Karl HEY, IF YOU DIDN'T VISIT WEDNESDAY, be sure to keep scrolling down for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings!
CREAM is playing those reunion gigs at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS made a mixtape that sounds like I could have made it — Sly and the Family Stone, The MC5, a Beach Boys track from Surf's Up… BTW, the song in question, “Feel Flows,” was used to very good effect in Almost Famous and plays again over the credits.
DEVO, THE DECEMBERISTS, THE GOSPEL HUMMINGBIRDS, MAVIS STAPLES AND TED LEO are among the announced acts for Bumbershoot over the Labor Day weekend in Seattle.
RYAN ADAMS gets a mixed-to-positive review for the double-disc Cold Roses, the first of three albums he's allegedly releasing this year. “Overstuffed and vaguely monotonous, the album could be easily whittled down to a single sequence of impressive songs; Instead, it's a meandering, occasionally moving series of mid-tempo laments, some more memorable than others.” Yet the reviewer also states: “it's increasingly difficult to say exactly when Adams transitioned from bloated media darling to scrappy underdog, but it happened, and he commandeered the passage all by himself, squirming away from the overblown antics of yesteryear and embracing, instead, the staid earnestness of his roots. It's a welcome return.”
REVENGE OF THE SITH: Advance reviews at Ain't It Cool News are running positive. Of course, the site is often fanboy central, so just consider it another data point where you can get spoilers also.
TOM & KATIE UPDATE: This should serve as a warning — date Tom Cruise and you end up looking like this.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Pitt and Jolie allegedly were making with the jungle love in Africa. An insider at the luxury Alfajari Villas beach resort told Star magazine that the couple's loud lovemaking “sounded like a wounded animal, like someone being killed!” Which is pretty much how you imagine it, isn't it?
JESSICA SIMPSON was followed closely out the door at the end of of an NYC gala by Johnny Knoxville, but her rep scoffs at those rumors linking her with Knoxville and Fred Durst.
FRANK SINATRA was a mob bagman and nearly got busted while smuggling $3.5 million into New York, according to Jerry Lewis (so consider the source).
DOGS: Serving at Camp Fallujah. ALSO: A Dalmation finds his family six years after being swept away by a tornado.
CATS AND DOGS: Both cats and dogs have coffee table books coming out.
SEXY CHEERLEADING would be banned under a bill passed by the Texas state House. And the bill was introduced by a Democrat?
U.K. ELECTION is today. Tony Blair is heading for a record third term with a three-figure majority, but potentially the lowest share of the vote for any governing party in modern times, according to the final public opinion polling.
ANN COULTER: A heckler was arrested Tuesday night during her appearance at UT Austin's LBJ Library and Museum. I think that the heckler might like one of the sites I indirectly linked the other day.
JOHN BOLTON: The political clout of lefty blog collective Daily Kos on the Bolton nomination is given props by Byron York at National Review. The sub-headline: “A left-wing website rescues clueless Democrats in the confirmation fight.”
IRAQ: The Christian Science Monitor has what seems like a nice round up of the general situation, particularly the way U.S. and Iraqi forces are adapting to counter changing tactics of the insurgents. The London Guardian runs a shocking (for the Guardian) piece titled, “Perhaps the neocons got it right in the Middle East.” Don't panic: the author remains skeptical; after all, it is the Guardian.
IRAQ II: A military judge on Wednesday threw out Army Pfc. Lynndie England's guilty plea in connection with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, declaring a mistrial. She may have faced only about two years in prison under the secret terms of the plea deal. I suspect she won't see an offer that good again, which makes me all the more glad her counsel overplayed their hand.
TERRORISM: As you probably heard, Libyan Abu Faraj al-Libbi , the man thought to be al-Qaida's head of global operations and the mastermind behind an attempt to assassinate the president of Pakistan was captured by the country's troops after a fierce gun battle. The AP reports that his capture is a rare coup for “human intelligence,” or old-fashioned spycraft, and may yield details of how the terror network hoped to disrupt last year's U.S. presidential elections. Others wonder how much al-Libbi will know about some the U.S. government's most-wanted suspects — bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Pakistan's Daily Times reports that al-Libbi has been in contact with OBL and Al Zawahri and knows their whereabouts. Of course, that could be a ruse to beat the bushes in hopes of startling the terror masters out of hiding.
TERRORISM II: At Winds of Change, Armed Liberal breaks down the numbers from the annual report on terror attacks; the problem is much worse in Kashmir than Iraq.
EXPLODING BRAS: Scotland Yard has sent details of the potential terror threat to Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Hilarity and sexual harassment to ensue.
SUFJAN STEVENS talks a bit about the recording of his forthcoming Illinois disc, though you have to scroll down a bit through boilerplate PR to get to it. And there's a stream at the top of the page.
JEFF TWEEDY denies any connection between the Middle East peace process and Wilco's plans.
ROCKISM: Douglas Wolk writes that “rockism” is “a potentially useful concept for thinking about the way people write about popular music, and the way people experience it. The trick is to figure out exactly what it means.”
IDOL GOSSIP: The hype over the ABC News piece that ran last night distracts from the slumping ratings for TV newsmagazine shows generally.
RUNAWAY BRIDE: I was going to avoid this topic, but how can I pass on an article that begins, “Jennifer Wilbanks hails from a slice of the South where 32-year-old never-married women are either insane, in prison or gay.”
CULT OF THE iPod: Mike Davidson announces the winner and shows you notable entries for his contest of iPod Shuffles made from food.
EDU-BLOGGING: The latest Carnival of Education is online.
IF THEY HAD REMADE THE GRADUATE ten years ago, they would have replaced the word “plastics” with “the Internet.” If they remade it today, it could be replaced by “Internet t-shirts.”
TV AND VIDEOGAMES ARE GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN: So claims a new book by Steven Johnson. Sounds like he's been watching too much TV.
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL TAKES NASTY TURN: Congressional investigators are discovering that vast sums intended for humanitarian purposes in Iraq were rerouted through a global web of companies with links to terrorist funding and arms trafficking.
KELSEY GRAMMER falls down, goes boom.
NO PANTS DAY is tomorrow. Now that's Casual Friday. How else to top Cinco de Mayo?
