Sometimes, suds and soda mix OK with beer

So, later I'm off on holiday for the weekend. Well, kind of on holiday. Mabel, my rapper team, are planning a hit-and-run dancing raid on Bruge. Or is it Brugge ? Or Bruges ? Opinions seem to be divided. Hopefully I will know when I get back.

Yesterday, when I told secutatrix I was going to Belgium, her first reaction was "Oh, I'm sorry."

Now, I'd like to protest that that's an extremely unfair thing to say, but since my first reaction to Belgium is always...

The concept it embodies is so revolting that the publication or broadcast of the word is utterly forbidden in all parts of the galaxy except one - where they don’t know what it means.

... I feel like I don't really have a leg to stand on.

Just what is it about Belgium, anyway ? I know a few people who've been to Bruggge, and they've all reported it as lovely. It seems that Brugggge is a perfectly acceptable place to visit, so long as you don't mention its being in Belgium.

Of course, there is the point that the most famous Belgian doesn't exist - Hercule Poirot is the only one most people can name. But on the other hand, if you can't think of any famous Belgians, how many famous Bulgarians can you name off hand ? And no one particularly picks on Bulgaria. (Wikipedia thoughtfully provides lists of both famous Belgians and famous Bulgarians). Why is it Famous Belgians which always comes up in conversation ?

My favourite answer to "name four famous Belgians" has, for some time, been "dEUS", but I was astounded yesterday to discover that Front 242 are also Belgian. I mean... it just doesn't sound very likely, does it ?

Belgian beer and Belgian chocolates seem to be the acceptable faces of the nation. But why, exactly, is it that the entire country seems to be such an inherently humorous concept ?

Dance like there's nobody watching

It's Friday! It's about three o'clock! It's time to Boogie At Your Desk!

( You what? )

Today you were invited to Boogie At Your Desk to:

Barenaked Ladies - New Kid (On The Block)

(Or if you don't want to download a file with an mp3 suffix, click here for a zipped version.)

For a long time, the only Barenaked Ladies songs I really knew were If I had $1000000 and One Week. For some reason, this led me to consider them as something of a "joke" band, along with the likes of They Might Be Giants.

Some time later, when I'd bought Gordon and nearly played it to death, I realised that that was actually one of their strengths: they appear frivolous and daft.

Now, while there's nothing wrong with a bit of frivolity and daftness (in fact, in general I encourage it) it can give music a very short shelf life. While I don't dispute that Weird Al Yankovic is a talented guy, I've very rarely found anything of his that I'd want to listen to more than a couple of times.

The Bareneked Ladies do indeed write songs with silly lyrics, which they sometimes sing in silly voices. But, hidden in among them, are bits of surprising musical interest, often so brief that it's easy to miss them. On Gordon, there's the snippet of a Housemartins song slid[**] neatly into Hello City, the pseudo military drums on The Flag, the one-bar-only tempo-change to indicate a "dance remix" in Box Set. And, of course, the references to NKOTB songs in New Kid (On The Block). In amongst the strange choices of subject and the excruciating rhymes, there's a fair old amount of cleverness going on.

If you've never heard Gordon, get out there and buy it. No, it doesn't have One Week on it, but that just means you should also buy the album Stunt at a later date. Incidentally, I got their new album Everything To Everyone earlier in the year, but haven't formed much of an opinion on it yet. If anyone has, let's hear it.

[*] And incidentally, please don't crucify me, any Weird Al fans out there. I've not heard masses of his stuff, so maybe all I said above is actually true of him too.

[**] I can't help feeling that the word I want there is slidden. You know, like hide, hid, hidden.