'Best of TBH Politoons'
Weekly Link
Humor Gazette
Despite scattered reports of violence, U.S. shoppers sustained minimal
casualties during the first few days of the holiday shopping blitz that began
last Friday.
But rampant consumerism turned deadly at a Wal-Mart in Kentucky yesterday when
two shoppers were slain by a heavily armed Robosapien, a remote-control robot
that is one of this year's hottest gifts. Police are trying to determine
whether the toy acted alone or was operated by a disgruntled human.
For the rest:
Reader Suggestions
from Bruce
"In today's multi-media world, monitoring the "coarsening" of America's culture is certain to keep the "opportunistic ayatollahs on the right" busy. Bare-breasted babes and naked actresses seducing wide receivers are more than enough to spur high-powered Christian right organizations like the American Family Association (AFA) to action.
Reader Recommendation
'Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working'
Marty,
Sat 04 Dec 04 at 8 AM and 5 PM on 531 TRUE CHANNEL (DTV) is another showing of "Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working", a 2001 documentary of the artist at work outside, producing a range of MARVELOUSLY evocative yet simple artforms, using natural materials, including found ice.
Very beautiful; I really enjoyed it.
It also replays on the 9th and 15th.
Paul in LA
Thanks, Paul!
Paul Berenson
Another Side of the News
What's going on in Ukraine??? Who are these guys, Yushchenko and Yanukovich?? We found out a lot about them and we'll share.
What are the geopolitical ramifications of who wins?? PNAC has made no secret of it's interest in controlling Caspian Sea OIL. 90% of Russian gas and OIL passes through Ukrainian pipelines on it's way to Europe. A Yushchenko victory could cost Russia over $10 billion a year in contracts and other revenue.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet is based in Sevastapol, Ukraine. PNAC advocates boxing Russia in militarily, and having US or NATO troops in Ukraine would be a major step.
Big protests in Canada against Bush this week. He thanked Canadians who waved at him with "all five fingers" while PM Paul Martin commented on the universality of "sign language." I wonder if Lynnette was the person being clubbed by Canadian riot police on the front page of the LA Times. We'll see if she calls to enlighten us. We may also talk about Ahhnuld.
Tune in to "Another Side of the News" with Paul Berenson, Saturdays 9am-10am (PDT) on KCSB-FM 91.9 or listen on our webcast
Your local phone calls are welcome at:
893-2424
893-2425
Outside of the Santa Barbara (CA) area:
1-805-893-2426
1-805-893-3757
If you're tired of the Limbaugh's, Fox News, Corporate Media, etc. and want to hear a Democrat with attitude, this is for you!
Join listeners and callers on the South Coast and across the nation listening on our webcast.
Give Paul a listen - he's smart & funny!
Purple Gene Reviews
John Fogerty At The Grand, SF
Purple Genes' review of John Fogerty's solo performance at the Grand in San Francisco:
I had a rock and roll band back in the called "Wilderness" and we were the opening act at the UC Stadium in Berkeley back in 1970 for a band called Creedence Clearwater Revival!
We had to go down to CCRs' Studio on 10th and Parker (also in Berkeley) - to co-ordinate the SHOW. Their studio was called "Cosmos Factory" and I remember how intense John Fogerty was at the time......."what kinda music do you guys play? Where's your record? Who writes your songs? He was full of questions, opinions and energy.
The Gig at the UC Stadium was great. 50,000 fans who couldn't WAIT for us to FINISH....we did Good! I had a song called "Wild River" that CCR and the Crowd loved but........Bring on the Band that does "Suzie Q" and "Proud Mary" and "Who'll Stop the Rain" Yeah !!!
When they got on stage to play (this was in the middle of the Vietnam Era) they started with a new song called "Fortunate Son"....."It aint me ....It aint me.....I aint no Fortunate Son...No No" Wow! I was just blown away.......I still remember the words......
Well the band broke up shortly after that. It was a rather bitter ending to what was two Brothers....Tom and John Fogerty...and ...two high school buddies ...Doug Clifford and Stu Cook who had been playing together forever....(the Playboys, the Blue Velvets, the Visions and the Golliwogs) in different named bands.....and had come to anacrimonious dis-alliances with Fantasy Records (Saul Zaentz).....and In band jealousies and disagreements over writing etc.....So John Fogerty said "Fuck it All" and SPLIT............ a number of years later he did a solo recording (where he played all the instruments) called the "Blue Ridge Rangers" ......and I kept hearing about him kicking around Northern California........
Last night he played a rare solo gig at the Grand in San Francisco to a packed audience!
He opened with his CCR hit "Travelin' Band". He played some songs from his new Album "Deja Vu" and then more CCR hits..."Chooglin'", "Centerfield", Bad Moon Rising", "Willy and the Poor Boys" and more....this three guitar band was banging out all those funky swamp soaked telecaster licks and John, who is 59 years old, still sings with absolute conviction.......But I came for one song and one song only......."Fortunate Son"....and Fogerty delivered (he did this song with Bruce Springsteen in the Kerry campaign "Rock for Change")...wailing and screaming plaintifly...."Some folks are born, made to wave the Flag...oooh they're Red, White and Blue.....And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief" oooh the point the cannon at YOU.....It aint me ...Ite aint me..I anit no senators son! It aint me ...It aint me ...I aint no fortunate one no...."
Hey John Fogerty....you are soooooo right it is Deja Vu...all over again except we're in Iraq and not Vietnam......"Some folks inheret Star Spangled Eyes and they send you down to War..lord...And when you ask them "How much should we give? Oh the only answer "More..More..more..."....It ain me ..it aint me..I aint no senators son...no...It aint me ..it aint me..I aint no Fortunate One..No..." I was happy and inspired ...the crowd was happy and exstatic John was happy exhausted......what a great gig!
What was said yesterday is still relevent today! Thanks John Fogerty for sticking around...we're going to need your song to sing in the streets next Summer...
Purple Gene give John Fogerty 10 old burnt draft cards out of 10 for being so right, so relevent and so rock and roll!!!!!
Purple Gene
Thanks, Gene!
My very first concert was at the old Inglewood Forum, with Toni Jo White, Tower of Power & Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Jeez, now that I think about it, it was so long ago I was still a virgin.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still cold, clear & sunny by day.
Had a bad case of sticker shock, well technically register receipt shock, at the grocery store today.
Romaine lettuce that was $2 last week is now $2.50. Iceberg is even more.
And the higher prices weren't only in the produce aisles.
Yeah, I hate shopping.
Canceled by CNBC After Four Months
'McEnroe'
CNBC said Friday it canceled its heavily promoted talk show "McEnroe," which occasionally registered a zero rating.
The show, which debuted on the business channel in July, marked tennis great John McEnroe's first foray into the talk arena. But his fans did not follow: A few times it garnered a 0.0 rating in households, according to Nielsen Media Research.
"McEnroe" will be seen in originals and repeats until the end of the year. It will be replaced by "The Big Idea" with ad exec Donny Deutsch, a show that will go from a once-a-week airing to five days a week beginning sometime in late January.
'McEnroe'
Zuzu Bailey In 'It's a Wonderful Life'
Karolyn Grimes
Who hasn't spent part of a holiday season watching "It's a Wonderful Life"? Even the most devoted fans of Frank Capra's 1946 classic film might find something new in its black-and-white images after listening to Karolyn Grimes.
She played Zuzu Bailey, the little girl with the memorable movie-ending line: "Look, Daddy: Teacher says that every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings."
Grimes, 64, said she's seen the movie, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, so many times she's beyond paying attention to the story and acting and instead focuses on the subtleties others may overlook.
"Like for instance, there's a point where Mary and George are asked to go to Florida with Sam Wainwright and his wife. Very subtly, (Mary) rubs her tummy - and that night she tells him she's on the nest," Grimes said.
Karolyn Grimes
Punk'd By Dow Impostor
BBC Apologizes
The BBC's international TV news channel apologized on Friday after being duped into airing an interview with a fake Dow Chemical spokesman who said the U.S. company accepted responsibility for India's Bhopal disaster.
BBC World broadcast the comments twice by a man identified as Jude Finisterra, but later said it had been the victim of "an elaborate deception."
A Dow Chemical spokeswoman in Switzerland confirmed the BBC report was wrong and that the man was not a Dow employee. The Bhopal factory was owned by Union Carbide, now a Dow subsidiary.
Finisterra, whose identity could not be confirmed, later told BBC's Radio 4 he was part of the group Yes Men, which hoaxes businesses and governments and which has gone after Dow before over Bhopal.
BBC Apologizes
Jewish Songs Expand Image
Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie was a dust bowl drifter, a guitar strummer and a proto-folkie who wrote enduring songs about America's workers and underdogs. He also was a longtime New York City resident who relished Jewish culture and wrote pages of unpublished lyrics about Hanukkah, Jewish history and spirituality.
That "other" Guthrie is now in the spotlight, decades after his death.
A batch of his Jewish lyrics has been dusted off, set to music and recorded by the Klezmatics, a New York City band that puts its unique spin on traditional Jewish klezmer music. The recently released "Happy Joyous Hanuka" CD includes loopy lines about dancing around the Hanukkah tree and a serious treatment of the Jews' bloody history.
Arlo Guthrie, who's joining the Klezmatics to perform the songs in concert, said they show his father's musical vision was broader than the Great Plains and freight trains. Woody Guthrie, it seems, was eqs and freight trains. Woody Guthrie, it seems, was equally comfortable writing about Tom Joad or Judah Maccabee.
For a lot more, Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie Foundation & Archives
The Klezmatics
New Free Weekly Launching in L.A.
'Our Weekly'
A new weekly is jumping into the competition for African-American newspaper readers in Los Angeles.
Former Los Angeles Times advertising executive Natalie Cole announced Friday the Jan. 13 launch of Our Weekly, a tabloid with 50,000-copy free distribution that includes door-to-door delivery to affluent African American south L.A. neighborhoods including Ladera, Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills, View Park, Leimert Park, LaFayette Park Square, North Inglewood, and Mid-City.
The first issue will have 60 pages, according to Director of Marketing Robert Phillips. A prototype on the paper's Web site, shows a full color, magazine-style cover.
Cole spent 23 years in advertising positions at the Los Angeles Times. When she left that paper, she was director of sales development and general merchandise and also director of inside sales for the Recycler, a shopper. In 2002 she became associate publisher of the alternative L.A. Weekly, a post she resigned a few months ago.
'Our Weekly'
Baby News
Dern - Harper
Actress Laura Dern and musician Ben Harper are the parents of a baby girl, a publicist said Friday.
The couple's daughter was born Nov. 28 at Dern's Los Angeles home, said her spokeswoman, Cara Tripicchio. A name wasn't released.
The couple also have a son, Ellery Walker, 3, who was born in 2001.
Dern - Harper
Seeks to Void Indecency Fines
Faux TV
Fox Broadcasting Co. and 155 Fox televisions stations on Friday urged U.S. communications regulators to rescind their proposed $1.18 million fine for airing allegedly indecent content on the "Married by America" show.
The network and stations said the Federal Communications Commission's attempt to fine the stations violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution and contradicted the agency's past decisions.
The FCC said it proposed fining the stations $7,000 each for airing an April 2003 episode of the matchmaking reality program that showed sexually explicit and graphic scenes at a time when children were likely to be watching.
Faux TV
Teen's Parents Sue Actor
Nick Nolte
Parents of a teenage girl have sued Nick Nolte, alleging their daughter was drugged and sexually assaulted at a party at the actor's Malibu home two years ago.
The lawsuit, filed Nov. 29 in Superior Court, also lists an employee and several others as defendants. One of the defendants, Nicholas Woodring, was convicted in March of having sex with the girl, then 15 and a minor.
"The incident happened nearly two years ago, when Mr. Nolte was not at the property," Nolte's publicist Arnold Robinson said Thursday. "It is our understanding that the individual responsible has been held accountable. Mr. Nolte was at the time, and still remains, concerned for the young lady's well-being."
Nick Nolte
Storied Wine Collection Goes to Auction
Czar Nicholas II
Nestled in cellars tunneled deep into a Crimean mountainside, they survived revolution, war and decades of communism.
Hundreds of bottles of wine selected for the pleasure of Czar Nicholas II and preserved on the orders of Josef Stalin were auctioned by Sotheby's in London on Friday - the latest in a slew of Russian collectibles being snapped up at ever-rising prices.
Several dozen Russian and European collectors gathered at Sotheby's showrooms to bid on bottles, some more than 150 years old and valued at several thousand dollars, from the imperial Massandra winery near Yalta on Ukraine's Black Sea coast.
Czar Nicholas II
Goes Under the Hammer in London
Pieter Brueghel the Younger
A riotously profane picture of a village fete by Pieter Brueghel the Younger that has not been seen in public for 70 years goes under the hammer in London next week.
"The Kermesse of St. George," described by Sotheby's as the finest work by the 17th century Flemish artist still in private hands, is expected to fetch up to 3.5 million pounds ($6.8 million) at the Dec. 8 sale.
The vividly colored picture, painted in 1628 just 10 years before Brueghel's death, has been in the hands of a Belgian family since 1930.
It shows inebriated villagers drinking, fighting, kissing, urinating, dancing, vomiting and defecating with complete abandon.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger
No Buyer for Famed Christmas Poem
Bah Humbug!
A rare autographed copy of the poem known as "'Twas the night before Christmas," which was estimated to fetch at least $200,000, failed to find a buyer at an auction on Friday, Sotheby's said.
The manuscript is one of only four known autographed copies of Clement Clarke Moore's poem formally titled "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The auction house did not reveal the name of the seller.
Moore, a Hebrew scholar, did not acknowledge that he was the author of the poem until 1837 after Charles Fenno Hoffman's anthology, "The New-York Book of Poetry," revealed his name.
Bah Humbug!
Goal of Republican Lawmaker
Gay Book Ban
An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.
A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda."
Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.
Gay Book Ban
Historic Hollywood Film Lot Is Sold
Sunset-Gower Studios
One of Hollywood's most storied film lots has been sold.
The former Columbia Pictures headquarters, most recently known as Sunset-Gower Studios, was acquired by Menlo Park, Calif., private equity firm GI Partners. It landed the 17-acre property, which includes the Nickelodeon Theater, from Pick-Vanoff Co. at a price real estate industry sources put at $110 million.
The lot has one of the richest histories in the entertainment industry, dating to a tiny studio that movie tycoon Harry Cohn bought on Sunset Boulevard between Gower Street and Beachwood Drive in 1920. After it became home to Columbia Pictures in 1924, some of Columbia's most noteworthy films - among them "It Happened One Night," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "From Here to Eternity" and "Funny Girl" - were shot there. Some celebrated television shows were made on the lot too, including the 1960s hits "I Dream of Jeannie" and "Bewitched."
Sunset-Gower Studios
In Memory
Alicia Markova
Alicia Markova, one of the great ballerinas of the 20th century who founded and presided over the English National Ballet, died a day after her 94th birthday.
Markova, who was born Lillian Alicia Marks, founded the company with Anton Dolin in 1950 and continued her work until just a few months ago when her health began to fail.
She made her stage debut at the age of 10 as Salome in a pantomime of Dick Wittington when she was billed as 'Little Alicia, the child Pavlova'.
After training at Serafina Astavieva's studio in Chelsea, she joined Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes troupe in 1924.
After Diaghilev's death Markova played a significant role in the establishment of British ballet, working with the Vic-Wells Royal Ballet, the Camargo Society and the Ballet Club/Rambert.
In 1935, she co-founded the Markova-Dolin Ballet, the first of several companies which led to the foundation of Festival Ballet, now known as English National Ballet.
Alicia Markova
