LISTEN
Fleet Foxes speed to top
The hot new band from Seattle has as much to do with Kurt Cobain and grunge as Tuvan throat singers. Instead, the Fleet Foxes call their music "baroque harmonic pop jams."
On the band's self-titled debut album, such songs as "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" and "Ragged Wood" don't smell like teen spirit -- this airy, folky, wistful pop smells like a Gen-Y version of Crosby, Stills and Nash, or the bastard sons of the rustic, rural Neil Young or early Dan Fogelberg.
Many critics are calling "Fleet Foxes" one of the best albums of the year.
TOUCH
That's gross!
The folks at the Florida Museum of Natural History proudly proclaim one of their current exhibits uses "sophisticated animatronics and imaginative hands-on activities."
Hands-on? For an exhibit titled "Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body"? You betcha.
Based on the children's book "Grossology" by Sylvia Branzei, the exhibit uses such displays as "Tour du Nose," the "Burp Machine" and a pinball game called "Gas Attack" to explore how and why our human bodies produce assorted slimes and odors.
The exhibition continues through Jan. 11 at the museum at S.W. 34th Street and Hull Road, Gainesville. Admission to "Grossology" is $7.50 adults, $6.50 Florida residents, $6 seniors and students and $5.50 children ages 3-12. Information: 352-846-2000 or flmnh.ufl.edu.
WATCH
Top videos on Pitchfork
Yes, everybody in this sector of the universe, from Rolling Stone critics to Yoda to Tibetan Buddhists, have compiled their lists of the top albums and songs of 2008. But the folks at pitchforkmedia.com also have compiled their favorite top 40 videos of the past year.
Yep, their picks include such usual suspects as Weezer's "Pork and Beans" and Kanye's "Flashing Lights." But their list also includes such outre fare as Chad VanGaalen's bizarro (and occasionally gruesome) cartoon clip for "Molten Light," and the get-naked fun of David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal's "Toe Jam."
Best of all, the Pitchfork site makes them all accessible in one handy cyber-space.
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