Theory Meets Data Analysis at Comparable and Extreme Mass Ratios - 2010

While gravitational waves offer a new, and in many ways clean, view of compact objects, most of what we presently know about these has been obtained by careful study of their messy interactions with surrounding material. I will summarize what we know about a variety of potential gravitational wave sources, how this astrophysical hair has helped to illuminate some of the same questions gravitational wave observations promise to address, and how future observations may begin to relate the gravitational and electromagnetic properties of compact objects.