M Is FOR MASHUP - October 6th, 2021
14 Halloween Mashup ep’s Later
By DJ Useo
It seems so unlikely, but here I am releasing my 14th annual Halloween ep
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2021/09/dj-useo-halloween-ep-2021.html ) . I still remember posting the 1st one. It was on the first of October 14 years ago. I can also remember the 2nd annual one. It was also on an October 1st. Actually, I remember them all, & each was on an October 1st.
As is generally the case with these Halloween ep’s, there’s lots of seasonal variety, & even some joviality. I was torn between using the ‘Timo Maas vs Stranglers’, or the ‘Allan Sherman vs Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited’ for the preview single. I asked the Useoettes fan club to make the difficult choice, & they chose Stranglers!
Preview track -"Shakin' Like A Leaf ( Help Me )" ( The Stranglers vs Timo Maas ) Listen, & d/l here
( sowndhaus.audio/track/24321/dj-useo-shakin-like-a-leaf-help-me-the-stranglers-vs-timo-maas- )
Both blends satisfied my idea of a fine Halloween mashup, but are far apart style-wise. The genre clash is also vast on the other tracks, too. I’d sure enjoy any reflective human response regarding this collection, Halloween, or just anyone interested in bearded DJ’s. ;)
To ease listening, there’s also a one-Track Mix just for streaming
( hearthis.at/vxmfxz7w/dj-useo-halloween-ep-2021-mix/ )
There’ll be more Useo Halloween intrusions next year, if I don’t fall through the Earth’s crust into Hell over the Summer. I also am aware of the annual “Monster Mashup” group Halloween bootleg comp from Count Jeremy Girard. It’s coming soon! Look for my article about it.
May you have a happy Halloween later this month. Be sure & intersperse a few vegetables in with all that trick or treat candy.
Have the day of good.
DJ Konrad Useo
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Quakers
• Alan W. Corson of Plymouth Meeting in Pennsylvania was once told by a shocked fellow Quaker that one of the followers of their religion had gone to the theater, adding, “I have never been within the doors of a playhouse.” Mr. Corson replied, “Neither have I; but, I doubt not, many better have.”
• At Bootham School, a school for Quakers, the students put on a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. One of the witches fell off the stage, but fortunately the witch was caught and then returned to the stage, where the witch was immediately asked, “Where hast thou been, sister?”
Rehearsals
• In the early 1980s, a gay teenager named Aaron Fricke once showed up for a high-school play dress rehearsal wearing fishnet stockings, an Afro wig, a corset, high heels, and a black cape, even though he was playing the role of a straight cabdriver. His outfit bothered no one — including his drama teacher.
• Peter Ustinov was habitually late for rehearsals. By accident, he once arrived 10 minutes early for a rehearsal. Sir Peter immediately apologized to the director, Denis Carey, “I’m sorry, Denis. Utterly unforgivable. I assure you such a careless mistake will never happen again.” Mr. Carey said later, “It didn’t.”
• At Michigan State University, a rehearsal of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues took place in a room next to a history conference. Participants in the conference heard an actress shouting her lines: “C*NT! C*NT! SAY IT! SAY IT!”
Religion
• Humorist Robert Benchley, who was also a theater critic, once heard that no horses had ever been in Venice, which is renowned for its canals. Therefore, when he went on a trip to Europe, including a stop in Venice, he carried a suitcase of horse droppings. Very early in the morning, he went to the Piazza of St. Mark and placed the horse droppings at intervals chosen to be extremely natural. According to Mr. Benchley’s friend, Charles MacArthur, “The Venetians consider the horse droppings the only miracle of the 20th century.”
• Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was once asked why he had not opposed the building of theaters in Israel. After all, according to the Talmud, “He who frequents circuses and theaters has no share in the world to come.” Rabbi Kook replied, “There is another passage in the Talmud that says that in the world to come, all the theaters will be converted into synagogues. The more theaters now, the more synagogues then.”
Revenge
• Satirist Stan Freberg had major difficulties with producer David Merrick while trying to turn his record album Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America into a Broadway musical. In the end, it never did make it to Broadway. One of the works of art in Mr. Freberg’s house is a bird cage in which sits a papier-mâché bird (created by Kim Stussy) bearing a marked resemblance to Mr. Merrick. Underneath the bird is not a newspaper, but a photograph of Mr. Merrick.
• A young actor grew tired of having just one line to speak in Shakespeare’s Macbeth — he played the messenger who tells Macbeth, “My Lord, the queen is dead,” and then walks offstage. Therefore, he asked his boss, Sir Donald Wolfit, for a bigger part. However, Sir Donald declined to give him a better part, so the actor decided to get revenge. At the next performance of Macbeth, he walked on stage and said, “My Lord, the queen is much better and is even now at dinner.”
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy
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The Funniest People in Theater: 250 Anecdotes — Buy Smashwords: Many Formats, Including PDF
Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "I Can’t Surf"
Album: THREE
Artist: Old Wives
Artist Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Info: “Three-piece punk rock from Edmonton!”
“Frank Fratto, a fan, wrote, "With so much formulaic pop punk out there these days, The Old Wives are making waves and defining the true genre with their music. Their latest effort, THREE, is a gift of an album complete with catchy hooks and choruses, chugging guitars and a feel-good vibe all around. Not only is this a fun album, but it's a fine piece of work with genuine feeling and relatability. Favorite track: ‘I Can't Surf.’”
Price: $1 (CAN) for track; $10 (CAN) for 10-track album
Genre: Pop Punk.
Links:
THREE
Old Wives on Bandcamp
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
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 Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Reader
Question ResponseRe: THIS CONNECTION IS NOT PRIVATE
In my experience, the THIS CONNECTION IS NOT PRIVATE message means that you're connected to the Internet, but it's not a good enough connection for sites to be verified.
I, too, get it frequently.
David
Thanks, David!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
New stray cat in the alley - wonder how long until it moves into the backyard.
2022 Rose Parade Grand Marshal
LeVar Burton
Actor LeVar Burton was named the Grand Marshal of the 2022 Rose Parade today, with Tournament of Roses leadership hailing him as not just an accomplished performer, but also an advocate for literacy.
Known mainly for his roles as Kunta Kinte in the miniseries Roots, as Lt. Cmdr. Georgi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and more recently as a popular guest-host of Jeopardy!, the 64-year-old Burton was also the longtime host and executive producer of the award-winning PBS educational series Reading Rainbow.
As Grand Marshal, the actor will oversee the 133rd Rose Parade, which is themed “Dream. Believe. Achieve.” The parade will make its way along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on Jan. 1, following its cancellation this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Burton noted that the announcement was made on National Teachers Day.
“So if you know a teacher, hug one — if you’re vaccinated,” he said.
LeVar Burton
Orc Design
Elijah Wood
Don't get on director Peter Jackson's bad side — unless you want an orc created to resemble you.
While visiting Dax Shepard's Armchair Podcast, Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood reflected on filming the epic trilogy that changed his career and admitted that one of the orcs in the film was designed to resemble Harvey Weinstein.
Wood revealed that the story was recently brought up on The Friendship Onion podcast run by former Lord of the Rings costars (and fellow hobbits) Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd.
"They were talking to Sean Astin about his first memory of getting to New Zealand for the first time," Wood told Shephard and his cohost, Monica Padman. "He had seen these orc masks. And one of the orc masks — and I remember this vividly — was designed to look like Harvey Weinstein as a sort of a f— you."
"I think it's okay to talk about this now," Wood continued after sharing the story. "He's f—ing incarcerated."
Elijah Wood
Prime Time Ratings
“Sunday Night Football”
NBC relentlessly promoted the Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady’s return to New England, and the Bucs-Patriots game reached the biggest “Sunday Night Football” audience in years, the Nielsen company said.
The 26.7 million people who tuned in represented NBC’s biggest television audience for the game since 2015. Add in people who streamed it, and the game reached 28 million, the biggest “Sunday Night Football” crowd since 2012, Nielsen said.
Despite that competition, CBS’ “60 Minutes” reached 10.3 million people, its largest audience since last January. Viewership was about 12 million for the first part of the show, before the competing football game started and during the story about Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 8 million viewer. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.4 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.8 million.
For the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 3, the top 20 prime-time television programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at New England, NBC, 26.75 million.
2. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, 20.32 million.
3. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 14.64 million.
4. NFL Football: Philadelphia at Dallas, ESPN, 12.9 million.
5. “NFL Postgame” (Sunday), Fox, 11.98 million.
6. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 10.32 million.
7. “Football Night in America, Part 2,” NBC, 9.12 million.
8. “NCIS,” CBS, 8.06 million.
9. NFL Football: Jacksonville at Cincinnati, NFL Network, 8 million.
10. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 7.44 million.
11. “FBI,” CBS, 7.37 million.
12. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.36 million.
13. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.86 million.
14. “NFL Pregame” (Monday), ESPN, 6.85 million.
15. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.71 million.
16. “La Brea,” NBC, 6.37 million.
17. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 6.3 million.
18. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 6.22 million.
19. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.04 million.
20. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.9 million.
“Sunday Night Football”
Added To Oxford English Dictionary
Korean Words
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added more than 20 new words of Korean origin to its latest edition as South Korean culture continues to cement itself into our everyday vocabulary.
The latest update of the OED includes the prefix K-, which is an abbreviation for “Korean” and is “combined with other words to form nouns relating to South Korea and its popular culture”.
Such words include K-pop, K-beauty, and K-drama, all of which are hugely successful industries throughout the world. The word “hallyu”, which means “Korean wave”, has been added and refers to South Korean pop culture and entertainment.
The dictionary said in its definition of “hallyu”: “The increase in international interest in South Korea and its popular culture, esp. as represented by the global success of South Korean music, film, television, fashion and food.
A number of popular Korean dishes have also been added to the dictionary, including “banchan” (small side dishes of pickles and vegetables served with rice), “bulgogi” (thin slices of beef or pork which are marinated then grilled or stir-fried), and “japchae” (a type of stir-fried translucent noodles).
Korean Words
Deeper Than Anyone Realized
In The Bag
It’s no secret that right-wing media was in the bag for Trump throughout his time in office, but their devotion to the the former president seems to have been more coordinated than they’d probably like people to believe. This is at least according to a couple of revelations to emerge this week about the relationship between Trump’s team and the outlets that lavished largely unconditional praise on the president and his agenda for years.
The first bit of insight comes from Stephanie Grisham, the former White House press secretary currently trying to cleanse herself of her sins by dishing on her former boss — including that he likes to de-stress with show tunes from Cats — in a new tell-all book and requisite media tour. On Tuesday morning, Grisham explained to CNN that Fox News essentially worked in tandem with the Trump administration.
“That’s just where we went to get what we wanted out,” Grisham said. “I looked forward to going and doing Lou Dobbs because Lou Dobbs would do all the talking about how great everything was and I would just nod and say yes. By and large they didn’t get tough with us. They just took what we were saying and disseminated it.”
Grisham also admitted that she “probably wasn’t” truthful when she appeared on the network as press secretary. Very brave of you to admit this, Stephanie.
When asked if Fox News was state-run media for Trump, Grisham hesitated, noting that the network does employe some legitimate journalists — emphasis on some. “I think certainly in the evening, yes, it was,” she acknowledged. “I think more importantly with OAN coming out … I think that is like state-run media.”
In The Bag
Accuses Media
Pence
Former Vice President Mike Pence (R-Utterly Useless) drew fire Monday night after he downplayed the deadly Capitol riot and accused the media of trying to “demean” Trump voters and “distract from the Biden administration’s failed agenda.”
Numerous observers pointed out that many within the mob that overtook the Capitol on Jan. 6 targeted Pence for refusing to help then-president Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election, which President Joe Biden won.
“Trump sent people to kill you, bro,” said actress Martha Kelly after Pence tweeted a clip from his interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, during which he also advertised his new podcast.
On Hannity’s show, Pence sidestepped the violent nature of the Capitol assault and the threat to his own life. “I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration’s failed agenda by focusing on one day in January,” Pence told Hannity.
“They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020,” he said, adding he wants to “remain focused on the future.”
Pence
Unearthing Hiding Places
Ukraine
Under cobblestone streets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, diggers have uncovered new hiding spots in underground sewers where some Jews managed to flee from Nazi occupying forces during World War Two.
More than 100,000 Jews, or around one third of the city's population at the time, were killed by the Nazis, according to the local historian Hanna Tychka.
A few managed to survive, including father and daughter Ignacy and Krystyna Chiger, who escaped from the Jewish ghetto by digging a tunnel to the city's sewage system, and later wrote books recounting their experiences.
Tychka and local diggers said they recently uncovered the exact area where Chiger's family lived in 1943-1944, using the books as a guide.
In Lyiv, Tychka and her team in July discovered a tiny cave where they believe Jews fleeing the ghetto would spend their first night before moving on to a larger shelter in the sewage system.
Ukraine
Can Be Heard?
Northern Lights
It's a question that has puzzled observers for centuries: do the fantastic green and crimson light displays of the aurora borealis produce any discernible sound?
Conjured by the interaction of solar particles with gas molecules in Earth's atmosphere, the aurora generally occurs near Earth's poles, where the magnetic field is strongest. Reports of the aurora making a noise, however, are rare — and were historically dismissed by scientists.
But a Finnish study in 2016 claimed to have finally confirmed that the northern lights really do produce sound audible to the human ear. A recording made by one of the researchers involved in the study even claimed to have captured the sound made by the captivating lights 70 meters above ground level.
Still, the mechanism behind the sound remains somewhat mysterious, as are the conditions that must be met for the sound to be heard. My recent research takes a look over historic reports of auroral sound to understand the methods of investigating this elusive phenomenon and the process of establishing whether reported sounds were objective, illusory or imaginary.
The answer to this enduring mystery which has subsequently garnered the most support was first tentatively suggested in 1923 by Clarence Chant, a well-known Canadian astronomer. He argued that the motion of the northern lights alters Earth's magnetic field, inducing changes in the electrification of the atmosphere, even at a significant distance.
Northern Lights
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
