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Jerry Seinfeld Jerry Seinfeld learns from comedy’s best on Netflix series

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Jerry Seinfeld would rather cruise in classic cars and sip coffee with comedy’s best than reboot his uber-successful “Seinfeld” television series.

“No, and do what? Make it worse?” Seinfeld said in an interview Wednesday night about his eponymous NBC sitcom, which celebrated its 30-year anniversary this month. “I’m very fortunate to be in the position to make that show with those people at that time. I wouldn’t be arrogant enough to think I could do it again. That’s egomaniacal. I’m happy with what I have now.”

These days, Seinfeld is focused on learning more about the “sharpest minds in comedy” through his Netflix series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” The 11th season of the series premieres Friday on the streaming service featuring Eddie Murphy, who talked about his career and shared stories with Seinfeld about them coming up in comedy together in New York in the 1970s.

The new season also includes an array of other comedians including Martin Short, Rick Gervais, Seth Rogan, Bridget Everett, Barry Marder, Melissa Villaseño and Mario Joyner. Jamie Foxx appears in an episode to talk about him wanting to return to standup and his impersonation of Dave Chappelle.

“It’s kind of a music video to me. It’s just kind of visual. The words are interesting and sometimes it’s funny, but I like it to have a rhythm and flow and then it’s over,” Seinfeld said. “It’s just very quick. I always like when people go ‘I wish that was a little longer.’”

Seinfeld launched “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” on Sony’s Crackle in 2012. The series was moved to Netflix two years ago after the comedian signed a massive deal with the streaming service.

This season, Seinfeld continues to pick up each guest in a different vintage car, from a Maserati Mistral to a Rolls-Royce convertible to a beat-up Dodge Monaco. He takes them to a cafe or restaurant for coffee where they have an easy-flowing conversation about their career and life experiences as comedians.

Seinfeld said he learns something new from each guest. He was surprised when Murphy spoke about not being as confident as most thought during his rise in comedy. He also didn’t know that Rogen first heard about Bill Cosby’s sexual misconduct history from Hannibal Buress in 2014, a month before Buress accused Cosby in a viral stand-up routine.

For Seinfeld, he feels somewhat like a news reporter in an effort to create a comfortable environment for guests to open up.

“People like to tell me stuff, and I don’t know why,” said Seinfeld, who has featured former President Barack Obama and Kevin Hart in previous seasons. “It’s happened to me my whole life, because I think I really listen. But I would never put anything in the show I think the person might not want in there. I want the show to be fun like a little cappuccino foam, just light and pleasant.”

Tom Cruise surprises Comic-Con with ‘Top Gun’ sequel trailer


SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tom Cruise has made an unexpected flyby at San Diego Comic-Con to debut the first trailer for “Top Gun: Maverick.”

The audience in the 8,000 seat room went wild for Cruise Thursday afternoon. He closed out what had been billed only as a panel for “Terminator: Dark Fate.”

Cruise says all the flying in the trailer is real and that “Top Gun: Maverick” is a love letter to aviation. They worked with the Navy for the film, which is currently in production.

“Top Gun: Maverick” is expected to hit theaters next June. Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm and Miles Teller co-star.

Cruise said Comic-Con was the perfect place to premiere the trailer. He shot the original some 34 years ago in San Diego.

David Crosby opens up in new documentary ‘Remember My Name’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — David Crosby has turned down no fewer than four biopics about his life. None of them captured the scope of his turbulent life.

But he said yes when director A.J. Eaton proposed a documentary. At 77, in relatively poor health yet creating some of the best music of his career, Crosby was ready to talk. And a chance run-in with Cameron Crowe, who has known Crosby since the director was a teenager, meant they also had the perfect person to ask the questions.

The film, “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday and is expanding nationwide in the coming weeks. It’s a disarmingly revealing portrait of the “guy in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young who’s never had a hit” (his words). He talks candidly about falling out with his band, his unhealthy relationship with Joni Mitchell, his “two or three” heart attacks, learning how to be a rock star from The Beatles, his disdain for Jim Morrison (“a dork”), his addictions, the untimely death of a girlfriend and how his wife Jan loves him “in ways that I didn’t love myself.”

And it wasn’t easy going to those uncomfortable places, but it was the only way Crosby and the filmmakers would have it.

“There were definitely times when I said, ‘You can’t put that in the film,’” Crosby said. “And they’d go, ‘Yeah, sure Dave.’ But we did the best we could do to get you some idea of how I got to here.”


Crowe said it was an honor to “be the guy to interview him when he was ready to tell his life story.” They first met in 1973 or 1974 when Crowe got an assignment to write about Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

“Crosby had no idea who I was writing for, didn’t care. I was just a guy who had a lot of questions and he had all the time in the world for me,” Crowe said. “He answered every question.”

They kept in touch over the years, too, and Crowe always worried each time he saw him that it might be the last.

“It’s deeply ironic that he’s at his most sparkling now when he’s probably his least healthy,” Crowe said. “But he wants to communicate and tell us that ‘time is the final currency.’”

It doesn’t mean filming was a breeze, though. One day when production went to visit the famed Laurel Canyon Country Store, he said Crosby was particularly cranky. They captured his mood in the film as he gruffly rejects romanticizing the store or even the area — it was just a place to get away from the smog, Crosby said.

“But then he goes and sits down outside of the Country Store and what does he say? ‘I was a bad lover. I let down all these women in my life.’ And I’m like well SOMETHING about the Country Store seems to be speaking to you. He went as deep as he’d gone at that point,” Crowe said. “But he wanted nothing to do with my metaphor of ‘What did you come to this store for?’ He’s like, ‘for groceries, what are you talking about?’”

And while Crosby never refused to answer any question, Crowe believes there’s still a necessary mystery around him.

“That last smirk he has is kind of a rosebud moment,” Crowe said. “And I still don’t know what he’s thinking there.”

Crosby knows he’s in a unique position to have reached this creative apex at this stage in his life. He’s currently touring for “Sky Trails,” his third original album in less than five years.

“Normally people’s lives don’t go this way, to have a sudden resurgence at the end of a career,” Crosby said. “I’m going against the flow here. I’m definitely a salmon that’s running upstream, there isn’t any question. But why it’s happening to me to such an extreme degree and at such a late time? I can’t explain it.”

He just likes making music and has found collaborators he likes working with. But he thinks sometimes about why his older material continues to resonate (“it was a hopeful time and we’re in very dark times right now”).

Also, legacy is on his mind lately not just because of the documentary. Crosby is planning to file litigation over master recordings that were lost in the Universal vault fire in 2008, which has only just come to light recently.

“They had a laid out, contractual, written obligation to protect those tapes,” Crosby said. “So you can count on a lawsuit.”

But mostly he’s thinking about the future of music and is keenly aware discouraging it must be for young musicians starting out in a business that is stacked against them.

“Kids coming up can’t make a goddamn living because they can’t make money off of records,” Crosby said. “Art is already suffering because of it… The problem with the pop music is that it’s shallow. It doesn’t go anywhere, it doesn’t take you anywhere.”

And as for whether or not he’d eventually allow someone to give him the “Rocketman” or “Bohemian Rhapsody” treatment? Definitely.

“But I don’t think you can do it half-assed,” he said.

Woman who got postcard sent in 1993 tracks down sender

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois woman who recently got a 1993 postcard in her mailbox has tracked down the man who sent it to his children more than two decades ago.

Kim Draper’s story about the mysterious Hong Kong postcard was published in The State Journal-Register in Springfield and picked up by The Associated Press.

Masrour Kizilbash sent the postcard to his family while working overseas in 1993. He told the newspaper that he was “fascinated with the area” and wanted to share his experiences. At that time, there were no cell phones or internet and international calls were costly, so he instead opted to send postcards.

Kizilbash’s family was living in Springfield at the time. He always figured that they had received the postcard.

U.S. Postal Service officials said the card could’ve gotten tied up in Hong Kong or might’ve been stuck in old equipment.

With the help of social media, Draper learned that Kizilbash’s son, Mohammad Kizilbash, now lives in suburban Chicago. A reunion with the postcard is planned.

“I thought that was really gracious of her, she went out of her way to track us down,” Mohammad said. “I’m looking forward to getting this postcard. This is one to keep.”

Draper would ideally like to appear with the Kizilbashes on a TV show to give them the card, but if that can’t happen, she’ll drive to Chicago and give it to them in person.

“I won’t mail it. I don’t want it to get back in the mail system, and I really want to meet them,” Draper said. “I am surprised about how the story has spread,” she said. “But at the same time it’s heartwarming. I think it made people want to know the family and it’s one of those cool stories that you want to hear the end.”

Forget ‘manmade’: Berkeley bans gender-specific words

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — There will be no manholes in Berkeley, California. City workers will drop into “maintenance holes” instead.

Nothing will be manmade in the liberal city but “human-made.” And students at the University of California, Berkeley, will join “collegiate Greek system residences” rather than fraternities and sororities.

Berkeley leaders voted unanimously this week to replace about 40 gender-specific words in the city code with gender-neutral terms — an effort to be more inclusive that’s drawing both praise and scorn.

That means “manpower” will become “human effort” or “workforce,” while masculine and feminine pronouns like “she,” ″her,” ″he” and “him” will be replaced by “they” and “them,” according to the measure approved Tuesday by the City Council.

The San Francisco Bay Area city is known for its long history of progressive politics and “first of” ordinances. Berkeley was among the first cities to adopt curbside recycling in the 1970s and more recently, became the first in the U.S. to tax sugary drinks and ban natural gas in new homes.

Berkeley also was the birthplace of the nation’s free-speech movement in the 1960s and where protests from both left- and right-wing extremist groups devolved into violence during a flashpoint in the country’s political divisions soon after President Donald Trump’s election.

Rigel Robinson, who graduated from UC Berkeley last year and at 23 is the youngest member of the City Council, said it was time to change a municipal code that makes it sound like “men are the only ones that exist in entire industries or that men are the only ones on city government.”

“As society and our cultures become more aware about issues of gender identity and gender expression, it’s important that our laws reflect that,” said Robinson, who co-authored the measure. “Women and non-binary people are just as deserving of accurate representation.”

When the changes take effect in the fall, all city forms will be updated and lists with the old words and their replacements will be posted at public libraries and the council chambers. The changes will cost taxpayers $600, Robinson said.

Removing gendered terms has been slowly happening for decades in the United States as colleges, companies and organizations implement gender-neutral alternatives.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, changed a Sacramento political tradition by adopting the unofficial title “first partner” instead of “first lady,” saying it’s more inclusive. The change reflected Siebel Newsom’s experience as an actress and filmmaker focused on gender politics and inequality.

But formalizing the shift in the sweeping way that Berkeley is doing is “remarkable and sends a message,” Rutgers University linguistics professor Kristen Syrett said.

“Anytime you’re talking about something where gender is not the issue but you use a gendered term, that immediately sends a message of exclusion, even if it’s a dialogue that has nothing to do with gender,” said Syrett, who recently spearheaded an update to the guidelines on inclusive language for the Linguistic Society of America.

For Hel Baker, a Berkeley home caregiver, the shift is a small step in the right direction.

“Anything that dismantles inherent bias is a good thing, socially, in the grand scheme of things,” the 27-year-old said.

“I don’t, by any means, think this is the great championing for gender equality, but you gotta start somewhere,” Hel added.

Lauren Singh, 18, who grew up in Berkeley, approved of the move, saying, “Everyone deserves to be represented and feel included in the community.”

Not everyone agreed with the new ordinance. Laramie Crocker, a Berkeley carpenter, said the changes just made him laugh.

“If you try to change the laws every time someone has a new opinion about something, it doesn’t make sense. It’s just a bad habit to get into,” Crocker said.

Crocker, 54, said he would like city officials to focus on more pressing issues, like homelessness.

“Let’s keep it simple, get back to work,” he said. “Let’s figure out how to get homeless people housed and fed. He, she, they, it — they’re wasting my time.”

City hopes ‘Baby Shark’ song will drive homeless away

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Officials in West Palm Beach are hoping a continuous loop of children’s songs played throughout the night will keep homeless people from sleeping on the patio of a city-owned rental banquet facility.

West Palm Beach parks and recreation director Leah Rockwell tells the Palm Beach Post they’re trying to discourage people from sleeping outside the glass-walled Waterfront Lake Pavilion, which she says rakes in some $240,000 annually from events.

The loop of “Baby Shark” and “Raining Tacos” is a temporary fix to keep homeless people off the patio. Rockwell says the city wants to formalize hours for the facility, which should make trespassing laws easier to enforce.

Illaya Champion tells the Post “it’s wrong” to chase people away with music. He says he’ll still sleep there, but “it’s on and on, the same songs.”

US Air Force warns against joke event to ‘storm Area 51’

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The U.S. Air Force has warned people against participating in an internet joke suggesting a large crowd of people “storm Area 51,” the top-secret Cold War test site in the Nevada desert.

A prank event on Facebook that’s attracted more than 1 million interested people suggests that a mass of people attempt to run into the mysterious site at 3 a.m. on Sept. 20.

The site is part of the vast Nevada Test and Training Range and has become the center of UFO conspiracy theories.

The Facebook event jokes “they can’t stop all of us” and “Let’s see them aliens.”

Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement that the Air Force is aware of the Facebook posting and says “any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged.”

The Air Force says it does not discuss its security measures and that the test and training range provides “flexible, realistic and multidimensional battlespace” for testing and “advanced training in support of U.S. national interests.”

After decades of government officials refusing to acknowledge Area 51, the CIA released declassified documents in 2013 referring to the 8,000-square mile (20,700-sq. kilometer) installation by name and locating it on a map near the dry Groom Lake bed.

The base has been a testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the B-2 stealth bomber.

But secrecy surrounding the site has fueled conspiracy theories among UFO enthusiasts and sprouted a small, alien-themed tourist industry in surrounding desert communities, including alien-themed cafes, an alien-themed motel and an alien-themed brothel.

KZ Country Cheesy Joke of the Day 7/18/2019

khaz cheesy joke logo 20110802Types Of Bears

A couple were vacationing in a national park. The wife expressed her
concern about camping because of bears and said she would feel more
comfortable in a motel. The husband said that he’d like to camp and to
calm her concerns, they’d talk to the park ranger to see what the
likelihood of a bear encounter would be.

The ranger told them, “Well, we haven’t seen any grizzlies in this area
so far this year, or black bears, for that matter.”

The wife shrieked, “There are TWO types of bears out here? How can you
tell the difference? Which one is more dangerous?”

The ranger replied, “Well, that’s easy, see, if the bear CHASES you up a
tree and it comes up after you, it’s a black bear. If it SHAKES the tree
until you fall out, it’s a grizzly.”

The motel room was quite nice.

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Police: Don’t flush drugs; you might make a ‘meth-gator’

LORETTO, Tenn. (AP) — Police in Tennessee have asked residents not to toss drugs down the toilet, saying it could create “meth-gators” and stoned waterfowl.

Loretto Police Department issued the Facebook warning “on a more or less serious note” after arresting a man accused of trying to flush methamphetamine.

The statement says flushed items end up in retention ponds frequented by ducks and geese. It then warns that if the drugs made it far enough, “we could create meth-gators” in the Tennessee River.

In a follow-up post, the department noted that it was using humor to make its point.

Yale ecology professor David K. Skelly says rampaging meth-fueled alligators aren’t a real cause for concern but the department does have a point in recommending not to flush drugs. He says fish in rivers all over the U.S. have been affected by chemicals that leave our homes.

Australian finds message in a bottle written 50 years ago

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A fisherman said on Wednesday he was looking for the author of a message in a bottle found off the southern Australian coast 50 years after it was written.

Paul Elliot told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he and his son Jyah found the bottle on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia state while fishing.

Elliot said he was looking for the author Paul Gibson, who described himself in the note as a 13-year-old English boy traveling in a cruise ship along the southern Australian coast from Fremantle in the west to Melbourne in the east.

Government oceanographer David Griffin said the bottle could not have remained afloat for 50 years off the south coast because “the ocean never stays still.”

Griffin suspected that the bottle had been buried on a beach for years then refloated by a storm.

“If it had been dropped in anywhere in the ocean somewhere south of Australia, then there’s no way it’s going to stay actually at sea moving around for more than a year or two,” Griffin said.

The author gave his position as “1000 miles east of Fremantle.” However it is not clear whether the author actually meant 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) out of Fremantle, which would have included a journey south along the west coast before turning east.

Hundreds of thousands of Britons migrated to Australia in the 1960s with the Australian government subsidizing their fares. Children traveled for free.

But a quarter of them returned to Britain within a few years when life in Australia fell short of their expectations.

‘Game of Thrones’ reigns with record 32 Emmy nominations

LOS ANGELES (AP) — HBO’s “Game of Thrones” slashed its way to a record-setting 32 Emmy nominations Tuesday for its eighth and final season, leading HBO back to dominance over Netflix, the streaming service that bumped it last year from atop the increasingly crowded television heap.

The bloodthirsty saga’s total eclipsed the all-time series record of 27 nods earned by “NYPD Blue” in 1994.

If “Game of Thrones” successfully defends it best drama series title and claims a fourth trophy, it will join the quartet of most-honored dramas that includes “Hill Street Blues,” ″L.A. Law,” ″The West Wing” and “Mad Men.”

The Emmy voters’ acclaim stands in sharp contrast to fan reaction to the show’s last hurrah, which included howls of laughter for a to-go coffee cup inadvertently included in one scene and a finale that detractors called unsatisfying. But the show’s ratings never faltered for the series based on George R.R. Martin’s novels, setting new highs for HBO.

A wealth of recognition for the cast and guest stars , including the show’s only previous winner, Peter Dinklage with three awards, helped “Game of Thrones” add to its already record haul of nominations, now at 161 total.

Series star Emilia Clarke’s decision to seek a best actress nomination after a series of supporting actress bids paid off. She’s competing in a category that’s notable for its diversity, including past winner Viola Davis for “How to Get Away with Murder” and repeat nominee Sandra Oh for “Killing Eve,” who has another chance to become the first actress of Asian descent to win the trophy. She lost last year to Claire Foy for Netflix’s “The Crown.”

Two actors of color, Billy Porter for “Pose” and previous winner Sterling K. Brown for “This Is Us,” earned drama series nods.

The rest of the drama series field includes “Better Call Saul,” ″Bodyguard,” ″Killing Eve,” ″Ozark,” ″Pose,” ″Succession” and, as the only network entry, “This is Us.” Mandy Moore, who plays the NBC drama’s matriarch, earned her first best actress nod, with fellow cast member Chris Sullivan earning his first nod, for supporting actor.

Last year’s best comedy series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” led the comedy pack with 20 bids, including for its star and defending champion Rachel Brosnahan.

“I’m at the dog park this morning with my four children and started getting a lot of texts and phone calls all at once. I’m so excited to learn that the ‘Maisel’ family has been invited back to the party. This category is ridiculous. I can’t believe I get to be a part of anything with these amazing women,” Brosnahan told The Associated Press .

She’ll vie with Emmy record-holder Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Veep,” who didn’t compete in last year’s awards because her breast cancer treatment delayed production of the political satire. Louis-Dreyfus, who with Cloris Leachman shares the record for most Emmys won by a performer, eight, has a shot at solo glory if she wins again.

The final season of “Veep” received nine nominations, including a best supporting actress bid for Anna Chlumsky.

“I’m feeling really jazzed. It might be the coffee I just had. But this feels so much sweeter because it’s the last time around for this show,” she said.

There was no warm and fuzzy goodbye for “The Big Bang Theory,” the long-running sitcom that failed to capture a best comedy nod or any for its actors. The show has company in other hit sitcoms of the past: Neither “Friends” nor “Frasier” were nominated for best series for their final year, both in 2004.

TV academy members’ out-with-the-old approach created openings for a number of buzzy comedy newcomers and their stars and creators, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag” and Natasha Lyonne’s “Russian Doll.” Other best comedy contenders include “Barry,” which won acting trophies last year for Bill Hader and Henry Winkler, and sole network entry “The Good Place.”

A surprising entry : the quirky “Schitt’s Creek,” which received its first best comedy series nomination for its penultimate season and bids for stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara.

Other top nominees include the nuclear disaster miniseries “Chernobyl” with 19 nominations and “Saturday Night Live,” which drew on Robert De Niro’s talents to play Robert Mueller last season, with 18. “When They See Us,” the miniseries that dramatized the Central Park Five case and its aftermath, received 16 bids.

“Thank you to the real men for inviting me to tell their story,” tweeted Ava DuVernay, executive producer of “When They See Us.”

The leading miniseries nominee is “Fosse/Verdon,” the biopic about dancer Gwen Verdon and choreographer Bob Fosse that earned 17 bids, including the first Emmy nominations for stars Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell.

There was a significant drop in diversity among this year’s group of nominees compared to 2018, when more than a third of the 101 nominees in acting categories were ethnic minorities. This year, the figure was less than a quarter, with diversity especially absent in comedy.

Just two of the 26 acting nominees were people of color — Anthony Anderson for “black-ish” and Don Cheadle for “Black Monday” — and three of the four categories had only white nominees.

Categories dominated by the overwhelmingly white “Game of Thrones” were also short on inclusion , including supporting actress in a drama — zero nominees — and supporting drama actor, with only Giancarlo Esposito of “Better Call Saul” receiving a nomination.

In the overall tally contest among outlets, HBO received a whopping 137 nominations Tuesday, riding the dragon wings of “Game of Thrones” and the big tallies for “Chernobyl” and “Barry.” Netflix, which last year ended HBO’s 17-year reign to win the most Emmy nominations, was bumped to second this year with 117. Amazon’s Prime Video was second to Netflix among streamers with 47 nominations.

Broadcast networks, steadily eclipsed by the rise of cable and now streaming, were far behind, with NBC getting 58 nods to top CBS’ 43, ABC’s 26 and Fox’s 18.

The 71st Emmy Awards will air Sept. 22 on Fox, with the host yet to be announced.

___

AP Entertainment writers Andrew Dalton and Jonathan Landrum Jr. contributed to this report.

KZ Country Cheesy Joke of the Day 7/17/19

khaz cheesy joke logo 20110802Canine Card Shark

Two dog owners were bragging about the intelligence of their pets. “The
brightest dog I ever had,” said one, “was a Great Dane that used to play
cards. He was great at poker, but finally a friend complained about him
and I had to get rid of him.”

“You got rid of him, a bright dog like that?” exclaimed his friend. “A
dog like that would be worth millions.”

“Had to,” the first man replied. “I caught him cheating.”

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