Here you will find a collection of links to things that caught my eye this past week. Things of interest, things of delight. Works of beauty or not, here’s a bunch of links:

Read the Telegraph’s interview with Sufjan Stevens, who says of his alleged “50 Albums for 50 States” project, “I think the remark was flippant initially,” Stevens says ruefully of his “sound of a nation” plan. “I never meant this to be my life’s work. I have so many other things I love to do. I’d love to teach writing in a university setting later in life.”

Browse the list of “songs of the year so far” compiled by NPR’s “All Songs Considered” and featuring “Margaret vs. Pauline” by personal favorite Neko Case.

Read Will’s introduction to buying a digital camera.

Read the Louisville Courier-Journal’s article about the RIAA’s continued use of lawsuits against internet account holders, regardless of who might be illegally downloading music. Included are two grandmothers sued because their grandchildren used their computers.

Read NPR’s list of the 100 best fictional characters (ht: lhb).

Read USA Today’s article profiling personal standby Emusic and while you’re at it,

Sign up for eMusic, expose yourself to a world of new music and help me get free downloads in the process! The article notes that “EMusic believes that copy-protecting files hinders sales” and that “It sells only independent label music.” The article also includes the interesting quote: “”The majors have caused themselves nothing but grief with DRM,” says Sturgeon. “What are they protecting? Any kid can figure out how to get around it. What they are really saying is, ‘I don’t trust my consumer.”

Look into my ears and see what I’ve been listening to at the Last.fm site which uses a plugin called “Audio Scrobbler” to track the music you listen to and then make recommendations on your established listening patterns.

Send a Bible to China through VoM’s “Bibles Unbound” program.

Become a drug dealer and help distribute AIDS medicines to Africa.

Watch this video of guitarist Kaki King on Conan or watch this video of her on Letterman. To see where she learned some of it, watch this video of Preston Reed.

Read Pitchfork’s review of the Pitchfork music festival. The piece includes and interview with the band Man Man that begins with the journalistically insightful question: “Why are you guys so good?”

Browse the new “Baby Loves Jazz” series of books, compact discs and videos featuring Duck Ellington, Miles the Crocodile and Ella Elephant.

Read MSNBC’s article about Alice Cooper planning to build a 20,000 square foot teen center in Phoenix.

Read “Relevant” magazine’s article “When is Art Christian?”

Read the New York Times article about a 5,000 (now 4,000) that lost 1,000 of its members over political (or lack thereof) sermons.

Read CNN’s article noting that authors John Irving and Stephen King have asked J.K. Rowling to spare Harry Potter’s life in the last installment of the series.

See Mark’s “Wrestler of the Week,” Flyin Bryan Pillman.

Read Justin Taylor’s guest-blogger Greg Gilbert’s post regarding the Worship God ‘06 conference, which our worship team will be attending.

Browse Wikipedia’s list of musicians by academic degrees.

Read CNN’s article about Mel Gibson’s recent DUI arrest and accompanying anti-Semitic remarks.

Read this Washington Times article which claims that Rudolf Bultmann “repented” before dying.

Read the article “Jimmy Carter: A Terrorist’s Best Friend”