Happy birthday mon amour
Did you know what happened today in history?

Cleopatra committed suicide 30 B.C. aged 38 or 39, probably by means of a poisonous serpent.

Almost funny is the naiveness 855 years ago:
1146 - A conference of European leaders outlawed the crossbow. By banning the effective weapon, it was believed that the leaders had ended wars for all time.

It is Frankenstein day today. Mary Shelley, the writer of the infamous book was born in 1797.

50 years before your birth Lenin was shot but he survived.

In music your exact day of birth featured the first recordings of The Beatles for their Apple label. The initial session included Revolution and Hey Jude.

Cameron Diaz is exactly four years younger than you (but I can assure you any jealousy would be totally unfounded ;-)).

New Order
Yesterday I bought the new offering by NO which is called Get Ready. After two or three listens I must say that it is probably my favourite album by them. It is somehow softer less dance and drum machine like. The beat is not as hard and loud as during their Ibiza phase in the eighties. Almost like a mature work (Alterswerk we say in German). I have to listen to it again. The music seems subtler than in the past. And there are more than two good songs on it.

As much as I got into Joy Division's albums almost straight away after I listened to them for the first time as little I ever digged New Order's LPs. They are and will always be a singles band. I find Bernard Sumner's non-spectacular voice was quite a backslide after the intense and stark voice of Ian Curtis.

My favourite album with a member of NO (except JD's records of course) would be the first album of Electronic from 1991. A full album of very enjoyable wonderful simple and light tunes. It works from the first to the last track. A chocolate box full of dance pop. One of the few supergroup (Sumner + Marr + Tennant) outputs which is worth the money. Highly underrated by the critics (3/5 stars only) and the public.

NO disappointed me most 1992 at the Bizarre festival on the Lorelei rock (above the Rhine). They finished the evening after a superb performance by Sonic Youth (Thurston Moore played like Hendrix young brother) and seemed like little puppets to me who where dancing in the distance to electronic rhythms made for people from Mars. Absolutely ridiculous.