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When the Gales of November came slashin' (plus more)   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Friday, November 09, 2007 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with the WRECK of the EDMUND FITZGERALD. The legend lives o­n from the Chippewa o­n down of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee. Saturday is the 32nd anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald -- 729 feet-long, 75 feet in breadth, 39 feet in depth, weighing 13,632 gross tons -- an ore bulk carrier with a capacity of 25,000 tons. When it was launched o­n June 7 1958, at the Great Lakes Engineering Works in River Rouge, Michigan, Fitzgerald was the largest ship o­n the Great Lakes. Here's misty, water-colored video of the launch.

The "Queen of the Great Lakes" sank in the eastern end of Lake Superior during a fierce storm -- including snow squalls -- that pounded the ship with 30-foot waves. The crew of 29 men perished; without witnesses, a definitive reason has never been determined. A Coast Guard report suggested that faulty hatches failed to keep water out of the ship's cargo holds, though others believe the ship struck an uncharted shoal and took o­n water. A documentary created and aired by the Discovery Channel concluded the loss of the due to freak waves that overwhelmed the faulty hatches.

After the wreck, the Rev. Richard Ingalls went to Mariners' Church in Detroit and rang its bell 29 times, o­nce for each life lost. The church continues to hold an annual memorial, which includes reading the names of the crewmen and ringing the church bell. Here's video of Rev. Ingalls recounting that night.

At the request of family members surviving her crew, Fitzgerald's 200 lb. bronze bell was recovered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society in 1995, as a joint project with the National Geographic Society, Canadian Navy, Sony Corporation, and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The bell is now o­n display in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Here's a brief video from o­ne of the underwater explorations of the wreck. The Mpls. Star-Tribune still has a nifty interactive exhibit o­n its website, too. Throw in the 3-D animation, and you'll feel just like Bill Paxton.

The song by Gordon Lightfoot spent 21 straight weeks o­n the pop charts, peaking at No. 2. And there's a homemade video for it o­n YouTube, which I highly recommend. Beats the tar of Celine Dion! (PS:  Ken King -- who has lived o­n the U.P. of  Michigan, says the gales of November are quite something.)

ARCTIC MONKEYS have a video for their new single, "Teddy Picker."

CAT POWER sent out "Song to Bobby" -- one of the two original songs from Chan Marshall's next "covers" album -- to a bunch of music blogs.

THE GREATEST MUSIC NEVER SOLD:  At LHB, author Dan LeRoy writes about the songs he listened to while writing his behind-the-scenes look at famous unreleased albums and why they got shelved.

JOE HENRY did an interview and mini-set with WFUV you can stream on demand via NPR.

HOW TO CALCULATE MUSICAL SELL-OUTS:  Bill Wyman, the former arts editor of NPR, enlisted the aid of Jim Anderson, a senior lecturer in mathematics at England's University of Southampton, to develop the Moby Quotient, which measures the ethical and aesthetic implications of any one instance of the pervasive blurring of the lines between rock and advertising.  Note that the WaPo helpfully provides an interactive MQ calculator.

ARCADE FIRE:  Here's an advance clip of "Keep the Car Running" from their upcoming appearance this weekend on Austin City Limits.

THE RAVEONETTES apparently turn the noise back up on their new album, Lust, Lust, Lust, which will be released on Vice Records stateside in early 2008.  Until then, you can stream a few at TheirSpace.

BOB DYLAN:  The tribute concert for the upcoming biopic I'm Not There may have been uneven, but there are streams and photo links for the highlights at Hidden Track.

OKKERVIL RIVER:  Will Scheff talked to Drowned In Sound, though it seems like the interviewer was not on Scheff's wavelength.  Scheff likely thought it an example of not picking up on the playfulness and the joy in the band's records, especially The Stage Names.  That second link comes with a bonus sidebar.

ROBYN HITCHCOCK talked to the Waterloo Record about his reasons for putting out the box set, I Wanna Go Backwards.

THE FILTH and the FURY:  A reference guide to Punk history, books, photos, Cds and DVDs, courtesy of the Library Journal.

THE TEENAGERS' new video for "Starlett Johansson" takes that opening scene from Lost In Translation and mashes it up like the credit sequence for Goldfinger.  BONUS:  The Simthereens did the Bond thing in 1988 for "Only A Memory."

SEA WOLF may be based in L.A. but frontman Alex Church tells the Boston Globe the band reflects his more rural roots

CASS McCOMBS:  The indie crooner gets an audio feature from David Dye at the World Cafe

FIERY FURNACES:  Matthew Friedberger talked to Ireland's Event Guide about the power of sentimentality: "People use the word sentimental as a kind of insult these days, especially if you are in a rock band - but pop and rock can be mawkish and sentimental, and I am fascinated by it. That is essentially the stock in trade of pop songs, and can be a healthier useful end to sentimentality..." (Thx LHB, iirc.)

THE TOP TEN MUSICAL GENIUSES, according to Canwest's Mike Devlin.  Such lists are necessarily debatable, but this one's not bad.

AMY WINEHOUSE:  Police battered their way into the singer's home Wednesday and spent three hours searching through her belongings.

CUTOUT BIN:  This Friday's fortuitous finds from the ol' HM are: Spinal Tap - How Much More Black Could This Be?; Al Hirt - Green Hornet Theme; The Raspberries - Go All The Way; The Partridge Family - I Think I Love You; Badfinger - No Matter What; Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting; Looking Glass - Brandy (You're A Fine Girl); The Bird And The Bee - How Deep Is Your Love? (Bee Gees); Grizzly Bear - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (Yes);  Sondre Lerche - Let My Love Open The Door (P. Townshend); Tony Basil - Hey, Mickey; The Nerves - Hanging On The Telephone; Blondie - One Way or Another; The Rolling Stones - Slave; The Feelies - Paint It Black (Stones; Live); MC5 - Ramblin' Rose (Live); Robyn Hitchcock - I Got the Hots (Live); Richard Thompson - Oops!...I Did It Again (B. Spears); Mary Hopkins - Those Were The Days; Lucky Soul - The Great Unwanted; The Vandelles - Swell To Heaven; The Cynics - What She Said; R&J - Sunshine of Your Love (Cream); Brenton Wood - Baby, You Got It; The Five Stairsteps - Ooh Child; Sly & The Family Stone - Dance To The Music; Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger; The Flamingos - I Only Have Eyes For You; and Van Morrison - Sweet Thing.

BRITNEY SPEARS did not respond in a timely manner to eight of 14 random drug test requests, according to Fed-Ex's attorney.  Alleging the singer lives in a "parallel universe," lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan reminded the court that the singer had been reprimanded three times by Commissioner Scott Gordon for failing to be reachable by phone. A missed test is considered a failed test.  When Commissioner Gordon stated that responding to a morning call wasn't an extreme request, Spears's lawyer, Anne Kiley shot back: "But you're not a pop star with a No. 1 album to promote."  Of course, neither is Spears; The Eagles have the No. 1 album, and her label has given up on having Spears promote the record.  BONUS:  The pop tart has learned the new issue of Maxim labeled her one the five most "unsexy" women on the planet.  She did not take it well.

CONAN O'BRIEN:  A Catholic priest from Boston has been arrested and charged with stalking and harassing the NBC late-night television host.  Father David Ajemian is undergoing psychiatric evaluation.  O'Brien is probably really mad that his writers are on strike.  The criminal complaint is posted at The Smoking Gun.

NOW SHOWING:  This weekend's wide releases are: the Vince Vaughn family comedy Fred Claus, currently scoring 28 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; the Tom Cruise-Robert Redford antiwar polemic Lions for Lambs, which is scoring 27 percent; and P2, a horror thriller scoring 41 percent.

JENNIFER LOPEZ finally confirmed she is pregnant on the closing night of her concert series at Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena.  Video at the link.

ROSIE O'DONNELL says Bill Clinton had her bawling like a baby during an emotional chat in which the ex-president apologized for cheapening the Oval Office with his Monica Lewinsky sexcapades.

MICKEY ROARKE was arrested on DUI charges in Miami Beach... on his Vespa.  Looking at his mugshot, we learn that Roarke didn't need as much makeup to play Marv in Sin City as we thought.

THE McCARTNEYS:  Heather Mills -- perhaps realizing the backlash from her televised rants about Sir Paul -- insists she approves of his blossoming romance with Nancy Shevell.  But her lawyers have already dumped Mills, who went aginst their advice to keep quiet on issues surrounding her marriage and her three-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

FORGET IT, JAKE:  Jack Nicholson did a rare interview with MTV to promote the newly-released collectors' editions of Chinatown and its sequel, The Two Jakes: "Well, I appreciate you wanting to interview me because I, of course, admire my own work. (Laughs.)"  Also, Jack is furious that he was not asked to play The Joker in The Dark Knight.

HELP!  The L.A. Times looks at the newly restored two-DVD edition of The Beatles' Second Movie.

JACKO is looking more ivory than ever on the cover of Ebony.  Yeah, I know that's a Stevie Wonder reference, so sue me.  The gloved one is celebrating the upcoming 25th anniversary of Thriller by releasing a special edition of the album.  Evidence mounts that the Neverland ranch is about to go back to the bank.

STEVE BURNS:  To this day, one of the biggest searches bringing new folks to this site is people trying to find out whether the former "Blues Clues" star is dead -- which was the subject of one of Pate drummer Ron Hahm's first posts here.  Burns is alive -- and an indie rocker -- but the rumors of his death may be getting to him: "I'm starting to think that maybe there's something that people know that I don't know... "

HILARY DUFF -- who shot to fame in the kids' TV show Lizzie Maguire -- was reportedly drinking Veuve Clicquot straight out of the bottle and giving her ice hockey star boyfriend lapdances last weekend at NYC hot spot Tenjune.  It seems as though she's been trying to project a more adult image lately.

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY tells Elle magazine that she's a "moody bastard," and backs it up in the rest of the interview.  It's bad PR, but at least she's being honest about it.  It's almost funny when she says of cellphones: "I hate them. It rings, and then I realize that I don't want to talk to anyone. So I always press ignore."  Now everyone calling her knows the score.

TERROR at the MALL?  The FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing a series of holiday attacks on US shopping malls in L.A. and Chicago, according to a bulletin distributed to law enforcement authorities nationwide.  The bulletin acknowledges that US intell officers are uncertain as to whether the information is real, and are concerned that it could be "disinformation."  With the shopping season approaching, however, the FBI decided it was necessary to share the information.

VENEZUELA:  Gunmen opened fire on students returning from a march Wednesday in which 80,000 people denounced President Hugo Chavez's attempts to abolish presidential term limits, give him control over the Central Bank and let him create new provinces governed by handpicked officials.  Hooded Chavez supporters shot at least two anti-Chavez students.  University leaders accused the government of provoking violence to justify military occupations of campuses where students are leading anti-Chavez protests.  The violence broke out after demonstrators marched peacefully to the Supreme Court, which unlikely to act on the students' demands, given that pro-Chavez lawmakers appointed all 32 of its justices.  No word on what Sean Penn thinks about this.

PAKISTAN is fast losing chunks of its territory to pro-Taliban rebels.  Pres. Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule has so alienated Pakistan's moderate middle class that many analysts fear he has created a power vacuum that will allow militant Islamists to flourish.  Suicide bombers have infiltrated the northern Pakistani city of Rawalpindi where former premier Benazir Bhutto plans a protest this week against a state of emergency, police said on Thursday.  And just in case no one is buying that, there is a report that Bhutto has been placed under house arrest.

IRAQ:  Pres. al-Talabani assured US officials Thursday that his country would solve all disputed issues by the end of 2007.  Prime Minister al-Maliki said he was finalizing a cabinet reshuffle and would announce the names of new ministers soon.  US and Iraqi authorities freed 500 prisoners from a detention system strained by the thousands of suspects taken in campaigns to secure Baghdad and surrounding areas.  Prime Minister al-Maliki told the freed prisoners they serve as examples of reconciliation between the majority Shiites and Sunnis.  Two brothers who were members of the Karmah Awakening Council were killed by gunmen.  Police on Thursday accused Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army of carrying out a four-year killing spree in Iraq's central shrine city of Karbala which left hundreds dead.  Fmr. embedded blogger Bill Ardolino looks at the many factors contributing to the significant drop in violence in Iraq, while commanders consider how to reduce the US presence without losing hard-fought security gains.  ITM's Mohammed Fadhil argues that southern Iraq won't "awaken" like Anbar provnce.

WHO SAYS you can't teach an old cat dog tricks?

JITTERY COWS save the tiny hamlet of San Juan Grijalva in Mexico's southernmost state, Chiapas.

TWO MEERKAT PUPS made their first public appearance at San Jose's Happy Hollow Park & Zoo.  Awww...some pics.

A DOGGY URINAL is being touted as the answer to prematurely corroded lampposts in Sweden.

THE RAINFOREST BAT is humankind's closet genetic relative.  Which sorta spoils Plant of the Apes for me.

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