Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lucy Mangan: His Dark Materials review - a riveting realisation of Philip Pullman's magic (The Guardian)
Religion, mortality and talking animals combine to gift us a series that captures Pullman's magnum opus in all its glory.
Lucy Mangan: Green Eggs and Ham review - I'm a huge fan, I am I am! (The Guardian)
Woohoo! It's the Dr Seuss crew, full of derring-do, tunnels of goo, with Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton too. Netflix, thank you!
Hadley Freeman: Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston: 'A lot of guys think every woman wants to sleep with them'" (The Guardian)
Witherspoon and Aniston are sharing a screen for the first time since Friends. They talk disturbing cover-ups and their decades-long fight against sexual harassment.
Tom Lamont: "'I must have watched it 50 times': a Frozen dad prepares for the sequel" (The Guardian)
It's the glue in many father-daughter relationships, with its earworm anthem and empowered princesses. Can the most successful animated film of all time do it again?
Charles Bramesco: "Riddle me not: why I'm sick of TV shows that revel in WTF storytelling" (The Guardian)
As compelling as Watchmen might be, it's yet another show that relies on a mystery box form of storytelling that can prove frustrating.
Charles Besmesco: "Facing facts: how memoir movies are finally showing the ugly truth" (The Guardian)
From Honey Boy to Marriage Story, semi-autobiographical movies have provided artists with a way of dealing with their inner demons.
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 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BANDCAMP MUSIC THAT YOU PROBABLY DON'T HEAR ON THE RADIO
Music: "The Devil's Saddle" from the album "The Devil's Saddle" / "Tiger Paw"
Artist: The Space Agency
Artist Location: Hove, UK
Info: Formed in 2002 by Simon Jones from England, Hiromi Jones from Japan & Andrew Bowler from Wales, they have released 4 albums of their unique, out of this world Instrumental Sounds.
Price: £1 (approx. $1.33 USD) for song; £2 (approx. $2.66 USD) for two-song album
If you are OK with paying for it, you can use PAYPAL or CREDIT CARD.
Genre: Surf Instrumental
"The Devil's Saddle" / "Tiger Paw"
The Space Agency at Bandcamp
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Reader Suggestion
Train Stations
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Many artists are impoverished early in their careers. When Pablo Picasso was living with Fernande Olivier, they sometimes ran out of money to buy food. One trick they used to get food was to order it and have it delivered. When the delivery boy would knock on their door with bags of food, Ms. Olivier would yell, "Put them down! I can't open [the door] now! I'm naked!" The delivery boy would put down the bags of food and leave, Mr. Picasso and Ms. Olivier would eat, and when they got the money, they would pay for the food. Even earlier, when Mr. Picasso lived in an unfurnished apartment with his friend Carlos Casagemas, they could not afford to buy or rent furniture, and so Mr. Picasso painted fine furniture on the walls. He even painted a maid and an errand boy. (By the way, young Pablo grew up watching his artist father create art. Reportedly, Pablo's first word was piz - the Spanish word for pencil is lápiz.)
• While dancing in the Soviet Union, Balanchine ballerina Allegra Kent saw some imperial crowns with finely detailed work that had been created before the invention of magnifying glasses. How could such finely detailed work be done without a magnifying glass? The goldsmiths had used a glass of water. Looking through the water created a magnifying effect that helped the goldsmiths do their finely detailed work. Remembering this lesson, in later years, when Ms. Kent was in a restaurant and had forgotten to bring her eyeglasses, she would hold up a glass of white wine and read the menu through it.
• During his lifetime, the murals of Mexican artist Diego Rivera were controversial and often censored - sometimes even defaced. After he died, however, enormous effort was taken to preserve them for posterity. For example, the Hotel del Prado in Mexico City is the proud owner of one of Mr. Rivera's murals. Unfortunately, because of earthquake tremors the hotel's foundation shifted, cracking the fresco. Therefore, the hotel moved the fresco - all nine tons of it! - to a different location, where it is safe.
• Andy Warhol hated to throw anything away, and he solved the problem of what to do with his stuff by creating "Time Capsules." He kept a box on which he wrote "T.C." and a date, and each day he would drop stuff into the box: junk mail, gallery announcements, letters from famous people, and other odds and ends. When the box was filled, it was sealed with tape and stored. Then he began filling another box. Today many of the Time Capsules are in the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA.
• Norman Rockwell used children as live models for his paintings, but sometimes they grew fidgety. He found a way to help keep them still. He paid the children 50 cents per hour, with the child model posing for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break. At the start of a modeling session, Mr. Rockwell would put a pile of nickels on a table, and at the end of each 25-minute modeling period, he put five nickels in a stack to show the child how much money the child had earned.
• When famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Johnson Wax Administrative Building in Racine, Wisconsin, he put unusual columns in the central open work space. Unfortunately, he could not get a permit to build the columns because other people thought that the columns would be unable to support the weight they were supposed to support. Mr. Wright was able to convince these people that the columns were safe by building one column, then demonstrating that it could support three times the weight it was supposed to support.
• Architect Frank Lloyd Wright concerned himself with fire protection throughout his career, in part because his own studio, called Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin, burned down three times. When the Great Kanto Earthquake struck Tokyo in 1923, fire broke out at the Wright-designed Imperial Hotel. However, the fire was put out quickly with water from the pool near the front entrance - Mr. Wright had placed the pool there specifically in case of fire.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
THE COOLEST PEOPLE IN ART
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestion
Climate
your city's climate in 60 years
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Raccoons dug up a bunch of my passiflora, just to be assholes.
Citizenship Application Delayed
Neil Young
Neil Young has revealed that his attempts to attain U.S. citizenship prior to the 2020 presidential election has been delayed in part due to the "good morale character" clause on the immigration application.
"I want to be a dual citizen and vote. When I recently applied for American citizenship, I passed the test. It was a conversation where I was asked many questions. I answered them truthfully and passed," the rocker wrote Friday on his Neil Young Archives' site.
"Recently however, I have been told that I must do another test, due to my use of marijuana and how some people who smoke it have exhibited a problem."
Young then cited an addition that former Attorney General Jeff Sessions made to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' "good morale character" by-laws that cautioned that applicants' "certain marijuana related activities" could impact their attempts at citizenship.
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Canada-born Young - who has lived predominately in the United States since the late Sixties - said he hoped to take the oath of citizenship after his 74th birthday on November 12th.
Neil Young
Algorithm Blamed
Apple Card
Apple Inc co-founder Steve Wozniak joined in the online debate over accusations of gender discrimination by the algorithm behind the iPhone maker's credit card, fuelling scrutiny of the newly launched Apple Card.
The criticism started on Thursday, after entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson railed against the Apple Card in a series of Twitter posts, saying it gave him 20 times the credit limit his wife received.
The much anticipated titanium credit card, part of a broader effort by Apple to derive greater revenue from services after years of heavy reliance on iPhone sales, was launched in August, in partnership with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. It was possible for two family members to receive significantly different credit decisions, the bank said, but added, "We have not, and will not, make decisions based on factors like gender."
Hansson, who is the creator of web-application framework Ruby on Rails, did not disclose any specific income-related information for himself or his wife but tweeted that they filed joint tax returns and that his wife had a better credit score.
On Saturday, Wozniak chimed in with a similar experience, saying he got 10 times more credit on the card, compared with his wife.
Apple Card
Photo Replaced
Uncle Ruckus
Some might call Kanye West a character. But to someone on the internet, he's not a very good one.
An unidentified person replaced a photo of Uncle Ruckus, a racist character in the popular animated series "The Boondocks," with a picture of Kanye wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat.
So when Google searching "The Boondocks," or "Uncle Ruckus", you get a photo of Kanye instead.
The Google search image for Uncle Ruckus, a racist character on "The Boondocks," was briefly Kanye West Saturday.
While its unclear when exactly the photo was replaced, it was taken down Saturday afternoon.
Uncle Ruckus
Released From 'Whale Jail'
Belugas
The last whales held in a notorious facility dubbed the "whale jail" in Russia's Far East were released on Sunday, the institute overseeing the operation said.
The fate of the whales, which were captured to perform in aquariums, sparked international outrage earlier this year after pictures appeared in the media of them struggling to swim through ice-encrusted waters in cramped enclosures.
Moscow eventually bowed to pressure to release the 93 beluga whales and 11 orcas, which were held for more than a year in the secretive facility in Srednyaya Bay near the far eastern town of Nakhodka.
Russia is the only country that captures wild orcas and belugas to sell to aquariums, a controversial practice made possible by legal loopholes.
Belugas
Forgets Words
National Anthem
Donald "Lumpy" Trump (R-Unfit) has been filmed appearing to forget the words of the US national anthem during an appearance at an American football game.
In a video from the event, Mr Trump stops singing just before the penultimate line of "The Star Spangled Banner", despite those around him continuing to recite the song.
The president then looks around, before resuming singing for the anthem's final line. The incident is not the first time Mr Trump has appeared to forget the song's lyrics.
Mr Trump has previously criticised Americans who do not sing the national anthem or choose to kneel during it and has suggested those who do not want to stand for the anthem "should not be in the country".
National Anthem
Napoleon Expert Confesses
Russia
A prominent Saint Petersburg-based Napoleon expert has confessed to murdering his young lover and former student and dismembering her body in a grisly crime that sent shock waves across Russia.
Oleg Sokolov, a 63-year-old history lecturer who received France's Legion d'Honneur from Jacques Chirac in 2003, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of murder after he was hauled out of the icy Moika River with a backpack containing a woman's arms.
A court on Monday will decide whether to arrest the historian, who was being treated for hypothermia in a hospital.
Sokolov was reportedly drunk and fell into the Moika, a tributary of the Neva, in central Saint Petersburg as he tried to dispose of body parts near the offices of investigators.
After disposing of the corpse he reportedly planned to commit suicide at the Peter and Paul Fortress, one of the former imperial capital's most famous landmarks, dressed as Napoleon.
Russia
Turmoil Creates Rift Among Donors
NRA
Joe Olson was once such a passionate supporter of the National Rifle Association that he pledged to bequeath several million dollars from his estate to the gun organization upon his death.
But the steady drip of investigations and misspending allegations and a shakeup at the top ranks of the NRA compelled him to alter his will. The NRA will no longer get his money.
"The rot had gotten worse and I simply decided: No, I'm not giving those people my money," Olson said.
Olson reflects what has become a new challenge for the NRA as its legal and financial issues stack up: the loss of big donors.
NRA
Left- (or Right-) Handed?
Why
The first time you picked up a crayon as a small child, you probably felt more comfortable and more natural drawing with one of your hands than the other one.
Excluding the small number of truly ambidextrous people - those who can use their right and left hands with equal ease - humans generally have a dominant hand (and side of their body) that they favor for everyday tasks.
Most people - about 85 to 90% - are right-handed, and there's no population on Earth where left-handers are in the majority.
That uneven split has had some historic downsides for lefties. They've had to use scissors, desks, knives and notebooks that were designed with righties in mind. Many lefties were forced, against their natural inclination, to write with their right hands (including some famous examples like King George VI of England). They've been discriminated against and eyed with suspicion, as evidenced in the language used to describe lefties. "Right" in English obviously also means "correct." The etymology of the word "sinister" can be traced back to the Latin word for "left."
While the stigma against left-handedness has faded in most places, scientists are still confounded by the righty-lefty divide. Researchers are still trying to understand what makes people prefer one hand over the other and why righties dominate.
Why
Weekend Box Office
'Midway'
Despite a fresh injection of four big movies into the marketplace including a Stephen King adaptation, a World War II epic, a glossy, holiday-themed romantic comedy and a family friendly comedy, audiences largely stayed away from theaters this weekend and the North American box office is hurting.
Down nearly 27% from last year, the sluggish weekend allowed for a few big surprises however. The biggest surprise was the fact that the Roland Emmerich film "Midway," which slightly overperformed, snagged the first-place spot over Warner Bros.' "Doctor Sleep," a film that came in well under expectations and has left many in the business scratching their heads as to why.
Lionsgate on Sunday estimated that "Midway" earned $17.5 million from 3,242 screens. The studio acquired the film about the Battle of Midway that features a large ensemble cast including Nick Jonas and Patrick Wilson.
In a more minor surprise, Paramount Pictures' John Cena-led "Playing With Fire," a family friendly comedy about firefighters, opened in third place with $12.8 million over Universal Pictures' Wham!-inspired romantic comedy "Last Christmas." Starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, "Last Christmas" took fourth place with $11.6 million. But Universal is optimistic about its prospects, considering the thematic nature of the film and the holiday weekends to come.
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."Midway," $17.5 million ($21.6 million international).
2."Doctor Sleep," $14.1 million ($13 million international).
3."Playing With Fire," $12.8 million ($2.5 million international).
4."Last Christmas," $11.6 million ($3.1 million international).
5."Terminator: Dark Fate," $10.8 million ($29.9 million international).
6."Joker," $9.2 million ($20.3 million international).
7."Maleficent: Mistress of Evil," $8 million ($19.9 million international).
8."Harriet," $7.2 million.
9."Zombieland: Double Tap," $4.3 million ($5.1 million international).
10."The Addams Family," $4.2 million ($13.2 million international).
'Midway'
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
