Sleeping Like A Blog

01:16 pm - Bizarre

There are scantily-clad belly dancers entertaining the masses whilst they eat their lunch outside my office (just north of the Euston Road by UCH). They look like they're freezing, but they certainly brightened up my day.

Also, I thought my sleb-spot of Cassie from 'Skins' yesterday was impressive, but it's not a patch on my good friend Jonny, who sat next to Geoffrey from 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' on the Victoria Line yesterday. Awesome!

San Diego Chargers' star running back, LaDainian Tomlinson has asked fans to make him their first choice in Fantasy League for the coming season. This reminds me of Alessandro Del Piero's joyous reaction at hearing the news that Panini had included him in the Italy squad in their Euro 2008 sticker album before the official squad had been announced (and when his selection was still in some doubt). He was subsequently picked for the squad. LT will be appearing at Wembley later this year in the NFL International Series game between his Chargers and the New Orleans Saints (a game which I am attending).

T(ruck) minus 23 hours and counting. An excellent preview is now online at Drowned In Sound.

02:50 pm - That Middle East prisoner swap...

Yesterday, Israel freed Samir Kuntar as part of a "hostage trade". Kuntar is one of the most evil of all the prisoners that were held by Israel (and had been in prison longer than any other prisoner in Israel's jails), and his release has been a massively controversial issue, with groups in Israeli society calling for Primer Minister Olmert to resign over this matter.

In 1979, Kuntar was part of a group of Palestinian terrorists who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat. His group killed a police officer who discovered them, and then broke into an apartment and took the father and 4 year old daughter of a family hostage. During a shootout with police on the beach, Kuntar shot the father in the back (in front of his 4 year old daughter) and then drowned him to make sure he was dead. Then he smashed the child's head into the rocks on the beach and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle. He was given 4 consecutive life sentences.

So what exactly was so important about this prisoner trade that meant that Israel felt they could release this vile man? Well, in return for freeing Kuntar, plus four other "militants", and handing over the remains of 199 Lebanese killed during battles with the Israeli Army in 2006, Israel received.... the remains of two soldiers. This kind of inequality in prisoner swaps is not new to Israelis:
- 2004: Israel and Hezbollah exchange an Israeli civilian and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers for 436 Arab prisoners and the bodies of 59 Lebanese fighters.
- 1996: Israel frees 65 Lebanese prisoners for the bodies of two soldiers captured in fighting in Lebanon.
- 1991: Israel trades 51 Lebanese prisoners for proof that one of its soldiers held in Lebanon is dead.
- 1985: Israel releases 1,150 Arab prisoners, almost all of them Palestinians, in return for three soldiers captured by Lebanese guerrillas in 1982.
- 1983: Israel swaps 4,600 Palestinian and Lebanese captives for six Israeli soldiers abducted Sept. 4, 1982 from their forward post in Lebanon. Most of the Arab prisoners had been rounded up during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

In total, Israel has handed over 7,000+ prisoners in return for less than 20 of its own citizens and some dead bodies. The importance of returning the remains of dead soldiers is significant in Jewish law (so that they can have a proper Jewish burial), and the Palestinians can use this knowledge as a bargaining chip. In addition, the Israeli government and Army wants to show that it cares about its soldiers, even after they are known to have been killed in battle.

The biggest problem with this latest swap is its impact on the fate of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli solider captured by Hamas in June 2006(during the rescue operation for the same two soldiers whose bodies were yesterday returned). It is known that Shalit is still alive (Hamas recently allowed him to send a letter to his family). But the "price" that Hamas will charge for his release has just gone way up. If it was 5 living and 200 dead Palestinians for 2 dead Israelis, what will Olmert's government have to offer to free a living Israeli soldier? As Jewlicious commented "Israel’s government cannot, in good faith, tell his family or the Israeli public that a living soldier isn’t worth much more than two dead ones. They also will be hard-pressed to make the argument that they can’t release terrorists with “blood on their hands” in exchange for him when they’ve released Kuntar for the dead Goldwasser and Regev."

What's my point? I don't really know. I guess sadness at the fact that Israel is today mourning two more dead soldiers, and disgust that one of the most vicious murderers of all time has been freed. Yet Israel doesn't really have any options left. The international community is perfectly willing to turn a blind eye to the illegal actions of Hamas and Hezbollah because... oh, yeah, because they're oppressed. The notion of Israel defending its borders against neighbours who have a clearly defined objective to wipe out its entire population doesn't even factor into the equation.

On my recent holiday to Israel, I ended up going white water rafting in the far North of the country, right next to the Golan Heights. It seems that for any progress to be made in the peace discussions, Israel will have to hand this land over to Lebanon and Syria. Yet even an idiot could see how dangerous a risk this might be for Israel. In possession of the Golan, its enemies would have the perfect base from which to launch attacks into the country. But of course, Israel is the villain in this piece (as usual). I think it's time the international community stopped taking such a blinkered view of the Middle East situation.

02:50 pm - Stuff

Saw Hannah Murray
a.k.a. Cassie from Skins
near Goodge Street station

Had a minor household emergency last night. When I got home from work, I discovered that the power to the boiler, washing machine, tumble dryer, and most worryingly, the fridge/freezer had gone. After much fiddling around with fuses and plugs and suchlike, flatmate and myself decided that it was nothing that we could fix ourselves. The electrician came this morning, and apparently all of the wiring had burnt out (but hidden away so that we couldn't have possibly known where to find it last night). Anyways, it's fixed now and I can have a hot shower tonight. And in the meantime, props to daniel_hill for his quick thinking - we plugged the fridge/freezer into a different socket using an extension cord and hopefully saved all the food from RUIN.

Mairead (who some of you may remember from past Glastonburys) was back in London this week from Manila where she is working as a teacher. I went for lunch with her, and after hearing about her cushy life out there (her slave maid does all the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and shopping), I was left with a strong sense of jealousy.

Last night, I watched the new Futurama film, The Beast With A Billion Backs. Typically brilliant stuff from the man who can do no wrong, Matt Groening.

The Emmy nominations have just been announced, and my favourite TV show of 2007/8, 30 Rock has received 17 nominations, the most of any show. Good for you, Tina Fey, and keep up the good work!

I now officially have the largest carbon footprint of anyone I know (and I'm not proud of it). The last month (15th June - 16th July) has seen me clock up 8,350 miles (roughly equivalent to a return trip to Delhi), three return flights and two return Eurostar journeys. I wish some of this travel had been avoidable, but apart from my holiday to Israel, they were all necessary work trips. I have no further work trips planned for the foreseeable future, and long may it stay that way. Work travel is not as glamorous as it seems, and it's incredibly tiring.
15th June: London - Tel Aviv (2,200 miles)
22nd June: Tel Aviv - London (2,200 miles)
30th June: London - Madrid (780 miles)
1st July: Madrid - London (780 miles)
7th July: London - Brussels (200 miles)
7th July: Brussels - London (200 miles)
8th July: London - Madrid (780 miles)
10th July: Madrid - London (780 miles)
16th July: London - Paris (215 miles)
16th July: Paris - London (215 miles)

Oh, one link for you people, the ever-genius Speak You're Branes has done a Dr Who special.

It's Truck this weekend. I am super-excited. Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

11:33 am - Episode IV - A New Hope

Morning y'all.

Justice then. Top show. Genuinely superb performance. It poured with rain throughout, but the umbrellas all vanished once the French superstar DJs appeared on stage. No surprises with the set - 'D.A.N.C.E', 'DVNO', 'We Are Your Friends', 'Waters Of Nazareth', 'Stress', and so on. The fact of the matter is that they throw a great party, although I do agree with Peter Paphides in The Times that the show would have benefitted from some visuals. daniel_hill was on hand to record the moment for posterity - this video is seriously great.



Worst part of the evening was getting absolutely drenched by a bus (going too fast and too close to the kerb) on the way to the gig. Totally soaked through. The driver is a tosser. I almost got the numberplate to report him, but frankly, I can't face the bureacracy I'd have to endure in order to make a complaint.

Elsewhere, this weekend was spent playing 'Rock Band', sleeping, eating, working and cleaning. Not the most interesting one then, although fairly productive. Music-wise, my weekend was soundtracked by two fine female solo albums from unlikely sources - the Scarlett Johannsson album of Tom Waits covers, which is really growing on me, and the new Carla Bruni album.

What else? Oh, well I finished collecting the Panini Euro 2008 stickers - the last one I needed arrived in the post from some dude in South London on Saturday.

I haven't got that many gigs coming up (apart from festivals), but there are several that I am considering - I just need to find people to go with to each of these:

Friendly Fires - Soho Revue Bar, 24th July
Oi Va Voi - Western Marble Arch Synagogue, 4th September
Bon Iver - Shepherds Bush, 11th September
Last Shadow Puppets - Hammersmith Apollo, 26th October

Anyone?

02:59 pm - VERY LAST MINUTE TICKET ALERT

Due to a last minute drop-out, I have a spare ticket for everyone's favourite French DJs who aren't Daft Punk, JUSTICE, TONIGHT at SOMERSET HOUSE with support from Late Of The Pier. The ticket is all already paid for. Who wants it?

PS - If you would need to travel from outside London in order to be able to attend, I do have a spare bed in my flat if you would need somewhere to crash.

Ticket now taken.

10:13 am

Spotted, Steve Carrell
On the Madrid red carpet
Plugging his new film

I'm totally in a daze. This week has been one of the most tiring of my life - the whole Brussels-London-Madrid-London thing has really knocked the wind out of my sails. The fact that I've not been sleeping well recently hasn't helped. But it has got pretty serious now, to the point where I woke up this morning and wasn't sure a) what day it was and b) which country I was in.

On the plus side, TGI FRIDAY! And it's Justice at Somerset House tonight, with support from Late Of The Pier. And then I can spend the rest of the weekend sleeping (and working, but I prefer not to think about that).

Madrid was pretty cool. I had the best lunch of my life - a 3 hour epic with the guy I was meeting with out there, featuring two beers, an entire bottle of tasty red wine, a G&T and a shot of something fluorescent green to finish up. Oh, and food as well. It wasn't a completely liquid lunch!

Must. Sleep.

Current Mood: shattered

01:46 pm - Hello Tuesday

A quickie, as I need to finish my work before my cab comes in an hour to take me to Paddington to catch the Heathrow Express. Off to Madrid again this evening until Thursday night. One of those instances where a video conference just isn't possible (I explored the idea, but it just wasn't logical given the work we need to achieve), carbon footprint ahoy.

Working backwards, yesterday I was in Brussels. Cor, it's a bit grotty, isn't it? I mean, I wasn't in the nice bits of the city, but just taking the trams and tubes to get around, I could see how filthy it was. It smells funny too. Sorry if there are any Brussels natives on my flist, but it's one of the least appealing capital cities I've ever visited. My Eurostar journey back was also one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. The train was heaving, full of muddy, smelly fans on their way back to England from Rock Werchter (headlined by REM and Radiohead). I know I've been to Glastonbury and been that smelly and muddy before, but I didn't travel back on public transport with regular commuters - I shared transport back with other muddy, smelly people. And SRSLY dudes, if you must smell that bad, please don't take your shoes off on the train. I felt physically sick for about half the journey.

Sunday - watched the Wimbledon Final on the Beeb (see previous post). Cracking game, truly outstanding entertainment, the best game of tennis I've ever seen, and really happy about the outcome (I've never liked Federer - too workmanlike, no flamboyance). Then caught up on the penultimate and final episodes of Doctor Who, both of which were very entertaining. Ending was a little soppy, but some of the writing was simply superb.

I also did a lot of baking this weekend. I made apricot flapjacks AND all-butter cookies AND a fruit loaf. Go me!

Saturday night was Weng Wah's in Belsize Park for Chinese food and karaoke for Sam's birthday. Very amusing evening. I sang a duet with my friend Efrat on Shaggy's 'Mr. Boombastic'. It's much harder to sing than you'd expect, mainly because Shaggy doesn't actually appear to pause for breath during the entire song. Sadly I missed Poptimism.

Three days into the 2008 World Series of Poker, and a lot of the big names (including our very own terrencechan) are already packing their bags. This year, the Final Table won't take place until November, when it will undoubtedly become one of the big televised sporting events of the year.

Just one link today, to a story about Notts County footballer, Neil MacKenzie, who has won five times in a row on Countdown. He's the first footballer ever to appear on the show. Unsurprising, that - most footballers are as thick as two short planks.

Friday night is Justice at Somerset House. Support comes from Late Of The Pier. I've heard people on LJ talking about them, so I'm intrigued to check them out for myself. I expect it will probably rain. But I won't care.

09:05 pm

I'm no expert when it comes to tennis history, but surely this is the greatest men's Wimbledon Final of all time? I'm riveted. It keeps swinging one way, then the other.

Come on Rafa!!

10:45 am - It's taken me a week to type up, but it's finally complete

( One post, three weeks, three gigs, two stag weekends, one holiday )

( And if you couldn't be bothered to read all that, here are the photos. )

10:53 am

Still working on that proper update (tomorrow, I promise). But I had to update now, just to say:

http://www.jasonlytle.com

Thankyew, that is all.

Current Mood: happy

11:53 am - I ain't steppin' outta s**t, all my papers legit

I'm still typing up my "what I've been doing in the last few weeks" post, and a last minute call to a meeting in Madrid tomorrow morning will only delay its publication further.

In the meanwhile, two key points to note:

1) A unanimous decision, it seems that Jay Z was crowned King at Glasto. That live show looked k-awesome, and I still have one spare ticket to see him in Hyde Park on Thursday (though it's not sold out yet if more than one of you wants to come). It's the O2 Wireless, also on the bill are Hot Chip, Mark Ronson (no doubt with various guests), Hercules & The Love Affair, Kano, Lethal Bizzle, Annie, Saul Williams, Red Snapper and Roisin Murphy. First to shout gets the ticket. Please come along. For one, I can't really afford to not sell the ticket, but more importantly, I won't enjoy the gig so much if I'm there on my own. I need your company!

2) Everyone seems to have an opinion on Westwood interviewing the Jigga, but unless you were still watching BBC2 at the end of The Verve's set (and fair play if you were, because any sane people would have turned off long before 'Bittersweet Symphony') you won't have seen my Glasto highlight.... Westwood "pimpin'" Michael Eavis' tractor. Really really funny, I hope it's available on iPlayer.

11:55 am - I just want you back for good

Back from Israel. Had a great time. Manically busy at work, so full update will have to wait until the weekend or next week.

Radiohead (with Bat For Lashes supporting) tonight in Hackney. Who else is going?

To save me trawling through 10 days' worth of LJ posts, I've constructed a simple poll for you to let me know about stuff I may have missed whilst I was away.

Poll #1210098 What did I miss then?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

What is the one, most important bit of news in your life over the past 10 days?

Tell me which other news story (not personal) I may have missed whilst I was away?

Give me a link to something I should check out when I have some free time

Obligatory ticky-box

01:49 pm - Turning you green with envy

O HAI LiveJournal.

I wasn't planning on updating whilst on my hols - I didn't want you to get jealous whilst you're stuck in your respective workplaces - but then I remembered all the times that I've been sitting in my office, reading updates from around the world. And with free internet access in my hotel, it's time for some payback. If you don't want to be jealous this afternoon, look away now.

I've spent the morning on the beach. If they have beaches in heaven, I'm sure they'll be something like the ones in Tel Aviv. Miles of golden sand, crystal clear water, and incredibly beautiful people. I came back to the hotel because, frankly, it's too hot to be on the beach at this time of day. I got a tiny bit sunburnt yesterday, despite caking myself in suntan lotion from head to toe. It must be around 36 degrees here today.

Luckily everything in Israel is air-conditioned. Including this hotel business centre.

Just ate my lunch by the pool. Those of you that know me well will know that I rarely fail to finish my meals. Especially when I only order a starter. But I've just failed to polish off a plate of hummus, salad, pita bread, fried meat cigars, spring rolls and samosas. It was enormous - easily a main course, or a starter to share. It cost me NIS7.50, or GBP1.20. Bargain. Generally though, prices here are pretty high, approaching London standards. Dinner last night cost about 25 quid, and a beer costs about 3 quid in most bars and pubs.

Anyway, must get back to my sunbed, enjoy the office mwuhahahaha!

09:38 am - Friday The Thirteenth: Part 9

+ My lovely Romanian neighbours. Thanks to them, I have internet again (and no, not because I hacked their wireless). When my new hub was delivered by BT, there was no-one in my flat, so the postie dropped it off next door.

+ It's FRIDAY. And that means it's my last day of work before HOLIDAY. FTW.

- It's FRIDAY 13th. And that means everything is going to go wrong today. When I got on the bus this morning, I touched my Oyster card holder to the scanner. No beep. I opened the Oyster wallet. No Oyster card. Must have taken it out last night, not quite sure why. Had no change for the bus either, but the driver let me on for free, which was nice of him.

- The UK Patriots website was hacked. 4 years worth of messages, profile info and much much more has been deleted. The UK Patriots community is in mourning. I was about to hit 1,000 posts on the messageboards as well, so I'm double-gutted.

Overall, I'd say the positives outweigh the negatives. So I'm in a good mood. And because I'm in such a good mood, I figure I should do something I've never done before:
HANDS UP IF YOU'D LIKE ME TO SEND YOU A POSTCARD FROM MY HOLS


Image of a real actual London Underground sign from Bank Station

10:28 am - Please Welease Me, Congwatulations, The Gween Gween Gwass Of Home

I have had no interweb at home for a week now. The engineer who came round on Tuesday believes that my BT Home Hub is broken. After 6 months. Disgraceful. I suppose we will only know for definite when the new hub arrives today. Actually, it arrived yesterday, but no-one was in to sign for it. Fortunately, my flatmate is working an afternoon shift at work today, so he will be in when it arrives this morning. Which is very lucky, as the Home Delivery Network (whom BT use for their parcel deliveries) will not re-route items unless the new address is in the same delivery area as the original address. Morons. I must get my complaint letter in the post to BT today or tomorrow!

No internet meant no LJ updates. So, very briefly:
Thursday - went to see 'QI' being filmed. It was the Children In Need special (to air in November), starring Alan Davies and Ronni Ancona on one team, with David Mitchell and Pudsey Bear on the other. After a few minutes, Pudsey got up from his seat and was replaced by.... SIR TERRY WOGAN. Who, I must add, was very very funny. The comic interplay between Wogan and Stephen Fry was delightful.
Friday - nothing special... flatmate cooked dinner for myself, his girlfriend, and daniel_hill. Oh, I did go and buy the Cassetteboy album. Haven't listened to it all yet, but I laughed myself silly at Track 73, which is called 'Chris Moyles Is A Paedophile'.
Saturday - Foo Fighters at Wembley. Thankfully, despite the forecasts, the weather was good, and so unlike the Muse concert last year, we didn't get drenched. The gig was fantastic - no need for a proper review as it has been covered extensively in the mainstream press. I will get around to uploading my photos and videos after my holiday. The higlight was an unbelievably spine-tingly moment, as 86,000 people sang along to 'My Hero'. And obvs, the appearance of 50% of Led Zep for the encore made my day. Setlist was perfect (with the exception of 'Generator', they played pretty much the entirety of their singles releases): The Pretender, Times Like These, No Way Back, Cheer Up Boys, Learn To Fly, This Is A Call, Long Road To Ruin, Breakout, Stacked Actors, Skin & Bones, Big Me, Marigold, My Hero, Cold Day In The Sun, Everlong, Monkey Wrench. Encore: Rock'n'Roll, Ramble On (both featuring Jimmy Page & John-Paul Jones), Best Of You.
Sunday - went for lunch in Baker Street with Uni friends, made a frozen chocolate cheesecake, start of the Jewish festival of Shavuot.
Monday & Tuesday - not a lot. Jewish festival with no internet meant that I basically spent the two days sleeping, eating and seeing family.
Wednesday - back to work. Had 500 RSS items to read, 150 LJ posts, 100+ emails, 5 voicemails... spent most of the day catching up. Without internet access, my life gets very messy very quickly.

Gig news 1: M.I.A has cancelled her UK tour, citing exhaustion. She's difficult, that one. She didn't show up at Glasto last year, and as a result, the only previous time I've seen her live was in December, at the Coronet in Elephunk & Castle, when I was extremely drunk from my office Xmas lunch earlier that day. I don't really remember much about that gig. As a result, I was quite excited to see her playing my favourite venue, The Roundhouse. Thwarted again.

Gig news 2: Sunday 27th July is the Ben & Jerry's Summer Sundae on Clapham Common. The lineup looks pretty decent - Ash, The Lemonheads, Slow Club, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, Cage The Elephant, Parka and The New York Fund. Tickets are a very reasonable £12.25 each (including booking fees). Anyone interested? There will be free ice cream as well, if you need any more convincing!

This weekend, I have a stag on Saturday, and then a BBQ on Sunday lunchtime, before I jet off on my holidays to Israel on Sunday night. Monday morning, by the time you all arrive in your offices, I'll be sitting on the beach in 31° heat.

A few links:
- I'm not sure quite what the relevance is, but as part of their Euro 2008 coverage, The Graniaud interviewed 90s Europop sensation, Haddaway.
- I'll be away, but I know there are plenty of British Sea Power fans on my flist - well, they are playing a free gig next Saturday at the Natural History Museum. Should be spectacular.
- Britney gets a cameo in new PCD video.
- Most bizarre news story of the year: Wu Tang Clan launch online chess game!

Meme time: mrs_leroy_brown asked me to talk about five songs with titles beginning with the letter 'C'.

( C & C Music Factory )

02:57 pm - Foo wot?

I've now been living in my flat for exactly 6 months. My, how time flies when you're having fun.

Yesterday I went to Paris for a meeting. The Eurostar is still my favourite way of travelling. When I got back yesterday evening, I went to Wahaca in Covent Garden for a friend's birthday dinner. Someone from my year at school was working there, and seemed quite surprised when 5 of his school year all turned up together.

Tomorrow I'm going to see 'QI' being filmed. This is quite exciting. Saturday is the Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium with support from Supergrass and The Futureheads. This is very exciting. However my excitement has been slightly curtailed by a rumour that the standing areas on the pitch are being divided into four quarters, and that our tickets are only valid for the entrances shown. If true, this means that all of my friends are going to be scattered around the stadium, and not standing together. RUB.

I've linked to Fitzy videos before (he's the guy who provides NSFW opinions on Boston's sports teams, the Pats, Red Sox, Bruins and Revolution). But his latest video has nothing at all do with sport. It's about men going to see the Sex And The City movie, and it's blimming hysterical. NSFW unless you're wearing headphones.



Cassetteboy has a new album out. WANT! WANT!

11:42 am

I am in a much better mood today. This is because:

1) I went to the PUB last night after werk, and swapped football stickers with carsmilesteve and awesomewells. Also in attendance: braisedbywolves, kittyhewitt (aka Mrs. Carsmile), fugitivemotel (with girlfriend WINOLJ sleeperesque) and mrs_leroy_brown. Good choice of pub. Tasty beer. The cure for all of life's woes.

2) When I got home from said pubbing, my friends Alex and Dan came round, and together with flatmate Isaac, we christened Alex's brand new copy of 'Rock Band'. I'm not a huge 'Guitar Hero' fan but 'Rock Band' is sooooooooooooooo much more enjoyable. We formed a band, and although we alternated the instruments, it was mostly Dan on drums, Alex on lead guitar, Isaac on bass, and for no good reason whatsoever, tone-deaf Ben on vocals. We did a couple of beginners' songs, and then went out on a London tour, playing a 6-song set. Over the course of the evening, we played the following songs:
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
Weezer - Say It Ain't So
The Police - Next To You
Deep Purple - Highway Star
The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills
Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid
Nirvana - In Bloom
I definitely played bass on 'In Bloom'. My favourite song to sing was 'Won't Get Fooled Again', especially as it has LOADS of tambourine (which is the respoinsibility of the singer, played by tapping the top of the mic). But woo for technology! I'm in a band. And we rock*.

3) It's Friday. And we all know what that means**.

4) We're having people over for dinner tonight. My former flatmate (previously bad-mouthed, but now bridges rebuilt by her finding my new flatmate), my sister, Isaac's friend, and his former flatmate are all coming over. He's doing most of the cooking, but I'll be doing the ROAST POTATOES. Ace.

5) The new Portishead album (my prize for winning a quiz on Xfm on my birthday, cleverly titled "Portishead versus Port Vale") turned up in the post today.

6) Despite my computer crashing, and thus my being unable to get online to buy tickets, I will be going to the NFL game at Wembley again this year, courtesy of daniel_hill's brother.

7) REPEAT PIMPAGE here. Go here and vote for Spain. I need a big win to have any hope of progressing to the Quarter Finals of Europop 2008.


Some links:
- I may have posted about this a while back, but the New York Giants' Superbowl winners rings are being made by Tiffany. Valued at $25,000 a piece, they totally BLING
- As pointed out by Mr. Carsmile last night, the posters for Massive Attack's Meltdown Festival make them look like Rio Ferdinand
- WANT! WANT! Touchscreen turntables? Anyone can play guitar be a DJ.
- New 'Spinal Tap' video emerges ahahaha!

Y'all take care of yourselves this weekend.

* Albeit, we were playing on Easy mode.
** It means that tomorrow is Saturday and yesterday was Thursday.

01:43 pm - Ugh

Ever get the feeling it's not your day?

1) I got into work this morning. And my laptop promptly died. IT took three hours to fix it. I twiddled my thumbs.

2) I burnt my hand AND spilt tomato sauce on my brand new tie at lunchtime.

3) Wycombe's most consistent player of the last two seasons (and my favourite player in the squad), our young right back Russell Martin has left the club to join Peterborough.

Roll on 5.30pm. I will be drowning my sorrows with a veritable flurry of LJers in the Old Red Lion on High Holborn. Come and join us.

Current Mood: oscar the grouchy

11:08 am - Things That Make Ben Happy

1) I received two albums from Play.com yesterday*. The new Dresden Dolls album, 'No, Virginia' is exactly what I would expect from one of my favourite bands ever. But I'm truly blown away by the sheer beauty of the Bon Iver album, 'For Emma, Forever Ago'. If you haven't heard it yet, I suggest you get yo ass down to an HMV or an Zavvi at lunchtime and try it on the listening post. It's luvverly.

2) I finally got around to watching my latest LoveFilm rental, 'The Beat That My Heart Skipped'. Very enjoyable French film. Basic plot - man has to choose between life of crime and life of concert pianist.

3) I'm going on holiday in 2 weeks and 4 days. WINNAR!

EDIT* Total PIMPAGE here. Go here and vote for Spain. I need a big win to have any hope of progressing to the Quarter Finals of Europop 2008.

* I also illegally downloaded three new albums - Pendulum's 'In Silico', The Futureheads' 'This Is Not The World' and Santogold's self-titled debut. Incidentally, one other album which I've recently obtained (and which I would strongly recommend) is the new Delays effort, 'Everything's The Rush'.

01:29 pm - 4 day week, la la laa, la la laa

If you were planning on drinking any alcohol in London this week, my sincere apologies, but I appear to have drunk it ALL this weekend, so you'll just have to wait for the pubs and bars to get new stock.

On Saturday night, I went to Las Iguanas on the South Bank for tasty South American food (OM NOM NOM) and lots of cachaca. On Sunday night, I was in the excellent Old Red Lion pub off Carnaby Street, and then at Zebrano's, for a charity party, and I consumed vast quantities of whisky. And then yesterday, I spent the entire afternoon in the Old White Lion pub next to East Finchley tube, for my friend Dan's birthday. Perhaps there's a trend developing here.... anyone for a drink in the Old Purple Lion this week? Oh, wait... I forgot about the alcohol shortages.

Aside from those activities, my Bank Holiday weekend was mostly spent in the flat, with Isaac, the new flatmate. He cooked up the most amazing cholent ever. Cholent is a traditional Jewish dish, mostly eaten in winter (but since the weather was so rubbish this weekend, it was quite appropriate). It's a (very)slow-cooked stew of Eastern European origins, and Isaac's one took 48 hours to cook, containing beef, chicken, beans and lentils, regular potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions and eggs in their shells. When the whole thing is cooked, the chef removes and peels the eggs, which by this stage have turned brown inside, and taste fantastic when seasoned with a tiny bit of salt and pepper. It's a very filling and satisfying meal. I'm understandably happy about living with such an excellent chef. We played a lot of Pro Evo this weekend, and a fair bit of Halo - I'm still no further with Grand Theft Auto sadly. I went for tea for my aunt's 40th birthday and completely avoided anything to do with football, particularly games being played at Wembley. Bitter, moi?

I also watched the Formula 1. I find I can never watch complete F1 races, but for some reason, Monte Carlo is so compelling that it's the one unmissable race each year. People in azureskies' F1 Fantasy League will have already heard my rant about Kimi Raikkonen, but for those that missed the race, the heartbreaking sporting story of the weekend was Adrian Sutil of Force India. In 4th place and on course to score the first points of his career, and the first points ever for the Force India team, he was taken out of the race just eight laps from the end by Raikkonen's over-eager driving. You can watch the whole incident here. Sutil looked inconsolable after the race. And understandable, in the circumstances.

I didn't watch Eurovision (I can't remember missing it for at least 10 years before now), but there's a great article on Freaky Trigger offering advice as to how the UK can avoid finishing last in future Eurovision Song Contests.

Plans for this week: 5-a-side tomorrow night, possible gotgotneed swap meet on Thursday, and other than that, not a lot. Oooh, the other exciting news of the weekend is that we bought tickets to see Dylan Moran at the Kentish Town Forum in November. To celebrate, I watched some 'Black Books'. Woo!

Other stuff:
- After the initial hype, it appears that interest in David Beckham's LA Galaxy career is waning. Which is a shame, because he's been in sensational form. He scored his 4th goal of the season this weekend, and it was strangely reminiscent of the goal with which he first made his name in English football as a 20 year old, for Manchester United against Wimbledon back in 1996.
- Slightly tongue-in-cheek view of the Wycombe "traitors"
- Plans to introduce mobile coverage on the tube have been quietly shelved. Whilst I think the tube would turn into a nightmare if everyone sat there chatting on their phones, I did find it very useful that I could get coverage whilst underground when I was living in Paris.
- Bonde Do Role are back, and playing Hoxton Bar & Grill on Thursday 31st July. I'm not sure if they'll be any good without Marina, but for £10, I figure it's worth checking them out again (as they were my favourite new band of last year). Anyone up for it?
- YouTomb is a very clever website designed by MIT students, which tracks popular videos that have been removed from YouTube for violating the terms of the YouTube user agreement. If you look at the stats page, you can see that TV Tokyo Corporation has had more videos removed than any other organisation. NetResult, which monitors Premiership football videos, ranks 7th. Given the gripe I had about YouTube removing some of my videos, I am happy that there is now a watchdog tracking their actions.
- Lastly, anyone going camping at festivals this summer - now is the time to be doing your tent shopping. Well, actually, yesterday was the time to be shopping, but Halfords and Argos both have some pretty decent deals on cheap tents and camping equipment. I need to get a new tent for Truck (we left the old one at Glasto last summer). I've seen a quite sturdy looking 4-man tent for £30.