The pocketless pool table in the Man Ray painting is a carom billiards table. It’s a variation that was popular in France when Ray lived there during the inter-war period. Never played it, never heard of it until I consulted with Mr. Google. One could even say I was out of pocket on that information…

This week’s theme song was written by Graham Parker for GP & the Rumour’s 1980 album, The Up Escalator. Jimmy Iovine’s production is unpopular with some, but this musical contrarian likes it. There’s nothing wrong with applying a coat of polish to a raspy voiced singer’s music.

Love Without Greed has terrific lyrics and is a helluva way to close out an album. We have two versions for your listening pleasure: the studio original and GP solo live.

If you’re still feeling greedy for love or some such shit, here’s a blues rock song followed by a country tune.

I suppose you could call the Tom T. Hall tune a tears in your whisky, not beer song. Bottoms up.

We begin our second act in earnest with a trip to the island nation formerly known as Saint-Domingue.

Hating On Haiti: That would be the French government who have been effectively extorting money from the impoverished island nation for many years. The money goes to compensate former slave owners and their descendants. I am not making this up. I wish I were.

We knock the NYT quite often at First Draft, so some praise is in order. Their Haiti ransom project series is a great piece of reporting. Well done, Gray Lady.

It would have been cheaper for the Haitian government to make like Becker and Fagan:

That didn’t sound right. Becker and Fagan’s marriage was strictly musical. They did, however, separate for many years.

I nearly forgot to post Carlos Santana’s ode to the hero of the Haitian slave uprising that became a revolution:

Pulp Fiction TV: We’re watching three outstanding crime fiction teevee series, so I thought I’d chime in here. Why the hell not? It’s as oddsy and sodsy as anything else.

We Own This City is the new HBO series from David Simon and my countryman George Pelecanos. Simon calls it a coda to The Wire. It shows the dark and corrupt side of the Baltimore Police Department. It features a great performance by Jon Bernthal as crooked but still likable Sgt. Wayne Jenkins.

Here’s the trailer:

Grading time: 4 stars and an Adrastos grade of A-. It concludes on Monday night.

Bosch Legacy features the continuing adventures of former LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch. He’s now a private eye, his daughter Maddy is a baby cop, and Honey Chandler is still a bad ass lawyer. It’s showing on Amazon’s Freevee channel, which means there are a few short commercials. It’s worth it.

Here’s the trailer:

Grading time: 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos grade of B+. It’s still in progress.

Under The Banner Of Heaven is showing on FX then on Hulu the next day. We call it the Mormon murder show. Andrew Garfield excels as conflicted LDS detective, Jeb Pyre. It shows two sides of the LDS coin: the modern and the feral. It’s very intense so I recommend you watch one episode at a time.

Here’s the trailer:

Grading time: 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos grade of B+. It’s still in progress.

The last word of our second act goes to Talking Heads:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Speaking of Cleveland:

Movie List: Another day, another character actor list. Claude Rains wasn’t just any character actor: he was one of the best ever. He was in so many fine films that I was obliged to omit two of his Bette Davis co-starrers. Oh well, what the hell.

My Top Ten Favorite Claude Rains Movies

1.     Casablanca
2.     Notorious
3.     Lawrence Of Arabia
4.     Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
5.     The Adventures Of Robin Hood
6.      Deception
7.      The Unsuspected
8.      The Wolf Man
9.      Here Comes Mr. Jordan
10.    The Invisible Man

Let’s stay invisible and listen to The Breeders and Queen. The second song is a Big Kim Deal:

We do a lot of time traveling together every Saturday. It’s time to set the Wayback Machine:

Best Of Johnny: Steve Martin has been a star so long that it’s easy to forget how revolutionary his early act was. The first time I saw him, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. The second time, I realized I was in the presence of a goofy genius.

Here’s Martin’s first appearance on The Tonight Show:

Note the absence of white hair and a white suit. This is some early shit, y’all.

Saturday GIF Horse: The special effects in the 1933 version of The Invisible Man are primitive but fun. Hit it, Claude.

Tweet Of The Week: This is one of the funniest things I saw all week. We all need a break after dealing with the vast indifference of heaven.

See Ryker the dog train. See Ryker flunk out. See Adrastos laugh.

Ryker gave his all before he flunked out of service dog training school, and I can't stop laughing!
😂😂😂

I still think he's the best boy though 🥰

Double H Canine Training Academy pic.twitter.com/LabFv4YWOx

— Jess 🌻 (@jessi_asli) May 23, 2022

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Classic: The Boz Scaggs Dozen was a big hit with our readers. It’s still Boz time at First Draft:

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Titus Welliver and Jamie Hector in the original Bosch. Hector has only done a cameo in Bosch Legacy thus far but he’s one of the principals in We Own This City: