In case you haven’t heard, David Byrne takes his blogging very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that past entries to his official journal have taken on Czech Republic steel foundry/coal mine complexes, “The Kindle Experience,” and Bono. But in his latest rant/essay, Byrne goes a bit more apocalyptic. Check out “Internet Antichrist” here.

Whereas Fake Tom Waits joined Twitter in the early days, the real Tom Waits didn’t start tweeting until today. (It’s probably just an intern, but at least it’s an official ghost Twitterer or something.) Anti Records pointed their followers at the new page today with: “All the Wit and Wisdom of Tom Waits is now on Twitter! Follow @anti_tomwaits.”

So what’s he tweeting in there?

“Why wouldn’t Preservation Hall do a project with Tom Waits?” mused Ben Jaffe, musical director and son of Preservation Hall founders Allan and Sandra Jaffe, in a 2006 piece on the post-Katrina New Orleans music scene in the NY Times.

U2’s the Edge had just performed “Vertigo” with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at a benefit to replace instruments destroyed by the hurricane, including those of five Preservation Hall members who had lost their homes. The famous French Quarter music club was one of the first to reopen after the tragedy, but they needed (and still do) more star power to stay financially afloat.

Surely you know of guitarist, drummer, singer Jack White and perhaps you’ve heard of actor, upholsterer, philanthropist, or Luddite Jack White, but we’ve got a new one for you today: lecturer Jack White.

“I don’t know if Bob Dylan or Tom Waits are as authentic as I think they are. Perhaps they’re not,” White told Dublin’s Trinity College last night, according to NME, where he spoke and received an honory patron medal from the University Philosophical Society. “Sometimes you start thinking that maybe Britney Spears or someone like that who’s doing exactly what they want to do in the way that they best know how, is more authentic than any of those people you could mention.”

Tom Waits, (shown here on the red carpet of the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus premiere posing with Verne “Mini-Me” Troyer), has a new live album coming, a co-starring role in Heath Ledger’s final film, and an interesting perspective on former President George W. Bush. In a recent Q&A with director Terry Gilliam, Waits spoke both candidly yet cryptically about all three with Times Online’s Stephen Dalton.

Waits didn’t work directly with Ledger on the film, but the deceased actor did make an impression on Waits’ wife and songwriting partner, Kathleen Brennan. Ledger reminded Brennan of their son, Waits said, “who’s 24 and impetuous and scary and skating towards the edge, completely spontaneous and highly imaginative. [My wife] had wonderful things to say about him. Just full of life and contradictions. That’s what makes people interesting to look at onscreen.”

Also, I’m not entirely sure how politics came up, but here’s Waits on W. (emphasis mine):

I think the real problem was what Bush really wanted in life was to be the Commissioner of Baseball, and the job was not available. We all have a thousand parallel lives that could have been our lives, had we made different decisions along the way. We’re at the crossroads every day.

The last time Waits spoke on his upcoming Glitter and Doom live LP the only “detail” he would provide was that there’s “a lot of applause, followed by a song. And after the song, there’s more applause and then there’s a song. And it goes like that all the way through.” As it turns out, the the album also has “an extra disc in there,” Waits revealed, “that is just my quixotic ruminations between songs, at the piano. It’s added value, as they say. [laughter].”

When we first reported that Tom Waits is prepping a live LP for release this fall, many sites held off on following suit with the unofficial announcement, as our source was only a photographer involved with the project. Well, I just finished listening to an interview by Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Radio, and we now have confirmation from Waits himself, as well as a release date and cryptic Waitsian description.

“Okay, Glitter and Doom, that’s the title,” Waits confirmed. “Now I really feel like a huckster. Yeah, it’s coming out at Thanksgiving.” The exact release date, via Amazon, is 11/24. “A lot of applause, followed by a song,” Waits continued, “and after the song there’s more applause and then there’s a song. And it goes like that all the way through.”

I do suggest you download the interview here. Waits talks about his role as Satan, aka Mr. Nick, in Terry Gilliam’s new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, signing up for email, and this interesting bit:

Thank God for stories, you know. None of us tell the truth or we’d all be dead. There’s no such thing as the truth. The word “truth” should always have an “S” at the end of it ‘cause there’s so many of them. Two guys watching the same thing. The blind man describing the elephant, you know.

Ah, there’s nothing like starting the weekend off right with a thought-provoking quote from Tom Waits. Hey Tom, now that you have email, send some of your thoughts this way.

The baker’s dozen of dates on Tom Waits’ Glitter & Doom tour didn’t include much love for the left and right coasts, but thankfully we’re all getting a taste of what went down — that is, aside from the usual shaky YouTube bootlegs. Photographer Michael T. Regan has leaked the news that Waits is preparing to release Tom Waits: Glitter & Doom Live on 12” vinyl and likely other formats.

Regan got the scoop on the upcoming Waits live album because five of his photos have been tapped by Waits’ label, Anti, to be included in the project. This isn’t Waits’ first live release (not to mention his VH1 Storytellers, of which I just found a bootleg at Captains Dead), but it is the first live album with Waits’ son Casey playing the drums.

No release date or other deets have surfaced, but we’ll pass them along as soon as we hear. In the meantime, check out Waits’ spoof press conference announcement for the Glitter & Doom tour here or embedded below.

Our favorite cryptic troubadour Tom Waits has been turning quite a bit of attention to film of late, including taking on a starring role as Mr. Nick (aka Satan) in Heath Ledger’s final film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, playing an engineer in an upcoming Denzel Washington-starring action flick, and now by judging an indie film festival.

The Raindance Film Festival, which begins its run in London later this month, is famous for screening independent films by Quentin Tarantin, Christopher Nolan, and Waits’ friend/collaborator Anton Corbijn. What makes this festival even more different, however, is that it has hosted some of our favorite musicians in the past, including Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Marky Ramone, The Clash’s Mick Jones, and more.

Press Association reports that this year’s judges panel will include Waits, Riz Ahmed, Kerry Fox, Armando Iannucci, and British musician, poet, and jack-of-all-trades Billy Childish. If they have as good taste in films as they do in musicians, this year’s roster should be a real treat.

Meanwhile, the trailer for The Book of Eli, starring Waits, Denzel Washington, Gary Oldham, and Mila Kunis dropped recently. Check it out here.

Dutch photographer/director Anton Corbijn has been taking iconic photos of Tom Waits for over three decades at this point and now the pair is releasing a hardcover book of their collaborative efforts, combining Corbijn-shot portraits and lyrics “from major Waits albums.” The book, titled Waits/Corbijn, contains 160 pages, including 75 color and duotone plates, and will drop this fall from publisher Schirmer/Mosel.

Meanwhile, Both Waits and Corbijn have been turning their attention towards film of late, with Waits opting for a starring role as Mr. Nick, aka the Devil, in Terry Gilliam’s forthcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Corbijn is following up his solid feature film directorial debut, the Ian Curtis biopic Control, with A Very Private Gentleman. According to IMDB, the latter film has George Clooney signed on as both a producer and lead actor. Waits is also doing a movie with Denzel Washington due out next year called The Book of Eli.

For more info and to pre-order Waits/Corbijn, click here.