Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tom has a totally excellent plan for a new charter school (Tucson Weekly)
I would like to make a lot of money in a short period of time without much effort. Since printing one's own money is STILL illegal (even after they have allowed that Bitcoin nonsense to take root), I am left with only one other alternative. I think I'm going to have to open my own charter school. For the past 20 years, this has proven to be even better than printing one's own money. The State of Arizona will print it for you and then will pass laws preventing itself from seeing what you do with the money. While a huge number of charter schools over the past two decades have proven to be either fly-by-night operations or long-term scams that couldn't teach a fish how to swim, there are a few that have thrived under the sweetheart rules and the Good-ol'-Boy system.
Andrew Tobias: Not a Hoax
Here is a three-part (short!) documentary from the New York Times: EPISODE 1: MEET THE KGB SPIES WHO INVENTED FAKE NEWS We reveal how one of the biggest fake news stories ever concocted - the 1984 AIDS-is-a-biological-weapon hoax - went viral in the pre-internet era. Meet the KGB operatives who invented it and the "truth squad" that quashed it. For a bit. EPISODE 2: THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS OF FAKE NEWS The Pizzagate playbook: same tactics, new technologies. How the seven rules of Soviet disinformation are being used to create today's fake news stories. EPISODE 3: THE WORLDWIDE WAR ON TRUTH Governments from Pakistan to Mexico to Washington are woefully unequipped to combat disinformation warfare. Eastern European countries living in Russia's shadow can teach us how to start fighting back, but only if our politicians decide to stop profiting from these tactics and fight them instead.
Helaine Olen: Why don't voters care if a [male] presidential candidate is old? (Washington Post)
It's also true, however, that all these leading senior candidates are male. We view their female peers very differently. Hillary Clinton was beset by rumors about her health while running for president, even though the obviously overweight Trump - who can't even recall where his dad was born - still gets a pass from many of the same people. Now it's Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 69, who's facing our sexist double standards. Warren has debuted ambitious game-changing plans to offer universal child care and all but wipe out student debt, all while calling out our system for coddling the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.
Zulie Rane: How You Can Learn to Appreciate Art When It's Unexpected (Medium)
If you truly want to start appreciating and noticing beauty everywhere you look, you first have to be open to the possibility that it exists. Believe that an award-winning musician might be a busker. Believe that the cheap wine is actually a priceless vintage. Believe that the unexpected magic in life is real.
Nate Jones: How Many Marvel Movies Do I Have to See Before Endgame? (Vulture)
As we get ready to celebrate the end of this particular era of Marvel, it's tempting to wonder exactly how many of these films you need to have seen to "get" the latest one. That's where we come in! As we did for Infinity War, here's a guide to the Marvel movies you need to see before Avengers: Endgame.
Michael Holroyd: The many lives of Frank Harris (Spectator)
Does anyone today know who Frank Harris was? Are his novels and biographies read at all now? A hundred years ago he was acknowledged 'by all great men of letters of his time to be … greater than his contemporaries because he is a master of life', or so wrote the critic John Middleton Murry. George Meredith likened his novels to Balzac's, and Bernard Shaw his short stories to Maupassant's - high praise which was somewhat deflated by the discovery that one story had actually been lifted from Stendhal. But no one would have been more astonished at his disappearance as a great man of letters than Frank Harris himself. 'Christ goes deeper than I do,' he explained, 'but I have had wider experience.'
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from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Walt Disney was a heavy smoker. At work, he needed a light, and artist Ken Anderson had a new cigarette lighter. Unfortunately, he had overfilled it and not tried it out yet, so when he tried to lit Walt's cigarette, a small bonfire exploded in Walt's face, burning his mustache and the end of his nose. Walt said, "What the hell are you trying to do?" He left the room. Mr. Anderson said, "Then all these other people filed out of the room, and I was sitting there alone. I could have died. In fact, dying would have been a pleasure compared to the way I felt." People avoided him the rest of the day. He remembered, "I actually cried that night." The next day, Walt had a blister on the end of his nose and he had shaved off his mustache. However, he invited Mr. Anderson to eat lunch with him in the studio cafeteria, and he made sure that all the Disney employees saw that he was talking to Mr. Anderson - and not firing him. Mr. Anderson said, "It took a pretty wonderful humanitarian to do what he did." Walt also did a good deed during World War II for the employees who worked for the Disney London office, although the Disney Studio was losing money. Great Britain suffered food shortages during the war, and each week he sent a care package to these employees. Disney London employee Cyril James told Disney theme park publicist Charlie Ridgway that "many times that was virtually the only food they had each week throughout the war."
• British couple Kevin Barclay and Sharon Wood used to smoke dozens of cigarettes a day, but they quit smoking after a veterinarian told them that their smoking was bad for the health of their pet parrot. The veterinarian, Glen Cousquer of the South Beech Veterinary Surgery in Essex, southeastern England, said, "One of the key things that we need to get right with parrots generally is air quality. This particular bird presented with very severe respiratory problems. The owners were instructed to do everything they could to improve the bird's environment. I think I must have shaken the owners up quite badly, because the next time I saw them they actually had booked themselves into one of these anti-smoking clinics and were determined to stop. They've gone five weeks." The couple's quitting smoking has helped their parrot, whose name is J.J. According to the veterinarian, the parrot "is doing really well. It is certainly going to improve his life expectancy." (Ditto for the parrot's owners.)
• Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera fame once walked into a room in which were a friend named Sy Fisher and, unknown to him when he walked in and started talking, a VIP named Duke Ducovny. When he walked in the room, he smelled pipe tobacco and he saw Sy with a pipe. He said to Sy, "This is terrible. What kind of person would smoke a pipe? Pipes are an abomination. I can't stand pipes. …" Then he saw Duke, who was also holding a lit pipe. He immediately pointed to Duke's pipe and continued, "…except that one. That, Duke, is one hell of a pipe, a great pipe, and that tobacco is straight from heaven. Sy, what's the matter with you? If you are going to smoke a pipe, why don't you take a lesson in class from Duke here? Get yourself a pipe just like his, ask him what kind of tobacco he's smoking, and buy yourself a load of it."
• Enrico Caruso smoked, and he insisted on smoking. While at the Imperial Theater of Berlin, he started smoking in his dressing room. The stage director visited him to tell him that no smoking was allowed in the theater. Mr. Caruso replied that he needed to smoke in order to calm his nerves. The stage director left him, but soon the opera superintendent visited him to tell him that no smoking was allowed in the theater. Mr. Caruso replied, "Dear sir, I regret infinitely, but I have already said that I feel very nervous, and if I am not allowed to smoke in peace, to my great regret I will not sing this evening." The superintendent suggested a compromise: Mr. Caruso could smoke as long as a fireman was in the dressing room with him. Mr. Caruso agreed to the compromise, and as he finished each cigarette the fireman took the butt from him and threw it in a bucket of water.
• Jamie Farr, who played Klinger on M*A*S*H, attended a party at which were many other celebrities. He and strongman actor Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked very good cigars, but Donald Sutherland, who was sitting nearby with Cary Grant, got up and told Mr. Farr, "Jamie, would you mind putting out your cigar. Mr. Cary Grant and I have terrible allergies, and the smoke is really annoying." Mr. Farr was willing to let his cigar go out, but he asked Mr. Sutherland, "Arnold Schwarzenegger is sitting between you and Cary Grant, and he is smoking the same cigar I have here. He still is. Why didn't you ask him to put out his cigar?" Mr. Sutherland replied, "Jamie, if I had wanted to do that, I would have done it with a note - and signed it 'The Phantom.'"
• In her stand-up comedy act, Phyllis Diller carried a long cigarette holder, which she uses to punctuate her jokes. The cigarette in the holder is made of wood - Ms. Diller didn't smoke.
• "I don't care what your philosophy of life is - do you reckon there is any daddy in the world who would recommend to his children that they ought to take up smoking?" - Jerry Clower.
• "People keep warning me not to smoke so much, but I gotta. It's a matter of principle. Like who's running my life - me or the Reader's Digest?" - Dick Gregory.
• "I kissed my first woman and smoked my first cigarette in the same day. I have never had time for tobacco since." - Arturo Toscanini.
• "I love cigarettes. I'm going to get a tracheotomy, so I can inhale two butts at the same time." - Denis Leary.
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Non-Fiction Follow-Up Uncovered
A Clockwork Orange
According to the BBC, an unpublished follow-up to Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange called A Clockwork Condition has been found in his archives (which are being catalogued by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in England). The 200-age manuscript is apparently "part philosophical reflection and part autobiography," detailing some of the backstory of Burgess' original book, the allegations that Stanley Kubrick's movie adaptation incited violent copycat crimes, and his further thoughts on how society is impacted by technology and media.
Burgess himself apparently referred to A Clockwork Condition as a "major philosophical statement on the contemporary human condition," and the BBC story includes some quotes about the genesis of A Clockwork Orange's title.
In 1945, back from the army, I heard an 80-year-old Cockney in a London pub say that somebody was "as queer as a clockwork orange." The "queer" did not mean homosexual: it meant mad... For nearly 20 years I wanted to use it as the title of something... It was a traditional trope, and it asked to entitle a work which combined a concern with tradition and a bizarre technique.
Sure! The BBC story also notes that a lot of the topics covered in Condition popped up in Burgess' semi-autobiographical novella The Clockwork Testament, Or Enderby's End, which was published in the '70s. It doesn't sound like there's any plan to release a version of A Clockwork Condition to the public, but that might be for the best. According to Andrew Biswell, the director of the Burgess Foundation, the author abandoned the manuscript when he realized "he was a novelist and not a philosopher"-meaning it's probably not all that great.
On another note, this dig through Burgess' archives is apparently taking a while, with his original rejected screenplay for Kubrick's movie being discovered back in 2011.
A Clockwork Orange
Walks Back His Netflix Comments
Steven Spielberg
Earlier this year, reports suggested that Steven Spielberg could make a push at this week's gathering of the Academy's board of governors to decide on Oscar nominee rules to hit back at films that debut on streaming services like Netflix receiving nominations. Not only did that not happen, Spielberg has now walked back some of his past comments about the platform.
Initial reports by Indiewire this year suggested that Spielberg would attend the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences governors meeting-which took place last night-in an attempt to get the Academy's rules changed when it came to nominees from streaming services like Netflix or Hulu.
Currently, films that debut on streaming platforms, then also head to a limited theatrical run, reach the current release requirements for Oscar nomination qualification. That was only part of why Spielberg was allegedly rankled by their presence at the Oscars, alongside the fact that Netflix in particular had the marketing money to vastly overwhelm other independent nominee hopefuls during awards season. Netflix, on the other hand, argued that its place at the Oscars table meant that nominees like Roma could reach a much wider audience by being accessible day-and-date on its service than they typically would have done with just a limited theatrical release.
Indiewire's report wasn't the first time it was said that Spielberg was allegedly against streaming service films being considered for Oscar eligibility-he told British press last year he thought Netflix's output might be better suited for recognition at the Emmys rather than the Oscars, saying to ITV "Once you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie." But it was this alleged plan to go to the Academy's board this week that drew the most headlines-and even a reaction from Netflix itself.
But it turns out it was all for naught-not only did the Academy not change the rules around streaming services and their place at the Oscars, Spielberg didn't even attend the meeting. The New York Times reported yesterday that Spielberg was too busy working on his remake of West Side Story in New York to attend-and, citing sources, that the director believes his statements about Netflix have been overblown by the media.
Steven Spielberg
Estate To Release New Album
Prince
A new Prince album of mostly unreleased recordings will drop in June, the estate managing his music archives announced Thursday.
The 15-track album entitled "Originals" will begin streaming exclusively on the paid subscription platform Tidal on June 7, Prince's birthday, with wider digital and physical release on June 21.
Featuring music recorded primarily in the 1980s, the album includes 14 previously unreleased tracks and a number of demo versions Prince penned for fellow artists, including "Manic Monday" which ultimately soared onto the pop charts as part of The Bangles' 1986 album "Different Light."
"Originals" will also include a version of "The Glamorous Life," a 1984 dance hit he wrote for his protege Sheila E, and "Nothing Compares 2 U," which Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor brought to the masses in 1990.
It is the second posthumous album from Prince -- who died suddenly in April 2016 at age 57 of a fentanyl overdose -- after last year's intimate "Piano and a Microphone 1983," the first album from his estate featuring exclusively material from his mythic bank of unreleased work, the Vault.
Prince
Recognized By The IRS
Satanic Temple
The Satanic Temple has been officially recognized as a church by the Internal Revenue Service, three months after taking Sundance by storm as the subject of the documentary "Hail Satan?" According to an announcement from "Hail Satan?" distributor Magnolia Pictures, the temple is now eligible for the tax-exempt status given to other religious institutions.
The latest documentary by Penny Lane, "Hail Satan?" follows the history of the Satanic Temple and its colorful protests in the name of religious freedom and separation of church and state, including a push to have a Baphomet statue placed on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol next to a proposed statue of The Ten Commandments.
"In light of theocratic assaults upon the Separation of Church and State in the legislative efforts to establish a codified place of privilege for one religious viewpoint, we feel that accepting religious tax-exemption - rather than renouncing it in protest - can help us to better assert our claims to equal access and exemption while laying to rest any suspicion that we don't meet the qualifications of a true religious organization," said Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves in a statement. "Satanism is here to stay."
A statement on the temple's web site said that the organization had recently received notice from the IRS affirming its status.
For years, The Satanic Temple vocally opposed tax exemption for religious institutions; but Greaves said its stance changed after Donald Trump (R-Rancid) signed an executive order requiring the Department of the Treasury to not take any "adverse action" against religious institutions, including tax penalties and denying them tax-exempt status.
Satanic Temple
Emperor Penguins
Antarctica
A study published Wednesday says penguins in the world's second largest emperor penguin colony have experienced three years of almost total breeding failure -- a pattern scientists called "unprecedented."
The emperor penguin colony at Halley Bay in Antarctica has been studied by researchers since 1956. It is the largest emperor penguin colony in the region and represents between 6.5 and 8.5 percent of the global population. According to the study, "there had been no previously recorded instances of total breeding failure at the site."
Researchers for the British Atlantic Survey published their findings in the scientific journal Antarctic Science, where they made a connection between the prolonged period of non-breeding and the breakup of fast ice in the ice creeks penguins use for breeding. Fast ice is land-connected sea ice that serves as the ground on which emperor penguins incubate their baby chicks before moving into the open sea.
"In 2016 and 2017, low sea ice extent and early breakout of sea ice in spring resulted in complete breeding failure," the study says.
"Subsequent ... imagery shows that by 29 November 2018, all of the fast ice on the north side of the Brunt Ice Shelf had gone, highlighting a third year of probably total breeding failure," it says. "These assumed failed breeding events are of a scale that is not apparent in the long, but sporadic record from the site."
Antarctica
Navy Developing New Reporting Guidelines
"UFOs"
As the increase of sightings of unidentified aircraft rise, the U.S Navy is currently in the process of developing guidelines in reporting such encounters.
Commonly referred to as "UFOs" these unauthorized aircraft have caused concerns leading the Navy to take further precautions for safety and security reasons.
"There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated airspace in recent years," said Joseph Gradisher, spokesperson for Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare in a statement from the Navy.
"For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the USAF take these reports very seriously and investigate each and every report."
At this time, the Navy is drafting a more advanced procedure in which any can be reported and properly handled by aviation safety.
"UFOs"
Top 20
Global Concert Tours
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. Week of April 25, 2019:
1. Eric Church; $2,809,138; $96.15.
2. Billy Joel; $2,667,702; $129.84.
3. Fleetwood Mac; $2,439,008; $144.82.
4. Luis Miguel; $2,424,986; $87.06.
5. Elton John; $2,392,250; $135.12.
6. Justin Timberlake; $2,146,500; $132.55.
7. Metallica; $2,102,293; $117.72.
8. Michael Bublé; $1,517,024; $124.47.
9. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band; $1,366,243; $115.42.
10. Cher; $1,345,126; $114.96.
11. Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $1,322,103; $64.71.
12. KISS; $1,243,595; $105.96.
13. Sebastian Maniscalco; $1,227,139; $101.97.
14. Marc Anthony; $1,190,570; $104.62.
15. Travis Scott; $1,175,397; $77.09.
16. Florence + The Machine; $1,144,592; $73.15.
17. Mumford & Sons; $1,111,940; $75.90.
18. Blake Shelton; $1,044,392; $89.58.
19. André Rieu; $928,669; $86.52.
20. Shawn Mendes; $861,630; $68.73.
Global Concert Tours
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