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From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Cool New Web Site
Washingtoon DC
Adrian J has been a contributor to the e-page! for several months now. He has his own site up now.
Check it out at Washingtoon DC
Great Link - Have You Checked It Out?
Jeff Crook
Excerpt:
"Without oil and without alternative energy sources,
our civilization is doomed, within my son's lifetime,
to crumble to pre-Industrial levels. If it must, it
must, but I'd rather it went quietly than with a bang.
I'd rather sit by candlelight with my son in a world
grown suddenly slow and silent, than burn $40-a-gallon
gasoline purchased with the blood of my boy.
"Will he grow up to live in a police state where even
the mention of the Bill of Rights is a crime? Will it
be a world where oral history, whispered history, is
the only source of the truth? Will he know his father
at all? Will this website get me removed to a
re-education camp where my plastic-bag-wrapped skull
will sink into the mud along with the millions of
other useless eaters. I thank God my boy was born
blond-haired and blue-eyed, as maybe that will save
him one day. But I fear that day might arrive before
he is old enough to remember me, and that he'll be
raised by strangers who know nothing but hate."
Uncommon Sense
Jeff Crook has one of the smartest sites on the web, and this
is his Best Issue (Yet)!
Check it out!
Cool Link
Gonzo Science
From Daniel
Gonzo Science
Thanks, Daniel!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
It's 'Blog Friday'. Lots of wonderful Blogs perking along these days. Scroll down to check out some of the best.
Things got a little too busy around here to get to the Farmer's Market. Damn.
Hope to have a short list of 'odder things to do in Vegas' put together over the weekend. You don't need to gamble, or drink, to have
a great time there! (Really)
Tonight, Friday, CBS starts the night with '48 Hours', then a fresh nighttime version of
'The Price Is Right', featuring the Coast Guard, and then a ''special'', 'Marc Anthony: I've Got You'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Nathan Lane and Hugh Fink.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are Steve Irwin and Trey Anastasio.
NBC has a 2-hour version of 'Dateline' followed by a rerun 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' (the one with Piper Laurie).
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Dr. Phil McGraw, Christian Bale, and Kylie Minogue.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan are Michelle Williams and Counting Crows.
Scheduled on an unusual Friday night Carson Daly is Dave Matthews Band.
ABC has reruns of 'America's Funniest Videos', then 2 reruns of 'Whose Line', and then '20/20'.
The WB has reruns of 'Sabrina', 'Maybe It's Me', 'Reba', and 'Raising Dad'.
Faux debuts another unneeded program with 'Invasion Of The Hidden Cameras', and offers 2 episodes of it, no less. It is followed by a rerun of 'X-Files'.
UPN here dumps regular programming to air the Arizona Diamondbacks visiting Rupert's Doggers.
IFC celebrates one of my favorite movies, Night of the Living Dead (1968),
written & directed by George A. Romero, and uses one of my favorite
Pittsburgh TV-celebrities, Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille.
Way back when, he hosted the Saturday night 'scary' movie, til the time-slot was appropriated by 'Saturday Night Live'. Over the intervening years, whenever I'd get
homesick, this movie was enough to snap me out of it.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
A M F - Or - Schadenfreude, Most Delectable
Dennis Miller Live
Dennis Miller's ranting days are numbered.
Just a few months after losing his gig in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth, the thesaurus-wielding funnyguy is wrapping up his own Emmy-winning HBO series after nine
seasons, the network confirmed Thursday.
The final episode of Dennis Miller Live will air August 30. No word yet on what guests are scheduled, if any. Miller himself has not yet commented on the decision.
The show, featuring Miller's now-infamous "rants," ended up making HBO history, giving the pay-cable network its first-ever Emmy for an original series. It also helped the acerbic
comedian bounce back from the failure of his short-lived syndicated late-night series, The Dennis Miller Show, which quickly fizzled after its 1992 debut.
It's been an interesting year for Miller: In March, ABC dropped him from Monday Night Football after just two seasons, once producers had the chance to hire broadcasting legend John
Madden. The decision came despite ABC's previous insistence that Miller was going to be around for a third year.
Dennis Miller
It's Blog Friday!
blah3
blah3
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton In Barcelona
An important step in the fight against AIDS in the developing world is for poor nations to immediately make a deal with drug companies or other countries to provide affordable
HIV drugs, former President Clinton said Thursday.
Clinton joined a panel of former heads of state at the 14th International AIDS Conference to discuss the role of political leadership in the global fight against AIDS.
"First of all, the rich countries should figure out what they owe and they should pay - and pay in a timely fashion," Clinton said. "The advocates and the people representing the people
in the poor countries with high infection rates need to figure out how to get the money and what to do with it."
"You either need to make a deal you can live with the drug companies, or Brazil has announced they are going to provide generics, and India has announced they are," Clinton said. "This needs to be done and done now."
"My advice is push every country you can to make their deals with the drug companies. If the deals are unsatisfactory, go to Brazil or India - the U.N. is certifying those drugs," Clinton said. "Then
come to the rest of us and say 'OK, this is what we need: Here's what we need for medicine and here's what we need for prevention.'"
Bill Clinton In Barcelona
International AIDS Conference
Politics Makes For Strange Bedfellows?
Asa Does Hollywood
Washington and Hollywood got even more cozy Wednesday, with Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson meeting producers, directors and scribes during an unusual tete-a-tete
at the Beverly Hills Hotel -- unusual because the DEA has been one of the more reclusive government agencies.
Now, the DEA is hoping to follow the lead of the Pentagon and other government agencies in making themselves available to Hollywood for consultation and education.
The hotel was swarming with security personnel during the two-hour rap session, as a handful of drug activists clustered outside, holding placards carrying pro-marijuana slogans.
The event was organized by the Washington-based Entertainment Industries Council. In addition to Hutchinson, DEA chief of intelligence Steven Casteel also briefed the 40 or so industryites
attending the gathering, who included helmers Michael Mann and Arthur Hiller.
Other guests included Tribune's Dick Askin, co-producer David Zabel, ABC/Disney Cable's Anne Sweeney and NBC Entertainment's Herman Rush.
Most of the major studios dispatched a representative to the briefing, while producers from such shows as "Third Watch" and "E.R." also turned up.
In recent months, there has been a flurry of pictures and TV shows -- from "The Sum of All Fears" to "Behind Enemy Lines" -- focusing on America's military, with both the Pentagon and CIA consulting.
Asa Does Hollywood
Blog Friday Continues
Eschaton
Eschaton
Debuts Latest Work in Minnesota
Arthur Miller
When Arthur Miller wanted his new play "Resurrection Blues" produced, he didn't go to Broadway. He went to Minneapolis, "to be among trees and quiet," and the Guthrie Theater.
"Broadway doesn't originate anything anymore. It used to be the opposite," says the 86-year-old Miller, who revitalized American theater when his "All My Sons," "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible"
were produced on Broadway in the late 1940s and early '50s.
"Resurrection Blues, which stars John Bedford Lloyd, Jeff Weiss and Laila Robins, begins preview performances Aug. 3, with an opening set for Aug. 9. It will run through Sept. 8.
Miller describes the play as a "satiric comedy that verges on being tragic," the first satire of his more than 50-year career.
Miller had been at the Guthrie before, when the theater founded by Tyrone Guthrie staged "Death of a Salesman" starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in its first season in 1963.
For a lot more, Arthur Miller
Guthrie Theater
It's B-a-a-a-a-a-c-k
National Debt Clock
The U.S. government has returned to its old ways of bursting budgets and so New York's landmark national debt clock lit up again on July 11, 2002 after a
two-year hiatus, whizzing higher by $30 a second. A spatter of puzzled pedestrians stared up at a bustling corner near Times Square as workers switched
on a massive 11-by-26-foot digital clock that had lay dormant for nearly two years.
Photo by Peter Morgan
Blog Friday Continues
Political Pulpit
Political Pulpit
Wants to Teach When He Retires
Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti knows exactly what he wants to do next -- he would love to teach singing and is happy to do it for nothing.
The world's most famous opera star announced last month that he will retire on his 70th birthday in 2005 and not sing any more, even in the shower.
He has no intention of wavering from that decision. In Brussels to receive a record industry award for selling over 100 million albums, the great Italian tenor said: "Absolutely. October 12, 2005."
Interviewed by Reuters Television before the awards ceremony, he said: "There are many things I can do. The most obvious -- because I would like to stay in the world in which I am
living now -- I think would be to teach."
Pavarotti is the most popular artist in the history of the classical recording industry and fiercely proud of his role in bringing opera to the masses from performances in New York's
Central Park to the Three Tenors concerts with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.
"Music is for everybody. Why should I be selective?" he said, reflecting on a 40-year career that has taken him from London's Covent Garden to singing duets with U2's Bono.
Pavarotti
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Took The High Road
Candice Bergen
Turns out actress Candice Bergen really did agree with Dan Quayle.
Ten years ago, then-Vice President Quayle criticized Bergen's "Murphy Brown" TV character for "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another `lifestyle choice.'"
In May, Quayle touted the moral value of "The Osbournes," MTV's hit series about the profanity-filled home life of rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his family.
Quayle liked that the offensive words are bleeped and the show features what he called two "loving parents."
"That Dan, you just can't predict him," Bergen said, laughing. "I think that all of us feel that family values have to sort of come back front and center. I don't know if
he watched `The Osbournes' because he certainly never watched `Murphy Brown,' which didn't stop him from talking about it."
She rejected a proposed idea of interviewing Quayle, whom she's never met, on her show.
"I just thought it was better to take the high road there," Bergen said.
Candice Bergen
Snarky Gossip
Steven Seagal
Reporting can be a risky business. Los Angeles Times writer Anita Busch has been looking into the federal indictment of reputed Mafia captain Anthony (Sonny) Ciccone
on charges of extortion and threatening to kill actor Steven Seagal.
After digging into the story for a couple of weeks, Busch recently discovered that someone had come to her L.A. home and smashed her car's windshield, leaving a note
that said, "Stop," sources tell us.
She also found a metal box on the car. Bomb-squad cops found a dead fish in it.
While police investigate the incident and other threats she has received, Busch has resigned from the story and is in hiding, say sources.
An L.A. Times spokesman declined to comment, but word is that the paper's editors still plan to run the story. Lawyers for Ciccone and Seagal didn't return calls.
Steven Seagal
Blog Friday Continues
Political Notes
Political Notes
To Step Down
Seiji Ozawa
The blast of Brahms' Symphony No. 1 sends the conductor into a frenzy of movement: His puff of graying black hair bounces to the rhythm of the strings and horns led by the
jabs of his hands and twists of his torso.
Looking more rock star than classical conductor, Seiji Ozawa explodes with the occasional "uh!" or "ah-ha!" while the orchestra races to keep time with his flapping hands, and stops when they halt.
The young, rehearsing musicians — students at the Tanglewood Music Center — are part of Ozawa's legacy when he steps down Sunday after 29 years leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Ozawa, who is leaving to take the helm of the Vienna State Opera, is the BSO's longest-serving music director, and his influence is widely felt at Tanglewood, the orchestra's summer
home in the Berkshires.
Ozawa's farewell at Tanglewood this weekend will be marked by musical appearances by other big names: conductor John Williams, soprano Jessye Norman, jazz pianist Marcus Roberts and
the Boys Choir of Harlem. Ozawa will conduct the student orchestra in the Brahms on Friday night, and his final performance Sunday is with the BSO in a program of Berlioz and Beethoven.
Despite his worldwide reputation, Ozawa has kept an easygoing image. A fan of the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox, he wanted his farewell concert to be a freebie at Fenway Park. But BSO
officials said they couldn't afford the $500,000 to put the gig together.
Seiji Ozawa
Montreux Jazz Festival
Shirley Manson
Shirley Manson from the pop/rock group "Garbage" performs on the Stravinski hall stage during the Rockin' night of the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, on late Wednesday, July 10, 2002.
The festival will last until July 20.
Photo by Fabrice Coffrini
To Introduce HIV-Positive Muppet
Sesame Street
Sesame Street will soon introduce its first HIV-positive Muppet character to children of South Africa, where one in nine people have the virus that can lead to AIDS.
The upbeat female Muppet will join "Takalani Sesame" on Sept. 30 for its third season on the South African Broadcasting Corp.
The character -- which has yet to have a name or final color or form -- will travel to many if not all of the eight other nations that air versions of the educational children's show
that began in the United States in 1969, said Joel Schneider, vice president and senior adviser to the Sesame Street Workshop.
Schneider said talks are under way to introduce an HIV-positive character to U.S. viewers.
"Not every show will deal explicitly with HIV/AIDS," Schneider said. "We want to show that here is an HIV-positive member of our community who you can touch and interact with.
"We will be very careful to fashion our messages so they are appropriate to the age group. What do I do when I cut my finger? What do I do when you cut your finger? That sort of thing."
In some parts of South Africa, 40 percent of women of child-bearing age are infected with HIV, and in 2000, about 40 percent of adult deaths in South Africa were attributed
to AIDS, according to the State Department.
Sesame Street
BartCop TV!
Up Against O'Really
Phil Donahue
Talk show pioneer Phil Donahue, who is making a much-hyped return to TV next week, says he probably won't get good ratings in the game he virtually invented.
The man who pioneered the modern, issue-oriented talk show admitted yesterday that his "Donahue" - launching on Monday night on MSNBC - will finish no
better than second to current king of cable talk, Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Channel.
"I don't think we have to beat O'Reilly to be successful," Donahue told a gathering of TV critics. "Being opposite him makes it a more exciting ride.
In a way, it's like being called up to the bigs without having to go through tidewater."
Despite being out of television for six years, Donahue said he's confident he can grab young viewers.
"Carbon dating allows us to know I'm 66 years old," Donahue joked. "It's certainly true, MTV I'm not."
Phil Donahue
Blog Friday Continues
The Daily Cynic
The Daily Cynic
To Be Honored In Maine
Jonathan Demme
Director Jonathan Demme will be honored with a mid-life achievement award at the fifth annual Maine International Film Festival.
The festival opens Friday and will continue through July 21 at the Waterville Opera House and Railroad Square Cinema.
"It's a pretty outstanding festival, for the degree of sophistication and the consistent quality of the films, which is something you don't often see in a small
town in an out-of-the-way region," said Boston-based filmmaker Devon Demonte. "The location probably helps, because it attracts bigger-name filmmakers who want a vacation."
The presentation to the 58-year-old director will be followed by a screening of his edgy 1986 comedy, "Something Wild," starring Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels.
Several other Demme films will be shown at the festival, including "Stop Making Sense," "Married to the Mob" and "The Silence of the Lambs."
Jonathan Demme
Maine International Film Festival Web site
Effective Pesticide!
Vinegar
Five velvetleaf plants using, from left, no vinegar as pesticide, five-percent vinegar solution, 10-percent, 15-percent and 20-percent. The solution to weeds and insects that
bug gardeners as well as farmers could be in the kitchen cabinet. Agriculture Department scientists say they've proven that vinegar could be an effective alternative to conventional
herbicides for organic farmers and gardeners.
William Morris Agency to Promote Healthy Image
HMOs
Stung by their unflattering portrayal in a string of Hollywood movies, U.S. health insurers on Tuesday said they hired a talent agency to give them a healthier image.
The American Association of Health Plans, which represents all major health insurers and HMOs, including Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and UnitedHealth Group said it has
selected the William Morris Agency to "build a bridge to Hollywood."
The health plan association said it hired the agency's consulting division to leverage the power and influence of the entertainment industry to bring health care
issues to the forefront of the American public.
HMOs
Jeez, it's not as if the HMO's didn't bring all the bad p.r. down on themselves in the first place with shoddy services & understaffing. My own experience with HMO's began back in 1976, when my then-employer went HMO & looked at it as a way to scam more money & provide fewer services. It's only gotten
worse, and I've been fortunate to have the 'good' insurance.
Expedition: Bismarck
James Cameron
Even though the sinking of the Bismarck during World War II has all the makings of a big-screen tragedy, Oscar winning director James Cameron is not going to yield to the temptation.
Cameron who director such films as "True Lies," "Aliens" and "The Terminator," has been on the bottom of the North Atlantic this week, looking at the Bismarck. Though he won't be
turning it into a movie, he is putting together a special for the Discovery Channel.
The special is tentatively called "James Cameron's Expedition: Bismarck."
James Cameron
No Botox
Rupert Everett
Gay men the world over have always marveled at Rupert Everett's youthful face, never suspecting the secret behind his supple smile. Sources say Everett, 43, star of "The
Importance of Being Earnest," keeps his visage vibrant with the latest in skin treatments: lamb fetus injections. "They are all the rage and don't freeze your face like
Botox," notes the source.
Rupert Everett
Blog Friday Continues
O'Leary's Corner
O'Leary's Corner
Exempt From U.S. Visitor Rules
Canadian 'Snowbirds'
Canadians who winter in sunshine states like Florida are free to keep flying south, according to a U.S. Immigration letter that exempts Canada's "snowbirds" from stringent
new rules that could restrict foreign visitors to the United States to a stay of 30 days.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, looking to stiffen regulations in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, is fine-tuning a series proposed rules governing foreign
visitors, including a sharply reduced cap on long-term stays to 30 days from six months.
The restriction had upset many of Canada's snowbirds, mostly seniors and retirees, who spend several months a year in Florida, Texas, Arizona or California. Many make the
annual southerly trek for health reasons and often maintain a second home there.
In response to months of lobbying by the Canadian Snowbird Association, which got help from Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the INS confirmed by letter on Monday that the seasonal
snowbird migrations would not be halted by the new rules.
Canadian 'Snowbirds'
Addicts Turn To Shit
Malaysia
Faced with some of the world's strictest anti-drug laws, some addicts in Malaysia are sniffing fresh cow dung to get high.
An official at the National Narcotics Agency said Thursday the problem was small but growing among addicts who cannot buy drugs.
Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz was quoted in The New Straits Times newspaper on Wednesday as saying she wanted the government to deal with addicts who sniff cow dung, glue and even
polystyrene smoke. She did not elaborate.
"The cow dung emits gases like sulfur, and addicts sniff on these gases to get high," the official at the agency said on condition of anonymity.
Despite harsh anti-narcotics laws that call for death by hanging for drug traffickers, Malaysia does not have legislation to cover such acts as cow dung sniffing, the official said.
Malaysia, a nation of 23 million people, had more than 200,000 drug addicts. About 40,000 of them are repeat users who had not kicked the habit despite undergoing
government-funded rehabilitation programs.
No Shit!
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Reader Contribution
'Tales From The Treatment Center'
''Full Metal Jackass''
Chapter 2:
SPARKY GETS A LETTER
Sparky was a patient on the latency age boys unit (8-11 or 12) and was never a problem...followed the rules,got along with everybody...staff or otherwise.He was 11 years old.
Sparky tried to kill his little brother with a kitchen knife one day and that's how he got to us.
He was SO good with us no one could figure out how someone as sweet as Sparky could do such a thing.
His family wasn't forthcoming about the incident...so it remained a mystery to all of us, even his therapist.
Me and Sparky had a special connection...whenever I would see him I would say his name in greeting and he would bark at me in response...we would smile and go on our way.(There was some kid's movie reference to this exchange,but I forget what it is.)
One day Sparky got a letter from home and the sweet little boy who never made waves was transformed into something completely different...hostile with his peers,resistant to staff...since we didn't know about the letter yet, his behavior threw us for a loop.
Speaking of loops...I was always in conflict about these little kids...how could someone so young be so fucked up?The parents...it had to be the parents,and most of the time it was...abuse,neglect or sometimes what I called substitute parenting...trading goods for what they really needed...material things in exchange for hugs and kisses and reassurances that they belonged and were wanted...hell...valued.
Sparky had to fit in to my equation somewhere.
We got the call to remove Sparky around 9 pm...then another call saying he would walk up to our area with his staff.
He arrived with his pillow and went into the security room without incident...when we tried to leave he wigged and tried to run out of the room. I grabbed him in a basket hold and he went off,he wasn't trying to hurt me...he was trying to get away, to get away from something that was obviously causing him great discomfort and I was in his way.
We wrestled around for 5 or so minutes and he collapsed in my arms...crying hard, and I began rocking him.
Rocking him in my lap like the baby he was never allowed to be....his family had disowned him in that letter...I was it at the moment...and I held that kid like he was my own.
All these years later I wonder whatever became of Sparky...his memory lives on in mine.
NEXT WEEK: Who does this shit for a living anyway?
*These are true accounts of 14 years of work in residential treatment
center....sometimes harrowing, sometimes heartwarming...presented to
enlighten you to the human condition, as much as to tell my story.....and
maybe understand how I ended up the way I am.
~~ Rob
Turtopia - Turtle rescue, rehab and rehoming
'The Osbournes'
Fairly freshly updated - 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2 !
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
