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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.


Pearl Jam – Alive

A evening pause: If you look closely, past the hard rock angst and anger and clothing and hairstyles and performance cliches, what you can see here are some very serious and skilled musicians.

Hat tip Wayne DeVette.

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

5 comments

  • TimArth

    Interestingly, the lyrics are also very personal to Mr. Vedder. His parents split up when he was an infant and after his mother remarried, he grew up thinking that the new husband was his real father. There is a verse to two about that in this song.

  • Wayne

    TimArth:
    Thanks–was not aware of that factoid. Compelling song.

    Q: What’s the background for the tune “Off He Goes?” >The single best tune I have ever heard, describing mental illness. It’s touchingly-eerie in it’s exactness.
    (Similar for “Why Go Home.” The anthem for a large cohort of young, disaffected, girls, during the 90’s.)

  • Joe

    Good taste in music Wayne!

  • TimArth

    Wayne – First – sorry for the extreme delay. You may not even see this. Second, sorry in advance for the disappointing response. I do not know the background for those other songs, but I do know, in general, Vedder does lean very sympathetic to the plight of women and young women in general. Most of that comes from his relationship with his mother and the sympathy he had for her troubled relationships with his real father and step-father. “Alive” from Ten demonstrates this as well as “Deep” and “Daughter” from Vs. for just three examples. He is also very, very pro-choice as an example. He is also good buddies with Sean Penn – which says a lot. Now, I do not agree with him on much, but I have always been a big fan of his talents. He was also a thespian early on and you can see that briefly, and early on, in Cameron Crowe’s movie Singles. One of my favorite songs of Eddie’s is on the sound track of Sean Penn’s “Into The Wild” and it was called “Hard Sun” (Sean Penn directed – not acted in).

  • Wayne

    TimArth:
    Hey!
    Oh yeah– Eddie is a left-wing nut-job as far as his politics, but he can certainly pen a tune.

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