RenoVous

  Today I will start Chapter 16. The one before was a paranoid fever dream, and it was a reminder of what the book is actually satirizing.   Stalinist Moscow: full of arbitrary arrests, disappearances, surveillance, and punishment of personal wealth. But even without knowing the background, it's a wild story, and I'm enjoying it very much.   One of my favorite scenes so far was after the "Parisian boutique" performance.  The way the devil toys with their greed, in many ways.... For those reading along, share your thoughts from whatever point you're at, or let us know what else you've been reading!

  On this day in 1947, the World Series was broadcast on television for the first time. This year, we're just into the postseason - the Yankees are fighting for a wild card, and the now Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their division. Hopefully, it's not a rematch of this, though that did happen just a couple years ago. In 1947, there were about 44,000 television sets in the US, but the game aired in just four markets - New York, Philadelphia, Albany, and Washington. Bob Stanton announced Game 1 for NBC. Notably, it was Jackie Robinson's first World Series. Radio had higher ratings still, and the cameramen had a lot to learn about sunlight and shadows. By 1955, the World Series was in color.

  Yesterday we had some red carpet from the event, and then I came across many posts about a particular performance. Incredible choreography. Yung Lean is a Swedish rapper, and GENER8ION is an electronic project of French producer, Surkin, and the video director, Romain Gavras. "Storm" is actually a two-part musical short film. His breakout was back in 2013. Followed by his debut album in 2014. Per the topic, it was Cardi B who won for Best Hip Hop Video. Madonna won for Best Choreography, but that included Damien Jalet, who had also been nominated for the "Storm" video.

  Starting with the VMAs, that's what Lisa wore to win. Here's the red carpet. Taylor Swift Normani Bob the Drag Queen And elsewhere: Fan Bingbing Naomi Campbell Princess Catherine Angela Bassett Florence Pugh And a magazine bonus.

  Francis Tully found this fossil in the Mazon Creek area of Illinois back in 1955. He took it to the Field Museum of Natural History, but paleontologists were stumped about what it was. It remains an ongoing debate to this day. A 2016 study determined it may be closely related to modern lampreys.  They referred to the presence of a primitive stiffened support rod, called a notochord, and concluded it must be a vertebrate. McCoy et al studied again in 2020 and found that samples from the body contain the decay products of chordate tissues, as opposed to the chitin found in arthropods. But Mikami et al, in 2023, found segmentation extending to the preoptic region, which is very different from vertebrates.  And so, the Tully monster is a genus of one.  Phylum: Incertae sedis, or problematica. An enigma.

  Dance is the heartbeat of Bollywood, serving as a powerful tool for storytelling, emotional expression, and cultural celebration. I found this lovely number from Devdas. The first Bollywood film was released in 1913. Director Dhundiraj Govind Phalke is considered the father of Indian cinema. The story is based on the mythological Hindu king, Harishchandra. But Sholay, from 1975, is considered the most defining movie in Bollywood history. I might need to check out some Hindi horror movies.

  Jack Henry Abbott spent much of his life incarcerated, as a minor at the age of 12 (at a reform school), and then at the age of 18.  While in prison, he killed an inmate and received additional time. He heard that author Norman Mailer was writing about convicted killer, Gary Gilmore.  So he wrote to Mailer claiming Gilmore was a liar and offered to share a more accurate experience, that of a "state-raised convict." Mailer was moved by Abbott's writing, and helped him get released on parole in 1981.  He offered to employ him, and the literary crowd in New York was ready to accept him. Only six weeks later, he got into a fight with a waiter and stabbed him in the chest.  He fled town, and was found in Louisiana, on this day.  He was convicted, but he still had Mailer's support, who advocated for a minimum sentence.  He is quoted as saying, "Culture is worth a little risk." His book, which was published just after his release, became a bestseller. The N...