Southern Bookman

Gulch plan for downtown Atlanta worth public investment

I generally oppose public tax breaks for developers and owners of sports franchises, but the $5 billion plan for the downtown Atlanta gulch would transform the city.

The Atlanta City Council is receiving praise for delaying Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' proposal to give the Los Angeles-based CIM Corp. up to $1.75 billion in tax reductions to build a massive mini-city at the desolate tangle of rail lines and parking lots near Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

CIM owner Richard Ressler, the brother of Hawks owner Tony Ressler, wants to build a $5 billion complex of offices, apartments and retail stores  at the site.

While the council's stance is a rare show of independence for a body that historically follows the mayor's bidding, they are short-sighted in their refusal to back Bottoms' endeavor. And now, rather than carrying out its responsibility to make a decision on the plan, the council will spend tax dollars for an outside evaluation. 

As Gov. Nathan Deal pointed out to the AJC, the tax incentives would come from taxes the CIM complex will generate if it is ever completed. The tax revenues wouldn't come from the current city budget. While CIM would get a break from the taxes that most businesses have to pay, the project carries an especially high risk. A huge platform would have to be raised above the gulch, creating a new cluster of city streets. CIM's investment would be huge in a long-lagging area of downtown.

It's true that CIM's concessions to the city don't sound that valuable. The company promises to build a certain percentage of "affordable housing," which is often difficult to determine. It would build a new fire station, but presumably the city would have to pay the salaries of firefighters to staff it. Ressler's concept gives little priority to the long-promised multiimodal rail station. But the development would revitalize downtown, whether or not Amazon chooses Ressler's  complex for its second headquarters site.

Former Invest Atlanta board member Julian Bene claims the CIM complex would suck away demand for any others in the city. Bene's fears are unfounded. If anything, the CIM plan would spur further metro area development. Projects in hot spots like Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and East Cobb would keep coming.

Of course, overambitious projects have crashed over the years. CIM's development could be a huge white elephant of empty office space and residential units if an economic slowdown occurs. 

But Ressler's plan is worth the risk. Atlanta has shown such spirit in landing the Olympics and building Hartsfield-Jackson Airport into the largest in the world. 

Wouldn't a shining new city be better than the huge gash that has wounded downtown for decades?

 

 

Salesforce founder Marc Benioff brings Time magazine into new era

Henry Luce's media empire is breaking up at last, undone by the digital economy.

Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynn, are purchasing Time magazine from the Meredith Corp. for $190 million. The size of the purchase is surprising; longtime rival Newsweek was sold for virtually nothing a few years ago.

The Benioff deal doesn't include former Luce jewels  Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money, which the midwestern company Meredith also wants to peddle. 

Along with Time, Luce's Fortune and Sports Illustrated were stalwarts of a fabled company that dominated the national media landscape. Money magazine came in later, riding high on a new age of middle class wealth and consumerism. The Luce titles shared a corporate culture of elite journalism: superstar writers, immersive full-color coverage of events, huge expense accounts.

Rocked by the Internet and the disappearance of once bountiful print advertising, the famous titles struggled to find a new place in the digital world. At last, Meredith purchased the fading magazines, with plans to sell them off. The publisher of homespun publications loaded with family advice and inspiration, Meredith plans to keep still profitable Time brands Southern Living and celebrity-oriented People.

The billionaire Benioff plans to run Time as a separate entity from his Salesforce software company. As New York Times business columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin pointed out Wednesday, the deal is another triumph of the new West Coast digital elite over the old East Coast establishment. Luce's Time invented the word tycoon, which has new meanings today.

If Time's aggressive reporting on the Trump administration continues under Benioff, the software billionaire is likely to draw the ire of Trump, as Sorkin said. Trump frequently blasts Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos for his ownership of the Washington Post. Benioff says he won't participate in Time editorial decisions.

The future appears especially dire for Sports Illustrated, whose weekly format proved out-of-date in the world of ESPN, itself now struggling to define its future. Fortune with its strong business coverage will still be a valuable brand, even as a standalone. But Sports Illustrated appears endangered in the Internet world.

A new identity for SI sportswriter

SI's questionable future might have played a part in SI senior writer Lee Jenkins' move to the Los Angeles Clippers as "executive director of research and identity," but the job's new-age title sounds more fascinating than writing profiles of jocks.

And, as the envious "Pardon the Interruption" wise-ass Tony Kornheiser said, Jenkins will probably triple his salary. On PTI's sister ESPN show, "Around the Horn,"  Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Calishaw also expressed laptop envy at Jenkins' move.

Jenkins had difficulty explaining exactly what he'll do in the Clippers post. Something about using his interviewing skills to gain deeper insights into players' personalities, and improving the fan experience. Well, the Clippers have long had an identity crisis, although until losing guard Chris Paul, they've supplanted the Lakers in the Los Angeles sports world in recent years.

But, talk about identity, the Lakers have now landed Lebron James. The Clippers can boost their identity by landing Kyrie Irving. I wonder if Jenkins will ask Irving why he believes the world is flat. That's all right, so does Tom Friedman.

Jenkins joins former Lakers star and ace basketball talent evaluator Jerry West and coach Doc Rivers, who both seem to have enough identity of their own without any evaluation from Jenkins.

Microsoft billionaire and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has delivered another West Coast hit on the old Luce empire. Ballmer's worth $40 billion, so what's a few bucks for an old sportswriter?

Times' Dwight Garner struggles hard with Karl Ove Knausgaard's newest offering

The romance between Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard and American critics looks endangered.

Ace New York Times book critic Dwight Garner in a caustic review Tuesday eviscerated the sixth volume of Knausgaard's novel, "My Struggle."

Garner particularly decries a section of the book that analyzes Hitler's rise and fall, seen by Garner as an odious attempt by Knausgaard to justify his using the same title as Hitler's memoirs.

Knausgaard's book traces the minute, everyday details of his life from childhood to adulthood. Rather than seen as a tedious exercise in self-indulgence, "My Struggle" gained a huge international readership and rapturous praise from dazzled American critics.

When Knausgaard first gained attention from the first volume of his novel, I myself was captivated by an excerpt in The New Yorker. But I found the entire volume numbingly trivial, and didn't read further.

Now, Garner has exposed Knausgaard as a literary con artist. Will other critics turn against him as well?

 

 

Jill Lepore's "These Truths" a book for our times

Harvard professor and popular historian Jill Lepore has scored the writer's hat trick of New York Times coverage.

Lepore's weighty new history of the United States, "Those Truths," received a glowing review from right-wing writer Andrew Sullivan in the Sunday book review.

An essay taken from Lepore's book ran on the front page of the Sunday Review opinion section.

Then, on Monday morning, the Times ran a profile of Lepore on the front page of its arts section.

The 942-page  book is the first general history of the United States to appear in years, and one of the first written by a woman. Along with her books on subjects ranging from Benjamin Franklin's sister, Jane, to the creator of the Wonder Woman character, Lepore writes for the New Yorker magazine.

With the burst of attention she received from the Times, I found myself in the cultural vanguard after the surprise finding of Lepore's new book at the Northside Branch of the Atlanta-Fulton County public library last week.

Although I've read only one of Lepore's books, "Joe Gould's Teeth," a fresh look at the New York eccentric made famous by New Yorker writer Joesph Mithcell, I've long enjoyed her pieces for the same magazine.

I especially remember Lepore's examination of how the NRA and the Second Amendment became a potent political touchstone during Ronald Reagan's administration, and her recent review of a new volume of Rachel Carson's writings. The New Yorker also published an except from Lepore's book on Jane Franklin, who, unlike her illustrious brother, lived near poverty although her letters showed flashes of his literary ability.

So far, I've found Lepore's look at the Europeans' discovery of the new world enlightening and entertaining. Her in-depth scholarly research for "These Truths" doesn't detract from the drama of such events as Columbus' voyage and the English settlement of North America.

She examines the dichotomy between the English settlers' desire for liberty and their increasing justification for enslaving blacks transported from Africa and destroying Native American cultures. At first, she finds, the English were more enlightened than the Spanish and Portuguese, but those attitudes shifted, with tragic ramifications that still bedevil  us.

 

 

Pianist Jed Distler, guitarist Miles Okazaki take Thelonious Monk solo

Thelonious Monk's posthumous rise into the pantheon of great American composers continues with two solo recordings of his complete works.

Albums by pianist Jed Distler and guitarist Miles Okazaki are the first solo renditions of Monk's oeuvre, the latest homage to the troubled jazz genius, as reported by New York Times jazz critic Giovanni Russonello.

Rivaling Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, Monk is known even by those who are not jazz fans. His compositions are frequently performed by a new generation of musicians, as his own albums keep getting rediscovered. While setting standards for jazz, his music transcends the genre. 

Distler told Russonello that Monk might have disliked Distler's reinterpretations of his pieces. Russonello finds that Distler succeeds in his changes, and surmises that the master would have been pleased.

While Distler might have pushed the boundaries, Okazaki's "Work: The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk" excite me more. The piano was Monk's instrument, so Distler with all his fresh interpretations stays on Monk's territory. Guitar arrangements of Monk's work are truly ground-breaking.

Russonello singles out one of Okazaki's numbers, in which he plays single notes without chords. That's the kind of creative inventiveness that Monk also would have appreciated.

I'll look forward to comparing Distler and Okazaki's recordings, anticipating that  the Village Vanguard or some other venue will bring Distler and Okazaki together for a shared live  performance.

Atlanta Constitution's coverage of 1905 Theodore Roosevelt visit showed dawn of modern journalism

The AJC each week publishes a historic front page from The Atlanta Constitution to mark the newspaper's 150th year, and Thursday's reprint offered coverage of President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to Roswell and Atlanta in October 1905.

While vestiges of 19th century journalism remain, striking modern changes have arrived. While the passive voice and hyperbole still rule, there are no ads. The newspaper's columns are wider, and the type larger. Local boosterism dominates, but the language is not quite as pompous and stilted. Several photographs reflect the historical importance of the event, although their display lacks drama. 

Indicating a move toward more personal journalism, reporter R.W. Lillard received a byline for his feature story on Roosevelt's visit to Roswell's Bulloch Hall, his mother's childhood home and where she was married to the president's father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

Lillard with his command of interesting details and quotes achieves the immediacy and readability of later magazine writing. Alas, his innovative style is marred by his dismaying use of minstrel dialect in a quote from a black servant and former slave at Bulloch Hall.

The Constitution's articles give no wider political purpose for Roosevelt's trip. At that time just 40 years after the Civil War, the Democratic Party controlled the South, and hostility still burned for Republicans like Roosevelt. According to Internet sources, Roosevelt made the Southern trip to tamp down outrage that he'd invited black civil rights leader Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House.

In his speech at Bulloch Hall, the New Yorker Roosevelt took pains to claim his Southern heritage inherited from his mother, who never lost her Confederate sympathies although she moved to New York City after her wedding and raised her children there.

A sad turn in Atlanta's history is reflected in the newspaper's report that Roosevelt arrived at Terminal Station, which had opened a few months earlier in downtown Atlanta. Along with the rest of the country, Atlanta moved to automobile-based transportation in the 20th century, crippling passenger rail travel. Terminal Station was demolished in the 1970s, one of the city's worst mistakes.

Like other historic artifacts, the 1905 front page glimpses a future that might have been.

 

 

Woodward's "Fear" lands quietly at local Barnes & Noble

A few copies of Bob Woodward's "Fear" lay on a small table Tuesday near the cash register at my friendly neighborhood Barnes & Noble.

I was surprised that Woodward's blockbuster detailing the incompetence of Donald Trump didn't receive a more prominent display.

While "Fear" might attract impulse buyers standing in the checkout line, the book had been placed inconspicuously away from the main display tables at the center of the store. Perhaps the B&N had landed only a few copies of the book, and didn't want to sell out too soon.

As I waited to buy the first Paris Review under new editor Emily Nemens, I overheard a lady ask a "bookseller" about Woodward's book. I myself was tempted to pick one up, but withstood the impulse. It occurred to me later that a first edition of the book might be valuable one day. But I think the media revelations about the book will be enough for me without plodding though the gray stretches of Woodwardese.

On Tuesday night, Woodward continued his media tour promoting the book with an interview on the Rachel Maddow show. Maddow's earnest, ingratiating manner and speculation that some of the book's revelations hinted at larger, more nefarious deeds seemed to perplex Woodward.

The veteran member of the Washington media establishment appeared caught off guard at Maddow's straying away from the established line of questioning he'd received on other shows. At times, he looked puzzled at her immersion in details and her speculative leaps. When Maddow went too far with one of her conclusions, he admonished her.

After those awkward moments, Woodward ended the show with a ringing condemnation of Trump and his "assault on the truth."

Woodward conceded to Maddow that Trump had "more pathways" to corruption and malfeasance than any other president about whom he'd written, a chilling statement from the man who played a major role in uncovering Nixon's Watergate.

 

"Lonesome Dove" hooks me again

Escaping from Rachel Maddow's daily political frenzy and the idiocy of Monday Night Football, I came across a "Lonesome Dove" episode on Starz Encore.

Thank goodness, it was the part that mainly takes place on Clara Allen's horse ranch near Ogallala, Neb., not the long and tortuous account of Blue Duck's kidnapping of the prostitute Lorie, which I can barely stand to watch. 

The 1989 CBS miniseries taken from Larry McMurtry's novel has beautiful scenery that brings despair over the destruction of the country's natural habitat and public lands. When the miniseries was filmed 30 years ago, the country was freer and more committed to common political action.

A New York Times article about the decline of the Rio Grande made "Lonesome Dove" even more poignant for me. Retired Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae have established their Lonesome Dove ranch and livery near the great border river that once inspired the shared culture of Mexico and the United States.

Now sadly depleted, the river has become a symbol of turmoil, the locus of Trump and the GOP's political posturing.

The old Rangers decide on a cattle drive to Montana in search of the last untamed frontier. The quest narrative of McMurtry's novel and the movie echoes "the Odyssey,"  "The Divine Comedy,"  "Canterbury Tales," "Don Quixiote" and Western novels and Hollywood movies.  

The miniseries features a wonderful cast, directed by Simon Wincer. Watching Robert Duvall as Gus, I found it hard to believe that the same actor had played the slick Mafia lawyer Tom in "The Godfather." Duvall portrays the wry, cracker-barrel  philosopher and warm-hearted humorist with an underlying violent edge as readers envision him in McMurtry's novel.

Tommy Lee Jones plays the laconic Call with the right measure of repressed emotion that at times erupts in murderous fury. He exhibits the stiff, authoritarian ethical rectitude that turns deadly to those close to him.

The actors range from Robert Ulrich as the doomed former Ranger Jake Spoon to Angelica Huston as McCrae's wise and still lusty old sweetheart Clara.

As with the movie "Dazed and Confused," it's fun to identify then unknown actors who went on to better things.

The young Diane Lane as Lorie has a generic Hollywood prettiness, not the distinctive persona of her later film star years.

Chris Cooper shows up as the earnest sheriff July Johnson, and I did a double take to make certain that was the late Glenne Headly as his run-away wife, Elmira. Margo Martindale surfaces in an amusing cameo as a cynical, aging prostitute.

Already a well-known scene-stealer, Danny Glover glows as the good-hearted, competent scout Deets, whose tragic death is one of the show's most memorable moments. The young teen heartthrob Rickey Schroeder plays Newt, whom Call can't bring himself to acknowledge as his son.

I don't want 't invest the time to watch the rest of the miniseries, which tells of McCrae's harrowing death. But I say that about "The Godfather" as well. Those cable television staples always bring me in, despite my best intentions to resist.

Trump also a vessel for GOP policies

Donald Trump's senior advisers blunt his worst impulses, according to new revelations this week about Trump's incompetence and mental instability.

A book by Bob Woodward and an anonymous article on The New York Times op-ed page gave accounts of senior staff members carrying out a "second track government" that subverts Trump's impetuous decisions.

Left unsaid is that the staff members see Trump as a vessel for their most odious policies. The anonymous writer describes Trump as "amoral" with "no guiding principles." Outside of a primitive core of slogans he uses to excite his base, Trump lacks a fully developed policy agenda. The more committed GOP operatives in his administration fill in this empty slate.

Trump's anti-immigration beliefs are one of his primary obsessions. Yet outside of his Mexican border wall, Trump lacks the capacity to develop extensive policy. His adviser Stephen Miller conceives of programs like the separation of immigrant children from their families. 

While Trump holds an instinctive tribal desire to revive coal and other declining American industries, developed policies to accomplish this are left to his advisers. The same with his "America first" protectionism.

Except for evangelical Christians' political power, Trump cares nothing about their religion. Fervent believer Mike Pence uses the administration to push programs helping conservative Christians.

The Republican Party sees Trump as, in Russian KGB terms, a "useful idiot" to carry out its programs, such as taking control of the Supreme Court.

Mr. or Ms. Anonymous spelled it out, toutingTrump's administration accomplishments that match the GOP's fondest wishes: "effective deregulation, historic tax reform and a more robust military." The GOP has not sought to challenge Trump for his rash tweets, racist and sexist comments and authoritarian actions because he has carried out many of the GOP's most radical plans.

Effective deregulation means crippling the consumer protection bureau, limiting employees' ability to sue, removing regulations against coal and oil companies, and stripping away bank reforms passed after the 2008 recession.

Historic tax reform? Cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and swelling the federal deficit. To hold down spending, the GOP wants to slash programs like Social Security and Medicare. 

A more robust military? U.S. military spending already totaled more than the rest of the world combined. The new military budget boosts funds for unnecessary and redundant weapons systems.

Cable TV commentators were wondering about the anonymous author's motive in writing the Times op-ed piece.

I believe the article seeks to blunt Democratic gains in the midterm elections. Trump's intemperate actions might sway moderates to vote against GOP candidates, but the writer seeks to assure centrist voters that "rational" Republicans are in charge, and there's no need to vote for Democrats who might decide to impeach the president.

The piece tells those voters that impeachment in effect has already occurred. Even if they regain control of Congress, Republicans might even consider formally impeaching Trump and putting Pence, a more orthodox Republican, in the White House.

 

 

The New York Times witness protection program: Trump staffer pens anonymous op-ed piece

Watching Donald Trump fume about the "lying New York Times" before a bewildered group of sheriffs Wednesday afternoon, I imagined "Trump: The Opera."

As the baritone playing Trump bewails the perfidy of his presidential staff, the sheriffs lined up behind him act like a Greek chorus. In ominous minor-key tones, they sing the word "lying" over and over, or "treason." The Trump character grows ever more frenzied, his voice rising until he stalks off the stage in a heart-pounding dramatic climax.

Broadcast on Chuck Todd's daily "Meet the Press," Trump appeared before the sheriffs in their uniforms and cowboy hats just as news broke about a high-level Trump aide calling Trump morally and intellectually unfit for the presidency. The aide made his accusations in an anonymous piece written for The New York Times op-ed page. 

As the puzzled sherifs looked on, Trump paced back and forth, clutching a printout of the article, which he tried to read in between fulminating about the Times and the "gutless" writer. Along with looking like an opera's tragic villain, Trump resembled a prosecutor making a case before a jury.

For the second day in a row, revelations about Trump's rebellious staff painted the administration as a dysfunctional "crazy- land." As the night wore on, cable TV's familiar chatterers grew shriller and shriller as reports accumulated about the pseudo-president's "volcanic" rage.

Betraying the autocratic tendencies decried in the op-ed piece, Trump in an ill-considered tweet called on the newspaper to turn over the writer to the government "in the interest of national security." In Trumpland, milk, imported cars and op-ed pieces can harm national security. 

The anonymous author's op-ed article followed the release of similar findings from veteran journalist Bob Woodward in his forthcoming book, "Fear: The Trump White House."

After the op-ed article news broke late Wednesday afternoon, Washington journalists and insiders sought to reveal the writer's identity. Several cable TV commentators disputed the writer's claims to heroism, finding him or her cowardly.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell made a good case for national intelligence director Dan Coats, although I believe Coats has too much of a sense of loyalty to write the piece, and that he would find its anonymity distasteful.

Vice Presdent Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denied speculation that they were the author. I could see Pompeo doing it, although he was en route to Pakistan when the news broke. Pence lacks the imagination and writing ability. One of his aides might have done it though.

Other possibilities included economics adviser Larry Kudlow. Someone even suggested Melania Trump, the English-challenged first lady.

The piece appeared too slick for even a skilled communicator like Kudlow. It read as if it were cooked up in a conservative think tank like the Heritage Society. The senior aide likely wrote a rough draft, or outline of ideas, to be polished by a skilled think-tank hack.

The article sounded as if it had been written by more than one person. A single Cabinet member might have been the final author, but consulted with others.

Hopes for the end of the Trump presidency ended the article, indicating that the GOP establishment might have had enough of Trump. Once Brett Kavanaugh takes his seat on the Supreme Court and begins alsahsing the rights of women and workers, Trump will be tossed overboard.

Then we can wait for "The Death of Klinghoffer" author John Adams to write "Trump the Opera."  Following"Nixon in China," the title might be "Trump in Crazyland."