| Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season Comes to DVD June 12
Fans will recall such memorable catchphrases as "up your nose with a rubber hose" when the first full season of Welcome Back, Kotter, one of the 70's biggest comedy hits, is released on DVD June 12, 2007 from Warner Home Video (WHV). Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season will include all 22 episodes from the show's first season, as well as never-before-seen exclusive bonus material, in a four-disc collector's set and will retail for $29.98.Available for the first time ever on DVD, Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season follows the life of teacher and former "Sweathog" Gabe Kotter (Gabriel Kaplan). Kotter returns to his former high school to teach the same remedial class in which he himself had been a student as a teenager. Still referred to as the "Sweathogs," the lovable losers and delinquents of Buchanan High accept their new teacher as they provide a nonstop string of laughs.Welcome Back, Kotter is an Emmy-nominated series, which originally aired on ABC from September 1975 to May 1979.
ABC Poll Finds Twice as Many Blame Culture Over Guns, But 'World ...
ABC News polling chief Gary Langer, in a posting buried on ABCNews.com, revealed that a poll taken Sunday discovered that when “asked the primary cause of gun violence, far more Americans blamed the effects of popular culture (40 percent) or the way parents raise their children (35 percent) than the availability of guns (18 percent)." ABC's World News on Monday devoted nearly two minutes to results of ABC's survey, but didn't get to that finding which shows the public does not share the media assumption that gun availability is to blame for the murders at Virginia Tech. Although George Stephanopoulos did point out how “a strong majority of Americans, 52 to 29, prefer enforcing existing laws to passing new laws," anchor Charles Gibson led with a widely-held view, how “a new ABC News poll finds 83 percent of Americans say states should do more to report mentally ill people to the federal gun sales registry." He went how to highlight that “61 percent of the people in this country say they favor stronger gun control laws, although people are split right down the middle as to whether stricter gun control laws would actually curb any kind of violence, 49 percent saying yes, 50 percent saying no." The full text of the question, as listed in the PDF of the poll results, a PDF linked at the end of Langer's summary report: “7.
Manga, American-style
In the popular imagination, it's a dank cinderblock of a building, decorated with statues of absurdly proportioned superheroes and heroines, frequented by pimply teenage boys and presided over by a condescending slob who manages be at once sexless and vaguely lecherous. (The latter type has been immortalized by the insufferable Comic Book Guy on "The Simpsons.") .
US Women's National Team Journal with Katie Olsovsky
Hello from Rome, Italy! I really dont know what to say to describe how beautiful Rome is! I visited Rome about three years ago and did the whole tourist thing for a week, but living here for six months has been a totally different experience. The first thing I automatically loved about Rome was the weather because it is just like Southern California, never snows!! Being in Rome for Christmas was really special. I went to the Vatican for midnight mass and sat inside the church for the Popes service. It was a very memorable experience because usually I watch the Popes mass on television in California on Christmas Day. Living in Rome allows me to enjoy the sites leisurely and helps me appreciate art a little bit more. Last weekend my friend and I sat in a caf overlooking the Spanish Steps and drank tea and relaxed.
'Grindhouse' Reviewed by Nick Schager
In a pop culture landscape as hungrily cannibalistic as today's, cinematic nostalgia and homage has lost much of its once enticing luster. The indulgent fun of referencing and rehashing the past has worn so thin that even VH1's gaggle of third-rate Best Week Ever and I Love the [Insert Decade] talking heads seem barely capable of mustering enthusiasm for the latest derogatory smack-down on their own industry brethren. The cultural infatuation with retro navel-gazing is now pronounced to the point that it brings into question whether the practice hasn't seriously debilitated our collective imaginations, which have become so narrowly focused that it sometimes feels as if half of our mainstream entertainment takes as its primary influence mainstream entertainment. It's an inward circle that -- at least in the cinematic arena -- proceeds with no clear direction and even less of a meaningful destination, with deconstruction often taking a back seat to regurgitation as countless filmmakers prove themselves stunted adolescents whose worldview is primarily confined to the movies and TV shows of their youths.
J. Lo lands $2 million for birthday bash
Jennifer Lopez, whose career has cooled a bit in the United States, is reportedly being paid $2 million to sing at a 30th birthday party that a Russian tycoon is throwing for his wife. Andrei Melnichenko, a 35-year-old Russian banker, is flying Lopez to Britain to entertain his model wife, Aleksandra, and her 60 guests at their home for her birthday bash, according to various overseas reports. The tab is said to be $1.2 million, reports MSNBC.com, plus $800,000 for Lopez and her entourage's expenses. Melnichenko's personal fortune is reportedly close to $5 billion. "Andrei and Aleksandra are both very great fans of J. Lo, so Andrei put the call in and personally put the offer to [Lopez]," a source told London's Daily Mail. "She accepted immediately. She will sing for about 40 minutes - not bad money for the work." .
Promoting polycultural identities across the world
Hoda Mohajerani, 34, describes herself as an idealist working quietly to resist the status quo. Refusing to participate in the current "accelerated downfall" of humanity, this graduate of the London University School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) founded Hoopoe Productions in 2005 to promote the work of emerging artists with polycultural identities to collaborate with each other to counter mainstream popular culture. Hoda was born in Iran and came to England when she was six. When she visited Iran at age 20, Hoda was introduced to the philosophy of Suhrawardi, the 12th century founder of the Iranian School of Illumination who was executed at the age of 34 for his intellectually provocative ideas. Hoda lives in Vienna with her Austrian husband now. She was the Sufi consultant to the 1999 film, 'Hideous Kinky', starring Kate Winslet.
'American Idol' says sayonara to Sanjaya
In this photo made available by Fox Television, Sanjaya Malakar performs Tuesday, April 17, 2007 on the set of "American Idol" in Los Angeles. Sanjaya, the under-talented but unflappable singer who horrified and captivated millions in his improbable "American Idol" run, was finally voted off the show Wednesday night, April 18, 2007. .
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