Issue #144
Disinfotainment Today
By Michael Dare
'Best of TBH Politoons'
Weekly Update
Sick of this Crap!
Welcome to Spring! The tiny buds will soon push through the soot to demonstrate the conservative movement hasn't killed everything just yet. And with Spring springing eternal, consider us the pollen allergens to welcome in the bad news...
This week's stories:
* ANWR - screw the reindeer, my Hummer needs some smack
* Terri Schiavo's right to a pulse
* Lickin' combs for the World Bank
Join us won't you? We're just a click away....
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: In Battle for Black Votes, GOP Holds Trump Cards (Pacific News Service)
Editor's Note: African Americans' overwhelming, decades-long support of Democratic candidates is being eroded by the Republican Party, which is attempting to redefine the very notion of black progress.
Peter Byrne: Is War Fun? (Metroactive)
IN LATE FEBRUARY, 50 bedraggled fighters from Sonoma County's 579th Engineer Battalion made it back from warring on Iraq.
MATT APUZZO: Study: Abstinence Pledgers May Risk STDs (Associated Press)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to take chances with other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, a study of 12,000 adolescents suggests.
Vallerie D. Wagner: A tribute to the life of Wanda Alston (The Advocate)
A friend of the murdered D.C. activist recalls her dedication to the fight for GLBT equality, a legacy that cannot be diminished by her life's sudden and senseless end.
Elevator Pitch Contest (Grist)
What's the best elevator pitch for environmentalism?
Video Downloads and Photos from the Russian Gymnastics Championships
2005 World Championship Figure Skating Results
Contributor Review
Denzel Washington
Hey Marty,
On Thursday I had the amazing experience of seeing Denzel Washington, live on the Broadway stage.
He's currently appearing in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, playing the role of Marcus Brutus.
To say he was amazing, would be an understatement. Once again, I realize that seeing the enormous talent of an actor is always better on stage. His
delivery was flawless, and for almost 3 hours I was on the edge of my seat.
He is also one of the nicest guys around. When he came out, there were about
100 of us dying to get an autograph. He stood there, and signed every
playbill that we stuck out at him, posed for pictures. He must've hung
around for 1 hour after the show, and I hear he's this nice every day.
If any of your readers get the chance, the limited run is until June 12th, I
would recommend they see it.
Here's a pic, in case you want to use it.
Alex
Thanks, Alex!
Reader Review
'The Sketch Show'
Last night we watched the new program "The Sketch Show" on Faux. There had been plenty of promos for it and it was hyping that it was produced by Kelsey Grammer. Well, the premiere was on last night and my husband, daughter and myself sat and watched IN HORROR as the debacle unfolded. What a piece of DRECK that show is. The skits were CRAP, the actors SUCKED, and the writing was PITIFUL SAD. However thought of this show, produced it, starred in it and watched it should be ashamed of themselves. It was easily the WORST SHOW EVER!!!! I would like that half hour of my life back.
Heather
http://houndog2.blogspot.com/
Purple Gene Reviews
'Retroactive'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "Retroactive" (1997) Directed by Louis Morneau:
There should be some additional letters for movie ratings….we have "G" and "PG 13" and "R" and "R 17" and of course "XXX" but I've just witnessed a movie that demands a new rating…perhaps three…….how about "RB" for "Really Bad" ? Or "PS" for "Piece of Shit" …or most specifically in this case.."CK" for "Career Killer"….I just watched a movie on late late night Cinemax where the STAR and the FILM fit these categories to a "T" !!!!! "Retroactive" starring Jim Belushi!
This movie could have been called "Memento" meets the "Time Machine" on "Groundhog Day" in "Paris, Texas". Why in the hell do I have to stay up till two in the goddam morning and watch these things?????? I thought "Retroactive" was some kind of atomic astrology term…….Ha Ha Ha ….I can't believe I watched the WHOLE THING !!!
OK…so Jim Belushi landed a TV show ("According to Jim") …..he's still the big, fat, ugly younger brother of John Belushi! And even though he played a gay vampire in "Irving" and Doctor Rock in "Salvador" and even sued "Cat Woman" (Julie Newmar - his next door neighbor), I thought he could hold his own in a Bad "B" Movie……well guess what….he should have been flushed from the film industry after "Retroactive"
Karen (Kyle Travis - "Gia" - "Models Inc." - "Central Park West") was a Chicago PD Shrink on leave driving through the Texas panhandle gets distracted and crashes into a road sign. So she sticks her thumb out on that dusty asphalt and who comes along Cowboy Frank in a Cadillac (Belushi) with his mute wife Rayanne (Shannon Whirry - "Out for Justice" (with Steven Seagal) - "Omega Doom" (with Rutger Hauer) - "The Prophet's Game" (with Dennis Hopper)) . Well it doesn't take long before Frank turns into a psychotic cruel sadistic maniacal wife bashing bad joke telling,,,,,"Goll dang Hunee….ya know where I'd like ta see this here shiny belt buckle????? Pressed up against yer purty little forehead…hee haw" asinine horn sprouting loud mouth country music CREEP ! who when he finds out Rayanne is flirting with another dude…shoots her in the head and shoves out of the moving car……needless to say Karen shits her panties…flags down a Texas Ranger who ole uncle Frank shoots too…….cut to Karen running through the desert, over the barbed wire fence and into a SECRET LAB run by Brian (Frank Whorley - "Pulp Fiction" - "Broken Arrow" - "School of Rock") who just so happens to be working on a TIME MACHINE ……Karen says "Throw me in that thang"….WHOOSH …back she goes to her crashing into the road sign….but this time she's gonna do it different !!!!!
Everybody gets killed at least 3 times in this flick. Everything blows up in gasoline glory at least 3 times and I would guess conservatively that at least 200 rounds are fired directly at Frank….all missing the bastard. After the fourth time Karen goes back to Brian's time machine, she barely gets OFF before the whole lab blows up in gorgeous gasoline glory…and back to the car crashing into the sign…thumb out…enter Cadillac Frank and Lil Rayanne…for the last time…because Karen finally gets it right….Karen gets a bullet into Frank's wacky forehead and drives off into the Texas sunset…..
Purple Gene gives "Retroactive" 3 aromatic Texas armadillo turds out of 10 for being "RB" - "PS" - "CK" and actually sickeningly hilarious!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but clouds are rolling in. More rain in the forecast.
Spend Millions Wooing Ad Buyers
Networks
The Who set the standard.
Not for rock 'n' roll - for television advertising sales presentations. When Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey took the stage at Carnegie Hall last May to bring CBS's sales job to a rocking climax, it raised the bar of expectations for Madison Avenue.
Already this spring, the Turner Entertainment networks are giving ad buyers a free concert by The Eagles. CNN Headline News is touting its new prime-time format with a private show by the Wallflowers. Nickelodeon hired the Flaming Lips for a few songs at its sales presentation two weeks ago.
Even The Weather Channel took out the checkbook: a few weeks ago it flew advertising executives to an ice hotel in Quebec, and treated them to an afternoon of ice sculpting and snowboarding.
Networks
Americans' Views Cut Both Ways
TV Decency
Most Americans favor tougher regulation of sex and violence on TV, though a bigger majority thinks the government over-reacted to Janet Jackson's breast-baring Super Bowl performance last year, according to a Time magazine poll.
Two-thirds of those polled said there was too much violence on broadcast TV; 58 percent said there was too much profanity and sexually frank language, and half said there was too much explicit sex and nudity.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents agreed the entertainment industry is out of touch with their moral standards, and more than half, 53 percent, said they favored stricter Federal Communications Commission controls on sex and violence on TV.
Of those surveyed, 66 percent of all respondents said the government over-reacted to the Jackson's brief flash of nudity at the end of her Super Bowl half-time show last year. Only 28 percent agreed with the FCC's decision to fine CBS stations.
TV Decency
Crew Marks End of Filming
'King Kong'
Peter Jackson was one of those monkeying around during a party for the film crew remaking the classic movie "King Kong."
The remake of the 1933 classic by New Zealander Jackson, who directed the fantasy trilogy "Lord of the Rings," was likely to go into post-production within a couple of weeks, publicist Melissa Booth said Monday.
The weekend crew party on a back lot set built to replicate 1930s New York "was essentially our wrap party," she told The Associated Press. Everyone involved in the movie - from Hollywood stars to construction staff - was invited.
Filming of the $145 million remake, funded by Universal Pictures, began Sept. 6. The movie is due for release in December.
'King Kong'
SNL Tries Penile Implant
David Spade
Trade paper Broadcasting & Cable
noticed that when David Spade played Owen Wilson in a SNL sketch (a celebrity roast of Clint Eastwood hosted by a humorless Sean Penn) in the March 12th episode of the show, he was outfitted with a finely-crafted prosthetic nose to add to the bit's verisimilitude. We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the make-up artist decided to render Wilson's nose as circumcised (though that vein is a little disturbing); an uncut proboscis would've been too much to bear, even in the name of comedy.
Defamer
Opens Its Doors to Fans
Abbey Road Studio
Abbey Road studio, where the Beatles recorded almost all their music, attracts tens of thousands of fans each year.
They come from across the world to worship at the place where it all began. They photograph the famous pedestrian crossing outside, and most of them write their name on the walls. But they couldn't go in.
Until now.
For 16 days through April 3, Abbey Road is opening its doors to the public for the first time since it opened in 1931. To celebrate 25 years of movie scoring, begun when John Williams led the London Symphony Orchestra through his soundtrack to "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the studio is holding its own film festival.
Abbey Road Studio
Draws Boos In Berlin
'Parsifal'
A new production of Wagner's "Parsifal" set partly in New York by German director-producer Bernd Eichinger met with boos at Berlin's Staatsoper opera house.
Some spectators left in disgust while people shouted "provincial theatre!" at the stage during Eichinger's first attempt at opera.
For one of the most imposing works in the German repertoire, composed in 1882 around the legend of the search for the Holy Grail, starring Burkhard Fritz as Parsifal, Eichinger set his peregrinations in a landscape of buildings collapsing from fires and explosions, depending heavily on the use of videos.
The seductive Kundry (Michaela Schuster) winds up as a homeless woman in New York's Central Park, while the knights of the Holy Grail are decked out as rockers and punks.
Eichinger remained stoic in the face of the booing, encouraged by musical director Daniel Barenboim.
'Parsifal'
Documentary Offers Insight
The Ramones
There's a thin line, as Tommy Ramone learned, between therapy and documentary.
"Someone sticks a mike in front of you, and all of a sudden you start blabbering all the things that were on your mind for the past 30 years," said the original drummer for the seminal punk band, explaining the process behind last year's Ramones documentary. "So maybe a little bit of that was happening."
The result: "End of the Century," which debuted to critical acclaim in theaters last August and is now available on DVD. The band members, whose song catalogue includes such studies of the human psyche as "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" and "Psycho Therapy," are unflinchingly honest in their self-assessments.
"It's accurate," guitarist Johnny Ramone said of the finished product before his death. "It left me disturbed."
The Ramones
Buying Stock in Record Companies
Al Sharpton
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is campaigning against violence in rap music, plans to buy stock in record companies that produce hip-hop and then become vocal as a stockholder.
"I don't think too many CEOs want to see me come into his stockholders' meeting to say they're not doing enough to stop the violence," Sharpton told the Daily News for Monday editions. Sharpton didn't name the companies or say how much stock he plans to buy.
He also plans to put pressure on the Federal Communications Commission.
Al Sharpton
WWE Hall of Fame
Hulk Hogan
Sylvester Stallone, star of the "Rocky" and "Rambo" films, will induct Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 2, World Wrestling Entertainment announced Monday.
Hogan played Thunderlips in 1982's "Rocky III," starring and directed by Stallone.
The induction ceremony will be held at the Universal Amphitheatre. It is an official WrestleMania Week event in Southern California.
Hulk Hogan
Iceland Parliament Grants Citizenship
Bobby Fischer
Iceland's parliament granted former world chess champion Bobby Fischer citizenship Monday, enabling the fugitive American to settle in the tiny North Atlantic republic where he won the world title in 1972.
Fischer, 62, is currently in detention in Japan fighting a U.S. deportation order.
Iceland's single-chamber assembly approved citizenship for Fischer by 40 votes in favor and none against, said parliamentarian Bjarni Benediktsson. He told Reuters the decision would enter into force within the next few days.
Bobby Fischer
Army Raises Enlistment Age To 39
Reservists
The U.S. Army, stung by recruiting shortfalls caused by the Iraq war, has raised the maximum age for new recruits for the part-time Army Reserve and National Guard by five years to 39, officials said on Monday.
The Army said the move, a three-year experiment, will add about 22 million people to the pool of those eligible to serve, from about 60 million now. Physical standards will not be relaxed for older recruits, who the Army said were valued for their maturity and patriotism.
The Pentagon has relied heavily on part-time Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers summoned from civilian life to maintain troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roughly 45 percent of U.S. troops currently deployed for those wars are reservists.
Reservists
In Memory
Walter Reuter
Walter Reuter, who fled Nazi Germany and became a major icon of Mexican photography by portraying colorful but squalid life in indigenous communities, died over the weekend. He was 99.
Reuter arrived broke in Mexico in 1942 and began working with a borrowed camera. He became one of the first outsiders to take pictures of indigenous women, focusing on their daily chores like making tortillas and getting water.
His photos may be best remembered for bringing public attention to the primitive living conditions in Mexico's indigenous villages. Reuter was also known for his intimate, joyous relationship with his subjects.
Reuter died of kidney failure, local media reported. He had continued working well into his 90s.
Walter Reuter
In Memory
Bobby Short
Cabaret singer Bobby Short, the tuxedoed embodiment of New York style and sophistication who was a fixture at his piano in the Carlyle Hotel for more than 35 years, died Monday. He was 80.
Short, whose career stretched over more than 70 years, died of leukemia at New York Presbyterian Hospital, said Virginia Wicks, a Los Angeles-based publicist. The hospital did not immediately return a call seeking further detail.
As times changed and popular music shifted from Sinatra to Springsteen to Snoop Dogg, Short remained irrevocably devoted to the "great American songbook": songs by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, the Gershwins, Billy Strayhorn, Harold Arlen.
Robert Waltrip Short was born Sept. 15, 1924, the ninth of 10 children in a musically inclined family. By age 4, he was playing by ear at the well-worn family piano, recreating songs heard on the radio.
By age 9, the self-taught pianist was performing in saloons around his Danville, Ill., home to earn extra money during the Depression. Even then, his material included Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady."
Short played the vaudeville circuit: St. Louis, Milwaukee, Kansas City. On one date, he teamed with Louis Armstrong. And by age 12, he was headlining Manhattan nightclubs and regular engagements at the Apollo Theater.
During the '60s, Short's audience began to shrink. The Beatles and the British Invasion dominated music; suburban flight and urban crime cut into the nightclub business.
He overcame those woes in 1968 with an extraordinary concert featuring singer Mabel Mercer in Manhattan's Town Hall; their live album became a success. He signed a deal with the Cafe Carlyle in the same year: six nights a week, eight months a year at the lounge inside the posh East 76th Street hotel.
Bobby Short
