It seems that having a “fan made” video contest is all the rage these days. Bjork’s the latest and the winner has just been announced for her latest single “Innocence.” We’ve never been Bjork fans, in fact, we’ll readily cop to just not getting her.

To us she’s no different than Spanish question marks. But we do love fan made videos and the winners come from France. Judging by the video and what we’ve seen from past Bjork vidoes, it’s no wonder why Fred and Annabelle won the contest, beating out some 500 other competitors.

Weirdness abounds, but the animation is a doozy.

Normally, we’re above making fun of stuff like this. You know, we respect other people and their beliefs and their desire to not slut themselves out. I’m sorry, what was that?

Okay, we were just reminded by someone that we’ve never been above making the fun. And so we think this pretty much stands without having to resort to a few lame jokes.

Honestly, all we can say is, um, there’s a happy medium. Behold, The Wholesome Wear Clothing Co. “Modest clothes for wearever.”

Unfortunately for this company, someone forgot to tell them The Amish don’t use computers. Zing!

Well, as we were taking a break from finding out whether Jack White had a boy or girl and if said child was going to be opaque or transluscent, we got word that the Monolith Schedule had been announced.

Now, we’ve been thrilled at the idea of a two day music event at one of the premiere music venues in the country from the get go, but our excitement was significantly wratched up when it went from unisigned/unknown bands to some of the biggest names in music.

We were expecting local Colorado musicians and Myspace phenoms and instead you’ll be getting the likes of Cake, The Flaming Lips, Spoon, The Decemberists, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, et cetera.  You’ll also be able to see smaller acts like Meese, Au Revoir Simone, White Rabbits, Matt & Kim and The Nuclear So and So’s.

Check out the full schedule.  You’ve got four stages to choose from.   The only complaint?  All the shows on each of the stages are all scheduled to begin around the same time.  There’s not a lot of overlap, so it looks as if you’d have to make some hard decisions about who to see and miss.

The problem is they’ve put all the great acts on the mainstage both days.  Is it really a difficult decision about whom to see when you look at the schedule?  For us, it’s a no-brainer.  Camp your butt as close to the main stage as possible and shake your butt off.

Although on day two, one of the secondary stages features such up and comers as Au Revoir Simone, White Rabbits, YACHT, Via Audio and Forget Cassettes.  All fantastic bands.  But more fantastic than say, Art Brut, Spoon and The Flaming Lips?  Exactly my point.

I know it’s not going to happen, but I still have this pulling the rug from my feet feeling when it comes to Zack Snyder’s Watchmen adaptation.  But each week, it seems another casting puzzle piece falls into place.Carla Gugino will be portraying Sally Jupiter.  Word on the street is that Snyder wanted to cast the part of Sally Jupiter for the flashbacks that take place and age the actress for the present day scenes in 1985.  The flashbacks are the bulk of Sally Jupiter’s, aka The Silk Spectre, screentime.

The original Silk Spectre was a member of The Minutemen.  In the present day totalitarian 1985 she has become a lowly burlesque dancer and mother to the New Silk Spectre, who’s being played by Malin Akerman.

I think that’s a good decision, because it would seem it’s easier to age someone that to deage them, despite that nifty trick at the beginning of X-Men 3.  

It’s February 1969. Bob Dylan, two years removed from the release of the somber and contemplative John Wesley Harding, returns to Nashville to begin work on what will become his ninth studio album, the full-on country record Nashville Skyline.

Though it was met with great commercial success, it peaked at #3 on the charts, many critics didn’t know what to make of it, despite knowing Dylan’s penchant for shifting gears, changing sounds and his chameleonic nature.

The album, under the direction of producer Bob Johnston was recorded in about nine days, from Feb. 12-21. Midway through the sessions at Columbia’s Studio A, friend (since the 1964 Newport Folk Festival) and fellow label mate Johnny Cash stopped by to say hello.

Cash was still basking in the success of the release of his live record At Folsom Prison, was still four months away from his other legendary live performance At San Quentin and that year he would begin playing television host for The Johnny Cash Show on ABC. Needless to say, these two musicians were not only at the height of their popularity (well some thirty years later it’s debatable as both are as popular now as they were back then) and creative peak.

During a two day stretch of playing and recording together, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recording a bevy of songs together, all of them deemed unworthy to be released or featured on Dylan’s new record. Only one of them, a reworking of “Girl From the North Country” was added to Nashville Skyline.

What’s interesting about this session is how much fun Dylan and Cash had playing music together. Many of the songs are sloppy and rightfully don’t belong on any official release. Lines are screwed up, notes are misplayed, both artists sing over each other. It feels like one of those moments, a rare glimpse into two Supernovas playing for no reason but the hell of it.

There’s an excellent mix of Cash tunes, Dylan originals, more traditional Americana arrangements, even an Elvis Presley cover song. After a few listens, one can easily understand why neither wanted this released, but these sessions deserved to be heard for not just music fans or fans of either gentleman, but as a slice of American history, a sharp moment in time, never to be duplicated. For these sessions represent the improbable intersection of what could have been had Cash and Dylan said screw it and tossed aside any notions of The Traveling Wilburys or The Highwaymen.

Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash - The Nashville Sessions

1. One Two Many Mornings (recorded Feb. 17)
2. Mountain Dew (recorded Feb. 18)
3. I Still Miss Someone (recorded Feb. 17)
4. Careless Love ( traditional / recorded Feb. 18)
5. Matchbox (recorded Feb. 18)
6. That’s Alright, Mama (Elvis Presley cover / recorded Feb. 18)
7. Big River (recorded Feb. 18)
8. Girl From the North Country (recorded Feb. 18)
9. I Walk the Line (recorded Feb. 18)
10. You Are My Sunshine (recorded Feb. 18)
11. Guess Things Happen That Way (recorded Feb. 18)
12. Just a Closer Walk With Thee (traditional hymn / recorded Feb. 18)
13. Blue Yodel #1 (Jimmie Rodger’s cover / recorded Feb. 18)
14. Blue Yodel #5 (Jimmie Rodger’s cover / recorded Feb. 18)
15. I Threw it All Away (LIVE FROM THE JOHNNY CASH SHOW)
16. Living the Blues (recorded Feb. 18)
17. Girl From the North Country (LIVE)
18. Nashville Skyline Rag (recorded Feb. 18)
19. I Threw it All Away (alternate album version)
20. Peggy Day (alternate album version)
21. Country Pie (alternate album version)
22. Tonight, I’ll Be Staying Here With You (alternate album version)

Now this is not the complete session, as versions of “Ring of Fire” “Mystery Train,” “Don’t Think Twice it’s Alight,” “How High the Water” and “Wanted Man” were also attempted. Those songs, I was unable to track down.

If anyone has versions of them, please pass them along from one fan to another. I’ve been told there are bootlegged versions, commercial or otherwise, of these sessions. Which means, those have to be out there, right?

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE SESSION HERE

For Hollywood Studio execs anyway.  Although, based on the box office success of The Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon may command a huge price tag for all his films henceforth.  Regardless, we found this a pretty fascinating look into the fiduciary aspects of Hollywood.

Forbes Magazine calculated which actors and actresses have the highest box office returns versus the cost of having the actor in a movie.  Damon was first, with a return on nearly $29 for every dollar spent.  Brad Pitt came in second and Vince Vaughn rounded out the top 3.

The other top ten inlcuded: Johnny Depp, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger, Reese Witherspoon, Ben Stiller and finally, Sandra Bullock.  Oddly, outside the top four, we’d say that’s a pretty drap list.

Nathan Fillion, who got his start on the daytime soap One Life to Live, but has recently found cult success as a leading man in television shows Firefly, Drive and Lost (next fall he’ll be suiting up as a gynocologist in his biggest role to date for Desperate Housewives) and in such little seen movies like Waitress, Serenity and Slither. And even though it would seem he has no reason to return to daytime television, that’s just what the actor is doing, when he shot some scenes for OLTL’s 10,000th episode. His story arc will air on Aug. 16 and 17th.

“I guess a lot of actors don’t like to admit they once did soaps, but it was important for me to go back to where I got my start,” says Fillion, who played star-crossed lover Joey Buchanan from 1994 to 1997 on the ABC drama. “I will never forget what OLTL did for me personally and professionally.”

Still, the two-day stint was “bittersweet,” he notes, because he went back to bury his TV grandpa, Asa. The character was played by Phil Carey, the lovable crank who quit the show last spring in a contract tiff. “Phil didn’t like everybody but when he liked you, he liked you, and he was very kind to me,” Fillion recalls. “To honor him was a very big deal.”

Not sure why, but we love the humility and humbleness of such a little gesture. Lots of actors don’t enjoy reprising roles that made them famous, as they view such an act as beneath them. But not Fillion. We’re hoping this small gesture allows Karma to repay him and make him the successful leading man lots of people believe him to already be.

This is the strangest and most ludicrous thing that’s been passed along to us in quite some time. Not even sure what to say, except to laugh and say, riiiiight. Like Arnold would ever agree to this. Gotta love the lunacy of drug dealers though where they propose to give the State of California $1 billion dollars to help the government out of debt.

“It is ridiculous that California can’t pay its bills,” said spokesman Clifford Schaffer. “It is a tragedy that they will cut badly needed services and programs such as medical care for the elderly and prison drug treatment when the money to fund all these programs and more is there and available. Everyone who is currently waiting for a check from the state should be enraged at this foolishness.”

Regulation and taxation of marijuana could produce six billion dollars in additional tax revenue, according to economic studies linked from their web site LetUsPayTaxes.com. In addition, it could save up to ten billion dollars in enforcement costs. “That is a conservative estimate,” said Schaffer. “By other estimates, the revenues could be five times that. The economists are with us all the way on this one. Marijuana prohibition is an economic disaster.”

Look, I’d be the first to say that the government should get into the marijuana business, or at least privatize it like tobacco and alcohol. That way at least the profiteers would be big corporations, that would hopefully employ Americans. Limit where you can smoke dope, like cigarettes, essentially confining it to private homes. Yes, you would face the same problems as drunk drivers, but at least you’re taking a valuable asset out of the hands of criminals and gangs.

I’d like to see a poltician seriously push this issue, just to see how much traction it would gather. Marijuana use is pretty much accepted, since the hippie generation, a lot anyway, still smoke and the subsequent generations don’t really see marijuana as a big deal. Most people in my generation view marijuana as nothing more harmful than tobacco or alcohol.

I don’t think this would ever happen in my lifetime, but it would certainly help fund lots of states and towns in dire budget crisises.

We’ve long been fans of Brits The Coral. Whether James Skelly and Co. are bouncy between sugary pop gems like “Leizah” and “In the Morning” to more adventurous psychedlic (sea) fare like “Spanish Main,” “Auntie’s Operation,” “Bill McCai,” or “Arabian Sand” the band has always delivered. Sometimes they fall flat on their face, but you can’t knock them for thinking big and trying to live up to those high standards.

Often times they sound like a relic from the past. The lads have dropped their fifth LP, Roots & Echoes (if you’re counting the supposed non-album Nightfreaks and the Sons of Becker, which we do) and you can stream the whole album here.

From a first quick listen we like what we hear. Sounds like more of the same from the first single “Who’s Gonna Find Me,” the lamenting and delicate “Jacqueline,” the trippy and odd “Fireflies,” and the swanky “Remember Me.” Good stuff all around.

British fans might already have the 11-track album from the Liverpudlian lads as it’s out already in the UK on Deltasonic.

Roots & Echoes comes out in the United States TBD.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnal’s have had a meteoric rise, being largely unknowns not more than a few years ago, playing the clubs of hometown Burlington, VT and Boston. Now, they’ve been everywhere out promoting their latest album This is Somewhere from Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson and Good Morning America. It got a gonzo good review in The Boston Globe, and deservedly so, if it’s anything like Potter’s stellar live performances or her last album Nothing But the Water.

Don’t let Potter’s sexiness fool you into thinking she can’t rock both the guitar and organ harder than most dudes. This is straight rock and roll, a direct line from the blues and gospel, the kind of rock equally fit for a barroom, an open road, a party, or an arena. She brings the noise fast, loud and fun all in a husky, yet sexy set of pipes.

This is Somewhere is out now from Hollywood Records.

Some books you can’t doubt their popularity or acclaim.  Though I’ve yet to read Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, how I have no idea and please don’t ask, it’s beloved by just about everyone who smells the binding glue, drinks from it’s fountain inked letters and creased pages.  Okay, okay, hyperbole aside it’s supposedly a damn fine novel, worthy of Oscar-baiting film adaptation.This time around director Marc Forster helmed a production with a screenplay by David Benioff.  It’s mostly a cast of unknowns, something that doesn’t bode well for it’s Academy chances.  Which is shameful really.  Based on the trailer below, this looks like Forster delivers a powerhouse.

Love the tagline on the poster, though: “There is a way to be good again.”  Stories of redemption in a foreign land are pretty sweet.

The Kite Runner hits theaters on 11.2.07

Sidenote: Is anyone else more excited by the possibilities of Forster directing the next Bond flick after seeing this trailer?  That was my initial and albeit shallow thought, not so much on the plight currently happening in Afghanistan.

Hey ya’ll!  Sad news but Glynnie didn’t make it out to Chi-town for Lolla, as we previously reported.  At this point, if you really care and our video evidence wasn’t enough, we’re sure you can find plenty of reports floating around.  Took the day off yesterday to take care of shit and we’re glad we did.  It was a much deserved day off.

Both The Bourne Ultimatum and The Handsome Furs rocked my socks off.  I felt like both the movie and the concert at T.T.’s just left me feeling exhausted.  Check them both out if you get the chance.  The Handsome Furs played to a packed club and played all the songs off their new album, plus new song “Heaven” and ended with “Captain.”  All in all, couldn’t ask for much more.

Oddly, I had a thought that if The Beatles were around today, how much longer their career as a band would have lasted.  Not to compare Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner to Lennon and McCartney or anything (Egats!  The blasphemy!), but you get the sence in following their Wolf Parade side projects these past few years that Lennon and McCartney would have benefitted from being allowed to do solo albums or side projects back in the day.

I’ve got The Battles album Mirrored in rotation this morning, and I think it may go down as the most oddly hyped and when the year is over, the one album, most critics will look back on and history will not be kind to.  How is this album getting such stellar reviews?  Beats me.  We’ll have some more cogent thoughts later.

Onto the candy-colored water cooler barnicle tidbits.

- While getting oddly addicted to ABC Family’s Greek, we were shocked when Bree showed up as a sorority house pledge.  After watching the conclusion to the Lonelygirl15 first season over the weekend, we were a little sad when Bree died at the hands of a blood thirsty cult.  Big kudos all around to the filmmakers for creating one of the weirdest and oddly compelling and abrupt leftturnedness series ever.   One thing is clear, actress Jessica Lee Rose is a welcomed addition to the ABC Family show.

- Tired of working out and going to the gym and what not?  But still afraid of the coke diet or the anorexia/bulemia thing?  Well, now you can poop yourself skinny via the new FDA-approved over the counter medication.  Let the jokes ensue.

- Russian-born actor Anton Yelchin  is in final negotiations to star in JJ Abrams adaptation/reboot of the Star Trek franchise.  He’ll be playing USS Enterprise navigator Pavel Chekov.  Anyone know if this is good casting?  Yelchin can next been seen staring in the flick Charlie Bartlett.

- The lads who are bringing Hitman to the big screen are going to tackle the animated series Johnny Quest next.  Sounds intriguing.

-  The nominees for the 2007 MTV Video Awards have been announed and everyone everywhere says, wait, whaaat?  They still make music videos that get played on MTV?  Thank you, thank you I’ll be here all weekend reciting the world’s most obvious jokes for you John Madden style.

- Cinematical has a first look at the one-sheet for Will Ferrell’s new flick Semi-Pro.  

- Oddly, Lilly Allen had her work visa cancelled when she arrived in Los Angeles to help promote the launch of the MTV Video Awards announcement.

- TV know-it-all Michael Ausiello of TV Guide claims that none other than Kristen Bell (*sigh*) is in talks to play the character of Charlotte on Lost next season.  If this is the case then it’s safe to assume I’ll never want to watch my favorite show with my girlfriend again.  She’s already accepted the fact that I’ve given my heart over to Kristen Bell.  “Charlotte” meanwhile, is said to be a 20-something academic, with real-world experience.  She’s precocious, loquacious and funny.  All of which, Kristen Bell is … and hot.

- While listening to Battles, I can’t help but think of The Smurfs on LSD, which is scary.  What isn’t scary is the thought of said blue creatures coming to DVD.  Season 1 will be released on 12.4.07, just in time for Christmas.   And unlike Jenny Lewis, I can’t do the frug, but I can certainly do the Smurf.

- Spinner has new albums to stream this week from Flight of the Concords, Billie Holiday, The Brunettes, Sebedoh, and Zap Mama this week.   Even though you can’t listen to it, be sure to pick up Grace Potter and the Nocturnals new disc which came out yesterday.  Top notch!

- Former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp created such a fine-honed quirky power-pop sensibility with his side band The Rentals.  Their Friends of P album is fantastic.  He, and the band as well, has been gone for quite some time.  It’s safe to say Weezer has never been the same since his departure after the Pinkerton album.  The good news is that Sharp and his bandmates are back with a new album.  He gives good interview.