Happy 4th of July 2009! ...

News of the Yay is back for a special July 4th edition!Obvs the biggest news in the country is Sarah Palin's declaration of independence from her job as governor of Alaska. Her nonsensical resignation speech, which was delievered on Kafka's birthday, laid blame on the usual suspects: the liberal media, the activist courts, big government takeovers and other "pretty mean-spirited adults."Others have a different explanation.Anderson Cooper takes on Palin's LOL crazy spokesperson Meg Stapleton. Also.  Suck me under, maybe forever? More deetz about Michael Jackson's anesthesia addiction. Madonna announced a "special choreographed dance" ...

Get ready for a whole lotta of sweetness. (Don't say I didn't warn you.)Have a listen to "Future Love" by Kristina DeBarge. This song is oh-so-very hooky (and a little Jordin Spark-esque) with its sugar sweet chorus and a slow-churning rhythm track. One Republic singer Ryan Tedder put this fine little pop gem together for American boyband Varsity Fanclub who first it released in 2008. Rumour is that Kristina will be putting his track out on an upcoming mixtape. It has summer jam written all over it. (Thanks to @mattox1 for the ...

happy indie penis day! is it wrong that i wish we were still british?by special request....your holiday party playlist. 36 songs to get your firecracker on!here's how i roll: i go to my "recently played" playlist on itunes. then i pick every third song. that way its arbitrary and no one is subjected to too much of one thing. genius, right????you have lots of new music - the gossip, the sounds, kasabian.....some of my current faves like midnight juggernauts and dragonette....then you have some WTF moments, like tammy wynette, deee-lite and pizzacato five. welcome to my life. it's my own ...

Last year at this time I wished you a Happy 4th from the Film Experience's Holy Trinity (American Division) plus one. But in the interest of expanding my cinematic spirituality beyond, quoth reader Robert,In the name of the Meryl, the Julianne and the Holy Pfeiffer I've decided I should commemorate this particular patriotic day with photos of a few randomly selected young American actresses I like. Loving rising talent is quite easy (everyone does it) but for me, as an actressexual, it's also fraught with anxiety. Nobody ever quite comes right out and ...

Our corporate media are so propagandistic that most people in our country don't even know the difference between investment and speculation. Investment involves buying a commodity (e.g., anything from a bank CD to a stock to a bar of gold) with the intent of making money on it over a long period of time based on its actual value and rational analysis of real value in the future. Speculation involves short term gambling on commodities in order to exploit or create market irrationality.Short selling involves agreeing to sell stock at a certain date in the future in hopes that ...

Anderson Cooper makes mincemeat of Sarah Palin's hapless spokesperson Meg Stapleton, who was in New York, not Alaska, at the time of Palin's sudden resignation. If he knew anything about basketball, the exchange might have been even worse for her.Speaking of spokespeople, Palin's press secretary David Murrow posted this on his Facebook page a day before she quit: "There's gonna be some fireworks this weekend!"Yes, but looks like this firecracker turned out to be a dud. ...

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water." -- Rabindranath Tagore ...

A ...

Any big movie plans? What just opened where you live? We're all on different timetables. Have at it in the comments. ...

Have a great Independence Day weekend, everyone. We're starting it early here. I'm about to take a much-needed week off the grid. Beginning on Monday, or possibly before, Matthew Rettenmund who writes the blog Boy Culture will be taking the reins here as he did last year at this same time. I hope that you'll welcome him. He's looking forward to it. It'll be our usual mix of politics, pop culture, and perhaps a few surprises thrown in, with Matthew's special twist, of course.As always, I thank you so much for reading and coming back. ...

 Very important update: the Delhi High Court's ruling decriminalizing homosexuality actually does apply to all of India. Somewhat less important update: Zac Efron gets shorn. Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern (R-duh) issues a morality proclamation that equates homosexuality and marriage equality with sex trafficking and child abuse. Don't feel too bad—divorcées, those who bear children out of wedlock and porn aficionados don't make out any better. Has Goldman Sachs "engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression"? Rumors that Michael Jackson (who was mixing the painkillers OxyContin and Demerol with a surgical ...

Sarah Palin has announced not only that she will not seek re-election as Alaska's governor but that she is resigning. Lt. Governor Sean Parnell will be sworn in at the Governor's Picnic in Fairbanks on July 25. Alaskans redeclare their independence.Let the theories begin: Fresh scandal brewing involving her fast-and-loose approach to state funds? Grandstanding ahead of a run for the Senate and/or White House? FOX's newest talking empty head? Anything, but please don't pin this on David Letterman.So much for a slow news holiday weekend.UPDATE: Palin, recently alleged to have forced a ...

Rep. Bob Filner (D) of California was at Camp Pendleton just six hours after Seaman August Provost was murdered, but no mention was made to him of the crime. He finds that suspicious and accuses the military of habitually not "telling the truth" when it comes to potential hate crimes. "There are indications" he was killed for being gay, according to Filner and Provost's family. Provost had complained of being harassed by fellow personnel and was openly gay to most people around him.Navy spokesman Lt. Kyle Raines, Navy Region Southwest tells CNN:"There are no indications that the ...

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There's nothing like blogging daily (or trying to anyway) to show exactly how boring your life becomes when you don't leave the couple acres of property that you occupy for days at a time. My most exciting event in the past two days has been discovering a new room of stuff in the materials from that Broadway show that I have been pilfering from. It contained (among other things) a 25'x75' blackout curtain! That's enough fabric to wrap nearly all three sides of my stage, which is great when I have two shows designed that don't include any portals ...

every now and then, you come across people on facebook whose names make you pause. this was a good one. cher cher!cher cher zbik.assuming she leaves the maiden name off (ackerman), does she call people and say "hi, this is cher cher zbik calling"and she wears a wig. a WIG! like the real cher (only one cher in her name though).- joe to hell, 2009 http://www.joetohell.com ...

WTF??? This was what appeared on my TV tonight when I tried to watch Out of AfricaYes, that movie is filthy!Please note: I have no children and have never set any parental levels on any of my entertainment systems. I actually didn't know that you could, outside of, like, blocking cable channels.Maybe my television is boycotting Meryl Streep? I didn't know there was a quota on how many I was allowed to watch in a month.* ...

Nothing like a little dissatisfied newsreader/corporate rivalry to liven up the weekend, don't you think?*Uncle Rupert's papers are reporting that Mark Ferguson is leaving Nine for Seven. (Star Trek fans: I have yet to come across any Seven of Nine jokes, you'd think the puns would be flowing.) Ferguson's defection is rather interesting since he formed the basis of Nine's new afternoon news magazine (although I'd classify it as early evening despite the name) This Afternoon. Ferguson always looked uncomfortable on the show, and now we have an idea as to why. * Given today's date (at time of ...