M Is FOR MASHUP - September 5th, 2018
Good Tries - Yellow Mash Load / Mashmen Across The Waters
By DJ Useo
By ( Guest Columnist ) AtoZ
( dmrofatoz.blogspot.com/ )
Somebody recently misquoted me as having said I didn't really like Elton.
Whoa now . . No !
I was gettin' into Elton when "Honky Chateau" came out. (( Hush now, don't do the math ! ))
Twas the same period of gettin' into faves like T. Rex, David Bowie, Harry Nilsson . . .
and 10,378 other artists since, including added faves like xTc, Talkin' Heads, The Art Of Noise . . .
And yes, I'm just going with more formative faves there from the very next decade.
But I feel pretty confident I would place Elton Johnny in My Top 25.
Had I found 6 favorite albums worth of isolated vocals from T.Rex, Nilsson, Bowie, 10cc or xTc ?
You'd have found exploded bits of happy brain-splatter all over the interwebs !!
( in the form of happy-splatty mashups no doubt ? )
But that wayward online wandering of late-April `17 that led to the 6ix isolated albums of peak Elton ?
That's pretty spiffy too . . . and a damn natural for a "Hey everybody ! --- do we think maybe a Comp ??"
"Elton John"
"Tumbleweed Connection"
"Madman Across The Water"
"Honky Chateau"
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
"Captain Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy"
And I've just realized while typing this . . . Elton just might've had more far-reaching hits too !
A somewhat higher name-recognition amongst a wider world of peopley types around this whirled ?
I truly hadn't thought of this before writing here, but our little comp just might have the reach
to dominate the world of online mashery. . . mwah-ha-ha-ha-Ha !!
for about 17 minutes on a Tuesday afternoon.
Another encouraging thing ? . . Elton his own self would likely enjoy this a big ol' bunch !
I'm vaguely going by stuff he's said since the darn 70's, and right up to the quote I use in the very first section here of the very first piece - "Intro For a Comp" --- "I thought it would be nice for some new artists to give their interpretations of some of the songs"
Hey Elton ! . . we did !!
Hey Elton ! . . it is nice !!
"Mashmen Across The Waters - 2 Disc Elton Mashed Tribute Comp"
Full album with many mashup producers linked from here
( dmrofatoz.blogspot.com/2018/08/mashmen-across-waters-2-disc-elton.html )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Get Sick, Go Bankrupt and Die (NY Times Column)
What the midterms mean for the future of health care.
Paul Blumenthal: It's Not Just Robert Mueller. President Donald Trump Faces Six Separate Investigations And Lawsuits. (Huffington Post)
Prosecutors are digging into the president's business from which he refused to divest.
Jonathan Chait: Congressional Republicans Don't Even Pretend to Stand up to Trump Anymore (NY Mag)
Take, for instance, the election-security bill both parties worked together to craft this summer. The measure would have given top state election officials security clearances to view warnings about hacking threats, convened a technical advisory board to share best practices, and increased the use of paper ballots that could be checked in case of a hack, along with other steps that are both obviously needed and just as obviously unobjectionable. But the White House came out against the bill, so Republicans dutifully paused work on it.
Paul Waldman: Donald Trump's war on workers (Washington Post)
… let's look at some of the things Trump has done since taking office: Canceled a modest 2.1 percent pay increase for federal government workers. Abandoned an Obama administration effort to increase overtime pay for workers. Revoked an Obama-era order requiring companies with large federal contracts to disclose past labor-law violations. Killed a rule requiring companies to keep multiyear records of workplace injuries. Rolled back the "fiduciary rule," which required investment advisers to do what is in their clients' best interests, potentially threatening workers' retirement savings. …
Paul Waldman: The truth about the slander Trump will throw at Elizabeth Warren (Washington Post)
Sanders wasn't telling the truth, but she did put her finger on the strategic purpose of the attack: It's intended to make Warren the target of white racial resentment.
The idea is to remind conservative white voters of affirmative-action policies they've been told for years take opportunities away from deserving white people and deliver them to undeserving minorities. The fact that that isn't what affirmative action does, and the fact that Warren never got a job because of affirmative action, even if it did, are utterly irrelevant. As we know well by now, Trump will not stop saying something he wants to say no matter how many times people point out it isn't true.
Hadley Freeman: Actors are lining up to condemn Woody Allen. Why now? (The Guardian)
MeToo emerged because so many women have lost faith in the justice system. Too many victims have been silenced - but that is not the situation in Dylan Farrow's case. Justice is not "Believe all women", as I've seen many people claim; it is "Listen to all women". And now that women are being listened to, we need to decide what to do with this long-awaited power. How do we handle ambiguity, and the right to a presumption of innocence? Condemnation needs to have real substance, or this much-needed movement risks becoming meaningless.
Josh Marshall: The Calm Before the Storm (TPM)
A few times over the last month I've had the sense that I may actually struggle to acclimate to a post-Trump politics. That doesn't mean I don't want it or look forward to it. As basically every sensible person has argued, the rise of Trump has been a catastrophe for the United States and every day he remains in office inflicts greater damage. But recently I've been thinking back to the Obama years and - crazy as they often seemed - how comparatively placid they were, even though they were not really placid at all. But the sheer intensity, drama, bad-acting nature of Trump's presidency is in an entirely different category.
Andrew L. Shea: Hank Mobley, the greatest sax player you never heard (Spectator)
The forgotten genius of Blue Note was a prince among players, but he died a pauper.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Art Anecdotes
• In 1934, artist Salvador Dali designed a window that featured nude mannequins for New York department store Bonwit Teller. Of course, the professional window dressers preferred mannequins wearing the clothing that the store sold, so when Mr. Dali left they put clothing on the mannequins. When Mr. Dali and saw the alterations to his window display, he made a major display of temperament, including throwing a bathtub used in the display through a plate-glass store window so that the bathtub made an unscheduled stop on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk. Shortly afterward, Mr. Dali made an unscheduled stop in jail. According to world-famous window dresser Simon Doonan, this situation was win-win for everybody. Mr. Dali further increased his reputation as an eccentric art genius and the store received lots of fabulous free publicity.
• Artemisia Gentileschi was a Renaissance artist. Another artist by the name of Agostina Tassi decided to marry her. Unfortunately, his method of proposing to her was unconventional-he raped her, thinking that she would marry him to save her reputation (something that was regarded as valuable and even a necessity for women in Renaissance Italy). However, instead of marrying him, she took him to court, where he was found guilty of rape, although in the process her reputation was dirtied-his defense was that she was a whore and a slut, anyway. How did being raped affect her painting? She became very fond of painting a certain scene: Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes. She did at least six paintings of this scene.
• Sculptor Louise Nevelson once created a retrospective exhibition at New York City's Whitney Museum of America Art. Because it was a respective exhibition, it included some of her early work-including work she was no longer proud of. One piece that she especially disliked was a sculpture titled Earth Figure. A friend of hers was helping to move the works of art around the gallery, and as he was moving Earth Figure, she suddenly yelled, "Drop it!" Startled, he did drop it, and the sculpture shattered on the floor. Later, the friend-her biographer Arnold Glimcher-wrote, "She was now satisfied with the exhibition; she had edited out the weakest piece."
• When Grandma Moses at age 80 was invited to attend her first important one-person art exhibit at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York City, she declined to go. Why? As she explained to the gallery director, Otto Kallir, there was no reason to go-she had already seen all the paintings. Shortly afterward, she did attend an exhibition of her paintings at a Gimbel Brothers department store in New York City. She brought some of her homemade bread and preserves, reasoning that since she had won prizes for them and not her paintings at the county fair, people would be asking her about food and not about art.
• At the University of Washington in Seattle, Jacob Lawrence was an excellent teacher in addition to being a world-class (and African-American) artist. One day, an art student brought a bad painting for Mr. Lawrence to look at and told him that the painting was exactly what he had wished to paint-it was painted in his "style." Mr. Lawrence looked at the painting, then told the student, "Don't bluff. If you paint, do it well or not at all."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
WHO DRILLED THE HOLE?
"GET SICK, GO BANKRUPT AND DIE".
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
If you've ever thought about sending Marty a donation this would be an excellent time.
Lady Gaga, Harrison Ford to Be Honored
SAG-AFTRA Foundation
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation said Tuesday that Lady Gaga and Harrison Ford will receive this year's Artists Inspiration Awards, which will be handed out at the third annual Patron of the Artists Awards in November.
The foundation honors two artists each year "who have used their platform to advance humanitarian and philanthropic causes." Previous recipients include Leonardo DiCaprio, Lionel Ritchie and Kate Winslet.
The ceremony will be held Nov. 8 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.
As Founder of Born This Way Foundation, Gaga has worked to destigmatize mental health. She also has supported charities including the American Red Cross, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Re*Generation, the MAC AIDS Fund and Haiti disaster relief.
For more than 25 years, Ford has championed the environment through his support of Conservation International, where he currently serves as vice chairman of the board of directors. Conservation International is a nonprofit group that protects biodiversity in trouble spots internationally. In addition, Ford has actively supported charities including Riverkeeper, Young Eagles, EarthShare and Restore Hetch Hetchy.
SAG-AFTRA Foundation
Parkland Father
Fred Guttenberg
The father of a high school student killed in the Parkland, Fla., gun massacre approached Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at Tuesday's confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., his hand outstretched.
Fred Guttenberg introduced himself as the father of Jaime Guttenberg, who was a 14-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when she was killed on Feb. 14.
Kavanaugh, who was caught off guard as he headed for a break in his testimony, turned and was led away without shaking the other man's hand.
Shortly after the curt exchange, Guttenberg recounted the event in a tweet that within a few hours had 50,000 likes and 29,000 retweets.
A strong Second Amendment advocate, Kavanaugh has said he would overturn laws in Washington, D.C., such as the ban on semiautomatic firearms. The gunman in the shooting, which killed 17 and wounded 14, used an AR-15 assault rifle.
Fred Guttenberg
The Wildest Things
'Fear'
President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-OfPutin) job is to lead the nation, but Bob Woodward's new book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," describes the White House as "an administrative coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch.
According to an excerpt from the book published in the Washington Post on Tuesday, administration staffers often have to engage in stealthy behavior to prevent Trump from being impulsive and to minimize disasters that could hurt the president and the country. In some cases, senior aides would reportedly pluck official papers from Trump's desk before he could sign them.
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper, telling colleagues he thought the president was "unhinged," according to Woodward.
In one meeting, Kelly reportedlysaid Trump was "an idiot," and it was "pointless to try to convince him of anything."
"He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had," Kelly said, according to the book.
'Fear'
Stolen Ruby Slippers Found
'Wizard of Oz'
Ruby slippers worn in the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" and stolen 13 years ago in Minnesota were found this summer, authorities said, as they revealed the sparkly, newly-recovered shoes at a news conference Tuesday.
The iconic ruby red slippers -- custom-made for Judy Garland, the film's legendary star -- were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005, FBI officials said.
After years of interviews, theories and searches, the shoes were seized this July in a sting operation in Minneapolis, the FBI said.
Suspects have been identified and search warrants have been executed in Minnesota and Florida, the FBI said. Prosecutors will press charges if appropriate, U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota, Christopher Myers said at Tuesday's news conference.
The FBI said it's asking the public to help identify those "associated with the initial theft and the more recent scheme to defraud and extort the Markel Corporation, the owner of the slippers."
'Wizard of Oz'
Paywalled Journals
Europe
Frustrated with the slow transition toward open access (OA) in scientific publishing, 11 national funding organizations in Europe turned up the pressure today. As of 2020, the group, which jointly spends about €7.6 billion on research annually, will require every paper it funds to be freely available from the moment of publication. In a statement, the group said it will no longer allow the 6- or 12-month delays that many subscription journals now require before a paper is made OA, and it won't allow publication in so-called hybrid journals, which charge subscriptions but also make individual papers OA for an extra fee.
The move means grantees from these 11 funders-which include the national funding agencies in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France as well as Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics-will have to forgo publishing in thousands of journals, including high-profile ones such as Nature, Science, Cell, and The Lancet, unless those journals change their business model. "We think this could create a tipping point," says Marc Schiltz, president of Science Europe, the Brussels-based association of science organizations that helped coordinate the plan. "Really the idea was to make a big, decisive step-not to come up with another statement or an expression of intent."
The announcement delighted many OA advocates. "This will put increased pressure on publishers and on the consciousness of individual researchers that an ecosystem change is possible," says Ralf Schimmer, head of Scientific Information Provision at the Max Planck Digital Library in Munich, Germany. Peter Suber, director of the Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication, calls the plan "admirably strong." Many other funders support OA, but only the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation applies similarly stringent requirements for "immediate OA," Suber says. The European Commission and the European Research Council support the plan; although they haven't adopted similar requirements for the research they fund, a statement by EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedassuggests they may do so in the future and urges the European Parliament and the European Council to endorse the approach.
But traditional publishers are not pleased. The plan "potentially undermines the whole research publishing system," a spokesperson for Springer Nature, which publishes more than 3000 journals, wrote in an email to ScienceInsider. "Implementing such a plan, in our view, would disrupt scholarly communications, be a disservice to researchers, and impinge academic freedom," adds a spokesperson for AAAS, Science's publisher. "It would also be unsustainable for the Science family of journals." The world's biggest academic publisher, Elsevier, declined to comment, referring instead to a statement by the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers that urged "caution" and said, "Above all, it is vital that researchers have the freedom to publish in the publication outlet of their choice."
Europe has taken the lead in pushing for open access in recent years; EU ministers of research, innovation, trade, and industry announced a target to make all new papers OA by 2020 at a meeting in Brussels in 2016. But the commission's special envoy for OA, Robert-Jan Smits, says the transition was taking far too long. Smits was the "catalyst" behind the new plan, says Stan Gielen, president of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in The Hague.
Europe
Elephants Killed For Ivory
Botswana
Ninety elephant carcasses have been discovered in Botswana with their tusks hacked off, a charity said Tuesday, in figures fiercely contested by the government.
Elephants Without Borders said the grim discovery of scores of elephant carcasses, made over several weeks during an aerial survey, is believed to be one of Africa's worst mass poaching sprees.
The charity's scientists, who carried out the assessment with Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks, found most of the dead animals were large bulls, which would have had heavy tusks.
The wild pachyderms were shot with heavy-calibre rifles at watering spots near a popular wildlife sanctuary in the Okavango Delta.
According to Chase, the carcasses' skulls were "chopped open by presumably very sharp axes, to remove their tusks". In some cases the trunks were also removed.
Botswana
Isn't Where It Should Be
Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens is well known for being one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the United States. But its location in Skamania County, Washington state, has long puzzled scientists. Essentially, the volcano isn't where it should be because it lies away from areas where magma is thought to bubble to the surface.
A team led by U.S. Geological Survey scientists Paul Bedrosian and Jared Peacock found that Mount St. Helens' atypical location could be explained by a vast subterranean rock formation which channels the flow of magma as it rises through the Earth's crust.
Mount St. Helens forms part of the Cascade Arc, a line of volcanoes which extend from British Columbia, Canada, to northern California that are all formed by the convergence of two tectonic plates-vast slabs of the Earth's crust.
As the Juan de Fuca plate slides underneath the North American plate, magma, or molten rock is squeezed upwards, much of which surfaces directly beneath the Cascade Arc. In the past, this process led to the formation of the volcanoes.
But using a geophysical imaging technique to create a three-dimensional picture of the crust beneath southwest Washington, the team found that a large geological formation known as the Spirit Lake batholith diverted this rising magma westwards in the vicinity of Mount St. Helens. This meant that it formed slightly away from the line of the other major Cascade Arc volcanoes.
Mount St. Helens
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