Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
FRIDAY TIME-WASTER: Squares 2, at fetchfido. I must admit I'm still not quite over the Babycal throw, either.
BRENDAN BENSON: His forthcoming disc, The Alternative To Love, “is less an album than an ear snuggle,” according to the New Musical Express. You can preview a few tracks (and download one) from his website.
GLAM IT UP: Scenestars blogs a couple of early-Bowie-T.Rex-ish influenced bands, Louis XIV and Living Better Electrically, along with three free MP3 downloads. Pretty nice stuff. The Louis XIV site reveals that band is already generating major buzz; the Living Better Electrically site is still under construction.
M WARD: His latest disc, Transistor Radio was well-reviewed on the Pitchfork; you can hear it (albeit on a slightly wonky media player) at Merge Records. The disc pays homage to days of radio past (a favorite subject of mine), which Ward discusses in an interview on Metromix.
SXSW is being blogged at the Village Voice and photo-blogged by Filter magazine.
JOSS STONE replaces Sarah Jessica Parker as the Gap Girl. Maybe.
CATS AND DOGS: Bloggers have started Carnival of the Cats and Carnival of the Dogs.
HUMANS: More generous than animals.
BUILDING IN A BAG: Shelters on demand.
MARS ROVER was probably cleaned by Martian dust devils, not Martians.
THE FIFTY GREATEST MOVIE STARS: I've often noted that such lists are intended to spur arguments. This one from Premiere magazine certainly does.
LETTERMAN KIDNAP PLOT: The Smoking Gun has the “information” (which is often filed instead of an indictment) against Kelly Allen Frank, who allegedly planned to kidnap the late night host's young son and the child's nanny. Dave may be remembering Margaret Ray with nolstalgia.
CULT OF THE iPod: Author Joshua Clover writes an unorthodox review covering the first ten songs from his iPod Shuffle.
FREE TURBO TAX: Very Raw writes that the feds wanted to develop a free e-filing program, which — as you might expect — irked the folks who make TurboTax. “They came to an agreement that TurboTax would develop a free version instead of the government, then they just don’t advertise it.” It's also pretty bare bones, but might work for you or your friends.
AMAZON has patented a technology for guessing your age, sex, birthday and wedding anniversary simply from the types of gifts purchased for you online by others and their timing. Amazon would remind potential gift purchasers by sending them emails or an alert when they log on to the website.
SIN CITY: There's a good advance review from The Daily Starlet. “Mr. Evil” is clearly another Alba fan, but I think it's probably unfair to refer to some of Alba's co-stars as “some other less hot chicks.” Many of them are hot in their own right, but are not playing strippers in the movie. Indeed, elsewhere on The Daily Starlet, Mr. E calls Rosario Dawson “ultrahot.” And in the Sin City review, he says “Carla Gugino is amazingly hot and amazingly naked.” So it's not all about the Alba. Indeed, another advance review at Ain't-It-Cool News suggests Alba is the tamest one of the bunch.
NO-WAVE: A new breed of noise bands is surveyed by the Village Voice.
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE: The Guardian interviews Josh Homme about songwriting and his split from bassist and sidekick Nick Oliveri, who hopes to rejoin the band. The new disc, which comes out later this month, can be streamed from MySpace.
PITCHFORK is profiled by the Los Angeles Times, by way of the Wichita Eagle.
JACKO JUSTICE: How bad off are you when you're getting unsolicited life coaching from Britney Spears? And Jay Leno, who is on your witness list, tells the police that he thinks you are a child molester?
JUICED BASEBALL: David Pinto blogged Thursday's Congressional hearing on the use of steroids in Major League Baseball.
SOCIAL SECURITY: In Thursday's Washington Post, Dana Milbank inadvertently demonstrates that politicians from both parties are behaving like Carrot Top.
IRAQ: More Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction and fewer think it's going wrong than at any time since the U.S. invasion two years ago, according to a new poll.
IRAN: The first celebration of the Iranian New Year's Festival of Fire was met with celebrations as well as huge protests and demonstrations against the Islamic regime of Iran. The protestors chanted: “We need no Sheikh or Mullah, we curse YOU – RUHOLLAH!” In some areas, they burned the French flag. Iranian authorities beat up and tear gassed them, though Reuters' coverage makes no mention that politics were involved.
BEYONCE KNOWLES offended the French citizenry by “murdering” their language during her performance of Vois Sur Ton Chemin at last month's Oscars, according to actress Juile Delpy. I blame Karl Rove.
POP CULTURAL OBSESSION: I saw Star Wars many more times than Jonathan Lethem, but I never came close to the depths he's plumbed — not even with music. That being said, the author of the linked article mis-identifies Jack Kirby as a Spider-Man artist, when even Kirby would give the credit to Steve Ditko.
PAUL WOLFOWITZ is nominated to head the World Bank. He would replace James Wolfensohn. I wonder whether a Kerry Administration would have picked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former consultant, Howard Wolfson. Y'know, since they all have the same name in different languages.
“GRASSROOTS” CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM turns out to be made of Astroturf. Ryan Sager writes that from 1994 to 2004, almost 140 million dollars were spent to lobby for changes to our country's campaign-finance laws. Just over 40 million was spent by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Sean Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, admitted that he pursued a three-pronged strategy: 1) pursue an expansive agenda through incremental reforms, 2) pay for a handful of “experts” all over the country with foundation money and 3) create fake business, minority and religious groups to pound the table for reform. When contacted by the New York Post, Treglia backpedalled, but Sager has the video, which can be downloaded from his blog.
