'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Review
Star Wars
Marty, without having seen the movie (I may not), here's the
curmudgeon's view of StarWars:
George Lucas proves that he can't get by without Frank Herbert -- AGAIN.
The Sith = the Sietch (of Dune). Mighty warriors, Middle-Eastern, yada-yada.
But Herbert is Herbert, not Lucas. The capstone of his series cannot
help but be crammed with further sellouts to simple-mindedness. After
THX 1138, SW is a real disappointment, except that I suppose there is
a need for fairy tales in the Time of Ogre.
Yet Lucas' laughing-gas fairy tales are useless, when our fates are
so obviously Grimm. We need more reality, not a longer matinee.
The greatest sci fi movie of all time (so far)?
2001: A Space Odyssey
Compared to which the nursery tale pap of StarWars is retrogressive nonsense.
What makes 2001: A Space Odyssey the greatest sci fi movie of all
time (so far) is its ENTIRE lack of religion and ANY sign of a deity.
The life-death-life process is included, in toto, in the universe
that Kubrick portrays, without a hint of some old man with a beard,
or any need for such an overseer. Kubrick's gnosticism leaves God
Himself no place to sit except on a French salon chair in a room
without walls.
Arthur C. Clarke's followup, 2010, by contrast with Kubrick's
clear-sighted mysticism, is crammed to the rafters with religious
(and filmic) cliches, (though it is well acted and well staged).
Clarke's Old Sap view of the universe is retarded, next to Kubrick's genius.
Lucas' story is the same sort of retreat into schlock religion in
order to supply what is otherwise a total lack of substance. The
alien is cute, the people are simple, magic works, a hero and an
anti-hero -- all very conventional stuff -- VERY non-Sci fi.
Fantasy, and retrogressive fantasy at that.
2001 is the clear progenitor of the gnostic Phillip Dick book that
became Blade Runner (once the original concepts and the meaning of
the book was thrown out the window).
Does HAL dream of electric sheep? Presumably, he does. But that still
doesn't mean you can trust him to be a machine AND a conscious, moral
being. Clarke in 2010 crusts HAL with humanity, allowing 'him' to
intentionally choose sacrifice for humanity (Golem Jesus). Kubrick's
HAL is Hitchcock's Psycho.
If Clarke had made The Shining, it would have been a travelogue with
apparitions of a nun. A ghost story, with Caspar waving at every
window.
Not Kubrick.
2001 is also the precursor of the Alien series, with its stated
reference to Kubrick/Clarke's idea of a spaceship as a Mother.
In 2001, HAL cuts the oxygen umbilical of the astronaut, and he is
projected helplessly out into space -- as we are. This is the
mother's betrayal, sending us out into the harsh, cold universe
beyond her breasts, and her life blood.
This is Kubrick's version of Medea.
Does HAL dream of electric sheep? Perhaps he does, but Kubrick shows
that HAL is in fact degenerate, having been built up from pieces like
a child, but without the wholeness one might try to expect of such an
electronic soul.
Bowman, on the other hand, unlike the Jesused-up figure of 2010,
reaches a gnostic state that ultimately includes death, at which
point death and life are an inclusive mystery, without need for
angel's wings, light-sabres, hokey animals, and the applause of
modern medievalists with a taste for artificial and retrogressive
tales of magic and adventure.
Instead of philosophy, the stalls.
--Paul in LA
Thanks, Paul!
Freshly Updated!
Dommecile
Hi Marty,
There's a new edition of DC online.
This issue introduces a comic strip, FoxHoles - "The war on terror has shifted to the home front. As liberals make a final stand in their war against America, our brave correspondents are now embedded in the US, in FoxHoles."
Kevin
Thanks, Kevin!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Richard A. Serrano and John Daniszewski: Dozens Have Alleged Koran's Mishandling (LA Times)
Senior Bush administration officials reacted with outrage to a Newsweek report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, and the magazine retracted the story last week. But allegations of disrespectful treatment of Islam's holy book are far from rare.
James Rainey: Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories (LA Times)
U.S. newspapers and magazines print few photos of American dead and wounded, a Times review finds. ... The young soldier died like so many others, ambushed while on patrol in Baghdad. Medics rushed him to a field hospital, but couldn't get his heart beating again.
Ellen Goodman: What's love got to do with it? (Washington Post Writers Group)
Love matches -- even for gays -- are inexorably replacing 'traditional' mercenary marriages
Holly Lebowitz Rossi: Mister Rogers' Theology of 'Neighbor' (belief.net)
There will never be another Mister Rogers, but he continues to guide millions, even from his 'new neighborhood.'
Amy Hollingsworth: 'What Mister Rogers Shared With Me' (belief.net)
Mister Rogers' most lasting spiritual gift to a friend was one he received as a young boy.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (Athensnews.com)
Monty Python member Graham Chapman was an original from early in his life. As a child, he once placed a chair in the kitchen sink, then sat on it in order to gain a different perspective.
Dear George: Letters to the President
Mikhaela B. Reid: Cartoon
Reader Comment
Re: Mr. Hawk
Marty,
Mr. Hawk wrote: I just noticed, Anikan's LS is blue. But the one ObiWan gives to Luke is green. Shoot the continutity person.
Actually, the one Obi Wan gives to Luke is blue. After Luke gets his hand chopped off and loses it, he builds a new green one for Return of the Jedi.
He's right about the other Episode 3 to Episode 4 continuity errors.
Jeff
When you turn the corner in hell you're still in hell, and the light at the end of the tunnel is a lake of fire. - Jeff Crook
Thanks, Jeff!
Reader Commment
Sunday
Marty
Your Link Sunday Elf Lore put me in mind on the Fairies of Monhegan, an island in Maine that I used to visit for the summer when my grandparents had a cottage there.
Monhegan Island, Maine, is located approximately 11 miles off the coast. Ferries are available from Port Clyde and Boothbay Harbor. It is famous for many things such as artist
Jamie Wyeth, Rockwell Kent, Edward Hooper, Zero Mostel and hordes of summer tourists. Also well known is the apparent fairy infestation that took over the more forested areas decades ago.
Though actual fairy sightings are few, explorers do stumble across their homes, pathways and other civil engineering projects from time to time. Cathedral Woods seems to be their favored spot, but like their human counterparts suburban sprawl is taking its toll. So many houses have been built that the 70 or so residents of the island are taking measures. They've removed any mention of the fairies from their publications, and they've even resorted to stomping fairy housing on sight. They've asked that any new houses be constructed of only dead natural materials. Should you decide to help the fairies in their rebuilding project, please refrain from using artificial materials, and never ever pull up moss or other living things. The fairies and the human residents really don't like that. Also, remember that fairies are "wee folk," and in fact prefer the coziness of smaller accommodations.
FAIRY HOUSES OF MONHEGAN MAINE
and
FAERIE LEGEND, OR A FOREST LOST?
Also . . . this must be 'revenge of the plumbing week', as we too are having problems with the drain in the kitchen sink. Plumber is on his way tomorrow. I can hardly wait!
Also, the piece about the Fred M. Rogers Center hit home! Back in the dim dark past, Bill Isler, now head of Family Communications Inc., and I were both Title XX Day Care Directors in Western PA, and did much with the State to make Child Day Care in Pennsylvania as good as it can be today. Mr. Rogers would often come to the Arsenal Family and Children's Center (a part of the U of Pittsburgh) in Lawrencville, where we attended meetings and classes.
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
The plumber is due back today - 2 things have now blossomed into 5, and all of them are messy.
For some strange reason every time I hear/read Latrobe, I think of glass-lined tanks and the Laurel Highland...
Reader Comment
Re: Harper Lee
Harper Lee!
Oh, Marty! Thanks so much for the story about Harper Lee and Veronique Peck. So lovely to hear some news of both of them. Wonderful to hear that Brock Peters was there to present the award too. I don't suppose you can find any pictures anywhere? You amaze me with your ability to do that, and I would LOVE to see a picture or two from that very special event.
Linda >^..^<
Thanks, Linda!
I've been poking around but haven't been able to find a picture from the event. Will keep looking, though.
Reader Comment
Re: Nazi Bachus
"A congressman says comedian Bill Maher's comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the "low-lying fruit" is possibly treasonous and at least grounds to cancel the show.
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Wingnut), takes issue with remarks on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, first aired May 13, in which Maher points out the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent in April.
Would someone please show me where it says Americans have freedom of speech ONLY when they parrot the right wing's bullshit?
I guess I didn't get the memo!
And someone tell this fascist jackass that dissent is not treason?
Terry C
NJ
Thanks, Terry!
Sadly, that tactic worked on Maher once before.
Purple Gene Reviews
'Godsend'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny by day, foggy by night.
Network TV was so bad at 9pm I ended up at the Pat Boone channel (KDOC), watching an old rerun 'McCloud'.
Claude Akins & John Denver were guesting.
Wonderful old crap from Universal's heyday.
Names of War Dead
'Nightline'
ABC's "Nightline," which ignited a brief political battle last year with its decision to read the names of Americans killed in Iraq, will do so again this year.
Ted Koppel's news program will pay tribute to the more than 900 U.S. servicemembers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past year in a special Memorial Day broadcast Monday at 11:35 p.m., ABC said Tuesday.
"Nightline" will show photographs of each of the war dead as their names are read.
When "Nightline" devoted a 40-minute edition to reading the names of 721 Iraq war dead during an election year last year, the Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group decided not to air it on its seven ABC stations.
'Nightline'
Rejects Liberal Bias Allegations
Pat Mitchell
The president of the Public Broadcasting Service on Tuesday rejected criticism by conservatives that public TV is guilty of liberal bias, and she offered a strong defense of PBS' Bill Moyers, a target of right-wing wrath.
Mitchell's remarks at the National Press Club follow the disclosure that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hired a consultant to keep track of guests' political views on a program hosted by Moyers, who was White House press secretary during the Johnson administration.
Mitchell said PBS presents political views as diverse as those of Moyers and Paul Gigot, an editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Tomlinson was a major advocate of the show hosted by Gigot.
While defending PBS against what she regards as unfounded attacks that it is politically partial, Mitchell said she was not questioning Tomlinson's motives.
Pat Mitchell
Programming Returns To Normal
BBC
BBC programmes are returning to normal following a 24-hour walkout by staff.
Thousands of journalists and technicians walked out yesterday in what some say is the biggest strike ever seen at the BBC.
Staff were protesting at thousands of job cuts tabled by director-general Mark Thompson as he bids to trim the BBC and convince the Government it is worth keeping the licence fee.
A 48-hour stoppage will go ahead next week unless there is a breakthrough to the dispute over plans to axe 4,000 jobs.
BBC
Getting Museum For 80th Birthday
BB King
American blues legend BB King is to get a whopping present for his 80th birthday -- a 10-million-dollar museum near his birthplace, his publicist said.
The famed singer and guitarist, who turns 80 on September 16, will get an early gift when groundbreaking begins June 10 on the museum dedicated to his life and career in Indianola in the southern state of Mississippi.
The three-phase complex will ultimately feature a selection of windows on King's 60-year musical career, many narrated and presented with animation and recordings by the musician.
BB King
Online World Bets
Jackson Trial Outcome
Whether or not Michael Jackson's jurors still have a reasonable doubt about his guilt, the wild world of Internet betting has rendered judgment: the smart money is on acquittal.
With the trial in Santa Maria, California, nearing its end, online speculators believe the likelihood of an acquittal is higher than Jackson's chances of being convicted.
On the Dublin-based Tradesports.com Web site, the odds of a conviction for at least one count of molestation were 43 percent on Monday. That means traders who buy a contract for $43 stand to win $100 if Jackson is convicted or to lose everything if he is acquitted.
The market in the Jackson case has fluctuated, with the odds of a conviction climbing and plunging as the prosecution and defense, respectively, began their cases.
Jackson Trial Outcome
Appearing on 'Queer As Folk'
Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell hasn't been doing many acting gigs lately, but she'll appear on Showtime's "Queer as Folk" for three episodes.
O'Donnell, long a fan of the gay-themed drama, called the show's producers to request a role on the show, the cable channel said Tuesday. Her first episode will air Sunday (10 p.m. ET).
Rosie O'Donnell
Hundred Millionth
Volkswagen
The 100 millionth Volkswagen rolled off a German assembly line on Tuesday, taking the brand into an elite of four car companies whose output has stretched into nine digits, Europe's biggest carmaker said. The Touran compact van with a silver metallic paint job that set the milestone at VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg is only distantly related to the humble Volkswagen Beetle that became a global icon of affordable mobility after World War II.
Volkswagen -- the name means "people's car" in German -- made just 1,800 Beetles in 1945, but eventually produced 21.5 million of the bug-shaped, bug-eyed vehicles.
Output of the VW Golf, which became the company's subsequent workhorse, overtook the Beetle in 2002 and has hit 23 million. VW has also made 13 million Passats and 9 million Polos.
Including other brands made by the group, VW passed the 100 million mark in September 1999. Production of all its units -- VW, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Audi, Seat, Lamborghini and commercial vehicles -- surpassed 125 million last year.
Volkswagen
Man Hooks World Record
124-Pound Catfish
It sounds like the sort of tale Mark Twain might have cooked up: A man fishing in the Mississippi River hauls in a blue catfish roughly the size of a sixth-grader. But this is no fish story. Early Sunday, Tim Pruitt caught a 124-pound blue catfish.
To get a sense of just how big that is, the state record holder was a mere 85 pounds and the world record holder tipped the scales at 121 pounds, 8 ounces.
Pruitt's fish, measuring 58 inches long and 44 inches around, was swimming below the Melvin Price Lock and Dam on the Mississippi River at Alton on Saturday night when it grabbed Pruitt's line. The two struggled for more than half an hour, and at one point the fish dragged the boat carrying Pruitt, his wife and a friend before Pruitt could reel it in.
The fish has been kept alive and will be on display in a tank at the Cabela's Outfitter store in Kansas City, Kan., according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
124-Pound Catfish
Will Appear Over Las Vegas
Spaceships
Prophet Yahweh was blessed to discover the lost, ancient art of summoning UFOs and spaceships on-demand.
Starting June 1st until July 15th (45 days) Prophet is going public by opening up to the news media.
Prophet is in direct telephatic contact with his space being friends. They have revealed that they will send UFOs as soon as Prophet starts asking for them to appear.
Also, before the 45 day summoning period has ended, a spaceship will descend and sit in the skies over Las Vegas on Prophet's signal.
The spaceship will hover in the sky, not far from Nellis Air Force base, for almost two days. All Las Vegans will be able to see it, day and night, before it goes back up into space.
Spaceships
Mark your calendars now!
In Memory
Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Ravenscroft of Fullerton, Calif., whose voice was known worldwide through his work in movies, TV and at Disneyland, died Sunday from prostate cancer. He was 91.
Tony the Tiger? That was Ravenscroft.
Disneyland? Too many voices to mention, but Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion and the Enchanted Tiki Room were all graced by Ravenscroft's pliable, unique voice.
Movies? How about "Cinderella," "Dumbo" and "Lady and the Tramp"?
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was born Feb. 6, 1914, in Norfolk, Neb. He moved to California in 1933 to study interior design at the Otis College of Art and Design. While in school he was encouraged to go into show business and auditioned at Paramount studios to be a singer.
By the mid-1930s, he was appearing regularly on radio, first on a program titled "Goose Creek Parson." In the late 1930s, he appeared on the "The Kraft Music Hall" with Bing Crosby, singing backup in a group called the Paul Taylor Choristers. That group eventually became the Sportsmen Quartette.
After military service during World War II, he returned to Hollywood, later becoming involved in the Mellomen singing group, and began a career in radio, movies, television and commercials. The group could sing anything from rock `n' roll to bebop to barbershop, and it performed with a list of stars including Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.
In 1952, Ravenscroft achieved a measure of immortality, thanks to a TV commercial.
"I'm the only man in the world that has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeeat!" Ravenscroft roared in a 1996 interview with The Orange County Register. "When Kellogg's brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a caricature of Tony to see if I could create something for them. After messing around for some time I came up with the `Great!' roar, and that's how it's been since then."
Ravenscroft's involvement with Disneyland goes back to opening day in 1955, when he was the announcer for many of the ceremonies and events. His voice has been heard on numerous Disneyland attractions and rides, including Adventure Through Inner Space (1967-1986). He was the original narrator on Submarine Voyage.
In 1966, Dr. Seuss and Chuck Jones teamed up to do "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for CBS. Ravenscroft recalled the Grinch fondly, saying, "That was my chance to prove I could really sing." The success of the Grinch led to other projects with Dr. Seuss, including "Horton Hears a Who" and "The Cat in the Hat."
One of Ravenscroft's biggest local claims to fame undeniably was his narration of Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters, a job that began in 1973 and lasted for two decades. He told the Register upon his retirement that it was his favorite gig of all time.
Another fan with memories is Werner Weiss, Web master of Yesterland.com, an Internet site that highlights popular Disneyland attractions, including many that no longer exist.
"(Ravenscroft) is one of the busts in the Haunted Mansion," Weiss said. "He's uncredited, as so many cast members at the park are, but it's his face and voice. It's unusual. You actually SEE him in that attraction, a man whose voice you're heard a thousand times."
June, Ravenscroft's wife of 53 years, died in 1999 at age 80. He is survived by two children, Ron and Nancy, and four grandchildren. Services are pending.
Thurl Ravenscroft
