mutant pink strawberry

David Bowie, Space Oddity
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Unstoppable
Scott Walker, Climate of Hunter
Queen, Hot Space
tUnE-YaRdS, W H O K I L L
Afrika Bambaataa, Death Mix Live
Broadcasts from The Radio Bar
Mad Professor, Beyond the Realms of Dub
Grace Jones, Hurricane Dub
Cyril Vetter, Dirtdobber Blues

• My review of Angus Woodward's Americanization: Lessons in American Culture and Language: A Novel, a funny, postmodern (those two words are usually separated by more than a comma) satire fitted into the shell of a citizenship textbook, is up on the Oxford American website. Keep scrolling, it's there.
   
• Man, I love David Bowie lately. It's partly because I'm forever trying to turn Maya onto something and Bowie is sticking, partly because Bowie's art is one of constant unveiling. It is Major Tom lost in space reentering orbits. It is how to use a swooning string section to such key effect that you don't even know it's there. It's crafting a song so good that even Vanilla Ice couldn't ruin it. Take a second to listen to "Under Pressure" empirically.
   
  
  Queen and David Bowie, "Under Pressure"
     
• Sure, it's a primarily a Queen song from their least rock'n' roll record - in 1982, everything was Thriller or it was filler -  but when Bowie proclaims it our last dance/ourselves and we are but a few fingerclicks from the ensuing void from which this song springs, it's the last breathy gasp in the world.
     
• Jerri took my author photo (above), the last thing needed for my book. It seems weird to say "finished," and maybe a jinx to say that I am. I accidentally pulled up the full size version on Flickr and each pore was like the seed of a mutant pink strawberry. Never look at your picture closeup. It's like looking at your blog stats; what you thought was your best feature gets overshadowed by something everyone else can't see around. I got my hair did by my girl Carla at Salon Dolce, should you find yourself looking shaggy and skulking around Beauregard Town.
      
• I just had so many windows open and the weirdest tune coming from one of them. I kept shutting them trying to find it and the music still played until I found it beaming out of the Radio Bar, a new bar/online radio station thing soon to be open on my way home from work. If I were programming the station right now, and I suppose I could be if I wanted, I'd just play the Grace Jones Hurricane Dub record over and over until we are all made space oddity plazzzzma and become one with the void from which things spring. Have a great weekend!
  
  
  Grace Jones, "Devil Dub"