Links of the Week

The National, 'High Violet': These Brooklyn based indie darlings originally hail from Cincinnati, and include not one, but two pairs of brothers in the band. Adored by indie newbies and vets alike, the National provide a distinct sound with unique lyrics bellowed out by the lead singer's deep baritone voice. Link streaming through May 11th release of the new album.

This gives new meaning to "passed ball": Miguel Oliva, a catcher on the Rockies, passes a kidney stone in the 8th inning, and returns to complete the game. His quote on the incident: "I don't feel anything. It's, like, crazy." Talk about your Rocky Mountain Oysters! The CIA needs to hire this guy after his baseball career is over. What a great spy he would be, not even Sayid Jarrah could coerce information out of him. He will reveal nashing, Lebowski. Nashing!

Do the Didier if you want to: Didier Drogba, perhaps Africa's best football player, finds himself sharing the covers of Time and Vanity Fair this month. Annie Leibovitz also did a photo shoot with other World Cup stars here.

How did Poison, "Swallow This Live" get overlooked?: SPIN magazine lists its top 125 albums of the past 25 years. One thing that's great about music is the infallibility of best of lists. You'd never know it if these lists were inside jokes, since no one wants to risk pointing out an album that secretly might be musical genius. Courtney Love ranking 15 spots ahead of Pearl Jam's 'Ten'? Really? Maybe Courtney Love was a musical genius. Hmm...

Guess there wasn't much competition in October: Any movie narrated by Bill Murray starring a man named Moe Mullins has to be taken seriously. Moe is one of the "ball hawks" who troll for balls outside of Wrigley. In 52 years of ballhawking, Mullins has collected 5,400 baseballs- 238 off homers, 5 off grand slams, and zero Cubs championships. Maybe these guys were the smart ones to catch the games from outside after all.

Speaking of Bill Murray: Here's a first hand account of what dinner with him is like. It sounds both fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

Animated Kanye: Better or worse than real Kanye? Discuss.

Manu endorses Kotex: This commercial pretty much speaks for itself.