ON THE PITCHFORK: A thumbs-up to the double-disc Yo La Tengo compilation, Prisoners of Love.
“CALL ME:” A cover of the Blondie hit by Betty Marie Barnes of Saturday Looks Good to Me (whose albums I was digging last weekend), along with a pair of artists on the pas/cal label, is available as a free, legal download from The Modern Age. Definitely lo-fi casual, but fun.
DAVID BYRNE has started an internet radio station. You can check out his playlist at the link, too. UPDATE: A blogger is already urging Byrne to podcast.
BLOC PARTY is tired of being compared to Gang of Four. Understandable, I suppose, though they really should feel honored.
DINOSAUR, JR. will kick off a reunion tour with their TV debut April 15th on CBS' The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. The band has also launched a website.
SIN CITY had its star-studded premiere Monday night. The review in the Village Voice claims that co-director Robert “Rodriguez loves his material so much that he embalmed it.” Associated Press movie writer David Germain calls it “simultaneously the most boldly original comic-book adaptation yet and one of the nastiest films in a long while.” Jeffrey Lyles of the Maryland Gazette says it is “the least kid-friendly comic book film ever made, but the beauty lies in its all-out, no apologies, take it or leave it attitude.” The review from Box Office Prophets declares it a “firecracker of a film.” Today's negative reviews seem to find the movie misogynistic; until I see it, I'll wonder whether the misogyny should be treated any more seriously than the overblown cartoon violence. ALSO: MTV wonders whether Sin City risks “alienating a young audience that, for the most part — and sadly — hates black-and-white movies.”
GRAND THEFT AUTO VIDEOGAMES a “major threat” to morality, according to… wait for it… Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
JOHNNIE COCHRAN: If it doesn't fit, must be his obit. The famous (or infamous) attorney who led O.J. Simpson's defense team is dead of a brain tumor at 67. Not mentioned in the obits I've read is that his death may remove a First Amendment case from the Supreme Court's docket.
M & Ms turn to Dark Side. Melts in your mouth, chops off your hand?
I CAN'T EXPLAIN: Thirteen things that have scientists dizzy in the head and feeling bad.
TRIPLE-X SECRET PROBATION: A California university, once ranked by Playboy magazine as the top U.S. party school, is probing a fraternity for a party where a hard-core sex film was made. I think we all know how uncomfortable that kind of probing can be. And was it a toga party? You betcha!
CULT OF THE iPod: NYC Cops say iPod thefts are behind a spike in subway crime. Business 2.0 hired Robert Brunner, Apple's chief designer from 1989-96, to design “Apple Gear We Hope to See.” Pejman Yousefzadeh responds to Andrew Sullivan's recent essay expressing fear over the atomization of society via iPods.
FILESHARING: C|Net News has a detailed report on the Grokster case: “Supreme Court Justices cast a critical eye Tuesday on entertainment industry proposals for quashing file-swapping, while making clear they had little sympathy for ongoing piracy on peer-to-peer networks.”
THE UNITED NATIONS: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, asked Tuesday if he would resign after a critical report concerning the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, replied, “Hell, no.” But writer and blogger Roger L. Simon thinks Annan has some 'splainin' to do. The report found that the office of Kofi Annan's longtime chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, shredded documents related to the oil-for-food program, despite the secretary-general's order to the U.N. staff to preserve such papers. Simon says three years of documents. Not the sort of thing that makes you want to give the U.N. the authority to regulate the Internet.
RACHEL HUNTER: A DJ and a former protege are breaking bad on Stacy's Mom. Do I detect the tentacles of Rod the Mod's media empire?
BLOGGERS AS JOURNALISTS: At Slate, Jack Shafer tells Los Angeles Times media reporter and critic David Shaw, “Don't Fear the Blogger.” A good piece, though it could have used more cowbell.
THE ARCADE FIRE makes the cover of Time magazine… in Canada.
MATT DENTLER, producer of the SXSW Film Festival, recommends five discs; the Decemberists and Stars have been noted here before. You can see a QuickTime movie of the Decemberists' video here.
THE SMITHS are the subject of a two-day academic conference in Manchester next week that will study the band's social, cultural, political and musical impact. I wonder what the band thinks.
A SMALL VICTORY: Michele blogs the purple rain.
IRAQ: Iraq's parliament erupted in acrimony at its second sitting on Tuesday after legislators berated leaders for failing to agree on a new government. “You can say we are in a crisis,” Barham Salih, a leading Kurdish politician, told reporters. The deadlock is largely due to the Kurdish bloc — the second largest — wanting to get the best deal possible for the Kurds. Saying it's a crisis would help advance the Kurdish agenda, but it's an exaggeration. They may have their act together by the next scheduled meeting Sunday, but if not, I still think it will be settled within a couple of weeks. ALSO: The U.S. military is fast-tracking a weapons system to reduce the threat of mortar attacks, one of the leading killers of troops in Iraq.
FORMER BOY SCOUT BIG is expected to plead guilty to federal Internet child pornography charges today. “As a professional scouter, he was in more administrative positions — most recently developing programs — and not in direct contact with the youth,” BSA spokesman Greg Shields said.
MADONNA AND HER HUBBY went to a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim at the Kabbalah Center in London dressed as a nun and the pope. Oddly enough, some people thought this was in bad taste right before Easter with an ailing pope. According to the New York Post, “Purim is the Jewish religion's most festive holiday, when it is customary to wear costumes — although the costumes generally involve characters from the historical Purim story, not popes and nuns.” ALSO: Madge probably should watch it; Sony reportedly spent 100,000 dollars digitally erasing the red string Kabbalah bracelet Ashton Kutcher wore throughout Guess Who after a bad reaction from test audiences.
TOM CRUISE: The New York Post's Page Six always has an interesting tone when covering Cruise. This time, the column refers to Sofia Vergara and Penelope Cruz as his “escorts.” It's almost as if Page Six would like to say something about Cruise, but fears he would sue.
KYGYZSTAN: The Christian Science Monitor reports that the shockwaves from the tulip revolution are spreading around the former Soviet Union – and into the heart of Russia, including enclves like Ingushetia and Bashkortostan. PubliusPundit notes that the dual parliament problem is resolved and that President Akayev is prepared to resign if given certain guarantees. ALSO: PubliusPundit has a good round-up on Lebanon, including the opposition’s seeming attempt to paint Hezbollah into a corner.
THE UNITED STATES WILL CEASE TO EXIST IN 2007. Just in case you were wondering.