SUFJAN STEVENS was on the MTV, disclaiming responsibility for Texas. Yesterday, I mentioned that Stevens is contributing to a Rubber Soul tribute album. Today, I note that Welcome to the Midwest is killing music. GREEN DAY has pulled its early albums and EPs from the Lookout! label. So if they were on your wish list, now would be the time to get them. YOU AIN'T NO PICASSO is really killing the music these days, including new Sonic Youth songs. RYAN ADAMS submits to the mob. THE BLACK KEYS: I keep forgetting to mention that if you like your blues-rock duos with a little less garage and theatricality than the White Stripes, you could do worse than the Black Keys. The Fat Possum label has MP3s from Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory for your guilt-free downloading pleasure. AL ARONOWITZ, who introduced Bob Dylan to the Beatles, is dead of cancer at age 77. Dylan wrote "Mr. Tambourine Man" in his kitchen. BRADGELINA UPDATE: The L.A. Times goes behind the scenes of the pair's infamous Palm Springs photo shoot of "Domestic Bliss." Photographer Steven Klein said Pitt and Jolie remained "in character" through most of the two-day shoot. ROAD PICTURE: Jack Kerouac's On the Road is coming to the big screen. Golden God Billy Crudup is set to star as legendary speed freak Neal Cassady. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: Wonka is slowly conquering overseas markets. BATMAN BEGINS with a 14 year-old boy donning the cape and cowl in Edwards, CO. "He believes he's on a mission to help people get off drugs," Eagle County Sheriff's Office spokewoman Kim Andree said. "He really believes he's helping. I think the family is working on getting him some assistance." Or a room at the Hilton. JESSICA SIMPSON: Hubby Nick Lachey was protesting too much on Live With Regis and Kelly. JACKO JUSTICE: Michael Jackson has sold his first post-trial softball interview to the new, U.S. version of Britain's OK! magazine for two million bucks. Page Six notes that Jacko is now living in Bahrain with his three remarkably light-skinned children. LUCINDA WILLIAMS: NPR will be streaming her concert live Sunday night. STEVEN MALKMUS is interviewed at PopMatters about his new album and more: "It's not really a singer-songwriter record but it's definitely in the same ballpark. I mean Matador probably started that a bit." JOHN MAYER is calling on fans to make a song out of some lyrics that didn't make it onto his upcoming album. The winner will receive a Fender John Mayer Signature Stratocaster guitar... and no royalties, I'm guessing. ANSWER SONGS seem to be a lost art these days, but a whole bunch of old ones are posted at WFMU's blog. CBGB and its landlord have restarted negotiations that could keep the birthplace of punk rock at its current Lower East Side location. Once Soprano Steven Van Zandt intervened, a sit-down was inevitable. AMERICANS NOT COMING TOGETHER: The massive voter-mobilization project, heavily funded by billionaire George Soros, is disbanding its state offices. With major unions leaving the AFL-CIO, someone like Howard Dean ought to view such news as an opportunity to centralize get-out-the-vote operations within the DNC, in line with the GOP's more efficient 2004 operation. SIENNA MILLER is rumored to be pregnant by Jude Law. Reps for Miller and Law would not confirm or deny the report. If true, expect the bidding on a certain pool table to intensify. Factory Girl director swears his casting of Miller had nothing to do with her newly enhanced press profile. And VH1's Best Week Ever blog draws a parallel between the Law-Miller story and the final season of HBO's Six Feet Under (SPOILER WARNING). FAKE MOVIE CRITICS cost Sony 1.5 million bucks. FAKE MUNCH PAINTINGS stolen from Oslo's Hotel Continental. "It's a real fiasco for the thieves," hotel manager Siv Lunde Kolrud said. IRAQ: Journo-blogger Steven Vincent was murdered in Basra. ROBOTS EXPLORE LOST CITY UNDERSEA using high-speed Internet connections. NANO-MEDICINE: Nanotubules are being used to kill cancer cells with laser heat and to deliver drugs to pre-determined locations anywhere in the human body. HACK YOUR ELEVATOR: You can turn most elevators into your personal express car. COSMIC RAYS may kill astronauts traveling to and returning from Mars. Or turn them into superheroes. EDU-BLOGGING: The latest Carnival of Education is online. BEAT THE MARKET: Invest in virtue and vice. PAYING A SPEEDING TICKET WITH PENNIES sounds clever, but the judge had the last laugh. IRAQ II: Twenty-three Marines have been killed in recent days on missions in a number of towns along the Euphrates River simultaneously to seal a major infiltration route for foreign fighters and to try to deny insurgents the ability to move around freely and seek safe haven. Bill Roggio has analysis at the Fourth Rail, including a linked report to Iraqi blogger Omar's translated account of a meeting of the disparate elements of the insurgency in Lebanon. In this context, Roggio's prior post on escalation may be useful also. CINCINNATI IS MORE INTO CORNHOLE THAN NYC: "There are places where cornhole, so familiar at Cincinnati church festivals and beer gardens, is considered an exotic form of recreation. One of them, apparently, is New York City, whence the Today show dispatched a crew Monday night to film a cornhole report." Who'da thunkit? DOGS are cloned in South Korea. It has taken scientists longer to clone a dog than other animals because of the difficulty in producing mature, unfertilised canine eggs in the laboratory. BRITISH PETS can now go to fat camp. THE NARCOLEPTIC DACHSHUND: Rusty is cute and a little sad to watch. PETA KFC PROTEST DRAWS MORE CUSTOMERS: ''There's a place in this world for all of God's creations . . . right next to the mashed potatoes,'' said Rusty Smith, a KFC customer who sat on a patch of grass outside the restaurant with a group of co-workers, watching the protest. "GENTLEMEN'S" CLUB HOLDS GOLF OUTING, police investigation of public indecency follows. Video at the link... WOMAN MARRIES WEDDING PLANNER: Life imitates mediocre romantic comedy.
|
Comments