from Bruce
Anecdotes
Dance
• In dance class, Daniel Nagrin was suddenly asked by another dancer, “What are you really going to do?” Mr. Nagrin answered, “I’m going to dance!” The woman asked, “Why?” This caused Mr. Nagrin to think about what other choreographers were doing, and then he said, “Because I’m going to be dealing with things that the others aren’t going to touch!” His career proved this true. Mr. Nagrin became a loner of dance, who has performed solo dance concerts everywhere.
• While taking dance classes, Alice Patelson studied both ballet and modern dance. No matter who taught the ballet classes, at the end of the lesson she ended up with sore feet. The modern dance class was different. Her teacher, Janet Collins, had the class sit on the floor, then perform various exercises and movements — so at the end of the modern dance class Ms. Patelson ended up with a sore bottom.
• Ballerina Alicia Markova was known for her arabesque — a position in which the ballerina arches her spine and raises one leg, all while balancing on pointe on a straight leg. When Agnes de Mille was watching a performance by Ms. Markova, she overheard an elderly gentleman exclaim on seeing Ms. Markova’s arabesque, “It is not possible, but I see it with my eyes, so she must be doing it!”
• While dancing in the Philippines, Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin rigged up a stage and taught a couple of Filipino men to work the lights, changing the color as needed. However, the lights remained blue throughout the entire performance — the Filipino men were so entranced by the dancing on stage that they completely forgot about the lights.
• In Blackbirds of 1928, the great dancer Bill Robinson, aka Mr. Bojangles, performed his famous stair dance on Broadway. After the Broadway run, he declined to go on the road with the show and was replaced by Eddie Rector. One day, Mr. Rector received a telegram from Mr. Bojangles: “DO MY STAIR DANCE AND YOU DIE.”
• Choreographer George Balanchine was criticized because he hired black dancer Arthur Mitchell. In reply, Mr. Balanchine said, “You must understand that Negro blood or Japanese blood or Russian blood doesn’t mean a thing to me. I don’t take people because they are black or white. I take exquisite people — people who are made to dance.”
• At the housewarming party for her home at Hampstead, Anna Pavlova hired dancers to represent gnomes and nymphs. They danced for a while, then they circled a tree and danced around it. Ms. Pavlova dropped out of the tree, and in a magical moment, she danced “The Sylph.”
• As a very young dance pupil — 14 years old — Margot Fonteyn (then known as Margaret Hookham) showed much ambition. When she was told that Ms. Pavlova was the “greatest dancer in the world,” she replied, “Then I will be the second greatest.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Track: "North Jetty"
Album: BLUE TRANSPORTER
Artist: Glasgow Tiki Shakers
Artist Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Info:
Other releases include IN VENICE, NEW CALIFORNIA SURF MUSIC, LITTLE ORBIT, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN.
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for 12-track album
Genre: Surf.
Links:
BLUE TRANSPORTER
Glasgow Tiki Shakers on Bandcamp
Surf City Video (Many Surf Band Videos)
Glasgow Tiki Shakers on Spotify
Other Links:
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
Twofer
F Georgia.
During the stop, the officer told those on the bus that "marijuana is still illegal in the state of Georgia." He then mentioned, "anything you can put marijuana in" to smoke it or devices used to weigh it "like a set of scales," suggesting they are also unlawful without actually saying so.
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Middle Age Riot
Jokes by John Hartzell. He/him.
Middle Age Riot
Other Links:
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Wife Killer nominated
The final paragraph is a brutally honest assessment of Republicans:
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Extra windy day.
Blasts Broadway Theatergoers
Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone had a message for two theatergoers Tuesday: Wear your masks properly — or leave.
The Broadway legend, who was participating in a filmed Q&A at the American Theatre Wing alongside her "Company" costars, called out patrons who didn't appear to have their masks covering their noses.
“Put your mask over your nose. That’s why you’re in the theater," LuPone told them, according to videos of the incident.
"That is the rule. If you don't want to follow the rule, get the f--- out. I'm serious. Who do you think you are if you do not respect the people sitting around you?"
Patti LuPone
Unauthorized Video
Jesse Williams
Video of a naked Jesse Williams captured onstage in a shower scene from a Broadway play has been posted online, prompting an outcry from the producers and the union that represents actors and stage managers.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the creation and distribution of photographs and videos of our members during a nude scene,” said Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association. “Whoever did this knew not only that they were filming actors without their consent, but also that they were explicitly violating the theater’s prohibition on recording and distribution.”
Williams is starring in a revival of “Take Me Out,” Richard Greenberg’s exploration of what happens when a Major League Baseball superstar comes out as gay, tracing the way it unsettles the team and unleashes toxic prejudices. Williams earned a Tony Award nomination Monday for playing the superstar.
Second Stage Theater, which is producing the revival, has been using Yondr pouches to protect the actors. Audience members arriving at the theater surrender their phones which are then put in the locked pouches until the end of the show. The company said it would beef up security in the wake of the violation.
Jesse Williams
Public Memorial Service Live on CMT
Naomi Judd
A public memorial service for Naomi Judd has been set for this Sunday evening at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, with CMT airing it live and commercial-free at 6 p.m. ET/3 PT.
The lineup of participating artists who will perform or otherwise pay tribute will be announced in the days leading up to the event, with organizers for now promising “some of the biggest names in entertainment” will have a part in saying goodbye to the singer, who died April 30.
Naomi’s daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, are participating in the program, which is being co-produced by CMT and Sandbox Live. The show’s executive producers are Margaret Comeaux and Leslie Fram of CMT, Jason Owen of Sandbox Live and Patrizia DiMaria of Ladypants Productions.
Said the CMT producers in a joint statement, “We are sincerely privileged to work alongside Wynonna and Ashley to present this live celebration of life for their mother Naomi. While we all continue to deeply mourn the loss of such a legendary artist, we are honored to commemorate her legacy alongside the country community, her friends, family and legions of fans across the world at the perfect venue: The Mother Church of Country Music. This special will celebrate her timeless voice, unforgettable spirit and the immense impact she left on our genre through the best form of healing we have — music.”
Naomi Judd
$1,850 'Full Destroyed' Sneakers
Balenciaga
Balenciaga unveiled its new line of "full destroyed" footwear this week, prompting online criticism over the extremely distressed aesthetic and hefty price tag.
The luxury fashion house released the distressed version of its Paris High Top Sneaker on Monday. The limited edition line retails for $1,850, and features "full destroyed" detailing like rips, scuffs and what appears to be dirt. It's more than twice the price of the standard Paris High Top Sneaker, which costs $625 for a non-distressed look.
Twitter users likened the sneaker to "beat-up Converse" and the "torn up Converse my ma begged me to throw out when I was in high school."
Balenciaga is selling just 100 pairs of the “full destroyed” sneakers, which were created for an ad campaign, Complex reported. The versions being sold online don’t appear as destroyed as the ones photographed for ads, but Twitter users still balked at spending so much on what looks like dirty shoes. One writer described the sneakers as "poverty-chic pieces."
Balenciaga
Al Jazeera Reporter Killed
Shireen Abu Akleh
An Al Jazeera correspondent has been shot dead while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.
The Qatari-based broadcaster said Shireen Abu Akleh, a well-known Palestinian and American female reporter, was killed by Israeli forces.
In a statement, Al Jazeera called on the international community to “condemn and hold the Israeli occupation forces accountable for deliberately targeting and killing our colleague, Shireen Abu Akleh”.
Another journalist, working for the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper, was also shot and wounded in the incident.
Abu Akleh was in Jenin covering Israeli raids on Palestinian refugee camps there. Several other journalists were also on the scene and they escorted Akleh to hospital in critical condition, Palestinian health ministry officials said, where she was later pronounced dead.
Shireen Abu Akleh
Created Surveillance Network
Immigration
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has crafted a sophisticated surveillance dragnet designed to spy on most people living in the United States, without the need for warrants and many times circumventing state privacy laws, such as those in California, according to a two-year investigation released Tuesday by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology.
Over the years, privacy law experts and civil rights activists and attorneys have accused ICE of overreach in its surveillance tactics directed at immigrants and Americans alike, but the Georgetown report paints a picture of an agency that has gone well beyond its immigration enforcement mandate, instead evolving into something of a broader domestic surveillance agency, according to the report, called "American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century."
The report outlines the extent to which ICE has gone to form a large-scale surveillance system that has reached into the lives of ordinary people living in the U.S. Skirting local laws intending to protect individuals' privacy, the agency has turned to third-party outfits — utility companies, private databases and even the department of motor vehicles in some states — to amass a trove of information from hundreds of thousands of Americans and immigrants to target people for deportation.
ICE spent an estimated $2.8 billion between 2008 and 2021 on surveillance, data collection and data-sharing initiatives, according to the Georgetown report. The scale of ICE surveillance came as a shock to the report’s authors.
Among other findings, the report documents that ICE has driver's license data for 3 in 4 adults living in the U.S.; has scanned at least 1 in 3 of all adults’ driver’s licenses with face recognition technology; can track the movement of vehicles in cities that are home to nearly 3 in 4 adults; and can locate 3 in 4 adults through their utility records.
Immigration
Increased Dramatically Since 2000
Climate-Change-Linked Droughts
Thanks in part to climate change, the number and frequency of droughts on the planet have increased by 29% in the past 22 years, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday. As a result, roughly one-third of the Earth's population, 2.3 billion people, now face the risk of water scarcity.
“The facts and figures of this publication all point in the same direction: an upward trajectory in the duration of droughts and the severity of impacts, not only affecting human societies but also the ecological systems upon which the survival of all life depends, including that of our own species,” Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said in a statement.
Droughts like the one gripping the American Southwest, where water restrictions have been imposed in states like California and Arizona and reservoir levels continue to fall heading into the dry summer months, are being felt across the globe. A severe drought in the Horn of Africa has put the lives of millions of people in Somalia at risk. The combination of drought and an intense heat dome that has lingered over parts of Pakistan and India is threatening the current wheat harvest and putting millions more lives in danger. Thanks to a series of drought years, Australia's agriculture industry registered economic declines of 18% between 2002 and 2010, the U.N. report said.
France has seen a 25% drop in rainfall since the start of April, accompanied by a rise in normal temperatures not usually experienced until summer, France24 reported, with dire consequences for crops like corn, sunflowers and beets.
Climate-Change-Linked Droughts
Vast, City-Sized Lake Discovered
Antarctic Ice Sheet
Deep below the ice of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, the largest ice sheet in the world, scientists have confirmed the existence of a huge lake of liquid water.
Researchers have named it Lake Snow Eagle, and believe that sediments within it could contain information about the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet from its very earliest formation.
"This lake is likely to have a record of the entire history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, its initiation over 34 million years ago, as well as its growth and evolution across glacial cycles since then," says geophysicist Don Blankenship of The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics.
"Our observations also suggest that the ice sheet changed significantly about 10,000 years ago, although we have no idea why."
Antarctic Ice Sheet
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