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NEW YORK, NY, USA - With images of post-Saddam Iraq's descent into chaos and destruction (a biological lab was broken into and refrigerators with viral samples were stolen) overwhelming the news as if part of some indie director's cinematic nightmare, several newly released films by directors of Muslim origins offer fresh perspectives.

Bahman Gohbadi's "Marooned in Iraq" sets the tone with a story that happens around the time of the first Gulf War. An older Kurdish man tries to find his ex-wife in Iraqi Kurdistan and enlists his two sons to do so. Despite it being a journey fraught with the danger, the three tangle with those they meet - and themselves - as if they were the Three Stooges in "Apocalypse Now."... MORE





by BOB POWERS

MARIETTA, OH, USA - One of the most admired jazz creators was Charles Mingus, a brilliant string bass player and composer who also was one of the most fabled performers in the history of jazz. Mingus, who died more than two decades ago of Lou Gerhig's Disease (properly known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.) A doctor told him he had three to six months to live.

Mingus exceeded that physician's expectations, but he died in 1979 at the age of 57. Jazz lost one of its most talented and forward-thinking members. Mingus is subject of a brilliant remembrance written by his long-time partner, Sue Graham Mingus. Tonight at Noon: A Love Story (Da Capo Press, $16.95) must qualify as one of the best looks into the life of thia jazz genius. Sue Mingus writes with great love and amazing ability about the man who was the center of her being for so long. ... MORE






by CHARLIE THE TUNA

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA - That's right, Ladies and Germs, your favorite sex columnist is back in da house. The only problem is, I keep getting requests for advice from completely brain-dead ignoramuses that almost seem like a waste of my very precious skirt-chasin' time in even responding to. But I have to if I'm gonnah keep my always-tenuous chair at The World's Magazine. So here goes. I got this latest letter from a guy name of Charles T. somewhere down in the Bible Belt:

Dear Charlie,

Should I allow my wife to have sexual relation with another woman will I watch? We have a perfect relationship not to mention the greatest sex life. We do all kind of things to explore our sexual appetites. But it is always with one another. Will her going out side the circle call problem in our relationship?

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Greetings to all my American friends from a South Africa which is cooling in the evenings as winter approaches after a long, rather harsh summer. I hope that this letter finds you all well.

With the cooler days will come the end of the rainy season, and this, I hope, will make the South African roads a safer place to be - over one hundred people died in South Africa over the Easter season alone. In South Africa, we have recently had rather a lot of public holidays, starting last weekend with the Easter weekend, which was a four day one. The weekend which has just passed was a three day one and, in keeping with our family's lifestyle, we grasped the weekend with both hands and squeezed everything out of it, cramming activities into almost every hour.... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 29 April, 2003: Words like bark, shush, bang, have been provided a name whose definition is words that sound like the sound they signify. I've always found that rather amusing because the word to describe these words is so obtuse. Onomatopoeia. It sounds like some form of cancer.

Speaking of cancer, I didn't mention last week while talking of my dreams of death, that I have these strange and dark growths that have appeared on one of my feet. When my (former) roommate, Ian, saw them, he imagined that it was melanoma and I joked that Black people don't get melanoma. But I agreed to see a doctor - sometime.

IN THE INSANE ASYLUM THEY NEVER LET YOU SLEEP. I have had to learn that the hard way. Luckily, I went to bed early last night. It turned out to be a wise move, as Ian woke me up at 3:30 a.m. after another of the perennial fights with Mary, insisting that I must go out and have a drink with him. Oh joy! Only one more day and any couch is a better part of the surf ... MORE

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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: SPIRITS OF THE AIR
(BOB POWERS spins new jazz CDs you need in your collection at POWERSSOUND; TOM HART has a few not-so-choice words for TV gabber Bill O'Reilly in TABLOID HART; and much more!)

G21 TODAY!

You're not listening to Peter Werbe on you local radio station yet? Then call in and complain. For now: Listen to Peter's national talkshow, M-F,2 - 5 pm, ET at www.peterwerbe.com, or www.ieamericaradio.com. Or, Sundays, 11pm-2am at www.wrif.com
If you like this magazine, you'll like Peter.

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