so according to london's telegraph: "After more than 10 years' mysterious silence, a new album by Kate Bush is in the works". i'm not really into kate bush (yet?) but she interests me, and her version of elton john's "rocket man" was very excellent. speaking of kate bush, i heard excerpts from two tracks from tori's new album the beekeeper due out in february. i hate to say it, but i've finally resigned myself to the fact that she jumped the shark at least three albums ago. i hate that soporific, easy listening, sarah mclachlan-esque junk. whatever happened to the angry, piano-pounding banshee? it's so annoying when people become caricatures of themselves. ah well. in contrast, bjork's medulla this year proved she's still going strong, and the tracks i've heard from ani's new album knuckledown (due jan 25) are promising. she's working w/ a co-producer for the first time ever and he can prob. be credited w/ the very professional and interesting string arrangements i've heard which automatically give ani a new sound. sondheim's cast recording of the frogs (a curio, feat. nathan lane) is due out jan. 25 also, which i'm prob. going to hold off on for a while b/c i already have the other studio recording (also feat. nathan lane). in an interview with playbill.com, audra mcdonald said she hopes to have a new record out in the spring. although i'm incredibly wary of non-pop singers doing pop songs (her repertoire apparently includes songs by paul simon, elvis costello, stevie wonder, and prince), i'm semi-hopeful that audra won't disappoint. we'll just have to see. so far that's what i'm looking forward to on disc for 2005.

first up, i've started an open-discussion arts mailing list (mostly for boston folks). to subscribe, click here. the purpose is:

"simply to discuss what books, music, movies, restaurants, local arts events, etc. you're into. the ideal candidate is an insatiable arts consumer (and hopefully is an artist as well) and has a strong opinion about all of it, current and/or old."

bess, jeff l., and i have been talking arts lately and how to be more active artists and audiences. that's all i'm going to say about it for now, but hopefully there will be a lot more info to come. and am i the only one who finds bjork's fellow nominees in the grammys incredibly funny? i mean hmm sheryl crow, gwen stefani, ... and bjork?? it's good to see pj get a nod (though i highly doubt either of them will win), even though this just points out how worthless the grammys are; pj's last album (stories from the city) was way better than this one. anyway, as always it'll be interesting to see what bjork wears ... heh. Field 1 - Pop Category 5 - Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.) • Oceania - Björk • The First Cut Is The Deepest - Sheryl Crow • Sunrise - Norah Jones • What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani • You Had Me - Joss Stone Field 5 - Alternative Category 22 - Best Alternative Music Album (Vocal or Instrumental.) • Medulla - Björk • Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand • Uh Huh Her - PJ Harvey • Good News For People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse • A Ghost Is Born - Wilco

so now that i've more or less caught up on my sleep and recovered from the cold i caught in london, i can report that london is doing well. during the first two days we wandered around a lot, but we eventually made our way through islington, camden town, covent garden, and soho and to the london zoo and a club. we also saw noel coward's blithe spirit which was enjoyable, as coward usually is. you may have already read about our great visit to st. john's (see below). then andy went home for a day and a half, so while he was gone (and after i had finished weeping) i went to the national portrait gallery (where they had a nice exhibit of the results from their photography contest) and the museum of national history and wandered around even more and went clubbing again. the last day we went to the V&A which was great. the cafe there was particularly noteworthy for the surprisingly good food. also there was a duo there playing beethoven and a very funny worker who admonished us to "please! give peas a chance!" here are some pics. andy and i tend to not take as many photos as we should, but here are a few somewhat interesting ones: row 1: regent street; flowers at regent's park row 2: fluffy meerkat at the london zoo; andy and a ... condor? row 3: fred as superfred; london school group

i'm holding off on writing about london until i get some pics from andy to post, but in the meanwhile here's some info on iggy's bakery. apparently the bakery began in january of 1994 and they used to have a location in watertown, but they've just moved to 130 fawcett st. which is 5 minutes away from where i work. score. (especially since my workplace doesn't have vegetarian stuff that often.) it looks like they also supply breads to whole foods, and prob. other places as well. i've been to their store twice so far, and this is just the kind of place that i love: local, organic, and homey. today i had a slice of potato/garlic/red pepper pizza and a quince jam croissant. mmmm. (although andy's prob. going to complain that i'm still sweating garlic when i see him tonight.) i also got a honey sticky bun, and i was definitely eyeing their cookies and almond croissants. it's kind of weird that they're out here in the middle of nowhere, but i'm definitely not complaining. hmm, guess who's going to be eating way too many pastries from now on?