Lucinda Williams’ new album, “World Without Tears,” is hitting stores April 8. Here’s a profile of this fantastic singer-songwriter in the New York Daily News.
Day: March 25, 2003
This should be on your wish list
“Porn Star: The Legend of a Ron Jeremy” is a very funny and sad documentary look at the life of porn ambassador (and performer) Ron Jeremy. It is now on sale.
Here’s a profile/review of Jeremy and the movie I wrote for the Columbia Chronicle, and here’s a Q&A with the man himself.
Something stinks
Halliburton Co., of which Dick Cheney used to be CEO, has been awarded a no-bid contract to put out fires set to Iraqi oil wells.
The biggest value of the contract, according to this CNN Money story, “could be that it puts Halliburton in a prime position to handle the complete refurbishment of Iraq’s long-neglected oil infrastructure, which will be a plum job.”
I don’t believe this war is solely or even primarily about oil. I think Dubya & Co. truly belive, wrongly, that Hussein’s regime is a threat to the United States. But this stinks as bad as an Iraqi oil fire.
What did they fight for?
After Sept. 11, the insurance industry (with some help from the construction industry) begged and pleaded for a federal backstop for terrorism insurance. Eventually, they got it good and hard.
And now, nobody’s buying it! Coverages are still scattershot and what is offered is too expensive.
The folks who might want it (big buildings in major cities) are charged premiums they don’t want to pay, and the folks who’d get great rates (smaller businesses in less dense areas) don’t see any need for it.
Sounds like the situation before Congress passed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. The only difference is that now, if there is a terrorist attack, taxpayers will be left with the bill for anything over $10 billion — assuming the target’s owner has purchased terrorism coverage to begin with.
Now, let’s salute Oscar’s boring past
I forgot to mention in my write-up yesterday about the worst parts of the Oscarcast — the retrospectives on past song-and-dance numbers and past MPAA president speeches.
Everyone hates song-and-dance numbers (last night had only one, accompanying the performance of the original song from “Chicago”), yet somehow they wasted precious minutes on screen showing us all of Oscar’s past “glories.” A trip down bad memory lane, an astute friend called it.
And the MPAA president speeches?! That’s the time everyone uses to go to the bathroom or get another beer or whatever. The MPAA president never says anything of note and just takes up space and time. A tribute to past speeches is like doing a retrospective on mold, only less interesting.
What were they thinking?
kboreilly.com 