Tid-Bettes: Tired Of Bytes – 10-02-08

• In the forthcoming issue of Billboard magazine, the Oct 11 issue, “Jackpot: The Best Bette,” enters the charts at Number 66. Considering there was little to no promotion here it’s a good sign. Look for it to do well around Christmastime. And it’ll be here before you can say Halloween! We are such hedonists, my my….

• Katrin sent me two articles with Bette interviews….too bad they’re in German. Use any of your translators on the web to figure out what she’s saying. Or better yet, some fast transciber can send me the interview in English. Yes, I know we’re lazy…please keep us that way. Show your superiority. We would, dammit. See what 8 years of George Bush has done to us? It’ll be a while before out next President, Barack Obama, can build up our self esteem again. Anyway, here are the links below:

  
  http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/769/311690/text/

  http://www.welt.de/kultur/article2511879/Ich-hatte-keine-Konkurrenz-Schaetzchen.html
  
  Katrin did tell me one story from the interview:

  There’s also a 2 page interview in a magazine named “der spiegel” which is a high class political magazine. The interview is awesome, Bette talks about Vegas, her career, the woman, the best bette and her family. She says that she’d like to play in all the big and beautiful opera houses around the world before she retires. I hope she’ll remember that … In that interview she dumps on Paul Rothchild… whose Paul Rothchild? (record producer) She says working with him was on of the worst experiences though he worked with Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison before. She says, he was stoned all day long and did his part on Janis’ and Jim’s passing away!! He kept calling her in the middle of the night and told her to come to the studio and then he’d let her sing parts of songs over and over again til she almost fainted. She says he was totally unorganized and told her she was completely not talented. She never talked to him again.

  Shazaam – Makes me wanna read the interviews even more and kick Rothchild’s ass!!!

• If you haven’t noticed Katrin and I are in cahoots. Anybody that uses the word cahoots needs help! I gave her a bunch of “Videos” to take back home to Germany and she’s been kind enough to do whatever she needs to do to do to get them up on a weekly basis. She also has been the catalyst for getting my bootie on Facebook with a BLB fan page. I can’t thank her enough for helping me and so forth. One day, someone will have to take over the behemoth that is Bootleg Betty and I’m guessing it will be Miss Katrin. She’s taken an interest…so why not! Eh, Katrin????

• I hope a lot of you have noticed how kind Bootleg Betty fans are. There is a continuous influx of information coming in from fans all over…stuff I’ve already found and forgot about, overlooked, or just didn’t know about. You don’t know how much I appreciate it, because it is hard work to keep all organized and updated. So those of you that have had thanks given to you from me….give yourself a pat on the back and if nobody is watching, then maybe clap for yourself.

  I always wanted BLB to be a community effort and my dreams are coming true. So this is just a big thank you to everybody. I know I get sentimental and dramatic, but that’s just who I am and I’ve come to accept that. Oh God, I’m sounding like Oprah!!! Anyway, enough of this. Just a big hug and thank you to everybody….

• Manny, from Down Under, wrote in to say “Hi” to everybody, but he also sent a link to Richard Amsel’s work. He created the artwork for Bette’s first 2 albums, and of course, worked with many others. His life and talent was taken all too soon, so we thought it might be of interest to read about him…Here’s what Manny has to say about the whole thing:

  I found this amazing link to a tribute page for Richard Amsel the artist who did a few album covers for Bette Midler. The site is owned and run by Adam McDaniel, who has put an amazing amount of time and effort into this site.

  He has amazing stories about Richard and some amazing stories about how Richard met Bette and got the contract to commission 2 album covers for her and designed the promo poster for the “Clams On The Half Shell Review.”

  The site includes artwork that can be clicked on and enlarged. I wanted to mention this site to you for a few reasons, because of the history the artist has with Bette, because of how beautifully it has been put together, because I thought that all the readers of BLB would be interested to learn how he got the ideas for these album covers and read the story behind them, but most of all, because of the exceptional artist Richard Amsel was.

  Here is the link below, I think you will be very surprised with his body of work and even saddened by the story of his very short life. Truly a remarkable artist:

  http://www.adammcdaniel.com/RichardAmsel.htm

• Now that Bette will be back in Vegas in a few days, she jumps back up to Number One on Top Vegas Events:

  Top Vegas Events
  Week Ending 09/28/2008
  Mon, Sep 29th 2008 10:29 am EST

  Event Score
  1 Bette Midler Tickets 33.53
  2 Cher Tickets 17.44
  3 Criss Angel: Believe Tickets 11.50
  4 Cirque du Soleil: The Beatles: LOVE Tickets 8.40
  5 Elton John: The Red Piano Tickets 7.85
  6 Cirque du Soleil: “O” Tickets 5.82
  7 Le Rêve Tickets 2.27
  8 Cirque du Soleil: Zumanity Tickets 1.50
  9 Jersey Boys Tickets 1.23
  10 Mamma Mia! Tickets 1.16
  
  Top Events Power Score Ranking Methodology

  TicketNews Exclusive Rankings and Power Scores are based on ticket sales from the TicketNetwork Exchangeâ„¢, the world’s largest secondary market exchange. A Power Score illustrates a given event’s category-specific significance. Two factors are used to calculate a power score: total ticket sales from the given event and total ticket sales within the category. As such, power scores should only be used to compare events within a particular category.

• 
  Also, become a fan of BLB on Facebook: Click Here

And I think that’s all she wrote…

Mister D

PS:

Here’s a new video from Fat City Horns thanks to Katrin: Click Here