PJ Harvey goes down; Bono wears jeans made of 'textiles" from developing countries...

The heartbreak of being PJ Harvey: No place to go but down? Is that PJ Harvey fretting about falling into an irreversible artistic decline? Uh huh, her.

"In the waning days of her sold-out tour ... Harvey's been taking stock of her career, her future, and she isn't entirely pleased. ...Not with her seventh and latest album ... and not with its predecessor ... which won Britain's esteemed Mercury Prize..."

"I always have to feel like I'm learning new things, and I don't want to do anything unless I feel I've done a great, great piece. That this world is a better place for it."

The reporter tells you what she eats and wears, in case you wish to run out to eat and wear the same things.

"Sipping a cup of green tea [not regular brown tea] with milk at a hotel cafe, [Harvey] didn't look the part of a panicked artist. She was dressed in black -- leather jacket, shoulder-baring top -- but not morose..."

"Watching her perform at the Wiltern last month, you'd never guess she was experiencing something of a career crisis. Live, she was as engaging and dynamic as ever, a petite apparition in teal pumps and a red dress..."

"When Harvey's tour ends...she intends 'to find her feet for a while.'"

The sad Harvey will only star in a film next...

"She has no plans other than to star in a film next year. The details of which she won't reveal..."

"All I know is I have to do something differently...whatever that might be."

=========
On the East Coast, get appraised of the geopolitical greatness of Bono, from The New York Times.

Datelined Dublin!!!

"...That night Bono was off to his other job as free-lance do-gooder. 'Saving the world is now a daily chore,' he joked. He was [going to save the world] at a fashion show for Edun, a company he and his wife own; the clothes are made in Africa [imagine, clothes made by people in Africa!] from textiles made in developing countries, a practical signal of Bono's conviction that poor countries need trade as much as aid. He was wearing a pair of Edun jeans...a black sports jacket and a dark blue shirt unbuttoned to reveal a wooden cross around his neck." [And the adjacent photo showed Bono resplendent in gown and mortar board while receiving a vanity degree from the University of Pennsylvania.]

"While Bono was meeting with world leaders, The Edge was stockpiling aggressive guitar parts."

"A conversation with Bono inevitably takes broad leaps from personal memories to economic theories of music...and the state of the world.
...Bono mentions his discussions with, among others, Ethiopia's prime minister; Wim Wender's cinematographer; Beyonce Knowles; Johnny Cash [but he's dead, you know]; and Steve Jobs...

Bono's next task: The rebuilding of Falouja.