MORE AWESOME MUSIC VIDEOS: Or, as Modern Demogogue titled its list, “50+ Music Videos Thare Are More Awesome Than The Ones on Pitchfork's Crappy List.” MD certainly makes me wonder how the P-Forkers missed Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler in Aerosmith's “Crazy” and Christoper Walken in Fatboy Slim's “Weapon of Choice.”
INTONATION FESTIVAL: Chicagoist reports from Union Park, complete with a Flickr photoset including snaps of everyone from Roky Erikson to — as Ken King would be glad to see — local poetry dude Thax.
BONNAROO FESTIVAL: Cable and Tweed hooks you up with audio highlights you can stream from the Hype Machine, such as Stevie Nicks joining headliner Tom Petty for “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.”
WHO'S LEFT: Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshed really don't get along. And Roger, for his part, likes it that way.
ARTHUR LEE: The Love frontman is among the first to receive a bone marrow transplant from umbilical stem cells, but is still fighting leukemia. Stereogum reports on the NYC benefit concert featuring everyone from Robert Plant and Ian Hunter to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah frontman Alec Ounsworth. You can follow links there to Scenestars for background on Arthur Lee and Love, and you can stream and download a few classic Love tracks via MySpace, though none from the classic album Forever Changes.
ELVIS COSTELLO and DIANA KRALL are expecting a baby in December.
KOOL & THE GANG co-founder and lead guitarist Claydes Charles Smith died after a long illness at 57. He co-wrote songs including “Celebration” and “Jungle Boogie.”
SUFJAN STEVENS: *Sixeyes hooks you up to Part 2 of the streaming party for his upcoming LP, The Avalanche, plus free MP3 downloads.
GRAM PARSONS prevented the infamous Altamont concert from turning into a bloodbath, according to Keith Richards, Lord of the Undead.
WILCO is touring Canada, so Jeff Tweedy is talking to Vue Weekly about the band's new songwriting process and to the Edmonton Sun about why he doesn't like to play the new songs often live. But they played one on Conan O'Brien recently, which you can stream via the Hype Machine.
ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO played the World Cafe recently, so you can stream a set from NPR. the accompanying article makes only brief mention of his health problems and personal tragedies, but if you aren't familiar with them, you can check out his recent interview at PopMatters.
ARCTIC MONKEYS bassist Andy Nicholson reportedly left the band as a result of a secret family crisis, according to a family member.
SIR BOB GELDOF and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan are among those selected by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to police how wealthy countries live up to their aid commitments to Africa.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: Anthony Rossomando, who filled in when the troubled singer left the Libertines, is now replacing him in the supposedly sober supermodel. The alternate punchline incorporates the fact that he is currently a member of Dirty Pretty Things.
NICOLE KIDMAN and KEITH URBAN got hitched yesterday. The country singer had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement earning him £350,000 for every year he is with the actress, with any settlement becoming null and void if the former junkie uses illegal drugs or alcohol to excess.
MARCIA CROSS also got hitched to stockbroker Tom Mahoney at a wedding attended by her co-Desperate Housewives Eva Longoria and Felicity Huffman. Cross has been plagued by rumors that she was a lesbian. NTTAWWT.
SELMA BLAIR and AHMET ZAPPA, otoh, are getting unhitched after two years of marriage.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Click clicked with audiences to the tune of 40 million, which is toward the low end for a Sandler opening. Cars slipped to the second slot with 22.5 million, which is not a big drop for week three, though the movie still lags prior Pixar pics. Nacho Libre dropped a troubling 57 percent, but has already made 52.6 million on a 35 million budget. Waist Deep, which opened barely wide on 1,000 screens, made 9.4 million and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift plunged 61 percent in its second week. Hollywood is desperately hoping Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest are huge hits, but the lesson here may be that it's easier to make money on a moderate budget.
PIRATES: Speaking of which, director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp recruited Hal Willner to produce an album of pirate music featuring Bono, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams and more. E! has an amusing piece eamining the cutthroat world of Capt. Jack Sparrow imitators in Tinseltown.
BRADGELINA: Sites all over the 'net got cease-and-desist letters over allegedly stolen photos of the family taken in Namibia, including images from a private baby shower. Yet not everyone got the e-mail. You would thing the Jolie-Pitts' bigshot legal crew would know about how to find things with Technorati. Meanwhile, the paparazzo arrested at a day care center attended by Maddox talked to TMZ, but insisted on anonymity!
JESSICA SIMPSON: The pneumatic blonde's latest single, “A Public Affair,” sounds like a lame imitation of Madonna's “Holiday.” And now she's reportedly becoming chummy with Cher, so maybe a remake of “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” is in our future. Readers of InStyle have voted her Hollywood's Favorite Body. And the Gallery of the Absurd has created the Creepy Dad Trading Card for Papa Joe Simpson, the former preacher-turned-manager who can't stop talking about his daughter's breasts.
THE McCARTNEYS: A raunchy video of Heather Mills McCartney performing a sexy striptease is to be aired on an X-rated British TV channel.
DAVID HASSELHOFF has been voted the king of cyberspace, according to a Pipex survey. The king got a little testy on CNN's American Morning, after Soledad O'Brien asked about his wife's charges of abuse.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: US Weekly joins the press chorus asking, “When Will We See Suri?”
AARON SPELLING, the producer of Beverly Hills 90210, Dynasty, Fantasy Island, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Charlie's Angels, and Love Boat, died on Friday, days after suffering a stroke, his publicist said. He was 83.
MADONNA is pricing herself out of the UK market, with fans revolting against “outrageous” ticket prices.
JESSICA ALBA moves magazines, so she's the cover of Entertainment Weekly's “hot list” issue. Just Jared has pics of Alba's photoshoot to lighten you Monday mood. Plus, a fan site has posted video of her comedic turn with King Kong from the MTV Movie Awards.
THE WORLD'S FUNNIEST JOKE was written by Spike Milligan of the Goon Show. But it is not, as Monty Python would have it, a “killer joke.”
IRAQ: The US has given its support to Prime Minister al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan, mentioned here Friday. Some senators expressed fears about the scope of an amnesty, but the US ambassador to Baghdad said it does not include those who have killed US troops. It was refereshing to hear Sen. Carl Levin mention the US liberated Iraq and got rid of a “horrific dictator.” Sen. Richard Durbin claimed the plan also calls for the beginning of withdrawal of American troops with a timetable, but the plan sets no deadline for withdrawal. Moreover, the plan calls for “the necessity of agreeing on a timetable under conditions that take into account the formation of Iraqi armed forces so as to guarantee Iraq's security,” which sounds much like the conditions-based approach that is current US policy. The Times of London reports that the main insurgent groups intend to reject the plan. At ITM, Mohammed is also against amnesty for outlaw militias. The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in US troop levels by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, according to the NYT. Of course, this sort of story might be meant for domestic political consumption, but the reductions in equipment suggest it's serious (at least for now). Meanwhile, oil production is now over 2.5 million barrels a day, a record since the fall of Saddam.
CLOWNS attacked a nuclear missile silo in North Dakota. And I'm not insulting them; the attackers were dressed as clowns.
XIKU THE CHINESE CHIMP has almost quit chain-smoking, but it has taken a beer or two to help get him through detox.
SEA LIONS and DOLPHINS are participating in large-scale military exercises in the Pacific this month. I think I've seen this movie before.
BILLY THE GOAT has been demoted from lance-corporal to a private in the Royal Welsh regiment for behaving like a goat.
HARRIET, the world's oldest tortoise, has died in Australia after a short illness at age 176. Harriet is believed to have been studied by Charles Darwin.
A GATOR was nabbed by the police yesterday… on Long Island. Last week there was one in Philly. These gators get around.