Southern Bookman

CDC cuts threaten Atlanta’s economy

The emails spread before dawn, informing hundreds of CDC workers that they’d lost their jobs.

Outrage, shock and panic spread as the massacre targeted more victims.

The layoffs devastated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of Atlanta’s proudest institutions.

Along with eviscerating vital medical research programs, the slashing of jobs will cripple the economically vibrant Emory University-CDC corridor.

Health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s CDC cutbacks imperil Atlanta’s economy.

Gov. Brian Kemp should forcefully protest the CDC’s disembowelment, but he’s joined the GOP’s blanket loyalty to Donald Trump.

The CDC decimation is a major wound to Atlanta and Georgia’s prosperity.

 

 

 

Masters brings PGA, XIV reunion

The fractured golf world reunites this week at the Masters.

Majors winners Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and other XIV luminaries will again compete against PGA stars Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Colin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy, all majors winners.

Scheffler, the defending Masters champion, appears in top form after missing several tournaments with a cut hand from a kitchen mishap.

McIlroy after winning the Players title is favored to win his first Masters.

Koepka, DeChambeau, Schauffle, Morikawa and Thomas are also seeking to prevail at Augusta for the first time.

The loss of Rahm, Koepka, DeChambeau, Johnson, Phil Mickelson and other stars has seriously weakened PGA tournament fields.

Frustrated golf fans can watch a full slate of stars at the Masters as a promised merger between XIV and PGA keeps fizzling.

 

 

Offbeat actors shine in third season of “The White Lotus”

I would love to see Walton Goggins, Parker Posey, Carrie Coons and Sam Rockwell in an off-beat independent movie.

Known for their inventive performances in a variety of unconventional roles, the veteran character actors accentuated “The White Lotus’” third season.

Goggins portrayed the anguished Rick Hackett, who emerged as the season’s central character.

In a multifaceted performance, Goggins displays Hackett’s explosive personality conflicts, from anger, self-pity, defensiveness and violence to humor, self-awareness and compassion.

Echoing themes from Greek mythology, Goggins depicts Hatchett in a last moment of redemption, carrying his slain lover in his arms before he himself is killed.

Aimee Lou Woods creates a memorable in-depth portrait of Rick’s life-affirming girlfriend Chelsea, whose constant loving efforts to heal Rick’s chronic depression achieve brief fulfillment before her tragic death.

Posey delivers the gaudiest performance as the Southern matron Victoria Ratliff, issuing her ill-informed prejudicial judgments in a comic syrupy accent.

Despite her provincial worldview, Victoria in Posey’s portrayal grows as a character, revealing herself as the true leader of her family.

Coons brings a full palette to her performance as Laurie, a corporate attorney depressed and angry after suffering career reversals and a failed marriage.

She comes to the White Lotus resort in Thailand to reunite with two childhood friends. Although old resentments and rivalries surface during the week, Laurie affirms the value of their friendship in a monologue that could bring Coons an Emmy nomination.

Rockwell also brings out the full stops in his portrayal of Rick’s flamboyant friend Frank, who swings from sexual excess and drug abuse to religious abstinence.

The third season of “The White Lotus” was criticized for its tedious pace and implausible plot.

Despite its flaws, the show presented a showcase for some of America’s most gifted character actors.

“The Great Gatsby” reaches new generations, 100 yers after it’s first publication

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” still fascinates us, 100 years after its first appearance.

Published by Scribner’s on April 10, 1925, Fitzgerald’s brief, finely etched novel was at first a commercial disappointment.

When the nearly penniless Fitzgerald died in 1940, he considered himself a forgotten failure. His books had fallen out of print, he’d washed out as a Hollywood scriptwriter and he hadn’t completed his final novel “The Last Tycoon.”

Fitzgerald’s anguished “The Crackup,” published in Esquire magazine, chronicled his psychological breakdown after years of alcoholism. The essay seemed the bitter coda to his career.

Haunted by World War I, “The Great Gatsby” was saved by World War II.

The novel was distributed for free to American soldiers, beginning its amazing posthumous rise to veneration as one of America’s most essential books.

A mainstay of high school and college English classes, the novel’s story of Jay Gatsby’s doomed quest for the love of Daisy Buchanan gained widespread popularity and critical acclaim.

New editions of “The Great Gatsby” regularly appear, captivating new generations. The characters are some of the best known in American literature.

Along with several movie versions, “The Great Gatsby” lives on in stage productions, including a hit musical now on Broadway.

The first-person narrator Nick Carraway’s voice, mixing the Jazz age vernacular with Keatsian imagery, laments the decline of American idealism.

Wealthy white supremacist Tom Buchanan, a MAGA prototype, triumphs at the novel’s end.

Yet Nick upholds his faith in the American republic, a resonant message for the turbulent Trump era.

Shohei Ohtani displays hero’s glamour

Shohei Ohtani followed the script.

Ohtani’s game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday night came as no surprise to shellshocked Braves fans.

With Ohtani’s blast off closer Raisel Iglesias, the Braves fell to 0-7 after starting the season in San Diego and Los Angeles. 

The Dodgers improved to 8-0, a record number of season-opening victories for a team that won the World Series the year before.

Returning home this weekend for the season’s first games at Truist Field, the Braves should fare better against the lowly Marlins.

Although Ohtani broke the Braves’ hearts, he’ll never be a villain to Atlanta fans like the Phillies’ Bryce Harper or the Mets’ Pete Alonso.

The Japanese slugger-pitcher plays with such joy that he’s loved throughout baseball.

He’s one of the few baseball stars recognized around the world.

Braves fans knew that Ohtani with his dramatic flair would hit that home run.

Ohtani’s the brightest Hollywood star.

 

 

 

 

David W. Blight defends truth of American history

Acclaimed Frederick Douglass biographer David W. Blight in a New York Times op-ed essay Wednesday spoke out against Donald Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian Institution and the truth of American history.

The distinguished Yale historian lambasted Trump’s targeting of the Smithsonian’s Museum of African-American History, which illuminates the brutality of American slavery and the slaves’ ingenuity and perseverance.

Trump wishes to erase those realities and whitewash America’s past.

Blight views Trump’s vendetta as an attack on the integrity of American historians, who bear the responsibility of discovering the truth of historic events.

The African/American Museum also celebrates the accomplishments of black Americans.

It’s one of the most popular Smithsonian museums, displaying Americans’ desire to understand the full truth of history, no matter how unpleasant.

As chronicled by Blight, Douglass rose from slavery to give a new vision of American freedom after the Civil War.

Douglass’ story matches that of black Americans, inspiringly told at the African-American Museum.

Trump seeks to destroy the reality that black history is American history.

 

 

Newspaper theater critics’ Broadway influence wanes

Newspaper theater critics still review Broadway plays, although they’ve lost their make or break power.

In theater lore, actors, directors and producers breathlessly awaited at midnight in a place like Sardi’s for newspaper first editions to appear, desperate to see if their show drew praise or pans from reviewers.

A rave meant a hit production. A rip foretold a quick closure.

The New York Times’ Frank Rich in his heyday now 20 years ago held life and death power over Broadway plays. His frequent negative reviews raised outrage and fears he was killing New York theater.

Newspaper critics no longer posssess that influence.

The New York Times’ Jesse Green, The Wall Street Journal’s Charles Isherwood and The New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski all published reviews Tuesday of the Broadway revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” starring Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr.

Green and Oleksinski blasted the production, and Isherwood gave a lukewarm assessment.

Yet audiences likely will still pack the Palace Theater, which Oleksinski disparaged as too cavernous for Mamet’s intimate scenes.

Olensinski was more positive about the performances of Culkin, Odenkirk and Burr than Green, who faulted Culkin as too passive in portraying the macho real estate salesman Ricky Roma.

The Broadway production of “Othello” starring Hollywood powerhouses Denzell Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal garnered negative reviews, most flagrantly from The New Yorker’s Helen Shaw.

Yet the show despite high ticket prices broke box office records and attracted celebrity audiences.

Hollywood starpower now decides if a play’s a hit, not play reviews. 

Richard Chamberlain’s Dr. Kildare a prototype for TV doctors

My family watched the dueling TV medical dramas “Dr. Kildare” and “Ben Casey” every week.

Both shows appeared on WBRZ Channel 2, the local TV station my father managed.

”Dr. Kildare,” starring the dreamy Richard Chamberlain, was my mother and sisters’ favorite. My father and I preferred “Ben Casey,” starring the macho, darkly handsome Vince Edwards.

Kildare was a young intern, tutored by the wise old doctor portrayed by veteran Hollywood character actor Raymond Massey.

Already a neurosurgeon, the headstrong Casey clashed with the chief neurosurgeon played by Sam Jaffe, who started each show drawing symbols on a blackboard and intoning man, woman, birth, death, infinity.

The death of Chamberlain Saturday at age 90 brought back those days when three TV networks drew millions of viewers to mainstream shows controlled by advertisers.

Chamberlain died at his home in Wainmanalo, Hawaii, after suffering a stroke. Edwards died in 1996 of pancreatic cancer.

In the era before cable TV and streaming, dominant CBS, more edgy NBC and struggling ABC broadcast shows that followed a set daily lineup. No one ever imagined the arrival of binging.

After the end of “Dr. Kildare,” Chamberlain starrred in “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds,” miniseries that signaled a change in network TV productions.

The miniseries offered continuous plots, a change from the old series in which each episode told a different contained story.

Following the miniseries, network TV shows like “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD” grew more novelistic, presaging HBO’s “The Wire” and “The Sopranos.”

Seen as a superficial TV actor, Chamberlain later sought more challenging stage roles, portraying Hamlet in an acclaimed British production. He appeared in several Broadway shows and in movies.

As a singer, he achieved a number of hit records, building upon his Dr. Kildare popularity.

“Dr. Kildare” and “Ben Casey” produced the template for later medical dramas like “E.R,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “St. Elsewhere” and now “The Pitt.”

During “Dr. Kildare’s” five-year run, Chamerlain’s character developed from earnest young intern to assured resident, setting the model for TV doctor heroes.

On Opening Day, baseball dreams seem real

I’m excited about the new baseball season.

After all, I scored 16 out of 40 on George Will’s annual Opening Day quiz in the Washington Post.

While the Mets and Phillies look strong, my expectations for the Braves are rising.

I’m optimistic that Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuna Jr. will make triumphant returns.

Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach, Reynaldo Lopez and Strider give the Braves a formidable starting rotation.

If the bullpen holds up, the Braves will hold a pitching edge over most teams.

I’m also anticipating big seasons from Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Matt Olson, Michael Harris II, Marcell Ozuna and newcomer Jurickson Profar.

On Opening Day, championship expectations seem possible.

 

Hollywood stars shine on Broadway

Broadway’s blazing with starpower.

Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kieran Culkin, Audra McDonald, Bob Odenkirk  and Nicole Scherzinger are lighting up the Great White Way.

The opening night of “Othello” starring Washington and Gyllenhaal drew a celebrity crowd, including Joe and Jill Biden and Jennifer Lopez.

Directed by Kenny Leon, the modern-dress production is a sellout although premium tickets cost $921.

Clooney’s making his first Broadway appearance, portraying famed newsman Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night and Good Luck,” which Clooney co-wrote. It’s an adaptation of the Academy Award-winning movie in which Clooney starred as CBS executive Fred Friendly.

McDonald is dazzling audiences as the iconic Mama Rose in an acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Gypsy.”

Renowned playwright David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” returns to Broadway with Culkin and Odenkirk as scheming salesmen.

Former Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nichole Scherzinger has received rapturous praise for her performance as the aging actress Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” an innovative musical based on the classic movie starring Gloria Swanson in the lead role.

Movie stars flock to Broadway and movies are converted into plays, reversing the longtime practice.

As Hollywood suffers from declining audiences, Broadway flourishes.