EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING: Improv Everywhere stages its own rooftop U2 concert.

A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS emerge tonight from the "Where Are They Now?" file to perform "I Ran" (of course) o­n NBC's premiere episode of Hit Me Baby, o­ne More Time.

YOUR MENTAL SOUNDTRACK starts in childhood and is easily triggered. When you listen to your records they take you back to certain points in your life, OK?

WOXY-FM is adopting that trendy IPod Shuffle-like format called "Jack," but WOXY o­nline will retain its critically acclaimed alternative rock format. Whew!

DUNGEN is touring the U.S. in July, albeit limited to a few cities. The Pitchfork review gave a whopping 9.3 to the band's current release, Ta Det Lugnt. Did I mention that Dungen plays Swedish psych-metal? It's better than that description; you can sample it free and legal through Subliminal Sounds and Memphis Industries.

SASHA FRERE-JONES of The New Yorker swears off so-called listening parties: "I will not write about any piece of music unless I have unlimited access to a portable version of it, renderered in either the CD, MP3 or vinyl format."

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE are offering live downloads, along with a few studio rarities. Doc Loch will note a cover of Harry Nilsson's "Me and My Arrow." And a version of Simon & Garfunkel's "A Most Peculiar Man" should be a no-brainer also.

FEAR OF GLOBAL WARMING has been giving Radiohead's Thom Yorke writer's block.

CHRISTIAN SLATER UPDATE: The details of Slater's arrest for groping a woman o­n the street are better than most of what Hollywood could write. First, the woman allegedly groped is 52 years old. Second, Slater "was arguing with a female companion early yesterday when he allegedly pinched the victim's rump." Third, as he was arrested he was threatening to sue everyone involved. But the strippers at Scores will vouch for Slater's manners.

THE SEQUEL TO THE ITALIAN JOB will be The Brazilian Job. I predict another hit, if it features Charlize Theron getting waxed.

KNOXVILLE, KY used tax dollars to pay a private investigator nearly 100 dollars an hour to go to adult businesses for lap dances. It was part of an effort to force adult businesses to adhere to stricter regulations and the city says, in essence, it was money well spent.

YAHOO! seems to be making big bucks o­n chat rooms where men prey o­n young girls.

DOES A VIDEO MOCKING CHINESE-AMERICANS AND GAY MARRIAGE, including lesbian soft-porn and topless women, prepare someone to deal with the media in San Francisco? The San Francisco 49'ers thought so, but have now learned otherwise.

BRADGELINA UPDATE: Pitt and Jolie, while promoting their new movie, are resisting any personal questions. Asked whether the pair are a couple, Pitt's flack said, "I don't have a comment today, yesterday or tomorrow." ALSO: Ellen DeGeneres and girlfriend Portia de Rossi have bought "The Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston House" in Beverly Hills for a cool 20 million.

THE DUKES OF HAZZARD INSTITUTE, funded by Country Music Television (CMT), will pay Christopher Nelson 100 grand to watch and blog about reruns of the TV show. The contract does not include vacation time. "For $100,000 he'd better watch that show every night," said James Hitchcock, CMT's vice president for marketing.

LI-LO: A photographer who hit Lindsay Lohan's car while allegedly following her has been booked o­n suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

NAZI NUKES? The Germans may have been closer to developing a mini-nuke than was previously believed.

GOV. AHNULD SCHWARZENEGGER, attempting to avoid protesters who have been dogging him for weeks, apparently had a road crew dig up a street for a photo op where he came and filled the hole.

IRAN: In a speech celebrating the second anniversary of the Proliferation Security Initiative, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice disclosed that the U.S. and its allies have intercepted prevented Iran from obtaining material for its nuclear weapons program within the past nine months.

IRAQ: Jeff Goldstein's unique coverage at Protein Wisdom -- "Overheard inside an Haditha bunker, Wednesday, June 1." On a more realistic note, PowerLine has e-mail and photos from a tank patrol, sent by Major Eric E., who serves with the Iraq Explosive Device Task Force at Camp Victory in Baghdad.

TOM-KAT UPDATE: Extra TV reports that Cruise and Holmes are not officially engaged... yet. But Holmes is studying Scientology. Heidi Oringer of ABCNEWS Radio, noting Cruise's over-the-top promotion of his supposed relationship with Holmes, predicts that "there's going to be some very damaging information about Mr. Cruise that will be exposed in the very near future." I wonder what it could be?

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON was to be feted Wednesday night at a top secret Hollywood fundraiser, hosted by Christina Aguilera, Jake Gyllenhaal, Scarlett Johansson and Lindsay Lohan. I wonder if this event would have been cancelled if the Senator's former national finance director had not been acquitted last Friday of lying to the government about a lavish 2000 Hollywood fund-raising gala.

LIST-O-MANIA: Prof. Ann Althouse blogs our love for lists and posts a classic list so good that I won't spoil it, save to say it explains why we think of the 1970s the way we do.

QURAN DESECRATION: An Al Qaeda-affiliated sucide bomber attacked a mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing at least 20 people. No word o­n how many Qurans were destroyed, but I'm sure it's the fault of the U.S., somehow.

THE UNITED NATIONS Security Council o­n Tuesday condemned for the first time sexual abuse by its peacekeepers after being told U.N. members ignored such exploitation for decades, fearing exposure of their own soldiers' wrongdoing. For some reason, this story does not seem to get the same press coverage given to more isolated incidents of wrongdoing or alleged wrongdoing by U.S. troops.

THE DUTCH overwhelmingly rejected the European Union constitution Wednesday, by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent "no" vote in France's referendum Sunday. However, the Dutch vote was not expected to have the same dramatic result for domestic politicians as France's referendum Sunday -- a loss that was a public humiliation for President Jacques Chirac. Not that the EU needs my advice, but next time, maybe try something a little shorter than 500 pages.

iDOG will listen to music with you, dance with rhythm and compose songs. A stuffed animal will listen to music with you. And I would bet that even most dog-lovers really don't want to listen to songs composed by their dog.

ROBOTS: Toyota has set up a division to make household robots, hoping to reach the market by 2010.

MAKE POVERTY HISTORY WRISTBANDS sold by Oxfam and other groups were made by Chinese forced labor. Oops.

WHOLE FOODS is the next Wal-Mart?

VICTOR NAVASKY, publisher and former editor of The Nation, has been working behind the scenes in a key, uncredited role at the Columbia Journalism Review. CJR executive editor Michael Hoyt claims Navasky is just offering business advice. However, as The Nation became profitable for the first time primarily due the magazine's role as a critic of the Bush Administration, I would like the CJR to explain how that strategy works for them.

EDU-BLOGGING: The latest Carnival of Education is o­nline. ALSO: Increases in homework may actually undercut teaching effectiveness and worsen disparities in student learning, according to two Penn State researchers. The authors argue that "in poorer households -- often headed by single parents, parents with comparatively little education or, in some nations, parents held back by language barriers -- homework may not be cordially received, especially by parents of small children." The authors note that Japanese kids do less homework than American kids, yet score higher o­n many international tests. Why? It's not class size per se -- classes are much larger in Japan. It may have more to do with instructional methods and culture. I would suggest that lack of parental involvement is at the root of the problem -- which most educators are not politically suicidal enough to say.

JESSICA SIMPSON AND PUFF DADDY are hawking ProActive acne solutions. Puffy is getting paid three million bucks. I don't know how much Simpson is getting paid, but did you really want to see Puffy's picture here?

AN EXPERIMENTAL SUPERCOMPUTER that can reconfigure itself to tackle different software problems is being built by researchers in Scotland.

DEEP THROAT: After having been embarassingly scooped by Vanity Fair, in part because the Felt family apparently thought it was unfair for Bob Woodward to make all the money from W. Mark Felt's role as Watergate informer, the Washington Post has started a Deep Throat blog. It's no surprise that the paper would like to paint the Felt family as greedy and Bob Woodward as a victim, is it? ALSO: As I thought yesterday, there are some holes in the story. Nixon biographer Jonathan Aitken argues that Felt could not have been the source for the leak about the infamous 18-and-a-half minute gap o­n the White House tape of June 20, 1972 featuring Nixon and his chief of staff, H R Halderman. PLUS: At TalkLeft, a former Clinton Adminstration Justice Department official does not think Felt should be lionized.

EVA LONGORIA is getting a lot of good vibes from fans of Desperate Housewives.

VICTORIA BECKHAM: The ex-Spice Girl is releasing a series of tracks under a secret name -- because she fears her identity will put fans off buying her music. Hey, no o­ne is using "Deep Throat" at the moment...

THE MAN-HUG: A guide for the awkward.

RIVAL GANGS OF BUDDHIST MONKS brawl after years of antagonism between monks from the two temples who had often exchanged curses, insults and rude gestures as they collected alms o­n different sides of a road in Bangkok.