'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Baron Dave Romm
Songs Inspired By Literature
By Baron Dave Romm
The Songs Inspired By Literature project is new, but the concept isn't. Getting people to read, or teaching them, or directing people to the good stuff, is as old as Plato. In The Republic, Plato argued against literature, ie fiction, in favor of military exploits to encourage young people to become soldiers -- the education of our heros -- and philosophy for the ruling class -- the comprehensive mind is always the dialectical. Of course, The Republic is a work of fiction, and you'd have to go against Plato's advice to follow his advice...
Skipping ahead a couple thousand years, today we have, among many others: Reading is Fundamental for kids, the India Literacy Project for India, the Hollywood Literacy Project to encourage mentoring by actors, the Kids Emotional Literacy Project to teach kids to express themselves in a healthy way, the Media Literacy Project in Oregon, and the Global Literacy Project for everyone.
And now we have music.
There are currently two CDs to benefit the project: Chapter One and Chapter Two (available March 12). Both are great, and come in a nifty soft CD case that contains a booklet with the lyrics, contact info/web sites of the artists and comments from the songwriters. Many of the artists are familiar: Grace Slick (not White Rabbit, though) Suzanne Vega, Bruce Sprinsteen, David Bowie, Tom Waits. Some I've never heard of: The winners of the last two years of an international songwriting competition.
Each song was inspired by a different piece of literature, and the
subject of the songs range from a retelling of the tale to a
description of the work to the effect the work had on the songwriter.
My favorite two songs are on the first CD: Tolstoy, by Bob
Hillman. I've never read anything by the Russian writer, but I must
admit this song might get me to pick up one of his books. I've never
heard it expressed quite this way before:
"Leo Nikolayavich Tolstoy knew everything there is to know about you
Emotional makeup, political views
Everything there is to know about you
Down to the quivering lip and the look in your eye
When your father died."
I've heard of the book Einstein's Brain, the true story of
the journey across country with the scientist's preserved organ, but
haven't read it. The song by Lynn Harrison is great.
"Einstein's brain in the back of a car
Einstein's brain in a little clear jar
Einstein's brain is goin' somewhere
Einstein's brain, already there."
Other songs from the two albums include Scarth Locke's song inspired by Shel Silverstein's children's poem Bucking Bronco, Ray Manzarek's (of The Doors) song inspired by the Beckett play Waiting For Godot, Bruce Springsteen's song inspired by Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, Dee Adam's song inspired by my favorite Orson Scott Card novel Songmaster, Marta Gomez' song (in Spanish) inspired by the memoir Paula, Tom Waits' song inpired by the Flannery O'Connor story A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Roseanne Cash's song inspired by her summer reading The Collected Stories of Colette and Gaskit's sort of punk song inspired by Elie Weisel's autobiographical novel Night.
They have a startlingly incomplete list of famous sibls which might contain the songs I've sent them by the time you read this. I hadn't realized that some songs were from literature; I'm a liner-note junkie, and merely hearing the song on the radio doesn't always make the connection. They seem to avoid all the songs from movies based on books; probably a good thing. And while they include a song inspired by a graphic novel, they don't list songs inspired by comics (eg Spiderman or Superman's Song). You are encouraged to send them more songs (be specific as to title of song, artist and work it is inspired by!).
Songs Inspired By Literature is a really great project, and the two CDs so far are really good and highly recommended. And you can help them out by buying or selling the CDs for their non-profit enterprise.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here, and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio here (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air, and I'm collecting extra-weird stuff for a possible CD compilation.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny day.
As a 'security' measure, there is no longer any parking anywhere near the docks where the cruise ships set port. So, one must circle the area, looking for 'your' returning vacationeers - over 100 cars for over 2 hours, just circling, and waiting.
It really made the whole process so much more special.
Sorry, no links today. The page is big & I have a raging headache.
Tonight, Monday, CBS starts the evening with a RERUN 'King Of Queens', followed by a RERUN 'Yes, Dear', then
a RERUN 'Raymond', followed by a RERUN 'Still Standing', and finally, a RERUN 'CSI: Miami'.
On a RERUN Dave are Kid Scientists and Kurt Russell.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Liza Minnelli, David Gest, and James Marsters.
NBC offers a FRESH 90-minute version of 'Fear Factor', followed by a FRESH 90-minute version of 'Meet My Folks'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Martin Scorsese and Hootie and the Blowfish.
On a RERUN Conan are Ted Danson, Steven R. Schirripa, and Beck.
On a RERUN Carson Daly are Estella Warren and Soundtrack of Our Lives.
ABC has a FRESH 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here', followed by a FRESH
'the Practice', and then a FRESH 'Miracles'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Jeff Goldblum, Molly Sims, and Fabolous.
The WB has a RERUN '7th Heaven', followed by a RERUN 'Everwood'.
Faux demonstrates more of their special brand of family values with the Series Premiere of 'Married By America'.
UPN begins with a RERUN 'The Parkers', then a RERUN 'One On One', followed by a
RERUN 'Girlfriends', and then a RERUN 'Half & Half'.
Comedy Central offers a FRESH Jon Stewart with Eric Idle.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
A Tibetan monk wears a traditional mask during a ceremony to celebrate the Tibetan New Year at Beijing Yong He Gong Lama Temple in China's capital, March 2, 2003. The ceremony is held
annually during the Tibetan New Year to expel evil spirits from the monestary.
Photo by Guang Niu
NBC Nervous About Anti-War Stance
Martin Sheen
Actor Martin Sheen said NBC executives fear his opposition to a U.S.-led war against Iraq will hurt his popular television show "The West Wing."
Sheen, who plays fictional U.S. President Josiah Bartlet on the NBC series, told the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday that the show's staff has been "100 percent supportive" but top network
executives have "let it be known they're very uncomfortable with where I'm at" on the war
The 62-year-old actor helped lead a "Virtual March on Washington" last week that flooded the White House with thousands of anti-war e-mails and has spoken out against the potential war in public.
Martin Sheen
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
2003 American Film Institute Star Award
Mike Myers
When comedian Mike Myers was growing up, anyone who wanted to be invited to his home more than once had to be funny.
"My dad was very like, if somebody came in the house that wasn't funny, it was like, 'Can't come anymore,'" said Myers, accepting the 2003 American Film Institute Star Award.
Myers, who grew up in Toronto, told the audience at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival that his characters — on the big screen and on "Saturday Night Live" — were all based on his family members.
"Wayne is me," Myers said Friday of the film "Wayne's World," while the 1960s swinger Austin Powers resembles his father, a native of Liverpool, England, who never let his son forget his roots.
"It would be 11 o'clock at night and the local TV station would have something with Peter Sellers or Alec Guinness and he'd say 'You're going to bloody watch this and you're going to bloody
enjoy it. It's your bloody heritage.'"
Mike Myers
Comedy Arts Festival
A Japanese woman carries a poster of U.S. resident George W. Bush with the words 'Oil Wars' in Hiroshima on March 2, 2003. Hiroshima was ground zero for the world's first nuclear bomb
attack during World War II. Nearly 10,000 Japanese assembled and said 'No!' to war and appealed for peace.
Photo by Toshiyuki Aizawa/Reuters
Wedding News
Anthony Hopkins
Actor Anthony Hopkins wed antiques dealer Stella Arroyave in a private ceremony, a representative for the star best known as Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lechter, said on Sunday.
Hopkins, 65, and Arroyave, 46, tied the knot on Saturday in a ceremony attended by friends and family in Malibu, the representative said.
The two had been dating for about two years. It is Hopkins' third marriage.
Anthony Hopkins
Technical Oscars
Kate Hudson
The biggest technical achievement at the scientific Oscars may have been actress Kate Hudson's ability to keep her dress on.
Scientists who develop the film, software and other technology behind the movies gathered for a Scientific and Technical awards ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel before the main
Oscar pageant on March 23. Most years a young starlet presents the awards to predominantly male winners.
Hudson kept her floor-length black gown closed, aside from a flash of bare midriff that was assured by the gown's design, as she handed out awards for mind-bending and tongue-twisting
accomplishments. She did present half the awards in bare feet after kicking off her high heels.
Frenchman Pierre Chabert was one of the few to coax a congratulatory kiss from Hudson, now starring in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," when he received an award for developing helium balloons with
internal light sources that illuminate sets during filming.
Other scientific and technical awards went to developers of the leelium tubelite used in some lighting balloons, software animation engineers who have learned to mimic the effect of light bouncing
off objects, and audio engineers fluent in computerese.
"It is tough to change from a tape-based recording system to a hard disk where you don't see anything turning around," said Glenn Sanders, one of the developers of a portable recorder with a computer-like hard disk drive said.
Camera makers Arnold & Richter Cine Technik, developer of the Arriflex, and Panavision Inc. also got Oscars, while lifetime achievement awards went to Curt Behlmer for feats such as "modern non-linear
digital signal processing" and to lighting engineer Richard Glickman.
Hudson cut through the techno-babble for her summation, though. "Thank you for everything you do that continues to advance what I do," she said to great applause.
Kate Hudson
To Play First China Shows
Rolling Stones
It's official: Beijing and Shanghai will get their own taste of the Rolling Stones' "Forty Licks" tour.
Two Rolling Stones concert dates have been confirmed for Beijing and Shanghai, an organizer said Sunday. The shows, part of the band's 40th anniversary tour, will be the band's first in the world's most populous country.
Cui Jian, China's most famous rocker, will open for the Stones in Beijing. Cui is hugely popular in China but has rarely been allowed to play big shows in the capital because he performed on
Tiananmen Square during the 1989 pro-democracy protests.
Cui, 42, said he taught himself to play the guitar in the 1980s by learning Rolling Stones and Beatles songs.
"They are my heroes," Cui told the Associated Press on Sunday. "It's a big honor for me."
Rolling Stones
Small Fire On Sunday
New Alexandria Library
A fire broke out Sunday in the sleek, new Alexandria library, sending thick smoke swirling through the building that opened to international fanfare in October.
The fire, which lasted about 45 minutes, appears to have been caused by a short circuit in the fourth-floor administrative area of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina — the
waterfront site of what was the most renowned library of the ancient world.
Authorities evacuated the 11-story building and 29 people were taken to hospitals for treatment for smoke inhalation.
The fire was confined to the administrative area and no books were destroyed, said Khaled Azab, a library spokesman. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina reopened later Sunday.
Egypt built the $230 million library, on Alexandria's renovated seaside promenade, with financial and other assistance from around the world. The ancient library, founded in
about 295 B.C. by Ptolemy I Soter, burned in the fourth century.
The new library contains about 240,000 books, a planetarium, conference hall, five research institutes, six galleries and three museums.
New Alexandria Library
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Sketch Stolen From N.Y. Jail
Salvador Dali
A sketch drawn by Surrealist artist Salvador Dali for a former Correction Department commissioner was stolen from the lobby of the men's jail at Rikers Island, officials said Sunday.
Workers discovered it was missing Saturday from a locked display case. The framed sketch, which depicts Jesus Christ on the cross, had been replaced by a copy of the drawing.
A 1985 appraisal concluded that Dali work was worth at least $175,000, Antenen said, but an art expert told The New York Times in 2001 that it was worth at least three times that amount.
Dali drew the sketch in 1965 as a favor to then-commissioner Anna Moscowitz Kross. It was displayed in the jail's dining room for 16 years before being moved to the lobby.
Salvador Dali
Revellers wearing hand-made masks parade during the Papangu Carnival in Bezerros, in the northern state of Pernambuco, Brazil, March 2, 2003. Thousands of revellers celebrate the Carnival
festivities, the most Brazilian popular party, which runs until March 4.
Photo by Paulo Whitaker
17th Annual
Soul Train Awards
Ashanti and Musiq took top honors, while Mariah Carey and LL Cool J received career achievement awards, at the 17th annual Soul Train Awards.
Ashanti won best female R&B/Soul Single Saturday for "Foolish" and best album for "Ashanti," beating out works by fellow Grammy winners Erykah Badu and India.Arie.
Musiq won for best male R&B/Soul Single for the second year in a row with "Dontchange." He won best album in the same category with "Juslisen," beating
Maxwell, Justin Timberlake and last year's winner Usher.
"I Should Be..." by Dru Hill, won in the best single by a group or duo category, while B2K won for their self-titled album in the same category.
Queen Latifah and Arsenio Hall co-hosted the event at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, which featured award presenters Baby Face, Jennifer Lopez and
Chris Rock. Carey and LL Cool J each won the Quincy Jones Award for Outstanding Career Achievement.
Rapper Nelly won the Sammy Davis Jr. Entertainer of the Year Award.
The event was taped for a future syndicated broadcast that aired in some markets Saturday.
Soul Train Awards
This Year It's The 'Idita-Detour'
Iditarod
Parka-clad mushers, barking dogs and crowds of spectators gathered in downtown Anchorage on Saturday to launch the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, an event
so altered by this year's weird weather that one official has dubbed it the "Idita-detour."
An unusually mild winter has erased snow and thawed rivers in much of the state and forced organizers to move the race course hundreds of miles north.
For the first time in the Iditarod's 30-year history, timed competition for the Anchorage-to-Nome race will begin in Fairbanks, a 350-mile drive from Anchorage.
In Anchorage, city maintenance crews worked through the night to scoop up sparse and lingering snow from melting stockpiles for use in Saturday's customary ceremonial run.
After Saturday's ceremonial run -- cut to half the normal distance because of sparse snow -- the 64 competitors and their dogs are headed to Fairbanks, where the restart is set for Monday.
The changes add about 100 miles to the normal 1,100-mile route. But they eliminate the steep ascents and descents of the Alaska Range, a section
in the southern part of the trail that many consider the most scenic and the most challenging.
Iditarod
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Sundance Channel Showing Documentary
Henry A. Kissinger
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger abruptly resigned last December as chairman of a commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, just two weeks after his appointment. The 79-year-old Kissinger cited
demands by some Democratic lawmakers that he make public the names of all of his business clients.
Some see Kissinger's secrecy as a long-life habit, part of the working style that won him the Nobel Peace Prize and made him one of the most famous American diplomats in history.
But a disturbing documentary, "The Trials of Henry Kissinger," paints a darker picture of the man who was national security adviser and then secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford.
Making its TV debut on the Sundance Channel Monday at 9 p.m. EST, "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" presents official transcripts and interviews with former U.S. diplomats to back up contentions that
Kissinger orchestrated secret and illegal U.S. bombing in Cambodia that prolonged the Vietnam War.
The film links Kissinger to Indonesia's use of U.S.-supplied weapons in the 1975 invasion of East Timor, in which 100,000 people died. And he is portrayed as having encouraged the kidnap and killing of a Chilean general
who stood in the way of a CIA-backed coup against leftist President Salvador Allende.
Henry A. Kissinger
A dragon float belonging to samba school Academicos de Santa Cruz passes through Rio de Janeiro's Sambodrome at the beginning of two nights of competition, March 2, 2003. Brazil's elite samba
schools strutted their stuff in the world famous Carnival parade under the tightest security ever, ordered by the government to protect the estimated 400,000 visitors and the $136 million it will bring.
Photo by Sergio Moraes
Revisits Military Past
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Before he was the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was just another soldier in the Austrian army. He was reunited with a part of his military past — the tank he used to drive — in a visit to a museum.
Schwarzenegger, 55, in town for an annual fitness exposition that bears his name, visited the Motts Military Museum in nearby Groveport on Friday. He donated the 47-ton tank to the museum in November 2000.
Standing beside the U.S.-built tank, Schwarzenegger told stories about his army days in 1965. One night, he left the tank's engine running to keep warm — and fell asleep. He woke up at 5 a.m. and found
the tank had rolled into a river. His punishment: three days in jail.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Saturday Night
Directors Guild Awards
Freshman moviemaker Rob Marshall razzle-dazzled the Directors Guild of America with his musical "Chicago" Saturday night, claiming the group's top honor and defeating veteran directors Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski.
Although his work on "Gangs of New York" lost to Marshall, Scorsese came away with a lifetime achievement honor from the guild for a career spanning three decades.
Scorsese, 60, has never won the guild prize, although he was previously nominated for the 1976 drama "Taxi Driver," 1980's "Raging Bull," 1990's "GoodFellas" and 1993's "The
Age of Innocence." He has also never won an Oscar.
In a rare public appearance, Polanski told a group of Hollywood directors via satellite from Paris on Saturday that his Holocaust drama "The Pianist" was a way to show how the pursuit of art can overcome life's horrors.
Other nominees were Stephen Daldry for "The Hours," about three women from different eras with ties to the work of author Virginia Woolf and Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers," the second installment of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy trilogy.
All but Jackson are up for best director at the upcoming Oscar ceremony March 23, with "Talk to Her" filmmaker Pedro Almodovar taking up the fifth spot.
Among other awards at the DGA ceremony, Bryan Gordon claimed the comedy series honor for directing an episode of HBO's Hollywood satire "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which happened to feature
Scorsese in a guest role as himself. John Patterson won the TV drama award for an episode of HBO's "The Sopranos."
Directors Guild Awards
Directors Guild of America
Headed to Prison
John Wayne Bobbitt
John Wayne Bobbitt is headed to prison after a judge revoked his probation for a 1999 guilty plea to attempted grand larceny in this small town 60 miles east of Reno.
District Court Judge Archie Blake told Bobbitt during a Friday hearing that repeated violations of the terms of his probation show he deserves prison time.
Bobbitt, 35, and his weeping wife spent a few minutes talking before he was led from the courtroom by a sheriff's deputy, the Lahontan Valley News & Fallon Eagle Standard newspaper reported.
Last week, Bobbitt was convicted in Las Vegas of battering his wife. He was accused of throwing Joanna Bobbitt, 31, onto the floor and slamming his knee into her back last May, less than two months after they married.
Bobbitt also violated his probation by living with his wife after an October agreement with Blake not to do so, prosecutors said. He was on house arrest at the time.
Bobbitt told Blake that he moved after being evicted from his home in Las Vegas, where he had been a moving company employee for the last three years.
"Well, me and my wife were not financially able to live separately," Bobbitt said. "Me and my wife love each other very much and I want to resolve the issues."
John Wayne Bobbitt
North American Box Office
Top 10 Movies
The top 10 movies at the North American box office for the Feb. 28-March 2 weekend, according to studio estimates collected on Sunday by Reuters. Final data will be issued on Monday.
1 (*) Cradle 2 The Grave..............$17.1 million
2 (2) Old School..................... $13.9 million
3 (1) Daredevil ..................... $11.0 million
4 (3) How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days .. $10.1 million
5 (5) Chicago ....................... $ 8.1 million
6 (4) The Jungle Book 2...............$ 6.8 million
7 (7) Shanghai Knights .............. $ 4.8 million
8 (6) The Life of David Gale......... $ 4.4 million
9 (8) Gods and Generals...............$ 2.8 million
10(10)The Recruit ................... $ 2.6 million
NOTE: Last weekend's ranking in parentheses.
* = new release.
TOTALS TO DATE:
Chicago ....................... $105.2 million
Daredevil...................... $84.1 million
How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days... $77.5 million
Shanghai Knights .............. $50.7 million
The Recruit ................... $48.0 million
Old School..................... $37.2 million
Jungle Book 2 ................. $33.6 million
Cradle 2 The Grave............. $17.1 million
The Life of David Gale......... $13.5 million
Gods and Generals.............. $ 8.8 million
Top 10 Movies
Lost Oboe Concerto Performed
Beethoven
Musicologists puzzled over a lost Ludwig von Beethoven concerto for decades, ever since the 1960s discovery of the sketch of a single movement among the composer's papers.
Now, two Dutch Beethoven enthusiasts have pieced together the musical clues, put them into 18th-century orchestral context and reconstructed the second movement of the only oboe concerto Beethoven ever wrote.
The slow, melodic Largo movement of the Oboe Concerto in F Major was performed Saturday night in Rotterdam and billed as a "world premiere" — even though the full concerto was performed at least once before, 210 years ago.
The eight-minute piece was slipped into an evening of concert standards by Mozart and C.P.E. Bach without fanfare, barring a bold-print note on the program announcing the "premiere."
For more, Beethoven
Fest Ends With Word Of Remake
'Salt of the Earth'
The question was whether "Salt of the Earth" should be remade using the children and grandchildren of the miners who portrayed themselves in the first version of the film 50 years ago.
The answer, announced as a "Salt of the Earth" 50th anniversary conference wrapped up, was yes.
The 1953 "Salt of the Earth"
was the only movie blacklisted in the United States during Cold War retribution against left-leaning filmmakers. In the film, miners barred by federal law from striking Empire Zinc were replaced on
the picket lines by their wives. Many of those women still live in New Mexico.
The mine union helped finance the film, which had several strikes against it before shooting was done in 1953: Besides blacklisting the director
Herbert Biberman and writer
Michael Wilson, the lead actress Rosaura Revueltas was deported, labs wouldn't process the film and projectionists wouldn't show it.
The 50th anniversary observance concluded Sunday with the screening of
"The Front," starring
Woody Allen, Michael Murphy and
Zero Mostel.
"Salt of the Earth" writer Michael Wilson, who won an Oscar for
"A Place in the Sun,"
similarly got no credits for important later work including
"Friendly Persuasion,"
"The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia." He died in 1978.
Becca Wilson, his daughter, will co-produce the "Salt of the Earth" remake.
Screenwriter Norma Barzman, a conference panelist Friday, wrote a film called "Finishing School," made in Italy, but when the studio released it,
the title was "Luxury Girls," her credit removed.
'Salt of the Earth' Fest
A blue hummingbird hovers near a flower in a park in New Delhi February 27, 2003. There are more than 2000 species of birds in the vast Indian sub-continent. Until 1991, India was one of the
largest exporters of wild birds to international bird markets.
Photo by Kamal Kishore
'The Osbournes'
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