Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Trumpification of the Federal Reserve (NY Times)
Like it or not, its next move will be political.
Paul Waldman: "Trump: I can win reelection with just my base" (Washington Post)
But in some ways it's going to look a lot like 2018: Most of the discussion centered on Trump's antics, a Democratic nominee talking much more about issues than the president does, a whole lot of demagoguery and fear-mongering on immigration, massive turnout that benefits the Democrat, and the president convinced that if he just gets his supporters a little angrier, his victory will be assured. He's probably wrong, but anything could happen. We can say for sure that it isn't going to be pretty.
Elias Leight: Fake Streams Could Be Costing Artists $300 Million a Year (Rolling Stone)
As streaming platforms grow, indie labels are becoming increasingly concerned about how the numbers can be manipulated.
Ron Lyons, Jr.: Pixar Announces Another (Non-Sequel!) Movie for 2020 (Slate)
Before Soul, Pixar will release Onward, its first original film since 2017's Coco. The movie will reunite Avengers Chris Pratt and Tom Holland as elves looking for their father. Pixar president Jim Morris said in 2016 that after this batch of sequels culminating in Toy Story 4, audiences shouldn't expect to see any more for a while as the studio goes back to its roots making original content.
Jeffrey Bloomer: The Best Part of the New Child's Play Is the Behind-the-Scenes Drama (Slate)
There are now two competing Chucky franchises, and the knives are out.
Peter Bradshaw: Child's Play review - a razor-sharp and exquisitely gruesome toy story (The Guardian)
The knife-wielding Chucky doll is updated for the digital era in a horror reboot that shrewdly skewers western consumerism.
Mary Beard: The joys of retirement (TLS)
I am rather looking forward to retiring. It's not that I won't enjoy my last few years in the job (it's a great one, and I have been very lucky to have it). But I don't really understand the occasional outcries, or court casesbrought, against the more or less compulsory retirement age that applies at Oxford and Cambridge and no doubt at other places and in other careers too. At Cambridge the basic rule is that you retire at the end of the academic year in which you reach 67.
Mary Beard: The World between Empires (TLS)
The message for me is that if you are going to give a political context to one side of the modern history of these objects and their sites, on which it is easy and right to feel outrage, you really ought to tell us how it was, and under what circumstances, so many of them have ended up in Western collections. For the good maybe, but I wondered just how innocently.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Golfer Ky Laffoon had tremendous pride. At a tournament, Mr. Laffoon was leading with three rounds of 67, 69, and 65. On the last hole of the last round of the tournament, he missed a putt, then picked up his ball and quit the tournament, giving up his share of the prize money. Paul Runyan asked why he was doing this, and Mr. Laffoon explained that if he had made the last putt instead of missing it, he would have had a 72, which would have been OK, but that he had previously promised himself that he would never again shoot more than 72 in a tournament.
• In the past, golf professionals were not treated as well as they are today. In 1923, The British Open took place at Troon, and the golf professionals were not allowed to dine in - or even enter - the clubhouse. That didn't faze Walter Hagen, who horrified the snobs by being driven to the clubhouse in a chauffeured limousine. He then sat at an outdoor table, and ordered a gourmet meal to be served to him.
• Bob Denver says that he had an ego problem while he was starring as Maynard G. Krebs in the TV series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He liked to sign pictures at the gate where people began their tour of Universal. He signed hundreds of pictures, but discovered that one of the drivers of the tour hated him. Mr. Denver inquired why, then learned that the bus driver had to work late each night cleaning up the pictures that Mr. Denver had autographed during the day - each night, the bus driver found dozens of autographed pictures that "fans" had left behind. Whenever Mr. Denver thinks he is getting a swelled head, he remembers this experience.
• During a matinee performance of Macbeth at which few people were in the audience, Laurence Olivier noticed a boy sitting in the balcony and decided to give a special performance just for him. Sir Laurence gave a wonderful performance and the entire company followed suit, so that during intermission Sir Laurence said, "That boy will never see anything like this as long as he lives; it's an experience he'll never forget." Unfortunately, when Sir Laurence and the company went back on stage following the intermission, they discovered that the boy had left the theater and gone home.
• James McNeill Whistler, the famous painter, attended West Point, where he performed very badly. He once outraged an examiner who was shocked that Mr. Whistler did not know the date of the Battle of Buena Vista. The examiner asked, "Suppose you were to go out to dinner, and the company began to talk of the Mexican war, and you, a West Point man, were asked the date of the battle, what would you do?" Mr. Whistler replied, "Do? Why, I should refuse to associate with people who could talk of such things at dinner."
• A spiritual pretender stayed the night at the house of Mulla Nasrudin, then tried to impress him by saying: "Last night I left my earthly body and journeyed throughout the cosmos." Nasrudin asked, "When you journeyed throughout the cosmos, did you feel a slight breeze?" "Yes, I did," the pretender said. "Ah," Nasrudin said, "I have bad news for you. Last night, my donkey stuck his tail in your bedroom window, and the breeze you felt was made by the swishing of his tail."
• In 1931, Robert Benchley, Lewis Milestone, and Douglas Fairbanks were in Italy, when they decided to pay a visit on Benito Mussolini. Because Mr. Fairbanks was a huge movie star, a visit was arranged, but when they arrived at the appointed time, they were told that Mussolini could not see them for a half-hour. They replied that they were too busy to wait, and departed, leaving behind a startled bureaucrat.
• King Louis XI condemned to death the champion archer of France, John de Roche, but he gave him a chance to win his freedom by making a difficult shot. Mr. de Roche thought about the offer for a moment, and then said, "Sire, under these conditions I am liable to miss and ruin my reputation." He preferred definitely losing his head to the guillotine to possibly losing his reputation.
• Three of the best violinists of all time were Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, and Fritz Kreisler. Once, Jascha and Mischa were dining together when a waiter brought them a letter addressed to "The Greatest Violinist in the World." Both men were modest, but they wondered which violinist the letter was addressed to, so they opened the letter together and read, "Dear Mr. Kreisler …."
• Max Beerbohm was the younger brother of the famous actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Max once announced that he was going to write a series of articles about the brothers of famous men. When someone asked whether Max was brother to Mr. Tree, Max acknowledged the relationship, and then added, "He is coming into the series."
• Violinist Fritz Kreisler was once asked by a snooty society lady to play at one of her affairs. Mr. Kreisler replied that his fee would be $3,000. The society lady agreed to the price, but told him that he must not mingle with the guests. "In that case," Mr. Kreisler said, "my fee will be $2,000."
• When they were teenagers, Noël Coward and Collie Knox attended at a party at which a playwright walked around with his nose stuck up in the air. Mr. Coward said, "One day I shall write a play. It will be a success, but I shall try not to look like that. Come, let's have an ice cream."
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Auctions Guitars
David Gilmour
Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour sold his guitars for $21 million at auction on Thursday to raise money for a nonprofit fighting climate change.
Gilmour, the guitarist, singer, and songwriter of the legendary English rock band, offered the largest and most comprehensive sale of guitars ever offered at auction, according to Christie's, which sold the instruments.
On Wednesday, Gilmour announced all proceeds would go to ClientEarth, a "charity that uses the power of the law to protect the planet and the people who live on it," according to its website.
On Twitter, Gilmour said he chose ClientEarth because "the global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible."
Gilmour sold a total of 126 items, including the iconic "black strat" guitar, which went for nearly $4 million, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $150,000. Gilmour purchased the "black strat" in New York in 1970, and it was used to record "Dark Side of the Moon," according to Caitlin Graham, a Christie's consultant.
David Gilmour
Fire Lawsuit
Universal Music
Soundgarden, Tom Petty's ex-wife Jane, Hole, Steve Earle and the estate of Tupac Shakur have filed a lawsuit on behalf of a class against Universal Music Group, seeking damages related to a 2008 fire that allegedly destroyed over 500,000 recordings.
The suit accuses Universal Music of negligence in not doing enough to prevent the fire, as well as concealing the extent of the destruction from artists while simultaneously pursuing litigation and insurance claims to recoup losses. The suit claims that Universal took in settlement proceeds and insurance claims valued at $150 million, and the class is seeking damages worth half that, plus half of any additional losses.
While the fire was widely covered in 2008, the extent of the damages was not well known until a recent New York Times Magazine report. The story alleged that among the half-a-million recordings destroyed were irreplaceable master tapes and troves of unreleased material from artists such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Elton John, Nirvana, the Roots and Janet Jackson (all artists named in the Times story are listed as potential members of the lawsuit's class).
The lawsuit uses UMG's own words against it, pulling extensively from legal documents filed in the aftermath of the fire against its parent company Vivendi, plus NBC and Universal City Studios, which owned the warehouse on the Universal Studios lot where the UMG vault was located. The quoted portions suggest that proper preventative measures, such as updating a sprinkler system, were not taken, even after a different fire broke out in 1990. The new class action lawsuit claims that UMG, being a part of the Universal Studios family, was as aware of these issues as much as Vivendi, NBC and Universal Studios.
The suit also argues UMG embarked on a "systemic and fraudulent scheme of misrepresentation and misdirection" after the fire. It includes quotes that UMG gave to media outlets after the fire downplaying the damage, such as "We only lost a small number of tapes and other material by obscure artists from the 1940s and Fifties."
Universal Music
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Class Of 2020
Spike Lee, Julia Roberts... and Batman. What do these three have in common? They are part of the 2020 class of honorees for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In all, 35 people will be honored.
In the motion picture category, we'll see stars unveiled for Mahershala Ali, Batman Ruth E. Carter, Laurence Fishburne, Chris Hemsworth, Spike Lee, Julia Roberts, Octavia Spencer and Lin Wertmuller.
In the category of television, we'll see Christina Applegate, Andy Cohen, Cindy Crawford, Terry Crews, Harry Friedman, Kathie Lee Gifford, Nigel Lythgoe, Milo Ventimiglia, Burt Ward, Wendy Williams, Dr. Phil McGraw and, posthumously, Andy Kaufman.
Recognized in the recording world: Elvis Costello, Sir Lucian Grainge, Billy Idol, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Alicia Keys, Andy Madadian, Mo Ostin, Bobby Rydell, Alejandro Sanz, Tanya Tucker, and Muddy Waters, posthumously.
Dave Chappelle and Billy Porter will represent the live theatre/ live performance category. And the sole inductee from radio is Susan Stamberg.
Class Of 2020
Facebook Reverses Ban
'Houses of the Holy'
Facebook has reversed its decision that saw Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy album cover temporarily banned from the social network.
The ban of the iconic and controversial artwork, conceived by Hipgnosis' Aubrey Powell and featuring naked children scaling a mountain, began earlier this week when music website Ultimate Classic Rock posted the Houses of the Holy cover art in a Facebook post, the fifth time the site had posted that album cover. On this occasion, however, the site received a takedown notice from Facebook following user complaints.
"Since children as young as 13 years old use Instagram/Facebook and the app is available in third-party app stores, there are rules regarding nudity and solicitation that we have to follow," Facebook's Jessica Oda wrote to Ultimate Classic Rock. "We place limitations on the display of this content to limit exposure of sensitive content."
However, as other Facebook users noted, a blanket ban on the Houses of the Holy artwork spread throughout the social network; on a Change.org page criticizing the Facebook ban, one user claimed that a Led Zeppelin-posted YouTube video he posted on his private account that featured the Houses of the Holy artwork was flagged and taken down.
Following the outcry from the Houses of the Holy ban, Facebook reversed its stance and decided to allow the 1975 artwork.
'Houses of the Holy'
Journalist Threatened With Prison Time
Time Magazine
Don-Old Trump (R-Unstable) appeared to threaten a journalist with jail time after they took a photograph of a letter he said had been sent to him by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
During an interview earlier this week with reporters from Time magazine, the president showed them a letter from the North Korean, who he said had dispatched it to him recently. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders intervened when a photographer took a photograph of it.
"Excuse me," Mr Trump said. "Under Section II - well, you can go to prison instead, because, if you use, if you use the photograph you took of the letter I gave you…confidentially, I didn't give it to you to take photographs of it. So don't play that game with me."
The reporter then asked of Mr Trump: "Were you threatening me with prison time?"
The president replied: "Well, I told you the following. I told you you can look at this off-the-record. That doesn't mean you take out your camera and start taking pictures of it. OK? So I hope you don't have a picture of it."
Time Magazine
Rates Up
Suicide
The US suicide rate is up 33% since 1999, but for Native American men and women, the increase is even greater: 139% and 71%, respectively, according to an analysis out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
Suicide disproportionately affects non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Natives, according to the CDC. A 2018 CDC report found their suicide rate was more than 3.5 times higher than those among racial and ethnic groups with the lowest rates.
Experts who study Native American suicide blame higher rates of poverty, substance abuse and unemployment as well as geographical isolation, which can make it difficult for people to access mental health care.
Also, American Indian and Alaska Native women experience higher levels of violence than other US women. Nearly 84% experience violence in their lifetime, according to a 2016 report from the National Institute of Justice. This includes 56% who have experienced sexual violence and roughly the same percentage who have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner. Research shows more than a third of women who have been raped have contemplated suicide, and 13% have attempted, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
Native Americans and Alaska Natives also experience PTSD more than twice as often as the general population, according to SAMHSA.
Suicide
Apologize For Labeling
U.S. Psychoanalysts
The American Psychoanalytic Association apologized on Friday for previously treating homosexuality as a mental illness, saying its past errors contributed to discrimination and trauma for LGBTQ people.
It may be the first U.S. medical or mental health organization to issue such an apology. Although psychiatrists declassified homosexuality as a disorder in 1973 and psychologists came around nearly 20 years later, the APsaA says it is unaware of any related professional group to have apologized.
"It is long past time to recognize and apologize for our role in the discrimination and trauma caused by our profession and say, 'We are sorry,'" according a statement by Dr. Lee Jaffe, president of APsaA. The group uses that abbreviation to distinguish it from the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
Jaffe told Reuters he will deliver the apology on Friday at the opening session of the group's 109th annual meeting in San Diego. Jaffe said his group has long been active in promoting LGBTQ rights but had yet to put its contrition into words.
The change in the medical community's thinking about homosexuality and Friday's apology both stem from a seminal event in LGBTQ history 50 years ago: the Stonewall uprising.
U.S. Psychoanalysts
Sings the Star Wars Theme
Trained Seal
Listening to grey seals recite vowel sounds and sing the melodies to Star Wars and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" makes for excellent entertainment, but for the researchers who trained these aquatic mammals, it's serious science.
Animals make all sorts of wacky sounds, and some are even good at imitating the sounds of other animals. The mockingbird, for example, famously mimics the sounds produced by other bird species, and sometimes even noises produced by human activity, like car alarms and police sirens. Some parrots and ravens are really good at imitating human speech, but for the most part, this is an ability that eludes most animals. That's a shame, because it prevents scientists from studying vocal learning, a trait critical for language acquisition in nonhuman mammals.
As new research published yesterday in Current Biology shows, grey seals appear to be an exception. In a series of tests, these mammals demonstrated a remarkable capacity to copy simple melodies and human formants, suggesting they're very capable vocal learners.
"Formants" in this case refers to variable frequency bands produced by the vocal tract that enable us to make vowel sounds. Seals, as it turns out, are really good at producing formants, and they're also pretty smart, making them ideal test subjects for the new study, led by Amanda Stansbury and Vincent Janik from the Scottish Oceans Institute (SOI) at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Three young grey seals were used in the study: Gandalf, a male, and Zola and Janice, two females. The seals were born on the Isle of May and brought to the marine mammal facility at the University of St. Andrews when they were very young, with training starting shortly thereafter and lasting for 12 months. The three seals were allowed to co-mingle with other juveniles in three enclosures, and they were released back into the wild a year after they were captured.
Trained Seal
Top 20
Global Concert Tours
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. Week of June 12, 2019:
1. Ed Sheeran; $4,515,983; $89.88.
2. Paul McCartney; $4,481,644; $108.28.
3. Eric Church; $2,893,290; $94.20.
4. Pink; $2,475,518; $142.99.
5. Justin Timberlake; $2,110,099; $135.73.
6. Ariana Grande; $1,625,501; $115.38.
7. Cher; $1,534,297; $117.63.
8. Michael Bublé; $1,501,474; $120.63.
9. Rod Stewart; $1,439,011; $113.33.
10. KISS; $1,395,829; $110.41.
11. John Mayer; $1,349,589; $119.90.
12. Backstreet Boys; $1,301,722; $99.67.
13. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band; $1,274,383; $103.46.
14. Bad Bunny; $1,107,223; $100.12.
15. André Rieu; $1,062,423; $79.54.
16. Mumford & Sons; $1,048,288; $69.49.
17. Kenny Chesney; $999,124; $90.07.
18. Shawn Mendes; $981,823; $69.76.
19. New Kids On The Block; $901,413; $77.43.
20. Zac Brown Band; $648,484; $60.70
Global Concert Tours
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