for awards consideration. Based on the very popular series of murder mysteries by Tony Hillerman, set on the Navajo Reservation, his daughter Anne took up the mantle after he died and added a female police officer, and Anne’s novels have all hit the NY Times bestseller lists. Four years ago, Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin began producing shows that combined some novels by both Hillermans, and the results have been spectacular. Stunning NM scenery, great stories integrating Native American spiritual beliefs (sometimes metaphysically scary), superb soundtrack, and a phenomenal cast. The fourth season started this past Sunday on AMC and also airs on AMC+. That photo may look like a beautiful young woman doing meditation outdoors, but that is Bernadette, the new character, also seen in her uniform, and this kind of shows how they are in two worlds. The Navajo world is shown so accurately that it is sometimes confusing to we gringos, but that marks for a better mystery story. Sunday 9 p.m., AMC, AMC+.
COMING ATTRACTIONS (also recommended): “HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU,” CNN Sat 9 p.m., 4/4, 11, 18, 25; ANNE HILLERMAN’S “DARK WINDS,” Season 4, AMC/+, season finale Sun 9 p.m., 4/5; TOLEDO DIAMOND, Harvelle’s Santa Monica, 3/29; UCLA-USC College Night, Sam First, 4/1; “BLUE KISS,” Ruskin Group Theatre, 4/10-5/17; FRED HERSCH TRIO, Jazz Bakery, 4/11; DAVID BYRNE, Santa Barbara Bowl, 4/14; SAMARA JOY, Blue Note LA, 4/15, 16;
DOWN THE ROAD (also recommended): LIBRARY GIRL, Ruskin Group Theatre, 417, 5/; VERDI “FALSTAFF,” LA OPERA, 4/18, 26, 30, 5/2, 6, 10; TAKE 6, Blue Note LA, 4/30-5/3; STANLEY CLARKE’S SANTA MONICA INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL, BroadStage, 5/1-9; MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, Blue Note LA, 5/4, 5; LA SANTA CECILIA, Fonda Theatre, 5/7; MOZART “THE MAGIC FLUTE,” LA OPERA, 5/30, 6/6, 11, 14, 17, 21.
Charles Andrews has listened to a lot of music of all kinds, including more than 3,500 live shows. He has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or hate mail to: therealmrmusic@gmail.com
