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Katherine Olson's memorial service is on-going now. Katherine was a bright light of hope who still had much to give. We are strugging to cope with the news of her senseless death. We extend our condolences to the Olson family in this difficult time.
First fires, now an earthquake. Okay, no biggie by California standards -- only 5.6 First there was a jolt, then the floor gently undulated like sea kelp. Chandeliers swayed overhead.
Did Californians duck under desks? No, they twittered first, then ran for cover. Or they twittered from underneath their dining room tables. Or from the Arby’s in Gilroy.
News of the quake broke instantly and first on Twitter, apparently.
Mad Dog In The Fog tracked the Twitter traffic and he compiled hundreds, maybe thousands, of tweets (or messages).
I received a tearful call from my daughter this evening. She phoned to say that the body of her good friend, Katherine Olson, was discovered in the trunk of a car. Katherine was murdered after answering a babysitting ad on Craigslist.
Katherine and my daughter shared many adventures together while attending the same junior-year abroad program in Buenos Aires. After graduation, they stayed in touch, chatting frequently on-line via g-chat (Google chat).
In the 2006 film Man of the Year, Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), a Bill Maher/Jon Stewart-ish late-night talk show host, runs for president on a lark. After a rousing performance in the last debate of the campaign, Dobbs wins.
A Rasmussen Report national telephone survey has found that Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s mock right-wing pundit, is climbing in the presidential polls.
"Colbert is preferred by 13% of voters as an independent candidate challenging Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani," says the independent polling company in a report released last week.
Just now, on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews: speaking from Southern California - the skeletal, smoking remains of burned out homes as backdrop - former California Insurance Commissioner and now Lt. Governor John Garamendi fired this warning shot across the bow of the insurance industry:
SCI FI Channel formally announced this morning that they've renewed Stargate Atlantis for a 20-episode fifth season.
A number of television characters work in mind numbing big box stores these days. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette critic Rob Owen takes a fun look at the big box zeitgeist.
Also, tomorrow night The Tiffany Network’s CSI: NY makes a faintly desperate bid for younger viewers by going “Second Life.” Det. Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) enters the virtual world of Second Life to solve a crime.
I hadn't paid much attention to this latest CBS gambit. I’ve made no secret of my dislike of the sleazy and gratuitous CSI: NY, with their chatter about pubic hair found on calendar pages, scantily clad dead women pinned to walls, and rock bands called Rough Sects.
“It’s was Thursday around 4:40 and I couldn’t take it anymore” said NY Times' Joe Nocera of the nascent Fox Business Network. Nocera finally muted his television after watching Liz Claman’s much-touted live interview with Warren Buffet.
“When he declined to answer about which currency he was interested in, he barely had to explain his rationale for not answering. She did it for him! She was so ingratiating, it was painful to watch,” reported Nocera.
I’d heard that FBN was going to be “friendlier,” “breezy,” “accessible, ” “jargon free.” (Subtext: dumbed down)
But it’s still jaw dropping to watch FBN’s on-air personalities slobbering like basset hounds all over their guests.
Conor Knighton, host of Current TV’s Infomania, sized-up some especially cringe-worthy clips from FBN’s first day on air.
The season one finale of Mad Men, one of the most compelling shows to hit the small screen in years, airs this Thursday at 10p.m. Several weeks ago, AMC re-upped the critically acclaimed drama.
(photo: copyright/Mary McNamara & Multichannel News)
The series, set circa 1960 in a Manhattan ad agency, teeters on the cusp of a cultural shift. The tension is palpable. Controlled, perfect lives feel held together by chicken wire, ready to fly apart.
Leading up to the series premiere last July at the TCA press tour, Mad Men's Emmy-winning [for The Sopranos] creator Matt Weiner sat down for an extended stream of consciousness chat about love vs. desire, Sartre, tacky period movies, why men behave badly, and how such a nice mensch like himself makes a living by fearlessly divulging his forbidden thoughts.
CLICK HERE FOR THE EIGHT PART INTERVIEW AND FOR A PIC OF MATT'S RAINBOW SOCKS.
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