For the weekend...

If you're looking for a good beach read, I can recommend this short story collection by Anna Gavalda: I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere.

If all goes as planned, by this time tomorrow I'll be at one of my favorite NYC spots.
 
But if you're in LA, there's a lot going on:
The Blessing of the Cars
Rufus Wainwright @ The Hollywood Bowl (w/The LA Philharmonic!)
The Getty Exhibit Spirit into Matter: The Photographs of Edmund Teske

Garden State soundtrack listing

I think this person needs to ditch the judgmental friends...

"witty comment needed for evite reply" (job listings: craigslist LA)
update: the consensus is this has to be a joke... I'm not entirely convinced though.

iPodding

Download G Love's new single "Astronaut."

Nathanial Hawthorne and the Psychology of Deja Vu

"The Tease of Memory" (Chronicle of Higher Education)

"The Politics of Burning Man" (SF Weekly)

Scissor Sisters cover "Take Me Out"

"...on a road trip to political epiphany."
Flippant title aside ("Just a Pretty Face?"), Sean O'Hagan looks beyond "The Motorcycle Diaries" for a glimpse at the enduring legend of Che Guevara. (Guardian)

Ugg Oh!

Just when you thought it was safe to come outside.

Do You Realize?

Read this essay by Ted Jillson, inspired by The Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" (Mcsweeneys.net)

Reading List

50 Essential Reads by (living) Contemporary Authors (Orange Prize). The list includes Atonement, The Handmaid's Tale, The Name of the Rose, and Middlesex.

Flying the Un-Friendly Skies

"The hysterical skies: She survived a flight with 14 harmless Syrian musicians -- then spread 3,000 bigoted and paranoid words across the Internet. As a pilot and an American, I'm appalled." (Salon.com)

Scarier than the nightly news

Hipsters launch Brooklyn's new Target store. Check the (weird) pics here. (Note: Must every single store opening/energy drink launch/"underground" fashion show become a full-fledged red carpet event and/or pr opportunity for Chloe Sevigny?)

An antihero who may or may not be crazy...

Ring any bells? No, it's not Hamlet. It's the Director's Cut of Donnie Darko which opens thurs night/fri morning at 12:01 am. (NYT)

"Astronauts Give Up" a peom by Christopher Kennedy (McSweeney's)
 
"Day to Day" profiles The Streets (NPR)
 
Writers' Views On War (NPR)

The funny thing is...

I was just talking about James Spader the other day. He's quite possibly the best bad boy ever. Admit it: you seriously questioned Molly Ringwald's decision-making skills when she chose Blaine (Andrew McCarthy) over Spader's evil preppy in PiP. He's this week's guilty pleasure in EW. And if you missed him in White Palace ('90) with Susan Sarandon, do yourself a favor and add it to your netflix queue ASAP. (EW "1980s James Spader")

Provocatively Titled Review

of Colin Farrell's performance in the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel A Home at the End of the World (NYT: "A User's Guide to Colin Farrell")

Shows

As usual I completely overbooked myself this week and I'm camping in Nevada with the parental units this weekend, but if I weren't I'd like to think I'd be seeing one of these shows:
 
Thursday: The Thrills @ Avalon
Friday: The Polyphonic Spree @ El Rey
 
I AM going to try to make it to Crystal Method @ The Hollywood Bowl on Sunday.

Harper's Index Excerpts

Number of publications on women's rights that the Labor Department has removed from its website since 1999: 25
Number of times after prison-abuse photos aired in April that the President boasted of freeing Iraq of torture chambers: 13
Amount NBC's parent company, General Electric, stands to earn from Iraq's reconstruction: $600,000,000
Minimum number of prisoners under the age of 17 or over the age of 70 held by coalition forces in Iraq last April: 79
Harper's /July 2004

"I choose Vodka. And Chaka Khan."

Watch the Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason Trailer (Guardian UK)

Random bits before the weekend

Elliott Smith's final album tb released in October. (MTV) Amity (XO) is the song I can't get out of my head lately. It's so recklessly joyful. The June issue of the Believer has a tribute piece by Gina Gionfriddo. 
  
Da Ali G. Show is back for season 2. Various hijinks ensue. (NYT)
 
My Morning Jacket's single One Big Holiday. I like it. It makes me think of Dazed and Confused and that makes me happy.

Badly Drawn Boy has a creative site.

Literary Criticism and The Big Book

The War for the Soul of Literature (Salon)

I Don't Wanna Be Anything

Other than what I've been trying to be lately....
I can't let this news go unblogged. One Tree Hill hottie Chad Michael Murray is engaged to equally hot co-star Sophia Bush. No word yet on whether either of them has an illegitimate child. Well, we have to have something to entertain us while OTH and The OC are on hiatus.

The Zach Braff Garden State Blog

Is here....wouldn't you love to be stranded in an airport with him? Garden State opens on July 28th.

Slate Stuff

Lost Letters of a Great Leader
Where web surfers go when they're tired

Rufus does too many drugs; calls Elton John for help

"'Every 15 minutes I was Anna Karenina all over again,' says Wainwright, never at a loss for theatrics." I do love him so.

Or did he?

Cole Porter spends hours crushed beneath a horse; composes "At Long Last Love." (New Yorker Online)

"And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture."

Today is Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda's (1904-1973) birthday.
"Tonight I Can Write" from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Finally....

Echo and The Bunnymen's The Killing Moon is available on iTunes (in the live version only).

Attn: BookWorms

Something new for your virtual nightstand: The latest issue of Boldtype.

Rhetorical Question

Is it just me or does everyone think that the first :35 seconds of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" are totally amazing? Even after the gazillionth listen.

If You Had to Choose

Trollope or Dickens?
Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald?
The Great Gatsby or The Sun Also Rises?
more...

Which Office Moron Are You?

Take the quiz.

The OC iMix

86 songs from Season 1

French Lessons

Listen to an interview with chef Kate Hill who travels along the Canal Latéral à la Garonne, stopping at medieval villages and learning ancient recipes. (BBC: The World, Lisa Interview)

Burying the Heart of Louis XVII, the Little King (NPR Weekend Edition)

Weegee's "Lovers at the Movies, Times Square," 1949
from The Getty Museum's Photographers of Genius exhibit