French music is back, for now...

This excellent piece of popular music, burrowing into your brain and setting up shop instantly, is Belgian, so it's probably not as carefree as it sounds. The video and what I'm able to pick up from the lyrics seem to suggest a deep world-weariness not in keeping with the happy occasion. You see, this is the first time in years that something French was a hit in the rest of the European continent. France sort of started to trail off in the sixties, when it bypassed Rock and Roll entirely, and aside from a few pieces in the eighties and nineties, all French chart topping music has been in English. It takes just this kind of production, pitched right between annoying and unforgettable to make it, let's hope this means we'll have to learn French again. I actually welcome that thought.

Gordon Brown reveals human side...

Classic stuff. This looks more like the kind of thing that would happen on Yes Minister or The thick of it, than in real life. If you haven't been following the British elections, you probably don't care, but it might be genuinely interesting this time, seeing as the Liberal Democrats, who have been the second party in the country for years, until recent tory resurgence, might be needed to get a majority, which paves the way for a possible reform of the two-party system and the end of almost 30 years of right to center right domination in British politics. Gordon Brown's unending string of mistakes, of which this is just the most recent, are damaging, but mostly make both him and the Tories look bad for some reason. David Cameron is just a bit to eager and falls over these mistakes a bit too soon each time, but he's also just as stiff and useless as Brown is in reality. Not that the Liberal Democrats are a fount of Charisma, but they manage to look human most of the time. A hot summer of elections and coalition negotiations up ahead..

Gaga's reliably mad videos

I knew Lady Gaga wouldn't disappoint. We've been hearing this song for a while, but now we get to see this piece of inspired madness. Here's the uncensored 9 minute version, which wouldn't embed, thanks to Vevo. There's also six hundred thousand people singing it themselves to wade through before you can get it, but that's becoming par for the course for any video these days. There's so much garbage, where you have to sit through 10 second ads as well, there's hardly a point anymore watching anything that has corporate sponsorship attached. Oh, by the way, this video is entertaining and all, but it's not nearly as dense and interesting as the last couple or so. There's some Madonna, kill bill, poisoned mayonaise sandwiches, Natural born killers and Thelma and Louise references, but there all quite obvious. Jonas Akerlund, longtime Madonna collaborator is fine, but Gaga should really get Michel Gondry to do her one.

Heffner spends a cool Million on Symbolism...

Weird that it was Hugh Heffner that saved the Hollywood sign, though you would expect him to save the signal that lures many of his models to his doorstep, like a flat, white faced siren. I erroneously assumed that it was already a public landmark, etc. But turns out they had to buy it, and the surrounding countryside. It's bizarre, but typically American to have your most recognisable landmarks privately owned and operated. If they could afford it, someone would probably buy the statue of Liberty and build a housing development there as well. The inevitable decay of a landmark is one of the most interesting things about it. I love those Urban redevelopment plans where an old factory or something is rebuilt into something new and interesting. It's a tragedy that this probably won't happen to a lot of the buildings built today, we just don't know how to build beautiful ruins anymore.