Also, I’m thankful it’s Friday.
| April 6, 1712 The first major slave rebellion in the North American British colonies took place in New York City. One out of every five New Yorkers was enslaved at the time. Twenty-three black slaves set fire to buildings, killed six white British subjects and wounded six others. More on the rebellion and its aftermath Slavery in New York |
| April 6, 1909 Robert Peary, his negro servant, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos reached the geographic North Pole for the first time.  Matthew Peary at the White House, 1954  Stamp issued 2005 Though Henson was alongside Peary, widely hailed as a courageous explorer, during that and subsequent Arctic expeditions, Henson achieved little notice until much later in life. Article about the unsung hero of the polar expedition |
| April 6, 1968 Dozens of major cities in the United States experienced an escalation of rioting in reaction to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. two days before. At least 19 people had already died in the arson, looting and shootings. Several hundred had also been injured and about 3,000 arrested—most of those in Washington, D.C. |
| April 6, 1968 Bobby Hutton, the 17-year-old first member of the Black Panther Party was gunned down by officers of the Oakland Police Department. Police opened fire on a car of Black Panthers returning from a meeting. The Panthers escaped their vehicle and ran into a house. Police attacked the house with tear gas and gunfire. After the building was on fire, the Panthers tried to surrender. Hutton came out of the house with his hands in the air.  Bobby Hutton But a police officer shouted, “He’s got a gun.” This prompted further police gunfire that left Hutton dead and Panthers co-founder Eldridge Cleaver wounded. Police later admitted that Hutton was unarmed. More about Bobby Hutton |
| April 6, 1983 President Ronald Reagan’s interior secretary, James Watt, banned all rock ‘n’ roll groups from the Fourth of July celebration on the Washington Mall.The bands scheduled to play included the Beach Boys, generally considered very wholesome. But Watt said such acts attracted the “wrong element.” ”We’re not going to encourage drug abuse and alcoholism as was done in the past.” The president’s wife, a fan, complained directly to Secretary Watt, but he claimed never to have heard of the band.  |
| April 6, 1996 Eleven were arrested at the main post office near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for attempting to mail medical supplies to Iraq in defiance of the U.S.-led embargo. Between 1990 and 1995 with the first Gulf War and the sanctions regime imposed by the U.S., its coalition and the U.N., infant and under-5 mortality rates in Iraq had more than doubled. More about Voices in the Wilderness |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryapril.htm#april6
(It’s all here except a Facebook post, because the page is jam-packed with active ads. But this deserves to be known, wherever you read it. -A.
By Kevin Slane April 1, 2025 2 minutes to read
Guster won’t be playing PorchFest this year, but the alt-rock band originally formed in Somerville still knows how to draw headlines when it takes the stage.
When Guster performed at the Kennedy Center over the weekend with the National Symphony Orchestra, it brought out a special guest: The cast of the children’s musical “Finn.”
After opening at the Kennedy Center to strong reviews in November and December 2024, the Kennedy Center-commissioned musical was supposed to begin a national tour this year. “Finn” — about a young shark who “wants to let out his inner fish” — was co-created by Chris Nee, the openly gay creator of the popular children’s TV show “Doc McStuffins.”
But after President Donald Trump took over as chairman of the arts institute in February — firing its board of trustees and installing allies including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino and Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiromo in their place — the planned national tour for “Finn” was canceled.
“We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in February. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”
According to Deadline, the new regime at the Kennedy Center cited financial considerations when canceling the musical’s planned tour, but “the musical’s theme of tolerance and acceptance – the young gray shark named Finn ultimately decides to let out his ‘inner fish’ by adopting a vibrantly colored and glittery new appearance – has been widely interpreted as at least a contributing factor in the tour’s axing.”
During Friday evening’s show, Guster brought the cast of “Finn” on stage to accompany the band on its song “Hard Times.”
Guster lead singer Ryan Miller addressed the audience before bringing the cast on stage, talking about his friendship with “Finn” co-creator Michael Kooman.
“As the new administration has made abundantly clear, ‘Finn’’s themes of inclusivity, love, and self-acceptance aren’t going to be welcome in this building while they are in control,” Miller said. “Tonight our band is here to say our stage is your stage. We are your allies, we stand with the LGBTQ community, and we want you to sing with us.
“Please welcome the cast of ‘Finn’ and composer Michael Kooman,” Miller concluded. “They belong here.”
In a Facebook post on Monday, the band wrote that it left the Kennedy Center “imbued with energy, purpose, and righteousness.”
“Reflecting on the weekend and feeling so grateful for our fans,” the band wrote. “Many of you were hesitant to enter the charged atmosphere at the Kennedy Center but trusted us to navigate these shows with purpose and showed up as your fullest most spirited selves.”
“I think all of us, and it’s like 5000 of us over the weekend, left that venue feeling the power of music to heal and refresh,” the post continued. “And the power of community to overcome. (snip unembeddable Facebook post)
Staff Writer
A couple of videos I ran across last night.
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Trump’s broadway hits by Ann Telnaes
The self-anointed chairman of the Kennedy Center fancies himself a producer Read on Substack
One of his favorite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof and “when he was a young man Mr. Trump had dreams of one day becoming a Broadway producer himself. Now, he said, the Kennedy Center’s focus would be on producing ‘Broadway hits.’”
(with apologies to the original poster creator)
I just saw this, over supper just now. I’m a big fan of Roberta Flack’s talent.
Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning soul singer best known for her celebrated interpretations of romantic ballads like “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” as well as her professional collaborations and social activism, has died, according to a statement from her publicist.
She was 88.
Flack died Monday at her home, surrounded by her family, Elaine Schock, her publicist, told CNN. Her death followed several years of health challenges, including a diagnosis, revealed publicly in late 2022, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. The progressive condition, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, made it impossible for Flack to sing, her representatives said at the time.
Flack, however, had already long-cemented her legacy as one of the defining voices of her generation – both as an interpreter of others’ songs and a writer of her own – notching a slew of chart-topping hits and racking up accolades: Over her career, the classically trained daughter of a church organist secured 14 Grammy nominations and won five, including a lifetime achievement award in 2020 and back-to-back Record of the Year wins.
Questlove, drummer for The Roots, musical director for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and a filmmaker, paid tribute to Flack.
“Thank You Roberta Flack,” he captioned a throwback photo of the late artist. “Rest In Melody.” (snip-MORE)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/entertainment/roberta-flack-death/index.html
It’s The End Of The World If We’re Lucky by Clay Jones
And I feel fine. Read on Substack
The bad news is that the “city-killing” asteroid currently headed our way probably won’t hit us. Even if it does, it won’t be here until 2032 which gives Donald Trump, who probably thinks you destroy an asteroid with Preparation-H, and Elon plenty of time to destroy this world first. It looks like they’re going to reach Fort Knox (because they want to make sure it’s still there) before the asteroid does.
Asteroid Schmasteroid…we have MAGA.
The asteroid, 2024 YR4, is 180 feet wide which is about as close as you can get to Donald Trump before you get a whiff of his diaper. 180 feet is also plenty of room for Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to land a space shuttle and drill a giant hole into which a nuclear device would be placed. The film Armageddon was based on sound science, right? I refuse to believe Billy Bob Thornton would allow himself to be cast in a junk science movie. Steve Buscemi, maybe, but not Billy Bob. And I’d trust Bad Santa over Bad Batman any day.
George Clooney was the George W. Bush of Batmans. We all hated Clooney but wanted him back after seeing Affleck do it…just like we wanted W back after Trump came along.
And what’s the deal with the name? Why do asteroids get shit like “YRV” and hurricanes get names like Laura (see what I did there?)? Even pets get more respect than asteroids. I knew a cat named Don Cheadle. Since asteroids can destroy our planet, which I’m assuming most of us will hate, let’s name them after actors we hate.
Asteroid Seth Rogan was given 1-32 odds of blasting into us and with the right amount of luck, it’d hit MAGA-Lardo. Then, Seth Rogen’s odds dropped to 1-67. It’s OK to use Seth Rogen here. If he gets lost in space, we’ll be just fine because we still have Jonah Hill who’s basically the same person but with an Oscar. We don’t need two Seth Rogens. Also, Michael Cera and Jesse Eisenberg, same person.
Now, the odds of city-killing Seth Rogen slamming into the planet are 1-360, which are a lot slimmer odds than Seth Rogen’s The Interview destroying the planet because it really pissed off nuke-loving Kim Jong Un. And if there is a city-killing asteroid headed this way, why couldn’t it have arrived before I saw Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet? Oh, the humanity!
Say what you will about the Cats! movie but it didn’t nearly destroy the planet.
Asteroid Seth Rogen has a 0.28% chance of destroying us all. The next city-killer headed our way is Asteroid 1950 DA or as I like to call it, Asteroid Kevin Hart (and if you think he’s annoying now, go watch his Peacock talk show), which has a 0.039% chance of impacting Earth in 2880.
These asteroids can’t get here soon enough to wipe out Trump, Musk, Seth Rogen, Kevin Hart, Nickelback, or DJs. You know how DJs put new beats into songs, making them even worse than they started. Last night, a friend dragged me to a bar where a DJ was making a Nickelback song even more torturous, which I didn’t think was possible. I once broke up with a girl because she believed DJs were musicians. DJs are musicians about as much as Gary Varvel is a journalist.
Since these unreliable asteroids aren’t cooperating, it’s up to us to save our nation from MuskTrump.
I bet MAGA-Lardo has a DJ.
Creative note: I was planning to do this cartoon yesterday but decided Kash Patel should come first.
Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see)
and worthy of sharing. Enjoy a nice beverage/snack while perusing.
January 22, 2025 11:18 am
Since 1997, five Swedish-based scientists were involved in an interesting practice that went on for 17 years, the parameters of which were revealed in 2014. The goal? See who can use as many Bob Dylan songs in their research paper titles before retirement.
John Jundberg and Eddie Weitzburg started the trend. Two professors at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, they titled a research paper “Nitric Oxide and inflammation: The answer is blowing in the wind” (Predictably, it was about flatulence). However, in a 2014 story with Swedish outlet The Local, Weitzburg cleared up some things about the wager. (Snip-More; just click the article title)
Scottie's Playtime 