From a concerned reader

Hello

Feel that I must write to protest the fact that you are attempting to pass yourself off as Alan Rhodes.

Have known Mr. Rhodes for a number of years, going back to the days before we had silver highlights in our hair and you, sir, are no Alan Rhodes.

Anyone familiar with his eccentric and original spelling can see at a glance that the drivel you have posted has none of the characteristic letter selections that Mr. Rhodes has delighted friends and admirers with for over 4 decades now.

Should you continue to pass yourself off as Mr. Rhodes I will have no option but to post some of his recent scripts along with a linguistic and semantic analysis.

Be advised.

Rome IX

"You look like laundry"

With that line making me lol, I must say that Rome this evening wasn't too bad.

Ok, so it did jump, with no explanation, back to Rome, leaving the Cleopatra story line strangely forgotten. But look, puppets. Oh and, Octavian is back and stranger than ever.

And that's just the beginning.

The episode is filled with a wealth of detail concerning everyday life, which I found myself watching, sometimes ignoring the lesser threads of the plot lines.

There are many, to be sure. The writing here is more believable, and seems to portray all levels of Roman society as a kind of Mafia power struggle (which of you spotted the Godfather reference?).

Best moment: Caesar's surprise arrival at Tweedle Dee's house. I can buy this particular instance of "good luck" in the series, for at least it follows from earlier episodes.

But back to Octavian.

"You fucked your sister, you little pervert."

Can't say I like what they are doing to Octavian. The madness they are trying to portray in the Imperial family is one generation too early.

But then, we wouldn't get the lesbian/sister/brother action if we waited until Rome season II...

Good ending though, shocking, unpleasant.

Sulu

Uncovering one of Hollywood's best kept secrets, George Takei has *finally* admitted to begin gay.

See, there was a gay presence on Star Trek...other than Q and Harry Kim.

Good for him, it is about time (come on Tom, get off the couch and do the right thing)

Don't let those nasty hetrosexuals have their way too often.

They breed you know.

The Madness Begins Again

The Psychotic Hour, the World's Favorite Podcast™ is beginning to record its new season beginning tomorrow in Montreal. A week later a second session will take place here in Toronto.

We know a certain fjord in Norway.

NBA Player Dress Code

This is too funny. Who are they kidding?

1. General Policy: Business Casual

Players are required to wear Business Casual attire whenever they are engaged in team or league business.

"Business Casual" attire means

• A long or short-sleeved dress shirt (collared or turtleneck), and/or a sweater.
  
• Dress slacks, khaki pants, or dress jeans.
  
• Appropriate shoes and socks, including dress shoes, dress boots, or other presentable shoes, but not including sneakers, sandals, flip-flops, or work boots.

2. Exceptions to Business Casual

There are the following exceptions to the general policy of Business Casual attire:

a. Players In Attendance At Games But Not In Uniform

Players who are in attendance at games but not in uniform are required to wear the following additional items when seated on the bench or in the stands during the game:

• Sport Coat
  
• Dress shoes or boots, and socks

b. Players Leaving the Arena

Players leaving the arena may wear either Business Casual attire or neat warm-up suits issued by their teams.

c. Special Events or Appearances

Teams can make exceptions to the Business Casual policy for special events or player appearances where other attire is appropriate -- e.g., participation in a basketball clinic.

3. Excluded Items

The following is a list of items that players are not allowed to wear at any time while on team or league business:

• Sleeveless shirts
  
• Shorts
  
• T-shirts, jerseys, or sports apparel (unless appropriate for the event (e.g., a basketball clinic), team-identified, and approved by the team)
  
• Headgear of any kind while a player is sitting on the bench or in the stands at a game, during media interviews, or during a team or league event or appearance (unless appropriate for the event or appearance, team-identified, and approved by the team)
  
• Chains, pendants, or medallions worn over the player's clothes
  
• Sunglasses while indoors
  
• Headphones (other than on the team bus or plane, or in the team locker room)

A True Hero

Rosa Parks

Batman Begins

Hang your head in shame.

Batman Begins.

It sounds like a threat. There will be more of them?

I didn't see this film in the theatre, but on DVD last Friday with 2 friends. We kept exchanging glances as this over-serious collection of junk paraded before us. "Are they serious?" "Did he really just say that?" "Can you make out what's happening in the fight scenes?"

The poster itself should have warned us. So serious, so profound.

Myth is dead. Or is it just in a new form? Batman as the Hero, Batman as the Archetype.

It's just a fucking comic book.

Chomsky named top intellectual

Noam Chomsky, the American linguistics expert and US foreign policy critic, was named the world's top public intellectual, according to a new British magazine poll released.

The Psychotic Hour, The World's Favorite Radio Show™, once threw him out of a studio. Here's how!

Andrew McLelland from Tph: "Did you guys kick Noam Chomsky out of the studio at Concordia? Was I there? Was I sober?"

Chris Gobeil from Tph: "Actually it was just me who kicked him out. You hadn't arrived yet, but as I recall you were mildly outraged when you arrived and I told you I'd kicked Noam Chomsky out of the studio mere minutes before. ["You threw out Noam Chomsky!?" I believe was the exact quote.] I'm sure you didn't really believe me.

The story is this student was interviewing him and wanted to record the interview. The supply room at CRSG was locked so she couldn't get a portable, the radio station studio was in use so she came into our studio and asked if she could use it for an interview. This gnomish little man was trailing around after her looking sheepish. When I said we were busy using the studio and would be recording all evening she said "but this is Noam Chomsky!" I replied "well, we're The Psychotic Hour!"

After that they left, with Noam Chomsky still looking slightly embarrassed about it all.

Brush-offs with greatness, I guess...

What we should have done was had him to a character on the show in return for studio time....but he never returns our calls now.

Is Uncle Sam mad at us again?

Boldy on CNN.com

Canada 'among worst polluters'

That is terrible, but who is the U.S. to say so.

Buried in the story is this:

European countries such as Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Germany ranked at the top of the environmental list, while Canada, Belgium and the United States were at the bottom.

The story is filled with graphic detail on just how terrible Canada is.

Just call me X.

#5 with a Bullet

Simone Denny's new single "Cliché" is now #5 on Billboard 'Hot Dance Club Play' this week.

Simone hasn't changed a bit...oh except for the red carpet...and the grapes darling

Never let children play with adult toys

Child as in movie director Martin Campbell.

In a move that has dumb written all over it, the director of the upcoming James Bond film has said Bond will be a non smoker.

"Ian Fleming’s spy was a 70-a-day smoker but as an iconic hero for a PG-12 film in the 21st century, 'it’s not quite the right thing', the film’s director, Martin Campbell, said yesterday."

Guess the mega violence and power sex is ok for kids. Oh wait, this is aimed at an adult audience...isn't it?

Rome VIII

Good. Finally. Caesar in action. Caesar taking charge. Caesar taking a stand.

He arrives in Egypt and makes straight for the court of Ptolemy, hoping to meet his old friend (and now enemy) Pompey Magnus. Unfortunately, the Egyptians are ahead of him.

People by the combined cast of Dune, Name of the Rose and Different Strokes, the court sequences do portray the decadence of the Ptolemaic period, when one isn't giggling at the hairstyles.

Then just when the episode looked hopeful, true to form, our solider heros are sent suspiciously close to another main character...

Faithfully following 21 centuries of Augustan propaganda, Cleopatra is portrayed as a punk haired crack whore on tour. All is well though as she kicks the habit only, between floods, to get knocked up by...

Goodevening Ladies.

Good God, what kind of audience is this stuff being written for? Last week I commented that the Tweedles seemed to be at the center of all the great events.

This week they outdid themselves, and both Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb are very much at the center of things, Dumb seemingly repeatedly so.

The series does come to life here and there when it adheres however roughly to history. When the writers try to give us characters that they think we will relate to, it just gets dumb.

So now after eight episodes, I must say Rome is not hotter than Vulcan's dick.

Oh look, lesbians. And where the hell is Octavian?

The Psychotic Hour

The World's Favorite Radio Show™ is now available in handy Podcast size.

To kick off the new season, The Psychotic Hour will be hold a massive one day marathon recording event in early November.

A Splendid Time is Guaranteed for All

Jugglers, acrobats and clowns. Whores, beggars and thieves. International singing sensations, financial bigwigs, punch and pie.

...and Mike Wyman.

Madonna

I have just heard the newest Madonna single "Hung Up", the radio edit.

It's shameless.

A shameless recreation of her 80's sound that is.

Good song. 7 out of 10. The Chickens are Delighted

Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

Oh goody!

"Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are preparing to link together their free instant messaging services as they take on entrenched messaging leader AOL and market newcomer Google Inc., a source close to the companies says,"

Because you know, less choice is best for consumers.

"A Microsoft spokeswoman and a Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment on the alliance."

Bet it will be the only IM service available in China.

Smash This

At a time when Asia has been devastated by a massive earthquake, some bozos here in Toronto are raising money...

"The Plan
After we collect $400 in donations, we will take that money to a local Apple Store. We will purchase the iPod, open it right inside the store, and destroy it right on the spot. The whole thing will be shot on film, and displayed on this site. This is only a social experiment, for the entertainment of the donors, and visitors of this site."

Assholes

Update

When I asked in a email "How about raising money for Asian Earthquake Relief?" I received this response:

"Because I don't care"

Rome VII

On tonight's exciting episode of Rome.

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful ship..."

Well, after pissing off Neptune with some crack about cocksucking, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb find themselves shipwrecked on the island of Plotus Deviceia. After what seemed like only 20 minutes they make a raft out of old audience members and end up washed up on shore not ten feet from one of the main characters, and their sworn enemy.

Whatthefuckadkfadla.

After a sandwich they feel much better, but must have been suffering from the sun as Tweedle Dee lets his enemy go.

"That was a bit excessive"

Cut to Caesar, who also has a touch of the sun stroke as he is accepting ex-enemies back as if nothing has happened.

This is almost believable. But when the Tweedles arrive in camp with news that they (Dee) let Pompeii go, Caesar is first angry but when he realizes that they have been guided by a higher power (the writer or writers), and always seem to be there during the most important events.

Caesar's faith in miracles is restored.

There was other nonsense about matronly lesbians, and where the hell was Octavian, but...

Pompeii's final fate did have a certain power, but I half expected the Tweedles to be there disguised as Egyptian soldiers.

Zoom

Simone Denny and Cliche continue their rise up the Billboard charts, with no small thanks to DJ Chester Wong of becauseimatter.com, and his "Dirty Dragon Mix".

Ignore any PR bullshit coming out of NYC. They had nothing to do with it.

simonedenny.com

Death Comes in Threes

Bob Devner, Don Adams and now Stately Wayne Manor.

It is too much to take.

Oh no

Yoko Ono has a reputation for truly awful music, but few now know where that reputation comes from.

Recent resurrections of her work, such as "Walking on Thin Ice", only hint at the horror.

No, to understand you must go to the source. John. Yoko. Heroin.

Beware and be warned.

Cambridge 1969

Someone at Bell then gave approval

In a move of humbleness and deep sensitivity, Boeing and its joint-venture partner Bell Helicopter have run this ad.

In case you can't read the tag line it says "It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell" The ad also stated: "Consider it a gift from above."

Boeing and Bell officials agreed that the ad — touting the capabilities of the vertical-lift Osprey aircraft — was ill-conceived and should never have been published.

"We consider the ad offensive, regret its publication and apologize to those who, like us, are dismayed with its contents," said Mary Foerster, a vice president of communication's for Boeing's military side.

Mike Cox, a Bell vice president, said the ad was developed by TM Advertising of Irving, Texas, and then initially released for publication by his company.

"The bottom line is that the [Bell] people who approved this didn't have authority to approve it," Cox said.

Sorry but I don't buy it. Somebody liked it, somebody approved it. It is now an embarrassment because of "an outcry from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.-based Islamic civil-liberties group. The building depicted in the ad has an Arabic sign that translates as "Muhammad Mosque," according to the council.

TM officials yesterday declined to comment on their ad.

Rome VI

Tonight's episode of Rome may of contained mainstream television's largest penis...ever.

That is, if it was real of course.

Other than that, most of the hour was spent with our two solider friends, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. While Dumb is helping the future emperor meet young prostitutes of unknown origin, Dee has finally melted his wife only to be shipped to Greece in the final moments.

While Dumb is almost a likable character (other than the murderer bit), Dee just frowns and looks troubled constantly.

The second half hour...let me see...oh yes, Marcus had a dilemma.

I can only hope the story gets going next week, as all the forces are in Greece, ready to fight.

Come on you two, fight for real

Caesar was hardly seen this week, and heard only in a voice over.

All and all, a bridge episode.

Now, get on your hands and knees...

When Geeks Rule...

..."Voyager" is called the best Star Trek, but I degress.

No, it's worse.

The astronomers who claim to have discovered the 10th planet in the Earth's solar system have made another intriguing announcement: it has a moon.

Ah, great, but...

[Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology] labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess."

but, but, for over 2,000 years we have names planets after the Gods...

But the newly discovered moon, nicknamed Gabrielle after Xena's faithful traveling sidekick in the TV series, likely will not quell the debate over what exactly is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status.

So not only are these TechnoGeeks trying to name planets after television stars, they are also attempting to unseat a present planet as well.

Dangerous for planets, as Xena and Gabrielle were never very certain about their spin.

At least there is a glimmer of hope.

The International Astronomical Union, a group of scientists responsible for naming planets, is deciding on formal names for Xena and Gabrielle.

Good. Here's hoping they come up with something noble, like Kirk and Spock.