"Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act" guarantees that victims of economic discrimination can easily sue alleged perpetrators
In a piece of legislation that reversed a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, President Barack Obama signed the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” into law on Thursday morning, USA Today reports.
The bill, which undoes the Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, makes lawsuits alleging wage discrimination toward women or other minorities easier to fill. Previously, the ruling in Ledbetter in 2007 declared that plaintiffs had to file wage claims within 180 days of a company’s decision to pay a worker less than a counterpart doing the same work.
On Wednesday, the House voted to pass the Fair Pay Act on a 250-177 vote. Last week, the Senate approved the measure by a 61-36 vote.
Lilly Ledbetter, the bill’s namesake, worked at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in Gadsden, Ala for a twenty-year period. Toward the end of her tenure, she received an anonymous tip stating that, throughout her entire career at Goodyear, she had made less money that her male counterparts.
Filing suit using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as grounds, a jury of Ledbetter’s peers found her arguments compelling, initially awarding her more than $3 million in back pay and punitive damages. Later on, a judge would reduce that sum to $300,000.
In 2007, the Supreme Court threw out Lilly Ledbetter’s case on a 5-4 vote, stating that, in order to have received the back payments properly, Ledbetter would’ve needed to file suit within 180 days of the initial act of discrimination.
This despite the fact that she had no awareness of any discrimination until late into her career.
The Fair Pay Act, as signed by President Obama, makes clear that the 180 day statue of limitations is extended every time an employer has committed an act of economic discrimination. However, the new bill also maintains the current limits on employer liability by restricting back pay awards to two years.
President Barack Obama said about the Fair Pay Act that “making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone...[T]here are no second class citizens in our workplaces, and that it’s not just unfair and illegal –- it’s bad for business -– to pay someone less because of their gender, or their age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.”
Lilly Ledbetter was at the signing ceremony for President Obama’s first bill signed into law.
http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/president_obama_signs_lilly_ledbetter_fair_pay_act_0202033/
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Alaska's Mount Redoubt Soon to Erupt?
Mount Redoubt is among the highest mountains in Alaska with an elevation of 10,197 feet. It also happens to be one of the most active volcanoes in the region erupting six times since 1778. The mountain is part of the Aleutian Volcanic chain, and is its highest peak. Mount Redoubt is located about one hundred and ten miles Southwest of Anchorage in south central Alaska, the largest city in the state.
As of January 25, 2009, at two am, Mount Redoubt has been raised to alert orange by the Alaska Volcano observatory. Seismic activity has been ongoing since it's beginning on January 24th just before the warning was issued with a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hitting south central Alaska. Subsequent tremors have not been as extreme, but as of January 28th the Alaska Volcano observatory feels the earthquake has a sixty to seventy percent chance of erupting within a few days or possibly even hours.
During Mount Redoubt's last eruption in 1990, ash shot 45,000 feet in the air and covered an over 20,000 square foot range. The blast resembled a bomb creating a massive ash cloud which stopped even air traffic in south central Alaska. Unlike Volcanoes in areas such as Hawaii, Mount Redoubt, like many Alaskan Volcanoes erupts explosively. The results are costly. The five month long 1990 eruption of Mount Redoubt was the second most expensive volcanic eruption in United States history with a clean-up bill of $160 million.
If Mount Redoubt does decide to blow its top here in 2009 its expected ash will coat all of the Kenai Peninsula, as well as be carried on the wind to Anchorage, Alaska thus affecting the mass of Alaska's populace. When and if the eruption does occur anyone within the ash fall zone is advised to remain indoors, if you must travel use protective dust masks and goggles. The ash can damage vehicle engines, and electronics. All residents are encouraged to stock pile emergency supplies and seal homes from the ash as much as possible. The state also asks that phone use be kept only to emergency calls. More information of Volcano preparations can be found at: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/todo.html#household
Current updates on Mount Redoubts activity can be found on the Alaska Volcano Observatories website linked in source.
Citation: Alaska Natural Productions; http://www.semicro.com/offline/anp/volcano.htm
More resources
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php
As of January 25, 2009, at two am, Mount Redoubt has been raised to alert orange by the Alaska Volcano observatory. Seismic activity has been ongoing since it's beginning on January 24th just before the warning was issued with a 5.7 magnitude earthquake hitting south central Alaska. Subsequent tremors have not been as extreme, but as of January 28th the Alaska Volcano observatory feels the earthquake has a sixty to seventy percent chance of erupting within a few days or possibly even hours.
During Mount Redoubt's last eruption in 1990, ash shot 45,000 feet in the air and covered an over 20,000 square foot range. The blast resembled a bomb creating a massive ash cloud which stopped even air traffic in south central Alaska. Unlike Volcanoes in areas such as Hawaii, Mount Redoubt, like many Alaskan Volcanoes erupts explosively. The results are costly. The five month long 1990 eruption of Mount Redoubt was the second most expensive volcanic eruption in United States history with a clean-up bill of $160 million.
If Mount Redoubt does decide to blow its top here in 2009 its expected ash will coat all of the Kenai Peninsula, as well as be carried on the wind to Anchorage, Alaska thus affecting the mass of Alaska's populace. When and if the eruption does occur anyone within the ash fall zone is advised to remain indoors, if you must travel use protective dust masks and goggles. The ash can damage vehicle engines, and electronics. All residents are encouraged to stock pile emergency supplies and seal homes from the ash as much as possible. The state also asks that phone use be kept only to emergency calls. More information of Volcano preparations can be found at: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/todo.html#household
Current updates on Mount Redoubts activity can be found on the Alaska Volcano Observatories website linked in source.
Citation: Alaska Natural Productions; http://www.semicro.com/offline/anp/volcano.htm
More resources
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php
Grand Central Station
The island of Manhattan, which for most people is what is New York, is covered with a plethora of buildings, but there is one that while not towering above the others certainly serves as an outstanding testimony to the art of constructing a public edifice to be at once a lasting, well designed, efficient, effective and aesthetically appealing statement.
In 1871, when New York was still a small town, the city authorities alarmed at the way steam trains kept exploding and killing people, passed a law that restricted trains to below 42nd Street. At this time New York was the epicentre of US trade - almost everything that was traded into or out of the US came through New York, and of course in the age of rail roads, this meant most freight was carried by train.
At this time the station that was to become Grand Central was sixty tracks wide - the length of five city blocks (from 42nd to 50th street). A bright spark at one of the railroad companies came up with the idea of putting the tracks underground - or more accurately building over the top of the tracks. (If you walk between Lexington and Madison avenues between 42nd and 50th streets you will notice that you have to walk up a hill, which is completely artificially created - you are walking between two and three stories up and over the railway tracks. All of the buildings built on this hill have specially designed steel foundations that fit between the tracks)
Grand Central Station was opened in 1913 and was built so that no major structural work would be required for 700 years. (The railway companies took full advantage of this and no major maintenance was carried out until 1995 because the companies wanted to knock down the station and sell the real estate. This was the fate of the apparently even more impressive Penn Station built around the same time - it was demolished and the land sold off. Notice the two small black squares in the photo - that was the colour of the roof in 1995 which restoration work began)
The station was constructed as a statement of the achievements of a grand society, and was intended to uplift all those who passed through it, encouraging them to see the full range of human potential. The design of the station was a work of passive architectural genius, designed to funnel people in and out in the quickest time possible:
* despite descending four floors underground there are no stairs - only gently sloping walkways
* passageways begin as narrow, low roofed walkways and progressively become wider and taller, leading to large, open well lit rooms with atriums
* only 6 platforms were used for arriving passengers, all grouped together, with a narrow walkway that lead out to an open meeting room with an atrium, and then directly out on to the street to a taxi rank or to a subway train. Departure platforms were located a floor below so that departing and arriving passenger wouldn't cross paths
* the building didn't have air-conditioning, instead the large windows in the main hall were opened and the sea breeze (after all Manhattan is an island no more than 2 miles wide) would blow through and cool the building). In winter the windows were closed and the 100 watts per person of human generated body warmth was exploited to heat the station
(Later most of these design principles were appropriated by shopping centre builders to subconsciously direct customers through shopping centres - obviously with the principles reversed)
These days when most public buildings are no more than slabs of concrete, chugging through the world's resources at an alarming rate to heat and cool them, with no apparent underlying design other than to reduce the cost of construction, it is reassuring to see that humanity does actually have the knowledge and ability to construct functional and aesthetically pleasing buildings which "uplift the human spirit". If only the knowledge could be applied.
http://loiteringwithatent.blogspot.com/2008/11/grand-central-station.html
In 1871, when New York was still a small town, the city authorities alarmed at the way steam trains kept exploding and killing people, passed a law that restricted trains to below 42nd Street. At this time New York was the epicentre of US trade - almost everything that was traded into or out of the US came through New York, and of course in the age of rail roads, this meant most freight was carried by train.
At this time the station that was to become Grand Central was sixty tracks wide - the length of five city blocks (from 42nd to 50th street). A bright spark at one of the railroad companies came up with the idea of putting the tracks underground - or more accurately building over the top of the tracks. (If you walk between Lexington and Madison avenues between 42nd and 50th streets you will notice that you have to walk up a hill, which is completely artificially created - you are walking between two and three stories up and over the railway tracks. All of the buildings built on this hill have specially designed steel foundations that fit between the tracks)
Grand Central Station was opened in 1913 and was built so that no major structural work would be required for 700 years. (The railway companies took full advantage of this and no major maintenance was carried out until 1995 because the companies wanted to knock down the station and sell the real estate. This was the fate of the apparently even more impressive Penn Station built around the same time - it was demolished and the land sold off. Notice the two small black squares in the photo - that was the colour of the roof in 1995 which restoration work began)
The station was constructed as a statement of the achievements of a grand society, and was intended to uplift all those who passed through it, encouraging them to see the full range of human potential. The design of the station was a work of passive architectural genius, designed to funnel people in and out in the quickest time possible:
* despite descending four floors underground there are no stairs - only gently sloping walkways
* passageways begin as narrow, low roofed walkways and progressively become wider and taller, leading to large, open well lit rooms with atriums
* only 6 platforms were used for arriving passengers, all grouped together, with a narrow walkway that lead out to an open meeting room with an atrium, and then directly out on to the street to a taxi rank or to a subway train. Departure platforms were located a floor below so that departing and arriving passenger wouldn't cross paths
* the building didn't have air-conditioning, instead the large windows in the main hall were opened and the sea breeze (after all Manhattan is an island no more than 2 miles wide) would blow through and cool the building). In winter the windows were closed and the 100 watts per person of human generated body warmth was exploited to heat the station
(Later most of these design principles were appropriated by shopping centre builders to subconsciously direct customers through shopping centres - obviously with the principles reversed)
These days when most public buildings are no more than slabs of concrete, chugging through the world's resources at an alarming rate to heat and cool them, with no apparent underlying design other than to reduce the cost of construction, it is reassuring to see that humanity does actually have the knowledge and ability to construct functional and aesthetically pleasing buildings which "uplift the human spirit". If only the knowledge could be applied.
http://loiteringwithatent.blogspot.com/2008/11/grand-central-station.html
Don't Bet Your Life on It
THE SURVIVORS CLUB
The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life
Please do not review the aircraft's safety features in the seat-back pamphlet in front of you, and instead continue to read your Dan Brown. Do not heed the flight attendants' Kabuki of precautions, and instead pop a Xanax. And do not expect to survive should something go wrong. Even if you've flown a million times, you are neither prepared nor alert enough. In the unlikely event of an unanticipated loss of cabin pressure or a water landing, you will be the first to panic and make bad decisions. And then . . . Crash. Boom. You're dead.
"The Survivors Club" reminds its reader to approach each day with a healthy dose of paranoia. Death is just around the corner, courtesy of the cement truck, the coked-out maniac with a knife, or the gaggle of geese that gets sucked into your plane's engines over the Bronx. The book has an ingenious built-in marketing hook: Read this if you want to live! Join the Survivors Club, why don't you? We're hanging by a thread, as Ben Sherwood repeats throughout his pseudo-self-help book, but there are ways we can tighten our grip on that thread. Such as by honing a healthy will to live. Or being mindful. Or crossing our fingers. Or praying.
ad_icon
Blah blah blah. These conclusions hardly warrant a 383-page treatment, even from a novelist/journalist who subjected himself to military survival training for the book. Tucked between these obvious feel-good tenets, however, are more compelling tips.
1. Always nab a seat within five rows of an exit, preferably behind the wing, and keep in mind that you'll have 90 seconds to evacuate before a crashed plane becomes inescapable.
2. When you break through ice on a frozen lake, you have 60 seconds to thwart hyperventilation, 10 minutes of muscles sufficiently limber to paddle you to safety and 60 minutes before you lose consciousness.
3. Avoid getting stabbed, shot, or smashed into a brick wall. In terms of survivability, if you have to choose among the three, go for the knife first, then the gun, then the brick wall. Just FYI.
"The Survivors Club" is not for those who feel faint at the mention of blood. Beyond Sherwood's tips -- the only practical ones have already been mentioned in this review -- is an impressive parade of survivor anecdotes. The book is essentially about bearing witness to survival. It is suitably graphic.
There's the woman who got a knitting needle through the heart, the man who escaped a capsizing freighter in stormy seas, the woman flayed within a millimeter of her life by a mountain lion and, most miraculously, the man trapped in the fiery impact zone of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. They all made it out alive despite microscopic odds. How? Sherwood interviews dozens of survivors -- often relating their stories with nauseating drama -- but one wonders if a survival thesis can be drawn from both the man who drunkenly tumbled over the side of his cruise ship and the woman who withstood the torture chamber of the Holocaust. Yes, they survived, but such disparate, disorganized examples make "The Survivors Club" more of a pulse-pounding scrapbook than an enlightening how-to manual or definitive dissertation.
Sherwood pads the rest of the book with platitudes and statistics. He chews over some provocative topics (the existence of an alleged "survivor gene," the quantifiable power of prayer) but does not spit out a provocative, cohesive conclusion other than: be prepared because bad things are going to happen. It's good advice -- the survivors of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River last week escaped the sinking cabin by acting quickly, deliberately and calmly -- but hardly revelatory.
As a consolation prize, the end of the book instructs you to get a Survivor IQ by visiting www.thesurvivorsclub.com. There you take a personality test. Your answers are sent to a "cluster of computers" at a "highly secure data center in Boca Raton" (a gated fortress of survivors if ever there was one). Then Boca Raton categorizes you into a specific type of survivor, and Sherwood spends the final 30 pages of the book defining Survivor Types and their corresponding traits.
My IQ? I am a "realist" with psychological strengths of "ingenuity," "adaptability" and "flow."
As a realist, I can't see how reading "The Survivors Club" will give me an edge when adversity strikes. Most things are out of our control, and there's no way we can really change how we deal with a crisis. We just have to hope for the best. Hone a healthy will to live. Be mindful. Cross our fingers. Pray.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012003673.html
The Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life
Please do not review the aircraft's safety features in the seat-back pamphlet in front of you, and instead continue to read your Dan Brown. Do not heed the flight attendants' Kabuki of precautions, and instead pop a Xanax. And do not expect to survive should something go wrong. Even if you've flown a million times, you are neither prepared nor alert enough. In the unlikely event of an unanticipated loss of cabin pressure or a water landing, you will be the first to panic and make bad decisions. And then . . . Crash. Boom. You're dead.
"The Survivors Club" reminds its reader to approach each day with a healthy dose of paranoia. Death is just around the corner, courtesy of the cement truck, the coked-out maniac with a knife, or the gaggle of geese that gets sucked into your plane's engines over the Bronx. The book has an ingenious built-in marketing hook: Read this if you want to live! Join the Survivors Club, why don't you? We're hanging by a thread, as Ben Sherwood repeats throughout his pseudo-self-help book, but there are ways we can tighten our grip on that thread. Such as by honing a healthy will to live. Or being mindful. Or crossing our fingers. Or praying.
ad_icon
Blah blah blah. These conclusions hardly warrant a 383-page treatment, even from a novelist/journalist who subjected himself to military survival training for the book. Tucked between these obvious feel-good tenets, however, are more compelling tips.
1. Always nab a seat within five rows of an exit, preferably behind the wing, and keep in mind that you'll have 90 seconds to evacuate before a crashed plane becomes inescapable.
2. When you break through ice on a frozen lake, you have 60 seconds to thwart hyperventilation, 10 minutes of muscles sufficiently limber to paddle you to safety and 60 minutes before you lose consciousness.
3. Avoid getting stabbed, shot, or smashed into a brick wall. In terms of survivability, if you have to choose among the three, go for the knife first, then the gun, then the brick wall. Just FYI.
"The Survivors Club" is not for those who feel faint at the mention of blood. Beyond Sherwood's tips -- the only practical ones have already been mentioned in this review -- is an impressive parade of survivor anecdotes. The book is essentially about bearing witness to survival. It is suitably graphic.
There's the woman who got a knitting needle through the heart, the man who escaped a capsizing freighter in stormy seas, the woman flayed within a millimeter of her life by a mountain lion and, most miraculously, the man trapped in the fiery impact zone of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. They all made it out alive despite microscopic odds. How? Sherwood interviews dozens of survivors -- often relating their stories with nauseating drama -- but one wonders if a survival thesis can be drawn from both the man who drunkenly tumbled over the side of his cruise ship and the woman who withstood the torture chamber of the Holocaust. Yes, they survived, but such disparate, disorganized examples make "The Survivors Club" more of a pulse-pounding scrapbook than an enlightening how-to manual or definitive dissertation.
Sherwood pads the rest of the book with platitudes and statistics. He chews over some provocative topics (the existence of an alleged "survivor gene," the quantifiable power of prayer) but does not spit out a provocative, cohesive conclusion other than: be prepared because bad things are going to happen. It's good advice -- the survivors of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River last week escaped the sinking cabin by acting quickly, deliberately and calmly -- but hardly revelatory.
As a consolation prize, the end of the book instructs you to get a Survivor IQ by visiting www.thesurvivorsclub.com. There you take a personality test. Your answers are sent to a "cluster of computers" at a "highly secure data center in Boca Raton" (a gated fortress of survivors if ever there was one). Then Boca Raton categorizes you into a specific type of survivor, and Sherwood spends the final 30 pages of the book defining Survivor Types and their corresponding traits.
My IQ? I am a "realist" with psychological strengths of "ingenuity," "adaptability" and "flow."
As a realist, I can't see how reading "The Survivors Club" will give me an edge when adversity strikes. Most things are out of our control, and there's no way we can really change how we deal with a crisis. We just have to hope for the best. Hone a healthy will to live. Be mindful. Cross our fingers. Pray.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012003673.html
Drinks Are On the (White) House
Here's the list of President Obama's invited guests to the White House cocktail party tonight -- essentially the bipartisan bicameral leadership of the House and Senate.
Six House Democrats, six House Republicans, six Senate Democrats, six Senate Republicans. Their spouses are invited as well.
Hors d'œuvres -- chicken curry, wagyu steak -- will be served in addition to drinks.
President Obama, it should be noted, is not a particularly big drinker, though he has been known to enjoy a vodka martini time and again.
In addition to the congressional leaders below, several senior White House staffers will be in attendance, including press secretary Robert Gibbs, senior adviser David Axelrod, senior adviser Pete Rouse, and deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen.
The party will come after the House passes the president's stimulus package with almost no Republican support, which could make for some interesting cocktail party chatter.
House Democrats
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-SC
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.. Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, who took the place in the Democratic House leadership of President Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel
Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, who refused the president's entreaties to serve as U.S. Trade Representative
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
House Republicans
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, D-Va.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Chair of the House Republican Conference
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, Secretary of the House Republican Conference
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee
Senate Democrats
Sen. President Pro-Tem Robert Byrd, D-WV
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Vice Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Senate Republicans
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Chair of the Senate Republican Conference
Sen. John Thune, R-SD, Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
Sen. Jon Ensign, R-Nev., Chair of the Senate Policy Committee
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/drinks-are-on-t.html
Six House Democrats, six House Republicans, six Senate Democrats, six Senate Republicans. Their spouses are invited as well.
Hors d'œuvres -- chicken curry, wagyu steak -- will be served in addition to drinks.
President Obama, it should be noted, is not a particularly big drinker, though he has been known to enjoy a vodka martini time and again.
In addition to the congressional leaders below, several senior White House staffers will be in attendance, including press secretary Robert Gibbs, senior adviser David Axelrod, senior adviser Pete Rouse, and deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen.
The party will come after the House passes the president's stimulus package with almost no Republican support, which could make for some interesting cocktail party chatter.
House Democrats
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-SC
Rep. John Larson, D-Conn.. Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, who took the place in the Democratic House leadership of President Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel
Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, who refused the president's entreaties to serve as U.S. Trade Representative
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
House Republicans
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, D-Va.
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Chair of the House Republican Conference
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, Secretary of the House Republican Conference
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee
Senate Democrats
Sen. President Pro-Tem Robert Byrd, D-WV
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Vice Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Secretary of the Senate Democratic Caucus
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Senate Republicans
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Chair of the Senate Republican Conference
Sen. John Thune, R-SD, Vice Chair of the Senate Republican Conference
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
Sen. Jon Ensign, R-Nev., Chair of the Senate Policy Committee
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/drinks-are-on-t.html
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Rabbit is gone: writer John Updike dies
John Updike, a leading writer of his generation who chronicled the drama of small-town American life with flowing and vivid prose, wit and a frank eye for sex, died on Tuesday of lung cancer. He was 76.
"It is with great sadness that I report that John Updike died this morning," said Nicholas Latimer of Alfred A. Knopf, a unit of Random House. "He was one of our greatest writers, and he will be sorely missed."
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author died in a hospice in Massachusetts, the state where he lived for more than half a century, prolific in his writing of novels, short stories, essays and criticism.
Updike's stories often focused on undercurrents of tension masked by the mundane surface of suburban America, which boomed in 1960s and 1970s as his career was taking off. Ripples of sexual tension were frequent.
An early short story, "A&P," chronicled an adolescent boy's inner turmoil when three bikini-clad teenage girls appeared in the supermarket where he worked.
"It's one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach," Updike wrote, "and another thing in the cool of the A&P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor."
Updike's frank focus on sex came before the profound changes in U.S. culture of the late 1960s lifted some of the taboo from the topic. His publisher rewrote portions of his second novel, "Rabbit, Run," before its first printing out of fear of being charged with obscenity.
That novel introduced the fictional hero Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the subject of four Updike novels and a novella over four decades, which won him two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction.
'AMONG THE VERY BEST'
Updike was acclaimed nearly as much for his short stories, poetry and critical essays as for his 28 novels.
More than 800 Updike stories, reviews, poems and articles were published in The New Yorker magazine from 1954 through 2008. Many American readers strongly associated Updike with that publication.
"Even though his literary career transcended any magazine -- he was obviously among the very best writers in the world -- he still loved writing for this weekly magazine, loved being part of an enterprise that he joined when he was so young," said David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker.
"He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him."
William Pritchard, a professor of English at Amherst College who studied and knew Updike, said Updike stood out for his versatility -- writing fiction, nonfiction and verse.
"He stands, for me, at the very top of the practice of being a man of letters," Pritchard said. "Each activity was carried on with great intelligence and wit and love."
'MAKE EVERYTHING COUNT'
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Updike studied English at Harvard University, where he contributed to, and later edited, the satirical Harvard Lampoon magazine. After a year studying at Oxford, Updike moved to New York where he worked for two years on the New Yorker's staff.
In 1957 he moved his family to Ipswich, Massachusetts, a coastal town north of Boston, and later moved to nearby Beverly Farms.
A New England flavor features in Updike's 1984 novel "The Witches of Eastwick," set in a fictional Rhode Island town, which was made into a commercially successful 1987 film starring Jack Nicholson and Cher.
In a Reuters interview in 2005, he said his view of himself as a writer had changed in recent years as he produced an increasing volume of art and literary criticism and struggled with the short-story medium. When asked which genre he preferred, he paused.
"If I had been asked that 10 years ago I would have said short stories is where I feel most at home. I'm not sure I do feel totally at home any more, whether I have maybe written all my short stories," he said.
He was candid about the need to get writing published:
"I've become much more of a book reviewer and an art reviewer for that matter than I ever planned to. At least there is a comfort when you sit down to write one of these that you'll be sure that it will get printed and you'll get paid for it. It's not the case with a short story."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012701672.html
"It is with great sadness that I report that John Updike died this morning," said Nicholas Latimer of Alfred A. Knopf, a unit of Random House. "He was one of our greatest writers, and he will be sorely missed."
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author died in a hospice in Massachusetts, the state where he lived for more than half a century, prolific in his writing of novels, short stories, essays and criticism.
Updike's stories often focused on undercurrents of tension masked by the mundane surface of suburban America, which boomed in 1960s and 1970s as his career was taking off. Ripples of sexual tension were frequent.
An early short story, "A&P," chronicled an adolescent boy's inner turmoil when three bikini-clad teenage girls appeared in the supermarket where he worked.
"It's one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach," Updike wrote, "and another thing in the cool of the A&P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor."
Updike's frank focus on sex came before the profound changes in U.S. culture of the late 1960s lifted some of the taboo from the topic. His publisher rewrote portions of his second novel, "Rabbit, Run," before its first printing out of fear of being charged with obscenity.
That novel introduced the fictional hero Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, the subject of four Updike novels and a novella over four decades, which won him two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction.
'AMONG THE VERY BEST'
Updike was acclaimed nearly as much for his short stories, poetry and critical essays as for his 28 novels.
More than 800 Updike stories, reviews, poems and articles were published in The New Yorker magazine from 1954 through 2008. Many American readers strongly associated Updike with that publication.
"Even though his literary career transcended any magazine -- he was obviously among the very best writers in the world -- he still loved writing for this weekly magazine, loved being part of an enterprise that he joined when he was so young," said David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker.
"He was, for so long, the spirit of The New Yorker and it is very hard to imagine things without him."
William Pritchard, a professor of English at Amherst College who studied and knew Updike, said Updike stood out for his versatility -- writing fiction, nonfiction and verse.
"He stands, for me, at the very top of the practice of being a man of letters," Pritchard said. "Each activity was carried on with great intelligence and wit and love."
'MAKE EVERYTHING COUNT'
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Updike studied English at Harvard University, where he contributed to, and later edited, the satirical Harvard Lampoon magazine. After a year studying at Oxford, Updike moved to New York where he worked for two years on the New Yorker's staff.
In 1957 he moved his family to Ipswich, Massachusetts, a coastal town north of Boston, and later moved to nearby Beverly Farms.
A New England flavor features in Updike's 1984 novel "The Witches of Eastwick," set in a fictional Rhode Island town, which was made into a commercially successful 1987 film starring Jack Nicholson and Cher.
In a Reuters interview in 2005, he said his view of himself as a writer had changed in recent years as he produced an increasing volume of art and literary criticism and struggled with the short-story medium. When asked which genre he preferred, he paused.
"If I had been asked that 10 years ago I would have said short stories is where I feel most at home. I'm not sure I do feel totally at home any more, whether I have maybe written all my short stories," he said.
He was candid about the need to get writing published:
"I've become much more of a book reviewer and an art reviewer for that matter than I ever planned to. At least there is a comfort when you sit down to write one of these that you'll be sure that it will get printed and you'll get paid for it. It's not the case with a short story."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012701672.html
Richard Paul Evans
Evans graduated with a B.A. degree from the University of Utah in 1984. While working as an advertising executive he wrote a Christmas story for his children. Unable to find a publisher or an agent, he self-published the work in 1993 as a paperback novella entitled The Christmas Box. He distributed it to book stores in his community.
The book became a local bestseller, prompting Evans to publish the book nationally. The next year The Christmas Box hit #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, inciting an auction for the publishing rights among the world's top publishing houses. Evans signed a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, who paid Evans $4.2 million in an advance. Released in hardcover in 1995, The Christmas Box became the first book to simultaneously reach the number-one position on the New York Times bestseller list for both paperback and hardcover editions. That same year, the book was made into a television movie of the same title, starring Richard Thomas and Maureen O'Hara.
Evans has subsequently written eleven nationally best-selling books, including those for children, most with Christian themes and appealing to family values. His 1996 book Timepiece was made into a television movie featuring James Earl Jones and Ellen Burstyn, as was 1998's The Locket, which starred Vanessa Redgrave, and 2003's A Perfect Day, which starred Rob Lowe and Christopher Lloyd. Evans has won several awards for his writings including the American Mother Book Award, two first place Storytelling World awards and Romantic Times award for Best Women's Fiction.
In 1994, Evans founded "The Christmas Box House International" charity to help abandoned, neglected or abused children. As of 2006, more than 13,000 children had been temporarily housed in the Christmas Box House shelters. Parents of five children, Evans and his wife Keri divide their time between homes in Utah and Italy. They are members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Paul_Evans
The book became a local bestseller, prompting Evans to publish the book nationally. The next year The Christmas Box hit #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, inciting an auction for the publishing rights among the world's top publishing houses. Evans signed a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, who paid Evans $4.2 million in an advance. Released in hardcover in 1995, The Christmas Box became the first book to simultaneously reach the number-one position on the New York Times bestseller list for both paperback and hardcover editions. That same year, the book was made into a television movie of the same title, starring Richard Thomas and Maureen O'Hara.
Evans has subsequently written eleven nationally best-selling books, including those for children, most with Christian themes and appealing to family values. His 1996 book Timepiece was made into a television movie featuring James Earl Jones and Ellen Burstyn, as was 1998's The Locket, which starred Vanessa Redgrave, and 2003's A Perfect Day, which starred Rob Lowe and Christopher Lloyd. Evans has won several awards for his writings including the American Mother Book Award, two first place Storytelling World awards and Romantic Times award for Best Women's Fiction.
In 1994, Evans founded "The Christmas Box House International" charity to help abandoned, neglected or abused children. As of 2006, more than 13,000 children had been temporarily housed in the Christmas Box House shelters. Parents of five children, Evans and his wife Keri divide their time between homes in Utah and Italy. They are members of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Paul_Evans
Monday, January 26, 2009
Rainbow Room owner tries to stop 30 Rock eviction
NEW YORK - The owner of the Rainbow Room restaurant and nightclub has gone to court to try to block its eviction from Rockefeller Center.
Cipriani Fifth Avenue LLC on Monday got a restraining order stopping the eviction until a Jan. 27 hearing in Manhattan's state Supreme Court.
Landlord Tishman Speyer Properties gave Cipriani until Monday to vacate the 64th and 65th floors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the setting for the NBC comedy hit "30 Rock."
A Tishman Speyer spokeswoman says Cipriani has failed to pay its rent for the Rainbow Room since 2008 so its lease must be ended.
Cipriani says it isn't leaving. It calls the eviction notice a "frivolous" attempt to convert the Rainbow Room's venue into expensive office space.
Court papers say Cipriani pays $6 million a year for the space.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--meltdown-rainbowr0112jan12,0,5973140.story
Cipriani Fifth Avenue LLC on Monday got a restraining order stopping the eviction until a Jan. 27 hearing in Manhattan's state Supreme Court.
Landlord Tishman Speyer Properties gave Cipriani until Monday to vacate the 64th and 65th floors of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the setting for the NBC comedy hit "30 Rock."
A Tishman Speyer spokeswoman says Cipriani has failed to pay its rent for the Rainbow Room since 2008 so its lease must be ended.
Cipriani says it isn't leaving. It calls the eviction notice a "frivolous" attempt to convert the Rainbow Room's venue into expensive office space.
Court papers say Cipriani pays $6 million a year for the space.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--meltdown-rainbowr0112jan12,0,5973140.story
'Crime Scene' star Gerald McCullouch lands in real one
Gerald McCullouch has played crime scene investigator Bobby Dawson for nine seasons on “CSI.” But it was his knowledge of boxing, not ballistics, that saved him when a mugger allegedly attacked him with a knife on the subway recently.
The actor was riding the A train from Kennedy Airport, having just gotten off a plane from L.A.
“It was about 2 a.m.,” McCullouch tells us. “I have a place here now, so I take that train at least once a month. I was trying to reach my buddy, Keith Collins, who was having a party at Antik. But my iPhone died, so I took out my laptop to recharge it. I started working on a YouTube video I’d been editing on the plane.
“The train was pulling into the Utica Blvd. station when I noticed someone cross in front of me. Just as the doors opened, he reached for the laptop. I guess he thought he’d grab it and dash out the door, but I gave him a body shot to the chest.
“I don’t know why I did that except that I box three or four days a week and had just been in the ring about eight hours before. Also, I didn’t want to give up my computer after working on my video all that time.
“Well, that’s when he pulled a kitchen knife out of a black plastic bag. This thing must have had a blade 10 inches long. The other passengers started running out the door and into the next car.
“I still had my headphones on with music blaring. I yelled at the top of my lungs, ‘Get the [bleep] away from me!’ That’s when the knife came down into my back. I don’t know whether he lost his grip or what, but the blade didn’t penetrate my leather jacket.
“We were in each other’s face. I think I punched him again as the doors closed and the train started leaving the station. I’m watching MTA workers on the platform looking in. I thought, ‘Great, now I’m alone in this car with him.’
“The train was halfway out of the station when it stopped. I was saying stupid, cocky stuff, like ‘You are [bleeped] buddy!’ He came at me again with the knife. But the other passengers had told a conductor, ‘A guy’s getting stabbed in there,’ so the conductor came in and got me into the next car.
“Then about 10 cops jumped on the train and got the guy handcuffed on the floor. I told them the guy had a knife. They found it hidden under a seat or something.”
Police arrested James Torres, 39, 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, and charged him with robbery, assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
“We headed over to the 33rd Precinct. When I got there somebody said they thought this might be the same guy who stabbed two cops.
“All I know is that the police couldn’t have been greater. I signed a lot of autographs. I don’t know whether it was because of ‘CSI,’ but they gave me a lift to my place in Manhattan.’”
Torres, now in Rikers, is due in court March 23.
McCullouch survived another mugging back in 2001, when he and a friend were robbed at gunpoint in Atlanta.
“The cops never found that guy,” says McCullouch, who plays the Gotham Comedy Club on Feb. 16. Maybe he’ll find a few jokes on the night that Bobby Dawson went ballistic.
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/01/25/2009-01-25_crime_scene_star_gerald_mccullouch_lands.html
The actor was riding the A train from Kennedy Airport, having just gotten off a plane from L.A.
“It was about 2 a.m.,” McCullouch tells us. “I have a place here now, so I take that train at least once a month. I was trying to reach my buddy, Keith Collins, who was having a party at Antik. But my iPhone died, so I took out my laptop to recharge it. I started working on a YouTube video I’d been editing on the plane.
“The train was pulling into the Utica Blvd. station when I noticed someone cross in front of me. Just as the doors opened, he reached for the laptop. I guess he thought he’d grab it and dash out the door, but I gave him a body shot to the chest.
“I don’t know why I did that except that I box three or four days a week and had just been in the ring about eight hours before. Also, I didn’t want to give up my computer after working on my video all that time.
“Well, that’s when he pulled a kitchen knife out of a black plastic bag. This thing must have had a blade 10 inches long. The other passengers started running out the door and into the next car.
“I still had my headphones on with music blaring. I yelled at the top of my lungs, ‘Get the [bleep] away from me!’ That’s when the knife came down into my back. I don’t know whether he lost his grip or what, but the blade didn’t penetrate my leather jacket.
“We were in each other’s face. I think I punched him again as the doors closed and the train started leaving the station. I’m watching MTA workers on the platform looking in. I thought, ‘Great, now I’m alone in this car with him.’
“The train was halfway out of the station when it stopped. I was saying stupid, cocky stuff, like ‘You are [bleeped] buddy!’ He came at me again with the knife. But the other passengers had told a conductor, ‘A guy’s getting stabbed in there,’ so the conductor came in and got me into the next car.
“Then about 10 cops jumped on the train and got the guy handcuffed on the floor. I told them the guy had a knife. They found it hidden under a seat or something.”
Police arrested James Torres, 39, 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, and charged him with robbery, assault, menacing and criminal possession of a weapon.
“We headed over to the 33rd Precinct. When I got there somebody said they thought this might be the same guy who stabbed two cops.
“All I know is that the police couldn’t have been greater. I signed a lot of autographs. I don’t know whether it was because of ‘CSI,’ but they gave me a lift to my place in Manhattan.’”
Torres, now in Rikers, is due in court March 23.
McCullouch survived another mugging back in 2001, when he and a friend were robbed at gunpoint in Atlanta.
“The cops never found that guy,” says McCullouch, who plays the Gotham Comedy Club on Feb. 16. Maybe he’ll find a few jokes on the night that Bobby Dawson went ballistic.
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/01/25/2009-01-25_crime_scene_star_gerald_mccullouch_lands.html
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Palm Springs: An oasis of style
"Carport, breezeway, house. Carport, breezeway, house."
By that point, 90 minutes into our three-hour tour, I'd heard the phrase so many times that my brain was turning it into a sing-song-y lyric, not unlike the one that sets up camp in your cortex following a trip through "It's a Small World" at Disneyland. Except this tune made complete sense.
We were driving through Twin Palms, a neighborhood of 1950s-era tract houses in such uniformly pristine condition that every street looked like a "Brady Bunch" backlot. At each address, tour guide Robert Imber would recite the mantra.
His point? To demonstrate that while each home appeared strikingly different -- thanks to playful variations in rooflines, window placements and ornamental concrete block or stone -- they all followed an identical pattern, that of a carport attached to a breezeway attached to a house. Turns out the houses were all built by the Alexander Brothers, a local developer that found a way to bring the area's iconic modernist design to the masses, a bricks-and-mortar legacy of the United States' cocky postwar confidence.
Although I'd been to Palm Springs, Calif., several times, I never really saw past its obvious attributes: the snow-capped San Jacinto mountains, the eternal sunshine, the desert's flat color palette, punctuated by stretches of grass and gardens. But the rest of the landscape seemed a carbon copy of Southern California's freeway culture: endless strip malls and anonymous gated communities. Yawn.
It took Imber and his three-hour tour to open my eyes to the area's treasure trove of postwar architecture. Despite his minivan's packed-like-anchovies quarters -- and its on-again, off-again air conditioning -- I have never enjoyed a tour as much. Six of us sat, enraptured, as Imber turned the city's streets into a maze and talked, literally nonstop. A good driver? No. An encyclopedic and entertaining advocate for architectural preservation? Absolutely.
L.A. makes its mark
The buildings flew by, with Imber's breathless play-by-play filling in all possible blanks. An elegantly curvy bank, accented with azure tile and a geometric gold screen, would make Le Corbusier do a double take. Another bank, fronted by a reflecting pool and finished with a gleaming bronze facade, seemed plucked off a plaza in Brasilia. Even the familiar sang with mid-century panache. A former gas station, with a thrusting triangular roof acting like a calling card to passing drivers, is now a visitor center.
But it was the houses, more than I could possibly count, that made an indelible impression. In the 1950s and 1960s, Palm Springs boomed as an L.A. weekend getaway, leaving hundreds of exquisite modernist temples in its wake. A recent revival in all things mid-century has brought whole neighborhoods back to life, and the visual impact is remarkable.
That stunner just up the street from our rental? Turns out it's Frank Sinatra's home, a Prairie-meets-the-desert ring-a-ding-dinger. Architect Richard Neutra's exquisite glass-and-stone Kaufmann House (the winter home of the family that commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Fallingwater), the hulking concrete turtle-shaped house (owned by Bob Hope and featured in "Diamonds Are Forever"), the sleek "steel" houses, designed by University of Minnesota graduate Donald Wexler? My partner and I might have eventually found them using a map, but without Imber's bottomless well of knowledge we would never have been able to put those Atomic Age beauties into context.
Modernism celebrated
At one point during one of Imber's particularly fascinating dissertations, I thought, this guy ought to make a movie. Turns out, he did. It's called "Desert Utopia," and it's an absorbing documentary devoted to Palm Springs' place-making architects and their work.
The movie had its premiere a few years ago during Modernism Week, an annual celebration of Palm Springs' mid-century design traditions. We happened to be in Palm Springs and somehow landed tickets to the premiere, one of many memorable Moderism Week events we've attended. One year we spent an atypically cloudy afternoon inside the Palm Springs Convention Center, browsing our way through a top-of-the-line array of 1950s and 1960s furniture, art and clothing, and last winter we traded valuable poolside time for a few hours at the Palm Springs Art Museum (another mid-century palace, this time done up in Brutalist concrete and red desert rock).
Catch some rays? We can do that anytime. But soak up a unique period of American design? Only in Palm Springs.
Sometimes when I tell people that we're spending another February week in the desert, I get a look. Palm Springs? Isn't it just golf, SPF-30 and cocktails? It can be, and we enjoy our share of those vacation pursuits (well, maybe not the golf). But for mid-century design enthusiasts, Palm Springs is like nowhere else. Thanks, Mr. Imber, for showing us the way.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/38170989.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsl
By that point, 90 minutes into our three-hour tour, I'd heard the phrase so many times that my brain was turning it into a sing-song-y lyric, not unlike the one that sets up camp in your cortex following a trip through "It's a Small World" at Disneyland. Except this tune made complete sense.
We were driving through Twin Palms, a neighborhood of 1950s-era tract houses in such uniformly pristine condition that every street looked like a "Brady Bunch" backlot. At each address, tour guide Robert Imber would recite the mantra.
His point? To demonstrate that while each home appeared strikingly different -- thanks to playful variations in rooflines, window placements and ornamental concrete block or stone -- they all followed an identical pattern, that of a carport attached to a breezeway attached to a house. Turns out the houses were all built by the Alexander Brothers, a local developer that found a way to bring the area's iconic modernist design to the masses, a bricks-and-mortar legacy of the United States' cocky postwar confidence.
Although I'd been to Palm Springs, Calif., several times, I never really saw past its obvious attributes: the snow-capped San Jacinto mountains, the eternal sunshine, the desert's flat color palette, punctuated by stretches of grass and gardens. But the rest of the landscape seemed a carbon copy of Southern California's freeway culture: endless strip malls and anonymous gated communities. Yawn.
It took Imber and his three-hour tour to open my eyes to the area's treasure trove of postwar architecture. Despite his minivan's packed-like-anchovies quarters -- and its on-again, off-again air conditioning -- I have never enjoyed a tour as much. Six of us sat, enraptured, as Imber turned the city's streets into a maze and talked, literally nonstop. A good driver? No. An encyclopedic and entertaining advocate for architectural preservation? Absolutely.
L.A. makes its mark
The buildings flew by, with Imber's breathless play-by-play filling in all possible blanks. An elegantly curvy bank, accented with azure tile and a geometric gold screen, would make Le Corbusier do a double take. Another bank, fronted by a reflecting pool and finished with a gleaming bronze facade, seemed plucked off a plaza in Brasilia. Even the familiar sang with mid-century panache. A former gas station, with a thrusting triangular roof acting like a calling card to passing drivers, is now a visitor center.
But it was the houses, more than I could possibly count, that made an indelible impression. In the 1950s and 1960s, Palm Springs boomed as an L.A. weekend getaway, leaving hundreds of exquisite modernist temples in its wake. A recent revival in all things mid-century has brought whole neighborhoods back to life, and the visual impact is remarkable.
That stunner just up the street from our rental? Turns out it's Frank Sinatra's home, a Prairie-meets-the-desert ring-a-ding-dinger. Architect Richard Neutra's exquisite glass-and-stone Kaufmann House (the winter home of the family that commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Fallingwater), the hulking concrete turtle-shaped house (owned by Bob Hope and featured in "Diamonds Are Forever"), the sleek "steel" houses, designed by University of Minnesota graduate Donald Wexler? My partner and I might have eventually found them using a map, but without Imber's bottomless well of knowledge we would never have been able to put those Atomic Age beauties into context.
Modernism celebrated
At one point during one of Imber's particularly fascinating dissertations, I thought, this guy ought to make a movie. Turns out, he did. It's called "Desert Utopia," and it's an absorbing documentary devoted to Palm Springs' place-making architects and their work.
The movie had its premiere a few years ago during Modernism Week, an annual celebration of Palm Springs' mid-century design traditions. We happened to be in Palm Springs and somehow landed tickets to the premiere, one of many memorable Moderism Week events we've attended. One year we spent an atypically cloudy afternoon inside the Palm Springs Convention Center, browsing our way through a top-of-the-line array of 1950s and 1960s furniture, art and clothing, and last winter we traded valuable poolside time for a few hours at the Palm Springs Art Museum (another mid-century palace, this time done up in Brutalist concrete and red desert rock).
Catch some rays? We can do that anytime. But soak up a unique period of American design? Only in Palm Springs.
Sometimes when I tell people that we're spending another February week in the desert, I get a look. Palm Springs? Isn't it just golf, SPF-30 and cocktails? It can be, and we enjoy our share of those vacation pursuits (well, maybe not the golf). But for mid-century design enthusiasts, Palm Springs is like nowhere else. Thanks, Mr. Imber, for showing us the way.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/travel/38170989.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciatkEP7DhUsl
Andsnes and Tetzlaff: a duo with staying power
Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and German violinist Christian Tetzlaff have flourishing careers as soloists. But for the last 17 years, they also have been a dynamic duo, playing together for recordings and in much-praised recitals such as the one that will bring them to Walt Disney Concert Hall this week.
As David Mermelstein reports in the Arts & Books section, their partnership didn't jell immediately, though. "It took us a few years to adapt to each other's personalities and ways of playing," Andsnes told Mermelstein. "We had a couple of tours where I remember feeling a bit of frustration that we didn't really click, but after a year or two of working together, it was fine."
In fact, the pair say they've become good friends as well as committed colleagues. For one thing, they share a passion for raw fish. "There was a certain time when we couldn't eat anything but sushi," Andsnes said. And then there's the highbrow-lowbrow humor of Peter Schickele, alter ego of the "forgotten" composer of the Bach family, P.D.Q. Bach.
Andsnes credited Tetzlaff with introducing him to P.D.Q. and said that when he visits Tetzlaff in Germany, they listen to Schickele recordings looking somewhat less dignified than they appear in the concert hall: "We lie on the floor laughing."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/andsnes-tetzlaf.html
As David Mermelstein reports in the Arts & Books section, their partnership didn't jell immediately, though. "It took us a few years to adapt to each other's personalities and ways of playing," Andsnes told Mermelstein. "We had a couple of tours where I remember feeling a bit of frustration that we didn't really click, but after a year or two of working together, it was fine."
In fact, the pair say they've become good friends as well as committed colleagues. For one thing, they share a passion for raw fish. "There was a certain time when we couldn't eat anything but sushi," Andsnes said. And then there's the highbrow-lowbrow humor of Peter Schickele, alter ego of the "forgotten" composer of the Bach family, P.D.Q. Bach.
Andsnes credited Tetzlaff with introducing him to P.D.Q. and said that when he visits Tetzlaff in Germany, they listen to Schickele recordings looking somewhat less dignified than they appear in the concert hall: "We lie on the floor laughing."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/andsnes-tetzlaf.html
"I'M NUYORICAN" And "I'M ADDICTED TO MEDS" Two Brand New Topics Explored On MTV's "TRUE LIFE" Sunday, January 25th From 1PM - 3PM ET/PT
Ever wonder what it's like to live two separate and often conflicting lives - one as a person who is extremely dedicated to their culture and the other as a person who wants to indulge in all the city has to offer without tainting their values? Tune into MTV's award winning documentary series "True Life" as the show continues to delve into diverse and interesting topics with the premiere of "True Life: I'm Nuyorican" and "True Life: I'm Addicted to Meds" on Sunday, January 25th from 1pm - 3pm ET/PT.
Below are detailed descriptions of the "True Life" episodes that are scheduled to air from 1pm - 3pm ET/PT:
1PM - "TRUE LIFE: I'M NUYORICAN"
In this episode of "True Life", you'll meet three young Nuyoricans-Naizsha, Jose, and Rose-who are trying to balance the demands of their old school heritage with the outside influences they experience in a very diverse city.
Naizsha lives in a small apartment with a large family that's driving her mad. She thinks joining the Air Force will provide the changes she needs, but Naizsha can't enlist unless she loses five pounds. Will she find a way to resist the Spanish food she loves-or will Naizsha discover that leaving home isn't so easy?
Jose is an up-and-coming boxer who lives in a neighborhood where the sport is idolized. He just landed a fight that may be his ticket out of the projects, but is finding it difficult to resist the temptations of the New York streets. Can Jose stay focused in the ring or will he succumb to the violence that plagues his community?
Rose isn't your typical Nuyorican-she's focused on becoming a professional belly dancer. But with no support from her family, Rose is having a difficult time jump starting her career. Will she shimmy into this alien world-or will the weight of her family's expectations curtail Rose's dream?
2PM - "TRUE LIFE: I'M ADDICTED TO MEDS"
Prescription meds are fast becoming the drug of choice for millions of young Americans who mistakenly believe them to be safer than street drugs. In this episode of "True Life", you'll meet two young people fighting to free themselves from the grip of these potentially lethal substances.
Evan has been battling an addiction to Oxycontin for five years. Now he's in school and trying to kick the drug for good, but is worried that a visit from a former girlfriend will worsen his habit. Will Evan find a way to hit the stop button-or will he go over the edge and lose everything he's tried to achieve?
Dana's been in and out of rehab over 15 times since she started using Roxicodone in high school. Unable to hold a job or go to college, she's now living in a halfway house to learn how to stay clean outside the safe haven of a detox facility. Can Dana control her cravings for Roxies and restart her life-or will she remain stuck in a never-ending cycle of relapse and recovery?
True Life explores topics relevant to young people by telling their stories through first-person accounts and delves into issues on cultural trends covering matters relating to lifestyle subjects such as health, sex drugs, spirituality, money and more.
"True Life" (http://truelife.mtv.com) is executive produced by Betsy Forhan and Marshall Eisen of MTV. Carlos Puga is the producer for "I'm Nuyorican" and Matthew Laumb produced "I'm Addicted to Meds".
http://realitytvwebsite.com/RealityTVNews/I-M-NUYORICAN-And-I-M-ADDICTED-TO-MEDS-Two-Brand-New-Topics-Explored-On-MTV-s-TRUE-LIFE-Sunday-January-25th-From-1PM---3PM-ET-PT.html
Below are detailed descriptions of the "True Life" episodes that are scheduled to air from 1pm - 3pm ET/PT:
1PM - "TRUE LIFE: I'M NUYORICAN"
In this episode of "True Life", you'll meet three young Nuyoricans-Naizsha, Jose, and Rose-who are trying to balance the demands of their old school heritage with the outside influences they experience in a very diverse city.
Naizsha lives in a small apartment with a large family that's driving her mad. She thinks joining the Air Force will provide the changes she needs, but Naizsha can't enlist unless she loses five pounds. Will she find a way to resist the Spanish food she loves-or will Naizsha discover that leaving home isn't so easy?
Jose is an up-and-coming boxer who lives in a neighborhood where the sport is idolized. He just landed a fight that may be his ticket out of the projects, but is finding it difficult to resist the temptations of the New York streets. Can Jose stay focused in the ring or will he succumb to the violence that plagues his community?
Rose isn't your typical Nuyorican-she's focused on becoming a professional belly dancer. But with no support from her family, Rose is having a difficult time jump starting her career. Will she shimmy into this alien world-or will the weight of her family's expectations curtail Rose's dream?
2PM - "TRUE LIFE: I'M ADDICTED TO MEDS"
Prescription meds are fast becoming the drug of choice for millions of young Americans who mistakenly believe them to be safer than street drugs. In this episode of "True Life", you'll meet two young people fighting to free themselves from the grip of these potentially lethal substances.
Evan has been battling an addiction to Oxycontin for five years. Now he's in school and trying to kick the drug for good, but is worried that a visit from a former girlfriend will worsen his habit. Will Evan find a way to hit the stop button-or will he go over the edge and lose everything he's tried to achieve?
Dana's been in and out of rehab over 15 times since she started using Roxicodone in high school. Unable to hold a job or go to college, she's now living in a halfway house to learn how to stay clean outside the safe haven of a detox facility. Can Dana control her cravings for Roxies and restart her life-or will she remain stuck in a never-ending cycle of relapse and recovery?
True Life explores topics relevant to young people by telling their stories through first-person accounts and delves into issues on cultural trends covering matters relating to lifestyle subjects such as health, sex drugs, spirituality, money and more.
"True Life" (http://truelife.mtv.com) is executive produced by Betsy Forhan and Marshall Eisen of MTV. Carlos Puga is the producer for "I'm Nuyorican" and Matthew Laumb produced "I'm Addicted to Meds".
http://realitytvwebsite.com/RealityTVNews/I-M-NUYORICAN-And-I-M-ADDICTED-TO-MEDS-Two-Brand-New-Topics-Explored-On-MTV-s-TRUE-LIFE-Sunday-January-25th-From-1PM---3PM-ET-PT.html
Friday, January 23, 2009
Caroline Kennedy, Kirsten Gillibrand, and the Ridiculous Senate Seat Drama in New York
It was supposed to be Caroline Kennedy, or so it was thought, given how hard she was campaigning for the job, and given her last name, but she [1] suddenly withdrew from contention on Wednesday, reports conflicting, and since then it has been all about the spin.
The reason was Uncle Ted’s health, but that wasn’t really a valid reason, given that Uncle Ted has been unwell for some time and that Caroline isn’t exactly his only caregiver (and it’s an excuse that has apparently [2] aroused Uncle Ted’s fury), and yesterday, according to the [3] Times, “one person close to the governor” — such a vague source, no? — “said that her candidacy had been derailed by problems involving taxes and a household employee.” No details were provided, and there may not be many, but, if nothing else, the (intentional) leak suggests that Governor Paterson’s office, with or without the approval of the governor himself, is trying to unload the blame on Kennedy, perhaps to distract attention away from the governor, who seems to have “lost control of the selection process.”
Neither Kennedy nor Paterson will come away from this whole ridiculous episode looking good, but while Kennedy will at least be able to go back to her private life, Paterson has proven himself to be a weak and ineffectual figure, unable to take charge of the situation. Seriously, all he had to do was pick someone, a Democrat to replace a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. So why the “confusing and even embarrassing two-month ordeal”? What’s the problem?
Paterson supposedly decided on Kennedy “weeks ago.” Fine. But then why the need for “a little misdirection to keep the suspense up,” as one “Democratic operative with ties” put it? Why the need for so much stupid drama, for so much prolonged pointlessness? Well, who knows what motivates the governor? And who knows what to believe? Now that Kennedy has pulled out, that leaky person close to the governor, spinning wildly, is claiming that Paterson “never had any intention of picking Kennedy,” given her lack of experience. Right. Sure. Paterson, or his office, is saying all the right things” — namely that “the governor considers Caroline a friend and knows she will continue to serve New York well inside or outside of government” — and Kennedy, through a spokesman, is still citing unspecified “personal reasons,” but there just has to be more to this story, no?
Anyway, a choice has been made, at long last, and it’s not New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo but, if [4] WPIX-TV is to be believed, U.S. Rep. [5] Kirsten Gillibrand of the state’s 20th Congressional District — a largely rural district that stretches along the part of the state, bordering Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and includes Glen Falls and Saratoga Springs.
Is Gillibrand a good choice? Sure, if you want a Blue Dog Democrat who’s [6] almost a Republican, a supporter of the NRA (and hence an opponent of gun control), and who has already bitterly antagonized her own party, with one of her fellow House Democrats, Long Island’s Carolyn McCarthy, threatening to [7] run against her in 2010.
(UPDATE: Forget almost a Republican. She pretty much [8] is a Republican, with a 100% approval rating from the NRA and, as she put it herself, “one of the most conservative” voting records in the state.”)
Sorry, but that’s not a choice I can believe in.
So… well done, Governor Paterson. You screwed up the entire process, delaying and delyaing, fooling around, spinning this way and that, and now you or those close to you are blaming Kennedy, who deserves some of the blame but hardly all of it, and, to make it all so much worse, you’ve apparently chosen a questionable Democrat with close ties to the GOP. If only your distinguished predecessor, the unquenchable Eliot Spitzer, had been able to keep his urges to himself. Surely he would have handled this process more professionally and chosen a more worthy replacement for Hillary.
Well, we’ll see. It’s not Gillibrand yet. Paterson will announce his pick today at noon. Stay tuned.
http://themoderatevoice.com/25893/caroline-kennedy-kirsten-gillibrand-and-the-ridiculous-senate-seat-drama-in-new-york/print/
The reason was Uncle Ted’s health, but that wasn’t really a valid reason, given that Uncle Ted has been unwell for some time and that Caroline isn’t exactly his only caregiver (and it’s an excuse that has apparently [2] aroused Uncle Ted’s fury), and yesterday, according to the [3] Times, “one person close to the governor” — such a vague source, no? — “said that her candidacy had been derailed by problems involving taxes and a household employee.” No details were provided, and there may not be many, but, if nothing else, the (intentional) leak suggests that Governor Paterson’s office, with or without the approval of the governor himself, is trying to unload the blame on Kennedy, perhaps to distract attention away from the governor, who seems to have “lost control of the selection process.”
Neither Kennedy nor Paterson will come away from this whole ridiculous episode looking good, but while Kennedy will at least be able to go back to her private life, Paterson has proven himself to be a weak and ineffectual figure, unable to take charge of the situation. Seriously, all he had to do was pick someone, a Democrat to replace a Democrat in an overwhelmingly Democratic state. So why the “confusing and even embarrassing two-month ordeal”? What’s the problem?
Paterson supposedly decided on Kennedy “weeks ago.” Fine. But then why the need for “a little misdirection to keep the suspense up,” as one “Democratic operative with ties” put it? Why the need for so much stupid drama, for so much prolonged pointlessness? Well, who knows what motivates the governor? And who knows what to believe? Now that Kennedy has pulled out, that leaky person close to the governor, spinning wildly, is claiming that Paterson “never had any intention of picking Kennedy,” given her lack of experience. Right. Sure. Paterson, or his office, is saying all the right things” — namely that “the governor considers Caroline a friend and knows she will continue to serve New York well inside or outside of government” — and Kennedy, through a spokesman, is still citing unspecified “personal reasons,” but there just has to be more to this story, no?
Anyway, a choice has been made, at long last, and it’s not New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo but, if [4] WPIX-TV is to be believed, U.S. Rep. [5] Kirsten Gillibrand of the state’s 20th Congressional District — a largely rural district that stretches along the part of the state, bordering Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and includes Glen Falls and Saratoga Springs.
Is Gillibrand a good choice? Sure, if you want a Blue Dog Democrat who’s [6] almost a Republican, a supporter of the NRA (and hence an opponent of gun control), and who has already bitterly antagonized her own party, with one of her fellow House Democrats, Long Island’s Carolyn McCarthy, threatening to [7] run against her in 2010.
(UPDATE: Forget almost a Republican. She pretty much [8] is a Republican, with a 100% approval rating from the NRA and, as she put it herself, “one of the most conservative” voting records in the state.”)
Sorry, but that’s not a choice I can believe in.
So… well done, Governor Paterson. You screwed up the entire process, delaying and delyaing, fooling around, spinning this way and that, and now you or those close to you are blaming Kennedy, who deserves some of the blame but hardly all of it, and, to make it all so much worse, you’ve apparently chosen a questionable Democrat with close ties to the GOP. If only your distinguished predecessor, the unquenchable Eliot Spitzer, had been able to keep his urges to himself. Surely he would have handled this process more professionally and chosen a more worthy replacement for Hillary.
Well, we’ll see. It’s not Gillibrand yet. Paterson will announce his pick today at noon. Stay tuned.
http://themoderatevoice.com/25893/caroline-kennedy-kirsten-gillibrand-and-the-ridiculous-senate-seat-drama-in-new-york/print/
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Obama inauguration: John F Kennedy's speechwriter hails Obama's address
Kennedy's principal speechwriter - who wrote the January 1961 inaugural address which included the lines: "Ask not what your country can do for you…" - on President Obama's inaugural speech
Ted Sorensen: Today was a very emotional day for me. Of course it brought back very powerful memories of January 1961, but I have been a strong supporter of Obama since the day he declared his intention to run.
My friends told me that I was crazy, that he had no chance, a liberal Democrat and a black man. So yes, it was emotional to watch him take the oath of office.
It was a great day, and the speech and its contents symbolise the greatness of the day, and the change that this country is embarking upon, now that the eight years of the previous administration are over at last.
In terms of delivery it was excellent, very forceful and very well paced, and his sincerity and commitment came through.
But there were parts of the speech in which he made it clear that he had compassion for those who had suffered from the economic collapse, just as there were parts of the speech where he made it clear that the reliance solely on military power, which he said cannot alone protect us, that those days are over.
Parts were certainly downbeat, and in terms of speech psychology there are probably those who would have advised him otherwise.
Nevertheless, each time he followed with upbeat statements that we were going to overcome those challenges. That we had a strong economy, and a productive workforce. Taken as a whole, it struck a very hopeful note.
I thought as a whole it was a very thoughtful speech. It invoked our ancestors and the struggles they went through to keep freedom alive, and I thought that that was very appropriate at this time.
The conclusion in particular was very strong, which made reference to the earliest struggles for independence and liberty, when Britain was the oppressor. And I have to assume that it will be hailed overseas.
My experience is that great speeches are frequently in the eye of the beholder: Obama is so respected, even beloved, around the world that I think the speech will be hailed.
I have been speaking for two years of the parallels between Obama and Kennedy: two young senators, Kennedy even younger than Obama, two men committed to peace. Two men with progressive domestic policies and a multilateral foreign policy. Two men who reached out to young people and brought them into the campaign, and now, in Obama's case, bringing them into government.
President Kennedy, I am sure, would be beside himself with joy at today's events, having turned our country around in its attitudes towards our black citizens, with his speech to the nation, and then his legislation to Congress in June 1963.
The very idea of a black man being elected president, when in those days blacks could not be elected to almost any office, including the House of Representatives; he would think it was a wonderful day for America.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/obama-inauguration-ted-sorensen-speech
Ted Sorensen: Today was a very emotional day for me. Of course it brought back very powerful memories of January 1961, but I have been a strong supporter of Obama since the day he declared his intention to run.
My friends told me that I was crazy, that he had no chance, a liberal Democrat and a black man. So yes, it was emotional to watch him take the oath of office.
It was a great day, and the speech and its contents symbolise the greatness of the day, and the change that this country is embarking upon, now that the eight years of the previous administration are over at last.
In terms of delivery it was excellent, very forceful and very well paced, and his sincerity and commitment came through.
But there were parts of the speech in which he made it clear that he had compassion for those who had suffered from the economic collapse, just as there were parts of the speech where he made it clear that the reliance solely on military power, which he said cannot alone protect us, that those days are over.
Parts were certainly downbeat, and in terms of speech psychology there are probably those who would have advised him otherwise.
Nevertheless, each time he followed with upbeat statements that we were going to overcome those challenges. That we had a strong economy, and a productive workforce. Taken as a whole, it struck a very hopeful note.
I thought as a whole it was a very thoughtful speech. It invoked our ancestors and the struggles they went through to keep freedom alive, and I thought that that was very appropriate at this time.
The conclusion in particular was very strong, which made reference to the earliest struggles for independence and liberty, when Britain was the oppressor. And I have to assume that it will be hailed overseas.
My experience is that great speeches are frequently in the eye of the beholder: Obama is so respected, even beloved, around the world that I think the speech will be hailed.
I have been speaking for two years of the parallels between Obama and Kennedy: two young senators, Kennedy even younger than Obama, two men committed to peace. Two men with progressive domestic policies and a multilateral foreign policy. Two men who reached out to young people and brought them into the campaign, and now, in Obama's case, bringing them into government.
President Kennedy, I am sure, would be beside himself with joy at today's events, having turned our country around in its attitudes towards our black citizens, with his speech to the nation, and then his legislation to Congress in June 1963.
The very idea of a black man being elected president, when in those days blacks could not be elected to almost any office, including the House of Representatives; he would think it was a wonderful day for America.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/obama-inauguration-ted-sorensen-speech
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Veteran pilots praise 'picture-perfect' soft touchdown of US Airways hero Chesley Sullenberger
Veteran pilots tipped their caps to Hudson River Hero Chesley Sullenberger on Thursday night, saying he truly pulled off a miracle for the ages.
"You only have one shot at this in real life," said former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith.
"If he dragged a wing, had one wing down, he could have cartwheeled the airplane and we would be talking about fatalities."
Instead, Sullenberger brought US Airways Flight 1549 down safely in the Hudson River Thursday afternoon, improbably saving the lives of all 155 people aboard.
"This is a miracle the aviation community trains for," said former NTSB Chairman James Hall.
Sully, as the former Air Force fighter pilot is known, had just three minutes to handle the instant crisis - and he passed with flying colors.
"It looks like they did an incredible job," said former Navy pilot Mary Cummings. "It looks like a picture-perfect response. They handled everything exactly correctly."
Pilots receive instructions on ditching a plane in their initial training, with refreshers throughout their careers. But those are on flight simulators, where practice apparently made perfect for Sullenberger.
The pilot and co-pilot would typically run down a checklist before ditching: getting the passengers into crash position, putting the plane into a "descent profile" with the flaps at the proper setting for a soft landing, and keeping the plane stable and in the air for as long as possible.
"They just gently touch it down," Cummings said. "The water is a lot more forgiving than land."
Indeed. As he headed south down the Hudson, Sullenberger was sailing between the New Jersey shoreline and the Manhattan skyline, with little room for error.
"If you're flying over New York and you need a runway, the Hudson's a pretty good one," said Arnie Gentile of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/01/15/2009-01-15_veteran_pilots_praise_pictureperfect_sof.html?print=1&page=all
"You only have one shot at this in real life," said former National Transportation Safety Board investigator Greg Feith.
"If he dragged a wing, had one wing down, he could have cartwheeled the airplane and we would be talking about fatalities."
Instead, Sullenberger brought US Airways Flight 1549 down safely in the Hudson River Thursday afternoon, improbably saving the lives of all 155 people aboard.
"This is a miracle the aviation community trains for," said former NTSB Chairman James Hall.
Sully, as the former Air Force fighter pilot is known, had just three minutes to handle the instant crisis - and he passed with flying colors.
"It looks like they did an incredible job," said former Navy pilot Mary Cummings. "It looks like a picture-perfect response. They handled everything exactly correctly."
Pilots receive instructions on ditching a plane in their initial training, with refreshers throughout their careers. But those are on flight simulators, where practice apparently made perfect for Sullenberger.
The pilot and co-pilot would typically run down a checklist before ditching: getting the passengers into crash position, putting the plane into a "descent profile" with the flaps at the proper setting for a soft landing, and keeping the plane stable and in the air for as long as possible.
"They just gently touch it down," Cummings said. "The water is a lot more forgiving than land."
Indeed. As he headed south down the Hudson, Sullenberger was sailing between the New Jersey shoreline and the Manhattan skyline, with little room for error.
"If you're flying over New York and you need a runway, the Hudson's a pretty good one," said Arnie Gentile of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/01/15/2009-01-15_veteran_pilots_praise_pictureperfect_sof.html?print=1&page=all
NJ takes in dozens from plane ditched in river
Ferry boats became rescue boats and a New Jersey restaurant turned into a triage center after an airliner ditched into the Hudson River off Manhattan on Thursday.
Authorities said 58 of the 155 passengers and crew rescued from US Airways Flight 1549 were taken to New Jersey after being pulled from the sinking plane. The rest were taken to New York City.
Though far smaller in scope, the emergency response from New Jersey was reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks more than seven years ago when the New Jersey waterfront also became a focal point for rescue efforts.
Witnesses said the descending plane, disabled after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines, was an arresting sight.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--planeinriver-nj0115jan15,0,4278371.story
Authorities said 58 of the 155 passengers and crew rescued from US Airways Flight 1549 were taken to New Jersey after being pulled from the sinking plane. The rest were taken to New York City.
Though far smaller in scope, the emergency response from New Jersey was reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks more than seven years ago when the New Jersey waterfront also became a focal point for rescue efforts.
Witnesses said the descending plane, disabled after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines, was an arresting sight.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--planeinriver-nj0115jan15,0,4278371.story
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Ricardo Montalban dies at 88; 'Fantasy Island' actor
He was often cast -- and stereotyped -- as a Latin lover and later was best known as Mr. Roarke of 'Fantasy Island.' He was respected for his work to improve the roles and image of other Latino actors
Ricardo Montalban, the suave leading man who was one of the first Mexican-born actors to make it big in Hollywood and who was best known for his role as Mr. Roarke on TV's "Fantasy Island," has died. He was 88.
Montalban died Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home of complications related to old age, said his son-in-law, Gilbert Smith.
Within the entertainment industry, Montalban was widely respected for his efforts to create opportunities for Latinos, although he and others believed that his activism hurt his career. In 1970, he founded the nonprofit Nosotros Foundation to improve the image and increase employment of Latinos in Hollywood.
"He paved the way for being outspoken about the images and roles that Latinos were playing in movies," said Luis Reyes, co-author of "Hispanics in Hollywood" (2000).
On Wednesday, actor Edward James Olmos called Montalban "one of the true giants of arts and culture."
"He was a stellar artist and a consummate person and performer with a tremendous understanding of culture . . . and the ability to express it in his work," Olmos told The Times.
Montalban was already a star of Mexican movies in the 1940s when MGM cast him as a bullfighter opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta" and put him under contract. He would go on to appear alongside such movie greats as Clark Gable and Lana Turner.
When major film roles dried up for him in the 1970s, he turned to stage and eventually TV, where he was familiar to millions as the mysterious host whose signature line, “Welcome to Fantasy Island,” opened the hit ABC show that aired from 1978 to 1984.
While "Fantasy Island" was renewing Montalban's career and giving him financial stability, he also won an Emmy for his performance as Chief Satangkai in the 1978 ABC miniseries "How the West Was Won."
In the 1970s and '80s, Montalban was also familiar to TV viewers as a commercial spokesman for Chrysler. He was later widely spoofed for his silky allusion to the “soft Corinthian leather” of the Chrysler Cordoba, although no such leather actually existed.
While making "Fantasy Island," Montalban also gave one of his best movie performances -- as Khan Noonien Singh in the “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), a follow-up to a beloved 1967 “Star Trek” television episode that also featured Montalban.
New Yorker magazine critic Pauline Kael said Montalban's performance as Khan "was the only validation he has ever had of his power to command the big screen."
Born Nov. 25, 1920, in Mexico City, Montalban was the youngest of four children of Castilian Spaniards who had immigrated in 1906 to the city, where Montalban's father owned a dry goods store.
Montalban came to Los Angeles as a teenager with his oldest brother, Carlos, who had lived in the city and worked for the studios.
"I felt as if I knew California already, because of the movies," Montalban said in "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds," the 1980 autobiography he wrote with Bob Thomas.
Montalban studied English at Fairfax High School, where an MGM talent scout noticed him in a student play. He was offered a screen test, but his brother advised him against taking it and took him on a business trip to New York City.
The handsome Montalban soon found himself the star of a short film that was made to play on a screen atop a jukebox. That three-minute movie, which debuted at the Hurricane Bar in midtown Manhattan, led to small roles in plays.
When his mother's illness took him back to Mexico, Montalban got a one-line role in a parody of "The Three Musketeers," starring Cantinflas. Around that time, he also met Georgiana Belzer, a model and Loretta Young's sister, whom he married in 1944. She died in 2007.
Montalban intended to stay in Mexico, where his film career was taking off, but MGM wanted him for "Fiesta." In the 1947 musical, he had a memorable dance scene with a young Cyd Charisse.
"Fiesta" led to a contract at MGM, where he had a friendly rivalry with Fernando Lamas -- later Williams' husband off-screen -- as the studio's resident "Latin lovers." Bill Murray immortalized the duel between the two men with his classic "Saturday Night Live" skit, "Quien es mas macho, Fernando Lamas o Ricardo Montalban?"
Montalban appeared as the Latin lover with Williams in two other late-1940s films, "On an Island With You" and "Neptune's Daughter." The blatant typecasting continued in the 1953 film "Latin Lovers" with Turner.
"He was incredibly handsome, he gave a style and dignity to all of his roles -- no matter what role he played," said author Reyes.
Director John Sturges gave Montalban the leading role of Lt. Peter Morales in "Mystery Street" in 1950 and, that same year, a starring role with June Allyson and Dick Powell in "Right Cross."
But, as Montalban wrote in his autobiography, he never was cast in the dramatic role at MGM that would have made him a major movie star.
"He appeared to have everything else -- a marvelous camera face, the physique of a trained dancer, talent, a fine voice (he could even sing), warmth and great charm," Kael wrote. "Maybe the charm was a drawback -- it may have made him seem too likable."
While making the 1951 Gable western "Across the Wide Missouri," Montalban fell from a horse and injured his spine. The injury caused him to walk with a limp, which he tried to mask during performances. In recent years, he was confined to a wheelchair.
After MGM dropped him in 1953, Montalban went on the road with Agnes Moorehead and others in George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," which was revived 20 years later on Broadway with him in the lead. In 1955, he appeared on Broadway in the short-lived "Seventh Heaven" and in the late 1950s starred with Lena Horne in "Jamaica" and earned a Tony nomination.
He played a Kabuki theater actor in 1957's "Sayonara" and co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in the 1966 film "The Singing Nun." Decades later, he played the evil tycoon in the 1988 comedy hit "Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" and had a prominent role as the grandfather in "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" (2003).
Later TV appearances included the "Dynasty" spinoff "The Colbys" in the 1980s, and he voiced Señor Senior Sr. on the Disney Channel's animated series "Kim Possible" that debuted in 2002.
But "Fantasy Island" created his lasting image.
Elegantly attired in a white suit and black tie, Montalban created such an iconic -- albeit somewhat kitschy -- figure that he often reprised the character in subsequent films and television shows.
The show's executive producer, Aaron Spelling, told TV Guide in 1980 that Montalban gave Mr. Roarke the "otherworldly quality we needed." Many credited the repartee between Mr. Roarke and the character of Tattoo, played by 3-foot-11-inch Herve Villechaize, for pulling in viewers. Villechaize died in 1993.
Montalban said in TV Guide that his character "manipulates everything and everyone. In the eye of the fantasizer, Roarke has the power of life and death."
Spelling's widow, Candy, said Wednesday in a statement: "Aaron was always humbled by Ricardo's gratitude for 'Fantasy Island.' "
Although Montalban expressed appreciation for his success, he complained that Hollywood lacked respect for Mexican American actors. He said that while under contract at MGM, he portrayed Cubans, Brazilians and Argentines, but almost never Mexicans.
"Mexican is not a nice-sounding word and Hollywood is at fault for this because we have been portrayed in this ungodly manner," he said. He challenged Hollywood to stop stereotyping Latin actors by casting them only as prostitutes, maids, gang-bangers and bandidos.
Through Nosotros -- "we" in Spanish -- Montalban attempted to highlight and recognize Latino participation in the arts and entertainment. In 1970, the foundation created the Golden Eagle Awards, which annually honors Latino stars, shows and movies.
From 1965 to 1970, Montalban served as vice president of the Screen Actors Guild.
After the Ricardo Montalban Foundation was formed in 1999, the organization purchased the former Doolittle Theatre near Hollywood and Vine to stage Latino productions and named the theater after Montalban.
Judd Bernard, who was Montalban's publicist in the mid-1950s, told The Times that the actor "was the kindest man, with a lovely sense of humor, a religious man, a marvelous family man."
The deeply spiritual Montalban once said that the guiding force in his life was his Catholic faith. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight Commander of St. Gregory, the highest honor bestowed upon non-clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.
Montalban is survived by two daughters, Laura Montalban and Anita Smith; two sons, Mark Montalban and Victor Montalban; and six grandchildren.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-montalban15-2009jan15,0,3732229.story
Ricardo Montalban, the suave leading man who was one of the first Mexican-born actors to make it big in Hollywood and who was best known for his role as Mr. Roarke on TV's "Fantasy Island," has died. He was 88.
Montalban died Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home of complications related to old age, said his son-in-law, Gilbert Smith.
Within the entertainment industry, Montalban was widely respected for his efforts to create opportunities for Latinos, although he and others believed that his activism hurt his career. In 1970, he founded the nonprofit Nosotros Foundation to improve the image and increase employment of Latinos in Hollywood.
"He paved the way for being outspoken about the images and roles that Latinos were playing in movies," said Luis Reyes, co-author of "Hispanics in Hollywood" (2000).
On Wednesday, actor Edward James Olmos called Montalban "one of the true giants of arts and culture."
"He was a stellar artist and a consummate person and performer with a tremendous understanding of culture . . . and the ability to express it in his work," Olmos told The Times.
Montalban was already a star of Mexican movies in the 1940s when MGM cast him as a bullfighter opposite Esther Williams in "Fiesta" and put him under contract. He would go on to appear alongside such movie greats as Clark Gable and Lana Turner.
When major film roles dried up for him in the 1970s, he turned to stage and eventually TV, where he was familiar to millions as the mysterious host whose signature line, “Welcome to Fantasy Island,” opened the hit ABC show that aired from 1978 to 1984.
While "Fantasy Island" was renewing Montalban's career and giving him financial stability, he also won an Emmy for his performance as Chief Satangkai in the 1978 ABC miniseries "How the West Was Won."
In the 1970s and '80s, Montalban was also familiar to TV viewers as a commercial spokesman for Chrysler. He was later widely spoofed for his silky allusion to the “soft Corinthian leather” of the Chrysler Cordoba, although no such leather actually existed.
While making "Fantasy Island," Montalban also gave one of his best movie performances -- as Khan Noonien Singh in the “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), a follow-up to a beloved 1967 “Star Trek” television episode that also featured Montalban.
New Yorker magazine critic Pauline Kael said Montalban's performance as Khan "was the only validation he has ever had of his power to command the big screen."
Born Nov. 25, 1920, in Mexico City, Montalban was the youngest of four children of Castilian Spaniards who had immigrated in 1906 to the city, where Montalban's father owned a dry goods store.
Montalban came to Los Angeles as a teenager with his oldest brother, Carlos, who had lived in the city and worked for the studios.
"I felt as if I knew California already, because of the movies," Montalban said in "Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds," the 1980 autobiography he wrote with Bob Thomas.
Montalban studied English at Fairfax High School, where an MGM talent scout noticed him in a student play. He was offered a screen test, but his brother advised him against taking it and took him on a business trip to New York City.
The handsome Montalban soon found himself the star of a short film that was made to play on a screen atop a jukebox. That three-minute movie, which debuted at the Hurricane Bar in midtown Manhattan, led to small roles in plays.
When his mother's illness took him back to Mexico, Montalban got a one-line role in a parody of "The Three Musketeers," starring Cantinflas. Around that time, he also met Georgiana Belzer, a model and Loretta Young's sister, whom he married in 1944. She died in 2007.
Montalban intended to stay in Mexico, where his film career was taking off, but MGM wanted him for "Fiesta." In the 1947 musical, he had a memorable dance scene with a young Cyd Charisse.
"Fiesta" led to a contract at MGM, where he had a friendly rivalry with Fernando Lamas -- later Williams' husband off-screen -- as the studio's resident "Latin lovers." Bill Murray immortalized the duel between the two men with his classic "Saturday Night Live" skit, "Quien es mas macho, Fernando Lamas o Ricardo Montalban?"
Montalban appeared as the Latin lover with Williams in two other late-1940s films, "On an Island With You" and "Neptune's Daughter." The blatant typecasting continued in the 1953 film "Latin Lovers" with Turner.
"He was incredibly handsome, he gave a style and dignity to all of his roles -- no matter what role he played," said author Reyes.
Director John Sturges gave Montalban the leading role of Lt. Peter Morales in "Mystery Street" in 1950 and, that same year, a starring role with June Allyson and Dick Powell in "Right Cross."
But, as Montalban wrote in his autobiography, he never was cast in the dramatic role at MGM that would have made him a major movie star.
"He appeared to have everything else -- a marvelous camera face, the physique of a trained dancer, talent, a fine voice (he could even sing), warmth and great charm," Kael wrote. "Maybe the charm was a drawback -- it may have made him seem too likable."
While making the 1951 Gable western "Across the Wide Missouri," Montalban fell from a horse and injured his spine. The injury caused him to walk with a limp, which he tried to mask during performances. In recent years, he was confined to a wheelchair.
After MGM dropped him in 1953, Montalban went on the road with Agnes Moorehead and others in George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell," which was revived 20 years later on Broadway with him in the lead. In 1955, he appeared on Broadway in the short-lived "Seventh Heaven" and in the late 1950s starred with Lena Horne in "Jamaica" and earned a Tony nomination.
He played a Kabuki theater actor in 1957's "Sayonara" and co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in the 1966 film "The Singing Nun." Decades later, he played the evil tycoon in the 1988 comedy hit "Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" and had a prominent role as the grandfather in "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over" (2003).
Later TV appearances included the "Dynasty" spinoff "The Colbys" in the 1980s, and he voiced Señor Senior Sr. on the Disney Channel's animated series "Kim Possible" that debuted in 2002.
But "Fantasy Island" created his lasting image.
Elegantly attired in a white suit and black tie, Montalban created such an iconic -- albeit somewhat kitschy -- figure that he often reprised the character in subsequent films and television shows.
The show's executive producer, Aaron Spelling, told TV Guide in 1980 that Montalban gave Mr. Roarke the "otherworldly quality we needed." Many credited the repartee between Mr. Roarke and the character of Tattoo, played by 3-foot-11-inch Herve Villechaize, for pulling in viewers. Villechaize died in 1993.
Montalban said in TV Guide that his character "manipulates everything and everyone. In the eye of the fantasizer, Roarke has the power of life and death."
Spelling's widow, Candy, said Wednesday in a statement: "Aaron was always humbled by Ricardo's gratitude for 'Fantasy Island.' "
Although Montalban expressed appreciation for his success, he complained that Hollywood lacked respect for Mexican American actors. He said that while under contract at MGM, he portrayed Cubans, Brazilians and Argentines, but almost never Mexicans.
"Mexican is not a nice-sounding word and Hollywood is at fault for this because we have been portrayed in this ungodly manner," he said. He challenged Hollywood to stop stereotyping Latin actors by casting them only as prostitutes, maids, gang-bangers and bandidos.
Through Nosotros -- "we" in Spanish -- Montalban attempted to highlight and recognize Latino participation in the arts and entertainment. In 1970, the foundation created the Golden Eagle Awards, which annually honors Latino stars, shows and movies.
From 1965 to 1970, Montalban served as vice president of the Screen Actors Guild.
After the Ricardo Montalban Foundation was formed in 1999, the organization purchased the former Doolittle Theatre near Hollywood and Vine to stage Latino productions and named the theater after Montalban.
Judd Bernard, who was Montalban's publicist in the mid-1950s, told The Times that the actor "was the kindest man, with a lovely sense of humor, a religious man, a marvelous family man."
The deeply spiritual Montalban once said that the guiding force in his life was his Catholic faith. In 1998, Pope John Paul II made him a Knight Commander of St. Gregory, the highest honor bestowed upon non-clergy in the Roman Catholic Church.
Montalban is survived by two daughters, Laura Montalban and Anita Smith; two sons, Mark Montalban and Victor Montalban; and six grandchildren.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-montalban15-2009jan15,0,3732229.story
Monday, January 12, 2009
Today's Ponzi Trifecta Begins?
What do you do when your life doesn't go as planned? Well, of course, you get in your Piper Pawnee Brave, fly along normally for some time, right before reporting an imploded windshield and profuse bleeding to controllers, and declaring an emergency over Florida swamp land. Set the plane on autopilot 2,000 feet, open the door and jump out with your parachute. On hitting the ground, you walk up to a policeman, complete with skydiving gear and goggles and report that you've been in a canoe accident and give the officer your real driver's license before checking into a local motel with cash under a fake name, donning a "black toboggan cap" and running into the woods next to the motel.
Well, that's not what I'd do exactly. But that's what Marcus Schrenker, 38, from Indiana appears to have done. Police are looking for Schrenker now. have Schrenker in custody now may or may not have Schrenker in custody. I'm sure it has exactly zero to do with his Indianapolis firm,"Heritage Wealth Management." Or Icon Wealth Management.
http://dealbreaker.com/2009/01/todays-ponzi-trifecta-begins.php
Well, that's not what I'd do exactly. But that's what Marcus Schrenker, 38, from Indiana appears to have done. Police are looking for Schrenker now. have Schrenker in custody now may or may not have Schrenker in custody. I'm sure it has exactly zero to do with his Indianapolis firm,"Heritage Wealth Management." Or Icon Wealth Management.
http://dealbreaker.com/2009/01/todays-ponzi-trifecta-begins.php
Friday, January 2, 2009
Bernie Hamilton, 'Starsky and Hutch' captain, dies
Actor Bernie Hamilton, who played the no-nonsense police captain on the 1970s TV series "Starsky and Hutch," has died. He was 80. Hamilton died of cardiac arrest Tuesday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his son, Raoul Hamilton.
Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Hamilton ran away from home as a teenager and wound up staying in someone's garage and attending Oakland Technical High School, where he played football and got involved in acting.
Hamilton appeared in more than 20 films, including "The Young One," "The Devil at 4 O'Clock," "Synanon," "The Swimmer," "Walk the Walk" and "The Organization."
He also had guest appearances on television series before becoming a regular on "Starsky and Hutch," the ABC police drama starring Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul. Hamilton played the brusque, by-the-book Capt. Harold Dobey, a role that gave him wide recognition to this day, his son said.
After "Starsky and Hutch," Hamilton spent the next 20 years in the music business producing R&B and gospel records under the record label Chocolate Snowman.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inkUvOvCP59PlAfIvPLNt14A660gD95EK1PG0
Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Hamilton ran away from home as a teenager and wound up staying in someone's garage and attending Oakland Technical High School, where he played football and got involved in acting.
Hamilton appeared in more than 20 films, including "The Young One," "The Devil at 4 O'Clock," "Synanon," "The Swimmer," "Walk the Walk" and "The Organization."
He also had guest appearances on television series before becoming a regular on "Starsky and Hutch," the ABC police drama starring Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul. Hamilton played the brusque, by-the-book Capt. Harold Dobey, a role that gave him wide recognition to this day, his son said.
After "Starsky and Hutch," Hamilton spent the next 20 years in the music business producing R&B and gospel records under the record label Chocolate Snowman.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inkUvOvCP59PlAfIvPLNt14A660gD95EK1PG0
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