I borrowed this book from my MIL the other day when we went down to see their new place: The Nine Parts of Desire. I couldn’t put it down while I was there, and it’s one of “those books.” You know the kind I mean – books you heard about a long time ago, wanted to read, but never got around to it. I like books where the writer has to become a part of a community in order to write about it and the people in it. That was why I liked Nickel and Dimed. I read the latter…
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HONOLULU – Hawaiian music is doing swimmingly with listeners, and now it’s is ready to catch the big one: the Grammy. The genre will have its own category for the first time next year if the National Academy of Arts & Sciences approves. Great news, long time coming. If you’ve ever wondered “who sings that great mix of Over the Rainbow and Wonderful World,” that’s “Iz” Kamikawiwo’ole, a Hawaiian artist who died a few years ago. I was so lucky to have gone to a live show at the Northwest Folklife Festival that featured some Hawaiian Slack Key Masters. I’m…
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Despite ongoing financial woes, Air America Radio appears to have garnered a significant audience during its first month on the air, particularly among the younger listeners sought by advertisers. An analysis of recently released figures from Arbitron, the radio ratings service, showed that in New York Air America beat Rush Limbaugh’s station among 25-to-54-year-olds during the period that Limbaugh and Al Franken, the host of the flagship show “The O’Franken Factor,” go head-to-head. AAR did a lot better in the ratings than expected. That’s one in the eye for all the conservablather I’ve seen in recent news articles and columns…
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I was thinking the other day about the entertainment industry – as in why do we have one, for instance. Why do we pay $11 to see movies – is it the witty banter, glamourous settings and costumes, thrilling plots? No, for the most part, it’s because we like to see stuff blowin’ up: But according to Richard Ouzounian, who runs the Youngstown Warren Film Commission, the town is a virtual film set waiting to happen. It has an airport, complete with a new terminal and 9,000-foot runway, which handles only four flights a week. It has a 2,016-bed prison…
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We bought a lot of books in Mesa Verde National Park, partly because there’s not much to do after nightfall, and partly because the ruins are so interesting that you feel compelled to learn as much as you can about them. It’s a strange park, Mesa Verde; it’s the only one in the National Park Service that’s organized around ruins rather than natural scenery. At first glance from your “hotel” (translation: motel) room at Farview Lodge there’s just a long expanse down the mesa toward the canyons, and on a clear day you can see Shiprock, 65 miles away. The…
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Okay, this was funny. Not only did the Onion spoof science fiction fan conventioneers, they used Farscape as the example, and they spelled the character names right (and got the episode titles and numbers right, too) BURBANK, CA—Paulette Osley, 24, a moderately attractive fan of the Sci-Fi Channel series Farscape, had her self-image inflated to dangerous levels during the three-day ScaperCon 2004, according to Pepperdine University professor of psychology Wes Martin. It’s not real, of course – there’s not a Scapercon 2004 this year. But it’s affectionate. Gotta give the Onion props.
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I’ve been hearing about Terry Gross’ interview with Bill O’Reilly for months and months, and now Boing Boing reports that O’Reilly may be trying to bury the interview. A lot of the interview concerned Al Franken’s book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, which satirized O’Reilly and other neoconservatives. The link from the Fresh Aire site includes a swaggering, bullying clip from O’Reilly’s show the next day.
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CBS has finally put a teaser page up for
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The Highland Park couple that founded the precursor to Air America Radio before selling most of it to a group of investors are in negotiations to gain control of the troubled liberal talk network, sources said Thursday. Sources familiar with the negotiations said Sheldon and Anita Drobny want to buy–with the aid of at least one major new investor–a majority stake in the company. I wasn’t able to listen to AAR much on the trip, and now it’s the weekend so I have to wait until Monday to hear “Majority Report.”
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In the latest development in what has become a chaotic inaugural month, Air America Radio is losing two of its top executives, including the network’s co-founder. Mark Walsh, the former AOL executive and Democratic National Committee operative who announced the network’s launch to much fanfare five months ago, said Monday that he has stepped down as chief executive officer. Separately, the network confirmed that Dave Logan, Air America’s vice president for operations and programming, has been replaced. I’d describe myself as a loyal Air America listener. I try to listen to some of it daily, because I’m in late-stage early…