who will buy?

Most people hate shopping but I quite like it. However, I prefer the Sainsbury's experience to, say, the Morrisons/ASDA experience. There's a much lower pov count at Sainsburys and they don't put slug pellets next to the yoghurt.

I have a tendency to lapse into holiday mode though when I'm at Sainsbury's and buy all sorts of nice crap that we don't need. Usually these are things like Green & Black's entire product range, tarte au citron, nice melons and wine. However, I've decided I'm on the wagon for a bit so didn't buy any wine. I also resisted buying a CD, but that was because nothing piqued my interest in the slightest. Green & Black's made their presence felt though with multiple bars of chocolate, ice cream and choccy spread hitting the basket.

Shopping's a bit daft though isn't it. You put stuff in your trolley, you take it out of your trolley, you pay, you put it back in your trolley, you take it back out of your trolley and out it in your car, you leave, you take stuff out of your car and you put it away. Internet shopping I hear you say. Fine, but they do weird product swaps when they haven't got the item you ordered. Y'know like 'we've no jalapeno peppers so we sent you some Right Guard instead'. The supermarket that sends someone home with you to unpack all your stuff and put it away will win the war.

diversion

not in my airforce

A number of important things on my mind today. Firstly, surely Stacey 'Fergie' Ferguson should leave the idiot and otherwise talent-free Black Eyed Peas (will.i.am... purlease) for a solo career as she is obviously a Madonna for the Noughties. Secondly, ex-Town loan-star Leon Knight's penalty for Brighton yesterday must be a good omen for Huddersfield in today's play-off final. Thirdly, what happens if someone wants to play pool at Blackpool Cricket Club and they find that there's a massive telly on the table? Fourthly, it's something of a concern that Robert Pollard has taken it upon himself to wind up the thirty year franchise that is Guided By Voices without consulting me.

i went to see the bright lights last night

beeswinging. 

The Bridgewater Hall is a bit like the QE2 turned inside out. Also, it's nice to see an artist who turns up on time. A little respect for his employer. 8.30 on the button RT strolled on and he was everything he should have been. Cool, strong, witty and absolutely on top of his craft. Beeswing, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, Withered and Died, I Feel So Good, they kept coming. His encore style was good too. Went off to applause. Stood stage side for about a minute. Came back on.

Most bands disappear to

a) smoke a fag
b) ingest alcohol/narcotics
c) fondle groupies
d) have a wee

before returning to the stage and a falsely hyped up audience forgetting to stamp their feet and shout 'More'. Not Thompson though.

I once saw New Order at Tiffanies in Leeds. They came back to do Blue Monday after forty minutes!! Mind you, at that time, they rarely came back on at all, so the cleaners and three remaining drunks were honoured. How does it feel?

Worse, I saw the Cocteau Twins at Leeds Uni who kept an already comatose audience (they'd just stood through Dif Juz) waiting for almost two hours before they deigned to appear. Even then Liz Fraser irritatingly introduced EVERY song with 'this one's for Ivo'. They just weren't pretentious enough for me.

By the way, why does somebody always do the Wigan Walk at gigs. Thompson walked off leaving his guitar, obviously planning to return to the stage for more and some nerdy bloke in a cardigan gets up and leaves having paid good money for a ticket. I used to think people had to get the last bus and were leaving somewhat crestfallen that they'd made the decision to sleep in their own bed rather than walk 18 miles to Darwen in the pissing rain out of respect for their favourite artist. This, however, was no student crowd. Everyone in the place was well turned out and with a Volkswagen Passat tucked into the GMex carpark ready to take them home in comfort to the sound of aircon humming and Shoot Out The Lights. So where was this guy going? Maybe he hadn't enjoyed the show. Certainly he missed Thompson doing a note perfect cover of The Who's Substitute on a whim. Maybe he thought he was going to see Richard Digance. Or Richard Dimbleby. Or Emma Thompson.

hokey pokey dokey

He said 'So what time shall we pick you up to go to Manchester?'. I said '6:15 in Holmfirth'. He said 'Are we going over the tops?'. I said 'Nah. I mean I'm excited and all but they're only tickets for the stalls'.

the other side of summer

I could be wrong this feels like summer. The sound of leather on willow at the weekend. A jaunty treasure hunt round the village in the evening. Chelsea on the telly. Play-offs coming up. Wimbledon round the corner. Also, I slept not a wink due to having a somewhat demented nurse stabbing me viciously in both arms yesterday with all manner of tropical diseases in miniature. Not only was I reeling due to the nanobot style fevers racing around my brain but I couldn't turn over at all due to my swollen arms. I felt like Fatima Whitbread. Not a peep out of the kids after thir jabs, mind. It must be my age.

Anyway, the treasure hunt went quite well. A tootle round the village and through a load of fields. We were told it was buggy friendly by someone who's obviously never had to heft one over a five foot stile with a sleeping infant on board and then chug it through three acres of oil seed rape along the ruttiest of tracks. Still, we made the most of it, counting windows, reading numbers off grids, collecting feathers and syringes etc. We had to find out the number of a busroute from a particular bus-stop. The bus-stop had however been shunted about a hundred yards down the road since the quiz was set due to a boy racer in a Vauxhall Nova levelling it and his car last week. Had it not been for the weight of the sub-woofer in the boot, they say he might have gone into orbit.

roll the credits, pass the beernuts

Anyway, I called the local UCI cinema earlier and asked for two tickets for The Day After Tomorrow. The girl said 'Yes, which film would you like to see?'. I said 'The Day After Tomorrow', she said 'That's fine but which film?'. I said 'I'll wait for it to come out on DVD'. Perhaps as well... can't line up a babysitter anyway.

It's like a racetrack outside our house. Especially in the summer. Young lads in their baseball caps and sub-woofered Vauxhall Nova's come scooting through the village, see the straight run and go for it. When there's no cricket on we like to watch them spnning out of control at the end of the road. Lost count how many times that dry stone wall's been rebuilt.

How come it's impossible to spend less than £100 at B&Q? I end up there about once a month on average. This is usually because I need some trivial item (a fuse, three cup hooks, some WD-40) that I've probably already got but can't be bothered to look for. These items are usually less than a fiver, so why does my receipt always end up with £100 on it. It must be great to work in Sales & Marketing at B&Q. I wonder if they wear orange dungarees at Head Office?

Alcohol is not my friend. I can diet really well. Lot's of focus. Lose weight pretty quickly. Can't eat anything I like. Drink like a fish instead. Move from softcore beer onto Class A whisky. Can't function the next day. So... slightly thinner, stronger heart, rotten liver. Excellent.

near and far

Jabs and pills today ahead of a trip to Mauritius in July. Can't wait for my first dip below the equator. Food, books, swimming, scuba, chillout will be the order of the day.

Tomorrow brings Richard Thompson to town. Not seen him before and really looking forward to the show. Which reminds me about some sad news I came across in Mojo the other day about Fairport Convention and the uncertainty regarding the future of the Cropredy Festival as a result of Dave and Chris Pegg's impending divorce. Quite sad.

on the go

For no apparent reason here's my iPod's current on the go playlist:

Kylie vs The White Stripes - The Hardest Button Too Slow
OP:L Bastards - Scorpius
oh susanna - Carrie Lee
Paddy McAloon - I Trawl The Megahertz
Cocteau Twins - Pepper Tree
Chicks On Speed - Wordy Rappinghood
Picasio - Rising Up Craig David
British Sea Power - A Wooden Horse
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Pushkin
Boards of Canada - Sunshine Recorder
New Order - As It Is When It Was
Pizzicato Five - Go Go Dancer
Quando Quango - Genius
Richard Thompson - Oops I Did It Again
Bob Mould - Eternally Fried

balls

Chelsea has been really great this year. Midway through watching K19 - The Widowmaker. It's, erm, OK so far.

Thinking seriously about this.

transition

Got to get use to predictive text if i an seriously going to blog on the move. Ripping thru the early summer countryside today, its all rape seed yellow and the newest of greens. I have whizzed thru wired and mojo, reordered my work thoughts, listened to the keane album again, moved onto gbv. L8r.

diversion

.

the sound of two cities

Some days it's definitely easier to get focused and motivated than others. Some of this is driven by what's on your to-do list list at any given time. It also depends what day of the week it is too and Monday's a tougher than most, especially after a chilled weekend.

Spent a little time yesterday tidying up links and adding some books and cds which are currently on my list. These will obviously rotate.

Check out Top Gear. The site is a little starchy compared with the TV show which makes excellent viewing even for those who have only a passing interest in cars. I just like how they rail against speed cameras.

God's jukebox has re-emerged in the UK now. It seems so grown up. Even charity gets a look in. An interesting idea.

This looks almost as much fun as toothing.

stanhope

Lovely surroundings. nice meals, poor pub lunches, average service.

wings

On the fly atm so will add linkage later but how good is the keane album!

lips that would kiss

safety

Lots of really cool photoblogs around right now. Here's a few worth perusing:

The Daily Snap
The Narrative
Shutter Release
What The Hell Happened Last Night?
A Visual Notebook
Your Waitress Photos
Art Nudes
Super Sexies
Indie Nudes
The Weeping Muse

Finally, this is Tim Flach's commercial site rather than a blog but it has some amazing images like these:

diversion

.

pudding therapy

Couldn't bear to watch MUFC do this so sidled off to 'create' for evening guests.

Brie with Cranberry and Burgundy jelly on toasted baguette with sprinkling of hazelnuts. Beef and Guinness with mash and vegetables served in courgette hoops. Sticky Toffee Pudding (Jane Grigson's recipe... better than Cartmel!!) Of course, too much wine and whisky... but probably a success on the whole.

A beautiful day today. May go here. Will buy this. Sonic Youth are back.

I wish I'd made this.

Enjoy Sunday.

it's all around you

There's some pretty good writing here and the review of the latest tortoise which is hiding behind the cover is just about on the money.

The sun rose in a weird place today. Not really but I was up way early and hadn't seen it rise in a little while. The year whizzes by I suppose and there's a never ending todo list in front of me.

A good site with some fun mash-up.

security

After a brief privacy freakout and some rapid rerouting, re-engineering and redesign the secret knowledge of backroads emerges.