Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
IMPROV EVERYWHERE throws an office party in an unsuspecting building.
PASSION OF THE PEEPS: What would the Easter weekend be without chocolate bunnies and Peeps? More religious and serious, I suppose. But can’t we have it all? Peeps art and Peeps statistics? Maybe even a gadget to make Peeps at home, made by Wham-O?
THE KAISER CHIEFS, fresh off some boffo buzz from SXSW are profiled in the London Telegraph: “In Austin, Wilson's group exemplified a new attitude of hard, selfless graft, which is essential for success in the post-millennial pop world. Indeed, so charged up was the garrulous vocalist for the band's first US tour dates that, on the opening night in Seattle, in the middle of the first song, he slipped over and tore the ligaments in his foot. Bandaged and forced to use a crutch, he careered about the stage in Austin with an energy which clearly impressed US industry bods, who are naturally sceptical about the UK's latest cool sensations having the requisite gumption to undertake a gruelling campaign across the pond.” It's very Craig O'Neill-esque music. 'Nuff said.
THE FUTUREHEADS, another hot UK prospect following SXSW, talk to PopMatters about being the opening act and gig culture.
A SMALL VICTORY is starting a poll of the Greatest Rock and Roll Songwriters, with nomination essays. So far there are entries for Difford and Tillbrook, Joe Strummer and Roger Waters and David Gilmour, with plenty more to come, including (but not limited to) the Glimmer Twins, Paul Westerberg, Lou Reed, David Byrne and Tom Waits.
SLANT magazine throws out a list of 50 Vital Pop Albums.
THE SLOW RIDE IS OVER: Guitarist Rod Price, the founding member of Foghat who also played with blues legends such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon, died Tuesday after falling down a stairway at his New Hampshire home. He was 57.
SIN CITY: More advance rave reviews in the Monteal Film Journal and Slant magazine. Nick Schager's review for Slant says the movie is a verbatim translation of Frank Miller's graphic novels, which he calls “pulpy noir on steroids, amplified black-and-white visions of seedy, nightmarish urbanity in which dangerous men consume only steaks and brews, women are either angelic 'babes' or tough 'dames,' and cops, clergymen, and politicians hungrily wallow in the corrupt mire.” Lest you think that it's all about the striking female half of the cast, Victoria Anderson liked it, but leads her review as follows: “My husband’s decree immediately after leaving the screening: 'Anyone who likes that movie is seriously ****ed up.'” And a common theme in the advance reviews is that this movie could do for Mickey Rourke what Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta. ALSO: Michael Madsen talks a little about Sin City, but more about Quentin Tarantino's planned WWII pic, Inglorious Bastards.
FILE-SHARING: Panels at SXSW debated the effect of P2P technology on the music biz and speculated about the Grokster case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 29. Meanwhile, the Decembrists, frustrated with the narrow playlists of MTV and VH1, are distributing their new video with BitTorrent.
BIG RED, THE DIVING PIG was electrocuted when it dived into a pool of water that had a live wire connected to it by mistake. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was unsuccessful, but handlers were able to save another diving pig named Sweet Georgia Brown.
HORNY ALLIGATORS invade a Florida suburb, but are now in the custody of the Pesky Critters Wildlife Control Company facility in Miami.
OLD T-REX: A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Jurassic Park is melting in the dark/ All the sweet, green icing flowing down…
RAY CAESAR, an animator who probably chafes at the idea that he has “become” an artist, is getting plenty of good buzz about his latest showing of prints in Chelsea. There some pics at the linked story, even more at Ray Caesar's site. Do I think he would be attracted to Christina Ricci? Yes, I do.
ROBERT JOHNSON: Here's a link to that nifty story about the legal battle over the photographs of the Mississippi bluesman. As Sylvia Hauser noted, it's the sort of story that fits the Johnson legend.
ANTHONY AND THE JOHNSONS: Their I Am a Bird Now gets a rave in the Sydney Morning Herald. If you've never heard of 'em, you might want to take a look, if not a listen.
DOUG GILLARD, former lead guitarist and anchor of Guided by Voices, talks to Cool Cleveland about the end of GbV, his new solo disc Salamander, and Cleveland.
THE LAs add three UK dates to their aforementioned reunion gig in Japan. Just when they thought they were out…
THE BUSH TWINS IN MAXIM magazine: It's the April 1st issue, natch. Susan Whitson, press secretary for Laura Bush, said the first lady had not seen the photo and offered a “no comment” after the image was e-mailed to her. I suppose this will upset some people, but if someone said that they never would have done this to Chelsea Clinton, my response would be that there's a non-political explanation for that.
GREAT LEAPFROG FORWARD? The Chinese are dismounting their bicycles and putting them in their cars. But the PRC is also aggressively pursuing hybrids, electric cars and propane taxis, while building conventional cars and infrastructure at a furious pace. Will the PRC gain the sort of advantage other Asian nations got from going directly to wireless phones, leapfrogging the old phone technology?
KYRGYZSTAN: Opposition leaders took the reins of power after President Akayev’s hardline regime collapsed. Akayev reportedly fled on Thursday after protesters stormed his headquarters, seized control of state television and rampaged through government offices, throwing computers and air conditioners out of windows. The government apparently had hijacked opposition newspapers' websites and are pointing their URLs to pro-government news sites. Gawker reports that that the folks at CNN are not as up on this story as regular readers of this site.
IRAQ: Hundreds of power workers marched through Baghdad on Thursday to protest attacks by insurgents. The rate of U.S. deaths in Iraq has fallen sharply since the elections; American military leaders tout progress against the insurgency, but warn of a long road ahead. Along those lines, this week, Daniel Drezner asked “So how's Iraqification going?” and followed up with a sequel. And since it's Friday, I note that while shootings and mortar attacks continue in Iraq, Silflay Hraka has Iraqi bird-blogging, with photos provided by some of our troops.
DAVID CASSIDY wants to win the Kentucky Derby. He had better start working out; those horses are pretty fast. And boy, are my arms tired!
PAULA ABDUL pleads no contest to a misdemeanor charge of hit-and-run driving. Authorities said Abdul was driving December 20 on a highway in Encino, when she changed lanes and struck another vehicle, causing minor damage. The driver and passenger snapped a photo with a cell phone camera and wrote down the license plate number of the car, which was traced to Abdul.
GEORGE SOROS: A French appeals court has affirmed the billionaire investor's 2002 conviction for insider trading. Soros plans to further appeal the decision.
BARNEY MARTIN, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld’s father Morty on Seinfeld, has died of cancer at age 82.
