Kerry for President, Mayo for Sam.

The big match is on Sunday. Tickets are as scarce as hens teeth. None have come my way so it looks like I'll watch the game in one of Castlebar's friendly drinkin' establishments. Up Mayo!

A tree. 

Quite entertaining. What would you do if you found someone's digital camera memory card? Post the photos on the web and write a blog around them of course...

The Rock & Roll Hall of Shame.

Into classic cameras? How about the Rolleiflex MiniDigi?

The UK National Trust has preserved a photo studio as it was 50 years ago.

Memory card survives explosion that destroys the camera - and records the moment of impact.

Can you name a guitar heroine?

I've been pretty much out of touch with what Mark E. Smith and the Fall have been doing since about 1989 so I went to their gig in the Roisin largely out of a sense of historical curiosity. But, bloody hell if it wasn't one of the very best concerts I've ever been at. Maybe they only played for little over an hour but the band had the crowd in such a frenzy from the word go that by the time they had sauntered off the stage the audience seemed too knackered to even attempt anything more than the most whimpering calls for an encore. But an encore did come, and while I was distracted by a face-off between a nutcase and a bowsie that was threatening to erupt into fullscale flailing, I could only wonder if The Fall were always this good and why had I written Mark E Smith and his merry crew off for a full decade and a half just because his songs used to give me a pain in the head. How can somebody that looks like a resident of a Salford doss house manage to summon a force that is more funk, more indie, more downright uncompromising rock n'roll than just about anything else being produced today? And while my tinnitus and I recover, here's the Fall Video Repository to amuse yourselves with (check out the videos from The Knitting Factory NY from April this year for a flavour of what was on show in Galway).

PS: Fans review the gig.

If you live near Galway, keep your eye's peeled for this chap. There's a cool $1 million reward on his head and he's already been spotted around here.

Perfect for the Irish summer: Guniness Stout Ice Cream.

German(?) flash game: Walk the drunk home.

Smarter than your average songwriter: An interview with Sufjan Stevens.

18th century English artist William Hogarth's 'The Analysis of Beauty'. Apparently, it's all to do with the serpentine line.

"A way beyond the itchcebob
and over the proofran sea
you'll find a place called Stoogeland
where very soon you'll be..."

-Track 119 of the fascinating Funhouse Sessions boxset.
Even the 30 second samples ROCK. Via the spiffing new layout Allmusic.com.

Womenfolk: The blog dedicated to women in music.

An American author's bad experiences of Galway.

Online stream of "The Golden Apples of the Sun": An Arthur Magazine compilation of the best new folk music as selected by Devendra Banhart.

Weird. The Warlords of Pez doing it for for the kids. (64k video via thumped.com)

Go on, get it off your chest: iWorkWithFools.com