Chris Bachalo is, I think, my all-time favorite comic book artist. Since his first work on the Death: The High Cost Of Living miniseries, I’ve loved this guy’s stuff. Not quite enough to get into Shade The Changing Man way back when, but enough to be very happy whenever he was attached to a title or project I was interested in. His work graces the Ultimate War paperback I picked up tonight, and it just makes me happy. That’s all.

I also won the Hitsville USA : The Motown Singles 1959-71 box set off eBay. I’m very excited about this, not least of all because I got it cheap! I’m going through the tracklist on Amazon right now… Man, there’s so much good stuff on here. Can’t wait.

Check out the picture posted over at lonetreepoint, taken during the ‘liberation’ of Baghdad. I’d been waiting for a pic like this to surface for a while – it was really inevitable. Honestly, defeating Sadaam was the easy part. What America does next will be the real challenge.

ADDENDUM – The pic in question is now the full-size cover of today’s Star. So much for keeping it under wraps (pun intended). Have a look here. Funnily, it was yesterday morning I was thinking to myself, “when they take Baghdad, they couldn’t possibly be so dumb as to raise the American flag in the centre of the city. That’s what conquorers do”. Shows what I know.

np – Luna / Live

I have spent the last five hours trying to debug a page of code, the eventual solution to which warranted a good solid monkey head slapping. The one lesson that can be learned from this little experience? Computers don’t make mistakes. Stupid programmers do.

np – Love / The Best Of Love

While many, many things in the Invasion of Iraq (I won’t even call it a war anymore) disturb me, I find the implications made in this piece particularly unsettling. Five will get you six that American news outlets don’t give any of this more than a passing mention.

I am hearing Radiohead will be at Molson Park in Barrie on August 16. I’m trying to conceive of some combination of factors that would actually persuade me to drive up to Barrie and deal with the inflated ticket prices, traffic, crowds, heat (or rain) and general inconvenience of it all. It’d probably need to be at least a) a damned good opener and b) other people who’d want to go. Well, until there’s an official announcement I don’t have decide.

np – Death Cab For Cutie / The Photo Album

The whole of Yo La Tengo’s WFMU covers telethon can be downloaded here. Infinitely better sound quality than the link to the 2000 show I posted a while back. Ira singing “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe” – it doesn’t get better than that.

I also picked up the new album, Summer Sun. Hopefully the title will be a sign of things to come… Only listened to it once, but it seems to be following the same very quiet path as And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, albeit a little less narcoleptic and a little more jazzy. But there’s no “Cherry Chapstick” as a rock-out centrepiece.

Also in the mail was my copy of The Best Of Love. For the record, it’s not a collection of easy listening soft rock ballads, but a compilation of one of the 60s’ great lost psychadelic folk rock bands. I already have their essential masterpiece, Forever Changes, but this does a nice job of filling in a lot of the other gaps.

From Largehearted Boy – A history of hidden album tracks, courtesy of Stylus Magazine.

A fun 24 tonight. Kim really is stupid, and Jack certainly likes getting his hands dirty.

np – Yo La Tengo / Summer Sun

There is a different sort of anti-war protest happening in Toronto this Saturday. The One Big No rally will feature musical performances from some local heavyweights, including Cowboy Junkies, Sarah Harmer, King Cobb Steelie, Lowest of the Low, Danny Michel and Sarah Slean. Specifics on the schedule still seem to be forthcoming, but this definitely looks like a worthwhile event. Check it out if you can. My evening is booked solid, but I will try to be there in the afternoon, if anything is happening – it’s just down the street from my place, after all.

A Craiglist has been set up for the Big Smoke. Craiglist is a neat little online community with classified ads for all sorts of stuff. There’s not much there right now, but give it time. Craiglists for other cities have pretty heavy traffic.

np – Superchunk / Live @ The Opera House, Toronto – 11-23-01