'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Comment
Re: Killer's Kiss
Marty,
Guess what? The TCM B&W ad with the saxophone music (the one before
the too-loud Turner ad) is footage and an homage to Kubrick's
'Killer's Kiss' (1955). The footage lifted from the film is blended with
recreations...it's quite skillful.
Probably this is 'common knowledge' among the noiristas, but I had
always marveled at how rich the texture of the commercial was, not
realizing that this resulted from the cinematic genius of possibly
the greatest director who ever lived.
It's a very specific visual style, very self-conscious in the movie
itself. The actors themselves are odd, it's low budget, but played
for all they're worth by Kubrick.
Trio would be unwatchable without TiVo.
Paul in LA
Thanks, Paul!
I've fallen in love with TiVo!
Reader Suggestion
Political Pulp Fiction
Reader Feedback
100 Greatest American Speeches!
W O W !
Read Mario Savio's entry this morning. Damn, it has been too long since those days. I grew up in Bezerkeley in the 60's. Too young to go to SDS rallys, I did my part against the war in Nam. Great to revisit those days.
Wish more Americans felt that strongly about bullshit. We would be a much greater country if that were so. Bush would at least be in jail, anyway.
Thanks for the good read.
Also the LSD book! Barely touched that but again, WOW! My dad was a Psychologist, in Berkeley in the 60's, that specialized in training other therapists, with psychedelics. Wild times indeed.
henry
Thanks for the kind words, Henry!
Eminem's New Video
'Mosh'
The Guerrilla News Network announces the online premiere of Eminem's new video, Mosh. With eight seven six five four three days and counting, Eminem calls for regime change in this powerful anti-war, get-out-the-vote music video.
Directed by GNN's Ian Inaba.
Reader Suggestion
'The Choice 2004'
PBS Frontline "The Choice 2004" airs on Mon. Nov. 1
When I saw Frontline's "The Choice 2004" on PBS a
few weeks ago I thought it was one of THE BEST pieces
on Kerry I'd ever seen. Why? becuase it detailed the
struggle Kerry faced to get in office AFTER Vietnam
and the good things he did in office once he got
there. And yes I SERIOUSLY think this could sway
people to vote for him as it ALSO shows how Dubya got
in office too:)
IN FACT I'm STILL surprised that Karl Rove & co.
haven't tried to stop this program or sue Frontline &
PBS over it because this honestly doesn't make Bush
look all that good.
Well guess what? PBS is showing it AGAIN on Monday
Nov. 1st.
If you EVER needed a reason to program the Tivo, VCR
or DVD or gather with friends &/or family on a Monday
night or watch TV by yourself - THIS IS IT!!!!!!! This
is/was one of THE BEST episodes Frontline ever did and
one of THE BEST programs of 2004! For real - I don't
think anything comes close to it.
Chris
Reader Comment
Schilling for Bush
Schilling for Bush - please
It figures that an asshole like Curt Schilling would support DUMBya.
When this jackass played for the Phillies back in the early 1990s, he was quoted in the paper during the 1994 strike about how terrible it was that he had nothing to do but watch videos that he rented at the store and walk his purebred Rottweiler.
Oh, poor baby.
Do any of these f**king jocks ever see the world except in terms of how it affects them?
Terry C
NJ
Thanks, Terry!
I'm grateful for having grown up when baseball still had gentlemen like Sandy Koufax and heroes like Roberto Clemente.
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Reader Suggestions
More Bumper Stickers
George W. Bush: Terrorism On The March
After Four Years Of George Bush, We Are Used To Terrorism
Whose Vote Will Yours Cancel Out? Bush's? Cheney's? Ken Lay's?
Election 2004: Vote Before The Rules Are Changed So That Only Rich People Can Vote
Thanks, Greg!
Reader Comment
Raspberries
Love your site!!
If you or your son get sick from food poisoning try drinking raspberry juice. It stops the stomach cramps, vomiting and projectile pooping. I know this sounds too good to be true but I picked up the info from The National Post's (Canada) science page a year or so ago and have used it a few times for myself and my husband very successfully. We've got frozen raspberries in the freezer all the time now. The bonus is that it tastes good on top of working almost immediately. I prefer the unsweetened variety but the sugared version worked just as well.
The other thing that helps if it's the flu is ginger ale with fresh grated ginger in it. This helps stop the vomiting and tastes good. Hope it's not the flu but I heard it's coming out early this year.
My sympathies to you. Nobody gets whinier when ill than the males of our species.
Jay
Vancouver
Thanks, Jay!
Oddly, I also have raspberries in the freezer, but have never used them for food poisoning.
But, so far as I'm concerned, one more use for raspberries is a wonderful thing.
Turns out the kid has a cold, but, he's a puker. No matter what he's coming down with, he pukes. Yuck.
Reader Contribution
Re: Election 2004
Whose Vote Will Yours Cancel Out? Bush's? Cheney's? Ken Lay's?
Election 2004: Vote Before The Rules Are Changed So
That Only Rich People Can Vote
A card with information to protect your voting rights
is available here.
If someone interferes with your right to vote:
1. DOCUMENT IT Write down exactly what happened and
the names of the people involved.
2. THEN, REPORT IT Call 1-866-MYVOTE1 to leave a
message about your problem.
• Fill out the problem form at www.moveonpac.org.
• If you need immediate legal assistance, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
This is the 911 of voter hotlines - only use it if there's a serious problem.
Greg
Purple Gene Reviews
'Ray'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "Ray" starring Jamie Fox and directed by Taylor Hackford:
I had four heroes when I was growing up (Beside my Mom) Elvis Presley, Mohammed Ali, Bob Dylan and .......Ray Charles.......I remember sitting in my Volvo staion wagon in 1979, listening to the news. The announcer was playing some early Ray Charles and then he said that they were taking a live feed from floor of the Senate of the State of Georgia......The Governor was making an historic statement...they had changed the State Song to Ray Charles version of "Georgia on My Mind", they had Ray there to sing it and....they also gave Ray a formal apology for banning him and his music from the state way back in the early 60s'...........because Ray had decided to buck the white only/ black only segregation of music! Ray played "Geogia on My Mind" live from the senate floor and I was crying with hope for this miserable, hateful country! Weepy Gene.
So I went to see the new movie Ray, starring Jamie Fox and WOW was he and that movie GOOD!! Rich colors - the scenes of Ray as a child running around barefoot in that red/brown dirt with his brother (who tragically died in front of Ray), the beautiful skin tones of all the characters and the allegorical multi-colored bottles in the leafless tree that seemed like the last thing Ray saw before he lost his eyesight at age seven. There was a scene where he snuck into a bar and an old man gave him his first piano lesson - F# - C - G# - "Now you try that boy"!! Then the long and painful journey through the music business with sex, drug, record deals and Rays' amazing creative musical genius - gospel, Rhythm and blues, country and pop music all with his own style...yeah...All through Rays' early career he was hooked on smack and this movie actually made that part of his life become very personal....There is a scene where Ray is with his wife and kids and the phone rings and he finds out that his other woman had just died of an overdose - close up on ray holding the phone and his wife watching him mourn for his mistress...this is where the good acting shine through!
Sharon Warren was superb as Rays' mother Aretha....teaching him early to be strong and not let anything control him (this later became part of the nightmare he had re-occurring while he was kicking his heroin addiction).
If you go to see this movie for the music you will not be let down. If you go to see this movie for the acting you will not be let down, If you to see this movie for the story you will not be let down....personally, I really enjoyed the cinematography....the colors were lush and brilliant ....this might have worked as a black and white movie but I'm glad they did it in color....I loved "Ray".........
Purple Gene give "Ray" 9 "What'd I Says" out of 10.....Jamie's got a great chance for an Oscar!
Purple Gene
Thanks, Purple Gene!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Pleasant sunny day.
The kid settled into the couch & spent the day there.
He wants to 'heal fast' so he can shake down the neighbors for candy tonight.
Criticizes Bush
Jesse Ventura
Speaking out for the first time in Minnesota since his endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, former Gov. Jesse Ventura lambasted President Bush on Thursday over the issues of war in Iraq, federal deficits, gay marriage and stem-cell research.
Ventura did not discuss what triggered his move, but he made clear his displeasure with the Republican ticket's conduct in both the current war and the one three decades ago in Vietnam.
"A true leader should never ask you to do anything he or she would not do," he said. "Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney, neither of them were willing to do it when it was their turn."
Referring to reports that Bush failed to fulfill some of his National Guard duties, Ventura, a Navy frogman during the Vietnam War, said: "If I would have served the way resident Bush did, I would never have received an honorable discharge ... I would have ended up in Portsmouth naval prison."
On Iraq, Ventura accused Bush of arrogance equal to that which toppled the Roman empire and imperialism befitting the former Soviet Union.
And he blamed the current disorder in Iraq on "chicken hawks running the war instead of the military. What they didn't think about is what happens afterward. But it's ours now and we've got to deal with it. It's not going to be pretty."
For more, Jesse Ventura
Orders End to Free Ads for GOP
FCC
A California broadcaster cannot give Republican candidates free air time unless the same offer is extended to other candidates, the Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday.
Pappas Telecasting Cos., which donated $325,000 in air time on its radio and TV stations to 13 GOP county committees last week, had insisted the gifts were legal and did not trigger federal equal time rules.
In briefs Friday, attorneys for Pappas argued that company president Harry J. Pappas purchased time at his own stations and donated it to Republican committees to be used any way they wanted.
But William Johnson, deputy chief of the FCC's Media Bureau, said in his order that the facts were clear - the broadcaster had given free time to a candidate.
"When a candidate is furnished time at no cost, competing candidates are entitled to receive the same amount of free time in comparable time periods," he said.
FCC
1200 Cameras at Polling Places
Michael Moore
Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore plans to have hundreds of cameras outside polling places in Ohio and Florida on Election Day to watch for attempts to suppress voter turnout.
The director of the anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" announced Saturday that a total of 1,200 professional and nonprofessional cameramen, filmmakers and videographers will bring their cameras to polling places in the two presidential battleground states, especially in minority communities.
"I'm putting those who intend to suppress the vote on notice: Voter intimidation and suppression will not be tolerated," Moore said in a statement.
Michael Moore
Stumping For Kerry
Shirley Manson
Republican and Democratic strategists are expecting a clear decision Tuesday, avoiding a razor-thin victory that many fear would spark an extended legal battle for the presidency.
Their comments Friday came as Democrat John Kerry, Republican George W. Bush, their surrogates and supporters continued to swamp Wisconsin. Among the weekend's visitors to Wisconsin, still up for grabs in Tuesday's presidential vote, are: Kerry, at rallies in Appleton today and with rocker Jon Bon Jovi in Milwaukee Monday; Elizabeth Edwards in Stevens Point Sunday and Eau Claire Monday; former Gov. Tommy Thompson on tour for Bush today; and feminist Gloria Steinem in Madison today.
Friday saw Shirley Manson, lead singer of rock band Garbage, and national women's leader Kim Gandy here for Kerry.
Shirley Manson
Gets Rose Named After Her
Della Reese
Actress Della Reese is joining an elite group of famous people who have roses named after them. With the "Della" rose, she joins the ranks of the late Princess Diana, President John F. Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth and Dolly Parton.
The flower is a fragrant hybrid with a deep, burgundy color. It will be dedicated in the actress' honor Jan. 3 in a ceremony sponsored by Armstrong Garden Centers.
Della Reese
First Wife Wants Sentimental Bench
Vivian Distin
The first wife of the late singer Johnny Cash says she would like to own the San Antonio River Walk bench that she and Cash carved their names on in 1951 - but city officials say that's unlikely.
Vivian Distin told the San Antonio Express-News she rediscovered the bench two weeks ago during a visit to San Antonio and asked city officials if she could have it if she paid to replace it. The city, realizing the bench's historic value, quickly locked it away in a storage room out of fear that someone would steal or damage it, the paper reported Friday.
Cash was an 18-year-old cadet at Brooks Air Force Base and Distin was his 17-year-old girlfriend when they carved "Johnny loves Vivian" on the cedar bench. Shortly afterward, the military sent Cash to Germany. Over the next three years, Cash frequently referred to the bench in love letters to Distin.
Distin, who is working on a book about her life with the man in black, is the mother of Cash's four daughters, including singer Rosanne Cash. Cash was divorced from Distin when he married country star June Carter.
Vivian Distin
To Recut Doctored Ad
Bush Campaign
Resident Bush's campaign acknowledged Thursday that it had doctored a photograph used in a television commercial to remove the president and the podium where he was standing. The campaign said the ad will be re-edited and reshipped to TV stations.
A group of soldiers in the crowd was electronically copied to fill in the space where the president and the podium had been, aides say.
The original photograph shows a sea of soldiers sitting behind the president as he stands at a podium just left of the center of the frame. Bush was speaking at Fort Drum in New York on July 19, 2002.
Democrats said it is fitting that Bush would fabricate an advertising image.
Bush Campaign
Booted From Jay-Z Tour
R. Kelly
R&B singer R. Kelly was kicked off a tour with rapper Jay-Z Saturday, one day after Kelly walked offstage during a performance and allegedly was blasted with pepper spray by a member of Jay-Z's entourage.
Jay-Z and R. Kelly were in the midst of a 40-city "Best of Both Worlds" tour, scheduled to run through Nov. 28. The tour has been beset by canceled shows and reports that the feuding performers weren't even on speaking terms.
The pepper-spray incident happened about an hour into Friday night's show, when Kelly walked on stage and said he saw two people in the audience waving guns, said Kelly's publicist, Allan Mayer. Kelly abruptly stopped his set around 9:30 p.m. while arena security employees searched for weapons.
Finding none, guards told Kelly it was safe to continue performing, Mayer said. But as the singer was making his way back to the stage, a man in Jay-Z's entourage - apparently miffed that Kelly interrupted the show - sprayed him and two of his bodyguards in the face, Mayer said.
R. Kelly
Rare Prints On Sale
Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt captured the essence of Gilded Age femininity in her beguiling portraits of mothers with infants and young girls with pets in genteel domestic settings.
Cassatt also printed mirror images, or counterproofs, of these subtle portraits in pastel from 1905 to 1915, during her long career as a leading expatriate artist in Paris. Her prints - one or two per portrait - were then marketed by her Parisian dealer, Ambroise Vollard, and the images all but disappeared into private collections.
Now, a trove of 48 counterproofs of these portraits, uncovered in the estate of an unnamed French art lover, will be sold at prices ranging from $50,000 to $400,000 apiece - or more than $7 million dollars for the lot.
The collection is on view from Nov. 1 through Jan. 14 at the Adelson Galleries in Manhattan. It is billed as the first-ever show and sale of Cassatt counterproofs anywhere.
Mary Cassatt
Conductor's Son Seeks Home for Collection
Mark Matsov
The son of a conductor who worked closely with Dmitri Shostakovich is seeking a new home for thousands of recordings and manuscripts of the composer's work.
The collection belonged to conductor Roman Matsov and is currently housed in the Tallinn, Estonia, apartment where Matsov lived and worked until he died in 2001 at age 84.
Matsov's son, Mark, said he is having trouble paying rent on the apartment and is concerned that the archive will lose its home.
Mark Matsov
To Be Auctioned
Art
Paintings by such luminary artists as Gauguin, Matisse and Monet will be auctioned next week by the city's top two auction houses, Christie's and Sotheby's, in separate impressionist and modern art sales.
Together, more than 120 pieces will be sold at a combined price of nearly $350 million.
A painting from Gauguin's second Tahitian period, "Maternite (II)," is expected to fetch the highest price. Sotheby's estimated the value of the piece, which currently belongs to an unidentified private collector, between $40 and $50 million.
Christie's auction will be held Wednesday and Thursday and Sotheby's on Thursday and Friday.
Art
Scary Reading
The Crusade Against Evolution
In the beginning there was Darwin. And then there was intelligent design. How the next generation of "creation science" is invading America's classrooms.
On a spring day two years ago, in a downtown Columbus auditorium, the Ohio State Board of Education took up the question of how to teach the theory of evolution in public schools. A panel of four experts - two who believe in evolution, two who question it - debated whether an antievolution theory known as intelligent design should be allowed into the classroom.
This is an issue, of course, that was supposed to have been settled long ago. But 140 years after Darwin published On the Origin of Species, 75 years after John Scopes taught natural selection to a biology class in Tennessee, and 15 years after the US Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana law mandating equal time for creationism, the question of how to teach the theory of evolution was being reopened here in Ohio. The two-hour forum drew chanting protesters and a police escort for the school board members. Two scientists, biologist Ken Miller from Brown University and physicist Lawrence Krauss from Case Western Reserve University two hours north in Cleveland, defended evolution. On the other side of the dais were two representatives from the Discovery Institute in Seattle, the main sponsor and promoter of intelligent design: Stephen Meyer, a professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University's School of Ministry and director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, and Jonathan Wells, a biologist, Discovery fellow, and author of Icons of Evolution, a 2000 book castigating textbook treatments of evolution. Krauss and Miller methodically presented their case against ID. "By no definition of any modern scientist is intelligent design science," Krauss concluded, "and it's a waste of our students' time to subject them to it."
The debate's two-on-two format, with its appearance of equal sides, played right into the ID strategy - create the impression that this very complicated issue could be seen from two entirely rational yet opposing views. "This is a controversial subject," Meyer told the audience. "When two groups of experts disagree about a controversial subject that intersects with the public-school science curriculum, the students should be permitted to learn about both perspectives. We call this the 'teach the controversy' approach."
For the frightening rest, The Crusade Against Evolution
Action Filed Over Talk Attacks
'John & Ken'
In a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission, the National Republican Campaign Committee accused radio station KFI-AM (640) co-hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of "criminal behavior" for attacking Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and endorsing his Democratic opponent, Cynthia Matthews.
By criticizing Dreier's positions on immigration, promoting a "Fire Dreier" campaign and making on-air appeals for voters to elect Matthews, the NRCC said, the hosts gave Matthews an unlawful corporate, in-kind contribution of more than $25,000.
Kobylt said he believes the NRCC wanted to "spook" KFI's owner, Clear Channel Communications, into "shutting us up" before Election Day.
He went on to note that his show was equally active in promoting the recall of former California Gov. Gray Davis and the election of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dreier co-chaired Schwarzenegger's campaign.
'John & Ken'
Cambodia's New King
Norodom Sihamoni
The new monarch of Cambodia was once a dance-crazy youngster whose passion for ballet took him all the way to Prague for 13 years of rigorous training with the best, steeping himself in Czech language and culture in the process.
His teachers recall how the future king of Cambodia steeped himself in Czech culture, reading voraciously, going to the theatre, a fan of local pop culture.
Born in 1953, Norodom Sihamoni arrived in 1962, aged nine, in the capital of what was then communist Czechoslovakia.
His sojourn in Czechoslovakia covered the period of the Prague Spring in 1968 when communist reformers very briefly tried to introduce a new liberal communism with a human face, only to be crushed by Soviet tanks in August of that year.
For a lot more, Norodom Sihamoni
In Memory
Princess Alice
Princess Alice, aunt to Queen Elizabeth II and the longest-living member of the royal family, died at the age of 102, Buckingham Palace announced.
Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, was the widow of Prince Henry, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. The young Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret were bridesmaids at her wedding in 1935 in the private chapel in Buckingham Palace.
Born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott on Christmas Day 1901, she was the third daughter of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch, who served in the navy with George V before he became king.
She set a new record of longevity for the British royal family in August last year when she reached 101 years, seven months and 26 days.
Princess Alice held a passion for travel and spent time in Kenya, India, Afghanistan and Australia. She was also an accomplished watercolourist.
Princess Alice
