“singer who defied musical categories…”
but “musical categories” are of course only defined with hindsight, not in advance: a more accurate (or do i mean helpfully argumentative?) description might be “singer who […]

The Trouble With Batman. If he is the yang to the impossible to write well Superman, then it should be easy to write him. Indeed it is, because Batman – psychologically stunted insufferable know-it-all in tights is rarely the lead character in […]

he did it first miss!!
if it’s not too cheeky linking to something of mine, i just updated sparks in stone lanes with this, slightly rejigged, from the S&S A-Z of Cinema, June 1998: Y is for YOUTH[…]

Fine Ray Charles piece by Marcello. (Update – also explore and listen to Tofu Hut’s memorial post)
I don’t know Ray Charles’ work well enough; another example of the (slightly shameful if hardly unique to me) syndrome where so[…]

The Streets, by Me: enormous thanks to Mr. Matos, not only for asking me to do this but also for his stern but excellent editing when I turned out to be embarrassingly ring-rusty in the ‘writing longer pieces’ arena.[…]

The Post-TV Diaries: part 5
Something incredibly wonderful has been restored to me since television left my life: TIME. Not just in the sense that I have more of it, though I definitely do. But the whole concept. When you have TV, clock-time becomes […]

(This blog goes out to Toby who saw this film a month ago.)
Demonlover is a website which provides adult anime to a large US audience. Working via a French company Volk, who have just bought a large share in JapanAnime, they hope to corner the market[…]

The Number One Songs In Heaven: new MP3 blog (they endure despite the yousendit catastrophe!) specialising in 60s – 80s soul, dance and funk – very welcome I think![…]

Notes On The International Workshop On Molecular Gastronomy – publogger Chris pointed me at this marvellous article, a cabinet of future-food curiosities including:
– foie gras and butter chantilly
– the science of making the perfec[…]

Loretta Lynn-Van Lear Rose.
Loretta is a stronger singer, better writer and more complex personae here then i have seen in a long time–she seems happier too. It would have been an almost perfect album, if it wasn’t for a bukkake of Jack W[…]