This song is bloody fantastic! That is all....

Tags: music
Current Location: RM12 5JH
Feeling : drunk
Hearing : La Roux - Armour Love

Yesterday I purchased La Roux's album (yeah - I know - bite me). I noticed a lot of the reviews in iTunes were less that glowing... the last review by "Aberdeen Andy" stated "This album is crap - why the f*ck would anyone buy it." Of the 30 or so people who had rated this review just over a half had rated the review as "helpful."

I used to think I was a terrible music snob. Music I liked had a value over and above the crap in the charts. Now I'm older, and I'd like to think a little wiser, I have realised that the only thing "my" music had that the rest didn't was an appeal to me.

There is no way to quantify this appeal. It's either there or it isn't. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Sonata quasi una fantasia" (or "Moonlight" sonata) moves me... pretty much like Simple Mind's "Belfast child" or Queen's "Who wants to live forever" or Coldplay's "Fix You."

I can't imagine what these have in common apart from being able to bring me to tears.

Vivaldi's Allegro movement from "La primavera" ("Spring" of "The Four Seasons" concertos) has the ability to instantly cheer me up... in the same way the "Special Brew" by Bad manners does... and "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by the Darkness.

I have come to the realisation that I might have thought I was a musical snob, but I was actually something far worse - a hypocrite.

Even with this in mind I can't understand the mentality of a person who bothers to write a review about an act they don't like just to say they don't like them. I am also puzzled why anyone else would mark such a review as helpful.

I am not trying to say there is nothing I think is rubbish - far from it! Any "X-Factor's got talent" type of show is full of rubbish (in my opinion) but I don't go to a TV programs rating site so I can leave a snarky review. That's what blogs are for.

This reminds me of a argument brewing over at Last.fm - but that's a rant for another time.

I am not trying to say that a negative review is necessarily a useless thing either. If an album is badly mixed, poor sound quality, repetitive, exceptionally short, a collection of songs already released before then a review saying so is helpful. "It's Crap" says nothing about the album but a great deal about the person who reviewed it.

Tags: music, rant
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : aggravated

Last night I played pool. This meant I didn't get home until almost midnight. It was with an amount of dismay that words cannot do justice that I discovered I had no house key.

Wait! - It gets worse.

Recently I have "lost" one of my house keys (it's at home - but I have no idea where) so I borrowed the set I leave at my parents in a case of emergencies... (you know, like leaving your key at work and then getting home at midnight kind of thing!)

The irony is not lost on me that the very key that should save me from my dumb self was sat on my desk at work all night.

Luckily my parents are the bestest and when I got to them last night (after waking them up by phone) they had made me up a bed, and this morning I had my trousers and shirt ironed and a nice cup of tea. Thanks Mum. Thanks Dad.


I am in awe of my capacitiy for dumbness.

Tags: i'm stupid
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : embarrassed
Hearing : Just Like a Woman - Bob Dylan

The mystery of the missing headphones has been solved. They have been washed with the shirt I was wearing on Friday. D'oh!

I will find out if they still work later.

In other (musical) news I am going to learn to play the bass guitar. Jim has lent me his bass, I have a practice amp arriving at my parents tomorrow and I purchased a lead and strap at a shop hidden in the Barbican at lunchtime today.

I blame Guitar Hero.

Tags: i'm stupid, music
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : stupid

I woke up this moring with Jona Lewie's "You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties" running around my head. I'm not entirely sure why but it was quite persistent so I purchased his "Greatest Hits" album on iTunes and synched my iPod.

The plan was to play the song all day to rid it from my subconsious. This plan was imediately thwarted by an obvious lack of ear-phones attached to my iPod. I checked the usual places I might have stored such an item in to no avail.

In related news I found out the female backing was performed by Kirsty MacColl!

Tags: i'm going nuts, music
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : insane
Hearing : You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties - My Brain

Last night I saw Spinal Tap's "One Night Only - World Tour" at the Wembley Arena with Jim. They were... Spinal Tap. There is no other adjective that fits the bill.

To borrow the words of Marty DiBergi: "...that night, I heard a band that for me redefined the word "rock and roll". I remember being knocked out by their... their exuberance, their raw power - and their punctuality. That band was Britain's now-legendary Spinal Tap. Seventeen Twenty five years and fifteen some albums later, Spinal Tap is still going strong. And they've earned a distinguished place in rock history as one of England's loudest bands."

We met Dora and Vincent there. I had my view obscured by tall people.

There were guest appearences by Keith Emerson (who destroyed a hammond organ), Justin Hawkins (with a fantastically cool bass guitar shaped like a shuttle), plus a couple I can't remember.

The video for The Majesty of Rock is full of awesome.

Tags: gig, music
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : amused
Hearing : LunaticsTwo - Ordinary Psycho

Last Thursday "Karaoke Pete" came over so that Leon or I could look at his laptop. He must have been surfing some pretty dodgy websites because it took Leon most of the evening to rid his machine of the viruses and spyware.

Whilst Leon fixed the laptop I introduced Pete to Guitar Hero. An image springs to mind of a crack dealer enticing a new customer... I'm not sure why! ;) Pete also brought some lemon-grass flavoured beer with him which was surprisingly tasty.

Friday night was Leon's leaving bash at PickWicks. I have been to Pickwicks a couple of times before. The landlady tends to get a little wasted and then all semblance of order goes out of the window. What is has going for it is it's close to Leon's office, the landlady thinks the light shines out of Leon's rear, and it's not unusual to locked in at the end of the night where the party carries on until the small hours... or until the trains start running again.

We all met up at a Wetherspoons nearby. There was a guild meet (Leon's guild, not mine!) going on last weekend so quite a few of them popped by too! A room pub full or WoW geeks is awesome! I was also introduced to Laura... (Leon was is being the match-maker) then a big group of us headed off to Pickwicks.

I sang "Chasing Cars." Apart from not being giving the mic until after the song had started (have I said how unorganised Pickwicks is?) I don't think I did too bad a job of it. With a little practice it might become my favourate karaoke song!

There was no beer (or indeed any type of alcohol) on Tap at pickwicks. The refrigeration unit was broken or something, so I was drinking tins of guiness. It is just as well I was the only one as there were only about 6 tins in the fridge.

Leon and "his girls" sang a few songs very well... then other punters in the pub started with the usual trashy shouting and screaming into the mics and generally ruining it for everyone but themselves. I spent a great deal of the night outside the pub in the "smoking area" just to avoid the nonsense inside.

It was past late and well into early when I was approached by a guy organising taxis asking if I required a cab. I was about to say no outright but Leon interjected by asking how much it would cost. We were quoted £40. This is amazing because a trip home from Romford station (3-4 miles) costs £20 after midnight! A quick google puts the trip home in the region of 14 miles! Leon and I decided that as the night had lost some of its appeal and we're no longer young men getting a cab home for £40 is a bit of a bargain so that's what we did.

Saturday I had to be at Becontree station for noon. I was feeling a little tired and just a lot hung over but a long shower and a cup of tea works wonders. I made it to Becontree on time where I met G. We headed off to the Oval to see Surrey lose to Middlesex in a rather pedestrian game of limited overs cricket.

I meant to log into WoW to see how my guildies were doing on Saturday evening but once I got home it all seemed too much and I grabbed an early night.

Tags: karaoke
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : chipper
Hearing : Presuming Ed (Rest Easy) - Elbow

Last night I saw The Streets at the Brixton Academy.

I got there a bit earlier than expected (it's just 30 minutes from the office... which is very handy to know) so I plotted up in the local Wetherspoons with the crossword and a nice pint of Directors. JT and his mate arrived at the agreed time and another beer was had. We arrived at the venue in good time to see the support who was rather good but whose name escapes me now.

More beer was had. The Brixton Academy has not won any awards for real ale... so the choice was a bit limited. No – strike that – the choice is pretty much non-existent – Tetley's in a tin. I thought I was unlucky because my round came up just as the support act finished – so the queue for the bar was epic! I realised after that it was actually quite good luck – the next two rounds would have to be carried to the front of the venue through dancers and light effects.

The Streets were excellent. Mike Skinner was on top form, he engaged the audience from the start. At one point he gave away his iPhone and some headphones. That's the kind of souvenir you want to come away from a gig with!

There was a mix of old and new songs... but my night was made when he sang "blinded by the light" during the encore.

There is a line in a streets song that goes something like this: "Ra, ra, ra, it's all back to the Dogstar and if it's his round I'm quite partial to another Marlon at the bar" and after the gig we made our way to the Dogstar. This seemed like a good idea at the time. The Dogstar hasn't won any awards for real ale either... in fact there were no ales of any sort in there, so I drank Kopparburg Pear. This also seemed like a good idea at the time.

Although it was around midnight the place was just warming up. The DJ was mixing tunes in the same way that gears are mixed in a car with no clutch. We forgave him because we were drunk and they were good tunes. I was now so drunk that dancing in a pub seemed like a good idea too. There was a couple dry humping on a raised stage area. It was that kind of pub.

I'm not sure what time the pub closes, but at about 02:00 or 02:30 we decided that home might be the way to head. JT lives next door to a 24hour garage so I purchased a couple of pasties there and ate them watching an episode of "The Take."

JT washed my shirt as I didn't have another with me and it had been covered in beer at the gig.

It was really quite late by the time I got to bed – a bed which had been kindly donated by JT's absent flat mate (perhaps not kindly at all as he might not be aware I stole his bed for the evening!).

This morning, after far too little sleep I headed into work from Clapham. It's surprising how difficult it is to get to the financial district from there. It took about as long as it takes me to get from home – but the distance is about a quarter!

That might have been the end to this little story - but there is an interesting sting in the tale... today I was dragged from "retirement" to play a five-a-side football match with my work colleagues: "The old'uns vs the young'uns" This is a semi-regular event where the under 30's challenge the over 30's and generally get whooped. Today was no exception... but playing football after last night was a bit touch and go. I did manage to keep the contents of my stomach where they belong and after the game (and a nice cool shower) I felt a lot better.

Tags: drink, gig, music
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : drunk
Hearing : Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode

A couple months ago I was chatting via email with an ex-employee of Bank-I-Work-At (BIWA). We were bemoaning the fact that no-one ever organises nights out... so I organised a night out. I picked last Thursday because it should be a quiet time of the month/year... but nothing ever goes quite to plan.

Even though my timing clashed with a "happy hour" (with free beer) at BIWA, and getting the consolidated statutory accounts ready there were a lot of people who turned up to the pub. I got to catch up with my namesake and found out that he's also going to see The Streets. A damn good night all round really.

Edit to add
There are nights when you really need to chat (and these seem to be more likely after a beer!)... and Thursday was one of those nights. Luckily (for who I'm not entirely sure?!) Misty is 5 hours behind so we had a nice long chat about the state of the world. We also worked out some details about my trip there this autumn.
/Edit

Friday was busy and it didn't help that I was still a little delicate from the previous evening! I was Good™ and went straight home from work and got an early night.

Saturday I cleared some of the living room. All my DVDs and some of the CDs are now boxed/crated.

Saturday evening Leon, Sis and I went to The Albert for some karaoke goodness. It was Leon's last free Saturday before he heads off to Sweden so we made it a Leon tribute night. Pete announced to the pub that Leon was a Thai lady-boy bride and would be heading off to Thailand so it is perhaps just as well this will be his last visit there. I was bullied convinced to sing Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. I am not sure I was any good - but Sis has tried to convince me it was okay.

Sis was on top form. The three girls who sit in "our" seats shall forever more be known as "weight watchers" from now on. She also sang beautifully as she always does.

Leon was in "danger" mode... after Pete's announcement it didn't seem to matter what Leon did - there's only so much embarrassment to be had! He sang a bunch of songs he'd never tried before.

Leon and I left the pub in the small hours. Not only could I not walk past the dodgy burger van at Romford station; I went back for second helpings! This was severely regretted on Sunday morning when I thought one of my cats had snuck into my bedroom during the night and crapped in my mouth.

My stupidity didn't stop at gastronomic suicide - when we finally got home (about 02:00ish) I had a pressing need to play Guitar Hero. After a couple of failed attempts on the hard level, I progressed my bassist's career on Medium until 04:30ish. Daylight was already streaming through the gap in the curtains when I crawled up the stairs and into bed.

Sunday I went to the parental abode for Dinner. Dad and I caught the last part of the Grand Prix and after dinner we started series three of West Wing.

There was not, at any time during those 4 days, any Wowing done. This is perhaps as shocking, if not more, to me as it is to you.

Tags: drink, karaoke
Current Location: EC2Y 9AQ
Feeling : drained
Hearing : Edo - Midge Ure

It's been a while since I have written anything. It's the classic conundrum: when I have something to write about I'm too busy to write, and when I have time to write it's because I have nothing to talk about.

Work is crazy busy as usual. I have more work to do in the next couple days than a team of 5 could complete. As time is pressing this entry will be in the form of bullet points... and will travel backwards in time.

This morning I got up late for the third day on the trot.
Last night I kept myself awake coughing half the night for the third night on the trot. This is no coincidence.

Last night I 5-starred a tricky Queen song on Guitar Hero - Metallica.

Just before that I finally got my PC to log into WoW for the first time in about 4 days. It now runs like a dream.

Yesterday evening on the way home from work the left ear of my headphones stopped working. I thought I had gone half deaf. There is no sign of a break, the sound just stopped. This sucks as they were a nice set of 'phones and cost me about £50.

Yesterday morning I kicked off the final restore for my PC.

Monday evening Leon and I tried out the seven new Wii games he got on eBay. The best of the bunch (in my opinion of course) was Mario Strikers Charged Football. Due (in no small part) to some beginners luck I whooped Leon's arse.

Shortly before that I started the install of Windows on my PC.

Monday at work was insane... there was a lot to catch up on. I was in the office for 12 hours.

Monday morning I kicked off the format of my new 1.5TB "drive." It took over 10 minutes to get to 1%

Sunday evening I installed two new drives in my PC. They would not appear in Windows and it was getting late and my head was still a little fuzzy from my cold and hangover from the morning. I discovered I had a hardware RAID controller! I switch this on... and my current hard disk was wiped. New rule - never do anything technical after 22:00.

Finished watching the second season of West wing at my Parents after Sunday dinner.

Woke up late on Sunday with the worse hangover.

I got home Sunday morning at about 04:00

We got back to Shelly’s at 02:00ish – this is a guess because memory is not serving me too well … I do remember I ate a lot of toast.

Attended an "80's Disco" night in aid of The Bobby Moore Fund.

Arrived at Shelly’s house at about 17:30 (with no small amount of trepidation) where I met up with a number of people I went to school with and haven’t seen since! Some of these people I remember well... while others I have no recollection of at all. We all piled into a mini bus and headed "sarf of the river" to Welling in Kent.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling a little better, but by no means well. On any scale it would have been very firmly in the "like crap" zone.

Wednesday to Friday last week I was off work with a cold/swine flu/man flu. I spent a lot of time watching TV (I saw all 22 episodes of the second series of Andromeda. I fell in love with Alexandra Doig. From IMDB: "In her spare time, Lexa enjoys reading, roller-blading and playing RPG video games, "Dungeons and Dragons" being her favorite." Could be my perfect woman were it not for the husband and two children. Ahh well.

Feeling : quixotic
Hearing : Cars - Gary numan