'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Re: Protest Records
from Kip Shepherd
Thurston's got another volume of Protest Records ready for downloading.
~~ Kip
Thanks, Kip!
Reader Comment
Re: Bush & His Putter
Look closely, he's aiming for his dog!
- Tim
Thanks, Tim! Maybe the dog has seen too much...
Reader Comment
Everything That's Wrong
With T.V.
Now Faux is doing a Friggin' Monica Lewinsky show? Thankfully, the NBA playoffs are going on, as well as the NHL playoffs.
Fer cryin' out loud, I think I'd rather watch 'Rasslin on Monday nights, as opposed to Monica Lewinsky. Of course since those bastards own the media, I'm sure that Mr. Personality will get HUGE ratings.
Not in my house though.
-- Joe P
Thanks, Joe! Jeez, I forgot to watch it....bet I have a memory lapse everytime this show is on.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cloudy, overcast day - sun finally broke through around supper-time.
Finally finished the dishes.
Tonight, Tuesday, CBS is supposed to open the evening with a FRESH 'JAG', followed by a FRESH
'The Guardian', then a FRESH 'Judging Amy'.
On a RERUN Dave (from 2/24/03), are Steve Martin and Foo Fighters.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Kirk Douglas, Leslie Bibb, and Chantal Kreviazuk.
NBC is supposed to start the night with a FRESH 'Just Shoot Me', followed by another FRESH 'Just Shoot Me', then
a FRESH 'Frasier', followed by a FRESH 'Watching Ellie', and then 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Matt Dillon, Wanda Sykes, and Blue Man Group.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Ray Liotta, Bill Bellamy, and the White Stripes.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Shepard Smith and Howie Day.
ABC is supposed to begin the night with a RERUN '8 Simple Rules', followed by a RERUN 1-hour 'Jim', then a
FRESH 'Lost At Home', and finally, 'NYPD Blue' - both of my sources say it's a RERUN,
but I think I saw a promo earlier that said it was FRESH.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Goldberg, Maroon 5, and this week's guest co-host Jamie Kennedy.
The WB offers a FRESH 'Gilmore Girls', and a FRESH 'Smallville'.
Faux has a FRESH 'American Idol', followed by a FRESH '24' (Day 2: 3am - 4am).
UPN opens with a RERUN 'Buffy', then a FRESH 'Platinum'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
MCA (L), Mike D (C) and Ad-Rock (R) of U.S. rap group the Beastie Boys pose for reporters at a news conference on April 21, 2003 after headlining the first Tibetan Freedom Concert before an ethnic Chinese audience in Taipei. The Tibetan Freedom Concert, which began in 1996, raises money to support the human rights movement in Tibet, which is ruled by Taiwan's main diplomatic rival China.
Photo by Richard Chung
Tickets Still Selling Well
Dixie Chicks
Despite some backlash at radio and retail for negative comments about resident Bush, the Dixie Chicks are flying high in preparation for their upcoming arena tour, according to Rob Light, the act's agent.
"To be brutally honest, there has been no effect, other than the odd phone call to a building inquiring about a refund. There's a lot more noise than action," says Light, head of the music division at Creative Artists Agency.
He says that of 59 shows, only six have seats left, and those are all 85%-90% sold out and expected to go clean.
The Chicks' March 1 national on-sale moved 867,000 tickets worth $49 million at the box office during one weekend.
Dixie Chicks
Calls For Ban on Cluster Bombs
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney is calling for a ban on cluster bombs because of the harm they cause to civilians.
"It would be great to outlaw these cowardly weapons," the former Beatle told British Broadcasting Corp. radio on Monday. "What happens after the war finishes is that it's the civilians — mainly women and children — who get blown up."
McCartney's call for the ban came as he and other stars released an album to raise money for Iraqi children affected by the war.
David Bowie, George Michael, Moby and former pop star Cat Stevens were among the other artists performing on the album "Hope," which was released Monday.
All the artists recorded their tracks free of charge and London Records is distributing the disc without taking a profit.
Paul McCartney
War Child
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Franklin, Massachusetts
Library Faces Closing
Funding cuts may force one of the nation's oldest public libraries to close its doors more than 200 years after it opened with books donated by Benjamin Franklin.
This cash-strapped town of 29,500 people has laid off 46 workers, nearly a quarter of its employees over the past two years.
Much of this community's pride and history is wrapped up in its library.
When the town decided to rename itself after Franklin it wrote to the patriot publisher in hopes he would present it with a bell for the new town Meeting House. Instead, Franklin packed off 116 books with the suggestion, according to town tradition, that "sense was preferable to sound."
Initially, membership to the library was by subscription, but in 1790 townsfolk voted to open the collection to all residents without charge, making it one of the nation's first free public libraries.
Library Faces Closing
Jennie LeFerve of Shady Side, Md., president of the Agent Orange Victim and Widows Support Group, left, and Bill McHale of Edgewater, Md., who served in the Army in Vietnam hug during a ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington Monday, April 21, 2003 where the names of 400 Vietnam veterans who died from Agent Orange-related illness, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments related to their service were added to a list kept by the Memorial. LeFerve's husband Gerald LaFerve served in the Air Force in Vietnam.
Simon Quispe, left, Justina Rojas, center and Clemente Mamani, right, carry bundles of corn crops as they dance during the traditional Harvest Festival held every Easter Sunday at the Isla del Sol on the Titikaka lake, near the city of Copacabana, 140 km northest of La Paz, Bolivia on Sunday, April 20, 2003. As Catholics celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection during Easter the indigenous on this island thank the Pachamama, or the 'Mother Earth' for their good crops.
Anyone is Fair Game
'The Daily Show'
"Daily Show" host Jon Stewart says his show doesn't pay much attention to party lines in picking its comedic targets.
"People ask, 'Why aren't you really making fun of Democrats right now?'" Stewart said. "And we say we'd love to if we knew where they were."
'The Daily Show'
Celebrates 77th Birthday
Queen Elizabeth II
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II quietly celebrated her 77th birthday with a horseback ride on the grounds of Windsor Castle, west of London.
Wearing a head scarf and accompanied by a groom, the monarch was waved off by her granddaughter Zara Phillips who was returning to the Castle from an earlier ride with her mother, Princess Anne.
As the queen enjoyed the brief sunny spells which greeted her ride, a 21-gun salute was fired at noon (1100 GMT) from London and the Scottish cities of Stirling and Edinburgh to mark the occasion.
Queen Elizabeth II
Mulling Offers
Gwen Stefani
While No Doubt enjoys a break after intense touring activity in support of its 2001 Interscope album, "Rock Steady," frontwoman Gwen Stefani is busying herself with a variety of endeavors.
"I have been collaborating on some tracks on my own with different people," she wrote on the band's official Web site (
http://www.nodoubt.com). "I am not quite sure if it will become a full-blown solo project, singles for a soundtrack, or just songs."
Stefani is also developing a clothing line titled L.A.M.B., which she says fans can expect "to hear more about" in the coming weeks.
Gwen Stefani
Exits Namesake Animation House
Will Vinton
Claymation pioneer Will Vinton, perhaps best known for the California Raisins and the Emmy award-winning comedy "The PJs," has been laid off from the eponymous animation house he founded 27 years ago.
He stepped down as a board member of Portland, Ore.-based Will Vinton Studios early last week. Days later, he was one of five people let go as part of a corporate restructuring, company executives said. His departure comes less than six months after Nike Inc. co-founder Phil Knight became a majority shareholder and board member of the studio.
"I want you all to know that on Monday, April 14, I resigned from the WVS board of directors," Vinton wrote Friday in an e-mail obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. "Today, I have been laid off along with a number of staff members, and I will be leaving the company as an employee right away."
Will Vinton
'Friends' Cast Created
Chairs For Charity
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer created recliners for La-Z-Boy, which will be auctioned off on eBay to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Schwimmer's looks like a beach ball made of multicolored leather. Perry's is covered in blue velvet, with a swivel tray, a cup holder and storage for a remote control.
Cox's recliner, in black leather with bent wood sides, was inspired by the famous Eames lounger. Kudrow's is covered in brown leather and has a cream-colored argyle pattern.
The chairs will be auctioned online from May 12-22. Only one of each chair will be available.
Chairs For Charity
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Released From Hospital
Rodney Dangerfield
Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was released from the hospital Monday, nearly two weeks after undergoing brain surgery to increase his blood flow for another upcoming operation.
The 81-year-old comic planned to continue his recovery at home in preparation for heart valve replacement surgery in nearly two months, according to his spokesman, Kevin Sasaki.
The comic plans to continue working by putting the finishing touches on his autobiography, "Rodney Exposed," which is set for publication later this summer. He also plans to release an album "Rappin' and Romantic Rodney" in May.
Rodney Dangerfield
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Baby News
Carys-Zeta Douglas
It's a girl for Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her Oscar-winning actor-husband, Michael Douglas.
Zeta-Jones gave birth to Carys (pronounced KEHR' (is)- Zeta Douglas on Sunday morning in Ridgewood, N.J., near the couple's Manhattan home. The baby weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces.
Zeta is the name of the actress' paternal grandmother.
Carys-Zeta Douglas
Photo by Dado Galdieri
Snarky Gossip
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby wasn't always the affable family man he portrays on TV. Angered by taunts that he didn't take an active enough role in the civil rights struggle, Cosby once sucker-punched Tommy Smothers, according to Gerald Nachman's new book "Seriously Funny" (Pantheon). Smothers recalls Cosby told him, "Maybe I'll give you a knock upside the head one of these days. I said, 'Yeah, go ahead, give it a try.' " A few weeks later Cosby made good on his threat when the two ran into each other at one of Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion parties. "I should never have turned my back on him," Smothers says. "He didn't have the b - - - s to do it when I was looking. He slipped behind Hefner and sucker-punched me. He hit me right in the head with his fist." Smothers went down, the book reports, at which point Cosby began shouting, "C'mon, I'll kick your ass!" A rep for Cosby described the run-in differently to Nachman. "Bill told him three times to stop talking so much - he was taunting him and just being obnoxious - and when he wouldn't stop, Bill tried other means to get him to stop."
Bill Cosby
AOL to Sell Stake
Comedy Central
AOL Time Warner Inc. is close to selling its half ownership in Comedy Central to Viacom Inc., the cable channel's other owner in a deal worth $1.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday on its Web site.
The deal was expected to be announced within days, the newspaper said. Viacom reports its quarterly earnings on Tuesday, while AOL will do so Wednesday.
The Comedy Central sale would be the first major deal in AOL Time Warner's quest to sell assets for cash to reduce the media giant's more than $26 billion in debt.
Comedy Central
Baby News
Shaquir Rashaun O'Neal
Los Angeles Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal and wife Shaunie O'Neal welcomed a new baby at a Los Angeles area hospital, local television reported.
Shaquir Rashaun O'Neal, a boy, weighed in at seven pounds, 14 ounces and was born at 1:52 a.m.
O'Neal had said he might miss one of the Lakers' National Basketball Association playoff games to be present at the birth. The due date was April 27, the same day as game four of their first-round series against Minnesota.
Shaquir Rashaun O'Neal
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
pissed
Caught Quirky Lifestyle Saddam Hussein
Documentarian Joel Soler
One of Saddam Hussein's favorite pastimes was fishing, but in lieu of a fishing rod he used grenades, according to a French filmmaker who caught rare footage of the Iraqi leader and his lifestyle.
Documentarian Joel Soler went to Iraq to make a film about architecture but ended up with a DVD titled "Uncle Saddam" after spending two months interviewing Saddam Hussein's designers, architects and cousins.
One of those cousins enabled Soler to obtain footage of Saddam dressed in a tie and a white brimmed hat giving a talk about hygiene, asserting that women should bathe twice as often as men.
"The smell of a woman is more noticeable than the smell of a man, according to Saddam Hussein," Soler told CNN.
Documentarian Joel Soler
Stone lions brought back from Egypt by Titanic survivor Molly Brown sit in front of her home near downtown Denver, March 4, 2003. The home, now a museum, attracts 45,000 visitors a year.
Photo by David Zalubowski
'The Great Escape' Video Game
Virtual Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen was talented, smart, good-looking and known for playing characters who were tough but never cruel. Now it is within everyone's reach to be that icon of cool, at least for the 40 hours or so it takes to play "The Great Escape."
Based on its critically acclaimed 1963 MGM movie namesake, the Gotham Games video game licensed McQueen's name, likeness and voice characteristics, making it possible for gamers to be McQueen as his character, Captain Virgil Hilts ("The Cooler King"), and his fellow prisoners of war break free from the notorious Stalag Luft III prison camp and battle Nazis throughout World War II-era Germany.
Gamers can choose to be one of three other characters besides McQueen. And yes, the game includes the famous motorcycle chase scene: Players can try their luck at leaping the barbed wire fence into Switzerland and to freedom.
Virtual Steve McQueen
Japanese Classical Puppetry
Bunraku & Rock
After belting out rock'n'roll songs for nearly three decades, veteran rocker Ryudo Uzaki has taken a surprising turn in his musical career, playing to accompany Japan's classical "bunraku" puppet plays.
Last year Uzaki played his music for performances "Sonezaki Shinju" or "Love Suicides at Sonezaki," by Monzaemon Chikamatsu (1653-1724), regarded as Japan's greatest playwright.
The 57-year-old rock star and his band will perform his unique collaboration between contemporary Western music and the traditional Japanese dramatic form dating from the 18th century in a two-day run of the play at the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka in late April.
Instead of the traditional accompaniment by the three-stringed shamisen for the tragedy -- which tells the story of young merchant and his prostitute lover who commit suicide -- Uzaki will play the electric guitar and sing his own compositions.
For the rest, Bunraku & Rock
Signs Over Rights For Rock Opera
Evel Knievel
Former professional daredevil Evel Knievel has signed over exclusive rights to allow the production of "Evel Knievel: the Rock Opera."
Jef Bek, a musical director and composer with the small Los Angeles theater company Zoo District, recently flew to Clearwater, Fla., to gain Knievel's blessings after working for two years on the project.
Knievel, 64, said he instantly liked Bek and his seven-song demo and signed over rights to stage his story.
Evel Knievel
Located in Illinois
Ancient Village
Digging crews have found hundreds of 1,200-year-old stone arrowheads and pottery fragments buried under an Illinois hillside.
The discovery near this village about 35 miles east of St. Louis represents an important archaeological find, said Brad Koldehoff, a state archaeologist.
"It's a significant site. They discovered a keyhole-shaped house and what appears to be a small village," he said.
"Keyhole" houses are dwellings made of clay and logs with rooms half submerged in the ground. The large, dome-shaped living area at one end was reached by a long, straight, covered entrance, giving rise to the name "keyhole."
The village dates from the Late Woodland period, from about 600 to 800 A.D., said Koldehoff.
Ancient Village
Long Beach Easter Egg Hunt
'Killer' Bees
An Easter egg hunt at El Dorado Park was spoiled Sunday afternoon when a group of aggressive, possibly Africanized honey bees stung 26 people, officials said.
No one was seriously injured in the incident, which happened at about 1:30 p.m. near Gate 3 of the crowded park, just south of Wardlow Road, said Wayne Chaney of the Long Beach Fire Department. About half of the victims were children, including a 3-year-old, he said.
The bees were agitated by a soccer ball hitting the tree where the hive was, Chaney said. Although children hid Easter eggs inside the tree near the hive, Chaney said the hive was deeper in the tree and the Easter egg hunt didn't agitate the bees.
Chaney said the bees were likely Africanized, because of the aggressive way they stung, and because "the majority of bees (in the Long Beach area) are Africanized.' Two of the victims suffered multiple stings, he said.
'Killer' Bees
1 Million Ducks Later...
Tour d'Argent
The restaurant variously known as the "world's oldest", "greatest" or "most famous", is gearing up for a key date in more than four centuries of history -- the celebration of the millionth pressed duck to be dished up at the Tour d'Argent.
Though the establishment is blessed with one of the best locations in Paris, straddling the Seine and overlooking Notre Dame cathedral, has been around for 411 years -- since 1582 -- the pressed duck recipe is far more recent.
It dates back to 1890, when then owner Frederic Delair -- probably reviving a far older recipe -- first offered a two-course dish of free-range ducks raised in a small marshy corner of France, which were strangled rather than beheaded to avoid bleeding and to keep the flesh succulent.
But his real brainwave was to have numbered each demised duck, presenting diners with a souvenir card noting its number, a tradition held to this day.
Thus late Japanese emperor Hirohito, who in the space of half a century twice graced the Tour d'Argent with the imperial couple's presence, was offered duck No. 53,211 on June 21, 1921, and duck No. 423,900 on October 3, 1971.
King Edward VII downed duck number 328 in 1890, Theodore Roosevelt 33,642 in 1910, and only last November, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani gobbled up victim 971,612.
For more, Tour d'Argent
In Memory
Cholly Atkins
Cholly Atkins, who choreographed the smooth moves of countless Motown artists and won a Tony Award when he was 75, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer. He was 89.
Cholly Atkins was born Charles Atkinson on Sept. 13, 1913, in Pratt City, Ala. He found his career in 1923, after winning a Charleston dance contest in Buffalo, N.Y., and became a singing waiter and dancing bootblack. He made a name for himself as a tap dancer in the 1930s, touring small black venues before forming The Rhythm Pals with William Porter.
In the 1940s, Atkins did a stint in the Army and then toured with such jazz greats as Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton. He teamed with legendary tap dancer Charles "Honi" Coles to perform in the Broadway musical "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," with Nat "King" Cole.
He divorced his first wife, Catherine, and married dance partner Dottie Saulters. The pair toured with the likes of Cab Calloway and the Mills Brothers before she died of a brain tumor in 1962.
Atkins married Maye Harrison Anderson in 1963 and gained his greatest fame two years later when he became choreographer for Motown Records.
He worked with countless Motown artists over the years, including the Cadillacs, the Supremes, the Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye.
The couple moved to Las Vegas in 1975, where Atkins continued to work with various stars.
He dusted off his tap shoes in 1988 to choreograph the Broadway musical "Black and Blue." His work earned him a Tony Award.
In 1993, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded him its highest honor, a three-year fellowship to record his memoirs and tour colleges to teach choreography and dance.
Cholly Atkins
In Memory
Nina Simone
Jazz and soul icon Nina Simone, whose smoky tones gave voice to the American civil rights movement and ranged from gospel to George Gershwin, died on Monday at her home in the south of France, her manager said.
She was 70 years old.
Simone, a North Carolina native who spent most of her last decade in France, had been ill for some time, Clifton Henderson told Reuters by telephone.
Among her biggest hits were the playful "My Baby Just Cares For Me," which endeared her to a new generation of fans three decades after its release on her first record in 1957, and an emotional 1959 recording of Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy."
Her repertoire also included the bitter and furious anti-racist protest song "Mississippi Goddam," inspired by the death of four children in the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, and "Old Jim Crow."
French police said Simone had died early on Monday at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, a small Mediterranean seaside town outside Marseille.
She had lived in a villa there with her chauffeur, a female helper and her pet dog for some four or five years, a Marseille police spokesman said. Her body was transferred to Marseille.
A child prodigy raised in a family of eight children, Simone studied piano at New York's prestigious Juilliard School of Music, a rare opportunity for a black woman in the 1950s.
She was dubbed the High Priestess of Soul, yet her musical range was enormous and she kept up with the musical times without ever losing her own distinctive voice and classically inspired piano style.
She was equally at home playing the Newport Jazz Festival or Carnegie Hall, and by the mid-60s, she was playing to diverse audiences, ranging from college students to older jazz connoisseurs, while her music cut across racial lines.
During her long career, Simone repeatedly crafted her own versions of other people's songs, giving a fresh sound to material ranging from Leonard Cohen to the Bee Gees.
Simone also had a reputation for being temperamental and would often miss concerts or fight with audiences. Yet she was consistently revered and imitated by other singers.
In the early 60s, her music began to express her feelings as a black woman at a time when the clamour for civil rights was rising.
Her seven albums for Philips at that time gained her international recognition with such songs as Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny" and her own "Mississippi Goddam."
Powerful lyrics such as "You don't have to live next to me/Just give me my equality" became a voice of hope for black Americans awakened by the civil rights movement.
By 1970, the inspiring lyrics of "To be Young, Gifted and Black" had defined a reawakening confidence in Black America.
In the mid-70s, Simone tired of the United States, where she felt less appreciated than by her fans in Europe and elsewhere, and moved abroad.
She lived variously in Barbados, Switzerland, France, Liberia, Trinidad and Britain, before moving to the south of France in 1993.
In the 1990s several anthologies of her songs were released and she continued to make public appearances at jazz festivals in France, Greece and Ireland.
But it was the re-release of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" in 1987 that won her a new army of fans. The single was used in television advertisements for Chanel No.5 perfume and sold 175,000 copies in the first week, reaching number five in the British charts.
Nina Simone
Thanks, Tim H!
Drummer Vince Lateano, right, and the group, Sons of the Beach, perform during the final jam at Jazz at Pearl's in San Francisco, Sunday, April 20, 2003. The last club to preserve North Beach's tradition of straight-up jazz late into the night is jamming for the last time. Jazz at Pearl's, which served up home-grown jazz seven days a week, is closing its doors, but not before one last 12-hour session on the storied stretch it shares with burlesque houses, palm readers and Beat-generation landmarks suchas City Lights bookstore.
Photo by Eric Risberg
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments.
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
