VENUS

Some good news first.  The S&P 500 has looked terrible the past month, but gained 117.42 or 2.13%, on Friday.  Monday?

I've had a melody rolling around in my head since yesterday.  Not a particularly memorable tune, but I thought I'd today focus on that song, Venus.  First, let me go back to that ancient Greek marble sculpture created between 160 and 110 BC.  

• Venus de Milo or Aphrodite of Melos was rediscovered in 1820 on the island of Milos, Greece, by a farmer, 
• A lot of intrigue, but the French eventually bought the statue, where Louis XVIII had it displayed in the Louvre in 1821.  

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  In 1964, she was exhibited in Tokyo and Kyoto, the only time she left the Louvre.
• Now visited by 7 million people annually.
• The Greek goddess of love is Aphrodite, whose Roman counterpart was Venus.
• Made of Parian marble, the statue is probably larger than the reality, for it is 6 feet 7 inches tall.  Missing are both arms.  However, found alongside was a marble hand holding an apple, and scientific analysis showed that it was hers.
• Controversially, said to be made by Alexandros from Antioch on the Maeander, or Turkey today.
• More than 70 poems about the Venus have been published.
• Here, a 1928 photo of Joan Crawford posing as Venus, for their measurements were very similar.

The next Venus of historical prominence is the seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets by English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917.

• The motivation was astrology.
• He was troubled by neuritis in his right arm, and the full score was 198 pages long.
• Mars came first, Venus, then Jupiter, followed by Saturn and Uranus, Neptune and finally Mercury.
• Holst's biographer Michael Short calls Venus one of the most sublime evocations of peace in music.

About the planet itself, Venus:

• It is the second planet from the sun.  In order:  Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

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  Closest in mass and size to Earth, which is planet #3.
• Has an atmosphere of 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen, with a cloud cover of sulfuric acid.
• Mean surface temperature of 867F.

• 
  Ultraviolet image to the right.
• Surface pressure 92 times that of Earth.
• There is active volcanism.
• Takes 224.7 Earth days to orbit Sun, but this is accomplished only in just two Venusian days.
• Is the third brightest object in the sky, after the Sun and Moon.
• Why do we always see Venus around sunrise or sunset?  Because it orbits closer to the Sun, with clouds that make it very bright.  Watch this orbit dance.

• 
  Only two planets have no moon, Mercury and Venus.
• In 1961 became the target of the first interplanetary flight, but radio contact with Venera 1 was lost before arrival on Venus.  First soft landing on another planet was Venera 7 in 1970.

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  How did the atmosphere of Venus get that way?  Most likely a runaway greenhouse effect.
• Venus has been identified by scientists such as Carl Sagan as a warning and research object linked to climate change on Earth.^[32] Therefore Venus has been called a greenhouse planet,^[94] a planet under a greenhouse inferno.^[95]

• 
  I am writing a docu-novel on The Venus Syndrome.  Read my short Huffington Post article.  Another one of Venus Syndrome Revisited.  The key gas in my speculatiion is not carbon dioxide, but methane.

Well, all the above is background for my topic of the day.  There is, of course, the 1959 Venus by Frankie Avalon, written by Ed Marshall.  Reached #1 on Billboard.  Then Venus in Blue Jeans in 1962, sung by Jimmy Clanton, written by Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller.  But there is another Venus repeating in my head.  

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  Ten years after Avalon came Venus, by the Dutch rock band, Shocking Blue, written by Robbie van Leeuwen, guitarist for the group, topping the charts in nine countries, including the U.S.
• Hard to believe, but this song is a lyrics modification of Oh? Susanna, by Stephen Foster in 1848, which originally was a racist tune.

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  An English pop trio, Bananarama, covered Venus in 1986, which also reached #1 on Billboard.  Interestingly enough, they hold the Guinness World Record for highest number of chart entries by an all-female group.  They had 32 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart.

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  Also in 1986, Yoko Oginome of Japan covered Venus.
• There is too, in 1990, Don Pablo's Animals re-mix of Venus.  Somewhat risque.  Or this group in concert.

So which of these Venus songs are in my head?  Not sure, they all sound similar.

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