Sunday, October 16, 2005

News review

Here's my part of the news review from The Third Estate Sunday Review. Jim called to remind me about the editorial we'll work on tonight and also to ask if I'd posted yet. We're supposed to offer our sections of the news review because it lets our readers see us covering something else. Problem with that is I do music here, I do music there. I'm not doing anything different. But just as it is what it is, I am what I am in an almost Popeye manner!

To be serious for a moment, C.I. was ripped off. I've got e-mails on that. Yeah, I know C.I. got ripped off. Yeah rip-off artist is a jerk. "What can I do?" is the question I'm asked. You're doing it. You're telling your friends. This isn't the first time rip-off has ripped someone off and rip-off long ago left the human race. This is one more thing to pass on and rip-off's image will further erode.

See rip-off's got an organ behind him. But he's . . . He's the Monkees, okay? C.I.'s the Mamas and the Papas. Like Cass once said of the two, the Monkees will get the hit but the Mamas and the Papas will have the legend. So when you're mad, and you should be, I'm mad too, just remember we're dealing with Davy Jones, et al, a bunch of actors hired to pretend they're musicians, versus the very groovy Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliot, Denny Dougherty and John Phillips. C.I.'s organice, rip-off is plastic. Take comfort in that.

Here's the thing from the news review:

C.I.: Thank you, Rebecca. Due to the time we used on The Times, we're running short so Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man and Kat of Kat's Corner will do a joint entertainment report. Betty, why don't you start.
Betty: Joal Ryan summarizes the TV season thus far and notes that Chris O'Donnell's show was one of the first casualties. Wonder if "Lisel" still holds "deep affection" for O'Donnell's alleged "adorableness"? In every non-entertaining news, I'll join with Laura Flanders in expressing my disappointment that the Millions More March promised a lot, talked a great deal about inclusion, but, as noted on The Laura Flanders Show, when it came time to put their money where their mouth's were, they elected to uninvite the sole openly gay speaker. They put on a good show ahead of time. At a time when one of the issues the black community needs to address includes AIDS rate, this black woman is highly offended that a promised spot to an openly gay speaker was denied at the last minute. The promoters were happy to push this speaker as a sign of how they'd changed, grown and were going to be more inclusive. But in the end, they demonstrated that was only talk. That's an editorial statment from me and may or may not reflect the opinions of others particiapting. Now I'll hand off to Kat.
Kat: I've got your back, Betty. I agree one hundred percent. And I've got three things. Dona told me to take my time but I know we're all tired, and many of us angry, so I'll stick with three things. First, to correct the statement earlier, this is actually the third time that the same writer ripped off The Common Ills. This summer, at The Common Ills, you, C.I., noted, in an apology format, that you had neglected to cite BuzzFlash for their work in pressing the Plame issue. Shortly after you posted that entry giving them the credit, the same writer suddenly remembered to give credit to BuzzFlash. That's one. Two. On Labor Day, The New York Times falsely announced the release of Greg Dulli, formerly of the Afghan Whigs, album Amber Highlights. The CD had previously been sold only at concerts. The CD is now being sold, not Labor Day week as The Times announced would be the case, online at Dulli's own site and at amazon.com. Dulli has only manufactured 5,000 copies of the CD. For those of us, like myself, who read that the album was coming out the Tuesday after Labor Day in the paper of record and went to Tower, et al to find this new CD, The New York Times owes not only a correction but an apology. It won't happen. But it needs to be noted that before they do their next "upcoming releases" they need to check their facts. They also need to ask why an album with only 5,000 copies manufactured was even noted since they don't cover independent releases as a general rule? Third Bono's got problems. Currently, as noted at the BBC, he's slamming politicians for attempting to profit off U2. Named are Hillary Clinton and Rick Santorum, who are using their suites at concerts as fundraisers. Bono's offended. A spokesperson for the group tells the BBC: "U2 concerts are categorically not fundraisers for any politician . . . They are rock concerts for U2 fans." Of course, it's perfectly okay to give seats out to Bully Boy twins or to Hatchet face from the Senate. If a line's been crossed, it was crossed when Bono put himself in service of the Bully Boy and Tony Blair. Bono's also, as reported by The New York Times, on the good end of tax breaks in Ireland and fighting to keep it that way. Man of the people, Bono.After the phoniness of Live 8, Bono's karma appears to be out to get him.
C.I.: Kat, you read Z-Net religously. Would you like to comment on the article in it re: Bono?
Kat: "How Rock Stars Betrayed The Poor" should be required reading to anyone still thinking investment guru Bono is a man of the people. The article addresses the Live 8 concerts and makes it clear that Geldof, Bob Geldof, knew ahead of time that the whole aid talk was a sham. He was warned ahead of time. Still he and Bono pushed it as historic. Only to act surprised later on when it was obvious that the aid package was nothing to cheer about.
C.I.: Thank you, Kat and thank you, Betty. That wraps up another Third Estate Sunday Review News Review. We thank Dallas, always, for hunting down links. We thank Jess' parents for all their help in hunting down topics. We thank Jim and Dona of The Third Estate Sunday Review for being the online "producers" of this and making sure that everything flows. Hopefully, they did such a great job that you won't even be able to tell where we stopped to take a one and a half hour break. Thanks also to Ava who got stuck with a statement and put her own report on hold. The statement was the statement of The Third Estate Sunday Review minus myself because I'm the only one who didn't read the article in question. Nor do I intend to. But with The Third Estate Sunday Review claiming me, I need to clarify that the statement wasn't made by me and I don't intend to make a statement other than it's nice to be read. We'll note that community member Wally has just started his own site, The Daily Jot. We'll see you next week.





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