Dirty Money

 

Big Frank watched three episodes of "Dirty Money"  last night. It's s a Netflix original television series that focuses on corporate corruption, securities fraud and other tales on acquiring and moving dirty money. Its producer is Alex Gibney, a pro at this type of documentary having done some 48 in total. Gibney approaches documentary in the expository style like Ken Burns- eliciting testimony from subjects along with voice-over narration.

The series includes two years of programming that came out in 2018 and 2020. Each season has 8 episodes of one hour each. The first year focusses on such areas as the Volkswagon emissions scandal, payday loans, Donald Trump/confidence man, and then in the second season Wells Fargo's fraudulent banking practices, Prime Minister Najib Razak theft of Malaysian funds, slumlord Jared Kusher and more.

"Dirty Money” shows us plenty of crooks, but also shows how it is all too often the systems or lack thereof that allow those people to thrive. The price we pay is huge in terms of the millions of people impacted along with the environmental degradation. This is a current that runs through all the episodes and ties it together as firmly as the corruption.

Big Frank's one reservation about packing so much corruption on one series of films that many, like Big Frank, binge watch, is that en masse it leaves the viewer feeling helpless to oppose such corruption displayed on such a massive scale.

"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan is one of 13 books nominated this year for the Booker Prize. The Irish author, Cleaire Keegan,  is primarily known as a short story writer and this book, at 128 pages can be classified as a novella. Perhaps because of its condensed length it packs an even bigger punch. Reviews have been generally positive with many remarking on the moral storytelling as being all the more impactful for taking place with a Christmas backdrop. The heroism demonstrated by Bill Furlong is understated and because of this perhaps comes across more powerfully.

The Times Literary Supplement wrote, "Keegan knows how to weigh and pace her sentences, and her fine judgement delivers many subtle pleasures ... [she] fully exploits the power of understatement." We follow the life story of William Furlong from his orphaned childhood through his growth, marriage, and family life. When he displays the bravery that brings into focus the moral clarity of this novella we are not surprised, but the quiet understated way in which Keegan relays it makes it all the more impactful.

The book is short and can be read in less than a couple of hours. It will stay with you for a much longer time. It's a rare book with an even rarer moral punch.

 

The Wire - Songs

 "Way Down in the Hole" is a song written by the singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It was included on his 1987 album Franks Wild Years, which was later made into a stage production. The song was used as the theme for HBO's The Wire. Tom Waits' version of the song was used in season two of the five-season show. You can listen to Waits' version below.

 

A different recording was used each season. Versions, in series order, were recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama, Tom Waits, The Neville Brothers, DoMaJe, and Steve Earle. The version for season four was performed by Baltimore teenagers Ivan Ashford, Markel Steele, Cameron Brown, Tariq Al-Sabir and Avery Bargasse.

Here's Steve Earle singing his version live. By the way Earle appeared in the series as a very sympathetic drug counselor who strove mightily to get Bub off drugs.

Big Frank is currently in the process of watching all five seasons (on season five now). The interweaving of separate plots lines, characters, and themes over the five seasons in masterfully done. The characters are well rounded and go through growth and disintegration as befitting the lines in any real person's life. Baltimore is the backdrop to the series that focusses primarily on the police departments and a wide cast of cops running from those on the beat up to higher ranking officers and commissions as well. Interwoven throughout are stories of the dock workers, the political landscape, the educational system, and the newspaper.

Here is an excellent review of the series from its fifth season. Surprisingly the program garnered few awards while it was still running. Some attribute that to its dense plot line and the fact that it was set in Baltimore rather than LA. However, now, looking back, it is solidly listed among the best television series ever and often in the top two or three.

Today's Forecast -- HOT

Big Frank extends apologies for the lapse in postings. Many may have wondered, "What up, Big Frank; why no postings for so long?" Well, dawgs... I ain't got no good reply to that." Let's just say that certain habits have yet to be firmly in place. Summer is upon us. The heat is sizzling all of Europe and the weather map of the U.S., I kid you not, has no clouds on it - for the entire lower 48 - not one cloud!! The weather man also put one giant sun over the entire country - we gonna bake!

However, not to worry; Big Frank got AC! However, those without AC - some 10% to 15% of American homes -- they have to figure out a way to keep cool during this heat wave. According to Gregory Wellenius, a professor of environmental health, some 5,600 people die per year in the U.S. from excessive heat. The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees. When the temperature outside exceeds that, cooling the body becomes very difficult. “In an average year in the U.S., heat kills more people than any other type of extreme weather,” says Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. An article in The Scientific American from last year enumerated how deadly such heat can be by citing fatalities from last year's Northwest heatwave:  "Hundreds of people died in the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, according to estimates: there were at least 486 deaths in British Columbia, 116 in Oregon and 78 in Washington (by comparison, hurricanes have killed an average total of 46 people a year in the U.S. over the past 30 years)."

Not to make light of the threat of heat, but rather out of an urge to keep cool as cool as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, George Carlin, there is this.