'Best of TBH Politoons'
TODAY!
Erin Hart
Please join Erin as she celebrates the 4th of July on AM760, Colorado's Progressive Talk, in for Jay Marvin from 5am - 9am PDT (6am - 10am MDT | 7am - 11am CDT | 8am - noon EDT) .
Topics: The controversy over the alternative lyrics to the national anthem sung at the Mayor's State of the City. Best headline from the Denver Post: "Subbed anthem lyrics draw some red glares.". . .
Barack Obama's embrace of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives-sincere? Or another move to the center?
Why does he seem to be running more like Bush in 2000 during the general?
Whereas John McCain, packed with back taxes, hypocrisy and still getting a major pass from the media-what is UP with asking whether he can lead?
It's a fair question, reasonably asked-so why all the hoopla over Wesley Clark's question?
Perfect topics for the 4th-We plan to check in with AAA about those gas prices-where is your "staycation" this year? Did you hear comedian John Houseman's parody of "I've been everywhere" on the Daily Show?
Enjoy the 4th and stay safe.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: My handgun, my parasite (sfgate.com)
Never forget: The brutal effects of the Bush regime will be felt for generations.
Neal Gabler: Cannibal liberals (latimes.com)
Why do left-leaning journalists eat their own?
Rick Shenkman: Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We? (Tomdispatch.com; Posted on alternet.org)
Millions of Americans are embarrassingly ill-informed and they do not care that they are.
Witold Rybczynski: Buckminster Fuller (slate.com)
Inventor, tireless proselytizer, inspirational cult figure, something of a flimflammer.
Truth behind health myths (telegraph.co.uk)
Health has long been an area beset by superstition. Some myths still persist.
Michele Hanson: Happy free-range chickens are all very well for the smug middle classes. But not everyone can afford them (guardian.co.uk)
What about the poor tortured chickens? How do you breed, house, feed up, kill, pluck, gut and wrap a whole chicken for so little?
Tony Sachs: Steve Perry, Sam Cooke, Arnel Pineda, and My Journey To Obsession (huffingtonpost.com)
The question haunted me: If Sam Cooke was one of the all-time great soul singers, and Steve Perry sounded like Sam Cooke, did that make Steve Perry a great soul singer, too?
Erin Podolsky: Veteran jam band Widespread Panic on the bill at Rothbury Festival (Detroit Free Press)
Now this is the band you expect to see at a dusty, holiday weekend festival with a green tint: Widespread Panic, the long-running, long-touring group that carries a jam band torch for post-Grateful Dead generations.
BILL FORMAN: Dip shtick (csindy.com)
Psychostick stays 'serious about being funny.'
Red Rocker: A Chat with Sheryl Crow (bullz-eye.com)
"I'm always in search of the perfect song, which I don't feel like I've written yet, nor am I sure I ever will."
Roger Moore: He's the straight man, the Every man - the Bate-man! (The Orlando Sentinel)
The part reads, "mild-mannered, middle-aged white guy, kind of idealistic, sort of a cheerleader, not the utter pushover he seems." And oh yeah, "Make him funny."
Kiko Martinez: Loves me like a Rock (sacurrent.com)
Dwayne Johnson drops geological nickname to fashion new image for 'Get Smart.'
Reader Request
Asking a favor
Marty,
A friend turned me on to your site a few months ago and I find myself needing to view the site every morning before I begin my routine of getting ready for my temp job from hell. Thanks for all of your hard work in keeping up the site. My friend recommended that I ask you for the following favor.
I am struggling financially (as are most people, I know) and am also having a difficult time finding a permanent full-time position. I recently graduated from a Master's Program in Minnesota and thought that would mean I would be able to find a position rather quickly. Apparently I will have better luck if I apply for positions out of state. Therein lies the dilemma--I do not have enough money to pay by bills let alone finance out-of-state trips to job interviews. It's very depressing--only in America, right?
Anyway, in my desperation I signed up for a page on a Cyberbegging site (I know, really stupid, especially since the site charged me to sign up...). I'm hoping to at least recover what I paid to sign up for the site. So far I've had no luck. Would you be willing to include a link to my site on BartCopE? More info about my situation is included at that site. Here is the link.
Thank you for hearing me out. If you decide not to include the link, I certainly understand. Why should you trust a stranger? Just thought I would try reaching out.
Liz
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, and a bit warmer, but with a nice breeze.
Road To Beijing
Olympics
With the Olympics just a month away, broadcasters are just as jittery as the athletes who will gather to compete in Beijing.
A substantial number of producers and cameramen on the ground there say effective television coverage is threatened by the extensive regulations imposed by Chinese organizers. Delays in importing equipment and difficulties in obtaining approvals for live shots have led to criticism of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games, or BOCOG, citing disorganization and a lack of transparency that have left producers fretting over problems still unresolved at the 11th hour.
Manolo Romero, general manager of Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, the International Olympic Committee's joint venture with BOCOG, still hopes to see BOCOG -- and the media regulators behind it -- deliver on the promises made in the Service Guide for Foreign Media Coverage of the Beijing Olympic Games, which was printed in May 2007 in English and Chinese.
Olympics
Lost Footage Surfaces In Argentina
'Metropolis'
Film historians had doubted they would ever find the missing parts of "Metropolis" -- until three reels of the science fiction movie made in Germany a long time ago, were discovered in a country far, far away.
Two film fans in Argentina uncovered the fragile footage in a small museum, earlier this year -- over eight decades after Fritz Lang's dystopian classic first began to shed scenes.
With its cold, monumental vision of mechanized society, "Metropolis" forged a template for generations of science fiction cinema, and its enduring influence has been cited on films from "Blade Runner" to "Fahrenheit 451" and "Star Wars."
"Metropolis," which depicts a tumultuous class struggle in a vast, urban society, was the first film to be entered into UNESCO's Memory of the World Register -- which aims to preserve cultural achievements of outstanding significance.
'Metropolis'
National Museum of American Jewish History
Steven Spielberg
A foundation created by Steven Spielberg is giving $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History.
The money from the Righteous Persons Foundation will go toward a new, five-story museum building being built in Philadelphia.
With the donation, officials say the museum's capital campaign has raised $111 million toward its $150 million goal. The new museum is set to open in 2010.
The museum was established in 1976 and is dedicated to telling the story of the American Jewish experience. It is constructing the new building in hopes of raising its profile and increasing the number of visitors.
Steven Spielberg
Book Goes On Display In Tokyo
J.K. Rowling
Online bookseller Amazon on Thursday gave Japanese fans a glimpse of J.K. Rowling's first book since the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, which it bought for four million dollars.
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard" is one of seven handmade books by the British author. Amazon, bidding anonymously, bought it at a December auction at Sotheby's where it fetched 40 times the expected price.
Amazon unveiled the book at a Tokyo press conference to promote the release of the Japanese translation of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final novel of the series.
J.K. Rowling
Royal Butler's Collection To Auction
Backstairs Billy
A royal butler's collection of letters, cards and photographs, including a thank you note from Princess Diana and requests for gin cocktails from Queen Mother Elizabeth, will be put up for auction Saturday.
Billy Tallon joined the royal household when he was just 15 and, over the next 51 years, became a trusted and valued senior servant. When he died last year, he left the vast, carefully preserved collection.
Tallon's long-term partner Reginald Wilcox also worked as an under butler in the royal household and Tallon inherited his memorabilia when he died. Saturday's auction includes some of Wilcox's possessions.
Billy, known affectionately as "Backstairs Billy," devoted his whole life to the royal family. He was especially attached to the Queen Mother, for whom he was chief steward. She died in 2002 at the age of 101.
Backstairs Billy
Singing Dentist
Andrew Bain
An opera-loving dentist is ready to swap his drill for a microphone after winning a four-album recording contract worth about $2 million.
Andrew Bain, 35, who has worked as a dentist in London for more than 10 years, was signed by record company SonyBMG after chasing a deal for years.
His debut album, to be released in September, will feature operatic versions of pop hits such as the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?," Abba's "The Winner Takes It All" and Prince's "Purple Rain."
"This is the ultimate dream come true," he said in a statement. "Not only have I finally got a record deal, but they understand my eclectic taste in music. Who needs yet another version of 'Nessun Dorma?"'
Andrew Bain
New Royalties Plan
EU
New EU competition rules on the collection of royalties have hit a wrong note with top songwriters such as Bee Gee Robin Gibb, who have threatened to pull their songs off the airwaves if they go ahead.
A draft of the European Union plan obtained by Reuters this month said two dozen royalty collection societies would be given 90 days to terminate their national monopolies.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney, Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall, Elton John, France's Charles Aznavour and Benny Andersson of ABBA also oppose the EU plan which has yet to be formally adopted.
EU
Drops "Gone Wild" Suit
Ashley Alexandra Dupre
The call girl linked to the sex scandal that prompted the resignation of then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer in March has dropped a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis.
A statement from an attorney for Ashley Alexandra Dupre said the complaint, filed in April in federal court in Miami and alleging illegal use of Dupre's name and image, was withdrawn on Thursday.
In the lawsuit, Dupre contended she was 17 and not old enough to sign a legally binding contract when she appeared partially nude in video footage filmed in 2003 by members of Francis' Mantra Films production company in Miami Beach.
Ashley Alexandra Dupre
Researchers Open Secret Cave
Teotihuacan
Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.
The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico.
Archeologists are now revisiting a cave system that is buried 20 feet beneath the towering Pyramid of the Sun and extends into a tunnel stretching for some 295 feet (90 meters) with a height of 8 feet.
They say new excavations begun this month could be the key to unlocking information about the sacred rituals of the people who inhabited the city, later dubbed "The Place Where Men Become Gods" by the Aztecs who believed it was a divine site.
Teotihuacan
Joy Division Singer's Memorial Stolen
Ian Curtis
Thieves have stolen a memorial stone for Ian Curtis, frontman of the influential post-punk band Joy Division.
The stone, bearing the epitaph "Love Will Tear Us Apart" -- the title of the band's most famous song -- was taken from Macclesfield Crematorium in northern England on Monday or Tuesday, police said.
Local officials have appealed for the stone's return.
Ian Curtis
It's Not That Simple
TV Conversion
Think you don't have anything to worry about in the switch from analog to digital television? Think again.
Consumers have been told that the upcoming transition TV changeover would mainly impact viewers with old TVs using ancient rabbit ears for reception. And those stone-aged watchers need only purchase a new set-top converter box, subsidized by coupons from the U.S. government, to continue watching. And everyone would go on their merry sitcom-watching ways.
Turns out, that's not the whole story.
There actually are two analog-to-digital transitions going on. One, you've heard a lot about - the broadcast changeover. But the other - the analog cable to digital cable transition - could leave up to 100 million TVs in the dark, unable to display any cable TV channels at all without adding extra equipment.
The cable version of the analog-to-digital jump will impact anyone who takes a coaxial cable line from the wall and plugs it directly into a TV set. There will be no government coupons to help pay for the millions of new set-top boxes or converters that will be needed to make them work again.
TV Conversion
Boyhood Home Found
George Washington
The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington's boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet.
Most biographies offer little detail of the first president's youth, so the discovery may provide insight into Washington's childhood, he said. The site is located at Ferry Farm, just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Va., about 50 miles south of Washington.
Three likely locations were excavated over seven years. The site where the foundations of Washington's home were discovered was built during the first part of the 18th century - Washington was born in 1732 - fit the type of house in which Washington would have lived and also yielded artifacts likely linked to his family.
George Washington
Aims To Be 'Most Bike-Friendly' City
Long Beach
The city of Long Beach today announced plans to develop two "bicycle boulevards" using a $330,000 grant from Los Angeles County.
The grant, made through the county Department of Public Health, will be used to hire a mobility coordinator and to plan the new boulevards -- streets that give preference to bicycles through the use of traffic circles, medians, bulb-outs and other elements. One will go east-west, and the other north-south, according to city officials.
Long Beach already has more than 30 miles of dedicated shoreline and river bicycle paths connecting the city with other portions of Los Angeles County.
Long Beach
In Memory
Irina Baronova
Irina Baronova, world renowned in the 1930s as part of a trio of Russian-born dancers dubbed the "Baby Ballerinas," has died at her home in Australia. She was 89.
Baronova came to fame as a 13-year-old after being spotted in Paris by legendary choreographer George Balanchine, who teamed her with two other young Russian-born dancers, Tamara Toumanova and Tatiana Riabouchinska, in 1932.
The shows by the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo were a hit in the United States, Europe and in Australia, where the dance troupe toured in 1938 and Baronova began her association with the country.
Born in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg, in 1919, Baronova and her family fled to Romania when she was just 18 months old in the bloody aftermath of the communist revolution. She recalled in an 2006 interview with Australia's Nine Network television that her naval officer father had been warned they would be shot by revolutionaries.
Baronova later moved to the United States, where she appeared with the American Ballet Theater and tried her hand in Hollywood, appearing in two films, "Florian" in 1940 and "Yolanda" in 1943.
She gave up dancing professionally at age 27 when she married agent Cecil Tennant, who reportedly made her retirement a condition of his proposal. Tennant died in 1967, and Baronova returned to dancing as a coach and consultant.
Baronova is survived by two daughters and a son.
Irina Baronova
In Memory
Larry Harmon
Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney's Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children's records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.
He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo's distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.
The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.
Bozo - portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell - was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California.
Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.
Larry Harmon
In Memory
Mel Galley
Fellow musicians have paid tribute to Mel Galley, former guitarist in British hard rock band Whitesnake who died of cancer this week aged 60.
Galley played with Whitesnake between 1982 and 1984, when he had to leave the band after hurting his arm in an accident.
On a posting on his MySpace page shortly after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Galley paid tribute to his wife and two sons and added:
"I have enjoyed a great life, traveled the world having some amazing experiences, met all sorts of people and played with some of the best musicians there are."
Mel Galley
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