From the Matthew Herbert mailing-list: "the new album is based all around books, reading, paper and things associated with the creation and consumption of literature, and heres what we would like you to do (you can do all 3, or just one (or none at all obviously)). in return, we will credit you on the album and to the first 100 people we will send a promo copy of the new doctor rockit single on vinyl or cd.

firstly we would like you to record the sound of you dropping your local telephone directory on the floor. it should be a residential phone book rather than one that is a list of businesses. it would probably work best if you can stand on a chair and drop it squarely downwards. if you are technically minded you can email us your recording of this noise as an mp3 file, wav file, aiff file or quicktime file to the following address: [email protected]". Full text: Matthew Mail. More info on the Matthew Herbert Big Band.

If you think Enron was bad, read this (in german, 'Operation Blaue Donau'). It describes, in short, how the government of Lower Austria (Province) founded a private but state owned legal entity for hiding a debt risk of 2.3 bn Euros, so that the financial data reported to Brussels seemed way better than it was. And it shows how weak Eurostat is when it comes to disputes with national governments. Hmm, still no dollar for an euro.

Nice, really nice: www.transporter.at. Meanwhile in the same building, some people made music, combined it with the sounds of others, and released a nice compilation.