Bookmarks: Some other stuff to read on the web

Nanci Griffith is being blocked by George Bush, she tells IC Birmingham:

"I haven't been able to write anything for two years. I have been so angry with my president and the war in Iraq."

Despite her 'fan club' including the legendary Bob Dylan, Nanci is not tempted to pursue the protest song route when it comes to Iraq.

"For me, I have never been the kind of person to write in anger."

David Byrne goes to the Stasi Museum in Berlin:

Maybe the intent was NOT to hide this surveillance gear too well, the idea possibly being to make people aware they were being looked at and listened to. If you’re not aware you’re being observed then you won't live in fear, so what’s the point? Sometimes buildings here in the U.S. put up fake surveillance cameras in the hopes of discouraging perps. Of course, it wasn’t all just nutty surveillance stuff — people’s lives were ruined, destroyed, their careers came to a dead end at the least suspicion, there were prison terms and torture without stated reason (where have I heard that one before?) and information and culture was heavily censored. And the food wasn’t that great, either.

The Guardian meets with Pearl Spam out of Powder, as she publishes her memoirs:

One thing she is most definitely not concerned about is the reaction of her old friends to the book - which, I can assure you, is a surprisingly compulsive read. Celebrities, particularly the celebrities with whom Lowe was hanging around, tend to be very visible in their public lives but keep their private lives protectively closeted. And although Lowe carefully avoids naming individuals - other than listing at one point that her crowd included Kate Moss, Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Liam Gallagher, Jonny Lee Miller and Patsy Kensit - the book does convey just how central drugs were to her gang. "There was a general belief in our world that you couldn't have fun unless you were slightly out of it," she writes. There are anecdotes about group dinners at the Ivy, with Lowe dashing off mid-meal in someone's chauffeured car to go and buy cocaine for the group. "You're my best friend," one gushes when she returns.