'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Michael Dare Special
'Booze'
Baron Dave Romm
Klingon Klezmer
By Baron Dave Romm
The Yiddish Word kling means to play a musical instrument. When my grandmother learned that I was playing Klezmer, she said, Kling on, mein kind (keep playing, my child). So we, uh, Klingon. -- Jack Kressler, producer, from the liner notes of Honey would you be meshuga tonite
Klingon Kelzmer is a Klezmer musical group with a CD, Honey would you be meshuga tonight. Out of this world Jewish jam! claims the website, reinforced by the vaguely Star Trekkish art work. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending), there is very little in the way of science fictional music. Klingon Mating Dance may get Klingon women in the mood to throw things at you, and Party at the End of the Universe might be sung by one of Zaphod's heads, but both are from Old Old Earth.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending), the music is very good straightforward klezmer: Mostly instrumental dance numbers with the occasional lyrics in Yiddish or Hebrew with a very few numbers spiced with whales or electric sounds. Jewish dance music is characterized by bouncy carefree jazz with a beat and a strong melody and an anticipatory tone that Dixieland Jazz comes close to but doesn't capture. Dance music alternates with the sad-yet-hopeful music that is unique to Judaism: Let the power of our song awaken Moshaich... Redemption comes! Mosiach comes soon! -- from the liner notes of the song Zol Shoin Kumen published in Warsaw in 1947, as well as the Anti-Fascist March from the 20s. God dances with us!
There is a lot of Klezmer these days, much of it good. Everyone needs their marketing niche. I don't think these guys have really tapped into the sf market, but they have produced a very good jazz album with a nice cover and quotable liner notes. Science fiction fans and Star Trek afficianados will appreciate the artwork and the web site (with a promise of Klingon Sound in streaming audio coming soon). Klezmer afficianados will appreciate the love and tradition that infuses all the songs. Party music from the past that looks to the future!
Kling on, dudes!Learn Klingon at the Klingon Language Institute. The Warrior's Tongue was invented by Dr. Marc Okrand at the behest of the Star Trek producers, who wanted a believable language in the movies and so wrote The Klingon Dictionary, which should grace all complete libraries. For the impatient, the Klingon On-Line Dictionary provides Star Trek-like controls for translating words.
The Klingon Empire maintains a list of Organizations and Klubs and the Klingon Imnperial Diplomatic Corps maintains a list of contacts for local clubs here.
The concept has spread, and various works are being translated to Klingon, notably the Bible (tricky since Klingon has no word for G-d, but if you can't wait here is the Bible in Pig Latin). The KLI projects are listed here. An extensive set of links about Klingon projects are here, with the second and third verses of the Jabberwocky in Klingon here.
Naturally, I support such multi-culturalism. I once tried some Klingon palindromes on the air, and since I'm still alive the effort must have been worthy. And Klingons have a sense of humor (don't believe what the Romulans say), and they appreciated my Top 11 List of Books Better Suited To Being Translated into Klingon than the Bible.
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.
He's B-a-a-a-a-a-a-c-k!
The Worried Shrimp
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another warm, sunny day. Spent most of it rearranging the house for the impending grandmother visit. Was jealous of Jo the (remaining) lizard, just laying in the sun.
Spent the late afternoon/early evening at John Wayne airport. There is no parking on the lower level, where they direct the 'arrival' traffic,
so, everybody gets to take an extra spin around the facility to get to the upper level - the one for 'departures', and park there. Used to like
John Wayne...
Had to watch the visiting grandmother's choice of tv tonight - she loves her cop & doctor dramas. I'd prefer infomercials to most of the stuff she likes (and in my mind I'm shouting 'Serenity Now! Serenity Now!').
Tonight, Monday, CBS starts out with a fresh 'King Of Queens', then a fresh 'Yes, Dear', followed by a fresh 'Raymond', then a fresh 'Still Standing', and caps the night with a fresh 'CSI: Miami'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Kevin James and Matchbox Twenty.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are Amy Brenneman, Cedric the Entertainer, and 3 Doors Down.
NBC opens the night with a fresh 'Fear Factor', then a fresh 'Third Watch', and a fresh 'Crossing Jordan'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Pamela Anderson, "The Bachelor" Aaron Buerge, and Busta Rhymes.
On a traditional Monday night RERUN Conan, the scheduled guests are Janeane Garofalo, Tom Kenny, and OK Go.
On a traditional Monday night RERUN Carson Daly(from 8/7/02), the scheduled guest is David Bowie.
ABC has 'MNF', where the Bears visit Georgia's Lambs - er - Rams (sorry, not a lot of Ram fans left in these parts). Depending on your time zone, either before or after the game is a
'20/20' special with Barbara Walters interviewing somebody.
The WB has a fresh '7th Heaven' and a fresh 'Everwood'.
Faux has a fresh 'Boston Pubic' and then 'Funniest Animal Outtakes'.
UPN offers a fresh 'The Parkers', a fresh 'One On One', a fresh 'Girlfriends', and a fresh 'Half & Half'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
#4
Point Reyes, CA
PEACE
West Marin women are serious enough about PEACE to spell it out. Wearing nothing but afternoon rain, 50 determined women lay down on Love Field near the Green Bridge Tuesday
afternoon to literally embody PEACE and "show solidarity with the people of Iraq," said the organizers. "Women from all ages and walks of life took off their clothes, not because
they are exhibitionists but because they felt it was imperative to do so," the organizers added. "They wanted to unveil the truth about the horrors of war, to commune in their
nudity with the vulnerability of Iraqi innocents, and to shock a seemingly indifferent Bush Administration into paying attention." The coordinators, who came up with the idea only
a day earlier, said that the coming together of this group on short notice was a testament to the seriousness with which the women view the threat of war with Iraq. "Remembering
that tens of thousands of civilians have already died in Iraq as a result of US bombing and sanctions, these women are not convinced by Bush Administration fear mongering that one
more person should die," organizers said. They hope the president and news media take notice.
Photo by Art Rogers
PEACE
'U.N. Messenger of Peace'
Muhammad Ali
Former world heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, arrived in war-torn Afghanistan on Sunday for a three-day visit to focus world attention on rebuilding one of the
most devastated countries on earth.
Ali, a devout 60-year-old Muslim and now a "U.N. Messenger of Peace," was handed flowers by Foreign Ministry officials in the Afghan capital Kabul, as he stepped off a U.N. plane.
The boxing champ, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, made no comment and was whisked away in a U.N. vehicle.
On Monday, he is due to visit a girl's school, a women's bakery, and young athletes at one of the city's sporting clubs, said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the U.N.
spokesman in Afghanistan.
Muhammad Ali
'The March for Peace and Justice: No War on Iraq'
Portland, OR
Elaborate caricatures depicting, from left, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are carried during a rally billed as 'The March for Peace and Justice: No War on Iraq,' Sunday, Nov. 17, 2002, in Portland, Ore.
Photo by Greg Wahl-Stephens
Reprising Sinatra's Role In 'Manchurian Candidate'
Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington will reprise Frank Sinatra's role in an update of the 1962 political thriller "The Manchurian Candidate."
No director is attached to the Paramount project, which the crooner's daughter, Tina Sinatra, set up at the studio this spring. John Frankenheimer directed the original. The remake was written by Dan Pyne ("The Sum of All Fears").
Based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon, "Candidate" combined a political thriller with black-hearted satire of anticommunist hysteria. Sinatra starred opposite Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey.
When "Manchurian" was re-released theatrically in 1988, it was critically hailed, with Sinatra's performance cited as the best of his career. Sinatra gave Tina his blessing to set up a "Manchurian" remake.
Denzel Washington
Tries Hand at Teaching
Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander, best known as the underachieving George Costanza on "Seinfeld," has a new role — he's a college professor.
Alexander, who dropped out of Boston University in his junior year to pursue acting, has been sharing his smarts this term with undergraduates at the University of Southern California
as the School of Theatre's first George Burns Visiting professor.
Alexander will be starring on stage soon as Max Bialystock in the Los Angeles production of "The Producers."
Jason Alexander
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
FBI Probed Chess Great
Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer, the eccentric chess prodigy who dueled Soviet grand masters and won a world title in 1972, was investigated by FBI agents who suspected his mother
was a communist spy, according to the bureau's records.
FBI files obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer under the Freedom of Information Act show that the government watched the Fischer family for three decades, and
at one point feared that Soviet agents had tried to recruit Fischer himself.
The bureau ultimately concluded that his mother, Regina Fischer, was not a spy, but only after years of researching her history, reading her mail, studying her
canceled checks and questioning her neighbors.
Regina Fischer, a pediatrician who spoke eight languages, died of cancer in 1997. The last entry in her 750-page FBI file is dated 1973 and notes her opposition to the Vietnam War.
In her teens, she moved from the United States to Germany and then Russia, where she lived from 1933 to 1938 and attended medical school.
She married a German biophysicist in Moscow in 1933, then came to the United States in 1939, four years before the birth of her son. The FBI files pay attention
to a Hungarian mathematics teacher who paid child support for her son but don't say if he was the father.
Bobby Fischer
'Be-atch'?
Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie is bloodied but unbowed over the colossal failure of "Swept Away." Speaking to students at the Oxford Union, the director tried to explain why his wife Madonna's latest film embarassment
will go straight to video in the U.K. "People think it's s- - -," Ritchie laughed. "I would like to answer that more eloquently, but I'm afraid I can't. The idea was that the wife and I would make a
successful little movie and we got the s- - - kicked out of us." He also revealed his nickname for Madonna is "Be-atch," reports London's Daily Mirror.
Guy Ritchie
TV Promos Rock
Elton John
In an innovative bid to market a new Elton John greatest hits package, the crooner's label is giving TV networks and producers easy -- and cheaper-than-usual -- access to
his three-decade catalog of tunes.
Searching for a creative way to market last week's release of "Elton John: Greatest Hits 1970-2002," Universal Music Enterprises has been approaching network hypemeisters
and music supervisors about injecting John's tunes into both promos and programming. As an incentive, the label offered extended terms and dramatically lower-than-usual licensing costs.
The networks have jumped at the offer. In recent weeks, astute viewers may have noted NBC's use of "Your Song" to hype the budding romance on "Good Morning, Miami"
and "The Bitch is Back" to herald Heather Locklear's arrival on "Scrubs."
CBS, meanwhile, has made use of "Tiny Dancer" in ads for "Presidio Med," while spots for "Hack" feature footage of star David Morse pushing bad guys into
walls while "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" plays in the background.
Elton John
BartCop TV!
Old Bombs Found
Hong Kong Disney
Nearly 200 bombs and artillery shells dumped offshore by the British military decades ago have been removed from the site of a Disney theme park being built on dredged land, officials said Sunday.
None of the 183 bombs exploded, and most were rusted or without fuses and did not pose any danger, said Anthony Li, a senior government engineer. Their removal was
not expected to delay construction of the park, scheduled to open by 2006.
The British army dumped old bombs in the waters off Hong Kong — a former British colony — from the 1950s until the 1970s, apparently never thinking that someday
dredging crews would be working in the same areas.
Authorities frequently find bombs in areas of Hong Kong that were hit by Allied air raids during World War II, when the city was occupied by the Japanese military,
but police have acknowledged that the number of bombs found during the Disney dredging seemed a bit on the high side.
Hong Kong Disney
India
Pushkar Fair
A Rajasthani man painted blue sits by the roadside during the annual Pushkar Fair southwest of New Delhi, November 17, 2002. Hundreds of thousands of camels, horses and cattle
are sold during the fair, which has become a popular tourist event.
Photo by Pawel Kopczynski
24-Hour Marathon
Russian Ballet Dancers
More than 200 dancers, cheered on by thousands of spectators, danced into the early hours on Sunday to complete Russia's first 24-hour ballet marathon.
The dancers, many from the St Petersburg ballet school which gave the world such greats as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, performed some 20 arrangements,
both classical and modern, at the city's celebrated Mariinsky theater.
Thousands of spectators quaffed beer and munched snacks in an atmosphere more reminiscent of a rock concert than a classical ballet performance, undertaken as part
of celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the city's birth next year.
One of the organizers of the ballet marathon said it was now set to become an annual event.
Russian Ballet Dancers
Too Buxom For Brosnan?
Caroline Rhea
Caroline Rhea was told to cover up her cleavage before interviewing Pierce Brosnan. The talk-show host who took over for Rosie O'Donnell thought it would be fun to make like a Bond Girl for the "Die Another Day" star and
wore a low-cut blouse, but execs felt she went too far for a family-friendly program. New York magazine reports her producers told Rhea "advertisers think breasts on the show is a no-no."
Caroline Rhea
At ABC News Through 2005
Peter Jennings
ABC News anchor Peter Jennings has finally made it official: He's staying put.
"I have a contract with ABC for the next three years," the "World News Tonight" anchor told Daily Variety, but did not elaborate further on the terms.
While his situation with the nightly news broadcast will not change, his award-winning inhouse news documentary unit Peter Jennings Reporting -- which
created series such as "In Search of America" and "The Century" -- will now be independent of ABC News.
The new shingle, named PJ Prods., will supply at least four hours of primetime news documentaries a year to ABC; the network will fund production for five years.
PJ Prods. will be able to license or resell the four hours of programming overseas after they air on ABC. Anything the shingle makes beyond those four hours can
be sold to other networks, provided that Jennings does not appear in the programming.
Peter Jennings
Surin Province, Thailand
Elephant Roundup
A Thai mahout shows how to catch a baby elephant during the annual Elephant Roundup in Surin Province in northeastern Thailand, on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2002. The event celebrated the special position
of the animals in Thai society and culture and also helps boost tourism.
Photo by Sakchai Lalit
'The Osbournes'
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'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
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