Very sad to see Bill Murray lose the Best Actor award. When the hell is he going to get another chance? It was a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

:-(

I watched the Oscars tonight. I couldn't help noticing that IMDB's updates on winners was almost instantaneous while Oscars.org lagged several minutes (up to half an hour) behind the announcements. Proof: IMDB and Oscars.org (note the awards for Cinematographer and the Director categories and the time stamp in the lower righthand corner).

TNT has been running a series of Steven Segal movies the last few days. I caught parts of Fire Down Below and Out for Justice. I've never actually seen any of Segal's films in the theater and was not surprised that niether was very good. But what did strike me was that Segal isn't a very gentlemanly fighter. He kicked quite a few men in the balls in both films, and bent back even more fingers. I suppose there's something refreshing in that -- it's the way I'd certainly conduct myself in a fight, were it to come to that. Thankfully, it hasn't yet.

Hungary's principal newspaper Népszabadság points out (in Hungarian, of course) that front-running Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is one-quarter Hungarian. His paternal grandfather was Fritz Kohn, from the Czech village of Horni Benesov, who later changed his name to Fredrick Kerry, and converted to Roman Catholicism from Judiasm when he moved to the US (the Boston Globe has that story). Kohn's wife was Budapest native Ida Löwe, who grew up in the then wealthy Jewish Lipótváros neighborhood that is now around Szabadság tér (where the U.S. embassy and Magyar TV station are).

Via Miki

I just saw her on Letterman. Her music is nice enough, but it really annoys me that the media and the music industry has pegged her as jazz. I even heard Leonard Lopate say so today on WNYC, who should know better. It's nothing but run of the mill chick pop, am I wrong?

Also, just to be bitchy about it, seems to me she spent some of the millions she must have earned from her first album on donuts or some such. Certainly not on a personal trainer, anyway. Maybe that's why they peg her with the jazz label -- she's not keeping up appearances enough to be called a pop star.

It's pledge drive time at my beloved NY NPR affiliate, WNYC. Please give generously, so they will shut the hell up!!

My favorite part of the fund drives is when they explain how basic math works ad naseum when they get a "dollar for dollar match" by some rich donor, meaning, as they'll explain, "That means, if you give $50, we get $100. Or, if you give $75, we get $150. Or, if you give $100, WNYC gets $200. Or..."

Enough. We can all multiply by two!

Okay, I'm a loser, and was home Friday night watching TV. But thankfully, there are bigger losers than me, namely the contestants in Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee.

This show, hosted by John O'Hurley (probably best known for playing J. Peterman on Seinfeld), presents a conundrum of sorts. On the one hand, with all the sex, violence and just general crap on TV, a spelling show is actually fairly wholesome. Problem is, it's just not very interesting television. (That said, I somehow watched the whole thing.)

Embarrassingly, unlike the normal has-been and B-list celebrity reality show, where all of the prize money goes to the celebrities' charities, in this show, the winning celeb (out of 20 original contestants) gets to keep $75,000 for him- or herself. I don't know what B-list celebs typically earn these days, but for three days work (the show is a three-parter, anyway; maybe they filmed it all in one sitting), plus the pressure of looking like a fool on national television for missing an easy word (e.g., Alice Cooper's "m-o-r-t-i-c-i-o-n"), you'd think $75,000 wouldn't be so highly motivating. Or, at least you think they'd like the rest of us to believe they're worth more.

Back to our conundrum -- while this show should be wholesome TV to be encouraged and yet I really just feel like mocking it -- I can hardly wait for the next show to begin minutes from now, a long-awaited second installment of my all-time favorite completely tasteless reality show: Man vs. Beast!

PS: Fox's site stinks. Neither of these shows have sections of the site, or even just stand-alone pages for me to point to. For the spelling show, for example, it would be great to get the names of all the forgotten celebs and, better yet, the words and definitions featured, per its educational value, and all...

PSS: Man versus Beast kicked ass. Man 2, Beast 3

Daypop's wonderful Top 40 feature is, yet again, on the fritz. Unlike usual, where it simply comes up nonfunctional, this time Daypopster Daniel Chan offers us something glorious to amuse ourselves with: the Daypop Top 40 archive! I never realized this existed before (and from the lack of interface, I think perhaps it wasn't a public feature before now). There is some serious meat in this to sink your teeth into. Frankly, I think Chan could be more enterprising and mine this in ways researchers might even pay for.

UPDATE:
Hmmm, looking at this more carefully, it's a bit of a disappointment. What I'd really like to see would be the most popular link for a whole, week, month and year. These archives, though, are four files for each day. Even so, there's a lot of interesting stuff here.

I'm so proud of my friend Yvette Feuer! Get ready to see that name in lights, someday.

She was actually a fairly prominent actress back in her native Hungary before she moved here a few years back to struggle for her craft in semi-obscurity. As I blogged a few weeks ago, she's co-written, produced and stars in a great family play, "The Beak, the Sausage and the Axe," running for the next two Sundays (3pm) at the Palace of Variety Theater (125 W. 42nd St., between Broadway and 6th Ave; tel: 877-BINDLES).

Her dedication to this production was really amazing. As Adi did the film editing for the video component of this otherwise live theater performance, I had a window into much of the preparation, and there is no exaggerating how much blood, sweat and tears Yvette personally put into making this thing happen.

Two weeks ago, I went to see it. I have to admit, it was with some apprehension, as, come on, it's a low-budget original theater piece aimed at kids. Were a friend not in it, that just doesn't sound like my preferred way to spend a Sunday afternoon. But honestly, it was really funny. Guffaw funny. Yvette is indeed a very talented actress (trained as a clown), and, as my dad, who came along to the performance, pointed out, it doesn't hurt that she's quite easy on the eyes, too. And let's not forget her cast mate (it's a two-person show, both playing multiple characters), Sean O'Connor, who is also quite funny, especially in the role of Prince Edumnd.

Don't take just my word for it. Today, she gets the vindication every struggling actress and playwright can only dream of: a rave review in the New York Times. Critic Laurel Graeber summarizes, "Fortunately, love conquers all, and it does so hilariously." (The only downside to the write up is that it erroneously identifies the co-author, Bruce Macphail, as also being the other actor, denying Sean of his due kudos in print. Oh well, Sean seems like a nice guy, but Yvette's my friend, and at least they got her name right.)

If you have a kid, or if you're just a kid at heart, I urge you to go see "The Beak." You won't regret it.

In case you haven't noticed, your web site sucks.

• No discernible way to find the permanent links for your stories? The point of that is...what?

• An "Email Article" function that doesn't even pretend to work (owing to your not having a functional archive feature). WTF?

• Frames? Do you have a calendar in the building? FYI, it is no longer then 1980s, or whenever it was that web sites used frames.

Feel free to hire me. Or anyone. Please. It's possible that people other than Gawker geeks might actually read your newspaper if you did.

As I've noted before, I have a friend who is the editor of the beauty and fashion section of the Daily News, so I write occasional stories for her. My latest, in today's paper: "Click 'n' match: Specialized dating sites make it easier to meet someone who shares your interests"

I had the pleasure of lunching today with Rick Bruner. Yes, the other Rick Bruner.

First time we've met. Wonderful guy (well, what else would you expect from a Rick Bruner?). He works here, freelances here. We've agreed there will be bicycling, beer, bluegrass and business in our future. (As Bruners, we favor activities that start with "B.")

2004 is turning out to be a promising year to be a Rick Bruner.

Saw three terrific films on video in the last few days:

• Breakfast at Tiffany's - Very sweet, even sappy you could say, but thoroughly enjoyable, thanks in no small part to Audrey Hepburn's unearthly beauty (released in 1961, when she was 32). Truth be told, however, she wasn't much of an actress. Remarkably, she was nominated for Best Actress for an Academy Award but she didn't win. Too bad they don't have one for Most Beautiful. It won for best Music. Also nominated for Writing and Art Direction.

• Network - Deliciously cynical skewer of the news media from 1976. Brilliant script by Paddy Chayefsky, except that I saw it a few days ago, so I can't really remember any dialogue other than the classic line, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" Academy Award winner for Best Actor (Peter Finch), Best Actress (Faye Dunaway), Best Supporting Actress and Writing, and nominated for Best Picture, another Best Actor (William Holden), Cinematography, Directing and more.

• The Apartment -
  
  Best movie I've seen so far this year. Saw it years ago (made 1960), but forgot just how fantastic it was. Unbelievably great dialogue (Billy Wilder). "You would think I should have learned by now. When you're in love with a married man you shouldn't wear mascara." Also, Fran: "Why can't I ever fall in love with somebody nice like you?" Baxter: "Yeah. Well -- that's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise." And many others I'd happily watch it again tomorrow night in order to transcribe. Deservedly won Best Picture and Directing, along with three other Academy Awards, out of 10 nominations in all. Must see; A+; #82 most popular on IMDB.

Commentary on an ad I'd like to see. Meanwhile, this kid rocks.

Thanks to cool-nerd nephew Patrick for the clip.

This one's for all the beautiful ladies:

Also, enjoy the Valentine Smoochie on Happy Tree Friends.

Adrian Scott, founder and CEO of Ryze, whom I knew in San Francisco (he gave me some of my first lessons in Web programming, and we agreed he should get credit somewhere on the site for all my broken links) kindly invited me to lunch today, visiting NYC for a social network conference (flew in from his new residence in the Bahamas; he also paid for lunch, so something must be going right with Ryze). We were joined by James Marciano, founder of TheSquare and other ventures, and the ever lovely Elizabeth Spiers of New York Magazine.

I was glad for the opportunity to catch up with Adrian again after several years and to meet James, but my greatest thrill was seeing Elizabeth's new red dye job (and getting the blog photo scoop on it). I quite like it, though I was expecting fire-engine red from her advance description. Anyway, pleased she's looking even more the part of the hip trend-setter she has perhaps reluctantly but inescapably become.

For a while now, I've been fishing for what is the label to call myself politically these days. I'd always been a "classic liberal," though for a long time I've been fairly disaffected with politics. Clinton disappointed me big time, basically because I think he lacked big picture vision. He presided over the end of the Cold War, an epic moment in history, and what did he do with that historic opportunity to reshape international politics? Besides the world's most famous blow job, what is "The Clinton Legacy"? Zilch. Likewise, none of the rest of the Democrats since have excited me much either, though I certainly prefer any of them to the jackass we have now in power.

While I don't like all aspects of the Pax American plan that the neocons have put forward for reshaping the international landscape in the post-Cold War, post-9/11 era, I do respect that they have a plan. For a while, I've been half-heartedly calling myself a "neolib," in that I feel like a liberal who's waiting for "The New Plan" to emerge, but sadly, I'm waiting in vain.

I do know, however, that I'm not alone in this position: hawkish liberals who are fed up with toing the Left's standard party line, which just seems out of step with the new reality of the world. As I've mentioned before (see link above), I see public commentators like Paul Berman, Thomas Friedman and Christopher Hitchens likewise stepping away from the standard liberal playbook, and I can count several of my friends who have similar feelings.

It struck me in the shower just now that what I feel is the most apt label for myself at this point is "liberalterian." I see on Google that I'm not the first to coin the phrase, of course, but not many before me have used it. Another measure of its surprising originality is that all versions of it are presently unregistered as a web domain, though I have no particular interest in registering it myself.

I'm running out the door, so I don't have time to elaborate on exactly what I mean by the term, but I would hope it's relatively self-explanitory. I feel like a liberal-cum-libertarian. On many issues, where the classic liberal line would call for greater government intervention -- trade, prostitution, healthcare, education -- I lean more towards a laissez-faire attitude. With healthcare, for example, yes, I'd like to see some better baseline of support for those with no coverage, but at the same time, I think it is critical that we preserve the right for those who can afford to pay to be able to get the best coverage possible. Moreover, I want my tax dollars going to investing every ounce of medical might to preserve the last months of life of someone who took no personal responsibility for their health during the balance of their lives. I could see, for example, a health plan that give a baseline of support to everyone, but you lose credits if you partake in self-defeating habits like smoking, driving without a seatbelt, having unprotected sex, eating gluttonously, and so forth.

You get the idea, or at least I hope you do. I'm running out the door, so that's all I got for now, but I wonder if anyone else thinks this is a term with legs. I'd be happy to take credit for the next "metrosexual" and, moreover, hasty articulation of a new political identity that should help the Left find its sense of direction and priorities again.

Okay, now I'm a Kerry supporter. Go Kerry! ABB!! ABB!! ABB!!

Yikes. "Local news insane," as he puts it. She mainly buys fantastic amounts of crap on eBay and then never opens the boxes.

Okay, I have at least one good friend whose mom is this crazy.

I read a piece in the New Yorker a few weeks back about a guy who actually makes his living as a consultant to insane packrats like this. Actually, he basically just threw everything out for a fee. Anyone remember that story, the issue number, or better yet the link? I thought it would be a service to send it to this poor guy.

I'm a big fan of Ralph Nader. I admire the hell out of the guy's integrity, and in the face of a lot of negative backlash, he has single-handedly saved probably millions of lives around the world with his consumer advocacy, including his leading promotion of seat belts alone. I'm not exaggerating to say he's one of my heroes. I worked for his Public Interest Research Group (specifically NJPIRG) back in college. And I voted for him in the last two elections. Yes, I'm one of those.

Both times, I did so as a combination of a protest vote, because I was rather disgusted with both Clinton's and Gore's politics, and because he was the one candidate who I felt was really speaking about the critical issues. I suppose it would be like voting of Kucinich this primary season (though even I have to concede that Kucinich is a bit out there).

I never felt like I was really jeopardizing the elections with those votes at the time, as Clinton was such a shoe-in in 1996, and in 2000 Gore carried NY by a healthy margin, so don't blame me for Bush.

This time around, however, knowing what we know about what an evil fuck Bush is, I really don't think Nader should mess around running the risk of being a spoiler. He should really get on board the good fight and use his influence to promote his ideas inside the Democratic party, the best thing we Progressives have in this two-party state, and bring his supporters into the fold to get rid of the wicked witch, rather than aggitating from outside and chance dividing the vote. Hell, I'm all for him getting a cabinet position.

Thus, I encourage you to visit NaderExplore04.org and urge him not to run. Details at RalphDontRun.net.

Thanks to B.L. for the tip.

NYT reports on the prevalence of homosexuality in animals, like "Squawk and Milou, male chinstrap penguins, [who] are among several homosexual pairs at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Via Adi

I just found rather randomly this story on CNN's site (reported by AP, no less):

William Krar and Judith Bruey assembled a frightening arsenal in three rented storage units in this East Texas town, and federal authorities are trying to figure out why.

A raid in April found nearly two pounds of a cyanide compound and other chemicals that could create enough poisonous gas to kill everyone inside a space as large as a big-chain bookstore or a small-town civic center.

Authorities also discovered nearly half a million rounds of ammunition, more than 60 pipe bombs, machine guns, silencers and remote-controlled bombs disguised as briefcases, plus pamphlets on how to make chemical weapons, and anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-government books.

The findings have led to one of the most extensive domestic-terrorism investigations since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Seems odd that relative news junkie that I am, I never heard any other mention of this that I can recall. I search of NPR's archive comes up with nothing and searching the NYT's site back a year (the bust was in last April, though CNN's AP report appeared only a week ago) yields only one Op-Ed piece.

Sure seems like a story worth reporting, to me.

This, BTW, was the story I was looking for, a Fox report that U.S. troops in Iraq have found a seven-pound block of extremely toxic cyanide salt in the safehouse of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Iraqi poisons specialist affiliated with Al Qaeda. I was looking to see if anyone else corroborated the report, as, granted, Fox is a bit suspect. Nothing on Google News yet. But then, if we don't report a couple of Americans with enough toxins and explosives to level part of Texas, I'm not sure I'm surprised that more of the mainstream press isn't yet on this Iraqi weasons (dare of say "of mass destruction"?) cache.

More amusing content from brother Sean. I'd love to see this ad on CBS.

No, it did not take me 14 hours solid to solve this, more like three hours (kept screwing up the second level the more tired I got last night). Credit for showing me how to do this go to Miki, a Hungarian compatriot to the beguiling Mr. Rubik.

Brother Sean forwards this:

Prove for yourself, whether you are in control of your right foot. It's worth a try...

This is too funny! It works!! While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot slightly off the floor and make clockwise circles with your foot.

Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.

Your foot will change direction..... counter clockwise...You can't help it!

If that isn't goddamnedest thing, but it's true, in my case anyway. Go figure.

Get up, get out, you lazy lout
Get out of bed, you sinner
We need the sheets for tableclothes
It's almost time for dinner

- as heard by Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion, though presumably traditional