Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Fox News Ate My Nuclear Dolphins (SF Gate)
Near as I can tell, we are all going to die a slow incomprehensible radioactive death relatively soon now. Or we're not.
Froma Harrop: When Government was a Bear (Creators Syndicate)
Are conservatives right that our government has become overbearing? Is it true that the rights of the individual, enshrined at the dawn of the Republic and cried over by Glenn Beck, are being smashed by the modern state.
Jim Hightower: SACRIFICING TEACHERS AND FIREFIGHTERS TO WALL STREET GREED
America owes a debt of gratitude to such insightful Republican governors as Walker of Wisconsin, Kasich of Ohio, Snyder of Michigan, and Christie of New Jersey.
MURRAY RICHMOND:I preached against homosexuality, but I was wrong (Salon)
As a Presbyterian minister, I believed it was a sin. Then I met people who really understood the stakes: Gay men.
Patrick Barkham: "Anton Hysén: 'Anyone afraid of coming out should give me a call'" (Guardian)
Top-flight world football has no openly gay players, except one - Swedish midfielder Anton Hysén. So why did he make the move, and what has been the reaction?
Patrick Goldstein: Roger Ebert predicted the future of the movies in 1987 (Los Angeles Times)
It turns out that Ebert has an uncanny knack for predicting film's technological future as well as being a top critic.
Roger Ebert: Win Win (3 stars)
I was warming up to describe "Win Win" as a high-level sitcom and then wondered what's so bad about it being a sitcom if it's high-level? You have a situation, and it's funny. That's a sitcom. You have a funny situation, and there's some truth in it and unexpected characters, well-acted, and you may not have a great film but you enjoy watching it.
Joanna Weiss: Play Nice (Slate)
The rise-and fall?-of the mean sitcom.
Richard Roeper: Natalie Portman 'Black Swan' dance flap just Hollywood selling the dream
No doubt many a thespian plunges himself into a role and is adept at learning any number of physical skills - but at the end of the day, it's called acting because they have to pretend.
"American: The Bill Hicks Story"
Official documentary Web site.
Will Harris: A Chat with Frank Reader of the Trashcan Sinatras (bullz-eye)
"Oh, right, and they're also directly responsible for bringing me to Bullz-Eye: David Medsker and I were two of those fans who banded together back in the day, and if it wasn't for meeting him (first virtually, then eventually in the real world), God only knows where I'd be writing right now." - Will Harris
Adele: the girl with the mighty mouth (Guardian)
As the 22-year-old London singer conquers both Britain and America with a smash-hit No 1 album, Tom Lamont meets a superstar in the making.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
wrote:
would like to thank Charter Communications for their latest 24 hour outage. Boo. Hiss.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Badtothe(Rockin')boneBob
Bob Seger
Rocker Bob Seger performs in front of an enthusiastic sold-out crowd at The Dow Event Center in Saginaw Tuesday night.
Bob Seger can still take Saginaw's breath away | MLive.com
I well remember seeing (and hearing) Seger play at a now defunct teen club in Saginaw, "Daniel's Den", in the summer of 1970... 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man', 'Heavy Music' and '2+2=?' brought the house down!
Badtothe(Rockin')boneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
We're having a heat wave. A freaking tropical heat wave.
Revisionist Art History
Maine
Waves of criticism have followed the removal of a mural depicting workers' history in Maine, including the iconic "Rosie the Riveter," from government offices in the state capital Augusta.
Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, has said through spokesmen that he received complaints about the artwork in the Department of Labor offices from business owners because it was too pro-labor.
Also in the works are plans to rename conference rooms at the department building now named after labor leaders.
The 36-foot-long (11-meter-long) work contains 11 panels with images including shoemakers, child labor, textile workers and strikers, as well as Frances Perkins, U.S. Labor Secretary and the first U.S. woman cabinet member.
Maine
Snares Boss For Radio Show
Little Steven
With old friend Bruce Springsteen stopping by to swap music stories for the ninth anniversary of Steven Van Zandt's rock radio show, Van Zandt laughed at the notion that he'd set the bar pretty high for the tenth year.
"It's been an open invitation," said Van Zandt, guitarist in Springsteen's E Street Band. "He just finally got around to it."
Their reminiscences take up three episodes of "Little Steven's Underground Garage" over three weeks, starting Friday. If it sounds like two old friends talking about glory days, it's because that's precisely what it was: Springsteen and Van Zandt grew up playing in New Jersey-area bands in the wake of the Beatles' arrival with "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
Van Zandt has had Keith Richards, Brian Wilson, Ringo Starr and Ray Davies as guests on his show, syndicated in more than 200 markets in five countries. He hopes the radio format will be an enduring legacy.
Little Steven
Rejects Man Booker Intl Prize Nod
John Le Carre
British author John Le Carre will remain on the shortlist for the biennial Man Booker International Prize despite asking judges to withdraw his name from the list of 13 nominees.
"I am enormously flattered to be named as a finalist of 2011 Man Booker International Prize," said the creator of spy classics including "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."
"However, I do not compete for literary prizes and have therefore asked for my name to be withdrawn," the 79-year-old, whose real name is David Cornwell, said in a statement.
But prize organizers said they would ignore his wishes.
John Le Carre
Hospital News
Judge Judy
TV's "Judge Judy" is hospitalized in Los Angeles for an undisclosed condition.
A spokesman for 68-year-old Judy Sheindlin says the judge is "feeling much better" after being taken from her show taping by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday.
Publicist Gary Rosen says Sheindlin will be released from the hospital on Thursday.
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott confirmed that a female patient was taken from Sunset Bronson Studios to a local hospital after dispatchers received a 911 call about a medical emergency. She was admitted in serious condition.
Judge Judy
EMI Loses Royalties Appeal
"Down Under"
Record label EMI lost an appeal on Thursday against a court ruling that the Grammy award-winning Australian band Men at Work stole a section of the famous 1980s hit, "Down Under," from a popular folk song.
Australia's Federal Court upheld a decision that part of the song's melody came from the children's ditty, "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree," written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition.
EMI had argued that songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert did not breach copyright laws with their work because the inclusion of two bars from the popular tune was, at most, a form of tribute.
The appellate court dismissed the appeal, concluding "there was an infringement in respect of the recording "Down Under," the court registrar's office told Reuters by telephone.
The decision leaves Kookaburra's copyright owners, Larrikin Music, poised to claim millions of dollars in unpaid royalties from EMI and Down Under songwriters Hay and Strykert. Larrikin had sought up to 60 percent of song profits as compensation.
"Down Under"
Chump Change Fine
Hustler
California workplace safety officials have fined Larry Flynt's Hustler Video and another porn producer for not using condoms on set to protect sex performers from exposure to disease.
Hustler faces $14,175 in fines for three violations, including failure to provide condoms or other protective equipment, according to a Division of Occupational Safety and Health citation provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.
Hustler "failed to ensure the use of appropriate personal protective equipment, such as condoms" to protect its employees from semen, vaginal excretions and blood in the course of producing adult videos, according to the citation.
The current fines are based on the same section of state law that also requires hospitals to provide nurses with protective gear to spare them exposure to blood-borne and fluid-borne illnesses.
Hustler
Stays Mum On GE's $0 Tax Bill
Nightly News
As the New Yorker's former press critic, A.J. Liebling, famously said, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." Perhaps that quotation is framed somewhere in a boardroom at the General Electric Corp., which owns NBC News.
In spite of robust profits of $14.2 billion worldwide, GE has calculated a corporate tax bill for 2010 that adds up to zero, via a creative series of tax referrals and revenue shifts. (This was, indeed, the second year running that the company-which has an enormous, and famously nimble, 975-employee tax division, led by former Treasury official John Samuels-paid nothing in U.S. taxes; indeed by claiming a series of losses and deductions, GE came up with a negative tax of 10.5 percent in the admittedly dismal business year of 2009, and realized a $1.5 billion "tax benefit.")
The curious thing about this year's tax story is that it turned up in many major news outlets, with one key exception: NBC News. As the Washington Post's Paul Farhi notes, the network's "Nightly News" broadcast, hosted by Brian Williams, has not mentioned anything about its corporate parent's resourceful accounting, even though the story has been in wide circulation in the business and general-interest press for nearly a week. "This was a straightforward news decision, the kind we make daily around here" network spokeswoman Lauren Kapp told the Post.
One press critic who begs to differ: Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who noted that the Nightly News found the time for a dispatch on the inclusion of slang expressions in the Oxford English Dictionary, such as "LOL" and "OMG." Of course, Comedy Central's corporate parent, Viacom, is also no slouch when it comes to tax strategy: Earlier this year it sold its struggling videogame unit Harmonix for $50-so that it could claim a tax credit of $50 million.
Nightly News
Harassment Suit Dismissed
David Boreanaz
Court records show a woman who appeared on the TV show "Bones" has dismissed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the series' star David Boreanaz.
Attorney Gloria Allred filed a dismissal of the case filed on behalf of Kristina Hagan on Monday. She wrote in an email that the case had been "resolved" but provided no further details.
Hagan sued Boreanaz and 20th Century Fox Television in July for more than $25,000 on sexual harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims.
She claimed the actor repeatedly tried to kiss and fondle her several times after she appeared as an extra on the show in August 2009. The actor's spokeswoman denied the allegations.
David Boreanaz
"The Governator"
$chwarzenegger
With his years as governor behind him, Arnold $chwarzenegger will soon return to his acting career with a new animated TV series.
The planned action-comedy cartoon is called "The Governator," according to A Squared Entertainment, a partner in the venture. It will focus on a superhero living a double life as an ordinary family man. $chwarzenegger will provide the voice of the title character.
Comic-book legend Stan Lee is another partner in the project, which will be officially announced Monday at the MIPTV trade show in Cannes, France.
The series is planned as the first stage of a franchise that could also include comics and films.
$chwarzenegger
Groups Feel Sting Of Funding Cuts
British Arts
Hundreds of British arts organizations had their public funding slashed or eliminated Wednesday, the result of government spending cuts aimed at tackling the country's deficit.
The government-funded Arts Council England must cut 15 percent from the amount it gives to art, music, theater, dance and literature groups by 2015 - which still leaves it with almost 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) to hand out.
The council said that instead of "salami slicing" - cutting 15 percent from everyone - it wanted to create a smaller but stronger portfolio of groups. So some have been cut off entirely, while others have seen their funding increase.
The council had funded about 850 groups, but that has shrunk to 695 - chosen from 1,330 applicants. More than 200 groups will have their funding cut entirely from next year, while many others face reductions.
British Arts
Says 3-D Will Rule Films
George Lucas
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas predicts 3-D filmmaking eventually will take over at the movies the way color replaced black and white.
But Lucas and fellow technology pioneers James Cameron, the maker of "Avatar," and DreamWorks Animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg said digital filmmaking is only in its infancy and will bring vast improvements to how movies are made and seen.
The three spoke Wednesday at a digital-film panel at CinemaCon, a Las Vegas convention for theater owners. The hour-long discussion touched on new filmmaking tools, enhancements to theater sound and how badly presented 3-D movies can sour audiences on digital 3-D films in general.
Theater owners applauded heartily when Lucas said home systems or portable video devices will never replace the moviehouse as the best place to see films.
George Lucas
To Sell Giant Pearl
Christie's
Auction house Christie's will put one of the world's largest pearls on the block at its Dubai spring jewelry sale on April 20 in a nostalgic reminder of the Emirate's pearl diving past.
The auction house is showcasing an array of pearls, diamonds, gems and gold jewelry ahead of the sale. Pearls are especially unique to Dubai, as pearl hunting was a major source of income a century ago in the port city.
Christie's -- who have been holding regular auctions in the Middle East since 2006 -- saw regional sales reach $51 million last year, up from recession lows of $18-20 million in 2009. Globally, the art and jewelry-selling powerhouse posted record sales of $5 billion in 2010.
One of the most interesting pieces on sale this year is a drop-shaped pearl in a silver and grey shade at almost 60 carats. One of the largest natural saltwater pearls recorded to date, it is mounted as a pendant on a diamond-studded chain necklace. Christie's has estimated it at up to $250,000.
Christie's
Letter In A Bottle Found 24 Years Later
Baltic Sea
Nearly a quarter-century after a German boy tossed a message in a bottle off a ship in the Baltic Sea, he's received an answer.
A 13-year-old Russian, Daniil Korotkikh, was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering lying in the sand.
"I saw that bottle and it looked interesting," Korotkikh told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "It looked like a German beer bottle with a ceramic plug, and there was a message inside."
His father, who knows schoolboy German, translated the letter, carefully wrapped in cellophane and sealed by a medical bandage.
The letter, dated 1987, included an address in the town of Coesfeld.
Baltic Sea
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