Last month, I posted the fantastic new OK Go video, noting as an aside that the band's May 11 performance in Raleigh "probably won't involve a super-cool Rube Goldberg-type contraption." But you can win free tickets to that or any other show on OK Go's current tour (which includes Bonnaroo and other high-profile festivals) by making a video of your own Rube Goldberg Machine that spells out the band's name.

It's called the OK Go Rube Goldberg Machine Ticket Giveaway Contest, and you can see details about rules and a few sample submissions at that very link. So get cracking. And if anybody from the greater Triangle vicinity does a video for this, please do let me know!

It's not surprising that Scott Avett would use painting (with a spot of levitation) to announce the Avett Brothers' latest piece of news -- check that here, although you should be warned that it has some potentially NSFW material.

Avett got an art degree at East Carolina University and he still paints, including this self-portrait at left and the group's album covers. And he has four paintings on display in Raleigh this month at Lee Hansley's galleries at 225 and 126 S. Glenwood Ave. They're part of a show called "The Paul Hartley Legacy," featuring works by Avett and 99 other former students of the late ECU School of Art and Design painter (who died on Thanksgiving day). The display runs through Feb. 27.

Last month's Raleigh stop on the Kanye West tour went off with no incidents or public tantrums to speak of, which has not always been the case. But boy howdy, is he making up for that now. Angered over criticism of the 4:25 a.m. start time of his performance at the Bonnaroo Festival, West took to his laptop to fire back at his detractors in his inimitable fashion (NSFW warnings apply). Somebody fix that man's caps-lock and exclamation-point keys...

(Found via Idolator.)

ADDENDUM (7/16/08): In case anybody was wondering, West wants it known he writes his own blog posts.