ON Christmas Eve, 1956, a 15-year-old boy heads due south on a five-hour Greyhound Bus journey from his home in Hibbing, Minnesota.
Arriving in the state capital, Saint Paul, he meets up with two summer camp friends and they go to a shop on Fort Road called Terlinde Music.
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Folk star Bob Dylan snapped during an early photoshootCredit: SuppliedBob with Suze Rotolo, the girl on the cover of the Freewheelin’ albumCredit: UnknownAmerican folk singer-songwriter Bob singing during his first visit to Britain in 1962Credit: Redferns
Styling themselves as The Jokers, the fledgling trio record a rowdy, rudimentary 36-second rendition of R&B party hit Let The Good Times Roll and a handful of other covers.
The boy, with his chubby cheeks and hint of a rock and roller’s quiff, leads the way on vocals and piano.
Already enthralled by popular sounds of the day from Elvis Presley to Little Richard and the rest, he is now in proud possession of a DIY acetate — his first precious recording.
His name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bobby to his family and friends.
Less than seven years later, on October 26, 1963, as Bob Dylan, he takes to the stage in the manner of his folk hero Woody Guthrie, now adopting an altogether more lean and hungry look.
Acoustic guitar and harmonica are his only props as he holds an audience at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall in the palms of his hands.
He performs his rallying cries that resonate to this day — Blowin’ In The Wind, The Times They Are A-Changin’, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.
He calls out the perpetrators of race-motivated killings with The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll and Only A Pawn In Their Game.
He dwells on matters of the heart by singing Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right and Boots Of Spanish Leather.
His 1956 schoolboy shindig and the Carnegie Hall concert, presented in full for the first time, bookend the latest instalment in Dylan’s endlessly captivating Bootleg Series.
Titled Through The Open Window, it showcases an artist in a hurry as he sets out on his epic career.
“I did everything fast,” he wrote in his memoir, Chronicles Vol.1, about his rapid transformation. “Thought fast, ate fast, talked fast and walked fast. I even sang my songs fast.”
But, as he continued: “I needed to slow my mind down if I was going to be a composer with anything to say.”
Among the myriad ways he achieved his stated aim, and then some, was by heading to the quiet surroundings of New York Public Library and avidly scouring newspapers on microfilm from the mid-1800s such as the Chicago Tribune and Memphis Daily Eagle, “intrigued by the language and the rhetoric of the times”.
He’d fallen under the spell of country music’s first superstar Hank Williams — “the sound of his voice went through me like an electric rod”.
Dylan affirmed that without hearing the “raw intensity” of songs by German anti-fascist poet-playwright Kurt Weill, most notably Pirate Jenny, he might not have written songs like The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll.
Then there was Mississippi Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, who Dylan likened to “the scorched earth”. “There’s nothing clownish about him or his lyrics,” he said. “I wanted to be like that, too.”
‘Did everything fast’
We’ll hear more later about the man considered to be his primary early influence, Woody Guthrie, the “Dust Bowl Balladeer” who wielded a guitar emblazoned with the slogan “This machine kills fascists”.
And about leading Greenwich Village folkie Dave Van Ronk, known as the “Mayor Of MacDougal Street”, who had Dylan’s back from the moment he first saw him sing.
On two occasions in recent years, I’ve had the privilege of talking to Joan Baez, the unofficial “Queen” to Dylan’s “King” of the American folk scene in the early Sixties.
She championed him as he made his way, frequently bringing him on stage, their duets on his compositions like With God On Our Side revealing rare chemistry.
They also became lovers as Bob’s relationship with Suze Rotolo, the girl on the cover of the Freewheelin’ album, crumbled.
“He was a phenomenon,” Baez told me in typically forthright fashion. “I guess somebody said, ‘There’s this guy you gotta hear, he’s writing these incredible songs.’
The singer’s real name in his high-school yearbook in 1959Legendary musician Dylan performing on stageCredit: Unknown
“And he was. His talent was so constant that I was in awe.”
A leading figure in the civil rights movement, who marched with Martin Luther King, Baez added: “It was a piece of good luck that his music came along when it did. The songs said the things I wanted to say.”
But she finished that reflection by saying, tellingly: “And then he moved on.”
For Dylan, now 84, has forever been a restless soul, “moving on” to numerous incarnations — rock star, country singer, Born Again evangelist, Sinatra-style crooner, old-time bluesman, you name it.
In the closing paragraph of Chronicles, he admitted: “The folk music scene had been like a paradise that I had to leave, like Adam had to leave the garden.”
But it is that initial whirlwind period, 1956 to 1963, centred on bohemian Greenwich Village and the coffee shops where young performers got their breaks which forms Volume 18 of the Bootleg Series.
Through The Open Window is available in various formats including an eight-CD, 139-track version, and has been painstakingly pieced together by co-producers Sean Wilentz and Steve Berkowitz.
And it is from Wilentz, professor of American history at Princeton University and author of the liner notes accompanying this labour of love, that I have gleaned illuminating insights.
I can’t think of too many modern artists of his stature, if any, who developed that rapidly
Sean Wilentz
He begins with the arc of Dylan’s development, first as a performer, then as a songwriter, during his early years.
Wilentz says: “He came to Greenwich Village in 1961 with infinite ambition and mediocre skills. By the end of that year, he had learned how to enter a song, make it his own, and put it over, brilliantly.
“By the end of 1962, he had written songs that became immortal, above all Blowin’ In The Wind and A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.
“By the time of the Carnegie Hall concert in 1963, the capstone to Through The Open Window, his songwriting had reached the level we can recognise, that would eventually lead to the Nobel Prize.
“And his performance style, for the thousands in that hall, was mesmeric. I can’t think of too many modern artists of his stature, if any, who developed that rapidly.”
One of the show’s striking aspects is the lively, often comical, between-song banter. (Yes, Dylan did talk effusively to his audiences back then. Not so much these days.)
In order to assemble Through The Open Window, Wilentz and Berkowitz had “more than 100 hours of material to draw on, maybe two or even three hundred”.
Their chief aim was to find a way to best illuminate “Bob Dylan’s development, mainly in Greenwich Village, as a performer and songwriter”.
But, adds Wilentz: “Several factors came into play — historical significance, rarity, immediacy and, of course, quality of performance.
‘Good taste in R&B’
“We hope, above all, that the collection succeeds at capturing the many overlapping levels — personal, artistic, political and more.”
Though noting Dylan’s inspirations, Woody, Elvis and the rest, Wilentz draws my attention to “a bit of free verse” written by Bob in 1962 called My Life In A Stolen Moment, which suggests nothing was off limits.
“Open up yer eyes an’ ears an’ yer influenced/an’ there’s nothing you can do about it.”
This is our cue to take a deep dive into the mix of unheard home recordings, coffeehouse and nightclub shows as well as studio outtakes from Dylan’s first three albums for Columbia Records — his self-titled debut, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin’.
Of the first track, that primitive take on Let The Good Times Roll, Wilentz says: “Dylan and the other two were obviously enthusiastic, and they had good taste in doo-wop and R&B.
“But if you listen closely, you can hear Dylan, on piano, calling things to order and pushing things along, the catalyst, the guy we know from other accounts who was willing to take more risks onstage.”
I ask Wilentz what he considers the most significant previously unreleased discoveries and he replies: “Most obviously Liverpool Gal from 1963, as it’s a song even the most obsessive Dylan aficionados have known existed but had never heard.
“He only recorded it once, at a friend’s party, and it’s stayed locked away on that tape until now.
Dylan was producing so much strong material that some of it was inevitably laid aside
Sean Wilentz
“While not Dylan at his peak, it’s a fine song. It’s significant lyrically, not least as testimony to his stay in London at the end of 1962 and the start of 1963. That stay had a profound effect on his songwriting, and one gets a glimpse of it here.”
Also included is near mythical Dylan song The Ballad Of The Gliding Swan, which he performed as “Bobby” in BBC drama Madhouse On Castle Street during his trip to Britain.
The only copy of the play set in a boarding house was junked by the Beeb in 1968 but this 63-second audio fragment survives.
Of even earlier recordings, Wilentz says: “I’m drawn to Ramblin’ Round.
“Although known (in his own words) as a Woody Guthrie jukebox, Dylan has never released a recording of himself performing a Guthrie song.
“Here he is, in an outtake from his first studio album, handling a Guthrie classic, and with a depth of feeling that shows why his earliest admirers found him so compelling.”
Wilentz considers other treasures: “There’s an entire 20-minute live set from Gerdes Folk City from April, 1962, concluding with Dylan’s first public performance of Blowin’ In The Wind.
“Then there are two tracks of singular historic importance, the first known recordings, both in informal settings, of two masterpieces, The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll and The Times They Are A-Changin’.”
If these versions shed fresh light on classics, let’s not forget the great Dylan songs that didn’t make it on to his albums, so great was the speed he was moving.
Does Wilentz find it staggering that songs like Let Me Die In My Footsteps and Lay Down Your Weary Tune were discarded?
“Yes and no,” he answers. “Yes, because these are powerful songs that were left largely unknown for years.
“No, because Dylan was producing so much strong material that some of it was inevitably laid aside.
‘Literary genius’
“Sometimes intervening factors kicked in. Take the four songs that, for business and censorship reasons, got cut from Freewheelin’ and replaced with four others.
“The album was actually better in its altered form, including songs like Girl From The North Country.
“But that’s how Let Me Die In My Footsteps was lost, along with a lesser-known song I love that we’re happy to include, Gamblin’ Willie’s Dead Man’s Hand, as well as an amazing performance of Rocks And Gravel.”
So, we’ve heard about songs but who were the key figures surrounding Dylan during his formative years?
Wilentz says: “Among the folk singers, Van Ronk most of all, and Mike Seeger, about whom he writes with a kind of awe in Chronicles.
“There was the crowd around Woody Guthrie, including Pete Seeger (‘Mike Seeger’s older brother,’ he calls him at one point) and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.”
He singles out producer John Hammond, “for signing him to Columbia Records and affirming his talent.
“But most important of all there was Suze Rotolo, who was a whole lot more, to Dylan and the rest of the world, than the girl on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”
Finally, I ask Wilentz why the singer felt uncomfortable at being labelled king of the folk movement, “the voice of a generation” if you like.
“People misread Dylan from all sides,” he argues. “Never a protest singer in the mould of Guthrie or Seeger, even though he worshipped Guthrie and admired the left-wing old guard by the time he turned up.
“But Dylan wasn’t one of them, though he sympathised, in a humane way, with victims of injustice.”
Dylan’s work springs from a matrix that is emotional, filtered through his literary genius
Sean Wilentz
Wilentz believes the recent biopic A Complete Unknown, with Timothee Chalamet making a decent fist of portraying the young Dylan, “is a little misleading”.
He says: “It wasn’t Dylan’s ‘going electric’ that pissed off the old guard and their younger equivalent as much as his moving beyond left-wing political pieties.
“Hence the song My Back Pages, from 1964: ‘Ah but I was so much older then/I’m younger than that now.’”
Wilentz concludes: “Dylan’s work springs from a matrix that is emotional, filtered through his literary genius.
“It was impossible for someone like him, living through those two years (1962-63), not to respond to the politics in an artistic way.
“How, if you were Bob Dylan, could you not respond to the civil rights struggle, the killing of Medgar Evers (Only A Pawn In Their Game) or Hattie Carroll, as well as the spectre of nuclear annihilation?
“Dylan had a lot to say, but he was never going to be the voice of anyone but himself.”
Maybe he’d already explained himself on Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright:
Thirty paintings by the late artist — and PBS staple — Bob Ross are heading for auction beginning Nov. 11. American Public Television, which syndicates programming to public stations across the country, is staging the auction in Los Angeles through Bonhams. APT has pledged to donate 100% of the profits to beleaguered public television stations nationwide.
“Bonhams holds the world record for Bob Ross, and with his market continuing to climb, proceeds benefiting American Public Television, and many of the paintings created live on air — a major draw for collectors — we expect spirited bidding and results that could surpass previous records,” said Robin Starr, general manager, Bonhams Skinner, in a statement.
The auction house established its record in August when it sold two of Ross’ mountain-and-lake scenes from the early 1990s for $114,800 and $95,750, respectively. Bonhams said it could not yet provide an estimate on the worth of the 30 works coming up for auction.
The first three paintings will go on the block at Bonhams in Los Angeles as part of its California & Western Art auction. The remaining 27 will be sold throughout 2026 at Bonhams salesrooms in New York, Boston and L.A.
The news comes as public broadcasting faces unprecedented challenges to its survival. In July, Congress voted to cut $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, which was founded in 1968 and helps fund PBS, NPR, as well as 1,500 local radio and television stations. The cuts were encouraged by President Trump, who derided the organization for spreading “woke” propaganda.
The private, nonprofit corporation soon after announced that it would close. The majority of its staff was dismissed at the end of last month, and a bare-bones transition team remains through January to wrap up unfinished work.
Without CPB, educational programming like “The Joy of Painting” with Bob Ross will have an uphill battle finding the support it needs.
Known for his cloudlike halo of curly brown hair, soothing voice and infectious love of the art form as shown on his signature show, the artist became a mainstay in American households across 400-plus episodes and more than a decade on the air.
With its wholesome content and relaxed pace, his was the kind of show that defined PBS. Hopefully, his work can help keep the lights on at the stations that helped gain him a cultlike following.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, and I’m the proud owner of a Bob Ross Chia Pet head. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.
On our radar
Kai A. Ealy stars in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at A Noise Within
(Daniel Reichert)
Joe Turner’s Come And Gone Gregg T. Daniel continues his reinvestigation of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with a production of what is arguably the finest work in the playwright’s 10-play series. Set in a Pittsburgh boardinghouse in 1911 during the Great Migration, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” focuses on the spiritual crossroads of Black Americans who are being reminded at every turn that their freedom comes with a prohibitive cost. The sixth Wilson production at A Noise Within in this seasons-long retrospective should be a standout: It’s one of the great American plays of the 20th century. — Charles McNulty Previews, 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Oct. 17; opening night, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18; through Nov. 9. A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. anoisewithin.org
Tavares Strachan, “Six Thousand Years,” and “The Encyclopedia of Invisibility,” 2018, mixed media
Tavares Strachan: The Day Tomorrow Began Bahamian-born New York artist, whose immersive solo exhibition “Magnificent Darkness” filled the Hollywood branch of Marian Goodman Gallery last year, makes multidisciplinary art that seeks to amplify notable events and people — especially related to exploration, from deep-sea diving to outer space — that are often sidelined in standard cultural histories. Strachan, a 2022 MacArthur Foundation fellow, once shipped a 4.5-ton block of ice from the Arctic to the Bahamas via FedEx. We’ll see what might arrive at Wilshire Boulevard. — Christopher Knight 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; closed Wednesday; through March 29, 2026. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, BCAM Level 2, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
Alexander Shelley conducts the Pacific Symphony Friday-Sunday in Costa Mesa.
(Curtis Perry)
Alexander Shelley conducts the Pacific Symphony At 45, the British conductor has a seemingly full and far-fledged plate: music director of the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa; principal associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London; and artistic and music director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida. Next year, the plate becomes fuller and further-fledged when he becomes music director of the Pacific Symphony. This fall, however, Shelley makes his debut as music director designate by showcasing works bursting with color — Mongomery’s “Starburst”; Arturo Márquez’s “Concert for Guitar Mystical and Profane” with Pablo Sáinz-Villegas as soloist; and Rimsky Korsakov’s “Scheherazade.” Shelley returns in November with Ravel’s glorious ballet score “Daphnis and Chloe,” the perfect enchanting complement to San Diego Symphony’s “L’Enfant,” for wrapping up the Ravel year, the 150th anniversary of the French composer’s birth having been in March. — Mark Swed 8 p.m. Thursday-Oct. 18. Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. pacificsymphony.org
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
The American Contemporary Ballet dances to Shubert’s score for “Death & the Maiden.”
(Victor Demarchelier)
Death and the Maiden American Contemporary Ballet, under the direction of Lincoln Jones, dances to a live performance of Schubert’s score, complete with opera singers; plus “Burlesque: Variation IX.” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Thursday performances Oct. 23 and 30; through Nov. 1. ACB, Bank of America Plaza, 330 S. Hope St. #150, downtown L.A. acbdances.com
Nightsong Times video intern Quincy Bowie Jr. recently visited artist Derek Fordjour’s sensorial experience at Mid-City’s David Kordansky Gallery. “In a time where many feel silenced, and afraid to speak up, Fordjour creates a space of darkness where truth can be revealed, heard and felt,” wrote Bowie. “‘Nightsong’ creates a unique space where the Black voice and its many songs are centered.” The free exhibit closes tonight. 6-10 p.m. David Kordansky Gallery, 5130 W. Edgewood Place. davidkordanskygallery.com
Mexican singer Lucía performs Friday at the Nimoy.
(Shervin Lainez)
Lucía The enchanting Mexican singer mixes traditional American jazz and Latin folk in her eponymous debut album, released earlier this year. 8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
Mascogos Jose Luis Valenzuela directs the world premiere of playwright Miranda González’s drama revealing the untold stories of Mexico’s Underground Railroad. Final preview, 8 p.m. Friday; opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday; 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 9. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org
People in the Dark: An Immersive Ghost Story A Lost Legends Ghost Tour goes frighteningly awry, placing the audience face-to-face with Hollywood’s haunted past in this enveloping theatrical experience from Drowned Out Productions. 7-11:40 p.m., with start times every 20 mins. Friday; 6-10:40 p.m., with start times every 20 mins. Saturday and Sunday (also Thursday, Oct. 16), through Oct. 31. 1035 S. Olive St., downtown L.A. tickettailor.com
Grand Kyiv Ballet performs “Swan Lake” Friday at the Ebell Wilshire.
Grand Kyiv Ballet This touring company of Ukrainian dancers is temporarily based out of the International Ballet Academy in Bellevue, Wash., while Russia continues its war with Ukraine. The troupe brings Tchaikovsky’s timeless ballet “Swan Lake” to Mid-City in a graceful performance sure to soothe even the most restless soul. (Jessica Gelt) 7 p.m. Wilshire Ebell Theatre, 4401 W 8th St, Los Angeles. ebellofla.org
SATURDAY Corey Helford Gallery A trio of strikingly distinct shows with a global sweep opens Friday. In the main gallery, “The Weight of Us,” a duo exhibition featuring solo works from Nigerian artists Arinze Stanley and Oscar Ukonu explores interconnectedness, and the complex interplay of individual and collective narratives. “Where Petals Dance,” features the work of Japanese artist aica in Gallery 2. The major exhibition featuring Latvian-born contemporary surrealist painter Jana Brike, “When I Was a River,” debuts in Gallery 3. Noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 15. Corey Helford Gallery, 571 S. Anderson St. #1, Los Angeles. https://coreyhelfordgallery.com/
Vicky Chow CAP UCLA and Piano Spheres present new music pianist Vicky Chow performing the West Coast premiere of Tristan Perich’s “Surface Image.” 8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
Gracias Gustavo Community Block Party Hosted by Aundrae Russell of KJLH, this outdoor celebration features performances by DJ Aye Jaye, live art by Hannah Edmonds and Israel “Seaweed” Batiz, Mariachi Tierra Mia, poet Aletha Metcalf-Evans, Versa-Style Street Dance Company, YOLA at Inglewood Jazz Ensemble, Sherie, muralist ShowzArt — “The Art Jedi,” D Smoke and the Inglewood High School Marching Band, plus activities, food trucks and more. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center, 101 S. La Brea Ave., Inglewood. laphil.com
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles An open house kicks off four new exhibitions: Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, “The Awake Volcanoes”; Samar Al Summary, “Excavating the Sky”; Liz Hernández, “Donde piso, crecen cosas (Where I step, things grow)”; and AoA x IAO, “I Smell LA.”
4-8 p.m. Friday. Noon-6 p.m. Wednesday; Noon-7 p.m. Thursday; Noon-6 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; closed Mondays, Tuesdays and public holidays. Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1717 E. 7th St., Arts District, downtown L.A. theicala.org
Sleep Token performs at the Reading Music Festival, England, in 2023.
(Scott Garfitt / Invision / Associated Press)
Sleep Token Sleep Token is by some measures the biggest heavy-rock band in the world right now. Its 2025 LP, “Even in Arcadia,” demolished streaming records for a metal act, reaching well beyond the genre’s cantankerous core fan base, which has mixed feelings about Sleep Token’s pop chart success, to say the least. (No one is more skeptical about the band’s new fame than its cryptically anonymous front person Vessel: “Right foot in the roses, left foot on a landmine,” he sings in “Caramel,” “They can sing the words while I cry into the bass line.”) The band’s high-drama live shows are where Sleep Token really shines, though, as in this return to L.A. for a set that finally provides the scale its runic masks, robes and necrotic body paint have always called for. (August Brown) 8 p.m. Crypto.com Arena, 1111 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A. cryptoarena.com
SUNDAY Paul Jacobs The Grammy-winning organist performs Bach’s “The Art of Fugue.” 7:30 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and the Von Trapp family in a scene from the 1965 film “The Sound of Music.”
(20th Century Fox)
The Sound of Music A 70mm screening of the 1965 Robert Wise-directed movie musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer that won five Oscars, including best picture. 3 p.m. Sunday. Academy Museum, David Geffen Theater, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org
TUESDAY L.A. Phil Gala: Gustavo’s Fiesta Gustavo Dudamel conducts the orchestra in a few of his favorite things: De Falla’s “Three-Cornered Hat,” selections from Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony (featuring musicians from YOLA, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles), Beethoven’s Seventh, “Fairy Garden” from Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Revueltas’ “Night of Enchantment.” 7 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
THURSDAY Draw Them In, Paint Them Out Trenton Doyle Hancock confronts the work of painter Philip Guston in this dual exhibition that examines the role the artist plays in the pursuit of social justice. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesday–Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday–Sunday. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. skirball.org
Yunchan Lim For his Disney Hall debut, the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition performs Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” alongside “…Round and velvety-smooth blend…,” a new piece, written especially for the pianist, by Korean composer Hanurij Lee. 8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
San Cha, photographed in 2020, performs Thursday-Saturday at REDCAT.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
San Cha The L.A.-based composer, musician and performance artist presents “Inebria Me,” a new experimental opera that reimagines the melodrama of telenovelas through a queer, genre-bending lens as adapted from her 2019 album, “La Luz de la Esperanza.” In Spanish with English supertitles. Postshow Q&A with San Cha on Oct 17. 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct.18. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Bisserat Tseggai, Claudia Logan, Victoire Charles and Jordan Rice, clockwise from top left, of “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding Currently staging its L.A. premiere at Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum, “Jaja’s” is an uproarious workplace comedy that packs a serious political punch. I had the pleasure of interviewing four of the lead actors during a roundtable at a downtown rehearsal room a few days before the run started. The women talked about their love of the show and of the playwright, Jocelyn Bioh. They also discussed the country’s fraught political climate and how it’s laying waste to the idea of the American Dream — the one that has attracted immigrants seeking a better life for their families for hundreds of years. Their thoughts have a direct throughline to the show, which takes place on a single hot day at a West African salon in Harlem.
Times theater critic Charles McNulty caught the opening Sunday night and wrote a glowing review of the touring production, which he noted was “bursting with gossip, petty fights, audacious fashion, dazzling hair styles, full-body dancing and uncensored truth about the vulnerable lives of immigrant workers.”
Hammer biennial Made in L.A. 2025 has officially opened at UCLA’s Hammer Museum and I recently toured the highly anticipated seventh edition of the biennial exhibition in the company of curators Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha. The pair told me interesting backstories about the 28 participating artists, including that the four large sculptures of doors made by Amanda Ross-Ho represent a door at the nursing home where her father lived.
Artist Alake Shilling stands in front of a 25-foot inflatable psychedelic bear driving a convertible titled “Buggy Bear Crashes Made in L.A,” at the Hammer Museum in Westwood.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
I also ate lunch with the charming and kind artist Alake Shilling, whose adorable sculptures of cuddly animals featuring melancholy faces are part of the show. I trailed Shilling as she watched a test inflation of a 25-foot sculpture titled “Buggy Bear Crashes Made in L.A.,” which will be on display on an outdoor pedestal on Wilshire Boulevard through March. I made this fun video with the help of video editor Mark Potts.
LACMA Gifts Big news keeps coming out of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which announced Wednesday that it had been gifted more than 100 works of Austrian Expressionism worth “well over” $60 million by the family of Otto Kallir, a renowned art dealer who immigrated to America in 1938 after the German Reich annexed Austria. The art will be transferred to the museum over the next several years and includes the museum’s first paintings by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl. The exciting news comes two months after LACMA was gifted its first paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Édouard Manet by the Pearlman Foundation.
Best Friends Forever Finally, I got an update from the “satirical activist” artists with the Secret Handshake. They told me they had once again received a permit to reinstall their controversial Trump-Epstein statue (dubbed “Best Friends Forever”) on the National Mall. “Just like a toppled Confederate general forced back onto a public square, the Donald Trump Jeffrey Epstein statue has risen from the rubble to stand gloriously on the National Mall once again,” a rep for the Secret Handshake wrote in an email.
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“Arabesque over the Right Leg,Left Arm in Front,” by Edgar Degas
(Norton Simon Museum)
Norton Simon acquires sculpture The Pasadena museum announced the acquisition of a bronze sculpture by Edgar Degas titled “Arabesque over the Right Leg, Left Arm in Front.” The museum already holds more than 100 pieces by Degas in its collection, which is known as one of the largest public collection’s of the artist’s work in the world. “This significant acquisition, long sought after, completes a critical gap in the Museum’s renowned Degas collection,” a rep for the museum wrote in an email. The sculpture went on view in the museum’s 19th century wing late last week.
Mushroom Boat Ever heard of a boat made out of mushrooms? Neither had I until someone told me about an exhibition at Fulcrum Arts in Pasadena called, “Sam Shoemaker: Mushroom Boat.” As the title implies, the artist built a kayak out of mushroom mycelium. He then proceeded to use the unusual vessel to cross the Catalina Channel — a total of 26 nautical miles. He chronicled his journey the whole way, and the results of that work are on display alongside the boat. It includes large-scale projections, time-lapse videos, and soundscapes from his sometimes wild and turbulent journey.
Los Angeles Ballet dancers in pointe shoes stretch before beginning rehearsals in 2015.
(Los Angeles Times)
An anniversary for Los Angeles Ballet Los Angeles Ballet announced its 2025-26 season, which also happens to mark the company’s 20th anniversary, and its Music Center debut — “Giselle” at the Ahmanson Theatre in the spring. The season launches in December with LAB’s acclaimed annual presentation of “The Nutcracker” at Royce Hall and the Dolby Theatre. This season the company continues its residency at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and is set to stage a triple-bill anniversary production, “20 Years of Los Angeles Ballet,” featuring George Balanchine’s “Rubies,” Hans van Manen’s “Frank Bridge Variations,” and a third new work by Artistic Director Melissa Barak, who assumed her position in 2022.
K.A.M.P. fundraiser The Hammer Museum is back this Sunday with its annual fundraiser — Kids Art Museum Project, better known as K.A.M.P. Tickets support the Hammer’s free year-round family programming. Each year, the museum shuts down on a Sunday and presents an art-filled wonderland for children and families, with interactive art stations created and helmed by participating L.A. artists, as well as a special reading room featuring well-known actors. This year’s readers will be actor Justine Lupe and baseball star Chris Taylor. Artists include Daniel Gibson, Sharon Johnston & Mark Lee, Annie Lapin, Ryan Preciado, Rob Reynolds, Jennifer Rochlin, Mindy Shapero, Brooklin A. Soumahoro and Christopher Suarez.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Everybody, it seems, loves Cyndi Lauper. Readers have been going absolutely bananas for Times pop music critic Mikael Wood’s engaging profile on the iconic, red-haired pop star in advance of her induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
A 10-second bit by ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel plunged Walt Disney Co. into a full-blown crisis that rippled across America.
President Trump, the Federal Communications Commission chief and others were angered this month over Kimmel’s remarks about the Charlie Kirk shooting, which they said had suggested the suspect was a “Make America Great Again” Republican. Kimmel asserted Trump supporters were “trying to score political points” from the tragedy.
TV station groups pulled the program and Disney benched the comedian, sparking a bigger backlash. Protesters lit into the Mouse House for seemingly kowtowing to the Trump administration, consumers canceled Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions and more than 400 celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lin-Manuel Miranda, signed a letter calling for a defense of free speech. Some investors bailed, briefly erasing nearly $4 billion in corporate market value.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger and his team turned the tide last week when they returned Kimmel to his late-night perch.
“This [situation] isn’t going away anytime soon,” Nien-hê Hsieh, a Harvard Business School professor, said in an interview. “How it is managed certainly matters a lot.”
The Kimmel controversy exposed cracks at the Burbank company that has long meticulously managed its image. It also highlighted the fraught environment facing Disney’s next leader during a period of significant challenges for the entertainment juggernaut.
“Succession is difficult for any company — the stakes are high,” Hsieh said. “But Disney also is kind of a lightning rod that attracts criticism because of its brand and its prevalence and prominence.”
Iger, 74, is retiring for a second time in late 2026, when his contract expires. Within a few months, Disney’s board is expected to name a replacement — a pivotal decision for a company that has long struggled with succession.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger is expected to retire at the end of 2026 after nearly 20 years leading the Burbank entertainment giant.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Four internal candidates are vying for the job, including Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, who oversees television and streaming and managed the Kimmel crisis with Iger.
Also in the CEO mix are ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro; and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, who oversees movies, including the Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises, and, in concert with Walden, entertainment streaming services.
“The next leader needs to be very attuned to how the company is perceived and valued by its customers and clients,” Hsieh said. “This is a moment for people to be very clear about their values.”
Disney’s values were questioned by many after the decision to yank Kimmel from the air.
As protesters buzzed around Disney’s Burbank headquarters and Kimmel’s darkened theater on Hollywood Boulevard, the voice of the company’s former chief rang out.
“Where has all the leadership gone?” Michael Eisner asked in a stinging Sept. 19 social media post. “If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment?”
Disney hadn’t formally addressed the situation. The only public message was a terse ABC statement on Sept. 17 — minutes after Iger and Walden moved to suspend the show: “ ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ will be pre-empted indefinitely.”
Kimmel was furious. It was about an hour to showtime and his studio audience was queued up outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre. He had intended to clarify his words that night.
But Walden and Iger were worried the comedian was dug in, and his planned remarks would only inflame the situation.
Disney’s move to bench Jimmy Kimmel prompted protests, including days of demonstrations outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is taped.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
What was initially viewed by Disney executives as a social media storm — vitriol from Trump supporters — had morphed into an existential threat for ABC when Carr, the FCC chairman, threatened to go after station licenses.
Nexstar pulled Kimmel’s program, followed by the politically conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group. The two companies own stations that provide 22% of ABC’s coverage.
Protesters called for a Disney boycott this month outside the darkened stage of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ The comedian returned Sept. 23.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
ABC’s ambiguous seven-word statement suggested to many that Kimmel wasn’t returning.
“Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that night. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
Disney executives privately said they were simply hitting pause. ABC executives and talent were getting death threats, according to one insider who was not authorized to discuss the situation. Later, in Sacramento, a gunman fired three shots into the lobby of an ABC-affiliated station. No one was injured.
But Disney’s initial response was roundly criticized for being weak, an abdication of the 1st Amendment. “To surrender our right to speak freely is to accept that those in power, not the people, will set the boundaries of debate that define a free society,” Anna M. Gomez, the sole Democrat FCC commissioner,said in a statement.
Executives defended the ABC statement, noting that anything Disney had said at that moment could have exacerbated its troubles with the FCC and station groups. One insider added that company also needed time to weigh whether it was worth bringing back the show.
Iger and Walden held a Sunday sit-down with Kimmel on Sept. 21 to clear the air. The following day, Disney announced his show would return.
“It wasn’t a reaction to any regulatory threats or political threats — it was an editorial decision because we felt the comments were ill-timed and, thus, insensitive given the topic,” Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s chief legal and compliance officer, said in an interview Monday. “We felt our responsibility was to avoid further inflaming the situation during a very delicate and emotional time for the nation and that couldn’t be achieved in the heat of the moment.”
Gutierrez said narratives about Disney’s motives were inaccurate.
“The guidance we were given by Bob as we were thinking this through was to do the right thing, and that’s what we did in both preempting the show and in putting it back on the air,” he said. “Other people can comment about what they would have done or said … but the reality is the action of the company speaks louder than any words.”
Brian Frons, a former senior ABC executive and a UCLA Anderson School professor, said the way the crisis was handled reflected Iger’s measured leadership style.
“This situation could have turned into a firefight with the [Trump] administration — a direct confrontation,” Frons said. “It could have been Florida-Chapek all over again.”
Disney’s last major public relations debacle was in early 2022, when former Disney CEO Bob Chapek tumbled into a political quagmire with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Disney belatedly opposed a Florida law banning school conversations about sexual orientation, the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill, prompting DeSantis to retaliate with a takeover of a Central Florida land-use board overseeing development around Walt Disney World.
Chapek’s shaky handling of the Florida dispute, which led conservatives to declare the company had become “woke,” was among the reasons Disney board’s fired him in November 2022, returning Iger to the top job.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger (left) and Bob Chapek (right) who served 2 1/2 years as chief executive. Chapek was removed in November 2022 to make way for Iger’s return.
(Business Wire)
Chapek had been Iger’s hand-picked successor but lasted in the job just 2½ years as pandemic dealt a crushing blow to theme parks, movie theaters and sporting events.
“In our instant-response culture, we want managers to have an immediate response and confrontation,” Frons said. “Sometimes, the instant solution might not be the best one.”
The Kimmel crisis and Chapek’s stormy tenure hover over succession.
Disney’s Achilles’ heel has long been its leadership handoffs. Over the years, Iger postponed several planned retirements, prompting at least one prospective successor, Tom Staggs, to exit the company in frustration.
The switch to Iger from Eisner 20 years ago was even more tumultuous, a move made to tamp down a shareholder revolt.
Before Iger was in the wings, Eisner recruited Creative Arts Agency co-founder Michael Ovitz — a debacle that ended in a court battle and a $140-million Disney payout.
Walt Disney Co. Chairman James P. Gorman is the former chief executive of Morgan Stanley.
(China News Service / China News Service via Getty Images)
Last year, Disney turned to James P. Gorman, Morgan Stanley’s former executive chairman, to oversee the succession process amid past criticism that some board members were too deferential to Iger. (A source close to the company disputed that characterization.)
Gorman became chairman of Disney’s board in January. He’s credited with orchestrating a smooth transition at the bank where he served as CEO for 14 years.
Disney’s board has said it would consider internal and outside candidates when determining who’s best equipped to lead the $206-billion company.
Walden was viewed as the early favorite, but some believe that Trump’s election last November might have changed that. The 60-year-old television executive has long been supportive of Democrat causes and is a friend of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Walden joined Disney in 2019 after Disney swallowed Rupert Murdoch’s Fox entertainment properties, including the Fox television and movie studios and a controlling stake in Hulu. She oversees ABC, ABC News, Disney Channel, National Geographic and, with Bergman, the streaming services.
It’s not clear whether the Kimmel controversy helped or hurt her chances. By the end of last week, both Nexstar and Sinclair had abandoned their boycotts, returning the show to their ABC-affiliated stations.
“If this situation holds, Dana may have proved herself as a very effective crisis manager,” Frons said.
Clockwise from top left: Alan Bergman, Josh D’Amaro, Dana Walden and Jimmy Pitaro.
(Evan Agostini, Chris Pizzello and Richard Shotwell / Invision via AP)
D’Amaro, the parks and experiences chief, is thought to have an edge. Neither Disney nor the board have signaled that there is a front-runner.
The 54-year-old executive runs Disney’s biggest and most prosperous unit — theme parks, resorts, cruise lines and experiences, including video games. D’Amaro is an architect of Disney’s $60-billion campaign to expand and revitalize its parks and resorts and double the number of cruise ships.
The charismatic D’Amaro brims with enthusiasm for Disney where he’s spent most of his adult life — more than 27 years.
Bergman, 59, is a savvy executive who runs Disney’s film studios, its major creative franchises, as well as theatrical and streaming releases and marketing. He oversees Disney Music Group and its Broadway show unit.
And Pitaro, the Connecticut-based ESPN chief, has helped lead Disney’s push to streaming as the once lucrative cable business has contracted. The 56-year-old executive, a former consumer products and Yahoo executive, has managed Disney’s dealings with the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.
Some worry that none of the candidates will match Iger’s skills.
“This idea that you’re going to replace the CEO — a person who is at the height of their power — with somebody in a similar place is pretty hard,” Frons said. “Instead, you have to ask: Who is the person who can best position Disney for the future in all the businesses that are important today and might be important in the future?”
When the cast and crew of “Bob’s Burgers” gathered to celebrate the show’s milestone 300th episode earlier this month, two key figures were missing.
Creator Loren Bouchard and actor H. Jon Benjamin — who voices the “Bob” of the title — were unexpectedly waylaid by illness and travel troubles, respectively. It was a scenario that could have been an episode of the long-running adult animated series, down to the celebration’s setting, which took place in a room resembling the inside of the show’s titular hamburger joint.
The only thing missing was a musical interlude.
Centering a family that runs a restaurant, “Bob’s Burgers” kicks off its 16th season Sunday on Fox with its 300th episode titled “Grand Pre-Pre-Pre-Opening.” The milestone episode will take things back to before the Belcher’s opened their family eatery.
According to Bouchard, one of the questions the writers wanted to explore in this episode was “Why is Linda doing this?”
“Bob’s Burgers [the restaurant], it’s got his name in it, but we sense that he can’t do it without her,” Bouchard says. “[Bob] says that in the show, but what do we mean when we say that?”
The look to the past also shows Bob (Benjamin) and Linda (John Roberts) preparing to welcome their first child, Tina (Dan Mintz). The Belcher clan also includes Tina’s younger siblings Gene (Eugene Mirman) and Louise (Kristen Schaal).
“Grand Pre-Pre-Pre-Opening” is the 300th episode of “Bob’s Burgers.”
(20th Television / Fox)
Bouchard admits he is usually not one for celebrating episode counts — “It starts to feel a little bit like bulk pricing,” he jokes — but he recognizes that the longevity of the series is something special. “Bob’s Burgers” premiered in 2011.
“What you get with a show that lasts this long and has this many episodes is a different relationship with the fans,” Bouchard says. “You get to have a 15-year relationship. That’s like family. There are marriages that don’t last that long.”
Over the years, the show’s dedicated audience has seen “Bob’s Burgers” expand beyond television with the release of “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” in 2022 as well as a touring live show of comedy and music.
Bouchard explains that the show’s approach to these milestone episodes have been to “go small and deep” to avoid overstuffing them with fan service. They’ve treated the 100th, 200th and 300th episodes like a new pilot that centers the restaurant and family “in a very basic way” as if it were someone’s introduction to the series.
The 300th episode, written by Bouchard and Nora Smith, digs into the show’s core premise to reveal how Bob and Linda came to juggle a restaurant and a family at the same time.
“I started my family when I started ‘Bob’s,’ so it’s very personal to me,” Bouchard says. “I like the chaos and just audacious optimism that you could have children and start a doomed-to-fail, Hail Mary of a creative project at the same time. It’s why I like this family, that they did this too.”
To commemorate the milestone, Bouchard and the cast discussed, in their own words edited for clarity and length, “Bob’s Burgers’” status as a “comfort show,” the Belcher family dynamics, memorable episodes and more.
A comfort food
“Bob’s Burgers” cast members Larry Murphy, left, Dan Mintz, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman and John Roberts at the Bento Box offices.
(Frank Micelotta / Fox)
It’s not rare for “Bob’s Burgers” to be described as a “comfort show” — something fans can turn on to unwind or fall asleep to. The cast attributes this to the show having real emotions that come from the heart.
“The sweetness of [their affection] being genuine, that’s the thing,” Mirman says. “It’s just a mix of warmhearted and funny and sort of grounded.”
“The jokes aren’t taking people down a notch,” Schaal says. “The show has always been in a lane that people are realizing they should come over to — the kind lane.”
Bouchard says that “it’s very touching and affecting” that audiences turn to the show for comfort but acknowledges it’s something he can’t focus on while the show’s in production.
Bouchard: I definitely don’t take it lightly. I don’t want to think about it while we’re making “Bob’s.” If I thought about it while we’re making it, I would I feel like there’s a scenario where I could mess it up. You don’t want to shoot for comfort show, you want to shoot for edgy, attention-grabbing. [Episodes with] act breaks and big closing numbers. I know people don’t mean, “I fall asleep when I see it for the first time.” They mean, “I put on episodes I’ve seen before and it’s comforting in a profoundly, sleepy way.” I think being an adult by definition means at the end of the day you need something to just transition so that you can fall asleep. I’m glad that “Bob’s” does that for people.
Roberts: We love how much comfort this brings to the world. We like being light and having a job in entertainment that makes people feel good — it makes the world a better place. That’s rare and we’re blessed and we’re grateful.
Dinner (musical) theater
Tina, left, Louise and Gene in an episode of “Bob’s Burgers.”
(20th Television / Fox)
According to Bouchard, the music on the show was ”a ’dare we dream’ type thing in the beginning.” But the reception to the show’s catchy ukelele-driven theme song made him feel like there was room to push the musical elements further, like having a unique end credits and outro song for each episode.
“This sort of flea market find, slightly childlike music felt to us like of the show, but the audience had to give us permission,” Bouchard says. “We had to go slowly to get that.”
Once they saw the audience was on board, he felt like the show had the go ahead to hit the ground running from putting musical moments within the stories to eventually having musical episodes. While it’s still something they take “moment by moment,” Bouchard says he’s “so glad that [the music is] part of what people seem to want from the show.”
Roberts: I think in the earlier seasons, we were more improvising and things like that. But now it’s very professional big songs. It’s fun. I’m impressed by everybody.
Mirman: I’m truly incapable of singing. So the way we do it for me is that the person who’s in charge of the music will sing one line and I will mimic it like nine times to the best of my ability. [Then] they splice together a child singing poorly that is still much better than me in real life. But it’s still very fun. It’s very fun to be challenged.
Mintz: I’m kind of in Eugene’s boat. I can’t remember pitch for very long after I hear it, so I do have to immediately hear it and immediately repeat it. But I’ve been surprised at how much I do enjoy it. You do it again and again, and then the final ones are like, “Now do it and don’t hold back.” And you feel a real singer for, like, one line. There’s also the no pressure of it because I’m singing as a person, as a character, who’s not a professional singer, so it doesn’t have to be that good.
Where’s the beef? Belcher family dynamics
The Belchers inside their restaurant.
(20th Television / Fox)
One thing that comes through in every episode of “Bob’s Burgers” is just how much the Belchers love each other.
“[Linda] is a mom that pays attention and is present and shows up for her children,” says Roberts, who draws from his own mother for his performance. “There’s a realness there and it’s very grounding for the show. … Linda’s gone a little crazy sometimes, but for the most part, it’s all very much stuff that you can relate to.”
Perpetually in the Belchers’ orbit is Teddy — handyman, loyal customer and Bob’s best friend.
“I think of Teddy as constantly trying to inject himself into the lives of the family that he doesn’t have,” says Larry Murphy, who voices Teddy. “The best part about that is that they might shake their heads [at him], but they always rise to the occasion and are supportive of the character.”
And as much as the Belcher children can tease or annoy each other at times, there is no doubt that they all genuinely care for one another too.
“There’s a sibling camaraderie that is really lovely,” Mirman says. “It reminds me of the camaraderie on TV and movies in the ‘80s. That era of the stuff I grew up watching.”
Schaal: I love how they enjoy each other’s company. They’re usually not trying to lose the other one. I mean, in some episodes, Louise is bothering Tina and we explore that. But in general, they hang out together, they play together. They’re not on their f— iPads, separate in their own worlds. They’re going on adventures. And at the end of the day, Louise has their back like no one else and she’ll fight for them.
Mintz: I think it’s great for Tina to be pulled out of her comfort zone by her siblings, even though she’s supposed to be the leader as the oldest. Those are some of the most fun episodes for me when Gene and Louise want to do something dangerous or against the rules or whatever. Tina’s anxious for some reason and keeps being like, “Well, we shouldn’t,” but she gets dragged along. There’s always some moment in every one of those where it’s like, ‘Wait, Jimmy Jr. will be there. OK, maybe I’m fine with this.’ I think Tina’s life would be a lot more boring if she didn’t have someone make her break the rules all the time.
Favorite flavors
Tina and Linda in “Bob’s Burgers.”
(20th Television/Fox)
Over the years, “Bob’s Burgers” has come to be known for its various holiday episodes for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas that often rank among viewers’ favorites.
“I love on Thanksgiving when they play the marathon of stuff,” Roberts says.
But holidays aren’t the only flavor of memorable episodes. And even after 16 seasons, the cast says they are just as excited to flip through new scripts and record episodes together as they were when they started.
As for their favorites, Mintz says he enjoys “all the fantasy ones.” Murphy agrees.
Murphy: I like those episodes where the kids are each telling their own story — and it might not have happened. It just gets to not exist in the world of “Bob’s Burgers,” but it’s someone’s point of view telling a story, like when they built that giant robot [“The Handyman Can”]. Kind of a “Rashomon”-type idea.
Schaal: I like anything that’s emotional. If Louise ever gets to be emotional, I get excited. Even like the one where they’re looking for Bob’s mom’s grave [“Show Mama From the Grave”]. They’re going for something that is really sad, but doing it so well. I love those episodes.
Roberts: I think what’s really awesome is that there’s an individual episode for each character that’s genius. For me, I think “Lindapendent Woman” was an incredible episode. I just did an episode Holly Schlesinger wrote where it’s more about Linda and her past. We all got our turn at having incredible episodes.
Mirman: I agree with Kristen about the ones that have an emotional arc. There is a Christmas one [“The Plight Before Christmas”], where all three kids have an event and the parents understand they can’t make it to everything. Eventually Tina makes it to Louise’s poetry reading where she wrote two poems and one is really sweet and about the family. I’ve watched that episode a bunch.
Schaal: Going back to the story ones. The one about the chores [“Fight at the Not Okay Chore-ral”], where Louise is butting heads with Linda about doing chores and then they tell stories about being in a wild west town. That one I love because it was about this real conflict. And the funny thing is, my daughter has requested to watch that one several times. I think it’s because Linda breaks down and says, “I’m wrong, I give up,” and my kid is thrilled to see the mom say that.
We’re here, we’re gruyere, get used it
Teddy and Linda in an episode of “Bob’s Burgers.”
(20th Television / Fox)
“Bob’s Burgers” has often been hailed for its inclusivity. As a series living in “the kind lane,” the characters are accepted for who they are — even if there’s gentle ribbing at times.
“Nobody’s trying to change anyone,” Roberts says. “They’re just trying to make them better human beings.”
“And they don’t have to defend who they are,” adds Schaal. “There’s complete acceptance.”
At a time when trans and queer people are increasingly targeted by ring-wing politicians and activists through legislation and dehumanizing rhetoric — LGBTQ+-friendly shows such as “Bob’s Burgers” can, for some, feel like a refuge. Bouchard explains how the show’s approach to being inclusive is intentional.
Bouchard: One of the simple tricks that we do is you just do it. You don’t have to shine a light on it. What I think is interesting about acceptance and tolerance and inclusivity — all those things have become capitalized words, and they almost lose their value when they’re not just part of your daily life. Your storytelling has to be about something other than that. That’s not going to be as satisfying as just put it in the character and let it be their daily. They get up feeling accepting and inclusive and normalizing, and they go to bed that way. They don’t learn that f— lesson in the middle of a half-hour show. That’s fine that it exists. Maybe sometimes, as a culture, we need to all come together and learn a lesson. [But] “Bob’s” is in the business of not writing those episodes. We’re in the business of writing those characters without fanfare.
And I give credit to my parents. I think my sister and I were weird in the normal weird way — weird kids are normal. A lot of parents make room for that, and love their kids no matter how they express themselves as little kids. I guess some don’t, but I am glad to have come up in that. To me, it feels natural. To me, it’s not a stretch. The way to do it is to just live it, just be it, and assume that when it’s on paper and it seems normal to you, hopefully it’ll feel reassuring and comforting to other folks too.
A longtime partner at the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, Barnett was the go-to lawyer for politicians and public officials moving into private life
Robert Barnett, a Washington attorney who represented powerful politicians and many of the biggest stars in TV news business, died Friday after a long, unspecified illness. He was 79.
Barnett’s death in a Washington hospital was confirmed by his wife, retired CBS News correspondent Rita Braver.
A longtime partner at the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, Barnett was the go-to lawyer for politicians and public officials moving into private life. He helped procure multimillion-dollar book contracts for former Presidents Obama, Clinton and George W. Bush.
Barnett was a Democratic political insider as well. He would play opposing candidates in mock debates to help prepare the presidential tickets of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in 2000, John Kerry and John Edwards in 2004, Hillary Clinton when she first ran for president in 2008, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.
“I baited [Ferraro] a lot and she got so angry with me that she frequently walked over to me and slugged me on the arm,” Barnett told CNN in 2008. “So I left the process black and blue.”
Barnett was also Bill Clinton’s debate sparring partner during the 1992 presidential campaign. He also advised the Clintons when White House aide and family friend Vince Foster killed himself in 1993 and when the world learned that Bill Clinton had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Barnett’s TV news client list included former NBC News anchor Brian Williams, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, Chris Wallace, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell, and Jesse Watters and Peter Doocy at Fox News. He also represented his wife, whom he married in 1972.
As an attorney, Barnett was known for his ability to come up with deals tailored to the needs of his clients.
“Many of these people who come out of government have an enormous number of offers,” Barnett told the Financial Times in 2008. “The first thing we do is sit down and say: ‘What are your goals? Do you want to live here or there? You wanna make money or have fun?’”
One reason many clients gravitated to Barnett is that, unlike agents, he did not take a commission. They paid a high hourly rate for his services, not the traditional agent fees of 10% to 15% of salaries or book advances.
Barnett’s clients believed he gave them 100% regardless of their stature.
“Bob represented me in my negotiations with ABC and made me feel just as important as his more celebrated clients,” retired correspondent Judy Muller wrote on Facebook. “A really decent, smart man.”
The sentiment was shared by CBS News Executive Editor Susan Zirinsky.
“Every person who worked with Bob knew their secrets were safe,” Zirinsky said in an interview. “He was the ultimate protector.”
Barnett also drew praise from the companies that paid the lucrative contracts for his TV clients.
“His pristine integrity, wise counsel and knowledge of our business were an invaluable resource to me over the course of our 30-year relationship,” Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News Media, said in a statement.
Barnett also represented bestselling authors James Patterson and Mary Higgins Clark.
Barnett was born in Waukegan, Ill., where his father operated the local Social Security office and his mother worked part time in a department store. He majored in political science at the University of Wisconsin and received a law degree from the University of Chicago.
He moved to Washington in the early 1970s. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Byron White and worked as an aide to then-Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota. He joined Williams & Connolly in 1975, and was made a partner three years later.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Meredith Barnett; a sister; and three grandchildren.
The successor to Bob Costas as play-by-play voice on TNT’s Major League Baseball postseason games will be the same broadcaster who replaced the legendary Bob Miller in 2017 after Miller retired following a 44-year Hall of Fame career with the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL.
Yes, Alex Faust has experience replacing a titan of the airwaves.
Costas, of course, is another Hall of Famer, and he also retired after 44 years. His final MLB call was the 2024 American League Division Series in which the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals in four games.
Faust, 36, currently calls Friday Night MLB games streamed on Apple TV+. He also is the radio voice of the New York Rangers and has been part of hockey and tennis coverage at TNT Sports. Faust left the Kings in 2023 when their television deal with Bally Sports expired.
Costas will continue to appear on MLB Network but won’t do play-by-play. His most recent appearance on the airwaves was as a guest on the NPR news quiz “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on Sept. 13.
After telling stories about not making his high school baseball team and recounting an embarrassing, mildly profane gaffe he made on air early in his career, Costas answered all three game show questions about the Emmy Awards correctly.
Costas joked that he had accomplished “the trifecta, the hat trick, the triple crown.” Host Peter Segal asked what the show should call it when someone goes 3 for 3. Costas laughed and replied, “The Costi.”
He probably should have an award named after him. Costas, 73, has received 29 Emmys and was the prime-time host of 12 Olympic Games from 1988 through 2016. He called three World Series and 10 MLB league championships.
Costas stepped down from MLB play-by-play in November, telling Tom Verducci of MLB Network that he had planned to retire for more than a year, saying, “I couldn’t consistently reach my past standard.”
Aug. 27 (UPI) — Prosecutors seek a seven-year sentence for Nadine Menendez, the wife of former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., for her part in a bribery and corruption scheme.
Nadine Menendez, 58, is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 11 in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York courtroom in Manhattan, where her husband was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison in January.
Nadine Menendez “did not commit bribery reluctantly, fleetingly or on a small scale,” federal prosecutors told U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein, as reported by The New York Times.
“She did so eagerly, for years, and in a scheme implicating foreign relations, national security and the integrity of state and federal law enforcement,” they argued.
“The defendant engaged, for years, in a corruption and foreign influence scheme of stunning brazenness, breadth and duration, resulting in exceptionally grave abuses of power at the highest levels of the legislative branch of the United States government,” prosecutors argued.
Her attorneys alternatively seek a sentence of one year and one day due to breast cancer treatment.
They said she can’t receive adequate care while in prison and sought leniency due to her growing up in war-torn Lebanon, enduring gender-based violence and having cancer, The Hill reported.
Federal prosecutors expressed a willingness for her to undergo recommended surgeries before surrendering for her eventual incarceration.
A jury in April found Nadine Menendez guilty on 15 counts related to the bribery scheme centered on her husband’s political corruption.
Federal prosecutors showed she accepted cash, gold and a Mercedes luxury automobile in exchange for political favors by Bob Menendez.
He chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before resigning amid his legal troubles in 2023.
Two co-defendants, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, also were found guilty on related charges and sentenced to three years and eight years, respectively, in January.
The BBC issued a formal apology after broadcasting a controversial performance from the rap-punk group Bob Vylan at England’s Glastonbury festival.
Bob Vylan — outspoken critics of Israel’s war on Gaza — led its crowd at last weekend’s festival in a chant of “Death to the IDF,” or Israel Defense Forces.
The BBC’s director- general Tim Davie wrote to staff in an internal memo on Thursday. “I deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behavior appeared on the BBC and want to say sorry — to our audience and to all of you, but in particular to Jewish colleagues and the Jewish community,” Davie said. “We are unequivocal that there can be no place for antisemitism at the BBC.”
The broadcaster announced several policy changes for future festival broadcasts, including keeping “high risk” acts off live broadcasts and live streams.
Bob Vylan’s set led to some backlash within the music industry and beyond. The comments prompted local police to open a criminal investigation, and the band’s U.S. visas were revoked for its upcoming performances. The band’s agency, UTA, reportedly dropped them as well.
The band’s singer, who performs as Bobby Vylan, wrote on Instagram after the set that “teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place,” adding, “Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered.”
The Northern Irish rap trio Kneecap, a fellow Glastonbury performer, has also come under scrutiny for its outspoken criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza. The band’s Glastonbury set was not broadcast live. The group’s Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara, had been charged with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a flag from the terror group Hezbollah at a London concert in 2024 (Chara denied the charge). U.K. prosecutors also recently dropped charges against Kneecap after a 2023 concert where Chara allegedly said, “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The BBC had deemed Bob Vylan “high risk” before their controversial Glastonbury set, the corporation has said.
The punk duo led a chant of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” during their set, which was available to watch via a live stream on iPlayer on Saturday.
In a statement, the BBC said the corporation is taking action to “ensure proper accountability” for those found to be responsible for the broadcast.
BBC News understands that a number of staff have been moved off their day-to-day duties from the music and live events team.
BBC chair Samir Shah said the decision not to pull the live feed was “unquestionably an error of judgement”.
The BBC said it would be making “immediate changes to livestreaming music events”.
In future, it said: “Any music performances deemed high risk by the BBC will now not be broadcast live or streamed live.”
After the broadcast, the BBC was criticised by the UK’s chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, while media regulator Ofcom said the BBC had “questions to answer”.
In a statement to staff on Thursday, director general Tim Davie said he “deeply regrets that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to apologise to our viewers and listeners and in particular the Jewish community”.
The BBC said Bob Vylan had been “deemed high risk following a risk assessment process applied to all acts appearing at Glastonbury”.
“Seven acts including Bob Vylan were included in this category and they were all deemed suitable for live streaming with appropriate mitigations.”
The statement continued: “Prior to Glastonbury, a decision was taken that compliance risks could be mitigated in real time on the live stream – through the use of language or content warnings – without the need for a delay. This was clearly not the case.”
The BBC noted the live stream was monitored “in line with the agreed compliance protocols and a number of issues were escalated”.
Warnings appeared on the stream on two occasions, but, he added: “The editorial team took the decision not to cut the feed. This was an error.”
Davie, who was attending Glastonbury himself on the day, was “subsequently made aware of what had happened and instructed the team that none of the performance should feature in further coverage”.
The BBC said the team on duty prioritised stopping the performance from becoming available on demand, meaning that the set would not appear on iPlayer or BBC Sounds.
However, the live feed remained available for several hours, meaning viewers were able to rewind and view the content.
“Given the failings that have been acknowledged, we are taking actions to ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible for those failings in the live broadcast,” the BBC said. “We will not comment further on those processes at this time.”
In a statement, BBC chair Samir Shah apologised “to all our viewers and listeners and particularly the Jewish community for allowing the ‘artist’ Bob Vylan to express unconscionable anti-semitic views live on the BBC”.
“This was unquestionably an error of judgement. I was very pleased to note that as soon as this came to the notice of Tim Davie – who was on the Glastonbury site at the time visiting BBC staff – he took immediate action and instructed the team to withdraw the performance from on demand coverage.”
Since Glastonbury, Bob Vylan have had several bookings cancelled, including festival appearances in Manchester and France and a slot in Germany.
Avon and Somerset Police have launched a criminal investigation into their Glastonbury comments.
On Wednesday, London’s Metropolitan Police said the band are also under investigation for comments they allegedly made during a concert at Alexandra Palace in May.
During their Glastonbury set, Bob Vylan’s singer Pascal Robinson-Foster, who performs under the name Bobby Vylan, also spoke about a record label boss he used to work for.
That boss would “speak very strongly about his support for Israel”, and had put his name to a letter urging Glastonbury to cancel Irish-language rap trio Kneecap’s performance, the musician said.
“Who do I see on that list of names but that bald-headed [expletive] I used to work for. We’ve done it all, all right? From working in bars to working for [expletive] Zionists.”
In a statement, posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Bob Vylan said: “We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine”.
They added that “we, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story, and whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction”.
The BBC has made a statement after they decided to share footage of Kneecap’s Glastonbury performance on iPlayer as they opted to clamp down on duo Bob Vylan amid backlash
Bob Vylan performed on the West Holts Stage just ahead of a performance by Kneecap
The prime minister has condemned UK punk duo Bob Vylan for urging “death” to Israeli troops in what he called “appalling hate speech”.
Glastonbury Festival organisers have also said they were “appalled” after frontman rapper Bobby Vylan led chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]”.
In a statement, Sir Keir Starmer said the BBC had questions to answer over its live broadcast of the group’s performance on Saturday.
A BBC spokesperson previously said some of the comments were “deeply offensive”, adding it had issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language”. The set will not be available on BBC iPlayer.
Sir Keir has also criticised Kneecap, who were performing immediately after Bob Vylan on the West Holts stage, saying ahead of the festival that their appearance was not “appropriate”. The Irish-language rap group have previously described Israel’s military action in Gaza as a genocide.
He said: “There is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech.
“I said that Kneecap should not be given a platform and that goes for any other performers making threats or inciting violence.”
The prime minister is the latest in a string of cabinet ministers to denounce Bobby Vylan’s comments in the 24 hours since the group appeared at Glastonbury.
Directly after the set, a government spokesperson said Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had pressed BBC boss Tim Davie for an urgent explanation of the broadcaster’s vetting process.
The government added that it welcomed the decision not to re-broadcast the performance on BBC iPlayer.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme earlier, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Bob Vylan’s comments were “revolting”.
He said the “irony of that music festival is that Israelis were taken from a music festival, killed, raped and in some cases are still being held captive”.
“Whether you are Israeli or Palestinian, whether you are Christian, Jewish or Muslim, all life is precious and we’re not going to solve one of the most intractable conflicts on earth with those sorts of stunts,” he added.
Streeting was also asked whether he agreed with the Israeli Embassy, who said the comments raise “concerns about the glorification of violence”.
He said “that is a challenge”, before adding that the embassy should also get its “own house in order”, referencing reports this week of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank after dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village.
The festival has said Bob Vylan’s statements “very much crossed a line”, while antisemitism campaigners said they will formally complain to the BBC over its “outrageous decision” to broadcast the act live.
Bob Vylan are an English punk duo based in London. Bobby Vylan serves as the singer and guitarist, while Bobbie Vylan is the drummer of the band. Both members use stage names to maintain their privacy and collectively refer to themselves as “the Bobs”.
A joint Instagram post from Glastonbury Festival and organiser Emily Eavis on Sunday said the event stood “against all forms of war and terrorism”, and that with almost 4,000 performances on site “there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share”.
“However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday,” it continued.
“Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
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Frontman Bobby Vylan’s chants were described as revolting by Wes Streeting
The Campaign Against Antisemitism group said in a post on X that Glastonbury had “continued its headlong descent into a pit of extremism and hatred, but it is the behaviour of the BBC that is even more dangerous”.
It said it would formally complain to the BBC for broadcasting the performance, as well as that of Kneecap.
The BBC did not run a live broadcast of Kneecap’s set due to editorial concerns around impartiality, but on Sunday announced the set had been made available on iPlayer, with some edits.
It said the content had been edited to ensure it “falls within the limits of artistic expression in line with our editorial guidelines” and any strong language had been signposted with “appropriate warnings”.
Kneecap has made headlines in recent months after rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence.
He is accused of displaying the flag of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah at a gig last year. He has denied the charge.
Following sets from both groups, Avon and Somerset Police said it would review footage of comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage.
The force said footage “will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation”.
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Kneecap’s highly-charged performance on Saturday drew huge crowds at the festival
Kneecap’s highly-charged performance on Saturday was watched by thousands as they hit back at Sir Keir with expletive-laden chants.
Mr Ó hAnnaidh continues to be on bail and will appear at court for the next hearing on 20 August.
Separately on Sunday, the Met Police said it will not pursue prosecution after videos emerged in April appearing to show Kneecap calling for the death of British MPs.
“A range of offences were considered as part of the investigation. However, given the time elapsed between the events in the video and the video being brought to police attention, any potential summary only offences were beyond the statutory time limit for prosecution,” the force said.
Another Glastonbury set has been pulled by the BBC after controversial comments after initially being broadcast live on Saturday afternoon
22:43, 28 Jun 2025Updated 01:40, 29 Jun 2025
Bobby Vylan of British duo Bob Vylan(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Bob Vylan became the latest to see their set removed from BBC after a controversial Glastonbury performance. The duo took to the stage at Worthy Farm prior to Irish trio Kneecap’s eagerly anticipated set.
But, like their Irish counterparts, Bob Vylan found themselves victims of the beeb’s cuts. It comes after complaints were made about their set, which was initially shown live on iPlayer. It has since been swiftly removed fans noticed.
One user on Twitter /X remarked: “They’ve already took Bob Vylan’s set off of the iPlayer do don’t expect to see Kneecap on there any time soon lmao.” It comes after another had said: “Someone better quick download that Bob Vylan set as there’s no way that’s staying on iplayer.”
Bob Vylan’s set has been removed from iPlayer(Image: Getty Images)
A third had commented: “The BBC really thought they had it all covered by not live streaming Kneecaps set. Then comes along Bob Vylan.” Another jibed: “Noticed the BBC haven’t uploaded Kneecap and Bob Vylan’s sets to iPlayer yet. Something they said?”
During their set, Bob Vylan sparked chants of “death to the IDF”. The musician was streamed live on the BBC ahead of Kneecap’s highly anticipated performance. The duo also vented their support for Palestine as a large message appeared on the screen behind them. It read: “Free Palestine. United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a ‘conflict’.”
Bobby then called out chants “Free Free Palestine” and “Death Death to the IDF,” [Israel Defence Forces], with the bumper crowd shouting it back. He then said: “From the river to the sea Palestine must be, will be, free.”
Bob Vylan at Glastonbury(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The duo also shared their support for Kneecap as they went on: “Recently a list was released of people trying to stop our mates Kneecap from performing here today.
“And who do I see on that f***ing list, but that bald-headed c*** I used to f***ing work for.” Speaking about a colleague at a record company he used to work at, his comments were met by loud boos from the crowd. And he continued to say: “We’re seeing some f***ed up things in the world.
“We’re seeing the UK and the US be complicit in war crimes and genocide happening over there to the Palestinian people. And I know we’re on the BBC, we’re not going to say anything crazy. Leave that for them lads, you know what I mean.
“But unfortunately we have seen a strange reaction to people that come out and voice support for Palestine. Even though anybody with any moral compass can surely see that what is happening over there in Gaza is a tragedy.”
Bobby added: “We are not pacifist punks here over at Bob Vylan Enterprises. We are the violent punks, because sometimes, you have to get your message across with violence because that is the only language some people speak.”
NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez arrived at a federal prison on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. The New Jersey Democrat has been mocked for the crimes as “Gold Bar Bob,” according to his own lawyer.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Menendez was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill in Minersville, Pa. The facility has a medium-security prison and a minimum-security prison camp. Given the white-collar nature of his crimes, it’s likely he’ll end up in the camp.
The prison is about 118 miles west of New York City. It’s home to about 1,200 inmates, including ex-New York City organized crime boss James Coonan and former gas station owner Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, whom the New York Post dubbed “Gas-Station Gotti” for his ruthless, violent ways.
Menendez, 71, maintains his innocence. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected his last-ditch effort to remain free on bail while he fights to get his bribery conviction overturned. A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his bail motion.
Pleading for leniency, Menendez told a judge at his sentencing in January: “I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions. I’ve done far more good than bad.”
Menendez has also appeared to be angling for a pardon from President Trump, aligning himself with the Republican’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City.
“This process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system,” Menendez told reporters after his January sentencing.
In X posts that were made on Tuesday and later deleted, Menendez criticized prosecutors as politically motivated and opposed to his foreign policy views, and praised Trump for “rising above the law fare.”
Menendez resigned last year after he was convicted of selling his clout for bribes. FBI agents found $480,000 in cash in his home, some of it stuffed inside boots and jacket pockets, along with gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Menendez performed corrupt favors for New Jersey business owners, including protecting them from criminal investigations, helping in business deals with foreign powers and meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials before helping Egypt access $300 million in U.S. military aid.
Menendez, who once chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned a month after his conviction. He had been in the Senate since 2006.
Two business owners were also convicted last year along with Menendez.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, was convicted in April of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes from the business owners. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
At his sentencing, Menendez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants emerged from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream” — rising from mayor of Union City, N.J., to decades in Congress — before his conviction “rendered him a national punchline.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” defense lawyer Adam Fee told the judge.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Michael Catalini in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.
Interview from 2011: How music takes Brian Wilson back to the 1960s
Musicians have paid tribute to Brian Wilson, the legendary frontman and co-founder of The Beach Boys, who has died at the age of 82.
Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan said he had spent “years” admiring Wilson’s “genius” while Sir Elton John described him as a “true giant” who had the “biggest influence” on his songwriting.
Wilson’s family said they were “heartbroken” and “at a loss for words” to announce his death. Their statement did not give a cause.
The Beach Boys were one of America’s biggest bands, whose success rivalled the Beatles in the 1960s.
Born in 1942 and raised in Hawthorne, California, Wilson formed a group with his younger brothers Carl and Dennis, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine.
They went on to sellmore than 100 million records globally, according to the group’s website.
Music magazine Rolling Stone ranked them at 12 on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.
Wilson churned out dozens of hit singles, including the three number one songs I Get Around, Help Me, Rhonda and Good Vibrations.
He was known for using the recording studio to create unique sounds, especially on the album Pet Sounds, which contributed to his reputation as a music pioneer.
Frank Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy Sinatra, who enjoyed a high-profile music career around the time of The Beach Boys’ heyday, shared a picture with Wilson on Instagram.
“His cherished music will live forever as he travels through the Universe and beyond,” she wrote. “God bless you, sweet Brian.”
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Brian Wilson was a music pioneer
Mick Fleetwood, of the band Fleetwood Mac, wrote: “Anyone with a musical bone in their body must be grateful for Brian Wilson’s genius magical touch !! And greatly saddened of this major worldly loss!!”
Sean Ono Lennon, son of Beatles frontman John Lennon and Yoko Ono, called Wilson the “American Mozart” and a “one of a kind genius from another world”.
“Anyone who really knows me knows how heartbroken I am about Brian Wilson passing,” he wrote on X.
“Not many people influenced me as much as he did. I feel very lucky that I was able to meet him and spend some time with him. He was always very kind and generous.”
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood said his “world is in mourning”, as he noted that Sly Stone and Wilson both died this week.
Universal Music Group’s chief executive Sir Lucian Grainge called Wilson “one of the most talented singer-songwriters in the history of recorded music”.
“If there was a human being who made art out of inexpressible sadness it was Brian Wilson,” the musician Questlove wrote in a long tribute on Instagram.
CAROLINE BREHMAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Fans laid flowers on the Beach Boys’ Hollywood Walk of Fame star in LA following news of Wilson’s death
Micky Dolenz, the last surviving member of the band the Monkees, wrote of Wilson’s passing: “His melodies shaped a generation, his harmonies changed the game, and his soul came through in every note.”
Wilson lost his wife Melinda in 2024. The couple had been married for 24 years, and adopted their children Dakota Rose, Daria Rose, Delanie Rose, Dylan and Dash together.
Wilson also had two daughters, Carnie and Wendy, from his first marriage.
The musician was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1984, according to Forbes, when doctors found evidence that his use of psychedelic drugs had potentially damaged his brain.
In the spring of 1990, the chief executive’s office at British Rail received an urgent telephone call from the area manager at Newcastle upon Tyne saying there was a one-armed Scotsman wandering around the main signal box claiming to be BR’s new chairman and wanting to know how everything worked. Was it all right to tell him?
The man was Bob Reid, who had recently moved from Shell, where he was the UK chairman, and was now on the brink of a difficult five-year stint at BR that would end in a privatisation about which he had serious misgivings. His foray into the signal box, matched by an excursion into the drivers’ restroom at Waterloo, was typical of the man. Determined, impulsive and impatient to get things moving, he had a liking for human contact and an easy manner, regardless of rank.
The offer to take over BR had come in 1990. Reid, who has died aged 91, was not the first choice; rumour had it that 20 people had already turned it down. But he saw it as an opportunity to apply his skills to an inward-looking public sector organisation that had long been a concern to government and which faced major challenges with the forthcoming Channel tunnel rail link. Reid could not wait to get started, but he dismayed some of his new colleagues with a bullish joke that he was used to much bigger projects than those he faced at BR.
When he took over, the railways were improving, although the level of government subsidy remained controversial. Under his predecessor, a veteran railwayman confusingly also called Sir Robert Reid, steady improvements had been made, helped by a benign economic environment. The business had been reorganised into sectors, which proved a success, but the recession of the early 1990s now hit railway finances and Bob Reid failed to get government backing for BR’s proposed investments.
He left the running of the railway largely to his chief executive, John Welsby, and concentrated on projects such as the Channel tunnel, which the government had made a priority. BR favoured a route through south London that provided alternative options and would be linked to expensive new facilities. But the government, with Michael Heseltine promoting the regeneration of the Docklands area, opted for an east London route. Reid took the rebuff badly and some felt he might resign, but he remarked in an outburst that he immediately regretted: “When you are in the middle of a pantomime, you want to stay with it.”
When BR famously blamed “leaves on the line” and “the wrong kind of snow” for various delays, and when he failed to get his investment plans through, his lack of success began to invite questions about his competence in dealing with government. It was not helped when the transport minister, Malcolm Rifkind, described him as being “on a learning curve”.
Within the railways, Reid’s lack of appetite for detailed knowledge grated, and managers were reluctant to discuss problems for fear of receiving a diktat. But they respected his strong emphasis on safety, including his insistence that track maintenance supervisors must brief their gangs on safety every morning.
Reid’s difficulties multiplied when John Major’s new government decided to privatise the railways. That scenario had not been part of Reid’s original brief, and he was publicly critical of the detail. He forecast accurately that the complex division of the system would multiply bureaucracy, that profits would not be sufficiently reinvested, and that safety could be compromised. Some in BR hoped he would challenge the plan by resigning. But he argued that “managing large undertakings through the medium of government is a recipe for all sorts of problems. Even though I would have done it differently, getting BR into the private sector is the main thing.”
By 1995, at the end of his term, Reid could point to better financial performance (with expectations of a £400m-a-year profit for BR), an improvement in industrial relations that had seen just two days lost to strikes over his whole period in office, and improved productivity. But he had lost the strategic battles.
The son of Elizabeth (nee Paul), and William Reid, he was born in Cupar, Fife, where his life was transformed by a terrible accident when he was nine. Working in his father’s butcher’s shop one evening, he attempted to unstick a mincing machine and lost his right hand. He described the incident as “catastrophic” but insisted it only sharpened his desire to be part of the action. He learned to write with his left hand within a fortnight and became a formidable golfer with a handicap of four. “Making things happen is a state of mind,” he would say later. “The joy of leadership lies as much in overcoming setbacks as enjoying the rewards of success.”
Reid demonstrated his leadership during a career with Shell that he started in 1956 as a management trainee after studying politics, economics and history at St Andrews. He represented the university at golf and met his future wife, Joan Oram, there – they married in 1958. He also forged significant friendships with two aspiring politicians, Bob Horton, later chairman of BP and National Rail, and John MacGregor, who was appointed transport secretary while Reid was running BR.
His Shell career, largely focused on the “downstream” processing and marketing of oil, took him to Malaysia, Nigeria, Kenya and then back to Nigeria as managing director from 1970-74, before a similar job in Thailand and a posting in Australia as director of downstream oil. In 1983 he was brought back to London as coordinator for supply and marketing, becoming chairman and chief executive of Shell UK in 1985.
Reid, nicknamed “the one-armed bandit”, was admired for his energy and enthusiasm but never reached the committee of managing directors, as board level was known at Shell. His skills in dealing with people were deployed in what was largely a representational role, although it included responsibility for UK refining and the important North Sea operations. His experience of determinedly camping in the outer offices of Nigerian ministers when they refused to see him was judged to have helped him with the UK government.
Reid’s five years as chairman reinforced his reputation for energy, unstuffiness and charisma. He crusaded for proper management training (in the absence then of business schools), establishing the Foundation for Management Education and chairing the British Institute of Management (1988-90). With his sympathy for the arts (particularly music and opera) and a keen eye for public relations, he took Shell’s sponsorship in a new direction with backing for Bafta. At a time when Shell’s continuing activity in South Africa was under attack, Reid argued that the company could be part of change, and provided liberally managed employment that helped it to be seen in a different light.
He was knighted in 1990. On leaving BR he became chairman of the retail giant Sears Holdings, and later deputy governor of the Bank of Scotland. He was the first chancellor of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Other chairmanships included London Electricity, Avis Europe and the International Petroleum Exchange.
Joan died in 2017. Reid is survived by their sons, Douglas, Paul and Michael.
BALTIMORE — Trainer Bob Baffert loves to come to the Preakness. He loves the fact that all the top horses are in the same barn, so he can kibitz with his fellow trainers, such as an extended conversation with Mark Casse about the best crabcakes in town. He loves the casual atmosphere, in contrast to the high stakes, high pressure feeling at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.
Or maybe it’s because he’s won the second leg of the Triple Crown eight times, more than any other trainer in history.
So, he was asked why he was bringing Goal Oriented, an undefeated two-time starter who has never run in a stakes race, to the Preakness.
“FOMO,” Baffert said with a laugh, referring to the acronym for “fear of missing out.”
Make no mistake, Baffert doesn’t run a horse in a race this big just because he likes the crabcakes.
Baffert had actually planned to also run Rodriguez in the Preakness. Rodriguez, the easy winner of the Wood Memorial, was supposed to run in the Kentucky Derby but scratched because of a sore hoof. He was being pointed to the Preakness. But that didn’t work out either.
“[Goal Oriented] ran well, and he worked well and came out of [the race on the Derby undercard] really well,” Baffert said. “I was thinking Rodriguez. But, I didn’t get to train him. It took me a long time. I put in a whole week to get that foot right, and then I breezed him.
“But I really think [Goal Oriented] is a bigger, stronger horse, and I think Rodriguez was not quite ready. I’d rather just shoot for the Belmont with him. He’s a lighter horse.”
No one, including Baffert, knows how good Goal Oriented is. He is the fourth favorite on the morning line at 6-1. But, given that he’s trained by Baffert, will likely go off at lower odds.
“Oh, we don’t know, [how he’ll run],” Baffert said. “We’re just going to throw him in there. He’s handled everything here. He handled the ship, and he handled Churchill, came back like it was nothing. I can tell after they win. In the winner’s circle, he just stood there, stoic, didn’t even take a deep breath. He was like, ‘Hey, that’s it?’ I like that. Some horses come back and they’re blowing (breathing heavy), they’ll blow your hat off. He wasn’t that. He handled it pretty well. We’ve always been very high on him.”
Goal Oriented, a $425,000 purchase for the same ownership consortium that also has Rodriguez and Citizen Bull, ran his first race on April 6 at Santa Anita, winning by 3 ¼ lengths. His second race was on the undercard on Derby day, winning an allowance on three-quarters of a length.
“He’s an eyeful, he’s handsome, he’s beautiful,” said Tom Ryan, who heads the ownership group. “He’s a May 15 baby who is just now coming into his own. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s gone short, he’s gone long, he’s handled the slop.
“We don’t run in Grade 1s just to have a look at a horse. We think he’s in form and deserves a shot. He has to improve for sure. He’s been great in the morning and now we’re hoping he can continue it to the afternoon.”
Goal Oriented certainly looks like he is in form, but the question remains what specifically is his form and style.
“We don’t even know his style,” Baffert said. “We put him on the lead because of the mud [at Churchill Downs] and we didn’t want to mess around. [Jockey Flavien] Prat knows him now. He’s got tactical speed, but he doesn’t have to be rushed off his feet. He’s a big strong horse.”
Baffert doesn’t claim to have any super secret key to his success at the Preakness.
“I had the best horse,” Baffert said simply. “You have to have the best horse to win. And that’s usually the best secret a trainer can have in these big races is if you have the best horse.”
He won his first Preakness in 1997 with Silver Charm. His other winners were Real Quiet (1998), Point Given (2001), War Emblem (2002), Lookin at Lucky (2010), American Pharoah (2015), Justify (2018) and National Treasure (2023).
This will most likely be the last time Baffert runs at Pimlico as it is currently constructed. The track is scheduled to be torn down almost immediately after Saturday’s race and the Preakness will move to nearby Laurel for two years during the rebuild.
The track surface and configuration will pretty much be the same. However, the place where the fans watch the race will be very different.
Baffert was more concerned that the stakes barn will remain. It will but it’s unclear if the same structure will remain or if a new barn will be built
“I like this barn,” Baffert said. “I would like to take this barn to Santa Anita.”
On Baffert’s long list of accomplishments, that’s one he may fall short on.
After seeing a series of bullet-point slides and hearing a slew of buzzwords about UCLA’s athletic department finances, Bob Myers put the crisis facing his alma mater in much simpler terms.
“It’s like water’s coming in the boat and you’re trying to get it out, but how does this thing not sink?” asked Myers, who sandwiched a hugely successful run as the Golden State Warriors’ general manager between his time as a reserve forward on the Bruins’ 1995 national championship basketball team and his appointment as the newest member of the UC board of regents, Tuesday afternoon at the UC regents meeting. “Or how can we help, I suppose?”
Myers was inquiring about an athletic department deficit that has ballooned to $219.5 million after running in the red for six consecutive fiscal years, including a $51.8-million shortfall in the 2024 fiscal year.
To address the increasingly complex issue, new UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk and athletic director Martin Jarmond brought Stephen Agostini, who recently started his second year as the school’s vice chancellor and chief financial officer, to speak to the regents’ special committee on athletics at the University of California, San Francisco.
Agostini outlined many of the UCLA athletic department’s financial challenges, including an anticipated House settlement with the NCAA that will prompt UCLA to make an annual payout of roughly $22 million to its athletes, Olympic sports running about $34 million in the red during the most recent fiscal year, the lack of suite and premium-seat revenue at the Rose Bowl as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the stadium, and licensing and sponsorship agreements with Associated Students UCLA that provides the lion’s share of revenue to the student organization.
“As many of you know, we have a fairly substantial financial challenge ahead of us,” Agostini said. “We are folding in the athletics deficits within that and will endeavor to address that. We are looking at other revenue streams … but it won’t be easy and given the volatility of the space, we’re hoping to stay abreast in an environment that changes almost monthly.”
In addressing Myers’ question, Agostini said the football and men’s basketball teams — with the women’s basketball team likely following suit — were moving toward a professional sports model in which media revenue is shared equally within conferences. USA Today recently estimated that every Big Ten Conference school besides Oregon and Washington, which agreed to take reduced shares for seven years, would receive a $75-million distribution from the conference for the 2025 fiscal year.
Since that figure is the same for almost every Big Ten school, additional income streams are essential.
“That means that what you generate out of your facilities and your other revenue opportunities becomes really critical to your bottom line,” Agostini said. “And as Martin [Jarmond] just mentioned, if we can’t generate additional revenue from tickets or premium seating or the arrangement we have with ASUCLA, it really makes that challenging for us.”
Myers then asked about tangible ways in which the athletic department could mitigate those issues.
Jarmond said the Rose Bowl had agreed to construct a premium seating section in the south end zone that could generate revenue for the school after the 2026 season. The lack of suite or club-level revenue as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the Rose Bowl because it doesn’t own the stadium is depriving the school of roughly $15 million to $25 million a year, according to Jarmond. UCLA is also examining the possibility of Pauley Pavilion renovations that could include premium seating, Jarmond said.
Earlier, Jarmond had discussed ways that his department was doing its best to cut costs. He noted that UCLA was in the bottom quartile of coaching salaries after all nine head coaching hires he had made in his nearly five years on the job were from candidates who were assistant coaches.
“That’s been a strategy that I’ve utilized,” Jarmond said, “to give opportunities to assistant coaches but also to help us competitively with personnel and cost containment.”
The school has also regionalized nonconference schedules as much as possible, with the men’s basketball team pulling out of the CBS Sports Classic to reduce travel and increase scheduling flexibility. Jarmond said UCLA was on track to come in below the $5-million increase it had budgeted for travel expenses during its first year in the Big Ten.
“We’re working our way up toward building more revenue and being able to compete in the Big Ten [and] we’ve got to do more, I will tell you that,” Jarmond said. “We can’t do it on a shoestring budget and be competitive and win at the level that we have won and want to win. It’s something that we’ve been ramping up.”
There was no mention of UCLA’s $30 million in direct campus support to the athletic department during the most recent fiscal year, an unprecedented move to help offset the massive deficit. But in his first public comments about UCLA’s athletic department, Frenk both recognized the school’s rich athletic history and acknowledged the many challenges facing a university that will host the athlete village for the 2028 Olympics.
“There continues to be a lot of uncertainty, the landscape continues to shift, the outcome of recent litigations, which have been adverse to universities, the NIL changes, new models of athlete compensation — all have huge financial implications for us,” Frenk said. “But by joining the Big Ten, we have put UCLA in the strongest possible position to navigate the current volatility and to continue supporting our students in every dimension of their lives.
“So this is a key moment in the history of intercollegiate athletics; I think it’s going to continue to be transformed rapidly in the years to come and we are trying to face this with a strategic vision, a commitment to the fact that these are students first and foremost — our commitment to their education, a commitment to competition with integrity, fair competition and those values will continue to be upheld during this time of transition.”
After UCLA’s nearly hourlong session was finished, officials from UC Santa Cruz offered a presentation on their athletic department, an NCAA Division III outfit with a tiny budget but also a corresponding $2.2-million deficit for the most recent fiscal year that might more closely align with the ideals of college athletics.
“It will be interesting, I think,” UC Santa Cruz chancellor Cynthia Larive said, “for you to see the juxtaposition of UCLA and UC Santa Cruz.”
