Recommended Reading
from Bruce
HENRY ROLLINS: A NOT-SO-HAPPY NEW YEAR (LA Weekly)
Does it seem like I'm saying that the human race is doomed? We are, absolutely. But take heart. There are at least two reasons not to despair right now: It will still take a while, and thousands of other animals will be dying off as well. So at least we won't be "that species." Our bloated corpses will be exploding in the sun along with other creatures domestic and exotic.
John Ochoa: AFTER SPENDING NYE WITH MOZ, L.A.'S SADDEST MORRISSEY FAN IS SAD NO LONGER (LA Weekly)
On NYE, he recapped a year's worth of gun violence and police brutality on U.S. soil and around the world with graphic footage of police beating civilians and protesters during "Ganglord," as he sang, "Ganglord, the police are grinding me into the ground/The headless pack are back/Small boy jokes and loaded guns."
Daniel Politi: Muslim Woman Kicked Out of Trump Rally for Protesting Silently (Slate)
It all happened Friday night at a rally in South Carolina. Just as Trump was cautioning against accepting Syrian refugees because they "probably are ISIS," a 56-year-old Muslim woman wearing a hijab stood up in silent protest. Around her, people immediately began chanting the real estate mogul's name, which is what the campaign has instructed supporters to do when there are protests.
Anonymous, Ryan Menezes, Carolyn Burke: "We Watch You Change: 7 Realities Of Retail Security"(Cracked)
If you own a store, you kind of accept that a significant chunk of your stock is just going to go right out the door, nested snugly in the pockets of thieves. And whether it's the economy, the need for instant gratification, or simply human nature, people's fingers have gotten stickier than ever.
Alison Flood: "Philip Pullman: professional writers set to become 'an endangered species'"(The Guardian)
His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman is heading a new charge from writers demanding to be rewarded fairly for their work, as the Society of Authors warns that unless "serious" changes are made by publishers, the professional author "will become an endangered species".
Rory Carroll: "Alanis Morissette: from queen of alt rock to Guardian advice columnist" (The Guardian)
The musician and actor is moving on. She talks about marriage, what gets her angry, what isn't ironic - and answering readers' questions for Guardian Weekend magazine.
Nigel Farndell: "Tracey Ullman: 'My face is good for impersonations'" (The Guardian)
One of America's most successful comic actors is back in Britain. Tracey Ullman tells Nigel Farndale why.
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wrote:
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
David Bowie
I just read this, and am heavy of heart. I found Ziggy Stardust and related; Bowie's subsequent music was relatable to a high school sophomore. Damn. RIP,
David Bowie. Your genius will be missed.
Deborah
Thanks, Deborah.
Sad day.
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
SAME OLD IDIOTS, DIFFERENT YEAR!
THE "GOLDEN OLDIES" WITH "THE WRECKING CREW".
DUMP THE WELFARE DEADBEATS! BRING BACK THE WOLVES!
FIVE WAYS!
MORE "YEE HAW-DISTS" ARRIVE!
"LOOK AT HOW THEY TREAT A YOUNG RICH NIGGA"
LOCK AND LOAD!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast but no rain.
Interview Helped
Sean Penn
Mexican officials say Sean Penn's contacts with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman helped them track the fugitive down - even if he slipped away from an initial raid on the hideout where the Hollywood actor apparently met him.
Penn's article on Guzman was published late Saturday by Rolling Stone magazine, a day after Mexican marines captured the world's most wanted kingpin in a raid on the city of Los Mochis near the Gulf of California.
Penn wrote of elaborate security precautions, but also said that as he flew to Mexico on Oct 2 for the meeting, "I see no spying eyes, but I assume they are there."
A Mexican federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, told the Associated Press the Penn interview led authorities to Guzman in the area of Tamazula, a rural part of Durango state.
They raided Guzman's remote hideout a few days after the interview and narrowly missed capturing Guzman, whose July escape from Mexico's top security prison - though a mile-long (1.5-kilometer) tunnel - had embarrassed President Enrique Pena Nieto and made his capture a national priority.
Sean Penn
Rolling Stone Faces Criticism
'El Chapo'
It was a big scoop, and one Rolling Stone may well regret.
The magazine made stunning news over the weekend by revealing that actor Sean Penn landed a rare interview last fall with the notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman while Guzman was on the run after escaping through a tunnel from a maximum-security Mexican prison. Guzman was recaptured Friday in Mexico after a shootout that killed five of his associates and wounded one marine.
Penn's long and often rambling essay, widely mocked on social media, included comments from Guzman on everything from his childhood to his thoughts on the drug trade.
It also raised questions of ethics and judgment, namely whether Penn should have met secretly with one of the world's most-wanted fugitives, whether the actor crossed the line by giving Guzman approval over the article before it was published, and whether Penn trivialized El Chapo's murderous past by asking him such questions as "Do you have any dreams?" and "If you could change the world, would you?"
'El Chapo'
"Controversial" Show
"The Real O'Neals"
A producer for ABC's new sitcom "The Real O'Neals" wanted a gay actor for the role of a teenager who comes out to his shocked Catholic family but was prevented by a law designed to protect gays and lesbians from asking those auditioning about their sexual orientation.
"It was very important to me and I was in a panic," said Todd Holland, an executive producer for the series that debuts March 2 before settling into a regular Tuesday time slot a week later.
Holland got his wish. Noah Galvin, the 21-year-old actor selected to play the Kenny character, is not only gay but eager to be an advocate for gay rights and defender of a show that took political heat even before ABC decided to pick up the pilot to make a series.
The story is loosely based on the upbringing of Dan Savage, author of the "Savage Love" sex advice column. His very involvement infuriated conservative groups, who regard Savage as an anti-religious bigot. They launched an unsuccessful campaign last spring to convince ABC executives not to pick up the show.
The law that forbade Holland from asking actors about their sexual orientation is in place to prevent casting agents from discriminating against gays and lesbians. Holland said he had a sense that Galvin was gay, and also overheard him talking to someone about coming out to his own family.
"The Real O'Neals"
Archaeologists Discover Wreckage
Alaska
Archaeologists have discovered a shipwreck nearly 144 years after 33 whaling ships sank off the Arctic coast of Alaska in "one of the planet's most unexplored ocean regions," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The "battered hulls" of two ships and parts of the other missing 31 were located this past fall, thanks to sonar and sensing technology, NOAA said in a news release this week.
"With less ice in the Arctic as a result of climate change , archaeologists now have more access to potential shipwreck sites than ever before," the NOAA said.
The 33 ships were abandoned on Sept. 12, 1871 after they got trapped in packed ice, NOAA explained. Over 1,200 whalers were stranded until seven nearby ships picked them up. No one died, but the incident is "cited as one of the major causes of the demise of commercial whaling" in the U.S, NOAA said.
Alaska
Deadly Strike On MSF Doctors Without Borders Clinic
Yemen
A missile strike on a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Yemen killed at least four people Sunday, the group said, condemning what it called a "worrying pattern" of such attacks.
The Paris-based medical humanitarian organisation said three of its staff members were among 10 people wounded in the raid, the third of its kind in four months in the war-ravaged country.
Two other members of staff were in "critical condition", the group known by its French acronym MSF said in a statement.
MSF could not specify whether the medical facility was hit in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition or by a rocket fired from the ground.
Yemen
Warthquakes Raise Calls
Oklahoma
Earthquakes in Oklahoma in the past week, including one of the strongest ever recorded in the state, have led to calls for the governor to make changes to oil and gas drilling regulations and reduce seismic activity scientists link to the energy industry.
Two large earthquakes were recorded in northwest Oklahoma on Wednesday, including a magnitude 4.8 quake. The quakes were part of a surge in seismic activity over the past several years.
Scientists have tied a sharp increase in the intensity and frequency of quakes in Oklahoma to the disposal of saltwater, a byproduct of oil and gas extraction, into deep wells. Oil fields have boomed in Oklahoma over the past decade thanks to advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
State Representative Richard Morrissette, a Democrat who has said the state's Republican leaders are not doing enough to address the problem, will host a public forum at the Capitol on Friday to discuss the rash of earthquakes.
He wants the state to halt operation of injection wells at quake sites and do more to prevent them from causing quakes.
Oklahoma
Family Awaits Inheritance
Tito
For 35 years since the death of communist Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, tens of thousands of the extravagant strongman's belongings have been the subject of legal wrangling.
This month a Serbian court is finally expected to rule on the inheritance of his huge and eclectic range of possessions, from hunting rifles and paintings to marshal uniforms and even rocks from the moon -- a gift from US president Richard Nixon.
During his time at the helm of socialist Yugoslavia from the end of the World War II until his death in 1980, Tito and his wife Jovanka enjoyed a lifestyle that impressed even Hollywood star Richard Burton, who visited the pair in 1971.
"They live in remarkable luxury unmatched by anything else I've seen and (I) can well believe Princess Margaret who says the whole business makes Buck House (Buckingham Palace) look pretty middle-class," Burton wrote in his diaries.
But today the extent of Tito's assets to be divided up by the court remains unclear, even to relatives who await news of their inheritance: his son Misha, the four children of his late son Zarko and two of the late Jovanka's sisters.
Tito
Age Determined By Atomic-Bomb Fallout In Shells
Turtles
During the years spanning the mid-1950s to 1970, the US government conducted some serious atomic bomb testing above the waters of the Pacific Ocean. As a result, the corals there accumulated a lot of nuclear fallout into their structures. But the coral wasn't the only sea creature to take radioactive material onboard -- hawksbill sea turtles incorporated the material into their shells as well.
Now, a researcher at Duke University has used the nuclear fallout accumulated in the shells of these deceased turtles to age them more accurately than ever before, shedding light on why the animals are rebounding more slowly than expected in the waters around Hawaii, despite environmental protections.
"In Hawaii there are essentially two populations of sea turtles, hawksbills and greens," lead researcher Kyle Van Houtan told CNET's Crave blog. "Green turtles are far more numerous, having rebounded from their near extinction in the early 1970s, in concert with conservation protections under the ESA [Endangered Species Act]. But hawksbills were afforded the same protections and have not rebounded. We think our study points to two reasons as to why: they are relatively late in maturing, and their food base may have dwindled."
Van Houtan, an adjunct associate professor at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, and his team measured the level of carbon-14 in the shells of 36 deceased hawksbill turtles and pegged those levels to the known levels of the material in the surrounding corals to determine age. The levels of this material spiked during the nuclear tests during the Cold War and have declined ever since, so the the corals can be used as a kind of measuring rod.
The new dating method found that eight growth lines on the animals' hollow bone tissue are deposited annually, rather than just one as previously thought.
Turtles
Weekend Box Office
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" stayed on top of the North American box office for the fourth straight weekend, beating out Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Revenant," and becoming the third-largest grossing movie in the world ever.
According to studio estimates Sunday, the adventures of Rey, Finn and stalwarts from the previous "Star Wars" films raked in $41.6 million in the U.S. and Canada and $104.3 million overseas, led by a record-breaking opening in China.
"The Revenant," a gritty R-rated movie directed by Alejandro Inarritu about an 1820s frontiersman who gets mauled by a bear, blasted through expectations of about $25 million in its first weekend of wide release with a $38 million haul, following limited showings in New York and Los Angeles in December.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," $41.6 million ($104.3 million international).
2. "The Revenant," $38 million ($20.2 million international).
3. "Daddy's Home," $15 million ($10.2 million international).
4. "The Forest," $13.1 million ($450,000 international).
5. "Sisters," $7.2 million ($3.4 million international).
6. "The Hateful Eight," $6.4 million ($12 million international).
7. "The Big Short," $6.3 million ($4.6 million international).
8. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip," $5.5 million ($5.8 million international).
9. "Joy," $4.5 million ($7.5 million international).
10. "Concussion," $3.1 million.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
In Memory
David Bowie
David Bowie has died after a battle with cancer, his representative confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer. While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy during their time of grief," read a statement posted on the artist's official social media accounts.
The influential singer-songwriter and producer dabbled in glam rock, art rock, soul, hard rock, dance pop, punk and electronica during his eclectic 40-plus-year career.
Bowie's artistic breakthrough came with 1972's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, an album that fostered the notion of rock star as space alien. Fusing British mod with Japanese kabuki styles and rock with theater, Bowie created the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust.
Three years later, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the No. 1 single "Fame" off the top 10 album Young Americans, then followed with the 1976 avant-garde art rock LP Station to Station, which made it to No. 3 on the charts and featured top 10 hit "Golden Years."
Other memorable songs included 1983's "Let's Dance" - his only other No. 1 U.S. hit - "Space Oddity," "Heroes," "Changes," "Under Pressure," "China Girl," "Modern Love," "Rebel, Rebel," "All the Young Dudes," "Panic in Detroit," "Fashion," "Life on Mars," "Suffragette City" and a 1977 Christmas medley with Bing Crosby.
With his different-colored eyes (the result of a schoolyard fight) and needlelike frame, Bowie was a natural to segue from music into curious movie roles, and he starred as an alien seeking help for his dying planet in Nicolas Roeg's surreal The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). Critics later applauded his three-month Broadway stint as the misshapen lead in 1980's The Elephant Man.
Bowie also starred in Marlene Dietrich's last film, Just a Gigolo (1978), portrayed a World War II prisoner of war in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), and played Pontius Pilate in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). And in another groundbreaking move, Bowie, who always embraced technology, became the first rock star to morph into an Internet Service Provider with the launch in September 1998 of BowieNet.
Born David Jones in London on Jan. 8, 1947, Bowie changed his name in 1966 after The Monkees' Davy Jones achieved stardom. He played saxophone and started a mime company, and after stints in several bands he signed with Mercury Records, which in 1969 released his album Man of Words, Man of Music, which featured "Space Oddity," a poignant song about an astronaut, Major Tom, spiraling out of control.
In an attempt to stir interest in Ziggy Stardust, Bowie revealed in a January 1972 magazine interview that he was gay - though that might have been a publicity stunt - dyed his hair orange and began wearing women's garb. The album became a sensation.
Bowie changed gears in 1975. Becoming obsessed with the dance/funk sounds of Philadelphia, his self-proclaimed "plastic soul"-infused Young Americans peaked at No. 9 with the single "Fame," which he co-wrote with John Lennon and guitarist Carlos Alomar.
After the soulful but colder Station to Station, Bowie again confounded expectations after settling in Germany by recording the atmospheric 1977 album Low, the first of his "Berlin Trilogy" collaborations with keyboardist Brian Eno.
In 1980, Bowie brought out Scary Monsters, which cast a nod to the Major Tom character from "Space Oddity" with the sequel "Ashes to Ashes." He followed with Tonight in 1984 and Never Let Me Down in 1987 and collaborations with Queen, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, The Pat Metheny Group and others. He formed the quartet Tin Machine (his brother Tony played drums), but the band didn't garner much critical acclaim or commercial gain with two albums.
Bowie returned to a solo career with 1993's Black Tie White Noise, which saw him return to work with his Spider From Mars guitarist Mick Ronson, then recorded 1995's Outside with Eno and toured with Nine Inch Nails as his opening act. He returned to the studio in 1996 to record the techno-influenced Earthling. Two more albums, 1999's hours … and 2002's Heathen, followed.
Bowie also produced albums for, among others, Lou Reed, The Stooges and Moot the Hoople, for which he wrote the song "All the Young Dudes." He earned a lifetime achievement Grammy Award in 2006.
David Bowie
In Memory
Richard Libertini
Richard Libertini, the busy character actor who played the insane Central American general Garcia in the 1979 madcap comedy The In-Laws, has died. He was 82.
Libertini, also known as the boss of newspaper reporter Irwin Fletcher (Chevy Chase) in the Fletch films and as the Tibetan mystic Prakha Lasa in the Steve Martin-Lily Tomlin comedy All of Me (1984), died Jan. 7 after a two-year battle with cancer, his family announced.
Libertini, who often sported a thick beard, excelled at portraying characters of various ethnicities. A member of the famed Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, he was married from 1963-78 to Melinda Dillon, the two-time Oscar-nominated actress who starred in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Absence of Malice (1981) and The Christmas Story (1983).
In the 1970s, Libertini appeared as "The Godfather" on the sitcom Soap, played another criminal on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and was the fired WJM station employee Big Chicken on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Later, he showed up as the political activist father of Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud) on Murphy Brown.
Libertini had the honor of marrying Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds in Best Friends (1982). A year earlier, he portrayed a surveillance pro opposite Reynolds in Sharky's Machine.
His other notable movies include John Cassavetes' Big Trouble (1986) - in a reunion with his In-Laws co-stars Peter Falk and Alan Arkin - Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), Robert Altman's Popeye (1980) and Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990).
A native of Cambridge, Mass., Libertini graduated from Emerson College and partnered with MacIntyre Dixon (another Second City alum) and Linda Segal in a coffee-house act they called "Stewed Prunes."
In 1966, he made his Broadway debut in Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water, playing a magic-loving priest, then appeared on the big screen for the first time in William Friedkin's The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968).
His film résumé also includes the 1969 film version of Don't Drink the Water, The Out of Towners (1970), Catch-22 (1970), Friedkin's Deal of the Century (1983), Going Berserk (1983), Unfaithfully Yours (1984), The Lemon Sisters (1989), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), Nell (1994) and Dolphin Tale (2011).
On television, Libertini was on The Jeffersons, Baretta, The Bob Newhart Show, Barney Miller, Laverne & Shirley, Moonlighting, The Fanelli Boys, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Jenny, The Drew Carey Show and Supernatural.
Survivors also include his son Richard, sister Alice and brother Albert.
Richard Libertini
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