1. Vampire Weekend is in trouble with some Saab owners for purchasing their used Saabs without telling them they planned to set the cars on fire. (The cars, by the way, were lit on fire as the visual for their music video "Diane Young," posted above.) The most ridiculous part is that Vampire Weekend released a statement that, as Pitchfork points out, is similar to what you'd say if you came under fire for animal cruelty: "If the people selling their cars felt mislead by the production company that bought them...of course if we had been there, if we had been a part of it we would never lie to somebody just to get a car -- we could have easily found something else. Stuff like that, we hope that that wasn't done dishonorably...Rostam especially loves Saabs. When he grew up, his family drove a Saab." Is any of this that big of a deal?
2. Nicole Klagsbrun is closing her Chelsea gallery, which has been in the neighborhood since 1998. Klagsbrun decided to close because she became tired of the gallery system: "I'm not sick and I'm not broke. I just don't want the gallery system anymore. The old school way was to be close to the artists and to the studios. Nowadays, it's run like a corporation. After 30 years, this is not what I aspire to do. It is uninteresting." [via The Art Newspaper]
3. The California Department of Education released its new recommended reading list last week and there's already backlash for its inclusion of books with gay and transgender characters, as well as backlash to that backlash. Sandy Rios, a radio show host and Fox News contributor, has stirred up the most controversy with this little gem: "The reading lists are very overtly propagating a point of view that is at odds with most American parents. Leftist educators are advocates of everything from socialism to sexual anarchy. It's very base; it's raping the innocence of our children." [via NPR]
4. Manhattan-based doctor Hector Castro was arrested today for being the leader of an oxycodone smuggling ring across the Northeast, whose office moved around 500,000 pills. The best detail is that Castro's office manager, who was known on the street as "Kardashian," and had her own illegal oxycodone business, of which the doctor "had no knowledge." [via Daily Intel]5. Black Simon & Garfunkel performing "Thrift Shop" on Fallon = amazing. [via Pop Culture Brain]