Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Emily Bazelon: What if Trayvon Martin Was the One Acting in Self-Defense? (Slate)
There are plenty of reasons to believe his killer isn't telling the truth.
Jed Lewison: Mitt Romney is right to be rattled about being labeled Mr. Etch-A-Sketch (Daily kos)
Romney expects people to take him at his word, but his word constantly changes. It's as if Mitt Romney believes that nothing he says actually has any meaning except for the very last thing he said. He seems to believe that he can simply erase anything that he's said in the past whenever it becomes politically inconvenient-just like an Etch-A-Sketch. So when Mitt Romney's own campaign compared him to an Etch-A-Sketch, it was as damning as it was indelible. Mr. Etch-A-Sketch isn't a label that Mitt Romney is going to be able to erase-and he's right to be rattled about it.
Froma Harrop: Sky Not Falling With Japanese Birthrates (Creators Syndicate)
There's one complaint visitors to Tokyo rarely make, and that is "not enough people." With a population of 36 million, the Tokyo metropolitan area stuffs an average 6,800 people in each square mile. By contrast, the New York metro area, with 19 million residents, has a density of 2,800 people per square mile.
David Weir: Ruth Ann Nordin Shares Her Secrets to Success (Smashwords)
Everyone's experience will be different. Sales rise and fall. Publishing new books help to get out of the dips, but not all books sell the same. Some books sell better than others, and there's no way to tell which will sell well. All you can do is write the best book you can, put an attractive cover and title on it, write the best description you can, and put it out there. Most of all, have fun writing because in the end, that's really at the heart of what we're doing: writing books that mean something to us.
Miriam Krule: The Hunger Names (Slate)
The names can be roughly divided into two groups: Characters from the poor, depleted districts are named after plants or other earthy items; those from the regal capital have a Roman influence.
Kenneth Turan: "Review: 'The Hunger Games' a winning story of sacrifice and survival" (LA Times)
'The Hunger Games' needed the right Katniss to survive, and Jennifer Lawrence thrives in the role.
Katie Roiphe: Is 'The Hunger Games' Publicity Too Hunger Games-ish? (Slate)
Ooh, I love my new forged metal heels!
Tori Bosche: Climate Change in 'The Hunger Games' (Slate)
How dystopian young-adult fiction is tackling the social consequences of global warming.
Rick Schwartz: 'The Hunger Games' Bombs! (Not Really)
The studio executive looked at me and said, "we love this project. We had marketing, international and distribution weigh in and ran all the numbers -- we're projecting a roughly $40m profit." $40m! As he rambled on about quadrants and demographics, I started daydreaming about how hard it would be to get Kate Upton on a private jet to Anguilla to discuss the situation in Iran -- or anything else she wanted to talk about, like swimsuits or hair. The executive finished his monologue with this gem: "So we're passing."
Jonathan Jones: how I learned to look - and listen (Guardian)
The age of the art critic as an unassailable voice of authority is long gone. Jonathan Jones recalls his rude awakening to the force of digital debate, and the era of readers biting back.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
Running way late so no trip report today. : (
Fetch $503K At Auction
Movie Posters
A collection of rare movie theater posters found in a northeastern Pennsylvania attic has fetched a total of $503,000 at auction.
The sale of 33 posters from the Golden Age of Hollywood ended Friday at Heritage Auctions in Texas.
The auction house said a rare 1931 poster for the movie "Dracula" topped the list with a selling price of $143,400. It sold to an anonymous overseas buyer.
A surprise of the auction was the $101,575 price paid for the rare poster of the 1931 movie "Cimarron," the first Western to win the Best Picture Academy Award.
Movie Posters
Disney Image Displayed
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
One of Walt Disney's oldest drawings is seeing the light of day after being locked away for nearly 40 years.
A rough 1928 image of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the wacky predecessor to Mickey Mouse, was brought out of the The Walt Disney Co. archive this week and showcased at an event unveiling "Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two," an upcoming action-adventure game for Nintendo's Wii, Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 that allows players to control both Mickey and Oswald.
The mischievous Oswald was co-created by Disney before Mickey, but he was lost in a 1928 contract dispute with Universal Studios. Oswald hopped back to Disney in 2006 when CEO Bob Iger brokered a deal that sent sportscaster Al Michaels to Universal-NBC. Oswald's first appearance since his return came in 2010's "Epic Mickey" as the ruler of a forgotten realm.
"We've always known about the character and loved him and wished that we could do things with him, but he wasn't a character that belonged to us," said Walt Disney Co. archive director Becky Cline. "In 2006, we were over the moon when Bob Iger made (the deal)."
Cline noted that most of the drawings from Disney's early Oswald cartoons were destroyed, likely because there was a lack of storage when his studio moved to a new facility in Burbank, Calif., in 1939. She said the image of Oswald comes from a box of drawings that was found in the 1970s and has been preserved in the Disney archives for the past 40 years.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Latest Comic Book
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is barging into the pages of his own comic book as a character based on himself who rubs elbows with superheroes - call it a cameo for the reality TV age.
His new series "Stan Lee's Mighty 7", which hit stores this week, is inspired by reality television and throws into the mix real-life characters - like Lee himself, the creator of such Marvel Comics icons as Spider-Man and The X-Men.
Those creations have made the 89-year-old Lee a legend in the comic industry, but since leaving Marvel and starting his own company POW! Entertainment in 2001 his latest projects have met with more limited success. That does not phase Lee.
"Somehow I think the only thing that could tarnish my legacy would be ... in fact I can't think of anything that could tarnish it, because those things have already been done, and nobody can take them back," Lee told Reuters in a phone interview.
Stan Lee
Newly Discovered Piece Performed
Wolfgang Mozart
A piano work experts attribute to Mozart as a child prodigy was performed for the first time Friday since it was found last year after apparently being left in an attic for centuries.
The lively 84-bar passage - marked "allegro molto," or "very quick" - was played Friday on the composer's piano in a room of his Salzburg home by virtuoso Florian Birsak.
The Mozarteum Salzburg Foundation, which staged the event, said the manuscript was found last summer as part of a 160-page book of handwritten piano music as the musty attic of a house in Tyrol was being cleared from centuries of detritus.
Part of a collection of notes from a village music teacher, the book was dated 1780 - 24 years after Mozart was born - and the manuscript played Friday bore the name "Del Signore Giovane Wolfgango Mozart," Italian for "Mr. Wolfgang Mozart Jr."
Musicologist Hildegard Hermann-Schneider, who traced the composition to Mozart, said the fact that other pieces in the book were known works by Mozart's father, Leopold, strengthened the case that the work was genuine. As well, Leopold Mozart often used "Wolfgango" when labeling works written by his young son, she said. From the style of the composition, Hermann-Schneider attributed it to Mozart at around the age of 11.
Wolfgang Mozart
Now Based In NYC
James Murdoch
James Murdoch has severed all ties with News Corp's British newspaper business, which is at the centre of multiple investigations over phone and computer hacking and bribery, according to regulatory filings.
Murdoch is under scrutiny for his role in failing to uncover systematic illegal interception of phone calls at the News of the World newspaper, which was shut down last July, and stepped down as chairman of News Corp's UK publishing arm last month.
One document filed this week shows that Murdoch has resigned from the board of Times Newspaper Holdings, which was set up to guarantee the independence of the Times of London and the Sunday Times when News Corp acquired the titles in 1981.
Earlier documents show that Murdoch stepped down from the boards of holding companies News Corp Investments and News International Publishers Ltd shortly after resigning as chairman of News International, News Corp's UK publishing arm.
Murdoch was recently appointed deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and is now based in New York, where he is focusing on the media conglomerate's pay-TV businesses.
James Murdoch
Eyeing Indiana Governor's Race
Rupert Boneham
Former reality TV star Rupert Boneham said he thinks he has a real shot at becoming Indiana's next governor after being nominated as a third-party choice Saturday.
The fan favorite from 2004's "Survivor: All-Stars" was unopposed for the Libertarian Party's nomination, which came during the party's state convention in Indianapolis.
"My aim, honestly, is to win governor," Boneham said in a phone interview afterward. "I really feel I have a strong chance of pulling not just the Libertarian vote, but the independent vote, the undecided vote, and maybe even some votes from Democrats and Republicans."
He will face Republican Mike Pence and Democrat John Gregg in November's gubernatorial election. Current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is limited to two terms and cannot run again.
Rupert Boneham
Posthumous Wedding
France
The pregnant girlfriend of a French soldier killed in a dramatic gun rampage will wed her partner posthumously, a family lawyer said Saturday.
Paratrooper Abel Chennouf was shot dead earlier this month at a cash machine in southern France, one of a series of killings blamed on 24-year-old Islamist fanatic Mohamed Merah.
Lawyer Gilbert Collard said that Chennouf's pregnant girlfriend, 21-year-old Caroline Monet, is applying for permission to get married to her late partner at an official ceremony in a few weeks' time.
Such ceremonies are unusual but not unheard of in France, where the law allow posthumous marriages in cases where a fiance dies before the wedding. The law states that such weddings can only be approved by the French president "in grave circumstances."
"I've already had it done twice, for policemen's girlfriends," Collard said in a telephone interview. "It's a really moving ceremony, with an empty chair representing the dead spouse."
France
Hollywood Trade Magazine Up For Sale
Variety
Variety, a trade magazine that has covered Hollywood for more than 100 years, is up for sale.
Its owner, a unit of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, announced the decision Friday in a story on Variety's website.
Reed Business Information Chief Executive Mark Kelsey said in a statement that it makes sense to sell the business, just as Reed has sold its other U.S. print magazines. Reed sold book trade magazine Publisher's Weekly in 2010 and pay TV industry magazine Multichannel News in 2009. It is also selling its Australian business publications.
Variety, which dates back to 1905, is facing stiff competition covering the business of Hollywood from websites such as Deadline and The Wrap, as well as The Hollywood Reporter, its longtime rival that was revamped in 2010 under new ownership.
Variety
Borat Anthem Played By Mistake
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's shooting team demanded an apology after a spoof national anthem from the comedy film Borat was played instead of the real one at a medal ceremony in Kuwait, the BBC reported on Friday.
The team's coach told Kazakh media the organizers of the Kuwait tournament had downloaded the parody from the internet by mistake and had also got the Serbian national anthem wrong.
Footage of Thursday's original ceremony shows gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko listening solemnly to the anthem before smiling. The ceremony was later rerun.
The spoof anthem, from the movie featuring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", praises Kazakhstan for its superior potassium exports and for having the cleanest prostitutes in the region.
Kazakhstan
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
