b l a c k c o f f e e
paul iorio's pop culture and politics blog.
Paul Iorio is a writer/reporter/photographer whose work has appeared in almost all the major U.S. newspapers and in many magazines. He's almost certainly the only person on the planet who has conducted one-on-one interviews with ALL of the following people: Kate Bush, Roman Polanski, Fela Kuti and Richard Pryor.
Send all hate mail and love letters to pliorio@aol.com)
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BLACK COFFEE
for June 23, 2020
June 23, 2020: Just released -- brand new music by paul iorio.
I'm quite proud of this brand new song I've written called "Maurice," a sort of Bob Weirish pure-pop song. The chorus came to me whole in a 3am dream -- I know everyone says their stuff comes from a dream, but in my case here, it's actually factually true -- and the verses came later (in May 2020). I finished recording it yesterday at my home studio here in the lovely town of Berkeley, California. Couldn't help but smile while recording it -- a good sign.
I posted an earlier version of the song on soundclick and within hours it jumped to #15 on the site's alternative chart. Here's a free stream/download of "Maurice." Enjoy!
"MAURICE," a brand new song by paul iorio.
and here's the YouTube edition:
"Maurice" -- the video (by paul iorio).
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BLACK COFFEE
for June 23, 2020
paul iorio's advance review of mel gibson's new movie,
"force of nature."
Can you think of a worse idea for a movie than having an art heist in the middle of a category five hurricane? Yet, that's the premise of the upcoming Mel Gibson movie "Force of Nature," slated for release on June 30th from Lionsgate. (Call it "The Passion of the Heist," I guess.)
Come awards season, this flick is likely going to sweep the top prizes -- at the Razzies. It's not just bad, it's historically bad. It might even have an afterlife as the sort of inadvertent high camp that plays the midnight movie circuit.
Gibson -- onscreen for a total of forty five minutes and coughing throughout most of it -- seems to be doing an imitation of late Pacino, but it comes off as Drunk Uncle instead. (Those who want to see the movie without seeing Gibson can avoid the stretch that starts at 18 minutes and ends at 65 minutes.)
This awfulness that Lionsgate greenlighted includes: street thugs who know their Vermeer; hurricane gusts that interrupt gunplay at crucial moments; bullet wounds that are patched up and treated like mosquito bites; and, this being a Gibson movie, a good guy is a former Nazi sympathizer whose dad was -- surprise! -- an actual Nazi.
This is the sort of script that no amount of revision could possibly help, as the underlying idea is so terrible. Production-wise, it does have a professional finish -- but it's like someone who hasn't taken a shower in a month putting on a fresh tuxedo. This flick has an aroma that can be mistaken for no other.
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BLACK COFFEE
for May 23, 2020
New CDC guidelines for churches:
Before collecting contributions, make sure to wipe the blood off the money.
[by paul iorio]
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BLACK COFFEE
for June 12, 2020
paul iorio reviews "the king of staten island"
I just saw Judd Apatow's "The King of Staten Island." Entertaining, very watchable, but not terribly funny, not "Knocked Up."
Apatow remains a highly overrated director who has directed exactly one truly funny classic, "Knocked Up." The rest of his features have ranged from just awful to mostly awful. Woody Allen he ain't.
"The King of Staten Island" may well be his best since "Knocked Up," but it's not nearly as good or hilarious.
This is mostly a film vehicle for Pete Davidson, an undeniably funny guy who hit it out of the ballpark on his very first night on SNL. Since then, we've come to see he's more Colin Quinn than George Carlin -- not in the class of stand-ups who could easily pass for pop philosophers, too (e.g., Carlin, Steve Martin, Woody Allen (the king of them), etc.). And SNL is finding, with time, that he's best used in sketches in which he appears as a dope; Hollywood is sort of using him that way, too.
In "Staten Island," Davidson's loserish character is 24, still living with his mom on Staten Island, which is portrayed none too flatteringly (as a place where, as one character aptly says, "there's no flow of people"). He's an inept tattoo artist (who manages to memorably botch an Obama tattoo) with dreams of -- get this -- opening a restaurant/tattoo parlor called Ruby Tattoosdays.
His mom is played by Marisa Tomei, who somehow manages to look vaguely like Jill Clayburgh here. She and her new boyfriend meet un-cute -- in a way that would seem to preclude future involvement, but doesn't.
Davidson's character thinks she should "peruse more dick" instead of settling on the first guy she's dated in 17 years, since the death of her firefighter husband.
Apatow really missed an opportunity to make a more meaningful picture by simply including what happened in real life to Davidson's dad, who died as a firefighter at one of the twin towers on 9/11 -- rather than have his character die in some anonymous house fire.
Every now and then, it feels like Apatow is trying to make a James Brooks movie, though the picture eventually devolves into a lot of working-class male bonding in which major unforgivable sins are forgiven for the sake of friendship.
All told, worth streaming, once the price comes down to a few bucks.
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BLACK COFFEE
for June 6, 2020
paul iorio on "dating amber"
David Freyne's "Dating Amber," which I just saw, is 2020's "Booksmart," except a whole lot better. It's a funny, irreverent, poignant, touching coming-of-age in Ireland story about two high school friends who are beards for each other -- he's gay, she's a lesbian, but both pretend to be an item for appearances' sake, though they end up sort of falling for each other for real.
The best 2020 movie I've seen since "The Burnt Orange Hersey." Check it out, if you can!
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BLACK COFFEE
for March 25, 2020
paul iorio reviews "the burnt orange heresy"
"The Burnt Orange Heresy" is...not bad. Saw it last night. Though it's perceived as a Mick Jagger vehicle, it's mostly without him and he's not really the star, though he more than holds his own with the likes of Donald Sutherland and Claes Bang, whose role as an art critic would've been perfect for Pierce Brosnan twenty years ago.
It's almost as if Giuseppe Capotondi set out to make an early seventies New Hollywood sort of picture, though it ultimately comes off like a combination of an artsy "Knives Out" and "The Thomas Crown Affair," with an ending that's sort of out of the "Columbo" series. Worth catching when it becomes available for streaming.
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BLACK COFFEE
for March 11, 2020
In the spirit of Black Coffee, I'm not going to sweeten up the Coronavirus catastrophe happening now worldwide. Here's the straight stuff:
The Black Coffee About Covid-19
The winner of the primaries will be Covid-19. If elderly Biden, heaven forbid, were to be infected, Bernie would be the nominee.
So, hang on to your delegates, Bernie. We are going through an unprecedented plague right now that is disproportionately targeting people over 70. Make sure you're the back up candidate, should Biden fall victim to this disease, which is after all affecting older people who have been in large crowds and who shake a lot of hands. I wish Biden nothing but the best in terms of his health, but he is in a risk group -- and the Democratic party needs to have a contingency plan in case he falls. Bernie, the runner up, should be that plan.
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I bet the true number of cases of Covid-19 is over a billion. But the vast majority are mild and therefore undiagnosed.
My estimation is based on a Harvard epidemiologist's projection of the spread. Based on that, it's actually 4 billion infected.
Makes sense. Humans have no natural immunity to it. There's no vaccine for it. Underestimate it at your own personal peril.
If you see one mouse in your house, you likely have 20. If you see 20, there are likely hundreds in a nearby nest.
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Bear market? Bull market? How about...a collapsed world economy because an unprecedented pandemic has shuttered everything?
You don't have to be an expert on puts and calls and market corrections to see that the epidemic is putting countless businesses out of business, many permanently, with ripple effects turning into a tsunami.
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When Elon Musk isn't busy stealing other people's ideas, he's offering crackpot advice about Covid-19. Musk is not a physician.
Musk isn't even an RN or a former med student. He has no background whatsoever in the medical field and his advice should be put in the same place -- the trash can -- in which experts put his ridiculous ideas about saving the kids trapped in that cave in Thailand in 2018.
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Covid-19 is like the sunset. It starts in China and moves west to Italy/Europe and then finally sets in the U.S. We'll suffer what they suffered and then we'll recover just as they are recovering. If you want to see the future, look at what China and Italy have been going through.
What that means is that we'll have to have the lockdowns that China and Italy imposed before we can see the sort of recovery we're beginning to see in Wuhan, which started the whole thing last year.
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Those with Covid-19 can go into formal quarantine, or they can simply attend a screening of Springsteen's movie "Western Stars."
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For once I agree with Trump: after three full years in office, this is truly his economy and his alone.
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Those who say, "The flu kills more people than Covid-19," should be told that the seasonal flu has a mortality rate of .095%; Covid-19 has a likely mortality rate of 3.4%.
The flu has been around for at least 500 years; Covid-19 has been in existence for around three months, not enough time to rack up a big body count yet. And of course there is no vaccine for Covid-19, for which humans have no immunity.
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The CDC advises:
Shut down everything and watch "Columbo" until further notice.
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At the bow of the ship, the icebergs are close enough to touch. At the stern, it's "what icebergs?"
A real disparity in my FB friends group about Covid-19. Those in the Bay Area and Seattle are desperately trying to stop the ship before it hits an iceberg that's inches away. Those in untouched areas of the midwest think the whole thing's a money grab by Purell.
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Anyone who would volitionally mingle in a large crowd in the current environment might as well be drinking out of the toilet. You'd have to be as medically ignorant as, say, Ben Carson.
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The only way to stop the spread in the Bay Area is to have a six county lockdown (the way China locked down half its population) but that won't happen.
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People ate bats in Wuhan and the entire world came to a screeching halt. Who'd have guessed it?
And that's your black coffee for today!
Paul
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FEBRUARY 29, 2020: JUST UP ON BLOGSPOT AND YOUTUBE:
I'm proud to say that a major news organization tells me it may be showing excerpts from my new documentary "Inside Berniemania." Until that happens, if it does, let me present right here, for the first time ever, the whole video.
"Inside Berniemania," which has been years in the making, examines, from inside the storm, the intense support for the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders in the ultrablue San Francisco area from his early appearances in 2016 to his most recent rally in 2020.
And I've decided to unleash it here and across platforms on the eve of the California primary and Super Tuesday.
All the photos and video were shot solely by Paul Iorio. Produced, directed, scripted, narrated and edited by Paul Iorio, 2020.
Enjoy!
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I'm honored that my film "The Lost Ferlinghetti Tapes" was being exhibited in London through November 2019 as part of a Lawrence Ferlinghetti exhibition by the U.K.'s esteemed National Poetry Library. It was shown at Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre on the Thames in London! Many thanks to the National Poetry Library for including my work in this exhibition.
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JUST UP ON YOUTUBE: I'm just now (10/31/2019) releasing this exclusive one-on-one interview I conducted with Robert Evans on June 4, 1999, in which we talked solely about "Chinatown." Until today, the Q&A has never been publicly released (except for 44 words that I used in a couple stories I wrote for The Los Angeles Times in 1999). Two major publications came close to publishing it yesterday, but ultimately didn't. The probable (but unstated) reason it didn't get published is because no editor of this era would dare risk running an interview in which the subject actually praises a pariah like Roman Polanski, as Evans does here. (For the record, nobody, not even Evans, defends Polanski's personal behavior of 1977. But no film professional would deny he's one of the great living directors.)
The audio is a completely unedited 13-minute real-time excerpt from our conversation; the accompanying text is an edited transcript. This conversation took place thirteen months after Evans had a stroke, so this is likely his first major interview after he regained his ability to speak.
As I said, "Chinatown" is the focus here. Take a listen and remember the producer behind some of the greatest pictures ever made!
Robert Evans, interviewed one-on-one by Paul Iorio.
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BLACK COFFEE
for July 26, 2019
I actually spoke one-on-one with Roman Polanski and his friends about the impact that the Manson murders had on him and on his later work -- and I've included their remarks in this mini-documentary I just made called "What Roman Told Me About Charlie." Here it is (for the first time anywhere). Enjoy!
"What Roman Told Me About Charlie," a mini-documentary by Paul Iorio.
The YouTube edition of Iorio's "What Roman Told Me About Charlie."
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Paul Iorio on "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"
Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is the best movie of the year so far and might even be the best of the decade. It'll make you high -- and I laughed most of the way home just thinking about certain scenes.
It's not a period piece so much as a time capsule that's jam packed with very knowing details and artifacts and music of the era. I mean, the wonderfully melodic Heaven Scent commercial? "Snoopy Versus the Red Baron"? Tarantino seems to be reaching directly into my mind and pulling out personal memories of the era -- all the more amazing, given the fact that he's six years younger than I am and didn't live through the period as a teen or tween.
And the ending -- I won't give it away -- will take your breath away. It's one of the most satisfying resolutions of a non-fictional national tragedy imaginable. SPOILER ALERT I literally cheered as Tex Watson was chewed to death, genitals first, by a dog, and as Manson gangmember Atkins was beaten to death in the most painful way imaginable. (Better than she deserved.) END OF SPOILER ALERT.
Brad Pitt deserves an Oscar nomination -- if only for the incredibly funny sequence in which he's tripping on acid while murderers visit.
Oh, sure, I have a few quibbles with it. The music, for example, evokes 1966 and '67 more than '69, what with the inclusion of Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Mamas and the Papas and the Royal Guardsmen and "Mrs. Robinson." All that stuff is two or three years before the period portrayed, but it is great to hear it anyway. And the scene at Spahn probably should've been with Manson instead of Spahn. Relatively minor points.
Watch this on the big screen to see all the brilliant detail Tarantino put into it. And see it now.
P.S. -- My very perceptive Facebook friend Dana Kennedy saw it at Cannes and wanted to connect with me to tell me what she REALLY thinks of it -- and I'd love to talk with her about it if she ever reactivates her FB page.
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BLACK COFFEE
for January 16, 2019
When a Kooky Conspiracy Theory Turns Out to Be True
By Paul Iorio
Paul Iorio's contemporaneous journal from March 1974 noting his participation in an anti-Nixon rally that turned out to be targeted by corrupt government operatives.
Last week, I found out for the very first time that an event in my past life resembled a kooky conspiracy theory. Except for one thing: the kooky theory was actually founded in solid, documented fact.
Here's the story. I was idly searching newspaper search engines some days ago when I happened on a shocker, a story from February 24, 1975, in The New York Times, about an activist group I'd been a very public part of during the end of the Nixon era. The organization was called Bay Area Citizens Opposed to Nixon, with the catchy acronym B.A.C.O.N., the "bay area" being Tampa, Florida, where I partly grew up. B.A.C.O.N. consisted of mostly high school and college students, though there were some adults involved, too (including my dad, a casual participant in it).
Our Big Moment happened on March 30, 1974, when B.A.C.O.N. organized a demonstration in favor of the impeachment of Nixon to coincide with a visit to Tampa by vice president Ford that same day. The day came and we marched up and down a sidewalk with placards and chanted slogans in a relatively predictable fashion.
Being one of the organizers of the event, I was briefly interviewed by a reporter from The Tampa Tribune. The next day, in the March 31, 1974, edition of The Tribune, I was quoted by name in the paper and described as a "marshal" of the demonstration.
What I didn't know until last week, until I searched the newspaper, was that that protest (which I was virtually the face of, by dint of the fact that I was covered in The Tribune) had been infiltrated by F.B.I. agents and former military intelligence operatives who had tried to sabotage and wreck the group. They were doing this as part of the infamous Cointelpro (Counterintelligence) program, which undermined and did dirty tricks to various political organizations. Cointelpro had supposedly been discontinued in 1971, but it evidently was still going on -- and right under my teenage nose -- according to the FBI source interviewed by the Times.
As the Times reported in 1975:
"Another organization that Mr. Burton said the F.B.I. encouraged him and his two fellow operatives, both former military intelligence officers, to “get control of” was the Bay Area Citizens Opposed to Nixon, which conducted demonstrations in and around Tampa during the Nixon Administration's Watergate difficulties.
The group organized a protest last March when then Vice President Ford visited Tampa, he said, adding that shortly before the visit, he and the two other operatives met with bureau agents to plan for their participation in the demonstration."
Detail of a news story that appeared in the February 24, 1975, edition of The New York Times detailing the FBI's corrupt undermining of an anti-Nixon activist group.
As I read this, I thought, that's my group!
And then events from '74 started making sense that didn't make sense to me at the time. My memories shot back to an older activist who was apparently passing himself off as a Maoist and was very aggressive about having me work for his group. I didn't understand at the time why my dad was warning me off him, but now I know exactly why.
Yeah, I was just 16, but going on 30 in terms of politics. I already had had considerable experience as a student activist and community politico. I wrote for a Florida edition of Cesar Chavez's United Farmworkers Union newsletter in '74, was elected president of my high school student council in April 1974 (in a schoolwide vote of 2,500 students), was one of the s.c. presidents selected to meet legislators at the state capital in Tallahassee in '75. Even going back to the sixth grade in 1968, when I'd been inspired by the protests of the Chicago 8 that summer, I organized a schoolwide cafeteria boycott (in protest of bathroom restrictions) that was so effective that almost every student brought a bag lunch that week; that earned me a trip to the principal's office for a one-on-one tongue lashing.
So, in the university community of north Tampa in the first half of the 1970s, I was a known quantity as a local activist.
I'd always suspected I'd been on the government radar in some way in the Nixon years, but I didn't know that for a fact until I searched the Times' archive last week.
The questions in my mind just multiplied as I read the 1975 news story. Why didn't I know about this -- for almost 45 years -- until 2019? Was so-and-so a saboteur? Had my reputation been smeared at the time without me knowing about it? How did all this impact my later life?
I went through my old contemporaneous diaries and journals from that month and year. And, there it was, in blue ink in a loose leaf folder, plain as day under April 1974: "Ford demonstration + B.A.C.O.N.," amid other references to the spring of '74 like "Elected Prez," a reference to my election win; a speech I'd given; a prankish streaking across a college campus by me and my friends; induction into the National Honor Society.
Yes, I was a robust, American teenager exercising my Constitutional rights to the max in the Nixon era. But I had no idea until 2019 that my own rights had been illegally violated by a notorious gang of government crooks.
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TABOO
for January 14, 2019
China shows first pictures from the far side of the moon.
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BLACK COFFEE
for January 11, 2019
The window is wide open for a airline hijacking, now that air traffic controllers are not being paid.
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BLACK COFFEE
For January 3, 2019
By Paul Iorio
Seems there are as many potential Democratic contenders for president in 2020 as there are Netflix series, so let's sift through the dozens of potential candidates. (And remember: all but one will eventually fail.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders: It's probably safe to say that no Democrat generates the passion and heat that Sanders does among progressives. A primary win in New Hampshire might put him in pole position to rack up delegates on Super Tuesday around a month later. Southern states won't be able to blunt his momentum as they did in 2016 because the California primary happens in the first major round of contests this time -- for the first time in history -- and will likely give the delegate advantage to the bluest candidate.
Former vice president Joe Biden: He leads in polls now, but so did Jeb Bush in advance of primaries in '16. Biden may in fact be the best qualified candidate in the field, but that's what Dems used to frequently say about Hillary Clinton, too. With his neo-rat packish, pre-Beatles style, it's hard to imagine he'd be able to rally the millennials the way Sanders would. Definitely a passion gap among voters when it comes to him.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: As much as I hate to admit it, the Pocahontas moniker has stuck, perhaps fatally, like an arrow in her political jugular. (Whatever you might say about president Trump, he does have a knack for creating resonant nicknames.) But she's also a tad too hyper, like Julie Hagerty's character on a gambling jag in "Lost In America," or like a finicky eater. Not exactly burning up the early polls, either.
U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke: Let me be self-promoting here for a moment: I was apparently the very first to write that O'Rourke might be the Obama-ish dark horse of '20. (Check out my Facebook post of September 20, 2018, which preceded others on this point: Paul Iorio, writing (before anyone else) about O'Rourke's dark horse potential in '20. Now everyone is saying it. With all the elderly heavyweights in contention, Beto might stand out as -- dare I say it? -- Kennedyesque. Or, more to the point, Obama-esque.
Sen. Cory Booker: The possible resurfacing of past MeToo violations makes it unlikely he'll even get as far as Iowa.
Sen. Kamala Harris: Charismatic and bright, no doubt, though I don't sense any national groundswell for her. But don't underestimate her; she might well win her homestate primary in March, which could catapult her to the front ranks. In any event, she'd be a great veep for Bernie or Biden (or Beto).
Hillary Clinton: Don't. even. think. about. it.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: After the palace coup she is perceived to have pulled with Al Franken, and the animosity it created, she was lucky to have won another term in '18 -- and that's as lucky as she's likely to get.
Sen. Amy Klobuchur: Admirable, no doubt, but not enough pizzazz, fizz, electricity. Like uncarbonated soda pop.
Michael Bloomberg: He would almost certainly win a landslide victory on the upper east side of Manhattan.
Rep. Joe Kennedy III: He could very well become the greatest president of Brookline High's student council in history.
All those at the mayoral or cabinet level: don't waste your time.
How about ultra-dark horses who aren't being widely considered, but might actually make the grade? Here are ten that almost no one is talking about:
Michelle Obama: The runaway success of "Becoming" suggests genuine grassroots enthusiasm for her as an author and a personality. But as a candidate? Hmmm. Still, there are tantalizing running-mate possibilities: Obama/Oprah would surely turn out around 100% of the black female vote. Obama/Biden might ring a nostalgic bell for liberals. And she could of course team up with her husband for an Obama/Obama ticket (as he is not barred from running for the vice presidency).
Jerry Brown: Arguably the most effective governor of any state in recent memory. Age would be an issue, but he's only a few years older than Sanders and Biden.
Tom Hanks: An extremely likable progressive who could probably work across the aisle with everyone. Possibly the Democrats' Reagan. But does he have a political mind?
Al Franken: Hey, there have been more unlikely national comebacks (see: RMN in '68). And there's a lot of sympathy for Franken that's born of the belief that he was drummed from the Senate for no good reason. Plus, who better to take apart Trump on the debate stage?
Jimmy Carter: His stock has spiked since he left office -- and he seems to have the health of a man who might make it to 100, though, admittedly, his choice of a running mate would be the central issue in the campaign.
Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger: He has a quality essential to being president: spontaneous judgment that is unerring when it matters most, when lives are at stake. And he exudes a sense of Cronkite-ish fairness that might make him a unity candidate.
John Roberts: Hard to believe he'd ever leave his perch as chief justice of the Supreme Court, but his even-handed centrism might make him palatable to a wide swath of the electorate.
Bruce Springsteen: His candidacy could possibly be torpedoed by MeToo allegations that would likely emerge from decades past, but he sure has a wildly passionate (if aging) base that follows him musically and politically.
Al Gore: I know, he generates the heat of a San Francisco summer, but let's face it: we owe him! It's arguably his turn. It was his turn five turns ago! And he could re-emerge today, still one of the younger of the older candidates, as the Cassandra of global warming.
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BLACK COFFEE
paul iorio's pop culture and politics blog.
Paul Iorio is a writer/reporter/photographer whose work has appeared in almost all the major U.S. newspapers and in many magazines. He's almost certainly the only person on the planet who has conducted one-on-one exclusive interviews with ALL of the following people: Kate Bush, Roman Polanski, Fela Kuti and Richard Pryor.
Send all hate mail and love letters to pliorio@aol.com)
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taboo
for February 10, 2019
Thirty years ago on February 14, 2019, the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered a hit on novelist Salman Rushdie for writing "The Satanic Verses." In this mini-documentary, I look at how the book is viewed three decades later.
The Rushdie Fatwa at 30, a mini-documentary by Paul Iorio, 2019.
The Rushdie Fatwa at 30 -- now up on YouTube, too!
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BLACK COFFEE
for January 27, 2019
Braving the Crowds at the Kamala Harris Rally
Just got back from Kamala Harris' hometown rally in Oakland. Huge mob, though not quite the equal of Bernie's crowds. And her supporters are not nearly as friendly or inclusive as the supporters of Obama who gathered at the same place in '07, or as Bernie's. People actually seemed to be in a lousy mood (which was not the case at the Obama and Bernie rallies) despite the great weather. Anyway, I couldn't get into the town square where this took place, so I shot with my supertelephoto lens from a distance at the video screen.
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taboo
for January 16, 2019
When a Kooky Conspiracy Theory Turns Out to Be True
By Paul Iorio
Paul Iorio's contemporaneous journal from March 1974 noting his participation in an anti-Nixon rally that turned out to be targeted by corrupt government operatives.
Last week, I found out for the very first time that an event in my past life resembled a kooky conspiracy theory. Except for one thing: the kooky theory was actually founded in solid, documented fact.
Here's the story. I was idly searching newspaper search engines some days ago when I happened on a shocker, a story from February 24, 1975, in The New York Times, about an activist group I'd been a very public part of during the end of the Nixon era. The organization was called Bay Area Citizens Opposed to Nixon, with the catchy acronym B.A.C.O.N., the "bay area" being Tampa, Florida, where I partly grew up. B.A.C.O.N. consisted of mostly high school and college students, though there were some adults involved, too (including my dad, a casual participant in it).
Our Big Moment happened on March 30, 1974, when B.A.C.O.N. organized a demonstration in favor of the impeachment of Nixon to coincide with a visit to Tampa by vice president Ford that same day. The day came and we marched up and down a sidewalk with placards and chanted slogans in a relatively predictable fashion.
Being one of the organizers of the event, I was briefly interviewed by a reporter from The Tampa Tribune. The next day, in the March 31, 1974, edition of The Tribune, I was quoted by name in the paper and described as a "marshal" of the demonstration.
What I didn't know until last week, until I searched the newspaper, was that that protest (which I was virtually the face of, by dint of the fact that I was covered in The Tribune) had been infiltrated by F.B.I. agents and former military intelligence operatives who had tried to sabotage and wreck the group. They were doing this as part of the infamous Cointelpro (Counterintelligence) program, which undermined and did dirty tricks to various political organizations. Cointelpro had supposedly been discontinued in 1971, but it evidently was still going on -- and right under my teenage nose -- according to the FBI source interviewed by the Times.
As the Times reported in 1975:
"Another organization that Mr. Burton said the F.B.I. encouraged him and his two fellow operatives, both former military intelligence officers, to “get control of” was the Bay Area Citizens Opposed to Nixon, which conducted demonstrations in and around Tampa during the Nixon Administration's Watergate difficulties.
The group organized a protest last March when then Vice President Ford visited Tampa, he said, adding that shortly before the visit, he and the two other operatives met with bureau agents to plan for their participation in the demonstration."
Detail of a news story that appeared in the February 24, 1975, edition of The New York Times detailing the FBI's corrupt undermining of an anti-Nixon activist group.
As I read this, I thought, that's my group!
And then events from '74 started making sense that didn't make sense to me at the time. My memories shot back to an older activist who was apparently passing himself off as a Maoist and was very aggressive about having me work for his group. I didn't understand at the time why my dad was warning me off him, but now I know exactly why.
Yeah, I was just 16, but going on 30 in terms of politics. I already had had considerable experience as a student activist and community politico. I wrote for a Florida edition of Cesar Chavez's United Farmworkers Union newsletter in '74, was elected president of my high school student council in April 1974 (in a schoolwide vote of 2,500 students), was one of the s.c. presidents selected to meet legislators at the state capital in Tallahassee in '75. Even going back to the sixth grade in 1968, when I'd been inspired by the protests of the Chicago 8 that summer, I organized a schoolwide cafeteria boycott (in protest of bathroom restrictions) that was so effective that almost every student brought a bag lunch that week; that earned me a trip to the principal's office for a one-on-one tongue lashing.
So, in the university community of north Tampa in the first half of the 1970s, I was a known quantity as a local activist.
I'd always suspected I'd been on the government radar in some way in the Nixon years, but I didn't know that for a fact until I searched the Times' archive last week.
The questions in my mind just multiplied as I read the 1975 news story. Why didn't I know about this -- for almost 45 years -- until 2019? Was so-and-so a saboteur? Had my reputation been smeared at the time without me knowing about it? How did all this impact my later life?
I went through my old contemporaneous diaries and journals from that month and year. And, there it was, in blue ink in a loose leaf folder, plain as day under April 1974: "Ford demonstration + B.A.C.O.N.," amid other references to the spring of '74 like "Elected Prez," a reference to my election win; a speech I'd given; a prankish streaking across a college campus by me and my friends; induction into the National Honor Society.
Yes, I was a robust, American teenager exercising my Constitutional rights to the max in the Nixon era. But I had no idea until 2019 that my own rights had been illegally violated by a notorious gang of government crooks.
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taboo
for January 14, 2019
China shows first pictures from the far side of the moon.
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TABOO
for January 11, 2019
The window is wide open for a airline hijacking, now that air traffic controllers are not being paid.
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taboo
For January 3, 2019
By Paul Iorio
Seems there are as many potential Democratic contenders for president in 2020 as there are Netflix series, so let's sift through the dozens of potential candidates. (And remember: all but one will eventually fail.)
Sen. Bernie Sanders: It's probably safe to say that no Democrat generates the passion and heat that Sanders does among progressives. A primary win in New Hampshire might put him in pole position to rack up delegates on Super Tuesday around a month later. Southern states won't be able to blunt his momentum as they did in 2016 because the California primary happens in the first major round of contests this time -- for the first time in history -- and will likely give the delegate advantage to the bluest candidate.
Former vice president Joe Biden: He leads in polls now, but so did Jeb Bush in advance of primaries in '16. Biden may in fact be the best qualified candidate in the field, but that's what Dems used to frequently say about Hillary Clinton, too. With his neo-rat packish, pre-Beatles style, it's hard to imagine he'd be able to rally the millennials the way Sanders would. Definitely a passion gap among voters when it comes to him.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: As much as I hate to admit it, the Pocahontas moniker has stuck, perhaps fatally, like an arrow in her political jugular. (Whatever you might say about president Trump, he does have a knack for creating resonant nicknames.) But she's also a tad too hyper, like Julie Hagerty's character on a gambling jag in "Lost In America," or like a finicky eater. Not exactly burning up the early polls, either.
U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke: Let me be self-promoting here for a moment: I was apparently the very first to write that O'Rourke might be the Obama-ish dark horse of '20. (Check out my Facebook post of September 20, 2018, which preceded others on this point: Paul Iorio, writing (before anyone else) about O'Rourke's dark horse potential in '20. Now everyone is saying it. With all the elderly heavyweights in contention, Beto might stand out as -- dare I say it? -- Kennedyesque. Or, more to the point, Obama-esque.
Sen. Cory Booker: The possible resurfacing of past MeToo violations makes it unlikely he'll even get as far as Iowa.
Sen. Kamala Harris: Charismatic and bright, no doubt, though I don't sense any national groundswell for her. But don't underestimate her; she might well win her homestate primary in March, which could catapult her to the front ranks. In any event, she'd be a great veep for Bernie or Biden (or Beto).
Hillary Clinton: Don't. even. think. about. it.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: After the palace coup she is perceived to have pulled with Al Franken, and the animosity it created, she was lucky to have won another term in '18 -- and that's as lucky as she's likely to get.
Sen. Amy Klobuchur: Admirable, no doubt, but not enough pizzazz, fizz, electricity. Like uncarbonated soda pop.
Michael Bloomberg: He would almost certainly win a landslide victory on the upper east side of Manhattan.
Rep. Joe Kennedy III: He could very well become the greatest president of Brookline High's student council in history.
All those at the mayoral or cabinet level: don't waste your time.
How about ultra-dark horses who aren't being widely considered, but might actually make the grade? Here are ten that almost no one is talking about:
Michelle Obama: The runaway success of "Becoming" suggests genuine grassroots enthusiasm for her as an author and a personality. But as a candidate? Hmmm. Still, there are tantalizing running-mate possibilities: Obama/Oprah would surely turn out around 100% of the black female vote. Obama/Biden might ring a nostalgic bell for liberals. And she could of course team up with her husband for an Obama/Obama ticket (as he is not barred from running for the vice presidency).
Jerry Brown: Arguably the most effective governor of any state in recent memory. Age would be an issue, but he's only a few years older than Sanders and Biden.
Tom Hanks: An extremely likable progressive who could probably work across the aisle with everyone. Possibly the Democrats' Reagan. But does he have a political mind?
Al Franken: Hey, there have been more unlikely national comebacks (see: RMN in '68). And there's a lot of sympathy for Franken that's born of the belief that he was drummed from the Senate for no good reason. Plus, who better to take apart Trump on the debate stage?
Jimmy Carter: His stock has spiked since he left office -- and he seems to have the health of a man who might make it to 100, though, admittedly, his choice of a running mate would be the central issue in the campaign.
Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger: He has a quality essential to being president: spontaneous judgment that is unerring when it matters most, when lives are at stake. And he exudes a sense of Cronkite-ish fairness that might make him a unity candidate.
John Roberts: Hard to believe he'd ever leave his perch as chief justice of the Supreme Court, but his even-handed centrism might make him palatable to a wide swath of the electorate.
Bruce Springsteen: His candidacy could possibly be torpedoed by MeToo allegations that would likely emerge from decades past, but he sure has a wildly passionate (if aging) base that follows him musically and politically.
Al Gore: I know, he generates the heat of a San Francisco summer, but let's face it: we owe him! It's arguably his turn. It was his turn five turns ago! And he could re-emerge today, still one of the younger of the older candidates, as the Cassandra of global warming.
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for January 3, 2019
Just up on blogspot: my take on the 2020 hopefuls:
Iorio Sizes Up the 2020 Contenders.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for October 4, 2018
NEW: October 4, 2018: Here's the premiere of Paul Iorio's new song and video, "Sing," sort of R.E.M.'s "Stand" meets The Archies' "Sugar Sugar." Enjoy!
"Sing," a new song and video by Paul Iorio.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for October 4, 2018
NEW: Get ready for some brand new power pop and folk pop by Paul Iorio! Stay tuned.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for June 7, 2018
Here's my first real movie! (At the age of 60 in 2018, I finally have the tools to make one!)
It's called "The Lost Ferlinghetti Tapes," a mini-documentary on Lawrence Ferlinghetti that I'm thrilled and honored to say that The Los Angeles Review of Books just published minutes ago. Many thanks to the Los Angeles Review of Books for putting this on their platform.
"The Lost Ferlinghetti Tapes," a mini-documentary by Paul Iorio.
"The Lost Ferlinghetti Tapes" was produced, directed, written, narrated and edited by Paul Iorio, 2018. All interview excerpts are from Paul Iorio's one-on-one interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti on August 29, 2000. Enjoy!
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
For March 24, 2018
NEW: Here's a video I shot of me talking with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein about her assault weapons ban bill a few hours ago.
Iorio Interviews U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, March 24, 2018
Sen. Feinstein talks with Paul Iorio.
And if you missed the San Francisco "March for Our Lives" rally this afternoon, here's a four minute video featuring original clips I shot of the event (including that chat I had with Sen. Feinstein).
Exclusive look at the San Francisco rally, 3/24/2018, by Paul Iorio.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for February 23, 2018
I always swore I'd never release the tape of my interview with Nanette Fabray, who died today at age 97, until after her death, so here it is. As we talked, in the midsummer of 2000 in Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, about her award-winning career working with the likes of Fred Astaire and Sid Caesar, she suddenly got rather personal with me as my tape recorder, which was right in front of her, whirred on. (And after the recorder was off, she took it a bit further.)
Hey, I was flattered. (At the time, she was a vibrant septuagenarian, but I have a policy as a journalist to never sleep with sources or the subjects of my stories, so I didn't take her up on it.)
What a life story she had! Overcoming deafness to win awards and to work with icons of the big and small screens. (She talked to me in-depth about her sequence in "The Show Boat" with Astaire, who put her through punishing rehearsals that had to be done on her knees! Ouch!)
Anyway, here, for the first time, is a excerpt of our conversation. You can hear here what a warm, passionate and enthusiastic woman she was! And a great talent, as well! Sad to hear she's gone.
Click here to hear Nanette Fabray getting personal with Paul Iorio!
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for January 16, 2018
JUST UP ON HUFFPOST: I expose Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" in a fresh light.
PAUL IORIO on "FIRE AND FURY"
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for December 27, 2017
JUST UP ON HUFFPOST: My latest piece -- on when Trump will likely attack North Korea.
NEW ON HUFFPOST: WHEN TRUMP WILL LIKELY ATTACK NORTH KOREA.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for December 14, 2017
JUST IN: my latest article for HuffPost, my memories of Pat DiNizio and of how my articles in the fall of 1985 convinced the Hein brothers, who had been on the fence, to sign the band to a recording contract with Enigma Records! HUFFPOST: Remembering Pat DiNizio, by Paul Iorio.
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for November 3, 2017
NEW! My latest story for HuffPost, revealing that Dustin Hoffman assaulted both Anne Bancroft and Katharine Harris. But, as I note, his behavior was typical of an era when rules about sex were different.
JUST UP ON HUFFPOST: DUSTIN HOFFMAN'S "ASSAULTS" -- IN CONTEXT.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for November 1, 2017
"Fight Back!" is the next album by Paul Iorio, slated for release in December 2017. Here's the lead track, "Fight Back!" PAUL IORIO'S "FIGHT BACK!"
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for April 20, 2017
JUST IN:
JUST UP ON HUFFPOST: PAUL ON RADIOHEAD.
A Close Listen to Radiohead's 2017 Tour
Fans buying Radiohead merch in Berkeley last Tuesday (April 18). [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
The current Radiohead tour is hitting only nine North American cities, but the band still managed to squeeze in two consecutive concerts in Berkeley, in between Coachella appearances. Both were knock-outs.
I was amazed at how they now have the stature and resonance of bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead for peeps under 40. Their classic tracks have become pop culture landmarks whose opening notes can trigger hysteria, or at least loud enthusiasm.
Those, like me, who heard both nights heard eight of "OK Computer"'s twelve songs -- a fitting tribute for the twentieth birthday of that landmark album.
Students from the University of California at Berkeley, where the Greek Theater is located, swarmed the hills above the theater (where I heard the show) in almost unprecedented numbers. (Only Hozier and Tame Impala have drawn as many.) And they were jazzed, smiling and joking and laughing like people who hadn't laughed in a while. This -- two sold-out gigs that could be heard full blast for free in the springtime hills above the Greek -- was a treat, and everyone knew it.
Night Two (April 18) was even better than the excellent (but rainy) Night One (April 17). The band served up musical caviar like "Paranoid Android," arguably the greatest melody from any band to have emerged in the post-Beatles era. (The "rain down" part cries out for adaptation and expansion by a symphony orchestra.) Plus, an exquisite "Street Spirit," the band's "Sound of Silence"; and a "There There" that Jonny Greenwood, on fire, turned into a flameball.
And then there was the astonishing final encore, "Karma Police," which had a Cobainish cultish quality. I've never seen a crowd enjoy and need a particular song more in recent memory. Even after the band finished, thousands spontaneously sang "I lost myself, I lost myself."
Peaks were everywhere. "Climbing Up the Walls" made me feel like I was in the middle of a sci-fi horror flick. "The National Anthem" sounded like a song you hear while you're dreaming. "Separator"'s melody caught me by surprise on second listen.
And when Thom Yorke muttered "oh shit" during encore "Give Up the Ghost," Greenwood apparently instantly turned the audio sample into a tape loop, though it was hard to tell at the time what exactly had happened. (Btw, contrary to published rumors, the band did NOT perform "Creep." I have the entire concert on tape, so I know.)
The best new ones, from last year's "A Moon Shaped Pool" album, were "Ful Stop" and the evocative "The Numbers."
On the first night, they wasted no time getting to some of the gold on "OK Computer," bringing out "Lucky" with a whisper that turned into an operatic roar early in the set. Played at a slightly slower pace, it seemed to fly like some sort of prehistoric bird.
Other highlights of the first night included "Everything in Its Right Place," which always has the feel of a cozy overnight transatlantic flight (on an airline other than United, of course!); "Fake Plastic Trees," which never fails to get me choked up; and the uplifting (and rarely played) "The Tourist."
The last time I heard them was at the same venue eleven years ago, when they were road-testing material that would later appear on "In Rainbows." It was a limited-edition tour that I caught twice. At that time, "OK Computer" was a mere nine years old and the word Obama was unknown to most Americans. At those concerts, a star of the set was "Four Minute Warning," the best of the new ones, though oddly later consigned to a bonus disc and never subsequently played live. And "House of Cards" was already embraced as an encore and had everyone clapping along, but is now almost never performed (though they did play it on the second night here). .
In those eleven years, Radiohead has become an even better, tighter live group that has weeded out all irrelevant notes and dead patches. They even creatively filled up the empty space after their opening act with fascinating pre-recorded experimental and atmospheric music (and kept the wait to a half hour).
The opening act was Dudu Tassa and the Kuwaitis. At their best, they sounded like a combination of R.E.M. and Cem Karaka; at their worst, like the Gypsy Kings. Thoroughly enjoyable set that mixed various middle eastern musical forms with modern rock. (Tass should try a cover of "Paranoid Android.")
Radiohead's U.S. tour ends tomorrow night (April 21) at Coachella; the European leg begins in June.
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for February 2, 2017
Berkeley on Fire Last Night
Sproul Plaza, on the Berkeley campus, on fire on Wednesday night. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
The Berkeley protests against the alt-right's Milo Yiannopoulos -- who offers up a gay version of Ann Coulter on the college lecture circuit -- started out peaceful, but then got violent, scary and volatile on Wednesday night.
From ground zero, where I watched it unfold, it looked like protesters were going to burn down the student center building at the University of California at Berkeley at one point.
That's where Yiannopoulos was planning to speak, at the invitation of the student Republicans, and where he had arrived, amidst loud boos, just before six p.m.
It was around six that the relatively peaceful demonstration -- full of chanting and inventive signs up to that point -- turned violent.
That's when a group of a few dozen, dressed in black, faces covered, stormed the building, dramatically knocking aside metal barricades, smashing windows and lighting fires. The police did very little to stop it, allowing them to blow off steam.
And they started shooting fireworks up at police officers positioned on the second floor balcony of the student union. Fires were set.
At 6:18, after around twenty minutes of violence, there was an announcment by a police officer over a loud speaker or bullhorn: "Attention every one, the event has been shut down."
There were big cheers from the crowd.
"Immediately disperse," said the amplified cop.
"This is an unlawful assembly."
Some demonstrators began to file out of Sproul Plaza. But at 6:26, things took a bad turn. First, there were more extremely loud fireworks that sounded like a bomb, causing people to run in panic and almost trample others.
And then a huge fire lit up Sproul Plaza. (The anarchist contingent burned some sort of lighting equipment.) It truly looked like the building that Yiannopoulos had entered was about to go up in flames.
I asked a police officer whether the fire department was on its way to put out the fire, and he said, "No, it's not safe."
Indeed, it truly wasn't. I've been in protests throughout the world and this was, in many ways, one of the most frightening.
Earlier in the protest, things were peaceful. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Sproul, filled with smoke from fires. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
The crowd grew to around 1,500 people as the protest gained steam. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
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THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for December 1, 2016
The Doobie Brothers Kick Off the Holiday Season with a Freebie
The Doobie Brothers playing "Black Water" on Tuesday. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
The Doobie Brothers set up on California Street in downtown San Francisco for a free outdoor show at twilight on Tuesday.
And they didn't just play a few numbers; they pretty much ran through their greatest hits and then some. At full volume at rush hour in the financial district. And those who got there even slightly early were able to watch from a couple yards away (as I did).
The band performed as a full-bodied six-piece that included not only core original Doobies Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston, but keyboardist extraordinaire Bill Payne (who co-founded Little Feat with Lowell George) and guitar wizard John McFee (who has performed on such classic rock albums as "My Aim is True" and "Mars Hotel").
It was all part of the tenth annual tree-lighting ceremony at 555 California Street. (The concert happened in the plaza just off the street.)
The Doobies took the stage at around six p.m. and wasted no time getting to the hits. "Black Water" had a marvelous folk singalong quality, with McFee, on fiddle, outdoing the original recording; "Listen to the Music" (with NFL Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott joining them onstage) was irresistible; "Long Train Running" was hooky (and that iconic riff was done with acoustic guitars, surprisingly); and Take Me in Your Arms" just simply erupted with energy.
Plus, they did a couple Christmas songs, most notably "Joy to the World."
Afterwards, the gigantic holiday tree (from Shasta, they said) was lighted. Hundreds of people -- and plenty of wowed children -- overflowed from the plaza to the sidewalk to take a look.
The event, dubbed the 555 California Street Tree Lighting, also featured performances by the Dick Bright Orchestra and Pacific Boy Choir, among others.
Original Doobies Patrick Simmons (l) and Tom Johnston. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Patrick Simmons croons for downtown San Francisco! [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
The holiday tree at 555 California, seconds after it was lighted. [photo by Paul Iorio]
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for November 15, 2016
I Predicted Trump's Election -- and His Impeachment!
My Journal of the Plague Year
On May 10, 2016, I predicted both a Trump victory -- and his eventual impeachment
Repeatedly, over the past sixteen months, I warned that Donald Trump would be elected president of the U.S.
"Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States -- and the fourth to face impeachment," I wrote in an electronically-dated comment on Facebook on May 10, 2016, around six months before the election. (Scroll through my timeline at Facebook.com/pauliorio.)
And nearly six-months later, days before the election, I called the electoral tally:
On November 4, 2016, I predicted unrest would follow Trump's election.
No one else agreed with me.
"Not happening," wrote a good friend in an email. It'll be a Hillary landslide, wrote journalistic colleagues on social media.
And, of course, almost all pollsters and pundits gave no credence to my prognostications.
I also predicted his election on my website The Daily Digression. And in my blogs published by The Huffington Post, I reported an alarming lack of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton in the very blue San Francisco Bay Area ("Bernie Comes to Town and Doesn't Mention Hillary," October 17, 2016; "Campaign 2016: The View from the Epicenter of Progressivism," February 26, 2016 ).
In fact, as far back as July 7, 2015 -- that's 2015 -- I wrote "a president Trump is not out of the question."
From 2015, on Facebook.
And I stepped up my warnings in the final week of the campaign.
A tell-tale sign, I noted, was that Clinton was still trying to seal the deal in Michigan days before the election. That was like Trump trying to nail down Texas.
Another sign: only 30,000 people were drawn to Clinton's election-eve mega-rally in Philly with Jon Bon Jovi, the Obamas and Springsteen performing on his home turf. As I noted with original research, Springsteen drew 80,000 for John Kerry in Madison in 2004.
Springsteen drew 80,000 for Kerry in the mid-west, but only 30,000 for Clinton on his home turf? Red flag.
How did I catch what almost everyone else missed?
I paid closer attention to the polling of likely voters rather than of all voters.
I saw the enthusiasm of Trump supporters (and the lack of enthusiasm among Clinton backers) as an indicator that his voters would probably turn out in greater numbers.
And I factored in the wisdom of Yeats: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with a passionate intensity."
But mostly it was just my own political analysis that steered me right.
For example, I thought that Sen. Tim Kaine, as able as he is, was not the running mate to sop up the Bernie gravy of independent voters. On July 22, 2016, I wrote this:
As I noted, the southern swing state strategy was such a 20th century approach to a 21st century problem.
The only way to win was to put Sanders on the ticket to galvanize indie voters, I wrote.
In May 2016, I was already writing that the Dems had lost their best opportunity to beat Trump.
Another thing that tipped me off: my analyses of the vote totals after various primaries. Here's what I wrote on May 3, after the Indiana primary:
And, finally, I caught a more ambiguous whiff of the zeitgeist during the extraordinarily odd, overly emotional final game of the World Series, days before the election, when things were just starting to shift permanently for Trump. It seemed to me that America was expressing all that emotion for more than just a ball game. Here's what I wrote:
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A Collection of Paul Iorio's Original Photography, 1976 to 2016.
THE DAILY DIGRESSION
for October 16, 2016
Bernie Comes to Town and Doesn't Mention Hillary?
Bernie Sanders, after being mobbed by fans, gets into a Mazda on Grove Street in San Francisco on Saturday. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Did Sen. Bernie Sanders really not mention Hillary Clinton by name in a speech in San Francisco on Saturday?
He did repeatedly mention Donald Trump, disparagingly, to robust cheers from a crowd at the headquarters of a local political candidate, Jane Kim. And he did mention Kim, a California state senate candidate for whom he'd come to campaign. But he made no direct reference to Hillary (unless the loud crowd drowned out a stray remark).
There are several possible reasons for the omission. First, Clinton can't lose California on a bet, so he's not needed for her here. Second, her name is likely not a big applause line among these lefties. (In the crowd, I saw no "I'm With Her" signs, but did see a couple Jill Stein buttons.) Or perhaps there's still bad vibes between the two former rivals.
The real reason is probably that he was there specifically for Kim (who, by the way, introduced Sanders by mistakenly saying, "It's an honor to endorse [Bernie]...").
After Kim corrected herself, Sanders took the mike and offered up vintage Bernie-isms about Trump, income equality and affordable health care for all.
"Trump shows... you can be a multi-billionaire, you can have mansions all over the world, but if you...know how to use a corrupt system, you don't have to pay a nickel in federal income taxes," he said, to deafening cheers, whoops and howls.
"When we stand together, and do not allow the Trumps of the world to try and divide us up," we triumph, Sanders said, paraphrasing Kim.
And then more red meat for the deep-blue crowd: "If we were a poor country, yes, I could understand people sleeping out on the street," Sanders said. "But, brothers and sisters, we are not a poor country."
Most in the crowd acted like it was a Bernie rally at the height of primary season. Outside the gathering, a vendor sold Sanders t-shirts. Inside, there were leftover Bernie signs from the campaign.
And it was almost like a scene from "A Hard Day's Night" when Sanders was surrounded by wildly enthusiastic supporters as he exited the venue and tried to make his way across a sidewalk to his modest Mazda at the curb.
I was around an inch away from him, and wanted to mention that I'd interviewed him way back in January 1989 for a newspaper article, wanted to ask whether he might consider heading the Fed or Treasury in a Hillary regime. (Imagine a Socialist signing all our money!)
But I couldn't get a word or a selfie in edgewise as he made it through the aggressive crowd.
Sanders had no bodyguard, no tinted windows, no Lincoln Towncar or limo. And here he was at the tatty edge of the hard-luck Tenderloin district.
When he finally got to the car's passenger seat, he seemed winded and even rolled his eyes as if he had been truly taken aback by the intensity of the crowd.
He drove away, a few fans trailing his car, which briefly stopped at a light at Market Street. From the open window, he waved goodbye and drove off to Mission Street, to another rally, just another Mazda in the mid-day traffic.
The Sinatra of Socialism, last Saturday. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
A forest of fingers on phones as Bernie appears. [photo credit: Paul Iorio]
Outside the event, on Market Street, a vendor sells Bernie t-shirts while a person completely covered in fabric appears. [photo credit; Paul Iorio]
