GUIDE Special Edition 'COMMAND AND CONTROL' on PBS - Jan 10 2017 edition

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A MUST-WATCH, TUESDAY NIGHT ON TV (with replay times noted for you).
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"COMMAND AND CONTROL" Premieres Tonight as a two-hour special edition of the PBS documentary series, "THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE."

It's the true story of a US ballistic missile that nearly exploded in its silo in Damascus, Arkansas in 1980. The nuclear warhead atop that missile was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. And today's nukes, now being "renewed," are more powerful still.

As our political reins change hands a week from Friday, we are again in the position of asking a small handful of the most existential questions in the history of humanity:

Do we have leaders inclined to achieving sustainable peace or to continuation of endless war? Are those whose counsel they value predisposed toward peace or war or overly biased toward the prosperity of the military-industrial-cybersecurity complex? Are our leaders, et. al., entering a global arena oriented toward finding peace or toward endless war?

It isn't just the unknowns of an incoming president. You'll see familiar faces. Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas when this happened.

Certainly, the entire topic and its myriad implications is, for anyone paying attention, unnerving. But it won't go away if you ignore it or don your rose-colored shades. The timing of these two hours of television could not be more appropriate.

"Command and Control" has already screened at top film festivals, and been accliamed by widely divergent media:

"Uncommonly gripping" —  Newsweek
"Both fascinating and utterly chilling" —  Entertainment Weekly
"More unnerving than a Hollywood horror film." —  CBS News
"...combines Cold War-era thriller with post-apocalyptic nightmare." —  Rolling Stone

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The series' producers say, "[It] is a minute-by-minute account of the long-hidden story of a deadly 1980 accident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas, exploring the terrifying truth about the management of America's nuclear arsenal and showing what can happen when the weapons built to protect us threaten to destroy us."

This television premiere of "Command and Control" is the new season premiere of "American Experience" on PBS at 9/8c -*.

* - In some areas, "Command and Control" may be delayed approximately 30 minutes by President Obama’s Farewell Speech. That should not be a factor in Pacific time zones, but check late local listings in case the speech replays to be sure of accurate broadcast times.
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WATCH A PREVIEW of "Command and Control" now, at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/trailer/command-and-control-trailer/
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Explore the U.S. history of NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS through DECLASSIFIED GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS. That's at:

https://medium.com/americanexperiencepbs/whats-a-nuclear-accident-and-how-many-have-we-had-2aab850a79cb#.8fqq65g9m
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This intro is at the link just above...

"What’s a Nuclear 'Accident' and How Many Have We Had?"

"The American Experience film 'Command and Control' tells the story of a dropped socket that almost caused a nuclear disaster. But it’s not the only accident on the books."

By Cori Brosnahan

"All-out nuclear war may be the greatest risk we face with modern weaponry, but it’s not the only one.

"Radioactive contamination. Seizure, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon. Accidental or unauthorized launching, firing, or use of a nuclear-capable weapon system. Public hazard, actual or implied. These are the kinds of events the military calls 'broken arrows.'

"The Pentagon maintains that the United States has experienced 32 broken arrow accidents, including the 1980 episode in Damascus, Arkansas  —  the subject of the American Experience documentary 'Command and Control.' However, there are many other incidents involving nuclear arsenal that don’t make that list.

"Below are two documents. The first enumerates the 32 official broken arrows; the second, a declassified document from the Defense Atomic Support Agency obtained by journalist Eric Schlosser, includes hundreds more. These events range from the fairly minor — the unexplained activation of a sprinkler system in an aircraft carrier’s weapons storage compartment (Accidents and Incidents During the Period 1 December 1982 through 28 February 1963, Incident #4) — to the significantly more serious — a weapon burning for approximately four hours with two low order detonations (Accidents and Incidents During the Period 1 July 1957 through 31 March 1967, Incident #23).
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"Download the document that outlines the 32 official broken arrows,"

and separately, "Download the previously classified document from the Defense Atomic Support Agency,"

both at the link below:

https://medium.com/americanexperiencepbs/whats-a-nuclear-accident-and-how-many-have-we-had-2aab850a79cb#.8fqq65g9m

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More compelling online video...

"Scene Breakdown: Filming in a Missile Silo —  Inside a Titan II Missile Silo"

The show's producers say, "Capturing the majesty and intricacy of a Titan II missile silo on film was critical to telling the story of the 1980 Damascus accident. Hear more from Robert Kenner on how he filmed crucial scenes in a deactivated missile silo complex in Arizona to make our story come to life."

Okay, "intricacy" we get. But to say "majesty" is chilling to the bone. Watch this short "making-of' feature. It illustrates plenty. In it, in filmmaker Kenner's words: "The Air Force said it was 'a million-to-one-shot' that a dropped [eight-pound socket from a socket wrench] could hit the missile."

But when the filmmakers recreated the drop in the sole-remaining Titan II missile silo, now a museum, "we dropped 12 styrofoam sockets. Six of them hit the missile."
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In addition to the incident detailed, there is plenty in this film that reveals just how close we have come —  by accident —  to nuclear apocalypse. Because ANY ONE detonation of a modern, high-yield nuclear warhead is a literal apocalypse on a scale too massive to contemplate.

Watch this interview with Kenner and its "making of" scenes in the video clip at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoxB88rL_2M&feature=youtu.be
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Unless you have a gig or hot tickets to a show tonight, then your TV is the place you need to be:

✔ KOCE, aka PBS SoCal, 9-11 pm tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017.)

✔ It REPEATS:

a) late tonight on the same channel, 2:30-4:30 am (Wednesday morning)

b) 4-6 pm Friday on "PBS World."

c) 9-11 pm Friday on "PBS World."

d) 5-7 am Saturday on "PBS World."

e) 11 am-1 pm Saturday on "PBS World."

f) 10 pm-midnight Saturday on "PBS+."

g) 1-3 am Sunday on "PBS+."


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LEGALESE, CONTACTING US, 'N SUCH...

Boilerplate? Where's the main pressure gauge? And the firebox?

What "boilerplate"? Who came up with that goofy term for the basic essential informational stuff...
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Pssst – Hey, kid. Yeah, YOU: It won't be so "basic" when we add all the links for the global network of music news / music education sites that we're joining; THAT'LL be here very soon, as an ESSENTIAL COMPONENT of the Guide returning to being a MUSIC NEWS journal!
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♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS – and views of interest to artists everywhere – more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music. That includes both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues (now undergoing a major update), and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues from the monumentally large to the intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops, conferences, and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the swamp water roots of the blues and the bright lights of where the music is headed now.
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The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. Thanks for sittin' a spell. The porch'll be here anytime you come back from the road.

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