'TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Donna Ladd: You Can Do That (jacksonfreepress)
Despite the mythologizing of Rosa Parks, she was human just like the rest of us. This very normal woman simply looked in the mirror and told herself, "You can do that"-a simple act that is also necessary in today's difficult times.
Matthew Rothschild: Bush Tries to Gag Critics in Veterans Day Speech (progressive.org)
In his Veterans Day speech, Bush took the low road. Responding to critics who charge him with manipulating intelligence and hoodwinking the American people into war, Bush said: "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how the war began." And then he set about rewriting it.
Bush's Misuse of Science
Has the Bush administration systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weapons at home and abroad? Continue to read a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists...
An Interview with Mike Nelson: A critic's favorite as long time host and head writer for the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000 (liheliso.com)
Ginger Mayerson: Do you have any idea what GW Bush's appeal is?
MN: Clarity, I think. And his shoes.
LYDIA MARCUS: Coffey Talk: "Ellie Parker" director Scott Coffey escapes from L.A. (frontierspublishing.com)
Naomi [Watts] was a struggling actress when you started Ellie Parker, and then she became famous and you shot more installments of Ellie Parker. What's that been like?
It's been pretty intense, it's been really amazing. I mean, God, her life changed overnight. She went from struggling and getting ready to quit to being one of the most sought-after actresses in the world.
JOHN POLLY: "RENT" GIRLS (frontierspublishing.com)
Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms may be the newbies in the Rent movie cast, but they bring their own oomph to this bohemian rhapsody
Sheerly Avni: Dowd, Where's My Country? ( AlterNet.org)
The real spectacle of gender in America includes the struggles over family health care, abortion rights, financial parity, the availability of day care for working parents, the condition of public schools and unionization for undocumented aliens (all those "maids" Dowd thinks might steal the eligible bachelors). But Dowd doesn't care much about these details. They're not sexy, after all. Instead she worries about ... dating and primping.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
TWO JERKS AS TRUTH LURKS
TOM, DICK & HARRY
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
No new flags.
Joins HBO Comedy Fest in Vegas
George Carlin
George Carlin has been added to the lineup of HBO's inaugural Comedy Festival, which kicks off Thursday in Las Vegas.
The legendary comic will appear in "The Founders," an event hosted by Larry King. It is designed to provide a trip through the colorful history of comedy in Vegas with clips, performances and a Q&A with Shelley Berman, Norm Crosby, Shecky Greene and Jerry Lewis on stage, as well as Phyllis Diller and Don Rickles via satellite.
Appearances and performances by Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, George Lopez and Bill Maher, as well as a special tribute to Jerry Seinfeld, who will receive the first annual The Comedian award, are also among the highlights.
George Carlin
Kazakh Government Threatens Courts
Sacha Baron Cohen
Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action Monday against a British comedian who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching as a sport.
Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays a spoof Kazakh television presenter Borat in his "Da Ali G Show," has won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world's ninth largest country yet still little known to many in the West, on British and U.S. channels.
Cohen appears to have drawn official Kazakh ire after he hosted the annual MTV Europe Music Awards show in Lisbon earlier this month as Borat, who arrived in an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Disagreement Puts On Hold
Shortlist Music Prize
In its four-year history, the Shortlist Music Prize has become a coveted industry honor, shining a spotlight on artists who have made exceptional albums that have fallen under the mainstream radar.
But its future remains in doubt as its creators wrangle over the future of the organization.
Usually held in Los Angeles in the fall, there will be no Shortlist prize this year. Instead, co-founder Tom Sarig has a new award to replace it: the New Pantheon, which, like the Shortlist, will be determined by an eclectic jury of musicians, performers and journalists.
Among the celebrity judges for the award: Dave Matthews, Elton John, Keith Urban, Shirley Manson, actor Elijah Wood and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots.
Shortlist Music Prize
Brings Las Vegas Show to TV
Elton John
Elton John brings his Las Vegas show to television with his first NBC special, "Elton John: The Red Piano," on Dec. 14.
The special will feature John's show from Caesars Palace, incorporating his performance with videos from David LaChappelle, including two that feature Justin Timberlake as a young Elton John and Pamela Anderson performing a pole dance, NBC announced Monday.
Elton John
'Apprentice' to End
Martha Stewart
Donald Trump will soon have "The Apprentice" to himself: Martha Stewart's version of the NBC reality series is ending next month.
Stewart's show failed to find a big audience but both NBC and executive producer Mark Burnett said Monday that its mediocre ratings had nothing to do with the short run. Trump's show is in production on its fifth edition.
Her "The Apprentice" will end with a two-hour finale Dec. 21.
Martha Stewart
Performing Thanksgiving Day
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey will perform two songs at halftime at the nationally televised Thanksgiving Day game between the Detroit Lions and the Atlanta Falcons Toni Braxton will sing the national anthem.
The show also will feature a 90-second introduction narrated by Morgan Freeman that was produced by NFL Films. It features players volunteering in their communities with other residents, the Lions said Monday.
The Lions' 66th Thanksgiving Day Classic against Atlanta on Nov. 24 will air on the Fox network (12:30 p.m. EST).
Mariah Carey
AOL/Warner to Bring Online
Old TV Shows
In the latest alternative to traditional TV viewing, a new broadband network called In2TV will be launched in early 2006 by AOL and Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution, the companies said Monday.
"Welcome Back Kotter," "Sisters" and "Growing Pains" are among the 30 series to be offered initially as Internet streamcasts. They will be grouped on channels by genre, including comedy, drama, animation, sci-fi and horror, action-adventure and "vintage TV."
The shows will contain two minutes of advertising per half hour, streamed before and after the shows, and also at the traditional commercial breaks when the show aired on TV. Sponsorships and banners will also be sold, according to AOL.
Old TV Shows
Rap Mogul Set for Trial
'Irv Gotti'
When a brash disc jockey named Irving Lorenzo decided to call himself "Irv Gotti" and start a music label called Murder Inc. in the late 1990s, he said it was all about selling records. Records by stars like Ashanti and Ja Rule sold in the millions, turning Lorenzo into a rap mogul.
The problem, according to federal authorities, was that his gangster persona wasn't mere hype.
Lorenzo, 34, and his brother Christopher Lorenzo, 38, were scheduled to go on trial Wednesday, accused of laundering drug money for a notorious crack kingpin. The federal racketeering case mixes elements of corporate scandal - Murder Inc. is partly owned by Def Jam, a subsidiary of Universal Music - with inside glimpses of feuds in the rap world.
Prosecutors say that the kingpin, Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, was allowed to secretly funnel more than $1 million in drug money into Murder Inc.'s coffers in exchange for being the label's protector and enforcer. They hope to introduce evidence that the Lorenzos knew about an alleged plot by McGriff to assassinate rapper 50 Cent.
'Irv Gotti'
Offering Downloads
Nick & Toon
U.S. cable television channels Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will offer the online sale of several half-hour programs for $2.99 per download, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The paper said the episodes will be formatted to work exclusively with toy maker Hasbro Inc.'s VuGo portable media player, which sells for about $100 a discount retailers.
Nickelodeon, owned by Viacom Inc., will offer shows such as "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Unfabulous" and "Rugrats" for download at VuGo.com, according to the Journal. It said that the shows that Time Warner Inc.'s will offer include "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends."
Nick & Toon
Found Off Calif. Coast
'Intersex' Fish
Scientists have discovered sexually altered fish off the Southern California coast, raising concerns that treated sewage discharged into the ocean contains chemicals that can affect an animal's reproductive system.
So-called intersex animals are not new, but most previous instances were in freshwater. Environmentalists say this is among the first studies to document the effects in a marine environment.
In the latest studies, presented at Monday's Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Baltimore, scientists caught 82 male English sole and hornyhead turbot off Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Of those, 11 possessed ovary tissue in their testes, said Doris Vidal of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, who led one of the studies.
'Intersex' Fish
Scooter's Smut Subsidizers
'The Apprentice'
In Memory
Eddie Guerrero
Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room in Minneapolis on
Sunday morning.
He was in town to tape "Friday Night Smackdown" before leaving on an
international
tour, and the cause of death is not known at this time. Eddie was born
on October 9th, 1967 into one of Mexico's most famous wrestling
families. His father Gory was well known through out the US, having wrestled
for all of the larger federations through the 60's and into the 70's.
Eddie made his debut in 1987 as "Mascara Magica" in Mexico teaming with
the son the the legendary "El Santo".
By 1994, he was working in the US with ECW back when they were just a
small, regional promotion. While he was there, he brought a new style to
the company, which had been a mix of old-style southern wrasslin and
over-the-top violence matches. Eddie worked a high flying, action based
style that had long series of chain moves, much like Lucha matches where
wrestlers trade move and counter move over and over. It was this style
that won over the fans, and got him a contract with WCW right before
they moved to Monday Nights and became a phenomenon with the New World
Order gimmick that made them the most popular show on Cable TV for 3
years.
Eddie did well there too, but his "personal demons" (wrasslin talk for
drug or alcohol problems) took over, and while he didn't ever put on a
bad match, he was falling apart behind the scenes. By 1999, WCW was
falling apart, ratings were down, house shows weren't making money and
wrestlers who cared about putting on a good show were leaving as the
direction of the company changed on a near daily basis. He and three other
WCW stars (Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko) left in 2000
and showed up on WWF Raw the night after one of them won the WCW World
Championship, and formed "The Radicals", which many believe was the final
nail in the WCW coffin.
By the time he got to the WWF in 2000, he was barely holding together
his personal life, and was soon fired after flipping his car while on
ecstasy. While his in-ring performance didn't suffer, the other
wrestlers who came from WCW with him told management about their concerns, and
after a DWI arrest, he was let go and told he could return when he was
clean.
After recovery, he re-married his wife, and worked up through the indys
to get back to the WWE, where he became their second Hispanic World
Champion a month before Wrestlemania, and retained the title at
Wrestlemania XX against Kurt Angle in a match many believe to be the best of both
men's careers. Afterward he
came to ringside for his long-time friend Chris Benoit's victory over
Triple H, leading to the two of them in the middle of the ring at the
end of the Biggest Wrestling event of the year. They had both come up
through the ranks together, traveled together, and both had been told at
one time or another in smaller federations that they weren't "main
event material."
Eddie was one of those wrestlers who could get the crowd excited no
matter what he was saddled with by the creative team, and was able to get
people to buy tickets. Every attempt at making him a "bad guy" has
failed, because the crowds cheered for him, no matter what he did. He had
a number of specific bits in his "I lie, I cheat, I steal" persona that
became his staples such as: Coming to the ring in a low-rider; hitting
someone with a steel chair when the ref isn't looking and then falling
to the ground as if he was the one who was hit, giving three suplexes
in a row, and the frog splash, which was done in tribute to his first
tag-team partner who passed away when they worked in Mexico together.
His death has shocked people in wrestling and who follow wrestling, and
both WWE RAW and WWE Smackdown this week will be tributes to him in the
old wrestling tradition of putting aside storylines and having performs
putting on their best possible matches, as well as spoken reminiscences
about him. The cause of death is unknown at this time, and the
Hennepin County coroner said that results of the autopsy will not be released
for a few weeks. He will be buried in a private ceremony later this
week.
Thanks, Cory!
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