Thomas Attila Lewis

Amy Poehler, Aubrey Plaza, and Aziz Ansari of NBC's "Parks and Recreation" at the 2012 Peabody Awards, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, May 21, 2012

The 2012 ceremony of the Peabody Awards was held this Monday at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The awards are bestowed in 2011 so, technically, these are the 2011 awards, leave it up to a bunch of intellectuals to complicate things. We spoke with "Portlandia" co-creators Carrie Brownstein and Jonathan Krisel who gave huge props to KPCC in the above video.

In the videos below: we ask "Portlandia" co-creator/co-star Fred Armisen if he will be bringing one of his favorite bands, cult punkers No Means No, on the show next season; Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gave us some insight on his "Game of Thrones" character Jaime Lannister; Retta, Jim O'Heir, and Nick Offerman of "Parks and Recreation" give us some laughs; and Alex Trebek of "Jeopardy" strongly hints that he would like to be a corpse in a TV crime series.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Recording artist Sir Elton John performs during the first night of his new show, "The Million Dollar Piano" as John begins a three-year residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace September 28, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A "serious respiratory infection" coughed up Sir Elton John in Los Angeles this week to seek treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to a statement on his website.

After undergoing "extensive tests" at the LA-area hospital on Wednesday, John cancelled the final four shows of his first year of "The Million Dollar Piano" performances at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

In keeping with his scheduled 3-year run at Caesars Palace, performances will resume in October, notes the L.A. Times. 

"All I can say to the fans is sorry I can't be with you," he said in the statement, which noted that his "condition worsened, even with medication and rest" and that the legendary musician was advised by doctors to continue resting while taking a course of antibiotics to "cure his respiratory infection and prevent any damage."

John's European summer tour begins in Germany on June 1. Tickets for the canceled Las Vegas shows can be exchanged or refunded, said officials at Caesars Palace. 

We regret that, due to Elton's ill health, the following three Elton John The Million Dollar Piano performances have been cancelled: Thursday, May 24; Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 27. Elton developed a serious respiratory infection last weekend while performing at The Colosseum on Sunday, May 20. This week the condition worsened, even with medication and rest, resulting in Elton being hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, May 23, where he remained throughout the day for extensive tests. (via EltonJohn.com)

Los Angeles has a long history with the British singer, composer and pianist. His first American concert took place in West Hollywood decades ago.

"No single show did more to cement the Troubadour's star-making power than Elton John's U.S. debut on a summer night in 1970," said music critic Robert Hilburn (whose ecstatic review of that 1970 show set the tone for John's stunning U.S. reception), in a Special to The Times in 2007.

Photo by bixentro via Flickr Creative Commons

Street art: Robert Smith of The Cure

Come on get happy! It's World Goth Day!

With smeared lipstick, black on black apparel, a well-worn teasing comb and Mickey ears clipped into bat wings, we enter this strange day of extreme melancholy, one booted foot in front of the other, toward the twinkling fog of a latex sunset.

Princes of darkness and Cinnabon sorcerers have claimed May 22 for all sadkind, and offer the day as a chance to gather 'round the internet for a dry-ice caldron of witches brew, just like mummy used to make.

William Hughes, a Gothic Studies professor at Bath Spa University in Britain, spoke to KPCC's Patt Morrison about the phenomenon of Gothic culture, and its play on the medieval mythos.

"Gothic in the middle ages, the architectural gothic, was based upon the play of light and shade—the alternation of darkness and light. And of course to some extent, Goth music today plays with that too,"  says Hughes. "It plays with the joy and exhilaration of performance and art and music, but also the darkness that comes with the shadows and style of the clothing too."

(playlist via NME)

Lisa Brenner can be reached via Twitter @lisa_brenner

Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Patton Oswalt attends the 62nd Annual ACE Eddie Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel on February 18, 2012 in Beverly Hills.

Patton Oswalt (who you may know from his recent Comedy Central special and everything else) and Marc Maron (who you may know from KPCC's Comedy Congress, his WTF podcast and soon from everything else) ended up on the same flight earlier today, from New York City to Los Angeles. Maron was riding coach while Oswalt went first class.

What are two Twitter-prolific comedians to do when separated by space? Tweet at each other repeatedly from across a plane. They poke fun at their coach/first class battle, their trademark styles (some deep cuts in there for comedy nerds) and more.

Comedy news site Splitsider assembled their plane communiques for consumption at your convenience. (Uh oh, Maron's probably mad I used Patton's picture. Sorry Marc.)

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Actor Max Greenfield, who plays Schmidt on "New Girl," with costar Jake M. Johnson at The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' screening of Fox's "New Girl" at Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre on May 7, 2012 in North Hollywood.

I genuinely enjoy "New Girl" (as I noted in this post earlier this week about Zooey Deschanel's weird iPhone commercial), so I was kind of excited to see the actor who plays overly enthusiastic bro/weirdo Schmidt share what he likes in the most Schmidt-like place possible, Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle guide site Goop.

The part that's awesome is that I can't tell if this is him, or him writing kind of in character. I'm just going to assume that he's just like his character and not let that illusion be broken.

Schmidt — OK, fine, actor Max Greenfield — lives in Los Angeles, so his picks included a couple of L.A. items. Those picks:

• Chilanthropy candles. They help you chill, and a portion of the sales from this L.A. company's candles goes to charity, thus the philanthropy that gives the last half of the name.
• Also, Milk ice cream parlor. As a Scoops diehard and someone who loves ice cream as much as the next guy, I was a little excited to discover another awesome L.A. ice cream shop. And I'm pretty sure that the Cupcake in a Cone sounds like the best thing ever.

You can also read about Max/Schmidt recommending things like his favorite throws, trousers, and like every other young hipster, "Girls" on HBO. Check it out. (He also puts in a shout out to Clooney's lake house, in a transparent attempt to get an invite as he climbs to higher levels of fame. I'm on to you, Greenfield.)

Greenfield's shown he's pretty game; after a mockup was done by Vulture, he produced a workout video in character, independent from the show:

This led to him teaching an actual spin class. True story.

(Hat tip: Splitsider)