On another note, today's New York Times has an article by Karen Schoemer in anticipation of tonight's show at the Ritz. The most interesting thing I noted was Robyn's explanation of 'Madonna of the Wasps': "It's a woman who's turned into a wasp from the waist down, like a mermaid," he [Robyn] said. "I pictured her hovering outside the room, occasionally jutting her abdomen through the window and jabbing at this bearded emaciated artist in a small white room in northern France. He didn't know whether she'd put her head in the window and give him a kiss or put her stinger in the window and gouge his abdomen with her poison. But he was compelled to open the window every time until she came and hovered outside. One day, he was able to get out of his room. It was winter and the frosts were coming, and he saw the madonna dead by the side of the road. She was like a wrecked plane. She was hollowed out. He could see her fuselage. She wan't even half human any more, it was like a figurehead with the paint knocked off. And he suddenly sees that this thing that has been enthralling him or terrifying him no longer has any power over him, and in death is nothing more than a battered figurehead."

Thomas