NOTE: Our site admin Lance says the site had an issue with IP addressing yesterday, so if you missed Monday's entry, just keep scrollin', scrollin', scrollin'…
THE DECEMBERISTS: Colin Meloy officially announces the band has signed with Capitol records, via the Pitchfork. Meloy manages to call the label “winsome” at one point. Meloy added that the Decemberists will remain on Rough Trade in the UK, since Rough Trade is “pretty much the coolest label on the planet right now.”
THE HIVES' Pelle Almqvist talks to PopMatters about the bizzare nature of his job and the fleeting success of hip-hop albums.
SEASON OF THE LIST: Filter adds Top Tens from The Go! Team and Roddy Woobmle of Idlewild. Chicago-based critics including Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot offer Sound Opinions' “best of ” lists. Bows + Arrows has a Top 24 Albums list, with a few worthies that slipped off many of the other indie lists. At Chromewaves, Frank has a Top Ten of 2005 and a few 2004 albums he discovered this year — and he's killing music at both links.
JEFF TWEEDY of Wilco talks to the AP about the usual Tweedy topics. The phrase “killing music” pops up in one of his answers.
BELLE AND SEBASTIAN: Former B&S writer-singer-cellist Isobel Campbell was so intent on recording a perfect whip sound for her upcoming album with Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA) that she ended up buying the leather accessory from a sex shop.
LOVE IS ALL is a Swedish indie pop group that scores an 8.7 on the Pitchfork with Nine Times That Same Song. Their sound strikes me as a cross between No Wave and the earliest U2 records, but you can stream one at the band's MySpace page, another at their label's MySpace page and kill music at Yeti Don't Dance.
THE ARCTIC MONKEYS announce the track listing for the upcoming album, which has moved up to drop on January 30th.
PAUL McCARTNEY: If you thought his late wife Linda got him into the animal rights movement, you will be surprised that he credits Walt Disney's Bambi for inspiring him. Walt must be spinning in his ice block.
BEATLES REUNION: Yoko sabotaged it.
THE JOLLY ROGERS sound more like a more upbeat take on acts like Sufjan Stevens and Belle & Sebastian than pirate music. You can stream a few from MySpace or download them from the band's website. I am partial to “Walk In the Park” and “Oh, Be One.”
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The tale of the troubled singer is recapped in a review of Babyshambles' album in The New York Times. The shamed supermodel has been voted Best-Dressed Woman Of 2005 in a poll for Grazia magazine. The Top Ten — almost all of whom are discussed often here — are listed at the link.
COLIN FARRELL is being treated for exhaustion and dependency on prescription medication, according to his publicist. But AFP has a story headlined “Overdose pour l'acteur Colin Farrell lors du tournage de Miami Vice” that says, “L'équipe des urgences médicale, qui a examiné l'acteur, a retrouvé dans son sang des “traces de cocaïne, de majijuana et d'une autre drogue qui n'a pu être identifiée”, a indiqué la radio Sarandi.” I haven't seen this story in English — which should raise a red flag — but I don't think you have to know much French to translate this one. (The AFP story also ran at a French-Canadian site.)
SARAH JESSICA PARKER: one the one hand, she says her marriage to Matthew Broderick is working. OTOH, SJP reportedly says she is so used to Broderick not being around, it often feels like there's an “interloper” in their home whenever he's not working. Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY, People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive, rescued a little girl from a prowling coyote. Well, alright, allright, alright.
KATE BECKINSALE is revelling in her new-found curves after putting on weight for her latest film Click, because the extra weight boosted her sex life. Last time, it was the leather catsuit from Underworld serving that purpose. I used to be baffled by her choice of movie roles, but I think I have it decoded now.
AWARDS SEASON is gearing up, as the New York Film Critics Circle, the New York Film Critics online, the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn, and the controversial National Board of Review all weigh in. No overwhelming trends yet, though things look good for Brokeback Mountain, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon and Keira Knightley (though the last two will be Oscar competitors). Steve Pond tries to sort it out.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Supermodel Jenny Shimizu speaks for the first time about her steamy ten-year relationship with bisexual Jolie and her belief that Pitt’s relationship may be short-lived: “There has never been an ending to her and I. I think there never will be.”
KING KONG: I note that Turner Classic Movies is running the 1933 classic tonight, while American Movie Classics is running the frightening 1976 remake. What are the odds?
RACHEL McADAMS and RYAN GOSLING may be taking their on-screen romance from The Notebook to the chapel.
THE CLINTONS reportedly looked uneasy during dinner at Nobu when Denise Rich came over to say hello. Page Six seems to attribute this to Rich's generosity to the Dems raising eyebrows after her ex-husband, Marc, was given a presidential pardon. But shouldn't a gossip column be aware of the obligatory sex rumor floated by the National Enquirer, especially as Pres. Clinton and the Enquirer had the same attorney at the time.
THE FRENCH HOTEL is the world's worst celebrity dog owner, according to an online vote by readers of two dog magazines. Joss Stone is the best.
MARY POPPINS was written by P. L. Travers, who, as it turns out, was no Mary Poppins.
JESSICA SIMPSON playing the field already? She was spotted with Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine before her separation from Nick lachey was announced. Now she's been seen dating Trace Ayala, best friend and business partner of Justin Timberlake and may be the reason Ayala and fiancee Elisha Cuthbert seem to be apart. And quite possibly grounds for seeking to have Ayala committed to a mental health facility. Plus, Rush & Molloy have sister Ashlee and creepy dad-manager Joe talking about the Simpson family assets.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio, still blogging from Ramadi, interviews Major General Richard A. Huck, Commanding General of the 2nd Marine Division, leads the fight against the insurgency and reconstruction efforts in the bulk of Anbar province. Iraqi blogger Omar has photos and more about the early voting for the parliamentary election.
PUBLIC OPINION IN IRAQ: ABC News, along with the BBC, Time magazine and others, conducted a poll of Iraqis finding “surprising levels of optimism… with living conditions improved, security more a national worry than a local one, and expectations for the future high.” Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead. More than six in 10 feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40 percent in a poll in June 2004. And 61 percent say local security is good — up from 49 percent in the first ABC News poll in Iraq in February 2004. The Associated Press accentuates the negative, noting that “More than two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the presence of troops from the United States and its coalition partners and less than half, 44 percent, say their country is better off now than it was before the war…” The AP ignores that the new poll numbers are much better than those in a secret Ministry of Defence poll leaked last month that said 82 percent were “strongly opposed” to the presence of coalition troops. And the AP doesn't mention that while “only” 44 percent say Iraq is better off now, that's more than the 39 percent who say it's worse off (see Question 5 in the poll). To be sure, not all of the poll results are rosy, but the ones that are seem to have put US news organizations in states of shock and denial.
NANOTECH: The AP looks at efforts to study the risks of nanoparticles. Kevin Ausman, executive director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University, says the nanotechnology sector is ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding potential dangers, and is doing far more early research than has been done in other industries, even one as relatively new as biotechnology.
BLOGGING FOR THE MASSES: Yahoo Web Hosting is offering the popular MovableType software and WordPress may also be offered.
HARVEY THE GIANT ALLIGATOR is leaving the basement of the Southside Middle School in Rockville Centre, NY.
MICE WITH HUMAN BRAIN CELLS have been created at the Salk Institute in San Diego. Too. Many. Punchlines.
NINE WHALES and 24 DOLPHINS may have been killed by the snowstorm that hit the East Coast over the weekend.
DOG BITES OFF MAN'S NOSE, but it's re-attached even after the dog swallowed it.
SQUIRREL-PROOF BIRD FEEDERS: Myth or reality?