'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Selected Saturday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
A lovely, overcast til mid-afternoon day.
Thankfully, last night's 'entertainment' (the kid being sick), finally wrapped just before dawn. It also filled many hours worshipping the maytag god in the garage today.
For some reason, there were a lot of Chrysler commercials tonight. The kind with Celine Dion wailing in the background. Finally deciphered what she's singing - 'I drive a v-a-a-a-a-a-a-n'. Yeah, I bet.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS begins the night with a RERUN 'The Price Is Right Million Dollar Spectacular', followed by a RERUN 'The District', then
a RERUN 'The Agency'.
NBC opens the evening with a FRESH 'special' - 'Child Stars: Then & Now', followed by the RERUN 'The Cosby Show: A Look Back'.
'SNL' is a RERUN, of course. If you stay up really late, like til 3am, NBC RERUNs old, funny episodes of 'Saturday Night Live'.
ABC has the movie 'Amistad' - it runs long, so local news will be delayed half an hour.
The WB has the movie 'City Heat'.
Faux has the traditional RERUN 'Cops', followed by another RERUN 'Cops', then 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN fills the night with even more 'WWE Smackdown!'.
A&E has 'American Justice', 'Cold Case Files', then a RERUN 'Crossing Jordan'.
AMC offers the movie 'Romancing The Stone', followed by the movie 'Trespass'.
BBC has 'William at 21' (7pm), 'Murder In Mind' - Disposal (8pm),
'Murder In Mind' - Rage (9pm), 'The Office' - Episode 4 (10pm),
'The Office' - Episode 5 (10:40pm), 'The Office' - Episode 6 (11:20 pm),
'Murder In Mind' - Disposal (12am), and 'Murder In Mind' - Rage (1am). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'Manhunter', followed by the same movie, 'Manhunter'.
History offers 'A Century Of Silent Service', followed by 'Size Matters'.
SciFi has the movie 'Dog Soldiers', followed by the movie 'Cyborg 2'.
TCM celebrates Jack Nicholson tonight with
Chinatown (1974), followed by
The Missouri Breaks (1976), then
Goin' South (1978) (which was also directed by
Jack Nicholson), and then
Terms of Endearment (1983).
USA RERUNs 'Monk'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Singer Lionel Richie touches his new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, after it was unveiled, Friday, June 20, 2003.
Photo by Nick Ut
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Won't Do Elvis Songs On Tour
Lisa Marie Presley
After playing a spate of radio station-sponsored concerts to promote her debut album, To Whom It May Concern, Lisa Marie Presley is gearing up for her first full-scale concert tour this summer. Presley says that her hour-long sets--most of which will be opening for Chris Isaak--will feature the album's 11 songs and select covers.
Presley won't reveal what those cover songs will be, but says none will come from the canon of her father, Elvis Presley. "No, no intention of doing that right now," Presley says. "That would kind of... It's not time for that. I'm not saying it would never happen, but it's not time right now."
Presley's tour begins on July 9 in Bonner Springs, Kansas. She starts shows with Isaak on July 11 in Boston.
Lisa Marie Presley
Broadcasting Concert on AOL
Lou Reed
Lou Reed has partnered with America Online for a Webcast of his San Francisco show on Saturday, will dip his hands in wet cement on Hollywood's Rockwalk next Tuesday, and is also signing copies of his new CDs in selected markets.
Reed, 61, is touring North America this month to promote two new albums, the multi-artist concept project "The Raven" and the hits compilation "NYC Man." After his final stop, on June 29 in Seattle, he will spend July playing Europe.
His Saturday show at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco will be broadcast from 8 p.m. PDT by America Online under its BroadBAND Rocks! series. The concert will be available on-demand for seven days. Previous acts in the series, Staind and Foo Fighters, generated "hundreds of thousands" of streams in the first two days, an AOL spokeswoman said.
On Tuesday, he will be honored on Hollywood's RockWalk, where the likes of Johnny Cash, Motley Crue and John Lee Hooker, have left their handprints in cement. The event, which is open to the public, takes place noon at 7425 Sunset Blvd.
The evening before, he will sign copies of his CDs at the nearby Tower Records Sunset Strip store, beginning at 6 p.m. He will also do a signing in Seattle, a Reed spokesman said.
Lou Reed
Miss Finnie Pearl, a seven-foot-long fiberglass catfish wearing a straw hat and price tag like the one country music artist Minnie Pearl used to wear, is on display outside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum June 19, 2003, in Nashville, Tenn. There are 51 of the statues painted in different themes around Nashville as part of a project to educate people about water quality in Tennessee.
Photo by Mark Humphrey
Hosting ESPY Awards
Jamie Foxx
Deep down, Jamie Foxx believes he could have been an athlete rather than a performer.
So the 35-year-old actor-comedian says he's delighted to be chosen to host ESPN's 11th annual ESPY Awards on July 16 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.
For the first time, fans will determine winners in 17 sport-specific categories including best NHL player, best female tennis player and best NBA player. Nominees in these categories are posted on ESPN.com, where fans can vote.
Jamie Foxx
ESPY Awards
Spears, Costner and Berry Next Year
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Britney Spears, Kevin Costner and Halle Berry are getting stars on Hollywood's celebrated Walk of Fame.
Glenn Close, Anthony Hopkins, John Singleton, Ted Turner, Journey and 17-year-old twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen will also get the sidewalk honor next year. The new inductees were announced Thursday by Johnny Grant, chairman of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce - Walk O'Fame
Druids Gather
Stonehenge
Thousands of robed Druids, spiritualists, ravers and the simply curious are descending on Stonehenge for what is expected to be the biggest-ever summer solstice celebration at the ancient stone circle.
English Heritage, guardians of the site on Salisbury Plain, said they expect up to 30,000 revellers to welcome sunrise at the megaliths with dance and song on Saturday morning, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
A Salisbury police spokesman said the crowds will be kept away from the standing stones until 2 a.m., lest than three hours ahead of sunrise at 4:46 a.m.
The site is open to the public throughout the year, but the solstice allows revellers a rare opportunity to touch the 20-tonne stones and walk among them.
Stonehenge
Gets MTV Comedy Show
Snoop Dogg
There are plenty of the bleeped words, censored images and blue humor that one has come to expect from Snoop Dogg in his new MTV comedy series, "Doggy Fizzle Televizzle."
Yet the gangsta rapper-turned-media maven doesn't think anyone will get too offended when the half-hour series makes its premiere 10 p.m. EDT Sunday.
But Snoop (real name: Calvin Broadus, and formerly Snoop Doggy Dogg) said his show is unique: "I'm changing the face of TV."
Actually, with skits best described as "In Living Color" meets "Saturday Night Live," Snoop's show resembles the "The Lyricist Lounge Show," which had a few airings on MTV three years ago.
Snoop said he eventually became convinced when he was granted complete control of the show.
Snoop Dogg
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Must Pay Back Royalties, Damages
Jello Biafra
Former Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra must pay $220,000 in back royalties and other damages to the other members of his band, an appeals court judge has ruled.
A three-judge panel of a state appeals court in an unpublished opinion Wednesday upheld an earlier ruling against Biafra for breach of contract and fraud.
The panel also decided that the band's creative output, including songs "Holiday in Cambodia" and "Kill the Poor," belongs to a partnership formed among the four band members.
But the panel reversed the lower court's decision to break up the partnership, sending the case back to the trial court to determine whether a partnership among the punks should be dissolved and its assets sold.
The San Francisco-based punk band performed together from 1978 to 1986. The band recently reformed without Biafra and is playing again as the Dead Kennedys, according to their publicist Josh Mills.
Jello Biafra
www.deadkennedys.com/history.htm
Thanks, Tim H!
Inul, a Sumatran elephant born early this morning at Taman Safari park south of Jakarta, stands close to her mother Linda in her pen at the park June 20, 2003. Inul was named after the famous Indonesian singer and dancer know for her wild gyrations during her performances. The wild population of the Sumatran elephant is estimated to be around 600, down from more than 3,000 10 years ago.
Photo by Supri
SUV Is Up For Auction
Gillian Anderson
You can own the sport utility vehicle that helped Gillian Anderson decompress from shooting "The X-Files."
It's a 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser. It'll be up for auction starting tomorrow at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Anderson says she's "always loved vintage Land Cruisers" and she bought this one while she was filming the final season of "The X-Files."
Information about the auction is at www.barrett-jackson.com.
Gillian Anderson
Wishes Prince William Happy Birthday
Ozzy Osbourne
Prince William, who turns 21 on Saturday, got birthday greetings from shock rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
Osbourne, whose chaotic family life is the subject of an MTV reality series, invited the prince to come stay at his Beverly Hills mansion.
"I've been told that you want to come and live in America. You're more than welcome to come and live in my house," Osbourne told a TV special celebrating William's birthday. Excerpts from Friday's show were released in advance by broadcaster ITV.
His birthday advice to William: "Have as much fun as you can, play Black Sabbath on record and have a blast."
Ozzy Osbourne
www.ozzy.com/
No Replacing Lisa Lopes
TLC
Soon after Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes died in a car accident last April in Honduras, the surviving members of TLC said they had no plans to replace her. And both Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas insist that more than a year after losing Left Eye, nothing has changed.
"No one can replace Lisa, myself or T-Boz," Chilli tells AP Radio. "It doesn't go down like that."
They say they don't ever plan to find a new third member for the best-selling female group of all time. Chilli says it's like losing a part of your body — there's really no replacing it.
"If you lose a toe, your toe is gone, you just can't go and pick another one. That's how deep it is in this group," Chilli says.
TLC
Overtake Videos for First Time
DVDs
DVD rentals exceeded videocassette rentals for the first time ever last week, the Video Software Dealers Association reported.
For the week ending Sunday, 28.2 million DVDs were rented while 27.3 million VHS cassettes were rented, according to the trade association's VidTrac, a point-of-sale tracking technology.
"This is a milestone in the history of home video," said the video association's president, Bo Andersen. "Since the advent of video rental 25 years ago, videocassettes have been the dominant format for video rental. Now, just over six years since its launch, DVD has supplanted that pioneering technology in the rental market, as it previously did in the sales market."
DVDs
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Scrambles to React to Ruling
Spike TV
Spike TV threw a star-studded party at the Playboy mansion for its planned premiere this week, but you'll have to take their word for it. The show didn't air as planned.
That's just one way The National Network has scrambled to react to court orders preventing a name change.
The company estimates it cost nearly $17 million to stop the name change. A state appeals court on Thursday refused to allow Viacom to change network's name to Spike TV until its dispute with Spike Lee is decided at a trial. The case may not be resolved until at least September.
TNN — which changed its named from The Nashville Network in 2001 — is trying to establish itself as a destination for young male viewers, and its programming has gradually shifted to reflect that.
So except for Monday's Playboy party special and an abandoned skit during Monday's professional wrestling telecast about the name change, the dispute hasn't caused any programming shifts, said Albie Hecht, TNN's president.
But a massive advertising campaign has been completely overhauled, he said.
For the rest, Spike TV
Flamingoes wade in the dawn light at Zeekoevlei nature reserve in Cape Town, June 20, 2003. Low water levels have attracted thousands of birds to the key wetland on the Cape Flats as new feeding grounds are opened up following late seasonal rains in the area.
Photo by Mike Hutchings
Writer, Director File Suit (Again)
'The Exorcist'
The author of "The Exorcist" and the director of the 1973 movie of the same name have filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros., alleging the studio didn't do enough to make them money.
William Peter Blatty, who wrote the novel and screenplay, and director William Friedkin, claim Warner Bros. breached its fiduciary duty by self-dealing the rights for a newer version of the film. They claim the studio would sell the rights to its sister cable television networks, TNT and TBS, for little to no profit.
Blatty and Friedkin's lawyer, Lawrence Iser, argued that when Warner Bros. wanted a new version of "The Exorcist," the studio asked them to return to work. The studio made hundreds of millions of dollars and made promises of profits to both men it didn't keep, Iser said. Blatty and Friedkin are seeking unspecified damages.
'The Exorcist'
Mmmm...Calimari
Hashish Hidden in Squid
Spanish police seized more than 25 tonnes of hashish on Thursday in a refrigerated truck carrying frozen squid in the southern port of Algeciras, the second-biggest haul of its kind, officials said.
The drug had been sent from Morocco stashed inside the truck, the Civil Guard said in a statement.
The driver was arrested and held for questioning. In a separate incident, customs officers in the British colony of Gibraltar seized over half a ton of cocaine with a street value of 90 million pounds ($150 million). Three people, including a British woman, were being questioned.
Hashish Hidden in Squid
Thanks, Tim H!
Ship Delayed By Storm
Women on Waves
A storm raging on the Baltic is set to delay a Dutch floating abortion clinic's controversial stop in Poland in a challenge to the Roman Catholic country's strict laws on terminating pregnancy.
The ship, which offers abortions in international waters to women in countries where the procedure is more restricted than in the Netherlands, will remain at sea until at least Saturday, according to the Women on Waves Foundation which runs it.
The ship had been scheduled to dock in the small fishing port of Wladyslawowo on Friday but winds gusting at up to 88 km (55 miles) and choppy waves shut it down.
In Poland abortion is allowed only if pregnancy is a threat to a woman's health, if the foetus is damaged or after rape. Doctors face up to three years in jail for illegal abortions.
But Polish women's groups say that, despite their country's staunch Catholicism, between 80,000 and 200,000 Polish women still have illegal abortions each year, mainly by going abroad.
Women on Waves says a woman dies every five minutes somewhere in the world as a result of an illegal or unsafe abortion, and that it sails to countries at the invitation of local groups to provide safe and early abortions.
Women on Waves said the ship's two doctors and a nurse would take women aboard before sailing out to international waters, where Dutch law would apply, to offer counselling and abortions.
The clinic can provide counselling, advice, contraceptives and an abortion pill and anaesthetic to women up to six and a half weeks pregnant, its gynaecologist Gunilla Kleiverda said. In the Netherlands, abortion is available up to 24 weeks.
Women on Waves
New Zealand
Fart Tax
A tax on farting, belching livestock to be introduced by New Zealand to help combat global warming is creating a stink among the country's farmers.
Methane emissions created by grass-munching cows, sheep, deer and goats are believed to account for about half of New Zealand's emissions of greenhouse gases.
The tax will fund a new Agriculture Emissions Research body to meet commitments to the Kyoto Protocol global environment agreement.
Fart Tax
9-Year-Old Girl Marries
Karnamoni Handsa
A 9-year-old girl was married to a stray dog in a ceremony attended by more than 100 guests in a village in India's eastern state of Bengal as part of a ritual intended to ward off a bad omen, newspapers reported Thursday.
The girl, Karnamoni Handsa, had to be married quickly to break an evil spell, according to the beliefs of her Santhal tribe in the remote village of Khanyan, the Hindustan Times said.
Karnamoni's tooth had grown on her upper gum, which Santhals consider a bad omen.
The girl's father, Baburam Handsa, a poor sharecropper, could not afford the expenses of marrying his daughter to a boy, so he saved money by making a street dog the groom on June 11, the paper reported.
Karnamoni Handsa
In Memory
Louisiana Purchase O'Leary Wampler
Louisiana Purchase O'Leary Wampler, whose birth in a construction tent during preparations for the 1904 World's Fair gave her the unwieldy name, has died. She was 100.
The World's Fair Baby, as she was known, was the only child of a fairgrounds construction worker, and her name came from the official title: the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The fair was designed to mark the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.
Wampler was born in 1902, and her christening was performed by three priests in front of hundreds at the fair's administration building.
She died Wednesday at a nursing home in St. Louis County of pneumonia-related complications.
"When she would say her name, people would say, 'You're kidding me,'" her stepson Lee Wampler said. "But she was very proud of it."
Wampler participated in several fair-related events over the years, including the unveiling of commemorative postage stamps. As the World's Fair Baby, she met Cardinals' baseball legend Stan Musial and Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph. In turn, she was also often asked for her autograph.
Wampler was two months shy of her 101st birthday when she died. She had outlived two husbands and two of her four stepsons. She is survived by stepsons Lee and Robert Wampler.
Louisiana Purchase O'Leary Wampler
A wayward herd of buffalo gathers in the hills near Mission, Ore., May 28, 2003. The herd, which includes two calves, has roamed the rolling hills east of Pendleton, Ore., since mid-April after the animals' owner released them and fled the country, according to Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are trying to recapture the herd.
Photo by Marcus Luke
'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
