Piece Of Art

Victoria Day (in French: Fête de la Reine ) is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday before May 25, in honor of Queen Victoria 's birthday. In 2012, Victoria Day was celebrated on Monday, May 21st. On a warm and sunny Victoria Day holiday morning in Canada, a man climbed over a railing 20 to 30 feet out over the Horseshoe Falls, the tallest of the three main falls, and “deliberately jumped” into the Niagara River, according to witness accounts given to Niagara Parks Police.  The 30-something-unidentified man survived the plunge of at least 180 feet over Niagara Falls — only the third person known to have done so without a safety device. He is shown being rescued above. Officials report two suicide attempts at Niagara Falls this week. A day earlier, on May 20th, a 13-year-old boy was saved from the edge of a 270-foot waterfall northeast of Seattle, Washington State. The rescue made for dramatic video . The boy had been wading in a river when he lost hi...

Late in November 2008, Showtime TV began screening the recent movie, Chapter 27 . I suppose it is being shown now because its broadcast is tied to the anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon on December 8th. Timing is everything. The movie has many intriguing moments. First some background. Chapter 27 is an independent film depicting the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman, starring Jared Leto and Lindsay Lohan. It was written and directed by J. P. Schaefer. Although it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007, it did not make it to a release in theaters in the USA until March 2008. It came and went quickly, as they say, because it was a box office failure. It retains its "made for television" docudrama feel, and so, perhaps, it is more fitting I saw it on cable. The film's title refers to Mark David Chapman's alleged obsession with J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye . The title implies that Chapman's killing of...