January 27, 2014

Elizabeth & the Catapult’s Sophisticated, Visceral Pop

Courtesy of Sacks & Co.

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Elizabeth & the Catapult
Like It Never Happened
Scratchback

Like It Never Happened cover

The classically trained pianist Elizabeth Ziman, a.k.a. Elizabeth & the Catapult, crafts luscious, literate pop that’s at once sophisticated and visceral. Located midpoint between Sara Bareilles (rational) and Fiona Apple (tightly wound) on the crazy scale, Ziman is a deceptively subtle singer who sounds world-weary but never bitter or cynical, deploying arresting lyrical twists and avoiding histrionics to create the feeling of eavesdropping on a frank private conversation. “If you have some common sense you will leave me right this moment/I am not your girlfriend/I’m just a lonely letter you know better than to ever open,” she chirps ominously on “Sugared Poison.” Catchy and tantalizing, Like It Never Happened changes shape with each hearing.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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