Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ted Rall: "WHY WE HATE THEM: Mistreated Customers Fuel Populist Rage"
"Populist anger in America is the anger of dispossession," writes Newsweek's Rick Perlstein. "The delinking of effort and reward has become all too manifest. That always makes Americans angry. We do not like to reward those who do not produce."
Emily Bazelon: The Real World Threw Up All Over Us (slate.com)
How twentysomethings are coping with the recession.
Emily Bazelon: Messy House, Messy Minds (slate.com)
The connections among kids, reading, and an orderly home.
William Zinsser: Visions and Revisions (theamericanscholar.org)
Writing "On Writing Well" and keeping it up-to-date for 35 years.
Audra D.S. Burch: Hip-hop star is an un-Common artist (McClatchy Newspapers)
Well before the government declared the country to be in recession, Common - the Chicago hip-hop artist - was already chronicling its pain.
Colin Covert: Virginia Madsen's movie career has been haunted by a lack of good scripts (Star Tribune)
She's been a prominent film actress since the 1980s, but there's still more of Chicago than Hollywood in Virginia Madsen. In a telephone interview, the "Haunting in Connecticut" star was refreshingly candid about the ups and downs of her life and career.
Marc Calderaro: Review of "Ikiru," Directed by Akira Kurosawa (popmatters.com)
The closing shot from Akira Kurosawa's "Ikiru" is one of the most apt and condensed shots in the last 60 years of cinema. The slow fade out from power lines over a gorgeous sunset encapsulates all the film's human and inhuman metaphors. Though much of the 1952 chef-d'oeuvre is a sentimental journey following the last days of an old, cancer-ridden bureaucrat, "Ikiru" also functions as a critique of post-war Japan, and the dangers of westernizing at the expense of Japanese livelihood.
Jessica Winter: Monsters vs. Aliens (slate.com)
Has Dreamworks finally made its Pixar movie?
Roger Ebert: Monsters vs. Aliens (PG; 2 1/2 stars)
"Monsters vs. Aliens" is possibly the most commercial title of the year. How can you resist such a premise, especially if it's in 3-D animation? Very readily, in my case. I will say this first and get it out of the way: 3-D is a distraction and an annoyance. Younger moviegoers may think they like it because they've been told to, and picture quality is usually far from their minds. But for anyone who would just like to be left alone to see the darned thing, like me, it's a constant nudge in the ribs saying never mind the story, just see how neat I look.
Roger Ebert: The best train set a boy could ever want
It's a good thing Ebertfest is no longer called the Overlooked Film Festival. One of my choices this year, "Frozen River," was in danger of being overlooked when I first invited it, but then it realized the dream of every indie film, found an audience and won two Oscar nominations. Yet even after the Oscar nods, it has grossed only about $2.5 million and has been unseen in theaters by most of the nation.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Withnail & I" (1987; A Great Movie)
In my drinking days, some of us would gather around noon on Saturdays at Oxford's Pub for what we called Drunch. We would commence with shots of creme de menthe and pint glasses of real Coke, in the hope that a combination of alcohol, sugar and caffeine would restore us. Then we would laugh until the tears ran down our faces about the hilarity of the dreadful things that had happened the night before. In doing this, I would often quote "We laugh, that we may not cry," although just now I have discovered that no one originally said that. I always thought it was Shakespeare. It was me.
The Weekly Poll
The next Poll will be April 7th - BadToTheBoneBob's 'out state' on vacation.
Who is the only actor to appear in both pilots of the original "Star Trek" (1966) TV series?
A few years before 'Star Trek', Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner both guest starred on the same episode of which TV show?
noted:
Reader Suggestion
David Lynch/Brian Eno Mashup
Hey Marty,
I made a little David Lynch thing you might like.
you can find it on my blog here. Let me know how you like it. Thanks.
Jayson
Thanks, Jayson!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
Visits Shakira's Colombian School
Bill Clinton
Former US president Bill Clinton arrived in the Colombian port city of Barranquilla Saturday to visit a school built with the help of pop star Shakira to help disadvantaged youths in the region.
The former president, who is married to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visited the Pies Descalzos college, 990 kilometers (615 miles) north of Bogata, to see how it is supporting nutrition programs for some 1,600 children.
Afterwards Clinton was set to head to the Colombian city of Medellin to participate in the 50th Board of Governors meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank.
As part of his visit to Latin America, Clinton was also to visit projects launched and funded by Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, a partnership of public public and private sector investments in developing countries around the world.
Bill Clinton
Special Screening
Monty Python
Two members of the Monty Python team attended a special screening of Life of Brian at a small seaside town that banned the film 30 years ago.
Terry Jones and Michael Palin were the main attractions at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in West Wales for a sell-out showing of the film that outraged many Christians on its release in 1979.
The pair were joined by Aberystwyth town council mayor Sue Jones-Davies, who before entering politics, was an actress who played Judith Iscariot in the film.
She came up with the idea of screening the film for charity after learning of its long-standing ban in the town.
Monty Python
3rd Place
CNN
CNN is poised to finish March third in the prime-time weeknight ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the first time this has ever happened for the channel that pioneered the cable news genre nearly three decades ago.
CNN says its overall business is healthy and it is not straying from its straight news path. But it is suffering more audience erosion than its rivals since the peak days of the presidential election, further proof that the opinionated prime-time shows on Fox and MSNBC have greater audience loyalty.
CNN's weekday prime-time ratings are relatively flat compared to last year during the primary campaign, up 1 percent from March 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox's ratings have jumped 30 percent and MSNBC, the new No. 2, is up 24 percent. The biggest growth in cable news is for CNN's partner, HLN, formerly Headline News, which is up 62 percent.
Fox remains on a mountain above its two closest competitors, with its prime-time audience in March more than that of MSNBC and CNN combined. "The O'Reilly Factor" has done particularly well, keeping more of its postelection audience than anything else on CNN and MSNBC.
CNN
Oakdale, CA
Testicle Festival
The fundraising idea may seem a little nuts, but Oakdale's annual Testicle Festival is always a big hit. On Monday, volunteers with the town's Rotary Club plan to fry up 400 pounds of the private parts of bulls and serve them to diners who pay $50 apiece for the sit-down meal.
The event, whose proceeds also benefit the Oakland Cowboy Museum, has drawn an average of 450 people and last year raised $28,000.
It's common practice on cattle ranches for young male bovines to be castrated into steers, which after the initial loss, eventually makes them more docile and easier to handle. Fans of the delicacy, also referred to as "mountain oysters," come from around the state.
According to Rotarians, everyone who buys a ticket is guaranteed to "have a ball."
Testicle Festival
Considers Trying Former US Officials
Spanish Court
A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.
Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.
The ex-Bush officials are Gonzales; former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.
Spanish law allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes under a doctrine of universal justice, though the government has recently said it hopes to limit the scope of the legal process.
Garzon became famous for bringing charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, and he and other Spanish judges have agreed to investigate alleged abuses everywhere from Tibet to Argentina's "dirty war," El Salvador and Rwanda.
Spanish Court
Blames AC/DC
Mirek Topolanek
Ousted Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek says he was inspired by the rock group AC/DC when he mocked U.S. President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plans as a "road to hell."
"AC/DC played here (in Prague) last week. And their cult song 'Highway to Hell' might have led me in that very improvised speech to use the phrase 'road to hell'," Topolanek was quoted by daily Lidovy Noviny as saying on Friday.
Topolanek, who is due to host Obama on in Prague on April 5 in a European Union-U.S. summit, said he would not apologize.
The day before his speech, Topolanek's center-right government lost a confidence vote and he was forced to resign.
Mirek Topolanek
Hundreds Of Juvenile Convictions Reversed
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's highest court on Thursday overturned hundreds of juvenile convictions issued by a corrupt judge who took millions of dollars in kickbacks from youth detention centers.
The state Supreme Court ruled that former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella violated the constitutional rights of youth offenders who appeared in his courtroom without lawyers between 2003 and 2008.
In one of the most egregious cases of judicial corruption ever seen, federal prosecutors charged Ciavarella and another Luzerne County judge, Michael Conahan, with taking $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in privately owned lockups.
Even before the scandal became public in late January, youth advocates had complained for years that Ciavarella was a harsh jurist who deprived youths of their constitutional rights.
Youths were routinely brought before Ciavarella without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent to detention for offenses as minor as stealing change from cars and writing prank notes.
Pennsylvania
Wildlife Perishes In Nets
Kenya
Plastic fishing nets - some bought for poor fishermen with American aid money - are tangling up whales and turtles off one of Africa's most popular beaches.
The fishermen have traditionally used hooks and hand lines to haul in their catch, which they then sold to hotels full of tourists. But the use of plastic nets has become increasingly common as growing populations have competed to catch shrinking supplies of fish, marine biologist David Obura said.
In 2003, USAID began a four-year project worth $575,000 to improve the lives of coastal communities. It worked on a project with a Kenyan government agency that included providing freezers for the fishermen to store their catch, along with boats and nets.
But the plastic nets are destroying the very ecosystems that the fishermen depend on and the tourists come to see, said Daniel Floren, who runs a local diving school.
The project did not provide the type of nets or long fishing lines - which catch fish without entangling other marine life - that fishermen requested, said Isaak Mwachala, head of one of the local fishermen's associations.
Kenya
White Elephant Sale
The widow of producer Aaron Spelling is placing "The Manor" in the exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood on the market for a jaw-dropping $150 million, making it by far the most expensive home for sale in the U.S.
The French chateau-style mansion has 56,500 square feet of space on more than 4.6 acres and is the largest home in Los Angeles County. Among the neighbors are the Los Angeles Country Club and, not too far away, the Playboy Mansion.
Spelling's late husband produced hit shows such as "Charlie's Angels," "Dynasty" and "Beverly Hills 90210." He died in 2006.
The three-story mansion, built in 1991, is gated and features a winding driveway that leads up to the three-story house, which includes ceilings that reach up to 30 feet high, Jones said.
Aaron Spelling
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