Karl 
ROBERT POLLARD has three new side projects that will be released in May — including his collaboration with Tommy Keene — so he has three free previews to download.
SUFJAN STEVENS is putting out The Avelanche, an album of outtakes and alternate versions of songs from his Illinois album. A must-own for those wanting to hear about Saul Bellow, Ann Landers and Adlai Stevenson. Sterogum is already killing music with the title track. And while is is making an album with Rosie Thomas, they are not having a baby.
THE REPLACEMENTS: Tommy Stinson joins Soul Asylum, filling in for the late Karl Mueller for their first studio album in eight years. Prefix makes Tim part of its list of essential albums.
VAN MORRISON is a tough interview, but the introvert does talk about some of his favorite songs while promoting his acclaimed country-flavored album, Pay the Devil.
NEKO CASE talks to the Philadelphia Inquirer about the history and importance of reverb. You can hear what she means on the free downloads from her label.
THE DOORS are returning to the big screen in two new documentaries. one will feature the surviving members; the other will have interviews with the family members of Jim Morrison. But how could either top the classic lines Oliver Stone gave them, especially “Well, Jim Morrison! You've ruined another Thanksgiving!”
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: Pate fans may remember the band covered Love's “Little Red Book” a few times in the early days. Though this looks to be a lip-sync, I dig the instrumentation.
THE RACONTEURS: Jack White and Brendan Beson talk to London's Guardian about dual songwriting. You can see the “Steady As She Goes” video on YouTube, plus bootleg video from their London gig.
DAVID BOWIE has been put on a strict diet by his model wife Iman, following his heart attack in 2004.
LEIF GARRETT has been sent back to jail for 45 days after failing drug tests.
ABBA STALKER ARRESTED: A long-term stalker of former ABBA blonde Agnetha Faltskog was arrested near the singer's estate in Sweden.
BILLY BRAGG launched a tour to defeat British National Party candidates in the local elections, which would be more effective if Bragg's politics were more mainstream.
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: UPDATE: The troubled singer is the subject of a song on the next Courtney Love album. Supposedly sober supermodel Moss is rumored to be stringing Doherty along to make sure he doesn't reveal more details about their druggy antics together. But he is reportedly desperate to get her pregnant. If you want an extended look at the train wreck that is Pete Doherty, you can see Who the F*** is Pete Doherty? via Google Video.
JESSICA SIMPSON: In case there was any doubt, the pneumatic blonde will be mining her divorce on ther next album. Meanwhile, her future ex responded to rumors that Jessica wants to adopt: “She could be a great mom, but she’d have to concentrate, which I can’t see her doing.” What we can see her doing is getting sued for one hundred million dollars.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Ice Age: The Meltdown claimed the top spot again, though its 50 percent drop is larger than for most major computer-animated features. Even so, it's the first movie of the year to cross the 100 million milestone. The Benchwarmers came in second with a scary 20.5 million. Take the Lead came in third, followed by Inside Man. Lucky Number Slevin was not so lucky in at number five.
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY wants to play Eliza Doolittle in a stage production of My Fair Lady. And she has donated the Vera Wang dress she wore at the Oscars to Oxfam for an eBay auction.
BRADGELINA: Is Jolie planning to give birth in Namibia? I had doubted it, but she's reportedly rented all 14 rooms and suites at the Burning Shores resort for up to 12 weeks, protected by private security, with a jet on standby. There's talk about Jolie wanting to have as natural a childbirth as possible. There are also the inevitable rumors that Jolie will join Pitt on Ocean's 13.
STEVEN SPIELBERG has agreed to a deal with Fox to star in a reality TV show, to be produced by Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice).
GOSSIPOLA? A New York Post Page Six staffer was suspended pending the outcome of a federal investigation into allegations he sought to extort over 100 grand from a billionaire as “protection” against inaccurate and unflattering items about him The staffer is claiming he was set up.
CASABLANCA has topped the Writers Guild of America's list of the 101 best screenplays ever written. I'm shocked!
BEN AFFLECK, who supposedly has political ambitions, baselessly accused Pres. Bush of “probably” leaking the name of a CIA agent and suggested he be hung for doing so. Former Amb. Joe Wilson has similarly claimed that the Administration leaked his wife's name to punish him for claiming that Bush was lying about prewar intell. The Washington Post runs an editorial saying Bush was right to declassify of parts of a National Intelligence Estimate that showed “as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth.”
MARLON BRANDO screen tested for Rebel Without a Cause. It may well be Brando's very first work in front of a camera. Video at the link.
ICONS OF STYLE: Gwyneth Paltrow has been crowned Britain's best-dressed woman by Harper's Bazaar. Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe have been voted Hollywood's Most Stylish Couple by In Touch magazine.
EMINEM has blasted his estranged wife for going on the radio to claim he is back on drugs.
SIENNA MILLER and JUDE LAW on again? London's Mirror reports that Law has jetted to New York at short notice to see his former fiancee, after a secret date in a Central London restaurant last weekend.
CARMEN ELECTRA rode a Sybian on the Howard Stern show. IDLY has the pictures. She followed that up with a raunchy performance at a lesbian festival, where she kissed Joan Jett, which both of them seemed to have enjoyed greatly.
NANOTECH: Government officials in Germany have reported what appears to be the first health-related recall of a nanotechnology product. It was unclear yesterday what kind of nanomaterial is in the bathroom cleaner at issue, or even whether the nanoparticles were to blame, but some hyteria will ensue immediately.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio has analyses of Friday's mosque bombing and fighting in and around Ramadi. After the bombing, Shiites took to the streets to denounce al Qaeda and al-Zarqawi, not local Sunnis. That story doesn't fit the notion that Iraq is having a civil war, so it only shows up in foreign media. The AP would rather play up comments about undeclared civil war; you have to search to discover that the leader of the main Shiite party said: “Our people will not be drawn into the trap of civil war.'' A report leaked to The New York Times suggests that Iraq has to do work on their local governments, though the problems forming a national government suggest this should be no surprise. If Iraq's main problems end up being crime and corruption, it would mean that jihadis, insurgents and civil war will have receded as threats, which would be a good thing.
IRAN: Seymour Hersh has a story in The New Yorker fretting about the US launching tactical nuclear strikes on Iran's nuke facilities, though even his own source says “if senior Pentagon officers express their opposition… then it will never happen.” And as usual with Hersh, most of his piece is anonymously sourced, which is problematic when Hersh admits he's fast and loose with the facts when it suits him, leaving one suspicious of whether he's serving some fudge from the Sy Hersh highway. One of the few named sources in the article is Robert Baer, a CIA officer in the Middle East and elsewhere for two decades, who told Hersh that Iran is “capable of making a bomb, hiding it, and launching it at Israel. They’re apocalyptic Shiites. If you’re sitting in Tel Aviv and you believe they’ve got nukes and missiles — you’ve got to take them out. These guys are nuts, and there’s no reason to back off.”
LEBANON: Blogger Michael J. Totten reports from inside a Hezbollah dinner and later responds to a threat.
THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT: Life imitates Wallace and Gromit in Northumberland, as sharp-shooters have been brought in to defend the gardens! Grower Jeff Smith, 63, said: “This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster…”
PET HOARDING: Usually, it's a house full of cats and dogs. This time it's over 1,000 turtles in a Tibeca loft.
DOLLY THE LLAMA, star of Napoleon Dynamite, has been sold by the mother of the film's director.
ATTACK GOOSE bedevils New Jersey shoppers, mysteriously disappears. Dramatic slideshow and video at the link.
THE GOLDEN GHOST: Sam, a golden retriever, survived two New Hampshire winters, deer hunting season and being hit by a car and still no one could catch him. Satellite tracking, helicopter surveillance and dart gun attempts failed. He was no match for the bolied ham.
