WRAPPED UP IN BOOKS

Is there anything better than receiving a package early?

I gots books, and they're everything I was expecting and more:

MORE, MORE, MORE

She's just impossibly beautiful, isn't she?

WEDNESDAY GIRL

Mia Farrow

I DO LIKE TO BE B-SIDE THE A-SIDE

Also (because I just posted this list elsewhere), my top 10 Manic Street Preachers b-sides (at the moment):

1. "Donkeys," ("Roses in the Hospital," 1993)
2. "Patrick Bateman," ("La Tristesse Durera," 1993)
3. "Montana/Autumn/78," ("If You Tolerate This, Your Children are Next," 1998)
4. "Prologue to History," ("If You Tolerate This, Your Children are Next," 1998)
5. "Are Mothers Saints?" ("Life Becoming a Landslide," 1994)
6. "Mr. Carbohydrate," ("A Design for Life," 1996)
7. "Fear of Motion," ("Let Robeson Sing," 2001)
8. "Anorexic Rodin," ("Indian Summer," 2007)
9. "No One Knows What it's Like to Be Me," ("Everything Must Go," 1996)
10. "I'm Leaving You for Solitude," ("It's Not War - Just the End of Love," 2010)

DON'T BE EVIL

The lines have all been blurred
To the point of no return
The sickos and the bullies praise your name
You then wrench their lives with pleasure and fame

As corporate as a suit you won't wear
As stupid as the jeans you tear
As evil as the pretence you care
God save us all from Satan's stare

Oh, don't be evil
Just be corporate
And fool the world with your own importance
Betray your tedium for the world to see
Your own movie star and it's for free

The lines have all been blurred
To the point of no return
With normal people living normal lives
Normal things seen through normal eyes

As corporate as the suit you won't wear
As stupid as the jeans you tear
As evil the pretence you care
God save us all from Satan's stare

Oh, don't be evil
Just be corporate
And fool the world with your own importance

Betray your tedium for the world to see
Your own movie star and it's for free

Oh, don't be evil
Just be corporate
And fool the world with your own importance
Betray your tedium for the world to see
Your own movie star and it's for free

The music's going
The sun is showing
The printed word is all done and dusted

Oh, don't be evil
Just be corporate
And fool the world with your own importance

The music's going
The sun is showing
Pretend technology made us equal

Oh, don't be evil
Just be corporate
And fool the world with your own importance

MICHAEL

He's the brother of Sean, the husband of Aimee Mann; here is the incredibly underrated Michael Penn and here are my top 10 favorite Michael Penn songs:

1. "Room 712, The Apache," (Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947, 2005)

2. "Out of its Misery," (MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident, 2000)

3. "No Myth," (March, 1989)

4. "Me Around," (Resigned, 1997)

5. "Whole Truth," (MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident, 2000)

6. "Try," (Resigned, 1997)

7. "All That That Implies," (Resigned, 1997)

8. "Walter Reed," (Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947, 2005)

9. "Selfish," (Resigned, 1997)

10. "Perfect Candidate," (MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident, 2000)

PARIS BLUES

A pair of Style Council videos shot for French television in 1984. The picture quality is bad on these, but it's interesting to finally see them after reading about them several years ago in Iain Munn's excellent TSC book, Mr. Cool's Dream...

VIDEO

SHINY AND NEW

I'm on Newsarama today, talking about the new Image Comics app launched in tandem with comiXology.

I'm also on comiXology, or at least my graphic novella Long Hot Summer is. Featuring some of Phonogram artist Jamie McKelvie's first comics work, the digital version is now available here. And it looks great on the iPad!