Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
SEEN YOUR VIDEO: My main concession to St. Patrick's Day is to hook you up with plenty of The Pogues. YouTube has studio videos of “Sally MacLennane” (one of my faves), “A Pair of Brown Eyes” and the Christmas classic, “A Fairytale Of New York” (with Kristy MacColl). But none fully matches a vintage live set from 1985 or this later set from Japan, which includes a Celtic cover of Steve Earle's “Johnny Come Lately” and their own “Yeah Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” — not particularly Celtic, but nifty all the same.
THE CHIEFTAINS: Of course, if you prefer trad Celtic folk NPR will stream it for you.
FRIDAY TIMEWASTER: The Silly Walks Generator.
FEARGAL SHARKEY: The former Undertones vocalist pens a piece for London's Guardian, arguing that live music scenes are an important element of urban renewal.
GOGOL BORDELLO — which is to gypsy music what the Pogues are to Celtic music — got a nifty review for the band's London gig before hitting SXSW last night.
SXSW XX: Things get much tougher on Day 3 of my virtual visit to the music fest. Sure, I could start out with a soulful set from Bettye La Vette at La Zona Rosa with all the people showing up to see Arctic Monkeys at the end of the night. But I would be tempted to go hang at Maggie Mae's all night with the nifty retroness of The Mendoza Line, Phosphorescent, the Okkervil River-related dark folk-rock of Shearwater and Centro-Matic. But then I would miss Dirty on Purpose at 8, the wonderfully off-kilter Giant Drag at 8:30, the lovely and talented Isobel Campbell or the faux 80s arena-rock of Diamond Nights at 9, Billy Bragg followed by Jolie Holland starting at 9:30, and tons of great artists at 10 — Teddy Thompson (yeah, son of Richard and Linda), the goofy psychedelia of Apollo Sunshine, The Fever, Gemma Hayes The Boy Least Likely To, and Kelley Stoltz (who is followed by a triple threat — Band of Horses, The Elected and Rogue Wave). Britpop from The Editors could be good at 11, tough it would be tempting to watch everyone's favorite Swedish heavy psychedelic band, Dungen, in that slot. In addition to The Elected, the Spinto Band and Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey are playing at midnight… but I would most likely be sitting in at Antone's for the smoking old school R & B of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, followed by the near other-wordly pipes of Neko Case.
FLAMING LIPS did an unannounced SXSW show at the Fox & Hound on Wed., kicking off with “a surprisingly tight cover of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'” You can (and should) stream a new Lips track, “Yeah, Yeah Yeah” (not the Pogues song — only three “Yeahs”) in glorious Quicktime.
LOLLAPALOOZA announces its preliminary lineup, which includes Wilco, The Raconteurs, The Flaming Lips, Ween, The Shins, Ryan Adams, Sonic Youth, Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Iron & Wine, Andrew Bird, Stars, Editors, Calexico, Feist, The Hold Steady, The Go! Team, Of Montreal and more… with more to come. I may have to break down and go this year, as it's practically in my backyard. Plus, the situation is right for BSS-Feist-Stars cross-pollination or a Iron & Wine/Calexico cross-over.
CALEXICO: Joey Burns did an e-mail interview with Kevchino about Calexico's award-winning collaboration with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, the change in musical focus on the new album, and appearing in Collateral with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. He also gives a song-by-song comment on Garden Ruin to SoundsLike. You can download the opening track, “Cruel,” at Prefix. *Sixeyes is killing music with an acoustic version of “All Systems Red,” which closes Garden Ruin.
EMO: MSNBC traces the roots of the genre to Husker Du's Zen Arcade. In contrast, The New York Times manages to juxtapose Fall Out Boy with Mötley Crüe and miss the point entirely.
TED NUGENT doesn't like Green Day's politics, but still wants to work with them.
PETE DOHERTY UPDAYE: on Tuesday, the troubled singer had a swollen jaw, his trousers were falling apart and his car window was smashed. How long until he falls of the wagon?
V FOR VENDETTA: I just got back from an advance showing, even though I have a dental appointment later today. This is the type of sacrifice I make for you, the reader. Anyway, without spoiling anything, I give it a thumbs up. This is despite the fact that the writer of the graphic novel on which it is based, Alan Moore, correctly notes that they have changed the politics to take out the anarchy of Guy Fawkes, even though Fawkes is necessarily mentioned and remains the face of the anti-hero, V. And the Wachowskis do try to insert a couple of things to try to allude to current events, but these are a passing annoyance (as in The Matrix Reloaded) that may be missed by most, anyway. For reasons I suspect are both political and personal, the Wachowskis also emphasized different aspects of the dystopian regime Moore created. Nevertheless, it stands as a better adaptation of Moore than the mangling of Like Hell and (especially) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Natalie Portman takes the opportunity to show she can act when not in the clutches of George Lucas and Hugo Weaving (Agent Simth from the Matrix movies and Elf king Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy) does quite well given his challenge in this part, both technically and from the standpoint that V truly is an anti-hero. He may not be a terrorist in the sense of intentionally killing innocents, but the collateral damage touches them and even his less lethal tactics can be quite cruel. Indeed, dialog that was sharp in the original is even darker post-9/11. That being said, I should note that while the marketing is one of an action picture, Vendetta is more of a suspense picture, with the action scenes light on the showy “bullet-time” effects introduced in The Matrix — and probably better for it. Probably not one for small kids, the rest of y'all should be able to find things to enjoy in it.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: The couple may be stressing out a bit, with rumors that they haven't come to an agreement on the birthing site and that Cruise is barring Holmes from promoting Thank You For Smoking, which opens in very limited release this week. PLUS: It appears Cruise's phone calls with ex Nicole Kidman were taped by Cruise's private eye, the subject of an FBI investigation.
NOW SHOWING: The wide releases this weekend are V For Vendetta (hanging in with a 70 percent Fresh on the Tomatometer) and the Amanda Bynes gender-bending teen comedy She's The Man (50 percent Rotten).
BRITNEY SPEARS was rushed to the hospital after treading on a hypodermic needle. But that won't stop me from passing on the story about her changing Sean Preston's dirty diaper at her restaurant table.
LINDSAY LOHAN is bummed about a crackdown on underage drinking at L.A. nightclubs: “It kind of sucks.” I'm shocked that TMZ story actually got the local gov't to do something.
PHIL COLLINS is separating from his wife. As it's his third marriage, it's hard to say that was against the odds. Thank you — don't forget to tip your waitress!
CHARLIZE THERON produced — and funded — a documentary on Cuban hip-hop, which premiered at SXSW.
BONO dishes about the humor of George W. Bush and the diplomacy of Tony Blair.
JESSICA SIMPSON is in DC, lobbying for Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that provides reconstructive surgery to children with facial deformities. Although she's skipping a Republican fundraiser, her creepy dad-manager Joe assures us that Jessica loves Bush and is trying to get in and out with him. Somewhere, former Pres. Clinton is smacking his forehead.
SIENNA MILLER: Would it perk up your Friday to look at borderline NSFW photos from the new Pirelli calendar? I thought as much.
ROSARIO DAWSON thinks she is “lopsided.” It doesn't look like it in these work-safe photos or even in these NSFW ones.
ROCK STAR 2 will indeed be looking for a singer to front Supernova — a group featuring Tommy Lee, Metallica guitarist Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke from Guns N’ Roses.
COURTNEY LOVE is inspired by comedians. And vice versa.
BENICIO DEL TORO is tipped to star in a remake of The Wolf Man, with a script to be penned by Seven scribe Andrew Kevin Walker. The Oscar-winning actor already has experience playing Duke the Dog-Faced Boy in Big Top Pee-Wee.
IRAQ; Bill Roggio notes that Operation Swarmer — one of the largest air assault operations since Operation Iraqi Freedom I — is netting not only artillery shells, explosives and IED-making materials, but also military uniforms and more than 300 false identification cards, including Iraqi Police IDs. He also has a round-up on the swearing in of the Iraqi Parliament, prospects for sectarian violence vs. civil war, and The recently foiled al-Qaeda plot to attack the Green Zone in Baghdad. At ITM, Omar has further thoughts about Parliament, Iraqi politicians and voters, while Mohammed thinks Iran is trying to use interference with Iraq as a bargaining chip with the US on the nuke issue.
NANOTECH: The Speculist blogs research from the University of Michigan on dendrimers that may target delivery of anti-cancer drugs to cancerous cells.
OCTOPUS VS. SHARK: It's a life or death struggle at the Seattle Aquarium.
PIERRE THE FERRET checked into a hotel in York to get out of a drenching rain.
A TURKEY in Michigan really wanted to watch TV and failed to notice the plate glass window in its way.
