Penélope Cruz to Headline Toronto International Film Festival

Maybe Blazing Cat Fur will provide some local coverage.

At CBC News, "Penelope Cruz, Robert Redford among TIFF's stars."

The Toronto International Film Festival rounded out its 2012 program Tuesday with new titles by master directors like Michael Haneke and Bernardo Bertolucci as well as a star-studded guest list spanning Robert Redford, Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Redgrave.

Organizers unveiled a slate of announcements, including final additions to the festival's movie lineup, details of its popular Mavericks talk series, its annual list of expected attendees and news that the fest was opening up its previously industry-only documentary conference to the public.

Set to present 372 films in total (289 feature-length and 83 short films), TIFF expects a galaxy of international stars to descend on Toronto for this year's festivities.

More at that top link.

And be sure to cruise around at BCF, who's bringing you the hot counter-jihad news out of Canada.

Grizzly Bear Kills Man In Alaska's Denali National Park

At the Los Angeles Times, "Grizzly bear kills hiker in Denali National Park":

A hiker in Denali National Park has been killed by a grizzly bear, the first known fatal bear attack in the Alaska park's history, officials said Saturday.

The victim, whose identity was not released because his family has not been notified, was backpacking alone along the Toklat River when he spotted the bear, officials believe.

Photos recovered from the victim’s camera show that he stopped to take pictures of the animal for at least eight minutes before he was attacked, they said in a telephone conference with reporters Saturday.

Park Superintendent Paul Anderson said he believes the victim came within 50 yards of the grizzly before it went on the attack. He said the photos show the bear grazing in the willows and not acting aggressively.

Backpackers are told to stay at least a quarter mile from bears when in the park, he said. There have been various bear attacks in Denali over the years, though none have been fatal, officials said.

Park service workers were alerted to the attack Friday by three day hikers who saw an abandoned backpack, torn clothing and blood along the river, according to a park service statement.

Rangers found the body late Friday but could not recover it because the sun was fading and they believed multiple bears were nearby. When they returned in a helicopter Saturday afternoon, a grizzly bear was near the body. It was shot and killed by rangers from above.

It was the first time Anderson said he could recall in two decades that a bear was shot and killed in the park.

I'm sorry the man died, and I'll say a prayer for his family, but what purpose does it serve to kill the bear? He was in his natural element and behaved according to his natural instincts. And it's not like the bear was a domesticated animal with a continued risk if place back with a family. Any of the bears out there are a risk. You're hiking in freakin' Alaska, for chrisakes.

New Blue: Dodgers Revamp With Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett

And Carl Crawford and Nick Punto too.

Amazing. The Dodgers are two games back in the National League West, but all eyes are on Los Angeles to lead the league toward the World Championship.

What a monster trading deal this weekend. The Los Angeles Times has lots of coverage. See, "Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett introduce themselves to L.A."

And, "Adrian Gonzalez makes great first impression":

Only two pitches and Adrian Gonzalez was already illustrating the vision the Dodgers had when they inherited $260 million in salary commitments to acquire him from the Boston Red Sox.

Gonzalez redirected an inside fastball from Josh Johnson inside the right-field foul pole for a three-run home run, and the same fans who were on their feet when he first stepped into the batter's box were standing again, only this time they roared even louder.

When Gonzalez completed rounding the bases after his first-inning blast in the Dodgers' 8-2 victory over the Miami Marlins, Matt Kemp was waiting for him at the plate. Hanley Ramirez was in the on-deck circle. Andre Ethier was climbing up the dugout steps.

The centerpiece of a historic nine-player trade that was completed earlier in the day, Gonzalez was far removed from the drama of the Red Sox and now part of a middle-of-the-lineup quartet that was arguably the best in baseball.

Talking of what the addition meant to his lineup, Manager Don Mattingly recalled how he was once a coach on a New York Yankees team that batted a young Robinson Cano ninth.

"It's getting there," Mattingly said.

Mattingly unveiled what he said would be the Dodgers' everyday lineup: Kemp batting third, followed by Gonzalez, Ramirez and Ethier.

"How do you mix and match them?" Mattingly said. "They're all stars. They all can't hit third."

The four players have made a combined 14 All-Star appearances. They are all still in the primes of their careers, between the ages of 27 and 30.

"It's great, man, it's awesome," Kemp said.

And even more good news, "Vin Scully will be back in the booth next season."

Still more coverage here, "An extraordinary day in Dodgers history: A recap."

Sophia Amoruso's 'Nasty Gal' is Hot

This lady's clothing line is smokin'!

At the Los Angeles Times, "Nasty Gal clothing company — as red-hot as its founder's lipstick":

Sophia Amoruso doesn't care if you're offended by the name of her company.

"If it's a big shock when you hear it," she says, "you're probably not our customer anyway."

She's earned the right to be dismissive. Amoruso, 28, is the founder and chief executive of Nasty Gal, a fast-rising e-commerce site that has managed to keep a low profile despite a cult following of young women who can't get enough of the company's edgy and provocative clothing.

Sales rocketed 10,160% from 2008 to 2011, making Nasty Gal the fastest-growing company in Los Angeles and the fastest-growing retail company period, at least according to the Inc. 5000 list released this month. After securing a $9-million investment in January from Index Ventures, which has also backed Facebook and Etsy, Nasty Gal just scored an additional $40 million from the venture capital firm.

That would be hugely impressive for any 6-year-old start-up. But Amoruso isn't your typical entrepreneur.

She's a community college dropout who has never taken a business or fashion class and admits she doesn't know how to make a PowerPoint presentation. Nasty Gal, expected to bring in more than $100 million in sales this year, is her first company. Previously, she was checking student IDs at the entrance to a college dorm for $13 an hour.

With slightly unkempt hair, bright red lips and a daring sense of style, Amoruso is, employees say, the ultimate nasty gal. Much of what the brand sells is a reflection of her own fashion whims.

"There is not an ounce of pretension about her," said Deborah Benton, who left Kim Kardashian's start-up ShoeDazzle in June to join Nasty Gal as president and chief operating officer. "That core value of authenticity — it comes through loud and clear in the brand."

Some photos of the Nasty Gal line here.

Hundreds Dead in Syria Massacre

At the Los Angeles Times, "Syria massacre reportedly leaves more than 200 dead":

BEIRUT — Syrian activists Saturday reported a massacre in a suburb of Damascus that may have claimed more than 200 lives in the last few days.

Some activists were estimating that the death toll could reach 300 as government forces continued an onslaught against Dariya, a suburb of the capital, using tanks, warplanes and snipers.

Residents found 122 bodies in the basement of a building still under construction, said Abu Kinan, an activist in Dariya. All appeared to have been executed, he said.

Independent confirmation of fatalities and specific events in Syria is difficult because of severe government restrictions on news coverage of the conflict.

Activists reported that about 70 people were killed elsewhere in Dariya on Saturday by government troops storming their homes or by snipers.

"There are many snipers. Every street has a sniper," Abu Kinan said. "They entered the town, and they control all of it now. If someone goes into the street, the snipers begin firing."

Ambulances trying to transport hundreds of wounded, as well as families attempting to flee, are navigating the streets at night without headlights to avoid becoming obvious targets, he said. But the ambulances don't have many options on where to take their patients.

"There are no more field hospitals; they were all shelled," Abu Kinan said. "The injured are considered dead."

Also at the Times of Israel, "Syrian rebels say 440 killed across country in ‘massacre’."

The clip above is unauthenticated but purports to show government forces beating detainees.

Arthur Brisbane Speaks Truth to 'New York Times' Power

This, literally, is too good to be true, from the Times' ombudsman, "Success and Risk as The Times Transforms":

I ... noted two years ago that I had taken up the public editor duties believing “there is no conspiracy” and that The Times’s output was too vast and complex to be dictated by any Wizard of Oz-like individual or cabal. I still believe that, but also see that the hive on Eighth Avenue is powerfully shaped by a culture of like minds — a phenomenon, I believe, that is more easily recognized from without than from within.

When The Times covers a national presidential campaign, I have found that the lead editors and reporters are disciplined about enforcing fairness and balance, and usually succeed in doing so. Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times.

As a result, developments like the Occupy movement and gay marriage seem almost to erupt in The Times, overloved and undermanaged, more like causes than news subjects.

Stepping back, I can see that as the digital transformation proceeds, as The Times disaggregates and as an empowered staff finds new ways to express itself, a kind of Times Nation has formed around the paper’s political-cultural worldview, an audience unbound by geography (as distinct from the old days of print) and one that self-selects in digital space.

It’s a huge success story — it is hard to argue with the enormous size of Times Nation — but one that carries risk as well.

You have to read it all. This is the dude's last essay as "public editor," and looks like he's ripped a new asshole for some of the stuffed shirts over there. Politico has that, "NYT's Abramson rebuts Brisbane charge."

How Long Do You Want to Live?

This is good, from David Ewing Duncan, at the New York Times:

How long do you want to live?

Over the past three years I have posed this query to nearly 30,000 people at the start of talks and lectures on future trends in bioscience, taking an informal poll as a show of hands. To make it easier to tabulate responses I provided four possible answers: 80 years, currently the average life span in the West; 120 years, close to the maximum anyone has lived; 150 years, which would require a biotech breakthrough; and forever, which rejects the idea that life span has to have any limit at all.

I made it clear that participants should not assume that science will come up with dramatic new anti-aging technologies, though people were free to imagine that breakthroughs might occur — or not.

The results: some 60 percent opted for a life span of 80 years. Another 30 percent chose 120 years, and almost 10 percent chose 150 years. Less than 1 percent embraced the idea that people might avoid death altogether.

These percentages have held up as I’ve spoken to people from many walks of life in libraries and bookstores; teenagers in high schools; physicians in medical centers; and investors and entrepreneurs at business conferences. I’ve popped the question at meetings of futurists and techno-optimists and gotten perhaps a doubling of people who want to live to 150 — less than I would have thought for these groups.

Rarely, however, does anyone want to live forever, although abolishing disease and death from biological causes is a fervent hope for a small scattering of would-be immortals.

One hundred would be good for me, but we'll see. I think blogging shortens your life.

Read the whole thing.

Celine Dion in 'V Magazine'

Boy, V Magazine upped the ante this month.

See London's Daily Mail, "Near, far... wherever is my bra? Celine Dion's lingerie doesn't 'go on'... in racy topless photoshoot'."

And at V Magazine, "The Voice":

WITH MORE THAN 200 MILLION ALBUMS SOLD WORLDWIDE, ONE OF THE GREATEST AND MOST GLAMOROUS VOCAL ARTISTS OF ALL TIME CONTINUES HER REIGN AS AN INTERNATIONAL ICON WITH A HIGH-FLYING VEGAS REVUE. SEE CELINE DION AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HER BEFORE.

'The Other McCain' in Tampa Bay

He's down there, with reports: "Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Fear, Loathing and Deficient Hygiene," and "Monday GOP Convention Schedule Postponed Due to Anticipated BlogBash Hangovers and Approaching Hurricane …"

'The A Team'

From Ed Sheeran:

White lips, pale face
Breathing in snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light's gone, day's end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men

And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries

And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
Cos we're just under the upperhand
And go mad for a couple of grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
Or sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly

Ripped gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim and stay afloat
Dry house, wet clothes
Loose change, bank notes
Weary-eyed, dry throat
Call girl, no phone
And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries...

Irina Shayk Shows Off Her Incredible Body in New Photo Shoot for La Clover

Quite lovely, at London's Daily Mail, "In bed with Irina Shayk! Supermodel shows off her incredible body in new underwear photoshoot for La Clover."

Anarchists Plan to Take Down Emergency Medical Services at RNC

According to Brandon Darby in an interview with John Sexton, at Big Government:

Yesterday, I interviewed my co-worker Brandon Darby as he was traveling toward the Republican National Convention in Florida. The interview focused on strategies used by anarchist protesters at the 2008 Republican National Convention and how those strategies will be used once again next week by the Occupy movement.

In addition to trying to shut down bridges to prevent delegates from reaching the convention center next week, Brandon has learned that a subgroup of Occupy is looking to shut down EMS communications throughout the city.

Continue reading.

'America Doesn't Need a Birther-in-Chief'

That "birther" joke is working like a charm. And remember, this is all "fake umbrage."

The Democrats are liars and losers.

Via Weasel Zippers:

Newsweek's 1957 Review of 'Atlas Shrugged'

From Cary Schneider and Sue Horton, at the Los Angeles Times, "Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged': What the critics had to say in 1957."

Newsweek

Gigantic, relentless, often fantastic, this book is definitely not one to be swallowed whole. Throughout its 1,168 pages, Miss Rand never cracks a smile. Conversations deteriorate into monologues as one character after another laboriously declaims his set of values. One speech, the core of the book, spreads across 60 closely written pages. Yet once the reader enters this stark, strange world, he will likely stay with it, borne along by its story and its eloquent flow of ideas.

There's a whole bunch of reviews there as well, from people you haven't heard of unless you're a real literary person. Most of them are not very favorable. Even Whittaker Chambers, at National Review, sniffed at it.

BONUS: At American Glob, "Liberals Don’t Get Ayn Rand."

The Architecture of the Republican National Convention

An art review, interestingly, from Christopher Hawthorne, at the Los Angeles Times, "Party Crasher: The GOP Drew Inspiration From Frank Lloyd Wright for Its Stage Design, but An Unintended Message Might Be Sent":

Barack Obama had his Greek columns. Mitt Romney is turning to Frank Lloyd Wright.

When the Republican National Convention begins Monday inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum, a 19,500-seat arena in Tampa, Fla., that's home during hockey season to the NHL's Lightning, the stage will be crowded with large video screens framed in wood. Actually the "wood" will be made of vinyl and various laminates, but it'll read on television as cherry, mahogany and walnut.

The inspiration for the set, said Jim Fenhagen, lead production designer for the convention, is Wright's residential architecture, which often featured long horizontal bands of wood-framed windows.

The Wright references, which Fenhagen said he pulled together after a couple of simple Google searches, are relatively faint. They draw from the architect's most approachable domestic designs — mostly the Prairie Style houses of his early career — rather than his most radical buildings. They're more Oak Park than Fallingwater, more Robie House than Guggenheim Museum.

Still, in the context of a national political convention, where every symbolic choice is sure to be scrutinized, there are more than a few risks in going with Frank Lloyd Wright as your architectural touchstone. And I wonder how many of them the Romney campaign has fully considered.

Continue reading.

Why Unions Fear California's Proposition 32

In one word: accountability.

See this essential essay, from Larry Sand, at the Los Angeles Times, "Prop. 32: What really scares California's big unions":

Michael Hiltzik infers in his column Sunday that Proposition 32 is a big lie -- because it prohibits both corporations and labor unions such as the California Teachers Assn. from extracting involuntary political contributions from the paychecks of workers. Hiltzik argues that its prohibition of corporate deductions is of minor impact, but that union political fund-raising will be crippled.

He is amazingly untroubled by the fact that taking such payroll deductions for political purposes without consent is patently immoral. Why should a worker have some of his forced union dues spent on candidates or causes that he doesn't agree with? As Thomas Jefferson said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.”

Oddly, Hiltzik seems concerned only that the CTA and other public employee unions maintain the ability to build massive political war chests so they can pour tens of millions of dollars into the same types of independent spending efforts that so offend him.

Does it trouble Hiltzik that the CTA's inexhaustible tap on more than a quarter of a million teacher paychecks has deluded parents into the false belief that their kids are getting a good education? Does it bother him that California's deteriorating public school system has cheated two generations out of a decent education?

Having been a teacher for more than 28 years, it troubles me. It also troubles Gloria Romero, the California director of Democrats for Educational Reform and the former majority leader in the state Senate. As a former teacher, she endorsed Proposition 32 because it's California's best hope for the implementation of urgently needed reform that would rescue the next generation of its children from bad schools that will cheat them of attaining their full potential....

When lobbyists for corporations or unions hand a check to a public official who is about to vote or take action on their special interest, what happens to the public interest? In April, a Times article on AT&T's enormous lobbying efforts showed that after contributing to every single Sacramento legislator, the company has succeeded in blocking any consumer protection effort that threatens its profits.

Hiltzik has the temerity to defame the reformers who put Proposition 32 on the November ballot, calling it the "fraud to end all frauds." He notes two prior efforts to stop special-interest money corruption of state and local politics both were defeated.

Yes, they were defeated -- by being grossly outspent by union money making the same misrepresentation that Hiltzik has employed in his obtuse column. Hidden beneath a cleverly crafted attack on the credibility of Proposition 32 is Hiltzik's central argument -- that the status quo must be protected from the power of the voters.

Public employee union bosses aren't spending millions of dollars because they're worried that the elected officials negotiating their benefits will become accountable to rich people. They're worried that politicians might become fiscally accountable to the taxpayers.

The CTA bosses aren’t worried that education reform decisions will be made on behalf of corporations. They’re worried about reforms made on behalf of the parents and children of our state.

Accountability must be a very frightening thing to unions. If it wasn't, they’d be a little less worried about allowing their own members to contribute political funds voluntarily.

Unbelievably shameful.

Prop. 32 may be the most important item on the California ballot this November.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ringo's Pictures via Zombie, "SEIU drops mask, goes full commie."

Isaac Cancels First Day of Republican National Convention

Actually, Reince Priebus announced the cancellation, on behalf of the National Committee.

At CNN, "BREAKING: GOP delays start of convention until Tuesday."

A lot's at stake. Here's this from The Hill, "Priebus predicts ‘real’ and ‘visible’ bump for Romney after Tampa":

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus looked ahead to next week’s convention in Tampa, predicting a “visible” boost for Mitt Romney and mocking Vice President Joe Biden’s plans for a counter rally, in an interview airing this weekend.

During the interview with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt, Priebus said he expected Romney to receive a “real” and “visible” boost from the GOP convention.

“I think we are going to get a bump; I think we have a better opportunity for the bump as a party, as a challenging party,” said Priebus.

The party chairman said that as “people get to know Mitt Romney and get to know who he is and the decent man he is and his story of the American Dream and his generosity,” he expected that Republicans would gain across the board.

But Priebus refused to peg a specific number. “I can’t give you a scope, but I can tell you I think it’s going to be real and it’s going to be visible, but I don’t know what it will end up being.”

Both parties get a bump, so these tend to wash out. The bigger implication is the media coverage at stake for the Republicans. Next week is the chance for the Romney campaign to break out and define the stakes for November. It's the time when a lot of Americans start tuning in more carefully to campaign messaging. And the GOP ticket is going to be fresh and exuberant, in contrast to the stale, listless lies of the Obama/Biden scandal machine. That's why Mother Nature needs to shine on Tampa Bay this next week. The party can't afford to miss this opportunity.

More at the New York Times, "With Storm Approaching, Republicans Cancel First Day of Convention." And at Memeorandum.

Tiger Escapes at Germany's Cologne Zoo, Kills Keeper

At the Los Angeles Times, "Tiger escapes, kills keeper in German zoo":

The tiger slipped through a passage between the enclosure and an adjacent storage building, where it fatally attacked the 43-year-old keeper, said police spokesman Stefan Kirchner.

"It appears the gate wasn't properly shut," Kirchner told The Associated Press....

This is the darkest day of my life," the zoo's director, Theo Pagel, was quoted as saying by Cologne newspaper Express.

Neil Armstrong, Earth's First Moonwalker, Dead at 82

At the Air Force Times, "Moonwalker, former Navy pilot Armstrong dies."

And the Los Angeles Times, "Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82" (via Memeorandum).

VIDEO HAT TIP: Weasel Zippers.

Nicole Kidman in 'V Magazine'

Now this is a first-class woman.

See, "Truth or Bare":

For a while, the shoot was going ordinarily enough. The woman of the hour primped and posed in pieces from Chanel, Lanvin, Miu Miu, and the like. But then, her figure being just too sick for words, the clothes came flying off. We have now reached the point at which Kidman is lying on the ground in a bra and panties with a red fur coat falling off her, in what is sometimes referred to in fashion circles as the dead girl pose. Most any other actress of her caliber (there aren’t many) would likely say, “You know what? I don’t think so.” Or someone from her camp would swoop in and with a tap on the shoulder inform the stylist and creative team that things were going just a bit too far. But not Kidman. In fact, the only protestations coming from her rep, Leslee Dart, are that 1) the shoot is running over and Nicole could miss her plane, and 2) who on earth is going to help get all this bronze body paint off her?

And at Telegraph UK, "Nicole Kidman strips off for 'V Magazine'.'