“Note: Nearly everything of interest to the first-time visitor is located in or just north of the city center, but you’ll still need a car, as distances are compounded by a shocking amount of abandoned territory.”

The New York Post outlines a fun weekend in Detroit for all the tourists we’ve been getting lately (?) Anyway, they run out of ideas by Saturday and have you hanging around Dearborn all day Sunday. Shwarma-scented fun!

“Dive in to a city that today is a lot like early ’90s-Brooklyn - scrappy, messed up, full of possibilities and intensely interesting. Go now, before the stroller set moves in and prices skyrocket.”

Yeah, right.

“Once they complete a series of shows in Central and South America, The White Stripes will do a run of amphitheatre and theatre dates in the U.S. and Canada.
The North American tour commences August 6 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash., and runs through August 31 when it wraps a three-night stand at the Auditorium Theatre in the Stripes’ hometown, Chicago.”

No Detroit dates, nothing in Ohio, Chicago their hometown? Seriously, WTF? (thanks to Matt at MCR for the heads up)

Liam Gallagher to join Bloc Party? NME makes up its news, will make up more tomorrow.

The sometimes hot, sometimes not American Idol loser, Kelly Clarkston, plays Michigan twice this year. Which big cities are unlucky enough to hear her wailing? Battle Creek and Saginaw. That’s right folks, hick-towns. Demographic studies at their finest.

Another effing music festival: Siren Music Festival 2005. Acts include Spoon, Mates Of State, Brendan Benson, VHS Or Beta, Dungen, Q And Not U, and The Dears and many more to be announced.

Another effing music type free concert thing. Witness the steaming pile that is Live 8. There’s a handful of good acts, namely Muse, Scissor Sisters, . . . uh, . . .that’s it. And they’re in London. Here in the States, we get Will Smith, Dave Matthews Band, Bon Jovi, Il Divo, Maroon 5, Rob Thomas, Keith Urban, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Wonder, Kaiser Chiefs, 50 Cent, Puff Daddy and Jay-Z. I’d beg for a terrorist attack that day in Philly, but Stevie Wonder doesn’t deserve to go out like that. And yes, I like the Kaiser Chiefs but I’d sacrifice them for the death of the others. They’d understand.

A website dedicated to getting the author a date with Natalie Portman. If this works, I’m copying it and changing all the “Natalie Portman” to “Joss Stone” (or maybe “Dennis Franz”). Seriously if anyone knows how I can get a date with Joss Stone, please let me know. (or Dennis Franz)

Three day weekends make me tired. Or coming back to work after three days off makes me tired. And thinking about why I’m tired makes me tired. God, I’m tired.

This weekend I finally popped in the DIG! DVDs that have been sitting on my table for a month. What an incredible film, complete with “riot” footage from the Magic Stick, memorable quotes like, “You broke my sitar motherfucker” and footage of a young Peter Hayes (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club). The editing does tend to make Anton Newcombe look like a complete psychopath, in fact you can read his anti-DIG! statement here. But check it out anyway if you get the chance, here’s the trailer.

The Go! Team signs with Columbia Records. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see them live before they were ruined by old men in suits.

Pitchfork calls Oasis’ Don’t Believe The Truth “the chilling conclusion to their discography’s trilogy of shame.” I didn’t think it was that bad, the first half of the album is quite good, really. Of course Pitchfork likes the new Gorillaz album, so what do they know?

Some shit boyband called The Killers plan on making some 25-minute-video-movie-Thriller-type-thing. Scheduled to air after The OC every week next season. Scheduled to be forgotten about soon after that.

The new Coldplay album has leaked. Due to new legal type things, I shouldn’t really point you to the actual files. Remember those toys when you were a kid, had pictures of farm animals in a circle, with a spinning arrow in the center? You’d pull the string and the arrow would stop on, let’s say, the pig and a voice would say “The pig says OINK OINK.” Those were fun.

Spoon added to Lollapalooza. The final price jump in tickets just happened so I’m half expecting them to announce more additions. The Coldplay rumor? The White Stripes rumor I’m making up right now?

MotorCityRocks just added a merch booth to their site. They’ve got a nice collection of Detroit gig posters–one of my more expensive addictions.

EDIT: Yes the video link that used to be here has been removed.

Interactive Friday: Leave your captions in the comments for each picture.