Well, the other day I had this idea (it had been brewing for a little while in the old noggin) for a "viral blurb network" that would marry the technology of email, the process of a chain-letter, and the collective cool of my friends. (Can you marry three items, or is that rhetorical bigamy? Xeni?) I called it the Ishbadiddle Network, because it sounded kinda cool, and sent out emails to you guys.

Now, I know answering it probably hasn't bubbled up to the top of your to-do list (it's probably hovering now between defrosting the freezer and checking your smoke detector's battery), but out of 11 people only 2 have responded. Any direct marketer will tell you that an 18% response rate is fantastic. But then I realized -- you probably didn't know that it was really from me, or I'm sure you would have all flown to the keyboard and began blurbing madly.

So hey, write a blurb -- could be nothing more than "I saw Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and I thought it combined the emotional power of Depardieu's Cyrano with the kick-ass fighting of the Matrix" or "Have y'all checked out Cleopatra 2525 yet?" And, for your inspiration, here's two free blurbs!

-- Mike

FROM ISHBADIDDLE MEMBER: CHRIS MOLANPHY

Media: CD

Artist: BADLY DRAWN BOY
Album: HOUR OF BEWILDERBEAST
Label: Beggars Banquet
Released: 2000

My favorite album of 2000 is one of those strange works of art that people seem to like to argue about more than enjoy. (Call it the Eminem Principle.) Ever since Damon Gough, a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy, won Britain's Mercury Music Prize, a sort of Turner Prize for current music, last summer, the press has been awash in reviews either slavishly praising the album or, more often, puncturing the hype. Gough's strange, self-absorbed live debut in NYC a couple of months ago drew an even larger number of slams from the press and hipoisie. As if this weren't enough, the guy has, Moby-like, already allowed commerce to sully his art: Gap licensed his track "Everybody's Stalking" for a recent TV ad for winter-wear. With no top 40 hits or Grammy awards, this is the kind of "controversy" that urban media types who are already bored with 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' or think the whole world watches Charlie Rose live for.

But the album, IMHO, is the real deal: a Nick Drake-an song cycle bursting with gorgeous melodies, clever studio craft, polished arrangements, and introspective lyrics. Unwilling to be pigeonholed as a pure Navel Gazing Folkie, Gough spikes the album with bouncy keyboards and other quirky sounds that give the record a bit of a kitchen-sink feel. Gough does have one of those mannered British pretty-rock voices (Morrissey haters might want to avoid), but he's playing up the singerly aspect of his voice, not the mopey end, and that makes all the difference. To be fair, BDB may have shot his wad, melody-wise, with this album; if that aforementioned live gig is any indication, he may well be primed to self-destruct from all the hype. No matter: 'The Hour of Bewilderbeast' is that rare thing, an album that arrives fully formed, envelops you on the first listen and surprisingly doesn't grow tired on the 20th listen.

It could end up an 'Invisible Man' (unrepeatable genius) or might well be a 'Portrait of the Artist' (great work presaging masterpieces to come); time will tell.


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FROM ISHBADIDDLE MEMBER: TRIP KIRKPATRICK

For Christmas, I purchased for my s.o. Sasha and John Digweed's Northern Exposure, Vol. 2: East Coast Edition. We already had their West Coast Edition, and have been disappointed somewhat in this other volume. Both from the same year, they take different approaches to the album-long trance DJ mix format. Where WCE was pure electronica with no vocals whatsoever, ECE brings some words into play, and not entirely for the better. The first track, Gus Gus's "Believe" is a pseudo-Christian trance movement and puts you off-kilter for the rest of the CD. Things get properly lighter and airier after that on ECE, but it never maintains the same ethereality and space-age-polymer feeling of WCE. As well, a notable problem is the inclusion of almost the same mix of "Purple" as on Paul Oakenfold's Tranceport. It may be that we happened upon WCE by chance, giving its high quality that extra sheen of serendipity, but I'd say stick with West Coast Edition and you'll be happy.