'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
July 1, 2003
The United States Supreme Court upheld the University of
Michigan law school's use of affirmative action in its
admissions process and overturned a Texas sodomy law, saying
that "the state cannot demean [homosexuals'] existence or
control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct
a crime." "This opens the door to bigamy, adult incest,
polygamy, and prostitution," said the head of the Family
Research Council.
The court also ruled that a California law
that retroactively abolished the statute of limitations on
sex crimes is unconstitutional; California's attorney
general said that the ruling will lead to the release of
about 800 child molesters.
The Senate Rules
Committee proposed a new rule forbidding senators from
stealing furniture and artwork from the Capitol.
A State
Department intelligence analyst told a congressional hearing
that he had felt pressure to make his reports conform to the
administration's position on Iraq.
Donald Rumsfeld, the
secretary of defense, made the surprising claim that "before
the war, there was no debate about whether Iraq had
unconventional weapons." He also said that he doesn't "know
anybody in any government or any intelligence agency who
suggested that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons"; it was
immediately pointed out that Vice President Dick Cheney made
precisely that claim in March.
The Internal Revenue Service
reported that the nation's wealthiest 400 taxpayers earned
an average $174 million in 2000 (totaling 1.1 percent of all
reported income); in 1992 that group averaged $46.8 million
(0.5 percent of all reported income).
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
--Roger D. Hodge
Reader Review
'28 Days Later'
28 Days Later
For the past 7 years at least, Warner Brothers has had an end of the world horror movie in development based on Richard Matheson's "I am Legend". It was slated to star Arnold Schwarzenegger who later dropped out and now it is supposed to star Will Smith.
This past week in American theaters, Danny Boyle of "Trainspotting" fame, beat Warner brothers to the punch with "28 Days Later". Like "Trainspotting", this is good movie making. It is devoid of the stock Hollywood horror formula and sometimes shocks us in unexpected ways. The premise is that animal rights activists have broken into a laboratory that is doing experiments on chimpanzees. The lab technician shows up to try and stop them but is too late. They have unleashed not the chimpanzees, but a horrific virus called Rage, that passes incredibly quickly to a host (10-20 seconds), turning them into a diseased, psychotic, homicidal maniac. Despite a lot ad blurbs to the contrary, this is not a film about flesh eating zombies, although there are alot of comparisons to "Night of the Living Dead".
28 days later, Jim (Cilian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in an abandoned hospital in an abandoned London. Well, almost abandoned.
He goes into a seemingly empty church and, well,... I won't spoil it for you. Later, he meets up with Selena and Mike, a pair of non-infected Lononers on the run from the Rage-infected. They clue Jim in on what has happened to the world and what to do in this upside down world. After a series of turns they wind up in a high rise flat, lit up with Christmas decorations to attract survivors. It also attracts the infected.
The owner of the flat, played by Brendan Gleeson, has a radio through which they hear about a surviving army unit, north of Manchester. About a 3 day drive.
The movie has a few plot flaws, but given the excellence of the whole film, that is easily forgiveable. One of the chief things going for it is what it is lacking. It is not overburdened with special effects, gross out scenes for grossness sake or hackneyed plot lines. There aren't too many good scarey movies to go see anymore. This is a good one to choose. Go see it with a lot of people in the theater too. It's funner that way.
Oh yeah, since Hollywood's best known route to success is to copy that which is successful, look for that movie in development, "I am Legend" to come out a year or so from now. Will Smith will bring some of that "Men in Black" sense of humor to the end of the world.
David Lindsay
Thanks, David! Excellent job!
Book Review
from Alex
Great Interview
Stan Freberg
Reader Request
Lizzie's Collection
Please help performance artist and comedienne Lizzie complete her collection of
dicks in dresses.
Astro
Er - Thanks, Astro!
Jerking the theme a couple links further...
Camp Dickface and (Dick)Faces of Evil!
Selected Readings For A Wednesday
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Got a bit toasty this afternoon - so warm the kid said it was too hot to play outside(!)
Talked to dear old Dad tonight. Said they'd gone without rain for 2 whole days.
Having company over for eats on Friday, where the great unanswered question (so far) is: 4th of July - potato salad or macaroni salad?
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes II', followed by the 2nd half of the RERUN made-for-tv movie, 'Perfect Murder, Perfect Town'.
On a RERUN Dave are Regis Philbin and 3 Doors Down.
On a RERUN Craiggers are William Shatner, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Fiction Plane.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH 'Fame', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order', then another RERUN 'Law & Order'.
On a RERUN Jay are Reese Witherspoon, Steve Zahn, and Ginuwine.
On a RERUN Conan are Jennifer Garner, Harland Williams, and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists.
On a RERUN Carson Daly are Dylan McDermott, Kelly Hu, and Bonecrusher.
ABC opens the evening with a RERUN 'My Wife & Kids', followed by a RERUN 'George Lopez', then a FRESH 'Drew Carey', followed by
another FRESH 'Drew Carey', and then a FRESH 'The Dating Experiment'.
On a RERUN Jimmy Kimmel (from 6/11/03), are Triple H and Dave Wakeling, with guest co-host Jay Mohr.
The WB offers a FRESH 'Boarding House: North Beach', followed by a RERUN 'Jamie Kennedy', then another RERUN 'Jamie Kennedy'.
Faux has a RERUN 'That 70's Show', followed by a RERUN 'American Juniors', then a RERUN 'Parasite Hotel'.
UPN has a RERUN 'Enterprise', followed by a RERUN 'Twilight Zone'.
A&E has the usual 'Biography' (Arnold Schwarzenegger', followed by 'American Justice', then another 'American Justice'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Seven-Ups', followed by the movie 'Dillinger', then the movie 'One False Move'.
BBC -
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Southampton;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Liverpool;
[8pm] 'Homefront in the Garden' - Stoke Newington;
[8:30pm] 'Homefront in the Garden' - Ealing;
[9pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 2;
[9:40pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 3;
[10:20pm] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 4;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Sandra Bernhard;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Jane Leeves;
[12am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 2;
[12:40am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 3;
[1:20am] 'Keeping Up Appearances' - Episode 4;
[2am] 'Homefront in the Garden' - Stoke Newington;
[2:30am] 'Homefront in the Garden' - Ealing;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Sandra Bernhard; and
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Jane Leeves. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 2 'Cirque du Soleil''s, then the movie 'The Boys In Company C', followed by the movie 'The Boys In Company C'.
On a RERUN Jon Stewart it's TBA.
History has a night of 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has 'Tracker', then the movie 'Route 666'.
TCM celebrates Clark Gable (it isn't his birthday) from dawn til dusk, and challenged women later.
[6am] 'The Finger Points' (1931);
[7:30am] 'Sporting Blood' (1931);
[9am] Hell Divers' (1932);
[11am] 'China Seas' (1935);
[12:30pm] 'Saratoga' (1937);
[2:15 pm] 'Too Hot To Handle' (1938);
[4:15 pm] They Met In Bombay' (1941);
[6pm] 'Honky Tonk' (1941);
[8pm] 'Johnny Belinda' (1948);
[10pm] 'The Miracle Worker' (1962);
[12am] 'The Spiral Staircase' (1945);
[1:30am] 'Topkapi' (1964); and
[4am] 'Beau Brummell' (1954). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Matthew Hammond wears maple leaf clothing to show pride during Canada Day celebrations, in Ottawa, July 1, 2003. Over 75,000 people took part to mark the country's 136th birthday on Parliament Hill.
Photo by Jim Young
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Owner to Sell Nightclub
Stone Pony
The owner of a legendary nightclub that was once a haunt of Bruce Springsteen has agreed to sell to developers, who say they'll keep the building where it is and fix it up.
The owner of the Stone Pony, Domenic Santana, once said waterfront developers would get control of the club "over my dead body" after they threatened to demolish the building.
"I'm in a no-win situation," Santana said Monday. "I can't be throwing rocks in progress' way and fighting the developers. They have big pockets for legal bills."
The building has played host to both stars and unknowns since it was renamed The Stone Pony in 1974, including Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Bo Diddley, The Kinks, Joan Jett, Dion, Cheap Trick, The Pretenders and dozens of others.
Stone Pony
Save the Stone Pony
Thanks, Tim H!
ABC Hires Away From CNN
Kate Snow
Kate Snow, one of CNN's most visible Washington correspondents, is leaving for ABC News.
Snow has been CNN's congressional correspondent and covered such events as the Enron hearings and the discovery of anthrax at the Capitol. She's been out on maternity leave lately.
Snow will serve as a White House correspondent on ABC's "Good Morning America" and help Terry Moran on other broadcasts, said an ABC executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. She is expected to start at the network later this month.
Kate Snow
Joseph Ida looks into a cage at a British racing pigeon named Billy, for a photo before the pigeon is placed on a cargo flight to Manchester, England, from John F. Kennedy airport in New York, Tuesday July 1, 2003. Ida discovered Billy among his racing pigeons in his Staten Island backyard coop on June 17. A tag on Billy revealed he was part of a France to England pigeon race and somehow became lost, ending up across the Atlantic.
Photo by Bebeto Matthews
Forgotten Songs Uncovered
Edith Piaf
Six songs recorded by French singer Edith Piaf during World War II and long since thought lost have been discovered in the archives of the National Library in Paris, the two music specialists who found them told AFP.
The tracks were part of a stack of master recordings the music company Polydor cleared out of its basement in the 1960s to make room, the pair, Eric Didi and Marc Monneray, said Tuesday.
"A scrap merchant was interested in buying them and the deal was about to be closed when the National Library, which had heard of the transaction, stepped in to snap them up," Didi said.
They then languished forgotten in the old premises of the state-run library before being transferred with the rest of its collections to the state-of-the-art complex in eastern Paris which opened in 1996.
For more, Edith Piaf
Distribution Fees Too High
'The Hulk'
Germany's biggest cinema chain said that it has given up on screening "The Hulk", the new US action blockbuster, because the asking price of its distributor was too high.
"The price of cinema tickets have already hit what we consider to be the upper limit," said Hans-Joachim Flebbe, head of Germany's Cinemaxx.
"That's why we have decided to give up on a film like 'Hulk'," he said.
'The Hulk'
Under Scrutiny
BBC
The BBC is no stranger to political spats but rarely has the publicly funded broadcaster's independence been put to the test as now.
The British Broadcasting Corporation is under fierce political fire for the very reporting that made its name across the globe just as it prepares for a debate over its future.
Blasted in the past as a leftist elite and threatened with having its funding withdrawn, the BBC is at the center of a vicious row over a report that claimed Prime Minister Tony Blair's office "sexed up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons.
The BBC is in a tough spot. It is both publicly funded and overseen by a board of governors appointed by the state which has often meant that governments have expected more loyalty from it than from its rivals.
But Auntie -- as the BBC is referred to for its prudish image -- has gone to great lengths in recent years to stress its independence from both ends of the political spectrum.
The slanging match -- over claims the government exaggerated weapons claims to make the case for war on Iraq -- has neatly deflected attention from the underlying issues of the war.
BBC
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Spills Beans
Pickles
Under gentle grilling over the Internet Tuesday, first lady Laura Bush let slip a secret -- she has planned a surprise 57th birthday party for her husband at the White House this week.
But whether or not Resident Bush snores is still classified information.
That question was among hundreds pouring into the White House for Mrs. Bush's first appearance on a new online forum in which anyone can "Ask the White House" anything. It went unanswered.
Sitting at a polished desk in her spacious East Wing corner office overlooking the first lady's garden, the former teacher and librarian flipped through printouts, selected photographs, culled questions and carefully composed answers to 15 questions for almost 45 minutes.
She revealed that she would feel "proud and anxious" if her 21-year-old twin daughters were serving in Iraq right now. The first lady rarely discusses Barbara and Jenna, college students whose photograph was prominently displayed alongside her husband's on a shelf stocked with children's books and other mementos.
Pickles
Revelers wearing indigenous costumes dance in unison at the Parintins jungle carnival, deep in the heart of the Amazon forest, late June 30, 2003. Two rival teams named after oxen competed in a spectacle recounting indian tales, local history and especially the region's cattle ranching roots. The Carnival-style event began only 37 years ago, but its roots date back to 1913 when roving bands of singers donned bulls costumes and danced in the streets to improvised lyrics.
Photo by Carlos Silva
New Magazine Launches
'Vegas'
"Vegas is an attitude, a hormone," says Michael Carr, a former president of Playboy's publishing division. "It's a level of energy, mystique, sensuality that lives in a person's heart no matter where they are."
So Carr, now vice president of business development for Greenspun Media Group, has teamed up with the publisher of the hip Miami magazine Ocean Drive, to create a glossy magazine called Vegas. It hits newsstands this month in seven major U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas.
Part New York magazine and a sexy slice of Maxim, the magazine is a joint venture by the Greenspun Media Group, which publishes the Las Vegas Sun, Las Vegas Weekly and Showbiz Weekly, and SoBe News Inc., which publishes Ocean Drive.
For more, 'Vegas'
Iggy, Ron & Scott
3 Stooges
Iggy Pop and original Stooges Ron and Scott Asheton have recorded their first new music together in 30 years and are planning to hit the road again this summer.
Best known for such seminal proto-punk anthems as "Search and Destroy," "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "No Fun" and legendary live shows fronted by the shirtless, self-indulent Pop, Iggy and the Stooges were one of the most influential acts of the 1970s.
Back in January, Pop reconvened Ron, who played guitar and bass, and brother Scott, on the toms, for a recording stint at the Hit Factory Criteria Studios in Miami. Those early sessions resulted in the first four tracks on Pop's latest album, Skull Ring--"Little Electric Chair," "Skull Rings," "Loser" and "Dead Rock Star.
After getting their feet wet again in the studio, the Godfather of Punk and his bandmates headlined April's Coachella Festival in California, and are scheduled to play a handful of dates this summer, including Jones Beach Amphitheater in New York on August 9, followed by a homecoming in Detroit on August 14.
For a lot more, 3 Stooges
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Ex-Partner Sues, Alleges Bat Threat
Sean "P-Diddy" Combs
Sean "P-Diddy" Combs has been sued for more than $25 million by a former business partner who alleges the rapper forced him to sign away his interest in their company by threatening him with a baseball bat.
Kirk Burrowes, former president and general manager of Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment, filed the racketeering and breach of contract suit late on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
"The allegations are pure fantasy," Combs said in a statement on Tuesday. "Kirk Burrowes hasn't been employed for seven years and now he makes up a fictional story for financial gain. He should be ashamed of himself."
Sean "P-Diddy" Combs
A bagpiper plays the Scottish Lament during a Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, in Ypres, Belgium, Tuesday July 1, 2003. Ypres celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Last Post ceremony on Tuesday, a traditional salute to the fallen warriors who died in the Ypres Salient during World War I.
Photo by Virginia Mayo
Fox Movie Channel Pulls Series
Charlie Chan
Bowing to complaints from Asian American groups, cable network Fox Movie Channel has dropped a summer-long festival of decades-old movies featuring the Chinese detective Charlie Chan.
In a statement on its Web site on Tuesday, Fox Movie Channel said it has "been made aware that the Charlie Chan films may contain situations or depictions that are sensitive ... as a result of the public response to the airing of these films, Fox Movie Channel will remove them from the schedule."
The campaign against the series came from groups that included San Francisco's National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) and Washington, D.C.-based Organization of Chinese Americans.
Charlie Chan
Man Charged In Necklace Case
Lil' Kim
A man has been charged with demanding $25,000 from rapper Lil' Kim to return a necklace that went missing from her luggage at the airport.
John Acheson of New Rochelle was charged with attempted grand larceny, attempted grand larceny by extortion and attempted coercion, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement Monday.
The 31-year-old was being held Monday pending arraignment, the DA said, and was unavailable for comment. There was no home telephone listing for Acheson, who could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
Lil' Kim
Cleans It Up for Kids
Twisted Sister
Their profanity-laced rock shows in the 1970s and '80s drew the ire of the U.S. Senate, where Al and Tipper Gore accused them of endangering the morals of America's youth and undermining parental authority.
Two decades later, Twisted Sister is playing New Jersey's two most family friendly venues — the Meadowlands State Fair, and Six Flags Great Adventure — and the "F" word is strictly off limits, by mutual agreement.
Lead singer Dee Snider, who uses it dozens of times in a 90-minute concert, said the costumed, mascara-wearing band best known for hits like "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" initially balked at playing the G-rated parks.
"The minute we heard those offers, we said no," Snider said. "They said, `What do you mean, 'no?' We said, `We want to play for our fans! We don't want to play to people in an amusement park! And they said, 'Dee, your fans are in their 30s; where do you think they are on the 4th of July weekend? They're out with their families at the amusement parks or the Jersey Shore. And that was like a real rude awakening."
"I've curbed my mouth in certain outdoor facilities," Snider said. "My objective was never to subject innocent bystanders to my acid tongue. I sang in the church choir; I can not curse, although people find that hard to believe. I can find plenty of words to say in place of (the F-word.)"
Twisted Sister
Pleads Guilty to Assault
Rebecca Kelly (Broussard)
Rebecca Kelly, the mother of two children with Jack Nicholson, was given a conditional release Monday on charges in an air rage incident on a 2002 Virgin Atlantic Airways flight.
Kelly, also known as Rebecca Ann Broussard, pleaded guilty to one count of assault. A charge of mischief endangering an aircraft was dropped.
The 40-year-old actress was ordered to abstain from alcohol and nonmedical drugs for one month, and intends to reimburse Virgin Atlantic Airways more than $26,000.
Kelly allegedly became angry when airline staff stopped serving her alcohol on a flight from Los Angeles to London. She allegedly hit and swore at an attendant, then was handcuffed as the flight was diverted to Winnipeg, where she was arrested and spent a night in detention.
Rebecca Kelly (Broussard)
Birth of Photography
Daguerreotype Show
The workman's sun-glazed, unfocused image might have been plucked from an Impressionist painting.
Leaning against a wall, a hat jammed low over his brow, the man's hazy visage is as anonymous as one of Claude Monet's loosely rendered, faceless figures.
The image, part of a collection of daguerreotypes on view at the Art Institute of Chicago through September, was among the earliest American photographs.
Announced with fanfare in Paris by Louis Daguerre in 1839, the daguerreotype was among the first photographic processes and the first to become commercially successful.
They were incredibly detailed images on silver-coated copper developed with heated mercury vapor, and they presaged the revolution in 19th century art.
For a lot more, Daguerreotype Show
Giant Sea Creature Baffles
Ocean Mystery
Chilean scientists were baffled on Tuesday by a huge, gelatinous sea creature found washed up on the southern Pacific coast and were seeking international help identifying the mystery specimen.
The dead creature was mistaken for a beached whale when first reported about a week ago, but experts who went to see it said the 40-foot-long mass of decomposing lumpy gray flesh apparently was an invertebrate.
Photographs showed a round leathery substance like a mammoth jelly fish, about as long as a school bus.
The Chilean Navy first spotted the mystery specimen along with another large mass, but the other dead animal turned out to be a dead humpback whale.
Ocean Mystery
A raiser bathes a panda to help it cool down at the Fuzhou Giant Panda Research Center in southeast China's Fujian Province, Tuesday, July 1, 2003.
Photo by Zhang Shenggui
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
