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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.


Green Book – Orange Bird Piano scene

An evening pause: The premise of this scene from the 2018 movie Green Book is nothing new, and has been done innumerable times. That said, who cares? It is always fun to watch, especially if well done.

Hat tip Mike Nelson.

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

7 comments

  • Scott M.

    BTW, for anyone who hasn’t seen it I highly recommend watching this movie. Viggo Mortenson is great, and it’s much more about two people getting to know each other rather than “RACISM BAD, MMMKAY?”

  • Phil Berardelli

    Great scene from a fine movie that deservedly won Best Picture. Mahershali Ali did a fine portrayal of Don Shirley, and Viggo Mortensen is witty and appealing as Tony “The Lip.” If you’ll permit a bit of shameless promotion, here’s my capsule review of the movie, in a chapter called “Odd Couples,” in my book Phil’s 2nd Favorite 500 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NVGHGN1).

    Also, Bob, correcting the title (an error I kept making as well), it’s…

    Green Book
    2018 – Mahershali Ali and Viggo Mortensen
    The year is 1962, in the middle John F. Kennedy’s presidency, and the civil rights movement that would reach its peak during the decade is gaining momentum. But the old ways are dying hard, and any African American traveling the country still needs to exercise great caution in approaching such otherwise normal activities as entering a restaurant or arranging for a motel room. Hence the Green Book, a guide to establishments that non-whites can safely patronize. But the movie’s title, and the book, provide the barest pretenses for what is essentially an absorbing odd-couple comedy–drama based on a true story. Famed jazz pianist Don Shirley (Ali) hires Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Mortensen), a tough guy with mob connections, to serve as his driver and bodyguard during a concert tour through what used to be called the Deep South. Vallelonga does so reluctantly, but he needs the money, and heaven knows Shirley needs the protection, not only because of his skin color but also because he turns out to be a gay man at a time when America’s tolerance for the lifestyle was nonexistent outside of its largest cities. Derived from interviews with both men (the script was co-written by Vallelonga’s son, Nick), the story evolves, predictably but not completely, from suspicion and mistrust to mutual respect and strong friendship. The motion picture academy members liked it enough to award it the Best Picture Oscar, and Ali the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. In a stronger year, I’d say it would have been an also-ran. But that’s a quibble. It’s a solid movie, ably directed by Peter Farrelly, who’s best known for his raunchy comedies. [Trivia note: TV fans might recognize the real Vallelonga, who died in 2013. He played the role of the sly mob-boss Carmine Lupertazzi in The Sopranos] [Caution: language, some violence and sexuality] [W]

  • Alex Andrite

    Yes, a great watch !
    Esp the family dinner scene.

  • Phil: Title fixed. Thank you.

  • wayne

    Phil Berardelli–
    Good stuff!

  • Phil Berardelli:

    Thank you On the Amazon list.

  • Phil Berardelli

    Wayne and Blair: Thanks very much.

    Bob: You’re welcome. I noticed because I had been doing same.

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