Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Noam Chomsky: Crisis and Hope (bostonreview.net)
"If I want to get home from work," observes Noam Chomsky, "the market offers me a choice between a Ford and a Toyota, but not between a car and a subway"...
Mark Morford: The end of monster sushi (sfgate.com)
Soon, no more giant rainbow rolls and inflated unagi. Do you really care?
Naomi Alderman: Too fat to be a model? The picture that caused a storm in the fashion world (guardian.co.uk)
Lizzie Miller is considered too large to model plus-size clothes. Is the reaction that followed the publication of this picture going to change that?
Phil Daoust: I lost 22kg in eight months, and got control of my life back (guardian.co.uk)
Eight months ago, I was fat, did no exercise and mostly ate junk food. Then I decided to transform my life - and to my surprise it really wasn't that hard.
Jonah Weiner: SpongeBob BaggyPants (slate.com)
The strange, persistent demand for T-shirts featuring "urbanized" cartoon characters.
Jerry Crowe: Meet the only man to pinch-hit for Ted Williams (latimes.com)
It happened so quickly -- almost in the blink of an eye -- that Carroll Hardy remembers precious few details.
JERRY CROWE: Rich Pohle has some tales to tell (latimes.com)
He says he once so convincingly forged a phony identity that the San Diego Padres signed him to a contract even though he actually was 36.
Hannah Pool: "Question time: David Bailey" (guardian.co.uk)
The photographer fears that modern magazine pictures relies more on retouching than camerawork - but that suits him just fine.
Connie Ogle: A Sly take on '60s culture (McClatchy Newspapers)
His kids get a kick out of their iPod shuffles, but Ben Greenman fondly remembers the old days, when as a 10-year-old music lover he'd spend his time rummaging for treasures through the funk bins at local music stores.
SARAH BOSLAUGH: "Back to the '50's and Up to the Present" (popmatters.com)
Jules Feiffer's groundbreaking Village Voice comics delivered a satirical take on current events and paved the way for many contemporary strips.
Jody Rosen: You Must Confront the Cultural Force That Is Taylor Swift (slate.com)
Last Thursday, the 19-year-old singer-songwriter Taylor Swift played Madison Square Garden. A headlining show at the Garden is a watershed moment for any musician. For Swift, it was exclamation point on the obvious: singing smart, catchy songs about teenage romance in the suburbs, she has become the biggest pop star in the Unites States.
Dan DeLuca: MC-singer-songwriter has a growing rep, and her label has big licensing plans (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
It wasn't until Amanda Blank started making music that she realized what kind of music she was going to be making.
The Ketchup Song (youtube.com)
The Weekly Poll
Next question will be September 8th as I'm taking a 'birthday' week off (and to aggravate my SallyP(al), haha)...
BadToTheBoneBob
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot, still humid, still cranky.
Detroit Area Skating Event
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore wants all movie and/or roller skating fans to join her in suburban Detroit next week for a get-together in support of her new movie.
Barrymore is making her directorial debut with next month's "Whip It," which filmed scenes in Michigan and is centered around the world of roller derby.
The 34-year-old actress and filmmaker will walk the red carpet and host the skating event Sept. 11 at Bonaventure Skating Center in Farmington Hills.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own skates, or they can rent them for a fee.
Drew Barrymore
Artists Protest
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is under attack for its decision to present a series of films spotlighting the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, which a group of high-profile artists and celebrities say constitutes complicity in "the Israeli propaganda machine".
At issue is the festival's new City to City program, which will present 10 films focused on Tel Aviv.
Canadian filmmaker John Greyson last week pulled his documentary "Covered" from the festival in protest, and a statement published online on Thursday and signed by more than 50 artists, academics, and filmmakers likened the program to a celebration of apartheid-era South Africa.
"This program ignores the suffering of thousands of former residents and descendants of the (Tel Aviv) area who currently live in refugee camps in the Occupied Territories or who have been dispersed to other countries," say the signatories, which include actors Jane Fonda and Danny Glover, author Naomi Klein, and filmmaker Ken Loach.
They accuse the festival of taking direction from the "Brand Israel" campaign, which seeks to improve the country's image and has focused on Toronto as a test city.
Toronto International Film Festival
Turns: Comic Crimefighter
Tim Gunn
Tim Gunn is taking his fight against fashion crimes from the workrooms of "Project Runway" to the pages of a comic book. And, wow, does he get to wear a power suit.
The "Loaded Gunn" story line - to save an exhibit of extraordinary superhero clothes from a cadre of villains - is part of a book that reintroduces a group of Marvel's high-fashion "Models Inc." comic characters from the 1960s.
"It's a little `America's Next Top Model' - without Tyra (Banks) - and a little `Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,'" says Marvel editor Charlie Beckerman.
The Gunn project evolved on a whim, but it turned out Gunn was a childhood comic fan and a good sport, Beckerman says.
Tim Gunn
Baby News
Walker Nathaniel Diggs
Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs are new parents of a baby boy.
A publicist for the actors said Walker Nathaniel Diggs was born Wednesday. "Mother, father and son are all doing well," Jessica Kolstad said in a statement Thursday.
Walker is the first child for Diggs and Menzel, both 38. The couple wed in 2003.
Walker Nathaniel Diggs
Radio Towers Toppled
ELF
Two radio station towers near Seattle that have generated intense local opposition were toppled early Friday in an act of sabotage that bore the initials of the radical Earth Liberation Front.
The towers for KRKO-AM - one of which was 349 feet tall - were torn down because of health and environmental concerns, according to an e-mail from the North American ELF Press Office, which has represented the shadowy group in the past.
The ELF is a loose collection of radical environmentalists that has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks since the 1990s. A banner that bore the initials of the ELF was left at the scene, authorities said.
The towers apparently were taken down with a track hoe, a piece of heavy construction equipment that was already on the site, FBI agent Marty Prewett said.
ELF
Appeals Court Rules Against
John "Let the Eagle Soar" Ashcroft
A federal appeals court delivered a stinging rebuke Friday to the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 detention policies, ruling that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held liable for people who were wrongfully detained as material witnesses after 9/11.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government's improper use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 was "repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."
The court found that a man who was detained as a witness in a federal terrorism case can sue Ashcroft for allegedly violating his constitutional rights. Abdullah al-Kidd, a U.S. citizen and former University of Idaho student, filed the lawsuit against Ashcroft and other officials in 2005, claiming his civil rights were violated when he was detained as a material witness for two weeks in 2003.
Ashcroft had asked the judge to dismiss the matter, saying that because his position at the Department of Justice was prosecutorial he was entitled to absolute immunity from the lawsuit. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller would only say Friday that the agency is reviewing the opinion.
"Sadly, however, even now, more than 217 years after the ratification of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, some confidently assert that the government has the power to arrest and detain or restrict American citizens for months on end, in sometimes primitive conditions, not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing, or to prevent them from having contact with others in the outside world," Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. wrote. "We find this to be repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history."
John "Let the Eagle Soar" Ashcroft
Awarded $200 Million
TiVo
A U.S. district court awarded TiVo Inc, a maker of DVR boxes, nearly $200 million in damages in its long-running patent case with DISH Network Corp and EchoStar Corp.
The U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas ruled to impose contempt sanctions against sister companies DISH and EchoStar for violating a court-ordered permanent injunction from April 2008 through July 1, 2009.
TiVo had originally asked the court to impose costs of nearly $1 billion on Dish and EchoStar, but the judge ruled that was "unreasonable".
The court found that contempt sanctions equal to a rate of $2.25 per DVR subscriber per month were appropriate.
TiVo
Back To Court
McDonald's vs McCurry
An eight-year legal battle between fast food giant McDonald's and a Malaysian restaurant called McCurry over copyright infringement is set to continue on Monday in the country's highest court.
McDonald's, which has 185 outlets in Malaysia, is appealing against the decision made on April 29 that its trademark had not been infringed upon by the local restaurant, which has one outlet in the Southeast Asian country's capital of Kuala Lumpur.
McCurry serves Malaysian staples such as fish head curry and is short for "Malaysian Chicken Curry," according to the company website (http://www.mccurryrecipe.com).
Monday's hearing in the federal court will determine if the case goes to another trial.
McDonald's vs McCurry
Vienna Artwork
'Reason to Believe'
A small crowd of people wonder if the smart businessman clutching a briefcase will jump off the edge of a four-storey building in central Vienna -- but he won't. He can't.
The man, dressed in a grey suit, dark shoes and a black hat, is a life-size plastic art installation, which will be perched atop the office of an investment and real estate company for the next year.
The artist, Austrian Ronald Kodritsch, says the piece -- called "Reason to Believe" -- is not necessarily about suicide.
"It's not interesting whether he will jump or not. It's all about having a different perspective on things and about what might cross his mind," Kodritsch told Reuters. "Hyperrealism is boring!"
'Reason to Believe'
In Memory
Keith Waterhouse
British writer Keith Waterhouse, whose best known novel "Billy Liar" shone a light on life in a drab post-war England, died Friday at his London home, his family said. He was 80.
Waterhouse drew on his humble upbringing in the industrial north for his enduring tale of a bored undertaker's clerk who fantasizes about escaping his mundane life for the glamour of the big city.
Waterhouse said he wanted to portray the lost world of the 1950s where everything closed early and "sex-starved" teenagers searched for fun in a handful of dancehalls and cinemas.
After selling well in paperback, the book was adapted for the big screen by director John Schlesinger, with Tom Courtenay in the lead role.
In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Waterhouse also wrote the screenplay for famous British films such as "Whistle Down the Wind" and chronicled the alcohol-fueled life of London journalism in the popular play "Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell."
The youngest of five children, Waterhouse was born in the city of Leeds in 1929. After leaving school with no qualifications at 14, he worked as a newspaper delivery boy and window cleaner.
After serving in the Royal Air Force, he broke into London's Fleet Street, the infamous "Street of Shame" that was the alcohol-fueled home to national newspapers for decades.
Waterhouse served as a correspondent in the United States and Russia before going on to write thousands of plain-spoken columns for the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail tabloids.
Twice married and twice divorced, he had been suffering from an unspecified illness and had been cared for by his second ex-wife, Stella Bingham, according to the Mail, his last paper.
Keith Waterhouse
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