Karl 
PATE NEWS: So I work on the site daily, but I have to find out that the boys put out a hip-hop record from Craig O'Neill?
ON THE PITCHFORK: Details on the forthcoming Posies album. Plus, Rhino hearts the '90's — seven CDs worth, in fact. Perfect if you want to hear Duran Duran right before Sugar.
STEVE EARLE and Allison Moorer played the Wychwood Festival in England last week; it's blogged at Crooked Timber.
LIVE 8: Sir Bob Geldof is proving that no idea is too bizzare to promote the event, proposing that boat owners to sail en masse across the English Channel to bring back more marchers for an anti-poverty walk to Edinburgh.
BRITAIN’S SUPER-RICH ROCK VETS are about to get even richer, as their government proposes extending copyrights to ensure pop songs are protected for almost twice as long as the current 50 years. Of course, the U.S. has already been doing this, so no real surprise.
GEORGE CLINTON MAY BE GETTING RICHER: Last week, a federal judge entered an order to return ownership to Clinton of the masters of four albums he made in the 1970's with Funkadelic: One Nation Under a Groove, Hardcore Jollies, Uncle Jam Wants You and The Electric Spanking of War Babies. At stake are licensing and distribution of the music and millions of dollars in past licensing fees.
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN, whose Spin magazine stuff I've linked before, has a book out now about a seemingly gonzo cross-country road trip that sounds interesting.
FOO FIGHTERS' DAVE GROHL is scathing of couples who have a gaping age gap between them, insisting the difference between generations is not conducive to romance.
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? Anne Bancroft died of uterine cancer on Monday at 73. Bancroft complained to a 2003 interviewer: “I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about `The Miracle Worker.' We're talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world. … I'm just a little dismayed that people aren't beyond it yet.”
BATMAN BEGINS: Moriarty of Ain't It Cool News would “like to congratulate Warner Bros. and DC for not only making a great BATMAN film, but also for raising the stakes on how adult and affecting a comic book movie can be.” However, he later warns: “This movie pushes the outer edge of the PG-13, and I think it’s just a matter of luck that they got the rating at all…”
ANGELINA JOLIE inadvertently performed a high-flying stunt for Mr. & Mrs. Smith sans underwear. I'm sure the crew thought it was a cunning stunt, which is much easier to write than say.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: At the MTV Movie Awards, the pair hunkered down in a private dressing room in the basement, along with Holmes' p.r. guy, a stylist, a hairdresser, a makeup person and six Scientologists. The next morning, junketing for Batman Begins, the two made out for the press between interviews. (btw, that link also details a near-catfight between Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson) A blogger mocks Maverick at Tom Cruise's Medical Forum. A 'netrepreneur offers a line of Free Katie fashion.
LI-LO: TVGasm is using a lot of “allegedlys” in a story in which a source allegedly close to La Lohan dishes about her “shrinking frail frame” and state of mind.
BRITNEY SPEARS: The Bride of Federline is probably expecting a girl.
MADONNA signs her new kiddie book in Prada and Dolce & Gabbana, demanding not to be touched.
ANOTHER YEARBOOK RECALL: The Central High School yearbook is riddled with sexually suggestive statements, photos in which students flash gang signs and other material that St. Louis Schools Superintendent Creg E. Williams described as racist, sexist and offensive.
SEN. JOHN KERRY finally released more of his military records to the Boston Globe, which claims there are no bombshells in them, though Slate's Mickey Kaus thinks some questions may linger. The Globe notes that Kerry was the candidate more often portrayed in the 2004 presidential campaign as intellectual and complex, but Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University. Bush is often inarticulate, so his strategery is often misunderestimated.
THE UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, was interviewed by the perky Katie Couric on the Today show, but everyone missed the lede. Check out the very end of the transcript.
Couric: You literally have the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Annan: I do. But not everybody understands that.
By now, Mr. Annan is undoubtedly dead, crushed under the literal weight of the world. Or perhaps Katie needs to take a referesher course in communications.
A NATION OF SNACKERS has become a nation of stainers. Detergent companies could not be happier.
COLD FUSION just larger than a breadbox? The only thing better would be if it was discovered by Elizabeth Shue, a scientist inexplicably dressed like a Catholic schoolgirl. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET? Virginia Postrel writes on (and argues against) the developing notion of consumer vertigo.
BORDER INSECURITY: Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres, then let him in. Two murders followed. But I'm suspicious of this picture. This looks about as real as that action figure taken hostage in Iraq a few months ago.
HOWARD DEAN said in San Francisco this week that Republicans are “a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party.” Last Thursday, he advised party activists to reach out to evangelicals. This ain't it.
OLD AND NEW MEDIA: When I read that Google has a bigger market valuation than Time Warner, I start suspecting a bubble of some sort. And as big a fan of new media as I am, I raise an eyebrow when newspapers, radio and magazines spend millions to combat the perception they're obsolete. But when I read that Google and Yahoo!, now account for more advertising revenues than do the prime time schedules of the three traditional television networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – combined, I have to start rethinking my skepticism.
VIACOM BREAKUP? Les Moonves, the co-president of Viacom, thinks the media giant will split into the “CBS Co.” and the “MTV Co.”
SCHOOL LUNCHES may be a terror target.
CULT OF THE iPod: The iTunes online music store is as popular as most music-swapping networks, according to a study released Tuesday. Not that the record biz will chill out.
DOGS can get a sex-change operation in Russia.
VINNIE THE MINI-HORSE rides shotgun.
IT'S RAINING FROGS in Siberia, but I'm wondering if that song was ever translated into French.
UNGENTLE BEN: The legal protection of the grizzly bear back in 1975 worked, almost too well in some places, as giant brown predators turn up in the backyards of the west, looking for a pic-a-nic basket. Seems like it might be happening in Canada, too.
AND THE COWS STARE UNAMAZED: A small town in Russia overrun with cows roaming its streets is towing them to secure compounds. Mugshots of the impounded cattle are then shown on local television.
FEMALE BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS are taught by their mothers to use marine sponges for protection… while looking for food.
CATGAROOKEY is the name given to the animal, said to be a cross between a cat, kangaroo and monkey, being hunted by cops in Salisbury.
