Cue that theme music...

Woops! We're not live from Hollywood yet.

But we will be on 20 September!!
 

In the meantime, here are the celebrities participating in Season 11 in alphabetical order:
 

Audrina Partridge was featured on the MTV series The Hills. She has also acted in the films Sorority Row, Into the Blue 2, and Honey 2.

Brandy Norwood is a platinum-selling R&B singer, actor, and songwriter. She knows her way around the music business and Hollywood, and is also involved in Make-A-Wish Foundation and her own The Norwood Kids Foundation to support music and the arts in public schools.

Bristol Palin is best known as the daughter of the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

David Hasselhoff is an actor, singer, and writer.  He is best known for his roles on the TV programs Knight Rider and Baywatch.  He has also starred on Broadway and in films.

Florence Henderson is an actor, singer, and author.  She is probably best known for her role as Carol Brady on The Brady Bunch.  But her career spans decades and genres, from recording artist to film actor to TV talk show host to Broadway performer to writer to philanthropist.

Jennifer Grey!!!!  Oh...uhm...sorry.  I got carried away.  Jennifer Grey is an actor best known for her performances in Dirty Dancing and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."  I'm jazzed!

Kurt Warner won Super Bowl XXXIV as quarterback of the St Louis Rams, and led the Arizona Cardinals to the first Super Bowl in franchise history in 2008.  He is a two-time NFL MVP who retired from football after last season to focus on spending more time with his family and working on his non-profit foundation.

Kyle Massey is an actor, currently starring as Cory Baxter on the show Cory in the House on Disney Channel, a role he originated on the Disney program That's So Raven.  He devotes his spare time to working with Feed the Children, and is also an avid and accomplished golfer.

Margaret Cho is an accomplished comedienne, an actor, and a best selling writer.  Her comedy plays in any medium, be it TV or clubs or on the off-Broadway stage.  She devotes her time to advocating for equal rights, and is a vocal activist.

Michael Bolton is a Grammy winning vocalist and songwriter, with more than 53 million records sold.  His Michael Bolton Charities Inc organization has raised and dispersed more than $6m to support at risk women and children.

Mike Sorrentino is featured on the MTV program The Jersey Shore.

Rick Fox is a former NBA player who starred at North Carolina and then was drafted by the Boston Celtics.  He then went on to win three NBA championships with my Lakers.  After retiring from the NBA, he became an actor and producer.


There they are!  I think it's an interesting group, and I've already got a couple of pre-show favorites with Ms Grey and Mr Fox.


And if I may so advise...pay no attention to all the negativity you're likely to read about this cast.  The fact is, nobody knows how good or bad the celebrities are going to be until they step out on the floor. 


I think the pro pairings will be announced later in the week.  You know I'll tell you about it as soon as I find out, so check back!


And don't forget to tune in for the premier on 20 September!  Or check in here on 21 September and I'll tell you what happened!


What?


Of course I'm excited!!!  This announcement is worth breaking hiatus.


Later gang!

Explanation

OK, here's part of what's going on this week. My friend Tina was diagnosed with epilepsy a couple of years ago, is on medication, and has been doing well. She also has some other health problems that haven't been diagnosed yet. In order to teach the dual enrollment English course next year (academic year), she needs to take six graduate English courses - two a semester. Her family and friends have been worried about her driving to Clarksville which is around 35-40 miles away after teaching all day, not feeling good, and being tired. This semester's classes are from 4:30-7:30 Monday and Wednesday. So I'm going with her.

People over 60 can audit courses free in state universities, so I thought I'd sit in on the classes. I talked with the teacher who said it was OK with her and directed me to the Head of the English Department, who told me it was fine with him as long as the ones teaching the class didn't mind. So that's settled as long as the one Wednesday is OK about it. I hope so because that's the class I prefer to be in.

This Monday class is Composition Theory and Pedagogy. Yeah. First of all, I didn't like teaching composition and really didn't like grading it. Most of what they write is crap. Occasionally it's interesting. I like teaching writing about literature better. Since I never have to teach writing again, this isn't as interesting to me. I can probably learn some new things, though, that I can use to help the grandchildren. Oh wait, I'm wrong! I will have to grade essays on some of the Virtual High School courses, so that writing class will come in handy.

The Wednesday class is Biblio and Methods of Research, which includes some literary theory and appeals to me. We'll see. There's a lobby in the building with couches and chairs that look really comfortable for reading and knitting, which at times I plan to do there. It is an art gallery filled with pieces to look at. Since I've also taught art, this is a treat.

You'll be hearing about this as time goes on. This will cut into my time at home but will be good for me because I'll have a bit of a schedule and be busier.

Ran a bunch of errands today and have more the rest of the week, too. Also need to get the house ready for my little visitor this weekend but mostly need to get "Brendan food" at the grocery. The hardest part now is preparing all those meals since I'm so out of the habit. I eat out quite a bit and just make whatever for myself here at home. Now it feels like a big deal to cook for anyone but me.

I'm meeting Brian tomorrow in Nashville for lunch and to get Brendan's things for when he stays here. I'm looking forward to spending some time with him.

I'll have to get back for training for a new part-time job. I'll be grading work of students at the Virtual High School at the high school where I taught last. It will be done online, and my contract is for 7.5 hours a week. I can do it from home. So I need to go to the Central Office to work out how I'll get paid and sign the contract. More on this as it happens, too.

Several years ago, all this was nothing. Now it feels busy!!

Busy Week

I won't be on the computer as often for over a week. Have lots of things to do and places to go and people to see! I'll post as I can. Then on Friday I pick Brendan up at school for the weekend while Brian and Melissa attend DragonCon in Atlanta. I'll take him to school Tuesday morning. Wish us luck getting up early enough to make the hour-long drive to his school in East Nashville!

Emmys

I thought the Emmys last night was the best I've ever seen. Jimmy Fallon rocked! Did you watch? What did you think?

Send your Peace Globe into space - NASA is calling

Mimi of Mimi Writes, the founder of the Blog Blast for Peace movement, has found another way for us to spread the peace message.

Here's the word directly from Mimi...

I just launched my face into space on this peace globe via NASA's program called "Face In Space." NASA has invited the public to send their images and names into space on the remaining two final Shuttle Missions. It was fun! The Endeavor launches November 1, 2010 just three days before peace globes fly. Perfect! Once the astronauts return to Earth, you will be given a flight certificate signed by the Mission Commander that is printable from your computer. You can choose which flight you'd like to participate in. The second launch is in 2011. I chose to fly on the Endeavor Mission.

Once you've uploaded the image you will need do a little cropping to fit it inside the shuttle window but the tool is right there on the site for you. I sent this image and cropped my face into the window (see graphic above). How cool to have little blue wishes of peace floating in orbit from all around the world. IMAGINE!

Go here to upload your image to NASA. It's easy! It took about 10 minutes to complete. You even hear a simulated lift-off announcement and see the launch with your face in the shuttle window. Soooo cool and pretty amazing.

https://faceinspace.nasa.gov

You must be 13 years or older to participate.

PLEASE let me know when you do this so that I can keep count of how many peace globes there are in space.

How awesome to know that our peace globe presence will be soaring through the atmosphere at the same time we're launching BlogBlast here on Earth.
It's us.
Totally.

Yup.  It's totally us.

I uploaded this Peace Globe from Nov 2008.

Won't you take a few moments and upload yours? 

Feel the Love!

Obama the Muslim?

I guess you saw this on Countdown. Great sarcastic humor!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Five on Friday Set 31

There's always been something about the sound of The Mamas and the Papas for me.  The harmonies sound perfect to my untrained ear.  

Mama Cass Elliot (1941-1974) was taken much too young, dead from a heart attack at 32.  John Phillips (1935-2001) died of heart failure only days after finishing a new album called Phillips 66.  Denny Doherty (1940-2007) died from an abdominal aneurysm.

Michelle Phillips is the last surviving member of the group.

So Set 31...The Mamas and the Papas.

As always, if you'd like to join us in the musical fun, the guidelines are basic and simple.

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.

2. Go to Playlist.com to make your play list of five songs. You may choose a particular theme to share with us, or post random tunes if that's your vibe for the day. You can simply post the play list, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.

2a. Don't feel restricted by the tracks listed on Playlist.com. And don't be discouraged if the Embed code won't work. You're welcome to use any type of media to share your Sets.

3. Be sure to sign Mr Linky so everyone can visit your Set.

4. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday.

Go forth and enjoy music!

Congrats to Auburn WA Little League

Just wanted to do a quick shout out to the kids from the Northwest Little League Champs from Auburn Washington.  They were eliminated from the 2010 LLWS championship last night as they lost to the kids from Pearland Texas.

Well done fellas!


I wanted to post a picture of the kids, but for some reason I'm not able to upload any photographs.  I keep getting a "server rejected" message...even for pictures I actually took with my own camera.


So YAY for the kids and BOO on Blogger.

DWTS Potential Horror

From Twitter:

4 new tweets.

1. askjimmycarter
   Bristol Palin,David Hasselhoff,Troy Aikman,Jon Gosselin,rumored to compete on 'Dancing With the Stars, report says; ABC will not comment

OMG! What else will that family do? Will Levi take care of the baby while Bristol learns to dance? Depending on who else is on, she probably won't last long since obviously she doesn't have much rhythm (method).

Aikman is the obligatory football player, so that's not surprising. The Hoff and Mr. K8 Gosselin, however, I won't be able to watch without covering my eyes. Not as bad as Tom DeLay and Mrs. Famewhore G, though.

Please consider

On the turning away

From the pale and downtrodden

And the words they say

Which we won't understand

Don't accept that what's happening

Is just a case of others' suffering

Or you'll find that you're joining in

The turning away

It's a sin that somehow

Light is changing to shadow

And casting its shroud

Over all we have known

Unaware how the ranks have grown

Driven on by a heart of stone

We could find that we're all alone

In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night

As the daytime is stirring

Where the speechless unite

In a silent accord

Using words you will find are strange

Mesmerized as they light the flame

Feel the new wind of change

On the wings of the night

No more turning away

From the weak and the weary

No more turning away

From the coldness inside

Just a world that we all must share

It's not enough just to stand and stare

Is it only a dream that there'll be

No more turning away

On the Turning Away

Written by David Gilmour and Anthony Moore

Recorded by Pink Floyd, released in 1987 on the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason

I believe that words have power, so messages like this matter.  Please consider joining us on 4 November 2010 for the 7th Blog Blast for Peace.  

No more turning away.

Dona Nobis Pacem.

Louis Vuitton Exotiques!

I just LVoe, LVoe Exotiques so when Peter sent me these photos from the recently opened Bond Street store in London, I almost fainted. Feast your eyes on the wonderful skins that graces these arm candy. Thanks, P for sending them in.

Happy Birthday to King of the Dust Bunnies!

Happy Birthday, David, and thanks for all the laughs, smiles, and love!!

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Dedicated on May 2, 1997, the monument, spread over 7.5 acres, traces twelve years of the history of the United States through a sequence of four outdoor rooms, one for each of FDR's terms of office. I've never been there but plan to go the next time I'm in DC.

Dusty Trivia

About 27 tons of dust rain down on Earth each day from space, making a total of almost 10,000 tons each year.

I think a lot of this fell in my house.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

Although they were fearless in battle, Napoleon and Julius Caesar both suffered from ailurophobia, the severe fear of cats.

Brigit says, "I can take 'em!"

Scary News

My daughter Kathy called me today to let me know a close friend of my granddaughter Kari's received a spinal cord injury after he landed on his head from jumping in their above-ground pool. Here's the video that was on the news in Chattanooga about it.


The article is HERE misspelled words and all.

HGTV Design Star

Any of you who would like to give HGTV some input for the next season of Design Star can do it HERE. Bob had some great ideas for it and so did others of you. So let them know, and maybe some of our ideas can have an influence.

Louis Vuitton Python Portfolio

Pre-Fall is a time to LVook at releases that were not made for the runway but will whet our appetite for things to come. In my humble opinion this Python Portfolio accomplished that beautifully! The utilitarian piece takes us up a notch in luxury due to its matte reptilian skin. The now characteristic zipper pull, which if I'm not mistaken was released in the Fall Winter of 2008-2009, adds the LV touch. I bet you will have to pay an arm and a leg to get this despite the python having none. LVoe it!!! Photo: Louis Vuitton

Lazy Sunday get together

Louis Vuitton's Current Window

As much as I enjoy LVooking forward to Vuitton releases, the windows are my second favourite. For this season, golden spools of thread create an elegant backdrop to featured items. The "embroidery" is clever and creative. If you LVook hard enough, you can see me and my Monogram Velours Irvine in the reflection. Check it out!!! LVoe it!!!

Australian Comedy Routine

This sounds like a Monty Python routine with Australians! Video HERE. Title: "Should BP hire this guy for PR." It's a hoot! Here's what Snopes wrote about it HERE. It's worth the short time it takes to watch it.

Commentary:
According to this email forward, an accompanying video shows a news interview in which Australian Senator Collins talks about a recent oil tanker mishap off the coast of Australia in which "the front fell off" the ship spilling 20,000 tons of crude oil into the ocean. The "senator's" comments are so absurd that the interview is actually extremely funny. The message apparently intends the viewer to believe that this humour is unintentional and simply the result of yet another politician making a fool of himself in the public eye. However, in spite of the claim in the message, the video is not an "actual interview". It is in fact a satirical mock interview that fully intends to be funny.

The video does not depict the real Senator Collins or any other actual government spokesperson. Instead it is one episode of a long running humour segment delivered by Australian comedians John Clarke and Bryan Dawe. The "Front Fell Off" episode first aired back in 1991. For a number of years, the duo has delivered their bitingly satirical take on Australian politics and society first on radio and later in regular TV segments. They currently appear on ABC current affairs program, The 7.30 Report. Clarke has played a variety of "newsworthy" Australians including prime ministers and other politicians and prominent business leaders while Dawe plays his hapless interviewer. Information on Clarke's website explains the pair's approach:

In the interviews, John makes no attempt to look or sound like the person he is pretending to be, but deals with matters as he sees fit. Bryan persists with dignity and strives for understanding.

Clarke and Dawe are well known in Australia, and, when the "interviews" are aired in their original context, most viewers would very quickly realise that they are only for entertainment and feature an actor just pretending to be the high-profile "interviewee" named in the episode.

However, in this case, it appears that some unknown prankster has removed the segment from its original setting and tacked on title and ending captions that imply that it shows a genuine news interview with the real Senator Collins. Senator Bob Collins did serve as Federal Minister for Shipping between 1990 and 1992 but he never gave an interview even remotely resembling the one portrayed in the comedy piece. Collins died in September 2007. Moreover, the oil spill incident lampooned in the Clarke & Dawe segment occurred in 1991 not 2007 as suggested in the email.

The original and unaltered version of Clarke & Dawe's "The Front Fell Off" episode is available on Clarke's website.

Source: Hoax-Slayer

Scary, huh?

Karl Rove (@KarlRove) is now following your tweets (@JoyDurhamTN) on Twitter.

Karl Rove @KarlRove Washington, D.C.

2,569	143,651	165,045
tweets	following	followers

OK, what happened is that I decided to follow him to see what crap he tweeted, so I suppose he returns the following. Yikes!

Space Trivia

When astronauts first shaved in space, their weightless whiskers floated up to the ceiling. A special razor had to be developed that drew the whiskers in like a vacuum cleaner.

Five on Friday Set 30

Of course I'll interrupt my hiatus for Five on Friday!  I always reserve the right to post while I'm taking a  break.

I'll return to a complete blogging schedule by 20 Sept.  I might be back sooner than that, but certainly not any later.  Why no later?  Because 20 Sept is the premier of Dancing with the Stars!!  You know I'll be here for that.

So to recap...Travis is on hiatus until 20 Sept, except for Five on Friday posts and the occasional drop in when he needs to speak up about something.

OK?

Here's Set 30...a tribute to bubblegum pop!

As always, if you'd like to join us in the musical fun, the guidelines are basic and simple.

1. Grab the banner, make your post title Five on Friday, and be sure to link back here.

2. Go to Playlist.com to make your play list of five songs. You may choose a particular theme to share with us, or post random tunes if that's your vibe for the day. You can simply post the play list, or you can add a little summary about what you are sharing.

2a. Don't feel restricted by the tracks listed on Playlist.com. And don't be discouraged if the Embed code won't work. You're welcome to use any type of media to share your Sets.

3. Be sure to sign Mr Linky so everyone can visit your Set.

4. No tags, but feel free to invite your friends to play along if they need a post topic on a Friday.

Go forth and enjoy music!