The Queen of Soul

How great is Aretha Franklin? This great: once, when Luciano Pavarotti was ill, she stepped up and subbed for him - and brought the house down.

Aretha is retiring from touring, though she'll still be recording. The lady's seventy-five years old, after all - but she's still among the greatest.

Music

With my computing split as it is between desktop and laptop, and with the two at opposite ends of the house, listening to music has bifurcated. I haven't moved my music collection to my laptop; instead, I've been relying on YouTube. Between songs that I think of and the suggestions YT makes, I've had a decent diet of music.

The suggestions have included a couple of songs by Roxette, and I realized she belongs to another of my clades, along with Heart, Blondie, Pat Benatar, and Joan Jett. I think I'm going to move towards completing the clade; I have several Heart albums and a Benatar, and I'm not sure I want Blondie, but I'll probably try to pick up albums by the other two.

I'm also thinking of adding a Starship album (yes, I want "We Built This City"), and I suddenly, desperately, want Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet".