Karl 
…AND THE GRAMMYS WENT TO these folks, with U2 beating out Kanye West for Album of the Year. And the thought balloon above West's head reads, “The music biz doesn't care about black people!” There may be more in the photo and video galleries at the Grammy website by the time you read this. The Gorillaz and Madonna opener is posted on YouTube, but most of the clips up now are even scarier than that — Kelly Clarkson! [UPDATE: Here's video of U2 and Mary J. Blige playing “One” and Green Day's acceptance speech.]
GRAMMY HONOREES are almost always better. This year, Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, the Weavers, David Bowie, Merle Haggard, Cream, producer-mogul Chris Blackwell (B-52s, Bob Marley, Roxy Music, Marianne Faithfull, Traffic, U2), Nashville producer Owen Bradley and engineers Al Schmitt and Tom Dowd were among the honored. The TV show had an all-star tribute to Sly and the Family Stone — that is Sly rocking the blonde mohawk above. Pate fans will especially enjoy some vintage video of Bowie's “Rebel Rebel” and U2's semi-impromptu “I Will Follow” on SNL. It's nice to see the late DJ legend John Peel introduce Cream's “White Room,” but the real must-see is the Sly and the Family Stone on The Ed Sullivan Show, which is a better medley than the supposed all-stars did last night, not least for the spectacle of Sly heading out into the very white and very square audience in '68.
CREAM, btw, has scheduled more reunion shows in select cities, but there's no official announcement yet.
GEORGE BATTLE, the owner of Battle's Bar-B-Q in Ames, IA, died of cancer last month. Relatively few people can grasp the enormity of this loss. I loved that — appropos of nothing — he had a “Big Boy” statue right on the counter. (Thanks to Sylvia for the notice, but someone should put Craig O'Neill on suicide watch).
THE END IS NIGH: If that wasn't bad enough news, Barry Manilow tops the Billboard 200 Album chart. He's taking food out of the mouth of Rod Stewart, who just had a kid!
MORRISSEY: Two tracks from his upcoming ablbum are online. A Boy and his Blog is killing music with the eastern-tinged “I Will See You In Far Off Places,” which got slagged on the Pitchfork. Legally, you can stream the unsurprisingly-titled “You Have Killed Me” from MySpace.
FLAMING LIPS fans at the Univ. of Oklahoma held a Zaireeka party.
ROBERT POLLARD is just starting his first solo tour, but has already completed his next solo record, which will be released by Merge in October. “It’s a lot different from From A Compound Eye,” he says. “It’s called Normal Happiness. It’s 16 two-and-a-half minute pop songs.”
ROCK THE VOTE is about 700K in debt, with its staff cut from more than 20 people in 2004 to just two today, and has no president. Other than that, things are fine. Except for the lawsuits.
PAYOLA: A a two-year-long payola investigation by the New York attorney general is turning to the nation's nine largest radio conglomerates.
MARK EITZEL: The American Music Club singer-songwriter talks to Boston's Weekly Dig about changing his writing habits and the Undertow Orchestra Tour mentioned here earlier.
THE BEST ROCUMENTARIES are mockumentaries, Bob Stanley argues in London's Guardian.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer was sentenced to a 12-month community order for drug possession and warned he could face jail if he failed to stick with a rehab program.
CURIOUS GEORGE CO-AUTHOR SLAIN: The bloodied body of a collaborator on the Curious George series of children's books and films was found covered in garbage bags in the driveway of his Florida home. Police said they were treating the case as a possible homicide. The monkey, created in 1939 by Hans and Margret Rey, makes his big screen debut Friday in movie theaters nationwide.
BRITNEY SPEARS will not face charges after being photographed driving with her infant son on her lap. But TMZ wonders whether she's a repeat offender. Meanwhile, the pop tart and her hubby, Spendeline, apparently had another blowup at the Rolling Stone/Verizon-sponsored pre-Grammy party at the hot nightclub Avalon.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Kanye West is writing the theme for Cruise's Mission: Impossible III, so Cruise was jumping the couch to praise the rapper at the aforementioned pre-Grammy party. And Cruise is reportedly telling friends he's sticking Holmes on the mommy track, though Cruise’s rep denies the story.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON has a system for Oscar voting: he votes for his friends, then lets his wife and his domestic staff fill out the rest of the ballot.
RALPH FINNES, contrary to prior reports, has been dumped by longterm galpal Francesca Annis after learning of his affair with a Romanian singer half Annis's age. Indeed, Annis has begun legal action against the Daily Mail over a story claiming she had forgiven Fiennes.
HEATHER LOCKLEAR decided to file for divorce after finding a suggestive e-mail sent to Sambora by an acquaintance of the couple, containing “provocative pictures” of the female. See? I told you I had nothing to do with it…
BRADGELINA: Jolie has reportedly asked her lesbian lover to be godmother to her children, deciding they needed a strong female force in their lives. As if Jolie is not? Anyway, now that the pair has been officially caught canoodling, there is already a four million dollar bounty for the first picture of their unborn child. In the meantime, we can make do with her naked, tattooed backside in Vanity Fair.
PIXAR has restarted and taken over production of Toy Story 3, but it's unclear whether the same lame plot will be used in Pixar's version of the film or if a new storyline will be developed.
JESSICA SIMPSON and NICK LACHEY seem to be moving on. The pneumatic blonde was spotted getting very cozy with Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine at the aforementioned pre-Grammy party, while Nick has reportedly been caught canoodling with Simpson's best friend, CaCee Cobb.
TOM BRADY and BRIDGET MOYNIHAN are splitsville? If not, they may be soon.
THE WORLD'S BEST-PAID SUPERMODELS are charted at Forbes magazine because they're all business there.
JESSICA ALBA: Into the Blue co-star Paul Walker may have had trouble keeping his mind on his work: “Come on, dude, you know what I'm looking at…” And if for some reason you don't know, Tyler Durden will be glad to show you.
CULT OF THE iPod: Showtime is putting its original shows, like Sleeper Cell and Weeds, up for download on iTunes. Songbird, an open source alternative to iTunes, launched yesterday.
CARTOON JIHAD: The Wall Street Journal has a free article on radical islamists worked to stir rage over the Danish cartoons. Amir Taheri debunks the claim that Islam prohibits images of Muhammad and jokes about religion. Reuters profilesan entrepreneur in Gaza who stocked up on Danish flags for rioters to burn. The New York Times runs an article about shocking images, but skips the cartoons to publish the dung-spattered “Holy Virgin Mary” instead. The Egyptian blog Rantings of a Sandmonkey posts scans of the cartoons from an Egyptian newspaper that ran them last October with no outcry.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio has an update on operations in Anbar province, which are mostly smaller Iraqi ops now. US officials have met figures from some Sunni Arab insurgent groups but have so far not received any commitment for them to lay down their arms. David Gaubatz, a former member of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, claims the Iraq Survey Group visited only one of four suspected WMD sites he identified.
HERMAN THE GERMAN GIANT BUNNY is almost a meter tall, big even for his breed. He could be the world's biggest rabbit, but Guinness World Records have stopped accepting entries because of fears people were over-feeding their pets. BONUS: ITN has video of Rudi, another German bunny, in action.
WEINER DOGS: Moo Moo saved its owner from a fire. General Edi has lived to the ripe old age of 22, despite a ten-cigarettes-a-day habit.
MAX THE DUTCH BULL TERRIER pines to ride the rails like a hobo.
MOUTH-TO-BEAK resuscitation saved an exotic chicken named Boo Boo.
VALENTINE'S DAY is just around the corner. Why not give the gift of llamas?
