REBEL SMELL: Billy Idol describes the hazards of taking only two pairs of leather pants on tour in the 1980s. And yes, the smell would be one of them.
ANTI-DRUMMER BIAS festering on the Internet… and in Cedar Rapids! These arhythmic people should be forced to watch Buddy Rich on The Muppet Show (in QuickTime).
ON THE PITCHFORK: Pitchfork will “curate” the Intonation Music Festival in Chicago on July 16-17; bands TBA. ALSO: Brian Wilson confirms Smile DVD details: it will be a double-disc set that will include the (justly) acclaimed 2004 documentary Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of SMiLE, as well as a full concert performance.
SXSW officially kicks off in Austin today. Keynote speaker Robert Plant is looking a little puffy. Jimmy Page looked better at the Grammys.
MORE FROM THE SO-CALLED ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY: The O'Jays were… less than thrilled about being inducted by Justin Timberlake. Stereogum nicely recaps Bruce Springsteen's induction speech for U2.
BONO should not be the next president of the World Bank, according to… Angelina Jolie. Is your head swimming yet? ALSO: Bono and his wife are launching a clothing line. Granted, the clothes are created from organic materials and made in family-run factories in South America and Africa with fair-labor practices… but what would Xtina say?
UAW SURRENDERS: After telling Marine reservists who drive foreign vehicles or display pro-Bush bumper stickers they no longer could use a parking lot at the United Auto Workers headquarters, union officials have changed their minds.
BRANDING AMERICA: The nomination of Karen Hughes, one of President George W. Bush's closest and most powerful advisers, as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy is part of a major effort to revamp the apparatus of U.S. public diplomacy, which studies say has languished over the past decade under poor leadership and inadequate funding. Clay Risen (an assistant editor at The New Republic) and Ivo Daalder (a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution and an adviser to Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign) argue that the problem is U.S. foreign policy, not the marketing of that policy. There certainly is something to the old saying about putting lipstick on a pig. However, if Karen Hughes knows anything, it's the value of a gig where expectations are low. With American aid to tsunami victims turning Indonesian public opinion in favor of the U.S. and the war on terrorism and anecdotal evidence that public opinion of the U.S. is improving in the Middle East, marketing may be helpful, but might be unnecessary. And Hughes will get the credit.
KATHLEEN EDWARDS is interviewed by the Toronto Sun. She contrasts her experience opening for Bob Dylan with opening for AC/DC.
THE BRAVERY: Lead singer Sam Endicott is interviewed at Arjan Writes.
THE TOP 100 SINGLES OF THE SEVENTIES, courtesy of Superseventies. Rankings were compiled through an analysis of national trade chart activity, major market radio air play, industry sales figures, and music licensing tally reports.
BLACK MOUNTAIN: I had skipped posting the profile of the Vancouver quintet, even though Pitchfork also ran a complimetary review of their disc. But one of the first and foremost music blogs, Said the Gramophone, currently has a MP3 download that has Dan Beirne excited. It's piqued my interest, too.
IS DAVID HASSELHOFF THE ANTI-CHRIST? A website puts forth the case.
SOUL TRAIN: Little Richard, Smokey Robinson, Ashanti, Mya and Stevie Wonder got the crowd on its feet in a tribute to Don Cornelius of Soul Train, recipient of the Pop Culture Award at the third annual TV Land Awards ceremony, which aired Tuesday night.
IRAN: Laleh Seddigh is fast emerging as one of Iran's foremost race car drivers, leaving the best of the men racers behind in her saloon car. As you might expect, this does not sit well in a sexist theocracy. “[E]very time I want to practice or make a test drive, the track staff ask me for a letter of permission — even though I am the captain of the Proton speed team. Men never have this kind of hassle.” And consider Iranian state television's coverage of her wins: even though Seddigh pulls a poncho over her tight race overalls before taking the winners' podium, pictures of her holding a trophy are for some reason censored.
DEMI MOORE PREGNANT? That's what Star magazine is reporting, but it's Star, so we can hope it's wrong. Moore's publicist and Ashton Kutcher both issued non-denial denials.
…AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: A man with two penises.
CLOCKY: The M.I.T. Media Lab has invented an alarm clock that — when its snooze bar is pressed — rolls from your nightstand and finds a new hiding place each day.
QUENTIN TARANTINO says that he plans (or threatens, depending on your p.o.v.) to make movies for the next fifteen years, starting with his oft-delayed war flick, Inglorious Bastards.. He also lists his favorite movies of 2004.
A FORMER DENTIST accused of using syringes to squirt semen into the mouths of female patients was charged in North Carolina with multiple misdemeanor counts of assault on a female. I'd make the “I didn't know they had dentists in NC” joke, but I'm just too creeped out.
GRIME: Sasha Frere-Jones introduces readers of The New Yorker to the dark, minimalist, British mutation of rave music.
PUBLIC PODCASTING: PublicRadioFan has a directory of public radio shows available as podcasts including, but not limited to, the shows from KCRW to which Sylvia Hauser tipped us recently.
JACKO JUSTICE: There's nothing quite like the whipsaw coverage the media gives of a trial. Michael Jackson's accuser told his school Dean that Jackson did nothing to him! Michael Jackson's accuser explains that he denied being molested because schoolmates were “making fun of me” and he wanted them to stop! Michael Jackson confesses on videotape! Just kidding about that last one, but that QuickTime movie is a hoot, anyway.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: She's stayed silent, but the troubled singer is confirming he's engaged to Kate Moss, adding, We haven't set a date yet, but if things aren't going well in court [regarding the assault case brought against him] we may have to marry before the case ends.”
RACHEL HUNTER claims that Rod Stewart had given her nothing since separating six years ago, only child support. Which explains how she could identify with her title role in the Fountains of Wayne’s video for “Stacy’s Mom.”
WaPo EDITOR UPDATE: I noted yesterday that Washington Post Managing Editor Phil Bennett gave an interview to the Chinese People’s Daily Online which included some quotes that I thought some would consider inflammatory. Bennett says the story “includes numerous and important inaccuracies.” and he apparently has the audiotape to back his claim. Hugh Hewitt, the conservative talk show host who prints Bennett’s response, probably draws the lesson Bennett should not have needed to learn: “Never trust a state-owned newspaper.” But Bennett’s taping of the interview suggests he at least borrowed from the same Russian phrase as former President Reagan: “Trust, but verify.”
HARVARD PREZ LARRY SUMMERS: The former Clinton Treasury Secretary was rebuked, as members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) voted that they lack confidence in his leadership Tuesday. Professors also passed a milder censure of Summers expressing regret for his Jan. 14 comments on women in science and certain “aspects of the President’s managerial approach.” Professor of Economics Edward L. Glaeser said that Summers is prepared to change his leadership style to accommodate the Faculty. “I have every confidence that the president has heard the Faculty and that he takes this very seriously,” Glaeser said.
If the issue was not just his comments on women in science (which, as noted here previously, have been supported by scientists studying the issue), what are those other issues? It seems that FAS members have been ill at ease on issues ranging from Summers’ management of Harvard’s expansion into Allston to his role in the noisy departure of Professor Cornel R. West. Summers allegedly questioned West’s academic integrity and criticized him for allowing grade inflation in his class. This is not surprising, given that West was spending a lot of time making hip-hop records and cameos in Matrix sequels. And Summers was crusading against grade inflation generally (which may not have endeared him to other faculty members). As for the expansion of the Harvard campus to Allston, it seems that the objection is massive transfers of funds from FAS to the Central Administration for Allston and its consequences for other activities.
A column in the Harvard Crimson notes that Summers' opponents probably do not really want him gone: “[A] status quo administration raising money with one hand and throwing it at professors with the other—is actually best served by an impotent Larry Summers.” Summers probably should have learned from former Harvard faculty member Henry Kissinger: “University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.”
BASEBALL ON STEROIDS: Major League Baseball turned over a stack of subpoenaed documents Monday in preparation for a House hearing on Thursday, as investigators indicated that Congress' steroid probe will widen to the use of performance-enhancing drugs not just in baseball but also in other professional and collegiate sports. As I figured here earlier, “the hard line against Congress outlined by baseball's attorney Stanley Brand is cracking, if not crumbling.” And Brand is not the only DC heavyweight lawyer involved now. Sluggers Frank Thomas, Jason Giambi and Rafael Palmeiro are being represented by David McIntosh and Michael Kantor. McIntosh is a former GOP Congressman from Indiana; Kantor was Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative in the Clinton Administration.