Karl 
THE LEE VEES talk to the Jerusalem Post about Hanukkah rock.
HANUKKAH LINKAGE: Brooklyn Vegan rounds up indie-related Hannukah stuff, starting with a Village Voice piece on NYC's Jewish musicians, particularly Matisyahu, which has plenty 'o' links to 'o' downloads and streams.
STATE OF THE INDIES: Don Rose, a co-founder of Rykodisc and founder of the American Association of Independent Music, tells the Boston Globe that indies are enjoying a rebirth: “A few years ago, a number of indies were being taken over by the major labels, but that trend is changing. ''The old business models aren't working anymore,'” according to Rose. And I'd bet technology is driving it.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE gets a rave review for their London gig from the Independent.
CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN: You can stream their recent gig for World Cafe from NPR.
HARD-FI talks to the Scotsman about fame, kudos from Rick Rubin and reuiniting the Specials.
BOB GELDOF is to become a consultant to a new Conservative party policy group on global poverty. He told BBC News 24: “I don't care who I have to go to to try to make this agenda work.”
SEASON OF THE LIST: DJ Monster Mo at BTAE rolls out a Top Songs list that kills music and boasts scads of honorable mentions. The Elbo MP3 blog aggregator compiles its top tracks as an accessory to killing music. Exclaim! lists albums in a number of genres. Music For Kids Who Van't Read Good has a Top 25 that's killing music. MusicEmissions has a Top Ten and plenty of runners-up. The Orlando Sun-Sentinel Top Ten isn't too bad for a mainstream paper. At *Sixeyes, Alan just names his favorite album, because he doesn't make lists, asking: “Does this make me a bad person?” (No, though it might reflect badly on hardcore music geek status… just kidding, Alan!) Stylus lists its Top Ten Labels of 2005. Thrasher's Blog, which has returned our linky love in the past, has a Top Ten that skews Americana (to be expected, giving the blog's Neil Young-ish focus). Time manages to be less hip than the Sun-Sentinel.
GARY GLITTER: The ex-glam rocker paid two grand each to the families of two Vietnamese girls he is accused of sexually abusing, “for co-operation” in the upcoming legal case, his lawyer said. Both families have since written to the authorities asking them to drop child rape charges, which they have done — though Glitter still faces molestation charges. Stephen Jakobi from campaign group Fair Trials Abroad described the Glitter payments as “shameful.”
DAVID BYRNE is the kind of guy who takes pictures at his own photo shoot.
MICK JAGGER is househunting after ringing up a £1.5million hotel bill.
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS and BELLE & SEBASTIAN will be touring together in early '06 throughout North America, with venues and dates still being confirmed.
TOM VERLAINE talks to Guitar Player about the deluxe reissue of Warm and Cool.
HALF OF WEEZER will will cover the Velvet Underground’s “Heroin” for the upcoming Factory Girl film.
GENESIS REUNION WATCH: A Genesis Reunion Watch is issued to alert people to the possibility of a Genesis reunion in your area, whereas a Genesis Reunion Warning is issued when Genesis has actually been sighted or is indicated by radar.
US ALBUM SALES slumped seven percent this year. People in the biz blame the Internet, as opposed to crappy albums.
CAN YOU HONESTLY TELL ME YOU FORGOT? Forgot the magnetism of Robin Zander, or the charisma of Rick Nielsen? Fast Times at Ridgemont High is among 25 additions to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Boston Globe critic Mike Feeney has the whole list, but writes that Fast Times is his favorite of the bunch: “Some may think of it as being the best of a not-very-good genre, the teen comedy. We prefer to think of it as deliriously definitive proof that Sean Penn can be funny on purpose…”
MARY POPPINS has fallen under the envious eyes of Steven Spielberg. RELATED: Slate asks: Why is Hollywood so obsessed with remakes?
JESSICA SIMPSON and NICK LACHEY may be moving on, but the tabloids generally remain right behind them. So when Lachey tells his side of the story, Us Weekly is right there for him.
DO YOU SPEAK JIVE? You know the Jive Dudes do.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Holmes confirms that first comes baby, then comes marriage.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Pitt's lawyer has sent around a letter threatening legal action against anyone who publishes pictures of Pitt taken while he was on the balcony of his L.A. pad, raising speculation that Pitt was sans pants.
MUNICH: First it was a Palestinian assassin dumping on Spielberg's movie; now Israeli spies are giving it the thumbs-down. Spielberg hoped his movie could help bring the two sides together, but this is probably not what he meant.
THERE'S A NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN: Her name is Mira Sorvino. She's not packing heat, but her dad, Paul Sorvino, is — so I'll skip the handcuffs joke.
COURTNEY LOVE: Her bungalow on the edge of Capitol Forest, Washington is up for public auction after she fell behind with mortgage payments. In August, the New York Post reported that the former Hole frontwoman was facing eviction from her Manhattan apartment for not paying her mortgage.
THE FRENCH HOTEL has been served… with a lawyer's “cease and desist” letter, claiming that her incessant trash-talking of Brian Quintana (a friend of FH main squeeze Stavros Niarchos) is “ruining his reputation and interfering with his business relationships.”
SIENNA MILLER finds it “odd that people ask me things like, 'Why did you take (Jude Law) back?'” OTOH, she says, “People think I should be an expert on love, and I haven't got a clue.”
SCARLETT JOHANSSON will pocket over four million as a new face of L'Oreal.
COLIN FIRTH: Threesomes with Kevin Bacon and assorted women were “one more weird thing you have to do.”
TIME TO RUN THE OBIT: Michael Vale, the actor best known for his portrayal of a sleepy-eyed Dunkin' Donuts baker, has died at 83.
KATE BECKINSALE as Wonder Woman? I could see it… and so can you, sorta… at Egotastic.
IRAQ: USA Today reports: “American troops have been fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than four years, but just one soldier from those wars has received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor for bravery.” That would be Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for helping to save the lives of 100 US troops. It's a story that Google shows the McPaper never assigned its own reporters to cover, choosing instead to run wire copy and a reprint from the Christian Science Monitor. The paper notes that the lack of Medals of Honor reflects the nature of the war, not a lack of heroism. The Army's second top honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, has been awarded twice to soldiers fighting in Iraq — Col. James H. Coffman Jr. and Master Sgt. Donald R. Hollenbaugh. USA Today carried zero stories on Coffman and zero stories on Hollenbaugh. Sadly, the results are about the same for most major media outlets — the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, CBS News, ABC News, and MSNBC — to name but a few (CNN covered Col. Coffman and interviewed him to see if they could get him to criticize the Iraqi troops.) And I could name many other unreported stories of valor. Though the media will always claim to support the troops, they generally can't be bothered to report on their heroism.
IRAQ II: Iraqi blogger Omar provides an update on political negotiations regarding the foramtion of the government and protests of the election results. A preliminary investigation of allegations that that articles written by US forces highlighting anti-terrorist and reconstruction successes and mounting anti-insurgent sentiment in Iraq had been improperly planted in Iraqi media outlets hasn't found any wrongdoing. Insurgents released a video of a French engineer they kidnapped three weeks ago and denounced the “illegal French presence” in the country, the Arab news channel Al-Arabiya reported. Those darn French! Tom Brokaw and Ted Koppel agree that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq just like George Bush if he was still president after 9/11.
ICE TRAIN UPDATE: The the Siberian husky found frozen to railroad tracks last week in western Wisconsin has been adopted by a retiree after the dog's former owners declined to claim him.
ESCAPED KANGAROO is still on the hop somewhere in south-western France after almost three months.
SNAKE breaks a cyclist's fall, then bites him, natch.
CAT locks its owner out of the car.
OWEN and MZEE UPDATE: The baby hippo and 130-year-old tortoise are still together, a year after the hippo was separated from its family by the Indian Ocean tsunami. Their true, but highly unlikely friendship has been turned into a children's book.
