Karl 
SAM COOKE does a good job lip-synching “Everybody Loves to Cha Cha,” until Jackie Wilson turns up.
NEW RELEASES: Another slow week, though Feist remixes, a Steve Miller reissue, Bruce Cockburn, and Golden Smog are among the CDs streaming in full from AOL Music. Scott H. Biram has another album of gritty, bluesy material (there are older tracks at MySpace).
PATTIE BOYD, Eric Clapton’s ex-wife and the woman he stole from Beatle George Harrison — the subject of “Layla” and “and Wonderful Tonight” — is breaking 40 years of silence to pen her autobiography. Pattie’s memoirs come at the same time that another lover, Italian Lori Del Santo, whose four-year-old son with Clapton, Conor, died when he fell from a New York skyscraper, is penning her own version of events. Both will coincide with Clapton's own autobiography.
SMOOSH: The tween sisters, currently touring with eels, want to be taken seriously. Drummer Chloe, 12, says: “I don't really like it when people say, 'Oh, look at those guys, they're so adorable!' I want them to focus on our music.” Keyboardist and songwriter Asya, 14, is critical of their debut album, She Like Electric: “I think it sounds really bad now that I listen to it. It sounds really young and stuff. I was like 11 when we made that CD.” The Seattle Times paid a home visit that shows them unconcerned with their success, and with Asya more charitable toward her music: “It's good to have two albums. It's all your best songs.” Although “Find A Way” would be my pick to click, there's an assortment of Smoosh streaming via the Hype Machine.
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, an Austin combo featured on the soundtrack of Friday Night Lights, is offering 2005's The Rescue EP as a free download, along with recording notes.
THE TOP 100 VIDEOS OF ALL TIME is the theme of a series starting on Stylus, complete with embedded YouTube video.
DAVID BYRNE talks to Pitchfork about the reissue of his collaboration with Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Byrne engages in some juicy rationalization about the exclusion of “Qu'ran” after the initial pressing in 1981, saying it was done simply “in deference to somebody's religion.” Yet the album features found audio from Pentecostal preachers and even an exorcist. Moreover, Byrne complains about self-censorship and sees religions — including Islam — as a lie. So Rolling Stone is probably closer to the mark in claiming the song was cut “because of fatwa-dodging concerns that unfortunately still apply.” Even more unfortunate when someone who presents himself as an artist engages in the type of spin normally the province of the politician. You can hear one of those preachers on “Help Me Somebody.”
M WARD'S upcoming fourth album, Post War, will have cameos from Neko Case and My Morning Jacket's Jim James.
MELODY MAKERS: London's Guardian looks at the new generation of singer-songwriters who grew up on punk and hardcore music, including King Creosote, Sam Duckworth, Jim Noir, James Morrison and the best-known of the bunch, Jose Gonzalez. Each also talks about a song he wishes he had written — though I suspect Jose is kidding about “America, F*ck Yeah” from Team America: World Police.
NELLY FURTADO says she's attracted to women, but now but now that she's a single mom with a “secret boyfriend,” she's rejected feminist, male-bashing brainwashing.
WHO'S LEFT: At the presser announcing the world tour, Pete Townshend talks about being known for the CSI themes and touring because of his son and the Internet.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer is concerned about his mother's upcoming book. Meanwhile, the supposedly sober supermodel has landed another million-pound contract — this time with classic biker outfitters Belstaff.
CARMEN ELECTRA and DAVE NAVARRO, contrary to recent denials, are “amicably separating” after roughly 2 1/2 years of marriage. This had been rumored for awhile, so it presumably is not related to Navarro's man-love for Tommy Lee.
JUDE LAW and SIENNA MILLER have reportedly split again, this time over Law's need to spend more time with his kids.
JESSICA SIMPSON and NICK LACHEY had awkward run-in at a small Hollywood hot spot, where Lachey arrived with reputed girlfriend and ET infobabe Vanessa Minnillo. Also, the NYDN claims that the pneumatic blonde's creepy dad-manager wanted to watch Nick at night, in particular the security tape from a club on the night that Lachey, Manillo and Jessica's former assistant CaCee Cobb were all present. A Simpson rep denies it, natch.
THE McCARTNEYS: The Daily Mail claims that Sir Paul banishes estranged wife Heather Mills from his 160-acre East Sussex estate whenever he wants to see their daughter Beatrice, without a car and driver, effectively exposing Mills to the paparazzi. He repeats the mantra to his friends that while he may have been a fool in love, he won't be one in divorce. But it does not come easy to him. Natch.
BRADGELINA: Pitt also wants to spend as much time with baby Shiloh and his adopted kids because even he is sick of thinking about himself. Video at the link.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BREAK-UPDATE: The teenager at at the center of the former supermodel's marital meltdown may sue Brinkley's future ex, perhaps for sexual harassment. Peter Cook, 47, caused “substantial and irreparable harm” when he showered aspiring singer Diana Bianchi, 19, with luxurious gifts — including a Nissan Maxima — and then seduced her behind Brinkley's back, the teen's lawyer alleged.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: What is it with Cruise in Chicago? He does the Oprah show and jumps the couch. He makes a surprise visit at the Chicago Film Festival to give Steven Spielberg an award and gives him a strange hug to boot. More odd behavior from the man who dispatched his private plane to get cherry soda for Holmes in Colorado.
OPRAH and her friend Gayle King want to be clear: They're not gay. NTTAWWT.
OWEN WILSON: The Butterscotch Stallion was rubbed the wrong way by a masseur who gave him “porn slaps.” NTTAWWT.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON is the voice of God. He already knew Ezekiel 25:17.
CHRIS ELLIOT and MICHAEL McKEAN will play Heat Miser and Snow Miser in a live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus. And someone on YouTube has taken the clips of Mother Nature's two sons and nicely dubbed in the covers by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
WE'RE HAVIN' A HEAT WAVE: Last weekend, the Chicago Dermatological Society turned up in a van at the North Avenue Beach to give free five minute screenings for skin cancer and hand out sunscreen samples. This weekend, I'll be turning up at the North Avenue Beach to apply sunscreen to attractive women for free. Granted, I'm not a doctor, but I have played one.
IRAQ: With the spike of sectarian violence, many Sunni Arab political and religious leaders once staunchly opposed to the US presence in Iraq now want US troops to protect them from the rampages of Shiite militias and government forces. Turkey has called for Iraq and the US to crack down on Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq. Recently declassified documents from old Iraqi gov't files suggest that the Iraqi Itell Service directed the Military Industrialization Commission, responsible for the development and manufacture of proscribed weapons, to change nuclear, chemical and missile testing sites identified by foreign intell, though the memo is undated. Another document from 1998 is a lengthy investigation of which of Saddam's men failed to properly purge WMD files found by the UN. As expected, no smoking guns here, though they do run contrary to the now-conventional wisdom that Saddam destroyed most of his WMDs shortly after the Gulf War. Cher, who opposes the battle in Iraq, taled to Stars and Stripes about the singer's work for the Intrepid Fund for training disabled troops and Operation Helmet.
MIDEAST CONFLICT: Pres. Bush said a swear word. Hezbollah's head urged Arab states to aid the terror group, a notion rejected by the Arab League, with the Saudis stepping up their criticism of Hamas and Hezbollah, largely due to the perceived role Iran has played in the conflict. And though there is no direct evidence with respect to the immediate conflict, Tehran has supplied Hezbollah with approximately 11,500 missiles and projectiles and trained more than 3,000 Hezbollah members. The position of the Arab states against the Persian-dominated, Shiite theocracy in Iran may make this conflict decidedly different from the 1967 war. BTW, experts think this will hurt tourism in Lebanon.
A BABY PENGUIN made his public debut at the Detroit Zoo. Pics and video at the link. Plus, the zoo is running a contest to name the chick through the end of this month.
BLACKBIRDS are swooping down and attacking the heads of pedestrians in San Luis Obispo, CA (where one of my uncles once lived). You can only imagine how bad the problem is in Bodega Bay.
BARBARO, the injured Kentucky Derby winner, is keeping a positive mental attitude as he fights for life agaisnt the odds. The weekend brought an outpouring of sentiment from Barbaro fans. Baskets filled with apples, carrots, mints and packages of sugar cubes and several flower arrangements were delivered for the third straight day after Richardson said Barbaro had laminitis.
FLORIDA GATORS are about to have their welfare program cut off.
A BABY GIRAFFE debuting at the Denver Zoo brings today's animal stories full circle, with plenty of pics at the link.
