Bjork

Bjork Selmasongs (Elektra 25332) Lyle Lovett Dr. T & the Women (MCA 688 112 381) These days, pop music soundtracks are mainly about marketing - about using the fame of a hot rock or rap act to add to the buzz around a movie, or about using a movie as a means of breaking a new single. As a result, few of today's pop-based soundtracks contain songs that are actually written to connect with the action on screen. At best, they'll just toss in a phrase vaguely connected to the action - "Asteroid's a-comin'," say, or "Pokemon fight!"

- The Maryland women's basketball team took a significant step toward overcoming its road deficiencies with a dramatic 61-60 victory over No. 23 Virginia on Monday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Senior guard Lori Bjork scored a season-high 20 points, and sophomore center Lynetta Kizer added 19 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the Terrapins, who had lost three of four on the road and almost wasted a six-point lead in the closing minutes. But in the final few seconds, Maryland surrounded Virginia senior guard Monica Wright after she received the inbounds pass and forced a wild shot as time expired, spoiling a milestone night for the ACC preseason Player of the Year.

Combine the music of Iceland's pop queen Bjork with an 18-piece jazz band and - voila - you've got a Bjorkestra. (No, we're not making this up.) The Bjorkestra has generated buzz since its first show last September in New York City's venerable Knitting Factory. Bjork fans, jazz fans and the curious have packed into clubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard to see this act, which plays Baltimore tomorrow at the Ottobar. To understand what the Bjorkestra is and how such a mixture of concepts could come together, we spoke with the group's founder, Travis Sullivan, 33, a music arranger who lives in New York City.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- The Maryland women's basketball team took a significant step toward overcoming its road deficiencies with a dramatic 61-60 victory over No. 23 Virginia on Monday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Senior guard Lori Bjork scored a season-high 20 points, and sophomore center Lynetta Kizer added 19 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the Terrapins, who had lost three of four on the road and almost wasted a six-point lead in the closing minutes. But in the final few seconds, Maryland surrounded Virginia senior guard Monica Wright after she received the inbounds pass and forced a wild shot as time expired, spoiling a milestone night for the ACC preseason Player of the Year.

Nothing says "winter's coming" quite like new music from Bjork. The Icelandic pop iconoclast has devoted her whole career to understanding, if not overcoming, the deep freeze. The cold is a primary character in the songs of her new Vespertine, and informs her sonic signature - the eerily pristine, near-barren instrumental landscapes; the ice-pick words; the overcompensating hot breath of her voice. Where she's from, "chill" isn't a casual word. It's what one must constantly overcome. It hovers over everything Bjork has done, the metaphorical "wintry mix" that threatens to interrupt communication, put the lights out, force isolation.

70 Marlo Thomas Actress 62 Goldie Hawn Actress 44 Nicollette Sheridan Actress 42 Bjork Singer 33 Kelsi Osborn Country singer

The day after, it was time for Oscar fashion fallout. Who will forget Bjork getting caught like, um, a dead duck in her swan-around-the-neck number or Jennifer Lopez, a one-woman crusade to stamp out modesty? Here's what others had to say about the top two style victims at Sunday's Academy Awards: Take a gander "Bjork ... spared any major designers the embarrassment of being connected to [her dress], saying, `A friend of mine made it.' Well, with friends like those ..." (Atlanta Journal and Constitution)

If you're a teen-ager, don't read this. Federal scientists might have discovered a biological excuse for laziness. Studies conducted on adolescents and young adults show significant differences between the two age groups in the brain region that governs "drive," the internal momentum to work for a reward. This region, barely active in adolescence, apparently comes into its own in the early 20s. Scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism used brain scans to test whether the developing teen-age brain is any different from the mature brain of an adult when faced with an opportunity to make money.

Bulletproof undies, anyone?Hey, snicker if you want, but in the wake of the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., more and more hip-hop stars are sporting customized bulletproof street gear, Julie Taraska reports in the December issue of Spin.For prices ranging from $300 to $13,000, rap stars are ordering everything from sneakers to leather jackets to mink coats -- even bras -- lined with Kevlar, a lightweight fabric that can stop a slug from a .357 Magnum. It's such a booming business there are now shops that exclusively sell the latest Kevlar fashions, such as Darryl Barnes' New Jersey-based Urban Body Armor.

FURTHER DOWN THE SPIRALNine Inch Nails (Nothing/Interscope 95811)Considering the care Trent Reznor puts into each Nine Inch Nails recording, it's hard to imagine that he'd like having his work taken apart and put back together by others. But Nine Inch Nails is one of the most regularly remixed acts in alternative music and has just released its second album-length collection of all-star mixes, "Further Down the Spiral." Unlike dance-oriented post-production, which generally just pumps up the beat while keeping the song structure intact, these remakes offer radically reinvented versions of the songs.

COLLEGE PARK - - Maryland's game against Drexel on Sunday presented a series of challenges for the young Terrapins. They were playing their third game in six days. They had had only one day to prepare for the defending Colonial Athletic Association champion and its All-America candidate, senior forward Gabriela Marginean. Plus, their best player was nursing a sprained ankle. But the Terrapins were able to rely on three of their veteran players and won, 82-65, in front of an announced 4,686 at Comcast Center.

70 Marlo Thomas Actress 62 Goldie Hawn Actress 44 Nicollette Sheridan Actress 42 Bjork Singer 33 Kelsi Osborn Country singer

The 2007 Johns Hopkins Film Fest opens Thursday with Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, a largely dialogue-free film that investigates the relationship between creativity and restraint. The film, set upon a Japanese fishing vessel, stars Barney and singer Bjork (who wrote the soundtrack) as Occidental guests on the ship, preparing for a Shinto wedding ritual. Meanwhile, the crew members are busy on deck, creating a sculpture using 25 tons of petroleum jelly. "Visually spellbinding," wrote New York Times film critic Stephen Holden, who praised the film for its "depiction of life as a series of passages in a relentless cycle of creation and destruction."

Combine the music of Iceland's pop queen Bjork with an 18-piece jazz band and - voila - you've got a Bjorkestra. (No, we're not making this up.) The Bjorkestra has generated buzz since its first show last September in New York City's venerable Knitting Factory. Bjork fans, jazz fans and the curious have packed into clubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard to see this act, which plays Baltimore tomorrow at the Ottobar. To understand what the Bjorkestra is and how such a mixture of concepts could come together, we spoke with the group's founder, Travis Sullivan, 33, a music arranger who lives in New York City.

If you're a teen-ager, don't read this. Federal scientists might have discovered a biological excuse for laziness. Studies conducted on adolescents and young adults show significant differences between the two age groups in the brain region that governs "drive," the internal momentum to work for a reward. This region, barely active in adolescence, apparently comes into its own in the early 20s. Scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism used brain scans to test whether the developing teen-age brain is any different from the mature brain of an adult when faced with an opportunity to make money.

CANNES, France - A Palme d'Or front-runner emerges, its director bashes America, and the film's star shows that the creative juices do not stop flowing after winning an Oscar. Welcome to the 56th Cannes Film Festival. As it opened this week, the fortnight of fun and frivolity needed a jolt, and Lars Von Trier's Dogville has provided it. That it was something audiences have never seen was enough to separate Dogville from the pack contending for the festival's top prize. That it skewers human nature in fine style - with Nicole Kidman as its victim and avenger - has made it the deserved "it" film so far. It has no sets to speak of, no special effects - just a sound stage with a town marked off in chalk.

The 2007 Johns Hopkins Film Fest opens Thursday with Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, a largely dialogue-free film that investigates the relationship between creativity and restraint. The film, set upon a Japanese fishing vessel, stars Barney and singer Bjork (who wrote the soundtrack) as Occidental guests on the ship, preparing for a Shinto wedding ritual. Meanwhile, the crew members are busy on deck, creating a sculpture using 25 tons of petroleum jelly. "Visually spellbinding," wrote New York Times film critic Stephen Holden, who praised the film for its "depiction of life as a series of passages in a relentless cycle of creation and destruction."

CANNES, France - A Palme d'Or front-runner emerges, its director bashes America, and the film's star shows that the creative juices do not stop flowing after winning an Oscar. Welcome to the 56th Cannes Film Festival. As it opened this week, the fortnight of fun and frivolity needed a jolt, and Lars Von Trier's Dogville has provided it. That it was something audiences have never seen was enough to separate Dogville from the pack contending for the festival's top prize. That it skewers human nature in fine style - with Nicole Kidman as its victim and avenger - has made it the deserved "it" film so far. It has no sets to speak of, no special effects - just a sound stage with a town marked off in chalk.

Nothing says "winter's coming" quite like new music from Bjork. The Icelandic pop iconoclast has devoted her whole career to understanding, if not overcoming, the deep freeze. The cold is a primary character in the songs of her new Vespertine, and informs her sonic signature - the eerily pristine, near-barren instrumental landscapes; the ice-pick words; the overcompensating hot breath of her voice. Where she's from, "chill" isn't a casual word. It's what one must constantly overcome. It hovers over everything Bjork has done, the metaphorical "wintry mix" that threatens to interrupt communication, put the lights out, force isolation.