• When Andy Warhol was a successful commercial artist, but wanted to become a successful fine artist, he asked Muriel Latow, a friend and interior decorator, for her advice. However, her advice was not free. She asked for $50, and Mr. Warhol wrote her a check for $50. She then asked what he loved most in the world. The answer came back: "Money." Therefore, Ms. Latow advised him to paint money, and she also advised him to paint something that no one ever noticed because they were so familiar with it - "Something like a can of Campbell's soup." Mr. Warhol took her advice, and he remains famous as a pioneer of Pop Art.
• To become an artist requires a great amount of effort over a great period of time. While on the witness stand during an action he had instituted against the critic John Ruskin, James McNeill Whistler was asked how long it had taken him to produce a certain painting. When the lawyer for the defense heard that Mr. Whistler had produced the painting in two days, he asked him, "The labor of two days, then, is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?" Mr. Whistler replied, "No, I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime."
• As a young man, African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner taught at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia. Bishop and Mrs. Joseph Crane Hartzell took an interest in Mr. Tanner and his works of art and held an exhibition of his paintings. Unfortunately, the people who attended the exhibition purchased none of the paintings. Therefore, the Hartzells bought every painting. This raised enough money for Mr. Tanner to go to Paris, France, and study painting at the Academie Julien.
• African-American artist Romare Bearden received money for attending his first year of college by working at a speakeasy during Prohibition. His job was collecting money from the waiters whose job was selling liquor. When the speakeasy was held up, the robber didn't get much money because most of the money was in Mr. Bearden's pants pockets. His boss was so happy that he gave Mr. Bearden a bonus - enough money to pay for his first year of college.
• When Japanese painter and printmaker Katsushika Hokusai went bankrupt, he worried about getting art supplies. Sometimes he walked 15 miles after dark to Edo, where he would buy his art supplies while trying to stay hidden from anyone to whom he owed money. Nevertheless, he was unimpressed by anyone who had lots of money. Sometimes, he would keep a wealthy art collector waiting while he picked fleas off his clothing.
• The young Pablo Picasso was in a junk shop one day when he came across a painting by Henri Rousseau and bought it. The junk dealer didn't think much of the painting and thought Picasso was buying it only to paint over the canvas, and so Picasso was able to buy the painting for approximately a dollar. The painting, Portrait of a Woman, is on display at the Musée Picasso in Paris - it is worth mega-bucks.
• Sir David Wilkie sold his painting Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo for 1,000 guineas to the Duke of Wellington, who began to count out the banknotes. Sir David suggested that it might be easier to write out a draft on a banker, but the Duke of Wellington replied, "I don't want my bankers to know that I have been such a d*mned fool as to give 1,000 guineas for a painting."
This geometric drawing device that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids was first sold in a toy version in 1965 and in 1967 it was named Toy of the Year. What is the name of this toy?
The 1960 Grammy Award for Record of the Year went to a pop song based on a 1928 German music drama about Mackie Messer. What is the title of this song?
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" (German: "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer") is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper). The song has become a popular standard recorded by many artists, including a US and UK number one hit for Bobby Darin in 1959.
A Moritat is a medieval version of the murder ballad performed by strolling minstrels. In The Threepenny Opera, the Moritat singer with his street organ introduces and closes the drama with the tale of the deadly Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, a character based on the dashing highwayman Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (who was in turn based on the historical thief Jack Sheppard). The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister and has been transformed into a modern anti-hero.
Dick Hyman recorded an instrumental version in 1955. "Mack the Knife" was introduced to the United States hit parade by Louis Armstrong in 1956, but the song is most closely associated with Bobby Darin, who recorded his version at Fulton Studios on West 40th Street, New York City, on December 19, 1958 (with Tom Dowd engineering the recording). Even though Darin was reluctant to release the song as a single, in 1959 it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number six on the Black Singles chart, and earned him a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Dick Clark had advised Darin not to record the song because of the perception that, having come from an opera, it would not appeal to the rock and roll audience. Both Armstrong and Darin's versions were inducted by the Library of Congress in the National Recording Registry in 2016.
Ella Fitzgerald made a famous live recording in 1960 (released on Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife) in which, after forgetting the lyrics after the first stanza, she improvised new lyrics in a performance that earned her a Grammy Award.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Mack the Knife.
Randall wrote:
Mack the Knife
Mac Mac said:
Mack the Knife
Alan J answered:
Mac the Knife.
mj replied:
From The Threepenny Opera
By Bertolt Brecht, Mack the Knife (Mackie Messer) was also used as
background music for otherwise silent skits on the Ernie Kovacs show.
zorch responded:
Mack the Knife.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
"Mack The Knife" from The Threepenny Opera. Bobby Darin made it a big hit in 1960. The Doors had a hit with "Whiskey Bar", aka "Alabama Song" from the same piece. "Whiskey Bar" got it's distinctive sound from a Marxophone played by Ray Manzarek.
David of Moon Valley said:
the all seeing eye of the great Googly-Moogly tells me that it was A Theme From 'A Summer Place'….but even better was the album of the year that year was The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart, that one i Loved and had on vinyl until it disappeared when my parents offed my records one time when i was away from home…We Miss You, Bob and your great phone routines…sigh…..
Deborah, the Master Gardener, replied:
My WAG: "Mack the Knife."
The marine layer is strong and made its way up the Sacramento river from San Francisco Bay, with fingers creeping over the 2500' ridge that separates our burg from Napa. Needed long sleeves on my early morning bike ride. How refreshing!
John I from Hawai`i says,
Mack the Knife
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
theme from a summer place
Dave in Tucson wrote:
That's Mack the Knife! The wonderful Ella Fitzgerald's 1960 performance where she spaced out on the lyrics so she started scat singing:
Michelle in AZ said:
From "The Three-penny Opera", Mack the Knife
Daniel in The City answered:
Theme from "A Summer Place"
DJ Useo replied:
The song is called "Theme From A Summer Place". It was created by Percy Faith. It really evokes another time, doesn't it?
Billy in Cypress U.$.A. responded:
Mack the Knife is today's answer and my favorite version is by Bobby Darin.
Jacqueline said:
WAG, was it Mack The Knife?
Dave wrote:
Mack the Knife. Bobby Darin's only #1 hit single. I wasn't really following pop music in 1960, but whenever Darin appeared on the many variety shows of the '60s and '70s it was a pretty sure bet he would sing "Mack the Knife." It wasn't until age 32 that Darin was told that his 'Mom' was really his grandmother and his 'older sister' was his birth mother, news that shook him enough he went into seclusion. A popular performer, Darin also acted in films, dated singer Connie Francis and married movie star Sandra Dee. Darin's heart had been weakened by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever and in 1973 he was stricken with a sepsis infection after failing to take antibiotics before dental work. His heart was affected and Bobby Darin died at 37 after open heart surgery. My wife has 2 artificial knees and 2 artificial hips and she also has to take antibiotics before any dental work.
Photos: Bobby Darin and Connie Francis had a love affair and wanted to marry, but her father opposed the match so they broke up. She later said that not marrying Darin was the biggest regret of her life | Darin and first wife Sandra Dee who divorced after 6 years
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) answered:
Ugh! "Mack The Knife." I hate that song. That's all I got to say about that.
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~~~~~
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Young Sheldon', followed by a RERUN'The Unicorn', then a RERUN'Mom', followed by another RERUN'Mom', then a RERUN'Bull'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 7/22/20) is Mary Trump.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 6/16/20) are Kevin Bacon and Rita Wilson.
NBC begins the night with a RERUN'Ellen's Game Of Games', followed by a RERUN'L&O: SVU', then a RERUN'L&O: SVU'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Matthew McConaughey and Jaden Smith.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are J.B. Smoove, Dana Bash, Kaitlan Collins, Kyung Lah, and Thaddeus Dixon.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 1/6/20) are Russell Peters and Michael Ealy.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Holey Moley', followed by a FRESH'Don't', then a FRESH'To Tell The Truth'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 7/7/20), with guest host Anthony Anderson, are D.L. Hughley and Bubba Wallace.
The CW offers a FRESH'Killer Camp', followed by a RERUN'Penn & Teller: Fool Us'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'MLB Baseball', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'The First 48', then a FRESH'Court Cam', followed by another FRESH'Court Cam'.
AMC offers the movie 'Independence Day', followed by the movie 'I, Robot', then the movie 'True Lies'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Maquis
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Maquis
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Wire
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Crossover
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Collaborator
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Tribunal
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Night Terrors
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Identity Crisis
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Nth Degree
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Qpid
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Drumhead
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Half a Life
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Host
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Mind's Eye
[8:00PM] WHITE HOUSE DOWN
[11:00PM] WHITE HOUSE DOWN
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Identity Crisis
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Nth Degree
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Qpid
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Drumhead (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of NYC', followed by a (F) 'Real Housewives Of NYC', then another FRESH'Real Housewives Of NYC', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
FX has the movie 'Sicario', followed by the movie 'Sicario: Day Of The Soldado', then the movie 'Pacific Rim: Uprising'.
History has 'Mountain Men', another 'Mountain Men', followed by a FRESH'Mountain Men', then a FRESH'Alone'.
IFC -
[6:00A] The Three Stooges - Three Missing Links
[6:30A] The Three Stooges - Scotched in Scotland
[6:45A] The Three Stooges - Men in Black
[7:15A] Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Boggy Creek II, and the Legend Continues
[9:30A] The Original Kings of Comedy
[12:00P] Semi-Pro
[2:00P] Grandma's Boy
[4:00P] Bad Words
[6:00P] Two and a Half Men
[6:30P] Two and a Half Men
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men
[12:00A] Two and a Half Men
[12:30A] Two and a Half Men
[1:00A] Fatal Attraction
[3:45A] Derailed
[6:00A] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am] perry mason
[7:00am] perry mason
[8:00am] perry mason
[9:00am] the andy griffith show
[9:30am] the andy griffith show
[10:00am] the andy griffith show
[10:30am] the andy griffith show
[11:00am] the andy griffith show
[11:30am] the andy griffith show
[12:00pm] the andy griffith show
[12:30pm] the andy griffith show
[1:00pm] law & order
[2:00pm] law & order
[3:00pm] law & order
[4:00pm] law & order
[5:00pm] law & order
[6:00pm] law & order
[7:00pm] law & order
[8:00pm] law & order
[9:00pm] law & order
[10:00pm] law & order
[11:00pm] law & order
[12:00am] law & order
[1:00am] law & order
[2:00am] grace is gone
[4:00am] perry mason
[5:00am] perry mason (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Edge Of Tomorrow', followed by the movie 'Gods Of Egypt'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 5/14/20) is Nikki Glaser.
"Increasingly Normalizing" Self-Censorship for China
Hollywood
On Aug. 5, PEN America published an explosive report that may put Hollywood on the defensive. Titled "Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing," the 94-page study details how the major studios and A-list directors increasingly are making decisions - including cast, plot, dialogue and settings - "based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials."
The nonprofit that champions free expression cites examples of the studios inviting Chinese government regulators onto their film sets to advise "on how to avoid tripping the censors' wires," including on Marvel's 2013 film Iron Man 3. (The studios did not respond to PEN America when asked about claims in its report.)
The report - which chronicles creative choices on such films as Dr. Strange, World War Z and the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick - coincides with criticism from the White House that the studios routinely "kowtow" to the authoritarian government's censorship demands. In addition, Richard Gere - the most high-profile actor to feel China's wrath because of his pro-Tibet statements - appeared before a Senate committee June 30.
In his testimony, Gere suggested that economic interests drive studios to avoid social issues that Hollywood once addressed, including Tibet. "Imagine Marty Scorsese's Kundun, about the life of the Dalai Lama, or my own film Red Corner, which is highly critical of the Chinese legal system," Gere said. "Imagine them being made today. It wouldn't happen."
Back in 1998, then-Disney chief Michael Eisner apologized for Kundun, which depicted Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people, calling it "a form of insult to our friends," and the studio hired former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to help with the fallout of the movie. To this day, the film remains radioactive for the studio. (Kundun is not available on Disney+, and the studio did not respond when asked if it plans to add it to the platform.)
In the years since Lana and Lilly Wachowski - the filmmaking sisters formerly known as the Wachowski brothers - both came out as transgender women, fans and film pundits have speculated about the potential themes of gender identity woven into their most famous and widely celebrated cinematic contributions, The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003).
"Trans women have claimed The Matrix as an allegory for gender transition since at least 2012, when Lana Wachowski publicly came out," noted Vulture's Andrea Long Chu in a 2019 analysis of the piece (Lilly followed suit in 2016). The writer pointed to that its hero Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) lives a double life - programmer by day, hacker by night - and chooses the alias "Neo" for the latter. There are comparisons of the red pill - the choice that sends Neo on an eye-opening (and eye-popping) odyssey from the shackles of a machine-generated virtual dream world to the futuristic reality - to red estrogen pills. The description used by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) of the Matrix's warnings that something is wrong, "like a splinter in your mind," is looked at as a play on gender dysphoria, the distress a person feels when their gender identity contrasts with their sex assigned at birth.
The Wachowskis have rarely discussed the interpretations, until now.
"I'm glad people are talking about The Matrix movies with a trans narrative," Lilly says in a new Netflix Film Club video commemorating the 21st anniversary of the first release (watch above). "I love how meaningful those films are to trans people and the way that they come up to me say, 'Those movies saved my life.' Because when you talk about transformation, specifically in the world of science fiction, which is just about imagination and world-building and the idea of the seemingly impossible becoming possible, that's why it speaks it to them so much. And I'm grateful I can be a part of throwing them a rope along their journey."
Asked specifically about the theories surrounding the trilogy's trans allegories (via overlaying Matrix-y green computer font), Lilly confirmed that she and Lana were indeed commenting on gender identity.
Comedy Central has greenlit a "reimagined" take on the former Nickelodeon and Spike adult animated series. Details are scares but the ViacomCBS-owned cable network plans to hire a new creative team for the update, which will be reimagined for a new generation. The series hails from Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Additional information, including writers, an episode count and premiere date, have not yet been determined.
The updated Ren & Stimpy show marks the latest push into adult animation for ViacomCBS Entertainment & Youth Group president Chris McCarthy, who also greenlit Daria spinoff Jodie, updates of Beavis & Butt-Head and Clone High. Both Jodie and Beavis & Butt-Head were picked up for Comedy Central, while the new Clone High does not yet have a network attached.
"We are excited to reinvent this iconic franchise with a new creative team and our partners at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio," McCarthy said. "Ren & Stimpy joins our rapidly expanding roster of adult animation including South Park, Beavis and Butt-Head and Clone High as we continue to reimagine our treasure chest of beloved IP for new generations."
A bottle of whiskey salvaged from a 1941 shipwreck off the coast of Scotland was expected to sell for thousands of dollars at auction this week.
The 18 kg bottle of blended whiskey was recovered from the SS Politician cargo ship, which ran aground in shallow water near the island of Eriskay while en route to Kingston, Jamaica, and New Orleans.
The crew were unharmed, and locals, suffering from war-time rationing, waded into the oil-soaked water to loot the cargo, which included cottons, medicines, 28,000 cases of malt whiskey and Jamaican banknotes equivalent to millions of dollars today.
The salvage operation by divers, islanders and customs officials inspired the novel "Whisky Galore," which tells the story of the thirsty islanders' attempts to evade confiscation by authorities. The novel was adapted to the screen as a British comedy in 1949 and as a 2016 remake.
The minimum price on the bottle is £9000, which is nearly $12,000, but the bidding could well exceed that by the time the auction closes on Monday, Manson said.
The largest oil pipeline out of the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota could be forced to shut this week, and the companies that use it are telling investors they can survive without it. But in legal filings, they have made its closure seem dire.
The 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is facing a federal court order to be closed and drained pending a new environmental assessment. A decision on whether it can remain running while a legal battle continues is expected any day. The pipeline is critical for moving oil out of North Dakota, the second-largest crude-producing state, trailing only Texas.
Numerous industry groups and states issued legal statements in support of DAPL both prior to and after a judge last month ordered the line, operated by Energy Transfer LP, closed by early August.
But on recent earnings calls and fillings, companies including Marathon Petroleum Corp and Continental Resources Inc, the largest Bakken producer, said they have plenty of alternatives should the line be shut.
Donald Trump deployed federal officers into Portland, Oregon to "create images of chaos" on which he relies for campaign ads and in speeches, Oregon senator Ron Wyden has argued.
A Senate Judiciary committee hearing on Tuesday discussed the use of federal force against Black Lives Matter protests and indiscriminate use of tear gas and pepper spray that targeted nonviolent demonstrators and journalists.
The hearing highlighted the ideological chasm between Republicans who have accused protesters and Democrats of aligning with "terrorists" who have vandalised buildings and antagonised law enforcement, despite an overwhelming "peaceful" majority of millions of demonstrators across the US, and Democrats who argue that Republicans have enabled the president's fear-mongering and authoritarian impulse to use force against them.
"I agree there's a serious danger to American constitutional rights at this moment in history," Mr Wyden said. "It's caused to a great extent by the president and his enablers who are calling peaceful protesters anarchists and terrorists, and sending paramilitary forces into American cities."
Mr Wyden accused the administration's attacks against protesters as attempts to "paper over the murders and vandalism committed by far-right domestic terrorists" and distract attention away from a "nationwide call for justice" in the wake of police killings of black Americans that galvanised mass demonstrations that have been ongoing since the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
An astonishing well-preserved woolly mammoth has been retrieved from a lake in the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia, Russia, with soft tissues intact. Early reports indicate the remains include skin, tendon, and even woolly mammoth excrement from what is thought to be an adult male. The Pleistocene giant had been frozen in the permafrost, making it both a rare find and a unique opportunity for scientists to discover more about these ancient animals.
According to a report from the Siberian Times, the newly-discovered animal stood at around 3-meters (10 feet) tall and was a male aged between 15 to 20 years. They had initially believed the skeleton to be complete and conveniently still in anatomical order, but closer inspection of the remains has revealed the researchers had somewhat of a Pleistocene puzzle on their hands as only the back end of the skeleton was in any kind of order.
"[The] rest of the bones were in such chaotic order that it was impossible to guess where they were. We just had to go through centners of slit," said Andrey Gusevm, from the Centre of Arctic Research, in a report from the Siberian Times. "The way it stayed preserved is unique as the back part of the spine was still connected by the remains of tendons and skin."
Over the space of two trips, the researchers retrieved 90 percent of the animal's skeleton, including two feet and even a tail. "We have one front and one hind foot well-preserved, with tendons, soft tissues and pieces of skin," said Evgenia Khozyainova from Shemanovsky museum in Salekhard. "Also we have sacrum with adjacent vertebrae, including the tail preserved with tendons and a big piece of skin."
The remains of "monumental temples" dating to the Iron Age and medieval buildings may be hidden underground at Navan Fort, an archaeological site in Northern Ireland, a new study finds.
Exactly what's left of these ruins, however, remains to be seen. Archaeologists discovered the buried structures by using remote-sensing techniques that allowed them to map the hidden landscape and detect anomalies, such as architectural features made by humans.
These Iron Age and medieval buildings suggest that Navan Fort was "an incredibly important religious center and a place of paramount sacral and cultural authority in later prehistory," study co-researcher Patrick Gleeson, a senior lecturer of archaeology at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, told Live Science.
Navan Fort, which sits just outside of Armagh city, was the capital of the ancient province of Ulster (known in Irish as Ulaid) in pre-Christian Ireland, according to medieval texts. It's also the backdrop of various Irish myths and historical texts, which refer to it as "Emain Macha."
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