This is the incomplete tracklisting for what I have determined is officially the greatest mix CD ever made by anybody, ever. Bitch and Animal, Queens of the Stone Age, Kylie, Har Mar Superstar, The Coup, N.E.R.D., Ol' Dirty, Electric Six, LCD Soundsystem, Chicks On Speed, Yeah Yeah Yeahs... fucking YES.

You know they kick it Quentin Quire style. Ich bin ein Electroclasher!

"Inspirational messages always sound most plausible when you're totally wasted."

"In the end, I had something you didn't. An evil hand."

Dead bull with the life from the low
I’ll be massive
Conquistador
Give me soul and show me the door
Metal heavy, soft at the core
Gimme toro, gimme some more

Pressurize, neutralize
Deep fried, gimme some more

Space flunky, four on the floor
Fortified with the liqour store
This one's down, gimme some more
Gimme toro, gimme some more

Shrunken head I love to adore
B-movie, gimme some gore
Gimme toro, gimme some more
B-movie, gimme some gore

GIMME TORO, GIMME SOME MORE!

- Queens of the Stone Age, 'You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire'

So it's New Year's Eve and I am *not* going out tonight. This is quite a conscious decision on my part, despite circumstantial extras like half the people I know in London being outside it tonight. Funnily enough, it's actually the first NYE I'll be spending *in* London, as although I've been living here for nearly three years I was in France for the first and somewhere near Harpenden for the second... But no, no going out and about for yrs truly tonight: I have a mere pittance to get by on in January now that Xmas is over, and I'd rather save what disposal income I do have for occasions dictated by who's around and what's actually going on, rather than an arbitrary date.

Interestingly, so far not having any plan's for NYE has reduced my usual annual tendency to look back on and analyse what's happened in my life in the past 12 months, which is ironic considering how much *has* happened. Put on your Babylon 5 credits voice and say with me: "It was the Year of Change"... One weird but cool relationship came to an end, to be followed by a (relative) slew of casual misbehavings. I half-quit, half-lost my job (it's a long story - did I jump, or was I pushed?). I blew the redundancy money on going to New York, amongst other things, thus fulfilling an ambition that's been bugging me for several years. I moved flats, and got jacked for my deposit. I did the temping thing, and it was like they say: great hours, lousy pay. The summer was, looking back, very good - leafy North London afternoons, getting into football again, briefly as ever, cold lager and barbecue food. I started seeing someone, and it was good. In the autumn, they stopped seeing me, and it was bad. Then they started seeing me again, and it was gratifying, but we'll leave that one for the time being, as it may have ended, may have not.

Oh, and I started writing comics. Some of which are being illustrated by the Next Big Thing (TM), or at least the next great comics artist to live on the South Coast of England. One of which can be found here. Never let it be said that the end of a year isn't the time to blow your own trumpet...

I feel really kinda ashamed that I haven't kept up to date with Daniel Byron's travels and tribulations over the past six or seven months or so, even worse than I do about not returning his email (cuz lots of folk get that these days, I just suck generally in that department). For what it's worth, browse the archives - guy manages to write about travelling across Asia without making me want to Kill Whitey viciously in the way that 99% of all other travel writers do (except Michael Palin, lovely Michael Palin). And he once bundled me into a cab and paid my way home after I had lost my mind and thought Satan was out to get me in a pub in Camden on a Sunday afternoon under the influence of a large amount of lager and a small amount of crystal meth.

At least I've never done *that* again, not exactly anyway...

This blog has fallen into disrepair again; all apologies.


Will you like Girls Aloud's 'Sound of the Underground'?

Like there was ever any doubt. Shortly to appear on Barbelith, and maybe here: a rant about Pink, Britney's cover of 'I Love Rock'N'Roll', and why annoying purists is the greatest achievement a pop artist can aspire to...