'Best of TBH Politoons'
Jazz From Hills
Trimmed Bush and Hedges
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jana Prikryl: Abu Ghraib: A Global Family Portrait (The Believer. Posted on Alternet.)
Why did the soldiers at Abu Ghraib feel the compulsion to not only abuse the prisoners but to turn it into a series of macabre photo ops?
Michael Blanding: The Culture of Life Top Ten (AlterNet)
At minimum, a true "culture of life" would support these ten positions.
Mark Morford: Where Are The Good Christians?
The fanatics and nutjobs now running the show sure give honest believers a bad name.
Paul Krugman: An Academic Question (NY Times)
(Click on "Columns," then on "An Academic Question.")
It's a fact, documented by two recent studies, that registered Republicans and self-proclaimed conservatives make up only a small minority of professors at elite universities. But what should we conclude from that?
MAUREEN DOWD: Curveball the Goofball (NY Times)
I had an editor once whose wife was in the Audubon Society. There were a lot of articles about birds in that newspaper.
Jim Hightower: Neutering Social Security (Hightower Lowdown. Posted on Alternet.)
Naming the names behind the grab for Social Security.
Eli Sanders: GOD WAS WITH THEM (The Stranger)
... a look into the pasts of the victim, Micah Painter, and his three attackers reveals that a single force shaped all four young men: Evangelical Christianity.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & too warm for the season.
Have replaced the old Archives. Not quite finished - need to find some pages from August...
Have been trying to avoid most of the papal overkill, but every now & then something slips by. So far, have heard him called 'John Paul XXII' and Paul VI referred to as 'John Paul VI'. It's wonderful that consolidation retained only the best & the brightest.
And, wtf was it with Pickles & Condi & their mantillas? Is their 'Catholic-cooridinator' stuck in the early-1970s? Cripes, not even the Abuelas wear them anymore.
Solo Tour
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen will travel light on his upcoming tour. The Boss will perform by himself when he begins a series of live shows in support of his upcoming "Devils & Dust" album, with the first performance slated for April 25 in Detroit. The album comes out a day later.
A series of dates across the United States and Europe will carry Springsteen through the end of June, when additional domestic shows will be scheduled. These will mark Springsteen's first solo shows since the 1995-97 "Ghost of Tom Joad" tour, where he was accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and harmonica.
In the United States, Springsteen will also play in Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Oakland, Denver, St. Paul, Minn., Chicago, Fairfax, Va., Cleveland, Philadelphia, East Rutherford, N.J., and Boston.
Bruce Springsteen
Fans Line Up at Wrong Theater
'Star Wars'
"Star Wars" fans will have to find the right theater before they can leave for the dark side.
Seven weeks before its release, "Star Wars" fanatics started lining up outside Grauman's Chinese Theater for the sixth installment of the popular George Lucas movie series. The vigil began Saturday.
But there's a problem: "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" won't be showing at the Hollywood landmark when the movie is released May 19. The studio, 20th Century Fox, opted instead to open the film a mile away at the ArcLight theater.
Still, the resolute "Star Wars" die-hards aren't moving on. Beneath a makeshift awning, 11 people refused to relinquish their spots in line.
"We've heard all this before," fan Sarah Sprague said, noting there were plenty of rumors in 1999 and 2002 that previous "Star Wars" movies weren't opening at the Chinese Theater. The rumors were false and the films were shown there.
'Star Wars'
Academy of American Poets
Poetry & the Creative Mind
The crocuses are blooming and the celebrity readers intoning. Yes, it's that time of year again, the third annual Poetry & the Creative Mind all-star benefit. Actors Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson and Sam Waterston were among the luminaries at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall Tuesday evening, as the Academy of American Poets celebrated the 10th National Poetry Month.
Despite co-chair Jorie Graham's breathless closing remarks describing the evening as a "miracle," this year's reading was a rather somber affair. The 11 readers mostly went for gravitas, from Neeson's choice of "Frederick Douglass" by Robert Hayden to Waterston's heroic picks: E.A. Robinson, Robinson Jeffers, Walt Whitman and Robert Lowell.
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather read only one poem, Wallace Stevens' "The Death of a Soldier," which he chose "lest we forget that we are a nation at war." The bleak poem was shorter than his introduction, in which he informed the audience that it was written in the year of his birth, 1931.
Other readers included architect Maya Lin and playwright Tony Kushner, who brought laughter with his lusty reading of Thom Gunn's mucus-rich depiction of mating leopard slugs in "At the Barriers." Gunn, as Kushner noted, died last April. Graham paid tribute to another recently dead poet, Robert Creeley, but other deaths, including Donald Justice's and Mona van Duyn's, went unremarked.
Poetry & the Creative Mind
Asked to Respect Iwo Jima Sites
Clint Eastwood
Tokyo's nationalist governor had one request for Clint Eastwood before he starts shooting his next film, about the World War II battle at Iwo Jima: Respect the fallen soldiers.
Eastwood, who is expected to begin shooting an adaptation of James Bradley's "Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima" later this year, met Wednesday with Shintaro Ishihara.
He asked the actor-director to avoid "sacred" sites of the dead if he films on the island, Tokyo metropolitan government spokesman Katsumi Kumagai said. Eastwood replied that he would "absolutely not" trample on Japanese feelings, he said.
Clint Eastwood
Cutting Back on Acceptance Speeches
Emmys
Emmy officials decided against an extreme makeover for the ceremony but are cutting back on acceptance speeches in a bid to woo more viewers.
As winners in some categories walk to the stage, short taped interviews with them will be played in lieu of "spontaneous" remarks, it was announced Wednesday.
Stars, unsurprisingly, are exempt. Writers and directors aren't.
Eight writing and directing categories are affected, and the new approach may be expanded to some other categories.
Emmys
Hosppital News
Aimee Osbourne
Aimee Osbourne, the eldest daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, is now having treatment in Los Angeles after a lump was removed from her breast, Sharon Osbourne said Wednesday.
"Aimee's had a breast cancer scare. She found a lump on her breast which she's had removed," Sharon Osbourne said in a statement without saying whether the lump was cancerous or providing other details.
Sharon and Aimee had been set to star in a London production of "The Vagina Monologues," but withdrew Friday, saying Aimee was ailing.
Aimee Osbourne
Film Editors, FX Group Protest
Oscar Changes
Two Hollywood professional societies have sent letters of protest to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Oscar producer Gil Cates, complaining about this year's Academy Awards telecast.
The board of directors of American Cinema Editor and the executive director of the Visual Effects Society objected to the way Oscars were presented in some of the lesser categories this year.
In a new time-saving measure, a number of statuettes were handed out either to winners who remained seated in the audience or who were assembled on stage in advance as part of a nominee lineup.
Although the Oscar-nominated editors were not subject to the new format this year, the ACE board wrote: "We believe the show's setup sent an inappropriate and potentially damaging message to viewers that some artists contribute more to the filmmaking process than others."
Oscar Changes
When Wingnuts Whine
'Controversy'
As always, not everyone in the press and on the Web agrees with the selection of Pulitzer Prize winners, announced earlier this week. But whats relatively rare is that criticism surrounding one choice this year has a partisan edge.
The Pulitzer Board anointed 11 Associated Press photographers as winners in the category of breaking-news photography. The award-winning photos were from war-torn Iraq -- and some in conservative circles claim the images were, on the whole, overly helpful to the insurgent cause. At least one of the photos raised an uproar from the same quarters when it was first published late last year.
Columnist Michelle Malkin and the popular Powerline blog, meanwhile, returned to the controversy over the widely published AP photo of terrorists executing Iraqi election workers in Baghdad. Malkin asked on Tuesday if the Pulitzer judges were ignorant of the controversy. Powerline called the award a "Pulitzer Prize for felony murder." Last December it had charged that the terrorists wanted to be photographed carrying out the murder, to sow more terror in Iraq and to demoralize American voters. Thats why they tipped off the photographer, and thats why they dragged the two election workers from their car, so they could be shot in front of the APs obliging camera.
As for possible political bias of the Pulitzer judges: They hailed from a hardly liberal group of papers (The Washington Times, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y.) plus the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The AP's crime? In so many words, they are guilty of showing the conflict in Iraq the way that it is, and not the way that the conservative blogosphere wishes that it were. The right wants those pictures of rose pedals and liberation parades that Dick Cheney promised them three years ago, and now they're mad they didn't get them.
'Controversy'
Overkill - Live
Pope's Funeral
Several TV networks will provide live coverage of Pope John Paul II's funeral Friday - for Americans who want to get up early or stay up late.
The funeral is scheduled to begin at 4 a.m. EDT on the East Coast, and will be carried on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC.
Most of the traditional network anchors will be accompanied by experts who will not only help translate the language of the Mass, which will be said in Italian, but explain to viewers what is going on.
Pope's Funeral
New James Bond
Daniel Craig
The producers of the hugely successful James Bond film franchise have chosen British actor Daniel Craig to take over the role of the suave super-spy, a report said.
The 37-year-old has been offered a three-film deal by Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and is expected to sign up formally in the next few weeks, The Sun newspaper reported Wednesday.
Craig, a tough-looking character actor who has mixed up appearances in many art-house titles with roles in blockbusters such as "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider", just beat fellow Briton Clive Owen for the role, the report said.
Daniel Craig
Lost Valentino Film
'Beyond the Rocks'
Many pining looks, a story of forbidden love, whirlwind changes of scenery and costumes were revealed after more than 75 years when a long lost silent film featuring Rudolph Valentino and Gloria Swanson was shown in Amsterdam.
The only known copy of the 1922 classic "Beyond the Rocks", with an imaginative and playful new score by Dutch composer Henny Vrienten, premiered in style at Amsterdam's art deco Tuschinski theatre to mark the start of the Filmmuseum's Biennal festival.
For over three quarters of a century, movie critics and historians had been looking for the film directed by Sam Woods (1883-1949)-- the only one in which Valentino and Swanson starred together.
The version that was found by the Filmmuseum was a special export version, which is racier than the American original.
'Beyond the Rocks'
Escorted Off Train By British Police
Grace Jones
British police escorted actress Grace Jones off a Eurostar train after she allegedly grabbed a ticket inspector's arm in a row about her fare, the cross-Channel rail operator said Wednesday.
Jones, 52, also verbally abused the female inspector after being asked to pay extra for a seat upgrade on the Tuesday evening service from Paris to London, Eurostar spokesman Paul Charles said. He added that the company wouldn't press charges.
The Jamaican-born star, who is also a singer and former supermodel, was travelling on the Eurostar service with a first-class ticket but had sat in the premium-class area, Charles said.
Grace Jones
Dedicates Latin Song To Pope
Jukka Ammondt
A Finnish professor known for his recordings of Elvis Presley songs in Latin will release a single dedicated to Pope John Paul on the day of his funeral.
Jukka Ammondt's previous records -- "Nunc hic aut Numquam" (It's Now or Never) and "Ne calces mi glaucos calceos" (Don't You Step on my Blue Suede Shoes) -- won him a cult following.
Pope John Paul gave him a medal in 1994 for his album "Tango Triste Finnicum" (The Sad Finnish Tango).
Jukka Ammondt
French Math Student Sets World Record
13th Root
A 24-year-old French student claimed a world record after he became the first person to figure out the 13th root of a 200-digit number by mental arithmetic alone.
Alexis Lemaire, who is studying for a master's degree in computer studies at the University of Reims, eastern France, took 48 minutes and 51 seconds to arrive at the 16-figure answer.
The competition was overseen by a mathematician and a public bailiff to ensure that the answer was right and Lemaire had only used his own brainpower to get there. Use of a computer, calculator and even a pencil and paper were not allowed.
In December, Lemaire set a world speed record of 3.625 seconds for finding the 13th root of a 100-digit number. The previous record of 11.8 seconds had been held by a 38-year-old German, Gert Mittring.
13th Root
Curbing Short Stories
Atlantic Monthly
Journalism is edging out fiction at The Atlantic Monthly magazine, which in its nearly 150-year history has published short stories by Henry James, Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.
In a note to readers in the May issue, The Atlantic's editors said they will no longer run a short story in every issue but will produce an annual fiction issue in August that will be available in print form on newsstands and online to subscribers.
The fiction issue will be edited by C. Michael Curtis, who has been on The Atlantic's staff for four decades.
Atlantic Monthly
WW2 Concert to Be Held Next Month
Trafalgar Square
London's Trafalgar Square will host a rock concert to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
Organizers say they want to recreate the atmosphere of May 8, 1945, when thousands of people thronged to the square in central London to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The mayor's office has joined the BBC and the Royal British Legion, a charity that raises money for British ex-servicemen and women, to stage the free concert on the evening of May 8.
Trafalgar Square
In Memory
Frank Conroy
Frank Conroy, the memoirist and longtime director of the celebrated University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, died Wednesday. He was 69.
Conroy died at his home in Iowa City of colon cancer, said James Alan McPherson, acting co-director of the workshop. "Frank took a great program and made it an extraordinary one," McPherson said.
Conroy won literary praise in 1967 for "Stop-Time," which chronicled his growing up in homes that included a Florida shack, a snowy cabin and a tiny Manhattan apartment. The impressionistic memoir was nominated for a National Book Award.
Famously demanding, to the point of reducing students to tears, he held the post for 18 years before announcing his resignation last year. ZZ Packer, Nathan Englander and Thisbe Nissen were the among the young writers he worked with.
He returned to teaching last year after a bout with colon cancer, but became ill again in recent months with cancer and entered hospice care in Iowa City.
Conroy's books also include "Time & Tide, A Walk Through Nantucket," a collection of essays entitled "Dogs Bark, But the Caravan Rolls On," "Body & Soul," and "Midair." He sold his first short story when he was a senior at Haverford College, dabbled in journalism, wrote short stories and essays for a variety of magazines and served as literary director at the National Endowment of the Arts.
A lover of jazz, Conroy also played piano in clubs in New York for several years and befriended such musicians as Keith Jarrett and Wynton Marsalis. Conroy's friend David Halberstam once called him "innately hip, the first true counterculture person I had ever met."
After his stint with the NEA, Conroy moved to Iowa City and became the workshop's fourth director. Founded in 1936, the workshop was the nation's first creative writing program and boasts alumni and past faculty such as Kurt Vonnegut, T.C. Boyle, Raymond Carver, John Irving and Flannery O'Connor.
Frank Conroy
