Pophistory: music, movies, history, and life.
In 1940 after John Ford made John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath into a popular film, Woody Guthrie was finding some fame while living with various friends in New York. In the biography Woody Guthrie: A Life, Joe Klein explained that as Victor Records worked to produce a set of Guthrie’s Dust Bowl ballads, the … Continue reading “Tom Joad’s Inspiration”
In case you were too busy driving around with your dog on your car roof or wondering how to finish that research paper with Wikipedia going dark for a day in protest of a proposed law, here are some of the recent pop culture stories you might have missed. Movies The Los Angeles Times notes … Continue reading “Pop Culture Roundup (Mid-January 2012)”
“He was born one day in the County of Clay And he came from a solitary race.” On today’s date in 1847, Jesse James was born in Clay County Missouri. Within two years, his father, the Rev. Robert James, ran off and left his family behind to go to look for gold in California, never … Continue reading “Jesse James Born Today in the County of Clay”
On May 25, 1911, a mob lynched an African-American woman and her teenage son near Okemah, Oklahoma. Through a direct family connection to the lynching, the acts that day would later inspire one of Woody Guthrie’s great songs. Oklahoma Lynching The lynching of the woman and her son occurred in response to the death of … Continue reading “Don’t Kill My Baby and My Son”
Bragg, Billy – The Space Race Is Over The Space Race is Over – Billy Bragg (press to play) Today at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT), the space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to make its final launch. During the 11-day mission, Discovery will bring supplies to the International Space Station, including Robonaut 2, a humanoid … Continue reading “Discovery’s Final Launch: The Space Race is Over”