Music

The last time I spoke to my father he mentioned he'd lately bought Nelly Furtado and Christina Aguilera's latest CDs. Meanwhile, my mother has taken up an interest in Justin Timberlake and Hinder. And me? My current musical interest is... the Beatles. (The Easter Bunny brought me two Beatle CDs. :-)) Also The Feeling (very mellow - reminds me of Travis) but mainly Beatles. How strange it is when your parents are more current with the music scene than you are!

Actually, though, one great use of TiVo I've found is to record MTV or VH1 early in the morning (i.e. about the only time they still show videos) and then fast-forward until a good one comes on. It's a tedious process with little success (VH1 has about a dozen videos it's very, very fond of that repeat continually. Jump Start lasts 4 hours every weekday, and by the end some videos have been shown 3x) but it works for me since I don't listen to radio.

Entertainment Weekly spotted Robbie Williams at a taping of Dancing with the Stars and had the smarts to grab him for an interview. Here's an excerpt:

EW: You're not releasing your latest album,Let's Swing Again,in the US. Why?
RW: I decided about four albums ago that I like living here. I get to be Batman by day. I've gotten to the point where I'm famous enough to enjoy my celebrity and do fun stuff without all the crap that goes with it. And it would be insane to invite what I have in the rest of the world into this country, so I'm not gonna bother promoting or releasing records here.

Emphasis mine. It's not much of a surprise, really. Robbie's CDs and DVDs have always been difficult to find here. But I always assumed we weren't getting the albums because sales weren't there - not because of some arbitrary decision to keep one corner of the globe hype free. Frankly, I'm a little offended by this. This country is good enough to live in, it seems, but meanwhile his fanbase here (small but by no means unimportant) are left to fend for themselves in acquiring his works. Of course, with the Internet this is no big task, but it hurts to be practically the only country in the world not deemed worthy of the new releases.

"This Charming Man" by The Smiths

I received greatest hits CDs for both The Smiths and Morrissey for Christmas, and this song has quickly become a favorite. I've pretty much been listening to it nonstop for 96 hours now. :-)

Punctured bicycle on a hillside desolate...