Ol rait!

I spent a large part of this past week revisiting Italian music from the sixties and seventies. Most of this exercise just made for endless amusement, but there was one standout: Adriano Celentano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol. Celentano is one of Italy’s most enduring and inventive rock stars. He was tremendously inspired by American rock, but wanted to find a way to bring an Italian spin to it. Prisencolinensinainciusol is a song he made with nonsense-words, meant to sound the way English does to a foreigner. He’s making the point that love and music are the universal language. The result of this artistic experiment? An awesome, inventive song with a fresh, catchy beat, set to a truly fun and inspiring video. And… a song that is basically rap, years before rap hit the US airwaves. Not too shabby. I’ve been watching this video and listening to this song practically on repeat since I discovered it. Do yourselves a favour and give it a listen.

And she was…

I’ve had that song stuck in my head all day, so I thought I’d put up this picture. One of my favourite shots of David Byrne, though there are so many great ones that it’s hard to choose.

[via Digital Observations. Was unable to find the original source.]

It makes me think of a Man Ray picture… I just frantically Googled to make sure it wasn’t in fact a Man Ray photo, and then I realised that simple chronology made that near impossible. Then I smacked myself in the forehead.

ALSO, beyond simply being of a really amazing person, the picture gets extra-special coolness props for including other favourite elements of mine, being chairs and peeling paint. This picture is pure and utter bliss

The song responsible for it all: