from Bruce
Anecdotes
Audiences
• John Barrymore could be temperamental on stage. Mr. Barrymore once grew irritated at an audience that coughed too much, so he flung a fish at it and cried, “Busy yourselves with that, you d*mned walruses, while the rest of us proceed with the play!”
• After watching Eve Ensler perform her play The Vagina Monologues, an entranced 70-year-old man told her that he “finally got it.” A few weeks later, he brought his girlfriend to the play, and she thanked Ms. Ensler.
Censorship
• Jewish actor Zero Mostel was a victim of the blacklist during the McCarthy era. While he was working on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the services of Jerome Robbins, who staged songs, were needed. Mr. Robbins had been a friendly witness in the House Un-American Committee hearings, and people worried that Mr. Mostel might not want to work with Mr. Robbins. But Mr. Mostel said, “We of the left do not blacklist.”
• Mae West was often faced with censorship. For example, she wrote and starred in a play titled Sex, about a group of prostitutes. As a result, she was arrested, put on trial, found guilty, fined $500, and sentenced to 10 days in prison. Although she wore a prison uniform like the other prisoners, underneath she wore her own silk underwear.
• Ancient Roman playwrights suffered from censorship. For example, they could be put in prison or exiled if they defamed a very important person. However, they figured out a way to avoid punishment and still attack their targets. They set their plays’ locations in Greece and made their characters — which were sometimes based on important Romans — Greeks.
Children
• Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár was very leery of child actors because of an experience that happened during a play staged by Max Reinhardt’s Vienna Repertory. The play called for a five-year-old boy who had no lines. Because the part was so easy, the nephew of the stage manager was called into action. Unfortunately, it was a dramatic scene in which one of the characters shouted, and this scared the boy so much that he wet himself on stage. Also unfortunately, the stage was raked (that is, slanted), and the stream of urine began to flow downstage — directly toward the prompter’s box, where the prompter was sitting. Of course, the audience members in the high seats were watching the stream of urine, which was clearly visible, and wondering what the prompter would do. Just before the stream of urine reached the prompter’s box, the prompter’s hand reached out and diverted the urine away from his box.
• While he was in kindergarten, children’s book author Tomie DePaola hoped to get the lead role in the class production of Peter Rabbit, but because he talked so much, his teacher gave him the minor role of Flopsy instead. In his dancing class, he had learned that when acting on stage, he should react to what the other actors did. Therefore, when the actor playing Peter Rabbit did anything, Flopsy reacted — opening his mouth in shock, waving his arms, putting his hands over his ears. Naturally, all this reacting got a lot of attention and gave the audience pleasure — with the result that Flopsy stole the show. Afterward, Tomie’s mother made him apologize to his teacher and to the child playing Peter Rabbit, but Tomie apologized when no one could hear him, because he wasn’t very sorry.
• While on tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, John Gielgud played the lead role in Macbeth. Unfortunately, he found a matinee of Scottish schoolchildren very difficult, as they giggled during the performance and threw paper cups. However, Mr. Gielgud was astonished when they laughed when his character kissed Lady Macbeth at breakfast. When he made a speech a few days later, he mentioned his astonishment at the laughter, and the next day a letter appeared in The Scotsman and explained the laughter: “We do understand Mr. Gielgud’s feelings, but perhaps he did not realize that husbands and wives in Scotland do not kiss at breakfast-time.”
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy The Paperback
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kindle
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Apple
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Barnes and Noble
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Kobo
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF
Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Drag City"
Album: IF IT AIN'T TASTY IT AIN'T MELTED?... THE MELTED RECORDS YEARS (1995-2001) (Free Bandcamp download) mixtape sampler
Artist: Magnatone
Record Company: Rum Bar Records
Record Company Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Info:
“Rum Bar Records is turning into one of the absolute best labels for real rock and roll these days, if you haven't gotten hip to that trip. It's the boss sound from the Boss-town.” - Bill Kelly, Bill Kelly’s Teenage Wasteland WFMU
“Disclaimer: Including all the snaps, crackles, skips, hisses & pops of your favorite worn out record and high school mixed tape. This is not a proper retrospective, or full compilation into the label's releases, it is just a glimpse into the awesome world and music that came out of Melted Records with a hope that we will be able to present more to you down the line, enjoy.”
Band Pro Tip: When you choose a band name, make sure people can find your band on social media, including YouTube. (Of course, in 1995-1998, this wasn’t a consideration.)
“There was a time when rock & roll didn't have to be heady, groundbreaking or poetic--just fun. While most musicians seem to have forgotten those early primal impulses, Magnatone hasn't. Stealing from everyone, the trio puts together a collection of catchy garage-pop songs that generally clock in under three minutes. Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tom Rosenthal not only shamelessly robs Graham Parker of his chord progressions (which Graham himself shamelessly swiped from his late '50s/early '60s influences), but somehow he also manages to steal his voice. Johnny O'Halloran's revived Mersey-beat drumming and Jacques Wait's melodic bass lines round out a sound that is raw, fast, and furious. No, Magnatone's debut is not earth shattering, but it is, beyond a doubt, irresistible.” -- Bill Snyder
Brewzerr wrote this two-paragraph review on Amazon:
“Well I know this review comes about 6 years [now 23 years] after this severely underrated band's untimely breakup, but I'll sleep better knowing I put my 2 cents in on this overlooked treasure. I saw these guys play in Austin, TX back in '97 and we became fast friends. A few months later I went on the road with them up the I-35 corridor and I could write a book about how much fun we had on that short trip... but back to the album (that's why you're reading this, right?). This is hard-edged power pop perfection. Very few people these days even know what power pop is. The frequently made misjudgment is that it is the same as "pop punk". The fact of the matter is that the two genres are VERY different. Power pop is a genre that emerged in the early 70's with bands like the Raspberries, Big Star, and the Flamin' Groovies... bands who coupled the 60's pop stylings of the Beatles and the Byrds with 70's angst and distortion to give it a harder edge. The genre reached a zenith in the late 70's and early 80's with bands like (early) Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Paul Collins' Beat, The Knack, The Records, and The Plimsouls.
“So enough with the history lesson. Like I said, this album is a perfect modern example of this genre. It doesn't come off as retro and it is definitely pop... but with balls. Every song on this short but sweet disc has all the best ingredients of power pop. Had this album been picked up by a more ambitious label I have no doubt in my mind that it would have spawned more than one number-one hit. Just listen to the amazing "Up in Flames" and tell me that shouldn't have been tearing up the airwaves! It's a damn shame these guys broke up way before their time. Oh well... the CD is still here so by all means buy it and hear what most of the world missed out on.”
Magnotone’s “Boys Say” is also on this album.
Formed: November 1995, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Disbanded: 1998
Members: Tom Rosenthal (vocals, guitar), Jacques Wait (bass, vocals), Johnny O'Halloran (drums)
Price: Name Your Own Price (Includes FREE) for 33-track album
Genre: Rock
Links:
IF IT AIN'T TASTY IT AIN'T MELTED
Rum Bar Records
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Bonus Links
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
The 'new' used camera finally arrived.
Greatest Songs of All Time - Updated
Aretha Franklin
Rolling Stone have released an updated list of their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, for the first time in 17 years.
The first update since 2004 sees Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” moved from the No 1 spot down to fourth place, in favour of Aretha Franklin’s empowering anthem “Respect”.
Taking second place is Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, while third on the list is “A Change is Gonna Come” by soul legend Sam Cooke.
Rounding out the top five is Nirvana’s classic grunge track, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
Outkast’s “Hey Ya”, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”, “Get Ur Freak On” by Missy Elliot, “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles and Gaye’s “What’s Going On” make up the rest of the top 10.
Aretha Franklin
Bialik & Jennings
‘Jeopardy!’
Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will split “Jeopardy!” hosting duties for the remainder of 2021.
Sony Pictures Television announced the plan Thursday, the same week that episodes filmed by ousted host Mike Richards are airing.
Bialik was tapped as interim host, and her episodes will air through Nov. 5. After that, Sony says Jennings and Bialik will share hosting duties based on their schedules through the end of the calendar year. No on-air auditions of other potential hosts were announced.
Jennings, the record-holder for longest “Jeopardy!” winning streak, is a consulting producer on the show. Bialik has already been chosen to host “Jeopardy!” prime-time and spinoff series, including a new college championship.
‘Jeopardy!’
New Namesake
RuPaul
Drag culture’s far-reaching influence on society was affirmed on Wednesday, when Australian entomologists announced they have named a fly species after RuPaul — the titan of drag queens.
The soldier fly, whose Latin name is Opaluma rupaul, is adorned with bold rainbow colors and is bound to catch the attention of anyone that comes across it — much like the drag icon herself.
Bryan Lessard — also known as “Bry the Fly Guy” in scientific circles — of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), is responsible for naming the species and he says there were myriad reasons why he chose the moniker.
Beyond inspiring greater interest in invertebrates and encouraging the next generation of entomologists and scientists to seek out new species, Lessard also hopes that naming the soldier fly after an LGBTQ+ icon like RuPaul will let young LGBTQ+ people know that there are other gay scientists out there and that there is a place for them in the world of science.
“As a gay scientist, it took me a long time to feel comfortable in my own skin in a very traditional field of science — in entomology,” Lessard said. “I think it’s really important for the next generation of LGBTQ+ scientists to know that they’re being represented in the workplace, as we give the names of legends in the community to memorable species.”
RuPaul
Drawing On Display
Vincent van Gogh
A drawing newly attributed to Vincent van Gogh that has never been displayed publicly before is going on show at the Amsterdam museum that bears the Dutch master’s name.
The “new” Van Gogh, “Study for ‘Worn Out,’” from November 1882, is part of a Dutch private collection and was known to only a handful of people, including a few from the Van Gogh Museum.
The owner, who is remaining anonymous, asked the museum to determine if the unsigned drawing is by Van Gogh.
From the style, to the materials used — a thick carpenter’s pencil and coarse watercolor paper — it conforms to Van Gogh’s Hague drawings, Senior Researcher Teio Meedendorp said Thursday.
The museum already owns the almost identical drawing, “Worn Out.”
Vincent van Gogh
Antarctica-Sized Hole
Ozone Layer
The quintessential 1980s problem of the ozone hole is still with us today. And in not-great news, this year’s ozone hole is bigger than usual and has spread over the entirety of Antarctica and then some.
The European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service released the findings on Thursday, marking the second year in a row of a super-sized ozone hole forming over the South Pole. It was just two years ago that the region saw its smallest ozone hole on record.
This year’s hole is in the top quarter of the record books and the biggest since 2010 for this time of year. It covers an area of roughly 8.5 million square miles (22 million square kilometers), more than double the area of Europe. It could still grow in the coming weeks; the annual peak is usually in late September or early October.
The gash in the ozone layer is due to decades of use of ozone-depleting chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs, if you prefer a simple acronym) in things like refrigerators and air conditioners. It matters because the ozone layer blocks out harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and have other deleterious impacts. CFCs were phased out as part of the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty inked in the late 1980s that’s by all accounts been wildly successful. The ozone hole is expected to heal in the coming decades, and the treaty was just amended to phase out CFCs’ replacements, which are a potent greenhouse gas. (CFCs also warm the planet, and recent research shows how important the Montreal Protocol has been to buying us time to address other greenhouse gas emissions.)
But this year’s cavernous hole in the ozone layer shows recovery takes time. Local weather patterns play a major role in determining just how big the ozone hole will get in a given year. And this year’s conditions unfortunately primed the ozone-depleting system to kick into overdrive.
Ozone Layer
Religious Exemption
Vaccine
A hospital system in Arkansas is making it a bit more difficult for staff to receive a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The hospital is now requiring staff to also swear off extremely common medicines, such as Tylenol, Tums, and even Preparation H, to get the exemption.
The move was prompted when Conway Regional Health System noted an unusual uptick in vaccine exemption requests that cited the use of fetal cell lines in the development and testing of the vaccines.
"This was significantly disproportionate to what we've seen with the influenza vaccine," Matt Troup, president and CEO of Conway Regional Health System, told Becker's Hospital Review in an interview Wednesday.
"Thus," Troup went on, "we provided a religious attestation form for those individuals requesting a religious exemption," he said. The form includes a list of 30 commonly used medicines that "fall into the same category as the COVID-19 vaccine in their use of fetal cell lines," Conway Regional said.
The list includes Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, aspirin, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, ibuprofen, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, albuterol, Preparation H, MMR vaccine, Claritin, Zoloft, Prilosec OTC, and azithromycin.
Vaccine
Songbirds
NYC
Hundreds of birds migrating through New York City this week died after crashing into the city’s glass towers, a mass casualty event spotlighted by a New York City Audubon volunteer’s tweets showing the World Trade Center littered with bird carcasses.
This week’s avian death toll was particularly high, but bird strikes on Manhattan skyscrapers are a persistent problem that NYC Audubon has documented for years, said Kaitlyn Parkins, the group’s associate director of conservation and science.
Stormy weather Monday night into Tuesday contributed to the deaths, she said.
“It seems that the storm might have brought the birds in lower than they would have otherwise have been, or just disoriented them,” Parkins added. “The effects of nocturnal light on birds is also quite strong, especially when it’s a cloudy night.”
A total of 77 birds were taken to the Wild Bird Fund’s rehab facility on the Upper West Side on Tuesday, the majority of them from the trade center area, director Ritamary McMahon said.
NYC
Arc de Triomphe
Paris
The city of Paris is unveiling a monumental artwork built around an actual monument: the Arc de Triomphe completely wrapped in silver and blue fabric.
The installation by late artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who conceived the project in 1961, will open on Saturday. Visits will take place for almost three weeks. At weekends, the Arc de Triomphe’s traffic-heavy roundabout will be entirely pedestrianized.
Visitors to the famous Napoleonic arch, which dominates the Champs-Elysees Avenue, will not only be able to see the gleaming fabric, but to touch it too — as the artists had intended.
Those climbing the 50 meters (164 feet) to the top will step on it when they reach the roof terrace.
Bulgarian-born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff met Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon in Paris in 1958 and they later became lovers. The idea for the artwork was born in the early ’60s, when they lived in Paris. Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and Christo in May last year. The monument was to be wrapped last fall, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it.
Paris
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
