PETER JENNINGS, who anchored the evening news for ABC not once but twice, died Sunday of lung cancer at 67.
IBRAHIM FERRER, a leading voice with the Buena Vista Social Club, is dead at 78, probably from emphysema.
THE FLAMING LIPS: Pitchfork's review of The Fearless Freaks — a documentary on the band — draws a comparison to Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.
IRON AND WINE: Sam Beam — the man and beard behind the band — talks to Prefix about songwriting and collaborating with Calexico on a disc to be released later this year. You Ain't No Picasso kills a couple of tracks and provides further linkage.
FRUIT BATS frontman Eric Johnson is “Interviewed” at PopMatters, though it's really a couple of old friends talking about Charles Grodin and such.
POP CULTURE MOMENTS: Uncut magazine polled industry experts, musicians and actors — including Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Noel Gallagher, Brian Wilson, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Robert Downey Jr, Ed Norton and Juliette Lewis — music, movies, TV shows and books from the past 50 years that changed the world. The Telegraph counts down the Top 20. The BBC has posts readers' choices, including this from Alex in St. Louis: “Oops I Did It Again by Britney Spears changed my world. It was after that song that I fully realised the horrific consequences of mass-marketing on the Western world.” SUPER-BONUS: You can stream Uncut's CD of Highway 61 Revisted covers, with tracks from Drive-By Truckers, Paul Westerberg, American Music Club, Dave Alvin and more.
MUDHONEY is working on its first album since 2002's Since We've Become Translucent.
OASIS frontman Liam Gallagher is comparing himself to Elvis, which I suppose some might see as evidence that he might be like Elvis offstage.
YOUR MOMENT OF SITH: The translations for pirate DVDs of Episode III are almost as bad as George Lucas' original dialogue.
LI-LO UPDATE: wants her boobs back, which makes it pretty much unanimous. Defamer comments on Lohan's unique understanding of biology.
J-LO is considering quitting her music and movie career to become a full-time mother: “Either you are going to be a bad mom and be a really good career woman and wife, or a good mom and career woman and bad wife, or a good mom and a good wife and your career is going to suck.” Imho, J-Lo could be a good mom and a good wife and no one would notice a difference in her career.
IRAQ: So, on Friday, I wrote that it seemed like a major operation was getting underway… and there was. About 1,000 U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces launched attacks in western Iraq in Operation Quick Strike, aimed at disrupting insurgents and foreign fighters in the Euphrates River valley. Brig. Gen. Donald Alston said operations in the Al Anbar province have succeeded in disrupting insurgent activities, citing figures showing there were 13 car bombs in Iraq last week—the lowest weekly number since April. But I'll repeat my other speculation that the nature of Operation Quick Strike will force combat and may thereby increase casualties.
SAUDI ARABIA: The New York Times wonders “Why America Is More Dependent Than Ever on Saudi Arabia.” (bugmenot kallisti_b, fnord) The answer seems to be that we aren't, with the percentage of gross oil imports from SA declining from almost 25 percent to a little over 10 percent since 1991. Not to mention that the U.S. pulled out of military bases in SA.
KATE HUDSON thinks monogomy is unrealistic. Her hubby, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, seemingly has the greenlight, so long as she doesn't find out about it.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON TO PLAY AFRO SAMURAI in a live-action movie and in cartoons.
EDDIE MURPHY GETTING DIVORCED: How does a marriage survive the tranny hooker story, only to collapse years later? I have to believe Eddie is a donkey on the edge these days.
BRITNEY SPEARS: A photographer was shot in the leg with a pellet gun outside a home where he believed Britney Spears was attending a bridal shower Saturday evening.
LONDON: An elder at the Stockwell Mosque in southwest London — visited by one of the London July 21 bombing suspects — says he warned police in writing that Hamdi Issac was dangerous more than two years ago. He had “blown the whistle” to the Metropolitan Police, he said, because the Muslim community were always getting the blame for not being pro-active enough in challenging those inciting religious hatred.
IRAQ II: A letter allegedly written by an insurgent to the head of Al-Qaida in Iraq complained of the lack of leadership in the northern terrorist cell in Mosul, according to excerpts provided by the U.S. military Saturday. The Iraqi government announced a plan to improve border protection and intelligence gathering and for to form an elite Iraqi force to prepare for an eventual drawdown of American troops. Saddam ordered Iraq's central bank to withdraw a billion dollars for his youngest son the day before the invasion, according to a leaked letter apparently written by the former dictator.
MORE COWBELL! A short history. And the sketch that started it all.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE update and a bit of killing music up at Stereogum.
RICHARD HELL is interviewed about his new book, the newly-released Rhino comp, CBGB and more at Suicide Girls.
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT talks to the Chicago Sun-Times and is worth a read for the story of how he realized for the first time that his dad — Loudon Wainwright III — was “someone.”
100 GREATEST ROCK GUITAR SOLOS, according to Digital Dream Door. Actually, the list goes to 241, with an additional 50 greatest “live” solos.
MTV'S LAGUNA BEACH is the new O.C., placing an unlikely (and scary) contender near the top of the iTunes chart.
CULT OF THE iPod: Is classical music is out of tune with the iPod?
NANOTECH: Scientists hope that carbon nanotubes might one day be used to replace silicon in electronic circuits. Instapundit has links for those newly interested in nanotech.
THIS JUST IN: Men have trouble hearing women, according to a new study. It's because women are more melodious. That's our story and we're sticking to it.
LONDON II: The London Sunday Times publishes the results of an undercover investigation that caught leaders of a radical Islamic group inciting young British Muslims to become terrorists and praising the Tube bombers as “the fantastic four”. For radical clerics, they seem up on their pop culture, don't they?
IRAQ III: Women representing 17 civil society groups took to the streets of Najaf on Aug. 3 for womens' rights and to insist that Islam not be the only source of legislation. Publius Pundit notes that Najaf is a Shiite stronghold and holy city, where the religious leaders practically demand that sharia be the law of the land.
SOLOMON BURKE: Atlantic Records mogul Jerry Wexler — who worked with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding — had this to say when asked to name the greatest of the great soul singers: “Solomon Burke with a borrowed band.” That's just the beginning of an excellent profile in the Mpls. Star-Tribune.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer was caught on camera plunging broken glass into his own body during shooting for a documentary.
SUFJAN STEVENS IS NOT BLESSED by the Christian Music Trade Association, because he lacks adequate distribution through Christian channels and has not shown a desire for the association's imprimatur.
AZERBAIJAN: The government is cracking down on pro-democracy activists, while the U.S. put pressure on the government to do more to build trust in the voting process ahead of the November election.
FLIRTING AT WORK wins women fewer pay raises and promotions, according to a Tulane University study.
MORE WOMEN ARE ACTING BISEXUAL to attract men. “Oddly, the hottest heterosexual women can engage in public lesbian activity, or girl-girl activity, without threatening their heterosexual identity at all,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, an assistant professor of sociology at Indiana University who studies sexuality and culture. That's odd only to people with names like Elizabeth.
FLIP-FLOPS: The silent killer.
LET SLIP THE BLOGS OF WAR: John Hockenberry takes a look at the world of military bloggers. Sylvia Hauser and I were discussing the range of milblogs the other day via e-mail and an article magically appears.
GIRL SCOUTS' COOKIE DOUGH STOLEN, perhaps by the mother in charge of the troop's cookie sale.
STRIP CLUB stirs ourtage over truth in advertising.
AMERICANS DID NOT FLOCK TO CANADA AFTER BUSH WIN: In the days after President Bush won a second term, the number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site shot up sixfold, prompting speculation that unhappy Democrats would flock north. But official statistics show the number of Americans actually applying to live permanently in Canada fell in the six months after the election. Toby Condliffe, who heads the Canadian chapter of Democrats Abroad, did have an explanation of sorts: “I can only assume the Americans who checked out the Web site subsequently checked out our winter temperatures and further took note that the National Hockey League was being locked out and had second thoughts.”
COWS: Catch a stray cow from the hundreds roaming the streets of New Delhi, haul it to a state shelter and you will be given 46 bucks. The reward program has triggered road chaos in the Indian capital as bounty hunters on motorbikes compete to round up cattle roaming the streets.
COWS have been dyed bright pink and purple and stenciled with ads for an online casino. Representatives from PETA said they like the colorful cows because one of them says “Go Veg” on its side.
A GREEN SEA TURTLE, protected by the Endangered Species Act, lays eggs in Virginia for the first time on record.
FISH are getting “hotels” in Chicago, off the Michigan Avenue bridge at the south end of the city's Magnificent Mile shopping district. Much like the Octopus' Garden, we're told. I'm sure the rest of the State, which just bailed out the Chicago Transit Authority to the tune of 55 million dollars, will enjoy coming to see the fish hotels.
TURKEY DINNER sparks a prison hunger strike in Colorado.
CATS are jumping in these photos.
CAT FACES DOWN GATOR in an Illinois driveway and lives to tell the tale. Video at the link.
DOGS were hanging with celebs at the Broadway Barks! adopt-a-thon in Shubert Alley. There were a few cats, too.
DOGS: A combination dachshund race and hot dog eating contest. Catch the weiner dog synergy.