Love is a beautiful thing

My friend Orlando Flavel has made this mix - Beautiful Thing - and I can't get enough of it. Check it out and feel the waves of pleasure wash over you.

Beautiful Thing by orlandof

Cream bun I weigh a ton

In IKEA Croydon I saw a giant woman wheeling her obese son around in a shopping trolley. He had rolls of fat on his neck. Paula Deen is giving America a heart attack. Angletrax are feeling anorexic.

Angletrax - Anorexia nervosa

Nuns Fucking Radical Lesbian Nuns

This clip from Adam Curtis' documentary Century of the Self tells the story of a group of psychotherapists who began working with nuns from the Los Angeles Immaculate Heart convent in the early 1960s. The liberating effect of this therapy caused the nuns to question the rigid strictures of convent life and unleashed powerful sexual forces within them, turning them into radical lesbian nuns.

At around the same time a Dominican nun in Belgium called Sister Luc Gabriel recorded an album of her songs which was released under the pseudonym Souer Sourire (Sister Smile). Her song Dominique went on to become a global hit and Sister Luc became the first nun to reach No. 1 in the American pop charts. Liberated by her fame Sister Luc left the convent in 1967 to continue her musical career under her own name, Jean Dekkers. She embraced lesbianism and wrote released a single in praise of  contraception - "Glory Be to God for the Golden Pill" - but it was a commercial failure. Beset by financial problems Jean tried to  relaunch her career in 1982, recording a synthpop version of Dominique. The rather spectacular results can be seen below. Note the transformation from Dominican novitiate to radical lesbian.



Ironically the success of Dominique proved fatal. In 1985 Jean and her girlfriend Anne Peche committed suicide with barbiturates, citing their money trouble in their suicide note. The cause of Jeans financial woe was a backdated $62,000 tax bill served on her by the Belgian government for her share of the 'Dominique' royalties, which she was unable to pay as all of her royalties had been given over to the convent.

Souer Sourire - Dominique(1963)
Jean Dekkers - Dominique (1982 disco version)

boys on bikes

Melancholy electro pop from continental types.

The Shoes - People Movin (LeAm rmx)

Two ways boys are

This song is the musical equivalent of watching a woman get her face smashed in.  Until recently I had no idea that the Y Pants rendition was a cover version, or that the original was sung by 1960's teen pop icon Lesley Gore. The two versions of the song couldn't be more different. In Lesley Gore's original the negative sentiment is smothered by the sweetness of the pop arrangement. Y Pants bring all the negativity in the lyrics to the fore, singing them acappella, while in the background a woman's muffled scream gradually builds in intensity. I can never decide if it's terrifying or hilarious.

Conventional wisdom says that Y Pants took a 60s pop hit and subverted it, but I'm not so sure. Lesley Gore came out as a lesbian a few years ago, and in retrospect this song is clearly sapphic propaganda masquerading as girl group pop for impressionable teenagers. You know they can't have children of their own, so they have to...oh...ok


Lesley Gore - That's the way boys are
Y Pants - That's the way boys are

The sweet sound of abuse

If they'd arrested Phil Spector after he produced this record back in 1962 they'd have saved everybody a lot of trouble. He hit me(and it felt like a kiss) doesn't justify domestic violence, it celebrates it. The message is essentially that women probably deserve a slap every so often and should be grateful to have a man that cares enough to administer one.

The vocals, by my favourite of Spector's many girl groups  the Crystals, are delivered without a trace of irony and Spector's arrangement conveys a sort of savage romance which I have to say I find rather appealing. The song was not a commercial success, despite the undoubted widespread popularity of intimate partner abuse both in America and internationally.

The Crystals - He hit me(and it felt like a kiss)

POP TRIVIA - Amy Winehouse is on record as saying this is her favourite song of all time!