Issue #23
Disinfotainment Today
By Michael Dare
UNDO THE COUP
'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Comment
Re: Voting Machines
I think the voting machine issue is much more serious than people
realize. The codes used for such computerized voting machines are are
proprietary and cannot be examined--even by election officials. It is
so simple to insert an algorithm that would subtly change an output of
such a machine: Say, by counting 97% of Democratic ballots and
reporting the rest as spoiled. Maybe someone will question why there
are more spoiled ballots...not likely, but maybe. You can chalk it up
to Republican side as well. You could even change ballots cast so that
when specific ballots are counted everything adds up. It's definitely
not rocket science and for a regime that positions state troopers to
intimidate black voters and knowingly purges black voters by declaring
them "having felon-sounding last names" does ANYONE believe that they
would refrain from this? We all know the Bush family is morally
bankrupt, why haven't we taken away their moral charge cards?
Also, if one had an idea for a TV show, but no interest in pursuing it
or benefiting from it (aside from the satisfaction of better TV), how
would one go about making a suggestion to a TV studio? It just seems
with all the crap out there today that somebody at the studios would be
taking suggestions...
~~Tim H
Whoa - a 2-part question. Regarding the voting machines, I'm amazed there has been so little comment or commentary on the whole computerization of the voting process. Talk about a
bad guys wet dream - no paper trail. Who would need a 'Supreme' Court to select a president if the coding is built into the system?
Now, part 2 - scroll up & read Michael Dare. Go visit BartCop. Then, look at the dreck on TV, the movies, or even in what is referred to as 'talk radio' - although, 'hate radio' would seem
to be a more accurate term. Talent is available, but, if Hollywood was to actively seek it out there'd be fewer places for relatives/lovers/hangers-on to draw a paycheck.
Besides, we're down to 6 corporate masters of media these days, and while the Michael Powell controlled FCC considers it 'consolidation', 2 years ago there were 23 corporate masters.
SEATTLE PEACE PHOTOS 10/6
from Dan E.
We say 8-10,000 strong....a great march with a great cross section of Americans.
~~ Dan Eskenazi
Thanks, Dan!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The warm weather continues.
The roofers didn't get here til nearly 2pm, although they called at 11am to say they were minutes away...
The roof is now off the house & garage. The roofers are supposed to be back bright & early to start closing up the gaping holes to the sky.
Gotta keep it early, just in case they show...LOL
Tonight, Tuesday, CBS has a fresh 'JAG', a fresh 'The Guardian', and a fresh 'Judgine Amy'.
Scheduled on a fresh Dave are Sen. John McCain and David Sedaris.
Scheduled on a fresh Craiggers are James Van Der Beek and Chuck Prophet.
NBC offers a fresh 'In-Laws', the season premiere of 'Just Shoot Me', a fresh 'Frasier', then a fresh 'Hidden Hills', and wraps with 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Terry Bradshaw, human crash test dummy Rusty Haight, and Mana.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan are Tom Cavanaugh, Rachel Dratch, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly are Alyson Hannigan and Government Mule.
ABC has a fresh '8 Simple Rules', a fresh 'Jim', a fresh 'Bonnie', followed by a fresh 'Less Than Perfect', and finally a fresh 'NYPD Blue'.
The WB has a fresh 'Gilmore Girls' and a fresh 'smallville'.
Faux is fauxed up, and will probably have local programming or reruns.
UPN offers a fresh 'Buffy' and a fresh 'Haunted'.
TCM has 'Casablanca'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
The Carl Wilson Foundation
Brian & Eric
Beach Boy Brian Wilson (L) and singer guitarist Eric Clapton greet each other after both performed at The Carl Wilson Foundation benefit concert, late October 6, 2002 in Los Angeles. The Carl Wilson
Foundation was established to help in the funding of cancer research and to aid patients afflicted with the disease.
Photo by Adrees Latif
#24
'Puppetry of the Penis' - Part 1
'KRON 4 Morning News'
Viewers of Friday's "KRON 4 Morning News" were treated to an eye- opening shot of David Friend's penis, and who's at fault is anybody's guess and everybody's opinion. Friend and Simon Morley
are the performers whose "Puppetry of the Penis" will open at the end of the month; they were at the studio promoting the show.
Anchors Susan Blake and Darya Folsom talked with them, made some mention of a teasing show-and-tell -- how much would they show? -- and then the camera panned to reaction among KRON crew
members who'd apparently gathered at the side of the set to watch. But before the lens found the crew members, it found Friend, full frontal. Shortly after, her expression grave, Folsom apologized to viewers in a tone she might
use to report the death of a child.
A few hours later on Friday morning, getting ready for a press conference planned long before, Friend and Morley seemed amused by the accident and bemused by the station's response. "We
got downstairs to the foyer," Morley said, "and the managing director was standing there and he said, 'I want you to know you've brought great shame on the station,' and he had all these
security guys standing there, 'and so now you're never allowed to come back to this station and I want you to leave now.' So I said, 'I beg your pardon. . . .
The station's formal statement said, "Even though the nature of live television lends itself to surprises and unexpected activities, we take full responsibility and assure viewers that
this will not happen again." Aw gee, not even for special occasions?
Rumor has it that KRON suspended three people without pay for a week as a result of the incident.
'KRON 4 Morning News'
'Puppetry of the Penis' - Part 2
Leno
In perhaps the biggest challenge yet to David Letterman's "Stupid Human Tricks," late-night TV talk show rival Jay Leno has booked two men who are famous worldwide for shaping
their penises into fast food icons and landmarks.
But censors at NBC, which broadcasts "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," can breathe a sigh of relief. Genital contortionists David "Friendly" Friend and Simon Morley will not
be exposing their private parts on national television.
Rather, they will appear fully clothed on Leno's Wednesday night program merely to talk about their wildly popular stage show, "Puppetry of the Penis," a network spokeswoman said.
Dressed only in shoes, socks and fantastically decorated capes, Morley and Friend twist and shape their genitals into such objects as a hamburger, the Eiffel Tower and the Loch Ness monster.
On stage, the contorted creations are projected onto gigantic 16-foot screens behind the performers.
Leno
Discovers 500 Beatles Photos
Dundee University
Five hundred photographs of the Beatles, many of them unpublished, have been found in the archives of a Scottish university, where they have been gathering dust for more than 30 years.
The photos, discovered in Dundee University's archives, show the British pop group on the brink of international stardom in the early 1960s, the Times newspaper reported on Monday.
The pictures are part of an archive of 130,000 negatives taken by Hungarian-born photo-journalist Michael Peto and given to the university after his death in 1970, the newspaper said.
Many show band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr relaxing between takes while shooting their second feature film "Help."
Peto is best known for his photographs of ballet stars Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, and of actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
Dundee University
Trial Postponed Until Oct. 15
Winona Ryder
The trial of actress Winona Ryder on charges of shoplifting $4,800 worth of goods from a department store, expected to start on Monday, was delayed until next week because of
scheduling conflicts involving the judge and defense lawyers in the case.
On Friday, Ryder's attorney Mark Geragos called the judge to say he could not begin the trial because of previous court commitments. The judge also had a conflict.
Geragos has maintained Ryder is a victim of a misunderstanding and is being singled out for especially harsh treatment because of her celebrity status.
Ryder has pleaded innocent to all the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison.
Winona Ryder
Finds Joy Making Toilet Art
Rikki Rockett
While most rock stars just trash the hotel room, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett likes to leave his mark in the bathroom.
Rockett has developed the habit of painting the toilet seat lids in hotel rooms as Poison tours the country. Some designs are just pretty line drawings. Others
are flames, skulls, naked women or patriotic crosses.
He said he considers the art to be his contribution to society. He chooses toilet seats because they're "cheap, shaped very well, and we all can relate to them."
Fans can check out Rockett's designs on his Web site, www.RikkiRockett.com.
Rikki Rockett
Schedule Shift?
ABC
While ABC's Tuesday and Wednesday lineups are off to very solid starts, network executives could soon move to plug a couple of Nielsen craters.
No decisions have been announced, but with new dramas "Push, Nevada" and "That Was Then" again striking out with viewers last week, industry insiders are already speculating about potential fixes.
One credible scenario has ABC slotting "Whose Line is it Anyway?" and "The Drew Carey Show" from 9 to 10 p.m. Friday, shifting the shows from their current Monday slots. ABC
wins the 8 p.m. Friday hour with "America's Funniest Home Videos," and following the clips show with more reality and comedy seems an easy way to keep the early evening momentum going.
It's unclear what ABC might use to fill the Monday hour left vacant by "Drew" and "Whose Line," but a newsmagazine or reality series would make sense. A lot will depend on
whether ABC decides to kill "Push" -- and as of Friday, a network spokesman said no decision had been made.
The good news for "That Was Then" is that its ratings performance this past Friday, while dreadful, was on a par with its debut numbers a week before. That might persuade
ABC executives to give the show more time.
ABC
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998
Supreme Court
Mickey Mouse's days at Disney could be numbered and paying royalties for warbling George Gershwin tunes could become a thing of the past if the U.S. Supreme Court sides with an Internet publisher
in a landmark copyright case this week.
The high court will hear the case Wednesday that could plunge the earliest images of Disney's mascot and other closely held creative property into the public domain as early as next year.
At issue is a 1998 law that extended copyright protection an additional 20 years for cultural works, thereby protecting movies, plays, books and music for a total of 70 years after the author's death
or for 95 years from publication for works created by or for corporations.
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 was sponsored by late Rep. Sonny Bono and quickly became known as the "Mickey Mouse Extension Act" because of aggressive lobbying by Disney, whose earliest
representations of its squeaky-voiced mascot were set to pass into the public domain in 2003.
The impact of the law extends far beyond corporations. Small music publishers, orchestras and even church choirs that can't afford to pay high royalties to perform some pieces said they suffer by
having to wait an additional 20 years for copyrights to expire.
Disney has come under special criticism because the company reaped a fortune making films from such public domain fairy tale characters as "Snow White" and "Cinderella," but is fighting to prevent
others from doing the same with characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998
Plaintiffs' documents
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Al Bundy To Be Joe Friday
Ed O'Neill
Ed O'Neill ("Married ... With Children") has been cast as Joe Friday in ABC's "Dragnet" revival, replacing the recently departed Danny Huston.
O'Neill's last starring TV role was in the short-lived CBS police drama "Big Apple." He is best known for his lengthy turn as Al Bundy, downtrodden shoe salesman in the hit comedy "Married ... With Children."
Production on the first episode of "Dragnet" had just wrapped Sept. 30 when producers opted to recast the lead role. Production will resume Friday. The series is scheduled to debut on ABC in January.
Ed O'Neill
Sirenum Terra
Mars
This undated handout photo, one of the highest-resolution images ever obtained from by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, shows a view of gullies on the walls of a meteor impact crater in the Newton Basin, in
Sirenum Terra, Mars. The photo is among a group of 18,812 images being added to the Mars Global Surveyor online image gallery Monday, Oct. 7, 2002. The addition brings the total number of Global Surveyor
archived images to 112,218, more than twice the number of pictures of Mars acquired by the two Viking orbiters of the 1970's.
Boosts Lead over Letterman
Leno
Despite an improved performance for the CBS primetime schedule, the network's "Late Show With David Letterman" has fallen farther behind NBC's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" in the early going this season.
According to Nielsen estimates for the week of Sept. 23-27, Leno's NBC program averaged 5.9 million viewers (down 7% from last year) while Letterman's CBS show drew 4.1 million (down 31%). That gap of 1.8 million
is considerably larger than the 1.3 million during the same week last year, when the New York-based "Late Show" saw a bit of a ratings surge thanks to guests including Rudy Giuliani.
A similar pattern holds up in the key demo of adults 18-49, where Leno's 2.3 rating tops Letterman's 1.7 by 35% -- up from a 14% gap a year ago. ABC's team of "Nightline" (3.9 million, 1.3 rating in adults 18-49)
and "UpClose" (2.4 million, 0.8 rating) lagged in third.
Leno
Soon To Be A Film
Plato's Retreat
Plato's Retreat is coming to the big screen. Anthony LaPaglia will play Larry Levenson, who owned the 1970s-era sex club and "Bulletproof Heart" helmer Mark Malone will direct.
Rumor has it that Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei is interested in playing Levenson's girlfriend. The orgy emporium in the basement of the Ansonia on the Upper West Side closed on
New Year's Eve 1985. Among those who swung at the retreat in its heyday: Richard Dreyfuss, Jesse Ventura, Rodney Dangerfield, Buck Henry and original "Saturday Night Live" cast member Garrett Morris.
Plato's Retreat
Eyes Selling Bravo Channel to NBC
Cablevision
Cable operator and sports team owner Cablevision Systems Corp. is close to deal to sell its Bravo cable channel to the NBC television network in a stock swap valued at around $1.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal
reported in Monday's issue. The newspaper reported that NBC, owned by General Electric Co., would swap all or part of its 17 percent stake in Cablevision for the Bravo channel, which shows films and such series as "Inside The Actors Studio."
NBC held a 21 percent stake in Rainbow Media, a tracking stock of Cablevision that contained its cable channels including Bravo, Independent Film Channel and AMC. Cablevision dissolved the tracker by
exchanging its shares for shares of Cablevision.
Cablevision, which also owns the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks, has incurred the wrath of investors in recent months as a result of an possible cash shortage relative to its funding needs in 2003.
Cablevision
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
New Members Added
U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, novelist Chinua Achebe and radio commentator Daniel Schorr were among more than 100 politicians, scientists, authors and academics inducted Saturday into The American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kennedy used the ceremony as an opportunity to criticize President George W. Bush's plans for military action against Iraq, calling the administration's doctrine of preventive war "21st century American imperialism."
"Might does not make right. America cannot write its own rules for the modern world. To attempt to do so would be unilateralism run amok. It would antagonize our closest allies whose support we need," he said.
In all, the academy's new class includes 177 fellows and 33 foreign honorary members. The fellows have made their careers in the United States, while foreign honorary members have worked at institutions in foreign countries.
Schorr, a senior news analyst for National Public Radio, slammed the media in his comments, saying that he has "come to mourn the way my beloved profession has become progressively oriented to entertainment, scandal and profit."
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
BartCop TV!
Most Expensive Italian Production Ever Made
Roberto Benigni
Roberto Benigni broke his media silence Friday at a Rome press conference to push this week's national opening of "Pinocchio," in which the Oscar-winning actor-director plays the title role.
But representatives of the foreign press were rigorously shut out of the confab, indicating that financier Miramax wishes to minimize exposure until the fairy tale's Christmas Day release in the United States.
Benigni and his wife Nicoletta Braschi, who produced the film and co-stars as the Blue Fairy, are working on the English-language dubbed version. They will re-voice their own roles, while other parts have yet to be cast in English.
The most expensive Italian production ever made, the highly anticipated $45 million project will receive the widest release in the country's history Oct. 11 -- pushed up even further than previously announced
to 900 prints due to increased exhibitor demand.
Roberto Benigni
Woman With An Opinion
Shirley Slesinger Lasswell
Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, 81, an elderly widow locked in a court battle with The Walt Disney Co. over licensing fees for the Winnie the Pooh character, is helped to the podium by her attorney Bertram Fields during a news conference, October 7, 2002 in Beverly Hills. Lasswell stated that Disney should clean up 'sweatshops' that
make its licensed products for Disney's retail stores. Lasswell, whose late husband Stephen bought the United States rights to Pooh in 1930, wept as she listened to an account by a 19-year-old Bangladeshi woman who worked at a plant that made Disney licensed products.
Photo by Jim Ruymen
Man With An Opinion
DMX
Steven Seagal's nemesis Jules Nasso has an ally in DMX. The rough-and-ready rapper, who co-starred with Seagal in "Exit Wounds," snarls to Stuff magazine: "Steven Seagal is a [bleep]. He's a [bleep]ing [bleep]head.
With spray-on hair. He talked like he was an old slave master. 'Hey, wassup? We's gonna have us a barbecue.' I was just like, 'Man, who the [bleep] do you think you're talking to? My name ain't Sambo, nigga. Get
the [bleep] out of here with that bull[bleep].' Or he'd pull some fake attempting to be friendly [bleep]. He'd see my wife and be like, 'Hey, little mama.' We laughed about it. Just like, 'This guy's a [bleep].' He's a [bleep]hole."
DMX
'Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge'
Cheech Marin
For Cheech Marin, being a Chicano is like being a "turbo Mexican-American."
If so, a dual exhibit on Chicano art and cultural expression that opened in Washington, D.C., in early October is just as intense -- complete with that staple of machismo Chicano culture,
an air-painted low-rider car with velvet accents -- and aliens called "the brown men," who lead visitors through an exploration of Chicano culture.
More than anything, being Chicano is "an attitude," the actor and comedian most famous for his attitude said.
The 56-year-old Marin is perhaps best known for his hazy movie cult classics like the 1978 comedy "Up in Smoke" with his partner, the Chinese Canadian actor and comedian Tommy Chong. Their schtick
celebrated the joys of smoking marijuana and thwarting authority figures like cops and nuns.
What is not be so widely known is Marin's other side: He owns one of the world's largest private collections of Chicano art.
To read the rest, Cheech Marin
25 Years of Myth and Mystery
The Mekons
It would have been preposterous to imagine in 1977: a ragtag group of art students that could not play a single note becoming the last remaining and most ambitious band from the first generation of British punk rock.
The Mekons, who will embark on the European leg of their 25th anniversary tour next month, sustains itself on the fringes of the music industry. They rarely sell more than 7,000 copies per release and support themselves with day jobs.
But the band manages to survive and thrive, issuing an album nearly every year and touring the United States and Europe for short stints almost as often.
The band's musical scope spans as wide as punk rock to country to ersatz reggae to avant-garde art rock. Their lyrics are often scathing criticisms of capitalism, pop culture and right-wing politics
mixed with literary references to Dashiell Hammett, Thomas Hardy, Paul Auster and Kathy Acker.
For a lot more, The Mekons
Russian Veterans View Film
'Widowmaker'
Survivors from Russia's first nuclear submarine disaster could not hide ironic smiles when on Sunday they watched a Hollywood rendition of their deadly fight against a reactor spinning out of control.
But as the final credits rolled on the screen, gray-haired uniformed veterans rose to applaud the fantasy-filled story of human courage subduing ungovernable machine at the premiere in Russia of the U.S. blockbuster "K-19: The Widowmaker."
"Only two things in the film are true: the bottle of champagne did not break when the submarine was launched and yes, there was an accident with the reactor," the craft's navigator, Valentin Shabanov, 62, told Reuters.
Despite the reservations, K-19 veterans were unanimous in giving high marks to the film which for the first time in Hollywood history portrayed Soviet servicemen as heroes.
"Harrison Ford played really well. At one moment it even seemed to me he looked like our captain," said Shabanov. "The same austere features, only our captain was not that tall."
'Widowmaker'
Hospital Visit
Iris Law
The 2-year-old daughter of actors Jude Law and Sadie Frost swallowed part of an Ecstasy tablet at a party and was rushed to the hospital, police said Monday.
Scotland Yard spokesman Nick Jordan said a 2-year-old girl had swallowed the pill during a children's party Saturday at a club called Soho House, a popular
spot in London's West End which had been used the night before as a bar and nightclub.
The mother realized the girl had something in her mouth and managed to remove half of it before the child could swallow it, then called an ambulance, Jordan said.
Police were called to the hospital at 4:15 p.m. Saturday, but Jordan said there was no issue of neglect and added that police had no plans to take action against the parents.
Iris Law
Sunday Night
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
Hundreds of balloonists take part in a Sunday evening balloon glow in front of thousands of onlookers at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 6, 2002.
Photo by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham
'The Osbournes'
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'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
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