Beijing People’s Television?

This link below is a TV stream from China that I can find no information about on the web. The station plays mostly English language movies with Chinese subtitles with no commercial breaks. There's Chinese stuff between the movies. No program guide that I can find so you have to take pot luck. I've seen Independence Day (1996) and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) playing recently.

bjiptv

The O’Reilly Fracture

Keith Olbermann’s Countdown has reached a milestone that many thought was out of reach. After getting a boost from an airing during the pre-season football broadcast on NBC a couple of weeks ago, Countdown has burst into a real competition with its nemesis, The O’Reilly Factor.

The highpoint of the week for Olbermann was Friday when he bested O’Reilly in the 25-54 demo by 39,000 viewers. But the trend has been heading this way for a while. On Thursday, O’Reilly took the hour, but Olbermann had won the first half (Countdown: 408K - Factor: 373K). An average of all airings for the shows for the week gave O’Reilly a lead of just 11.7K demo viewers. A year ago O’Reilly was clobbering Olbermann by 279K. Are the walls closing in around you Billy?

The first full week after Olbermann’s NBC appearance, Countdown spiked 17% over its 2nd quarter 2007 average. This week that bump is 37%, so there is no evidence that this train is losing speed. The Factor, on the other hand, is still under-performing its 2nd quarter average by 16%. O’Reilly is quickly becoming the Little Train That Couldn’t.

A key point in this victory is that, while last week’s success was achieved with O’Reilly on vacation, this week Bill was on duty and he still got his loofah handed to him. Also, for the record, Olbermann appeared during halftime on the Saints-Colts game Thursday which might have given him an extra push on Friday. And the week was shortened by the Labor Day holiday (Countdown did not air on Monday but O’Reilly did. The Factor pulled in just 329K which was its 2nd worst number for the week).

News Corpse Blog » The O’Reilly Fracture: Countdown To Victory Edition

Pianists, Lies, And Audio Tape...

The Joyce Hatto story is about more than pianists, lies, and audio tape. At its heart is failed ambition and deeply sweet revenge...

"There was a transparent poignancy to the con: Hatto had possessed genuine talent but there had been no brilliant career. The con had a genius and the revenge a sweetness, the false persona providing a balm for her failed ambition. It was also a love story, one that would have been right at home on Sunset Boulevard."

Fantasia for Piano: The New Yorker audio

Daddy Dearest

This is off an album my dad made in the 1960's called, "Chips of Wisdom" (my dad was a pretty famous ventriloquist back in the day). Ostensibly, this was an album for kids, but it was so disturbing we couldn't listen to it when we were little.

I don't know if it was the horrible subject matter, my dad's acting or the album cover, but this thing gave us the willies. We had nightmares about it.

The premise is that my dad takes his little puppet out into the woods to have some father/son chats with him. So already, the creep factor is at a 10. He proceeds to teach him all about character and wisdom, which is admirable I suppose, but he does it by telling some of the most terrible stories you've ever heard.

File this away under terrible things we used to do to our children, before we knew better. And then take just a brief moment to reflect on what my childhood must have been like.

April Winchell

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: 365 Days #252 - Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney - Chips Of Wisdom (mp3s)

(If you suspect that Winchell might have some issues with her father, you are correct.)

Wishin', and hopin', and thinkin', and prayin'...

Despite the hopes of many democratic progressives, the gay GOP murder-suicide case in Orlando will not lead to the outing or political ruin of any possible republican closet cases like Patrick McHenry in North Carolina or Ralph Reed in Georgia in my always humble opinion.

The Alleged Death Of Classical Music

Justin Davidson bids farewell to his job at Newsday with a ringingly hopeful overview of the state of classical music. A generous shout-out notwithstanding, I agree with most every word. I especially like this thought: "I've never been sure why the appetite for apocalyptic stories about classical music seems to be unquenchable. Maybe it's that in populist America, we take pleasure in the thought that democratic culture can expunge an ancient tradition associated with the aristocratic." Hence the American media's love for the death-of fable. These days, ironically, mega-rich pop stars are more aristocratic in their values and habits than anyone involved in classical music.

(via Alex Ross)

DownWithTyranny!

DownWithTyranny!: WHO'LL BE THE NEXT REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITE TO BE DRAGGED OUT OF THE CLOSET SCREAMING ABOUT MEDIA WITCH HUNTS?

This Week in Sex

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: This Week in Sex: Let My People Come, The Musical

WFMU's Beware of the Blog

MP3 TRUFFLES: Super-Bolly-Folk-ilistic-Hawking-Soda-docious!

Now That's What I Call Cultural Theory! Vol. 1

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: Now That's What I Call Cultural Theory! Vol. 1

The New Yorker: AZZAM THE AMERICAN

The making of an Al Qaeda homegrown

They Call Her Concentration Camp Malkin

Orcinus: Racism And Relocation Centers

Michelle Malkin Watch

Come With Me, Come To The Fair

Check out this hilarious MP3 of comedian Jean Shepherd touring the It's a Small World ride and Carousel of Progress at the 1964 World's Fair. As Dan Howland notes, "In a pleasant irony, Shep delightedly and sarcastically enjoys the Carousel of Progress as only he can -- in a few years, he would provide the voice-over of the father character in an updated version of the show at Walt Disney World." MP3 Link

(via BoingBoing)

More Shepherd at the Jean Shepherd Archives

Non-Theistic and "Non-Affiliated" Congresspeople:

Petty Larseny: Keith Ellison: Tip of the Iceberg

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Keep on Hatin'

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Keep on Hatin'