A bit of news on Peter Gabriel’s next album has surfaced, but it is mostly the same details revealed by John Metcalfe in a blog posting last month. “Scratch My Back” will contain covers, or “reinterpretations” of other artists’ songs and those artists will in turn cover Gabriel’s songs. Gabriel’s covers are acoustic with orchestral and chamber music arrangements.

Coca-Cola is introducing 7.5-fluid ounce mini cans at the end of this year. They’re designed to put the calorie count, 90 calories for Coke, front and center on the label. The cans will be sold in eight packs. There will also be mini cans of Sprite, Fanta Orange, Cherry Coca-Cola and Barq’s. Presumably a Diet mini can would be besides the point.

U2’s 360° Tour set was designed so big as to be invisible. It’s not invisible (people have been calling it “the claw”), but it is constructed cleverly to allow for more seating and new attendance records. The L.A. Times has several interactive graphics that demonstrate the stage’s conception and construction. Three skeletons of the set were created to allow U2 to play in one city while set up begins in the next. 95,000 people were expected at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA last night (the show was streamed on YouTube).

In a rare interview with the Seattle Times, Stephen Sondheim warms up for his Monday conversation with Frank Rich to be held at Benaroya Hall. Sondheim doesn’t mind, in fact he likes, the more recent scaled-down versions of his musicals, including John Doyle’s take on ‘Sweeney Todd’ which had Patti Lupone doubling on tuba. He reveals that ‘Sweeney’ was intended to be more intimate until Hal Prince insisted on it being a big production. And what about the Tim Burton movie? Sondheim likes it “because Tim made it a film, not a recording of a stage musical.”

Women in Puebla, Mexico can hail one of 35 new pink taxis driven by women to avoid any discomfort or outright harassment from male taxi drivers. “Women’s rights activists are aghast at the cars’ sugary presentation and said the service does not address the root of the harassment problem.” Well in this case the root of the problem is not as easy to solve as providing women safe transportation options. Mexico City has women-only buses and subway cars.

The Washington State DOT has an educational page on de-icers. They make their own de-icer using salt water provided by Darigold for free. Darigold saves treatment and disposal costs for a cheese by-product and our state saves money. The other ingredients are de-sugared molasses, which help the de-icer bind to the road and last longer, and calcium chloride, which keeps it effective down to 10 degrees F. The page also describes other snow and ice removal techniques.

Neiman Marcus sold all 50 Jaguar XJs from their Christmas Book in four hours. I’m pretty sure that was without any test drives. I wonder how the cupcake cars are doing. (Here’s a Flickr set of the cupcake cars in the wild.)

My collection of restaurant matches is in a baggie inside a box somewhere. With smoking bans not to mention disposable lighters, restaurants don’t get much goodwill for providing matches for practical purposes but they’re still valuable for publicity and advertising. A matchbox supplier’s perspective: “When a state or municipality imposes a ban, we see a hesitation in reordering and a fall-off in new business. Then the volumes start to creep back up, so that within a year or so we see some resurgence in statewide sales. Matches have universal appeal, and that’s the mystery — that one little package could resonate with familiarity, maybe beauty, and a feeling of value.”

The US Forest Service has compiled links to fall color reports across the country in one handy page.

Elliott Bay Book Co. is a fixture in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Their lease is up in January at the same time the owner’s line of credit comes due. The store may move or negotiate with the building owners. But the underlying fear is that someday it will have to go out of business like so many others.