How is everybody’s weekend going? Thanks again for spending part of your Sunday reading the Six. As I’m writing this, I’m drinking from a holiday-themed Starbucks cup.
Are we there yet? Apparently. Cue up the Christmas music stream on Sirius XM.
The line up today features articles on covering the Trump White House, the speech impediment of the man in position to succeed him, a terrific long read on recently deceased guitar hero Eddie Van Halen and a celebrity profile from one of my favorite film directors, Cameron Crowe.
Let’s proceed with the Six:
Covering Donald Trump and the White House
“We shouldn’t view it as a normal White House,” Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent at the Times says in the article in 2017. “It’s going to be a very different type of climate.” That proved to be true and then some. A nice summary of the press and its relationship with the Trump Presidency.
We know presumed-President elect Joe Biden to not be the most eloquent speaker. He’s 78 years old, but it’s not just age. Biden is a life-long stutterer. This is a really good profile of Biden’s life with a speech impediment from an author who himself is a stutterer.
Sean Connery, Who Invented Cool, In Memoriam
Missed this last week as it was announced late Saturday, but yet another blow in 2020. I recently rewatched ‘Dr. No’, Sean Connery’s first film as James Bond. No one could make wearing 60’s-era plaid-colored clothes on a beach look cool other than Connery. He was largely off the grid the past 20 years or so but his body of work as an actor makes him one of the greats. A life well lived.
Inside The Soul Of A 60’s Folk Legend
I’ve never been a fan of Joni Mitchell’s music, but I am a fan of Cameron Crowe. Before he directed “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, “Say Anything” and “Almost Famous,” Crowe was a rock writer for Rolling Stone. He freelances from time to time for publications and it’s to our benefit. Crowe visits with the typically reclusive Mitchell, now 77 years old, in this intimate Q&A interview.
This is an interesting read about how Trump realized in July he might lose the election. So he did what Trump does—he fired (or ‘demoted’) his campaign manager at the time and replaced him with an old face but who came to the job with new ideas. It almost worked.
The Joy And Pain of Eddie Van Halen
As a child of 80’s rock, I’ve been reading/listening quite a bit about Eddie Van Halen over the past few weeks since his death. This is a definitive long read from Rolling Stone on the last guitar hero, who like many famous geniuses, lived a celebrated, yet tortured, life.
Have a suggestion for the Sunday Six? Send email to jon@jonjkerr.com.