Music that sounded best when I took a short cut through Burger King at the railway station this morning, and it was cold and wet and I was very tired: Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle. I heard about 5 seconds of it in all, as I was in a[…]

An update on my cookery course is long overdue. Things have pretty much settled into a rhythm, and most of the narrative interest is anthropological rather than gastronomic.
We’re not really competing on the quality of our cooking, and there&#[…]

OK, I ‘fess up: professed Timberlake-hata that I am, even I warmed to him on the MTV Europe Music awards. I can see there’s something about him — the little boy lost looks and the floppy-limbed mobility — which is going to win[…]

Too much reality? The most extraordinary piece of TV I’ve seen recently was Matthew Kelly turning the tables on his host on the Frank Skinner Show. The shaven-headed giant had a sinister grin on his face as he demanded that Skinner repeat the l[…]

JogBlog1: Rationale.
When did jogging become running? I’m pretty sure there must be some kind of rockism at work — and I know I’ve been guilty of it… especially over this summer when training for the Great Scottish Run. What w[…]

After moving twice, and one big summer tidy-up, I’ve finally got round to unpacking an enormous box of cassettes… I’ve even managed to throw a few out, on the grounds that they had been: a) broken; b) bought for 20p and so awful tha[…]

Wandering into HMV last night a short while before what would normally be closing time I was slightly bemused to find an unanticipated gaggle of 40 or so punters waiting for a Mark Owen promo appearance / live set. I was certainly amused, as I left, […]

Bars we have known. (And a moment of synchronicity with Mark’s last post). On Sunday morning, as you do, we wondered whether Wispas were still being made. Yours truly drew the short straw and made the long walk for the Sunday papers, and was al[…]

So What?
At some point a girl I used to know told Gordon from Ballboy she thought his band wasn’t ‘avant-garde enough’ for her taste. Fair enough: churning out sub-Gedge indie platitudes over jangling guitars is hardly Gertrude Stei[…]

One of the most annoying things about Radio 1 (leaving almost ALL the presenters out of the equation for the moment) is their insistence on telling you things OFFICIALLY. If it’s not the Official start to your weekend, it’s the Official s[…]