'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
A Tuesday Read
from that Mad Cat, JD
2 Great Reads
Oh, Canada!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The 'June Gloom' hung onto til mid-afternoon.
Had company over for supper. Wasn't planned, but, turns out an old pal, Gary, turned 50 last week, and, it had to be celebrated. Initially, we were going to have ribs,
but, ended up pulling some NY strip steaks hidden in the back of the freezer for such an occasion, and called a few more pals to come on over. Ended up doing the ribs (sweet & sour and teriyaki) & the steaks, and some baked potatoes (previously wiped with
olive oil, then rolled in kosher salt), fresh corn on the cob, baked beans from the freezer, a cucumber & tomato salad, a leaf lettuce salad, garlic bread & corn muffins. Had a watermelon, too, but we were too stuffed.
Major advertising campaign here for travel to Turkey - 1-877-for-turkey. No website.
Tonight, Tuesday, CBS opens the night with a RERUN 'JAG', followed by a RERUN 'The Guardian', and then
a RERUN 'Judging Amy'.
On a RERUN Dave are Ashton Kutcher, Jack Hanna, and "Survivor: The Amazon" evictee Alex Bell.
On a RERUN Craiggers are Matt Dillon, Randy Jackson, and the Doors.
NBC starts the evening with the Season Premiere of 'Dog Eat Dog', followed by another FRESH 'Dog Eat Dog', and then
'Dateline'.
On a RERUN Jay are Dr. Phil McGraw, Shia LaBeouf, and India.Arie.
On a RERUN Conan are Dave Chapelle, Wilmer Valederrama, and Jason Mraz.
On a RERUN Carson Daly (from 4/30/03), are Gretchen Mol and Lil' Kim.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN '8 Simple Rules', followed by another RERUN '8 Simple Rules', then a
RERUN 'Jim', followed by a RERUN 'Less Than Perfect', and then a RERUN 'NYPD Blue'.
On a RERUN Jimmy Kimmel (from 4/23/03), are William Shatner, Aisha Tyler, and Queens of the Stone Age, with guest co-host Jamie Kennedy.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Gilmore Girls', followed by a RERUN 'Smallville'.
Faux has the movie 'Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo'.
UPN has a RERUN 'Buffy', and then a FRESH 'America's Next Top Model'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Singer Bono, right, speaks with Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti during rehearsal for the Pavarotti & Friends 2003 annual charity concert at the Novi Sad Park in Modena, Italy, Monday, May 26, 2003.
Photo by Alberto Pellaschiar
Fighting for Survival
'Reading Rainbow'
In a plea for the life of "Reading Rainbow," host LeVar Burton returned to a familiar setting: the stage where he picked up the PBS show's seventh Emmy Award for best children's television series.
"If you are a wealthy philanthropist out there, I'm not that difficult to find," said Burton, the show's executive producer and host since it began in 1983.
He's still waiting. And "Reading Rainbow," which has counterintuitively used television to introduce children to a world of books, may only have a few months to live.
"Reading Rainbow" has several strikes against it in the battle for funding. For starters, it has no access to merchandise licensing deals, an increasingly important part of PBS' funding scheme for children's shows. There are no "Reading Rainbow" action figures to sell, no "Reading Rainbow" jammies to keep kids warm at night.
The series is also 20 years old when many corporate benefactors prefer being involved with something new. And the show's narrow audience — children 6 to 8 who are just learning to read — doesn't give sponsors the broad exposure they're seeking, said Amy Jordan, senior researcher on children and the media at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has contributed to the show in the past. But it generally doesn't foot the bill alone, said John Wilson, chief programming executive at PBS. PBS wants to keep the show alive, and will have the summer to hunt for more money before a decision must be made.
'Reading Rainbow'
Reading Rainbow
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
A Great Live Band
Led Zeppelin
The new Led Zeppelin live album and DVD come out today. The five-hour Led Zeppelin DVD and three-CD set How The West Was Won each feature different live performances that were assembled by guitarist Jimmy Page from the band's archives.
Zep bassist John Paul Jones says he's reminded of how great Led Zeppelin was as a live band whenever he's exposed to material like this. "The fire in the playing was particularly noticeable, and the cockiness is there," he begins. "We used to just rip from one song to another and just roar into them at frightening speeds. We were sh-t-hot, as the saying goes, and we knew it."
Led Zeppelin DVD includes footage from five concerts: 1972 in Sydney, Australia, and in Los Angeles; 1973 at Madison Square Garden in New York; 1975 at Earl's Court in London; and 1979 at Knebworth in England. The DVD also includes a 1970 press conference in New York City, a TV appearance on Britain's Old Grey Whistle Test, and promotional videos for "Over The Hills And Far Away" and "Traveling Riverside Blues." How The West Was Won features live performances from a pair of 1973 concerts in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California.
Both the DVD and CD hit stores today, Tuesday, May 27.
Led Zeppelin
Female baby African elephant Mongu is seen next to its mother Tonga during a first photo session at Vienna's Schoenbrunn zoo Monday, May 26, 2003. Mongu was born late Sunday evening, May 25, 2003 and is the second baby elephant to be born in Vienna within two years.
Photo by Ronald Zak
Shift May Choke Independent Voices
U.S. Media Policy
Call it the "Wal-Martization" of American media.
Critics say the chance of hearing unique and offbeat voices in broadcasting could drop dramatically even as the number of outlets proliferates when the Federal Communications Commission votes on media ownership rules in about a week.
Like the Wal-Mart supercenters that have crowded out the mom-and-pop stores on Main Street and changed the U.S. retail landscape, the five major media owners could tighten their grip on programming, squeezing out local and independent views.
"We get the illusion that what we are seeing with all these numbers on the dial is a great sign of bounty and diversity. It may take some time to realize that it's coming out of only just a few faucets," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for Study of Popular TV at Syracuse University in New York.
Randolph May, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the media ownership rules are outdated and new rules won't squelch the odd voice.
"Just flip your dial and watch cable networks and see how much diversity there is. Look at the diversity of viewpoint between Fox and MSNBC and other channels," May said.
Rupert Murdoch, who controls News Corp. and has lobbied heavily for new rules, said earlier this month he is interested in making deals in only one or two markets. He has already exceeded the current cap barring one owner from reaching more than 35 percent of the national audience.
A good portion of programming is already controlled by about five major media companies: Murdoch's News Corp., General Electric Co., Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and AOL Time Warner Inc.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who was appointed by resident Bush, has said the rules need to be updated to reflect the explosion of news, information and entertainment outlets.
U.S. Media Policy
WAKE UP, AMERICA!
Like Randolph May said, "Look at the diversity of viewpoint between Fox and MSNBC."
Breaks Kneecap
Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli broke her right kneecap Sunday when she tripped over a step at a hotel in Bologna, Italy, but still plans to sing at a benefit concert with famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti, her Los Angeles publicist said.
Minnelli, 58, was taken to a nearby hospital and will have to wear a full-leg cast for about four weeks, Warren Cowan told The Associated Press on Sunday.
"Even though she won't be able to rehearse, she is going to perform Tuesday night with Pavarotti, even wearing the cast," he said.
Minnelli tripped in the hallway of Hotel Grand Baglioni as she walked from her suite to the elevator, Cowan said. Her husband-producer David Gest ran to her when she let out a scream. He called paramedics and Minnelli was admitted to Instituto Rizzoli hospital, Cowan said.
Liza Minnelli
Thanks, Marian!
Visits Israel for Inspiration
Whitney Houston
Singer Whitney Houston is in Israel looking for inspiration for her upcoming Christmas album.
Houston arrived Sunday for her stay with the Black Hebrews, a group of nearly 2,000 black Americans who followed a Chicago bus driver to Israel decades ago and believe they are descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israelites.
Their religious customs include a vegan diet and polygamy. Houston spent her first day at their compound in the desert town of Dimona receiving massages, relaxing, and meeting with the Black Hebrews, who call each other saints.
"She is loving it," said Patricia Houston, the singer's spokeswoman and sister-in-law. "She is a spiritual woman and wanted to come here and touch the land and be around the saints of Dimona." Whitney Houston is accompanied by a group of relatives, including her husband, singer Bobby Brown, and their daughter.
Whitney Houston
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Clay's Fans Were More Stupid?
'American Idol'
Maybe Clay would have beaten Ruben on "American Idol" if viewers could dial the right number.
Cinergy Communications, a telecommunications company in Evansville, Ind., handled more than 240,000 misdialed calls during the three-hour voting period for "American Idol" last week. Cinergy's residential marketing manager, Joey Randolph, said they took more than 169,000 calls for Clay and 72,000 for Ruben. Just 130,000 votes separated Clay and Ruben out of 24 million votes cast.
Randolph speculated the problem is that older phones don't have the letter Q on it, while newer phones have "P-Q-R-S" over the 7, which some people may have thought was the letter O. The "American Idol" numbers were (866) IDOLS01 or (866) IDOLS02.
'American Idol'
A promotional handout photo of members of the Twyla Tharp dance company which will perform at the Spoleto's 'Festival dei Due Mondi' (Festival of Two Worlds) 2003, presented in Rome, Monday May 26, 2003. At its 46th edition, the 2003 international music, opera, dance, prose and cinema festival - held in Spoleto central Italy -, will feature amongst other performances, concerts by the The Juilliard Orchestra, the State Academic Symphony Cappella of Russia, directors Valery Polyansky and Mark Stringer, choreographies by Twyla Tharp and a film tribute to Grace Kelly, starting June 27, through July 13, 2003.
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Invitation From QE II
Camilla Parker Bowles
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has invited Camilla Parker Bowles, the partner of heir apparent Prince Charles, to the biggest royal event of the year, Buckingham Palace confirmed.
Parker Bowles has received a personal invitation to next Monday's Westminster Abbey service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the queen's coronation on June 2, 1953, a palace official said.
It was likely that Parker Bowles would also be a guest at private family celebrations later in June to mark both the anniversary and the 21st birthday of Charles' eldest son Prince William.
Camilla Parker Bowles
Tones Down Her Act for U.S. TV
Sue Johansen
Last year, while Dr. Laura was thumping her uncompromising sermons about celibacy and family values on her short-lived TV talk show, Canadian sex therapist Sue Johansen was telling TV viewers north of the border to shed their clothes and inhibitions -- and learn.
Johansen, the short and elderly host of the popular "The Sunday Night Sex Show" on Canada's W network, insists there's no coincidence Dr. Laura is back on radio while she now touts the virtues of various adult sex toys on "Talk Sex," her separate call-in sex advice show for U.S. viewers that currently airs on the Oxygen channel.
She tapes separate TV shows from Toronto for Canadian and U.S. viewers, in part because of differing attitudes toward sex and sexuality.
On both her U.S. and Canadian TV shows, Johansen reviews sex toys plucked from her "pleasure chest," an actual pirate treasure chest-like prop, which is replaced by the Hot Stuff Bag on the Oxygen channel.
Sue Johansen
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Mulling Bid for Office
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger says he may think about running for California governor after the summer release of his new movie, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," — but his family will have a say in the matter.
"When I get to that point that I say, 'I want to run,' I will have that conversation with my family and with my close friends," Schwarzenegger told TV Guide for its May 31 issue. He said the advice of his wife, NBC correspondent Maria Shriver, a Kennedy cousin and a Democrat, will be especially significant.
"She has to give the green light and feel comfortable with it because she moved away from Washington to get away from all that kind of stuff," Schwarzenegger said.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Bedouins drag their sheep into the sea to wash them and make it easy to cut the wool from the animals ahead of the summer in a beach in Deir Al-Balah south of Gaza City, Thursday, May 22, 2003.
Photo by Ricardo Mazalan
(Like They're The Only Ones)
Turks Exaggerate
Turkish men have a tendency to exaggerate the size of their sexual organs, according to a condom maker planning to set up shop in Turkey.
Despite a national norm of 17 centimetres (6.8 inches) set up by the National Standards Institute, a questionnaire by the manufacturer Condomi revealed that most Turkish men asked believed their penis to be about 22 centimetres (8.8 inches) long, the newspaper Sabah reported.
Research was carried out among 400 interviewees in eight Turkish provinces. Sabah said most potential condom users felt they ought to buy the XXL size.
The report said about only 20 percent of Turkish men would in fact qualify for such a size.
Turks Exaggerate
Set Records on Mt. Everest
Sherpa Guides
An ace Sherpa who has climbed Mount Everest more than anyone did it again Monday, and another broke the speed record with an 11-hour sprint to the top.
Appa, who like most Sherpa uses only one name, made his record 13th climb of the 29,035-foot peak — this time with an American expedition, the Nepalese tourism ministry said.
Appa first climbed Everest in 1989 with a New Zealand team led by veteran climber Rob Hall, one of eight people who died during a storm near the summit in 1996.
In another record-setting climb, Lakpa Gyelu, 35, raced from Everest's 17,380-foot base camp to the summit in 10 hours and 56 minutes on Monday. Most climbers take about four days to cover the distance up the mountain's steep and icy slopes.
It was Gyelu's 10th ascent of Mount Everest. He broke the speed record of 12 hours and 45 minutes set last week by another Sherpa.
Gyelu first climbed Everest in 1993 with a British expedition and has repeated his feat almost every year since then.
Sherpa Guides
Information on Mount Everest
In The News
Polygamy
While on our little jaunt to Kingman, AZ, this past weekend, picked up the local paper -
The Kingman Daily Miner had a story on the front page about
a local polygamist sect that operates in the open. The Phoenix New Times also did a series addresssing the topic.
Found it to be pretty interesting reading, so did some digging when we got home & the stories are online:
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The sign unfurled over the table asked, "Where is Ruby Jessop?"
Ruby Jessop was 14 when she disappeared in April 2001 after being married to her stepbrother in the polygamist town of Hildale, Utah.
Meeting sheds light on Colorado City polygamist sect By Jim Seckler
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A couple's refusal to allow an arranged marriage of their daughter to a polygamist church member became the focal point of an eviction suit argued Thursday in Mohave County Superior Court.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is suing to evict Milton and Lenore Holm from their six-bedroom house in Colorado City.
Religious eviction case goes to judge By Jim Seckler
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Finally. The heat is rising in Colorado City and at last it's not just due to summer.
At last, the public has proof of fraud of abuse in the polygamous northern Mohave County city.
and
The most frequent accusations are of child abuse in the form of taking child brides. In the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints girls are regularly assigned to join much older men as 'celestial wives.' A celestial wife is not a wife by law – this eliminates a legal paper trail that could be used to prosecute polygamists. Celestial marraiges are conducted by the FLDS prophet. Right now, that's a man named Warren Jeffs. It is Jeffs alone who controls the entire community of the faithful. Church doctrine permits him to assign wives to men in his favor or take wives and children away from men who displease him.
and
No one, not the county sheriff or county attorney, not the state attorney general, not even the FBI, wants to take on the FLDS.
Get a Grip: Polygamy again by Abbie Gripman
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Polygamy In Arizona by John Dougherty
In Memory
Pepper LaBeija
Pepper LaBeija, a famed queen of Harlem drag balls, died May 14 of a heart attack. She was 53.
LaBeija, whose given name was William Jackson, was known for appearing in and performing in gleaming feminine clothing at the balls, which were captured in the 1991 documentary "Paris Is Burning."
She was seen as the last of the great queens of the Harlem balls. Others including Angie Xtravaganza, Dorian Corey and Avis Pendavis have all died.
LaBeija was considered a legend of the drag balls, in which the queens costumed themselves extravagantly and performed. She won many trophies for her takes on high fashion.
LaBeija took her name from the "house" she led. All who performed as part of the group used the same surname.
She led the House of LaBeija for more than 30 years, even while stricken with diabetes, for which she had to have both feet amputated. Her income came from producing the drag balls and teaching modeling, according to her friend, Marcel Christian LaBeija.
Pepper LaBeija
A Patagonia cavy feeds her three 1-week-old babies at Tokyo's Inokashira Zoo on Saturday May 24, 2003. The mother gave birth to three babies on May 18. The Patagonia cavy, also known as the mara, lives in the sourthern and central parts of Argentina, and belongs to the order of rodent.
Photo by Chiaki Tsukumo
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
