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WFMU Jam, Lightspeed Champion, Kevin Drew, Polar Cub Twins   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, March 10, 2008 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

WFMU JAM:  Ted Leo, Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, and comedian Patton Oswalt raised over 50K in three hours for this year's WFMU pledge drive, with a set that inlcuded Blondie's "Union City Blues" and two numbers written by Neil Diamond -- the Monkees hit "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow" and what host Tom Scharpling called the "worst song ever." "Porcupine Pie."  The group also belts out ABBA's "Take A Chance On Me," which we learned last week is the gayest song ever. (Pic via Pitchfork.)

THE ROCK & ROLL HALL of FAME has its annual induction ceremony tonght.  The NYDN previews the Class of 2008.  Canada's Gazette focuses on Leonard Cohen.

LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION, Devonte Hynes's inventive indie-folk pop project, strips down its sound a bit for a World Cafe gig you can stream in full via NPR.

BJORK started shouting "Tibet! Tibet!" after performing her song "Declare Independence" at her Shanghai concert.  Let's go to the video.

STEPHEN MALKMUS talks fantasy baseball with an interviewer from 17 dots.  No, really: "I love Ryan Braun. He was incredible last year. He's kind of can't-miss. I know they're thinking of moving him to the outfield. He's bad at defense, but from a fantasy perspective he's gold..."

KEVIN DREW gets a cameo from Canadian rock legend Tom Cochrane in the video for "Lucky Ones," which also documents Drew's band serving liquor to minors at Lee's Palace in Toronto. (Profanity alert.)

STREET FIGHTING MEN:  Documentarian Leo Burley pens a piece for London's Independent  comapring the artistic reactions of Mick Jagger and John Lennon to the political tumult of 1968.

GARY LOURIS gets a segment on Weekend Edition, along with music and video from the MPR studios, streaming on demand via NPR.

MOUNTAIN GOATS frontman John Darnielle comments on other people's songs for Harp magazine.

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS frontman Patterson Hood enthuses over Elton John, The Kinks and Tom Petty (among others). again for Harp.

NORMAN SMITH, who was the lead recording engineer for every Beatles song through 1965 and who as a producer helped usher in an era of psychedelic rock when he discovered the band Pink Floyd, died of cancer last Tuesday in East Sussex, England. He was 85.  At age 50, Mr. Smith embarked on a solo singing career, taking the stage name Hurricane from a movie title. His hit, "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," was a song he had written and hoped to sell but ended up recording himself at the urging of a producer.

BRITNEY SPEARS:  OK! magazine reveals the ghastly details of packages from a stalker that have the pop wreck's security team running to the FBI.  On-again off-again paparazzo bf Adnan Ghalib was turned away from the singer's gated community Friday night.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 10000 BC took the top slot with 35 million bucks, though that might be disappointing on a 105 million budget.  Last year's 300 made twice as much in around the same timeframe.  College Road Trip came in second with 14 million, which is probably not bad, depending on how low the budget was.  Vantage Point drops to third, but has made 51 million on a 40 million budget.  Semi-Pro dropped 61 percent from first to fourth in its continuing flop.  Jason Statham's The Bank Job rounds out the Top Five, despite opening on only 1,603 screens; it may have legs.  The Spiderwick Chronicles looks unlikely to break even.  The Other Boleyn Girl dropped a surprising 51 percent.  Jumper, Step Up 2, and Fool's Gold round out another unimpressive weekend at the movies.

MATT DAMON and wife Luciana are expecting another baby to be Bourne.

LISA MARIE PRESLEY is suing the Daily Mail for libel over publishing an article alleging she is overweight, which she claims forced her to confirm that she is pregnant.

LINDSAY LOHAN wants the sound of her upcoming album to be "kind of Kylie Minogue-meets-Rihanna."  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

HEATH LEDGER:  The late actor's will was not updated since his relationship with Michelle Williams and the 2005 birth of their daughter Matilda Rose.  Ledger's family moved quickly to tell the public that Matilda and Michelle would be provided for, as Heath would have wanted.

PATRICK SWAYZE:  Dirty Dancing co-star Jennifer Grey is among those publicly wishing Swayze well after his pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

HEATHER LOCKLEAR was apparently the victim of a bogus suicide call which brought the Ventura County Fire Department and two paramedics units to her home Saturday.

HORTON HEARS A WHAT?  All hell broke loose at the Hollywood premiere of "Horton Hears a Who!" Saturday when a group of pro-lifers infiltrated the screening, then chanted anti-abortion slogans after the flick.  Not only rude, but counter-productive, imho.

THE DARK KNIGHT:  The Grey Lady takes you behind the scenes of the next Batman movie in a profile of director Christopher Nolan.

ICYMI:  Lufthansa flight LH44 from Munich had a wingstrike while trying to land in a cross-wind in Hamburg.  No one was injured; the plane landed using another runway.

TERROR in NYC?  The FBI said Friday that a man who mailed rambling letters to Congress this week featuring a photo of a Manhattan military recruiting station was not linked to Thursday's bombing outside that station: "It appears to have been a matter of coincidental details and unfortunate timing on his part."  I'll say!

AFGHANISTAN:  A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.  After a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees, wounding five soldiers in her unit, Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away.  Brown certainly deserves the media attention -- though so have many others military heroes generally ignored by national news outlets.

IRAQ:  Bombings in Baghdad are on the rise, though still well below last year's levels.  The US military said Sunday it does not believe the recent attacks reflects a trend toward an overall increase in violence. US troops discovered a mass grave containing 100 bodies near Khalis in the Diyala province; the skeletal remains suggested it was an older site.  The NEFA Foundation has released a new chart by Evan Kohlmann mapping the complex network of Sunni insurgent groups fighting in Iraq.  Iraq's deputy interior minister said that Iraqi-Saudi cooperation to stop insurgents, mainly Saudis, from crossing the Iraqi border was continuing amidst intensified efforts to enhance bilateral relations between the countries.  The US and Iraq are opening negotiations in Baghdad on a blueprint for a long-term relationship, plus a narrower deal to define the legal basis for a US troop presence, a Pentagon official said Friday.  Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr claims in a letter that he is stepping down from his position, distancing himself from people, and focusing on his studies.  The NYT has the latest Iraqi scorecard from the Brookings Institution.

AUSTRIA UPS THE ANTE with the public debut of polar cub twins.  Germany may declare war.

MAKENA, a baby lesser spot-nosed guenon, debuts at at the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens.  Pics and video at the link for those of you who -- like me -- had no clue there was such an animal.

KITTY DEATH CAMPS!  Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.

VIETNAM has launched a crackdown on hamsters, a wildly popular pet here in the current lunar Year of the Rat, fearing an influx of the foreign-bred rodent furballs could spread disease and destroy crops.  Richard Gere was uavailable for comment.

400-LB LION ATTACK UPDATE:  I already linked to a story on the attack on British teacher Kate Drew a while back, but now the Daily Mail has the pictures of the attack itself.

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