plus: Benefit with Dixie Chicks, Nelly Furtado, more. "How You Can Crack Encryption--Not That You Should, Of Course." One man's positive image is another man's tarnished visage. (Wow, that last one is pretty good. Too bad we're not a songwriter.)

From Weezer [ tickets ]'s official website:

[The site's webmaster has] learned that [bassist] Mikey [Welsh] has not come to rehearsals in L.A. yet, due to some sort of private medical problem (no, not a cliche rock-star drug problem!). He has been holed up in Boston near his family. The rest of the guys are waiting for word, but have decided that theres so much work coming up for the band that they had better try out some bass players in case Mikey can't make it.

According to the Toronto Sun, "Rapper DMX [ tickets ]'s show at the Air Canada Centre Thursday (8/16) has been postponed due to 'international paperwork problems.'" The article does not elaborate.

Red Hot Chili Peppers have canceled an Aug. 28 show in Israel, the Associated Press reported. According to the article, "More than 650 people have been killed in the region since fighting erupted between Israel and Palestinians last September."

Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre will host "Women Rock! Girls and Guitars," a breast-cancer awareness concert, on Oct. 18. The lineup features Dixie Chicks, Nelly Furtado, Emmylou Harris, Mary J. Blige and Pat Benatar, among others.

The Lifetime Network will air the concert on Oct. 26.

According to TheStandard.com, a professor from an East Coast university will present his "research paper on how to crack digital music encryption" at a computer-security symposium on Wednesday (8/15).

To insure that he can present his paper with First Amendment protection, the professor has a lawsuit pending against the Secure Digital Music Initiative and the Recording Industry Association of America, both of which have tried to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to quell his findings, the article reported. The lawsuit is reportedly pending.

This reminds us of those consumer-advocacy shows that ostensibly help people avoid being scammed, but according to police, end up doing more to teach aspiring con artists.

It also reminds us (perhaps unreasonably) of those two scientists who are determined to clone human beings, no matter what the world says. According to the Los Angeles Times, "[A] research scientist and director of a company called Clonaid ["Clonaid," ladies and gentlemen!] said reports of serious congenital defects and fetal death among cloned livestock have not swayed her determination to attempt to clone humans."

But we digress.

The Source Youth Foundation, a charitable organization founded by hip-hop magazine the Source, will hold its first Hip-Hop Image Awards Gala Dinner & Fundraiser, in Miami on Sunday (8/19). According to a press release, the event will honor "leaders in the Hip-Hop industry who, through their actions and achievements, represent a powerful and positive image for Hip-Hop."

What does it say about the hip-hop community that the keynote speaker at this event--an event prestigious enough, incidentally, to attract Russell Simmons, Shaquille O'Neal and the mayor of Miami, among others--is Jesse Jackson, a married man who had a child with his mistress?

What does it say about the non-hip-hop community that Jackson's affair and his child born out of wedlock would automatically disqualify him as a representative of a positive image, regardless of his past work?

That's one thing we realized about America's reactions to the reports of President Clinton's personal indiscretions: black people and white people could really learn a lot about each other's culture if they got together and held an adultery symposium.