Today in the News: Sad, Rainy Day

It saddened me immensely today to hear about the death of Kurt Vonnegut. Welcome to the Monkey House had a great impact on me at 16 and when I grew older, Slaughterhouse-Five became one of my favourite novels. It's funny though, I remember seeing Kurt Vonnegut before I even read any of his books. Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield was a favourite film in my house growing up and Vonnegut has a short and terribly funny cameo in it.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today that even though no public word has been made, he has it on good authority that the kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston is safe. Johnston was kidnapped by gunpoint in Gaza City on March 12th, a month ago today. Even though we are fake journalists on this site, we do take this as a blow to freedom of the press.

On the personal side of news. Our good friend, filmmaker Brook Silva-Braga, had his car broken into last night in Barcelona and his very expensive, and sentimental, camera stolen along with his laptop on which he does his editing. This is especially terrible as his film is set to premiere in Paris a week from today. Many people from the film will be at the premiere, and he was to document the whole trip for the DVD. If by chance anyone has information, please email us.