My friend Andrew ‘backstory’ K gave me this book with a disclaimer that he hated the cover, so I picked a different one to post here. This one is much better I think!

So I understand why Andrew gave me this book. The man LOVES a backstory, and this book is filled with ‘em, even to the point where the footnotes take up more of the page than the actual story. It bounces around the lives of three members of a Dominican-American family and brings these stories together along with the acrimonious reality of the thirty year reign of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic (1930-1961) – a man who in 1937, ordered the massacre of over 20,000 Haitians and who also had a fetish for renaming monuments and towns with his name. Not a good time to be a Haitian, or a woman, or a monument.

If I’m brutally honest with myself, I’m not really one to pay too much attention to the history of world politics, so to have this history written into a captivating story of the lives and loves of one family is just about perfect. I learnt something new and had a great story to read at the same time. And it won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction too. Go read it!

So until I find something other than GarageBand to work in, the mix is still going to be a bit shite (can’t even figure out how to fade in/out in GarageBand!!) but for now, enjoy the latest tunes. Soooo much good music around at the moment!

May megamix.

Tracklist
1. Clout ‘Sunshine Baby’
2. The Invisible ‘London Girl’
3. Riz MC ‘Radar’
4. Kardinal Official ‘Bring The Fire Out’
5. Zinc feat. Foreign Beggars ‘Move’
6. Martyn ‘Far Away’
7. Paul White ‘Alien Nature’ (extended version)
8. Om’Mas Keith ‘Trouble Girl’
9. Aceyalone ‘A Beautiful Mine’ (aka. the Mad Men theme tune)
10. Tony Allen & his Afro Messengers ‘No Discrimination’
11. J*Davey feat. Elucid ‘Lalaland’
12. Q-Tip feat. Raphael Saadiq ‘We Fight/We Love’
13. Yaw ‘Where Would You Be’
14. Alice Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders ‘Journey in Satchidananda’

LOVE LOVE LOVE the new Dizzee Rascal tune!

This came to me as an email link from someone at work – usually I don’t bother clicking through to the supposedly funny things people have found to waste time at work, but this one came with the message “Normally, I wouldn’t. But too good. Just too damn good.” He was right! Golden, in all possible ways…

Double your pleasure. Double your built-in chaps.

Go see this movie… I think this weekend is your last chance to catch it in the cinema if you’re in London.