Karl 
DUNGEN, everyone's favorite Swedish prog-psych-metal band, is profiled in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
CURE FRONTMAN ROBERT SMITH has seen the future and it ain't pretty! (Link via Sylvia Hauser)
ON THE PITCHFORK: Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise album is back on sale for now, while quantities last. Yep Roc is giving the deluxe treatment to Billy Bragg's early stuff, separately or as a box set.
HOBOKEN ROCK CITY has what looks to be fairly righteous podcasts produced with the cooperation of the artists and record labels whose recordings appear on the show. Of course, you don't have to have an iPod to download, either, so it might be a nice way to stay up on things.
THE TOP 20 GREATEST AMERICAN ROCK BANDS, as voted by readers of USA Today. Subtitle: “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”
TEGAN AND SARA: Sara tells Flagpole about the joy of MySpace.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer has slammed accusations his poor performance was caused by drugs, insisting Bob Geldof's 16-year-old daughter, Peaches put him off, by fondling him and whispering obscenities in his ear. Keep digging!
LIVE 8 TRIVIA, some courtesy of The Scotsman. For example, we learn that The Edge was teased for years about his record collection, which included nothing recorded before 1976. Page Six has more, including Kimberly Stewart comparing Sting to a bodily orifice. And MTV is blaming others for its lousy coverage of the event.
LIVE8/G8: John Avarosis has more photoblogging. Josh Trevino blogs the depths of anti-Americanism at the G8: “My hard-left journalistic companion related with disgust the things that were said by our American volunteers: They're here because we've done so much to screw up the world. They're here because we are uniquely guilty of afflicting Africa. They're here because they have to make up for the crimes of the Administration. They're here because the Cold War was a fraud used to oppress Africans with debt. They're here because governments incur debt, not nations, and America is immoral to demand repayment. This man is no stranger to acid critiques of his nation, and his fellow-countrymen of Live 8 made him recoil into patriotism.” And President Bush collided with a local police officer and fell during a bike ride on the grounds of the Gleneagles golf resort.
COLDPLAY frontman Chris Martin compares one of his songs to vomit: “In the middle of the night I thought I was either going to be sick or go write that song. So the song just came up, then I went back to bed.”
TOP TEN THINGS THAT MADE ME WANT TO BE A ROCK STAR, courtesy of Tiny Mix Tapes. A pretty good list, too, despite omitting the obvious Byrds reference.
TOMMY LEE turned down an offer from Ron Jeremy to become a porn star, believing it would be too much work. Besides, everyone should have a hobby.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Jolie is adopting a newborn Ethiopian girl orphaned by AIDS, People magazine reported on Tuesday. But don't read too much into it: “Angelina's adopting as a single mother and she wants that emphasized,” the source told People. Pitt just purchased a pad around the corner from Jolie's English country house, but don't read too much into that either, as Pitt may have bought the place to watch his favorite British soap opera. Vince Vaughn denies he is having an affair with Jennifer Aniston.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Former Giant magazine editor Mark Remy makes an open plea to his fellow journalists to stop using “Cruise Control” in headlines about Cruise, Holmes, War of the Worlds, and Cruise's outspoken campaign against psychiatry. He also offers alternative choices. Weebls has unkind words for Katie if you scroll down.
IS ANYBODY MAKING MOVIES WE'LL ACTUALLY WATCH IN 50 YEARS? Newsweek wants to know. In contrast, Hollywood wants to know if anybody is making movies we'll actually watch this weekend.
HERBIE is fully loaded with product placement. And I have to think the The New York Times knew exactly what it was doing with this sentence: “The only time Ms. Lohan/Peyton touches food or drink is when she pulls a prominently displayed bottle of Tropicana orange juice from a kitchen refrigerator.”
YOUR MOMENT OF SITH: Gary Kurtz, the producer of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, is auctioning a few items from his collection to help fund future acquisitions and for the restoration/preservation of his archive.
PENGUINS RULE THE BOX OFFICE: On a per-screen basis, ticket sales for “March of the Penguins” were far more than for any other movie, $26,269, compared with $19,719 for the overall box-office champ, War of the Worlds.
BASEBALL: In Washington DC, everything is political, even the Washington Nationals' baseball caps.
IRAQ: The U.S. military is holding five U.S. citizens suspected of insurgent activities in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. They were captured separately and don’t appear to have ties to one another. one is already represented by the ACLU.
100 YEAR-OLD WOMAN celebrates by riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. I wonder what she wore.
BIOFUELS use much more energy in their creation than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generates, according to a new joint study from Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley.
MEAT could soon be grown in a laboratory.
EVA LONGORIA loves her body. And judging from gossip columns, she's hardly alone in that department.
BRITNEY SPEARS plans to get a tattoo of her child's name after she gives birth. A publicity-seeking Manhattan physician issued a press release commenting on the pop tart's pregnancy: “Britney may need to be put on 'pelvic rest,' which may include full-time bed rest and no sex.” Spears' PR rep was not amused: “This doctor should mind her own business, shut her trap and get a life.” Besides, Spears is rumored to have called her label about cutting a new album due to a cash flow problem. It's hard to believe a pop singer would have money management issues.
DASHTON: Demi Moore pregnancy rumors are circulating again. Plus, Ashton Kutcher's sister-in-law claims that Ashton has done little to help his disabled twin brother, particularly since hooking up with Moore. From what I've seen of Kutcher's work, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept that his twin brother is the disabled one.
THE PLAME CASE: I haven't posted anything about l'affaire Plame and the reporters who unsuccessfully fought subpoenas in the leak investigation. But I couldn't resist the Jonathan Richman-inspired title of a blurb about Matt Cooper's decision to testify and Judith Miller's decision to go to jail, even though it's not completely accurate.
CULT OF THE iPod: Steve Jobs personally called the family of a 15-year-old New Yorker to offer his condolences after the teenager was killed last week during a fight over an iPod.
DOWNLOADING: Target is close to a rollout of a digital music subscription service. Neither Virgin Megastore nor Wal-Mart has made a significant splash with similar services, but Target hopes to do so by explaining to mothers exactly how a subscription service works. Good luck with that.
A HUNK OF BURNIN' LOVE: A 38-year-old man set himself on fire before asking his girlfriend to marry him. She said yes, proving they both have bad judgment. Kids, don't try this at home.
THE ICE CREAM SANDWICH is being killed by gentrification.
WOMEN SUFFER MORE than men. I blame the patriarchy.
ASPIRIN HELPS MEN, NOT WOMEN in two separate cancer studies. I blame the patriarchy. Actually, while the writer seems baffled, I would say that as one of the studies involved prostate cancer, women were unlikely to be helped.
ANTI-AGING BEER hits the market in Germany. In this country, drinking beer just makes others seem younger.
WHICH IS SCARIER? That in New Zealand, a Muslim Labour MP refused in an interview to condemn the stoning to death of homosexuals and people who had extra-marital affairs, or that the response from the Prime Minister was to clarify that the Labour Party does not support capital punishment?
IDENTICAL TWINS are not as identical as scientists once thought. The study gibes with what we already knew about identical cousins.
DINOSAUR TRACK DISCOVERED in the interior of Alaska. It does not appear to be of recent origin.
AND WHERE ARE THEY NOW, THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF STONEHENGE? At the smaller, wooden version discovered in Russia? Of course, it's a story in Pravda which means truth.
THE BACKSTREET BOYS are opening for Puppet Show.
JAMES STOCKDALE, The retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral who led a prisoner-of-war underground in North Vietnam and later ran for vice president on H. Ross Perot's third-party ticket, died at age 81. The “what did he say in the afterlife” joke writes itself.
EDU-BLOGGING: This week's Carnival of Education is online.
SUPREME COURT: Former U.S. Senator and veteran character actor Fred Thompson has been hired to help shepherd the yet-to-be-named nominee through the Senate. Law Prof. Ann Althouse thinks President Bush will pick AG Alberto Gonzales due to the “Laura factor.” And fwiw, Matt Drudge claims to have overheard Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) war-planning on a cellphone.
FIREWORKS TIP: Don't light them all at once.
THE GIRLFRIEND FIGHT SIMULATOR, courtesy of SuperMasterpiece.
WIND FARMS are opposed by environmentalists in California.
CANDLESTICK MURDER CASE in Massachussetts seniors' complex. Police have charged Joshua J. Goyette, but I hope they have not ruled out Col. Mustard.
LOST BEAR climbs a 90-foot telephone pole to get her bearings, and the whole incident was caught on tape, which is avaialble at the link.
JET CRASHES INTO STRAY COW in Nigeria, which is also the home of the “killer cow” story noted here previously. Don't mess with Nigerian cows.
LANKY NEWBORN GIRAFFE debuts at the Phoenix Zoo. And there aren't many better adjectives for a giraffe than “lanky,” really.
DOGS: Just say “No” to drugs. Seriously.
