Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Suzanne Moore: Politicians may slug it out, but their distance from the electorate is widening (Guardian)
We need a bigger gene pool of real people in politics, with local knowledge, openness, and good communication.
Tom Danehy: Surprising possibly no one, Tom isn't buying this whole "soccer" thing (Tucson Weekly)
Perhaps it's because I'm writing this on a Friday the 13th that coincides with a full moon (which won't happen again until 2049), but I'm sorta' feeling semi-generous about soccer. I know, I'm gushing. (I suppose I could have written this to coincide with the opening day of the World Cup, but I had to wait to see if Brazil was actually open for business.)
Alison Flood: Flowers for Algernon's sad, sweet genius (Guardian)
Daniel Keyes, who has died aged 86, leaves behind him a science-fiction masterpiece of poignant brilliance.
Steve Holland: Daniel Keyes obituary (Guardian)
Author of the science-fiction story "Flowers for Algernon," which became the 1968 film Charly.
Daniel Keyes, Professor and Author of Flowers for Algernon, Dies at 86
Daniel Keyes, Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University from 1966-90, passed away on June 15.
Mark Morford: The Internet of very dumb things (SF Gate)
The Internet! Not a kid anymore, you know? Got big, hairy muscles. Got attitude and leer. Got bizarre hang-ups, social anxiety, joy and corruption, anarchy and scars and leaky spigots galore.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Fathers (Athens News)
When writer / performance artist Keith Antar Mason was young, sometimes his father would punish him by grounding him for a while. His father knew that young Keith liked art and art museums, so before grounding Keith he would take him to the St. Louis Art Museum and say, "Go ahead and browse because you're not going to see it for a long time." Whenever his father took him to the art museum, Keith knew that he was in serious trouble.
OK Go - The Writing's On the Wall - Official Video (YouTube)
"OK Go, an alternative band originally from Chicago, is known for their interesting music videos. Neatorama has featured several of their previous videos, including one with a Rube Goldberg machine. Their new video for "The Writing's On the Wall" - from their studio album Hungry Ghosts, to be released in October, 2014 - is not a disappointment in the "interesting" category. The video contains one trick on the eyes after another, and has the appearance of being filmed in one take (although it's not a true one-take shot)." - Neatorama
Watch OK Go's Eye-Boggling 'Writing's on the Wall' Video - Premiere (Rolling Stone)
Band's latest clip channels Salvador Dalí and Felice Varini with a series of visual tricks.
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass (YouTube)
Rube Goldberg Machine version - Official.
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wrote:
took the day off.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Salt Lake City Event
'Modern Family'
In the season finale of the ABC hit 'Modern Family,' actor Ty Burrell's character ends up officiating at the wedding of the show's comical gay couple.
Burrell's support for gay marriage extends beyond the scripted show, as evidenced in December when he served as the official witness to an unplanned lesbian wedding at his bar in Salt Lake City when same-sex marriage was briefly legal in Utah.
On Thursday, he'll once again display his support for making gay and lesbian weddings legal when he headlines a fundraiser in Salt Lake City. Burrell, who plays bumbling dad Phil Dunphy on the sitcom, is lending his celebrity status to help a group backed by co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays one half of the show's gay couple.
The evening event is being staged by an organization that Ferguson and his real-life husband created to help pay for the legal costs of challenging same-sex marriage bans.
Burrell and Ferguson and his husband Justin Mikita will be joined by the three same-sex couples who sued Utah, their attorneys and representatives from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which has helped handle the legal case.
'Modern Family'
Judge Concerned About Settlement
Silicon Valley
A U.S. judge on Thursday said she had concerns about approving a $324.5 million settlement involving Apple, Google and two other tech companies in a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to avoid poaching each other's workers.
Tech employees filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc AAPL.O, Google Inc GOOGL.O, Intel Inc INTC.O and Adobe Systems Inc ADBE.O in 2011. The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley's elite.
The four companies agreed to settle with the plaintiffs in April for a total of $324.5 million. The plaintiffs had planned to ask for about $3 billion in damages at trial, which could have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California must approve the deal. At a court hearing on Thursday, Koh said the plaintiffs had leverage going into trial against the defendants, given the strength of the evidence in the case.
Silicon Valley
Project In Jeopardy
Woody Guthrie
A dispute over the finances and control of a planned rebuild of folk legend Woody Guthrie's boyhood home in Oklahoma could put the project in jeopardy.
The spat, an ironic turn considering Guthrie's songs that railed against greed, began after two Gibson guitars crafted with wood salvaged from the iconic singer's home in Okemah failed to sell last month on eBay.
Profits from Gibson's donated guitars were to go toward reconstruction of the 1860s-era property, called London House, using piles of lumber rescued from the site when the dilapidated structure was torn down in the late 1970s.
The builders had grand plans for the property: Restoration of the home from its sandstone foundation on up, then construction of a museum to house all things Woody.
Woody Guthrie
Hospital News
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford broke his leg on the set of the new "Star Wars" movie last week, a spokeswoman said Thursday, correcting initial reports that the veteran actor fractured his ankle.
The 71-year-old had surgery on the broken limb after being hurt when a garage door fell and hit him at Pinewood Studios outside London last Thursday, according to British emergency services at the time.
In an update a week after the accident, spokeswoman Ina Treciokas said: "Harrison Ford's left leg was broken in an accident. His surgery was successful and he will begin rehab shortly.
"He's doing well and looks forward to returning to work," she added in a statement.
Harrison Ford
Urges U.S. Immigration Reform
Rupert
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) urged U.S. lawmakers to tackle far-reaching immigration reform, saying that scrapping quotas on special visas and promoting paths to citizenship would boost U.S. growth and innovation.
The chairman of 21st Century Fox and News Corp has also pressed for immigration reform in his native Australia in the belief that freer borders there and in America would boost trade relationships.
In an opinion piece published on Wednesday on the website of the Wall Street Journal, which he owns, Murdoch admonished opponents of such change in the United States "as being dead wrong about the long-term interests of our country".
"One of the most immediate ways to revitalize our economy is by passing immigration reform," said Murdoch, himself a former immigrant who became a naturalized American citizen in 1985.
Rupert
Part Of Lawsuit Dismissed
Zippy
Part of a lawsuit against NBC Universal that claims the television network defamed George Zimmerman in a 2012 broadcast was thrown out by a Florida judge Thursday, putting the entire litigation in jeopardy.
Zimmerman's attorneys waited too long under Florida statute to ask NBC to retract statements in a March 19, 2012, broadcast that they said made their client sound like a racist, Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson ruled. Zimmerman was not at the hearing.
The statute requires five days written notice identifying potentially libelous statements. A letter claiming the network edited Zimmerman's 911 call to police to make it sound like he was a racist was sent to network executives on Dec. 4, 2012.
Three other NBC broadcasts from March 20, 22 and 27, that included the reference are still in question, but the judge said she had to do more homework on the issues before making a final decision.
Zippy
Ex-Sheriff Gets Prison
Patrick Sullivan
A judge on Thursday sentenced a former Colorado sheriff to 15 months in prison for repeatedly violating his probation in a meth-for-sex case, saying the lawman, who was once regarded as a hero, had exhausted his opportunities to reform.
Patrick Sullivan was sentenced two years after pleading guilty to plying young men with methamphetamine in exchange for sexual favors. The 71-year-old was once named the nation's top sheriff and won praise for his leadership of the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department in the Denver suburbs.
Sullivan was arrested in December 2011 after authorities arranged a sting that revealed he was trading methamphetamine for sex. Months earlier, a 911 caller reported Sullivan was at his house trying to get three recovering addicts back on drugs.
Before his arrest, Sullivan was known as an anti-drug crusader with a record so distinguished the county named its jail after him. The National Sheriffs' Association tapped him as its "top sheriff" in 2001, and he continued to command respect even after he resigned the following year to oversee security for a school district.
But his court case revealed a darker picture. He would develop relationships with vulnerable young men, help them find jobs and get out of jail, and then provide them the drug.
Patrick Sullivan
Disses His Fellow Fox "Newsers"
O'Really
Bill O'Reilly must feel pretty secure about his standing with his colleagues at Fox News, or else he's past caring.
Answering a question from fellow Foxer Geraldo Rivera-does the right-leaning network cut President Obama enough slack? Does it treat him fairly?-the cable outlet's prime-time star didn't seem especially worried whose toes he stepped on.
"It depends on the hour," the host of The O'Reilly Factor told a sold-out crowd at the 92nd Street Y Wednesday night. "If you watch Fox & Friends, [Steve] Doocy is an Obama-basher. He bashes Obama like clockwork. But the other two-Elisabeth [Hasselbeck] and Brian [Kilmeade]-they'd rather whip up a soufflé."
O'Reilly went hour by hour through the channel's daytime lineup, claiming that morning hosts such as Bill Hemmer and Jenna Lee "have no ideology." As for the noon offering, "Outnumbered or Outsmarted, those people, I don't know," he said with a dismissive shrug, prompting audience laughter. "Then, at 3, Shepard Smith is a liberal." He added that Cavuto, hosted by Fox News senior vice president and managing editor Neal Cavuto, "is a business show…He's not an Obama fan."
"Then you have Greta [van Susteren], who's a liberal. At 8 you have me. I'm tough on everybody. At 9 you have Megyn. Again, not an ideologue…Then you have the Republican show, Hannity, at 10"-a flippant observation that drew a couple of knowing chuckles from audience members who might suspect that there's no love lost between O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
O'Really
Cantor-Backed Groups
Uncertain Future
Before his stunning defeat, Majority Leader Eric Cantor didn't just believe he would be the next speaker of the House. He also believed he would be a thought leader in the Republican Party. In 2011, Cantor dispatched a top aide to build a network of high-profile outside groups to cement his place in a GOP shaped in his own image and set the agenda for the party as a whole.
Now, rejected by Virginia Republican primary voters, Cantor is reeling personally from the loss, of both his seat and his leadership ambition. But the groups he helped build to promote his ideology are in flux, too. Donors and establishment Republicans who once poured millions of dollars into them must decide whether it's still a good investment to fund organizations that advocate for policies and candidates reflective of Cantor's vision for the party's future.
YG Network sources insist that the infrastructure they've built is still viable, attractive to donors and important to the Republican discourse, especially on fiscal issues. But the choice facing those investors is unprecedented, as Cantor is the first leader to abruptly lose re-election in the nascent era of massive outside spending.
The YG Network, a policy-oriented 501(c)(4), and YG Action Fund, a super PAC, were started by former Cantor aides in 2011 as a follow-up to his 2010 "Young Guns" book, co-written by Kevin McCarthy - the House whip favored to succeed Cantor as majority leader - and former vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.
The current reality, however, is that the YG super PAC is withering, with only four figures in the bank after the first quarter of 2014, while the policy wing, also dependent on massive donations, has become the organizational focus of the YG operation. As such, it is probably the best hope for the Cantor ideological legacy to survive.
Uncertain Future
Knitter 'Yarn-Bombs' Sign Poles
Sitka, Alaska
A knitting enthusiast in southeast Alaska is yarn-bombing her seaside community by wrapping public poles in knitted casings, sort of like a small-town Christo let loose with doilies.
Fran Hartman has just begun her personal beautification effort in picturesque Sitka. She's decorated four poles and plans at least eight more, with some knitted contributions coming from fellow knitters she's met around the world. The Sitka idea is one she's thought about for months before launching it earlier this month.
She doesn't have the city's official permission, but her work is drawing positive reactions. Hartman, 61, is a former teacher who retired from the Everett School District in Washington state before sailing around the world with her husband, then settling in Alaska several years ago. She lives on a sailboat with her husband in Sitka, a town and borough with a regional population of about 9,000 located 90 miles south of Juneau.
A priest walked by one of Hartman's installations the other day and heard her saying she was having fun but didn't want to get caught and thrown into jail. Hartman said the priest told her no worries, he would give her absolution. Before she even wrapped her first poll, she asked a local lawyer what kind of trouble she could get into, and he offered to defend her for free because she wasn't defacing property, there were no safety issues, and the yarn sleeves could easily be removed.
Sitka, Alaska
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) George Strait; $3,159,391; $119.45.
2. (2) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $1,478,686; $97.32.
3. (3) Cher; $1,136,751; $90.18.
4. (4) Journey/Steve Miller Band; $803,514; $60.53.
5. (5) Cirque du Soleil - "Michael Jackson: The Immortal"; $679,654; $91.95.
6. (7) Imagine Dragons; $521,093; $39.30.
7. (8) Lady Antebellum; $413,220; $58.99.
8. (New) Backstreet Boys; $381,605; $60.20.
9. (9) Florida Georgia Line; $325,642; $41.36.
10. (11) Brantley Gilbert; $219,966; $31.17.
11. (12) Jim Gaffigan; $203,616; $46.28.
12. (13) The Moody Blues; $190,333; $78.53.
13. (New) Widespread Panic; $170,240; $44.31.
14. (New) Rob Thomas; $159,338; $67.43.
15. (14) "Winter Jam"/Newsboys/Lecrae; $151,926; $13.67.
16. (15) Bryan Adams; $140,518; $55.97.
17. (New) "Experience Hendrix"; $133,571; $67.51.
18. (New) Raphael; $130,744; $42.08.
19. (19) Third Day/Skillet; $130,039; $25.80.
20. (18) Ron White; $129,318; $52.75.
Concert Tours
In Memory
Horace Silver
Horace Silver, a pianist, composer and band leader with a tireless inventiveness who influenced generations of jazzmen with his distinctive hard bop sound, has died. He was 85.
The Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that Silver died Wednesday in New Rochelle, New York, but had no other information.
"Horace Silver was one of the hardest swinging piano players in jazz, both as a section player and a soloist," said Ramsey Lewis, a pianist influenced by Silver. "Moreover, he was one of the finest human beings that walked the earth."
And one of the most influential, carving a sizeable wake through the jazz world in a career that seemed special from the start.
The pianist was something of a prodigy and moved to New York at the insistence of Stan Getz in the early 1950s after the famed saxophone player hired a rhythm section that included Silver for a one-off in Hartford, Connecticut. Silver was just 21.
He played with Getz for a while - Getz would record some of his early compositions - and other towering pioneers like Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins. He soon began a series of collaborations and recordings that remain highly influential in jazz a half-century later - starting with his partnership with drummer Art Blakey that led to the seminal hard bop album "Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers" in 1955.
Though he eventually left the Messengers, Silver continued a string of milestone albums for Blue Note, a label he recorded for until 1980, which are still referenced often, including "Six Pieces of Silver" in 1956 and "Blowin' The Blues Away" in 1959.
Silver's father was born in Cape Verde and the folk music of that island nation was always part of his influences. An innately funky player with a keen sense of style, he also incorporated the blues and gospel into his compositions, modernizing jazz at the same time those sounds were transforming other genres like rock 'n' roll and R&B.
Songs like "The Preacher," ''Song for My Father" and the evocatively titled "Filthy McNasty" showed the possibilities of jazz when leavened with other sounds, and his experimentation would not end there. He eventually began to include lyrics with his works and explored social and political themes in his music in the 1960s and '70s, even dabbling in what he described as cosmic philosophy.
Silver, born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva in 1928 in Norwalk, Connecticut, moved to Los Angeles later in his career. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1995 for his album "Hard Bop Grandpop" and in 2005 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave him its president's merit award.
His most widely heard composition, however, was not one he recorded himself. The rock group Steely Dan borrowed a riff from "Song for My Father" for their 1974 hit "Rikki, Don't Lose That Number," a song that remains in heavy rotation on classic rock and oldies stations.
Horace Silver
In Memory
Gerry Goffin
Gerry Goffin, a prolific and multi-dimensional lyricist who with his then-wife and songwriting partner Carole King wrote such hits as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," ''(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," ''Up on the Roof" and "The Loco-Motion," died early Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75.
His wife, Michelle Goffin, confirmed his death.
Goffin, who married King in 1959, penned more than 50 top 40 hits, including "Pleasant Valley Sunday" for the Monkees, "Some Kind of Wonderful" for the Drifters and "Take Good Care of My Baby" by Bobby Vee. Goffin was able to pen jokey lyrics or achingly sad ones, and he did it for solo artists and multiple voices.
Louise Goffin, one of his daughters, said her dad "wore his heart on his sleeve, and I am deeply blessed to have had a father who could so easily make the world laugh and cry with just a spiral notebook and a pen."
King and Goffin divorced in 1968, but Goffin kept writing hits, including "Savin' All My Love for You" for Whitney Houston. Goffin and King were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three years later.
Goffin was born in Brooklyn in 1939 and was working as an assistant chemist when he met King at Queens College.
A whirlwind romance led to a marriage and their first hit, when she was only 17 and he was 20, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for the Shirelles, which a pregnant King helped write while suffering morning sickness.
Both quit their day jobs to focus on music, and other songs followed, including "Up on the Roof" for the Drifters, "One Fine Day" for the Chiffons and "Chains," which was later covered by the Beatles. Goffin also collaborated with Mann on the hit "Who Put the Bomp (In the Bomp Bomp Bomp Bomp)." King and Goffin wrote "The Loco-Motion," which eventually was sung by their one-time baby sitter Little Eva.
Goffin is survived by his five children and his wife.
Gerry Goffin
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