'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
DR. DAVID LIPSCHITZ: Declining Life Expectancy Is An Inexcusable Scandal (creators.com)
I have spent the past 30 years of my life digging deep roots in the state of Arkansas, a place I love with all my heart and soul.
Charlotte Hilton Andersen: "Gasp: Jillian Michaels Hates Exercising" (huffingtonpost.com)
This perception of exercise as an odious thing that one must do if one wants to be a responsible member of society is one of the main factors in our "obesity crisis."
Mark Morford: That is not really Cameron Diaz (sfgate.com)
Of course every magazine spread has been Photoshopped. But do you know to what degree? How deep is the lie?
Tamara Warren: For Detroit-bred hip-hop DJ Quentin Harris, there's no place quite like home (Detroit Free Press)
When it comes to the dance music charts, Detroit native Quentin Harris seems to have wrapped things up. Harris, who is in mid-30s, lives in New York and is an integral figure in the house music scene.
Sequins and salvation (music.guardian.co.uk)
Gloria Gaynor gave jilted lovers the world over an anthem of self-reliance. Now a born-again Christian, she wants to keep couples together - with counselling, says Emma Brockes.
Peter Larsen: The B-52's combine fresh music with their classic sound (The Orange County Register)
If it feels like ages since the B-52's released a new album, welcome to the party, because it seems the same way to singer Fred Schneider. "We recorded `Love Shack' 19 years ago, which is just surreal," Schneider says by phone from Philadelphia, at the start of band's latest tour.
Jim Faber: Presidents of the United States return, and just in time (McClatchy Newspapers)
It's an election year, which historically means it's time for something new from the Presidents of the United States of America. The Seattle-based trio, who rose to fame on the strength of quirky, catchy songs like "Peaches" and "Lump," recently released its fifth studio album, "These Are the Good Times People."
Erin Podolsky: Chicago rap duo the Cool Kids tries out new concepts (Detroit Free Press)
If this rap duo went by any other name, it would create sounds just as sweet. But the Cool Kids definitely nailed it when they come up with something to call themselves.
Xan Brooks: "Roland Joffé: I am not the messiah" (film.guardian.co.uk)
Spare a thought for the ghosts of Cannes, the Palme d'Or winners of yesteryear. When Roland Joffé won for The Mission back in 1986 he was hailed as the poster-boy for classy British cinema. This year he's back with his latest opus - a low-budget, Russian-set romance about two girls who fall in love at a t.A.T.u concert. Suffice to say it is not in competition.
Tom Baker: Sylvester Stallone hopes violence of 'Rambo' will get people thinking (The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Sylvester Stallone fans planning to sit back with a cola and some popcorn to enjoy an hour and a half of escapist fun when Stallone's new "Rambo" movie opens in Japan this week could be in for a nasty shock. And that's exactly what Stallone wants. ... "Rambo" (Japanese title: "Rambo: Saigo no Senjo"), the fourth film in the series, is the most violent, horrific and cynical yet.
Colin Covert: America's (possibly) greatest documentary filmmaker focuses on Abu Ghraib (Star Tribune)
Errol Morris is considered by many to be America's greatest documentary filmmaker. He won an Oscar for "The Fog of War" (2003), his portrait of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and "The Thin Blue Line" (1988) got a wrongly convicted man off death row.
Patricia ZOHN: Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation (huffingtonpost.com)
They made you believe that falling in and out of love and even being hurt was the most romantic thing possible
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly cloudy and over 40°'s cooler than last Friday. Lots of rain after dark.
Couldn't find a single gas station in Long Beach with regular under $4/gal.
Cannes AIDS Benefit
amfAR Auction
The Material Girl parted with a few personal possessions - a custom-made white guitar and the contents of her handbag - at a benefit to raise money for AIDS research.
Madonna emptied her purse and came up with a magnifying mirror, hair clips, skin blotting tissues and lip gloss. She put it on the block along with a one-of-a-kind diamond-encrusted alligator bag donated by Chanel. The lot sold for $472,000.
The benefit on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival late Thursday raised more than $10 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), a record for the annual event.
Mary J. Blige sang "Family Affair" and an R&B edition of U2's "One." Burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese shed her silk stockings in a slinky strip routine. As usual, Sharon Stone played auctioneer.
The auction started off with Stone pledging $100,000 for pediatric AIDS research and asking others to do the same. Within minutes, amfAR raised $2 million, with bidders including Roberto Cavalli, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino, Milla Jovovich and Michelle Yeoh.
amfAR Auction
Auctions Whale Watching Date
Hayden Panettiere
Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere has become the latest star to auction off a date - she'll take a fan whale watching in return for a hefty charity donation.
The actress will spend a day with the winning bidder and guests on the high seas in August.
The whale watchers will be joined by marine expert and conservationist Jeff Pantukoff.
The eBay.com auction, which runs from 20 to 30 May, will benefit The Whaleman Foundation, which is Panettiere's favourite charity.
Hayden Panettiere
Won't Direct 'Of Mice and Men'
Paul Newman
Citing unspecified health issues, Paul Newman will not direct the fall production of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" at Connecticut's Westport Country Playhouse, the theater's artistic directors announced Friday.
Newman, 83, will be replaced by Mark Lamos, a former artistic director of Hartford Stage, who has directed extensively around the country and in New York.
"`I'm sorry I can't be part of this Westport Country Playhouse production, but I leave 'Of Mice and Men' in Mark Lamos' very capable hands with the full support of my wife, Joanne Woodward, and Anne Keefe, as Playhouse artistic directors," Newman said in a statement.
Paul Newman
Returns To Theatre
Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel, former anti-communist dissident and Czech president, won a standing ovation and praise from critics at the premiere of his new play, marking a successful return to theatre after two decades.
Havel's "Leaving", inspired by Shakespeare's "King Lear" and Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard", depicts a former ruler whose world falls apart after he leaves office. It is his first new play since 1988.
Havel, who swapped a prison cell for the presidency within months during the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ended communism in the Czech Republic, said he wrote most of the play before he entered politics.
But he said his 13 years in office, during which he was bewildered by unfamiliar ceremonial functions and clashes with political opponents, gave him extra inspiration.
Vaclav Havel
Traverse City Film Festival
Madonna
Madonna's new film on the impoverished nation of Malawi has wowed another maker of documentaries: Michael Moore.
Moore announced Thursday that Madonna, like himself a Michigan native, will appear for a screening of "I Am Because We Are" during the Traverse City Film Festival on Aug. 2.
"She's sort of entered my realm," Moore said. "When I saw it, I thought, 'Wow, it's like she's been making these films for years.'"
Madonna produced and narrated the documentary after traveling to Malawi, where she met the toddler David Banda. She and husband Guy Ritchie are adopting the child.
Madonna
Pardoned By NY Governor Paterson
Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters
New York Gov. David Paterson is granting a full and unconditional pardon to rapper Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters for the attempted murders of two men in 1991.
The pardon is expected to halt efforts to deport Walters to the United Kingdom, the country he left as a child.
The eyepatch-wearing star behind the '80s rap classic "La-Di-Da-Di" served more than five years in prison after the shooting of his cousin and another man. Both survived.
The governor says Walters is now a rap artist and landlord in the Bronx who hasn't had any criminal problems since his release from prison in 1997. He also says Walters has volunteered to counsel youths against violence.
Ricky "Slick Rick" Walters
Strike Out Season
TV Networks
The 2007-08 season will go down as one of the strangest and most difficult periods in broadcast history.
Ratings hit a record low thanks to a perfect storm of the Hollywood writers strike, the proliferation of digital video recorders and DVDs, and continued defections to cable.
Apart from Fox, which won the season with 11 million viewers (up seven percent, based on latest returns), all the networks lost viewers. CBS fell to No. 2 with 10.5 million (down 16 percent), followed by ABC (9.2 million, down seven percent), NBC (8.1 million, down nine percent), and the ailing CW network (2.6 million, down 19 percent).
Fox was powered by "American Idol." Although the talent show fell in the ratings this season, it still finished as the top show. Wednesday's finale pulled in slightly more viewers than last year's (32 million, up three percent). Fox also led the field for a fourth season among adults 18-49, a demographic that advertisers pay a premium to reach.
TV Networks
Singer-Songwriter
Sam Baker
"Forget his face? Of course I don't," Sam Baker sings, of a young German boy who died along with his parents on a train in Peru in 1986.
The three had been sitting on facing seats and the bomb that killed them was in the luggage rack above their heads, set by Shining Path guerrillas.
The man in the fourth seat was Baker.
That he survived at all is remarkable: The explosion severed the main artery and vein in his left thigh and he almost bled to death. He suffered brain damage, kidney failure, gangrene and severe hearing loss, and went through years of surgery.
Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Baker's story: He is making a name for himself as one of the most original new singer-songwriters in contemporary folk music.
Sam Baker
USA Renews
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent"
USA Network has renewed "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" for an eighth season.
The cable network has ordered 16 episodes of the crime saga, which spent its first six seasons on NBC before being relegated to USA last year because of low ratings. It will continue to get a second window on NBC.
"Criminal Intent" was the top drama series in basic cable primetime for the fourth quarter, more than doubling USA's audience in the 10 p.m. Thursday slot from the same period the previous year.
"Law & Order: Criminal Intent"
Reviving Eggs
Faberge
A revived Faberge luxury goods group plans to resurrect its founder's work next year with the launch of the first jewel-encrusted egg since 1917, when the Faberge family was scattered by the Russian revolution.
A group of investors bought rights to Faberge last year -- which had been used to market cosmetics like Brut men's fragrance -- and have been working to restore the firm to its origins with the support of the Russian founder's relatives.
The original Faberge company was founded in 1842 by Russian jeweler Gustav Faberge, who gained fame for designing elaborate jewel-encrusted eggs for Russian Tsars.
Faberge
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
