Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford:What to wear to the Apocalypse (sfgate.com)
This much we know for sure: The End Times are going to look extremely cool. Have you noticed? Have you seen the previews, the TV shows, the films, the sneak peeks, the fine cinematography? Apparently the end of the...
Frank Rich: The Other Plot to Wreck America (nytimes.com)
Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin.
Froma Harrop: Dems Should Stay Cool About Midterms (creators.com)
The midterm elections this November have spawned midyear panic, largely by Democrats. With their majorities in the Senate and House, Democrats have the most to lose. And historically, the president's party sheds congressional seats at this point in the electoral cycle.
Jacob Weisberg: What Caused the Economic Crisis? (slate.com)
The 15 best explanations for the Great Recession.
"Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right" by Jennifer Burns: A review by Kim Phillips-Fein
Ayn Rand never made modest claims for the importance of her work. As she told Mike Wallace in 1957, she believed that she was "the most creative thinker alive," and that her ideas about the virtues of selfishness and the evils of altruism owed nothing to any previous writer, expect maybe Aristotle.
Frank McGuinness: When Greta Garbo came to town (guardian.co.uk)
In the mid-1970s, Greta Garbo paid a visit to Donegal. Frank McGuinness explains how she (and his starstruck mother) inspired his new play.
Mark Edwards: Rosanne Cash emerges from Johnny's shadow (timesonline.co.uk)
She fought it at first but Rosanne Cash is finally ready to embrace father Johnny's heritage.
Tom Ewing: What Does the Return of the Single Mean for Music? (guardian.co.uk)
"As music becomes as cheap as chips, singles should follow Lady Gaga's lead and make a fabulous meal of grabbing our attention."
Sean O'Hagan: "Charlotte Gainsbourg: 'I had no idea how scared I was of dying'" (guardian.co.uk)
Since debuting aged 13 with her father, Serge Gainsbourg, on a pop single called 'Lemon Incest', the French-British actress and singer has courted controversy. Last year she starred as a demonic mother in Lars von Trier's controversial film 'Antichrist.' As her third album is released, made with US songwriter Beck, she talks to Sean O'Hagan about her recent brain surgery and her enduring feelings for her late father.
The Hidden Benefits of Exercise (wsj.com)
Even Moderate Physical Activity Can Boost the Immune System and Protect Against Chronic Diseases.
Joe Weider: Staying Fit as a Vegan (creators.com)
Tip of the Week: Cardio exercise is great for burning fat, of course, but it doesn't do much in the way of building or strengthening muscle. What many people don't realize, though, is that progressive resistance training not only keeps your muscles strong and toned, but also helps burn fat, in two distinct ways.
Marilynn Preston: Want Positive Change in 2010? Set Your Sankalpa (creators.com)
Even if you don't know a twisted triangle from a tree pose, you can benefit from this advice because it's practical and down to earth, though it does begin by introducing you to a Sanskrit word: sankalpa.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'What ever happened to... Where are they now?' Edition
Every now and again, an article appears about what a former 'Celebrity', e.g. an actor/actress, politician, author, musician or sports star, is now doing in their present state of obscurity and where they're doing it.
Is there a former 'Celebrity' that you'd be interested in knowing where they are and what they're doing?
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Awards Ceremony
NEA Jazz Masters
Annie Ross summoned the spirits of departed jazz legends in a performance of her song "Music Is Forever," providing an emotional highlight at the annual NEA Jazz Masters Awards Ceremony.
The 79-year-old Ross, among the early practitioners of "vocalese" on songs like her "Twisted" - in which original lyrics were set to what had only been known before as an instrumental jazz solo - was among eight 2010 Jazz Masters honored at a Tuesday night concert presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and its new chairman, Rocco Landesman, at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.
This year's other Jazz Masters included pianist-composers Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton and Muhal Richard Abrams, a co-founder of the avant-garde Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians; West Coast arranger Bill Holman; reed instrument player Yusef Lateef; record producer George Avakian; and Bobby Hutcherson, who modernized the sound of the vibraphone as a voice in hard bop and free jazz.
NEA Jazz Masters
21st Annual Awards
GLAAD Nominees
For the fourth year running, the ABC television network leads nominees for media awards from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
The network earned eight nominations Wednesday for the 21st annual GLAAD Media Awards, with "Brothers & Sisters," "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" and newcomer "Modern Family" among its contenders.
The GLAAD Media Awards honor the fair, accurate and inclusive representation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives in the media. This year's awards - with 152 nominees in 32 categories - will be split into four ceremonies, held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in March, April and June.
GLAAD also announced that actress Cynthia Nixon will be honored with the Vito Russo Award, which is named after a founding member of GLAAD and is presented to a gay media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the gay community. The "Sex and the City" star will accept the special award at a ceremony in New York.
GLAAD Nominees
Gets Statue In Serbia
Johnny Depp
Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp was honored Wednesday with a life-size statue in Serbia.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star had a statue in his image unveiled to him by renowned Serbian director Emir Kusturica during an annual film festival - called Kustendorf - held in a mountain village in southwestern Serbia.
Depp met with Serbian President Boris Tadic upon his arrival on Tuesday. He was then flown by helicopter to the mountaintop village constructed by Kusturica for one of his movies.
Johnny Depp
Set To Open In Germany
Obama Musical
A musical about Barack Obama's "Yes we can" election campaign premieres in Germany this weekend, including love songs by the president to his wife Michelle and duets with Hillary Clinton.
Even John McCain and Sarah Palin are given stage time, with actors portraying the losing Republican candidates and belting out songs on their behalf.
In all, 30 singers, actors and dancers are to perform in the musical "Hope - the Obama Musical Story" when it opens at the Jahrhunderthalle concert hall in Frankfurt in a bilingual mix of English and German. The audience may recognize that many songs quote from the politicians' stump speeches during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.
The venue for the premiere seems appropriate since the optimism of Obamania remains largely intact in Germany, about a year after Obama, an accomplished public speaker, became America's first black president. One campaign highlight was a July 2008 speech to some 200,000 people in the heart of Berlin about the world, the U.S. and its place in it.
Obama Musical
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
Simon and Garfunkel
Simon and Garfunkel have been added to the lineup for this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
The singing-songwriting duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel will join the previously announced Jazz Fest lineup that includes Pearl Jam, Aretha Franklin, Van Morrison, The Neville Brothers, Lionel Richie, the Allman Brothers Band and Anita Baker.
The festival is scheduled for the weekends of April 23-25 and April 29-May 2 at the Fair Grounds Race Course. Simon and Garfunkel will be on stage on April 24.
While Simon has performed at Jazz Fest before, this will be the duo's first time together. Festival organizers say it is also their only planned U.S. appearance for the year.
Simon and Garfunkel
Affiliate Losses
NBC
A new study estimates NBC local stations would have lost some $22 million in three months if the network hadn't acted to move Jay Leno out of prime time.
Research firm Harmelin Media says local affiliates saw their late news audience drop by an average of 25 percent in November compared with the previous year in a key advertising demo.
It's an illustration of why those stations put pressure on NBC to end Leno's 10 p.m. show each weeknight. They trace their news ratings decline to Leno's poor ratings leading into their programming.
The study analyzes ad prices to suggest that three more months of Leno would have cost the 210 stations a collective $22 million. The ratings declines were particularly steep in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
NBC
Directing Episode Of `CSI: The 2nd One'
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie will make his television directorial debut on an upcoming episode of "CSI: Miami."
CBS says the rocker and filmmaker will bring the Miami crime-solving team to Los Angeles in a story that involves secret tape recordings and evidence tampering.
Production began Wednesday on the episode slated to air March 1.
Rob Zombie
NY Court OKs Lawsuit
Internet Music
A federal appeals court in New York has revived a lawsuit that accuses major record labels controlling 80 percent of U.S. digital music sales of scheming to charge high prices.
The lawsuit brought by music purchasers had been tossed out by a lower court judge.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Wednesday that the lawsuit can proceed. It said there are enough facts to consider the claims.
The New York legal action combined lawsuits brought across the country. They accused record companies of conspiring to charge at least 70 cents a song on the Internet, even though their costs were much lower than in record stores.
Internet Music
House Arrest For Chief
Parker-Broderick
A suspended Ohio police chief has been spared jail time for his part in snooping on the woman who carried twins for Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.
Under terms of his Wednesday sentence, Chad Dojack of Bridgeport in eastern Ohio must complete 50 days of house arrest, three years' probation and 100 hours of community service. He had pleaded no contest to dereliction of duty, a misdemeanor.
Dojack and Barry Carpenter, now ex-chief of nearby Martins Ferry, were accused of scheming to take things from the surrogate mother's Martins Ferry home last year to sell to celebrity photographers.
Parker-Broderick
Prosecutors Charge Woman
Celebrity Burglaries
A woman suspected of being the mastermind behind a series of break-ins at the homes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan has been charged with felony burglary and receiving stolen property.
Rachel Lee, 19, was charged Wednesday. She joins five other young men and women charged with burglaries at the homes of celebrities including Orlando Bloom, Rachel Bilson, Ashley Tisdale, Megan Fox and Audrina Patridge.
She is charged with the burglaries at the Hollywood Hills homes of Hilton, Lohan and Patridge. She was arrested in October in Las Vegas, where she lives. Los Angeles County prosecutors initially declined to press charges against her, instead asking police for more investigation.
Lee and Nicholas Prugo, who faces seven counts of first-degree burglary, have been accused by authorities of spearheading the burglaries. Prugo told police that Lee often suggested celebrities whose homes they should target and he would search the Internet for more information, according to a search warrant obtained in Nevada.
Celebrity Burglaries
Defends Husband's Boorish Behavior
Princess Caroline
Princess Caroline of Monaco gave a spirited defence of her husband to a packed German courtroom on Monday against charges he drunkenly beat up a hotel manager on a Kenyan resort island in 2000.
Testifying for over two hours and addressed as "madame" by the judge, the 52-year-old said that her aristocratic husband Prince Ernst August of Hanover had merely given Josef Brunlehner two "slaps" with the back of his hand.
Wearing tortoiseshell glasses, a light brown camel hair coat with black trousers and a black jumper, she said she did not want to "justify" what happened, but that the blows in question were not hard.
Entering via a side entrance with bodyguards, she also denied that the prince, a distant relation of Britain's queen, was drunk, and said that he had not been wearing a ring, which Brunlehner claims caused him serious injury.
Princess Caroline
No More Free Cars
Tiger Woods
US automaker General Motors said their agreement with Tiger Woods that allowed the embattled golf star to have use of its cars for free has ended.
Woods' endorsement deal with GM's Buick brand ended in 2008. However, an arrangement remained in place that allowed him to keep several GM vehicles on loan.
A company spokesman said that arrangement ended on December 31.
Sports equipment giant Nike, which pays Woods an estimated 40 million dollars a year, has issued unqualified support for Woods, and electronic game manufacturer Electronic Arts is going ahead with plans to roll out an online game featuring Woods.
Tiger Woods
Found Ater Almost 10 Years
Monet
Police said Wednesday that they have found a Monet painting that was stolen 10 years ago from a museum in western Poland.
Officers also have arrested a suspect who confessed to stealing the French Impressionist's work, officials said. The thief cut the painting from its frame and replaced it with a copy painted on cardboard.
Poznan police spokesman Romuald Piecuch said that on Tuesday officers detained a 41-year-old man in the southern city of Olkusz after the painting, "Beach in Pourville," was found in his possession.
Fingerprints and other traces left at the site of the theft helped identify the suspect, but police were not able to located him until recently, Piecuch said. Prosecutors said the man has confessed to having stolen the painting, but gave no further details.
Monet
Face Eviction In AZ
Jackson's Giraffes
Police in a small northern Arizona town are investigating the deaths of two giraffes from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, and two others likely will have to find new homes.
A couple in Page acquired the giraffes as part of a plan to build a wildlife preserve on city property they leased in 2008 that also would house exotic birds, reptiles and a camel.
The two giraffes died within the past two months, and necropsy results are pending.
A move for the giraffes appears inevitable after a judge ruled in favor of the city last week to have the owners of the preserve fulfill the terms of their lease.
Jackson's Giraffes
Found In Bathroom
Rembrandt
An original Rembrandt etching hidden in a bathroom cabinet at a university in Washington is now part of a new exhibit.
The Rev. David O'Connell found the print when he was searching for paper towels shortly after he became president of the Catholic University of America in 1998.
The etching of a bearded old man had been tucked away for years. O'Connell asked the university archivist last year if it could be a real Rembrandt.
Archivist Leslie Knoblauch says an appraiser confirmed its authenticity, and the Rembrandt became the centerpiece of a new exhibit at the university on Monday.
Rembrandt
History Magazine Drops Name
The Beaver
Canada's second-oldest magazine, The Beaver, is changing its name because its unintended sexual connotation has caused the history journal to become snagged in Internet filters and has turned off potential readers.
The Beaver was founded in 1920 as a publication of the Hudson's Bay Company, then a fur trader and now a department store chain. It has long since become a broader magazine about Canadian history and will change its name to Canada's History with its April issue, editor-in-chief Mark Reid said on Tuesday.
When The Beaver started publication, the name evoked only Canada's thriving fur industry. Ninety years later, the fur trade has diminished and the magazine's name has become slang for female genitals.
Readers complained that Internet filters were blocking emails and newsletters from The Beaver, Reid said. The society also had concerns about attracting readers.
The Beaver
Paris Art Show
Claw of Death
A giant claw of death is at work and shades of the Holocaust on view at Paris' Grand Palais hall this week in the city's first big art show of the year, a "hand of God" installation by France's Christian Boltanski.
The show opening Wednesday inside the vast dome-topped exhibition hall overlooking the Seine river features a giant mechanical claw hovering above a mountain of old clothes, some 10 metres (yards) high.
In icy cold and to the loud sound of a beating heart, the claw picks a few bits of discarded clothing from the pile that are left to flutter back down.
One of the country's foremost avant-garde artists, Boltanski was born in Paris in 1944 to a mother who was a writer and a doctor father from a Jewish family who lived more than a year hidden under the floorboards.
Claw of Death
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Jan. 4-10. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.70 million homes, 5.77 million viewers.
2. "NCIS" (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.59 million homes, 4.79 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.48 million homes, 5.44 million viewers.
4. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.42 million homes, 4.46 million viewers.
5. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.37 million homes, 4.65 million viewers.
6. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.29 million homes, 4.42 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 12:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.17 million homes, 4.50 million viewers.
8. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.16 million homes, 4.05 million viewers.
9. "iCarly" (Saturday, 1 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.12 million homes, 4.29 million viewers.
10. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.11 million homes, 4.28 million viewers.
11. "iCarly" (Saturday, 1:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.098 million homes, 4.31 million viewers.
12. "NCIS" (Thursday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.097 million homes, 4.09 million viewers.
13. "Secret Life of the American Teenager" (Monday, 8 p.m.), ABC Family, 3.08 million homes, 4.55 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 12 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.01 million homes, 4.25 million viewers.
15. "NCIS" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), USA, 2.94 million homes, 3.95 million viewers.
Ratings
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