THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
“WHERE'S YOUR MESSIAH NOW?” Although ABC did its annual showing of The Ten Commandments before Easter, I cannot let it pass without mention now. Edward G. Robinson's Dathan never actually spoke that line in the movie, but like “Play It Again, Sam” (not spoken in Casablanca), it has become part of a part of our culture. The line actually comes from Billy Crystal (sample), originally a bit from the Oscars, iirc. It later turned up on The Simpsons, with Chief Wiggum playing Dathan to Ned Flanders' Moses.
MATZO AND METAL: VH1 Classic presents a rock-n-roll Passover Seder featuring host Dee Snider (half Jewish) and Scott Ian of Anthrax, Leslie West of Mountain and Snider's Twisted Sister bandmate JJ French discussing their experiences in the music industry as well as their Jewish heritage over a special Passover meal. All foods served will be Kosher of course courtesy of the special's sponsor Manischewitz.
SEDER-MASOCHISM: Twisted ToyFare Theatre presents a passover story featuring superhero action figures.
DOGS have a seder in Chicago. Though there’s no link because it’s behind a pay-per-view wall, the Chicago Tribune had the story of the seder held at Soggy Paws, a Chicago dog wash and pet products store more accustomed to holding dog birthday parties and singles nights. The store’s owner was concerned that people might be offended, but was reassured by Orthodox Jewish friends. Kosher dog food was provided by Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Co. in Wheeling, IL.
EARTH DAY: As the world marks the 35th anniversary of Earth Day, environmentalists are debating the future of a movement that seems to be losing the battle for public opinion. And they should, having managed to lose George Carlin some time between this quote and this one.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER – High Wheels: Jump onto sticky wheels, then jump off to collect dots and points.
“NIGHTS ON BROADWAY,” the Bee Gees tune covered by Pate, but never commercially released, is making a comeback. It was one of the selections on American Idol this week. And it was parodied by Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake on SNL earlier this month.
SPEAKING OF AMERICAN IDOL, host Ryan Seacrest was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday, an honor yet to be bestowed upon Robert Redford or Julia Roberts, to name just two. Paula Abdul says her erratic behavior on the show is due to improved health from treatment of a rare neurological disorder, not a drug problem. Meanwhile, ABC News is working on a potentially explosive expose on the show for sweeps.
BEATLES FOOTAGE DISCOVERED: Film of the Beatles' visit to Plymouth Hoe in 1967, as part of the Magical Mystery Tour, was unearthed in the BBC library during a transfer of old film reel onto digital format. It is part of the uncut original film – much of it unseen for nearly 40 years.
JOHN ENTWISTLE: More of his estate was auctioned on Thursday, including a fibreglass suit of armour, a pinball machine, two skeletons, a baby grand piano, dolls of Marilyn Monroe, 11 re-productions of knights’ helmets, a stuffed American Eagle a mounted bust of the Princess Royal, a personal music songbook with handwritten drafts of songs, a microphone, a collection of white label copy proof records and a snakeskin-covered tambourine.
RAY LaMONTAGNE is lauded at Stereogum. And rightly so. You can (and should) stream a few tunes from Trouble at his site.
CHRIS STAMEY is briefly run through the beat grinder.
OOPS… I DID IT AGAIN — THE ORIGINAL: Fresh from leaking Britney Spears' iTunes playlist (linked here yesterday), SuperMasterpiece scores again with the long out-of-print 1932 Louis Armstrong original of the Spears hit. An MP3 no collector can do without.
GIMME, GIMME, GIMME… ABBA downloads! The Copy, Right? blog serves up covers covering the range from the A-Teens to Evan Dando to Yngwie Malmsteen to Zamfir! And if you thought The Meat Purveyors was the only bluegrass band covering ABBA, you overlooked the Sensitive New Age Cowpersons — Australian bluegrass ABBA!
ABBA NOT YOUR BAG, BABY? Spoilt Victorian Child is offering a slew of Joy Division covers to brighten your weekend.
THE WHITE STRIPES' new single is reviewed by Uncle Grambo at Whatevs. And if you have never read the unique wordsmithery of Uncle Grambo, know that you don't have to be a White Stripes fan to enjoy it.
PINK FLOYD has agreed to pay Clare Torry more than the $57 she was originally paid to wail on “The Great Gig In the Sky” for Dark Side of the Moon.
IRAQ: Maxim magazine is sending 20,000 copies of the popular men’s magazine to servicemembers in Iraq. Actress Brittany Murphy strips down for a sultry cover shoot and pin-up poster that she reportedly would do only if the publisher sent copies to the troops. ALSO: Petty Officer 2nd Class Paul Nutter, a Navy Reserve hospital corpsman, now receives love letters from his wife written on the back of the love letters he sent from Vietnam so many years ago.
IRAQ II: Insurgents brought down a helicopter carrying 11 civilians with missile fire north of Baghdad Thursday. The dead from the crash included six American bodyguards employed by Blackwater Security Consulting — a subsidiary of North Carolina-based security contractor Blackwater USA, which had four employees slain and mutilated by insurgents in Fallujah a year ago. At that time, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the Daily Kos — arguably the most influential liberal weblog in the U.S. — famously called the bodyguards “mercenaries,” and wrote, “Screw them.” This time “Kos” is remaining silent, but commenters at the Daily Kos echo that sentiment. Charming.
POPE BENEDICT XVI is often called conservative, but PETA believes it may have a powerful new ally. Also, it seems that during the U.S. election cycle, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said it is not necessarily sinful for Catholics to vote for politicians who support abortion, as long as they are voting for that candidate for other reasons. Rogers Cadenhead purchased the rights to BenedictXVI.com back on April 1st, but he hasn't figured out what he's going to do with the domain yet. Indeed, the new Pope already has his own e-mail address.
UNPOPPED POPCORN: Ever wonder why there are always those holdout kernels at the bottom of your bag or bucket? Wonder no longer; the mystery has been solved.
MOVIE GENRES: Quite aside from the fact that I enjoy using the word “genre” to amuse myself and others, Green Cine's primers could be quite handy for those wanting to try new things.
THE EUROPEAN UNION AND NORWAY are much worse off economically than you might think: “if the E.U. was treated as a single American state, it would rank fifth from the bottom, topping only Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia and Mississippi.”
NICOLE KIDMAN is studying theology with an adjunct professor of religion at Pepperdine University. Her interest in theology grows out of a strong Catholic upbringing; during her messy divorce from Tom Cruise, she considered her mother's suggestion that she try out life at a convent in Australia. (who wouldn't?) Instead, she's linked to mogul Steven Bing, the father of Liz Hurley's baby. Yeah, I'd be looking for answers, too.
ROBERT POLLARD ON THE PITCHFORK: His vinyl record of drunken stage patter scores a ten or a zero, depending on how you look at it.
SOUTHEASTERN MUSICAL FESTIVALS: The weekly planet catalogs “some pretty rockin', jazzin', bluegrassin', funkin', country-in', R&B-in', dancin' and blues-in' festivals.” With the Pratts living in southern Maryland, Jon Hahn living in Texas and Sylvia Hauser probably relocating to Georgia, I thought it worth mentioning for future years as well as this one.
SIMPSONS MUSIC: No, not Jessica, but Homer, Marge, Itchy, Scratchy and much, much, much more can be downloaded at Simpson Crazy.
SONIC YOUTH fans will appreciate this headline at fishbowl LA.
STEREOGUM provides links to streams of new discs from Ben Folds, eels, Caesars and New Order.
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD will be the subject of a biopic starring Tony-winning Broadway singer-actress Kristin Chenoweth.
SCARLETT JOHANNSON has taken up with Josh Hartnett, her co-star in the forthcoming movie, The Black Dahlia.
BENNIFER, THE SEQUEL: After numerous failed relationships with their co-stars, Daredevil and Pearl Harbor co-stars Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck reportedly get engaged without learning that lesson about not going to the bathroom and eating in the same room.
RETOUCHED CELEBRITIES: You can see the before-and-after photos in Glenn Feron's portfolio.
GEORGE SOROS: The billionaire convicted of insider trading convened a carefully vetted gathering of 70 likeminded millionaires and billionaires last weekend to start the process of building an ideas production line for liberal politicians to compete with such entrenched conservative institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Leadership Institute. Of course, some would suggest that there already is such a network for liberals and that Soros' Open Society Institute underwrites quite a bit of it.
LINDSAY LOHAN: After she went blonde, did she go to the trout pout shop?
BLOGGERS: Inking book deals. And begging for money. To traditional jornalists they are competitors, colleagues and customers.
HYBRID HUMMER? The U.S. military is developing a hybrid Humvee alternative that could boost the market for combination combustion-electric vehicles.
UNDERPASS MARY: A Chicago blogger photoblogged the crowds streaming to see the supposed image of the Virgin Mary in an underpass. As each photo is a separate entry, it's easier to go to the home page and scroll down.
FRANCE WARMONGERS: During a three-day visit to the Peoples' Republic of China, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin supported Beijing's provocative “anti-secession” law on Taiwan, and vowed to keep pushing for an end to the EU arms embargo (imposed after the Tiananmen Square crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989) that would open the door for Paris to sell weapons to the PRC.
GOOGLE is experimenting with a feature enabling users of its search engine to see all of their past search requests and results, creating a computer peephole that could prove as embarrassing as it is helpful.
JACKO JUSTICE: MJ dodges a bullet as the trial judge excludes the icky Vaseline story noted here yesterday.
DOES THE L.A. TIMES HAVE A JAYSON BLAIR PROBLEM? Patterico, a blogger so frequently critical of the paper that it invited him to publish such criticism in the Times itself, thinks they just might.
MEDIA IN TROUBLE: A study commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York suggests that young people are getting their news in ways that threaten the very viability of newspapers and other traditional news media. Former ABC News reporter/anchor Sam Donaldson thinks network news is dead.
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: U.S. News & World Report has a long piece on the U.S. government's multi-million dollar campaign to influence not only Muslim societies but Islam itself.
SEN. JOHN F. KERRY and others are trying to kill a ten-year legal probe that implicates several senior Clinton administration appointees for obstruction of justice, according to the New York Daily News.
ANOTHER DAY, TWO MORE TEACHERS accused of misbehavior with students. A New Jersey junior high school teacher faces up to 1 1/2 years behind bars, after being accused of providing alcohol to a student; she also had been accused of encouraging one of the girls to bare her breasts, but that charge has been dropped. A Brooklyn middle-school teacher was arrested Wednesday on sex-abuse charges, becoming the third female NYC educator nabbed on such charges in a week.