Our friends at Cakehead are holding a poll to see who has the best NY Cafeteria. Swing by and send them your vote.

Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and opened the musical wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71. (From CNN)

Mark you Calendars. This war is unwinnable:
Saturday, September 24
Massive Anti-war March and Concert
Gather 11 AM at the Washington Monument

Join Operation Ceasefire, a new coalition of concerned musicians, for a massive anti-war concert/rally at the Washington Monument on September 24th. This event will be a centerpiece of what is expected to be 4 days of enormous protests in nation’s capital in support of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from the quagmire in Iraq. The concert will bring together musical acts such as: Thievery Corporation, punk rock and independent musicians LeTigre, Bouncing Souls, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists; country music artist Steve Earle, rock and soul band the Bellrays; latin musicians Machetres, socially conscious hip-hop groups The Coup and Head-Roc; and even long time activists Wayne Kramer of the MC5, Jello Biafra and Greg Palast will be involved in this event!
With over 60% of the public currently opposed to the war in Iraq, this concert is a fun way we can all come together and demand that this Congress and this administration bring our troops home and start a well over due Ceasefire!

Click here for more information

Dominorecordco.com has the video to the excellent new Smog single here. It features Chloe in a chambermaid costume wearing an eyepatch. It thankfully does not feature Vincent Gallo’s Republican cock in her mouth. The new Bonnie Prince Billy video is available as well.

Vice presents their first benefit song satire, featuring:
Beck, Sum 41, The Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sloan, Peaches, Feist, Devendra Banhart, Wolf Parade, Postal Service, Buck 65, Comedian David Cross, Sex Pistols’ founder Malcolm McLaren, Elvira, 60s soul legend Gino Washington, and more!
Click here to check it out.

Cakehead has an hilarious story satirizing the Intelligent Design nonsense. Read about the Flying Spaghetti Monster here.

Blue States Lose may be embarassingly derivative of Vice magazine’s Do’s and Don’ts, but it’s still pretty damn funny. After enjoying it for weeks now, we’ve finally decided to give them a shout out. Their number one entry this week had us howling. Check it out here.

Tickets go on sale August 25. We’re looking forward to seeing Steve Martin talking to Earl Scruggs (the king of bluegrass) about the banjo. A big thanks to ProductShop
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
º Readings by Michael Chabon and Stephen King | Directors Guild of America | 7PM | $15
º Readings by A. M. Homes and Jeffrey Eugenides | Satalla | 9:30PM | $15
º Readings by Nicole Krauss and Ian McEwan | Angel Orensanz Foundation | 9:30PM | $15
º Readings by Zadie Smith and Jonathan Franzen | Directors Guild of America | 9:30PM | $15
º Town Hall Meeting on Iraq: Jeffrey Goldberg, moderator, Robert Baer, Mark Danner, Douglas J. Feith, Kanan Makiya, George Packer, Rend al-Rahim and R. James Woolsey | Town Hall | 7PM | $15
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
º Malcolm Gladwell on the American Obsession with Precociousness or learning quickly versus learning well | Directors Guild of America | 10AM | $25
º William Finnegan and Raymond W. Kelly Discuss Defending New York City | Times Square Studios | 1pm | $25
º A Conversation with Roger Angell and Ian Frazier interviewed by Mark Singer |
Ailey Studios | 1PM | $25
º A Conversation with Mikhail Baryshnikov interviewed by Joan Acocella | 37 Arts | 1PM | $25
º Panel Discussion on When Reality Fails: Fantasy and invention in fiction with Deborah Treisman (moderator), Martin Amis, Judy Budnitz, A. M. Homes, Stephen King, and George Saunders | Celeste Bartos Forum at The New York Public Library | 10AM | $25
º Panel Discussion on Anarchy and Animation: Cartoon chaos theory with Tad Friend (moderator), The Incredibles director Brad Bird, Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis, and South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone | Directors Guild of America | 1PM | $25
º Panel Discussion on Stage to Studio: When performers produce with Sasha Frere-Jones (moderator), Steve Albini, Ani DiFranco, Ric Ocasek, and the RZA | Times Square Studios | 4PM | $25
º Panel Discussion on Generation X Fashion: Young American designers with Judith Thurman (moderator), Alice Roi, Behnaz Sarafpour, and Tara Subkoff | Ailey Studios | 4PM | $25
º Noah Baumbach and Laura Linney talk with Susan Morrison: How I made my movie | Pavilion Park Slope | 7PM | $20
º Tracy Chapman talks with Dana Goodyear: A Conversation with Music: Songs of love and social justice | Satalla | 7PM | $35
º Tony Ellis, Earl Scruggs, Pete Wernick, and Charles Wood talk with Steve Martin: A Conversation About The great American banjo | Directors Guild of America | 7PM | $35
º Edie Falco talks with Jeffrey Toobin: One tough cookie | Coda | 7PM | $35
º Sleater-Kinney talk with James Surowiecki: A Conversation About The power of three | Newspace | 7PM | $35
Ricky Gervais talks with Nancy Franklin: Office worker | Coda | 10PM | $35
º The Roots talk with Malcolm Gladwell: A Conversation On Grassroots hip-hop | Newspace | 10PM | $35
º Rufus Wainwright talks with Andy Young: A Conversation On The Heart on his sleeve | Satalla | 10PM | $35
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
º Wallace & Gromit‚ÄîThe Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The New Yorker presents a special preview screening of DreamWorks Animation SKG and Aardman Features, with a discussion between Nick Park and Hendrik Hertzberg | Directors Guild of America | 1PM | $5
º Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk: A Salute to the Three Stooges – A Sunday brunch accompanied by clips from classic Three Stooges episodes and a discussion moderated by Adam Green. With Fred Armisen, Mike Cerrone, Gilbert Gottfried, and John Landis | Gallagher’s Steak House | 2PM | $45
º Master Class in the Graphic Novel With Charles Burns and Chris Ware | Cond√© Nast Auditorium | 1PM | $35
º A Humor Revue With Noah Baumbach, Andy Borowitz, Larry Doyle, Nancy Franklin, Frank Gannon, Anthony Lane, Patricia Marx, Bruce McCall, Rebecca Mead, David Owen, Paul Rudnick, George Saunders, Paul Simms, and Mark Singer. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, hosts the event | Town Hall | 3PM | $50

Here’s Hardball’s Chris Matthews showing how “hard” his balls really are (via atrios):

MATTHEWS: Let me go, Paul, before you start. What I keep doing here is asking people on and off camera who come on this program, high-ranking officers, enlisted, former officers. I get sometimes, not all the time, two different versions, the version they give me on the air and the version they give me the minute when we’re off the air.
The version they give me when we’re on the air is gung-ho, we’re doing the right thing, everything is moving along. The version they give me off the air is, Rumsfeld is crazy. There aren’t enough troops over there. We’re not taking this seriously enough, or, we shouldn’t be there, sometimes.

If his show was really about asking tough questions, Matthews would call them on their bullshit instead of being a tool.

It’s embarassing that Right Winger Pat Buchanan is the person making this assertion:

What is remarkable is that no Democrat has stepped forward…. to lead an anti-war crusade and call for a date certain for withdrawal of U.S. troops. Cindy Sheehan is filling that vacuum. [from WorldNetDaily]

And why is no one organizing a march on Crawford? We are potentially at a turning point and no one from the anti-war movement (other than Sheehan) is doing anything. As White House chief of staff Andrew Card told The New York Times in 2002, “you don’t introduce new products in August.” Dems have gotten too complacent to introduce any new “products” that could be seen as controversial, even the inevitable “product” of ending a war.