In Which We Offer a Collection of Goods

1. Chris Cornell’s solo album, “Carry On”, comes out June 5th. What I’ve heard so far sounds tasty.

2. Despite being a ‘witty’ guitarist (as my friend Davis once described him), Chris’ one time band mate and R.A.T.M. guitarist Tom Morello’s new independent project The Nightwatchman is, unfortunately, pretty average awful. Talk about making it in the industry by resting on your laurels. I feel better about the music I write now.

3. Here is the second installment of the Wilson/Hitchens debate. Though he tries to make a comeback in instalment three, and takes a few dazed swings in Wilson’s general direction in installment four, it appears that Hitchens already has his back to the ropes and is trying to wrap Wilson in a sweaty, desperate bear-hug. I expected a better fight. For all of his (substantial) writing skills, Hitchen’s trash talk looks like it was just that: Talk. He doesn’t seem to be able to follow Wilson’s very basic arguments. Maybe sparring with Kirk Cameron and the Revrund Sharpton have made him soft.

4. I’m currently starting 2 new books: My Antonia and The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (yes, that’s really the subtitle: yikes!). I have to admit, I’m not excited about either, but here I go anyway. Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by at least one.

5. Steve Bishop has an interesting discussion of annihilationism here. Hadn’t really thought much about this topic, but I like the idea that it will ruffle both liberal and fundamentalist feathers alike.

6. Portishead are, by all appearances, still working on their third studio album. The word is that a release date is immanent. In the meantime, here’s a video of a live performance of “Wandering Star”, one of my alltime favorites, sans drums, which gives it a very creepy vibe. Here’s praying they hop the pond for a few shows.