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Stern cloud on the horizon
Widespread reaction to Howard Stern's first days on Sirius sat radio:
From Howard Reich at the Chicago Tribune:
The words tumbled out in a torrent--vulgar descriptions of body parts, bodily functions and the kinkiest sexual practices.
The speakers seemed to revel in the telling, reiterating the blue
phrases like a mantra, then laughing uproariously at each repetition.
But was it funny? Was it supposed to be?
Each listener who tuned in Monday morning to Howard Stern's debut on
Sirius Satellite Radio answered those questions individually, for humor
remains as subjective as any other art form.
Yet to those who
work in comedy, Stern--and those who follow him into the anything-goes
realm of satellite radio--faces a steep artistic challenge. For if
anyone on satellite can say anything, will audiences be amused by
streams of profanity for long?
"My experience is that unless
you keep some kind of taboo, you lose the force of any kind of
language," said Bernard Sahlins, co-founder of Chicago's long-standing
comedy troupe Second City, interviewed before Stern's satellite debut.
"If the language becomes generally broadcast, approved, misused, it becomes meaningless.
"It has neither mystery nor effectiveness," Sahlins said.
The Detroit Free Press:
The new Howard Stern satellite radio show began Monday with all the expected hoopla. He put to rest rumors that he married his longtime girlfriend, model Beth Ostrosky -- in a comment complete with a federally banned expletive. "I
am not married. It's a nice feeling that we get along great. We're very
happy and I don't want to (expletive) it up," said Stern, who is
finally free of government decency laws on Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
(Channel 100). Stern has promised everything from stripper poles
to live sex on his new show. Yet he maintained his show was more about
ideas. Cursing, he said, would be part of the natural progression of
speech. "I feel this is a culmination of dreams for me," Stern said in an on-air news conference. "The only limit is our mind," he said. My take: I've never found Stern funny. He's the obnoxious kid from school who delights in yelling dirty words to shock people, a buffoon who substitutes obscenity for humor and then claims it's all about free speech. It ain't. Richard Pryor was both obscene and funny. Stern is just obscene. There's a difference and Sirius radio, in a to-the-death fight with the much larger XM-radio network, is gambling that it can attract more listeners by putting Stern on the air and letting him shout "fuck" to his heart's content. With luck, their attempt will fail miserably.
Jan 10, 2006, 07:00
Death of a journalist
David E. Rosenbaum, a longtime editor and reporter in the Washington
bureau of the New York Times, died yesterday after being beaten and
robbed Friday night near his home in upper Northwest Washington. Rosenbaum,
63, died at 7:10 p.m. at Howard University Hospital, where he was
treated for a head injury suffered during the attack on Gramercy Street
NW, said Philip Taubman, chief of the Times's Washington bureau. Doctors had operated on Rosenbaum on Saturday to relieve pressure on his brain. D.C.
police were canvassing the neighborhood yesterday for clues in the
attack, which occurred in a quiet section between Connecticut and
Wisconsin avenues. No arrests had been made. "David was one of the most accomplished journalists of his generation in Washington," Taubman said last night. "He
could do anything, and he did so many things brilliantly," Taubman
said. "He was an all-time great, versatile reporter who could tackle
any subject" and wrote about the most abstruse matters, particularly in
financial areas, with "remarkable lucidity, speed" and sophistication. Rosenbaum
joined the Washington bureau in 1968 and, with the exception of three
years as an editor in New York, had spent his entire Times career
there. He retired late last month but was to continue contributing to
the Times. [ Rest of the story ]
Jan 9, 2006, 06:21
That's why's he's an organist
A former church organist from Naugatuck has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on child sex charges.
Robert
Nelson, 51, pleaded guilty in October to sexually assaulting four young
girls. He was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison and 15 years
probation.
Police say the assaults began in 2000 and lasted through 2004.
Nelson
brought the victims to Six Flags amusement park, the mall and back and
forth from Immanuel St. James Episcopal Church in Derby, where he was
the church organist, according to court documents.
He took nude photographs of the girls, showed them pornography and had sex with them, police said.
Nelson apologized Friday in court. [ Rest of the story ]
Jan 8, 2006, 06:24
There's trouble in River City...
In Iowa, where you would think such thinks would be illegal, it is legal to take nude pictures of girls under 18 as long as the photographys aren't explicit or depict sexual acts.
Hmmmmm.
According to the Des Moines Register:
The Rachel Huggins case could send the message that Iowans can take
pictures of naked children in provocative poses and get away with it,
but tightening the law in a fair way might be impossible because only a
fine line separates a harmless snapshot, art and sexual exploitation,
advocates say.
Iowa's exploitation law allows for nude
photography, even if a child is younger than 18 and not a relative — as
long as it doesn't depict explicit images or one of several specific
sexual acts.
For instance, prosecutors in Jasper County this
week said it wasn't automatically a crime for a middle-aged man to snap
photographs of a fully or partially unclothed teenage girl.
According
to court documents, Rachel Huggins told investigators in 2004 that when
she was 14 or 15, Peter Sciarrotta, now 47, took numerous photographs
of her wearing a see-through slip in his basement studio, where he shot
senior photos and cut hair.
[ Rest of the story ]
Jan 8, 2006, 03:48
Teen queen bares not quite all
 |
| Teen queen Lindsay Lohan |
Teen queen Lindsay Lohan reveals a lot in
this issue of Vanity Fair. And yes she does get nude. And of course
it is reported that it is all due to dog-toting socialite Paris Hilton.
Recall, that Lindsay Lohan's inspiration for her nude shot, topless and covered of course, was Paris Hilton.
A source told In Touch in September,
"It was Paris Hilton's recent Vanity Fair cover, where she's topless
and covering her breasts with her arms, that inspired Lindsay to push
the envelope even further."
Drugs, Bulimia and Pregnancy Rumors:
The teen queen admits in the new issue of Vanity Fair that her low
body weight was due to bulimia. She also tells the magazine that she
has experimented with drugs in the past. [ Rest of the story ]
Jan 7, 2006, 06:27
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