M Is FOR MASHUP - December 11th, 2013
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Rachel Maddow: Missouri and Texas (Andrew Tobias)
Earlier this fall, a group funded by the Koch brothers specifically to target college students and young people launched these ads to try to convince young people to not sign up for health insurance. The pitch was that signing for health insurance is creepy.
Aditya Chakrabortty: "Let's admit it: Britain is now a developing country" (Guardian)
We have iPads and broadband - but also oversubscribed foodbanks. Our economy is no longer zooming along unchallenged in the fast lane, but a clapped-out motor.
Michele Hanson: Raising the pension age to 70: a hellish scenario facing the younger generation (Guardian)
George Osborne is planning to raise the pension age to 70 by the 2050s.
Dana Stevens: The Best Movies of 2013 (Slate)
It was an outrageous year of cinematic bounty.
Dahlia Lithwick: How to Talk to Republican Congressmen (Slate)
A guide for women.
Evan Peter Smith: The Making of a Molly Dealer (Athens News)
The story of how some random kid managed to become a successful drug dealer in Athens, Ohio.
Jed Perl: The Super-Rich Are Ruining Art for the Rest of Us (New Republic)
Why buy a magnificent $20,000 or $1 million painting when you can spend $50 or $100 million and really impress friends and enemies alike?
The Crumbling Shire: 7 Abandoned Wonders of New Zealand (Web Urbanist)
Sheep have taken over the Shire, lost industry created ghost towns and the major earthquake of 2011 has left much of Christchurch cordoned-off and left to decay.
How the Media Failed Women in 2013 (YouTube)
There was a lot to celebrate this year for women in the media. But some things aren't changing fast enough...
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Computer pitched a massive hissy. Argh.
Advised To Avoid Russia
Ian McKellen
Actor Ian McKellen says the British government has advised him not to go to Russia because of the country's anti-gay "propaganda" law.
McKellen, known to millions as Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" films, told Radio Times magazine that the Foreign Office had informed him "they couldn't protect me from those laws."
The openly gay 74-year-old actor expressed disbelief that this was the case "in the land of Tchaikovsky, Diaghilev, Rudolf Nureyev - gay artists whose sexuality informed their work."
Russia has banned "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" aimed at anyone under 18. Penalties include fines and jail.
Ian McKellen
Newly Found Recordings
Johnny Cash
A dozen newly discovered recordings made by late American country singer Johnny Cash three decades ago will be released next year as an album, Sony Music's Legacy Recordings said on Tuesday.
"Out Among the Stars" will be released on March 25, the record label said, marking the first time the recordings will be available to the public.
The 12 songs, which include two written by Cash, were recorded for Columbia Records in Nashville, Tenn., in 1981 and in 1984, but the record company passed on releasing them before dropping Cash from the label in 1986.
The recordings were found in 2012 when Cash's son, John Carter Cash, and Cash experts were cataloging the "Folsom Prison Blues" singer's song archive.
The album will feature three duets, two with his wife June Carter Cash and one with Waylon Jennings.
Johnny Cash
Watercolor Portrait Fetches $270,000
Jane Austen
A portrait of "Pride and Prejudice" author Jane Austen that is soon to adorn British banknotes has sold for 164,500 pounds ($270,230) at a London auction.
The watercolour by James Andrews was commissioned by Austen's nephew in 1869. It was sold by the Austen family and, according to Sotheby's auction house, has rarely been seen in public.
The portrait is considered a definitive image of Austen, chronicler of English country life 200 years ago. She died in 1817, aged 41.
An engraving of it will appear on England's 10-pound notes by 2017.
Jane Austen
Bosnian Musician
Goran Bregovic
Bosnia's most popular musician - a man whose international career has been built on music inspired by Balkan and Gypsy tunes - is searching for talented Roma children to help them get an education in music.
Goran Bregovic, a 63-year-old former rocker, started his quest Tuesday with a visit to Sarajevo's biggest Roma settlement of Gorica. That's the same name he has given his new foundation, which will provide scholarships to Roma kids who wish to study music but can't afford to.
Centuries-old prejudices and hostilities against Roma, also called Gypsies, have turned them into Europe's most underprivileged minority. Nearly half of the tens of thousands of Roma in Bosnia are illiterate and most live in extreme poverty on the margins of society.
"I cannot solve their huge problems, but as a neighbor to a neighbor, I can try to help as much as I can," Bregovic said.
"(Roma have been) present in Europe for six or seven centuries and they have left a beautiful musical trace," Bregovic said, adding that many European composers - from Beethoven to Liszt - had been influenced by Gypsy music.
Goran Bregovic
Blocked In San Francisco
Google Bus
A Google Inc commuter bus was blocked in San Francisco's Mission district for about a half hour Monday morning, highlighting many residents' growing concern that an influx of affluent technology workers is driving up costs in the city.
"San Francisco, not for sale" and "Stop evictions now" numbered among the slogans yellow-vested protesters chanted as they surrounded the double-decker bus. Google's offices are in Mountain View, about 34 miles away from the incident.
The protest, organized by an advocacy group called Heart of the City, took aim at private commuter buses which whisk thousands of employees from stops around San Francisco to jobs at technology companies south of the city such as Apple Inc, Facebook Inc and Google.
Advocates of the buses say they ease traffic on already clogged highways as workers give up driving individual cars for the convenience of riding in the buses, which usually come with plush seats and WiFi.
Foes say the buses jam up municipal bus stops and remove potential customers from cash-strapped public transportation systems, including regional rail service, that could use their revenue.
Google Bus
Targeting Pot
WCTU
The mansion that serves as Maine headquarters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union lay largely fallow until recently, with drug needles, liquor bottles and pornographic magazines littering the grounds. Now, in the state where Prohibition had its roots and in a city that just legalized recreational marijuana, the WCTU is overhauling the building and looking to reinvent itself.
Leaders of the organization, which is committed to abstinence, plan to take a lower-key approach, compared with the old days when crusading women terrorized saloon owners.
"We just want to bring a new passion here. It's not that we want to be self-righteous and condemn you because you're drinking or drugging or you're smoking pot," said the Rev. David Perkins, who is working with his wife to restore the WCTU's Portland chapter. "It's not that. We want to love you but tell you that there are ill effects."
Last week marked both the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition and the legalization of marijuana in Portland, Maine's largest city.
WCTU
Makes Statement
Church
After Mormon church leaders lifted the ban on blacks in the priesthood in 1978, church leaders offered little official explanation for the reasons behind the ban, saying only they received a revelation it was time for the change.
In the three decades since, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled to understand the roots of the old ban and grappled with how best to respond to questions about the touchy historical topic.
Even as recently as 2012 - when the issue flared up during Mitt Romney's run for president - the church said it has always welcomed people of all races into the church but that was not known precisely why, how or when the restriction on the priesthood began.
Now, finally, Mormons can point to a new 2,000-word statement posted on the church's website that offers the most comprehensive explanation of why the church previously had barred men of African descent from the lay clergy, and for the first time disavows the ban.
The statement, posted Friday, says the ban was put into place during an era of great racial divide that influenced early teachings of the church. It pins the prohibition on an announcement from church president Brigham Young in 1852. Perhaps most importantly, it addresses the once widely held notion that blacks were spiritually inferior.
Church
Found In The Azores
New Orchid Species
For years, there was only one formally recognized species of orchid on the Azores, a cluster of volcanic islands west of Portugal, though some claimed there were two species. However, a recent, three-year study to describe these Azorean flowers found that three species of orchids exist on the islands, including two that are newly recognized.
One of the new species was found atop a remote volcano and is arguably Europe's rarest orchid, said Richard Bateman, a botanist at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London. Researchers were surprised to find the new species atop the volcano, which had "a really 'Lost World' feel to it," he told LiveScience.
The orchids, likely originate from a single species that arrived by seed millions of years ago. They soon developed smaller flowers, unlike their ancestors, which had large blooms. The most widespread orchid on the island, the short-spurred butterfly orchid (Platanthera pollostantha), is known for these small flowers, Bateman said.
Analysis of other orchids found on the islands soon turned up another species, known as the narrow-lipped butterfly orchid (Platanthera micrantha).
But then scientists happened upon an even rarer and more striking orchid, with large flowers, like those of the plants' ancestors. "In a sense, evolution has reversed itself," Bateman said. This species, now known as Platanthera azorica or Hochstetter's butterfly orchid, was originally collected more than 170 years ago, but hadn't been further studied or recognized as a unique species.
New Orchid Species
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 2-8. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Carolina at New Orleans, NBC, 19.07 million.
2. "Sound of Music Live!" NBC, 18.62 million.
3. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.63 million.
4. NFL Football: New Orleans at Seattle, ESPN, 15.5 million.
5. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 15.22 million.
6. "The OT," Fox, 14.61 million.
7. NCAA Football: Ohio State vs. Michigan State, Fox, 13.9 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 12.59 million.
9. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 12.14 million.
10. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 12.03 million.
11. "The Blacklist," NBC, 11.67 million.
12. "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.56 million.
13. "Football Night in America," NBC, 11.46 million.
14. "Survivor," CBS, 10.63 million.
15. "The Mentalist," CBS, 9.97 million.
16. "Christmas Tree Lighting in Rockefeller Center," NBC, 9.74 million.
17. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 9.62 million.
18. "Modern Family," ABC, 9.47 million.
19. "The Millers," CBS, 9.23 million.
20. "The Amazing Race," CBS, 8.71 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Jim Hall
Jim Hall, one of the leading jazz guitarists of the modern era whose subtle technique, lyrical sound and introspective approach strongly influenced younger proteges such as Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell, died early Tuesday at age 83, his wife said.
Hall died in his sleep after a short illness at his Greenwich Village apartment in Manhattan, said Jane Hall, his wife of 48 years who described her husband as "truly beloved by everybody who ever met him."
Hall, who led his own trio since the mid-1960s, remained active until shortly before his death. Last month, his trio performed a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room with guest guitarists John Abercrombie and Peter Bernstein. He had been planning a duo tour in Japan in January with bassist Ron Carter, a longtime partner.
In 2004, Hall became the first of the modern jazz guitarists to be named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, the nation's highest jazz honour.
In the mid-1950s, as a member of pianist Jimmy Giuffre's innovative trio and drummer Chico Hamilton's chamber jazz quartet, Hall transformed the role of the guitar in jazz with his understated melodic and minimalist approach.
The noted German jazz writer Joachim-Ernst Berendt once described Hall as "the perfect musical partner." The guitarist was known for his duo and small group recordings with some of the greatest names in jazz during the past 60 years, including saxophonists Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Ornette Coleman and Paul Desmond, pianists Bill Evans and Red Mitchell and singer Ella Fitzgerald.
As a member of Rollins' quartet in the early 1960s, Hall appeared on the landmark 1962 album, "The Bridge," which was the tenor saxophonist's first recording after a three-year hiatus during which he practiced his chops on the Williamsburg Bridge. The saxophonist's fiery playing contrasted with Hall's subdued guitar lines.
Hall was born on Dec. 4, 1930, in Buffalo, New York, and his family later moved to Cleveland. He picked up the guitar at age 10, and became interested in jazz as a 13-year-old when he went to the store to buy a Benny Goodman record and first heard Charlie Christian playing guitar on the tune "Grand Slam."
After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he became a charter member of Hamilton's quintet, which was among the originators of the laid-back West Coast cool style, and later joined Giuffre's trio.
His first album as a leader was the 1957 session "Jazz Guitar" for Pacific Jazz. He later moved to New York where he performed as a sideman with Evans, Fitzgerald, Ben Webster, Lee Konitz and Art Farmer, among others. He co-led a quartet with trumpeter Art Farmer and also formed his own trio with pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Carter.
Hall began recording extensively as a leader starting in the 1970s in an assortment of duos, trios and small combos for such labels as Milestone, Concord, Music Masters and Telarc. Earlier this year, he released several CDs of live recordings from his combo's sessions at New York's Birdland jazz club on ArtistShare, a platform that allows fans to finance recordings.
His daughter and manager, Devra Hall Levy, said her father's prowess as a jazz guitarist overshadowed his skills as an arranger and composer, reflected on such albums in the mid-1990s as "Textures" and "By Arrangement."
Hall is survived by his wife, a psychoanalyst, and his daughter, who was married to the late NEA Jazz Master John Levy, a bassist who is credited as the first African-American personal manager in jazz.
Jim Hall
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