Thanks, again, Tim!
Week 4
'Survivor: Vanuatu'
No update available.
Real life intervened for our Denver Dude.
If anyone would like to send in highlights or a quick review, I'd appreciate it.
Denver Dude
Reader Comment
Treason or Gross Incompetence?
Treason or Gross Incompetence?
Either way, this administration doesn't deserve a 4-year extension.
Either:
A. They knew there were no WMDs and just lied to us. That's treason.
(Putting hundreds of thousands of our boys in harm's way and toppling a
sovereign nation based on a lie are at best impeachable offenses.)
-or-
B. They really did think there were WMDs there. In that case, they
bumbled horribly, because they did nothing to protect those weapons
from falling into the hands of terrorists and/or crossing the border.
Nothing worth noting. They just ran in with guns blazing, and figured
they'd shock and awe all the Iraqis to death.
So which one was it? Treason or gross incompetence?
E
Thanks, E! Good question.
Reader Suggestion
Interesting Sites
You can find a few pages to take your mind off the
election and the idiot-dauphin that's sitting in the
White House. Well, he might not be in the White House
at the moment since he's on the campaign trail a lot
(and Cheney was spanking Edwards for being absent from
work).
Purple Gene Reviews
'Napoleon Dynamite'
"Napoleon Dynamite (2004)"
When I was in Nashvile last Month, I snuck inside the
Greenhills 15 screen Cinema with my brother, JD, to
view a COOL LITTLE FLICK -
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!
My brother said that this movie a was about a small
town NERD trying to get through high school as well as
trying to get through living with his disfunctional
family. Well.....the BEST THING about this movie was
the OPENING CREDITS!!! Incredibly creative hand-made
still shot clay-mation style - pizzas, crayons,
kitchen sink....each new credit was funky and foolish
and really funny!!
The movie itself was truly charming and off-beat. 24
year old Jared Hess and his 23 year old wife Jerushaput together this quirky, first time movie, with
Jon Heder
playing Napoleon - I mean this guy is NERD
Personified - he is so nerdy that you almost cringe at
his every next nerdy move. But what this movie does
that "Revenge of the Nerds" didn't do - is to not
create a hateful villain for Napoleon to conquer...but
rather explore the annoying and nutty small town
antics of everybody. The character development of all
the different players is exquisite and enchanting and
the ending is storybook and Begs for NAPOLEON DYNAMITE
II.
Purple Gene gives
Napoleon Dynamite
8 out of 10 pieces
of pepperoni on a slice of opening credit pizza
supreme.
~ Purple Gene
Thanks, Purple Gene!
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Reader Suggestions
More Bumper Stickers
George W. Bush: Big Spender -- Of Taxpayer Dollars
George W. Bush: Don't Forget About Poland -- Oh, Wait, They're
Withdrawing Their Troops From Iraq. Never Mind.
George W. Bush: I Would Have Prepared For The Debate If I Had Known
It Was Important
George W. Bush: I Would Have Read The Memo Saying Osama Was
Determined To Attack The US If I Had Known It Was Important
Bush/Cheney 2004: An Expensive Campaign Of Lies
Bush/Cheney 2004: More Of The Same
Bush/Cheney 2004: More Of What Didn't Work The First Four Years
Dick "Heart Attack" Cheney: Please Let Me Sit Down During The Debate
Dick Cheney: Dr. Strangelove
Bush/Kerry Debate: The Emperor Is Naked
Bush/Kerry Debate: The Emperor Got His Clock Cleaned
Four More Years Of Bush? The Horror!
Osama: Born Free And Still Free
The Hottest Babes Vote For Democrats
George W. Bush: Dead Certain, Dead Wrong, Dead Soldiers
What Do You Get When You Go Into A Country And Kill Innocent People?
Support Free Speech: Kick Bush's Butt At The Voting Booth
George W. Bush: Drunk With Power
A Vote For Dick Cheney Is A Vote Against Head Start
A Vote For Dick Cheney Is A Vote Against Nelson Mandela
A Vote For Dick Cheney Is A Vote Against Martin Luther King
A Vote For Dick Cheney Is A Vote Against Meals On Wheels
A Vote For Dick Cheney Is A Vote Against Reason And Intelligence
A Vote For Dick Cheney Is A Vote For A Man Who Can't Even Change A Flat Tire
Senator Kerry, We've Got Your Back
Do We Want A Vice President Who Suffers From Memory Lapses?
Thanks, Bruce!
Reader Suggestion
'Naked Party'
Hi Marty,
Google "Naked Party" at Google news. You'll probably have to register, but its worth a giggle just knowing its true. Thank god(ess) it was the younger Barbara (yeesh!). Sadly, no pics.
Have fun,
Chris
Bush Twin Chose Skin Over Skull And Bones
Her dad was Skull and Bones. So was her grandfather and great-grandfather. By not joining Yale's secret society, Barbara Bush broke with that tradition.
But she embraced another - the naked party.
Yale's naked parties have been described as an intellectual salon without the clothes. Incoming freshmen hear about the ritual long before setting foot on campus.
The creme de la creme of naked parties is the springtime event held by the Pundits, a society synonymous with streaking through the library during finals. This one is invitation only for about 40 to 50 "A-list" guests. A bouncer checks names at the door.
In the spring of 2002, Barbara Bush, then a sophomore, arrived at a house on Crown Street for the fun, according to at least two people who saw her there. Not known: the whereabouts of her Secret Service protection.
Like everyone else at the party, sources say, she left her inhibitions at the door and her clothes in a changing room, then mingled with the other guests over wine, cheese and pool.
In 2002, rumors about Barbara in the buff ran rampant on campus. A year later, porn king Larry Flynt caught wind of it and reportedly offered a million bucks for film of the presidential twin, according to a blurb in The New York Post. But nothing materialized. In fact, aside from a vague reference in a student newspaper, nothing more about Bush's party appearance surfaced until police were deep into their investigation of a sexual assault on another guest who had left the party.
Bush Twin Chose Skin Over Skull And Bones
Thanks, Chris!
What a wonderful story! (I didn't have to register to read it.)
Reader Comment
Twinkles from Bush
Purple Gene Reviews
'Tanner on Tanner'
Review of 'Tanner on Tanner' - Sundance
Channel (11:00 pm, 10/06/04)
What a tough decision I had to make last night: To
watch the Daly Show Skewer the VP Debates or switch to
the Sundance Channel and watch "Tanner 88 Redo" - I
snuck a little Daily in then I committed to # 505 on my
cable. So....what we have is an update of a show that
ran awhile back called "Tanner on Tanner" - Michael
Murphy Playing Jack Tanner, a democrat running for
President and his 19 year old daughter, Alex (played
by Cynthia Nixon ('Sex in the City') who doesn't look 19
anymore) who is making a film about her dads run for
the presidency.
Well this "Tanner Redo" has Robert
Altman teaming up with cartoonist Gary Trudeau - WOW!
This episode was called "Dinner at Elaines" - Zoom in
on a crowded restaurant with Tanner and Daughter
eating at a table near Steve Buscemi and Martin
Scorcese - GEEZ Altman's doing it again - it's like
"The Player" meets "Curb your Enthusiasm." Star fucking
GALORE - I love it - Woody Allen would love it! There
are cameos of Al Sharpton, video clips of young John
Kerry and Michael Moore and much more! The dialogue,
even though it centers around Alex showing her "Rough
Cut" movie about her dad to a "Sundance" style
audience,is "precious" and the political palaver is
perfect. Jack Tanner says "Presidential campaigns are
not about being morally correct - they're about
WINNING"
Jack and Alex get up onstage after the movie to
answer questions about the film and a student says he
thought "It Sucked" - Alex starts sobbing loudly and
suddenly from the back of the screening room a ruddy
individual stands up and says "There's no CRYING in
independent films"!!!! It was ROBERT REDFORD!!!!!
I am going to watch the other two episodes!
I laid in bed saying to myself "If Bush wins this
election, I'm cancelling my CABLE!!!!
Purple Gene Gives this episode of "Tanner Redo" 8 out
of 10 Sundance skis sticking up in the snow ( I would
have given it 9 but skis come in pairs. Haha)
By the way, Nancy Pelosi's daughter who did a docu on
Bush in 2000 is releasing a docu on the Demos
primaries in 2004!!!!
~ Purple Gene
Thanks, Purple Gene!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny by day, foggy by night.
Picked up a copy of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' for $18.19 at CostCo today.
The guy running the cash register commented "that's a great movie," and, of course, I had to agree.
That's when the kid proudly chimed in with "it was my first 'R' movie."
Courteney Cox Arquette, left, with Patti LaBelle, center, and Lisa Kudrow pose for photographers while raising awareness for breast cancer at the 2004 Ford 'Get Tied to the Cause' luncheon, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004, in Los Angeles.
Photo by Ashley Jones
Ad for John Kerry
Michael J. Fox
Actor Michael J. Fox is returning to TV - in a commercial praising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for his stance on stem cell research.
"John Kerry strongly supports stem cell research. George Bush is putting limits on it," Fox says in an ad Kerry's campaign unveiled Thursday. "Stem cell research can help millions of Americans whose lives have been touched by devastating illnesses. George Bush says we can wait. I say lives are at stake and it's time for leadership. That's why I support John Kerry for president."
Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, campaigned with Kerry in New Hampshire on Monday and filmed the ad after the event.
Michael J. Fox
In Newspaper Endorsements
Kerry Takes Lead
Sen. John Kerry has opened up an early lead in the number -- and potential impact -- of newspaper endorsements, according to E&P's exclusive tabulation covering the race for president.
Counting every editorial endorsement we know of, Kerry has won the backing of five daily newspapers, with a total daily circulation of 881,012.
Resident Bush has gotten the nod from four papers, with a total daily circulation of 323,743.
JOHN KERRY
Detroit Free Press: 354,581
The Seattle Times: 237,303
The Philadelphia Daily News: 139,983
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson): 109,592
The Day (New London, Conn.): 39,553
Total Daily Circ: 881,012
GEORGE W. BUSH
Las Vegas Review-Journal: 170,061
The Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain: 52,208
Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News: 51,105
The Sun (Lowell, Mass.): 50,369
Total Daily Circ: 323,743
Kerry Takes Lead
Actor Danny Glover, second from left, joins Local 2 striking hotel workers picketing outside of the Four Seasons in San Francisco, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2004. At left is Mary Huang, who works at the Four Seasons. Union workers and hotel operators are at odds over several issues including wages, health care premiums, pensions and the length of a labor contract.
Photo by Jeff Chiu
Hopes for Interview With Kerry
O'Really
After John Kerry pronounced himself a fan of Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News Channel host is hoping that will translate into a pre-election interview.
"I like Bill O'Reilly," the Democratic presidential candidate told TV Guide. "I think he does a terrific job. I think he's got a very good show."
O'Reilly, who interviewed resident Bush for telecasts last week on the top-rated cable news program, told The Associated Press he'd been trying for about two months to book Kerry. (Kerry said he was unaware of any invitation.)
O'Really
Suits Filed
Charges Dismissed
A civil liberties group Thursday filed two federal lawsuits alleging that hundreds of people were illegally arrested during the Republican National Convention.
The lawsuits accuse police of illegal mass arrests, illegally lengthy and unexplained detentions under filthy conditions, and illegal fingerprinting of people charged with minor offenses. The suits seek unspecified damages.
More than 1,800 people were arrested during the four-day GOP convention at Madison Square Garden in August.
On Wednesday, the Manhattan district attorney's office said it would not prosecute 227 anti-war protesters arrested near the trade center site because it could not prove protesters who were blocking traffic intended to break the law.
Charges Dismissed
Two 'Law & Order' Roles
Fred Thompson
Fred Thompson will do double duty on two "Law & Order" shows.
Thompson, 62, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, will continue to play Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch on the original series. He also will take the character to "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," the fourth installment of the NBC franchise, which is set to premiere next spring.
"Law & Order: Trial by Jury" will star Jerry Orbach, also of the original "Law & Order" series, as police Detective Lennie Briscoe. The series also will star Bebe Neuwirth, Kirk Acevedo and Amy Carlson.
Fred Thompson
Austrian novelist and playwright Elfriede Jelinek smiles as she sits in her house in Vienna on October 7, 2004. Jelinek won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday for novels and plays that starkly depict violence against women, explore sexuality and condemn far-right politics in Europe. She is the first Austrian and ninth woman to win literatures highest accolade.
Photo by Leonhard Foeger
Motley Crue Guitarist Recovering
Mick Mars
Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars was recovering Wednesday after undergoing hip replacement surgery, his publicist said.
Mars, 53, whose real name is Bob Allen Deal, has been suffering from a degenerative, rheumatic disease called ankylosing spondylitis for some time, publicist Katie McNeil said.
McNeil said Mars, an original member of Motley Crue, was looking forward to a full recovery so he could possibly join group for a comeback tour. All original members of the band have not played together in six years, McNeil said.
Mick Mars
Divorce News
Andie MacDowell
Actress Andie MacDowell and her husband, former high school classmate Rhett Hartzog, have divorced after nearly three years of marriage, People Magazine reported on Wednesday.
MacDowell, 46, and Hartzog, 45, married in November 2001 in a 450-guest ceremony in Asheville, N.C. It was the actress' second marriage.
Andie MacDowell
Satire Sequel
Jib Jab
From the creators of the political satire sensation "This Land" comes a sequel set to the tune of "Dixie."
The online animation "Good To Be in DC!" features the presidential and vice presidential candidates along with Attorney General John Ashcroft, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, filmmaker Michael Moore, talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Jane Fonda.
Running at 80 seconds, or about 30 seconds shorter than "This Land," the sequel was to debut on the Leno show Thursday and be available afterward at JibJab.com and AtomFilms.com. Spiridellis said "The Tonight Show" is paying an undisclosed amount for premiere rights.
Jib Jab
'Champ' Cut Down - 'Comic' Falls?
2 Down
The fall TV season looks to have produced two early casualties this week: NBC's Last Comic Standing 3 and Fox's The Next Great Champ.
Last Comic Standing, the reality-slash-competition show, gets a most-undignified hook, with the series' would-be crowning moment--the crowning of the third-season champ--to be announced Tuesday in the midst of back-to-back-to-back episodes of Father of the Pride.
The Next Great Champ, meanwhile, another reality-slash-competition show, has been asked to pack its gear and head off for the dingy gym known as Fox Sports Net, the Fox sister cable network.
Ratings for both shows were, as one might expect of cancellation victims, poor.
2 Down
Actor, director and musician Billy Bob Thorton, foreground, poses for photographers with his former wife Pietra, their two sons Willie and Harry, mother Virginia, brother John David and girlfriend Connie Angland holding their daughter Bella (L-R), during an unveiling ceremony honoring him with the 2,265th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California October 7, 2004.
Photo by Jim Ruymen
NBC Adding Delay - Dale Jr. Quoted Cheney
NASCAR
NBC is adding a 5-second delay to its NASCAR telecasts after Dale Earnhardt Jr. used a vulgarity during a postrace TV interview last weekend.
Earnhardt was docked 25 points in the Nextel Cup standings and fined $10,000 for his slip of the tongue in an NBC interview after his victory at Talladega Superspeedway, dropping him to second place with seven races left in the season. He will appeal the point penalty.
Networks have installed delays of up to 10 seconds for some programming, and ABC's "Monday Night Football" is using a 5-second delay this season. But, until now, NBC had decided not to give itself a chance to censor its NASCAR telecasts.
NASCAR
Surprising SAG Study
Minority Actors
Minority actors, with the exception of Native Americans, saw their share of television and film roles continue to decline last year, mirroring the overall trend of actors losing jobs to reality TV and runaway production, according to statistics released Wednesday by SAG.
Native Americans were the only minority group to make gains, landing 128 roles last year for a 40.7% increase over the previous year. Those gains took place in male and female leads as well as supporting roles.
Asian/Pacific Islanders got 2.5% of all TV and theatrical roles, while they represent 3.8% of the population. The most affected area was male Asian leads, which fell from 104 in 2002 to 61 last year.
The roles going to black actors fell 3% last year. That left them with a 15.3% share of all TV and film roles while representing 12.8% of the U.S. population. Lead roles increased to 64 male leads and 14 female leads, while total film roles fell 23% over the previous year primarily because of fewer males in lead roles.
Roles for Latinos fell 10.5% last year, leaving them with a 5.4% share of overall roles compared with a 13.7% share of the U.S. population. The 31% decline in Latino male leads was concentrated in episodic TV. At the same time, there was a 2.4% increase in supporting roles for Latinos.
SAG said that women also remain significantly under-represented in film and TV roles. Women got 38% of total roles cast last Women got 38% of total roles cast last year, a figure that has remained steady for the past several years.
Minority Actors
Seek to Limit Phony Credits
Producers
Hollywood producers said Wednesday they want studios to stop giving bogus credits to people as a bargaining chip and say they'll go to court to limit the use of the "produced by" title.
Kathleen Kennedy, president of the Producers Guild of America, refused to specify who in the past has received a phony producer credit, saying she would not "name names" even though the issue is murky for the average moviegoer.
Kennedy, whose credits include "Seabiscuit," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" and "Back to the Future," said too often a producer credit is given as a kind of compensation, boosting an actor, agent or manager's show-business resume and costing studios little or nothing.
Producers
A misspelled William Shakespeare is shown on the ceramic ground mural at the entrance to the Livermore Library in Livermore, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004. The city of Livermore paid $40,000 for the artwork by Maria Alquilar, but it included the misspellings of Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Shakespeare and Einstein among the 175 names on the tiles. This week Livermore offered Alquilar another $6,000 plus expenses to fly from her Miami home just to straighten out the artistic oops.
Photo by Jeff Chiu
Swiss Monks Seek Homes
St Bernard Rescue Dogs
Switzerland's St Bernard rescue dogs, known for centuries for saving avalanche victims from snowy Alpine graves, are to be sold by their monk owners as helicopters and heat sensors take over their work.
At St. Bernard's hospice, cradle of the breed, Augustinian monks want to devote more time to needy people and less to the 18 dogs -- which will be sold only to new owners who promise to bring them back each year.
At an altitude of 2,438 metres (8,000 ft), the home of the St Bernards is an Alpine pass on the route to Italy where the huge, shaggy dogs are said to have saved the lives of some 2,500 travellers over the past few centuries.
But the dogs, which eat up to 2 kg (4.5 lb) of meat a day and weigh as much as 64 kg, have not rescued anyone for 50 years.
St Bernard Rescue Dogs
Basic Cable Networks
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on basic cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Sept. 27-Oct. 3. Each ratings point represents 1,096,000 households. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses.
1. "Presidential Debate" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 5.5, 6 million homes.
2. NFL Football: St. Louis vs. San Francisco (Sunday, 8:28 p.m.), ESPN, 5.2, 5.69 million homes.
3. "Presidential Debate analysis" (Thursday, 10:31 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 4.6, 5.06 million homes.
4. "NFL Prime Time" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), ESPN, 3.2, 3.46 million homes.
5. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.0, 3.25 million homes.
6. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.9, 3.21 million homes.
7. "WWE Raw Zone" (Monday, 10 p.m.) Spike, 2.9, 3.14 million homes.
8. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), Spike, 2.8, 3.08 million homes.
9. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.8, 3.04 million homes.
10. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodoen, 2.8, 3.01 million homes.
11. "Presidential Debate" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), CNN, 2.8, 3.01 million homes.
12. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 2.7, 2.93 million homes.
13. "Real World XV" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 2.7, 2.9 million homes.
14. "Nip/Tuck" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), FX, 2.6, 2.86 million homes.
15. "Presidential Debate analysis" (Thursday, 10:30 p.m.), CNN, 2.6, 2.85 million homes.
Ratings
In Memory
Yogi Bhajan
Marty, a bit of alternative news:
'Yogi Bhajan' died today. The teacher of 'kundalini yoga' in the West led tens of thousands of students, from the late 60s to recently, in this rarely-taught system of yoga, an alternative to the hatha yoga that has become a staple in the US. Many local yoga centers now also teach the popular (and demanding) kundalini yoga.
Many students also took up the turban-wearing Sikh religion, a contemplative path involving prayer, chanting, sacred song, and a strict moral code that includes the view of universal equal rights, and protection of the innocent at all costs.
With his title of Siri Singh Sahib, he was a sort of 'pope' of the Sikh religion in the West, though few East-indian Sikhs recognized the title.
Following Sikh tradition, Yogi Bhajan will be cremated. Remembrance services will be held in New Mexico this Saturday, at the center he established there in the late 70s.
Thanks, Paul!
Two scimitar-horned oryx explore their new habitat at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004. These endangered animals came to the National Zoo from the zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va. where they were part of an international breeding program. Oryx are native to the northern African savannah and are nearly extinct in the wild. The only existing wild population is a result of a reintroduction program in Tunisia.
Photo by Jessie Cohen
