from Bruce
Anecdotes
Art and Artists
• Peter Bruegel had two sons who also painted, and who acquired the nicknames Hell and Velvet. Peter the Younger painted a lot of devils, so he became known as Hell Bruegel, while Jan painted a lot of rich fabrics, so he became known as Velvet Bruegel.
Audiences
• Choreographer Merce Cunningham wanted people to care about what they were seeing when they watched a dance performance. Frequently, audiences did care when they watched a Merce Cunningham dance performance. In 1964, a Paris audience threw vegetables at the Merce Cunningham dancers. One month later, in Cologne, the audience roared its approval at the dancers. By the way, set designer Robert Rauschenberg was very creative for Mr. Cunningham and his dancers. Once, Mr. Rauschenberg and an assistant ironed their shirts upstage. For another performance, he dyed clothing many colors, and then hung them on the stage to dry, where they dripped into buckets. Also by the way, sometimes servers get in a hurry and speak in shorthand. One harried waitress served food to Cunningham dancers Carolyn Brown and Viola Farber. The waiter said to Ms. Brown, “You’re the fried chicken,” and to Ms. Farber, “You’re the stuffed shrimp.”
• A 1991 TV commercial shows a thirsty woman climbing up a mountain to get a bottle of Perrier. When she arrives at the top of the mountain, she comes face to face with a thirsty lion that has climbed up the other side of the mountain. The lion roars at the woman, the woman roars at the lion, and vanquished, the lion slinks off, leaving the woman to enjoy the Perrier. Not everyone liked this commercial. It won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Advertising Festival, but the audience booed as the commercial’s director, Jean-Paul Goude, picked up the award. Mr. Goude booed the audience back.
Authors
• Before he became famous, James M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, made the rounds of theatrical producers, asking them to read his plays. By means of a letter of introduction, he persuaded John Hare to read a play, and then he waited outside Mr. Hare’s office as he read it. Soon, roars of indignation came from the office, and Mr. Barrie returned to find Mr. Hare jumping up and down on the play—Mr. Barrie’s handwriting was so bad that Mr. Hare was unable to read it. Afterward, Mr. Barrie paid other people to make transcripts of his plays.
• Every Christmas Eve, humorist Robert Benchley and his wife read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The parts that made him cry were not the sad parts—but “the parts that are so glad that they shut off your wind.” By the way, Mr. Benchley was a great reader, but he did not want to seem pretentious. While in Hollywood, he would sometimes read a volume by Marcel Proust—after first covering it up with a murder mystery dust jacket.
• Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell were ballet partners who thought alike. Shortly after their book, Sibley and Dowell, was published, they met in a restaurant. Both were carrying white bags, both were carrying copies of their book, both had thought about not bringing copies of their book, and both made the same apology for bringing copies of their book.
• Anthony Trollope used to get up at 5:30 each morning so that he could write before getting dressed for breakfast. To ensure that he arose at such an early hour, he gave an elderly groom an extra £5 per year to bring him coffee and awaken him. By the way, author J.P. Muller was once asked what advice he would give to would-be writers. He replied, “Don’t.”
• Professor Charles Townsend Copeland once promised Maxwell Perkins to write his memoirs, but when Mr. Perkins telegraphed him that he would come to Boston to pick up the first few chapters, Professor Copeland telegraphed back that they weren’t started yet, so “Come up eight years from now.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Stuck"
Album: LESSONS IN HUNGER, PART 1
Artist: Hemline Theory
Artist Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Info: “Cabaret and folk inspired indie-rock duo from Philadelphia, PA.”
“Sarah Tebbe and Adam Renchen started their musical collaboration in Cincinnati, Oh in 2000 and settled east in 2013. Drawing from various genres and sounds, the duo's coherence stems from intimate musical conversations and literary lyrical depth with Sarah's alluring, sultry vocals fortified by lilting, melodic piano, rhythmic guitar hooks, driving bass lines, and textured percussion.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 for six-track album
Genre: Alternative
Links:
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Hemline Theory on Bandcamp
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Reader Suggestion
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New Venture
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BRUCE
Comment
I’ve always thought that YouTube would or could be a force for peace. I look at YouTube videos of K-Pop dance covers by Ukrainian women, and then I look at YouTube videos of K-Pop dance covers by Russian women, and I can’t see any difference between the Ukrainian women and the Russian women. Unfortunately, Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, must not watch these videos, or he never would have bombed Ukraine. I don’t know why Russian President Putin has such a fetish for turning live Ukrainian women into dead Ukrainian women, but I can tell you this: I don’t ever want to see what is in the Kremlin basement.
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Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cool, overcast, but nothing close to rain.
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Music fans were out in force on Hollywood Boulevard this morning for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Hollywood Walk of Fame star dedication ceremony. With a soundtrack provided by the USC marching band, and in front of hundreds of cheering spectators, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Chad Smith and John Fruiscante made the most of the photo opp, going so far as to lick the star once it was revealed.
The band, which is releasing a new album on Friday — “Unlimited Love,” the Chilis’ 12th full-length release, via Warner Records — holds a deep personal connection with the famous boulevard. As bassist Flea, a self-described ““Hollywood street kid” told Variety ahead of the dedication, at 15, he and frontman Anthony Kiedis would run around Hollywood in the wee hours of the night, “doing stupid little crimes, hustling for food. I’ve walked over every one of those stars — every sidewalk, every crack, every one of them. To be recognized and be a part of the physical fabric of those sidewalks means a lot to me.”
Woody Harrelson, who also made remarks in honor of the band, echoed the sentiment. “These guys really are amazing people and they really care,” he said, referencing their philanthropy efforts and climate activism. “And on top of all that, they were the first to really make the common ordinary sock a central part of the fashion wardrobe,” he cracked.
Also in attendance was George Clinton. The Parliament Funkadelic leader describes the Chilis as “the baddest band in the world.” Recalling their early years and working together, he added: “I always knew they was going to be most successful group in the world. … They had that fire in their eyes.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers
White House Visit
Amy Schneider
President Joe Biden marked Transgender Day of Visibility on Thursday by denouncing “hateful bills” being passed at the state level as the White House played host to “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider, the first openly transgender winner on the popular quiz show.
Schneider met with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who joined Rachel Levine, the assistant health secretary and the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate, for a conversation with transgender kids and their parents.
Schneider used the moment in the Washington spotlight to speak out against bills affecting transgender people.
“They’re really scary and some of them in particular that are denying medical services to trans youth, those are, those are lifesaving medical treatments,” Schneider told reporters. “These bills will cause the deaths of children and that’s really sad to me and it’s really frightening.”
Amy Schneider
Narrating Elizabeth Taylor Podcast
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is getting into the podcast business, narrating a series about another superstar, Elizabeth Taylor.
“Elizabeth The First,” produced by Perry, House of Taylor and Imperative, is a 10-episode series about Taylor as the original influencer.
Topics include how Taylor negotiated the first $1M salary to star in 1963's “Cleopatra,” and the creation of a fragrance empire when celebrity-endorsed productions was not common or popular. Thirty years since its launch, White Diamonds remains a top global fragrance brand.
The podcast will also discuss how Taylor used her celebrity to call attention to HIV/AIDS and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and include rare stories from people who knew her best.
Katy Perry
Retract Category
Razzie Awards
That didn’t age well. The ever-sarcastic Razzie Awards have retracted their special category for Worst Performance by Bruce Willis, whose retirement due to illness was announced Wednesday.
“After much thought and consideration, the Razzies have made the decision to rescind the Razzie Award given to Bruce Willis, due to his recently disclosed diagnosis,” said a statement from Razzie cofounders John Wilson and Mo Murphy. “If someone’s medical condition is a factor in their decision making and/or their performance, we acknowledge that it is not appropriate to give them a Razzie.”
Wilson and Murphy added that “extenuating circumstances” also apply to Shelley Duvall in The Shining. “We have since discovered that Duvall’s performance was impacted by Stanley Kubrick’s treatment of her throughout the production. We would like to take this opportunity to rescind that nomination as well.”
The 42nd annual Razzies were held March 15. Known officially as the Golden Raspberry Awards, the “honors” recognize the worst of cinema.
Razzie Awards
Grifter Swooped In
Photographer’s Portfolio
Donald Trump The former president hijacked White House staff photographer Shealah Craighead’s book deal by taking her images and publishing them in a book of his own, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Published in December, “Our Journey Together” makes Trump this conman the first former president to attempt to personally profit from a White House photographer’s planned book.
Since Ronald Reagan, it has been tradition for the official White House photographer to publish a book of their most notable images of the president under which they served.
According to the article, Craighead had already secured a publishing deal – including a six-figure advance – when she notified the White House about the book. Trump The certified liar had also agreed to write the forward, as is custom for presidents to do.
But her plan began to fall apart when Trump the hustler’s aides asked for a share of the profits for the forward and for helping promote the book. His team later asked her to delay publishing the book so that Trump the grifter could publish a book of his own using the work of Craighead and other White House photographers, for which he received a multimillion-dollar advance.
Photographer’s Portfolio
Alabama Rejects Union
Amazon
Amazon workers in Alabama appear to have rejected a union bid in a tight race, according to early results on Thursday. But outstanding challenged votes could change the outcome.
In New York, union supporters have the edge in a count that will continue Friday morning.
Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, voted 993 to 875 against forming a union. The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees the election, said that 416 challenged votes could potentially overturn that result. A hearing to go through the challenged ballots will occur in the next few days.
Meanwhile, in a separate union election in Staten Island, New York, the nascent Amazon Labor Union is leading by more than 350 votes out of about 2,670 tallied.
The close election in Bessemer marks a sharp contrast to last year, when Amazon workers overwhelmingly rejected the union.
Amazon
Scientists Finish Decoding
Human Genome
Scientists say they have finally assembled the full genetic blueprint for human life, adding the missing pieces to a puzzle nearly completed two decades ago.
An international team described the first-ever sequencing of a complete human genome – the set of instructions to build and sustain a human being – in research published Thursday in the journal Science. The previous effort, celebrated across the world, was incomplete because DNA sequencing technologies of the day weren’t able to read certain parts of it. Even after updates, it was missing about 8% of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”
The research caps off decades of work. The first draft of the human genome was announced in a White House ceremony in 2000 by leaders of two competing entities: an international publicly funded project led by an agency of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and a private company, Maryland-based Celera Genomics.
The human genome is made up of about 3.1 billion DNA subunits, pairs of chemical bases known by the letters A, C, G and T. Genes are strings of these lettered pairs that contain instructions for making proteins, the building blocks of life. Humans have about 30,000 genes, organized in 23 groups called chromosomes that are found in the nucleus of every cell.
Human Genome
'Breathe' Water Vapor
Sand Dunes
Desert landscapes are not as lifeless as they look. Vast seas of sand dunes can not only grow, move, and interact with one another, a recent study suggests they can also 'breathe'.
Using a super-sensitive probe that took decades to invent, researchers have shown sand dunes regularly inhale and exhale tiny amounts of water vapor.
The inhales are harder to achieve when the sand is drier. But when the wind flows over the surface of a dune, it carries off the top layer, creating a rapid change in surface moisture and pressure. As a result, "evanescent waves of humidity" from the atmosphere above flow downward.
The probe used to detect this flow is so sensitive to moisture, it can pick up tiny films of water on a single grain of sand.
When plunged into a dune in the Qatar desert, the instrument was able to scan the temperature, radiation, and moisture in its surroundings on a millimeter-scale resolution in just 20 seconds.
Sand Dunes
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