jim jarmusch has a new film coming out!

Jim Jarmusch Keeps Making Movies in a Special Way: Independently

.............Meeting filmmaker Jim Jarmusch recently in the back room of
Emilio's Ballato, an off-the-beaten-track Italian joint on New York's Houston
Street, feels like walking into a Jarmusch film. The 52-year-old director has,
throughout his career, developed his own indelible universe of hipster cool -- a
universe replete with neighborhood hangouts such as Ballato's, where you pass
through the hot kitchen, with its caldron of bubbling meat sauce, to get to the
white-walled back room............

i love his films! my favorite, so far, has been Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai featuring the GREAT forest whitaker. i love the offbeat characters. i love the dialogs. i love the humor and the poignancy. i love the NO car chases. i love that he doesn't bend to hollywood. i love that you sit there and think (while watching his work), i would actually like to MEET some of these characters.

people you should know

i love david and amy sedaris! in case you don't know them, he is a writer and ex-pat now living in france and she is an actress/performer living in nyc. they both appear on letterman with some frequency. they are brother and sister. i'd LOVE to have coffee with either or both of them. he speaks with a bit of a lisp and that endures him all the more to me. she dresses in tulle petticoats and makes things for bake sales and that endears her all the more to me.

it's times like this that makes me dread being an insomniac the most

from abc news

Former
Polygamous Sect Member Confronts Past
July 28, 2005 -- As a member of an
isolated polygamous sect in Arizona, Laurene Jessop says she was sexually abused
by her father, who had four wives and 56 children, and mistreated by her
husband, who was already married to Laurene's sister............

........Young girls are destined to be married off in their teen years
to older men, who keep several wives. The girls are expected to bear many
children and obey the sect's strict patriarchal rules. The FLDS split from the
mainstream Mormon church in 1890 when it disavowed polygamy.....

as if that wasn't bad enough. they had this woman's father on, interviewed him. the part i watched (i had to turn it off, it made me sick, literally) spun my head around. i couldn't believe what i was hearing. he compared his daughters to farm animals. he saw nothing wrong in touching them any way he wanted.

Quiñones spoke to Jack Cooke about his daughter's pain. At the time, the
76-year-old had not seen his daughter for 22 years, but talked to Quiñones
knowing she was in a nearby room, listening in.
He said at the time he
didn't view his fondling of his daughters as abuse. It wasn't sexual, he said,
claiming it was "on the same premise as our religion." ......

"I had the
idea that I was the big boss," he said. "I believed those children were mine."
He compared his position to a farmer with his animals. But he also said
"every intimacy which I had with them, they understood perfectly that if I did
anything they didn't like, to tell me and I would not do it."
Laurene denies
this. She says he told his daughters they "weren't normal if we didn't like it.
And, that all men do that to their daughters.".......

ok, i didn't watch the whole report, i couldn't but i don't believe this man (the father at least) is in jail. aren't incest and pedophilia crimes where there is no time limit? why are some people allowed to procreate?

be strong laurene, we have your back now

exciting news

(keillor)

my favorite american director, robert altman is now working on his latest movie, a prairie home companion. i can't wait. not only do i love altman, but i love keillor too. any one who puts jean redpath on their show is definately on my christmas card list!

(jean)

this brings back memories of brewster mccloud, i LOVE bud cort

mash, mccabe and mrs miller (chilling), nashville (get the soundtrack if only for ronee blakely's songs)

does the right really need ANOTHER advocate?

John G. Roberts, a young lawyer in the Justice Department in 1981 and 1982 and
on the White House counsel's staff from 1982 to 1986, held positions too junior
for him to set policy in those days...............

But his internal
memorandums, some of which have become public in recent days, reveal a
philosophy every bit as conservative as that of the policy makers on the front
lines of the Reagan revolution and give more definition to his image than was
apparent in the first days after President Bush picked him to be an associate
justice of the Supreme Court.
On almost every issue .............

He
favored less government enforcement of civil rights laws rather
than more. He criticized court decisions that required a thick wall
between church and state. He took the side of prosecutors over criminal
defendants. He maintained that the role of the courts should be limited and the
president's powers enhanced..........

psssssssstttttttttt, hey baby, there IS a separation between church and state.

In 1981, he urged Attorney General William French Smith to reject Mr. Reynolds's
position that the department should intervene on behalf of female prisoners who
were discriminated against in a job-training program. If male and female
prisoners had to be treated equally, Mr. Roberts argued, "the end
result in this time of state prison budgets may be no programs for
anyone." read the whole
article here, it's too depressing for me to go on any further

well why SHOULD women be treated equally? we're only good for birthin' babies and the like.

now THIS takes the cake

you have GOT to be kidding me granny. take a chill pill, yank the game away from your FOURTEEN YEAR OLD GRANDSON (before it was discovered the game contained hidden adult content, it was STILL recommended for people 17 and over)

........When the wildly popular video game was released in October, it was
rated "M" — which meant it was for mature players 17 and older.

A city granny who bought her grandson a video game that promises murder and
mayhem in a city of "gang trouble, drugs and corruption" says she was shocked to
hear it contains sex, too..................... SEX-SHOCKED GRANNY SUES
'GRAND THEFT'

to determine whether anyone broke laws? (what the heck is 'to determine'? they DID

The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range
of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to
determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to
discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify
the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case

Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy
director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department
officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the
street...................

Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net

'even a stranger'? nothing and i mean nothing is stranger than rove and novak still running around free. where are the swift boat veterans now? yeah rove didn't comand a boat in vietnam but he STILL committed at the very least a horrible mistake and at the very most (and i think it leans toward the very most part) treason. where are all the people screaming for justice? i can't hear YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

i don't understand

(a helpful tip, we all don't look like this)

why are people so afraid of allowing gay and lesbian citizens to have the same rights as non gay and lesbian citizens? no one is pushing this lifestyle on anyone else. hell, i know no one chooses to be gay. why would they? it's so very hard to live in this country if you're queer and admit it.

methinks those that doth protest too much have something hiding in their closets.



from the nyt:

AUGUSTA, Me. - After saying no twice before, voters in Maine may be going
to the polls again to decide whether to add sexual orientation to the
state's
human rights act, which prohibits discrimination based on age,
sex,
race, color,
marital status, religion, ancestry or national
origin.
...............

"We just felt
like we
had to stop it," said Paul Madore, head of the
Grassroots
Coalition, a
conservative group that, with the Christian Civic League
of
Maine, organized
the petition drive. "This is a bad law. It uses the weight
of the legal
system to force an acceptance of a lifestyle that the
majority of
people
have a strong objection to..........

Maine May Consider, for a Third Time, a Gay Bias Question

stop it????????????? paul, i'll bet you a cup of coffee you cannot
prove a gay or lesbian person has caused you or your family any harm based on
their GAYNESS alone. i'll carry the bet over into the future too, i'll bet they
will NOT cause you any harm either. even if they marry among themselves and
adopt children and join the pta and go to their chosen place of worship or
grocery shop or watch a school recital or have their car detailed or have their
teeth cleaned or on and on and on. oh wait, that makes 'them' sound normal!
duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 'they' ARE normal

plagues locusts hunger HELP PLEASE

Niger is the example of a neglected emergency, where early warnings went unheeded
-Jan Egeland

sadly the famine in niger has been overlooked.
bbc news

the time line

NEW YORK (July 12, 2005) — According to recent nutrition surveys by the United Nations and some non-governmental agencies, acute malnutrition rates have risen to 13.4 percent in southern Niger's Maradi and Zinder Regions. A food shortage is impacting some 3.3 million people — including 800,000 children under age five-in some 3,815 villages.....
unicef

and from nightline
.............The United Nations first appealed for help for Niger in November and got almost no response. A March appeal for $16 million generated about $1 million. A May 25 plea for $30.7 million has resulted in only $7.6 million about 25 percent of the amount requested, U.N. officials say.

won't they EVER learn?

time after time after time, our armed forces decide to 'train' forces in other countries (outwardly at times, covertly at other times) with some sort of notion it will help the us somewhere along the line. time after time after time, it backfires and bites us in the azz (look at south and central america and iran contra for example).

N'DJAMENA, Chad - The U.S. military is embarking on a long-term push into
Africa to counter what it considers growing inroads of al Qaeda and other
terrorist networks in poor, lawless and predominantly Muslim expanses of the
continent............

The Pentagon plans to train thousands of African troops in battalions equipped for extended desert and border operations, and to link the militaries of different countries with secure satellite communications. The initiative, with proposed funding of $500 million over seven years, covers Algeria, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco and Tunisia -- with the U.S. military eager to add Libya if relations improve...............http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8705654/

500 million???????????? why the hell don't we use that money to help those nations farm. turn those swords into plowshares, huh? why why why why why. it will hurt us less (or even themselves) if they turn on us (inevitable) and attack us with guavas instead of guns

i just HAD to.........

(ny parade above)

NEW BRITAIN -- Kielbasa is about to get its 15 minutes....

"I called a friend out in Connecticut and asked her if she had any ideas for
food unique to Connecticut. She said, `Well, I'm cooking kielbasa tonight,'"
said Correll, who grew up in Middlebury and remembered eating kielbasa from New
Britain regularly as a youth. "That's when it hit me, that kielbasa is a staple
in many Connecticut households, Polish or not. I haven't had kielbasa in the
years since I moved out to L.A. You can find it outside of Connecticut but not
unless you seek it out."....

(worlds largest you know what)

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-nebkielbasa0725.artjul25,0,6020338.story?track=mostemailedlink

i am vegan BUT my mother was polish (father italian). they met at the polish home one weekend. that was THE place to meet and dance and eat (or so i'm told). they married at sts cyril and methodius (the polish church next door) and had their reception at, you guessed it, the polish home! they were married 52 years. my father was a saint himself for sticking it out. when i was a child i was made to attend the pulaski day parade. i don't believe they have it here any longer. i'm certain they do in chicago though. i even think school lets out for the day.

wow, i just checked and they have an annual parade in ny too. http://www.pulaskiparade.com/english.html

http://www.apacouncil.org/state/ct/index.php

http://www.johnjeski.com/preston.htm

my city ranks as the 11th cleanest city in the nation

apparently they have never been down park street, capital avenue, farmington avenue, sisson avenue and on and on and on. don't get me wrong, i LOVE my city, it's not that clean though.

HARTFORD -- A national magazine ranks Hartford as one of the cleanest cities in
the United States.......http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=3637316

now i can finally sleep easy!

AMMAN, Jordan -- On his first visit to the Middle East,
Ricky Martin declared he will try to change negative perceptions of Arab youth
in the West.
"I promise I will become a spokesperson, if you allow me to, a
spokesperson on your behalf. I will defend you and try to get rid of any
stereotypes," the 33-year-old singer told youngsters from 16 mainly Arab
countries at a youth conference on Monday....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/25/AR2005072500358.html


he IS kidding right? hey ricky, what's up with that do (and come to think of it, the matching shirts?????????????)

i love skippy and his friends

i found this great site today (thanks to my favorite blog, skippy the bush kangaroo) http://xnerg.blogspot.com/ (who found it via talk left: http://talkleft.com/new_archives/011627.html )

it's the rove clock! (wonderful)

http://democrats.senate.gov/leak.html

i learned a new word today: leucistic

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/19/rare.gator.ap/index.html

r.i.p. long john

january 12, 1941 - july 21, 2005

sounds like semantics to me

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory.........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR2005072401201.html?referrer=email

no memory from 1997-1998? if this is true (and of course it isn't, but let's just SAY it was) do we really want someone on the supreme court who cannot remember what organizations they belong/belonged to a few years back?

summertime tomato sauce recipe

a friend of mine (thank you dearest cochon) who lived in italy for a while shared his recipe for no-cook summertime tomato sauce. here is my version of his recipe: several fresh tomatoes
a handful of fresh basil
2 tablespoons (give or take) of olive oil (only use the finest quality of course)
4 tablespoons (give or take) of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
garlic, sliced thinly
onions chopped fine
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar (if you wish)if you like you may add others spices and red pepper flakes and chopped imported black olives.
wash tomatoes and basil (that goes without saying). smush tomatoes with your HANDS in a non-metalic bowl. glass or pottery works very well. tear basil and place in bowl. add the olive oil, onions, vinegar and other ingredients. stir and cover. let rest in a cool place or your refrigerator for a few hours. may be served over pasta OR over grilled (with olive oil) hearty peasant-type bread.

shoot to kill????

sadly, the man killed by british police the other day had NO connections to any terrorists or terrorist organizations. he was a brazilian legally residing in england and on his way to work.

Of the fast-unfolding developments, the most overwhelming for many Londoners, was the police admission that an apparently innocent man had been gunned down in full public view - a killing that left the city even more rattled after a wave of attacks, alarms, scares and shootings that, in a brief three weeks has propelled London from the euphoria of the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park to a sense of embattled siege.
"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets," a police statement said, noting that the police had started a formal inquiry. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/international/24london.html?ei=5094&en=133e85131d3ecaea&hp=&ex=1122264000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1122213997-tgRYbtTpYKpS1oaK5gIU7A