Music: Dukes

• I heartily recommend listening to the new album by Duke Special (click on the song titles in the ad on this page to listen). Reminds me of "Room To Roam"-era Waterboys. Just hate the dreadlocks. On "Later With Jools Holland". Covering "Video Killed The Radio Star" live.
  
• Not to be confused with the Duke Spirit. Good record store appearance. Here they are trying to be the Velvet Underground and Nico. Another video.
  
• Duke Robillard playing with Tom Waits.
  
• And let's not forget the Dukes of Stratosphear, an outlet for XTC's psychedelic psyde. A video!
  
• The original: Duke Ellington (with two other pianists on David Frost's show). And "Take The 'A' Train". And "Satin Doll".
  

Advertising: Sharp

Why is Sharp using that freaky albino scientist (Dr. Gerard Fasel, in their TV ads? He's almost as creepy as the Lipitor guy. Apparently, he'll play an albino security guard in a movie.

Internet: Google 2001

Google is celebrating their 10th anniversary by allowing users to search their oldest available index (from January 2001). A search for "Sarah Palin" returns zero matches. "Paris Hilton" returns one result about the "teen beauty" followed by many results for the hotel.

Video: "Take On Me"

Literal version of aHa's "Take On Me".

Religion: Yom Kippur

Last year on Yom Kippur, I went to see a Keira Knightley movie with a rabbi and the Prime Minister of Israel. The ticket collector at the cinema let them in, but then put out her arm to stop me following. "I'm sorry, sir," she said, "but this is the Jewish day of 'Atonement'."

Obituaries: Jerry Reed

Reuters obituary for country singer Jerry Reed. Live performances of "When You're Hot, You're Hot" and "A Thing Called Love". He was in "Smokey And The Bandit" (as well as performing the theme song). And he even appeared in Scooby Doo.

Obituaries: Don LaFontaine

Washington Post tribute to movie trailer voiceover artiste Don LaFontaine. (Via The Rich Girls Are Weeping.)

Politics: Sarah Palin

• Sarah Palin's Vlog (actually, comedian Sara Benincasa). "I'm a mother of five..five children I had myself." (Via Wonkette, which has taken to calling her a "snowbilly".)
  
• Fake blog: The PalinDrome (cute). Guest post from "Todd", addressed to his pregnant daughter: "I will admit I was worried at first about this fiancey of yours. I mean Levi, thats not a normal name like Trapper or Hunter or Trigger or Scout."
  
• The Guardian offers two actual palindromes.
  
• The L.A. Times asks who'll play her in inevitable TV movie. No surprise - Tina Fey has a commanding lead.
  
• Did McCain wince when he heard her screechy voice for the first time? Check out this video at about the 2:05 mark. And 4:12. She needs the same voice training they gave Margaret Thatcher. And why does McCain keep tugging on his ring finger?
  
• The Anchorage Daily News has an article about her ex-brother-in-law, State Trooper Mike Wooten. Worth reading just for the subheading, "TASING THE STEPSON". That sounds like it should be a euphemism for something.
  
• Updated 9/3: McCain has called Palin "spectacular". Must be a "Seinfeld" fan.
  

Lyrics Quiz: Mystery Theme 4

A "mystery theme" quiz from Eric:

1. Mid-west farmer's daughters really make you feel all right.
   
2. Stopped into a church, I passed along the way. Well I got down on my knees, and I pretend to pray.
   
3. They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast.
   
4. Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow, I think I might be sinking.
   
5. Marry me girl, be my fairy to the world, be my very own constellation.
   

Bonus: alphabetical lyrics quiz by Matthew Baldwin. I don't know about you, but this quiz really does a number on my brain!

Internet: Sexy People

OK, this is just mean: Sexy People - but the picture of the Cousins will bring a smile to your face. And what's with these Dutch girls with tiara and sceptre? (Via Defamer.)

YouTube: Neil Diamond Covers

Covers of Neil Diamond songs.

• "Cherry Cherry" by The Music Machine
  
• "Solitary Man" by Johnny Cash
  
• "Solitary Man" by Chris Isaak
  
• "Love On The Rocks" by Millie Jackson
  
• "I'm A Believer" by Tori Amos
  
• "Kentucky Woman" by Deep Purple
  
• "Song Sung Blue" by Altered Images
  
• "Holly Holy" by the Fabulous Flames
  
• "Hello Again" by podline6
  
• "America" by the Castillo Kids
  

Models: Sunshine Tutt

Eric broke the sad news that ex-SNL star Chris Kattan is separating from his model wife of two months, Sunshine Tutt.

Signs that the marriage was doomed from the start:

• He proposed on Christmas Eve in Gainesville, TX.
  
• He addressed her as "bro" during the proposal.
  
• At the wedding, Parker Posey was the Best Man.
  
• The wedding photos were published in In Touch magazine.
  
• Her name is Sunshine.
  
• He was Mango!
  

Sports: Appropriate Olympics Names

Eric points out that Men's 100m winner Usain Bolt has a most appropriate name. Although Dolt would suit him better. I cannot understand why you would ease up at the end of a race, no matter how big your lead. Wanker.

There's a female US runner (400m) called DeeDee Trotter.

New Zealand has a rower named George Bridgewater.

Australia has a Shooting competitor (a marksman) named Russell Mark. (Thank God he's not called Mark Russell.)

French cyclist Cecile Rode.

Does British swimmer Liam Tancock practise the backstroke in the nude? Perhaps with Aussie swimmer Natalie Titcume?

I hope Japan's kayaker Yuriko Takeshita does not have an appropriate name (even if Lisa Simpson could make an anagram out of it).

Music: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams has a new place for his crazy shit: drawings, tributes to his guitars, old photos, strange videos, incomprehensible gibberish. Here is a supposed Heavy Metal song, "Love Woman" by Sleazy Handshake - presumably Ryan his own self. "Stand Up (On My Nuts)" is better.

YouTube: Recent Videos

• "Rich Girls" by The Virgins. Video Hottie alert!
  
• "Momma's Boy" by Chromeo. Good B&W animation, very retro song.
  
• "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes. So-so stop-motion animation by the singer's brother.
  
• "I Decided" by Solange (Beyonce's younger sister). Cartoonish trip through the last four decades.
  
• "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" by She & Him. Gratuitous cartoon violence. We get it - you're a cute girl who wants to be taken seriously.
  
• "Wake Up Call" by "Heroes" cheerleader Hayden Panettiere. It's bad when people compare your song to Paris Hilton - and, actually, Paris's song was better.
  
• "Run Run" by Swedish girl group Those Dancing Days.
  
• Cover of Blondie's "Picture This" by Robert Forster and Lisa Miller on Australian TV.
  

Thursday Miscellany

Mixum-gatherum of stories from around the web, with a heavy porn flavour.

• This one's for Woody: movie theatre has unintentionally dirty marquee.
  
• Tape of drunk Larry King from many years ago.
  
• Nicolas Sarkozy drunk after meeting with Vladimir Putin.
  
• Google launches Wikipedia competitor, Knol (but not knol.com, which seems to be a Dutch manufacturer of masturbation aids). Knol's articles are written by experts, not the masses. The first article that caught my eye was one on Breast Augmentation. Despite their controlled commenting system, the first comment is "yay tits!". Other good comment about how the "before" pictures (supplied by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons) are "gray and dead-looking".
  
• Meanwhile, new Google rival, Cuil, had a slight problem with gay porn images popping up in inappropriate places.
  

Harpists: Merry Miller

Remember that embarrassing cable TV interview with Holly Hunter from a year ago? The interviewer, Merry Miller, is also an accomplished harpist. She makes music for babies.

I hope this new endeavour helps her overcome her moment of infamy. Sadly, it didn't work for Bill Buckner when he released an album of sea shanties played on the spoons.

Blogs: Patanoia

Time for a new slogan for Patanoia, and time to retire "Compressed knitters humbling formica - reassured against the against, again with the sideswipe." It had a good run.

Emergency Calls: Drunk British Woman

Gizmodo has audio of a drunk British woman calling 999 and asking when the internet started, "me darlin'". As they say, the operator is amazingly polite.

More Avon & Somerset Police videos.

Lyrics Quiz: Remember

1. Do you remember there was a time (ahaha) when people on the street were walking hand in hand in hand. They used to talk about the weather, making plans together. Days would last forever.
   
2. Think of me as one you'd never figured would fade away so young, with so much left undone. Remember me to my love, I know I'll miss her.
   
3. That's 'Retha Franklin. She don't remember the Queen of Soul.
   
4. For the life of me, I cannot remember what made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise.
   
5. I remember way back then, when everything was true, and when we would have such a very good time. Such a fine time. Such a happy time.
   
6. I've played all kinds of palaces, and laid all kinds of girls. I can't remember faces, I don't remember names. Ah, but what the hell. You know it's just as well, 'cause after a while and a thousand miles it all becomes the same.
   
7. I can almost remember their funny faces that time you told them that you were going to be marrying.
   
8. Here as I sit at this empty cafe thinking of you, I remember all those moments lost in wonder that we'll never find again.
   
9. So long ago, I don't remember when, that's when they say I lost my only friend. Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease, as I listened through the cemetery trees.
   
10. Remember what the dormouse said. Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head.