Broken Dreams Cafe'

Disrupt Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 15:27:00 +0000

Sports Doc: New Tests Can Find Doping Agents

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:55:00 +0000

Pink Has Her Gallbladder Removed

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:59:00 +0000

House Rejects Sex-selection Abortion Ban

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 31 May 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Mich. Teen Dies After Police Use Taser

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 27 May 2012 02:57:00 +0000

Nahlah Ayed On Strombo: Full Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:16:00 +0000

FULL INTERVIEW: Michelle Yeoh

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:49:00 +0000

NYC Basement Search, Boy Vanished in 1979

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:31:00 +0000

FULL INTERVIEW: Morgan Spurlock

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:40:00 +0000

Ricki Lake and Fiance Elope!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:20:00 +0000

Adam Sandler's Jack & Jill wins ALL awards at Razzies!

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:16:00 +0000

Camille Grammer Quits Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Kylie Minogue has performed two shows in one night in her birth town Mel...

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:31:00 +0000

Emma Stone Presents 'The Amazing Spider-Man'

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:29:00 +0000

Fashion Fails of the Week: Snooki, Katy Perry & More

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:53:00 +0000

Is JWoww Jealous of Snooki?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Christina Ricci says the cast of her new film Bel Ami had lessons on Vic...

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:47:00 +0000

Bookies have suspended betting on who killed Frank from Coronation Stree...

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:47:00 +0000

Video Attacking Uganda Warlord Goes Viral

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:50:00 +0000

Ewan McGregor visits "Live! with Kelly"

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:51:00 +0000

Are J.Lo & Marc Anthony Back Together?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Secret underground art show thrills New York

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 10:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AFP) – It's the hottest, most talked about art show in New York -- and almost no one even knows where it is.

With a huge space and 103 of the hippest contemporary artists participating, "The Underbelly Project" sounds like a powerhouse production at the Met or MoMA.

But while the Big Apple may have seen most things in the art world, this is different.

Illegally located somewhere deep underground in an abandoned station of the New York Subway system, "Underbelly" consists of graffiti art by a who's who of the street genre's leading exponents.

Starting in 2009, they worked clandestinely, with almost military discipline, to elude the authorities, navigate pitch-black tunnels, paint, and resurface.

Their work completed, the artists sealed access to the subterranean complex and abandoned their mysterious outpourings. The show's website, www.theunderbellyproject.com, has for the last week displayed nothing more than a brief written introduction against the flashing background of empty tunnels.

It "defies every norm of the gallery scene," wrote Jasper Rees, one of the few outsiders allowed to glimpse the phantom show and who revealed its existence October 31 in The New York Times.

"Collectors can't buy the art," Rees says. "The public can't see it. And the only people with a chance of stumbling across it are the urban explorers who prowl the city's hidden infrastructure or employees of the Metropolitan Transport Authority."

Photos posted by the Times and on street art blogs show dramatic, wild works executed in appalling conditions of dust, damp and darkness broken only by camping lanterns.

Slogans like "We own the night" give way to abstract creations, surreal human forms, and ghoulish apparitions of rats and skulls.

But what created an instant legend was the idea of entombing the work.

"Even if any of us wanted to go back (and I do), even if we could remember how to get there (and I don't), we can't," writes Michael "RJ" Rushmore, who was taken to photograph the site, for his blog vandalog.com. "'The Underbelly Project' has become a time capsule."

-- New York's ghost stations -- A guessing game is underway across art websites about the location of this ultimate underground experience.

Many New Yorkers are unaware of the archipelago of abandoned stations, platforms and tracks, or trackless tunnels running parallel to the visible Subway system. There are nine complete stations alone, according to the website Abandoned Stations.

Charles Seaton, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transport Authority, or MTA, confirmed to AFP only that "it is a closed station. All I can tell you is that it's in Brooklyn."

The war between the MTA and graffiti vandals has been going on for decades. Spraying of subway trains got so out of control in the 1970s and '80s that many carriages were almost inundated in "tags."

"Tagging" continues today, but the MTA immediately pulls those cars out of service, starving would-be artists of the notoriety they crave.

And Seaton said the "Underbelly Project" was not being taken lightly.

"Trespassing is against the law, as is vandalism. Anyone caught in connection with this incident is subject to arrest," Seaton warned.

That illegality is exactly what drove the "Underbelly Project" as it sought to reclaim graffiti's daredevil roots and, in the words of the project's website, create an "elusive pirate treasure of contemporary art."

The show also sought to roll back the commercialization and gentrification of graffiti.

This is an age when street artists like JR and Britain's Banksy have global recognition and collectors are pouring in money.

Next year, Los Angeles' trendy Museum of Contemporary Art plans a major retrospective of graffiti called "Art in the Streets." And last year, the Cartier Foundation in Paris had its own "Born in the Streets" show.

So taking their spray cans four storeys under New York was about as far from the chic gallery scene that "Underbelly's" artists could get.

As, Workhorse, one of the two leaders of the project, told Rees: "If you go in there and break your neck, nobody's going to hear you scream."

But, like the incomplete map of the Subway system, not everything is straightforward.

Although they worked in secret, many of the artists taking part in the project are literally stars in the worldwide graffiti community.

LTV Squad.com, another blog, cites a "'who's who' of the art world," including Sane, Swoon, Roa, Posterchild, Faile, F5, Smells, and Cash4. "'The Underbelly Project' is perhaps the biggest, boldest art project of its kind ever created within NYC."

That kind of hype is making some graffiti aficionados skeptical.

"The artists talked about not making this a mainstream thing with the galleries, but in a sense it falls right into that," said Eric Felisbret, a former tagger who runs the influential www.at149st.com website and who recently published "Graffiti New York," a photo history.

"It helps reinforce their street cred and that's what gets buyers interested in this form of art. It builds the mystique," Felisbret told AFP.

He added drily: "If they wanted to be secret, they wouldn't have contacted the Times."

Photographs of the "Underbelly Project" can be viewed at: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/29/arts/design/20101101-underbelly-ss.html

And http://tagbomb2.ltvsquad.com/DisplayPage/ID/24/Sec/Gallery/

Another 'Dancing' star heads for the hills

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:29:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES – A second-place finish on Monday's "Dancing With the Stars" couldn't save Audrina Patridge.

The reality TV beauty was dismissed from the hit ABC show Tuesday.

"I had so much fun this entire experience and made such good new friends," she said, thanking the judges and her fans. "It's been a fun journey."

Patridge and professional partner Tony Dovolani earned 24 points out of 30 for their rock-inspired paso doble on Monday's episode. But despite the high score, head judge Len Goodman told the 25-year-old star of MTV's "The Hills" that she was "getting on my nerves a bit."

"You've got the potential to blow us all away week after week," he said. "Your dancing is clean and it's crisp. Every week it lacks the character of the dance."

Patridge and Dovolani earned another eight points during Monday's rock 'n' roll dance marathon, landing them in second place for the night, but they failed to collect enough viewer votes to keep them in the competition.

Judges' scores are combined with viewer votes to determine which star is ousted each week.

Tuesday's episode also included a trio of musical performances. Heart performed its hit "Barracuda," and student musicians from School of Rock continued the rocking vibe with a medley of classics. Later, Kylie Minogue performed her new single, "Get Out of My Way."

Six celebrity dancers remain: Actors Jennifer Grey and Kyle Massey, singer-actress Brandy, athletes Rick Fox and Kurt Warner, and Bristol Palin.

___

Online:

http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars

Journalists cannot protect sources: top court

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:23:00 +0000

OTTAWA — Canadian media's attempt to establish a right to protect confidential sources was quashed by the nation's highest court on Friday.

In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the National Post daily to hand over to police documents obtained from a source in 2001 alleging a former prime minister's involvement in a loan scandal.

The court recognized the public's interest "in being informed about matters of public importance that may only see the light of day through the cooperation of sources who will not speak except on condition of confidentiality."

Canada's judiciary was urged to respect promises of confidentiality given to a secret source by a journalist or an editor "in appropriate circumstances."

But the public's interest "is not absolute," the court ruled. "It must be balanced against other important public interests, including the investigation of crime.

"The bottom line is that no journalist can give a source a total assurance of confidentiality. All such arrangements necessarily carry an element of risk that the source's identity will eventually be revealed," it said.

The leaked documents appeared to expose then-prime minister Jean Chretien's role in loans made to a country inn and golf course in his hometown of Shawinigan, Quebec.

The documents, provided in exchange for a broad and unconditional promise of confidentiality, allegedly showed that the owner of the golf club owed money to Chretien and planned to repay it with a loan from a federally funded bank.

But the bank complained to federal police about what it called an attempt to commit forgery and dupe the Post into publishing a story implicating a former prime minister of serious financial conflicts of interest.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police asked for the documents and the envelope containing them as evidence of the alleged forgery in order to determine the sender's identity.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court also said that a constitutional protection of freedom of expression is not limited to "traditional media" but is enjoyed by "everyone."

The rights extend to blogging, tweeting, "standing on a street corner and shouting the 'news' at passing pedestrians," as well as publishing in a national newspaper, the court said.

But granting immunity to sources deemed worthy to quote on condition of anonymity by "such a heterogeneous and ill-defined group of writers and speakers... would blow a giant hole in law enforcement and other constitutionally recognized values such as privacy," it added.

Obama to unveil new health care reform proposal

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Lorette) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:25:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, The New York Times reported.

This new piece of legislation aims to bridge differences between the bills adopted by the House and Senate late last year, the newspaper reported late Sunday, citing unnamed White House officials.

It would also frame his debate with Republicans over health policy at a televised "summit" meeting on Thursday, the Times added.

By focusing on the effort to tighten regulation of insurance costs, Obama was seizing on outrage over recent premium increases of up to 39 percent announced by Anthem Blue Cross of California, the report said.

The issue is a new element that has not been included in either the House or Senate bills.

The president?s bill would grant the federal health and human services secretary new authority to review and block premium increases by private insurers, potentially superseding state insurance regulators, the paper noted.

It would create a new Health Insurance Rate Authority, made up of health industry experts.

It would issue an annual report setting the parameters for reasonable rate increases based on conditions in the market, according to the report.

Officials said they envisioned the provision taking effect immediately after the health care bill was signed into law, The Times said.

The legislation would call on the secretary of health and human services to work with state regulators to develop an annual review of rate increases.

If increases were deemed unjustified the secretary, or the state involved, could block them, order the insurer to change them, or even issue a rebate to beneficiaries, the paper reported.

The new rate board would comprise seven members, including consumer representatives, an insurance industry representative, a physician, and other experts such health economists and actuaries, said The Times.

The board?s annual report would offer guidance to the public and states on whether rate increases should be approved, the paper pointed out.