Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Despite the sudden death of his mother, Devonte Malcolm keeps going to school, on time, every day (tucsonweekly.com)
Devonte Malcolm was on time for his first class of the day at Buena High School in Sierra Vista a couple of weeks back. His classmates normally wouldn't have thought anything of it. Devonte was always in class and always on time; someone had convinced him of the veracity of that old saying that 90 percent of success in life is just showing up. He was proud of his perfect attendance. His mom would have been proud, too, except she had been killed the night before.
roger ebert's journal: I'd like you to meet your best friend
It was the opening day of the Disney-MGM studios in Orlando. The stars were there with their children. There was an official luncheon at the Brown Derby, modeled after the legendary Hollywood eatery. I was beside myself. I was in a booth sitting next to Jack Brickhouse, the voice of the Chicago Cubs. A man walked over and introduced himself. "Bob Elliott." Oh. My. God. Bob, of Bob and Ray.
Garrison Keillor: A tribute to naked ... art
I was in Chicago with time on my hands and the sweet woman murmured to me -- you know how this goes -- "Would you like to see the Art Institute?" and I was thinking No No No God No, and I said, "Sure. Fine." "You wouldn't rather do something else?" she said. "No," I replied. That's the correct answer when a woman asks you about art. Yes, absolutely, ma cherie.
Edd Hurt: Bob Frank is a cult hero, even if he doesn't want to be (nashvillescene.com)
Neither a wise outlaw nor a convincing romantic, Bob Frank came to Nashville 40 years ago and proceeded to make a debut record he's never surpassed.
TERRY TEACHOUT: Satchmo and the Jews (commentarymagazine.com)
In addition to being the greatest jazz musician of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong was also the most beloved. "I never met anybody that didn't love him that ever saw him work or ever has encountered him, had any connection or any business with him," said Bing Crosby.
Chris Kornelis: "Q&A: Kenny G on 'Wayne's World,' Weezer, and Barack Obama" (seattleweekly.com)
"I'm a sax player that's trying to become a better sax player."
Mark Caro: Devo's whipping it in a big way on entire-album tour (Chicago Tribune)
Devo plans to release its first new studio album in 20 years in 2010, but the band that's touring now is rooted firmly in the late '70s and early '80s.
Sarah Feldberg: Jerry Springer, American Dreamer (Las Vegas Weekly)
Profiles of Springer tend to follow a similar pattern; they contrast the raucous TV show full of bleeped-out curses and sexual betrayals with the intelligent adult who talks knowledgeably about politics with a passion that would be incendiary in the debate room. But there's nothing so unthinkable about the two going together.
Will Harris: A Chat with Jonathan Ames, Creator of "Bored to Death" (bullz-eye.com)
I'd definitely love to bring Patton back (to 'Bored to Death'). His character's kind of perfect for that, because he's got this store, and Jason needs things from that store. It's kind of like Sesame Street: 'Let's go to the store and see our friend Patton!'
Will Harris: A Chat with Kurt Sutter, Creator of "Sons of Anarchy" (bullz-eye.com)
This kind of violence doesn't happen in a vacuum. It has ramifications. It has repercussions. Whether it's a week from now or five years from now, you know it will play out. Nothing is ever tied up into a perfect knot.
Joan Jett: I Hate Myself for Loving You (youtube.com)
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Trials vs Tribunals' Edition
John Dickerson hosted a roundtable discussion of Eric Holder's decision to prosecute 5 Guantanamo Bay detainees in New York with Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton with National Security Network and Hamilton Peterson with Keep America Safe.
Unplugged: Pros and Cons Of 9/11 Trials In New York - CBS News Video
Do you support or oppose the Administration's decision to try the accused terrorism perpetrators in New York City?
Send your response to
Results Tuesday
said:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Recycles More Video
Rupert News
For the second time in just over a week , Fox News is coming under fire for misusing old news footage. The latest flap is leading some people to charge that the cable news network is intentionally misleading its audience, while Fox claims a "production error."
Wednesday's incident occurred when Fox News host Gregg Jarrett mentioned that a Sarah Palin appearance and book signing in Grand Rapids, Michigan had a massive turnout. As footage rolled of a smiling and waving Palin amidst a throng of fans, Jarrett noted that the former Republican vice-presidential candidate is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand-new book,'' adding that the images being shown were "some of the pictures just coming in to us.... The lines earlier had formed this morning."
However, the video used in the segment was from a 2008 McCain/Palin campaign rally . In response to the minor uproar that arose after clips of Jarrett's report hit the Internet, Fox senior vice-president of news Michael Clemente issued an initial statement saying, "This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video."
The current mishap comes on the heels of a controversy sparked last week when footage from a conservative rally held over the summer was played on "Hannity" during a segment on a more recent rally. During the clip, host Sean Hannity marveled over the large turnout for a Washington, DC protest. The Daily Show later pointed out that there seemed to be some inconsistencies with the video shown on Hannity's show, namely that the atmospheric conditions seemed to vary from shot to shot. Hannity later apologized on the air for what he called "an inadvertent mistake."
Rupert News
Simpsons' Character Contest Winner
Ricardo Bomba
Ladies' man Ricardo Bomba is bringing his charms to "The Simpsons," and it's all the doing of a hospital operations manager with a vivid imagination.
Peggy Black, 52, of Orange, Conn., won a contest to create a character for Fox's long-running animated series, with her entry triumphing among the more than 25,000 received, the network said Thursday.
Bomba will be introduced in the Jan. 31 episode featuring guest star Chris Martin of Coldplay. The episode had been mostly completed, with a spot reserved for the contest character.
Bomba, a handsome, smooth-talking South American nicknamed "La Bomba," works at the town's nuclear power plant by day and "by night, works Springfield's singles scene," as Fox describes him.
Ricardo Bomba
Reporters Make It Political?
Fort Bragg
The U.S. Army will allow the media limited coverage of Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg, but will bar reporters from interviewing her or her supporters on the post, officials said Thursday.
A Fort Bragg spokesman initially said the Army would ban the media from Palin's book signing next week, fearing it would turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama. After The Associated Press and The Fayetteville Observer protested, Col. Billy Buckner said the post would permit restricted access.
A small pool of reporters will be allowed to view and document the event but will be barred from the interviews. The public will be allowed.
Buckner said the setup will allow reporters their right to access while preventing the political appearance from turning political - something that officials believe would violate policy.
Fort Bragg
HBO Renews
Bill Maher
HBO has renewed "Real Time with Bill Maher" for an eighth season.
The political talk show will return Friday, February 19, when it will move from its 10 p.m. slot to 9 p.m., with a rebroadcast slated for 11 p.m.
"Real Time" is produced by HBO in association with Brad Grey Television.
Bill Maher
Ending Show
Oprah
"The Oprah Winfrey Show," an iconic broadcast that grew over two decades into a daytime television powerhouse and the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air, Winfrey's production company said Thursday night.
Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday, Harpo Productions Inc. said, bringing an end to what has been television's top-rated talk show for more than two decades, airing in 145 countries worldwide and watched by an estimated 42 million viewers a week in the U.S. alone.
Winfrey is widely expected to start up a new talk show on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, a much-delayed joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. that is expected to debut in 2011. OWN is to replace the Discovery Health Channel and will debut in some 74 million homes. An OWN spokeswoman declined comment Thursday.
Oprah
15 Features Make Short List
Documentary Oscars
Of the 89 documentary films eligible for Oscar consideration this year, 15 were selected for a short list of potential nominees. And Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" wasn't one of them.
Some of the year's most popular documentary features were overlooked, including Moore's R-rated film, which was praised by critics and earned more than $14 million at the box office.
Also omitted from Oscar consideration was the well-reviewed Mike Tyson documentary "Tyson," the rock-doc "It Might Get Loud," and the story of Vogue magazine and its editor-in-chief, "The September Issue."
The selections this year are "The Beaches of Agnes," "Burma VJ," "The Cove," "Every Little Step," "Facing Ali," "Food, Inc.," "Garbage Dreams," "Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders," "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," "Mugabe and the White African," "Sergio," "Soundtrack for a Revolution," "Under Our Skin," "Valentino The Last Emperor" and "Which Way Home."
Documentary Oscars
New Rules Rankle Santa's Helpers
North Pole, AK
Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.
The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.
Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.
People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers.
North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed caution is necessary to protect children. But he's outraged North Pole's program should be affected by a sex offender's actions on the East Coast - and he thinks it's wrong that locals just learned of the change.
North Pole, AK
32% Increase Again This Year
University of California
The governing board of the University of California approved a $2,500 student fee increase Thursday after two days of tense campus protests across the state.
The 32 percent increase will push the cost of an undergraduate education at California's premier public schools to over $10,000 a year by next fall, about triple the cost of a decade ago. The fees, the equivalent of tuition, do not include the cost of housing, board and books.
The vote by the Board of Regents in a windowless University of California, Los Angeles, meeting room took place as the drone of protesters could be heard from a plaza outside.
Hundreds of students and union members gathered at the arched doorways of the building, waving signs, pounding drums and chanting "We're fired up, can't take it no more" and "Shame on you."
University of California
Sites Selling Songs Still Shut Down
Beatles
Two Web sites that sold songs by The Beatles for 25 cents apiece should remain shut down indefinitely, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge John F. Walter issued a preliminary injunction against BlueBeat.com and Basebeat.com at the request of music company EMI Group. The injunction prohibits the sites and their owner, Hank Risan, from streaming or selling songs by the Fab Four and other popular artists, including Lily Allen and Coldplay.
A hearing in the case had been scheduled for Friday, but Walter decided the issue based on pleadings by attorneys for Risan and the music label.
Risan argued in court filings that he had re-recorded the music and inserted artistic touches based on a technique he pioneered called "psycho-acoustic simulation."
Beatles
Arrested In Hollywood
Alexandra Kerry
U.S. Senator John Kerry's elder daughter, Alexandra, who made a red-carpet splash at the Cannes film festival five years ago in a see-through dress, was arrested in Hollywood on Thursday on suspicion of drunken driving.
The 36-year-old aspiring filmmaker was stopped by police, jailed briefly on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence and released on $5,000 bail, Los Angeles police said.
A statement issued on behalf of the Massachusetts senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, said Kerry's daughter was pulled over for an expired automobile registration "and was released after the results of a breathalyzer test at the police station were under the legal limit."
The case was later turned over to prosecutors who will decide whether to formally charge Kerry or dismiss the matter. A spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said the case was under review.
Alexandra Kerry
Racist Lyrics
Haifa Wehbe
A famous Lebanese pop singer, who normally stirs controversy for her seductive dresses and provocative dancing, has now been accused of singing a song with racist lyrics that compares black Egyptians to monkeys.
Haifa Wehbe, considered by many as one of the sexiest women in the Arab world, has the minority Nubian community in Egypt distraught over her latest children's album "Baby Haifa" and the community's activists have launched several lawsuits over the lyrics.
The Nubians took issue with a verse in the song "Where is Daddy?" in which Wehbe croons: "Where is my teddy bear and my Nubian monkey?"
Nubians come from the southernmost region of present-day Egypt, where a culture later known as Nubian first arose around 3,800 B.C. along the Nile and in northern Sudan. It was one of Africa's earliest black civilizations, complete with an independent kingdom.
Haifa Wehbe
Anatomical Art On Display
Ben Franklin
Centuries before X-rays, CAT scans and ultrasounds gave doctors a view inside the human body, the best images medical students often had were illustrations drawn by artists of bodies in a morgue.
The country's oldest hospital has unveiled a new exhibit of rare 18th-century anatomical illustrations, once owned by Benjamin Franklin, that provide a glimpse of how early physicians learned their craft.
The 16 pastel-on-paper drawings were cutting edge in their day. They show highly detailed and coloured male and female human figures, flayed open to show internal organs, bones and muscles. The female illustrations include a woman carrying a near-term fetus, indicating that both likely died at childbirth.
Franklin founded Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751. The illustrations were a gift to him in 1762 from his friend Dr. John Fothergill, a prominent London physician and fellow Quaker. They became part of the hospital's medical education curriculum.
Ben Franklin
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) U2; $7,689,626; $93.77.
2. (2) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $3,246,542; $83.72.
3. (3) AC/DC; $1,827,586; $85.45.
4. (4) Jonas Brothers; $1,388,330; $66.31.
5. (5) Metallica; $1,372,098; $68.13.
6. (7) Depeche Mode; $1,248,377; $64.77.
7. (6) Kenny Chesney; $1,216,996; $64.17.
8. (8) Dave Matthews Band; $1,073,658; $49.62.
9. (9) Britney Spears; $1,022,687; $66.58.
10. (10) Miley Cyrus; $1,012,567; $68.77.
11. (11) Keith Urban; $861,143; $64.15.
12. (12) Rascal Flatts; $809,361; $56.25.
13. (13) Nickelback; $746,730; $43.99.
14. (14) Taylor Swift; $623,743; $47.75.
15. (15) American Idols Live; $614,114; $62.22.
16. (16) Brad Paisley; $607,249; $40.07.
17. (19) Maxwell; $587,183; $72.97.
18. (17) Blink-182; $543,428; $32.79.
19. (18) Lil' Wayne; $506,278; $41.63.
20. (20) Kings Of Leon; $504,868; $41.81.
Concert Tours
In Memory
Jeanne-Claude
Artist Jeanne-Claude, who created the 2005 Central Park installation "The Gates" and other large scale "wrapping" projects around the globe with her husband Christo, has died. She was 74.
"The Gates" festooned 23 miles (37 kilometers) of Central Park's footpaths with thousands of saffron drapes hung from specially designed frames.
Christo - the more famous of the duo - was saddened, the family statement said, but remains "committed to honor the promise they made to each other many years ago: that the art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude would continue." That includes completing their current installation, "Over The River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado" and "The Mastaba" a project in the United Arab Emirates.
The Colorado project - which they had done parts of on and off for decades - involves spanning miles of the river with woven fabric. They chose the location near Canon City because of its river rapids and access to roads and footpaths. It is expected to be realized by summer 2013 at the earliest, according to the couple's office.
A 1991 project involved thousands of bright yellow and blue umbrellas positioned across miles of inland valleys in Japan and California.
Their projects required mammoth manpower and miles of fabric and other materials. For the umbrella project, a total of 1,880 workers were used. They recycled all materials following each project.
The Mastaba (the Arabic word for bench) envisions a pyramid-like structure made of 410,000 brightly colored oil barrels stacked horizontally and rising 492 feet (150 meters) high and 984 feet (300 meters) wide.
The two artists met in Paris in 1958 and had been collaborating for 51 years on temporary public arts projects. They made their home in Manhattan, where they had lived for 45 years.
Jeanne-Claude, who sported signature orange-dyed hair, once said that the couple, like parents who wouldn't favor one child over another, felt that, "each project is a child of ours."
Jeanne-Claude
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