FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
NedNickerson2010 YouTube Channel video: The Fifth Dimension - One Less Bell To Answer. Uploaded on April 16, 2011. http://youtu.be/bmM72gxbdfUPerfection!
Plutootjes YouTube Channel video: Dusty Springfield "A House is Not a Home" from Burt Bacharach 1970 TV special. Uploaded November 2, 2008.
PBS YouTube video: Burt Bacharach's Best: My Music, June 2013, PBS. The My Music series spotlights the greatest hits and moments from songwriter and arranger Burt Bacharach in an all-new special airing June 2013 on most PBS stations. Uploaded May 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/taa-K_DNef0
TooleMan87 YouTube Channel video: "Hollywood Palace 1967 w/host Herb Alpert Part 5 of 7". ABC-TV's "The Hollywood Palace" of December 12, 1967. Uploaded July 31, 2009. Order of guests performers in this segment with host Herb Alpert, and Burt Bachrach on piano, saluting Bachrach/David songs: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, Wes Montgomery, Liza Minnelli, Baja Marimba Band, Liza Minnelli and Wes Montgomery, Herb Alpert.http://youtu.be/BvxCuN6W_9U
This last video is clearly one of THE greatest single videos that currently exist on YouTube.
In the late 1960's, some music critics said that Bachrach's music suffered from, perhaps, an "overcomplex melodic structure."
Well, whatever it was, people liked it and couldn't get enough, and neither could other talented singing artists of the time -and future singers hearing it as kids.
PBS -The Charlie Rose Show, Charlie Rose with cast of Downton Abbey: Jim Carter, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville & Joanne Froggatt, taped December 11, 2012. http://www.hulu.com/watch/434618#i0,p9,d0
PBS and MASTERPIECE bring you a Downton Abbey Cast Panel & Discussion / 8pm ET Dec. 12, 2012. http://youtu.be/YA-6n4d_dMo Downton Abbey Season 3 premieres on MASTERPIECE on PBS on Sunday January 6th at 9 p.m. Eastern. The livestreamed panel was moderated by MASTERPIECE executive producer Rebecca Eaton and feature the following: Gareth Neame..... Co-creator and Executive Producer Hugh Bonneville ... Lord Grantham Jim Carter ... Mr. Carson Rob James-Collier ... Thomas Barrow Joanne Froggatt ... Anna Bates Elizabeth McGovern ... Lady Cora Sophie McShera ... Daisy Mason
EmilyBarkerandTRCH video: Nostalgia by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo from their "Despite The Snow" album. Track was subsequently re-recorded with composer Martin Phipps and used as the theme to "Wallander," winning a Royal Television Society Award for best original theme and a BAFTA for best TV soundtrack.Uploaded on June 26, 2010. http://youtu.be/w098rz-rdiQ
PBS has taken seemingly forever to catch-up on the English language TV series adaption of Henning Mankell'sKurt Wallandernovels, starring Kenneth Branagh as the idealistic Swedish police inspector who investigates murder in the greater Ystad area of Skåne in southern Sweden, that has both its rural-but-beautiful charm as well as the Danish medieval old town area. (And many readers of the blog!)
BBCWorldwide video: Wallander's Revenge. Scenes of Ystad Square. Uploaded on March 5, 2010. http://youtu.be/0QpgFaCQOnc Originally broadcast on BBC1,where it continues to air and Series 3 started up in early July, almost two years since the last episode of Series 2 was supposed to air in the U.S., this past Sunday we finally saw Season 3's series-opener An Event in Autumn. Below, a preview of that episode.
This has been a particular problem far from both Albion and Wallander'sYstad, as where I live in South Florida, the Miami PBS station hasNOT shown some of the series episodes from the previous two seasons, the last of which was supposed to air in October of 2010.
gogomezzz video: PBS "Wallander" Series 1, Episode 1- "Sidetracked" based on the 1999 novel "Villospår," starring Kenneth Branagh as Police Inspector Kurt Wallander. Here, with David Warner as his father Povel Wallander, who suffers from Alzheimer's Disease. Uploaded on October 6, 2010. http://youtu.be/gXRjmsMpaA8 I know because I've waited and waited and waited... only to hear about it from friends in other U.S. cities, while we in backwater South Florida were getting buried under an avalanche of WPBT's mishmash of programming geared to get elderly Anglophiles and elderly supporters of Israel to cough up some money during one of their all-too-frequent fundraising drives.
The last point is ironic given Mankell's well-known anti-Israel political sentiments, even to the point of having been a passenger and willing participant on one of the Palestinian Ship of Fools flotillas that never succeeded, but still, I wanted to see the shows -in order- and not have to buy the DVD to do that.
I've said it here before but it bears repeating: to me, compared to the options that are available to other PBS viewers in other parts of the country, WPBT-TV, Channel 2, based out of North Miami, is the worst-run PBSstation of any American city I've ever lived in, given its resources and locale, and I know of what I speak.
It is so far from what it once was - entrepreneurial, opportunistic and community-minded.
That was back when I and some friends of mine in the pre-Cable TV mid-1970's, actually went around the North Miami Beach area trying to get local businesses -especially bars and restaurants- to contribute money to Channel 2 when they announced, quite out-of-the-blue, that IF they received enough money to purchase the rights, they would simulcast -wait for it- the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals.
We succeeded, they aired it, we watched it in huge numbers -and the then-small number of sports bars were happy to have so many hockey fans showing up heir venues.
Everyone won, especially South Florida's sports fans. The current management people making decisions at Channel 2 seem not capable of the sort of thinking outside-of-the-box that its former execs did to give South Florida programming that nobody else was offering us.
If they ever has a fastball, they've lost it, and it's clear that it's never coming back...
See also BBC News Sir Kenneth Branagh: Knighthood 'surreal' 18 June 2012 Last updated at 10:03 ET http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18493574
"Wait, what is a weekend?" — Oh, Dowager Countess, if you were present Saturday night at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, you'd surely discover it's the period of time when the cast of "Downton Abbey" lets loose.
Still beaming with an Emmy glow — the show took up residence in the drama category and received a total of 16 nominations — a few of the actors from the popular British series, including newcomer Shirley MacLaine, took the stage and reflected on the show's fame.
A Highclere connection? Yes. Lord Carnavon, Howard Carter's employer, lived at Highclere Castle, where the ITV period drama Downton Abbey has been filmed in part the past three years, and is the home of the two hosts of this next video, the Eighth Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, who, to honor the Fifth Earl's efforts, have developed an Egyptian exhibition in their home's basement that the public can visit. Which, regardless of which side of the Atlantic you're on, surely beats having a man cave!
In her Daily Mail blog post of Sunday titled, Well, what a surprise (not), Melanie Phillips quite properly fillets out-of-touch female reporters in the Beltway who WOULDN'T and WON'T let self-evident facts get in the way of their asinine predictions about Newt Gingrich & women voters, per the Marianne Gingrich contretemps of last week.
Predictably, longtime Washington Week in Review panelist Gloria Borger of CNN was among the most egregious of these disconnected talking heads for her asinine "women won't vote for Newt" comments of Thursday immediately following the debate in Charleston on CNN and then on Friday night on PBS.
All those who said the onslaught upon Gingrich by his ex-wife Marianne would leave him dead in the water, particularly among women, have been shown to be spectacularly out of touch. Gingrich actually won more women’s votes than his opponents.
She goes on to conclude that in the battle of Newt vs. Mitt,
The gladiator in question may be flawed and far from ideal in a number of respects, but if he’s the only one who can fell his opponents rather than be felled by them, he wins.
Above, Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times on PBS'Washington Week in Review. January 20, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier
So, did you see "it" tonight, in my case, as I was doing some cleaning around the house? The "it" I refer to was Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times putting his foot firmly into his mouth via a nonsensical comment on tonight's episode of PBS'Washington Week in Review, about, of all things, the size of Newt Gingrich's Georgia congressional district in the 1990's.
Zeleny stated, among other things, in a condescending tone, that it was a "small district." WTF? Now I realize that when you're a guest on TV, even PBS, there's great pressure to sound both articulate and clever, and NOT be the anchor that drags the whole show down but...
Congrats to Zeleny, as his comment, three weeks into a new year, is already the leading candidate for the dopiest political comment of the year. Not that there won't be lots of candidates here in Florida and coast-to-coast nationally who will battle him for the title, which went unrewarded last year due to an oversight of mine -a mistakenly deleted email.
Gingrich's suburban Atlanta CD of the 1990's was the same constituent size as everyone else's in the GA delegation, per the law and per the Georgia legislature redistricting. But it was NOT the district he'd first been elected to, and he did NOT even benefit from being the House Speaker, since the district he'd formerly represented was carved-out by the Georgia legislature almost two years BEFORE the House Republicans retook the House after more than forty years in the political wilderness, when Gingrich was rewarded for his efforts by being voted Speaker after having previously been the House Minority Whip.
As a result of the 1990 United States Census, Georgia picked up an additional seat for the 1992 U.S. House elections. However, the Democratic-controlled Georgia General Assembly eliminated the district that Gingrich represented, splitting its territory among three neighboring districts. Much of the southern portion of Gingrich's district, including his home in Carrollton, was drawn into the Columbus-based 3rd District, represented by five-term Democrat Richard Ray. At the same time, the Assembly created a new, heavily Republican 6th District in Fulton and Cobb counties in the wealthy northern suburbs of Atlanta—an area that Gingrich had never represented. However, Gingrich sold his home in Carrollton and moved to Marietta in the new 6th...
(Of course, I already knew this before I double-checked my facts since I knew someone very sharp from Richard Ray's staff, a Legislative Assistant named Lee Culpepper, who, like me, was very involved with Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) activities on the Hill when Oklahoma congressman Dave McCurdy was running things. Last I heard, Lee was a lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, and one of the top lobbyists in Washington. CongressmanRay's staff and office, friendly and whip-smart, was also one of those popular Capitol Hill offices that featured a variation of the usual state marketing device, one that never got old -free food. Ray's office was never lacking for courtesy packs of peanuts, courtesy of Georgia peanut farmers and the Georgia Peanut Commission, and as a frequent peanut eater, I can tell you without exception, they were damn good peanuts, too! Johnny Isakson, currently Georgia's junior U.S. Senator, was elected in a special election to succeed Newt as GA-6's rep after he'd resigned from Congress in 1999.)
That Zeleny would somehow imagine that the physical size of a congressional district is a measure of or has a direct correlation to... well, what exactly? He didn't make any sense before or after his comment, so was that just a brain freeze on his part, and his mouth kept going, or did he have some genius comment he'd been sitting on all week to drop on us?
If Zeleny is right about whatever this idea of his is that he never quite articulated, than by his own logic, the Congressional representatives of large urban cities that scrunch and compact Minorities together -for the sole purpose of making it next-to-impossible for anyone else to win an election, short of the incumbents's death or their imprisonment- is what exactly, suspect?
Manhattan, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami... I do so much hope that Zeleny will enlighten us as to his great idea, once he can spit it out intelligently.
Yes, the Democrats running the House of Representatives did try to pour millions into the district in order to defeat Gingrich, after all, he more than any other single individual is directly responsible for ethically-challenged Jim Wright going from Speaker of the House of Representatives to a former member of the House to, ultimately, someone charged with a crime. http://todlindberg.net/?p=20 Gingrich did have a close election or two, but he never lost once he got elected. Fact.
In case you'd forgotten whom I was talking about...
, Bernard Goldberg: NYT Reporter's 'Enchanted' Question of Obama 'Fits Our Metrosexual Times' http://youtu.be/HpN8dmRUNT8
Yes, the same powerful person who helped craft the tax laws of this country is the same person who forgot for years that he owned multiple homes, forgot to pay taxes, and who forgot... But you know what Rangell never forgot to play? The race card.
PBS video: Downton Abbey Co-creator and Executive Producer Gareth Neame explains the dramatic changes that take place in Season Two as the series picks up in the summer of 1916, with British soldiers in the trenches of northern France during WWI.
In 1969, his grandfather, Ronald Neame, directed Downtown Abbey star Maggie Smith in her Academy Award-winning performance of "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie."
Press Association video: Some of the stars of ITV1's Downton Abbey discuss their hopes for Series 3 in 2012, which begins filming in February. http://youtu.be/6asjGH6PZWc
My last two blog posts filled with interesting videos and links about the wonderful Downton Abbey were both on September 19th, 2011, titled Quality writing & acting wins again!
Reminder: In the U.S., the first year of Downton Abbey re-airs on PBS beginning Sunday, December 18th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.
Season 2 of Downton Abbey premieres on PBS on Sunday January 8th, the second day of the NFL Wild Card Weekend, but the second game will be over by the time 9 p.m. rolls around.
PBS Masterpiece video: Downton Abbey: Surviving the Wait for Season Two. Masterpiece's Rebecca Eaton on how to survive until Downton Abbey season two premieres. http://video.pbs.org/video/2156589433
The new CD containing the soundtrack of Season 2 of Downton Abbey produced by John Lunn is at Amazon.co.uk., and this website has a selection of the 19 songs.
If you're in the U.S., I urge you to buy it via Amazoncom UK as an Import, even at $28.68 plus shipping, since according to Amazon's U.S. website, it won't officially be available in the U.S. until December 31st, which is pretty weird given how many people might wish to get it for the holidays. Not so smart marketing there!
Owing to the fact that my last post here had so many Downton Abbey-related videos, and my desire to make sure that this performance by English singer Mary-Jess got the amount of attention it deserved, I'm repeating some of the relevant parts of it so that it's on its own and you can hear this amazing talent, whose personal and professional back-story is pretty damn amazing, if largely unknown outside of England and... China.
Especially for a 21-year old!
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Thanks to my observant friends, loyal confidantes and trend-spotting spies around the world, I got tipped-off to this video and can tell you that TODAY, Sept. 19th, is the first day that you can pre-order the new CD containing the soundtrack of Season 2 of Downton Abbey produced by John Lunn via Amazon.co.uk.
In the U.S., you can also now pre-order it thru the American office of Amazon.com but it comes as an Import and runs $28.68 plus shipping.
The CD will be released September 27th, 2011.
See the British link above to see and hear the selection of songs.
If you can, please click the YouTube link at the bottom of each of these videos and watch it there instead of on the blog, so that you can also see the other songs Mary-Jess has done in the right-hand column.
Plus, we can send those viewing numbers up!
Right now, as of 6:23 p.m. Eastern U.S., the total number of views for the first video is 1,727.
(In my opinion, in this still-shot of the video above, Mary-Jess looks a bit like delightful actress Shiri Appleby, whom we last saw in a guest-starring role last month on USA Network's "Royal Pains," which I always watch.)
ITN's The Showbiz 411 video: Downtown Abbey scores Emmy success, nabs 4 awards, including Best Mini-series, Best Supporting Actress (Dame Maggie Smith), Best Writing and Best Directing at 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, ATAS, telecast on Fox-TV, September 18, 2011. http://youtu.be/YM_g9hxdYMU
Quality writing & acting wins again! Downton Abbey scores 4 at Emmys, as U.S. audiences eagerly awaits Season 2's melodrama amidst WWII on PBS January 8th
I loved everything about this show and saw each episode at least twice -uninterrupted and non-distracted. (Like I was watching game film!)
Already being seen on ITV1 in the U.K., I can't wait for the second season to finally get to PBS!
Just under 15 weeks from yesterday -January 8th!
And if you didn't see it earlier this year, the first year of Downton Abbey re-airs on PBS beginning Sunday, December 18th at 9:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.
Trust me, you will hear about that as you know that PBSwill be mentioning it every five minutes after Thanksgiving, and maybe even do a print ad campaign to create some synergy with the new season starting in January.
Australia's Channel Seven video: The hosts of Better Homes & Gardens went to Highclere Castle where Downton Abbey is filmed to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at upcoming Season 2, the amazing castle and meet the very talented cast.
Thanks to my observant friends, loyal confidantes and trend-spotting spies around the world, I got tipped-off to this video and can tell you that TODAY, Sept. 19th, is the first day that you can pre-order the new Decca Music CD containing the soundtrack of Season 2 of Downton Abbey produced by John Lunn,viaAmazon.co.uk.
And it features the series theme, Did I Make The Most of Loving You?, being sung by Mary-Jess, a.k.a. Mary-Jess Leaverland, which I have videos of below.
In the U.S., you can also now pre-order it thru the American office of Amazon.com, but it comes as an Import and runs $28.68 plus shipping.
The CD will be released September 27th, 2011.
See the British link above to see and hear the selection of songs.
Decca Music video: Theme to Downton Abbey (Mary-Jess) 2011.
Thanks to its Emmy win last night, Amazon.com is offering a great deal where you can purchase the Original U.K. Uneditedversion for only $15.49 for over six hours.
Witness: Pakistani Intel Officer Ordered Hit on Mumbai Jews
by Sebastian Rotella ProPublica, May 24, 2011, 10:35 p.m.
This report is part of a ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE [1] investigation. A version of this article appeared in the Washington Post [2].
An officer in Pakistan2019s intelligence service chose a Jewish center as a target for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and then helped launch a new plot against Denmark, according to the star witness in a terror trial in Chicago.
In his second day of testimony, David Coleman Headley, a confessed Pakistani-American terrorist, revealed more details about close ties between Pakistan2019s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) and the Lashkar-i-Taiba terror group, which allegedly carried out the attacks that killed 166 people [3], including six Americans.
Headley said his ISI handler, a man known only as Major Iqbal, made key decisions and was a mastermind of the plot along with Lashkar chiefs. Major Iqbal deployed him on the last of five reconnaissance missions in India to scout targets that Iqbal said would definitely include the Chabad House, a Jewish community center where gunmen later killed three American rabbis, Headley testified. The pregnant wife of one of the rabbis was also killed.
201CMajor Iqbal told me the Chabad House would be added on whatever list [of targets] there was because it was a front office for the Mossad,201D Israel2019s intelligence agency, Headley said. He added that Major Iqbal 201Cseemed upset the [Mumbai] airport was not included201D as a target.
Nothing suggests that the claim about the Mossad was true.
Headley described in understated tones how terrorist leaders congratulated him for his work casing luxury hotels and other targets chosen to ensure Americans and Jews would die. Asked his reaction to the three-day televised slaughter [4], he responded: 201CI was pleased.201D
The 50-year-old businessman has pleaded guilty to conducting months of crucial reconnaissance in Mumbai and for the Denmark plot. He is the star witness in the trial of his accused accomplice, Tahawwur Rana, in Chicago federal court. U.S. prosecutors have also indicted Major Iqbal and three Lashkar chiefs, all but one of whom remain fugitives.
Pakistani officials deny any links to terrorism. They say Headley's allegations are not credible because of his past as a drug dealer and DEA informant.
But the slaying of Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani military town has worsened longtime suspicions of Pakistan and the stakes are high in a case built largely on a witness with an admitted pattern of duplicity. The damage to the U.S.-Pakistani relationship could be profound if the trial produces powerful evidence that Pakistani officers took part in a plot to kill Americans.
201CA lot of explanatory power has been put in the hands of David Headley, an undoubtedly flawed individual,201D said Stephen Tankel, author of a forthcoming book Storming the World Stage: the Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba. 201CThe US government clearly has confidence in Headley's testimony and has been able to support it with strong evidence related to his communications with men he asserts were ISI officers. ... It will be interesting to see if the prosecution introduces further evidence independent of Headley that these men were in the ISI, as that would seal an already strong case for official involvement at some level.201D
On Tuesday prosecutors presented details about the apparent involvement of serving intelligence officers. Headley testified that Major Iqbal and Lashkar used him as a shared operative as he tried to infiltrate Shiv Sena, a right-wing Hindu political party in India.
An email from Major Iqbal to Headley showed the officer trying to balance the twin missions of collecting military intelligence and developing terrorist targets. Asked by Headley if he should try to cultivate a Shiv Sena public relations official he had befriended, Iqbal responded that he was not sure if the potential Indian source would be productive for espionage but said he might still be worth pursuing for Lashkar, which he called 201Cyour organization.201D
201CWhat all advantages can we get from this person except strengthening our cover,201D Iqbal wrote. 201CWill this all be generating worthwhile information related to military or forces. ... If he is of any use to your organization, you are at liberty to handle even without my information or as you desire.201D
The testimony Tuesday also indicated that Iqbal was at least aware of a terrorist plot to strike the heart of Europe. Headley described a meeting in late 2008 in which Iqbal and Sajid Mir, his Lashkar handler, came together to his house in Lahore for the first time. Until then, the two had coordinated the American2019s missions in tandem but separately.
During the sit-down, Mir told Headley he would be sent to Denmark to scout for an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which had enraged Muslims by printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
201CWe were all angry about it,201D Headley testified. 201CMajor Iqbal said he was surprised such an attack had not taken place already.201D
Headley went to Denmark in January 2009, posing as an immigration consultant in visits to newspaper advertising representatives in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Two months later, however, Lashkar put the Denmark plot on hold. Major Iqbal cut off contact with Headley, instructing him to lay low because Pakistani authorities had put heat on Lashkar after the Mumbai attacks.
Soon, another ISI officer named Major Sameer Ali contacted Headley to try to recruit him for new operations and remained in touch with him until at least August, according to Headley2019s testimony and emails between the two presented in court. The mention of Major Ali in the trial brings the number of ISI officers Headley has described meeting to at least six, according to testimony and a report on Headley2019s interrogation by Indian investigators.
Headley met with Ali and a Colonel Shah in the ISI that April in Lahore, according to investigators, though that information was not presented in court Tuesday.
By then, however, Headley had shifted allegiance to al-Qaida and away from the ISI, urged on by a friend and former Pakistani military officer known as Pasha, who had left Lashkar for al-Qaida.
201CHe said they were conducting the ISI2019s jihad and we should conduct God2019s jihad,201D Headley said.
When Pasha was arrested by the ISI a few months later, Headley wrote to Major Ali inquiring about his friend2019s fate, according to testimony. Headley said Pasha had once worked with a colonel in the ISI, which he referred to in an email as 201Cyour department.201D Major Ali responded on August 4, 2009, to inform him of the release of the al-Qaida operative, who remains a fugitive indicted in the Chicago case.
201CYour friend that u asked about has reached home,201D Major Ali reassured Headley.
Even if the trial paints a convincing portrait of ties between ISI officers and terrorists, the analysis must be careful and measured, experts say.
201CTo date there is no evidence the ISI leadership was aware of the Mumbai attacks, or at least of their scope and scale, which suggests Major Iqbal and possibly others were acting without sanction,201D Tankel said. 201CWhether they were given excessive autonomy or were engaging in outright rogue behavior is a very important question and it will be interesting to see if the trial provides an answer.201D
