Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Babies! At the End of the World (SF Gate)
Babies! Are the answer. Babies are also the reason. Babies are the problem and the solution, the currency and the contract, the apocalypse and the salvation, all wrapped in cute little rainbow diapers and outlandish college funds that make you weep well into 2042. Who knew?
Andrew Tobias: Info, Misinfo, and . . . Oh, My
In the last 27 months, we've added 4.3 million net new private sector jobs. Not nearly as many as we'd like, but 60% more than George W. Bush added in his first 7 years and 8 months . . . that is, before the financial crisis hit.
Mitt Romney Economics
Mitt Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts promising more jobs, decreased debt, and smaller government. By the time Romney left office, state debt had increased, the size of government had grown, and Massachusetts had fallen behind almost every other state in job creation. Romney economics didn't work then, and it won't work now:…
Charlie Jane Anders: Computer virus convinces users they've viewed child porn and must pay a $100 fine (io9)
There are still a lot of really stupid people on the internet, judging from the latest scam the FBI just warned against.
Mark Hooper: Is the internet really killing print publishing - or could it prove to be its unlikely saviour, with niche magazines thriving in the digital era? (Guardian)
Is the internet really killing print publishing - or could it prove to be its unlikely saviour, with niche magazines thriving in the digital era?
Annie Leibovitz: 'Creativity is like a big baby that needs to be nourished' (guardian)
The woman who defined modern portrait photography explains to Tim Lewis why her latest work features no people at all.
Lauren O'Neal: How Can They Call Jack White Sexist? (Slate)
It's true that some of his songs grate on the feminist ear, but others- "Passive Manipulation," for example-are explicitly pro-woman. And ultimately, who cares if his songs detail the dark, suffocating moments of (presumably often fictional) romantic relationships? That's what pop music is. It makes more sense to examine his treatment of women, and in that arena, he stands head and shoulders above his male peers.
Henry Rollins: Globetrotting Blues (LA Weekly)
I honestly don't know how I would get through life without music. I like it more than anything else. I would be the lab rat in the experiment who keeps pushing the pedal for music instead of food and eventually starves to death. To stave off the crushing re-entry depression that is coming on as I write this, I will listen to music and start packing for the next leg of the tour -- a month in Canada, where this tour will become very real at 100 shows.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bosko Suggests
Natural Holes
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
The Hobbit
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
The kid's computer devolved to door-stop status this afternoon. Sigh.
Audie Awards
Tina Fey
Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and William Shatner are now award winners in the book world.
On Tuesday night, Fey received Audie Awards for Audio Book of the Year and best Biography/Memoir for her narration of her million-selling "Bossypants." Fonda won in the Personal Development category as the reader of her own "Prime Time." Shatner was cited in Humor for "Shatner's Rules." An audiobook about the Titanic, "The Watch That Ends the Night," won for Distinguished Achievement in Production.
Hope Davis' narration of Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder" won for literary fiction and Will Patton's reading of James Lee Burke's "Feast Day of Fools" won for mystery. The awards, in more than 25 categories, were sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association.
Tina Fey
Wins Spanish Asturias Prize
Philip Roth
US author Philip Roth has been named winner of Spain's 2012 Prince of Asturias prize for literature in recognition of his formidable contribution to American literature.
Prize organizers said Wednesday Roth's narrative work forms "part of the great American novel, in the tradition of Dos Passos, Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Faulkner, Bellow and Malamud."
Wednesday's award is one of eight handed out yearly by a foundation named for Spain's Crown Prince Felipe. Other categories include arts, sports and scientific research.
The 79-year-old Roth, from Newark, New Jersey, is one of America's most renowned authors. Among his most popular books are "Portnoy's Complaint", "American Pastoral" and "The Human Stain."
Philip Roth
Remains Found
Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre
Archaeologists in London have discovered the remains of an Elizabethan theater where some of William Shakespeare's plays were first performed - a venue immortalized as "this wooden O" in the prologue to "Henry V."
Experts from the Museum of London said Wednesday they had uncovered part of the gravel yard and gallery walls of the 435-year-old Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch, just east of London's business district.
The remains - of a polygonal structure, typical of 16th-century theaters - were found behind a pub on a site marked for redevelopment.
The Curtain opened in 1577 and was home to Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, from 1597 until the Globe Theatre was built across the river two years later.
Plays premiered at the Curtain are thought to include Shakespeare's "Henry V" and possibly "Romeo and Juliet," as well as Ben Jonson's "Every Man in His Humour."
Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre
1st-Editions Set For Sale
Pulitzer Prize Novels
First editions of all 93 Pulitzer Prize-winning works of fiction will be offered for sale at a New York auction next week.
Sotheby's says the novels will be sold as one lot at its June 15 books and manuscripts sale. They're estimated to bring $50,000 to $70,000.
The collection begins with the first Pulitzer for fiction in 1918 for "His Family" by Ernest Poole. It ends with Jennifer Egan's "A Visit From the Goon Squad" in 2011.
The collection includes eight presentation copies and 27 signed editions.
Pulitzer Prize Novels
Insults T-rump
Miss Pennsylvania USA
The Miss USA pageant contender from Pennsylvania resigned her crown, saying the contest is rigged, but organizers said the beauty queen was upset over the decision to allow transgender contestants.
A posting on Sheena Monnin's Facebook page claims another contestant learned the names of the top five finishers on Sunday morning - hours before the show was broadcast.
Monnin said she decided to step down as soon as those same contestants were named during the show.
"In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this pageant system any longer," Monnin wrote.
Donald T-rump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, called Monnin's claims "totally ridiculous" in an interview Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America" and said the pageant organization plans to sue Monnin for making the "false charge."
Miss Pennsylvania USA
Robbed After Paris Show
Axl Rose
Police say Guns N' Roses front man Axl Rose was robbed of three gold-and-diamond necklaces worth some $200,000 after the hard rock band's concert in Paris.
A Paris police spokesman said Wednesday that the lead singer of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band was fuming after the theft during a private gathering after the band's show at Bercy stadium the previous night.
Judicial police have opened an investigation but the spokesman said it didn't appear Rose was wearing the necklaces at the time. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because of office policy.
The group's website says they are scheduled to play in Moenchengladbach, Germany, on Friday before returning to France as part of a tour of Europe and Israel that runs through July 22.
Axl Rose
Cheap Publicity
"America's Got Talent"
An "America's Got Talent" singer whose Afghanistan War injury claims have been called into question wouldn't face vetting by producers unless he made it into the final rounds, according to a person familiar with the production.
Timothy Michael Poe was among about 4,000 people who vied for a spot on the NBC series, which doesn't scrutinize contestants until they reach the ranks of the top 48, said the person, who wasn't authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
NBC relies on the show's producers, FremantleMedia North America and Syco Television, to conduct background checks on contestants when the field is narrowed, the person said, which is typical among TV reality series.
It's unknown whether Poe, a guitar-strumming country singer, is among the top 48 picked in a Las Vegas audition round in April or if he's out of the competition. NBC declined comment, as did the person close to the production and producer FremantleMedia North America. Another producer, Syco Television, did not immediately answer a request for comment.
Whatever the Las Vegas outcome was for Poe, it wasn't affected by questions over his war record that arose this week. The refusal by NBC and others to say whether he's still a contender allows the drama surrounding him to be milked for a while longer - a potential boon for the top-ranked network series that drew 11.5 million viewers last week.
"America's Got Talent"
News Corp Sports
Disney
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has taken full control of its Asian joint venture ESPN STAR Sports (ESS), buying out Walt Disney Co's 50 percent share to end a 16-year partnership in the region.
ESS has rights to this year's Olympics in London and also screens Formula One motor races, another of the top attractions in global sport. News Corp has a long history of using sports rights to drive growth of its TV operations.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
ESS operates 28 broadcast networks in 24 Asian countries, including a number focused on cricket, one of the biggest sports in the region.
Disney
2 CEOs End Their NY Court Fight
Archie Comics
The two CEOs of the company that publishes Archie comics on Wednesday ended their court feud over control of the comics kingdom, but now some relatives are accusing both sides of funny business.
A judge on Wednesday signed off on a settlement between Nancy Silberkleit and Jon Goldwater, the co-CEOs of Archie Comic Publications, even as Goldwater's nieces told the judge in court papers that they think both chief executives' "hands are dirty."
Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich said the nieces weren't in a legal position to weigh in on the settlement, but she noted that they could file a suit of their own. Their lawyer had no immediate comment afterward on whether they would.
The settlement ends - at least for now- a bitter and sometimes bizarre fight at the company that produces the congenial, more than 70-year-old comic that follows Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and others through dating and other teenage adventures.
The settlement details are confidential, but Silberkleit lawyer Howard D. Simmons said the pact restored her reputation and her post at Archie. Silberkleit has been banned from the company's headquarters in Mamaroneck since the litigation reached a heated point this winter.
Archie Comics
Pleads Not Guilty
Amanda Bynes
An attorney for actress Amanda Bynes has entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf in a driving under the influence case.
The actress did not attend the arraignment Wednesday in Beverly Hills. She was charged Tuesday, roughly two months after she was arrested after grazing a sheriff's patrol car.
The actress also directed a Twitter message at President Barack Obama asking him to fire the deputy who arrested her, writing she doesn't drink. After her arrest, the 26-year-old refused a test that would have determined if she was drunk or used drugs.
District Attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison says a pretrial hearing is set for July 18.
Amanda Bynes
Joins Tupac
Elvis Presley
Like the much-hyped Tupac Shakur hologram that debuted at the Coachella music festival, Elvis Presley will get the virtual treatment by the same company that made the late rapper's lifelike hologram.
Digital Domain Media Group announced Wednesday it is creating a Presley hologram for shows, film, TV and other projects worldwide, including appearances. They've gotten the OK from Elvis Presley Enterprises.
The King of Rock 'n' Roll remains one of the most popular figures in music despite his death in 1977.
No word on when hologram Elvis will make its official debut. Digital Domain is linking with Core Media Group, which handles various brands, personalities and properties.
Elvis Presley
Backyard Geysers
Sardis, W.Va
Authorities say a gas drilling operation in the Sardis, W.Va. area hit an aquifer and inadvertently re-pressurized a handful of old water wells Wednesday, creating a backyard geyser at least 10 feet high and several smaller gushers.
"It looked like Old Faithful moved out East," said Dale Sturm, a 63-year-old retired carpenter who noticed his patio was wet shortly before 7 a.m.
Sturm said he went outside to investigate and found water "blowing up under my car" from a crack that had opened in the cement about a foot from the garage door.
Colorado-based Antero Resources was in the early stages of drilling a well and was using only water and possibly a nontoxic soap when it hit the aquifer, said Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Sardis, W.Va
Afghanistan Arts Revival
Shakespeare
A bearded man in drag and the Afghan army make unlikely companions in an adapted Shakespeare comedy whose London staging has shone a spotlight on Afghanistan's neglected arts scene.
Thirty years of war and conflict have severely hampered Afghanistan's cultural development. Afghans boast a rich musical legacy and tradition of poetry, but many of the most talented go abroad, fleeing a film industry on the brink of collapse and a theatre industry that was throttled at birth.
"This is a starter, the beginning of what could be a revolution to change Afghanistan through art," said actor Basir Haider, who plays a servant in William Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors", a farcical play of mistaken identity.
The May 31 production in their native Dari Persian is part of Globe to Globe, which comes to a close at the end of this week and showcases 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 languages at the Globe Theatre as part of an Olympic cultural festival.
Shakespeare
In Memory
Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury anticipated iPods, interactive television, electronic surveillance and live, sensational media events, including televised police pursuits - and not necessarily as good things.
The science fiction-fantasy master spent his life conjuring such visions from his childhood dreams and Cold War fears, spinning tales of telepathic Martians, lovesick sea monsters and, in uncanny detail, the high-tech, book-burning future of "Fahrenheit 451."
Bradbury, who died Tuesday night at age 91, was slowed in recent years by a stroke that meant he had to use a wheelchair. But he remained active over the years, turning out new novels, plays, screenplays and a volume of poetry.
He wrote every day in the basement office of his home in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles and appeared from time to time at bookstores, public library fundraisers and other literary events around Los Angeles.
His writings ranged from horror and mystery to humor and sympathetic stories about the Irish, blacks and Mexican-Americans. Bradbury also scripted John Huston's 1956 film version of "Moby Dick" and wrote for "The Twilight Zone" and other television programs, including "The Ray Bradbury Theater," for which he adapted dozens of his works.
"What I have always been is a hybrid author," he said in 2009. "I am completely in love with movies, and I am completely in love with theater, and I am completely in love with libraries."
Bradbury broke through in 1950 with "The Martian Chronicles," a series of intertwined stories that satirized capitalism, racism and superpower tensions as it portrayed Earth colonizers destroying an idyllic Martian civilization.
Like Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" and the Robert Wise film "The Day the Earth Stood Still," ''The Martian Chronicles" was a Cold War morality tale in which imagined lives on other planets serve as commentary on human behavior on Earth. "The Martian Chronicles" has been published in more than 30 languages, was made into a TV miniseries and inspired a computer game.
"The Martian Chronicles" prophesized the banning of books, especially works of fantasy, a theme Bradbury would take on fully in the 1953 release, "Fahrenheit 451." Inspired by the Cold War, the rise of television and the author's passion for libraries, it was an apocalyptic narrative of nuclear war abroad and empty pleasure at home, with firefighters assigned to burn books instead of putting blazes out (451 degrees Fahrenheit, Bradbury had been told, was the temperature at which texts went up in flames).
It was Bradbury's only true science-fiction work, according to the author, who said all his other works should have been classified as fantasy. "It was a book based on real facts and also on my hatred for people who burn books," he told The Associated Press in 2002.
A futuristic classic often taught alongside George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," Bradbury's novel anticipated today's world of iPods and electronic surveillance. Francois Truffaut directed a 1966 movie version and the book's title was referenced - without Bradbury's permission, the author complained - for Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Although involved in many futuristic projects, including the New York World's Fair of 1964 and the Spaceship Earth display at Walt Disney World in Florida, Bradbury was deeply attached to the past. He refused to drive a car or fly, telling the AP that witnessing a fatal traffic accident as a child left behind a permanent fear of automobiles. In his younger years, he got around by bicycle or roller-skates.
"I'm not afraid of machines," he told Writer's Digest in 1976. "I don't think the robots are taking over. I think the men who play with toys have taken over. And if we don't take the toys out of their hands, we're fools."
Born Ray Douglas Bradbury on Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Ill., the author once described himself as "that special freak, the man with the child inside who remembers all." He claimed to have total recall of his life, dating even to his final weeks in his mother's womb.
His father, Leonard, a power company lineman, was a descendant of Mary Bradbury, who was tried for witchcraft at Salem, Mass. The author's mother, Esther, read him the "Wizard of Oz." His Aunt Neva introduced him to Edgar Allan Poe and gave him a love of autumn, with its pumpkin picking and Halloween costumes.
Nightmares that plagued him as a boy also stocked his imagination, as did his youthful delight with the Buck Rogers and Tarzan comic strips, early horror films, Tom Swift adventure books and the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Bradbury's family moved to Los Angeles in 1934. He became a movie buff and a voracious reader. "I never went to college, so I went to the library," he explained.
He tried to write at least 1,000 words a day, and sold his first story in 1941. He submitted work to pulp magazines until he was finally accepted by such upscale publications as The New Yorker. Bradbury's first book, a short story collection called "Dark Carnival," was published in 1947.
Until near the end of his life, Bradbury resisted one of the innovations he helped anticipate: electronic books, likening them to burnt metal and urging readers to stick to the old-fashioned pleasures of ink and paper. But in late 2011, as the rights to "Fahrenheit 451" were up for renewal, he gave in and allowed his most famous novel to come out in digital form. In return, he received a great deal of money and a special promise from Simon & Schuster: The publisher agreed to make the e-book available to libraries, the only Simon & Schuster e-book at the time that library patrons were allowed to download.
Bradbury is survived by his four daughters, Susan Nixon, Ramona Ostergren, Bettina Karapetian and Alexandra Bradbury. Marguerite Bradbury, his wife of 57 years, died in 2003.
Ray Bradbury
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