Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: The Media Shouldn't Whine to the Courts (Taki's Magazine)
Now that this silly little scene has gone to a court and been settled via lawyers on both sides, the White House press office has a new set of rules. You can be kicked out if you fail to give up the microphone, if you ask more than one question, or if you fail to yield the floor when asked. This means the White House will decide whether you're asking a follow-up, or trying to sneak in a second question, and if they decide you're breaking the rules, you'll be denied access. So much for aggressive questioning. Thanks, CNN.
Sara Ernst and Courtney Rozen: Here's What College Freshmen Are Reading (NPR)
Every year since 2010, the National Association of Scholars surveys the schools that pick books. This year, throughout 481 colleges and universities, they found schools were more likely to pick new books over classics. 67 percent of common reading books assigned were published after 2011, according to NAS.
Deborah Ross: Forget Robin Hood and Girl in the Spider's Web - Shoplifters is the film to see this week (Spectator)
The major releases this week are Robin Hood, as a big Hollywood retelling, and The Girl in the Spider's Web, a reboot of the Stieg Larsson thriller franchise starring Claire Foy. But the film you want to see, even if you may not know it yet, is Hirokazu Koreeda's Shoplifters. This is a film with no set pieces or major plot twists but it is wholly absorbing and it will steal your heart. (Among other things. There is a lot of stealing.)
Lionel Shriver: Jazz is dominated by men. So what? (Spectator)
The Europe Jazz Network conference is trying to impose gender-balance and reduce the dominance of male instrumentalists. What a waste of time.
Peter Parker: "Kenneth Grahame: another boy who wouldn't grow up" (Spectator)
Eternal Boy: The Life of Kenneth Grahameby Matthew Dennison reviewed
Amy Nicholson: Wanda Sykes on why she had to quit Roseanne - but still has empathy for its star (The Guardian)
When Roseanne Barr wrote a racist tweet, the comedian walked off the show - and 90 minutes later it was cancelled. She talks about the furore, coming out and being booed by Trump fans.
Sean Illing: A Stanford psychologist on the art of avoiding assholes (Vox)
"Not giving a shit takes the wind out of an asshole's sails."
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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
• Harrison Ford shot to fame in George Lucas' movies Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark , but he almost did not take the acting job he was offered in Mr. Lucas' first big hit: American Graffiti . Mr. Ford was working as a carpenter, making twice as much money as Mr. Lucas offered him to act in the movie, so he turned down the job. Fortunately, Mr. Lucas offered him another $15 a week. Mr. Ford accepted it and began a very lucrative association with Mr. Lucas. The film had a small budget, and Elvis Presley's music is not in it because Mr. Lucas could not afford the fee to use the music. Mr. Ford remembers this about shooting the film: "very little time, very little money, and very few doughnuts. I almost got fired for taking more than my share of doughnuts." Mr. Lucas was a generous employer. When American Graffiti became an unexpected smash hit, he gave away cars and money to some of the people who were involved in its making. Both the cast and the crew got a share of the profits. Actor Ron Howard remembers, "It was a totally and completely uncommon act. […] it was such a wonderfully gracious thing to do." Mr. Lucas' golden touch continued with the hugely moneymaking Star Wars . After Star Wars opened big, his friend Francis Ford Coppola sent him this telegram: "SEND MONEY."
• People who make low-budget movies have to be problem-solvers. For example, the critically acclaimed film Crossover Dreams was mostly filmed in a neighborhood in New York City. Often, people in the neighborhood would make meals for the filmmakers. To get apartments to film in, the crew used to paint those apartments in return. The actors mostly provided their own costumes. Unfortunately, the van in which the costumes were kept was stolen. A leather jacket worn by star Reubén Blades' character was among the items stolen; he replaced it at his own cost. Due to money problems, it took two years for the filming to be done. Mr. Blades had a mustache when he began acting in the film. Much later, when he returned to shoot the final scenes, he had shaved it off, so he had to wear a fake mustache.
• First-time filmmaker Marc Webb did not want to direct a romantic comedy-until he saw the screenplay for (500) Days of Summer , written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The first few lines were these: "Any resemblance to people living or dead is purely accidental. Especially Jenny Beckman. Bitch." "I liked that," Mr. Webb says. "It's fun, and it says, this movie is going to be a little bit different. You might have to engage a little more." The film was a hit and may someday be regarded as a classic-Roger Ebert gave it the top-rated 4 stars. Mr. Webb himself says, "I don't think this is a profoundly probing movie, but it's a simple movie that speaks a little bit of the truth, and just dances with reality and is fun."
• The second movie that veteran actor Saul Rubinek ever did was an independent movie titled Death Ship , although the cast referred to it as Death Sh*t . Mr. Rubinek remembers leaving the production trailer one day and seeing his fellow cast members immersed in water. This was shocking because of a production report that stated that no actors should ever be in the water because of really bad pollution. Mr. Rubinek says that "apparently nobody had told the actors. And that's when I began to understand something about the nature of independent movies."
• Paul Newman was both a movie star (The Hustler , Hud , Cool Hand Luke , Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , The Sting , Nobody's Fool ) and a man whose "Newman's Own" business (which he started with A.E. Hotchner) donated multi-millions to charity. In his bathroom, a framed letter supposedly hung. The letter congratulated Mr. Newman for donating so much money to charity, then added, "P.S. I hear you've been in some movies. I'll try to catch those sometime."
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Reader Comment
Current Events
The Hall of BLOOD
Evan at Wonktte cracks me up:
We just got a call from the Wonkette Factchecking Department, and they told us to please allow for at least the possibility that Stephen Miller helped with the design and that was supposed to be a hall of KKK grand wizard hats.
It's depressing as hell, it's ugly as all fuck, and it looks clumpy and overgrown and fake. Melania Trump designed a hallway that looks like her husband's naked body.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"0N THE BRINK OF A COMPLETE MELTDOWN"
THEY JUST CAN'T STOP LYING.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Remarkably randy raccoons on the roof, bowling their brains out.
Stream For Free
A24's Library
Last week, Kanopy - a free film-streaming service used by public libraries across the country - added virtually every A24 film to its collection, which means that if your friendly neighborhood library participates in the program, you can watch everything from the beloved studio behind Moonlight, The Lobster, Lady Bird, and a ton of other Hollywood darlings from the past five years. Pretty lit.
The news comes in the wake of last month's announcement that FilmStruck - the equally beloved cinephile streaming service - would close at the end of November (specifically the 29th, this coming Thursday). Parent company WarnerMedia justified the decision in business-ese with a bland statement praising FilmStruck's "creativity and innovations," and promising to "take key learnings" from the service to "help shape future business decisions in the direct-to-consumer space and redirect this investment back into our collective portfolios." Film buffs everywhere poured one out for the platform, and a group of major Hollywood directors urged the company to save the service. WarnerMedia and Criterion announced a new Criterion Collection streaming service, which is slated for launch in early 2019.
While Kanopy doesn't have quite the selection FilmStruck did, it does offer a wide variety of classic and contemporary movies - and as the New York Public Library jokingly reminded patrons over this Black Friday weekend, unlike even the best streaming deals out there, it's free. (You can stream the catalog online, or on most devices through the service's apps.) There's no reason not to sign up! As the classic television show Arthur put it: "Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card."
A24's Library
Guns N' Roses Cut Set Short
Axl Rose
Back in the day, Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose used to cancel a show if he didn't feel the audience was appropriately enthusiastic. What a different 25 years can make: Sunday night in Abu Dhabi, a "severely ill" Axl powered through 20 songs of the group's usual 28-song set.
"I've been throwing up for about the last five hours," he told the crowd. "So instead of canceling I'm gonna do the best show we can for you."
After the show, guitarist Slash tweeted, "Abu Dhabi, you guys were f-ing great tonight! Axl was severely ill. But you all were hugely supportive. Thanks for that. We'll see again next time! Cheers! iiii]; ) '."
Bassist Duff McKagan tweeted, "Thank you Abu Dhabi! @axlrose pulled a damn miracle…the man was beyond ill, and pulled off something I've never seen in my 40 yrs of playing. You all pulled him thru. Til next time!"
The group is winding down its multi-year "Not in This Lifetime" semi-reunion tour (featuring founding members Rose, Slash and McKagan), which began with a brace of warm-up dates in April of 2016 and has two dates remaining, in South Africa and a final - for now, anyway - date in Hawaii on December 8.
Axl Rose
Tour With Larry the Cable Guy
Styx
The blue-collar men are teaming up with a blue-collar comedian for some dates next year. Styx have sealed up more than a half-dozen shows with Larry the Cable Guy for the "Laugh. Rock. Seriously." tour.
"We first ran into Larry the Cable Guy at a convenience store in Sarasota, Fla., many moons ago," Styx frontman Tommy Shaw said in a press release. "Now we are pairing up for a fun night of music and comedy, something we could all use a big dose of! I'm ready! Are you? Let's do this!!!"
They'll team up for seven shows beginning at the Scheels Arena in Fargo, N.D., on March 21 and end at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill., on March 30. Tickets go on sale Nov. 30 at 10AM local time.
"Ever since I ran into Tommy at a convenience store in Florida, I've always wanted to work some shows with the iconic band Styx," said Larry the Cable Guy. "Not only because their music has been a soundtrack to my life, but also to try and get back the 18 bucks I loaned him for honey buns and coffee from that day in Florida."
Styx
Headed Back To Daytime TV
Jerry Springer
Jerry Springer is returning to daytime TV to hold court, literally.
The former host of "The Jerry Springer Show" has inked a deal with NBC for a new show, "Judge Jerry," that will feature the veteran talk show host as a judge in a courtroom. (Think "Judge Judy.")
If you're wondering about Springer's legal credentials, it turns out he earned a law degree from Northwestern University in 1968. He went on to have a career in politics, including a stint as the mayor of Cincinnati, before landing his longtime talk show gig in 1991.
"For the first time in my life, I am going to be called honorable," Springer said in a press release. "My career is coming full circle and I finally get to put my law degree to use after all these years."
"Judge Jerry" is expected to premiere in the fall of 2019 and will be taped in front of a live studio audience.
Jerry Springer
Dictionary.com's Word of the Year
'Misinformation'
Dictionary.com today announced its word of the year is "misinformation." The site's definition of the word is "false information that is spread, regardless of whether there is intent to mislead."
"The rampant spread of misinformation is really providing new challenges for navigating life in 2018," said Jane Solomon, linguist-in-residence at Dictionary, to the Associated Press.
According to Solomon, the difference between misinformation and disinformation is important. The latter refers to attempts to mislead. With the word of the year, wrong information is perpetuated by accident or error. However, misinformation can lead to disaster and death, such as violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, riots in Sri Lanka, and mob violence in India.
But a big reason that misinformation got the nod is the role that technology has played in spreading false information. Social media has made it easier than ever to share hate speech, rumors, false stories, satire perceived as straight reporting, and doctored images.
The Oxford word of the year was "toxic," with many aspects of culture being denoted by the term.
'Misinformation'
Can Be Inherited From Fathers
Mitochondrial DNA
A piece of high school genetics, relied on for many sorts of genetic testing, has been found to have exceptions. Although mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is normally received from the mother, three families have been identified where people received some of their mtDNA, three-quarters in the most extreme case, from their father. The finding may change the way we treat mitochondrial diseases and brings genetic testing for maternal ancestry into question.
MtDNA exists separately from the rest of our DNA, inside the thousands of mitochondria within each cell, rather than the cell nucleus. It is so widely accepted as being from the mother's side it is sometimes known as the Eve Gene, the idea being that it can be traced back to some primeval mother of all living humans. Testing of mtDNA is used to identify maternal ancestry.
However, all that will have to change after Dr Shiyu Luo of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Luo's first exception is a boy who at four was hospitalized with symptoms suggestive of mitochondrial disease. Sequencing of the boy's mitochondria revealed no disease-causing genes, but some oddities in the mtDNA that led Luo and colleagues to sequence other family members for comparison. Around 40 percent of the boy's mitochondria matched that from his mother's father, and only 60 percent came from his grandmother.
After testing of other members of the same family, and other families with mitochondrial diseases, Luo found that, while paternal inheritance is very rare, it has occurred at least 17 times in three tested families.
Mitochondrial DNA
Final 2018 Guests
Saturday Night Live
Now that Thanksgiving is over, we're currently in the final lap of 2018. Saturday Night Live is hip to this, which is why the late-night institution has just announced the final round of hosts and musical guests for the last three episodes of the year
This Saturday, December 1st, Golden Globe and Emmy winner Claire Foy (The Crown, First Man, The Girl in the Spider's Web) will host alongside musical guest Anderson .Paak, who's hot off his third studio album, Oxnard.
Aquaman hunk Jason Momoa will host the following Saturday night, December 8th, promoting the latest DC masterpiece. Folk rockers Mumford & Sons, who just released their fourth studio album, Delta, will take the stage for their third turn as musical guests.
To close things out, Brett Kavanaugh himself Matt Damon will ring in the holidays on Saturday, December 15th when he returns as host for the first time since 2002. He'll be in very good company, grooving along to musical guests Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson, who just announced the release of a new collaborative single.
Saturday Night Live
In Memory
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director behind films including Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor and The Conformist, has died aged 77.
Bertolucci was born in Parma, Italy, to a prosperous family - his father was a well-known poet and writer who also worked as a film critic. His friendship with Pier Paolo Pasolini, then a novelist and poet, led to the 20-year-old Bertolucci being hired as Pasolini's assistant on his 1961 debut Accattone.
The film was Bertolucci's big break: Pasolini then recommended him for the scriptwriter role on La Commare Secca (The Skinny Gossip), which became his directorial debut in 1962.
During his career, that began in the early Sixties, Bertolucci managed to work in both Europe and Hollywood, despite tumultuous relationships with film studios. He established himself as a key figure of the Italian new wave alongside Antonioni, Fellini and Pasolini, but was an anomaly thanks to his success in America.
His highly visual style and bold camera work influenced generations of filmmakers and often explored politics and sexuality via intensely personal storytelling.
The Last Emperor, an adaptation of the autobiography of China's last imperial ruler, Pu Yi, was a hit at the 1987 Oscars and won every category in which it had been nominated, with its filmmakers having secured unprecedented permission to film inside Beijing's Forbidden City.
Bertolucci became the first and only Italian to win the Best Director prize at that year's Oscars. He worked again with The Last Emperor producer, Jeremy Thomas, to make The Sheltering Sky, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers.
He caused controversy last year for revealing that crucial details of Last Tango's infamous butter rape scene involving Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider were withheld from the young actress until the actual shoot, with the intention to elicit a more outraged reaction from her. Bertolucci admitted he had been horrible to Schneider but denied regretting his actions.
Schneider, meanwhile, said years after making the film that she felt "a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci". She said, had she known her rights as an actress, she would have called her agent or lawyer at the time of the incident.
Bernardo Bertolucci
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