The band of the hour is Finland's Husky Rescue. I'd heard both their name and their song "Summertime Cowboy" from 2005's Country Falls before, but never managed to put it all together. Their music is generally down-tempo, lush pop-rock, but that doesn't seem to really capture their sound. "Summertime Cowboy" has a distinct '70s disco kitsch to it, but in general it's lead singer Reeta-Leena Korhola's beautiful, understated voice that gives the music a sense of continuity. Think Beck's Sea Change mixed with equal parts Royksopp and Air. And of course they get bonus points for a) being Finnish and b) having a hot lead singer.

Husky Rescue / "Summertime Cowboy" (left-click yousendit)
Husky Rescue / "City Lights" (left-click yousendit)

*****

James Carville tells Thomas Friedman why energy policy could be a difference maker in the November elections.

[Energy Security] should "not be part of an expanding litany, but rather a contracting narrative," explained Carville. "It can't just be that we are for a woman's right to choose, and education and energy independence. This is the thing we need to get done above and beyond everything else." People should associate "energy security" with Democrats the way they associate "tax cuts" with Republicans, he argued. "This is not something to add to the stew — this is the stock."

The best way for a party that is often viewed as weak on national security to overcome that is to be for energy independence, he noted. Indeed, nothing would be more potent for Democrats than to capture energy security and all the issues that surround it — from improving our trade deficit by not importing more oil to improving the climate to improving U.S. competitiveness by making us leaders in alternative fuels.

*****



The Departed is as good as everyone is saying it is. Jack Nicholson? Badass as ever. Leo DiCaprio? Fantastic, gritty performance...his Titannic wussiness has been totally redeemed. Matt Damon? Surprisingly excellent. And then you've got Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg nailing their roles as hardass (but often hilarious) cops. Best picture, checkmark. Throw in Vera Farmiga as the secretly hot and vaguely attainable female star in the middle of the action, and THAT is a movie.

*****

Pitchfork does a long interview with Mew leading Jonas Bjerre.

******


Insert joke here.

3-D is dead:

In this astonishing photo, a model is wearing a new gadget, from electronics manufacturer Toshiba, that enables the wearer to experience a full 360-degree view on a 40 centimetre dome-shaped screen.

But, looking more like the helmet from Neil Armstrong's space suit than the next must-have gizmo, this three kilo full-faced helmet might make it a little tricky to relax with a drink in front of the football...

******

The only thing cooler than a robot that can solve any rubik's cube in under 50 seconds is one that looks scary as hell while doing it.

******

Chuck Klosterman tackles the mystery of the barefoot kicker.

There were two schools as to why people kicked barefoot. Neither made any sense. The first was that it provided the kicker with a better "feel" for the ball itself and that this gave him greater control of its trajectory; I recall an argument that claimed making a kicker wear a shoe was like making a quarterback wear a mitten. I can only assume this argument was made by people who threw like Garo Yepremian. The second theory was that shoes and socks absorb kinetic energy, so kicking flesh-to-leather created more torque; proponents of this hypothesis claim barefoot kicking naturally disappeared after the advent of the American soccer shoe (soccer cleats have less padding at the point of contact). I can only assume this argument was made by Kenneth G. Wilson, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for physics. Frankly, I don't think anyone ever knew why barefoot kicking was supposed to work (including Jeff Wilkins, who was still experimenting with this voodoo in 2002). Barefoot kicking was just something people tried because other people were trying it, too. And then they all stopped. And in football, this happens all the time. It seems to drive the nature of the game.

******



Phil Ball writes about the latest player to emerge from the Barca machine.

This is the beauty of Iniesta. Whilst all around him is fireworks, he just gets on with lighting the fuse. You don't actually notice him half the time. He hangs around in a vaguely forward position in midfield, always supporting the player with the ball, always available. He often just moves the ball on, like Xavi, ensuring that possession is retained.

Jorge Valdano recently remarked of him that he embodies the concept of 'tocar y acompañar' (pass and support) - the hardest thing to do in football effectively. He looks undernourished, with skinny legs and prematurely thinning hair. He's the archetype of the quiet, nerdy kid who never got picked at school for the rough-and-tumble playground games. He looks slightly weird, like he needs to get home fast for his Gameboy fix.

As a player, he has no pace, little strength, and a lack of conspicuous circus tricks. Then suddenly you see it. As soon as a space opens up ahead of him, he slips into it like a wriggly worm, bending and flexing like a little elastic man. In the blink of an eye he's opened up the defence, panicked them into conceding more spaces for the attackers to exploit. His passing is quick and deadly, like De la Peña's before him. But he is more complete than the flawed Little Buddha, a player whose lack of generosity always let him down. Iniesta is there for everyone else. He rarely scores goals (for which some commentators criticise him), but he makes them a-plenty.

In the meantime, Messi and Ronaldinho are still filthy.