A Hotel With Way More Than Five Stars

from the New York Times' UrbanEye

The Chelsea Hotel may or may not be going the way of CBGB (soon to be the site of a John Varvatos boutique), but it will always have Sid and Nancy. At least as long as Ed Hamilton, a short-story writer and 12-year hotel resident, is around. His new book, “Legends of the Chelsea,” recalls famous residents like Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas and the drug-addled punkers, as well as their lesser-known contemporaries like Hiroya, a painter of bunnies. Hamilton, who runs a blog on which the book is based, will read from it tonight at the Half-King; don’t be surprised if some neighbors show up.
“Change at the Chelsea, Shelter of the Arts,” by Lisa Chamberlain
Cityroom on CB’s new fashion tenant
“Chelsea Mornings,” by Jeff Giles
“Blogging the Hotel Chelsea,” by Adam Cohen
“A Year in the Life,” by Lisa Chamberlain

'Versus Dark Zwei' - Hauschka

Opening act Hauschka and his 'prepared' piano stole the show at last night's Worldless Music Series soiree at the New York Society for Ethical Culture - and not just for the geometric hairdo (very Dusseldorf), baggy suit and ratty, blue CBGB-OMFUG T-shirt. Sehr cool.

Tough guy's tears for Norman Mailer

Mailer dead at 84

from the Telegraph, UK

' ... On New Year's Eve 1989, I gave a party for 500 at Mortimer's, then New York's in place. Norman and Norris were guests of honour. He took me aside and patiently taught me the art of head butting, to which he challenged people he did not wish to fist-fight, mostly those he was angry with but still liked. When I asked him about brain damage he was nonplussed: "But writers have stronger heads than normal people...' Read full article here

'Atlas' - Battles

New York band Battles appear on Later with Jools Holland on BBC2 in the UK at 11.35 pm tonight.

Paint job

Photo by author. Click on photo to enlarge.

Mum’s the Wordless

Here's what NYCandy's doing this weekend!

from the NY Times UrbanEye

The Wordless Music series, which typically pairs inventive indie rockers with game chamber acts, brings in the Icelandic group Mum this weekend. Their “mix of staticky electronics and kitchen-sink instrumentation is both homey and abstract,” Ben Sisario writes. You can hear them do a “quiet” set tonight at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, and a regular one tomorrow at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Read more here

Hear Mum at MySpace here

Watch Mum's video for Will the Summer Make Good for Our Sins?

Waking up in New York

Photo by author. Click on image to enlarge.

It's not a fabric, it's a way of life

from the NY Times' UrbanEye

It’s that time again: time to listen to the soft zip-zip-zip sound. Time to ponder the merits of wide wale vs. pin. Time to look inadvertently professorial. The Corduroy Appreciation Club convenes again on Sunday, 11/11 (the date which most resembles its beloved fabric) at the Montauk Club. Expect cocktails, secret rituals, awards, and a lot of rustling. Last year Jonathan Ames got a complimentary ridged tie. This year’s guest speaker is one Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy the author of “The Affected Provincial’s Companion: Volume 1,” and a cord aficionado. Guests must wear at least two corduroy items. Stock up on yours at the Housing Works thrift store, which is hosting its designer sample sale today through Sunday.

“Better Living Through Corduroy,” by Jonathan Ames

New York's $150M castle

from the New York Post

A billionaire buyer has signed a letter of intent to pay $150 million for a massive triplex apartment at the Upper East Side condo tower The Mark, sources close to the deal told The Post. The prospective purchaser, sources say, is real-estate magnate Leonard Blavatnik, who is worth $7.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The price would be twice as large as the previous record listing in New York City, and nearly $50 million more than last year's sale of the De Menil estate in East Hampton, believed to be the priciest residential transaction in the country. Read full article here

New York plans a new Coney Island

Firstly, some remarks from our often-inspirational Mayor Bloomberg (as reported by the Village Voice)

'... Third and finally, there’s what we call Coney East. It’s the area bounded by West 8th and West 19th Streets, Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk. It’s Coney Island’s existing warm weather amusement district. But outdated zoning severely restricts what can be done here. It’s current zoning, for example, prohibits enclosed amusements or even sit-down restaurants. In fact, the only year-round destination in this part of Coney Island is Nathan’s, and I think that after all these years, Nathan’s would like some company. But unfortunately, like Coney North and Coney West, this area is marred by vacant land. It also lacks east-west connections between its principal attractions, like the Aquarium, the Cyclone, and the Parachute Jump. So we propose to map the 15 acres of Coney East as new City parkland. That effect would be dramatic: It would preserve the world’s most famous urban amusement park in perpetuity. And when you combine that with the Aquarium and with KeySpan Park, we will have 50 contiguous acres of public park with the best in recreation that Brooklyn, or New York, has to offer...'

The following from the New York Times

Bloomberg Unveils Plan to Revitalize Coney Island,
in Conflict With a Developer

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled his administration’s long-awaited proposal for revitalizing Coney Island yesterday with a zoning plan that he said would create the nation’s largest urban amusement park, promote the development of stores and 4,500 apartments along Surf Avenue and preserve historic attractions like the Parachute Jump.

The proposed rezoning, which covers 19 blocks and 47 acres from the New York Aquarium west along the oceanfront to Highland View Park, would transform an area pockmarked with empty lots and seedy buildings that still manages to attract millions of visitors every summer to the beaches, a ballpark and assorted attractions from roller coasters to sword swallowers.

“It really could be spectacular,” Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday after a speech outlining the plan to the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “But it’s fallen on hard times.” Read full article here

Global warming 'greatest scam in history'

by John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an allusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus. Read full article here

Ruud Gullit is new LA Galaxy boss

from Goal.com

Almost two-and-a-half years after parting with Feyenoord, Ruud Gullit is back in the managerial business, taking over at Los Angeles Galaxy in a three-year deal. The American club has yet to make an official announcement but, according to NOS, the Dutch broadcasting corporation, it’s a done deal. The former Chelsea and Newcastle United boss, widely known for his ‘sexy’ approach of the game, is reportedly Frank Yallop’s successor at the Los Angeles club, having won the race against Jurgen Klinsmann. Read full article here

Change - Lightning Seeds

The Artist's Fall Collection

from the New York Times

“Artist products are the current thing,” said Jeffrey Deitch, the art dealer and a former associate of Andy Warhol ... such alliances are “just one of the avenues available to the artist who wants to get his message to the public.”


KERI EVILSIZOR trained a covetous eye on the handbags pristinely arrayed on white-lacquered shelves. She was not quite sure what to make of the display, housed in a 1,000-square-foot island of commerce inside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. No matter. She was there to shop. Ms. Evilsizor, who had come from San Francisco nominally to see an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, was delighted. Here was a luxury store — operated by Louis Vuitton, no less — in the midst of a high-tone exhibition space. She was even able to snare a trophy, a handbag designed by Marc Jacobs, the Vuitton creative director, with the company’s monogram — and one of Mr. Murakami’s raucously colorful cartoon images. Sizing up the haute Bohemian crowd milling about in T-shirts, premium jeans and pricey knee-high boots, she noted, “There’s definitely a large percentage of people who are here for the purses.” Read full article here

Bolt from the Blue - Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks wrote 'Awakenings' and 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.'

Are Radiohead fans WAVing mad?

from pampelmoose.com

'“EMI Records is offering a set of all of the band’s past studio albums and one live album in a number of formats, including uncompressed WAV files on a custom Radiohead Bear USB drive.” for only $167…..! Weird. If you own the CDs already you’ve essentially already got WAV files.' Read the 'reasoning' here

Elvis Costello never to play England again

from nme.com

Elvis Costello has indicated he will never play in England again. The singer-songwriter who was born in Paddington, London, but who now lives in New York, has said he is not bothered if he plays in the land of his birth ever again. "I don't care if I ever play in England again," he declared, sighting his appearance at Glastonbury in 2005 as the reason he would not play a rock show in the country again. Describing the festival set as "fucking dreadful", he said: "That gig made up my mind that I wouldn't come back. I don't get along with it. We lost touch. It's 25 years since I lived there. I don't dig it, they don't dig me." Read full article here.

Hey, Elvis, keep messing with your songs like this, below, and the Brits won't want you back! Yeaaah!

'Choking Man' - in cinemas this weekend

from the New York Daily News' excellent Latino 'Viva' section

Octavio Gomez Berrios has only a few lines in "Choking Man," but off-camera, he has plenty to say about immigrants and his pot-scrubbing lead character, Jorge. In Steve Barron’s film, opening Friday at Cinema Village, 22 E. 12th St., Jorge is a young, painfully shy Ecuadoran newcomer with a grueling job at a Queens greasy spoon. To research the role, Gomez briefly ditched his acting career to wash dishes at a Manhattan bistro. “I learned that the immigrant dishwasher is basically invisible,” said Gomez, 29, whose family immigrated to the South Bronx from Nicaragua when he was 11. “But there is also an amazing humanity between the migrant workers. Everyone backs each other up.” Read full article here

'Daily Show' writer: Why I went from punch lines to the picket line

Steve Bodow, in the New York Daily News' Be Our Guest column

As you may have heard, Hollywood writers (including about 2,400 of us in New York) are on strike. Yep, all of us: the serious ones, the funny ones, the soap opera ones with whose help Todd Manning discovered that not only had his biological son survived, but he was living as Marcie and Michael McBain's adopted boy Tommy...

It's all about the Internet. Maybe you've heard of it. We think we should get paid for when our work appears or is sold online - just like we do when it's on the tube or in theaters. We're up against conglomerates such as CBS, Disney and Fox, which have, after much searching in their souls (sic), determined they'd prefer not to pay us. Read full article here

'Lost New York' recaptured in AP photo show

from the New York Daily News

Though The Associated Press is famous for its worldwide coverage of the news, the far-flung wire service got its start right here in New York 161 years ago. The editors of six city newspapers agreed in 1846 to share the costs of transmitting reports from the raging Mexican War and other distant places where news was being made.

A new exhibition at the City University Graduate Center illustrating the AP's distinguished history in news gathering emphasizes its wide reach and its New York origins. Based on the recently published history, "BREAKING NEWS: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else" (Princeton Architectural Press, June 2007), the exhibit uses iconic photographs and images from the AP's library and corporate archives to illustrate myriad stories AP writers and photographers have covered. Read full story here

Batman bales out of Hong Kong poison stunt

Heath Ledger warns Christian Bale of the dangers of swimming in Hong Kong. Click on image to enlarge.

Even Batman balked at leaping into Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, one of the world’s most polluted bodies of water. Christian Bale, who resumes his caped crusader role in ‘The Dark Night’ currently filming in China's former British territory, was scripted to leap from a low-flying Hercules transport plane into the harbor - until the filthy state of the waters (the 'Fragrant Harbour' is one third urine, apparently) prompted the crew to scrap the scene.

According to Hollywoodgrind.com, an unnamed official with the production house said: "When they checked a water sample, they found all sorts of things, salmonella, and tuberculosis, so it was canceled. Now the action will cut to inside a building."

The South China Morning Post reported that the "plane made four circuits while crews carried out aerial filming using two helicopters. The high point of yesterday's filming was the sight of black smoke pouring from one of the helicopters."

The Guardian reports: "Hong Kong has one of the worst marine environments in the world, said Bill Ballantine, a renowned marine biologist who recently visited from New Zealand. 'Everybody tells me if you can remember what it was like in 1960, there's hardly anything left in terms of fisheries and the habitat also is very degraded,' he said.

"The government has begun cutting the levels of effluent in the harbour, with stage one of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, but officials admit the water is not yet ready for swimmers. They say Stage Two, beginning in 2009, will improve matters considerably."

Of course, it could have been Bale's stunt double who was required to make the plunge into the poisonous drink. Either way, director Christopher Nolan probably made the right call.

They Haven’t Gone Away

from the Irish Voice

LAST weekend here saw an incident of IRA savagery that makes even a Quentin Tarantino film like Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction look tame. No guns were involved. That’s too quick and easy. We’re talking total savagery, sustained over maybe 10 minutes or even longer, which is quite a long time if you’re being beaten to death.

We’re talking about someone being hammered to death bit by bit with iron bars, and maybe baseball bats or pick-ax handles. We’re talking stuff here that would make Tarantino want to go out the back and throw up.

Experienced police officers who saw the victim, who was still semi-conscious after the attack, were shocked and described it as one of the worst cases they had seen. And some of these guys have seen it all. So when they say it was bad, you better believe it.

But, but ... I hear you say. The IRA has said the war is over and have renounced violence. They have turned over a new leaf. Read full article here

Oct.26, 2007

Gone global

NewYorkCandy currently being read in Split; Little Rock; Tehran; Lausanne; Ile-de-France, Paris; San Jose; Tehran and on an oil rig (maybe) on the equator off Nigeria (www.statcounter.com)

Top 10 musical geniuses

Hard to disagree with with this list put together by Mike Devlin for ET Canada, who says in his introduction: "Be wary of using the word genius when describing a musician. Once, we championed Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails as such (hey, it was around the time of 1994's The Downward Spiral, which is pretty awesome)."

His Top 10 is: 1. Rick Rubin [pictured] 2. Jimi Hendrix 3. Prince 4. Dr Dre 5. Bob Dylan 6. The Beatles 7. Bjork 8. Muddy Waters 9. Ray Charles 10. Sam Cooke. You can read Devlin's entertaining explanations here

Here's my alternative 10: 1. Martin Hannett 2. David Bowie 3. Elvis Presley 4. John Lydon 5. Marvin Gaye 6. Johnny Cash 7. Kraftwerk 7. Marc Bolan 9. Pete Doherty 10. Bryan Ferry.

Up the Bracket - The Libertines

Wenger hits back at Ferguson over foreign players

from the Guardian, UK

Relations between Manchester United and Arsenal continued to deteriorate yesterday when Arsène Wenger hit back at Sir Alex Ferguson's call for a cap on foreign players and the Old Trafford manager's accusation that it would draw the biggest protest from the London club. Ferguson's starting team at Arsenal on Saturday featured only four Englishmen and - with United having committed more than £40m to buying Carlos Tevez, Nani, Anderson and Tomasz Kuszczak last summer - Wenger suggested Ferguson should consider the foreigners' feelings. Read full article here

Manchester United coach linked with Beckham's Galaxy

Carlos Queiroz, assistant coach of Manchester United, is being linked with David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy, whose coach resigned on Sunday. The Los Angeles Times says Queiroz, who is No. 2 to Sir Alex Ferguson at the English Premier League giants, is 'a viable candidate' for the West Coast position. Former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and ex-Real Madrid chief Fabio Capello also may be in the running.

Galaxy boss Alexei Lalas isn't doing too much to calm the speculation, telling the Times: "Nothing is out of the realm of possibility. I think we've demonstrated that over the last year. We would certainly look to use this opportunity to bring in somebody who is going to have an impact certainly on the Galaxy but also on the league and the sport in many of the same ways that David Beckham did."

"That comment," says the Times, "suggests a recognized coach with international experience, which puts current Manchester United assistant and former Portugal national team coach Carlos Queiroz squarely in the running...

"Queiroz ... has three things going for him. First, he knows Beckham well, having coached him at Manchester United and Real Madrid. Second, he originally is from Mozambique, just like Galaxy defender Abel Xavier, and could relate well to the veteran Portuguese international. Third, he is familiar with American players, having authored the blueprint for U.S. Soccer on how the national team could be made competitive at the World Cup level by 2010."

The Times says 'the Galaxy expect to have a new coach in place before the end of this month and probably before the team leaves on a two-game trip to Australia and New Zealand immediately after Thanksgiving.'

London 2012 stadium revealed

from the Guardian, UK

Beijing 2008 has its bird's nest stadium and Wembley its soaring arc of light, but the organisers of London 2012 revealed a rather more cautious design today, when they unveiled plans for their Olympic stadium. "This is not a stadium that's going to be screaming from the rooftops that it's bigger and more spectacular," admitted its chief architect, Rod Sheard. "This is just a cleverer building. This is a cleverer solution." Read full article here

John Varvatos takes CBGB space

Model: Iggy Pop. Click on image to enlarge

It was the club that gave punk fashion to the world (thanks, lest we forget, to Richard Hell of Television and the Voidoids, a regular who actually couldn't afford any better duds than ripped T-shirts held together with the odd safety pin), and now CBGB is to become designer John Varvatos' new 3,200-square-foot superboutique.

According to the NY Times, Varvatos said in a conference call with reporters that his store would pay respectful homage to the birthplace of punk, which closed in October last year after more than 30 years of triumph and struggle on the Bowery in downtown Manhattan.

"I’ve been a huge music nut since I was a young kid," said Varvatos, who sells men's designer suits, shoes, bags, belts and cologne, "and when I came to New York, I spent a lot of time in CBGB. I was very saddened, like a lot of people when it closed last October, but I kind of came upon the space in an indirect manner in that I was in the neighborhood, looking at something else, and I had the opportunity to go inside just to see what the state of the space was at this point in time and just stick my head in. When I was in there I was struck. I had this thought at that moment: We should do something with this space to make it something very special and honor what it was."

The 52-year-old Detroit designer, who also has a store in New York's SoHo neighborhood, started his company in 1999 and says his philosophy is 'about reaching back to move forward. We have something different to say with a sensibility that is both old and new. There's a vintageness and a modern edge to our clothes. We feel that the uniform is dead.'

Varvatos said he did want the CBGB space to simply become “a bank or a deli.” He was unwilling to reveal many details of his store, though he admitted he had agreed to a long-term lease. Construction will begin next month, and the store will open in March.

The Times said Varvatos' "Bowery boutique 'is very much going to be a rock-and-roll store,' with a decor and a product line that evoke the old club and its musical heritage. But he added, “We’re not trying to build CBGB. We’re not trying to make it into CBGB. What we’re trying to do is honor the past.”

The Washington Post says: 'Never mind the bollocks, here's a leather hooded jacket for $1,695.'

Morrissey's disgraced support act booted downtown

Kristeenyoung, who were fired from their prestigious Morrissey support slot in New York last month after singer Kristeen Young announced from the stage that the Brit star gives 'great head ... I mean cunnilingus,' must settle for a tiny opening gig for their next city appearance. The duo will support Ted Leo and his Pharmacists on the indie geek's latest tour, which swings by Pianos, a small space on Ludlow Street on Manhattan's lower East Side, on November 27.

Kristeenyoung were ordered off the five-night Moz marathon after Young's second-night rush of blood to the bank account. Later, she said: "We have been asked to leave because of something I said on stage ... Unfortunately, the statement has been perceived as being profane (when, actually, one of the two words in question is a scientific term found in junior high, health class text books, and the other word, I feel most would agree, is lightweight slang) or defamatory. What I said was part of a thread of stage statements I made throughout our set. They were metaphorical and overstated to make an artistic point. The 'offending' statement, in particular, was in no way a literal statement, and was very much in keeping with the tone of my writing in general."According to NME, "Although she does not confirm what she said onstage, internet reports say that it directly relates to Morrissey in a sexual manner."

The Brooklyn Vegan website commented: "Perhaps that slip of the tongue was just a convenient excuse to allow [Morrissey] to cut his losses without saying 'My fans hate you' straught out; according to a friend of mine who was at Tuesday night's show, apparently, two songs into the KY set someone screamed "You suck," and her response was 'that's okay, if you don't like something, you should express it,' which was met with groans."

Kristeenyoung were replaced as opening act at the Hammerstein by Girl in a Coma.

Pete Doherty 'distraught' over heroin relapse

from nme.com

Babyshambles drummer Adam Ficek has spoken to NME.COM about Pete Doherty's recent drug relapse, explaining that the singer was "distraught" about the event. As previously reported on NME.COM, Doherty was filmed taking heroin on Friday. He said that the first thing that the singer did when the news broke was sort out a return visit to a drug rehab.
"He's distraught, he really is," explained Ficek. Read full article here

Doing Their Dylan

from the NY Times' UrbanEye

As if “I’m Not There,” Todd Haynes’s Dylan biopic, didn’t have enough celebrities — everyone from Cate Blanchett to Heath Ledger plays the singer — now there’s an equally star-studded concert version. Tonight at the Beacon Theater, catch Cat Power, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo with Buckwheat Zydeco and others do their best Zimmy. Can’t afford tickets? Spring for the CD instead. James has a credible nasal twang on “Goin’ to Acapulco,” writes Ben Ratliff. And Sufjan Stevens “builds up the religious-themed ‘Ring Them Bells’ into an industrious little world of arrangements.”
Critics’ Choice by Ben Ratliff

Most get Radiohead newie for free

from the Chicago Tribune

Given the choice of whether to pay for music or grab it for free, people are overwhelmingly opting for the free model, according to a study to be released Monday. For 62% of the people who have downloaded the British band Radiohead's "In Rainbows," the cost to purchase the critically acclaimed music is nil, according to Internet tracking firm ComScore Inc. The other 38% of buyers paid an average of $6 for the music, well below the typical $12 to $15 a purchaser pays for a CD at a retail store. Read full article here

I know waterboarding is torture - I did it myself

by Malcolm Nance in the New York Daily News

Last week, attorney general nominee Judge Michael Mukasey dodged the question of whether waterboarding terror suspects is necessarily torture. Americans can disagree as to whether or not this should disqualify him for the top job in the Justice Department. But they should be under no illusions about what waterboarding is.

As a former master instructor and chief of training at the U.S. Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) in San Diego, I know the waterboard personally and intimately. Our staff was required to undergo the waterboard at its fullest. I was no exception.

I have personally led, witnessed and supervised waterboarding of hundreds of people. It has been reported that both the Army and Navy SERE school's interrogation manuals were used to form the interrogation techniques employed by the Army and the CIA for its terror suspects. What is less frequently reported is that our training was designed to show how an evil totalitarian enemy would use torture at the slightest whim. Read full article here

In Just a Blink of an Eye - Xu Zhen

Click on image to enlarge

from artkrush.com

Artwork by: Xu Zhen
Long March Project — In Just a Blink of an Eye, 2005-07
Performance installation. Courtesy the artist, the Long March Project, Beijing and PERFORMA, New York All Rights Reserved

Hirst's Shark at Met

Click on image to enlarge

from artkrush.com

Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 13-foot-long shark preserved in 4,360 gallons of formaldehyde, has taken up residence in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art after six weeks of installation work. Owned by hedge-fund titan Steven A. Cohen, who bought the 1991 piece for $8 million, the sea creature will terrify visitors to the museum for the next three years. Hirst had to replace the original shark last year because it had begun to rot. In a related story, the artist has been busy repairing another of his works, Mother and Child, Divided, an installation of a bisected cow and calf in four formaldehyde tanks housed in the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, due to a tank leak.

McCartney dates married New Yorker

from the New York Daily News

He's not yet divorced, but Paul McCartney reportedly has been squiring a married New York millionaire around the Hamptons. The ex-Beatle and MTA board member Nancy Shevell (pictured) were spotted numerous times over three days last weekend - sharing walks on the beach and even a tender kiss, the London Sun reported. McCartney, 65, was also seen visiting the 47-year-old's London hotel room in October while he and estranged wife Heather Mills were battling over their divorce in court. Read full article here

Dodging bullets in Paraguay

from the Guardian, UK

Guns, drugs and a shady underworld ... Rory MacLean follows Robert Carver's terrifying adventures through South America's lost paradise.

Do all Paraguayans carry guns?
"I wouldn't say all – no, not by a long chalk," an expert on the country tells Robert Carver. "However, it is fairly common. I mean, there are shootings all the time – I mean every day, everywhere. And knife fights, of course. It's as well to be very polite to people. That generally pays off. Unless they want to kill you, in which case no amount of politeness would help." Read full article here

English Premier League is world's favourite league

from the Telegraph, UK

The extraordinary globalisation of the Premier League could make English football the first world sport to earn more money from their supporters abroad than at home. An estimated worldwide audience of one billion watched Manchester United play Arsenal on Saturday and, if growth rates continue, the revenue from overseas broadcast rights will eventually exceed those paid by companies for the domestic rights. And a new study, soon to be published by Deloitte, will show that the Premier League have risen well above Serie A in Italy and La Liga in Spain over the past decade to become the richest league across Europe by €1 billion (£0.7 billion). Read full article here

The fast track to Europe's hotspots

from the Observer, UK

Eurostar moves home next week, bringing some of the continent's most exciting cities within five hours' reach, writes Sarah Turner

There are sterling reasons for getting excited about 14 November. It's the day Eurostar moves to its new St Pancras home, but the 20 minutes it shaves off journey times to Paris and Brussels is only the tip of the iceberg. The launch last year of the TGV Est high-speed link brought Alsace and the Champagne region within easy reach of Paris, which means that in the time it would take you to get from Paddington to Penzance you can be sipping a speciality beer in a Belgian cafe or shopping in a French fleamarket. Mark Smith of seat61.com, the essential website for people planning a rail trip in Europe, says: 'More and more people seem to be trying out train travel to Europe as a low-carbon, low-stress alternative to the hassle of flying.' Read full article here

Concert at Serbia death camp stirs anger

from the Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia - Stray dogs wander forlornly around the rundown gray brick barracks that used to house of one of the most notorious World War II Nazi death camps in the Balkans.
Soon, the site where some 48,000 Jews, Serbs and Gypsies perished in the 1940s will be throbbing to the rhythms of rock music.

For Serbia's small Jewish community, the weekend concert at the Sajmiste camp near the center of Belgrade is the latest indignity to befall a site they say needs to be saved from decades of neglect and deterioration.

"It's like holding a wedding at a graveyard," said Aleksandar Mosic, a Jewish chairman of the camp's memorial center, ahead of Saturday's concert by British band Kosheen. Read full article here

Pakistan declares state of emergency

from the Guardian, UK

President Musharraf today declared a state of emergency in Pakistan ahead of a crucial supreme court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win amid rising Islamist militant violence.

Eight judges immediately rejected the decision, which suspended the constitution. The government has blocked transmissions of TV news channels in several cities and telephone services in the capital, Islamabad, have been disrupted.

"The chief of army staff has proclaimed a state of emergency and issued a provisional constitutional order," announced state broadcaster Pakistan TV, adding that President Musharraf, who took power in a1999 coup, would address the nation later today.

The state TV report gave no reason for the emergency but it follows weeks of speculation that the president could take the step. Military vehicles patrolled and troops blocked roads in the administrative heart of the capital. Read full article here

The bartender who started it all

from the NY Times

IN 1863, an English traveler named Edward Hingston walked into the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco and stepped up to the bar. There he beheld a magnificent figure wielding two mixing glasses and “all ablaze with diamonds,” a jewelry display that included a clustered stickpin in his shirtfront, diamond cufflinks and an array of diamond rings. Just as dazzling were the drinks, unheard of in Britain: strange mixtures like crustas, smashes and daisies. Here was something to write home about.

Hingston was looking at none other than Jerry Thomas, “the Jupiter Olympus of the bar,” to lift a phrase from the bartender’s own drink book, the first ever published in the United States. In a cocktail-besotted era, Thomas was first without equals, an inventor, showman and codifier who, in the book known variously as “The Bar-Tender’s Guide,” “How to Mix Drinks” or “The Bon-Vivant’s Companion,” laid down the principles for formulating mixed drinks of all categories and established the image of the bartender as a creative professional. Read full article here

'We have a president who believes that if he does it, it's not illegal' - Valerie Plame

Valerie Plame, interviewed by the Guardian, UK

"... Because right now essentially we have a president who believes, much like Dick Nixon, that if he does it then it's not illegal. And this extends into every area of domestic and international policy..." Read full interview here

The lowdown on Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt, whose latest album Comicopera also features Brian Eno and Paul Weller, interviewed by Pitchforkmedia.com:

Pitchfork: There's some beautiful singing on Comicopera, especially "Just As You Are". How do you feel about your voice these days?
RW: Oh, cheers! I know more about my voice now. I've lost half my top notes, but it seems like I've gained just as many lower ones. In the old days I used to learn by copying women, like Dionne Warwick and Billie Holiday. But more recently my role models have been people like Johnny Cash…Because I'm now down in that area. I don't know if it's quite possible to imagine a journey from Dionne Warwick to Johnny Cash, but that's the one I have been working at! Read full interview here

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Linda Stein, ex-Ramones manager, murdered

from the Telegraph, UK

Linda Stein, a former manager of the Ramones credited with helping bring the punk revolution to Britain, has been murdered in her New York apartment. Mrs Stein, who lived alone in Manhattan, was beaten to death but police say there were no signs of a break-in or robbery and cannot find any motive for the killing. Her body was found on Tuesday by her daughter but the cause of death was not confirmed until an autopsy yesterday. Mrs Stein was the ex-wife of Seymour Stein, former president of Sire Records, which was the launching pad for the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna. Read full article here