M Is FOR MASHUP - September 19th, 2018
Cream of the Crop Videos
By DJ Useo
Sure, audio mashups are the bee's knees, but add in a cool bootleg video & the results can be massively elevated. I'm subscribed on several services to folk who release video versions of their mashups. I wouldn't want to miss the great times I have digging the tunes while the images flicker before me. I reckon y'all feel the same, so here's some "must-not-miss" mashup videos.
01 - DJ Nerd42 - "Post Traumatic Hamilton EP". ( Mike Shinoda vs Hamilton 'musical' ) Mashups
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=61tNkd6d78s&list=PL8oZ3q7toPjUng8aeO2cjJP47-aRLeRou )
02 - SMASH - "Hung Up In Dreamscape" ( DJ Dado, Winn vs Madonna ) [ Madonna's 60th Birthday Mix ]
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDnxQm4tP18 )
03 - YITT - "Sour Grape" ( Stone Temple Pilots vs Marvin Gaye )
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0HxvKymXp8 )
04 - DJ Dumpz - 'Dangerous Retro Sound" [ All September Long ] ( as'st )
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCssXpNrpvM )
05 - Hahnstudios - "Wir schaffen die Juckebox" ( Foreigner vs Xavier Naidoo )
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr_vXdSJdzs )
06 - Happy Cat Disco - 2018 Megamashup: A Pop Saga ( as'st )
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qiBvgWmWvc )
I hope y'all enjoy these as much as I did. Now, I'm off to finish mixing my next Halloween album. You got'ta keep ahead to make deadlines. Catch you next Wednesday.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alexandra Petri: Every man should be worried. At least, I'm worried. (Washington Post)
If, apparently, a single alleged assault at a single party decades ago is to be frowned upon, then no man is safe, right? What's next? You can't harass a colleague and serve on the Supreme Court? You can't pick up high schoolers outside custody hearings and serve in the Senate? You can't have a meat locker full of female femurs and expect to breeze through your confirmation as interior secretary? How are we going to fill our offices if this is the new rule?
Paul Krugman: Kavanaugh and the Politics of Bad Faith (NY Times Column)
Why the modern G.O.P. keeps abandoning principles it claims to honor.
Paul Waldman: Republicans are desperate to goose turnout in November (Washington Post)
We've seen this problem before: Ensconced in the comforting conservative information bubble, Republicans refuse to believe any information that contradicts what they'd like to be true. In 2012, for instance, Mitt Romney himself was shocked to lose, because despite large numbers of polls showing him behind, Romney and his team just couldn't accept that the public might reelect President Barack Obama. When, every day, Trump says this is the greatest economy in history, and that "the poll numbers are through the roof," and Fox News says it over and over, why should Republican voters believe otherwise?
Paul Waldman: American women are watching the Kavanaugh controversy very closely (Washington Post)
… 2018 was already a record year for women candidates, with 234 winning their party's nomination for House seats, 22 Senate nominees and 16 gubernatorial nominees. The real story of the backlash to President Trump is about not just those candidates but the millions of women who have become more involved in politics than they ever had before - organizing, volunteering and of course voting. Talk to the reporters who have covered the newly energized progressive movement, and they'll tell you that it's being driven overwhelmingly by women.
Greg Sargent: Trump and Republicans plan to attack Christine Ford's credibility. So let her testify. (Washington Post)
The #MeToo movement has forced us all to grapple with the unspeakable abuses that women have been forced to endure out of public view for far too long - and with the ways in which intense societal pressures long compelled their silence, giving them no recourse or outlet for their grievances to be heard. As Rebecca Traister says , women have had to swallow their rage while building their lives around this reality forever, but now that the "anger window is open," there's no closing it again.
David Leeonhardt: "'Trump Derangement Syndrome' Is a Myth" (Washington Post)
For the most part, though, the Democratic agenda remains decidedly center-left: Raise taxes on the rich, and use the money to help the middle class and poor. Protect civil rights. Expand educational access. Regulate Wall Street, and fight climate change. Expand health insurance using the current system. And compromise with Republicans when necessary.
The radical agenda is the Republican agenda: Make climate change worse, unlike almost every other conservative party in the world. Aggravate inequality. Sabotage health-insurance markets. Run up the deficit. Steal a Supreme Court seat. Keep dark-skinned citizens from voting. Protect Trump's lawlessness.
Dr. Michael Gregor: The Best Advice on Diet and Cancer (YouTube)
What the best available balance of evidence says right now about what to eat and avoid to reduce your risk of cancer.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Pub Signs
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Mexican artist Diego Rivera hardly ever went to church when he was a child. Once, he attended a church service with an aunt, where he saw people praying before statues. Not realizing that the statures were symbols, young Diego thought that the people believed that the statues themselves had power. He grew very angry, and he ran to the altar, then he started shouting, telling the worshippers that they were stupid. Several worshippers thought that he was possessed by the devil; eventually, his aunt was able to get Diego out of the church.
• Ludwig Bemelmans, author/illustrator of the Madeline series of children's books, had an Uncle Joseph who was a priest. Very few things upset him, but late arrivals to church services did. At the end of services, when Uncle Joseph walked down the aisle and blessed worshippers with holy water, he used to take a big dip of water and douse anyone who had come to services late.
• While making the B horror movie Evil Dead in rural Tennessee, actor Bruce Campbell was frequently covered in fake blood made from Karo Syrup. Sometimes, he would film all night, get in the back of a pickup truck while still covered in "blood," then pass spit-polished families going to church. All he could do was smile, wave, and pretend that everything was absolutely normal.
• In the 19th century, many clergymen regarded going to theaters as sinful. The great 19th-century actor Joseph Jefferson once received a letter from a clergyman who asked him to perform Rip Van Winkle in his church, as he never went to the theater. Mr. Jefferson wrote back to say that honoring his request was impossible because he never went to church.
• "I am a Christian and I worship in a Southern Baptist church. The denomination I belong to is Southern Baptist, but I want to impress upon everyone that I am more Christian than I am Baptist. If you find an individual who is more Baptist than he is Christian, you'd better watch him because he won't do." - Jerry Clower.
• Louise Nevelson created artworks for the Chapel of the Good Shepherd in St. Peter's Lutheran Church in New York City. When the pastor was asked by a reporter why a Russian-born Jew had been picked to create works of art for a Christian chapel, he replied, "Because she's the greatest living American sculptor."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
A LYING SACK OF REPUBLICAN SHIT!
BRETT KAVANAUGH IS A NAZI.
KAVANAUGH AND THE KKK.
THE COWARD!
THE FIX IS IN!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Finally Wins An Emmy
Henry Winkler
Actor Henry Winkler had some words of wisdom about patience and persistence after finally scooping his first Primetime Emmy award on Monday night.
More than four decades after Winkler was first nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli on "Happy Days," he won the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series gong for his role of Gene Cousineau on "Barry."
"I only have 37 seconds, I wrote this 43 years ago," Winkler quipped after audience members gave him a standing ovation as he walked to the stage.
He then quoted something that Hollywood attorney Skip Brittenham once told him:
"If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you and tonight I got to clear the table."
Henry Winkler
Passes Unanimously
Music Modernization Act
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Music Modernization Act Tuesday evening, despite weeks - or, by some measures, years - of internal music industry turmoil that made the bill's future seem highly uncertain.
Aimed at updating music copyright laws for the digital era, the MMA in the form it's being passed will accomplish three key things: Making sure songwriters and artists receive royalties on songs recorded before 1972; allocating royalties for music producers; and updating licensing and royalty rules for streaming services to pay rights-holders in a more streamlined way. In short, music-makers will get more money.
Music rights groups and executives in the industry are largely cheering the news. The Recording Academy's CEO Neil Portnow praised the passage as "a historic moment" while National Music Publishers Association president David Israelite called it a "true step forward for fairness," and several other groups such as the RIAA, ASCAP, BMI, and SoundExchange have all issued statements of approval.
But the MMA has not been viewed with such glowing regard across the entire industry. Earlier this year, performing rights organization SESAC made a fuss about an aspect of the bill and started a fight among songwriters, artists and various music rights groups before eventually backing down. Another major industry player, satellite radio giant SiriusXM, has voiced its dissent from the start over a provision that requires the company to pay a new set of royalties on pre-1972 recordings. SiriusXM has argued the provision is unfair, given that terrestrial radio companies do not have that rule imposed on them. On Monday, more than 150 songwriters and artists, including Paul McCartney and John Legend, signed a lettercondemning SiriusXM's disapproval and accusing it of selfishly holding up a bill from which the rest of the industry would benefit. The company has yet to issue a statement on the bill's passage.
"With this bill, we are one step closer to historic reform for our badly outdated music laws," Orrin Hatch, the U.S. senator most responsible for pushing the complicated bill through Congress, said in a statement. That the MMA is a boon to creators in the music industry is true. However, the long and internally contentious path to make just three modest changes to copyright rules highlights one reason why more hasn't been done.
Music Modernization Act
'Sesame Street'
Bert and Ernie
Sesame Street viewers have long speculated that Bert and Ernie were more than just roommates. Now, Mark Saltzman, a former writer for the show, confirms that they're gay in an interview with the LGBTQ lifestyle and news website Queerty.
"I remember one time that a column from the San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked 'are Bert & Ernie lovers?'" Saltzman recalled. "And that, coming from a preschooler was fun. And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn't have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie & I as 'Bert & Ernie.'"
The Arnie that Saltzman was referring to is Arnold Glassman, a film editor and Saltzman's life partner until he passed away in 2003. Talking about their relationship, he continued, "Yeah, I was Ernie. I look more Bert-ish. And Arnie as a film editor - if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn't that be perfect? Bert with his paper clips and organization? And I was the jokester. So it was the Bert & Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to Sesame Street. So I don't think I'd know how else to write them, but as a loving couple. I wrote sketches. … Arnie's OCD would create friction with how chaotic I was. And that's the Bert & Ernie dynamic."
While fans of the long-running TV show quickly took to Twitter to laud the development - this has been a long time in the making for the LGBTQ community icons, whose relationship status was featured in a 2013 New Yorker cover and the subject of an online marriage petition - it didn't last long.
After Saltzman's interview went viral, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind the show, issued a statement saying that Bert and Ernie "do not have a sexual orientation." It was retweeted soon after that under the show's Twitter handle.
Bert and Ernie
Officially Exits 'The Talk'
Julie Chen
Julie Chen is officially stepping down as co-host of CBS' daytime show "The Talk." Her exit comes after her husband, Leslie Moonves, was ousted as chairman-CEO of CBS Corp.
CBS waited until the final minutes of Tuesday's hour-long episode to address the elephant in the room. In a pre-recorded video message filmed on the set of "Big Brother," Chen appeared on the show for the first time in over a week to confirm that she was leaving. Though she didn't directly address allegations against Moonves, she said, "I need to spend more time at home with my husband and our young son, so I've decided to leave 'The Talk.'"
Chen thanked her fellow co-hosts, as well as the entire team behind the CBS show. She got emotional saying, "I have been at the talk since the day it started nine years ago, and the cast crew and staff have become family."
Chen is also host of another CBS staple, "Big Brother." On Thursday night's episode of the summer reality show, she signed off by saying "I'm Julie Chen Moonves," rather than her usual sign off as just "Julie Chen."
Chen and Moonves, who have been married since 2004, met while Moonves was the president and chief officer of CBS Television and Chen hosted "CBS This Morning" and "Big Brother." Together, they have a son, Charlie. Chen issued a statement ahead of Sept. 10's edition of "The Talk," the day after Moonves resigned, saying she was taking time off to spend with her family.
Julie Chen
U.S. To Sharply Limit
Refugees
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday the United States would cap the number of refugees allowed into the country at 30,000 for fiscal year 2019, a sharp drop from a limit of 45,000 it set for 2018.
"We proposed resettling up to 30,000 refugees under the new refugee ceiling as well as processing more than 280,000 asylum seekers," Pompeo said in an announcement at the State Department, calling the United States "the most generous nation in the world when it comes to protection-based immigration."
Pompeo said the new limit reflected the administration's preference for settling refugees closer to their home countries, something President Donald Trump has said would be cheaper than admitting them to the United States.
Officials at the State Department and the Pentagon initially supported maintaining the cap at 45,000, according to one former and one current official. It was unclear whether they changed their position as the debate proceeded or failed to persuade the White House.
The refugee ceiling of 45,000 set last year was the lowest since 1980, when the modern refugee program was established. The United States is on track to admit only 22,000 refugees this year, about half the maximum allowed.
Refugees
New York Times Under Fire
Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett was at the center of much of the Emmy Awards chatter on Monday night after the 60-year-old actress appeared onstage to present an award alongside Tiffany Haddish, looking like she hasn't aged a bit. But now, she's fallen victim to some controversy after the New York Times included a mistake in Tuesday morning's paper, mixing Bassett up with Omarosa Manigault Newman in a photo caption.
Beside a photo of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Rachel Brosnahan accepting the award for lead actress in a comedy series from Haddish and Bassett, the publication printed that it was, in fact, Manigault Newman onstage with the two actresses. And although it's simply confusing to some, many people online are outraged by the misprint.
At the moment, all fingers are pointed at the world-renowned publication for the mistake. However, the error actually leads back to Getty Images, where Bassett was originally misidentified in a number of photo captions.
Already, the photo agency has corrected the captions and included the following statement: "The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Robyn BECK has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Angela Bassett] instead of [Omarosa Manigault Newman]. […] We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require."
Manigault Newman has yet to publicly address the mixup, while Bassett tweeted, "no worries!"
Angela Bassett
Spock's Home World Discovered (Sort Of)
40 Eridani A
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, was visionary in many ways: The Enterprise crew's communicators presaged today's smartphones, Bones's sickbay mirrored in modern medical scanners, and, well, we're still working on that transporter. Now, it seems he accurately predicted a location for science officer Spock's home planet, Vulcan.
The magazine Sky & Telescope reports this week that back in 1991, Roddenberry and three astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, declared in a letter to the magazine that Vulcan most likely would orbit the star 40 Eridani A. Although not mentioned in the original TV series or later feature films, a number of stars had been put forward by Trekkies as the likely locale of Vulcan. Roddenberry and his co-authors argued that 40 Eridani A was the most likely because, at 4 billion years old, an orbiting planet would have had long enough to evolve a superlogical being such as Spock.
Now, astronomers have found that 40 Eridani A, an orange dwarf star 16 light-years from Earth, does indeed have a planet. The Dharma Planet Survey, which is looking for low-mass planets around bright nearby stars, reports in a paper due to appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society that the putative "Vulcan"-officially known as HD 26965b (and shown above in an artist's illustration)-is eight times the mass of Earth. That means it will have high gravity, probably too high to support any sort of alien life. It also orbits close enough to its star to be very hot. But then, Spock was always known to keep a cool head when the pressure starts to climb.
40 Eridani A
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Sept. 10-16. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Dallas, NBC, 20.66 million.
2. "NFL Pre-Game Show," NBC, 14.22 million.
3. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.44 million.
4. "Football Night in America," NBC, 10.89 million.
5. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.75 million.
6. NFL Football: N.Y. Jets at Detroit, ESPN, 10.5 million.
7. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday) NBC, 10.15 million.
8. NFL Football: L.A. Rams at Oakland, ESPN, 9.78 million.
9. College Football: Ohio St. at TCU, ABC, 7.23 million.
10. NFL Football: Cincinnati at Baltimore, NFLN, 7.06 million.
11. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 6.55 million.
12. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 6.36 million.
13. "Football Night in America," NBC, 6.234 million.
14. "The Sustainer," NFLN, 6.23 million.
15. "NCIS," CBS, 6.15 million.
16. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 6.04 million.
17. "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 5.71 million.
18. "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 5.69 million.
19. "Big Brother" (Thursday), CBS, 5.591 million.
20. "World of Dance," NBC, 5.586 million.
Ratings
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