M Is FOR MASHUP - RERUN - December 21st, 2016
Dj BC Brings Us Christmas Mashups
By DJ Useo
dj BC writes, "My best Christmas mashups from the past decade are collected for this year's Santastic (previously) holiday music sampler. You can also dig on the site for the full albums from past years, our 'Menorah Mashups' Chanukah collection, and my chill instrumental album of holiday classical remixes. It's all free."
I can't add much more to that than the full playlist. This is one mighty fine collection. I suggest you put a paper plate of Christmas goodies together, pour some egg nog, & let the tunes flow!
Here's the video for "Imagine Santa" with John Lennon vs Michael Jackson.
( www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Q_jpINtqI )
01 - Cold Chillin with Stevie
( Stevie Wonder vs Juice Crew Allstars vs Harry Potter vs Bob and Doug MacKenzie )
02 - Turbo Sleigh Ride (Radio)
03 - Jingle Pressure
( Queen and David Bowie vs Smokey Robinson and special guests )
04 - Sugar Plum Fairy Coda (recoda)
05 - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
( DMX vs Burl Ives )
06- From The Holly To The Ivy
( Mixed for WEXT, New York )
07 - Mashing Christmas
( Danny Elfman vs The Supremes vs Jimmy Stewart )
08 - The Nutbreaker '06
( Mixed for WEXT, New York )
09 - Jack Frost Vs The Weatherman
( The Mills Brothers vs Jim Kosek vs Jack Frost vs Del Close and John Brent )
10 - Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (Mystery Mix 2010)
( Mixed for WEXT, New York )
11 - You Shook Me All Noel
12 - Funky Wassail
( Mixed for WEXT, New York )
13 - Rock The Jingle Bells
( LL Cool J vs Tuborg Julebryg Jingle )
14 - Imagine Santa
(John Lennon vs The Jackson Five)
15 - Waltz Of The Flowers (reflower)
( Mixed for WEXT, New York )
16 - 8-Bit Hip-Hop Christmas
( Black EL vs Bit Shifter )
17 - What Up Child
( WEXT, New York )
18 - Forgot About Merry
( Staple Singers vs Christmas Villains )
Dj BC has been putting these Christmas mashup collections out for years, always with incredibly talented contributors. Though the group comp didn't manifest this year, this overview assortment is rock solid, & will please for ages to come.
Here's the link for this swell new collection, & all the many past ones. Grab your fill, & feel free to give out the link as a cool seasonal gift. Bless us, each & every one.
( www.christmash.com )
Also, you can find my Christmas present to everyone here
( groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/2016/12/christmas-package-2016.html )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: Beto
I heard Democrats spent more than $70 million on TV ads fighting over the nomination for Florida governor this cycle. Interestingly, Andrew Gillum, who won that contest, spent almost nothing on TV compared to the others. Which suggests to me that it's organizing, more than advertising, that wins races … and leads me to wonder whether Gillum, who came within a hair's breadth of winning, might have won had perhaps half those $70+ million Democratic dollars spent fighting over the primary on TV been spent, instead, on building an even larger ground game with more organizers to register and turn out voters this past November. Full speed ahead on your passion to get involved.
Paul Krugman: The G.O.P. Goes Full Authoritarian (NY Times)
… there has been a fair amount of reporting on the power grab currently underway in Madison. Having lost every statewide office in Wisconsin last month, Republicans are using the lame-duck legislative session to drastically curtail these offices' power, effectively keeping rule over the state in the hands of the G.O.P.-controlled Legislature. What has gotten less emphasis is the fact that G.O.P. legislative control is alsoundemocratic. Last month Democratic candidates received 54 percent of the votes in State Assembly elections - but they ended up with only 37 percent of the seats.
Paul Waldman: Smart Republicans are already abandoning Trump. But they're still culpable. (Washington Post)
… if you care about your future in politics, it's never too early to start distancing yourself from Trump. Because once he's no longer president - perhaps in 2021, or perhaps even sooner - everyone who worked for him, supported him, or stood by him is going to be in an extremely uncomfortable position.
Greg Sargent: Trump's lies and disinformation require a new kind of media response (Washington Post)
The key point here is that Trump is not engaged in conventional lying. He's engaged in spreading disinformation. The president has lied dozens and dozens of times about how much the United States pays into NATO as well as about the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III; he has falsely claimed dozens of times apiece that Democrats are the ones who colluded with Russia (a particularly virulent species of up-is-downism); that a border wall will stop the flow of drugs; that our immigration laws are very permissive; and that we have "lost" billions of dollars to trade deficits. A full list of the most oft-told lies is here.
Terry Teachout: Cowboy in the Shade (Weekly Standard)
Given their comparable movie careers, why is John Wayne still an icon while Gary Cooper is all but forgotten?
Stephen Arnell: Hollywood loves a remake, but do we? (Spectator)
Once more, with feeling.
Stephanie Merritt: Watership Down should be about death and destruction, not fluffy rabbits (The Guardian)
I loved the 1978 film as a child, even though it terrified me. The remake should have kept the wild darkness, not toned it down.
Phil Hoad: "Watership Down: the film that frightened me the most" (The Guardian)
A prescient bunny with apocalyptic visions leaves a young Phil Hoad terrified and turning tail out of a Newcastle cinema.
"Talking 'Bout Spam" (Wordpress)
Written & performed by George J. Raymond.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Linus Pauling is the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes. In 1954, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and in 1962, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. In April 1962, he participated in a peace march around the White House while carrying a placard that stated, "We Have No Right To Test" - the word "Test" referred to nuclear testing. Shortly afterward, he and many other people (including 48 other invitees who had won the Nobel Prize) went inside the White House to eat a meal with President John F. Kennedy, who said that his four-year-old daughter, Caroline, had watched the peace march and then asked, "Mummy, what has Daddy done wrong now?" By the way, in 1945, Mr. Pauling made the decision "to sacrifice part of my scientific career to working for the control of nuclear weapons and for the achievement of world peace. In the early 1950s, he discovered that some of his scientific work was not going to be supported by grants because of his political views. He resubmitted the grant applications, leaving off his name and instead using the names of his collaborators. The grants were approved.
• When Ken Kettlewell, author of Presidential Passages, a book about the Bibles the Presidents of the United States used at their inaugurations, was 12 years old in 1937, one of his teachers, Paul M. Davis, invited him to listen on his radio to the third inaugural address of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Mrs. Davis served cookies, and in his book Mr. Kettlewell writes, "I don't remember the inaugural address. I do remember the cookies." By the way, the Bible that Grover Cleveland used at both of his inaugurations was a gift. Clerk of the Supreme Court James H. McKenney, reported, "He was the owner of a small Bible, not larger than our hand. His mother had presented it to him when he was a boy, and he had treasured it ever since. It was used at both Inaugurals." The Bible on which Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office was given to him when he was a boy by his grandmother. While staying at his father's house, Vice President Coolidge received a telegram at midnight telling him that President Warren G. Harding had died. Mr. Coolidge's father, who had been asleep, got up and administered to his son the oath of office.
• It hurts to lose a campaign for President of the United States. As columnist Mark Shields writes, "What it means for starters is that the first line of your obituary, '(fill in the blank), defeated presidential nominee, died yesterday at the age of,' has already been written." Walter "Fritz" Mondale lost a landslide election to Ronald Reagan in 1984, and George McGovern lost a landslide election to Richard Nixon in 1972. Mr. Mondale and Mr. McGovern met in 1988, and Mr. Mondale asked Mr. McGovern, "Please tell me, George, when does it stop hurting?" Although 16 years had passed since his loss, Mr. McGovern replied, "I'll let you know, Fritz. I'll let you know."
• In July 1996, Boris Yeltsin was worried about getting enough votes to be reelected President of Russia. Many of his supporters lived in cities, and he was afraid that they would leave the cities and go to their country cottages and have a good time and not bother to vote. He wanted them to stay in the cities and vote for him. He found a way to do just that. Tropikanka was a very popular television soap opera in Russia. The soap opera broadcast three new episodes between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. on election day. Most country cottages did not have televisions, so people stayed in the cities, watched the three episodes, and then had plenty of time left over to vote. Mr. Yeltsin won the election by more than 10 million votes.
• Movie clichés sometimes come to life. Opera singer Mary Garden started her career at the top. She was in Paris studying singing, and she attended an Opera-Comique rehearsal of Louise and fell in love with it. She acquired a copy of the score, and began studying it intensively. She attended performances of the opera, and she took notes on where the singers stood on stage and all the details of acting she could jot down. On Friday, April 13, 1900, she received a note telling her to go to the Opéra-Comique, where she received the news that the woman who regularly sang the title role of Louise was ill and might not be able to perform, and so she was given a ticket and asked to sit in the audience that night just in case she were needed. Act 1 passed well, as there was little singing for the title character in it, but during the intermission the star singer rushed out of the opera house. Ms. Garden took her place, made a huge hit, and signed a well-paying contract at the Opéra-Comique.
• A lucky break helped soprano Leslie Garrett get a job with the English National Opera. She was singing the part of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro when she received word that ENO managing director Lord Harewood would be present at a performance. Normally, Ms. Garrett paced herself so that she could get through all four acts. However, since Lord Harewood would be present, she decided to sing all-out from the very beginning and trust that some extra strength would providentially arrive to help her get through the end of the opera. She did sing all out from the very beginning, performing brilliantly in the first two acts, but unfortunately extra strength did not arrive, so she sang poorly in the last two acts. She thought that she blown her chances of ever singing in the English National Opera, but luck was with her. Lord Harewood had left after the first two acts, and shortly afterward she got a job singing with the ENO.
• Once a diva, always a diva. When soprano Nellie Melba appeared for the last time at Covent Garden, she gave a remarkable performance, and she seemed overwhelmed at the applause she received at the end of La Bohéme. The stagehands were worried that she would collapse because of all her emotion, so they drew the curtains. Ms. Melba immediately recovered completely and snapped at the stagehands, "Pull back those bloody curtains at once!" They did so, and in front of the audience she once again seemed overwhelmed by emotion and about to collapse.
• As a young singer, conductor Richard Tauber especially liked to sing the role of Narraboth in Salomebecause the character is killed 20 minutes into the opera, then dragged off stage. This meant that he could leave the theater early and catch the last showing of a movie if he wished. Unfortunately, during one performance, the guards forgot to drag him off stage, so he was forced to lie on the stage, breathing shallowly for an extra 90 minutes.
• In 1910, at an opera house in Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy, Tito Schipa sang the part of Alfredo in his first La Traviata. At the time, he had a very slight build, but the diva playing Violetta was very large. As Violetta crushed Alfredo to her bosom, a man in the audience shouted, "Don't crush the poor boy - we want to hear him sing!"
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Golden Globes Special Achievement Award
Carol Burnett
Comedy legend Carol Burnett will receive a unique honor, an award named after her, at next year's Golden Globes. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which throws the gala, has announced that it has created a new special achievement trophy, the Carol Burnett Award, which is meant to honor the "highest level of achievement" in television, specially for the broadcast. The Association is likening it to its Cecil B. DeMille Award, which recognizes "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment." The Burnett Award will be given out annually to people who have made contributions to television both in front of and behind the camera.
Burnett has won five Golden Globes in the TV category, more than any other individual. She will accept the honor at the awards gala in Los Angeles on January 6th; it will be broadcast on NBC that night.
"For more than 50 years, comedy trailblazer Carol Burnett has been breaking barriers while making us laugh," HFPA President Meher Tatna said in a statement. "She was the first woman to host a variety sketch show, The Carol Burnett Show. She was also the first woman to win both the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and Kennedy Center Honors. And now we add another first to her running list: the first recipient - and namesake - of the new Golden Globe top honor for achievement in television, the Carol Burnett Award. We are profoundly grateful for her contributions to the entertainment industry and honored to celebrate her legacy forever at the Golden Globes."
Carol Burnett
Most-Streamed Song Of The 20th Century
'Bohemian Rhapsody'
Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" has hit a milestone, no doubt in part because of the film Bohemian Rhapsody.
Universal Music Group announced Monday that the quintessential Queen song has surpassed 1.5 billion streams, making it the most-streamed song released in the 20th century.
"So the river of rock music has metamorphosed into streams!" Queen guitarist and founding member Brian May said in a statement. "Very happy that our music is still flowing to the max!"
It's a victory made so much more sweet when considering that the band's former manager and label seemed convinced the song wouldn't sell coming in at five minutes and 55 seconds. That wasn't the case then, and it's not the case in the era of streaming.
As of mid-November, Bohemian Rhapsody (the film, now) became the second highest-grossing musical biopic ever. The love for Queen is undeniably real.
'Bohemian Rhapsody'
Returns Oscar
Leonardo DiCaprio
A-list actor Leonardo DiCaprio has returned an Oscar he received as a gift from a fugitive financier, who is on the run from authorities after allegedly stealing billions of dollars from a Malaysian government investment fund, according to news reports.
The Oscar, Marlon Brando's 1954 statue from "On the Waterfront," was given to DiCaprio, 44, by disgraced businessman Jho Low, who bought it at an auction for $600,000, according to E! Online.
DiCaprio, who was nominated for an Academy Award for 2013's "The Wolf of Wall Street" and won for his performance in the 2015 film "The Revenant," also returned other gifts he received from Low, including a Pablo Picasso painting.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can buy back any Oscar it has handed out over the years for $1, media outlets reported, and it will most likely buy back Brando's award once the investigation into Low has ended.
The New York Times reported U.S. investigators believe Low is hiding in China.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Canceled After Two Seasons
'Detroiters'
Comedy Central has canceled its Motor City series "Detroiters" after two seasons.
The scripted half-hour from Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video and Comedy Central Productions bowed in early 2017. Season two premiered in June.
The buddy comedy was created by stars Sam Richardson and Tim Robinson along with "Saturday Night Live" veterans Zach Kanin and Joe Kelly. "Detroiters" featured Richardson and Robinson as two longtime friends and local advertising executives who aim to restore the city's luster as they hustle to make a living with local accounts. The show was generally well-received by critics.
The series featured cameos from a number of prominent Detroit figures and stars with ties to the city, notably Keegan Michael-Key.
Richardson confirmed word of the show's cancellation and raised the prospect of the show continuing on at another network. So did Amber Ruffin, "Late Night with Seth Meyers" writer who also worked on "Detroiters."
'Detroiters'
A New Study
Movies
To listen to the way that internet trolls go on about how women becoming the central characters of franchises like Star Wars have somehow "ruined" the movies, one might be tempted to entertain the idea that women are bad for business. Common sense would tell you that isn't at all the case, and now there's statistical evidence to back that up.
According to a new study conducted by Creative Artists Agency digital strategy firm shift7, movies that feature female leads reliably perform better at the box office compared to those that don't meet those criteria. For the sake of the study, a movie qualified as having a women in a leading role if it passed the Bechdel test, meaning that it had at least two female characters who talked to one another about something that wasn't a man.
The study looked at the 350 top-grossing movies released between 2014 and 2017 and broke the movies down into five categories based on their overall budgets, ranging from under $10 million to over $100 million. Movies factored into the study include Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Avengers: Age of Ultron-you get the point. A great deal of the movies included in the study fall under the genre category, because Hollywood as an industry and we as a culture are at a point where "genre films" aren't niche products for a small audience. They're mainstream products, and the more representative they are of the people going to see them, the better.
Producer Liz Chasin, one of the study's leads, accurately pointed out the test is a "low bar to clear," but also expressed her belief that spelling these sorts of things out in cold, hard numbers is ultimately for the best:
"It's surprising how many movies don't clear [the Bechdel test]. Understandably, the studios think about the bottom line, so it's great to see a growing body of data that should make it easier for executives to make more inclusive decisions."
Movies
Second Warmest Year On Record
Arctic
The Arctic had its second-hottest year on record in 2018, part of a warming trend that may be dramatically changing earth's weather patterns, according to a report released on Tuesday by the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Arctic air temperatures for the past five years have exceeded all previous records since 1900," according to the annual NOAA study, the 2018 Arctic Report Card, which said the year was second only to 2016 in overall warmth in the region.
It marks the latest in a series of warnings about climate change from U.S. government bodies, even as President Donald Trump has voiced skepticism about the phenomenon and has pushed a pro-fossil fuels agenda.
The study said the Arctic warming continues at about double the rate of the rest of the planet, and that the trend appears to be altering the shape and strength of the jet stream air current that influences weather in the Northern Hemisphere.
"Growing atmospheric warmth in the Arctic results in a sluggish and unusually wavy jet-stream that coincided with abnormal weather events," it said, noting that the changing patterns have often brought unusually frigid temperatures to areas south of the Arctic Circle.
Arctic
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 3-9. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: L.A. Rams at Chicago, NBC, 19.39 million.
2. "NFL Sunday Post-Game," Fox, 19.23 million.
3. "NFL Pre-Game," NBC, 13.63 million.
4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 12.53 million.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 12.05 million.
6. NFL Football: Washington at Philadelphia, ESPN, 11.38 million.
7. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 10.91 million.
8. NFL Football: Jacksonville at Tennessee, Fox, 10.79 million.
9. "FBI," CBS, 9.72 million.
10. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 9 million.
11. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 8.92 million.
12. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 8.895 million.
13. "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.889 million.
14. "Football Night in America," NBC, 8.64 million.
15. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 8.33 million.
16. "Chicago Med," NBC, 7.944 million.
17. "Chicago Fire," NBC, 7.943 million.
18. "Mom," CBS, 7.93 million.
19. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 7.81 million.
20. "The Simpsons," Fox, 7.53 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Melvin Dummar
Melvin Dummar died never seeing the $156 million that he argued for decades that eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes unexpectedly bequeathed to him for rescuing him on a desert road and driving him nearly three hours to Las Vegas in 1967.
Dummar, whose story was depicted in the 1980 film "Melvin and Howard," died Sunday under hospice care in rural Nevada, said Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly. He was 74.
His brother, Ray Dummar said his brother battled cancer for many years and quit referring to the Hughes estate and the handwritten document after losing his last legal battle 10 years ago.
The so-called "Mormon will" was said to have also named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as beneficiary of $156 million- a 1/16 share of the Hughes estate - when he died in 1976.
Dummar maintained that he found Hughes in late December 1967, face-down and bloody on a dirt road not far from a brothel near Lida, Nevada, and drove him nearly 190 miles (306 kilometers) to Las Vegas before giving him some pocket change and dropping him off behind the Sands Hotel.
"On the way to Las Vegas, he told me who he was, but I didn't believe him," Dummar told the AP in 2006. "I thought he was just a bum or a prospector or something."
Dummar said he later came to believe it was Hughes, and that about eight years later a handwritten will was delivered to his gas station in Utah.
Dummar said it was addressed to the president of the Mormon church. He said he steamed it open to read the contents before taking it to the church's headquarters and leaving it on a secretary's desk.
Melvin Dummar
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