THE FLAMING LIPS documentary, The Fearless Freaks, gets a boffo write-up at Digitally Obsessed: “Considering the rampant acclaim, I would expect the Flaming Lips to posture at least a bit regarding their importance as rock icons. Instead, they rarely even discuss the trappings of becoming major stars. Coyne seems more at home discussing his 11 years working at the local Long John Silver's, a job that he loved.”
ROBBIE FULKS gets a meager 4.1 for his new album on the Pitchfork. Ouch!
MIXTAPE magazine launches today. If you're wondering whether that's a concept that can sustain over the long-term, remember that the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. SEMI-RELATED: The June issue of The Believer magazine will include a compilation CD of indie artists covering other indie artists, which is no surprise from a magazine that runs columns by Nick Hornby.
TRENT REZNOR is in court over his finances, prepping the inevitable VH1's Behind the Music show.
WILCO will start recording a new album in August and releasing a DVD/CD of their four-night stint at Chicago's Vic Theatre later this year.
REVENGE OF THE SITH: Sithstud Hayden Christensen was spotted canoodling with voracious Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria during the party for Episode III at the Cannes Film Festival. Defamer thinks there's more to the story. ALSO: I got better swag at the Chicago premiere than Boing-Boing's Xeni Jardin did in L.A…
WARREN BEATTY is suing Tribune Media Services for $30 million, saying it had violated an agreement to give the actor rights to make another movie featuring comic character Dick Tracy. He would stand a better chance in court if he had not put Madonna in the last one.
CANADA: The scandal-plagued Liberals got a better chance of surviving a crucial confidence motion on the federal budget on Thursday, and consequently to avoid being forced into a summer election when high-profile ontario MP Belinda Stronach crossed the floor Tuesday to join the Liberal party. Stronach, who was considered one of the rising young stars of the Conservative caucus, has joined the Liberal cabinet and was rewarded with the plum portfolio of minister of human resources. She did so without telling her boyfriend, Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay. Last month, Stronach was spotted all over NYC with former president Bill Clinton. And not for the first time, iirc.
FILMCRITIC.COM lists its All-Time Top 100 Voices in the Movies.
JANE FONDA strongly rejects the notion of running for public office. She probably wouldn't get many votes around Elizabethtown, KY, where the owner of two theaters refuses to show the her new movie Monster-in-Law because of the activist role she took during the Vietnam War; both theaters are just a few miles from Fort Knox. Elizabethtown is also the title of Cameron Crowe's next movie.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: Ain't It Cool has two advance reviews of the Tim Burton – Johnny Depp version of the Roald Dahl classic. Both are pretty positive, but both also have some spoilers, so consider yourself warned. ALSO: The Gene Wilder version as an allegory of life at college.
TOM AND THE SCIENTOLOGY FACTORY: Tom Cruise takes Holly Millea, a writer for Details magazine, on a tour of the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Center. Details to follow.
THIS PILL will improve your memory; its called… um… it's mentioned in this story I read, I think.
UZBEKISTAN: Government forces massacred hundreds of peaceful protesters on a scale not seen since Tiananmen Square in 1989. Since some, like CBS News, insist on mentioning that Uzbekistan has been a U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, it should be noted that the U.S. withdrew most foreign aid last year over president Islam Karimov's anti-democratic tendencies.
A WORKING-CLASS DOG IS SOMETHING TO BE: On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America may bar members from registering their dogs with other clubs, to preserve the working-dog characteristics of the breed and prevent it from becoming a show dog.
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL: British Member of Parliament George Galloway gave a bombastic performance yesterday, but failed to convince a U.S. Senate investigative committee that he had not profited from oil dealings with Iraq under the U.N.’s oil-for-food program. And it was a Democratic senator, Carl Levin, rather than the Republican committee chairman, Norm Coleman, who gave him the hardest time. Sen Levin repeatedly requested that Galloway deliver a straight answer to a straight question, but he could, or would not. Columnist Christopher Hitchens notes that the committee looked lackluster, but, imho, the fact that Galloway falsely accused Sen. Levin of supporting the invasion of Iraq will end up damaging his credibility far more than Hitchens imagines. ALSO: Norm Geras corrects The New York Times on the reasons why Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party.
JACKO JUSTICE: According to E! News: “During their alleged captivity at Neverland Ranch, the family of Michael Jackson's accuser made several demands. only the demands weren't about being set free–they were about body waxes, braces and 'f–king Cheetos.'”
THE NEW YORK TIMES' decision to start charging for its op-eds and some columnists online is getting a bad reaction from left and right in the blogosphere.
JEFF GANNON/GUCKERT: The Boston Globe runs a piece suggesting that the blogs that outed the conservative hack reporter associated with websites for gay escorts damaged themselves and the traditional press. SEMI-RELATED: Blogs are a powerful new force in U.S. politics but they have not displaced traditional media in terms of information and influence, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. As if a study was needed.
THE AMAZING RISE OF THE D.I.Y. ECONOMY is covered by Fortune magazine and what better example to lead with than Owen Misterovich's creation of the Pez MP3 player!
QURAN DESECRATION: The Washington Post: “More than two years ago, the Pentagon issued detailed rules for handling the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, requiring U.S. personnel to ensure that the holy book is not placed in 'offensive areas such as the floor, near the toilet or sink, near the feet, or dirty/wet areas.'”
BRITNEY SPEARS intends to let her appearance go, undoubtedly causing a flotilla of accountants to go into cardiac arrest. Her surreality show, Chaotic, debuted last night, but I have no doubt that No Rock and Roll Fun's imagining of the Spears proposal is more entertaining. Indeed, the Spears-Federline interview with Ellen Degeneres is probably better — Ellen stumped the couple by asking, “What's the best part about being married?”
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer who is sorta marrying Kate Moss has been evicted from his flat after hosting a string of all-night parties.
A SMALL VICTORY sets its Listomatic to New Wave.
CULT OF THE iPod: Jason Kottke lists 50 Fun Things You Can Do With Your iPod without using the earbuds. Detatch from your Mac, Jack.
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION continues to fall apart, losing its oxygen generator. Fortunately the astronauts have about 140 days' of backup supply.
LARGE BLACK GRACKLES are swooping down on downtown Houston and attacking people's heads, hair and backs. And Houston is a long way from Bodega Bay.
HARVARD PREZ LARRY SUMMERS committed the university to spend $50 million over the next decade on a range of programs aimed at improving the climate for women scientists, many of whom were angered by his remarks that questioned female aptitude for top-level math and science. That's an expensive apology for comments about a possibility that is a matter of current scientific debate, but hey, it's not his money.
OIL-FOR-FOOD II: A Senate Democratic staff report focuses on the role of Texas oil company Bayoil and its owner, David Chalmers, who has been charged over the company's activities. Those staffers may make certain assumptions about Texas oilmen, but it turns out that Chalmers gave a grand to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2000 before he gave 300 bucks to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee in 2002. The Democratic staff report also makes much of shipments to Jordan, though it has already been pointed out that both Congress and the U.N. were aware of and allowed the exports to Turkey. As the head of the U.S. mission to the U.N. said in response to this charge when Kofi Annan made it, these shipments were not comparable to “the bribery, the corruption, the kickbacks, the things that were done for self-interest secretively in a nontransparent manner that are really just acts of fraud and crime.”
NANOTECH: The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology has published a study purporting to show how existing technologies can be coordinated toward a reachable goal of general-purpose molecular manufacturing.
DO YOU THINK EUROPEANS DON'T LIKE THE U.S.? Just ask them about France!
CAN THE HAWKEYES GET ANYTHING RIGHT? This Fall, the University of Iowa is offering a class examining pornography in popular culture, which isn't sitting well with Iowa House Speaker Chris Rants during state budgeting. Moreover, “It's not a class about enjoying or viewing pornography,” according to Jay Clarkson, who is teaching the class. So who exactly is going to like this class, anyway?