Vic Chesnutt: UPDATE

The reports of Vic Chesnutt's death are unconfirmed. He is apparently still in a coma:

However, as of about an hour ago, new information has surfaced that Chesnutt has not died and is indeed still in a coma. As one Examiner piece notes, there has been no official word released, and many a death article (such as one in Spinner) have been re-written to fix the errors. The Wall Street Journal published an article about a half hour ago that says Chesnutt is alive. It quotes a couple of people close to Chesnutt, including the head of Constellation Records:

“There is no truth to the rumour that Vic has died,” said Don Wilkie, co-founder of Constellation, addressing rumors on the Web. “He remains alive.”

The Examiner piece also pointed to a comment on another Examiner site believed to be made by Jem Cohen. Here’s what Cohen wrote:

Vic Chesnutt is not dead. I am with him at the hospital in Georgia, and while he is in serious coma, we do not know what the outcome will be. Vic has survived serious comas in the past. Please do not report misinformation. You owe that to his family and friends, as well as to journalistic ethics.
Thank you.
Jem Cohen

Scurvy Bastard says:

"Hey, Pa," yelled Zeke, leaping barefoot across the front porch and into the kitchen. "There's some folks done snuck into the barn and the woman's gone and birthed a baby! They got it laying in the trough, wrapped in a feed sack." "That's the least of our worries son, look up yonder hill... looks like 3 terrorists headed this way."

America's health system (part fugn whatever...)

“Right now, I’m in huge trouble in that the hospital is suing me for $35,000, which is terrifying, and the rub is that I have health insurance. I have hospitalization insurance, for which I pay almost $500 a month, and then on top of that I still owe the hospital $35,000. That is truly an insane system. I did everything right and I’m still under the gun.”

 Vic Chesnutt - Spinner Magazine October 2009

NPR Tiny Desk concert

小鳥ピヨピヨのいちる撮影。以下にインタビューあり！

(Thanx Stan)

Vic Chesnutt RIP Still in coma

Vic Chesnutt, a singer-songwriter known for his painful and poignant songs, died tonight (Dec. 24) after an apparent suicide attempt. The news was reported by numerous Internet sources and confirmed for Billboard.com by Henry Owings, a writer and friend of Chesnutt's from Athens, Ga. An official statement from Chesnutt's family has not yet been released. He was 45.

 The news about the singer's condition first spread through the Internet on Wednesday through Twitter posts by former Throwing Muses singer Kristin Hersh, who has collaborated with Chesnutt.

 "Another suicide attempt, looks bad, coma--if he survives, there may be brain damage," said Hersh in one of her posts. "This time, it's real scary: *this* time, he left a note, *this* time, he asked them to call me."

 Chesnutt, 45, has been in a wheelchair since a car accident when he was 18, and was discovered in the late '80s by R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, who produced his first two albums. Since then, Chesnutt has released 13 more albums, including two this year, "At the Cut" and "Skitter on Take-Off."

@'Billboard' 

UPDATE

Remember...

...that this time of the year can be a very difficult time for lots of people for a number of reasons...

Sometimes random acts of senseless kindness can make YOU feel a whole lot better too!

If things get too tough, for whatever reason you can always ring Direct Line if you are in Melbourne.

1800 888 236 (24 hours)
OR
Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
if you are a young person.
Believe me there are people who will listen to you out there.

Unreleased Pop Group song(s)

The MySpazz page for 'Bristol Archive Records' has a number of songs from The Pop Group currently on the player.

'The Truth Is Feeling' is not one I have come across before...
Actually I have but not under that title
Possibly the Hugh Cornwell produced demos?
Anyone out there know for sure?

(Thanx Richard)

Raica - Breaky Christmas (mp3/FLAC)

Details

HERE

James Gurley RIP

Big Brother and the Holding Company, the band that accompanied Janis Joplin on her rise to fame in the late 1960s, lost its former guitarist, James Gurley, to a heart attack earlier this week. He was 69. Gurley was born in Detroit on December 22, 1939. In 1962, he moved to San Francisco and became part of the coffee house scene, playing mostly folk music, country and blues.  The guitarist was introduced to Big Brother and the Holding Company's Peter Albin and Sam Andrew by legendary promoter Chet Helms in the summer of 1965, and joined the band shortly thereafter.
In June of 1966, Joplin joined the band. She and Gurley shared a brief affair while performing together. Gurley died only two days shy of his 70th birthday.

Busted again!

Via 'Mogadonia'

The complete 

'International Times'
archive

 HERE

Bibliokleptomaniacs dig god… and beatniks

Bookworms are an interesting sort. Some compulsively hoard literary nuggets until their shelves sag and creak, yet never bother to actually read their collection. Others can barely tear themselves away from the freshly-vacuumed bookstore corner in which they devour the newest Malcolm Gladwell for fear that the trip home will forever interrupt their cozy date. There are bookworms with Kindles, and bookworms juggling the four paperbacks they’re reading at once. There are bookworms who get turned on by first editions, and bookworms keen on newer, abstract renditions. There are bookworms who follow the Tao of Oprah, and others who only listen to Deepak Chopra.
But perhaps the most intriguing bookworm of all is the bibliokleptomaniac, or what we like to call the kleptobrainiac. These people are book thieves, the nerdiest outlaws this side of Hogwarts. Fascinated? Appalled? Exposed?
In Margo Rabb’s recent New York Times essay, we learn that only 40 percent of books that are read are paid for, and only 28 percent are purchased new. What about the rest? They’re shared, lent, given away or stealthily taken by a customer with a case of the happy hands.
Depending on who you ask, the number one shoplifted book of modern times is either The Bible or The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. After these two, (and like these two) the top 10 list is male-penned. In fact, according to store owners surveyed by Rabb, the most-nicked books share two things: fiction as a genre and a male author...

@'Flavouwire' 

Only in the US I suspect that the bible would be the most nicked book, they obviously hadn't got up to the "thou shalt not steal" part...

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects

Just stumbled on this beauty of an xmas song by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. I love the little "ho-ho-ho" that she throws in there towards the end. I love her singing, and the Dap-Kings...those dudes can fucking play. If you haven't seen their live act, you are truly missing out. The next time they play near you, do whatever it takes to get there. Take out another mortgage on the house, break open your mama's piggy bank, becanse they're that good.

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings > Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects



@'Pop Molecule'

Yello - Jingle Bells

Amy Winehouse charged with assault

Amy Winehouse was charged Wednesday in connection with an assault at a theater, police said.

The 26-year-old soul diva was arrested after she presented herself at a police station with her lawyer, Thames Valley Police said in a statement.

She was charged with a public order offense and common assault under the name Amy Civil, following a Saturday incident at Milton Keynes Theater, police said. Winehouse was granted a divorce from her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, in July.

She is free on bail and must appear in court on Jan. 20.

Police did not provide details on the incident, but British media have reported that the singer allegedly struggled with a member of the theater's staff after heckling at a performance.

Winehouse was acquitted earlier this year of assaulting a fan who asked to take her picture, after a judge said he could not be sure whether she lashed out at the woman deliberately. Prosecutors said Winehouse was drunk when she punched the woman in the eye, but the singer said she had merely acted to fend away an over-friendly fan.

Winehouse shot to international stardom with the Grammy-winning album "Back to Black" in 2006, but her music has been overshadowed by reports of drug use, run-ins with the law and a tempestuous marriage.

@'HuffPo'