This business of being able to describe what you do in a word. I had my thinking challenged by a rock band last night. Well I say rock band, but I'm not sure what they were, and that's my point.

The Bees were at the London Astoria. After a shaky start they started to sound like a rock band. The next song they became a country band. Then a pop band. They proceeded to sound a bit ska, a bit reggae, a bit funky, before coming back for their encore and sounding like a Motown act!

What were they?

Dunno. I can't describe their sound in a word.

I once had the privilege of listening to Norman Mailer speak. He was talking about a bunch of stuff, but I remember something he said about the dangers of trying to explain too much in too little a space. 

He said one problem with the Bush administration is that they want to explain huge complexity and hundreds of years of history in a soundbite.

So the Bees and Norman Mailer remind me that, sometimes, simplicity won't do.