Hundreds of thousands of people were fleeing America's Gulf coast last night as Hurricane Ivan approached with winds of up to 135mph. Finally, Frank Francisco, a relief pitcher with the Rangers, took action.In flare of frustration, Francisco grabbed a nearby chair and hurled into the front rows of the terraces, where it struck a woman and broke her nose. It did not occur between rival fans in the terraces but rather between a group of fans and one of their star players.Towards the end of an important match-up between the two sides at the home of the Athletics in Oakland - across the Bay from San Francisco - a row erupted between fans of the home team and some of the Texas Rangers players. Hooligans have rarely been a feature of America's pastime, baseball, but fans and officials were creasing their brows yesterday over an ugly fracas that broke out at a game between the Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics this week that led to broken bones and an arrest. More upsetting still was the nature of the fight. Whoopi Goldberg summed up the arts community's dedication to the cause after she was was dumped as Slim-Fast's spokes-woman after making sexual puns about Mr Bush at a $10-million, star-studded fund-raising gala for Mr Kerry at New York's Radio City Music Hall earlier this summer."I must do what I need to do as an artist, as a writer and an American - not to mention as a comic.". It was erected on a trailer and Ms Giusti towed it from the back of a pick-up truck to Texas and other southern states.In late October, White Box will be hosting another large Kerry fund-raiser and opening a new exhibition called "Democracy is Fun!?".And, as well as artists, gallery owners and rock stars, there has been no shortage of Hollywood stars trying to be heard.

The sale of Perrier (and presumably a buyer will be found) is likely to become a cause c?bre in the anguished debate in the European Union - and especially in France - about the cost of labour in western Europe compared to eastern Europe and Asia. But Nestl? disenchantment with Perrier is also connected to the new trend in the mineral water market: the processing of anonymous water supplies to fill colourfully branded and marketed bottles. "Real" springs such as Perrier may be gradually reduced to a niche market for more expensive brands.Perrier workers say that Nestl? despite the value of the brand name - has concentrated its investment in recent years on these new generic mineral waters, which can be bottled anywhere and do not involve the limitations and transport costs of a specific spring.The company admits that it has considered "relocating" Perrier production to a spring in another country, possibly in eastern Europe, holding on to the brand name but using cheaper labour to fill the same bottles with cheaper water.This idea - which would have made a nonsense of the claim that the more expensive bottled waters are somehow unique and specific to their place of origin, like good wines - now seems to have been dropped. It featured a huge installation, including balloons and confetti, by poster artist Kyle Goen. All summer he has been pasting one of his political posters, entitled "Elect a Madman, you get Madness", in different American cities.The gallery also helped support sculptor Karin Giusti, who created a Greenhouse on wheels, shaped like the White House, and designed to lampoon President Bush and his environmental policies. "This is a very street way of communication, unmediated by the media," the artist commented "It's like rap art The essence of it is resistance.

One of his best-known posters, which are similar in style to those by Mear One, show a grim-faced Bush beneath the message: "Read my Apocolips"."The postering we do is legal," Conal noted. For a whole Saturday, about 40 volunteers invaded the gallery and cold-called, on their mobile phones, registered Republican voters in swing states and tried to persuade them that Kerry would be the better choice."We have been uncharacteristically active for a private business - James supports John Kerry and hasn't been afraid to say that," confirmed the gallery manager, Liorah Brown, yesterday "We all pretty much feel that in the gallery. The people I paint are so powerful, and this is an expression of people who are not so powerful."Back in the more rarefied climes of Manhattan's gallery district, another well-known gallery, the James Cohan Gallery - currently home to a solo exhibition of Wim Wenders' photographs - recently sponsored a so-called phone-bank party in its large 26th Street space.The Cohan event, dubbed a "phonathon", was sponsored by the prominent Democratic action group, Moveon , largely supported by Mr Soros. "It's a form of civil disobedience" He launched similar campaigns against the first President Bush and against Ronald Reagan. Daryl Hannah also stars in the film.Other musicians are pulling their weight for the Democrat contender on the so-called "Vote for Change Tour", a series of rock concerts that will double as get-out-the-vote drives.Among the groups and rock stars signed up for the high-wattage tour are Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, the Dave Matthews Band, James Taylor, REM and the Dixie Chicks.Los Angeles-based artist Robbie Conal heads a so-called guerrilla postering effort, dedicated to plastering the public spaces of America with his artwork ridiculing President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney.