Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Forgive and Forget? (nytimes.com)
If we don't have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years, this means that those who hold power are above the law and can abuse their power.
Robert Creamer: The One Big Thing George W. Bush Did Right (huffingtonpost.com)
By actually putting into practice the neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.
John Grooms: "The king of bad presidents: George W. Bush" (charlotte.creativeloafing.com)
It's an American tradition: Whenever a president leaves office, people start debating how he stacks up against his predecessors. (Note: The use here of "he" and "his" isn't sexist exclusion, but a reflection of U.S. history) This time, though, there's a big difference. As President George W. Bush gets ready to leave the White House, it says a lot that the most frequently asked question about his place in history is whether he's the worst president ever, or just in the top five or six.
Anneli Rufus: Reacting to the Recession (eastbayexpress.com)
Save money as if your life depended on it - because it does.
Tom Danehy: Tom has wishes, hopes and prayers for the new year (tucsonweekly.com)
As I was telling you last week before I was interrupted by an arbitrary word count, I went to Mass on New Year's Day. Having attended more than a couple thousand Masses in my life, I've pretty much heard it all (especially the sermons!), so I'm able to put my soul on cruise control and do some industrial-strength thinking during that hour. I've never been one to make resolutions, but I do think about stuff that I'd like to see happen during the coming year.
Christine Rosen: People of the Screen (thenewatlantis.com)
Literacy, the most empowering achievement of our civilization, is to be replaced by a vague and ill-defined screen savvy. All in the name of progress...
Elise Ackerman: Written any good e-books lately? Smashwords can help (San Jose Mercury News)
Like others, Mark Coker, a Los Gatos, Calif., entrepreneur and aspiring novelist, has learned about the challenges facing new authors - many of whom never get published. And even if they do, aside from a handful of blockbusters, the few books that make it to the shelves of bookstores rarely stay there. If books don't sell well enough, they are sent back to the publisher and very quickly go out of print.
JOEL STEIN: Relics of the good old days (latimes.com)
Dog gyms, hedge funds, stainless steel. What were we thinking?
Time for a cull in the art world (timesonline.co.uk)
The art world is plunging, along with the rest of the economy. Hooray, says Waldemar Januszczak, recession can be good!
The forgotten supermodel (guardian.co.uk)
In 1990 five models appeared on the cover of "Vogue." Almost 20 years on, four of them are still world famous, yet Tatjana Patitz goes largely unrecognised. What happened to her? Emine Saner finds out.
Amy Sedaris, Co-star of "Strangers with Candy" and narrator of "Make 'Em Laugh"
I watched a lot of "SCTV" and Second City, but- I don't really consider myself to be a comedian. I mean, it's not like I'm sitting around writing jokes or anything. I just like dressing up and pretending to be other people.
Phil Rosenthal: Conan O'Brien travels across the country on his way to 'Tonight Show' (Chicago Tribune)
"I kind of like these things," Conan O'Brien said Friday at WMAQ-TV.
The Weekly Poll
Break Time
I'm gonna take a break for a week or two to catch up from the holidays and focus on some personal affairs (mainly relocation closer to my immediate family).
I'll be back soon, I assure you!... Meanwhile, don't let the bastards get ya down!
BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
responded:
Reader Report
CHEster Says
Right now it's 44F with the Chinook winds blowing again...all the roads are beyond treacherous, you remember how it gets up here, -40 for weeks, then the winds come roaring down over the Chugach and the rich Mo Fo's on the Hillside and then smashes into and tears apart anything in its way, temps climb up to the 40's 50's and turns the whole city into a skating rink, I almost killed myself walking from my place on 9th and Cordova to the "Slum" Carrs grocery store on 13th and Gambell...took me an hour to creep there and then I waited a half hour for the bus before someone informed me they werent running due to the ice, then gave me a ride home (still SOME nice people up here)
I dropped off all 10 episodes of my show tonight at the cable company to have them re-aired, gives me time to film the final two episodes and then I think I will be returning to Massatucky...It'll break my heart but Alaska isnt the place I left...people are surly and Uber Conservative (Thank YOU Jerry Prevo and his "Temple of DOOOOM") Well I'm running on...sorry....NOT!!!!...LOL...ARRRRROOOOOHHHHH!!!!
Here's a Prevo Quote...scary shit!
Jerry Prevo of Anchorage Baptist Temple, blamed liberals during a sermon on Oct. 16 for a possible financial collapse of the nation: "Let me tell you, the liberals know what's happening. I think I'd be for gun control, too, I'd be for banning guns, too, i f I were a liberal. Since I'm not, I'm not for it [gun control]. I may want to use one, one of these days. The only reason I would not take a gun and do it is because of God. That's the only reason." During Prevo's "Scare the Liberals" Sunday on October 30, 2,500 packed the church as various Republican candidates sat in the front row. Featured speaker was Bailey Smith, past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, who once declared, "God doesn't hear the prayers of Jews." Source: Anchorage Daily News, 10/22/94
Vic in AK
Thanks, Vic!
Reader Report
Here we go AGAIN!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and more like the middle of summer than the middle of winter.
New CD Gets NPR Web Debut
Bruce Springsteen
If you can't wait until the end of the month to hear Bruce Springsteen's new CD, just tune into NPR's music Web site just before midnight Monday.
NPR.org/music will exclusively broadcast "Working on a Dream" in its entirety on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 11:59 p.m. EST. That's a week before the album's release: It makes its debut in stores Jan. 27.
Fans can also listen to the record on demand until its release.
Bruce Springsteen
Street Artist's Star Rises
Shepard Fairey
It isn't in Shepard Fairey's nature to ask for a subject's permission before the outlaw street artist illustrates that person.
But in Barack Obama's case, Fairey made an exception before breaking out paper, pens and computer and creating the iconic illustration of a pensive Obama staring off into space that became the talk of the 2008 presidential campaign.
"Normally, my thing is, 'Screw you if you don't like it. I'm doing it anyway,"' Fairey says, as he sits in the second-floor conference room of his studio on the edge of downtown. "But I really wanted to help Obama. This wasn't about me, it was about him."
Fairey fretted that his many arrests for drawing on buildings and other private property without permission, his penchant for mocking consumerism and his portrayal of resident George W. Bush as Satan in a 2004 campaign poster might come back to haunt Obama.
Now, the Obama portrait's stunning use of colour and seemingly Warhol-inspired use of imagery has transformed one of the leaders of Los Angeles' street art movement into a national star.
Shepard Fairey
Rival Studios Reach Deal
'Watchmen'
Fanboys rejoice! Rival studios say they have resolved their battle over the release of "Watchmen."
The release of the superhero flick had been in doubt for months as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. sparred in federal court over who had proper rights to the film. The studios say it will be released as scheduled on March 6.
Spokesmen for both companies released a statement Thursday night that the studios have resolved the dispute in a confidential agreement.
The statement said both studios "look forward with great anticipation" to the film's release.
'Watchmen'
Love Letter Sold
Edith Piaf
A love letter written by French singer Edith Piaf to a younger Greek actor in which she confesses "I am capable of giving everything up for you," was sold Friday at an auction in Greece.
Officials at the Greek auction house Petros Vergos said the handwritten letter and envelope, dated in 1946, along with a telegram also sent that year and a theater program from a performance she gave in Greece were sold for 1,500 ($1,990) to a private collector.
The letter was written to Greek stage and movie actor Dimitris Horn, also known as Takis Horn, who was six years younger than Piaf.
Horn, who had a long-standing romance with a popular Greek actress and married twice before his death in 1998, never spoke publicly about his acquaintance with Piaf.
Edith Piaf
Cancels 2010 Poetry Festival
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has told poetry fans that it's canceling its 2010 poetry festival, which had been held every other year in New Jersey. It was the biggest festival of its kind in North America.
The foundation says it has lost 30 percent of its assets in the past year because of declining markets.
What's more, David Grant, the president of the Morristown-based foundation, says the festival might be more modest when it returns.
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
Sentenced To 15 Months
Boy George
Singer Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Friday after being convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort by handcuffing him to a wall in a London apartment.
British Judge David Radford said the 47-year-old former Culture Club frontman, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was guilty of "gratuitous violence."
O'Dowd's lawyer said his client and the escort had both behaved like "drug-crazed idiots" and that O'Dowd's substance abuse problems were a contributing factor.
The singer had been convicted in December of handcuffing Norwegian escort Audun Carlsen to a wall hook at his East London apartment. During the trial, prosecutors said Carlsen was held by O'Dowd for under an hour.
Boy George
Producers File Grievance
Jeremy Piven
The producers of "Speed-the-Plow" say they have filed a grievance with Actors' Equity Association, the stage actors' union, against Jeremy Piven for abruptly leaving the Broadway revival last month.
Piven quit the David Mamet comedy less than two months after it opened to favorable reviews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The actor's doctor said Piven was unable perform because of high levels of mercury in his system, possibly caused by eating large amounts of raw fish.
William H. Macy currently is playing Piven's role of an ambitious Hollywood producer in the production, which also stars Raul Esparza and Elisabeth Moss.
Jeremy Piven
No Right To Hearing
Roman Polanski
Fugitive director Roman Polanski has no right to a hearing on a motion to dismiss his 31-year-old sex case because he refuses to appear in court, a prosecutor asserted Friday.
Prosecutor David Walgren said in newly filed documents that Polanski flouted the law when he fled to France to avoid sentencing for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.
He said the director has no right to a hearing until he submits to the court's jurisdiction. He added that the now-45-year-old victim, who wants to speak at the hearing Wednesday to urge dismissal, should not be heard unless he appears.
Polanski's lawyer says he has no plans to ever return to the United States but claims the case can be heard without him. If Polanski chose to attend the hearing, he would be immediately arrested.
Roman Polanski
NY Lawsuit Dishes Dirt
Bobby Flay
A new lawsuit accuses some of celebrity chef Bobby Flay's restaurants of cheating workers.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court by current and former employees, names as a defendant Bold Food LLC. The company owns or operates Bar Americain and Mesa Grill NYC in Manhattan. Other restaurants are in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
The lawsuit claims Flay's company violated the wage and hour laws by engaging in improper tip-pooling practices. It also says the company failed to pay proper overtime pay and failed to reimburse employees for some expenses.
Bobby Flay
Over 8 In 10 Corporations
Tax Havens
Eighty-three of the nation's 100 largest corporations, including Citigroup, Bank of America and News Corp., had subsidiaries in offshore tax havens in 2007, and some of the companies received federal bailout funding, a government watchdog said Friday.
The Government Accountability Office released a report that said Bank of America Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley all had more than 100 units in countries that maintain low or no taxes. The three financial institutions were included in the $700 billion financial bailout approved by Congress.
Insurance giant American International Group Inc., which has received about $150 billion in bailout money, had 18 subsidiaries. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had 50 units and Wells Fargo & Co. had 18; both financial institutions received government bailout money.
Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who requested the report, have pushed for tougher laws to fight offshore tax havens around the globe. Levin, who leads the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has estimated abusive tax havens and offshore accounts cost the U.S. government at least $100 billion a year in lost taxes.
Tax Havens
In Memory
Andrew Wyeth
Artist Andrew Wyeth, who portrayed the hidden melancholy of the people and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as "Christina's World," died early Friday. He was 91.
The son of famed painter and book illustrator N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth gained wealth, acclaim and tremendous popularity on his own. But he chafed under criticism from some experts who regarded him as a facile realist, not an artist but merely an illustrator.
A Wyeth retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2006 drew more than 175,000 visitors in 15 1/2 weeks, the highest-ever attendance at the museum for a living artist. The Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, a converted 19th-century grist mill, includes hundreds of works by three generations of Wyeths.
Wyeth was a secretive man who spent hours tramping the countryside alone. He painted many portraits, working several times with favorite subjects, but said he disliked having someone else watching him paint.
Wyeth was born July 12, 1917, in Chadds Ford, the youngest of N.C. Wyeth's five children. One of his sisters, Henriette, who died in 1997, also became an artist of some note, and one of his two sons, Jamie, became a noted painter. His other son, Nicholas, became an art dealer.
Wyeth had his first success at age 20, with an exhibition of Maine landscapes at a gallery in New York. Two years later he met his future wife, Betsy James.
Betsy Wyeth was a strong influence on her husband's career, serving as his business agent, keeping the world at bay and guiding his career choices.
Wyeth is survived by his wife and two sons. Funeral services will be private. A public memorial service is being planned at the Brandywine River Museum.
Andrew Wyeth
In Memory
John Mortimer
British lawyer and writer John Mortimer, creator of the curmudgeonly criminal lawyer Rumpole of the Bailey, died Friday. He was 85.
Mortimer combined a career as a lawyer with a large literary output that included dozens of screen and stage plays and radio dramas. His most famous creation was Horace Rumpole, a cigar-smoking, wine-loving barrister who appeared in a TV series and a string of novels and stories.
Born April 21, 1923, and educated at Oxford University, Mortimer qualified as a lawyer in the 1940s and worked as a barrister in the British courts.
A lifelong supporter of Britain's Labour Party and self-proclaimed "champagne socialist," Mortimer took up several high profile freedom of speech cases. He defended Penguin, the publisher of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover," against obscenity charges in the 1960s, and later represented the radical magazine Oz at an obscenity trial and defended Gay News magazine against a blasphemy charge.
His legal career took in everything from divorce cases to murders - and he said he preferred the latter.
"Matrimonial clients hate each other so much and use their children to hurt each other in beastly ways," he once said. "Murderers have usually killed the one person in the world that was bugging them and they're usually quite peaceful and agreeable."
He wrote screenplays for film and television, including the 1981 television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited," one of the decade's biggest TV hits.
But his most popular creation by far was Rumpole, the barrister and bon vivant who would take on any case, and usually triumphed. Played on television by Leo McKern, Rumpole had a passion for the underdog, a love of poetry and a wife he referred to as "she who must be obeyed."
A noted raconteur and wit, he was famous for his trademark owlish glasses and his one-liners.
Mortimer had a son and a daughter from his marriage to writer Penelope Mortimer, which ended in divorce in 1972. She died in 1999.
He later married Penelope Gollop, and had two daughters, including actress Emily Mortimer.
In 2004 Mortimer disclosed he had recently learned he had a fifth child - a son, Ross, from a 1960s affair with actress Wendy Craig. Craig and her husband raised the boy and did not tell Mortimer he was the father for more than 40 years.
Mortimer's wife and children survive him.
John Mortimer
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
