REVENGE OF THE SITH opens wide today, as you have undoubtedly heard many times over. But did you know that Darth Vader is one of the grotesques on Washington's National Cathedral? No, really! And if you want the supersized version of the picture above, you can get it from Giant magazine's site. on the other hand, if you want to see video of Ewan MacGregor and Hayden Christensen kissing each other on the lips, you have to go to Page SixSixSix.
ATTACK OF THE CLONES? Across a range of sports, wearing red is consistently associated with a higher probability of winning, according to a study in the new issue of Nature. The British anthropologists obviously didn't study the Iowa State Cyclones.
THE DECEMBERISTS are keeping a tour journal.
PETRA HADEN, who has been a touring member of the Decemberists, talked about that and her a cappella version of The Who Sell Out (previously noted here) with Under The Radar.
ARE WE NOT MEN? Devo announces a Summer tour, including a Colorado date with English Beat, Dramarama, and Flock of Seagulls.
PET SOUNDS is getting the remix treatment on Hippocamp Ruins Pet Sounds.
COLDPLAY lead singer Chris Martin has launched an attack on his record label EMI and the company's shareholders. Chris, you married Gwynneth Paltrow, so why not work for free? Of course, that idea might be nixed by GP, who doesn't want your daughter to be a freak, despite having named her after a fruit.. or is it a computer?
BRITNEY AND K-FED attempt to up their image by doing a self-deprecating Top Ten list for the Letterman show. Hey, I'd tune in if I thought there was going to be gator-wrasslin'! ALSO: Defamer offers a critique of the Chaotic debut. Entertainment Weekly calls the couple's reality show “career suicide by videocam.”
RICHARD GERE will meet in Jordan with the world's other great minds to solve the problems of the world. I think we're all going to sleep a bit easier, so long as the solution to the world's problems does not involve gerbils.
UZBEKISTAN: There are some good summaries of the backstory of the current crackdown and U.S. policy toward the current regime at The Belgravia Dispatch and Registan.
MY KIND OF TOWN: A man who claims his idea for a documentary film was stolen by Oprah Winfrey and Eddie Murphy climbed atop a crane in downtown Chicago and threatened to throw himself off Wednesday morning to get attention for his case. Even worse, the man seems to be referring to The PJ's.
X-MEN: In an inspired bit of casting, the next installment of the movie franchise will have Kelsey Grammer as Hank McCoy (a/k/a The Beast).
THE RIDDLER Is dead from lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia at 72. TV Batman Adam West issued a statement on the death of Frank Gorshin: “Frank will be missed. Frank was a friend and a fascinating character.” He performed on the Ed Sullivan Show the night the Beatles invaded America; his final TV appearance will be on tonight's season finale of CSI, which is directed by Gorshin fan Quentin Tarantino.
GILLIGAN is recuperating from quadruple heart bypass surgery. Get well soon, little buddy!
BATS AND WHALES: A little bit about animal sonar.
ANIMAL WRONGS: Animal rights extremists followed the wife of a pharmaceutical company executive to her job, rifled through her car and stole a credit card. They used it buy $20,000 in travelers checks, which they then donated to four charities.
MADONNA denies having had plastic surgery, but the plastic surgeons have been making house calls.
IDOL BLOGGING: I'm linking Ann Althouse's Tuesday post simply because the show had Clive Davis as a guest judge. You may recall that Davis fears being known as “The Man Who Passed on Claude Pate.”
GANG OF FOUR: Brooklyn Vegan has pictures from the band's after-after-party in NYC.
ONE IMPORTANT, BUT OFT-OVERLOOKED ASPECT OF PARENTING is teaching your 12 year-old the proper appreciation of Led Zeppelin.
DO YOU SPEAK JIVE? Then maybe you're ready to learn how to speak gangsta.
THE GREATEST MOVIES EVER are catalogued at the Wikipedia.
THE 50 WORST HAIRSTYLES OF ALL TIME are catalogued at the Phat Phree.
THE MUSIC AMERICANS LOVED 100 years ago…
THE SOPRANOS: In the sixth and allegedlly final season of the gangster dramedy now shooting, anyone could get whacked. But Edie Falco, who plays Tony Soprano’s wife, Carmela, does not expect to be killed off. “That would be unlikely,” says Falco. “Who would cook?”
MOST LIKELY TO GET IN TROUBLE: A Florida mother wants Boynton Beach High's 2005 yearbook recalled because her son was voted “Most Whipped;” the accompanying photo shows her son, who is black, on a leash held by his girlfriend, who is white.
ANDREW BREITBART, who has worked as an web assistant to both Matt Drudge and Arianna Huffington, is interviewed by Cathy Seipp.
A STAFF ATTORNEY TO SEN. MICHAEL DeWINE claims his privacy was invaded by the racy tales on the now-infamous Washingtonienne blog. The filing of the suit coincides with the publication of Jessica Cutler's book.
BLOGGERS AND JOURNOS: That UConn poll on the public and the press yielded some interesting results: Journalists apparently believe that blogs have changed journalism, made it better and should have the same First Amendment rights as the press; they just don't like bloggers being called journalists.
THE SIMPSONS: When the couple went to Iraq to shoot their upcoming ABC special, “there were jokes among the crew about not letting Jessica near Nick with an M-16.”
IRAQ: The upsurge in car bombings in Iraq was ordered by al Qaeda's leader in the country, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, at a meeting of insurgents in Syria, a senior U.S. military official said on Wednesday. But lest we think that the fols involved fanatical martyrs, note one attack last week where the driver's foot was found taped to the accelerator.
DEMOCRACY IN SYRIA? From the Washington Post: “Beset by U.S. attempts to isolate his country and facing popular expectations of change, Syrian President Bashar Assad will move to begin legalizing political parties, purge the ruling Baath Party, sponsor free municipal elections in 2007 and formally endorse a market economy, according to officials, diplomats and analysts… Emboldened opposition leaders, many of whom openly support pressure by the United States even if they mistrust its intentions, said the measures were the last gasp of a government staggering after its hasty and embarrassing troop withdrawal last month from neighboring Lebanon.” Gateway Pundit has more on pro-democracy protests and U.S. pressure. But there's certainly room for improvement if Abu Musab al-Zarqawi can meet with insurgents there.
BAHRAIN finds itself in the stutter-start of democratic reform, with local bloggers smack in the middle of controversy.
BUBBLE HOUSE, with an indoor river and cactus garden, for sale in France. only three million bucks. Why don't they just phone Johnny Depp?
PORN-BLOGGING: Porn stars, porn gossip scribes and porn production workers are turning to blogs to expose what it's really like to live and work in the San Fernando Valley-based sex industry.
TAX DOLLARS AT PLAY: Florida spent 17 million in Medicaid funds on drugs advertised by Bob Dole and Mike Ditka. There were hundreds of cases where patients were prescribed between 90 and 240 pills of Viagra a month to treat an “off-label” medical condition — i.e., a condition for which the drug has never been approved. The condition in this case would be called “fun.”
DATELINE BRAINERD: Criminal charges were filed Monday in Morrison County District Court against five women and one man for their alleged involvement in prostitution at a bar north of Little Falls. No word on whether the little guy was kinda funny-lookin'.
SELF-HEATING COFFEE: I love this country!