Dr. Benway's Office

Heavy Handed's "Do Yourself Some Good" was among the first drum & bass tracks I heard over a decade ago and is partly responsible for my love affair with the genre. From the 1997 comp Mutant Beatz: Abstrakt Hip-Hop, Future Funk and Science Fiction Soul.

Singer-songwriter Laura Nyro created a singular body of work that encompassed pop, soul, jazz, gospel and tin pan alley. "Sweet Blindness," which later became a hit for The 5th Dimension, appears on her 1968 master work Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

DJ/producer Miss Kittin is among the few acts to emerge from the electroclash scene with a lasting career. "Pollution of the Mind" can be heard on her 2008 release Bat Box.

Blues singer Big Mama Thornton is best known for her hit "Hound Dog," which topped the R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. Her songs have been covered by Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. "Everybody's Happy (But Me)" was compiled on The Complete Vanguard Recordings.

Quiet Village live at the intersection of downtempo and sleazy listening music, and I can't get enough of their debut album Silent Movie, on which "Too High To Move" appears.

Russell Garcia has been composing music for jazz musicians and film soundtracks for over a half century. "Monsters of Jupiter" is from his exotica classic Fantastica.

Jim & Jean's "Time Goes Backwards" appears on a great psychedelic pop compilation called Soft Sounds for Gentle People 3.

"Oscar Winners" by 12 From A Dozen can be heard on the 1997 compilation Porn Beats.

Mississippi-born soul singer Margie Joseph was frequently compared to her Atlantic label mate Aretha Franklin and toiled in her shadow for many years. Her music is enjoying a revival with the reissue of her great 70s albums. "Come Lay Some Lovin' On Me" is from her 1974 classic Sweet Surrender.

"Idealistic" appears on Idealism, the 2007 debut of German electronic duo Digitalism.

Soul crooner Al Green needs no introduction. "Take Your Time," his duet with Corinne Bailey Rae, may be found on his latest effort, 2008's Lay It Down.

"Count Back" by Purple Underground is from the 2001 compilation Psychedelic States: Florida in the '60s, Vol. 2.

Funk soul diva Joi's "You Turn Me On" can be heard on her great (unreleased) 1997 album Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome.

"Ben (Hiroshi Fujiwara & K.U.D.O. Remix #2)" is from Soul Source: Jackson Five Remixes, Vol. 2.

Legendary soul singer Mavis Staples rose to prominence with her family gospel/pop group The Staple Singers. "Koochie, Koochie, Koochie" appeared on the Curtis Mayfield-produced soundtrack to the Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier classic A Piece of the Action.

Philly neosoul singer and poet Jill Scott's "How It Make You Feel" is from her latest album, 2007's The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3.

"Five Years Ago, Did You See Yourself Here!" by electronic duo Fake, can be heard on their free-to-download album You Are Not Dead: A Guide to Modern Living.

Blues belter and former sex worker Candye Kane is one of my favorite singers. You can find "I'm Not Gonna Cry Today" on her latest release, Guitar'd and Feathered.

At first gloss Cornelius' take on the Sinatra/Nelson Riddle classic "Sleep Warm" seems like a straightforward cover, but put on your headphones and it becomes something altogether different. I loved the crazy stereo effects and a lullabye seemed an appropriate way to close. From the 2006 album Sensuous.

Sad but unsurprising: Heinz pulled the mayo ad featuring a gay couple kissing (see below) and issued a sheepish apology. The ad was canceled just a week into its planned five week run in the UK after 200 viewers complained it was offensive. An online petition has been launched (4630 signatures and counting) urging Heinz to bring back the campaign.

If you are straight, please stop and imagine for a few seconds that you live in a world where kissing the person you love in public could inspire outrage, disgust, even violence. That's the world where I wake up every day.

Surreal as hell: I just found out President Bush is going to be at some fancy $1000 a plate fundraiser in a couple of hours... right across the friggin' street! There's a banquet hall and deli over there where one of my coworkers occasionally buys lunch but the food is so horrible you couldn't pay me to eat it. Here's hoping they serve Dubya the ptomaine special.

R.I.P. Stan Winston, monster-maker extraordinaire. A Hollywood makeup and special effects master, Winston's credits include effects for Jurassic Park, The Terminator, Edward Scissorhands and Pumpkinhead. He also designed the "Mr. Roboto" mask for Styx and the wookiee costumes for the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.

Cue the Jaws theme. Shark scare stories are a slow news day standard, but this week the hard-hitting tabloid journalists at The Sun found a new spin worthy of a B horror film: wild sharks, fed on bodies dumped by mobsters, have developed a real taste for the long pig!

Sharks ‘seeking human targets’

From VIRGINIA WHEELER
in Zihuantanejo, Mexico

Published: 07 Jun 2008

SCIENTISTS fear sharks are now HUNTING people for the first time after Jaws-style attacks on a resort.

The horrifying theory emerged after two surfers were killed and one badly injured in a month.

A fourth swimmer is missing at the Mexican seaside town.

Locals fear ONE rogue shark is responsible but experts believe a pack of deadly bull sharks are actively targeting humans for the first time.

They think the 10ft-long fish could have developed a taste for human flesh after devouring hundreds of corpses dumped into the sea by mobsters.

The beach at Zihuantanejo – near Acapulco and popular with British tourists – had not previously recorded a shark incident in more than 30 years.

And, with an annual average of only four fatal shark attacks globally, the fact that two people have died along the same stretch of coast within weeks has astonished international experts.

The Zihuantanejo deaths come halfway through what is already turning into a bumper year for shark attacks.

Zihuantanejo is now gripped by fear. Police have been guarding beaches and signs warn against going into the water.

Local businessmen, worried the deaths will devastate the tourist industry, hired fishermen to kill the sharks.

And Mexican Navy vessels were brought in last week to scour the waters for sharks using the tourist beach as a feeding ground.

Jose Leonardo Castillo, chief shark investigator for Mexico’s National Fishing Institute, said yesterday: “One theory we’re investigating is that a group of sharks have developed a taste for humans.”

Although the number of attacks world-wide increased from 63 in 2006 to 71 in 2007, there was only one recorded fatality. The two Zihuantanejo deaths and one in California have tripled that this year.

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Listening to: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Lesley Gore On The Tami Show