Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Killing the Pax Americana (NY Times Blog)
O.K., they weren't supposed to start the trade war until I got back from vacation. And I really have too many kilometers to cover and hills to climb to weigh in on a regular basis or at great length. But since I'm currently sitting in an outdoor cafe with my coffee and croissant, I thought I might take a few minutes to address two misconceptions that, I believe, are coloring discussion of the trade conflict.
Alison Flood: Writing at risk of becoming an 'elitist' profession, report warns (The Guardian)
Though the average writer earns Ł10,000 a year, mean household earnings are more than Ł81,000 - a result bestselling author Kit de Waal calls problematic.
Suzanne Moore: Forget Madonna's new single and toned body - it's her drive that is fascinating (The Guardian)
The Queen of Pop's stories of losing her mother and gay friends show she is a survivor who refuses to bow to convention.
Jonathan Jones: "Leonardo da Vinci: the best books of the last 500 years" (The Guardian)
His death was five centuries ago, but the artist, scientist and inventor still fascinates. Jonathan Jones recommends the best books to come to grips with the Tuscan prodigy.
Jonathan Jones: "The Hendrix of the Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci, pop star" (The Guardian)
His first gig at the Milan court was not to paint but to play his skull-shaped violin. A new project explores a lesser known side of Leonardo - his music.
Jonathan Jones: "Bananas in art: a short history of the salacious, disturbing and censored fruit" (The Guardian)
Natalia LL's 1973 artwork of a model sucking on a banana has been taken down by Poland's rightwing government. But bananas aren't just suggestive - they can be subversive, too.
Kate Mossman: "Carly Rae Jepsen: 'I'm more confident in my weirdness now'" (The Guardian)
The Canadian pop superstar talks about true love, bad outfits and sexing up Olive Oyl on her new album, Dedicated.
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 Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 100 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Mishaps occur on stages, including opera stages. At the opening-night performance of Julius Caesar at the Metropolitan Opera, Spiro Malas, who played the role of Ptolemeo, forgot the first two words of his next aria. He went offstage to look up the words, and his small band of soldiers also went offstage. These "soldiers' were extras whose orders were to simply follow Mr. Malas wherever he went. Beverly Sills and the singers in the opera were amused because these are the two words that Mr. Malas had forgotten: "Julius Caesar." Of course, on-stage mishaps also occurred to Ms. Sills. While playing Queen Elizabeth in Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, Ms. Sills at first wore a putty nose to make her nose bigger, but she sweated so much during each performance that the putty nose fell off by the end of Act II, so eventually she performed the role with her own nose. Due to an automobile accident when she was a teenager, Ms. Sills had two capped teeth. During a performance of Anna Bolena, the caps fell out. She recovered them and continued to sing, and during a break her makeup artist, Gigi Capobianco, used Duco cement to make sure that the caps stayed in place. Ms. Sills said, "The only problem was that the next day the dentist had to use a hammer and chisel to remove them so that he could replace them properly."
• Ana Samways writes a column titled "Sideswipe" in the New Zealand Herald; her column is a collection of funny photographs and anecdotes that her readers send her. For example, a parent wrote about her daughter the Good Samaritan, "One morning in Bondi [New South Wales, Australia], she spotted from behind what appeared to be a toddler about to cross a busy road and no sign of mum! Quick as a flash, with her long legs and high heels flying, she darted through the traffic and whisked the unattended toddler off his feet … But the 'toddler' was a very disgruntled dwarf who swore at her." In the same column, Ms. Samways put an anecdote sent in by Erik Wetting, who has a female friend who works as a Quarantine Officer at Auckland International Airport in New Zealand. A young female passenger who was returning to New Zealand had been hiking while abroad, and hiking boots need to be inspected for such things as soil and seeds because the seeds of a plant non-native to New Zealand could disrupt the ecology. Mr. Wetting's friend told the young female passenger, "Show me your boots." He writes that the passenger "stared blankly at my friend for a moment and then with a shrug started to remove her T-shirt and bra." The Quarantine Officer quickly let the passenger know, "I said, 'BOOTS.'"
• Rich people have problems, too. Lee Radziwell, sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and Truman Capote were friends. Once, after her husband, Stas, gave her a new sable coat, Lee visited Truman, and they went to the movies, with Lee leaving her new fur coat behind. When they returned from the movies, they saw Charlie, Truman's pet bulldog, lying on part of the coat. Around him were the shreds of the rest of the coat. Truman thought it was funny and laughed. Lee says, "For him, everything provided a pretext to laugh." When Jackie was still married to John F. Kennedy, she and Caroline, her four-year-old daughter (and Secret Service agents), visited the Radziwells in Italy. They and other people visited a house near Naples. Lots of people in Italy kept a shotgun on a table in the living room. Such was the case here. A guest picked up the shotgun and fired it, not realizing that it was loaded. Of course, the Secret Service came running. And when Lee was a very young lady, she felt her underwear fall around her ankles at a fancy event. Fortunately, she was wearing a very long skirt.
• Al Capp, creator of the comic strip Li'l Abner, once had the chance to participate in a morning conference with President Dwight David Eisenhower. He wanted to make sure that he woke up early, so he left orders for the hotel to make three wake-up calls to his suite and then to deliver breakfast there. Unfortunately, he woke up too late to attend the conference. He was plenty angry and was going to bawl out the hotel employees, but he met another angry man who had been woken up three times by wake-up calls he hadn't requested and then was woken up a fourth time by the delivery of a breakfast he hadn't ordered. Mr. Capp then discovered that he had given the hotel employees the wrong suite number.
• Whenever the Damrosch Opera Company performed in Boston, any extras it needed were played by students from Harvard University. The doorkeeper at the stage entrance got twenty-five cents for providing each extra, but he made much more money than that because he charged the extras fifty or more cents each for hearing the opera from on stage. This usually worked out well for everyone, but during a performance of Lohengrin, a Harvard student dressed in armor stood on stage and read the libretto of the opera - to help him see, he wore eyeglasses.
• Courtland Byrd once made a mistake. A barber, he cut the hair of a longtime customer named Murphy, and then he held up a hand mirror for Murphy to take to look at his haircut. But Murphy did not take the hand mirror, and suddenly Courtland remembered that Murphy was blind. Of course, the other barbers and the customers laughed. Courtland says, "If you make a donkey of yourself in the barber shop, they'll ride you."
• A woman who was trying to get a driver license ended up in the sea. In November 2011, in the historic port of Antofagasta in Chile, the woman accelerated when she should have braked. She ended up in the port, and a bystander - a saleswoman at the nearby Terminal Pesquero - swam to the vehicle and rescued her. Her driving examiner swam to shore and - apparently disgusted - walked away.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer hung around most of the day.
Pays Tribute to Adam West
'Family Guy'
"Family Guy" wraps its 20-year anniversary season Sunday by paying homage to its famous mayor, Adam West, while simultaneously giving James Woods the shinola.
In the episode that airs tonight, Brian suggests changing the name of the town's James Woods Regional High School to Adam West High, not only to honor Quahog's mayor, but also because, Brian says, Woods has become "a political troll and a maniac on Twitter."
The idea is met with enthusiasm, with Peter making a special video "dedication reminding people of how great Mayor West was," set to Richard Marx's singing "Right Here Waiting for You."
West, who was best known before "Family Guy" as Batman in the '60s TV series, played an exaggerated form of himself on the Fox animated series for more than 100 episodes.
This isn't the first time the show has paid tribute to West, who died with leukemia in 2017 at the age of 88. After his death, a tribute card shown before the rebroadcast of a West-centric episode and ran a nine-minute highlight reel of his work the following month.
Woods has sworn off Twitter since earlier this month when he said the platform removed a tweet he refused to take down. "Until free speech is allowed on Twitter, I will not be permitted to participate in our democracy with my voice," actor said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
'Family Guy'
Berklee College of Music
Honorary Degrees
Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliott were honored with doctorate degrees from the Berklee College of Music on Saturday. Composer and musical director Alex Lacamoire also received an honorary degree for his work in Hamilton, In The Heights and Dear Evan Hansen.
Following the ceremony, both Elliott and Timberlake posted the landmark moment on Instagram. "CREATE YOUR OWN LANE," Elliott captioned her post, alongside a video of her in a cap and gown with her framed diploma. "Sincerely Dr. Missy Elliot."
The "Cry Me A River" singer shared some advice with his Instagram followers writing in his post, "No Dream is too big!!! Keep chasing!!! Trust me… I'm a DOCTOR."
"There will be ups and downs - prepare for that," Elliott said. "As long as you are breathing, it is never too late. Don't forget that. You have come too far to quit."
Timberlake also shared some wisdom with the graduating class. "You're defined by what you define failure as. It's not a thing if it leads you to your success. It's all part of the journey," he said. "I hope that in the years to come, two things will happen: One, I will represent you in the way that you most hope for. And two, I look around and see this graduating class. Meet me at the studio. I want to see y'all!"
Honorary Degrees
'Little Big Shots'
Melissa McCarthy
Melissa McCarthy is to replace Steve Harvey as the host of Little Big Shots as the reality competition series returns to NBC for a fourth season.
The Mike & Molly and Bridesmaids star is to take over the variety series, which was created by Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres. Securing McCarthy, who recently received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for her role in Lee Israel biopic Can You Ever Forgive Me?, is a big coup for NBC. McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone have two young daughters and she is considered another top star who can relate to little kids.
NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman Paul Telegdy said that it was a "refresh" for the brand. He called McCarthy an "incredible" performer and comedian. "She's going to bring a completely fresh perspective to it," he said.
The show is set to undergo a number of format changes. "Shows always go through an evolution and I know Meredith and the team in our Alternative division will come up with all sorts of fun ways to evolve the creative of the show because we feel that Melissa is a strong creative force with her own ideas about what the show should look like and changes will be apparent," Telegdy added on NBC's press upfronts call.
It comes after Harvey's daytime talk show was axed by NBC's Owned Stations Group, to be replaced by The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Melissa McCarthy
Festival of Disruption Cancels Concerts
David Lynch
David Lynch's Festival of Disruption has canceled two benefit concerts - scheduled for May 17th and 18th at Brooklyn Steel and set to feature Garbage, Phoebe Bridgers, Mercury Rev and more - due to "circumstances beyond our control," the David Lynch Foundation and promoters Bowery Presents announced Saturday.
A third event - a screening of the director's Mulholland Drive, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on May 18th followed by between Justin Theroux, in person, and David Lynch, via Skype - will still continue as scheduled.
Bridgers, scheduled to perform at both the beleaguered Woodstock 50 (with Boygenius) and the Festival of Disruption benefit gig, tweeted of the situation:
Proceeds from the concerts would have benefitted the David Lynch Foundation, which raises awareness about transcendental meditation and how it can benefit people with posttraumatic stress disorder.
David Lynch
Not Laws
Makes Judges
Mitch McConnell's Senate has almost completely given up on legislating.
On Thursday, the Senate took one vote: to confirm a judge. On Wednesday, the chamber took seven votes: All were on cloture and final confirmation for another judge and for three executive branch nominees. Three votes on Tuesday? More of the same. And a single vote on Monday was on cloture for a judge who was then confirmed on Tuesday. That's 12 votes for the week, none of them on legislation.
In fact, since April 2, the Senate has taken 50 votes, and all but one of them - the failed veto override on the Yemen resolution - were on nominations or the nomination process. And before that, beginning with the final vote on Feb. 12 and going through April 1, there were only 10 legislative votes (out of 23 total votes). So that's only 11 legislative votes over three months.
To be fair, a handful of measures have passed without a recorded vote over that period. S.693, the National POW/MIA Flag Act, went through by unanimous consent on May 2. H.R. 1222, the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act, did the same on April 30. So if a bill is insignificant enough and no one objects, the Senate is still capable of acting on it.
But still, this is a truly disgraceful record. And no, it's not because Republicans are conservatives and don't think there are any laws that need to be passed. As far as I know, all of them think disaster relief, for example, is needed, but they aren't reaching a deal on it because Don-Old Trump (R-OfVlad) doesn't want Puerto Rico to get any money and Republican Senators don't know how to get around Trump's rhetoric. Plenty of Republicans have campaigned on other laws they wanted passed. None of it is happening now.
Makes Judges
Politics Takes Center Stage
Eurovision
As host of this year's Eurovision, Israel has tried to use the hugely popular song contest to present itself as a tolerant and cosmopolitan country that is winning increased acceptance on the world stage. But despite Israel's best branding efforts, the kitschy festival is clouded in political conflict and controversy.
Palestinian militants bombarded southern Israel with hundreds of rockets during a bloody round of fighting last week, raising concerns that the contest could be disrupted by violence. The Palestinian-led boycott movement against Israel has been urging tourists and artists to stay home. Even an Israeli promotional video for the contest appears to have backfired, drawing accusations of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
Eurovision debuted in the wake of World War II to heal a divided continent. Over the years, the earnest show of European unity has mushroomed into a campy, over-the-top spectacle that brings together acts from 41 countries, including those with little or no connection to Europe, such as Turkey and Australia. In the final round, TV viewers choose the winner by casting votes via text messages.
Israel earned the right to host after Israeli singer Netta Barzilai carried off last year's prize with her spunky pop anthem "Toy." Perhaps anticipating controversy, organizers decided to hold the contest in Tel Aviv - Israel's freewheeling cultural capital known for its beaches and gay-friendly lifestyle - instead of contested, conservative Jerusalem.
Dozens of European artists, led by former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, signed a letter calling for the contest to be moved elsewhere. Demonstrations erupted outside television studios at a number of national finals. Boycott activists stormed the stage during France's semi-final round. Iceland's performers have vowed to leverage their platform to show the "face of the occupation."
Eurovision
Glacier Sliding
Vavilov Ice Cap
A glacier that once moved 20 meters (65.6 feet) per year is now moving that fast every day, according to a post on a NASA-run U.S. government website. And, some estimate it could be racing even more quickly.
NASA's Earth Observatory claims a cold-based glacier in the Russian High Arctic has been sliding "at a breakneck pace" since 2013 -- a phenomenon the space agency says "mystified" University of Colorado Boulder glaciologist Michael Willis. The publication says after decades of moving slowly, the outlet glacier of Vavilov Ice Cap began creeping forward into the Kara Sea at a modest pace between 2000 and 2013. But, it has since accelerated.
Willis was the lead author of a paper published in November 2018 that suggested the glacier is now moving as fast as 82 feet per day.
The shift became highly-publicized in a recent article by Ron Brackett, a former editor for the Tampa Bay Times and current writer for The Weather Channel, which explained cold-based glaciers generally only move a few yards each year, making this situation unique.
Science and technology website Gizmodo and magazine Popular Science both sounded the alarm on the situation in the fall of 2018. In fact, Popular Science described the glacier as "surging" as quickly as 82 feet per day as far back as 2015. Gizmodo explained the glacier is situated in a polar desert with cold temperatures and dry weather that should be keeping it "firmly tethered to the underlying bedrock." But, it's not.
Vavilov Ice Cap
Would Physicists Jump To The Left?
Time Warp
It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but scientists have already detected a time warp. But what does this mean? Basically, a time warp is some phenomenon that changes the flow of time by speeding it up or making it run more slowly.
Physicists have known about time warps for over 100 years: In fact, you're standing on a kind of time warp right now.
In 1905, Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, followed a decade later by his sequel on general relativity, which stated that gravity is a property of the curving of space and time - the fabric of our universe. As a result, anything that has mass can warp time.
Naturally, bigger things warp time better. With masses billions of times larger than the sun, black holes have a lot of heft, which translates into a lot of time-warping potential. If you were to approach a black hole, the object's gravity would dilate time, making things happen much more slowly than they would when compared to an outside observer. However, a black hole wouldn't make a good time machine if you wanted to make a return trip: After passing a certain point called the event horizon, you and anything you bring with you can never come back out. Not even light (hence the name black hole).
The sun and Earth can also dilate time on noticeable scales. In 2007, a NASA satellite known as Gravity Probe B confirmed general relativity with 99% accuracy by observing how Earth distorts the space around it. As a further example, if you were living on a high mountaintop, you'd actually be aging faster than your friends by the sea where the pull of gravity is stronger, meaning time runs slower. Though to be fair, your accelerated aging would take place at an utterly imperceptible rate.
Time Warp
Weekend Box Office
"Avengers: Endgame"
"Pokémon Detective Pikachu" gave "Avengers: Endgame" a run for its money this weekend at the box office, but the superheroes managed to hold onto the throne once again.
The Walt Disney Co. said Sunday that the Marvel blockbuster earned an estimated $63.1 million from its third weekend in North American theaters, bringing its domestic grosses to $723.5 million, surpassing the totals for "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War."
"The Hustle," a gender-flipped spin on "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson, landed in third place with $13.6 million despite lackluster reviews.
Less lucky was the Diane Keaton cheerleading comedy "Poms," which grossed only $5.1 million in its debut against similarly negative reviews from critics. "Poms" placed sixth behind the thriller "The Intruder" ($6.6 million) and the Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron rom-com "Long Shot" ($6.1 million), which are both in their second weekends.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Avengers: Endgame," $63.1 million ($102.3 million international).
2. "Pokémon Detective Pikachu," $58 million ($103 million international).
3. "The Hustle," $13.6 million ($13.7 million international).
4. "The Intruder," $6.6 million.
5. "Long Shot," $6.1 million ($1.6 million international).
6. "Poms," $5.1 million ($736,000 international).
7. "Uglydolls," $3.9 million ($522,000 international).
8. "Breakthrough," $2.5 million.
9. "Tolkien," $2.2 million ($200,283 international).
10. "Captain Marvel," $1.8 million.
"Avengers: Endgame"
In Memory
Fleming Begaye Sr.
The Navajo Nation has announced that World War II-era Navajo Code Talker Fleming Begaye Sr. has died.
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez says Begaye died Friday in Chinle, Arizona. He was 97.
Begaye was among hundreds of Navajos who served in the Marine Corps, using a code based on their native language to outsmart the Japanese.
According to the Navajo Nation, Begaye served as a Code Talker from 1943 to 1945 and fought in the Battle of Tarawa and the Batter of Tinian. He spent a year in a naval hospital after being wounded.
Begaye later ran a general store in Chinle.
Fleming Begaye Sr.
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
