Israel & Palestine Protestors Unify to Chant "**** Joe Biden," Will The Supreme Court Weigh in on 8th Grade Shot Put?!, "New" Johnny Cash Album 21 Years After His Death? (The Five for 05/03/24)
Plus, Kate Winslett's WWII movie looks great. Hip hop is back, thanks to diss tracks. Band featured in Yellowstone continues to rise with a live album from historic Red Rocks.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
Let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Well, to run down the campus protests, you probably heard about the UNC-Chapel Hill students who protected the American flag, with video that went mega-viral after being posted to Twitter.
Controversial billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman threw $10K into the $400,000 pot for Phi Kappa Phi to throw an epic “rager” to celebrate the defending of Old Glory. Despite the “pro fraternity” moment here, I can’t help but see Greek life as little more than lessons in conformity (matching khakis/white baseball caps that have been staples for decades), compliance (being abused during pledge week to get in) and…buying friends (believe it or not, some of us can have a social circle without paying dues).
Elsewhere, students in NYC called for murder, asking all “free people” to take up the “tools of liberation.” Yes, it makes you a “free person” to align yourself with the causes of Iran, who’s funding Hamas. Iran is a place so free they hang you if you’re gay and beat you to death if some of your hair shows from underneath your hijab.
So. Much. Freedom. to be aligned with.
Perhaps most comically, both pro-Israel and pro-Hamas (I can’t really call them “pro Palestine” when they’re chanting for Intifada) protestors here in St. Louis were taking turns chanting F*** Joe Biden (video here).
Unless things dramatically escalate…I don’t see this as a “George Floyd” level event.
The protests will likely burn themselves out, as the the spring term is ending, and students will (mostly) return home. For any who are expelled, Iran is offering scholarships to attend college there. But uhh, I wouldn’t recommend that any of the “Queers for Palestine” members accept, as they would likely be executed in short order. If they managed to survive, they would still be living in the country that’s been rated as the most discriminatory towards LGBT+ people in the world.
Queue the Ironman meme:
[two]
Ugh. We’re seriously doing this? The media has now declared Caitlin Clark fans are racist.
From The Athletic:
That being said, we should not delude ourselves into believing her appeal as an influencer is based solely on basketball, because it’s not. Arguing otherwise is an affront to history and reality. Clark’s attractiveness to local companies and national corporations is heightened by the fact that she is a White woman who has dominated a sport that’s viewed as predominately Black; a straight woman who is joining a league with a sizable LGBTQ+ player population; and a person who comes from America’s heartland, where residents often feel their beliefs and values are ignored or disrespected by the geographical edges of the country.
Because sport and society are constructed from the same fabric, it’s impossible to separate them, which is why it’s foolish to act as if basketball is the only thing fueling The Caitlin Clark Effect.
Coastal elite journalists seem to always be bound and determined to stick the label of racism to people in rural areas and “fly over states” even when there’s no evidence whatsoever. Caitlin Clark is beloved because she’s a generational talent who can hit three pointers from seemingly impossible distances, and appeared in back-to-back National Championship games. Women’s college basketball ratings increased BECAUSE of Clark’s standout performances. Midwesterners don’t love Clark because she’s a white, Des Moines native…we love her for the same reason the rest of the country does…three pointers from seemingly impossible distances.
Sports fandoms do have political leanings, like college football (more Republican leaning, especially in the south) and soccer (more Democrat leaning). However, the most overwhelmingly Conservative-leaning sports league, UFC, is also the most diverse, with Ronda Rousey as a female athlete was the highest paid in the league in 2015, and Amanda Nunes the first LGBT combats sports champion by the same fanbase who also cheer when Donald Trump when he enters the arena.
In 2016, the UFC had an active champ from all six inhabited continents, simultaneously.
I’ll agree with The Athletic writer on this…sport and society are constructed from the same fabric. But the diversity of sports in Red States…proves the fabric is better shape (at least in regards to this matter) than the corporate press would like to believe.
Racism is a real thing. Racism in America is a measurable problem. But going full rage-bait and accusing Midwestern teens who buy Caitlin Clark jerseys of being a root problem…isn’t helping anyone. Or solving anything.
[three]
A bit of controversy has kicked up as the first Johnny Cash album in 14 years (and 21 years after the country singer’s death) has been announced, seemingly out of nowhere…as some fans will always have a knee-jerk reaction to new music from dead artist as little more than a cash grab.
As a general rule, I’ve been somewhat skeptical of record labels releasing every last half-finished demo of an artist posthumously…but this time around, the project seems like it’s a labor of love.
From The Guardian:
Eleven previously unreleased songs by Johnny Cash, which the country star recorded as demos in 1993 but never completed, are to finally see the light of day on a new album entitled Songwriter, due to be released on 28 June.
A single, Well Alright, was released today alongside the announcement: a saucy, strutting number about lust amid laundry with a classic Cash opening couplet: “I met her at the laundromat, she was washing extra hot / I said don’t you need a little help with that big load you got?”
Featuring guest appearances by country singer Vince Gill and rock band the Black Keys, the demos have been worked up into finished versions, and recorded by a crack team of musicians who previously played with Cash including guitarist Marty Stuart, drummer Pete Abbott, and – prior to his death in 2023 – upright bassist Dave Roe. Cash’s vocal performances from the demo recordings have been added on top.
Cash’s son John Carter Cash has co-produced the project, alongside David “Fergie” Ferguson, the studio engineer who worked alongside Rick Rubin to record Cash’s awe-inspiring suite of songs towards the end of his life, American Recordings.
Apple Music has 30 second snippets of every song on the album already posted…and I’ve got to say (based on very limited information), I’m quite impressed.
Previously, I’d written quite critically of posthumous releases the record labels put out of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G., as it was pretty obvious we were being sold half-finished ideas the respective artists would never have wanted us to hear.
But unlike Pac and Biggie, who died in their mid twenties and didn’t have much time to work…Cash had decades and decades in the recording studio, so a “lost album” finished with loving care…makes sense. There’s enough raw material here to create a finished product that honors the artist and brings enjoyment to the fans. At least I hope so.
[four]
Five 8th grade girls have been expelled from the entire track & field season for refusing to throw a shotput one time.
From The New York Post:
Five West Virginia middle schoolers who protested a transgender athlete’s participation in a track and field competition have been barred from future meets — prompting the state attorney general to ask the US Supreme Court to weigh in on transgender student-athlete bans for a second time.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a lawsuit against the Harrison County Board of Education on the dissenting students’ behalf after they were blocked from upcoming meets following their protests at the April 18 shot put competition, West Virginia Watch reported.
Five girls from Lincoln Middle School stepped up to the circle for their turn before refusing to throw in the event, which was won by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 13-year-old girl who takes puberty-blocking medication and estrogen hormone therapy.
While West Virginia law bans transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams, a recent federal appeals court ruled that the law couldn’t lawfully be applied to the eighth-grader.
The language here is a bit confusing, but to clarify, five girls refused to throw against a biological male who’s taking Estrogen, but inevitably has higher natural levels of testosterone, a substance that will get you banned from pretty much any competition…outside of jr. high track & field, due to the hormone’s “undeniable” enhancement to an athlete’s natural abilities.
To have some compassion here, I’m sure Becky Pepper-Jackson just wants to be a normal kid and DOESN’T want to be at the center of a case headed to the Supreme Court. But the complexities around an athlete on testosterone can’t be denied (Becky was invited to throw for the 8th grade boys team, against athletes with similar testosterone levels), but it’s not the girls who protested that caused this controversy to go national, but the athletic conferenced that banned all five of them for the season. Had the five girls simply been allowed to skip shotput that day (which is pretty common in track & field…you might skip a single event due to a minor injury—such as a shoulder strain—that might not keep you out of other events), this wouldn’t be news at all.
Look, I get it…there’s no apples-to-apples comparison with the pro-Hamas protests on college campus, where openly Jewish students have been regularly attacked with next to nothing happening.
But, in 2024…there are more drastic consequences in America for failing to throw a shotput one time than for beating someone with a pipe or two-by-four.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
Kate Winslett (Titanic, Revolutionary Road) plays a WWII combat photographer in Lee, a true tale with a heck of a supporting cast including Alexander Sarsgaard (Bit Little Lies, The Northmen), Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Light, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight, Inception). In theaters 09/27.
Warning…this one is heavy. Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange, The Enigma Code), plays the father of a missing 9-year-old boy in a true crime drama. On Netflix 05/30.
Apple TV+ take on Huey P. Newton, the founder of the Black Panthers, fleeing the country from a corrupt FBI, looks like a pretty good streamer. It’s another true tale of a fake movie being produced to cover up an extraction…so, it’s just BenAffleck’s award winning Argo over again…but in this case…eerily similar events happened twice. Catch it 05/17.
Glen Powell is having a heck a year, after Anyone But You proved to be an unlikely hit in January, bringing back Hollywood’s interest in making rom-coms. Hit Man looks like good use of his comedic chops. The former child actor (Spy Kids) plays a fake hitman and informan for the FBI, who falls in love with one of his marks…it’s a true story, and Netflix is betting on this enough to send it to theaters in May, before it hits your TV in June.
[new music]
If you’re not familiar with Shane Smith & The Saints…the Texas five-piece quietly chugged along in the Americana scene until multiple song placement on Yellowstone blew them up. I’ve still got their latest album, Norther, pegged as my favorite of 2024 so far.
If you haven’t listened to these guys yet, their latest, Live at Red Rocks, give a heck of an overview of their best songs from the last 15 years or so.
Hip hop is unique in it’s competitive aspect, and Drake just lost. The Toronto born rapper dissed the LA-based Kendrick Lamar, and K Dot dropped a six-minute follow up that may have just buried Drake’s career. In particular, Lamar hits Drake over the fact that he’s a deadbeat dad, rapping “I’ve got a son to raise, but you don’t know nothing about that,” before accusing Drake of not penning his own music (which is true). Even the name of the track “Euphoria,” is a reference to both a teen drama TV show Drake executive produces, and to the fact that Drake has been accused to being too close to underage girls.
The diss couldn’t have happened to a more deserving artist, as Drake is nearly 40 years old and recently started rapping about Opioids in his new music, likely to “stay relevant,” consequences (in this case, overdose deaths) be damned.
If anyone can single handedly tear down the platform of an artist that never deserved one, it’s the Pulitzer-winning (very rare for a rapper) Lamar. Well done.
UPDATE: Lamar dropped a second diss track this morning on Instagram, which once again has so many layers it takes some reading to dissect every way he’s hit Drake.
Until the next one,
-sth