'Best of TBH Politoons'
M Is FOR MASHUP - Feb 20th, 2008
Three New Boots For February
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Susan Jacoby: The Dumbing Of America (washingtonpost.com)
Call Me a Snob, but Really, We're a Nation of Dunces
Jim Hightower: BUSH'S BUDGETARY FOLLIES (jimhightower.com)
George W has now submitted his budget to Congress, and it can be summed up by this lopsided score: Domestic needs, zero. The Pentagon, 515 billion.
Beth Quinn: Real Olympics for our regular dogs (recordonline.com)
Last week, I wrote a column complaining that the Westminster Dog Show just doesn't have the sort of events that my dogs, Huck and Tom, might shine at.
After all, they basically have no clue about walking next to me on the leash or otherwise behaving properly. So I suggested we have a Dog Competition for Regular Dogs, one in which their regular-dog talents - like getting muddy and puking and the like - might shine.
T.M. WOLF: America's Most Policed Art Form: Subway Graffiti, NYC's Visual Criminal (popmatters.com)
The policing of the art form has been so thorough and enduring that it's become possible to see hip-hop as just that: an agent, or better, a target, that has a life over and above the individuals that practice it.
20 QUESTIONS: Allison Moorer (popmatters.com)
19. What do you want to say to the leader of your country?
Oh, many, many things. Most of them unprintable here. Mainly I want to ask him how he sleeps at night knowing how many deaths he has caused.
Daniel Bubbeo: Fast chat with LaKisha Jones (Newsday; Posted on popmatters.com)
Two years ago LaKisha Jones was working as a bank teller in Maryland. These days, the only money notes she deals with are the ones she belts out eight times a week in Broadway's "The Color Purple."
Dan Cairns: The rise of Amy Macdonald (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Amy Macdonald has become a sensation with nae bother.
A funk inferno (music.guardian.co.uk)
When Martin Luther King was assassinated 40 years ago, only one US city was spared the riots that followed. Ed Vulliamy tells the extraordinary story of a James Brown gig that changed history.
John Madden: How a film director gets his break (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Today, making movies need not be expensive: put it on the internet, says the director of "Shakespeare in Love."
David Bruce: Wise Up! Weekly Column #600 (athensnews.com)
Abraham Zuckerman is one of the more than 1,300 Jews rescued by Oskar Schlinder during the Holocaust. In 1949, Mr. Zuckerman and his wife immigrated to the United States, where in New Jersey he began to develop real estate. He says, "The first thing we did in every development was to name a street after Oskar Schlinder." In the book "The Triumphant Spirit," a photograph by Nick Del Calzo shows Mr. Zuckerman posing with a street sign that says, "SCHLINDER WAY."
Reader Suggestion
Donations
Hi, Marty-
I am making a donation of $25 to be used for purchase of a new computer.
I'm wondering if more people would be willing to give if you posted a
running total of donations. Perhaps knowing how much you needed and how
close you were to the goal would compel others to help. The pledge drives
for public TV & radio seem to be quite effective--you know, relying on the
guilt of viewers and listeners to compel them to give. Perhaps that same
principle could be applied here. Just a thought.
Best wishes,
Michelle
Thanks, Michelle!
So far, there have been 4 donations for a total of $110.
I have no plans to hold out for a Mac, and being familiar with shoestring operations, a stable used
machine will suffice. But, one with USB ports.
Time is not my friend, though.
This one is flakier than one of my pie crusts, and every time it crashes, my stomach drops and I wonder if that was the 'big' one.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast with a little rain.
Bush Appointee Shuts Site
'Wikileaks'
A federal judge has set off a free speech tempest after shutting down a U.S. Web site for posting internal documents accusing a Cayman Islands' bank branch of money laundering and tax evasion schemes.
The Bank Julius Baer & Co. said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that a disgruntled executive fired for "misconduct" stole the documents and illegally posted them on http://wikileaks.org. The bank also said a number of the documents have been altered, but it didn't provide details.
The bank, based in Zurich, sued Wikileaks and its San Mateo hosting company Dynadot on Feb. 6, alleging the Web site had posted stolen and confidential financial data.
On Thursday, Dynadot agreed to shut down the site and bar Wikileaks from transferring the domain name to another host. U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White issued a formal ruling the next day. Dynadot officials didn't return telephone calls Tuesday.
'Wikileaks'
'Wikileaks'.be
Tonight's Event & Columbus
Lunar Eclipse
The Moon will turn an eerie shade of red for people in the western hemisphere late Wednesday and early Thursday, recreating the eclipse that saved Christopher Columbus more than five centuries ago.
In a lunar eclipse, the Sun, Earth and Moon are directly aligned and the Moon swings into the cone of shadow cast by the Earth.
Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, Columbus and his crew were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies.
Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realised that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504.
For the rest - Lunar Eclipse
NASA - Lunar Eclipse Page
Bests O'Brien?
Craig Ferguson
CBS' "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" won a week against NBC's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" for the first time ever, but there's a catch.
"Late Late Show" averaged 1.85 million viewers for the week ending February 8, compared with 1.8 million viewers for "Late Night," according to Nielsen Media Research.
But the ratings win comes with a Super Tuesday asterisk. NBC pointed out that it happened only because CBS was able to drop Tuesday's ratings from the week's average. CBS said Tuesday's "Late Late Show" aired with "an amended title" because of its Super Tuesday election coverage. NBC said that for 18 of the past 20 weeks, Tuesday's episode of "Late Late Show" was its lowest-rated of the week.
Craig Ferguson
Our Allies Film Festival
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, despite not having any cinemas, will hold its first-ever government-approved film festival on May 20, a local newspaper announced Tuesday.
The five-day festival will screen Arabic films from the region and is being organized by the state-sponsored literary club in the eastern city of Dammam and the Saudi Society of Arts and Culture.
Saudi Arabia banned the screening of movies in the early 1980s and the country's conservative clergy views them as a waste of time and a sign of impiety.
Saudi Arabia
Turin Film Festival
Roman Polanski
Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, a fugitive from American justice, will be honored at the Turin Film Festival in November.
Polanski, 74, won a best director Oscar for 2002's "The Pianist" and received nominations for "Tess" in 1979, "Chinatown" in 1973 and "Rosemary's Baby" from 1968.
He fled the United States in 1978 rather than risk serving extended prison time after being convicted of having unlawful sex with a minor. A documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," suggests he was the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.
Roman Polanski
Buys Emeril Franchise
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. is bringing in a new celebrity: popular TV chef Emeril Lagasse.
The New York-based media and merchandising company founded by domesticity maven Martha Stewart announced on Tuesday that it bought the rights to the Emeril Lagasse franchise of cookbooks, television shows and kitchen products for $45 million in cash and $5 million in stock at closing.
The company did not acquire Emeril's Homebase, which includes Lagasse's 11 restaurants and corporate office.
Martha Stewart
Apologizing, AGAIN
NBC
NBC News said Tuesday it has reprimanded the employee responsible for mistakenly flashing a picture of Osama bin Laden on MSGOP as misogynist Chris Matthews talked about Barack Obama.
"This mistake was inexcusable," MSGOP spokesman Jeremy Gaines said.
It happened during the opening of "Hardballs" Monday evening. Matthews was previewing a story on the controversy over Obama's use of another politician's words, and a picture of bin Laden briefly flashed on the screen beside him with the headline "Words About Words."
The "mistake" was made by blamed on someone in the network's graphics department whom MSGOP would not identify. The network did not explain exactly how the mistake was made nor detail the punishment for the employee.
NBC
$2.5 Billion Toll
Writers Strike
The 100-day Hollywood writers strike took a $2.5 billion toll on the Los Angeles County economy - less than previously estimated.
The figure includes wages lost by writers and other entertainment industry workers when the strike shut down production, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
His Tuesday estimate also represents damage done to Hollywood-dependent businesses such as limousine services and caterers in the area.
The last writers strike, a 153-day walkout in 1988, resulted in an estimated $500 million in lost wages.
Writers Strike
Rare Photo?
Marilyn Monroe
A Las Vegas man plans to unveil what he says is a rare photo of Marilyn Monroe posing as a nude hitchhiker.
Lawrence Nicastro says he found the photo last year while going through storage items at his Las Vegas home.
Nicastro was running a service station in New York's borough of the Bronx when a man dropped off a Ford Sunliner convertible for repairs on New Year's Eve 1962.
Nicastro's publicist believes the photo was taken near Pyramid Lake, near Reno, in 1960. Monroe filmed "The Misfits" with Clark Gable in 1960 in Nevada.
Marilyn Monroe
Vegas Man Confused
Monroe & Madonna
Imitation can be the sincerest form of confusion.
So learned a Las Vegas man who alerted the media this week that he thought he had his hands on a rare photo of Marilyn Monroe posing nude as a hitchhiker. What he had was a famous photo of Madonna.
The image of the Material Girl, who often cast herself as a sort of latter-day Monroe, appeared in "Sex," her 1992 book of risque photography. In it, she posed in heels and handbag, with a cigarette in her mouth.
Lawrence Nicastro and his wife, Phyllis, said they had spent about four months researching the origin of the photograph and called in Chris Harris, a publicist and Monroe expert, for help authenticating it.
Harris said it was a dead ringer for Monroe and scheduled a Wednesday news conference to unveil the image to reporters.
Monroe & Madonna
Returning With 4-In-A-Row
`SNL'
"Saturday Night Live" has been gone for so long that you'll never know who its Mitt Romney impersonator was going to be.
The writers strike-imposed absence of the NBC institution ends this weekend with the first of four straight weeks of new shows, the first time that breakneck schedule has been tried since 1976.
Old friend Tina Fey is the first guest host, with Carrie Underwood the musical guest.
`SNL'
North Korea Broadcast
New York Philharmonic
A concert by the New York Philharmonic in North Korea next week that officials say could break cultural boundaries and draw the two countries closer will be broadcast throughout the reclusive Communist state.
The concert, to be held in Pyongyang on February 26, will be the centerpiece of a two-day visit and broadcast live by Korean Central Television, the orchestra said on Tuesday. It will also be broadcast internationally.
The concert will include George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" and Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From The New World." Both the U.S. and North Korean national anthems will also be played by the United States' oldest symphony orchestra.
New York Philharmonic
Japan Court OKs Photos
Mapplethorpe
Japan's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a collection of erotic photographs by the late Robert Mapplethorpe does not violate obscenity laws, a decision that should allow the sale of the book for the first time in eight years.
The decision overturned a 2003 Tokyo High Court ruling that the book "Mapplethorpe" was indecent, court spokesman Takashi Ando said. It was believed to be the first time the top court has overruled a lower court ruling on obscenity.
In Tuesday's ruling, Justice Kohei Nasu said the book of black-and-white portraits "compiles works from the artistic point of view, and is not obscene as a whole," the national Yomiuri newspaper reported.
The decision, a majority opinion of the five-judge bench, also recognized Mapplethorpe as "an artist who has won high appreciation as a leading figure in contemporary art," Kyodo News agency reported.
Mapplethorpe
Hong Kong Auction
101.27-Carat Diamond
The biggest colourless diamond to appear at auction for 20 years will go under the hammer later this year, officials said as it was unveiled in London Tuesday.
The 101.27-carat stone, which will be sold at the Hong Kong branch of Christie's auction house on May 28, is expected to fetch in excess of six million dollars (three million pounds, four million euros).
"Only three colourless diamonds of over 100 carats have ever appeared at auction, all sold in Geneva," said Francois Curiel, chairman of jewellery at Christie's.
101.27-Carat Diamond
Tate Modern In London
'Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia'
A notorious urinal, a "Mona Lisa" plus facial hair and an all-pervading bawdy wit dominate a London art show featuring Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Francis Picabia, the fathers of Dada, previewed Tuesday.
"Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia" at Tate Modern charts how their intense friendship forged in the early 20th century informed their work which is still a major influence on contemporary figures like Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons.
There is a replica of Duchamp's "Fountain" -- a urinal on its back which caused a scandal when it was unveiled in 1917 -- plus three reproductions of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" on to which he pencilled a beard and moustache.
These works are entitled "L.H.O.O.Q", which in French form the phrase "elle a chaud au cul", or "she has a hot arse", one of a series of erotic puns, both verbal and visual, which punctuate the show.
'Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia'
Back In Production
Duane "Dog" Chapman
Celebrity bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman is set to return to television after his reality TV show was pulled from the air three months ago in a controversy over his use of a racial slur, cable channel A&E said on Tuesday.
A&E took the popular show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter," off its schedule last November after a private phone call in which Chapman, an ex-con, used an offensive term to describe his son Tucker's black girlfriend hit the Internet.
It transpired that Tucker sold the tape of the conversation to The National Enquirer, for a reported $15,000.
A teary Chapman apologized repeatedly on television and to the African American community after the tape was made public and promised to make amends.
Duane "Dog" Chapman
In Memory
Lydia Shum
Veteran Hong Kong entertainer Lydia Shum died Tuesday aged 60 after a battle with liver cancer, her employer and local media said.
Shum, known for her bouffant hairstyle and wing-tip frame glasses, was one of Hong Kong's most popular actresses and comediennes with a career spanning more than four decades.
Affectionately nicknamed by her fans "Fei Fei" which means "fat" in Cantonese because of her plump physique, Shum won over audiences not only in Hong Kong but in mainland China and Chinese communities around the world.
Born in Shanghai in 1947, Shum took up acting as a child in the early 60s and quickly became popular thanks to her high spirit and sense of humour.
She went on to star in more than 70 movies, according to Internet Movie Database, and later hosted numerous variety shows produced by TVB, most notably the popular "Enjoy Yourself Tonight."
Lydia Shum
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