there's this girl whose kiss is all I dream of

dear friends,

a little recommendation, a little announcing, a little advice sought...

1. by rights, carla bruni* has the sort of bio that makes me want to run away, join the foreign legion, leave her to starve in the salt flats while I disco dance in disgrace to a song off of pulse**. but that's a movie & it's not really going to happen. french/italian aristocrat. heiress. supermodel. former mick jagger consort***. & now, acclaimed singer/songwriter. who the heck does she think she is?

but despite her highly fortunate pedigree, bruni's got a lovely smoky voice & the song quelqu'un m'a dit off of the record by the same name is a damn catchy number. (& in another language! so that way if she is singing about mick or some other jet-setting codger, I don't have to know about it. bonus!) the song makes me think of my ex-cat sitting on a windowsill in the afternoon sun. eyes half closed. feline body in that porsche-like formation. completely content, purring away. the only real problem with quelqu'un m'a dit is that it's so safe & warm & snuggly that I'm sure it will be featured on some commercial for underpants or the latest "most technologically advanced" brassiere, & then it will be everywhere, like caesars' jerk it out (the ipod? shampoo?!?! what's next? personal lubricant?). but I've got my fingers crossed. perhaps bruni's so loaded that she doesn't need the advertising dough.

2. if you happen to have a car & you plan to be doing a little summer driving then you should be listening to brendan benson, who writes powdered sugar power pop confections that are perfect for cruisin' along in your automobile. he has a new album, the alternative to love, out that I haven't gotten my paws on yet but I shall soon, if I continue to be fiscally irresponsible. for now, go to his website & preview portions of the album.

two summers ago? one summer ago? I was a passenger in my friend jared's now defunct car & I was urging him to listen to a particularly good driving song by benson called emma j off of one mississippi. the tune is a sunny, latin flavored romantic number with a great velveeta cheese solo; basically the aural equivalent of a white guy with a drawn-on zorro moustache doing the fandango with a rose between his teeth just for you. jared didn't care for it. he proceeded to ridicule my new favorite song by replacing the line "summer has come & with it your face" with "summer has CUM all over your face" which he screamed loudly out the window to passersby. I did not take kindly to this so I kept pressing the repeat button over & over again on his cd player, singing along loudly each time in a terrifying dog-like pitch. right in his ear. I believe I won that particular battle. but it doesn't have to be that way. find the tune & feel the warm weather groove.

ps good to me off of lapalco is dang good too. catchy & propulsive. the white stripes do a cover of it that I'm not too crazy about (& I am no white stripes hatah, as some of you already know) because I don't buy jack white singing lyrics about his girl being so true in this almost camp angry, vein in the neck popping way. it's like extreme cover miscasting. though I suppose that if their cover makes a few people go out & get into benson (which is what I suspect mr. white was going for anyway) then it does the job.

3. I am working on a list of songs recommended in march on soft communication. I will put it up as soon as I am able. in related matters, if you are a contributor & haven't recommended yet, please do. I'd love to hear more opinions from the peanut gallery.

conversely, if you are a reader & would like to recommend something, please contact me. I am very nice 'specially when you don't have to meet me face to face.

4. in the words of moz, I need advice! I need advice! I would like to initiate a mix exchange for soft communication but I have had two opposing views on the matter. contributor george feels that if the mix exchange were to include everyone who wished to participate, it might be difficult to actually give all the cd's a listen before the next exchange came round. this is true. on the other hand, contributor cheez, the library bar mix exchange originator, feels that if it is only one person's mix, then there is FAR less incentive to meet & discuss & share. ever the mediator, I was wondering if perhaps we can limit this to only a certain amount of people, 4 or 5 say, at a time but I'm still not sure. anywho, I figure the best thing to do is to put it to you, the people & you can tell me what you think.

love, d

* the descriptions of the music on her website provide awesome displays of pr insanity. "the caress of her flaxen voice"? I'm gonna include that in my next recommendation. apropos of nothing, flaxen hair will be mentioned.

** sampler sold on late night tv. which yes, I do own. I like to dance about my abode like a crazed capuchin monkey to crappy techno-lite beats. deal with it.

*** actually, that doesn't really induce envy in me. rock god or no, mick is one wizened man. making love to him in his post mid 1970's state would be like straddling a piece of beef jerky clad in lycra. that being said, I should probably admit that I'd play a prostitute with a heart of gold in a movie directed by joel shumacher if elvis costello asked me to. so hey, to each their own!

songs to seek: quelqu'un m'a dit/carla bruni, emma j/brendan benson

albums to seek: lapalco/brendan benson