from Bruce
Anecdotes
Critics
• The Australian novelist Shirley Hazzard is highly rated by critics, yet little known by readers. In addition to writing novels, she also has memorized much, much poetry. In fact, her knowledge of poetry led to her and her husband, Flaubert scholar Francis Steegmuller, meeting the novelist Graham Greene. In a restaurant at Capri, they overheard him trying to remember a line of poetry. Ms. Hazzard knew the line and recited it, and the three became friends. Critics do appreciate her. At the end of an interview with Ms. Hazzard, journalist Bryan Appleyard told her, “Thank you. You have written some beautiful novels.” She replied, “Pardon, what did you say?” Mr. Appleyard repeated his statement, and she admitted, “I heard you. I just wanted to hear you say it again.”
• People do make mistakes. While Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., author of Slaughterhouse-Five, was on a panel at City College, a woman asked him this question: “Why did you put exactly one hundred ‘So it goes’s’ in Slaughterhouse-Five?” Mr. Vonnegut replied that he was not aware that he had used that exact number. Also on the panel was critic John Simon, who disappeared while everyone had coffee, and then reappeared and said to Mr. Vonnegut, “One hundred and three.” Some critics have been very happy to place Mr. Vonnegut in a category in which he may or may not belong. At a party, he was introduced to cultural commissar Jason Epstein, who thought for a moment, said “Science fiction,” and then walked away. Mr. Vonnegut says, “He just had to place me, that’s all.”
• Occasionally, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., taught creative writing, and of course he critiqued the writing of other people. A Smith undergraduate asked him to critique a short story that she described as “a heartwarming account” of the death of her grandmother. Despite its frequent humor, Mr. Vonnegut’s work is often dark, and he thought that the short story was “too gushy” and therefore suggested, “Have you ever thought about making your grandmother insane?” Most likely, the Smith undergraduate was made uncomfortable by the suggestion, just as Mr. Vonnegut felt uncomfortable because of a comment that was made after he told someone that the name “Vonnegut” was German: “Germans killed six million of my cousins.” (Of course, during World War II Mr. Vonnegut fought on the side of the Allies.)
• Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks write a blog called GoFugYourself in which they criticize celebrities who demonstrate poor fashion sense. In 2008 they came out with a book titled Go Fug Yourself Presents: The Fug Awards. Of course, their experiences are interesting, and they have learned from them. Ms. Morgan says, “I have learned that people who write hate mail tend to have considerably worse spelling and grammar than people who write non-hate mail.” So what is in the future for the celebrity-criticizing duo? Ms. Cocks says, “I would like to say the future looks like a closet full of Louboutin shoes and designer dresses, but I keep forgetting to buy lottery tickets, so I’m guessing that will never come to pass.”
• World-class author Isaac Bashevis Singer once read a story in front of a group of 12 Jews who were too poor to pay him anything. After he had read the story, a man stood up and said that the story was not a good story because it was not a Zionist story. Therefore, the man said, “I spit on your story.” Each of the other members of the audience stood up in turn and said that the story was not good for various reasons, and each of them said that they spit on the story. One man even said he spit on the story twice — once because it was not Orthodox, and once because it was not Zionist. So, Mr. Singer said, “From 12 people I collected 13 spits.”
• Readers can impact an author. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., wrote an ending for his novel Breakfast of Champions and sent it to his publisher. He lived near his publisher and a lot of mail and messages went back and forth, and a couple of young employees in the production department met him and told him that they didn’t like the ending: “That’s not the way we thought it should end.” Mr. Vonnegut thanked them, looked at the ending, realized that they were right, and wrote another ending — the one that appeared in the published book.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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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
Music: "Running Out of Time"
Album: A VERY BRITISH BLUES EXPLOSION
Artist: Jim Riley’s Blues Foundation
Music Company: Trouserphonic Records
Music Company Location: Chatham, UK
Info:
“Groovy Uncle is the recording project of Medway songwriter Glenn Prangnell. The band began releasing records in 2010 on the State Records label and have released something every year since. In 2013 they switched to their own label Trouserphonic Records. Wales-based singer Suzi Chunk has been recording with the band since 2012.”
“The first non-Groovy Uncle/Suzi Chunk record to be released on the band’s own Trouserphonic Records label, JRBF is fronted by former Wipeout blues man and Medway legend, Jim Riley. A very strong backing band is provided in the form of another legendary Medway band, The Claim. For those who like their R&B raw and authentic.”
“This album was recorded in the summer of 2017. All the songs were recorded live in a room together with a few bits and bobs added afterwards. It is raw and honest and was a great joy to have worked on with great people. We hope you enjoy listening to this LP as much as we enjoyed recording it.” — Jim Riley, 27th December 2017
Price: £1 (GBP) for track; £10 (GBP) for 12-track album
Genre: Blues. R&B.
Links:
A VERY BRITISH BLUES EXPLOSION
Groovy Uncle
Greg Prangnell on YouTube
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
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 Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Epic Lock Fails
David
Thanks, Dave!
New Venture
Michael Egan
Stephen Suggests
Twofer
At the National Conservatism conference in Orlando, Florida, held from Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, a Boise State professor in the political department, Scott Yenor, stated that independent women are “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome.” He also stated, “Our culture is steeped with feminism; it teaches young boys and girls that they are motivated by much the same things and want much the same things.” Most disturbingly he states “Every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers. Ditto for med school, and the law, and every trade.”
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Vinnie the shitten has been extra clingy today.
American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards
Newbery and Caldecott Medal Winners
The 2022 winners of the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards, the top prizes in US children’s literature, include tales of trans boys, coming of age during the apocalypse, historical tragedies and celebrations of heritage.
The literacy nonprofit’s awards, which include the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Awards, honor the best in children’s and young adult literature, from picture books to novels. And this year’s winners, announced Monday during a livestreamed ceremony, represent a wide spectrum of experiences and backgrounds.
The John Newbery Medal, which honors the “most outstanding contribution to children’s literature,” was awarded to Donna Barba Higuera’s “The Last Cuentista.” According to publisher Levine Querido, the novel follows a girl named Petra Peña, forced to abandon Earth after a comet destroys it, who spends hundreds of years asleep until she wakes to find she carries the only memories of humanity’s former planet.
Four other books received Newbery Honors, including “Watercress” and “Too Bright to See,” which also received additional awards.
“Watercress,” an autobiographical story that tracks a first-generation girl rediscovering her Chinese heritage by foraging for the titular leafy green in Ohio, was awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal, given to the “most distinguished American picture book for children.”
Newbery and Caldecott Medal Winners
Sells Recorded-Music Catalog to Sony
Bob Dylan
Sony Music Entertainment today announced it has fully acquired Bob Dylan’s entire back catalog of recorded music, as well as the rights to multiple future new releases, in a major expansion of SME’s six-decade relationship with the artist.
Sources tell Variety that the deal was worth between $150 million and $200 million, although the number was not confirmed; reps for Sony and Dylan declined comment.
This agreement, concluded in July 2021, comprises the entirety of Bob Dylan’s recorded body of work since 1962, beginning with the artist’s self-titled debut album and continuing through 2020’s “Rough and Rowdy Ways.”
Late in 2020 Dylan sold his song catalog to Universal Music Publishing for an amount sources say was near $400 million; he also donated his personal archives to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., which is scheduled to open in May of this year.
The deal is the latest in a series of blockbuster deals for music catalogs. Bruce Springsteen sold his publishing and recorded-music catalogs to Sony Music for a reported $550 million; David Bowie’s publishing was acquired by Warner Chappell Music earlier this year for upward of $250 million, sources tell Variety; Motley Crue’s recorded-music catalog was acquired by BMG late in November 2021 for around $90 million.
Bob Dylan
Critical Documentary
Di$ney
Three years ago, Abigail E. Disney began to publicly excoriate The Walt Disney Co. for its “obscene” pay inequality, with Robert A. Iger, who was then CEO, at one end of the scale and hourly theme park workers at the other. The company founded by her grandfather and great-uncle repeatedly returned fire, at one point calling her assertions a “gross and unfair exaggeration of the facts.”
But Abigail Disney has refused to back down, even though the company recently agreed to a 16% raise for certain theme park workers. In fact, she is escalating her campaign — and, for the first time, bringing along two of her three siblings.
“The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” an activist-minded documentary about the pay gap between corporate haves and have-nots, will premiere Monday as part of the Sundance Film Festival, which is being held digitally because of the pandemic. Disney and Kathleen Hughes directed the film; Disney’s sister, Susan Disney Lord, and a brother, Tim, are among the executive producers. The movie positions the entertainment company that bears their name as “ground zero of the widening inequality in America.”
To paint that harsh picture, Disney and Hughes profile four Disneyland custodians, who, at the time of filming (pre-pandemic), earned $15 an hour. They all struggle mightily with soaring housing costs in Southern California. One says he knows Disneyland workers who have had to “make a decision between medication or food.”
Intermittently, the filmmakers cut to photographs of Iger, who was Disney’s CEO from 2005 to 2020, a period of stunning gains for stockholders (including Disney and other members of her family). Viewers are reminded that Disney awarded him a pay package in 2018 worth $65.6 million. Stock awards tied to the acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox assets made up 40%.
Di$ney
‘Mass Formation Hypnosis’
Clapton
Eric Clapton pulled out a piping hot take about people who get vaccinated against Covid-19, suggesting those trying to decrease the likelihood of getting or dying from an easily transmissible virus are victims of “mass formation hypnosis.”
Mass formation hypnosis (or sometimes “mass formation psychosis”) has become a shiny new term in anti-vax circles, although crucially it’s not an officially recognized medical condition (as one psychology professor put it to Reuters, “mass psychosis” is “more metaphor than science, more ideology than fact”). Nevertheless, the “concept” recently gained traction thanks to Twitter-banned vaccine expert, Dr. Robert Malone, who appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast at the end of 2021 and claimed people had essentially been hypnotized into believing the efficacy of the vaccine (Malone threw in a comparison between the United States’ pandemic policies to Nazi Germany, for good measure, too).
Clapton echoed the mass hypnosis talking point/rambling during an interview with Dave Spuria of the Real Music Observer YouTube channel last Friday, Jan. 21. While noting that his family and friends were scared and concerned about his anti-vax views, Clapton said, “I didn’t get the memo, whatever the memo was, it hadn’t reached me. Then I started to realize there was really a memo… It’s great, you know, the theory of mass hypnosis formation. And I could see it then. Once I started to look for it, I saw it everywhere.”
What Clapton saw everywhere was what most people would describe a massive public health messaging campaign encouraging people to get a safe and effective vaccine. But to the musician, these nefarious tools of hypnosis were everywhere, from “little things on YouTube, which were like subliminal advertising” (they were probably actual advertisements about the safe and effective vaccine) and “the news stuff that was coming out of England… it was like completely one-way traffic about following orders and obedience” (probably just news reports about the safe and effective vaccine).
Clapton added of this deluge of public service announcements, “Bit by bit, I put a rough kind of jigsaw puzzle together, and that made me even more resolute… I felt really motivated, musically. It instigated something, which was really laying dormant. I was playing live gigs up until the lockdown without really being socially involved in anyway. But then these guys that were in power really started to piss me [off] — and everybody — but I had a tool. I had a calling. And I can make use of that.”
Clapton
Delays Libel Trial
Mrs. Palin
An unvaccinated former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Nellie Oleson) tested positive for COVID-19 Monday, forcing a postponement of a trial in her libel lawsuit against The New York Times.
The Republican’s positive test was announced in court just as jury selection was set to begin at a federal courthouse in New York City.
Palin claims the Times damaged her reputation with an opinion piece penned by its editorial board that falsely asserted her political rhetoric helped incite the 2011 shooting of then-Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. The newspaper has conceded the initial wording of the editorial was flawed, but not in an intentional or reckless way that made it libelous.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the trial can begin Feb. 3 if Palin, 57, has recovered by then.
Mrs. Palin
Revisionist Historian
Newtie
The two sitting Republicans on the 6 January select committee have hit back at former speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Sanctimonious Serial Philanderer) for suggesting they could be prosecuted if and when the GOP retakes Congress.
Gingrich made his remarks to Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo (R-Sock Puppet) on Sunday morning, telling the famously pro-Trump host that under a Republican congressional regime, those who have pursued accountability for last year’s Capitol attack should expect rough treatment from the party’s leaders.
“All these people who have been so tough and so mean and so nasty,” he said, “are going to be delivered subpoenas for every document, every conversation, every tweet, every email because I think it’s clear that these are people who are literally running over the law pursuing innocent people, causing them to spend thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees for no justification.”
The reaction to the former speaker’s remarks was fast and furious, and both Ms Cheney and Mr Kinzinger joined in. Ms Cheney put it in the starkest terms in a tweet sharing a clip from the interview. “A former Speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent January 6 attack on our Capitol and our Constitution,” she wrote.
“This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels.”
Newtie
"Detention Site Violet"
Lithuania
A huge steel barn outside Lithuania's capital, whose long corridor and windowless rooms with carpets and soundproof doors once served as a CIA detention centre, will soon go on sale.
Washington's so-called "rendition programme", under which suspected Islamist militants from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq were spirited to jails outside U.S. jurisdiction, remains shrouded in secrecy more than a decade after it ended.
But the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed that the 10-room building, in snowy pine forest in the village of Antaviliai outside Vilnius, was used by the CIA to hold terrorist suspects from 2005-2006.
It was known as "Project No. 2" or "Detention Site Violet".
A former Russian KGB jail in central Vilnius, where 767 people were executed during an anti-Soviet uprising in the 1940s and thousands were tortured, is Lithuania's top tourist attraction. But the state has no such plans to turn the former CIA facility into a museum.
Lithuania
America's Northernmost Town
Utquigvik
Situated more than 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, at the very top of Alaska, is Utquigvik - formerly known as Barrow - the northernmost city in the United States. It sits on a promontory between the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, with no roads connecting it to the rest of the state.
On Jan. 22, the town's roughly 5,000 residents experienced the sun's rays for the first time since mid-November when the sun set for the final time in 2021. Saturday, it finally rose above the horizon for about 50 minutes. The phenomenon is called "polar night."
As the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun in the winter months, communities close to the North Pole experience a period of uninterrupted darkness. In Utqiagvik, this lasts for approximately two months of the year. Because of Earth's tilt on its axis, depending on where they're located, regions in the Northern Hemisphere can remain facing away from the sun for days, weeks, or in Utqiagvik's case, months at a time.
As the Washington Post noted, "At the North and South poles, there is only one sunrise and one sunset per year. The sun rises on the spring equinox and sets on the fall equinox. At the North Pole, that means daylight between March and September. During the fall and winter, darkness lasts six months, the only light stemming from stars, the moon and the emerald flicker of the aurora borealis."
While all that darkness in a climate where the average high this time of year is 8 degrees below zero Fahrenheit sounds unbearably brutal to most people, former resident Kirsten Alburg told AccuWeather the atmosphere is festive.
Utquigvik
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
