?uestlove's new Nike sneaks; Raekwon the Chef talks about his collab with Dre

Although sneaker purists will tell you that the quality and design of kicks have fallen short since Nike's mass marketing and global takeover of the last decade, there's still a religious fanaticism with certain shoe releases that your average consumer just won't get (literally and figuratively).

Like camping out on a Vine Street sidewalk to buy a pair of Nike Air Force 1s.

For the 100 sneaker fashionistas gathered on Wednesday night, it was worth the wait. Most people, lawn chairs in tow, waited more than a day in line just to secure a spot in front of the Ricardo Montalban Theater in Hollywood for the release of limited run shoes designed by DJ/drummer/producer Amir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots hip-hop collective. It helped, of course, that ?uestlove was also treating the sneakfreaks to an event-exclusive DJ set.

His Air Questo's lime green colorway and elephant print design is exotic and bright, but according to ?uestlove, candy had more to do with the shoe's concept than the jungle.

"We decided to put a twist on it … a quasi-Willy Wonka Golden Ticket twist," he said of the $175 shoe.

For Blue October, the timing couldn't be more perfect.

As the band put the final touches on its upcoming album "Approaching Normal," Stephenie Meyer wrote the final installment in the "Twilight" saga "Breaking Dawn." She listened to Blue October while she wrote and when the time came to put together a book tour, Meyer decided all the screaming from fans that she had not grown used to could be put to better purpose. Why not, she thought, invite one of the artists that inspired her final novel to tour with her?

Blue October's Justin Furstenfeld quickly agreed.

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

Every once in a while, a car commercial captures the collective imagination -- all because of its soundtrack. This summer, it's Boston-based advertising agency Modernista!’s sleek spot for Cadillac CTS, colloquially known as “Metal” and officially called "Accessories."

But what happens when the song in question is performed by a musical collective no one outside the ad industry has heard of? Pure chaos, apparently.

We don't know how things are progressing, if they are at all, with lady friend Natalie Portman, but Banhart has gone and gotten himself involved with a relaunch of the works of under-appreciated West Coast poet Kenneth Patchen. Good for you, Banhart. Romance may come and go, but books will never leave you.

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

'Twilight' meets Blue October: Stephenie Meyer fans can't get enough of Justin Furstenfeld

For Blue October, the timing couldn't be more perfect.

As the band put the final touches on its upcoming album "Approaching Normal," Stephenie Meyer wrote the final installment in the "Twilight" saga "Breaking Dawn." She listened to Blue October while she wrote and when the time came to put together a book tour, Meyer decided all the screaming from fans that she had not grown used to could be put to better purpose. Why not, she thought, invite one of the artists that inspired her final novel to tour with her?

Blue October's Justin Furstenfeld quickly agreed.

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

Every once in a while, a car commercial captures the collective imagination -- all because of its soundtrack. This summer, it's Boston-based advertising agency Modernista!’s sleek spot for Cadillac CTS, colloquially known as “Metal” and officially called "Accessories."

But what happens when the song in question is performed by a musical collective no one outside the ad industry has heard of? Pure chaos, apparently.

We don't know how things are progressing, if they are at all, with lady friend Natalie Portman, but Banhart has gone and gotten himself involved with a relaunch of the works of under-appreciated West Coast poet Kenneth Patchen. Good for you, Banhart. Romance may come and go, but books will never leave you.

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

Bidoun becomes an unlikely home for great contemporary music writing

A quick stroll through the contributors' list for Da Capo's forthcoming "Best Music Writing 2008" anthology yields many of the usual suspects (including, unfortunately but inevitably, Gene Weingarten's High Culture barricade-enforcing piece on Joshua Bell playing for change in the D.C. Metro). But a surprising small-run magazine popped up a few times with very worthy entries, the Middle Eastern and South Asian cultural journal Bidoun.

The magazine, like its contemporary peers n+1 and Russia!, is a roundabout survey of long-form political reporting, interviews and essays on cultural ephemera, but its thoughtful dissections of Orientalism in the avant-garde and pop music worlds are often revelatory.

   

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

Every once in a while, a car commercial captures the collective imagination -- all because of its soundtrack. This summer, it's Boston-based advertising agency Modernista!’s sleek spot for Cadillac CTS, colloquially known as “Metal” and officially called "Accessories."

But what happens when the song in question is performed by a musical collective no one outside the ad industry has heard of? Pure chaos, apparently.

We don't know how things are progressing, if they are at all, with lady friend Natalie Portman, but Banhart has gone and gotten himself involved with a relaunch of the works of under-appreciated West Coast poet Kenneth Patchen. Good for you, Banhart. Romance may come and go, but books will never leave you.

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

Huey Lewis records theme for ‘Pineapple Express,’ complete with toking sound courtesy of Seth Rogen

Ask ’80s pop-rock superstar Huey Lewis how he wound up recording the title song for the highly anticipated stoner action-comedy “Pineapple Express,” due in theaters Aug. 6, and he’ll basically shrug.

“They e-mailed, ‘Would I write a song for a Seth Rogen movie?’ I said, ‘Why not?’ ” Lewis, 58, recalled in a telephone interview from his Montana vacation home. “I don’t consider career moves. I just answer the phone. I’m flattered at my ripe old age to even be considered. It was all about fun.”

Every once in a while, a car commercial captures the collective imagination -- all because of its soundtrack. This summer, it's Boston-based advertising agency Modernista!’s sleek spot for Cadillac CTS, colloquially known as “Metal” and officially called "Accessories."

But what happens when the song in question is performed by a musical collective no one outside the ad industry has heard of? Pure chaos, apparently.

We don't know how things are progressing, if they are at all, with lady friend Natalie Portman, but Banhart has gone and gotten himself involved with a relaunch of the works of under-appreciated West Coast poet Kenneth Patchen. Good for you, Banhart. Romance may come and go, but books will never leave you.

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

Black Iris updates the ad jingle for Cadillac CTS

Every once in a while, a car commercial captures the collective imagination -- all because of its soundtrack. This summer, it's Boston-based advertising agency Modernista!’s sleek spot for Cadillac CTS, colloquially known as “Metal” and officially called "Accessories."

But what happens when the song in question is performed by a musical collective no one outside the ad industry has heard of? Pure chaos, apparently.

We don't know how things are progressing, if they are at all, with lady friend Natalie Portman, but Banhart has gone and gotten himself involved with a relaunch of the works of under-appreciated West Coast poet Kenneth Patchen. Good for you, Banhart. Romance may come and go, but books will never leave you.

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

Devendra Banhart pens preface to Kenneth Patchen’s ‘We Meet’

We don't know how things are progressing, if they are at all, with lady friend Natalie Portman, but Banhart has gone and gotten himself involved with a relaunch of the works of under-appreciated West Coast poet Kenneth Patchen. Good for you, Banhart. Romance may come and go, but books will never leave you.

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

Jeezy and McCain: Gimme a hug

On the set of "Saturday Night Live" last month, Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express picked up an unlikely new passenger: Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy. The New York Post's Page Six is reporting that Jeezy (who has publicly supported Barack Obama) was surprisingly impressed by the Republican presidential candidate at the show's taping, where Jeezy performed with Usher and McCain cracked groaner jokes about his age. The two also embraced during the show's closing credits.

"He greeted me like a god," said Jeezy, in comments made to Vibe magazine. "The fact that he acknowledged me was crazy. I said, 'I'm Young Jeezy, and it's rough out here.' He blew me off at first. I was like, 'Nah, for real. It's rough out here, so what you gonna do to change it?' . . . And he gave me a look back, like, 'I know.' "

The vast majority of rappers still appear to be backing Obama, whose dirt-off-your-shoulder gesture was and remains pretty indisputably awesome.

-- August Brown

Jeezy photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images, McCain photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

When is a TV theme song a political weapon?

When it's the theme from "The Sopranos" used just coincidentally by the Washington state Democratic party in an ad against Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi. The ad is ostensibly a criticism of Foselli's close ties to a lobbying group, the Building Industry Assn. of Washington, and Rossi's own ads against Washington governor Chris Gregoire.

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

The mysteries of Love at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival

It’s about five blocks from the Egyptian Theatre to Cosmo Street, a proximity to keep in mind if you go to the Sunday night screening of “Love Story,” a documentary on the star-crossed Los Angeles band Love and its enigmatic leader, Arthur Lee (pictured above).

Cosmo was the site of Bido Lido’s, the small club where Love became a sensation on the L.A. scene in the mid-1960s, and if you stroll east on Hollywood Boulevard after the movie (part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival), you might hear a lingering tambourine and catch a whiff of patchouli.

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.

Support for Obama proudly on display at the BET Awards

Barack Obama is not only the first black presidential candidate destined to earn a party nomination, but he's also the first truly cool candidate of the new millennium. Bruce Springsteen stumped for John Kerry on 2004's "Vote For Change" tour and Patti Smith sang with Ralph Nader at a Madison Square Garden rally for the independent candidate in 2000. But let's face it: Whatever you think of their politics, those greying patricians didn't have the secret weapon Obama is learning to deploy: the support of the people arguably most responsible for creating American style -- and inarguably behind American music -- since the dawn of our nation. As the late, immortal Curtis Mayfield might have said, Obama is fly. And that's going to help him this electoral season.