Well well it's Adele

Some days, this whole "work from home" thang is extremely productive for me. From the minute I hit the keyboard in the morning until I close up shop at night, my fingers are flying fast and furious writing spellbinding, innovative, entertaining and motivating copy that sells the spectacular printers, scanners and projectors made by the global technology company I work for.

Afterwards, at the end of the day as the sun takes its bow and gives way to the coming night, a feeling of great satisfaction and accomplishment washes over me, and a smile slowly dials its way up to full brightness as I bask in the glow of a job very well done.

That's some days. Today wasn't one of them.

Instead, today was the other kind—the one where, despite my best efforts, my mind has a mind of its own and decides to be a few miles south of focused as we spiral down a YouTube rabbit hole for hours on end and see where it takes us.

Those days hit every creative person I know. And I think I speak for all of us when I say that when it happens, the best thing to do is just buckle up and go along for the ride.

For some reason, probably because she hosted Saturday Night Live last week, Adele was on my mind. There was a sketch on the show spoofing The Bachelor, and at the end of it Adele starts singing while she walks off the stage and into the audience. It was a great, unexpected moment—especially for the audience.

I'd never describe myself as an Adele fan, but every time I hear her sing I'm dumbstruck at how stunningly beautiful her voice is. And even moreso by how effortless she is in her performance. She doesn't need to go through wild gyrations, have two dozen backup dancers, recorded backup vocals or a blinding laser light show. All she needs to do is stand there, share her gift and belt out her songs in that voice I can't seem to get enough of.

Okay, so maybe I am an Adele fan.

The song in the video up top, When We Were Young, is one of my favorites and a great example of the kind of performance I'm talking about.

I'd also forgotten about it, but today in my YouTube travels I was reminded Adele is also a bawdy Englishwoman with a cheeky sense of humor. I rediscovered a video I'd seen a few years ago of her auditioning at an Adele impersonator contest in disguise. It's funny, poignant and generous of her as the women she's auditioning with are obviously die-hard fans and slowly realize who one of their competitors is.

But then again, once you hear that voice—Hello—it's hard not to.

I Can't Make You Love Me

Every once in a while, I like to fire up one of my wildly popular, often asked for and reoccurring series on here, like Don't Ask, What Took So Long or Guilty Pleasures. This particular series doesn't have a name, but it's the one where I compare and contrast different versions of the same song. Yeah, that one.

If you follow this blog regularly, as you should because, after all, it is your best entertainment value, you'll remember I've done it for classics like Stand By Me and Tracks Of My Tears to name a couple.

I feel it's important for us as a culture to hear different interpretations of the same material, experience the nuances in varying performances and take time to realize how each version resonates with us in different ways.

It's also an easy post when I can't come up with anything else to write about.

Anyway, since I haven't done it in a long time, and I need a break from my political rants like this one and this one, and let's not forget this one, tonight I'm doing it again.

The song du jour is the Bonnie Raitt classic I Can't Make You Love Me. Here you'll see and hear her version, and artists like Adele, George Michael and Tank doing their magic with it.

Romantic? Sure. Melancholy? No doubt. Poignant? Without question. But enough about me.

Please to enjoy.

Kim Jong-un and a nice chianti

Cannibalism isn't something you run into a lot in real life. Sure there's the occasional Jeffrey Dahmer, or Rudy Eugene who liked to snack on homeless people, but I think it's safe to say it's frowned upon in most places by most people.

Unless those people are in North Korea.

According to this article, the sanctions against North Korea for being the bad boys they are have begun to take their intended toll. The already poverty stricken, brainwashed and fearful population is running out of what very little food they had to begin with.

Since Kim Jong-un, who, judging by his picture seems to be eating more than lady fingers (unlike his citizens who are eating lady fingers), has decided to put his country's money against military hardware and Hasbro rockets rather than food for his people, the people have been forced to turn to each other for sustenance.

And by turn I mean gently for one hour over a 450 degree flame.

Here in the US of A, where you can walk into a supermarket and get anything from fresh meat (which by the way is how North Koreans refer to their neighbors) to dessert toppings (the other way they refer to their neighbors), it's hard to imagine a situation so dire people have to resort to this kind of depravity just to survive.

But apparently some people can grasp it.

I just heard the Adele, Oprah and Rosie O'Donnell North Korean tour has been cancelled.