There's no knowing the single moment when you're supposed to panic, but it might include going outside to feel a hot wind in your face and looking west at the source of the wind only to see a wall of smoke 20 miles wide approaching from the north and west, flames occasionally peeking through, dozens of planes and helicopters dropping fire retardant, the sun blood red through the enormous cloud. That red star is me, half a mile up a dirt road without a sign, the second house on the left. Mandatory evacuations past the county line, at the top of the map, the fire coming down from Morongo. As you can see, I'm the first house this side of the county line.
Maybe it'll make it to Mexico this fire, but right now my main concern is to the left of the map. Another fire is working its way down the west side of Whitewater Canyon. Should it make its way across the water to the east side, there's a giant rock cliff. If it somehow makes it to the top of the cliff and continues heading east, there's nothing between me and the fire but miles of dried out desert, not even a single road. There'll be fire fighting to the east of me but not to the west.
Current situation: Me and Max. Buster's away at a summer job in the high Sierras. Two of us. Nowhere to go and no way to get there.
Buster took the luggage. All we've got are a few backpacks. I've said goodbye to everything, the record and book and video collection, but not...
2,000 Polaroids and photos, years of irreplaceable art and journalism, 50 years of collecting stuff, I would say at least 20 milk crates full, plus a computer and backup disks, a Siamese cat, a desert tortoise, and Max's pet python. I'm going to stack them in the middle of my driveway tomorrow (Friday) morning, cover them in blankets and towels, and soak them with water. They are the last things I'll say goodbye to unless someone comes to get them.
You've seen it on TV. It's coming at me. Who've I got to turn to but you?
July 13, 2006
Whitewater, CA
MD
All that's between us and the fire
Update #1
Friday, mid-afternoon
It was REALLY scary when I sent that out yesterday since the winds were blowing hard
directly at me from the fire, but this morning everything has died down and there's
just this haze covering everything. Hard to say how bad things will turn today. Sun
just rising and 115 degrees on the way. Fire still coming in this direction, just
slowly. I'm making a big pile outside but so far no idea who will get it or where
it'll go. And, of course, what makes this feel so weird is that it might not be
necessary but who knows. Exploring the difference between safe and sorry. I'll keep you posted.
As of 10pm (pdt), the wind has changed directions and the fire is burning away from Michael & his family.
They still aren't out of danger - the wind could change direction, again, but for now, it's time to breathe.
Also, a friend has lent them a van so he has it packed & ready to roll, if necessary.
Next update sometime Saturday.
-Marty
Rev. Jim Rigby: Real Christians Fight Intolerance (AlterNet.org)
It is time to say that gay bashing is not only wrong, it is unchristian. If Christianity is grace, then judgment is the ultimate apostasy. If Christianity is love, then cruelty is the ultimate heresy.
Bill Carter: MSNBC's Star Carves Anti-Fox Niche (nytimes.com)
That a rabid audience can be built for a political discussion show from the left, as it has so effectively been done on talk radio and on some of Fox's programs from the right, has not been demonstrated before, unless you count the fake news shows on Comedy Central. Mr. Olbermann said the administration had created enough disaffection to keep both his ratings and his outrage up.
Amber Hathaway: Spoiler Free Movie Review: Clerks 2 (slashfilm.com)
Jay and Silent Bob play just as trivial but goofy roles in the sequel as they did in the first movie, which I think works really well. There was a 30- or 40-minute sequence towards the end in which I barely had time to catch my breath before something even more ridiculous and unfortunate happened to our favorite clerks; trust me, even 10 years later, just as much horrible shit catches up with Dante as ever.
Bill Hicks From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead, spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great." [several gunshots ring out, Bill mimes being hit and falls to floor, motionless.] (Onstage closing comments of Hicks's Revelations special from 1993)
The Disneyland Memorial Orgy (en.wikipedia.org)
The Disneyland Memorial Orgy is a cartoon illustration created by Wally Wood for satirist Paul Krassner's radical humor publication The Realist. Published shortly after Walt Disney's death in 1966, the artwork was commissioned by Krassner to portray the liberated behavior of the cartoon characters featured in many of Disney's animated films.
Here are the lyrics to "From Her Lips To God's Ears (the Energizer)," one of the many politically-charged songs from the Gainesville, Florida based punk band, Against Me! The band writes music that is sonically anthemic using metaphorical and literal themes to convey their lyrical messages - music the New York Times says "should turn one of the country's most important underground punk bands into something even bigger."
Indeed Against Me!'s songs are brutally bold and searingly poignant, facing these politically charged times directly head-on, with live shows offering incendiary bursts of pure musical adrenaline rushes.
The band recently signed to Warner Bros. Records, who will release the follow up to their album Searching for a Former Clarity that was released on Fat Wreck Chords.
************************************************
"From Her Lips To God's Ears (The Energizer)"
Regime change under a Bush doctrine of democratic installations.
Constant war for constant soldiers.
What are we gonna do now?
De-escalation, through military force.
Increase the pressure, Oh Condoleeza
What should we do about the situation in Iran and North Korea?
Condoleeza.
Democratic election under Marshall law.
An Iraqi president out of control of our choices.
After all this death and destruction
Do you really think your actions advocate freedom?
The presidents giving a speech in Georgetown
To remember the voice of a slain civil rights leader,
Do you understand what the martyrs stood for?
Oh Condoleeza do you get the fucking joke?
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
What are we gonna do now?
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
Condoleeza
What are we gonna do now?
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Ghost Whisperer', followed by a RERUN'CSI: The 3rd One', then '48 Hours'.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Saturday Night's Main Event' (part 1 of 2), followed by the FRESH'Saturday Night's Main Event' (part 2 of 2), then a RERUN'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'.
'SNL' is a RERUN with Matt Dillon hosting, music by Arctic Monkeys.
The late, late 'SNL' is from 10 April, 1993, with Jason Alexander hosting, music by Peter Gabriel.
ABC fills the night with the movie 'Unbreakable'.
The WB offers an old 'Friends', followed by an old 'Raymond', then panders with 'Cheaters'.
Faux has the traditional 'Cops', 'Cops', and 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN here has LIVE'MLB Baseball', with the Devil Rays visiting the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California Angels.
A&E has 'City Confidential', 'Cold Case Files', another 'Cold Case Files', and 'American Justice'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Commancheros', followed by the movie 'The Last Samurai', then the movie 'Red Corner'.
BBC -
[2:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic';
[3:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 5;
[4:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 1;
[5:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 2;
[6:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 3;
[7:00 pm] 'Sharpe's Sword';
[9:00 pm] 'Marian Again' - Ep 1;
[10:30 pm] 'Marian Again' - Episode 2;
[12:00 am] 'Cash in the Attic' - Maddison;
[1:00 am] 'Sharpe's Sword' - Ep 3 Sword;
[3:00 am] 'The Young Ones' - Bambi;
[3:40 am] 'The Young Ones' - Cash;
[4:20 am] 'The Young Ones' - Nasty;
[5:00 am] 'Just For Laughs' - Episode 4;
[5:30 am] 'Just For Laughs' - Episode 5;
[6:00 am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Project Runway', followed by the movie 'Silence Of The Lambs', then the movie 'Silence Of The Lambs', again.
Comedy Central has 'Bllue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie', followed by the movie 'Joe Dirt'.
History has 'Ben Franklin Tech', followed by the movie 'The Road Warrior', and 'The Doomsday Clock'.
IFC -
[06:00 AM] Love Liza;
[07:30 AM] Media Lab Uploaded;
[08:00 AM] Sword of Doom;
[10:15 AM] The Importance of Being Earnest;
[12:00 PM] Slasher;
[01:30 PM] At The IFC Center #15;
[02:00 PM] Sword of Doom;
[04:00 PM] Spellbound;
[05:45 PM] IFC In Theaters;
[06:00 PM] Antwone Fisher;
[08:00 PM] The Henry Rollins Show #16;
[08:15 PM] Birthday Girl;
[10:30 PM] Samurai 7 Episode #16: "The Storm";
[11:00 PM] Once Were Warriors;
[12:45 AM] IFC In Theaters;
[01:00 AM] The Henry Rollins Show #16;
[01:30 AM] Samurai 7 Episode #16: "The Storm";
[02:00 AM] Mighty Aphrodite;
[03:45 AM] Birthday Girl;
[05:15 AM] Hard Corps;
[05:45 AM] IFC In Theaters. (ALL TIMES EDT)
SciFi has the movie 'Resident Evil', followed by the movie 'The Beast Of Bray Road'.
Sundance -
[07:05 AM] Salvador Allende;
[08:45 AM] Dallas 362;
[10:25 AM] The Nomi Song;
[12:00 PM] Hamburger America;
[01:00 PM] House Of Cards;
[03:00 PM] Wall;
[04:45 PM] The Grass Harp;
[06:35 PM] Clara et Moi;
[08:00 PM] Face (1997);
[10:00 PM] Dallas 362;
[11:45 PM] Stronger;
[12:00 AM] City of Men - Season 2: Episode 1: Saturday;
[12:30 AM] Belle De Jour;
[02:15 AM] Fahrenheit 9/11;
[04:20 AM] Remember Me, My Love. (ALL TIMES EDT)
The famous dinosaur of Cabazon, California is shown in the foreground as a plume of smoke rises from the Millard fire in the hills north of Cabazon, California July 14, 2006. A massive California wildfire marched toward a mountain resort town and a brittle national forest on Thursday, threatening to combine with a second blaze in what state officials called a 'very critical' situation.
Photo by Gene Blevins
A Wilson County soldier went to war and now is fighting another battle back here at home. Capt. John Parker says he was forced to decide between serving his country and saving his job as a school teacher.
Like so many soldiers who have helped fight the war on terror, Capt. John Parker put his life on the line every day while he was deployed in Afghanistan.
But just one month after Parker went back to work, the Wilson County School system told him his teaching contract was not being renewed and he was out of a job.
Wilson County Director of Schools Dr. Jim Duncan, the man who sent the letter informing Parker that he was being let go, insists that "he was not fired."
But Duncan also admits that he had problems with Parker being sent to Afghanistan not once, but twice.
Spike Lee was at the Venice Film Festival in Italy watching on television as Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans last August.
"I was just really mad and sad," he said. "I said, `This is going to be a major moment in American history, and I want to do something about it.'"
The result is a four-hour documentary called "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" airing Aug. 21-22 on HBO. It shows how New Orleans survived Katrina against a backdrop of performances by Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard at the Superdome, the French Quarter and the levees.
"Volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods. It's not just New Orleans," he said. "We should be scared because if FEMA - you saw what they did. Pray to God you don't have to depend on FEMA. This stuff affects all Americans."
Mr. T has given himself a makeover. The former television action star shed the piles of gold chains that were his signature look after witnessing the destruction from Hurricane Katrina.
"As a spiritual man, I felt it would be a sin against my God for me to wear all that gold again because I spent a lot of time with the less fortunate," the actor said Thursday at the Television Critics Association's summer meeting.
"I saw some, I call it `sorry celebrities.' They'll go down there and hook up with the people to take a photo-op. I said, `How disgusting.' If you're not going to go down there with a check and a hammer and a nail to help the people, don't go down there."
Mr. T, whose real name is Lawrence Tero, stars in "I Pity the Fool" debuting in October on TV Land. He dispenses advice to viewers who are struggling with life's problems.
The gloves Johnny Depp made famous in "Edward Scissorhands" and the original matte painting from the opening scene of the "Wizard of Oz" will be auctioned off this month in a Hollywood memorabilia fire sale.
Depp's black gloves will start at USD 7,000 at the July 28 Beverly Hills auction, conducted by the Profiles In History company, which hopes to sell all items for about two million dollars.
Other items include Dan Akroyd's jumpsuit from "Ghostbusters" (USD8,000), Michael Keaton's Batman costume from the 1989 movie (USD40,000) and former President Ronald Reagan's Stetson hat (USD3,000.
John Belushi's "Blue Brothers" two-piece suit will start at USD25,000.
Usher, the silky voiced R&B superstar, will soon be crooning a Broadway melody. The multi-platinum recording artist and five-time Grammy winner will take over the role of conniving lawyer Billy Flynn in the long-running musical revival "Chicago," making his Broadway debut, producers Barry and Fran Weissler announced Friday.
"I have always admired Broadway actors for their showmanship, dedication and focus that goes into performing live on stage every night," the 27-year-old Usher said in a statement. "Being on Broadway allows you to connect to audiences in a whole new way that's different from music and movies."
Usher opens Aug. 22 in "Chicago" and will appear through Oct. 1.
Dancer Sarah Morrison, left, is shown on the stage during preparations for her company's performance of 'Rendezvous' Monday July 10, 2006. Morrison's choreography incorporates imagery from NASA's space shuttle Discovery mission in 2000. NASA's space shuttle Discovery mission in 2000 and pictures of planets. The 25-minute presentation was being performed Friday and Saturday nights, July 14 and 15, 2006, in downtown Cleveland at Ingenuity, the city's second annual arts and technology festival.
Photo by Mark Duncan
A London judge ruled Friday that a schizophrenic who was found in possession of 504 Beatles tapes should be placed under mental health supervision for two years.
Nigel Oliver, 55, sat silently as judge Jeremy McMullen delivered his sentence, calling Oliver "the driving force" behind the missing Beatles memorabilia, which included tapes recorded during the historic "Get Back" sessions_ precursors to the final hit 1970's album "Let It Be."
Oliver's haul included more than 80 hours of long-lost footage, which he attempted to sell in Jan. 2003 to undercover police officers Amsterdam, Holland for 250,000 pounds ($460,000, or 362,000 euros).
Cover versions of songs such as Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart were included on the tapes which held more than 200 one-time versions of Beatles songs, Neil Aspinall, the band's original road manager told the jury earlier in the trial.
A British fan of the cult TV show "Star Trek" has boldly gone where no man has gone before and created a giant maize maze dedicated to the program.
Trekkie Tom Pearcy used satellite technology to help him cut the maze in the corn field at his farm near York, northern England, to celebrate 40 years since the show's first episode.
The maze, whose design includes images of character Mr Spock and the USS Enterprise spaceship, used 1.5 million maize plants and claims to be the biggest of its kind in the world.
Naomi Campbell was sued Thursday by another former employee, this one a young Florida woman who claims the supermodel abused her verbally and physically on three continents.
Amanda Brack, 20, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., accused Campbell of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress in incidents that started a month after she began working for her in February 2005, court papers say.
Brack's lawsuit was filed while Campbell, 35, was in plea negotiations with Manhattan prosecutors about an assault charge. Campbell was accused of throwing a cell phone at one of her employees in January in a dispute over a missing pair of jeans.
Talk-show host Craig Ferguson, left, laughs as 'The Price Is Right' game show host Bob Barker gestures during filming of 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,' at CBS Studios in Los Angeles, Thursday, July 13, 2006.
Photo by Nick Ut
Mel Gibson, about to wrap up the filming of his Mayan epic, "Apocalypto," in the jungles of Mexico's Veracruz state, is donating money to build houses for poor people in the region.
The 50-year-old director-actor will donate the money through the Rotary Club and Mexico's family welfare agency, government officials announced Thursday.
Officials said the donation will be used to construct homes for poor residents of the port city of Veracruz and the city of San Andres Tuxtla.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is raising its admission fee to $20, matching what another venerable New York art institution, the Museum of Modern Art, already charges. The fees make the two museums among the most expensive to visit in the world.
MoMa's $12 fee went to $20 in 2004 after the museum reopened following a $425 million expansion. Admission to MoMa is free on Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m., and visitors 16 and under are always fee.
Elsewhere in the country, the Art Institute of Chicago charges $12 and the Smithsonian Institutions museums in Washington, D.C., and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles are free.
"South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker knew they might anger Isaac Hayes with an episode mocking his Scientology religion, but decided to do it anyway.
"We're hypocrites if we don't make it for that reason," Parker told the Television Critics Association this week.
"It was so crazy because we got along so well. And that's where we were like, 'Wow, you really thought the show was fine until we did your religion, and now we're bigots,'" Parker said. "So that's why then we were like, 'OK, game on, (expletive).' And we did that first episode."
"We just picked the wrong guy to parody because I have a feeling we'll be asked about Tom Cruise for the next two years," Stone said. "Every time we're in a headline, it's like, Tom Cruise and then us in a headline, you start to get that Tom Cruise stink on you."
A poster promoting 'Rembrandt Day', a day organised by the Nazis in 1944 as part of a propaganda drive during their occupation of the Netherlands, is seen in this undated handout photo.
Photo courtesy Dutch Resistance Museum
Rocker-turned-preacher Richard Furay, a founding member of Buffalo Springfield and Poco, says he long felt overlooked for his contributions to two 1960s bands that pioneered the next decade's country-rock explosion.
It wasn't until years after Furay stopped pursuing fame to focus on his Christian ministry that the singer-songwriter got his due -- when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Buffalo Springfield in 1997.
Hoping to return to the pop music charts, Furay has released his first mainstream album in more than 25 years, "Heartbeat of Love," which features collaborations with Buffalo Springfield alumni Stephen Stills and Neil Young.
The famous dinosaur of Cabazon, California is seen in the foreground as a plume of smoke rises from the Millard fire in the hills north of Cabazon, California July 14, 2006. A massive California wildfire marched toward a mountain resort town and a brittle national forest on Thursday, threatening to combine with a second blaze in what state officials called a 'very critical' situation.
Photo by Gene Blevins
In a split decision Friday, a civil court jury awarded a former Michael Jackson adviser $900,000 - far less than he claimed in the money dispute - and awarded the pop star $200,000 in his cross-complaint.
F. Marc Schaffel originally sued for $3.8 million, but his claims were later reduced to $1.6 million, and his attorney ultimately asked the jury for $1.4 million in unpaid loans and expenses before deliberations began Thursday.
Jackson's attorney had said Schaffel owed the pop star $660,000.
An older meerkat is seen with thirty-day-old meerkat pups in this undated handout photo released July 13, 2006. Meerkats actively teach their young how to catch and eat their prey, British researchers said in a study that is one of the first to prove that animals show such complex behavior.
Photo courtesy of Andrew Radford/Sophie Lanfear/Alex Thornton/Katherine McAuliffe
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