Karl 
OH, THE HUMANITY! AND THE M&MS!
RICHARD THOMPSON: Billboard has details on the incredible box set coming in February. But wait, there's more… if you pre-order direct.
HARRY AND THE POTTERS: The band that plays the Hogwarts ball in Goblet of Fire is made up of members of Pulp and Radiohead. ANAblog is killing music with three downloads.
SEASON OF THE LIST: Best of 2005s from The Catbirdseat and Torr.
PINK FLOYD: After some rude comments at the UK Music Hall of Fame ceremony, Roger Waters is back to signaling he's up for a reunion.
LED ZEPPELIN: London's Independent has a book excerpt that nicely recaps the birth of the band from the corpse of the Yardbirds.
GARY GLITTER: Authorities in Vietnam have formally extended the former glam-rocker's detention by four months, while claims that he had sex with under-age girls are examined.
THE MAGIC NUMBERS get reviewed by Newsday's people in the street. You can stream them for yourself via MySpace and the band's sampler. But this week, Chromewaves (and other music blogs) are killing music with the band's acoustic cover of Beyonce's “Crazy In Love”.
CHRIS WHITLEY: The critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter has died of lung cancer at age 45. Doveman front man Thomas Bartlett has posted a cover of “Loco Girl” in memoriam.
WILSON “LIT” WALTERS, JR., a member of the Grammy Award-winning Fairfield Four gospel group, also has died of cancer. He was 74.
COLDPLAY frontman Chris Martin insists he had no idea how to give a woman an orgasm until recently. He is married to Gwyneth Paltrow, an actress. Just sayin'.
THE STROKES are interviewed about the upcoming album, First Impressions of Earth, in London's Guardian.
DEPECHE MODE frontman Dave Gahan faces reality. At least he won't face Pittsburgh's airport security.
ROGUE WAVE is profiled at ChartAttack. The band's second album, Descended Like Vultures, is getting good reviews at Metacritic for its Garden State sorta sound. You can stream Rogue Wave from two MySpace pages.
THE ARCTIC MONKEYS are the peg for another story about the Internet's impact on the music biz — this one's in London's Independent. Greg Kot notes the digital democratization of the music biz in the Chicago Tribune.
GARBAGE frontwoman Shirley Manson is supporting a new US campaign to encourage young stars to wear earplugs and spare their eardrums.
U2 with opener Patti Smith in NYC is reviewed in the Village Voice. Sounds like Bono knows how to politick better than Patti.
BOB GELDOF is slamming Italy for failing to give more to the world's poor and urged its leaders to help break a deadlock in international trade talks. Bono, meanwhile, is upset with Canada.
RYAN ADAMS was briefly joined by ex-galpal Minnie Driver last week at Adams' show for Wall Street Rising's Music Downtown Series.
PAT MORITA died Thursday at his home in Las Vegas of natural causes; he was 73.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Walk the Line hold the top spots again. Pride and Prejudice moved up from ten to seven after expanding to 1,300 screens, with a pre screen average rivalling the third-place Yours, Mine and Ours.
MADONNA, who values her family's privacy so much, is blabbing about how musical her kids are on British TV.
MISCHA BARTON: The O.C. hottie is engaged to Kimberly Stewart's scuzzy-lookin' ex-fiance and reveals she avoided sleeping with Leonardo DiCaprio. Proof that there is no accounting for taste.
KIMBERLY STEWART, meanwhile, has ended her engagement to Laguna Beach reality “star” Talan Torriero after eleven days.
JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT explains why her pop career is a big hit in Japan: “They don't understand what I'm singing.” I think she's nailed it.
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE gets a boffo advance review in the Daily Mail. andPOP wonders whether Narnia will become Hollywood's next successful foray in tapping into the Christian niche market.
BRITNEY SPEARS' husband Cletus has installed a shark tank at their Malibu home. Just the thing to welcome their new baby.
BRET MICHAELS: The Poison frontman has leapt from the “Where are they now?” file by cheating death when a mystery gunman in a white Ford F-150 riddled his tour bus with bullets Monday night.
GEORGE CLOONEY has had the worst year of his life, culminating in beating a rattlesnake to death with a baseball bat after it fatally attacked his beloved dog. So won't you please give him an Oscar?
KATE WINSLET thinks she still looks hot naked in her upcoming movie, Little Children. I'll be the judge of that.
PORN STARS eating foot-longs is irresistable to the press.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN SEQUELS: Plagued by thievery.
JACKO CONVERTING TO ISLAM? There are multiple reports of it in the Middle East. It would explain his recent anti-Semitic remarks.
KURT VONNEGUT praises terrorists.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Jolie and Pitt did Thanksgiving in Pakistan. And are Joss Stone fans.
IRAQ: The Economist reports on Arab public opinion turning against terrorism in Iraq and throughout the Mideast. The preacher at a major Sunni Arab mosque condemning terror attacks is the latest example. Stories of dozens of Iraqis who have reportedly been forced to help insurgents probably help turn locals against the terrorists also. However, Abu Hussein, Saddam's torturer and executioner at Abu Ghraib, is ready to return to his job if Saddam comes back. Reading that article suggests that former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi's comment that human rights abuses by some in the new government are as bad now as they were under Saddam are pandering to the Sunni Arab minority and secular Shiites ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
IRAQ II: Iraqi troops are now in full control of Kut; it is the first major city where security is wholly in Iraqi hands. US troops have officially handed over Forward Operating Base Danger — the site of Saddam’s largest palace — to the Iraqi government on Tuesday; it is the 29th American base so relinquished. Returning from his third trip to Iraq, US Rep. Mark Kennedy said he was pleased with the progress the military is making: “By far the No. 1 concern of the military is not their conditions there or the enemy they are facing, but the tone of the debate in Congress on Friday and, generally, the tone of many people in the media. It was regularly brought up.'' UPI's Pam Hess, just back from nine weeks as an embedded reporter, suggests finds the situation more complex than portrayed in the press and that the military was honest with her about it. A bipartisan poll shows that while most disapprove of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war, about the same number views Democratic criticism of the war as hurting troop morale and motivated by politics.
IRAN reportedly offered North Korea oil and natural gas as payment for help in developing nuclear missiles. Russia, which is opposing sanctions for Iran's intransigence regarding its nuke program, will be glad to read reports that Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces.
YOUR MOMENT OF SITH: The Death Star is approaching Saturn.
CHOCOLATE POLLUTION: The EPA action against the Blommer Chocolate Co. factory has made national newswires.
HURRICANE KATRINA: The dramatic story about snipers on a bridge shooting at relief contractors now seems doubtful. It's getting to the point where it seems like the part about the hurricane hitting the Big Easy is one of the few things the press got right.
BUSH'S SECRET PLAN FOR INTER-GALACTIC WAR: A former Canadian Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau is alarmed: “The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning.” The speech ended with a standing ovation.
FRENCH RIOTS: French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin — who is a man — has dismissed claims by some of his party colleagues that rap music fuelled suburban rioting in France. Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports on rising Islamic fundamentalism in France, including recent arrests that reveal that France has been targeted by an alliance teaming Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, with an Algerian-dominated network. If only France had not invaded Iraq…
COMING TO AMERICA: King Mswati III of Swaziland who is expected to show up “bare-chested, red feathers in his hair and sporting a traditional leopard-skin loincloth.” He has 14 wives, who are selected in an… interesting manner.
ABUSED CHEETAH CUBS: US soldiers who discovered two endangered cheetah cubs being held captive and abused in a restaurant in a dusty, remote Ethiopian village have launched a campaign for the animals' rescue.
DEER are breeding like bunnies, not only in the Twin Cities (as previously reported), but also in Council Bluffs, IA, which is debating reinstituting bow hunting. The bow control lobby is quire irked.
SIBERIAN CHIPMUNKS are wanted dead or alive after fleeing from an enclosure in southern England.
DRUNKEN MOOSE frightens Swedish family.
FLAMINGOS TOP TURKEYS in Kingston, NH this past Thanksgiving.
PARROTS: The Royal Navy mascot has been forced into shore duty on doctor’s orders. ALSO: A cheating husband was exposed after his wife's parrot imitated him calling out another woman’s name. Future mistresses will be nicknamed “Polly.”
