I am, of course, a massive fan of the Pet Shop Boys. At the drop of the metaphorical hat, I can go off on why, exactly, I think they're the smartest people to work in pop music and how they understand how dance music with words doesn't need to be inane. I can tell you huge chunks of trivia about them and have read the two "official" books on them innumerable times. I'm a gawking fanboy, in other words.
However, I can not compete with Marcin Wichary, who created a site celebrating 10 years of "Being boring," their poignant look at growing up. Mind you, it's now been 14 years since the song's release and the site hasn't been updated since mid-2003, but give them credit for keeping the hosting and the domain name going just to celebrate their love for this song. And now, a quote about punctuation and the Pets from the site, which cribbed it from Literally issue 241:
In other intelligent popsters news, the live DVD for the Sparks Lil' Beethoven tour will finally be getting a stateside release on April 26th. The first half is the titular album being performed in its entirety with the second portion serving as a "hits" sort of thing. The reviews were fairly stellar for this, and as their Live In London DVD from the Balls Tour is a staple of my working background noise, I am looking forward most eagerly.
Finally, I'm returning to the city that never sleeps this weekend for a limited engagement - seeing Erasure at Irving Plaza with Sarah and then spending the rest of the weekend attempting to avoid her efforts to get me out to Coney Island. Hopefully, Kristin will be coming down on Sunday for the day so I can have her meet Ryan, the other loud southern liberal in the Northeastern US and run around a bit to her favorite spots.
1This was added after Isaac at Toner Mishap pointed out that I didn't attribute properly. This sort of thing is, frankly, shoddy and I should be beaten for it.
However, I can not compete with Marcin Wichary, who created a site celebrating 10 years of "Being boring," their poignant look at growing up. Mind you, it's now been 14 years since the song's release and the site hasn't been updated since mid-2003, but give them credit for keeping the hosting and the domain name going just to celebrate their love for this song. And now, a quote about punctuation and the Pets from the site, which cribbed it from Literally issue 241:
Long hours were spent trying to agree on consistent rules for punctuation, particularly in Neil�s lyrics. (The basic rule followed is that a new line begins with a capital letter when the previous sentence�which of often far from the same as the previous line�has finished). One of the many points of dispute in the text itself was Neil�s insistence that the Pet Shop Boys� rules for how they write their song titles�in particular which letters should be printed in upper or lower case�should be formalised and rigorously followed. The rule is that, in this respect, all Pet Shop Boys song titles should be treated as if they are sentences: the first word should be capitalised, but subsequent words should only be capitalised if they are proper nouns. So it should be I want a dog but it likewise should be Dreaming of the Queen (as the song refers to one particular queen, the Queen of England). Most controversial was Neil�s insistence that�because the West End is a specific area of London� West End girls should henceforth appear like that. This rule only applies to songs the Pet Shop Boys have written, or to the Pet Shop Boys recordings, so it would be correct to write about the Pet Shop Boys number one hit Always on my mind whilst also noting that they were inspired to record it after hearing Elvis Presley�s hit version of Always On My Mind.I rather appreciate this monomaniacal approach to punctuation and think that Lynne Truss would agree with me.
In other intelligent popsters news, the live DVD for the Sparks Lil' Beethoven tour will finally be getting a stateside release on April 26th. The first half is the titular album being performed in its entirety with the second portion serving as a "hits" sort of thing. The reviews were fairly stellar for this, and as their Live In London DVD from the Balls Tour is a staple of my working background noise, I am looking forward most eagerly.
Finally, I'm returning to the city that never sleeps this weekend for a limited engagement - seeing Erasure at Irving Plaza with Sarah and then spending the rest of the weekend attempting to avoid her efforts to get me out to Coney Island. Hopefully, Kristin will be coming down on Sunday for the day so I can have her meet Ryan, the other loud southern liberal in the Northeastern US and run around a bit to her favorite spots.
1This was added after Isaac at Toner Mishap pointed out that I didn't attribute properly. This sort of thing is, frankly, shoddy and I should be beaten for it.
