Merv Griffin July 6,1925-August 9,2007

Merv Griffin has died.

He may not have been the very best TV talk show host, but he was certainly the most clever.

He invented "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" and invested big time in real estate. He became a hotelier late in life and was often listed as one of America's richest men.

Here's the story from today's Globe & Mail.

Bonnie and Clyde's 40th!

It's the 40th anniversary of the release of "Bonny and Clyde."

I was in London for 2 weeks. The day before I had gone to see George Segal and Jason Robards Jr. In "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." It was a disaster of a movie. A big zero.

Then I went to see "Bonnie and Clyde," which had no press build-up. I had no idea what it was about. I just wanted to sit in a dark movie house and be swept away by images on a screen.

Swept away, I was. Along with the movie-going world.

Read this article in today's New York Times and click on the various trailers and clips. And if you've never seen this flick, rent the DVD tonight. It's a stunner. Warren Beatty, Fay Dunaway, Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder, among others.

Victor adds Up the Carnage

And while the gushing enablers sing the praises of all the great work in the DTES, the deaths are mounting:

"Hi David:

Our local rag neglected to report on a story that appeared in Friday's Globe. Overdose deaths in Vancouver increased to 36 so far this year from 26 the year before. That's a 40 percent increase. The story also reported that everywhere else in BC, overdose deaths went down. Now can one of the bloated, aging, gasbag columnists at the Sun explain again how the Safe Injection Site is reducing ODs? Or maybe Senator Larry Cirrhosis can explain it to Harper. Just wondering."

Wilful Blindness is Dangerous & Irresponsible

Seeing ugliness in beauty is the curse of the tormented soul.

What then are we to call seeing beauty in ugliness? A blessing? Sainthood?

Perhaps.

More often than not it is the projection of a kind of "loveliness delirium" that refuses to witness the truth before it.

People who do this are nuts and they put all of us in peril. If this kind of deluded soul were in the trenches with you, you'd have to kill him to survive the enemy.

Read the following letter to the editor in today's paper. All the Poverty Pimps and Gushing Enablers managed to impress this owner of the Rosy Colored Glasses Franchise.

Save us from the Happy People, Puleeeeze...

"Open your heart to the beauty on Hastings Street

Letter Published: Saturday, August 11, 2007

I recently participated in the Vancouver Street Retreat sponsored by the Shambala Centre of Vancouver, one of two Americans on the retreat.

It is my understanding that the Hastings Street homeless people will be dispersed during the 2010 Olympics. I have no voting voice in Canada, but I invite you, citizens of Greater Vancouver, to rethink this plan.

As I went through the days and nights on the street, I looked at the notion of living versus surviving. Through my own experience, I have seen that, although there is indeed base survival on Hastings, there is a heck of a lot more living going on there.

We found a vibrant network of helping, concern and, yes, love. In compassion for all citizens of your community, please do not deprive these people of their network.

I would like to thank the many organizations, businesses and individuals who went out of their way to guide and teach us during the retreat. My hope is that Vancouverites will see their underbelly as their greatest teacher.

Beauty exists there on Hastings Street; you only have to open your heart to it.

Judith F. Hurcomb
Granger, Wash."

YIKES!

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue pt.2/2

THis is part 2...so...you've got to start with the next video...which is...right...part 1...

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue pt.1/2

Gershwin plays Gershwin!!!

cowboys herding cats

A Crying Shame and a Waste

My old friend, Michael Berry, has been charged with 23 more sex offenses.

Regardless of how this may resolve, of how guilty or innocent he may be, let me put something on the record.

I feel sad for anyone who may have been victimized by Michael, and I also feel sad for Michael.

He is described in the press as a man who taught acting and who directed.

Well, he was a great teacher and a great director.

Anyone who knew him, knew that he was fatally hot-wired for young women. What we didn't know was that he may have also been a pedophile and pornographer, and that's a disaster for all.

He was a friend and colleague and wonderful director.

Rip-Off Films May Leave - Boo Effing Hoo

Kirk Shaw is full of it.

And Yvonne Zacharias tells only half the story.

Mr. Shaw, the President of the hysterically Over-Named Insight Films, has threatened to close down his movie making Maple Ridge shop and move it to Hungary or somewhere if the IATSE union keeps trying to sign up members who work on his dreadful movies.

Bye, Kirk.

Ms. Zacharias has written a wonderfully slanted piece in today's paper.

What she has forgotten to tell the uninformed reader is that a) Mr. Shaw's movies are unwatchable (I've been in several lately and tried to watch...yikes! Kill the DVD and go back to Deal or No Deal), and b) that he has been making a personal fortune for years by getting away with paying starving and desperate actors minus 25% of scale wages to drive out to badly made sets and freezing trailers in Maple Ridge at 6 in the morning, and c) even his casting people are incompetent amateurs. (Last week, a girl hired to read with me in an audition started in the middle of the scene. Last month, the camera operator started fixing her pony tale in the middle of a scene.)

The movie business is all smoke and mirrors. That a reporter for a major newspaper would not see through the obvious bull is a crying shame and an indicator of somethingorother.

Kirk, baby...have a nice trip and watch out for the potatoes and cole slaw...they'll mess with your digestion.

Marching to a Different Drummer

Yesterday, I drove up the Granville Street hill and passed the public protest against China and in support of Tibet.

Maybe one day I will be proven wrong and all these protests will turn the tide.

Maybe if people had marched with placards in 1943, fewer Jews would have been murdered in camps in Europe.

Maybe the marching is the important thing and the result is secondary.

But in my heart, I don't believe any of this.

I think it is easy to yell and scream and wear a cardboard sign around your neck about conditions many thousands of miles away. I think it is stupid to go to a foreign sovereign state and hang banners from beloved monuments.

I think it is far braver and more to the point to work diligently at small, local problems in our own back yard.

Police Investigating Police - Not a Good Idea

Maybe the Drunk Mountie who hung with crooks has truly rehabilitated himself and is now a truly Worthy fellow.

But how are we to know?

His case was heard by 3 senior officers.

As a result, in spite of the fact that he has been banned from driving for a year, he is still on the Force, albeit at an obscure desk job.

The day the police stop investigating themselves will be the day the rest of us feel that justice is being served.

Dope Pushers Have Your Best Interests at Heart

Oh how amazing! I am truly in shock. Where's my defibrillator?

Big Pharma opposes cheap-drug policy.

Well, duh!

Big Pharma hauls out scare tactic number 32-11B slash 46 subsection "a" - FEAR!!!!

If you buy cheaper drugs, the Law of Unintended Consequences will rush in the back door, they holler, and more people will get sick and eat up more hospital dollars.

Right.

And banks care about you.

The Sultan of S----What?

Barry Bonds is a grotesque. (THE FOTO IS HANK AARON.)

But no more than the fools who have celebrated his latest home run hit.

A man goes from size 10 shoe to size - what? - 13 ovenight? His hat doesn't fit?

This guy is a Chem Monster, an 'Oid machine, plain and simple.

The No-Lifers, who write in to papers and call in to radio shows say, "He's never been charged with anything, never been convicted."

To them and all the other daytime dreamers, I say, "Sure. And Al Capone never killed anyone."

Not-So-Golden Sunken Arches

And if Transclunk are heartless bastards, what can we call McDonald's?

One of the richest companies in the world fires a dedicated, loyal 23-year immigrant employee, who is earning the enormous wage of $9.75/hr, because she has a medical problem.

There must have been 4200 ways to works this out, but the Arch-Villains simply fired her. No discussion.

BC Human Rights has ordered them to pay the lady $50,000. How about $5,000,000?

How about sending a message to these thugs?

Transclunk and Worksafe are Pigs

Perhaps the good Justice Bruce Butler should try driving for Transclunk one day.

He might then have a tad more sympathy for the traumatized driver whose claim he just threw out of court.

I know, I know.

I can already hear all you hard-hearted bastards yelping that "sympathy" is not the currency of the courts, nor should it be.

But, since when is kindness an outlaw?

It is disgusting to me that the Workers' Compensation Board bothers to fight these kinds of claims. The man has impaired vision and a steel plate in his head from his wonderful years of service to bus riders, who regularly spit at him and call him names because he has the audacity to ask that they pay their fare.

Last year there were 243 such assaults against drivers.

Who is running to get this highly desirable job?

When giant corporations fight Little Guys & Gals for the pennies they deserve, I kak.

See the next story about the Not-So-Golden Arches.

Djokovic as Roddick, Hewitt, Sampras, Nadal + more part 2

He's got them down...

Novak Djokovic as Nadal and Sharapova part 1

#3 player in the world imitating some others

Barbra Streisand - Send In The Clowns (One Voice) Gorgeous!

Send in the Clowns - Judi Dench - Hey Mr. Producer