Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Connie Schultz: Are Men Really This Stupid? (creators.com)
For a whole 24 hours, I was determined to ignore the Super Bowl ad controversy.
Then I sat down Monday to watch the evening news and saw another ad. Suddenly, I was seized by revelation: Men, advertisers think you are: Stu. Pid. Seriously.
Mark Morford: Ode to the whipped white male (sfgate.com)
Let me just ask you this: Do you pity the sad n' squishy white guys of America right now? Do you feel any empathy for their perilous plight, their incessant sexual frustration, their terrible taste in light domestic...
Paul Krugman: Republicans and Medicare (nytimes.com)
Even as Republicans denounce modest proposals to rein in Medicare's rising costs, they are seeking to dismantle the whole program.
Don Peck: How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America (The Atlantic)
"The Great Recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults. It will leave an indelible imprint on many blue-collar men. It could cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a despair not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come."
PAUL SULLIVAN: Index Funds, Dowdy to Some, Get a Notable Endorsement (nytimes.com)
FOR the wealthy, index funds have an image problem. They are considered the economy cars of the investing world: they'll get you there but not in style and you're always worried they may break down. Anyone at a serious level of wealth, the thinking goes, needs the equivalent of a luxury sedan, with strategic stock choices, hedge funds, private equity, real estate. Burton G. Malkiel says this is all hogwash.
Robyn O'Brien: How Shopping Carts May Be Our Greatest Weapon in the Health Care Fight (alternet.org)
Including the USDA in health discussions could lead to better subsidies for organic farms -- and healthier Americans.
James Parker: Ozzy Does It (slate.com)
The improbable persistence of Ozzy Osbourne.
Johnny Dankworth: The jazz bringer (guardian.co.uk)
When directors wanted their films to ooze cool, they called on Johnny Dankworth. Richard Williams on the man who made British cinema swing.
Evan Sawdey: "20 Questions: Hurricane Bells" (popmatters.com)
Steve Schiltz considers himself kind of lucky. In fact, he considers himself very lucky. For years, Schiltz has been the frontman for the long-standing New York-based rock group Longwave, whose pop-oriented guitar attack has always generated some incredible music, but not necessarily the sales that RCA Records was hoping for in the beginning.
Susan King: 'Bad Girls of Film Noir' (latimes.com)
The two-volume, eight-disc collection brings some overlooked femmes fatales out of the shadows.
Sam Benjamin: Why I Had to Stop Making Hardcore Porn (SeXis Magazine; Posted on AlterNet.org)
As a director of heterosexual porn, I came to learn that while my overt task was to make sure the girls got naked, my true responsibility was to make sure the girls got punished.
Interview by Sarah Phillips: "Portrait of the artist: Daryl Hannah, actor" (guardian.co.uk)
'When I was a child, I looked up an agent in the Yellow Pages, called from the school payphone - and signed on.'
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Putting The Man on the Spot' Edition...
If you were given the opportunity to sit down with President Obama and ask him
three questions, what would they be?
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
Least Populated Countries
Hi there
I know this one is a little obvious but until I began looking in to it I could only guess two out of the ten here (maybe I am a little dim!). Thanks for taking a look!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"Marriage Ref"
Madonna
Twice-divorced pop star Madonna will take on a new profession -- marriage referee -- when she makes a rare television appearance on an upcoming show from comedian Jerry Seinfeld about feuding couples.
The "Material Girl," who divorced her British movie director husband Guy Ritchie in 2008, will be one of a panel of celebrities on "The Marriage Ref" who will decide which spouse should be declared "winner" of a domestic spat filmed in their own homes.
Madonna is listed along with British comedian Ricky Gervais and American Larry David in an episode to be filmed in New York before a studio audience next week.
Actors Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, and "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria are also among those expected to make up the rotating celebrity panel on "The Marriage Ref", which debuts on NBC on Feb 28.
Madonna
Devo Prepares For Olympic Show
Mark Mothersbaugh
When art-rock band Devo performs live at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, it will be the band's first network broadcast performance in 20 years.
Devo will be one of 15 headlining acts, including Feist, Usher and the Fray, who will each perform one night at the Whistler Victory Ceremonies between February 13 and 27. The band's show will take place February 22 during a Victory Ceremony.
The internationally televised performance comes as Devo prepares to release its first studio album since 1990. Partnering with their original label, Warner Bros., and ad agency Mother, the band is taking a consciously ironic ultra-corporate approach to the release, focus-group-testing every aspect of the album's marketing. They'll also use the Olympics performance to reveal a new look, including a possibly shocking new color scheme for their iconic yellow hazmat suits and red "energy dome" hats.
Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh spoke with Billboard.com about the band's plans and suggestions for improving winter sports.
For the interview: Mark Mothersbaugh
Unpublished Letters
J.D. Salinger
Previously unpublished letters by the American novelist J.D. Salinger were revealed Friday, giving a glimpse into his life as a writer in the years after he became a total recluse.
The Morgan Library and Museum in New York confirmed a report in The New York Times about the existence of the letters, which are being prepared for an exhibition in the wake of Salinger's death January 28 at the age of 91.
The letters were written between 1951 and 1993 by Salinger to E. Michael Mitchell, the illustrator who designed the cover for Salinger's best-selling novel "The Catcher in the Rye."
Significantly, he specifies in the letters that although his last published work appeared in 1965 he never stopped working.
J.D. Salinger
Internet-Themed Opera
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly, a 28-year-old composer based in New York, has been commissioned to create a fictionalized account of a British teenager who used the Internet in an attempt to arrange his own murder in 2003.
Given the working title "Two Boys," the opera has a libretto by Craig Lucas. Its world premiere is scheduled in June 2011 at London's English National Opera and will be presented by the Metropolitan Opera during the first half of the 2013-14 season.
"Internet crimes are so fascinating because they're so specific to my generation," Muhly said Thursday during a telephone interview from London. "I was one of those crazy kids who was always reading the BBC, even though I was American. I remember reading the confusing case that no one understood, on BBC online. What was very plain was that the people writing the article and the people who were investigating the case really didn't seem to understand what the Internet was - a space of lies and a space of sort of erotic possibilities."
The story of what happened in Altrincham was recounted in Manchester Crown Court in May 2004. A 14-year-old boy posed as a female British spy in an Internet chat room and tried to persuade a friend who was two years older to murder someone alleged to have a terminal brain tumor. The 14-year-old was in fact trying to get himself killed. He was hospitalized with stab wounds and pleaded guilty to incitement to murder and perverting the course of justice. The older boy, who fell in love with his younger friend, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, and both were sentenced to supervision.
Nico Muhly
Sues Over Unpaid Royalties
Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre sued the new iteration of Death Row Records on Thursday claiming the label failed to pay royalties and released a new version of his iconic album "The Chronic" without his permission.
Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, filed the suit in federal court in Los Angeles against WIDEawake Death Row Records and its parent companies.
Young has not been paid royalties on the original "The Chronic" album since he split with Death Row in 1996, the lawsuit states. The label, a one-time powerhouse of rap music artists, eventually fell into bankruptcy but was bought by WIDEawake and re-formed.
Young's lawsuit claims his attorneys notified the new owners that he was owed royalties, but they have never paid him. He also claims the label issued "The Chronic Re-Lit" and a greatest hits collection without his permission or the proper rights.
Dr. Dre
More Religious Insanity
Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan, arguably Bollywood's biggest star, said Friday he was "scared" and "hurt" by hardline Hindu party Shiv Sena's reaction to recent remarks he made in support of Pakistani cricketers.
The 44-year-old heartthrob, in Berlin to present his latest movie "My Name is Khan," also told reporters that he wanted to see the row settled quickly.
He was referring to protests by Shiv Sena after he criticized the fact that no Pakistani cricketers had been picked for the Indian Premier League.
Earlier this week more than a thousand Shiv Sena workers were taken into preventive custody by police and security was beefed up at cinemas in Mumbai Friday as the group targeted the opening of My Name is Khan in India.
Shiv Sena, which runs the Mumbai municipality, draws political sustenance from hardline Hinduism and an ultra-nationalism that includes strident opposition to Pakistan.
Shah Rukh Khan
Who Needs Probable Cause
Justice Dept.
Should the government be allowed to track a person's movements based on cell phone records, without evidence of criminal wrongdoing?
A showdown on the issue unfolded Friday in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, as the Justice Department battled electronic-privacy groups.
The privacy groups say the information could reveal when someone goes to a religious service, medical clinic or political rally, or is having an extramarital affair. Third U.S. Circuit Judge Dolores Sloviter seemed to share that concern.
Law enforcement agencies hope to obtain cell phone location data from cellular providers without first showing probable cause of a crime - and without the customer's knowledge. The data comes from cell phone towers, and in densely populated cities can pinpoint a person's location to within a few hundred yards.
Justice Dept.
Items Auctioned
Perons
Some 14,000 items which once belonged to former Argentine president Juan Peron and his wife, Eva, including his dog's tombstone went under the hammer Friday in an Internet auction.
The gravestone for his dog, Canela (Cinnamon), bearing the epitaph "the best and most loyal of friends" and a jewelry box given to Eva Peron by the American singer Josephine Baker were among the hottest items.
The stone was "one of the most expensive objects and is on sale for around 150,000 pesos (28,400 dollars)," said Mario Rotundo, a former aide to Peron who is selling the collection.
Rotunda, who was Peron's secretary during his rule from 1946 to 1955, and then from 1973 until the ex-president's death on July 1, 1974, inherited the items in 1990.
Perons
Stalin's Favourite Film Restored
"Volga-Volga"
Josef Stalin's favourite film has been given a technicolor makeover -- and references to the Soviet leader restored -- in a version to air on Russian television on Saint Valentine's Day.
The jaunty 1938 musical film "Volga-Volga" was such a favourite of Stalin's that he is said to have sent a copy as a gift to the American president of the day, Franklin Roosevelt.
Shot at the height of Stalin-era purges, the film tells the story of a talented folk singer who overcomes petty bureaucrats to travel to Moscow for a music contest.
Featuring catchy tunes and dancing, the film embodied Stalin's famous 1935 saying that "Life has become better, comrades, life has become more fun." Its blonde star Lyubov Orlova, was known as the Soviet Union's Marlene Dietrich.
"Volga-Volga"
In Memory
Fredrick Morrison
Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died. He was 90.
Morrison sold the production and manufacturing rights to his "Pluto Platter" in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the "Frisbee," with sales surpassing 200 million discs. It is now a staple at beaches and college campuses across the country and spawned sports like Frisbee golf and the team sport Ultimate.
An official disc golf course at Creekside Park in the Salt Lake City suburb of Holladay is named for Morrison.
Morrison co-wrote a book with Frisbee enthusiast and historian Phil Kennedy in 2001. Kennedy released a brief biography about Morrison on Thursday, wishing his late friend "smoooooth flights."
According to Kennedy, Morrison and his future wife, Lu, used to toss a tin cake pan on the beach in California. The idea grew as Morrison considered ways to make the cake pans fly better and after serving as a pilot in World War II, Morrison began manufacturing his flying discs in 1948.
He would hawk the discs at local fairs and eventually attracted Wham-O Manufacturing, the company that bought the rights to Morrison's plastic discs.
Kennedy says Wham-O adopted the name "Frisbee" because that's what college students in New England were calling the Pluto Platters. The name came from the Frisbie Pie Co., a local bakery whose empty tins were tossed like the soon-to-be Frisbee.
Walt Morrison said his father is survived by three children. The family is planning a service for Morrison's friends and relatives Saturday at the Cowboy Corral in Elsinore.
Fredrick Morrison
In Memory
Richard Delvy
Richard Delvy, a pioneering surf-rock drummer, composer, arranger, publisher and producer, died February 6 at West Hills Hospital in California after a long illness. He was 67.
Born on April 20, 1942, in Bridgeport, Conn., Delvy relocated to Southern California and became the drummer for the Bel-Airs, one of the earliest surf-rock groups. The band had a regional hit with the instrumental "Mr. Moto," which was covered by acts including the Ventures and Dick Dale and His Del-Tones. The original track was included in Rhino's 1996 four-disc compilation "Cowabunga! The Surf Box." Delvy later formed the Challengers and produced its 1963 debut album, "Surfbeat," which sold well and helped solidify the polarity of surf music and culture.
He soon branched out into the business side, securing the rights to the Surfaris' "Wipe Out," which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963 and reached No. 16 in re-release three years later. The song was a hit again in 1987, this time by rap group the Fat Boys with the Beach Boys.
Delvy also acquired the copyright on dozens of other songs, including "Mr. Moto" and "Chick-a-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)," which was a top 10 hit for Daddy Dewdrop in 1971.
During the late '60s, he did producing work on albums by the Chambers Brothers and the Outsiders and composed the theme to the B-movie "The Green Slime." He followed that with musical contributions to the cartoon series "The Archies," "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" and "The Groovy Ghoulies."
Delvy later served in executive roles at MGM Music, Carousel Records and Bell Records and was a musical director and arranger on tours by Tony Orlando & Dawn and David Cassidy. He also owned the publishing company Miraleste Music.
He is survived by his wife, Bonnie; son Dodd; stepchildren Bryant and Robyn McFarlane; and a granddaughter, Skyler Delvy.
Richard Delvy
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