'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot, still humid, and I'm starting to get cranky.
The cats don't want to do much except sprawl on the tile floor in the bathroom, not that I blame them, but, that used to be my trick.
Tonight, Friday, CBS begins the night with a FRESH 'Big Brother 4', followed by a RERUN 'JAG', then '48 Hours'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Jeff Bridges and Alan Harvey.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Dan Patrick, Nicole Hiltz, and 311.
NBC opens the evening with a 2-hour 'Dateline', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are John Leguizamo and Macy Gray.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Allison Janney, Ron Livingston, and Hot Hot Heat.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Carmen Electra, Vincent Pastore, Mitch Fatel, Mudvay, and The Jolly Garogers.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN 'America's Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH 'Whose Line', then another FRESH
'Whose Line', followed by '20/20'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel is Sharon Osbourne with this week's guest co-host Jack Osbourne.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Reba', followed by a RERUN 'What I Like About You', then another RERUN 'Reba', followed by a
RERUN 'Grounded For Life'.
Faux has a RERUN 'Bernie Mac', followed by another RERUN 'Bernie Mac', then a RERUN 'Boston Pubic'.
UPN has the St. Louis Cardinal's visiting Rupert's Doggers.
Check local PBS listings for the BEST SHOW ON TV, 'NOW With Bill Moyers'.
A&E has 'Biography' (Bob Barker), then 'A Touch Of Frost'.
AMC offers the movie 'Dillinger', followed by the movie 'American Werewolf In London', and then the movie 'Rosemary's Baby'.
BBC -
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Petworth;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - France;
[8pm] 'Coupling' - Gotcha;
[8:40pm] 'Absolutely Fabulous' - Mother;
[9pm] 'The Office' - Episode 6;
[9:40pm] 'Manchild - Episode 5;
[10:20pm] 'The League of Gentlemen' - The Medusa's Touch;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Kelly Osbourne;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Jason Orange, Jan Leeming;
[12am] 'The Office' - Episode 6;
[12:40am] 'Manchild' - Episode 5;
[1:20am] 'The League of Gentlemen' - The Medusa's Touch;
[2am] 'Coupling' - Gotcha;
[2:40am] 'Absolutely Fabulous' - Mother;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Kelly Osbourne; and
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Jason Orange, Jan Leeming. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'Flawless', followed by 'Inside The Actors Studio' (Robert De Niro).
History offers 'Modern Marvels', followed by 'US-1: Avenue Of America', then another 'US-1: Avenue Of America', followed by 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has 'Tremors: The Series', followed by 'Stargate SG-1', then 'Scare Tactic', followed by another 'Scare Tactic'.
TCM celebrates Red Skelton from dawn til dusk, then it's drama all night.
[6am] 'Maisie Gets Her Man' (1942);
[7:30am] 'Ship Ahoy' (1942);
[9:30am] 'Whistling In Brooklyn' (1943);
[11am] 'Merton Of The Movies' (1947);
[12:30pm] 'A Southern Yankee' (1948);
[2:15pm] 'The Yellow Cab Man' (1950);
[3:45pm] 'The Clown' (1953);
[5:30pm] 'Half A Hero' (1953);
[6:45pm] 'The Great Diamond Robbery' (1954);
[8pm] 'Marnie' (1964);
[10:15pm] 'The Night Of The Hunter' (1955);
[12am] 'Gaslight' (1944);
[2am] 'Le Corbeau' (1943);
[4am] 'Gaslight' (1940); and
[5:30am] 'MGM Parade Show #17' (1955). (ALL TIMES EDT)
USA has a FRESH 'Monk'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Actress Jane Kaczmarek cheers for actor Michael Chiklis as his name is announced for an Emmy nomination at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre, in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Chiklis was nominated for best actor in a drama series for 'The Shield.' Kaczmarek was nominated for a best actress Emmy.
Photo by Damian Dovarganes
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Clinton Presidential Foundation
Celebrity Cookbook
Former President Clinton has called on his celebrity friends to share recipes compiled in a cookbook to raise funds for his library foundation.
The Clinton Presidential Foundation said it will publish the $35 cookbook next month. "The Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook: A Collection of Recipes for Family and Friends" contains 250 recipes from celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Bono, Christie Brinkley, Chevy Chase, Whoopi Goldberg, Don Henley, Quincy Jones, Bruce Lee, Sophia Loren, Mary Steenburgen, Barbra Streisand and Elizabeth Taylor.
The cookbook will be available by mail order and through the foundation's Web site, foundation President Skip Rutherford said Wednesday.
Celebrity Cookbook
www.clintonpresidentialcenter.com
Smash Ratings Hit for Bravo
'Queer Eye'
The premiere episode of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," in which five gay men with expertise in fashion, food, grooming, culture and design remake a straight man, set new ratings records for cable channel Bravo, the network said on Wednesday.
Citing data from Nielsen Media Research, Bravo said the show's Tuesday debut at 10 p.m. ET set new records for the NBC-owned network among total viewers, households, audiences aged 18-49, and audiences aged 25-54.
Bravo said the show attracted 1.64 million total viewers, which made it the No. 2 ad-supported cable network during the hour. Bravo had previously ranked No. 38 in that hour for the season to date.
'Queer Eye'
Poised to Direct Che Guevara Film
Terrence Malick
Reclusive filmmaker Terrence Malick may be starting to pick up the pace.
Although 20 years passed between his 1978 film "Days of Heaven" and 1998's war film "The Thin Red Line," he's already contemplating another stint in the director's chair.
The director is attached to direct Benicio Del Toro in "Che," an epic about the life and death of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara that Laura Bickford is producing.
Steven Soderbergh was originally considering directing the project but now is likely to be involved in a producing capacity.
Terrence Malick
The original prototype G.I. Joe doll, designed by Don Levine for Hasbro Toys and released in 1964, is shown on display at the San Diego Convention Center Tuesday, July 15, 2003. The doll is expected to bring approximately $600,000.00 at an auction Friday.
Photo by Lenny Ignelzi
Helping Bob Graham Campaign
Ralph Stanley
Bluegrass singer Ralph Stanley is lending his voice to the presidential campaign of Sen. Bob Graham.
Stanley will perform a series of concerts for the Florida Democrat's campaign beginning Wednesday at the Coffee Pot club in Roanoke, Va.
The 76-year-old Stanley, who has recorded nearly 200 albums in his 50-year career, won a Grammy Award for his performance of ``O Death'' on the ``O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack.
Stanley, Jim Lauderdale and The Clinch Mountain Boys won the Grammy for best bluegrass album this year for ``Lost in the Lonesome Pines.''
Ralph Stanley
Thanks, Tim H!
U.N. Work Rewarding
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie says being a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations has changed her life.
"I used to lie there at night and wonder what it was that I needed to do," she tells Cosmopolitan magazine in its August issue. "That's how I stumbled on going to Washington and learning about the U.N. and traveling around the world. It completely changed me."
Jolie, 28, who stars in the upcoming "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life," says her 2-year-old son, Maddox, is the most important thing in her life. She adopted Maddox from Cambodia last year as her marriage to Billy Bob Thornton was collapsing. The couple divorced in May.
"Before Maddox, when things would go bad, I had a tendency to be depressed or self-destructive or lost, and I can't afford to be any of that now," the Oscar-winning actress tells the magazine. "He has given me strength. I've never known this kind of relationship or love before."
Angelina Jolie
Still Relevant
The Fugs
In the 1960s, the rock group the Fugs were at the vanguard of the underground counterculture movement, railing against the Vietnam War, promoting legalization of marijuana and extolling the virtues of free sex.
Nearly 40 years later, American troops are in Iraq, pot is still illegal and the sexual revolution has been blunted by the scourge of AIDS. Yet the Fugs continue to preach their gospel of peace, love and ... well, not so much drugs anymore.
In their latest release, "The Fugs Final CD (Part 1)," the New York-based group sings about sex for senior citizens, criticizes the U.S.-led war in Iraq and advances other leftist causes such as pacifism and universal health care.
Tuli Kupferberg and singer/poet Ed Sanders founded the Fugs in 1965 in New York's East Village as an underground alternative to mainstream rock. The group, which took its name from Norman Mailer's euphemism for the similar-sounding four-letter obscenity, plunged headlong into the 1960s anti-war movement and associated with other radicals.
A blend of folk, rock and New Age postmodernism, the Fugs' style is edgy but not vulgar, witty but not profane. Their music also is infused with radical and leftist politics.
Kupferberg believes there will always be a place for the Fugs. "Brotherhood and peace," he said, "will never go out of style."
For more, The Fugs
www.thefugs.com/home.html
www.artemisrecords.com
Stephanopoulos' Ratings Stink
Merging "Nightline" & "This Week"
ABC News took a bold step Thursday toward reviving George Stephanopoulos' struggling "This Week" by bringing the Sunday show under the wing of "Nightline."
Tom Bettag, executive producer of "Nightline," will take over as behind-the-scenes chief of "This Week" and the two Washington-based programs will merge their staffs, the network said.
"Even if it weren't having trouble, it's time to invent a new form," Bettag said.
Stephanopoulos took over on "This Week" last fall and though ABC professes happiness in his progress, it hasn't shown up in the ratings. A long decline has continued, with "This Week" dropping below CBS' "Face the Nation" to third place for the first time since at least 1987.
Merging "Nightline" & "This Week"
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Slow Ticket Sales Doom Show
Lollapalooza
Slow ticket sales and increased production costs led promoters to cancel the Lollapalooza rock festival scheduled this month for Vernon Downs racetrack in central New York.
The July 26 concert was to feature Jane's Addiction, Audioslave, the Donnas, Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus and Jurassic 5.
A sellout crowd for Vernon Downs is about 25,000 people, but the track has accommodated up to 30,000 for past concerts. Last month, The Dead and Willie Nelson drew about 20,000.
Mark Scalzo, marketing director for Vernon Downs, said he didn't know how many tickets were sold, though the last figure he heard was about 4,000.
Lollapalooza
www.lollapalooza.com
A vandalized picture of Britain's former prime minister, the late Winston Churchill, hangs surrounded by cartoon images of policemen with wings and smiley faces in the Turf War exhibition by grafitti artist 'Banksy' in London's East End, July 17, 2003. The exhibition, which opens on Friday and runs until July 21, is a previously unseen mixture of sculpture, vandalized classic paintings and painted live animals.
Photo by Peter Macdiarmid
Remasters 'American Pie'
Don McLean
Don McLean is certain the newly remastered version of the "American Pie" album will give you a newfound appreciation for it.
McLean said through the years, every time the title track was added to a compact disc, it was tweaked or equalized, so it ended up sounding foggy. He said that's been rectified.
McLean said the reason the song is almost nine minutes long is because he was listening to the story in his head and it took that long to finish it.
Don McLean
Asian-American Group Protests
'Banzai'
An Asian-American media group on Thursday protested the Fox network's airing of "Banzai," a parody of a Japanese game show, saying it demeans and stereotypes Asian people.
Outside a network presentation in Hollywood, about 20 members of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans carried signs and shouted into bullhorns, protesting the show.
The program, which debuted to strong ratings last Sunday, features an off-screen announcer speaking in a clipped parody of a Japanese accent, fake Japanese language graphics, and a karate-chopping middle-aged Asian host known as Mr. Banzai.
This is like an Asian minstrel show," Guy Aoki said. "Can you imagine the black version of Banzai?"
'Banzai'
WWI Issues Online
'Stars and Stripes'
The Library of Congress has put World War I issues of "The Stars and Stripes" online.
Historians and genealogists can now search the full text for a word or phrase in editions of the weekly paper launched on Feb 8, 1918, when American troops were already deployed in western Europe, often among British, French and Italian units.
Various newspapers, some owned by private interests, had used the name Stars and Stripes from the Civil War onward, but the World War I edition was the first official military publication to use the name.
"Stripes" ceased publication on June 13, 1919, when American troops were going home. It was revived as a weekly in World War II, soon became a daily and has been published continuously since.
'Stars and Stripes' Online
Library of Congress
Stars and Stripes
World Geography Championship
U.S. Team Wins
A team of American teen-agers correctly identified Bahrain and Crete to win the National Geographic World Championship of geography on Wednesday, defeating teams from Germany and France.
It was the fourth victory for the United States in six championships that have been held every two years since 1993. Australia and Canada won the other two.
The three-member U.S. team clinched the championship on the final round of questions when the German team could only identify Crete from the clues offered by moderator Alex Trebek and the French failed to get either answer. Germany finished second and France third.
U.S. Team Wins
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Honorary Degree From Trinity College
Bono
U2's Bono was awarded an honorary Doctor in Laws degree from Dublin's famed Trinity College in recognition of his humanitarian work on behalf of world poverty and Third World debt relief.
Bono was one of five people to receive an honorary degree alongside this year's Ph.D. graduates from Trinity, and he seemed genuinely humbled by the traditional ceremony, which has hardly changed in the last 400 years and is still conducted in Latin. After it was over, he refused to put on the traditional mortar board he had tucked under his arm, despite being urged by the many photographers who were there to cover the event. He explained, "My head has swollen. Such is the treatment I have got from the college."
Bono
Some 99 cadets aboard the Japanese tall ship Nippon Maru II stand atop the rigging and salute as they pass under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Thursday July 17, 2003. The tall ship was in San Francisco this past week on a goodwill visit to celebrate the 150th anniversary of American-Japanese relations.
Photo by Eric Risberg
F.U.T.K.
Toby Keith
Toby Keith has no problem sharing himself with his fans, but he may have taken that to a new level. Keith answered a few questions for Blender magazine in their new issue, and there are a few revelations that might raise an eyebrow or two.
For instance, he was asked about his political affiliation, and he said, "I was raised southern Democrat, and my dad and granddad would roll over in their graves if they knew I voted Republican. My dad used to say, 'We don't have enough money to be Republicans.' Well, I do have enough."
Perhaps the most surprising answers came in regard to his physical state. Keith says with a laugh that he's "six-foot-four--and eight inches," and admits to having shaved more than a few places on his body: "I've trimmed everything close once or twice, except my legs. It's summertime, and it's hot, you just take it all down--chest, armpits, crotch, everything."
Toby Keith
Reading The Wrong Thing In Public
Someone May Be Watching
BY MARC SCHULTZ
"You Marc Schultz?" asks the tall one. He shows me his badge, introduces himself as Special Agent Clay Trippi. After assuring me that I'm not in trouble, he asks if there is someplace we can sit down and talk. We head back to Reference, where a table and chairs are set up. We sit down, and I'm again informed that I am not in trouble.
Then, Agent Trippi asks, "Do you drive a black Nissan Altima?" And I realize this meeting is not about a friend. Despite their reassurances, and despite the fact that I haven't committed any federal offenses (that I know of), I'm starting to feel a bit like I'm in trouble.
"Were you at the Caribou Coffee on Powers Ferry?" asks Agent Trippi. That's where I get my coffee before work, and so I tell him yes, probably, just before remembering Saturday: Harry Potter day, opening early, in at 8:30.
Trippi's partner speaks up: "Any reading material? Papers?" I don't think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: "I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that."
Marc Schultz is a freelance writer in Atlanta. The Weekly Planet happens to be Creative Loafing's sister paper in Tampa. For a copy of the column that got Schultz in hot water, go here.
For the whole story, Someone May Be Watching
22nd Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
Winner Announced
Mariann Simms of Wetumpka, Ala., won $250 in the 22nd Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a parody honoring the writer of the worst beginning to an imaginary novel.
"They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white ... Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently," Simms wrote.
The contest, sponsored by San Jose State University, is named after the oft-mocked British novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" began, "It was a dark and stormy night."
For more, Winner Announced
Simms' Web site
Contest home page
Full list of winners
Basic Cable Networks
Top 15
Rankings for the top 15 programs on basic cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of July 7-13. Each ratings point represents 1,067,000 households. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. "WWE Raw Zone" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNN, 3.6, 3.82 million homes.
2. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNN, 3.2, 3.43 million homes.
3. Movie: "Fairly Odd Parents Movie" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.8, 2.96 million homes.
4. "Real World XIII" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 2.7, 2.92 million homes.
5. Movie: "The Wedding Planner" (Friday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 2.5, 2.71 million homes.
6. Movie: "The Wedding Planner" (Saturday, 10:30 p.m.), TNT, 2.5, 2.68 million homes.
7. "Monk" (Friday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.5, 2.65 million homes.
8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.5, 2.63 million homes.
9. "Law & Order" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 2.4, 2.57 million homes.
10. "Law & Order" (Monday, 8 p.m.), TNT, 2.4, 2.52 million homes.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 4:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.3, 2.49 million homes.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 4 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.3, 2.45 million homes.
13. "The Osbournes" (Tuesday, 10:30 p.m.), MTV, 2.3, 2.45 million homes.
14. "Fairly Odd Parents" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.3, 2.43 million homes.
15. "The Division" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), Lifetime, 2.3, 2.41 million homes.
Top 15
In Memory
Elisabeth Welch
Elisabeth Welch, the American-born singer who introduced the Charleston on Broadway and had show-stopping successes with Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" and Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather," has died. She was 99.
Welch died Tuesday at a retirement home in north London, according to a notice published by Bradley & Jones Funeral Directors in The Daily Telegraph.
A woman of poise with a mellow voice, Welch spent much of her career on the musical stage.
Born in New York City to a Scottish-born mother and a father of African-American and American Indian descent, she sang from an early age, in school productions and in the choir of St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church. In 1923, the choir was invited to sing in a Broadway show, "Runnin' Wild."
"Because I had a loud voice I was chosen to sing 'Charleston' ... but when the chorus girls came on they quickly yanked me off because I couldn't dance," Welch recalled.
Her first big part on Broadway was in the chorus in Lew Leslie's "Blackbirds," which starred Adelaide Hall, Ada Ward and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. She went with the show to Paris, and later made a recording of two songs.
"Blackbirds" shattered her relationship with her father, a strict Baptist.
"Girlie's on the boards. She's ruined," he said, when his daughter announced she would go into show business.
"He turned to hate me and my mother got frightened. I had to leave home and stay with friends. Finally he left, and we never heard from him again," she said in a 1986 interview with The Associated Press.
She later appeared in Porter's "New Yorkers," singing "Love for Sale," a song that caused scandal by referring to prostitution. "In 1931, it was filthy," she told AP.
Porter went on to write a specialty number for Welch called "Solomon" as part of "Nymph Errant," the 1933 London musical that starred Gertrude Lawrence.
Welch had first appeared in London in an all-black review, "Dark Doings," at the Leicester Square Theatre in 1933, in which she introduced Harold Arlen's haunting "Stormy Weather" to British audiences.
She settled in England, becoming a star of stage, film and radio.
Her London credits included the stowaway Cleo Washington in Ivor Novello's "Glamorous Night" (1935); Novello's "Arc de Triomphe" (1943) and the revue "Tuppence Coloured," in which she sang the Edith Piaf song, "La vie en rose."
She also appeared in the radio show "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" and films including "Song of Freedom" (1936) and "Big Fella" (1937) with Paul Robeson, where they broke new ground for black actors by having starring roles, rather than playing servants in the background.
In the 1970s, she garnered rave reviews for her appearance as the grandmother in the musical "Pippin." She starred in "Tempest," director Derek Jarman's unorthodox film of the Shakespeare play, in 1980.
Welch had great success off-Broadway in 1986 with her one-woman show, "A Time to Start Living," and won an Obie award. The same year, the Broadway version of her London hit "Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood" brought her a Tony nomination, prompting the critic Frank Rich to declare her "a national resource too rare and precious for export."
"I never intended anything in my life," she said in a 1986 interview with Women's Wear Daily. "People don't understand that, but I've just drifted in and out, in and out. I had no star that I looked for or followed. My whole life has been — an event."
Welch was briefly married in her youth; there were no children. Her funeral will be held July 21 in London.
Elisabeth Welch
Riki, the Budapest Zoo's baby kangaroo, looks out from his mother Rita's pouch on Thursday, July 17, 2003 in Budapest, Hungary. The male baby kangaroo was born November or December 2002 and came out of the pouch for the first time on Thursday.
Photo by Bela Szandelszky
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 5
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
