In a somewhat humorous piece of news today, I saw that Linda Ronstadt was tossed out of the Aladdin casino in Vegas for dedicating the song “Desperado” to Michael Moore and his new film Fahrenheit 9/11. Casino spokeswoman Sara Gorgon was quoted as saying, “That dedication angered some Aladdin guests who spilled drinks, tore down posters and demanded their money back.” Rule number 206 for Linda Ronstadt, don’t irritate drunken Las Vegas conservatives after a hard day at the slots. It isn’t healthy.

Speaking of Michael Moore, in the July 12, 2004 edition of Time that featured the filmmaker in many articles, there was a section on page 69 called “The Cultural Campaign”. It starts out with the caption, “Politicians and the news media may think they are the stars of the ’04 election season, but from Michael Moore’s film to Bill Clinton’s My Life, it’s really the entertainment and publishing industries that are driving much of the debate.” No big surprise there, folks.

The caption continued, “Given that liberalism is the lingua franca of Hollywood and the arts community, it’s no surprise that much of what they will be sending our way in the coming months aims to provide the President with something less than a feel-good experience.” That’s okay though. President Bush doesn’t even read the news; he just gets all the facts from his advisors. We’re talking about a feel-good presidency. Can’t you just picture it? “Mr. President, Sir, I really don’t know why Walt Disney was mad at Fahrenheit 9/11. The film is brilliant and paints a very re-electable picture of you. America loves it! It’s the best selling documentary of all time! It outsold one of the Rocky films too, sir! Now sign here, here, and initial here. Smile for the camera!”

Anyway, I digress. The section talked about Movies, Comedians, Comic Strips, and Books. It was a very interesting list. There is the movie Bush’s Brain that I’m interested in seeing. It’s a film about Karl Rove and how he made Bush President. My fascination with the rascal Rove hasn’t let up yet. There is also a book by the same title that I plan to check out later today at my library and take a peak at. Another interesting book brought up the topic of assassination of President Bush. Checkpoint, by Nicholson Baker tells the story of a man named Jay who is hashing out a plan to kill the president (The article notes that while it is illegal to threaten the President in real life, it is perfectly fine to do it in fiction). For Art Spiegelman fans there is a graphic novel soon to be released called In the Shadow of No Towers which discusses the author's feelings of being equally terrorized by al-Qaeda and by his own government.

Possibly the funniest book mentioned is The Future Dictionary of America, a new dictionary which Time quoted as having words like “Cheney” which means “To parlay one cushy job into another, especially via personal connections.”

I look forward to trying to read or watch the films I’ve listed. I have a hard time finishing books these days though. I keep finding new books to read before I get done with the old ones. Oh well. What can I expect really? I work in a library.