Cave and AA Gill

Off-topic culture update.
I've been listening to Nick Cave again. He's an all-time fave, and I found a CD of Nocturama (released on Mute, 2003) that had a free DVD I'd never bothered playing in the five years I've owned it. It's a video of the the breathless 15-minute non-stop 'Babe, I'm on fire.' And it's funny. More so because Cave is viewed, by many, as a miserable get. Cave has been recording for nearly 30 years and, except for Boatman's Call - a mawkish bleat about breaking up with PJ Harvey - every new album has been bloody killer. He's relentlessly brilliant.

Also relentlessly brilliant is the book I've just finished, Previous Convictions by AA Gill. It's a collection of features about everything from stag shooting in Scotland to visiting Iraq with Jeremy Clarkson. It is superbly written. And, because it's a collection of newspaper and magazine columns (from The Times, Sunday Times, GQ and others), you can read a bit, leave it alone, read a bit more... But I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended... GI