Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: The great happy Vatican death spiral (sfgate.com)
Is it almost time? Can we finally start making preparations, send out a global Evite welcoming millions to a grand ritual down by the beach, a fantastic ceremony featuring copious amounts of fire and cake, dancing and vodka, Shakti icons and free condoms for all?
Froma Harrop: Where Third Party Candidates Are Almost Routine (creators.com)
They make less of a ruckus than the tea party people, but independents in New England are brewing their own revolution. Third-party governors may have been elected elsewhere - Walter Hickel in Alaska (1990) and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota (1998) - but in New England, such candidacies have become almost routine.
Cole Moreton: How the English breakfast has changed with Britain (timesonline.co.uk)
What do the once-traditional fried breakfasts on offer around Britain say about how our cultural landscape is changing?
Lorrie Moore: America's first lady of darkness and mirth (guardian.co.uk)
With her new novel, 'A Gate at the Stairs,' high in the US charts and longlisted for the Orange prize, Lorrie Moore talks to Robert McCrum' about black humour, middle age - and Rooney's chances in the World Cup.
TERRY TEACHOUT: Believing in Flannery O'Connor (commentarymagazine.com)
In 1952, the landscape of American fiction was dominated by a group of literary celebrities who had published their first novels after or near the end of World War II. James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Truman Capote, Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, J.D. Salinger, Gore Vidal: these were the up-and-comers about whom everyone was talking in the days when serious fiction still mattered to the educated public, the ones who were expected to do great things.
Cosmo Landesman: "In his own write: Stephen Benatar" (timesonline.co.uk)
The author got his first rejection slip at the age of 12. Five decades and many glowing reviews later he was still a literary nobody. So he took to selling his books in person - to one reader at a time.
RYAN MCNUTT: "WHAT IS AN ALBUM, ANYWAY?" (maisonneuve.org)
... what planet has the "artistic integrity of the albums" ever been preserved? Until recently, radio has been the primary gateway for discovering new music, and radio has always had the power to pull apart albums and choose particular tracks to emphasize. Think about how people have discovered bands like Floyd or AC/DC from listening to rock radio. Let's face it: 45 minutes is a LONG time to invest in discovering a band, which is why the single is so enticing.
David Medsker: A Chat with Jon Fratelli, Codeine Velvet Club and Fratelli's singer and guitarist (bullz-eye.com)
South by Southwest is one day too long. You get to Friday and you think, 'That should be it.' You get to Saturday, and you're like, 'I fucking hate music.' Everywhere you goŠit's like being in a washing machine of music, because you can't escape it.
Lou Reed: back on the road at 68 (timesonline.co.uk)
In a rare interview with Mark Paytress, the rock icon is as challenging as the album he is re-releasing.
roger ebert's journal: McLaren & Meyer & Rotten & Vicious & me
"I need you out here," Russ Meyer told me on the phone in 1977. It was 6 a.m. He could not conceive that I might still be asleep. "Have you ever heard of the Sex Pistols?"
Preston Jones: Doors guitarist Robby Krieger recalls what it's like 'When You're Strange' (McClatchy Newspapers)
Surprisingly, given the wealth of material about the Doors, the new documentary "When You're Strange" is the first-ever full-length, non-fiction look at the legendary rock band.
Tom Shone: Rachel Weisz on motherhood, movies and metaphysics (timesonline.co.uk)
The 'Mummy' actress is back in ancient Egypt - but this time with a baby, a West End stage hit and a film-director boyfriend.
David Bruce: How Can I Write My Own Anecdote Books? (lulu.com)
Free download. I have published several collections of anecdotes in Print-on-Demand book format. So you would like to write and publish book collections of anecdotes such as "The Funniest People in Sports" or "The Funniest People in Music." No problem. It will take a time commitment and some writing ability, but pretty much anyone can do what I do.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Enemy of the State' Edition...
"The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them... officials say Mr. Awlaki is an operative of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the affiliate of the terror network in Yemen and Saudi Arabia...
It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said..."
Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Do you approve or disapprove of such an action?
A.) Approve
B.) Disapprove
C.) This is nothing new, it's been going on for years...
Send your response to
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Tulip Time
Blackwater founder to speak at Tulip Time luncheon
A Michigan native whose security company was banned from Iraq after a 2007 shooting left 17 Iraqis dead will serve as guest speaker at the Tulip Time Festival Luncheon in Holland. The Grand Rapids Press reports that life experiences and lessons learned while growing up in the southwestern Michigan city of Holland are among the topics that Erik Prince will discuss May 5 at DeVos Field house. Prince is founder of Myock, N.C.-based Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, whose family fortune was made in the auto parts industry. His sister, Betsy DeVos, a former chairwoman of the Michigan GOP, is married to Dick DeVos, a Republican and Amway Corp. heir who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2006. The State Department renewed Blackwater's contract in 2008.
Erik Prince
That area of SW Michigan is a bastion of conservatism and the Calvinistic (Dutch) Christian Reformed Church and is considered the state's 'Bible Belt'. (Joe S. from Manistee-on-the-Lake can confirm that. Right, Joe?) Besides having the largest Tulip Festival in the US, Holland is also known as the 'City of Churches' with 170 for a population of 32,000. The "WWJD" bracelet craze was created there in the late 80s. Holland's neighboring town, Zeeland, only recently voted to allow the sale of alcohol within its limits. Until then it was the only municipality in Michigan that I'm aware of to still be 'Dry'... So, this is the area that spawned 'Darth Eric' and he will speak to 'The Faithful' at their oh-so-genteel luncheon about how his growing up there helped make him the 'Chief Mercenary in Charge' for the US government... Hey, 'Code Pink'! Need sumpthin to do? Here ya go! Have at it!
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Link from RJ
Garden of Cosmic Speculation
Hi there
Here is a pretty amazing place..... thanks for taking a look!
Reader Suggestion
Padded Bikinis
A store in London has removed its padded bikinis for seven and eight year-old girls after it was advised by child protection agency workers that the garments sexualize children.
Read the article here:
BadtotheboneBob
GM-NASA
General Motors, NASA-designed robot to blast off in September
(No, this is not a joke...)
Robonaut 2, the robot developed by General Motors and NASA, is going to space in September, the Detroit automaker said today. The adventure, which will include a ride on space shuttle Discovery, will be part of mission STS-133, GM said. R2, as he is called, will work on the International Space Station along with another robot named Dextre, who was built by the Canadian Space Agency and is positioned outside the station's exterior to perform tasks that would normally require astronauts to take space walks.
General Motors, NASA-designed robot to blast off in September | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
(It's a good thing NASA partnered with GM instead of Toyota. If they had, the shuttle might have accidentally gone into Warp Drive and ended up in the Delta
Quadrant, haha!)
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and still cooler than seasonal.
Challenged Books
`Twilight' Series
Stephenie Meyer, the hottest author for young people since J.K. Rowling, has a new link to the creator of "Harry Potter": a place high on the list of books most complained about by parents and educators.
Meyer's multimillion-selling "Twilight" series was ranked No. 5 on the annual report of "challenged books" released Wednesday by the American Library Association. Meyer's stories of vampires and teen romance have been criticized for sexual content; a library association official also thinks that the "Twilight" series reflects general unease about supernatural stories.
Topping the 2009 chart was Lauren Myracle's "IM" series, novels told through instant messages that have been criticized for nudity, language and drug references. Last year's No. 1 book, "And Tango Makes Three," by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, is now No. 2, cited again for its story about two male penguins adopting a baby. Third was Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," for which the many reasons include drugs, suicide, homosexuality and being antifamily.
Also cited were such perennials as J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" (sexual content, language), Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (language, racism), Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" (sexual content, language) and Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War" (nudity, language, sexual content).
`Twilight' Series
Enters British Election Fray
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling entered Britain's election campaign Wednesday with a scathing attack on the main opposition Conservatives for their social policies.
Rowling, who wrote the first Harry Potter book while living as a single mother on benefits but is now a multimillionaire, suggested Tory leader David Cameron was "completely ignorant" about poor people's lives.
One of the Conservatives' manifesto pledges ahead of the May 6 election is a tax break for married couples. It amounts to just 150 pounds a year (231 dollars, 170 euros) but Cameron said it was important for the message it sends.
"Nobody who has ever experienced the reality of poverty could say 'it's not the money, it's the message'," Rowling, a major donor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour party, wrote in The Times newspaper.
She added: "When you are two pence short of a tin of baked beans, and your child is hungry, it is the money. When you find yourself contemplating shoplifting to get nappies, it is the money.
J.K. Rowling
Merchant Ivory Films
Eastman House
The original negatives of the Oscar-winning films "A Room with a View" and "Howards Ends" have found a snug home at the George Eastman House motion-picture archive.
The film and photography museum said Wednesday that Merchant Ivory Productions has turned over a large collection of original reels and 35mm archive prints for safekeeping.
With more than 30,000 movie titles, Eastman House is one of the nation's four major U.S. motion-picture archives. Among its holdings are the collections of filmmakers Cecil B. DeMille, Kathryn Bigelow, Spike Lee, Ken Burns and Martin Scorsese.
Eastman House
Was LSD An Influence?
Doctor Who
The regenerations of Time Lord Doctor Who were modelled on the "horrifying" side effects of drug-induced trips, according to archived documents published by the BBC.
Doctor Who, an eccentric TV hero who has fearlessly fought Daleks and Cybermen with the help of his Tardis time machine in the shape of a 1950s London police box, has become a classic figure since the show first aired in the 1960s.
The regenerations started in 1966 to allow writers to replace the lead actor. The series recently saw an 11th actor, Matt Smith, take on the role.
"It as if he has had the L.S.D. drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect," it says.
Doctor Who
Comedy Central Picks Up
'The Onion Sports Network'
Viacom Inc.'s Comedy Central said Wednesday that it is picking up "The Onion Sports Network" series, a satire on the world of sports.
The half-hour series will premiere in the first quarter of 2011.
Comedy Central bills the pilot and 10-episode series as taking on "teams, players, leagues, sycophantic fans, ridiculous products and over-hyped coverage."
'The Onion Sports Network'
Dollywood's 25th Season
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton seems to live her life by the motto "Go big or go home." With her signature theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., she did both.
Parton opened Dollywood in 1986 on the site of what had been the Silver Dollar City theme park. The first year, 1.3 million visitors came. Now, at the start of its 25th anniversary season, Dollywood has more than doubled in size to 60 hectares and over 40 million people have passed through its gates, with 2.5 million guests in a typical season.
Parton expanded her brand locally to include the Dixie Stampede dinner theatre in 1988 and Dollywood's Splash Country waterpark in 2001. All three together employ 3,000 people.
Dollywood is Tennessee's No. 1 ticketed tourist attraction and has been for over a decade.
Dolly Parton
Who Owns Film
"La Dolce Vita"
A New York District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the creator of a two-part pornographic remake of Frederico Fellini's classic film, "La Dolce Vita." In the process he's raised questions about whether anybody controls the legendary original.
In 2007, International Media Films sued Lucas Entertainment over "Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita," an adult remake that garnered 14 awards at the gay porn industry's equivalent of the Oscars (honors included best picture, best actor and best threesome). IMF alleged copyright and trademark infringement.
Fellini's classic is famous for popularizing the orgy, so it would have been interesting to see a court examine the derivative nature of a porn film. Alas, the case took an unexpected direction that's just as steamy. Both parties disputed the chain of title on Fellini's "La Dolce Vita."
According to IMF, the original producers of the film assigned the rights in 1962 to Cinemat, S.A., which transferred rights in 1980 to Hor A.G., which transferred rights the following year to Oriental Films, which transferred rights in 1998 to Cinestampa, which then transferred rights in 2001 to IMF. A year later, IMF filed a registration with the US Copyright Office on a restoration copy of the Fellini film.
Interestingly, the film was briefly in the public domain in the mid-1990s and may still be there today. IMF claims it was restored to copyright protection thanks to legislation enacted as part of an international treaty, but the court is dubious.
"La Dolce Vita"
Broadway Musical For 2011
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
The creators of the cheeky animated TV series "South Park" are taking aim at Broadway.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have written a musical comedy called "The Book of Mormon" that will open on Broadway in March 2011. The two wrote the show's book, music and lyrics, along with Robert Lopez, one of the creators of the Tony-winning "Avenue Q." The musical will be directed by Parker and Jason Moore, who directed "Avenue Q."
Producers Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino said Wednesday that a theater, casting and other production details would be announced later.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Mississippi
Juke Joint Festival
In Clarksdale, epicenter of the blues, this year's Juke Joint Festival has everything from legendary blues singers like Grammy-winner David "Honeyboy" Edwards, all the way to racing pigs and monkeys riding on dogs.
More than 50 musical acts are scheduled to play at the three-day event that starts Thursday in the Mississippi Delta city that was hometown to blues icons Son House, Junior Parker and John Lee Hooker and childhood home of playwright Tennessee Williams.
Fans will hear most of the daytime music outdoors and not in a juke joint - the kind of black-owned, quasi-legal liquor and gambling houses that once peppered the Jim Crow South. About half of the 16 nighttime venues, however, are in authentic, surviving juke joints, including Anniebelle's Lounge and Red's Lounge in downtown Clarksdale, across the track from Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club.
Juke Joint Festival
Sparks Investigation
Palin Contract
A document fished out of a California state university trash bin last week has prompted a state investigation into the university's foundation arm and its refusal to disclose details related to Sarah Palin's upcoming speech at the school.
On Tuesday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office would look into the finances of the California State University, Stanislaus Foundation, as well as allegations that the nonprofit organization violated public disclosure laws by keeping details of Palin's contract secret.
The contract detailed the former Alaska governor's requirements for her visit, including first-class flights from Anchorage to California - if she flies commercial. If not, "the private aircraft MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger ...," the contract specifies.
Palin also must be provided with a suite and two single rooms in a deluxe hotel near the campus in Turlock in the Central Valley. During her speech, her lectern must be stocked with two water bottles and bendable straws.
Palin Contract
Throw The Book At Him
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin
An Army doctor is under investigation after questioning on YouTube whether President Barack Obama is U.S.-born - then disobeying orders to report for duty in Afghanistan.
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin failed to report to Fort Campbell, Ky., on Monday, showing up instead at his old job in a clinic in the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an Army spokesman, said Wednesday. Lakin was reassigned immediately to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington while the investigation is under way.
A Greeley, Colo., native, Lakin said in a video posted on YouTube that he was an 18-year Army veteran "choosing to disobey" orders he says are illegal, including an order to deploy to Afghanistan for a second tour. He said he was doing so at "great peril" to his career and future and "inviting my own court-martial."
A court-martial is only one of the punishment options, and among the handful of other known birthers in the military, some have merely received administrative reprimands.
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin
"Lawman" Suspended
Steven Seagal
Production of a television show featuring reserve deputy and movie star Steven Seagal will be suspended "for the time being" as Seagal faces sexual harassment allegations, a suburban New Orleans sheriff said Wednesday.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said the continued video recording of the reality series, "Steven Seagal Lawman," would be a distraction for the department in light of allegations made against Seagal by a woman in a California civil lawsuit.
Kayden Nguyen, a 23-year-old model, sued Seagal for $1 million on Monday in Los Angeles, alleging he sexually harassed her and engaged in sex trafficking. Her lawsuit claims Seagal hired her as an executive assistant and flew her to Louisiana while he was making the reality series and repeatedly groped and fondled her.
She claims she was kept at a house in Lafitte, La., for several days and that Seagal repeatedly fondled and groped her, touching her genitals and breasts without permission. She claims two other women were kept at the house and were used by the actor for sexual purposes.
Steven Seagal
No Legal Action In Labor Probe
'Jon & Kate'
Child-labor permits should have been obtained for the children appearing on the TLC television show "Jon & Kate Plus 8," but the state will not take legal action against the producers, Pennsylvania regulators have concluded.
No action will be taken provided a portion of the proceeds from the now-canceled reality show are put into a trust fund for Jon and Kate Gosselin's children and child-labor permits are obtained for future filming, the state Department of Labor & Industry said in a five-page letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
The agency ruled that the children were employed under the state's Child Labor Law because of the direction they sometimes received, because of their continued participation in the series and because the Gosselins and others were paid for the show.
It said that at least 15 percent of the gross proceeds, due to the children, must be placed in trust funds until they reach the age of 18 or unless needed for their safety, education, welfare or health.
'Jon & Kate'
Bans Dolphin Film
Yokota Airbase
A US base in Japan has blocked the screening at its cinema of an Oscar-winning documentary that casts a harsh light on Japanese dolphin hunters, citing public sentiment, a report said Wednesday.
Kyodo news agency said that authorities at the Yokota airbase in Tokyo had quashed a plan by educators on the base to use the theatre to screen "The Cove". The film portrays the annual hunt in the town of Taiji and has led to international criticism of the practice.
Kyodo quoted a public relations officer at the base as saying the military was required to maintain "neutrality" in such matters and that US officials were mindful of Japanese sensitivities on the issue. The base is also the headquarters of US forces in Japan.
Yokota Airbase
Files For Divorce
Larry King
Larry King has filed for divorce from his seventh wife, court filings show.
The 76-year-old host of CNN's "Larry King Live" filed Wednesday to end the couple's nearly 13-year marriage, citing "irreconcilable differences." He married Shawn Southwick-King in a hospital room in 1997 three days before surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel.
The couple have two sons, ages 11 and 9. King is seeking joint custody of the boys. He is also asking a court not to award Southwick-King, 50, any spousal support.
Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for King, said Southwick-King filed for divorce moments after King's filing. Her filing was not immediately available.
Larry King
Still Doesn't Get It
Vatican't
Gay groups and politicians condemned Pope Benedict's number two on Wednesday for calling homosexuality a "pathology" and linking it directly to sexual abuse of children.
The comments made by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone during a visit to Chile, and the controversy they caused, were splashed on mainstream Italian newspapers on Wednesday.
Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, who is sometimes called the "deputy pope," told a news conference in Santiago on Monday: "Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and pedophilia, but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia."
Vatican't
Shuffled Around Globe
Predator Priests
There he was, five decades later, the priest who had raped Joe Callander in Massachusetts. The photo in the Roman Catholic newsletter showed him with a smile across his wrinkled face, near-naked Amazon Indian children in his arms and at his feet.
The Rev. Mario Pezzotti was working with children and supervising other priests in Brazil.
In an investigation spanning 21 countries across six continents, The Associated Press found 30 cases of priests accused of abuse who were transferred or moved abroad. Some escaped police investigations. Many had access to children in another country, and some abused again.
A priest who admitted to abuse in Los Angeles went to the Philippines, where U.S. church officials mailed him checks and advised him not to reveal their source. A priest in Canada was convicted of sexual abuse and then moved to France, where he was convicted of abuse again in 2005. Another priest was moved back and forth between Ireland and England, despite being diagnosed as a pederast, a man who commits sodomy with boys.
Predator Priests
Last US Cannery Closing
Sardines
The intensely fishy smell of sardines has been the smell of money for generations of workers in Maine who have snipped, sliced and packed small, silvery fish into billions of cans on their way to Americans' lunch buckets and kitchen cabinets.
For the past 135 years, sardine canneries have been as much a part of Maine's small coastal villages as the thick Down East fog. It's been estimated that more than 400 canneries have come and gone along the state's long, jagged coast.
The lone survivor, the Stinson Seafood plant here in this eastern Maine shoreside town, shuts down this week after a century in operation. It is the last sardine cannery not just in Maine, but in the United States.
These days most of the canning is automated and the fish are cut with machines, though still packed by hand. The Stinson packers are all women because they are thought to have stronger backs and better dexterity than men, according to plant manager Peter Colson.
Sardines
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of April 5-11. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. Masters Golf Tournament, First Round (Thursday, 4 p.m.), ESPN, 3.93 million homes, 4.93 million viewers.
2. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.3 million homes, 4.89 million viewers.
3. Masters Golf Tournament, Second Round (Friday, 4 p.m.), ESPN, 3.26 million homes, 3.91 million viewers.
4. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.17 million homes, 3.95 million viewers.
5. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.1 million homes, 3.96 million viewers.
6. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 3.05 million homes, 4.36 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.02 million homes, 4.01 million viewers.
8. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 2.98 million homes, 4.3 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.82 million homes, 3.73 million viewers.
10. "Good Luck Charlie" (Sunday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 2.82 million homes, 3.81 million viewers.
11. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.76 million homes, 3.51 million viewers.
12. "Law & Order: CI" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), USA, 2.73 million homes, 3.46 million viewers.
13. "American Pickers" (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), History, 2.654 million homes, 3.69 million viewers.
14. NCAA Women's Basketball Championship: Stanford vs Connecticut (Tuesday, 8:19 p.m.), ESPN, 2.65 million homes, 3.49 million viewers.
15. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.64 million homes, 3.43 million viewers.
Ratings
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