'TBH Politoons'
Jazz From Hills
Trimmed Bush and Hedges
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Michael Green: What's In A Name? Everything. (Common Dreams)
Paul Krugman: 'Howard Dean and the fighting moderates' (New York Times)
Dave Lindorff: The Emperor's New Hump (FAIR)
CRAIG MALISOW: Altar Egos (Houston Press)
COURTNEY HAMBRIGHT: Are Women Crazy? (New Times)
Dennis Hensley: Austin-tatious (Advocate)
Jordan Harper: Get Out of My Head! (Houston Press)
Marrit Ingman: In the Realms of the Unreal (Austin Chronicle)
MELISSA LEVINE: Unreal as It Gets (East Bay Express)
Google Maps Tour
Another Rant
Avery Ant
Avery Cookies Baked by Spud!!!
the teeth are marshmallows
(we think they look absolutely delicious)
A New Savory "Joyce's Inane Head"
'once-in-a-lifetime' chance to win a fun-filled
week at Avery's Ant Farm & Spa.
That or win a t-shirt. It could go either way.
For all the jiggy details, check out:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
A mostly sunny day.
Had a couple feet of hair cut off this afternoon - my head feels light tonight.
Audio Clip - Pixar's Freedom
Robin Williams
Interviewing Robin Williams is an experience. If you've ever seen him on late night TV and thought, 'That has to be scripted, no one is that quick,' let me be the one to tell you, oh yes, he is that quick. He is razor sharp.
Reining Williams in becomes a task in itself, but at a point, you just don't care. He's like a child with intense ADD, frantically jumping from subject to subject, wherever the laughs may lie. However, unlike dealing with a difficult child, you are too busy laughing at Williams to care if he ever gets back to the subject at hand.
(W)e have a special treat for you today here at FilmForce. You can download and listen to Williams' Disney rant and a special new original "Song of Freedom" that Williams appears to have composed himself. I don't think you'll find this anywhere else. Enjoy!
Click Here to Listen to Williams' Riff
FilmForce: Robin Williams Sings Pixar's Freedom
Writers Guild of America Award
Morgan Spurlock
"Super Size Me" won the Writers Guild of America award for documentary screenplay.
The prize, the guild's first in that category, recognized writer Morgan Spurlock, who also starred in the film and became ill after a monthlong experiment eating McDonald's fast food three times a day.
"Super Size Me," which became an $11 million hit, is nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. Spurlock also won the Sundance Film Festival's documentary-directing prize.
Morgan Spurlock
Mississippi Declares
'B.B. King Day'
Blues great B.B. King wiped away tears and spoke a few words of thanks at the Mississippi Capitol as the state House and Senate declared B.B. King Day.
Lawmakers and Gov. Haley Barbour honored the 79-year-old Delta native, whose hits include "The Thrill Is Gone," during a ceremony Tuesday in the Senate chamber.
"I never learned to talk very well without Lucille," said King, speaking of his black guitar. "But today, I'm trying to say only God knows how I feel. I am so happy. Thank you."
'B.B. King Day'
Embattled PBS Chief Will Step Down
Pat Mitchell
Pat Mitchell, the Public Broadcasting Service chief under fire for spending public money on a cartoon show that also featured a real-life lesbian couple, will step down when her contract expires in June 2006.
Mitchell, the nonprofit network's fifth president and chief executive officer, also faced significant fund-raising challenges.
She drew recent criticism from both liberals and conservatives for "Postcards From Buster," in which the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, traveled to Vermont - a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. Though the focus was on farm life and maple sugaring, the episode, entitled "Sugartime," featured an actual lesbian couple.
Newly appointed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings contended that the episode did not fulfill the intent Congress had in mind for programming and said many parents would not want children exposed to such lifestyles.
Pat Mitchell
Look for Oscar Respect
Hollywood Stuntmen
They jump from skyscrapers, crash cars and set themselves on fire for movies, but when it comes to Oscars, Hollywood's stuntmen can't get any respect.
Four groups representing film stuntmen plan to press the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a new Academy Award category next year honoring the highly dangerous work that fills so many modern movies.
While there is an Oscar category for special effects, called "visual effects," and awards for technology advances, the Motion Picture Academy has never had an Oscar category for the men and women who risk their lives for Hollywood action.
Only one stunt man has been recognized for his work in the movies, and that was Yakima Canutt, who was given an honorary Oscar in 1967 for creating such scenes as the legendary chariot race in "Ben Hur."
Hollywood Stuntmen
Bids Farewell to Pop World
George Michael
Singer George Michael said farewell to the world of pop music on Wednesday, using a candid documentary about his life to put the record straight before he "disappeared."
He also declared the genre that brought him fame and riches, as well as unwanted media attention, was dead.
"That genre is just dead as far as I am concerned," he told Reuters in an interview after the premiere of his documentary at the Berlin Film Festival.
George Michael
Arrested on Assault Charges
Kid Rock
Kid Rock was arrested Wednesday by Nashville police on charges that he punched a disc jockey at a strip club.
The 34-year-old rapper was released after posting a $3,000 bond on a charge of simple assault, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
Arresting officer Lt. Calvin Hullett described Kid Rock as "very cooperative," despite giving officers the slip earlier. Hullett said the rapper left through a back door of another strip club when authorities showed up to arrest him.
When officers caught up with him, Kid Rock said he had dodged them because he wanted to sober up before being booked, Hullett said.
Kid Rock
Trekkies Fight End
'Enterprise'
Trekkies are uniting to win a reprieve for "Star Trek: Enterprise," slated to end its mission on UPN in May. "Save Star Trek" was the headline of a full-page ad in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times that called on fans to get the show a new TV home through a petition campaign and rally.
The ad asked viewers to commit to watching the show, now in its fourth season, if the Sci Fi Channel - "its logical home," according to the ad - agrees to pick it up.
A rally is planned for Feb. 25 outside the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, according to the ad, which says it was paid for by worldwide fan donations.
'Enterprise'
Dogs Playing Poker Fetch $590,000
A Bold Bluff and Waterloo
A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday.
The two works - A Bold Bluff and Waterloo - were among 16 paintings artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was commissioned to create for a Minnesota-based advertising company in 1903. Of the 16, nine are of dogs playing poker.
The two works that sold Tuesday for $590,400 capture moments in a poker game played by five dogs, among them a St. Bernard that ends up collecting the pot on a bluff.
Doyle had estimated the two paintings would bring in between $30,000 and $50,000.
A Bold Bluff and Waterloo
Sues Tabloid for Libel
Ashley Olsen
Ashley Olsen is suing the National Enquirer for $40 million in damages over a story alleging that she was involved in a drug scandal.
The lawsuit filed in Superior Court Monday alleges libel and false light invasion of privacy by the tabloid. The publication and its parent companies, American Media Inc. and National Enquirer Inc., were named as defendants.
The lawsuit said that while a story in the National Enquirer's Feb. 21 issue doesn't refer to her using or selling drugs, it implied that Olsen was doing so with a misleading headline and cover picture depicting the actress with her eyes half-shut.
Ashley Olsen
Rich Get Richer for Free
Hollywood
Writer-producer Mark Schwartz had just come from the Premiere Lounge at the Sundance Film Festival and was digging through his Hummer gift bag.
"I found a promotional T-shirt," he said with disappointment, "but I couldn't find the keys to a Hummer."
While Schwartz was joking, his point was telling. A culture of giving swag -- the entertainment industry term for these giveaways -- has exploded in Hollywood and other pit stops on the Beautiful People circuit. The once lowly gift bag (think coffee mug, chocolate bar or product poster) has gone glitzy with jewelry, perfumes, spa treatments and travel, and A-, B- and even C-list celebrities want the goods.
And it is not just Hollywood parties, New York soirees or Chicago charity events.
Millionaire Donald Trump's recent marriage became a shrine to product placement, according to the New York Times, which reported how diamond merchants Graff gave Trump a $750,000 discount on a 15-carat, $1.5 million engagement ring.
Welcome to life among the haves and have-mores where new words have entered the popular vocabulary. Givers are called "gifters," receivers are "gifted."
Hollywood
UFO 'Special'
Peter Jennings
In the span of more than 40 years with ABC News, Peter Jennings has built one of the most respected reputations in television journalism.
It probably will come as a surprise, then, to hear that urbane, sophisticated Jennings' next documentary chases down the truth about UFOs. As in, flying saucers and little green men.
Seriously.
"UFOs -- Seeing Is Believing," airing Feb. 24 from 8 to 10 p.m., is the latest entry in the "Peter Jennings Reporting" series. His goal is to take a serious look at a subject most scientists, the government and the media tend to brush off as lunacy. When some 80 million Americans claim to have seen a UFO, he explained, it's worth an investigation.
Peter Jennings
Relocating to N.Y.
National Enquirer
Gossip tabloid The National Enquirer, published by American Media Inc., is moving its editorial offices to New York City from Boca Raton, Fla., in an effort to break more investigative celebrity and crime stories, the publisher said Wednesday.
Paul Field, previously an associate editor of British daily tabloid The Sun and news editor of British newspaper Mail on Sunday, has been named editor in chief, effective immediately. He joined American Media in October.
David Perel, who was editor in chief, was promoted to president of AMI Books and executive vice president and editorial director of the Globe, Examiner, Sun and the Weekly World News, as well as editor in chief of American Media's recently launched Looking Good Now. Those magazines will still operate out of Boca Raton, where American Media's headquarters will remain.
The publisher was forced to abandon its Boca Raton headquarters in 2001, after the building was contaminated by a letter containing anthrax. A photo editor died from exposure to the anthrax spores.
AMI moved to a new office blocks away. The contaminated building was acquired by a real-estate investor and leased to BioONE, a decontamination company established by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
National Enquirer
Top U.S. Broadcast Lobbyist to Step Down in 2006
Edward Fritts
The U.S. broadcast television and radio industry's top lobbyist said on Wednesday he would step down when his contract ends in April 2006.
Edward Fritts, 63, has been the president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Broadcasters since 1982. It is considered one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington because it represents most local broadcasters.
Fritts plans to remain a consultant to the group. A committee has been formed to find his successor.
Edward Fritts
Found in Kansas
12,000-Year-Old Bones
Scientists say mammoth and camel bones unearthed in northwest Kansas that date back 12,200 years could be part of "one of the most important archaeological sites in North America."
The bones, found last June in Sherman County near the Colorado border, were alongside a piece of stone that archaeologists say was the kind used in tools that humans once used to butcher animals.
Archaeological geologist Rolfe Mandel of the Kansas Geological Survey said carbon-14 dating completed last week shows the bones are between 12,200 and 12,300 years old, which could mean humans lived on the Great Plains 1,300 years earlier than previously thought.
12,000-Year-Old Bones
Word of the Year
'Pinot'
And the Oscar for Hollywood's word of the year goes to "pinot," as in pinot noir, the wine variety of choice in "Sideways," one the five films nominated this year for a best picture Academy Award.
The Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors word use, said "pinot" tops its annual list of show business words that influenced the English language last year. The winner for 2003 was "wardrobe malfunction."
Closely following "pinot" were words associated with other Oscar-nominated films: "genius" from the Ray Charles biography "Ray," "handwashing" for what billionaire Howard Hughes does a lot in the biopic, "The Aviator," and "Mo Chuisle," the secret Celtic name for the heroine in "Million Dollar Baby."
'Pinot'
MAINE VOICES
Dexter J. Kamilewicz
How dare some say, 'Support our troops'?
Someone recently informed me that they didn't know that my son was being deployed to Iraq and asked why I hadn't told them. I really didn't have an answer.
That is when I began to be annoyed by those ever-present, good-intentioned but mindless ribbons stuck on the back of cars and SUVs exhorting, "Support Our Troops."
I find those magnetic messages to be offensive when I think of parents and friends of National Guard soldiers who purchased expensive Kevlar armor for their soldiers while Donald Rumsfeld said they didn't have any in stock.
Those marketing messages seem so empty when soldiers are told to "up-armor" their Humvees because the Department of Defense had not asked the manufacturers if more could be done.
I am saddened when veterans wait over a year for appointments at veterans' hospitals and soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and places like Walter Reed Hospital are required to pay for phone calls and emails home. I bet Rumsfeld doesn't have to pay for calls and e-mails back home, and I find it unbelievable and unacceptable that Rumsfeld has not been fired while the troops have been treated so poorly. Support our troops?
For the rest, Dexter J. Kamilewicz
