Kroll, whose one-hour stand-up special aired on the network in January, is executive producing and writing his series with John Levenstein and Jonathan Krisel, who is also directing. Based on the pilot presentation ordered back in May 2010, the premiere episode features "The PubLIZity Girls," with Kroll and Jenny Slate as publicists on the verge of a nervous breakdown while arranging a swanky event for a client; "The Ed Hardy Boyz," featuring Kroll as Bobby Bottleservice, who, along with Peter Paparazzo (Jon Daly), solve mysteries for Christian Audigier, King of the Ed Hardy fashion empire; Kroll as an inappropriate basketball ref who tries to hang out with the players after the game; and "Rich Dicks," which sees Kroll as Aspen Bruckheimer, son of Jerry, who, along with his old-moneyed friend Wendy (Daly) are rich, on the prowl and ready to party at a moment's notice.
The untitled Key-Peele project sees the pair in front of a live studio audience bantering about a topic weaved between filmed shorts and sketches. The topic in the pilot is lying, which gives way to skits involving Lil' Wayne, President Obama and a reality cooking competition chef who is impossible to read. Key and Peele are executive producing with Ian Roberts and Jay Martel.
Ed Hardy Motorsports announced today a new partnership as one of the best, kept cybersecrets on the web. They have been selling Ed Hardy motorcycle leather and textile riding gear, helmets and graphic decal kits for the past two years. "Ed Hardy leather riding jackets are hot!" said Tom Richardson , longtime avid rider and cyber marketing specialist with ITS Industries.
The Ed Hardy brand is bringing a new lifestyle tattoo based branding spirit to the motorcycle industry that's never been seen before. Along with Ed Hardy Leather Motorcycle jackets and vests, they have introduced a new line of Ed Hardy textile riding jackets in Europe. Motorcycle and scooter riders have a great new 2012 selection of leather motorcycle riding jackets and vests for both men and women, along with graphic decal kits for ALL Powersports including MX Bikes, Quads, UTVs, Sport Bikes, Jet Skis and even Snowmobiles and Golf Carts that no one else can match.
Ed Hardy Motorsports plan to continue their partnership and introduce the rest of their line which includes motocross jerseys, and other motorcycle accessories. The special relationship and ongoing commitment to the Ed Hardy brand from one of the largest specialty motorsports and power sports players in the Industry has already exceeding our expectations for the launch of the Ed Hardy Motorsports line. Ed Hardy Motorsports plans to offer exclusive products and support to partners like RedLineSuperstore.com who are giving our brand such great exposure. RedLineSuperstore.com is the most popular destination for Ed Hardy leather jackets, vests, helmets and other motorcycle apparel along with Ed Hardy and other branded Quad, ATV. Dirtbike, Sportbike, Side by side, UTV, Jet ski,and snowmobile graphic decal kits online.
Having one of the best and highest rated online motorcycle and Powersports gear stores carry our line and start off with solid sales adds to the fantastic success that the Ed Hardy Motorsports lines have already witnessed. This is the continuation of their ongoing success as the line expands in 2012 we expect to see Ed Hardy Motorsports continue to add fresh new looks to existing lines and also continue to expand an already exciting one, in the motorcycle and powersports industries.
Ed Harris Jr., a prolific horse breeder in the 19th century, would most likely enjoy a plan put forth by the Moorestown Garden Club for a brand new public park at the intersection of High Street and Main Street.
Gina Zegel, a member of the appearances committee but representing the garden club, shared several preliminary drawings with the members of council for Percheron Park, named for a hardy breed of workhorse that was first brought to America by a Moorestown resident.
Margo Foster, a member of the garden club, explained that Ed Harris Jr. of Moorestown visited France in 1839 and first encountered the Percheron breed. The sturdy horses, he found, were great for pulling carriages and farm equipment and the Moorestown citizen brought the first two Percherons to America.
“Nobody else in this country can say they had the first Percheron horse,” Foster said.
The piece of property was acquired by the township in 2008 from Puritan Oil, which had previously used the land as a gas station and an automobile repair facility. The township purchased the property for a price of $350,000 and assumed responsibility for any
environmental remediation costs which exceeded $360,000, but less than
$410,000.
The park, explained Rebecca Zellner, a professional that created the preliminary plans, would be ringed by local vegetation and a tree planted in the middle of the property. It would have an etching in the middle dedicated the park and a small track of horse shoe prints, she said.
The property would also be ringed by a retaining wall to create the “pocket” park, Zellner said. Small lights could be installed on the retaining wall if a lighting element is necessary, she said. The park would be hard scape in the center, she said.
These are the basic designs for the park, Zegel said. The total cost would likely be about $110,000 if the township bid out the work.
More features could be installed if the funding could be found, she said, including a labyrinth or a statue of a Percheron.
“This looks great in a lot of ways,” Mayor John Button said.
Right now the township is still running tests on the property to see if the piece of land is contaminated, Zegel said. 15 test pits are currents in the property and will have to remain for 18-months.
Button said the proposal will likely be a discussion item for the council to discuss at a later date. No action was taken at the meeting.
Ken Sanders has been in the rare book business in Utah since the 1970s. From 1975 to 1981 he co-owned The Cosmic Aeroplane. He founded Dream Garden Press in 1980, and Ken Sanders Rare Books in 1990. He has been engaged in buying, selling, appraising and publishing new and old books, photography, cartography, and documents for over thirty years. Sanders also has a long history of promoting the arts and literature.
Have you always been a book lover?I can't remember a time I didn't read and devour books. Third and fourth grade is when the habit really kicked in. As a reader, I was an omnivore and quickly burned through all the books in the Woodrow Wilson library. Well, at least the ones I had any interest in. At that time, in addition to the Oz books and Alice in Wonderland, I devoured the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, although I had to read the Nancy Drews clandestinely; but they were better stories than the Hardy Boys. We used to get in school The Weekly Reader and ordered books by mail from BS [Scholastic Book Services]. That really expanded my horizons. Some of my favorites from that time period included The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek, Sea View Secret, Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint and Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars. I recall a field trip to the South Salt Lake library, where I found and attempted to check out Frankenstein and Dracula, but the librarian took them away from me because they were “adult” books, and she wouldn't let me read them. I no longer recall how I did it, but needless to say that long-ago librarian wasn't able to keep me from reading those books. But perhaps, along with Alice in Wonderland, my favorite childhood book was The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. With its tale of a little boy and a princess, and magic and goblins and high adventure, it's still one of my favorites. At some point I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs and read all the Tarzan books, along with Mars and Venus and Pellucidar as well. I went on a pulp fiction kick and read through series like Doc Savage, The Shadow, Phantom Detective, and every horror book and magazine I could get my hands on. I also loved the old comic books of the '40s and '50s — everything from Uncle Scrooge and other “funny animal” comics, like Pogo, etc., to the science fiction and horror titles; and then of course superheroes like the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man and X-Men. By seventh grade, I was reading Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam and other great literature. My love of illustrated books and visual graphics led me into a lot of really great authors at an early age.How did your childhood love of books develop into being co-owner of The Cosmic Aeroplane and founding Dream Garden Press?As for being in the book business, that also came naturally. I was wheeling and dealing comic books in grade school, buying them for a nickel and selling them for a dime, and by age 15 or 16, I was running a mail-order business selling comics and comic art, fantasy and science fiction and advertising in fan magazines like ERB-DOM [Edgar Rice Burroughs] and RBCC [Rocket's Blast Comic Collector]. At the time, underground comics had just hit the scene in California and I can remember running ads for R. Crumb and Zap Comix, stating one had to be 18 or over to buy these comics. I, of course wasn't, but I was selling, not buying! I discovered the Cosmic Aeroplane back in 1967, when Steve Jones first opened it at 9th & 9th. He later moved to South Temple and 4th South into a cavernous space (now the steps of the Delta Center) and used to let me and a lot of other folks do their thing there, as we used to say back in the day. The Smoke Blues Band practiced there, the Human Ensemble Theatre produced “Dracula” and other plays in the back room, SLC's only draft counseling center was there, Utah Phillips launched his campaign for U.S. Senate there; Ben's Railroad Exchange Bar on the corner morphed into Utah's first openly gay bar, The Sun; Richard Taylor did his psychedelic artwork in the old Cosmic, and so much more happened there. By the 1970s the late Bruce Roberts [a '60s SLC radical] and I formed a partnership with Steve and opened Cosmic Aeroplane Books and Records on 1st South, in the same block as present-day Nostalgia Coffee. We had a new, used and antiquarian book shop that I ran, Smokey Koelsch ran the record shop, Steve Jones ran the original head shop and we also had a jewelry dept. I parted ways with Cosmic in the 1980s, as did its founder Steve, and unfortunately before the '80s were over, the legendary Cosmic Aeroplane was no more. In 1980, I formally incorporated Dream Garden Press and began a book- and calendar-publishing career. Beginning with the Edward Abbey Calendar, for 10 years I published a line of wilderness and national park calendars and numerous books, including: Utah Gateway to Nevada, the 10th anniversary edition of Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, illustrated by R. Crumb [still in print today] and many, many other books. In recent years I have published books of poetry of two of Utah's finest poets: Whale Song by Ken Brewer, and Poetry Is Wanted Here by Alex Caldiero. Forthcoming publishing projects include Starlight on The Rails, a song book of Utah Phillip's songs, that his son, Duncan Phillips, and myself are publishing, and a volume of poetry by Paul Swenson, the younger brother of renowned poet May Swenson. We also issue letterpress broadsides, postcards and chapbooks and a line of R.Crumb/Edward Abbey Monkey Wrench Gang T-shirts.
Jackie Vaughn figures he'll live in a trailer until they put him in his grave.
He used to own a four-bedroom house, on a wooded hillside. Out back, there were about a dozen old cars that Vaughn, a retired defense worker, could tinker with at will.That was before the April 27 tornado.
Today, Vaughn lives in a single-wide mobile home in a bare spot among the broken, fire-blackened trees. Behind the house is his new workshop, built out of Maersk shipping containers. He sold most of his old cars to pay for the roof. He's starting again, and he doesn't expect he'll ever get back to what he had before.“I'm just going to stay in what I've got,” said Vaughn, who has lived here 30 years and says he's too old for a new house. “I've come out better than some people.”
He has indeed. When twisters cut a path across the state on April 27 — the largest tornado outbreak in U.S. history — nine Calhoun County residents lost their lives, dozens were injured and hundreds of homes were wrecked.But two months on, most people in the storm zone have come out about like Vaughn.
Some live pioneer-style, in fresh, modest trailers surrounded with yards of red dirt scraped into swirls like a Zen garden. Here and there, large houses are going up with startling speed, an odd icon of cul-de-sac life among forests of broken and blackened trees.
At first glance, not much has changed since the days immediately following the storm.
Back then, state troopers stood guard at every intersection, and National Guardsmen searched house-to-house for survivors. Now the occasional deputy cruises slowly down the winding roads, staring down potential sightseers or looters.
Back then, dead power lines and downed trees clogged the roads, no one could call in or call out, and news often traveled by word-of-mouth. Now there are mailboxes again, and clear streets, and the hum of air conditioners.
Back then, people saw their houses transformed into piles of junk by the roadside. Whole forests of trees lay bent sideways or stood snapped in half. Inside the foliage, a million personal items — underwear, necklaces, pillowcases, neckties — were tangled like gum in a child's hair.
Now, the downed foliage has turned brown. In some places, piles of garbage have been trucked away. In Read's Mill, much of the junk is still there.
Mixed reviews
Statewide, officials say, about 70 percent of the garbage is gone. Calhoun County's figures closely match that, with the county's contractor reporting that 270,000 cubic yards of the roughly 350,000 cubic yards of debris have been cleaned up.
“An astounding 10 million cubic yards was left behind after the devastating tornadoes and storm that struck Alabama in April,” said Bill Watrel, a division supervisor with FEMA. “That's enough debris to fill an equivalent of 67,000 18-wheelers. If those trucks were lined up one behind another, they would extend all the way from Mobile to Nashville and halfway back again.”
But to many local residents, only one truck matters — the one that comes to take the house debris from the edge of their yard. In some places, those trucks didn't begin appearing until last week. Local officials say it took that long to get state permission to pick up trash in the state right of way. And they say the process was confounded by their effort to start the cleanup of Lake Neely Henry, one of the area's biggest summer attractions. Entire mobile homes were shoved into the water by the storm, and still lurk there.
Last month, state officials told The Star the surface of Neely Henry would be cleared in time for the Independence Day weekend, a popular weekend for boating.
Cleanup in Neely Henry began just a week ago. At a press conference Thursday, state officials offered conflicting estimates on whether the deadline would be met. It could take a month, they said. Lake Martin, the more-damaged lake near Alexander City, came first, they said.
State and federal responses to the storm have gotten mixed reviews from local residents. Even people living in FEMA trailers say they preferred working with local churches, which arrived faster, didn't need to see an ID, and never routed anyone to voicemail.
FEMA's aid center in Webster's Chapel closed just before Father's Day. Officials cited a lack of business there. But local organizations are still operating out of the once-bustling relief center across the street from the Webster's Chapel Fire Department. With pallets of water bottles and a makeshift, tarp-covered office near a big, striped pavilion, the relief center looks like a cross between a circus and a military tent city.
Sylvia Benevides, of the Webster's Chapel Tornado Relief Organization, greets visitors with stories of those who still need help.
Hailey and Chris Keener used all their insurance money to buy a double-wide to replace their 100-year-old house, blown away in the storm. Now they need help replacing everything else.
Harry Hardy has a family of 13 living in a 14-by-16 FEMA trailer and a donated camper. All his paperwork blew away in the storm, including the deed to his home and FEMA won't accept a bill of sale as proof of ownership.
Page Goodman's pre-teen son has autism. Her family has been renting a house outside the area because it's too disturbing for her son to return to the now-unfamiliar landscape of his former neighborhood.
Benevides said most people are in permanent homes, at least. Perhaps 10 or 12 are still in limbo, uninsured and unable to buy a house with the amount of FEMA aid they've been given.
Seven years, four days
With tall, new houses going up next to gutted trailers, it's hard not to notice that there are haves and have-nots in the storm zone. And it's hard not to notice how randomly the good luck is distributed.
James “Shrek” Wise spent seven years working on his house on Cochran Springs Road. The tornado tore it apart in a matter of seconds. Three weeks later his friends and co-workers rebuilt it in four days.
It helps to have handy friends: Wise works for Webb Concrete and Building Materials.
“Some labor I paid for, but no where near what I should have,” he said.
The house he had worked on for so many years had a second story and was a little bigger than the one he hopes to move into soon, but Wise is thankful just to have a place to live. He said many of his neighbors don't understand how he could come back so fast. Since he wasn't insured, Wise said he didn't have to wait on a settlement. He's received a lot of help from the community and his employer.
Construction businesses such as Webb Concrete have also been among the lucky. Owner Phil Webb said business has picked up for most builders since the disaster.
“Repairs and remodels seem to be under way in a lot of areas,” he said. “These builders who haven't had anything to do for a year or two are starting to get work.”
But residents' reduced expectations for the future may be cutting into some of the expected construction boost.
Home Builders Association president Clyde Huckeba said he has only seen requests for small repairs such as roof damage. He added that many people are putting mobile homes where their houses once stood. According to Huckeba, many with storm damage were underinsured or had no replacement-cost insurance.
“People can buy a double wide and a storm shelter for half what it cost to rebuild a house,” he explained.
They rolled out the red carpet for Warren Moon's annual Sports Dream Bowl benefiting the Urban Scholarship Fund on Saturday at Texas Station, and the first man to set his feet on it -- size 17 feet -- was former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Ed "Too Tall" Jones.
Jones was carrying a pair of size 17 bowling shoes, because the Texas Star Lanes Bowling Center apparently was out of them, and a size 18 chip on his shoulder. He gave one terse interview and rebuffed an older women's attempt to obtain his autograph on her regular-size Dallas Cowboys football helmet. Apparently, Too Tall still hasn't gotten over being knocked on his keister by Not So Tall Jesus "Yaqui" Meneses during his pro boxing debut in Las Cruces, N.M., in 1979.The second man on the red carpet was Locomotives quarterback Chase Clement, who was mostly mistaken for one of the Hardy Boys or Matt Clement, the former baseball pitcher.
Clement did not refuse any autograph requests; then again, there was none.
Marlin Briscoe was among the next group, and of all the NFL and NBA players and pseudo celebrities and Chase Clement who walked the red carpet on their way to the bowling center -- now there's a prepositional phrase one seldom sees -- his story is among the most compelling. Even if hardly anybody remembers it. Perhaps that is why Moon's production company is trying hard to get a movie made about Briscoe's life.
On Sept. 29, 1968, after Denver Broncos starting quarterback Steve Tensi broke his collarbone and backup Joe Divito couldn't move the team, Briscoe came on and completed his first pass as a pro for 22 yards.
The next week, the 5-foot-10-inch, 177-pound Marlin Briscoe became pro football's first African-American starting quarterback. If one recalls, 1968 was a pretty tough year to be an African-American anything, and as 6-5, 248-pound Cam Newton sauntered by with his baseball cap cocked at a jaunty angle, I asked Briscoe if he thought the strapping kid from Auburn was appreciative at all, or even knew who Briscoe was.
Oh, yes, Briscoe said, surprising his questioner. As a 15-year-old, Newton had attended one of those quarterback camps at which Briscoe was an instructor, and even then Newton stuck out like a thumb that had gotten caught in a facemask. They talked about that at one of the cocktail parties the night before.
About 100 people lining the red carpet asked Newton for his autograph. Only one person asked Briscoe, 65, for his.
"I got him right here," this older gentleman told me, nodding to four or five barely legible signatures on a white placard.
"Briscoe ... little guy ... right here.
"Say, help me out. Who was he again?"