Summer is arriving late this year in New Orleans. It usually commences in the first week of May. The delay is okay by me. We’ll be sweltering and sweating soon enough to make highs in the mid-80’s look paradisical.

The featured image could be called Edward Hopper Meets The Clownfish. I’ve had Jeff Landry and his mini-me Liz Murrill on my mind all week. Boy Blue has been bloviating about redistricting, which essentially took us back to where we were in 2024 with one blue district in a sea of Gret Stet red. Attorney General Murrill threatened New Orleans city officials with removal from office for not bending the knee on the court clerk mishigas. Holy empty threat, Batman. I’ll have more on this moron in the coming weeks.

It’s primary election day in the Gret Stet of Louisiana. I plan to vote in the House race even though the votes will be discarded on orders of The Clownfish. The senate race is boring: Bill Cassidy seems on course to lose to one of his GOP challengers. They, in turn, will hold the seat in the general election. The feckless incumbent is probably the least bad Republican candidate but he deserves to lose for enabling Bobby Junior.

I’ve had Rod Stewart’s early work on my mind since writing Ratbags & Gladrags. His politics suck but he had a great musical run from 1968-1973 including this week’s theme song.

Rod Stewart and Ron Wood wrote True Blue for Stewart’s 1972 album, Never A Dull Moment. A dull moment sounds good in our chaotic times. I’m tired of waking up every morning and wondering what stupid shit the Kaiser of Chaos has done or said overnight.

We have two versions of True Blue for your listening pleasure: The studio OG and Faces live.

There are oodles of songs with blue in the title. Here are two of them:

Now that we’ve heard Belinda Carlisle sing with the late great Pat DiNizio, it’s time to Go-Go to our second act.

Ted Turner, RIP: He was a bona fide American original. His politics were simultaneously far right and far left without entering Horseshoe Person territory. The NYT obit is a masterpiece of the genre reminding us what a fascinating life Turner lived until his death at age 87.

He’s best known as the founder and creator of CNN. As far as I’m concerned that’s secondary to his founding of TCM. Turner went from colorizing black and white movies to preserving them for the ages. Thanks, Ted. I might never have heard of Eddie Muller without you.

The Gray House: I saw executive producer Morgan Freeman plug this 8-part series on The Last Word but took a circuitous route to watching it. As part of TCM’s Roger Corman month, we watched Piranha, which was John Sayles’ first screenplay. I checked IMDB to see what Sayles was up to recently and learned that he was the co-writer and creator of The Gray House.

Shorter Adrastos: We went from flesh-eating fish to Jefferson Davis. Was he a human piranha? Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Gray House tells the story of a group of Union spies who penetrated the confederate presidential mansion. It’s not your usual group of spies as it includes Southern belles, a high-class prostitute, a Scottish baker, and enslaved people. It’s NOT  a white savior film as the Black characters have agency: They’re the heroes of the story.

The cast is terrific. What’s not to love about a series starring Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Vereen, and Rob Morrow? The cast is loaded with British actors, which is why the Southern accents are quite good. Brits are always better at accents than Americans.

The most villainous Confederate character is played by Paul Anderson of Peaky Blinders fame. In that classic series, he played Arthur Shelby whose mantra was: DON’T FUCK WITH THE PEAKY FUCKING BLINDERS.

Here’s the trailer:

I’m known for yelling the words anachronism or wrong when watching a historical drama. I rarely felt the need to do so with The Gray House. That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

Grading Time: I give The Gray House 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos Grade of B+. It could rate higher upon a rewatch.

The last word of our second act goes to Carly Simon:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: In The Gray House, Rob Morrow played Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin who was from New Orleans. I’m not bragging about that, just stating a fact. Traitors aren’t my jam.

Your Basic Basie: Let’s blow things up with this track from The Atomic Basie.

Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie?

The Best Of Uncle Lawrence: Here’s the aforementioned Last Word segment with Morgan Freeman:

Classic Movie Trailer: I’m never sure whether to call Gone With The Wind the best bad movie or the worst great movie ever made. It’s a mixed bag but remains irresistible despite its egregious Lost Causer-ism. I *am* sure that it was the first film shown on TCM.

Grading Time: I’m deducting points for the movie’s racism, so I give GWTW 4 stars and an Adrastos grade of A-. It’s a stone cold albeit problematical classic.

Saturday GIF Horse: Here’s Paul Anderson in his natural habitat as Arthur Fucking Shelby.

Toon Time: Res ipsa loquitur, the thing speaks for itself.

Joni Mitchell sings us out of the segment:

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

Saturday Closer: We opened with a Rod Stewart song, let’s close with one. I was lucky enough to see Faces in their prime. Lucky then, old now.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Daisy Head, Mary-Louise Parker, Amethyst Davis, and Paul Anderson in The Gray House.