Baron Dave Romm
Michael Jackson et al
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Farah Fawcett
I'm pretty sure I never saw anything with Farrah Fawcett. Her poster was sexy, but never did anything for me. Maybe I knew too many airheads who tried to look like that. Give me Loni Anderson or Valerie Bertinelli (please!). I'm sorry she died tragically, but she went as she wanted: On camera. She did tearful interviews about her cancer, and when she finally kicked the bucket it was headline news... for several hours.
Michael Jackson
Jackson died before age 50, yet had a career almost as long as Frank Sinatra's. I remember the Jackson 5 fondly, from their Motown period. The Soul/Funk sound wasn't really my cup of tea, but the good stuff was fun to listen to, and the Jackson 5 had a lot of the good stuff. I even liked Rankin/Bass; animated The Jackson 5ive
His solo career was overlaid (but not overshadowed) by his bizarre plastic surgery and strange lifestyles. He made some savvy business moves (like buying up music catalogs) and produced some of more memorable music videos at a time when the medium was still being explored. Great stuff.
To be honest, the rumors surrounding his strange behavior around children sounded mostly harmless, as long as the parent agreed (which they did). The charges of pedophilia seemed more like extortion than reality, a shakedown that worked. I'm sorry he got dragged into the mess, but it was of his own making.
The best take on Michael Jackson's weird childish fetish was the South Park episode, The Jeffersons. I think they hit just the right notes.
Farrah Fawcett died slowly and painfully of cancer while giving interviews and helping others with similar diseases to cope. Michael Jackson died suddenly of causes yet to be determined. We don't know how much pain he was in or for how long, or the exact circumstances of his death. Perhaps he'll wind up a pitiable figure in death, like his one-time father-in-law Elvis Presley. Or perhaps his death will remain shrouded in rumor and suspicion, like Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain.
Giving a choice, I'd rather go the way Farrah went, pain and all. At least she had time to say goodbye.
Brief Takes: The Listener, Merlin
The Listener is about a telepath who can't stand to be around people because it's too noisy but is learning to care. Usually, a pseudo-back story is too sappy to work well. You have to overcome the circumstances. If he can read minds, why isn't he rich? Or alone in a farm in Montana? No, The Listener lives in the big city as an EMT constantly in trouble with his boss. Sheesh. It's not awful, and the shows have been inching better, but it's not worthy of a recommendation at this time. Unless you're into the subject, ignore The Listener until the second season... if there is one.
Merlin. I saw most of the first two (the golf game delayed the broadcast so the last few minutes weren't recorded). Imagine the Arthurian Legend as "rebooted" by JJ Abrams (of Star Trek fame): Take everything that's mythic and time-tested, and throw it all out for a show about horny violent teenagers. Might work: Star Trek was a hit even though it has damn little to do with Star Trek. I'll tape the third episode tonight, but am just as glad I can zip through the commercials.
Next Week: Convergence
Next week is Convergence (or CONvergence, as they say). I'm on a couple of panels and will be busy taking pictures and enjoying the con. So no column next week, unless something particularly significant happens, or I find more time.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Official TPM GOP Sex Scandal Slideshow (talkingpointsmemo.com)
Susan Estrich: Don't Cry for Me (creators.com)
Spare me the tears, OK? If you want me to respect the privacy of your stupidity, don't expect my sympathy. And whatever you do, I don't want to hear about your agony.
Froma Harrop: Act Fast on Health Care, Obama (creators.com)
President Obama has a green light and open eight-lane highway for health-care reform. But somehow the guy can't put his foot on the gas. He hedges in neutral while some fellow Democrats muck up policy and Republicans demagogue them into mush.
CAROLYN MOONEY: A Hands-On Philosopher Argues for a Fresh Vision of Manual Work (chronicle.com)
The faculty job market was as bleak as the Chicago winter when Matthew B. Crawford sent out his first applications.
Alison Hallett: Live Nude Girls. And Boys (portlandmercury.com)
'We Did Porn' Peeks Behind the Curtain of the Alt-Porn Industry.
Mike Steinberger: Why Don't the French Cook Like They Used To? (slate.com)
How the Michelin guide crippled France's restaurants.
Mike Steinberger: How McDonald's Conquered France (slate.com)
The fast-food chain's most surprising success.
"Gilgamesh: A New English Version" by Stephen Mitchell: A review by Doug Brown
Like 'Beowulf' (I highly recommend Seamus Heaney's translation), 'Gilgamesh' is a short, quick read, with lots of rollicking battles and sex.
Roger Ebert: The boy who never grew up: Michael Jackson, 1958-2009
Michael Jackson was so gifted, so lonely, so confused, so sad. He lost happiness somewhere in his childhood, and spent his life trying to go back there and find it. When he played the Scarecrow in "The Wiz" (1978), I think that is how he felt, and Oz was where he wanted to live. It was his most truly autobiographical role. He could understand a character who felt stuffed with straw, but could wonderfully sing and dance, and could cheer up the little girl Dorothy.
RICHARD ROEPER: Is cruise really a bonus for Oprah staffers? (suntimes.com)
I'll bet some would prefer cash to vacationing with co-workers
Rosanna Greenstreet: Q&A (guardian.co.uk)
Fergie: I owe my parents a lifetime of Excedrin for all the headaches I've given them.
Roger Ebert: Review of "SERAPHINE" (NO MPAA RATING; 4 stars)
You might not look twice at her. Seraphine is a bulky, work-worn housecleaner who gets down on her knees in a roomy print dress and fiercely scrubs the floor. She slips away from work to steal turpentine from the church votive candles, blood from the butcher and clay from the fields, and these she combines with other elements to mix the paints she uses at night, covering panels with fruits and flowers that seem to look at us in alarm.
The Weekly Poll
Next poll will be June 30. My system is back from it's overhaul by the local computer boffin...
BadToTheBoneBob
replied:
Reader Suggestions
Links from RJ
Hi there
Two varied links here.... thanks, as ever for taking a look.
The Curious Tale of Denishawn
In 1915 a pair of newlyweds formed a company that was to become instrumental in the formation of modern dance as a genre. This odd pairing was to become infamous for performing in as little clothing as possible as much for their revolutionary dance styles. Quite a trick in the early part of the twentieth century.
The Surreal Appeal of the Falkirk Wheel
Connecting two separate water ways may seem, on paper, and easy objective to achieve. What happens, though, when the two systems are twenty four meters apart? Plus, the word apart here means in terms of height. The solution? An incredible rotating boat lift that looks like something from a steampunk movie.
Best regards
RJ
Thanks, again, RJ!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Assistant to Dr. Sanz
New Book
Hello ,
Daniel Bruno Sanz has published a new book on Amazon:
The book is the most detailed study of U.S.-Cuba relations to date and provides a roadmap for a new American political strategy. Its a must read for diplomats and businesspeople with a stake in Cuba's future.
Regards,
Navas S.
Assistant to Dr. Sanz
Thanks, Navas!
Although I might suggest mentioning the title of the good doctor's book in your opening sentence.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but warmer and more humid.
Show Support
Joan Baez & Jon Bon Jovi
They wouldn't be allowed to perform in Iran, but singers Joan Baez and Jon Bon Jovi are showing their support for protesters. In videos carried on YouTube, the artists perform songs - with a few lines in Farsi - that call for peace.
Bon Jovi sings "Stand By Me" alongside Armenian-Iranian pop star Andy Madadian. The New Jersey rocker adds, in surprisingly good Farsi, the line: "Hand in hand, with one voice, you and me, countryman, your pain, my pain, be with me."
Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora provides the licks in the June 24-dated video, which opens with an image of Bon Jovi holding a sign that reads "We are all one" in Farsi.
Folk singer and activist Joan Baez's version of "We Shall Overcome" includes a portion in Farsi. Strumming an acoustic guitar in what appears to be a kitchen, the 68-year-old singer trills the song made famous as an anthem of the American civil rights movement.
Joan Baez & Jon Bon Jovi
Chart History, Again
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson will once again make music history next week as many of his albums are poised to shake up the Billboard charts with incredible sales increases.
The impact of Jackson's shock death on Thursday was felt immediately in the marketplace. Industry sources report that the demand for Jackson's albums were so high, many stores simply ran out of his CDs.
In the digital realm, where the supply problem doesn't exist, Jackson's songs and albums swarmed the top of the constantly-updating best sellers lists in both the iTunes' and Amazon's online music stores. At one point on Friday in the iTunes Store, nine out of the top 10-selling albums and 40 of the top 100-selling songs were by Jackson.
Michael Jackson
A 'Grand Finale'
Lorin Maazel
Before conductor Lorin Maazel even lifted his baton, the audience at the New York Philharmonic concert gave him a rousing ovation.
The pre-performance acclaim Saturday fit the occasion: Maazel's last concert as the music director of America's oldest orchestra after seven years at the helm.
When he did raise his baton, Gustav Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" exploded with an E-flat major chord played by an organ and winds - then the orchestra joining three choruses singing full thrall to the Latin words "Veni, creator spiritus" ("Come, creator spirit").
For his "Grand Finale," as the program described Maazel's farewell to the orchestra, he chose Symphony No. 8 - dubbed "Symphony of a Thousand." It's the Austrian composer's fireball farewell to life based on the medieval invocation to the Holy Spirit, followed by texts from the last scene of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's dramatic poem "Faust."
Lorin Maazel
Shape-Shifting In Seoul
Prada Transformer
Huge cranes have lifted a shape-shifting pavilion designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and turned it on one side for the second installment of Prada's summer of events in Seoul: a film festival.
The two-week film festival curated by Oscar-nominated movie director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu opened Saturday with a South Korean spaghetti western inside the Prada Transformer, a site-specific structure built on the grounds of Seoul's ancient Gyeonghui Palace.
Designed by Koolhaas in collaboration with the Prada fashion house, the Prada Transformer has four sides, each with a different shape: a hexagon, a cross, a rectangle and a circle. After opening in April with a fashion show on the hexagon, four cranes swooped down on the 180 tons (160 metric tons) of steel earlier this month, taking 30 minutes to lift the Transformer and turn it onto a new side: the rectangle.
The frame is cocooned in a blob-like white plastic membrane invented by the U.S. Army after World War II to preserve aircraft.
Prada Transformer
Jewish Cantors To Perform
Warsaw
For the first time since the Holocaust, 100 Jewish cantors from around the globe are gathering to perform in Warsaw, once one of the world's leading Jewish centers, Poland's chief rabbi said on Sunday.
The cantors, who sing liturgical chants during Jewish religious services, will perform at Warsaw's National Opera, U.S.-born Rabbi Michael Schudrich told Reuters.
"This will be a symbolic, historic event, because prior to the Holocaust, Warsaw was a world center of cantorial culture," the rabbi said.
The Grand Opera, where the concert is due to take place on Tuesday, is less than half a kilometer from Warsaw's Tlomackie Synagogue, blown up by the Germans during World War Two.
Warsaw
Blasts BBC
Sean Connery
Actor Sean Connery lashed out at the BBC for its coverage of the awards ceremony at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) on Sunday when he handed out the prizes.
The EIFF award for the best new British feature film went to Moon, a "creepy, poignant and funny" sci-fi film directed by Duncan Jones. The film, which received a prize of 20,000 pounds, stars Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.
Connery, a festival patron who gained worldwide fame for his portrayal of British secret agent James Bond, told a packed audience on the final day of the EIFF that the BBC had 300 technicians at the current Glastonbury pop and folk festival in southwest England.
"Not one (technician) at the Edinburgh International Film Festival," he said.
Sean Connery
Image Found In Catacomb
St Paul
Vatican archaeologists using laser technology have discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St Paul the Apostle, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome.
Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, revealing the find on Sunday, published a picture of a frescoed image of the face of a man with a pointed black beard on a red background, inside a bright yellow halo. The high forehead is furrowed.
Experts of the Ponitifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology made the discovery on June 19 in the Catacomb of Santa Tecla in Rome and describe it as the "oldest icon in history dedicated to the cult of the Apostle," according to the Vatican newspaper.
The discovery, which involved removing layers of clay and limestone using lasers, was announced a day before Rome observes a religious holiday for the Feasts of St Peter and St Paul.
St Paul
Forgotten Evolutionist
Alfred Russel Wallace
As he trudges past chest-high ferns and butterflies the size of saucers, George Beccaloni scours a jungle hilltop overlooking the South China Sea for signs of a long-forgotten Victorian-era scientist.
It is on this site, in a long-gone thatched hut, that Alfred Russel Wallace is believed to have spent weeks in 1855 writing a seminal paper on the theory of evolution. Yet he is largely unknown outside scientific circles today, overshadowed by Charles Darwin, whom most people credit as the father of a theory that explains the origins of life through how plants and animals evolve.
Now, in the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth, a growing number of academics and amateur historians are rediscovering Wallace. Their efforts are raising debate over exactly what Wallace contributed to the theory of evolution, and what role, if any, the spiritual world plays in certain aspects of natural selection.
Beccaloni, a 41-year-old British evolutionary biologist with London's Natural History Museum, is on a quest to return Wallace to what he sees as his rightful place in history. He and Fred Langford Edwards, a British artist making an audiovisual project about Wallace, are retracing the scientist's eight-year trip around Southeast Asia.
Alfred Russel Wallace
Weekend Box Office
`Transformers'
Alien robots have transformed into box-office superstars with $200 million in domestic ticket sales in just five days.
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" took in $112 million in the sequel's first weekend and $201.2 million since opening Wednesday, according to Sunday estimates from Paramount, which is distributing the DreamWorks movie.
With a $13 million weekend, Disney and Pixar Animation's "Up" became the year's top-grossing film domestically at $250.2 million. It surpassed Paramount's "Star Trek," which did $3.6 million over the weekend to hit a $246.2 million total.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," $112 million.
2. "The Proposal," $18.5 million.
3. "The Hangover," $17.2 million.
4. "Up," $13 million.
5. "My Sister's Keeper," $12 million.
6. "Year One," $5.8 million.
7. "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," $5.4 million.
8. "Star Trek," $3.6 million.
9. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," $3.5 million.
10. "Away We Go," $1.7 million.
`Transformers'
In Memory
Gale Storm
Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky personality made her one of early television's biggest stars on "My Little Margie" and "The Gale Storm Show," has died at age 87.
Before landing the starring role in "My Little Margie" in 1952, Storm starred in numerous B movies opposite such stars as Roy Rogers, Eddie Albert and Jackie Cooper. After her last TV series, "The Gale Storm Show," ended in 1960 she went on to a successful singing career while continuing to make occasional TV appearances.
Storm was a Texas high schooler named Josephine Owaissa Cottle when she entered a talent contest for a radio show called "Gateway to Hollywood" in 1940. She was brought to Los Angeles for the finals, where her wholesome vivacity won over the radio audience and she was awarded a movie contract.
The contest's male winner was a lanky would-be actor named Lee Bonnell, who would later become her husband.
Given the quirky name Gale Storm, she went from contracts with RKO to Monogram to Universal, appearing in such low-budget films as "Where Are Your Children?" with Cooper and "Tom Brown's School Days" with Freddie Bartholomew.
She was often cast in westerns as the girl the cowboy left behind, and appeared in such B-movie oaters as "The Dude Goes West" with Albert, "The Kid from Texas" with Audie Murphy and "The Texas Rangers" with George Montgomery.
With her movie roles diminishing in the early 1950s, Storm followed the path of many fading movie stars of the day and moved on to television.
She appeared only sporadically on TV after "The Gale Storm Show," guest starring on such programs as "Burke's Law," "The Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote."
Born April 5, 1922, in Bloomington, Texas, Storm was only 13 months old when her father died. Her mother supported five children by taking in sewing.
Storm's first husband died in 1987, and the following year she married former TV executive Paul Masterson. He died in 1996.
Storm and Bonnell had three sons, Phillip, Peter and Paul, and a daughter, Susanna. Storm is survived by her children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Gale Storm
In Memory
Billy Mays
Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.
Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and Mays' wife told investigators he didn't feel well before he went to bed that night.
U.S. Airways confirmed Sunday that Mays was among the passengers on a flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.
Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Pa., on July 20, 1958, Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other "as seen on TV" gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk. For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner.
After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.
Commercials and informercials followed, anchored by the high-energy Mays showing how it's done while tossing out kitschy phrases like, "Long live your laundry!"
Billy Mays
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