My first Vine

♥ Tom Waits

"It frightens children and gets me a seat at the bar. What more do you want from a voice?"

My most-listened song of 2011 so far...

...is 'Powa' by tUnE-yArDs. I can remember the first time this came on my iPod: I was walking through the small Cheshire village I seem to have temporarily found myself living in, just coming up to the canal which for some reason is suspended overhead like a watery monorail track - and it made me grin like a local cat. (A similar thing happened when I heard Gablé, incidentally, but that's a different post.) From the pictures I've briefly seen of Merrill Garbus - for it is she, and that name really is hers - I imagine she wakes up with astonishing splashes of colourful paint daubed on her face, with white feathers slowly falling to the floor around her bed, which is quite possibly held off the ground thanks to a delicate framework of twigs and pipecleaners. Here's 'Powa' live: amazing in every way.*



* unless you think her voice sounds a bit silly.

Torchwood v The Day Today

This sums up The Apprentice boardroom squabbling for me

What's a riff between friends?

I'm getting married tomorrow

Collins, Gonzales, Newsom

Thought you might like to read some album reviews I've written recently. We have Losing Sleep by Edwyn Collins here, and Ivory Tower by Chilly Gonzales here. If not, here's a two-year-old doing a convincing impression of Joanna Newsom.

Cruising for a Susan

2.51 blew my mind.

"Suddenly, it's on barren land..."

Thinking of getting someone a goat this Christmas? Karl Pilkington has some thoughts (couldn't be bothered to read Virginia Ironside's Mail piece, but here it is):



Oh, look, I sort of blogged about the goat issue THREE YEARS AGO. Time: it flies.

Zorbingo

Oops, first post this month. It's important, that's why: I've come out of retirement for YOU, Stornoway, even though you are the most nervous and awkward band ever to have a microphone thrust face-wards, because 'Zorbing' is one of the songs of the year and YESYESYES now we have Britain's answer to The Hidden Cameras. IN YOUR FACE, JOEL GIBB.

From the FAIL Blog: Swing Fail

You really shouldn't laugh at this. But you will. You will.

Insane in the Ukraine

Woah, check out the Ukraine's Got Talent winner. She's no Stavros Flatley, of course, but good stuff nonetheless. Outsanding, you could say, if you liked dreadful puns, which we don't.

(via Holy Moly)

Shatner eats pudding

Sendak + Jonze + Arcade Fire = happiness

Get your Rock off

After watching the first few episodes before dropping out, I've recently been reacquainting myself with 30 Rock (Five USA seem to have just got round to showing the second season). Friday's 'Rosemary's Baby' episode was a particular corker, and it featured one of the best lines I think I've ever heard in a sitcom.

Having visited the disgusting house of her screenwriting heroine Rosemary Howard, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) is explaining her horror to her confidante, eccentric company CEO Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). "I don't think she has a toilet," says Lemon. "I saw my future, Jack."

Handing her a glass of red wine, Donaghy replies: "Never go with a hippie to a second location."

This scene, from earlier in the same episode, was also astonishingly good, particularly if you're used to Baldwin's usual strait-laced style of acting.

Mark my words

If only Mark Lamarr had been running the BBC six months ago...

Peter Serafinowicz: yes I have spelt that correctly

He scares me and makes me laugh at the same time. It's weird.

Len an ear

Went to a Leonard Cohen gig last night, and he was quite something. Four (or was it five?) standing ovations! Concert aside, that's quite an impressive spectacle in itself, when it's the Albert Hall.

Even better was the delightful sight of pop's most miserable skipping off stage - which he did several times - like a carefree 10-year-old girl. My highlight was 'Bird on the Wire', immensely measured and moving, even from the fourth (or was it fifth?) tier.

Here's a fantastic version of Len-Co doing the song back in the late '70s. Searing Hammond, asthmatic vocals and epic gospel backing all present and correct.



Does anyone else think that Mr Cohen perhaps deserves a co-writing credit for The Rolling Stones' 'I Got The Blues' and Ben Folds's 'The Luckiest'?

Put the Boots in

Little Boots! Cool, cute and talented. Well done!

Via Jamie, sort of