March 10, 2006
My Favorite Anchor
I like Bob Schieffer very much. If the worst happens and CBS names Katie Couric as permanent evening news anchor, I won't be able to watch it again. She has little hard news credentials. Her greatest credential seems to be being "cute", which is nauseating at best. I watched the Today Show for years but am now watching Good Morning America because the anchors are so much better than NBC's.
Here's hoping Schieffer is anchor for a long time! Yep, I'm a groupie!
THE TEMP IN THE ANCHOR'S CHAIR
By Linda Stasi, New York Post
March 10, 2006 — He's too old to have one, and I'm too old to be one. I'm talking about Bob Schieffer and groupies, obviously. Or maybe not so obviously.
I've become a groupie because Schieffer is a remnant of what reporters are supposed to be - relentless, honest and honorable.
In the world of good-looking, 30-something anchors, it seems almost impossible that a 69-year-old man — who was simply warming the seat until Katie Couric or some other happy face could take over — would have brought the ratings up to contender levels and turned the news back into something interesting, intriguing and, yes, important.
First thing you notice when you walk into Schieffer's big office (did I mention "very") is that it looks like a control tower — all windows, pitched high over the CBS newsroom. From here, he can watch all the action down below — and the action can watch him.
Dan Rather, he says, had those windows curtained off, and the first thing he did was rip them down.
But that's not all that's different.
Schieffer can take chances with The CBS Evening News because, frankly, "I don't want the job," he said. "I've reached a stage in my life when it doesn't matter."
"Look," he said to me over some pretty good coffee, "Had this all happened 10 years ago, I'd be in there fighting. But I was planning to retire this year. Now, I just want to hold on long enough to be on 60 Minutes! " he laughed.
Yes, he likes Katie Couric very much, and no, he's not disappointed he didn't get the job way back when. "I am sorry I hurt people along the way though," (to the top apparently). But he has his priorities in order now.
"In 2003, I had bladder cancer," he said with his usual candor. "So is this new job a temporary assignment? Hell, life's a temporary assignment!"
Here's hoping Schieffer is anchor for a long time! Yep, I'm a groupie!
THE TEMP IN THE ANCHOR'S CHAIR
By Linda Stasi, New York Post
March 10, 2006 — He's too old to have one, and I'm too old to be one. I'm talking about Bob Schieffer and groupies, obviously. Or maybe not so obviously.
I've become a groupie because Schieffer is a remnant of what reporters are supposed to be - relentless, honest and honorable.
In the world of good-looking, 30-something anchors, it seems almost impossible that a 69-year-old man — who was simply warming the seat until Katie Couric or some other happy face could take over — would have brought the ratings up to contender levels and turned the news back into something interesting, intriguing and, yes, important.
First thing you notice when you walk into Schieffer's big office (did I mention "very") is that it looks like a control tower — all windows, pitched high over the CBS newsroom. From here, he can watch all the action down below — and the action can watch him.
Dan Rather, he says, had those windows curtained off, and the first thing he did was rip them down.
But that's not all that's different.
Schieffer can take chances with The CBS Evening News because, frankly, "I don't want the job," he said. "I've reached a stage in my life when it doesn't matter."
"Look," he said to me over some pretty good coffee, "Had this all happened 10 years ago, I'd be in there fighting. But I was planning to retire this year. Now, I just want to hold on long enough to be on 60 Minutes! " he laughed.
Yes, he likes Katie Couric very much, and no, he's not disappointed he didn't get the job way back when. "I am sorry I hurt people along the way though," (to the top apparently). But he has his priorities in order now.
"In 2003, I had bladder cancer," he said with his usual candor. "So is this new job a temporary assignment? Hell, life's a temporary assignment!"
March 07, 2006
RIP, Gordon Parks
Filmmaker Gordon Parks Dies at 93
By Polly Anderson, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK — Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.
But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well as directed.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972, and that same year his son Gordon Jr. directed "Superfly." The younger Parks was killed in a plane crash in 1979.
Parks also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.
He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948.
[Ed. Parks got his first fashion photography job in St, Paul. From a 2002 article in City Pages: In the 1929 St. Paul city directory, author, filmmaker, composer, and photographer GORDON PARKS is listed as a porter living at 702 OLD RONDO. During his formative years in the Twin Cities, Parks worked as a busboy at the LOWRY HOTEL ("St. Paul's Largest") at FOURTH AND WABASHA, and also at the MINNESOTA CLUB (WASHINGTON AND FOURTH). He also hung out and played piano at JIM WILLIAMS'S POOL HALL (560 ST. ANTHONY AVE.), and at CARVER'S PLACE, a juke joint/ whorehouse in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city. Parks got his first big break as a fashion photographer for FRANK MURPHY'S women's clothing store (FIFTH AND ST. PETER) in downtown St. Paul.]
"Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote.
When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me."
"I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively."
In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement.
"Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart."
The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.
Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again."
In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black."
His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Leadbelly," 1976; and "Solomon Northup's Odyssey," a TV film from 1984.
Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going."
Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.
Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.
Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter."
By Polly Anderson, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK — Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.
But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well as directed.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972, and that same year his son Gordon Jr. directed "Superfly." The younger Parks was killed in a plane crash in 1979.
Parks also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.
He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948.
[Ed. Parks got his first fashion photography job in St, Paul. From a 2002 article in City Pages: In the 1929 St. Paul city directory, author, filmmaker, composer, and photographer GORDON PARKS is listed as a porter living at 702 OLD RONDO. During his formative years in the Twin Cities, Parks worked as a busboy at the LOWRY HOTEL ("St. Paul's Largest") at FOURTH AND WABASHA, and also at the MINNESOTA CLUB (WASHINGTON AND FOURTH). He also hung out and played piano at JIM WILLIAMS'S POOL HALL (560 ST. ANTHONY AVE.), and at CARVER'S PLACE, a juke joint/ whorehouse in a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city. Parks got his first big break as a fashion photographer for FRANK MURPHY'S women's clothing store (FIFTH AND ST. PETER) in downtown St. Paul.]
"Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote.
When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me."
"I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively."
In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement.
"Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart."
The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.
Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again."
In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black."
His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Leadbelly," 1976; and "Solomon Northup's Odyssey," a TV film from 1984.
Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going."
Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.
Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.
Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter."
March 06, 2006
RIP, Kirby Puckett
This is a very sad day. In my lifetime, Kirby Puckett was the best baseball player I ever knew, one of the best Minnesota athletes ever. Though he grew up in Chicago, he was a Minnesotan by virtue of being a Minnesota Twins team member and the fans claimed him as one of us. Now we mourn an extraordinary sports figure, gone way too soon at age 45.
Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies
By Dave Campbell, AP Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — Kirby Puckett died Monday, a day after the Hall of Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 44.
Puckett died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Kimberly Lodge said. He had been in intensive care since having surgery at another hospital following his stroke Sunday morning.
Puckett carried the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma. His family, friends and former teammates gathered at the hospital throughout Monday.
The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died in the afternoon.
"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened by the sudden passing of Kirby Puckett," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "He was a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term.
"He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in Minnesota. But he was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played. Kirby was taken from us much too soon — and too quickly," he said.
The buoyant, barrel-shaped Puckett broke into the majors in 1984 and had a career batting average of .318. Glaucoma forced the six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in his right eye.
"This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere," Twins owner Carl Pohlad said.
Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies
By Dave Campbell, AP Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS — Kirby Puckett died Monday, a day after the Hall of Fame outfielder had a stroke at his Arizona home, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 44.
Puckett died at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Kimberly Lodge said. He had been in intensive care since having surgery at another hospital following his stroke Sunday morning.
Puckett carried the Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991 before his career was cut short by glaucoma. His family, friends and former teammates gathered at the hospital throughout Monday.
The hospital said Puckett was given last rites and died in the afternoon.
"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I am terribly saddened by the sudden passing of Kirby Puckett," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. "He was a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term.
"He played his entire career with the Twins and was an icon in Minnesota. But he was revered throughout the country and will be remembered wherever the game is played. Kirby was taken from us much too soon — and too quickly," he said.
The buoyant, barrel-shaped Puckett broke into the majors in 1984 and had a career batting average of .318. Glaucoma forced the six-time Gold Glove center fielder and 10-time All-Star to retire when he went blind in his right eye.
"This is a sad day for the Minnesota Twins, Major League Baseball and baseball fans everywhere," Twins owner Carl Pohlad said.
Hoffman Scores Oscar
Capping an awards season that garnered him several other awards, Phillip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar for Capote. His was one of only three awards that my favorites got. The other two were March of the Penguins as Best Documentary and Crash as Best Picture. The rest of the category winners were a disappointment for me.
Paul Giamatti has the distinction of being stiffed two years in a row — not nominated when he should have been last year and losing out this year to a "popular" person but lesser performance by George Clooney. For a few other awards the "in" thing won awards though they weren't the best in their categories. Nothing new at Oscar time, but frustrating nonetheless.
This was my 50th year watching the Oscarcast. Among all of the hosts I've seen over the years, Jon Stewart was not the worst, just second worst. Another tv star was the worst. Hopefully the Academy has now figured out that a tv star is not a good choice for Oscar hosting. It's too bad, because their Oscar performances may cause some viewers to not watch their tv shows and that would be a mistake. They are good in their genres, just out of their milieaux at the Oscars.
I figured Stewart wouldn't do well even before he spoke — he wore the previous years' trend of long tie with a suit, out of style now. He looked like an undertaker to me. I would liked to have seen him in the traditional tux that most of the men wore, or at least something funky.
I thought the two best speeches were given by Robert Altman and Hoffman. Altman was as interesting and refreshing as his movies. Despite his previous awards, Hoffman was overwhelmed and nervous; much of his thanks went to his mother. Competely charming.
Paul Giamatti has the distinction of being stiffed two years in a row — not nominated when he should have been last year and losing out this year to a "popular" person but lesser performance by George Clooney. For a few other awards the "in" thing won awards though they weren't the best in their categories. Nothing new at Oscar time, but frustrating nonetheless.
This was my 50th year watching the Oscarcast. Among all of the hosts I've seen over the years, Jon Stewart was not the worst, just second worst. Another tv star was the worst. Hopefully the Academy has now figured out that a tv star is not a good choice for Oscar hosting. It's too bad, because their Oscar performances may cause some viewers to not watch their tv shows and that would be a mistake. They are good in their genres, just out of their milieaux at the Oscars.
I figured Stewart wouldn't do well even before he spoke — he wore the previous years' trend of long tie with a suit, out of style now. He looked like an undertaker to me. I would liked to have seen him in the traditional tux that most of the men wore, or at least something funky.
I thought the two best speeches were given by Robert Altman and Hoffman. Altman was as interesting and refreshing as his movies. Despite his previous awards, Hoffman was overwhelmed and nervous; much of his thanks went to his mother. Competely charming.