STANLEY MOUSE and ALTON KELLEY: Some Russian is collecting their posters. Anyone who shopped at the Music Works may remember some of these. My ex-roomie Dru Martin had the Bo Diddley.
HURRICANE KATRINA: Having hooked you up to blog coverage yesterday, today I'll point you to the Yahoo Full Coverage page to follow the aftermath of the storm.
RICHARD THOMPSON GOES MUSIC SHOPPING with The New Yorker. Find out whether he bought Wille Dixon or Cyndi Lauper.
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS' Carl Newman lists music you should hear for Amazon and gives some advice to Axl Rose.
ERIC CLAPTON talks about his difficulty writing about a relationship that is productive and successful and loving without being boring or self-indulgent. And how a happy homelife led him to reunite Cream.
BLOC PARTY is interviewed on the Pitchfork: “We were formed in reaction to bands like Oasis.”
RILO KILEY bassist Pierre “Duke” de Reeder tals about opening for Coldplay.
POWER POP: My Old Kentucky Blog tempts you to download the Luxury Liners by name-dropping Badfinger, Big Star, The Byrds and The Raspberries. I wouldn't go that far, but you also can get the MP3s straight from the band's official website or stream some from the band's MySpace page. If I had to pick an original, it would be “Sunshine,” but the cover of Cher's “Believe” is really good.
POLYPHONIC SPREE: Gorilla vs. Bear notes that the PS is most of the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Thumbsucker. You can stream a few from the band's MySpace page.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: His Babyshambles bandmates say the troubled singer was never going to quit the band; he just wanted to take time out of the public spotlight. Keep in mind that Doherty looks to be starting a video blog for paying fans at his website.
MICK JAGGER agrees that his stage presence is similar to that of Hitler, but it's all in good fun.
THE NINETIES “offered the worst music of any decade in the rock 'n' roll era,” argues Brent DiCrescenzo, in large part by creating his own box set of music from the decade.
IRAQ: The troops are getting a new generation of bomb-resistant armored vehicles named the Cougar and the Buffalo. Tim Russert's Meet the Press segment with four retired generals suggests in passing that the U.S. is making progress training Iraqi forces. Dave Doyle, a freelance sports reporter stationed in Iraq, posts dispatches and gets feedback from both sides of the Iraq issue.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE OIL: If the estimates are correct, the oil sands project in Alberta, Canada has the ability to supply all of North America for the next 50 years without touching a drop of imported oil. The Canucks can be so glad the U.S. is busy with Iraq at the moment.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Vanity Fair breaks its sales record with the Aniston cover. Zahara Jolie has a blog. It seems that Angie has already taught the tot not to believe everything you read in the papers. Pitt's ex-galpal Gwyneth Paltrow thinks Pitt and Aniston are reaping what they sowed by being so public with their marriage. If I was Paltrow, I wouldn't want to talk about Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, either.
DOROTHY'S RUBY SLIPPERS STOLEN: We all know whodunit, don't we? After all, Dorothy kinda stole them herself, right off the feet of that poor woman's dead sister…
PAGE SIX GETS IT WRONG? Hard to believe, but I think so. But you never know…
STACY'S MOM thinks Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher needs to eat something.
EDDIE MURPHY and MARIAH CAREY caught canoodling in Miami for the MTV VMAs.
LIZ HURLEY getting hitched?
THE SPANISH INQUISITION: Amongst their weaponry are: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to Natalie Portman.
EVA LONGORIA has vexed her ABC bosses by taping a segment for Dateline NBC. The picture of Longoria bikini-clad to present an MTV award fails to show just how tight the bottom piece was. But no one ever accused her of leaving anything to the imagination. Except maybe Dude.Man.Phat, who definitely has an imagination.
RUSSELL CROWE slams celebrity acitivists like Bono and Bob Geldof. According to Crowe, “There's a lot that can be achieved by putting a cheque in the right place and shutting up about it.” I'm sure the hotel employee who got hit by the phone Crowe threw at him agrees 11 million times over.
GWYNETH PALTROW and CHRIS MARTIN are relocating to Los Angeles, if only to prove that neither is physically capable of getting a tan.
BRITNEY SPEARS screams at and threatens a 13-year-old girl. Just prepping for motherhood, y'know.
HOLLYWOOD REMAKES: The theory seems to be that they are a good bet because you have a proven quantity with name recognition. But that theory has mixed results in the real world.
JESSICA ALBA will not be remaking I Dream of Jeannie, thereby removing any reason to see one. Thanks, Jess!
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY was offered liposuction by an L.A. dermotologist. This is the culture that produces Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie.
DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ: At Iraq the Model, Mohammed blogs that Grand Ayatollah Al Sistani opposes the federation of the draft constitution and wants unity with the Sunnis. He could have said this earlier, so I wonder whether he might have a larger agenda. Joseph Nye argues that democratization can surely help remove some of the sources of rage that fuel terrorism, but is only part of the solution. Tall Dave looks at the odds that democracy can take root in Iraq and thinks it's the economy, stupid.
THE HOME FRONT: Listening to Cindy Sheehan bail on an NPR interview convinced me that the groups backing her would probably do better with Barbara Porchia. Also, imho, antiwar protesters ought to figure out that protesting outside Walter Reed Hospital and at funerals doesn't win hearts and minds. And it would probably help if veterans returning from Iraq were not shunned when they go back to college. That's free advice and worth every penny.
AFGHANISTAN: U.S. forces have killed a senior Taliban commander responsible for a spate of attacks in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Monday. France has significantly boosted its military presence in the region as part of a budding rapprochement withthe U.S.
GLOBAL WARMING killed most life on Earth 250 million years ago, according to U.S. researchers. Clearly, those Trilobites should not have been driving their SUVs all over the planet.
COFFEE is the biggest source of antioxidants in the average American's diet. Not to mention what cappuccinos do for Pam Anderson.
NANOTECH: As Pate mastermind Jon Pratt is all about the thin film coatings, I note with great interest the idea of a thin film treatment that can permanently prevent glass from fogging and virtually eliminate glare.
F***ING TOWN IN AUSTRIA keeps getting its F***ing sign stolen. Police Chief Kommandant Schmidtberger asks, “What is this big F***ing joke?”
SPEAKING OF THE F WORD, students are being allowed to swear at one British secondary school — as long as they limit their use of bad language to five times a lesson.
TURN DOWN THAT RACKET! Or suffer the fate of the Princess of Swaziland.
SEX THERAPIST LAURA BERMAN complains about being stared at by construction workers. Granted, such behavior is classless — but if the only person to complain has her own line of “intimate accessories,” this particular encounter begins to sound very much like “This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby!”
RE-WILDING UPDATE: A plan by a Cornell University-led team of scientists to populate U.S. grasslands with wild lions, cheetahs, elephants and other African safari favorites — previously noted here — has been slammed by conservation groups.
ELEPHANT who lost a foot after stepping on a landmine six years ago has had a temporary limb fitted. Video at the link.
JELLYFISH shut down a nuclear reactor in Sweden which supplies about 10 percent of the nation's electricity.
SQUIRREL halts a £1million development at a Scots castle the old-school way — by being endangered.
WHY CAN'T THE GEESE CROSS THE ROAD? A new ordinance in Amherst, N.H., as it turns out.
HUMAN ZOO EXHIBIT UPDATE: one of the humans has a blog. Don't miss the “About Me” section.
HOGZILLA II — THE RETURN: The 594 lb. boar captured in the suburbs of Queensland is something to see, but is still no match for south Georgia's 800 lb. beast.