Like a Morricone-style dirge recorded by The Mamas and The Papas, Violent Femmes’ cover of Gnarls Barkley’s infamous “Crazy” is like nothing you’ve heard from the legendary alt-rock trio before. Their oft-imitated folk-punk sound is flavored with surf-rock guitar and Theremin, creating a tranquility that is somber and otherworldly.
Chocolate Jesus sculpture returns to NYC - Yahoo! News
Topic: Arts
5:54 pm EDT, Oct 17, 2007
"My Sweet Lord," an anatomically correct milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ that infuriated Catholics before its April unveiling was canceled, returns Oct. 27 to a Chelsea art gallery, its creator said Tuesday.
TomDispatch - Tomgram: Elizabeth de la Vega, Indicting Bush
Topic: Arts
6:52 pm EST, Dec 1, 2006
The Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
16. Beginning on or about a date unknown, but no later than August of 2002, and continuing to the present, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the defendants,
GEORGE W. BUSH, RICHARD B. CHENEY, CONDOLEEZZA RICE, DONALD M. RUMSFELD, and COLIN M. POWELL,
and others known and unknown, did knowingly and intentionally conspire to defraud the United States by using deceit, craft, trickery, dishonest means, false and fraudulent representations, including ones made without a reasonable basis and with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity, and omitting to state material facts necessary to make their representations truthful, fair and accurate, while knowing and intending that their false and fraudulent representations would influence the public and the deliberations of Congress with regard to authorization of a preventive war against Iraq, thereby defeating, obstructing, impairing, and interfering with Congress' lawful functions of overseeing foreign affairs and making appropriations.
Arts? What? Well I haven't added "Books" as one of my things, so I put it in the closest category I could get. This one looks interesting, in the sense of the old curse, "may you live in interesting times."
Too bad this is just a book. This one could be really interesting to see played out for real.
Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck: Books: Hans Von Luck
Topic: Arts
3:26 pm EST, Nov 28, 2006
Von Luck fought in the Wehrmacht's armored forces for six years in Europe, Russia, and North Africa; then spent five years in a Russian labor camp. His narrative is as free from cant as it is from braggadocio and false modesty.
I just finished reading this. If you're a historian, this is an amazing read. Some of the things you sort of read and go what the hell? "We invaded Poland, and I stopped at this nice woman's house, had tea, then went next door and bought a watercolor painting..." That's not a quote, but that basically happened. Funny, bizarre, tragic and horrible all in turn or at the same time.
Willie Nelson cited for pot, narcotic mushrooms - Celebrity News - MSNBC.com
Topic: Arts
4:35 pm EDT, Sep 18, 2006
“When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the driver, he smelled the strong odor of marijuana,” the news release said. A search of the bus produced 1½ pounds of marijuana and 0.2 pounds of narcotic mushrooms, according to state police.
Willie Nelson and pot? Gee there's a surprise. Narcotic mushrooms? Now that's news to me, and to anyone else familiar with either the medical or legal terminology. Medically, narcotics refer only to opium, opium derivatives (like morphine and heroin) and their synthetically created chemical cousins. Legally, "narcotics" means those drugs plus cocaine and coca derivatives. Are we looking at psilocybin mushrooms which are a schedule 1 controlled substance? That's possible, but unless some botanist has been very busy, and with the opium poppy being a flower and mushrooms being a fungus maybe doing some groundbreaking genetics, there ain't no such thing as a "narcotic mushroom."
Hot damn! A good Bob Dylan song and Scarlett Johansson? Screw that bimbo Paris Hilton as the Marilyn Monroe of this generation. This one actually has talent.
'Fiasco,' by Thomas E. Ricks - The New York Times - New York Times
Topic: Arts
7:56 pm EDT, Jul 26, 2006
And an end-of-tour report by a colonel assigned to the Coalition Provisional Authority memorably summarized his office’s work as “pasting feathers together, hoping for a duck.”
Who says the military doesn't have a sense of humor? I may have to see if I can get my hands on a copy of this.
Kid Rock blames Scott Stapp for losing a sex video showing them with several strippers, but appreciates Stapp for one thing. "What perfect timing," Rock told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "I got a record coming up ... Maybe I should thank him."
Somehow I was sort of waiting for this one... LOL!
Hello Kitty and friends to star in global TV series - Yahoo! News
Topic: Arts
6:31 pm EST, Feb 20, 2006
"Hello Kitty, Stamp Village," a 26-part series on the adventures of the mouthless cat and her companions in a forest, will be completed this month and will air in Asia, Europe and North America, the Sanrio company said.
This will be like Survivor, except because Hello Kitty has no mouth, it will be a 26 episode hunger strike as we see her slowly waste away...
