May 24, 2014

Bob Dylan's Birthday - Turns 73, 8 Fun Facts About Dylan, And Now An Australian Tour Announced.


                                                                   

                                                                         

Bob Dylan is 73 years old today and showing no signs of slowing down.


Dylan has been on his Never Ending Tour since 1988 and just completed the 116th leg of the tour in Japan and Hawaii.

Bob will release his 36th studio album this year. It is expected to be a Frank Sinatra covers record. The first song ‘Full Moon and Empty Arms’ was revealed last week.

Here are some other Dylan fun facts to mark Bob’s birthday today:

1. Bob Dylan once appeared in a Victoria’s Secret television commercial.

2. He has also appears in an ad for Chrysler where he also does the voice-over.

3. Bob Dylan has been on what is called the “Never Ending Tour” since June 7, 1988. He has performed 2580 shows over 116 legs since that date including 77 shows in Australia and New Zealand.

4. In 1997 Dylan performed for Pope John Paul II. At the time Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope, tried to stop the Papal performance.

5. Bob Dylan once guest starred in the sitcom Dharma and Greg playing himself.

6. Bob Dylan was the star on the 1987 movie ‘Hearts Of Fire’ playing a retired rock star who becomes a farmer and then comes out of retirement to help and up and coming singer. The movie was a flop. Dylan disowned it and it has never been released on DVD.

7. When Bette Midler covered Dylan’s Buckets Of Rain, Bob sang backing vocals.

8. In recent years Australia’s Nash Edgerton has become Bob Dylans’s video director of choice. Edgerton has directed ‘Duquene Whistle’, ‘It Must Be Santa’ and ‘Beyond Here Lies Nothin’

By Paul Cashmere at Noise 11 - May 24th. Lots more video clips there.

From You Tube here are more details about the album:

From his upcoming album "Shadows in the Night" this 2014.

"Full Moon and Empty Arms" is a 1945 popular song by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman, based on Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.

The best-known recording of the song was made by Frank Sinatra in 1945.

Other recordings: Erroll Garner Trio (Instr.)-1946, Eddie Fisher-1955, Donna Brooks-1956, Robert Goulet-1961, Sarah Vaughan-1963, Jerry Vale-1964 Bob Dylan-2014

Also recorded by: Caterina Valente; Mina; The Platters; Carmen Cavallaro; Jim Nabors; June Valli; Billy Vaughn. 





Update:

BOB Dylan has marked his birthday by announcing a month-long, 11-date tour of Australia and New Zealand. The Blowin' in the Wind star, who turned 73 on Saturday, will play a series of relatively small venues during his first tour Down Under for more than 20 years. 
“Dylan is stepping away from playing large arenas, and instead draws the fans closer with performances in some of the most iconic theatre venues in the country,” said promoters Chugg Entertainment. “Some might say a deeply personal and welcoming atmosphere such as this is the most appropriate environment in which to share the work of Dylan.

“Fans can anticipate a musical event of depth, grace and significance, delivered by one of the greats.” The tour starts at the Claudelands Arena in Hamilton, New Zealand, on August 9.

Dylan then plays two gigs at Perth's Riverside Theatre on August 13 and 14.
The tour heads to Melbourne's Palais Theatre on August 18 and 19 and Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on August 25.

Dylan will then play gigs at Canberra's Royal Theatre on August 29, Adelaide Entertainment Centre on August 31 and Sydney State Theatre on September 3 and 4.
The tour ends at Christchurch's CBS Canterbury Arena on September 10.

With thanks to The Australian

Bob Dylan Is Eminently Worthy Of The Nobel Prize In Literature


Related:
Bob Dylan Releases A Night They Called It A Day Video
 
The Strange, but Mostly True, Story of Laurel Canyon: Gram Parsons And Jim Morrison

'American Pie' Lyrics Sell For $1.2 million In New York


Bob Dylan Named Greatest Songwriter Ahead Of Lennon and McCartney According To Rolling Stone  

Traveling Wilburys To Travel Into New Territory - Streaming


Bob Dylan's Sinatra-inspired 'Fallen Angels' Is Another Musical Triumph

Bob Dylan Wins The Nobel Prize In Literature





                                                                  


Update from The Australian - August 23rd:


WHEN Bob Dylan opened his Australian tour in Perth last week The Australian’s reviewer Polly Coufos made an astute observation about the 73-old-old master craftsman: “He will only do it his way or not at all.’’ 
 
That was as true 47 years ago for the songwriter as it is today. In 1967 Dylan was holed up in Woodstock in upstate New York, recovering from a motorcycle accident. He was also forging a new way, his way, by writing and recording ferociously in a variety of styles with his colleagues in The Band. Those recordings, more than 100 of them, became known as The Basement Tapes. Most of the tracks surfaced on bootlegs before an official album featuring 24 of them was released in 1975.

What no one knew at the time, or indeed until late last year, was that Dylan discarded many of the lyrics he penned during that period. His reasons for doing so aren’t known. What we do know is that 24 of the handwritten lyrics, which Dylan kept in a box folder marked “1967”, are about to see the light.

Last year Dylan gave the lost lyrics to American producer T Bone Burnett, in the hope that he might be able to do something with them. Burnett was able.

This week saw the worldwide release of Nothing To It, one of the 20 tracks featuring those Dylan lyrics that will feature on the album Lost On the River: The New Basement Tapes Vol. 1, in ­November. Five songwriters of Burnett’s choosing wrote music for Dylan’s words: Elvis Costello, Mumford and Sons’ Marcus Mumford, Jim James from the US band My Morning Jacket, Taylor Goldsmith from the group Dawes and singer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens from the Americana outfit Carolina Chocolate Drops. Under Burnett’s supervision, in the basement of Los Angeles’ Capital Studios, the five musos joined forces to record the songs, which have titles such as Spanish Mary, Lost On the River, Liberty Street and Kansas City.

In an exclusive interview in today’s Review section, Costello and Burnett explain how they got to grips with Dylan’s words, how the five musos each came up with different music for them and what it meant to be interpreting one of the greatest songwriters in history.

By Iain Shedden

                
                                                 


                                                                         


                                                                      

Classical Music For Brain Power


                                                                     


                                                                    
Some excellent selections here, and many favourites!

From You Tube:

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Music for Brain Power, Study Music, Concentration, Relaxation
Great for Baby's Brain, Mozart Effect, Stress Reduction, Enjoyment.

What is the "Mozart effect"? A set of research results indicate that listening to Mozart's music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as "spatial-temporal reasoning". 


The "Mozart effect" is the popular idea that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter", or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development.
However, listening to music doesn't make us more intelligent, even though it can help temporary to improve our ability to manipulate shapes mentally.
Moreover, other kinds of music you like or anything that makes you alert (e.g. a few star jumps or drinking coffee) should work just as well.
So enjoy your music and enjoy your life !

Mozart - Piano Concerto N. 21
Mozart - Symphony N. 40 Movt 1 ( 05:32 )
Mozart - Eine Kleine Nacht Movt 2 ( 13:03 )
Mozart - Marriage of Figaro "Overture" ( 18:05 )
Mozart - Violin Sonata K378 Rondeaux ( 22:32 )
Mozart - Horn Concerto Number 3 K447 Movt 2 ( 26:35 )
Mozart - Clarinet Concerto Movt 2 ( 30:54 )
Mozart - Magic Flute Opera "Overture" ( 37:51 )
Mozart - Piano Concerto Number 23 Movt 1 ( 44:59 )
Chopin - Preludio 4 Op. 28 ( 55:45 )
Chopin - Preludio N. 15 "Rain Drop" ( 57:48 )
Chopin - Preludio Op. 28 N. 7 ( 01:03:19 )
Chopin - Studio Op. 25 ( 01:04:09 )
Chopin - Notturno Op. 9 N. 1 ( 01:06:33 )
Chopin - Notturno Op. 15 N. 2 ( 01:11:47 )
Costantini - Sonetto in re b ( 01:15:06 )
Costantini - Berceuse ( 01:18:50 )
Costantini - Lindos ( 01:22:44 )
Enchanted Piano - Heaven ( 01:28:22 )





Closest Living Relative of The Ancient Elephant Bird Is Tiny


                                                             



Ostriches and their flightless relatives are found across the globe not because continental drift forced them apart, but rather because the ancestors of these birds spread across the world through flight, and only later became flightless, researchers say. 

The largest species of flightless birds alive today are called the ratites, and include the ostrich, emu and rhea. These birds' ancestors were once even larger, such as the elephant bird, which stood 10 feet (3 meters) tall, and the moa, which could grow nearly as large. However, not all ratites are big; smaller ones include the chicken-sized kiwi.

Ratites live all over the planet: ostriches in Africa, emus in Australia, rheas in South America and kiwis in New Zealand. The now-extinct elephant birds once lived in Madagascar. Scientists had long thought different species of ratites evolved from equally flightless ancestors after the splitting of the supercontinent Gondwana separated different populations of the birds. The ancient Gondwana landmass included what is now Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India, Arabia, New Zealand and Madagascar. [Image Gallery: 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts

Beginning roughly 130 million years ago, Gondwana broke up into what are now the landmasses of the Southern Hemisphere. Africa and Madagascar also separated early on, about 100 million years ago. This suggests that the African ostrich and the Madagascan elephant birds are the oldest branches of the ratite family tree. Genetic analyses suggest the ostrich is indeed an old species, but whether this is also true of elephant birds had been uncertain, since the extinct status of these birds made it difficult to analyze their genetic information.

After sequencing and analyzing genetic data from two species of elephant bird, scientists unexpectedly discovered the closest living relative of these birds is actually the small kiwi, and not the large ostrich, to which the elephant birds bear a closer physical resemblance.

"We found that elephant birds and kiwis arose from a common ancestor around 50 million years ago," said lead study author Kieren Mitchell, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Adelaide's North Terrace Campus in Australia. "This is after even New Zealand had become isolated."

In fact, elephant birds are only distantly related to ostriches, the researchers said.

"It was a real surprise that elephant birds are most closely related to kiwis — it's completely unprecedented," Mitchell told Live Science. "No one in over a century of study has proposed this relationship. This is because the two groups are just so different. Elephant birds are 3-meter [10 feet] tall, 275-kilogram [600 lbs.] giant herbivores from Madagascar, while kiwis are 5-kilogram [10 lbs.], secretive, shy, nocturnal omnivores from New Zealand."

The unexpected relationship between the elephant bird and the kiwi "highlights the power of evolution to produce radically different forms over a relatively short period of time," Mitchell said. The scientists detailed their findings in the May 23 issue of the journal Science.
The new study suggests that ratites did not evolve from populations of a common flightless ancestor that were separated by continental drift. Rather, it appears these flightless birds surprisingly evolved from ancestors that flew long distances to new corners of the world and then evolved independently to be flightless.

"We have to completely reconsider the origin of ratites as a whole," Mitchell said. "It totally changes our understanding of how these lineages moved around and arrived at their current homes. They can't have rafted on continental fragments — they must have flown."

The common flighted ancestor of modern ratites may have come from a now-extinct group of birds known as lithornithids. "They would have been quite small, unassuming birds, probably about the size of a chicken or quail, not dissimilar to tinamous from South America, a group of flighted birds closely related to ratites," Mitchell said. "Interestingly, lithornithid fossils are known from Europe and North America, places where we don't find ratites today, which is evidence that they were a widespread and highly mobile group."

The researchers estimate the ancestors of modern ratites dispersed around the world roughly 65 million years ago, around the time of the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs. "We think that this dispersal was probably in response to the opening of a huge range of ecological opportunities following the mass extinction. It would have been a free-for-all for those groups that survived," Mitchell said.

Fossils of large mammals do not start appearing until about 10 million years after that mass extinction. "After this point in history, competition with mammals seems to have prevented any new groups of large flightless birds from arising, except on islands where there are no mammals — for example, the dodo on Mauritius," Mitchell said. [Wipe Out: History's Most Mysterious Mass Extinctions]

It remains a mystery why these lineages of flying ratites all independently became flightless birds. "That's the million-dollar question," Mitchell said. "It's remarkable that elephant birds, rheas, moa, ostriches and emus all evolved their very similar body types and size independently from a small, flighted ancestor."

The answer could be linked to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. After so many giant, flightless creatures went extinct with the dinosaurs' demise, these flying birds might have evolved to fill the empty roles in the ecosystems that followed, the researchers said.
"It may simply be that their ancestors were already predominantly ground-feeding birds, and so [they] naturally transitioned into the large, flightless niche when it became available. First come, first served," Mitchell said.

However, "right after the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago, we see a number of other groups of giant, flightless birds turning up — phorusrhacids in South America, gastornithids in Eurasia and dromornithids in Australia — but each of these groups is now extinct," Mitchell said. "So it may not be that ratites are inherently predisposed to becoming giant and flightless, but that they have done it in a way that has allowed them to stand the test of time."

Although the puzzle about the evolution of these flightless birds is not yet solved, "we've added a crucial missing piece, and it's caused us to reevaluate how all the other pieces might really fit together," Mitchell said. "To learn more about the early history of ratites, we really need to find some new fossils, preferably from around 60 million years ago, to figure out where and when the ancestors of ratites were moving. Unfortunately such remains are extremely rare."

By Charles Q. Choi

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+
Thanks Live Science for this original article

Some other related posts:

The Pelagornis Sandersi: Fossil Find Reveals Largest Flying Bird                                              
Dreadnoughtus: A New Dinosaur Discovery
Shark-munching Spinosaurus Was First-known Water Dinosaur: Study Shows
Pterosaurs With 12 Meters Wingspan Struggled While Taking Off
Velociraptor: Facts About The 'Speedy Thief'
Two Jurassic Mini Mammal Species Discovered in China
Researchers Say They've Found The Biggest Dinosaur Ever
The Brontosaurus Is Officially Back
 Kronosaurus Dinosaur Jaw Found In Outback Queensland
Tiny Bat Wing Dinosaur Discovered
Kunbarrasaurus Ieversi: Australia's Newest Dinosaur 
What Killed The Dinosaurs?
Titanosaurs: The Largest Animals Ever To Walk The Earth 
Timurlengia Euotica: The Missing Link to Tyrannosaurus Rex  
Archaeopteryx: The Transitional Fossil 
When Did The Dinosaurs Become Extinct?
Ancient Sea Monster The ­First Vegetarian Marine Reptile 
Spiclypeus Shipporum: New Dinosaur Species Sported Uniquely Spiked Shield





 






May 20, 2014

Did Led Zeppelin Steal The ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Riff? Now Updated.


                                                             






IT is perhaps the best known riff in rock, a progression of finger-picked chords that is estimated to have earned more than half a billion dollars and that made Jimmy Page a guitar god. 

Now it is alleged that the intro to Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zeppelin, was stolen.
The Led Zeppelin guitarist said he wrote the song in 1970 while recuperating from a tour. In 1975, he told Rolling Stone magazine: "Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with Stairway."
That story has become part of rock history — but it may now be rewritten.

Francis Malofiy, an American lawyer, is preparing a case against Led Zeppelin, alleging that the intro was actually written by Randy California, who played with the band Spirit, performing alongside Led Zeppelin in the 1960s. At those gigs, it is claimed that Spirit played Taurus, which is alleged to be the source of the opening chords of Stairway to Heaven.

"The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on Stairway to Heaven," Mr Malofiy, who is representing California's estate, told Business Week.

California drowned saving his son from a rip-tide in Hawaii in 1997. Towards the end of his life, he played sitar at an Indian restaurant for food.

At stake is perhaps rock's fattest cash cow. In 2008, it was estimated that Stairway to Heaven had earned at least $562 million in royalties and sales.

Led Zeppelin and their label, Warner Music, have declined to comment on the pending legal action.

                                                                       
It is not the first allegation of plagiarism against the band, who settled out of court in 1972 when the publishing arm of Chess Records sued them, claiming that they had borrowed too closely from tracks such as Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor.

In an interview with Listener magazine in 1997, California complained that Stairway to Heaven was a "rip-off". He said: "The guys made millions of bucks on it and never said 'Thank you', never said, 'Can we pay you some money for it?' Maybe some day their conscience will make them do something about it." 

By Rhys Blakely 

With thanks to The Australian

                                                                 


                                                                    


October 2014:
Led Zeppelin Lose First Round Of Stairway To Heaven Legal Battle With Spirit

Father Of Anne Frank Listed As Co-Author Of Diary To Extend Copyright


Much more here about borrowing and copyright infringement, not just with this song but several others.
Tom Petty Calls Sam Smith Song "A Musical Accident"
Related:Melanie Safka: Look What They Did To Her Songs
Copyright Issues With "Prisoner Theme" Written by Allan Caswell
Is Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' Really The Best Guitar Riff Ever?
Cellist Maya Beiser Channels Janis Joplin, Nirvana And Other Rockers
Glyn Johns: Defining That Classic-Rock Sound
Fender Stratocaster: A Design Icon At 60
Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti Remaster Coming February
Robin Thicke And Pharell Williams Lose The ‘Blurred Lines’ - Marvyn Gaye Lawsuit
The Weirdest Musical Instruments
Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant And Jimmy Page Face 'Stairway To Heaven' Trial
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Denies Stealing Stairway To Heaven Riff 
Musicians Ask for Change to Copyright Law to Fight YouTube Piracy
Led Zeppelin To Pay Copyright Legal Costs





 






Metropolitan Museum Initiative Provides Free Access to 400,000 Digital Images


                                                                   


                                                                   

New Web Program Allows Free Image Download for Non-Commercial Use.
 
(New York, May 16, 2014)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today that more than 400,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum’s world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum’s website for non-commercial use—including in scholarly publications in any media—without permission from the Museum and without a fee. The number of available images will increase as new digital files are added on a regular basis.

In making the announcement, Mr. Campbell said: “Through this new, open-access policy, we join a growing number of museums that provide free access to images of art in the public domain. I am delighted that digital technology can open the doors to this trove of images from our encyclopedic collection.”  

The Metropolitan Museum’s initiative—called Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC)—provides access to images of art in its collection that the Museum believes to be in the public domain and free of other known restrictions; these images are now available for scholarly use in any media. 

Works that are covered by the new policy are identified on the Museum’s website (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections) with the acronym OASC. (Certain works are not available through the initiative for one or more of the following reasons: the work is still under copyright, or the copyright status is unclear; privacy or publicity issues; the work is owned by a person or an institution other than the Metropolitan Museum; restrictions by the artist, donor, or lender; or lack of a digital image of suitable quality.)

OASC was developed as a resource for students, educators, researchers, curators, academic publishers, non-commercial documentary filmmakers, and others involved in scholarly or cultural work. Prior to the establishment of OASC, the Metropolitan Museum provided images upon request, for a fee, and authorization was subject to terms and conditions.

Additional information and instructions on OASC can be found on the Museum’s website at http://www.metmuseum.org/research/image-resources/frequently-asked-questions

With thanks to The Metropolitan Museum (Via Twitter)

The Collection Online.

Some other posts on Art:
Van Gogh On Dark Water Animation


This Fake Rembrandt Was Created By An Algorithm  

Fore-edge Painting: Artists Hide Paintings Along The Edges Of Old Books  

Insanely Realistic Pencil Drawings

Found: A Missing Paul Gauguin Painting

Royal Academy of British Art Coming To Town

Australia and the UK Battle Over Historic Paintings Of A Kangaroo And A Dingo

Finally: A Digital Home For Lost Masterpieces

America: "Painting a Nation" Exhibition in Art Gallery of NSW

Chauvet Cave Paintings: Cave Women Left Their Artistic Mark

London exhibition of Australian art holds up a mirror to our nation: more iconic images
 
500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

Some Fascinating Pictures featuring Alyssa Monks

Visual Art of the Human Body by Cecelia Webber

Ronnie Wood: His Art and The Rolling Stones

The lost Van Gogh: Painting found in Norwegian attic is confirmed as priceless work by Dutch master

Market Find Turns Out To Be A Lost Faberge Egg

Charles Dellschau: Secrets of An Undiscovered Visionary Artist

Tom Pinch: Time - Lapse Portraits of Paul McCartney and John Lennon

How JMW Turner Set Painting Free 

The Curious Case Of The Renaissance Cockatoo

Images On Andy Warhol’s Old Computer Discs Excite University Students

Human Ingenuity: From the Renaissance to the Age of the Internet - The Sistine Chapel

Katsushika Hokusai: Japanese Artist

Picasso's "Women of Algiers" Breaks Auction Record

Looted Treasures Open Door To The Dark Nazi Past

Long-lost Caravaggio Masterpiece Found In French Attic

Frederic Remington: The Man Who Helped Bring The West To Life 

Loving Vincent: The World's First Fully Painted Film 

Vincenzo Peruggia: The Man Who Stole The Mona Lisa And Made Her more Famous Than Ever

The Isleworth Mona Lisa: A Second Leonardo Masterpiece? 

 Optical Illusions In Art

MC Escher: An Enigma Behind an Illusion      
                                                    
Hidden Degas Portrait Revealed

First Faberge Egg Created For 99 Years Goes To Doha  

The World’s Priceless Treasures

Woman in Gold: Another Biopic For Dame Helen Mirren 

Australia and the UK Battle Over Historic Paintings Of A Kangaroo And A Dingo

Finally: A Digital Home For Lost Masterpieces

Could Anyone Paint A Vermeer? 

Artemisia Gentileschi - Her Biography And Her Art

John Constable Painting Sold By Christie's For £3,500 In June 2013 Will Now Go To Market To Sell For £2 million

The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy

Yulia Brodskaya:Paper Explodes With Life In This Artist's Hands

The Memory of Mankind Archive: The Greatest Time Capsule Ever                            

David Bowie's Personal Art Collection Auctioned Off For $30 Million