'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
He's Been Working Overtime!
The Worried Shrimp
Reader Link
from Dan In Boulder
Reader Comment
Re: Victoria's Secret
I'm freeekin' out over the new Victoria's Secret ads with the Bob Dylan sound track. At first it was like "what the hell are they thinking", now I find them strangely erotic. It's actually a pretty tame ad for them too, but it sure does work!
I also wanted to let you know that your page has been downloading completely for the last four days.....YAHOOO!!!!!
Peace,
Steve Beaudreau
Thanks, Steve! I haven't heard that commercial, yet, but, probably will - eventually.
Did some tweaking on the page, hoped it would open better. ; )
Reader Link
Re: Candles
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, breezy day.
Went to the kid's science fair. Attendance was way down, sadly. The kids did some pretty interesting studies, but few showed up to appreciate this year.
Talked to dear old dad, the WW II vet tonight. He asked if I knew who the news crews were polling, because even in his backwoods, conservative setting, the warmongers are still in the minority.
Wonder when they taped Smirk's speechifying that aired tonight - damn thing literally 'faded to black', as opposed to a 'cut'. There is a whole procedure manual in technical directing, and fades are for
dramatic works, not news. At least this time the tape didn't rewind on air.
Tonight, Thursday, CBS is supposed to have 'March Madness', and only local filler programming in prime time. If the games are not on
CBS, try looking to ESPN or ESPN2, much to CBS's chagrin.
On a RERUN Dave (from 2/12/03), are Queen Latifah, Colin Quinn, and Lou Reed.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Susan Sarandon, Anthony Anderson, and Slobberbone.
NBC is supposed to open with a RERUN 'Friends', followed by a FRESH 'Scrubs', then a
RERUN 'Will & Grace', followed by a FRESH 'Good Morning, Miami', and capped with a
RERUN 'ER'.
On a RERUN Jay are Renee Zellweger, Kevin Smith, Kid Rock, and Sheryl Crow.
On a RERUN Conan are Robin Williams and The Other Ones.
On a RERUN Carson Daly are Mira Sorvino and The Doors.
ABC is supposed to open with a FRESH 'Profiles From The Front' (look for Chris), followed by a
FRESH 'Are You Hot', and then 'PrimeTime Thursday'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Damon Dash, Revolution Smile, and this week's guest co-host Fred Durst.
The WB is supposed to have a FRESH 'Sabrina', followed by a FRESH
'Family Affair', then a FRESH 'Jamie Kennedy', and the Season Premiere of 'On Spot'.
Faux is supposed to open with a RERUN 'Married By America', and then 'The Pulse'.
UPN is supposed to waste another night with 'WWE: Smackdown! Battle of the Receding Hairlines'.
AMC seems to be celebrating 'American Men' with 'Shane' (''Come Back, Shane!''), 'On The Waterfront' (''I coulda been a contender''), and 'The Deer Hunter'.
TCM is all singing & all dancing - 'American In Paris', 'Shall We Dance', 'The Band Wagon', and '42nd Street'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Musical Guests: David Bowie, and the Ghost of Woody Guthrie.
'And That's The Way It Is'
Walter Cronkite
Criticizing what he called the "arrogance" of resident Bush and his administration, retired CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite said war with Iraq could have unintended, dire consequences for the United States.
Speaking Tuesday at a Drew University forum, Cronkite issued a stinging rebuke of Bush and those who believe the war will be a quick, smooth operation that ends with Saddam Hussein's ouster. He said the refusal of France and other traditional U.S. allies to support the administration's plans signaled something deeper, and more ominous, than a mere foreign policy disagreement.
"I look at our future as, I'm sorry, being very, very dark. Let's see our cards as we rise to meet the difficulties that lie ahead," Cronkite, 86, told a crowd of about 2,000 that included students, university officials, faculty and nearby residents.
Cronkite also chided Congress for not looking closely enough at the impending war and failing to ascertain a viable estimate of its eventual cost, particularly in light of Bush's commitment to tax cuts.
Despite his criticisms, Cronkite said it was important for Americans to support their troops.
"The time has come to put all of our distaste aside," he said. "That is the duty we owe our soldiers who had no role in deciding this course of action."
Walter Cronkite
British Rock star Eric Clapton, right, and his daughter Ruth pose for a photo at the Birkdale School, Sheffield, Tuesday March 18, 2003, where Ruth is studying for her A-Level secondary school exams. The famous musician played at the school Tuesday to raise money for musical instruments and Information Technology equipment for the school, and for a a drug rehabilitation centre in Antigua.
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Gets New Bassist
Ozzy Osbourne
Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted has joined Ozzy Osbourne's band. Newsted will hit the stage with Ozzy this summer on the Ozzfest tour.
In a weird twist, Ozzy and Metallica have essentially traded bass players because the musician Newsted replaces left Ozzy's band to fill an empty spot in Metallica. Robert Trujillo played his last show with Ozzy on Friday.
While Osbourne's band is adding people, the Ozzfest has lost an act.
TRUSTcompany was slated to play the main stage, but instead it will return to the studio to record its second album. No replacement has yet been announced.
The rest of the main stage lineup now features Korn, Marilyn Manson, Disturbed and Chevelle.
Meanwhile, Osbourne has confirmed an eight-date Canadian tour before Ozzfest, beginning June 1 in Vancouver and wrapping up June 16 in Quebec City, Quebec.
Ozzy Osbourne
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Joining Apple Board Of Directors
Al Gore
Apple Computer said that former US vice president Al Gore was elected to the company's board of directors at Apple's board meeting.
"Al brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Apple from having helped run the largest organization in the world -- the United States government -- as a congressman, senator and our 45th Vice President," said chief executive officer Steve Jobs.
Currently Gore serves as a senior advisor to Google, and is also a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles, Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State University.
Al Gore
With a banner calling for the impeachment of resident George W. Bush flying behind him, actor Danny Glover (C) leads several thousand demonstrators down Market Street during a march protesting the war against Iraq in San Francisco on March 19, 2003. Protests against the war took place all around the San Francisco Bay Area on March 19.
Photo by Lou Dematteis
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman said it felt like "high cotton" as he unveiled his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
"This is not something you expect in life. This is a gift. This is serendipity," the 65-year-old actor said Tuesday of star No. 2220, located on Hollywood Boulevard. "If you wait around for it, you may die waiting."
Morgan Freeman
Open-Air Gig in Moscow
Paul McCartney
Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney announced Wednesday that he will play his first concert in Russia — an open-air gig in Moscow's Red Square on May 24.
Beatles records were banned by authorities in the Soviet Union, as were those of McCartney's 1970s band Wings.
McCartney said the concert would include "some of my Beatles stuff — rather a lot of Beatles stuff, actually — some Wings stuff and some more recent stuff."
"I've never even visited Russia as a tourist, so it's exciting for me now to be getting to perform there with a band and finally be singing 'Back in the U.S.S.R.' and all these other songs for people who, I've got a feeling, might be ready for it."
The Moscow show is the only Russian stop on McCartney's global Back in the World tour. The European leg of the tour starts March 25 in Paris.
Paul McCartney
Filming to Go on As Scheduled
'Sopranos'
"The Sopranos" star James Gandolfini has dropped his lawsuit against HBO, resolving a contentious salary dispute that threatened the future of the Emmy-winning television series.
Gandolfini, who filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the network earlier this month, also agreed Tuesday to fulfill the terms of his original contract, meaning that a fifth season of "The Sopranos" will be filmed as scheduled, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
HBO, which had filed a counterclaim against Gandolfini, said it was filing to drop its lawsuit Wednesday. Production will resume the first week of April, an HBO spokeswoman said.
The resolution came after private negotiations last weekend between Gandolfini and Brad Grey, one of the show's executive producers.
Gandolfini, who earns $5 million a year, has contended that he's underpaid compared to other television stars. His representatives had sought a deal worth $16 million a year, but HBO has said it won't offer more than $11 million.
The agreement between Gandolfini and the network came with no change in the salary offer, the Times said.
'Sopranos'
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
The Show Must Go On (?)
Buh-Bye Red Carpet
The glitzy red carpet arrival that is a trademark of the Oscars show will be dramatically scaled back this year to reflect the sombre atmosphere of war in Iraq, organisers said.
Organisers announced that the traditional glamorous party atmosphere would be toned down by effectively eliminating one of the highlights of the Oscars, the red carpet fashion show, for the first time.
But organisers stressed that while the pre-show would be radically modified to reflect the "soberness and seriousness" of the situation, they vowed that the presentation ceremony itself would go ahead Sunday as scheduled.
Under the new arrangements, famous guests will no longer be dropped off by their limousines at the end of a long red carpet lined by hundreds of press photographers and fans.
Instead, they will arrive directly at the entrance of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre and will not stop for interviews or pause for photographs before they enter the auditorium.
A small press pool will be posted on the reduced red carpet at the foot of the long staircase that guests mount to enter the theatre.
Some 500 fans who had won tickets in a draw to sit in grandstands outside the Oscars venue will no longer get a ringside view.
Organisers said they were also ready to make further changes to Hollywood's biggest night if events on the ground meant that was necessary.
Buh-Bye Red Carpet
A bald eagle chick peers up at the San Francisco Zoo, Wednesday, March 12, 2003. At 12 hours of age, the tiny chick, the first of the eagle breeding season, was named 'Hope' to represent its role as America's national symbol. The chick will be placed in an existing bald eagle nest in Santa Catalina, Calif. later this week.
Photo by Frederic Larson
NBC Pulls 'Let's Make a Deal'
Another Bush, Another Failure
NBC is pulling its "Let's Make a Deal" revival off the air after three weeks.
The game show had been set to run through April 1, but the network changed its mind after Tuesday night's broadcast. The two remaining segments taped will be rescheduled for a later date, and network officials haven't closed the door on ordering more episodes.
NBC had planned to run the Billy Bush-hosted "Deal" on Saturday nights at 10 p.m., a low-pressure time slot on a night the network believed was ripe for growth.
NBC will fill the 8 p.m. time slot with the special "Child Stars: Then and Now" next week and with a Three Stooges retrospective slated for April 1. No word yet on what will go into the timeslot after that.
Another Bush, Another Failure
ABC Postpones Pre-Oscars Show
Barbara Walters
ABC has postponed Barbara Walters' annual pre-Oscars interview special on Sunday night because of the potential war with Iraq.
"With such serious issues facing the nation, it was the right decision to postpone the special," Walters said on Wednesday. It was to feature interviews with Nicolas Cage, Renee Zellweger, Julianne Moore.
ABC said no decision has been made on what will replace the Walters show if war hasn't begun.
Barbara Walters
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Rare Drawings of Nelson's Victory Auctioned
John Constable
Three long-lost drawings by famed British artist John Constable of Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory have been sold for 352,160 pounds (521,180 euros, 551,690 dollars) to a single buyer, Sotheby's auction house said.
One of the paintings, sketched two years before the ship fought in the Battle of Trafalgar, sold for a record 216,160 pounds, Sotheby's said.
The three paintings, drawn in 1803, were uncovered by chance in December, when Sotheby's was asked to value some artworks belonging to a Glasgow family.
The sale price of the three paintings, measuring 20 by 25 centimetres (seven by nine inches), was 10 times higher than expected.
John Constable
With Vina del Mar´s skyline in the background, American adventurer Phil Buck and his crew sail the reed boat 'Viracocha' into the Pacific Ocean, March 17, 2003. Buck took three months to build the raft on the Chilean beach and plans to be the first to sail from South America to Australia by using one of the world´s most ancient maritime technologies.
Photo by Eliseo Fernandez
N.Y. Raises Security
TV News Stations
The New York Police Department has stepped up security outside major television news outlets in Manhattan to prevent possible takeovers by terrorists who may want to broadcast anti-American messages.
New York's 36,500-officer police department, the nation's largest, began formulating the sweeping Operation Atlas security plan as war with Iraq grew more certain in recent weeks. The plan arose from fears that the city could become a target for retaliation by terrorists.
The operation, which could cost more than $5 million a week, is "the most comprehensive terror prevention program our city has implemented," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg went to Washington to ask President Bush and Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge for more federal dollars to meet the city's anti-terror "special needs."
The mayor emerged from the Oval Office with Ridge and described their meeting as "very productive," though "no figures, no final determinations have been made."
As part of Operation Atlas, police officials are deploying special patrols to guard television stations clustered in midtown Manhattan and elsewhere.
The department has already deployed heavily armed units known as Hercules teams to visit potential targets such as Times Square. Separate units have been trained to detect and contain biological and chemical hazards.
Bloomberg said the plan would include the resumption of military flight patrols above the city. In a related move Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration put tighter restrictions on airspace in a 30-mile radius around John F. Kennedy International Airport.
TV News Stations
Hospital News
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave, who begins preview performances Saturday in the off-Broadway play "Talking Heads," has undergone treatment for breast cancer.
Redgrave, 60, has been able to maintain a full schedule because of a series of new and encouraging treatments at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, her spokesman, Rick Miramontez, said Tuesday. They include a recent engagement off-Broadway in the anti-death penalty drama "The Exonerated," rehearsals for "Talking Heads" and various guest symphony appearances.
"Talking Heads," which opens April 6, is a series of monologues by British playwright Alan Bennett. Redgrave's monologue is titled "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet," the story of a middle-aged English woman's awakening. The cast also includes Kathleen Chalfant, Christine Ebersole and Daniel Davis.
Lynn Redgrave
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'Today I Weep for My Country'
Sen. Robert Byrd
The oldest voice in the U.S. Congress rose on Wednesday to denounce as misguided resident Bush's march to war with Iraq.
Byrd, who has been a leading foe on Capitol Hill of war with Iraq, spoke in a nearly empty Senate chamber about four hours before Bush's 8 p.m. EST deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face a U.S.-led invasion.
As the white-haired senator concluded his remarks, a number of people in the visitor's gallery rose and applauded before they were admonished to be quiet.
At 85, Byrd is now the oldest member of Congress as well as the longest serving. He was first elected to the Senate in 1958, after six years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Byrd was among those who voted last year against the congressional resolution that authorized Bush to use force in his showdown with Saddam, and the senator has given frequent floor speeches since then warning against war.
The senator said, "We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice."
He said many questions about the looming war were unanswered -- including how long it would last, what it would cost, what its ultimate mission was.
Sen. Robert Byrd
Senate Remarks by Robert C. Byrd ('Today I Weep for My Country')
"The Arrogance of Power"
I believe in this beautiful country. I have studied its roots and gloried in the wisdom of its magnificent Constitution. I have marveled at the wisdom of its founders and framers. Generation after generation of Americans has understood the lofty ideals that underlie our great Republic. I have been inspired by the story of their sacrifice and their strength.
But, today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned.
Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. Instead of isolating Saddam Hussein, we seem to have isolated ourselves. We proclaim a new doctrine of preemption which is understood by few and feared by many. We say that the United States has the right to turn its firepower on any corner of the globe which might be suspect in the war on terrorism. We assert that right without the sanction of any international body. As a result, the world has become a much more dangerous place.
We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat UN Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet. Valuable alliances are split. After war has ended, the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image around the globe.
The case this Administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence. We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice.
There is no credible information to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11. The twin towers fell because a world-wide terrorist group, Al Qaeda, with cells in over 60 nations, struck at our wealth and our influence by turning our own planes into missiles, one of which would likely have slammed into the dome of this beautiful Capitol except for the brave sacrifice of the passengers on board.
The brutality seen on September 11th and in other terrorist attacks we have witnessed around the globe are the violent and desperate efforts by extremists to stop the daily encroachment of western values upon their cultures. That is what we fight. It is a force not confined to borders. It is a shadowy entity with many faces, many names, and many addresses.
But, this Administration has directed all of the anger, fear, and grief which emerged from the ashes of the twin towers and the twisted metal of the Pentagon towards a tangible villain, one we can see and hate and attack. And villain he is. But, he is the wrong villain. And this is the wrong war. If we attack Saddam Hussein, we will probably drive him from power. But, the zeal of our friends to assist our global war on terrorism may have already taken flight.
The general unease surrounding this war is not just due to "orange alert." There is a pervasive sense of rush and risk and too many questions unanswered. How long will we be in Iraq? What will be the cost? What is the ultimate mission? How great is the danger at home? A pall has fallen over the Senate Chamber. We avoid our solemn duty to debate the one topic on the minds of all Americans, even while scores of thousands of our sons and daughters faithfully do their duty in Iraq.
What is happening to this country? When did we become a nation which ignores and berates our friends? When did we decide to risk undermining international order by adopting a radical and doctrinaire approach to using our awesome military might? How can we abandon diplomatic efforts when the turmoil in the world cries out for diplomacy?
Why can this President not seem to see that America's true power lies not in its will to intimidate, but in its ability to inspire?
War appears inevitable. But, I continue to hope that the cloud will lift. Perhaps Saddam will yet turn tail and run. Perhaps reason will somehow still prevail. I along with millions of Americans will pray for the safety of our troops, for the innocent civilians in Iraq, and for the security of our homeland. May God continue to bless the United States of America in the troubled days ahead, and may we somehow recapture the vision which for the present eludes us.
Senate Remarks by Robert C. Byrd
Three lion cubs sit together in the Serengeti park Hodenhagen, Germany, Wednesday, March 19, 2003. The lion cubs, two tiger cubs, two young giraffes, two rhinos and two chimpanzees were born during the winter.
Photo by Joerg Sarbach
'The Osbournes'
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