Nikki Finke...Now

'Ratatouille' Big #1, 'Die Hard' #2 Friday; Michael Moore's 'Sicko' Has Healthy Debut

 SATURDAY AM: Disney / Pixar's Ratatouille cooked up a winning recipe as America's No. 1 movie, opening big with $16.5 mil Friday from a hefty 3,940 theaters. This means it should make major moolah from today's kiddie matinees already crowded with family fare. Projections are for the toon to serve up weekend numbers around $48 mil to $50 [...]
Sat, Jun 30, 12:55 am

RIP: GMA Entertainment Critic Joel Siegel

I didn't know Joel Siegel personally until I started Deadline Hollywood Daily. So I was incredibly flattered when he emailed me one day saying he was a huge fan of the website, and loved reading my caustic Oscar commentary. Joel rightfully patted himself on the back for his own best line to describe how interminable the most recent [...]
Fri, Jun 29, 7:55 pm

Does Bruce Die Hard Or Get Ratatouille'd?

FRIDAY AM: Yes, it's the start of another nailbiter for gross receipts this summer weekend as blockbusters bust a move in movie theaters. Right now my box office gurus are saying the totals for both films by Sunday look neck-and-neck: between $40 million to $45 million. Naturally, Fox especially is trying to lower 5-day expectations for Live Free Or Die Hard by [...]
Fri, Jun 29, 7:23 am

Marc Cooper

Moore-itis

Before I offer my own pedestrian thoughts on Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, I offer two disclaimers:1) I direct to you to the just-published review of same by my ever-brilliant daughter.2) And I readily admit that I am a fully-declared Michael Moore-phobe, having detested Bowling for Columbine and the execrable Fahrenheit 9-11 ( as well [...]
Thu, Jun 28, 11:54 pm

Yawning Silence

*** Update Thurs. Morn.: The bill is now dead. And with it any glimmer of reform anytime in the near future. I'm pretty well disgusted with the general silence, and lack of leadership, on the immigration issue by liberals and the liberal blogosphere. This side of the 'sphere has pretty much nothing to say about this [...]
Wed, Jun 27, 9:38 pm

Dicko

There's Dick. And then there's Dick.As to the first one, Mr. Cheney, don't forget to catch the final and fourth installment of the WaPo's opus on the vast power he has accumulated and exercised. The whole thing is starting to read like a bad joke. Whatever the worst thing is you can imagine, he's done [...]
Tue, Jun 26, 8:34 pm

Daniel Hernandez

The attack of the global cities

London's Tate Modern is featuring an exhibit right now on global cities, focusing on Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo through the broad themes of size, speed, form, density, and diversity. There...

'Art Outlaws of East L.A.' draws letters

My feature on the history and legacy of Asco brought loads of letters, calls, and emails. Some congratulatory, some reprimanding, some critical. The Weekly published a couple this week in print and more online. Because the letters published are mostly...

Former Mexican queer bars in L.A.: We will never forget

Access to cheap beer, a sticky floor, and a drag show is a basic neo-American right, so when places to buy such amusements begin disappearing, someone must stand up and say something. Enter the Pocho Research Society. Adolfo Guzman-Lopez of...

Tom Dispatch

Tomgram: Robert Dreyfuss...

[Note for Tomdispatch Readers: Sometime Wednesday, the long-planned-for, redesigned Tomdispatch website should be launched, thanks to the Nation Institute. At that point -- for those of you who receive these posts by e-mail -- the link at the bottom of this one that would normally take you to the site to read the whole piece may temporarily not…

Tomgram: De la Vega, Has...

[Update on Libby Sentencing: On Tuesday morning, just as Elizabeth de la Vega predicted in the piece below, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby received a sentence of 30 months in federal prison. Tom]

Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega has been writing about the case of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame for this site since the summer of 2005.…

Tomgram: Mark Danner, Th...

A few weeks ago, I offered Tomdispatch readers, "Close Your Eyes," my fantasy graduation speech for the class of 2007, given from the podium of some university of my mind. Mark Danner, however, recently stood at an actual podium at the University of California, Berkeley, and gave a genuine commencement address to a group of Department of Rhetoric…

Great God Pan

It's Always Rock and Roll...

Just caught ex-Heldon guitarist Richard Pinhas' show at Highways in Los Angeles last night. He looked and sounded pretty good, tackling an imposing twenty minute piece with the help of Jerome Schmidt on computer. Other than the fact that half the sound's coming out of a laptop, there's not a ton…

Pretty Big Summer Group S...

SHOW
Curated By Heather Cantrell
At
Jail

June 16 – July 14, 2007
Reception; Saturday, June 16, 6-10pm

Featuring Ethan Ayer, Michael Bauer, Patterson Beckwith, Erik Bluhm, Scott Cassidy, Claude Collins-Stracensky, Nancy de Holl, Alison Frey, Wendy Heldmann, Sean Higgins, Chris Lipomi, Matt Lipps, Renee Loternero, Daniel Mendel-Black, Christopher Michlig, Ruby Neri,…

Site Unseen...

New Energy shape artist Lawrence Rengert has curated a fantastic program of not-often-seen films that he'll be screening this Thursday down at the USC grad studios. It's part of SITE UNSEEN: 2007 Summer Film Program. It all happens Thursday, June 14, 2007 from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM (hence everyone there will…

Another Green World

Roller Derby Bird Crimes: Roller Pigeons, Raptors and the Law

I like birds that spin very fast and drop 20 feet or more. They are usually flown in a flock of around 20 birds (known as a kit). Ideally a kit should stay together and perform as a group. When several spin at the same time this is known as a turn, if they all [...]
Thu, May 24, 11:10 pm

Radical Bees: Alternative Notions About “Colony Collaspe Disorder”

From London, where she’s on tour, my singer-songwriter friend Simone White sends an article about the bees, by Earth Action’s Sharon Labchuk:I’m on an organic beekeeping email list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with [...]
Wed, May 23, 7:53 am

Avalon Saved

I woke up this morning fully expecting to hear that the town of Avalon had been consumed, but it wasn’t. The wind has shifted; low clouds typical of spring have moved in. The Catalina Express live beach cam shot looks pretty good, but on the Casino Cam you can really see the smoke in the [...]
Fri, May 11, 9:31 am

I Got Feelings Too, Man

Feelings About Dick…Cheney

In case you were just wondering whether or not paranoia had the best of you and whether or not that visceral sense of repulsion you’d get in the pit of your stomach every time you saw the sneering face of white-man’s entitled contempt for all that is not he whenever Dick Cheney appeared on TV [...]
Wed, Jun 27, 9:58 am

Extended Feelings About Keith Olbermann, plus Abu Ghraib, General Taguba, Good and Evil

It says something about how deeply the horrors of this administration have penetrated that I didn’t even have to look up how to spell Abu Ghraib (that is how you spell it, right?), but I did have to look up Olbermann. If you’re like me, and you just watched Countdown With Keith Olbermann, American Hero, [...]
Wed, Jun 20, 11:12 pm

Extended Feelings About John From Cincinnati, Plus Great Bands, and Keith Olberman

I tuned in again last Sunday, because for some reason I want to believe, but the show, unlike the word Cincinnati, still sucks after two episodes. And despite all the previous ruminations from me and others (see Feelings About John From Cincinnati) on how hard it is for Hollywood to capture the essence of surfing, [...]
Tue, Jun 19, 10:43 pm

Catch of the Day

Go here:...

http://laweekly.blogs.com/fish/

Play

Bonde Do Role - Solta O F...

The best thing I’ve heard in days. Thanks Nic Harcourt for playing this this morning during the few minutes I had to turn off Sandra Tsing Loh on KPCC and a commercial on Indie 103.

What Number Are You? More...

The journey to the Wizard of Paul is a long and whining road to say the least. If it had been anyone else I would have bailed before I allowed the chick with the note pad and the blue Sharpie to brand the right top of my hand with a very stylish ‘281′. I’m [...]

Paul McCartney Played Lot...

Ok, I got in to see Paul at the free Amoeba in-store show. The crowd was a buzz wondering if he would play any Beatles songs or mostly stuff off the new album. Which we hear is good, but good eough to sleep on a sidewalk for three-days (which is what many people in the [...]

Witness LA

Friday Wrap-Up - Some of the Week’s GOTTA READ ‘EM Stories - UPDATED

1. WWJKD?It’s been a big week for the Supremes. On Tuesday, the court handed down four controversial rulings. The most legally irritating and potentially precedent-setting of these was the Frederick v. Morse decision—otherwise known as the Bong Hits for Jesus case where the court struck a blow against free speech for students. [...]
Fri, Jun 29, 6:38 pm

Okay, everyone on your feet…and let’s hear some applause for Alan M!

Blogfather, Marc Cooper and guest blogger, Alan Mittelstaedt at a PEN USA Awards dinnerAfter ten days at the grassy and bucolic writers’ paradise that is Bennington, I lost all of my contemplative calm by straying for a couple of frenetic but interesting days to Washington D.C. (More on that later.)Now, it’s great to be [...]
Thu, Jun 28, 9:03 pm

LA’S Killer Jails - Part I

AGAIN an inmate has been murdered inside the LA County jail, and AGAIN the circumstances were such that the disaster could and should have been prevented.Here’s the deal: Kurt Karcher, a white supremacist and a convicted first degree murderer —who not so incidentally happened to be suffering from bipolar disorder and tended to be [...]
Thu, Jun 28, 4:08 pm

The Style Council

Paul, Prince and Paris

So Paul McCartney is playing Amoeba TOMORROW, and despite my connections, I’m not gonna be able to see him. My pal who works there actually sent out an email yesterday to head off the inevitable flurry of requests. She said it’s a circus down there and that people were camping out as of Monday night [...]
Tue, Jun 26, 1:21 pm

Sink or Swim

Today is your absolute last chance to score some deals on cool wax and CDs at Echo Park’s Sea Level Records, which is letting stuff go ridiculously cheap before it closes its doors for good tonight.While Tower Records on Sunset enjoyed new life (if only for a night) as Icky Thump Records courtesy of the [...]
Mon, Jun 25, 3:19 pm

Road Trip: Day 20(ish)

“Are you writing?” asks my mother.“Are you drawing?” asks Joe.I’m a little preoccupied with not dying, but thanks for monitoring my (total lack of) creative output. No one asks “What are you working on?” in Santa Fe. Everyone’s too busy laying adobe or inlaying silver to care. Between acupuncture, four-hour shamanic [...]
Sat, Jun 23, 2:09 pm

Movie Blog

Michael Moore?s Sicko Q&A...;

By Mel Yiasemide In its opening sequences at a packed Directors Guild Theatre last Monday, Michael Moore’s Sicko had the crowd laughing with disbelief as a dumbfoundingly boyish President Bush lamented that “too many OB/GYN’s aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.” The laughter, and the tears, continued throughout, as Sicko’s overriding [...]

German / Mexican Films at...

Wednesday at 8, if you can make it. Sounds intriguing. Straight from Austin, Texas, A German and A Mexican Tour showcases work from filmmakers Katja Straub and Miguel Alvarez. Both love, tell, and collect stories - narrative or documentary - always with an emphasis on visual exploration. Their rather non-traditional shorts range from personal documentary to [...]

Blogging from the LA Film...

O.C. Weekly’s Luke Y. Thompson has made the trek up the 5 to watch a bunch of movies, and blog from the Los Angeles Film Festival. Chasing Ghosts and Iranians – June 25 Cool Cats and Bad Kitties – June 24 Dancin’ to the Jailhouse Doc – June 23 Lost Girls and Mighty Black Men – [...]

Ezra Klein

Shed a Tear for the Lobbyists

Ken Silverstein is a national treasure: EARLIER THIS YEAR, I put on a brand-new tailored suit, picked up a sleek leather briefcase and headed to downtown Washington for meetings with some of the city's most prominent lobbyists. I had contacted...

NO MORE HILTON

This is compelling stuff. Can we get her an excellence in broadcasting award? Or maybe her own show, where she's not surrounded by jabbering fools to cowardly to join with her protest?...

Values!

My column on eschewing values in foreign policy rhetoric has sparked a fascinating salon of sorts over at Obsidian Wings. Go scroll around and learn why I'm wrong, and why I'm right, and why I'm understandable. I'll have a longer...

Direland

JERUSALEM GAY PRIDE BUCKS RIOTS, HATRED

The following article was written for Gay City News -- New York City's largest lesbian and gay weekly newspaper -- which published it today: Defying anti-gay rioting (left), threats of bloodshed, opposition from Israel's prime minister and Jerusalem's mayor, a...

Letter from Rome: ROME'S GAY PRIDE TODAY ENDORSED BY GOVERNMENT--SORT OF...

The following dispatch on today's Rome Gay Pride March was written exclusively for this blog by DIRELAND's Rome correspondent, Judy Harris. A veteran expat journalist who wrote from Italy for years for TIME and the Wall Street Journal, Judy now...

Letter from Rome: AN AGENDA FOR BUSH'S ITALIAN VISIT

The following dispatch was written exclusively for this blog by DIRELAND's Rome correspondent, Judy Harris. A veteran expat journalist who wrote from Italy for years for TIME and the Wall Street Journal, Judy now writes for ARTnews and this month...

Hullaballoo

Integrity

Watergate conspirator Egil Krogh has an essay in the NY Times today that is worth reading. He writes about his experience in Richard Nixon's white house, when "national security" became the catch-all excuse for political lawbreaking and he explains how he came to regret what[…]
Sat, Jun 30, 12:51 pm

Running From The Down Low

Steve Benen brings up a little blogospheric brouhaha that I guess I ought to address, since I wrote about it last night, but actually gave Obama props for doing what others are criticizing him for today. Benen writes: I have to admit, I'm puzzled by[…]
Fri, Jun 29, 4:19 pm

Obstruct The Obstructionists

by digby I know everyone is probably headed out for the holiday, but if you have time for one more thing, read this post by Robert Borosage of the Campaign For America's Future: In its first 40 hours, the new majority of the House[…]
Fri, Jun 29, 3:02 pm
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