I heard this morning that Fred Chichin, the founder of French group Les Rita Mitsouko, had died of cancer

Although I was only a casual fan of Les Rita Mitsouko I have enjoyed a lot of their music and it was only a few months ago that I was listening to their recent ‘Variety’ album and thinking how good that was and that it was great they were still making new albums after all these years.

I had no idea the guy was sick but, from the news reports, it sounds like this development has occurred relatively quickly in the last few months.

So sad… RIP Fred, your music will live on.

For those who don’t know what this is all about check out the news article on France 24 which btw, is a good source of getting French news in English!

I must confess to having a lot of time for Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis. A very talented couple who have managed to stay together and have a family and, as far as I’m aware, have successfully managed to avoid the usual media farce that comes with being a “celebrity couple”. Maybe it is partly due to the fact that most Americans thankfully don’t know Vanessa Paradis as a celebrity and thus leave them alone? Anyway, they would certainly be a couple I would happily have around at my dinner party!

Sorry, what was the point of this post again? Oh yes… just to say I’ve just listened to Vanessa Paradis’ latest album “Divinidylle” and would like to say I really enjoyed it.  Has it really been 7 years since her last studio album?!?! Wow… anyway, excellent stuff Mrs Depp! You’ve earnt a place on my mp3 player!

It may not be fully complete but, as I figured I had to draw a line and make the site public at some point, LibNET is launched!

http://libnet.wuggleworld.com

And yes, that is why this blog has been neglected for the last week or so but hopefully I can get back to posting more regularly again now that the bulk of work on LibNET has been done.

Inbetween doing continual updates to LibNET I now need to get back to the kids pages and update them again… and then, who knows, I may even find time to get back to the Wiki!

When I was visiting one of my regular haunts on the net a few days ago I noticed a poll about what is the best show on TV. Curious to see how the only two shows rated that I regular watch, namely Prison Break and Lost, I was surprised to see these rank 2nd and 3rd… in 1st place was ‘Heroes‘

Now although I had heard about this show I had not really given it a second thought until I saw how far ahead it was on this poll from Prison Break and Lost. Hmmm… so if people voting here obviously like my 2 shows it is likely that this show that beats both must perhaps be worth a look.

I have therefore now watched episodes 1 to 4 of Heroes and WOW! I’m VERY impressed… I kick myself for not checking out this show sooner although at least I now have something else to watch whilst I wait for the next episodes of Prison Break and Lost! And, in typical US tv schedule fashion, I note Heroes is on a break now until late April anyway which will give me more than enough time to catch up and no doubt be hanging out for the next episode…

To think I hardly watched anything regular a few years ago and now I have 3 must have shows in my life!!!

In other news, whilst feeling bored at work today (perhaps because I have no superhuman power and felt therefore that life seemed dull!) I decided to go for a walk out at lunchtime and found myself sitting in a nearby park listening to music on my MP3 player… and, although I have a few new albums upon it to listen to, I found myself going back to Charlotte Gainsbourg’s ‘5:55′ album…

A long term reader of this blog may remember I raved about this album back in September last year and I have to say, 6 months later, this is still a brilliant album… must be the Daddy Gainsbourg influence in the music but this album really has got to be in my Top 3 albums of 2006. Anyway, just thought I’d rave about it again so that somebody who reads this might take the time to check it out and have a listen! Go on, you know you want to!

…was the title of a track on Charlotte Gainsbourg’s first album over 20 years ago and quite aptly it seems to have taken her forever to produce a second album however I have to say I have really enjoyed listening to her new album 5:55 this week so thought it deserved a plug here.

I was somewhat surprised to hear it sung 99% in English even though I know her mother is English. Although this certainly isn’t the usual style of music I listen to I think it’s endearing factor to me is that I can’t help but distinctively hear the influence of her missed father Serge Gainsbourg in the arrangement of the music and the style of her mother Jane Birkin’s vocals in the way the tracks are sung.

In some way it is like listening to a piece of history even though it is brand new… weird stuff but I love it and it seems I am not alone…

Here’s a few reviews from some respected UK newspapers…

The Guardian, The Observer and The Times