Brad Laner’s Eichler house
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Some of the artwork comes from Laner’s mother, Judy Koenig. She painted the triptych in the living room while getting her master’s degree at Cal State Northridge in the 1990s. Laner commissioned her to paint the geometric piece on the other wall.[From Brad Laner’s Eichler house in Granada Hills – latimes.com]
1. The Mystery of Picasso (1956) Renowned French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot follows his dear friend – Pablo Picasso – through the creation of twenty pieces, in a film that is a work of art within itself.
NEWTON, Massachusetts (CNN) — For Laura Geraghty, April 1, 2009, started out just as any other day. It was sunny but cool, she remembers.
[From Doctor says near-death experiences are in the mind – CNN.com]
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — The actions of a justice of the peace in Louisiana who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple have prompted some top officials, including Gov. Bobby Jindal, to call for his dismissal.
[From Governor calls for firing of justice in interracial marriage case – CNN.com]
As part of its Bearing Witness 2.0 project, the Huffington Post is rounding up a few of the best local stories of the day.
Mable Randon is suffering from the late stages of cancer. She’s bound by a wheel chair and only breathing with the help of an electrically-powered oxygen machine. Rucks Russell of KHOU in Houston reports that the local power company sent her a disconnection notice because of late bills. She applied to the Critical Customer Program, a payment plan seemingly tailor-made for people in Randon’s condition who depend on electric life support — but she was denied.
Her provider, Freedom Power, already had the most complaints of any energy company in Texas. The Texas Public Utilities Commission launched an investigation into Randon’s case on Wednesday, which will keep the power on for the time being. Texas-based Amegy Bank has set up a charity fund to help her keep her lights on.
KHOU also has a video.
******
Darla Tolliver and her husband, Jim, are just $28,000 away from owning their home after making payments since 2001, reports Claire Galofaro of the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia. But now, after Jim lost his job, they are three months behind on their mortgage, and fearing foreclosure. “It’s like you’re in quicksand, and the more you struggle and try to get out, the more you sink” remarked Darla. “My life is in that house…the thought of losing it is unbearable.”
******
Bessie Mae Berger, 97, is homeless. She lives with her two sons in a Chevrolet Suburban, reports Bob Pool of the Los Angeles Times. Her sons, Larry and Charlie Wilkerson, are both unemployed and get by on disability checks and food stamps. A damaged nerve and degenerative arthritis, respectively, forced them out of work years ago. They now panhandle for extra change — Berger holds a sign reading “I am 97 years old. Homeless. Broke. Need Help Please.” Because they insist on living together, they have been repeatedly denied government-subsidized housing, and are running into brick walls navigating government aid programs. “There’s a million empty homes here in California, but they can’t seem to find one we can live in,” said Larry. The Times also has an affecting audio slideshow, showing how the family lives in their own words.
[From Power Company Trying To Switch Off Cancer Patient’s Oxygen Machine]
Top 10 Creepiest Ghost Movies
12.10.09 # 9:48 # Top Ten # 19 Comments
It is fast approaching that unique portion of the year when all true matters arcane and diabolical are given the festive treatment, as Halloween prompts folks to deploy their broomsticks for something other than sweeping up after the household pet. Although we have recently seen cinematic quotas of the supernatural gobbled up by vampire and zombie flicks, it would be remiss to overlook the genuine chills instilled by the most successful exponents of the ghost movie genre. So here are ten of the scariest ghost movies to put the frighteners on us poor, trembling cinema-goers[From Top 10 Best Ghost Movies (Horror Movie List) – With Clips | Movie Moron]
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — President Obama will visit New Orleans on Thursday for the first time since taking office, to address rebuilding efforts in the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina four years ago.
President Obama will visit New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday to talk about rebuilding efforts.
During his trip, Obama will visit a charter school and host a town hall meeting to hear residents’ concerns, the White House said.
The president’s visit will focus on efforts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast, including cutting red tape and easing funding so residents can become self-sufficient.
“The president made a promise to come to New Orleans and wanted to fulfill that promise as soon as his schedule allowed,” said Nicholas Shapiro, White House spokesman.
Though this is Obama’s first trip there while in office, he has been to New Orleans five times since Katrina, Shapiro said.
[From Obama to make first visit to New Orleans as president – CNN.com]
BEAUTIFUL LOSER, TORTURED KILLER
How Two Veterans of the L.A. Punk Scene Wound Up on a Collision Course, Until Only One Was Left Standing[From Los Angeles Music – Beautiful Loser, Tortured Killer – page 1]
Most electronics industry analysis is obvious at best and misinformed at worst, but this one made us chuckle. Analyst firm Broadpoint AmTech has released a report that claims that, rather than diminish sales of OS X, Microsoft’s impending release of Windows 7 may actually help sell Macs. They cite the chart above, which seems to show a boost (especially after Vista) in Mac sales right after Microsoft releases a new OS version.
Now, even they admit they’re making connections here that probably aren’t there — there are tons of factors involved in both sales of Windows OSes and Mac computers (we’d just mention that Windows 7 seems to be getting fairly good reviews so far, and while no one would argue that Vista wasn’t a disaster, I’d argue that iPods and iPhones were much better “Mac sales helpers” after 2001 and 2007 than Windows would ever be), and there’s no real evidence here that Microsoft’s releases have any bearing at all on their competitors’ numbers.
But it is a nice thought for us Mac faithful to hang on to anyway — in the next few weeks, as Windows users vibe on their new and shiny and have their super fun release parties, we can know that if we just wait, Mac sale
Rachel Maddow first came on my radar in the spring of 2004, when she, along with Lizz Winstead and Chuck D of Public Enemy hosted an early morning radio show called Unfiltered on the newly minted Air America, an attempt to counter rightwing talk radio with liberal programming.
Radio has this ability to make the listener feel like they share a secret with the hosts and the few, hard-to-know listeners out there. I hoped people tuned in to listen to the hosts trade jokes and talk about politics and music, and mostly I wanted other people to learn about this Maddow character, who brought to every episode a dynamic mix of sparkling good humour, intelligent analysis and a broad view of what issues should matter.
Unfiltered didn’t make the first round of reshuffling at Air America, but Maddow hung in, hosting her own eponymous radio show and eventually moving to television, first as a guest pundit and now as a host of her own night time political talkshow on MSNBC.
Before it happened, most American liberals would have never imagined that Maddow could have her own programme on any cable network, much less the same network that had, just a few years before, tried to pull in a rightwing audience by giving hard right nut Michael Savage his own show (before pulling it after he told a gay caller to die from Aids).
It’s not just that Maddow is a liberal. After all, MSNBC had already given a spot to liberal commentator Keith Olbermann and his frequent, angry rants. It was mostly hard to imagine a cable news network rewarding a pundit for being sober-minded and nuanced in her analysis, as well as suspicion that homophobia would prevent it from promoting a lesbian who favours a more masculine way of dressing.
But 2008 was a year for re-arranging American expectations about who gets to have a voice in public. The Democratic candidate was not only black, but also overtly professorial, and this didn’t diminish his popularity with the public. Hillary Clinton and, yes, even Sarah Palin normalised the idea of more female authority in politics. In a very short period of time, the unthinkable became the reality, and Maddow had her very own MSNBC programme.
Maddow’s audience is still small, but she inspires devotion in her fans, because she doesn’t fit the tedious mould of most political talkshow hosts. Maddow openly identifies with the wild world of the liberal blogosphere, and even went so far as to wear pajamas on her show to cheekily demonstrate solidarity with bloggers after Palin denounced the netroots.
Like bloggers, Maddow knows that the key to building rapport with your audience isn’t making yourself into an aloof portrayal of authority, but to show your human side and sense of humour. To this end, Maddow lets her idiosyncrasies become known, such as her obsession with classic cocktails.
But what really endears her to American liberals is the way she takes her job and the authority it gives her seriously. Maddow is less interested in the shouting fests that dominate most cable news and instead favours in-depth interviews with experts who are permitted to show their expertise on air without being interrupted. Hers may be the only show on cable news were feminists come on air to speak their minds without being paired off with belligerent sexists who dominate the conversation by yelling over their points.
But Maddow isn’t opposed to fair-mindedness. She often brings on conservatives for the same kind of in-depth interviews, and even when she strongly disagrees, she always gives them a chance to air their views (and generally hang themselves with those views). Her show is the exact opposite of Bill O’Reilly’s show. Where he cuts people off for saying things he doesn’t like, Maddow digs in deeper.
She also gives far more coverage to issues other hosts avoid because they’re big downers. Maddow is the only reliable source of televised information on the growing problem of domestic terrorism in the US, and the only mainstream pundit to pay attention to the network of anti-abortion activists that quietly support the few that work up the courage to shoot doctors or bomb clinics. She doesn’t treat the rapid growth of the extreme right in America like it’s a joke or a minimal issue, as do other hosts, but as a serious threat to our democracy. In her transition to the mainstream media, the only thing Maddow seems to have given up is the thick-framed glasses she prefers to wear off-camera.
Unfortunately, the Maddow magic might not have much of a lifespan. During the US election, there was a hunger for televised liberal content, and no one does it better than Maddow. It seems that now, most liberals have turned off their TVs and returned to getting most information from the internet, and Maddow’s ratings have plummeted as a result.
Video clips of her shows are routinely traded on liberal blogs, but that doesn’t translate into ad revenue for MSNBC. Hopefully, the next round of US elections will push her ratings back up again, because we can’t afford to lose the sole voice of intellectual liberalism in the cable news desert.
[From Rachel Maddow, voice of America | Amanda Marcotte | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk ]
This really cool project allows a grand piano to “speak”. We don’t know any details about its construction but we had to share. The keys are being hit by solenoids in a manner to replicate human speech. Click through to the video, it’s worth it. You may have to allow the popup to see the video, and it is in german, but the piano is clearly speaking english. We want one to keep around the office. It could read our emails to us.
The Holy Mountain (1973): You and I are gonna live forever.
Your Friend says: “What did you do last night?”
You respond: “Got weird and watched The Holy Mountain.”
Yes, This will be exactly what you tell someone after watching this film. I’ll take a stab at explaining the plot. So, it’s about this Jesus look alike guy known as “the thief” who after falling into some bad luck is befriended by a limbless dwarf. (Please note: This character makes me very uncomfortable and sad). They’re paling around one day when they witness gold descend upon the city from a mystery tower. Being curious, the thief ventures inside the tower to find the gold’s origin. Once inside he finds a character known as the alchemist and his tattooed assistant. With their guidance the thief learns that he can turn his own shit into gold. Yes, they show this whole glorious process.
The rest of the film follows the thief, the alchemist and their seven companions (each companion representing an astrological planet) journey to gain the secret of immortality on a holy mountain. There is tons of insane imagery throughout this movie: some beautiful, some gnarly but all interesting. I have read that in preparation for the film the central cast members and the director took mushrooms and LSD and lived in a commune together. Method acting at it’s best! Tom Cruise, you should be taking notes. It is above all visually stunning work of artistic genius.
WARNING: This film contains scenes of animal cruelty.
[From Untitled]
21. The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
22. Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
23. Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.
24. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
25. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Daniel Suelo wasn’t poor, a victim of bad luck, mentally ill, or even uneducated. He just decided that he wanted to have nothing to do with money. So he gave up consumer culture altogether, and for the last 9 years, he’s survived by living in a cave in Utah, and dumpster diving, foraging, fishing, and occasionally hunting for food. He spends his time in the great outdoors–and in the public library, where he blogs about it all.
[From 48 Year-Old Blogger Has Gone 9 Years Without Spending Money | Environment | AlterNet]
All I can say is: the president gave a speech he could have given at any point in the last three years. No one in that room could disagree with any of the things he said. I sure don’t (with the exception of the hate crimes hooey). And he said it well and movingly. Like we didn’t know he could do that.
But the point of electing a president who pledged to actually do things is to hold him to account, and to see if he is willing to take any risk of any kind to actually do something. I had a few prior tests of his seriousness or signs that he gets it, a few ways to judge if this speech had anything new or specific or clear. He failed every test.
To wit:
He says he will end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell but he has done nothing, and he offered no time-line, no deadline for action and no verifiable record that he has done anything, despite his claims that he has.
He says he is ending the HIV ban, but it is still in force, a year and a half after it was signed by George W. Bush and passed by massive majorities in both houses.
He says he favors equality for gay couples but said nothing tonight to support the initiatives in Maine or in Washngton State or the struggle in Washington DC for marriage equality. That’s a test of real sincerity on this matter. He failed it.
He says he wants to end discrimination in employment even as he is firing more gay people solely for being gay than any other employer in the country – as commander-in-chief. And if an employer is firing gay people all the time, is it tolerable to accept as a response that he will stop doing it one day – but gives no time-line at all to hold him to?
Look: I didn’t expect these issues to be front and center given his appalling inheritance; I know he has many other things on his plate; I didn’t expect the moon; I didn’t believe he would do any of this immediately; I understand that the real job is for us to do, not him, and that most of the action is in the states. And I remain a strong supporter of him in foreign policy and in the way he is clearly trying to move this country past the ideological divides of the recent past.
But the sad truth is: he is refusing to take any responsibility for his clear refusal to fulfill clear campaign pledges on the core matter of civil rights and has given no substantive, verifiable pledges or deadlines by which he can be held accountable. What that means, I’m afraid, is that this speech was highfalutin bullshit. There were no meaningful commitments within a time certain, not even a commitment to fulfilling them in his first term; just meaningless, feel-good commitments that we have no way of holding him to. Once the dust settles, ask yourself. What did he promise to achieve in the next year? Or two years? Or four years? The answer is: nothing.
HRC, of course, is putting no pressure on him; Joe Solmonese’s disgraceful email actually took all pressure off him by saying he’d be happy to wait till 2017 for HRC to hold Obama accountable. HRC are putting pressure, as they always have, on gay people to go to the back of the line and be grateful a president attends their fundraising event. The only word for this is a racket. And if gay people do not rise up and demand change from this organization and stop funding a group whose goal has always been to sell the Democrats to gay people rather than secure civil rights, then they will continue to suffer the discrimination they live under day after day.
TEHRAN, Iran — Three defendants in Iran’s mass trial of opposition figures accused of fueling the country’s postelection unrest have been sentenced to death, an Iranian news agency reported Saturday.
Two of them were convicted of membership in a monarchist group seeking to topple Iran’s Islamic Republic and restore a monarchy, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported, quoting judiciary official Zahed Bashiri Rad.
The third defendant was convicted of having ties to a terrorist group for his alleged links to the People’s Mujahedeen, an armed opposition group, ISNA quoted Rad as saying.
[From Iran Sentences 3 To Death In Post-Election Mass Opposition Trial]
WASHINGTON—What would you say if you heard the U.S. Army has four video surveillance installations that are based on Apple’s OSX operating system, and use Apple servers? Or that a large government entity had just initiated an all-Apple installation?
The government doesn’t use Apple, does it?
Chris Gettings, CEO and president of VideoNEXT, a video management software manufacturer, is betting the government does, and it will. The VideoNEXT software is tuned for the Red Hat Linux and Apple operating environments, along with Windows, so that a user can go with both Red Hat’s operating system or Apple’s, in addition to Windows.
Gettings said Apple and Unix/Linux are attractive to government customers because of reliability and ease of use. “It just runs,” he said of the Apple platform. “You’re not going to have some of the memory-leak issues that seem to plague different versions of the Windows systems. And mission-critical customers appreciate that.” And while Red Hat is a Unix-like platform with its Linux, “with Apple they couple the Unix reliability with a world-class user interface. That’s the stumbling block on Red Hat. It’s a little bit complicated … The user interface for Apple is marvelous. It’s so easy to use and intuitive. It’s the hallmark of the platform.”
The environmental organization is singing hosannas and heysannas to the Cupertino-company for taking a green stand and resigning from the US Chamber of Commerce. Apple walked away from the organization on Monday over Chamber actions seen by Apple as opposing efforts to limit greenhouse gases.
Chamber President Thomas Donohue says his organization does want to see “legislation to address climate change,” though the Chamber is against current proposals that, he says, will “significantly raise energy prices, (and) throw more Americans out of work.”
[From Greenpeace praises Apple’s US Chamber of Commerce exit]
Apple’s iPhone gaining share like a bat out of hell
Friday, October 09, 2009 – 02:00 PM EDT
“The latest smart-phone numbers from Canalys show that Apple’s gaining share like a bat out of hell,” Henry Blodget reports for The Business Insider. “The company has gone from 2% global share to 14% share in a year.”Blodget reports, “RIM’s creeping higher worldwide–now 20%–but it’s losing share in the US. Nokia’s still dominant worldwide, but it’s slipping (44%). Everyone else is getting crushed.”
In the US, the market breaks down basically as follows:
• Research In Motion: 52% (down from 56% last year)
• Apple: 23% (up from 7%)
• Google: 2%
• Everyone Else: 23%Blodget reports, “Again, Apple’s gaining share astonishingly fast…from 7% to 23% in a year. Imagine what will happen when the company cuts loose from AT&T… Microsoft, meanwhile, is toast… Chris Jones, Canalys VP and principal analyst says, ‘The main loser has been Microsoft’s highly standardised Windows Mobile platform. Its smart phone market share has now fallen below 10% and the trend is likely to continue as many of its OEM partners, including HTC, Motorola and Palm, are focusing investment on other platforms.'”
[From MacDailyNews – Apple’s iPhone gaining share like a bat out of hell]
Dennis Miller and Bill O’Reilly had a discussion about cable news on “The O’Reilly Factor” Wednesday night to mark Fox News’ 13th birthday.
“Billy, I view it like a long piece of straightaway,” Miller said. “Like that road betwen Barstow and Vegas. Cable news is a long straightaway.”
MSNBC, Miller said, is in the left lane.
“On the left lane, MSNBC has gone completely over the shoulder, over the breastplate, over the hip, over the knee, over the bunion,” he said. “They are so far out there now that quite frankly Magellan and OnStar can’t locate them.”
Miller compared CNN to “that old faded yellow line down the middle of the road.”
“Periodically a rumble strip breaks out for the elections or the debates or something like that, but by and large, people know it, they’re familiar with it,” he said.
[From Dennis Miller Knocks Hannity, Beck On Fox News (VIDEO)]
Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kans.) told reporters on Wednesday that opposition to the president’s health care package was driven, in part, by knee-jerk partisanship and he urged Congressional Republicans to consider backing a version of reform.
The 1996 Republican presidential candidate also predicted, following a speech at a health care reform summit in Kansas, that “there will be a signing ceremony” for a reform bill sometime this year or early in 2010.
But the comments that seem likely to create the most ripples were those that dealt with Congressional opposition to the White House. Dole, according to reports, framed the pushback to Barack Obama’s reform agenda as almost perfunctory in nature.
[From Bob Dole: Health Care Will Pass, GOP Should Be Open To Reform]
Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men – when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.
Dean Gardener, 19, and Jason Fender, 22, singled out the two men walking along a street in wigs, short skirts and high heels.
Bare-chested Gardener was caught on CCTV confronting one of the men in a pink wig, black skirt and boob tube – then seen swinging a punch, a court heard.
[From Thugs attack two men in dresses… who turn out to be cage fighters | Mail Online]
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