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Mark Russell Brings Political Laughs To Chautauqua Institution
Mark Russell, known for musical-political satire, performs at the Chautauqua Institution Wednesday.
P-J photo by Dennis Phillips
July 3, 2008
CHAUTAUQUA — Mark Russell, the master of musical-political satire, played his brand of Washington, D.C.-inspired music, making fun of political news and figures Wednesday at Chautauqua Institution.
Star-spangled satire, with his trademark piano in tow, Russell spotlighted the outrageous headlines national political figures make on a daily basis. Wielding his wit as deftly as a surgeon wields a scalpel, Russell had plenty of material to use as comedic fodder, from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama to John McCain. In presentations reflective of today’s headlines freshly crafted for ea
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Economy, Fire Danger Cancel Shows Across Country
July 3, 2008
Those seeking the oohs and aahs of traditional Fourth of July fireworks could be sadly disappointed this year: Public displays and sales of boxed firecrackers are being canceled or scaled back across the nation, victims of a sluggish economy, wildfir
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Police Warn Of Illegal Fireworks
July 3, 2008
Fireworks are fun, but police want area residents to leave them to the professionals.
According to police, many people buy fireworks in Pennsylvania and illegally bring them into New York. These incidents tend to pick up during the summer
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Pace Slows
July 3, 2008
This time last year, the city Department of Development had finished demolishing seven dilapidated homes in Jamestown, and five more would follow as the year progressed.
The 12 demolitions were a drop in the bucket compared to the sheer n
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Obama's Faith Shouldn't Override the Constitution
Wed, July 2, 2008 @ 10:05AM
Barack Obama's proposal to expand federal funding of faith-based initiatives may help him win some religious voters, but it raises serious First Amendment questions that are not easily solved. In advocating for the position, Obama correctly points out that social problems are too big for the government to handle alone, and that community groups, especially religious ones, often do excellent work on these issues. In the 17-paragraph speech delievered Tuesday, Obama paid lip service to First Amendment concerns, offering some bland assurances that federal money wouldn't go to proselytizing or discriminatory hiring, but he failed to appreciate the many ways government funding of religious organizations can subvert the intent of the First Amendment. How does Obama propose to know if a volunteer at a lunch counter is asking clients if they've accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior w
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Nick Dean
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Interview with Gregg Gillis - AKA Girl Talk
Thu, June 26, 2008 @ 2:04PM
One week ago today, Pittsburgh-based DJ Gregg Gillis (who goes by the name Girl Talk) released "Feed the Animals" -- a set of 14 songs that's currently only available online. A physical release of the album on CD is slated for Sept. 23. A review I wrote of the album can be found in today's edition of The Post-Journal, and can be found online by clicking HERE. In March 2007, I interviewed Gillis for The Scene -- which is The Post-Journal's biweekly entertainment magazine. The article previewed a show Gillis had in Buffalo that April. As the article's not online anywhere else, I figured I'd repost it here: BLOCK ROCKING BEATS Interview With Greg Gill
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Dave Emke
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The Battle Has Only Just Begun
Fri, June 27, 2008 @ 10:10AM
This week, I come bearing a word usage I am attempting to eradicate from this newspaper forever. The likelihood of this banishment actually occurring is quite slim. This is because the AP Stylebook (lousy, good-for-nothin' thing, anyway!) does not back my opinion (how dare it!). I think, though, I can at least justify the one edit that forced me to think deeply about this issue. Let me begin by showing you an unedited sentence that came across my desk a couple weeks ago. In addition, there is little connection between the north and south sides of the city except for the antiquated Washington Street bridge and traffic-heavy Brooklyn Square, since steep hills, the river and the railroad tracks lie in between. See anything wrong with that sentence? I'll give you a minute. ... Time's up. Turn in your responses. Oh, I see most of you responded "Emke, you're nuts; there is nothing wrong with this. Stop picking on the reporters, since you're obviously the
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Patrick Fanelli
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"Lions For Lambs" And The Journalist's Creed
Thu, July 3, 2008 @ 10:47AM
As a member of Iroquois High School's graduating class of 2001, I had the unique opportunity of spending just about all of my college career -- the very threshold of modern adulthood -- in the post-9/11 world. In fact, my start in the newspaper business as a meager college news reporter at SUNY Fredonia began right alongside the war in Afghanistan, and I remember studying journalism under the tutelage of the most profoundly influential professor I ever had, Dr. Jan McVicker, as bombs began to drop in Iraq and as the debate over the war began dominating our classroom discussions. I remember having mixed feelings about the invasion. On the one hand, it's hard for me to believe the Bush administration wasn't intentionally misleading the nation on the justification for invading, and I believe things might have turned out differently for better or for worse had the nation been able to engage in an honest and open dialogue about the war -- a dialogue that wasn't
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Aimee Frederick
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Why the economy is better for having me as a member
Tue, June 17, 2008 @ 10:11PM
I have found I seem only to be drawn to sport-related pursuits which seem to coincide with some sort of costly equipment. I couldn’t be satisfied with baseball, soccer, football or even tennis – where a ball and racquet might run you roughly $30. No, I find myself entangled in these epic love affairs with oars and, most recently, paddles. In the realm of rowing, a new Hudson Elite single-person shell will run you $8,200 – so about $2,000 less than my ’05 Civic. Not exactly in the recent grad’s price range, at least not if those student loans are to be tended to. Since I have this thing for the region’s waters, I decided kayaking would be a most suitable alternative – plus this way I wouldn’t have to rile the spirits of four to seven other individuals before hitting the water. I have kayaked about a hand
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S. Alexander Gerould
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Welcome home, James
Mon, June 16, 2008 @ 1:18PM
One of my best friends, James, is home on leave from the U.S. Army. He has two weeks off before returning back to Hawaii with his wife, Ashley, and then being shipped back to Iraq in October. This time, he will be in the middle of Baghdad on foot patrol. When we first heard he would be going to Iraq a few years ago, my group of friends were all sitting around a table at a local bar in Westfield. We felt saddness, anger and exhiliration, because we weren't sure if we would ever see or hear from James again. Fortunately, we did. There is a special bond between my group of friends that sat around that table that Friday night. I've known all of them since I was in school and we all started really hanging out in high school. We played football in the winter time - I was all-time kicker because of my amazing soccer and football skills - hockey almost every day in the summer and just hung out with each other. We were all practically brothers
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Dave Hecei
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Way Back Machine
Fri, June 27, 2008 @ 10:49AM
While the Internet has been around, in one form or another, for over 39 years, the World Wide Web (the Web) has only been around for about 16 years. When the Internet was opened to consumers, remember that the Internet was a research tool used by higher education and governments, the growth of the Web exploded. In 1996, The Wayback Machine appeared to archive, or take snapshots, of websites. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine, taking its name from the Bullwinkle cartoon, has become the largest library in the world. It is reported that the archive is over 2 petabytes and growing at the rate of over 20 terabytes a month (a petabyte is 1000 terabytes - a terabyte is 1000 gigabytes) If you go to www.archive.org you enter in the address of a web site, hit the take me back button and you are taken to a page with a list of snap shot dates. Click on a particular date to view the site as it was on that date. While some older dates may not be as complete as others, the A
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Dave Hecei
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Lens Buying Guide Pt.3
Mon, June 23, 2008 @ 12:17PM
Going Long If your interests are the outdoors, sports, wildlife, etc., then your next lens will probably be a telephoto zoom. There are many shapes and sizes to choose from. An all-purpose zoom is in the 50-200mm range. On a DSLR this is equivalent to an 80-320mm on a 35mm SLR. To get more magnification, you can go with a bit more zoom. A 70-300 is a great choice. A zoom in this range is available from pretty much every camera maker. Canon makes a special IS version (IS stands for Image Stabilized). A lens with IS allows you to hand hold the camera while the IS system helps reduce movement or vibration. This allows you to shoot with slower shutter speeds that would normally cause motion blur in the photos. Canon calls it IS, Nikon VR, Sigma OS. Lenses with IS are a bit more expensive, but are usually worth every penny. Going Close Macro photography, or close-up photography, is growing in popularity. I love macro photography and it always amazes me at how mu
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Scott Kindberg
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Notes on Deford
Tue, June 24, 2008 @ 2:16AM
Frank Deford kicked off Chautauqua Institution's "Sport In America" week on Monday morning, and he didn't disappoint. I wrote about a portion of his hour-long talk in Tuesday's edition of The Post-Journal, but I couldn't possibly cover it all. Below are some of the other subjects the sportswriter, author and commentator touched on before a large crowd at the Amphitheater: — On athletes as role models: "It's natural for children to look up to athletes the same way they admire rock stars and those fools on American Idol. I do get upset when it's adults who worship athletes. Boy, did I find out the hard way." It seems that in a story he wrote years ago on former University of Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, Deford happened to mention "in passing" that the Bear had to go to the bathroom all the time. "It set off a firestorm," Deford said. Hate mail came pouring in, and a petition — calling for his job — was signed by 1,000 people ("most appropriate
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Dennis Phillips
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Charlie Bartlett: Glorified After-School Special
Tue, July 1, 2008 @ 3:58PM
Do you like Robert Downey Jr? If you do, Charlie Bartlett is a must see. Despite his well publicized personal problems, Downey is, in my opinion, one of the most versatile actors of the last 20 years. Starting out as a punk in teenage comedies of the 80s - like in Weird Science - to now playing a boozing school principal or superhero in an iron suit, Downey has either starred or been a supporting cast member of all forms in several different genres of movies. In Charlie Bartlett, Downey plays Principal Gardner, a modern stereotypical character being a man of responsibility - school principal - without a squeaky clean persona - self-loathing drunk. Even those these types of characters are becoming more and more trite, I still enjoyed Downey's take. The rest of the cast does a quality job, but Downey - as a supporting character - makes the movie worth watching, even though it's basically a g
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Dan Scotchmer
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Ode to the Red Raiders
Fri, June 6, 2008 @ 0:44AM
I'm supposed to be reading Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke for my AP English class. I guess the book is symbolic of my current situation as I'm about to graduate high school; however, I didn't realize how close the end was until around 7:30 p.m. last night. That was when the final out of the Hamburg-Jamestown game was recorded and the high school baseball career of 13 of my friends ended. I'm not a member of the team, but I might as well be. I played with 14 of the 16 members at some point during my "career" as we traveled to various tournaments in Mansfield, PA, Springville, Dunkirk and other locations. Over time, we became a family. We had our fair share of fights, but the drama always resolved itself. Regardless of what was going on, it didn't matter once we crossed that white line to step on the field. I've drifted apart from most of the team as high school has progressed. I gues that is what happens when you wor
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Simon Teska
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Top 10 Currently Still Employed Worst Relief Pitchers
Tue, July 1, 2008 @ 12:00PM
After Witnessing another 8th inning debacle from a player soon to appear on this list, I decided something needed to be done. I'm not really sure what that something is or how I will contribute to it...but in the meantime I am creating yet another list, profiling the non-elite relief pitchers in recent baseball history who are still active in the league. I have been getting harrassed in town for my exploitation of baseball content in this blog, but my adoring fan(s) will have to get over it. It's baseball season -- suck it up! 10. Mike Parisi -- Matt Spielman's Boy Parisi is just a rookie and was recently optioned back to the minor's by the St. Louis Cardinals but in his 22 innings this year he has already allowed his opponents to put up quite the numbers. He is 0-4 with an 8.22 ERA and 15 walks. When the Cubs beat the Cardinals by 4 games in the Central...we will know who to blame -- Parisi...and Spielman because he adores Parisi. 9. Manny Corpas -- 4 sa
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Jessye Wasmund
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My Years Spent Supporting A Hooker
Thu, June 19, 2008 @ 2:10PM
Bet the title caught your attention, didn't it? Let me quickly explain... the hooker is one of the 15 different players on a rugby pitch, a sport in which not enough Americans appreciate, or even understand, for that matter. After joining the women's Blackhorse Rugby team at my alma mater, I quickly became obsessed with the sport and decided to devote a blog post trying to explain the exciting, bloody and sometimes confusing game. As legend has it, rugby was developed in 1823 when William Webb Ellis picked up a soccer ball in the middle of a game and tore down the field at Rugby school. Since then the game has changed and developed drastically over time to the competition it is today. Similar to football, the game is played on a field called a "pitch." There are two endzones, but when you're on the pitch, they're called a try-zone. Likewise, you don't score touchdowns, but you score a try, worth six points. You then have the chance to kick for an
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John Whittaker
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Do We Really Care About This Stuff?
Thu, July 3, 2008 @ 9:17AM
Even though I'm a member of the "media," there are times I hate the business we're in. A story on ESPN.com - and that I found on the AP wire, too - is just one more example of those times. Three or four stories down on ESPN.com is this item: Report: Arod, Wife Splitting Up After Four Years. I don't doubt the item's veracity. It's probably true. But, truthfully, I don't care. I just don't give a rat's patootie (not my chosen word, but we are a family paper, though I pity any child who reads this blog and starts thinking like me!). Why is this news? Here's a short list of the actual news items that get no play in much of the media -- finding a cure for childhood cancer, finding actual alternative energy, a cure for male pattern baldness, the gradual dumbing down of America, divorce rates, the effect of all of this stuff on kids, improving national defense, a cure for male pattern baldness, h
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