THE DECEMBERISTS frontman Colin Meloy cites a fairly obscure song by Robyn Hitchcock, "The Ghost Ship," as a major influence on his songwriting.  So it's no wonder that Meloy was all smiles when Hitchcock joined the band to play "Lost Madonna of the Wasps" last month.  If only the sync on the clip was better...

TOP TEN TRAIN SONGS:  At Stylus, Nick Southall has a list of his favorite train songs, mostly obscure ones (it is Stylus, after all).  IGN has a list which at least acknowledges upfront that "we've left off some obvious numbers ('Casey Jones' by the Grateful Dead" for example, songs by Roger Miller and Johnny Cash, too), but we went with our guts, our hearts, and the first 10 songs that popped into our brain with a subconscious sense of entitlement."  Though I might take a few from those lists, I don't know how songs like "Mystery Train," "City of New Orleans," "Train Kept A Rollin'," "Night Train," "It Takes A Lot To Laugh (It Takes A Train To Cry) (live)," "5:15" (live with an F-bomb, but the bass solo by The Ox rawks),  "I Often Dream Of Trains" (with a bonus), "People Get Ready," and "Downtown Train" made neither list.  And Johnny Cash has so many (including "Folsom Prison Blues") that I would be tempted to go with "I've Got A Thing About Trains."

REUNIONS:  Everyone from my Dad to Mother Jones has noticed the rash of rock reunions in recent months.  Guess which one linked here?  However, the rumored Neutral Milk Hotel reunion was an April Fool's joke.

TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS hit the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC last Thurdsay, so you can stream the gig (and an interview) from NPR now.

MUSIC LEAKS:  The Christian Science Monitor reports that -- brace yourself -- Indie record companies are using controlled (and sometimes uncontrolled) leaks of new music to generate buzz.  Who'da thunk it?  Idolator notes that the leak of the new Modest Mouse LP did not stop it from debuting at No.1 on the Billboard chart last week.  Both items just make BBspot's RIAA Lawsuit Decision Matrix all the more funny.

LILY ALLEN tells the San Diego Union Tribune: "I've never hesitated to say what's on my mind," and the paper provides plenty of examples... though they missed my fave, in which she says she not only wrote a nasty song about an ex, but also slept with all of his friends.  All of which is prelude to this clip of Allen covering Blondie's "Heart of Glass" last week at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR.

PAUL WELLER gobbed on a framed picture of Sting hanging at the Royal Albert Hall.  And it's not the first time that 55-year-old Sting has been subject to a mouthful by the former Jam frontman.

PETER BJORN & JOHN were interviewed by NPR over the weekend, but were not asked about the similarity between their best-known song, "Young Folks," and the asian riff that kicks off "Turning Japanese."

THE GENEAOLOGY OF POP/ROCK MUSIC is a wonderful print (be sure to use the "zoom" tool).  Artist Reebee Garafolo explains it a bit at that link and at this link.

THE 20 WORST ROCK LYRICS... but then again, no... courtesy of Spinner.

ANNA NICOLE SMITH IS STILL DEAD, but we just found out that none of the 11 drugs that were found in her hotel room were prescribed to her -- though they were all written by her shrink.  And that the drug that killed her was stored in a duffel bag, though she supposedly was too sick to get out of bed without assistance.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Blades of Glory skated into first place with million (Will Ferrell's second-best opening), followed by Disney's Meet the Robinsons with $25 million (about in line with movies like Open Season).  300 raked in another $11.1 million.  Last week's leader, TMNT, skidded into fourth place (probably due to Meet the Robinsons), but has made more than ins $34 million budget already.  Wild Hogs rounds out the Top Five with $8.3 million.  Shooter dropped from third to sixth, and will struggle to break even.  Premonition hung around in seventh place and has made almost twice its $20 million budget.  The Last Mimzy skidded from fifth to eighth, another likely casualty of Meet the Robinsons.  The Hills Have Eyes 2 also dropped three slots, but has broken even with its $15 million budget.  Reign O'er Me rounds out the Top Ten, while the near-wide release of The Lookout made $2 million, with an eighth-place per screen average.

HEATHER MILLS is still playing the "my leg might fly off card" this week for Dancing With The Stars.

JOHN TRAVOLTA -- who owns five private jets -- is concerned about global warming as only a Scientologist can be:  "I'm wondering if we need to think about other planets and dome cities." 

JACKO, denying reports that Jackson had been hospitalized with pneumonia, had his rep say that he is "a little bit under the weather," but hasn't sought hospital treatment.

TOM-KAT UPDATE:  Cruise has a hand-me-down stalker from John Cusack.  How the mighty have fallen.

ALEC BALDWIN has taken his share of criticism for his outspoken politcs, but he was so moved by the story of 18-year-old Pvt. Resha Kane's departure for Iraq that he's going to help pay for her college education after she leaves the military.

HOWIE DAY is  advertising he was in rehab with Britney Spears.

MIA FARROW wants to know: "Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?"  The Nazi comparison is -- as usual -- overdone.  But Spielberg may want to look at the ethical issues raised by helping the PRC on the PR front.

GRINDHOUSE directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' show Entertainment Weekly -- and the rest of us -- their ten favorite movie posters.

ROSIE O'DONNELL had a full-on 9/11 conspiracy theory meltdown on The View last week; she gets really wacky about four minutes into the clip.  Her particular rant has been debunked many times, but Popular Mechanics did a special debunking, just for her.

CHOCOLATE JESUS UPDATE:  An angry choir of outraged Catholics, including Cardinal Edward Egan, forced the cancellation of a planned Holy Week exhibition featuring a life-sized, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ.  The hotel and the gallery were overrun Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit, reportedly including death threats.  Anyone making such threats should be caught and subject to appropriate legal action.  Those threats also have had some comparing this to the Danish Cartoon Jihad.  Those people forget that the cartoons appeared after film director Theo van Gogh was murdered by an Islamic fanatic, and a lecturer at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute in Copenhagen had been assaulted for reading the Koran to non-Muslims.  They also forget the hundreds killed and wounded in the cartoon jihad, not to mention the embassies, churches and businesses torched by extremist riots, the million-dollar fatwa and the jailing of some who published the cartoons.  Religions have their fanatics, but some religions seem to have a lot more of them.  BTW, the artist says offers to buy or exhibit the piece have been pouring in.

IRAN:   Britain is in "direct bilateral communication" with Iran over the 15 sailors and marines captured by Tehran.  British ministers are preparing a compromise deal to allow Iran to save face and release its 15 British military captives by promising that the Royal Navy will never knowingly enter Iranian waters without permission.  British options are limited because 48 percent of Brits are opposed to using force (even as a last resort) and the US is unlikely to back military action until diplomacy and possible sanctions have forced Iran to climb down over its nuclear program.  Indeed, the UK is a nation which is now dropping the Holocaust and the Crusades from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils.  At least the Telegraph's legal editor has figured out that the Iranian handling of the prisoners could have broken international humanitarian law.  The kidnapping appears to have caused a split in the Iranian military, according to a report in the Times of London.  Monty Python's Terry Jones thinks the Iranian treatment of the sailors is much better than how the US treats prisoners, managing to overlook the difference (recognized in the Geneva Conventions) between interrogating enemy combatants seized in battle and the unprovoked kidnapping of soldiers in uniform who did not fire on the Iranians.  Not to mention that when US soldiers cross the line, they are prosecuted and punished, as opposed to the official policy of Iran.  And that if this standoff continues, Iran may well resort to beatings, mock executions and such, just as they did after taking US hostages in 1979.  In Germany, Der Spiegel ran a piece outlining the big-picture differences between Iran and the US.  Jones should read it.  At the very least, he should consider what would have happened to him had he made a picture like Life of Brian, but using Islam as the backdrop for his satire.

IRAQ:  In Baghdad, radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called for a mass protest on April 9th, while Pres. Talabani says the  Mahdi Army has stopped its activities on al-Sadr's orders.  ITM's Omar Fadhil writes about a US search of his Baghdad home.  James Wixted crunches the numbers on the effect of the "surge" so far, to mixed results.  The Kurdish rep to the United States says Iraqi Kurds are afraid they will again be left in the lurch if US troops are forced to leave next year.  So it's good news that the Iraqi govt has endorsed a decision to relocate and compensate thousands of Arabs who moved to Kirkuk as part of Saddam Hussein's campaign to push the Kurds out of the oil-rich city.

IRAQ at HOME:  Congress has gone on Spring Break without appointing people to work out the differences in the bills to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They will not return to DC until until April 16-one day after the Pentagon says it must get the emergency funding for troop operations to avoid cutbacks.  The differences between the House and Senate may not be quickly resolved.  The Congressional Research Service says that the Army could continue to wage war through July without additional funding from Congress, though not without affecting training and readiness, which could lead forces now in Iraq and Afghanistan to have their tours lengthened.  MSNBC had video of a Seattle-area sailor home from a seven month tour in Iraq surprising his six-year-old son in his classroom Friday.  Have the Kleenex handy.

OTTERS HOLDING HANDS:  More aww...some video.

SQUIRREL POWER:  Never underestimate the power of the North American Gray Squirrel.

KAMIKAZE GOOSE  smashes a Skoda on a British motorway.

PET HOARDING goes really arwy, as 30 dogs, 20 cats, seven doves, four finches, two parakeets and one parrot die in a fire at a hoarder's home in Southampton.

A BABY TAPIR makes its public at the Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland.  Here's what it looks like.