Going Solo?

I think I'm over school holidays already, and it's only the first day.  Master 15 has a friend over, and they're playing the x-box.  I've just been tooling around on You Tube, and despite my sterling efforts to maintain a façade of cool chic, have been playing Neil Diamond.  Well, Neil could be construed as cool.  He's definitely a prolific and talented man.  I will admit to being one of those who, when Cracklin' Rosie comes on the radio, cranks up the volume and sings with gusto (and in my case, seriously badly).  I like just about all of Neil's stuff, except for that nauseating bloat Turn On Your Heart Light.  From memory, Neil was so enchanted when he viewed the movie E.T., he was moved to pen this paean to the lost little alien.  I too found that film moving, but it had the same properties to move as a packet of laxatives.  I am one of those rare beings who does not find that ugly wizened little fuck E.T. appealing or enchanting.

Still, one must expect the odd stinker in an oeuvre of hitherto high standard pieces.  I am a Kiss fan (and have also just been listening to Do You Love Me? from the album Destroyer.  Yet, you all know what I think of Beth.  I am partial to quite a bit of Pearl Jam, but Last Kiss - oh, dear.  What can one say about that but: Did you guys lose a bet or something?  The Rolling Stones are a tremendous band, but their solo projects are execrable.  Don't believe me?  Have a listen to Let's Work by Mick Jagger, and as for Bill Wyman's Je Suis Un Rockstar, don't say you weren't warned.  This falls into the So-Bad-It's-Good category.  Almost.  It's truly kicking goals in the So-Bad-It's-Just-Utter-Shit category, with the tone-deaf croaking in cockney: 'She took off  'er 'at/And she 'ad lovely 'air' (honestly, how bad is that lyric?), interspersed with some French, a la the title to this loathsome louche-ness.  The most shudder-worthy, and prophetic line is when Bill's trying to convince this young temptress to visit his abode in the south of France via a hovercraft 'across the water' (no, really?): 'They'll think I'm your dad/And you're my daughter...'  It is impossible to listen to that and not shudder.

Speaking of the unappealing and not enchanting in the least, Derryn Hinch and Pauline Hanson made it to the Senate.  On the bright side, the political reports will probably be not too boring.  I still reckon the LNP will get back in.