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from Bruce
Christian Salazar: Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84 ( Associated Press)
NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.
David Sirota: The Great Labor Shortage Lie
There's no labor shortage - there's a cheap labor shortage, because, as the free market fundamentalists all love to say, supply and demand rules everything. And if that's the case - then there's no way you can have a real labor supply shortage at the very same time wages (the monetized manifestation of employer demand for labor) continue to stagnate.
Jane Smiley: My Reply to the Pope's Easter Message (huffingtonpost.co)
One thing I've noticed is that no distinction is made between faith and religion, when in fact they are not the same thing at all. Faith is a subjective experience of a relationship and a state of mind, while religion is a set of institutionalized forms and doctrines, and religious organizations are often in the business of making money, owning property, and making social policy. Religions depend upon individual professions of faith, but faith remains a private matter, akin to love or any other state of mind.
Mark Morford: Your Shiny Happy Discount Death (sfgate.com)
Amongst the bulk cheese and the plasma TVs, a slew of coffins, now at Costco. Bargain!
Mark Morford: I'm Drunk And Naked On MySpace! (sfgate.com)
Plus, more great reasons you can never run for office. Also: Are teens insanely boring?
Tim Dowling: Want to know if you're getting old? Read on ... (guardian.co.uk)
Jason Priestley, former star of Beverly Hills 90210, made the following statement in an interview printed yesterday: "I don't go out. If I went to those clubs in LA I'd be the oldest guy in the room by 10 years! I go to people's houses. It's all about dinner. That's how you know you're getting old."
Will you still feed me ... ? (guardian.co.uk)
Cheeta, the chimpanzee star of the Tarzan movies, turned 75 this week. You may be surprised how long some animals live, says Laura Barton.
The green room: Peter Singer, philosopher (guardian.co.uk)
What is your biggest guilty green secret?
It's hardly a secret, but I fly too much. I'm trying to cut back on it. Recently I gave a talk via webcam rather than flying in to do it in person. But, even if I travel less for professional purposes, it's still going to be a problem, since I work in Princeton while much of the family is in Australia. I know I can offset the flying in various ways, but that doesn't seem quite good enough.
The Obscenity Defense (onthemedia.org)
When "Leaves of Grass" was deemed obscene in 1882, Mark Twain wrote a defense of Walt Whitman's "noble work." Now, Twain's essay is being published for the first time, in the "Virginia Quarterly Review." University of Iowa professor Ed Folsom calls it classic Twain satire.
Caroline Roberts: Review of "Rock 'n' Roll High School" (the-trades.com)
When the Ramones come to town for a show, Riff must battle Miss Togar to get one of her songs to the Ramones. Of course, the entire plot is just an excuse for the Ramones to serenade Riff as she takes a shower, to blaze through their biggest hits in concert, to deliver some of the worst acting of all time, and to tear the roof off Vince Lombardi High.
Movie Review Search Engine (mrqe.com)
Reader Suggestion
'The Thune'
Interesting menu item...
...at the Eagle Street Grill in St. Paul, MN, as a great jab at South Dakota's idiot John Thune:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and very, very windy.
'The Root of All Evil'
Lewis Black
After successfully parodying newscasts with "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and commentary shows with "The Colbert Report," Comedy Central is taking aim at court shows with "The Root of All Evil."
The cable network has ordered a pilot for the project, which will be hosted by Grammy-winning comedian and "Daily Show" contributor Lewis Black.
Black will play a judge presiding over cases pitting political figures, celebrities and pop culture concepts accused of being "the root of all evil."
Guest comedians serve as attorneys for each side, with Black rendering a verdict. Greg Giraldo and Paul F. Tompkins were among the comedians featured in the pilot.
Lewis Black
Celebrity Divorce List
Forbes
Basketball great Michael Jordan, singer-songwriter Neil Diamond and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg top a new Forbes magazine list on Thursday of the 10 most costly divorce settlements of the stars.
With Jordan having earned much of his wealth during his marriage, most of it through endorsement deals, Vanoy (who filed for divorce last year) stands to collect more than $150 million, the magazine said.
A close second would be the estimated $150 million settlement Diamond paid to onetime TV production assistant Marcia Murphey, whom he married in 1969 before his breakthrough album, "Touching You, Touching Me," went gold, Forbes said.
Spielberg's first marriage, to actress Amy Irving, ended in 1989 with his ex-spouse awarded roughly half of the filmmaker's fortune, about $100 million, ranking No. 3 on Forbes' list.
Forbes
Not Alone In Offending
Don Imus
Corporate decisions to cancel Don Imus' U.S. radio and cable television shows have some commentators wondering what may happen to other media personalities who have also pushed the bounds of civility.
Nationally syndicated U.S. radio host Neal Boortz last year said a black congresswoman who has since failed in a bid for re-election, Cynthia McKinney, "looks like a ghetto slut."
Rush Limbaugh, another national radio broadcaster, in January called Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose father was from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, a "halfrican American."
And CNN talk-show host Glenn Beck, during an interview with Muslim congressman Keith Ellison, said in November, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."
Don Imus
29 Years Ago
'Booger'
Andy: It was something that you said.
Johnny: Yeah. "Booger."
Johnny: I was making about a hundred thousand a year there. Then one day I said "booger," a bunch of bozos called the station, and the next thing I know I'm in Amarillo hosting a garden show.
Johnny: I'll tell you this though, I never thought I'd end up at WKRP in Pittsb - Cincinnati? This is rock bottom. Source
WKRP is 16th in an 18 station market, playing outdated music. Andy meets disk jockey (DJ) Johnny Caravela (formerly known as Johnny Duke, Johnny Style, Johnny Cool, Johnny Midnight and Johnny Sunshine) and remembers him as the host of a radio show in California, "Johnny Sunshine-Boss Jack", and learns how he got fired by saying "Booger" on the air. WKRP_in_Cincinnati - pilot - 1978
Seems Don Imus has met his booger.
BTW, am I the only one flinching every time the women of Rutgers are referred to as 'girls'?
Drive Motorists Over Limit
Rock Classics
Want to stay safe on the roads? Then avoid listening to Guns N Roses, Meat Loaf and Bruce Springsteen behind the wheel.
The trio are among the artists featured on a top 10 of tracks that get people's blood pumping and in the mood to drive aggressively.
Some 1,700 voters have so far responded to an online poll run by Electronic Arts and AOL to mark the launch of a new racing videogame, "Burnout Dominator."
The resultant shortlist of tracks that get people revved up -- and that drivers should avoid listening to in the real world -- spans more than 30 years of chart favorites, although none of them actually reached number 1.
Rock Classics
Great Expectations For Theme Park
'Dickens World'
Literary purists may quake at the prospect of a Charles Dickens theme park complete with a Great Expectations boat ride and Ye Olde Curiosity Gift Shoppe.
But Dickens World, a 62 million pound complex built in the naval dockyard where his father once worked as a clerk, is confidently predicting 300,000 visitors a year to this new attraction dedicated to the Victorian author.
"We are not Disneyfying Dickens," insists manager Ross Hutchins as he dons hard hat and fluorescent jacket to tour the site, a hive of activity as the Fagin's den playground and Newgate Prison's grimy walls are given their finishing touches.
"If Dickens was alive today, he would probably have built the place himself, " Hutchins said of the theme park in Chatham, once a big unemployment blackspot after the dockyards closed in the 1980s but now a major regeneration target.
'Dickens World'
Deputies Cleared
Alex Lifeson
Deputies didn't use excessive force in an altercation with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson at a hotel on New Year's Eve 2003, a federal judge has ruled.
Lifeson, whose real name is Alex Zivojinovich, had sued in federal court claiming that Collier County deputies violated his civil rights while subduing him and his son during a skirmish at a party at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Naples. Tasers were used on the pair, and Lifeson's nose was broken.
But U.S. District Judge Paul A. Magnuson wrote in a ruling that deputies' actions "were objectively reasonable." The judge also ruled that the hotel and a security employee weren't negligent in the case.
Lifeson's Naples lawyer, Michael McDonnell, said he plans to appeal.
Alex Lifeson
Apple Corps Settles Royalties Lawsuit
Beatles
The Beatles' Apple Corps company has settled a royalties dispute with record label EMI, the two companies said Thursday, raising hopes that Beatles recordings may soon be legally available online.
"It was settled on mutually acceptable terms last month," Apple Corps and EMI said in a joint statement. They refused to provide details of the settlement.
Apple Corps Ltd., the company owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, sued EMI Group PLC in 2005 to recover what the band said was more than C$67 million in unpaid royalties. EMI releases Beatles recordings under the Apple label.
Beatles
Concert Cancelled
Lindsey Buckingham
The managers of a Lincoln theater say Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham's "diva-like behavior" doomed his concert there this week, and that the sound system he blames was not the problem.
In a message on Buckingham's Web site, "technical difficulties related to sound" were blamed for Wednesday's cancellation. Buckingham's message said the theater in downtown Lincoln refused Buckingham's request to use his own equipment to supplement its sound system.
Rococo Theatre events director Pam Gregorios said this was the first time it has ever had a performer cancel a show.
Buckingham spent an hour checking the sound at the theater and rehearsing a couple songs before deciding to cancel about an hour before show time, Gregorios said.
Lindsey Buckingham
Guard Hits Inmate
Bible Thumper
A jail guard has been suspended after allegedly thumping an inmate with a Bible.
A video shows guard James Lee Sheppard, 56, entering the cell of inmate Jeremy Hansen, 26. The guard then takes Hansen's Bible and strikes him in the side of the face with the book. The two exchange words as the guard walks away, said Mankato Police Officer Allen Schmidt who watched the video.
Dennis McCoy, Blue Earth County administrator, said Sheppard was the first to report the confrontation. "He knew he violated policy and, to his credit, he turned himself in," McCoy said.
Bible Thumper
In Memory
George Jenkins
Hollywood art director George Jenkins, who won an Oscar for his work on the 1976 film "All the President's Men," has died. He was 98.
Jenkins designed and lighted sets on Broadway during the 1940s, gaining prominence for his work on "I Remember Mama" in 1944, before heading to Hollywood at the behest of producer Samuel Goldwyn.
Jenkins' first work there was on "The Best Years of Our Lives," the producer's 1946 drama about World War II veterans that won the Academy Award for best picture.
His Oscar-winning work on "All the President's Men" included re-creating on a soundstage the newsroom where Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal.
His design for the 1979 film "The China Syndrome" earned him a second Oscar nomination.
Jenkins was also the art director for 1962 movie "The Miracle Worker." He and the director, Arthur Penn, had also worked together on the Broadway play on which it was based.
Other films included "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "The Bishop's Wife," "Wait Until Dark," "Klute," "1776," "The Paper Chase," "The Parallax View," "Funny Lady," "Starting Over" and "Sophie's Choice."
George Jenkins
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