HEART OF DARKNESS

As some of you may know I have a new band with ROSTAM, CHRIS and CHRIS called VAMPIRE WEEKEND (yes it has the same name as the forthcoming film). We played our second ever show last Saturday at the Columbia RELAY 4 LIFE. It was a very positive experience.

We don't have any finished recordings as a full band but Rostam did a sweet techo remix of our first song "Walcott." He also made a nice website for it:

CHECK IT OUT

The song basically recapitulates the plot of the film but also contains trace elements of poetry.

St. Patrick's Day Massacre

After returning from five days in sunny San Juan I was greeted by both the harsh cold of winter in New York AND a seriously devastating population fact:

the population of Ireland is 4,015,676.

I realize that not everyone is as into population facts as me, but let me try and put this in perspective.

-The population of the USA (!) is 295,734,134

-The population of New York City is 8,168,338

-The population of the UK is 60,441,457

-The population of London is 7.5 million

-The population of Italy is 58,103,033

-The population of Finland is 5,223,442

-The population of Luxembourg is 468,571

This seriously blows my mind. I've tried to convey this mind-blowingness to other people, but NO ONE'S FEELING MY VIBE. Can you believe that Ireland is closer in size to Luxembourg (both in real terms and proportionally) than to the UK?



I have a bad tendency to equate population size with coolness and I have a serious soft spot for Ireland and its peoplez so this is NOT adding up for me. When the Wes Man and I realized that Columbus, Ohio had a bigger population than Boston we started planning imaginary road trips there.

The population of Puerto Rico is 3,916,632. The area of that island is 9,104 sq km.

Ireland has almost the same population but its area is 70,280 sq km.

I know there must be tons of good reasons (potato famine, this etc.) why Ireland has such a WEAK population, but STILL!

If anyone out there is as surprised by this as I am, CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT IT?
Maybe I should try to go here.

There were 1/4 as many people at the NY St. Patrick's Day parade as there are ON THE WHOLE ISLAND OF EIRE (1/6 if you count Northern Ireland).



Anyway, HOW ABOUT SOME GOOD NEWS?

GET READY AND GET PSYCHED FOR SOME INDIAN MANGOS.



All you AMERICA-HATERS better write George W. an apology letter because on his recent trip to INDIA he finagled a SWEET DEAL which is gonna give us DELICIOUS INDIAN MANGOS at our supermarkets. I'm not sure what India got in return. Maybe some uranium hot dogs or something...

This is from a transcript of Bush and Singh's press conference:

PRESIDENT BUSH: And, oh, by the way, Mr. Prime Minister, the United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangos. Part of liberalizing trade is to open up markets. And as a result of your leadership, and our hard work, we are opening up markets.

You know Bush doesn't actually like mangos. He only eats BBQ. He's trying to make peace with all the blue-state food snobs.

Peeps with TIMES SELECT can learn more here.

Also props to Alec for putting out some positive vibes over on prosebeforehos.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

DROUGHT IN PHOENIX! THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN IN 2006! BELIEVE IT OR NOT!


KITES BANNED IN PAKISTAN! THIS OTHER-WORLDLY PICTURE TAKEN IN AFGHANISTAN!

"People are dying, and we are celebrating!" said Khawaja Izhar, 75, the chairman of Anti-Kite Flying Democratic Front. "Why allow kite flying for even a brief period?"

AND ME? I'M GOING ON VACATION. SPRING BREAK '0666!