Oh to be delinquent from the blog! A rare delight. And yet there it sits, unposted-to, radiating its neglect throughout the Internet. A few things have been collected nonetheless, so here's a roundup:

Unlike 9/11, there seems to be some good art emerging from the Katrina disaster. Impromptu refrigerator art is one example, but there are good personal stories, too. I've really liked Operation Eden, one writer and photographer's personal story of returning home to the Gulf Coast. He photographs the ruins of his mother's house and the faces of various random survivors with eerie yet candid lighting; the overall effect reminds me somehow of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, although the style is very different. (Geeks will enjoy the description of how he blogs from his car.)

Meanwhile, the indiepop kids are all a-twitter over this article, which purports to lay out the history of the movement, and succeeds, to some degree. Obviously no one is going to be happy with anything less than an encyclopedic account that represents everybody, which is impossible. But the only paragraph I take serious issue with is this one:

At the same time, we've seen the rise of something analogous to the hardcore bands of the 80s. It's the underground world of post-hardcore noise where things are really happening, and along with that has come an old schism--between the tough punks and the drama geeks... Chances of some woman recording a series of weird, girly four-track songs in her bedroom and offering them up to the world like a beautiful private gift, the way Liz Phair once did: slim.

Why slim? Seems like the whole point of the article, and of indiepop, is that doing your own weird, nerdy thing is laudable and, indeed in some circles, cool. Or did I misunderstand and all the bedsit singers are just too busy doing podcasts now?

Finally, I am in growing-out-bangs hell, so what I really need is one of these. Alas, they don't seem to make them any more. And yet I see much uglier and more useless fashion statements daily, like the Ugg boots that will not die. Why god why?