M Is FOR MASHUP
DJ Useo Is On The Road
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
REGISTER TO VOTE
Here's the new DNC website to make it easy, no matter where you live.
DAVID LEONHARDT: Students of the Great Recession (nytimes.com)
The Great Depression did not have too many silver linings, but it did change the way Americans thought about education, clearly for the better. In 1930, only 30 percent of teenagers graduated from high school. By 1940, after a decade in which there often was nothing better to do than stay in school, the number had jumped to 50 percent. The Depression didn't just make Americans tougher. It made them smarter.
MAUREEN DOWD: Weddings for Everybody! (nytimes.com)
Legislating love: Let gays get married.
The Sunday Conversation: With Daniel Handler (latimes.com)
Daniel Handler is perhaps better known for his pen name, Lemony Snicket, and his bestselling volumes of children's books, "A Series of Unfortunate Events." But another Lemony Snicket creation, illustrated by Handler's wife, Lisa Brown, has been selected for display as part of a museum exhibition ...
Jeffrey R. Di Leo: In Praise of Tough Criticism (chronicle.com)
We need to grow thicker critical skin. Why? Because critical behavior that always results in a chorus of affirmation is nothing more than conformity; because allowing views to persist that need to be challenged is nothing less than critical mediocrity; and because failure to tell our colleagues what we truly think about their work is simple dishonesty. A reshaped critical culture will help build a more robust, honest, and transparent academy.
Germaine Greer: Paula Rego is the fourth woman painter to be made a dame. (guardian.co.uk)
I wish she'd refused.
Carole Cadwalladr: "Mary Portas: high street superheroine" (guardian.co.uk)
Mary Portas, the straight-talking star of makeover TV reflects on happiness, her mother's early death - and why she refuses to be defined by her sexuality. B
Will Harris: A Chat with Steve Austin (bullz-eye.com)
So I went in to meet Sly, it was the first time I'd ever met him, and I'm a huge fan. I remember watching "Rocky" back in '76 or whenever it was, then getting up the next morning, drinking eggs, and running down the streetŠand now here I am meeting with this guy!
Patrick Barkham: "Rupert Grint: 'I'm kind of excited'" (guardian.co.uk)
The actor talks to Patrick Barkham about life after Harry Potter.
Claudia Eller and Dawn C. Chmielewski: 'Toy Story' studio, known for originality, has seen its future with Disney: sequels (Los Angeles Times)
Pixar Animation Studios, the pioneering digital studio that long prided itself on creating novel stories and characters, is now treading a well-worn Hollywood path. Three of the company's next four releases are sequels.
David Medsker: A Chat with Lee Unkrich, Director of "Toy Story 3" (bullz-eye.com)
"Some people might say, 'My three-year-old is going to be too scared,' and I would argue, 'I don't know that a three-year-old should be going to see a movie in a theater.'"
Roger Ebert: Review of "Toy Story 3" (3 stars)
The problems all begin with that most dreaded of commands, "Clean out your room!" No mother in history understands that a boy's room has all of his stuff exactly where he needs it, even if he dumped it there 10 years earlier.
The Weekly Poll
Summer Sabbatical
I've decided to take a short 'sabbatical' from the Poll thing for some R&R (fishing, easy hiking, campfires... that sort of thing) and spend some time contemplating the errors of my ways, haha... You might see, from time to time, trivia responses and the odd article or picture from me. I have a laptop and an 'air-card' so if I can get a cell signal, I can access the web. Do not despair though (yeah, right!)... I'm like a bad penny. I'll turn up again...
As always, Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
P.S. In the mail:
Michael Dare said sorry I'm late on the drug war but...
check out my rant...
wrote:
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another day, another fabulous marine layer.
Had to buy a new toilet (and wax rings and some other parts) so when the plumber returns bright & early it's ready to be installed.
It should have been a simple repair, but...
It stopped flushing, but I've replaced toilet innards before, so it didn't seem like it'd be such a big deal, but then I couldn't get the big tube to fit in the space provided, and decided it was time to call in a real plumber.
He figured out that the people who lived here before us placed some sort of foam rubberish-styrofoam stuff along the sides of the tank to make it more water efficient, and it wasn't coming out.
The toilet is old, and it's holes won't line up with a new tank, so we had to get a brand new toilet.
After the bill, I really understand why it's called a throne.
Nashville Flood Benefit
Nashville Rising
Big names from all music genres are coming together for a benefit concert Tuesday to help victims of last month's devastating flood in Nashville.
Faith Hill, who is leading the Nashville Rising concert with husband Tim McGraw, said just bringing everyone in the Nashville community together in the same venue will be powerful.
The all-star line up for Tuesday night's concert includes McGraw, Hill, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Lynyrd Skynrd, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and ZZ Top.
McGraw said the timing of the concert - nearly seven weeks after the flood May 1 and 2 - was intentional, to bring another wave of disaster relief funds to the city.
Nashville Rising
Will He Stay Or Will He Go?
General Stanley McChrystal
The US commander in Afghanistan apologized over a magazine profile that quotes him denouncing a top diplomat while his aides dismiss President Barack Obama and mock his deputies.
Tensions between General Stanley McChrystal and the White House are on full display in the unflattering article in Rolling Stone, but the general said it was all a mistake.
McChrystal, a former special operations chief, usually speaks cautiously in public and has enjoyed mostly sympathetic US media coverage since he took over the NATO-led force last year. But the article appears to catch him and his staff in unguarded moments.
The profile, titled "The Runaway General," argues that McChrystal has pushed through his vision of how to fight the war, sidelining White House and State Department heavyweights along the way.
General Stanley McChrystal
Stamp Honors Pioneering Black Filmmaker
Oscar Micheaux
Pioneer filmmaker Oscar Micheaux was honored Tuesday on a new U.S. postage stamp.
The 44-cent stamp is the latest in the agency's Black Heritage stamp series. It was released at ceremonies in New York and is on sale nationwide.
Michaeux was a director, screenwriter, producer and distributor who was involved in more than 40 films chronicling the experience of African Americans.
He was the first African-American to produce a movie and later introduced the actor Paul Robeson in 1924.
Oscar Micheaux
Collection Auctioned
William Faulkner
A rare collection of signed William Faulkner books and personal items, including one of his most acclaimed novels, "Light in August," sold at auction Tuesday for $833,246.
The collection of 90 items was nearly a complete representation of Faulkner's work, said the auction house, Christie's.
The highest price went for "Absalom, Absalom!" a story about Southern poverty told entirely in flashbacks, which sold for $86,500. Inscribed in 1936 to novelist and journalist Malcolm Cowley, the first edition novel exceeded the $40,000 to $60,000 pre-sale estimate.
The first edition of "Light in August," which centers on three characters and explores the devastating effects of racism and religious fanaticism in the South, sold for $47,500. The book also is inscribed by the Nobel Prize-winning author to Cowley, who was working on a profile of Faulkner for Life magazine.
William Faulkner
Records Set
Polaroid Auction
A historic sale of works by some of the biggest names in 20th-century photography set records for Ansel Adams and Lucas Samaras during a two-day auction of iconic images from the Polaroid corporate collection that continued Tuesday.
About 200 images were sold Monday, most attaining or surpassing their top pre-sale estimate, Sotheby's auction house said. An additional 300 lots consisting of some 800 photographs were left to be sold Tuesday.
Monday's total brought $7.1 million, putting the auction house well on its way of exceeding the $10.7 million total it had predicted over the two days.
Adams' "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park," a moody black-and-white mural-size print of the park's rugged, rocky terrain, sold for $722,500 on Monday. It shattered the previous auction record of $609,600 for his "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico," from 1941, set in 2006.
Polaroid Auction
New Episodes
'Futurama'
On the next edition of "Futurama," Professor Farnsworth brings his doomed crew back to life with an experimental rebirthing technique.
"Oh, mahn, I'm dripping with placenta," says Jamaican accountant Hermes Conrad, who just moments before had been a lifeless skeleton. "Good thing it's casual Friday."
Pretty much anything can happen in the year 3000, where "Futurama" resided on Fox for five hilarious seasons that ended in 2003. Now, thanks to Comedy Central, "Futurama" is itself reborn and back to its old new tricks. The animated sci-fi comedy returns for a season of 12 new half-hours, kicking off with back-to-back episodes Thursday at 10 p.m. EDT.
Comedy Central has committed to 26 half-hours in all.
'Futurama'
HBO Renews For Season 4
"True Blood"
HBO has renewed "True Blood" for a fourth season, beginning next year. As with Season 3, it ordered 12 episodes. Though ratings for Sunday's episode are not yet available, last week's third-season premiere drew 5.1 million viewers -- up 38% from the Season 2 opener.
"True Blood"
Just For Laughs To Honour
Second City
The Second City comedy franchise will receive a lifetime achievement award from Montreal's Just For Laughs festival.
Festival organizers say it will give the honour to the famed improv troupe at its Comedy Conference award luncheon on July 16.
Second City alumni will also participate in a panel discussion at the Just for Laughs Insiders Series on July 15.
Several other comics will also be honoured at the Just for Laughs festival, including "Parks and Recreation" star Aziz Ansari, who will get the Breakout Comedy Star of the year Award.
Second City
Got Richer Amid '09 Recession
World's Rich
The rich grew richer last year, even as the world endured the worst recession in decades.
A stock market rebound helped the world's ranks of millionaires climb 17 percent to 10 million, while their collective wealth surged 19 percent to $39 trillion, nearly recouping losses from the financial crisis, according to the latest Merrill Lynch-Capgemini world wealth report.
Stock values rose by half, while hedge funds recovered most of their 2008 losses, in a year marked by government stimulus spending and central bank easing.
In North America, the ranks of the rich rose 17 percent and their wealth grew 18 percent to $10.7 trillion.
World's Rich
Wrestler's Widow Suing
Martha Hart
The widow of a World Wrestling Entertainment performer who died in a televised 1999 stunt filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Connecticut-based company and its leaders, including Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon.
Martha Hart said she learned three months ago that McMahon, who stepped down as WWE chief executive in the fall to run for Senate, and her husband, Vince, the current chairman, have for years used the image of her late husband, Owen Hart, in at least 37 videos and other materials without her knowledge and permission, and despite her objections to his likeness being associated with the pro-wrestling company.
"They'd have to be living under a rock if they didn't get that I don't want any association with them whatsoever or Owen to be associated with them whatsoever," said Martha Hart, who lives in Calgary, Alberta, with the couple's two children, now 18 and 14.
"I believe it is morally, ethically and legally wrong for the WWE to seek profit from Owen's death," she told reporters at a news conference held at a hotel in downtown Hartford. The WWE is based in Stamford.
Martha Hart
POs Pageant Moms
"The Big Willie Show"
The mothers of some beauty pageant contestants say they were tricked into appearing on a TV talk show and then accused of physically and sexually abusing their children.
Five women are claiming in a new lawsuit filed in Illinois county court that the Tribune Broadcasting Co. and producers of "The Big Willie Show" fraudulently induced them to appear by claiming the show would portray them in a positive light. The talk show appears on WGN in Chicago and is hosted by Bill Cunningham.
On June 11, the moms allegedly were filmed getting ready for a pageant. The next day, they arrived at the studio for the show's taping. Then came the surprise allegations as the studio audience allegedly verbally accosted the plaintiffs. Then it got even weirder.
According to the complaint, the children were backstage as the mothers suffered the wrath of the studio audience. Cunningham then wanted to bring the children out. Unfortunately, they had gone missing.
"The Big Willie Show"
Rock Star Surrenders
Indonesia
An Indonesian rock star surrendered to police Tuesday after two homemade sex videos of himself with his celebrity girlfriends appeared online, sparking a raging debate about Internet porn.
Singer Nazril Ariel, 28, has been at the centre of the "Peterporn" scandal, named after his band Peterpan, since the grainy but explicit videos went viral on Indonesian websites earlier this month.
The mainly Muslim country's first celebrity sex video scandal has underscored the widening gulf between traditional values and modern, Internet-driven youth culture in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
The videos were apparently filmed by Ariel and appear to show him having sex with his current girlfriend Luna Maya, 26, and his ex-girlfriend Cut Tari, 32, on separate occasions.
Both women were prominent television personalities but their careers have imploded since the videos were made public and they have been dropped by their corporate sponsors.
Indonesia
DUI Probation Extended
Nicole Richie
Court records show a judge has extended Nicole Richie's probation until March to give her more time to complete alcohol education classes.
Richie was not present in court Tuesday when the order was made. She will have to complete the classes by February.
Richie was arrested in December 2006 after witnesses reported seeing her black Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle headed the wrong way on a freeway in Burbank. She later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor driving under the influence charge and spent 82 minutes in jail.
Nicole Richie
Lasers Find Old Paintings
Archaeologists
Archaeologists and art restorers using new laser technology have discovered what they believe are the oldest paintings of the faces of Jesus Christ's apostles.
The images in a branch of the catacombs of St Tecla near St Paul's Basilica, just outside the walls of ancient Rome, were painted at the end of the 4th century or the start of the 5th century.
Archaeologists believe these images may have been among those that most influenced later artists' depictions of the faces of Christ's most important early followers.
The full-face icons include visages of St Peter, St Andrew, and St John, who were among Jesus' original 12 apostles, and St Paul, who became an apostle after Christ's death.
Archaeologists
Viewers Create New Movie
Syfy
Syfy is giving online fans a chance to write and design every aspect of an upcoming Saturday-night creature feature.
The cable network is launching a production site, B Movie Mogul, where fans can vote and pitch ideas for the film, from title, creatures, wardrobe, dialogue and character deaths to promotional taglines. The resulting "script" will be shot as a two-hour Syfy original movie to be released next year.
Syfy is teaming with entertainment site IGN on the site; the partnership will last 15 months and launch Friday. The first stage will have fans voting on one of three overall concepts for the movie: a 2010 apocalypse story, a Bermuda Triangle-set creature feature or a Roswell, N.M.-set alien movie.
Syfy
Lowers Age Eligibility
'American Idol'
The next "American Idol" may not be able to drive a car.
Fox said in a statement Monday that the age eligibility to audition for the upcoming 10th season of the singing competition would be lowered from 16 to 15 years old. The maximum age to audition remains 28.
Auditions for the next season will begin July 17 in Nashville, Tenn. Other audition cities include Milwaukee, New Orleans, San Francisco, East Rutherford, N.J., and Austin, Texas.
'American Idol'
Lights Go Out
'Jimmy Kimmel Live'
Jimmy Kimmel wasn't going to let a little power outage stop the taping of his show.
Show publicist Chelsea Hettrick says the lights went out Monday night about an hour before ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" was set to begin taping at its Hollywood studio. She says the outage shut down the control room, broadcast transmission center and tape operations area.
Hettrick says as guests and a studio audience waited, Kimmel grabbed his laptop and recorded the entire show with his computer's webcam.
Hettrick says guests Seth Rogen, John Henson and country artist Dierks Bentley were very accommodating in "going with what happened."
'Jimmy Kimmel Live'
Having run a Disney facility, I find this story hard to believe.
There should be a UPS system that kicks in the exit signs and some work lights when the power goes off, and a back-up generator should fire up, providing sufficient juice to run the facility for 2 to 4 hours.
The old Disney Channel had not 1, but 2, contract-mandated diesel-powered generators sitting on the roof of the old Sunset-Vine Tower, and we had to test run them monthly.
Funny they had no lights, but the mics and cameras worked.
Must be some of that new-fangled gerbil-powered equipment.
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for June 14-20. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NBA Finals: Boston vs. L.A. Lakers, Game 7, ABC, 28.2 million.
2. NBA Finals: Boston vs. L.A. Lakers, Game 6, ABC, 17.96 million.
3. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 11.65 million.
4. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.55 million.
5. "NCIS," CBS, 9.64 million.
6. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 9.21 million.
7. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 9.11 million.
8. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 8.88 million.
9. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 8.41 million.
10. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 8.33 million.
11. "The Mentalist," CBS, 8.23 million.
12. "NBA Countdown" (Thursday), ABC, 8 million.
13. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.67 million.
14. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 7.54 million.
15. "NBA Countdown" (Tuesday), ABC, 7.14 million.
16. "Flashpoint," CBS, 7 million.
17. "The Mentalist" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 6.9 million.
18. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 6.71 million.
19. "TV's Greatest Surprises," CBS, 6.58 million.
20. "The Good Wife," CBS, 6.56 million.
Ratings
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