w h o a r . c o . n z

“..What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing.

According to press reports, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally found a movie about the Iraq war they liked because it is “apolitical.”

Actually, The Hurt Locker is just the opposite;..

..it’s an endorsement of the politically chauvinistic view that the world is a stage upon which Americans get to deal with their demons ..

.. no matter the consequence for others.

It is imperial hubris turned into an art form in which the Iraqi people appear as numbed bystanders when they are not deranged extras.

It is a perverse tribute to the film’s accuracy in portraying the insanity of the U.S. invasion — while ignoring its root causes —

– that the Iraqis are at no point treated as though they are important.

They never have been, at least in the American view.

No Iraqi had anything to do with attacking us on 9/11 ..

.. and while we are happy to have an excuse to grab their oil .. and deploy our bloated military arsenal ..

.. the people of Iraq are never more than an afterthought.

Whatever motivates Iraqi characters in the movie to throw stones or blow themselves up is unimportant ..

.. for they are nothing more than props for a uniquely American-centered show.

It is we who matter .. and they who are graced by our presence .. no matter how screwed up we may be..”

go to source/story>>The Hurt Locker Oscar Win Is a Prize For American Hubris | | AlterNet

(they get a rave-review..)

go to source/story>>Review : Twenty years late … but it’s great to see them - Entertainment - NZ Herald News

“..Matthew Bishop, the U.S. business editor of The Economist, has described himself as a “card-carrying capitalist,” so it’s a little surprising to pick up his new book, The Road from Ruin, turn to the cover flap and read the opening salvo (served up in bright blue lettering): ..

..”We Have a World Class Mess…Now What?”

Having a business editor of The Economist start things off with such a frank admission of “the fundamental flaws in the way we do capitalism” ..

.. is one of the main reasons I’ve picked The Road From Ruin as this month’s HuffPost Book Club selection.

An open, orthodoxy-free conversation about how we can fix our broken financial system is exactly what we need.

Reading The Road From Ruin — and joining in our month-long discussion about it — is a great way to start..”

go to source/story>>Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post

(i need..no..!..must have..!..a z-pen..!)

“..Z-Pen

A pen with the powers to transform scruffy handwriting into tidy computer text.

Inside the pen is a transmitter that beams all your scribblings and doodles from meetings to a USB drive ..

.. that you can later link up to a computer at your convenience.

Price: £99.99..”

(i have possibly the most scrawly-handwriting of anyone i know..but tonight i will sleep..and dream of a z-pen..

and while you are there..i also need/must have..an Aeron chair.

“..A gadget in itself, the Aeron office chair has earned a place in the Museum of Modern Art.

But its cult following is only the beginning.

Engineered to respond to your body’s movement .. the chair supports your lower spine and boosts circulation.
Price: £895.”

and..an Optoma Pico PK-101 projector..

“..Not much larger than a pack of playing cards .. this little projector will allow you to watch big-screen movies on the go..”

ta muchly..!

y’see..i need to sit in the chair..while using the pen..to review the movies i am watching using the projector..

so..as you can see..it all makes perfect sense..

..and..of course..all components are ‘essential’..

..eh..?..)

go to source/story>>Z-Pen A pen with the powers to transform scruffy handwriting into tidy comput…

“..Is reality TV finally living up to its name?

Most of what we are served up under that rubric is actually the farthest thing from reality.

The exploits of Snooki, Jake the Bachelor, and all those Real Housewives hardly reflect life as most of America knows it and lives it.

The real America is hurting — not jetting off to an exotic location for Fantasy Suite canoodling.

But no matter how sobering the statistics we are getting on a regular basis (and I’ll offer up some bracing ones in a moment), ..

.. the hardships and suffering tens of millions of Americans are experiencing are almost entirely absent from our popular culture.

Which is a shame, because drama and narrative have the ability to move people’s perceptions in a way that raw numbers never can.

Enter Undercover Boss, the new CBS reality show in which corporate CEOs don disguises and spend a few days experiencing what it’s like to be a low-level worker at their companies.

Watching the show — including the episode in which the CEO of a waste management company vacuumed out port-a-potties ..

.. and learned that one of his employees, a woman who drives a garbage truck, has to urinate in a cup ..

.. because her productivity requirements leave her no time for a bathroom break — I thought of Benjamin Disraeli.

Before becoming Prime Minister of England, Disraeli wanted to issue a wake up call about the horrible state of the British working class.

So, in 1845, he wrote a novel, Sybil, which warned of the danger of England disintegrating into “two nations between whom there is no sympathy, as if they were inhabitants of different planets.”

The book became a sensation .. and the outrage it provoked propelled fundamental social reforms.

In the 19th century, one of the most effective ways to convey the quiet desperation of the working class to a wide audience was via a realistic novel.

In 2010, it’s through reality TV.

And Undercover Boss has clearly touched a nerve with viewers.

Last week, only the Olympics and American Idol scored higher in the ratings.

It’s the kind of popular entertainment that can start out as one thing — a fun, high concept reality show —

– but morph into something that affects the zeitgeist .. by turning a spotlight on just how out of touch America’s corporate chiefs are.

And their cluelessness is not just about the jobs their workers do — it’s about the lives their workers lead.

Ever since Roseanne went off the air, network TV has not been the most welcoming place when it comes to telling the stories of working class Americans.

But now, week in and week out, millions can see what downsizing and Wall Street’s demands for ever-greater productivity and earning margins did to the lives of so many Americans, even before the economic crisis.

The chasm between America’s haves and have-nots has reached Grand Canyon-esque proportions.

Thirty years ago top executives at S&P 500 companies made an average of 30 times what their workers did —

– now they make 300 times what their workers make.

That’s the kind of statistic a show like Undercover Boss can put flesh and blood on.

Here are a few others:..”

go to source/story>>Arianna Huffington: Is Undercover Boss the Most Subversive Show on Television?

“..As Scorsese’s new film, Shutter Island, opens .. our critic picks the great man’s 10 best scenes

Scorsese’s uncanny ear for dialogue was evident from his first masterpiece, Mean Streets ..

.. which is set in the heart of Little Italy among debt collectors and small-time hoods.

Characters were called by names such as Johnny Boy, Joey Clams and Giovanni Cappa.

In one classic pool-hall scene, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and David Proval start a fight -

- over the jukebox sounds of Please Mr Postman -

- after a barman calls one of them “a mook”..”

go to source/story>>Martin Scorsese best movie moments | Jason Solomons | Film | The Observer

“..A budget Lord of the Rings prequel put together by hundreds of people working for nothing .. has recorded nearly a million hits on video streaming sites

On the eastern flank of Epping Forest, a short walk in from the town of Debden, there is a huge tree, lying on its side, upended by a storm.

It was in this clearing that independent film-maker Kate Madison, along with dozens of game volunteers, filmed Born of Hope, a homemade prequel to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy that has caused a great stir since its release in December.

A production pulled together over four years with a budget of a mere £25,000 – about a tenth of one per cent of the cost of Jackson’s epic –

- it has impressed critics and recorded close to a million views on video streaming sites.

The upended tree seems a fitting place for it all to have begun.

Born of Hope tells the story of Arathorn, the father of Viggo Mortensen’s character in the Hollywood films.

There’s the odd crude moment (a lady, just about visible in the background of a love scene, walking her dog through the trees); ..

.. and this time Middle Earth is represented by oft-drizzly Essex, not the luscious Ruapehu district of New Zealand.

But Madison’s film makes an entirely plausible, if unofficial, addition to the franchise.

There are epic battle sequences, pitting man and elf against orc and troll; ..

.. there are stirring original orchestral scores; there are special effects; horses; severed heads; ..

.. even a thrilling glimpse of the Tower of Mordor .. where Jackson’s trilogy has its climactic scenes..”

go to source/story>>Born of Hope, a budget prequel to the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, has been lauded by critics | Tom Lamont | Film | The Observer

“..Bickering couples, celebrities making fun of each other, Madonna and Larry David.

What’s not to love?

Critics hate “The Marriage Ref” (10 p.m. Thursdays on NBC).

They say it’s condescending, awful, wretched, unfunny, canned, corny.

Some viewers seem to agree: ..

.. One tweeted during Thursday night’s premiere, “Now Jerry Seinfeld has been on both the best and the worst TV shows of all time.”

Are we watching the same show?

Because what I’m seeing is married people bickering over something ridiculous and trivial ..

.. (see also: being themselves) while celebrities crack jokes, tease each other, and reveal odd details about their personal lives (see also: being themselves for a change).

What’s not to love?

Let’s consider the portrayals of marriage on TV available to us up until now: ..

.. Angry couples about to divorce on “Dr. Phil,” ..

.. cutesy couples guffawing over their adorable children’s goofy shenanigans with homemade explosives on sitcoms ..

.. and exhausted couples squabbling over who lost the map on “The Amazing Race.”

In all of these cases, you provide the commentary .. and the laugh track .. (especially on Dr. Phil).

On “The Marriage Ref,” Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais and Jerry Seinfeld do it for you.

Now let’s consider the portrayals of celebrities available to us: ..

.. We can gaze at photos of them in sweatpants taking their kids to the park, we can listen to their stilted attempts at warmth and spontaneity on the red carpet ..

..or we can endure their longer, even more stilted attempts at warmth and spontaneity on late night talk shows.

When celebrities speak instead of just standing around and looking pretty ..

.. they tend to speak at great length about whatever movie or show they’re promoting ..

.. then titter nervously through the balance of the interview.

On “The Marriage Ref,” stars finally have something fun and concrete to banter about: the absurd quarrels of married couples.

Here’s a husband who wants his stuffed dead dog displayed in the house, a wife who would like the dining room only to be used on Thanksgiving ..

..(the rest of the year it sits, fully decorated, but untouched) ..

.. a husband who gets pedicures instead of spending time with his kids ..

.. a wife who wants her husband to stop taking off his wedding ring when he plays basketball or goes out with his friends.

“I think if you’re going to stuff your dog, you should stuff it in either a useful or attractive position,”..

.. Alec Baldwin remarks in the show’s sneak preview..”

go to source/story>>Ignore the haters, “The Marriage Ref” rules - Heather Havrilesky - Salon.com

“..Crime books have been around for a long time, and this list features some of the best.

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One of the most popular of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, this one takes the case to the English countryside.

2. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. This classic mystery takes place on a train where a murder is committed during the night. The conclusion has that trademark Agatha Christie twist.

3. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Considered one of the earliest and greatest crime novels, read this one if you haven’t already.

4. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. Anarchy and espionage in the streets of London are at the heart of this classic crime tale.

5. The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s detective, Auguste Dupin, solves murders in these three tales that are as captivating today as when they were written over 150 years ago.

6. The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr. This “locked-room” mystery is a classic worth tracking down.

7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This classic book explores race issues in the American south..”

go to source/story>>Court Reporter » Blog Archive » 100 Best Crime Books Ever Written

“..(Film director Christopher Smith devours new gadgets but he won’t download films as he’s a sucker for DVDs)

‘..Mac or PC, and why?

Macs, because they’re just beautiful. I don’t get virus software – I don’t get why we have to have that. PCs are vile.

Do you still buy physical media such as CDs and DVDs, or do you download?

I do. DVDs I still buy. I don’t want to download –

- I’m not against the principle, but I want a box, I want a cover ..

.. I want to put it on the shelf..”

go to source/story>>Christopher Smith: Macs are beautiful, PCs are vile | Celebrity squares | Technology | guardian.co.uk

“.. On the small screen, anything is possible: ..

.. The hooker can have a heart of gold, the cloud can have a silver lining, the tunnel can have a light at the end of it.

In real life, the tunnel is dark, the cloud dumps rain for days, and the hooker is indifferent .. and has Chlamydia.

No wonder we turn to our televisions for novelty ..

.. to see if the lovely downhill skier weeps tears of joy or disappointment ..

.. to find out if the patient’s heart surgery saves his life or kills him..

.. to discover if the castaways live happily ever after.

.. or spend another week wandering through the jungle..

.. searching for more clues..”

go to source/story>>Zen and the art of serial-drama maintenance - Heather Havrilesky - Salon.com

“..Yes, it’s called “The Ricky Gervais Show,” but the real star is that guy, Karl Pilkington.

Billed as “a series of pointless conversations,” the show mostly features the animated faces of Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington talking into microphones.

Occasionally, as the three hosts discuss monkeys flying to the moon or history or Pilkington’s strange stories, those things are animated, too.

“And you’re thinking, well, why are we doing a podcast?” asks Gervais during the first episode.

“It’s because I’d like to be in a room with Karl Pilkington.

You know how people go and help chimps? Karl Pilkington is an ongoing experiment for me, because I’ve seen him sort of blossom from an idiot to an imbecile.”

The madness always begins with a classic That Guy statement from Pilkington.

For example: “We’re in that era where we’ve invented most of the stuff we need, and now we’re just messing about.”

What about airplanes, says Gervais.

“Yeah, but, is that a good thing, planes and that?” Pilkington replies.

“Do you need a plane, really?”

Planes only allow you to fly to places that you need an injection just to visit, he explains.

What’s the use of that?

He wants to know.

If we’re going to invent something, he says, we should invent a way that people could live to the age of 78, die, and when they die, there’s a little baby inside to take their place. Um, right.

In another episode, Gervais brings up Benjamin Franklin, and the fact that he coined the phrase “Waste not, want not.”

Pilkington doesn’t know who Franklin is, and when Gervais tells him and explains the meaning of that phrase, Pilkington replies..

.. “So, he was a bit of a hoarder, then.”

While countless sensitive readers will probably leap to the conclusion that this is yet another British comedy with a hopelessly abusive slant and a disastrously unkind central goal of shaming Pilkington over his lack of intelligence, think again, friends.

Pilkington rather enjoys the hullabaloo and also, he’s as dismissive of what other people think of him as he is of facts and science and history.

You cannot hurt this man with words, because he doesn’t believe anything you say.

In other words, Karl Pilkington is a hero to confused but outspoken amateur theorists — and all dumb people, for that matter — everywhere!

Take the conversation in which Merchant and Gervais discover that Pilkington believes that humans and dinosaurs were “knocking about” at the same time:

Merchant: You know that “The Flintstones” is only partly based on fact?

Dinosaurs and man did not coexist.

Dinosaurs had long gone before man arrived.

Extinct, kaput.

What, you don’t believe us?

Pilkington: Why couldn’t that have happened?

But why weren’t there dinosaurs back then just like we have dogs now?

Gervais: He’s watching “The Flintstones.”

Pilkington: I just think that there must’ve been a crossover point.

Gervais: Exactly.

Why didn’t Hitler meet Nero?

There’s must’ve been … they must’ve met somewhere!..”

go to source/story>>- Salon.com

“..Hundreds of festival-goers slapped on sunscreen and absorbed three days of music and art by the sea at the biannual Splore festival at the weekend.

It was the eighth time the family-friendly festival had been held and was the biggest and one of the hottest yet.

About 7000 people of all ages camped at Tapapakanga Regional Park, south of Clevedon, and enjoyed everything from an art trail through the park to story-telling and hula-hoop lessons to performances by big-name acts.

Brit crooner-and-beat-boxer Jaime Liddell opened the main stage’s international line-up on Friday, giving his audience a sneak preview of his upcoming album.

He was followed by hip-hop megastar Lupe Fiasco, who attracted a different breed of punter to the traditionally alternative festival.

Lupe didn’t seem as excited to be on stage as his fans were to see him until he played Superstar at the end of his set.

But the sprawling crowd fed off his high-energy finale - a new song, Beautiful Lasers followed by Daydreamin’.

Enthusiasm waned during local act Minuit, but picked up for Basement Jaxx’s DJ set.

Their vampy performance included everything from covers of Queen to Major Lazer tracks topped with their crowd favourite Where’s Your Head At.

Afro beat nine-piece Zozo, who live in Auckland but hail from Ghana..

.. had an audience bopping to the sound of summer in the early afternoon on Saturday - many from their lilos in the water..”

go to source/story>>Review: Splore festival - Entertainment - NZ Herald News

(it’s sorta like he/they try to do what casserly and wells do so well..and fail miserably at it..eh..?)

“..People often walk up to me in the street and say, “Hey, great show the other night. Really enjoyed it, but how do you handle bad reviews?”

Often I will say, “Well, I have never really had one.” A case in point is my latest hot review from Herald “TV Eye” columnist Linda Herrick.

“I assume Leigh Hart can be quite amusing but there were so many things wrong with the first episode,” she wrote.

“The mystery is how this series came into being, let alone be scheduled on TV One.”

It is on TV One because TVNZ decided to put it there - that seems quite straightforward. But as to how it came into being, I have no idea.

One minute I was writing 350-word columns, like Linda, at less than $1 a word, and the next I was nut deep in the Amazon, fighting for my life, praying that a canero fish wasn’t going to swim up my urethra and lodge itself up my penis.

“Hart… spent the rest of the tedious hour lurking around the backwoods of Ohio pretending to search for Bigfoot.

Abetted by a ridiculous drawled voiceover, crashing background music and shots of obese Americans ..

.. Hart spouted cliched nonsense and interviewed boring people.”

(and an ‘amen!’ to that..eh..?)

go to source/story>>That Guy : Abetted by Linda in global search for tedium - Opinion - NZ Herald News

“.. Freefall is primarily an autopsy of the financial crisis.

Stiglitz details in layman’s terms how financial deregulation encouraged the banking sector to favor maximizing private revenues over managing social risk: ..

.. economic growth was based on exorbitant debt .. that fed a consumption binge.

But Stiglitz also dissects the relationship between the two major economic shifts of the past three decades–

– globalization and financialization, or the transformation of the financial sector into the primary engine of economic growth.

Decades of prosperity and economic interconnectivity bred by bad ideas about the inherent virtues of free markets ..

.. resulted in a stunning economic collapse–and the bankruptcy of market fundamentalism.

Ours is an era of severe economic and social insecurity.

Stiglitz’s response to the crisis is Keynesian: ..

.. to save capitalism from itself.

In the short term this would involve a bigger and better federal stimulus package ..

.. one committed less to tax cuts and more to plugging holes in state and local government budgets ..

.. and to making high-return investments in technology.

In the long term it would demand nothing less than a reinvigoration of economic thought to eradicate the endemic rot of economism ..

.. and to equip ourselves to discuss economic goods in the broadest sense.

Freefall is an excellent place to start..”

go to source/story>>Shelf Life

“..The latest arrival on the ever expanding shelf of volumes assessing literary reputations during the years of the Nazi occupation of France is a long book with a short title.

Ramon is a son’s biography of his father, a collaborator ..

.. and it’s hard to imagine a more tangled, unresolved contradiction of a literary career than his.

Translated by T.S. Eliot in The Criterion, apostrophized by Wallace Stevens in one of his best-known poems ..

.. Ramon Fernandez was an esteemed literary critic who became, from 1936 to 1943, the self-appointed “minister of culture” for a fascist populist movement led by Jacques Doriot, the former communist mayor of Saint Denis.

For Fernandez’s son, Dominique, now 80, the untangling of those contradictions has been a life’s work.

Ramon is part of a subgenre of literature by children of collaborators currently in full flower in both memoir and fiction..”

go to source/story>>Ghostly Demarcations: On Ramon Fernandez

“..As Pevear outlines in his introduction to the new collection ..

.. the last decades of Tolstoy’s life were marked by a turn toward ideological radicalism and spiritual extremity.

In a series of works composed in the wake of Anna Karenina (1878)–A Confession, the first and most powerful, described his own crisis and conversion; ..

.. others bear titles like “What Men Live By” .. and The Kingdom of God Is Within You–

– he expounded the moral philosophy that became known around the world as “Tolstoyism”: ..

..anarchist, pacifist, ascetic, egalitarian, vegetarian, anti-church.

The Sermon on the Mount became the central text of Tolstoy’s renovated Christianity; ..

.. its highest ideal, borrowed from the Russian mendicant tradition as well as, via Schopenhauer, from Eastern religion ..

.. was renunciation: ..

.. the surrender not only of material possessions ..

.. but of all attachment to this world .. this life..”

go to source/story>>The Renunciation Artist: On Leo Tolstoy

“..Google Buzz has been out only a week, and already, Google’s new Gmail-based social network has been, well, buzzing with activity, with estimates that it has been generating almost a quarter of the activity of Twitter.

Although Buzz’s launch hasn’t been without problems (it came under intense criticism for potentially violating people’s privacy by exposing their most frequent contacts), the new tool has some definite perks that differentiate it from existing social networking platforms.

We’ve taken a look at the best Google Buzz features.

See them below, then check back for our lineup of the worst Google Buzz features coming soon!..”

go to source/story>>Google Buzz: The Best Features Of Google’s New Tool (PHOTOS)

“..Mark Twain wasn’t just a riverboat pilot, a raconteur, a mustache pioneer, and one of the great early American celebrity-authors:..

.. He was also an animal rights activist.

The new Twain compilation Mark Twain’s Book of Animals (University of California Press) explores Twain’s treatment of animals —

- in literature and in life—throughout his career ..

.. and arrives at an inescapable conclusion: He was a softie when it came to the beasts.

Twain may have come to largely despise what he famously called “the damned human race,”..

.. yet he turned into a puddle of mush at the sight of a kitten.

In her introduction, editor Shelley Fisher Fishkin traces Twain’s sympathy for animals to his youth ..

.. and especially to his mother, who kept a house full of cats with names like Blatherskite and Belchazar ..

.. and once soundly berated a man in the street for beating his horse.

Fisher Fishkin also digs up evidence that a formative experience for Twain was his shooting of a bird as a child ..

.. an act he deeply regretted.

In the previously unpublished “Family Sketch,” he writes:

. . . ‘I shot a bird that sat in a high tree, with its head tilted back, and pouring out a grateful song from an innocent heart.

It toppled from its perch and came floating down limp and forlorn and fell at my feet, its song quenched and its unoffending life extinguished.

I had not needed that harmless creature, I had destroyed it wantonly..

.. and I felt all that an assassin feels, of grief and remorse when his deed comes home to him ..

.. and he wishes he could undo it .. and have his hands and his soul clean again from accusing blood’.

Fisher Fishkin goes on to follow the threads of Twain’s animal fascinations and sympathies in his writings ..

.. from his early celebrated story “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” ..

..to his “Letter to the London Anti-Vivisection Society,” which is perhaps the best known expression of his views on animal cruelty.

“From 1899 until his death in 1910,” writes Fisher Fishkin,

“Mark Twain lent his pen to reform efforts on both sides of the Atlantic and became the best-known American author—

- and, indeed, the most famous American celebrity in any field—

- to give outspoken, public support to agitation for animal welfare.”

(recommended-read..)

go to source/story>>Mark Twain, Animal Rights Activist

“..There is a craftsperson in everyone, according to Richard Sennett.

But don’t spend too much time plumbing your psyche for a latent woodworker, quilter, or metalsmith.

Craftsmanship, according to Sennett, a sociologist at New York University and the London School of Economics, both includes and eclipses the endeavors that might jump to mind.

It is an “enduring, basic human impulse .. the desire to do a job well for its own sake,” he writes.

It’s also an impulse that contemporary culture, with its obsessive embrace of efficiency, financial reward, and the bottom line ..

.. has devalued—to its own detriment.

Since the 1990s, Sennett has worked to dissect and illuminate how capitalism affects us.

His latest book, The Craftsman (Yale University Press), explores how “making is thinking,” ..

.. and what is lost in a society that fails to recognize craftsmanship .. and what is learned through using our hands.

The author sees in craft and craftsmanship the development of critical thinking, imagination, the ability to play, a source of pride ..

.. even validation of our existence.

And there may be no better time than now, as people are engaged in a broad discussion of “what next,” to take heed of his ideas.

One emerging theme of the post-financial-meltdown world is that many of us do not wish to return to the way work was..”

(recommended-read..)

go to source/story>>Crafting a New World

“..A new biography tells why the serious side to the Führer’s ‘dumb blonde’ was hidden to history

For decades she has been seen as a decorative companion to Adolf Hitler ..

.. an apolitical “dumb blonde” whose attentions served as an occasional diversion for the Führer.

But the first academic biography of Eva Braun draws a different picture of the dictator’s long-standing girlfriend ..

.. claiming historians have hugely underestimated the role she played in his life.

Berlin historian Heike Görtemaker reveals her as a politically committed woman who won ­Hitler’s affections, enjoyed a healthy sex life with him, sympathised with Nazi politics and gave him psychological support.

Görtemaker spent three years researching her book, Eva Braun: Life With Hitler, due out this month from the prestigious CH Beck publishing house.

She was able to draw on previously unseen or little-known documents, letters, diary entries and photographs.

“Eva Braun features in films, plays, novels and historical memoirs,” Görtemaker told the Observer ..

.. “but is always portrayed as the dumb blonde who had the misfortune to fall in love with a devil ..

.. and this is an image that needs to be ­corrected.

She was capricious, an uncompromising advocate of unconditional loyalty towards the dictator who went so far as to die with him, and he adored her.”

According to Görtemaker’s account, Braun was fully aware of the twists and turns of Nazi policy-making ..

.. and made no attempt to speak out against the Holocaust.

“She was in the loop and knew what was going on.

She was no mere bystander,” said the historian.

Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, noted in his diary that Braun was a “bright girl who meant a great deal to the Führer”.

Görtemaker has evidence that she was present at meetings between Hitler and high-ranking Nazis.

The relationship also had an every­day quality rarely explored by historians ..

.. such as rows with Hitler over domestic details .. and refusing to share his vegetarian diet.

“I can’t eat that stuff,” she said..”

go to source/story>>Nazi loyalist and Adolf Hitler’s devoted aide: the true story of Eva Braun | World news | The Observer

“.. Breathtaking, to go from tragedy to the glories of Canada, in a few seconds flat.

No wonder they brought in a heavy-hitter like Brokaw for this one.

Now we can forget about death and sit back and enjoy Brokaw’s voice .. taking us on a quick tour through the Great White North.

“Remember, Canada was a British colony.

That was a long time ago.”

You don’t say!

“Our two nations have the largest trading relationship in the world.”

“Canada is a huge country.”

“In a fight, you want the Canadians on your side.”

Suddenly I’m reminded of one of my favorite headlines from The Onion:..

.. “Perky ‘Canada’ Has Its Own Laws, Government.” Sample line: “And they even export things, like Canadian Bacon, and ice!”

Once our palates have been cleansed of morbid thoughts by Brokaw’s giant valentine ..

.. it’s time for the flashy intro to the Winter games that was probably previously slated for the top of the broadcast: ..

.. Some dramatic photography paired with soaring music .. and a lot of melodramatic prose.

“Here, where a swerving coastline submits to waves of glacial peaks, where the mapping of the Western world came to an end, the discovery yet begins anew!”

Praise Jesus!

Who writes this stuff?

“Which Olympic travelers are destined to know victory’s rapture?”

I was just wondering the same thing a few minutes ago..”

go to source/story>>Heather Havrilesky - Salon.com

“.. Stephen Colbert doesn’t really believe the recent snowstorms have proven the theory of global warming wrong.

He’s just doing a bit — one our own Gabriel Winant did very well himself yesterday.

But Colbert’s usual schtick does allow him to go some pretty funny places with the joke;..

.. comparing Fox News personalities who opine on global warming to babies playing peek-a-boo, for instance, is pretty great.

Watch below..”

go to source/story>>War Room - Salon.com

“..On last night’s Colbert Report, Stephen interviewed author Jonathan Safran Foer..

.. whose new book, Eating Animals .. is a startling exposé of the factory-farmed meat industry..”

go to source/story>>Stephen Colbert Talks Meat with Jonathan Safran Foer (VIDEO) - Vegsource.com

“.. Great American auteur or hack recycler?

Bloggers debate the “Inglourious Basterds” creator’s legacy

During a public appearance in London last month, Quentin Tarantino told the audience that with “Inglourious Basterds,” he is now an auteur;…

.. he has established a body of work that can be analyzed as a whole .. and as a product of his unique vision.

Recalling his experiences watching the films of Howard Hawks, he said: “My aim is that some kid in 50 years time has the same experience with me and my films.”

In this dueling blog, Moviefone’s Jack Mathews and I debate whether Q.T.’s films actually form a body of work ..

.. or remain a work in progress..”

go to source/story>>Film Salon - Salon.com

“.. How we’ve all found a convenient way of avoiding the truth about his troubled past

In all of the many heartfelt (and deserved) eulogies about author J.D. Salinger, who died last week at 91, one word appears over and over.

It is, of course, “recluse.”

The headline on the Los Angeles Times blog post about his death read, “J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ dies at 91.”

New York magazine called him “the world’s most celebrated literary recluse,” ..

.. and the New York Times said that the author had “lived in seclusion for more than 50 years.”

I find these portraits of Salinger as a noble loner curious.

They certainly aren’t accurate.

There is ample evidence that he did not lead a solitary life apart from the rest of humanity.

Salinger was married three times, and had numerous other long- and short-term romantic engagements.

He seduced Joyce Maynard after seeing her on a magazine cover.

He dated actress Elaine Joyce during the 1980s while she was appearing on such shows as “Fantasy Island,” “Magnum, PI,” “Simon and Simon” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

He had three grandchildren.

He went into New York for dinner with friends.

He was apparently active in his community, greeting clerks at the store, attending church suppers and town meetings, and shopping at Price Chopper.

He spent a lot of time with his lawyers.

And this is just the stuff we know about..”

go to source/story>>J.D. Salinger - Salon.com

“..If you had to bet on which aging musical icon was going to stage a major comeback, the smart money would not be on Gil Scott-Heron.

His status as a pioneer is undisputed in the world of hip-hop, where his politically charged anthems (”The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “Angel Dust”) remain heavily sampled.

But his personal life has been, to put it gently, turbulent.

Twice in the past decade, he’s done stints at Rikers Island, stemming from an arrest for possession of cocaine.

Rumors of addiction and failing health have swirled among fans .. and more than a dozen years have passed since his last record.

All of which makes the sudden resurgence of the 60-year-old singer that much more astonishing.

His forthcoming LP, “I’m New Here,” was produced by Richard Russell, owner of the British label XL Records, and a man renowned for his work with the White Stripes, Thom Yorke and Vampire Weekend.

Jude Rogers, of the Guardian Newspaper, was so dazzled by the disc that he proclaimed it one of the decade’s best — just a few weeks into the decade.

British DJ Zane Lowe debuted the first single, a chilling cover of Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil,” as his Hottest Record in the World..”

go to source/story>>All Salon - Salon.com

“..E.O. Wilson has a dream.

In 2003 the eminent Harvard biologist sketched out his vision for what he called “a single-portal electronic encyclopedia of life.”

This encyclopedia—a website, essentially—would grant each of the documented 1.8 million species on Earth its own page featuring a detailed summary of everything known about it: its scientific name, habitat, and geographic range and distribution; what it eats and is eaten by; and where it fits on the evolutionary tree of life.

It would be freely accessible to everyone everywhere, scientists and laypeople alike.

That dream is well on its way to becoming reality.

Launched in 2008, the Encyclopedia of Life is online (www.eol.org) with 170,000 species pages and—

– as it continues to form partnerships with taxonomists, libraries, and biodiversity databases—counting.

The encyclopedia’s sophisticated technology allows it to pool and sift biological data from everywhere..

.. in a manner that will change the quantity and quality of what both scientists and casual viewers can learn about life on Earth ..

.. and the manner in which they do so.

Never mind evolution; this is revolution..”

(recommended-resource..)

go to source/story>>The Encyclopedia of Life

“.. Hello, my name’s Gerard .. and I used to be a Windows snob.

Well, that’s not entirely true - I dabbled with a ZX Spectrum and Atari 520 ST in my youth -

- but apart from that, every computer I’ve owned has had a Windows operating system.

Even my smartphone uses a Windows- based operating system.

In fact, I was so dismissive of Apple computers that if anyone even mentioned the name Apple..

.. I would screw up my nose and dismiss Apple computers as tools that only graphic designers and posers owned.

But things have changed, especially since I got an iPod Touch for my last birthday..

.. and after having my nail-bitten fingers on a MacBook Pro lapbook for the better part of a month..

.. I must admit that I’ve changed my tune about Apple computers: ..

.. I’m in love with the MacBook Pro.

I even tweeted on Twitter about how impressed I was with the MacBook -

- with one of my followers even suggesting that I must be smitten because I said publicly how I felt.

Perhaps it was the brushed- aluminium finish and smooth lines of the MacBook that swayed me first (it really does look nice) ..

.. or maybe it was the fact that the Apple did everything I wanted - and nothing I didn’t ..

.. (forced patches, programs constantly locking up and becoming unresponsive) -

- or maybe it was the edge-to-edge glass on the screen..

.. but I’m starting to see what all the fuss was about Apple computers..”

go to source/story>>Review: Apple MacBook Pro - gadgets - technology | Stuff.co.nz

“..The last time AC/DC were in town, in 1996, they played on the less-than-hallowed turf of Mt Smart Stadium.

This time, they were playing an even bigger generational spread at the petrolhead-friendlier Western Springs, the site of many a great rock show.

And this was another - a summer-night blast of stadium rock excess, enjoyed by 50,000 rapt fans.

One with bells and whistles (from the steam locomotive that arrived on stage as the opening salvo) and rock’n'roll’s oldest juvenile delinquent playing some of the bluntest riffs ever committed to guitar.

Ah, wee Angus.

While many of the rest of AC/DC now sport haircuts their faces no longer believe in, the guitarist in the schoolboy uniform, though slightly crumpled himself, remains the star of the show.

Howling cloth-capped singer Brian Johnson may be the ringmaster of this particular circus, but Angus is the clown, the trapeze act and everything besides.

The set of old classics with a smattering of new tracks from last year’s Black Ice album didn’t always carry enough momentum in the mid-point.

The stripper-blues of The Jack seemed to outstay its welcome, while earlier, the likes of Shot Down in Flames reminded fans that Johnson can sound like a male incarnation of Tina Turner, in this case one singing Nutbush City Limits.

But even if AC/DC don’t always have the best songs and will never be accused of hidden depths..

.. they know how to take their brilliant basic blueprint and make it go a long long way..”

go to source/story>>Review: AC/DC a rock’n'roll masterclass - Entertainment - NZ Herald News

“..In Star Trek, the Enterprise crew are forever tapping away on hand-held displays called PADDs.

However, even these futuristic devices supposedly from the 24th century look positively archaic next to the 21st-century version launched by Apple last Wednesday.

As usual, the rumour mill went into overdrive in the days and hours leading up to Apple’s big we-never-said-it-exists tablet-style device.

Some reckoned it spelt the death of e-readers, while others predicted it would flop like other tablets.

So what exactly is the iPad and what are you going to use it for?

Sceptics have been quick to label it a big-screened iPhone - without the camera and, uh, the phone.

Those completely enraptured by the device reckon it’s the best thing since the internet.

As always, the truth is probably somewhere in between..”

go to source/story>>The iPad - just a big-screen iPhone? | Stuff.co.nz

(..link takes you to a photo-gallery..)

go to source/story>>Top 10 paid iPhone apps - 1

“..A visitor to Picasso’s studio was looking around and noticed the waste-paper bin, and in it a sheet of paper lightly crumpled, and on it a drawing, clearly in the master’s hand.

Wide-eyed, he asked: “Ooh, can I have that?”

Picasso: “Sure you can. For 40,000 francs.”

The moral of the story is clear.

There is rubbish and there is rubbish.

A drawing that to Picasso was a failure, to the world it is still a Picasso, and worth thousands, as the artist himself was well aware.

Any artist working in a studio complex is familiar with this scene.

You go out, and you find a painting, a sculpture, a whole bundle of them, dumped in the yard.

One of your fellow artists has decided to junk some work.

It may be worth little or nothing, but it is still a sorry sight.

It is the sign that something was made in vain.

It would never come right or sell.

It was starting to take up space.

Time to let it go.

And sometimes you wonder why.

Was it such a hopeless piece?

It can happen that another artist will take such a liking to one of these rejects, they bring it back in, give it room in their own studio for a few months.

Then it appears again, in the bin.

This situation, made systematic and theatrical, can now be seen at the South London Gallery.

Michael Landy’s Art Bin has just opened.

Artists! Bring him your flops! Your duds!

The wretched refuse of your teeming brains!

For six weeks you can deliver your failures .. and have them committed to a giant, transparent container for the world to gaze at.

And unlike the studio dump, there is no reprieve.

Once in, no taking back.

The container would be spectacular even when empty.

A girder framework with thick Perspex panels ..

.. it is skip-shaped and scarcely smaller than the gallery’s main space:..

.. a very impressive bit of craftsmanship by MDM Props and Model Making.

There is a metal stairway.

Assistants, white-gloved like auctioneers’ men, carry the works up it .. and chuck them over the side.

When I saw it on the opening night, the pile of art-trash was hardly off the ground ..

.. but you got the idea..”

go to source/story>>Heal your broken art: Creative clear-outs - Features, Art - The Independent

“..The Sundance Film Festival has long been a celebrated venue for environmental documentaries, due in part to Sundance founder Robert Redford‘s green sensibilities.

An Inconvenient Truth, The Cove, and Who Killed the Electric Car? all attracted critical buzz at Sundance before they made their way into theaters around the country.

The festival’s 2010 lineup continues this trend with a handful of well-crafted, compelling films that address crucial environmental themes not yet in the public consciousness..”

go to source/story>>The best green films at Sundance | Grist

“..Raincoats and plastic ponchos were de rigueur early on at the first Laneway Festival at Britomart in central Auckland yesterday.

But the rock ‘n’ roll gods were smiling.

It fined up into a mostly overcast day, despite the odd rain bomb, which was just as well because the concrete square, with its apartment and office block surrounds, would have been sweltering if the sun had been out.

With a capacity of 5000, Laneway is a more intimate affair than larger festivals such as the Big Day Out, but beer queues were still long, with punters waiting an hour to get into the drinking area, and lining up for a further 20 minutes to get served.

Having two stages so close to each other was always going to be an issue at some stage and was not a problem until American lo-fi folky Daniel Johnston’s stunning late afternoon set was rudely overpowered by local dance rockers Cut Off Your Hands.

But despite the queues and some sound wars, the event will give the central city more of a heart now that it’s an annual event..”

go to source/story>>Rocking the heart of the city - Entertainment - NZ Herald News

“..Punk poet Patti Smith first met Robert Mapplethorpe when she moved to New York in the late 60s..

.. and the pair became inseparable.

Now she has written a memoir of their time together..

.. from hanging out with Ginsberg and Warhol .. to her rise as a hit singer .. and his career as a photographer..”

go to source/story>>Patti Smith’s New York stories | Music | The Observer

“..THE MAVERICK SURPRISE: Exit Through the Gift Shop: dir: Banksy

The first film from the street-art prankster Banksy was unexpectedly popular with the Sundance crowd ..

.. whose only experience of the artist’s guerrilla tactics was the mysterious appearance of five of his works around town.

Screened in the publicity-shy director’s absence, Exit Through the Gift Shop left some viewers wondering if Banksy really was sitting next to them ..

.. as the Sundance staffer introducing the film had hinted ..

.. although many more were left wondering how much of this funny and provocative documentary was actually true.

Starting with an exhilarating montage of graffiti artists at work, the film goes on to tell the story of one Thierry Guetta ..

.. an LA-based Frenchman who, in the early Noughties, tired of his day job selling vintage clothes and began documenting the work of his cousin, a street artist named Space Invader.

Through Invader, Guetta began moving in street-art circles, and, because of an Asperger’s-like addiction to filming, decided that he would chart the rise of this movement.

In this capacity, he gets every graffiti star on film, but one eludes him: the faceless Banksy, whom he pursues and befriends.

So far, this is all quite plausible ..

.. but what follows becomes a quite Banksyan meditation on creativity and fame..”

go to source/story>>Banksy and Chris Morris prove hits at the Sundance Film Festival - Times Online

“..The Family Guy character is about to get his own show.

We spoke to writer and star Mike Henry about his politically incorrect family sitcom..”

go to source/story>>Mike Henry prepares us for Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show - Times Online

“..She can create new markets where none existed (control pants) ..

.. help put an inexperienced politician into the White House (Obama) ..

.. and make every American try goat’s milk.

So what happened when one woman decided to live by all of Oprah Winfrey’s commands?..”

go to source/story>>My year of living with Oprah - Times Online

“..Forget Jerry Seinfeld.

Forget Friends.

The new star of Must See TV night is President Obama.

Call it whatever you want.

Whether it was smart, dumb, a gamble, political calculating or all of the above ..

.. when President Obama appeared in front of hundreds of chomping-at-the-bit Republicans with the cameras rolling on live TV he not only made for Must See TV ..

.. he also provided the much needed transparency jolt that voters want to see.

The President passed the test with flying colors.

This was the American version of those back and forth British Parliament sessions.

(The only element missing was John Boehner and Eric Cantor in full white wig mode.)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that President Obama’s decision to step into the GOP lion’s (elephant’s?) den was designed as a political move.

He needs some Republicans on board with his agenda ..

.. and showing up in front of them may expose them politically as the party of No.

But to only consider the political implications misses the point entirely.

The upside for President Obama after this political grudge match is measurable.

First of all, he now has the ultimate trump card in transparency.

To be able to field questions from the enemy on live TV takes guts.

Talk about transparent.

This is as naked politically as you can get..”

go to source/story>>David Brody: The New Star of Must See TV: President Obama