Whenever I think of Richard Nixon, a wave of pity washes over me. Has there ever been a mainstream politician in America who was so hated, so reviled, so disrespected as Nixon? (I’m sure my esteemed editor would say that Nixon deserved every last brickbat thrown at him.) Like Shaft, Nixon was a complicated man–charming and cold, clever and calculating, craven and crafty. Dead for more than twenty years–he died a month before Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the widow of his late rival, John F. Kennedy, in the same hospital in which she was treated–he would have been 102 years old on January 19. The former president is still a fascinating study.

Who knew? Before there was Fox-TV’s Empire, there was John Dolphin (Broadway veteran Stu James),who from 1948-1958 was an African American impresario and entrepreneur who pioneered “Race music” at a critical time when Rock ‘n’ Roll was being born. AsRecorded in Hollywood splendidly dramatizes through music, dance, dialogueand more, this trailblazer presided over his show biz domain from the record shop Dolphin’s of Hollywood. However, as this bioplay quickly reveals in Act I, the emporium from whence Dolphin ruled his mini-empire was not located on then-lily white Hollywood Blvd., where not- so-angelic Angeleno realtors literally refused to rent a space out to him, even when offered rent in advance in hard cold cash.

On July 21, the last day of the Republican National Convention, activists across the nation rallied at the offices of Republican politicians and corporations sponsoring the RNC to denounce the racism, xenophobia, and misogyny expressed by Donald Trump. In Columbus the focus was primarily on Trump’s disdain for green energy.

“No more coal. No more oil. Keep your carbon in the soil!” shouted a dozen young protesters outside the Columbus office of Senator Rob Portman. “Don’t give in to racist fear. Immigrants are welcome here!”

 “We’re trying to make people aware of the dangerous rhetoric that Donald Trump, Senator Portman, and the rest of the Republican Party have put into their platform: attacking the environment and not moving in the direction of clean energy,” said David Miller, organizer for NextGen Climate. “Donald Trump complains about the EPA and has talked disparagingly about the movement for clean energy. Gutting the EPA is a very dangerous position to take.”