| Cramer's 'Mad Money' Recap: It's Easier to Be Green
Pop Quiz! Are you a loyal "Mad Money" viewer? Take TheStreet.com's new "Mad Money" culture quiz to see how much of the show you've caught this week or just to immerse yourself in Cramer's nonfinancial madness. Click here for an archive of Cramer's "Mad Money" recaps. Capping off a week in which he offered at least one environmental-stock idea each day, Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" show Friday that he had saved his two best picks for last. Cramer's weeklong "Green Day" stock theme stems from April 2, the day of a Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts vs. the Environmental Protection Agency. The ruling made it profitable for market players to invest in environmentally friendly companies, he said. To round his Green Day portfolio, Cramer offered two names, the first of which is OM Group (OMG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
AOL Announces Slate of Five New Online Shows
Dulles, Va. - As part of a major strategy push toward online video, AOL on Tuesday announced five new Web-based programs that it will produce in partnership with production companies such as Mark Burnett, DreamWorks Animation and Telepictures.The shows, which will launch on AOL in the fall of 2007 and early 2008, will provide another vehicle for the company to sell online ads. "Of the Big Four online networks, AOL is the only one that is doing this kind of major-scale programming," said Randy Falco, AOL's chairman and CEO. The programs include a tie-in with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," a game show based on serial numbers of U.S. dollar bills, a show featuring online games based on the new "Shrek" movie, a pop culture trivia game and a game show on which contestants vie to win a tropical island.
Front row center: Middle Eastern culture takes E. Lansing stage
It's not often all the Habibi Dancers strut their stuff in their hometown of Lansing. They're in far too high demand throughout the state and the Midwest. In fact, it's usually only once a year that the 24-year-old dance troupe puts on its scintillatingly diverse concert showcasing Middle Eastern dances ranging from modern to historical. This year, the concert falls on April 14, amid two days of seminars on such topics as choreography and finger symbol dancing. Artistic director Garnett Kepler, who dances under the name Yasmina Amal, is bringing in Amar Gamal, a member of the group Superstars of Belly Dance, created by Sting promoter Miles Copeland. Kepler said she was able to watch the group dancing when they were on tour. .
HarperCollins on board with Sharkey
Lisa Sharkey, the former "Good Morning America" producer selected by HarperCollins to fill the shoes of Judith Regan, has tapped several editors from Regan's former imprint to join her staff. ReganBooks longtimers Maureen O'Brien and Doug Grad were named executive editor and senior editor, respectively, of HarperCollins' Creative Development Team, headed by Sharkey. Also named was editor Matt Harper, who reports to Sharkey, and associate editor Stephanie Fraser, who reports to O'Brien and Grad. In the wake of Regan's acrimonious departure from HarperCollins, the publisher shuttered her West Coast publishing operation and offered jobs to many of her former employees in New York. HarperCollins tapped Sharkey to head its newly created Creative Development Team to aggressively chase pop-culture and ripped-from-the-headlines tomes to farm out to various HarperCollins imprints.
Directors' paired pop-culture collage is a joy ride
It's tempting to call what Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez achieve with "Grindhouse" the equivalent of nailing a backward pike with 2½ somersaults in Dumpster diving. For those unfamiliar with the term, to Dumpster dive means plunging into a huge garbage receptacle so you can recycle another man's trash as your own personal treasure. Yes, the source material for this high-concept/ low-art supernova of a film event comes from the exploitation cinema of the late '60s and early '70s. Yet the back-to-back features "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" actually are more akin to thrift shopping. Separated by a few years, but fed on the same diet of junk and serious cinema, Rodriguez and .
King celebrates his 50-year reign on top of TV talk
When CNN Presents: Larry King -- 50 Years of Pop Culture airs, Anderson Cooper says a joke about his CNN colleague Larry King is that King likes to ask questions. His favourite question: Will you marry me? Yes, King has had many queens -- he's been married seven times to six different women. But while his matrimonial record is curious, it's just part of the legend of Larry King the broadcaster. The show was pre-empted for continuing coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. It will air on a later date. This week, the mighty, suspenders-wearing mouthpiece is celebrating 50 years in the broadcast game. During that half a century, King has notched 40,000 interviews. .
Blacks also are longtime critics of rap, hip-hop, forum shows
If an outcry over offensive language directed at black women sank Don Imus' radio career, why haven't black people complained about black rappers who use similar language? Well, they have, but relatively few people listened to their cries for a stop to the words and images depicted in rap and hip-hop music, said a panel of black scholars and activists who participated in Wednesday night's town hall discussion of "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?" at Case Western Reserve University. Mark Anthony Neal, a popular culture professor at Duke University, said a generation of hip-hop aficionados has criticized the negative aspects of the music almost from the beginning. "It's not like no one has been having these conversations," he said. But Joan Morgan, former executive editor of Essence magazine and author of "When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost," said she was angry because some celebrities garnered all the media attention in the wake of the Imus affair, while informed hip-hop activists were ignored by mainstream media.
Anti-War Group Objects to Army Advergaming
Anti-recruitment groups are slamming a U.S. Army deal to sponsor a computer war game channel, saying that real war is no game, reports Australian IT. In June, the Army is set to sponsor a channel at the Global Gaming League website, a popular spot for internet computer game lovers. A first-person shooter game based on the army training manual will be a centerpiece of the channel, which will feature other games in the same genre. Oskar Castro of the "admittedly anti-war" American Friends Service Committee said it is wrong for military recruiters to use technology and pop culture to entice young people to enlist without showing them the ugly sides of service. Play at the channel will be free, but agreeing to "additional contact from the Army" comes with signing up as a player.
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