from Bruce
Anecdotes
Critics
• Boston Transcript critic Henry Taylor Parker signed his articles H.T.P., which the victims of his criticism said stood for “Hell To Pay.” Once, some talkative members of the audience bore the brunt of his wit. He told them, “Those people up on the stage are making so much noise I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”
• Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) noticed something odd about the critics who reviewed his books. When they reviewed his first book, they denounced it as “rubbish.” However, when they reviewed his second book, they denounced it as an unworthy successor to his first book, which had been excellent.
Dance
• Choreographer Merce Cunningham once won a prize at an international festival in Paris. Oddly, and without Mr. Cunningham’s permission, a representative of the State Department of the United States picked up the prize, despite not having supported Mr. Cunningham financially. Several weeks later, the State Department mailed the prize to Mr. Cunningham—in a package on which there was postage due! By the way, a college student writing an M.A. thesis once wrote the very busy Mr. Cunningham and asked him to write her about his technique. Mr. Cunningham’s reply: “Tell her to come study!” Also by the way, in dance class or rehearsals, Mr. Cunningham would sometimes be asked how to do a certain move. He always replied, “You just do it.”
• In vaudeville, audiences grew to know and love successful acts. This sometimes created problems. For example, the act might be a tap dancing act, whose members wanted to change the act when they grew tired of it. However, the audience wanted to see the same dance they had seen the last time the tap dancing act had gone through their town. For example, the Berry Brothers were famous for their cane dance and danced it for decades. Warren Berry once said, “I was so tired of hearing that music. … I would stand in the wings before going onstage, and just grit my teeth every time.” However, if the tap dancers ever wanted to change their act, their agent would tell them they wouldn’t be able to be booked.
• Choreographer Agnes de Mille was once asked if she had a dance prepared that could be performed by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She replied, “Certainly, I’ll go home and get it.” Actually, she didn’t have the dance already prepared—she went home and created one. By the way, at age five, Agnes started taking piano lessons. Later, she said that she had learned to read music before she had learned to read words. And at age 13, Agnes saw Anna Pavlova dance. From that time, she knew that she wanted to devote her life to dance. She said later, “I was as clearly marked as though she had looked me in the face and called my name.”
• Suzanne Farrell learned that she was to dance the role of Dulcinea in George Balanchine’s new work Don Quixote, so she started to read the work by Cervantes, but after 400 pages, Dulcinea still had not appeared in the book, although the Don did describe her appearance frequently. When Ms. Farrell told Mr. Balanchine that she found reading Don Quixote “rather overwhelming, philosophically and otherwise,” he told her, “Don’t worry, dear, you don’t need to read it.” Of course, as the choreographer of the ballet, Mr. Balanchine was able to tell her what she needed to know to dance the role.
• Ballerina Alicia Markova became a celebrity when she danced Giselle in New York. During the performance, her foot was broken, but she continued dancing. Ms. Markova once told Agnes de Mille, “I continued the whole solo variation, little hops on pointe and all. Think of it: right across the stage on one toe on a fractured foot.” By the way, ballet shoes last for only one performance, but they can be worth the expense. After each performance, Ms. Markova had to be cut out of her shoes. However, after each performance, four men had to help carry the bouquets of flowers she received.
• When George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova were keeping house together and working for Sergei Diaghilev, they participated in the Monte Carlo premiere of Le Bal. Unfortunately, all of the soloists except Ms. Danilova received flowers at the curtain. This made Mr. Diaghilev angry, and he spoke to Mr. Balanchine about it. At the next performance, Mr. Balanchine sent Ms. Danilova 100 roses at the curtain—there were so many that she couldn’t carry them all, and she gave many of them away to other members of the company.
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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: "Winter Dance Party"
Album: FILE UNDER: A MUTANT POP TRIBUTE
Artist: The Randy Bastards
Artist Location: Detroit, Michigan
Record Company: Wellsville Records
Record Company Location: Florida
Info:
“A poppy melodic punk rock band with often humorous lyrics often making light of disturbing things written to entertain you (hopefully often).” – Randy Bastards
“This is the official Wellsville Records Bandcamp page (Formerly Ramonescore Radio Records) where I will be releasing various artist compilations and more!”
Price: FREE Download of 19 tracks by various artists
Genre: Pop Punk. Punk.
Links:
FILE UNDER: A MUTANT POP TRIBUTE
The Randy Bastards on Bandcamp
Wellsville Records
Disdain Records on YouTube (Randy Bastards Videos)
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Recommended
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Song For Ukraine
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd is releasing its first new music in almost three decades to raise money for the people of Ukraine, the band announced Thursday.
“Hey Hey Rise Up” features Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band BoomBox. Roger Waters, who left the band in the 1980s, is not involved.
The track features Khlyvnyuk singing a patriotic Ukrainian song from a clip he recorded in front of Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and posted on social media.
Gilmour, who performed with BoomBox in London in 2015, said the video was “a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
Gilmour said he spoke to Khlyvnyuk, who was recovering in a hospital from a mortar shrapnel injury, while he was writing the song. He said: “I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future.”
Pink Floyd
'Being Ugly To Your Mama'
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton has the best way of saying that humans should take better care of the planet.
"Well, my hope for the environment, for all things living, and all things good, just nature in general, [is] that we should pay more attention to how we're treating our mountains, how we're treating our world, how we're just treating everything," Parton said in an interview with National Geographic Travel's Amy Alipio, published Wednesday, ahead of Earth Day on April 22. "We're just mistreating Mother Nature. That's, like, being ugly to your mama, you know? That’s like being disrespectful, you know? Seriously. So, I really think we all need to pay closer attention to taking better care of the things that God gave us freely and that we’re so freely messing up. We need to rethink that and do better."
And the legendary singer/songwriter's favorite place on Earth is the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, the place where she was born and still, at 76, returns to several times a year.
Parton describes the area — the inspiration for some her songs, including "My Tennessee Mountain Home," which lawmakers made an official state song in February — as "one of the most beautiful places in the world."
Dolly Parton
Estate To Auction
Betty White
The estate of late actress Betty White, including memorabilia from the show "The Golden Girls," her wedding band from her marriage to Allen Ludden and a gold watch from her mother, is going up for auction in September.
The collection of more than 1,500 items, which also includes the Hollywood icon's awards, scripts, wardrobes, jewelry and artwork, will hit the auction block at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills from Sept. 23 to 25.
Before it goes up for auction later this year, the items will be exhibited in Santiago, Chile and Kildrae, Ireland, and Julien's Auctions.
Certified by Guinness World Records as having the longest-running career of any female television entertainer, White got her start in showbiz sometime in 1939 on a television show.
Betty White
90th Birthday Bash
Clive Davis
There is exactly one person on earth who could be serenaded on his 90th birthday by (in order) Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Dionne Warwick, Kenny G, Art Garfunkel, Earth Wind & Fire, Bruce Springsteen and Alicia Keys — and have the whole evening capped off by a brilliant Mark Ronson-helmed “megamix” of great songs from across that birthday boy’s 60-plus-year career. The answer is so obvious we’re not even going to bother.
Yes, Clive Davis’ 90th birthday party, held Wednesday night at the memorably named Cipriani South Street at Casa Cipriani in Lower Manhattan, was truly one for the ages. With around 600 guests and low-key performances, it was more intimate and not as large and elaborate as his pre-Grammy galas — well, relatively speaking, anyway. It was still the kind of event where you’re getting slightly annoyed at the person blocking the doorway until you realize it’s Martha Stewart; or you see a group of people coming up the stairs that includes Bernadette Peters, Tony Danza, Fran Drescher and Suzanne Somers; or you realize the two people in front of you who are about to effusively greet and embrace each other are Barry Manilow and Kenny G.
In addition to the above, the by-no-means-complete list of people Variety spied over the evening includes Lin Manuel Miranda, Jesse Jackson, Katie Couric, Little Steven, Wyclef, Katie Couric, Swizz Beatz, Tamron Hall, Busta Rhymes, Judy Collins, Diane Warren, Paul Schaffer, Peter Asher, Jimmy Jam, Jimmy Iovine, Valerie Simpson and what appeared to be the entire extended Davis clan. There was also, as always at Clive parties, a living power list of music-industry titans, far too many to list.
Davis himself was more of a guest of honor than his familiar hosting role, appearing onstage only for a 10-minute Q&A led by CBS News anchor Gayle King — although we are delighted to say that he enthusiastically mentioned Variety‘s expansive tribute article, which published that morning. Most of what was discussed during the Q&A will be familiar to anyone who knows Clive’s history, but the last question was revealing and more than a little touching: King asked Davis what he might change about himself if he could, and he said he’d be happier if he didn’t worry so much. Empathy isn’t an emotion one naturally feels for extremely powerful people, but the moment did make you realize just how much — and how many people — the man has carried on his back during his 90 years on earth.
Clive Davis
Everyone But Himself
Blame
Donald Trump Individual #1 says he regrets not marching to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and once again tried to blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser for the violence, according to a new interview with The Washington Post.
“Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute,” Trump the known liar claimed in the interview, adding that he isn’t getting the credit he deserves for the amount of supporters of his who showed up.
“The crowd was far bigger than I even thought. I believe it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to. I don’t know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They don’t want to show pictures, the fake news doesn’t want to show pictures,” he said, in effect bookending his presidency with complaints about coverage of his crowd sizes. “But this was a tremendous crowd.”
Trump The unindicted conspirator also insisted to the Post that there is nothing suspicious about the seven-hour gap in his White House phone logs last Jan. 6. The former president, who may have violated the Presidential Records Act, claims he didn’t destroy any call logs or speak on “burner phones.” But he said he did remember talking to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and others during that time.
“From the standpoint of telephone calls, I don’t remember getting very many,” Trump the grifter said. “Why would I care about who called me? If congressmen were calling me, what difference did it make? There was nothing secretive about it. There was no secret.”
Blame
Holding Back The Antichrist
Patriarch Kirill
The head of the Russian Orthodox faith was quoted as saying on Thursday that his church and its faithful were holding back the antichrist.
Patriarch Kirill was speaking six weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has forced over 4 million people to flee, killed or injured thousands and left cities and towns destroyed.
While he was not quoted specifically referring to Ukraine, Kirill's comments backed the Kremlin line on the war by implying that Russia's actions there were a forced response to a foreign aggressor.
"Why did external forces rise up against the Russian lands? "Why do they strive to destroy, divide, set brother against brother?" Kirill was quoted by Russia's RIA news agency as saying.
Kirill, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, has defended Russia's actions and sees the war as a clash with a Western liberal culture he considers decadent, in particular in its acceptance of homosexuality.
Patriarch Kirill
Full-Color Photos In Complete Darkness
AI Camera
Humans are, let’s face it, kind of the dunces of the animal kingdom. We can’t sniff stuff as well as dogs or bees; we can’t hear as well as bats; even our primary sense, sight, pales in comparison to animals that can see ultraviolet or infrared. In fact, the only advantage we have really isn’t a sense at all, but our big old brains.
Sometimes, though, that’s all you need as a species. We can’t see in the dark, but we can invent infrared cameras to do it for us – and now, researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have developed a way to make those images even closer to the real thing.
“Some night vision systems use infrared light that is not perceptible to humans and the images rendered are transposed to a digital display presenting a monochromatic image in the visible spectrum,” explains a paper describing the technology, published this week in the journal PLOS ONE.
“We sought to develop an imaging algorithm powered by optimized deep learning architectures whereby infrared spectral illumination of a scene could be used to predict a visible spectrum rendering of the scene as if it were perceived by a human with visible spectrum light,” the paper continues. “This would make it possible to digitally render a visible spectrum scene to humans when they are otherwise in complete ‘darkness’ and only illuminated with infrared light.”
So: a camera that can reconstruct color images from infrared light? Well, actually, no – not quite. The important bit isn’t the camera, but the algorithm the team used to reconstruct the images. They created a special type of AI known as a neural network – a kind of deep learning algorithm designed to simulate how human brains learn – which they then trained to spot correlations between how images look under infrared and under the visible spectrum.
AI Camera
No. 1 Sells For $3.1M
‘Captain America Comics’
A near mint comic featuring the very first appearance of Captain America sold Thursday for just over $3.1 million.
The sale marks a record for the comic, Captain America Comics No. 1, and is now one of the top five most expensive comics ever sold. The final price was $3,120,000, which included the buyer’s premium. It sold as part of Heritage Auctions’ comics and comic art events that runs through Sunday.
The comic hit newsstands in December 1940, a full year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that would thrust the United States into World War II, and features one of the comics medium’s most iconic covers: the hero punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the hero for Timely Comics, the predecessor to Marvel Comics, with the now well-known tale of a frail young man named Steve Rogers who is injected with a serum that turns him into a super-soldier. Also introduced was Cap’s sidekick, Bucky, who in modern times would become the hero known as the Winter Soldier and be featured prominently in Marvel Studios movies and a Disney+ series. The comic was an instant hit and sold hundreds of thousands of copies a month.
‘Captain America Comics’
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