'Best of TBH Politoons'
PURPLE GENE'S WEIRD WORD OF THE WEEK
Coprophiliac
"Coprophiliac"
ON LINE DEFINITION: One who exhibits an abnormal interest in excrement.
ON THE STREET: A dimwit dufus who displays a desire to diddle in doggy dung.
IN A SENTENCE: In some circles Sam is considered a "Coprophiliac"....but we just call him a "Shit Head"!
(Read BartCop Entertainment and learn a useless new word each Tuesday)
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Beth Quinn: Stunned by lack of outrage, not outrageous acts (recordonline.com)
I continue to be stunned. Not by Bush any longer. There was a time when I was stunned by nearly everything he did. Or said. Who wouldn't be stunned by a president who could say, "They misunderestimated me," and sincerely believe he's on top of things?
JOE CALLAHAN: Many Tucsonans are not thinking enough about the war (tucsonweekly.com)
I have gone to the All Souls Procession dressed as George W. Bush, a political figure or a mock war supporter since 2003. I was joined in the past by others in political theater to protest the war. No one had ever complained or thought we were out of bounds, as far as I knew.
That changed in the 2007 procession.
Jim Hightower: WHY BUSH LOVES MUSHARRAF (jimhightower.com)
If the Bush-Cheney Regime is so committed to its stated ideals of spreading western-style democracy throughout the Islamic world, why is George W hugging up and propping up the anti-democratic, military dictatorship of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan?
James Randerson: How likely is a flu pandemic? (guardian.co.uk)
Last century there were three pandemics. The 1968-69 Hong Kong flu killed up to a million people globally, the 1957-58 Asian flu killed up to 1.5 million and the mother of them all, the 1918-20 Spanish flu, killed around 40 million - more than the first world war.
Mark Ravenhill: TV will die in a decade. Cinema will last a little longer. But theatre will be with us for ever (arts.guardian.co.uk)
The other day, a friend called me in a state of excitement. 'I've just had my first iPhone to iPhone conversation,' he trilled. 'Have you got your iPhone yet?' Of course I haven't, I sighed; I'm a technophobe.
Hadley Freeman: "Sesame Street: not suitable for children" (guardian.co.uk)
Thrillingly, the early episodes of Sesame Street have just been released on DVD, but be warned - those shows are dangerous!
QUENTIN B. HUFF: The Ghost Whisperer's Television Whisperer (popmatters.com)
Reasons to watch Jennifer Love Hewitt in 'Ghost Whisperer', ways to detect rounded characters on a flat screen, and why I should be called 'Television Whisperer'.
TONY SCLAFANI: The Cost of Freedom: The Rascals' Struggle for Change (popmatters.com)
In 1967-68, The Rascals were on top of the pop charts. So they decided to use their power to take a stand on Civil Rights. That's when the problems started.
EDDIE CIMINELLI: A Constant Questioning: An Interview with Spencer Krug of Sunset Rubdown (popmatters.com)
The key member of Sunset Rubdown and Wolf Parade matches his ambition with his humility. And his coffee.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (athensnews.com)
* John Waters, aka the Prince of Puke, is the movie director of such cult gross-outs as "Pink Flamingos." As a child, he played Car Accident, a game in which he wrecked his toy cars, then made up dialogue for the bloody and screaming and dying imaginary people in the cars and for the bystanders: "OH, MY GOD, THERE'S BEEN A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT!" He once pleaded to his mother, "Please take me to the junkyard!" She did.
Bruce's Storefront: Winter Holiday Gifts, Many Under $15
Reader Recommendation
Wolves @ th'Door
Hey Marty,
We finally got around to transferring a VHS tape of our band to DVD and posted a couple songs on you tube.Just wanted to share!
Th' Rev
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool.
U.N. Drive To End Violence Against Women
Nicole Kidman
The United Nations women's agency launched a campaign on Monday backed by actress Nicole Kidman to gather signatures on an Internet petition rejecting violence against women and urging action to stop it.
The launch of the petition titled "Say NO to violence against women," is part of a 16-day U.N.-backed campaign to raise awareness about the issue and urge governments to make eliminating such violence a priority.
UNIFEM (U.N. Development Fund for Women) statistics indicate that as many as one in three women will experience violence in her lifetime, whether it be domestic violence, genital mutilation, human trafficking or systematic rape in conflict zones.
Nicole Kidman
Want To Donate Harmonicas
Wil & Kin Shriner
The sons of a late harmonica player want to pass along hundreds of his signature, pocket-size instruments to troops overseas.
Herb Shriner's 53-year-old twin sons, actors Wil and Kin, found about 400 vintage harmonicas in their father's warehouse near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. They considered donating the instruments to schools or to youth groups, but now want to send them to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It beats sending them tubas," Wil Shriner said. "They're pretty easy to pick up and play."
The harmonicas were made by the Hohner Co. in Germany in 1949. Made of wood and brass, the blues harps are about 5 inches long and feature Herb Shriner's nickname, "Hoosier Boy."
Wil & Kin Shriner
Bus Tour With Obama
Oprah
US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey will sprinkle star dust on Barack Obama's presidential campaign next month, on a three state bus tour with the Democratic challenger.
The billionaire entertainer will link up with Obama in the crucial early-voting state of Iowa on December 8, then join him in other key battlegrounds New Hampshire and South Carolina, the Obama campaign said.
Obama, who lives in Chicago, where Winfrey's afternoon talk show is recorded, was asked by the city's Tribune newspaper in September whether Winfrey's support would make a difference.
"Oprah is somebody who has enormous reach, and that means that I may get a hearing in certain quarters," he said.
Oprah
Work With Carole King Displayed
Maurice Sendak
The Rosenbach Museum & Library is celebrating the work of Maurice Sendak with an expansion of its gallery space and "Really Rosie," a new show exploring the children's book author's collaboration with singer-songwriter Carole King.
"Really Rosie," perhaps best known to people who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, premiered on television in 1975 and became a best-selling soundtrack and popular musical. It adapted characters from several of Sendak's books and was set on a summer day in Sendak's native Brooklyn, N.Y.
King was the voice of the precocious Rosie, leader of the Nutshell Kids, for the animated TV special, which is projected on a wall in the gallery.
Visitors will see "Rosie"-related items never before on public view, including delicate ink-and-watercolor background scenes, character sketch studies, handwritten sheet music and a newly restored 9-feet-by-11-feet drawing Sendak did in 1980 for The New York Times Magazine.
Maurice Sendak
NY Library Acquires Papers
Arthur Schlesinger
The New York Public Library has acquired the papers of historian Arthur Schlesinger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and confidant to President John Kennedy who died in March at 89.
The library announced on Monday it had bought some 250 boxes, or nearly 300 linear feet in library parlance, from Schlesinger's estate for an undisclosed amount, safeguarding his journals and correspondence with world leaders for use by researchers and historians.
The collection includes manuscripts, research files, phone logs, sound recordings, videos, date books and clippings from the mid-1930s to 1998, documenting monumental events from a man with a front-row seat to history.
There is correspondence with Kofi Annan, Truman Capote, Bill Clinton, Marlene Dietrich, Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer, among other leading figures of politics, high society, entertainment and literature.
Arthur Schlesinger
Wedding News
Ford - Routh
It was a Thanksgiving weekend wedding for "Superman Returns" star Brandon Routh and Courtney Ford.
Routh, 28, married the 29-year-old actress Saturday at El Capitan Ranch. The couple met four years ago, according to People magazine.
The bride wore a Junko Yoshioka sheath dress with Chantilly lace and platinum beading and the groom wore a cashmere suit, according to the People report featured on the actor's Web site.
Ford - Routh
Visits Israel
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld's trip to the Holy Land got so much hype it rivaled news of key upcoming Mideast talks.
The Jewish comic visited Israel for the first time in decades to promote his new animated movie about bees, and he was treated like royalty - literally.
The comedian himself seemed awed by his reception. He said it was quite a contrast to his last trip to Israel in 1971 as a 15-year-old volunteer on a kibbutz collective farm.
"I would be in the fields, and nobody wanted my autograph and nobody wanted to take their picture with me," he told reporters in Tel Aviv. "They just let me hack away at those banana leaves, and no, I didn't meet the prime minister even once."
Jerry Seinfeld
FEMA Not Alone
Fake News
The fake October news conference held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency was not the first time a Homeland Security public affairs official has acted like a reporter by asking questions during a briefing.
On Feb. 3, 2006, an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a question during a news conference in San Antonio, Texas, according to an investigation by the Homeland Security Department - the parent agency of both FEMA and ICE.
The ICE public affairs official was standing with about 12 reporters but did not identify herself when she posed the question, Homeland Security's head of public affairs, J. Edward Fox, wrote in a Nov. 19 letter to the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee. After the news conference, the government employee was verbally reprimanded for asking the question, Fox told Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
Unlike the recent FEMA incident, Fox said the ICE public affairs official was advised against asking the question, but asked anyway and did not identify herself as staff. San Antonio reporters knew she was a public affairs official at the time.
Fake News
Quick Contract
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America has made quick work of its latest contract negotiations.
The guild said Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with TV network reps on a new three-year contract for about 800 news and sports directors and operational staff. The pact, reached after just four bargaining sessions, was inked in the early hours of Saturday morning and provides unspecified "annual wage increases and other negotiated benefits," officials said.
A DGA spokeswoman declined to say why news of the contract was held for three days, with the deal revealed a day after the results of a strike authorization vote by Writers Guild of America East newswriters at CBS were announced. Some 81 percent of the guild newswriters authorized a possible strike against the Eye, WGAE officials said Monday.
Directors Guild of America
Film Says War Criminals Were Martyrs
'The Truth About Nanjing'
Japan's wartime leaders, hanged as war criminals, were martyrs like Jesus Christ, says the Japanese director of an upcoming film backed by nationalists that argues that the 1937 Nanjing massacre was a fabrication by China.
Satoru Mizushima's "The Truth About Nanjing" is the latest of many films about Japan's invasion and occupation of the city which has been a thorn in Japan-China ties for seven decades due to wildly differing accounts about casualties.
Backed by Japanese nationalist figures, including Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, and partly funded by donations, the film is billed as part documentary and part fictionalized account of the final 24 hours in the lives of Japanese leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal and hanged for war crimes.
Mizushima says China made up the casualties in order to gain the upper hand in world politics, and also discredits several witness accounts by Westerners who were in Nanjing at the time, calling them communist "spies."
'The Truth About Nanjing'
Directs Off-Broadway
Kathleen Turner
First Ethan Hawke. Now Kathleen Turner. Big names are directing off-Broadway this season.
Turner will oversee a revival of Beth Henley's charming Dixie-drenched comedy, "Crimes of the Heart," opening Feb. 7 at the Laura Pels Theatre. The Roundabout Theatre Company production will begin preview performances Jan. 18.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play was seen on Broadway in 1981 and ran for more than 500 performances. It originated two years earlier in Kentucky at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Hawke is the director of the New Group's production, "Things We Want," by Jonathan Marc Sherman, in which three brothers return to their inherited childhood home. The cast includes Paul Dano, Peter Dinklage and Josh Hamilton. It is playing at the Acorn Theatre on West 42nd Street's Theatre Row.
Kathleen Turner
Chinese Artist Breaks Record
Cai Guo-Qiang
A set of 14 gunpowder paintings by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang sold for US$9.5 million at an auction in Hong Kong, breaking records for the artist and for Chinese contemporary art, Christie's auction house said Monday.
The abstract works by Cai were sold to an anonymous bidder on Sunday as part of a mammoth auction of contemporary South and Southeast Asian art in Hong Kong.
Cai's 14 screens, done in gunpowder and ink, sold for double their estimated value of between $3.5 million-$4.6 million, making him the world's most expensive contemporary Chinese artist.
Cai Guo-Qiang
Dwindling Reserves
Episodic TV
The writers strike is in its fourth week, with chilly prospects for viewing ahead.
• Fox airs a fresh "House" Tuesday. After that, only three more new episodes remain, slotted for January - one of them following Fox's Super Bowl broadcast.
• ABC's new hit comedy "Samantha Who?" has six more episodes in the can.
• The "Crime Scene Investigation" trio, "NCIS," "Criminal Minds," "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case" are down to four or fewer new episodes apiece on CBS.
• ABC's "Ugly Betty," "Pushing Daisies" and "Grey's Anatomy" each have two new episodes to go.
• ABC's "Desperate Housewives" airs the last of its current stock of new episodes Sunday.
• The final new episode of NBC's "Heroes" airs Dec. 3.
• NBC's "The Office" is closed for business until the strike's end, with only reruns on deck.
• CBS' new hit sitcom "Big Bang Theory" has similarly run dry, along with "How I Met Your Mother," "Two And a Half Men" and "Rules of Engagement."
Episodic TV
In Memory
Kevin DuBrow
Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of the popular 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot, has been found dead from unknown causes at his home in Las Vegas, authorities said on Monday.
DuBrow, 52, was found dead at about 5:20 p.m. on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Coroner's Office said. She said an autopsy would be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Quiet Riot, which was founded in the mid-1970s, topped the Billboard charts in 1983 with the album "Metal Health," spurred on by the massive hit single "Cum on Feel the Noize."
The band has since endured break-ups and personnel changes but released a new album in 2006 and continued to tour sporadically.
Kevin DuBrow
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