THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
…AT AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION somewhere in the Southeast. After jokingly referring to Ms. Hauser's new life as a biker chick, I am informed that Ms. H got a 250cc Honda Rebel for her birthday. It's apparently a fine bike for Sylvia-sized people. And for a Japanese bike, it still has a Southern Accent. Her fiancee's bike is in the background, as are signs that she is producing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition amid the Kudzu and wild hogs.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: A classic… penguin smacking.
JENNY LEWIS of Rilo Kiley talks about covering The Traveling Wilburys with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard for her solo album due in January. MTV says it “draws heavily from the winsome sexiness of Dusty Springfield's masterpiece Dusty in Memphis and the unbridled moxie of Loretta Lynn's Coal Miner's Daughter.” Let's hope so!
CREAM: Ginger Baker claims the band broke up because Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce insisted on turning it up to eleven.
THE HOLD STEADY frontman Craig Finn talks to the Tuscon Weekly: about being being featured in an Internet sitcom funded by Target: “In indie rock there's this sort of elitist thing. Most people who have heard of us already are not going to hear about us at Target, nor are they buying their music at Target. I don't want to get into a situation at any point where it's like if you don't read Pitchfork then you can't hear about us, because that's not where we're coming from.”
ON THE PITCHFORK: Speaking of which, the Detroit Cobras get a reads-better-than-the-number-suggests 7.5 for Baby, their latest batch of obscure R&B covers.
THE SILVER JEWS album Tanglewood Numbers is racking up an composite score of 79 at Metacritic — not bad given the expectations set by American Water and the wait since 2001's Bright Flight.
U2 keeps Bono away from coffee because he becomes difficult to deal with when he's consumed caffeine. Who'da thunkit?
THE ARCTIC MONKEYS: The wholesale killing of music as someone posts a whole bunch of Arctic Monkeys live video.
SO.WRONG… Earlier this week, Amber Taylor e-mailed me a link to Jonathan Coulton's cover of “Baby Got Back.” To return the favor, I sent her a link to Nina Gordon (ex-Veruca Salt) covering “Straight Outta Compton.” But when Ms. Taylor posted the Coulton link as appealing to “some of you sickos,” I had to e-mail her that real sickos would prefer the rap version of “Build Me Up, Buttercup” featuring ODB. Ms. Taylor posted it under the heading “Wrong piled upon wrong” and gave me the blame I so richly deserve.
VAN HALEN denies involvement with the Rock Star TV show.
THE STROKES: Stereogum is killing music with another leak from the upcoming album.
DAVE MATTHEWS is performing on a Caribbean cruise. If he's lucky, no one will dump human waste on him.
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS' John Darnielle tries to answer a question: “Now that Scarlett Johansson's mainstream makeover is complete, indie guys from coast to coast are wondering: on whom shall I crush now?”
PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The Babyshambles album has leaked onto the internet. Some bloggers are less than impressed. However, Stereogum likes it and is killing music. Supermodel Helena Christensen is backing Moss, which would be more believable if she were to recreate the video to Chris Issak's “Wicked Game” with me while she explained herself.
YOUR SUBCULTURE SOUNDTRACK is a new indie-centric wiki.
DONT STOP BELIEVIN': The Chicago White Sox, headed for their first World Series since 1959, have adopted Journey's 1981 hit as their postseason rallying cry, with A.J. Pierzynski blaring the tune in the clubhouse after the team's American League pennant-clinching victory over the Angels on Sunday. The players also sang the tune on the flight home from Anaheim. Is it that they don't want me to root for them, or are they just trying to make the Black Sox look better?
DO THEY KNOW IT'S HALLOWEEN? The charity single featuring Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, Roky Erickson, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck, Sum 41, Sloan, Sonic Youth, and more now has a video.
NEW WAVE SINGLES: If you'r a fan of the seven-inchers from the days of skinny ties, here's a massive gallery of sleeves for your enjoyment.
MADONNA denies she was trying to use a Kabbalah mystic for profit (or prophet), but No Rock and Roll Fun is dubious. Madge is also griping that people treat her attraction to Kabbalah as though she had announced that she's joined the Nazi party.
JESSICA SIMPSON: Us Weekly has its story and is sticking to it.
MICHAEL JACKSON has been summoned for jury duty in L.A. His lawyers hope to get a deferment.
LOHAN LOWDOWN: The teen diva was reportedly sprawled out on the dirty linoleum floor of a West Hollywood 7-Eleven at 5 a.m. Her rep denies it, natch.
CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is being remade. It might even be good, as it's being produced by Gary Ross, whose father was a writer on the 1954 original.
ROSE McGOWAN almost got herself arrested in Hollywood Tuesday night. The story appears to be a misunderstanding with a security guard; the nosy rumors floating around the 'net would blow your mind.
CARTOONS are the first movies in decades to be shown in Saudi Arabia. And they will be shown to women and children. “These are small steps that King Abdullah is trying to take to live up to his reputation as the champion of reformers,” said Mai Yamani, a Saudi-born writer and academic.
BILL GATES: Mister Softee tells The New Yorker that that his one distraction from business and philanthropy is the Fox TV thriller 24. He watches it obsessively — or at least he did until Elisha Cuthbert's character disappeared this past season. I thought about putting Bill's picture here… for about a nanosecond.
HURRICANE KATRINA is cusing a surge of tattoos in the Big Easy.
GWYNETH PALTROW finds the UK's streets are dirty, the weather cold and its customer services “rubbish.” Of course, she recently criticized the US, too. Seems like she's unhappy wherever she is and might want to look at the common denominator.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: Jolie and Pitt go joyriding in her jet. Rumors of their engagement cause the usual internet phenomena, such as the inevitable wedding registry. One of the items there is the unrated DVD of Jolie's Original Sin, which may be why IDLY can point you to a 28 MB unrated clip of a sex scene between Antonio Banderas and Jolie from the movie. NSFW? You betcha!
NANOTECH: Using the parts inside a single molecule, scientists have constructed the world's smallest car — four nanometers, slightly wider than a strand of DNA.
CULT OF THE iPod: iLounge has the Top Ten Things You Wanted to Know About the 5G iPod for regular folks and for techies and audiophiles.
IRAQ: Guardian journalist Rory Carroll was freed by a group of Sadr City residents; it appears that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi was present when he was released. Carroll wants to go on reporting on Iraq; maybe he'll rethink that “US troops are more dangerous than the insurgents” angle he was working. Iraqi security forces arrested a nephew of Saddam on suspicion he was funneling foreign money to the insurgents. A senior lieutenant to Zarqawi was killed by US-led forces near Ramadi. Saad Ali Firas Muntar al-Dulaimi was chiefly responsible for planning and executing all terrorist attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces in the Ramadi and Fallujah areas, according to the military. And Al-Qaeda in Iraq has released a new statement in which it explains that they are not fighting the US occupation of Iraq, but to create “an Islamic state which is part of the caliphate and the Muslim territory.”
MUDSLINGER THE PIG does all sorts of tricks, including playing soccer. Which would be strange enough without the sudden appearance of MacKenzie Phillips in this video.
A RAT released on a deserted island off New Zealand beat scientists, traps, baits and sniffer dogs before being captured four months later on a neighbouring island. Sounds like a good time to read up on the rat love manifesto.
CATS may be allergic to humans.
DOG suffers from narcolepsy. Now that Skeeter falls asleep in mid-trot, the Hendersons place him in a stroller for his customary walk.
ZOMBIE WORMS feast on the corpses of whales on the ocean floor.
200 LB. BABY ELEPHANT is delivered in less than ten minutes. I fing it more off that many elephants take days to deliver their massive offspring.