'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Guess which drug is illegal? (sfgate.com)
One deadens nerves, barely works, has foul side effects. The other helps you feel God.
Al Meyerhoff: Financial forces run amok (latimes.com)
Without regulation, the invisible hand of the market is robbing us blind.
Sam McManis: NPR's Schorr a vital link to `responsible journalism' (McClatchy Newspapers; Posted on popmatters.com)
He is 91 and still cranks out his National Public Radio commentaries on an IBM typewriter. He eschews the Internet, openly disdains some bloggers and dismisses the whole "citizen journalism" idea.
Colin Covert: Daughter of the revolution tells her animated tale in 'Persepolis' (Star Tribune; Posted on popmatters.com)
Writer, artist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi grew up in Iran, living through the Shah's regime, the revolution that overthrew him, and the establishment of the theocratic government that imposed fundamentalist restrictions upon the Iranian people, particularly women.
Jonathan Glancey: Looks familiar? Today's Apple classics and their 1960s ancestors (guardian.co.uk)
US websites have been increasingly alive with 'compare and contrast' blogs showing how Jonathan Ive's product designs for Apple have been shaped by veteran German industrial designer Dieter Rams.
Douglas Hanks: Talent agent draws on Latin America (McClatchy Newspapers; Posted on popmatters.com)
MIAMI - Raul Mateu sits in the center of South Florida's corner of the entertainment industry.
Dan MacIntosh: Review of "The Steve Martin Triple Feature Collection" (popmatters.com)
For whatever reason, many comedians have an overwhelming need to show off their serious sides. Just ask Woody Allen. And while Steve Martin has not become nearly as serious as Allen, his latter films feature far more depth than, say, The Jerk. But then again, in Martin's first films he was basically playing Steve Martin the comedian.
No Country for Old Men (timesonline.co.uk)
The Coens have created a monster film packed with characters: a requiem for the past, and a warning about the future
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (timesonline.co.uk)
Ford is magnetic as the cruel lead, and Scott supplies fresh and sensational evidence that he may not be all he seems.
Julie Burchill: Stop this stream of sob stories from self-pitying middle-class writers - we've suffered enough (guardian.co.uk)
Let the true survivors sob all the way to the bank if it makes up for the rotten hand they were dealt as children
Reader Suggestion
Re: Virtual Space
This is pretty cool -
Reader Comment
Re: Peregrines
Marty
I saw a peregrine in action.
It was in England and after a long day of blackberry picking on Shotover hill my brother and I took a rest and were just gazing around.
We saw a pigeon flying over a glade. All of a sudden it literally exploded, feathers everywhere, the body fell to the ground and we noticed a falcon following it down.
That bird came out of the sky and hit the pigeon at warp speed. Amazing.!!
Paul
Thanks, Paul!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny.
U.N. Messenger Of Peace
George Clooney
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon named actor George Clooney, who has campaigned for refugees in Darfur, as a U.N. "messenger of peace" on Friday to promote the world body's peacekeeping efforts.
Clooney is the ninth U.N. messenger -- people chosen from the fields of art, music, literature and sports who have agreed to help focus attention on the United Nations' work.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Clooney would have a special emphasis on peacekeeping. She said he had been "recognized for focusing public attention on crucial international political and social issues."
Clooney, who is currently in Sudan, will receive his designation on January 31 at U.N. headquarters.
George Clooney
MIDEMs Personality of the Year
Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel has long been admired as a pacesetter of musical exploration, a passionate campaigner for human rights and a pathfinder in technological development.
That widespread admiration will much be in evidence January 28 in Cannes, France, when Gabriel is named Personality of the Year at music industry trade conference MIDEM (Marche international de l'edition musicale).
It's also the latest in a distinguished collection of trophies. In May 2007, Gabriel received a lifetime achievement title at Britain's Ivor Novello Awards, and a few months earlier the Nobel Peace Laureates bestowed the Man of Peace honor on him.
In the past year, Gabriel has worked extensively to develop more of the globe-embracing ideas that have always been his stock in trade. He spoke with Billboard about some of them and what 2008 holds in store.
For the interview - Peter Gabriel
Draws Big Crowds
Met At The Movies
Last week in Fargo, N.D., moviegoers had a choice among "Aliens vs. Predator," "The Great Debaters" - and "Macbeth," live from New York's Metropolitan Opera.
Murder, mayhem, romance - the plot elements of Verdi's opera were packing 'em in in North Dakota and about 600 theaters across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
"We're creating, basically, satellite opera houses," Met general manager Peter Gelb told The Associated Press. "But the Met offers something you don't get at a performance - cameras that show action behind the scenes and interviews in dressing rooms, the equivalent of going into the locker room of a sports team."
On a recent weekend, ticket sales for the Met broadcasts reached $1.65 million, pushing Charles Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet" to No. 11 in North American movie box-office receipts, according to Variety.
Met At The Movies
Switch Won't Sway Cable Holdouts
Digital TV
Half of the 21 million Americans who do not have cable or satellite TV will probably continue to use rabbit ears after the switch to digital TV in February 2009, according to a new study.
About 43% of over-the-air households indicated they would buy a converter box or purchase a digital TV between now and the transition date, but only 12% of those said they would bite the bullet and pony up for a pay service, the Association of Public Television Stations found.
"This data indicates that free, over-the-air television may be set for a big comeback," APTS president and CEO John Lawson said. "Many people see broadcasting as a dinosaur technology, but we broadcasters have the opportunity to reposition it as 'wireless TV' and reach new audiences."
While there have been high-profile campaigns designed to educate consumers of the impending switch, APTS found that they were ineffective. APTS is the public advocacy group for public broadcasters nationwide.
Digital TV
Hitting The Road In April
Plant & Krauss
Robert Plant's world tour with Alison Krauss -- a key obstacle to a Led Zeppelin reunion trek -- will kick off in Louisville, Ky., on April 20.
The bluegrass queen and the self-proclaimed "golden god" will be promoting their album "Raising Sand," which opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 last fall.
Other stops include Knoxville, Tenn., on April 22, Chattanooga, Tenn., on April 23 and Birmingham, Ala., on April 26. The tour's 11-date run in Europe follows in May.
The duo will be joined on stage by T Bone Burnett, who produced their album. A longer run of North American shows is planned for June and July, but dates and details have not yet been announced.
Plant & Krauss
Hospital News
Christian Brando
Christian Brando, the troubled eldest son of screen legend Marlon Brando, was being treated for pneumonia in the intensive care unit of a Los Angeles hospital, a family friend said on Friday.
Brando, 49-year-old son of the late Hollywood icon and Welsh actress Anna Kashfi, was admitted to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center on January 11, said the friend, who asked not to be identified.
"He's in the hospital, and he's not doing very well. He has pneumonia with complications," the friend said.
Christian Brando
Released Rrom Glendale Jail
Gary Collins
Gary Collins was released from jail Friday after completing his four-day drunken driving sentence.
The 69-year-old TV personality and actor left the jail just after 6 a.m., Glendale police Officer John Balian said.
Kiefer Sutherland, who is serving a 48-day sentence for drunken driving, remained at the jail. Balian said the 41-year-old actor will be released Monday.
Gary Collins
Morgue Time
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is about to see dead people.
The 21-year-old actress will soon be working at a morgue as part of her punishment for misdemeanor drunken driving, her attorney, Blair Berk, told a judge Thursday.
She has also spent two months in rehabilitation and has done some community service, Berk said at a hearing on her progress toward fulfilling the terms of her plea bargain.
Her two four-hour days at the morgue are part of a court-ordered program to show drivers the real-life consequences of drinking and driving. She must also spend two days working in a hospital emergency room.
Lindsay Lohan
Of Course It's A Faux Station
`Seinfeld'
A Green Bay television station decided to have some fun this week after employees discovered that Giants quarterback Eli Manning's favorite show is "Seinfeld." Station officials decided to pull the episode scheduled for Saturday afternoon and replace it with a different program chosen by viewers.
News of WLUK-TV's decision apparently reached Jerry Seinfeld himself.
"I'm going to send Eli a complete collection of 'Seinfeld' DVDs and a partial collection of 'Hogan's Heroes' for inspiration," the comedian told the New York Post on Thursday.
"You think I'm going to take that sitting down?"
`Seinfeld'
Lone speaker Last Hope
The Dura Language
Nepali linguists have come across an 82-year-old woman who they believe is the last speaker of the Dura language, and hope to record the language before she dies.
Soma Devi Dura is a rich source of Dura folktales and songs, but the mother of six is also partially deaf and blind and in poor health.
"She is just like the setting sun on the mountain," said Kedar Bilash Nagila, who has compiled 2,300 words in the language for his doctorate studies. "If she dies the future of Dura language will be gloomy, uncertain or it will be gone for ever."
She lives in Duradanda village in the Himalayan mountains, about 80km (50 miles) west of Kathmandu. The only other person believed to be able to have a Dura conversation with her -- a woman in a nearby village -- died last August, Nagila said.
The Dura Language
In Memory
Bobby Fischer
"Chess," Bobby Fischer once said, "is life." It was the chess master's tragedy that the messy, tawdry details of his life often overshadowed the sublime genius of his game. Fischer, who has died at the age of 64, was a child prodigy, a teenage grandmaster and - before age 30 - a world champion who triumphed in a Cold War showdown with Soviet champion Boris Spassky.
But the last three decades of his life were spent in seclusion, broken periodically by erratic and often anti-Semitic comments and by an absurd legal battle with his homeland, the United States.
Fischer died Thursday of kidney failure in Reykjavik after a long illness, friend and spokesman Gardar Sverrisson said Friday.
Chicago-born and Brooklyn-bred, Fischer moved to Iceland in 2005 in a bid to avoid extradition to the U.S., where he was wanted for playing a 1992 match in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions.
An American chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15, Fischer vanquished Boris Spassky in 1972 in a series of games in Reykjavik to become the first officially recognized world champion born in the United States.
The Fischer-Spassky match, at the height of the Cold War, took on mythic dimensions as a clash between the world's two superpowers.
He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, spending time in Hungary and the Philippines and emerging occasionally to make outspoken and often outrageous comments.
In 2004, Fischer was arrested at Japan's Narita airport for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport. He was threatened with extradition to the United States to face charges of violating sanctions imposed to punish Slobodan Milosevic, then leader of Yugoslavia, by playing a 1992 rematch against Spassky in the country.
Fischer renounced his U.S. citizenship and spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland - a chess-mad nation of 300,000 - granted him citizenship.
Funeral details were not immediately available. Fischer moved to Iceland with his longtime companion, Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai. She survives him.
Bobby Fischer
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