"Some thirteen years after the Clash disbanded,
Strummer is still giving rock a kick in its complacent pants."
- Rollingstone

Sad beyond belief.

Ragamuffin left a message on a football message board and it was like being booted very hard, right in the guts, and I feel bruised and battered.
Among all the death and destruction, and human misery our varied media confronts us with on an hourly basis, I manage to keep going. Some of it may upset or outrage me more than others, but I manage to keep a sense of perspective; there is no point getting upset over happenings in far away places over which we have no control. If we weep for one dead child we must weep for them all, so we harden and inure ourselves against it.
The news of Joe Strummers death however has left me distraught, for no fathomable reason. Just another rock star I never knew meets an early grave. He seemed so much more, and always hung on to his ideals and dignity, preferring to make new music with young musicians, keeping abreast of the zeitgeist all the while. In interviews he came across as decent guy, aware of what he had done, always looking for the best in whatever he did, never looking to exploit history.
When you think of the sheer volume of good and genre rattling music the Clash put out in a few short years one cannot fail to be astonished.
I will be raising more than several glasses to one of the good guys. Here's to Joe.

Share your thoughts on Joe.
Mefi thread
Talk about about it on the Guardian talkboards.

I always loved Sandinisat from the day I carried it home in all its bulk on the day it was released, I could never understand the slagging it always got. Fascinating Rolling Stone review of it from 1981 here. Courtesy of the aforementioned mefi link.

New York Daily News on Gangs of New York
Chicago Sun-Times on the same.
More from the Boston Phoenix.
The New York Observer is a bit sniffy

There was more pushing and shoving than at the scramble for the last turkey at Christmas. Which is probably how Styles, whose display can best be described as interesting, felt as he was escorted from the pitch after the match. His performance really did deserve the bird.

Let's hear it for: Danny Glover.

The U.S claims that there are crucial ommissions from the dossier which Iraq presented to them. Well there are now: 8000 pages worth to be exact.

As everybody knows, Iraq didn't create its weapons in a vacuum

Interview with a bloke who has written a book on The Smiths.

This is very cool. Learn to play Jingle Bells with your chuffin mouse!

Click around this face and it winks or pouts and does other stuff too. Its a bit disturbing really.

The advertising slogan generator came up with this "Don't Get Mad, Get Idle Thoughts Of Fat Buddha" I like it. And this: "You Like Idle Thoughts Of Fat Buddha. Idle Thoughts Of Fat Buddha Likes You".

The best thing about this time of year is lists, endless lists. I love em. Found this one via fimoculous and its great, for two reasons, the little reviews the guy attaches to each one in his top ten, and the fact that Wilco are at 1 and Flaming Lips at 5. Yet again, as with nearly every American list I've seen, Interpol show strongly. How come I have never heard of these buggers?