a lady in the streets

dear friends,

no links today, maybe I'll add them next week...I am bad.

1. I don't know who annie's american publicists are but they are geniuses! how on earth did they find a way to sell a little girl voiced scandinavian disco dolly as the indie rock lover's little girl voiced scandinavian disco dolly? before I ever heard any of her songs (bright white pebbles on an ibizan beach) or knew what she looked like (a sweet-faced blonde in white, natch), I was reading about her in magazines as being a rock snob's acceptable guilty pleasure. who says? personally, my guilty pleasures are truly capital H horrendous & it don't include kylie & ilk 'cause I like dancefloor inanities & I don't feel a bit guilty about that. sometimes I want guitars & sheer noise & sometimes I want powdered sugar & sometimes I want something that's far, far worse like...kaleigh by prog-poppers marillion. now that's what I consider truly shameful.

which makes me wonder what's next in today's musical pr agenda...selling spoon as the hip hop purist's indie rock allowance? intriguing! seriously, who's gonna be the next act to be aggressively sold to their polar demographic? & did I just make up a term?

snottiness aside, while I'd never want to go see annie in concert, I like to put on her bouncy compact japanese hotel room of a tune, me plus one, & dance around doing the "when two becomes one" spice girls dance. oh & pretend to mock ring a bell whenever the bell sound comes in. I like to imagine me plus one is about getting it on with your partner & their clone* but I think it's really about how cool annie is. BORING! she's nice & all but sexy clones are way better. especially when the soundtrack selection is a song that has a "spoken word" moment & breathless background spelling.

2. the ipod is having an usher** day. thus far I've heard:

nice & slow - a song with a ridiculous video about kidnapping in france (?!) & features possibly the most fey "rap" in the history of slow jamz. what people fail to realize is that sometimes r&b can be incredibly weird in a way I really like.***

caught up - a song which I've managed to get stuck in the monkey's head. ha! I love it when that happens. I get him to keep intoning "caught up" while I go "I'm so-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o" in that ridiculous melismatic way that usher so favors.

yeah! - a ditty I first heard, oddly enough, on the train when a violinist playing vivaldi suddenly switched to the now ubiquitous sample from that song. you've never seen a car full of commuters so eager to give up their cash. I heard the real thing in h&m a week after that & went "aaah, that was one wicked smaaaaaht violinist."

now I just like to hear that song so I a) can have a laugh at lil jon's signature yelping & b) do something that vaguely resembles riverdance whenever that recorder/pan pipe sounding line comes in.

you don't have to call - I'm single & I wants to mingle club hopping x "true player for real" + pinball machine noise = fun

3. like many of you, I love my mother. I love her so much in fact, that come saturday, I will be committing the musical equivalent of hara kiri...I will be taking her to see neil diamond at madison square garden for her birthday.

that's right. laugh it up.

if I'm lucky, there will be no turn on your heartlight & we're coming to america but there will be plenty of cherry, cherry & girl, you'll be a woman soon. because those songs are good & make me forget those other two. that's what I'll be praying for.

have a good weekend!

love, d

* I'm telling you, cloning is the way to go. that way it's less emotionally confusing than the whole cliche twin fantasy thing. besides, I don't want a completely different person with all their attendant hobbies & whatnot, I just want two of the same person & if one's slightly dumber, that's cool - - - wait. have I revealed too much about myself? I think I may have.

** I love to, when my spine's giving me a break, dance to usher's music & for this, that incurable ham has a place in my heart. I didn't always feel this way. when he first appeared on the scene, I couldn't get past how much usher looks like his uncle, ben vereen, so I kept having visions of him suddenly busting out with "gotta find my corner of the sky!!!". I am over that now thank god.

NB also, I wanna make something really clear. as much as I enjoy usher's music, he is someone I never, ever need to hear talk. I tried to watch a concert of his on cable tv one time & after the third or so inspirational speech, not for his fans mind you, but for HIMSELF, as in "I never thought I'd have my own basketball team & record label but I believe in myself & I believe in YOU believing in ME! YEAH!" & then the band busted into yeah!, a song about believing in...getting a piece?!? I had to stop watching immediately.

*** speaking of which, I wanted to write about r. kelly's trapped in the closet video. but I really need a whole post devoted to just that slice o' special.

songs to seek: me plus one/annie, nice & slow/usher, caught up/usher, yeah!/usher, you don't have to call/usher, cherry, cherry/neil diamond, girl, you'll be a woman soon/neil diamond