Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Waaaah! The Gays Stole My America! (Creators Syndicate)
As gay people continue to force their thick, muscular agenda down my unwilling throat, I gag on the America we're losing so fast. Fortunately, some people are fighting back.
Josh Marshall: "How Does It Feel To Be Losing So Badly?" (TPM)
At some point in the not distant future, some reporter - probably a not altogether pleasant one - will ask Trump: "How does it feel to be losing so badly? Just on a personal level? Does it hurt? Do regret getting into this?" It won't be pretty because Trump's ego is fragile. From that moment I suspect you'll see it cropping up in campaign attacks from every direction.
Hadley Freeman: British protest voters made their voices heard. Are Americans about to do the same? (The Guardian)
It feels as if one can hardly swing a bottle of cyanide towards one's mouth without hitting a liberal proudly announcing they might vote Donald Trump.
Deborah Orr: In Brexit Britain the elites will run amok (The Guardian)
Despite the promises of independence we'll continue pandering to those we were supposed to be escaping. People will learn the hard way.
Cezary Jan Strusiewicz: Here's Why Credit Cards are Different for Rich People (Cracked)
"If your credit limit is $20,000 or higher, you'll be serviced by the High Spend department, and we bend over backwards for our customers," Megan says. "We're actually evaluated on how above-and-beyond we go on each call, like troubleshoot website problems or app issues, call merchants with you, or even call you back so you don't have to wait on the phone."
Clive James: 'After the death of Jo Cox, I found myself wondering if I hadn't lived too long' (The Guardian)
When I was six, I was the only man in the house - so how could I defend my mother if the bad men showed up? Little did I know I had a long life ahead in which I would hear about the bad men almost every day.
Oliver Burkeman: A must-read book? Go on, make me (The Guardian)
Faced with rave reviews of musicals, films, books and plays, why does Oliver Burkeman run a mile?
Lucy Mangan: why I'd never write a diary (The Guardian)
'Imagine rooting happily one day through your drawers and suddenly being presented with your younger self. Your terrible, awful, hideous self.'
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
IT'S TIME TO "DECLARE A COLLEGE DEBT 'JUBILEE'."
"THE ULTIMATE NEOCOLONIALISM"
"SCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THE SKY"
FIVE WILL GET YOU ONE.
PUBIC HAIR LOST.
BORIS "TRUMP"!
THE RAPE OF AMERICA.
THE "STUPID PARTY".
"FREE METH IF YOU REGISTER REPUBLICAN!"
"GLOW LITTLE GLOW MAN, GLIMMER, GLIMMER…"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Pretty much sunny and seasonal.
A Prairie Home Companion
Garrison Keillor
Writer and humorist Garrison Keillor served up a bittersweet farewell for some 18,000 fans at the Hollywood Bowl, as he hosted his final episode of the old-style radio variety show, "A Prairie Home Companion."
Keillor's swan song Friday night wasn't markedly different from most of his nearly 42 years of "Companion" episodes, offering a rich mix of Americana music and often tongue-in-cheek comedy. (Although U.S. President Barack Obama did call in for a special segment recorded earlier Friday, but not even the Bowl audience will hear that until Saturday's broadcast.)
The "last-show" aspect of the doings was so subtle that, at one point, even Keillor's cast mates began to prod their boss, asking, "How do you feel (about leaving)?" Keillor eventually, reluctantly replied, "It feels like something ends and something else is about to happen."
The 73-year-old Keillor delivered one last "Lives of the Cowboys" comedy sketch as well as the show's best-known segment, "News from Lake Wobegon," a folksy report from a fictional town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average"
After Saturday's season finale, it will return with new episodes in October with an updated format and new host, Chris Thile.
Garrison Keillor
Banned From China
Lady Gaga
For the second time in her career, singer Lady Gaga has been banned from China - this time for meeting with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has been exiled from the Communist country since 1959.
The 30-year-old pop singer met with the Dalai Lama on Sunday before his keynote address at the United States Conference of Mayors in Indianapolis. The two spoke for nearly 20 minutes in a video that Gaga posted to her Facebook page.
In the video, which has since been viewed over 3 million times, Gaga and the Dalai Lama discuss a wide range of topics - including suicide, yoga, and the trials of living in a materialistic world.
The Chinese government reacted to the meeting by issuing "an important instruction" that effectively banned Gaga from mainland China and asked media outlets to stop uploading and playing her work, according to China's pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
Lady Gaga
Very Specific
Late-Night Snack
The man is busy, that's for sure. He's father-in-chief, husband-in-chief and commander-in-chief wrapped into one, making for long days and late nights.
A new report by the New York Times provides a clearer picture of how President Obama usually spends his time at home, after a dinner with the First Lady and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha. A self-described "night guy," he'll spend hours in the Treaty Room of the White House-reading, writing or playing Words with Friends, usually with sports on TV as a bit of background noise.
When he stays up writing speeches and reading briefings, Obama avoids caffeine and junk food. He doesn't typically drink coffee or tea, and is instead more likely to opt for water over soda. Those close to him told the Times he prefers seven lightly salted almonds.
"Michelle and I would always joke: Not six. Not eight," said Sam Kass, the Obamas' personal chef until 2014. "Always seven almonds."
Late-Night Snack
Lab Worker Faked Test Results
USGS
A worker at a federal laboratory in Colorado intentionally manipulated test results for years, possibly tainting research on toxic metals in the Everglades, uranium near the Grand Canyon and coal in Afghanistan, investigators say.
The falsified data from a U.S. Geological Survey lab may have affected 24 coal, water and environmental research projects costing a total of $108 million, according to a report released recently by the Interior Department's inspector general.
The agency isn't sure why the employee falsified the results of chemical analyses, but it wasn't for personal gain or "any nefarious reason," USGS spokeswoman Anne-Berry Wade said Thursday.
A notice on the agency's website said the manipulation was done in part to correct calibration failures in the instrument being used, a mass spectrometer.
The agency took action against the employee, but Wade declined to say what it was, citing privacy rules. She also would not say whether the employee was still working for USGS or release his name.
USGS
Lawyer Who Sued Led Zeppelin Suspended
Francis Malofiy
The attorney who flouted courtroom protocol during the "Stairway to Heaven" copyright trial has been suspended from practicing law.
Francis Malofiy's behavior as an attorney has been the subject of repeated judicial scrutiny, and a Thursday ruling means he won't be doing any lawyering until the fall.
An appellate panel upheld a previously recommended suspension of three months and one day, finding Malofiy violated "various rules of conduct" during a copyright infringement lawsuit over Usher's "Bad Girl."
In 2015, a three-judge district court panel found Malofiy tricked unrepresented co-defendant William Guice into signing an affidavit without consulting a lawyer by hiding that their relationship was adversarial in nature.
The district court was troubled by the attorney's failure to take responsibility for his actions and his other unprofessional and uncivil conduct during the course of the litigation.
On Thursday, the appellate panel agreed and upheld the suspension.
Francis Malofiy
Lawsuit Can Go Forward
'Straight Outta Compton'
A judge has given the okay for a lawsuit to go forward involving the movie Straight Outta Compton
After the film's release last year, former N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller - who was portrayed in the flick by Paul Giamatti - filed a $110 million lawsuit
Heller is depicted in the film as a bad guy who cheated the group out of royalties and made them sign unfair contracts without legal representation.
But Heller claims he was negatively and unfairly portrayed and was originally seeking punitive damages for defamation, copyright infringement and breach of contract.
'Straight Outta Compton'
Another GOP Racist
Colorado
The chairwoman of the Delta County Republican Party who was accused of favoritism and posting a racist meme on her Facebook page has resigned.
Party officials were upset after a photo compared President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee appeared on Linda Sorenson web page, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.
Sorenson stepped down after an accountability meeting was convened by the county's Republican Central Committee investigating the allegations. She announced her decision to resign in an email to supporters.
The committee was investigating allegations that Sorenson and others made that her Facebook page was "hacked" and whether she violated party rules by endorsing a primary candidate.
In an interview in May after the image was posted, Sorenson said she didn't care if people were offended by the image.
Colorado
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.
1. Beyonce; $5,840,123; $125.18.
2. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $4,166,337; $111.46.
3. Justin Bieber; $1,773,541; $100.23.
4. Kenny Chesney; $1,650,409; $68.93.
5. Rihanna; $1,190,313; $89.54.
6. Iron Maiden; $1,057,916; $64.08.
7. The Who; $976,522; $88.46.
8. Mumford & Sons; $836,105; $58.60.
9. Dixie Chicks; $755,796; $64.74.
10. Carrie Underwood; $745,260; $67.07.
11. Little Mix; $649,659; $48.87.
12. Bryan Adams; $640,946; $66.70.
13. Selena Gomez; $608,027; $68.20.
14. Mariah Carey; $581,196; $66.60.
15. Andre Rieu; $563,828; $79.08.
16. Jason Aldean; $539,900; $58.17.
17. 5 Seconds Of Summer; $486,004; $50.59.
18. James Taylor; $478,642; $78.18.
19. Fall Out Boy; $449,051; $47.50.
20. "Riverdance"; $448,061; $60.49.
Global Concert Tours
In Memory
Elie Wiesel
Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87.
His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available.
The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
For more than a half-century, Wiesel voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust.
"Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages.
Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined.
"Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print."
"Night" was based directly on his experiences, but structured like a novel, leading to an ongoing debate over how to categorize it. Alfred Kazin was among the critics who expressed early doubts about the book's accuracy, doubts that Wiesel denounced as "a mortal sin in the historical sense." Wiesel's publisher called the book a memoir even as some reviewers called it fiction. An Amazon editorial review labeled the book "technically a novel," albeit so close to Wiesel's life that "it's generally - and not inaccurately - read as an autobiography."
Wiesel's prolific stream of speeches, essays and books, including two sequels to "Night" and more than 40 books overall of fiction and nonfiction, emerged from the helplessness of a teenager deported from Hungary, which had annexed his native Romanian town of Sighet, to Auschwitz. Tattooed with the number A-7713, he was freed in 1945 - but only after his mother, father and one sister had all died in Nazi camps. Two other sisters survived.
After the liberation of Buchenwald, in April 1945, Wiesel spent a few years in a French orphanage, then landed in Paris. He studied literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne, and then became a journalist, writing for the French newspaper L'Arche and Israel's Yediot Ahronot.
French author Francois Mauriac, winner of the 1952 Nobel in literature, encouraged Wiesel to break his vowed silence about the concentration camps and start sharing his experiences.
In 1956, Wiesel traveled on a journalistic assignment to New York to cover the United Nations. While there, he was struck by a car and confined to a wheelchair for a year. He became a lifetime New Yorker, continuing in journalism writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper, the Forward. His contact with the city's many Holocaust survivors shored up Wiesel's resolve to keep telling their stories.
Wiesel became a U.S. citizen in 1963. Six years later, he married Marion Rose, a fellow Holocaust survivor who translated some of his books into English. They had a son, Shlomo. Based in New York, Wiesel commuted to Boston University for almost three decades, teaching philosophy, literature and Judaic studies and giving a popular lecture series in the fall.
Wiesel also taught at Yale University and the City University of New York.
The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, which he established in 1988, explored the problems of hatred and ethnic conflicts around the world. But like a number of other well-known charities in the Jewish community, the foundation fell victim to Bernard Madoff, the financier who was arrested in late 2008 and accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
Wiesel said he ended up losing $15.2 million in foundation funds, plus his and his wife's own personal investments. At a panel discussion in February 2009, Wiesel admitted he bought into the Madoff mystique, "a myth that he created around him that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret." He called Madoff "a crook, a thief, a scoundrel."
Elie Wiesel
In Memory
Michael Cimino
Michael Cimino, who won Oscars for director and best picture for the powerful 1978 Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 77.
Despite his achievement with The Deer Hunter, his next project, Heaven's Gate (1980), capsized United Artists with his profligate budget excesses. Subsequently, the words "Heaven's Gate" entered filmmaking lexicon as an out-of-control, overbudget production.
A strong believer in location shooting, Cimino insisted that real places had a tremendous effect on actors' performances and the film's texture. It worked fine for his directorial debut in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), shot in Big Sky territory under the cost-conscious eye of producer/star Clint Eastwood (it was the first picture for the star's Malpaso production company). It also featured an inspired performance from co-star Jeff Bridges.
Yet Heaven's Gate, a frontier epic about the settlement of the West that was shot mainly at a studio-constructed town in Glacier National Park in Montana, outraged executives at UA. Cimino's insistence on authenticity, in the end, deflated the production and sank the troubled studio. In addition, its running time of 219 minutes exasperated theater owners.
Trying to cut its losses, UA pulled it from exhibition. The studio reissued a trimmed version in 1981, but that fared no better. The entire debacle was chronicled in Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists, a 1999 book written by former UA executive Steven Bach. (The film did play at Cannes.)
After Heaven's Gate, Cimino's directing was sporadic, with his work including Year of the Dragon (1985), The Sicilian (1987), Desperate Hours (1990), The Sunchaser (1996) and a segment in To Each His Own Cinema (2007).
Cimino was born Feb. 3, 1939, and grew up in New York City. While attending Yale University as a fine arts major, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve. Cimino got his masters from the University of New Haven in 1963, then moved to New York to study acting and ballet. He also worked for a small company that produced documentary and industrial films.
By the late 1960s, Cimino had established a reputation as a skilled maker of TV commercials. But in 1971, he gave that up to go to Los Angeles to pursue moviemaking. He began script writing and received credit on Silent Running (1972), which he co-wrote with Deric Washburn and Steven Bochco.
He next worked with John Milius on the screenplay for the Dirty Harry follow-up Magnum Force (1973), starring Eastwood.
Cimino wrote and directed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, an offbeat story about a Big Sky mining heist that won accolades. Based on that, Cimino received several studio offers, but he only wanted to do projects he was passionate about. Such was the case with a story he championed - about three steelworker friends who go off to fight in the Vietnam War.
He convinced EMI to finance it, and shooting began on The Deer Hunter in 1977.
Michael Cimino
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
