Scores of Hollywood folk came to Davies Symphony Hall last night to remember Paul Newman, who passed away recently, by performing a staged reading of "The World of Nick Adams," an adaptation by A. E. Hotchner of some of Ernest Hemingway's early autobiographical stories. The benefit also honored The Painted Turtle -- or as Gavin Newsom called it, "The Purple Turtle," which sounds just as fun! -- a camp and family care center for children......

Los Gatos-based NetFlix has one of the greatest products around, and we give them a lot of leeway despite the company's annoying, ever-present pop-up ads. The company just announced a summer concert series that attempts to mesh movies with music. We originally thought, "how cheesy." But then we decided we liked the idea -- more or less because it's so cheesy. Also, they're all free to the public. Unfortunately, none of the concerts are......

Ah..it's President's Day. We don't know about you, but we love the annual President's Day parade down Market Street. Our favorites have always been the Taft Fat Mobile, the dance troop "the FDRettes," and the William Henry Harrison Tippecanoe Jazz Band. -Barack Obama Superstar to be in SF tonight for fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer. -People return home late one night, stumble around, find dead body in house. -NASA holds an Asteroid Preparation Summit......

Last week, the Governator put an abortion loving lesbian in charge of his Adminstration. The Right was not amused (neither was the Left, but that's neither here nor there in terms of this posting). How not amused? John Fund in the Wall Street Journal not only compares the nomination of Susan Kennedy to Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers, but wonders if Arnie Jumped the Shark. That shark was jumped months ago. But wait, there's more. In response, a conservative group is starting a drive to draft Mel Gibson to run against the Governator. They've even set up a Web site with an online petition to encourage him to run. We think is an awesome idea. After all, Arnie and Mel never actually squared off in a movie which means it'll be like one of those Kirk vs. Picard type situations. Just think of it, the Terminator versus Braveheart, Predator vs. Lethal Weapon. We can already picture the debate: as Arnie recites one-liners from his movies for the hundredth time, Mel goes into his "Three Stooges" routine while his aides torture him in slow motion. ...