nested russian dolls

Sometimes you stumble across something in the culture that completely challenges everything you thought you knew. Like, you think you're drinking coffee out of a paper cup, right? But what if you're not drinking coffee, you're reading it? And what if it isn't coffee, it's a newspaper? And what if you're not even reading a newspaper, you're trying to light an inflight magazine on fire while on a budget-air trip to Topeka because that's just the kind of weirdo arsonist slippery motherfucker you've turned out to be?

What I'm saying is this: Milla Jovovich, aka LILU FROM THE FIFTH ELEMENT, put out an album in 1994 called The Divine Comedy (WHAT?). It earned rave reviews (HUH?). She toured with Crash Test Dummies (WHO?). She went on Conan (HIM?).

Now, Diamond Rings (who else?) is covering her single "Gentleman Who Fell" as the B-side to his upcoming 7-inch "Something Else." You'll remember Diamond Rings as the Patrick Wolf-ish young puck who put out that great low-budget-High-School-Musical-as-David-Lynch-gay-porn music video for his previous single "Show Me Your Stuff." It figures. Because that flight to Topeka you were on? Well, you succeeded in crashing that motherfucker, and now you're on an island and there's a smoke everywhere and an ageless guy with eyeliner because that's how wrong you've been about everything.

Oh, and one more thing. Did you catch the hooded guys with mirror faces? GUESS WHERE THAT TURNED UP THIS YEAR?

None of this matters. I am procrastinating. I spent all weekend reading the Polish poets. Adam Zagajewski. Czeslaw Milosz. I know that I know nothing. It's this doubt that propels me. Play me out, Johnny.