Ken Ham has declared Darwin’s birthday, 12 February, to be Darwin Was Wrong Day. It’s another brilliant misstep for that bastion of inanity: browse the #DarwinWasWrongDay hashtag.
I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift — that bouncy squeaky-clean all-American stuff just leaves me cold. But I am a big fan of Trent Reznor, because there’s nothing better on a road trip than cranking up some throbbing industrial beats as you’re cruising down the road, and I like a gritty raw sound. But who would have guessed that mashing up a duet would be so interesting? Injecting a bit of corruption and rot into the pure paleness of a Taylor Swift song is surprisingly listenable.
Last night, my twitter feed lit up with the news that Annie Lennox was singing on the Grammies. I love me some Lennox, but awards shows annoy me, so I didn’t tune in. But just to get Monday started, here’s a classic from Annie Lennox and David Bowie and Queen:
This woman does 17 British accents (well, she cheats a bit and jumps over the Irish Sea a couple times). I’m an American, and a Yankee at that, so I’m a poor judge, but a few of them sounded a bit off. Also, I know she isn’t hitting all the variations: there were people all over the UK who’d say something to me in a particularly thick local speech variant, and it just sounded like Dutch being gargled through a misfiring diesel engine, to me, and that was just Alan Moore.
He’s going to be touring a few cities in America this spring, and then Robin Ince is going to Australia for more shows. Everyone should go.
I know what I’ll be reading in July: Go Set a Watchman, the old new novel from Harper Lee.
"Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father, Atticus," the publisher’s announcement reads. "She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood."
It has been brought to my attention that way too many Americans have no idea what the Infinite Monkey Cage is, and that I have to enlighten you. It is Brian Cox and Robin Ince and a few other guests talking about science and comedy.
There. Job’s done.
For some reason, though, I think it would have been even more amusing if Mr Smear had an Irish accent.
I am not a fan of the Harry Potter books (what was that noise? So that’s what a million people simultaneously unsubscribing sounds like!) — my kids enjoyed them, we’ve got all of them around here somewhere, and I read the first couple of them, but they were just a bit too repetitive for my taste, and also too familiar. But don’t worry, I can understand how a lot of people liked them.
But now I’ve read a rewrite of the main story line, with Hermione as the main character. Much better! That’s a story I’d read to the end!
