Karl 
ON THE PITCHFORK: Brendan Benson's The Alternative to Love gets a lukewarm review, finding the second half weak. It's not the only review I've read to make that criticism. I would say the second half is less baroque, but not necessarily weaker for it. The whole thing has some 70s pop, Matthew Sweet-meets-the Fountains of Wayne feel, with a whiff of Brian Wilson during the first half and a bit of Wilco-esque americana toward the end. So the end may be less arranged, but the songwriting is pretty strong throughout.
THE DECEMBERISTS IN THE OUTFIELD: The band's live cover of The Outfield's “Your Love” is available for download at Chromewaves.
CROWDED HOUSE DRUMMER Paul Hester hanged himself in a park in southern Australia Monday; he was 46. He was also the drummer for Split Enz. Sydney's Daily Telegraph has the sad details. MTV notes that Hester went on to a career in television including the role of Chef Paul on The Wiggles.
A SMALL VICTORY: Michele has yet to resume the Greatest Rock and Roll Songwriters Poll nomination essays linked last week, but has provided blurbs for her “500 Songs” project. Reading them, I could not help but remember that Mike Kelly had a Mr. Bubble t-shirt. Or that I still own a laser-etched version of True Colours by Split Enz.
JACKO JUSTICE: Comparing himself to Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson tells the Rev. Jesse Jackson that he is being persecuted because of race.
HIP-HOP PRODUCT PLACEMENT: McDonald's reportedly is willing to pay rappers one to five dollars each time a song with a plug for the Big Mac hits the radio. Apparently, Seagram's gin already employed this strategy last year, getting mentions from artists such as Kanye West, Twista, the Franchise Boys and Petey Pablo.
SXSW REAX: Page Six of The New York Post notes five more bands that should not be missed, a blurb which should not be missed for the mention of Dale Watson at Ginny's Little Longhorn.
CATS AND DOGS: The owners of a cat trapped for a week in the London home of a vacationing neighbor have been pushing ice cubes and cat food through the letter box to keep their pet alive. Another Carnival of the Cats is online. Gumball-style dog biscuit machines are starting to sprout up all over NYC. A Connecticut man has turned to the classified ads to recover Thor, a 3-year-old Shih Tsu his estranged wife gave away. And mail carriers said they were recently unable to deliver mail to homes along a section of Guyer Street in Hobart, Indiana because of a 4.5-pound Chihuahua named Bobo. “The little Chihuahua was 10-foot tall when he was on the street,” said Florence Page of the Hobart Humane Society.
PASSION OF THE PEEPS, PART II: Okay, when I posted some Peeps links on Good Friday, I confess I had been looking for an article on the joy of microwaving them. As it so often happens, I found one by accident Monday, with a bonus page with a link to a movie of a guy eating 50 Peeps in one hour.
VEISHEA 2006 will be April 22nd, as Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy decided not to abandon tradition, but instead to re-evaluate past practices, including the university’s “dry” VEISHEA policy. “Many believe that the 'dry VEISHEA' alcohol policy has had unintended consequences and encouraged large, off-campus parties,” Geoffroy said. Oddly enough, when I had lunch with Sylvia Hauser last week, VEISHEA came up and I recalled that one of my friends in student government actually went to a meeting during the summer after we both graduated to tell them that a dry VEISHEA was a disaster waiting to happen — for the very reason Geoffroy stated. Which is probably why Sylvia provided me with the link!
IRAQ: The Christian Science Monitor looks at Iraq two years after the invasion. A balanced piece overall, but if you show a graphic of poll results showing 65 percent of Iraqis think the country is headed in the right direction, having the only two Iraqis quoted in the story complaining seems a little odd, even if the complaints are valid. Army Lt. Col. Jamie Gayton reminds everyone of the importance of winning hearts and minds with reconstruction projects carried out in partnership with the Iraqi government. The Mudville Gazette rounds up military comments on the difficulty of recruiting — and has cool motorcycle pictures. ALSO: If I missed this story about Iraqis getting NASA water purification technology last week, I'll bet I'm not alone.
EGYPT: A month after President Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to open presidential elections, Egyptian security forces arrested scores of members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, but hours later the group demonstrated against the government. The Associated Press story states that the group was “outlawed in 1954 after the government accused it of advocating the violent overthrow of Egypt's secular government,” but then notes that, “Since the 1970s, the Muslim Brotherhood has pledged to use only peaceful democratic means to establish an Islamic state,” which sorta tells you what they were pledged to before the 1970s… and probably still are.
IRAN: The Regime Change Iran blog relays a report from Iran Press News about widespread protests last Friday.
THE TRANSPORATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION misled the public about its role in obtaining personal information about 12 million airline passengers to test a new computerized system that screens for terrorists, according to a report by Homeland Security Department Acting Inspector General Richard Skinner. And yet it is unclear whether the new system will be effective in determining which passengers should undergo additional security scrutiny, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
SIN CITY: The Hollywood Reporter has an unfavorable review, as Kirk Honeycutt seems to consider it a bit of a one-trick pony. The Apollo Movie Guide also has a negative review, though Brian Webster makes clear he has issues with the subject matter and film noir generally. In contrast, Time magazine's Richard Corliss writes: “For all its astronomical body count, Sin City is brazenly, thrillingly alive.” James Berardinelli of ReelViews thinks the movie has style and substance. Meanwhile, Page Six of The New York Post profiles the women of Sin City.
UNDERWATER DRUG-SMUGGLING? Colombian police found a homemade submarine capable of carrying ten tons of cocaine hidden in the port of Tumaco, near the border with Ecuador.
NOT THAT FINGER, but a University of Alberta study finds that measuring a man's index finger length relative to his ring finger length predicts his predisposition to being physically aggressive. So those gypsies may have had at least one kernel of truth buried in all that palm-reading.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HARVARD? Harvard University has cleared its dining halls of brand-name cereals, such as Fruit Loops and Cap'n Crunch and there is no organized protest? Shame on them! What do we want? Quisp! When do we want it? Now!!!
ZEPPELIN COMEBACK? Maybe…. Not the one with Jimmy Page, but the giant gasbag. No, not Robert Plant.
CULT OF THE iPod: Stereophile presents a tube amp and preamp for the iPod, costing much more than the gadget itself, natch. MookieKong compares and contrasts the iPod and the PlayStation Portable. The Independent notes coming competition from cellphones.
FILESHARING: Maverick billionaire Mark Cuban will pick up the tab for the defense in the Grokster case being heard by the Supreme Court today, explaining that it's not only the big content companies against the technology companies, but also the big content companies against little content companies. And that software doesn't pirate content, people do. Meanwhile an article in The Economist suggests the problem with the music biz isn't downloading, but the dogfood they're serving.
THE UNITED NATIONS: Writer and blogger Roger L. Simon has an exclusive report on the oil-for-food scandal, suggesting secretary-general Kofi Annan may know more than he has been saying publicly.
TSUNAMI: An earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 8.2 (later revised upward to 8.7) struck off the coast of Indonesia Monday — on the same fault line that originated the December 26 quake, raising concerns of a potential repeat of the deadly tsunami that struck the area last year. Bloggers were on the case, though it appears the quake was the real threat this time around. Jeff Jarvis excerpts some of the quakebloggers, including this gem: “Bloggers Are Morons. Blogging has fried our brains. Instead of evacuating after the tremor, we, bloggers staying in high rise apartments, sit here n blog about it, oblivious to the risk should the building topple over or collapse…”
LINDSAY LOHAN seems to remain on remain on really, really good terms with her exes. The same gossip column also has a nice bit about Pat O'Brien humping NBC head Jeff Zucker's leg.
BRAD AND JEN UPDATE: It's official: Aniston Files for Divorce From Pitt. A nation mourns.
BRITNEY SPEARS: Star magazine claims she's pregnant. Of course, Star magazine claims everyone is pregnant. Awful Plastic Surgery thinks… well, you can guess.
GOSSIP COLUMNIST LIZ SMITH should know better than to fib about not reading blogs.
CONGRATS TO MAYOR JERRY BROWN on his impending nuptials.
MISTER SNITCH found another Amazon item that may be NSFW, unless you work someplace that's pretty outre.
