When the Watergate scandal first broke, it didn’t really break at all. Initial notices about the burglary appeared in news papers but TV mostly ignored it. Of course, Woodward and Bernstein famously bit and wouldn’t let go of the story in the Washington Post, but on television Dick Cavett’s entertainment talk show became the unlikely setting for bringing the sordid story into the public light of day. This “Dick Cavett’s Watergate” episode of PBS’s SECRETS OF THE DEAD celebrates the role Cavett played in bringing down President Nixon…

From 1972 to 1974, the Watergate scandal was frequently a part of “The Dick Cavett Show.” In fact, Cavett was at the forefront of national TV coverage, interviewing nearly every major Watergate figure as the crisis unfolded. With exclusive access to the archive of the show, DICK CAVETT’S WATERGATE documents the scandal in the words of the people who lived it: from the botched burglary at the Democratic National Headquarters; to the must-see TV of the daily Congressional Watergate hearings; to the ongoing behind-the-scenes battle between the White House and “The Dick Cavett Show,” culminating with the resignation of President Nixon on August 9, 1974. DICK CAVETT’S WATERGATE offers a unique opportunity to mark the 40th anniversary of a defining moment in American history.

The Watergate trial began on this day in 1973. Here’s “Dick Cavett’s Watergate…”

Stay Awake!

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more Counter Culture posts.

I try to do all of my writing during the week. Songs I’ll write anytime. Poems anytime. But everything else gets pushed away at least once a week. It seems I’m always editing something or getting a blog post together by Sunday evening, but mostly, during the weekends, words are for reading.

Nowadays that means reading the articles I’ve streamlined into my Flipboard feed. I’ve got a pretty big ass phone at this point and it doubles as a very readable little tablet.

This weekend I came across some news that a new Charles Bukowski book was going to be released. On Writing illuminates the author’s wordcraft with the help of a hitherto undiscovered cache of Buk’s letters.

Here’s some advice from the man himself that I found in The Telegraph…

Yes to D.H. Lawrence, No to William Falkner

“DH Lawrence was solid all the way through but Henry Miller was more modern, less artsy, until he got into his Star-Trek babbling . . . with William Faulkner, the public has swallowed him with one big gulp – but a lot of Faulkner’s pure sh-t, but it’s clever sh-t, cleverly dressed.”

On Poets, Young and Old

“Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet and I’ll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master . . . it’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem, that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.”

Writing is a Hustle

“Don’t get me wrong. When I say that basically writing is a hard hustle, I don’t mean that it is a bad life, if one can get away with it. It’s the miracle of miracles to make a living by the typer.”

Sucky Writers

And some writers are just no good
“When I worked on a magazine I learned that there are many, many writers writing that can’t write at all; and they keep on writing all the cliches and bromides and 1890 plots, and poems about Spring and poems about Love, and poems they think are modern because they are done in slang or staccato style, or written with all the ‘i’s’ small.”

I’m celebrating this good news watching Taylor Hackford’s eponymous doc about the author from 1973…

Stay Awake!

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more book posts.

My neighbors in Tennessee live on the longest-surviving hippie commune in the United States. Here’s ABC’s take on the place in 2012:

If you thought communes had gone the way of the tie dye shirt, think again.

The Mundo sisters’ documentary, “American Commune,” scheduled to debut this spring at film festivals, “is the story of this utopian experiment,” says Rena. “It’s also the story of what it was like to be raised that way.” Growing up they knew nothing of perfume, meat, TV, or American pop culture.

I haven’t seen the Mundo’s documentary, but this doc captures the place back in 1973, giving a glimpse of the strong roots that have helped this long-standing community to continue with their vision even as their peers have fallen away. Be sure to turn on the captions as the narration here is in Swedish.

Stay Awake!

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check out more Counter Culture posts.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with Mod culture, let’s begin with the Wiki:

Mod (from modernist) is a subculture that originated in London, England, in the late 1950s and peaked in the early to mid-1960s. Significant elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music, including African American soul, Jamaican ska, British beat music, and R&B; and motor scooters. The original mod scene was also associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs.[4] From the mid-to-late 1960s and onwards, the mass media often used the term mod in a wider sense to describe anything that was believed to be popular, fashionable, or modern.

The Who’s adopting of Mod signs, symbols and fashion is part of what separated the band from the rest of the post-Beatles flood of British Invasion rock bands. Pete Townsend’s art school sensibilities and his uncanny intuition for trends and fashions found The Who adopting the style and attitudes of British Mod Culture in the 1960′s, and their 1973 album Quadrophenia found the band creating their second rock opera, looking back and telling the story of the birth of Mod in Britain. Mod culture experienced a revival with the release of the Quadrophenia album and the band’s 1979 film of the record effectively marked the end of Mod.

From modern jazz to Georgie Fame, from The Who to The Jam, The Who, The Mods, And The Quadrophenia Connection tells the story of Mod culture using The Who and their classic album as the narrative spine of the film.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to check out all of the videos I curate here on the blog.

Stay Awake!