one hundred hairs make a man....

M-M-M-M-M-M Moustache

These are bittersweet times indeed. After thirty days of careful, tender cultivation, my moustache only has a few hours left to live. It feels as though we've been through a lot together, and when midnight strikes tonight and I set to work with my razor, it will I think be something of a sad moment.

I suspect I will carry the sense of loss with me for some time to come.


do not approach this man....

Oh, who am I trying to fool? I can't wait to be rid of the damn thing. Far from being lovingly nurtured, this wretched bovril smudge has simply sprouted on my upper lip for thirty days, become more bushy and irritating with every passing moment. As I reached for the scissors to trim the wiry little buggers that were reaching down into my mouth, I couldn't help but think that this was surely almost as undignified an activity as dealing with those other rougue hairs that sprout from your nose and ears as you lurch uncontrollably into middle age. Is this another symptom of encroaching age? Is it a midlife crisis moustache?

People look at you differently too. It had seemed funny, right back at the beginning of the month, to go for a handlebar-style effort, with the ends extending past the side of my mouth. If you're going to grow a moustache, I thought, then you might as well go the whole hog. I'll stand by that logic, I think, but as it began to take shape, I could feel people staring. It's okay when they ask, as of course I'm all ready with the explanation.... but lots of people don't ask for fear of offending. It's the people who don't ask that you have to worry about; they're the ones who are no doubt thinking that this is some kind of a lifestyle statement. I think the waiters in that restaurant in Hell's Kitchen were particularly taken with it.


ridiculous hat model's own

Ah, but what the hell. Although I can't wait to get rid of the damn thing (particularly as I have now developed the habit of stroking it in meetings), it has to be said that this has actually been quite a lot of fun. I've struck up conversations with all sorts of people who have asked me what it's all about, I've had smiles from perfect strangers in the street, given my friends and family a good laugh and above all - of course - I have raised more than £750 to go to the Prostate Cancer Charity. As well as the money, I hope that I've helped increase the awareness of a nasty disease that will affect 1 in 11 men in their lifetime.

Thanks very much to everyone who made a contribution - you've been remarkably generous. If you still want to throw some money into the pot, then you can still sponsor me.....just click here.

So it's been fun, and it's been worthwhile..... but it's still coming off at the first possible opportunity after midnight and I can't wait for it to be gone. Neither, it has to be said, can my wife.

I don't have any reasons, I've left them far behind....

--
Earworms of the Week - New York Edition

One last post before I close the book on our stay in New York. Anyone who has been to the city will know how familiar parts of it look thanks to their appearance in countless films and TV shows. I find that the city gets any number of songs playing in my head, whether it be from the names of the streets that I'm walking down, the cops on the street corner, the letter of the subway train I'm travelling on, or whatever.....

I'm not looking to write an exhaustive list of songs about New York, I'm simply listing the songs that got looped on my internal jukebox at one time or another during our stay. And before you ask, it's a little too early for the Pogues, and I've never really been much of a Sinatra fan....

Ready? Here we go then....

> "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend

"I saw Johanna down in the subway
She took an apartment in Washington Heights
Half of the ring lies here with me
But the other half’s at the bottom of the sea"

> "Englishman in New York" - Sting

sting? yes, I'm rather afraid so.....

"See me walking down fifth avenue
A walking cane here at my side
I take it everywhere I walk
I'm an englishman in New York"

> "King of New York" - Fun Lovin Criminals

"La-di da-di, free John Gotti
La-di da-di, la-di
La-di da-di, free John Gotti
The king of new york, man, the king of New York"

> "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" - Franz Ferdinand

"Eleanor put those boots back on
Kick the heels into the Brooklyn dirt
I know it isn't dignified to run
But if you run, you can run to the Coney Island rollercoaster
Ride to the highest point and leap across the filthy water
Leap until the Gulf Stream's brought you down"

> "Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones

"Up on the roof, out on the street
Down in the playground the hot concrete
Bus ride is too slow
They blast out the disco on the radio
Rock rock Rockaway beach
Rock rock Rockaway beach"

> "Walk on the Wild Side" - Lou Reed

"Candy came from out on the Island
In the backroom she was everybody's darling
But she never lost her head
Even when she was given head
She says, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
Said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"

> "This Mess We're In" - PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke

"Can you hear them
The helicopters
I'm in New York
No need for words now
We sit in silence
You look me
In the eye directly
You met me
I think it's Wednesday
The evening
The mess we're in"

> "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" - Simon & Garfunkel

"Slow down, you movin' too fast
You gotta make the moment last
Just kickin' down the cobblestones
Lookin' for fun and
Feelin' groovy"



> "Walking Down Madison" - Kirsty MacColl

"In the subway sits a vacuous man
His grip on life is a bent tin can
It's a holy shrine where he burns his light
It makes things easy and removes his plight
For an hour or two but he can't escape
They're all penned in with government tape"

> "New York City Cops" - The Strokes

"Well, kill me now, if I let you down
I swear it one day we're gonna leave this town
Stop----
Yes I'm leavin'
'Cause it just won't work
They act like Romans
But they dress like Turks
Sometime, in your prime
See me, I like the summertime
but, hey!"

> "Piazza, New York Catcher" - Belle & Sebastian

"San Francisco’s calling us, the Giants and Mets will play
Piazza, New York catcher, are you straight or are you gay?
We hung about the stadium, we’ve got no place to stay
We hung about the tenderloin and tenderly you tell
About the saddest book you ever read
It always makes you cry
The statue’s crying too and well he may."

> "The Magnificent 7" - The Clash

A song inspired by New York and one that was massively popular in the city.

"What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin' Gypsies on the pavement
Now the news - snap to attention!
The lunar landing of the dentist convention
Italian mobster shoots a lobster
Seafood restaurant gets out of hand
A car in the fridge
Or a fridge in the car?
Like cowboys do - in T.V. land"

> "I'm Waiting for my Man" - The Velvet Underground

"I'm waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I'm waiting for my man..."

> "NYC" - Interpol

"New York cares
(Got to be some more change in my life)"

> "New York State of Mind" - Billy Joel

"Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach or Hollywood.
I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson river line.
I'm in a New York state of mind."

Have a good weekend y'all and stay classy.

Moustache update on Sunday....

my favourite waste of time....

-
Shuffleathon 2008 Update

Enough about New York, for a day at least. How about we catch up on the really important stuff? Shuffleathon time......

We've had our first review too... so well done Michael for the double-quick turnaround time, and kudos to Jerry for getting his CD out into the post so quickly. You're way ahead of me, at any rate.

As you'll see from the table below, we've got a number of CDs already made and out somewhere in the postal system, so hopefully we'll see a few more being received and reviewed in the next week or so.... don't forget to let me know when yours arrives.

If you are a sluggard like me and you haven't even got round to really thinking what your first track is going to be, nevermind what else you're going to put on it and when you're going to post it.... galvanise yourselves! we can do this thing if we put our minds to it! If I can do it, anyone can do it. Let us tarry no more! Away! Away! Away to your CD burners.

Don't forget to drop me a line when you get your CD out into the post, and also to let me know when yours turns up and when you have completed your review. The reviews are at least half of the fun, if you ask me. How many different ways can you say you don't like something without seeming rude?

Shuffler	Posted out	Received?
1. Me
2. Mandy
3. Charlie
4. Planet Me
5. Ian
6. Mike
7. Jerry	yes
8. monogodo
9. Erika
10. Michael	yes	review
11. Lisa	yes
12. Cody Bones
13. Del		yes!
14. RussL	yes
15. Tina		yes
16. Wombat
17. Joe the Troll
18. JamieS	yes
19. Cat
20. Rol	yes
21. Beth	yes
22. asta
23. bedshaped
24. Paul	yes
25. Alan
26. Astronaut
27. Threelight
28. The Great Grape Ape	yes
29. Paul W
30. Ben		yes

We're well underway now.....so expect more of this anon.

It's a good game, this.

no sleep till brooklyn....

When it comes to holidays, I'm a great believer in serendipity. I'll probably buy a guidebook, but that's about it. I'll have a vague idea of the sorts of things that I might want to see, but I probably won't even open the book until I get onto the plane, never mind do something rash like actually plan an itinerary.

This trip was no different. I wanted to go to New York, and that was almost as much as I knew. I perhaps had some vague ideas about going to the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, maybe having a hot dog and doing a bit of shopping, and I had a few restaurant recommendations (thanks for that Bob), but beyond that, I was really just happy to be going away for a few days to such an interesting city.

I like to wander and to see what turns up. Luckily, it turns out that this approach works really well for New York. We must have walked for miles and miles every day we were there. It only costs $2 to ride on the subway, but whenever it was practical, we walked. There's nothing better for getting a proper feel for a place than by walking through it. We were staying in a hotel about five blocks up from Times Square and about three blocks down from Central Park, but we walked through as many different neighbourhoods as we could: Greenwich Village, Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, the Financial District, Flatiron, Hell's Kitchen, Lower Manhattan, Upper East Side.... each with their own distinctive feel. We didn't manage to get up beyond Central Park and into the Bronx, and I know there's plenty of stuff we didn't see (next time, eh?), but we did manage to get around quite a lot of Manhattan in the four days we were there.

One of the best pieces of advice I was given before I left (thank you Sarah) was, whatever else I did, to make sure I got off Manhattan Island. We spent about ten seconds on Staten Island as we disembarked from the ferry and got straight back on, but I'm not sure that really counts.... but as a result of that advice, we did make the effort to get out to Brooklyn, and after an unpromising start, had the best time of the days we were there.

The walk across the bridge is fantastic, of course... but instead of turning on our heels and coming straight back to enjoy the views of Manhattan again, we pushed on into Brooklyn. For an hour or so, things did not look at all promising. Once we'd got past the oasis of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, we found ourselves walking through an industrial desert alongside a nest of ring roads pushing on to the tunnels and bridges. We perservered, and then found ourselves in neighbourhood that seemed to consist of nothing but fried chicken outlets and places to get your hair braided in the senegalese style. New York is of course an incredibly multicultural city, but this was the first time in my wandering that I felt it would be a really, really bad idea to get the guidebook out for a look, as I was standing out more than enough already. We nearly gave up there and then, but we pushed on looking for a subway or something, and gradually the neighbourhood changed. The fried chicken shops gave way to halal groceries and then, slowly but surely, little boutiques and bistros began to appear. We were heading into Boerum Hill. Driven on by my bladder and the distinct lack of public toilets in the city, we popped into a nice looking French restaurant to have a drink and to make use of the facilities. The barman - Bart - was friendly, and he mixed a mean cocktail, so we hung around for a bit. We then started talking to some middle-aged ladies who were having a drink whilst waiting for the last member of their dinner party to arrive. One of the ladies had been reading about malt whisky and was keen to try some (Bart had a good selection, including Laphroig, Lagavulin, Glenmorangie and Glenlivet). We chatted about different malts, how to drink them, moved on to discuss port and finally onto why we'd come over to Brooklyn. They were all astonished that we'd walked all the way from Manhattan, as though it was a hundred miles away, but were all Brooklynites and were really keen that we make the most of our time over the East River.

I don't even really know how it happened, but before long, the maitre d' had got involved in the discussion, and they all agreed that we should go to a tiny little restaurant just around the corner that had just been voted the best pizza place in New York City - quite an accolade. We weren't even sure we were staying for dinner, but the maitre d' was persistent to the extent that he even rang them up and booked us a table..... he ran his own restaurant, but felt that if we only stayed in Brooklyn for one meal, then we should go to the pizza place. We stayed long enough to have another drink and to pick up recommendations on the best possible place to buy a bottle of wine to take to the (bring your own) restaurant, and then we went out to find this other restaurant. The pizza restaurant - Lucali - was amazing. It's tucked away in a residential area of Brooklyn, and consists of nothing much more than a front room with an open kitchen area with a wood-fired oven at the back. You don't get much of a choice: calzone or pizza. You choose from a list of about 5 ingredients, and that's it. No starters. No pudding. Just plain and simple pizza. We shared a calzone, stuffed with fresh basil and some delicious, light ricotta. It wasn't at all expensive, but it felt like we were being included in a great local secret - there were people waiting outside the door the whole time we were there. It was a lovely meal, but the thing that I will really remember about it is the kindness of the Brooklyn locals that we met in that first restaurant who had been so friendly and welcoming. The ladies at that first bar told me that the French restaurant - Jolie - was their favourite in Brooklyn. We didn't eat there, so I can't comment, but the people we met there were brilliant, and Bart makes a mean cocktail.... so if you are around Brooklyn, do go and see them and thank them for me.

One of the restaurant recommendations I had before leaving was from a colleague who suggested that the River Cafe in Brooklyn was the best restaurant in the world with the best view in the world. Not cheap, with a meal for two likely to top $300, but apparently worth every cent. Perhaps it is the best restaurant in the world, but I'd like to think that the $20-odd we paid for that calzone and for that experience simply cannot be beaten.

I'm telling you, serendipity: it's the future.

don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall...

I think it's fair to say that New York is fairly pleased about the results of the recent presidential election. It's a Democratic stronghold anyway, of course, but if the number of Barack Obama t-shirts, posters and button badges on sale are anything to go by, then the Empire State is very taken with the man who stands to become the 44th President of the United States of America. Or they could just be really astute traders and know where the market is at the moment. Most likely it's a combination of the two, but I got a real sense of a genuine optimism on the air, even in cynical old Gotham itself.

America is at a crossroads.

...which is why I very much liked this particular piece of vandalism/street art (*delete as appropriate) on a pedestrian crossing on the corner of President Street in Brooklyn. I love the image of the green man, the symbol of motion and of progress, marching forwards whilst holding an Obama placard. The placement on this particular street is, of course, perfect.

After eight years of immobility, America may be about to "walk" forwards again.

king of the hill, top of the heap....

Right, well I'm just about to shove of to New York for a few days. I've only been once before, in 2004, and that was with work when I barely had time to do much more than pop up Empire State (above)... so I'm very much looking forward to a rather more social visit. The Met, skating in Central Park, a spot of shopping, MOMA.... that kind of thing. Should be good. Apparently they're showing "The Dark Knight" on the plane on the way over to JFK too, so it's all good.

.... just time before I go to give you a week three update on my burgeoning 'tash.



I've had my hair cut this morning, so now the moustache is officially longer than my hair.



It's also been growing for long enough that I have been forced to discover the joys of grooming it. You know, getting a little pair of scissors and vainly attempting to stop it growing down over my lip and into my mouth. Yuck.

It's becoming a bit annoying to be honest, and I really can't wait to be rid of the damn thing. Ten days to go and counting. I've noticed that I've developed a slightly worrying tic of stroking it absent-mindedly during meetings, which I suspect is starting to freak people out.



Still, the good news is that I've now raised £667.78 on behalf of the Prostate Cancer Charity, so it's certainly not all been in vain.

As well as looking like a fool in all of my holiday photos, I have still also got to brave a trip back to my parents on the last weekend of the month, at which time I will be attending the annual wine-tasting fund-raiser for the local entertainments group of which my father is a cornerstone. *sigh*. I'm sure the whole village will get a real giggle out of it.

Oh well.

Still time to make a donation. Just click here. Every contribution welcome, no matter how small, and thanks to those of you who have made a donation so far.

There's a set of all my Movember photos here. I should do a montage or something.

the revolution is just a t-shirt away....

Billy Bragg @ Nottingham Rock City, 19th November 2008

Billy Bragg got his first significant piece of national radio airplay in 1983 when he heard John Peel say on the air that he was hungry. Bragg rushed around to the studios with a mushroom biryani and was rewarded when Peel played a song from his "Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy" LP.... although typically Peel played it at the wrong speed, and later claimed (when he played it at the correct speed) that he would have played the record anyway, with or without the biryani.

Apart from being a great piece of opportunism, I reckon that story says an awful lot about Billy Bragg as a fundamentally pretty decent bloke (apart from anything else, he knew that Peel was a vegetarian). Because of his campaigning on various (left-wing) political issues, lots of people have probably got a preconception of Billy Bragg as a bit of a big-mouthed, big-nosed idiot. He first got into music and politics properly when he saw the Clash playing Rock against Racism when he was a teenager, and since then he has been involved with lots of political movements and causes, most famously with Red Wedge and the striking miners, but Bragg has also been involved in many other causes: the brilliant Jail Guitar Doors, active campaigning against the BNP in his South London heartlands, fronting a campaign to try to coordinate tactical voting in the UK General election to try and keep the Tories out, all the way through to visits to the Soviet Union in the wake of Gorbachev's policies of Perestroika and Glasnost.

I suppose it goes without saying that he's recorded versions of "The Internationale", "There Is Power In a Union" and "The Red Flag"......

He'd probably be the first person to tell you that he is indeed a big-nosed idiot, but I think he's brilliant. I only discovered him in about 1987 when a friend of mine introduced me to his early albums in the days when they still had big stickers on them saying "pay no more than five pounds for this record". At the time it was mainly just him and his guitar, singing songs that were as often about love as they were about politics. Nowadays he usually plays with a band, and live he's as much a raconteur and a stand-up comedian as he is a musician. I always make the effort to see him performing in his traditional Sunday night slot in the Leftfield (of course) at Glastonbury, and sometimes he just turns up with a blank piece of paper and takes requests.

Tonight, or so the Rock City answerphone message tells me, Billy will be onstage at 9 and that there's a strict 10pm curfew. Hmm. That doesn't sound good. Luckily, it's cobblers and we get a full 2 hours of just him and his guitar. This is old school Billy Bragg. His latest album, Mr Love & Justice, released earlier this year, was recorded with a band but included a bonus disc of all of the songs done solo... and in my opinion that's how it sounds best. He starts a bit slowly, and we have a small pause in proceedings as he arranges to have some paralytically drunken kids thrown out from the front where they are disturbing everyone around them, but soon he's on top form: drinking cups of "Throat Coat" tea, talking to us on a range of topics from the BNP (Nick Griffin apparently tried to use the leaked membership lists as proof of the "diversity" of his party), Barack Obama's election and how John Sergeant's success on Strictly Come Dancing showed Gordon Brown that sometimes people will vote for a fat, clumsy oaf. Oh, and occasionally he played us some songs too. It was a mix of old and new, with songs like "I Keep Faith" and "O Freedom" mixed in with a bit of Woody Guthrie (scarily relevant in the credit-crunch era, a full 70 years after they were originally written) and a lot of the really old-school stuff like "The Milkman of Human Kindness", "Sexuality", "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards", "To Have and to Have Not", "Levi Stubbs' Tears" and (of course) "New England".

How many performers are there left like Billy Bragg? Someone who can appear onstage with just his guitar, his opinions and a few of his songs? He may be on his own, but he's one of the most accomplished performers I have seen at engaging with the crowd. He's opinionated, of course, but you get the impression that he's actually thought about what he's saying and wants to share it with us. He chastised people who want to "throw piss" over the hope generated by Obama's election in the USA and suggested that although he is going to disappoint us over some things, at the moment he represents possibility above everything else and we should embrace that. The last time he played Rock City, he told us, was the night before the General Election in 1997, when the Labour party finally swept the hated Tory regime aside. No matter how much we felt that the Labour Government had let us down (I doubt all that many tories attend Bragg gigs), we had to gear ourselves up for another election next year because a Labour government still represents possibilities that we would not have if the Conservatives get back into power. You don't get this kind of stuff from Oasis, do you?

He's fully aware that he's not everyone's cup of tea, and his t-shirts for this tour (this is the first night, and he proudly wore one himself onstage) consist of an adapted Marmite logo. Billy Bragg: love him or hate him, he's not going away any time soon. Nor would anyone in Rock City this evening have it any other way. Carried away by the excitement of the night, Bragg's voice cracks towards the end, but he's never been much of a singer anyway, and the one man format encourages the crowd to help carry the load anyway. By the time we get to "New England", he really needn't bother singing a note as we carry him, the song and the gig over the finish line. There's nobody else quite like Billy Bragg, and I fully intend to make the most of him whilst he's still around and still performing.

A friend told me the other day that he had managed to get the great man's signature on the only piece of paper he had at the time - a one pound note. What could be more appropriate and more time-boxed than that? I asked him if he still had it, and if he'd had it framed or anything. His sheepish response? That he was a student at the time, so obviously at some point or other he had spent this priceless item on beer. Dear oh dear. The man's a legend and surely deserves better treatment than that? Or perhaps that's exactly the way he would have wanted it....redistribution of the wealth and all that.

It was great to see him again, and it was also great to see him with the man who first introduced me to his music some 21 years ago standing by my side. I was also pleased to be able to get Sarah a "Brewing Up With Billy Bragg" tea mug for her birthday.

An excellent evening. More power to him. And to the Unions, obviously.

Verdict: 8 / 10

(Got to be some more change in my life)

It's been a funny old few days for me. I don't like to be unnecessarily cryptic, but I'm having to grow a thicker skin as I climb back on a horse I haven't ridden in the best part of a decade. It's all happened very quickly, and I was elated about it on Monday morning, and feeling blue about the whole thing by Monday night. It's a bit of a rollercoaster at the moment, and change is in the air.

Ugh. I hate cryptic bloggers. Reading a blog is not supposed to be like doing the bloody crossword is it? I do apologise. I'm sure all will be revealed in due course (or earlier if you tweet).

Anyway, I'm certainly very much looking forward to meeting up with C. on Thursday evening at Heathrow Terminal 5 to spend a few days in New York City. A few days in Manhattan are going to good for the soul, I think.

Oh, and do go and read the latest 5x5 over on the Art of Noise where I risk looking a bit of a fool by writing about music I know nothing about. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, eh? Mind you, last time I suggested that I could hear the influence of the Smiths on Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong and opined that the Ting Tings were "Rescue Rooms not Rock City" (they played Rock City the other day).....so I've quite an act to keep up.

Anyhow.
-
Shuffleathon 2008 Update

Shall we update? Shall we?

Truth be told, there's not a whole lot to be updating on yet. I haven't even decided on a track 1 side 1, so I can only take my hat of to those highly organised people amongst you who have got so far as to even get your CD out into the post. I salute you.

There's no rush yet, I don't think, but it would be great if we could all be aiming to get our CDs out into the post sometime around the end of the month if we're to stand any chance at all of getting this thing done and dusted before the end of the year. I'm already thinking that might be a stretch target, but you have to aim for something.... right?

Shuffler	Posted out	Received?
1. Me
2. Mandy
3. Charlie
4. Planet Me
5. Ian
6. Mike
7. Jerry	yes
8. monogodo
9. Erika
10. Michael	yes	review
11. Lisa	yes
12. Cody Bones
13. Del		yes!
14. RussL	yes
15. Tina		yes
16. Wombat
17. Joe the Troll
18. JamieS	yes
19. Cat
20. Rol	yes
21. Beth	yes
22. asta
23. bedshaped
24. Paul	yes
25. Alan
26. Astronaut	yes
27. Threelight
28. The Great Grape Ape	yes
29. Paul W
30. Ben		yes

I really have no idea what I'm putting on my CD. I guess I'd better start shortlisting, eh? I also reckon that the person I've drawn merits some careful thinking. Mmm. Fleet Foxes, of course, but you can't open with that kind of mellow, can you?

Some careful thinking whilst I'm in New York, I think.

If you could drop me a line when you send out your CDs, that would be great. Oh, and when you've received yours too. Oh, and when you've reviewed.

That's all.

Toodle-pip.

slip of the tongue...

I spent several hours on the Children in Need call centre on Friday night. I don't know if you know how these things work, but the basic idea is pretty simple: you turn up when you say you're going to turn up, and you then man a phone for a few hours and take as many donations and pledges in that time as you can. I've done this several times before now, so I know the ropes. The graveyard shift, 23:30 to 02:00, is generally quite busy. People are coming back in from the pubs and sticking the telly on, and people who have been watching the TV all night are starting to feel guilty about not having given anything already. Now, the target audience for Children in Need is a little bit different to that of Comic Relief. On the Comic Relief call centre, you are far more likely to get the drunks ringing up when they get in from the boozer. They often try to be funny. They almost always fail. With Children in Need, you often receive calls from very young children on their way to bed having been allowed to stay up late. They ring in with a bit of help from their mum, ask if you will say hello to Pudsey for them, and then pledge their pocket money. It's rarely more than a fiver, but it's so, so sweet. At the other end of the age spectrum, you also get a fair number of pensioners. Sometimes they sound a bit lonely and just want to have a bit of a chat. They don't often give very much, but you get the impression that they've been genuinely moved by what they've seen, and they want to do what they can. They often say that they wish they could afford to give more, but I always tell them that if everyone gave as much as they do, then the charity would be doing pretty well.

Calls often come in batches: you may get several calls end-on-end, and then you may have a few minutes of respite before the next appeal video is screened on the telly and you get another batch of calls. The phones don't ring or anything, instead you are warned of an incoming call by a series of three pips. By the time the third pip has sounded, the caller has been transferred to your phone and you're on the air. In one lull on Friday night, I started telling the guys around me an anecdote that a chap at work had told me. We'd been talking about how I was going to the ground on Saturday to watch England playing Australia, and he'd decided to share a story about his last visit to the ground. Apparently, and you have to remember that I was sat in the call centre with my headset on when I was telling this story, this chap had gone to Twickenham on some kind of corporate do. I don't think there was a game on, but there was a dinner with a number of speeches from former players. My colleague is a strapping great big welsh bloke, and he was having a whale of a time on a table with Micky Skinner. At one point, his wife leaned over to him and indicated Martin Johnson sat at the table next door.
"He doesn't look so big and tough now he's retired does he?"
My colleague looked over at the glowering six foot eight retired England World Cup Winning captain and returned his attention to his drink.
A little later on, and several beers further into his evening, my colleague made an inevitable trip to the gents. He was halfway through his business when he noticed a looming figure at the urinal next door. He looked up and up and up to see Martin Johnson standing there. He couldn't resist it:
"Martin?"
Johnson looked over. "Yes mate?"
"My wife says you don't look so big and scary now you're not playing".
Johnson considered this statement for a moment, sized up the drunk Welshman standing next to him, finished what he was doing **PIP** and said **PIP** "Fuck off". **PIP** Hello. You're through to BBC Children in Need. How would you like to make your donation this evening?"

There was silence on the other end of the line. There was someone there, but they were silent.
"Hello? Hello?"
No reply.
Is it possible that the call gets connected before the third pip and I'd just told someone, perhaps a child with his pocket money or an elderly person with a bit of their pension at the ready, to fuck off?

Um.

I'm sure they found another way to make their donation.

(and if they happen to be reading this, I'm so, so sorry about that. I don't get paid as much as Jonathan Ross, remember....)

---

The rugby at Twickenham was fairly miserable from an English point of view, but two good things did come from it:

1) My mobile phone provider (and sponsors of the England rugby team) invited me into a private bar and gave me a free pint and a quality pie with mash. For nothing. I think it's the first time they've ever done anything really useful for me.

2) Almost every Australian at the game under the age of 40 seemed to have a moustache that looked suspiciously like it was about two weeks old. Of course, every Australian over the age of 40 already had a moustache....

do you wanna make tea at the BBC?

Exactly fourteen days ago, I started growing a moustache in order to raise money and awareness for the Prostate Cancer Charity. Loads of people do it, apparently. It's called "Movember". I'd barely started when I updated you on my progress last week. How about after another week's careful cultivation?



People who didn't know I was doing this are now coming up to me and asking what the hell I'm doing.... so it must be a touch more noticeable now.



The charity says that, although the money raised is great, the best part of the event for them is that every single person taking part is a walking, talking advert for the charity. They reckon that every day, you will have to explain what you are doing and why to at least two people, thus spreading awareness of the issues and the charity. Did you know that 1 in 11 men will be personally affected the prostate cancer in their lifetime? That's a sobering statistic.


The nicest thing anyone has said to me is to ask me if I was growing a "David Boon". The next best was when someone asked me if I was trying for a "Lemmy". Other suggestions have included Brandon Flowers and Earl from "My Name is Earl". Me, I think that with a beanie on, I treading dangerously close to The Edge.



16 days still to go though and it's all getting a bit 1970s.

I've raised about £500 so far, which I should be able to get matched by my employers. I still want more though, so if you're so inclined, you can sponsor me here.

---

Earworms of the Week

After that, how about some music?

> "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand

It's now nearly five years old, but I heard this song the other day, and it sounds as fresh now as it did then. That change of pace at the beginning is sensational, and always a thrill to watch them doing live. They've got some new material on the way, so I imagine they'll be playing an enormodome near you in the new year.

> "Your Sweet Voice" - Reindeer Section

For a long time, it looked as though Gary Lightbody's side-project might overshadow his day job. Luckily for him, "Run" and then "Chasing Cars" changed that for him, but there's something enduring about his collaboration with some familiar faces from the Scottish indie scene (members of Idlewild, Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap, Mogwai, Mull Historical Society and so on appear on here). This song is very much Lightbody's, and as such is suitably sappy, but it's a good album all round really, and it's funny that listening to the new Snow Patrol album has inspired me to dig this nugget out of the archives.

> "Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk" - Rachel Unthank and the Winterset

I'm not entirely sure that I like Rachel Unthank. There's something about some of the delivery that grates with me slightly. It's not so much the Geordie accents (which I like), it's the "folk" style delivery and the occasional harsh, hectoring tone of some of the lyrics. On the whole though, it's a really good album. This song is an obvious standout, and is the one that I saw them playing on the Mercury Music show a few weeks back. Girl Power! Folk-stylee.....

>"Dakota" - Stereophonics

Picked up via an advert for their forthcoming greatest hits. Amazingly enough, I used to actually quite like the Stereophonics... back in the day when they wrote good songs like "Local Boy in the Photograph".... I fell out with them at the time that they released a song ("Mr.Writer") that was nothing more than a rant at a journalist. It's pretty much been all downhill to middle-of-the-road plod-rock creative bankruptcy since then. With one exception: this song. "Dakota" is driven by an absolutely gloriously dry, driving riff that's as big as the sky. Quite where they dug this up from, I have no idea, but it remains as fresh now as it was when I first heard it and was astonished that it was by the Stereophonics. It's a frustrating song really, as it reminds me of how good a band they could have been, and quite how much they've settled for the easy money.

> "Sunset Coming on" - Mali Music

What with his work on Blur, Gorrillaz, Monkey Journey to the West and so on, Damon Albarn is clearly rocks' renaissance man. Mali Music was one of his earlier voyages away from the safe havens of Britpop, but it's a damn fine album. Where"Graceland" takes the African music and uses it as a backdrop for Paul Simon's own songs, here the local music is thrust to the forefront, with the western influences used more subtly underneath. It's a triumph. This song, perhaps a little unfortunately, has stuck in my head because the refrain sounds uncannily like "Fields of Gold" by Sting. To be honest, I'm desperately hoping that this particular earworm doesn't transform into a full-on Sting infection....

> "Salute Your Solution" - The Raconteurs

Because it rocks. The Bond theme is alright, I suppose (although it's definitely not all that), but it made me think how good a musician Jack White is. I love the way that this song just rollicks along from start to finish, driven by a nice big guitar riff.... just the way I like it.

> "No More Heroes" - The Stranglers

Elastica famously stole the intro riff from this song for "Waking up". Now, I really like that song too, but there's nothing that can quite match the fury of the original.

"Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick that made his ears burn"

Indeed.

> Theme from "Cheggers Plays Pop"

Cheggers is a great survivor, having come through a serious alcohol problem, the collapse of a high profile marriage and generally being thought of as a laughing stock. I like him. I think there's something heroic about his cheerfulness in the face of all this, and if he were to turn up on my doorstep first thing in the morning, it would surely be impossible to be cross with him. "Cheggers Plays Pop" may actually have been my first exposure to rock music, with it's guitar driven theme tune and gangs of children dressed in yellow and red high on sugar and additives charging around the face under the gaze of the serene and putti-like Chegwin. I think this came to mind when I caught a glimpse of Cheggers on GMTV as I was sat in the dentist's waiting room the other day. Legend. If I had to pick one of the Swap Shop gang to go to the pub with, I'd take Keith Chegwin over Sarah Greene or Noel Edmonds any day of the week (although, obviously I wouldn't be buying him a pint)

> "Milk" - Kings of Leon

The Mighty Boosh Live were a massive disappointment last week, but I did learn that Noel Fielding does an excellent impression of the Kings of Leon. It involves a lot of mumbling, obviously.....

> "Career Opportunities" - The Clash (live at Shea Stadium)

I haven't always loved the Clash. I was a bit too young to get into them first time around, and I somehow managed to serenely ignore them when they were back in fashion courtesy of that Levis advert.... even after I picked up a Greatest Hits album, I never really gave them an enormous amount of attention beyond "London Calling" and "Rock the Casbah". Over time, however, some of their other songs have crept under my skin. "Lost in a Supermarket", for example, is a brilliant record. I'd read that this album was finally the live album that a band of the stature of The Clash deserved, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. It was recorded when they were supporting The Who at Shea Stadium in New York, and from start ("London Calling") to finish ("I Fought the Law"), it's an exhilarating rip through some of their biggest hits. It turns out they were a damn good live band too. I wish I could have seen them. Just don't get me started on that Scouting for Girls cover of "London Calling" at the Olympics Party. Mike called that the musical lowlight of 2008 the other day, and I have to say that I agree with him wholeheartedly. Awful. How can you take something that edgy and that vital, with that much heart-on-sleeve righteous anger and turn it into something so...so.... bland. Rubbish. So, if you've got that travesty on your mind, you could do a lot worse than listen to the real thing delivered venomously on a rainy day in New York in 1982.

---

It's the Children in Need call centre for me tonight, so if you ring up to make a donation between 23:30 and 02:00, then you have a tiny chance of speaking to me in person.

That's gotta be worth a go, no?

03457 33 22 33

Stay classy!

over the moor, take me to the moor....

As you might imagine, having a job that entails going to an office means that, even if I had the inclination, I wouldn't have much opportunity to watch daytime TV. I don't exactly rush in the morning, but I'm almost always at my desk by a little after 9am with my first americano of the day. Today was different: I had an appointment for a checkup at the dentists at ten past nine, and wasn't actually seen until after half past. This meant that I had ample opportunity to sit in the waiting room and to watch the end of GMTV (Lorraine Kelly talking to someone about a green tea diet) and to catch the beginning of the Jeremy Kyle.

I'm aware of Jeremy Kyle, and I know that he hosts one of those shows that is a pale shadow of the Jerry Springer show and the kind of programme that tries to stir up controversy and gets its kicks by raking over the ashes of other people's lives in the name of entertainment. I only watched about ten minutes, but it was still more than I could stomach. The theme of the show was based around a young couple. The girl was a couple of months pregant and was convinced that her partner was no good and was sleeping with other people behind her back. The boyfriend in turn wanted to take a lie detector test to prove that he wasn't lying. So far, so tawdry. It turned out that the stress of it all had driven the girl to drink, and she was downing two litres of cider. That was all the information that Kyle needed to pause the show, climb up onto the highest of moral high-horses, and to lecture the girl that she had NO RIGHT to be drinking when she was pregnant. THAT WAS FACT. She had TO STOP. It wasn't so much what he was saying, as the tone of vast supposed superiority he used to deliver it, to sycophantic applause from the audience. Once that was out of the way, we could meet the suitably pasty and incoherent boyfriend and hear his side of the story. Kyle wound him up, of course. He assumed a sort of crouching position in front of the couple on the stage, and fired in provocative question after provocative question. Eventually, the guy onstage started to shout, and he stood up and moved towards Kyle. Kyle stayed crouched and still exuded superiority as security came onto the stage. I was called up to the dentist before I saw the results of the lie detector test, but before I left I heard the boyfriend confess, before being strapped into the machine, that he had been unfaithful once... but he stressed it was a one off, as if that made things any better.

My teeth are fine, but my faith in humanity has taken something of a knock. I couldn't decide which was worse: Kyle's reptillian hunt for entertainment from someone else's tragedies, or the fact that this couple seemed to genuinely think that the answers to their problems could be found in a daytime TV studio.

My mood wasn't improved by the news either: a three month old baby and his two year old brother were found stabbed to death in their home in Manchester, with the crime having apparently been committed by their own mother. This story comes hard on the heels of the horrible story of "Baby P", the 17 month old child who was found dead in his blood spattered cot in August last year. Three people will be sentenced next month after two men were convicted on Tuesday of "causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person". During the course of his short life, "Baby P" was horribly abused. The post mortem revealed eight broken ribs and a broken back, with another area of bleeding around the spine at neck level. There were numerous bruises, cuts and abrasions, including a deep tear to his left ear lobe, which had been pulled away from his head. There were severe lacerations to the top of his head, including a large gouge which could have been caused by a dog bite. He had blackened finger and toenails, with several nails missing. The middle finger of his right hand was without a nail and its tip was also missing, as if it had been sliced off. He had a tear to the strip of skin between the middle of the upper lip and the gum, which had partially healed. One of his front teeth had also been knocked out and was found in his colon. He had swallowed it. Horrible. It's almost beyond comprehension. Worst of all is the revelation that the child and his parents were visited 60 times over eight months by social workers, police and health professionals. Sixty times.

In October, at exactly the same time that the nation was working itself up into a froth about Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross and really important issues like that, a man was convicted of murdering his malnourished 16 month old daughter by placing her over his knee and snapping her spine in two following months of painful abuse. The prosecution at the trial noted how the child's injuries indicated she must have been in extreme pain for weeks prior to death, and the policeman in charge of the investigation was quoted as saying that "the catalogue of horrific injuries have been some of the worst I have seen in 30 years of policing". The mother of the child, and this is the bit that's really stayed with me, was given a suspended sentence after admitting to child cruelty, but was said to be in the bottom 1% of intelligence levels for this country.

We live in a world that can sometimes seem unbearably brutal. Do we really need "entertainment" like that provided by Jeremy Kyle and his ilk? Or perhaps you'd prefer to watch a celebrity having a breakdown in public, like Kerry Katona the other week on This Morning? Well, "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" is back on soon, so perhaps we'll get to see someone falling apart at the seams on that. Perhaps it will be one of Kyle's predecessors, Robert Kilroy-Silk.

We disdain the Ancient Romans for the brutality of their chosen entertainment. From our lofty perch of irreproachable moral superiority, we wonder how they could have been considered civilised when they got their kicks from feeding people to wild animals and to watching men hack each other to pieces in the arena.

Are we really so different? We're screaming for blood every bit as loudly as those audiences in the Flavian Amphitheatre, and our society is every bit as morally corrupted as theirs.

back on the road again....

--
Shuffleathon 2008 Update

Attention Shufflers!



The draw has taken place, and your names have now been pulled from an actual hat (pictured above - a nice Akubra Federation IV Deluxe fedora, as it happens).

You should now have received an email from me telling you who you have drawn in this year's shuffleathon. If you have NOT received this email, then please let me know..... otherwise things will go wonky very quickly.



And.... well, that's about all there is to say.

It's a pretty stressful business, actually, this shuffleathon thing. I'm not by nature a project manager-type person, but with this thing, I find I need to keep a little spreadsheet with people's names and emails and things on it, with a little note against anyone who doesn't want their actual address shared with anyone. Stuff like that. I send out 29 almost identical emails, and throughout the whole damn business, I'm terrified that I'm going to stuff it up... pass someone's name to the wrong person, pass out a private address, send someone's name out to two different people. That kind of thing. All frighteningly easy to do. Click to send... and then oooops. Repent at leisure.

Actually, I may have done all of these things, and I won't know until everyone reports back on the CD they've been sent, and that could take MONTHS.

How will I cope? How will I live with the uncertainty?

Shuffler	Posted out	Received?
1. Me
2. Mandy
3. Charlie
4. Planet Me
5. Ian
6. Mike
7. Jerry	yes
8. monogodo
9. Erika
10. Michael
11. Lisa
12. Cody Bones
13. Del
14. RussL
15. Tina
16. Wombat
17. Joe the Troll
18. JamieS
19. Cat
20. Rol
21. Beth
22. asta
23. bedshaped
24. Paul	yes
25. Alan
26. Astronaut
27. Threelight
28. The Great Grape Ape
29. Paul W
30. Ben

The show is now officially on the road. So gentlemen (and ladies), start your CD burners..... Shuffleathon 2008 is underway.

God bless her and all who sail in her.

nylon admiral....

On Saturday night, we went to go and watch the Mighty Boosh Live.

I'd really been looking forward to this show, not least because I've had the tickets now for something like eleven and a half months, so I've had plenty of time to think about it. I think the Mighty Boosh are great: I love the surrealistic streak that runs right through the very heart of it, and although it is occasionally very disturbing (see the Crack Fox episode from the last series), it is very, very funny. It is with a heavy heart, therefore, that I must report that The Mighty Boosh has definitely jumped the shark.

The last Boosh live show (as released on DVD) was set around a definable plot that was then used as a device for introducing the various characters along the way. The setting, in a shop owned by Naboo and run by Vince and Howard, was strong enough that it was used throughout the third series. This show didn't bother with anything like that. Instead, we were treated to a series of "special guests", which enabled Fielding and Barratt to wheel on a series of characters without needing to trouble themselves with anything like a coherent narrative. Thus, as well as Vince and Howard, we were treated to turns by Bob Fossil, Naboo, Bollo, The Moon, Tony Harrison, the Hitcher and by the Crack Fox himself. It was entertaining, after a fashion, but it felt to me as though it fell between two stalls. It was neither new material, nor was it a retread of much loved older material.

When I went to see the Fast Show live, they wheeled out all of their characters and their catchphrases, but they at least took the trouble to put in a little groundwork beforehand, and they wrote new sketches in order to provide the character with the platform to perform, and to provide the audience with a bit of anticipation for the catchphrase that was sure to follow. The other option for staging a comedy show like this, which Mitchell & Webb used when I saw them live, was to take some of our favourite sketches from the TV show, and to reproduce them on the stage (in their case this was mixed with new material too). That's not as imaginative a way of staging a show, for sure, but is it that much different to going to a rock concert and watching a band perform songs you've heard before? If you went to see Monty Python, wouldn't you want to see them do the Dead Parrot sketch?

The Boosh decided that they weren't going to rehash old sketches, but unfortunately, neither did they bother to write any new material. Instead, they just wheeled characters out - literally in the case of Tony Harrison, and even then, far too much of the comedy came from the fact that Noel Fielding was in a chair with his head sticking out. Oh here's Naboo. Here's Bollo. Here's Bob Fossil. It's not enough to just present a character and expect us to laugh uproariously. Although we laughed, actually the characters in themselves aren't intrinsically funny, we're laughing at all the things that character has done in the past, not what they're doing now - and how long will that be funny? Anyone who was coming to the Boosh cold would have been completely baffled and no doubt wondered what the crowd was finding so hilarious.

The second half of the show had at least a semblance of structure, being based around a typically pompous Howard Moon play, but even that dragged on, and the show as a whole just struck me as unbelievably lazy. If they took more than about a day to write the whole thing, I would be very surprised.

The most amazing thing about this, and perhaps the reason that they did it, was that the audience let them get away with it. They did it because they could, and the audience lapped it up. They cheered, they screamed, they heckled, they dressed up as their favourite characters, they bought from the extensive range of merchandise available at several points throughout the Arena.... what they did not do was apply any kind critical filter to the dross that they were being served up.

Very, very disappointing.

Judging by the length of the tour, the size of the venues and the number of extra dates being added, I think Barratt and Fielding will be making an absolute packet out of this. Shame they didn't put a bit more effort into it.

...and judging by the extended music bit at the end, look out for a Mighty Boosh album some time soon. Just don't expect the songs to display the wit of Flight of the Conchords....("I did a shit on your mum" anyone?)

Verdict: 4 / 10

The evening - and some of the fans in attendance - was perhaps best summarised when the Hitcher came on just before the interval to come amongst the crowd and to sing "Eels". We were told this was the last thing before the interval, so a few people took the opportunity to get a headstart on the queues and they clambered over the whole row... with the show still going on remember .... to get out. Five minutes later ... with the show still going on ... they clambered back across the whole row with their beer and snacks. How ignorant is that? Pah! And don't get me started on the shrieking. It even seemed to annoy the cast after a while....

you have been gone too long....

One item of business before we launch into this week's earworms.....

It's now been exactly seven days since I first started actively cultivating a moustache to raise money and awareness for the Prostate Cancer Charity as part of "Movember".

Time for a progress update, I reckon:



From the look on my face there, you'd think I was loving this.... and perhaps I am.... but I was about to leave the house for work and caught myself looking like such a miserable bastard that I had to force out a smile, and this was the end result. I look a bit mental, on the whole, I think.

Well, there's now no hiding the fact that I am growing a ridiculous looking moustache. It needs a bit more depth, perhaps, but as someone at work said to me this afternoon, the design is good and the basic concept is right... the rest will follow over the course of the month. I am now getting stared at on a fairly regular basis though. Apparently part of the point of the exercise is that, as well as the money, the charity gets loads and loads of awareness this month, as they reckon that every single person taking part will get asked several times a day why they are growing a moustache, and they will then explain. It's good, innit? Although, to be honest, I'm thinking of wearing a big t-shirt saying something along the lines of "It's not a LIFESTYLE STATEMENT. It's for CHARITY" or somesuch. For every person who asks me, I can't help but think of the ten who just assume I've decided to grow a moustache. That's the kind of thought that keeps me awake at night.



I've now raised well over £300, but I reckon with so much of the month still to go, and with plenty of scope for personal embarrassment still to come(I'm going to visit my parents on the last weekend of the month, for starters).... we can do better than that, can't we?

You can sponsor me here. Laugh by all means, but please consider a small donation as you do so.

All money raised goes to the Prostate Cancer Charity in the UK. Given that 1 in 11 men will be affected by prostate cancer in their lifetime, I think it's a worthy cause - certainly good enough to spend a month walking round looking like a divvy, anyway. If you like, think of any donation you make as pay it forwards.....

Anyway, Earworms.

Earworms of the Week

> "Sunny Days" - Kid British

In many, many ways, this is nothing but annoying, derivative shit. It sounds like the bastard offspring of "Mr Blue Sky" and the worst kind of sub-Blur Britpop rubbish. Actually, that's exactly what this is.... and yet... and yet.... after a couple of listens, other stuff slowly starts to emerge from the detritus: there's hints of the urban delivery of The Streets and Jamie T in here, and behind that upbeat, bouncy melody, there's a rather more downbeat story about someone trying to live their life with one less plate at the table and it's beans on toast for tea. I'm still leaning towards this being irritating beyond measure, but it's managed to climb into my head, if nothing else. Ben - 5x5 stuff on the way this weekend if it kills me!

> "Paris to Berlin" - Infernal

Dreadful song, but it was playing in the changing rooms at the gym, and my bastard brain did the rest. Thanks Brian.

> "Riders on the Storm" - The Doors

This has always been my favourite Doors song, even if it does remind me of that dreadful joke / horror story that we always used to tell each other as kids, about the couple who run out of petrol on a stormy night. You know... the guy goes off to get fuel, and the girl stays in the car and waits. And waits. And waits. It's lashing it down with rain, but she starts to hear a tap-tap-tap on the car roof. Blah, blah, blah.... police come along, tell her to get out of the car and not look back, and it's a psycho on the roof of the car with her partner's severed head. Tap-tap-tap. Maybe that's exactly what Jim Morrison was hoping for?

> "My Favourite Waste of Time" - Owen Paul

No idea how this one crept in... but hey! Owen Paul is always welcome around here.

> "Human" - The Killers

I quite like The Killers. I quite like them, but I don't love them. They've done a few good songs, a few I'm not that bothered by, and a couple of absolutely solid gold classics. They apparently wrote "Mr.Brightside" within 10 minutes of getting together as a group. If that's true, then in a way that must be really depressing, as I doubt they'll write another song that good if they're together for the next thirty years. It is a great song, at least, I suppose. This is another reasonably good song, and it's catchy and yet strangely lightweight, like a lot of the rest of their stuff. I do like the liberties they take with grammar though. Are you human, or are you dancer? Like it. My 'tache has been compared this week with that sported until recently by Brandon Flowers. I'm not sure that was meant as a compliment, but I'll take it.

> "Calm a Llama Down" / "Love Games" / "Future Sailors" - The Mighty Boosh

Well, I'm off to see the Boosh tomorrow night... and I'm very much looking forward to it. I hope we get some crimping....

> "If There's A Rocket Tie Me To It" - Snow Patrol

Wide-eyed indie pap with a big chorus and lots of "woo-hoos". They're not everyone's cup of tea, and to be honest, I'm not sure about the new album, but I love'em. They're still the only 10/10 gig I've reviewed here, and I've just bought tickets to see them in March. God love'em. Gary Lightbody still has that "Celt" sticker on his guitar, although I can't help but notice that it's now on a Les Paul.....

> "Night Terror" - Laura Marling

My favourite song of hers. She's only a tiny little thing, but during the course of this song, she manages to conjure up a vivid picture of a nightmare, but also to convince that she could be your protector. Bless.

> "Ragged Wood" - Fleet Foxes

Of the three gigs I attended this week, this one was my favourite. All three of them were pretty good, but this one stood out for me. If I may plagiarise Mike again, it's something to do with the way that they managed to not only recreate the beauty of their record, but to do so with all the muscle of a proper live band. Really, really good. Before the gig, I liked the whole album, but I only really had ears for "White Winter Hymnal". Since the gig, I'm discovering just how good the rest of it is too. Robin Pecknold claimed to be a bit embarrassed by "Your Protector" to, but that's another cracker that could easily have made this list.

Right. That'll do then. Don't forget that I'll be closing the shuffleathon on Sunday, so if you want to take part, you'd best get in touch before then.

Stay classy y'all.