topped off

I watched the last-ever Top Of The Pops yesterday, which, fittingly, was as anti-climactic as almost every other TOTP episode I've seen (I'm not a regular viewer). The choice of archival full-length videos seemed to have been made in five minutes, yielding results probably slightly worse than a totally random selection. Not that any particular selection was terrible, it was more of a general "42 years, and this is what you come up with?" feeling. Maybe that's for the best: digging out the truly historic TOTP performances (whatever they may be) would have lent the show a gravitas it studiously avoids, most of the time.

Things that struck me:

1. The Spice Girls' "Wannabe" performance is great precisely because it's only a very small step above an end-of-year high-school performance. I actually enjoyed it far more than the Rolling Stones and David Bowie clips.

2. The juxtaposition of Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" and Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love" was (unintentionally?) brilliant, despite Jay-Z's absence.

Apart from Jimmy Savile's shiny gold jumpsuit and impressive pot-belly, that's about it. It was a slow sunday.

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Bagatellen has a nice list of YouTube links.

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Friday's happiness recipe:
Gather friends in garden.
Drink several glasses of IVN's mojito.
Accompany BBQ'ed meat with taboulé and, especially, salmon/aubergine pasta (and wine, of course).
Fuel late-night discussion with Bacardi and Coke.