Paris Terror Attack: Charlie Hebdo, on the Smithsonian Channel

At the time, it seemed as if the terrorist attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo wouldn’t wake up the world to the profound threat of terrorism nothing would—but as usual, it didn’t. However, the cost of the Western world burying its head in the sand would become tragically clear during the coordinated Mumbai-style attacks in Paris this November. In fact, the January 2015 murders and hostage crisis are explicitly identified as forerunners of the larger atrocities to come in the special report, Paris Terror Attack: Charlie Hebdo, which air this Monday on the Smithsonian Channel.

Lest we forget, the terrorists targeted Charlie Hebdo not out of frustration with unemployment, but because their Islamist ideology could not abide a few jokes at the old prophet’s expense. You can hear them scream precisely that during their murderous assault. PTA includes most of the highly disturbing closed circuit camera footage of their crimes, but it cuts away at the fatal moment when the vicious Kouachi brothers shoot Muslim Parisian policeman Ahmed Merabet point blank in the head.

There are a lot of inconvenient truths in PTA, like the fact the Kouachis and their former prison mate Amedy Coulibaly were native born French. Also, no doubts should remain as to why Coulibaly chose to take the patrons of a kosher Hypercacher supermarket hostage. According to one survivor, he tellingly told her: “you Jews love life, but we Muslims prefer death.” Details like that have been grossly under-reported, but PTA duly includes them.

American coverage of the Hebdo and Hypercacher incidents were pretty sketchy at the time, because the media is always uncomfortable reporting Islamist terrorism. As a result, the special’s tick-tock chain of events is quite illuminating. There is also a good faith attempt to present Merabet’s grieving parents as the voice of moderate Islam. Yet, when they condemn extremists of all faiths, we cannot help thinking their beloved son was not killed by radical Unitarians.

Regardless, PTA’s underlying thesis arguing the Charlie Hebdo attack was an unheeded warning of greater terrorism to come is totally on-point and tough to argue against. By chronicling the horrific events, step-by-step, it gives us another chance to come to grips with Islamist terror, but we will probably ignore it again. Recommended for anyone who wants to better understand issues of terrorism and homeland security, Paris Terror Attack: Charlie Hebdo premieres this Monday (1/4) on the Smithsonian Channel. Happy New Year.

Legend of Lead Belly: It’s All True

Eventually, Alan Lomax’s defenders and detractors have to deal with Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. Yes, it was Lomax who plucked Ledbetter from the harsh obscurity of the Angola Prison Farm’s chain gang, but Ledbetter ultimately made his name and his career on his own. Ledbetter’s almost mythical life and continuing influence are chronicled in Legend of Lead Belly (promo here), which premieres this Monday on the Smithsonian Channel.

He was the son of a share-cropper, who picked his share of cotton in his early years. Preferring the more independent but uncertain life of a roving musician, he became a protégé of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Unfortunately, their work took Ledbetter into places where booze and trouble mixed freely, with the latter frequently ensnaring him. Angola was not his first prison stint. Famously, Ledbetter had earlier convinced lame duck Texas governor Pat Neff to pardon him with a song written in his honor.

As the expert commentators make clear, Lead Belly was just as much of a song-hunter as Lomax, but he did not merely collect and record them. He always gave them a twist to make them his own. Thanks to his influential recordings and documented performances, tunes like “Midnight Special,” “Goodnight Irene,” “Rock Island Line,” and “House of the Rising Sun” entered into our collective songbook and would become huge hits for various artists in the 1960s.

Although just an hour in length, Legend covers the cream of his greatest hits and the major milestones of his iconic life (but sadly they leave out the campaign song he wrote for liberal Republican Wendell Wilkie). We also get a sense of his dedication to his second wife and his graciousness towards the up-and-coming folkies. Perhaps what is most striking are the scenes of his justly proud family today, who have clearly come a long way from his hardscrabble roots. While Ledbetter enjoyed a taste of success, he served as the catalyst for his family’s eventual upward mobility. In gratitude, they keep his name and music alive through the educational Lead Belly Foundation.

Written, directed, and produced by Alan Ravenscroft, Legend moves along at a good pace and features some big name talking heads, including Van Morrison, the not-as-out-of-place-as-you-might-think Judy Collins, The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, and The Doors’ Robby Krieger, as well as several descendants. It is a tasteful sampling of a towering figure of Americana that ought to help sell a few copies of the Smithsonian Folkways’ upcoming five-CD career-surveying box set. There is always a need for more programming about blues artists (or blues, etc. in Lead Belly’s case), so Legend of Lead Belly is quite welcome indeed when it airs this coming Monday (2/23) on Smithsonian Channel.