My thoughts at the end of the decade - in musical form!

Think of this as a compilation describing my thoughts, feelings and inspirations over the course of the last decade. It starts out rather dark (much like the decade itself) but we begin to see a glimmer of hope about halfway through. Or at least, that was the intention with this project. So I say goodbye to all that 2000 - 20009 gave us, the good and the bad - from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina to Barack Obama to Susan Boyle to Glee - it certainly will go down as one of the tumultuous decades since the 60s. I've already done one compilation entitled The Mad Blood Stirring - and the thought has crossed my mind to make this a double disc and just combining the two...but that's a project for another day....

1. The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning - The Smashing Pumpkins
2. Leaving on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul & Mary
3. 9/11 Presidential Address to the Nation - George W. Bush
4. America - M83
5. Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
6. Hurt - Johnny Cash
7. American Idiot - Green Day
8. Fragile - Sting
9. When the Levee Breaks - Led Zeppelin
10. Umbrella - Rihanna feat. Jay Z.
11. Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
12. The Long Road - Eddie Vedder feat. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
13. Rehab - Amy Winehouse
14. A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
15. Election Night Victory Speech - Barack Obama
16. I Dreamed a Dream - Susan Boyle
17. Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
18. Leave Me Alone - Michael Jackson
19. Halo - Beyoncé
20. The Money Song - team9
21. Don't Stop Believin' - The Cast of Glee

New Orleans begins evacuation as Gustav gains strength

Tropical Storm Gustav has regained hurricane strength as it churned toward Cuba, leaving 78 people dead in its wake, as New Orleans began voluntary evacuations ahead of the storm's projected arrival next week.

Jamaica awoke to a trail of devastation and reports that the storm killed as many as 11 people on the mountainous island, as people on the US Gulf Coast hurried storm preparations, exactly three years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region.

The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said in a special bulletin that Gustav had regained hurricane force.

"Data from an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Gustav has again become a hurricane, with maximum winds near 120 kilometres per hour," the Centre said.

The system ripped through the Dominican Republic and Haiti earlier this week, then thrashed Jamaica, beginning its rampage as a Category One hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale before weakening to a tropical storm.

Streets in the normally bustling capital city of Kingston were soaked and quiet, except for howling winds as Gustav's powerful gusts sent metal roofs flying, and threatened to wreak havoc on Jamaica's banana industry, officials said.

A few people in raincoats and boots tried to help motorists get stranded cars freed, as hundreds crowded into shelters.

"On this track the centre of Gustav will pass near or over the Cayman Islands later Friday, over the western portions of Cuba on Saturday and into the southern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday," the Hurricane Centre said.

With more than 11 million people, Cuba is extremely vulnerable to hurricanes, with most of its housing stock aged and in fragile condition.

Over 2 million people live in the capital, Havana, where many colonial era buildings, crowded with families, are prone to cave-in after heavy rains.

Authorities in Cuba, the Americas' only communist country, are famed for well organised evacuation operations but acknowledge the dangers precarious homes pose.

Anxiety also was mounting on the hurricane-ravaged US Gulf Coast on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Authorities in New Orleans began bussing out residents on a voluntary basis, and considered ordering mandatory evacuations to prevent a repeat of the devastation and deaths of 2005.

Louisiana and Mississippi have already declared states of emergency before Gustav's expected landfall late Monday, when it could strike as a major storm of Category Three of higher.

Katrina killed some 1,800 on the US Gulf Coast, most of them in New Orleans.

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Interesting Times Revisited

On this date in 2005, Category 3 storm Hurricane Katrina attacks the Gulf coast with 145-mph winds. Cities in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are declared disaster areas. Parts of New Orleans are submerged, some residents are left to scramble to their rooftops awaiting rescue. News organizations report widespread panic and looting, crowds abandoned on elevated freeways, and rumors of rape in the Superdome.

US coast gets set amid storm fear

Fears of a major storm have prompted New Orleans to prepare evacuation plans, three years after the US city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Tropical storm Gustav, downgraded from a hurricane, has resulted in more than 20 deaths in Haiti, and is now heading towards Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Residents there have boarded up homes as forecasters warn the storm could return to hurricane strength by Friday.