Friday Music

Hell week. Glad it’s over. Ready for a recharge.

This week’s selections:

First up — Shakira has a new album. Regular readers might recall that in the case of artists who record in two languages, I usually prefer the version in the native language. I’ve always preferred Shakira’s Spanish work to the English versions — but this track is an exception, entirely because of her featured guest. In the Spanish version of this song, she features Dominican rapper El Cato — but the English version features British rapper Dizzee Rascal, and I’m a big fan. Plus, the track is hot. Shakira – “Loca (English version, feat. Dizzee Rascal).”
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Friday Music

I know, I know. Late today.

First off — storms rolled through Kansas yesterday, marking the light-switch-flicking changeover from Summer to Fall. Upper 80s and low 90s with high humidity has given way to low humidity and mid-70s. In honor of the coming of my favorite season (and for those who might only be familiar with the singer’s more famous “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone”): Bill Withers – “Lovely Day.”
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Tour de Bond: Diamonds Are Forever (1956)

As I mentioned back in my entry on Live and Let Die, this week’s Bond is, unfortunately, one of the three that I don’t like that much (all of which, interestingly, take place in America). However, this novel is also one of Fleming’s best-researched.

Fleming threw himself into research on diamond smuggling, so much so that he didn’t leave it at background for this novel. He ended up taking that research and publishing it in the following year (1957), as The Diamond Smugglers, one of Fleming’s two non-fiction efforts (the other being the 1950s travelogue Thrilling Cities.
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