Baron Dave Romm
Minnesota Election Widget
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Tip Jar
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Widget to track MN Sentate Recount
Continuously updated, via the Mpls Star Tribune.
Last week, the widget wasn't up for very long, and I'm still on vacation, so you get it again. Will anything be decided today? Who knows. As of this writing, Franken is up by 46 votes,w ith most of Coleman's challenges denied in court. Check back here while the recount slips to a close. Maybe.
The War On Christmas
Happy Channukah!
After successfully fighting the War On Christmas, I'm after bigger game. Perhaps I'll take on the War On Superbowl Sunday, though that's a bigger part of our culture...
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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TODAY!
Erin Hart
Join Erin Hart as she fills in LIVE on Colorado's Colorado's Progressive Talk AM760.net, from 5am to 9am pst | 6am to 10am mst | 7am to 11am cst | 8am to noon est, today, Dec. 26th, and Monday - Friday 29th, 30th, 31st and Jan. 1st and 2nd.
And Change is Coming-what do you love or hate about 2008? Can Obama really bring the change we need?
Enjoy Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa and Celebrate 2009 with us!
Check erinhartshow.com for details.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Anita Thompson: What Would Jesus Do? Ask Thomas Jefferson (huffingtonpost.com)
While reading Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope" yesterday, I was reminded of the man (the third president) who distilled the teachings of Jesus Christ.
"The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 4" by David Bruce (Free Download)
Comedian Danny Thomas received his greatest compliment from Mike Todd, who was in a nightclub while Mr. Thomas was performing. Mr. Todd had lifted his coffee cup from his saucer when Mr. Thomas went into the dramatic part in his "Ode to the Wailing Lebanese." Mr. Todd felt it was inappropriate to put the coffee cup to his lips at such a dramatic moment, and he was afraid that he would make a noise if he set the coffee cup back down. So he held the coffee cup suspended in mid-air for three minutes, until the dramatic part was over.
Laurence Leamer: A Wealthy Man (huffingtonpost.com)
My mother came from a poor family in Westport, Connecticut. Her father worked in a lumber yard and as a chauffeur for the owner. She was the only one of seven children to go to college. She was very smart and she received a tuition scholarship to the University of Chicago in the Thirties, probably the most exciting college in America. She didn't have enough money even to sit up all night on the train to Chicago. She took a bus. The driver worried about this innocent young woman finding her way in a difficult part of Chicago and he drove the bus out his way to deposit her in an on-campus building. She was too afraid to go out and she sat her room eating a Hershey bar for dinner.
Laurence Leamer: Biography (bookbrowse.com)
When I first heard about John F. Kennedy, I felt I had finally found a politician in whom I could believe. He said many of the things that Stevenson said, but he and the men around him seemed titanium-tough. They could walk any street, and take on anyone. They did not retreat from the rude smells of the world.
Scott Burns: Measuring Madoff (assetbuilder.com)
Media accounts immediately labeled the disappearance of $50 billion, masterminded by Bernard Madoff, as "the largest fraud in history." It is a greater wealth loss than having a household name company -- such as Walt Disney, Anheuser-Busch or Boeing -- vanish without a trace. The loss is mind-boggling. But the figure does nothing to convey the damage this man has done.
Bruce Vilanch: "Eartha Kitt: My Encounter With a Legend" (huffingtonpost.com)
I sent lyrics to Eartha. A day later, she called. "Brrrrruce, my love. Where have you been since 1952? This is so, so Eartha."
Sara Brickner: Who Is Jonathan Richman? (seattleweekly.com)
Richman's wisdom is that he knows it can be very difficult to restore the original visceral reaction we had to a piece of music after we've unceremoniously critiqued and torn it apart. It's a philosophy that seems right for a man who's dedicated to living in the moment, to having experiences rather than discussing them.
Frank Lovece: Fast chat with 'The Spirit' director Frank Miller (Newsday)
One of the few comics creators who has become his own brand, writer-artist Frank Miller first made his mark with a gritty, film-noir take on Marvel Comics' "Daredevil." He went on to pop-culture stardom with DC Comics' "The Dark Knight Returns," a 1986 miniseries envisioning a bitter, reactionary Batman a few decades from now, fighting against a corrupt world as seen through Miller's Ayn Rand-devotee eyes. His vision helped inspire the similarly dark Batman movies, and the less- successful "Daredevil" film (2003).
A very European hero (economist.com)
A Tintin blockbuster is on the way. Baffled Americans hoping to understand him should look at him through the prism of post-war Europe.
Roger Ebert: Having wonderful time, wish you could see
It hardly ever happens this way. I get a DVD in the mail. I'm told it's an animated film directed by "a girl from Urbana." That's my home town. It is titled "Sita Sings the Blues." I know nothing about it, and the plot description on IMDb is not exactly a barn-burner: An animated version of the epic Indian tale of Ramayana set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. Uh, huh. I carefully file it with other movies I will watch when they introduce the 8-day week.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Dessert Honoring George W
Tastefully tasteless - or vice versa?
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Christmas Conundrum' Edition
Christmas was established as a 'Federal Holiday' by Congress and President Grant in 1870. It has been said that their motivation for doing so was to help bring the country together during the difficult post-Civil War reconstruction period. Considering the 'establishment clause' of the constitution, the question is...
Should the status of Christmas as a 'Federal Holiday' be rescinded due to the religious nature of the celebration?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Results Tuesday
replied:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit warmer.
Prize Late-Night & Comedy Shows
Candidates
It proved to be more than a joke when David Letterman said in late September that "the road to the White House runs through me."
Presidential candidates found late-night comedy shows a particularly valuable asset during the 2008 campaign, making more than four times the number of on-set appearances with Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and the crowd than the 2004 contenders did, some new research has found.
Candidates made 110 appearances on the late-night shows, up from 25 in 2004, the center said. Fifty this time came before a primary vote was even cast, as a full complement of candidates in both parties looked for ways to get their faces in front of cameras - something resident Bush didn't have to worry about four years ago.
There's a rich history of candidates using entertainment venues to show voters they can laugh at themselves: Richard Nixon went on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in" in 1968, and Bill Clinton played the sax on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1992. Yet it wasn't until 2008 that the appearances began to seem routine.
Candidates
Granted Armenian Citizenship
Charles Aznavour
The renowned French singer of Armenian origin Charles Aznavour has been granted Armenian citizenship by presidential decree, the presidency of the ex-Soviet republic said Friday.
Born Shahnur Aznavourian, the 84-year-old singer is among the best-known figures of France's 400,000-strong Armenian diaspora. He was born in Paris to Armenian parents.
After the 1988 earthquake in Armenia which killed 25,000 people, Aznavour set up a foundation and organised a series of charity concerts to help quake victims.
He also serves as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Charles Aznavour
Setting New Records
Bucharest
Bucharest set a new record Sunday for the world's heaviest cake, weighing in at 281 kilogrammes (619 pounds), after two other bids this week for the longest sausage and biggest Christmas give-away.
After weighing the large pastry, a representative of the Guiness Book of World Records handed Mayor Sorin Oprescu a document certifying the record.
Last Sunday, Bucharest claimed the world's biggest-ever Christmas give-away, when 3,939 people dressed as Father Christmas handed out gifts to children in the streets.
Saturday, the city made a bid for the world's longest smoked sausage, measuring 392 metres (1,286 feet) and weighing 150 kilogrammes.
Bucharest
Added To 2008
Extra Second
Those eager to put 2008 behind them will have to hold their good-byes for just a moment this New Year's Eve.
The world's official timekeepers have added a "leap second" to the last day of the year on Wednesday, to help match clocks to the Earth's slowing spin on its axis, which takes place at ever-changing rates affected by tides and other factors.
The U.S. Naval Observatory, keeper of the Pentagon's master clock, said it would add the extra second on Wednesday in coordination with the world's atomic clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC.
That corresponds to 6:59:59 p.m. EST (23:59:59 GMT), when an extra second will tick by -- the 24th to be added to UTC since 1972, when the practice began.
Extra Second
Restroom Tanking As Tourist Destination
Larry Craig
The men's room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport where Republican Sen. Larry Craig was arrested in a sex sting is losing it appeal as a tourist stop, an official said.
"We're getting there," said Patrick Hogan, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan Airports Commission. "I think we'll all be glad when there's no special interest in that restroom."
One person had offered to buy the restroom stall for $5,000, Hogan said, but airport officials "don't sell fixtures for novelty purposes."
Larry Craig
Fabricated Holocaust Story
'Angel at the Fence'
It's the latest story that touched, and betrayed, the world.
"Herman Rosenblat and his wife are the most gentle, loving, beautiful people," literary agent Andrea Hurst said Sunday, anguishing over why she, and so many others, were taken by Rosenblat's story of love born on opposite sides of a barbed-wire fence at a concentration camp.
"I question why I never questioned it. I believed it; it was an incredible, hope-filled story."
On Saturday, Berkley Books canceled Rosenblat's memoir, "Angel at the Fence." Rosenblat acknowledged that he and his wife did not meet, as they had said for years, at a sub-camp of Buchenwald, where she allegedly sneaked him apples and bread. The book was supposed to come out in February.
'Angel at the Fence'
Spreads To US
Child Slaves
Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door.
They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.
But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid slave.
Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.
Child Slaves
MP3 Player lLghts
Missing Skiers
Swiss rescue officials say they have found two missing skiers after spotting the light from their MP3 music player.
The Swiss air rescue association Rega says it received a distress call from the French tourists late Friday but the skiers' phone battery went dead before they could be reached.
Rega spokesman Gery Baumann says the two men were eventually found after midnight in steep, wooded terrain by a helicopter crew that spotted the light from their digital music player.
Baumann said Saturday that the two 22-year-olds suffered only mild hypothermia despite enduring temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius).
Missing Skiers
Weekend Box Office
'Marley & Me'
Hollywood had a happy holiday with a huge Christmas weekend as movies from Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and Adam Sandler all opened strongly.
Even Tom Cruise scored solidly in an eye patch and a German World War II uniform.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Marley & Me," $37 million.
2. "Bedtime Stories," $28.1 million.
3. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $27 million.
4. "Valkyrie," $21.5 million.
5. "Yes Man," $16.5 million.
6. "Seven Pounds," $13.4 million.
7. "The Tale of Despereaux," $9.4 million.
8. "The Day the Earth Stood Still," $7.9 million.
9. "The Spirit," $6.5 million.
10. "Doubt," $5.7 million.
'Marley & Me'
In Memory
Ann Savage
Ann Savage, who earned a cult following as a femme fatale in such 1940s pulp-fiction movies as "Detour," has died at 87.
Her Hollywood career had largely been over since the mid-1950s, but she had a resurgence over the past year with a starring role in Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg."
Starting with her 1943 debut in the crime story "One Dangerous Night," Savage made more than 30 films through the 1950s, including Westerns ("Saddles and Sagebrush," "Satan's Cradle"), musicals ("Dancing in Manhattan," "Ever Since Venus") and wartime tales ("Passport to Suez," "Two-Man Submarine").
Savage was best-known for director Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 B-movie "Detour," in which she played a woman ruthlessly blackmailing a stranger, played by Tom Neal.
Savage did some television in the 1950s, including "Death Valley Days" and "The Ford Television Theatre," then left Hollywood for New York City, where she appeared in commercials and industrial films.
Ann Savage
In Memory
Robert Graham
Robert Graham, a California sculptor whose works were incorporated into civic monuments including the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., has died at the age of 70.
Graham, who also created monuments to boxer Joe Louis and jazz legends Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington, died on Saturday at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital.
At his side were his wife, Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston, and other members of his family.
Graham, born in Mexico City, lived much of his life in California and gained fame for designing a ceremonial gateway for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the 1984 Olympics.
Robert Graham
In Memory
Delaney Bramlett
Singer-songwriter-producer Delaney Bramlett, who penned such classic rock songs as "Let it Rain" and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton, has died. He was 69.
Born in Mississippi, Bramlett enjoyed a career in the music business that spanned 50 years. With his then-wife Bonnie Lynn, he created the Southern blues-rock band Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The group opened for Blind Faith, which featured British guitarist Clapton, in 1969.
He is perhaps best known for standards such as "Superstar," co-written with Leon Russell, which was recorded by Usher, Luther Vandross, Bette Midler, The Carpenters and most recently, Sonic Youth, in a version featured on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the movie "Juno."
He co-wrote "Let it Rain" with Clapton, who also recorded it, and "Never Ending Song of Love," which was recorded by more than 100 artists including Ray Charles, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Patty Loveless and Dwight Yoakam.
During his career, he performed, co-wrote or recorded with stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, the Everly Brothers and Mac Davis. He also produced artists including Etta James and Elvin Bishop.
Delaney Bramlett
A clip from Shindig
Other videos of Delaney and friends
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