Hopped It
Gunna visit the mob. Seeya.
Black Stars
Time for my personal verdict on David Bowie’s studio albums (and one or two honorary ones), after a month of re-listening, listening for the first time, and listening properly for the first time. Ratings are Rolling Stone-style, out of five stars. Anything given three stars or more I’d happily listen to again; four stars or more I’d listen to a lot. Two or two and a half, I’d listen to on a good day. I have no plans to listen to Tonight ever again, especially as its two decent songs are on Nothing Has Changed.
A Ton of Feathers
Why Britain is mourning Terry Wogan.
Why the Republican establishment mistakenly thinks it can control Donald Trump.
The current Tory stance on human rights: “a much better absurdity than the alternative”.
And in other human rights news...
The Sinister History of the Belle and Sebastian Email List. Reminds me of something.
Tom Ewing on MP3s in 1999. “All a URL and thirty minutes wait away.”
YouTube Stars
My Nottingham friends and I spent Saturday night showing each other amusing YouTube videos. All of my links were ones I’ve posted here before—Matt Mulholland, the “Dancing in the Streets” musicless video, Adam Buxton’s Bowie clips, the Jurassic Park theme on melodica—but some of theirs were new to me, and we uncovered some more good ones:
The Brett Domino Trio had somehow completely passed me by. Their cover of Sexy and I Know It gives a good idea of their stuff. Buck Rogers (by Feeder). Jurassic Park Theme (with Lyrics). Hey Ya! on a Skoog. What Would You Do (If a Shark Started Eating You). How to Make a Hit Pop Song, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.
The wonderful world of shreds and musicless videos: The Beach Boys’ I Get Around; Queen’s We Will Rock You; Britney Spears’ Oops! I Did It Again.
And I don’t think I’ve ever linked this one here: Adam Buxton’s I Am James Bond.