I made my Last.fm charts program available for anybody to use and it’s had a positive response, hurrah, though people are far too reluctant to give feedback. It’s good to know there’s others out there who like to investigate every inch of their music history :-)

The girl I lived next to in first year (all of two and a half years ago) decided it was time I knew that whistling along to Joni Mitchell at three in the morning probably isn’t the most social of characteristics I have, so I was like ‘why the hell didn’t you ever kick my door down and tell me to stop?’ From which the only answer I could glean was that she is far too pleasant and accommodating a person to have thought like that.

Oh and most importantly of all, searching for “flamboyant american penis” on Google now returns links here.

And finally, in the news from the Middle East today:

An Iranian court has ordered a man to give his wife the 124,000 roses that he promised in her dowry, after she filed a complaint to claim it, reports say.

The woman said she was claiming the dowry because her “very stingy husband” would not even pay for a cup of coffee, according to the E’temad newspaper.

The court has seized the man’s flat until he produces all of the roses.

As you do, as you do.

New flat is coming along, I need lots of posters to fill the walls - I only have five at the moment and three are the same :\ We have hot water, so we can shower, and sharp knives, so I don’t have to use a junior hacksaw to chop chicken breasts into small pieces. And internet, so I can post this, scrobble and restart downloading from eMusic. Though it’s still a flat, not a home.

And finally: In the news today.

“Very unfortunately Mrs Coles was locked into our public toilets overnight which was extremely unfortunate.
“We’re very sorry that this happened.”

But just a bunch of flowers in apology?

Could do with a sixth eh

Two things have happened in the world in the last few days. One involves Japanese people getting carried away with their video games and breaking their arms, the other one of the worst possible ways to die. (’A woman in Australia has been killed by her pet camel after the animal may have tried to have sex with her.‘) :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ :/

I cracked and downloaded the FoFR theme (if only someone would say what FoFR stands for) for foobar and it’s amazing and gorgeous and all this, but it’s not my quaint foobar that can handle several playlists of 15,000 songs and rename and tag and move files and still perform wonderfully. Though it is rather nice to have some glamour to my media player.

WHY CAN’T COMEDIANS BE FUNNY?

I put a few photos from travels on Flickr, take a look and tell me they’re hot. I managed to post so little on the way I didn’t get to use a single Mogwai song title.

It’s like some kind of throwback to five years ago or so, just with a greater variety of music.

Read a lovely summary of Mario and Sonic getting together on the Guardian Games blog:

Frankly, Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley must be gutted that their potentially historic appearance together has now surely been superceded in the minds of many political pundits.

Quite.

There’s little left for me down here save family, photos of my childhood, a handful of old school friends, books, music and calm away from university. I had the very first metal I ever heard on the go earlier, courtesy of the free CD that came with Metal Hammer in April 2002. Down’s Beautifully Depressed still resonates just as strongly, the screams of Five Pointe O’s Untitled are still as shocking. I love how my mindset has subtly altered in the intervening years.

Rediscovering toasters has been a joy.

Saw the Esbjörn Svensson Trio on Sunday night at the Usher Hall, I hadn’t been quite so excited about a gig in a long time! After the brilliance of the show at the Barbican in 2005 I knew what to expect and I had that strange nervous chill that only gets you when you have your hopes up.

Support came from Chris Bow(the kind you take, not tie)den, and though the acoustics of the Usher Hall are supposed to be superb they really didn’t help his trio’s sound - it was cavernous, the drums too thin, the bass too light. They were good once they’d got started, especially when he soloed, though I prefer Polar Bear & Acoustic Ladyland’s approach to the whole ‘build an atonal lick into a fast-paced climax’ thing. Better in a smaller venue perhaps.

The sound seemed better for E.S.T., maybe they were just more careful about the balance between their instruments. Svensson spent the show either hunched over his keys or swallowed inside his piano, plucking strings and dissonance, bassist Dan Berglund was positioned to reflect a bright light from his scalp and drummer Magnus Öström’s sex face was just an added bonus.

Musically they were everything you might expect, opening with a wonderfully intense version of Tide of Trepidation, covering a good portion of their new album Tuesday Wonderland and closing with Dolores in a Shoestand (though a strangely reluctant audience refused to clap along). A long version of Definition of a Dog was maybe a bit extravagant, especially with the five, six minute white noise interlude, but that aside the show was practically spot on - melodically fantastic and rhythmically perfect. They really do their songs justice.

For me this was far more about reaffirming their brilliance; to have usurped their previous performances would have needed something out of this world. And of course, with some brand of Swedish efficiency, they managed it with honours. On a scale of Marmite to Marmalade it definitely ranks above crunchy Peanut Butter.