Karl 
SONIC YOUTH: We already heard that Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore would appear in the season finale of Gilmore Girls, but now comes word that Joe Pernice, Yo La Tengo, Sparks, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Sam Phillips will also appear in the show airing May 9th.
BUILT TO SPILL frontman Doug Martsch is recovering from a major operation to repair a detached retina. You can stream a couple from the band's new album via MySpace.
THE STOOGES are working on a reunion CD, according to Iggy Pop, who says it seemed like the right time because he'd “sort of run out of ideas…”
THE MAGIC NUMBERS are eager to explore darker territory when they begin recording the follow-up to their self-titled 2005 debut next month. You can stream the band's album from their sampler.
NEIL YOUNG has reportedly recorded a song titled, “Impeach the President.”
GUNS 'N' ROSES will perform a pair of concerts at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom May 15 and 17, according to concert promoter Live Nation. There's still no word on when Rose's decade-in-the-making Chinese Democracy LP will see release.
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: If I told you The Velvet Underground played “Sister Ray” on The Lawrence Welk Show, you would probably say, “I have to see it to believe it.”
ARCTIC MONKEYS: London's Guardian follows the band in the States to see whether this distinctly British band van make it in the US. The boys aren't fond of interviews, so Craig Marks, of Blender magazine, gets the money quote: “Over here, if you want to sell a lot of records, you have to go to local radio stations in Dayton, Ohio, and shake the hands of men with satin jackets.”
MISSION OF BURMA is rolling out advance tracks from the upcoming album, The Obliterati, at their wiki, starting with “2wice” (but there should be two or three more posted by the time you read this).
BRITAIN'S FAVORITE LYRIC comes from U2's “One,” according to a poll conducted by VH1.
GARY GLITTER is getting extradited back to Britain and will go straight to prison if officials get their way, according to the News of the World. (Sorry, no link; the paper's file structure is about as reliable as the content.)
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel says she's not getting any, despite rumours she is has rekindled her romance with the troubled singer. What she is getting is another lucrative modeling gig, this time with Nikon. London's Guardian thinks the newly unveiled sculpture of Moss marks the death of British art. Meanwhile, Doherty has been has been voted Worst Celebrity Dad in a new online survey. Former Co-Libertine Carl Barat says he would really like to work with Doherty again someday… if he ever cleans up his act.
BRADGELINA: It's been said that Pitt morphs into his lovers, but it now seems like he's turning into Jolie's 4-year-old son, Maddox, while he and Jolie consider giving their baby a Namibian name. Meanwhile, Jon Voight seems to be trying to curry favor with his estranged daughter. Calvin Klein model Jenny Shimizu told the News of the World about how she and Jolie trawled strip joints to ogle the girlie action, which they recreated when they got home, and more: “Angelina is an unbelievable lesbian lover… She has a body which just makes you gasp and shudder with lust…” and so on. And this is why the News of the World should have permanent links.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Scary Movie 4 took the top slot with 41 million in receipts (not bad on a 45 million budget). Ice Age 2 and The Benchwarmers placed and showed, with Disney's The Wild pulling only 9.5 million for a movie with an 80 million budget — ouch!
GWYNETH PALTROW got the first photo of Moses out, no doubt an arrangement with a friendly photog. No plagues or miracles were observed.
MADONNA lost the Best Female Artist award to Ashlee Simpson at the MTV Australian Video Music Awards. That doesn't speak well of Madge or Australia!
LINDSAY LOHAN is making stupid statements: “I want people to know that with all the glitz and glamour you can still go home and it can still be s**t.”
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY insists she is curvy compared to most of the leading ladies she goes up against at auditions — and has called on studios to take a more responsible attitude. So either she or Hollywood is crazier than I suspected.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise has been running seminars for his adopted children, 11-year-old Connor and 13-year-old Isabella, on how to take care of the baby: “The kids will have different responsibilities and run in shifts. They're going to help on every level.” London's Sun claims that Cruise has spent about 225K on in-home hospital equipment. How bad is Cruise's PR? A CBS News poll showing an increasing disfavorable view of Islam shows that only eight percent of the American public view Scientology favorably.
BRITNEY SPEARS threatens to invade your home weekly. Meanwhile, hubby Spenderline claims his “musical career” is the fault of the press: “They are forcing me to do this, and I am glad they are. I am more than happy to do it.”
PAM ANDERSON has to face it — she's addicted to love.
HEATHER LOCKLEAR: I've already noted that if you're David Spade, the first rule of dating Heather Locklear is that you do not talk about dating Heather Locklear. The second rule of dating Heather Locklear is that you do not talk about dating Heather Locklear.
KENNY ROGERS is a plastic surgery disaster. He should know when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to nip and when to tuck.
JOSH BOLTEN: The new White House chief of staff is an outlaw biker.
EVANGELINE LILLY: The Lost hottie displays a number of bad traits common to actresses in claiming: “I spent many nights crying myself to sleep wishing I was ugly because of the way men leered and disrespected me, because they assumed things about my mental capacity or my physical willingness based on the way I looked.” She even quit her job as a waitress over it — then took a job working for a singles chat line.
IRAQ: As the retired Generals criticizing Defense Secretary Rumsfeld continued to hit the media (with the media's promise of more to come), retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion of Iraq, retired Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. John Keane, former Army vice chief of staff, retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Michael P. DeLong, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Gen. Peter Pace, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended Rumsfeld. What strikes me most about the criticism is that it is of the decisions and events of 2003 and 2004, not what's going on today. There is an old saying about generals wanting to fight the last battle… Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines contends that Al Qaeda in Iraq and Zarqawi have conceded strategic defeat and are on their way out of the country. That's consistent with Vines' prior comments on the decline in foreign fighters slipping across the Syrian border since last Fall's operations in western Iraq. It would also partially explain the medium-term trend of declining US casualties. There have been reports that Zarqawi was demoted earlier this month. It seems like AQ thinks Rumsfeld is doing a better job than the critical retired generals do.
SECTARIAN VIOLENCE IN IRAQ is generally perceived to be a bigger threat than the insurgents at this point. But sectarian violence is nothing new in Iraq. Saddam's regime committed horrific atrocities against the Shia and the Kurds, killing hundreds of thousands. By historical standards, the number of revenge killings in Iraq has been fairly small. For example, 10K French were summarily killed as collaborators after WWII. The number of Germans killed in eastern Europe after WWII was in the hundreds of thousands, but such are generally not blamed on the US for liberating France and defeating Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, the lack of security — especially in Baghdad — is a major problem. Bill Roggio (and, by linkage, Omar at ITM) look at anger at the politicos delaying the new govt and plans for a future military campaign focused on the city. The campaign seems to be based on the operations in Anbar province last Fall, pairing military sweeps with reconstruction.
IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. Which is a great argument for such a regime to have nukes. Pres. Ahmadinejad was again saying “The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm.” Another confidence builder. Meanwhile, Kurdish groups are looking for help with regime change, preferably peacefully.
THE PIG OLYMPICS got underway yesterday in Moscow, with a field of 12 piglets competing in three events: pig-racing, pig-swimming and “pigball.”
FAIRY PENGUINS are being saved by sweaters knit by Mormons in New South Wales.
CATS: Molly the Cat was rescued after two weeks trapped inside the bowels of a New York City building. More than 200 Chinese cats got a sumptuous fish banquet for eradicating rats from farmland in Sanjiang Township. A cat saved the life of a newborn baby abandoned on the doorstep of a house in Cologne, Germany.
WORLD'S UGLIEST DOG competition has put the ballot online. Vote now!
TITUS THE WEIMARANER and three other dogs are sprung from the pound by Titus' owner, who is now in a cage himself.
GATOR stopped from buying a Lincoln Continental on Merritt Island, Florida.
