JOHN LENNON AUCTION: A handwritten lyric sheet for “All You Need is Love” went for just over a million bucks. The tunic that inspired the cover for “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” went for about 174K. And pair of Lennon's trademark round wire spectacles was sold for around 95K. All you need is cash.
STAR WARS AUCTION: Producer Gary Kurtz's auction also went well — better than expected, in fact. Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Star Wars sold for $264,000. Darth Vader's lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back fetched $155,000 instead of the estimated $52,000 to $79,000. Yoda's walking stick from TESB fetched $66,000, instead of the expected $11,000. There were some iconic non-Star Wars items also.
A RUBBER SOUL TRIBUTE ALBUM will include tracks from Sufjan Stevens, the Fiery Furnaces, Ted Leo, Low, Nellie McKay, Ben Kweller and more.
MAXIMO PARK frontman Paul Smith likes to (as they would say at the Ratskeller) “make show.”
CASH IN: Compilations of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash get rave reviews at PopMatters.
THE PIXIES' guitarist, Joey Santiago, is writing the score for the new Showtime original comedy series Weeds.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Holmes claims he was mortified about having to pose in a transparent spandex bodysuit for her Batman Begins action figure. I don't think anyone who has seen Sam Raimi's The Gift is buying that. Holmes' claims that she was terrified she wasn't going to be good enough in the hit comic-book film is much more believable — and she's not signed to do the sequel. Meanwhile, Lauren Bacall doesn't think much of Cruise.
BARBRA STREISAND petitioned the Surgeon General last year to legalize LSD for medicinal use? That's what it says in Pravda, which is Russian for “truth!”
MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL, who stirred up controversy by saying that America “was in some way responsible” for the 9/11 attacks, has signed on to star in Oliver Stone's 9/11 movie.
OSAMA BIN LADEN COKE PLOT: The DEA is discounting a New York Post front-page story that OBL tried to buy tons of Colombian cocaine to spike with poison and resell to Americans. The NYP stands by its story.
IRAQ: CENTCOM commander General John Abizaid spoke to Austin Bay at Camp Fallujah in June: “The mood of how this war is going in Baghdad and Arab capitals is better than in Washington and London… The center of friction is now somewhere west of Baghdad. Last year I would have said it was Baghdad. It's moved from Baghdad, west. Into Al Anbar… We're squeezing them more and more. It's clear from the intel that Zarqawi is under pressure. Al Qaeda is under pressure everywhere. The main problem [in Iraq] is the Sunni Arab community coming into the political process, and that takes patient military and political skills.” He says more about Al Anbar and the Iraqi Army at the link.
OH YEAH, WE'RE GOING TO THE LASER SHOW: Presented in association with MTV2, Sonic Vision is a collaborative effort between Moby and New York's American Museum of Natural History, featuring music by such notables as Coldplay, Audioslave, David Byrne and Brian Eno. It's also playing at Chicago's Adler Planetarium. But no Fountains of Wayne?
JIMI HENDRIX pretended to be gay so he would be discharged from the army, according to a new biography. I knew he often wore womens' blouses, but I figured that was because he was left-handed.
PINK FLOYD is remembered in the L.A. Times.
“THAT'S A GOOD NAME FOR A ROCK BAND:” Humorist Dave Barry has a couple posted at his blog.
WE'RE AN AMERICAN BAND: Ask MetaFilter is discussing American bands “that were equally musically adept, great songwriting, and inspirational.”
CHINA may have more Christians than Communists.
LONDON BOMBING: Police arrested seven more people during a Sunday raid. Police raiding apartments Friday in London and Rome rounded up the last of the four suspects from the failed July 21 attacks. TV crews almost got too close to the action. ALSO: one by one, Al-Qaeda’s affiliated websites have vanished until only a handful remain; Israeli intelligence agents detect the hand of British intelligence.
DRRTY DIETING: Christina Aguilera is reportedly following a bizarre diet with four new food groups: crunchy, soft, hot and cold.
JANN WENNER would probably have a heart attack if he ever saw my desk.
SEAN CONNERY RETIRES, saying it would take a Mafia-style “offer he couldn't refuse” to tempt him to make another film. In an interview with a New Zealand newspaper, the actor says he has no time for the “idiots” now making films in Hollywood.
THE MIX CD EXCHANGE: The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing. The Mix CD Exchange is a community for people who love putting music together in just the right order to create that perfect transition, that sweet irony, or just that amazing compilation of songs. For example, a mix based on the theme of A Summer Love.
IRAQ II: Michael Yon reports on the many soldiers and Marines who are working towards attaining U.S. citizenship while in uniform, under fire, in Iraq. Compare it with The New York Times coverage of the same topic. An article in USA Today worries about the effects of multiple tours of duty, particularly on Marines. Metallica makes a cameo as the Greek chorus. No, really. And as Greyhawk points out at The Mudville Gazette, “As with all such “news reports” from Iraq, there are no direct quotes from any Marine supporting the overall tone of the piece.”
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: The BBC does its own take on the trained squirrels. I want a trained squirrel… The flick slipped to number two in weekend receipts; on a per screen average, it's number four, behind Wedding Crashers, March of the Penguins and Must Love Dogs. SEMI-RELATED: Johhny Depp is addicted to sticky toffee pudding. And the Teletubbies. Plus, he came up with his Wonka voice while playing with Barbies.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: Johnny Knoxville got into a bar brawl with a “young frat-boy type” bothering Kate Moss, an alleged former flame of the married Knoxville and alleged fiancée of the troubled singer Doherty. Surprisingly, Mrs. Knoxville was not present.
DAVID BECKHAM'S FOOT works wonders on a soccer field… and in a retaurant, as it turns out. I suspect he was subject to a penalty kick from Victoria.
MUSICIAN JOKES: It's not all about stem cell research and fiscal policy at “The Corner” of National Review online; last Friday, readers were e-mailing musician jokes. Somebody gave some to the drummer, but that was followed by guitarist jokes then onto the bass player and the lead singer, as well as members of marching bands. I'm sparing you the french horn and viola jokes.
PAKISTAN: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas must leave the country. But the BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan says it is not clear what effect these measures will have on extremism as the more militant students work at unregulated madrassas that have survived previous crackdowns. ALSO: In the northwest, more than a hundred tribal women have taken a stand against creeping fundamentalism by declaring themselves candidates in local elections that Muslim leaders had decreed a male-only preserve.
IRAQ III: The Defense Department has drawn up a and to a max of 60K by the end of 2006. But this still seems contingent of Iraqis keeping to the timeline for elections in December 2005. Framers of the new constitution said Sunday they may need a 30 day extension; President Jalal Talabani insisted that the Aug. 15 deadline for parliament to approve the draft charter must be met. A showdown was expected today.
IGGY POP rates a 7.9 on the Pitchfork for A Million in Prizes: The Anthology.
WHAT IS INDIE ROCK? Carl Wilson suggests it's a cultural mood ring.
MP3 BLOGS get a shout out from the Chicago Tribune, including the Tofu Hut (discussing how a 1934 recording of a vocal style called “eephing” sounds like “strange country sex”) and Fluxblog, whose Matthew Perpetua has been hired as a talent scout for Universal Music Group's European division.
LONDON: The Guardian's executive editor for news has resigned, reportedly because of a split on the staff caused when he fired a trainee journalists exposed as a member of an extremist Islamist organisation.
FRANCE will expel 12 Islamic “preachers of hate” in August.
WHY DO THEY HATE US? At the moment, it seems that democracy — and even the U.S. — are gaining in popularity.
SURFIN' SAFARI: There's no woodie big enough to carry that board.
ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL? “I have read story after story about how someone lost a child or a spouse to the evils of casino gambling, but no one ever tells the sad tale of the home torn apart by Fantasy Sports.”
REAL MEN OF GENIUS: Today, we salute you, Mr. Sleepy Bud Light Truck Driver. You know there are thirsty aging baby boomers in Arizona, so you skip a nap to put the hammer down in a way those Clydesdales never could. No artificial stimulants for you because you know Bud is a family brand. You take pride in what you do, right up to the moment you spill 30,000 cans of watery beer onto the interstate. That's what makes you Mr. Sleepy Bud Light Truck Driver. Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis Missouri; fine, how's yours?
OVER THERE: Steven Bochco's Iraq-based drama drew 4.1 million viewers in its premiere on FX, making it the night's most-watched show on cable. But I wonder whether those numbers will hold. The show seems to be getting mostly thumbs-down from members of the military and their families. Ry and the commenters at Blackfive's blog seem most put off by the abundant sterotypes and Hollywood cliches in the first episode. In contrast, L.A. Times reporters who spent time in Iraq mostly think the characters seem real. Apparently, these reporters don't realize that they may be saying that even spending time in Iraq may not cause them to revisit stereotypical views of those who serve in the military.
JAY FARRAR: The Son Volt frontman gets interveiewed for Newsweek, albeit a web exclusive.
ROCKERS AND ACTORS are joining Oxfam's new campaign against agricultural subsidies, including Bono, REM's Michael Stipe, Coldplay's Chris Martin, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Alanis Morrissette, Minnie Driver, Colin Firth and Antonio Banderas.
OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD? You might try the Library of Congress.
CULT OF THE iPod: Hewlett-Packard has discontinued an iPod reselling agreement in place with Apple since January 2004. The iPod Shuffle makes an appearance over the weekend in Chris Muir's Day by Day comic strip, which also touches on the issue of mixed relationships. And advertisers are avoiding opportunities to exploit the gadget, fearing the wrath of the cult.
TOP STORIES versus popular stories.
PHONY PHATWA? Last week, a group of American Islamic leaders held a press conference to announce a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against “terrorism and extremism.” Steven Emerson maintains that the fatwa is bogus and that officials of the organizations involved have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and Islamic extremist organizations.
PYGMY HIPPOPOTAMUS: Bono, a 20 day-old male baby pygmy hippopotamus, stays close to its mother, 10-year-old Tina, at Taman Safari Park in Bogor, West Java. I like that the pictures ended up as part of the Reuters slideshow for U2. Also, while looking for info on Bono, I came across pygmy elephants.
CATS: Five kittens got shipped to vermont with a brush trimmer sent back to the factory from South Carolina.
PYTHON visits a pizzeria in the western Austrian town of Freidstadt. Did it want a pizza topped with Spam?
MOOSE takes up residence at a miniature golf course. No doubt it was cooled by the windmills.
THIS SITE IS A LOWLY INSECT: If that doesn't sound good to you, keep in mind that it was a wiggly worm mere weeks ago, A blog called The Truth Laid Bear runs a project called the The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem, which ranks sites' popularity by links. Currently, this site is ranked among the Lowly Insects, because we have been linked by Big Al's Army Life the online diary of the deployment of a National Guard nurse out of Mississippi, written by his fiancée, Melinda (Although this site was listed as a “Blog of Interest,” it looks like Melinda is redoing her sidebar, so I hope we reappear there.) I, for one, am glad to have appeared there, as fiancées of those deployed to Iraq is a key demographic, imho. Melinda has a whole mess of great stuff on her blog, including a poem about Iraqi dust and sand that parodies Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, a post on Ways to Support a Co-Worker or Friend Whose Loved one Has Been Deployed (luckily, I seem to have been doing most of them even before reading it), and photos of Al at one of Saddam's palaces and at the Gates of Babylon. Check it out; our visits will show up in her referrer log (you can see a few entries at the bottom of her sidebar), encourage her to keep Pate linked and move up the evolutionary chain!