Swift Kicks


Taylor Swift in the midst of rapping, wearing a track jacket and blinged-out cap

The CMT Music Awards show last week opened with a laugh-out-loud — or at least grin-really-wide — collaboration between T-Pain, who even talks in vocoder, and Taylor Swift called “Thug Story”. [1:30]

Unread by Me


One of the several things I admire about Roger Ebert is his economy of words. No
doubt it helps that he likely spent at least his pre-fame years on strict word counts at The Chicago Sun-Times; also that his readership has become familiar with certain phrases of his which, though perfunctory, don’t sound as judgmental as they might from an unknown source. He will often refer to a film as “adapted from the novel, unread by me”. You have to marvel at such concise, neutral disclosure. The following books, graphic novels in the sense that the phrase has come to encompass just about any work of comics with a square binding, are as yet unread by me — but likely not
for long, and I have cause to recommend each.

cover of 'The Courageous Princess' showing a young lady riding a warthog

Vuelvo


Yes, I shall return. But I’ve had an awful dry spell in posting this month, and the
way things are going the drought may well continue.

Ximena Sariñana posed stiffly in a fine chair dressed and coiffed in vintage 1950s style while sewing with red thread

Today’s post title is in reference (and contrast) to “No Vuelvo Más”, a track from
the debut album of singer/songwriter Ximena Sariñana. I haven’t picked up Rolling Stone regularly in some time, but I’m so glad that I came across a copy with its 4-star review of that album, Mediocre [Spanish: meh-dzhyo-kreh], last fall. After visiting Ximena’s website — mostly just a portal to her MySpace page — and listening to a handful of tracks, I was sold.

Deep Sit


The words 'Love of Chair' over scene of young man sitting on a chair in a small, empty room

A few years ago I was thrilled to find a DVD compilation of childhood favorite The Electric Company. You can read a bit about it — and in particular its crossovers with predecessor Sesame Street — on the Muppet Wiki, as well as in greater depth on Wikipedia.

?!?


I have no idea why images have been failing to appear, leaving those charming little question-mark boxes. It’s not happening with any rhyme or reason that I’m aware of; on a few occasions pictures that disappeared have reappeared before I can even check the post to ensure that links to Picasa (Google/Blogger’s photo-hosting service) are correct. I’ve taken down posts that largely depend on graphics and I won’t republish them until this gets figured out because I’m just sick of having to constantly do so.