My book list continues to mount for anyone interested in joining in for some impromptu book-clubbing. In light of the never ending 2016 presidential campaign and Rahm’s threats of suing the State over CPS funding the theme is overtly political.

National Politics: Initially, I was interested in the Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne’s  book Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond which led me to Matt Lewis’ Too Dumb to Fail. Conveniently, here is a book review of both of them together! Dionne a liberal researcher and journalist and Lewis a conservative journalist and pundit but they each analyze the mutual enemy of ultra far right “republican buffoonery.”

Chicago Politics: I know Austin has been enjoying the Mike Royko’s column collection, and Marty ceaselessly tries to discuss the politics of reform  Mayor William Hale Thompson by piling newspaper articles on my desk. So it seems time to stop pretending the three chapters I actually read from my high school Chicago History class really counted as reading Boss by Mike Royko. Here are a few standouts conveniently organized already and a Marty favorite We Don’t Want Nobody Sent: An Oral History of the Daley Years. Also, this book on Harold Washington.

On a lighter note, this Barbara Carr song has me on a Chess Records Soul kick.

 

Macbeth was absolutely the best part of Brit Lit outside of the Waterboys‘ Stolen Child adaptation. Allegedly, the wide release was December 4th but I cannot find any Chicago show times. Apparently, it will go to Amazon Prime Video pretty quickly… so Ellen don’t get rid of your prime account yet.

Not what I expect from College Humor and kinda old but new to me. Sorry Brian if you already posted this…

1. Vikings returns, and here is the Comic Con trailer. Ellen will be thrilled. More Lagertha less crazy second and third wife.
2. I assume by now everyone has binged through Narcos, and has the theme song stuck in their heads. Turns out the guy who wrote it is a Brazilian guy, Rodrigo Amarante, who plays in Little Joy and is buddies with Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes. Here is an article about the music in Narcos and the translation of the theme song, Tuyo.
3. Prior to his befriending of Moretti, Amarante was in a Brazilian band called Los Hermanos. The band name is strangely Spanish but the music is in Portuguese. Their big hit was Anna Júlia, which was later covered by Jim Chapaldi and George Harrison . It is all very 90s, yet I keep listening to both versions.
4. Post Narcos, I found these two books for anyone who cares to join book club. First,The Dark Art: My Undercover Life in Narco-Terrorism by Edward Follis and Douglas Century is Follis’ memoir as a career DEA agent undercover in Mexico, Afghanistan, and Korea. Second, The Beast by Óscar Martínez who is an El Salvadoran investigative journalist writing about the journey of Central American immigrants via the tops of trains, riding buses, and the unreal perils of the journey throughout Mexico and Central America.
5. Finally, some of Amarante’s other stuff is pretty good so check out Hourglass.

In my on-going effort to put off studying and life plans I found these documentaries that are worth a watch.

1. Watchers of the Sky tells the story of Raphael Lemkin who was a Polish-born Jew who fled the Holocaust for the US, created the term “genocide,” and made his life work drafting and ratifying the Genocide Convention. It is based off of one of my favorite books A Problem From Hell by US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power which is also absolutely worth reading. The best part is Ben Firenze (one of the US prosecutors at Nuremberg) who is now an adorable elderly gentlemen charming the pants off everyone at the UN in support of genocide prevention and international accountability.

2. Sin Nombre and Which Way Home are both basically the story of the kids in my class. The former being a movie and the latter a HBO documentary.

3. Netflix has a three-part docudrama series about the Nuremberg trials called Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial if you haven’t already had your fill of Nazi programming via the History Channel.

In case, those did not seem uplifting enough enjoy this list of the best Daily Show correspondents  and their best clips