Karl 
SMOOSH: The tween sisters continue their world tour with a profile on CBS's Early Show and a performance of “Find A Way” on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. They have even turned up in Teen People.
U2 is building the biggest skyscraper in Dublin.
PITCHFORK PREVIEW: Day 2 was posted at Rewritable Content, with streaming tracks from Os Mutantes, Spoon, Yo La Tengo and more. There's also a profile of Os Mutantes in the Chicago Sun-Times.
TOP OF THE POPS: As the legendary show ends a 40-year run on the BBC, Bobby Elliot of The Hollies remembers perfoming on the very first episode.
THE BICYCLES are YANP's new favorite thing. They manage to be lo-fi, raw and light at the same time, as evidence on “B-B-Bicycles” and a cover of “Cuddly Toy.”
FIFTEEN ARTISTS TO HEAR THIS SUMMER, courtesy of Glide. Regular visitors here will recognize most of the names.
THE DECEMBERISTS released upcoming album and tour details. Apparently, there is a duet with the talented Laura Veirs. If advance copies of The Crane Wife are hitting the media, I would not be surprised if some tracks leak to the Internet soon. Meanwhile, the band has posted the demo for “The Tain” for download at MySpace. Also, multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk answers the same ten questions asked of all interviewees by Erasing Clouds.
JOLIE HOLLAND talks to the Lexington Herald-Leader about how people connect to music: “You can tell the truth. But if other people haven't experienced that truth, they won't even hear you. You could say the most personal things in the world, and it wouldn't matter. So I feel safe, anonymous even, telling these ridiculous stories.” There are two free downloads from her pre-rock influenced Springtime Can Kill You at the link.
GOLDEN SMOG'S plan to record in Spain had a few kinks, but the album worked out nicely. And the wonderful “Corvette” was rejected for use in an ad for the car! Also, a couple of members turned up to play a few for Minnesota Public Radio.
FLAMING LIPS frontman Wayne Coyne talked to the L.A. Daily News while working on his UFO.
THE HARVEY GIRLS have posted eight covers under the title Our History is Your Kitsch for free download, which makes it a nice day for “White Wedding.” Ooh, my inner monologue dropped in pitch as I wrote that.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer enters rehab again today. Maybe the fifth time's the charm.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest won a third straight weekend — a rare achievent these days — and became the fastest movie to break the 300 million mark. Monster House grossed 23 million and gained momentum over the weekend, suggesting it might have legs. It was good to very good, though not great. It will be entertaining enough for parents also, though it's not loaded with stuff for them in the way that a Shrek or The Incredibles is. Lady In The Water came in third with 18 million. You, Me and Dupree came in fourth, but the distant fifth of Little Man means the latter may not make back its budget domestically. Kevin Smith's Clerks II made nine million, and may not make much more than that. Which would be very bad news, except that it had a mere five million budget. Clerks II was not as good as the original, but not bad enough to put a stink on the original either. Oddly enough, the best parts were probably Rosario Dawson and the un-Smithy musical number. My Super Ex-Girlfriend — the weekend's remaining new release — groseed 8.7 million and probably cost musch more than five million to make. Also, The Devil Wears Prada is going to quietly break the 100 million mark this week.
ROSARIO DAWSON, btw, was a natural fit for Smith (and her prior role in Frank Miller's Sin City, because her uncle was a comic book artist who instilled in her a respect for the form. She's now taking the next step to wowing Comic-Con with a comic she's producing. So she'll have her pick of nerds if some woman makes off with boyfriend Jason Lewis, best known for playing Kim Catrall's bf on Sex And The City.
STEELY DAN thinks Luke and Owen Wilson stole You, Me and Dupree from one of the band's songs. I'm not sure that's something I would publicize.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BREAK-UPDATE: The family of 19-year-old “other woman” Diana Bianchi is already being targeted by “book, TV and movie offers.” I have to think that this is a story that will be “ripped from today's headlines and worked into an episode of Law & Order. The National Enquirer has dug up a cocaine bust deep in the past of Brinkley's straying hubby, Peter Cook. Also, Cook's first teen girlfriend shared love letters, amid reports that private eyes hired by Brinkley had found evidence of more two-timing.
COLIN FARRELL was accosted by a woman from the audience during a taping of The Tonight Show. Access Hollywood identified the woman as Dessarae Bradford and said she had unsuccessfully alleged in a small-claims lawsuit that Farrell had stalked her.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Paramount reportedly warned the makers of the Queer Duck animated DVD that they could not mock Cruise. NTTAWWT.
BRADGELINA: Apparently, Jolie doesn't want Pitt talking on the phone to Aniston. Which goes to show that anyone can be insecure.
THE McCARTNEYS: Sir Paul has been told he must tear down the house where his estranged wife Heather Mills is living. So the poor woman had to buy a £550,000 home to share with baby Beatrice 15-minutes away.
GEORGE MICHAEL was discovered having an illicit encounter with a stranger in a London park by the News Of The World. Some people never learn.
MADONNA denies that she and hubby Guy Richie are adopting, saying she's planning to adopt an African village. Nice — all of the PR, none of the diaper-changing.
LIZ HURLEY is reportedly getting hitched to Arun Nayar in September.
DAVID HASSELHOFF says he is heading to Australia to appear in a stage production based on his life: “It sounds like a bad joke, but it is really going to be a good show…totally campy. It’s written by the same people who wrote Bette Midler’s show and produced by the people who produced Chicago in London…”
JESSICA SIMPSON: The pneumatic blonde's 15 minutes may be running out, if her mug stops moving magazines. She reportedly skipped her sister's Victoria's Secret party gig to avoid any chance of running into her ex's new gf, Vanessa Minnillo. And we have a little more video of Jessica with the ice cream cone.
IRAQ: The Belmont Club has a round-up of stories covering the Battle for Baghdad. At ITM Omar opposes the idea of partitioning the city and notes that the radical Association of Muslim Scholars is being renounced by their former allies in the Islamic Party. British forces in Basra seized two “significant” suspects wanted for killings, kidnappings and guerrilla attacks, including the commander of the Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia in Basra province.
MIDEAST CONFLICT: DefenseTech looks at Israeli and Hezbollah strategies for a possible ground war. At the Counterterrorism Blog, Bill Roggio looks at two worst–case scenarios Israel may face. OTOH, Hamas shows signs of internal disarray as the local leadership in Gaza seems ready to cut a deal to cease-fire and release abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Bot Time magazine and The New York Times report that Iranians are unhappy with their government's support for Hezbollah.
IRAN: In other news, it seems that Border guards seized a British lorry trying to deliver radioactive material that could be used to build a dirty bomb to the Iranian military. A foreign ministry spokesman suggested Sunday that uranium enrichment might be negotiable, though it's unclear whether that's an official position.
THESE MONKEYS are supposedly trained, but I'm thinking not so much.
SOME PIG sells at auction for 51K. The buyer is trying to renegotiate, natch.
A BABY ANTEATER rides piggy-back at the Denver Zoo. Pic at the link.
SNAKES, TORTOISES, SPIDERS and a POSSUM: Motel 6 will not leave the light on for them.
CRUSTY THE GATOR, who gained celeb status in an undercover sting operation earlier this month aimed at catching alligator feeders in Florida, will escape euthanasia, thanks to an anonymous donor who is paying to relocate him to an animal exhibit in the Seminole Reservation.
CHICKEN-SH*T BINGO: It sounds like some Iowans at RAGBRAI think they invented it, but at least three Pate members could tell you that Ginny's in Austin, TX has been doing it for years. BTW, there's video at the first link.
