The (Occasional) Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Devil Spawns' Special Edition...
Hey, Poll-fans... Back for one that I couldn't resist...
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting Own Channel
The possibility that Beck-elzebub will exit the Faux News Channel at the end of the year has prompted a big question in media circles: if he leaves, how will he bring his demonically possessed minions with him? Two of the options His Evilness has contemplated, according to people who have spoken about it with him, are a partial or wholesale takeover of a cable channel, or an expansion of his subscription video service on the Web...
Glenn Beck Contemplates Starting His Own Channel - NYTimes.com
What would be an appropriate name for a Beck-elzebub cable channel?
Well, then, Poll-fans... Six of the usual suspects have responded with some interesting ideas. Enjoy!
John the Chief submitted...
How about the Cheesy Bull Shitter channel, CBS! (Yes, the real CBS might sue!)
(LOL... I like it... BZ, Chief...)
Richard McD opined...
The vast waste land would just get bigger. Nuff said on this subject. (OK)
mj said...
The Hysteria Channel. And welcome back!
(Thanks mj!... It'll not be a regular thing as yet, but I'm workin' on it to be...You cheered me up...)
Adam in NoHo allowed...
I'm no Don Draper, but lets go with 'Chalkboard TV'- Bullshit Conspiracy Theories 24/7 (except for those early morning hours offering Proactiv and P90X infomercials). I can see Beck filling time schedule time with old History Channel docs on the Roman Empire and 3rd Reich he will re-purpose by replacing their
soundtracks with the daily ramblings of his radio show. His brain-addled viewers (Zombies) will never notice that nothing matches up or makes any sense.
(Hey, Adam! Say "Hi" to the 'Hubster' fer me, would ya now?)
tomreed scared me with...
I'd suggest "The BECKoning Claw." It should open with a red claw, coming out of the darkness, gesturing for people to enter his den of paranoia and self-destruction. (Run away! Run away!)
Otherwise, perhaps "The RUSHy GLEN" if he teams up with Limbaugh. It comes from the poem...
Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren't go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And grey ****'s feather
No idea what the **** means, but I'll bet it's RUSH's feather. The tail feather that gave him that boil which kept him out of military service.
(Beck-elzebub and the Pig Boy together? On the same program? No way. Their egos interacting would cause my TV to implode. I'm sure of it...)
DanD wraps it up with...
How about "THE STUPID CHANNEL," where economically killing your environment off is a primal mandate for all heaven-bound idiots. It all focuses on America's Zionified death-wish.
(I'm challenging myself, Dan, to come up with a question that you won't be able to use any form of the word 'Zion' in yer answer... Wait... Is that even possible?)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to all responders! I couldn't come up with anything better than what you did, so it's yer show... Although I did consider 'Faustian Follies'... At any rate, there it is...
I'll be back soon... and, as I always say... Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman on Twitter
Contains links to his "New York Times stuff.
Paul Krugman: American Thought Police (New York Times)
The chilling effect of right-wing attacks on scholars.
Connie Schultz: It's Your Labor Movement, Too (Creators Syndicate)
Months before the Triangle fire, Lemlich helped lead a walkout at another large garment factory. She paid her union dues the hard way: She was arrested more than a dozen times while picketing, and anti-union goons broke several of her ribs in a pathetic attempt to shut her up. Fortunately, they failed.
MAUREEN DOWD: Coffee Cups in Hell (New York Times)
Mormons make their flamboyant debut on Broadway - could the White House be next?
Henry Rollins: Spring Time for Henry (Los Angeles Weekly)
You remember several days ago when we all turned our clocks an hour forward. That time change rings a Pavlovian bell for me. Seasonal change plays a large part in how I think, what I think about and definitely what I listen to and read.
BARRY LEVINE: A Career in Tabloids, Thanks to Elizabeth Taylor (New York Times)
I became a reporter who learned to stalk celebrities after seeing my mother's passion for the biggest star of her time.
What Stars Make Us Swoon? First Loves (Wall Street Journal)
Roger Ebert on being smitten in his youth by Liz Taylor-and his down-to-earth encounters with the actress.
Brian McCollum: Set for new tour, Bob Seger contemplates retirement and going out on top (Detroit Free Press)
The scene could come in late May, when Bob Seger's tour wraps up here at the Palace of Auburn Hills. There would be an encore, a bow, and a big, familiar smile. And then Seger would turn and walk off the stage for the final time.
Marc Myers: Who Else Made More Hit Songs? (Wall Street Journal)
Outraged that the Monkees didn't play on all of their recordings? Turns out neither did the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, the Byrds, the Association, Jan & Dean and dozens of other groups. Meet Hal Blaine, of the studio group the Wrecking Crew.
Christopher Borrelli: Sarah Silverman's not kidding this time, maybe (Chicago Tribune)
If it walks like a Sarah Silverman (with a loping, gawky, adolescent gait, even now, at 40), and talks like a Sarah Silverman ("I don't care if you think I'm racist. I just want you to think I'm thin"), it must be ... confused at the moment.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Comedians (Athens News)
Before becoming famous on TV, David Letterman had some miserable times as a stand-up comedian. Once, in Lake Tahoe, his 25-minute stand-up routine was over in 15 minutes because the audience did not laugh at his jokes. He points out, "You take the laughs out of your act and the time really flies." Also in Lake Tahoe, someone asked him if he was Dave Etterman-the L had fallen off the sign outside.
Aurora borealis lights up the sky like psychedelic fire in this time-lapse video
Cyriaque Lamar - Errant UFOs aren't the only reason to look to the sky in Norway these days. Terje Sorgjerd recently captured this ethereal time-lapse footage of the northern lights.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
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Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Humor Gazette
Godzilla is on the loose
Godzilla is on the loose
This "Godzilla Alert" link displays vertically a dozen or so "urgent bulletins"
about the reclusive movie icon's recent activities:
Reader Contribution
'Super Moon'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunnyy and a bit warmer.
The vet says the kitty with the 'elizabethan collar' needs to wear it another week. Ack.
TCM Classic Film Festival
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas says his appearance at the Academy Awards last month brought him so much attention that he "felt like a bobby-soxer."
"I made 90 pictures, and now everybody in the restaurants and on the street are like, 'Oh Kirk!'" Douglas said with a laugh. "I think I got paid more attention for those three minutes on the Oscars than anything I have ever done."
That moment may have earned him accolades, but the 94-year-old actor says his greatest career achievement was more than 50 years ago, when, as producer and star of "Spartacus," he helped end the McCarthy-era in Hollywood by crediting blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
"Everybody advised me not to do it because you won't be able to work in this town again and all of that. But I was young enough to say to hell with it," Douglas recalled during a recent interview. "I think if I was much older, I would have been too conservative: Why should I stick my neck out? But I put his name on it, and that broke the blacklist."
Douglas will discuss "Spartacus" and other aspects of his life and career before presenting a screening of the 1960 Stanley Kubrick epic at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on April 29 as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival.
Kirk Douglas
New Universal Tram Tour Video Host
Jimmy Fallon
There's a new video host for Hollywood Studio tram tour at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park: Jimmy Fallon.
The tram tour takes visitors behind the scenes of movies and television shows to sets and locations on the Universal Studios backlot. Fallon's narration will be seen and heard on monitors on the trams, augmenting the live narration provided by tour guides onboard.
Fallon added some songs and jokes to the narration, with help from writers from his show, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" on NBC. In a statement, he called the tour "a classic" that shows "all the hard work that goes into making a movie or a TV show."
Fallon's narration starts in June, replacing Whoopi Goldberg, who started in 2006.
Jimmy Fallon
Wins Pritzker Prize
Eduardo Souto de Moura
Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura is the winner of this year's $100,000 Pritzker Prize for his designs that convey both "power and modesty, bravado and subtlety," the foundation that awards the prize said on Monday.
The honor, often dubbed the Nobel prize for architecture, was supposed to be announced next month and presented in Washington, D.C., but was prematurely reported by a news outlet, according to a spokesman.
The annual prize, which goes to a living architect, is endowed by the wealthy Chicago-based Pritzker family, majority owners of Hyatt Hotels Corp and other businesses.
Among influences cited for his work are the sleek, spare designs of Mies van der Rohe, with his angular constructions employing granite, wood, marble, brick, steel, concrete -- sometimes in unexpected colors.
Eduardo Souto de Moura
Renews "Amazing Race," "Undercover Boss"
CBS
"The Amazing Race" and "Undercover Boss" will live to see another season.
CBS will announce Monday that it has renewed both reality series, for 19th and third cycles, respectively.
Season-to-date, CBS is down 2% in total viewers, and down 9% among the advertiser-beloved adults 18-49 demographic, compared to the same period a year earlier. Though some of the network's longer-running series are showing their age, CBS continues to have a disproportionate number of shows in the top 10, including "The Mentalist," "Criminal Minds" and both "NCIS" properties.
CBS
Launches Anti-Bullying Campaign
Nickelodeon
The popular children's television network Nickelodeon is the latest voice to raise awareness of digital bullying.
Nick, the most-watched TV network among kids ages 2 to 14, will begin an on-air public service campaign Monday featuring some of its stars offering advice on what young people should do when confronted with hostile texts, emails or Facebook posts.
The issue has received national attention after the suicides of teenagers who were cyberbullying victims. President Barack Obama held a White House conference on bullying earlier this month. Nick is collaborating with the advocacy group Common Sense Media, which has also worked with MTV and the Disney Channel on spreading the word about the issue.
The hope is that the anti-bullying effort can become as pervasive and successful as campaigns calling for a designated driver who has not consumed alcohol when friends are out drinking, said James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, which offers reviews and advice for parents.
Nickelodeon
Labor Mural Comes Down
Maine
A mural depicting Maine's labor history was removed from the lobby of the state Department of Labor headquarters and put into storage over the weekend after a directive from the new Republican governor that it come down.
The 36-foot, 11-panel mural will be kept at an undisclosed location until a suitable spot can be found to put it on public display, said Adrienne Bennett, spokeswoman for Gov. Paul LePage.
The artwork was not appropriate for the Department of Labor because it is one-sided in favor of labor interests at the expense of business interests at a time when LePage is pushing a pro-business agenda, Bennett said.
The mural depicts Maine labor history with images that include a paper mill strike in the town of Jay, a strike at a shoe plant in Lewiston, women shipbuilders at Bath Iron Works and child laborers.
Bennett released an anonymous fax received by the governor's office and signed by "A Secret Admirer" that said the mural was propaganda in line with "communist North Korea where they use these murals to brainwash the masses."
Maine
$950K Fine
BlueBeat
A website that sold Beatles songs online for 25 cents apiece before they became legally available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker signed off on the settlement between BlueBeat.com and music companies EMI Group PLC, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America on Friday. The judge ruled in December that the site violated the music labels' copyrights and presented unfair competition.
A trial to determine how much BlueBeat owed the companies was scheduled to begin Tuesday in Santa Ana, Calif.
BlueBeat had denied wrongdoing, claiming owner Hank Risan had pioneered a method called "psycho-acoustic simulation" that resulted in unique versions of copyrighted music.
The judge rejected his arguments and explanations of his technique in her December ruling, noting that Risan's recordings were based on copies of CDs that he had purchased.
BlueBeat
Canadian Arrest
Steve-O
"Jackass" star Steve-O has been arrested in Canada for an outstanding warrant related to an assault that allegedly happened eight years ago.
The fearless thrill-seeker was apprehended by customs officers at Calgary International Airport when he arrived in the country on Sunday to perform at a local comedy club.
Steve-O, whose real name is Steve Glover, "was taken down to our arrest processing center yesterday and appeared before a justice of the pace and released on a $10,000 cash bail," a police spokesperson told the Calgary Sun newspaper Monday.
TMZ reported that warrant was issued in 2003 for an incident in which Steve-O allegedly attacked an unknown victim with an unknown object.
He was booked to do his stand-up comedy act at the Laugh Shop Comedy Club in Calgary for five shows from March 24 to 26.
Steve-O
Dodges $100 Million Suit
Oprah
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has tossed out an author's $100 million lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey for violating the copyright in the political booklet, "How America Elects Her Presidents."
Charles Harris claimed in a lawsuit that in 2008, as Winfrey began supporting Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Harris sent 10 copies of his booklet to "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in hopes of gaining publicity. He followed up with several inquiries. Harris got no response, but according to the complaint, on the February 16, 2009 show, Winfrey allegedly read aloud exact questions that were included in the book. Harris wanted more than $100 million for alleged copyright infringement.
Winfrey filed a motion to dismiss, seeking sanctions for a frivolous lawsuit, saying that had the plaintiff obtained a public transcript of the show in question, he would have realized that the talk show host didn't read Harris' "exact same questions" aloud with the arguable exception of one: "Which one of our presidents weighed the most?"
Winfrey's motion to dismiss the lawsuit said Harris' lawyers should have known that facts about American presidents are not copyrightable. A compilation of facts based on the selection and arrangement can be copyrightable, but Winfrey pointed out that Harris didn't register his work as a compilation, and it lacked originality, among other things.
Oprah
Custody Of Statue
J. Paul Getty Museum
An Italian lawmaker offered a cultural exchange proposal Monday that sounded a little like an ultimatum, saying officials at the J. Paul Getty Museum should behave ethically and return knowingly looted art.
Gov. Gian Mario Spacca of the Marche region on the Adriatic Sea made the comment three days after officials at the Southern California museum told him they could not talk about the disputed "Victorious Youth" statue because the case was still in Italian court.
Former Getty Director Michael Brand signed a deal with Italy in 2007 to return 40 pieces of art that were found to be looted or stolen. The agreement included no admission of guilt.
When the deal was negotiated with the Italian Ministry of Culture, "Victorious Youth," known at the California museum as the Getty Bronze, was taken off the list of items under discussion because it was part of a court case already under way.
The museum has always contended it bought the bronze statue in good faith in 1977 for $4 million.
J. Paul Getty Museum
Rapper Charged
Rick Ross
Rapper Rick Ross has been arrested in Louisiana on a marijuana possession charge.
Police spokesman Bill Goodin said Monday that Ross, whose real name is William Roberts II, was issued a misdemeanor summons and released after Friday night's arrest.
Roberts, known for such albums as "Teflon Don" and "Deeper Than Rap," was arrested after police responded to a complaint about the smell of marijuana at the Hilton Hotel.
Upon checking, Goodin said police confiscated 1 gram of what investigators believed to be marijuana.
Rick Ross
Unpublished Love Letters Up For Auction
Elizabeth Taylor
Before becoming a bride eight times over, Elizabeth Taylor was a 17-year-old starlet scribbling letters to her first fiance, charting on pale pink stationery his progression from her one-and-only to the one who got away.
"I've never known this kind of love before - it's so perfect and complete - and mature," Taylor wrote to William Pawley on May 6, 1949. "I've never loved anyone in my life before one third as much as I love you - and I never will (well, as far as that goes - I'll never love anyone else - period)."
Taylor, who died last week at age 79, was engaged to Pawley in 1949, just before her first marriage. More than 60 of the letters she wrote him between March and October of that year will be auctioned in May by RR Auctions of Amherst, N.H. It bought the letters two years ago from Pawley, who lives in Florida.
The unpublished letters - some written in purple fountain ink on pink paper - provide a glimpse of a teenager's transition to adult screen star.
Elizabeth Taylor
'Baby' Most Viewed Video At YouTube
Justin Bieber
Pop star Justin Bieber's music video "Baby" has crossed 500 million views on YouTube and is the most watched ever on the video-sharing service that launched the boy music idol to fame.
The video, whose full title is "Justin Bieber - Baby ft. Ludacris," had logged 500.4 million views on Monday.
The video had also scored a whopping 1.1 million "dislikes" as compared to 578,000 "likes" from viewers expressing their opinion with simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down rankings at YouTube.
Bieber's clip topped a "Bad Romance" music video by Lady Gaga that had been viewed nearly 362 million times.
Justin Bieber
Painting To Charity Auction
Mikhail Baryshnikov
A 19th century painting of St. Petersburg that Mikhail Baryshnikov purchased decades ago will be auctioned to help benefit new works at his Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City.
"View of St. Petersburg" by Petr Petrovich Vereshchagin is to be sold at Sotheby's on April 12 as part of the auction house's Russian art sale, where it is expected to fetch $300,000 to $500,000.
Baryshnikov said he recently donated the painting to the center's foundation so it could sell it to raise money for new programming from theater directors, musicians and choreographers. All the proceeds from the sale will go to the center.
Baryshnikov is the artistic director of the center, which he founded in 2005 as a "creative laboratory" and performance space for multidisciplinary artists from around the world. Located in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, it houses four studios, a studio theater and the 232-seat Jerome Robbins Theater. It offers performances in chamber music, dance, theater and visual arts and film screenings.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
In Memory
Wenche Foss
Wenche Foss, a leading Norwegian actress, died on Monday after a long illness, a family spokesman said. She was 93.
Since her debut in 1935, Foss had acted in many theater, film and television productions. She also was a major figure in the Scandinavian country's social circles and championed various causes, including promoting cancer awareness.
The actress, who had contracted breast cancer more that 30 years ago, spoke about it publicly to help others with the condition. Foss also was esteemed for her charity efforts and for helping children with Down syndrome, which her son died of.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg described Foss, who died in a hospital, as "one of our dearest actors." The local media often referred to her as "Norway's diva."
Although not well-known abroad, Foss held an almost unrivaled position on the Norwegian stage and was a proficient mezzo-soprano who occasionally performed in operas.
She is survived by a son, Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang, and two grandchildren.
Wenche Foss
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