Black Friday SotD: "Black Celebration" by Depeche Mode

What else would I choose to celebrate the blackest of all retail days? Here's hoping my dad's store (Nafziger's Men Store, ask for Craig) had tons of business. (Gosh, they need a website!)

Let's have a black celebration ... to celebrate the fact that we've seen the back of another black day.

Twilight

I have ducked my head throughout this whole Twilight thing. Well that's not entirely true. I've read tons of snarky analyses and critiques of the books and so I know the basic plotlines and who these unlikable characters are and that SMeyers likes LINKIN PARK and writes about towns in Washington she knows next to nothing about. (Given a choice I would not go dress shopping in Port Angeles, for example, and neither would Bella and her friends. BUT I would eat at Taco Time.) But I have definitely not read the books.

Well, the internet informs me that there are bands that have formed which write music inspired by this terrible series. And I have not listened to a note of it! I got my fill of this sort of thing with Wizard Rock, AKA Wrock.

If you are interested, check this out: The Bella Cullen Project, perhaps the first Twilight band. Hey, they're no Harry and the Potters.

SotD: "Beautiful Dream" by Adam Ant

Adam Ant's last album Wonderful came out in 1995, which of course means he's hardly relevant anymore. And yet, he is one influential dude. Bands have totally bitten his military/gypsy/American Indian-inspired style, including Coldplay. Of course he was so over that stuff in the nineties and he was making music with long time writing partner Marco Pirroni and Boz Boorer of Morrissey fame.

This single, written without the help of Boorer, is a tale of love, lust, biology, and safe sex. It also kind of reminds me of "The River of Dreams" by Billy Joel.

Local News: The Bouquet is back!

Boise bar and music venue the Bouquet is reopening tonight after an extensive remodel. Tonight there is a reopening party (cover free!) sponsored by Red Bull.

The Bouquet is located at 1010 W. Main St.

Before the remodel (and possibly under different management) Thomas Dolby and Martin Fry performed there. I hope we can expect such big, yet irrelevant, names. I'm actually serious, I would love to see Thomas Dolby and Martin Fry.

SotD: "Johnny and Mary" by Robert Palmer

Robert Palmer was the man. He's best known for the videos featuring models pretending to play instruments while all looking the same (and it's been parodied countless times, see: Love Actually). It's more than a little bit sexist but it's also a lot sexy and makes for a great Halloween costume for twins. The video for Johnny and Mary sucks. I mean, it's really bad. One really stupid gripe is that you can't comb your hair like that or you would pull all your hair out. BUT I chose this song for SotD because it's a solid song.

Call for scholarly works about Morrissey

This news item posted at Morrissey Solo cracked me up. Ever since I read something I got off JSTOR about the Smiths, I've been tempted A) to subscribe to that journal and B) to write little articles myself. Unfortunately it's been too long since I've done some cultural studyin' and I'm all out of practice. On a final note, that's my kind of symposium, yo.

SotD: "Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk

I love Kraftwerk but I got into them embarrassingly late in the game. They were a huge influence on much of the music I enjoy - DM, techno, other synth-based music. This song wins for mentioning Iggy Pop and David Bowie and talking about European traveling. How pleasant.

Video!