'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Comment
Re: Added Channels
Methinks some of the channel additions might include:
AMC, TCM, USA, DSC (in various guises), HBO, SHO, CineMax, BBC, TNT, and a few more intrepids that offer some original programming cld be a start. I don't know the number-crunches for CATV access, but wld be willing to guess at the high two-thirds of pop.
If Chas is anywhere near my desires to variegate a viewing routine, he no doubt rents apx 1-2 videos per week, lurks about anything but network offerings, and is looking for a little guidance for pre-screening decent choices for spice.
Example: "Monk" is due to reappear on USA June 20, with all new episodes.
Hasta for now.
Michelle V.
Thanks, Michelle. Have added 'A&E', 'AMC', 'Bravo', 'Comedy Central (CC)', 'History', 'SciFi', & 'TCM.
Now that you've reminded me of 'Monk', will also add 'USA', and maybe a couple others. Will take a few days to work out.
If anyone sees something that should be highlighted coming up, please, drop me a note!
Suggested Saturday Reading
from Larry
LIBERTY VANISHES WHILE THE PRESS SLEEPS
by Nat Hentoff, Village Voice
The media, with few exceptions, are failing to report consistently and in depth precisely how Bush and Ashcroft are undermining our fundamental individual liberties. For instance, how many Americans know that if PATRIOT II is passed (and Bush certainly won't veto it), they can be stripped of their citizenship if charged with giving "material support" to a group designated by the government as "terrorist"?
For the rest, LIBERTY VANISHES WHILE THE PRESS SLEEPS by Nat Hentoff, Village Voice
~ Larry
Thanks, Lar
'We Want The Airwaves'
from Kip
We Want The Airwaves
(by Joey Ramone)
9 to 5 and 5 to 9
ain't gonna take it
it's our time
we want the world
and we want it know
we're gonna take it, anyhow
We want the airwaves
We want the airwaves
We want the airwaves, baby
if rock is gonna stay alive
Oh yeah well all right
let's rock-tonite
all night
Oh yeah well all right
let's rock-tonite
all night
Where's your guts
and will to survive
and don't you wanna
Keep rock & roll music alive
Mr. Programmer
I got my hammer
and I'm gonna
smash my
smash my
radio
We want the airwaves
We want the airwaves
We want the airwaves, baby
If rock is gonna stay alive
Kip
Thanks, again, Kip!
Throne Room, Catherine's Palace, St. Petersburg
from Alex
Marty...here are a few photos of sights in St.Petersburg I took when I was
there in 1994
Here in New York we are now paying more to ride the
bus/subway, cross bridges and tunnels, and can't smoke in bars and clubs,
lost a whole bunch of fire houses, 3,000 sanitation workers, about 1,500
teachers and paras....so everything is just hunky-dory! But I guess the
important thing is that oil wells in Iraq are secure and about to start
pumping again.
Alex
Thanks, Alex! What a beautiful palace (will use the other pictures, too). Thanks!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The 'June Gloom' hung til noon, providing another sunny, breezy day.
The PTA's 'fun day' fundraiser was this afternoon. Usually, I'm at the used book booth, but this year, was upgraded (?) to the school-uniform-approved t-shirts & sweatshirts booth (all public schools in Long Beach have not just a dress code, but a uniform).
Last weekend, on our jaunt to Kingman, AZ, the kid stumbled on the movie 'Tremors', and was sucked in. What struck me most was the re-arranging that has occurred since then to Reba McEntire's face. Was gonna let it slide & be kind. Feel like mentioning it tonight. (meow)
Tonight, Saturday, CBS starts the night with a RERUN 'The Price Is Right Million Dollar Spectacular', followed by a
RERUN 'The District', then a RERUN 'The Agency'.
NBC offers an hour-long telethon 'Night Of Too Many Stars', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order', and then another RERUN 'Law & Order'.
'SNL' is a RERUN (duh), but don't know who's hosting.
ABC has NHL intruding on primetime, so it's filler for the west coast - here, it's the movie 'Trapped In A Purple Haze'.
The WB offers the movie 'Consenting Adults'.
Faux has the traditional RERUN 'Cops', followed by another RERUN 'Cops', and then 'America's Most Wanted'.
A&E has 'Cold Case Files', followed by a RERUN 'Crossing Jordan', and a RERUN 'Third Watch' (as NBC/GE recycles to maximize their profits - but, remember, you have more choice now).
AMC offers the movie 'Rosemary's Baby' (who I married), then the movie 'Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers', and then the movie 'Halloween 5'.
Bravo has 'Inside The Actor's Studio', followed by the movie 'Good Will Hunting' twice.
History fills the night with 'Russia: Land of the Tsars', parts 1 & 2.
SciFi has the movie 'Spiders', followed by the movie 'Arachnid', and then the movie 'Fangs'.
TCM has the movie 'Giant', followed by a tribute to its director 'George Stevens: A Filmmmaker's Journey', then the movie 'Talk of the Town'.
TVLand has a 'Bewitched' marathon.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Reader Correction
Re: Bono/Pavarotti Link
The link to the Bono/Pavarotti video is listed
incorrectly. Its just a problem with the html code.
Thanks for your site,
D
Thanks, D. Fixed the archived page & also put a copy on the other side of the line.
If anyone finds a broken link, please let me know & I'll try to fix it.
Reader Assist - Now With A Working Link!
Bono's Lyrics Honor Chickenhawks
Hello,
Bono's new lyrics to Ave Maria (during the Pavarotti benefit) seem to be directed to Bush and friends: "...And war is always the choice of the chosen who will not have to fight.."
Here're the complete lyrics:
(Bono singing)
Ave Maria
Where is the justice in this world?
The wicked make so much noise, mother
The righteous stay oddly still
With no wisdom, all of the riches in the world leave us poor tonight
And strength is not without humility
It's weakness, an untreatable disease
And war is always the choice
Of the chosen who will not have to fight
Ave Maria
(Pavarotti sings in Latin)
Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Ave, ave dominus tecum
(Bono singing)
And strength is not without humility
It's weakness, an untreatable disease
And war is always the choice
Of the chosen who will not have to fight
(both singing)
Ave Maria
And here's a site that has a video of the performance.
Alan
Wow! Thanks, Alan!
Actor Mel Brooks and wife, actress Anne Bancroft, arrive for opening night of the musical he created, 'The Producers' May 29, 2003 in Hollywood. The Los Angeles engagement of the hit musical stars Martin Short and Jason Alexander.
Photo by Fred Prouser
New York Times Ad
Sean Penn
Actor and anti-war activist Sean Penn answered controversy surrounding his December visit to Baghdad in a paid, full-page advertisement in The New York Times.
Penn's sometimes philosophical, sometimes poetic comments ran under the title "Kilroy's still here." He justified his three-day visit to Baghdad, which some called treasonous.
He said the US-led invasion of Iraq was, "done without any credible evidence of imminent threat to the United States.
"Our flag has been waving, it seems, in servicing a regime change significantly benefiting US corporations."
"We see Bechtel, we see Halliburton," he said in reference to companies that have benefited from contracts to rebuild Iraq.
"We see no WMD's. We see dead young Americans. We see no WMD's. We see dead Iraqi civilians. We see no WMD's. We see chaos in the Baghdad streets. But no WMD's."
Sean Penn
Hollywood Star on June 10
Ray Harryhausen
Special Effects giant Ray Harryhausen (JASON & THE ARGONAUTS and THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) joins the Hollywood Walk of Fame with his own star on June 10, 2003. The ceremony, hosted by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, will take place at 11:30 am in front of the El Capitan Theater (6840 Hollywood Blvd.)
Guest speakers include sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury and filmmaker Frank Darabont (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION). In conjunction with the ceremony, the Oscar-winning Harryhausen, who turns 83 next month, will be feted with an American Cinematheque film tribute June 13-15 at the Egyptian Theater. For more info, go to
Ray Harryhausen.
Steve D
Thanks, Steve! About arfing-time!
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Gets Hollywood Star
Harrison Ford
It's the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for THE Harrison Ford, but not the first for Harrison Ford.
The "Star Wars" actor thought for years he'd been stepping over his marker in front of the famed Hollywood Boulevard eatery Musso & Frank — never realizing it belonged to a silent-film star of the same name who died in 1957.
The contemporary Harrison Ford got his own sidewalk honor Friday amid hype for his new buddy film, "Hollywood Homicide," and teases about a fourth "Indiana Jones" movie from director Steven Spielberg.
"When I came to Hollywood, bearing the name I was born with, I went to register at the Screen Actors Guild and they told me — and it was news to me — that there was already a Harrison Ford and that I couldn't use that name," the 60-year-old actor said.
He was credited as Harrison J. Ford for his small role in the 1967 Western, "A Time for Killing," but the guild eventually let him drop the initial.
The younger Ford's star was dedicated in front of the Kodak Theatre. The actor was joined by his girlfriend, former "Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart, his mother and Spielberg, who introduced him to the crowd of onlookers.
Harrison Ford
'Not Afraid Anymore'
Richard Chamberlain
More than four decades after he captured women's hearts on television's "Dr. Kildare," Richard Chamberlain has decided to reveal his identity as a gay man "because I'm not afraid anymore."
"I'm not a romantic leading man anymore so I don't need to nurture that public image anymore," the 68-year-old Chamberlain says in an interview to air Sunday on "Dateline NBC."
"I can talk about it now because I'm not afraid anymore."
The "Dateline" interview coincides with the publication of Chamberlain's new memoir, "Shattered Love," which will be released Tuesday by ReganBooks.
"When I grew up, being gay, being a sissy or anything like that, was verboten," said Chamberlain, who lives in Hawaii. "I disliked myself intensely and feared this part of myself intensely and had to hide it."
For a bit more,
Richard Chamberlain
Supports Bush In Dixie Chicks Controversy
Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire has been candid about her stand on the controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks since Natalie Maines publicly bashed President Bush during a concert in London back in March. As a supporter of the resident and the American military, McEntire echoes Bush's sentiment that freedom is a two-way street, whether it's freedom to speak or freedom to boycott.
"I support my president," McEntire said. "I support our armed forces 110 percent, all the way. It's wonderful that we live in a country where you have the freedom to say what you think. But if you're a used car salesman and something you say is not in the same opinion as a person who's gonna buy a car from you, don't get all that bent out of shape if they don't buy a car from you."
McEntire said that being a public figure, as all entertainers are, adds an extra amount of responsibility and accountability for what is said and done. "When you are in the public eye, you have to watch what you say," McEntire said. "There was a saying when we were playing basketball, 'Little eyes are watching so be careful what you do, and little ears are listening so be careful what you say.' And so you have a responsibility to the public. What you say and what you do carries a lot more power and weight than what a person that is not in the public eye [says or does], so you have to be very careful."
Reba McEntire
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Premieres in L.A.
'The Producers'
Mel Brooks brought his singing Broadway bandits West as a new production of his show-business satire "The Producers" premiered with Jason Alexander and Martin Short starring as the conniving theater impresarios.
The story started as a 1968 movie with Zero Mostel as Bialystock and Gene Wilder as Bloom, but is perhaps best known as the Broadway stage show that won a record 12 Tony Awards in 2001 with former stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
Brooks, who recently described the movie version of "The Producers" as "the closest thing to my heart," took the stage at the end of the performance and thanked the cast and crew for bringing it to Los Angeles.
The story, Brooks has said, was inspired by a real-life experience he had working for a producer who would sleep with elderly women as a pretext for talking them out of their wealth. The movie was his first directing effort before making the classic comedies "Young Frankenstein," "Blazing Saddles" and "High Anxiety."
Thursday's premiere of "The Producers" brought out scores of Hollywood luminaries, including Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Alec Baldwin, Goldie Hawn and Billy Crystal. Asked for his review of the show, Hanks replied: "Uh, five stars out of four."
The Los Angeles production of "The Producers," playing at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, is set to run through January 4, 2004.
'The Producers'
Kanchana, a 17-year-old macaque, waits her turn to perform on stage in a monkey show in Lopburi province, 150 km (93 miles) east of Bangkok, May 30,2003. Lopburi is famous for the thousands of monkeys that live side-by-side with humans in the town, and they are the province's most important tourist attraction.
Photo by Sukree Sukplang
Snarky Story
Mariah Carey
An email sent to Mariah Carey's official website by the grandmother of a blind, 10-year-old fan named Michelle Katz appears to have ended up in the hands of someone other than its intended recipient.
After hearing that Carey cancelled her concert scheduled for July 26 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul as part of her plan to move all her U.S. shows this summer to more intimate venues, Michelle's grandmother, Dee Hofland, who had bought three tickets for the show, made a special request to the singer via email. Hofland wrote, "I know it is not very probable but you have no idea what it would mean to this child if she could meet Mariah even for five minutes. You would make one girl's dreams come true."
Hofland was shocked when she received an email back which read, "Miss with all due respect, I have my own problems. I have no time to accommodate everyone else's. My sister is suffering from HIV right now. Is anyone worried about my problems? Some people can be so damn selfish. Next time you email me with any requests, you will be reported. Have a great day!" m.c.
Carey's publicist, Cindy Berger, told FOX News that the email was "completely bogus." When Carey heard what had happened, Berger said the singer immediately called Michelle. Berger said Mariah assured the girl that she did not send the nasty email and will make it up to Michelle when she does reschedule her show in St. Paul. "Mariah is looking forward to meeting Michelle and her family backstage at a concert during her Charmbracelet tour," Berger added.
Mariah Carey
Team Up For U.K. Tour
Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne
Heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne will team up on stage for the first time with daughter Kelly later this year, when he marks his career resurrection with his first British gigs in eight years, his Web Site said on Friday.
Decades after fronting the band Black Sabbath, Ozzy has won cult following on both sides of the Atlantic with his family -- wife Sharon, son Jack and daughter Kelly -- whose strange antics and foul language form the hit MTV reality show "The Osbournes."
The Osbourne duo will be joined by U.S. band Godsmack and Finland's H.I.M. for the gigs on September 5 in London and on September 7 in Osbourne's home town of Birmingham.
Ozzy & Kelly Osbourne
Sues Aerial Photographer
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand is suing an aerial photographer and his associates for $10 million, claiming pictures they provide to others of her Malibu home and property violate her right to privacy.
Photographer Kenneth Adelman, 39, of Watsonville; his Web hosting service, Layer42.net; and Pictopia, a photo agency that disseminates his work, were named in the lawsuit. It was filed May 20 in Los Angeles Superior Court and alleges five counts of privacy intrusion, including violation of the state's anti-paparazzi act.
Adelman's California Coastal Records Project Web site provides an aerial photography survey of the California coast for scientific and other researchers. His nonprofit organization has already captured 12,000 images.
Streisand's lawsuit alleges that detailed photographs of her property and residence she said were taken by Adelman and sold by Pictopia identify routes to enter her property and provide details that can't be seen from a public vantage point.
Adelman, a retired Silicon Valley entrepreneur and millionaire, said his intent was to provide a baseline for conservationists and other land-use researchers interested in a detailed record of the coastline.
Barbra Streisand
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Gets Hate E-Mail
Star Jones
Star Jones says some people just aren't feeling kindly to Ruben, the portly winner of "American Idol 2," or her for supporting him. The co-host of "The View" says it's gotten so bad that she is getting hate e-mail from people who don't care for the fact that she has been giving Ruben props on the air.
She told her TV audience she has been getting e-mails saying "vicious" things like "Take Ruben and go back to Africa."
Jones tells the New York Post she's shocked at the level of meanness of the comments, which represent about ten percent of the more than five-thousand e-mails she has received about her views on the American Idol series.
Star Jones
Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama, greets the masses before participating in a discussion on 'Visions of Global Ethics' during the first German ecumenical church convention in Berlin, Germany Friday, May 30, 2003. With more than 200.000 participants, the ecumenical convention is the first of its kind and size to bring together members of Germany's predominant Catholic and Lutheran churches. The event, filled with music, lectures and discussions, will continue until June 1, 2003.
Photo by Franka Bruns
Pleads for Repeal of Drug Laws
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs joined fellow rap impresario Russell Simmons and former U.S. housing secretary Andrew Cuomo in calling for the repeal of New York's strict Rockefeller drug laws.
The Rockefeller laws, passed in the 1970s, can subject first-time offenders to 15 years to life in prison if convicted of selling as little as 2 ounces or possessing as little as 4 ounces of a controlled substance.
Joining Simmons, Combs and Cuomo at a news conference at a midtown hotel were the Mothers of the New York Disappeared, representing family members of people incarcerated under the Rockefeller laws.
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs
Finances Center Stage in Court Fight
Michael Jackson
The curtain will rise again next month in the long-running drama of Michael Jackson, this time playing out as a bitter court fight between the reclusive entertainer and a top advisor that could offer a rare glimpse into his personal life and finances.
Among the allegations that could spill into a Los Angeles courtroom are that the onetime King of Pop is broke, having squandered his fortune in "bizarre" ways while egged on by a string of "charlatans," "hangers-on," "hucksters," "impostors," "con artists," "sycophants" and "swindlers."
Jackson has counter-sued, claiming that his trusted advisor -- whom he called "Lawyer Lee" -- and Union Finance stole millions from him and destroyed records to cover up their misdeeds.
According to the lawsuit, Lee and Jackson had a falling out over the singer's increasing reliance on an advisor known only as "Samia" who promised to get him $300 million if he would buy her a $40 million villa and a yacht, among other things.
Michael Jackson
Stirs Up Controversy
Absinthe
Absinthe, the fiery tipple with purported hallucinogenic properties, has stirred up fresh controversy in Britain where it will go on sale in nightclubs and bars next month packaged to be mixed with beer.
"Deco" comes with a small bottle of Kronenbourg lager with a shot of absinthe attached. The idea is to down the 45 percent-strong absinthe and drink the five-percent strength lager as a chaser.
Popularly held responsible for painter Vincent Van Gogh's mutilation of his own ear, absinthe has been banned in many countries but was never outlawed in Britain.
Taken with ice water and a lump of sugar, the bitter drink became popular in 19th century Europe. It was distilled with a blend of herbs and was nicknamed "the green fairy" because of its emerald hue.
Irish writer Oscar Wilde described its devastating kick.
"After the first glass you see things as you wish they were," absinthe lover Wilde wrote. "After the second, you see things as they are not."
"Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world," Wilde concluded.
Absinthe
Blamed For World's Ills
Trousers
Swaziland's absolute monarch has singled out women wearing trousers as the cause of the world's ills in a state radio sermon that also condemned human rights as an "abomination before God".
"The Bible says curse be unto a woman who wears pants, and those who wear their husband's clothes. That is why the world is in such a state today," Mswati, ruler of the impoverished feudal nation of about one million, said late on Thursday.
The Times of Swaziland reported that the monarch, who reigns supreme in the landlocked country run by palace appointees and where opposition parties are banned, went on to criticise the human rights movement.
"What rights? God created people, and He gave them their roles in society. You cannot change what God has created. This is an abomination before God," the king told an audience of conservative church leaders.
Mswati is Africa's last absolute monarch. He is currently married to nine wives, with a wedding pending for wife number 10, and has chosen an additional fiancee after reviewing videos of topless maidens performing a traditional Reed Dance ceremony.
Trousers
In Memory
Martha Scott
Martha Scott, who originated the role of the doomed Emily in the play "Our Town" and was nominated for a best actress Oscar for repeating it in the 1940 film, died Wednesday of natural causes. She was 90.
Scott landed the bittersweet role of Emily in the original Broadway production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" in 1938.
Scott appeared in more than 20 films, including "The Howards of Virginia" with Cary Grant, "The Desperate Hours" with Humphrey Bogart and "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur," both with Charlton Heston.
She also appeared in a number of television shows, including playing Sue Ellen Ewing's mother on "Dallas."
Scott also had a hand in producing plays over the years. In 1968, she joined Henry Fonda and Robert Ryan in forming a theatrical production company called the Plumstead Playhouse in New York, which produced many classic revivals with all-star casts. It later became the Plumstead Theatre Company in Los Angeles.
Her last effort as a producer was a production of "Twelve Angry Men" in Los Angeles in 1985.
Martha Scott
In Memory
Howard 'Sandman' Sims
Sandman Sims, the famed tap dancer who chased unpopular acts off the stage as the "executioner" at the Apollo Theater for years, died May 20. He was 86.
Sims taught footwork to boxers Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, and his dance students included Gregory Hines and Ben Vereen.
Sims, who was once a boxer, earned his stage name by dancing on sprinkled sand, a technique he pioneered while trying to mimic the effect of dancing in the rosin box before entering the ring.
When he won a $5,000 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, Sims used the money to teach dance to children in a Harlem parking lot.
Born Howard Sims in Fort Smith, Ark., Sims grew up in Los Angeles and came to New York in 1947. He danced at the Apollo for 17 years, acting as the "executioner" beginning in the mid-1950s.
He also stage managed the Apollo, owned a cafe, worked as a carpenter and mechanic and was a regular in the vaudeville scene.
The poet Sandra Hochman wrote a play about Sims in 1986 called "The Sand Dancer."
Howard 'Sandman' Sims
A six-week-old born-in-captivity jaguar cub (panthera onca) rests at El Pinar Zoo in Caracas, May 30, 2003. Found mainly in Central and South America, only an estimated 15,000 jaguars remain in the wild.
Photo by Jorge Silva
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
