Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: Ready to Take the World Stage on a Moment's Notice (andrewtobias.com)
Bill D. (an angry investment banker personally unscathed): "Fiscally responsible? This is now the SECOND time in 20 years that the US financial system has been brought to its knees and the US government has had to effectively nationalize large swaths of the financial system. ... Would you trust the republicans with YOUR money? The GOP likes to say that government is the problem. It sure is... When they are in charge of it."
Kamala Lopez: Palin Pales in Comparison to True Maverick Jeannette Rankin (huffingtonpost.com)
I hope that my film, "A Single Woman," about the life of unsung heroine Jeannette Rankin, will help bring to light the strength and beauty of a true maverick and reformer.
Mark Morford: David Foster Wallace (sfgate.com)
All literary flags at half-mast, rightfully so. In memoriam.
John Seery: David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008 (huffingtonpost.com)
He was a colleague and friend. I have no mind to try to pay adequate tribute to him here. Those should soar and will come later. What I want to note instead, just briefly, are a few personal recollections.
Sean O'Brien: Auden not our contemporary (timesonline.co.uk)
How the serious, reasonable prose of a dead poet shames the living.
Michael Abernethy: The Changing Face of Drag (popmatters.com)
In large part, the social acceptance of drag has turned female impersonation into a corporate commodity.
Paul De Barros: From his Great Depression childhood in Seattle, Quincy Jones dared to dream (The Seattle Times)
In the late 1940s, when Quincy Delight Jones lived on 22nd Avenue, just a block from his alma mater, Garfield High School, there was a place they called "the dream window" in the attic, where he and his seven brothers and sisters slept.
Kevin C. Johnson: Rules of 'Grammar' have changed for Nelly (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Nelly is never going to have another "Country Grammar."
And now for song number 801 (guardian.co.uk)
Polly Scattergood is just 21 but she's already proving quite a songwriter, finds Paul Lester.
Justin Paprocki: "Indigo Girls at 20: 'Our differences hold us together' (McClatchy Newspapers)
Historically, Indigo Girls fans seem to be split about whether they like the duo better with a full band or in an acoustic setting.
'Hitchcock tried to destroy my career' (timesonline.co.uk)
He made Tippi Hedren a star in The Birds and then, the 78-year-old tells Tim Teeman, the filmmaker tried to destroy her.
Interview by Laura Barnett: Portrait of the artist: Keith Tyson, artist (guardian.co.uk)
'It's a myth that artists know what they're doing in advance. Most of us are just winging it.'
The Weekly Poll
'Informed Voter' Edition...
On August 25th The Democratic National Convention released the official platform.
Click here: 2008 Democratic Party Platform - (WARNING: pdf format)
This week's poll is...
What changes, if any, would you make to this platform?
A.) None. It is fine as it is...
B.) I would include __________...
C.) I would not have included __________...
D.) I would alter this particular position __________...
Remember Pollfans, an informed voter, is a happy voter!
BadtotheBoneBob
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Reader Contribution
Bullwinkle
Contributor Comment
Starship Troopers
Hey, Marty...
I recently viewed the movie 'Starship Troopers', a futuristic depiction of a war between humans and an insect alien race, and I noticed a remarkable similarity in style between the present U.S. Army recruiting commercials and the recruiting commercials shown in that movie trying to motivate young people against the 'alien threat' of 'The Bugs'... Rather chilling, as it were...
The 'style' of 'service is good' is unmistakable...
By the way, Robert Heinlein's book that inspired the movie was written back in the 50's and created a storm of controversy because he espoused the theory that in order to be a 'citizen' with voting rights (and the ability to hold elected office) one must serve the government in one capacity or an other for a period of time. Military veterans, of course, had priority... Interestingly enough, he promoted an equal male/female force that encouraged homosexuality because it reduced pregnancies. Sound logic there...
He was excoriated by many of his contemporaries in the SciFi community for being a 'war monger' and inspired Joe Halderman's 'The Forever War'...
Hey! Just some thoughts from yer ol' pal...
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2TBBob
Reader Suggestion
Aerial Wolf Hunting
Marty:
Check this out - Click here: YouTube - Brutal: Sarah Palin's Record on Aerial Wolf Hunting
Michelle in AZ
Thanks, Michelle!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast and cool.
Donates Money
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt has donated $100,000 to fight California's November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
It's the first time voters will be asked to decide the issue in either California or Massachusetts - the states where gays have won the right to wed.
Trevor Neilson, Pitt's political and philanthropic adviser, told The Associated Press that Pitt was surprised that his colleagues in the entertainment industry had not donated more money to support the battle against Proposition 8.
Brad Pitt
Hall of Fame
New Jersey
Actor Jack Nicholson, rocker Jon Bon Jovi and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal are among 30 nominees to the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Members of the public will help select the 10 inductees for the hall's second class by voting online through Nov. 30.
Last year, the hall inducted 15 members into its inaugural class, including Bruce Springsteen, Yogi Berra and Frank Sinatra.
This year's nominees include political activist Paul Robeson, writers F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman and Philip Roth, entertainers Jerry Lewis, Count Basie and Bud Abbott, and athletes Althea Gibson (tennis) and Carl Lewis (track).
New Jersey
Birthplace Benefit
Superman Auctions
Online auctions benefiting Superman's birthplace have been more powerful than a locomotive.
The sales on eBay are only half-done and already have surpassed their goal of raising $50,000 to fix up the boyhood home of Jerry Siegel. It's where he and Joe Shuster came up with the Man of Steel during the 1930s.
When the second of four auctions of original art and other items wrapped up Tuesday, more than $53,000 had been raised. The auctions continue through Sept. 30.
The proceeds will be used to replace the roof and redo the exterior on the former Siegel family home on Cleveland's East Side. Organizers say money beyond the original goal will be set aside for repairs inside and for future work.
Superman Auctions
Flooded With Mocking Videos
YouTubes
YouTube is being flooded with mocking videos by Sarah Palin imitators, attracting millions of viewers and triggering stormy online debate between the aspiring vice president's fans and critics.
Snippets of a sketch featuring actress Tina Fey mimicking Palin and comedian Amy Poehler playing former White House contender Hillary Clinton have rocketed to fame on the video sharing website just days after airing on the television show "Saturday Night Live."
The 44-year-old Palin's relative inexperience on the national political stage and her conservative stance on hot-button social issues, combined with her status as a moose-hunting former beauty queen and self-professed "hockey mom," has made her a particularly popular target on the web.
YouTube video of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin
YouTubes
More Endorsements
Obama
Women's rights groups endorsed Barack Obama for president Tuesday, asserting the historic selection of a female Republican vice presidential candidate does not make up for John McCain's lack of support on issues important to women.
"We don't think it's much to break a glass ceiling for one woman and leave millions of women behind," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
Obama also won the support of the National Organization for Women, which said it has not endorsed a candidate for president since Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro shared the Democratic ticket in 1984. Ferraro was the first female major-party vice presidential candidate.
Obama was also endorsed by leaders from Business and Professional Women/USA, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Congress of Black Women and the Women's Information Network.
Obama
Historic Hollywood Cinema For Sale
El Capitan
The historic Hollywood cinema El Capitan, where "Citizen Kane" had its world premier, is up for sale for 31 million dollars, the owners told the Los Angeles Times Wednesday.
Located on Hollywood Boulevard just opposite the Kodak theater where the Oscars ceremony is held every year, the rococo-decor cinema was built in the 1920s but was seriously damaged in a 1994 earthquake.
It then passed into the hands of the CUNA insurance group, which has leased it to Walt Disney which uses it to showcase its new films.
El Capitan
Busted In The 'Bu
Ryan O'Neal
Authorities say they have arrested actor Ryan O'Neal and his son on suspicion of having drugs in their Malibu home.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says authorities went to O'Neal's home Wednesday morning for a routine check on his son Redmond, who was given three years probation after pleading guilty to drug possession charges in June.
Whitmore says deputies and probation officers also found narcotics in Ryan O'Neal's living area and arrested him. Whitmore declined to say what drugs were found.
Ryan O'Neal
Sentenced For DUI
Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane has pleaded no contest to drunken driving after he was clocked doing 120 mph in a Maserati.
The star of last year's movie "The Mist" and 2004's "The Punisher" pleaded no contest Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence. Jane wasn't in the Shafter courtroom but made the plea through his lawyer.
Jane, who's married to Emmy-winning "Medium" star Patricia Arquette, was sentenced to a year of probation, $1,700 in fines and must take alcohol abuse classes.
Two other alcohol and drug charges and two speeding tickets were dismissed.
Thomas Jane
Pickups
TNT
TNT has renewed the rookie Steven Bochco legal drama "Raising the Bar" and the Holly Hunter cop show "Saving Grace," giving 15-episode pickups to each series.
"Raising the Bar" premiered just three weeks ago, breaking the record for a series debut on ad-supported cable (7.7 million). After three episodes, it is averaging 5.5 million viewers. The show, which stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek, follows the lives of young lawyers as well as those who sit in judgment on their cases. After finishing its first season in November, it will return next year.
"Saving Grace" was given a third-season pickup after averaging 4.4 million viewers over the summer. Hunter plays an Oklahoma City police detective. It wraps its second season early next year, with the third season set to bow later in 2009.
TNT
Cronies Overrule Safety Concerns
FAA
Federal aviation officials approved a new type of small jet despite problems with the plane's design and production, overruling safety concerns voiced by government engineers, inspectors and test pilots, according to federal and congressional investigators.
Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing Wednesday that Federal Aviation Administration officials hastily certified the Eclipse 500 very light jet for flight despite "unresolved design problems" and such significant production problems that the manufacturer - Eclipse Aviation of Albuquerque, N.M. - had difficulty reproducing the jet.
The House transportation committee's staff, which also investigated FAA's approval of the Eclipse, said in a briefing paper for panel members that "there is a disturbing suggestion that there was a 'cozy relationship' and reduced level of vigilance" by the agency during the jet's approval process.
FAA
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of Sept. 8-14. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NFL Football: Minnesota vs. Green Bay (Monday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 9.05 million homes, 12.5 million viewers.
2. NFL Football: Denver vs. Oakland (Monday, 10:20 p.m.), ESPN, 7.15 million homes, 9.66 million viewers.
3. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 5.64 million homes, 7.44 million viewers.
4. Movie: "Coco Chanel" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Lifetime, 4.35 million homes, 5.22 million viewers.
5. "Raising the Bar" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 3.96 million homes, 4.97 million viewers.
6. "Time Machine" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), History, 3.72 million homes, 5.75 million viewers.
7. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.58 million homes, 4.76 million viewers.
8. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.56 million homes, 4.6 million viewers.
9. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.53 million homes, 4.57 million viewers.
10. "Monk" (Friday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.5 million homes, 5.02 million viewers.
11. "Army Wives" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), Lifetime, 3.37 million homes, 4.12 million viewers.
12. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.34 million homes, 4.3 million viewers.
13. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.31 million homes, 4.22 million viewers.
14. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 3.21 million homes, 4.15 million viewers.
15. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.19 million homes, 4.17 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Norman Whitfield
Motown producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield, who helped create some of the legendary label's most important anthems, including Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," has died in Los Angeles, a spokesman said on Wednesday. He was 65.
Whitfield was one of the most successful producers at Motown, the Detroit label where acts such as the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and the Four Tops -- along with Gaye and the Temptations -- changed the face of popular culture.
But while Motown's pop sound was palatable to mainstream ears, Whitfield was influenced by the harder soul of James Brown and Sly and Family Stone. Along with lyricist Barrett Strong, he dragged Motown into the psychedelic era in the late 1960s with songs about race relations and urban decay.
New York-born Whitfield started out at Motown as a tambourine player, while Strong performed and co-wrote the label's first hit, "Money (That's What I Want)." They composed some of Gaye's early songs, including the 1962 pair "Pride and Joy" and "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)."
Gaye recorded the duo's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" in early 1967. But the song sat on the shelf for more than a year because Motown chief Berry Gordy, Jr. was underwhelmed by it. "Grapevine" eventually hit the top of the pop and R&B charts and became Motown's most successful song of the decade.
By then Whitfield was already the driving force behind the Temptations, which had long been his passion project. He got his big break with them in 1966 when he joined with Eddie Holland -- one third of the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting troika -- to write "Ain't too Proud to Beg."
William "Smokey" Robinson had been the Temptations' primary songwriter, but after the song hit No. 1 on the R&B chart, Whitfield and Strong took over, with Whitfield also sitting in the producer's chair.
At the urging of Temptations member Otis Williams, Whitfield took the group into the socio-political arena with the 1968 hit "Cloud Nine." The cautionary drugs tale, which introduced new singer Dennis Edwards, earned Motown its first Grammy award.
Other hard-hitting tunes quickly followed, including "Runaway Child, Running Wild," "I Can't Get Next To You," and "Psychedelic Shack." Whitfield can be heard at the start of "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)," intensely counting into session player Bob Babbitt's ominous bass line.
But Whitfield could also do ballads. In 1971, "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," with Eddie Kendricks on lead vocal, was the group's first pop No. 1 pop ballad since "My Girl" in 1964.
Perhaps Whitfield's tour de force was the seven-minute epic "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," which reached No. 1 on the pop chart in 1972 and garnered three Grammys. The tale of a deadbeat dad teases listeners for almost two minutes with arranger Paul Riser's funky orchestrations before a clearly frustrated Edwards begins singing.
Whitfield and Strong also worked with other Motown acts such as Edwin Starr, who went to No. 1 in 1970 with their Vietnam War protest song "War."
After leaving Motown in 1973, Whitfield enjoyed success with the title song and soundtrack album for the 1976 comedy feature "Car Wash." He reunited with the Temptations in 1984 to produce their single "Sail Away."
Norman Whitfield
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