The Toronto Star reports that Alex James, 39, bassist with British supergroup Blur and who once billed himself as "the second drunkest member of the drunkest band in Britain," is talking British cheese.

James was quoted as telling The Independent last week that cheese is the new cool, adding,

"The music business is a sinking battleship. It is a complete contrast to the food industry, which is just so buoyant. You simply cannot make a food that is too posh or too expensive."

James’ journey through the careful art of curdling milk is the subject of The Cheese Diaries, a series of videos undertaken for The Guardian (and viewable online at YouTube) in tandem with connoisseur Juliet Harbutt, one of Britain’s foremost cheese experts.

Harbutt, who occasionally gives lectures on cheese in France, was further quoted as saying the British revival is sometimes galling to Gallic sensibilities "because the French are still totally confident that they invented cheese and are the only ones who make it properly. I enjoy reminding them that they learned it from the Romans, just as England did."

WoooooooooHoooooooooo