Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!
This category will, no doubt, be spending time reporting on the antics of the Trump Administration, but natural disasters and other such news will also qualify.
William H. Foege, eradicator of smallpox, dead at 89.
William Herbert Foege[1] (/ˈfeɪɡi/FAY-ghee;[2] March 12, 1936 – January 24, 2026) was an American physician and epidemiologist who is credited with “devising the global strategy that led to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s”.[3] From May 1977 to 1983, Foege served as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Foege also “played a central role” in efforts that greatly increased immunization rates in developing countries in the 1980s.
This 6’7″ son of a Lutheran minister in Decorah, Iowa, is credited with banishing one of the most feared diseases in modern history: smallpox. He became interested in working in New Guinea when he spent months in a body cast at the age of fifteen, and his technique of finding the infected patient and isolating him and inoculating those with whom the patient had interacted is credited with the successful campaign to eradicate the disease, as of the 1980s.
One of the methods Foege used to convince natives to come learn about the smallpox vaccination was to tell them that they could “come see the tallest man in the world.” Foege died at age 89 of congestive heart failure in Atlanta and expressed his opinion of Robert F.Kennedy Jr.’s stewardship of the Department of Health and Human Services saying, “Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time rather than his current ability to kill by the thousands.”
Rob Reiner, as he appeared on “All In the Family.”
The senseless murder of actor/director Rob Reiner, apparently by his son Nick, is some of the worst news of the year.
I met Rob Reiner on two occasions.
The first time I met him was when I was a “Deaniac” during the run for President of Dr. Howard Dean, back in the “sleepless summer” of 2004. Dean was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election. Later, Howard Dean’s implementation of the fifty-state strategy as head of the DNC is credited with the Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Afterward, he became a political commentator and consultant to McKenna Long & Aldridge, a law and lobbying firm.
Because I paid for a large ad in our local newspaper (the Quad City Times), advertising Howard Dean’s upcoming appearance at Davenport’s West High School (ad approved by the Des Moines Dean headquarters), I was introduced to Rob Reiner, who was also pulling for Howard Dean and was present at a rally in the capital city of Des Moines. Reiner gave me a warm hug. We shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries. He was warm and gregarious, like a large teddy bear. A “huggy” kind of person, as you might expect from his television appearances as Michael ‘Meathead” Stivic in “All In the Family.”
Later, in Chicago in 2014, Rob Reiner showed up to promote “And So It Goes.” I was part of the Press at the showing of “And So It Goes.” He was just as warm and friendly and gregarious when I met him on the Red Carpet for that film. I mentioned our previous meeting in connection with the Howard Dean campaign, then 10 years prior, so obviously not someone he would remember (Ha!)
And So It Goes is a 2014 American comedy drama film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Mark Andrus. The film, which stars Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton and Sterling Jerins, was released on July 25, 2014. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, and performed modestly at the box office. The film was the second collaboration between Reiner and Douglas, after The American President (1995). This film was also Frances Sternhagen‘s final feature film role before her death on November 27, 2023.[4]
MY IMPRESSIONS
Reiner was like a sweet, cuddly, out-going teddy bear. The idea of Rob Reiner and his wife being stabbed to death by their own son is heinous and tragic. What is even more tragic is the response from Donald J. Trump, who had to make it all about him and said (among other totally inexcusable things), “I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person.” Rep. Don Bacon (R, Nebraska) commented that this remark about the tragic death of Rob Reiner was “something you’d expect from a drunk guy at a bar. Can the president be presidential?”
The answer is, “No. DJT cannot be presidential. He needs to BEE GONE, as soon as possible.
Paul McCartney at the United Center on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.
I just returned to Austin from Chicago. I traveled to the Windy City to see Paul McCartney in concert at the United Center on Monday, November 24, 2025. Chicago was the last stop on McCartney’s “Got Back” tour.
The place was packed and nobody left early. Paul came onstage about 8:20 p.m. and sang until 11:10 p.m. At no time during his performance did he leave the stage and turn it over to a sidekick, so that he could go offstage and take a break. He was on his feet and climbing the stairs to his piano (which malfunctioned at one point) and seemed very “with it.” He did not sit down while playing (like B.B. King did in his final years) and his endurance was just as impressive as Mick Jagger’s.
During the evening, he pointed out a gentleman who has seen him 142 times and came with a sign that said so. There was another guy with a sign that said “124.” Many signs proclaimed the crowd’s love for Paul and he seemed to return that warm sentiment.
I’ve now seen Paul McCartney five times. I’d love to post video of a few songs from the show, but I’m not sure how that can be accomplished without repercussions for me, so I am posting only a few still photos.
PAUL McCARTNEY & THE BEATLES, Aug. 31, 1965
First time was in 1965 at the San Francisco Cow Palace (afternoon concert). Security was one guy and waist-high chicken wire. (Ineffectual). It was my very first concert. Girl from Iowa climbs on back of a Czechoslovokian motorcycle driven by Philadelphia boyfriend Colgate (William Hopkins), cuts class at Berkeley in the summer of 1965 (Aug. 31), and says, “Let’s go up and see if we can get tickets.” And we could. They cost $7. It is my belief that they had been saved for the Beatles, themselves, to use for friends and family, but now it was showtime. We were in the 7th row on the aisle with folding chairs. There was one guy guarding the stage, which had waist-high chicken-wire. Someone ran onstage and took Ringo’s drumsticks and John’s hat, when they finally showed up, late. I thought we were all gonna’ die during the exiting part, when I was moving but my feet were not touching the floor. People stood on the folding chairs, causing them to go down like dominoes. It was pandemonium, with teenagers passing out left and right.
At the time, the film “Hard Day’s Night” had just been released. Shirley Bassey sang the theme from “Goldfinger” and Cannibal and the Headhunters did their thing (making a train dance on the floor.) The National Anthem was played by King Curtiss. The Astronauts from California were supposed to be part of the lead-in, but they did not show up. The tickets cost $7 apiece, I repeat, because to go from $7 to $800 is quite a big increase, as you will agree.
PAUL McCARTNEY, 2025
The tickets for us in section 302 way up high in the United Center on Nov, 24, 2025 (12 rows from the top) cost $800 apiece ($1600 total) on Monday night. People on the floor had paid $3,000. (Talk about inflation!)
The show began with Paul singing “Help” this night and the lyrics were so perfect for anyone aged 83. At no time did his demeanor, voice, or ability to move about show his age, which was wonderful for me, someone only slightly younger than he is. I did notice that many members of the audience were brandishing canes, but, thankfully, Paul was not, nor was I. I was also grateful that almost everybody stayed seated until the finale, so we could all see. A teenager on the end of the aisle in front of me kept standing up to dance, which pretty much totally obscured the video screens that allowed the far-away fans to see the faces of the band clearly.
Paul McCartney, Nov. 24, 2025.
I took so many videos of his many hits that my phone died, which turned out to be a real problem when both my daughter (who had flown in from Nashville for the show) and I used up all of our phone charge and had to try to call an Uber or Lyft to get home. We had taken a Lyft to get there, which cost $14. There is now a building–run by Uber apparently—that you go to and make these calls for Uber or Lyft drivers. Cabs are like land lines and impossible to find. That building was not there in 2015.
We finally had to go outside and we found a “pirate” Uber driver who quoted us a price of $50 to drive us back to Indiana Avenue’s South Loop. The daughter had already called and been given a $47 price and a 20 minute wait from the normal Uber network. We had no idea what the building name was and there was talk of going to your driver’s “lane.” I last went to a show at the United Center in 2015 (Queen with Adam Lambert). I have been to the United Center to try to see Caitlin Clark play, for my July 23rd birthday, but I have not ventured out for a musical performance there, although I did see the Eagles with Steely Dan in Austin and John Mulaney here on Nov. 14, 2025. There was also a night back in the Quad Cities with the Tennessee comic Nick Bugazzi (sp?) at the Mark of the Quad Cities. But, with Elton John, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, et. al. fading into retirement, there are few musical groups I would spend the time or money to see (although I’d make an exception for Benson Boone or Adele or Bruno Mars.) And I did go see the Dave Matthews Band on June 27th of this year at Northerly Isle Pavilion, so now I see concerts in both states. (Not as many United Center runs.)
PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS
The second time I saw Paul, my name was driven first in the state of Iowa for tickets at the Ames Hilton Colisseum football stadium in Ames, Iowa. Channel 6 anchor Paula Sands asked me if I could get her tickets for the July 31st show at the Ames Hilton Colisseum football field. I did, as I was allowed to purchase up to 8 tickets. That concert was Paul with wife Linda and Wings. Our tickets were in the 7th row from the front. I took my son and my college roommate and her daughter. July 18, 1990, is when Wikipedia says he played Ames, setting an Iowa record for concert attendance at the time. I’m not sure that is right, because that means that daughter Stacey was born, but only 3 years old. She attended with me on Monday night and she is now 38.
When I saw him at Wrigley Field on July 31, 2011, he was far away. It was his “On the Run” tour. The fourth time was at the Civic Center in Moline (the Mark of the Quad Cities,) on June 11, 2019. I know it was then called the Taxslayer Center, but it will always be known as the Mark of the Quad Cities to me. That entire concert was ruined by a drunk girl who insisted on trying to claim a seat in our row when her ticket was far, far away. I missed the entire fire-filled finale of “Live and Let Die,” so I was glad that it was incorporated into this show again (but not as the finale.) At the Monday show there were 6 encores, which were much appreciated by the assembled fans.
ME, @ THE MARSHALL FIELDS WALNUT ROOM PRIOR TO THE SHOW
It was truly a great show. Maybe not as historical as that day I suggested we cut class and drive up from Berkeley via motorcycle in 1965 to see the Beatles, but close. I don’t know if I can post any of the videos. If anyone has any advice there, the only way I know how to do it is to upload it to YouTube, which has become very finicky about a 30 second clip being the intellectual property of the group and, therefore, not to be posted. They actually threatened me over a 30 second snippet of Bryan Adam’s Candle in the Wind tour or whatever it was called. (“Summer of ’69”). Definitely dimmed my Bryan Adams fan-ship.
I haven’t posted since, but that particular song (“Summer of ’69”) was available elsewhere on the web and I used one of him in much younger days.
The pictures above were taken in Kansas. It was incredibly cold (said it felt like 28 because of the wind, but was technically in the thirties). The “buffalo” are not real.
Until Kansas the first snow of the winter season was pummeling Indiana and Chicago and parts north. The Northern Lights were even visible in Geneseo (Illinois), but, then, on November 12th some saw them in Florida!
The weather in Texas is incredibly warm and nice. It feels like spring or summer. It is going to be in the eighties all week.
Today, I played bridge, which I have not played since we were in town last. The “Chicago” scoring method I had (almost) figured out on a bus trip to Houston, but I do not remember what I had (sort of) learned back in April. After 12 hours spent driving or searching for a motel (ended up in West, Texas) I felt like I needed a nap, but without me the bridge club had only seven players. At one point I tried to trump with a club. Unfortunately, I had made hearts trump and—somehow—simply forgot that mid-game, which I will continue to blame on fatigue. Also in my defense, I was not low for the day, but my score was definitely somewhere in the middle of the pack, even though, on my one good hand, my partner and I took all but one trick, as I was dealt 7 spades with all of the main honors.
The big news today was all about the Epstein files. The e-mails released today show that Trump was well aware of the trafficking in underage girls and, in fact, spent time with Virginia Giuffre, whose book “Nobody’s Girl” was recently released posthumously. Her death by suicide is as mysterious and inexplicable as that of Epstein himself in his prison cell.
“Man on the Run” is a terrific documentary about Paul McCartney’s caarer and life, post Beatles.
Here in Nashville, we could not get the Jimmy Kimmel Show last night (Tuesday, September 23). It was one of the states where station owners refused to carry the program. Very sorry that we were bombarded, instead, with a boring montage of Tennessee historic footage. Couldn’t find Kimmel on my computer, either. Spent most of the night looking for it on various services, to no avail.
We came home from an audience award winning documentary about hunting for pythons in Florida, “The Python Hunt,” excited to see Glen Powell (‘Twisters 2″) as a guest on Jimmy’s return to the air waves. No dice. We were able to see some of the opening monologue and a bit of Glen Powell’s appearance on YouTube today, a day late, but Kimmel’s free speech was curbed and for no good reason. Nothing he said was that inflammatory. This is clearly a case of a wannabe dictator moving the levers of power to become that dictator . It is exactly what Putin did in Russia, limned for us in 2 classes at the University of Texas in Austin during OLLIE classes last year.
Furthermore, DJT is talking about trying a second shake-down of Disney, after a $16 million cave when he threw his presidential weight around last time. How can we stop this? Why isn’t more being done to return our country to a constitutional democracy that guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and grants us 1st Amendment freedoms that are the envy of the rest of the world? I feel sad today about the new administration’s emphasis on revenge, retribution and hanging onto power by any means necessary. It’s unseemly and illegal and absolutely not the vision the Founding Fathers had for our country. I’m embarrassed by Trump and his remarks at the U.N. yesterday show that there is something very wrong happening, and we need to stop it and restore whatever we can of our dignity and status in the world.
Also, apparently there is some sort of anti-gay or anti-drag movement here in Tennessee (and nationwide) being proposed, much like Russia. One of the movies we saw, “Magic Hour,” had four drag queens making an appearance, including one who recently won an Emmy for make-up and goes by the name of Lusious Massacr.
The celebrity speaker about making indie movies, Jay Duplass of the Duplass Brothers (Mark appears on “The Morning Show” and won the supporting actor Emmy for his role), was in town, so I had high hopes that he would stop by the Q&A for his sister-in-law’s movie, “Magic Hour,” but that didn’t happen.
I did sit through the movie and am working up Director Katie Aselton’s remarks on the changing nature of indie film-making in a streaming world. The same might be said of the publishing world, which has changed substantially since my first book came out about 13 years ago. (Not counting the publication of “Training the Teacher As A Champion” by Performance Learning Systems, Inc,, someyears earlier, their company Bible.) Very recently, I had an SEO expert tell me that A.I, would put all bloggers out of business, so there’s that to consider, also, and one reason I try to work in a personal detail or two that only a human would know or have.
I continue to inject an opinion that obviously came from a human, just to make sure that the bots don’t take over the world, so be prepared.
Closing night film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at the Belcourt Theater tonight. Jennifer Lopez is in it, but is not here tonight. Nicole Kidman spoke on Sunday, but that got past me, as it sold out in less than a day and I did not get the notice (of Aug. 29) until Aug. 31st. I’ve not seen a thing about her remarks.
One cast member is supposed to appear tonight. Maybe I’ll make an After Party tonight, my first.
We’re on the way to the 56th Nashville Film Festival. Driving 7 hours to Paducah, Kentucky was the start.
On the way, we stopped at a rest stop in Southern Illinois, where I communed with Mother Jones, patron saint of the magazine for the reasons you can read here for yourself. Mother Jones was a union organizer and activist. So was I. Mother Jones formed the United Mine Workers, hoping to stop the exploitation of underage minersand the habit of taking advantage of immigrant labor that still exists.
I led the 3-year charge to unionize (organize) the SEA (Silvis Education Association) and I worked hard and long, as, I’m sure, Mother Jones did. My efforts were once scorned by a dinner partner who tried to assign malign characteristics to unions, when, in fact, they are one of the reasons that American workers began to be paid a living wage and treated fairly. This particular critic didn’t like the NEA (National Education Association) and was a white male who was, no doubt, during his working years, a managerial type.
Union Organizing by Mother Jones
When I started teaching in Silvis, Illinois, in 1969 unions were the farthest thing from my mind. We had an education association, which was basically a milk-and-cookies type after-school meeting with no power at all. There had been no recognition of the organization as representing the teachers who taught in Silvis, who numbered about 50 souls in grades K through 8. The SEA had been in existence since 1962, a time period when I was still in high school.
It wasn’t until at least 10 years after my employment began in Silvis that I became aware of the fact that every other school district around us had representatives who sat down with the school board to discuss issues like salary, class size, and work hours, while we had nothing. We read our new year’s salary in the newspaper and it rarely went up. I started teaching in Silvis for $5,280 a year and, out of that, paid for pre-school supervision for my then-one-year-old son. If you think that sounds like a paltry sum for working a full year, you are right.
In defense of the hair do that looks like it was beaten by an egg-beater, I had my sun glasses on top of my head until a few moments before this picture was taken.
I remember saying, to our then-principal, “They should never have rattled my cage,” which had to do with the administration taking my one day of personal leave when my son was hospitalized with double pneumonia and I was told to go right to the hospital from work. I was gone one day. The district took advantage of my necessary absence due to the ill health of my then 2-year-old son, showing absolutely no sympathy to the first-year teacher. (I remember being asked, “Is he going to die?” to justify leaving after I got the call that he was in the emergency room.)
So, I began finding out what it took to unionize our milk-and-cookies organization. It would require a vote supervised by the League of Women Voters and the next 3 years were a blur of finding out how to achieve this. The days of a powerless organization that had no discussion rights with the administration and had to content itself with reading next year’s salary in the local newspaper were gone.
It took me three years of P.R. efforts and going door-to-door in the Silvis neighborhoods, while my two best friends, Linda and Judy went off to Egypt and rode camels during Easter break. But not me. I worked on finding out how to get our group recognized by a recalcitrant school board and administration for 3 years and later was asked to lead workshops elsewhere by the IEA (Illinois Education Association) because we chose to run three candidates at once rather than do the “bullet voting” that the IEA recommended. I defended myself against dogs that ate the buttons off my coat and endured teetering on the brink of blasted-out concrete porches (no idea why the center portion of one house’s porch looked like it had been Ground Zero for an explosion, but it did).
We won the vote and, as far as I am aware, the Silvis Education Association still has negotiating rights with the Silvis School Board. In order to get that right, our organization had to interview and then back new candidates for the school board. We campaigned for our endorsed candidates, whom we interviewed at the local library, and put up billboards. I organized a phone tree to contact local voters. We won, but it took three years of work. We elected four members of a seven member board. Unlike DJT, we were not out for revenge. We just wanted what every other school district’s employees had: collective bargaining rights.
That is what Mother Jones helped miners to achieve and I’d recommend reading what the rest stop monument informed us about her life and achievements.
I may not have single-handedly made Silvis teachers rich (or rich-er), but we established a Sick Leave Bank into which employees could contribute a day (or more) of their unusued sick leave towards someone with a catastrophic illness. I know that it came in handy for Marion Gray when she was out a lengthy period recovering from a mastectomy. We were able to secure some other benefits for the underpaid Silvis employees, and, most importantly, we opened the door to the SEA being treated as a representative organization for future teachers in the Silvis School District.
Out of the 427 short films being screened at HollyShorts—one that will stand out for me— is the Canadian offering “Mercenaire,” which also showed at TIFF in 2024. University of Montreal Graduate Writer/Director Pier-Philippe Chevigny has directed Marc-Andre Grondin as Dave, an ex-convict, in a totally absorbing 15 minute film about a parolee who is hired to work on the killing floor of a meat processing plant, slaughtering pigs. Chevigny, who graduated in 2014, has had 48 awards nominations and 29 wins. He also edited.
Writer/Director Pier-Philippe Chevigny of “Mercenaire.”
The short piece is as riveting as anything you’ll see anywhere. It is fifteen minutes of a man trapped in hell. He MUST have a job, or he goes back to prison. The work is grueling, demanding, dangerous, bloody and completely debilitating for David, although others on the plant floor say, “You get used to it.” As we are learning firsthand in the United States of America in 2025 you can get used to a lot regarding man’s inhumanity towards others. If Dave is too tender-hearted, there will be ten even more desperate applicants waiting to take his place, if the pay is right.
I grew up in the Midwest (Independence, Iowa). My father grew up one of eight children on an Iowa farm (Fairbank, Iowa). I know pigs from visiting my uncle’s farms. They are very intelligent animals and quite cute, when young. Of course, the 2001 “Hannibal” sequel put pigs in a very different light. Indian film censors demanded that the close visual of a pig putting Mason’s (Gary Oldman) face into its mouth be excised to achieve an ‘A’ (adults) rating. It has remained cut ever since. And it is true that pigs will eat almost anything.
Despite that, a family friend even kept a pig as a pet and I seem to remember that George Clooney used to have a pet potbelly pig. Iowa friend Mary (Siesseger), who grew up in Clear Lake (Iowa), trained her pet pig to let her ride on its back. The Siessegers incorporated it into the family unit—until it got too big.
And what happens when a pig gets too big?
It goes to the slaughterhouse where a stun gun is used to knock the animal unconscious and it is slaughtered and bled. (Plus other steps outlined in the instructional video for meatpacking equipment.No trailer for “Mercenaire” up on YouTube at this time).
Man’s inhumanity to beast is displayed. I have used a very sanitized YouTube video about raising and slaughtering hogs that is NOT from this film. It presents the same steps that we see in much more graphic detail in “Mercenaire.” Hog farms and whether the animal is allowed free movement has changed since my father’s interest in raising pigs for slaughter. Whether the slaughtering process is “humane” is open to debate.
My cousin was taken on a tour of the Rath Packing Plant in Waterloo, Iowa, as a high school student (a plant that has given way to much bigger corporate operations like Tyson and Smithfield in 2025). She immediately became a vegetarian after the trip. My father actually wanted to establish one of the modern-day factory pig farms. Mom was adamantly opposed to the idea. Dad stuck to the banking business. Even my farm familiar father was somewhat taken aback by the news that the stressed pigs he saw on a local farm were biting the tails off of other pigs (something that this YouTube video seems to suggest is avoided bybreaking off their teeth.) Two thousand pigs a day can be processed in just one plant, according to the video.
One of the most harrowing experiences of my young life (age 10) involved a trip to a neighbor’s farm where it was discovered that one of the pigs had broken its leg. The animal was strung up by its hind legs from high up, outside the barn, and its throat was slit to “bleed” the animal. The memory of the noise the terrified animal made and the horrifying sight of its body twisting in agony, bleeding out, has never left my brain. After watching this stroll down memory lane inside a pig slaughtering plant—similar to one located in Illinois near where I am writing this—it probably never will.
Map of pork processing plants in the United States.
As a teacher in an 82% Hispanic district (only one professional family in the entire district) my Latino students often ended up working at the meat processing plant after high school or after 8th grade. It paid well, you needed no advanced degree (not even a high school diploma) and the authorities weren’t as particular about immigration papers in those days. But the price those students paid is clearly delineated in this graphically brutal short. I will never forget the sounds of the terrified animal I witnessed being murdered on that neighbor’s farm. You may find this bloody and graphic film too much.
The end of the film depicts a man in a no-win situation whose very soul is in hell. Dave tries to find work on a construction crew. He tries to convince the boss to move him to a different duty on the killing floor. (The boss responds that the demand is for slaughtering animals on the killing floor.) You sense that Dave is at his wit’s end. The only question is whether he will, indeed, re-enter prison rather than continue re-enacting man’s inhumanity to God’s creatures.
Enjoy your bacon (if you can). Fair Oaks Foods has been building a $134 million-dollar new bacon processing facility in northwest Davenport, Iowa, meant to employ 250 people, since 2022. City officials hope it will be open by spring of 2026. And, of course, bacon comes from pigs—right? Anybody remember how, during the pandemic, meat processing plants like these were severely impacted as the employees fell victim to the deadly virus.
Meat-eaters, be warned. The excellent “Mercenaire” goes right alongside a British documentary about cow slaughtering (“Cow”), filmed completely without dialogue. But it got its message across quite clearly. So does “Mercenaire.”
As part of my Birthday Tour (7/23), I purchased tickets to see “Megalopolis” (forthe second time) with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance. He was coming to the Chicago Theater in downtown Chicago. I was in town celebrating a big birthday, with tickets to see Caitlin Clark play on Sunday (probably injured and not playing—and neither is Angel Reese), tickets to a Cubs game on Tuesday, a trip to the Green Mill to hear live music on 7/23, and my second time plowing through “Megalopolis,” which I originally saw at the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa—a theater owned by filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (“A Quiet Place,” “Heretic”).
I did not review “Megalopolis” when I saw it the first time, shortly after its release on September 27, 2024. It seemed to want to be a commentary on Trump 2.0 and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire came up as a good way to compare the two time periods. Beyond that, the film seemed primarily random bits, as did Coppola’s comments this night, when he appeared onstage to introduce the film and came back at the end to ostensibly take questions from the audience.
The director may deserve criticism for not preparing something more along the lines of “An Evening with Cary Grant,” which recapped that famous actor’s career. Of course, as I headed out to that one, the radio alerted us that Cary had just died of a heart attack (in Davenport, Iowa), so these strolls down memory lane with elderly actors and directors are always fraught with risk. I can’t really compare how Cary did, because I ended up trying to cheer my mother up because my father had just died in his eighties with an ill-timed celebrity outing to someone I had lauded as “still going strong in his eighties.” Francis Ford Coppola’s birth year is 1939, so draw your own conclusions.
Time is the risk. Don’t we all (secretly) know it?
Will Coppola talk about his other films? (A: No).
Francis Ford Coppola at the Chicago Theater on July 25, 2025.
Will Coppola seem on top of his topics? (Yes & No. He rambled, but so did the film.)
Is the film as bad as critics at the time said it was? (A: Again, yes & no. I have a feeling that, like “Heaven’s Gate,” it could well be viewed in a totally different light a decade from now.This one was eventually picked up for distribution by Lionsgate in May of 2025, but they have now dropped it as an offering, so getting to see it at all will become as difficult as seeing the original “Manchurian Candidate” was after the assassination of JFK or as seeing “Heaven’s Gate” became after it bankrupted the studio.)
When Francis Ford Coppola graced the stage, welcoming us to the theater, he said, “When the audience is willing to enter a door that they have not entered before, they may experience something they haven’t experienced before. I’ll see you again in a few hours.”
I had entered that door over a year ago during the 138 minute-film’s initial release. I was confused by the lack of a coherent story line then, and I had hoped to hear—at the very least—stories from the making of this, his latest film, a project that consumed him for decades. Eventually, Coppola—the director responsible for such iconic films as “The Godfather” series,”Apocalypse Now,” and “The Outsiders” had to sell part of his vineyard to raise the $140 million the film supposedly cost. Touring with it to a variety of cities (6, initially) is another way to offset his financial loss, since the film has only had a worldwide gross of $14 million, to date. The director is now suggesting he will recut the film to add even more dream sequences and other “weird” things. (Good luck with that.)
There is one point in the film where the lights come up and a “live” person comes out and has a brief discussion with its lead, Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina. That did not happen when I saw the film at the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, but it apparently happens on the tour, as it happened in New Jersey and happened again in Chicago.
I was hoping against hope that Coppola would offer more behind-the-scenes stories from the shooting in Georgia and more personal anecdotes from a lifetime of revered films, but that didn’t happen. Part of it was the fault of the star of the evening, FFC, and part of it was the poor preparation to ask questions by the audience. I have read that Coppola’s original speech post film had 10 points, which he then reduced to 7 points. We made it through 5 points. They had to do with how our society deals with time, work and money, among other things, all somewhat random and disjointed. Along the way, he would introduce random information, such as the fact that both he and DJT attended the same New York Military Academy (New York Military Academy; Francis Ford Coppola played the tuba there.)
Factoid shared randomly: “Marlon Brando once told me that the secret for actors is, “You can’t care, or they’ll see it on your face.” Not sure I understand that bit of wisdom, but, then, not sure I understand most of “Megalopolis.” (Was hoping for further illumination on that very topic; did not happen.)
Random Factoid #2: “I’m alternately rich and then broke…I’d rather have one million friends than one million dollars.” Along with the concept of being “alternately rich and broke” came a story of giving his kids quasi credit cards, which came with rules for usage. Could not be used to make money. Could not be used to buy sex or love. Could not be used to purchase violence against another. Could not be used to buy gifts.
Random Factoid #3: “We are one human family–homo sapiens. We think we’re 300,000 years old. You are all my cousins.” He went on to proclaim us all geniuses, when compared to other species.
Question #1 from the audience revealed a problem with the way this was going to work—or not work. FFC had difficulty hearing the question(s) and the questioners did precious little forethought when struggling to gain the microphone to ask a question. A better method for selecting questioners could be found. (I’d recommend the SXSW method, myself).
The first questioner, a young man, did not really have much of a question for the legendary director. He just wanted to know if it was true that Marlon Brando, who had been urged to lose weight for his role in “Apocalypse Now,” when badgered to do so, instead went out in a canoe and ate a bunch of hamburgers. If that question makes no sense and seems like a waste of all of our time, you are right. FFC dismissed it as one he couldn’t hear and seemed irritated, at points, that so few women were managing to gain microphone time. (Again: get a better system).
Second question was slightly better: “What are you the most excited about right now?”
This brought forth reflections on family and life: “We will evolve so that we will live in a beautiful world. All I care about is the kids.” He went on an extended reverie about playing with his grandkids and great grandchildren and said that he felt much is learned from play and from playing with youth.
At one point the actress who played Vesta Sweetwater in the film (Grace VanderWaal) shared with us that she wrote the songs she sings while suspended from a swing, supposedly shilling (in the film) for millions to support her in her quest to remain virginal—although she is really 23 and not virginal. Grace sang two songs and my mind instantly flashed back to a poetry workshop I once went to in Washington, D.C., where an elderly Mickey Rooney sat in a fancy Robert Louis Stevenson chair while his wife sang. (And that was the entire program!) Mickey and I ended up in the same elevator at one point (his mistake) and he barely came up to my shoulder. And I am only 5′ 2.” Random factoid for you right there!)
Question #4 from Nate dealt with what lessons Coppola might have learned while making the film. The questioner had referred to this particular film as ” a passion project” and FFC said, “Every movie is a passion project. Take away the lesson that you don’t have to play by someone else’s rules.”
During the second of Vesta Sweetwater’s two songs, I left and walked around outside of our mezzanine section seats, because the leg room in R was less than on the most crowded plane I’ve ever been on. (Seats started at $65, but these, with an unobstructed view, were in the $80s. However, there was no mention of the potentially crippling lack of leg room.
We had now been sitting, watching the film, for over 2 hours (138 minutes) and there were also the introductory remarks and FFC’s comments as he rejoined us (“I even put on a tie”). [I think I would have been permanently crippled if I had remained in my seat much longer without getting up. We arrived at 6:30; it was over 4 hours later.
People were beginning to drift away from the marathon viewing now. FFC was not nearly done and shared more random factoids, always promising to circle back to another mentioned topic:
Random factoid: FFC wanted to be able to tap dance as a young boy. He was somewhat mistreated by fellow classmates and he always envisioned himself climbing atop the lunchroom table and tap dancing expertly. (Didn’t happen).
Random factoid: Francis Ford Coppola’s father was a classical musician and played First Flute in the NBC Symphony Orchestra, directed at the time by Arturo Toscanini. Music in films has come from the Coppola clan. This time it is courtesy of Osvaldo Golijov, with Mahai Malaimare, Jr. as cinematographer.
More random topics to follow in further posts.
I’m writing this from the road. My Birthday Extravaganza has not (yet) ended, and won’t until the month ends. A very nice African American lady at the DMV in Chicago told me to always celebrate your birthday for the entire month.
The Washington Post (Emily Davies) asked some prominent authorities in the field of television about the likelihood that the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was just based on financial considerations, as Paramount maintains. The experts aren’t buying it; neither should we. Forty-eight hours after Colbert called the $16 million payment to Trump by Paramount a bribe on his show, one designed to help facilitate the sale of CBS to Skydance, Colbert was fired, despite being #1.
“How often does the No. 1 guy get canceled? You can analyze this 100 different ways, but Colbert has the No. 1 show in late night and they’ve canceled him. If it walks like a duck, it’s a duck,” Rob Burnett said. “I don’t know the ins and outs of what’s going on up there, but I just don’t think if Stephen Colbert isn’t saying the things he’s saying that this happens.” Rob Burnett ran things at the Tonight Show for 19 years as David Letterman’s producer.
Burnett conceded that revenue is down in late night: At its peak, during Johnny Carson’s long stint as host, NBC’s time-slot champion “Tonight Show” drew 17 million viewers, according to Adweek, whereas Colbert’s top-rated “Late Show” has averaged about 2.5 million viewers this year. All the late-night shows now share digital excerpts online. That allows fans to consume an episode in pieces whenever they choose, and younger viewers choose to do that. But YouTube doesn’t offer nearly the same ad revenue as television. Still, the lock on late night viewers is no longer the pull it was for older generations. Viewers under 35 might not watch any of the late night hosts.
Merrill Markoe
Merrill Markoe
Merrill Markoe, who was the head writer on Letterman’s show during its early-1980s incarnation on NBC before he went on to launch “The Late Show” and moved to CBS in the 1990s, said she “had nightmares” after she heard the news about Colbert.
“CBS, Paramount, the merger, the buyout with Trump, all of it came tumbling down like dice and added up to me in a second,” she said. “It hit me in a very hard way. He was No. 1 in his time slot. And a talk show is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment there is.”
As far as what’s next, Colbert still has many shows to produce at CBS before May. Daniel Kellison, another former Letterman producer, doubts he’ll make it. “I just hope he’s going to go all scorched-earth now. There’s no way he’s going to be on the air for nine months,” Kellison said. “He’s such a smart guy, and it would be really cool if he did a slow burn.”
It’s classic authoritarian behavior to forbid criticism, especially if the target is someone as thin-skinned as DJT. Our First Amendment freedoms are under attack and the Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) and other hosts (Jon Stewart, Seth Meyer, Bill Maher, Conan O’Brien, John Oliver) are being bullied into submission, just as our universities, our judges, our elected representatives in Congress and anyone whom DJT has a beef with is being bullied into submission.
How long before our First Amendment Freedom of Speech and of the Press and of the right to assembly are eroded? Our leaders of conscience of any party must stand up for the Constitution and the right of habeas corpus and all of our cherished American freedoms, before DJT and Steve Bannon and the boys completely destroy the freedoms our citizens have exercised and prized for 250 years.
Some suggest that Colbert ought to run against Lindsey Graham, since they are both from South Carolina. It would be a waste of a top-notch talent we sorely need at these moments of crisis.
Thank you for speaking truth to power, Stephen Colbert, and let’s hope that the venality of the nation’s biggest bully—out there for all to see—gives pause to some of the worst excesses of MAGA land.
BREAKING: Senator Dick Durbin drops a massive bombshell and reveals that Attorney General Pam Bondi “pressured” roughly 1,000 FBI personnel to sift through tens of thousands of Epstein documents to flag all mentions of Donald Trump.
And it gets so much worse…
In letters sent to Bondi, MAGA FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, Durbin revealed that his office has received “information” that Bondi has “pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division” on 24-hour shifts to dig through 100,000 Epstein-related documents ahead of a possible document release.
The personnel were “instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.” No benign explanation has been provided for the frantic operation and it has supercharged allegations of a coverup.
Durbin is demanding more information about the administration’s deeply suspicious handling of the files and for an explanation as to why officials are flagging documents that mention Trump.
In his letters, Durbin pointed to the now-infamous 2002 remarks in which Trump stated that he had known Epstein for 15 years and thought that he was a “terrific guy” who was “a lot of fun to be with.”
He also mentioned the “bawdy” letter that Trump sent to Ghislaine Maxwell for inclusion in a birthday album for Epstein. Durbin stated that the letter “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker” in addition to Trump’s signature.
Durbin asked Bondi, Patel, and Bongino to explain if they have personally reviewed all of the Epstein files and if the FBI has Epstein-related documents that the DOJ has no reviewed.
“Is there a log of the records mentioning President Trump? If yes, please transmit a copy of the committee and the OIG,” Durbin wrote, meaning the Senate Judiciary panel and the Office of Inspector General.
On top of that, Durbin is demanding clarification on Bondi’s previous statement that the Epstein client list was sitting on her desk for review. More recently, a DOJ memo claimed that the list doesn’t exist. Either Bondi was lying then, or the Justice Department is lying now.
Senator Durbin wrote that the memo’s claim about the list “contradicts public statements” that Bondi “repeatedly made.”
Not done there, Durbin also drew attention to problems with the “fully raw” footage that the administration released of the prison cell where Epstein allegedly committed suicide.
“Public skepticism of the government’s transparency in this matter has been needlessly increased due to your release of surveillance video from outside of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell,” wrote Durbin. “In fact, the footage was likely modified, according to the metadata embedded in the video.”
He demanded an explanation for any modifications or edits made to the footage before its release.
Durbin concluded by asked for answers by August 1st.
“Prompt attention to this important matter is crucial to understanding the truth and preventing this administration’s actions from causing greater harm,” wrote the senator.
The pictures above were taken in Kansas. It was incredibly cold (said it felt like 28 because of the wind, but was technically in the thirties). The “buffalo” are not real.
Also, apparently there is some sort of anti-gay or anti-drag movement here in Tennessee (and nationwide) being proposed, much like Russia. One of the movies we saw, “Magic Hour,” had four drag queens making an appearance, including one who recently won an Emmy for make-up and goes by the name of Lusious Massacr.
We won the vote and, as far as I am aware, the Silvis Education Association still has negotiating rights with the Silvis School Board. In order to get that right, our organization had to interview and then back new candidates for the school board. We campaigned for our endorsed candidates, whom we interviewed at the local library, and put up billboards. I organized a phone tree to contact local voters. We won, but it took three years of work. We elected four members of a seven member board. Unlike DJT, we were not out for revenge. We just wanted what every other school district’s employees had: collective bargaining rights.
