TODD RUNDGREN and ROD STEWART are famous for the wrong reasons, according to a piece at the UWM Post.  In the interest of correcting the record, here is The Nazz's "Open My Eyes" and Rundgren's "Hello, It's Me" and "I Saw the Light."  And here is The Faces playing "Stay With Me" and "Ooh La La."

RY COODER gets audio features from both Morning Edition and World Cafe at NPR, streaming several songs from and interviews on My Name Is Buddy, a concept album about a farm cat who hooks up with a labor-agitating mouse and a blind preacher toad.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN:  Bright Eyes, The National, Spoon, Cat Power, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Mastadon and country legend Charlie Louvin (and guests) are all touring -- though not together.

MARY WEISS of the Shangri-Las has recorded her first album of new material since 1965.  NPR has the audio feature.  And yep, she's got a couple streaming from HerSpace, one of which is "A Certain Guy," which is really Ernie K-Doe's "A Certain Girl," later covered by The Yardbirds and Warren Zevon, among others.

WILCO has posted "What Light" from Sky Blue Sky for your streaming and downloading pleasure.  BTW, I did by chance hear the upcoming album over the weekend; it's quite good.  The opening track, "Either Way," really reminds me of The Band in spots.

SEEN YOUR VIDEO:  The Bird and the Bee in "Again and Again."  You can stream more jazzy pop from Inara George (daughter of the late Lowell George) and Greg Kurstin at TheirSpace.

ANDY PARTRIDGE of XTC, Barry Andrews of XTC and Shriekback and Shriekbacker Martyn Barker improv under the name Monstrance in glorious Quicktime.

MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO & SO'S:  My Old Kentucky Blog is streaming three new songs in advance of their debut on Dodge's Sirius satellite radio show.

JOHN SELLERS gives Largehearted Boy a music mix  for his new book, Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, even though he thought:  "1) It was going to be impossible to narrow down the list to less than 1,000 songs, and 2) half of those were written by Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices."  More links at LHB.  You can also stream his interview with USA Today's Whitney Matheson, who also posts an excerpt from the book.

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY will soon announce its first Lou Reed/Delmore Schwartz Scholar.  What better way to celebrate than to jukebox an "alternate" version of the first Velvet Unnderground album.

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and JESSICA BIEL were snapped shopping together in Paris.  Scar-jo tried to hide behind her hat, but she couldn't hide on the video.  Somewhere, Justin Timberlake's ears were burning.

BRITNEY SPEARS is still in rehab, so Fed-Ex took the kids to Vegas last weekend.  American Idol judge Simon Cowell says that he could not care less about pop tart's recent meltdown and rehab stint, which he called "fashionable" and an "indulgence."

NAOMI CAMPBELL will be made to mop floors and sweep corridors at a New York city public building in the coming months, as punishment for attacking her maid.  But the real punishment is that she is barred from turning it into a reality show.

GREY'S ANATOMY:  ABC is using Isaiah Washington's anti-gay slur and subsequent "rehab" to play hardball in contract negotiations.

ANNA NICOLE SMITH IS STILL DEAD, but Howard K. Stern has reportedly admitted he's not the father of Smith's daughter Dannielynn and is now willing to sign over the paternity rights to the man who believes he is the baby's real dad, Larry Birkhead - for the right price.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL, ANNE HATHAWAY, and her breasts on the set of Brokeback Mountain.  It's a touching story.  Maybe even more touching than the Stanley Tucci story.

LINDSAY LOHAN lashes out at the tabloids for romantically linking her to every man she is seen out with.  Maybe it's not a good idea to tell the tabloids: "Sex And The City changed everything for me because those girls would just sleep with so many people. And that's me. I'm not dating just one person. It is the variety of partners everyone likes, especially at my age."  ALSO:  Li-Lo looked disheveled and worryingly thin in the toilets of the plush Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel last weekend.

JUDE LAW and his kids had to bunk down at ex-wife Sadie Frost's house after his boiler exploded, because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Refreshingly normal for a celeb.

GWYNETH PALTROW will talk about her kids' celebrity play dates, but hubby (and Coldplay frontman) Chris Martin doesn't want to talk about Gwyneth Paltrow.

ASTRONUT Lisa Nowak may have been set off when she found these explicit e-mails between space shuttle pilot Bill Oefelein & Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman.

SPEED RACER:  The live-action version directed by the Wachowski Brothers starts production June 5 in Berlin and is due May 23, 2008.

PRES. GEORGE H.W. BUSH denies fondling Teri Hatcher's rear end; let's go to the video.

THE FAKE GUCCI AD:  The Swiss man who conned one of the country's biggest papers into publishing a two-page ad he created of himself posing semi-naked beside a bottle of Gucci perfume is a sign of how desperate some are becoming for their proverbial 15 minutes.  Andy Warhol would be proud, particularly of doing so through a fake ad.

FRANCE:  The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists.  Apparently the annual youth intifadas will go away if you cannot see them on the Internet.

IRAQ:  The joint US-Iraqi force of 1,150 soldiers and police have established 23 checkpoints in Sadr City.  Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen have shaven their beards, changed their attire, and hidden their weapons, according to IraqSlogger.  Local council leaders in Shi'a areas fear that the crackdown on the militia will leave the Shi'a areas defenseless against armed Sunni extremists, who will try to re-incite the cycle of sectarian killing with high profile attacks both inside and outside the capital, as the attack on pilgrims traveling to Karbala shows.  Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno said that the readiness of the Iraqi battalions arriving in Baghdad is rising steadily and that there have been major recruiting successes in Anbar province.  Michael Yon also has another essential dispatch about Iraqi forces, with Lt. Gen Oderino and Geraldo Rivera making cameo appearances.  Col. Sean B. MacFarland, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, talked to Stars and Stripes about his unit's experiences in Tal Afar and Ramadi.  British troops have seized "a significant arsenal" of ammunition from insurgents in Basra.

IRAQ at HOME:  House Democrats are pushing to add billions of dollars to Pres. Bush's request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including 900 million for troops suffering from brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.  Liberal House Democrats are revolting over the move, threatening to vote against the bill because it doesn't go far enough toward ending the war.

IRAN:  The former deputy defense minister who disappeared in neighboring Turkey last month is said to have sought asylum in the US, according to the newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat.  It's... interesting that this report -- and yesterday's -- originated in the Saudi-owned press.

DOG discovers that what happens at the Dominican Carnival does not necessarily stay at the Dominican Carnival.

A BLACK LABRADOR who plunged through thin ice on a Denver was reunited with her owner after a firefighter in a dive suit scooted along the ice and scooped up the scrambling pooch.  Let's go to the video.

ASSAULT with a stolen catfish.

THE BLACK RHINO BIRTH at Paignton Zoo in Devon was captured on webcam.  Video at the link.

A RUSSIAN DWARF HAMSTER escapes death!  It turns out this story dates back to last August, but I just could not resist the chance to type "Russian Dwarf Hamster."  Pic at the link.