Southern Bookman

Biden administration betrays climate change goals with backing of ConocoPhillips' Arctic drilling

As environmentalists celebrated major victories over Big Oil, the empire struck back.

The reputedly climate-change busting Biden administration, taking the baton from the Trump White House, will defend a ConocoPhillips venture to drill for oil in the Alaskan Arctic.

That bad news followed the election of two climate change activists to Exxon Mobil's board,  a court ordering Royal Dutch Shell to slash emissions and Chevron stock holders demanding similar climate change action.

But the Biden administration's betrayal of its climate change efforts shows that the Democratic Party remains as committed to oil drilling as the science-denying GOP.

The Wall Street Journal in an editorial bemoaning the Exxon Mobil vote presented the prevailing view that fossil-fuel dominance will last as the developing world's economy increases.

"Nigeria won't drive Teslas," the WSJ sniffed, ignoring the auto industry's move to electric vehicles, and the declining costs of wind and solar energy. The choice of Nigeria was an arrogant effort at irony; the African nation has suffered major devastation from oil production.

Support of oil drilling counters the recent International Energy Agency warning that petroleum exploration must end if the world has a chance to achieve carbon-emissions goals and survive climate change.

The Conoco-Phillips extraction of oil from the Arctic will blast more emissions into the atmosphere. Biden's support of the project is a distressing capitulation to the oil industry and an assault on his climate-change agenda.

Virginie Despentes' "Vernon Subutex 3" a major literary event

My summer reading is off to a good start with the arrival of Virginie Despentes' "Vernon Subutex 3."

The American appearance of the third volume of Despentes' novel that examines the seismic shifts in French and global culture through a kaleidoscopic gallery of characters should be hailed as a major literary event. So far, our sagging cultural guardians have remained silent.

Once again, I am captivated by the adventures and inner reflections of reluctant cult leader Vernon Subutex, former record-store owner and homeless vagabond, who as outlined in Volume 2 attracts a group of ecstatic followers with musical "convergences" he conducts as a master DJ. The hipsters, outcasts and cultural adventurers who surround him present compelling musings on a world in crisis.

Reminiscent of Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, Despentes creates memorable, richly named characters and extreme settings. Her fully realized fictional universe raises the specter of Dickens, Proust and Balzac. But her voice, augmented by translator Frank Wynn's slangy yet refined English, remains her own.

The conclusion of "Vernon Subutex" deserves widespread media attention. The book confirms that Despentes is a major writer.

Agnes Varda's "Cleo From 5 to 7" and John Cassvetes' "A Woman Under the Influence"

I indulged in a quality streaming double feature this week: Agnes Varda's "Cleo From 5 to 7" followed by John Cassavetes' "A Woman Under the Influence."

Found under HBO-Max's Turner Classic Movies' Criterion Collection, the films show why Varda and Cassavetes are exalted for their intense personal visions.

The productions' depictions of women under duress during times of extreme cultural change register the emotive power of faces.

Varda's 1962 Paris and Cassavetes' 1974 Los Angeles accent the movies with crowded sidewalks, surging traffic, and bars and shops. Each movie also reveals how homes define character.

Corinne Marchand's Florence "Cleo" Victoire and Gena Rowlands' Mabel Longhetti both accept and resist male control. Marchand and Rowlands explore a full emotional spectrum, veering from exaltation and pleasure to confusion and terror.

Varda's title echoes the French custom of extramarital affairs conducted in the afternoon. Victoire, however, is awaiting the results of medical tests she fears will condemn her to death from cancer. She spends the afternoon in a quest across Paris, seeking comfort from the chaotic urban life she encounters.

At last, she meets a young soldier on his way back to the Algerian conflict who helps her overcome her fears. The movie ends with hope: she does have cancer, but a cure is likely.

In contrast, Mabel is constantly undermined by her husband, Nick, who expresses his masculine anxieties with outbursts of violence. Peter Falk,already launched on his "Columbo" career, gives a chilling portrait of a monstrous domestic abuser whose cordial veneer cracks.

While Cleo finds affirmation and renewal, Mabel remains trapped by mental instability and Nick's attacks.

Varda and Cassavetes converse with each other across the films' divergent cultural mileus. The auteurs shared the ability to reveal much from small gestures and moments. Such diligence is rare in today's independent film-making.

 

Farewell, "NCIS - New Orleans"

"NCIS - New Orleans" over seven years offered its share of absurd police procedural scripts, manufactured chases and clunky dialogue.

Yet the show, which ended its run Sunday night with the wedding of hero Dwayne Pride and longtime flame Rita Devereaux, examined police brutality against blacks, sexual issues and New Orleans culture, corruption, racism and poverty. It also presented in-depth personality portraits of its main characters, showing their flaws, emotional confusions, comic moments and moral growth.

While he never quite nailed the New Orleans accent, Scott Bakula made Pride one of TV's most memorable TV cops. The leader of New Orleans' NCIS unit, Pride in the early seasons often bent the rules. In later years, Bakula uncovers Pride's increasing sensitivity to social issues, aided by his growing relationship with Devereaux, played by Bakula's real-life wife, Chelsea Field.

The show's crime-busting energy sagged with the exit of Lucas Black, whose swaggering portrayal of agent Christopher Lasalle gave depth to a Southern macho archetype. His Falstaffian bravado powered the show.

Earlier, the series lost the sultry glamour of Zoe McClellan as agent Meredith Brody. She made the NCIS baseball cap sexy.

Tbe smoldering, never consummated, attraction between Shalita Grant's Sonja Percy and Black's LaSalle raised the erotic temperature for a few seasons.

Grant's exit, followed by Black's, brought the program to a turning point, marked by the firing of original show runner Brad Kern, accused of misogyny and racism.

Along with Bakula's Pride, C.C.H. Pounder's marvelous portrayal of the wise coroner and Pride's confidante Loretta Wade was the heart of the series. An original cast member, Pounder defined Wade as a true New Orleans original. In the last season, Wade's Covid's burnout is one of the most convincing TV depictions of the pandemic's toll on medical workers.

Original cast members Rob Kerkovich as the goofy/brilliant geek turned agent Sebastian and disabled actor Daryl "Chill" Mitchell as the technical genius Patton gave comforting continuity. They were like beloved family members.

Jason Alan Carvell as Pride's half-brother, Jimmy Boyd, sprinkled a dash of New Orleans authenticity to the show's final seasons. At least he got the accent right.

Stacey Keach raised the intensity as Jimmy and Dwayne's charming criminal rogue father Cassius. The character's death drained some of the local color.

Late-season NCIS agents Quentin Carter (Charles Michael Davis), Hannah Khoury (Necar Zadegan) and Tammy Greorio (Vanessa Ferlito) never matched the chemistry of the original group. A sexual tryst between Carter and Khoury spiced up the final season, which also saw the addition of Pride's long lost son, Connor, erratically played by Drew Scheid.

Under new showrunners Jan Nash and Christopher Silber, the show delved deeper this season into police brutality and other social issues, bringing complaints from longtime fans. New York magazine credited the show for setting a new standard for TV police procedurals.

With "NCIS-NO" still drawing a respectable audience despite CBS's moving the show to late Sunday night, subject to sports delays, fans are protesting its cancellation.

Despite a few misfires, the last season scripts showed ingenuity in overcoming covid production delays. Nash and Silber are moving on to a new Hawaii-based spinoff from the original NCIS franchise.

The last episode echoed the New Orleans chestnut, "Laissez les bons temps rouler," ending with a traditional second-line parade. David Simon's "Treme" tried hard to define New Orleans, but "NCIS-NO" loved it more.

 

 

 

 

 

Phil Mickelson, Trae Young show sports' varied glory

It was the Sunday of Phil Mickelson, Trae Young and Ja Morant.

After the 50-year-old Mickelson thrilled his fans by winning the PGA Championship, becoming golf's oldest majors winner, the 22-year-old Young and 21-year-old Morant led their teams to unexpected victories in the NBA playoffs' first round.

Young slashed inside for a basket with seconds left to give the Atlanta Hawks a win over the New York Knicks in rolicking Madison Square Garden. Morant, along with Dillon Brooks, sparked the Western Conference's No. 8-seeded Grizzlies to an upset over the No. 1 Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.

Utah center Rudy Gobert, whose postive test began the covid lockdown in March 2020, was  back in action before a nearly full house. Throughout the day, sports proclaimed victory over the pandemic.

It was a great day for TV sports fans. Golf on the sand dunes, where the over-excited gallery broke loose and engulfed Mickelson and shaken runner-up Brooks Koepka on the final fairway. Playoffs basketball back in New York City. A Serbian named Bogdan Bogdanovic playing for the Hawks and a Croatian named Bojan Bogdanovic playing for the Jazz.

Verne Lundquist, Nick Faldo, Bob Rathbun, Dominique Wilkins, Shaquille O'Neal, Ernie Johnson Jr., Charles Barkley and Kenny "The Jet" Smith.

Sunday displayed sports’ full spectrum, their contrasts and affinities. Why we watch so passionately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denial of tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones at University of North Carolina continues dismal Southern history

The University of North Carolina Board of Trustees' decision to deny journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones a tenured position continues the Southern tradition of political interference over public universities.

As with other cases at some of the South's most esteemed schools, the attempt to intimidate Hannah-Jones and the UNC Hussman School of Journalism involves journalism, protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

With great fanfare, UNC journalism school dean Susan King announced in April the appointment of Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur fellow Hannah-Jones to the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.

Hannah-Jones won her Pulitzer for leading The New York Times' "1619 Project," which probed the pervasive influence of slavery and racism in American society.

Several noted historians criticized the "1619 Project” for suggesting that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery, rather than winning economic and political independence from Great Britain.

Conservatives blasted the project, claiming it falsely moved the republic's founding to 1619, the date American slavery began, from 1776.

Hannah-Jones wasn't a victim of conservative canceling; she received a five-year non-tenured professorship at the school, with tenure review at the end of her appointment.

The Board of Trustees claimed that she was denied the tenure given past holders of the post because she's had a non-academic career, although she holds a master's journalism degree from UNC and has held university fellowships. 

She won the Pulitzer for her essay expressing the aims of the "1619 Project." Her editorial leadership of the project, to which several university professors contributed, also shows a high level of academic skill. Her MacArthur grant is supreme qualification for tenure.

A board member anonymously admitted to a reporter that conservative political pressure led to the move. The "1619 Project," along with "critical race theory" programs, are the new lightning rods for right-wing criticism.

Hannah-Jones won't be cowed by the move; she retains her position as a writer for The New York Times Sunday magazine and agreed to take the non-tenured post at UNC.

But the decision delivers a warning to the school's academic leaders that their actions are under scrutiny. That will make them less willing to hire professors who hold controversial views or undertake innovative programs.

The action is the latest in the South's dark history of political coercion of academic freedom.

Huey Long, known for his ostentatious support of LSU in the 1930s, strong-armed the firing of an LSU Reveille editor who criticized him. Outside of the ouster of the student newspaper editor and meddling in LSU football and the band's routines, the Kingfish pretty much kept his hands off the state university, which rose in academic prestige during his years.

Southern governors' resistance to integration and the civil rights movement led to firings of student newspaper editors Willie Morris at Texas and Bill Shipp at Georgia. Alabama's George Wallace, Mississippi's Ross Barnett and other Southern governors sought to prevent blacks from entering state universities during the 1960s.

One of the strangest incidents of political intimidation of school journalism also occurred at LSU in the early 1970, as the counterculture at last arrived at the conservative "Ole War Skule.”

As editor of the LSU yearbook "The Gumbo," my former Baton Rouge Morning Advocate colleague Joel Levy published photos of LSU students that revealed open sexuality and marijuana use. That led to an outburst of legislative outrage and a brief spate of national attention. Sadly, I recently learned about Levy's death, far too young. She was an unsung hero of free expression.

Southern conservatives feel pride at their public universities' sports success. But through the years, they've sought to curtail academic freedom.

The assault against free inquiry at the University of North Carolina tarnishes its legacy as a beacon of higher education in the South.

 

 

International Energy Agency calls for end to oil production

For the world to achieve "net-zero" carbon emissions by 2050, exploration for new oil must end, the International Energy Agency said this week.

The IEA in a far-ranging report sets 400 milestones to "guide the global journey" to the net-zero future.

Along with ending petroleum exploration and production, the oil companies' business, the report calls for no further "final investments" in what it calls "unabated coal plants," which opens the door to carbon capture projects, another key element of the plan. "Cap and trade" programs apparently will also be allowed.

Vehicles with internal combustion engines won't be sold by 2035 under the report's projections.

"By 2040, the global electricity sector has already reached net-zero emissions," the IEA proclaims.

Eliminating carbon emissions and shifting to solar and wind-generated power are humanity's only hope for holding temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial averages, the report said. Here is the press release summing up the findings.

While the IEA calls for drastic measures to head off the devastation of climate change, the report rosily envisions robust economic growth and increasing jobs.

In a snapshot of the world in 2050, the IEA discloses without fanfare the disturbing fact that the population will grow by 2 billion. The IEA claims that the world economy will double in 30 years, with nearly 70 percent of power coming from wind and solar. Some coal generation apparently would remain, with technological improvements.

The IEA's optimistic forecast doesn't mention the toll all of those additional people will have on the world's already diminished resources. One of climate change's worst effects will be water scarcity, which will imperil agriculture.

While soaring population and water shortages threaten the IEA's Panglossian economic scenario, the report makes clear that further oil projects must cease if the world is to meet the overwhelming challenge of ending carbon emissions.

That means no more projects like the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge search, which off-shore exploration and the Keystone XL pipeline. As the IEA report makes clear, the petroleum-based economy has reached its sunset.

 

 

 

Anthony Hopkins gives everything but empathy in "The Father"

The Academy Awards always love an excessive emotive performance like Anthony Hopkins ladles up in "The Father."

But Hopkins' grim portrayal of an elderly London prig sinking into dementia doesn't create much empathy.

The late Chadwick Bozeman, upset by Hopkins for the best actor Oscar this year, makes the doomed black musician Levee more sympathetic in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

Drawing accusations of bias, the Academy Awards favored an aging white actor's "great man" theatrics over a black performer's more subtle and original portrayal. Yet, Hopkins displayed the emotional intensity and full-bore gestures long prized by Hollywood when it seeks to honor "serious" films.

Like "Ma Rainey," "The Father" derives from a play, French writer Florian Zeller's "Le Pere," which won a Tony for Frank Langella playing Hopkins' role in a Broadway production. The character was named Andre then; Zeller changed the name to attract Hopkins to the movie.

Zeller, who directed the film, turned to playwright Christopher Hampton to help translate the script into English. Humor, moments of lightness, or likable characters weren't added. The florid script won Zeller and Hampton the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

By the way, what's with so many movies being based on plays? It makes for stunted cinema, although "The Father"  comes off as a movie rather than a filmed play, unlike "Ma Rainey" and "The Night Of." And, "Hamilton" really was a filmed play.

To reflect Anthony's mental confusions, Zeller and Hampton muddle time and place, which grows manipulative and gimmicky.

The play also sinks into stereotypes: the conflicted daughter, the abusive son-in-law, the perky young nurse, the closing expansive shot of trees and clouds as elegiac music soars. Hey, death, we get it.

Olivia Colman gives a nuanced performance as the guilt-ridden, emotionally abused daughter Anne. In Anthony's confusion, his nurse, engagingly portrayed by Olivia Williams, changes at times into his daughter. That can perplex an old sport.

Rufus Sewell and Mark Gattis share turns as Paul, the exasperated, intimidating son in law. It's unclear whether that's the same Paul with whom Anne goes off to Paris, leading Anthony to at last be placed in a long-term-care hospital. The old man's regression to childhood at the end at last raises the viewer's sympathy.

In the past, movie fans loved to watch Academy Award movies over and over. "The Father" is another of this year's Oscar nominees that I hope to never see again.

 

Farewell, Buddy Roemer

I was moved by "Buddy" Roemer's promise after his election as Louisiana's governor in 1987 that one day the state's sons and daughters would come home.

Roemer, who died Monday at age 77 in his Baton Rouge home from diabetes and other health problems, presented an ambitious program to bring Louisiana the success of other Sunbelt states.

One of the many native Louisianians who had moved away,  I had hopes that the Harvard-educated reformist Roemer would shift Louisiana from its crippling dependence on the oil industry and modernize the economy. When Roemer took office, Louisiana was moribund, forcing even more of its children to leave.

Taking over from the disgraced Edwin Edwards, himself a governor of failed promise, Roemer soon ran afoul of the state's entrenched special interests. His sharp-edged personality repelled a state used to folksy governors like Earl K. Long, Jimmy Davis, Huey Long and Edwards.

A conservative Democrat who had supported President Ronald Reagan's tax cuts while a member of Congress, Roemer failed to win approval of his tax, educational and economic reforms.

Running as a Republican, he lost his re-election campaign to Edwards and slick Klan leader David Duke, a harbinger of the GOP's national shift to radical right-wing politics and Donald Trump's election.

Nowadays, Duke might be elected governor or senator of Louisiana. But after Roemer finished third in the general election, Edwards defeated Duke with the slogan "Vote for the crook: It's important."

After Edwards' faltering, corruption-blighted fourth term, Louisiana enjoyed a brief resurgence during the administration of Republican Mike Foster, who increased funding for LSU and improved the state's economic climate.

But following Hurricane Katrina, the state has suffered a series of environmental and economic disasters. Another Ivy League-educated "reformist," Bobby Jindal, ruined the state with severe budget cuts. Louisiana loses land to the encroaching Gulf of Mexico as quickly as its people seek better prospects elsewhere.

Roemer's vision of an economically and socially vibrant Louisiana remains unrealized. Its displaced sons and daughters cannot go home.

 

 

Northside Library's reopening, garden party raise hopes for brighter days

I returned to the Northside Library Saturday for the first time in years.

First, the intimate library on Northside Drive off West Paces Ferry was closed for remodeling. Then, just before its grand reopening, covid struck.

The old abstract sculpture that once stood outside was gone; for years mothers and fathers were warned not to let their children climb upon the unwieldy structure. No protests about its removal have risen as yet. Perhaps the kinky artwork has found a more appropriate setting.

As with the Sandy Springs branch, the absentee-ballot drop box remained from the 2020 election. I wondered if the drop box would soon be taken away under Georgia's restrictive voting law.

Or perhaps instead of being hauled to the landfill, the shiny container will be converted into a book drop, receptacle for clothing donations or filled with potting soil for the planting of flowers.

In a remote possibility, the Democrats could take control of the Georgia Legislature, and repeal the GOP voter suppression scheme.

Inside, the once cramped and dark library had undergone a transformation. Now, the space is filled with light, and new metallic shelves give a sense of openness.

I liked the old crammed together "stacks," which resembled those of an ancient university library. But the new layout reflected the hopes of the post-covid future.

On Sunday, we reunited with old friends at the North Buckhead Garden Club's annual spring party, canceled last year because of the pandemic.

The festive scene at a lovely patio in old Buckhead reminded me of "Le Temps Retrouvé," the last volume of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time," when the narrator encounters old acquaintances at a lawn party given by the Guermantes.

As in the novel, we shared joy at being there, together once more.