Fox News reports on the late breaking scandal about how Boston police arrested two artists hired to do PR for a TV. Yes, I know I’m late to the game, but it’s worth it.
On the day American media obsesses over Anna Nicole Smith’s demise, Bob Harris wonders whether there were any other news stories of interest that day. He comments:
News shows are, yes, shows. They do not make money by providing us useful information. They make money by providing us… to the advertisers. Useful information occurs, but it is up to you to care enough to spot it.
On the Britney/Federline divorce proceedings:
there were reports last week that Federline was offered a $25 million divorce settlement and he turned it down. Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent, denies that claim, telling Playfuls, “Britney’s lawyer is too smart to make that offer, and Federline’s lawyer is too smart to turn it down!”
(Sidenote: I’ve been keeping up with the Britney scandal for some reason. My take: all the negative publicity about Kevin Federline is almost completely unfounded and driven by the fact that Britney has paid full time staff to handle the media. From what I see, Kevin F has simply requested time with children and a fair share of the money; ouch, looks like he learned about the divorce via text message; see the video of that).
In other news, I’ve been listening to some great talks by authors on Lannan Foundation website. Yesterday listened to Gary Snyder, Adrienne Rich, Wendall Berry. Also listening to 2 interviews with my teacher John Barth: First and Second
A juicy excerpt:
of all the forms of literature, the novel is the one which historically is the most hospitable to contamination of every sort. it’s the most impure form of literature no doubt ever imagined. god help the writer who doesn’t relish that contamination–where but in the novel can you throw in deliberately undigested lumps of journalism forms… god bless the novel..god bless its impurities
and contaminations.
Another: “i have nothing but contempt for those who have nothing but contempt for writers who teach at universities.”
Inspirational video about the Internet (from Teleread).
Music video: Tempest by Los Straitjackets. I’m dying to see the movie it was featured in: Psycho Beach Party.
Speaking of videos, I was at walmart trying to curtail my impulse shopping. I had three videos in hand, all of which I’d seen before. I was ready to buy for different reasons:
- Starship Troopers–simple-minded visceral film with fun escapism and special effects (Don’t miss the Nazi references–check out the Amazon comments on the film if you don’t believe me).
- Election–fun, though sophomoric comedy about high school politics. I liked (not loved) it upon first viewing. Second viewing might be better.
- Zepherelli’s Romeo and Juliet. This film was too long, but a faithful rendition of Shakespeare’s play, and the first hour is one of the most beautiful pieces of filmmaking I’ve seen. Still, that last half hour was painfully slow. On the minus side, I’d already seen the film twice–maybe three times–so I would buy it only to show the grandchildren.
My question: which video(s) do you think I ended up buying? (answer tomorrow).
How to make a cheesy sci-fi film ; Kitten huffing and my favorite: How to Maintain a Vanity Site on Wikipedia. Other really funny articles here.
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