What is the song of the summer as of today, the hottest and sunniest day this year in Ireland or Britain? Well, Eyewear isn't about to name check some cool indie band, or American folk trio, or other retro throwback (80s, 60s, 70s, anyone?). No, it's by B.o.B. ft. Bruno Mars and it is called 'Nothin' On You' and it is an effortlessly lovely and catchy love song with teeth, featuring rap and a yearning performance as sweet as mid-career Michael Jackson. Try to get this one out of your bean this June-August. You can swim on this song. Meanwhile, Gabriella Cilmi's 'Hearts Don't Lie' is also a hum-dinger if a little Gloria Gaynor.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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