across the street from the concert hall

somewhere in Ixelles (Brussels neighbourhood famed for its Art Nouveau buildings)

Joshua Bell - just another street fiddler. Great article. [via The Rest Is Noise guest-blogger Justin Davidson]

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(The Wikipedia entry on "Doctor Who in America" is excellent. However, is does somehow omit the fact that the second-prize winner of the look-alike contest in the 1984 Chicago Doctor Who convention was the 11-year old Ethan Iverson, dressed as Jon Pertwee.)

A prize that no doubt holds pride of place on Ethan's mantelpiece.

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Brian Olewnick, well-known as a talking head on all those PBS documentaries dedicated to Keith Rowe, has a funny anecdote.

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Le Monde rounds up videos of the controversial Swiss, Israeli and Ukranian Eurovision entries. The Swiss one stretches the boundaries of credulity in the way Eurovision contestants usually do. "Vampires Are Alive" is a mix of Blade, "Thriller" and... Richard Gere(?) set to absurdly dated euro-dance, by the guy who brought you "Chihuahua." Ukraine's shares Sun Ra's fashion sense. I actually like Israel's "Push The Button", a stylistic and linguistic mash-up: "I wanna see the flowers bloom/ Don't wanna go kaboom kaboom." France's song does its own linguistic mashing and is uncharacteristically funny. What about Belgium's contestant? The less said about it, the better...