Obligations: Remember when Prince went around with “SLAVE” written on his forehead just because his record label wanted to pay him a few million dollars to finish up some albums? Well, the androgynously arrogant man of purple could learn a lot from Belfast’s hunka hunka burnin’ love Van Morrison. One day, circa 1967, Van the man sat down and wrote and recorded 31 songs on topics ranging from France, ringworms, royalty cheques and the desire for a Danish, just to get out of a label contract. Prune, cherry or poppy seed? You can hear all the songs and find out at http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/09/van_morrisons_c.html.

Scribbles: Remember those books from when you were a kid by a guy named Ed Emberley that showed you how to turn fingerprints and splotches into crazy-looking cartoony drawings? The Big Green book was a classic you probably ordered from Scholastic. Well, Japanese illustrator Toru Fukuda takes that crazy style as a point of departure to create illustrations that are part Rocky and Bullwinkle and part punk rock at >.

Comments? Michael Citrome