John Kerry, Paul Simon, Bette Midler at the "other" sanity rally - NYRP's Hulaween

John Kerry took the stage last night at the New York Restoration Project's annual Hulaween Ball at the Waldorf Astoria dressed in a gray suit and tie. Addressing the at-capacity charity gala, a literally sparkling crowd decadent with intense costumes--from a fleet of giant flag waving Chilean miners to a Prescilla Queen of the Desert troupe--Kerry coolly explained his "costume": "I came as Don Draper in fifteen years."

Bette Midler, diva extraordinaire and the founder of NYRP, an organization at the forefront of greening New York City through various community driven intitiatives including planting one million trees in the next decade (it's ahead of schedule with more than 315,000 trees planted in two years), introduced Kerry on stage as "a senator who does not give up."

Midler presented Kerry with The Wind Beneath My Wings Award for his longtime role in helping raise awareness of and solutions to global warming. She also praised Kerry's 2007 book, This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future. Kerry accepted the award by saying, "I want you to know that 'Wind Beneath My Wings' is my favorite song. It had to replace 'Hail to the Chief.'"

"It's our own rally to restore sanity," Kerry said of the evening that raised around $2.4 million to plant trees, create green jobs, and build and maintain community gardens throughout the five burroughs. Having just arrived from Delaware where he spent the day campaigning for Chris Coons, Kerry made the crack that he saw many versions of Coons' opponent, Christine O'Donnell, in attendance, giving a nod to the witches in the house.

His speech turned serious as Kerry impassionately spoke on the great need for the U.S. to join the world in aggressively reducing global warming. "The world is waiting for us," he said, pointing out that a lack of serious progress is the result of a "national shouting match instead of real dialogue," in reference to Fox News and other bombastic cable news programs that fuel misinformation, which brought tens of thousands of people to the National Mall today to protest in the Rally to Restore Sanity.

Kerry's speech called for the passage of cap-and-trade legislation, job-creating clean technology innovation here at home to compete with China and India's nascent but reactive green industry, and to establish energy independence.

He warned that "big, big coal and oil" have spent $500 million to stop clean energy legislation. "Please, tomorrow, wake up and think about it."

The audience included designer Michael Kors, Citi C.E.O. Vikram Pandit, Tommy Mottola and his wife Thalia, John McEnroe, actor Gilles Marini, musician Patty Smyth, and NYRP's new executive director Amy Frietag who oversaw the building of The High Line as a deputy of the Parks Department.

Costume winners, judged by Kors, included a pantless Brett Favre and a hot blond/receiver of infamous text messages in third place, a radiant butterfly and butterfly catcher in second place, and in first place, a family of enormous costumes symbolizing the chorus to A Sound of Music's "Do-Re-Mi." Wearing a suit of green and his neck draped in vines, Kors announced, "Green is the new black." For more photos from the evening check Broadwayworld.com.

With his acoustic guitar, Paul Simon took the stage next; he dedicated "Loves Me Like a Rock" to Kerry, saying, "What a better world it would have been if the [2004 election results had been different." Simon changed the famous line "If I was the President" to "If I was the Senator of Massachusetts."

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Jon Stewart and His Rally May Shun Politics, but Attendees Are Embracing It

Jon Stewart insists that his “Rally to Restore Sanity” planned for the National Mall on Saturday is not political. But just about everything surrounding the event is.

Interviews with some of the tens of thousands of people expected to attend suggest that they want a message, not a simple comedy show. Liberal groups like Media Matters and Naral Pro-Choice America will be out in force to attract new members and even Organizing for America, President Obama’s political organization, wants to draw attendees to phone banks set up near the Mall.

Tracie Lewis Kinard, 36, from Mobile, Ala., said that when she heard about the rally, “I felt like my way of thinking was finally being represented.”

She is spending about $750 on a flight and two nights at a hotel. It is worth it, she said. “For one moment, the moderates will be the news.”

Mr. Stewart has always dismissed suggestions that his satiric commentary on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” has any influence over the political process. But coming on the heels of the large Glenn Beck rally on the Mall in August, his event is a new high-wire act for him and his late-night comedy partner, Stephen Colbert: the huge crowd — observed by a horde of news media representatives — anticipated at noon on Saturday is expecting not only to be entertained, but also to be stirred.

While the event is pitched to moderates of all political persuasions, Mr. Stewart is known for having a progressive audience. In interviews, some people who plan to attend said it might bolster the spirits of Democrats on the eve of a midterm election that is expected to carry a surge of Republicans to Washington.

“To the extent that people are showing up because of their enthusiasm for the message behind the rally — that is, discontent with extremist rhetoric and divisive politics — that is a political statement, and that makes their participation political,” said Lauren Feldman, an assistant professor of communication at American University, who specializes in examining the nexus of entertainment and politics.

Mr. Stewart declined interview requests and has offered little description of what is planned. He also has apparently lowered a cone of silence over members of his staff and executives at Comedy Central, which will broadcast the rally live.

Even Judy McGrath, the chief executive at MTV Networks, the parent company of Comedy Central, also has not divulged many details. “Whatever you think it’s going to be, it’s probably not going to be that,” she said last week.

And Doug Herzog, president of MTV Networks Entertainment Group and chief executive of Comedy Central, left it to the network spokesman, Tony Fox, to answer basic logistical questions.

Among the morsels: the idea for the rally was broached with the network in mid-September; there will be no commercials during the broadcast; Comedy Central will use a tape delay to block out any vulgarities; the channel will also carry the press conference with Mr. Stewart scheduled after the event; Comedy Central will own the rights to the broadcast but has no plans to replay it.

More than 1,000 individuals applied for press credentials, but the list was whittled down to 400. “We tried to be as accommodating as possible, and when we could not grant credentials, we encouraged people who didn’t get credentials to just come, because it is a free public event,” said Craig Minassian, a former Clinton administration press aide who is a consultant to Comedy Central and is helping produce the rally.

An early rundown of the event, shared by the National Parks Service, which issued the permit for the event, listed a first hour dominated by musical acts (including The Roots), with Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert performing largely in the second hour, and more musicians (including Sheryl Crow) and a taped, fake-awards conclusion in the third hour. Other guest stars are likely to appear. One on the list is Don Novello, who played Father Guido Sarducci years ago on “Saturday Night Live.” He is expected to offer an opening comic benediction, almost surely intended as a parody of the religious-themed rally headed by Mr. Beck.

Mr. Beck’s “Restore Honor” rally, held on Aug. 28, the anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, was the inspiration for Mr. Stewart’s event.

“To me, Stewart is almost saying, it’s so ludicrous that Glenn Beck has done this on the same spot as Martin Luther King that I can show how ludicrous it is by getting people to come from all over the country to watch me tell some jokes,” said Joe Cutbirth, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of British Columbia (who, like Ms. Feldman, is traveling to Washington for the rally).

Amber Day, from Bryant University in Rhode Island, who will also be attending the rally, said the political basis for the event was inescapable. “I think Jon is being cagey,” said Ms. Day whose book, “Satire and Dissent,” will be published in February. “What he wants to say is, it’s not partisan. He wants to preserve his persona of just being the guy at the back of the class throwing spitballs.”

Success in rallies is usually defined by crowd count and coverage. Ms. Day said one measure of the event’s success would be how much time it earned on CNN and Fox News.

The reaction of other cable channels is likely to be of less concern to Mr. Stewart than meeting the expectations of fans who are crowding the city’s hotels for the weekend or those across the country watching on TV and staging satellite rallies in several cities. “I like the fact that I am going to something and I have no idea what will happen there,” wrote Charlie Caldwell, 18, a student at Louisiana State University, in a Facebook post Wednesday. “But I know I will have a good time.”

(source:nytimes.com)

John Lennon’s Birthday

Google Doodle and Youtube Celebrate John Lennon’s Birthday

     

    

  Google Doodle and Youtube Celebrate John Lennon’s Birthday - People including singers and writers are gathering to remember the legendary singer and songwriter John Lennon’s 70th Birthday today.

At the same time in honor of the John Lennon’s 70th Birthday, Google is paying their own tribute with their first video Doodle – a pitch perfect animated clip set to his iconic ballad “Imagine”.