Yu-Mex

Well. Some things belong in "you just couldn't make it up" corner. This is one. Let the site itself explain:

"In 1948, the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) broke up with the Soviet leader Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (Dec. 21, 1879 - March 5, 1953) and Yugoslavia was on the brink of war with the Soviet Union. There were tanks on both sides of the border and Tito's regime imprisoned many Soviet sympathizers (real or just suspected). Russian films were suddenly not so popular anymore.

Yugoslav authorities had to look somewhere else for film entertainment. They found a suitable country in Mexico: it was far away, the chances of Mexican tanks appearing on Yugoslav borders were slight and, best of all, in Mexican films they always talked about revolution in the highest terms. How could an average moviegoer know that it was not the Yugoslav revolution?"

Who-hoah! I had NO idea. The site, covering Yu-Mex: Mexican music in fifties Yugoslavia has background information, MP3s and cover art from what must be the greatest cultural conflation prior to some blokes from Dartford getting into the blues. I put that last sentence in after a telephone suggestion from Lord Wells of Wrenthorpe, creator of the (now dormant) oddly wappy Craig Boardman's Boots.

(I discuss these links on the phone first! Had you any idea?)

This is a genuine treasure. Miss it at your peril.

(Not Craig Boardman's Boots. That's shite.)