Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Henry Rollins on Young African-American Males: Stop existing. It could get you killed (LA Weekly)
Recently Michael Dunn, the Florida man accused of murdering 17-year-old Jordan Davis in a parking lot in Jacksonville, was found guilty on three counts of second-degree attempted murder of the other victims. The first-degree murder charge ended in a mistrial.
Bob Lefsetz: The Oscars are a forgettable pageant for the 1%. Good luck changing that (Guardian)
Sure, we all watch the Academy Awards. But they'll vanish faster than you can finish your coffee at the water cooler in the morning.
Rob Bricken: The awesome Harry Potter ending J.K. Rowling didn't even know she had (io9)
Someone had an idea about how the Harry Potter books should have ended and it's fantastic. And when I say fantastic I mean this is truly, objectively what Harry Potter's final fate should have been in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and J.K. Rowling screwed it up. Call your editor, J,K. You have some work to do.
John Farrier: Stereotypes and Bigotry in Science Fiction & Fantasy (Neatorama)
I recently ran across 2 interesting blog posts about how science fiction and fantasy often shove people into fixed categories because of species.
Tracy Moore: Everything I Know About Life I Learned From Groundhog Day (Jezebel)
Most people wrongly assume it's the serious art that teaches us about the Real Meaning of Life - dark films, serious poetry, boring documentaries, heavy-handed religions. But I posit the opposite: Everything you need to know about what it means to be alive can be found in comedy, particularly of this kind. Comedians are far better prophets because they are deeply flawed, but at least in their quest for laughter to blot out the horrible, they transcend the plodding omniscience of philosophers and gurus to go for the jokes.
Japanese Surf Versions of Classical Themes (Beware of the Blog)
Here's the great Japanese guitarist Takeshi Terauchi with his band The Bunnys adding the fuzz to eleven well known classical themes from his LP, Let's Go Classics.
Kollektivet: Music Video - Compliments (YouTube)
"From the Norwegian TV show Kollektivet a music video that parodies the desire for appreciation, even for everyday things that everyone should do." - Sideswipe
EDEKA Supergeil (feat. Friedrich Liechtenstein) (YouTube)
German supermarket marketing, aka middle-aged cool.
Pejac
Street artist with talent.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
said:
answered:
Who Do You Think Will Win?
2014 Oscars
Best Picture
"12 Years a Slave"
Actor
Matthew McConaughey: "Dallas Buyers Club"
Actress
Cate Blanchett: "Blue Jasmine"
Supporting Actor
Jared Leto: "Dallas Buyers Club"
Supporting Actress
Lupita Nyong'o: "12 Years a Slave"
Directing
Alfonso Cuaron: "Gravity"
Original Song
Let It Go from "Frozen" - Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
The Results:
Both Dale & Adam got 'em all right!
Marian & DJ Useo had 6 out of 7!
marty had 5 out of 7.
Joe S had 2 out 7.
And that Madcat, JD, had 1 out 7.
Congrats to Dale and Adam!
~
Dale o de Diamondy Springs's Oscar Picks:
Picture - 12 Years A Slave
Actor - Matthew McConaughey
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto
Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Original Song - Let It Go (Frozen)
~
Adam's Picks:
Picture - 12 Years A Slave
Actor - Matthew McConaughey
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto
Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Original Song - 'Let It Go'
Another year of comparing apples to oranges to strawberries.
~
Marian's Oscar predictions
Picture - Twelve Years a Slave
Actor - Matthew McConaughey
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto
Supporting Actress - Jennifer Lawrence
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Original Song - "Let it Go" from Frozen (my grandkids fav)
~
DJ Useo's Springs's Oscar Picks:
Picture - 12 Years A Slave
Actor - Matthew McConaughey
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Barkhad Abdi
Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Original Song - Let It Go (Frozen)
~
marty's picks:
Best Picture - American Hustle
Actor - Leonard DiCaprio
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto
Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Song - Let It Go (Frozen)
~
Joe's Oscar Predictions:
Picture - 12 Years A Slave
Actor - Bruce Dern: "Nebraska" (Old and still going strong)
Actress - Sandra Bullock: "Gravity" (Hot)
Supporting Actor - Barkhad Abdi: "Captain Phillips" (I like the way his name sounds)
Supporting Actress - Jennifer Lawrence: "American Hustle" (Hot)
Director - Steve McQueen: "12 Years a Slave" (Loved him in "The Great Escape" before he died)
Original Song - Let It Go (Frozen) - Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (My granddaughters sing this beautifully)
Just so you know, I have not seen any of these movies.
~
MADCAT'S OSCAR PICKS:
Picture - "American Hustle"
Actor - Christian Bale: "American Hustle"
Actress - Sandra Bullock: "Gravity"
Supporting Actor - Barkhad Abdi: "Captain Phillips"
Supporting Actress - June Squibb: "Nebraska"
Director - David O. Russell: "American Hustle"
Original Song - Let It Go from "Frozen"
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and damp.
Chilly Dip
Chicago
Comedian Jimmy Fallon took a quick but icy dip in Lake Michigan - dressed in a full suit and tie - eyes bulging as he darted out of the slushy water and headed straight for a pile of dry towels.
"The Tonight Show" host made good on his promise to make Sunday morning's "Polar Plunge" with Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a condition for the mayor appearing on Fallon's show in New York, following an exchange of tweets and challenges.
"If you hear a scream like a little girl's ... know that Jimmy Fallon is swimming in Lake Michigan," Fallon told the crowd shortly before running in.
Emanuel, wearing a green Chicago Public Library T-shirt and shorts, went first, with Fallon just after. Both were soaked as they fled the water to cheers from a large crowd. A group of bagpipers, wearing yellow rain boots and traditional kilts, provided the soundtrack for their rapid dash into the 32-degree lake.
The annual event draws several thousand hearty plungers to raise money for Special Olympics Chicago.
Chicago
Saturday Night
Razzies
Sci-fi flop "After Earth" starring Will Smith and son Jaden earned three Golden Raspberries on Saturday at the annual Razzie worst-of film awards, Hollywood's hall of shame.
A day before the Oscars, spoof comedy compilation "Movie 43" won worst picture, while Adam Sandler, a perennial Razzie favorite, went home empty-handed despite being nominated in seven categories.
Jaden Smith won worst actor, while his Hollywood A-list dad Will earned worst supporting actor, and the father-and-son team were named the Worst Screen Combo.
Another of last year's big box office duds, "The Lone Ranger" starring Johnny Depp -- on which Disney took a $200 million write-off -- was named "Worst Re-Make/Rip Off or Sequel.
"Movie 43," an anthology of short films featuring stars including Richard Gere, Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet, took the top prize of the night, as well as worst director and worst screenplay.
Tyler Perry was named worst actress for his cross-dressing title role in "A Madea Christmas," while US reality TV star Kim Kardashian won worst supporting actress for "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor."
Razzies
Pro Scottish Independence
Sean Connery
James Bond star Sean Connery urged his fellow Scots on Sunday to vote for independence in their referendum later this year, saying it was an opportunity "too good to miss".
The 83-year-old actor, one of the most high-profile backers of the Scottish National Party's campaign for a 'yes' vote in September, said independence would raise Scotland's profile.
Connery, the star of 007 movies such as "Goldfinger" and "Dr No", was born in Scotland but has not lived there for years, instead spending his time in Spain, the Bahamas and New York.
In 2003, he said he would not return until Scotland broke with the rest of the United Kingdom.
Sean Connery
'Retuerta' Horses Roam Wilderness
Spain
In an oak wood spanning the border of Spain and Portugal, an ancient sight unfolds: wild horses, not saddled or shoed, but roaming free as they did centuries ago.
Farming has declined in Spain, leaving the countryside deserted, conservationists say. Now the wild things are coming back: wolves, vultures and rare herbivores.
Dozens of Spanish "Retuerta" horses have been released over the past two years here into the 500-hectare (1,235-acre) Campanarios de Azaba Reserve.
"It's a wonderful horse that has been around since time immemorial," despite coming close to extinction, said Carlos Sanchez, director of the conservation group running the site.
Spain
Ends Funding To Boy Scouts
Disney
The Walt Disney Company will cut funding to the Boy Scouts of America beginning in 2015 because of a policy that bans gay adult leaders in the organization.
The Boy Scouts organization is "disappointed" by the decision, which will affect the organization's ability to serve children, Deron Smith, a Boy Scouts spokesman, said in a statement Sunday. Disney does not provide direct funding to the Boy Scouts, but it donates money to some troops in exchange for volunteer hours completed by Disney employees, he said.
Disney's decision came to light after the president of a local Boy Scout council based in Orlando, Fla., where Disney World is based, sent a memo alerting local troops to the decision.
The memo was posted on the website of Scouts for Equality, an organization that is critical of the Boy Scouts' policy to ban adult gay troop leaders.
Disney
Prisons Seen Through His Eyes
'Birdman of Alcatraz'
The pages are brown, faded and stained, but the handwriting is meticulous and the words detail a 150-year history of the U.S. prison system through the eyes of one of its most famous inmates.
Robert Stroud, known as the Birdman of Alcatraz for his painstaking study of birds while in federal prison, wrote a four-part book about brutality, sex, bribery and what he saw as the monumental failure of prisons to rehabilitate inmates.
Part I "Looking Outward, A Voice from the Grave," has recently been published in E-book form.
Stroud's book about prison life, totaling more than 2,000 pages, languished in a basement long after his death in 1963, with publishers concerned about libel balking at a book that named brutal guards and supposedly on-the-take wardens.
The stacks of manuscripts stored at Stroud's former lawyer's house in Springfield, Missouri, have been converted into the book "Looking Outward: A History of the U.S. Prison System from Colonial Times to the Formation of the Bureau Prisons."
'Birdman of Alcatraz'
Convictions Should Stand
Ohio Amish
The sentences and convictions of 16 Amish men and women found guilty of hate crimes for cutting the hair and beards of fellow Amish in eastern Ohio should be upheld, federal prosecutors argued in a court filing.
In their response to the defendants' appeals, prosecutors on Friday wrote that the victims were forcibly awakened in the middle of the night, restrained and disfigured in a way intended to destroy an important symbol of their beliefs.
Authorities charged the defendants under a hate crime statute, saying the 2011 attacks were meant to shame fellow Amish that the attackers believed were straying from the faith.
Among other arguments, defendants in their appeals have challenged the use of the federal hate crime statute under which they were prosecuted. They have said they were wrongfully prosecuted because their actions amounted to family disputes that resulted in no serious physical injury. They also have said the judge should have instructed jurors that religion had to be the primary motivating factor and not just one of the factors to justify use of that statute.
Ohio Amish
Farmers Hire Dowsers
California
With California in the grips of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches.
Practitioners of dowsing use rudimentary tools - usually copper sticks or wooden "divining rods" that resemble large wishbones - and what they describe as a natural energy to find water or minerals hidden deep underground.
The nation's fourth-largest wine maker, Bronco Wine Co., says it uses dowsers on its 40,000 acres of California vineyards, and dozens of smaller farmers and homeowners looking for wells on their property also pay for dowsers. Nationwide, the American Society of Dowsers, Inc. boasts dozens of local chapters, which meet annually at a conference.
"It's kind of bizarre. Scientists don't believe in it, but I do and most of the farmers in the Valley do," said Marc Mondavi, a vineyard owner whose family has been growing grapes and making wine since the mid-20th century in the Napa Valley.
On a recent afternoon, standing in this family's Charles Krug vineyard holding two copper divining rods, Mondavi walked slowly forward through the dormant vines.
California
Weekend Box Office
'Non-Stop'
Liam Neeson has grounded the "The Lego Movie."
The action star's airliner thriller "Non-Stop" arrived in first place at the weekend box office, effectively ending the Warner Bros. animated film's three-week blockade at the top spot. The Universal film stars Neeson as a federal air marshal on a doomed flight. "Non-Stop" ascended in its first weekend with $30 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Fox's "Son of God" debuted closely behind "Non-Stop" in second place with $26.5 million. The film recounts the story of Jesus' life using footage from the production of History Channel's 10-part miniseries "The Bible." Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, noted it was a strong showing because box office predictions for "Son of God" were wildly varied.
"The Lego Movie," which features the voices of Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks as characters from the block-building toy franchise, came in third place with $21 million in its third weekend, bringing its total domestic haul to $209.3 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included.
1. "Non-Stop," $30 million.
2. "Son of God," $26.5 million
3. "The Lego Movie," $21 million.
4. "The Monuments Men," $5 million.
5. "3 Days to Kill," $4.9 million.
6. "RoboCop," $4.5 million.
7. "Pompeii," $4.3 million.
8. "Frozen," $3.6 million.
9. "About Last Night," $3.4 million.
10. "Ride Along," $3 million.
'Non-Stop'
In Memory
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais, the seminal French filmmaker whose cryptic "Last Year at Marianbad" extended its influence across generations, has died.
He was 91, and was editing drafts of his next project from his hospital bed, according to producer Jean-Louis Livi, who was working on the film with him.
Resnais, who died Saturday, was renowned for reinventing himself during each of his full-length films, which included the acclaimed "Hiroshima Mon Amour" in 1959 and most recently "Life of Riley" which was honoured at the Berlin Film Festival just weeks ago.
"Last Year at Marianbad" is his most influential work, mixing fragments of time and weirdness within a castle. The 1961 film is routinely cited among the highest works of French New Wave artistry, although Resnais' career extended well beyond that period. It has been cited by fans as varied as filmmaker David Lynch and the late Jackie Kennedy, who screened the movie at the White House.
"I'm a bit surprised to be so shocked by the death of someone who was 91. Usually we take this news with a kind of calm sadness," said Danis Podalydes, an actor and director who worked with Resnais. "But the intellectual youth of this man was so surprising."
Alain Resnais
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
