In an article in The New York Times, David Carr writes about the filming of Garrison Keillor's radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion" which is currently in production in St. Paul. Director Robert Altman and PH founder Keillor are giving each other credit for the movie, which has considerable star power, including Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep.

With several roles, among them screenwriter and star, Keillor on the set is decribed as "an ambulatory puddle of quiet angst." Since that is his general demeanor, it is no surprise to Minnesotans.

According to an article in the Birmingham Post-Herald by Wade Kwon, "Geek chic is back with a vengeance." Kwon writes that it's okay to to be a geek but less so to be nerd. You definitely don't want to be called a dork. Based on his comments, I think I know at least one geek.

Frank Rich in today's New York Times has an outstanding analysis of the "Rove leak", Follow the Uranium.

"Awards — do they ever make sense?" Liz Smith asks in her New York Post column. She adds "It's rarely about talent — popularity and network politics rule." I agree. The 2005 Emmy Nominations have been announced.

There are some good choices, as well as the usual glaring omissions. But the most obvious evidence that the nominators are either under the sway of something and/or greatly lacking in discernment are the 15 nominations each for Will & Grace and Desperate Housewives.

W&G was once a very good show, but is now mostly tired. DH is a bad joke. Its actresses receiving three of the five nominations as Oustanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series is incomprehensible. (I would vote none of the above in that category.)

Another flaw in the Emmys process is allowing shows to decide whether they're a comedy or drama. DH doesn't belong in the comedy category, unless you think it's so bad it's funny. But it's not. Funny. Just bad.

Some nominees I'd vote for:

Comedy lead actor — Jason Bateman;

Comedy supporting actor — 1) Peter Boyle 2) Jeffrey Tambor;

Comedy supporting actress — Conchatta Ferrell, though the nominees are all deserving in this, the strongest series acting category;

Drama lead actress — Mariska Hargitay, but Marg Helgenberger should be on the list;

Drama lead actor — Hugh Laurie, but this is the worst missing nominees category. Most conspicuous is Dennis Franz, the best actor in a TV drama from the beginning to the end and he had one of his best years last year. Also missing and better choices, Anthony LaPaglia, Christopher Meloni, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Waterston and William Petersen;

Drama supporting actress — 1) Tyne Daly 2) Stockard Channing;

Drama supporting actor — 1) Alan Alda 2) William Shatner. Glaring omissions are Richard Belzer and Miguel Ferrer;

Best Comedy — Arrested Development; and

Best Drama — West Wing, long in the tooth but still the best.

The nominees for guest appearances and special programs are uniformly good, the only categories the nominators rarely screw up.

There are always some special bright spots in the nominations. Two I like this year are the number of older actresses and actors receiving nominations. And Cloris Leachman nominated for Emmys as Outstanding Guest Actress in both comedy series and drama series is a delight.

The latest upgrade to Mac OS X, 10.4.2 Tiger was released on Tuesday, 7/12 and it has already caused lots of comment on MacRumors. The comments are characterized as 247 positives and 168 negatives, though I'm not sure how those figures were arrived at; most of the comments I read were both positive and negative.

It's noted that the Widget Manager is the only obvious new item. It looks like a definite improvement over the annoying widgets screens(s). But since I don't care for widgets anyway, I don't have quite the excitement level expressed by many Mac aficionados.

In the New York Post Susannah Callahan and Bill Hoffmann report on the Big Apple's celebration yesterday of Slurpee's Big 4-0. They're probably going fast in the Twin Cities too, with the persistant high temperatures and humidity.

Time magazine's website has a list of Time's Coolest Websites 2005. Enjoy!

In contemplating the events of yesterday, I am reminded of a few of the words of a well-known British anthem:

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each foreign stroke,
More dreadful, more dreadful from each foreign stroke
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.

Rule Britannia!
Britannia rule the waves.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

If so, according to Michael Riedel's article in today's New York Post, Rocco Landesman, who bought Jujamcyn Theaters last year for $100 million after Minneapolitan and Jujamcyn creator James Binger died, is looking for a partner.