Karl 
NOW THAT IT'S early late summer, I finally got around to posting the Go-Go's “Vacation” video. Plus, the band's latest Greatest has an updated version of “Cool Jerk,” the Capitols tune the ladies originally covered on the Vacation LP.
ART BRUT and WE ARE SCIENTISTS are touring together with The Spinto Band. *Sixeyes has MP3s to stream and download at those links, though you could stream them all from the Hype Machine, too. Ken and I were quite impressed with Art Brut at the Pitchfork Festival and will be seeing this line-up in Chicago this October. I saw the Spinto Band open for Arctic Monkeys; they were fun, though not overwhelming.
THE TEN BEST DEAD SONGWRITERS is a Paste's tongue-in-cheek sequel to the mag's list of 100 Best Living Songwriters. BONUS: Paste's Reader's Poll on the latter.
THE 200 GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s continues at Pitchfork. You may have heard many of them, but you may not have heard Number 170 on Pitchfork's list, “Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles” by Franoise Hardy, posted online by Gorilla vs. Bear.
THE FIERY FURNACES frontman Matt Friedberger tells the A.V. Club that today's French rock needs improvement and discusses Harry Nilsson's “Coconut” in the Random Rules feature where interviewees talk about the first ten songs that pop up in shuffle mode on their MP3 players.
THE McCOYS are having a swingin' shindig, playing “Hang on Sloopy” on Shindig! Sept. 16, 1965. That Rick Derringer can play the guitar. And as always, there's some period go-go dancing.
A DISTINGUISHED NEUROSCIENTIST wonders why his aging ears still crave the music he loved in college in an NPR audio feature by the estimable Robert Krulwich. (Thanks, Ken!)
ERIC BACHMANN: In a dead week for new releases, Aversion serves up an advance stream of To The Races, the first solo disc from the former Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers tunesmith.
YO LA TENGO is offering the “Beat Your A** Season Pass,” in which pre-ordering their upcoming album gets you an advance stream of the whole album, an interactive booklet, bonus MP3s, and possibly more.
THE MIDDLE-EASTERN JAMES BROWN: Freaky. Courtesy of Gorilla vs. Bear.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The troubled singer and supposedly sober supermodel, newly reunited, seem to be getting drunk in pubs. Pics at the link.
KATE HUDSON-CHRIS ROBINSON BREAK-UPDATE: US Weekly claims that Hudson’s burgeoning relationship with her You, Me & Dupree co-star, Owen Wilson, was the main catalyst for the split. A rep for Wilson told US: “(Anything) that suggests that the separation of Ms. Hudson was caused by Mr. Wilson… is absolutely false.” Which is not exactly a denial that Penny Lane has been riding the Butterscotch Stallion.
THE McCARTNEYS: Sir Paul doesn't want anyone to think he's being a bad guy in his divorce from Heather Mills, but that won't stop him from barring her from his property and making her pick up their two-year-old daughter at a nearby hotel.
MAD MEL UPDATE: After some deliberation, Disney has decided to retain distribution of Gibson's next film, the Mayan-language film Apocolypto. Meanwhile, the National Enquirer claims Gibson has opted for outpatient therapy over a traditional rehab program. BONUS: Denis Leary had some great Gibson fun during a cameo on a Red Sox telecast the other night. I curse NESN for having the hilarious video yanked from YouTube.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Holmes is reportedly not giving her all to Scientology and forcing Cruise to make nice with her parents. (3rd item)
MADONNA says she will no longer pursue acting because critics dismiss her films before they are even made. Which would be grossly unfair, except for the fact that she is a terrible actress who has made a string of awful movies.
DENISE & HEATHER & RICHIE & CHARLIE & DAVID: Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen may have a temporary cease-fire in their divorce proceedings, but Denise is continuing her PR offensive in the September issue of Harper's Bazaar: “Like everyone else, I'd heard about his past, but I couldn't comprehend it. I've never done drugs, never been around a prostitute, never known any porn stars. I couldn't even fathom that lifestyle. I grew up in Illinois, not L.A. He told me that was in the past, and I believed him.”
BRUNO KIRBY, a veteran character actor who appeared in movies such as The Godfather: Part II, Good Morning, Vietnam, This Is Spinal Tap, Donnie Brasco and When Harry Met Sally, died Monday in L.A. from complications related to leukemia. He was 57. The LA CBS station was kind enough to stage an on-camera ambush of actors at the premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with the sad news. Pictured is Jennifer Tilly, who worked with Kirby on Stuart Little.
LINDSAY LOHAN is modeling her sex life on HBO's Sex & The City, saying the show “changed everything for me, because those girls would just sleep with so many people.” And they say that TV does not corrupt the weak-minded.
THE FRENCH HOTEL is officially The World's Most Overrated Person, according to the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records. Congrats!
WINONA RYDER would love to get intimate with her A Scanner Darkly co-star Keanu Reeves, who apparently is having none of it. Granted, Ryder's enormous libido is legendary, perhaps even intimidating. But shining her on will only feed those persistent rumors, dude.
JESSICA BIEL reflects on her reign as Esquire magazine's “Sexiest Woman Alive,” but I linked to those pics recently, so I'll throw in some from the premiere of The Illusionist, where she did that reflecting.
JESSICA SIMPSON has “a very … long … tongue.” No argument there. She may have been holding it during a rumored pregnancy scare. The pneumatic blonde also fired an agent who dared cross her creepy dad-manager.
IRAQ: US and Iraqi forces say that a three-day security sweep has cleaned up at least for now the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah in west Baghdad. Maj. Gen. Caldwell's Aug.16 press briefing has a detailed look (with slides) at the last week or so of attacks and counter-ops in Baghdad, along with a detailed look at the current state of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Of course, as Coalition forces make headway in the capital, insurgents and jihadis will move back into Anbar province. The AP has that story, while the WaPo goes with it in Diyala, just east of Baghdad. Both stories also repeat the claim of thousands of Iraqis — mostly Sunni Arabs — turning into refugees, yet the a recent poll published in the Iraq Index shows that only in Baghdad does a bare majority respond that they know someone forced to leave because of their religion or ethnicity.
THE MIDEAST and the MEDIA: AP reporter Bassem Mroue has a blog, where he writes that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched the wide war under the pretext of the capturing of two Israeli soldiers on the border.” The emphasis is mine, but I think justified as he also believes Israel was more interested in killing children than Hezbollah terrorists. I'm sure he keeps that sort of bias out of his reporting, though. Meanwhile, on a lighter note, Nicole Kidman, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, strongly criticized Hezbollah and Hamas in a full-page L.A. Times ad. It's a good thing Kidman was involved, because it went almost entirely unnoticed by the media outside Australia and New Zealand.
THE BIOLOGY OF B-MOVIE MONSTERS: Shockingly, shrinking humans or enlarging animals pose real scientific problems not reflected in Hollywood movies, with the exception of Jurassic Park. This article is a must-read for anyone interested in how to actually diasble giant ants.
SEBASTIAN got himself a hip-hop grill, for health reasons.
MYSTERY BEAST UPDATE: A “hybrid mutant of something” was found dead along Route 4 in Maine. Michelle O'Donnell of Turner spotted the animal near her yard about a week before it was killed: “It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget.” Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman is quoted in the article, which doesn't tellyou he has pictures and analysis at his blog.
DUCK DEATHS in Raleigh, NC remain a mystery, though a lab has ruled out bird flu or any virus that could be transmitted to humans.
THE NATION'S LARGEST WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY is closing, which could result in the destruction of many lions and tigers and bears… Oh, My!
HELLO, I'M ROSE: I'm a Border Collie and a workaholic. Hello, Rose.
