iPOD

Like a blue cheese, my Pod is maturing nicely. Sometimes it's fun just to arrange things alphabetically. Filing has never been such a pleasure. Take the "I'm"s:

I'm a Man
I'm a Mindless Idiot
I'm a Roadrunner
I'm Always Crying
I'm Bugged at My Old Man
I'm Down
I'm Dreaming
I'm Glad
I'm Gonna Do It All
I'm Gonna Get Your Thing
I'm Gonna Keep What I've Got
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
I'm In a Different Word
I'm In Love With a Girl
I'm in Love With You
I'm Looking Through You
I'm Moving On
I'm Not Crazy
I'm Not In Love
I'm Not Your Stepping Stone
I'm On My Way

... and that's just "I'm: A to O". There are a lot of "I'm: P to Z"s. It brings out all kinds of dilemmas such as whether to capitalise prepositions and articles, etc. And if you have the same song twice, to delete it from the album or greatest hits??

There are 5,000 songs now and each one is roughly vetted before it stays on. I don't want any filler or padding from albums, nor (much) mediocrity. So it shouldn't be that suprising when, playing it on random, it serves up three songs in a row that are not only perfect but perfect together. Like a fruit machine doling out three melons on the winning line, at the bus stop today I had:

Old John Riley (The Byrds). Ker-CHING!
Be My Baby (The Ronettes). Ker-CHING!
Laughing (David Crosby). Ker-CHING!

OVERHEARD #2

Airport cafe, flight side. As I checked in, I noticed another flight was departing to Milan at about the same time as mine. In the queue, noticed an obviously Italian mother and daughter: slightly bling accesories, warm olive complexion, air of glamour. The mother pushed her daughter forwards, presumably because of daughter's superior command of English. Daughter asked for two espressos. The woman working in the cafe looked dubious and suprised, and then warned them off "an espresso is a very small amount, and it's very very strong!!"

Woman obviously not realising that Italians are a nation of people who thrive on strong coffee.

Italian daughter looked equally surprised. Not quite following, she said "Er, medium? please."

I don't know if the working woman decided to explain. I kinda hope she didn't.

OVERHEARD #1

...In WHSmith at the weekend, a young couple looking at stationery. I think they were discussing the stationery for their wedding invites. She was umming and ahhing while he seemed to be trying to guide her towards his preferred choice. He had a pained expression on his face. I heard him say "But that's thirty quid just on envelopes".

Sad, that barely, or just-about comfortably off people see the need to buy into all that bourgeous bollocks about stuff that isn't important. In my opinion, at a wedding, all you need to do is provide an atmosphere of bonhomie and a reasonable meal. That's all! Incredibly straightforward. No one cares about envelopes. That couple should have got brown envelopes from the stationery cupboard in their office. Or even emailed their invitations. Looking back, noone will think "They made a great couple and they had lovely envelopes".

IN THE LIBRARY

Browsing in the library today, happened upon a slim volume of poetry by a relatively obscure poet (at least, outside America). The collection was called "Pallbearers Envying the One Who Rides". Way.To.Go!

Great title.

MORE NEW MUSIC

Just because! All of it in that particular kind of American indie low-fi vein that I'm enjoying so much at present. There's not much demand for it in Reading.

BRENDAN BENSON


RUSSIAN FUTURISTS


BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE


JOSH ROUSE


SUFJAN STEVENS

FOOTBALL

I don't know how many games of football are left to play this season - only that there aren't many. Leeds won a game of football on Friday. If they can't win again for several weeks, they might as well have not bothered - just prolongs the agony. It's all very tight at the bottom of this division, we will have to wait and see. COME ON LEEDS!

19 Burnley 38 6 6 6 22 19 4 6 10 14 22 -5 42
20 Barnsley 40 7 4 9 24 28 5 1 14 22 43 -25 41
21 QPR 39 6 5 8 25 26 4 5 11 21 35 -15 40
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22 Southend 40 6 6 8 27 29 3 6 11 13 34 -23 39
23 Leeds 40 8 3 9 23 28 3 3 14 18 37 -24 39
24 Luton 40 7 5 8 32 31 2 5 13 15 36 -20 37