THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
FRIDAY TIME-WASTER: Band to Band interactively charts the degrees of separation between bands.
RYAN, BRYAN AND ROBBIE: Ryan Adams recently had someone booted from his Nashville gig for requesting “Summer Of '69.” Adams personally refunded the guy the $30 that he paid for the ticket and kicked the guy out, refusing to continue the show until the guy had left the theatre (though he really didn't leave). Now, Robbie Fulks has posted an offer on his website, encouraging people to inundate Ryan with requests for Bryan songs by offering free merch from the Fulks online store.
WILL IT BE A SUICIDE BLONDE? A reporter for the Chicago Tribune's Metromix auditions for INXS Rock Star, the new Mark Burnett show that's looking to replace the band's late, great lead singer, Michael Hutchence.
MICKEY KAUS has a nice post about the mutli-culturalism of rock up at Slate, which has not learned to do permalinks, forcing you to scroll down to February 9th.
CONSERVATIVE WRITER JEFF GANNON, who attracted attention by asking President Bush a loaded question at a news conference last month has resigned amid questions about his identity and background. The question drew the attention of liberal blogs (including DailyKos, Eschaton and Media Matters) that discovered Gannon was not his true name and that web sites such as hotmilitarystud.com, militaryescorts.com, and militaryescortsm4m.com, allegedly were registered to the same owner as Gannon's personal Web site. Kelly McBride, who teaches media ethics at the Poynter Institute, said the investigation of Gannon's personal life crossed traditional boundaries and was characterized by ''mean-spiritedness and snarkiness.”
BLOGS ARE CHANGING THE FACE OF REPORTING, creating situations where the mainstream press feels it has to cover something it wouldn't ordinarily. Baltimore Sun reporters Abigail Tucker and Stephen Kiehl then write:
“Of course, online news sources can be, and often are, wrong. In 2004, Matt Drudge – the blogger best known for breaking the Monica Lewinsky scandal – posited online that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was having an affair. But when the mainstream media began chasing that story, it proved groundless.”
Putting aside the debate over whether Drudge should be considered a blogger, had Tucker and Kiehl taken a minute on the internet, they would have found the story Drudge ran, which reported that the mainstream press was already chasing the story, which ultimately fizzled out. Drudge did not drive the press on the story. Rather, the press drove Drudge — as was the case with the Lewinsky story, where Drudge reported that Newsweek had the story, but had decided not to run it in the next issue. So I guess the Baltimore Sun should be on the list of online news sources that “can be, and often are, wrong.”
AL FRANKEN rules out running for the Senate in Minnesota in 2006. Franken made the announcement due to reports that he might jump into the race after incumbent Sen. Mark Dayton announced that he will not seek re-election. Dayton stated that he did not believe he was the best candidate to keep the seat in the hands of the Democrats, adding, “I cannot stand to do the constant fundraising necessary to wage a successful campaign.” Late last month, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll found Dayton's approval rating had fallen to 43 percent.
A SPECIAL ANTI-TERRORIST COURT in Britain has released a man it found “actively assisted terrorists who have links to al-Qa'eda” because the man is clinically depressed. Prison is dpressing — who knew?
BRAD AND JEN UPDATE: Brad has moved on to model — who'da thunkit? The NYDN Daily Dish also reports bad behavior by Jessica Simpson's himbo and Lindsay Lohan sharing a toilet stall with a friend for some reason.
GOLDEN FIDDLE relays the following blind item from gossip e-list Popbitch: “Which no-longer-newly-wed blonde had a recent affair with a movie co-star? (According to her friends, the jackass taught her to enjoy rimming.)”
JESSICA SIMPSON is again denying rumors of any impending split with husband Nick Lachey after tabloids ran pictures of Lachey surrounded by cheerleaders at a Super Bowl party in Jacksonville, and reports of a dinner with an ex-girlfriend.
ON THE PITCHFORK: A good review for Triple Your Workforce, by the Four Volts. I checked out their downloadable MP3s at Amazon. Pretty good, pretty good; pretty neat, pretty neat.
BIOPOLITICS is a fledgling political movement that could make mortal enemies out of one-time allies — such as back-to-nature environmentalists and technophile lefties — and close friends of traditional foes, such as anti-biotech activists and evangelicals.
NORTH KOREA publicly admits it has nukes; it had been privately admitted for some time already.
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED are also most likely to choke under pressure, according to a new study.
MICROSOFT is releuctant to disclose more of its source code to other programmers, in part because there are “inappropriate comments” in the code.
WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG and on your own, how did it feel to be alone? It turns out that love really can break your heart, though it's not the only thing that can.
ELEKTRO, the only survivor of a group of eight robots created by Westinghouse in Mansfield between 1931 to 1940, as well as a star of the New York World's Fair in 1939 and a sexploitation flick called Sex Kittens Go to College, will return to a Cleveland museum in September.
STARSHIP FEDERATION: being formed by America's top rivals in the private-sector space race.
TELEPORTERS: The Air Force isn’t buying them to beam the troops in behind enemy lines. At least, not until they get that whole ending-up-with-a-fly’s-head thing worked out.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has been renewed by the Sci-Fi Channel. As noted here before, I grudgingly admit that it's like some leftovers — better the second time around.
LUIS VUITTON has won a suit in a French court to stop Google from displaying ads for competitors when users searched for the luxury goods maker.
THE FOURTH AMENDMENT IN CYBERSPACE: A columnist argues that a Supreme Court decision on canine-assisted roadside searches opens the door to a new regime of Internet surveillance.
BEN LEE talks to the Telegraph about his latest disc, Awake Is The New Sleep, which drops at the end of the month.
NELS CLINE, who is wielding his axe for Wilco — having played with Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, the Geraldine Fibbers, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, the Blue Man Group, and Rickie Lee Jones (to name a few) — is profiled in Guitar Player.
NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED EDITOR David Shipley has split from his wife, Naomi Wolf, the feminist author of “The Beauty Myth,” who famously advised Al Gore to wear earth tones during his 2000 presidential campaign.
CULT OF THE iPod: Howard Stern may end up in iPods, if Sirius exec Mel Karmazin can realize his vision of adding satellite radio to MP3 players. ALSO: iPodlounge has grown from a one-man niche website into a professional publishing operation with big plans, according to Wired News.
“STICK 'EM UP, I HAVE A GUB” is the inspired headline for the story of the Spelling Bee Bandit, who cops believe intentionally misspelled words in his demand notes to convince cops they were chasing an illiterate crook.
LEO AND MARTY, TOGETHER 4EVER? Following Gangs of New York and The Aviator, DiCaprio and Scorsese are remaking Infernal Affairs and Drunken Angel.