G U T T E R B O Y

Two big sales for those who like music and magazines...

- The iTunes store is currently offering 101 "great" albums, each for $7.99. They're the ones who call them great, but they're all pretty damn worthy -- these are the original albums, not bargain-basement collections, and the selection goes from Louis Armstrong to Nirvana. I suspect that if you want to own Dark Side of the Moon or London Calling, you probably already do, but the list is worth checking out.

- And here's the page for the "family and friends" discounts for the library of TimeWarner magazines (anyone can use it). Most of the subscriptions are 70-90% off, so you can get a year of magazines for the price of a couple of newsstand issues. Even though you might not want 57 issues of Entertainment Weekly for $10 or 56 issues of Time for $20 (f'r instance), they make good gifts...or they can be excellent "donated" subscriptions if you happen to volunteer at a place where people are looking for something to read. It's also a nice, inexpensive thing to have sent to an old folks' home or a hospice.

Yeah, it's not very good - Don sounds bored out of his mind, he doesn't even attempt to give it a Hawai'ian twist, and the video is pretty lame, but, still: it is Don Ho performing "Shock the Monkey." What do you people want from me?

It's from this album, which also contains Ani DiFranco and Jackie Chan dueting on Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable," and Lesley Gore performing the song she was born to sing, "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap."

Caption:

"Work continued last week on homes in Washington Town Center, where planners have taken their cue from early 20th-century homes."

Lovable nutball/alleged murderer Phil Spector is working overtime to come up with striking new looks for his date with Dame Justice. Remember this fashion statement from his arraignment?



Today he managed to top that, when he arrived at L.A. Superior Court on the arm of what appeared to be Adriana from The Sopranos:



Ready for his closeup:



Is he auditioning for the lead in Transamerica 2: Electric Boogaloo?

I'm not shy about my fondness for the international chanteuse Wing. (And I would kill anyone who hurt her feelings. She's a treasure.)

At last, someone has made public a video of one of her performance. It's about damn time.

Ladies and gentlemen, Wing performs one of my favorite Elvis Presley hits, "In the Ghetto."



(DO NOT LAUGH. I love her. Yoko Ono just wishes she could be Wing.)

Those of you who know me know I've got nearly zero fondness for presidential candidate John Edwards, nor am I surprised by just about anything in what passes for public discourse these days, but this statement in a speech delivered today and broadcast on C-SPAN managed to shock jaded old me:

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I -- so, kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.” (Applause)

Who said it, and which group applauded?

Now that Mardi Gras, the Oscars, and the Anna Nicole hullabaloo are over, the Virgin Mary is back posing for the paparazzi and making a personal appearance on a cookie sheet in Texas:



A Houston, Texas elementary school cafeteria worker said she was scrubbing a cookie sheet pan last Wednesday when the image of the Virgin Mary appeared on it.

The pan has since become a shrine for the many who are flocking to see the image.

I suppose, in this tricky-martini town, it was inevitable...

Actually, no. No, it wasn't. It could have been avoided. But it wasn't.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

The Pad Thai Martini.