POPMATTERS interviews Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis.
ON THE PITCHFORK: Wire is set to release another archival CD/DVD set, this time covering their recent output.
COACHELLA: After bringing the reunited Stooges in 2003 and helping the Pixies reunite in 2004, Coachella will host Bauhaus and Cocteau Twins this year.
POLICE BLOTTER: Stuart Copeland and his former partner Andy Summers will be walking their old beat again, but with Incubus, not der Stingle.
I STRIKE AGAIN, WITH MORE COWBELL! To know me is to know that I enjoy a good cowbell, particularly in the summer. So when I read someone talkin' 'bout Christopher Walken on their TV screen, I cannot help myself.
CAFFEINATED BEER: the poor man's speedball!
DAD READS THE DAILY POOP, MOMMY SHAKES HER HEAD: One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.
IRAQ ELECTION REAX: Washington Post foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid was asked in an online chat: “What surprised you most on election day?” His reply: “My biggest surprise was the way voting surged through the day in Baghdad…” That inspires confidence that the WaPo has its finger on the pulse of Iraq, eh?
JAM! previews Back To Me, the sophomore disc from alt.country Canuck Kathleen Edwards, due out March 1. She will be hitting Dave Letterman's show for the release. I noticed her on the PPV tribute to Gram Parsons organized by Keith Richards, Lord of the Undead. You can hear a few cuts from her debut, Failer, at the Rounder Records site, including “One More Song the Radio Won't Like.” A bit too self-deprecating, methinks.
BOB MOULD plans to release an album called Body of Song this summer, his first solo release since 2002's Modulate, a project that opposed his loud, guitar-rock roots. He still tours solo, but has shifted his focus toward producing electronica and house music.
BLOG LAUNCHES: Nick Denton's Gawker Media, which produces Gizmodo, Gawker, Defamer and other blogs occasionally linked here, has launched Lifehacker — covering useful software downloads– and Gridskipper — covering travel, both in the Gawker Media style. Where else can you learn whether the recent tsunami has affected sex tourism to Bangkok?
LARA FLYNN BOYLE has been accused of stripping nude and trying to seduce a fellow passenger during a recent first-class flight to London. A shocked witness adds, “People recognised she was Lara Flynn Boyle and saw her popping pills on board early in the flight.
TARA REID has been reduced to soliciting 60-second videos of men for potential dates on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show. The New York Daily News twists the knife by referring to Reid as “[t]he newly buxom actress.”
NEWBEAUTY is a newly-launched magazine offering news, advice and advances regarding age-fighting beauty products, laser surgery, facelifts, Botox, cosmetic dentistry, dermatology, liposuction and breast augmentation. Maybe they can sell subscriptions to newly buxom actresses.
LEGALIZED PROSTITUTION UPDATE: New Zealand Sex Workers Get Ergonomics Guidelines. So much for the Kama Sutra.
RODNEY DANGERFIELD gets no respect, even now.
BLACK DAYS AT BLACK ROCK: New York magazine reports that “[i]nside CBS News, the rage over the handling of the National Guard fiasco only deepens.” The article makes Dan Rather and Andrew Hayward out to be more culpable for the scandal than they would have the public believe. ALSO: The New York Post's “Page Six” dishes that Mary Mapes, the only CBS News staffer fired in the wake of Memogate, may be about to spill her guts to Diane Sawyer or Barbara Walters.
APPLE TOPS THE CHART: After a two-year hiatus Apple has returned to win the 2004 Readers’ Choice Awards for the brand with the most global impact — a title held by Google since 2002. Rounding out the top five 2004 Global Brands is a surprise winner: the Arab-focused, 24-hour news source Al Jazeera.
PODCASTING: Later this winter, former MTV VJ Adam Curry and partners plan to launch a podcasting network, offering an edited selection of the web's best dispatches and tools for neophytes to create their own casts.
THE JACKSON 12 will soon be selected, as Michael Jackson heads toward a trial on child molestation charges. The Toronto Star had some choice material:
[B]eing stuck in adolescence is not grounds for conviction, warns Tom Lyon, a University of Southern California law professor and expert in child molestation cases. “He could be a serial pedophile for all we know. But the fact that he's kind to children or that he likes to play children's games doesn't suggest that he's going to molest kids,” said Lyon. “That's more a reflection that stereotypically, men are uninterested in kids.” on the other hand, “As many people love Michael Jackson, you say `Would you allow your kids to spend the night at Mike's house?' I think those that say yes are probably lying,” said Vibe magazine writer Cheo Hodari Coker.
The article also discusses the importance of venue selection and the race card as compared to the O.J. Simpson trial. Perhaps Michael will be asked to try on his one glove in court…
Another important factor is jury selection, which the prosecution botched in the O.J. case. It looks like that topic will be covered at the brand new Jury Blog.
WARD CHURCHILL UPDATE: The embattled University of Colorado professor released a statement defending his controversial essay concerning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, but also resigned his post of chairman of the ethnic studies program because he did not want the attention focused on him to reflect on fellow department members.