Archives for February 2004

Apropos last Tuesday’s item, Blood Money, which claimed that Mel Gibson’s “Passion” and the call for a Constitution amendment banning gay marriage signaled “a perverse cultural moment,” a reader from Florida writes: “I just don’t see the connection between Gibson and anti-gay marriage movement, aside of the fact they fall under the ‘things Jan Herman […]

A reader from Chicago writes: “I loved the ending of your web article, What a Crock. It is so simple and to the point. I find lately that there are sooooo many people I would love to have just ‘shut up’! “Perle and his book I find very scary. How will the rest of the […]

First he resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board. Now he has resigned from the board altogether. The right-wing ideologue Richard Perle, who advocates what might be termed a holy crusade in the Middle East and elsewhere, wrote to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his letter of resignation: We are now approaching a long presidential […]

A new feature of Vermont U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy’s Weblog is said to be gaining an audience. The feature, called “More From the Floor,” provides an excellent public service. It reminds us today, for instance: “The Senate convenes this morning to resume consideration of S.1805, the Gun Liability bill. While no roll call votes are […]

Who woulda thunk it? A wise Texan — and one with a law degree, no less. Commenting on yesterday’s item, Blood Money, a former federal assistant prosecutor from Houston writes: “I’m not certain I agree with your characterization of ‘The Passion of the Christ.’ I must confess that I have not seen the film, nor do […]

Is it safe to say that anyone who buys a ticket to “The Passion of the Christ” is paying Mel Gibson blood money? Whether the term is defined as 1) “compensation paid to the family of a murdered person,” or as 2) “reward for information about a murder,” or as 3) money “paid to a […]

What you will see if you click this link is a wickedly funny, beautifully made send-up of both a brand-name product and corporate America. Anybody who works in an office will recognize the milieu as well as the mindless credo of rah-rah teamwork that soars beyond absurdity. Enjoy the satire. You’re never likely to see […]

Question: What did Secretary Powell say about the film “Osama?”Answer: Secretary Powell said, “This movie will sear your soul. It will show you where evil lives and how it dominates human life. It will make you hurt. But in the end it will teach you why President Bush is right about waging the war on […]

From Havana, NBC News correspondent Mary Murray writes: “If you’ve never experienced a live dose of Los Van Van, Cuba’s ultimate dance band, you may have missed your chance.” Reporting on the Bush administration’s continuing crackdown against Cubans legally “seeking to enter the United States,” she notes that “since November, every Cuban musician who applied for a […]

Terry Teachout, a fellow ArtsJournal.com blogger, wrote an item yesterday — lectured like a schoolmarm is more like it — about the importance of using links in a Weblog and the good practice of crediting them. The tone recalls Mr. Rogers: Repeat after me: Giving credit to blogsources for borrowed links is good for everybody in the […]

Der (“No Two Ways About It”) Gropenfuhrer renegged on a promised investigation into allegations of his sexual, potentially criminal behavior toward more than a dozen women, but he won’t stand for anyone mocking the law when it comes to gay marriage. “It’s time for the city to stop traveling down this dangerous path of ignoring the rule of law,” […]

The composer William Osborne writes: “That was an interesting comment about the LA Phil vs. the Vienna Phil. The principle of equality is important and an end in itself, but still, it is only an abstraction if there are no jobs available to begin with. Even with the higher levels of sexism in German and […]

While we were busy chronicling the customary discrimination against women at the Vienna Philharmonic, Laurie Niles, a volinist in the Pasadena Symphony, has been describing her effort to get an audition at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. We learned about Niles from a friend’s smart tip. He pointed to this item at LA Observed, which in turn […]

The prolific Italian filmmaker Bruno Bozzetto has a delightful animated cartoon, “Life,” now running on the Web. Just click the link, then click the flashing word “play” when it comes up on your screen. You’ll be well rewarded. In 90 mostly whimsical seconds, Bozzetto pretty much summarizes the history of life on Earth from its creation to the […]

In response to yesterday’s item, a reader writes: “I’m a Hubble man, too. I noticed that funding for maintenance of the space telescope was eliminated after the president’s bullshit Mars project announcement, another coincidental bait-and-switch. There is a wormhole and his name is Bush.” This comes as no surprise to many in the scientific community. […]

It looks like bad taste may bring the world to an end in what’s being called the Big Rip. Not content with being the bête noire merely of aesthetes and high-minded critics, bad taste has become a new obsession for cosmologists trying to understand “a mysterious force called dark energy [that] seems to be wrenching […]

Here’s one of the essential news stories of our time: Beyoncé performed in a “halter dress that gave revealing side views of her breasts.” This shock to the system occurred during the halftime show of the NBA All-Star game, while Janet Jackson “sat courtside swaying to the music.” Doesn’t the Associated Press have better things to do? EmailFacebookTwitterReddit