Linda Rondstadt is pretty much right

Linda Rondstadt grew up in Tucson, Arizona. But she doesn't feel at home there any more:

"There wasn't a fence running through the Sonoran Desert when I was growing up. In fact, when I moved back to Tucson, there wasn't even a fence running through it.

"While I was there, it was building; we just turned around and all of a sudden it was there, this horrible thing that destroyed economies on both sides of the line. I know my own father's business was very dependent on the goodwill and business and trade from people in northern Mexico. We knew their families and went to their weddings and baptisms and balls and picnics, and we had a great time with them. Because my dad had a huge hardware store, and they came up to Tucson (to) do their shopping.

"We regularly shopped in Nogales. It was a wonderful place then, and had beautiful things in the stores and had wonderful food. And when they put that fence up, they cut all that commerce off and that's what creates understanding and awareness of each other and good trade relations."

The thing that will really sting is when she says she likes going to Mexico because, these days, it's more like Tucson than Tucson is.

She also calls out those hollowed-out asshats who gathered to scream abuse at children who had crossed the border:

"We allow Cubans to come in and say that they're refugees. Well, in Cuba — I've been there, you know — people are fed, people are housed, people are clothed. There isn't violence in the streets. Here, people are coming from places where there's just terrible violence. Parts of Mexico that are incredibly violent, and Honduras, which is just unspeakably violent right now.

"These children are just fleeing for their lives, their parents are just sending them out because it's the only way that they have of living — into a terrible, dangerous journey and an uncertain future in the United States that is populated with people that seem to hate them — that's how desperate they are."

Linda Rondstadt: she was right when she suggested Mr Plow might be both a loser and a boozer; she's even more right now.

Arizona drains: Artists cancel, but slowly

With the new 'papers, please' law targeting people who don't look like the right sort of person in Arizona, there's a gentle cultural backlash starting to gather pace:

Hip-hop acts Pitbull and Cypress Hill have canceled upcoming shows in Arizona to protest the new law, which will take effect July 29. The legislation will require local authorities to determine a person's immigration status if he or she is suspected of being undocumented.

Banda star Jenni Rivera and reggaeton chart-toppers Wisin & Yandel are skipping the state on their AEG Live-promoted summer tours, while Mexican acts Conjunto Primavera and Espinoza Paz have canceled their previously announced concerts in Phoenix.

Amongst those seemingly quite happy to have their identities questioned by playing Arizona in the coming months are Tony Bennett, 50 Cent, She And Him, Iron Maiden, Athlete and Kings Of Leon. Imagine what sort of message that lot pulling out would make.

Dylan gigs cancelled due to risk of the sun

Who knew? Holding outdoor gigs in Arizona during August could put people at the risk of health problems from the sun? Bob Dylan's gigs have been pulled as the thermometer hits 110. Fahrenheit, admittedly, but that's still weather you don't want to be outdoors in.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

Jim Louvau of the Arizona Republic attempts to keep a straight face watching Scott Weiland:

The lengthy set opened with Big Empty from The Crow soundtrack. Dressed in a grey suit Weiland stumbled around the stage and fell into drummer Eric Kretz's drum kit which confirmed he is now officially the Amy Winehouse of rock 'n' roll. When he did sing he often forgot words or changed them. "Conversations Kill" quickly became "Masturbation Kill."

The singer's incoherent rants in between songs were cut off by his band members starting the next song to stop the bleeding. Guitarist Dean DeLeo and his brother bassist Robert DeLeo looked humiliated as they ripped through classics like Wicked Garden, Big Bang Baby and Vasoline.

Gordon in the morning: Robbie Williams is not lost in space

Gordon returns to the Robbie Williams and the aliens story this morning:

ROBBIE WILLIAMS’ obsession with extra-terrestrials has just jumped to lightspeed.

Does an obsession travel at lightspeed?

The beardy pop nob has been spending his free time — which is about 18 hours, seven days a week — visiting observatories in the Arizona desert.

Gordon then goes on to have a bit of a laugh at the idea of Williams going to an observatory, of all places, to look at space. Can you imagine?

Now, while it's true that his obsession with aliens and chumming up with David Icke looks a little flaky, is hiking out to an array of telescopes to explore the possibility of life in other parts of the universe such an eccentric thing to do? After all, NASA was pumping out Beatles songs into space the other week, in the hope that some other worldly intelligence might hear them and thus create some demand for digital downloads of the back catalogue, and nobody started to suggest that NASA had lost its mind. And if Williams is interested in aliens, isn't it actually quite intelligent of him to head out to a place where serious scientific research is taking place to see what they're up rather than asking David Icke which members of the cabinet are shape-shifting aliens?

I know. This does constitute cutting Robbie some slack. I don't like it any more than you do.

Gordon, though, is showing exactly the same sort of grasp of science that makes mainstream journalism what it is today:

Rob has been peering through telescopes looking into space for signs of life on other planets.

Yes. He's squinting through a small tube telescope, Gordon. That's the way it works in Arizona.

Surely writing a new album is more important than staring at the heavens like eccentric, xylophone-playing Sky At Night TV host PATRICK MOORE?

Hmm. There's a slim possibility that Williams might - just might - discover something which suggests that humanity is not alone in the universe, with profound implications for our future as a species, politics, religion and ethics. On the other hand, he could make another record of eartosh. Do you want to check that you're ordering his priorities correctly, Gordon?

There's a strong argument that if other worlds send emissaries to Earth, you wouldn't perhaps want the gurning half-wit to be the one to meet them, but that's another question.

It's not clear why Gordon would be keen for Robbie to get back in the studio anyway:

He added: “I was lying on my sun lounger outside at night. Above me was a square thing that passed over my head silently and shot off.”

That was me, Robbie. I was launching copies of Rudebox at your gaff after 12 pints of Guinness...

If you're wondering why Smart might have lots of copies of Rudebox lying around in the first place, it's probably because his boss Victoria Newton gave the album such glowing reviews before she got into trouble with the lyrics of that one track and the column appeared to declare war on Williams.

Battle of the rock theme parks

Rock music had got by for half a century without any support from the theme park industry. Not anymore, though, for even as the ground is being broken on the Hard Rock Theme Park, a rival attraction is being planned for Eloy, Arizona.

This is Decades, where the rock-fun will be grouped into themed areas based around, well, decades:

Named "Decades," the park would feature themed rides and attractions nestled in decade "lands" — the '60s would reflect the British Invasion and Motown influence whereas the '80s would emphasis the music-video age.

Aha, so managing to turn the place's one possible saving grace as a fun destination for all the family - a place where generations can come together and share their music - into a place where the different tiers of family will want to go to "their" part of the park, leading to rows, misery and sulking.