Karl 
CLARENCE “GATEMOUTH” BROWN, after a 50-year career playing blues, country, jazz and Cajun music, died Saturday in his hometown of Orange, Texas, where he'd gone to escape Hurricane Katrina. Brown, who had been battling lung cancer and heart disease, was in ill-health for the past year. He was 81.
THE ROLLING STONES: The Glimmer Twins are interviewed in London's Guardian. Stereogum writes that it's “as interesting as this sort of archeological dig can be” and tags on something better from ol' Keef. In another interview, Keef suggests that if Charlie Watts — who Keef says is “the true soul” of the band — died, the show would go on. And why not? After all, Mick and Keef have been dead for ages.
ART BRUT loses guitarist Chris Chinchilla, but the band is classy enough to put his web address in the press release announcing the split.
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH: Sterogum shows us where the band found its odd name.
BEST BEATLES COVERS EVER are batted around at I Love Music.
GREG DULLI names his Top Ten Albums for WXPN.
JEFF BECK marries for the sixth time at age 61.
BOB DYLAN is getting a whole mini-site at the BBC. Net radio, audio, video, photos and links, links, links.
EMMLYLOU HARRIS has her Best Of reviewed on the Pitchfork.
LES PAUL is back on the Billboard charts at age 90. He last appeared on the Billboard album chart in 1955.
SON VOLT: Jay Farrar serves up juicy dish about the breakup of Uncle Tupelo. You can stream Son Volt's recent performance on NPR.
RAY CHARLES' engineer has theft charges against him dropped.
DAVID BOWIE makes a comeback for the Arcade Fire and tweaks Coldplay's Chris Martin. Brooklyn Vegan has the links to audio and video.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer claims he's secretly married to galpal Kate Moss. Which explains why she moved to Los Angeles.
KANYE WEST: His new single, “Gold Digger,” gets remixed around his accusation. West himself gets roundly booed at the NFL kickoff. Usher tells young people to ignore Kanye's comment. Master P, who lost loved ones in N.O., questions Kanye's rant. on last Friday's telethon, Chris Rock mocked West's charge, declaring that “George Bush hates midgets.” Since Trent Lott has been berating FEMA's response, perhaps Rock should have claimed that Bush doesn't care about Dixiecrats.
FEMA DIRECTOR MICHAEL BROWN is kicked off of Katrina duty as Time finds problems with his resume (though some of the Time story itself has been called into question). Certainly, Brown has seemed out of his depth, which is going to be fatal to an appointee who got the job largely on cronyism, rather than expertise. But is that the whole story? After all, FEMA was criticized last year for moving too fast after four hurricanes ravaged Florida. Those who saw election year politics forget that FEMA got praise from Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) for its handling of Hurricane Isabel — the first major storm where FEMA was part of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Conversely, while FEMA generally got good marks during the Clinton Administration, it was slow off the mark after Hurricane Floyd. It will be tempting for both political parties to scapegoat Brown & Co. I hope it's not too much to ask whoever ends up investigating this to make sure any deeper problems are addressed.
IRAQ: President Talabani urged the U.S. on Friday not to withdraw hastily and said U.S. forces should be reduced gradually over the next two years. Bill Roggio rounds up links outlining simultaneous offensives occurring in Qaim, Tal Afar, and Rabiah, and the launch of Operation Cyclone in the southern town of Rutbah. Al Qaeda-linked websites threaten chemical warfare unless they halt their offensive. The U.S. army said it killed one of Al-Qaeda's military chiefs for Mosul. Michael Yon has a progress report from Mosul also.
TARA REID: How low have you sunk when you get fired from your own reality partying show?
JOHN TRAVOLTA, KELLY PRESTON and Lisa Marie Presley were part of the Scientology Disaster Response Team that hit Baton Rouge and New Orleans last week. All were proudly wearing their church t-shirts.
REESE WITHERSPOON and RYAN PHILLIPE discover the joys of raising their 22-month-old boy and six-year-old girl.
GEORGE CLOONEY beaten by gay cowboys. NTTAWWT.
BRITNEY SPEARS is eating for four.
PORTIA DeROSSI desperately wants to marry Ellen DeGeneres. But DeRossi says she would have to be asked by Ellen first. Why?
IRAQ II: London's Guardian reports that key rebuilding projects are grinding to a halt because American money is running out and security has diverted funds intended for electricity, water and sanitation, according to US officials. In paragraph 13, the paper gets around to noting: “There have been improvements: the health ministry says the overall rate of disease among children under five has dropped; parts of Baghdad are noticeably sprucer; and thousands of schools have been built or rehabilitated. Electricity generation has recently climbed above pre-war levels.” Afaik, it's the first time the Guardian reported any of the above.
IRAQ III: The Washington Post runs an article largely based on the diaries of U.S. soldiers patrolling Balad. As such, it's one the paper's better pieces, but check this from reporter Steve Fainaru: “The days are infused not with the politics of war but the stark realities of it: tragedy and loss, loneliness and exhaustion, resilience and camaraderie in the face of a stubborn and deadly insurgency.” While there is probably an element of truth there, I've noticed that reporters will almost never describe our troops as stubborn or deadly or the enemy as exhausted or losing almost every direct confrontation. Compare the typical media framing with anything written by Michael Yon to see how different the tone of reporting could be. Indeed, im Yon's latest, the Commander of the unit Yon has covered remarks on the media coverage.
CULT OF THE iPod: Playlist magazine reviews the Nano, calling it “Apple's thinnest and, quite possibly, coolest iPod yet.”
MARTIAN MINING: As Quaid would say, “Get your a** to Mars.”
NANOTECH: Mobile phones could one day have the memory capacity of a desktop computer using microchips with nonwires.
WE CAN REBUILD HIM — we have the technology.
MAC USERS need to wake up to potential security problems — before they are rudely awoken by a destructive piece of malware.
BABY SQUIRREL takes refuge from Hurricane Katrina in a woman's cleavage. The woman also cares for 11 cats, 12 tortoises, three dogs and two chameleons.
L.A. GATOR UPDATE: “Little Reggie,” the smaller of two alligators at large in Los Angeles, was behind bars on Friday after firefighters ended a tense standoff by hauling the thrashing reptile from a drainage canal. The bigger gator, “Reggie,” a/k/a/ “Carlito,” remains at large in Lake Machado.
…AND HE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT, TOO, if it hadn't been for that meddlesome wabbit…
GRIZZLY MAN: Human and bear families face off in Montana's Glacier National Park. Afterward, it was only the human father whose face was off.
ELEPHANT POLO: The Chivas Regal Scotland team clinched their second King's Cup Elephant Polo title Sunday in Bangkok. Even before I clicked on the link, I suspected liquor would be involved.
