Out of Focus

Liberal radio is on the air … almost. Air America Radio, the long-discussed talk-radio network for those of us who hang left will start broadcasting on March 31. Six shows will regularly broadcast each weekday, including “The O’Franken Factor” hosted by Al Franken from Noon to 3 and “The Majority Report” from 8-11 PM, co-hosted by Janeane Garofalo and which Variety (i.e., the “Air America Radio” press release”) calls “a blend of politics, the art and entertainment.” In New York, the programming will air on WLIB (1190 AM), which apparently will no longer be broadcasting “Caribbean Hits and more!” The network will also broadcast on WNTD (950 AM), and an as yet unannounced San Francisco station. They also claim they will broadcast in Los Angeles on KBLA, 1580-AM, but apparently they seem to be unaware that nobody actually listens to anything that high on the dial unless they’re looking for pirated spanish-language radio (subscription required for full Variety story — here’s a similar story on CNN)

The Hollywood Reporter today follows the continued career ascension of none other than Paris Hilton. Paris has just been added to the cast of a planned remake of the 1953 horror classic House of Wax which starred Vincent Price as a mad professor who uses real bodies covered in wax to make his wax museum more lifelike. (Mad? Maybe just eccentric, no?) One has to wonder if Hilton’s casting was for purely economic reasons. I’m sure they’ll save plenty of money on not having to actually cover this oh-so-lifelike mannequin with any sort of makeup or special effect. I still marvel at how life-like she already seems.

More from the trades …

Continue reading “PERFECT CASTING (AND OTHER FABLES)”

This morning, Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) went on the air with Howard Stern to discuss the House vote happening today that would increase indecency fines to $500,000 (up from $27,500) per incident. Additionally, as I understood it, instead of holding the radio station or corporate owner responsible (i.e., Infinity Broadcasting, Clear Channel, etc), the individual broadcaster would be held responsible. And each incident actually means whereever the indecency may be broadcast. For example, if Stern is on 100 radio stations, his fine for one event deemed indecent by the FCC would be $500,000 per radio station.

I can’t begin to express coherently how dangerous such a law could be to the 1st Ammendment, and I have to believe that even if this gets passed in the House (which it probably will) and the Senate (less likely, but still possible), that it wouldn’t survive in the courts, but these days, who knows.

The utter hypocrisy by the corporate ownership of these broadcasters, however, many of whom are definitely in bed with the conservative legislators and other politicians is shocking. Clear Channel made this huge stand by pulling Stern off the six stations they owned which broadcast his show, however they reportedly continue to air the “live” commercials voiced by Stern. And this morning on Stern’s local WXRK broadcast in New York, one of the commercials was Channel 35 mainstay Robin Byrd advertising one of her phone sex lines. Commercialism reigns supreme again. Indecency apparently only exists when money isn’t changing hands.

Granted, that headline is a bit misleading because it insinuates that I have only one problem when obviously I am severely troubled in many areas. However, this morning I noticed something that thoroughly confused me, so if you’d prefer me to say, “Here’s my problem today…” — so be it.

So I was at the gym this morning (shutup! it could happen!) and I was listening to my iPod and reading, but every now and then I was half-watching the muted TVs with close-captioning up at the front of the room. I think it was the Today show, and Matt Lauer was interviewing the master of spinning while claiming to live in a no-spin zone, Bill O’Reilly. I wasn’t paying attention, but I happened to see one of the captions, and it seemed like they were talking about President Bush’s ad which has caused such an uproar among 9/11 victims’ family members for shots of 9/11 and then according to Newsweek (via Wonkette) for the fact that the ad uses “paid actors — including two playing firefighters.”

Suddenly, I wondered why Bush’s people let this become such a big issue and why the Republicans chose the stance they’ve had, namely that Bush’s 9/11 should be a campaign issue because his leadership during that time … blah blah blah. Why wouldn’t the administration simply have said, “We meant no disrespect to anybody, certainly not family members of the victims, and maybe we should have chosen some different images or presented them in a different manner. We apologize to anyone who might have been offended.” The Bushies could still use 9/11 as a subject in the campaign if they wanted.

But this is just another example of what is wrong with this administration. This immense arrogance; this black-and-white/friend-or-enemy approach to everyone and everything; this inability to accept the very idea that not everyone sees things the same way, and if someone or, better yet, some large group of people disagrees with something, it does not necessarily mean they’re automatically wrong. Why the hell would Rove and crew want to pick a fight with family members of 9/11 victims by saying the attacks do not belong to them … they affected everyone. It just is completely illogical. I’m not interested in the Bush campaign doing anything that will help him win, but I am fascinated at their inability to diffuse a situation which very easily could have been a non-issue.

I guess when there actually is “breaking news,” AIM’s morning welcome tries to accurately reflect it. Of course, that doesn’t explain the all the headlines. Nevertheless …

1. Breaking News: Terror Trains: Blasts Kill 173, Wound 600
   The lede from the CNN story: “MADRID, Spain (CNN) — A massive, coordinated terror strike on Madrid’s commuter train system killed at least 173 people and wounded over 600 others at the height of the city’s rush hour, Spain’s interior minister says.”

2. “American Idol” Down to Finalists
   I suppose this actually is pretty damn important news. What was perplexing about last night’s (as usual) overlong, extended results show was that “America’s choice” was John Peter Lewis, who sounded and looked like a bad karaoke version of Elvis and “A Little Less Conversation” while having horrifying jerky full-body seizures. I have to wonder whether the judges picked first and then they took the top vote-getter of who was left (because both Randy’s pick, Jennifer Hudson, and Simon’s pick, George Huff, were better) or if Lewis actually was the favorite of the TV audience. Actually, I guess I don’t have to wonder. In fact, maybe it would be better if I stopped.

3. Priest Punched Teacher in Fight
   Apparently a woman in Compton, CA has won nearly $1-Million for “emotional distress, defamation and battery” after a priest punched her in the head because he disagreed with how she was teaching catechism. How dare a jury vote against a man of the cloth. Don’t they know he’s a leader in the culture wars raging right now throughout the country? Don’t they know he should have the right to bitch slap someone not teaching the word of God correctly? Didn’t they see Mel’s movie to know how important it is to transmit information from the Bible the right way to our youth? Otherwise, who knows who might get flayed next? Besides, the priest seems to have been punished already. The trial had to be stopped about three-weeks in when he died! More importantly, this trial took more than three weeks???

Shockingly, AIM does not include the headline of another important piece of actual news that may affect many of the people who signed on this morning. The clash of the titans between Viacom and EchoStar Communications (who owns the DISH network) seems to have come to an abrupt end so nobody has to be deprived of his or her MTV. Apparently, the big long war between the two parties who were never going to resolve this quickly … uhm … it got resolved quickly. Amazing what can happen when people lose their TV channels.

I heartily agree with two-twenty’s endorsement of the iPod, and this is just about the best ad ever. (originally from empty-handed)

The Leonard Lopate rebroadcast of a late-1990 interview with Spaulding Gray on WNYC was really interesting, and thanks to the miracles of modern technology, you can still hear it via the website in the Leonard Lopate Show Archive. (Note, the audio file probably won’t be posted and unavailable until later today.)

While it is bittersweet hearing Gray speak, this interview is a wonderful window into the artist and writer he was. At one point, Gray says he doesn’t write his monologues, he speaks them. Every performance was different because he would simply sit at that little table with pages of notes in front of him and talk, digressing into any number of tangents when the mood arose. He mentioned that this process is what actually made it harder for him to write a book, because when he speaks in front of an audience, there is so much more going on with his tone and mannerisms than simply his words. He compared himself to Don DeLillo who he had recently seen give a reading from one his novels, and he said that for DeLillo, it was all “in the writing.” DeLillo just read without necessarily adding anything to it.

It was through this segment, early in the interview, that Gray’s own underlying insecurities as an artist start to present themselves. While he certainly never sounds like a depressed and suicidal person during this interview, reflecting upon what has now happened and how his car accident obviously made his negative feelings about himself even stronger, the interview is inspiring, informative and entertaining, but also now heartbreaking — all at the same time.

Lots of little bits of interesting entertainment news in the trades today:

• Michael Pitt continues in his attempts to be the next River Phoenix. The Hollywood Reporter (subscription required for full story) reports that he will star in Gus Van Sant’s next film. Last Days will deal with the Seattle grunge music scene and be produced by HBO Films, which also produced Van Sant’s Cannes-winning Elephant. Please all of you out there in LA, keep Pitt away from The Viper Room.
• The long in-the-works, on-again/off-again, live-action version of Fat Albert seems to be back on. Forest Whitaker was originally set to direct, but according to HR he and Bill Cosby apparently did not share the same vision for the characterJoel Zwick, still hot for directing indie blockbuster (not an oxymoron anymore) My Big Fat Greek Wedding will helm the script written by Bill Cosby, Lowell Ganz and Charles Kipps. Strangely enough, there is no mention of the contribution by Peabs, and I’m sure he probably wrote the whole script himself. The big news today, though, is that the title role has finally been cast, and will be played by Kenan Thompson, who got his start on Nickelodeon with ths hows All That and Kenan and Kel and is currently a “Featured Player” on Saturday Night Life on which he first appeared doing an impression of … Bill Cosby.

Continue reading “THE BITES THAT COUNT”

This morning’s AIM welcome screen: Nothing to see here. People … stop crowding. Please move along. Thank you,
The Management

1. Breaking News: U.S. Forces in Secret Olympics Operation
   Blame Reuters a little bit for this headline. The Athens Olympics don’t start for another couple months, so if they’re reporting on it … secret? Not so much. Maybe it actually is “breaking,” but it must be a slow news day in the world of AOL.

2. “Murphy Brown” Actor Dies
   I almost posted on this yesterday, actually, but Robert Pastorelli, who played Murphy’s handyman and confident Eldin, was found dead yesterday. He was 49, and apparently a drug overdose is suspected. According to the Reuters report, “drug paraphernalia was found on the scene.” Pastorelli was currently filming the Get Shorty sequel Be Cool. I haven’t yet seen any reports that mention how much (if any) of his role has been shot or if it will be recast. Additionally, Variety (subscription required) just announced last week that he had been cast in the CBS pilot Violent Crime.

3. Gator Gets Ride on School Bus
   Apparently a school bus in Florida stopped when the kids saw a four-foot alligator crossing the road. The bus driver, in her infinite wisdom after some coaxing from several 14-year-olds, decided that it would be no big deal to let the kids capture the alligator and bring it on the bus. You know, if that’s the kind of judgment that qualifies one to be a school bus driver, I think I’ve found President Bush’s true calling.

I swear, this is the final Omarosa post, but I just ran across this TV Guide Online interview, and … WOW! I sense some major inadequacy issues hidden behind her Amazon-like demeanor. She can’t stop repeating that she is “bright, intelligent (and) smart. She loves to talk about herself in the third person, and seems to have spent too much time watching Stuart Smalley and his morning affirmations. But right here is my favorite part:

TVGO: After watching the show, do you see why people might have a negative opinion of you?

Omarosa: Help me understand that… Have you once seen me raise my voice on the show? Have you ever seen me call a girl a bitch? Never once. Have you ever seen me physically attack any of those girls like they did me? Ever? Did you ever see any aggression from me whatsoever? When Ereka was jumping around in the airport waving her hands in my face, I stayed cool, calm and collected. So, no, I am a bit confused as to why I’m the villain when these women have physically attacked me, called my character into question, called me everything but a child of God. [Laughs] All they showed was me grimacing and frowning. You have to acknowledge editing… I will say one thing: [The Apprentice] is reality TV, but unfortunately it’s not my reality.