Just weeks before his death, Prince announced that he was writing a book that Rolling Stone immediately called "one of the most anticipated memoirs in music history." The book was sadly left incomplete, but literary agent Esther Newberg now says she expects the extant portion will be published by the end of 2018.

In an interview with Variety, Newberg describes how she flew three editors to Paisley Park to make the deal happen and says that Prince had submitted about 50 handwritten pages at the time of his death. The published book may include reproductions of those pages.

Mariah Carey discusses bipolar disorder

Megastar Mariah Carey has shared the fact that she was diagnosed 17 years ago with bipolar disorder. "The interview marks one of the first instances in which a celebrity of Ms. Carey's stature has acknowledged her struggles with mental illness," writes the New York Times about Carey's conversation with People magazine for an upcoming cover story.

"I didn't want to carry around the stigma of a lifelong disease that would define me and potentially end my career," Carey told People about her decision not to reveal the diagnosis previously. "I was so terrified of losing everything."

Only a preview of the interview has yet been published; the full feature will be published on Friday.

HD vinyl?

A startup company in Austria has secured almost $5 million in funding to develop a new format called "HD vinyl." The company, Rebeat Innovation, says it's developed a process to engrave grooves onto ceramic plates in a manner that will produce records you can play on your regular turntable, but with "higher audio fidelity, higher volume and longer playing times."

"It will take another eight months to do all the fine adjustments, says Rebeat CEO Günter Loibl. "So by summer 2019 we shall see the first HD vinyls in the stores." (NME)

Today's beef

Ice Cube has beef with the royal family of Qatar. Members of the family invested in BIG3, a basketball league co-founded by the N.W.A. rapper. Cube and his co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz have now sued the Qatari investors, alleging that the investors have withheld funds and threatened violence against the league.

On Tuesday, as the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, arrived in the U.S. for a meeting with President Donald Trump, Cube and Kwatinetz took out a full-page ad in the New York Times asking Trump to ask the sheikh not to threaten BIG3. The Qatari government says it has no formal connection with the controversial investors. (USA Today)

Festival fashion update

"Move over flower crowns," writes BuzzFeed’s style blog, "denim thongs are here just in time for festival season."

That's right, a British retailer called Pretty Little Thing is charging about $25 for a product they (being British) call "denim knickers." The company recommends that music fans "team these with some killer chap trousers and matching bralet for a show-stopping festival outfit that is gonna get you noticed for all of the right reasons."

Sound implausible? Well, suspend your disbelief, because the company have apparently already sold out of their first run of the denim thongs. Will we be spotting this look on the hill during Rock the Garden?