Found via Otis Fodder: April Winchell Multimedia. An outstanding collection of bizarre audio and stuff, including a Barry White blooper reel I've been dying to get my hands on for a while. Categorised into "TV stars who insist on singing", ABBA covers in Hindi, Beatles covers, versions of "Stairway To Heaven" (including Leonard Teale's immortal spoken rendition), Fabio, chicken songs, "terrifying Christian recordings", cartoon themes, bloopers and outakes, and various other things, this is a massive collection of some very odd and sometimes frightening things, like Leonard Nimoy's take on "Both Sides Now"... there's a vocal version of the Star Trek theme (?????) performed by Nichelle Nichols, which I've not actually heard yet but the idea itself is terrifying enough, especially since it apparently "Features the most frightening last note ever sung by a human being". Can you resist? I can't. I'll be here for days.

posted by James Russell | 6:15 PM

Right, you people: UPDATE! I know two of you have had to pull out but that's no excuse for the rest of you falling silent.

posted by James Russell | 3:23 PM

SBS in trouble over advertising.

SBS Television yesterday defended as legally sanctioned its recent controversial decision to air sponsorship and advertising during news and current affairs programs.
The broadcaster was ordered by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) to hear out its employees' concerns that the move could compromise editorial integrity. [...]
MEAA NSW secretary Michel Hryce said 40 journalists had written to management claiming the new guidelines compromised editorial integrity and could result in reporters being disciplined or fired for airing unfavourable stories about advertisers.
Several journalists declared if they had known news and current affairs would be sponsored, they would have had second thoughts about accepting a job with SBS.

posted by James Russell | 3:16 PM

This may be the weirdest search request I've ever had. Why on Earth would someone 1) look for that search string anyway, 2) go through that many pages of results, and 3) pick my site out of them all?

This is a good one too.

posted by James Russell | 3:11 PM

Interpol wants Alberto Fujimori for murder.

Interpol reissued an international arrest warrant charging former Peru President Alberto Fujimori with murder after receiving additional information from the government, officials said Saturday.
Interpol suspended the original warrant Feb. 27 and gave Peruvian officials 14 days to provide evidence tying Mr. Fujimori to a paramilitary death squad and to demonstrate that the charges were not politically motivated.
Peruvian Justice Minister Fausto Alvarado told RPP radio Saturday that officials sent evidence to Interpol headquarters in Paris and the warrant — on charges of murder, causing grievous bodily harm and forced disappearances — was reinstated.
Prosecutors have accused Mr. Fujimori of authorizing the 1991 massacre of 15 revelers at a barbecue in a poor Lima neighborhood and the 1992 killings of nine university students and a professor.

posted by James Russell | 2:49 PM

Mel's film in the news again today.

A prominent Jewish leader on Friday asked actor Mel Gibson to make certain that his new film on the last 12 hours in the life of Christ does not portray the Jews as collectively responsible for the crucifixion.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he was concerned because an article to be published in the New York Times Magazine portrays Gibson as a traditionalist Catholic opposed to the reforms of Vatican II.
Heir said, "Obviously, no one has seen 'The Passion' and I certainly have no problem with Mel Gibson's right to believe as he sees fit or make any movie he wants to. What concerns me, however is when I read that the film's purpose is to undo the changes made by Vatican II."
He said that Vatican conclave was convened to deal with several critical issues, including the rejection of the notion that the Jews were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.
"If the new film seeks to undo Vatican II ... it would unleash more of the scurrilous charges of deicide directed against the Jewish people, which took the Catholic Church 20 centuries to finally repudiate," he said.

Here's the NYT article itself. Makes for interesting reading, slightly distressing too... Mel's really going to have his work cut out for himself defending this film to people quite apart from the linguistic issue.

posted by James Russell | 2:43 PM