M Is FOR MASHUP - May 1st, 2019
Get Your Hands ( Ears ) On The Kleptones
By DJ Useo
So, like, over the weekend I was listening to a giant box of mashup albums I'd burnt to discs over the years. Excellent stuff all, however, one of the consistent peaks was the stuff by
The Kleptones
( kleptones.com/ )
. It sent me anew to his site, & the news is great! All his albums are still hosted. That isn't always the case with mashup albums, especially when your posts go back to the early 2000's.
FYI - those "rapidshare" links you sometimes see don't work any more. Lol.
The Kleptones started at a peak, & actually improved even more as each release appeared.
The album "A Night At The Hip-Hopera"
( kleptones.com/pages/downloads_hiphopera.html )
achieved the glorious state of "viral", & justifiably so. With the new-found, movie-based interest in the band Queen, people will love this inspired mixing of Queen, & Hip-Hop. The quality maintains throughout.
You can obtain all the Kleptones albums gratis at this page
( kleptones.com/pages/downloads.html )
Of course, you can always donate if you wish. I sometimes recieve boxes of candy, which I find more edible than digital money. ;)
Overall, The Kleptones site is solidly entertaining. The reward for times spent there is obvious. For instance, try this video of his mix "The Kleptones - Shout My Name" ( Lulu vs various )
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h7yzeRI9S4 )
Feel free to contact The Kleptones with your praise.
( kleptones.com/pages/contact.html )
Hopefully, we can motivate even more mixes.
Have the day of good. - Konrad
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Zombie Style in American Politics (NY Times)
Russia didn't help Donald Trump's presidential campaign. O.K., it did help him, but the campaign itself wasn't involved. O.K., the campaign had a lot of Russian contacts and knowingly received information from the Russians, but that was perfectly fine.
Donald Clarke: The online abuse began as soon as my Avengers: Endgame review appeared (Irish Times)
'Nice job on spoilers in your Endgame review. Dick,' read the first tweet.
'Only Bret Easton Ellis knew how to laugh at Donald Trump' (Irish Times)
Pierre Guglielmina, Ellis's Irish-based French translator, considers [Ellis' new book] White's place in his canon.
Eamon Sweeney: "The Cranberries: In the End" review - Dolores O'Riordan's remarkable swansong" (Irish Times)
Thirty years ago in Limerick city, brothers Noel and Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawlor, auditioned a young singer from Ballybricken called Dolores O'Riordan. She went away with a tape of a song called Linger, that the boys had written. What O'Riordan brought back made their jaws drop. The rest is history; 40 million album sales and, of course, tragedy.
Will Lloyd: What do Game of Thrones critics think they're watching? (Spectator)
Critics who only write about shallow subjects will only produce shallow writing.
Will Lloyd: How nerds smothered American culture (Spectator)
It is a morbid sign for a democracy when the electorate chooses superheroes to do its bidding, rather than politicians.
Chris Conaton: "Bad Religion Has Some Thoughts on the Trump Administration in 'Age of Unreason'" (PopMatters)
Anyone who's spent any time with Bad Religion will know what they are getting into with Age of Unreason. It's a good album that largely succeeds because the band are old pros. And because Graffin and Gurewitz have plenty of genuine anger and articulate that anger in interesting ways. In that way, it's a spiritual successor to 2004's The Empire Strikes First, which came on the heels of the George W. Bush administration's invasion of Iraq and was equally political. It's good to know that Bad Religion is still out there standing up for science and rationality, especially at a time when those qualities feel like they're actually under attack.
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 Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 100 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Team Coco
CONAN
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Claude Massop of Bloomfield, CT, needed a new heart to stay alive. He had already had two heart surgeries, and unless he had a heart transplant he was not expected to live past his fourth birthday. Fortunately, he got one. Claude's father, Erroll Massop, who came to the United States from Jamaica, worked hard to make that happen. Doctors said that they could not help Claude, but Erroll was stubborn. Erroll told a doctor who said that he (the doctor) could not help Claude, "What am I to do? I have nowhere else to go, and I cannot let my son die." The doctor sent him to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital said that if Claude were strong enough, he would be put on a heart transplant waiting list. Claude was strong enough, and Erroll got a beeper that would alert him when a heart was available. Two weeks later, a heart was available, and Erroll took Claude to the hospital for a transplant, which was successful. Throughout Claude's early life, Erroll worked hard to pay the medical bills, which were huge. At first, he worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken and made $4 an hour. Then he worked at Sealtest and made $9 an hour. His wife had to quit her job because she needed to take care of Claude and the other children. Erroll's medical insurance and pay were not enough to pay the medical bills, and so social worker Elba Cruz Schulman organized a fundraiser to help the Massop family because, she said, "They needed my help." People sent donations and letters. One letter read, "I don't have much, but I don't mind donating the little I can scrounge up for the benefit of this little boy." Erroll's boss at Sealtest gave him $5,000 and visited the family at the hospital. In the year 2003, over a decade after the transplant, Claude was a typical 16-year-old who enjoyed pizza, basketball, and video games, and who even failed English - something that did not make his father happy. Erroll, then working as a state correction officer, took away Claude's video games and put them in the trunk of his car and made it clear to Claude that he needed to study. Erroll wants Claude to be a rocket scientist. When his wife mentioned that Claude is talented at cutting hair, Erroll said that he does not want his son to be a barber, unless he is a rocket scientist who also cuts hair. Erroll said, "I guess that would be OK then."
• Carol Burgess, a secretary for the Coast Guard in Norfolk, Virginia, knows how to give good gifts to her big brother, Darold. When he turned 11, her birthday gift to him was his very first skateboard - she had saved $12 so she could buy it for him. And in 2005, for her big brother's 40thbirthday, she gave him one of her kidneys. Carol, age 37, said, "We have always been best friends. He was always my protector. I had a chance to save his life, and I was not going to walk away from that chance." In 2002, Darold, who lives in Brooklyn, began to experience swelling. He said, "I had had high blood pressure since 1998, but I took my medicine faithfully." He went to the hospital for tests. He said, "Within two days, I had lost 95 percent of the function of both kidneys. The doctors told me I had to start dialysis immediately." His sister volunteered to donate a kidney right away; however, Darold was leery: "I was nervous. I didn't want her to go through that." For one thing, their family has a history of diabetes, hypertension, and kidney problems. Carol could develop one or more of those problems during her life. Unfortunately, three years later, Darold's kidneys had developed so many problems that they had to be removed from his body. Carol was tested to see if her kidney was a good match for his body. Darold said, "We matched perfectly. People asked if we were twins." The transplant took place, and all went well. Their mother, Loretta Burgess, said, "I would have been devastated if anything had happened to either of them." However, the operation had a bonus for her. She said, "I haven't taken a trip in two years, I was so worried about Darold. For Thanksgiving, I'm going to go see my daughter, Carol."
• Before the family Christmas party in 2004, Reynaldo Garza telephoned his relatives to announce that he could not attend the party because of swollen feet and legs. Because he never missed the party, his relatives knew that something must be very wrong. However, his brother-in-law said, "Get sandals on and come over." He did attend the party, although he had to cut the sides of his shoes a little to order to put them on. Afterward, Mr. Garza saw a doctor, who told him that his kidneys were not working. For years, he was on dialysis, and he was put on a list for a transplant. His sister, Lydia Hernandez, worried about him. In Spanish, she said, "You do not know if he is coming back, and he was getting sicker." She volunteered to see if she was a good candidate to donate a kidney to him for a kidney transplant. She underwent a series of tests, including a psychiatric evaluation. Lydia said, "They wanted to know if somebody was forcing me to make a donation, but no, I wanted to help my brother. That was all." She was a good candidate, and on 19 October 2011, the kidney transplant took place at the South Texas Transplant Center at McAllen Medical Center. After the operation, Lydia said, "I'm in pain, but I will overcome it. What calms it is that I am happy, because I was able to help my brother." She added, "This changes the way you look at life. You are giving life."
• "Every year, nearly two-thirds of the approximately 200,000 patients in need of a bone marrow transplant will not find a marrow donor that matches within their families." - Nathan Deal
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Beloved Roman dog
Makes me weep.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
May Gray a day early.
Documentaries For Netflix
Obamas
Barack and Michelle Obama on Tuesday unveiled a slate of projects they are preparing for Netflix, a year after the former president and first lady signed a deal with the streaming platform.
The Obamas' production company, Higher Ground Productions, on Tuesday announced a total of seven films and series that Barack Obama said will entertain but also "educate, connect and inspire us all."
Higher Ground is producing a feature film on Frederick Douglass, adapted from David W. Blight's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. Also in the works is a documentary series that adapts Michael Lewis' "Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy," the "Moneyball" author's 2018 best-seller about government servants working under the political appointees of Donald Trump's administration.
The production company's first release will be Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's Sundance Film Festival documentary "American Factory," about a Chinese-owned factory in post-industrial Ohio. Netflix and Higher Ground also acquired Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham's "Crip Camp," a documentary about a summer camp for disabled teenager founded in upstate New York in the early 1970s.
The Obamas are also developing an upstairs-downstairs drama set in post-WWII New York titled "Bloom," and an adaptation of The New York Times "Overlooked" obituary column, about deaths unreported by the paper. A half-hour show for preschoolers titled "Listen to Your Vegetables & Eat Your Parents" will instruct kids about food.
Obamas
Farewell Special Set
'Big Bang Theory'
CBS is saying goodbye to The Big Bang Theory, TV's No. 1 comedy, with a half-hour retrospective special, an honor reserved for TV's biggest comedies (Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond come to mind). Unraveling The Mystery: A Big Bang Farewell will air on Thursday, May 16 at 9:30 PM, following the Big Bang series finale and the second season finale of spinoff Young Sheldon.
During the 30-minute special retrospective, series stars Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco take viewers behind the scenes of the longest-running multi-camera comedy series in television history.
In the special, Galecki and Cuoco will share backstage secrets and personal memories from the past 12 years. They'll reveal their favorite moments playing Leonard and Penny, and revisit some of the most memorable stories from The Big Bang Theory Stage. In addition, the special will feature a tour of the iconic sets, including Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, along with clips and interviews to celebrate the beloved series.
After a record-breaking 279 episodes, the series finale of The Big Bang Theory will air on Thursday, May 16 on CBS.
The series, which debuted in 2007 and airs in syndication around the world, has received 52 Emmy nominations with 10 wins to date and seven Golden Globe nominations.
'Big Bang Theory'
Netflix Show
Thai Cave Rescue
Netflix has teamed up with SK Global Entertainment, the production company behind Crazy Rich Asians, to create a show based on the 2018 Thai cave rescue. It was a widely publicized event, which (thankfully) saw the extraction of 12 boys and their soccer coach from the Tham Luang caves near Chiang Mai -- they were trapped there for two weeks due to the heavy rains that flooded the entrance. SpaceX chief Elon Musk even had a team of engineers develop and build a kid-size submarine in an attempt to help, though it arrived a bit too late and ended up not being practical for use.
While we can probably expect some fictional additions for dramatic flair, the show could be as true as possible: 13 Thumluang Co. Ltd., the company the youth soccer team created to handle the rights to its story, signed off on the project. Netflix and SK Global also secured the services of Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) and Nattawut "Baz" Poonpiriya (Thai movie Bad Genius) to direct what The Hollywood Reporter believes will be a mini-series.
It's still unclear if the show will feature Musk's character and his efforts to chip in, but it's certainly a possibility, since Netflix would want the show to appeal to audiences around the world. Erika North, the country's director of international originals, said:
"We are immensely proud to be able to support the retelling of the incredible story of the Tham Luang cave rescue. The story combines so many unique local and universal themes which connected people from all walks of life, from all around the world. Thailand is a very important country for Netflix and we are looking forward to bringing this inspiring local but globally-resonant story of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to life, once again, for global audiences."
Thai Cave Rescue
Found In The Himalayas
Yeti Footprints
The Indian army says it has discovered footprints in the Himalayas that appear to belong to a yeti, known in the United States as bigfoot or the abominable snowman.
Measuring 32 inches by 15 inches, the footprints were found near Mount Makalu base camp April 9, military officials posted on Twitter late Monday.
A spokesman for the country's defense ministry told NBC News on Tuesday that photographs taken by the army's mountaineering expedition team had been passed on to "the scientific community" for verification.
The announcement, which referred to the yeti as a "mythical beast," was met with mixed reaction online.
Mount Makalu is the world's fifth highest mountain. It is located on the border between Nepal and China and is about 12 miles south of Mount Everest.
Yeti Footprints
Frustration
Rift
Special counsel Robert Mueller expressed frustration to Attorney General William Barr last month about how the findings of his Russia investigation were being portrayed, saying he worried that a letter summarizing the main conclusions of the probe lacked the necessary context, a Justice Department official said Tuesday night.
Mueller communicated his agitation in a letter to the Justice Department sent just days after Barr issued a four-page document to Congress and to the public that summarized the special counsel's conclusions about whether President Donald Trump's campaign had conspired with Russia and whether the president had tried to illegally obstruct the probe. Mueller and Barr had a phone call the following day.
"After the Attorney General received Special Counsel Mueller's letter, he called him to discuss it," Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.
"In a cordial and professional conversation, the Special Counsel emphasized that nothing in the Attorney General's March 24 letter was inaccurate or misleading. But, he expressed frustration over the lack of context and the resulting media coverage regarding the Special Counsel's obstruction analysis," she added.
The letter lays bare a rift between the Justice Department and the special counsel about whether Barr's summary adequately conveyed the gravity of Mueller's findings. Barr wrote in his letter that Mueller did not establish that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. He also said Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.
Rift
Mystery Sea
Antarctica
A swath of ice-free sea that regularly opens up during the frigid Antarctic winters is created by cyclones.
Sea ice in Antarctica is thickest in the winter, so the appearance of open water is perplexing. These open seas are called polynyas. In 2017, scientists spotted one in the Lazarev Sea, which they called the Maud Rise polynya because it sits over an ocean plateau called Maud Rise.
Now, researchers led by Diana Francis, a New York University Abu Dhabi atmospheric scientist, find that cyclonic winds push ice in opposite directions, causing the pack to open up and expose open sea.
In mid-September 2017, the Maud Rise polynya was 3,668 square miles (9,500 square kilometers) in size. By mid-October, it had grown to 308,881 square miles (800,000 square km).
An analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery explained the rapid growth. Warm, moist air flowing in from the western South Atlantic hit cold air headed northward from the south, setting the stage for violent storms. The resulting cyclones rated 11 on the Beaufort storm scale, meaning they involved wind speeds of up to 72 mph (117 km/h) and waves up to 52 feet (16 meters) high anywhere they encountered open sea.
Antarctica
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for April 8-14. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "Game of Thrones," HBO, 12.02 million.
2. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 11.85 million.
3. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 10.49 million.
4. "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.27 million.
5. "American Idol," ABC, 8.74 million.
6. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 8.11 million.
7. "Chicago Med," NBC, 7.89 million.
8. "Mom," CBS, 7.85 million.
9. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 7.78 million.
10. "The Voice," NBC, 7.6 million.
11. "Survivor," CBS, 7.51 million.
12. "NCIS," CBS, 7.45 million.
13. "Chicago P.D.," NBC, 6.99 million.
14. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 6.62 million.
15. "NCIS," (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), 6.52 CBS, million.
16. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 6.47 million.
17. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 6.32 million.
18. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 6.28 million.
19. "911," Fox, 6 million.
20. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 5.66 million.
Ratings
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