Culture Roundup 12.30.08

It's eerily quiet here at the Paste office with most everybody taking a vacation day today. And I just said my goodbyes to Palmer Houchins, who as of Friday will be our first full-time Paste employee living in New York (Williamsburg, to be exact—hipsters, be nice to him). So I thought I'd just give you a round-up of cultural tidbits that our web team is too busy merry-making to otherwise tell you about...

Delaney Bramlett died on Dec. 27 at age 69. Delaney & Bonnie & Friends was his traveling rock 'n' roll revue, whose players at one time or another included George Harrison, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Gram Parsons, Leon Russell, Dave Mason and Rita Coolidge. “I’m so going to miss him," says his ex-wife Bonnie Bramlett.
"As Delaney wrote in his song: ‘It’s hard to say good-bye.’ All I can hope is that I’ll see him in the light."

Funny or Die has the Season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords in its entirety.

Jill Sobule has raised over $89,000 from her fans to record her next record, California Years, which will be released on April 14 via her own label Pinko Records. There's still time to get on the ground floor at JillsNextRecord.com.

The Call+Response soundtrack is now available via iTunes. The album includes tracks from Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Talib Kweli, Natasha Bedingfield, filmmaker Justin Dillon and riffs from Cornel West. Proceeds go towards fighting human trafficking. 

I saw Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler today. Mickey Rourke is as good as everyone has been saying. Marisa Tomei was great, too, as an aging stripper/mother.

Somebody has written a musical "review of barbeque in the Southern United States," pointing out to yankess that it's a noun, not a verb: