We don’t know if this guy actually plans on eating Toby, his cute little bunny, but what a great idea.

click her to visit SaveToby.com and read the whole story

Check it out. This proves to be a great show:

From The Guardian:
A selection of the best-remembered quotes from the master of the one-liner
Hunter S Thompson on work …
“Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
“Publishers are notoriously slothful about numbers, unless they’re attached to dollar signs – unlike journalists, quarterbacks, and felony criminal defendants who tend to be keenly aware of numbers at all times.”
“I have no taste for either poverty or honest labour, so writing is the only recourse left for me.”
“I’ve always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it’s a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs. Old whores don’t do much giggling.”
“I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.”
keep reading

Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide:
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2723492,00.html
RIP Hunter. You are an inspiration.
WRITE YOUR OWN EULOGY IN COMMENTS

by Alexander Lauence
Bands are getting younger and younger these days. Smoosh are two sisters from Seattle who are ten and twelve years old. Their names are Asya and Chloe. With their combined ages, they are still younger than Joanna Newsom. Asya sings and plays keyboards. Chloe plays drums. ROCKRGRL describes them this way: “Imagine a stripped-down version of the first side of Pet Sounds (before Brian Wilson gets cynical) and you have some clue to Smoosh’s sound. Musically they more than hold their own.” Their effortless talent and imagination is astounding. This is a band that relies on instinct and plays music because it is fun. Needless to say, they’re unaffected by the demands of indie cool.
Thus far, Smoosh has played shows with Pearl Jam, Cat Power, Death Cab For Cutie, Sleater-Kinney and Rilo Kiley.
Smoosh started about four years ago, when Chloe’s drum teacher, Jason McGerr, the drummer of Death Cab for Cutie, encouraged her to begin playing more seriously. Her sister just happened to have some songs and energy. Years later their demo got around and was played on the radio station KEXP. Soon they were signed to record label Pattern 25. Their album came out in September 2004. I spoke to them on the phone during a lull before touring and recording their second album. I had to call them at 4pm because they didn’t get home from school before then.
Their album, She Like Electric is out now. There have been rave reviews in Blender, Tigerbeat, and Alt Press. Their album was The Village Voice’s #1 most overlooked record of 2004. Look for the band on the cover of magazines and TV this Spring. They are going to be on CNN with Wolf Blitzer very soon. I spoke to Asya and Chloe right before their big tour with Mates of State and high profile gig at Noise Pop 2005, in San Francisco.
******************************
AL: Hello.
Asya: Hello.
AL: I am Alexander. Who’s this?
Asya: Asya.
AL: I am calling from Los Angeles.
Asya: Alright. Cool.
AL: I bought your CD a few weeks ago, loved it, and that’s why I am calling you.
Asya: Thanks.
AL: How long have you been playing together?
Asya: Probably about four years. I have been writing songs all my life. I started when I was about five years old. Chloe got her drum set when she was six. She started to get better and she needed to play with another person. So that was the earliest time we started playing together.
AL: Did you take piano lessons before that?
Asya: No. I never took any piano lessons. I learned to play on my own. But after a while I tried to learn how to read music so I could take lessons. But I quit taking lessons with a teacher after a month each time because it wasn’t very fun.
AL: You write all the songs in Smoosh?
Asya: I write all the lyrics and piano parts. After I do that Chloe kind of makes up her piano parts. We both contribute to every song.
AL: What are your songs about?

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From Reuters:
Nudists dine in New York style
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The diners arrived at a nice Manhattan restaurant on a cold February night and stripped off coats, hats, gloves and scarves. They didn’t stop there.
Skirts, shirts, pants, underwear and stockings all ended up stashed in plastic bags by the bar as the patrons got naked for the monthly “Clothing Optional Dinner.”
“It’s exciting to be in a restaurant nude,” said George Keyes, 65, a retired junior high school English teacher.
Nude yes, but not unadorned.
Keyes, a lifelong nudist, wore a necklace, earrings and a black leather “genital bracelet” with red studs. And white sneakers.
The dinner was started by a group of New York nudists who wanted something a bit more elegant than the wilderness getaways and beach resorts they generally frequent.
“When you go away on holiday it’s more you’re roughing it in the woods, whereas this is a really nice restaurant,” said Keyes, a member of gay nudist group Males Au Naturel, or MAN.
John Ordover set up the dining club about a year ago, recruiting members through word of mouth and the Internet.

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News on Danger Mouse and the Gorillaz from the press release (see below). [Note, Danger Mouse remixing Dinah Washington verges on sacriledge. Whose idea was this? That said the Gorillaz project sounds cool.]
“Artist and Producer Danger Mouse has recently finished producing the highly anticipated forthcoming Gorillaz album. The album, titled Demon Days, is due out in May.
Danger Mouse was recently honored in GQ’s Man of the Year issue and Entertainment Weekly’s Album of the Year as well as ‘year end’ accolades from SPIN, Vibe, Blender, NME, Wired, Q and Village Voice to name just a few.

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From AP:
Iraqi Died While Hung From Wrists
SAN DIEGO (AP) – An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture – suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

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John Negroponte is best known for:
A. Overseeing covert funding of the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s
B. Covering up human rights abuses carried out by CIA-trained operatives in Honduras in the 1980
From the WSWS:
Iran-Contra gangsters resurface in Bush administration
By Patrick Martin
1 August 2001
The Bush administration appealed to Senate Democrats July 27 to move ahead with the confirmation of two top-level diplomatic nominees whose appointments have been delayed because of their role in defending right-wing dictatorships and death squads in Central America.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden (D-Del) said through a spokesman that a hearing for John Negroponte, nominated for US ambassador to the United Nations, would be held as early as next week. No hearing has yet been set for Otto Reich, nominated for assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.

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We all know that Napoleon Dynamite got robbed by the Academy. It was clearly the best movie of the year. Ok, maybe it wasn’t. But it was damn funny. If you’re a fan, this soundboard of clips is essential:
Napoleon Dynamite Soundboard