Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE…
… is a phrase lifted from the seminal British pop music show Ready Steady Go, which is warmly remembered in London's Guardian. The show's final theme song was Them's “Baby Please Don't Go.” Van Morrison and the lads mimed it for the show in 1966.
MUSICAL TIMEWASTER: The Pianographique. Trippy.
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE has a revolving door, but mainstays Justin Peroff and Andrew Whiteman talk to KyndMusic about the non-process of making their records and a possible album of alternate takes. RELATED: Closet OC Fan is killing music with a bootleg of Feist covering BSS's “Major Label Debut.”
76 TROMBONES are a combo from Brooklyn that serves up Americana with a laid-back, downbeat manner that reminds me a bit of Silver Jews, if a bit less poetic. You can download and stream four tracks at MySpace. (Thanks, Gorilla vs.Bear.)
THE BEATLES NOW: Terry Teachout notes that while many have written about the band in terms of the “sociology of celebrity,” few write about the Fab Four's place in musical history.
THE GO-BETWEENS: Robert Foster tells Stylus about That Striped Sunlight Sound, a concert DVD package plus a CD, and notes that he's listening not only to Beth Orton and Arctic Monkeys, but also Neil Diamond and Jimmy Buffett.
LEONARD COHEN tells The Globe and Mail that his recent financial and legal difficulties “have proved very nourishing in their way.”
WOLFGANG'S VAULT RADIO: The memorabilia outlet previously noted here (and I have since had a friend have a very good experience with them) now offers Vault Radio, which streams recordings from concerts Bill Graham promoted, including The Who, Cream, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and The Sex Pistols. NPR has an audio backgrounder.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: From VH1's “Where Are They Now?” file, Spinal Tap. These clips hit the highlights of This Is Spinal Tap, but include new interviews with the lads, e.g., Nigel Tufnel talking about his new apprenticeship at an aquarium. The link above takes you to part one; check the sidebar for the follow-up clips.
YOU TUBE: The video-sharing site gets noticed by NPR, which links you to video of a Wilson Pickett-James Brown medley of “Cold Sweat” and “Midnight Hour,” T. Rex's “Get It on” and videos by Arctic Monkeys and Howlin' Wolf. The more the media notices YouTube, the sooner artists and labels will start demanding their stuff be removed, so enjoy it while you can.
PAUL WELLER mended fences with James Blunt at the Brit Awards. Meanwhile Coldplay's Chris Martin feels neglected because he has yet to be the focus of a verbal attack from Weller. Seems like Weller knows when a snub is as good as a jab.
THE JUNO AWARDS: Nickelback dominates the nomination list for Canada's 2006 Juno Awards. New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Hot Hot Heat, Metric and Tegan & Sara were shut out of mainstream categories; Montreal's Arcade Fire received just three lesser nominations. The National Post explains “Why Avril will always out-Juno Arcade Fire: “Some of the people who are members of CARAS are only finding out about Arcade Fire now, and the only reason is because they were on the cover of Time magazine,” says Larry LeBlanc, bureau chief for Billboard magazine in Canada.
DINOSAUR, JR. has been noodling around with thoughts of working on an album this summer.
WEEZER: Ann Althouse excerpts a New York Times piece on 35-year-old frontman Rivers Cuomo living an austere existence in a dorm room at Harvard.
MADONNA: Hubby Guy Ritchie turned up with Madge at the Brit Awards — for just half an hour. Ritchie didn't smile for the photogs. The kiss they shared when she won Best International Female was awkward and she forgot to thank Guy in her speech, as the video shows. Madge wasn't wearing her wedding ring, either — not the best move when you're trying to convince everyone the marriage is fine.
KID ROCK and SCOTT STAPP (former Creed singer) are featured on a sex tape. It's not a Brokeback Mountain thing, but the promo video makes it seem as trashtastic as could be imagined.
JACKO JUSTICE: The the California Court of Appeal has ruled that the order terminating Debbie Rowe's parental rights was invalid and that she can pursue custody of the former couple's two children. The trial judge commented that the marriage “was an arranged deal from the beginning…” Rowe apparently made millions from the deal, but now wants custody of the kids based on the child molestation charges brought against Jacko and his alleged association with the Nation of islam.
NOW SHOWING: The movies opening wide today are the Antarctic sled dog tale Eight Below (79% Fresh on the Tomatometer), the racial drama Freedomland (20% Rotten), and Date Movie, which is apparently not being shown to critics, with all that implies.
GEORGE LUCAS received a National Medal of Science and Technology for his company's innovative visual effects and technology in films in a White House ceremony Monday. It seems unlikely that he will ever get a medal for directing.
VAUGHNISTON: Aniston's friends (or is that Friends?) are concerned that hanging with Vince Vaughn is making her “Vegas, Baby!”
JESSICA SIMPSON: Maybe the reason Star magazine is rubbishing rumors that the pneumatic blonde hooked up with Maroon 5's Adam Levine is that the tab claims Simpson hooked up with Jude Law at the Chateau Marmont over the weekend of Feb. 3, with one guest asking the hotel for a change of rooms due to the noise. Reportedly, Simpson had to be similarly shushed with Levine.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: After reports that Holmes was going to bail on Cruise's trip down under for a funeral, the photos show she turned up, after all. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the persisting rumors that the pair have “already worked out the visitation rights” for their unborn child — which Cruise's rep denies, natch. BONUS: The Best Week Ever blog has a Cruise-Oprah video mash-up of the show they want to see.
SIENNA MILLER, in a moment of clarity, says she will never design her own clothing line: “I would hate the fact that people are wearing clothes with my name on. After all, I'm an actress.” But if she knows it would be a fashion disaster, why all the fugly ensembles?
THE CULT OF LLOYD: The Washington Post looks at the cult of women who have a fetish for Lloyd Dobler, the character played by John Cusack in Say Anything. Lloyd also serves to introduce an article in Tango magazine about movie myths that mess up women's love lives.
COVER CURSE: Appearing on the front of Redbook magazine may be hazardous to your relationship.
REN AND STIMPY CREATOR JOHN K has started a blog with all sorts of drawings, including sketches of celebrities (such as Tom-Kat and Vaughniston).
BRITNEY SPEARS drops this gem in the lap of People magazine: “I found out after the baby,” she says earnestly, “that I can sing!” So. Many. Punchlines.
THE OLYMPICS are less of a television event than past games so far, with competition from American Idol, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Survivor and other shows. But when you see the ratings declining over time for the Oscars and the World Series, it's also proof that big events in general have less pull. Plus, people don't have to wait for results in the Internet age — even for the last-place results. (Thanks, Debbie)
IRAQ: Bill Roggio notes that both the US military and al-Qaeda have a vested interest in learning how to properly fight an insurgency. Michael J. Totten checks out the nightlife — such as it is — in Erbil: “Iraqi Kurdistan is more pro-American than America… Even the Islamists I met were weirdly pro-American in some ways – and again it’s not just because the US destroyed Saddam Hussein.” West Point's Combating Terrorism Center issued a report arguing that the US should rely more on indirect propaganda and allies in the Middle East than direct military action, but there are arguments to be made against indirect propaganda campaigns also. And often enough, the folks who oppose the military campaigns also oppose the propaganda campaigns.
CARTOON JIHAD: In London's Times, Simon Jenkins argues that the derisive Danish cartoons of Muhammad don't defend free speech, they threaten it: “The traditional balance between free speech and respect for the feelings of others is evidently becoming harder to sustain. The resulting turbulence can only feed the propaganda of the right to attack or expel immigrants and those of alien culture. And it can only feed the appetite of government to restrain free speech where it really matters, as in criticising itself.” I agree that no media outlet is obliged to republish the cartoons to defend free speech, but claiming that one should not run them for fear of future attempts censorship is to argue that it is not worth defending the right to publish such cartoons against the threat of Islamic extremists, because you might then have to defend the same right as against the government. I would argue that conceding as to one threat merely weakens the media as against the other. And for a third view, Christopher Hitchens is always up for advocating the mockery of religion in general.
EDU-BLOGGING: The 54th midway of the Carnival of Education is online. Non-educators are going to skip right to the post about elementary kids “dating” one another.
BIZZARE DOG ABUSE: A man in Melbourne, Fla., faces animal abuse charges after three dogs were found in a locked storage shed with hair so long that they were barely able to move, according to a Local 6 News report. Poor things look worse than Saddam coming out of his spider hole.
WAYWARD WESTMINSTER WHIPPET: Police called off the search Thursday for award-winning show dog Bohem C'est La Vie (a/k/a ViVi), who bolted from her travel cage at NYC's JFK airport after she took a breed award at this week's Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Whippets may have really good survival instincts, but — like Greyhounds — are runners.
CLOVER and BRODIE have given birth to a black and white colobus monkey at Melbourne Zoo. Which is a good thing, as they are also colobus monkeys. And an endangered species. Pic at the link.
TOXIC CANE TOADS have evolved longer legs in the few short decades since humans introduced them into Australia and are now invading the country at a rate of about 30 miles a year.
