CHEAP TRICK'S BUN E CARLOS has his own brand of coffee. You can even get an autographed bag at auction. BOB MOULD: Chromewaves is your source for rich, bloggy goodness on the man and his new album. HE WAS SO MUCH OLDER THEN: London's Telegraph has an article suggesting that the Martin Scorsese documentary No Direction Home is part of Bob Dylan's plan to market himself to the younger generation. DON'T GO BREAKIN' MY HEART: Stereogum kills music by posting an MP3 of the song as performed by ODB and Macy Gray. In this context, I use the term "music" loosely. Very loosely. The "killing" part, however, is near-literal. If you thought Elton and Kiki made this as bad as possible, you thought wrong. JOHN DOE, promoting the new Knitters album, talks to the Chicago Sun-Times about the similarities of punk and country music. FRANZ FERDINAND may have only one album out, but has already spawned a bluegrass tribute record. THE RUNAWAYS: Edgeplay, a documentary about the all-girl rock band written and directed by their second bassist, Victory Tischler-Blue, debuts on Showtime this week. It has all the elements of a VH1 Behind The Music, but cooler. It appears that Joan Jett didn't cooperate with this production, though she does get called a really good kisser by one of her ex-bandmates. DOWNLOADS AND STREAMS: Stereogum rounded up guilt-free MP3s on Friday. Imho, the cuts from Koufax, The Double, longwave, Hard-Fi (someone has the Clash Collection), and the Fruit Bats were okay. Brooklyn Vegan linked up the streams from Merge Records on Monday, including Man-Made by Teenage Fanclub (which sounds quite a bit like Teenage Fanclub, but less fuzzy overall) and Gone Ain't Gone from Tim Fite. What I heard of The Rosebuds' Unwind was pretty cool, too. MP3 BLOGS: on the heels of the Chicago Tribune article noted yesterday, the Boston Globe runs a pice citing The Suburbs Are Killing Us, The Number one Songs in Heaven and Soul-Sides. BEST OF 2005 (SO FAR): This time all the way from Shanghai. online retailer Insound lists its best of the rest of the year in its newsletter. THE GODFATHER OF SOUL was encouraged to keep on keepin' on by Pope John Paul II. That's in one of two books James Brown has "co-written." Martha Bayles' review tells which is the one to get. THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND seems like it gets a good review from Page Six, but we later find that "the show didn't find its groove" until ex-Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio made a cameo. PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer gats no respect from cartoons. Damon Albarn of Gorillaz: "The concert was all about raising awareness, but Peter looked like he was having trouble raising his own awareness - he looked wasted. He is well overrated." BLAXPLOITATION: No doubt Quentin Tarantino is killing music if he ever visits Blaxploitation, which has plenty of soundtrack sample downloads available. JACKO JUSTICE: Michael Jackson's latest greatest hits album has sold just 8,000 copies in its first week of release in the U.S. Even the hideous Invincible sold two million units. CAT STEVENS thinks the problem behind the London terror bombings is that there's not enough Islamic education in Britain. Another theory might be that the problem is people like the converted Yusuf Islam, who publicly endorsed the death sentence issued by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie in February 1989. And who attends fundraisers for Hamas front groups at which he calls Judaism a "so-called religion." I don't think you want to be followed by Cat's moonshadow. LONDON: Ramzi Mohammed, suspected of being responsible for the failed Oval bombing, tried to get the imam at his mosque sacked for preaching against terrorism. Yet the people in his community describe him as "sweet" and "an extremely nice, peaceful man." BRADGELINA UPDATE: Pitt is rumored to have given up smoking under the threat of no sex from Jolie... but what about afterward? HUGH JACKMAN and his wife have adopted a second child. Trying to keep up with Mr. & Mrs. Smith? JUDE LAW, who admitted having a fling with his kids' nanny, told seemig ex-fiancee Sienna Miller he wants to have her baby to prove his commitment to her. It would also prove Law has a womb. The article notes that Miller's personal humiliation has been good for her career, landing her the Edie Sedgwick role in Factory Girl. SCARLETT JOHANSSON now says that kissed her "like a 16-year-old schoolboy." Do you think she would have said that if The Island had not flopped? CHRISTINA RICCI Cured Of Nymphomania By Samuel L. Jackson In Black Snake Moan: Whoever wrote that headline had a good day. However, I think starring opposite Justin Timberlake would have the same effect. BRITNEY SPEARS is planning a Kabbalah blessing for her baby. Why not? The kid is going to need all the help he or she can get. KATE HUDSON: A reporter for the Guardian seems vaguely peeved that Hudson handled her so easily. Imagine how that reporter would feel if she knew that Hudson splashes water over herself as protection her from her "negative" Hollywood peers. SAUDI KING FAHD: Dead. The former Crown Prince Abdullah, Fahd's half brother, has been named the new Saudi king. Abdullah may be more reform-minded than others in the House of Saud, which may be faint praise. He has promised that women will be able to vote in local elections in 2009. That reformist streak also may extend to economic policy. IRAQ: The big story in Iraq Monday may be what didn't happen. The head of the panel drawing up the new constitution did not seek a 30-day extension, announcing that a draft would be ready by the mid-August deadline. Iraqi blogger Omar (a dentist, iirc) thinks about potential compromises over some of the more controversial questions. IRAQ II: Saddam's hidden money may be funding many of the diverse groups engaged in terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere. Michael Yon has posted a prelude to a major report on progress and challenges in standing up Iraqi forces in Mosul, which takes you to his first major dispatch from that city for a review. Arthur Chrenkoff has his biweekly round-up of under-reported good news. Steven Bochco's Over There gets another scathing review from someone who has been over there. And Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn has been named a sheik by elders in the region he patrols. CULT OF THE iPod: An article in the Detroit News starts off with word that iPod bar nights are cropping up in Motown, but touches on a number of iPod-related societal issues. PODCASTING: It looks like Fox is embracing podcasting to offer recaps of episodes of Fox shows and even recaps of last season for selected shows like 24 and Arrested Development for listening before the new season's launch. THIS JUST IN: Men still hog the remote control. THIS JUST IN II: When we have a hot Summer, more people buy ice cream. THIS JUST IN III: Ford Motor Co. is ending a newly formed relationship with rapper Eminem. Turns out the young man uses cuss words! UZBEKISTAN: The U.S. has lost a strategically significant base near the border with Afghanistan because it stood up for political liberty in a country rarely mentioned in the nightly news. DOGS: Jake, a 4-year-old golden retriever, placed 72nd in the South End Rowing Club's 10th annual Alcatraz Invitational -- a 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shore -- beating 428 humans. CATS rule the Internet, according to Sara Boxer of The New York Times. Imho, Ms. Boxer is often wrong about such things, so I take this with a grain of salt. And Ms. Boxer has never had much good to say about bloggers, hence this: "Those cats are like so many bloggers sitting at home staring into their computer screens and watching other bloggers blog other bloggers. Cats, who live indoors and love to prowl, are the soul of the blogosphere. Dogs would never blog." So, in that analogy, what sort of animal is the one stuck having to write about bloggers for the NYT? FUGITIVE TURTLE out cruising for chicks? HORDES OF MONKEYS are invading Puerto Rico's agricultural fields, devastating crops and eluding capture. Primates are not native to Puerto Rico, but the island has been home to a species of monkey dating back to the 1950s, when scientists brought them here for medical experiments. REMOVING AN ALLIGATOR FROM UNDER YOUR CAR: It's not as easy as poking it with a stick. .
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