'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
'An Interview With Asterisk'
Re: The HST/Seinfeld Connection
from Tara
I guess this answers about all the questions to that saga:
THE GONZO SEINFELD CONNECTION: AN INTERVIEW WITH ASTERISK
"With the help of the media, the faxes I composed proved that if I really wanted to imitate one specific author, I easily could. I know when the
faxes first became public, it seemed like I was stroking a double-edged sword. But in the end, I was really just tempting sensationalism to have
a steamy affair with self-deprecation and irony ... and it worked."
'An Interview With Asterisk'
~~ Tara
Thanks (again), Tara! Glad to see this answered. A couple of weeks back I received an e-mail from someone purporting to be 'Asterisk'. I replied, but never heard anything else. Figured my
answer had been insufficient (or something like that).
'Ready For War
from Alvin
War Resolution Passes
Congress voted solidly to hand a very excited pResident Bush the unchecked authority he sought to use US military force & to jeopardize young American lives on his need at revenge for the threat once posed to his Poppy by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
MIDILink
READY FOR WAR
{Sung to 'Ready For Love' by Bad Company}
{As Sung By Commander-and-Thief, Dubya Bush}
{instrumental intro}
Congress acted like King Solomon
Had the wisdom to grant me authority
To use military force
Similar powers they gave my dad
When he drove those Iraqi invaders from Kuwait
Eleven years ago
Ooh, I want regime change!
Out, you're out Saddam Hussein!
I'm ready for war
Ooh Poppy, I'm ready for war
Ready for war
Yeah Poppy, I'm ready for war
{Your boy is ready to tear Iraq apart}
You disarm or not, Saddam
Worst things are bound to happen
Iraqi oil will be in my hands
You'll be unemployed pretty soon
Your fifteen minutes is up, here comes the Shrub
We'll attack Iraq
Ooh, I want regime change!
Out, you're out Saddam Hussein!
I'm ready for war
Ooh Poppy, I'm ready for war
Ready for war
Yeah Poppy, I'm ready for war
{Your boy is ready to tear Iraq apart}
{instrumental break}
Ooh, I want regime change!
Out, you're out Saddam Hussein!
I'm ready for war
Ooh Poppy, I'm ready for war
Ready for war
Yeah Poppy, I'm ready for war
{Your boy is ready to tear Iraq apart}
Ready for my war!...
Alvin D
Thanks, Alvin!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The sun never really broke through today.
Turns out our Dish dish was damaged somehow in the re-roofing. No Dish for us til Tuesday. The kid is massively bummed.
One of the kittens is missing. Pfaffner, the long-haired yellow-stripe seems to have wandered off, but Momma cat isn't acting frantic & PowderPuff (Puffy for short) isn't behaving any more peculiarly
than usual, so I'm not going to really worry just yet.
Tonight, Sunday, CBS starts with the traditional '60 Minutes', then a fresh 'Becker', a fresh 'Bram & Alice', and then the fresh tv-movie 'Gleason', with Brad Garrett.
NBC opens with 'Dateline', then a fresh 'American Dreams', a fresh 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent', and a fresh 'Boomtown'.
ABC regurgitates the Eddie Murphy version of 'Dr. Doolittle', then offers a fresh 'Alias' and a fresh 'The Practice'.
The WB starts with the weekly 'Gilmore Girls' rerun, and follows with a fresh 'Charmed' and a fresh 'Angel'.
Faux is still baseball-happy, and will fill with reruns of the 'Simpsons' and 'X-Files'.
UPN has 'Buffy', then the weekly rerun of 'Enterprise' and an episode of 'Stargate SG-1'.
Bravo is running the movie 'The Godfather: Part 2' a couple of times.
Weekly rerun of 'The Osbournes' at 10:30pm (et/pt) on MTV.
'Monk' marathon all day & night on USA.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Big Dog Watch Continues
Bill Clinton In Boston, Part 2
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (L) shakes hands with Democratic gubernatorial candidate for the state of Massachusetts Shannon O'Brien, in Boston, Massachusetts,
October 10, 2002. Clinton was in town to campaign for the Democratic candidate.
Photo by Brian Snyder
Says First Stones Songs Were 'Crap'
Mick Jagger
The first songs penned by Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richard were so sentimental they were ashamed of them, Jagger told
BBC Radio in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.
"We couldn't write rock songs. We just wrote these crap ballads," he told Britain's Radio Five Live, in extracts of an interview that were
released before Sunday's 1130 GMT broadcast.
The band's first five hits were all cover versions of songs written by other stars, though imbued with the Rolling Stones flavor.
But manager Andrew Loog Oldham wanted them to write their own material -- and locked Jagger and Richard in a room until they did.
Jagger said the first song they produced, "As Tears Go By," was far from the heavy-rocker image they were cultivating, so they gave it to pop
singer and Jagger girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, who had a hit with it.
"It was pop and we didn't record it because it was crap," he said. "We had a successful crap ballad...I can say now it's a wonderful tune, but
we didn't think it was that great at the time."
For a lot more, Mick Jagger
Movie Props Stolen
'Cat in the Hat'
Thieves stole $55,000 worth of excessively large, custom-designed props early Friday from the movie set of the Dr. Seuss classic, "The Cat in the Hat."
Among the items taken were an 8-foot-long pair of dark blue glasses, a yellow 4-foot-long door key, a black 6-foot by 4-foot by 8-foot anvil with hammer, a 4-foot golf tee and
a blue golf ball 7 feet in diameter that weighs more than 200 pounds.
Police have not identified any suspects.
"We have ruled out the Grinch," said Sgt. Rod Baker.
'Cat in the Hat'
Separate Cityhood?
San Fernando Valley
Waiter Alfonso Ramirez, wearing a traditional Lebanese outfit, delivers a houka to a customer at the Alcazar Middle Eastern restaurant in the Encino section of the
San Fernando Valley, currently a part of the city of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002. It's given us Valley Girls and shopping malls, use of the word 'like' as a
verbal punctuation mark, and some of the most memorable movie settings ever. It is the San Fernando Valley, a hot, smoggy, continually evolving expanse attached to
the northern end of Los Angeles. On Nov. 5, voters throughout Los Angeles will cast votes on secession measures involving the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian
'Today' Producer Out After 17 Months
Jonathan Wald
Jonathan Wald is out as executive producer of NBC's top-rated "Today" after just 17 months.
With ABC's second-place "Good Morning America" nipping at "Today's" heels, and widespread reports of ongoing tension between Wald and anchors Katie Couric and Matt Lauer and other staff,
the move could signal concern among NBC brass about the direction of the still-dominant breakfastcast.
Wald, who came to "Today" from a successful run as executive producer at "NBC Nightly News," is expected to remain in his role for several weeks until the network reassigns him.
ABC News veteran Tom Touchet is said to be in negotiations to succeed Wald. Touchet was formerly a former line producer for "Good Morning America" and also worked for ABC's special projects division.
It's a major change for NBC, which has traditionally turned to network veterans to run "Today." But one news industry insider suggested an outsider might be best for the show right now.
Sources said Wald, who comes from a hard-news culture, had trouble adjusting to the softer tone of a morning show.
Jonathan Wald
Non-Hate Based Talk Radio !
Erin Hart
Non-hate based talk radio - what a concept!
Join Erin Hart at regulation time (9 pm to 1 am [pst] Sat & Sun ) on www.710kiro.com or www.kiro710.com (It's
a browser thing), even though KIRO no longers streams audio - BOO. HISS.
There's a chatroom, too!
For more details, visit Erin's fan page (courtesy of 14Dem),
http://www.erinhartshow.com, or to join her mailing list, drop a
note to erinistas@aol.com
Danish Square to Be Named
Victor Borge
A square will be named after Danish-born pianist and comedian Victor Borge, who died in 2000 at 91.
Born in Copenhagen in 1909 as Borge Rosenbaum, Borge graduated from the Danish Royal Academy of Music and studied in Vienna and Berlin.
He performed in several stage revues and four Danish films before going to New York in 1940 and taking his stage name. Because of his whimsical approach to the
classics, he was called the "clown prince" of Denmark.
Shortly after Borge's death, Copenhagen's Lord Mayor, Jens Kramer Mikkelsen, urged city building authorities to find a square that could be named after the Danish performer.
A city committee decided this week to name a square in the northern Copenhagen district of Oesterbro where Borge was born and lived as a child.
Victor Borge
A long time ago, an old pal set me up on a date to go to a movie in Hollywood. 'Mystery date' comes to pick me up, and we're off. During the car ride I find out he's from
Arizona, and was named for Barry Goldwater. And that he was also a speech writer for the current president (Raygun)! Just as I'm figuring out how I'm going to get through this night (while silently cursing my 'pal' who set it all up), the
car started to sputter. It died on the side of the 170, near the Magnolia Blvd. offramp. Mr. Republican has no auto club card. He then decides that he'll stay with his car (so nothing will happen to it), and I should walk down the offramp, and
find a tow truck. It's after dark, it's not safe on a variety of levels, but, it would provide a quick end to this evening from hell. So, I walked down the offramp, called my 'pal' & ranted a bit. After a couple of hours I calmed down, called the auto club &
had them send a tow truck for Barry.
He called a week later, apologized profusely & wanted to say thanks. The 'thank you' turned out to be Victor Borge at the Hollywood Bowl.
In hindsight, Borge was brilliant, Barry wasn't, and I still talk to Erin... ; )
Sells Comic Books for $1.6 Million
Nicolas Cage
Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage has sold his personal comic book collection, including a copy of Superman's 1938 pulp debut, at auction for more than $1.6 million, organizers of the sale said on Friday.
The 400 items in the catalog, collected individually over the years by Cage, were sold Thursday night to various bidders in a sale conducted by the Heritage Auctions house of Dallas in conjunction with the Mint of Kansas City, Mo.
Cage's copy of Action Comics #1, the 1938 comic featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for $86,250, more than $15,000 above its estimated value, auction organizers said.
A 1940 comic book, Detective #38, featuring the debut of Batman's sidekick, Robin, fetched nearly $121,000. Another 1940 publication, All-Star Comics #3, which introduced the Justice Society of America, the
first superhero team including the Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Flash, sold for $45,000.
Nicolas Cage
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
To Slap 93 Percent 'Supertax' On Porn Films
France
The French government will hike taxes on profits from sexually explicit films to 93 percent as part of an anti-pornography drive by ruling conservatives.
"Our aim is to make this sector financially unattractive," right-wing parliament deputy Charles de Courson told Le Figaro daily on Friday after parliament's finance
committee agreed his initiative would be applied from January 1 next year.
Courson said the measure would raise to 60 percent from 33 percent a special tax already levied on profits from the production, distribution or showing of any French-made
film deemed pornographic or an incitement to violence.
Once added to France's standard 33 percent tax on all corporate profits, French porn film-makers will be left with a mere seven percent of their profits net of tax.
"We want to destroy their profitability to discourage further investments," Courson said.
Imported porn will not be spared either. If a separate measure is agreed in negotiations continuing this week for the 2003 budget, full-length foreign productions will
face a tax of 91,470 euros ($90,390), with half that for short films.
France
Against The Pyramids, Under The Stars
Aida
Nach drei Jahren Pause wurde die Oper Aida von Giuseppe Verdi erstmals wieder vor den Pyramiden von Gizeh aufgeführt
Uh-Huh
Jacqueline Stallone
Jacqueline Stallone, Sly's psychic mom, was alarmed when she heard about the Maryland sniper leaving the death tarot card. "When that card was found, I thought, 'Omigosh, this is
terrible,' " she tells msnbc.com's Jeannette Walls. Jackie believes the shooter is "a light-haired person, in his 20s or 30, from a good family, though he's not that close to them."
Will they catch the killer soon? "Not for a while," she predicts. Would she consider using her psychic abilities to help catch him? "I'm awfully busy lately," she says. "But I'd consider it."
Jacqueline Stallone
Questions Raised
DJ Firings
It's become a cliched formula for radio success: bad taste equals good ratings. No outrage seemed too outrageous if the Arbitron numbers were up — until lately.
This month, a Phoenix disc jockey was dismissed after an offensive call to the widow of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile. The firing came just weeks after a pair of
New York shock jocks were dumped for encouraging listeners to have sex in church.
Are the days of "anything goes" radio gone? Does FM now stand for "fire me"?
Perhaps. Radio industry veterans believe DJs are getting more cautious with their words and more aware of their actions since the crackdown on crass behavior.
Stupid DJ tricks are nothing new. In 1993, a San Francisco station reached a $1.5 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by drivers stuck on a Bay Area bridge by a radio stunt. And in 1999, Washington DJ
Doug "Greaseman" Tracht was fired after a racially insensitive crack during his show.
For a lot more, DJ Firings
www.insideradio.com
BartCop TV!
Street To Be Named In Honor
Kevin Smith
A local street will soon be renamed in honor of movie director Kevin Smith, a New Jersey native who is now filming in this southern New Jersey community.
Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli said Thursday that officials plan to rename Tyler Street as Kevin Smith Way, but a date for the ceremony will not be scheduled until the proposal has been formally approved.
Large crowds have come to watch Smith film "Jersey Girl," a small-town love story starring off-screen couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez that began production in August.
Kevin Smith
Saturday
Paris
A woman holds a banner reading ' More genocide!! Thanks to Sharon and Bush my replacement is assured. You are the terrorists', during an anti-war demonstration in Paris, October 12, 2002. Several
thousands protesters marched under anti-war banners through central Paris.
Photo by Jacky Naegelen
Aid India Orphanage
Penelope & Melanie
Actresses Penelope Cruz and Melanie Griffith have helped put together a CD featuring Bob Dylan, Sting, Ricky Martin and others to raise money for an orphanage in Calcutta, India.
The orphanage that houses 150 girls was opened three years ago through the efforts of Nacho Cano, a Spanish singer, songwriter and producer who has helped raise about $1.5 million, mostly
from donors in Spain, for his SABERA Foundation.
"For you who have not been in Calcutta, I cannot express, I cannot put into words, how horrible the conditions are," said Griffith at a news conference this week. Like Cruz, she'll sing on
the "Voices of Hope" album, scheduled for release on Nov. 19.
The album will feature new recordings by Sting, Martin, Alanis Morissette, Placido Domingo and a duet by Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti.
Penelope & Melanie
* ADULT CONTENT *
Drinking Games
Some History
'Columbus Citizens Foundation'
Yes, the same group that barred "Sopranos" stars Lorraine Bracco and Dominic Chianese from the Columbus Day Parade opened its arms to Frank Sinatra.
In 1979, the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which organizes the parade, chose "Ol' Blue Eyes" to be the grand marshal.
The foundation picked Sinatra even though rumors that he was mobbed up followed him all his life, and he was a friend of Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana.
Bracco plays a psychiatrist with no mob ties on the "Sopranos," while Chianese plays patriarchal mobster Uncle Junior. Like Sinatra, he's also a singer.
Spokesman Bob DiLallo saw no contradiction in the foundation's barring the "Sopranos" stars while opening its arms to Sinatra.
"Rumor - there's your key word," he said of the crooner's reported links to organized crime.
Despite its present disdain for gangsters, the foundation accepted support from the Italian-American Civil Rights League - founded by slain mobster Joe Colombo - in
the early '70s. Colombo also marched in the Columbus Day Parade.
'Columbus Citizens Foundation'
Mount Jewett, PA
Kinzua
In its heyday, the Kinzua Viaduct could support the 511-ton Big Boy, the biggest steam engine in the world. Now, what was the tallest
and longest railroad bridge during the Industrial Age is off limits even to pedestrians.
Decades of neglect have left the rusting span, now the nation's fourth-tallest railroad bridge, at risk of collapsing.
Engineers are still trying to figure out how to repair the 301-foot-tall structure, made of weakened 102-year-old steel and in need of hard-to-find parts.
Cement casings around the original brick foundations are scarred with cracks and gouges. Rust has eaten through cross members and columns,
sapping half of the strength from the bridge and leaving piles of rust flakes a foot thick on the ground.
A tourist train that used to chug across the bridge was removed in June. In August, foot traffic was banned. Officials don't even want
anyone under the bridge in a gorge about 110 miles northeast of Pittsburgh on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest.
The original Kinzua Viaduct - 1,552 tons of iron - was built in 94 days in 1882. Gen. Thomas L. Kane dreamed up a bridge "loftier than any yet built
by man" as a way to lure the New York & Erie Railroad to build a line that would help settle the Elk and McKean counties.
When rebuilt using 3,300 tons of steel to accommodate heavier trains in 1900, the railroad bridge was still the fourth-tallest in the world.
The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks and National Register of Historic Places.
The bridge hasn't carried a freight train since 1959 but has remained a tourist attraction, drawing as many as 140,000 people a year.
It has been saved once already. In 1959, the Erie Railroad sold it for $76,000 to scrap metal dealer Nick Kovalchick, but he reconsidered once he
saw it and sold it to the state three years later.
"He fell in love with it. We talked about and went to the bridge all the time," said his son, Joe Kovalchick.
The state acknowledges it has done little work on the bridge since buying it.
Engineers are considering anchoring the bridge's 20 towers with cables, or using tie rods to stabilize tower legs.
Last week, the state House approved $10.8 million to repair the bridge.
If the state Senate and governor also approve, officials say repairs could begin as early as next month, and the bridge could be reopened to foot
traffic - and possibly even the tourist train - next summer.
Kinzua
This is the show-piece of 'where I grew up', even though it's in McKean County, and I'm from Elk County. One of my pals took the kid & me up there the last trip back.
We walked the length of the bridge (& back), then all the way down to the bottom of the gorge (& back up). But the highlight for the kid was that raspberries grow wild and lined the path.
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
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