Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Henry Rollins: I Liked It So Much in Redondo Beach That I Had to Get Out (LA Weekly)
Without movement and challenge, I am prone to bouts of deep depression, with heart-thudding moments that I think might be panic attacks. I fear comfort. I fear falling prey to it. I fear things stopping because I lost the courage to potentially fail trying something new.
STEVE KUHLMANN: "International scholar visiting Texas A&M 'mistakenly detained' by customs officials" (The Eagle)
Henry Rousso was flying in from Paris to participate in the Hagler Institute Symposium when he was "mistakenly detained" Wednesday evening upon his arrival, according to Richard Golsan, director of the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M. "When he called me with this news two nights ago, he was waiting for customs officials to send him back to Paris as an illegal alien on the first flight out," said Golsan during his introduction to the session which Rousso was set to participate in.
Bonnie Malkin: "Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: 'I sobbed like a baby'" (The Guardian)
Author of Possum Magic was aggressively questioned for two hours over her visa status and later received an apology for her treatment by border guards.
Marina Hyde: Trump is a media troll - so stop feeding him (The Guardian)
The president's supporters don't care if he's mean to journalists. So ignore his insults and focus on his lies.
Matthew Yglesias: The massive wave of town hall protests ruining the GOP's week, explained (Vox)
They're not paid protesters.
Robert Evans, Evan V. Symon, Saundra Sorenseon: 4 Reasons Why Oscar Voting Is Dumb, Explained By A Voter (Cracked)
… members of the Academy are also garden-variety human beings, like all of us. They watch (or don't watch) movies based on what looks interesting and feels relevant to them. This poll from 2015 reveals that there were no Best Picture nominees that had actually been seen by every voter.
Michele Hanson: Living to 90 and beyond? No thanks (The Guardian)
I am frightened of death - but perhaps more frightened of living to a very old age in a country where the health and social care systems are already failing.
Michele Hanson: It's not politics of envy to be disgusted by the super-rich (The Guardian)
They can keep their Ferraris and £10,000 watches. I just want them to stop ramming their wealth up everyone's nose.
Jonathan Jones: Andy Warhol should be made a saint - he makes every day sacred (The Guardian)
Andy Warhol died 30 years ago this week, and his Catholic piety, care for the poor and sheer mystical vision mean he remains a transcendent talent.
Henry Rollins: My Old-Man Gripes (LA Weekly)
As a young person, I often considered my earnings as the means to buy records, pay rent and eat - in that order. If it came down to a meal or a record, the decision (the right one) left me hungry, but at least my mild starvation had a good soundtrack. The records I bought in high school still play. Talk about investing in your future!
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"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
took the day off.
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Ivanka
Just read it & thought it relevant.
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Oscars
Astounding. Kimmel's hosting will never be forgotten. But how senile are Faye and Warren not to realize they had the wrong envelope & get it corrected before announcing the wrong winner?
I didn't love Moonlight--though it was well-done & liked parts of it--but I'm happy to see something other than a second-rate musical get Best Picture.
Kimmel referencing Steve Harvey was the best possible reaction.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Check this out - Oscars Fuck Up Best Picture Announcement
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
DO YOUR JOB!
A VERY SPECIAL PROSECUTOR IS READY TO GO TO WORK!
JUST LIKE NAZI GERMANY!
R.I.P. BILL.
THE TOXIC TRUMP.
YELLOW HAIR AND NOW YELLOW BELLY.
REPUBLICAN LIARS.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bet there's at least one job opening at Price-Waterhouse today.
Demands Lagerfeld Apology
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep is demanding an apology from couture legend Karl Lagerfeld, in a spat over the gown she's planning to wear to the Oscars ceremony, entertainment media reported on Sunday.
On the eve of the Academy Awards show, the star actress lashed out at Lagerfeld, head designer and creative director of the illustrious Chanel fashion house, who had accused her of reneging on plans to wear one of its designs on Hollywood's biggest night.
Fashion bible WWD reported last week that Lagerfeld had accused Streep of canceling an order for a couture gown after another fashion house offered to pay her to wear its dress.
Since then, both Chanel and Lagerfeld have backed off the claim, but Streep is demanding an apology.
WWD said it received a statement from the German-born designer's representatives calling the entire incident an unfortunate misunderstanding.
Meryl Streep
Milan Fashion Week
'Pussyhats'
Italian designer Angela Missoni brought the political fight to Milan fashion week by ending her autumn-winter 2017 show with models clad in Pussyhats, the pink protest symbols of women's rights.
Supermodels including Gigi Hadid and Romee Strijd strutted down the runway in the Italian fashion capital on Saturday wearing Missoni's variation on the pointy-eared hats which featured her signature bold stripes around the brims.
The knitted pink hats with cat ears first appeared on January 21 at the Women's March in Washington, where protesters wore them as a sign of feminine solidarity the day after US President Donald Trump (R-Grifter) was sworn into office.
As Missoni came out to take her bow, the designer told fashionistas gathered from the world over that "there is a bond between us that will keep us strong and safe; the bond that unites all those who respect human rights".
"Let's show the world that the fashion community is united and fearless," she said as she urged the audience to don the hats left for each guest on every seat.
'Pussyhats'
Carnival Begins
Brazil
Revelers across Brazil began Carnival celebrations on Friday, taking to the streets to dance, drink beer and spirits, and blow off steam at a time of economic angst and fury with politicians over a sprawling corruption scandal.
The world's most famous Carnival bash in Rio opened in a strange way. After a day in silence, the city's evangelical Mayor Marcelo Crivella delayed the traditionally opulent starting ceremony until 8:30 p.m. only to skip it with the excuse that his wife was sick. Eventually, Rio city hall put out an email saying that Carnival was "officially open."
But several so-called block parties in Rio were underway by the afternoon. Thousands of revelers danced amid 90-degree (32 Celsius) heat with high humidity, standard during the Southern Hemisphere summer.
But it was the odd opening to the iconic festival, which brings in more than $ 1 billion to Rio each year, that was the talk of the day.
Brazil
Photographed In Unprecedented Detail
Sistine Chapel
The famous frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, whose ceiling was painted by Michelangelo, can now be examined in minute detail thanks to an unprecedented photographic venture, the Vatican Museums have said.
By combining innovative digital technology and special LED lamps which aimed to reproduce daylight, photographers were able to make images measuring 43 centimetres (17 inches) tall by 1.2 metres (four feet) wide.
The work includes 220 life-sized images from the chapel, including elements of The Last Judgement as well as frescoes painted on the walls by Perugino and Botticelli.
The three works, of which 1,999 copies have been made and will be sent to the world's most important libraries, all give a perfect rendition of the colours used by the Renaissance masters, said Italian art publisher Scripta Maneant.
Sistine Chapel
Protesters ReGrou
Dakota Access
Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline who were pushed out of their protest camp this week have vowed to keep up efforts to stop the multibillion-dollar project and take the fight to other pipelines as well.
The Oceti Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, was cleared by law enforcement on Thursday and almost 50 people, many of them Native Americans and environmental activists, were arrested.
The number of demonstrators had dwindled from the thousands who poured into the camp starting in August to oppose the pipeline that critics say threatens the water resources and sacred land of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The tribe has said it intends to fight the pipeline in court.
The 1,170-mile (1,885 km) line, built by Energy Transfer Partners LP, will move crude from the shale oilfields of North Dakota to Illinois en route to the Gulf of Mexico, where many U.S. refineries are located.
Tom Goldtooth, a protest leader and executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, said the demonstrators' hearts were not defeated.
Dakota Access
Loves Loser Flag
S. Carolina
In the aftermath of the racially motivated Charleston church slayings in 2015, the Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina Statehouse during an elaborate nationally televised ceremony.
But in less prominent places, the fight over the flag rages on, with the rebel banner garnering at least two recent victories. That's because a South Carolina law crafted more than 15 years ago requires the Legislature to approve by at least a two-thirds vote any change to a historical monument such as lowering a flag or adding a name. And one of the state's most powerful lawmakers has vowed the law will not change.
Twice in the last month, Confederate flag supporters cited the law as they forced the banner to return to a Confederate monument and a newly renovated courtroom in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina.
In the Blue Ridge Mountain gateway town of Walhalla, Luther Lyle, a descendent of Confederate soldiers and former caretaker of a Civil War monument there, had lowered the flag following the massacre at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.
S. Carolina
Survivors Denounce Vatican
Peru
Victims of Latin America's latest charismatic Catholic leader-turned-sexual predator are denouncing the Vatican's handling of the case, saying the six-year delay and final resolution are anything but satisfactory for survivors of his sexual, psychological and physical violence.
"It's really shameful," said Pedro Salinas, who blew the whistle in 2015 on the twisted practices of the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, and was himself a victim of Luis Fernando Figari's psychological abuse.
Figari founded the SCV, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, in 1971 as a lay community to recruit "soldiers for God." It was one of several Catholic societies born as a conservative reaction to the left-leaning liberation theology movement that swept through Latin America starting in the 1960s.
Figari was a charismatic intellectual, but he was also "narcissistic, paranoid, demeaning, vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation of SCV members," according to a Feb. 10 investigative report commissioned by the SCV's leadership.
The report, by two Americans and an Irish expert in abuse, found that Figari sodomized his recruits and forced them to fondle him and one another. He liked to watch them "experience pain, discomfort and fear," and humiliated them in front of others to enhance his control over them, the report found.
Peru
Famine
South Sudan
Like thousands of other South Sudanese families caught up in famine, Sara Dit and her 10 children are hiding from marauding gunmen in the swamps and islands of the river Nile.
The refuge has a steep price: families cannot farm crops or earn money to buy food. They eat water lily roots and the occasional fish. Dit's family have not eaten for days.
Last week the United Nations declared that parts of South Sudan are experiencing famine, the first time the world has faced such a catastrophe in six years. Some 5.5 million people, nearly half the population, will not have a reliable source of food by July.
The disaster is largely man-made. Oil-rich South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, plunged into civil war in 2013, after President Salva Kiir fired his deputy Riek Machar. Since then, fighting has fractured the country along ethnic lines, inflation topped 800 percent last year and war and drought have paralyzed agriculture.
South Sudan
Weekend Box Office
'Get Out'
Great reviews and buzz propelled comedian Jordan Peele's directorial debut, the micro-budget thriller "Get Out," to a chart-topping opening weekend with $30.5 million according to studio estimates Sunday.
Peele, who most audiences know for his sketch comedy work on the series "Key & Peele," wrote and directed the film about a black man who travels upstate to meet his white girlfriend's family.
Even without Peele in the film, audiences turned out in droves to experience the high concept horror pic. According to exit polls, African Americans comprised an estimated 39 percent of the opening weekend audiences, while Caucasians made up 36 percent, and a whopping 49 percent were under the age of 25.
"Get Out" effectively pushed "The Lego Batman Movie" into second place. The animated family picture added $19 million this weekend and is now up to $133 million after only three weeks in theaters.
"John Wick: Chapter Two" took third place with $9 million, while the Matt Damon-starrer "The Great Wall" took fourth with $8.7 million - down 53 percent from its opening last week.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Get Out," $30.5 million.
2."The Lego Batman Movie," $19 million ($12.9 million international).
3."John Wick: Chapter Two," $9 million ($13.1 million international).
4."The Great Wall," $8.7 million ($14.6 million international).
5."Fifty Shades Darker," $7.7 million ($19.8 million international).
6."Fist Fight," $6.4 million ($1.3 million international).
7."Hidden Figures," $5.9 million ($5.7 million international).
8."La La Land," $4.6 million ($14.4 million international).
9."Split," $4.1 million ($17.3 million international).
10."Lion," $3.8 million ($6.8 million international).
'Get Out'
In Memory
Bill Paxton
Bill Paxton, the versatile actor who appeared in films including "Aliens" and "Titanic" and played a polygamist on HBO's "Big Love," has died from complications following heart surgery. He was 61.
With a Texas twang and grizzled visage, Paxton often found himself playing military men and cowboys. He was closely associated with James Cameron, playing a punk leader in "The Terminator," as well as an ill-fated technician in "Aliens," a venal car dealer in "True Lies" and a treasure hunter in "Titanic."
Paxton earned an Emmy nomination for the 2012 miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys," and was starring as a morally ambiguous detective in the CBS series "Training Day" at the time of his death.
Paxton anchored a few films, portraying a tornado-chasing scientist in the box office smash "Twister" (1996), and a wildlife refuge director in the flop, "Mighty Joe Young" (1998). In most movies, Paxton cut a morally upright figure, the character actor equivalent of a Kevin Costner or Gary Cooper. But he earned the best reviews of his career for roles that upended his persona. He was gripping as a family man trying to hide stolen money in Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" (1998), and similarly effective playing against type as an ethically compromised lawman in his first major role, Carl Franklin's "One False Move" (1992).
On the small screen, Paxton played a wife-juggling entrepreneur on "Big Love," who is haunted by his upbringing in a polygamist Mormon family.
Paxton earned critical acclaim for "Frailty," a horror film he made his directorial debut with and starred in as a father beset by demonic visions. In a four-star review, Roger Ebert wrote, "Perhaps only a first-time director, an actor who does not depend on directing for his next job, would have had the nerve to make this movie. It is uncompromised."
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Paxton went to Hollywood when he was 18, and found work as a set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, working on films like "Big Bad Mama" and "Eat My Dust." His first acting role was a small part in Jonathan Demme's "Crazy Mama" for Corman. Paxton then studied acting in New York under Stella Adler, and made films for "Saturday Night Live" like "Fish Heads," based on the popular novelty song.
Paxton was known as "Wild Bill" for his on-set pranks. He is survived by his two children, James and Lydia Paxton, and his wife Louise Newbury.
Bill Paxton
Storm Chasers Unite to Give Bill Paxton an Epic Tribute
In Memory
Neil Fingleton
Neil Fingleton, who played the colossal warrior Mag the Mighty on "Game of Thrones," died from heart failure on Saturday. He was 36.
Fingleton was the U.K.'s tallest man at seven feet, seven inches in height. In addition to "Thrones," Fingleton appeared in "Doctor Who," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," and "X-Men: First Class."
Before joining the entertainment industry, Fingleton was a professional basketball player having been drafted by the NBA and also played for the University of North Carolina.
Neil Fingleton
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