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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


The Fixx – Red Skies

An evening pause: Hat tip Joe Griffin.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • wayne

    Joe–
    Nice selection—I totally forgot, about these guys! Heavy rotation on MTV at the time. (Back when they actually played music & had very little advertising.)

  • Rene Borbon

    Without leftist politics too

  • Joe

    I think Wayne grew up listening to a lot of the same stuff i did, finally back in the country after a wedding in the Caribbean!

  • wayne

    Joe–
    Good deal on the wedding trip.
    I suspect we’ve heard quite a bit, of the same music.

    Rene–
    We had MTV on our cable system from day one. It was amazing to actually see “music video” 24/7.
    Definitely had more of an alternative FM radio feel, for the first few years. (I couldn’t however, tell you when the last time I actually watched MTV or VH1– must have been the mid 90’s.)

    MTV Launch
    August 1, 1981
    https://youtu.be/unVqWMDNYGA
    (5:55)

  • BSJ

    Thanks for this! I’ve been trying to figure out the name of one of their songs for a couple years now! Kept getting sidetracked because I thought it was by Yes…

    Stand or Fall. “Red or blue, what’s the difference?”

    She’s a Beauty was the first video I ever saw on MTv. Didn’t have cable at the time. Saw it at a Holiday Inn.

  • wayne

    BSJ-
    Good stuff.
    (Stand or Fall is, pretty good. I’ll restrain myself from linking to it.) They do have a distinct sound, but I empathize with co-mingling them with a band like Yes.

    I ended up wasting a bit of time reviewing early 80’s music, jogged the memory quite a bit!
    It was definitely a transitional time period.

    Har…I distinctly recall the “wow, this hotel has MTV,” feeling!

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