Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Free Speech Means Free Speech from the Left and the Right (Tucson Weekly)
The irony hall of fame will probably soon be opening a new exhibit dedicated to the fact that the same President of the United States who wants to sic the federal government on Saturday Night Live just signed an executive order in favor of free speech on college campuses. While Mr. Trump probably has no understanding of the depth of his own hypocrisy (at least partly because that word has three-too-many syllables for his liking), these days any American coming out in favor of free speech is a good thing.
Helaine Olen: Why are we getting so many robocalls? (Washington Post)
One morning about three weeks ago, at 5:45 a.m., the robocallers came for me. My cellphone rang. And rang. It hasn't stopped.
Sam Hockley-Smith: We Are All Horrible People (Medium)
Forty-eight hours with Max Temkin, the creator of Cards Against Humanity. "…when you play Cards, everyone says inappropriate things to each other and you all laugh at it. You have to do your worst fear right then, there's no getting around it. I think everyone makes art that speaks to their inner fears and desires, and Cards is very much about things I don't like in myself and I don't like in society. Part of it is naming it and recognizing it."
Bill Wyman: All 221 Artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Ranked From Best to Worst (Vulture)
1. Chuck Berry (1986). He is one of the three or four people who laid out one of the original pieces of the rock puzzle. He decisively introduced real lyric writing to pop music. And he first articulated rock's sense of itself, creating a foundation for the music - tied to a better world and the promise of America - that even rock and roll's bleakest moments tacitly acknowledge. As a person, he was less than ideal. But still: One of the most consequential American cultural figures of the 20th century.
Terry Teachout: "'King Lear,' Our Contemporary" (Commentary)
The darkest Shakespeare play finds its moment.
MATTHEW DICKS, KATIE HOLBROOK, and CASSY SARNELL: My Daughter, the Babysitter (Slate)
My sixth-grader's teacher puts her in charge of the difficult boys. What should I do?
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• As a young boy, pianist Carl Czerny heard a family friend named Gelinek talk about how he was looking forward to meeting a pianist later that night at a party and how he and his friends were going to "thrash him" in a piano competition. The next day, however, Gelinek had to admit that he had been defeated: "That young man is possessed of the devil. Never have I heard such playing! He improvised on a theme I proposed like I never heard even Mozart improvise. Then he played compositions of his own, which are wonderful and grandiose to the highest degree." Czerny's father asked about the rival pianist's name. "He is a short, ugly, swarthy, and obstinate-looking young man," Gelinek replied, "and his name is Beethoven."
• Sometimes conductors can make mistakes. While conducting Dvorak's New World Symphony, Eugene Ormandy was displeased with the horns, so he asked first horn Anton Horner to rehearse them. Mr. Horner did, but at his own tempo, not Maestro Ormandy's. Afterward, Mr. Horner spoke to Maestro Ormandy, saying that the accelerando was in the music, and requesting that in conducting this passage, he follow the tempo established by the horns. Maestro Ormandy didn't want to do that, but Mr. Horner pointed out, "If you were accompanying a Heifetz or Horowitz, you would follow him … Just follow the horns." Maestro Ormandy did follow the horns, and the music sounded fine.
• In 1597, Thomas Morley published a book titled A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke that stressed that the ability to sing is a necessary part of every well-born person's education. As evidence, Mr. Morley relates this story about himself: "Supper being ended, and the Musicke bookes, according to the custome being brought to the table, the mistresse of the house presented mee with a part, earnestly requesting mee to sing. But when, after many excuses, I protested unfainedly that I could not: everie one began to wonder. Yea, some whispered to others, demanding how I was brought up."
• Early in his career, James W. Morrissey hired Russian pianist Anton Rubinstein to give a series of concerts in New York. Seeking something that would appeal to the public, Mr. Morrissey arranged for a program of light music by Johann Strauss. However, when Mr. Rubinstein saw the program shortly before he was scheduled to perform, he absolutely refused to go on stage, explaining that he was a serious artist and would be disgraced if he were ever to play such music. Fortunately, Mr. Morrissey was able to arrange a substitute program of suitable serious music.
• A mother once asked George Bernard Shaw what musical instrument her son should learn to play, adding that she hoped that Shaw could specify an instrument which would save her the discomfort of the early learning stage during which her son would not have mastered the instrument. Shaw suggested that her son learn to play the bagpipes, because they sound exactly the same whether or not the musician knows how to play them.
• Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) was composing some music in bed when a page of the music he had composed fell on the floor. Since he didn't feel like getting out of bed and picking up the sheet of music, he composed a duet. Later, a friend stopped by and picked up the sheet of music. Rossini didn't want to throw it away, so he added it to the duet he had just composed and made it a trio.
• Pianist Vladimir de Pachmann once dined with fellow musicians Leopold Godowsky (an especially good friend), Hans Richter, and Fritz Kreisler. In the course of the evening, Mr. de Pachmann said, "I am happy to be here with my four friends. There are four great musicians in the world. There is me. There is Godowsky. And then there is Bach and Chopin."
• Composer Arthur Sullivan enjoyed drinking. In fact, one day he was so inebriated that he found it difficult to tell his house from the other houses on his street. Therefore, he kicked the metal shoe scraper on each top step he came to. Eventually, he murmured, "E flat," and then went to his door and let himself in.
• Sir Thomas Beecham once had to cancel a week of rehearsals for a concert at which Brahms' Second Symphony would be played. This made a young musician nervous because, as he told Sir Thomas, he had never played Brahms' Second Symphony before. Unperturbed, Sir Thomas replied, "Then you'll just love it when you play it at the concert."
• Unfortunately, at some operas, the music and the singers don't finish at the same time. Orchestra leader Gottfried Schmidt once told of finishing five full seconds before the singers in the second act of a 1981 performance of Carmen. In fact, Mr. Schmidt boasted, "Next time we shall beat them by 10 seconds."
• Arturo Toscanini was annoyed by a musician who continually tuned his violin during each pause in a rehearsal. He told the violinist, "It's not the A that counts, but the B."
• In 1787, Ludwig van Beethoven, then a teenager, played the piano for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who said, "Someday he will make a big noise in the world."
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Current Events
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We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
All my passiflora died over the winter, so it looks like no butterflies this year. Sigh.
PEGOT
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno is about to join the crème de la crème of Hollywood circles.
The Puerto Rican-born star of "West Side Story" and the "One Day at a Time" reboot will be honored with a Peabody Career Achievement Award at the Peabody Awards in May.
That means Moreno will be one of only three entertainment figures to achieve PEGOT status - winning a Peabody, an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. (She has actually won two Emmys.) The other two to hold that PEGOT distinction are Barbra Streisand and the late film director Mike Nichols.
Moreno pointed out on Twitter that she's the first Latino recipient of the Peabody Career Achievement Award, which was first presented to Carol Burnett in 2017.
Moreno, who won the Oscar for her turn as Anita in the 1961 film adaptation of "West Side Story," will return to that movie musical this summer when she joins the cast of Steven Spielberg's remake. She'll be playing Valentina, a "re-conceived and expanded" version of the character of Doc, the owner of the corner store in which Tony (Ansel Elgort) works.
Rita Moreno
The Beach Bum
Snoop Dogg
Matthew McConaughey and Snoop Dogg discussed their new movie, The Beach Bum, the strange characters that inspired their performances and, of course, getting high on set during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live Wednesday.
Though neither Snoop nor McConaughey could remember the exact moment they met - "I don't wanna remember!" Snoop cracked - they both agreed they were destined to come together at some point. The pair riffed easily as Snoop discussed how he convinced Beach Bum director Harmony Korine to let him change his character's name to "Ray," short for "Lingerie," while McConaughey recounted a wild story from a man named Captain Steve, who partly inspired his performance in the film.
The pair also delved into their first day on set together, with Snoop recalling how he showed up to find a table of fake joints filled with oregano for the scene they were about to shoot. "I'm like, who is that for? That's not for me!" Snoop joked, though McConaughey quickly noted, they were supposed to be for him. When it came time to shoot the scene, however, Snoop secretly swapped the prop weed with his own and only told McConaughey after they'd finished.
"I didn't say another word of English, really for, the rest of the night," McConaughey said. "You said I rapped a lot," to which Snoop replied, "You rapped for 13 hours straight!"
Snoop Dogg
Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand
'Macbeth'
When you have eight Oscars between you, it becomes less daunting to take on Shakespeare. I'm told that Denzel Washington is in early talks to team with Frances McDormand in a screen adaptation of Macbeth that will be directed by Joel Coen, from an adaptation he is writing. Scott Rudin is producing, and the plan is for A24 to distribute worldwide.
The Shakespeare classic was first turned into a film by Orson Welles in 1948 and numerous adaptations have followed. The storyline is that a Scottish lord becomes convinced by a trio of witches that he is destined to become king of Scotland. With the help of his ambitious wife, he does what he has to with the goal of seizing the crown. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard starred in the last version, directed by Justin Kurzel.
Washington won his Oscars for Training Day and Glory, while McDormand won for Fargo and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Coen won his for No Country For Old Men and Fargo.
Washington is repped by WME, Coen and McDormand are at UTA.
'Macbeth'
Crossroads Guitar Festival Returns
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton and his Crossroads Guitar Festival will return for the first time in six years, setting up in Dallas, Texas this September with a lineup that boasts Gary Clark, Jr., Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Vince Gill and more. The festival will take place September 20th and 21st at the American Airlines Center.
The stacked lineup also boasts Peter Frampton, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, the Buddy Guy Band, Joe Walsh, James Bay, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Los Lobos, Keb Mo, Sonny Landreth, Pedro Martins and Robert Randolph. Each day will feature a different set of artists (a schedule as yet to be announced), though Clapton will perform at both concerts.
Tickets for the Crossroads Guitar Festival go on sale April 5th at 10 a.m. CT. Citi cardholders will have access to pre-sale tickets between April 2nd at 10 a.m. CT through April 3rd at 10 p.m. CT. All profits from the Crossroads Festival will benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a rehab center Clapton founded in the Caribbean.
Along with the music, the Crossroads Festival will feature the Guitar Center Village at the Victory Plaza, adjacent to the arena. Top guitar and gear manufacturers will host interactive exhibits, while main stage artists will participate in master guitar clinics and solo performances. The Village will be open from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. each day.
The 2019 Crossroads Guitar Festival marks just fifth installment of the event, which takes place every few years. The last was held in April 2013 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, while prior events took place in 2010, 2007 and 2004.
Eric Clapton
Mass Data Collection
NSA
Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday that would end the collection of Americans' phone records by the National Security Agency in an effort to undo a widely criticized security measure passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
"The NSA's sprawling phone records dragnet was born in secrecy, defended with lies and never stopped a single terrorist attack," said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, one of the bill's main sponsors.
He and three other lawmakers introduced their bill to overhaul the Patriot Act in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, calling the data collection program "unconstitutional."
The program, first disclosed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, has been shut down for six months, the lawmakers said.
The bill is sponsored by Wyden, Republican Senator Rand Paul, Republican Representative Justin Amash and Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren.
NSA
Sued For $125 Million
The Weather Channel
Kelley Williamson and Randy Yarnall were known to storm chasers. The charismatic pair were stars of The Weather Channel show, "Storm Wranglers," in which they could be seen dramatically dashing down highways in pursuit of tornadoes.
Their March 28, 2017 live-stream chasing a tornado outside of Spur, Tex. started the same as usual - a wide shot of open road and looming dark clouds. But the broadcast abruptly ended.
Local police reported that the pair allegedly drove through a stop sign, crashing into 25-year-old Corbin Jaeger, a storm watcher spotter with the National Weather Service. All three men were killed.
Now, lawyers for Jaeger's mother, Karen Di Piazza, have filed a federal lawsuit seeking $125 million from The Weather Channel, the estates of Williamson and Yarnall, and others, for Jaeger's wrongful death.
The lawsuit cited text messages between a storm chaser and one of the show's producers. The unnamed chaser warned the producer that Williamson's driving was of concern.
The Weather Channel
Files for Annulment After 4 Days
Nicolas Cage
It seems the spark didn't last long between Nicolas Cage and his brand new wife, Erika Koike.
The 55-year-old Face/Off star filed for an annulment from Koike on Wednesday in Las Vegas, just four days after they tied the knot, according to court documents obtained by ET.
The court record shows that Cage requested a divorce if an annulment is not possible.
The pair applied for a marriage license and legally wed in secret on Saturday. The wedding came just less than a year after the pair began dating last April.
Cage has been previously married three times. First to Patricia Arquette from 1995 to 2001, then to Lisa Marie Presley from 2002 to 2004, and once more to former waitress Alice Kim from 2004 to 2016.
Nicolas Cage
Fungal Killer
Amphibians
The infectious disease that has devastated the most biodiversity is a fungal killer of amphibians, researchers report today in Science. Around the world, 90 species are thought to have gone extinct because of the fungus. And at least another 491 species have declined because of it.
The culprit with this "unprecedented lethality" is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a kind of chytrid fungus, whose relatives are harmless fungi found in soil and water. The researchers caution that international trade-the pet trade in particular-has spread the pathogen widely and could continue to do so.
The first signs of problems emerged from the rainforests of Central America and Australia in the late 1980s. Colorful harlequin toads and other species were disappearing, even though their habitat remained intact. Bd is highly infectious and deadly, destroying the skin and triggering heart attacks-adding to other biodiversity losses from habitat destruction. Subsequent work has shown that the chytrid fungus came from Asia and spread around the world over the past century, most likely via the wildlife trade. It seems impossible to eradicate the disease because some amphibian species tolerate it, acting as a natural reservoir, and keep spreading the pathogen.
The extent of the losses wasn't known, so 41 researchers pulled together official records and scientific papers, and they interviewed other experts around the world. Australia and the Americas have been hit hardest, the team found. The worst losses were in the 1980s, particularly among frogs. Larger amphibians and those with small ranges seem to have suffered the most. In addition to the presumed extinctions, populations of 124 species have been reduced by 90% or more. Only a quarter of species have started to bounce back-unfortunately not the mossy red-eyed frog (pictured). And 39% are still declining.
The threat isn't over. Bd could spread to the few places, such as Madagascar, that appear to have been spared so far. Other problems loom as well. Recently, a sister species of Bd emerged from Asia and is killing salamanders; although only one species in Europe has been hit so far, experiments have shown that many more are vulnerable if it spreads. The researchers call for regulation of the wildlife trade and tighter biosecurity at borders.
Amphibians
Painting Revealed
Sandro Botticelli
British art restorers working on a painting long thought to be a later imitation of a Sandro Botticelli masterpiece have found it in fact came from the Italian renaissance artist's own workshop.
English Heritage said on Thursday its conservators made the discovery while removing layers of aging varnish from the "Madonna della Melagrana" (Madonna of the Pomegranate), which shows the mother of Christ holding both her child and the fruit.
"I noticed instantly that the painting bore a striking resemblance to the workshop of Botticelli himself. Stylistically, it was too similar to be an imitation, it was of the right period, it was technically correct and it was painted on poplar, a material commonly used at the time," said English Heritage senior conservator Rachel Turnbull.
The experts used X-ray and infra-red examination to reveal drawing underneath, including changes to the original lines, which provided clues to its real identity.
It is the closest version of the 15th century painter's original masterpiece, which sits in Florence's Uffizi gallery.
Sandro Botticelli
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