'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
It rained almost all night & day! We only had about 3" of rain last year (normal is around 17"), and this is a good start for the season.
Stopped by the reptile store for fresh crickets - between the rain & the crickets, some friendly noises. But, from the amount of traffic tonight, something
went to shit over on the 710 (the Long Beach Freeway).
In the last couple of days I noticed 2 new pitchmen for garbage bags -
Don Rickles and
Rodney Dangerfield.
Saw Maury Povich today for the first time in years. OMG! Seems to be specializing in paternity testing these days. It's not pretty, but it is loud, lewd & sad. At least Maury has a good haircut.
Tonight, Saturday, CBS starts the night with a fresh 'Touched By An Angle', then a fresh 'The District' and caps the night with a fresh 'The Agency'.
NBC RERUNs the movie 'Jurassic Park'. Don't know who's hosting SNL.
ABC RERUNs the movie 'Saving Private Ryan'.
The WB will RERUN either 'Edward Scissorhands' or 'Die Hard 2'.
Faux starts with a fresh 'Cops', then has a RERUN 'Cops', and follows with a 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has the movie 'Free Willy 2'.
MTV has an hour of 'The Osbournes' reruns at 10pm (est).
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Available At Auction
John Lennon
John Lennon's dope box and pipe from the 1960's is on view at a London auction house Friday Nov. 8, 2002. The dope box, part of a collection of Beatles memorabilia, is to be sold on Nov. 19, is valued at 20,000 -25,000 pounds ($US 28,000-34,000).
Photo by Alastair Grant
#1
Reprises Role On 'Futurama'
Al Gore
The Republicans may have control of Congress, but Al Gore has control of the future.
The former Democratic vice president has a guest role on Sunday's season premiere of Fox's animated sci-fi comedy "Futurama," supplying the voice of his own disembodied, scientifically preserved head.
"I think I may have a future as a disembodied head," Gore joked in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. "I'm not sure that any political calculation
would have steered me toward this part, but it was great fun doing it."
In Sunday's episode (7pm est/pst), Gore's head is introduced at a global-warming convention as "the inventor of the environment and first emperor of the moon." He's also
known as the author of "Earth in the Balance," and the "much more popular 'Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth."'
Gore's daughter, Kristin, was a writer on "Futurama," and the politician previously played himself in a May 2000 episode. Kristin Gore is now working on a new sitcom for CBS, her father said.
Al Gore
Honored At The Apollo
Funk Brothers
It was like an old-time Motown revue at the Apollo Theatre as Mary Wilson, Ashford & Simpson, Mario and others sang in tribute to the Funk Brothers, the musicians behind the hits at the legendary music label.
"They're responsible for my life," said Wilson, who worked with the Funk Brothers in the 1960s as part of The Supremes and performed with them Thursday night. "Thank you guys!"
The Funk Brothers were the house band for Motown Records, and were responsible for making the Motown sound an international brand, yet most people don't know their names or their importance in music history.
A new documentary, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," seeks to rectify that. The film had its premiere at the Apollo on Thursday, with the surviving members of the Funk Brothers present:
Bob Babbitt, Johnny Griffith, Joe Hunter, Joe Messina, Uriel Jones, Eddie "Chank" Willis and Jack "Black Jack" Ashford.
Funk Brothers
Lord of Dance
Shiva
The 'Shiva as Nataraja, Lord of Dance,' is shown in this undated file photo as of part of an exhibit, 'The Sensuous and the Sacred' at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington until March 9, 2003.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No Theatrical Release In UK
'Swept Away'
Madonna's flop film "Swept Away," which bombed at the U.S. box office after a critical mauling, will not be released at UK cinemas, distributor Columbia TriStar said on Friday.
British film fans will have to wait for the video to see why critics slammed the film as a "shipwreck," a "debacle" and a "disaster."
"The film will not be given a theatrical release in Britain," a Columbia TriStar spokeswoman said, refusing to give any more details.
The film, directed by the Material Girl's British husband Guy Ritchie, was due to be released next March but will now go straight to DVD and video in the summer.
'Swept Away'
Delays More Concerts
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen is postponing two more concerts because E Street Band saxophone player Clarence Clemons is recovering from surgery for a detached retina.
A concert scheduled Saturday in Columbus has been moved to Dec. 16, and a Sunday show in Indianapolis has been rescheduled for Dec. 17, according to Springsteen's Web site.
Clemons, 60, underwent surgery after a show Monday night in Houston, causing a Wednesday performance in Austin to be postponed until March 2.
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen Web site
Strikes Down Video Description Rules
Federal Appeals Court
A federal appeals court on Friday struck down rules requiring major television broadcasters and programmers to offer verbal video descriptions of certain shows to aid people with visual disabilities.
The Federal Communications Commission adopted rules in 2000 requiring visual parts of a show to be verbally described during pauses in the dialogue beginning this year. Many non- commercial stations have offered the service for years.
The Motion Picture Association of America appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, arguing the law did not authorize such rules, but the FCC countered the regulations were allowed because, in part, they were in the public interest.
The rules had required television broadcasters affiliated with the four major networks, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, in the top 25 television markets to offer 50 hours of video description a quarter during prime-time, or children's
programming starting in 2002, equivalent to about 4 hours a week.
FCC spokeswoman Michelle Russo said the agency was reviewing the decision.
The agency could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But Michael Powell, who was a FCC commissioner at the time the rules were adopted and is now chairman of the agency, said in 2000 the rules were not supported by the law.
Federal Appeals Court
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Tops Magazine's 2002 Losers List
'Dell Guy'
Steven the Dell Guy, the perky pitchman for Dell Computer Corp., is the biggest loser of the year, according to a tongue-in-cheek list compiled by Stuff magazine.
The beanie cap-wearing actor, whose real name is Ben Curtis, fended off tough competition from the likes of fellow thespian Russell Crowe and airport security workers, according to the list
published in Stuff's upcoming December issue.
"We chose people that just make your skin crawl by being there," Stuff editor-in-chief Greg Gutfeld told Reuters on Thursday. "The Dell Guy was ubiquitous, and the only reason he's perceived as
being successful was because he was ubiquitous."
Gutfeld said airport security workers would have been a lock for the top spot, but he was worried he would be thrown off future flights. Instead, the federal employees made the list at No. 5 with
the citation: "they couldn't spot a real terrorist if they had 'Death to Infidels' tattooed on their foreheads."
Crowe, who missed out on an Academy Award this year for "A Beautiful Mind," was ranked No. 2 with the recommendation that he should lighten up.
Other "losers" included the FBI, for publicly identifying a suspected anthrax mailer who now plans to sue the agency for defamation; and "The West Wing" star Martin Sheen for apparently thinking he really is the president.
'Dell Guy'
Oregon
New Duck Mascot
Oregon's new Duck mascot breaks the shell and emerges from an egg, in front of the original mascot, before Oregon's game against Southern California on Saturday Oct. 26, 2002, in Eugene, Ore.
Photo by Greg Wahl-Stephens
Strike Back at VH1
Minnelli & Gest
U.S. entertainer Liza Minnelli and her new husband on Friday blasted cable music network VH1 for scrapping their planned reality TV show.
The actress-singer and her producer husband, David Gest, said VH1's charge that they had failed to provide enough access to the network was absurd.
The couple also said the TV crew ruined their apartment and a VH1 programming executive was rude to them.
The cable network said in late October it would not move forward with the "Liza & David" show because it was "not given the cooperation and access that we were promised."
The couple said the TV crew has footage including coverage of the couple at a Starbucks, of Minnelli at her dance class and of Gest shopping for rugs, the couple said.
Minnelli & Gest
To Reunite -- For 3 Songs Only
Police
Former British rock band Police, whose hits included "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle," will get together for a one-show reunion in New York next year, ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland said on Friday.
"I am a dinosaur of rock," Copeland told a news conference in Milan where he was performing with his band Stewart Copeland's Orchestralli. "We're going to get together again after nearly 20 years."
Copeland, now 50, said Police had agreed to play three songs at a ceremony in New York in March to mark the band's induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Australia's heavy-metal rockers
AC/DC and fellow British groups Elvis Costello and the Attractions and The Clash.
Police
Seeks Source of Photos
Pentagon
The Pentagon was investigating Friday to find out who took and released photographs of terror suspects as they were being transported in heavy restraints aboard a U.S. military plane.
Four photographs of prisoners — handcuffed, heads covered with black hoods and bound with straps on the floor of a plane — appeared overnight on the Web site of radio talk show host Art Bell.
"Anonymous mailer sends us photos taken inside a military C-130 transporting POWS," the headline said.
The photos are the first giving a glimpse into security measures aboard any of the airplanes used over the past year as prisoners were transferred to prisons in and around
Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, including to the high-security prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Pentagon
Art Bell
Urges AIDS Awareness
Dave Matthews
Dave Matthews had a simple reason for playing at an AIDS awareness concert: He remembers when AIDS emerged, and many of his fans — like 19-year-old singer Michelle Branch , who also performed — do not.
"I was a kid in the '80s," he said before performing Thursday night at MTV's "Staying Alive" concert. "I remember this fear that people had. You couldn't stop it. It seemed to become this invisible murderer.
Like many health officials, Matthews thinks distance from that initial fear can lead to apathy and ignorance among young people — the same way the fear of nuclear war largely dissipated among those born after the height of the Cold War.
Branch and Matthews joined hip-hop star Missy Elliott in playing before 800 people at the Experience Music Project at Seattle Center. The show was taped and will be combined with a concert in South Africa starring
Alicia Keys and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs into a 90-minute, commercial-free MTV special on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day.
Dave Matthews
BartCop TV!
Fans Riot After No-Show
Axl Rose
The start of rock band Guns N' Roses' first North American tour since 1993 has turned into a disaster as angry fans rioted when lead singer Axl Rose failed to show up for the concert.
Dozens of people threw rocks at police and security guards and smashed windows at the General Motors Place arena in downtown Vancouver late on Thursday, when promoters canceled the show at the last minute.
Concert promoters said Rose was unable to get to Vancouver because of airplane problems in California. Vancouver was supposed to be the first stop in the band's tour to
promote their soon-to-be released "Chinese Democracy" album. The band is scheduled to play Friday night in Tacoma, Washington.
Axl Rose
Quito, Ecuador
Mariscal Sucre Airport
Hundreds of Ecuadoreans sweep ash off the tarmac at the Mariscal Sucre airport in Quito, November 5, 2002. The airport will be closed for about a week after one millon tons of ash fell on the Ecuadorean capital after an eruption by the Reventador Colcano November 3. A burning cloud of gases, ash and rocks rolled down the sides of the volcano, charring the jungle peak, during an early morning eruption in Ecuador's Amazon jungle near the heart of its oil industry. It was the volcano's first eruption since 1976.
Photo by Mauricio Muñoz
First Screen Kiss With Man
Dennis Quaid
Kissing a man isn't so bad once you get past the razor burn, Dennis Quaid said. Playing a 1950s suburban husband who's discovering he's gay in "Far From Heaven," the macho actor was asked to
do a love scene with another man for the first time in his career.
"By take three it was just fine, just another scene," Quaid told reporters.
The only problem was that the actors attacked the scene with a little too much gusto, Quaid said.
"We both went after each other like a couple of linebackers to begin with," Quaid laughed. "And (director Todd Haynes) had to like stop and take one and say, 'Hey, it's a '50s screen kiss, OK?'
And that kind of put it into the context of the film."
Dennis Quaid
Public Session With Psychiatrist
Woody Allen
Woody Allen went one-on-one against a prominent psychiatrist on Thursday night in front of more than 800 people, fending off a stream of suggestions on how psychoanalysis affected his life and work.
"There is no profound significance to any of the dream sequences in my movies," proclaimed Allen, whose films are full of references to analysis and slapstick sexual imagery. "I made it all up.
"My mother said I was a sweet kid for the first four years of my life. But then I turned sour," Allen told Dr. Gail Saltz, an assistant professor of psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital
and a regular contributor on mental health issues for NBC's "Today Show."
"There was no traumatic event. It was a mystery. I can only attribute that to an awareness of mortality, seeing what you're involved with, and I never recovered from that."
The scrawny, bespectacled 66-year-old Allen, wearing a gray sweater as he sat across a coffee table from Saltz, discussed his experiences, his movies and his disappointments. But he would not give much credit to psychoanalysis.
"There were no dramatic moments. No insights. No tears," Allen said about his decades in therapy, which began more than 40 years ago when he was writing comedy for television programs in his mid-20s.
"I had grandiose plans for myself when I started," he said. "I had a much grander conception of where I'd end up in the artistic firmament.
"What makes it particularly poignant is I've had great artistic freedom in a medium where people don't get that freedom," said the man whose films include "Annie Hall," "Manhattan," "Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Woody Allen
Sued Over Perfume Name
Jennifer Lopez
It might have seemed like a bright idea when Jennifer Lopez agreed to name her new line of perfume "Glow by J. Lo," but the folks at Glow Industries are taking a dimmer view.
The name represents a trademark infringement, according to the Los Angeles-based company, which sells scented products, including a perfume called Glow.
The company, which filed suit in August, went to court Thursday seeking a preliminary injunction stopping Lopez and fragrance partner Coty Inc. from using the
name until the matter is resolved.
Jennifer Lopez
Sons Demand Items Return
Audrey Hepburn Pavilion
Two golden Oscars highlight the Audrey Hepburn Pavilion — an exhibition devoted to the doe-eyed star of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" — in this quiet village overlooking Lake Geneva.
But the display in Tolochenaz, where the actress lived for 30 years, is preparing to close this month. Hepburn's sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti, have demanded all their exhibits be returned, claiming Tolochenaz has
commercialized the Hepburn name in a way that would have distressed their mother.
Hepburn, who won one of the Oscars in 1953 for her role in the film "Roman Holiday," was 63 when she died here of colon cancer in 1993.
The other Oscar was a special award in 1992 marking her humanitarian work as an ambassador for UNICEF, drawing the world's attention to the plight of starving, sick and poverty-stricken children.
Since it opened in 1996, the pavilion has received 27,000 visitors — an average of just 14 per day, said Franca Price, executive director of the Audrey Hepburn Foundation Switzerland, which manages the
exhibition. And those tourists that do come don't stay once they've seen the display and Hepburn's grave.
Audrey Hepburn Pavilion
'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'
Habitat Plan Reversed
A federal district judge has formally reversed a U.S. Fish and Wildlife plan to designate more than 4 million acres as critical habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog.
The service will have to re-evaluate a plan developers successfully challenged as flawed.
The once widespread amphibian is believed to have inspired Mark Twain's short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., approved a proposed settlement in July reversing that critical habitat decision, but left the protections in place temporarily
after conservation groups complained they were left out of negotiations between developers and the service.
Environmental groups criticized what they called "a sweetheart deal" between developers and the service.
The population of the largest native frog in the western United States has dropped significantly since the 1865 publication of Twain's short story about a frog named "Dan'l Webster"
that could "get over more ground in one straddle than any animal of his breed you ever see."
Habitat Plan Reversed
Read the decision -- (PDF Format)
Read the service's recovery plan
While Directing Traffic
Nun Killed
A woman trying to drive her car up a steep road lost control of her vehicle and ran over and killed a nun who was directing traffic below, authorities said.
The car Frances Wager was driving was having trouble going forward, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Tim Santillan said.
The car rolled down the hill and struck the nun, whose identity was not released pending notification of her family. No one else was injured in the accident
that occurred around 11 a.m. Thursday, Santillan said.
The nun belonged to the Sisters of Social Services order in San Diego, which was hosting a seminar at this town about 40 miles east of San Diego.
Authorities interviewed up to 30 people who may have witnessed the accident and were inspecting the car, which continued rolling another 50 feet after running over the nun and crashed into a rock wall.
Nun Killed
Barbecues Slow Modem
Angry Man
Janesville police responded to a smoke complaint around 1 a.m. Tuesday and found a man barbecuing his computer modem.
The 39-year-old man told police the modem was operating too slowly, and he decided grilling it might make it dial up faster.
The man's wife told police that this wasn't the first time her husband got upset with a slow modem and that he has smashed them or tossed them out the door before.
No one was injured, but police said the modem was a total loss.
Angry Man
In Memory
Stan Burns
Stan Burns, an Emmy-winning comedy writer who worked on such television shows as "The Steve Allen Show," "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and "The Carol Burnett Show," has died. He was 79.
Burns died Tuesday of heart failure at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in the San Fernando Valley.
Burns won an Emmy for outstanding writing achievement in variety or music programs on "The Carol Burnett Show" for the 1971-72 season.
His writing career took off in the 1950s, contributing to "Broadway Open House," the original "Tonight Show," starring Steve Allen and the "The Steve Allen Show."
Burns also teamed with his longtime writing partner, Mike Marmer, in the early '60s to work on variety shows and sitcoms, including "Get Smart," "F-Troop" and "Gilligan's Island."
Burns and Marmer created, produced and wrote the Saturday morning children's show
"Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp," which ran on ABC from 1970 to 1972. The show has been described as "'Get Smart' with fur and psychedelic music."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Burns joined the Marines after graduating from high school and served in the South Pacific during World War II. He broke into comedy writing after the war, first on radio.
He co-wrote "The Book of Jewish World Records," a parody of the Guinness Book of Records, published in 1978. He also co-wrote the 1981 movie "Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen."
Stan Burns
La Paz, Bolivia
'Nanitas'
An Aymara Indian girl carries the skull of a relative out of the chapel at the General Cemetery after having it blessed by a Catholic priest during the annual 'Nanitas' day in La Paz, November 8, 2002. Hundreds of people, mostly Indian street vendors, carry relatives' skulls to be blessed and then placed as 'guardians' in their homes throughout the year, especially when their homes are left unguarded during trips.
Photo by David Mercado
'The Osbournes'
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