Rich Heldenfels, Pop Culture Wanderer

I have been reading Richard Ben Cramer's 1993 book "What It Takes: The Way to the White House" a dazzling, in-depth look at the 1988 presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, Richard Gephardt, Michael Dukakis, Gary Hart -- and Joe Biden. Although much of its treatment of politics and technology is outdated, its sense of what it takes to win an election. I was drawn to it by Matt Bai's book about Hart, but the strongest echoes in it for today are of Biden -- a man who 30 years ago was warned about habits that he still has. For example, advisers warned him " this was the big leagues. They’d try to kill him, and Joe would have to watch every move. “Stuff you been saying ... won’t wash ... stuff about your history ... it’s all going to come out. ... stuff you said, ten years ago ... everything comes out.” Indeed, the book notes his gaffes then, and they have never stopped. Or this:  When a woman in Iowa, sitting at a table at a meeting, had her ba...

Notes from some recent screen adventures ... Shaft. Not only do I remember seeing and liking the original Richard Roundtree "Shaft" in college when it was new, I also saw Roundtree performing in a Virginia dinner theater several years later. (He was good, though sketchy about his lines, and not helped by his co-star, better known as a TV news anchor.) I have no real memory of the two Roundtree sequels, or of the '70s TV series, except that Roundtree as always was cool. The Samuel L. Jackson "Shaft" sticks in memory for its "what's my name" scene, Busta Rhymes's yelling "Shaft" and having one of the great screen villains, Peoples Hernandez, played by Jeffrey Wright. So I had ample reason to see the new, three-generation "Shaft" with Roundtree, Jackson and Jessie Usher ("Survivor's Remorse"). It's not great, there are significant plot holes (and one huge early clue), but it passed the time well enough, es...