Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Rachel Maddow Show: What Obama has Accomplished (Video; 5 minutes)
Mark Morford: 8 awesome facts to make you go (SF Gate)
New reality show! "Bristol Palin Prepares to Enter Rehab Sometime in Late 2012 or Possibly Early 2013 Depending on Proximity to Charlie Sheen" (working title) is officially set to debut, of all places, on the Biography Channel. I am not making most of this up.
Froma Harrop: GOP, Try Again on Medicare (Creators Syndicate)
Nice try, Republicans, running a political protection racket to push your Medicare scheme. Scrubbed of the sweet talk about saving Medicare, your offer boiled down to this: You older folks support us, and we won't touch a hair on your government health-insurance plan. Only those 55 and under get whacked.
Jim Hightower: HELPING THE NEEDIEST AMONG US
To be fair to lawmakers, it's not easy making the tough spending choices in these dire times of rising public need and inadequate tax revenues. Legislators in my state of Texas, for example, are trying to find $27 billion in cuts and new revenue to balance an already-miserly budget.
Christopher Hitchens: Unspoken Truths (Vanity Fair)
Until cancer attacked his vocal cords, the author didn't fully appreciate what was meant by "a writer's voice," or the essential link between speech and prose. As a man who loved to talk, he turns to the masters of such conversation, both in history and in his own circle.
Chris Suellentrop: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the First-Person Shooter (Slate)
Portal 2, the rare video game that will make you laugh out loud.
VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN: Television's Curse Was Its Blessing (New York Times)
Television shows, Web sites and apps are not considered cultural artifacts, and never will be. They're public health hazards, like cigarettes and junk food.
Nigel Andrews: The Mark of Kane (Slate)
Orson Welles' masterpiece, 70 years on.
"Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?" By STEVEN TYLER with DAVID DALTON: Reviewed by Amy Reiter
During a recent episode of "American Idol," the popular TV talent show in which the famously foul-mouthed and flamboyant Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler has reinvented himself as a family-friendly judge, host Ryan Seacrest good-naturedly stopped by the judging table to rib Tyler about his new book, ' Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?'
George Varga: "James Blunt, an electric-guitar-wielding rocker?" (Creators Syndicate)
The wispy English troubadour, whose name is synonymous with his 2005 ballad of spurned love, "You're Beautiful," a stage-diving front man? Seriously?
Rosanna Greenstreet: "Q&A: Cerys Matthews" (Guardian)
'I'd let a diplodocus roam free around the UK and see the faces of children as it eats its way through the lime trees in town.'
Sam Leith: Throwing eggs at Justin Bieber is like declaring war on digestive biscuits (Guardian)
What's inauthentic about the marketing and meme-creation skills required to propel a manufactured pop band into the Biebersphere?
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
wrote:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
They Have No Shame
Meredith Attwell Baker
A top telecommunications regulator who voted to approve Comcast Corp.'s takeover of NBCUniversal in January is leaving to join the company as a lobbyist.
Meredith Attwell Baker, one of two Republicans on the five-member Federal Communications Commission, will become senior vice president of government affairs for NBCUniversal.
Comcast said it did not begin discussions with Baker about a possible job until after the transaction had closed. Baker will leave the FCC on June 3, less than a month before her term was set to expire. She joined the agency in July 2009.
Craig Aaron, head of the public interest group Free Press, called the move an example of "business as usual in Washington - where the complete capture of government by industry barely raises any eyebrows."
Meredith Attwell Baker
Joins New Olbermann Venture
Michael Moore
Liberal news anchor Keith Olbermann has tapped filmmaker Michael Moore and comedian Richard Lewis as contributors for his upcoming Current TV program, the network said on Wednesday
Additionally, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns ("Baseball", and "The Civil War"), Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas and Nicole D. Lamoureux, executive director of the National Association of Free Clinics, will also be regular contributors to the new "Countdown", which premieres on June 20.
"I'm delighted and honored that so many of my friends -- who are not coincidentally among the top progressive and entertainment voices in the country today -- will be joining me as contributors to 'Countdown' on Current," Olbermann said.
"I hope these talented individuals, and the others we are to announce in these weeks before the premiere on June 20 will give viewers a sense of the strength and depth of the franchise we're assembling," Olbermann added.
Michael Moore
Set For Kansas
Farm Aid
Farm Aid, the group created in 1985 by Willie Nelson and his musical buddies to raise money for family farmers, will hold its annual concert August 13 in Kansas City, Kansas, organizers said on Wednesday.
Launched during the depths of the mid-1980s farm crisis by Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp, the star-studded concerts have raised $37 million that is doled out in grants to farmers and to promote healthy, sustainably raised food.
Some 35,000 showed up at last year's 25th anniversary concert for Farm Aid at Milwaukee's Miller Park. This year, the event will be at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Farm Aid
Bringing George Lopez On Tour
Santana
Carlos Santana is hoping to make fans smile on his upcoming tour with the sound of music. He's also hoping to do the same with killer jokes.
That's why the multiplatinum musician is bringing George Lopez on the road for five shows.
"When George comes in in the middle of set and he does his thing, it's like the Niagara Falls man. My stomach hurts, I put my guitar down and I know that I'm going to have a quality time," Santana said in an interview last week. "It's a spiritual release to be able to laugh; it's just as important as a powerful meditation. ... (There's) prayer, meditation and laughter - laughter beats all of that."
The joint tour, "Divine Rascals," will kick off Sept. 3 in Morrison, Colo. and wraps on Oct. 1 in Los Angeles. Those dates will come in the middle of Santana's "Sound of Collective Consciousness Tour," which begins on Aug. 25 in Seattle and wraps in Palm Springs, Calif., on Sept. 30.
Santana
Chicago Mayor Names Street
'Oprah Winfrey Way'
Oprah Winfrey now has a street to call her own.
On Wednesday, Mayor Richard Daley, in one of his last official acts before he leaves office next week, stopped by her studio to rename a street outside Harpo Studios where Winfrey tapes her show "Oprah Winfrey Way."
Winfrey is widely credited with helping transform a gritty part of the city into a thriving neighborhood, as her beige building with the giant silver `O' proved to be a magnet for young professionals and families.
Winfrey is the latest of more than 1,000 celebrities, religious leaders and activists and others who have been honored with street signs in Chicago. Michael Jordan, Siskel and Ebert, Hugh Hefner and Frank Sinatra have been honored over the years - Sinatra twice as it turns out.
'Oprah Winfrey Way'
3 Years Probation
Lindsay Lohan
Actress Lindsay Lohan was sentenced on Wednesday to four months in jail after changing her plea and effectively admitting stealing a $2,500 gold necklace from a Los Angeles store.
But Lohan, who was not in court on Wednesday, will likely serve just 16-17 days of her sentence -- most likely under house arrest, officials said.
Lohan's lawyer entered a no contest plea on behalf of the actress to a reduced misdemeanor theft charge. Under California law, a no contest plea is an admission of guilt.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner sentenced the "Mean Girls" actress to 120 days behind bars, 480 hours community service and ordered her to report to jail on or before June 17.
Lindsay Lohan
Public Scorn Greater Than Expected
T-rump
Real estate magnate Donald Trump suggested Wednesday it's not much fun flirting with the idea of running for president in the face of relentless attacks and ridicule.
"Nobody said it was going to be easy, but I had no idea I would get hammered in the way I've been hammered the past few weeks," Trump said in Nashua, New Hampshire.
But Trump has slipped badly in surveys taken since Obama released his birth certificate confirming he was born in the United States.
Public Policy Polling, which in April showed Trump leading the Republican field with 26 percent support, this week showed him with just 8 percent support.
T-rump
Dead Sea Cash Drought
Spencer Tunick
Naked crowds in public places have made American photographer Spencer Tunick world famous, but his plan for an installation featuring hundreds of nude Israelis floating in the Dead Sea has hit money problems.
His photographs of hundreds of naked men and women of "all religions, shapes and sizes" in locations such as the Sydney Opera House and Switzerland's Aletsch Glacier have won critical acclaim and attracted fans worldwide.
"It's very insignificant money," the artist told a Tel Aviv news conference. "But it's the naked body in a public space," he said, hinting at disapproval of his art in the Jewish state.
Tunick and his eight assistants need $60,000 to pay the logistics costs of an installation and photo shoot in September or October at the lowest point on Earth, where the Dead Sea is drying up at the rate of one meter (three feet) a year.
With 25 days to go to their deadline, the team are calling for donations on Tunick's kickstarter.com site (www.kck.st/).
Spencer Tunick
Trailer Hits The Road
Will Smith
Will Smith's tricked-out trailer was sent packing Wednesday after complaints from neighbors in the New York City neighborhood where his new film is being shot.
The location shoot for "Men in Black III" has clogged the narrow streets of Manhattan's Soho for several days. But among the two dozen trucks and trailers deployed, the most prominent was the luxury apartment on wheels occupied by Smith.
The double-decker digs were larger than many Manhattan apartments, and had the neighbors up in arms about its size, noise and fumes.
Wednesday afternoon, the trailer was removed by Columbia Pictures, which apologized for any inconvenience.
Will Smith
Corrective Jaw Surgery
Bristol Palin
Bristol Palin (R-Professional Shill) denied rumors that she has had plastic surgery, but told a celebrity magazine she underwent corrective jaw surgery for medical reasons.
The former "Dancing with the Stars" finalist and daughter of Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin (R-Quitter) sparked a media buzz over her new and more angular jaw line, when she was photographed at recent public events.
Palin, 20, the single mother of a 2 year-old boy who this week landed her own reality TV show, said she had corrective jaw surgery in December.
But Palin also said she is "thrilled with the results" of the surgery. "I look older, more mature, and don't have as much of a chubby little baby face!," she said.
Bristol Palin
Soap Opera Fans Plead
ABC
Viewers, customers and consumers of the soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" have taken out a full-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter expressing their disappointment at the cancellation of the long-running daytime dramas.
The letter, addressed to ABC head of daytime programing Brian Frons, president of Disney/ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney and advertisers on daytime television, says that soap operas are in danger of becoming extinct.
"This is our appeal to save not only the jobs of those employed by 'All My Children' and 'One Life to Live', but to also keep the soap genre from becoming extinct," the letter reads.
The letter goes on to stress that soap operas have brand recognition that few other shows have and that "product placement, leveraging soap fans' passion for the actors on their soaps to enhance product advertising and international syndication would all add to the profitability of the soaps that have served both ABC and the viewing community for so many decades."
ABC
New Sponsor
Newport Jazz Festival
Rhode Island's Newport Jazz Festival has a new corporate backer.
The foundation that runs the jazz and folk festivals announced Wednesday investment firm Natixis Global Asset Management will be the presenting sponsor for the jazz event, scheduled Aug. 5-7.
The festival will feature acts including Grammy Award-winning jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding and trumpet player Wynton Marsalis.
Natixis Global Asset Management is headquartered in Paris and Boston. It takes the place of CareFusion, which had backed the festival for two years.
Newport Jazz Festival
Taking Over Whitney's NYC Space
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
New York's Whitney Museum of American Art plans to give up its Madison Avenue building to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But officials at both institutions say that won't happen until the Whitney moves into its new home in downtown Manhattan in 2015. They announced the news on Wednesday.
The Whitney has occupied the landmark building designed by Marcel Breuer since 1966.
The Whitney's new $720 million home in Manhattan's Meatpacking District was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Early French Classic 'Resurrected' At Cannes
"Le Voyage dans la Lune"
A classic early film known for its iconic black-and-white images has been "resurrected" from the dead -- and spruced up in full color -- to be screened at the Cannes film festival.
"Le Voyage dans la Lune" ("A Trip to the Moon") by Georges Melies was to be presented at the start of the French riviera festival on Wednesday, thanks to state-of-the-art restoration technology from Hollywood.
The color version of the 1902 movie -- including the iconic image of an absurdly unrealistic tin-can space capsule planted in the eye of a face-like moon -- was for decades believed to have been lost forever.
Then in the early 1990s an anonymous donor handed over a color copy of the film to the Cinematheque de Barcelone.
But it was far from straightforward to restore the movie. It took the concerted efforts of a team led by Serge Bromberg, head of Lobster Films, along with Fondation Groupama Gan and Technicolor.
"Le Voyage dans la Lune"
In Memory
Norma Zimmer
Norma Zimmer, the "Champagne Lady" of TV's "The Lawrence Welk Show" and a studio singer who worked with Frank Sinatra and other pop stars, has died. She was 87.
Zimmer performed on Welk's network and later syndicated show from 1960 to 1982 as the "Champagne Lady," the title Welk traditionally gave to his orchestra's lead female singer. Zimmer sang solos, duets with Jimmy Roberts and waltzed with Welk to the strains of his effervescent dance tunes tagged "champagne music."
She appeared on the orchestra's public TV specials that have aired (along with repeats of the series) since 1987. Zimmer took part in a tribute to Welk and his show held earlier this year at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.
Zimmer, born in July 1923 in Larson, Idaho, grew up in Seattle. The petite blonde sang with The Girlfriends, a quartet that performed with Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bing Crosby, including on Crosby's famed recording of "White Christmas."
Zimmer made several film and TV appearances, including one with Crosby in the 1950 film "Mr. Music" and in an episode of "I Love Lucy," and was the voice of the White Rose in the 1951 Disney film, "Alice in Wonderland."
Her survivors include her sons, Ron and Mark. Her husband, businessman Randy Zimmer, died in 2008.
Norma Zimmer
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