The photos and article about the Hollywood Christmas parade from Disinfotainment Today Issue #210 are appearing in tomorrow's Sunday Los Angeles Times (04/07/07), Current section, momentarily increasing my readership from 30 thousand to 1.4 million.
Colin Graham would have been significant had he 'only' been
the stage director who created the premieres of Benjamin Britten's
operas. But he was much more.
Colin was one of the first to recognize soprano Christine Brewer as
the huge talent she is. Christine has often sung with the LA
Philharmonic and LA Opera.
He was impatient of fools, but wondrously generous with support and
mentoring to two generations of stage directors and singers who had
the goods to work in the business.
He was connected to Long Beach through his friendship with conductor
Andreas Mitisek, artistic director of Long Beach Opera.
It's tempting to think of him as a pillar of the arts world, and
forget the man with hobbies and interests.
On one cross-country trip on his BMW motorcycle in the late '70s, he
found himself in the midst of a tornado, and survived. The next year,
he found he wanted a Harley in addition to the BMW. I was accustomed
to partisan bike owners, and asked him why he'd want both. "They're
very different riding experiences," he replied. This was typical;
nothing but the complete experience was enough.
He was a great fan of the classic American detective/crime novel (no
surprise, given his work with composer Stephen Paulus on THE POSTMAN
ALWAYS RINGS TWICE), especially the '40s and '50s work of the noir
masters. but he also enjoyed the mystery-comedies of Rex Stout. He
enjoyed cooking from THE REX STOUT COOKBOOK on occasion.
In the 1980s, with friends young and old dying around him in the
worst years of the AIDS epidemic, he took an interest in
spirituality. He studied for and was ordained to the ministry of a
rather conservative Christian church.
And then there was his entry into the world of competitive body-
building. In his first time out, in his 60s, he won the Seniors
category against many men younger than he.
Colin left no survivors but those of us who were marked forever by
his artistry, his energy and the elemental energy with which he lived
his life. That's a huge family spread across the world.
zEN mAN (wondering how the resurrection of Jesus Christ resulted a commercial holiday with chocolate eggs, marshmallow bunnies and the South Lawn of the White House being the Center of an Annual hunt....I prefer to think about Hugh Hefner's version of the Easter Bunny)
Ford give execs huge bonuses despite record losses (news.yahoo.com)
Struggling Ford Motor Company awarded multimillion dollar bonuses to its executives last year despite the fact that it posted a record loss of 12.7 billion dollars, according to a document filed Thursday with securities regulators.
Roger Ebert: "40 Years is not enough"
As I look at the date, I realize I was named film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times forty years ago today. I had no idea I was embarking on a lifelong career, but I was, and I can't think of a better one.
When I first saw the trailers on the Sci-Fi Channel for "Kaw", I thought the whole thing was a put on. Every Saturday they saturate the screen with Snake Cinema, giant insect movies…and now…a raging ravenous raven flick. I figured it would be in the genre of "Gargoyle", "Pterodactyl" or "Raptor Island"……outlandish and outrageous….with really cheesy Special Effects.
But this made for TV movie has high aspirations….actually rehiring the original suave hero of Hitchcock's 1963 masterpiece "The Birds", the now 77 year old Rod Taylor (they could have rehired Tippi Hedron too - she's still alive) as "Doc".
Wayne gets a call from Clyde (Stephen McHattie - "James Dean" (1976) - "Lazarus Man" (1996) - "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1998) that large flocks of Ravens are attacking his farm….of course nobody believes Clyde who is the Chicken Little of the locals. But more calls come in and soon Wayne is driving all over town and finding it surrounded by an ominous massing of seemingly spiteful and angry black marauders……thousands of them…and they have started pecking people to death.
People are trapped in their homes….a group of soccer girls are stranded on a bus…the whole town is being besieged by the birds….and eyes are getting picked out….
"OHHHH THE HUMANITY!"
Well somebody finds out that another local farmer named Oskar (John Ralston - "Highlander: The Raven" (1998) - "Blue Murder" (2003) - "Velvet Devil" (2006) has been doing some nasty things to piss the birds off….Wayne hooks up with Doc (Rod Taylor - "The Twilight Zone" (1959) - "The Time Machine" (1960) - "The Birds" (1963) and together, get everyone to pack into the local Diner…they board the windows up, nail the doors closed and get ready for a fight to the bitter end…
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE !"
Purple Gene gives "Kaw" 7 scary screeching huge cacophonous crow like cackling flocks of blood curdling black birds out of 10 for being cool with the CGI, adequate with the acting and pretty far out with the cinematography. It made me appreciate how amazing the original Hitchcock killer bird flick really was!
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'Amazing Race', then a FRESH'Cold Case', followed by a FRESH'Without A Trace'.
NBC opens the night with a 2-hour 'Dateline', followed by a FRESH'Deal Or No Deal', then a FRESH'Apprentice'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', then a FRESH'Desperate Housewives', followed by FRESH'Brothers & Sisters'.
The CW offers a RERUN'One Tree Hill', followed by a FRESH'7th Heaven', then a RERUN'America's Next Top Model'.
Faux a RERUN'The War At Home', followed by another RERUN'The War At Home', then a RERUN'Simpsons', followed by a RERUN'King Of The Hill', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by a RERUN'American Dad'.
MY has has the movie 'Pumpkin', followed by the movie 'Punch Drunk Love'.
A&E has 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', still another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', yet another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', 'Gene Simmons', another 'Gene Simmons', 'Sons Of Hollywood', and another 'Sons Of Hollywood'.
AMC offers the movie 'Wee Willie Winkie', followed by the movie 'Heidi', then the movie 'Little Miss Broadway'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 2;
[12:30 PM] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 1;
[1:00 PM] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 9;
[1:30 PM] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 2;
[2:00 PM] BritPop: Live Forever - BritPop: Live Forever;
[3:30 PM] Top Of The Pops: The True Story - Top Of The Pops: The True Story;
[4:30 PM] The Rolling Stones: Truth And Lies - TheRolling Stones: Truth And Lies;
[5:30 PM] Beatles Biggest Secrets - Beatles Biggest Secrets;
[7:00 PM] Robin Hood - Ep 6 The Taxman Cometh;
[8:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Ep 2 Page;
[9:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Ep 3 Miles;
[10:00 PM] Footballer's Wive$: Overtime - Episode 12;
[10:30 PM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 20 Burrows;
[11:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Ep 2 Page;
[12:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep 3 Miles;
[1:00 AM] Footballer's Wive$: Overtime - Episode 12;
[1:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 20 Burrows;
[2:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep 2 Page;
[3:00 AM] If I Had You - If I Had You;
[5:00 AM] Without Prejudice - Episode 2;
[6:00 AM] BBC World News - BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has all 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' all night.
Comedy Central has the movie 'The Jerk', followed by the movie 'Napoleon Dynamite', then 'Mind Of Mencia', and 'Reno 911!'.
FX has the movie 'Man On Fire', followed by 'The Shield'.
HBO has the SEASON PREMIERE'Sopranos' - the final 9, followed by the SEASON PREMIERE'Entourage'.
History has 'Banned From The Bible', another 'Banned From The Bible', and 'Banned From The Bible II'.
IFC -
[06:50 AM] Sunshine State;
[09:15 AM] Gerry;
[11:00 AM] Hilary and Jackie;
[01:00 PM] Sunshine State;
[03:25 PM] Gerry;
[05:10 PM] Hilary and Jackie;
[07:15 PM] Dirty Pretty Things;
[09:00 PM] The Last Seduction;
[11:00 PM] The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love;
[12:40 AM] Sleep with Me;
[02:15 AM] The Last Seduction;
[04:15 AM] Red Bull Ride to the Hills;
[04:45 AM] The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love. (ALL TIMES EDT)
SciFi has the movie 'Hercules', 'The Dresden Files', and a FRESH'Dresden Files'.
Sundance -
[04:00 AM] The Parole Officer;
[06:00 AM] Seven Times Lucky;
[07:00 AM] Rick;
[09:00 AM] It's All Gone Pete Tong;
[11:00 AM] Djangomania!;
[12:00 PM] The Match;
[01:00 PM] Hotel Infinity;
[02:00 PM] Episode 5;
[02:00 PM] Zoot Suit;
[04:00 PM] Uncle Douglas;
[04:00 PM] Seven Times Lucky;
[06:00 PM] Bedouin Sand;
[06:00 PM] The Mighty Celt;
[08:00 PM] Episode 2: Vex Not His Ghost;
[09:00 PM] Robert Redford on Paul Newman;
[09:00 PM] Uncle Douglas;
[10:00 PM] It's All Gone Pete Tong;
[11:00 PM] Bedouin Sand;
[12:00 AM] Unborn But Forgotten;
[01:00 AM] Hotel Infinity;
[02:00 AM] Episode 2: Vex Not His Ghost;
[03:00 AM] Robert Redford on Paul Newman;
[03:00 AM] My Big Fat Independent Movie;
[05:00 AM] The Mighty Celt. (ALL TIMES EDT)
A British woman poses with an Iranian woman while participating in a march of women for peace near Aleppo, northern Syria April 7, 2007. About 250 women from 34 countries took part in the march organised by the Follow the Women foundation, which seeks to promote peace in the Middle East.
Photo by Wael Hmedan
Unimpressed by his on-air apology or corporate promises of a tighter leash, angry critics of nationally syndicated radio host Don Imus called Saturday for his dismissal over his racially charged comments about the mostly black Rutgers women's basketball team.
"I accept his apology, just as I want his bosses to accept his resignation," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. He promised to picket Imus' New York radio home, WFAN-AM, unless the veteran of nearly 40 years of anything-goes broadcasting is gone within a week.
Sharpton was not alone in his anger over Imus' description of the Rutgers' women as "nappy headed hos" during a Wednesday morning segment of his show, which airs for millions of listeners on more than 70 stations and the MSNBC television network.
On Friday, after Imus delivered an on-air apology, both WFAN and MSNBC condemned his remarks. WFAN issued a statement promising to "monitor the program's content" but Imus, a member of the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame, was not publicly disciplined.
A traditional Orthodox Easter egg painted with the image of Jesus Christ is displayed among other eggs at Bucharest's Peasant Museum during a Palm Sunday fair where hundreds of artisans from all over Romania gathered to show and sell their goods April 1, 2007. Romanians, like other Eastern Europeans who share the Orthodox religion, will celebrate Easter on April 8 together with Roman Catholic believers.
Photo by Bogdan Cristel
At a recent club performance, Michel Legrand decided to have a little fun by "destroying" his familiar tune - "I Will Wait For You," the theme from Jacques Demy's film which turned Catherine Deneuve into a star and earned the French pianist-composer his first Oscar nominations.
So Legrand turned the melancholy romantic ballad from the 1964 film, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," into an adventurous romp, playing the melody in a potpourri of styles, including ragtime, waltz, tango and even a boisterous Russian dance.
"You know in life nothing is serious, so I can't stand serious people," said Legrand, interviewed between sets during a six-night run at Birdland jazz club celebrating his 75th birthday.
The owners of the Magic Castle and the Japanese mansion that houses the Yamashiro restaurant are looking for someone interested in acquiring the landmarks and the surrounding 10-acre hilltop property.
The buyer would get a valuable piece of land located just above Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Walk of Fame and other tourist attractions.
Part of the property can be developed, but the buyer must preserve the nearly century-old Magic Castle and Yamashiro because they are designated historic landmarks, said Andy Ulloa, a part owner of the property.
"There's no asking price, the owners want to see what kind of offers will come their way," he said.
After 3,272 miles of exhaustion, sunburn, delirium and piranhas, a 52-year-old Slovenian successfully completed a swim down the Amazon River Saturday that could set a world record for distance - something he's already done three times before.
After nine weeks, Martin Strel arrived near the city of Belem, the capital of the jungle state of Para, ending a swim almost as long as the drive from Miami to Seattle. Strel averaged about 50 miles a day since beginning his odyssey at the source of the world's second-longest river in Peru on Feb. 1.
By Thursday evening, he was struggling with dizziness, vertigo, high blood pressure, diarrhea, nausea and delirium, his Web site said. But despite having difficulty standing and being ordered by the doctor not to swim, Strel was obsessed with finishing the course and insisted on night swimming.
"He's hit point zero," Borut Strel, Martin's son and the project coordinator, said by telephone from the Amazon. "There will be a ceremony Sunday in Belem, but he finished today."
Artist Rush Ounvises from Thailand stands with his painting of Diana, Princess of Wales, on display in London, Saturday April 7, 2007. The painting measuring 3.6 metres by 1.2 metres is the worlds largest portrait of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, it was unveiled on the streets of Islington as part of a one-day street art festival organised by Moso Arthouse, a local artist-run gallery. The painting 'Diana 36 times' was painted a day after her death in 1997 and took 12 days for the artist to complete.
Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth
Italy's state TV aired the first episode of a new reality show this week in which the mothers of five single men have to pick out prospective brides from a selection of candidates.
Critics said "Perfect Bride" was both insulting to women and showed Italian TV -- already packed with other reality formats such as Big Brother and Celebrity Island -- falling to new depths of banality.
In the first episode, the jury of mothers -- called only by their first names such as "Mamma Rosa" and "Mamma Ambra" -- quizzed 18 hopefuls about their suitability as wives.
In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.
That change - which took effect quietly in January and applies to members of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan, too - came after a campaign waged by a father who was aghast to learn that his son's body was going to be unloaded like so much luggage.
John Holley said an airline executive told him that was the "most expeditious" way to get the body home.
"I said, `That's not going to happen with my son. That's not how my son is coming home,'" said Holley, an Army veteran from San Diego whose son, Spc. Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005. "If it was `expeditious' to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?"
A white white-tailed deer looks up at the former Seneca Army Depot where there is a herd of rare white white-tailed deer, in Romulus, N.Y., Feb. 27, 2007. Seneca White Deer Inc. is fighting to save the habitat of the world's largest herd of rare white white-tailed deer living within the fenced-in former Seneca Army Depot in upstate New York, where developers want to build an ethanol facility, a biomass power plant and farm up to 4,500 acres of willows.
Photo by David Duprey
A marine mammal rehabilitation facility opened a dolphin "chat line" of sorts Saturday, hoping to teach a deaf dolphin's unborn calf to communicate.
Castaway, as the stranded Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is named, has been recovering at the Marine Mammal Conservancy since Jan. 30. A battery of tests has confirmed she is deaf.
Dolphins need to hear echoes of sounds they produce to find food, socialize and defend themselves against predators.
They decided to electronically connect Castaway's habitat with a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a research and interactive educational facility a few miles down the Keys Overseas Highway. Underwater speakers and microphones were installed at both locations and connected via phone lines.
A man looks at a Chinese oil painting titled 'Put Down Your Whip' by Xu Beihong during an auction in Hong Kong Saturday, April 7, 2007. The 1939 painting by Chinese artist Xu fetched HK$64 million (US$8.19 million) at the auction Saturday, setting a new record price for Chinese oil paintings.
Photo by Kin Cheung
The Bush administration allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from North Korea in an apparent violation of a U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution passed months earlier over its nuclear test, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing unnamed U.S. officials from a number of agencies, the Times said the United States allowed the January arms delivery in part because Ethiopia was fighting Islamic militias in Somalia in an offensive that aided U.S. policies of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.
A spokesman for the State Department declined to comment on the specifics of the arms shipment, but said the United States was "deeply committed to upholding and enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions," the newspaper reported. No response from the Ethiopian Embassy was available.
It was unclear if the United States ever reported the arms shipment to the Security Council, the Times said. But intelligence reports indicated that the cargo was likely to have included tank parts, leading at least some Pentagon officials to describe the shipment as a clear Security Council violation.
With the Washington Monument in the background, cherry blossoms are covered in snow after a spring storm brought snow to the area Saturday, April 7, 2007, in Washington.
Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Sarajevo artists raised a monument to canned beef on Friday in a gesture ridiculing donors for providing such an unpopular food as humanitarian aid during the Bosnian capital's 1992-95 siege.
"The Monument to the International Community" from the "Grateful Citizens of Sarajevo" reads an inscription at the marble foundation of the 1-metre-high golden can of beef.
"The Ikar canned beef is remembered by the people of Sarajevo with disgust. Cats and dogs did not want to eat it and people had to," Dunja Blazevic of the Centre for Contemporary Art said. "Everybody agreed that we should do the project in this way. It's witty, ironic and artistic."
Lion cubs are seen upon their arrival at the zoo in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, south-eastern France, April 6, 2007. Two of the cubs were discovered during a customs operation against the illegal commerce of wild animals in the south of France.
Photo by Eric Gaillard
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