"Can't you see I'm driving?"

At the 2009 TED convention (Technology, Entertainment, Design), author Elizabeth Gilbert talked about 'creative genius'. In that speech, she mentions Tom Waits, who she interviewed for GQ Magazine in 2002. 

It's a long video (over 19 minutes) and if you don't want to watch the whole thing, you can fast forward to about 12:30, where she talks about how Waits copes with inspiration. 

Over 100 twitter followers

Title says it all, really: over 100 people are following The Eyeball Kid on Twitter.

Some more statistics 1.179 readers subscribe to the rss feed and 1.143 subscribed to the e-mail. 

Lowside US book signings

To celebrate the U.S. publication of Lowside of the road: a life of Tom Waits, writer Barney Hoskyns is flying to LA for a book signing session at the Mr Musichead Gallery on May 16th 15th.  The shop will also display 12 images by 6 different photographers chronicling Tom Waits' carreer. That exhibition runs through May 31st.

On May 15 16, you can find Mr. Hoskyns at the Book Soup in West Hollywood.

Philadelphia tribute night

The Fire (412 W. Girard Ave. Philadelphia PA 19123) is putting on a Tom Waits Tribute Night, on April 4 30. 

Artists featured are Andrew Lipke, Paper Masques, Cheap Dinosaurs, Grimace Federation, The Freeway Snakes, The Matt Helm Scream, Wes Mattheu & the New Way Down, Skrappy & the Swinging Foxes, TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb, Johnny Miles, Cowmuddy, Nate Farrar ,Goldiebox and Lady.

Tickets over at Ticketweb.

Twitter account suspended

"Sorry, the account you were headed to has been suspended due to strange activity." That is what you get when trying to visit twitter.com/tomwaits. 

Not that anyone ever believed it was actually Waits tweeting. Or maybe Nick Cave did: "Just found out @tomwaits is a fake. Confused. Upset. I've been meeting him for coffee for months!" is his reaction. But then again, he's fake as well. 

Live recordings

I hope you all got your  vinyl single on Record Store Day. 

The 7'' with live tracks from the 2007 Glitter and Doom Tour features Lucinda/Ain’t Going Down to the Well (recorded in Atlanta GA) and Bottom of the World (recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are plenty of bootlegs floating around the internet, but this is the first live recording released since Big Time in 1988.

Dutch online shop Platomania still has some copies, but it's not clear if they ship abroad. Should you know any other (online) shops that have copies available, feel free to use the comments to point us in the right direction. 

If that has wet your appetite, you might want to check out Amazon, which also lists two dvd's with live performances these days: Romeo Bleeding: Live from Austin (a  1978 live set) is "unavailable at this moment", but A Broken Heart DVD ( a "rare promo DVD of Tom Waits performing in the early part of his career. Fantastic performance in Germany 1977") seems to be in stock. As far as I know, neither are official releases. 

Tom Waits is gay!

No, The Eyeball Kid has not turned into a tabloid but a lack of Waits-related news forces me to turn to the most unexpected sites to dig up something to keep your raindog hunger satisfied. 

And that's not a bad thing, because now we know Tom Waits is gay. 

Well, maybe he isn't acually gay, be we should definetly watch out for him and the influence he has over our children, according to LoveGodsWay.com. 

Why? Because 'one of the most dangerous ways Homosexuality invades family life is through popular music'. Mr. Waits is in good (or should I say 'bad'?) company: Coldplay, Bob Dylan, Metallica and Eminmen (sic)  are but a few names on the list of gay bands and artists to watch out for. 

'If you find three or more of these bands in their (i.e. your children's) collection it is time to take action. We strongly recommend that you burn the CDs.' What are you waiting for?

UPDATE (April 27, 2 pm):  Donnie Davis, the man behind the site might not be who he pretends to be... Thanks to Neil for pointing this out. 

No life on Mars for Tom Waits

Looks like Tom Waits refused to let one of his songs (Tom Traubert's Blues) to be used in the American version of the television series Life on Mars. 

'Tom Waits approves all of his licensing, and he sent an email saying he thought the show was [bad]', prefixmag.com quotes the show's producer Josh Appelbaum.

Musik & Mythos giveaway closed

The headline says it all: the Musik & Mythos giveaway is now closed. I'll be notifying the winners in the next few days. To all the other: better luck next time.