Saturday, January 24, 2004

Crash Helmut

Just over a year after the untimely death of Herb Ritts, another great photographer of our times, Helmut Newton, has died in a car accident. He was best known for his striking and surreal b&w nudes, often of famous and beautiful women. More biographical detail can be found in this 1999 piece by JG Ballard (discovered via the not-safe-for-work fleshbot).

I know that the state of my teeth has been setting tongues wagging amongst the chattering classes this week, so I feel I should announce that my dental problems are not, as first thought, down to a wisdom tooth but a pesky abcess instead. Root canal surgery awaits, which sounds both painful and expensive. In the meantime, I'm on a course of antibiotics which is the reason I'm at home blogging right now rather than shouting at random strangers and giving taxi drivers my well-worn rendition of the 'I Could Have Been A Contender' speech, as normally befits a Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, Ben has blithely ignored the Parallax View Law Of Physics that states that only 50% of trailed features on this site ever materialise, and has been politely enquiring as to when I'm going to pull my finger out and bring Mason and Dixon Watch to a dignified conclusion. Calendar thieves willing, this should indeed be happening in a matter of days. But then, I once said that about the sequel to the Ladeez Night feature, and that was about two years ago.

If only I had as much time on my hands as Marcello Carlin, who just a few short weeks after he said he was too busy to continue blogging, has backed up his assertion that 1985 was the worst year for pop music ever by critically analysing just about every significant record released in that year! That's too much like hard work surely, but whether or not you agree with his thesis, reading through some of these records did get me feeling nostalgic (like Marcello, I turned 21 in the year in question). But how can you be too hard on a year that had The Smiths nearing their peak; Pet Shop Boys emerging; Kate Bush's 'The Hounds Of Love'; Prince donning his 'Raspberry Beret'; Grace Jones becoming a 'Slave To The Rhythm'; Propaganda inviting us to 'Duel'; Don Henley getting all wistful about 'The Boys Of Summer'; The Bangles having a 'Manic Monday'; Broooce 'Dancing In The Dark' with a young Courtney Cox, and the arrival of Maria McKee with Lone Justice showing us so many 'Ways To Be Wicked'. And 'Don't You Forget About Me'. Hey Hey HEY HEYYYY. Etc.

In other news Jordana Brewster is to star in a lesbian superhero movie and a teaser trailer for Nicole Kidman's Stepford Wives remake is up (requires Quicktime, found via Tagline).

And finally, via Creepy Lesbo, Offshoot is the suitably young and snotty weblog run by part of the Warwick University writing group. Although they're not so young that they can't answer agony column questions entirely through the wit and wisdom of Louise Wener's lyrics from her Sleeper heydays. Shouldn't these people be out protesting about student loans or something?

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