2.06.2006

Discovery of the week

A friend asked me earlier today, just as a part of conversation, what we (the other people at the table) had discovered in the previous week, movies, shows, book, lines, etc. Unorginal copier that I am, I conceived this wild plan to implement this as a weekly blog feature. In other words, it's here now, might be here next week again, and after that, well, Insya'Allah.

My discovery of (last)(the) week? Imogen Heap . Not my usual kind of music, true. I tend to go for the more acoustic, singer-songwriter, and - to quote someone else with a somewhat, shall we say, different appreciation of music - "boring" artists, with admittedly the occasional foray into the more electronic (Air, Portishead), oddball (Sufjan Stevens, the Fiery Furnaces) and orchestral (Rufus Wainwright) realms.

Imogen Heap is a little different. I can't find a better description for her music than "Goldfrappy", but you know what, I had a Goldfrapp period some time ago, and I think this is just the right time for an Imogen Heap period. See, I'm trying this new thing called "discipline" (don't worry, it's already starting to wear off) and most of my music is either too distracting or well, unsuited because its combination with physics equations is a powerful soporific.

Energetic music, then, is what I need, but as I have a strong aversion to dud-dud-dub beats and too overcheery girly voices, the right energetic music can be hard to find. This works perfectly. What also does is the new Belle & Sebastian album, "The life pursuit". It's surprisingly dancy, more so even than "Dear Catastrophe Waitress", without losing the great lyrics.

Had I thought of it at the time, my discovery of the week might also have been the following brilliant exchange from last week's Gilmore Girls, which I hereby shamelessly copy-paste from Jess' blog:

(Lorelai is stealthily attempting to put a leash on her dog)
Sookie: What are you doing?
Lorelai: Uh, he freaks out if he sees his leash. You have to make sure you hide it from him, make sure he doesn't see you putting it on him.
Sookie: How is he once he's on the leash?
Lorelai: Oh, he's totally fine having his personal freedom slowly stripped away, as long as he's completely unaware that it's happening. Just like a true American.

Don't worry, I won't turn this into a political blog (Bush-bashing, as justified as it usually is, gets boring after a while), but I just have to mention this here: on the case of the Danish cartoons, George dear (or his spokesperson, anyway), defender of freedom and crusader in the name of personal liberty, has stated that the cartoons were unacceptable. Insert disturbing lack of shock.

Stay tuned for next week's discovery of the week, or something...

H.