Yes, even more cowbell

Plug it in. (All cowbell-related posts here.)

Congrats to Marty Scorsese

He finally won an Oscar. King Missile, of course, loved him before the Academy did. (Uncensored lyrics here.)

The Smithereens remake 'Meet the Beatles'

A track for track remake. So there you go.

A recharge of raw power

The New York Times has a good profile of the reformed Stooges. The lineup includes James Osterberg (you may know him as Iggy Pop) with Mike Watt sitting in on bass. The article includes a video clip of the band rehearshing as well as clips of classic Stooges songs.

Even John Lydon would have to admit it's all very punk.

It just impacted on the surface

So I am watching the last 20 minutes of "Star Wars" in high definition on HBO. It looks great, even if Peter Cushing looks ghoulish and Carrie Fisher has too much blush.

I have seen this sequence dozens of times, but it finally occurred to me what is weird about it: The rebels attacking the Death Star consist of a bunch of pasty and pudgy white chumps and one shaggy-haired kid. No women. Of course, most of the pasty guys die, and the kid is the hero.

Would it have hurt George Lucas to include a woman in that squadron? Sure, Princess Leia shows some spirit — and firepower — earlier in the movie, but she's relegated to listening and watching as the Death Star assault unfolds. She's a bystander at the most crucial time. At the very least, she could have led the briefing about how the attack would be done.

Maybe Lucas could change this for the next "edition."

This makes me oddly happy

Oregon senator has two elderly women arrested.

Saddest thing I've read all day

Jose Padilla has so much PTSD from being tortured while in custody, with no charges filed against him, that he's resigned to just dying in prison.

Should this suprise anyone?

You can get elected to public office in Texas even if you believe the Earth doesn't revolve around the sun.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Got.

Kraken snared!

Fishermen haul in a 40-footer: If calamari rings were made from the squid, they would be the size of tractor tires, according to this report.

The Jam to reunite

Without Paul Weller.

Wait, what!? That's like the Miles Davis Quintet reforming without Miles Davis.

What are they going to play -- Smithers Jones and News of the World? Feh.

Sulu's Phaser Set to "Kill"

Awesome response by George Takei to basketball player Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks.

Senator takes on Big Air

Barbara Boxer of California is proposing a "passenger bill of rights" in response to the airlines' outrageous shenanigans. It would target the practice of essentially imprisoning people aboard planes sitting on the tarmac for several hours. (Read previous posts here.)

DULLARD TAKE: Go, Barbara, go!

Remember the future?

Paleo-Future is a cool blog that chronicles humanity's efforts to depict what's to come, only to see the march of time stomp on those efforts.

Disney attractions such as the Contemporary Resort (the hotel with the monorail track through the middle) and EPCOT are among the subjects. It's especially difficult to actually build a vision of the future rather than just write about it or paint it. Disney has to update its depiction at great expense — or face the wrath and ridicule of tourists.

John Lydon, sad old codger

Of all people, how is he the last one to figure out that "punk" is just a marketing term? Don't most people catch on to that by the end of their teens?

That's all it was for the Pistols, too, and if Mr. "Rotten" didn't realize he was part of the pretty standard rock 'n' roll swindle, it casts his whole career in a very different, much sadder light.

Desmond's visions confirmed

Dead hobbit walking!

Fox's faux news is no laff riot

"The 1/2-Hour News Hour" — billed as Fox's conservative alternative to "The Daily Show" — is getting panned.

Even Fox News must not be too thrilled with it, considering the debut is being buried Sunday at 10 p.m. Watch a clip here and judge for yourself.

King of criticism

Larry King of CNN fame likes to review movies, and he loves everything he sees. Larry is the real-life Walter Monheit.

Ooof!

Skydiver's chutes fail to open - and he lives

Here's another fun thing I won't be doing.

Sometimes it pays to be craven

They inspect those rides at the state fair, right? Carnies have your interests in mind, after all.

Maybe, maybe not. This site tracks the mayhem that can occur when things go wrong at the fair and at theme parks.

LISTS: Movies over music

The Onion A/V Club has a good list of songs whose use in movies has become forever linked to that movie. Example: "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel always conjures images of "Reservoir Dogs." The song can't have been written or recorded for the movie, however, so "Axel F" from "Beverly Hills Cop" doesn't qualify. Sorry, Harold Faltemeyer!

DULLARD TAKE: It's a solid list, even including a few pleasant surprises such as "Where Is My Mind" as heard in "Fight Club." Unfortunately, "Lust for Life" by Iggy Pop has gone beyond "Trainspotting" into use by cruise lines and sports talk show host Jim Rome.

Two others I would throw in (with YouTube links to the song/movie):

• "In Your Eyes" as used in "Say Anything"
• "Bela Lugosi's Dead" as used in "The Hunger"

Hoohaa!

A comedy club in Florida renames "The Vagina Monologues" after a resident complains about that word on the marquee — she had to explain to her niece what it meant. No!

Anna Nicole Smith is no longer with us

Dead in Florida.

UPDATE: Drudge says she died like Marilyn Monroe, but John Bonham may be a more apt comparision based on this information.

Grand Canyon Glass Walkway

Here's something I won't be doing next month.

'Lost' is back tonight

Here's an interview with the creators addressing how they'll handle some of the unsolved mysteries of the show, like why the Sleestacks are so mean to Marshall, Will and Holly.

Prince concert in Miami

Apparently some football teams opened the show for him.

I was thinking before the game, "Why do they always wait till someone's an oldies act before booking him at the Superbowl? They should have had Prince do this 20 years ago." But after watching him entertain his ass off in the rain like that, I gotta say: as well-respected as Prince is, he is seriously under-rated, as a guitarist and a showman. And he's reportedly doing it all with a bum hip.

Odd choice to do "Proud Mary" and that Foo Fighters song, though. I woulda rather heard "Bat Dance."

Happy belated birthday, Dave Davies!

The Kinks guitarist, still recovering from a stroke, turned 60 on Saturday. Watch him in Lego form here.

More on the 'Funny women' debate

Are women allowed to be funny?

Personally, I married the funniest gal I ever met. I can't recommend that strategy highly enough. We seem to be enjoying each others' company (increasingly to the exclusion of others) all the more as time goes by.

That's the sappiest thing ever written on this blog, a potentially sappy medium to begin with. It won't happen again.

Don't eat the orange snow

Siberia wonders why its snow isn't white and smells funny.

Bill Gates, Vista and dullards

Microsoft's main man talks about Vista and other Windows things in this interview. The key quote:

I don't think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards.

The best part of the Q&A is the second page where Gates gets testy about Apple's operating system and ad campaign.