Stuff You Might Have Missed

It's been a while since I've done one of these, so let's just dive right in, shall we?

First up, check out this candid interview (which I spotted via Tim B.) with Psychedelic Fur mainstay & former Manhattanite, Richard Butler. Herein, Butler talks about the highs & lows of the Furs, his life in NYC and his current role as a dad and painter. Incidentally, the cool photo of ol' Rich above comes courtesy of Toyranch's Flickr page (wherein you can also find awesome live shots of Devo & The Ramones). Check it out.

Speaking, once again, of Flickr, I stumbled upon a truly awesome collection of photos of the NYC garage rock scene of the 1980s. Check out EPS Twain's set for a fascinating glimpse into this sorely under-documented scene.

Speaking of yesteryear, there was further evidence yesterday to suggest that New York City is indeed spiraling back towards the bad old days (albeit without the affordability that transformed it a creative hotbed). There were initial reports that alleged that shots were fired from an automatic weapon on the L train platform at Union Square. As it turns out, however, it ended up being some astonishingly stupid kids playing with fireworks.

And speaking of being astonishingly stupid, Avril Lavigne has a hole in her head!!

Speaking of having things in your head, Gawker ran a nice piece today about how to get irritating songs -- I believe often called "earworms" – out of one's head.

And speaking of irritating songs, insufferably ubiquitous pop tart Katy Perry recently fired off a shot at the giddily provocative Lady Gaga recently -- presumably after viewing the latter's video for "Alejandro" -- by asserting that "blasphemy is not entertainment." Clearly, the future Mrs. Russell Brand has never listened to Venom.

Elsewhere, there was a clip making the rounds recently that outed REM's Michael Stipe as a devout "Rocky Horror Picture Show" acolyte back in the day. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would be surprised by this. After seeing the clip myself on Slicing Up Eyeballs, though, I was more intrigued to find Michael sporting the hook & cross logo of Long Island's sci-fi obsessed proto-metalheads, Blue Öyster Cult on his leather lapel. Pedants will doubtlessly point out the connection between BÖC and Stipe's beloved Patti Smith (a frequent-if-incongruous collaborator with BÖC), but I still have a hard time reconciling Stipe championing their cryptic brand of hirsute hard rock. That said, I'd love to hear REM cover "Joan Crawford."

Back here in NYC, there were some developments on the sexy banks story that I whined about last week. Evidently, her "inarguably enviable curves" were -- wait for it -- surgically enhanced. Shocker. Does this mean it's okay for predatory males to objectify her (as she's alleged)? No, but having expressed the desire to resemble "tits on a stick" doesn't really make her the most sympathetic character, now does it.