Saturday Night
2 Retirees
Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. greets former President Bill Clinton during
pre-game retirement ceremonies for Ripken in Baltimore, October 6, 2001. Clinton
was among the dignitaries and former players who spoke about Ripken's career
contributions during the ceremony.
Photo by Larry Downing
Bill & Cal
To listen to the audio clip of Bill's tribute, see the 'previous page' link at the
bottom of the page.
Hollywood Packs It Up
Til 'Whenever'
Jesus Garcia and Beverly Ing lower an Emmy placard outside the Shrine Auditorium
in Los Angeles on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2001, shortly after it was announced that the
ceremony, already delayed three weeks by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was
postponed Sunday after United States and Britain launched a military attack in
Afghanistan.
Photo by Laura Rauch
Buh-Bye Emmy
Very Useful Link
BBC Online
Live, spin-free coverage from the BBC on the web.
BBC Online
See below for more...
Picking Up Where BC Left Off...
"Boondocks" (5Oct01)
International Newspapers Online
Internet Public Library
Internet Public Library
Where's Chelsea
University College, Oxford
This morning Chelsea Clinton might be experiencing Oxford's most honorable
tradition: the hangover after the freshers' "bop" in University College's
17th-century beer cellar.
The thumping disco music, the lager at a pound a pint and the sweat that rains
from the ceiling once everyone starts dancing - and snogging - was a chance for
newly enrolled Chelsea to let her hair down.
And those who have spotted the former first daughter walking around the
college's Main Quad since she arrived last week - Chelsea has been wearing high
heels and tailored outfits amid a sea of jeans and stained T-shirts - already
have begun to whisper that it's time for the 22-year-old fresher (or freshman)
to loosen up.
That might sound strange, considering Chelsea has come from California to
Oxford's oldest college, founded in 1249. But that's life in this quaint English
university town - where her dad admitted he once experimented with marijuana.
Unlike the strict reporting ban on Chelsea at Stanford, at Oxford the student
media is like a mini-version of Britain's gossip-hungry national press, although
with less cash than the $150,000 ransom reportedly being offered by London
tabloids for a student's kiss-and-tell story.
Sure, Chelsea will already have dressed up in a special costume called
"sub fusc" - black gown, mortar board, white shirt and black tie - for
matriculation ceremonies.
She also has the option of dining every night in College Hall - a three-course
meal in an ancient hall, where no one can eat until the master of the college
bangs on the table and a scholar in a gown reads grace in Latin.
But most of her fellow graduate students will eat at the kebab van parked
outside Univ's huge wooden gate before heading back down to the beer cellar.
About half of the students are from the United States and will already be
planning an enormous Thanksgiving meal, exclusively for Univ's expatriate Americans.
Many students at the college boast that their first meal of the day is
"tea" - cucumber sandwiches and pots of tea served at 4 p.m. in a cozy common
room full of armchairs. Graduate students at Oxford have freedom over their own
time - they can do what they like as long as they attend their one-hour weekly tutorial.
Chelsea is likely to be taught by Ngaire Woods, a professor described as a
"babe who likes to roller-skate around the quad." She may even run into the new
"bin Laden" professor of Islamic studies just arrived from the U.S., funded by
money from Osama bin Laden's family.
Chelsea is protected by British police and is also likely to have a Secret
Service guard, but she will be more carefully watched, as are all Oxford
students, by her "scout."
This man or woman looks after 10 students each, coming into the bedroom every
morning, even if Chelsea is still in bed, flinging open the curtains, emptying
the trash and often exchanging gossip over a cup of tea.
By tomorrow morning Chelsea may have something to tell her scout. She may have
been given Univ's unofficial initiation ceremony. This involves squeezing
through the bars to get into the famous marble memorial to Percy Byshhe
Shelley - the great 18th-century poet and Univ alumnus - like Chelsea's dad.
The more brazen have their photos taken lying on Shelley's "naked body." For
this, Chelsea may even have to kick off her high-heeled shoes.
Rupert's Spin On Chelsea's Stay At Oxford
The Mockingbird Foundation
Phish
The Mockingbird Foundation, founded by fans of the rock band Phish, awarded
a $4,760 grant to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
The tribe plans to use the grant to establish a music program aimed at sharing
American Indian heritage and culture with the community, said Shocko Hall of the
Grand Traverse Band's Behavioral Health Department.
``We plan to hold classes for the community on learning to make and play
traditional instruments,'' Hall said. ``We use big drums for powwows and hand
drums for ceremonies and two-step competitions. We also use rattles for sweat
lodge ceremonies and feasts.''
The foundation has raised more than $116,000 from ``The Phish Companion,'' a
book about the Vermont-based band's 17-year history, and ``Sharin' the Groove,''
an album by various artists covering Phish songs. All proceeds are donated to
music education programs.
Phish
New! Updated!
BartCop Astrology
Check it out at BC Astrology.
"Guitar Greats" is still on hiatus, but, this week, it's a look at 'The Birth of
Aviation', and a relevant USA horoscope courtesy of Marc Penfield.
Very interesting reading!
War As Ratings Fodder
CNN Had 'Exclusivity'
CNN backed off after rival networks ignored its attempt to secure exclusive
video from inside Afghanistan during the American-led military attack that began Sunday.
The competitiveness and bad blood came in marked contrast to Sept. 11, when the
main television networks agreed to share all of their footage from the World
Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC began extensive coverage Sunday
shortly after the missile attacks, with anchors Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and
Dan Rather in their studios. However, some CBS and Fox markets returned to
airing coverage of National Football League games.
On Saturday, Al Jazeera managing director Mohammed Jasim Al-Ali faxed a letter
to several American networks saying his company had established an ``exclusive
relationship'' with CNN. Al Jazeera gave CNN the right to use its material for
six hours before it could be released to other networks. Any network that
disobeyed the directive ``shall be held legally responsible and could face
prosecution in a court of law,'' Al-Ali wrote.
Al Jazeera is reportedly the only international network given permission to
transmit pictures from inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
``You can see the contempt with which the entire broadcast community viewed this
arrangement,'' said Jeffrey Schneider, an ABC News spokesman. CNN's rivals were
able to retrieve the pictures from a satellite feed.
The networks cited the legal concept of fair use, which they said allowed
widespread use of broadcast material in the time of a national emergency, said
Dianne Brandi, vice president of legal affairs at Fox News Channel.
``These were the only pictures from an area where the United States was
beginning a war,'' Brandi said. ``There was no question we would use them.''
Fox and ABC didn't even bother checking with CNN. CBS and NBC executives did,
however, and were told CNN was enforcing its agreement, spokeswomen said. Both
networks used the video anyway.
``The American public's interest was served today * by putting its right to be
informed above petty competitive issues,'' said CBS spokeswoman Sandra Genelius.
CNN's bare-knuckled competitiveness overseas has caused conflict before. In
April, when China released the U.S. spy plane crew, CNN secured exclusive use of
the only satellite transmission facility in Guam for 24 hours when the crew
landed there.
War As Ratings Fodder
* But wait, there's no fairness doctrine anymore ('cept when it's convenient?)
Respite For Artists
Santa Fe, NM
Painter Teressa Valla was supposed to be doing work for an upcoming show in
Italy. Instead, she roamed the streets of New York, taking photographs.
In the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she felt numb, distracted,
ill at ease. In need of a respite, she found the prospect of one in New Mexico.
Valla is among some 50 artists expected to take advantage of free living and
studio space at the Santa Fe Art Institute. Residencies of two to four weeks are
being offered from mid-October through early March.
The program was conceived by the institute's new director, Diane Karp, who had
left New York just before the attacks to take the Santa Fe job.
``We've had artists who have written and simply said that they're so rattled,
their lives are such a shambles, that they just need a way to get out of New
York City,'' said Karp.
The privately funded art institute, with a budget of about $500,000 a year,
sponsors residency programs for emerging artists, but no programs had been
scheduled for the next few months.
Karp has rounded up donations to help fund the program, and is looking for more.
Artists may choose to work during the respite, but it isn't required.
Respite In Santa Fe
Fun Link
Lots Of Games
Flash Games
New!
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Don't worry about the HTML, just send text, or rich text, or a Word document, photos, video, whatever you have, and Michele will take care of the rest. Don't hesitate to write with any questions you may have and bring on the recipes!
To check out 'Train Station Chicken', and more (like 'Cranberry Autumn Tea'),
In The Kitchen With BartCop
Shameless Plug
thesmokinggun.com
In case you've missed (or ignored) previous shilling, TSG wants to remind you
that their first book, "The Smoking Gun: A Dossier of Secret, Surprising, and
Salacious Documents," has just been published by Little, Brown & Co.
http://thesmokinggun.com/
Jerry, Elaine, Kramer & George
On Missing Seinfeld
``Seinfeld'': Gee, I miss things about it.
What I miss isn't the sitcom itself, which, of course, airs every weeknight in
most cities, and is as funny in reruns as it was throughout its prime-time run
on NBC.
No, what I miss, since Sept. 11, is the world ``Seinfeld'' now enshrines.
What I miss is a world that, as championed by ``Seinfeld,'' could easily abide
blind self-absorption and rigorous probing of the meaningless. I miss a world
whose well-being was blithely assumed, thus sparing Jerry and his friends from
any problems not of their own making.
Just a month ago ``Seinfeld'' seemed so close to my sensibilities. Here were
standup comic Jerry Seinfeld and his three quirky chums - Elaine, George and
Kramer - existentially adrift on the Upper West Side of the world's greatest city.
Cliquishly removed from everyone else, these four misshapen heroes maintained
their mutual connection through ironic code (``re-gifter,'' ``sexual
perjury,'' ``master of your domain'') and their jiggy facts of life:
- ``Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun. You don't stare at it. You
get a sense and then look away.''
- ``It's not fair that people are seated first-come, first-serve in a
restaurant. It should be based on who's hungriest.''
- Boys inflict wedgies. And girls? ``We just tease someone until they develop an
eating disorder.''
- Christopher Columbus? ``Euro-trash!''
And yada, yada, yada. ``Seinfeld'' business as usual.
Except, since Sept. 11, business as usual is anything but.
No wonder I love the real ``Seinfeld'' more than ever. How I miss the world it
playfully distorts.
For the rest, Seinfeld
Newest David Lynch Fillm
"Mulholland Drive"
Every once in a while a film comes along to show us how far Los Angeles can be
from Hollywood. Moods away from its silver screens and film noir, insider yarns
and pastel beach porn, its futuristic road trips and cartoon disaster flicks.
And free from the caricatures of its nonfat, no-sauce-with-that, bleached-blond,
waiter-actor, rock star, fast car, champagne, limousine,
put-me-on-the-cover-of-a-magazine dreams.
Los Angeles has so often been the backdrop for films that the whole moviegoing
world could summon a picture of its palm trees and mini-malls, its broad,
sun-faded boulevards. Often these films are as much at a loss to portray
modern-day Los Angeles as a tourist searching for its center. But a handful of
recent films (like "Time Code" or "Magnolia," for example) have conjured a sense
of what it feels like to land in that centerless metropolis of high hopes and
great distances, whose moods are hard to read beneath the bright facade. A sense
of life in a civilized desert whose very existence is built on the denial of
fault lines; in a place filled with ordinary people taking their chances.
David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," which opens tomorrow and won him half the
director's prize (shared with Joel Coen) at this year's Cannes International
Film Festival, is one such film. Mr. Lynch has set his movie in the city's banal
coffee shops and parking lots, its glass houses and faux- Normandy bungalows,
its brash afternoons and desolate evenings. It's a Los Angeles that lies in the
vague somewhere between the euphoria of possibility and the misery of defeat and Apocalypse.
"You go to a city and your first impression is one thing," Mr. Lynch said, "and
then if you stay there you go deeper and deeper. In L.A., there seems to be a
kind of giant sameness, but it's definitely not true."
Had there been any films that captured Los Angeles for him? "Only one: `Sunset
Boulevard,' " he said immediately of Billy Wilder's 1960 classic, as if he'd
been waiting to answer that question. "It is one of my all-time favorite films.
It's so beautifully told, and it's got such an unbelievable mood. There's been a
lot of films set in L.A. because people work here but a lot of the films could
have happened somewhere else. `Sunset Boulevard' had to happen here."
For a lot more, "Mulholland Drive"
BartCop TV!
Visit the site at BC TV
The 'Vidiot' is now updating daily!
For an amazing variety of information on an astounding array of tv programs check out
BC TV!
Lennon Tribute "Come Together"
Oh, Yoko
Yoko Ono's all-star tribute to John Lennon gave short shrift to Paul McCartney,
George Harrison and Ringo Starr and made the Plastic Ono Band seem bigger than
the Beatles.
Though Tuesday's concert was titled "Come Together," Yoko didn't invite the
three surviving Beatles, or Lennon's first wife, Cynthia. And while Ono's son,
Sean Lennon, performed with Dave Matthews, Mark Anthony, Alanis Morissette, and
others, Cynthia's son, Julian Lennon, wasn't invited either.
A two-page biography of Lennon handed out to journalists mentioned the Beatles
three times, but two of the references were negative, including the
controversial Lennon quote, "I don't believe in the Beatles."
No songs released prior to Lennon's marriage to Yoko are mentioned at all. Yet
Yoko is named six times, while the obscure Plastic Ono Band, which Lennon formed
with Yoko after she broke up the Beatles, rated two mentions.
As for Lennon's "lost weekend" - a long separation he spent with his mistress
May Pang - the bio says: "In his words, 'the separation failed.'"
The separation left some wounds. The Lennon bio notes, "He could be cruel and
unbelievably kind; he could love you one minute and destroy you with his tongue
a few minutes later."
Oh, Yoko
Cashing In
Osmond General Store
Jimmy Osmond is hoping to cash in on the family name with his new venture: the
Osmond General Store.
The shop offers a combination of show business memorabilia, trinkets and home products.
Shoppers can buy a $2,195 toy pistol once owned by Elvis, a $3,995 pair of
leather dress gloves worn by Marilyn Monroe, a $2,995 guitar autographed by
Garth Brooks, or a $3,295 string tie with a silver horse owned by John Wayne.
``We worked with a lot of these people,'' said Osmond, 38, the youngest member
of the singing Osmond family. ``I got the memorabilia from them, from their
agents, and from other collectors. I guarantee it all personally. If its
authenticity is questioned, I'll buy it back.''
A corner of the store is dedicated to Osmond recordings, performance videos,
hats signed by family members, and a line of dolls marketed by his sister Marie.
Jimmy Osmond, Shopkeeper
Real Job Security
Mary Hart
Mary Hart will continue to report the news and celebrity happenings for at least
five more years for ``Entertainment Tonight.''
Hart, who has anchored the show for two decades, signed a deal giving her more
than $5 million annually, said Joel Berman, president of Paramount Domestic
Television, which produces the program.
The contract allows Hart to take a more creative role in possible ``ET''
spin-offs, including a children-oriented project and a celebrity homes show.
Hart joined the 21-year-old newsmagazine program in 1982 during its second season.
Mary Hart
Book News
Sales Quintupled
Sales of the Koran, the holy scripture of Islam, have quintupled in the United
States since Sept. 11, according to the book's main US publisher.
Penguin Books is attempting to airlift reprints of the Koran in from the United
Kingdom to meet demand for the book, sometimes spelled Qur'an. Muslims believe
the Koran is the word of God as revealed to the Prophet Mohammed 1,400 years ago.
''We've definitely sold more Korans than Bibles since Sept. 11,'' said Jim Scott
of the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton. ''The Koran has been selling
really strong. We've pretty much run out of most of the editions.''
Interest in Islam has skyrocketed since hijackers commandeered four airplanes
full of passengers and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon,
and a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 5,000 people.
Book News
First Person Diary
Ray Berry
Ray has temporarily (I hope), suspended 'Bush-Toons'. In its place, he has put
his daily diary of life in Manhattan since Tuesday.
Ray has great observational abilities, and a wonderful way with words.
To visit & read, www.bush-toons.com
Useful Links
Off Shore Radio & TV
Off Shore Radio (With English Feeds)
Australia:
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/hear/hear_us_internet.htm
China:
http://english.cri.com.cn/
Radio Habana Cuba:
http://www.radiohc.cu/iaudiorhc.html
Radio Prague:
http://www.radio.cz/english/broadcast.phtml
Denmark:
http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/denmark.html
Finland:
http://www.yle.fi/rfinland/index_en.htm
Radio France International:
http://www.rfi.fr/
Deutsche Welle (Germany):
http://www.dwelle.de/cgi-bin/play/live_radio_pop.pl?lang=en
BBC (Great Britain):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/index.shtml
BBC live feed:
http://www.bbcworld.com/content/world_live/Live_Feed.asp
India:
http://air.kode.net/audionews/engram/190920011800.ram
Iran:
http://www.irib.com/worldservice/english/default.htm
Israel:
http://www.israelradio.org/english.html
Radio Japan News
http://www.nhk.or.jp/rj/
Jordan:
http://jrtv.com/readme.eml
Lithuania:
http://www.lrtv.lt/lr1.ram
Malta:
http://realserver.maltanet.net:8080/ramgen/vom/vom-news.rm
Mongolia:
http://www.mongol.net/vom/voice.ram
Netherlands:
http://www.rnw.nl/en/index.html
Pakistan:
http://radio.gov.pk/urdu.html
Poland:
http://www.wrn.org/ondemand//poland.html
Romania:
http://www.rri.ro/homepage.htm
Russia:
http://www.wrn.org/ondemand/russia.html
South Africa:
http://www.channelafrica.org/ra/dateline_0500.rm
South Korea:
http://rki.kbs.co.kr/asx/news_audio/e010920.asx
Sweden:
http://www.sr.se/p6/Grupp/Eng/
Switzerland:
http://real.sri.ch/ramgen/sri/en/nb/ennb.rm
Vatican:
http://www.vaticanradio.org/inglese/enindex.html
Off Shore TV links
Canada:
Pulse 24:
http://www.wwitv.com/television/38.htm
Other Canadian stations:
http://www.broadcast-live.com/television/englishcanada.html
Euronews (France?):
http://www.euronews.net/create_html.php
Russia -- Moscow TV 6:
http://www.tv6.ru/live/
http://www.tv6.ru/live/
Deutsche Welle TV (Germany):
http://www.dwelle.de/tv/Wel-eng.html
thanks, wednesdays
In Memory
Herb L. Block
Herbert L. Block, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who under the name
"Herblock" skewered every president since Herbert Hoover, died Sunday. He was 91.
"Herblock was the greatest cartoonist of all time," said Donald E. Graham,
chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co., where Block worked.
"His intelligence and his sense of history, combined with his artistic skill
helped define many of the key political figures and many of the key events of
the last 55 years in Washington," said Graham.
Block's cartoons won three Pulitzer Prizes, and he shared in a fourth for the
Post's Watergate coverage. Block's work was syndicated in more than
300 newspapers.
His work was known for its liberal slant and biting humor. Although vicious in
black-and-white, he was a gentle soul in person. A friend, cartoonist Chuck
Jones, once described him as "a tiger posing as a possum."
His illustrations spanned from the rise of the nuclear peril to the end of the
Cold War. It was Block who coined the word "McCarthyism" to describe the
redbaiting tactics used by Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
He lambasted Richard Nixon for using similar tactics in campaigns for Congress
and the vice presidency. In Block's cartoons, Nixon was stoop-shouldered and
unshaven, with dark eyes and an evil grin.
When Nixon was elected president, Block began drawing him without the five
o'clock shadow - out of respect for the office - but didn't let up his attacks.
"I wouldn't start the day by looking at Herblock's cartoon," Nixon groused to an interviewer.
Block's career began before the stock market crash of 1929 and continued until
only recently when he went on vacation. He chronicled every president from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush.
And Nixon wasn't the only president angered by Block's work. The cartoons
prompted complaints from Dwight Eisenhower. Lyndon Johnson canceled a Medal of
Freedom ceremony because Block was to be honored. Ronald Reagan lamented, "This
guy just doesn't like me," according to one of Block's friends.
But Harry Truman chuckled as he toured an exhibition of Block's drawings. And in
1994, President Clinton awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's
highest civilian honor.
He was a lifelong bachelor; friends sometimes said he was married to his work.
He spent much of his free time wading through piles of newspapers and magazines
and monitoring news broadcasts.
He drew four cartoons a week, down from seven in his early days. Block said he
never considered retiring because, "I'd miss it."
Block grew up in Chicago, the son of a newspaperman turned chemist, and took up
drawing as a child. He adopted the pen name "Herblock" at age 13, when he
started volunteering quips and comments for a humor column in the Chicago Tribune.
At age 19, he dropped out of college to start his first full-time job as a
cartoonist at the Chicago Daily News.
From there he moved to the Newspaper Enterprise Association, which mailed his
cartoons to papers across the country for 10 years.
Block almost lost the NEA job in 1942 because his cartoons supported Franklin
Roosevelt's New Deal and urged America into World War II - opinions his bosses
didn't share. But before they could fire him, he won his first Pulitzer Prize.
He was drafted and spent the war in New York drawing cartoons for Army
newspapers and posters. Afterward, he settled in at The Washington Post.
With a wooden drawing board perched on his lap, he spent afternoons dashing off
drafts of cartoon ideas, then testing them on reporters in the nearby newsroom.
The best one was selected to become the next day's cartoon, carefully crafted in
pen and ink.
Herb L. Block
Still MISSING
Marc Chagall's "Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"
