Karl 
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe topped the weekend box office, with an estimated 67 million in receipts. That seems like a lot — it beats Defamer’s projection handily. The only film that opened bigger during the pre-Christmas season is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It also also earned 42 million more overseas. But with a 180 million budget, Disney (despite the happy talk at the last link) might be a bit nervous about King Kong storming theaters Wednesday. I thought it was a faithful adaptation of the book — there’s a little extra exposition at the start of the film and a little more action, but both are unintusive and perhaps necessary for modern audiences unfamiliar with the British restraint found in Lewis’ book. It’s a good to near-great family movie, but one which some adults may compare (unfairly) to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
WHO WILL BE HOT IN '06? London's Guardian asked the hottest new bands from this year.
MILBURN was one of the picks from Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys in the last story. And fans of the early Pate sound will probably want to stream or download a few mod-punk nuggets from the band's MySpace page, which cites The Specials and The Jam as influences. And here's a recent piece on the band from Gigwise.
BEATLES ALT-HISTORY: A fiction article asks, “What if it was John Lennon rather than Pete Best who left The Beatles when they were on the cusp of fame?”
U2: Life imitates The Onion.
SEASON OF THE LIST: Filter has even more Top Tens, including lists from producer Christopher Fudurich and Alexandre Ortiz of We Are Wolves. Rough Trade has its Top 100 Albums for 2005, based on shop sales and staff votes. Parasol Records staffers have their top picks, too. The CD Times' Tobias Rogers lists his ten favourite pop moments of the year. Glide magazine has its Top 20 albums. Things I'd Rather Be Doing has a Top Ten, a Next Ten and Five More. Product Shop NYC has a Best 57 Albums list. The critics at the East Bay Express offer their Top Tens. About.com lists the Top 10 Classic Rock Box Sets Of 2005. Even the Financial Times' list of best pop records is relatively cool.
A HOLIDAY GUIDE for music of various genres at the Detroit Free Press.
THE SHINS must be getting their PR on, as the Rolling Stone article I noted the other day is joined by pieces on the upcoming album in NME and on the Pitchfork. Going from finger-picking folk to stuff that sounds like My Bloody Valentine and Fugazi sounds like quite a range.
IRON & WINE/CALEXICO: Carl Wilson thinks the sum may be greater than the parts of their collaboration. Of course, you can decide for yourself.
THE WHITE STRIPES: ContactMusic blurbs Meg White's Beatle-themed 31st birthday party.
DOWNLOADING LYRICS IS KILLING MUSIC: The Music Publishers' Association, which represents US sheet music companies, is planning to launch its first campaign against websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics in 2006. MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed. As with the music industry pre-iTunes, songwriters might ask why publishers and the MPA aren't trying to set up their own lyrics and tablature sites — or partner with existing ones — to take advantage of the Internet.
ONLINE SERVICES for musicians, such as Sonicbids (which helps book bands) are covered by USA Today. A day in the life of a musician in the digital age is charted in the Chicago Tribune. London's Observer and the Philadelphia Inquirer explore MySpace.
SEX PISTOLS guitarist Steve Jones got Lost star Naveen Andrews into Alcoholics Anonymous.
KEVIN COYNE; London's Independent profiles the late singer-songwriter who was often called — probably unfairly — Britain's Bob Dylan.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The shamed supermodel just landed a commercial for phone operator Virgin, just three months after a cocaine scandal threatened her career.
THUNDEREGG: *Sixeyes alerts us to this east Coast combo, which probably does better with songs like “Say We Did,” where the vocals are stronger (thanks in part to Kendall Meade of Sparklehorse, the Spinanes, et al.), but also gets credit for lesser tracks with titles like “It's Not You, It's Not Me, It's Her” and “Tim McCarver Must Die.”
BRUCE FOXTON is still bemused his ex-Jam bandmate Paul Weller refuses to speak to him, as they were pals when the band split.
JIMMY GALE GILMORE is part of the distinct minority of worthy Grammy nominees. NPR has a streamable story, plus three streaming tracks from Come on Back.
BARENAKED LADIES' pilot crashes at Fox: “I'd like to say it's because it's above them, it's too smart for them. But I'd be wrong,” admits BNL frontman Steven Page.
MADONNA: No Rock and Roll Fun looks at how Madge copes with her busy mother-and-star lifestyle. It's not nice, so click on over.
KING KONG: Jack Black takes us behind the scenes with the 500 lb. gorilla. And he told director Peter Jackson: “My acting is awesome so there better not be any bad robot acting.” Naomi Watts, who graces the new Vanity Fair, has no intention of making another action movie, because she is still nursing a string of Kong injuries. AP movie writer David Germain digs it: “It was reasonable to figure there was no way Jackson could top his monumental The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yet Jackson's done so with his spectacular update of the country-ape-meets-city-girl love story…”
JESSICA SIMPSON: Creepy dad/manager Joe is pressing for the divorce from Nick Lachey, but Jessica may not be fully on board.
RICHARD PRYOR: The path-breaking comedian died on Saturday of a heart attack after years of battling multiple sclerosis. He was 65. Pryor once marveled “that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that.” Maybe America was less racist than he thought. And maybe he helped make it that way. Screenwriter Roger L. Simon shares his memories of working with Pryor on Bustin’ Loose. (Pryor was a fair screenwriter himself, as Blazing Saddles demonstrates.) Dave Riehl has audio.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX took Method acting to eleven in Walk the Line, reportedly having an on-set fling with Ginnifer Goodwin, who played Johnny Cash's first wife, breaking it off the day that the two actors shot an emotional break-up scene.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Rumor has Cruise and Holmes on a shopping spree for a baby boy.
MATT DAMON married his longtime girlfriend Luciana Bozan at New York City Hall Friday morning, according to US Weekly The news about her pregnancy was coincidental, I'm sure.
RACHEL McADAMS stormed out of the November photo session for Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue because she had not been told she was to appear naked in a group portrait of Hollywood’s breathtaking beauties-of-the-moment, alongside Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson, and others. McAdams fired her rep, who had agreed to the shoot without McAdams' approval. McAdams fans will have to make do with the NSFW video hosted by Tyler Durden. Or the NSFW stills from the video at Egotastic.
MUNICH: The New Republic's Leon Wieseltier is not a fan: “Munich is aesthetically no different from War of the Worlds, and never mind that one treats questions of ethical and historical consequence and the other is stupid…” Variety is not too keen on it, either: “Filmmakers' fair-minded, liberal instincts have moved them to create a work that espouses rejecting an-eye-for-an-eye in order to give peace a chance. Unfortunately, in the Middle East, the olive branch has so frequently been met with guns that it's hard to feel that there's anything provocative or new or promising in the film's message…” It also seems that the movie is not a slam dunk for the Golden Globes, either.
UNIVERSAL TO BUY DREAMWORKS for a little over a billion, and they don't even get Shrek.
THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE names its top movies and TV shows of 2005.
ALEC BALDWIN claims Kim Basinger is trying to warp their daughter's mind with candy wrappers. No, really.
JACKO is warning those spreading drug rumours to “get good attorneys.”
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY has a shoe fetish. Which makes her like most women, except that she has the money to overdo it. Less harmful than drugs, anyway.
EMBEDS IN IRAQ: Two views from reporters embedded with the 101st Airborne Division — Julian E. Barnes of U.S. News & World Report and the AP's Ryan Lenz, who just arrived. Barnes focuses on the goodwill operations of the 1-327 infantry battalion and notes that the “101st seems to have a much deeper appreciation and understanding of the region it oversees than other units have had.” Bill Roggio files two dispatches from Ramadi, including an IED sweep down the meanest street in the city. Roggio also suggests that insurgents are leaving more rural areas of Anbar province to focus on Ramadi and Baghdad. ALSO: The US military has detained a high-ranking member of al Qaeda in Ramadi — the highest ranking al Qaeda in Iraq member to be turned into Iraqi and US officials by local citizens.
ELECTIONS IN IRAQ: Iraqi insurgents in Anbar are urging Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al-Qaeda not to attack polling stations. London's Guardian has more on this increasing split between Iraqi insurgents and al Qaeda. The New York Times reports on strain within the Shite coalition, partly because of a palpable decline in support from moderate voters and leading ayatollahs disenchanted with the performance of the current Shiite government.
IRAQ III: US troops are preparing to hand over control to Iraqi security in Baqouba. The AP story claims that “some American soldiers charged with training and preparing the Iraqis worry whether the rookie force is ready,” but mention only one. An Iraqi general formerly in charge of special forces said he witnessed horrific scenes of torture in Iraqi prisons and accused a Shiite militia of being responsible. The Agence France Presse unritically reports this while noting in passing that the general is “a Sunni Arab with a long career in the military,” which suggests he served in Saddam's regime and may have a motive to exaggerate. Popular Mechanics has an interesting feature on the adaptability of US troops in Iraq.
FORMER PRES. BILL CLINTON told a global audience on Friday that the Bush administration is “flat wrong” in claiming that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to fight global warming would damage the US economy. However, Clinton aministration economists admitted in 2001 that complying with the Kyoto protocol would be more costly — potentially much more costly — than they claimed when they were in office. Even then, Bill Clinton chose not to submit the protocol to the Senate for ratification — yet the AP story calls Clinton a “champion” of it. Canada, Japan and the old 15-member European Union are all failing to meet their Kyoto targets, perhaps because — as The New York Times reports — “for now, economic growth is inconceivable” without producing CO2. But these countries have all agreed to negotiate a second round of targets they won’t meet, so they should all feel good about themselves.
EUGENE McCARTHY, the former MN Senator whose anti-Vietnam War campaign embarrassed LBJ into withdrawing from the race, died Saturday. He was 89. That historic campaign was financed by a small group of wealthy liberals that would be illegal under today's campaign finance laws (which doesn't speak well of the law).
IRAN: Oddly enough, after Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map, Israel starts planning possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran. Looks like things could get hot in March if Iran's nuclear ambitions are not addressed by the UN by then.
CHINA: Gateway Pundit has a round-up of coverage, plus video on the government massacre of land rights protesters at Dongzhou Town.
CULT OF THE iPod: Playlist names its best iPod-related products of 2005.
YAHOO has acquired del.icio.us, the social bookmarking service. The del.icio.us team will soon be working in close proximity to their photo-sharing fraternal twin, Flickr.
KANGAROO ROADKILL… in rural Wisconsin?
THE RAT CONTROL ACADEMY: Another reason to love NYC.
HITCH-HIKING HOUND: A terrier named Toto took a ride with the cops down under.
BABY ELEPHANT conceived through artificial insemination is born in Jerusalem. Photo at the link. Awww.. ALSO: A Rwandan elephant has gotten cranky enough to warrant a United States government security warning.
A RAMBUNCTIOUS POTBELLIED PIG running wild near Turner Maine was captured, but slipped its bonds and nearly escaped from a truck. ALSO: American pig history is being taught at Xavier University. For shame, Ames!
ZOO AMINALS are makin' a list and checkin' it twice in Nebraska.
ENDANGERED RABBITS are released on the Faith Ranch, which is owned by the wine-making Gallo family with a conservation easement to the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. Being rabbits, they stand a good chance of un-endangering themselves.
