I kid you not - splash in today's Daily Star: "Boring Old Gits To Wed", by Royal Correspondent Hugh Cares.

Who says journalism is dull...?

Please, God, no more....

As the day has gone on, I seem to have mellowed in my attitude to the coverage. And, as more than one of my wiser friends has reminded me, a world where everyone eventually gets to be with who they should be with isn't a bad one.

As long as they don't have to get their mom's personal spies to bump off their wacky first wife. They really do put the fun in dysfunctional, don't they...? Almost like an early Howie Mandel movie.

Life is short. Make fun of it.*


* An addenda: one of my more talkative colleagues now has a cellphone that rings with the "phaser" sound from Star Trek. So, er, not that much fun, really...



UPDATE: HOUSTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A Texas woman indicted last month for allegedly giving her husband a lethal sherry enema said he was an enema addict who did it to himself, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwww!

The thing that gets me is the picture of the paraphernalia, credited "Courtesy of Warner family"...

Thanks, Linda. (OK, explain that!)



Tonight's musical announcement - some regional shows, but not, it seems a full-blown tour - by Bruce Hornsby.

Feb. 11 Ft. Lauderdale FL
(Internet pre-sale 1-4-05, regular on-sale 1-5-05)
Broward Center For the Performing Arts
www.browardcenter.org

Feb. 12 Orlando FL
Church Street Market (Free Show)
http://wmmo.com/event_guide/dcsfeb05main.html

Feb. 14 Tallahassee FL (on-sale 1-7-05)
Florida State University Ruby Diamond Auditorium
http://www.sevendaysfestival.org/

Feb. 16 Montgomery AL (on-sale now)
Troy State University Davis Theatre
www.tsum.edu/davis

Feb. 18 New Orleans LA (on-sale now)
House of Blues
www.hob.com

Feb. 19 Austin TX (on-sale now)
Paramount Theatre
http://www.austinwinternights.com/

Feb. 20 Dallas TX
Lakewood Theater
www.lakewoodtheater.com

Now all we need is a triple bill with him and him and we're all set...



My friends are going to see this guy tonight. I have to work.

As someone who bought the new album the week it was released, I have to say the following announcement pissed me off more than a little. And this seems to be happening more and more.

Lost Highway will release a deluxe edition of 'The Delivery Man' on 3/1 in the US. It will include a bonus video of "Bedlam" from the Eagle Rock DVD and 'The Clarksdale Sessions' bonus disc containing 7 songs.

But then again, I seem to be just even more of a grumpy old fart than usual these days....


UPDATE via Blackberry from Shepherds Bush: "Fantastic show. He came on at 8.11, played till 10.35, no break, no stop, no drink of water, no encore. Just straight through..."

Thanks.

The key line here is probably "which is now defunct"...



Yet another example emerges of a journalist fired for blogging on company time.

It's certainly an interesting phenomenon. I have to admit to looking over my shoulder figuratively if not literally sometimes. But its not - or shouldn't be - purely a time/resources argument. Surely it all comes down to reputation: how the news organisation sees itself and its relationship with its employees, its industry and its customers.

I'm not for a second suggesting that behaviour that warrants criticism shouldn't be commented on. If it's likely to become widely known in any case, it's all fair game, and since we rely on folks at other organisations to tell us what's happening there, one way or another, we should be prepared for the same sort of scrutiny where it's justified.

Obviously it's all case-by-case. But generally, discourse is encouraged and inside insights are always the best. What might be pushing things too far is a circumstance where someone for whatever reason sets out deliberately to undermine their colleagues by damaging their or their paper's collective reputation? And it really doesn't sound like this particular instance even falls into that category.

It's sure to be an ongoing debate. I've been talking with a couple of people here about putting together some kind of bloggers' "style guide"; which would be a list of tips for internal and external contributors who might be providing blog content for us. Seems like problems can arise most easily where there aren't any clear guidelines.

For example, when we upgraded our internal email system last year, in order to sign on now, you're presented with a standard piece of boilerplate that says that by signing on you agree to the company's "acceptable use policy" which covers them for well, anything they want to be covered against.



On a related note, I was trying to file a column last night by email - from home, not from work - and to cut a long story short, the attachment got bounced back to me undelivered because, I assume, I'd unthinkingly put the words "soft-porn" in the headline (of the attachment, not the subject line of the message); even though the column had virtually nothing to do to that topic, but was about the most popular uses of interactive television....

Weeeellllll now.... the Asian edition of our paper tomorrow will have the word "asses" in a headline.

It's supposed to be "assess"....


Nice Media Notes column by Howard Kurtz today on partisanship.

excerpt:

The world of opinion now resembles a choose-up-sides playground, with the players rarely straying from their assigned spots. The only real motion is when they jump back and forth between politics and journalism, or demonstrate agility by keeping a foot in both camps.

Also includes an interesting, but almost throwaway line from Scott McClellan about credentialling:

"I don't think it's the role of the press secretary to get into the business of being a media critic or picking and choosing who gets credentials."


Don't forget you can vote for your favourite campaign sites in the Golden Dot Awards ahead of the IPDI conference. (Go, JibJab!)


I must be starting to sound like the NME. After yesterday's announcement about Paul Brady's album and tour, I hear another of my heavy-heavy-rotation playlist gang, the amazing Kathleen Edwards, has a new album out March 1st. She's playing one show in New York, that night, at the Canal Room on West Broadway at Canal Street. The following night she'll be on Letterman.

Jac and Leeane (who's going here tomorrow, dammit) and I saw her about a year ago at the Borderline in London just after the first album came out and she was just flat-out awesome. I saw her later in the year on an openair stage at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle and again she just blew the place away.

Exactly the sort of headline to make you want to read the story....

Shaken by scandal, University of California considers bar codes for cadavers


So, the brilliant Paul Brady, whose music I have loved for more than 20 years, has a new album out, and is playing some gigs in the US. If you live anywhere near any of these venues, please go and see him. You'll never regret it.

9/02/05 Seattle WA Tractor Tavern.
10/02/05 Los Angeles CA Largo
11/02/05 Santa Cruz CA Kuumba Jazz Centre.
12/02/05 San Fransisco CA, Great American Music Hall.
15/02/05 Ann Arbor MI, The Ark.
17/02/05 Milwaukee WI Shank Hall
18/02/05 Minneapolis MN Cedar Cultural Centre
19/02/05 Chicago IL The Abbey
21/02/05 Alexandria VA Birchmere
22/02/05 Annapolis MD Ram's Head Onstage
23/02/05 Philadelphia, 'World Cafe Live'
24/02/05 Purchase NY West Room, Manhattanville College.
26/02/05 New York NY Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre
27/02/05 Boston MA Sanders Theatre

But I bet somehow this is his favourite picture...



Finally, Hail, Hail...! A new star is born in the firmament that is N17. Can't say Pharoah than that. (And, hey, this guy ain't too bad either... despite his quote on the MOTD post-game interview: "I was really glad Robbie was able to get on the end of one of my balls".)

The future's bright, the future's Lilywhite!