Monday, October 10, 2005

George Clinton documentary on Independent Lens (PBS)

Remember Indepedent Lens (PBS) will feature George Clinton -- as they say on Larry King, "FOR THE HOUR!" It's called Parliament Funkadelic -- One Nation Under A Groove. It's a documentary.

I'm going to note "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-09-05" from Sunday. I'm including Ava's part right before my music report because I know she worked her butt off to get her report as brief as possible because we were running short on time. The news review is done in one hour and Dona keeps time. We do it like we're doing a news broadcast.

Dona came up with the idea after they were talking about the pressures in one of her class, the pressure of delivering the news when you had a TV deadline as opposed to a print one. While they were discussing that, it hit her that this would be a feature for The Third Estate Sunday Review that everyone could work on and that could be done in an hour because there are some features, that when they go up, you'd never believe how long they took to write. So this was a way to provide a feature where there was a set time limit. It's a lot of work, intensive work, and it can get crazy because Dona and Jim are dead serious about it being an hour. If someone's not ready, you could have "dead air." That's why C.I.'s anchor. Dona made that decision because you had to have someone who could keep the conversation going on any topic. And someone who would listen so that if we've compressed something so much to fit everything in and it's no longer clear, you end up with a comment or question of clarity.

C.I. hates being the anchor and feels like we get to have all the fun vs. sitting there and saying, "Now we go to . . ." C.I. does have to do the "Now we go to" but if you read those things, you'll see C.I.'s doing a lot more than that each week. Ava did her report quickly, in half the time that she was timed on it. So Dona says "Stretch" and C.I. brings up The Smurf story. That was our favorite news item. Jess' parents found it and we knew that had to go in somewhere.


C.I.: Thank you, Rebecca. For a grab bag of items not covered elsewhere, we go to The Third Estate Sunday Review's Ava.

Ava: C.I., following up on Rebecca's look at the environment, I'll begin by noting that a mudslide is thought to have killed 1400 people in Guatemala. Mario Cruz, spokesman for the Fire Brigrade, has stated that there are no survivors. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been rocked by an earthquake that's thought to have killed 1800 people in Pakistan alone, with 300 people thought to be dead in India. With regards to Afghanistan, Scotland's Sunday Herald reports that: "Given the remoteness of so many communities it may take weeks to know the full death toll. " The Sunday Times of London has an excerpt from James Yee's book For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire. Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, was falsely accused by the United States government of espionage, charges that were bandied about by various news outlets who assisted the government in smearing Yee. The book is his response and offers an inside look at conditions in Guantamao Bay. As noted by the International Federation of Journalists, workers at Canada's CBC have ended their fifty day walk-out and appear victorious in contract talks. Finally, what's happened to TV's The Smurfs since the animated cartoon stopped production of new episodes? Canada's The Windsor Star reports that, in a new cartoon put out by UNICEF, the village the animated cartoon characters reside in is destroyed by bombs dropped by war planes.

C.I.: Thank you, Ava for including the promised update on The Smurfs. The reason for the cartoon?

Ava: Unicef is attempting to raise awareness on the victims of bombings. The cartoon has already began airing in Belgium.

C.I.: Thank you. For our final report, on the world of music, we go to Kat of Kat's Corner (of The Common Ills). Kat?

Kat: This week, check your local listings, PBS will air a documentary on funk master and pioneer George Clinton on Independent Lens. Saturday's broadcast of The Laura Flanders Show featured a discussion on this documentary in the third hour. In other news, the Beastie Boys are denying rumors of a breakup. November 8th sees the release of the group's first hits collection entitled Solid Gold Hits. The Black Eyed Peas will be performing a free concert as part of Honda Civic Live that will take place October 22nd and 23rd. The Independent of London has a wide ranging interview with Carly Simon entitled "Carly Simon: Boho Queen" where Carly discusses breast cancer, meeting Mick Jagger, marriage to James Taylor, her current marriage to poet Jim Hart, and various other topics including Joni Mitchell. Carly's Moonlight Serenade is released in England Monday. Stevie Wonder, who played harmonica on "As Time Goes By" for Carly Simon's Coming Around Again, album not only has a new album coming out, as noted last week, entitled A Time To Love and due to be released October 18th, he's also discussing participating in a new surgery, involving microchips, that, if successful, would allow him to see. December 1st, Comedy Central's The Daily Show will feature it's first musical performance when the White Stripes come on to perform and be interviewed by Jon Stewart. Rolling Stone reports that Police guitarist Andy Summers is working on an autobiography to be entitled One Train Later. Rolling Stone also reports that a new concert film from Greenday will debut in select theaters at the start of November. On November 15, the film, entitled Bullet In A Bible, will be released on DVD.

C.I.: Thank you, Kat. And that wraps up The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review for 10-09-05. As always Jim and Dona, both of The Third Estate Sunday Review, worked behind the scenes to edit, research and keep things running smoothly. In addition thanks to Jess' parents who help with the research and to Dallas who hunts down links.

Remember too that Dolly Parton's new CD comes out tomorrow Those Were The Days. The single's a mistake (not because of a song on it but because it's a sampler that's not labeled as a sampler) but it should be a strong CD. Her voice sounds good and in the bits on the sampler demonstrates that she's singing the material like she means it and making it her own.







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