inkTunes: Coolest Dude Alive

I look forward to the “music club” at one of my favorite blog stops, Crooks & Liars (and, oh, good gawd almighty, please baby please, check this out). So much so that, in the spirit of the old saw about the connection between imitation and flattery, I figured I might as well rip off the concept.

Was listening to this on the way home tonight: I cried for you. Now it’s your turn, you can cry awhile.

What the…

Welcome to the “Flat Daddy” and “Flat Mommy” phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

I’m speechless.

Munch masterpieces recovered

The BBC reports that The Scream and Madonna were found in a police operation. “We are 100% certain they are the originals. The damage was much less than feared,” police said.

Brits to censor Tom and Jerry

If you’re gonna be concerned about editing Tom and Jerry cartoons to eliminate any possible bad influences that could possibly be mimicked by young children, shouldn’t you…oh, I don’t know, start with the all the scenes where the animals bludgeon each other? I mean, smoking is terrible and all, but I sort of have a feeling I’d rather come home one day from work and catch my son lighting up a cigarette than see him sawing his little sister in half.

PBS chief misused office

New York Times: Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who ran the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries, used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and put a
friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.

New Dylan

Slate likes it.

“Modern Times is a better album than Time Out of Mind and even than the majestic Love and Theft, which by my lights makes it Dylan’s finest since Blood on the Tracks (1975). As usual, it’s verbose. Dylan pours out verse after verse—aphorisms and parables, jokes and laments, valentines and metaphysical musings—over loose-limbed vamps from his excellent touring band.”

Karr cleared

From the first stories about Karr’s arrest, which quoted his wife saying she was with him, halfway across the country, the day Jon Benet Ramsey was killed, it seemed only a matter of time.

Editor & Publisher recounts how the news media once again made a collective ass of itself.

A Google search for “John Mark Karr,” who was unknown until this month, came up with 10,800,000 results at the time of the latest twist. “John Mark Karr” with “Ramsey” added produced 6.7 million returns.

Slate was among the few hip to the possibility that Karr had made the whole thing up.

Maynard Ferguson

I thought this would have been more prominent in the news when it happened. Jazz trumpeter and bandleader Maynard Ferguson died August 23. He started out with Stan Kenton, before forming his own band in 1957. He had just completed, in July, a run of shows at the Blue Note in New York.

"It’s deja vu all over again.”

CJR Daily: Stories in both the New York Times and the Washington Post
make clear that the Bush administration has begun to apply pressure on the
U.S. intelligence agencies to pump up the threat that Iran poses.

Missouri does Dylan

Tonight, the Blue Note in Columbia will offer up a taste of “Million Dollar Bash: Missouri salutes Bob Dylan,” a two-disc set featuring 38 Missouri bands doing Dylan covers. Go here for a story and a few audio clips, including one from my good friend and colleague Schneller and his band, SRE.