"Obama Coalition" Breaks-Chicago Residents Fight Housing Migrants in Schools, Yellowtone's Musical Legacy, Homeless Man Facing 20 Years in Prison? The Next "Last of Us"? (The Five for 05/19/23)
This one is jam-packed, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Last week, it was announced that more migrants are being moved into high schools as shelter, this time in Chiago’s South Shore neighborhood, which has caused a firestorm of controversy as the neighborhood’s working class and poor residents see migrants gain access to services they have been denied for years:
“While this crisis may constitute an emergency for the city of Chicago, it does not constitute an emergency for the South Shore community,” Alderman Michelle A. Harris said.
“When it comes to the total number of people at South Shore at any given point in time, it is fluid,” A local leader told the audience. “We would start with 250-500.” The audience could be heard yelling in response.
“How could you do that without consulting us?” One visibly outraged resident responded.
“I am concerned with safety in the area,” another could be seen telling the local council.
ABC7’s footage showed executive director of constitutional policing Tina Stagg announcing that police will be stationed to oversee the migrants at this facility 24 hours a day. ABC7 itself observed however that “Those are exactly the kind of services South Side residents say they have begged for and been denied.”
I mean no disrespect to Democrats with this next statement, who make up roughly half the readership of The Five (yesterday I had a long conversation with a close friend, who works in Chicago Democratic politics), but last week was the moment the “Obama Coalition” shattered forever.
If you’re not familiar with the term, the “Obama Coalition” was the theory that college educated women and minority groups would vote Democrat forever after Obama’s re-election, with another Republican ever reaching the White House.
But current events have pitted key elements of the Obama Coalition voting block against each other over scarce resources in Chicago.
We think of politics in the U.S. as fixed. Republicans believe X, Democrats believe Y.
But just 20 years ago, Republicans were far more likely to support foreign interventionism. Today, it’s Democrats more likely to want U.S. troops engaged in overseas conflict.
Politics are divisive and tribal…but they are also fluid.
I have no idea where this is going, but the issues, and voting blocks, for the 2024 election likely won’t look like anything that’s happened before.
In the immortal words of Bob Dylan, The Time They Are a changin’. To what, exactly, I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.
Seth Tower Hurd's The Five is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
[two]
Yellowstone will close out after five seasons this fall, spiraling towards the end with what many fans have called a mediocre-at-best season 5, with the wheels coming off due in part to open conflict between creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan and star Kevin Costner.
But a lasting legacy of the Paramount hit is the popularity of arists like Cody Jinks, Lainey Wilson, Zach Bryan, Whiskey Meyers and a host of other artists who’s streaming numbers have jumped, and who are playing MUCH larger venues after TV exposure. As a point of reference, here’s Cody Jinks co-headlining a festival at Ohio Stadium. Keep in mind, this is an artist that’s NEVER had a song on the radio.
For context, Jinks has been touring at an exhausting pace for over a decade, and his work ethic can’t be denied as a factor. But lots of artists tour really hard…and almost none of them fill stadiums without radio support.
Music and lifestyle Whiskey Riff tracked the “Yellowstone Effect” on music:
I’ve truly never seen a show so intertwined with a genre of music and it has made for some very special moments within the show, especially with artist Ryan Bingham being an every-day character. However, these moments extend well beyond the screen and have significant impacts on the songs and artists who have their music featured.
Looking at just the latest season I set out to measure the impact of exposing Yellowstone’s massive audience to the authentic country music featured – the majority of which were not commercially popular and receive no radio airplay.
The visual below allows you to choose some of the songs featured in Season Four and one of the publicly available metrics for that track to see the impact its appearance on Yellowstone had on its consumption.
The blue line represents the selected metric over time and the grey line indicates the change in that metric compared to the previous day. You will also notice a dotted vertical line on the date of the episode’s air date with which the track was featured. Hover over any line to view additional detail.
If you click on the original article, you can see how dramatically the streaming numbers for nearly every artist featured increases (the full table is interactive).
But doesn’t all TV exposure increase artists’ streaming numbers? Sure…but not to this effect. This is hard to quantify, but anecdotally it feels like Yellowstone fans aren’t just in love with the saga of the Dutton family, but a group of people who buy into whatever Sheridan does (hence the success of Sheridan’s other projects—1883, 1923 and Tulsa King—in rapid succession).
In an odd way, Taylor Sheridan has become the kingmaker of the alt-country/Americana (simply meaning…real country, not the pop stuff on the radio), giving some great, but underappreciated artists, a career boost that will outlive Yellowstone’s series finale this fall.
[three]
Look, I don’t want to write about people…relieving themselves in public…anymore than you want to read about it, but this is important.
A homeless man has been charged with several hate crimes for defecating on an LGBTQ+ Pride flag and wiping his behind with another at a Manhattan restaurant, according to the NYPD.
Fred Innocent, 45, walked into Buceo 95, a tapas bar on W. 95th St. and Broadway on the Upper West Side, on April 15 at about 10 a.m. as the day crew was setting up and grabbed two rainbow flags off of a table, cops said. He relieved himself on one of the banners, according to police, then cleaned himself with another.
“This was a total hate crime,” restaurant owner Courtney Barroll said after hearing of the arrest. “He came in within 15 minutes of us opening up the restaurant. He could have gone to Popeyes or McDonald’s around the corner. He could have used napkins.”
She said that she puts the flags up in the restaurant to show that she’s welcoming to the gay community.
“We support everyone no matter what kind of background, race or lifestyle,” Barroll told the Daily News.
Barroll said that hate crimes detectives worked tirelessly to track Innocent down.
Let’s pause and compare the NYC justice system’s fervor to track down this man, vs. how other crimes are being prosecuted in the Big Apple.
Or, we can go specific. This is Hason Correa, a 35 year old Army vet and father of three who was stabbed to death after being jumped by four men in New York. For this premeditated murder, the killer got a mere seven years in prison.
But, a homeless guy takes care of business and grabs two Pride Flags…and the full weight of New York justice reigns down on him for a “hate crime” with MULTIPLE detectives on the case? We haven’t even seen intent here…he may have just grabbed the closest fabric thing he could find.
Fred Innocent is facing no less than twenty years in prison over his “hate crime” of public defacation, due to mandatory minimum sentence laws, 13 more than Correa’s murder.
It’s also worth noting that multiple detectives were assigned to a case where the “crime” (while disgusting) could be fixed with bleach, a mop and bucket within 15 minutes…as opposed to Correa’s death, which left three children oprhaned.
May the real, living God help this man, because the city of New York is showing no compassion for what’s probably just simple mental illness resulting in a two-decade stay in the big house.
[four]
Last week, two figures in sports made very inappropriate comments…one accidental, one intentionally.
West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins is expected to return to the sideline next season in the wake of using an anti-gay slur in a radio interview earlier this week, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
The university decision is in the process of being completed Wednesday, and the details have yet to be finalized. Huggins has agreed to a million-dollar salary reduction, a significant suspension and sensitivity training.
Huggins, 69, is expected to sign the amended contract agreement Wednesday, according to sources. Huggins' amended salary reduces what he makes from $4.2 million to $3.2 million. The million-dollar salary reduction is believed to be one of the biggest in college athletics.
The salary reduction comes after Huggins called into a radio show and said the following:
"What it was, was all those f-gs, those Catholic f-gs, I think."
My dude, what did you think was gonna happen?
Elsewhere, an Oakland A’s Glen Kuiper announcer dropped…a word that definitely should not be on TV, (see the clip here—or the rest won’t make sense).
It’s called the Negro League Baseball Museum, not the “N****r League Museum.”
Why did it come out so effortlessly? He said it without hesitation. It didn’t even seem like he made a mistake.
Why did his co-host, Dallas Braden, not skip a beat? He just kept nodding his head and even bumped his chest like nothing happened.
My responses:
Unless this announcer has a history of racist behavior or language, I’m going to give him the grace to assume he simply stumbled upon a word. Once, when I was recording a car dealership commercial during my radio career, I stumbled over the name of the dealership (I forget exactly what it was—but it was Polish), and when I listened back, it sounded like I said “Jew People.”
Given that my wife is 1/2 Jewish, I think we can safely say I’m not an antisemite. When you’re on-air for thousands of hours a year, you’ll trip over a word or two. This appears to be a very unfortunate verbal stumble.
He likely…stumbled over the word without hesitation. Which is not the same as using it intentionally. When you’re in a live broadcast, you’re trying to be both A). Smooth and B). think quickly on your feet. He doesn’t appear to have done it on purpose, and wants to keep moving.
What did you expect the co-host to do, stop the broadcast, drop the F-Bomb for effect and get smacked with an FCC fine?
Two sports stories, two bad things said…only one clearly bad motive.
Huggins said “fag” twice, referring to Catholics. It was in context. He meant it…the whole interview he was cranky and demeaning.
In contrast, A’s announcer Glen Kuiper was trying to ENDORSE the Negro League Baseball Museum, where he had a great time earlier in the day, and he (seemingly) tripped over his words. Kuiper also apologized, which Huggins did not do.
Intent matters…but it not always taken into consideration in the court of public opinion.
[five]
Wooooooah. I liked the first Extraction, written by the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War) and starring Chris Hemsworth (you know, Thor). But I’m jumping out of my seat for the second one.
Hitting Netflix 06/16.
After The Last of Us proved a video game TV show could be a massive hit, could Anthony Mackie (Avengers: Endgame, Captain American and the Winter Soldier) follow it up by turning the next Playstation property into a real-life smash? Twisted Metal, originally released during the Clinton years on the Playstation 1, was a game about cars with machine guns on them.
How that’s going play out in live action is anybody’s guess (specifically—is there a plot in there somewhere?!), but we’ll find out on 07/27—if you have a Peacock subscription, that is.
Charles is a womanizer while Elaine is a gold digger. The duo learn humanity when forced to team up and pursue robot doubles of themselves.”
That’s a heck of a logline, and one that shows that Hollywood isn’t (completely) overrun with remakes, sequels and prequels.
Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies, The Fault in Our Stars) has been turning in solid performances for the last decade or so (Adrift and Snowden are both excellent—and highly underrated films with Woodley in the lead). Her counterpart, Jack Whitehall (Jungle Cruise, Clifford the Big Red Dog) hasn’t done much, but smaller budget movies are where bigger risks can be taken (and stars born), and a romance/sci-fi hybrid about replacement robots that go sentient and fall in love…is definitely a risk.
