Karl 
WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS, mama, you got to move. Matthew Harris has a birds-eye view of the 17th St. levee in New Orleans. Jefferson Parish declared martial law. TV stations and newspapers from the Big Easy kept on going over the 'net after Katrina knocked out the power. A Small Victory rounded up good news from NO; Instapundit rounded up hurricane relief links.
GUIDED BY VOICES: The Electrifying Conclusion is coming to DVD, just in time for the holidays.
ONE FOR RICHARD NESS: This afternoon, a Central or South American band was playing outside the Thompson Center, as it does from time to time. I think most big cities have one of these, sounding like a cross between Native American folk and Zamfir, master of the pan flute. However, this afternoon they were playing Harry Nilsson's “Without You” in that style.
NEIL YOUNG: NOW has a piece on the performance of his upcoming Prairie Wind album at the ole Grand Ole Opry for Jonathan Demme. “And Chad, I think you're hitting the tambourine in exactly the wrong spot every single time.”
SLOAN seems to be bubbling around the 'net recently. Here's a post at *Sixeyes lauding their power pop and killing music a little bit.
THE PERFECT ALBUM: Users of the message board and group blog at Plastic.com nominated and (sorta) voted on candidates. Not a bad list.
THE BLACK CROWES are releasing four live albums. That's three more than just one live album.
CALEXICO can (and should) be seen covering Love's classic “Alone Again Or” in streaming Quicktime from last year's ACL Festival.
THE MINDERS: Having mentioned Apples In Stereo on Monday, I shouldn't have needed You Ain't No Picasso to remind me of The Minders (both feature Robert Schneider). You can kill music at YANP or stream a few from a Flash-based MP3 player at the band's website.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: At last weekend's Carling Weekend: Leeds Festival, the troubled singer started and lost a fight with Razorlight's Johnny Borrell.
GANGSTAS: The Smoking Gun looks at the NYPD's 500-page Hip-Hop dossier.
PAUL McCARTNEY does a Q & A with Reuters supporting Jon Pratt's theory about the singer secretly wanting to be the drummer.
NOT on THE PITCHFORK: Lucy Van Pelt is not a fan of the influential website?
BRADGELINA UPDATE: I don't think I can top Defamer's comment on this picture of Pitt with Zahara.
STEVEN SPIELBERG is a pest in Budapest, towing the locals' cars without much notice, snarling traffic and sending his “goons” after those who try to take pictures on their own street. But he's replacing Stephen Sommers as director of the When Worlds Collide remake, so we can look forward to being destroyed by Zira and Bellus.
KILL KILL REALITY. With backstage antics fitting for a triple-X booth, It sounds like the E! channel should go straight to the unrated DVD.
THE BLUES BROTHERS turns 25 with a special edition DVD.
Elwood: “What kind of music do you usually have here?”
Claire from Bob's Country Bunker: “Oh, we got both kinds. We got country AND western.”
IRAQ: U.S. warplanes bombed alleged safe houses of Zarqawi's fighters near the Syrian border Tuesday in one of the strongest uses of air power in months, backing a Sunni-led push to drive out Zarqawi's forces. Arthur Chrenkoff has his penultimate round-up of under-reported news. I linked to the story about the Iraqi version of American Idol, but missed that there's an Iraqi version of Cops. I've noted tribal clashes in Najaf, but missed that the local economy is booming on religious tourism and that the crime rate has dropped 90 percent. And you can stream a new Michael Yon phone interview from Mosul that covers a variety of topics. If you haven't checked Yon's dispatches, you really should.
CHARLIZE THERON joins Arrested Development for five episodes. The show premieres September 19th, with Theron first appearing the following week.
ORLANDO BLOOM caught canoodling with Elizabethtown co-star Kirsten Dunst in Miami for the MTV VMAs.
MORE MTV VMA BUZZ: The French Hotel doesn't know whether she's really marrying the guy named Paris. Jamie Foxx, who had been starting to annoy me, went back up a notch: After spotting O.J. Simpson at a party, Foxx grabbed a mic and yelled, “It's a killer party — O.J.'s here!” He then commanded the crowd to “Do the O.J.” while making a stabbing motion.
RON POPEIL IS SELLING RONCO, not for 100 million, not 80 million, not even 75 million, but for the low, low, price of 56.5 million dollars! But wait, there's more…
THE IRAQI ARMY: on the edge of the Sunni triangle, the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade of the Iraqi Army is taking the lead on security and roadside-bomb attacks have nearly stopped. Major K is blogging about the formation of the 6th Infantry Division which will soon be the first operational division in the new Iraqi Army, but addresses progress generally. Dadmany blogs his visit with an Iraqi Army unit, mainly reporting comments from the Deputy Commanding General about what the old army had become under Saddam, what he hopes the new IA will become and what it needs to get there.
THE IRAQI CONSTITUTION: PowerLine has a translation of a story on poll of Iraqi opinion on the draft constitution from Tuesday's edition of the Iraqi newspaper Alhayat. Eighty-eight percent support holding the constitutional vote under current conditions. Support for federalism was largely limited to the Kurds; 58 percent prefer a central government with provincial administration. 84 percent support giving women full rights and benefits as men. And the provisions referring to Islam are probably more liberal than public opinion. (These results are consistent with last month's IRI poll.) NYU Prof Noah Feldment thinks the extension of federalism to Shiite provinces is the main cause of Sunni discontent. There may be minor edits to the draft, so I suppose we can hope that the definition of “minor” is a bit elastic, as at least one Sunni party has left wiggle room to support the draft with changes.
CULT OF THE iPod: Apple may announce its long-awaited iTunes phone being developed with Motorola as early as next Wednesday, but skepticism remains over whether the device will have as much success as the iconic iPod digital music player. It may even be arbitrarily limited to storing only 25 songs.
DON'T KNOW MUCH about science according to a new poll. Examples: Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. only about 10 percent know what radiation is. one adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.
GLOBAL WARMING: Author Ross Gelbspan claims Hurricane Katrina's real name is global warming, but very few of us know this because the coal and oil industries have spent millions of dollars to keep the public in doubt about the issue. Gelbspan does not name a single scientist supporting his claim about hurricanes. The scientists quoted in articles syndicated by The New York Times and the L.A. Times generally don't think so either, though MIT meteorologist Kerry Emanuel thinks it might be proved to be one factor if current trends continue for the next few years.
NANOTECH: German physicists have created a material harder than diamond from aggregated diamond nanorods. ALSO: Droplets of liquid have been moved uphill by molecular motors. The so-called “nano-shuttles” could also create a range of different types of smart surfaces, such as adhesive surfaces that can be switched on and off, or surfaces that can be switched from one color to another.
CINDY SHEEHAN is not building opposition to the war in Iraq, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. About half of those surveyed think President Bush should meet with her again, though Sheehan claims to be glad he did not. About the same number “support what Cindy Sheehan is doing,” but only 13 percent said U.S. forces should be withdrawn immediately, which is what Sheehan advocates. This is why political scientists consider polling to be as much art as science.
BERLIN'S MAYOR is being criticized for officially welcoming to a sado-masochism festival to the German capital this weekend. But he was probably hoping to be whipped.
CONCEALED CARRY: At an Albequerque Wal-Mart, 72-year-old Due Moore fatally shot Felix Vigil, who was attacking his ex-wife with a knife near the store's deli counter where she worked.
THE RABBIT DONE DIED of a disease that made it look like a jackalope.
OSTRICH halts traffic on the Golden Gate.
A CAT crawled into the ground-floor of a German apartment, broke window blinds, tore down drapes and trashed furniture. Police also found fish and fish remains from a broken aquarium scattered around the apartment. Hey, the fish should have kept its mouth shut.
DOGS are dinner in Ho Chi Minh City for the annual food issue of The New Yorker. Apparently, in 'Nam, “Black Dog” is a delicacy, not today's second Led Zeppelin IV reference.
IS THAT A PAIR OF RARE CUBAN SONGBIRDS in your pants, or… oh, it is.
