"What's this fuss about Kylie's tits?" asked the usually imperturbable Martin, whose partnership when dealing with Africa is a rare pleasure. It would seem he's another of our Geordies.
I'd earlier braved jibes and protests for saying I like Kylie, after riding into work listening to 'Light Years', et alors?
"She's manufactured," Emma said a bit scathingly on Tuesday, though sympathetic to the nastiness of show-stopping breast cancer. I wish Kylie well and think she long ago took herself off the assembly line, though she doesn't do it quite as often or self-consciously as Madonna.
The BBC blithely persists in suggesting Minogue's "famous for being in Neighbours, having a great behind and singing wonderfully addictive pop tunes!" (profile). I don't recommend the interview on that page, unless you want to hear a gushy twit asking Kylie about what a pain it can be in a "great behind" being interviewed. She remains surprisingly nice to him.
Recently I've been 'Counting Down the Days' with another Aussie, Natalie Imbruglia, whose latest album is very welcome on the iPod with 'Left of the Middle' and 'White Lilies Island'. More on the half-Italian Imbruglia (official site) when some of her well-written and more personal lyrics get to me less than they did. It's nice when people sing what you feel.
This picture's a tip:
With the iTMS you can make a playlist like the one I've called "_Wiser Wishes", slide albums into it from your shopping basket and then delete them from the latter to avoid the bulk buying my bank manager finds so objectionable.
When you have got the money, the song titles off those albums are in the wish list, with a "View Album" blob you can click to go back to fetch what you want. If you decide it wasn't so wise, you also get a chance for second thoughts.
The _ just bungs the list to the top, near the shops.
K.T. Tunstall has a very good 'Eye to the Telescope'. At the turn of the year, a woman from St Andrews released a remarkably accomplished first CD as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
 The music's stylish changes of genre can be a distraction from the lyrics, since Kt's a natural with a seductive voice you can float on very softly until she decides to get rough. When it came to the words, I thought "Which end of the telescope is she using? It doesn't sound like the small one to me. This is the finer sand of our lives and there's some blood in it."
"My songs examine and explore little specific emotions or situations or stories," she explains. "They're kitchen table songs, like a conversation between me and one other person. It's almost like an alien has been sent to get emotional samples from human beings and put it all together on a record" (Glee Club, source of stolen pic).
That's something she does very well, no real alien in a VoW world where it's fun -- and expensive, but never mind -- getting your bearings. 29 she turns out to be and "drawn to singers who sing it like it is: Ella Fitzgerald, Patti Smith, Carole King."
It's more fun to find out who such singers admire than read endless "she sounds like so-and-so" comments. "I fucking write my own songs!" she told The Daily Telegraph last December (from Katie's own site, but the paper used asterisks, unlike her or yours truly. Somebody has to keep down the standards).
She's then rude about Katie Melua and Joss Stone. I like them both. But that's a topic I'd enjoy taking up with Kt in the kitchen, not on a blog.
Which reminds me. Once I'd paid those rent cheques the bank made it so hard to hand over, the estate agent said: "By the way, your new neighbour's going to be a musician, moving in soon, I hope you don't mind."
"Musicien ou musicienne?"
"A guy."
"You can't have it all. Rock or classic?"
"Rock."
"Any good?"
"Apparently yes."
The Kid's delighted. So am I. Classic would be fine, but I'd possibly object to somebody too earnest or high-strung. This top floor could do with a bit of shaking up. It's not been the same since ... well, I won't tell you what the girls did, but it was more entertaining than the church mice.
12:03:40 AM link 
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