SUPERSTAR HOLLYWOOD WRITER/DIRECTOR ADMITS: “I GOT NOTHING”: Director Joss Whedon exits Warner Bros’ ‘Batgirl’.
Archive for 2018
February 23, 2018
NO TECHNOLOGICAL COUNTRY NEEDS MASS IMMIGRATION OF ILLITERATES: The State Submits.
February 22, 2018
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Paradoxes of the Mueller Investigation.
TOUR OF POWER STATION RECORDING STUDIO AT BERKLEE NYC (Video):
As the New York Times reported in September:
New York’s most storied recording studios have been vanishing, victims of more accessible digital recording techniques and escalating real estate prices in Manhattan. First went the Hit Factory, in 2005. Last year, both the Magic Shop — a favorite of David Bowie, who recorded his final album there — and Manhattan Sound Recordings were shuttered.
But now one of these spaces filled with pop-culture lore is being saved: After almost two years on the market, the building that houses Avatar Studios has been acquired by Berklee. The studio — which originally opened as the Power Station in 1977, and where Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, David Bowie and the cast of “Hamilton” have recorded — will be renovated, expanded and rebranded as BerkleeNYC. The recording studios will continue to operate commercially as the Power Station at BerkleeNYC, along with new offerings including educational programs, performances and resources for local musicians.
The transaction was spearheaded by the Berklee trustee Pete Muller, with the support of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the Economic Development Corporation. They have raised $25 million for the project, including $6 million from the city. According to the Berklee president, Roger H. Brown, this will be “enough to launch, renovate, and operate for a decade,” while the school continues to raise additional funds for the project.
Avatar, a 33,000-square-foot complex in a former Consolidated Edison power plant on West 53rd Street just off 10th Avenue, is one of the last full-scale recording studios left in Manhattan — the only one big enough to accommodate a full orchestra or a Broadway cast album.
If you enjoyed David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” Chic’s “Le Freak,” Bruce Springteen’s The River album, Dire Strait’s “Money for Nothing,” or the aforementioned Hamilton soundtrack, they were all recorded at the Power Station (along with a zillion other records), which thanks to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, received a reprieve from being turned into condominiums. Fun video for recording or music aficionados.
WELL, I TAKE ARGININE AS A BODYBUILDING SUPPLEMENT, AND I’M PRETTY CHEERFUL: Depression linked to reduced levels of amino acid: study. “The body uses the amino acid arginine to produce nitric oxide, which is a mediator for the nervous system and immune defender, and plays a role in vascular regulation. Reduced arginine is also a known risk factor of cardiovascular diseases.” Be aware, though, that if you have any form of herpes it may make a recurrence more likely.
On supplements, generally, here are a few I take that I have had good luck with:
1. Coenzyme Q10. I feel much better — and in particular, my afternoon fatigue has vanished — since I started taking this. I’ve persuaded the InstaWife and InstaDaughter and several other family members to do the same, and they report similar results. Also, it seems to prevent migraines.
2. Vitamin D: Not only is this good for you in many ways, but my irritable bowel syndrome has been much reduced since I started regular Vitamin D supplementation, and now there’s research supporting that as a benefit. (And when I posted that, several readers reported similar experiences in the comments). I’m currently taking a Vitamin D & K supplement.
3. Citrulline and Arginine:. When I take these I get a better “pump” during workouts, and stay that way longer. They’re also supposed to be myostatin inhibitors (as is Vitamin D), modestly improving muscle gains in theory.
4. Resveratrol: I still take the Biotivia Transmax. I stopped for a while in favor of pterostilbene but now I’m back.
5. Quercetin: Seems to help significantly with my allergies. In larger doses it’s supposed to kill off senescent cells. I’ve done that larger-dose thing once; no side effects, not the sort of thing that provides obvious immediate benefits so who knows?
I also took a phosphatidic acid supplement for a while that really seemed to work, but then they quit making it. As always, your results may vary, but people often ask about my supplements, so here you are.
OPEN THREAD: Sorry it’s late.
PROTECTING HIM LIKE HE DIDN’T PROTECT THE KIDS: Armed police are guarding the home of the deputy who resigned over his lack of action in the Parkland school shooting.
CAN THE BROWARD COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT GET ANY MORE SAD AND USELESS AND PATHETIC? YES, YES IT CAN. Sheriff: Armed officer at school never entered building during shooting.
Two thoughts: (1). So much for “only the police should have guns.” (2). If an armed teacher had had a gun, he/she would have already been in the building. So even if he/she was as big a coward as this officer, he/she might have still done something.
Oh, and (3): Now we see why the Broward Sheriff has been so eager to blame the NRA instead of his pathetic department.
Plus, this question: “When does the incompetent sheriff resign?”
And a friend on Facebook comments:
Let’s get this straight: the FBI failed to follow its own procedure when warned of the Florida school killer, which might have prevented the massacre; and now we learn that the armed sheriff’s deputy assigned to the school failed to execute his duty, which also might have prevented the massacre.
It should be no wonder Americans don’t trust their institutions — nor that they want the ability to protect themselves when those institutions show themselves incompetent to do the job. Instead of new laws and procedures administered by these same inept bureaucracies, either reform those bureaucracies and their personnel to enforce the existing laws, or allow American citizens to do for themselves what the institutions do not.
The present political moment for gun control will shortly fade without having achieved its major objectives, as all its predecessors have. The reason it will fail is not the NRA nor its money: it’s this.
Indeed. Or as another friend notes: “Government failed repeatedly and catastrophically at all levels. And the solution is more government?”
UPDATE: FIRE THE SHERIFF: Coral Springs police officers — and not Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies — were the first ones to try to help save students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
WHEN IS BROWARD COUNTY SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL GOING TO RESIGN?
HERE’S THE TRAILER FOR LITTLE PINK HOUSE, a movie about the Kelo case.
Here’s the film’s website.
WE DON’T SEE MUCH FROM CNN THAT ISN’T SHAMEFUL THESE DAYS: David Harsanyi: CNN’s Shameful Town Hall Is A Clarifying Moment On Guns.
ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: As Obama Presidential Center comes closer to reality, tensions on race, class surface.
When Bronwyn Nichols Lodato began pushing to prevent a portion of Chicago’s Midway Plaisance from being developed into a parking garage by the Obama Foundation, she never expected to be criticized as anti-black.
After all, she is an African-American woman who has lived in Hyde Park for more than a decade and is sensitive to both the city’s racial tensions and the needs of her neighbors.
“All I wanted to do was make sure my kids could play with no garage in their park,” she said. “I have three young children and we live in a condo and the Midway is our yard. My story is simply, how can we keep the park so our kids could play there?”
But soon after taking up her campaign, Lodato, who believes the South Side deserves what she calls “jewels” of open space, found herself under fire by people who believed that the garage would foster business in the area. Some accused her of siding with her well-off white neighbors and taking a stance that hurts the struggling communities around hers.
But of course — any action that might prevent Mr. Obama from achieving a desired goal is by its very nature automatically racist. Additionally, I’m told by reliable media figures that merely uttering the word “Chicago” is doubly racist.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Worst Roommate Ever.
ADVICE FOR THE MIDTERMS: Make the Deep State Pay — It’s the Only Way.
YOUR DAILY TREACHER: Journalists Hate Conspiracy Theories and Fake News, Except When They Don’t.
Read the whole thing. Between Newsweek’s “Bots took down Al Franken” and CNN yesterday, the MSM have really been covering themselves in glory recently.
KURT SCHLICHTER: 7 Terrible Liberal Gun Control Arguments … And How To Beat Them.
CNN MIGHT NOT LIKE WHAT THEIR TOWN HALL IS LIKELY TO ACCOMPLISH:
Articles from CNN, The Hill, and more are currently trumpeting last night’s town hall as a victory, and releasing article after article of various moments that lend to the impression that gun control is winning. The chances that McCulloch is about to see a boost in sales is definitely high if the news cycle continues down this road for too long.
In the long run, 2018 CNN may have replaced 2009-2016 Obama as the nation’s greatest gun salesman if history is to be believed.
It’s a textbook example of How Progressive Radicals Move the Country Left, and Right.
TAMARA KEEL ON GUN NERDS: “A gun that allows you to yell down a dark hallway ‘You’d better leave! I’ve called the cops and I have a gun!’ and not be lying will put you ahead of the game in probably eight out of ten private citizen defensive gun usages. If the gun will make a loud noise, there’s a better than even chance it will solve the ninth. It’s only on that unlucky tenth incident that things like capacity, caliber, reliability, bullet selection and other angels we gun nerds like to set to dancing on the heads of pins come into play.”
WILLIAM SHATNER DEMANDS TEXAS DEMOCRAT REMOVE PHOTO WITH HIM. “Shatner replied with his demand the picture be destroyed. He tweeted to [Brandy Chambers, candidate for the Texas House of Representatives] saying, ‘using a convention picture in a political ad is NOT ALLOWED!! That implies endorsement which never will happen. Please remove my photo and destroy all copies of whatever this is immediately. Am I clear?’”
JORDAN PETERSON TAKES ON VICE NEWS (Video):
It’s fascinating watching his interviewer interrogator, Jay Caspian Kang, alternate between full-on Cathy Newmanisms (to the point where near the interview, Kang utters something like “I’ve really tried not to be like Cathy Newman here”) and acting incredibly naïve regarding Hollywood, despite writing for a Website named, err, Vice.
Since much of the segment is devoted to topic of workplace relations, here’s a flashback to a December New York Times article headlined, “At Vice, Cutting-Edge Media and Allegations of Old-School Sexual Harassment: A media company built on subversion and outlandishness was unable to create ‘a safe and inclusive workplace’ for women, two of its founders acknowledge:”
People worked long hours and partied together afterward. And that’s where the lines often blurred. Multiple women said that after a night of drinking, they wound up fending off touching, kissing and other advances from their superiors.
The name of the Website they decided to work for might have been their first clue.
GIBSON CREDITORS WANT NEW CEO BEFORE RESCUE DEAL:
The company is facing a $375 million bond maturity in August, and a springing lien that could cause $185 million of debt to become current in July if the bond maturity isn’t addressed by that month. Gibson’s August 2018 bonds fell as much as 2.5 cents on the dollar Tuesday to 79 cents.
Talks are underway, but there’s not yet a deal in hand or firm pricing, [Gibson Brands Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Henry Juszkiewicz] said. “We’re really trying to get the pricing right and get the best deal.”
Juszkiewicz bought Gibson from Norlin Corp. in 1986 with two of his former Harvard Business School classmates. According to his biography on the company website, he paid his way through school playing guitar in various rock bands — a Gibson, of course.
In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Juszkiewicz and his team did an excellent job of rebuilding Gibson, restoring the quality and the heritage of the venerable brand after Norlin lost its way in the 1970s, issuing quirky guitars that seemed to be better press release fodder than musical instruments. However, in recent years, Gibson has returned to the Norlin-style of questionable instrument designs. In addition, Juszkiewicz’s acquisition of home and pro audio companies in recent years may have saddled the company with an enormous amount of unsustainable debt, and the bill is rapidly coming due. Check out the comments at the end of this recent Nashville Post article headlined “Gibson ‘running out of time — rapidly’” to get a sense of the damage.
IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Study: Red Wine Prevents Tooth Decay, Gum Disease.
HAITI SUSPENDS OXFAM OPERATIONS PENDING SEX SCANDAL PROBE:
Haiti on Thursday suspended the operations of British charity Oxfam pending the outcome of its investigation into allegations that its staff sexually exploited Haitians after a devastating 2010 earthquake.
The country’s ministry of planning and foreign aid said Oxfam GB had made a “serious error” by failing to inform Haitian authorities of the actions by their staff at the time they occurred.
“These reprehensible acts, alleged crimes, acknowledged by the perpetrators as well as the NGO, are a serious violation of the dignity of the Haitian people,” a government statement said.
It said the charity was suspended for two months pending an internal Haitian investigation into the matter.
At NRO last week, Kyle Smith explored how “The End Justifies the Obscene:”
When a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, Oxfam workers remembered Rahm Emanuel’s maxim that, in the progressive dictionary, one definition of crisis is “party time.” I’m paraphrasing.
But I’m quoting directly when I note that Oxfam execs set up brothels in Port-au-Prince that they called “pink apartments.” They took advantage of the economic dislocation and desperation (1.5 million homeless in a land of 10 million) to surround themselves with prostitutes, some perhaps under the age of consent, according to a recent exposé in the British paper the Times. Recalls an observer: “They were throwing big parties with prostitutes. These girls were wearing Oxfam T-shirts, running around half-naked, it was a like a full-on Caligula orgy. It was unbelievable. It was crazy. At one party there were at least five girls and two of them had Oxfam white T-shirts on. These men used to talk about holding ‘young meat barbecues.’”
Drivers in Haiti who wished to earn cash driving Oxfam employees around were told that their contracts were contingent on whether they could help with the, er, meat supply. “If you want your contract to be extended,” they were told, according to the Times, “we need girls and you need to pick them up.”
* * * * * * * *
How did we get to a point where relentlessly idealistic and progressive feminist women cover for men who turn girls from some of the poorest corners of the world into their sexual functionaries? Oxfam reminds us that a core feature of the Left is its happy-face Machiavellianism: The overall mission is so vital, so meaningful, so just, that the end justifies the obscene.
Harvey Weinstein and the Clinton family could not be reached for comment.