Topic: Karl

HARRY NILSSON talks about songwriting and plays a few numbers o­n the ol' Smothers Brothers show. He mentions that he wrote o­ne of them for Midnight Cowboy, which was rejected in favor of his version of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'." IIRC, o­ne of the songs turned up in the 1971 animated feature The Point, which got an audio feature o­n NPR's Fresh Air when the movie came to DVD in 2004.

HALFTIME REPORTS: I noted a couple o­n June 30th, but here's o­ne from Largehearted Boy, a music blog from which I frequently steal links. Plus, Pitchfork has a list of overlooked records from the first half of the year.

VOXTROT, which has two EPs o­n the aforementioned Pitchfork list, gets a blurb and an interview in the New York Daily News. And I think I saw this at LHB, so it's all sort of falling together today. You can stream a bunch from Voxtrot -- including covers of Talking Heads, Blondie, New Order and Felt -- via the Hype Machine.

SONGS OF AMERICA: The Salt Lake Tribune recommends books, films and albums that embody the soul of America, including selections from Camper Van Beethoven and Drive-By Truckers. London's Guardian tried to come up with a list that did not confirm the popular cliche of an America-hating Guardianista, but was o­nly partially successful. The Hype Machine logged plenty of July 4th-related entries, including: Galaxie 500 - "Fourth of July"; U2 - "The Hands That Built America"; Bruce Springsteen - "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"; Simon & Garfunkel - "America"; The Decemberists - "July, July!"; Lucinda Williams - "American Dream"; and Ray Charles - "America the Beautiful." And David Bowie's "Young Americans" and "I'm Afraid of Americans," proving he really does swing both ways.

JIM MORRISON'S LAST NOTEBOOK, including previously unseen poetry and lyrics, is going o­n auction at the Abbey Road studios o­n July 28th.

THE DIABLEROS just got a mighty nice review of You Can't Break the Strings in Our Olympic Hearts, which you can hear at the band's website.

DARK SIDE OF THE (KEITH) MOON: To help plug the CD re-release of the late Keith Moon's solo album, Two Sides Of The Moon, the Who drummer's longtime assistant, Dougal Butler, dishes some dirt from his book, Moon the Loon. Moon's legendary misbehavior rarely affected his drumming, with the notable exception of being carried off stage in mid-concert after taking too much horse tranquilizer, which led to Pete Townshend soliciting the drumming services of Scott Halpin from the audience. BONUS: Townshend and Moon appeared o­n Good Morning America to promote Who Are You, which must be o­ne of Moon's last TV appearances.

KILLING MUSIC, in a good way is music blogger rbally. Currently, you can stream the J. Mascis-Broken Social Scene gig and a Replacements concert via the Hype Machine.

CHRISSIE HYNDE of the Pretenders thinks meat-eaters are the real terrorists. Then again, she wanted the US to lose to Saddam Hussein, so I guess I'm not surprised.

SUPERMAN RETURNS: The Awesome Until Proven Guilty blog has a super-themed post you can stream via the Hype Machine.

PAUL, RINGO and YOKO all turned up for the Las Vegas premiere of Cirque du Soleil's Love extravaganza, which George Martin scored from remixed Fab tracks. I would think George's widow had to be there, too, as the idea was sparked by the friendship between the late Harrison and Cirque founder Guy Laliberte.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel is reportedly seeing a shrink to get over her addiction to dodgy men like junkie rocker Doherty, ex-drug addict Russell Brand and Dirty Pretty Things rocker Anthony Rossomando. Plus a friend is reportedly sending Moss and Jude Law's ex-wife, Sadie Frost, to a detox retreat in the Maldives.

STACY'S MOM: Rachel Hunter has had some work done, based o­n some NSFW pics. The same site has some safer bikini pics and video as well. And since the safer post is titled, "Stacy's Mom Has Got It Going On," I'm certainly not going to pass up the opportunity to re-link to the Fountains of Wayne video.

BRADGELINA: It looks like rockers and new parents Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale brought their baby over to the Pitt-Jolie pad for a celebrity playdate with baby Shiloh, where the moms chatted while Rossdale, Pitt and Maddox revved up the ATVs.

MADONNA, perhaps realizing that she's been a failure as an actress, really wants to direct, which I'm sure will thrill her director hubby, Guy Ritchie.

VAUGHNISTON: Jennifer Aniston also really wants to direct, just at the moment of having cinema success with The Break-Up. Meanwhile, she's pouring sheep sperm o­n Vince Vaughn's head.

JIMMY STEWART was forced to prove he wasn't gay by bedding two hookers, according to an upcoming biography. NTTAWWT.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY deals with PMS by listening to gay pop anthems. NTTAWWT. Particularly when Egotastic uses it as an excuse to post pics of her at the UK premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. She may want to check out the secret history of gay pop published in yeaterday's Guardian.

JESSICA SIMPSON and NICK LACHEY are officially divorced, so the pneumatic blonde can focus o­n a likely investigation of her bodyguards after a news photographer was roughed up outside the Pink Elephant in Southampton, L.I.

KRISTIN DAVIS is the surprise winner of a "world's most beautiful woman" poll taken by Eve magazine in the UK. Not that Davis isn't beautiful; it's just that she usually doesn't turn up in these sorts of polls.

DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE & DAVID: Bon Jovi wisely nixed Denise Richards' plan to give Richie Sambora a birthday cake o­nstage next Monday.

NAOMI WATTS: Pregnancy rumors have re-surfaced, though I think the gorilla has been ruled out as a suspect.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: The Cruise Crazy Train inspired a "silent inning" to honor his baby's "silent birth" at a minor-league baseball game between the Lake Elsinore Storm and the High Desert Mavericks. Instead of the more traditional bobblehead, the team handed out a "bobble-couch" depicting Cruise's famous couch-jumping incident o­n Oprah.

IRAQ: At ITM, Omar reports that the people of Samarra are offering a 100 million dinar reward to anyone who provides information that lead to the death or arrest of Haitham al-Badri, suspected mastermind of the mosque bombing there. Iraqi forces are taking the lead in operations in portions of Tal Afar, central Baghdad, and Haswah. The Coalition is transferring authority to Iraqi forces in o­ne fifth of the Diyala Province. The US military says it killed an Al Qaeda operative suspected of orchestrating the massive truck bombing in Baghdad last week that left 66 people dead. An Iraqi insurgent group announced the "martyrdom" of its top commander "Abu Abdel Rahman" in clashes with the "infidels and apostates" in Ramadi. Gulf Arab states promised to crack down harder o­n sources of funding for the insurgency, according to Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki. We'll see. Iraq's justice minister has demanded that the UN Security Council ensure a US troops are punished for allegedly raping and murdering a young Iraqi and executing her family. The ex-soldier already charged was dishonorably discharged from the Army because of a "personality disorder" before the attack came to light. As usual, the US will investigate and mete out any appropriate punishment, which is a far cry from the "rape rooms" that operated under Saddam and those run by militias and busted by US forces after the invasion.

NORTH KOREA test-launched the long-range Taepodong-2 missile, but it apparently failed. So the pre-emptive strike suggested by former Pres. Clinton's Defense Secretary and Assistant Defense Secretary, which might have set off a second round of the Korean War, turned out to be unnecessary.

ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IN THE UK: Britons who criticize Prime Minister Tony Blair for not winning Muslim "hearts and minds" since the 7/7 London bombings really ough to read Sunday Times reporter Ali Hussain's account of his six weeks undercover in Beeston, where three of the 7/7 bombers came from. And they ought to ask what the supposed moderate Muslims in the UK are doing to combat the delusional conspiracy theorists and violent jihadis in their midst.

A BEAR CUB munched o­n barbecue-chicken-and-jalapeno pizza, washing it down with a swig of a Jack Daniel's mixer, an Absolut vodka and tonic, and a beer in the back seat of a vintage red Buick convertible at Lake Tahoe. I'm tempted to say "smarter than the average bear," but mixing your liquor like that is not a good idea.

MAN SAVES DOG FROM GATOR'S JAWS after a protracted struggle in South Carolina. Video at the link.

DOG o­n THE RUN FOR THREE YEARS re-adjusts to life as a pet. Videos at the link.

HORNY PEACOCKS are causing trouble in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

HORSE CAUSES TWO CAR CRASHES, but the ambulance tranferring o­ne patient hit a moose. Hard to believe Ken King moved away from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

THE UNITED STATES celebrates the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. As the Wikipedia notes, this is a little arbitrary: New Englanders had been fighting Britain since April 1775; the first motion in the Continental Congress for independence was made o­n June 8th; and the Congress voted 12-0 for independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain o­n July 2nd. Even so, the publication of the Declaration was momentous -- with our National Archives recovering from flood waters, the best way to see and learn about the Declaration may be through the Charters of Freedom website. But you can watch Mel Gibson, Michael Douglas, Renee Zelleweger, Kevin Spacey, Wynona Ryder and other Hollywood folk read the Declaration at YouTube, after a short introduction by Morgan Freeman, who squeezed in his narration between March of the Penguins and War of the Worlds.

Of course, the holiday more broadly celebrates the American Revolutionary War, and the Founders' unlikely victory. People with the highest standard of living and the lowest taxes in the Western World fought a sometimes unpopular war for our freedom. Early o­n, the Revolutionaries (also known as "Americans" or "Patriots") had the active support of about 40 to 45 percent of the colonial population. By 1779, there were more Americans fighting with the British than with Washington, which is why Washington needed help from the French, the Spanish and freed Blacks. You can separate fact from fiction regarding the sacrifices and fates of the Founders at Snopes. You can hear two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough read from the first chapter of his 1776 via NPR.

And yeah, I've got your Marvin Gaye and your Jimi Hendrix right here, via the Hype Machine. Back with the usual tripe tomorrow. Try not to blow a finger off, willya?

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with THE BEACH BOYS, because it's summer, because folks my age will always remember their big concerts o­n the Fourth of July weekend at the Washington Monument (as with this take o­n "Catch A Wave"), and because my Dad just got broadband and can watch YouTube now. Given the time of year, I have to include this 1964 clip of "Surfin' U.S.A." There's also a nifty twofer of "I Get Around" and "'When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)" from their first UK TV appearance o­n Ready Steady Go! You can see Jack Benny intoduce these quick takes o­n "Barbara Ann" and "California Girls." Brian Wilson is writing with Burt Bacharach, sad over the state of the music biz, and still entertains the notion of working with the Beach Boys sometime. Brian just turned 64; "Good Vibrations" just turned 40. That link is to Brian's version, but you can also see the Beach Boys play it at Live Aid. Brian also did a nice solo take o­n "God Only Knows" in this clip from 1988.

MARKY RAMONE: The last Ramone standing will celebrate the band's 30th anniversary July 2nd with a first-for-him all-Ramones set for all ages. Given the Beach Boys lead today, I'll point you to the Ramones' cover of "Surfin' Safari."

THE SONGS OF SUMMER: Eureka's Times-Standard compiles an eclectic playlist.

WAY MORE SONGS OF SUMMER: I'm working o­n my 2006 Summer Mix, but in the meantime, here are some songs of the season from the Hype Machine. PAS/CAL - "The Bronze Beached Boys (Come o­n Let's Go)"; Sweet - "The Ballroom Blitz"; Urge Overkill - "Sister Havana"; Thin Lizzy - "The Boys Are Back In Town"; Terry Jacks - "Seasons in the Sun"; They Might Be Giants - "Birdhouse In Your Soul"; Fountains of Wayne - "Stacy's Mom"; Martha Reeves And The Vandellas - "(Love is Like a) Heatwave"; The Jam - "A Town Called Malice"; Wilson Pickett - "Land of 1000 Dances"; Kool and the Gang - "Summer Madness"; Sydney Barnes - "Summer Sunshine"; Jean Knight - "Mr. Big Stuff"; Reunion - "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)"; The Vandals - "Summer Lovin'"; Beck and Sia - "You're The One That I Want"; Boston - "More Than A Feeling"; The Smashing Pumpkins - "Jackie Blue"; Alice Cooper - "School's Out"; Seals & Crofts - "Summer Breeze"; Belle and Sebastian - "A Summer Wasting"; Yo La Tengo - "The Summer"; Wilco - "Summer Teeth"; Pavement - "Summer Babe (Winter Version)"; Led Zeppelin - "Going to California"; Rolling Stones - "Country Honk"; Billie Holiday - "Summertime"; Pizzicato Five - "The Girl From Ipanema"; Smoosh - "Find A Way"; Ryan Adams - "Summer of '69"; Blue Cheer - "Summertime Blues"; Ramones - "Rockaway Beach"; Rare Earth - "I Just Want to Celebrate"; Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - "That Summer Feeling."

ELEPHANT SIX UPDATE: Tiny Mix Tapes did some digging and found that reports of a Jeff Mangum project were greatly exaggerated.

JOY DIVISION: The Ian Curtis biopic Control will feature the music not o­nly of Joy Division and New Order, but also David Bowie, Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Lou Reed, Sex Pistols and more...

THE POSIES are profiled in The Japan Times ahead of their slot at a 25th anniversary party for Shonen Knife. Ken Stringfellow talks about drawing o­n the past for influence: "It was sort of a problem that, as Jon and I were looking up and down the timeline of music for influences when we started playing, there was this punk ethic at work. At the time it was the o­nly reference allowed, so it felt like we were breaking the rules." You can stream three from the latest Posies album via MySpace. The first time I saw them was acoustic, so the pictured video is an acoustic version of "Solar Sister."

IS JASON MOLINA (Magnolia Electric Co., etc.) the new Robert Pollard? Molina has finished no less than six new albums -- including o­ne with Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker founder David Lowery -- though o­nly two will be released this year. Molina has been posting unreleased tracks o­n MySpace and you can stream plenty of Songs: Ohia via the Hype Machine.

JOHNNY JENKINS, a guitarist who worked with Otis Redding and influenced Jimi Hendrix, has died at 67. In 1969, what had been meant to be Duane Allman's solo album became Jenkins' first solo LP, Ton-Ton Macoute when Duane decided to focus o­n the Allman Brothers. Florida Cracker is killing music with a track from that album. Check out the comments there, too.

HALFTIME REPORT: As the first half of winds to a close, you may want to review the top ranked albums of 2006 (so far) at Metacritic and the Halfstravaganza posted at Coke Machine Glow. If you're a regular visitor here, you haven't missed much, but there are always a few strays worth investigating.

THE YOU TUBE HALL OF FAME is weighted in favor of sports, as it appears at the ESPN website, but there are plenty of cool clips mentioned, including some musical o­nes. ALSO: NBC will use YouTube to promote its fall television lineup, which means they almost sorta kinda "get it." But running a contest for people to make promo videos where you can't use any copyright footage from the show is lame.

PAM ANDERSON, as she promised, stripped down to her g-string in the window of Stella McCartney's London boutique in the name of PETA. And she looks pretty scary.

NOW SHOWING: Obviously, the big film this weekend is Superman Returns, which I reviewed o­n Wednesday and is currently rating 76 percent Fresh o­n the Tomatometer. Everyone else is clearing a path for the Man of Steel, except for the fashion-skewering counter-programming of The Devil Wears Prada, which is scoring 76 percent Fresh, and slightly better with the "cream of the crop."

BRITNEY SPEARS is is reportedly moving back to her home state of Louisiana, blaming the lifestyle in Malibu for hurting her battered marriage.

DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE & DAVID: Denise Richards is selling the Westlake Village home she bought last year following her separation from Charlie Sheen, which is a stone's throw from the home of her rival, Heather Locklear.

REESE WITHERSPOON, as you may know, is suing Star magazine for speculating that she was pregnant, based o­n photos the tab published. The magazine's response appears to be publishing more unflattering bikini shots and saying, "okay, you're just fat and bloated."

NICOLE KIDMAN, otoh, looks pretty good in a bikini o­n her honeymoon. Just don't get to close to her head.

CHARLIZE THERON was awarded the Los Angeles Film Festival's Spirit of Independence award, for making interesting choices in her career. And because if you were organizing a film fest, wouldn't you want her to show up?

NOW I WANNA BE YOUR DOG: The ol' Iggy Pop lyric works if you're the Target dog hanging with Charlize, but it's even better if you're Jessica Alba's dog.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise has reportedly refused to release pictures of baby daughter Suri because of his Scientology beliefs. Is that really a better PR spin than the initial story that he couldn't get Bradgelina-scale bucks for the pics?

BRADGELINA: The FBI and Massachusetts authorities raided a Westfield, Mass. home Tuesday night and seized photos of a baby shower held by Jolie and Pitt. The pics were allegedly stolen from Jolie's brother's digital camera when he took it in for repairs. That's him with Jolie in the pic at left. Meanwhile, Jolie has allegedly demanded Pitt remove all traces of ex-wife Jennifer Aniston from his Malibu mansion.

SPIDER-MAN 3: Film Ick claims to have plenty of spoilers, which may or may not be true. Proceed at your own risk.

JOHNNY DEPP has laughed off reports he will play Michael Hutchence in a new film about the life of the late INXS frontman.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY begged film bosses to let her kiss Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and gives him better marks than co-star Orlando Bloom.

IRAQ: Bill Roggio takes a detailed look at the insurgent counter-proposal to Prime Minister al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan. The US military claimed an advantage in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq, saying raids since Zarqawi's death have forced many of its foreign fighters out into the open to be captured or killed. Coalition fatalities have continued to fall from the spike in April; I'm sure The New York Times will report this with the same gusto they gave to predicting in April that increased fatalities would become the new trend. The US military has found more old Iraqi WMDs in recent months, in addition to the 500 chemical munitions recently reported. As even these old WMDs could potentially be lethal, even in their degraded state, it's a good thing insurgents are not actively using them. According to Reuters, Democrats dismissed such arguments and said the weapons were not the "imminent threat" used to justify the war. So it's worth noting that Pres. Bush actually rejected the argument that we must not act until the threat is imminent. Obviously, people can disagree with that argument, but Pres. Bush has enough trouble speaking without others sticking words in his mouth.

AAYAN HIRSI ALI, the feminist critic of Islamic sharia law and former Dutch MP, whom I mentioned earlier this week, must take some small satisfaction in the news that the Dutch Government has unexpectedly collapsed in the wake of a failed attempt to strip Hirsi Ali of her Dutch citizenship.

FREEDOM o­n THE MARCH; With the Fourth of July looming, it's worth noting that huge anti-communist rallies in Santa Cruz are attracting protest babes ahead of a vote o­n autonomy for the region this weekend. And that yesterday's parliamentary elections in Kuwait wer the first to include women.

SOME PIG: Life imitates Charlotte's Web when the press learned that the pig who posed as Wilbur for the cover of an upcoming reprint of the classic children's book was destined to be sold at market.

RAT HOARDING UPDATE: Rat lovers are furious that a Petaluma animal shelter had euthanized more than 1,000 of the rodents taken last week from a man who had been hoarding the creatures inside his home.

PUPPY RESCUED: Emergency crews used a backhoe to dig out a six-inch sewer pipe to reach a 7-week-old puppy that was stuck there headfirst for more than five hours o­n Thursday. Awww...

DOG CUSTODY BATTLE looms over two dogs that survived Hurricane Katrina, as their old owners in New Orleans and their new o­nes in Florida may be headed to court.

A MARMOSET turned up running loose in San Mateo CA. Pics at the link.

AND JUST BECAUSE everyone I know will be disappointed if I skip it, don't you just hate waking up with a lightbulb stuck in your anus?