Oh Shirley!

Shirley Manson posted a new diary entry on garbage.com. Check it out here:

01.17.06

Happy New Year dearest darklings. May you all enjoy sparkling good
health and joyousness every step you take in 2006.Of course the
likelihood of this great joy being experienced on a daily basis is
not very probable but think big and you never know your luck.

Anyways......time is roaring on and we're already 6 years on from the
beginning of the new millenium. New songs are sung,new stars have
appeared. Lindsey Lohan is 19 years old and poor old Jessica is
practically a divorcee. I keep waking up in the middle of the night
with pangs of deep rooted,existential anxiety about the meaning of
life and whether I remembered to put out the rubbish for the bin men
and whether my recyclables will truly be recycled or whether the
government are just pretending that they will to make neurotic people
like me not take to the streets over that big gaping hole in the ozone.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought to
myself " I need to find a way to make my life exciting again" and I
really meant it but when I woke up this morning I wasn't quite so
sure I was certain of my own meaning and how I was going to attend to
it.How do you make your life exciting? And what exactly IS exciting
anyway?!?!?!

I saw Steveo yesterday at his New Years party.I said "How are you
feeling Steve" He said "I'm great.How about yourself?" I said "I'm
feeling old and ugly and anxious and I keep waking up in the middle
of the night with a racing pulse and dry mouth" Steve looked at me
for just a split second longer than necessary before handing me an
exceedingly large and strong vodka cocktail.
" I find these can help with all of that" said he.
And we clinked glasses and grinned at one another.
Having band brothers means you don't ever need to explain yourself.

So what else? Well we're still on our "hiatus" and it's beginning to
feel really bizarre.It's a little like deciding to refrain from
having sex with your wife. Butch is about to become a father which is
a very wonderful,exciting thing indeed and then he is set to begin
producing other bands again. Steve is working on a film score,Duke is
busy putting the finishing touches to an incredible american folk
anthology he's been working on for years and I am wondering about
making music again and with whom!?! I feel like I'm on the dating
scene again after being married for ten years.Very VERY fucking strange.

I suppose you will have read all the controversy about JT in the
press. Suffice to say that the books remain a marvel and whoever
wrote them is still a genius whether they are a man,woman or
wilderbeast.
It's perfectly fair that people are confused and up in arms about it
but if you have read the books and understand them,why on earth would
you ever assume that the person who wrote them was your regular,
9-5,cookie -cutter joe?

Saw Brokeback Mountain yesterday and broke down in tears at the very
end. Not so much at the film itself per se but what it is taking a
stand against. I hope Ang Lee is rewarded for his bravura film making
within such mainstream parameters.It's arguably safer and definitely
easier to be prococative whilst skirting around the edges of popular
conciousness but taking boldness right into the very core of
mainstream culture takes courage and great skill.

I also finally got around to watching "DIG" the Dandy Warhols and
the Brian Jones Town Massacre dvd which was mesmerizing and really
rather funny if also a trifle sad. I also got caught up in rapt
wonderment over " Fearless Freaks" centering around the mighty
Flaming Lips and finally I watched Scorcese's Bob Dylan documentary
which is astounding. All three of the aformentioned are unmissable
and unbearably great for different reasons if you are at all
interested in music,musicians or the human spirit.

Finally.......please keep your fingers crossed for me next tuesday as
I'm going to be taking my driving test and then immediately going out
and buying myself a car.I know it's a tad overdue (bearing in mind
how old I am and whatnot) but nevertheless........there's a lesson in
all of this and it is this: Don't count a bitch down and out until
she's well and truly dead.

I really hope Shirley takes the leap Stefani did and releases a solo record. I love love love Shirley and would love to hear some solo material.