Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE: I don't care if Monday's blue/ Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too/ Thursday I don't care about you/ It's Friday…
OKAY, NOT REALLY, BUT THE CURE helped secure the release of Belarusian scientist Yury Bandazhevsky, who was jailed in Russia after being convicted of taking bribes from students seeking admission to the Gomel Medical Institute. Amnesty International adopted him as a Prisoner of Conscience, believing that he was convicted on trumped up charges because of his open criticism of the authorities’ response to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Cure promoted a petition for his release during their last tour.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: All the cutesy Flash games you can handle at Orisinal.
THE STOOGES REISSUES score 8.9 and 9.4 on the Pitchfork: “It should go without saying that these are two of the most important signposts on the way to the punk explosion, and that any rock fan with a sense of history owes it to themselves to check them out if they haven't already. What's often lost as we place them in the canon, though, is the fact that both albums sound incredibly good today on their own terms, raw and immediate and dripping with an aggression that's rarely been rivaled.”
THE WHITE STRIPES: An L.A. Times review of their gig at the Greek Theater is dismantled at losanjealous. I can only imagine what this blogger would do with this piece in The New Republic.
FIRST AVE. AND THE 7TH ST. ENTRY: The Minnesota Historical Society has an inventory of the clubs' band files for 1977-2004, including “correspondence with bands and/or agents, contracts, attendance and 'take' or 'numbers' sheets (financial breakdowns), photographs of performers and other promotional materials, tickets, post-performance reviews, and other miscellany.” The list of shows posted online is impressive, though incomplete, as I could not find the Golden Palominos show I saw there. But they do note the Replacements/Young Fresh Fellows bill where Scott McCaughey — wearing a wig he stole from the M-Shop — heckled Music Works' Paul Miller from atop a monitor speaker during the guitar solos…
SEVEN BAND NAMES that would be impossible to book. I guess the Who is the exception that proves the rule.
GWEN STEFANI is reportedly boycotting the MTV Music Awards because she wasn't invited to play.
SUFJAN STEVENS gets mainstream attention in Newsday. Now that I know the band is dressing as Illinois cheerleaders on tour, I may have to break down and get those tickets…
SHAMELESS PLUG: Anyone who needs a guitar tech in Chicagoland should check out Andon Davis and the rest of the crew at Third Coast Guitar. Andon's a fine guitarist in his own right and knows how one should sound and look. In fact, even non-musicians should take a peek at the site, as the image maps seem well-suited to the target audience. No, I'm not being paid to say it, either; I just like Andon's playing.
SMOOSH: The pre-high school sisters rocked the office at SPIN magazine. I've mentioned them twice before. Check out the groovy video for “Le Pump,” complete with Claymation, at Pattern 25, which also links to streaming audio from KEXP and more… Or stream a couple from NPR. Come on; how many indie bands get interviewed by Scholastic News?
RADIOHEAD frontman Thom Yorke has started a blog and used it to announce the band has begun recording its next album.
JUNKMEDIA: I hadn't visited in a while, but the site has been redesigned, complete with a newsblog called “World of Sound.” Currently featured is an interview with the Decemberists' Colin Meloy. But it's really all about Ken King's review of the Pate box that keeps me going back, because I'm a tremendous narcissist.
COMEDY CENTRAL has started a blog chock full 'o' video clips. Excellent idea.
BANGLADESH: About 400 small bombs, suspected to have been planted by an Islamic militant outfit, exploded almost simultaneously in cities and towns across Bangladesh, killing at least two persons, including a child, and injuring 138. Leaflets found at the sites of the blasts said “It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh. There is no future with man-made law,” and “(US President George W Bush) and (British Prime Minister Tony Blair) be warned and get out of Muslim countries.” We're occupying Bangladesh? Who knew? The targets of these bombs were courts, suggesting the real motivation was the first one. Another target, the Grameen Bank is a micro-development lender; such banks often help third-world women get into business.
CLOWN ASSAILANT NABBED IN SEATTLE: The clown would have gotten away with it, too… if it hadn't been for those meddlesome kids!
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Jolie was overheard saying thst she and Pitt are “working on” getting married and plan to adopt more babies. She was also overheard telling baby Zahara that “Mommy misses Brad.” But a guy who dines with B.P. regularly told E!'s Ted Casablanca that Pitt “will not marry Angelina.” And a “big producer” tells Casablanca that Pitt is risking his career: “Women don't like what he's done.”
HOLLYWOOD is cutting back its ads in papers like The New York Times and L.A. Times. The studios would cut back more if they didn't feel they need to stroke the ego of the “talent.”
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Rumor has it that Cruise's next PR mess will involve Lindsay Lohan.
BRITNEY SPEARS may name her son Preston, which I could almost see with the name Spears, but Preston Federline? Better keep him in private schools…
HUNTER S. THOMPSON is ready for blast-off Saturday.
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: Eva Longoria was struck in the head by a pole while filming a scene for Desperate Housewives and it was not in the script. Teri Hatcher has considered hiring a gigolo. Yeah, right.
JUDE LAW: At Defamer, an anonymous eyewitness defends Law's manhood. Could it be George Costanza? ALSO: Law and estranged fiancee Sienna Miller have been spotted together in public.
THE FRENCH HOTEL is now so infamous that she had a makeup artist spend three hours the other day fitting her with a prosthetic nose and a red wig so that she could take her brothers to Disneyland.
BOXERS, BRIEFS OR VICTORIA'S SECRET? It seems like when a Clinton runs for office, people start asking the candidates about their undies.
IRAQ: The New York Times (via the registration-free IHT) reports on the rebuilding of the Mosul police force; a couple of soldiers quoted think that the force could crumble unless the American troops stay for years. However, Michael Yon has reported that the ISF in Mosul is making remarkable progress, with the police a frequent target of the terrorists. Yon also did a radio interview this past week you can hear here. Fred Kagan argues in the Washington Post that security in Iraq is not as simple as decreasing our troops and increasing theirs, which is almost certainly true — though more and improved Iraqi forces could allow the U.S. to draw down substantially and focus on providing logistics and support. I've noticed that local papers often get stories the national media misses, like Sgt. 1st Class Elbert Jetton of the 3rd ID seeing improvements, even in Baghdad, during his second deployment. (try bugmenot SOMEONE777@aol.com, 7777777)
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL: Guess who bought some of the oil? Enron.
THE FIREFLY PHONE is designed for kids — and their parents, with parental management of incoming and outgoing calls. Links to reviews at Gizmodo.
NATURE OR NURTURE: A lengthy piece in the Boston Globe asks, “What Makes People Gay?” suggests it's at least half biology, but questions whether that matters: “Some advocates of gay marriage argue that proving sexual orientation is inborn would make it easier to frame the debate as simply a matter of civil rights. That could be true, but then again, freedom of religion enjoyed federal protection long before inborn traits like race and sex.”
PODCASTING becomes a tool for academia.
DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDERS may be turning television into the Internet.
REAL-TIME SURGERY BY INTERNET: Scientists in Australia have successfully performed laser surgery and “optical trapping” in a Southern California laboratory via the Internet.
EDU-BLOGGING: The latest Carnival of Education is online.
FOX NEWS CHANNEL did not affect voting registration or patterns in 2000, according to a new study.
INTERACTIVE 3-D DISPLAY coming to market. Now all we need are precogs. Or the plans to the Death Star.
NANOTECH: The intricate Fibonacci pattern-based spiral patterns seen on the heads of sunflowers, and thought to occur only in plants, have now been spotted on nanoparticles. Gotta love the Golden Mean!
DRY SPAGHETTI doesn't break into two pieces. This baffled the late, great Richard Feynman, the Nobel laureate and father of modern quantum theory. Now the mystery is solved, complete with video.
BOY SCOUT LEADER ARRESTED on child molestation charges in Mesa, AZ. Which is one reason why the BSA has been a bit exclusionary over the years; the civil lawsuits would already be filed otherwise.
CINDY SHEEHAN left her anti-war camp in Crawford, Texas on Thursday to fly to L.A. after hearing that her mother had suffered a stroke. That's sad news, but after 20,585 mentions in television news broadcasts, the saturation media coverage was about to focus on whether she was getting too much coverage anyway — it's a time-honored part of any saturation coverage. Ronald R. Griffin, who lost a son in Iraq, but disagrees with Ms. Sheehan on policy, is in some way heartened “to have all this attention paid to her, because that means others in her position now have the chance to be heard.” Griffin adds: “Those who lost their lives believed in the mission. To honor their memory, and because it's right, we must believe in the mission, too.” Imho, one need not believe in the mission to honor our troops' service (though Ms. Sheehan's own statements suggest she does neither); Griffin is closer to the mark in writing that no parent has the absolute moral authority to speak for all parents or troops.
SHEBA THE WONDER DOG can tell you the square root of 36, where Matt Lauer was today and much more. Videos at the link.
CATS: A little Friday cat-blogging, but click through on the “update” link for the payoff.
TAKING HER LYNX TO BE SPAYED AND NEUTERED may subject Karen Goeckect to wildlife charges in Utah.
LIONS, CHEETAHS, ELEPHANTS AND CAMELS could soon roam parts of North America, under a plan called Pleistocene re-wilding: “If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we're nuts,” said Harry Greene, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, “But if people hear the one-hour version, they realise they haven't thought about this as much as we have.” And still think you're nuts.
A SIBERIAN TIGER kills a teenage girl posing for photos at a family-run animal sanctuary Thursday in southeast Kansas. See what I mean?
THE LAKE CHAMPLAIN MONSTER: It's no Nessie, Doc, but hundreds claim to have spotted the mythical beast.
