Back to Black ( A Two-Item List of Very Cool Things)

Thing 1: Kate Rothwell/Summer Devon (the gentle voice of encouragement urging me to update my blog in not a few of the comments) is having a contest drawing for a $30 gift certificate of your choice to Barnes and Noble, Amazon, OR Samhain (the publisher of the upcoming print release of her book Revealing Skills). To qualify, you can do one of the following:

• Send her a request for one of the books listed in her May 6th announcement of the contest and review it on your blog or website. If you are blogless or website-impaired, send her the review via email.
• Link to Kate's/Summer's May 6, 2007 contest announcement, and send her a link to your link to her contest. If you are blogless or website-impaired, get yourself a blog or a website.

Thing 2: Amy Winehouse's CD Back to Black. Amy Winehouse is a scrawny twenty-something Brit chick, but she sings like a voluptuous thirty-something chain-smoking Mowtown-era diva who has done a man or two wrong in her time. Her Motown mimicry is initially interesting, but after the novelty wears off, the songs are great on their own. And in addition to pulling off one hell of an American accent, this chick can sing.

Also, the divine Ms. Winehouse has added a lovely new phrase to my vocabulary - to wit: What kind of fuckery is this? Try it out. You might find the phrase has a certain lilt to it - both Shakespearian and profane (though the two are hardly mutually exclusive). And also, it is loads of fun to say.