Music: Nicole Atkins again

I posted about Nicole Atkins back in June. She delivered a knockout performance on "Letterman" last night, and INDIEBLOGHEAVEN has it. She reminds me (physically) of a cross between Cat Power and Amy Winehouse. Play the "jukebox" at her website.

Here she accompanies herself on an acoustic guitar (with some fancy stockings).

She joined Peter, Bjorn & John for "Young Folks", filling in for Victoria Bergsman.

Apparently, she recorded a track with UK band Soulsavers but it didn't end up on their album. Listen to "Revival" at their MySpace, with Mark Lanegan on vocals.

I just wish I hadn't found her American Express ad.

Lyrics Quiz: Snakes

Celebrate Whacking Day belatedly (it's May 10th) by taking this quiz.

1. Jodie wears a hat, although it hasn't rained for six days. She says a girl needs a gun these days, hey, on account of all the rattlesnakes.
   
2. Wiggle like a snake, wobble like a duck.
   
3. ...Where snakes in the grass are absolutely free.
   
4. That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane.
   
5. You're looking good, just like a snake in the grass. One of these days you're gonna break your glass.
   
6. Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad, from a worn out picture that my mother had, and I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
   
7. You’re boned like a saint, with the conciousness of a snake.
   
8. The snake is long, seven miles. Ride the snake. He's old, and his skin is cold.
   
9. Yeah, I've got a tombstone hand in a graveyard mine. Just twenty-two, baby, I don't mind dying. Snakeskin shoes, baby. Put them on your feet. Got the goodtime music and the Bo Diddley beat.
   
10. Sister got bit by a copperhead snake in the woods behind the house. Nobody was home so I grabbed her foot and I sucked that poison out. Sister got better in a month or two when the swelling, it went down. But I'd started out my teenage years with that poison in my mouth.
    

TV: "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

The New Yorker reports that Larry David's HBO show is a helpful therapy tool for schizophrenic patients. Also, there's a cartoon about home schooling.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" quotes. "With all due respect, Officer Berg, you are not bald. You've chosen to shave your hair and that's a look you're cultivating in order to look fashionable, but we don't really consider you part of the bald community... with all due respect."

Here's a clip from a Danish series "inspired" by "CYE". Their language is different from our language! LMAO!

Internet: City Of Grapevine GIS

The city of Grapevine, TX has a pretty neat Geographic Information System that allows you to see the ownership and zoning for every parcel of land in the city. And if you look at the intersection of Kimball and 114, you'll see a very clear image of a jet plane flying by. Could it be fake, added by a bored web designer? If so, they went to the trouble of adding a shadow.

YouTube: "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side"

• The Smiths (introduced by Ivor Cutler)
  
• Mimed to on "Blackpool" (remade for US TV as "Viva Laughlin")
  
• Morrissey, live in Las Vegas, 2007
  
• Cute girl with guitar
  
• Brazilian group with gamine Fernanda Takai on vocals
  
• Hong Kong band
  
• Smiths tribute band, playing an English pub in Brazil
  

Idaho: Phantom Pooper

From Defamer, someone is pooping on the streets of Idaho Falls (and finger-painting). Could it be Whoopi (tired of her remote control toilet)? Or Idaho senator Larry Craig, paranoid about using public bathrooms?

Books: Harry Potter

Eric reports that JK Rowling has "outed" Albus Dumbledore from her popular Larry Kotter books.

We should have known something was up from the anagrams of his name: Aroused Dumbbell, A Bulbous Meddler, Bad Lube Smoulder, A Sore Bum - Dull Bed.

One blogger is having trouble accepting the news, but a commenter says: "the gayness of a male character is always narratively compatible when a book is set in an English boarding school."

Gadgetopia reports on the Wikipedia "war" over Dumbledore's entry.

A Feeble Attempt At Humour

I was going to get myself a shower caddy, but then I thought, how often do I play golf in my shower?

Movies: "Finding t.A.T.u."

Idolator reports (in the wtf category) that they're making a t.A.T.u. movie. "Finding t.A.T.U. is directed by Roland Jaffe, who previously gave us "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission". It stars Mischa Barton, who, while of limited range, could surely have landed a better movie than this. Is she drawn to lesbian roles for some reason?

But who could have guessed that t.A.T.u. would extend their 15 minutes?

YouTube: Will Oldham

• Will Oldham covers Mariah Carey.
  
• Duet on "Kiss" by Scout Niblett.
  
• Johnny Cash covers "I See A Darkness" (with Will on BV).
  
• Bonnie 'Prince' Billy on Conan O'Brien.
  
• With Danish band Homesick Hank.
  
• Cameo in R. Kelly's "Trapped In The Closet (Ch. 15)" (at the 5:20 mark).
  
• Performing "Goodbye Dear Old Stepstone" by some old folkie.
  
• Long concert with Matt Sweeney.
  
• Zach Galifianakis and Will Oldham in a Kanye West video (?)
  

Not bad for a baldy.

Iowa: Ottumwa

Mark Davis has an article in the Dallas Morning News decrying the disproportionate importance of Iowa and New Hampshire in the presidential election process. As an aside, he notes that candidates he has interviewed "are always in a rush to wrap things up so they can get on the horn with Joe Bob from the Ottumwa Courier."

Here's another negative article.

I'm so tired of all this Ottumwa bashing. Sure, it was the birthplace of Tom Arnold but they have apologized for this. Repeatedly.

Hey, Ottumwa is the "Video Game Capital Of The World" (or was in 1982).

Music: 12-Tone System

There's an article in the NY Times about Schoenberg and the 12-Tone System. The best part is the accompanying video where the writer, Anthony Tommasini, demonstrates the concepts on the piano.

The Peabody Symphony Orchestra has some Schoenberg available for free download.

Music: Glossary

A band called Glossary have made their album available as a free download. Recommended for fans of Whiskeytown. I was also going to compare them to a gentler Dinosaur Jr, but I'd be accused of pulling a Robb.

Hoax: UFO

Article from the OC Register about a Californian who flies a remote control UFO around Orange County. You can buy one for $1000.

Here is the YouTube video mentioned in the article.

A company called Silverlit makes a cheaper alternative. Here's a similar one with a camera on board.

And here's a video of a girl in bra and panties who makes a cup and saucer float. Just one in a series of videos from this lingerie-clad lovely.

Lyrics Quiz: Doors

1. If you didn't come to party, don't bother knockin' on my door.
   
2. From your front porch to my front seat. The door's open but the ride it ain't free.
   
3. I've packed my bags. Cleaned the floor. Watch me walking, walking out the door.
   
4. Then the door was open and the wind appeared. The candles blew, and then disappeared.
   
5. Up the staircase to the first floor. Turn the key and slowly unlock the door, as a man breathes into his saxophone.
   
6. I caught you knockin' at my cellar door. I love you, baby, can I have some more?
   
7. All the doors I closed one time, will open up again.
   
8. And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door, she cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?
   
9. Light the candle. Put the lock upon the door. You have sent the maid home early, like a thousand times before.
   
10. Close your eyes, close the door, you don't have to worry any more.
    

And for those beginners who prefer songs with the theme word in the title:

1. Mama, take this badge off of me. I can't use it anymore.
   
2. You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans. I eat more chicken than any man ever seen.
   
3. Don't know why she's leaving, or where she's gonna go. I guess she's got her reasons but I just don't want to know.
   
4. Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band. Won't you take a ride on the flying spoon? Doo, doo doo.
   
5. My baby makes me proud. Lord, don't she make me proud. She never makes a scene by hanging all over me in a crowd.
   

Sports: Baseball Manager Quiz

1. Which baseball manager holds the record for most ejections (set in 2007)?
   
2. In 1998, Barry Bonds became the fifth player to be given an Intentional Base On Balls with the bases loaded. Who was the opposing manager?
   
3. Who was the last player-manager in Major League Baseball?
   
4. The Texas Rangers had 4 managers in 1977, including one who lasted just one game. Can you name all four?
   
5. Match the manager to the quote:
   

   (a) Tommy Lasorda	(1) "Good pitching will always stop good hitting and vice-versa."
   (b) Leo Durocher	(2) "The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers."
   (c) Casey Stengel	(3) "I made a game effort to argue but two things were against me; the umpires and the rules."
   (d) Earl Weaver	(4) "He (Darryl Strawberry) is not a dog; a dog is loyal and runs after balls."

   
   

Bonus: Earl Weaver's profanity-laced "Manager's Corner". (Apparently, it was pre-taped and never aired.)

Music: Radiohead

So, Radiohead are releasing a new album, and you can name your own price for the digital version. Being a cheap bastard, I offered 0.00 and was accepted. (The Idolator story says the minimum is 0.01, plus a 0.45 surcharge, but commenters got the same deal I did. We'll see what happens on 10/10.)

My God, that Tom Yorke is full of crap, with his links to Anarchist websites, artsy photographs, anti-aviation campaigns, and his silly doodles. But Line Rider is a great time-waster. (Watch some of the movies first.)

Politics: Yulia Tymoshenko

Wonkette spotlights the World's Hottest PMILF, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko. She sure has a lot of photos of herself on her website. I like the one of her with "Madlen Olbrite". She's very proud that her trademark hairdo has been copied by "Kylie Minoug", "Siena Miller" and "Mary J Blidge". And I agree with her statement: "For the last months of election it was a lot of filth poured out in a country, a lot of touchy, a lot of offensive, miserable and wrong words are said."

Her daughter is married to an English rocker, lead singer for Death Valley Screamers. She "was captivated by his waist-length hair and the giant tattoo on his torso depicting an alien crawling out of his belly."

Music: Something Happens

Irish band Something Happens on YouTube:

• "Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello" live, 1989
  
• Live at the SFX, 1989 (part 1/4)
  
• "Parachute" on Irish TV, c. 1990
  
• "Veronica Mars" montage, set to "Momentary Thing", which was used on the show
  
• "Parachute" on Irish TV, 2006
  
• Tom Dunne on Podge and Rodge
  

P.S. Tribute band Tizz Lizzy on Podge & Rodge.