Dog Days Are Over

So happiness is like a bullet in the back… I think I see where this Florence is going. The video of her dancing in fur amid puffs of smoke is pointing the way. She going to be the pagan goddess for girls who want occultism and magic but can’t stomach the conformity of Hot Topic goths. Which I say as a compliment. Florence is dark without making darkness her image. She is dark and she is hopeful.

Gimme Hope Jo’anna

Poor Eddy Grant. Doesn’t he deserve some dignity? In 1988 he had a hit with this song, which is an anti-apartheid protest thinly disguised as a rockin’ reggae jam. Though he used the name Jo’anna to refer to South Africa’s government in Johannesburg, Grant’s lyrics couldn’t have been blunter. It’s clear what he’s talking about, clear enough the single was banned in South Africa and a hit everywhere else. Now with that background information we scroll down and watch the video. It seems some people (the French of course) missed the point entirely and mistook the song for an straight-up party song. So poor Grant is on French TV playing his political protest to a roomful of happy jewelry-rattlers, backed with a ridiculous troop of dancers doing amateur-hour choreography in tacky costumes. It’s a travesty. French TV people just don’t get it.