Bonnie "Prince" Billy - "Ignition" (live)

Grace from Australia sent me this R. Kelly cover about eight months ago.

Is it right to write about "Ignition" from within my parents' home? No. It's too dirty. Nevertheless...

After reading a Nabokov short story about lepidoptery, do you grab a big net and a mason jar and go butterfly catching?

But, does staring at an Escher lithograph drive you to the study of higher geometry?

Still, isn't it the case that immediately after reading a Dick Francis novel, you ride a horse in a steeple chase/solve a crime through cunning detective work?

Each of the above artists is an expert in the field of his subject matter, and sometimes portrays it from an obscure, inaccessible perspective - one which I can often appreciate, but rarely relate to. This is true too of R. Kelly and his subject matter: doing it. But unlike zoology, math, and the world of equestrian crime, sex is not the domain of experts. It is for us all. When I listen to an R. Kelly recording, I'm not aroused or seduced, but shamed. I wish he wasn't kickin' it with my girlfriend. In his version of "Ignition," Mr. Oldham gives voice to the amateur love-maker. He's self-conscious and ironic, but not detached or untrue. It's the self-aware awkwardness and ridiculousness of his attempt to be sexy that makes it seem so authentic and, well, sexy. When at 3:19, things fall apart, he and his "partner" start laughing. Now they're having fun. This I can relate to. This is hot. I don't know about the lascivious science of R. Kelly, but I do know about being laughed at in bed.

***

Boat - "Holding All The Globes"

The last slow dance ever. Played by a four-piece band, two of whom seem to have nothing to do but show enough good taste to do nothing. [Info]