Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
GORT, KLAATU BARADA NIKTO! Robert Wise, a four-time Academy Award winner whose epic 65-year career ranged from editing Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons to directing classic musicals such as The Sound of Music and West Side Story, as well as the science-fiction of The Day The Earth Stood Still and the first Star Trek film, is dead of heart failure at 91.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTERS: Try our site admin Lance's gallery of Puzzle Games.
THE dB's DOWNLOADS: The reunited band is offering a freebie at their web site, as well as a nice cover of “What Becomes of the Broken-hearted” in return for a donation to the New Orleans Musicians' Relief Fund. Ken King and I will be seeing them Saturday, so maybe there will be pictures and comment Monday…
ROCK'S NEW G-G-GENERATION, including Death Cab for Cutie, Broken Social Scene, the Flaming Lips, the Shins and Wilco, is examined by Newsweek. The growing success of new bands and the role of the internet in that success are also discussed.
FIERY FURNACES' Matt Friedberger describes the upcoming Rehearsing My Choir: “It's a regular rock album with an old woman on it.”
KRISTIN HERSH of Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave, has started a tour blog: “So, bright and pretty g*****mn early the next morning, Bernie picked us up and crammed us into his Dalmation hair car (I always want to knit a Cruella de Ville sweater after riding in that car) and drove us to The Bus. Our tacky, beloved, and perpetually busted Bus. It smelled great: eau de bus.”
R.L. BURNSIDE: The recently deceased bluesmaster's collaboration with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, A Ass Pocket of Whiskey, originally released by Matador in '95 has been reissued on Fat Possum. Pitchfork gives it a 7.7; the review is worth a moment.
BURT BACHARACH blasts Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina, because he funded the war instead of boosting flood control funding a few months ago. Burt may not know that Category 5 levees take decades to build or that the New Orleans Levee Board spent millions on the Mardi Gras Fountain and overpasses for the Bally's casino instead of flood control projects. However, with President Bush promising last night that the Crescent City will rise again, Burt can expect that the levees will get their due.
SUFJAN STEVENS on his band dressing — and occasionally behaving — as cheerleaders for the Illinois tour: “Superficially it probably looks like a lot of gimmicks, but it's been really good for us.”
THE CMJ MUSIC MARATHON lineup is previewed by the critics of the Village Voice.
JAMES BROWN'S fifth wife got on the good foot… and into hiding from the hardest working man in show business, claiming she's “had enough of the drugs, the beatings and the verbal abuse.”
THE SEX PISTOLS and TOM JONES are among those added to a list of stars to be honored at London's new Walk Of Fame.
BONO is the subject of a lengthy piece in Sunday's New York Times Magazine focusing on his political activism. Thanks to the magic of the Internets, you can read it today.
RENEE ZELLEWEGER and KENNY CHESNEY are trying to annul their marriage, which lasted just over four months.
BRITNEY SPEARS: American Idle has a photo(shop) of the Son of Federline, as does Dude.Man.Phat. No wonder he wants back in the womb. But the kid may luck out if Access Hollywood is correct in reporting that his name is Sean Preston, which certainly beats PMS Federline.
HURRICANE KATRINA: Early tests on the floodwater that covered most of New Orleans do not suggest it will leave a permanent toxic residue or render residential areas uninhabitable for more than a short time, officials of both state and federal environmental agencies said yesterday. This WaPo story notes: “Despite descriptions of the floodwater as a 'toxic soup' and a 'witch's brew' of contaminants, the preliminary tests reveal it contains little that is different from what has been seen after past floods in other cities and here.” Want to guess the title of last Saturday's WaPo editorial?
KATRINA II: The area affected by the hurricane was about the size of Great Britain, but how big is the flooded area of New Orleans? CondoBuzz overlays the flooded area over maps of other major American cities for comparison.
KATRINA III: President Bush gave a speech last night vowing to fix everyone's problems — including his — by spending ginormous sums of cash. Moments later, Sen. John Kerry criticized Bush, saying “Leadership isn't a speech or a toll-free number.” Since the latest Zogby poll suggests G.W. Bush would lose an election to every President since Carter, but would still beat Kerry, the Dems were probably better served by their other reps.
PAT ROBERTSON SAYS HURRICANE KATRINA was God’s way of expressing His anger at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its selection of Ellen De Generes to host this year’s Emmy Awards. Yeah, that's fake… but you had to think about it for a second, didn't you? PLUS: Emmy noms.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: Galpal Kate Moss caught using cocaine “during a debauched drugs and drink session with junkie lover Pete Doherty.” See for yourself. Yet the troubled singer is still beaten by Keef Richards in a VH1 viewer poll of the top 10 living hell-raisers.
MONICA LEWINSKY is leaving NYC for London and got some spotted dick as a parting gift.
MRS. McCARTNEY LOSES LEG in scuffle with J-Lo's security guards.
IRAQ: Faces From The Front looks at the new Iraqi courts. The Tampa Tribune has started a series called “Voices From The Front” with interviews of Maj. Bill Cowling, who coordinates reconstruction projects in Mosul, and Sgt. 1st Class Elbert “JR'' Jetton of Hinesville, GA, who is serving his second tour in Iraq as a field artillery meteorologist in Baghdad and works with tribal leaders to improve living conditions.
IRAQ II: Bill Roggio has been on a roll this week. Thursday brought more analysis of ops in Northern Iraq, noting the capture of three more senior al Qaeda commanders in the Mosul region, based on intell from locals, and sums up some stats from the north: “Eighty percent of the network has been killed or captured. Sixty to seventy percent of the terrorist killed were foreigners. Most terrorists are now in their mid-teens, and inexperienced. Mortar attacks are down from three hundred a month to six.” Next, comments from Major General Rick Lynch about pursuing Zarqawi by conducting Tal Afar-type ops in cities like Qaim and Haditha. And a post noting that the Iraqi Defense Minister is already threatening similar ops in Samarrah to try to force the locals to get on board with the new national government.
JESSICA ALBA: Ordinarily, I would not gratuitously link to pictures of the Alba. But someone made me do it. Well, he didn't make me do it, so much as he asked me to do it. By which I mean he asked me to put something about him on the site, which is all well and good, except that Alba is much hotter than he is. So it's really Shain Khoshbin's fault for not being a beautiful woman.
MORE HOT GIRL-ON-GIRL ACTION, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Or women are more comfortable talking about it. Either way works for me.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY is tired of spending nights in lonely hotel rooms. It really bugs me when she uses the press to rag like this. Sorry, but I can't just drop everything at a moment's notice.
SEXISM MAY SHORTEN MENS' LIVES, according to a new study. I totally set you up for that.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Jolie is going to bank a cool 12 million bucks to be the new face of Californian fashion label St John — similar deals for Gwyneth Paltrow, Liz Hurley and Nicole Kidman were less than half that amount. Someone on the Perez Hilton bulletin board looks at photos of Pitt suggesting he morphs into his lovers.
EXPLOITED WORKERS SPOTTED AT WAL-MART: They're making six bucks an hour, with no benefits, in 104 degree F weather, with only two 15-minute bathroom breaks per shift. But they don't work for Wal-Mart. These people are temp workers for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, picketing against the poor working conditions at Wal-Mart.
ORLANDO BLOOM gladly stoked rumors of a romance with Elizabethtown co-star Kirsten Dunst during the movie's Sept. 10th premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
KURT VONNEGUT lists “Liberal Crap I Never Want to Hear Again” for the Daily Show.
RUSSELL CROWE warns he may turn his back on the U.S. for good if he is found guilty of assault. Given that a conviction would make getting a visa problematic, this is like yelling “I quit” when you realize you're about to get fired.
GWYNETH PALTROW may turn her back on the U.S., suggesting to a Canadian interviewer that she doesn't want to live here because of President Bush. OTOH, it was just a couple of weeks ago that Gwyneth and hubby Chris Martin were reportedly leaving the UK after being frightened by the recent terror attacks on London.
PATAKI FEVER hits the Hawkeye state, according to Des Moines Register guru David Yepsen.
THE SUPREME COURT: At this week's confirmation hearings, Chief Justice nominee John Roberts did not say how he would vote in future cases, but Sen. Chuck Schumer did get Roberts to say his favorite movies are Doctor Zhivago and North by Northwest. This revelation caused Prof. Ann Althouse to note that Mrs. Roberts looks like Eva Marie Saint. So why did no one think to ask the favorite movie question of Clarence Thomas?
REESE WITHERSPOON is getting Oscar buzz for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk The Line. And there's been similar buzz for Joaquin Phoenix playing Johnny. I'm skeptical, but hope the movie is that good — Johnny and June deserve it.
SIENNA MILLER and JUDE LAW: Together again?
LOHAN LOWDOWN: Looks like Li-Lo is off the Skeletor diet. Now all she needs is someone to dress her in the morning.
GOOGLE'S NEW ENGINE searches blogs. First word of Google's new searching tool was, in fact, disseminated by a blog.
BLOG-FIGHT: Defamer, a blog often linked here is mooned by E! Television gossip columnist Ted Casablanca.
NEPAL: Women's rights activists hail a Supreme Court order to end the tradition in parts of Nepal of keeping women in cow-sheds during their menstrual cycle.
THE UNITED NATIONS: I forgot to do a round-up on President Bush's speech to the UN the other day. He asked the Secretary-General whether US Ambassador John Bolton had blown the place up yet. He was caught passing a note to Secretary of State Condi Rice asking for a bathroom break. And he gave a speech about fighting terrorists and making poverty history in Africa. Bob Geldof, who gave world leaders an unflattering four out of 10 for helping Africa beat poverty, listened to Bush's speech with UN anti-poverty chief Jeffrey Sachs and they couldn’t believe what they heard: “I think he’s really throwing down the gauntlet. It’s a very bold move,” Geldof said of Bush’s trade tariff proposal, adding that he was impressed with the president’s statement that terrorism “comes from despair and lack of hope.” Of couse, if Geldof was as smart as Kanye West, he would realize that Bush is targeting scourges such as AIDS, malaria and the growing threat of avian flu, particularly in Africa, to cover up the fact that he doesn't care about black people.
IRAN: Speaking of the UN, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited and voiced Iran's readiness to transfer peaceful nuclear technology to Islamic states.
9/11 CONSPIRACISTS INVADE GROUND ZERO: Even the Village Voice doesn't seem to think much of the people who tried to convince grieving families that the WTC attack was really a controlled demolition on the fourth anniversary of the attack. How bad was it? Consider this: The clamor was all too much for a passing tourist. “God bless America, you bitch!” he screamed in a thick accent. “Go back to where you came from, you foreigner,” groused a fellow conspiracist. “But I am French,” the tourist responded indignantly.
CAT NEWS: The issues of importance, for and by cats, in QuickTime on Channel 102.
DEAD CAT UPDATE: The German inventor who claims to have developed a method to produce organic diesel fuel from waste denies a German newspaper story implying he also used dead cats: “I've never used cats and would never think of that. At most the odd toad may have jumped in.” But he could theoretically use dead cats.
OLD YELLER DOGFOOD Disney licensed it, but who buys that name? Or the dogfood?
THREE BUBONIC MICE: Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago; and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk.
DOLPHINS swept out of their aquarium tanks by Hurricane Katrina and spotted in the Gulf of Mexico are now the focus of rescue efforts. It took this long to get the dolphin rescue going? No wonder Michael Brown resigned!
ELEPHANTS are working out on the treadmill in Anchorage.
WHITE GIRAFFE spotted in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park.
BLACK COCKS HARD TO SWALLOW down under in New Zealand.
