'Best of TBH Politoons'
Tonight
Erin Hart Show
Please join
Erin Hart Saturday and Sunday night from 9pm - 1am (pdt) on 710 KIRO.
Audio streams live - 710KIRO.com.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joshua Holland: Stuck In Baghdad? Yeah, Right (AlterNet.org)
War on Iraq: Don't believe what you hear from the White House and the Pentagon. We can leave Iraq anytime we please.
NIKKI FINKE: Who Hates Their MTV? (laweekly.com)
How the rebel network sold its soul for bimbos, princesses and bucks
Connie Tuttle: Hold the Vagina
The October issue of Seventeen includes an article about vaginas and all you need to know about them. But you won't find this magazine at Albertons. The chain pulled the October issue from its supermarkets in 11 states, including Arizona.
Is Bush as religious as he claims? (beliefnet.com)
Beliefnet Editor-in-Chief Steven Waldman interviewed Al Franken about his ... book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," and about his own spirituality. Excerpts from the interview:
Al Franken: The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus
Reader Update
Re: Katherine Harris
Hi,
I'm sorry but I had to send a story whose headline includes Harris, Faces, and Hole.
Colby in a frostproof place
Thanks, again, Colby!
Hubert's Poetry Corner
LUST ON WHISPERING HILL LANE
THOSE AMOROUS DESPERATE LADIES OF WISTERIA LANE ARE MERE INNOCENTS COMPARED TO THE RAGING PRIMAL PASSIONS OF WHISPERING HILL LANE!
Reader Review
'Night Stalker'
by Jayson Tanner
Night Stalker - As Good as X Files and Just as Scary
I made the mistake the other night of watching 2 episodes of Night
Stalker right before bed. I had some really bad, freaky nightmares all
night long.
I'm ok now. I think. Thanks for asking.
I'm not dissing the show. It's a compliment that someone as jaded as me
(when it comes to TV) can be affected by a show to this degree.
Night Stalker is truly scary at times, and always intense and
interesting. The acting is as good as Duchovny's and Anderson's in their
first few years on The X Files. Of course, they can only go uphill from
here. If ABC is comitted to the project, that is.
Stuart Townsend as Kolchak might possibly be a better actor than
Duchovny. At least his acting here is better than Duchovny's was in the
first few seasons of X Files. And his reporter sidekick Gabrielle Union,
is way sexy. It took me many years to like Gillian Anderson's X Files
character. I liked Gabrielle right away.
Some of Stalker's themes were covered in X Files (and the much
underappreciated Millenium) already but they are interesting themes.
Last week's episode, for instance, was about a guy in prison who
manipulates people on the outside to kill via mind control/ESP. Yep,
it'd been done before but Night Stalker made it interesting again.
I'd imagine that if something like this could happen in "real life" it
would happen more than once, so I'm ok with the repetition as long as
someone can make the subject matter interesting more than once.
Last Thursday's episode was about people being scared literally to death
- by their own innermost fears come to life in some kind of psychotic
hallucination either brought on by mysterious drugs - or an even more
mysterious haunting by a child who was terrified to death many years'
ago by his murderous father.- or a combination of both. The backstory
scene of the possessed father going after his family with an axe was
actually more frightening than Jack Nicholson doing it in The Shining.
Well, if you loved X Files like I did, you won't be dissapointed by this
show. Unless you just "have" to have David Duchovny around.
Apparently, and surprisingly, I don't.
Night Stalkers' stars are just as watcheable and the stories are just as
good. I was missing this kind of storytelling. So glad to have it
back. Scanning the credits I noticed some familiar X Files names:
Darrin Morgan and Frank Spotnik, so it's no surprise that Stalker is so
much like that great show.
I'm old enough to remember the original "Kolchack: the Night Stalker"
with Darrin McGavin. It was a favorite of mine as a kid. This show is
more like X Files than the old Kolchack - but it works anyway. In fact,
it "is" the X Files. It's just set in a newspaper's news room instead
of the FBI.
If you only watched a few minutes of the pilot and decided to pass, my
advice is to give it a decent chance before panning it. I think you'll
like it.
I'd imagine this show would also appeal to fans of Buffy, Poltergueist
and Tales from the Crypt. Out of all the new shows on TV this year with
supernatual themes, for my money, Night Stalker is by far the best one.
Night Stalker - Thursdays at 9pm Eastern - ABC
Jayson Tanner is a free-lance writer and host of his own Contemporary
Folk/ Americana/ Cosmic-Country radio program "The Wrecking Ball" which
can now be heard on line, Sundays from Noon til 2pm Eastern via the
webstream at communityradio.coop
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The fall-like weather returned.
Video of Ahnold (on Leno) stating "I haf no $pecial interests. Trust me." is the heart of a commercial running here.
Dear old Dad taught me early on to NEVER trust anyone who says 'trust me.'
More bluntly stated, "'trust me' is politician talk for 'fuck you'."
In the last 2 weeks, the e-page has been visited by readers from:
Strips on Italy Evening News
Roberto Benigni
Oscar winner Roberto Benigni treated Italians watching Saturday's prime time news show to an impromptu strip tease to mark the release of his new film "The Tiger and the Snow" about the war in Iraq.
Benigni, whose poignant Holocaust film "Life is Beautiful" won the 1998 Oscar for best foreign film, left the newscaster on Italy's most watched evening news program open-mouthed when he began unbuttoning his shirt during an interview.
A laughing Benigni removed his shirt and draped it over the newscaster's shoulders.
Benigni is a vociferous critic of media tycoon Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and he led a crowd of thousands in Rome on Friday in protest at the center-right government's decision to cut state arts funding by 35 percent.
Prior to removing his shirt, Benigni had already hijacked the opening credits of the 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) news, jumping behind the newscaster and announcing: "Berlusconi has resigned."
Roberto Benigni
Billboard Century Award
Tom Petty
Tom Petty will receive the Century Award, Billboard's highest honor for creative achievement, at this year's Billboard Music Awards.
The show will air live on the Fox network from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 6.
Previous award recipients include George Harrison, Buddy Guy, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana, Chet Atkins, James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Randy Newman, John Mellencamp, Annie Lennox, Sting and Stevie Wonder.
Tom Petty
Society of Singers Honor
Elton John
Barry Manilow had a confession to make at the October 10 Society of Singers' annual Ella Awards. "I've always wanted to marry Elton John," he announced to the crowd, as he paid tribute to the evening's honoree.
The event, at Los Angeles' Beverly Hilton, raised money for the SOS, which provides emergency funds for singers in need. According to SOS president Jerry Sharell, the evening broke an SOS fund-raising record previously set in 1990, when Frank Sinatra was honored.
In his acceptance speech, John recalled a youth spent listening to such singers as Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald (for whom the awards are named), Sarah Vaughan, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby. But he admitted that he would have to turn down Manilow's proposal: "I couldn't have married you, Barry. There would have been too much fuss in front of the mirror."
Elton John
Returns Home to New Orleans
Fats Domino
Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino, who was missing for days after Hurricane Katrina, returned home on Saturday to load some of his muddied gold records into the trunk of a car.
Outside the bright yellow headquarters of Fats Domino Publishing, Domino's son-in-law, Charles Brimmer, helped the musician load mementos from his legendary career into the car.
Told only three of his 21 gold records -- "Rose Mary," "I'm Walkin'," and "Blue Monday" -- had been found, Domino said, "Well, somebody got the rest of them."
"I don't know what to do, move somewhere else or something," Domino said. "But I like it down here."
Fats Domino
Texas Town Celebrates Frog's B-Day
Kermit
Kermit the Frog began a globe-hopping tour to celebrate his 50th showbiz birthday in this small West Texas town that shares the beloved amphibian's name.
The town of about 5,700 rolled out the green carpet Friday for the singing, dancing Muppet and former "Sesame Street" star, giving him the key to the city, dubbing him grand marshal of the homecoming parade and crowning him honorary homecoming king.
The town, one of two in the country named Kermit, also painted Kermit's face on the community's large water tower. The local Dairy Queen offered green French fries and ice cream in his honor. A park in town also will bear his name.
Kermit
'Today' Reporter Paddles in Shallow Water
Michelle Kosinski
If Michelle Kosinski's canoe had sprung a leak on NBC's "Today" show Friday, she didn't have much to worry about.
In one of television's inadvertently funny moments, the NBC News correspondent was paddling in a canoe during a live report about flooding in Wayne, N.J. While she talked, two men walked between her and the camera - making it apparent that the water where she was floating was barely ankle-deep.
Later, an NBC News spokeswoman explained that Kosinski had been riding in deeper water near an overflowing river down the street, but there were concerns that the current was too strong for her.
"It's not like we were trying to pass it off as something it wasn't," spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said.
Michelle Kosinski
Watch the video - Today Show Photo-Op @ Crooks And Liars.com
Troubles Ripple Through Art World
J. Paul Getty Museum
A plot fit for a Hollywood thriller has been unfolding at the venerable J. Paul Getty Museum, a gleaming hilltop refuge that Italian authorities claim houses pilfered art.
A decade after leading efforts against the illegal trade of artifacts, the museum's recently departed antiquities curator faces trial next month in Rome over allegations that she knowingly received dozens of stolen items.
The internationally renowned Getty finds itself deflecting a barrage of questions about how it amassed its world-class collection of Roman, Greek and Etruscan works. And the art world is left to wonder whether the museum's current dilemma will refocus attention on how art is acquired.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Death Was Accident
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee's former producer, Raymond Chow, says the kung fu star's sudden death at age 32 is a straightforward case of taking the wrong medicine.
Lee died of an edema, or swelling of the brain, in the home of Hong Kong actress Betty Ting Pei in 1973. The coroner described his passing as "death by misadventure."
The circumstances of Lee's death fueled speculation that drugs were involved and Lee was having an affair with Ting.
Chow, one of the founders of Golden Harvest studios, said Lee died because he took headache medication that he was "hypersensitive" to at someone else's home, refraining from referring to Ting directly.
Bruce Lee
Painstaking Window Washing
Chartres
Stephane Petit's patients arrive at his clinic almost unrecognizable, their skin invaded by microbes, their faces blackened by pollution, their jewel-toned robes sullied by candle smoke and the debilitating breath of millions of well-intentioned admirers.
Petit is a doctor to some of the world's oldest stained-glass masterpieces: the blue-hued mosaics of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, which stands in this medieval village 50 miles southwest of Paris. His patients -- saints and butchers, priests and blacksmiths -- have survived more than seven centuries of revolution, war and atmospheric grime buildup.
"The glass is full of mini-craters," said Petit, a man of 40 built like a cornstalk, his rail-thin body topped by a mop of thick, unruly dreadlocks. "There's lichen and algae. Microbes from the stone move in and invade the place. Sometimes only a fossil of the paint remains."
Chartres
Conference in Texas Draws Hundreds
Bigfoot
Next to a lifelike replica of a giant ape head, the believers milled around tables Saturday covered with casts of large footprints, books about nature's mysteries and T-shirts proclaiming Bigfoot: Often Imitated, Never Invalidated.
While they can have a sense of humour about it, the search for the legendary Sasquatch is no joke for many of the nearly 400 people who came to discuss the latest sightings and tracking techniques at the Texas Bigfoot Conference.
Hoaxes have been a large part of the making of the Bigfoot legend. California construction company owner Ray Wallace donned 40-centimetre-long wooden feet to create tracks in mud in 1958 and it led to a front-page story in a local paper that coined the word Bigfoot.
But there have been more than 2,550 seemingly credible Bigfoot sightings reported in North America in the last century, said Christopher Murphy's 2004 book Meet the Sasquatch.
Bigfoot
Put on Auction Block
Apothecary Artifacts
On the auction block: refined skunk oil, goose grease, a pack of medicinal cigarettes ("Promotes easier breathing") and empty bottles that once held cocaine, morphine and amphetamine multivitamins.
Thousands of medicinal products from a bygone era have been pulled from the basement of one of Alaska's oldest drugstores to be sold to the highest bidder Saturday.
Some of the estimated 3,000 items that once lined the shelves of Seward Drug Co. date to the early 1900s and are still neatly ensconced in their original containers.
Most of the lot was stored for decades in the basement of the Seward Drug Co., which started in 1904 as the first apothecary shop in the town of Seward, about 80 miles south of Anchorage. The store burned down in 1941 but owner James Woern believes much of what was stored in the basement survived.
For the rest, Apothecary Artifacts
In Memory
Baker Knight
Prolific songwriter Baker Knight, whose hits were recorded by stars ranging from Elvis Presley to Ricky Nelson, Paul McCartney, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, has died at age 72.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Knight wrote almost 1,000 songs. More than 40 singers recorded his tunes, which include the 1970 Presley hit "The Wonder of You" and Martin's "Somewhere There's a Someone" and "That Old Time Feelin'." Nelson and McCartney sang the same Knight hit, "Lonesome Town," decades apart.
Knight learned to play guitar while in the Air Force. He formed a rock band, Baker Knight and the Knightmares, whose height of fame was opening for country stars Carl Perkins and Conway Twitty in 1956.
After the band split up, Knight moved to Los Angeles for a movie role that never materialized. He returned to Birmingham in 1985 and began to suffer from agoraphobia and a condition similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, which put his songwriting career on hold.
Knight is survived by his daughter, Tuesday, and a son, Thomas Baker Knight.
Baker Knight
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
