Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: "Online Dignity: Give It Up" (Creators Syndicate)
Three female professors at Eastern Michigan University were shocked to learn that some young scholars in their lecture hall had been on their cellphones attacking them with lewd public posts, complete with imagery. It was all done anonymously, courtesy of an unusually obnoxious social media app called Yik Yak. Their lecture topic, post-apocalyptic culture, seemed somehow apt. And to think, this was an honors course.
Isaac Simpson: AN ENTIRE CLASS OF USC ART STUDENTS LEAVES SCHOOL AFTER DEAN PISSES THEM OFF (LA Weekly)
Today is graduation day at USC's Roski School of Art and Design, but the celebration has been clouded by controversy: The entire first-year class of Masters of Fine Art (MFA) students in the two-year program has announced that they will be leaving the school after what they claim to be unethical treatment.
HENRY ROLLINS: WHY SO FEW BANDS MAKE GREAT SOPHOMORE ALBUMS (LA Weekly)
Of all genres of music, punk rock is perhaps the one that ages most pitifully. I can't think of any other music that has such time-and-place immediacy and purity of moment.
Mikal Cronin + Kurt Braunohler (feat. Kristen Schaal)- "Turn Around" | $5K Videos (YouTube)
Musician Mikal Cronin and comedians Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal team up to create a shot-by-shot reenactment of Natalie Imbruglia's music video ""Torn"" with some surprise guest characters for Cronin's music video release "Turn Around." This collaboration is part of JASH's $5K Video Series where JASH pairs an up-and-coming musical act with a comedian, gives them $5000, and tells them to spend the money however they want, as long as they spend it all and come back with a video.
This Nick Cave song as a Dr. Seuss book makes sense (Hopes&Fears)
So it does make a sort of twisty, bendy sense that "Red Right Hand" would find itself the subject of both literature and art. We have DeviantArt user DrFaustusAU to thank for a Seussified version of the Let Love In single.
Oliver Burkeman: Is stress bad for your health? (Guardian)
Is there something amiss with our assumption that stress equals misery, while a stress-free life is bliss?
Pauline Marie Bock: How to live a middle-class life in New York City on less than $5,000 a year (Guardian)
Marie is a French woman living in Brooklyn who has no job, no visa, and lives in a three-story house for free. Her secret: living off the waste of others.
Jim Avery: 6 Dark Secrets Harbored By Your Favorite Foods (Cracked)
"Please, Cracked," you're already pleading, "Don't do this. Let me live my beautiful lie that is eating healthy and fresh. Don't take this from me." Sorry, hypothetical reader, but duty calls.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
, wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
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.
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
May gray morning, mostly sunny afternoon.
Paley Center for Media
Conan O'Brien
With the news that the U.S. may soon normalize relations with Cuba after more than a half century, Conan O'Brien tried a little comedy diplomacy earlier this year by spending four days on the fly in Cuba, seeing the sights and interacting with the locals.
It was the first time in more 50 years that an American talk show host was allowed to visit the country. O'Brien treated the historic moment as an opportunity to do what he does best: make fun of himself for being pale and awkward.
On Friday, the Paley Center for Media in New York screened the two Cuba episodes of TBS' "Conan," which first aired in March. The episodes were a major departure from his usual format. They featured a warm and loose O'Brien awkwardly attempting to learn native dancing, discovering the pleasures of rum in a box, and learning key Cuban phrases from an old woman, including "does this freckle look pre-cancerous?" (Without missing a beat, the woman he asked to translate the phrase immediately said yes, and O'Brien responded with his signature exasperation.)
After the screening, O' Brien sat down for an interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, during which he explained that they visited the country, with help from a Canadian producer, with very little idea for what they would find. "This is completely improvisational," he said. "You are flying without any kind of safety net."
Conan O'Brien
Two-Day Music Auction
Hard Rock Cafe
A custom-designed tour bus bought by Rock 'n' Roll King Elvis Presley for his back-up band in 1976 sold at auction in New York Saturday for $268,000, organizers said.
Elvis's "Takin' Care of Business" and lightning bolt motto is emblazoned on the bodywork, although its soft furnishings have since been refitted in dusty peach since its days on road in the 1970s.
But the most expensive lot of the two-day music auction at New York's Hard Rock Cafe was a guitar played by George Harrison in the early days of Beatlemania that sold for $500,000 to a private buyer on Friday.
Harrison borrowed the Maton electric guitar from a music shop while his own instrument was being repaired.
He was photographed holding it at the Cavern Club, the Liverpool spot where the Beatles shot to prominence, and played it at a series of concerts in Britain in the summer of 1963, Julien's said.
Hard Rock Cafe
Fine Arts Students Quit
U$C
The entire graduate class of 2016 at the University of Southern California's art and design school has dropped out, protesting faculty and curriculum changes.
The seven fine arts students on Friday posted a letter online, saying they're withdrawing from USC's Roski School of Art and Design because of changes to the visual arts graduate program and the loss of several prominent professors.
Students said they were upset that studio visits were replaced by classes focusing on teaching and criticism. They also lamented about the loss of guaranteed teaching assistant positions.
"I regret that several of our MFA students have stated they will leave the program over issues that were presented to us and that we considered to have been resolved, specifically having to do with financial aid and curriculum," Dean Erica Muhl said in a statement.
When Muhl took over in 2013, she oversaw a name change from the Roski School of Fine Arts to the Roski School of Art and Design.
U$C
Beverly Hills Cobbler
Arturo Azinian
Arturo Azinian plucked a pair of Chanel pumps from a box full of shoes, unfazed by the leather peeling off the interlocking Cs on the toes or the tarnished metallic heels.
"These have a lot of miles on them, but they will be like new, for about $70," said Azinian, an 88-year-old Beverly Hills cobbler famous for saving the fancy footwear of the elite in the ritzy 90210 zip code.
Just steps from boutique-lined Rodeo Drive sits the decidedly unglamorous Arturo's Shoe Fixx, where the Argentine immigrant toils for 13 hours a day in a warren of whirring machines and shoes stacked to the ceiling.
A pair of men's Salvatore Ferragamo caramel lace-ups awaits repair, while brand new patent leather Jimmy Choos are getting some rubber reinforcements on the bottom to prevent slipping and wear-and-tear.
While handling shoes worth hundreds and thousands of dollars, Azinian is utterly clueless about the famous people to whom they belong.
Arturo Azinian
Saying 'No' To Cities
States
Alarmed about cities trying to outlaw plastic bags, the director of the Missouri Grocers Association decided to do something about it. So Dan Shaul turned to his state legislator- himself - and guided a bill to passage barring local governments from banning the bags.
Shaul's dual role in state government and business may be a bit out of the norm. Yet his actions are not. In capitols across the country, businesses are increasingly using their clout to back laws prohibiting cities and counties from doing things that might affect their ability to make money.
In the past five years, roughly a dozen states have enacted laws barring local governments from requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees. The number of states banning local minimum wages has grown to 15. And while oil-rich states such as Texas and Oklahoma are pursuing bills banning local restrictions on drilling, other states where agriculture is big business have been banning local limitations on the types of seeds sown for crops.
Wisconsin has banned local bans on sugary drinks. Arizona and Florida have barred local governments from forbidding toys in fast-food meals. And Utah has barred cities from requiring bicyclists to be served in drive-thru lanes.
States
Oil Leak Could Last Another Century
Gulf of Mexico
For more than a decade, oil has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico where a hurricane toppled a drilling company's platform off the coast of Louisiana. Now the federal government is warning that the leak could last another century or more if left unchecked.
Government estimates obtained by The Associated Press provide new details about the scope of a leak that has persisted since Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
Taylor Energy Co., which owned the platform and a cluster of oil wells, has played down the extent and environmental impact of the leak. The company also maintains that nothing can be done to completely eliminate the chronic oil slicks that often stretch for miles off the Louisiana coast.
Taylor has tried to broker a deal with the government to resolve its financial obligations for the leak, but authorities have rebuffed those overtures and have ordered additional work by the company, according to Justice Department officials who were not authorized to comment by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Gulf of Mexico
52 Counts Of Voyeurism
Bad Rabbi
A Washington rabbi who admitted setting up cameras to spy on women as they prepared for Jewish ritual baths was sentenced Friday to more than six years in prison, the Justice Department said.
Bernard "Barry" Freundel, 63, was sentenced on 52 counts of voyeurism after pleading guilty in February to videotaping the women from 2009 to 2014.
Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Alprin sentenced Freundel to 45 days in prison for each of his 52 victims. The full sentence is six and a half years, the Justice Department said.
In addition to the 52 women whom he was convicted of recording, computer forensic examinations revealed that Freundel secretly filmed about 100 more women in various states of undress, stretching back to 2009.
Bad Rabbi
First Palestinian Saints
Vatican
Two 19th-century nuns on Sunday became the first Palestinians to gain sainthood during an open-air mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St Peter's Square attended by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The pontiff urged the faithful to follow the "luminous example" of the two 19th-century sisters and two others, from France and Italy, who were canonised along with them on a sunny spring morning.
Marie Alphonsine Ghattas was born in 1843 in Jerusalem during its rule by the Ottoman Empire, and died there during the British mandate period in 1927.
She was beatified -- the final step before canonisation -- in 2009.
Mariam Bawardy was born in Galilee, now in northern Israel, in 1846. She became a nun in France and died in Bethlehem in 1878 and was beatified by pope John Paul II in 1983.
Vatican
Week End Box Office
'Pitch Perfect 2'
The ladies of "Pitch Perfect 2" hit all the right notes opening weekend, amassing a $70.3 million debut, according to Rentrak estimates Sunday.
The Elizabeth Banks-directed sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit and video-on-demand phenomenon cost Universal Pictures only $29 million to produce and was expected to open in the $50 million range. The first film, for comparison, grossed only $65 million domestically across its entire run.
George Miller's critically acclaimed "Mad Max: Fury Road" landed a distant second in its debut weekend with a solid and expected $44.4 million from 3,702 locations. The high-octane, post-apocalyptic film cost a reported $150 million to make and stars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy.
Holdovers "Avengers: Age of Ultron," ''Hot Pursuit" and "Furious 7" claimed the rest of the spots in the top five.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1."Pitch Perfect 2," $70.3 million ($26.9 million international).
2."Mad Max: Fury Road," $44.4 million ($65 million international).
3."Avengers: Age of Ultron," $38.8 million ($185 million international).
4."Hot Pursuit," $5.8 million.
5."Furious 7," $3.6 million ($6.6 million international).
6."Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2," $3.6 million ($1.7 million international).
7."The Age of Adaline," $3.2 million ($1.5 million international).
8."Home," $2.7 million ($4.5 million international).
9."Ex Machina," $2.1 million ($300,000 international).
10."Far from the Madding Crowd," $1.3 million ($828,000 international).
'Pitch Perfect 2'
In Memory
Elisabeth Bing
Elisabeth Bing, the natural child-birth pioneer who popularized the Lamaze method in the United States, has died at age 100.
Bing, born in a Berlin suburb on July 9, 1914, died on Friday at her home in New York, her son Peter said on Sunday.
When Bing was 18, she fled her homeland after Hitler took power in Germany and moved to England, where she became interested in obstetrics and natural childbirth while working in a hospital's maternity ward as a physical therapist.
She helped postpartum women regain their strength after they were heavily medicated during childbirth and ordered to remain in their beds for 10 days, she told The Journal of Perinatal Education in 2000.
"What I saw I disliked intensely and I thought there must be better ways. It was very frightening and upsetting to me. The women either had very heavy anesthesia or nothing at all," she said during the interview.
In 1949, Bing moved to the United States, eventually settling down in New York, where she took a job teaching childbirth classes to expectant mothers at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
There she familiarized herself and began teaching classes based on the work of French obstetrician Dr. Fernand Lamaze, who emphasized relaxation, breathing techniques and emotional support from the father during childbirth.
In 1960, Bing help found the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics, now known as Lamaze International.
During the next two decades, Bing introduced the Lamaze method to the United States, giving interviews on television and radio talk shows and speeches about the benefits of natural childbirth and important role expecting parents play in childbirth.
Peter Bing said mothers would regularly stop Bing, known as the "Mother of Lamaze," on the streets of New York to thank her.
Elisabeth Bing
In Memory
Ortheia Barnes-Kennerly
Detroit R&B and jazz singer Ortheia Barnes-Kennerly has died. She was 70.
Friend and bass player Ralphe Armstrong tells the Detroit Free Press that Barnes-Kennerly died Friday in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she went for a performance. He says she had at least two strokes in recent years and died of heart failure.
Barnes-Kennerly recorded in the 1960s for independent Detroit music labels Mickay Records and Coral Records. She opened shows for Motown Records performers Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight.
Armstrong says if Aretha Franklin is the Queen of Soul, Barnes-Kennerly "was the empress."
She later turned her career toward speaking and the ministry.
Ortheia Barnes-Kennerly
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