Going to the Regatta Saturday? Be In a Movie!

Copyright © 2006 Laurie D. T. Mann

Please read my blog entries at my Web site:
http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog.

Ever wanted to be in a movie?

You have your chance this Saturday, July 1. The finale piece to Carl Kurlander's documentary A Tale of Two Cities will be shot at the Point at 5:00pm. We're looking for many, many Pittsburghers to take part in singing the classic song "It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," against the backdrop of the downtown Pittsburgh skyline. The singing will be led by none other than Mr. McFeely (David Newell) of Misterogers' Neighborhood. Many local celebrities will also take part in this performance (but if I told you who was coming, it wouldn't be a surprise).

If you'd like to take part, go to the area of Point State Park between the performance stage and the fountain after 4:30pm. The singing will start by 5pm.

If it rains Saturday afternoon, the filming will take place Monday afternoon, same location, at 5pm.

For more information on this event, visit our Website.

A Bad Blogger Trend - Syndication Without Credit

Copyright © 2006 Laurie D. T. Mann

Please read my blog entries at my Web site:
http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog.

As I've been saying for years, I like to be linked to. Whenever anyone's written to me and asked me if they can link to something I've put online, I don't hesitate to say, "Of course. This is the Web - you can link to anything you'd like."

Recently, though, I've been finding some of my blog entries copied without any attribution for the sole purpose of third parties getting a few pennies from Google or other advertisers. This is just another form of plagarism, and I think it's very unfair. So I'll be annoyingly beginning all future blog entries with a separate copyright notice and a link back to my site.

Who Is Your IMDB Namesake? (*Meme Alert!!*)

Copyright © 2006 Laurie D. T. Mann

Please read my blog entries at my Web site:
http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog.

I love the Internet Movie Database. It's a wonderful collection of data (mostly accurate even). Before there was a Wikipedia, there was IMDB, a database that was created by movie fans, for movie fans.

I'm not sure how many names of actors and crew are in the database. Probably over 100,000. So I was curious - do I have a namesake in IMDB?

Well, first I should observe that I am very close to a relatively-well-known IMDB namesake - Leslie Mann. We named our daughter "Leslie" when she was born in 1980 as we liked the name, my name is Scottish and we liked the idea of giving our child a name that reflected part of her varied cultural background. In 1996, when our Leslie was 16, we first heard of Leslie Mann, the actress.

Leslie Susan Mann, Geek	Leslie Mann, Actress

Leslie Mann, the actress, is about eight years older than our Leslie, and has mostly played comic roles. In the mid-'90s our Leslie's favorite actor was Jim Carrey. Leslie Mann's first major role was in The Cable Guy, with Jim Carrey as the lead. Leslie Mann the actress was also in 40 Year Old Virgin last year.

I then looked my name up in IMDB and found a match! There is/was an actress named Laurie Mann (at least one of them) who was on a TV show in the '50s and did a cartoon voice on Scooby Doo in the '70s. IMDB doesn't have a photo of her, and I couldn't find one online either.

My husband Jim Mann has at least three namesakes in IMDB (more if you include the many hits to James Mann). Though Jim has edited several books, he is not the "Jim Mann" who appeared on BookNotes in 1990.

So, do you have any IMDB namesakes?

Fan Letter to Arlen Specter

Copyright © 2006 Laurie D. T. Mann

Please read my blog entries at my Web site:
http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog.

Live in Pennsylvania? Send Arlen a letter! I did:


Dear Senator Specter:


Thank-you so much for again demonstrating that some Republicans are capable of independent thought.

I really appreciate your vote against the "gay marriage amendment."

I also appreciate that you are representing the people and the Constitution against the current administration over issues around domestic spying.

At least I can be proud of one of my Senators!

SIncerely,


Laurie D. T. Mann

Thanks to the Pittsburgh on Broadway Series for Listening!!!

Copyright © 2006 Laurie D. T. Mann

Please read my blog entries at my Web site:
http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog.

Last December, I bitched mightily about not being able to buy Wicked tickets the day they went onsale. Most of the tickets had been picked up by scalpers and resold at 2X to 4X their face value. I was pissed. I did get to see Wicked by buying an available ticket at the last minute. It was a great show, and I'm glad I could go. I do feel sorry for the folks who wound up paying so much more for those tickets.

Well, someone at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust seems to have been listening. They sent around an E-mail to anyone whose E-mail address they had and offered to let us buy Spamalot tickets before they went onsale to the general public. As a result, I just paid face value for three tickets. Thanks!

6/8/06 Update- I'd sent a note to Chris Rawson at the Post-Gazette about this, and the letter was published today (second one down).

Ann Coulter - Sick Joke

Copyright © 2006 Laurie D. T. Mann

Please read my blog entries at my Web site:
http://www.dpsinfo.com/blog.

I don't listen to Ann Coulter. The few times I've read words she's reported to have said indicate she doesn't have an original thought.

So she's just written a book called "Godless - The Church of Liberalism." And she shows up on the Today Show, at 7:15 in the morning, dressed like a hooker. She was wearing the sort of sleeveless, little black dress you sometimes see the working girls wear.

What point was she trying to make? If she was trying to make a serious point, shouldn't she pay a little more attention to what she wears? I should add that, like when I see Rick Santorum, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Ralph Reed and William Bennett on TV, I press the "mute" button as soon as Ann Coulter appears. It's still something like a free country and I'd rather not listen to the dittoheads.

The notion that liberalism is some sort of dogmatic religion is a joke. I know many liberals who believe in God. However, liberals tend to leave religious dogma as politics to the Republicans. Most of us liberals prefer to do our thinking for ourselves. The fact that the Republicans can say "gay marriage" and "immigration reform" and expect their "base" to respond like Pavlov's dogs indicates how incapable of independent thought so many Republicans are. Like Ann Coulter.

6/7/06 - turned out Ann was even more out-of-touch with reality than usual, and used her book to bash - women widowed by the 9/11 terrorist attack. I'm glad my mute button was working yesterday morning.