'Best of TBH Politoons'
But Untrue
Strangely Believable
President Bush enjoys showing visitors to the Oval Office his prize collection of Iraqi artifacts, including Saddam Hussein's pistol and a small bronze statuette of Pazuzu.
~Jeff Crook
Jeff Crook is the Ceci Connolly of the Left. ~ J. Howard Tuft
Strangely Believable but Untrue is now available online at the Untrue Fact of the Day web calendar. Help spread disinformation and misunderstanding by sharing this with your friends and enemies.
Reader Recommendation
Virtual Museum
We've just launched a virtual museum of the Sierra Nevada in
California. It's an ongoing endeavor so it will have more as time goes
by. It's all in Flash and has music and sound. Opening music by Mary
Youngblood, Grammy nominee.
Reader Suggestion
How to Avoid a Baby Penguin Attack
Check out this -
It is one of the funniest things I have ever read.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
DOUG IRELAND: Post Cards of Intolerance: Bowing to the Christian-inspired attacks on gays (LA Weekly)
Erin Aubry Kaplan: Rice and the New Black Paradigm (LA Weekly)
The Swan: Tenure!
Annalee Newitz: Cultural Emergency (AlterNet)
Paige Palmer: Victory at Clear Creek High (The Advocate)
Tim Appelo: From Park Slope to Park City (Seattle Weekly)
David Laber: Woman's anti-war display travels to galleries across U.S. (The Athens News)
Reader Comment
Re: Correction
(It's Not Just A Tit - It's A Great Tit)
Hi Marty, not to make you sorry you ever posted the very cute picture but Paul is wrong though he is close...it is not Coal Tit or Blue Tit either.
It is beyond any doubt Great Tit (Parus major). There really isn't any wiggle room for this ID. I have observed all three species and other tit species as well in England.
I'll link you to another picture of this species from a different angle.
Best wishes,
Marian
Thanks, Marian!
Purple Gene Reviews
'The Thing Called Love'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "The Thing Called Love" (1993) Directed by Peter Bogdonovich:
I was watching HBOW last night and it was late (1 AM) and I saw the title for a movie I'd never heard of…"The Thing Called Love"!. It was strange because earlier in the day I had just talked to Amy Kirkland who is the owner of the world famous Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee (I was making Reservations to see songwriters Matraca Berg ("Strawberry Wine") and Kim Carnes "Betty Davis Eyes")….little did I know that the Bluebird Café is where they filmed the movie "The Thing Called Love". Directed by Peter Bogdonovich ("Last Picture Show" - "Paper Moon" - "Mask") and a launching pad for 2 actresses Samantha Mathis and Sandra Bullock and the Last Picture for an apparently fully drugged up River Phoenix. So I went into this flick with a lot of curiosity and criticism and very little consciousness left in me……..
Well, it's amateur singer/songwriters night at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee. This place is the Mecca for aspiring Country musicians and Cowboy song writers……Lucy the Owner (K.T.Oslin - the hit singer of "80s Ladies" is playing AMY) is also the Emcee as well as the judge and jury of who hits the stage and who hits the road. We've got a new gang of greenhorns tryin' out tonight. There's Kyle from Connecticut (Dermot Mulroney "Young Guns" - "Bright Angel" - "About Schmidt") and Linda Lou Linden - the babe from Alabama (Sandra Bullock "Love Potion # 9" - "Speed" - "28 Days" - "Miss Congeniality") and James Wright (River Phoenix "Stand by Me" - "The Mosquito Coast" - "My Own Private Idaho") tough and talented from Texas and finally the fab four finds Miranda Presley ("Yup - that's my name") (Samantha Mathis "Pump Up the Volume" - "Super Mario Bros." - "Freak City") newly arrived from New York City………….Each one takes a turn in front of Lucy and it looks like James and Miranda have the right stuff……………………….
This movie degenerates into a Country "Coming of Age" Soap Opera with sketchy singing and imbarrasing dialogue……"Look out Music City, I'm here and I ain't never leavin'"….."Hey, that's my song playin' on the radio"….."Yeah, I wrote that one for you"….."Honey, you could have had me for a song"…….Yada Yada Yada sophomoric one liner after another…….I was also painfully aware of River Phoenix' performance. He certainly seemed distant from his character (Samantha Mathis was his real life date at the "Viper Room" in LA the night he overdosed on the sidewalk….sad!)
If you want to see some cool inside shots of the Bluebird Café or night time vistas of Nashville in 1993, then watch this movie….but it's just not very good…..I wonder if Peter Bogdonovich new what was going on with his lead actor?????
Purple Gene gives "The Thing Called Love" 5 sweaty Stetsons out of 10 for its stupid title (shoulda been called "Nashville Nights" or "Four for Nashville") and its insipid dialogue!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer, but the wind is changing.
Supposed to start raining again Sunday, so today we're making our annual pilgrimage to 'visit the snow' - probably head up toward Mt. Wilson.
The kid is stoked.
Up 5.4 Percent in 2003
Cable TV Rates
U.S. cable television prices increased at almost three times the rate of inflation in 2003 and the medium lost market share to satellite services, according to government reports issued on Friday.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said rates for basic, expanded basic cable service and equipment rose 5.4 percent to an average of $45.32 per month in the year ended Jan. 1, 2004, up from $42.99 a month the prior year.
The 5.4 percent increase was slower than the 7.8 percent rise in 2002, according to the agency's report. The U.S. inflation rate for 2003 was 1.9 percent, or 1.1 percent when food and energy prices were excluded.
Cable TV Rates
Dublin Tickets Snapped Up in Minutes
U2
Tickets for two concerts by U2 in Dublin were snapped up within minutes Friday in a new Irish box-office record.
Fans of U2, which started in Dublin in 1979, camped out for two nights at some ticket outlets. But the bulk of more than 150,000 tickets, available for $77 to $104 each, were sold on the vendors' Web site.
Within 50 minutes, the tickets were gone - and speculation immediately mounted about a possible third concert.
U2
Rare First Edition Unearthed In Spain
'Don Quixote'
A rare first edition of Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote", published 400 years ago, has been unearthed in Spain, Spanish television reported late.
A group of experts are investigating whether the tome, found near the southern city of Murcia, is a first edition from 1605.
Only 18 are known to exist worldwide, four of them in Spain.
'Don Quixote'
Nonprofit Showing
'Eyes on the Prize'
The documentary "Eyes on the Prize," is lauded as the quintessential work on the civil rights movement, but don't expect to buy a new copy or watch it on PBS any time soon. Legally, that is.
Copyright laws keep the 1987 film out of print. The documentary's owners are trying to get it back in circulation, but must first untangle a nest of laws. In the meantime, the activist group Downhill Battle is organizing a nationwide screening Tuesday, and until recently, had illegal copies of the film on its Web site.
A touching and intimate scene in the film shows staff members singing "Happy Birthday" to Martin Luther King Jr. on his 39th, and last, birthday. But copyright laws protect the song, as well as much of the television footage and photos used. Most of the rights purchased by filmmaker Henry Hampton have expired, and the film can't be sold or shown on TV until licenses are renewed.
The 14-part film was last shown in 1992. It chronicles the movement, from Rosa Parks and the bus boycotts in the 1950s to the rise of black mayors in the 1980s. The first six hours aired in 1987, the second eight in 1990. The film won six Emmys, and the segment "Bridge to Freedom 1965" was nominated for an Academy Award for best feature documentary.
For the rest, 'Eyes on the Prize'
Baby News
McEnery - Clapton
Eric Clapton's wife has given birth to the couple's third child, a spokesman for the rock guitarist said Friday.
The Sun newspaper reported that Clapton's American wife, Melia McEnery, gave birth to a daughter in a London hospital on Tuesday. Clapton's spokesman, Andy Prevezer, said only that "there has been a birth" and gave no other details.
McEnery - Clapton
Leaving 'JAG' For ABC Deal
David James Elliott
"JAG" star David James Elliott will leave the CBS military courtroom drama at the end of the season, and will develop projects at ABC.
For the past 10 years, Elliott played pilot-turned-lawyer Lt. Harmon Rabb on veteran producer Donald Bellisario's drama, which, after a rocky start on NBC, has enjoyed a long, successful run on CBS and spawned the hit spinoff "NCIS."
No decision on the future of "JAG" will be made until late spring but in anticipation of a possible departure by Elliott, Bellisario is introducing a new character, Navy Lt. Vukovic, a JAG attorney, to be played by Chris Beetem (CBS' "As the World Turns"). He will make his debut as a series regular in an episode set in San Diego slated to air Feb. 18.
David James Elliott
Pulls Miller Ads from Super Bowl
Fox
Television network Fox has decided against broadcasting three Miller Lite commercials it had approved for airing during the Super Bowl pregame show on Sunday, the network said on Friday.
The three commercials poke fun at rival Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc.'s new Budweiser Select beer, which is being heavily promoted during the football game itself. The Miller spots were approved by Fox's standards and practices committee but later vetoed by its sales department, a source familiar with the situation said.
Fox said it would not run commercials portraying Anheuser-Busch, which bought the most Super Bowl advertising time this year, in a negative light, said Jon Nesvig, president of advertising sales at Fox.
Fox
Engagement Ring Back on Market
'Bennifer'
A year after Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck called off their wedding, her engagement ring has been "re-acquired" by New York jeweler Harry Winston, Carol Brodie, a spokesperson for the jeweler, said Friday.
Brodie confirmed the ring is for sale, but the price is available only to "serious buyers." The transaction was first reported in People magazine.
Affleck, 32, purchased the six-carat pink diamond ring in 2002. He and Lopez split in January 2004.
'Bennifer'
Closing Shop in New York
Hit Factory
Few places were more aptly named than The Hit Factory, the legendary Manhattan recording studio where scores of gold records and Grammy winners were created. And even fewer were so intricately involved in the musical history of the last 30 years.
But the last notes are echoing through the temple of sound on West 54th Street, with its doors set to close permanently within the next month, its owners said Friday. Word of its imminent demise only reinforced The Hit Factory's matchless, magical legacy.
Stevie Wonder strolled through its front doors in 1975, and walked out with the brilliant "Songs in the Key of Life."
John Lennon spent his last night alive there in 1980, mixing wife Yoko Ono's single "Walking on Thin Ice."
Hit Factory
Sings for Disneyland's 50th Birthday
LeAnn Rimes
Country singer LeAnn Rimes will sing a specially written song to be featured throughout Disney's theme parks, in its commercials and on a CD due in May.
"Remember When," not to be confused with an Alan Jackson song of the same name, is to be the anthem for Disney's "Happiest Celebration on Earth," a worldwide marketing blitz marking the 50th anniversary of Disneyland. It was written and produced by Richard Marx, the Grammy-winning co-writer of the Luther Vandross tune "Dance With My Father."
Julie Andrews was named the honorary ambassador of the planned 18-month celebration at all 10 Disney theme parks, and Kelsey Grammer has been lending his voice to TV ads, including one tentatively scheduled for Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast.
LeAnn Rimes
In Memory
Ossie Davis
Ossie Davis, whose rich baritone and elegant, unshakable bearing made him a giant of the stage, screen and the civil rights movement - often in tandem with his wife, Ruby Dee - has died. He was 87.
Davis wrote, acted, directed and produced for the theater and Hollywood. Even light fare such as the comedy "Grumpy Old Men" with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau was somehow enriched by his strong, but gentle presence. Davis and Dee celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1998 with the publication of a dual autobiography, "With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together."
Their partnership rivaled the achievements of other celebrated performing couples, such as Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Davis and Dee first appeared together in the plays "Jeb," in 1946, and "Anna Lucasta," in 1946-47. Davis' first film, "No Way Out" in 1950, was Dee's fifth.
Both had key roles in the TV series "Roots: The Next Generation" (1978), "Martin Luther King: The Dream and the Drum" (1986) and "The Stand" (1994). Davis appeared in several Spike Lee films, including "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever," in which Dee also appeared.
Davis had a guest role as the father of two women characters in Showtime's dramatic series, "The L Word." He appeared in one episode in the first season, then returned for three episodes for the season about to begin, where his character takes ill and dies.
Among Davis' more notable Broadway appearances was his portrayal of the title character in "Purlie Victorious" (1961), a comedy he wrote lampooning racial stereotypes. In it, he played a conniving preacher who sets out to buy a church in rural Georgia. In 1970, Davis co-wrote the book for "Purlie," a musical version of the play. A revival of the musical is planned for Broadway next season.
When not on stage or on camera, Davis and Dee were deeply involved in civil rights issues and efforts to promote the cause of blacks in the entertainment industry. In 1963, Davis participated in the landmark March on Washington. Two years later, he delivered a memorable eulogy for his slain friend, Malcolm X, whom Davis praised as "our own black shining prince" and "our living, black manhood!"
Davis directed several films, most notably "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970). Other films include "The Cardinal" (1963), "The Client" (1994) and "I'm Not Rappaport" (1996), a reprise of his stage role 10 years earlier.
On TV, he appeared in "The Emperor Jones" (1955), "Miss Evers' Boys" (1997) and "Twelve Angry Men" (1997). He was a cast member on "The Defenders" from 1963-65, and "Evening Shade" from 1990-94, among other shows.
Davis had just started his new movie on Monday. "Retirement," a comedy about an elderly group of friends, also starred Rip Torn, Peter Falk and George Segal.
The oldest of five children, Davis was born in tiny Cogdell, Ga., in 1917, and grew up in nearby Waycross and Valdosta. He left home in 1935, hitchhiking to Washington, D.C., to enter Howard University, where he studied drama, intending to be a playwright.
His career as an actor began in 1939 with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem. After the outbreak of World War II, Davis spent nearly four years in service, mainly as a surgical technician in an Army hospital in Liberia, serving both wounded troops and local inhabitants.
Back in New York in 1946, he debuted on Broadway in "Jeb," a play about a returning soldier. His co-star was Dee. In December 1948, on a day off from rehearsals from another play, they took a bus to New Jersey to get married.
As black performers, they found themselves caught up in the social unrest of the then-new Cold War. In one instance, Davis stood by singer Paul Robeson even as others denounced him for his openly communist sympathies. "We young ones in the theater, trying to fathom even as we followed, were pulled this way and that by the swirling currents of these new dimensions of the Struggle," Davis wrote.
Besides Dee, Davis is survived by three children Nora, Hasna and Guy, a blues artist, and seven grandchildren.
Ossie Davis
In Memory
Eric Griffiths
A message on the official website of Griffiths' band, The Quarrymen, said he died Saturday of cancer at his home in Edinburgh, Scotland. Griffiths played guitar in The Quarrymen, the first group formed by the young John Lennon and the band that brought him together with Paul McCartney.
Born in Wales, Griffiths met Lennon at Liverpool's Quarry Bank High School in the 1950s. The pair, along with friends Pete Shotton and Rod Davis, formed a band to play skiffle - a rough-ready blend of folk, blues and country and western styles popularized by British musicians such as Lonnie Donegan.
Lennon later invited another Liverpool schoolboy, Paul McCartney, to join the group. The pair went on to form one of the greatest songwriting partnerships in popular music.
Griffiths left the group in 1958 - around the time George Harrison joined on guitar - and later joined the merchant navy.
Griffiths is survived by his wife and three children. Funeral details were not immediately available.
Eric Griffiths
