Lopez Blogs

Oh for the love of all things holy. Valentine's Day weekend, and indeed the days prior to that have been quite worrisome indeed. Darren's infection has come roaring back with a vengence and is now quite ill and feversome with it all. And to top it off, he has the most incompetent doctor ever (you can almost hear him counting the days to his imminent retirement), and is having a very bad reaction to the antibiotics he is on. Magnificent! Still, VD was fairly cosy - we snuggled up on the sofa and watched a dvd-screener copy of a movie (can't say what as it was probably less than legal, but it was a curious little film and as cute as a button) and a special on Torvill and Dean's Bolero, which won gold at the olympics 25 years ago this week. Such an amazing moment in British sporting history, that I vividly remember watching with my parents while playing My Little Pony with my sisters. Aah, look at me talking about sport - i'm so Jock right now...

THINGS I WAS TOO BUSY TO BLOG ABOUT THIS WEEK:

Kudos to popjustice for reminding me of the brilliant Independent Love Song by Scarlet (above). It's one of those songs that I loved at the time, then forget about until I am sporadically reminded, like I was this week. I'm thinking that a nice cover version of this is due, perhaps in the same way that Leona Lewis covered Run. It might even make Alexandra interesting for 3 minutes if she did it. Or not. Anyway, it also made me want to listen to the amazing acoustic version of Stay by Shakespeare's Sister and bizarrely, Come In Out Of The Rain by Wendy Moten. Go figure!

Talking of popjustice, it was their campaigning for The Days to cover the aforementioned Scarlet song that finally reminded me to write about this upcoming spunky punky pop-rock group. Their debut single "No Ties" is out this week and has a serious chant a long chorus (not quite as graceful as Pet Shop Boys in Love, Etc., but delightful nonetheless) that totally earns them my "thinking mans boyband" tag (think McFly/Kaiser Chiefs/Ordinary Boys etc). The lovely lads have been all over the place promoting the single, including doing a brillo cover of Usher's Love in the Club (only available if you purchase the single here), a less brillo cover of BSB I Want It That Way over at Popjustice, and hanging cool with the delightful Dermot O'Leary and providing him with a nice acoustic set. I'm increasingly pleased by The Days and can't wait to see what they do next :) They are clearly the new Rooster, who i adored btw...(Check our Aaron's views and PopReviewsNow views here and here respectively!)

Is it just me or as Grey's Anatomy got worse this season, Private Practice got better? And that actually only the merging of the two shows in this week's GA episode has saved my formerly favourite show from being completely unwatchable (though getting rid of Denny's ghost has improved things somewhat!)Call it the Buffy/Angel syndrome - when Angel launched in Buffy's fourth year, the quality of Buffy went right down hill and it took a while (in my opinion) for Joss Whedon to find the right balance in running both shows. Hopefully Shondra Rhimes is now up to the task of steering Grey's back on course, while maintaining the current quality of Private Practice. Oh, the video above is the rather gorgeous cover of Angel Flying To Close To The Ground by Beth Rowley. It featured in PP a couple of episodes ago, and is quite, quite lovely.

As entertaining as that Cadburys advertisement is (with the two kids doing some bizarro eyebrow movements), far more entertaining are the parodies popping up on youtube on a nearly hourly basis. By far the best one comes from the entirely delicious Derbyshire duo, Syncsta. I've long been a fan of their zany insania youtube blogs (many of which have views in the hundreds of thousands! Lumme!) and this is one of their best to date (though PPG, you might have a liking for this one too!). Also check out the DJs for a local radio show here. Vair vair amused bouche in the extreme.

ALSO CHECK OUT:

• Mike Poptrashaddicts guides to Kylie b-sides. I'm a fan of the S/A/W ones and those kooky acoustic light years tracks...
• Scandi-pop's FANtastic interview with September. It's tres entertaining...
• Aaron has an ace guide to what is undiscovered Britney territory for me. The original mix of Overprotected is still my very fave Brit tune ever...
• Finally Philapolava reports that the Gaga is duetting with PSB at the Brits on Weds (which weirdly, as is my lot with awards shows, I have no interest in). It is very wrong indeed that the vocodered hussy gets to sing Dusty Springfield's gorgeous vocals of all things. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

TOP 21 TRACKS OF THE WEEK:

21 - Britannia High, Start of Something
20 - Little Boots, Meddle
19 - Leon Jackson, Creative
18 - Jason Mraz, Live High
17 - Danny, Radio (acoustic)
16 - The Saturdays, Just Can't Get Enough (NE)
15 - William Young, Let It Go (NE)
14 - Neo, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
13 - Girls Aloud, The Loving Kind
12 - Darin, See You At The Club
11 - Annie Lennox, Shining Light
10 - Same Difference, If You Can't Dance
09 - Lily Allen, The Fear
08 - Taylor Swift, Love Story
07 - Alesha Dixon, Breathe Slow
06 - The Killers, Spaceman
05 - Take That, Up All Night
04 - Kelly Clarkson, My Life Would Suck Without You
03 - Simon Curtis/Victoria Justice, On The Wings Of A Dream (VID - amazing rehearsal clip!)
02 - Pet Shop Boys, Love, Etc.
01 - Sugababes, Every Heart Broken (3 weeks)

Coming soon: New Acts update! Thezapping/fizzypop 3 years special - Simon Curtis edition! Thezapping/fizzypop 3 years special - true bloggywood story edition!