'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Bad Cow Disease (nytimes.com)
In the case of food, for the sake of our health and our export markets, we need to go back to the way it was after Teddy Roosevelt, when the Socialists took over.
Rob Stafford: Five Things Students Really Should Know Before They Get To College (huffingtonpost.com)
Many young adults show up in my classroom without these skills--because they've been clever enough to get by without them, because they had another talent worth nurturing, because they were part of the tragic 30%+ dropout rate here in California.
Cyndi Lauper: If You Really Want Inclusion, Include Yourself (huffingtonpost.com)
When I was growing up, it did not occur to me that many Americans are still denied full and equal rights -- including the simple right to be who they are and to love whom they choose to love.
James Campbell: "Richard Wright: black first" (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
A lively but neglected writer who showed what once faced a little black boy in a big white world.
EVAN SAWDEY: "It's a Masochistic Stare-Down": An Interview With Adam Green (popmatters.com)
The former Moldy Peaches frontman scored with "Juno" ballad "Anyone Else But You", but he's got a lot more going on: a brand new solo album, getting hung up on Johnny Depp, and having French boys thank him for writing "such impersonal music".
Question time with Hannah Pool (guardian.co.uk/)
Kid Rock on racism, rehab, Obama v McCain - and what it was like being married to Pamela Anderson.
Chris Riemenschneider: British spitfire Billy Bragg changes his focus with 'Mr. Love & Justice' (Star Tribune)
Since he has always demanded truth from politicians and sincerity in music, Billy Bragg presumably wasn't just pandering to his audience when the city of Minneapolis came up in conversation.
20 QUESTIONS: The Bravery (popmatters.com)
Sam Endicott descends from the band's busy orbit to talk with PopMatters 20 Questions about rude bus drivers, the beauty of thumbprints, and his somewhat disconcerting freaky memory.
Peter Dobrin: 'Brokeback Mountain' becomes an opera-to-be (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
American composer Charles Wuorinen has been commissioned by New York City Opera to write a work based on Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain," a short story about a romantic relationship between two cowboys, the company has announced.
'I wanted freedom' (arts.guardian.co.uk)
Why won't Joseph Fiennes make life easy for himself? As he prepares to star in an explosive play about paedophilia, he tells Phil Hoad why he's glad he turned his back on Hollywood.
Ellsworth Kelly is the king of colour (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
From Paris to NY, the bespectacled 85-year-old artist, a legend of modern painting, reveals his passions to Mark Rappolt.
Kimberly Brooks: "Artist as Second Career: The Wild World of Kathy Taslitz" (huffingtonpost.com)
I believe being an artist is a calling most people have inside them. And for those who follow it later in life, there is a particular sweetness to the final product.
A: The Kiss
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny, and a good 25° cooler than inland.
AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award
Warren Beatty
Bill Clinton was among those saluting Warren Beatty as the Oscar-winning actor-director received a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute.
Stars such as Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton, Quentin Tarantino and Halle Berry were on hand for the celebration marking Beatty's 47-year career as an actor, writer, director and producer, as were George McGovern, Gary Hart and Jerry Brown.
The 3 1/2-hour event featured clips from Beatty's movies and taped tributes from Barbra Streisand, Gene Hackman, Goldie Hawn and John McCain.
"The 36th Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Warren Beatty" is scheduled to air June 25 on the USA Network.
Warren Beatty
Teaching At Oxford University
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey already has two Academy Awards and heads London's Old Vic theater. Now he can add a new title - Oxford University professor.
The Hollywood star has been named Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theater at Oxford's St. Catherine's College, officials there announced Friday.
Spacey will succeed Shakespearean actor and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" star Patrick Stewart when the new academic year starts in October. Previous holders of the post, endowed by theater impresario Mackintosh, include composer Stephen Sondheim, playwright Alan Ayckbourn and actress Diana Rigg.
Kevin Spacey
Already Affecting Films
Potential Strike
As the clock ticks ever closer to the June 30 end of the Screen Actors Guild's contract, the industry is nervously contemplating the possibility of yet another strike -- even as it admits that, at least in terms of film production, a de facto strike already exists.
The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), in what could be characterized as its lack-of-progress report issued Thursday, argued that a de facto strike "limiting the green-lighting of features and disrupting pilot production" already has begun. As one talent attorney observed: "No one is doing anything that finishes after June 30, (and) nobody's starting anything now. There is the impact of a strike already."
The threat of a stoppage has had an impact on production schedules at the major studios, which pushed a slew of projects into production back in April in order to complete filming by June 30.
"We believe this will be worse than the WGA strike," said Stephen Buchsbaum, CEO of the Post Group. "During the WGA strike, we were doing projects that didn't involve the WGA -- some independent films, game shows and reality shows. Those all have SAG hosts, and unless there is a side deal struck, we believe this impact will be catastrophic.
Potential Strike
Kern County's Decider
Ann Barnett
Heterosexual couples are rushing to get married in a conservative California county that plans to halt all civil wedding ceremonies as gay marriage is set to be legalized.
Kern County Clerk Ann Barnett says Friday is the last day the county will perform civil weddings.
Starting Tuesday, when the California Supreme Court's order legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect, Kern will issue new gender-neutral marriage licenses as required by law. But couples seeking to get hitched will have to go somewhere else for the ceremony.
Barnett says the increased demand for ceremonies would overwhelm her staff and pose office security risks. She made the announcement after learning she could not marry only couples of her choosing.
Ann Barnett
Done With Hon
John Waters
Honfest, an annual celebration of beehive hairdos, cat's-eye glasses and other kitschy fashions, is getting bigger and bigger. Participants are known as "Hons" in honor of the ubiquitous Baltimore term of endearment.
But John Waters and some residents of the city's quirky Hampden neighborhood, where the festival takes place, say Hon has lost its charm.
"To me, it's used up," Waters said of Hon style. "It's condescending now. The people that celebrate it are not from it. I feel that in some weird way they're looking slightly down on it. I only celebrate something I can look up to."
The filmmaker known for raunchy odes to his hometown says he won't use the word or the image in any of his scripts, and he doesn't think the city should promote it, either.
John Waters
Gallery Moves Back To Fairmount
James Dean
The James Dean Gallery is back where the 1950s Hollywood icon grew up.
Owner David Loehr moved the gallery back to its original spot in Fairmount, about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, after moving it to Gas City, then Auburn for a time.
In 2002, a small electrical fire in the house where the gallery is again located prompted Loehr to think about getting some of his rare Dean collectibles out of the structure.
The gallery moved to a custom-built, state-of-the-art museum at Gas City's Interstate 69 interchange for two years.
But he decided to move back to the building where he started the gallery in 1988. It features a collection of Dean portraits and rare memorabilia, including hometown artifacts, collectibles, magazines and more.
James Dean
Acquitted On All Counts
R. Kelly
A Chicago jury has acquitted R&B superstar R. Kelly on all counts at his child pornography trial. The verdict came six years after the singer was first charged with appearing on a graphic videotape with a girl prosecutors said was as young as 13 at the time.
Both Kelly and the now 23-year-old alleged victim had denied they were on the tape. Neither testified during the trial.
The prosecution's star witness was a woman who said she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the girl prosecutors said was on the tape. Defense attorneys argued the man on the tape didn't have a large mole on his back and Kelly does.
R. Kelly
Joining Faux News
Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee, a former Republican presidential hopeful, has been hired by Fox News Channel as a political commentator.
"Gov. Huckabee's campaign experience and knowledge of politics makes him a great addition to our ongoing election coverage," Bill Shine, senior vice president of programming, said in a statement Thursday.
Financial terms of the agreement weren't released.
Mike Huckabee
Musicians Union Sues Producers
`American Idol'
A musicians union has filed a federal lawsuit against the producers of "American Idol," claiming musicians were underpaid because the show's live music was re-recorded for reruns.
The American Federation of Musicians filed the suit seeking unspecified damages Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleging that American Idol Productions Inc. and its subsidiary Tick Tock Productions Inc. violated a collective bargaining agreement.
The producers are required to pay 75 percent of scale to musicians who appear in the original show and rehearsals, plus 10 percent of that pay to a union pension fund, with decreasing percentages for each rebroadcast, according to court papers.
In 2007, the producers started cutting out the show's soundtrack and using different musicians to re-record new music for the past-season highlights show "American Idol Rewind," the lawsuit said.
`American Idol'
6 Centuries To Auction
Scientific Books
The collection, which spans six centuries, contains works by Nicolaus Copernicus, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler. It's expected to bring $6 million Tuesday at Christie's New York auction.
A copy of Copernicus' "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), printed in 1543, is expected to bring the highest price, between $900,000 and $1.2 million. It puts forth the theory that the sun - not the earth - is at the center of the universe.
Einstein's own set of reference copies, including key papers on the theories of special and general relativity, quantum theory and unified theory, is estimated to bring $150,000 to $250,000.
The collection is being sold by Richard Green, a retired physician and amateur astronomer from Long Island.
Scientific Books
Rewriting History
Burma
A referendum approving a new military-backed constitution for Myanmar has "washed away" the victory claimed by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party in 1990 elections, state media said Tuesday.
Her National League for Democracy won by a landslide 18 years ago, but the military never recognised the result and has kept the Nobel peace prize winner under house arrest for most of the years since then.
The government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar said Tuesday that the NLD's election mandate was "outdated" after the constitution was approved last month in a controversial referendum -- held while the impoverished nation was still reeling from the devastating effects of Cyclone Nargis.
The new charter bans Aung San Suu Kyi from holding elected office, while reserving one quarter of the seats in parliament for serving soldiers.
Burma
1780 British Warship Found
Lake Ontario
A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers announced Friday.
Shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville used side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible to locate the HMS Ontario, which was lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale in 1780.
The 80-foot sloop of war is the oldest shipwreck and the only fully intact British warship ever found in the Great Lakes, Scoville and Kennard said.
The finders of the wreck said they regard it as a war grave and have no plans to raise it or remove any of its artifacts. They said the ship is still considered the property of the British Admiralty.
Lake Ontario
Statue Filleted In Oregon
Charlie the Tuna
It turns out the fate of Charlie the Tuna of Charleston, Ore., was sorry indeed. The 8-foot Monterey cypress sculpture that used to greet visitors to the coastal fishing town was filleted by two young men who stole it as a prank and then, panicked they would be found out, took chain saws to it.
Not that Charlie would have lasted much longer anyway, the town learned, what with the way bugs and rot had hollowed out his innards.
A wake is planned Saturday at the town's visitors center. The Wild Women of Charleston and the Tuna Guys will offer musical moments. The remains are to be burned and buried at the center.
Mourners are invited to share stories about Charlie, and tuna recipes.
Charlie the Tuna
In Memory
Danny Davis
Grammy award winner Danny Davis, who pioneered the use of horns in country music, has died aged 83, his publicist Betty Hofer said on Friday.
The Nashville Brass instrumental group Davis founded in 1968 produced a brassy version of Hank Williams' "Kaw-liga" which won him a Grammy.
Davis, who was born George Nolan, began his career in his teens playing with Gene Krupa, Bob Crosby and Art Mooney, and he later became popular draw in the country music resort town of Branson, Missouri, and in Las Vegas.
He often flew his own plane to performances, appearing at the inaugurations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Danny Davis
In Memory
Tim Russert
Tim Russert, a political lifer who made a TV career questioning fluffing the powerful and influential, died of a heart attack Friday in the midst of a presidential campaign he'd covered with trademark intensity.
Russert, 58, was a political operative before he was a journalist stenographer. He joined NBC a quarter century ago and ended up as the longest-tenured host of the Sunday talk show "Meet the Press."
Russert was also a senior vice president at NBC, and this year Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He had Buffalo's blue-collar roots, a Jesuit education, a law degree and a Democratic pedigree that came from his turn as an aide to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York.
He was married to Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine. The couple had one son, Luke.
Tim Russert
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