Five Bullets 8.8.25
Hiroshima, Taxi Driver, Oscar the cat & more
Good Morning and Happy Friday Friends,
The weather has been beautiful here in New York City this week with temperatures around 80℉ and mostly sunny. The cooler nights remind me that Fall isn’t too far behind.
I was working on a post that I wasn’t able to finish before today’s newsletter so it will have to wait until next week!
Here’s Five Bullets capturing my attention this week:
Published in August 1946, John Hersey’s Hiroshima was for many the first uncensored look at the horrors of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city by the United States which occurred 80 years ago this past Wednesday. Hersey focuses on the story of six Hiroshima residents who survived a blast hotter than the surface of the sun and killed over 100,000 people. This is essential reading for any era of human history but especially today as world leaders withdraw from nuclear weapon proliferation treaties and rattle their nuclear sabers.
I was reading about Robert De Niro’s new Astoria film studio/soundstage and he mentioned New York City street drummer Gene Palma in Taxi Driver: “Marty Scorsese would take a guy drumming in the street, who’s a character that we’ve seen around the city a lot, and then all of a sudden Marty incorporates that into the movie.” Here’s the scene from the movie.
Last week I saw King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard perform with an orchestra and it was epic. Gizzard made headlines last week when they announced that they’re leaving Spotify in protest of CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in an autonomous AI weapons company. Does it get any more dystopian than using money made from underpaying musicians to fund AI-weapons? (Sounds like the subject of a future Gizzard concept album.)
Ride New York City’s new train, the Interborough Express, which will directly connect Brooklyn and Queens. The line has been used for commercial trains since the 1800s and the proposal to add a commuter train is already half-funded. Governor Hochul announced earlier this week that the project is moving forward. This rail expansion would be the city’s largest since the 1930s.
Oscar the therapy cat at Rhode Island’s Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center could somehow predict when a patient would pass. Dr. David Dosa, who wrote a book about the cat, said that Oscar would rather be left alone most of the time until he joined a patient only hours before their death. Dosa guessed that the cat was able to smell when the patient’s time was almost up. Staff felt Oscar was comforting the patients in their final hours.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading.
Good for Gizzard! Also, great news about the new train. We need that badly haha. I thought maybe it would connect to the rail in Forest Park, but on the map it doesn't look like it goes through there.