This week is the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting The Gulf Coast, and former Night Court star Harry Anderson has announced that he and his wife, like many people, are leaving the city.
Anderson hasn't done much television since Dave's World left the air in the late 90s. Instead, he opened a club in New Orleans, where he has been performing a one man show and showcasing local talent. They also owned a home in the city, which had a magic shop on the first floor. But now Anderson and his wife are leaving the city, and in this interesting New York Times piece (you don't hear much about Anderson these days, so any story that pops up immediately grabs my attention), Anderson talks about what Katrina has done to the people of New Orleans, why he's leaving, getting mugged, and where he might move to.
Someone paid $35,000 to be able to
play the same video over and over for one hour on VH1 Classic. What video? The 1984 classic, "99 Luftbalons"
by the German group Nena. Naturally.
Last night I was watching CNN as they continued to cover the horrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This particular segment was not about the victims, or FEMA, or even the efforts to rebuild. No, this was about the reporters themselves, and how many of them have broken down crying on the air. Apparently, CNN thought that coverage shouldn't go to the people who were actually hurt by the disaster, but to the reporters themselves. The segment also included "man on the street" interviews about whether or not it was appropriate for correspondents to show their emotions on the air. What I thought wasn't "appropriate" was the segment itself, which was nothing more than an exercise in unmitigated solipsism. 
If you watched the Hurricane Katrina concert last night, you probably saw an emotional moment from singer Kanye West. He and Mike Myers were supposed to come on the concert like all the other celebrities and urge Americans to give money to help the victims of the hurricane. Myers started reading off the teleprompter like everyone else had done and then looked over to West when it was his turn. West, on the other hand, decided that this was the perfect opportunity to voice his opinion on the matter. "I hate they way they portray us in the media. When you see a black family, it says they're looting. You see a white family, it says they're looking for food," he starts. You can easily hear the emotion in his voice and you can see Myers nervously standing by as West continues. Afterwards, Myers attempts to get back onto the teleprompter but it's obvious he's rather schocked by what just happened. He says his little bit and then West finishes by saying simply, "George Bush doesn't care about black people". Myers tries to tack on the Red Cross phone number but the camera immediately cuts to Chris Tucker, who looks caught off-guard. 
Because God knows you don't want to interrupt a 
For the first time ever (as far as I know), Jerry Lewis will devote a portion of his marathon show for the Muscular Dystrophy Association this weekend to also helping another worthy cause. He'll be devoting the first four hours and the last four hours of the telethon to raising money for Hurricane Katrina victims through celebrity appeals.
I'm watching Anderson Cooper lose it right now. He just went bananas on Mary L. Landrieu, the Senator from Louisiana - she was talking a lot of wishy-washy policy and Andy just totally faced her by telling a story about watching rats eating a woman's corpse in the middle of the street. And Anderson's not even in New Orleans, but in Waveland, a ravaged area of Mississippi. After returning from commercial break, he had to take a second on camera to compose himself, and then choked back tears throughout a long interview with a couple who had just found their baby after being forced to leave her in a hospital four days before. "Reporters are suppossed to remain distanced," Cooper said. "There's just no distance in Waveland anymore." In general, it seems like the anchors on CNN are starting to get not only emotional, but angry. Earlier today, both Kyra Phillips and Aaron Brown were openly, aggressively critiquing the Bush administration's handling of the situation. It always feels good to see anchors break out of their shells in times of crisis, and admit to being real human beings with passions and opinions. This kind of anger on CNN is almost as shocking as the images that are spawning it.
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