Karl 
THE TURTLES: Flo & Eddie, back when they were “Happy Together.” May 14, 1967, to be exact.
SONIC YOUTH: Thurston Moore talks about television and touring with the Sydney Morning Herald.
R.E.M. will have a new double-disc — half best-of, half rarities — called And I Feel Fine: The Best of the I.R.S. Years, coming in September. Folks REMember and discuss it at Stereogum. You can stream some live rarities currently on the Hype Machine.
THE PITCHFORK INFINITE MIXTAPE has added a few new tracks, with the latest being “The Zookeper's Boy” from Mew, whose album is streaming in full from AOL this week.
PITCHFORK PREVIEW: Tracks from bands playing this weekend — including the Silver Jews, the Futureheads, the Mountain Goats, Art Brut and more — can be found through Fabulist, with a few extra at The Rawking Refuses To Stop!
BAND OF HORSES, who are playing the Pitchfork Festival also, recently made their TV debut, playing “The Funeral” on The Late Show.
JAMES BROWN: The Godfather of Soul is suing David Pullman, originator of the “Bowie Bonds,” saying he fouled up a deal that would have turned Brown's legendary catalog into a Wall Street commodity like that of the Thin White Duke. “Bowie Bonds” drew renewed interest with the advent of digital downloading services like Apple's iTunes.
SPARKS: Ron and Russell Mael, who have been at it for 35 years or so, were at it again at the World Cafe, chatting and playing a few classical-influenced tunes from their latest LP, which you can stream from NPR.
JIMI HENDRIX: A newly-discovered Hendrix song, “Station Break,” — recorded just before he formed the Experience — will be going on the auction block Oct. 26th.
ARCTIC MONKEYS frontman Alex Turner tells London's Sun he always wanted to be a screenwriter, but the best part of the story is his throwaway line on sudden fame: “If Oasis can be summed up by 'Tonight I’m a rock 'n' roll star' then for us it's 'Tonight I’ve got no idea how I ended up here.'”
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer claims he's working on a solo album and a Babyshambles album and detoxing. We'll see how many of those he actually accomplishes.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON is creating shoes with Reebok and downing kamikaze shots with Wilmer Valderrama and P. Diddy until 4:30 a.m. I have to think that supposed beau Josh Hartnett is less than thrilled.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BREAK-UPDATE: The supermodel's husband is abjectly apologizing through his lawyer. According to said attorney, Peter Cook “hopes there's no divorce. If she wants one – and he certainly hopes this doesn't happen, but if – it will not be nasty. She can have whatever she wants.”
GEORGE MICHAEL: The singer's gay lover has called off their wedding after Michael was seen emerging from bushes following a sexual encounter with a pot-bellied, jobless van driver.
MADONNA fans think that Clear Channel stations are refusing to play Madge's music because of her comments blasting George Bush and the war in Iraq. Signers of an online petition report that when they request Madonna’s music, they’re told by Clear Channel-owned stations she’s too old or not popular enough. US sales of Madge's albums have been declining steadily since at least 1998.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise is master of his domain… name.
OPRAH was conspicuously with boyfriend Stedman Graham at a GRAMMY Foundation fundraiser, which is her subtle way of emphasizing that she's not gay. NTTAWWT. Of course she might also want to consider dropping the radio promos where she talks about lending her panties to Gayle King.
BRADGELINA: A global survey by AC Nielsen showed that Jolie and Pitt were voted the best to endorse almost every kind of category, be it casual or luxury wear, watches or sunglasses, evening wear or lingerie, sexy or trendy, cutting edge fashion. However, in North America, Jolie was beaten into second place by Jennifer Lopez, and alongside Nicole Kidman, who seemed to be equally suitable to represent a range of fashion apparel for millions of Americans and Canadians. How did J-Lo beat Jolie? Was it voodoo? Is Jolie going to have to resort to the vial of dried bat again? Meanwhile, Pitt's grandmother says Pitt is the one delaying a marriage, saying he wants to make sure he can keep his vows this time.
LIZ HURLEY is the new face of Jordache jeans. Actually, she's modeling the Vintage line, but presumably she's being paid enough to not be insulted. Now all the company needs to do is use some Forrest Gump technology to stick her in the vintage TV ad.
TARA REID: The party girl not only will not be in a movie with Robert De Niro, she also broke up with her boyfriend last week for not catering to her A-list needs. An earwitness told NYDN gossips Rush and Molloy: “She said, 'I'm a movie star! I want someone who's there!'” The gossips then twist the knife: “Sadly, the 'movie star' could not be reached for comment before press time, and she's between publicists.”
JESSICA SIMPSON: The pneumatic blonde will probably chuckle over the story that her ex, Nick Lachey, will not kiss his new gf, Vanessa Minnillo, in public. Video at the link.
DAVID HASSELHOFF gives good phone to Newsweek. When asked if he's bigger than Brad Pitt, the Hoff answers: “Yesterday I Googled my name. There were 7.9 million references. There's so much crap out there about me being the Antichrist.”
ELISHA CUTHBERT has laughed off reports she's being courted to pose nude in Playboy, insisting she is too modest to bare all. The actress states she'll only strip on camera if it's absolutely necessary, admitting she currently calls for a body double whenever nudity is needed. I respect that. I might not like it, but I respect that.
A STRIPPER in New Jersey decorated her home with skulls and a severed hand. So? Maybe she's a Goth, or maybe she works at Bada Bing! and was keeping some items for some friends of hers.
IRAQ and the MEDIA: The shock and horror is apparent at Editor and Publisher magazine: “Despite several years of official and press reports to the contrary, a new Harris poll finds that half of adult Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when the United States invaded the country in 2003.” E and P — a mag aimed at journalists — then attempts to suggest that the WMDs found in Iraq after the invasion really weren't WMDs, calling them “500 shells once containing mustard or sarin gas nerve agents” that experts called “decrepit and useless.” In fact, while these were not the sort of WMDs the US believed would be found, the declassified report stated that they still contained dangerous agents and were potentially lethal. So the blame here falls more properly on Harris for asking a poorly-worded question. Similarly, Editor and Publisher is upset that: “In another finding wildly diverging from most expert opinion and media reports, Harris found that 64% said Saddam Hussein had 'strong links' with al-Qaeda, up from 62% in October 2004.” Here again, use of the phrase “strong links” made for a poor question. The 9-11 Commission found no evidence of operational ties between the two, but did find evidence on non-operational ties. Since then, recently declassified documents seized in Iraq lend support to the idea that Saddam was chummier with OBL and the Taliban than we thought. This Iraqi Intell Service Memo dated 9-15-01 suggests that the Afghani Counsul was also claiming such ties existed. With most every poll showing that most Americans believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, one might conclude that even those who answered that there were WMDs in Iraq in 2003 and that Saddam had “strong ties” to al Qaeda have a nuanced view as to the weight to be assigned to those facts or believed facts, e.g., “Yes, they found WMDs… old ones that weren't what the US was upset about.” Yet a magazine aimed at journalists adopts a hysterical tone and fails to understand either the poll or its respondents.
MIDEAST CONFLICT: It's going to be hard for Iran to pretend it's not involved now that its state media is reporting on an expeditionary force of suicide bombers sent from Tehran via Syria to Lebanon. A senior Hezbollah official claimed they did not expect Israel to react with an all-out offensive after it captured two IDF soldiers, though western intelligence sources say that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard trained Hezbollah for a war designed to contain several stages. The European Union will press for the deployment of a multinational force in Lebanon, though European nations see the EU proposal as far-fetched. And the New York Times plays true to form with a story noting that the poor are hardest hit.
BREEDING AGGRESSION (OR NOT): The New York Times reports on Siberian geneticists breeding separate colonies of tame and super-aggressive rats. The article also mentions a 40-year experiment breeding 45,000 silver foxes that produced animals with cute coloring as tame and as eager to please as a dog. (Thanks, Amber!)
MIDEAST CONFLICT: Cats and dogs are being relocated in Lebanon, while Buba the Bear and others are riding out attacks in the Haifa Zoo.
SAM THE PITBULL recovers from a bear attack after warning his master of the danger.
SNAKES IN THE MAIL: Selling and shipping a five-foot albino python by mail is not illegal in Germany per se, but may result in a a mistreatment of animals charge.
JURASSIC PARK is not open yet, but disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk claims he was trying to clone a woolly mammoth.
