Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Strength is weakness (NY Times)
The strong dollar is actually bad for America, giving Europe a way to export its troubles to the rest of the world.
Bob Stanley: "Blurred Lines: the danger of confusing musical inspiration with appropriation" (Guardian)
If anyone has ever compared a new band to Saint Etienne, I've been flattered that we might be an influence. I'm not going to instruct my lawyers to sue.
Alan Rusbridger: For 20 years I fought the law. Today the law won (Guardian)
The police have been trying to nail an editor for years. This morning, on Hampstead Heath, they finally got one.
Andrew Brown: Without Terry Pratchett, the world is less magical (Guardian)
He took a despised literary form and made it dance. His legions of fans will miss him - but at least they have the Discworld he left behind.
Richard Lea and Caroline Davies: Terry Pratchett, Discworld series author, dies aged 66 (Guardian)
Author of more than 70 novels, who 'fired the imagination of millions', dies at his home eight years after Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Xavier Kun: What Kind of American Accent Do You Have? (Lew Rockwell)
A quiz.
Sophie Heawood: "Björk: 'I couldn't just write a disco song'" (Guardian)
Björk's new album Vulnicura documents the mess and pain of a breakup, but she's not downhearted. She talks about the influence of British punk and why she hopes Iceland is heading for a revolution.
Andrew Pulver: "Terence Stamp: 'I was in my prime, but when the 60s ended, I ended with it'" (Guardian)
He was the star of some of the decade's most memorable films - and dated some of its most beautiful women. With the reissue of 1967's Far From the Madding Crowd, the actor talks about his friendship with Michael Caine and his topsy-turvy career.
Henry Barnes: "Adam Horovitz: 'It's weird not being a Beastie Boy. It's all I did for 25 years'" (Guardian)
Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz - who plays a forty-something learning to be less of a kid in Noah Baumbach's While We're Young - on growing up, life without Adam Yauch and why cassette tapes will never, ever be cool.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot and dry.
Flees 'Fashion Police'
Kathy Griffin
Fashion Police is now down two panelists. Just weeks after the exit of longtime castmember Kelly Osbourne, Kathy Griffin has announced her own departure - breaking the news in a long Twitter missive late Thursday afternoon.
"After seven episodes of Fashion Police, I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it's time to move on," she wrote, before wishing producers and the network well.
Fashion Police has only been back on the air since January, when it returned from a long hiatus following the death of Joan Rivers. Griffin was not the only new addition. Brad Goreski also joined the panel.
Ratings have been mediocre since the comeback episode didn't manage to crack 1 million viewers, and it wasn't until some controversial remarks made during the Oscars episode that the show got much attention. Giuliana Rancic's maligned assessment of Zendaya Coleman's Academy Awards red-carpet look, which included her new dreadlocks, prompted a criticism from many - including Coleman and Osbourne. Despite Rancic's public apologies, Osbourne made good on her threat to quit.
Griffin's announcement certainly echoes Osbourne's issues with mean-spirited remarks - if not directly. "My brand of humor, while unrepentant and unafraid, is all about context," Griffin writes. "There is plenty to make fun of in pop culture without bringing people's bodies into it."
Kathy Griffin
Agent Dismisses Allegations
Harper Lee
Harper Lee's literary agent says he was "surprised" that his client was believed a victim of elder abuse and asserted "categorically" that she was in "full possession of her mental faculties" and "delighted" about this summer's publication of her second novel.
The statement from Andrew Nurnberg was issued Friday through Lee's publisher, HarperCollins. Speculation about the 88-year-old author has been ongoing since last month's stunning announcement that Lee had approved the release of "Go Set a Watchman," her first book since "To Kill a Mockingbird." Lee has rarely spoken to the press over the past 50 years and had apparently long resigned herself to never publishing again.
"We have had wonderful discussions ranging over many subjects from the state of contemporary politics to University life in England," said Nurnberg, one of the few people connected to the book's publication who has met in person with Lee at the assisted-living facility in her Alabama hometown of Monroeville, the inspiration for "Mockingbird." "The fact that she is hard of hearing and suffers from some macular degeneration (entirely common for someone in their late 80s) has no bearing whatsoever on her quick wit or of speaking her mind on all manner of things."
State investigators in Alabama have looked into whether publishing "Go Set a Watchman," scheduled for July 14 and highly in demand as a pre-order, involved financial fraud. She answered questions to the satisfaction of the Alabama Securities Commission and that part of the inquiry was closed, a state official said Thursday. The status of the larger investigation by Alabama's Department of Human Resources is unclear.
Harper Lee
Easter Eggs
'Better Call Saul'
When each "Better Call Saul" episode hits the air (Mondays at 10 p.m. EDT on AMC), a certain segment of its audience answers the call, not just savoring each hour of duplicity by lawyer Jimmy McGill, but also scouring the screen for covert clues.
This pursuit of so-called Easter eggs isn't unique to "Saul," or even to TV. Throughout his long career as a movie director, Alfred Hitchcock in effect cast himself as an Easter egg, popping up in each of his films in a blink-and-you'd-miss-it cameo appearance.
But since premiering last month, "Saul" has emerged not only as TV's most beguiling tragicomedy, but also a favorite hunting ground for high-alert Easter eggheads.
Many of its buried clues link "Saul" to "Breaking Bad," the 2008-13 AMC series that introduced Jimmy McGill in a time frame six years after the starting point for "Saul." For instance, in the "Saul" premiere, Jimmy's car was revealed to be a 1998 Suzuki Esteem rattletrap parked in the Albuquerque courthouse alongside a Cadillac DeVille - a deliberate reference to the make of car he will drive years later on "Breaking Bad" in his alter ego as flush attorney Saul Goodman.
'Better Call Saul'
Fundraiser At Hearst Castle
'Citizen Kane'
For some movie buffs, showing Orson Welles' acclaimed film "Citizen Kane" at Hearst Castle is like having a screening of "Star Wars" on the Death Star.
Fifty film fans will have the opportunity to watch Welles' 1941 groundbreaking film partly based on the late William Randolph Hearst at the media tycoon's own private theatre at Hearst Castle, a concession the magnate would probably not have made.
The screening Friday with a price tag of $1,000 is part of the San Luis Obispo Film Festival. It will include an exclusive tour of the estate, which is now a state park, and a reception on the mansion's patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It will benefit the non-profit Friends of Hearst Castle, a preservation group.
Welles' cinema classic was shown before in the Hearst Castle's visitor centre in 2010, but this will be the first time the film is screened in the opulent, 50-seat theatre at the hilltop estate.
'Citizen Kane'
Sentenced To 12 Years
Bruce Beresford-Redman
A former "Survivor" producer has been convicted of murdering his wife during a 2010 Cancun beach vacation, and his attorney says he plans to appeal.
Bruce Beresford-Redman was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday by Judge Víctor Manuel Echeverria Tun, Quintana Roo state prosecutor Gaspar Armando Garcia Torres said.
The American producer was on vacation in Cancun with his Brazilian-born wife, Monica Burgos Beresford-Redman, and their two children in 2010 when her body was found in a sewer cistern at the resort where they were staying.
The vacation was supposed to be an attempt to repair their marriage after she learned her husband had cheated on her.
Bruce Beresford-Redman
Criticism Builds
47 Traitors
Criticism of 47 Republican senators' letter to Iranian leaders escalated Friday, and one of the lawmakers expressed misgivings about writing directly to an adversary to raise doubts about President Barack Obama's nuclear negotiations.
Several newspapers that had endorsed the senators' elections were harshly critical. A handful of conservative commentators and former GOP aides joined legions of liberals in calling the letter ill-advised.
Republicans defended the letter, saying they must take dramatic steps to demand a voice in negotiations, because they fear Obama will be too soft on Iran. Some of the 47 senators, however, are taking heat back home from editorial pages that have supported them.
In Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Cincinnati Enquirer endorsed Sen. Rob Portman's 2010 campaign, but they berated him this week for signing the Iran letter.
"The magnitude of this disgraceful decision," a Plain Dealer editorial said, "shows the degree to which partisanship has gobbled up rationality on foreign policy."
47 Traitors
China Claims 'Right To Reincarnate'
Dalai Lama
China's Communist Party is officially atheist, but that has not stopped it from making some impassioned claims on the afterlife.
Some of the strongest language at this week's annual national congress has been reserved for the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader. The fury is over his claim in recent interviews that he may not be reincarnated, ending the Dalai Lama's seven-century lineage. His comments undercut Beijing's plans to pick a China-friendly successor to the Dalai Lama after he dies.
China's stance: The Dalai Lama doesn't control the next life. We do.
Tibet's former governor, Padma Choling, told reporters this week in Beijing that the Dalai Lama wants "to contend with the Chinese central government for the right to reincarnate."
Zhu Weiqun, a senior government adviser, followed up in similarly caustic language, declaring Wednesday that "the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama has to be endorsed by the central government, not by any other sides."
Dalai Lama
Wants New Gulfstream
Creflo Dollar
The ministry of a prominent Georgia megachurch pastor and evangelist who teaches that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches is seeking donations to buy a luxury jet valued at more than $65 million.
The website of Creflo Dollar Ministries asked people Friday to "Sow your love gift of any amount" to help the ministry buy a Gulfstream G650 airplane. Dollar and his wife, Taffi, are co-pastors of World Changers International Church in College Park, just south of Atlanta.
The ministry's current plane, acquired in 1999, was built in 1984, has traveled more than 4 million miles and is no longer safe, spokesman Juda Engelmayer said. On a recent trip overseas, one of the engines failed, but the pilot was able to land safely and no one was injured, the ministry's website says.
Gulfstream's website lists an asking price of $67,950,000 for a G650 with a flight record of 1,616 hours and 625 landings since it entered service in mid-December.
Creflo Dollar
A World's First
South Africa
South African doctors have successfully performed the world's first penis transplant on a 21-year-old man whose organ had been amputated three years ago after a botched circumcision.
The nine-hour operation, which took place in December, was part of a pilot study by Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch to help the 250 or so young South African men who lose their penises each year after coming-of-age rituals go wrong.
Doctors said the patient, who was not named, had already recovered full urinary and reproductive functions, and that the procedure could eventually be offered to men who have lost their penis to cancer or as a last resort for severe erectile dysfunction.
"Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years and we are very surprised by his rapid recovery," Andre van der Merwe, the head of the university's urology unit who led the operation, said in a statement.
South Africa
In Memory
Gene "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine" Patton
Gene Patton, the NBC stagehand in Burbank who stole the spotlight as Gene Gene the Dancing Machine on NBC's wacky The Gong Show, died Monday, his family announced. He was 82.
Patton died in Pasadena, according to a spokeswoman at the local Woods-Valentine Mortuary. He had suffered from diabetes.
The Gong Show, dreamed up and hosted by producer Chuck Barris (The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game), aired on NBC in daytime from 1976-78 and then in syndication. Acts - most of them amateurish and just plain awful - auditioned for three celebrity judges, who banged a gong on stage to mercifully send the bad ones packing.
At a random moment during the game show, Barris would introduce Patton, and the curtain would part, bringing the shuffling stagehand with the painter's cap onstage to the sounds of "Jumpin' at the Woodside," a jazz tune made popular by Count Basie. His dance sent everyone on the set - Barris, the judges, the cameramen, the audience - into an uncontrollable boogie.
"One day, during rehearsal, I saw Gene dancing by himself in a dark corner. The huge stagehand never moved his feet; just his body from the waist up. He was terrific," Barris wrote in his 1984 memoir, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
A native of Berkeley, Calif., Patton also appeared as Gene in The Gong Show Movie (1980) and as himself in the film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, George Clooney and Charlie Kaufman's surreal 2002 adaptation that starred Sam Rockwell as Barris. By then, Patton had lost both his legs to diabetes.
A former janitor at John Muir High School in Pasadena, Patton in 1969 became the first African-American member of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, Local 33. "You are a legend in our eyes," the stage technicians union wrote on its Facebook page.
Survivors include his children Bonnie, Carol, Sidney and Courtney, his sister Henrietta, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Gene "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine" Patton
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