M Is FOR MASHUP - December 15th, 2021
A Journey To Mashupland
By DJ Useo
Yes, IWillBattle
( iwillbattle.co.uk/ )
has teamed up with
IamJstncrdble
( www.youtube.com/c/IamJstncrdble )
to take us on a wonderful bootleg journey to the World’s Great Theme Park!
“Mashupland: A Disney Mashup Album”
( iwillbattle.co.uk/mashupland/ ) brings you 50 (!) fun pop, rock & more tracks that blend the joy of Walt to the thrill of modern music.
To give you an idea of what audio awaits, here’s 2 videos from the comp -
01 - My Way To Be King ( Jason Weaver, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Williams vs. Limp Bizkit )
( youtu.be/BQqjIxcFJkY )
02 - Can You Feel The Sexy Tractor ( Kenny Chesney vs. Elton John )
( youtu.be/mj4w9b6sx7U )
I’ve heard the full collection, & it’s a total hoot! Be sure & grab yours now, in case something makes it vanish. Big thanks to the creators!
Later - DJ Konrad Useo
groovytimewithdjuseo.blogspot.com/
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Advice
• Very often, an actor would have trouble with part of his role, whether it was speaking a line or performing some piece of business, and he would go to theatrical director Tyrone Guthrie for help. Often, Mr. Guthrie would have the answer at hand, but if he did not, he would tell the actor, “Go home, think about it, come back, and astonish us in the morning.” Mr. Guthrie also uttered another characteristic quote whenever problems arose in the theater — he would tell the cast and crew, “Rise above.”
Alcohol
• Tenor Jussi Bjoerling and conductor Nils Grevilius enjoyed having a drink together — and another drink, and another, and on and on. During one debauch, they traveled together to Stockholm, where to take a break from their drinking, they decided to go to the opera house and see whatever was being performed. They got to their seats and waited and waited, and were about to leave and get some more drinks when the opera house general manager came on stage and announced that that evening’s performance was being canceled because “tenor Jussi Bjoerling and conductor Nils Grevilius are missing.” A very surprised Mr. Bjoerling and Mr. Grevilius stood up and announced, “We’re here! We’re here!”
• George Washington once signed a mock contract with his gardener. The contract provided money for the gardener to get drunk and specified for how long the gardener could remain drunk. According to the contract, the gardener was to receive “four Dollars at Christmas, with which he may be drunk 4 days and 4 nights; two Dollars at Easter to effect the same purpose; two Dollars also at Whitsontide, to be drunk two days; A Dram in the morning, and a drink of Grog at Dinner or at Noon.”
• Irish playwright Brendan Behan enjoyed drinking to excess. He once said, “As regards the drink, I can only say that when I was growing up drunkenness was not regarded as a social disgrace. To get enough to eat was regarded as an achievement. To get drunk was a victory.” By the way, Mr. Behan once met an acquaintance in a pub and asked, “I hear there’s someone dead belonging to you — it’s not yourself by any chance?”
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan had a financial interest in the Drury Lane Theatre, which caught on fire on February 24, 1809. Mr. Sheridan heard about the fire, then went to the theater and watched it burn as he drank in the Piazza Coffee-House. A friend was amazed at Mr. Sheridan’s calmness as he watched his theater burn, but Mr. Sheridan said, “A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine at his own fireside.”
Animals
• In October 2011 in Wasau, Wisconsin, fire broke out at the home of Kim Carlson and her fiancé, Todd Borchardt. Ms. Carlson said that when she discovered that Koda, the family’s seven-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, was still in the burning house, “My first reaction was to go upstairs and check upstairs, but it was just entirely too smoky. It was so black that you couldn’t see anything in front of you. My first reaction was that I wanted to cover myself in water and cover my face and mouth and go up and get him myself, knowing that’s not the right thing to do.” Firefighter Jamie Giese said that the firefighters “found Koda in the very last room they searched, which happened to be the room that was actually on fire.” Koda was carried unconscious out of the house. Mr. Giese said, “I told [fellow firefighter] Jared [Thompson] that we’ve got to work this dog. [We] laid him down in the front yard, and we started assisting breathing.” Mr. Giese revived the pet dog with mouth-to-snout resuscitation. Mr. Giese said, “I have never been trained in that. I’ve seen it on TV and pictures in the newspapers and things like that. We thought [the dog] was dead. We could tell he was trying to breathe, and our training for humans is airway, breathing, circulation. We had no tools handy, so it was mouth-to-snout.” After Koda started breathing again, he was given oxygen and other treatment. He recovered fully. Koda had been a member of the Giese family for only four days before the fire. The Gieses said that they saw his photograph in an advertisement and they fell in love with him.
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Goodbye Innocence"
Album: LOVE
Artist: Mavin
Record Company: Random Records
Record Company Location: Berlin, Germany
Info:
“Random Records is the label of musician Snax, showcasing his own work and co-productions. Random also releases side projects: house stompers by Box Office Poison and the sleazy soundworld of Tony Amherst.”
“Mavin is a Berlin raised Afro-Polish musician, songwriter, music selector aka DJ and producer. Mavin explains the concept behind the creation of his album: ‘The idea came from the urge to create what I want to listen to and what’s not produced like this anymore. Old-school Disco Influences, paired with early Vocal House productions meets classic pop songwriting. Strong hooks and harmonies and melodies and shuffling beats. A feel-good affair. Lyrically, the songs address anything from wanting love, being loved or losing love.’”
Price: €1 (EURO) for track €7 (EURO) for 12-track album
Genre: Electronic. House. Pop. Disco.
Links:
LOVE
Random Records 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
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
Got about 2" of rain this morning.
Class Of 2021
National Film Registry
This year’s inductees into the National Film Registry include an epic Star Wars and Lord of the Ring films, projects starring Jennifer Lopez and the late Cicely Tyson along with films that took on racially motivated violence against people of color.
The Library of Congress announced Tuesday that films including “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” are among the 25 movies tapped for preservation this year. Lopez’s starring role in the 1997 biographical film “Selena” and Tyson’s “Sounder” in 1972 made the registry as well.
Several films on list that address racially motivated violence includes “The Murder of Fred Hampton,” “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and “Requiem-29.”
The library chose a few more memorable titles such as “Cooley High,” “Richard Pryor: Live in Concert,” “Chicana,” “The Long Goodbye,” “The Watermelon Woman,” “Stop Making Sense” and “Strangers on a Train.”
Additional films on the list include “The Wobblies,” “Pink Flamingos,” “Evergreen,” “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane,” “Hellbound Train,” “The Flying Ace” and “Jubilo.”
National Film Registry
Prime Time Ratings
NFL Football
ABC’s special, star-filled live presentations of old episodes of “The Facts of Life” and “Diff’rent Strokes” reached some 4.8 million viewers last week, the Nielsen company said.
That wasn’t earth-shattering, and didn’t even crack Nielsen’s list of top 30 programs. But it was the network’s most-watched program. With stars like Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Hart, John Lithgow, Jon Stewart and Snoop Dogg, the annual exercise hosted by Jimmy Kimmel got some good word-of-mouth.
CBS eked out a weekly win, averaging 5.94 million viewers in prime time to NBC’s 5.89 million. Fox averaged 4.5 million, ABC had 2.8 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1 million and Ion Television had 880,000.
ESPN was the top cable network in prime time, averaging 2.49 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.3 million, Hallmark had 1.57 million, MSNBC had 1.12 million and Paramount had 894,000.
For the week of Dec. 6-12, the top 20 prime time telecasts, their networks and viewers:
1. NFL Football: Chicago at Green Bay, NBC, 18.56 million.
2. NFL Football: Pittsburgh at Minnesota, Fox, 14.04 million.
3. NFL Football: New England at Buffalo, ESPN, 13.28 million.
4. “NFL Pregame,” NBC, 12.48 million.
5. “NFL Postgame,” Fox, 10.93 million.
6. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.32 million.
7. “NFL Pregame,” Fox, 8.78 million.
8. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, 7.54 million.
9. “Football Night in America, Part 3,” NBC, 7.35 million.
10. “NCIS,” CBS, 7.25 million.
11. “FBI,” CBS, 7.03 million.
12. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.96 million.
13. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.89 million.
14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.79 million.
15. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 6.77 million.
16. “NFL Pregame,” ESPN, 6.72 million.
17. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.59 million.
18. “FBI: International,” CBS, 5.79 million.
19. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.76 million.
20. “Ghosts,” CBS, 5.75 million.
NFL Football
Martin Scorsese Institute
NYU
Martin Scorsese’s alma mater, New York University, is establishing a film institute in his name after a gift from George Lucas and Mellody Hobson.
The formation of the Martin Scorsese Institute of Global Cinematic Arts was to be announced Tuesday by NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The institute will include a virtual production center, the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies and support for student scholarships — with tuition assistance for those selected as “Scorsese scholars.”
A large donation from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation — the nonprofit run by the “Star Wars” filmmaker and his wife, Hobson, co-chief executive of Ariel Investments and chairwoman of Starbucks Corporation — made the new institute possible.
Scorsese has a long history with NYU’s film program. As a student, he made his first short films there, including 1967's “The Big Shave, ” a six-minute Vietnam War allegory in which a young man shaves his face until it’s a bloody mess. Scorsese earned his masters at NYU in 1968 and continued after teaching undergraduate filmmaking. The school also gave him an honorary degree in 1992, and Scorsese currently sits on Tisch’s Dean’s Council.
NYU
Hard Rock Buying The Mirage
Las Vegas
Hard Rock International said Monday it wants to see how a guitar-shaped hotel will play in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.
In what MGM Resorts International CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle called “a significant milestone for MGM Resorts and for Las Vegas,” the companies announced that MGM Resorts will sell operations of The Mirage to Hard Rock International in a cash deal worth nearly $1.1 billion.
Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, plans to build a guitar-shaped hotel at the 80-acre (32-hectare) property, Hard Rock chairman, Jim Allen, said in a statement.
The Mirage, developed by former casino mogul Steve Wynn, opened with a Polynesian theme more than three decades ago.
Its iconic volcano fountain was among Las Vegas’s first strip-side attractions, pre-dating the Venetian’s canals and the Bellagio’s fountains. It was known as a venue where tourists could see Siegfried and Roy taming white tigers or a Cirque du Soleil act set to a Beatles soundtrack.
Las Vegas
Emails Loom Large
Rupert
Did Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch influence Fox News’ coverage of claims about two voting technology companies — knowing that those claims were false?
That has become a significant question in defamation lawsuits filed by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems Corp against Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. The plaintiffs are asking for more than $4 billion in damages from the media giant, on-air talent such as Maria Bartiromo and guests including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, lawyers aligned with former U.S. President Donald Trump (R-Lock Him Up).
Smartmatic and Dominion are seeking communications from Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) and his son Lachlan (R-Evil's Mini-Me), the company's executive chairman and chief executive, to help prove that Fox News either knew statements it aired were false, or acted with reckless disregard for whether they were true or false.
That is the standard of “actual malice,” which public figures must prove in order to prevail in defamation cases.
It is just one component of Dominion and Smartmatic’s efforts to show that Fox News, hosts and guests either knew or should have known they were amplifying bogus claims. The voting firms have also alleged that individuals who made the claims on-air knew they were false or recklessly ignored easily available evidence that they were false.
Rupert
Arctic Record Confirmed
Siberia
The United Nations on Tuesday officially recognized the 38 degrees Celsius measured in Siberia last year as a record high for the Arctic, sounding "alarm bells" about climate change.
The sweltering heat — equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit — was seen on June 20, 2020 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, marking the highest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle, the World Meteorological Organization said.
This is the first time the WMO has added record heat in the Arctic to its archive of extreme weather reports, and it comes amid an unprecedented wave of record temperature spikes globally, the U.N. agency said.
Verkhoyansk is about 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle and temperatures have been measured there since 1885.
Last year also saw a record high of 18.3 degrees C (64.9 Fahrenheit) for the Antarctic continent, Taalas said.
Siberia
A Common Reply
Religion
Nathalie Charles, even in her mid-teens, felt unwelcome in her Baptist congregation, with its conservative views on immigration, gender and sexuality. So she left.
After leaving her New Jersey church three years ago, she identified as atheist, then agnostic, before embracing a spiritual but not religious life. In her dorm, she blends rituals at an altar, chanting Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu mantras and paying homage to her ancestors as she meditates and prays.
The path taken by Charles places her among the religiously unaffiliated -- the fastest-growing group in surveys asking Americans about their religious identity. They describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular.”
According to a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, this group — commonly known as the “nones” — now constitutes 29% of American adults. That’s up from 23% in 2016 and 19% in 2011.
“If the unaffiliated were a religion, they’d be the largest religious group in the United States,” said Elizabeth Drescher, an adjunct professor at Santa Clara University who wrote a book about the spiritual lives of the nones.
Religion
New Sleeping Bags
NASA
Becoming an astronaut requires perfect 20/20 vision, but unfortunately, the effects of space can cause astronauts to return to Earth with degraded eyesight. Now, researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a sleeping bag that that could prevent or reduce those problems by effectively sucking fluid out of astronauts' heads.
More than half of NASA astronauts that went to the International Space Station (ISS) for more than six months have developed vision problems to varying degrees. In one case, astronaut John Philips returned from a six month stint about the ISS in 2005 with his vision reduced from 20/20 to 20/100, as the BBC reported.
For multi-year trips to Mars, for example, this could become an issue. "It would be a disaster if astronauts had such severe impairments that they couldn't see what they're doing and it compromised the mission," lead researcher Dr. Benjamin Levine told the BBC.
Fluids tend to accumulate in the head when you sleep, but on Earth, gravity pulls them back down into the body when you get up. In the low gravity of space, though, more than a half gallon of fluid collects in the head. That in turn applies pressure to the eyeball, causing flattening that can lead to vision impairment — a disorder called spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome, or SANS. (Dr. Levine discovered SANS by flying cancer patients aboard zero-G parabolic flights. They still had ports in their heads to receive chemotherapy, which gave researchers an access point to measure pressure within their brains.)
To combat SANS, researchers collaborated with outdoor gear manufacturer REI to develop a sleeping bag that fits around the waist, enclosing the lower body. A vacuum cleaner-like suction device is then activated that draws fluid toward the feet, preventing it from accumulating in the head.
NASA
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