16February
Brig's Babes
Brig wrote, The Sugababes did the definitive version of The Arctic Monkey's I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
. It's arguable, but we'll not object loudly to that view. Girls Aloud did the definitive version of Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now
. (Can't agree; the Tommy James original is still the best). But we digress.
So how did Girls Aloud vs The Sugababes' (the UK's best two chart pop acts, let's not forget) cover of Run DMC vs Aerosmith's Walk This Way go so tragically wrong? Because it's a cynical cover for Comic Relief. The early comedy covers, of Living doll
and Help
, they were fun. The original songs, The stonk
and Stick it out
, they had their moments. The comedy video for Who do you think you are
captured the zeitgeist. The more recent slew of acts-of-the-moment covering familiar songs has just turned into bad karaoke. Well, began with bad karaoke, seeing as how it's been Ronan Bleating and Pestside and Gagagagagagareth. But hey, we can't criticise, because it's all for charidee, mate. Right? Not 'arf!
An Anthologie of insularity
Anthologie has put together a decidedly Yankee-centric post. She writes,
[My friends] were talking about a female Australian politician about whom the papers said a bunch of nasty, if fairly accurate, things [...] It was a fairly heated controversy that ended with the politician in question suing the press on libel charges.
I said, "But you can't do that! Under the First Amendment, you can't libel a public figure unless you wrongfully accuse them of a criminal act!" They very politely reminded me that Australia does not *have* a First Amendment. Until that point, I thought about what a great story the politician's story was, and how I wish I could have followed it as a reporter. But I don't know if I would ever want to work as a reporter for the non-American press, where journalists do not have the same protections that we do.
Where Anthologie sees a lack of protection, I see an opportunity to practice good journalism. The journalist has a right to print whatever they choose, but they have a responsibility to ensure that what they print is accurate. Removing a mechanism for this politician to correct a deliberate error allows the journos to write all sorts of bollocks, safe in the knowledge that they're immune from the due process of law.
Geography notes
Tom asks for songs about the metropolitan area at the mouth of the Hudson. We recommend New York, New York
, the opening number from Bernstein, Comden, and Green's On the Town. Other than sharing the title, it has no relation to the subsequent Fred Ebb number.
From the same pens, a few years later, came Wonderful Town, featuring such titles as Conquering New York
(at which the protagonists fail, as might be intimated from being the third song in the production) and Christopher Street
, a guided tour of the city featuring seventeen (count 'em!) key changes. Eat that, Eurovision fans!
There is always the option to inflict the Sparks on listeners, How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
is answered with the simple refrain, Practice, man, practice. And, dependant on the colouring of the inhabitant's necks, and the ability to comprehend French, Axelle Red's Manahttan-Kaboule
may raise eyebrows.
Irina asks, where is Fez? Morocco, somewhere between Casablanca and Rabat, IIRC.
And also...
Vorpal on the few fine restaurants in Toronto.
The Beef: huzzah!
C, see your picture, but no understand. Who man behind beard? Should we know him?
Lucy's 100 Singles from the 90s is a quality project. I'll finish off 33 and a third (the most influential albums of my life so far) and then think about the nineties.
For those who get easily bored during the Zane Lowe show, or can't stand the unfunny comedians of a Saturday night, Audioscrobbler has now put together stations that sound a bit like daytime Radio 1, daytime Radio 2, and 6music. More interestingly, it's also possible to hear the Recommendations stations, the songs that these stations should be playing. It will be interesting to see if this will influence the stations' respective playlist committees over the coming months.
