The Five Songs of Christmas

Yeah, I know. Ideally it would be twelve - but I can't think of twelve Christmas songs that I can hear without wanting to punch somebody in the face. Five, I can just about manage.

If I'm honest, this first one is only here for comedy value, and the impressive feat of incorporating 'subtle' references to 'bell end' and 'ringpiece' into a Christmas song.



And I don't care what anyone says, this is still the best band in the world. I can't wait to see them again in May next year. Tickets are booked.



And I'll let the next three speak for themselves. Merry Christmas.

iWant

Curse you, Steve Jobs and all your satanic Apple minions. I didn't even want one of your iPhones until I saw your damn TV ads today. It's not as if I need one - after all, I already have a phone* and an iPod** - but I want it, dammit. When those ads appeared on the screen, it was all I could do to stop myself from having a quick fiddle with myself, such was my level of lusty desire.

Er, I think I'm going to leave that there.

In other news, I started - and finished - my Christmas shopping this afternoon. I had the whole lot done and dusted in under thirty minutes. And that's including the ten-minute wait at the perfume counter.

What else...? Oh yeah. I'm using my time off to indulge myself in what I like to refer to as Whofest 07 (and possibly 08). I've been downloading and watching all the Tom Baker-era episodes of Doctor Who. Still got loads to watch, but I'm getting through them pretty rapidly. Tomorrow: The Talons of Weng Chiang.

* One of those Motorola RAZR jobbies. A triumph of aesthetics over 'making something that actually works properly'.
** I love my iPod. We are quite inseperable.

Out of Office

"I am currently out of the office until Monday 7th January 2008. If you have an urgent enquiry, I won't be around to help, so you're just gonna have to suck it up."

It felt really good typing that - of course, the wording on the second sentence wasn't exactly what I put in my actual out-of-office message, and in no way represents my actual attitude. Not much, anyway.

My last day at work was Friday, but I've been far too busy relaxing to do any blogging until now. Three weeks off... I love it!

Something Special

I should have mentioned this before, but better late than never. The support act for Crowded House last week was one Duke Special. Nope, me neither. As is the lot of the support act, Duke received a lukewarm response from the audience, but I was intrigued enough to seek out some of his stuff on the web. And I'm glad I did - I think this song, Freewheel, is rather beautiful. I hope you like it too.



And this is good too.



And if you enjoyed either of those... well, you know how YouTube works, right?

It's Only Natural

In my list of Crowded House songs, I missed one out. I'd love to be able to say that this was the song that was playing when I lost my virginity. But it wasn't. Not quite. But for the subsequent five or six times, there it was. I guess that's why I love this band so much.

Crowdies!

Crowded House were brilliant last night. Over two hours of top-quality music, plus a nice line in between-song banter. They played a few songs from their new album, and of course, a whole lot of old favourites like Weather With You, Four Seasons in One Day, Distant Sun, Fall at Your Feet, Don't Dream It's Over, Better Be Home Soon and (as they say in the ads) many more.

When they came back onstage for one of their encores, Neil Finn said, "There are so many songs we could play". Too true. It looks like this reunion is set to continue - there were (near) promises of a new album and tour in 2008. If they do come back, I'll be there.