'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Alex's Entertainment Report
Pacino Live
Marty,
On Monday I had a nice treat - I attended a show on Broadway - Oscar Wilde's
'Salome: The Reading' (story of Princess Salome and John the Baptist). The
cast - Al Pacino, Marisa Tomei, Diane Wiest.
What an experience. Pacino
was fantastic. Marisa Tomei did an excellent job, and held her own next to
Al. Diane Wiest also did a wonderful job.
I got an autograph and a few photos of Al after the show, as well as Marisa.
For any of your New York readers, I highly recommend it!
Here's the
write-up from Playbill.com
Alex
Thanks, Alex! Send some pictures (if you can) - we now have a master-of-jpg's on staff!
Reader Review
Buffy
What's a guy over 40 doing watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Stop dreaming this is Freddie's girl.
All I can say is that however much I liked the series (as did most critics)
I'm glad it is ending. I caught last night's show and it is as cool as
ever. To see why check out Faith and Spike in the basement just chatting
it up. It is a scene of no importance but the dialog and the actor's
delivery of it and the director's building of it is totally engrossing. No
other show, not even the whiny Ally McBeal can make fun of itself so well,
like the opening when Xander has a fantasy/dream involving two of the
nubile poptarts who are camping out in Buffy's house for protection. When
the non-dream girls wakes him up: "be right there, have a leg cramp!"
(As Bart would say: Ha Ha)
Over the past four episodes, how many references to masturbation can you
count? (Hint: more than two)
You can't have this one either.
Anyway, the only real big problem with the series is that they have to come
up with evil-doers than the ones that were just defeated last week, last
month, or last season. Buffy and the gang took out a GOD how do you top
that?
Well I think they did it. The current bad guy has no makeup, no big FX,
doesn't shoot bolts of lightning. He's armed with a ring and a knife and a
cleric's collar and he is creepy. He makes the other guys with clerics
collars that like little boys look like nothing much. He has his own Karl
Rove who is politely called "the First" in this story, but instead of Fox
news the FIrst can emulate dead people and on occasion cause murder to
happen.. This is obviously going to be the last villain and he is clearly
badder than all the rest. The episodes have evolved to far from bloodless;
the injuries shown are as bad as anything shown on La Femme Nikita. The
series clearly has to end because it can't go this way any more.
One of the greatest TV series ever.
Alan
Thanks, again, Alan!
There were pictures, but I wasn't able to open them. : (
Reader Comment
Re: Costas Is Right
"Bob Costas says officials (No, it was one Nazi pig named Petroskey ) were
wrong to nix the upcoming event in the wake of anti-war statements by Tim
Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and he's looking to stage the event on his own
cable TV program".
Respectfully, I don't doubt for a second Costas is right, and "officials"
aren't.
Baseball is a game owned and run by Boneheads.
Semper Fi..........
Jim L
Thanks, Jim! I used to love baseball, and thought George Carlin got it right with his bit comparing it to football.
As a kid, a trip to Pittsburgh to see the Pirates was a summer highlight.
For years after I moved to LA, Dodger games were a regular part of my routine. Then, Peter O'Malley died, and his spawn sold out to Rupert-the-Reprehensible.
Didn't have to think too hard to switch my loyalty to the Angels, Gene Autry being an honorable man, even if it did mean traveling behind the Orange Curtain. Then, Gene died & Jackie sold out to Disney.
At that point, I said good-bye to LA baseball in person, but would still watch on TV, or listen to on radio.
This spring has taken me to the point where it's not only LA baseball I'll be shunning.
Fuck them. They don't need my eyes, ears, heart or $ anymore.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cool & intermittently sunny.
Wednesday night on the NBC news, Tommy Brokaw compared chimpy to Churchill. Let's see - one could write his own speeches, the other can't handle polysyllables. One could smoke a cigar, drink brandy & expound brilliantly, while the other can't eat pretzels, denies drinking, and not only couldn't master a teleprompter, but has to have the words read into an earpiece.
One understood the meaning of words like 'honor' and 'integrity' and 'service' - the other understands any means to his ends.
Yeah - they have a lot in common, like walking on 2 legs.
Dear old Dad & 'the Babe' are hitting the highway, and heading west in a couple of weeks. (Do I sense a road-trip?)
Tonight, Thursday, CBS is supposed to offer a FRESH 'Survivor', followed by a RERUN 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', and
then a RERUN 'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave is Brian Regan.
On a RERUN Craiggers are John Ritter, Maria Menounos, and Johnny Marr & the Healers.
NBC is supposed to start the evening with a FRESH 'Friends', followed by a FRESH 'Scrubs', then a FRESH
'Will & Grace', followed by the Season Finale of 'Good Morning, Miami', and then a FRESH 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Charles Barkley, Christopher Titus, and Matchbox Twenty.
On a RERUN Conan are Nathan Lane, Sean Astin, and Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.
On a RERUN Carson Daly (from 1/4/03), are Moby and Fat Joe.
ABC is supposed to open the evening with a RERUN 'Whose Line', followed by a FRESH 'Whose Line', then a FRESH
'All American Girl', followed by 'PrimeTime Thursday'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Connie Britton and Disturbed, with this week's guest co-host Deion Sanders.
The WB has a FRESH 'Sabrina', followed by a FRESH 'JKX: Brad Gluckman Special', then a FRESH 'Jamie Kennedy',
followed by a FRESH 'On The Spot'.
Faux offers a RERUN 'TV's Funniest Game Show Moments 2', followed by 'The Pulse'.
UPN kills the night with 'WWE Smackdown!'.
Check local PBS listings for the final installment of 'Avoiding Armageddon', narrated by Walter Cronkite.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Reader Comment & Link
Re: Bob Hope
Bob Hope, Robber Baron of the Century
I read your article on Bob Hope's 100th birthday on the Bartcop site,
you ought to read my
old blog article on Bob Hope's 99th birthday.
Bob Hope is the largest single private landowner in the LA area. He is
almost singlehandedly responsible for the urban sprawl in Los Angeles
County. He is an environmental rapist and robber baron.
Charles E.
< i>Thanks, Charles! I was living out in the San Fernando Valley way back when all of LA, < u>and all of the the Valley, were still (area code) 213. The Valley became 818 - well, all except for a portion of
Toluca Lake, where Bob Hope lived (and still resides).
OTOH, Bob Hope & an article in the old 'Spy Magazine' helped prove dear old Dad, while a master bull-shitter, isn't a liar.
One of his less told war-stories had to do with Patton wanting to 'take a piss in the Rhine' and Dad claiming that he had taken a photo of the incident & was busted (to buck private) for his efforts.
Back in the mid-80's, 'Spy' did a story about being in Bob Hope's house (in Toluca Lake), and that one of his most prized possessions was a picture of Patton taking a piss in the Rhine.
Reader Suggested Reading
that Mad Cat, JD
Sister-in-Law Schleps Tell-All About First
Thanks, JD. What a cheap bastard! A grand a month & he has her replacement already in the wings? Yeah, some mighty special family values in that Bush clan.
Reader Comment
Re: 'Crossfire'
Crossfire cut down to 30min...
The only show out there with people speaking the truth and they are cutting it in half. It is only getting worse....
They buried it in
this Paula Zahn story. Get that mike hot will you Bart !
Steven J. S.
"To announce there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
-Theodore Roosevelt
Thanks, Steven! Jeez, Paula Teeth replacing Connie Chung. I'm so old, I can remember when both were on local LA-TV. Paula didn't last long, and Connie took a cut in pay to go to the 'big' network.
A version of the 'reshuffle' story is immediately below.
CNN Reshuffles Lineup
Paula Zahn
CNN, still trailing Fox News Channel as coverage of the war in Iraq winds down, will move morning host Paula Zahn into the anchor chair of a marquee two-hour nightly newscast as part of its reshuffled lineup, the network said on Wednesday.
CNN, once the dominant 24-hour cable news outlet, said Zahn, who has been doing some evening work during the war, would now host the prime-time show "American Evening with Paula Zahn," from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Speculation has mounted in recent weeks that Aaron Brown, who has been the network's primary anchor, had lost a measure of prestige at CNN as he came under heavy criticism from some media watchers for his performance during the war.
To make room for "American Evening," the network said it would move its long-standing debate program "Crossfire" from 7 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will cut it to 30 minutes from an hour. The network's "Inside Politics" will become "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics" and move to a half-hour slot at 4 p.m.
Paula Zahn
A female gorilla eats an Easter egg out of a basket of treats given to her at the Cincinnati Zoo, Wednesday, April 16, 2003, in Cincinnati.
Photo by Al Behrman
Old House Sells for $1.1 Million
J.R.R. Tolkien
It has no kitchen and no central heating, but a house that "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien lived in 85 years ago has sold for $1.1 million after a bidding war.
The Georgian town house in central Oxford sold this week for $80,000 more than the asking price, a real estate company said. That could have as much to do with Tolkien's fame as with Britain's overheated housing market, especially in highbrow cities such as Oxford.
Tolkien lived in the historical, seven-bedroom home with his wife, Edith, in 1918, while working at The Ashmolean, Oxford's museum of art and archaeology, after serving in World War I.
Realtor James Penny said the Tolkien Society had wanted to buy the home, but couldn't find the cash. "Other Tolkien nuts were also trying for it," he said. "It went to bids and the price went up."
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
University of North Dakota
Spike Lee
Spike Lee, known as a die-hard New York Knicks fan, began his talk at the University of North Dakota's Multicultural Awareness Week with mention of basketball.
"So this is where Phil Jackson went to school," Lee said, referring to the former Knicks forward and current Los Angeles Lakers head coach. "That's a pretty good mark for this school," he said.
"We dominate the world through our culture," Lee said. "Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, rap music and rock 'n' roll, it's through media we dominate the world culture."
Black men may get the message that their only options in life are to play professional sports, become a rap music artist or sell drugs, Lee said.
"This model is what many African Americans live by," he said. "Most don't think they have a choice."
Spike Lee
Penitents walk to church to start the procession of the 'El Baratillo' brotherhood in the Andalusian capital Seville in southern Spain, April 16, 2003. Hundreds of Easter processions take place in Seville during Holy Week drawing thousands of visitors.
Photo by Marcelo del Pozo
Wedding News
Melissa Etheridge
Singer Melissa Etheridge plans to tie the knot at the end of this year with her companion of two years, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels.
"This is the first wedding for both of them," Etheridge's publicist, Marcel Pariseau, said Tuesday. He declined to reveal plans for the ceremony except to say it would take place in Los Angeles.
The musician shares custody of a daughter and a son with former partner Julie Cypher. The two made news in 2000 when they revealed that musician David Crosby was the sperm donor for their children, who were delivered by Cypher.
Melissa Etheridge
Calling for Aid for Sri Lanka
Angelina Jolie
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie said on Wednesday she was moved by stories of lives shattered by two decades of war in Sri Lanka and called on the international community to back the island's peace process.
Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.'s refugee body, said she was saddened after listening to a group of 500 war-traumatized orphan girls say they did not want to be mothers when they grew up.
"They wanted to be doctors or teachers...but not one of them wanted to be a mother, that is strange," Jolie told reporters after spending several days touring areas of northern Sri Lanka.
The 27-year-old actress has visited war-hit countries in Africa, Latin American and in other parts of Asia, including Cambodia.
Angelina Jolie
Respectable Album Debut
Lisa Marie Presley
Some 25 years after the death of her legendary father, Lisa Marie Presley claimed her own place in the pop charts on Wednesday with a respectable No. 5 opening for her debut album, "To Whom It May Concern."
The album, an introspective collection of songs whose lyrics were written mostly by the 35-year-old performer, sold 142,000 copies its first week in release from EMI Group Plc's Capitol Records, according to retail sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan.
That was enough to edge out R&B love man Ginuwine's latest release, "The Senior," from the top five for the week ended Sunday. But Presley was crowded out of the chart's highest rungs by the No. 1 opening of hard rock group Godsmack's third album, "Faceless," followed by metal band Linkin Park's "Meteora," rap artist 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Tryin"' and the latest "Now" compilation of various artists.
Billboard magazine said her first album "stands on its own and is far better than many might expect." Similarly, Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn wrote, "Presley wants to pass the credibility test, and she does."
Lisa Marie Presley
Newspaper Apologizes
Steve Bing
A British newspaper apologized to film producer Steve Bing Wednesday and admitted it falsely accused him of orchestrating a campaign of defamation against actress Elizabeth Hurley, the mother of his son.
Associated Newspapers Ltd., Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre and journalist Daniel Jeffreys had agreed to apologize to Bing and to Los Angeles attorney Martin Singer, Bing's lawyer, Nathalie Paterson, told the High Court in London. The defendants also agreed to pay "substantial sums" to British children's charities.
Bing has admitted being the father of Hurley's son, Damian Charles, who was born in April 2002. Some British tabloids were critical of him after he initially expressed doubt that he was the father.
Steve Bing
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library
Music Library
Wilma Zylstra doesn't know it, but she's battling Darth Vader every day.
While the "Star Wars" theme and "Hang on Sloopy" dominate the playlists of high school and college bands, the 79-year-old librarian spends her days dusting off and preserving little-known, toe-tapping gems from the brass band era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
At the request of patrons worldwide, Zylstra mines the 75,000 tunes of the Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library, a collection that began in the attic of a local music lover more than three decades ago. People looking for rare ragtime classics or lesser-known Karl King marches turn to Zylstra and the library to fill the void left by the near extinction of brass band music. In the process, the southeastern Minnesota library has become an internationally recognized repository for music teachers and community bands seeking tunes once thought lost.
Zylstra's library charges only postage and a small handling fee, though donations are always welcome. Adding to its originality is the library's honor system, which requires lenders to return the music once they're done with it.
"We trust them," Zylstra said matter-of-factly, of lending the Chatfield collection. About 95 percent of all music is returned.
For more, Music Library
Chatfield Brass Band Music Lending Library
Mistress Victoria gives orders to march during her 'Slavercize' class in New York March 20, 2003. Students at 'Slavercise', a class combining sadomasochism and exercise, get a physical workout by 'submitting' to the orders and whims of dominatrix Mistress Victoria who tells them, 'If you don't keep up, you get punished'.
Photo by Shannon Stapleton
Meg Ryan & Steven Soderbergh
Cannes Jury
Meg Ryan and Steven Soderbergh will sit on the nine-member jury awarding the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival next month, organizers announced Wednesday.
Ryan, the star of romantic comedies such as "When Harry Met Sally ..." and "Sleepless in Seattle," and Soderbergh, the Academy Award-winning director of "Traffic," will take part in the jury headed by French director Patrice Chereau.
Aishwarya Rai will become the first Indian actress on the Cannes jury. Along with Rai, a former Miss World, the jury features veteran French actor Jean Rochefort, actress Karin Viard and writer Erri De Luca of Italy.
Also judging this year's festival, which runs May 14-25, is Bosnia's Danis Tanovic, who directed "No Man's Land," and China's Jiang Wen, director of "Missing Gun." Chereau, the jury president, is best known for his historical drama "La Reine Margot."
Cannes Jury
Cannes Film Festival Web site
Nobel Peace Laureate
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
The people of Iraq, and especially the children, have been "crucified through stupid policies", Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire said.
Speaking at a prayer vigil outside the White House that she has joined every day for more than three weeks, Maguire implored US resident George W. Bush and his British ally, Prime Minister Tony Blair, to "think of the little children."
Maguire was spurred to take up the struggle for peace in Northern Ireland -- for which she was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1976 -- by the violent deaths of her sister, eight-year-old niece and two nephews, aged two and six weeks.
She has unsuccessfully sought a meeting with Bush since arriving in Washington on March 24.
The Nobel peace laureate faces prosecution for demonstrating without a permit outside the White House on March 27, when she was arrested along with 67 other anti-war protesters including 1997 Nobel peace laureate Jody Williams, famous for her work to eradicate land mines.
Also arrested was Daniel Ellsberg, the former US government official who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the news media during the Vietnam War, as well as scores of religious leaders.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
Pianos Lure Students to Conservatory
Curtis Institute of Music
Of the 800 or so students who annually audition for the Curtis Institute of Music, about 40 are accepted. And for some of those lucky — and talented — chosen ones, it gets even grander: their own Steinway piano for the duration of their enrollment.
The loan program has been a tradition since the founding of the 79-year-old Curtis, regarded as one of the world's most prestigious music conservatories. Thirty students now have at-home Steinways.
This year, 38 students were accepted at Curtis, founded in 1924 by publishing heiress Mary Louise Curtis Bok. The school accepts only enough students to fill all the seats in an orchestra plus a small number of keyboard, composition and conducting students. Currently there are 158 students; all are on full scholarships.
Conductor Leonard Bernstein, opera singer Anna Moffo, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, pianist Peter Serkin and composer Samuel Barber are among Curtis' alumni — as is the school president, noted pianist Gary Graffman.
The Curtis Institute purchased its first 45 Steinways shortly after the school opened and it now has 91, acquired through donations and purchases. Besides the school's 16 piano students, 14 others studying harpsichord, organ, composition and conducting have Steinways. Students try them out and pick the one they like best.
For more, Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music Web site
Steinway & Sons Web site
Art Collections, Photos To Auction
Enron
Contemporary art and photograph collections owned by Enron Corp. are going on the auction block to help pay the bankrupt company's creditors.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge Tuesday authorized Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, an international art auction house, to conduct both sales.
The artwork will be auctioned May 15 and 16 in New York, and the photographs will be sold sometime in the fall.
The collection was purchased by the company's in-house art committee, headed by Lea Fastow, the wife of indicted former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.
Enron
Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Louis Vuitton Ads
Jennifer Lopez
Saying it wanted "a sophisticated, influential and sexy woman," luxury goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton has signed actress-singer Jennifer Lopez for its fall-winter advertising campaign for star brand Louis Vuitton.
Vuitton is the main profit engine for LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods company.
Jennifer Lopez
An Indian child dressed as Hindu God Ram about to fire an arrow stands beside a child dressed as Laxman, Rams' younger brother during a religious procession in New Delhi April 16, 2003. The procession was carried out on Wednesday to mark the birth anniversary of the Hindu monkey God Hanuman who featured along side Ram and Laxman in the Hindu epic the Ramayana.
Photo by B. Mathur
Former Maid's Lawsuit Dismissed
Marlon Brando
A 100-million-dollar lawsuit brought against movie legend Marlon Brando by his former maid and mother of three of his children will be dismissed, lawyers said.
Attorneys for the Oscar-winning screen icon and Hollywood recluse and for his ex-housekeeper Maria Cristina Ruiz, 44, told a Los Angeles judge that a request would be made to dismiss the civil suit during an upcoming hearing over the custody of the couple's children.
Ruiz sued the star of "The Godfather," "On the Waterfront" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" last April, claiming she had a 13-year relationship with him and gave birth to children who are aged 14, 11 and 9.
Ruiz's lawyer Donald Woldman said the pairing, that lasted from 1988 to 2001, was "just like a marriage, except without the ring."
Marlon Brando
Removed from Wrongful-Death Suit
Tha Row Records
Tha Row Records, the rap label run by Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight, has been removed as a defendant in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles, Billboard Bulletin (http://www.billboardbulletin.com) reports.
The complaint was filed by Carolyn Stinson, whose daughter Tynisha Ysais was allegedly killed and partially eaten by aspiring Texas rapper Antron Singleton (aka Big Lurch). Tha Row's removal from the suit follows Knight's public claims that his label was never associated with Singleton.
Stinson's attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, tells Billboard Bulletin, "We did our reinvestigation into this matter, and it seems that our information received earlier was wrong. Death Row and Tha Row had no part in this, and we're filing a dismissal with respect to them today."
Tha Row Records
Magazine Shutting Down
Partisan Review
Partisan Review, which published the early work of such writers as Norman Mailer and Susan Sontag and became one of the most influential literary journals in the country, is shutting down after nearly 70 years.
Partisan Review's advisory board announced the decision Wednesday after Boston University, which owns the magazine, said it wanted a new editorial direction for the magazine.
Founded in 1934 in New York's Greenwich Village, the magazine wielded extraordinary influence in the years before and after World War II, even though its circulation never reached more than 20,000.
Partisan Review
Treasures Fill Saatchi Gallery
BritArt
The new Saatchi Gallery, which opens to the public Thursday, features the paintings, sculptures and installations that for 10 years made BritArt a byword for cutting edge creativity, while delighting and disgusting audiences throughout the world.
Many of the most notorious works are here: Damien Hirst's pickled sheep and preserved shark, Tracey Emin's dirty unmade bed, Marc Quinn's head of frozen blood and Chris Ofili's elephant dung portrait of the Virgin Mary.
The decision to permanently display the best-known pieces from his collection is a big departure for gallery owner Charles Saatchi.
Saatchi doesn't give interviews and even declined to attend Tuesday's official opening of his new gallery. His companion, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, led the celebrations instead.
BritArt
The Saatchi Gallery
Montana Bar Closes After 113 Years
M&M Cigar Store
The M&M Cigar Store, a landmark saloon for miners, gamblers and cowboys once described by beat poet Jack Kerouac as the ideal bar, closed for the first time in 113 years, right after the business manager filed for bankruptcy.
The M&M was the most celebrated bar in a roaring, wide-open Western town filled with bars. Back in the days when Butte's copper mines ran 24 hours a day, the saloons ran 24 hours a day to serve miners. It was a tradition the M&M never surrendered, even when the mines shut down.
Beat poet Jack Kerouac visited the M&M Bar and described it for Esquire magazine in 1970: "What characters in there: old prospectors, gamblers, whores, miners, Indians, cowboys, tobacco-chewing businessmen! ... It was the end of my quest for an ideal bar."
M&M Cigar Store
It Was 60 Years Ago...
LSD
LSD, the hallucinogenic drug that launched a million trips for hippies, was discovered 60 years ago when a Swiss chemist accidentally inhaled a substance that made his bike ride home something special.
Albert Hofmann was actually trying to develop stimulants for the circulatory system in his Sandoz AG lab on April 16, 1943 when he mixed up a batch of LSD from ergot, a fungus that grows on rye.
Hofmann, now 97 and living near Basel, recalled in a newspaper interview 10 years ago that he had made LSD in his lab that fateful day after discovering it five years before.
"Afterwards on the way home I suddenly had hallucinations, a beautiful and pleasant trip. The only thing was, I could not at first explain what had made me so high," he recalled.
Only three days later did he conduct a direct experiment on himself with lysergic acid diethylamide-25.
"I took what I then thought to be a very small amount, namely 25 mg. Then it all became clear," he remembered.
For a bit more, LSD
Three-month-old polar bear Victoria and her mother Fanny are seen during Victoria's first public appearance in Hagenbeck's Tierpark zoo in Hamburg, northern Germany, on Wednesday, April 16, 2003.
Photo by Fabian Bimmer
'Ark of Darkness'
New chapter tomorrow!
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
