What, I ask, does one do when home for a few days with "the sickness"?

Huddle sobbing …

Hewn from the molten plasticks of hell flame it has come. The dread mark that speaks of pain, of pestilence and of putridity. Long hath man (and woman) sought the avoidance of its vile company…its …

Writing about music close to one's heart can be be tricky. The challenge of trying to capture - through clumsy, clunky prose - its ethereal and deeply personal pleasures is a challenge this blog has rarely taken on.

It's far easier …

9.00 - Hup! Hup! Quiet down now.

Welcome dear friends, lads and lassies, boys and girls, mices and meeses, to the first ever fustar.info Manky Toy Show. We have a great live program (un)prepared for …

Writing in Village (Feb 22nd, 2007) John Waters described how "hurtful and confusing" he'd found it when Joe Duffy read out (o'er the radio) Waters' lyrics for Ireland's Eurovision entry and "lined up a couple of cornerboys to slag them off."

While I part company with Mr. Waters on just about everything else he says, I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for his view that "without its melody, backing, arrangement and phrasing, a lyric is a naked thing, utterly devoid of its emotional content and context." Anyone who's ever rolled their eyes at ludicrous, pseudo-academic debates like "Is Dylan as good as Keats?", will probably admit that there’s a good dollop of truth buried in Waters' wounded complaints.

Having said all that, and acknowledging that I too pitched in with the cheap digs, Waters' words still stink to high heaven, even when reunited (through Dervish's performance) with their "emotional content and context". They did not, of course, stink much more badly than many (or any) of the lyrics on show in Helsinki tonight, but given Ireland's rock bottom placement (24th out of 24) it seems, to paraphrase the rats from Fraggle Rock, that "The Cornerboys have spoken".

Given that Ireland were only saved the ignominy of a nil pois catastrophe by the kindly (5 point) intervention of our loyal Celtic brothers Albania, it's reasonably likely that Mr. Waters is even now putting pen to paper, furiously criticising the canny "political" voting of Eastern Europe's pop lovers. If he's cross and cranky, he's not alone.

A quick glance at the BBC News "Have Your Say" pages reveals a mass outpouring of outrage and indignation (after the UK entry joined us in the competition's basement). A

A few snippets from last weekend to reinvigorate a slumbering blog.

29/04/07 - 4.18 P.M.

I’m not a fan of Sundays, particularly heavy, sticky, oppressive Sundays like this one. "Muggy", I believe, is the mot juste, and cranky is how such days …

Though John Waters' spectacularly clunky and hokey lyrics for Ireland's 2007 Eurovision entry ("They Can’t Stop The Spring") were understandably greeted with howls of derision, it's hard to deny that he's simply following in an ignoble tradition.

Here, for your 'enjoyment', is a particularly hilarious/notorious verse from Waters' opus:

The curtain has been raised
And Europe's all one stage
And the archipelagic icicles
Have melted like the cage

"Archipelagic icicles"? I didn't even write shit that bad back in my leather-trousers-wearin', Jim-Morrison-lovin' days.

Cast our mind's back 26 years to Sheeba's "Horoscopes", however, and we encounter lyrics strained/bonkers enough to (perhaps) make even Mr. Waters blush:

Don't let the planets take control of our lives
Believe in the truth and not celestial lies
It's we, not the stars above, who write our horoscopes

Throw away almanacs, signs of the Zodiac
Then there is sense to be found
They are celestial, we are terrestrial
Let's keep our feet on the groundLyrics by Joe Burkett

"Horoscopes" can either be interpreted as a warning to resist the seducing wiles of palmistry, ouija boards, tarot and the like, or, a rousing paean to self-determination and free will. Whatever the case may be, the message is delivered with chipper gusto by the mighty Maxi, Frances Campbell and Marion Fossett. Here it is in all its glory (a glory somewhat dampened by shoddy video quality).

Though I've a long-standing interest in matters esoteric and otherworldly (fairies, mysterious beasts, aliens and the like) I rarely buy or read books on the area. The simple reason being that (other than …