Firestarter doesn't look half as scary without the music to go with it. Jamiroquai and Queen here too. via kottke.org

Crossing the road on the way to the shops for lunch today, there were a couple of young ladies opening big cardboard boxes and handing out smaller packages to passers by. Never one to pass up anything free I positioned myself in the crowd to grab one as I was walking by. From a distance the package looked like the kind of box you'd get a video game in and looked far more interesting than the huge cans of disgustingly flavoured energy drink that usually gets passed out. When I had the chance to glance at my prize however I still couldn't figure out what it was. There box said there were CD's and a book inside, and passing by the middle aged gentleman holding placards reminding us of Jesus I started to wonder whether it wasn't some Christian promotional material or scientology stuff. But the reality was somewhat weirder. I opened the box over lunch and all of my colleagues were left to scratch their heads and guess at what it might be. How could someone affort to give away a book for free, and 3 CD's for that matter? The production of everything looked high quality, with vaguely fantasy or Native American themes with the design. I still haven't read any of the book or decided whether I should, but the little note within promises a lot With the music you have before you, Wild Animus is complete Unfortunately the reviews on Amazon seem to say it doesn't live up to the promise.. This is easily one of the worst books I have ever read. It's difficult to believe that a publisher can have read this manuscript and thought it was publishable. Why, wait a minute! The publishing house, Too Far, was founded by this book's author, Richard Shapero! Well, that explains the lack of serious editing or promotion. Very short wiki on the author. He seems to have published the whole thing from his own pocket. This link provides some nice background to this. It seems like this book has been handed out free over the past few years at various universities, and I happen to work right next to one in Sydney. Handing out this book also seems to have caused a bomb scare at Yale university.

I've been assured this is an oldie, but I agree it's definitly a goodie: The Worst Album Covers of All Time. ..Last year when we zipped through Prague for a couple of days, I saw this building in the distance and didn't think anything of it other than it looked a perfect example of communism's idea of the future. Turns out the building is far more interesting and disturbing than that... via Deputydog

Well I'll never get those two hours back. Tonight I went to a gig as part of the Dublin Electronic Art Festival, in an old converted church. Man oh man, I dragged Keiko along thinking it would be an interesting mix of electronic music and traditional asian instruments. In fact I'm pretty sure that's what it said on the feckin website. The venue promised to be interesting - a spooky medieval church recently restored. The first player was a Japanese lady playing a traditional koto, but from the moment she started until she finished I couldn't make out anything that would resemble music. Despite the obvious passion she had, it was audio equivalent of abstract art to my untrained ears, sounding like the electronic version of a cat walking across a piano keyboard ..absolutely random. At the end of her set she set up a rig consisting of two vertical bars with lasers between them forming some sort of virtual stringed instrument. With these she moved her hands through like a conductor and produced well, more random noise. I mean it was kind of cool in that respect. The kind of I-have-no-idea-whats-going-on sort of awesomeness. But I was caught between bursting out laughing and covering my ears. I spent the whole time wincing and looking around for other peoples expressions trying to discern whether it was just me or whether this really was.. crap. The second performer unfortunately wasn't much different. This time she intersperced her..compositions with spoken chinese poetry. At least she explained what she was doing and to be fair there was even one nice number. I was eager to overhear everybodys reaction as we were leaving (some people left early so I thought that must have reflected something) but on the way out I noticed people stopping at the door to buy cds so I'm left with the awful feeling that maybe it was just me afer all. Maybe I just didn't "get it"..