'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
19,754 In Minneapolis
Dixie Chicks
I was in Minneapolis and the Chicks were playing. The hard copy of the
paper has the photo of 4 kids picketing...yes, four.
Jeannine H
Concert review: Controversy becomes the Dixie Chicks
by Jon Bream, Star Tribune
Ever since country music's wildly popular trio hit the concert circuit in 1999, they've been full of spunk, pizazz and personality. But ever since they became controversial -- at a London concert in March, lead singer Natalie Maines dissed President Bush just before the start of the war in Iraq -- they've gotten an edge, which makes their concerts even better. In fact, the whole brouhaha helped redefine -- and define -- their current concert tour.
The Chicks fired up the sold-out crowd of 19,754 at Xcel Energy Center on Friday by broadcasting Bruce Springsteen's protest anthem "Born in the U.S.A." before they hit the stage. And then they attacked with "Goodbye Earl," the song about an abused wife killing her husband, which got the Chicks in hot water three years ago. But Maines delivered it on Friday as if it were an anthem of female empowerment. And the female-dominated crowd sang along, pumping their fists in the air.
For the rest, Concert review: Controversy becomes the Dixie Chicks - by Jon Bream
Thanks, Jeannine!
Selected Sunday Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast all day - still not complaining.
Didn't realize that the first of the blackberries were ripe til I caught the kid grazing. 'Eat all the berries means no pie' works wonders.
Need to reconfigure some equipment - add a printer & a scanner & some stuff. May have a short page for Monday - then again, may not. ; )
Tonight, Sunday, CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by 'The Tony Awards' (live on the east coast, taped for the rest of us).
NBC has an hour of local programming (due to arena football), followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', then another
RERUN 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', followed by a FRESH 'Crime & Punishment'.
ABC has the 'NBA Finals'. On the east coast, the evening will start with a 'Barbara Walters Special: Hillary Clinton', then the game. On the left coast, it'll be the game, a couple of hours of local filler-crap, and then the 'Barbara Walters' interview.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Everwood', followed by a RERUN 'Charmed'.
Faux has a FRESH 'Futurama', followed by a RERUN 'King Of The Hill', then a RERUN 'Simpsons', followed by another RERUN
'King Of The Hill', then a RERUN 'Malcolm', followed by a RERUN 'Oliver Beene'.
UPN offers the weekly RERUN 'Enterprise', followed by the movie 'Fled'.
A&E has 'Columbo', followed by 'Biography' (Gen. George Patton), then 'The Point'.
AMC offers the movie 'Smokey & The Bandit II', followed by the movie 'Romancing The Stone', then another showing of 'Romancing The Stone'.
BBC has 'Changing Rooms' - Glasgow (7pm), 'What Not To Wear' - Xenia (7:30pm),
'Faking It' - Hot Dog Vendor to Chef (8pm), 'Manchild' - Episode 8 (9pm),
'The Office' - Episode 1 (9:40pm), 'Coupling' - Flushed (10:20pm),
'Faking It' - Hot Dog Vendor to Chef (11pm), 'Manchild' - Episode 8 (12am), and
'The Office' - Episode 1 (12:40am).
Bravo offers 'Around The World In 80 Days' (with Michael Palin), followed by 'Inside The Actor's Studio' (Harrison Ford),
then the movie 'Reversal Of Fortune'.
History has 'Greatest Raids', followed by 'Sink The Bismarck'.
MTV devotes the evening to 'The Osbournes'.
SciFi offers 'Shark Attack 2', followed by 'Project Viper'.
TCM has the movie 'Hotel Berlin', followed by the movie 'Tell It To The Marines'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Former President Bill Clinton gestures as he addresses the graduates of Milton Academy in Milton, Mass., Friday, June 6, 2003, during graduation exercises. Clinton told graduates at school that he was disappointed at how Americans reacted when France opposed the war in Iraq.
Photo by Jim Rogash
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
L.A. (Finally) Celebrates Musician
Carlos Guitarlos
Carlos Guitarlos, an icon of the Los Angeles music scene, was celebrated by the City Council as one of the city's homegrown treasures.
Musicians from Los Lobos to Willie Nelson have remade Guitarlos' songs. Rockers Van Halen performed an homage to his band Top Jimmy on its album "1984."
Guitarlos was once a member of hard-living '80s bands Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs, and more recently has been playing on the streets of San Francisco.
"I'm part of LA, I always have been, I always will be," said the graying, bearded Guitarlos, whose real name is Carlos Ayala.
Carlos Guitarlos
Thrill Ride Still Rolling
Media-Rule
The fight over a historic vote by federal regulators to ease media ownership rules is far from over.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is scheduling a June 19 committee vote on a bill that would revoke the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) expanded national TV ownership rules.
The toughest remarks from committee members about the FCC's much-publicized rulemaking were aimed at FCC chairman Michael Powell. He was accused of ignoring the grassroots outcry of citizens who opposed relaxation of the old rules.
Powell held only one public hearing on the complicated media ownership concentration issue throughout the 20-month proceeding and had only a restricted four-month public comment period.
At the hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., took issue with Republican commissioner Kathleen Abernathy over her remarks at the June 2 meeting that many comments were based on fear, not fact.
"Just because you sit behind a microphone does not make you smarter than other people," Boxer told her. "To dismiss their points of view by saying they're 'fearful' is an insult to them."
Boxer cited FCC records showing that commission officials had 34 meetings with a lobbyist and his partners whose clients represent numerous large media companies. In contrast, the five commissioners only held one public comment meeting.
"Do you understand why the people out there are upset?" she asked.
"Further concentration in these industries will guarantee that the range of voices that Americans have come to expect . . . will continue to fade away," longtime critic of consolidation Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said. "It is unfortunate that the FCC did not consider the lessons we have learned over the last seven years from the consolidation in the radio industry."
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., added, "I expect that the Antitrust Subcommittee will be conducting a hearing shortly to examine the implications of this decision for competition."
Radio's critics on the artist and record-industry side are hoping for further regulation but admit that Powell's FCC ruling favors the big boys.
Jay Rosenthal, co-counsel for the Recording Artists' Coalition, recalls a comparable incident at the FCC to the big-time lobbyist scenario related at the hearing by Boxer. "After Don Henley testified in front of the Senate Commerce Committee in January, he paid a courtesy call to Chairman Powell," Rosenthal recalled. "While he was waiting to see the chairman, Rupert Murdoch came strolling out of the chairman's office. That said it all!"
For a lot more, Media-Rule
A model of the planet Saturn stands near Route 1 in Westfield, Maine, Friday, May 9, 2003. The nation's largest three-dimensional scale model of the solar system is positioned along a 40-mile stretch of highway between Presque Isle, Maine, and Houlton, Maine.
Photo by Robert F. Bukaty
New Science Fiction Awards Introduced
'The Spaceys'
The world of science fiction and fantasy will be getting a new award show next month, thanks to CHUM Television's Space: The Imagination Station.
The Spaceys will honour the best in sci-fi/fantasy in television and film, but it promises to be an awards event with a difference: no seats, no sets, no red carpets. Instead, plans call for a travelling event, in which a trophy will be hand-delivered to winners across Canada in 11 categories. Viewers of the Space channel can begin voting May 19 by cellphone text messaging or online (www.spacecast.com/spaceys) for their favourites in such categories as best TV series, movie hero and TV hottie.
The first Spaceys premieres June 26 at 9 p.m. ET, hosted by John Llyr.
A special lifetime achievement award will be given on the show to William Shatner of Star Trek fame.
'The Spaceys'
To Be Released on IMAX
'Matrix Reloaded'
"The Matrix Reloaded" is a far cry from the nature and environmental films you usually see on IMAX screens. Starting today, the second "Matrix" movie will open on the huge screens across the country.
Visual arts supervisor John Gaeta says IMAX has always shown family oriented movies, so showing an R-rated science fiction flick is a big step for them.
Gaeta said fans will be blown away by seeing "The Matrix Reloaded" on a screen eight stories tall. "It's such a powerful medium that they have, you know, surrounding you on all sides, your whole peripheral vision filled," Gaeta told AP Radio. "So the type of impact that you're going to get from a film that doesn't back away is going to be pretty amazing," he said.
'Matrix Reloaded'
Imus, Ever The Class-Act
Sid Rosenberg
Controversial sports-talker Sid Rosenberg was stunned to learn — live on the air yesterday — that he's being dropped from Don Imus' WFAN/MSNBC morning show.
Rosenberg, however, will keep his midday slot on 'FAN.
The bombshell that sportscaster Mike Breen is returning on Wednesday left Rosenberg stunned — and Imus stammering — after it was unintentionally revealed by WFAN's Mike Francesa.
"Nobody knows," Imus told Francesa. "Uh, we weren't supposed to announce that, Mike . . . I hadn't even told Charles yet," Imus said, referring to longtime sidekick Charles McCord, who gasped upon hearing the news.
Francesa lectured Imus on keeping everyone — especially Rosenberg— in the dark.
"How come you hadn't told Sid that he was out?" he demanded. "What are you waiting for?"
"I was waiting for the program to be over today, Mike," Imus replied, claiming the decision was made suddenly because Breen "didn't become available until yesterday afternoon."
Sid Rosenberg
Wants to Buy Lopez Wedding Gift
P. Diddy
He's sending both regrets, and one heck of a present. It looks like P. Diddy has already picked out a present for his former lady love, Jennifer Lopez.
People magazine says he wants to buy J-Lo and finance Ben Affleck a pair of his-and-her Rolls-Royces. The rap entrepreneur says he heard the couple has a pair of Bentleys, but that he wants "to upgrade them to Rolls-Royces."
P. Diddy
Namesake Festival Endures
B.B. King
While most touring festival concepts have notoriously short life spans, the B.B. King Music Festival has survived 12 years, largely because of the credibility of its namesake and an eye for fresh talent.
Glen Rock, N.J.-based Front Row Productions' Paul and Irene Zukoski have produced the event since its inception. This year's King fest has been repositioned from its former blues-centric posture to a more esoteric lineup that features guitar god Jeff Beck along with New Orleans jam-funksters Galactic and up-and-comers Mofro.
The tour begins July 25 on the West Coast and will be out until September. Venues are diverse, including festivals, fairgrounds, theaters, amphitheaters, and alternative locations. Similarly, promoters buying the package include Clear Channel Entertainment (CCE), Jam Productions, and House of Blues (HOB) Concerts.
Tickets range from $10 to $75 in some markets. The tour is booked by Jody Wenig and Paul LaMonica at Associate Booking Corp.
B.B. King
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Brings Music Back to Prime Time
'Pepsi Smash'
It is the type of TV show that U.S. broadcast networks would not touch for years: the prime-time music series for hit artists.
With Pepsi Smash (which debuts July 16), the WB network and Pepsi aim to prove that resurrecting the format can turn into a "win-win" success for the network and the music business.
The show is in the tradition of such '60s prime-time, music-focused programs as Shindig! and Hullabaloo.
Pepsi is the main sponsor of the show, which will feature mainstream pop, rock, R&B, and hip-hop acts.
At press time, the acts confirmed to be on the show include AFI, Ashanti, Michelle Branch, Evanescence, Fabolous, Foo Fighters, Beyonce Knowles, Lil' Mo, and Mya.
Each episode will be taped at the Ren-Mar Studios in Los Angeles one week before it airs. The studio will hold an audience of 500.
The series will feature a regular host (to be announced), who will anchor the show along with rotating guest hosts.
For more, Pepsi Smash
Myanmar residents in Japan hold posters of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Friday, June 6, 2003 during a rally outside the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo. Myanmar's military junta detained Suu Kyi and closed her party headquarters Saturday after Friday's deadly clash between her supporters and thousands of pro-junta protesters in the country's north.
Photo by Itsuo Inouye
Be Warned
Don't Flush Your Fish
Kids be warned: Flushing your pet fish down the drain will not send it safely into the ocean as depicted in the new computer-animated movie "Finding Nemo."
A company that manufactures equipment used to process sewage issued a news release Thursday warning that drain pipes do lead to the ocean — eventually — but first the fluid goes through powerful machines that "shred solids into tiny particles."
"In truth, no one would ever find Nemo and the movie would be called 'Grinding Nemo,'" wrote the JWC Environmental company, which makes the trademarked "Muffin Monster" shredding pumps.
In the unlikely event Nemo survived the deadly machines, the company added, he would probably be killed by the chlorine disinfection.
Don't Flush Your Fish
Raise $125,000 for AIDS Charity
'Friends'
Recliners designed by the cast of 'Friends' were auctioned off to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The chairs fetched a total of $125,000 on eBay.
"Friends" characters Chandler and Joey, played by Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc, proudly acquired matching La-Z-Boy recliners on the show. That episode prompted La-Z-Boy to approach the show's stars — Perry, LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer — to create their own chairs for charity. They range from Cox's black leather recliner with bent wood sides to Schwimmer's multicolored leather chair that looks like a beach ball.
'Friends'
Police Interview
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura told police he did nothing wrong during a run-in with a protester outside a TV studio where he was rehearsing for a talk show.
Police interviewed Ventura by phone on Thursday. "He was cordial," said Sgt. Mark Kempe. "He presented his side of the story."
In late May, Ventura was at a public television studio working on his upcoming MSGOP talk show. Leslie Davis, an environmental activist who ran a write-in campaign for governor in 1998, was outside picketing the former governor's use of the studio.
Davis filed a police report saying Ventura threatened him and grabbed one of his signs, attempting to smash it.
Jesse Ventura
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Mom Says No Respect From Disney
Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff said goodbye to Disney and the "Lizzie McGuire" empire because, as her mother puts it, "We weren't feeling the love."
Susan Duff tells Entertainment Weekly for its June 13 issue, "They weren't giving Hilary the respect she deserved."
The 15-year-old actress has starred in the hugely popular Disney Channel sitcom "Lizzie McGuire" since 2001 and the spin-off film, "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," which has grossed about $40 million since it opened May 2.
But negotiations broke down last month between Disney and Duff's representatives over how much money she would receive for a "Lizzie McGuire Movie" sequel and a new ABC prime-time series that would follow her character to high school.
Hilary Duff
Chico, un chat Persan, parade dans une poussette à l'occasion du défilé de chats costumés organisés par l'association féline indonésienne.
Photo by Supri
Wins Injunction Vs. Michigan Man
Sandra Bullock
Actress Sandra Bullock won a permanent injunction Friday forbidding any contact by a Michigan man who allegedly harassed her with voicemail, faxes and phone calls.
Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon signed the order after Thomas James Weldon, 34, failed to appear for a hearing.
Bullock had obtained a temporary restraining order earlier. The current injunction is in effect for three years.
Sandra Bullock
To Visit Gary, Indiana
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson, whose family left behind Gary's gritty steel mills in the late 1960s for fame and fortune, will visit his Indiana hometown next week for the first time in two decades.
Jackson has scheduled three public appearances Wednesday in Gary, said Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman.
His trip to his hometown will come before a Friday deadline Jackson faces to complete a court-ordered deposition in Indianapolis in a copyright infringement lawsuit.
While in Gary, Jackson is scheduled to receive a key to the city, attend an assembly at his brothers' alma mater, Roosevelt High School, and visit his boyhood home.
Michael Jackson
Held in Havana
Ephemeral Art Festival
Cuba's first ephemeral art festival lasted barely an hour and a half Friday, until the butter paintings and ice sculptures began to melt, the children ate the cupcakes hung from a tree and the grand piano went up in flames.
There were sculptures made from flowers, paper and cardboard egg trays and blindfolded domino players, all competing for the best exhibit of transitory art in a square in Havana's inner city.
The winner, Jeanette Chavez, a 22-year-old art student who won a night out at Havana's famed Tropicana cabaret, poured gasoline on a wooden piano structure and set fire to it while minimalist piano music blared from speakers.
"I built it and I destroyed it, to show art as change and not as an object that can be used," she said. "It's not a sculpture that will endure in time like a Michelangelo's David."
A tower of ice with books inside, evoking the Alexandria library and lighthouse of ancient Egypt, melted in the tropical heat. Children swarmed around a tree, grabbing at chocolate cupcakes, which artists had hung like mobiles.
The most elaborate entry was 'The Four Seasons,' a series of relief paintings made of butter by hotel chef Jorge Gonzalez, who copied the fruit and flower portraits of 16th Century Italian painter Giussepe Arcimboldo.
"They are ephemeral because the butter will melt in the sun," Gonzalez said.
Ephemeral Art Festival
Artist Refusesd To Speak
Rainer Herpel
An aspiring German painter refused to speak for 29 years until his father's death because of paternal opposition to his chosen career.
"All I was interested in was art, but he was always against it. There came a point when I simply had nothing more to say," Rainer Herpel, 51, told Reuters on Friday.
Herpel's mother Waltraut, 78, with whom he has lived in the western spa town of Bad Ems all these years, said he gave up talking when his father stopped him from attending art school. "He stopped talking then. He is a stubborn lad," she said.
During his mute period, Herpel, who also speaks English, was looked after by his mother and concentrated on painting. All his pictures are named after Beatles lyrics, from songs such as "The Fool on the Hill" and "You Won't See Me".
Herpel now plans to concentrate on his artistic career and is undaunted by the task ahead. "All the great artists were outsiders before they had success," he said.
Rainer Herpel
In Memory
Elizabeth Fowler
Elizabeth Fowler, who wrote a book about the 10 days during World War II that she drifted in the Atlantic Ocean aboard a lifeboat carrying 34 men, died May 30. She was 95.
To escape a troubled marriage, Fowler talked her way onto a ship carrying palm oil from Africa to New York. She was knitting on deck one evening in 1942 when a German U-boat torpedoed the ship.
Fowler and 34 men ended up in a 26-foot lifeboat, tossed by frigid waves and circled by sharks. In her book "Standing Room Only," written after her rescue, Fowler described evading one man intent on kissing her.
After their rescue, she rejoined her young daughter in Connecticut and began working as a nanny. The dress she wore on the lifeboat was displayed in Lord & Taylor's window, and several women's magazines profiled her.
When her book was published a couple years later, Lucy Greenbaum in The New York Times Book Review called it "a tight, terse tale of war drama where each swell of a wave is matched by the surge of a human emotion."
Later, Fowler worked as an editor for book and magazine publishers.
Elizabeth Fowler
Sculptor Felix de Weldon poses with his sculpture, the US Marine Corps Memorial Statue, modelled after Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal's photo of marines raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, in Washington in this May 15, 1963 file photo. De Weldon, who served served as a petty officer in the U.S. Navys artist corps during World War II, died Tuesday June 3, 2003 of natural causes. He was 96.
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'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
