‘A Complete Unknown’: The Ballad of TOSHI by Merrill Markoe

I think James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown is a entertaining, generally effective film. It definitely has a flaw in its meager interest in its female characters, though, an issue that crops up from time to time across Mangold’s filmography. Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro try their best to invest some inner lives in their larger supporting roles only to be often stuck in one of two modes: looking at Bob Dylan with awestruck admiration for his talent or looking at Dylan with fury for his personal transgressions. Acknowledging that a film focuses on Dylan can only spare so much time for the various other figures in his orbit, A Complete Unknown maybe does worst by Toshi Seeger, played by Eriko Hatsune. Married to Pete Seeger, Toshi was a formidable figure who was as central to the folk scene of the day as her spouse, just without spending time on stage. It the film, she does little more than frets around the fringes of the action. In this piece written for her own Substack, Merrill Markoe (who knows a thing or two about the culture’s determined devaluing of a woman’s invaluable backstage contributions) writes about the Toshi’s diminished stature in the film with an understandable frustration.

What Happened to Carter’s White House Solar Panels? They Lived On. by Austyn Gaffney

Many years ago, a college student I worked closely with heard the story of President Jimmy Carter overseeing the addition of solar panels to the roof of the White House and his disastrously bad successor in the nation’s highest post later having them removed. She genuinely couldn’t wrap her head around why a major political figure would make such a needlessly small and petty choice. There have been a lot of remembrances of Carter following his recent passing, most of them properly centered on his fundamental kindness and decency (and not quite enough words devoted to the out-of-hand malice of Republicans who opposed him, including the treasonous manipulations of Ronald Reagan and his allies to prolong the Iran hostage crisis to help tip the election). I’m fond of this piece of reporting that covers the fate of those discarded solar panels. Austyn Gaffney wrote this for The New York Times.