Stone to Wilson to Moholo: Tunes from three legends who left us in June
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CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
One-on-One With Director Spike Lee; Trump and Putin Meet to Discuss Ukraine - First Of All with Victor Blackwell - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
One-on-One With Director Spike Lee; Trump and Putin Meet to Discuss Ukraine First Of All with Victor Blackwell 41 mins Could President Trump's meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin have 'just been an email,' or is something substantive starting to emerge after their summit in Alaska? Victor speaks with Retired Brigadier General and Democratic candidate for Congress Shawn Harris, political commentator Janelle King and author Charles Blow. They also discuss President Trump's escalating effort to reshape the presentation of history and culture at Smithsonian museums. Plus, Victor goes one-on-one with Spike Lee. Why the acclaimed director says the U.S. under President Trump is no longer a 'beacon of democracy'. Spike Lee also explains why he plans to vote for Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City, and we also discuss his new joint 'Highest 2 Lowest' and working with 'greatest living actor' Denzel Washington for a 5th time, along with A$AP Rocky for the 1st time.
New York Times
8 hours ago
- New York Times
‘War Is Too Serious to Take Seriously All the Time,' So He Wrote a Comic Novel
'We go to war because of stories,' said the novelist Elliot Ackerman, who tells stories because he went to war. He was thinking of Vladimir Putin redrafting history to justify Russia's actions in Ukraine. But also of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served five tours of duty as a Marine and C.I.A. paramilitary officer, awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a Silver Star with a citation for 'heroic actions' during the second battle for Falluja in 2004. In his 2019 memoir 'Places and Names,' Ackerman offered eviscerating details underlying that commendation, mindful of the men he had lost, the abandoned allies and missions gone wrong. He chose not to deploy a sixth time. 'You have to declare for yourself a separate peace,' he said recently. The writer that the wars made of him has now taken an unexpectedly comic turn with his new novel, 'Sheepdogs,' published by Knopf on Aug. 5. In two memoirs and seven novels he has been reflective, elegiac, often ruefully nostalgic, at times quietly angry, always sternly principled, and analytical to the point of prophetic about what he considers pernicious developments at home and abroad. Many of his fictional subjects, like the orphaned Afghan boys in 'Green on Blue,' his 2015 debut, have tended to be caught in the roil of warfare and the fallout of ethnic, religious and cultural clashes. 'Sheepdogs' is a gear shift into deceptively rip-roaring caper mode. 'When I get together with guys I served with,' Ackerman said, 'we tell funny stories, even about serious stuff. War is too serious to take seriously all the time, and absurd because it flips norms — like 'Thou shalt not kill' — on their heads. Because I love heist books and buddy comedies, I wanted to tell a story in that register, about the economy that exists around war after it ends.' Ackerman keeps his medals in a bedroom drawer in the Fifth Avenue apartment he shares with his second wife, the novelist and screenwriter Lea Carpenter. (He spends half his time in Washington, D.C., with his daughter and son from his first marriage.) On a sizzling day in July he was sitting in the velvety cool of his Manhattan living room, one large wall covered with a mural-size lithograph of the 1792 storming of the Tuileries Palace, created by Ashley Hicks, a family friend. The French Revolution is one sly subtext to Ackerman's twisty who-stole-it. Disney's 'Robin Hood,' and 'great two-handers' like 'Lethal Weapon,' he said, are two others. (Still, he doesn't want it forgotten that Mel Gibson's Los Angeles police detective in the movie franchise is 'also a suicidal Vietnam vet.') In 'Sheepdogs,' two down-on-their-luck ex-military pals (think Robin Hood and Little John) accept a lucrative assignment from an online source known only as Sheep Dog: to repossess a private jet with a mysterious cargo held hostage on an airstrip in swampy Uganda. Cheese (as in 'Big Cheese Aziz') is a former flying ace with the Afghan Air Force, reduced to working nights at a Texas gas station. His American counterpart, discharged for conduct unbecoming of a member of a C.I.A. division so clandestine it's known only as the Office, goes by Skwerl, because, like a squirrel, he 'could get you anything you needed' and 'because Marines can't spell for [expletive].' Apart from the G.I. Joes and model fighter planes Ackerman single-mindedly collected as a boy, landing in the military scarcely seemed in the cards. He was raised in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and London, a son of the Wall Street investor Peter Ackerman, a co-founder of FreshDirect and a prominent proponent of international nonviolent conflict resolution. His mother, the novelist Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, has long been active in PEN International. Aimless as a teenager, Ackerman said he found his first sense of meritocratic community and competitive drive among the 'skater rats' of the as-yet-ungentrified South Bank in London. He 'joined R.O.T.C. in college, graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2003, was first in his class at Quantico and, at 24, was among the youngest commissioned officers in charge of a platoon in Iraq. A few years later he traded his Marine Corps body armor for Pashtun mountain garb, working covertly as a paramilitary adviser to Afghan troops battling the Taliban. He remains bitter over 'the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan' in 2021, when, as chronicled in his second memoir, 'The Fifth Act,' he participated long-distance in an effort to evacuate as many Afghan allies as possible from Kabul. Ackerman said he has never been required to vet his writing with the Marine Corps or the C.I.A. This leaves open to conjecture what Langley would make, in 'Sheepdogs,' of Knotty Pleasures, a rope-manufacturing business run by Skwerl's dominatrix girlfriend that is markedly more solvent than his security company; of her excommunicated Amish client's unforeseen skills; or of the White Russian, a female mastermind from the South Bronx with ultimate authority over 'America's off-the-books armies.' The book is being developed as a streaming series by Tom Hanks's production company, and Ackerman is at work on a sequel. Despite its zany elements, 'Sheepdogs' turns somber in its apparent allusions to a disastrous 2008 U.S. military raid on the village of Azizabad that left some 90 civilians dead, including about 60 children. (The Pentagon disputed this figure.) Ackerman, who was the Marine Special Operations Officer in charge of ground operations for the strike, has not spoken publicly about it. Asked about how the attack reverberates in the novel, which locates it in a place called Now Zad, and its psychic toll on Skwerl, he said, 'My fiction is my way of writing about war in its totality, and the degrees of complexity around it, whether in Falluja, Haditha, Helmand Province or Azizabad. 'Now Zad is not a stand-in for Azizabad, no more than Sperkai is in 'Green on Blue,'' he added. 'My job was raids for years, and I saw a lot, some of it good and some of it horrible. All the books I've written engage with that.' He is proud to have served in 2005 as commander of a Marine infantry battalion aiding in relief operations in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. But he feels just as strongly, in view of the ongoing Marine and National Guard presence in cities like Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., that 'sending Federal troops on what increasingly feels like a politically motivated deployment is toxic to our society and to our military.' Ackerman credits his military and intelligence-gathering experiences for his ability to hone his characters psychologically. 'Living inside your characters' heads is like leading a platoon or, in special ops, figuring out what makes your adversaries tick,' he said. He now co-teaches a course at Yale, 'Field Operations in Global Affairs,' with Matt Trevithick, the C.E.O. of Blank Slate Technologies, which works with the defense, aviation and security industries. They became friends at the start of Ackerman's writing career, while Trevithick was a consultant to humanitarian and development organizations in the volatile borderlands of southern Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. 'Sheepdogs' leans more into 'the eccentric and absurdist' than other Ackerman books, Trevithick said, but it's not a complete change of direction. 'Both of us agreed a long time ago that the truest way to write about our complicated experiences was through fiction, which can capture what's true even if the stories aren't,' he added. Or, as Ackerman sees it, 'Times of great upheaval are vital for fiction.'
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fans Congratulate Tabitha Brown on 'Unexpected' Career Update
Fans Congratulate Tabitha Brown on 'Unexpected' Career Update originally appeared on Parade. Tabitha Brown's presence precedes her. Even without meeting her, you can feel her genuine warmth through the screen. She's funny and witty, exceptionally down to earth, and oh so real. And her unique ability to speak directly to the heart and soul of people from all walks of life makes her incredibly approachable and all the more endearing. It seems as though she was born to be every bit of who she is—inspiring, monumental, full-force Tabitha. Whether she's sharing her delicious, easy vegan recipes, offering some much-needed life advice in the way that only she can, or just making us laugh with her incredible sense of humor, it's safe to say Mrs. Brown has very much earned the auntie moniker. She feels like a close friend or relative that you can call on when you need someone to cheer you up, and she's always going to give it to you straight. There's something about her aura that just draws you in, and if it doesn't, well, that's your business. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 Speaking of business, Tab knows a thing or two about being a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur and has been churning out noteworthy products and projects faster than we can keep up with. When she isn't whipping up magic in the kitchen using her cookbook Cooking From the Spirit, showing us how to use the blends from her exclusive line with McCormick, turning out a vibrant array of products exclusively for Target, helping us keep our natural hair in check with Donna's Recipe, or penning another New York Times best-selling book, Tabitha is most likely flexing her acting seen her in roles on The Chi and in a few cameos here and there, but Tabitha the actress is about to have her moment on the big screen. That's right, everyone's favorite internet auntie is adding executive producer and headlining actress to her resume alongside comedic heavyweight Lil Rel Howery. This holiday season, Tabitha Brown, along with an incredibly talented ensemble cast, is headed to the big screen to have an Unexpected Christmas. What is Unexpected Christmas About? The film, written by Cassandra Mann and directed by Michael Vaughn Hernandez, follows the Scott family as they gather for the holidays, a reunion that quickly (and hilariously) devolves into chaos. Without giving too much of the plot away, the official synopsis says to expect 'a few romantic mix-ups, old rivalries" and "plenty of family secrets." "With love, laughter, and a little bit of chaos around every corner, this Christmas might just bring the Scotts closer together — or blow the roof off the house!' In addition to being executive producers, Tabitha Brown and Lil Rel will also star in the movie alongside Anna Maria Horsford, DomiNque Perry, Reagan Gomez-Preston, Terrence Terrell, Trell Woodberry, Howie Bell, Cece Friday, Ricco Ross, and Koryn Hawthorne. The film is slated to be released on November 7, 2025. What Are Fans Saying Word of the feature film's release prompted congratulations for the social media personality, with several fans saying, 'So happy for you!!!' Overwhelmingly, fans said they 'Can't wait 🙌🏽' and personally speaking, I can't either. I'll make sure to be front and center on release day for this one. While we don't have a trailer for the film yet, we can only assume that one is coming soon. Either way, like we've always been, we'll be tuned into whatever Auntie Tab has to say Congratulate Tabitha Brown on 'Unexpected' Career Update first appeared on Parade on Aug 16, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 16, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
