M Is FOR MASHUP - January 28th, 2009
How To Comment On Music Posts
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Kurtz: You Can Call Me Arne (talkingpointsmemo.com)
I work at the Department of Education headquarters in DC. Today completed our 2-day introduction to Arne Duncan. Yesterday he had lunch in our cafeteria (Edibles, ha ha), with his wife and children. His wife wore jeans and a sweater and Arne looked like an average joe in khaki dress pants, white shirt and tie. They stood in all of the lines and talked to anyone who approached them. They probably stayed 90 minutes. It was definitely the highest cafeteria attendance ever.
'My feet are killing me!' (guardian.co.uk)
She is one of the youngest foreign students ever to go to the Kirov's ballet school. Britain's Isabella McGuire Mayes relives her first, painful steps.
Germaine Greer: Would you pay $3,000 for a painting by a toddler? That's what they're charging in Melbourne (guardian.co.uk)
There is no reason to believe that Aelita had a vision of the finished work.
20 QUESTIONS: Jason Isbell (popmatters.com)
Jason Isbell as a solo artist is "brimming with talent and blessed with a killer voice", says PopMatters' Stuart Henderson.
FRANCESCO VEZZOLI, CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN: Interview with ROMAN POLANSKI (interviewmagazine.com)
Roman Polanski may soon be permitted back into the U.S., but he's made some of his most compelling films while in exile from the Hollywood machine. As he collaborates with artist Francesco Vezzoli on a commercial for a fictional perfume starring Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams, the director talks about the Perils of the movie world and the pleasures of skiing drunk at night.
Luaine Lee: Travis Fimmel milks his role on 'The Beast' for all it's worth (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
How you going to keep them down on the farm after they've seen L.A.? It turns out it's easy for actor Travis Fimmel, who's costarring in A&E's "The Beast" with Patrick Swayze.
MATT MAZUR: "SUFFRAGETTE CITY: No Girl So Sweet and 'Happy-Go-Lucky'" (popmatters.com)
At first fearing a British Amelie, Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky surprisingly became Mazur's favorite film of 2008.
Roger Moore: Renee Zellweger chills out (literally) in 'New in Town' (The Orlando Sentinel)
Renee Zellweger is the first to tell you that she's been "spoiled" at the "unbelievable way" her life and acting career have worked out. An Oscar, epic paychecks, a dazzling array of performances in all sorts of films and her choice of leading men - that's spoiled.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Husbands and Wives (athensnews.com)
Alex George was booed mercilessly at a basketball game he refereed. His wife was present during the game. After the game, he suggested that perhaps she should stay home during the other games he refereed - after all, she must find it uncomfortable to be present while the fans stood up and booed him. She replied, "No, it's not a problem - I stood up and booed, too."
David Bruce: Composition Project: Writing a Set of Instructions (lulu.com)
This free pdf download describes a composition assignment that I have used successfully during my years of teaching at Ohio University. Other teachers are welcome to download and read this pdf file and decide whether this assignment will work in their classes.
The Weekly Poll
The New Question
The 'All American?' Edition...
Actor/Producer Tom Hanks said at the LA premier of the Mormon polygamy themed HBO series 'Big Love', "The truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen. There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them." A few days later he gave a qualified recantation by saying, "Last week, I labeled members of the Mormon church who supported California's Proposition 8 as 'un-American,'" I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination. But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American. To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are 'un-American' creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use 'un- American' lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have."....
This week's poll has two questions...
Should Mr. Hanks have made that recantation?
and...
If banning gay marriage is discrimination isn't it the same to ban polygamy (or polyandry) between consenting adults?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
Charlie responded:
wrote:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and brisk (for these parts).
Called dear old Dad for his birthday. Thanks to a nasty storm, he was stuck home, alone, and the Babe was stuck at her place.
He said that all things considered, he had heat, and electricity, and cable, and that he was old enough to realize it could be a whole lot worse.
Can't argue with that.
Jo, the (lucky) lizard, molted.
John Newbery Medal
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman has received the top prize for children's literature: The John Newbery Medal.
"I am so wonderfully befuddled," the best-selling author said Monday after winning the 88th annual Newbery for "The Graveyard Book," a spooky, but (he says) family friendly story about a boy raised by a vampire, a werewolf and a witch.
Also Monday, the Randolph Caldecott Medal, given to the illustrator of the best picture book, went to Beth Krommes for "The House in the Night," written by Susan Marie Swanson. The Coretta Scott King Award for best author was given to Kadir Nelson, for "We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball." The illustrator award went to Floyd Cooper for "The Blacker the Berry." The King prizes were founded 40 years ago to honor the works of black Americans.
The Newbery and other awards were announced by the American Library Association, currently meeting in Denver.
Other winners included Melina Marchetta's "Jellicoe Road," given the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature, and two Pura Belpre awards for Latino writing - best author to Margarita Engle's "The Surrender Tree" and best illustrator to Yuyi Morales for "Just in Case."
Neil Gaiman
Joins Dad
George Clooney
George Clooney traded jokes with his father, veteran journalist Nick Clooney, before a screening Monday night of the actor's 2005 film "Good Night and Good Luck."
The 47-year-old actor wrote and directed the film about legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow, which his father is now using to teach journalism students at American University. Both Clooneys appeared at a screening of the film for students, alumni and others at the Newseum, a museum about the news.
The younger Clooney said he grew up hearing about Murrow, and their family took pride in how journalists held the government accountable during the paranoia of the 1950s communist threat. Clooney said he wanted to make a movie to let people hear some "really well-written words about the fourth estate again."
The Clooneys are from Kentucky, where Nick Clooney worked as a TV news anchor before moving to stations in Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. He also wrote a newspaper column in Cincinnati.
George Clooney
Union Ousts Chief Negotiator
Screen Actors Guild
Union moderates fighting for control of the deeply splintered Screen Actors Guild on Monday ousted the hard-line chief negotiator they blame for months of stalled contract talks with Hollywood studios.
The removal of Doug Allen as both SAG's national executive director and head of its bargaining team capped a turbulent period for the union that raised prospects of a strike, then saw power shift away from militant leaders as their stalemate with studios dragged on and the U.S. economy worsened.
Allen, hired by SAG in 2006 after two decades as a top executive at the union for National Football League players, was viewed by his critics as overly confrontational and unwilling to make the compromises necessary to close a deal.
SAG's 120,000 members have been without a film and prime-time TV contract since their old labor pact expired June 30, after negotiations collapsed and the studios presented what they called their "final" offer.
Screen Actors Guild
Tree Felled By Storm
Marie Antoinette
A tree that survived the French Revolution in the royal park surrounding the Palace of Versailles was toppled during last weekend's deadly storm, officials said Tuesday.
The weeping beech, which grew in the doomed Queen Marie Antoinette's mock village in the palace grounds, was uprooted by high winds on a weekend that saw 11 people killed by storms in southwest France.
The 28-metre (90-foot) tall tree was planted in 1786, officials at the chateau said. It had earlier survived a giant storm in 1999 that felled millions of trees across France, including many in Versailles.
Marie Antoinette
Rock Fans' Pilgrimage
Clear Lake, Iowa
It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.
The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that lasted only minutes.
Starting Wednesday, thousands of people are expected to gather in the small northern Iowa town where the rock pioneers gave their last performance. They'll come to the Surf Ballroom for symposiums with the three musicians' relatives, sold-out concerts and a ceremony as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designates the building as its ninth national landmark.
And they'll discuss why after so many years, so many people still care about what songwriter Don McLean so famously called "the day the music died."
Clear Lake, Iowa
Delay A Relief To Networks
Digital TV
The big broadcast networks, already suffering from terrible ratings, will catch a break if the planned transition to digital signals is put off until June.
Pushed by the Obama administration, the Senate approved the delay and the House is expected to follow suit. Instead of Feb. 17, the deadline will be June 12.
That means the transition - expected to leave millions of households at least temporarily without TV pictures - will take place after the TV season is over. With warmer weather and more reruns, fewer people are watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in June than in February, anyway.
The Feb. 17 date was chosen in part because the National Football League applied pressure to make sure the switch was after the Super Bowl, said Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president for the Carat media buying agency. ABC had hoped to put off the Oscars, scheduled for Feb. 22, to March.
Digital TV
"The Colossus" Not His
Francisco de Goya
"The Colossus," one of the best-known paintings attributed to Spanish master Francisco de Goya, was in fact done by his apprentice, Madrid's Prado Museum said Monday.
The museum said on its Internet site that research by a team of experts has concluded Goya's apprentice Asensio Julia was the real author of the work.
Prado experts reached a similar conclusion last year, but said they would pursue their investigation.
Researchers closely analysed the style, techniques and composition of the "The Colossus" and compared them to other authentic Goya pieces and found them markedly different, they said, criticising "the poverty of the technique, light and colours" in the work.
Francisco de Goya
Creator Rebuffs Daughter
Asterix
French illustrator Albert Uderzo, creator of Gallic hero Asterix, hit out at his daughter Monday after she accused him of selling out by ceding control of his iconic comic series to a big publisher.
French publisher Hachette Livre bought a 60 percent share in the Asterix books' parent company, Editions Albert-Rene, on January 13, while Uderzo's daughter Sylvie maintained her 40 percent stake in the bestselling series.
"To be accused by my own daughter, in the pages of the newspaper of reference, of being an old man, manipulated and deluded in his insatiable greed by the gnomes of finance, is already quite undignified," said Uderzo, 81.
"The accusation made against me is not only inspired by the appetite for power, it also aims to insult Asterix readers by confusing my abilities as an author with that of a publishing house shareholder," he said.
Asterix
7 Down
Fugu
Blowfish testicles prepared by an unauthorized chef sickened seven diners in northern Japan and three remained hospitalized Tuesday after eating the poisonous delicacy.
The owner of the restaurant in Tsuruoka city, who is also the chef, had no license to serve blowfish and was being questioned on suspicion of professional negligence, police official Yoshihito Iwase said.
Blowfish, while extremely poisonous if not prepared properly, is considered a delicacy in Japan and is consumed by thrill-seeking gourmets.
Blowfish poison, called tetrodotoxin, is nearly 100 times more poisonous than potassium cyanide, according to the Ishikawa Health Service Association. It can cause death within an hour and a half after consumption.
Fugu
Blocking Ticket Re-Sales
Oscars
The organization that presents the Academy Awards is suing an Arizona company that it claims is selling tickets to this year's show.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles on Monday to block Phoenix-based McMurry Inc. from selling a luxury ticket package to the Feb. 22 show. The seven-night package starts at $175,000, according to the lawsuit and McMurry's Web site.
The Academy's suit claims that McMurry plans to sell at least four of the high-end packages that promise pampering and a strut down the red carpet. It advertises a seven-night stay at a Bel Air hotel, access to celebrity stylists, and a camera crew to record the experience.
Oscar tickets are not transferrable, a policy the Academy says is aimed at keeping out stalkers and terrorists. The Academy considers people who use traded or bought Oscar tickets trespassers.
Oscars
75th Year Of 'Amateur Night'
Apollo Theater
Harlem's Apollo Theater is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its "Amateur Night" - a starting stage for some of the biggest stars in entertainment, including Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder and the late James Brown.
The first 75 tickets to Wednesday night's show are going for $7.50, with rapper Ron Browz as the featured performer.
The theater, built in 1914 in the heart of Harlem, was originally called Hurtig and Seamon's New Burlesque Theatre. Blacks were not allowed in the audience then.
In 1934, Ralph Cooper Sr. launched a live version of his radio show, "Amateur Nite Hour" at the Apollo. Fitzgerald was among the first winners of the show, which allows young performers to test their talent, with a tough live audience booing bad acts off the stage.
Apollo Theater
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Jan. 19-25. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (1) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 25.9 million viewers.
2. (2) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 22.77 million viewers.
3. (3) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 17.57 million viewers.
4. (4) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 16.09 million viewers.
5. (8) "House," Fox, 15.03 million viewers.
6. (6) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.58 million viewers.
7. (5) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 14.43 million viewers.
8. (7) "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.21 million viewers.
9. (9) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.82 million viewers.
10. (10) "Cold Case," CBS, 13.26 million viewers.
11. (X) "Neighborhood Ball," ABC, 12.57 million viewers.
12. (15) "Lie to Me," Fox, 12.37 million viewers.
13. (13) "Eleventh Hour," CBS, 12.31 million viewers.
14. (17) "24," Fox, 12.1 million viewers.
15. (17) "Fringe," Fox, 11.96 million viewers.
16. (11) "Hallmark Hall Of Fame: Loving Leah," CBS, 11.74 million viewers.
17. (15) "NCIS," CBS, 11.73 million viewers.
18. (20) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 11.59 million viewers.
19. (14) "CSI: NY," CBS, 11.58 million viewers.
20. (23) "Lost," ABC, 11.35 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
John Updike
John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76.
A literary writer who frequently appeared on best-seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir "Self-Consciousness" and even a famous essay about baseball great Ted Williams.
He released more than 50 books in a career that started in the 1950s, winning virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for "Rabbit Is Rich" and "Rabbit at Rest," and two National Book Awards.
Born in 1932, Updike spoke for millions of Depression-era readers raised by "penny-pinching parents," united by "the patriotic cohesion of World War II" and blessed by a "disproportionate share of the world's resources," the postwar, suburban boom of "idealistic careers and early marriages."
He captured, and sometimes embodied, a generation's confusion over the civil rights and women's movements, and opposition to the Vietnam War. Updike was called a misogynist, a racist and an apologist for the establishment.
On purely literary grounds, he was attacked by Norman Mailer as the kind of author appreciated by readers who knew nothing about writing. Last year, judges of Britain's Bad Sex in Fiction Prize voted Updike lifetime achievement honors.
Raised in the Protestant community of Shillington, Pa., where the Lord's Prayer was recited daily at school, Updike was a lifelong churchgoer influenced by his faith, but not immune to doubts.
Plagued from an early age by asthma, psoriasis and a stammer, he found creative outlets in drawing and writing. Updike was born in Reading, Pa., his mother a department store worker who longed to write, his father a high school teacher remembered with sadness and affection in "The Centaur," a novel published in 1964. The author brooded over his father's low pay and mocking students, but also wrote of a childhood of "warm and action-packed houses that accommodated the presence of a stranger, my strange ambition to be glamorous."
John Updike
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