serene’s posterous

Everything but the Girl, like the Housemartins, were also from Hull,
England. Everything but the Girl is a 2-person band made up of the
couple, Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn. They are probably most famous for
the Todd Terry remixed song "Missing" (...And I miss you, like the
deserts miss the rain...). This song, Protection by Massive Attack,
is a cool piece voiced by Tracey Thorn. Tracey Thorn has a really
tender and emotive voice.

Housemartins was another slightly obscure English pop band from the
1980s. This was the single that helped them become a little famous in
the UK, probably because the video had cool plasticine figures of them
dancing. Watch out for Norman Cook, otherwise known as Fatboy Slim,
in his younger days.

An excellent heist movie based on a true story - a daring bank robbery
in London back in 1971. It also stars my favorite English tough guy,
Jason Statham. The background story is interesting:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2008/02/16/bank-job-that-opened-the-door-on-a-royal-sex-scandal-89520-20320893/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/mar/11/film.ukcrime
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-515138/FOUND-Radio-Hams-sensational-tape-bank-heist-rescued-compromising-pictures-Princess-Margaret.html

Prefab Sprout are a quirky English pop band, most famous for their
songs in the 1980s. They never made it really big, but many were fans
of their intelligent songwriting. This song, "Cars and Girls", was
reasonably well known. It is supposedly a response to Bruce
Springsteen's lyrical style then. "Some things hurt more much more
than cars and girls..."

After reading this article from NYT

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/

I thought I should make an Asian-style cabbage salad. I chopped up
some green and red cabbage, mixed it up with a bit of sesame oil,
seasoned rice vinegar and freshly squeezed lime juice. Finally I
added some halved grape tomatoes and raisins for sweetness. This is
somewhat inspired by the recipe from

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/lime-peanut-coleslaw-recipe.html

A soulful song from the 1980s by Wet Wet Wet that I used to listen to
a lot. They were probably most famous in the US for the overplayed
"Love is all Around" from the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral".
They weren't exactly a groundbreaking or exciting pop band, but were a
good listen. Marti Pellow looked gorgeous back then too.

A fluffy romantic comedy set in London, and populated by the usual
quirky characters. "True love is a process, not an event." I thought
it was funny that they had to explain at the start of the movie why
Brittany Murphy's accent was so inconsistent. Orlando Bloom and
Gwyneth Paltrow had funny cameos, and Santiago Cabrera was charming (a
lot better than as Isaac Mendenz in Heroes).

Cathy Dennis is probably more famous for having penned Britney
Spears's "Toxic" and Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get you Out of my Head"
than for her singing. This is her cover of The Kinks's "Waterloo
Sunset", a song written by Ray Davies and one of the best songs about
London. The song begins at about 00:40 in this video.

A bit of fluff. Not much in the way of plot, and the songs and
dancing weren't particularly memorable. But it was fun way to spend
about 2 hours. And Christopher Walken dancing is always cool.

Roddy Frame, then of Aztec Camera, with an atypical cover of Van
Halen's Jump. This version is performed live on some TV show, but he
also has other versions (in hard-to-find Japanese compilations) with a
long electric guitar solo.