BartCop Entertainment Archives - Tuesday, 28 December, 2004
Tuesday
28 December, 2004
(Updated Daily)
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'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
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Cory!! Strode On Graphic Novels
Amazing Spider-Man
Looks like we made it through another Giftmas (which I will call it from now on, since Fox News has let me know that they are owners and protectors of the word Christmas, and those of us who don't believe in an invisible man who lives in the sky shouldn't have anything to do with it), and if you are like me, there's next to no money in your checking account. Also, if you're like me, you're looking for something cheap.
Thankfully, Marvel Comics seems to know this, and came out with a set of 11 CDs that has every issue of Amazing Spider-Man from #1 to #500 available for people to read on their computers. It retails for $49.95, which works out to a little less than 8 cents each! That's right, you can get comics for a dime again!
Amazing Spider-Man is the main Spider-Man book, and was the only regular Spider-Man comic until the early 70's. After the first couple of years, Marvel saw the comic as their flagship, and tended to put their best creators on the book, leading to one of the best entire runs of a comic book in the history of the medium. Spider-Man is also fairly unique in that the entire run is kept "in continuity". Since the earliest issues, Stan Lee wrote it as if it were a long-running soap opera, referring to previous issues, having subplots that would run for months (or years in some cases) and having characters grow and change through the years.
Batman and Superman had both been pretty much set in stone by their second year, but Spider-Man was different. Whereas Superman (and most other super-heroes) stayed about the same as when they were created, Spider-Man started as a gawky teenager, graduated from high school 3 years after the series started, had supporting characters change (or die), and is now happily married and working as a high school teacher.
The changes come fast in the first 50 issues as Stan Lee and Steve Ditko start the comic with a bang, and shoot through the first year as if they have no idea what they are doing next. Then, as Ditko takes over more and more of the plotting, the comic begins continued, extended stories (unheard of for comics in the early 60's, when Superman would feature 2 or 3 stories per issue). The Ditko issues, while crudely drawn, are some of the best comics ever printed, and the only complaint I have with the collection's version of them, is that they are shot directly from old comic books with a degree of wear and tear.
Ditko leaves the book after the third year finishes and is replaced by romance comics artist John Romita, who creates the "house style" for Spider-Man for the next 20 years. Lee slips into a style of soap opera and melodrama that is perfectly captured in the Spider-Man movies. The remainder of the issues from the 60's are a nostalgic dream, with Lee hitting all of the right pop-culture notes with solid action plots that tend to get a bit repetitive if taken in big doses.
The 70's were a time of confusion for Marvel, with Stan Lee pulling back from writing to work on getting movies made of Marvel characters, as well as a lucrative college lecture run that lasted until the early 80's. Gerry Conway (who now is head writer on Law and Order) took the comic in new directions, going for darker plots, harsher artwork, but still kept Stan's "aware of the reader" style. Conway gave way to other writers in the 70's, all of whom kept up the Lee style, but had plots that tended to become formulaic.
The 80's started with the worst run in the history of the comic, and the issues here are even worse than I remember. After #200, Amazingly Spider-Man wouldn't have a regular creative team for a little over 2 years, and seemed to be a dumping ground for creators who were finishing up contracts or were sitting the office when the deadline approached. This was reversed by new writer Roger Stern, who took over the writing and quickly made Spider-Man a solidly entertaining comic again. If you buy this collection, the first issue to read is from his run, #248, "The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man," which is quite possibly the best Spider-Man story other than his origin. Stern was followed by Tom DeFalco, who kept the series quality high for his entire run.
By issue #300, super-star artist Todd McFarlane (or as you may know him, "that idiot who bought Mark McGuire's baseball for $7 million) teamed with writer David Micheline for another of Spider-Man's excellent runs. McFarlane left two years later to form his own comic company and produce "Spawn", but Micheline stayed with the character for over 80 issues, and turned out solidly entertaining super-hero stories that aren't great literature, but were solid super-hero fun. It was at the end of his run that the Spider-Man books stumbled, causing the worst sales slump the character ever saw.
Looking for a "big event" along with lines of "The Death Of Superman", "Batman Breaking His Back" and "Green Lantern Going Crazy And Killing Off The Green Lantern Corps", the Spider-Man editorial team decided they wanted to get rid of the fact that Peter Parker was a married man, and was reasonably successful, so they embarked on a series of stories that turned on a single story from twenty year previous. In issue #149, wrapping up Gerry Conway's run on the character, he had Spider-Man fight a clone of himself, and in an explosion, the clone was killed. Editorial decided that not only was the clone not killed, but that the REAL Spider-Man had been the one knocked out in the explosion, and readers had been reading stories about the clone ever since #150.
From a current reader's perspective, it's impossible to understand why such a thing was ever tried, but the story got a lot of attention, brought in huge sales in the beginning, and because of that, the story lasted over a year longer than originally planned, and ended with Spider-Man at the lowest sales point in the series history. On the CDs, this period is completely unreadable, as Amazing Spider-Man crossed over with the other three Spider-Man comics, and each month, you get one part of a continued story that is not reprinted in full in this set.
However, even in the midst of this crapfest, one issue stands out. #400 featured the death of Aunt May in a touching and well-written issue by J. M. DeMatties. The story has since been explained away, but it is a wonderful capper to the character, and even though it was explained away, it stands as one of the best Spider-Man stories ever written.
The Spider-Man franchise was so damaged by this stunt that the story was explained away, Amazing Spider-Man was canceled and restarted with a new #1, and Clone Saga" is shorthand in comic book circles for "character killing story." The relaunched Spider-Man suffered from tired storytelling, over-the-top soap opera histrionics and a lack of joy until #30, when J. Michael Straczynski took over as writer, and remembered that the reason Spider-Man is popular is because Peter Parker is such a strong character. It wasn't long until Amazing Spider-Man went back to its old numbering, and the collection on CD ends with #500.
I don't think there is a better deal in comics, and even though I have many of the originals (and reprints of the ones I don't), this was a "no-brainer" purchase for me. Every issue of the series (and the origin in Amazing Fantasy #15). The Adobe interface is clunky and hard to deal with, but once you get the hang of it, it's a great way to read the adventures of Spider-Man.
Cory!! Strode (The Best Dressed Man In Comics) has written comic books, novels, jokes for comedians, Op Ed columns, the on-line comic strip
www.Asylumon5thstreet.com and has all kinds of things on his website
www.solitairerose.com
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Rev. Dr. SUSAN BLOCK: Faith-Based Sex
Everybody's talking about Faith. Yes, indeed. The F Word is on the tip of every tongue of every preacher, every pollster, every pundit, every pious puritan, paranoid programmer and pontificating prude. Now that's a lot of P-P, but we're talking about the F-Word here. So it's official: FAITH is IN. And all I can say is: Hallelujah! Because heathen horny housewife that I am, I've got Faith with a capital F. I've got Faith in the Power of Sex.
Wal-Mart elected "Grinch of the Year" for 2004
The retailing giant Wal-Mart was named 'Grinch of the Year' in a national online poll held between December 6 and December 22 by Jobs with Justice. Wal-Mart is a fitting recipient of the Grinch title. As the
United States' largest retailer and largest employer, Wal-Mart is a driving force in setting wage standards wherever its stores are located. Despite nearly $9 billion in profits, its wages are so low that many employees are eligible for food stamps. Even so, local taxpayers often finance Wal-Mart's expansion through tax breaks and development incentives.
PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: A System of Injustice, America Locked Up
While enjoying Christmas, good food and drink with family and friends in the warmth and comfort of your home, take a moment to remember the falsely imprisoned. Think about how your own family would handle the grief, because wrongful imprisonment can happen to you. In a just published book, "Thinking About Crime," Michael Tonry, a distinguished American law professor and director of Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, reports that the US has the highest percentage of its population in prison than any country on earth. The US incarceration rate is as much as 12 times higher than that of European countries.
Bill Moyers: A Word About Our Planet
. . . The journalist who truly deserves this award is my friend, Bill McKibben. . . . His bestseller The End of Nature carried on where Rachel Carson's Silent Spring left off. Writing in Mother Jones recently, Bill described how the problems we journalists routinely cover - conventional, manageable programs like budget shortfalls and pollution - may be about to convert to chaotic, unpredictable, unmanageable situations. The most unmanageable of all, he writes, could be the accelerating deterioration of the environment, creating perils with huge momentum like the greenhouse effect that is causing the melt of the arctic to release so much freshwater into the North Atlantic that even the Pentagon is growing alarmed that a weakening gulf stream could yield abrupt and overwhelming changes, the kind of changes that could radically alter civilizations.
Nick Claussen: Army of Bush figurines invade U.S. popular culture
The Bushgnomes are the brainchild of Sam Girton an assistant professor in Ohio University's School of Visual Communications, got the idea for the Bushgnome from political cartoons that often depict President Bush with pointy ears. Girton said he thought President Bush looked like a gnome in the cartoons, so he decided to create a garden gnome based on him.
David Bruce: Cold Weather
Gov. Al Smith of New York once went to a mid-winter weekend party in a cabin in the wilderness. On Sunday, he and three other Catholics got up at 4:30 on a very cold morning to drive several miles to attend a 6 a.m. Mass. Looking at the Protestants sleeping peacefully, he remarked to the other Catholics, "Wouldn't it be awful if it turned out that they were right and we were wrong?"
Another David Bruce: Hollywood Jesus
Yet Another David Bruce: Winemaker
and
David Bruce: Winemaker
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Purple Gene Reviews
'I Robot'
Purple Genes´ review of the movie "
I Robot" (2004)
suggested from a short story by
Isaac Asimov
and directed by
Alex Proyas:
So I´m flying out of New York City on a Delta transatlantic flight to Barcelona and I get my headphones wrapped around my ears ready for the inflight movie........Tonight we´ll be viewing "Planet of the Robots"....oops - I mean "Terminator 4 - Robot Nation".......wrong again - it's "I Robot" the post "Ali" with fine pecs still - Will Smith as "Spoon" - a Chicago 2035 robot hating undercover cop.......who is sent over to find out why Dr.Lannings (James Cromwell) - "That´ll do pig"!!!) has seemingly committed suicide - but Spoon smells a robot revolution brewing.......
U.S. Robotics, headed Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood - "The Core" - "Swept Away") is about to launch the new N.S. 5 model robot to replace the obsolete older types and increase the ratio to 1 robot to every 5 humans - and the sales campaign is on - big contract. Spoon suspects foul play - automoton style and one of the robots, Sonny (Alan Tudyk), gets uppity on him when he brandishes his 45 in "Bot" line-up. Needless to say their is a Doctor Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan - "Coyote Ugly" - "Serendipity") who is a calcified but cute shrink for the robots!
Nobody believes Spoon when incident after incident keeps happening to him because the "Bots" know he´s onto them´......and the computer generated "cockroaches" keep increasing by the hundreds......and Spoon thinks that Sonny is the ring leader.
Well this ridiculous robot flick got thicker and thicker and pretty soon the whole city is over run by rebelling "Bots" - and just as my plane hits a huge up draft and starts shaking, so did the whole city of Chicago 2035.......well, we find out that the brains of the whole thing is V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intellect) in the shape of a holographic whore from hell - she must be neutralized.....there is a great scene where a huge "Demo Bot" tears down the old professors house in a rampage and at the end of the destruction this lethal well lit monster resembles a huge wolf spider hovering over her nest......
Turns out that Sonny is really a "Bot" with a heart and helps Spoon and Susan defeat the rampaging robots and quell the conspiracy and keep the peace......and Sonny gets the girl in the end......
Purple Gene gives "I Robot" 7 computer generated "Bots" out of 10 for overdoing but entertaining!
Purple Gene
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast day, rainy night.
Tonight, Tuesday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN 'NCIS', followed by a FRESH 'Amazing Race 6', then a RERUN 'Judging Amy'.
On a RERUN Dave (from 11/29/04) are Matt Damon and Lance Armstrong.
On a RERUN 'Craiggers' with guest host Ana Gasteyer (from 9/29/04) are Camryn Manheim, Vanessa Ferlito, and Joss Stone.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH 'Father Of The Pride', followed by another FRESH 'Father Of The Pride', then still another FRESH 'Father Of The Pride' (can we 'dumping'?), followed by a
RERUN 'Scrubs', then a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
On a RERUN Leno (from 10/18/04) are Jamie Foxx, Keith Olbermann, and Amy Grant.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Kenan Thompson, Clyde Peeling, and Eugene Mirman.
On a RERUN Carson Daly (from 11/30/04) are Eddie Izzard, Susan Miller, and Seance Divine.
ABC opens the night with a RERUN 'My Wife & Kids', followed by a RERUN 'George Lopez', then a RERUN 'Jim', followed by a RERUN 'Rodney', then '20/20 Special Edition: New Year, New Love'.
On a RERUN Jimmy Kimmel (from 12/10/04) are Tony Hawk and Motley Crue.
The WB offers a RERUN 'Gilmore Girls', followed by a FRESH 'High School Reunion'.
Faux has a FRESH 'Rebel Billionaire: Branson's Quest For The Best', followed by a FRESH 'House'.
UPN has a RERUN 'All Of Us', followed by a RERUN 'Eve', then a RERUN 'Veronica Mars'.
A&E has 'American Justice', 'Cold Case Files', another Cold Case Files', 'Dog The Bounty Hunter', and another 'Dog The Bounty Hunter'.
AMC offers the movie 'Hatari!', followed by the movie 'The Sea Chase', then the movie 'In Harm's Way'.
BBC -
[2pm] 'As Time Goes By' - Episode 3;
[2:40pm] 'Are You Being Served?' - Big Brother;
[3:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 7;
[4pm] 'The Saint' - The Angel's Eye;
[5pm] 'The Weakest Link' - Episode 11;
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 16;
[7pm] 'Bargain Hunt' - Carmarthen;
[7:30pm] 'What Not to Wear' - Geneve;
[8pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 1;
[9pm] 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' - Moore Place;
[10pm] 'Holiday Showdown' - Australia/Sark;
[11pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 1;
[12am] 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' - Moore Place;
[1am] 'Holiday Showdown' - Australia/Sark;
[2am] 'Bargain Hunt' - Carmarthen;
[2:30am] 'What Not to Wear' - Geneve;
[3am] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 1;
[4am] 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' - Moore Place;
[5am] 'Holiday Showdown' - Australia/Sark;
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'West Wing', 'Moving Image Salutes John Travolta', and 'Queer Eye'.
Comedy Central has 'MAD TV', another 'MAD TV', 'Chris Rock: Bring The Pain', followed by the movie 'Dogma'.
Jon Stewart is pre-empted.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Wild West Tech', another 'Modern Marvels', and still another 'Modern Marvels'.
IFC -
[6AM] 'Edward II' (1992);
[7:30AM] 'The Wages Of Fear' (1953);
[10AM] 'The Climb' (1998);
[11:45AM] 'For Roseanna' (1997);
[1:30PM] 'The Wages Of Fear' (1953);
[4PM] 'The Climb' (1998);
[5:45PM] 'IFC 10: 10 Years, 10 Icons' (2004);
[6:15PM] 'For Roseanna' (1997);
[8PM] 'Dinner For Five #32' (2004);
[8:30PM] 'The Ultimate Film Fanatic #7' (Mountain) (2004);
[9PM] 'IFC 10: 10 Years, 10 Icons' (2004);
[9:30PM] 'Another Day In Paradise' (1998);
[11:30PM] 'Blood And Wine' (1996);
[1:15AM] 'Twenty-Four Seven' (1997);
[3AM] 'At The Angelika #91' (2004);
[3:30AM] 'Another Day In Paradise' (1998);
[5:15AM] 'IFC 10: 10 Years, 10 Icons' (2004). (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has the movie 'Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies', followed by the movie 'Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell'.
Sundance -
[6:10AM] 'A Female Cabby in Sidi Bel-Abbes' (Documentary);
[7AM] 'Grass' (Documentary);
[8:20AM] 'She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not' (Short);
[8:30AM] 'How to Get Ahead in Advertising' (Feature);
[10:05AM] 'The Navigators' (Feature);
[11:45AM] 'Mother To Child' (Documentary);
[12:30PM] 'Within a Play' (Documentary);
[2PM] 'A Female Cabby in Sidi Bel-Abbes' (Documentary);
[3PM] 'Wish You Were Here' (Feature);
[4:35PM] 'Foxy Lady, Wild Cherry' (Short);
[5PM] 'Grass' (Documentary);
[6:20PM] 'How to Get Ahead in Advertising' (Feature);
[8PM] 'Anatomy of a Scene: Buffalo Soldiers' (Original Production);
[8:30PM] 'Within a Play' (Documentary);
[10PM] 'His Secret Life' (Feature);
[12AM] 'The City of Lost Children' (Feature);
[2AM] 'Anatomy of a Scene: Buffalo Soldiers' (Original Production);
[2:30AM] 'Another Heaven' (Feature);
[4:45AM] 'La Salla' (Short);
[4:55AM] 'Careful' (World Cinema). (ALL TIMES EST)
TCM continues paying tribute to James Stewart all morning,
spends the afternoon with
William Powell and
Myrna Loy, then
features films of Sidney Poitier all night.
[6am] 'The Shopworn Angel' (1938);
[7:30am] 'The Last Gangster' (1937);
[9am] 'Carbine Williams' (1952);
[10:45am] 'Malaya' (1949);
[12:30pm] 'The Thin Man' (1934);
[2:15 pm] 'After The Thin Man' (1936);
[4:15 pm] 'Another Thin Man' (1939);
[6pm] 'Shadow Of The Thin Man' (1941);
[8pm] 'The Defiant Ones' (1958);
[10pm] 'In The Heat Of The Night' (1967);
[12am] 'Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light' (2000);
[1am] 'The Bedford Incident' (1965);
[2:45 am] 'Edge of the City' (1957);
[4:15am] 'Blackboard Jungle' (1955). (ALL TIMES EST)
Wednesday - 12/29
TCM:
[6am] 'Buck Privates' (1941);
[7:30am] 'Knute Rockne, All American' (1940);
[9:15am] 'The Pride Of The Yankees' (1942);
[11:30am] 'Dark Victory' (1939);
[1:15pm] 'Imitation Of Life' (1934);
[3:15pm] 'Lolita' (1962);
[6pm] 'The Lady Vanishes' (1938);
[8pm] 'Kansas City Confidential' (1952);
[10pm] 'The Thomas Crown Affair' (1968);
[12am] 'High Sierra' (1941);
[2am] 'Point Blank' (1967);
[4am] 'Topkapi' (1964). (ALL TIMES EST)
Any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
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Hollywood actress and UN goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie (R) signs an autograph for a patient as she holds her four-year-old adopted son Maddox, during her visit to the Children's Cancer Center at the American Hospital in Beirut on Christmas day, December 25, 2004. Picture taken December 25, 2004.
Photo by Mahmoud Tawil
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Felt Urgency to Produce Nixon Film
Sean Penn
While Hollywood shied away from reminders of Sept. 11, 2001, Sean Penn figures the terrorist attacks added urgency to produce his film "The Assassination of Richard Nixon."
Set in 1974, the film stars Penn as the real-life Samuel Byck, a business failure who blamed his shortcomings on societal corruption and attempted to kill President Nixon by hijacking a plane to crash it into the White House.
Penn, 44, who had been developing the project for two years before Sept. 11, said he never viewed the similarities between the Byck incident and the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks as impediments to the film.
"Not at all. If anything, it might have encouraged it," Penn said in an interview.
For a wonderful ass-kicking interview, Sean Penn
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PricewaterhouseCoopers managing partners and staff were on hand at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Monday December 27, 2004, to oversee the mailing of nomination ballots for the 77th Academy Awards. Pictured left to right are Brad Oltmanns, Greg Garrison, Rick Rosas and Martha Ruiz. The Awards will be televised live February 27, 2005.
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Entering Rehab
George Carlin
Comedian George Carlin, who became a counter-culture hero in the 1970s with routines about drugs and dirty words, said on Monday he was voluntarily entering a drug and alcohol treatment program.
"I'm going into rehab because I use too much wine and Vicodin," Carlin, 67, whose latest book "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" is a current national bestseller, said in a statement. "No one told me I needed this; I recognized the problem and took the step myself."
The announcement came weeks after the veteran stand-up comic caused a stir at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with a performance that questioned the intellect of people who visit the resort city.
Speaking of his current problem, he said: "My levels of use are nowhere near the worst you hear about these days; I could easily have continued functioning at a good level ... for awhile. But my use would have progressed, I would have been in deeper trouble, and I didn't want to tolerate that."
Carlin's spokesman, Jeff Abraham, said the comedian entered rehab on Monday but did not know how long he would remain in treatment. He said Carlin was currently scheduled to begin a new engagement at Stardust Hotel in Vegas in February.
George Carlin
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NBC Sitcom
Scott Baio
Former teen heartthrob Scott Baio is taking another stab at series television with an NBC sitcom project about a fortysomething who moves in with a guy in his 20s and turns his life upside down.
The project has received a script commitment from the network. Emmy-winning writer-producer Jace Richdale ("The Simpsons") will serve as an executive producer.
Baio, 43, is best known for his starring role in the 1980s comedy "Charles in Charge" as well as his turn as Charles "Chachi" Arcola on "Happy Days." He also did a two-year stint on CBS' "Diagnosis Murder." On the big screen, he most recently co-starred in "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2."
Scott Baio
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A statue of author John Steinbeck stands in the courtyard at the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas, Calif., on Dec. 15, 2004. Starting next month, Salinas will begin to close all three of the city's libraries because of budget shortfalls, giving John Steinbeck's hometown the embarrassing distinction of the biggest city west of the Mississippi without any public libraries.
Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez
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In Hospital After Fall
Liza Minnelli
Actress and singer Liza Minnelli was taken to a hospital after falling out of bed and hitting her head in the early hours of Monday morning, People Magazine reported.
"She was sleeping and she rolled out of bed," People quoted a police source as saying in an article on its Web site.
"She hit her head. Her bodyguard got nervous and he called 911. He said he couldn't get her up. She wasn't bleeding. She was on the floor," the source was quoted as saying.
The report said Minnelli, 58, was taken to New York Hospital. A spokeswoman at the hospital declined to confirm the report and Minnelli's spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Liza Minnelli
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pissed
(formerly 'The Vidiot')
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NY Philharmonic President Opens Nasdaq
Zarin Mehta
Zarin Mehta, the New York Philharmonic's president and executive director, was accompanied by a string quartet Monday to open the day's trading at the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The quartet - Philharmonic members Sarah O'Boyle, Lisa GiHae Kim, Dorian Rence and Brinton Smith - played an arrangement of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" in honor of the holiday season.
Zarin Mehta
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A child poses with post cards in the Myanmar capital Yangon on December 12, 2004. Aung San Suu Kyi's pleas are falling on deaf ears these days. Far from heeding the Nobel peace laureate's cry to stay away from military-ruled Myanmar, tourists are flocking to the mystical, isolated Southeast Asian nation in ever greater numbers.
Photo by Sukree Sukplang
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Originally Slated for 'Kill Bill'
Warren Beatty
David Carradine says he inspired the title role in the "Kill Bill" movies, but the part was originally written for Warren Beatty.
Carradine explained during an interview with the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that Beatty initially landed the role but director Quentin Tarantino kept instructing him to act like Carradine.
"Then the part comes to me and it fits like a glove because it's actually written about me," Carradine said. "All I had to do was show up and learn the lines."
Warren Beatty
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Nick Bonavita assembles 72 Waterford crystal triangles featuring a 'Hope For Wisdom' design Monday, Dec. 27, 2004, on a rooftop at One Times Square in New York. The crystals, together with 432 crystal triangles from previous designs form the basis of a crystal ball that is the centerpiece of the Times Square 2005 New Year's Eve celebration, viewed by millions of people from all over the world in person and on television.
Photo by Kathy Willens
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Nixes Statue in Pennsylvania
Bobby Vinton
Roses are red, my love, violets are blue. Sugar is sweet, my love, but a $100,000 tribute is too much ado.
That's the message Bobby Vinton has for Canonsburg, the crooner's former hometown, in nixing plans for a statue and tribute to him.
A group led by borough Councilwoman Jean Popp, who graduated from Canonsburg High School with Vinton in 1952, had hoped to raise $100,000 - $70,000 for the statue and another $30,000 to publicize its dedication, including banquets, printed materials and souvenirs.
But the 69-year-old Vinton, a '60s pop idol perhaps best known for the love song "Roses Are Red," e-mailed borough manager Terry Hazlett saying he wouldn't support the effort.
"I feel that a tribute of this magnitude, with all that is going on the world, and to ask the community to raise $100,000, is inappropriate," Vinton wrote. He also noted that the honor is "premature" because he hasn't retired.
Bobby Vinton
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Two Costa Rican women dance to the rhythm of comparsa during the traditional carnival in the main avenue of San Jose, December 27, 2004. Thousands of Costa Ricans turned out to participate in the year-end festival.
Photo by Roger Benavidez
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New Bottle Keeps Bubbly Bubbling
Champagne
New Year's Eve revelers will be able to celebrate a little longer this year thanks to a resealable champagne bottle that keeps sparkling wine bubbling for days.
Andre Champagne Cellars is introducing a new improved screwcap bottle for champagne that allows drinkers to re-cork the bottle, which will allow them to have just one glass and keep the rest fresh.
The Andre cap twists on and off a set of grooves on the neck of the bottle.
The closely held Andre test marketed the new bottles on its $4 Andre champagne in November 2003 and is rolling them out across the United States this holiday season.
Champagne
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In Memory
Eddie Layton
Eddie Layton, the Yankee Stadium organist and ballpark fixture for more than 35 years, has died after a brief illness.
Layton died Sunday, the New York Yankees said. The team did not know his age.
Layton joined the team in 1967 when the club began using organ music at Yankee Stadium and played until his retirement after the 2003 season.
Tucked away in a booth on the press box level, Layton entertained fans for decades, often by hitting just a few notes. He'd reward outstanding plays with a brief rendition of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and would sound a short trill after high-and-inside pitches.
Layton also performed as the organist for the New York Knicks and Rangers for 18 years. He wrote scores for soap operas, played at Radio City Music Hall and was a member of the New York Sports Hall of Fame.
Eddie Layton
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In Memory
Goliath
A 7 1/2-year-old monster buck named Goliath, allegedly stolen in 1999 and then returned to the ranch where he was raised, has died. The massive deer died Dec. 6; tests will determine the cause. The life span of a deer is 10 to 15 years.
"It could have been due to a lot of the stress that he endured from being away from here," said Diane Miller, who raised the buck with her husband at their Wild Bunch Ranch, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. "It's just like losing a family member."
Goliath, believed to be the largest whitetail bred in captivity, vanished from the Millers' ranch in October 1999 when he was about 2, weighed 260 pounds and had 28 points, or antler tips.
In July 2003, members of the Pennsylvania Deer Farmers Association saw a deer they believed was Goliath on a deer farm about 50 miles from the Millers. The deer had grown much larger and its rack had about twice the number of points.
Diane Miller said Goliath mated this fall.
"Hopefully the does he was in with this fall will fawn to him in the spring," she said.
Goliath
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Brett Kelly, senior systems engineer and lead flight test evaluator, preflights the ScanEagle (UAV) prior to launch during a demonstration at Indian Springs Auxiliary Field, in Nevada, on December 18, 2004. Boeing and The Insitu Group have developed and built a low-cost, long-endurance autonomous unmanned vehicle, called ScanEagle. ScanEagle is based on Insitu's Seascan miniature robotic aircraft and draws on Boeing's systems integration, communications and payload technologies. In June 2004, Boeing was contracted by the U.S. Marine Corps to provide two ScanEagle mobile deployment units for use with the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. The mobile deployment units consist of several UAVs as well as the computers, communication links and ground equipment necessary to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) support during operational missions. Picture taken December 18, 2004.
Photo by Sgt. Kevin J.Gruenwald/USMC/Handout
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