Still Shopping

Google to sell first branded phone for $199: report

-- Google Inc.'s much-awaited mobile device based on the company's "Android" software is expected to sell for $199, a published report said Wednesday.
Departing from the practice of listing only the manufacturer and wireless carrier, the device will also showcase the Google brand, The Wall Street Journal said in its online edition, citing unnamed sources.
The Google phone is expected to be introduced on Sept. 23, the Journal said.
The Google phone will be manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Group and will require service with T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom.
The report said T-Mobile plans to introduce data plans that would make the phone "aggressively priced." Google will contribute resources to develop the phone as a way of helping T-Mobile reduce its costs, the report said.

I'm updatin' 09/23/08 but not bumpin'.

Happy Art, or: Openings I Missed

Wasn't it Mrs. Jimmy Carter who said, of Reagan, "I think he makes us comfortable with our prejudices." Tru dat in the art world, ain't it? They all comfy in their lofty bias thanks to Mr. Reagan.
Above as appearing in the current Art Forum that's Peter Saul's 1984 piece called Ronald Reagan (Abortion) -- in case you were wondering. And David Lachappelle's butcho stuff is for sale now, in NYC. Nice two-toned pecker on Ivan Witenstein's Time Bomb Shell (2007), don't you agree? Could that be a half-Kenyan dick? Dunno. Does it matter? Dunno.
Okay, I'm done with art for today.
'Cept to say I prefer the intimate elegance of the JFaye yard art hanging out back at my place. It's a west coast thing, having art that doesn't evoke any Cheney. Gonna go home and put some lipstick on that pitbull pronto. C'mere boy.

Where's Jill Greenberg When You Need Her?

This just in from Art Forum as critiqued by Andrew Hultkrans
David Dames being waterboarded at a performance in conjunction with Steve Powers's Waterboard Thrill Ride.

Inside the room ... two paramedics stood by a gurney behind the crowd of thirty or so spectators (many of them journalists). Powers introduced himself and the event by saying that he didn’t intend the Thrill Ride to be political art, but “more like life drawing,” a representational act that “couldn’t be pushed to the right or the left.” He praised Coney Island, where he has lived and worked for years, as a “good place to confront horror.” He noted that today was the Feast of the Assumption (when Mary ascends into heaven) and that Catholics worldwide celebrate it with water rites.

Defending the provocative artwork ... Powers has said, “What’s more obscene, the official position that waterboarding is not torture or our official position that it’s a thrill ride?”

Now, let’s be clear, anyone who maintains that repeated, ritualized suffocation isn’t torture is a) not being serious, b) is an authoritarian sadist, or c) is covering his ass for war-crime liability. Powers has generated a lot of gawking press with his rather unsubtle piece, but at least he’s willing to eat from the pot he’s stirring, which is more than one can say for Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, and Alberto Gonzales.

Yeah, another piece that can't be pushed right or left. I kinda remember that the Feast of the Assumption is also observed with fruits and herbs. Probably some of that going on here too. Herbiness and fruitiness. Why is it not a surprise that many of the voyeurs, er, art loving spectators present were journalists? Or that our critic could fit in a side-eye to Dick Cheney? Or that when the boarding was over and the fluids towelled up all in the audience were invited to the Freak Bar next door, for "beer and bonhomie?" Down the hatch, bro.

Musical Interlude

Hopped a freighter across The Bering Strait
Hey La La / The Art Of Toys

Is Your Cell Phone Company Evil?

Well, asked and answered.
Well, yes, it was; yes, they were.
Well, I've been without a cell phone since July 5th and I'm liking it but others are getting annoyed with me.  Well I'm about to stoopidly purchase a "smart" phone and fork over for the monthly. Can you say ApplePalmBlackberryATTVerizonTMobile-loser, baby? Well let me run this video one more time.

Peeps Who Need Peeps

Maverick Sings Babs

Thanks, Contentions.












In case, like Maverick, you're not sure how these computer thinggys work, just click here for the video. You know how to click, dontcha?

Russians Like: Putin, Obama, Kid Broasted, Satan, Hawn and Damon

"A separate survey showed that if Russians were allowed to vote in U.S. polls, they would prefer Democrat Barack Obama to Republican John McCain."

Rest In Peace


In related news, four teenagers were slain by center-left Russian Satanists — stabbed ### times each and then eaten.
The Russian gang of center-left Devil supporters, Obama worshippers and Damon fans butchered their victims and roasted them on a bonfire before devouring their flesh while watching pirated dvd copies of The Girl From Petrovka and The Bourne Identity.
One center-left Russian cannibal and student of the Democrat party platform (USA cell) did not expect to be punished, saying: “Satan will help me to avoid responsibility. I made lots of sacrifices to him. I was a community organizer.”

See Also The Other McCain's: Teenagers: 'The Other White Meat'
Yet Another Center-Left Satanist Killing Story

Bounce: Nutjobbe Update iii

Thanks, Jill, Sweetie. Your high art provides an
unexpectedly useful function, reminding me to TiVo Trueblood tonight. God may hate fangs, but I dont; gotta set up that Season Pass.

My favorite Greenberg? Not the kiddie porn,
(do your own search), nope, I prefer her
Sarah Palin Prophecy:





Update: Malkin.

Update: Atlantic Goldberg on Goldberg.

Update: Update.
Originally Posted by contento at 12:25 PM Yesterday

1000 Words

Holy Ghost Jamboree

You're asking, you're getting.

Roll Them Opening Credits: Wanna Do Bad Things With You

Coming Soon:

My long-awaited review of Sons of Anarchy.









Teaser: This Ain't No Pretty Boy Show

It's Ice Cream!

Who Would You Rather Join For Ice Cream?
Aside: I had to put that Mrs. Todd Palin ice cream smile in here twice.
It is no wonder Todd Palin always looks contento too.

KCD says: "That Michelle is one unhappy looking lady. It's ice cream!"

Then he notes: "Looks like Obama's still smoking, no?"

I'm Just Saying

"According to Neilsen, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" audience consists of 8.6 million viewers daily, 75 percent of whom are women. Of these women, more than 50 percent are over 50, 44 percent earn less than $40,000 annually, and 25 percent have no more than a high school education."

Gotta ask, then, who makes up the demographic of those 25 percent of Oprah viewers who are "not" women?

Classy, ain't they?

For a moment I thought that was Terrified Metro Matthew Damon.

Charles Gibson

A suggestion for the smug -- or the worried: Read the unedited transcript. Just a thought.

OBUNKER

Yeah, I saw this movie, acoupla months ago. Think I gave it 4 stars in my Netflix rating. Moves up to 5 stars with the new translation and subtitles.




HT: The Other McCain

I Can't Top This, So I'm Cuttin'n'Pastin'

Out Donna Karan, in Sarah Palin?

Sarah Palin's red peep-toe Naughty Monkey pumps
As Fashion Week closes today in New York City, the Wall Street Journal reports on perhaps the most influential style trend of the past two weeks: Sarah Palin's style. According to the Journal, "Many women are snapping up her choices of shoes and eyeglasses and blogging about which brand of lipstick she wears. Hairstylists and wig sellers report sudden demand for her trademark up-dos."
Governor Palin’s style is a mix of both sharp professional pieces and fashion-forward accessories. She wears flattering skirt suits and is a fan of Escada, according to the upscale secondhand store that she frequents in Anchorage. She accessorizes with rimless Kazuo Kawasaki glasses and Franco Sarto boots and red patent leather Naughty Monkey peep-toe pumps. As every woman knows, a pair of red high heels enhances both confidence and sex appeal. And women who don't naturally have Palin's long dark locks and bangs can now buy a Sarah Palin wig.
What's most notable about Sarah Palin's style is that unlike the fashion trends seen on most celebrities, it's accessible to women of even modest means. After all, she shops secondhand stores and her famous red peep-toe pumps are under $100.
Now, what kind of lipstick does she wear?
Posted by Samantha Sault at 03:12 PM EDT

1000 Words

Dear Mr. Stopper Of The Oceans Rising

Yeah, we all know I'm a sucker for this kindda stuff.


btw: you gotta watch 'till the end.

9/11: Okay, I Still Remember Something Good The Times Did Well

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Took them a while but the NYTimes published obituaries of every one murdered by the Islamofascists on September 11th, 2001. Called them Portraits In Grief.
Me? I cannot forget this kid. And his story. I pull this out of my beauty file every September. And, yeah, I'm not alone in loving his face.

Published: January 13, 2002
Aaron Horwitz: Finding Good in a Bad Day

Once, Aaron Horwitz had what most people would consider a supremely lousy day. A friend asked him how he would rate it, from 1 to 10, with 1 the worst.
"Eight," he replied.
You could get a contact high from Mr. Horwitz, 24, a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald with the almost laughable responsibility of entertaining clients and making them feel like the most important people in the world.
As if anyone had to pay him. For he was not just a showman, who did the Michael Jackson moonwalk on bar tops and who, at a museum, drew his own masterpiece on a mist-coated window next to a Rembrandt.
He seized souls, not letting go until he made them merry. He met a guy in a toy store and, moments later, the two were having a hula hoop contest. He insisted a concierge stop weeping over a bad breakup, then called her at 2:30 a.m. to make sure. He sweet-talked hostesses at four-star restaurants into producing tables for eight (and their phone numbers for dates) and persuaded a street masseur to let Mr. Horwitz give him a massage.
"You could talk to a brick wall," his father told him. Yes, allowed the son, but he preferred chatting with a mirror. He often did so, then fell over, laughing.
Homework: Scroll down to next post. Compare Aaron's happy face to the faces of those followers of the Religion of Peace. Discuss.

Lunatic Fashion

Another day in my high school, another September 11, another "town meeting" to commemorate the day. Let's read the names of the dead. Let's discuss how this affected me. Let's boo hoo hoo. Let's us us us. Victims this and victims that.

This is not to say I don't shed tears about this. See above. But count me out of the group hugs. I cry alone.

Read the names? Hell, call me hostile but effin' yeah, I'm more interested in looking at the ugly mugs of the ugly sons of ugly bitches who pulled this off. Call me hostile, but effin' yeah, I'm more interested in discussing their evil. That might be a better commemoration -- and a better use of community time -- than oh so reverently reciting three thousand names.
Evil exists people.

Meanwhile, here's a partial from Victor Davis Hanson. As always, he seems to get it.
The Other 9/11 Story
What has and hasn't happened in the seven years since September 11, 2001.
The truth is, we chased al-Qaeda from Iraq and Afghanistan and it is now in lunatic fashion chasing Danish cartoonists, European novelists, and opera producers as it cuts the fingers off smokers, tries to cover up the genitalia of animals, and looks for the mentally ill to strap on suicide belts.

Long after Jacques Chirac, Michael Moore, Gerhard Schroeder, and Cindy Sheehan have come, gone, and nearly disappeared, a General David Petraeus and thousands of American soldiers and diplomats like him remain. George W. Bush is reviled, in part because of an inability to articulate what the war against terror was, and what it was for. But Bush hatred has been reduced to a sort of politically correct trinket, worn around the neck of the clannish critics as a reminder of the President’s ineptness in expression or supposedly dangerous views — without examining what others might have done to achieve the same results of achieving freedom from further attack.

But in years to come it may well be said that the president kept us safe for years when none thought he could, and removed the two most odious regimes in the Middle East and replaced them with the two best — and confronted a confident and ascendant radical Islam and left it demoralized and discredited among its own host Arab and Muslim constituents.

In the present toxic environment, all of that is not to be spoken — but all that has nevertheless happened since September 11.

Rolling Transcript From 111 -- Punctuated With Pics From Gila Bend At Night ...

Hey, this started as a road trip blog, remember? Well I'm rolling today.

Feeling ain't being, but I feel so impure. You called me a map purist, but still gave me this GPS devise. Another perfect digital gift for analog me.

My maps don’t show me all the roads I’ve been on this afternoon in Arizona. Or the one I'm on right now. Or the maps show me, but I haven't looked. The Garmin lady -- I just set Garmin for my destination -- it is she who's taking me on these little two lane highways. It’s sweet.

I’m in the desert with nothng around me but sand and cacti and the occasional tumbleweed and some bored looking livestock and very few other cars and two lanes and just the way I like it. And, uh, but, as I say, I feel impure. I experience impurity. Because I’m not using my printed maps.

I have no idea where I am. I won’t do this another day but I’m doing it today and it is fabuloso (that’s a little Spanish lingo straight outta Rosetta Stone). Anyway, after listening to jibberjabber radio and FNC on the XM and all that stuff all day I finally turned on – I said let me see what’s on the music stations and of course the first song that came on was Wynonna Judd … No Ones Else blah blah blah,um, you know, could love me the way you do, oh man I hate that kind of stuff – takes me in the way back. Anyway I tried my Spanish stations but they’re no good, missing the Reggaeton now, and what’s on right now is some kind of disco/dance/move your money maker stuff … wait, let me see if I can play this for ya, wait a minute, (holds up recorder to car radio speakers), wait a minute … (Jill listens and gets up and dances at home. Annie barks.) … Anyway that’s really not quite appropriate music for where I am out here in the desert or even who I am today although it’s kindda appropriate for, it’s kinda my beat, but not quite funky enough to be my beat, whoever it is making that music, but it might be close enough to my beat because I do kinda like it.

Anyway, uh, I’m on – new topic – oh I passed through some desert rain today, that was kind of fun, uh, and I bought some gas in Wikieup, but it was 10 cents more per gallon for a credit card purchase than cash, so that’s the scam around here, but I paid it, I don’t mind, uh, I don’t have any of my cameras handy right now or I’d take some pics for ya while I’m driving, uh, I’m on Wickenburg Road, heading, I don’t know what, south, maybe, uh, Phoenix is kind of off toward my south, left, that’s south east, but I’m heading toward the border but it’s a ways away. Let me see if Garmin will tell me how far my destination is. …. My destination is hundred and forty two point five miles. I may stop in a motel tonight because I don’t feel like setting up my tent and all that stuff in the dark.

But I did a lot of shopping I got food I got beer I got drinks I got ice I got more batteries what else did I get? Gatorade. Um, cheese. (That’s protein, people.) Some meat. Did I say batteries already? A second tarp in case I need a shade tarp in the desert. Uh, A bunchastuff. Yesterday what’d I do? Before I left Vegas I keyed in New Balance on the Garmin the New Balance store was right on the road I traveled outta Vegas so I stopped and bought a pair of trail running shoes, using the gift cards my basketball boys gave me in April. Not that I’m gonna do a whole lotta running – oh there’s Jack Rabbit Wash -- nice name – not that I’m gonna do alotta trail running, but I might do a little bit and the trail runners'll be good for taking Nashie! up the mtn when I get back.

Anyway, I have this digital recorder and I’m testing it to see how it works or if I've figured out how it works and I’m gonna shut it off now because I might not be recording these very important impressions and I might be wasting my time but if it works I'll transcribe this and it'll be y-o-u-r blog for tonight. All right. Bye bye.

Whiter Shades of Beyond the Pale

Integrity on the Brink

Even after linking to Thomas Sowell's October 11, 2007 review of Stuart Taylor's and KC Johnson's Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, a review which included Sowell's own mild self-correction, I see where Real Clear Politics -- a daily must -- is linking to a John Feinstein piece in the Washington Post today. Surely RCP can come up with a sports writer untainted by the facile template of the left-simpleton-American. This from the book:

On March 30, John Feinstein, Duke alumnus, bestselling author, and nationally prominent sportswriter, urged the administration to cancel the lacrosse season immediately and revoke the scholarships of every lacrosse player who would not speak with authorities. He imagined himself in the role of the Duke president, lecturing the players: “We know you had this party. We know it got out of hand. None of you is man enough to come forward and say what happened. You were witnesses to a crime. We’re shutting down the program and you’re all gone. (page 119)

After their innocence was proven and all charges dropped, Feinstein

...asserted that he saw nothing wrong with his prior comment that Evans, Seligmann, and Finnerty were “probably guilty of everything but rape.” He offered no evidence to corroborate his charge. (page 404)

Bestselling, nationally prominent, notional Feinstein refuses to see, but I don't. I find plenty wrong with his comments, making me distrust all of his writing.

So should RCP.

Guess Who?

She turns every dance into the polka. And it is that amazing thing, a grim polka.

That's the line of the day. It goes with this:

She has been accused of doubletalk and she has denied it. And she is right. It was triple talk, quadruple talk, Olympic level nonresponsiveness. And it was, even for her, rather heavy and smug. Her husband would have had the sense to look embarrassed as he bobbed and weaved. It was part of his charm. But he was light on his feet. She turns every dance into the polka. And it is that amazing thing, a grim polka.

Peggy Noonan, WSJ today

Rosemary's Nephew

This from Leon Wieseltier in the new New Republic. Yeah, yeah, I know we're expected to ignore this lying rag for a while (can you say Scott Thomas Beauchamp?), but this Clooney bit is too good to pass up (images added by Contento):

"Speaking of smirking, I was watching "Charlie Rose" the other night and there was George Clooney. His fun-loving face has a certain vitiating effect upon his moments of solemnity. Even when it is not winking, it is winking. There he was peddling one of the great hoaxes of American life: the celebrity as moral leader. He reported on a recent mission to China, which he made to reverse Chinese support for the genocidal tyrant in Khartoum. "I took Don Cheadle and a couple of Olympic athletes. ... Our argument was to sit there and say, 'We need you, the world needs you.'" That ought to work. And if Beijing remains unmoved, it may be time to send in Bernie Mac. Clooney, Brad Pitt (who remarked last spring that sitting in a room with Angelina Jolie and Marianne Pearl is "like sitting down with Roosevelt and Churchill--only much better-looking"), Matt Damon, Cheadle and others have started an organization to help "stop and prevent mass atrocities," called Not On Our Watch. Their watch? They are mere movie stars. Just as philanthropy should not be regarded as sufficient for social policy, celebrity should not be regarded as sufficient for foreign policy. The attention that Clooney can focus on Darfur is certainly useful, though I suspect that it passes quickly, since fandom is not a form of political action. Clooney is plainly an intelligent person, even if he may not be, as one human rights activist described him, "smarter than any politician I've dealt with on this issue," which is anyway faint praise; and it is nice to see Danny Ocean giving back. But I must insist that one of the many wonderful things about Cary Grant was that he never believed he could get Mussolini out of Abyssinia."

I'm Just Sayin'

Percentage of Americans who have not read any book at all in the past year: 27.
— Harper's Index, November 2007

Pity the Foo

This ain't the only book I read this week but it's the one I must mention, if only because he makes you so uncomfortable, so hostile, really. And yeah, you who aren't reading books these days and you know who you are or those of you who aren't reading nonfiction these days forget my pity for a sec (and I do pity you truly), just click on the link above and then look to your right and click'n'listen to those audio links -- you won't have to read much, just try and hear for once -- hey, choose a few, and listen up. I know you know how to click. The man is a man. I've heard a few of those interviews. Yeah I was there when the interviews occured, those with RL and with HH and with LI and with BB and even with SH. Nah, I didn't see the 60 minutes thing. Haven't watched 60 minutes since the 70's. You still watching those fools, that tripe? Thought so. Well once in a while they do something right over there at the alphabets. Still, you'd do better to buy and read this book now.

You Tube Video of the Day

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Who finds this stuff?
Go ahead, click on it.