The Nightshift: 24 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Morning,  It’s Friday, 24 March 2017, and this is the Morning Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
Trumpcare failed in Congress yesterday, as the House leadership decided they didn’t have enough votes to get it passed and postponed the vote until perhaps today or maybe even Monday. Not looking good for the Administration’s first major piece of legislation.
A former Russian lawmaker and Putin critic was shot and killed in Kiev (Ukraine). He had moved to Ukraine for reasons of personal safety.
In NCAA basketball, Xavier, Gonzaga, Oregon and Kansas all won their tournament games and will move on to the round of 8. Another slate of four games is up tonight. How’s your bracket?
Baseball manager Dallas Green (one of the few men to ever manage both the Yankees and the Mets) has died. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies to their first World Series title in 1980.
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1036 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

Bruce Springsteen Plays Chuck Berry

Paying Attention:
To get an appreciation of how deep Chuck Berry’s influence went, you just have to look at the royalty of rock&roll and their performances of  his music. Here’s a great clip  of Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band doing the Berry classic “You Never Can Tell”. It starts off as rock&roll classic and bumps into a Dixieland tribute to the man at the top of the rock&roll food chain. Kick this one to the flat screen, run it through the stereo, and turn it up.
The Fine Print: Embed via YouTube, from Vevo, (c)2013 Bruce Springsteen. All rights reserved by respective artists, rightsholders. We thank them all for sharing.

Transitions: Chuck Berry (1926-2017)

Paying Attention:

“You know, my temperature’s risin’
And the jukebox blowing a fuse
My heart’s beatin’ rhythm
And my soul keeps on singin’ the blues
Roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news…”
–from Roll Over Beethooven by Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry died on Saturday. He was 90 years old and he was known throughout the world as Chuck Berry. The New York Times published an excellent appreciation of Chuck Berry’s life this weekend. Written by Jon Pareles, it will provide not just the starting point, end point, and specifics of Berry’s life, but also an appreciation of why Chuck Berry was so important to music, specifically rock&roll music.
Chuck Berry was one of the pioneers of rock&roll music. John Lennon said “if you tried to give rock & roll another name it would be Chuck Berry”. The Beatles, like the Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys,  and Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan all put Berry at the top of the rock&roll food chain. Berry played with Clapton, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen.  Chuck Berry songs were frequently on their albums and live show playlists. It was Berry who put the rhythm in rock&roll,combining country and blues and R&B into one new music form,  sorted the chord structure and progressions, insisted on the driving drum and bass beat and the carefully articulated lyrics–the better to drive home the freedom of the message. Chuck Berry was present at the birth of rock&roll. His importance was such that he was in the first batch of honorees to the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame; Keith Richards handled his induction.
It wasn’t just the music that Berry shaped, it was the very soul of rock&roll–the attitude. Berry, in trouble more than once with the authorities, brought a rebellious attitude about life, love, and the importance of having a good time to his music. His songs talked about the driving forces of teenage life in America: cars, love, rebellion, lust, music, yearning, “You didn’t know whether Chuck Berry was black or white. It wasn’t a concern”, said Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. His message and his voice was  universal and his attitude was perfect for the times and the music. Rock&roll is not the music of obedience; it is the music of rebellion, of push back, of dissent, of freedom.  It was, as my old pal and running buddy Professor Robert O. McAlister, Phd. says, “tire slashing rock&roll”.
On stage Berry was an accomplished, comfortable, energetic, charismatic performer. He was both an artist in performance and a performance artist. Nothing was left to chance: not the way he dressed, the level at which his guitar was strung, the choreography of his moves–the legendary “duck walk” among them–the carefully crafted pompadour hairstyle (Berry went to cosmetology school); the flamboyant sideburns and pencil thin mustache. Berry played with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips, acutely aware of the intimate connection he had with his audience.  He didn’t ease into a show; he blasted into it, setting the tone for the night. His performances were powerful and jumping and joyful–a worship service in the mobile road show temple of rock&roll.
Chuck Berry has gone but he’s still here, present in the music and attitude he created and developed, and in the thousands of musicians he influenced. To get a wider appreciation of Berry’s influence, take the time to go through the Chuck Berry ClickPak below.
With essential background provided by the ClickPak, below please find all you need to know about Chuck Berry:a collection of  songs that Chuck Berry left for us, from various performances.
Click through and turn it up.
You’ll feel a lot better if you do.
Sweet Little Sixteen (intro by Dick Clark..”let’s turn him loose”…got it)
The Fine Print: Video embeds courtesy of our friends at YouTube. All rights belong to their respective artists. 
 

The Nightshift: 23 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Morning,  It’s Thursday, 23 March 2017, and this is the Morning Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
There was a terror attack in London. Four people were killed–including the attacker–and 29 people were hospitalized with injuries. The attacker used a vehicle to run over people on the Westminster Bridge and then ran away from the scene and tried to gain access to Parliament. He was shot dead after stabbing a policeman guarding the facility.
The strangeness in Washington, DC continues. Today’s symbol of odd and unprecedented behavior: House Intel Committee head Congressman Devin Nunes. Check the headlines from The Washington Post and the New York Times (below) for detail. What a mess. The Trumpcare health bill is scheduled to be voted on tonight. That could be yet another disaster for the new administration (do you really think they put the time into it to get it right?).
The NCAA tournament is back in action tonight as the first round of games for the Sweet 16 take place. There’ll be another round tomorrow night. How’s your bracket doing?
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1033 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

The Nightshift: 22 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Morning,  It’s Wednesday, 22 March 2017, and this is the Morning Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
The White House is still reeling from the revelations in Monday’s Russia Hacking/Wiretap hearing. An administration that entered office blasting the press and criticizing the intelligence services is now paying the price for going to battle with “someone who buys ink by the barrel” and “the people who know  everyone’s secrets”. Part of the art of picking a fight is knowing who to pick it with…a skill that seems to have eluded the current administration. Trumpcare is looking increasingly like it’s D.O.A. but with this Congress you never can tell. The White House has told congressional representatives that they will face a tough time getting re-elected if they don’t vote for the bill, but a surprising number of Representatives have sorted out the fact that the White House can’t vote them into or out of office. If the bill fails to get out of the house, things are going to get downright depressing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (and probably in Mar-A-Lago too).
Jerry Krause, the architect behind the great Chicago Bulls/Michael Jordan teams from 1984-1998 has died. He was 77 and will always be credited with having superb player/coach judgement. It was Krause that put Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, and Dennis Rodman on the court together and brought in Phil Jackson to coach them. It was an era and he created it–the Bulls won 6 titles under Krause’s guidance. Thanks, Jerry, for the memories.
Yesterday was the worst day of the year for the stock market. Think all that talk of Russian hacking and possible collusion had anything to do with it? Sears is on the ropes (again) and this time it’s “doubtful” the enterprise can continue. Inevitable. The company was bought by the current owners/management for the real estate; the retail operations were just the bonus round. That might make a compelling investment story (“We can’t lose..if it all goes down, we still have the real estate”) but it greatly devalues a company that once accounted–by itself–for 1% of the American GDP.  It’s a very sad situation, since Sears was once the crown jewel of American retailing. There’s a full business course’s worth of information about Sears in the excellent book “The Big Store”, by Don Katz. Required reading for investors and entrepreneurs alike.
For a light news day, that’s a lot of news as one of the Media Bunker reporters said. But…wait…there’s more.
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1032 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

The Nightshift: 21 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Morning,  It’s Tuesday, 21 March 2017, and this is the Morning Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
James Comey (FBI) and Admiral Mike Rogers (NSA) made an appearance before Congress yesterday. It did not go well for the White House. The takeaways: there is no evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped and the FBI is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the American elections as well as if there was any cooperation or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The drama in Washington goes on, gathering intensity everyday.
Tom Brady’s Superbowl jersey has been found, along with another of his missing jerseys and a helmet from the Bronco’s Superbowl win. They were found in Mexico in possession of someone with an international media pass.
Rockefeller patriarch and international banker David Rockefeller has died. He was 101 years old. The Rockefeller family has long been the gold standard in how to manage a fortune and “give back” through donations and involvement.  They donated money and/or land to develop or enhance the Great Smokey Mountain, Shenandoah, Acadia, and Grand Teton national parks. The family also donated the land for the United Nations.
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1031 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

The Nightshift: 20 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Morning,  It’s Monday, 20 March 2017, and this is the Morning Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament finished it’s first weekend of play. Upsets included Villanova (number 1 overall seed), Duke (No. 2 seed in the East), Virginia, USC, Minnesota. Next weekend, the Sweet 16 Play. That will also be something to look forward to.
James Comey is scheduled to testify before/confer with Congress today on Russian hacking in the American Presidential Election. He’ll probably also get a few words in on the alleged-but-not-proven wiretapping of Trump Tower. The full court press is on Congress for Trumpcare.  Who knows what drama will roll out of Washington this week?
Jimmy Breslin, the legendary New York newspaper columnist died at 88. Breslin was one of a kind, equally comfortable on the street, in the newsroom, or at a bar and was considered one of the founders/guiding lights of “The New Journalism”. Newspapers in Breslin’s day were required reading and Breslin’s columns were mandatory. Perhaps, with the press’s newly aggressive attitude with investigative journalism, we shall see them rise once again. That would be a good thing.
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1030 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

The Nightshift: 19 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Afternoon, It’s Sunday, 19  March 2017, and this is the Afternoon Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament is headed into the final day of its first weekend. Yesterday, Wisconsin upset Number 1 Seed Villanova, Xavier took out Florida State (who looked, frankly, overmatched), Gonzaga put an end to Northwestern’s Cinderella run (but not without controversy–congrats to Northwestern for the effort they put into the tournament). The Second Round will conclude today with games well into the evening. In other sports news, a Cadillac DPI won the overall title at the 12 Hours of Sebring; in the GTLM category, our friends at Risi Competizione delivered a podium finish (3rd) behind  the class winning Corvette and a Ford GT40. There were 4 GTLM cars on the same lap at the finish after 12 hours of racing. Mercedes-Benz took first in the GTD class with another Ferrari 488 GT3 in second.
Politically–at least in the U.S.–it has been relatively quiet; next week is a big one for the new Administration as they hope to gain some traction on the Trumpcare health bill. On Monday, FBI director James Comey will speak in Congress about the Russian hacking allegations. The outcome of that conversation create political havoc. The Secret Service is proving to be not so good at the “secret” part; a briefcase was stolen that contained detailed floor plans of Trump Tower, PIN codes, and radio frequencies. Yet another leak that no one in the White House will appreciate.
Rock and roll lost a legend over the weekend when Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry–one of the pioneers of and major influences in rock & roll–died. He was 90.  A tribute to Berry is in production now (with plenty of music).
Finally, congratulations to Mikaela Shiffrin of the US World Cup team for winning the World Cup Overall title on Saturday, just 5 days after she turned 22. Shiffrin is the youngest to win the overall title since 2003 and is a certified phenom. If you want to learn how to ski and ski the slalom, catch her slalom races his year via NBC Sports online or YouTube. The combination of grace and speed is astounding.
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1029 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world. 

The Nightshift: 18 March 2017

Press Clippings:

Good Morning. It’s Saturday, 18  March 2017, and this is the Morning Edition of The Nightshift, the world’s overnight news feed.
The NCAA tournament has completed its first round of competition. The second round of competition is today and tomorrow. By the end of the weekend, the 64 teams that started the NCAA tournament will be cut down to 16. From this point forward, it gets very tough.  Check out the SI.com guide to Round Two  for complete information.  Enjoy the Madness as there will be basketball (and golf at the Arnold Palmer Invitation and auto racing at Sebring and FIS Skiing from Aspen) for the rest of the weekend.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Donald Trump yesterday. Frosty would be an understatement. Politico put a rather sharp point on the meeting in an article headlined “The leader of the free world meets with Donald Trump”. Perhaps our international reputation is suffering from a rather erratic start to the administration.  Despite the fact that a Congressional committee has refuted Trump’s claims of wiretapping and the fact that the British have denied the ridiculous claim by the White House that they either participated in and/or facilitated spying on Trump Tower before or after the election, the White House and its spokespeople cling to their position that Trump Tower was wiretapped. Someone’s seen too many James Bond movies. And, in the Annals of Foreign Policy category, Secretary of State Tillerson has said that a “pre-emptive strike” may be required to bring North Korea back into line regarding missiles and nuclear weapons, thus totally invalidating the value of a pre-emptive strike (it’s not pre-emptive if someone suspects it might be coming) and simultaneously encouraging the fragile and irrational  North Korean regime to make their own pre-emptive strike in advance.  Hmmmm.
Oh well…
Catch up on the news in the rest of the world by reading the front pages of the World’s Greatest newspapers.
The International Headlines are all at your fingertips:
The Times (London
Financial Times (UK)
The Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)
The Wall Street Journal (European edition)
Washington Post (Washington, D.C.)
New York Times (New York)
The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles)
Daily News Egypt (Cairo)
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
The Moscow Times (Moscow)
Le Figaro (Paris)
The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem)
The Japanese Times (Tokyo)
The Buenas Aires Herald (Buenas Aires)
The Sidney Morning Herald (Sidney)
Deadline Hollywood (Hollywood)
FiveThirtyEight (New York City)
The Fine Print:  Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images, who have the photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. They remain the internet’s go-to source for photos.  This visual has not been altered in any way. We thank them for sharing. The Nightshift is a production of Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. This post is number 1028 for this site. Thanks for reading. Now–catch up on the world.