Joni Mitchell lights up

So, how did Joni Mitchell come to get her distinctive voice? Twenty a day, from middle school age, apparently:

"I have smoked since I was nine, so obviously it didn't affect my early work that much."

"I would grab my tobacco and get on my bike, looking for a beautiful place, a grove of trees or a field, and go amongst the bushes and smoke and that always gave me a sense of well being."

And now the government's taken away that innocent childhood pleasure, along with working up chimneys and heroin-filled chews in the pick'n'mix.

Still, Joni's still got her smoking, and she's still got fire in her belly:

"I was mad at America, mad at the government, mad at the people for not doing something about it. They were going to be so quick to impeach Clinton for kinky sex but slow to do something about Bush and his Nazi stormtroopers. All that loss of freedom and everybody just kind of oblivious. It's dumb and it's dangerous."

We're not sure that Clinton's sex was that kinky - maybe if he'd been wearing Lewinsky's dress, it'd have been heading in that direction, but otherwise it was as vanilla as it was illicit. And we're not sure that suggesting Bush has Nazi stormtroopers is entirely helpful, either - Bush is unpleasant enough in his own, untrammeled capitalism without having to throw Nazis into the mix. But we'd rather have Joni Mitchell being political than Duran self-censoring to avoid sounding "angry" any time. Especially in these times.

Great news for the Obama campaign

TMZ reckons that Hillary Clinton is lining up Madonna to be her star name for her tilt at the White House next year.

More interestingly, the largest donor to Madonna-fronted Kabbalah charity turns out to be the Clinton Foundation.

Hmmm. Bill's charity is pouring into a group who are using the money to attempt to indoctrinate a nation's children , then:

Raising Malawi is a grassroots initiative created by The Kabbalah Centre Charitable Foundation. It offers lasting solutions to the orphans of Malawi. Our approach is comprehensive, compassionate, and effective. [...]
Our solutions are:

[...]

* Create a sense of self empowerment. This is where real societal change begins. To this end we are co-creating a curriculum with local Malawian teachers (based on the principles of the Spirituality for Kids Program) that empowers children with universal life skills.

What the hell are the Clintons doing supporting that sort of behaviour? Does Hillary really believe that charities should be tying relief efforts to proselytising? Or is she just so keen to get Madonna to support her she'll swallow anything?

Not that Geldof is a politician, or anything

There's still some hanging belief that Bob Geldof is some sort of outspoken outsider, turning up at international events and making politicians feel uncomfortable.

Let's try and remember that he's one of them:

Geldof told a German newspaper he wants a rock band [at this summer's G8 meeting of world leaders in Germany] made up of "Clinton on saxophone, Blair on guitar, and Pfaffenbach on bass".

Insiders believe Mr Blair could be persuaded to show off his guitar skills as the June summit could be his last major event as PM. Clinton, who needs far less encouragement to get out his sax, is already said to be in favour of the gig.

What larks! What top fun! What were they meant to be doing there, again?

At least he didn't play the sax

Knowing precisely how to bring down a party, Bill Clinton opened for the Rolling Stones by delivering a lecture on global warming. "If we're not careful" he warned, "human beings could end up like the dinosaurs." As if to illustrate his point, Mick and Keith came on and played all their hits.