Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hadley Freeman: "Keanu Reeves: 'Grief and loss, those things don't ever go away'" (The Guardian)
From Bill & Ted's excellent dude to assassin John Wick, the actor has carved out a stellar career. But it hasn't come without personal tragedy.
Brendan Bures: "Burning desire: John Wick and the undying appeal of the revenge thriller" (The Guardian)
In the third chapter of the Keanu Reeves action franchise, one man's violent mission continues to provide us with an uneasy catharsis.
Joe Queenan: I'm non-sticking with you! (The Guardian, from 2008)
Keanu Reeves has starred in countless duds but that doesn't stop Joe Queenan from loving him. So who are the other Teflon thespians that can somehow survive any box office bomb?
Eve Barlow: "Ani DiFranco: 'I'm sorry if I'm not what you need me to be'" (The Guardian)
DiFranco despairs for upcoming voices in the post-social media age. "It's not getting any easier to be willing to make mistakes in public, which anybody has to do to stay alive," she says. The internet, she believes, has spawned a culture of "gotcha!". "One mistake and you're done! It's counterproductive. The idea that we can write each other off and kick somebody off the planet? That's not how we're gonna get to where we need to be. We have to go together."
David Cox: "Nearing the endgame: is Hollywood's lust for sequels destroying cinema?" (The Guardian)
Franchises thrill fans and enrich studios. But in a fast-changing world, familiar comforts may be more harmful than we think.
Luke Holland: "Stop the nitpicking! This season of Game of Thrones is miraculous" (The Guardian)
Seeing the fury around "The Bells" baffles me. Are we watching the same show?
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
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• On stage, Chris Sievey was Frank Sidebottom, who wore a big papier-mâché head - later, it was made out of fiberglass - and he sang with a nasal twang that was native to Manchester, England. In the late 1980s, Jon Ronson played keyboards with the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band. He was friendly with Mike Doherty, who was Frank Sidebottom's drummer. One day, Mr. Doherty called him and said, "Frank's playing a show in London tonight and our keyboard player can't make it. Do you know any keyboard players?" He replied, "I can play the keyboards." Mr. Doherty shouted, "Well, you're in!" Mr. Ronson objected that he didn't know the songs, but Mr. Doherty asked, "Can you play C, F, and G?" He could, and Mr. Doherty shouted again, "Well, you're in!" Fortunately, since the songs were oompah versions of pop songs, Mr. Ronson picked them up quickly. Another thing he picked up quickly was that Mr. Sievey stayed in character as Frank whenever he wore the big papier-mâché head. He was wearing it when Mr. Ronson showed up for the sound check, and he ignored Mr. Ronson, who called him Chris, until Mr. Ronson finally said to him, "Hello, uh, Frank?" Then he yelled, "Hello!" For a long time, people were unaware of the identity of the man wearing the big papier-mâché head; sometimes, people would barge into the dressing room and ask people there, "It's you, isn't it? You're Frank, aren't you?" When they did this, they usually ignored Mr. Sievey, who was unassuming. Frank Sidebottom got a contract to record an album in the 1980s when he recorded his version of "Anarchy in the UK" and sent it to major music companies with this note: "Dear X, I'm thinking of getting into show business. Do you have any pamphlets?" Someone at EMI thought this was funny and asked to meet him. Frank and his big papier-mâché head showed up, and the EMI representative asked him, "Have you been in show business long?" Frank looked at his wristwatch and said, "10 seconds." Frank and his band had some success in show business, and they once opened for Gary Glitter, whose roadies were extremely rude. Mr. Sievey and Frank both seethed, and Frank ignored the roadies' instructions: "You aren't allowed to use our lights. Stay away from our hydraulic stage." Frank jumped on the hydraulic stage, an action that set off smoke bombs and caused the stage to rise high in the air. The roadies ran toward Frank, who fled. Frank was able to shed his head and costume; underneath, Mr. Sievey was wearing his normal clothing. The roadies asked Mr. Sievey, "Have you seen Frank?" Mr. Sievey replied, "He went that way." The band took a wrong turn when it tried to become more like professional musicians; the audience loved the band's mistakes and lack of professionalism. Because of this wrong turn, the size of the audience got very small. At one show, no more than fifteen people showed up. In the middle of the show, someone in the audience produced a ball, the audience split into two teams, and they played ball during the rest of the show. Mr. Sievey always claimed to love the shows where absolutely everything went wrong. After this show, he said, "That was the best show ever." By the way, for a while Chris Evans was the driver for the band. As the driver, he said the funniest thing that Mr. Ronson has ever heard. Driving to a show, Mr. Evans stopped the car and asked a pedestrian, "Is this London?" "Yes." "Well, where do you want this wood?" Also by the way, the movie Frank, which was co-written by Mr. Ronson and Peter Straughan, is based largely on Mr. Ronson's experiences in the band.
• Rocker Alice Cooper has had some strange experiences. In 1973, he worked with surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, who made a rotating hologram of Mr. Cooper's head, which (the hologram, not the actual head) is now in the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. According to Mr. Cooper, Dalí was "the strangest thing. I'm pretty sure there are aliens that walk among us. And it's always the guys who are in first place. The guy in first place is way, way ahead of the guy in second place. The Beatles, for instance - the next band down was way, way down. And that's Salvador Dalí." The great artist knew how to make an entrance. Mr. Cooper remembers, "First of all nine nymphs walk in. Then Gala [Mr. Dalí's wife] walks in - she's in a full tuxedo and spats, white gloves, the whole lot. Then in comes 'the Dalí.' 'The Dalí is here.' He's got a giraffe-skin coat on, blue velvet pants and a pair of Aladdin shoes. He sits down and orders everyone a Scorpion, which is a shell full of every alcohol you can think of, with an orchid floating in it." So what was it like to work with the great surrealist? Mr. Cooper remembers, "He'd say one word in Portuguese, one word in French, then one word in Italian, as well as some weird surrealistic language. We worked with him for three days [and] then afterwards, at a press conference, a journalist asked me the same thing. I told them, 'It was great, but I didn't understand a word he said!' Then Dalí goes, 'Perfect! Confusion is the greatest form of communication!' And I look at him and I go, 'You speak ENGLISH? After three days of BABBLING?' By the way, Mr. Cooper was asked to run for Governor of Arizona in the 1980s, but he declined the offer. He remembers, "I told them I didn't have enough indictments. I wasn't crooked enough to be a politician. I told them, 'I can't take the pay cut!' Also, it would have killed my golf game."
• According to Andrew W.K.'s Wikipedia page, Dominic Owen Mallary, one of his fans, died on 5 December 2014 after an accident while performing at Boston University with Last Lights, his band. Mr. Mallary had told his friends that he wanted Andrew W.K. to play music at his funeral. His friends sent emails to Andrew W.K., who went to Mr. Mallary's wake, paid his respects, and then played classical music.
***
© 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
More rain and kinda cold (for these parts).
Will Boycott
Georgia
Filmmaker Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer have joined the list of Hollywood stars who say they will boycott Georgia after the state's governor signed the controversial "heartbeat bill" into law.
Howard and Grazer, who run Imagine Entertainment, told The Hollywood Reporter in an exclusive statement that although they are continuing with their plans to film the movie "Hillbilly Elegy" in Georgia next month, they will boycott the state as a production center if the law goes into effect in January.
"We see Governor Kemp's bill as a direct attack on women's rights, and we will be making a donation to the (American Civil Liberties Union) to support their battle against this oppressive legislation," the statement read.
Filmmakers J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele released a joint statement stating they'd stand "shoulder to shoulder with the women of Georgia" as their new show "Lovecraft Country" begins shooting in the state. They promised to donate 100% of their episodic fees to the ACLU of Georgia and Fair Fight Georgia, an election reform organization.
Georgia
"Weekend Update"
Leslie Jones
Leslie Jones stopped by the "Weekend Update" segment of the season finale of "SNL" do deliver a fiery denunciation of "the war on women" she sees in recent antiabortion laws passed by multiple states in an apparent effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Jones first appeared in a red cape and white bonnet in homage to the regressive dystopia depicted in Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale." "Well, basically we're all handmaids now," she said, before removing the cape to reveal a black t-shirt that said "MINE" with an arrow pointing down.
"I see on the news a bunch of states are trying to ban abortion," she said, before jokingly suggesting the moves could lead to a slippery slope. "The next thing you know, I'm at Starbucks and they won't take my credit card because I'm a woman instead of the regular reason, which is I don't have no money on me."
She also called out the 25 white, male Alabama senators who voted for that state's legislation, the most restrictive in the U.S. since it does not make exceptions for rape or incest. "This looked like the casting call for a Lipitor commercial," she joked.
Jones turned more serious, and more outraged, as her monologue continued. "You can't control women because, I don't know if y'all heard, but women are the same as humans," she continued. "Why do all of these weird ass men care what women choose to do with their bodies anyway? I don't care what you do with your 65-year-old droopy ass balls."
Leslie Jones
Engaged
Johansson & Jost
Wedding bells are in the future for actress Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost of "Saturday Night Live."
Johansson's publicist Marcel Pariseau tells The Associated Press Sunday that the private couple is officially engaged after two years of dating. Pariseau says no date has been set for the nuptials.
Johansson, 34, was previously married to actor Ryan Reynolds and journalist Romain Dauriac, with whom she has a daughter named Rose who was born in 2014.
This is the first marriage for the 36-year-old Jost, who is the co-anchor of SNL's Weekend Update.
Johansson & Jost
Researchers Present 3D View
Antarctica
The amount of ice at the poles and in glaciers around the world has shrunk dramatically over the last few decades due to climate change. The ice loss will become more and more prominent as temperatures continue to rise but to accurately predict the specific changes we need precise data.
With that in mind, researchers from the University of Edinburgh wondered if they could improve on the data collected by the European Space Agency's satellite CryoSat. They were able to reprocess observations collected since 2010 and dramatically improve the resolution, delivering CryoSat's sharpest 3D map of Antarctica yet.
The results were presented this week at the Living Planet Symposium in Milan, Italy. CryoSat carries a radar altimeter that is used to measure the height of the world's ice. The satellite sends a microwave pulse and times how long it takes for the pulse to bounce off the ice and come back to the satellite. Differences in return time correspond to precise differences in altitude.
While the approach has been very useful for imaging the vast icy expanse of the southernmost continent, it doesn't deliver very detailed results regarding Antarctica's terrain. The data analysis conducted so far has focused on the first data point coming back to the craft so it might be missing the finer details of ground formation.
The research team used an approach called "swath processing", which takes into account all the data coming from the microwave pulse. By employing this technique, they were able to reduce the spatial resolution on the surface to less than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles). This allowed the production of the excellent 3D map, which gives precise altitudes and quite detailed information on geographical formation.
Antarctica
Voters Approve Stronger Gun Control Laws
Switzerland
Swiss voters on Sunday approved a measure to tighten the Alpine nation's gun laws, bringing the country in line with many of its European partners despite the objections of local gun owners, Swiss media reported, citing official results.
Switzerland's public broadcaster said more than 63% of voters nationwide agreed to align with European Union firearms rules adopted two years ago after deadly attacks in France, Belgium, Germany and Britain.
The vote Sunday was part of Switzerland's regular referendums that give citizens a direct say in policymaking. It had stoked passions in a country with long, proud traditions of gun ownership and sport and target shooting. Switzerland, unlike many other European nations, allows veterans of its obligatory military service for men to take home their service weapons after tours of duty.
The Swiss proposal, among other things, requires regular training on the use of firearms, special waivers to own some semi-automatic weapons and serial number tracking system for key parts of some guns. Gun owners would have to register any weapons not already registered within three years, and keep a registry of their gun collections.
Pre-vote polls suggested most of the major political parties - except for the populist Swiss People's Party - were in favor, with support strongest among Socialists and Greens.
Switzerland
Secrecy Law
Misconduct
The mother of Eric Garner stood outside of the New York Police Department's headquarters in the rain on Monday to remind supporters that the fight for justice in her son's death isn't over.
"It's been five years - five years we've been on the front lines trying to get justice, and they're still trying to sweep it under the rug," she said.
The family has been largely kept in the dark by the NYPD due to a police secrecy law that has clouded transparency in the case.
They were initially denied access to Pantaleo's disciplinary records and were unable to see evidence from the grand jury investigation into the case, due to a state civil rights law - Section 50-a - that bars access to police officers' personnel records.
The law makes police misconduct in New York state more secretive than in any other state in the country, according to a report by the New York State Committee on Open Government.
Misconduct
Government Switching To Linux
South Korea
Some governments might have fallen out of love with Linux, but South Korea appears ready to start a torrid affair. The country's Ministry of the Interior and Safety has outlined plans to switch government computers from Windows to Linux due to both lower costs and a reduced dependency on a single operating system. The Ministry will trial Linux on its PCs and roll it out more broadly if there aren't any major compatibility or security issues.
It's not certain which Linux distributions the government would use, and there's no specific timetable at this stage.
A switch wouldn't be shocking. Free Windows 7 support ends in January 2020, and that could make it expensive to maintain legions of workstations. South Korea would have to upgrade to a newer Windows release after 2023, to boot. While there would still be support costs, they might be easier to swallow.
Microsoft might not be so enthusiastic if the switch goes ahead. However, it's not likely to be as worried as it might have been even a decade ago. The modern Microsoft is more interested in cloud services than selling copies of Windows. It could still profit after South Korea's changeover simply by making its online offerings indispensable.
South Korea
Makes Us Poop?
Coffee
A good chunk of regular coffee drinkers know that coffee isn't just great at getting them awake in the morning-it also makes them get up and go poop. But while coffee's laxative powers are well-known, it's not clear why exactly this happens. To get to the bottom of this mystery, some scientists decided to do exactly what you'd expect scientists to: giving lab rats some coffee.
Their preliminary results, presented this weekend at a research conference aptly named Digestive Disease Week, seem to reaffirm a suspicion that coffee's poop-making prowess has nothing to do with caffeine. Coffee might also kill off bacteria found in our guts.
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston fed their rats a tiny cup of joe for three days straight, with different groups getting both caffeinated and decaf coffee. Then, the researchers checked the downstairs plumbing of the rats with a physical examination and probe, focusing on the muscles that contract and help guide food (and eventually waste) through the gut. Lastly, they also studied how muscle tissues from the gut directly reacted to coffee in the lab. Their results were clear: muscles in the small and large intestine were more able to contract post-coffee, meaning things could move faster along the gut.
"Coffee has this stimulating effect on gut motility, and that is not related to caffeine at all. We could see this even with decaffeinated coffee, so it's caffeine-independent," lead author Xuan-Zheng Shi, an associate professor in internal medicine at the university, told Gizmodo over the phone.
This study isn't the first to suggest that the gut's muscles are directly affected by coffee. As far as back as 1990, researchers found that healthy people who self-reported themselves as coffee-poopers had more movement of their colon muscles after drinking black coffee than did those who said they never felt the urge.
Coffee
Weekend Box Office
'John Wick 3'
The box office has a new king and his name is John Wick. The third installment of the hyper violent Keanu Reeves franchise has taken the top spot at the North American box office and ended the three-week reign of "Avengers: Endgame."
Studios on Sunday say "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" has grossed an estimated $57 million in its opening weekend. Not only did it far exceed expectations, it's a franchise best that nearly doubled the opening of the second film, which itself doubled the opening of the first film from 2014.
"Avengers: Endgame" slid to second place in its fourth weekend with $29.4 million. Domestically, where the film has grossed $711 million, it's now second only to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" ($937 million) and globally, with $2.6 billion, it's still second to "Avatar" ($2.8 billion).
In its second weekend, "Pokémon Detective Pikachu" also continued to do well, placing third with $24.8 million. But with the high-performing trifecta of John Wick, the Avengers and Pikachu, there weren't very many moviegoers left over for the less flashy newcomers like "A Dog's Journey" and "The Sun Is Also a Star."
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."John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum," $57 million ($35.2 million international).
2."Avengers: Engame," $29.4 million ($46.8 million international).
3."Pokémon Detective Pikachu," $24.8 million ($53.8 million international).
4."A Dog's Journey," $8 million ($13.9 million international).
5."The Hustle," $6.1 million ($9.5 million international).
6."The Intruder," $4 million.
7."Long Shot," $3.4 million ($1.8 million international).
8."The Sun Is Also a Star," $2.6 million ($484,000 international).
9."Poms," $2.1 million ($396,000 international).
10."Uglydolls," $1.6 million ($3.1 million international).
'John Wick 3'
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
