“If I ever find a style, I’ll stop painting.”
Hans Hofman

If you doubt that war is coming read this account of the mysterious goings on down at Shannon Airport
More about the campaign from the Refueling Peace site

Saw Sparklehorse last night in the Olympia here in Dublin, again. I was trying to think how many times I’ve seen him live, I guess it’s five or six times. The first time was in VKs in brussels as support for Mazzy Star, way back before vivadixiesub… was even released. I’ve got to say that normally Sparklehorse are one of the great live acts.
But last night I saw a tired and dramatically off-form Mark perform with just guitar and drum and a terrible mix. I guess he was trying to bring out the raw rock side to the music but it didn’t really come off and everything got lost. OK we all have our bad days but I came away with the feeling that there was a guy who should’ve stayed home and looked after himslf.

In a thoughtful piece Jeanette Winterson explains why art is still important now more then ever – includes a wonderful analysis of what art is and why we continue to make it, refreshing in a time when it seems that art can only be discussed in terms of it’s commercial value.

Chewing gum has been banned in Singapore since 1992 but now thanks to the US Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) Singapore has been forced to unban it . But Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry George Yeo Yong-Boon, said only the sugarless variety will be allowed and “it will only be sold through pharmacies to Singaporeans with a doctor’s prescription” and only US gum will do.
Quite right and you should be made to return it to the vendor when done to prove you haven’t stuck under the table in the pub

Well done Matador records who have released an MP3 from Cat Power’s forthcoming album You Are Free. The track is called He War and you can download it here
(Oh btw I take full credit)
I’ve have heard some tracks off the new album, and I can report that Eddie Vedder sings pretty minimal backing and actually his voice sets off Chan’s very nicely. Normally I find him annoying but rest assured, dear reader, he isn’t here.
Also included on the album is a new recording of Michael Hurley’s Werewolf song , a really rough version of this song performed live on WNYU has been floating around for some time it’s great to see her recording it properly.

Interesting interview with Brewster Kahle, the man behind the Wayback Machine which has archived the web since 1996 – that’s 100 terabytes. All that embarassing crap you deleted, yep it’s still there.
For those of you who care this is what remains of Artifact

It’s a website selling t-shirts for the pseud who has everything, I liked this Joycean one and this and this.

There’s a rare interview (of sorts) with Will Oldham – Bonnie Prince Billy – by Sean O’Hagan who makes the best of interviewing a man who doesn’t want to be interviewed.
The new Bonnie Prince Billy album, released early next year, is called It’s Expected I’m Gone. There are only six songs on it. Originally there were nine. ‘I took three off,’ he tells me, seriously, ‘when everyone I played them to liked them too much.’