Ney and the Glory of Male Divas.

In the movie Party Girl, when Parker Posey learns the joys of the Dewey Decimal System and starts organizing the 12-inch singles of her DJ roommate, she picks up a Sylvester album and says, "Divas, male."

Add to that list Brazilian legend Ney Matogrosso. Though not that well known in the U.S., imagine my delight this afternoon when I turned the corner from around my house and saw the above handbill in front of the Brava Theater. If you've never experience Ney, here is a clip of him in action.

Precious Junk, Junk-Pop, J-Pop, and the Ken Doll

Junk Thief has had an obsession with J-pop, high Japanese culture and all things Tokyo since the late 1970s and owns the nearly complete catalogs of Y.M.O., Sakamoto's solo and film scores, Shonen Knife, Pizzicato Five, Puffy Ami Yumi and Oh Penelope. He's tended to lean towards J-Pop girl groups since the male singers are too often of the whining U.S. boy band genre. Junk Thief's love life has often resembled kabuki theater. And, of course, Junk Thief has often joined forces with Hello Kitty and Deery Lou to fight evil forces in the Universe. Sanrio characters are the only hope to bring justice to our trouble, terrorized world.

Junk Thief was aware of but not not that into Ken Hirai until lately, and he's been in very heavy rotation these days. You've got to an admire a 6 foot plus Japanese gay dude that looks like, well, the way he looks and who can do something as fun and goofy as Pop Star (above) and Fake Star (below) where he cavorts with a bunch of blonde super models as if he was actually into them. Don't listen to the lyrics too closely and you might mistake him for, well, you insert the American name. Fittingly, his first hit was Precious Junk. Is Junk Thief off base, or does this guy deserve to have his own version of the Ken Doll? Junk Thief would be first on line to order one.