Who's Going To Hell This Week
Helen A. Handbasket
From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Review
Timothy Leary
By Dave Romm
Timothy Leary was a Harvard professor, counterculture guru, jailbird (got 10 years for being in the same car as a joint), stand-up comic, software pioneer and now rock star. I have two of his CDs (there may be more, but the ones I could find on the net seem to be interviews). One of the great charms of Leary's vocal arrangements is that he doesn't try to be something he's not: a singer. Mostly, the songs are spoken and in his range. While you probably have to be a fan of his message (which is pretty much, "it's your life, make the most of it"), many of the cuts work on the musical level.
He died in 1996, leaving two postumous (I think) albums. In Right To Fly, Leary starts out with No Regrets before having verbal fun with 100 Naked Kangaroos in Blue Canoes (hard blues about being happy), the cruel country Morality's Ugly Head while you party with Fugu Fish. PsychoRelic Rap is somewhat autobiographical while the CD ends with Right To Fly, about choosing how to die. Unrepentant, ecstatic and intelligent to the end. Review of Right To Fly and order CD here.
What attracted me to Beyond Life (and I got the other one at the same time) is the nifty diffraction grading cover. Not a hologram, but several viewpoints all at once, depending on how you look at it. Three months before his death, Leary recorded a conversation with the album's producer. Amazingly, they found a 1967 album he had done and remixed those swirly tracks with his words from 30 years later, and they work pretty well. As you might imagine, the first track, Afterlife, deals with dying, but for Leary dying is simply a transitional phase to an as yet unknown next level. Beyond Life is a prayer by cells and While Birds Sing is about remembering past lives. Leary's contributions are augmented by Allen Ginsberg expounding on his preface to Leary's 1967 book Jail Notes and by a new rendition of Legend of A Mind by the Moody Blues. The CD ends with Lions Mouth, odd rock poetry.
Musically, Right To Fly is a better album. Upbeat with clever lyrics on uncommon subjects in a variety of musical styles, this is the one to get if you're going to get only one and aren't familiar with Timothy Leary. On the other hand, Beyond Life is a marvelous exegesis on a long life well lived with hope for the future and extras for the fan of the era. While the Moody Blues cover of their own song is more a good novelty than a great updating of a classic, it is fun to play the newer version of Legend of A Mind to unsuspecting people who are only familiar with the original.
And while I have some space I might as well throw in a little about The Madcap Laughs by Syd Barrett. Barrett was the founder of PInk Floyd, and while I like their later works my favorite Floyd is still their first album, Piper At the Gates of Dawn. Utterly strange and brilliant. There has been nothing like it before or since. You won't find Britney Spears doing any of these songs while shilling soft drinks. After two Floyd albums, Barrett couldn't take the pressure, wigged out, and retired. Madcap Laughs was started in 1969 and eventually released as a CD in 1990 produced by David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Floyd band members, who came up with a gentle album where Barrett wrote all the songs (they claim) and adapted a James Joyce poem. This is by no means a great album, but there are overtones of the old Syd, my hero.
Lots of people like to reduce the 60s to a phrase or style of dress, and that just won't wash. Marketing gimmicks are not insightful historical commentary. It's quite possible that these three albums don't work well outside the broader context of the people and the time they influenced. I dunno. But I'm just as happy they exist to reveal another picture when viewed by the diffraction grading of life after fame.
Dave Romm is a conceptual artist with a radio show and a web site and a very weird CD collection. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here.
Thanks (again), Dave!
Reader Movie Review
EQUINOX & INCUBUS
By Joe Bacon
Another Bizarre Pair of Films
I almost feel like Rod Serling in the 'Night Gallery,' offering you two more bizarre examples of the cinematic art. Count your blessings, I originally wanted to do a Joe Namath Film Festival consisting of 3 turgid turkeys that would never have been touched by the MST3K gang, but I decided to postpone that debilitating display for a later date.
Instead, I have decided to continue perusing Bad Film Land by dredging up two bizarre bodacious specimens of speculative filmmaking. The first seems to have slipped into the slippery swamp of sedimentality in the same way Norman Bates hid his evidence oh those many years. But, dear friends there are many telltale fingerprints on this once-chic celluloid corpse. May I present as my first offering, this time, the incredibly impotent insanity called 'EQUINOX'.
This crie de crap appears in the same manner as a bad dream late at night, hacked into incomprehensibility, which is quite appropriate based on its perverted parentage. Originally, this was a short film made by several college students to highlight an experiment in stop-motion animation. They forgot that that kind of stuff went out with Speedy Alka-Seltzer. You know, once Speedy and his pal the Pillsbury Doughboy came out of the closet and admitted they were gay lovers - oh well, that took all the steam out of stop-motion animation. EXCEPT for Ray Harryhausen. But then Ray usually had a budget to work with.
Why am I padding this review, well that is exactly the same thing that producer JACK L HARRIS did with this cute little student film. The plot - well, the original film involved two college age couples who went into the woods (OH NO! NOT THE WOODS!) to meet their anthropology professor. Now the Professor (who should have stayed on the Island to ogle Ginger and Mary Anne) had a MYSTERIOUS BOOK about time travel that he was going to study in his REMOTE ISOLATED CABIN. The Professor RIPPED THE BOOK OFF from a CRAZY OLD GUY who lived in a cave by the Professor's cabin (now why couldn't he get Mr. Howell to just buy the damn book for him?)
Our FLAKY FOURSOME make their way to the Professor's hut, err, cabin to find he is NOT THERE, but they find some giant footprints outside his hut, err, cabin. They find that the BOOK has been opened and they see the Professor's diary, which indicates that the book contains satanic spells. OOPS - The Professor TRIED some of those spells and instead of seducing Ginger and Mary Ann into a 3-way that would be described in a PENTHOUSE LETTER he accidentally released some CREATURES FROM HELL (please, God, Not Dick Armey and Tom De Lay!) who looked like GUMBY on a BAD ACID TRIP!
This 'Three Hour Tour' gets worse as the Quiddid Quintet run out of the Professors hut and into a cave where the CRAZY OLD DUDE just happens to be. There EVIL BLOCKHEAD GUMBY, an Ape, and a creature called Asomadeus attack them. One by one the members of the little crew are eaten up, killed, roasted, deep-fried in a batter of 11 secret herbs and spices until only one is left. In a gamble, he runs out of the cave, with the book and reads a spell, which suspiciously sounds like the lyrics to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and the creatures go back where they came from. The SOLE SURVIVOR stumbles around for a good 10 minutes (movie padding) and eventually winds up in an insane asylum.
FRANK BONNER, who eventually did penance for this movie by playing Herb Tarlek in WKRP in Cincinnati, plays the Sole Survivor
The entire soundtrack for the movie was ripped off from Dominic Frontiere's TV work (Invaders/Outer Limits/Rat Patrol). He should have sued for malpractice.
And NOW for Something Completely Different, I would like to take you to something diametrically opposed to the syrupy silliness of our first exhibit. Exhibit 2 almost found itself in the same fate as 'Equinox' was considered long lost, but it turned up in a most unexpected place and had been restored to a haunting glory. It is the only film ever to have been completely spoken in Esperanto, the cult classic INCUBUS.
This black and white horror film shot on a shoestring in 1965 by producer/director/writer Leslie Stevens. The cast includes William Shatner, Robert Fortier, and Stevens's wife Alyson Ames. This movie is everything Equinox isn't. It is one of the most chilling films I have ever seen and the Esperanto dialogue only makes it creepier.
Please note - this movie is NOT the way Esperanto is spoken - as Shatner and the rest of the crew mispronounce a lot of the words, but you get the same feeling of strangeness that you get from a foreign film - the actors compensate effectively thru non-verbal cues.
Cinematic master Conrad L Hall photographed 'Incubus'. His work latter blossomed in 'Butch Cassidy' and 'Bullit'. The bizarre angles and lighting cues Hall chooses only add to the creepiness. There are several key scenes where he focuses on action going in the distant background that challenges you to keep alert during the movie.
The plot: In the land of Nomen Tuum (Latin for 'your name'), a wounded soldier, Marc (William Shatner) has just returned home to be cared by his sister Arndis (Ana Atman). Nomen Tuum is the location of a well, which supposedly regenerates the innocent, but condemns the evil to a horrible death, as Marc's battle comrade, played by Robert Fortier, finds out. Fortier drinks from the well and gags over the saltiness, this marks him for death by a succubus Kia (Alyson Ames) whose earthly mission is to seduce and condemn corrupted souls to hell. Kia makes the fatal mistake of falling in love with Marc. This forces her sister Amael (Eloise Hart) to summon the Incubus (Milos Milos) to bring forth destruction to Nomen Tuum.
'Incubus' is like nothing else you have ever seen anywhere. You see a Pre-Kirk Shatner not hamming it up, and he delivers a very moving performance. The succubae are excellent villains worthy of Horror grandmaster James Whale. Shatner's Marc is too good to be suspicious of evil until it is too late, and his sister Arndis pays for his moment of weakness by being blinded from a solar eclipse, an eclipse that brings her to a rendezvous with total depravity provided by the Incubus.
For years, this movie was thought lost until producer Anthony Taylor found it in the late 90's in Paris. He tells the story of how he found it on a bonus track on the DVD. You also can hear commentary tracks by Shatner and Hall. Order it from Amazon. Hey, once again help Bartcop and buy it thru his link.
I hope you enjoyed this excursion into the Night Gallery. I do hope you'll come back for the next installment. If you're good, it won't consist of those three Joe Namath films!
~~Joe Bacon
Thanks, Joe! But, Jeez, what's wrong with 'C.C. & Company'?.
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
April 16, 2002
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was deposed in a coup led by
several generals and the country's business elite. An interim
government was established under the leadership of Pedro Carmona
Estanga, the head of a major business association. Latin American
leaders denounced the "interruption of the constitutional order."
American officials welcomed the coup and said that it was a victory
for democracy. Oil prices immediately dropped.
Within days, great
crowds of supporters occupied the presidential palace and Chavez was
back in power. "I hope that Hugo Chavez takes the message that his
people sent him," said Condoleezza Rice.
President Bush repeatedly told
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to "heed the call" and withdraw from the
West Bank. "We're not about to leave Jenin, Nablus, or Ramallah, or
any other place we're in at present," Sharon replied. "We won't leave
until there is a surrender agreement with the terrorists there
inside."
An Israeli tank brigade in the West Bank adopted a stray dog
and named it "George W. Bush" because it "barks a lot" but is
"useless."
There were many reports of atrocities by Israeli troops as
they destroyed the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank; witnesses
reported scores of civilian casualties, bodies littering the streets,
buildings demolished with families inside. The International Committee
of the Red Cross complained that it was not being allowed to reach the
dead and wounded with ambulances.
A Palestinian woman blew herself up
at a bus stop in a Jerusalem marketplace, killing 16 and wounding many
more; watermelons, bell peppers, tangerines, and body parts littered
the street.
Colin Powell met with Yasir Arafat. A monk was shot at the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem when he went outside to get food
delivered by Israeli soldiers; the Israeli army claimed that
Palestinian soldiers inside the church had shot the monk but later
admitted off the record that it was an Israeli sniper.
A gang of
anti-Semites attacked a Jewish soccer team in Paris.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
--Roger D. Hodge
Late 04/16/02
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Saw Sharon Osbourne on 'Rosie' this morning (don't often watch the show). Wonder why the show she pumped wasn't the one that aired tonight?
'Scrubs' was pretty funny.
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS is fresh with '60 Minutes II', 'The Amazing Race 2' and '48 Hours'.
Dave is a rerun with Halle Berry & Jonny Moseley.
Craiggers is also a rerun with Ashton Kutcher & Willie Nelson.
NBC starts the evening with a fresh 'special' 'Ship At War: Inside The Carrier Stennis', and follows it with
reruns of 'The West Wing' and 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a fresh Jay are Michael Clarke Duncan, Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Scheduled on a fresh Conan are Ethan Hawke, Dave Chappelle and Anthony Bourdain.
Scheduled on a fresh Carson Daly is Sheryl Crow.
Of course, ABC starts the night with a rerun - this time it's 'My Wife & Kids'. Then, it's a fresh 'George Lopez', followed by 2 fresh
episodes of 'The Job', then 'Downtown'.
Scheduled on a fresh Bill Maher is Holland Taylor, Julianne Malveaux, Bob Just, Chris Hardwick.
The WB if fresh with 'Dawson's Creek' and 'Felicity'.
Faux is fresh with 'That 80's Show', 'Grounded For Life', 'Bernie Mac' and 'Greg The Bunny'.
UPN has a rerun 'Enterprise' and a fresh-to-UPN 'Wolf Lake'.
TCM has Forbidden Planet (1956).
MTV has 3 episodes of 'The Osbournes' scheduled at 7:30pm, 8:00pm & 8:30pm (edt) and another episode at 10:30pm (edt), too.
Updated 'The Osbournes' page linked below.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Appeared Before Congress
Angie Harmon
Actress Angie Harmon joined Sen. Mary Landrieu Tuesday in proposing that high-tech peeping toms be tried in federal court.
Legislation introduced by Landrieu, D-La., would make it a federal crime to videotape anyone unclothed or involved in certain sexual situations "for
a lewd or lascivious purpose without that person's consent," according to a summary of the bill.
Harmon, known for her former role as an assistant district attorney on NBC's drama, "Law & Order," also played a peeping tom victim in "Video
Voyeur: the Susan Wilson Story," a television movie produced by the cable network, Lifetime.
Wilson sparked related legislation in Louisiana in 1999 after a neighbor secretly videotaped her. She also appeared at the news conference.
Angie Harmon
Another Model?
George P
Dubya's nephew George P. Bush recently left the country to do a little modeling for Tommy Hilfiger. The designer, who pays the President's niece Lauren Bush
to wear his jeans, recruited the University of Texas law student to appear at the opening of his store in Manchester, England. A source tells Women's Wear
Daily that George P.'s "one-off appearance" was mostly for fun.
George P. Bush
Here's a little bit of background, courtesy of www.thesmokinggun.com, on George P's 1994 'incident'.
Wedding News
Soto & Bratt
Former "Law and Order" star Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto, his co-star in the 2001 film "Pinero," were married on Saturday in Bratt's hometown of San
Francisco, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Bratt, 38, and Soto, 35, were "wedded on Saturday in San Francisco at an intimate family gathering, a day that perfectly celebrated their love and happiness,"
Ina Treciokas, Bratt's New York-based spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Soto & Bratt
In Negotiations
'The Osbournes' - Year 2?
Some members of Ozzy Osbourne's family may be standing in the way of MTV's desire for a second season of its red-hot, reality-based sitcom, "The Osbournes."
Negotiations for a second season have been underway virtually since the series premiered March 5 to huge ratings and rave reviews. But there are indications that some
of the Osbourne clan - particularly teen sibs Kelly and Jack - are not eager to share their home with MTV camera crews for another five months.
MTV, though, is desperate to begin work on a second-season of the megahit series, even though the current season is only half over. Episode 7 of 13 airs tonight at 10:30.
Mom Sharon Osbourne, who has been married to heavy-metal superstar Ozzy for 20 years, has complained to Beverly Hills police that tourists are over-running the family's yard.
As a result of the tumult around their home, the Osbournes are dropping hints that a second season will be possible only if MTV agrees to allow the family
to film the show at the family's secluded 100-year-old farmhouse in England.
MTV isn't commenting on that idea, even though it was reported in this week's wide-ranging cover story on the Osbournes in Entertainment Weekly magazine.
Nor will MTV say anything about the ongoing negotiations except to confirm that the network would like to see the series continue for a second season.
A spokeswoman would not comment on speculation that some members of the family are against continuing the show.
'The Osbournes' - Year 2?
Strange Link
Corporate Anthems
Yo! Welcome to our latest chart of corporate songs, where image management rocks! Chart released 12 April 2002.
IT Anthems
To Host New 'Twilight Zone'
Forest Whitaker
UPN has lured Forest Whitaker into its "Twilight Zone."
The actor-director-producer has taken on the host role for the network's anthology series pilot.
Whitaker, who also will have producing input, will take on the role that Rod Serling played in the original "The Twilight Zone" series, providing intros and
outros to each episode's self-contained vignette.
Forest Whitaker
More Filming In New Zealand
LOTR: The Two Towers
After 18 months filming "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the work isn't over for Liv Tyler just yet. Spies say the daughter of Aerosmith frontman
Steven Tyler was just recalled to New Zealand to "do some re-shooting" for the second installment, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers." "They
always knew they would have to shoot some more," said a rep for Tyler. A rep for New Line said, "The entire cast is going to New Zealand. It's not just Liv."
LOTR: The Two Towers
Study The Harlem Renaissance
The Virtual Harlem Project
THE VIRTUAL HARLEM PROJECT (VHp) is a collaborative learning network whose purpose is to study the Harlem Renaissance through the construction and
use of scenarios developed in Virtual Reality.
Virtual Harlem Main Page
Big Dog Watch Continues
Helen Thomas
Bill Clinton may have surprised Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Paula Zahn and Anna Wintour when he dropped by yesterday's Matrix Awards lunch.
Venerable White House correspondent Helen Thomas, the guest of honor at the lunch, was heaped with praise for half a century of reporting — "It's always
hard to hear your obituary," she quipped — but she begged to differ with colleagues who say she has worked under nine Presidents.
"I say I worked against nine Presidents!" she snorted.
Clinton rose to the challenge, sneaking from backstage to swipe the mike from Thomas. He recalled her spirit of "affectionate adversarialism."
"Early in my term, I used to go jogging before 7 o'clock, and the White House press would inexplicably cover me. I mean, what is there to cover?" Clinton said, laughing.
"An aging, overweight man puffing along at a quarter to 7 along the highway? They thought I would be shot or drop dead of a heart attack or something…Helen
was always there with her notebook, shouting some perfectly embarrassing question, when all I really needed was oxygen!"
Helen Thomas
In The Planning Stage
'Survivor' Alumni
How would the villainous Richard Hatch do against sweet-talking schemer Tina Wesson? Can you imagine Susan Hawk from the first "Survivor" dressing down Rob Mariano from the current show?
Such what-ifs could happen. "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett said Tuesday that he's planning an all-star edition matching memorable players from past editions
of the game. He'd like to make the alumni game sometime next year.
Burnett wouldn't be limited just to the players who won. He would have free reign to match his favorite personalities, and said most would love to do it again.
'Survivor' Alumni
Hostess For The BAFTA Tribute To George Lucas
Carrie Fisher
George Lucas has turned a lot of actors into stars, but no one may be more indebted to the "Star Wars" director than Carrie Fisher.
"Thank you for ruining my life," Fisher wisecracked to the man who crowned her Princess Leia. "First it was the awful hairdo, the bad dialogue and the
no-panties-in-space. Old men still come up to me and thank me for that."
Steven Spielberg, she remembered, was once "stupid enough to ask me for relationship advice. Thank God he didn't take it, or else he would have wound up
marrying a short guitarist and a gay guy." (Fisher was briefly wed to Paul Simon and has a child with Creative Artists Agency agent Bryan Lourd.)
Careful not to leave out any ex-lovers, Fisher asked audience members who had slept with her to please raise their hands. Guests, who included Harrison
Ford, Ben Kingsley and Gerri Halliwell, laughed. But Fisher allowed jokingly that past drug use may have impaired her brain cells.
Carrie Fisher
To Air In May
Tribute To Willie Nelson
Keith Richards, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks are among the entertainers who pay tribute to singer Willie Nelson in an upcoming
TV show taped at the Ryman Auditorium.
"Willie Nelson & Friends: Stars & Guitars" was taped in Nashville on Sunday. It is scheduled to air May 27 on the USA Network.
Rob Thomas, lead singer for matchbox twenty, wrote several songs on Nelson's new album. He said Nelson's music inspired him as a boy.
Jon Bon Jovi, who met Nelson nearly 20 years ago, said, "Anybody who plays and sings, to Willie you're an equal.
"But if you have any sense of being a man, you realize you're not actually half as cool for half as long."
'Willie Nelson & Friends: Stars & Guitars'
Official Willie Nelson Web site
Fearless Leader Presents
Industrious Women of Pottsylvania
Fearless Leader Presents the Industrious Women of Pottsylvania
Treasure Trove Of Folk Music To Be Preserved
Cunningham & Friesen Collection
For 25 years, a cramped apartment in New York City served as one of the first recording studios for dozens of struggling artists, some of whom would go
on to be the biggest names in folk music.
Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Janis Ian were among those who made the trip from the Greenwich Village coffeehouses to an Upper West Side housing project for
jam sessions worthy of a country front porch.
Agnes "Sis" Cunningham and her husband, Gordon Friesen, a pair of former Communists who became a sort of counterculture mom and pop, recorded reel after
reel of guitar-rich ballads and protest songs about nuclear war, racism and Vietnam.
Cunningham — an accordion and guitar player who performed in the 1940s with Woody Guthrie — would then transcribe the lyrics and melodies for "Broadside,"
a mimeographed magazine the couple began printing in their apartment in 1962. They sold them for 35 cents.
The recordings and magazine chronicled a moment and a movement.
In 1997, nine years after the couple stopped their informal recording sessions and a year after Friesen's death, Cunningham gave up their collection of
236 3-inch reels to the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina in hopes they would be preserved and also made available to the public.
For the rest, Cunningham & Friesen Collection
UNC Southern Folklife Collection
To Tour Together
Sammy & David Lee
Rock singers David Lee Roth, right, and Sammy Hagar gesture as they announce they have joined forces for a concert tour, during a news
conference Tuesday, April 16, 2002, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. The tour begins Wednesday, May 29, 2002, in Clevland, Ohio.
Photo by Nick Ut
New Stage Play Debuts In London
'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang took flight over London theaterland on Tuesday with the world stage premiere of the musical spectacular about a magical flying car.
The show, based on the 1968 movie classic starring Dick Van Dyke, had the first night audience gasping in amazement as the car rose above the auditorium.
Among those to give the show a rousing reception was Pierce Brosnan who took a break from filming the latest James Bond movie to watch the feelgood spectacle.
Billed as one of London's most expensive musicals with a six million pounds ($8.6 million) budget, the tale originally penned by James Bond creator Ian
Fleming has already taken eight million pounds in advance bookings at the box office.
And Richard O'Brien, creator of the "Rocky Horror Show," has readily admitted he would have "crawled over broken glass" to play the part of the evil
Childcatcher in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."
'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'
'The Osbournes' Recalls TV's Uncomplicated, Unpierced Past
Ozzy & Ozzie
One advised his teenage son to wear a warm jacket; the other implores his to wear a condom. One favored cardigan sweaters; the other tends toward
black T-shirts with skull logos.
One was a middle-aged former bandleader with a sassy, whip-smart wife and a couple of irrepressible kids who made a TV comedy about their lives in
Southern California. Which is exactly what the other guy has done, too.
In short, Ozzie Nelson, patriarch of one of TV's oldest families, might recognize his twisted descendant, Ozzy Osbourne, patriarch of one of TV's newest.
During its extraordinary run on ABC from 1952 to 1966, "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" defined, if not a generation, then a generation of
family sitcoms. In 435 genial, mostly banal episodes, the Nelsons -- Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky -- more or less played themselves on a show
that helped establish the domestic sitcom'svisual and thematic vocabulary. What the Nelsons (as well as the Cleavers and the Andersons) begat was
an indestructible TV form. Ozzie's offspring include "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "All in the Family," "The Cosby Show," "The Simpsons" and "Everybody Loves Raymond."
And now, here's Ozzy.
The aging, addled satanic rocker is the perpetually mumbling centerpiece of "The Osbournes," which has turned into the most popular series in MTV history.
The show, which bowed March 5 and airs Tuesday nights at 10:30, is the result of six months of filming the day-to-day lives of Ozzy, wife Sharon and their
children Kelly, 17, and Jack, 16. (An older daughter, Aimee, fled, perhaps wisely, before filming began.) The cameras mostly follow the family around their
plush Beverly Hills home, and occasionally into the world at large. MTV has dubbed it a "reality sitcom."
For the rest, Ozzy & Ozzie
Art Auction
Claude Monet
A painting by the French master Claude Monet that has not been seen in public for nearly 80 years will be the star attraction at an auction of Impressionist
works of art in London this June.
"The Waterlilies series is an outstanding example of Monet's work and this is a particularly fine painting from that series," said Andrew Strauss, head of
Impressionist art at the Paris office of the auction house Sotheby's. The painting, simply entitled Nympheas (Waterlilies), is one of a series of 48 that Monet
painted of the pond in the garden of his house in Giverny, 45 miles northwest of Paris.
It has not been on public show since 1925 and has been held in a private collection in France since it was acquired direct from Monet's dealer Durand-Ruel in
1940 -- 14 years after the painter's death.
The series, painted between the late 1890s and the early 1900s, is generally regarded as the pinnacle of Monet's genius.
The late works -- when the lily pond had reached maturity -- have a particularly delicate interplay of light and color.
Also at the sale on June 24 is a pastel-on-paper picture from Edgar Degas's ballet series, from the same private collection, which has never
been seen in public. It is expected to fetch up to 3 million pounds ($4.3 million).
Claude Monet
Truth Is A Bitch - Let The Spin Begin
History
People with a pathological hatred of President Bush will stop at nothing to slime his family. An obscure magazine has gone all the way back to
World War II to claim a supposed connection between his grandfather and a mining company that allegedly used slave labor at Auschwitz. Clamor
magazine reports that Dubya's granddad, Prescott Bush, managed the Union Banking Corp., whose portfolio included the Silesian American Corp.
The article cites a 1942 newspaper story linking Bush to Nazi-funding German industrialist Fritz Thyssen. In 1943, Bush resigned from the bank
and later chaired the National War Fund. Clamor claims that in 1951, Bush used the $1.5 million he made from UBC stock to set up his son, former
President George Bush, in business. The next year, Prescott Bush won election as U.S. senator from Connecticut. He died of cancer in 1972.
Best-selling author Kitty Kelley - who has done stinging bios on Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor - is said to be rehashing the charges
in her upcoming tome about the Bush dynasty.
Truth Is A Bitch - Let The Spin Begin
In Memory
Robert Urich
In Robert Urich's 30-year TV career, he became as much a fixture as the characters he played: sexy private eyes in "Vega$" and "Spenser: For Hire" and a luckless cowboy in "Lonesome Dove."
He kept acting even as he fought cancer. His death Tuesday came one day after the debut of the television movie "Night of the Wolf," in which Urich co-starred as a ranch foreman.
His professionalism was "exemplary," said Burt Reynolds, who helped Urich land his first major role - co-starring as Reynolds' younger brother in a stage production of "The Rainmaker."
He was the "kindest and most loyal friend," Reynolds said.
"Robert Urich was an athlete, artist, a wonderful friend and he was one of those rare people who never said anything unkind about anybody," he said in a statement.
Urich, 55, died at a hospital in Thousand Oaks surrounded by family members and friends, publicist Cindy Guagenti said Tuesday.
He announced in 1996 that he was suffering from synovial cell sarcoma, a rare cancer that attacks the body's joints. He underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatments and two operations in the mid-1990s to combat the cancer.
Last November, Urich told Daily Variety columnist Army Archerd that lumps had been found but a "wonder drug cleared them up." Last week, he checked into a hospital with breathing problems, Archerd reported Tuesday.
The dark-haired, square-jawed actor earned his first TV role in the 1973 comedy series "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." He also appeared in the TV series "S.W.A.T" before being cast as Peter Campbell in "Soap."
"Night of the Wolf," co-starring Anne Archer, debuted Monday on Animal Planet and repeats Friday on the cable channel. In an online promotional spot, Urich recounts a scene that required horseback riding, something he hadn't done for years.
"I showed up and they told me to gallop up this hill and duck under branches," Urich says. "I thought 'Holy smokes, I should've spent a couple of days on the horse.' But we did all right."
One of his most recognizable roles came as private detective Dan Tanna in "Vega$," which ran on ABC from 1978 to 1981. He played another detective in the ABC series "Spenser: For Hire," which was based on Robert Parker's novels. That series aired from 1985 to 1988.
Urich played Jake Spoon in the 1989 miniseries "Lonesome Dove," based on the Larry McMurtry novel about a grueling cattle drive.
More recently, Urich appeared as a wanderer suffering from amnesia in "The Lazarus Man," and a wisecracking talent agent on the short-lived NBC sitcom "Emeril."
Urich sued Castle Rock Television, which produced "The Lazarus Man," for nearly $1.5 million two years ago, claiming the show was canceled by the production company because he had cancer.
In July 1996, Urich told Castle Rock that he had cancer and would have to undergo treatment, but his lawsuit said he was able to perform under the agreement both parties signed. The breach of contract suit sought the amount, about $73,000 per episode, he would have received for the second season of "Lazarus Man." No action has been taken on the suit, a Castle Rock spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Born in Toronto, Ohio, Urich won a football scholarship at Florida State University. He later earned a master's degree in broadcast research and management from Michigan State University.
Urich briefly worked in Chicago as a radio sales agent and a TV weatherman. He married actress Heather Menzies - who played one of the singing von Trapp children in the 1965 film "The Sound of Music" - 25 years ago.
Urich, who appeared in several miniseries and cable specials, won an Emmy in 1992 for his narration of the cable documentary "U-Boats: Terror on Our Shores." That same year, he also won a Cable ACE award as host of the National Geographic series "On Assignment."
Other TV credits include: "Crossroads," "Vital Signs," "It Had to Be You," and "The Love Boat: The Next Wave."
Among his film credits are starring roles in "Turk 182!" with Timothy Hutton and "Ice Pirates" with Anjelica Houston.
After his bout with cancer, Urich became active in cancer research. He and his wife established the Heather and Robert Urich Fund for Sarcoma Research to accelerate the pace of research into sarcoma. Earlier this year, Urich donated the proceeds from his appearance on the game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" to a fund at the University of Michigan, where he was treated for cancer.
He is survived by his wife; three children, Allison, Ryan and Emily; two brothers; a sister; and his mother.
A memorial service was scheduled for Friday in Los Angeles.
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