In Memoriam

Civil rights icon Coretta Scott King dies at 78




Nam June Paik, 73, Dies; Pioneer of Video Art Whose Work Broke Cultural Barriers

Having Some Fun with Fluckr

via Brian at CheapBlueGuitar



Here's the link if it ain't embedded in the above: Spell with flickr.

More Culture Than a Cup of Yogurt!

Well, the official web page for the 2006 Wingspan Film Fest, of which I was part of the screening committee, officially went online the other day. The list of films (more details on the page linked here) are:

* 100 Percent Woman
* 20 Centimeters
* Both
* Boy Wonder
* Brian and Lazzio
* Brooklyn's Bridge to Jordan
* Cairo Calling
* Call Me Malcolm
* Coming Out at Work is Hard to Do
* Damage
* Dani & Alice
* Don't Tell, Don't Ask
* El Favor
* eXposed
* Gay Volleyball Saved My Life
* Girl Named Kai, A
* Gloriously Free
* Hitch Cock
* In My Shoes: Stories of Youth with LGBT Families
* Inclinations
* Liselda's Birthday
* Mexican Refugee (Mexicano Refugiado)
* Mom
* Moustache
* OpenCam
* Original Pride: The Satyrs Motorcycle Club
* Overdue Conversation
* Placebo
* Prom Night
* Proteus Point
* Queer Mexicana
* Reception, The
* Rosario Miranda
* Search for Her
* Standing Up
* Straight Acting
* Such Great Joy
* Tomboys! Feisty Girls & Spirited Women
* Whatever It Takes
* Who's the Top?

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In sad news, Playwright Wendy Wasserstein dies at 55.

Bite My Shiny Metal Ass!

Thanks to Nala, I found out that there'll be 4 "Futurama" direct-to-dvd films starting production this July! Can't wait to see those whenever they make it to the stores or maybe the Cartoon Channel.

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As for my classes - I. HATE. Typing. And it's only the second week of the semester. I've got a LOT of work ahead of me this time 'round. Much reading a writing up chapter reviews and various and assorted assignments. Well, at least it'll give my typing abilities a chance to improve!

I hope my medical insurance and billing class on Wednesday nights improves. It's 2.5 hours long but at least an hour of it so far has been dedicated to the teacher doing something other than standing in front of the class and teaching. Instead, it's her doing administrative minutia that could've potentially be done already. Oh, well. I hope it improves. I like her and she's very knowledgable but the class could be handled better.

The other two classes are self-paced and both have the same teacher who knows me already from previous semesters so we already have a decent enough rapoire. At least I don't have to prove myself with her.

Stuff

Spring semester kicked in this past week so I've been slowly making progress in dealing with my feeling of NOT wanting to deal with school again so soon. I WANT TO STILL BE ON VACATION!!!

Luckily, two of my classes are self-paced so I can go in and do the work I need to do in lab when I want to, within the lab's hours. Alas, my medical insurance class is a traditional class time. Unfortunately, it's on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9pm (PS to anyone thinking of robbing at that time - I got an alarm system tied into the police dept. so don't even think of showing up!) which means that I'll be missing "Lost". ::LeSigh:: And me with a dead vcr and no Tivo. Oh, well! There's summer reruns!

I feel bad about posting this knowing what Scott is going through right now but my mom got back her semi-annual cancer check report a couple of days ago and nothing was found. (It'll be 3 years this March when it was first discovered and had her lumpectomy and chemo.) So, we're all happy.

On more Shelley Winters news, it seems she got married 10 hours before she died! Her daughter was NOT amused.

A Couple of Great Sunset Shots!

solar fire over South Tucson
Originally uploaded by IntangibleArts.

musk at dusk
Originally uploaded by IntangibleArts.

These two shots were done by Intangble Arts over on flickr.com who was kind and gracious enough to let a total stranger post her work (you can head over to check out the rest of her work there via the links above.)

They were taken last December 30th on "A" Mountain (due to it's big-assed "A" made of stones on it for the University here. It's original name is Sentinel Peak) which is just west of downtown TooStoned.

The sunsets are a major draw for the area and for most of Arizona and I like to show them off when I can.

A Bit of an E.deH. Milestone

A couple of hours ago, someone from Columbus, OH became visitor 33333 here at Casa de CyberClutter.

Whomever it was did a Yahoo search of "hugh jackman staked out" and got an eyeful of a supposed Mr. Jackman staked and au natural to the desert floor (as it turns out, it seems to be some actor in a 70's gay porn flick).

I hope whomeever it was enjoyed the view!

God Bless You, Mrs. Rosen

Oscar Winner Shelley Winters Dies at 85


By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 14, 5:38 PM ET

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -
Shelley Winters, the forceful, outspoken star who graduated from blond bombshell parts to dramas, winning
Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue," has died. She was 85.

Winters died of heart failure early Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.

The actress sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself. Starting as a nightclub chorus girl, advanced to supporting roles in New York plays, then became famous as a Hollywood sexpot.

A devotee of the Actors Studio, she switched to serious roles as she matured. Her
Oscars were for her portrayal of mothers. Still working well into her 70s, she had a recurring role as Roseanne's grandmother on the 1990s TV show "Roseanne."

"Shelley was idol of mine — and many — an extraordinary woman with powerful charisma, enormous talent and a keen, perceptive mind," said longtime friend and actress
Connie Stevens.

In 1959's "The Diary of Anne Frank," she was Petronella Van Daan, mother of Peter Van Daan and one of eight real-life Jewish refugees in World War II Holland who hid for more than a year in cramped quarters until they were betrayed and sent to Nazi death camps. The socially conscious Winters donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

In 1965's "Patch of Blue," she portrayed a hateful, foul-mouthed mother who tries to keep her blind daughter, who is white, apart from the kind black man who has befriended her.

Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favored guest on television talk shows, and she demonstrated her frankness in two autobiographies: "Shelley, Also Known as Shirley" (1980) and "Shelley II: The Middle of My Century" (1989).

Winters wrote openly in them of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. She also said after she came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s she was roommates with another rising starlet — Marilyn Monroe.

"I've had it all," she exulted after her first book became a best seller. "I'm excited about the literary aspects of my career. My concentration is there now."

Typically Winters, she also had a complaint about her literary fame: While reviewers treated her book as a serious human document, she said, talk show hosts Phil Donohue and Johnny Carson "only want to know about my love affairs."

Winters, whose given name was Shirley Schrift, was appearing in the Broadway hit "Rosalinda" when Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn offered her a screen test. A Columbia contact and a new name — Shelley Winters — followed, but all the good roles at the studio were going to Jean Arthur in those days.

Winters' early films included such light fare as "Knickerbocker Holiday," "Sailor's Holiday," "Cover Girl," "Tonight and Every Night" and "Red River."

When her contract ended, Winters returned to New York as Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!"

She would soon be called back and signed to a seven-year contract at Universal, where she was transformed into a blonde bombshell. She vamped her way through a number of potboilers for the studio, including "South Sea Sinner," with Liberace as her dance-hall pianist, and "Frenchie," as wild saloon owner Frenchie Fontaine, out to avenge her father's murder.

The only hint of her future as an actress came in 1948's "A Double Life" as a trashy waitress strangled by a Shakespearian actor, Ronald Colman. The role won Colman an Oscar.

"A Place in the Sun" in 1951 brought her first Oscar nomination and established her as a serious actress. She desperately sought the role of the pregnant factory girl drowned by Montgomery Clift so he could marry
Elizabeth Taylor. The director, George Stevens, rejected her at first for being too sexy.

"So I scrubbed off all my makeup, pulled my hair back and sat next to him at the Hollywood Athletic Club without his even recognizing me because I looked so plain. That got me the part," she recalled in a 1962 interview.

Winters received her final Oscar nomination, for 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure," in which she was one of a handful of passengers scrambling desperately to survive aboard an ocean liner turned upside down by a tidal wave. By then she had put on a good deal of weight, and following a scene in which her character must swim frantically she charmed audiences with the line: "In the water I'm a very skinny lady."

Although she was in demand as a character actress, Winters continued to study her craft. She attended Charles Laughton's Shakespeare classes and worked at the Actors Studio, both as student and teacher. She appeared on Broadway as the distraught wife of a drug addict in "A Hatful of Rain" and as the Marx Brothers' mother in "Minnie's Boys."

Among her other notable films: "Night of the Hunter," "Executive Suite," "I Am a Camera," "The Big Knife," "Odds Against Tomorrow," "The Young Savages," "Lolita," "The Chapman Report," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "A House Is Not a Home," "Alfie," "Harper," "Pete's Dragon," "Stepping Out" and "Over the Brooklyn Bridge."

During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics and feminist causes kept her name before the public. She delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything.

Robert Mitchum once told her: "Shelley, arguing with you is like trying to hold a conversation with a swarm of bumblebees."

The revelations in her autobiographies provided endless material for interviewers and gossip writers. She wrote of an enchanted evening when she and Burt Lancaster attended "South Pacific" in New York, dined elegantly, then retired to his hotel room.

"This chance meeting proved to be the beginning of a long but painful romance," she wrote. "Despite the immediate and powerful chemistry between us, the love and the friendship, some wise part of me knew that he would never abandon his children while they were young and needed him."

She also told of a dalliance with William Holden after a studio Christmas party. In a glamorous, real-life version of the play "Same Time, Next Year," they continued their annual Yuletide rendezvous for seven years.

She wrote that despite their intimacy, they continued to refer to each other as "Mr. Holden" and "Miss Winters," and when they met on the set of the 1981 film "S.O.B." she said, "Hello, Mr. Holden." He smiled and replied, "Shelley, after your book, I think you should call me Bill."

Shirley Schrift was born on Aug. 18, 1920, and grew up New York, where she appeared in high school plays.

"My childhood is a blur of memories," she wrote in the first of her autobiographies. "Money was so scarce in my family that at the age of 9 I was selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door.

"It was during this stage of my life that I developed a whole fantasy world; reality was too unbearable. Every chance I got, I was at the movies. I adored them."

Working as a chorus girl and garment district model helped finance her drama studies. She gained practical training by appearing in plays and musicals on the summer Borscht Circuit in the Catskill mountains.

During the Detroit run of a musical revue, she married businessman Paul "Mack" Mayer on Jan. 1, 1942. He entered the Army Air Corps, and after the war, the pair found they had little in common. They divorced in 1948.

Winters' second and third marriages were brief and tempestuous: to Vittorio Gassman (1952-1954) and Anthony Franciosa (1957-1960). The combination of a Jewish Brooklynite and Italian actors seemed destined to produce fireworks, and both unions resulted in headlines.

A daughter, Vittoria, resulted from the marriage to Gassman. She became a successful physician.

End of An Era

Just read over on Gawker that the Second Ave. Deli in New York has shut down. Here's the article on the NYTimes.

I remember going there many a-time after going to visit my maternal grandmother who lived about 3 blocks west of there. Wonderful deli food (Something nearly impossible to find out in the desert southwest).

But the Name Sounds Like a Gay Porn Magazine!

A new food-related toy I discovered via Chefxh!:




Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker (Blue Ball). I'll let the blurb from Amazon do the discription:

"Product Description:
The fun and easy way to make homemade ice cream! Add cream, sugar and ice to 20 minutes of fun, and you have the recipe for one pint of ice cream! Simply load ice and rock salt in one end, and ice cream ingredients in the other end. Play with the ball, rolling it around for 20 minutes and, voila, you've made a pint of delicious ice cream! Fun design will delight kids and adults alike--great for camping, picnics, backyard parties, a day at the beach, boating, etc"

Stuff

Got the cd for my mom out in yesterday's mail. I landed up adding to the list:

Stormy Weather - Lena Horne (for the hurricanes they've gone through)
Woman Be Wise - Sippie Wallace (with Bonnie Raitt)
Going to New York - Elaine Stitch
Nice Work If You Can Get It - Sarah Vaughan
These Foolish Things - Ella Fitzgerald

Thanx for the recommendations, everyone! Part of my decision was what I wanted for my own iPod (Izzy). I realized how much I love Vaughan's voice!

I'm thinking of making another cd for my parents' 57th anniversary which is coming up at the end of next month and adding Diana Krall, Diane Schuur, etc. is in the mix.

I spoke with her this evening and the suprize party my sister threw for her went quite well! She caught on that something was happening party-wise but didn't know the extent my sister and her partner went through. A dvd of the slide show and some interviews done the night of the party will be sent to me later.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

For those Bunny Re-Enactment Movie Troupe fans out there, I just discovered they've done two more:

A Christmas Story and Star Wars Part IV (the one that came out in 77).

Decisions, Decisions

I'm in the process of pulling a songlist together on iTunes so I can burn a cd for my mother's 80th birthday. She goes for jazz especially in the vocalist area (cabaret/lounge area kinda thing).

So far, I have:
Ella Fitzgerald - How Long Has This Been Going On?
Sarah Vaughan - Embraceable You
Karen Akers - I Am Not Afraid
Ute Lemper - La Vie En Rose
Bobby Short - At Long Last Love
- Way Out West on West End Ave [Since we used to live on WEA in NYC -Lee]
- Broadway
Queen Latifah - Lush Life [Best cover of this song I've heard - Lee]
Nancy Wilson - Here's That Rainy Day
Dinah Washington - What a Difference a Day Makes
- Unforgettable

That's it so far but it's only 11 songs, 39.3 mins., and 39.8 mgs. and I'd like a few more songs to fill it out to fit an 80 minute cd. Any recommendations? Thanx!

Obviously, It WASN'T Me Who Just Took This Quiz!

Your Social Dysfunction: Normal Being average in terms of how social you are, as well as the amount of self-esteem you have, you're pretty much normal. Good on you.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

via Nala.

And Pat Robertson Continues to Prove His Idiocy

Robertson blamed Sharon stroke on policy of "dividing God's land"

Summary: Pat Robertson suggested that Ariel Sharon's stroke occurred because he was "dividing God's land."

On the January 5 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's (CBN) The 700 Club, host Pat Robertson suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent stroke was the result of Sharon's policy, which he claimed is "dividing God's land." Robertson admonished: "I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU [European Union], the United Nations, or United States of America." Although Robertson professed that "Sharon was personally a very likeable person," he nonetheless declared that "God has enmity against those who, quote, 'divide my land.' " Robertson called the 1995 assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin "the same thing." A previous CBN news article, titled "Dividing the Land, Dishonoring God's Covenant," examined Sharon's decision to return control of the Gaza strip to the Palestinian Authority.

Robertson's comment was first reported by JTA, an international news service that covers "issues of concern to the Jewish people," and Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo weblog, which links to the JTA website.

From the January 5 edition of CBN's The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: I have said last year that Israel was entering into the most dangerous period of its entire existence as a nation. That is intensifying this year with the loss of Sharon. Sharon was personally a very likeable person. I am sad to see him in this condition. But I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who, quote, "divide my land." God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible, he says, "This is my land." And for any prime minister of Israel who decides he going carve it up and give it away, God says, "No. This is mine." And the same thing -- I had a wonderful meeting with Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. He was tragically assassinated, and it was terrible thing that happened, but nevertheless, he was dead. And now Ariel Sharon, who was again a very likeable person, a delightful person to be with. I prayed with him personally. But here he is at the point of death. He was dividing God's land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations or United States of America. God said, "This land belongs to me, you better leave it alone."

—S.G.

Oh Goody!

The job of hosting the 78th Academy Awards will go to Jon Stewart, the Emmy-winning writer-host of "The Daily Show"! Can't wait to see how he does the job!

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Today's my dad's 83rd birthday. Happy birthday, Dad! (Although, I know he'll never see that since he's never turned on a computer, let alone worked one) I left a message on the 'rents answering machine but haven't heard back. I know they went out to dinner to a nice Italian restaurant.

My mom's 80th birthday is in 5 days.

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Ugh! Friggin' stye on my lower left eyelid....hate 'em!

Discovered the other day that I have call waiting! I had no idea! I do NOT remember ever ordering it and I've never paid for it so thank you, Qwest!