My version of the Zeitgeist Checklist.

A long time ago, the Zeitgeist Checklist (a sort of Top 10 of national/world events) used to appear in THE NEW REPUBLIC.  More recently, it surfaced on Slate.com.

This is in no specific order, but you're welcome to arrange it as you choose and add or delete events.

1. Lindsay Lohan, tabloid ingenue and occasional actress/singer, is allegedly found with cocaine.

2. Paul Newman, citing memory loss among other things (my guess is that a lack of good scripts is the primary factor), retires from film acting after an oft-distinguished 52-year career.

3. George W. Bush wants to keep staying the course in Iraq.

4. Dick Cheney wants to give war a chance re Iran.

5. Alberto Gonzales is still singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going."

6. In Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency tells poor people to suck it up and pay a large-increase-over-two-years re bus passes. 

7.  The whitewash revisionism of Ronald Reagan's Presidency continues with Douglas Brinkley's Nancy-approved condensation of RR's White House diaries.

8. According to this month's VANITY FAIR, Susan Sarandon and Bruce Willis have forged an across-ideological-lines alliance to help Iraq War vets get better medical care.

9. Jordin Sparks wins AMERICAN IDOL; Blake, the blandest human beatbox on planet Earth, is the runner-up.

10. Bill and Hillary Clinton allegedly devised a "20-year plan" decades ago; this plan was to lead to both of them winning the Presidency.

BONUS ENTRY: Happy talk today (Tuesday, May 29th) on THE VIEW regarding the disappearance of Rosie O'Donnell; Barbara says Rosie's always welcome, Elisabeth talks about forgiveness and Whoopi Goldberg (possible replacement) shows up; from what I saw of the show, the edgiest talk consisted of the relatively safe topics of watching porn videos and seeing men naked--as Scott Fitzgerald said, more-or-less, boats against the current sliding back into the past.

The War President gets what he wants.

Here's an interesting sentence from a news article carried by AOL on the Democratic Party flip-flop re the current endless war led by Cowboy George:

In addition to jettisoning their plan for a troop withdrawal timeline, Democrats abandoned attempts to require the Pentagon to adhere to troop training, readiness and rest requirements unless Bush waived them.

No further comment except to say that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are chickendoves and the Democratic Leadership Council (the let's-imitate-Republicans wing of the Democratic Party) should receive equal condemnation as well.

CBS reality series: An accident waiting to happen?

There's a reality series called KID NATION coming to CBS next season which will take children (age not known at present) and set them up in a New Mexico ghost town to see how they'll carry on in a world without adult supervision.

Yes, there will undoubtedly be some kind of scripting and multiple takes (a reality show way of ensuring the kind of "reality" the producers and network want).  And it's a safe guess that this kind of social engineering will involve young people getting the kind of psychological damage which comes from humilation and bullying in a public forum (let's leave off the table the issue of "they wanted to do it" for now).

And since the participants will be younger than most reality series "stars", CBS will probably bully them further with don't-tell-or-we'll-bury-you nondisclosure agreements.

Maybe CBS could have a reality series where Les Moonves and other execs jump into a swimming pool filled with human and animal feces in order to grab a billion dollars in tax-free cash.

That's a series I'd rather watch.

Jerry Falwell's passing.

I haven't been listening to the eulogies for Jerry Falwell, godfather of the Moral Majority.

Instead I think of one of the greatest sight gags during Chuck Jones' tenure as architect of the Road Runner cartoons.

A cactus falls into a canyon.  Wile E. Coyote falls not long after.

Pause.

Then Wile E., screaming from cactus needles in the posterior, flies up towards the camera until the viewer sees a ultraclose shot of his face.

For all the arrogance, smugness, divisiveness (who can forget Jerry calling Ellen Degeneres ELLEN DEGENERATE?) and ham-handed insistence that his interpretation of Jesus' teachings spoke for all of Christianity, it's not that hard to replay that cartoon gag with Jerry Falwell standing in for Wile E. Coyote.

Back from Hawaii.

Sorry to have been away from blogging for so long.  My wife Valarie and I were vacationing in Hawaii and I stayed mostly computerless for the trip.

Later this week, I'll resume a more consistent schedule of posting.

The poetry jihad continues.

A few posts back, I mentioned the differences between the local poetry community's distaste for "negativity" and the raucous back-and-forth found on a film blog I occasionally post comments to:

In the poetry community, listserves are now kept pure and decorous with miscreants often banned for arguing with other poets.  Sometimes banishment can be avoided as long as you're not criticizing a poet on his/her listserve.  And raucous disagreements of the HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE variety aren't found since some poets running listserves scrutinize every post for evil and perfidy, or the potential for evil, before allowing them--leading to listserves mostly being filled with poets announcing their upcoming readings.

Perhaps the difference between the poetry and film communities is this: the film community is more secure in commenting on an art form that is consumed by millions of people while the poetry community (at least in L.A., counting a few hundred poets who are active) practices an art form that pays very little, if anything, and isn't often heard outside its tribe.  Therefore, a hemophiliac level of hypersensitivity exists, leading people to think that silencing naysayers/stifling dissent is being protective of their brothers and sisters.  If this mania for avoiding "hurtfulness" could be channeled into, say, more intervenue (two readings crossing over to each other's venues--as was done years back with Beyond Baroque and The World Stage) reading events, the community would be better off.  Instead, there's the grim humor of witnessing socially-conscious progressives going into contortions to justify censoring "negativity" of others while complaining when they are censored themselves.

And, just when I was looking forward to a brighter future, I discovered that someone who will be nameless had a poem published in a poetry hosts' anthology (which I also contributed to).  The poem was a "found" piece, stringing together various comments I made on a listserve I'm no longer part of.  Some of those comments are regrettable (and I've tried to apologize to the person concerned); the others are removed from their original context and arranged to condemn me for changing my mind (i.e. going back and forth) about whether or not to be a "good citizen" of local poetry.

But what was most bothersome was that the poem strongly implied that I had no business being a host of a poetry reading in a public venue.

I've had three readings at Coffee Junction and am looking forward to the fourth next month.  I've done my best to keep the poets and the venue owner satisfied.  And I hope to keep the reading going--expanding the audience and the various types of poets booked there.

And the person who wrote the poem is invited to come too.  Though I may dislike the poem and its implications, there will be no turned-off mike and no ejection if he chooses to read it at Coffee Junction.

I still believe in freedom of speech, even though sensitivities--including my own--may be occasionally bruised.

The Bush Administration continues to blithely ignore naysayers.

George W. Bush continues to live in his own version of Bizarro World.  Alberto Gonzales' "I don't recall" performance last Thursday is worthy of support since the embattled Attorney General said nothing and didn't embarrass anyone but himself; therefore to Bush, it's a "fine job" that ensures Gonzales will stay employed until (presumably) the next performance-related scandal erupts.

And I can't help but mention the recent Correspondents' Dinner, where Stephen Colbert's caustic and funny truth-to-power performance last year was erased by impressionist Rich Little doing nonoffensive schtick from decades past.

Although Sheryl Crow and Laurie David came off as pampered, condescending limousine liberals on REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER recently (Ms. David made a too-lordly remark about "educating" the South re global warming), they didn't deserve the "I don't work for you--you're not Americans" scolding they received from Karl "MC" Rove at the Correspondents' Dinner.

Note to Karl Rove: when I see right-wing papers like the L.A. DAILY NEWS acknowledging Earth Day this year, maybe it's time to consider that the remaining 29% of diehard true-Bush-believers might contain a sizable number of people who might want to preserve the environment for the sake of their grandchildren and future generations to come.

Chris Richardson and Simon Cowell on last night's IDOL.

Apparently there's controversy about how Simon Cowell allegedly rolled his eyes after AMERICAN IDOL contestant Chris Richardson mentioned the Virginia Tech tragedy on last night's show during the judges-comments portion.  Simon later issued a statement that the eye-rolling only related to him talking to Paula Abdul about Richardson defending consciously-nasal "country" singing.

And Cowell's sincere mention of the tragedy later on seems to have been forgotten by those looking for more celebrity missteps to complain about.

But it's tempting to roll one's eyes about Chris Richardson seeming to use a sympathetic statement on Monday's tragic killings as a blatant "win the crowd" tactic after being taken to task for a subpar vocal performance.

I hope this isn't being too cynical about someone's motives, but it would have been more appropriate if Richardson had made his statement before performing, rather than afterwards.