simblr.com

TV Guide: Sex and the spin-off

Patricia — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:45:21 +0000

brOOKE Shields tells Richard Clune how her new role imitates life.
A wife, a devoted mother and a devout professional. It’s easy to see the parallels between actor Brooke Shields’ life and that of her new small screen persona, Lipstick Jungle’s Wendy Healy.
Shields, who for many men of a certain age will always be the Blue Lagoon’s Emmeline, has found a niche role in her return to television.
Remarried and raising two children while also juggling her successful career, the 43-year-old accepts the similarities to her on-screen alter-ego, although she stops short of accepting the duress Healy feels when Healy speaks of the juggling act her character plays.
“We all struggle,” Shields muses.
“I’m not saying that any successful woman’s life is without struggle. But it doesn’t have to be miserable. I think you can be successful and still be extremely present in a healthy life. I think the women of Lipstick are saying to us that it’s OK to be successful and it’s also OK to be happy with your success, even though it might not be easy.”
The women of Lipstick are a taut trio of professionals plodding the glitzier footpaths of New York City.
Nico Reilly (Kim Raver) is editor-in-chief of the city’s – dare I say it – “hot” fictitious fashion bible Bonfire, while Victory Ford (Lindsay Price) is a fashion designer.
She’s also being pursued by the city’s resident billionaire-playboy Joe Bennett (’80s wunderkind Andrew McCarthy).
Healy is a high-profile film executive married to musician Shane (Paul Blackthorne).
Despite his support on the home-front, Healy struggles to cope with motherhood and her hot-shot career.
Feel like you’re being offered a designer rip-off?
Well the similarities between Lipstick Jungle and the ultimate NYC gal-pal series Sex And The City are obvious – which isn’t surprising given the involvement of Candace Bushnell – writer and executive producer of Lipstick.

news.com.au

Tags: blackthorne

Playstation Network Suspended; Free Online Gaming at a Price

Toni — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:00:40 +0000

There are two grand statements a Playstation 3 owner can whip out when engaged in debate with an X-box 360 or Wii owner over who owns the superior machine. First, is the fact that the PS3 doubles as a Blu-ray player. The second: the Playstation Network, or online playing, is absolutely free. However, today users have been logging on and finding out that the Playstation Network has vanished. Instead gamers are greeted with a message stating: “use of Playstation network has been suspended.” This means there is no online play for any games and one cannot visit the Playstation Store via PS3 or PC.
I am sure that Sony representatives are getting an ear full of complaint calls and the online help site for Playstation Network is probably buzzing with concerned gamers. It is nothing to worry about though, in fact, people who have owned a PS3 for quite some time now might even expect “Playstation Network Suspended” to be a routine message; indeed it is routine maintenance. The down time for the Playstation Network this go-round is scheduled to only be for six hours, though that is possibly an optimistic guess. The Playstation Network is suspended so it can update to operating system version 2.4. This means that when a player is able to get logged on to the network, they will next have to spend some time downloading the update to their machine and then installing it. This is all a simple series of button pushes, but depending on your internet speed can take a good deal of time.
Naturally 360 and Wii owners make “Playstation Network Suspended” messages the butt of many jokes about the PS3 system being inferior. As a PS3 owner, and casual gamer, right now I’m not complaining: free is free! In the past I’ve only actually tried to log on once and been denied due to the Playstation Network being suspended. I thought I had been banned for cheating in the game Resistance: Fall Of Man, due to my having tried to report a cheater the previous night and him threatening to report me when I really was not cheating. (As a quick side note: reporting a cheater to the Playstation Network is generally a waste of time and nothing comes of it.)

associatedcontent.com

Tags: network, playstation, suspended

What Would Red Say? Celtics Embrace Los Angeles Glitz (Update1)

Buster — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:00:05 +0000

June 17 (Bloomberg) — The Boston Celtics were blue-collar favorites and the Los Angeles Lakers the darlings of Hollywood when they last played for the National Basketball Association title 21 years ago.
Celtics fans came by subway from working-class Dorchester. The Lakers had actor Jack Nicholson. The Celtics played in an arena without air conditioning. The Lakers had what they called “the Fabulous Forum.'' Los Angeles had cheerleaders. Celtics Coach and President Red Auerbach didn't allow them.
As the two face each other again for the championship, the lines have blurred. For Nicholson, there are Celtics fans Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. For the Laker Girls, there are the Celtics Dancers. Boston has Lucky the Leprechaun, and, on some nights, fireworks.
“Unfortunately, watching Boston today is almost the equivalent of watching L.A.,'' said Karl Lawson, 33, a Boston sheet-metal worker and lifelong Celtics fan. “I liked the game I used to go to with my father when I was a kid. I don't like all these Hollywood bells and whistles.''
There will be bells and whistles aplenty when the best-of- seven series returns to Boston tonight, with the Celtics up three games to two. Starters will take the court one by one through fireworks smoke. The video scoreboard will blare, and flash player montages in high definition.
No Marketing Needed
Boston was one of the last NBA teams to provide entertainment beyond the game itself, said Marc Ganis, president of sports-marketing consultant Sportscorp Ltd. in Chicago. Because players like Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Larry Bird led the Celtics to a record 16 titles, gimmicks weren't necessary, Ganis said.
“They won with mythic figures, and therefore did not have to market, promote or entertain,'' Ganis said.
The Celtics lost to the Lakers in 1987 and haven't won a championship since beating the Houston Rockets the year before. The drought meant the club could no longer rely on team performance to draw fans and remain financially sound, said Celtics President Rich Gotham, 43.

bloomberg.com

Tags: boston, fireworks

George Carlin dies of heart problem

Tybalt — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:00:14 +0000

George Carlin, America’s most endearing stand-up comedian whose long career was distinguished by sharp social satire, died on Sunday of heart failure in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 71.
Carlin had a history of heart trouble that dated back to the 1970s and had long struggled with health problems. He complained of chest pain on Sunday afternoon and was immediately taken to the St. John’s Health Center, where he died at 5:55 p.m. PDT.
Born on May 12, 1937 in Manhattan, the comedian always said that his often-cynical satire simply echoed his real-life scorn for mankind’s greed, stupidity and inconsideration. He habitually took on contemporary political issues in the United States and attacked the flaws around him.
Carlin, who was also an author, was chosen only last week by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Carlin started appearing in television shows in 1960s, giving a perceptible performance in ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ He was often seen in ‘The tonight Show’ and starred in more than a dozen HBO specials. By the next decade he was being noted for his unpredictable performances. Carlin hosted the first broadcast of ‘Saturday Night Live’ in October 1975 and subsequently appeared on CBS Television’s ‘Tony Orlando & Dawn’ variety series.
He was acutely involved in the most-famous broadcast obscenity case of modern times, for his routine ‘Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television,’ which appeared 1972’s ‘Class Clown’ album.
When the album was aired on FM radio in 1973, it prompted a landmark case that went to the Supreme Court, where the material was judged indecent but not obscene. Carlin had once summed up his approach, saying, “I think it is the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

themoneytimes.com

Tags: brenda, hosbrook

Report: Bears to make Harris highest paid defensive tackle

Kerenza — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:00:04 +0000

Chicago defensive tackle Tommie Harris signed a four-year contract worth $40 million that an NFL source confirmed guarantees him $18 million overall and $27 million the first three years of a deal that will keep him a Bear through 2012.
The Bears have called a news conference today to celebrate a package that will make Harris the league’s highest-paid defensive tackle.
If Chicago and Harris hadn’t come to terms, the Bears were prepared to stick the franchise tag on Harris for 2009. Harris has been a Pro Bowl choice two of the past three seasons.
The Raiders set the bar outrageously high when they signed defensive tackle Tommy Kelly to a seven-year, $50.5 million deal that included $25.125 million in the first three years.
The 49ers signed wide receiver Josh Morgan, a sixth-round draft choice out of Virginia Tech. Terms weren’t announced. Morgan is the first of the 49ers’ six 2008 draft picks to sign.
New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw is serving a 30-day jail sentence on a probation violation in Virginia, his legal counsel said. Charles A. Stacy said Bradshaw reported to the Abingdon Regional Jail. Stacy said the underlying charge stems from an offense that occurred while Bradshaw was a juvenile. He declined to release any additional information.
Big Brown’s next start is set for the 11/8-mile Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park (N.J.) on
Aug. 3, co-owner Paul Pompa Jr. said. The colt’s last-place finish in the 11/2-mile Belmont Stakes on June 7 remains a mystery to the owners and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. “Big Brown is healthy,” Dutrow said of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner. Kent Desormeaux, criticized by some for his ride in the Belmont, is expected to retain the mount. The $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita is expected to be Big Brown’s final start before he is retired to stud.

insidebayarea.com

Tags: boudia, david

'It's not wonderful at all

Bertie — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:00:10 +0000

For a band that not so long ago had been left for dead, Portishead are enjoying a triumphant 2008. Third, their first studio album for 11 years, went straight to No 2 in the British charts a month ago, buoyed by almost unanimously ecstatic reviews. Their brief world tour has been equally well received. Other once-popular bands have reappeared after less time to find that the world no longer gives a tinker’s cuss about them - just ask Elastica or the Stereo MCs - so you might think that all this warm attention would gladden the heart of producer/multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow. But you would be wrong.
“Everything’s a nice surprise, but it doesn’t fill us with joy,” he says, his face crinkling into a pained expression. “My wife Emma called up and said, ‘Have you got the midweeks [chart positions] in?’ And I said, ‘Well no, not really. We’re not that bothered.’ And she’s like, ‘Well why? Don’t be silly. It’s brilliant. Fucking cheer up a bit.’” His wonky, self-mocking grin suggests that was not the first time he had heard those words.
Sitting outside Paris’s Zenith concert hall in the waning sunshine of a glorious spring evening, the 36-year-old Barrow is an amiable curmudgeon, quick to rail colourfully against what he hates about the modern world (almost everything, it seems), but equally quick to laugh at himself. Never mind what anyone thinks of Third, he says: all that matters is that he, guitarist Adrian Utley and vocalist Beth Gibbons have actually finished the bloody thing.
Once labelled trip-hop, alongside fellow west country innovators Massive Attack and Tricky, Portishead now have more in common with Radiohead: the fretful, left-leaning politics (Barrow deems David Cameron “a weasely fucking knobpuppet”); the old-fashioned principles (they have never licensed a song to an advert); the dogged determination to overhaul their sound, and the potent combination of bold, strange music with raw emotion. Third could be this year’s Kid A: an art-house statement, full of wrong-footing structures, sonic ambushes and gnomic anguish, that somehow finds its way into a lot of record collections.

music.guardian.co.uk

Tags: beautiful, everything, hurt, nothing

Ohio: It's More Than Just Soy

Glenna — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:00:21 +0000

As a güero in the Rio Grande Valley, most people assume I’m not from around here.
And they’re right.
When I tell people I’m from Ohio, I’ve gotten responses like “that’s a state, right?” or “isn’t Ohio cold?” People usually confuse it with Iowa, too.
Yes, Ohio gets very (very) cold in the winter, and yes it’s a state. And Ohio is more colorful than Iowa; no one from Iowa can claim, for example, that they has a river that actually caught on fire - multiple times - because it was so dirty.
Since the Valley is so isolated, and it seems like most people never leave here, allow me to fill you in on the Buckeye State.
>> It would take seven or eight Ohios to make up the same land area that Texas covers, yet Ohio is actually the seventh most populous state in America. Ohio has been the birthplace of seven of our nation’s presidents, second only to Virginia, who has eight. Of course, Ohio’s presidents such as Harding and Harrison and Taft, considered to be some of the worst commanders in chief of all time, couldn’t even powder the wigs of the likes of Virginia’s Washington or Jefferson.
>> Ohio is home to 10 Division I college athletic programs, one of them being Ohio State University, the largest institute of higher learning in the nation - and also the home of the most obnoxious college football fans you’re ever likely to find. OSU’s mascot is the Buckeye, a poisonous nut grown on a tree with smelly flowers. How intimidating.
>> Did I mention Ohio invented the airplane? The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, hail from my hometown of Dayton. They designed and built their plane, the Wright Flyer, in Dayton but actually flew it on a windy beach in North Carolina. To this day, Ohio and North Carolina still hotly contest which state can claim to be “first in flight,” the motto North Carolina has on its license plates.

themonitor.com

Tags: fire, larkin, valley

Nature and outdoors briefs

Barbie — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:00:03 +0000

OSU wetland earns national honor
Not many thriving wetlands remain undrained in Ohio, and only one has met the demanding standards required for entry onto the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.
That would be the Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park, which met five of nine criteria set forth by a multinational governing body to identify wetlands crucial to conservation, preservation and education. A habitat needs to meet only one criterion to be added.
The 50-acre facility operated by Ohio State University is the 24th wetland recognized in the United States, one of several in the Midwest and the first in the state.
In his nominating letter, H. Dale Hall of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted the presence of rare riparian marshes and ecotourism opportunities, as well as the high quality of ecological research conducted by OSU scientists.
Free and open to the public, the green space includes a series of paved and unpaved trails around two wetland cells, a billabong, several streams and a bottomland hardwood forest. Reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds can be found in abundance.
Earlier this month, the wetland also earned an Emerald Award from the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio for its impact on environmental education.
For more info, click to Swamp.ag.ohio-state.edu.
Experts to bring European art of parkour to Columbus
French martial-arts drama District B13 brought the sport of parkour into the international spotlight, and several European masters of the discipline will bring it to Central Ohio during the Memorial Day Weekend International Parkour Expo.
Parkour involves moving through urban environments — down flights of stairs, up walls, over gaps — using daring acrobatic techniques, which renowned experts like Dan Edwardes, Forrest and Kazuma will explain during events for all skill levels Thursday-Sunday, May 22-25.
Instructional sessions, discussions and hands-on training will take place at various locations including Battelle Riverfront Park and Old Man’s Cave in Hocking Hills.

columbusalive.com

Tags: kazuma

500 a month, free gas to drive a

Marshall — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:00:05 +0000

One company offering generous commuting benefits is online giant Yahoo, which rewards employees who organize carpools, ride bikes to work and take company shuttles to and from offices. Yahoo rewards these green-conscious commuters with free movie tickets, lunches, massages and other benefits. iReport: How is your company helping you
The company recently hired an "employee transportation coordinator" to help devise even more incentives.
"We’ve really been listening to our employees to make sure we help them find ways to make the cost of the commute a little less excessive," said Barbary Brunner, a Yahoo vice president.
But it is the Jobing.com vehicle that is most eye-popping. Company spokesman Joe Cockrell says the company started the rolling billboard cars in 2001, but only three executives took part in it.
But now, 60 percent of its 270 employees nationwide drive the cars.
"This year, for the first time, we’ve had a long waiting list for our wrap," Cockrell says. "It’s basically a huge sticker that goes on your car and should last in theory about three to four years."
It costs the company about $3,000 to $4,000 to turn the cars into rolling billboards.
They do have rules: The car can’t be older than three years, and employees must take a driving safety course and have clean driving records.
Once the cars are wrapped, employees shouldn’t flip the bird at other drivers. The company did have to "unwrap" one employee’s car because he got too many speeding tickets.
Cockrell says the program has proved to be a huge win-win. "These are mobile billboards, and wherever our employees go, so does that billboard."
Di Bono, who works in community relations, says she loves it, too. She says the cost of filling her tank has doubled in recent years. Now, her company pays her to drive her car.

edition.cnn.com

Tags: bono, di, misha

This week in Sci-fi TV: June 16

Derren — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:00:05 +0000

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 7pm-11pm, SciFi Channel
The Middleman - 8pm, ABCFamily [Series Premiere!]
Psychic Kids:Children of the Paranormal - 10pm, A&E
X-Men: The Animated Series - 10pm, Toon Disney
>Credit should go to the early 90’s success of this series for revitalizing the Marvel franchises popularity with kids and paving the way for the big screen adaption.
Batman: The Animated Series - 10:30pm, Toon Disney
>The Riddle makes his debut in this episode titled "If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?"
AFI’s 10 Top 10 - 8pm, CBS
>The special counts down the top 10 movies in 10 "classic American genres" including science fiction (the segment hosted by icon and butt-kicking Sigourney Weaver).
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - 8pm, Toon Disney
Ancient Discoveries - 9pm, History Channel
>Firearm experts explore the effectiveness of ancient projectile weapons. Cool.
Planet of the Apes - 10pm, AMC [Movie]
>The orginal, not the Burton/Wahlberg remake.
Ghost Hunters - 7pm-11pm, SciFi Channel
>The mid-season finale episode, at 9pm, takes TAPS to Fort Delaware. The episode following is a repeat involving antique dolls that move possibly on their own.
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - 8pm, Toon Disney
>The Spider-friends team up with the X-Men. Wolverine may or may not inexplicably have an Australian accent in this one.
MonsterQuest - 9pm, History Channel
>Investigating the "Ohio Grassman," a Bigfoot-like creature that builds nests.
SS Doomtroper - 7pm, SciFi Channel [Movie]
>Corin "I was also in Mansquito" Nemic (Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, Stargate SG-1) takes on Nazi engineered soldiers with a motley crew.
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - 8pm, Toon Disney
Troy - 8pm, AMC [Movie]
>Not exactly sci-fi but lots of sword and shield fights. And man-skirts.
Fear Itself - 10pm, NBC
Dead Alive - 10:30pm, IFC [Movie]
>A legendary B-movie - a man’s mother turns into a zombie in 1950’s Australia and things get out of control.

blog.zap2it.com

Tags: grassman