How Big Is Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk!,”? This Big.
From Billboard:
Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk!,” featuring Bruno Mars, this week becomes just the 19th No. 1 in Hot 100 history to lead for at least 11 weeks. It’s just the second to reach that level this decade: Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” featuring T.I. and Pharrell, began a 12-week command in June 2013.
“Funk” logs an 11th week atop the Digital Songs chart with 189,000 downloads sold (down 10 percent) in the week ending March 15, according to Nielsen Music. It’s now one of just three songs to lead Digital Songs for at least 11 weeks: Flo Rida’s “Low,” featuring T-Pain, racked a record 13 weeks on top in 2007-08, while Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” dominated for 11 weeks last year.
Ronson and Mars’ collab, thus, leads the Hot 100 and its three main component charts (Digital Songs, Radio Songs and Streaming Songs) simultaneously for a record-extending seventh week (nonconsecutively).
Tower Records Founder Russ Solomon’s Suprising Take on Vinyl
From Billboard:
Billboard: What was the moment where you realized vinyl records were fading, and when did you know that they were coming back into vogue?
Russ Solomon: It began fading out right after 1983 when the CD came in, but though the vinyl business was reduced to virtually nothing, it never went away. There was an underground of vinyl, and in the early 1980s, you had the advent of companies such as Mobile Fidelity remastering and pressing records on higher quality vinyl. The vinyl pressings coming out of Japan were also much better than the American stuff.
And what do you attribute to the resurgence?
You’re talking about where it all of a sudden became a little bit more hip [to buy records?] It started out actually with those so-called high quality records pressed on 140 gram, 180 gram or 220-gram vinyl, but they were priced terribly high. And then that evolved into a few rock artists putting out their new albums on vinyl, and the collectors flocked in. The truth of it is it’s still a collector’s market, even though they sold what — 9 million or so vinyl records last year? Most of those are not pressed on this high quality stuff.
Weird Al Yankovic’s Miraculous Trip to the Convenience Store
Rarely does a trip to the convenience store go as well as Weird Al Yankovic’s trip went.
The 146-Question Knowledge Test Thomas Edison Gave to Prospective Employees Back In 1921
You’ve likely been in a job interview when a strange question was asked by the employers, seemingly having nothing to do with the occupation. It’s designed for gauge interest, strip a layer or two off your canned answers to the usual questions, and for the company to find out a little bit more about you.
Thomas Edison, the genius of American technological innovation, however, had other plans. He gave possible future workers with him a 146-question test on subjects of general knowledge from geography to history to physics to the price of gold. I’m not going to tell you how many I got right, but that I’m happy to work in the music industry.
“Americans obsessed over the test following [the] publication of many questions in the May 11, 1921 New York Times,” writes Paleofuture’s Matt Novak. “From there the test was debated, copied, and parodied in newspapers and magazines around the country.” Once you’ve made your guesses, you can check your answers over at Paleofuture.
1. What countries bound France?
2. What city and country produce the finest china?
3. Where is the River Volga?
4. What is the finest cotton grown?
5. What country consumed the most tea before the war?
6. What city in the United States leads in making laundry machines?
7. What city is the fur centre of the United States?
8. What country is the greatest textile producer?
9. Is Australia greater than Greenland in area?
10. Where is Copenhagen?
11. Where is Spitzbergen?
12. In what country other than Australia are kangaroos found?
13. What telescope is the largest in the world?
14. Who was Bessemer and what did he do?
15. How many states in the Union?
16. Where do we get prunes from?
17. Who was Paul Revere?
18. Who was John Hancock?
19. Who was Plutarch?
20. Who was Hannibal?
21. Who was Danton?
22. Who was Solon?
23. Who was Francis Marion?
24. Who was Leonidas?
25. Where did we get Louisiana from?
26. Who was Pizarro?
27. Who was Bolivar?
28. What war material did Chile export to the Allies during the war?
29. Where does most of the coffee come from?
30. Where is Korea?
31. Where is Manchuria?
32. Where was Napoleon born?
33. What is the highest rise of tide on the North American Coast?
34. Who invented logarithms?
35. Who was the Emperor of Mexico when Cortez landed?
36. Where is the Imperial Valley and what is it noted for?
37. What and where is the Sargasso Sea?
38. What is the greatest known depth of the ocean?
39. What is the name of a large inland body of water that has no outlet?
40. What is the capital of Pennsylvania?
41. What state is the largest? Next?
42. Rhode Island is the smallest state. What is the next and the next?
43. How far is it from New York to Buffalo?
44. How far is it from New York to San Francisco?
45. How far is it from New York to Liverpool?
46. Of what state is Helena the capital?
47. Of what state is Tallahassee the capital?
48. What state has the largest copper mines?
49. What state has the largest amethyst mines?
50. What is the name of a famous violin maker?
51. Who invented the modern paper-making machine?
52. Who invented the typesetting machine?
53. Who invented printing?
54. How is leather tanned?
55. What is artificial silk made from?
56. What is a caisson?
57. What is shellac?
58. What is celluloid made from?
59. What causes the tides?
60. To what is the change of the seasons due?
61. What is coke?
62. From what part of the North Atlantic do we get codfish?
63. Who reached the South Pole?
64. What is a monsoon?
65. Where is the Magdalena Bay?
66. From where do we import figs?
67. From where do we get dates?
68. Where do we get our domestic sardines?
69. What is the longest railroad in the world?
70. Where is Kenosha?
71. What is the speed of sound?
72. What is the speed of light?
73. Who was Cleopatra and how did she die?
74. Where are condors found?
75, Who discovered the law of gravitation?
76. What is the distance between the earth and sun?
77. Who invented photography?
78. What country produces the most wool?
79. What is felt?
80. What cereal is used in all parts of the world?
81. What states produce phosphates?
82. Why is cast iron called pig iron?
83. Name three principal acids?
84. Name three powerful poisons.
85. Who discovered radium?
86. Who discovered the X-ray?
87. Name three principal alkalis.
88. What part of Germany do toys come from?
89. What States bound West Virginia?
90. Where do we get peanuts from?
91. What is the capital of Alabama?
92. Who composed “Il Trovatore”?
93. What is the weight of air in a room 20 by 30 by 10?
94. Where is platinum found?
95. With what metal is platinum associated when found?
96. How is sulphuric acid made?
97. Where do we get sulphur from?
98. Who discovered how to vulcanize rubber?
99. Where do we import rubber from?
100. What is vulcanite and how is it made?
101. Who invented the cotton gin?
102. What is the price of 12 grains of gold?
103. What is the difference between anthracite and bituminous coal?
104. Where do we get benzol from?
105. Of what is glass made?
106. How is window glass made?
107. What is porcelain?
108. What country makes the best optical lenses and what city?
109. What kind of a machine is used to cut the facets of diamonds?
110. What is a foot pound?
111. Where do we get borax from?
112. Where is the Assuan Dam?
113. What star is it that has been recently measured and found to be of enormous size?
114. What large river in the United States flows from south to north?
115. What are the Straits of Messina?
116. What is the highest mountain in the world?
117. Where do we import cork from?
118. Where is the St. Gothard tunnel?
119. What is the Taj Mahal?
120. Where is Labrador?
121. Who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”?
122. Who wrote “Home, Sweet Home”?
123. Who was Martin Luther?
124. What is the chief acid in vinegar?
125. Who wrote “Don Quixote”?
126. Who wrote “Les Miserables”?
127. What place is the greatest distance below sea level?
128. What are axe handles made of?
129. Who made “The Thinker”?
130. Why is a Fahrenheit thermometer called Fahrenheit?
131. Who owned and ran the New York Herald for a long time?
132. What is copra?
133. What insect carries malaria?
134. Who discovered the Pacific Ocean?
135. What country has the largest output of nickel in the world?
136. What ingredients are in the best white paint?
137. What is glucose and how made?
138. In what part of the world does it never rain?
139. What was the approximate population of England, France, Germany and Russia before the war?
140. Where is the city of Mecca?
141. Where do we get quicksilver from?
142. Of what are violin strings made?
143. What city on the Atlantic seaboard is the greatest pottery centre?
144. Who is called the “father of railroads” in the United States?
145. What is the heaviest kind of wood?
146. What is the lightest wood?
Free Open Course From Stan Lee – The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture
Join the Smithsonian, and comic book industry legend Stan Lee, to explore the history of the comic book and the rise of superheroes in a free online course starting May 5th. This. Is. Great. You can enroll here.
The ancient gods of Egyptian, Greek and Roman myths still exist, but today, they have superpowers, human foibles and secret identities. They come from comic books and graphic novels, and have taken over pop culture on the stage, screen, video games, and animation.
From Superman and Spiderman, to The Avengers and The Hulk and beyond, who are these heroes? And, how have they evolved from folklore and myth, across all cultures and religions?
Learn from Smithsonian and industry experts including:
- Stan Lee, who created the modern superhero template. His early comics featuring Spiderman, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, and The Avengers led Marvel to success. He continues to reinvent himself to create modern global superheroes and appear in cameos in superhero films and TV, such asAvengers: Age of Ultron.
- Michael Uslan, executive producer of top grossing, award winning movies, including The Dark Knightseries, Lego Movie, the animated Batman films and Batman VS Superman.
In this course, the Smithsonian will explore the following questions:
- Why did superheroes first arise in 1938 and experience what we refer to as their “Golden Age” during World War II?
- Why did the superhero genre ebb and flow in popularity over the decades?
- How have comic books, published weekly since the mid-1930’s, mirrored a changing American society, reflecting our mores, slang, fads, biases and prejudices?
- Why was the comic book industry nearly shut down in the McCarthy Era of the 1950’s?
- How did our superheroes become super-villains in the eyes of the government, clergy, educators, and parents of the mid-20th Century?
- When and how did comic books become acceptable again, and eventually become valid teaching tools in universities and schools?
- When and how did comic book artwork become accepted as a true American art form as indigenous to this country as jazz?
- Finally, when and how did comic books become “cool” and the basis for blockbuster movies, hit TV series, top-selling video games, and acclaimed animation, while also impacting fashion and style- and even the moral and ethical codes of children- around the globe?
For the first time ever, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History is excited to offer the opportunity to go into the collection and see why superheroes are a dominant cultural force in today’s world. Not only will students be taught by Smithsonian experts, and three industry leaders – Stan Lee, Michael Uslan and David Uslan, but they will also get to ask questions and chat online with them around coursework. At last, fans, students and seekers of knowledge have the opportunity to enroll in the ultimate comic book course.
Nirvana Saturday Night Live Promo Rehearsal With Charles Barkley From 1993
http://youtu.be/eYumjY8swZ0
Hayley Williams’ Isolated Vocal for Paramore’s Still Into You
“Still Into You” was released in 2013 on Paramore’s fourth, self-titled album. The track rose to #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, went platinum in the U.S. This video was recorded by lead singer Hayley Williams herself in the studio’s vocal booth while recording the track, giving some insight on the great facial expressions we don’t normally get a chance to see.
Hear John Lennon’s Final Interview, From The Last Day of His Life
On December 8, 1980, Dave Sholin and his RKO Radio crew interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Dakota Apartment in Manhattan for over three hours. Tragically, it would be Lennon’s very last interview—not one of the last—the last. He was shot dead just hours later in the very entryway of the building that Sholin and his crew had just left. Shot dead by a “fan” whom they had seen hanging around the Dakota as they left.
Sholin would receive the news after landing in San Francisco. The most incredible day of his life suddenly turned into a nightmare. Now that he had Lennon’s last words in his hands, some of which were incredibly prophetic, his day lasted another three without sleep. He immediately was summoned to the station for live on-camera interviews with every news program including Good Morning America, which was going live at 4am PST (7am EST) to talk about John Lennon’s tragic murder and the legacy he had left behind. The world was in deep mourning.
RKO Radio had planned to put together a fully produced radio program on Lennon based on this interview that would air the following month, but now they had just four days to get this out to a grieving public.
The bit about the sixties we were all full of hope and then everybody got depressed and the seventies were terrible – that attitude that everybody has; that the sixties was therefore negated for being naïve and dumb. And the seventies is really where it’s at, which means, you know, putting makeup on and dancing in the disco – which was fine for the seventies – but I don’t negate the sixties. I don’t negate the seventies. The … the seeds that were planted in the sixties – and possibly they were planted generations before – but the seed… whatever happened in the sixties the… the flowering of that is in the feminist, feminization of society. The meditation, the positive learning that people are doing in all walks of life. That is a direct result of the opening up of the sixties. Now, maybe in the sixties we were naïve and like children everybody went back to their room and said, ‘Well, we didn’t get a wonderful world of just flowers and peace and happy chocolate and, and, and it wasn’t just pretty and beautiful all the time’ and that’s what everybody did, ‘we didn’t get everything we wanted’ just like babies and everybody went back to their rooms and sulked. And we’re just gonna play rock and roll and not do anything else . We’re gonna stay in our rooms and the world is a nasty, horrible place ’cause it didn’t give us everything we cried for’, right? Cryin’ for it wasn’t enough. The thing the sixties did was show us the possibility and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility, and the seventies everybody gone ‘Nya, nya, nya, nya’. And possibly in the eighties everybody’ll say, ‘Well, ok, let’s project the positive side of life again’, you know? The world’s been goin’ on a long time, right? It’s probably gonna go on a long time… ”
Robert Plant Announces North American Tour Dates With The Pixies
Kicking off Sunday, May 24, at the Sasquatch! Festival in George, WA, Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters are playing a string of North American summer dates. This includes his return to Bonnaroo the weekend of June 12, and finishing off the run in Philadelphia at The Mann Center. The complete itinerary is below.
Tickets will go on sale Friday 20 March at 10am ET via robertplant.com. Each ticket to the non-festival shows will include a CD of the band’s latest album, lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar. The Pixies will be opening five of these shows; JD McPherson four of them.
Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets for the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, CA performances from Wednesday, March 18 at 10am PT through Thursday, March 19 at 10pm PT. For more information, please visit citiprivatepass.com.
The tour is in support of Robert Plant’s lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar, which was named one of the top 50 albums of the year by NPR, which said, “At 66, the singer is still a majestic rock presence, at peace with the legacy of his hard-rock-defining band Led Zeppelin, while remaining relentlessly creative in his solo work. But on his 10th solo album, Plant does pause by those waters to consider the aesthetic, emotional and spiritual currents that have shaped his illustrious life. He finds himself, characteristically, not saddened but renewed… Not one of these songs sounds precisely like its source; that’s the genius of this album. It lovingly layers elements in ways that mirror memory, creating new constructs from floating shards of the musical past.”
Robert described lullaby and…The Ceaseless Roar as, “a celebratory record, powerful, gritty, African, Trance meets Zep.” He continued, “The whole impetus of my life as a singer has to be driven by a good brotherhood. I am very lucky to work with The Sensational Space Shifters. They come from exciting areas of contemporary music…”
Full North American tour dates:
MAY
24 – George, WA – Sasquatch! Festival
25 – Bend, OR – Les Schwab Amphitheater
27 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot #
28 – Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl #
30 – Napa, CA – BottleRock Festival
31 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl #
JUNE
2 – Los, Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre #
5 – Hunter, NY – Mountain Jam Festival
7 – Toronto, ONT – Molson Amphitheatre %
9 – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadowbrook Music Festival %
10 – Chicago, IL – FirstMerit Bank Pavilion @ Northerly Island %
12 – Memphis, TN – Mud Island Amphitheatre
12 – 14 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Festival
15 – Raleigh, NC – Koka Booth Amphitheater %
17 – Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center %
# JD McPherson support
% Pixies support
