This is one of their current top stories:

Man forgets wife at gas station
A Macedonian man left his wife at an Italian service station and only realized he had driven off without her six hours later, news agency Ansa said.
The couple, who were travelling with their 4-year-old daughter, pulled over for petrol in the coastal city of Pesaro as they were heading back to their home to Germany.
After filling the tank, the husband drove away — without noticing that his 30-year-old wife, originally from Georgia, had got out of the car to go to the toilet.

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Click image for quicktime trailer. We love you Sarah, despite the whole Jimmy Kimmel thing. [Thanks to Lindsayism.]

Music Reviews by John Rickman

Yip-Yip
“Pro-Twelve Thinker”
(Strictly Amateur Films)
The Orlando-based duo known as Yip-Yip cough up an interesting blend of electro-something-or-another that is neither easy to define or ignore. With the use of keyboards, small toys, and effect boxes, Yip Yip whip up a buzz-laden racket that ignites the mind and lubricates the bloodstream. Smart but sloppy, with tracks that stumble from one into another, “Pro-Twelve Thinker” is perfect for engaging in tangential thought or for propelling your next drunken evening forward.

Blir
“Post Edits #08″
(Raster)
Mark Fell and Mat Steel, the Sheffield, U.K.-based duo best known for producing sterile-but-soulful micro-techno under the name SND, are back with a new full-length under the name Blir. “Post Edits #08″ features the duo’s signature defibrillator sounds and relentless rhythms, but here they are applied in a very meditative and hypnotic fashion. Die-hard SND fans will definitely want to pick this up, but so will those who see nothing strange about dance music culture expanding its reach into the larger world of contemporary art.

To Do this Weekend:
M.I.A. with Diplo and DJ Rekha
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Beginning at 3:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage
FREE

“The 28-year old Sri Lankan-born M.I.A. represents a new type of rootless, nation-less pop performer, one who can effortlessly graft images of violent revolution and Third World poverty to block-rocking party beats. The music on her debut album, Arular, is impossible to define, an irresistible mash-up of British garage, Jamaican toasting, American hip-hop and South Asian bhangra (to name just a few of its elements)”

Our friends at Cakehead have some other great suggestions such as Criscomas and NYC Tiger Beer Singapore Chili Crab Festival

by Dave Thomas

Welcome to the month of the Miramax fire sale, wherein Harvey and Bob release all the crap they’ve been holding back before they leave Disney for good in September. Other than that, it’s your usual batch of not-ready-for-prime-time summer releases.
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AUGUST 5
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THE DUKES OF HAZZARD
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Just some good ol’ boys, never meanin’ no harm with that Confederate Flag on top of their car.
WILL IT SUCK?
Well, did you like “Super Troopers?” Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed that, is on board here. Not only that, most of the fifty or so writers credited with this adaptation are from that project as well. In a way, it seems appropriate. In another way, isn’t anyone from the original TV show still alive to write this?
I guess the casting makes sense, though the original rumor of Paul Walker as one of the Dukes and Britney Spears as Daisy Duke is, well, about as appropriate. And Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg is ultimately a less, erm, controversial choice than Anthony Anderson, which I think would’ve been a hoot n’ a holler, regardless.
Still, I don’t think we’re looking at even a “Starsky & Hutch” level interpretation here.
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
I can’t believe no one’s taking on the Dukes. $48mil.
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2046
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Wong Kar Wai ventures into sci-fi.
WILL IT SUCK?
As you might expect for a Wong Kar Wai flick, the buzz is pretty solid. Combines elements, literally, of his previous works (entire characters in some cases). Got every award “Kung Fu Hustle” didn’t get at the Hong Kong Film Awards plus a crapload more at international fests. Also features Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi fresh from “Hero.”

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[From ThisPoint]
Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature flag portraits of US President George W. Bush into piles of dog poo in public parks.
Josef Oettl, parks administrator for Bayreuth, said: “This has been going on for about a year now, and there must be 2,000 to 3,000 piles of excrement that have been claimed during that time.”
The series of incidents was originally thought to be some sort of protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. And then when it continued it was thought to be a protest against President George W. Bush’s campaign for re-election.
But it is still going on and the police say they are completely baffled as to who is to blame.
“We have sent out extra patrols to try to catch whoever is doing this in the act,” said police spokesman Reiner Kuechler. “But frankly, we don’t know what we would do if we caught them redhanded.”
Legal experts say there is no law against using faeces as a flag stand and the federal constitution is vague on the issue.

Ernest Tubb
[From WFMU via Brooklyn Vegan]

All these periodic payola inquiries would lead you to believe that the only way to get a song played on the radio is by delivering duffel bags full of cash, cocaine and Adidas sneakers to a station’s doorstep. Not so. For several decades, another time-tested method was to shamelessly hitch your tune to an already established single, a phenomenon known as the Answer Song

Click here for 28 free Answer Song downloads including Ernest Tubb and the Bar-Kays.

[From the Washington Post via Catch]

President Bush is getting the kind of break most Americans can only dream of: nearly five weeks away from the office, loaded with vacation time.
The president departed Tuesday for his longest stretch yet away from the White House, arriving at his Crawford ranch in the evening for a spell of clearing brush, visiting with family and friends, and tending to some outside-the-Beltway politics. It is the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years.
The August getaway is Bush’s 49th trip to his cherished ranch since he took office. Tuesday was the 319th day that Bush has spent, entirely or partially, in Crawford — nearly 20 percent of his presidency to date, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter known for keeping better records of the president’s travel than the White House itself.
Until now, probably no modern president was a more famous vacationer than Ronald Reagan, who loved spending time at his ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif. According to an Associated Press count, Reagan spent all or part of 335 days in Santa Barbara over his eight-year presidency — a total that Bush will surpass this month in Crawford with 3 1/2 years left in his second term.

Nardwuar has an hilarious new interview with David Cross available for download. It’s just shy of an hour long and funny as hell. Cross proves once again that he’s hands down the funniest comedian working. [via BrooklynVegan]

http://www.thisbirdhasflown.com/