Richard Grayson alerts me to current predicament faced by the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Under Louisiana State Legislature HB156, a cost-cutting measure hoping to balance funds after the impact of Katrina, NOCCA, one of the most pivotal educational institutions for the arts, will be left hung out to dry. The legislative session ends on Monday. So get your phone calls and emails sent off to the following people and urge them to reconsider this bill:

Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
(866) 366-1121,
fax (225) 342-7099
email through www.gov.state.la.us

Diana Bajoie
websen@legis.state.la.us
(504) 568-7760

Francis C. Heitmeier
heitmeirf@legis.state.la.us
(504) 361-6014

The Goldberg brothers, hot on the heels of their Dean Koontz exposes, have taken over Beatrice’s confines this week. The idea of a pair of brothers taking over the litblogosphere appeals to our nihilistic sensibilities. So we may very well promote all future Goldberg Bros. appearances with half the zeal that we reserve for Jonathan Ames. Simply because we really like the sentence, “My Monk is recognizeable as the TV character but, in some ways, he’s my own Monk.” If only we had our own Monk to play with, to mould, and to otherwise do naughty things to, we’d be just as jocose. Oh well. There’s always Monk/The O.C. slash fan fiction for us. And the hell of it is that we’re neither Catholic nor OCD.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “A 33-year-old Grafton woman was fighting for her life Thursday night after she drank concentrated drain cleaner given to her by a man who then videotaped her violent vomiting for his sexual gratification, Milwaukee police said.”

Years in the making, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (which takes place over the course of 1,000 years) finally gets a trailer. The visuals are stunning. (via Ghost in the Machine)