Behaviour

I.
Though balanced by a stern speech by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak admonishing North Korea for sinking its naval vessel, South Korea's re-inaugural broadcast began with a song by the popular K-pop girl group, 4minute. Their song, "HuH (Hit Your Heart)," was chosen as a shot at the North's oppressive regime. "Baby, you're kidding me? I do what I want and I do it my way," the girls purr, flaunting the South's prosperity and freedom of expression to its impoverished northern counterpart, complete with a thumping beat and sultry dance moves.--Time

II.

“Nothing is quite as great as getting up in the morning, listening to the Pet Shop Boys and going to church.”—"A Gay Catholic Voice Against Same Sex Marriage," NYT

More PSB coverage: Madness!

(Time to update that Damion Searls blurb?)

(From D. Lim)

Disambiguations™ for November 17, 2009

I. Erasing on the German edition of Infinite Jest:

The minimalist cover design has a somewhat sepulchral quality, drained of color, black type on otherwise blank matte white boards, black endpapers, the back cover a mirror image of the front. With a thoughtful touch: Sewn into the binding are two bookmark ribbons. (One for the main text, one for the 134 pages of endnotes.)

There should be a Pale Fire made this way, too...

II. And now on to an even greater work of art: Cavemen! Sweeney directs us to the blog of Nick Kroll, one of the show's stars. Plenty of links, including ones to unaired episodes! (Time to special-order Michael Marcinkowski's Blvr. piece on the ill-fated series?)

III. Pet Shop Boys cover Coldplay!
(From Dennis)

IV. Department of Possibly Intentional Typos™

4. Given the large volume of material produced for LD, it'd be great to see it all reproduced in a single volume from high-quality scans. I understand that Tadashi Ehara is doing this with Different Worlds. Is this something you'd ever like to see happen?

LD was a fanzine which was not profread or spell checked. If it were retyped and those things done that would be awesome. I would not want it produced "as is". My grammar, spelling and proofreading skills bite! I don't want to reveal that to world.

—Grognardia

Medley

PSB at the 2009 BRIT Awards:



(From Dzyd Dennis)

Hard-urned

Last week: I give Jenny D a review copy of Cintra Wilson's new novel, sniffing that I just "don't get" her style. (CW's, not JD's.)

Today: I read CW's column in the Times and suddenly GET IT.

Since I believe that the best clothing inspires fear, I’ve been excited by the idea of Thom Browne doing ladies’ haberdashery.

BRILLIANT!

The shop décor is quite spiffy: lots of heavy wooden furniture, stained to a high-gloss ebony, and big black urns.

DROLL!

These spring-loaded ensembles were so mind-bogglingly dandy — one jacket had pink sleeves, a yellow trunk and blue pockets — that I couldn’t picture them on anyone but disbarred Southern lawyers, jockeys or Dick Van Dyke.

DISBARRED?!!! LOVE IT!

This was sort of like the morning (c. 1992) when I woke up, brushed my teeth, and thought: The Pet Shop Boys are amazing.

Pet Shop Boys on the tube — Taiwan — prions

This is from a press release, forwarded by Dizzyhead Dennis:

The Pet Shop Boys will be on Dancing With the Stars tonight (8 p.m. EST) and on Friday on Late Late Night with Craig Ferguson. (The new album, Fundamental, is very strong.)

* * *

Dizzyhead Hua has a terrific piece up at Slate about Taiwanese politics. Sound dull? Think again!

In parliament, Lee Ao, an eccentric shades-wearing legislator, crashed the committee deciding the [arms] bill's fate, donned a gas mask—and a V for Vendetta mask atop that—and tear-gassed the committee members. As members coughed their way out of the chamber, Lee pledged to maintain his opposition to the costly bill.

And over at Newsday, Dizzyhead Jenny makes this D.T. Max book (the one that got me thinking about EYES) sound well worth picking up.