Mark Sanford — He’s Back!

Mark Sanford is back, with a headline love story even dead celebrities can’t kill!

The South Carolina Governor’s Statehouse press conference went so well last week that he just gave a long interview to Associated Press. 

In a session reporters Tamara Lush and Evan Berland describe as “lengthy and emotional,” Mr. Sanford revealed that his extramarital relationship with Argentine reporter Maria Belen Chapur started eight years ago when he met her at a dance and ”counseled her into the night about her failing marriage.”

Good counseling technique, Governor.

Festival Time Again. And Again and Again and Again ….

 

Summertime is festival time. If you missed the ones last weekend, don’t fret. There are plenty more next weekend — and for weekends to come — and they’re all the same.

The plain truth: these so-called “Special Events” are no longer very special. There are just too many of them (one promoter calls it ”festival saturation“), tens of thousands in the USA alone, and festivals are much too similar.  

Business Attire

The City Council of Brooksville, Florida has revised the dress code for city employees. They must wear underwear.

Undies  must not be “exposed,” however. 

Sigh. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Also verboten: clothing with foul language or messages promoting drug use written on it, halter tops and other “sexually provocative” garments, and piercings anywhere except the ears.

Something city workers must wear: deodorant.  Brooksville (population: 8,000) is 45 miles north of Tampa, 15 miles east of the Gulf. Today’s weather: 89 °F, Heat Index: 99 °F.

 

Hat tip: OhMyGov!

Image (“Legal Briefs”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Celebrity Holocaust Continues — Billy Mays Dies!

Infomercial pitchman Billy Mays died suddenly this morning at his Tampa home. He was 50, the same age as Michael Jackson.  Heavy.

The cause of death is unknown; hair dye toxicity should not be ruled out.

Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett , Gale Storm, Karl Malden,  Jeff Goldblum, Harrison Ford, George Clooney, Natale Portman , Elizabeth Taylor, Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears … now Billy Mays. This is American Cultural Genocide! 

Who will be next, our beloved ShamWow Guy?

Somebody call the President.

 

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Special Dead Celebrity Edition

Really now. Are people just ghouls?

Well, some clearly are.

But was Farrah Fawcett – or Michael Jackson — really Princess Diana?

Come to think of it, was Princess Diana really Princess Diana?

Certainly the choreographers, arrangers, composers, studio musicians, costume designers, tailors, sound engineers, video directors, technicians, hairdressers, and cosmetic surgeons who created the work enacted by Michael Jackson have reason to mourn the talented performer. They lost a major vehicle for their work, not to mention a paycheck.

Ticket holders for Mr. Jackson’s July concerts in London probably haven’t decided whether to demand refunds or have their tickets framed as holy relics. Rights holders in the recorded Jackson corpus (and their lawyers) are undoubtedly working 24/7; media archivists and tabloids are sleeplessly All-Jackson-All-the-Time. But others are obviously mourning their lost youth through the music of the era, or simply feigning mourning à la mode.

Mark Sanford Mourns Farrah Fawcett

Governor Mark Sanford declared Tuesday an official Day of Public Mourning in South Carolina for model-slash-actress Farrah Fawcett, who died last Thursday following a lengthy, tragic TV special on NBC.

In prepared remarks the Governor explained that he never met Ms. Fawcett, but her best-selling poster afforded many hours of consolation for him and other residents of the boys’ dorms at Furman University in the 1980s. The rest of his remarks, addressed to the memory of the late actress, are rather rambling and personal:

Smithsonian Saturday Special

A special event has been added to the 2009 Smithsonian Folklife Festival,  a tribute concert dedicated to Diana Parker, long-time festival Director, who will be retiring later this year.

On Saturday June 27th at 7 PM, at the Festival’s Welsh Dragon Stage on the National Mall, some friends of Diana’s will share their music: Blues musicians Phil Wiggins and Corey Harris and members of award-winning Cajun band BeauSoleil.

Diana Parker has been with the Folklife Festival since 1975,  after working with other Smithsonian programs and at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. A consultant to Cultural Olympiads, the Los Angeles Festival, and every public presidential inaugural celebration since 1976, she helped produce the WWII Reunion on the Mall dedicating the WWII Memorial, and the First Americans Festival celebrating the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian.

More here.

 

The Welsh Dragon is the big tent near the Smithsonian Castle (map).

Can’t make it? See the live webcast here.

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DC Caribbean Carnival 2009

Washington DC’s 17th annual Caribbean Carnival is this weekend, June 27-28, 2009. The free parade starts 11AM Saturday at Georgia and Missouri Avenues NW and marches down Georgia Avenue to Banneker Field, near Howard University. Expect steel pan bands and brightly costumed masqueraders. Bring your kids and your camera.

It will cost you $10 to get in the park for the weekend, but you’ll hear great music from DC Reggae stalwart Carl Malcom and international Soca and Calypso stars. Fritz Hahn previews the music (with videos) here.

Food, crafts, and fun are available both days from noon to 7PM. Learn more about the event from Lystra Lashley and the  DC Caribbean Carnival website (loud!).

 

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Vodka Victims

More than half of Russians who die between the ages of 15 and 54 are killed by alcohol, a study has found. Some deaths are from the poisons in badly-distilled home brew, but most are from chronic conditions caused or  exacerbated by booze. 30.000 Russians a year die from alcohol poisoning due to plain over-consumption.

Compared to the rest of Europe, The mortality rate in the 15-to-54 age group is five times higher for Russian men, three times higher for Russian women.

Eastern Market Music this Weekend — Free!

Celebrate the re-opening of the Eastern Market building by enjoying free music outside, on 7th Street SE, courtesy of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation:

Saturday, June 27

10 AM Yamomanem — New Orleans Jazz

Noon Memphis Gold and Jay Summerour – Blues

2 PM Honky Tonk Confidential – Rockabilly

4 PM Runakuna — Andean music

Sunday, June 28

10 AM Rick Franklin and Friends — Acoustic Blues

1 PM Dead Men’s Hollow – Americana-Bluegrass

 

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