SANTA MONICA, Calif. - George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his “Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV” routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.
Carlin went into a Santa Monica hospital Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham.
Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. It was announced Tuesday that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Carlin constantly pushed the envelop with his jokes, particularly with the “Seven Words” a routine called “The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV.”
When Carlin uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace. And when they were played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government’s authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.
“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year.
He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies. Carlin hosted the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” and noted on his Web site that he was “loaded on cocaine all week long.”
When asked about the fallout from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson’s breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction,” Carlin told the AP, “What are we, surprised?”
“There’s an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body,” he said. “It’s reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have.”
Carlin was born May 12, 1937 and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.
While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.
“Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot,” his Web site says.
From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Forth Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.
In 1960, he left with a Texas radio buddy, Jack Burns, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. Carlin said he hoped to emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade that Carlin grew up in — the 1950s — with a clever but gentle humor reflective of its times.
Only problem was, it didn’t work for him.
“I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn’t really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people,” Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, “It’s Bad For Ya.”
© 2008 The Associated Press
This guy was really awesome. Here's a sample why!!
June 23, 2008
Rock On!!!
I remember seeing a poster of this in the news the other day and thinking to myself, wow that's a nice looking poster they got!! Its got that gr8 movie kinda look to it!!
Not only that, its got a nice mix of actors. Arjun Rampal (eh? whatever!!) Purab Kohli (not bad) Luke Kenny (WTF?? Isn't he the guy from Channel V launchpad) & finally a surprise package in Farhan Akhtar (Yes, that's right. DCH director in his acting debut). Seems like a good package. Then today i saw the trailer, and guess what?? August suddenly seems too bloody far away!! Oh well, this seems to be well on its way onto "MY" list of good hindi movies to watch!
Enjoy the trailer.
BTW, the music also really sounds cool. Anything with guitars is ok in my book. The track in the trailer end starts off a lot like the track in "Lakshya".
Thoughts???
Not only that, its got a nice mix of actors. Arjun Rampal (eh? whatever!!) Purab Kohli (not bad) Luke Kenny (WTF?? Isn't he the guy from Channel V launchpad) & finally a surprise package in Farhan Akhtar (Yes, that's right. DCH director in his acting debut). Seems like a good package. Then today i saw the trailer, and guess what?? August suddenly seems too bloody far away!! Oh well, this seems to be well on its way onto "MY" list of good hindi movies to watch!
Enjoy the trailer.
BTW, the music also really sounds cool. Anything with guitars is ok in my book. The track in the trailer end starts off a lot like the track in "Lakshya".
Thoughts???
June 16, 2008
Iphone 3g announced and prices slashed or is it?
As rumoured, Steve Jobs announced the Iphone 3g last week bringing about a buzz in the industry as to updates that it might include and what extra we can expect.
People are expecting some real awesome new features to be included in the iphone 3g with updated 2.0 software. This includes microsoft exchange server compatability (outlook mail can be checked on ur phone), also ppl are expecting some killer new applications from the SDK (Software Development Kit) that they introduced some time which gave developers the chance to creat applications to be used on the iphone! There is still a lot of divide among corporates as to incorporating the iphone for business purposes mainly because there is still a lot of uncertainty among the users esp when it comes to distrubution of the applications. See presently, every iphone user has to use the itunes application to download and install any app. Also developing of custom software for the iphone esp corporate users might be a sore point. Of course companies would want to test the iphone prior to implementation but I dont see a large scale implementation in the near future.
Coming to the price slashing!! Of course people jumped at the $200 price tag. Damnit, i was so excited. I paid $300 for my 8gig ipod touch. I was like damn what a waste, but upon further reading it turns out that's its a marketing gimmick. In fact if u buy a premium plan in the states u wont pay a dime for ur iphone!! The way it is planned out is that u pay small for the phone and pay big for the service. Now the question ppl will ask is this. What abt unlocked iphones? Wont there be a quantum leap in those cases? Well the answer as i see it is a big N O, NO!
Why, Arjun u ask me? People used to pay much more to buy and then unlock their iphones. Won't more people want a cheaper iphone which can be unlocked making the entire deal way cheaper than before? Here are some of the new "security" features introduced to virtually stop unlocking of iphone 3g. First and foremost, they will stop selling the iphone online. I think this move is gonna hurt them the most. People still prefer to buy it online esp in the states, no time wasted in going to the store. Next they have said that you cannot buy an iphone and leave the store without buying an AT&T plan. If you do buy a plan and dont activate it within 30 days there is a stipulated penalty that will be levied. Also incase u say buy the iphone and contract and then cancel it, there is a rumour that u will have to return the iphone to cancel the contract so that loophole is also covered.
They have basically found out all the ways to get consumers buy their iphones and get the AT&T plan. Sometimes you gotta give something to get something.
Oh well, I have always wanted an iphone and i know i will get one when its launched. When after launch is a bridge to be crossed when i come to it. I shall withhold judgement until its launched and consumer reviews start coming in.
Till then, keep watching this space!
Cheers
People are expecting some real awesome new features to be included in the iphone 3g with updated 2.0 software. This includes microsoft exchange server compatability (outlook mail can be checked on ur phone), also ppl are expecting some killer new applications from the SDK (Software Development Kit) that they introduced some time which gave developers the chance to creat applications to be used on the iphone! There is still a lot of divide among corporates as to incorporating the iphone for business purposes mainly because there is still a lot of uncertainty among the users esp when it comes to distrubution of the applications. See presently, every iphone user has to use the itunes application to download and install any app. Also developing of custom software for the iphone esp corporate users might be a sore point. Of course companies would want to test the iphone prior to implementation but I dont see a large scale implementation in the near future.
Coming to the price slashing!! Of course people jumped at the $200 price tag. Damnit, i was so excited. I paid $300 for my 8gig ipod touch. I was like damn what a waste, but upon further reading it turns out that's its a marketing gimmick. In fact if u buy a premium plan in the states u wont pay a dime for ur iphone!! The way it is planned out is that u pay small for the phone and pay big for the service. Now the question ppl will ask is this. What abt unlocked iphones? Wont there be a quantum leap in those cases? Well the answer as i see it is a big N O, NO!
Why, Arjun u ask me? People used to pay much more to buy and then unlock their iphones. Won't more people want a cheaper iphone which can be unlocked making the entire deal way cheaper than before? Here are some of the new "security" features introduced to virtually stop unlocking of iphone 3g. First and foremost, they will stop selling the iphone online. I think this move is gonna hurt them the most. People still prefer to buy it online esp in the states, no time wasted in going to the store. Next they have said that you cannot buy an iphone and leave the store without buying an AT&T plan. If you do buy a plan and dont activate it within 30 days there is a stipulated penalty that will be levied. Also incase u say buy the iphone and contract and then cancel it, there is a rumour that u will have to return the iphone to cancel the contract so that loophole is also covered.
They have basically found out all the ways to get consumers buy their iphones and get the AT&T plan. Sometimes you gotta give something to get something.
Oh well, I have always wanted an iphone and i know i will get one when its launched. When after launch is a bridge to be crossed when i come to it. I shall withhold judgement until its launched and consumer reviews start coming in.
Till then, keep watching this space!
Cheers
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