THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
FLAMING LIPS frontman Wayne Coyne gave the commencement address for the Oklahoma high school from which he did not graduate. It's very… Wayne. YouTube has Parts One and Two.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: Warp Forest.
THE WALKMEN played DC last night, which means the gig should be streaming from NPR by now.
DAVID BYRNE has posted an essay on music and packaging, including album covers, videos and today's online graphics: “We presume these connections — author to package — with cultural products in ways we don’t with other stuff. No one stares enraptured at a Downy bottle while doing the laundry or at a Progresso can while opening a can of soup — there is no 'author' behind these packages.”
THE SHINS: YANP has a new song that may not change your life, but which is streaming via the Hype Machine.
OLD FASHIONED PR: In London's Guardian, Adam Webb argues that while Arctic Monkeys and Gnarls Barkley show how the Internet is shaking the music biz, there's still something to be said for the traditional machinery.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: I'm in a bit of a John Hughes mood, so I dug up General Public's video for “Tenderness.”
SMOOSH: The tween sisters, currently opening for the Eels, tell the L.A. Times that a summer tour is great because there's no homework.
HALLELUJAH: At My Old Kentucky Blog Dodge's reign of compilation turns to Leonard Cohen. You can stream at least 33 versions of the song via the Hype Machine.
JACK WHITE lends support to Jon Pratt's favored saying that you can't be a prophet in your hometown by moving from Motown to Nashville due to the negativity of Detroit Rock City.
CROOKED FINGERS: At Chromewaves, Frank hooks you up with plenty on Eric Bachmann's post-Archers of Loaf, Americana-ish outfit. You can stream the legit MP3s Frank found, plus stuff like the band's cover of Neil Diamond's “Solitary Man,” which is one of my fave CF tracks and one fans of The Service should check out. There are more legit downloads at the band's website — just click on “Music,” then “MP3s.”
IMOGEN HEAP: The British singer-songwriter tells Hour that blogging helped her complete her album. You can hear her at MySpace.
BRITNEY SPEARS: Even at the unveiling of the poptart's wax figure at Madame Tussauds, fans protest Spenderline. OK! is supposedly claiming that she's having an affair with her producer. And she posted some bad poetry on her web site that some thought was directed at Spenderline, though it's now marked as directed against those who think they know her, along with a pic of her and her pals flipping off the viewer. She's a classy gal.
NOW SHOWING: The holiday weekend's sole wide release is X-Men: The Last Stand, which is currently scoring 56 percent Rotten overall, but 61 percent Fresh with the “cream of the crop” critics on the Tomatometer. The big question for X-Fans is, “How badly can Brett Ratner mess up after taking over the franchise from Bryan Singer?” Having sacrificed some sleep to see it, just for you, I'm happy too report that he didn't mess it up too much, especially in light of the bad buzz coming off the set during shooting. However, the amount of good stuff in the movie frustrated me, knowing how much better it could have been in more capable hands. There were plenty of surprises — and shocks — in the flick (don't take sensitive kids), which I won't spoil here. But there were some scenes — including a pivotal one where Logan gets to play hero instead of anti-hero that should have been edited. The cinematography and production design also left much to be desired. Fortunately, the main cast knows its business well enough from the first two installments to make up for most of the defects in this one. I'm just thankful we didn't have to see director Brett Ratner in the Wolverine costume… *shiver*
CATE BLANCHETT is set to play Bob Dylan in an upcoming biopic. No, really.
KATE MOSS UPDATE: New boyfriend Russell Brand was snapped doing the walk of shame from the supposedly sober supermodel's flat. Turns out he's her back door man. Meanwhile, Kate was making a sharp exit out the front – looking rather more dishevelled than usual.
DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE: Lloyd Grove of the NYDN doesn't believe Charlie Sheen was hooking up with a tranny, but is not above mentioning that a jailed pimp is making that claim.
JESSICA SIMPSON is at war with Sister Ashlee and lonely without future ex Nick Lachey, while he's been spotted with pop singer Natasha Bedingfield.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise denies rumors that Holmes has post-partum depression. He's looking to build his dream family home overlooking California's San Fernando Valley after secretly acquiring a ten million dollar plot from the Church of Scientology.
GEORGE LUCAS: Just when you think he's going to do the right thing by releasing the original versions of the first three Star Wars movies on DVD, we learn that they will be copied from the laserdiscs of the films released in the mid'90s, formatted for the conventional TV screen and not wide-screen “letterbox” versions.
JACKO: Just when you thought it was safe… Neverland II!
MARIE OSMOND should watch her daughters' net usage a little bit more closely.
JAMES GANDOLFINI, not unlike his alter ego Tony Soprano, want to go to Iraq to whack some people: “I'd go, I'm too old and fat, but I'd drive a truck. The American people haven't had to sacrifice anything.”
BRADGELINA: The Namibian Governor denies earlier gossip that he would be naming the couple's baby.
CHRISTINA AGUILERA has been trying to class up her image lately, so it's a little puzzling that she will be playing notorious burlesque stripper Tempest Storm in a Hollywood biopic.
PULP FICTION: Slate has a gallery of classic books re-styled as trashy thrillers.
IRAQ: The rumored troop reduction announcement did not materialize from the Bush-Blair summit. At ITM, Mohammed has a slice of chaotic Baghdad life, revolving around the generators that help his neighborhood when the regular power dies. Omar posts on freedom of religion for the northern Kurds and reports that insurgent groups are abandoning the Internet and phones and going back to word of mouth and written letters, because electronic communication is killing them. Jeffrey Cozzens looks at the state of the bin Laden-Zarqawi relationship.
IRAN is prompting its neighbors to gird for war: “According to British sources, the stock of weapons, missiles and combat planes in the six neighboring countries to Iran is now three times what it was at the onset of the Iraq war in 2003.”
WHEN BAMBI ATTACKS: The resurgence of deer attacks at Southern Illinois University have spawned the inevitable lawsuit.
BADGER was found sleeping under a man's bed in Tonsberg, Norway. I'm sure his wife has no idea how it got there.
RAT risks its life to strike a blow against the cultural hegemony of American Idol.
HARRIET THE HARE is the latest victim in a string of carousel animal thefts.
WHICH CAME FIRST? The chicken or the egg? Answer at the link.