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In response to my posting about the death of Chrissy from The Divinyls, my Google+ friend Johnny Zed remarked:

Damn… Christina and Wendy James of Transvision Vamp were my iconic female leads of the 80s.  This makes me sad, but thanks for the share; I’ll give a moment of remembrance for her.

Which led me to think: “Wow…Transvision Vamp! I haven’t heard that band’s name in a good long time.”

I got a fair bit of mileage in my college pub DJ days from Transvision Vamp, particularly off their 1989 album, Velveteen. Although much better known in the UK and Australia, they got some alt-rock radio airplay here in Canada, and with a little assistance from friend and classmate Kelli Rankin (now Pallett), I was able to get people out on the dance floor with their single Baby I Don’t Care:

And during the less dance-y times, the title track, Velveteen, would get a couple of people coming up to the DJ booth asking “What is this track and where can I get it?”

So here you go — a little music you might not have heard of, from my misspent youth. Enjoy!

I saw these last night and thought “Hey, let’s see if we can make something tasty with ’em”. From what I can recall — it’s been a while since I’ve had chicken hearts — they taste like an amped-up version of dark meat. I’ll try this recipe this week and let you folks know how it turned out.

Chicken hearts are tasty — they just need love and good presentation.

If you have any good recipes for chicken hearts to share, let me know!

I’m sure it’ll be a far more pleasant experience than this scene from Game of Thrones, where Daenerys has to eat a whole raw horse’s heart (warning: not for the weak-stomached):

Update

My friend Brad McFarlane, upon seeing this article, pointed out this Bill Cosby routine to me, and I had to share it:

Chrissy Amphlett, singer of Australian rock band the Divinyls, has died from breast cancer and multiple sclerosis at the age of 53. She and the Divinyls are best known here in North America for their 1991 hit single, I Touch Myself, a tune that found its way onto both the alt-rock and pop charts, the dance floor at Crazy Go Nuts University’s Clark Hall Pub whenever I DJ’d, and Toronto’s Kickass Karaoke nights, where karaoke impresario Carson T. Foster made it one of his signature numbers.

Let’s not forget this scene from 1997’s Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, in wehich Austin uses his mojo against the fembots:

Among the Australian stars leading the tribute to her are Midnight Oil’s frontman-turned-parliamentarian, Peter Garrett:

Farewell to the finest of singers, great performer, a true star #chrissieamphlett

— Peter Garrett AM MP (@PGarrettMP) April 22, 2013

And Russell Crowe, who’s acted with her in the musical Blood Brothers:

Dear Chrissie, The last time I saw you was in the Botanic Gardens, loving life and reciting verse. That’s how I’ll remember you, your boy, R

— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) April 22, 2013

On her official Facebook page, you find this quote from her:

Unfortunately the last 18 months have been a real challenge for me having breast cancer and MS and all the new places that will take you.

You become sadly a patient in a world of waiting rooms, waiting sometimes hours for a result or an appointment.

You spend a lot time in cold machines… hospital beds, on your knees praying for miracles, operating rooms, tests after tests, looking at healthy people skip down the street like you once did and you took it all for granted and now wish you could do that.

I have not stopped singing throughout all this in my dreams and to be once again performing and doing what I love to do.

Her husband Charley Drayton said:

Hers was a life of passion and creativity; she always lived it to the fullest. With her force of character and vocal strength she paved the way for strong, sexy, outspoken women.

Requiescat in pace, Chrissy.

Last week, I saw this ad:

Click to see what this ad’s all about.

“We offer more of the things you want,” it reads, “like private bathrooms. 2,800 jobs. 2,800 rooms. 2,800 bathrooms.” It turns out that it’s not that everyone who works at this place gets  their own executive bathroom. Instead, if you work there — which happens to be ConocoPhillips’ Surmont Phase 2 Project in the Athabasca oil sands in northern Alberta, which is pretty remote — you’d have to live on or near the site. In many similar setups, it means living in dorm-style accommodations, often with shared bathrooms. The video on the site seems to indicate that one of the perks is that the living accommodations are more hotel-like, meaning that you can “shit, shower, shave” in the privacy of your very own in-room can.

Pointer Pointer is a site that pulls off a clever trick, but it pulls it off well: it displays pictures of people pointing right at where the cursor happens to be. Go over there and give it a try; it’s oddly mesmerizing.

Boston Police tweeted their capture of Dzhokar Tsarnaev, suspected participant in the Boston Marathon bombing, in a rhyme worth of Dr. Seuss. I thought it was worthy of a graphic treatment:

In case you wanted to see the original, here it is:

CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.

— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 20, 2013

Here’s a Dr. Seuss book that might be appropriate for Tsarnaev right about now:

Easy to say, considerably more difficult — but necessary — to do.