Futtocks

Festive greetings, everyone! 'Deck the Stills' by the Barenaked Ladies

Apparently they are. Not having read the book in years, I'm not sure where there's a natural break in the plot. Or whether half the book contains enough for a full feature film.

Travelling up to family on Christmas Eve. Friday is stocktaking day at work. Oh, the intense joy...

On an Antipodean kick: The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional (from the recent series of re-mastered, expanded, lavishly-packaged but dirt cheap Triffids reissues). Oh, and 'Deck the Stills' by Barenaked Ladies - basically an a cappella rendition of 'Deck the Halls' but with all the lyrics replaced by repetitions of "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young". Touching upon genius!

'Tis the season to listen to Fishbone - it's a wonderful Life.

Just had a quick binge of rowdy Aussie stuff - random play of the following: AC/DC: most of 'Back in Black' The Angels - Night Attack, Nothing to win, Standing over you, Watch the Red Rose Tattoo - Manzil Madness, Suicide City, Assault and Battery, Chinese Dunkirk That'll wake you up!

A couple of Joe Camilleri (The Black Sorrows) side projects, both up to his usual excellent standards: Bakelite Radio - Vol.2 The Revelators - Adventures of the Amazing Revelators

Reggae/Ethiopian fusion time - Dub Colossus are offering a free remix track every Monday, via their FaceBook page.

Who's that then?

Manchester takes double Champions League exit badly.

I'm with you guys on this. I've seen people at my local Sainsbury really being nasty to some teenage boy or girl till-operator. Especially as the staff at that branch are, in my experience, professional and friendly to a level I'd be surprised to find in any shop, let alone a supermarket. Mind you, I do live in London... Bar staff? Well, they are Australian. And of course, waiters have more of a chance to get their own back, if you know what I mean.

Tim Buckley - Starsailor. The man who these days appears unfairly doomed to be known merely as 'Jeff's Dad', with his most extreme recording. Mad stuff, touching on the unlistenable at times.

Tinsley Ellis - Georgia Blue. Some really good electric blues on this album, from straight 12-bar to more light-hearted and funky stuff. Pretty decent singer, too.

The word before 'corner' has an 'a' instead of an 'i'. http://winkerscorner.com/

Where RU journalists go for a drink after work

The ideal dessert to follow a ten-bird roast - A cherry pie, an apple pie and a pumpkin pie, each cooked inside a separate cake, and then all cooked together inside another cake.

Latest vinyl purchases: The Labi Siffre Collection Mick Ronson - Play don't worry Talk Talk - Natural History (Compilation) The Temptations - Wings of Love

Quality Entertainment for all the (Blatter) Family.

Currently re-reading Iain Banks' 'Raw Spirit', which has prompted the purchase of a bottle of Sainsbury 'Taste the Difference' 12yo Islay Single Malt. Very nice smoky dram for under £20 - I suspect it may be from the Caol Ila distillery.

The British Record Shop Archive

A Leroy Anderson compilation, played by the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Great stuff!

Mudcrutch - Live at the Rat (1973)

David Lindley - El Rayo-X. If you like Ry Cooder, you'll probably go for this guy's music too.

An oldie but a goodie - make sure javascript is enabled on your browser, then copy'n'paste the following into the address bar and hit 'return'. Wheee! javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

Mike Campbell is one my all-time favourite guitarists. But, from a little on-line research, it looks like the CD mix of the album is yet another victim of the 'loudness wars'.