Tom Danehy: Tom writes an open letter to Arizona's underwhelming independent voter (Tucson Weekly)
After throwing a tantrum and being allowed to vote in primaries, guess what percentage of independent voters partook of that unfair privilege in the big-time 2012 election? Why, it was 7.4 percent. Yes, one out of every 14 registered independent voters took the time to vote. Seven point four. Y'all are mavericks, all right.
Jordan Weissman: "Here's the Awful 146-Word 'Essay' That Earned an A- for a UNC Jock" (Slate)
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has already been embroiled in a scandal for allowing its athletes to enroll in fake courses for easy credit. Now, the whole controversy has a rather potent visual symbol to go along with it: a 146-word, ungrammatical essay on Rosa Parks that earned an A-.
Christopher Bill: Pharrell Williams - Happy: Trombone Loop (YouTube)
"Christopher Bill, a 21-year-old student at the Purchase Conservatory of Music, not only performs Pharrell William's "Happy," but also demonstrates the magic of looping by computer. He goes from a simple beat to sounding like a full orchestra in no time at all! If you enjoy this, there's a ton of other Christopher Bill videos, including trombone lessons." - Neatorama
James Layne "Jimmy" Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He has written numerous platinum-selling classics, including "Up, Up and Away", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", "Wichita Lineman", "Galveston", "The Worst That Could Happen", "All I Know", and "MacArthur Park".
Webb was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990. He received the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, the Songwriters Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award in 2003, the ASCAP "Voice of Music" Award in 2006, and the Ivor Novello Special International Award in 2012. According to BMI, his song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" was the third most performed song in the fifty years between 1940 and 1990. Webb is the only artist ever to have received Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration.
Source
Charlie was first, and correct, with:
Jimmy Webb.
I thought "MacArthur Park" contained some of the dumbest lyrics ever. The song was originally written for The Association, and they rejected it.
MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again, oh noooooo
I always wondered why a great singer like Donna Summer would waste so much time on that.
"Wichita Lineman" is a great song though. How about the Johnny Cash version?
Tony in Phoenix, AZ, said:
Look on Youtube for the song In My Room sung by Carly Simon, David Crosby, and Jimmy Webb.
The answer to Fridays question
Alan J wrote:
Jimmy Webb
Jim from CA, retired to ID, took the day off.
Adam answered:
Jimmy Webb. and if there is any justice, it was for MacArthur Park (best when sung in it's native Disco).
Marian responded:
Jimmy Webb
Deborah replied:
People might be surprised at some of the tunes he's written. I heard an interview with him on NPR wherein he said that the false rhyme in "Wichita Lineman" with "time" and "line" always bothered him. After all these years.
Sally said:
Jimmy Webb is the only artist ever to have received Grammy Awards for music, lyrics, and orchestration.
Snoozefest musician Jimmy Webb.
(His boring music puts you asleep...)
PS: Anyone following the, "George Washington Bridgegate" debacle from Jersey?
The big question here is, did our Governor know or not know about the bridge being deliberately shut down in a political vendetta?
Well, now we know the answer (wink, wink). Spending ONE MILLION DOLLARS of taxpayer money, the Governor hired a panel of his cohorts to, "Investigate" the incident, and they have declared him INNOCENT! Well, now I feel better, I mean, surely, his Republican panel would not cover up for him, would they?? You decide...
Lois Of Oregon replied:
Jimmy Webb wrote one of my all time favorite songs about
living on after heartbreak and unbearable loss, MacArthur
Park. I couldn't find a good picture of that song, so here
is a little dog forced to wear a dog costume, symbolic of
the masks we wear in conforming to society's expectations.
Or something.
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norcalifull, responded:
Ronald Macdonald to you! Jimmy Webb is the winner! Oh look-----Macarthur Park! Methinks that I loathe that song.
MAM wrote:
Jimmy Webb ~ One of the best known popular songsmiths of the 20th century.
BttbBob, answered:
"Wild-Azz Guess" Moment - Stevie Wonder
~~~~~
I'm wrong... I couldn't wait and had to check... it's Jimmy Webb.
He's an example of a truly talented, famous person that most people wouldn't recognize if they met him on the street... I wonder if he likes it that way.
~~~~~
"Ego Meter" Moment - If you were a "truly talented, famous person" would you want to be recognizable for it... or not?
Hmmm... That begs a tune...
DAVID BOWIE - FAME [HQ] - YouTube
"Fame, makes a man take things over
Fame, makes him loose, hard to swallow
Fame, puts you there where things are hollow
Fame..."
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
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So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
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Now, that one I felt. Wasn't too bad here, a little rocking, a little rolling, nothing cracked, nothing fell.
Tonight, Saturday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'2 Broke Girls', followed by a RERUN'Mom', then '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with 'Dateline Saturday Night Mystery', followed by an hourlong RERUN'SNL'.
'SNL' is FRESH, with Louis CK hosting, music by Sam Smith.
ABC starts the night with a RERUN'Mixology', followed by another RERUN'Mixology', then 'Nightline Prime', followed by '20/20'.
The CW offers an old '2½ Men', followed by another old '2½ Men', then an old 'Family Guy', followed by another old 'Family Guy'.
Faux has a RERUN'Almost Human', followed by a RERUN'The Following'.
MY here has LIVE'MLB Spring Training', with what will later be considered the Freeways Series, from Tempe.
A&E has 'Flipping Vegas', another 'Flipping Vegas', still another 'Flipping Vegas', followed by a FRESH'Flipping Vegas'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 5 - Ep 2 - The Dovecote
[7:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED UK - Season 1 - Ep 2 - Revisited: Walnut Tree
[8:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 5 - Ep 10 - Park's Edge
[9:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 5 - Ep 11 - Spin-A-Yarn Steakhouse
[10:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 14 - Episode 2
[11:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 14 - Episode 3
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR BURMA SPECIAL-Part 2
[1:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE SNOWMEN
[2:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 6 - The Bells of Saint John
[3:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 7 - The Rings of Akhaten
[4:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 8 - Cold War
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 9 - A Matter of Time
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 10 - New Ground
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 11 - Hero Worship
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 12 - Violations
[9:00PM] RIPPER STREET - Season 2 - Ep 6 - A Stronger Loving World NEW
[10:15PM] RED DRAGON
[12:45AM] RIPPER STREET - Season 2 - Ep 6 - A Stronger Loving World
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 9 - A Matter of Time
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 10 - New Ground
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 11 - Hero Worship
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 12 - Violations (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has the movie 'The Fast & The Furios', followed by the movie '2 Fast 2 Furious', then the movie 'The Bourne Supremacy'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Liar Liar', followed by the movie 'Dumb & Dumber'.
FX has the movie 'Rio', followed by the movie 'Rio', again.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Slap Shot 3: The Junior League
[8:00AM] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
[10:15AM] The Three Stooges-You Natzy Spy!
[10:40AM] The Three Stooges-Baby Sitters' Jitters
[11:05AM] The Three Stooges-Bedlam in Paradise
[11:30AM] The Three Stooges-A Bird in the Head
[11:55AM] The Three Stooges-An Ache in Every Stake
[12:15PM] Portlandia-Spyke Drives
[12:20PM] The Three Stooges-A-Plumbing We Will Go
[12:45PM] Portlandia-Spyke Drives
[1:15PM] Portlandia-Motorcycle
[1:45PM] National Lampoon's Vacation
[4:00PM] Johnson Family Vacation
[6:00PM] The Warriors
[8:00PM] Scarface
[11:45PM] Scarface
[3:30AM] Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Wordplay
[7:45AM] Dragonslayer
[10:15AM] Up in the Air
[12:30PM] Loredana, Esq.-Naked and Afraid
[1:30PM] Christine
[4:00PM] Deliverance
[6:30PM] The Big Lebowski
[9:00PM] Margin Call
[11:15PM] Boiler Room
[1:45AM] Shine
[4:00AM] Confidence (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans', followed by the movie '30 Days Of Night'.
Britain's Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy (2nd L) and British actress Vanessa Redgrave (L) take part in a protest near Pentonville Prison in north London March 28, 2014. Writers and actors including Kathy Lette, Vanessa Redgrave, Samuel West, David Hare, Ruth Padel and Duffy were protesting against the ban they claim exists on sending books and other essentials to prisoners.
Photo by Toby Melville
Jon Stewart called out cable news for booking an author who wants women to marry young - not just for dubious lifestyle segments, but on financial shows.
As Stewart noted, women continue to earn 77 cents for every dollar that men do. One solution? Fox Business News and CNBC both booked "Marry Smart" author Susan Patton, who advises college women to pursue their MRS.
"Here's what nobody is telling you," Patton said in one clip. "Find a husband on campus before you graduate. Yes, I went there."
"You went where?" said Stewart. "To the 19th century?"
She also turned up on a slew of shows that aren't financially oriented, to talk about things like fertility and why college women should marry now, not in a their mid-30s, when they will have to compete with younger women who are "dewy-eyed," "fresh" and "adorable."
Actor Bill Murray reacts to a shot during the Murray Brothers Caddyshack Charity Golf Tournament Friday, March 28, 2014 at World Golf Village in St. Johns County, Fla.
Photo by Will Dickey
Politicians on both sides of the aisle like to talk about cutting costs in Washington. But few, if any, have ever come up with an idea as simple as the one recently proposed by 14-year-old student Suvir Mirchandani.
Change the font. Suvir's story was recently reported on CNN.com. The Pittsburgh-area student began his quest by trying to think of ways to save his school district a few bucks. After examining different handouts provided by teachers in different classes, he noticed that the fonts varied and some seemed to require a lot more ink than others.
Suvir, whom we hope got extra credit for his impressive work, discovered that the most commonly used letters on handouts seemed to be r, a, e, o and t. Armed with that information, he set to work looking at how different fonts treated each letter, CNN reports. Suvir found that of the fonts he tested, Garamond (named after Claude Garamond, the original designer of the typeface) would require the least amount of ink and could save his school district as much as $21,000 per year.
After tracking down what the government is estimated to spend on ink per year ($467 million), Suvir found that that Uncle Sam could save around $136 million per year by switching to Garamond exclusively. In addition, he found state governments that made the change could pull in $234 million in savings, according to CNN's report.
Xiang "Angelo" Yu is holding the nearly 350-year-old Stradivarius violin casually by the neck and explaining why he'd like a little more time to make its acquaintance.
"It's always an adventure," says Yu, 25, who has played six or seven Stradivarius violins over his career. "I only have one or two days to get used to it. Feels like a wild horse - you never know what's coming."
The violins of Antonio Stradivari, arguably the most famous instruments ever created, have an almost mystical reputation for beauty and heavenly tone. This week eight of them have been brought together in the City of Angels.
Yu called it a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For the festival, he is playing the 1666 "Serdet," the earliest known existing Stradivarius violin.
Actress Drew Barrymore reacts as she accepts the award for Female Star of the Year at the Big Screen Achievement Awards during CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada March 27, 2014.
Photo by Steve Marcus
The prize package for the 2014 Heath Ledger Scholarship has increased by $5000 to $25,000 while this year's judging panel for the award was named by organizers, Australians In Film, on Friday.
The judging panel for the sixth annual scholarship honoring Heath Ledger will include actors Colin Farrell, Miranda Otto and Wes Bentley, Australian directors Gregor Jordan and Robert Luketic, Australian-based casting director Ann Fay and vp feature casting at Walt Disney Studios, Randi Hiller.
For the 2014 Scholarship, the prize package increase includes $5,000 worth of visa and immigration services from Raynor & Associates Immigration Lawyers and two years of classes at Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
The winner of the primary scholarship, which was established in 2008 in memory of Australian actor Ledger, who served as an ambassador for the organization, will also receive a return flight to Los Angeles on Virgin Australia, a 10-day California trip from Visit California, a complimentary lifetime membership to StarNow and $10,000 cash. Two runners up will receive a round-trip ticket to Los Angeles courtesy of Virgin Australia.
A U.S. judge on Friday rejected a request from Apple, Google and two other tech companies to avoid a trial in a class action lawsuit alleging a scheme to drive down wages.
Tech workers sued the companies alleging they conspired to avoid competing for each other's employees in order to avert a salary war. Trial is scheduled to begin in May.
Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe asked for a judgment in their favor without a trial, arguing that any no-hire agreements between the companies were reached independently, and were not part of an overarching conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., however, rejected that argument.
The case began in 2011 when five software engineers sued Apple, Google, Adobe Systems Inc, Intel Corp and others, alleging a conspiracy to suppress pay by agreeing not to recruit or hire each other's employees.
In the order on Friday, Koh wrote that the companies shared confidential compensation information with each other, despite the fact they considered each other competitors. For instance, Intel chief executive Paul Otellini circulated information about competitors' bonus plans that he "lifted from Google."
Ethnic Dong women wearing traditional costumes pick tea leaves during a ceremony marking the start of tea picking season in spring, at a tea plantation in Liping county, Guizhou province, March 27, 2014. According to local media, Liping county's tea plantations attracted more than 60,000 women workers from nearby villages this spring and each tea picker earns around 100 yuan ($16.10) per diem.
Photo by Sheng Li
University of Iowa Denies Request to Film on Campus
'Girls'
It looks as if Hannah Horvath won't be strolling through the University of Iowa's campus after all.
The university denied HBO's request to film "Girls" on its campus.
According to Press-Citizen, UI spokesman Tom Moore confirmed that university officials were contacted by HBO and denied the network's request to film episodes on campus.
"While we are pleased that the Iowa Writers' Workshop is receiving national attention and that our graduate is doing well in her career, our general practice is to not allow filming, due to potential disruption to campus," Moore said in a prepared statement.
A woman plays a dulcimer during a beginners dulcimer class at the Palestine Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival held at the Museum for East Texas Culture in Palestine, Texas Friday March 28, 2014. The three day festival draws in musicians from all across the United States to attend concerts, workshops and jam sessions featuring old time instruments such as dulcimers, concertinas, autoharps, harmonicas, guitars, mandolins and fiddles. (AP
Photo by Sarah A. Miller
A Pennsylvania woman who protested at the White House will get an apology and a family trip to Washington from the U.S. Secret Service to settle a lawsuit that accused the officers of effectively turning her away.
Under the settlement approved by a judge on Thursday, two Secret Service officers agreed to write letters of apology to the woman, former police officer Debra Hartley.
The Secret Service agreed to provide Hartley, her lawyer, her daughter and two grandchildren a 45-minute meeting with its director, according to the U.S. District Court settlement.
The agency also will reimburse Hartley for mileage from her home to Washington, pay for two hotel rooms for one night, including parking, and provide a government-rate per diem for up to three days. The settlement did not specify the cost.
A resident of Effort, Pennsylvania, Hartley walked 225 miles in protest at pay inequality for women in law enforcement, her complaint said.
A woman in a wedding dress walks past women in Tibetan costumes during a Peach Blossom Festival in Nyingchi Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, March 27, 2014.
Photo by Jacky Chen
A week after saying it was justified in snooping through a blogger's Hotmail account to track down a leaker of company software, Microsoft has changed course, saying it will refer such matters to law enforcement starting immediately.
The reversal, explained by general counsel Brad Smith in a blog post Friday, follows last week's revelation that it searched through emails and instant messages of a blogger who Microsoft believed had received proprietary code illegally.
The search, in September 2012, led to Alex Kibkalo, a Russian native who worked for Microsoft as a software architect in Lebanon. Microsoft turned over the case to the FBI in July 2013.
Smith now says the company "will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves" and will refer the matter to law enforcement if it believes its services are being used to facilitate theft of Microsoft property.
People protest in front of the chancellery against the visit of the President of China Xi Jinping, in Berlin, Germany, Friday, March 28, 2014. Text in the speech bubble reads 'Xi, dialog instead of violence in Tibet'.
Photo by Michael Sohn
A judge on Friday loosened an injunction restricting the movements of a Pennsylvania anti-fracking activist to allow her access to her local hospital, grocery and other places declared off-limits because they sat atop land leased for gas extraction.
Until Judge Kenneth Seamans eased the terms of the injunction, Vera Scroggins, 63, of Brackney, Pennsylvania was banned from 40 percent of the land in Susquehanna County, where she lives and which is leased by Texas-based Cabot Oil & Gas Co for gas extraction.
Seamans, the sole judge in Susquehanna County Court of Common Pleas in Montrose, Pennsylvania, issued a new injunction on Friday barring Scroggins from the active gas extraction operations of the company and the access roads that serve them.
The judge ruled she must not climb on the company's equipment and facilities when she shoots her anti-fracking videos, which she posts on YouTube, and conducts anti-fracking tours of the area, which she has done for actress Susan Sarandon, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon.
"This is a big victory for Vera Scroggins," said Scott Michelman, a lawyer with the Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington, D.C., who represents the activist. "The court recognized it was inappropriate to severely restrict an advocate's daily activities."
Two members of Christies staff wait by painting by Wassily Kandinsky entitled 'Schwarze Spitzen" 1937 during a press preview at Christie's auction house in London,Friday, March, 28, 2014. The painting is expected to sell for some 2.5-3.8 million pounds(US$4-6 million, euro 3-4.5 million) when sold at auction in New York on may 6.
Photo by Alastair Grant
A haul of Monets, Picassos and Renoirs found last month in a house in Austria belonging to Cornelius Gurlitt could be as valuable as the trove German authorities seized from his home in Munich two years ago, a spokesman for the reclusive collector said Thursday.
German magazine Focus, which first reported the case, said the Munich find could be worth 1 billion euros ($1.38 billion). The 1,400 works included paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, some of which authorities believe may have been looted from Jewish owners by the Nazis.
"We can't say at this stage which part of the collection is more valuable," Gurlitt's spokesman Stephan Holzinger told The Associated Press, but added that the Focus estimate was "completely exaggerated."
A search of the dilapidated property in Salzburg, Austria, last month initially turned up 60 items. But a second search revealed a further 178 paintings, drawings and objects that have since been taken to a safe location for experts to restore and catalog, said Holzinger.
Models present creations at the China International Swimming Wear Design Contest & 2015 Hosa Swimming Fashion Trend Show during China Fashion Week in Beijing March 28, 2014.
Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon
When Mitchell Byrd took over the annual bald-eagle survey for the state of Virginia, disco was king, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was just over 800 and France still employed the guillotine to carry out capital punishment. Byrd is now over 85, and the Bee Gees have long since gone the way of the leisure suit. But after all of these years, Mitchell's commitment to bald eagles is staying alive. With the beginning of the 2014 flight season in early March, Byrd began the 38th year of his involvement in the aerial survey.
In the four decades that he has worked on the aerial survey of Virginia's Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, Byrd has witnessed the U.S. national bird's recovery from around 30 nesting pairs to a population that may be nearing a saturation point. Eagles were just about eliminated from the bay before the insecticide DDT was banned in 1972, and Byrd began logging the bird's comeback in the region in 1977.
Since that time, biologists have learned a lot about eagles. At the Center for Conservation Biology, new technology has helped us understand the lives and movements of individual eagles at a level that was just about unimaginable 38 years ago. We've been able to deploy nest cameras to watch the birds' chick-raising habits and their family life. Technology has advanced to the point that we can track movements of individual eagles. To do so, we fit solar-powered transmitters on the birds' backs.
Since the bald eagle comeback has proven such a success in Virginia's stretch of the Chesapeake, we've been able to study these birds as a population, not just as individuals. Though individual eagles hold a great deal of interest, they are even more fascinating when you consider the raptors as a community. We've seen more than one instance of bald eagles nesting in the middle of a great blue heron rookery. Why? We're not really sure. And we don't suggest the bald eagle as a role model for human behavior: Our studies document instances of "deadbeat dads" and "cheating wives" among the populations of the United States' national bird.
A mute swan moves across a lake, as it defends the territory around it's nest from other waterfowl, at Kew Gardens in London, Friday, March 28, 2014.
Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth
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