Secret rose garden in Paris

Came across this wonderful place today quite by accident. Lucky really; I needed something to write about for the Paris Newsblog... Click this way.

Really exciting disgusting news - I stubbed my toe

Just the other day I was wondering why everyone else's feet except your own look like monstrous, disgusting growths. Then yesterday, despite the door being fully open with only 3cm of wood to hit, I managed to stub my toe on it BIG TIME.

The little toe bled, and it hurt like hell, but after a few minutes the pain went down and I eventually went about my usual Sunday business. However, after a day of cycling around Paris I was limping more and more, and when I finally took my sock off in the evening I was presented with this deleted scene from Saw IV:

Yuck, that's bloody disgusting!

After a quick look on the web, it may be broken, maybe not, either way there's not much I can do. Anyway, this morning it doesn't hurt half as much, so I don't think I'll go to the doctor's unless it starts smelling and has flies on it.  Ewww!

George Takei cut 'n' paste

I'm not a fan of youtube 'funny' stuff (you just know there's a 'but' coming up here), but this made me laugh. Howard Stern cut 'n' pasted extracts from the autobiography of George Takei (Sulu on Star Trek) as read by the man himself and made filthy/surreal sentences out of it, then 'phoned some poor hillbilly who gave the perfect reaction. It'll only take you three minutes. Cassetteboy would be proud...

I'm w-a-y late on this, but who cares.

Unfortunate name for French underwear company

And I though Acne Jeans was a bad idea. This one is either fantastically daring or just icky-poo. Ah, the French... 

Get yourself some snatch here. And look out for Herpes ice-cream sometime soon.

Heartbreaking house track gets the Fist fusion treatment

Back in 1997, the whole Mongoloids house sound was big on both sides of the Atlantic, with regular exchanges between Basement Jaxx and the big New York names of the time. Looking back, I'm not sure who was emulating who (Sanchez copying Basement Jaxx copying Van Helden and Masters At Work...).

Corrina Joseph was one of the early signings on BJ's Atlantic Jaxx label back in 1997 when the Brixton parties were blowing up and they still had their underground cred. For me that time is long gone, but for a few years the Jaxx boys produced a string of class tracks (and did some cracking remixes) and Corrina Joseph was their muse. Then, after a couple of singles, she disappeared. There were a few dodgy rent-a-voice sightings (notably for Kamasutra in Italy) but for all intents and purposes she had gone.

So where did she go? Well, looking at her myspace page it would seem she took some time off from singing in order to have children and enjoy life. Good for her!

Though her glory days may be behind her, her classics tracks on Atlantic Jaxx never get old. Like Lonely, with the haunting melody of the main mix perfectly counterpointing the dark ambience and (typical Basement Jaxx) studio trickery of the dub. Obviously, somebody had to splice them together, and that somebody is me.

Download 12 achingly beautiful minutes of vintage vocals and classic Basement Jaxx here:

Corrina Joseph - Lonely (Original mix / Fallin' dub - Fist fusion) (mediafire)

Like Dusty on downers - Portishead in Paris

Had a great couple of nights here watching both of Portishead's Paris shows, one snugly sat in the VIP area with the ageing nolstagia crowd and unbearable fashion kids, one down in the pit where you could see every wrinkle on Beth's face (i.e. lots). Also, the girl in front of me didn't just feel the music, she was the music. Like Shiva in a blender, her hands swirled expressively (and continuously) as each chord resonated with her very being. You'll see it in the film below.

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Also, we were lucky enough to have the magic armband for the aftershow party, where a little dancing was done and quite a bit of champagne was drunk. The band seemed very relaxed, and that was a pleasure to see... Plus, the Parc de la Villette (just outside the Zénith venue) is always an impressive place at night...