M Is FOR MASHUP - 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
Paul Krugman: Reality TV Populism (NY Times Blog)
Europe's populist parties are actually populist; they pursue policies that really do help workers, as long as those workers are the right color and ethnicity. As someone put it, they're selling a herrenvolk welfare state. Law and Justice has raised minimum wages and reduced the retirement age; France's National Front advocates the same things. Trump, however, is different. He said lots of things on the campaign trail, but his personnel choices indicate that in practice he's going to be a standard hard-line economic-right Republican.
John Judis: On the Eve of Disruption: Final Thoughts on the 2016 Election (TPM)
… as far as regaining Congress and the White House is concerned, the best offense in this case is a good defense. Much of the Democrats' success will inevitably depend on Trump and the Republicans advancing unpopular proposals, and the Democrats making them pay for them at the ballot box.
Andrew Tobias: Almost-Daily Column
Donald Trump will be our next president. The dignity, intellect, temperament, and thoughtfulness of President Obama - a rescued economy, rescued housing market, rescued Detroit now booming, tripled stock market, 80 consecutive months' private-sector job growth, energy independence, rising household incomes (finally!), a deficit slashed by two-thirds with the Debt once again (finally!) shrinking relative to the economy as a whole, Bin Laden dead, ISIS on its heels, the American body count zero most weeks, a world brought together to combat climate change - to be succeeded by … what?
Dara Lind: President Obama just capped off a historic year in reducing prison sentences (Vox)
A quiet but significant Obama criminal justice accomplishment: using the pardon power to get people out of prison sooner.
Arlie Russell Hochschild: "Special report: I spent 5 years with some of Trump's biggest fans. Here's what they won't tell you." (Mother Jones)
How Donald Trump took a narrative of unfairness and twisted it to his advantage.
Berny Belvedere: Pop Music is Forever (Arc)
A Philosophical Defense of Pop Music.
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took the day off.
took the day off.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
WHERE DO CONSERVATIVES FIND THESE TROGS?
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED!
WILL THE FAT KID TAKE HIS BALL AND GO HOME?
RUDOLPH IS PISSED!
YUM!
JINGLE BELLS EVERYBODY!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Blah.
Newest Inductees
Rock Hall
The late rapper Tupac Shakur and Seattle-based rockers Pearl Jam lead a class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees including folkie Joan Baez and 1970s favorites Journey, Yes and Electric Light Orchestra.
The rock hall, in downtown Cleveland, also said Tuesday it would give a special award to Nile Rodgers, whose disco-era band Chic failed again to make the cut after its 11th time nominated.
The hall's 32nd annual induction ceremony will take place on April 7 at the Barclays Center. HBO will show highlights later, with SiriusXM doing a radio broadcast.
Britain's Yes, known for its complex compositions, was a leader of the 1970s progressive rock movement. Yes' hits include "I've Seen All Good People," ''Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart," and its fans have waged a vociferous campaign to see them honored. Founding bass player Chris Squire, the one constant in many years of personnel changes, died in June 2015.
Electric Light Orchestra got its start melding classical influences to Beatles-influenced pop and charted with "Evil Woman," ''Mr. Blue Sky" and "Don't Bring Me Down." The band essentially exists now in leader Jeff Lynne's imagination and home studio and had a mildly successful comeback a year ago.
Rock Hall
Buys Back Her Dad's Farm
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer gave her dad a big surprise this holiday season.
"Today I bought my father's farm back," she wrote on Instagram, with a photo of her delivering the news via FaceTime. Next to an inset of her smiling face is her dad, Gordon Schumer, who looks emotional.
Amy Schumer also posted a video of herself as a young girl at the farm, which the family lost when her father declared bankruptcy.
"Video from the farm when I was running away in the cornfield and my dad was taunting me because I wanted him to come with me," she wrote on Instagram. "We lost the farm when we lost everything else. But today I got to buy it back for him."
In a 2013 profile of Schumer, she told The New York Times that she was 9 when her family went bankrupt and her father received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Three years later, her parents divorced.
Amy Schumer
Sheds Light On Antimatter
CERN
Antimatter. It should be as ubiquitous in the universe as matter is, but for some reason, it's not. Trying to understand why this is so has occupied some of the best minds in particle physics for decades, and the most likely explanation that they have put forward relates to something known as charge, parity, and time reversal (CPT) symmetry.
CPT symmetry is a central tenet of the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes how three of the four known fundamental forces work. It posits that the laws of physics remain unchanged in a system if three fundamental properties - charge, parity and time - are reversed. Parity refers to a 180-degree flip in spatial configuration.
If a significant violation of CPT symmetry is detected, it would not only hint at the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model, it would also help us understand why the universe is completely devoid of antimatter.
Now, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have, after performing the first-ever measurement of optical spectrum of an antimatter atom, confirmed that these particles behave in a manner consistent with the Standard Model.
CERN
Most Americans
Vacation
As the year comes to a close, some workers will scramble to use the remainder of their annual allotted vacation days. However, according to a study released Monday, the majority of Americans will not.
Of the nearly two-thirds of American workers who receive paid time off, 52 percent planned to leave vacation days on the table in 2016, compared to 47 percent who planned to use up all allotted days, according to a survey by the consumer financial services company Bankrate. The average number of vacation days left unused, the study said, amounted to 19 days.
Bankrate personal finance expert Sarah Berger, one of the researchers behind the survey, attributed Americans' unwillingness to take a break to societal norms, calling the trend "deeply embedded in our culture." Berger interviewed some of the 1,000 respondents to the survey, which was conducted via phone and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
The trend varied depending on age, with a quarter of younger millennials, defined as those ages 18 to 25, saying they'll use zero vacation days, compared to 9 percent of older millennials, ages 26 to 35, 6 percent of the 35-to-50-year-olds who constitute Generation X and 7 percent of baby boomers, aged 51 to 69.
Research also backs Berger's definition of the issue as a cultural one. A November Expedia study
Vacation
Holocaust Snafu
Google
Google said Tuesday it was working to refine its algorithm to weed out "non-authoritative" information after a British news report showed a Holocaust denial website ranked highly in search queries.
The internet search giant issued a statement after a report last week by The Guardian showing the white supremacist site Stormfront as the top result when users asked "Did the Holocaust happen?"
The site is operated by a group which says the genocide claiming the lives of more than six million Jews and others in World War II was a hoax.
Google, in a statement to AFP, said its aim is to provide "authoritative results" for search queries while offering "a breadth of diverse content from variety of sources."
Google added that recent tweaks to its algorithm "will help surface more high quality, credible content" and that the tech giant will "continue to change our algorithms over time in order to tackle these challenges."
Google
Settlement Filed
Trump U
Lawyers for Donald Trump (R-Grifter) and former students of his now-defunct Trump University filed an agreement in court to settle lawsuits alleging that the president-elect defrauded them, signaling that a deal announced last month remains on track for a judge's approval next year.
Trump agreed last month to pay $25 million to settle two class-action lawsuits in San Diego and one by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Under the terms, the president-elect admits no wrongdoing.
The filing late Monday puts a formal agreement in front of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel to determine if it is "fair, reasonable and adequate" under federal law. When announcing the terms in his courtroom on Nov. 18, Curiel called it "the beginning of a healing process that this country sorely needs."
Curiel's preliminary approval would trigger additional procedural steps - such as formally notifying class members and giving them an opportunity to object - and set the stage for final approval next year.
About 7,000 students who paid up to $35,000 a year are expected to be eligible for refunds of at least half of what they paid to attend seminars that promised to share Trump's real estate secrets. Plaintiff attorneys agreed to waive their fees.
Trump U
Aims To Fix Fracking
Oklahoma
Officials in Oklahoma issued guidelines on hydraulic fracturing Tuesday to stop the increase in earthquakes in the state. Amid mixed messages about whether fracking actually causes seismic events, the state planned to take a proactive approach by analyzing the link to prevent future quakes.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state's oil and gas regulatory agency, and the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued guidelines for two areas in the state that are home to the majority of new oil and gas drilling sites. Depending on the severity and location of seismic activity in the areas, the groups will work together to determine whether to proceed with fracking operations.
The guidelines declare earthquakes ranking at 2.5 magnitude or higher within 1.25 miles of fracking operations will be assessed, and "mitigation procedures" will then be put in place at the drilling site. For quakes of 3.5 magnitude or above within 1.25 miles of a site, fracking operations will be suspended until an in-person assessment takes place to determine whether they should continue.
Hydraulic fracking refers to the process by which water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground to break apart rock and release gas trapped within. Controversy surrounds fracking operations throughout the United States, but particularly in Oklahoma. The state has seen a spike in earthquakes in recent years, with an average of 2 1/2 magnitude 3 quakes every day, a seismicity rate 600 times greater than in the years before 2008. A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck central Oklahoma in September, leading the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to shut down 37 wells within a 725-square-mile radius of the epicenter.
Oklahoma
Coast Guard's Only Antarctic Icebreaker
Polar Star
The only U.S. ship capable of breaking through Antarctica's thick ice is getting scrubbed down, fixed up and loaded with goods in balmy Hawaii this week as it prepares to head to the frigid south.
The voyage by Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star comes as the U.S. looks to replace and expand its aging fleet of polar icebreakers so it can maintain a presence in the most remote corners of the world. The demand for icebreaking ships is expected to grow as climate change melts sea ice and lures more traffic to northern Arctic waters.
"The specter in the future is more marine use in the Arctic, more shipping, more offshore development, more tourism," said Lawson Brigham, a professor of geography and Arctic policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The Coast Guard needs to be able to enforce U.S. laws as well as search for and rescue people in the Arctic like it does in other waters, Brigham said. Though sea ice is melting faster than before, the Arctic Ocean is fully or partially covered by ice for about three-quarters of the year.
The Polar Star specializes in the Antarctic mission because it can handle the thicker ice, leaving the jobs in the Arctic to a medium icebreaker called the Cutter Healy.
Polar Star
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 12-18. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Tampa Bay at Dallas, NBC, 24.15 million.
2. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 16.92 million.
3. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.96 million.
4. "NCIS," CBS, 14.76 million.
5. NFL Football: Los Angeles at Seattle, NBC, 14.65 million.
6. "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.09 million.
7. NFL Football: Baltimore at New England, ESPN, 12.92 million.
8. "Football Night in America," NBC, 12.49 million.
9. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 12.14 million.
10. "Bull," CBS, 11.62 million.
11. "The Voice" (Monday, 9 p.m.), NBC, 11.23 million.
12. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 10.37 million.
13. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 10.03 million.
14. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 9.46 million.
15. "Survivor," CBS, 9.09 million.
16. "Madam Secretary," CBS, 9.05 million.
17. "Thursday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 9.01 million.
18. "The Voice" (Monday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 11.23 million.
19. "Mom," CBS, 8.23 million.
20. "The Great Indoors," CBS, 8.11 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Gordon Hunt
Gordon Hunt, director of live-action and animated work who was also the father of Helen Hunt and the husband of actress B.J. Ward, died Saturday. He was 87.
Hunt won a Directors Guild award for his work on a 1996 episode of "Mad About You," and was nominated two years later by the DGA for another episode in the series. He also directed episodes of other comedy series, including "Suddenly Susan," "Frasier," "Coach," and an early Ryan Reynolds vehicle, "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place."
He also spent 20 years at Hanna-Barbera, and was recording director on hundreds of animated episodes, including "The Jetsons," "The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show," "The Smurfs," "Jonny Quest," Paddington Bear," "Super Friends," "Pound Puppies," and many others.
He was born April 26, 1929, as Gordon Edwynn Hunt in Sherman Oaks, Calif. Hunt went to New York and was working as a freelance director before returning to Southern California, serving as the casting director for the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles for 10 years. He was then hired by Joseph Barbera to direct animated series at Hanna-Barbera, starting as voice directing with the 1974 "Partridge Family 2200 A.D."
He also worked on numerous video games including "Pandemonium," the "God of War" series, "Lair," "Final Fantasy XIV," "Blur," the "Legacy of Kain" series, and "Uncharted." He also was motion capture director on "Uncharted: Golden Abyss."
Hunt lent his voice to many animated works, such as playing Wally in the animated adaptation of the comic strip Dilbert.
He is survived by his wife; daughters Helen Hunt and Colleen Morrison Hunt; grandchildren Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan, Emmett Carnahan and Lizze Gordon; siblings Peter Hunt, the lighting designer, and George Hunt.
Gordon Hunt
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