Today on Terry Gross' NOT SO FRESH AIR:
TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. This year marks the centennial of Judy Garland's birth. You may have watched some of her films when she was star of the month on the Turner Classic Movies channel. Warner Brothers has been reissuing her films on Blu-ray. Our classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz is going to review the most recent of those new releases.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUT NOT FOR ME")
JUDY GARLAND: (Singing) They're writing songs of love but not for me. A lucky star's above but not for me. With love to lead the way, I've found more skies of gray than any Russian play could guarantee. I was a fool...
LLOYD SCHWARTZ, BYLINE: Judy Garland's poignant rendition of "But Not For Me" was the high point of Busby Berkeley's 1943 version of the 1930 Gershwin musical "Girl Crazy," not only because she's in such beautiful voice, but because she seems to be singing completely without artifice. From the very beginning of her career, audiences found Garland so lovable because of her rare emotional honesty. The only film I know in which she actually sings badly is Ziegfeld Girl from 1941, and she does it on purpose. In the story, her father is a retired vaudevillian who coaches her to punch out every song, and she's awful until she finally follows her own unerring instincts. She demonstrated those instincts in 33 feature films, 30 of them musicals, before her death at the age of 47. This year, the centennial of her birth, Warner Brothers has been reissuing a number of her films in gorgeously restored Blu-rays, joining such previously released classics as "The Wizard Of Oz," "Meet Me In St. Louis," "Easter Parade" and "A Star Is Born." These new additions also reveal that her most exuberant songs were as good as her tender ones because her joy of singing is so genuine as in the title song from her first film with Gene Kelly. It's his very first movie, and she generously gives him the melody while she sings impeccable harmony.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FOR ME AND MY GAL")
JUDY GARLAND AND GENE KELLY: (Singing) The bells are ringing for me and my gal. The birds are singing for me and my gal. Everybody's been knowing to a wedding they're going. And for weeks, they've been sewing. They've been sewing something old and something new so - something that is blue so they can make a trousseau for my gal. They're congregating for me and my gal. Look here why. That's the parson waiting for me and my gal. And sometime, we're going to build a little home for two.
GARLAND: (Singing) Or three.
GENE KELLY: (Singing) Or four.
GARLAND: (Singing) Or five.
KELLY: (Singing) Or maybe more.
GARLAND AND KELLY: (Singing) In love-land for me and my gal.
SCHWARTZ: One of Garland's most underrated films is "The Harvey Girls," a 1946 Technicolor musical Western. The best-known song is Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren's "On The Atchison, Topeka And The Santa Fe," the only Garland song after "Over The Rainbow" to win an Oscar. It begins as a novelty number, with Garland's train pulling into the station. But it doesn't stop expanding until it becomes a kind of American epic. At the climax, Garland and the entire ensemble, with their arms rotating like pistons, practically turn into the train itself as it leaves for parts even further west.
So, to celebrate the 100 years, individual films are being released on BluRay for the first time. What are the music labels doing to honor our great singer? JUDY GARLAND NEWS notes:
It’s the best birthday present ever! In celebration of the centennial of Judy Garland’s birth on June 10, 2022, Hit Parade Records presents JUDY AT 100 – 26 CLASSICS IN STEREO which features the best of Garland’s film, TV, and studio performances. 26 of her original classic recordings all in thrilling stereo high-fidelity, highlighted by the premiere release of 22 tracks in state-of-the-art stereo. This audiophile quality CD will be available on June 3, 2022.
Thanks to modern equalization (EQ) techniques, these classic recordings now benefit from 21st-century technology, allowing listeners to more fully appreciate these classics in stereo for the first time. Listeners will hear subtle details they have never heard before, having previously been buried in the original mono mixes. Garland never sounded better!
During her lifetime, Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was known as “The World’s Greatest Entertainer,” a title that has stood the test of time a half-century after her untimely death. In a career that spanned five decades, Garland mastered every medium from Vaudeville to television and introduced classic songs from the Great American Songbook. In this centennial year more than fifty years after her untimely death, Judy Garland remains an icon of show business history.
All of the great Garland hits are here, “Over the Rainbow” (2 versions), “The Trolley Song,” “Get Happy,” “I Don’t Care,” “The Man That Got Away,” “On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe,” “I’m Nobody’s Baby,” “Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart” and more. Also included are duets with Barbra Streisand and Gene Kelly, studio tracks, live recordings, and film performances.
Produced by Bill Buster and Scott Brogan, this 26 track compilation is accompanied by a twelve-page booklet that features photos accompanied by illuminating notes about each track by Brogan, who heads the website The Judy Room featuring The Judy Garland Online Discography, and the blog Judy Garland News & Events, which are the leading online sources of information concerning Garland. The sound was produced by Mark Mathews & Walt Weiskopf with additional restoration by John Haley. Only a CD is available at this time (no streaming).
Okay, in the early days? She was recording 78s, not albums. I'm not really concerned about the early days because that was mainly recordings of what she was singing in films.
In 1955, she goes to CAPITOL and releases seven studio albums there in her lifetime and four live albums there during her lifetime and two soundtracks (A STAR IS BORN and I COULD GO ON SINGING).
Where is CAPITOL during this 100 year celebration?
Friday, June 10, marks the 100th birthday of Judy Garland. Though the superstar died on June 22, 1969, her legacy burns brighter than ever today. In honor of the Garland centennial, and of Pride Month 2022, a number of releases will soon become available. A very special event is also happening this Sunday, June 5, in New York City.
Universal Japan is celebrating Garland's discography at Capitol Records with a series of ten reissues in the UHQCD format (playable in all CD players) coming on June 8. Judy made her album debut on the venerable label founded by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn Wallichs with 1955's Miss Show Business. With arrangements by Garland's longtime collaborator Roger Edens and Hal Mooney conducted by Jack Cathcart, the album reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200. She would go on to record six more studio LPs for Capitol through 1962: Judy (1956, arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle), Alone (1957, arranged and conducted by Gordon Jenkins), Judy in Love (1958, again with Riddle), The Letter (1959, an ambitious concept album written, arranged, and conducted by Jenkins), That's Entertainment (1960, arranged and conducted by Jack Marshall, additional arrangements by Conrad Salinger), and The Garland Touch (a 1962 "grab bag" with six tracks recorded in London, 1960, as well as four previously released songs). The latter would be Garland's final studio album of her lifetime.
All seven of those studio albums are part of the Universal Japan reissue series as well as three live sets: 1959's Garland at the Grove; 1965's Live at the London Palladium with Liza Minnelli; and 1989's Judy Garland Live, which presented a previously unreleased concert recorded in 1962 at the Manhattan Center. This new UHQCD collection represents all of Garland's albums for Capitol save the oft-reissued landmark Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961) and the never-on-CD compilation of her Judy Garland Show television performances, Just for Openers (1964). (Note that a handful of tracks from Just for Openers are included on the 1989 Judy Garland Live album).
The track listings for four of the albums - The Letter, The Garland Touch, Garland at the Grove, and Judy and Liza's Live at the London Palladium - mirror the expanded editions originally issued in the U.S. on the now-dormant DRG label. All of these releases are due on June 8 and are available at CDJapan as well as through Amazon. (And for more live Liza, don't miss Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music's July 1 release of Liza's Live in New York 1979: The Ultimate Edition on 3 CDs or 2 LPs).
That's great news . . . if you live in Japan. I live in the US, where Judy Garland lived. CAPITOL was based in the US -- still is as part of UNIVERSAL MUSIC. How does CAPITOL/UNIVERSAL et al avoid doing any releases to honor Judy Garland?
The whole point of my yearly review of a Judy album -- "Kat's Korner: JUDY IN LOVE -- an artistic masterpiece," "Kat's Korner: Give Judy her due," "Kat's Korner: Judy does JUDY" and "Kat's Korner: Judy's good -- but not great -- album" -- was to bring attention to Judy's recording career. A great singer making excellent albums and she gets nothing. Frank Sinatra's excellent recordings (even his mediocre ones) are written about non-stop all over. Judy doesn't get anything for the most part and now, on her 100th birthday, CAPITOL has done nothing to honor her work in the US. Shameful.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, August 15, 2022. Monkeypox news, including that the co-author of the sole study Joe Biden's basing his vaccine study on finds the decision questionable, Iraq continues to suffer through the political stalemate, and much more.
Starting with monkeypox, Benjamin Mateus (WSWS) reports:
Given the rising rates of monkeypox infections across the US and the limited available doses of the Jynneos vaccine (Imvanex in Europe) made by Bavarian Nordic, the only authorized vaccine against the orthopoxvirus, last week the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to ration the vaccine through the use of intradermal injections.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said, “In recent weeks, the monkeypox virus has continued to spread at a rate that has made it clear our current vaccine supply will not meet the current demand. The FDA quickly explored other scientifically appropriate options to facilitate access to the vaccine for all impacted individuals. By increasing the number of available doses, more individuals who want to be vaccinated against monkeypox will now have the opportunity to do so.”
What the commissioner is explaining is called fractional monkeypox vaccine dosing, or a dose-sparing measure. Instead of giving the vaccine deep into the muscle, one-fifth of the standard dose is injected between the layers of skin. Evidence for the intradermal route was obtained based on a 2015 clinical study conducted by the government which demonstrated it could provide a similar immune response to intramuscular injection. As a result, the total number of available doses has been expanded by five-fold or five doses per vial.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, speaking during the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seminar to inform clinicians of the change in the interim guidance on the new practice, estimated that approximately 1.7 million Americans were at risk of contracting monkeypox. At least 3 million doses would be needed, although only half that amount would be available by year’s end.
The fractional dosing offered the only viable alternative as the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, which is available in abundance, carries a significant risk of myocarditis and rare but known complications of death. Specifically, ACAM2000 is contraindicated in immunocompromised individuals.
Yet even as an intradermal injection, the Jynneos vaccine (a smallpox vaccine) still requires two doses to be given 28 days apart to complete the series. It has also not been approved for children under the age of 18. Jynneos has also never been verified to be effective against monkeypox, and little is known about its role as postexposure prophylaxis.
We've called out, repeatedly last week, Joe's 'answer' to take 400,00 vaccines and divide them up into fifths to create '2 million vaccines.' We've pointed out that the basis for this 'answer' is one study -- one clinical study -- that was done back in 2015. Now, thanks to MJ Lee's reporting for CNN, we know that among those objecting to this move? The CEO of Bavarian Nordic Paul Chaplin. Why should that especially register? Because as Lee reports, Chaplin was the co-author of that 2015 study -- of the only study that this decision has been based upon. Lee notes:
Chaplin, the CEO of Bavarian Nordic, also raised concerns. CNN reported that Chaplin wrote in a letter Tuesday to Califf and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra that he had concerns about the "very limited safety data available" on the newly announced vaccination strategy, and that a relatively high percentage of people in the clinical study -- 20% -- did not get their second shot.
On BREAKING POINTS, Krystal and Saager have a video that confuses me.
What is their point? Gay people are being hurt by this? I don't see that in the way that they're claiming. The people who are being hurt by this are the ones living in a stupid bubble who think they're not at risk because they aren't male -- and gay or bi male at that.
It is not now, nor has it ever been a gay disease. Monkeypox has been around forever. That may 'change' in that the World Health Organization is seeking another name for it and asking for public input. Maggie Baska (PINK NEWS) reports:
WHO said the decision was made after meeting with a group of “global experts” this week and in line with current best practices for naming diseases.
The organisation said the goal of renaming monkeypox variants is to “avoid causing offense to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional, or ethnic groups, and minimize any negative impact on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare”.
WHO said the new names for the monkeypox clades will “take effect immediately”. The health agency announced it was also opening a forum for the public to suggest new names for the disease, the Associated Press reported.
Ireland's JOURNAL reports:
THERE IS A DANGER that commentary around the current global monkeypox outbreak could cause a false sense of security about the level of risk posed by the virus, a leading Irish virologist has said.
There have now been over 100 reported cases of monkeypox in Ireland since the start of the outbreak in May. Around 30,000 cases have been reported across 80 countries where monkeypox is not endemic and the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
While the majority of cases in this outbreak have been among gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM), experts have cautioned against linking transmission solely to sexual activity and have warned that messaging, if not managed correctly, risks stigmatising people.
Speaking to The Journal‘s The Explainer podcast this week, Dr Cillian de Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said the terminology around the outbreak can be “challenging”, with some referring to it as a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
“Traditionally, we wouldn’t have considered it an STI because when we think about sexually transmitted infections we often think about pathogens, like chlamydia or gonorrhoea, that require direct sexual contact – be that penetrative or otherwise – for transmission,” he explained.
“Now, when we look at monkeypox we know that’s not the case. It’s typically skin-to-skin direct contact, but it can also be respiratory droplets or through contaminated fomites or objects in an infected person’s households.”
Dr de Gascun said referring to monkeypox as an STI “automatically causes some people to think they are not at risk because perhaps they’re not sexually active or they haven’t been in contact with somebody sexually in a period of time or they haven’t seen somebody with lesions”.
And let's be clear on something, Saager, if I were a gay man and I knew you and you came up to me to lecture me about my 'behavior,' I think I'd punch you in the face (a) for your homophobia, (b) for your assumption that I needed you to explain current events to me because you thought I was too stupid to understand them myself and (c) to help you calm your ass down because you were clearly in the midst of a panic.
It is not a gay disease and the sooner everyone grasp that, the sooner things will be better. Are gay men more at risk, it appears right now that they are. But they're not solely at risk and things change and infections can morph. POLITICO notes:
It may be too late to stop monkeypox from circulating in the U.S. permanently.
The Biden administration was caught off-guard when the CDC confirmed monkeypox in a Massachusetts man on May 18. It was part of the first major outbreak outside parts of Africa where the virus is endemic, an unusual event that quickly spun into a global health crisis.
Caught off guard? What was the lazy, senile man prepared for? Clearly, it wasn't to govern. There was a pandemic in place when he was running for the presidency. Back then, he spoke of how he would address it and all that he felt Donald Trump was doing wrong about COVID. Now Joe's president and he tells us it's hear and we're all going to catch it and . . .
When is this dumb ass do-nothing ever prepared?
U.S. public health officials tracked the early cases around the country that followed. But a series of setbacks in the administration’s response — including clunky early testing protocols, slow vaccine distribution, a lack of federal funding to help state and local governments respond to the outbreak, and patchy communication with communities most affected by the virus — allowed the disease to gain a foothold among men who have sex with men, particularly those who have had multiple partners in a short period of time.
Can you read that slowly, Saager? Because the way I read it, this government's mistakes put us all at risk. Emily Alvarenga and John Wilkens (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE) observe:
But the federal government reportedly bungled the nation’s supply of monkeypox vaccine, leading to an unnecessary shortage. The U.S. could have had many more doses but waited too long to ask the manufacturer to process the bulk vaccine the government already owned into vials, according to The New York Times.
“Unlike HIV, a vaccine that offers protection already exists, and yet there aren’t enough vaccines to protect all of us who need it — and there could have been,” Lopez said.
Emily Lang (GOTHAMIST) reports:
LGBTQ+ activists gathered outside Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office in Manhattan on Sunday to demand better access to monkeypox testing and vaccines from the federal government.
Organizers with ACT UP New York, PrEP4All and members of the queer community that have been impacted by the monkeypox outbreak called for or an emergency use authorization of the tecovirimat, or Tpoxx vaccine, an investment in new testing that detects the virus before skin lesions appear and more educational outreach to all communities.
“I don't have a degree in epidemiology,” said ACT UP NY organizer Millie-Christie Dervaux. “There's a huge amount of confusion and it is preventing people from getting the clarity that they need if they are able to access that care at all.”
ACT UP Tweets:
So Saager and Krystal can jaw bone, yammer and waste everyone's time with a segment that just reveals that they're scared and worried, but ACT UP can call for what the country actually needs. Maybe Saager needs to worry less about what he's going to tell his alleged gay friends and should actually be listening more to them?
But that reporting is hobbled by the fact that there is no single agency responsible for the US health care system. Data is collected by federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services — which houses the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Indian Health Service — as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which focuses on supplies and infrastructure for disaster preparedness. But communication among these agencies, the state health departments that report to them, and the hospitals and organizations where data is collected is often challenging, thanks to a fractured system made up of hundreds of different organizations.
Data comes in from over 900 health systems, or chains of hospitals under shared management; the largest include about 200 hospitals. But that’s just a fraction of the over 6,000 hospitals across the country. So when, for example, positive test results for Covid-19 or monkeypox, or cases of workplace exposure to pesticides, have to be reported to the state, public health boards in every state must coordinate with hundreds of different organizations and aggregate their data before they can share it with federal agencies. Except during an officially declared public health emergency — which, for monkeypox, is only a week old — the CDC has limited legal power to mandate reporting.
Data also isn’t collected the same way everywhere. There is a large number of different electronic health record systems currently in use in the US. They allow medical professionals to document a patient’s diagnosis and treatment, and in theory, share them more efficiently than in the days of paper-based records. But the software systems aren’t designed to be compatible with each other, so they cannot easily exchange data.
Even for a popular software platform like Epic, which covers about a third of hospital systems in the US, categories like a patient’s diagnosis — or even something as simple as their height or weight — are often customized for a particular hospital or chain. This makes for a more efficient workflow for the medical professionals on the ground, but it means that every hospital or chain is collecting slightly different information and organizing it differently. In order to piece the information together into a national picture that policymakers can actually use, each individual dataset has to be mapped onto a standardized format, a massive administrative burden that adds to delays.
Maybe instead of your fear-based panic, BREAKING POINTS could offer segments on what actually can be done, right now, to help address the epidemic?
October 10th, Iraq held elections. The sitting prime minister suppressed the vote turnout by refusing to allow the militia members to, as they had before, take part in early voting. The reason security forces have their own day of early voting is because on the actual voting day, they are deployed throughout the country to protect the voting centers.
All this time later, still nothing, no progress. No prime minister, no president. If you think you're getting tired of it, imagine how the Iraqi people feel. And that's a point we've made for some time but a point that only now is the western press picking up on.
Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr protested Friday but the cult saw a large number of people show up to protest Moqtada and his demands. NEWSGRAM reports:
Members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc resigned but instead of allowing his rivals — the Coordination Framework — to try to form a government, al-Sadr has demanded the parliament be dissolved and that early elections be held. It's unclear whether he has any legal basis for those demands.
The inter-Shiite power struggle has left Iraq in political limbo and exacerbated the economic crisis. The impasse, now in its 10th month, is the longest in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion reset the political order.
"We are protesting against the occupation of parliament and those who threaten the judiciary," said university student Abbas Salem, who was part of the rally Friday by Iran-backed groups.
Salem carried a poster of a top Iranian general, Qassim Soleimani, and a top Iraqi Shiite militia leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who were killed in a U.S. drone strike in January 2020. He said he worries that if al-Sadr forms a government, he will disband the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella of mostly Iran-backed Shiite militias.
Another protester, Ahmad al-Maliki, 52, said they are opposed to al-Sadr followers' "occupation of parliament" and added that Iraq needs a new government as soon as possible.
As these protests continue, others are getting fed up. Laure Al Khoury (AFP) reports:
Two rival Shiite Muslim blocs are holding competing sit-ins in Baghdad, ramping up tensions in conflict-weary Iraq, but shopkeeper Mustafa says he's more worried about how he's going to make a living.
"We have no work," said the man in his forties as a lone fan pumped hot summer air around his clothes store.
The two camps are "defending their personal interests", he charged, declining to provide his surname due to security concerns.
Political deadlock has left Iraq without a new government, president or prime minister following general elections 10 months ago.
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MACK AND RITA1 day ago
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