Odds & Ends

This just in: The Polyphonic Spree will perform at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, along with OutKast, Usher, Jessica Simpson, Jet and Hoobastank. Don't worry if you miss the show; MTV will replay it somewhere between five and 3,000 times over the next month.

Lindsay Graham

Not to be blunt, but what ya got there, Snoop?

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On Thursday, there will be a 5K run to benefit David Cunniff, the man attacked at the Gypsy Tea Room last month, who does not have insurance. The event, called Run Down Violence 5K, will start at the Lakewood United Methodist Church on Abrams and Palo Pinto at 7 p.m. Registration is $20 ($5 for children under 12) at Legal Grounds, 2015 Abrams Road.

It's a pet peeve when people use asterisks without a footnote.* But I'll let Dallas' Radiant* get away with it, because they're so blasted good. The winners of last year's Dallas Observer Music Award for Best New Band make lush, Coldplay-style pop music that just keeps improving. They're currently in the Last Beat studio working on an album with producer Paul Williams. In the meantime, however, you can catch them this weekend at the Curtain Club, playing with Choris Romance.

*like this. (Or not.)

Musicians can't seem to get enough Bush-bashing these days. Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M. and the Dave Matthews Band will be playing the Vote for Peace swing-state tour in early October. They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh helped put together a compilation CD called The Future Soundtrack for America (see review on page 80), including rare and previously unreleased songs from Blink-182, Bright Eyes and Fountains of Wayne, among others, the proceeds from which benefit the Kerry campaign. I happen to like a lot of those artists, and I happen to dislike Bush, although Dave Matthews has as much chance of influencing my vote as he has persuading me to golf. While doing a little informal research online, however, I came across a compelling collection of ads on MoveOnPAC.org made by Errol Morris, featuring 17 interviews with people who voted for Bush in 2000 and plan to change their vote this year. Yeah, yeah: This is a music column, not a film or politics column, but filmmaker Morris is the rock star of the documentary world. (His Thin Blue Line got a man released from prison, for chrissakes.) For those slow moments at work: Check it out.

Snooping the Snoop

Snoop Dogg has famously claimed to have quit smoking weed. But just last Friday, at the Erykah Badu-hosted Snoop Dogg Afterparty (see review on page 80), our cameraman caught him doing something that looked suspiciously like rolling a blunt. We're not trying to hound the guy--just last week I promised to cut out all chocolate, but there I was at midnight, dipping the Hershey bars in the Nutella again. All I want to know is the following: If it's not weed in that rolling paper, what is it? Here are a few hypotheses:

a. A tiny, tiny entourage.

b. Mexican black heroin, which he's been smoking since kicking the weed. "To take the edge off," says his spokesman.

c. Tom Cruise, who turns out to be 1-inch tall and lives in a handkerchief.

d. The shattered expectations of fans who waited till 3 a.m. to see him perform, which he never did.