Wholly unscientific and biased towards shit I like, of course.

1. Muse - Absolution
2. Ryan Adams - Love Is Hell
3. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
4. Arcade Fire - Funeral
5. Radiohead - Kid A
6. Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
7. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
8. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
9. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
10. Andrew WK - I Get Wet
11. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
12. Muse - Origin of Symmetry
13. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
14. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
15. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
16. Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
17. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
18. BRMC - BRMC
19. Mint Chicks - Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
20. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
21. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
22. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
23. Brian Wilson - Smile
24. Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers
25. The Decemberists - Picaresque
26. The Datsuns - The Datsuns
27. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
28. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
29. Bic Runga - Birds
30. My Morning Jacket - Z
31. At The Drive In - Relationship of Command
32. James Dean Bradfield - The Great Western
33. The Good, the Bad and the Queen - The Good, the Bad and the Queen
34. The Strokes - Is This It
35. The Killers - Day & Age
36. Guns N’ Roses - Chinese Democracy
37. Damien Rice - O
38. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
39. Coldplay - Parachutes
40. Radiohead - Amnesiac
41. Martin Grech - Open Heart Zoo
42. Supergrass - Supergrass
43. Weezer - The Green Album
44. The Hives - Veni Vedi Vicious
45. Scars on Broadway - Scars on Broadway
46. System Of A Down - Toxicity
47. Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
48. The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives
49. Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel
50. Divine Comedy - Regeneration
51. La Roux - La Roux
52. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
53. The Killers - Sam’s Town
54. Keane - Hopes And Fears
55. Deftones - White Pony
56. Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
57. Portishead - Third
58. Morrissey - Years of Refusal
59. Fur Patrol - Pet
60. The Coral - The Coral
61. Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
62. Ryan Adams - 29
63. International Noise Conspiracy - A New Morning, Changing Weather
64. D4 - 6Twenty
65. Neil Young - Living With War
66. Doves - Lost Souls
67. Radiohead - In Rainbows
68. Dangermouse - The Grey Album
69. JJ72 - JJ72
70. Blonde Redhead - 23
71. The Clampers - Giant Diamond Eater EP
72. The Darkness - Permission to Land
73. BRMC - Howl
74. Smashing Pumpkins - Machina
75. Manic Street Preachers - Send Away the Tigers
76. Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
77. Patrick Watson - Close To Paradise
78. David Gilmour - On An Island
79. The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
80. Goldfrapp - Supernature
81. Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
82. The Tears - The Tears
83. Manic Street Preachers - Lifeblood
84. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
85. Oasis - Don’t Believe The Truth
86. Ryan Adams - Cold Roses
87. Grandaddy - Sumday
88. Muse - The Resistance
89. Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
90. Dandy Warhols - 13 Tales From Urban Bohemia
91. Duffy - Rockferry
92. New Order - Get Ready
93. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
94. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
95. QOTSA - Rated R
96. The Killers - Hot Fuss
97. Amy Racecar - Conclusions
98. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
99. Elbow - Asleep In The Back
100. Pluto - Red Light Syndrome

Disagree? Then tweet me your rage - @radioovermoscow - and tell me what I forgot!

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

Picked up the new Manics album on the weekend, and have been listening to it almost non-stop since. I’m not sure how much any of you care, but it’s good hearing James singing Richey’s words again, even knowing it’ll never happen again. It’s a grower of a record, only the first couple of songs (Peeled Apples and Jackie Collins Existential Question Time) really stand out on first listen, but the rest soon show themselves - I’d have to say apart from those two, This Joke Sport Severed, All Is Vanity and Marlon JD would be my favourites. Steve Albini’s production is nice and heavy, but it’s been given a proper shiny mix so it’s not unlistenable. Rating at 83/100 on Metacritic at the moment, which is impressive for any major label album there. Nice artwork too, and all the lyrics printed out, which made the first listen (on my big headphones after a couple of drinks) all the much more enjoyable and eye-opening.

Anyway… that morning I was trying to catch a bus to town so I could pick up the CD before work, but didn’t have enough credit on my card. I figured I might have time to get some money and race onto the next bus stop, so hoofed it to the ATM and began navigating the long-winded menu.

I then heard this woman yelling, and turned around to see she was yelling at and approaching yours truly. WTF? I thought maybe I was being robbed - checked she wasn’t holding a knife - then listened to what she was actually saying: “GET OUT OF MY BODY! I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT OF MY BODY!” Err, okay… she was shouting this whilst wearing a bum bag and rocking a boy’s haircut, waving her woollen-gloved hands in my face.

Then she attacked me - it wasn’t hard to block her blows, but it felt faintly ridiculous - I was being attacked by an insane lesbian. She then stormed off, much to the amusement of everyone standing around watching. The bus went past, and I thought shit, my bus to town, and ran off after it. I caught up, and for once the bus driver was accommodating, and pulled over for me.

All I wanted was to get my Manics album before work…

TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST… MONTH!

1. Sounds of the Universe - Depeche Mode
2. Journal for Plague Lovers - Manic Street Preachers
3. The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
4. Doves - Kingdom of Rust
5. Screens - Mint Chicks
6. Day & Age - Killers
7. Years of Refusal - Morrissey
8. Modern Life Is Rubbish - Blur
9. Cardinology - Ryan Adams
10. Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future - The Bird and the Bee

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

For anyone new that may be following, I used to regularly list my current favourite albums of the week/fortnight/parsec, but for some reason even unknown to myself, I’ve stopped. That’s no good, so I’m going to start again, with a ‘Top Albums of the Last Three-And-Two-Thirds Months’ list (thank god for Last.fm!). So without further ado…

Top Albums of the Last Three-And-Two-Thirds Months!

1. Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
2. Morrissey - Years of Refusal
3. U2 - No Line on the Horizon
4. Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
5. The Killers - Day & Age
6. Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible (US Mix)
7. Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
8. Cheap Trick - In Color
9. Mint Chicks - Screens
10.  Doves - Kingdom of Rust

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.

For actual top albums lists and new years resolutions... or vague ideas that would be nice in that regard.

I know I've done a top albums list already, but that's based on my "weekly" top ten thingees, and this is just my choosing. I haven't written much else recently, but my wrist is a bit farked (physio on Wednesday, and ACC still haven't approved it - took a week for their 'maybe' letter to arrive, which was sent a week and a half after the busting) and yeah. We've bought loads of baby things (and spent at least half, perhaps more of the car's value on safety and baby-related modifications), spent our Christmas gift vouchers on highly practical concerns and only gone out to see one movie.In the past week. Anyway, this is list is only 2008, of course.

 I'm going to post the spiel I've used the past three years to explain exactly what this is (updated for 2008, of course).

I did the same survey last year.

---------------------------------

01. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
I had heaps of answers to this question last year, but I'm struggling this time around. I worked my first proper full-time media job; went to a multi-day music festival; planned a baby; did a Star Wars ultramarathon; saw the Smashing Pumpkins; and for the first time since early 1996, I don't own an electric guitar.

02. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Didn't make any, won't make any.

03. Did someone close to you give birth?
No, thank god, cause she's not due till February.

04. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

05. What countries did you visit?
The country.

06. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Same as last year: money.

07. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 14 - started working at TV3

08. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Getting the job at TV3; completing over 40 entries on Fighting Dantasy, without slacking off; getting tariqa all pregnant and stuff; playing the opening of Camp A Low Hum.

09. What was your biggest failure(s)?
Not so sure it's a failure, but the end of KittyHawk was pretty stink.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I'm currently typing with a wrist splint thingee on due to what is probably a pinched radial nerve That'll learn me for mowing the lawn..

11. What was the best thing you bought?
tariqa 's engagement ring - proper one, this time.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Tariqa has been really good at growing baby, and hasn't complained all that much!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
John McCain. I mean, he never went near what Sarah Palin was doing, but still, he should have known better.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, bills, Baby Factory and TradeMe.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Having a baby. Starting my new job. Camp A Low Hum. My new recordings.

16. What songs will always remind you of 2007?
Weezer - Pork and Beans
Oasis - Bag It Up
LadyHawke - Magic
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
MC Stormtroopa - Lord Vader
Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
My Morning Jacket - Highly Suspicious
Suede - The Asphalt World

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Slightly fatter
iii. richer or poorer? Same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Once again, more songwriting. I've recorded a ton of music, yet to do vocals, but didn't write much. A bit earlier in the year, and finished a few songs/wrote melodies for backing tracks, but not a lot more.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Drinking red wine at work when all the beers and white wines are finished.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At Tariqa's dad's place with that side of her whanau.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Already there!

23. How many one-night stands?
None, silly.

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Lost is still good, as are the other usuals like Mythbusters; I've gotten right into watching late-night documentaries, particularly anything to do with time and space, or Bible-era conspiracies and alternative histories.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
The neighbours.

26. What was the best book you read?
I read magazines (galore) and the interwebs, but not too many books. Did I even read any this year? I must have, cause I definitely remember going to the library, but jebus.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
LadyHawke, and finally 'getting' Portishead and Kings of Leon with Third and Only By the Night.

28. What did you want and get?
A good job, a pregnant Tariqa and a good start on a new album.

29. What did you want and not get?
Success with KittyHawk, the album done, and to not get robbed again.

30. Favorite films of this year?
Wall-E, Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy (an oldie but saw it for the first time).

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Not sure, but on the 5th I watched all six Star Wars films with Tariqa and friends.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Finishing the album.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Threadless T-shirts, jeans, Chucks and a Paper Plus bag.

34. What kept you sane?
Getting a job as far away from customers as possible.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No one comes to mnid.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
We had an election, as did the US, so there was plenty to bitch about, but the 'time for a change' meme that made sense in the US bizarrely and incomprehensibly being adopted by the Nats here was annoying.

37. Whom do you miss?
My sister's growing up and getting to that age, I suppose it would be cool to see her more often to make sure she's not going off the rails too far.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I'm now friends/workmates with a lot of cool new people, and even the most of the ones that aren't minor celebrities are cool.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
If you want something to change at work, there's no point in complaining to people who can't affect the change.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Nothing, really. I've decided this is a silly question for emos and the kinds of people who are into bad poetry and shit.

---------------------------------

TOP 5 ALBUMS OF THE LAST WEEK!

1. Ben Folds - Way to Normal
2. The Killers - Day & Age
3. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
4. Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
5. Over the Atlantic - Dimensions

I'm only posting 'cause I feel I need at least one more 'TOP ALBUMS OF THE LAST X WEEKS' post before I can nerdily work out my top albums. I already had to come up with five for the 3 News list, they probably won't match my mathematically calculated top 20, but hey. 

Today is my last day of work till New Year's Eve. And it's only four hours of work, and five hours of party - unfortunately the party part comes first - we always seem to do things in a backward-ass way, haha.

Next week I'll be in Htown, hopefully getting some good vocal takes out of Rob. It is also to be hoped Tariqa doesn't go into labour while I'md down there. 

My wrist is all messed up since I mowed the lawn last week. Lesson? Don't mow the lawn. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow, hopefully he'll give me one of those wrist splint things and I can pretend it's a cybernetic weapon enhancement.


TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST THREE WEEKS!

1. Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
2. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
3. LadyHawke - LadyHawke
4. Bed Folds - Way To Normal
5. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
6. The Killers - Day & Age
7. Over the Atlantic - Dimensions
8. Decortica - A New Aesthetic
9. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
10. Ryan Adams - Cardinology

I suppose instead of posting silly pics and random bits it's about time I should actually make a classic LJ entry with what's actually happening in my life, etc etc. As boring as that is.

Well... after months of bitching, I finally did something about the taxi situation at work. Basically, up until recently, everyone in the news dept got company-paid taxis home if they were working late, and us in the online dept didn't, despit the fact on most nights we're the last ones to leave, usually between 12am and 1am, and at least two of us at any one time have 5am starts. I was at the company orientation day (seven months after starting!) on Wednesday last week, and the bigwigs were giving their 'online is the future and vitally important to the business' speeches. I didn't want to stick my hand up and make a scene during the presentation, but when one of them wandered over to our group during morning tea, with the encouragement of the other online people there I decided to speak up.

I simply asked her why, if we're so important and the future of the business, were we paid the least and not given carparks so are basically forced to walk home in the middle of the night...? And to my surprise, she said when the taxi system was rejigged a couple of months ago, we were meant to be included - funny, cause we all remember when the system was rejigged, and how we were first told we had taxis, then when we went to claim them we were told it was a mistake, and we didn't get them.

But now we do, and it's awesome - no more dodging drunks and oddballs in the middle of the night on the way home!

So that's pretty boring to anyone but us online people I suppose. I suppose I've also been a bit reluctant to write recently because we've had a few baby-related headaches, which is nothing any of you need to know about in any specific detail. We're pretty confident it's all worry and stress over nothing, but it's been a reminder having a baby certainly isn't the easiest thing in the world. It's the kind of thing that would never have been noticed before ultrasound was around, and the docs don't really know too much about, but reading about it on the net it seems the overriding vast majority of experiences end in completely normal babies, so yeah. Don't stress, cause we don't need anymore of that.

The house is slowly beginning to show signs of an impending mini-Dan though. Unfortunately, the cats seem to think the house is slowly beginning to show signs of cat domination, as you can see to the right.

tariqa  went and saw The Phantom of the Opera the other night, so you should tell her to post something about it.

TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST 3 WEEKS!

1. Chinese Democracy - Guns n' Roses (I never thought I'd be able to write that)
2. LadyHawke - LadyHawke
3. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
4. Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
5. Only by the Night - Kings of Leon
6. Dear Science - TV On the Radio
7. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
8. 808s and Heartbreak - Kanye West
9. Electric Arguments - The Fireman
10. Day & Age - The Killers

Despite the ridiculous autotuning on the Kanye West album - even when he's rapping - there's something about it which makes it all work. I suppose it's the singular, consistent vision of the album, it kind of exists in its own world or something. Best track? 'Paranoid'. It's full-on electro-pop, but without sampling Daft Punk or anything. I tried the autotune on my own vocals for the new stuff, but as it's not as electro as Kanye's stuff, I couldn't really get it to fit in.

And Chinese Democracy? It's a good album, surprisingly enough. And perhaps even more surprisingly, it's not overly compressed and brick-walled like 99% of other hard rock albums nowadays. You can actually hear how brilliant the production is, and the songs ain't bad either - particularly 'Sorry', 'Better', and the Beatles-esque 'Catcher in the Rye'. And the guitar solo on 'Shackler's Revenge' is bizarro - I assume that's Buckethead's work.

I'm on my fourth day of being sick, but I went into work yesterday anyway to look after our internet coverage of Obama kicking John McCain's ass. Was pretty sweet, then my illness kicked in again and I spent the night coughing, which wasn't so great.

I've been surfing through YouTube watching clips of plagiarised/similar sounding song comparisons, and came across this hilarious piece: The Pachelbel Rant. It looks like it might have been around a while, but is pretty damn funny - especially once I listened to the classical piece he's singing about, and realised I've written a song or two based around that melody myself without even realising it. Freaky.

But not as freaky as seeing will.i.am becoming one with the Force on CNN. WTF?

TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Ryan Adams - Cardinology
2. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
3. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
4. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
5. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
6. Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads
7. Scars on Broadway - Scars on Broadway
8. The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
9. Portishead - Third
10. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

If eight left-wing parties receive 10% of the vote each, and one right-wing party gets 20%, do you think NZ should have a right-wing govt? No, because 80% of people voted left - and under MMP, the majority will get their way. under FPP, the majority 80% will be overruled by the 20% that voted right. This is why MMP is far superior to FPP - you can exchange right for left, the same applies. If you cannot understand this, you shouldn't get to vote at all.

Simple enough? Can you please stop whining now?

I haven't posted much recently 'cause I've been playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, both I and II. Truly awesome games, and better storylines than the prequels in some ways.

I was really tired this morning when I woke up, so tired I felt hungover. So I went to the dairy, and holy fuck - you can get 500ml cans of V. The caffeine arms race is really getting out of hand. So is the price of Rivermill bread - I swear last time I bought some it was $1.50, today it was $3.80. I'm going to assume the wrong price stickers were in the wrong places. 

I'm going to Htown for election day/night, to celebrate/drown sorrows with some like-minded friends who don't want to see Castle Helengrad fall. And it's my sister's birthday the following day, so two birds, one stone and all that. Actually three, cause mum's apparently got loads of baby stuff for us to bring back. Have I mentioned he never, ever kicks when I put my hand on tariqa 's belly? I'm going to pretend he knows who's boss. If only I could get the cats to be so learned.

What movie should I take tariqa  to tomorrow night? Any ideas? Seen Wall-E already.


TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST MONTH!

1. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
2. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
3. Metallica - Death Magnetic
4. TV On The Radio - Dear Science (yes, I actually like this one)
5. The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
6. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
7. Scars on Broadway - Scars on Broadway
8. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
9. Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
10. Keane - Perfect Symmetry

 A man has flown across the English Channel using a home-built 'jet wing'. I'm not sure if it's cheating by starting in a plane rather than on the ground, but still. When I first read he was going to try this, I could only imagine it ending in disaster and the guy winning a Darwin Award. 

I think I'm going to call a stop to my recording sessions - I now have 30 backing tracks I'm happy with, and perhaps 24 or 25 of them likely to be good enough for the album. There are loads more songs I want to do, but the tuning problems have reared their heads again (and no, I'm not talking about my vocals, yet anyway - though I've now got some brilliant software for fixing those) and I'm getting annoyed I can't even play a freakin' D power chord without it being out of tune. I think I'll save up slowly and buy a proper guitar in time so it's not an issue. The next album's going to be wholly electronic anyway, as there'll be no room for my instruments and mess of leads and wires once baby boy is here.

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE FORTNIGHT!

1. Death Magnetic - Metallica
2. Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
3. Boy (remastered) - U2
4. s/t - Scars on Broadway
5. Ultra Beatdown - DragonForce 

 I know it's probably against all rules of music and taste, but I'm really digging the new Metallica album. Sure, it could have been mixed with a little more reverb, a little less distortion and a lot less Unforgiven III, but otherwise it rocks. If there's one thing Metallica have always done better than other metal bands, and I say this as someone who really did not like Metallica for a long time, it's that they actually write proper songs and Hetfield's vocals aren't all Cookie Monster. 

Anyway... I've been using Google Chrome for about a week now I suppose, and really like it, there's a few niggles but one glaring error which really stands out - I can't delete multiple rows in a Google Docs spreadsheet at once. It sounds silly, but i've been doing a lot of TradeMe recently and using a spreadsheet simplifies things heavily. I also don't like how on laptops, you can't scroll up. But otherwise, it's fast, intuitive and simple. 

But then again, and this will apply to very few I assume, it does not like Adobe Audition. The tab displays mess up, it starts freezing and showing Windows artifacts I'm sure are meant to be hidden, and generally acts a dick. Thena gain, if Adobe Audition played nice with Vista's Aero, this mightn't be an issue.

I've heard a bit of the new Verve album Forth, and can't help but link it to the new Oasis record - considering the Verve's last album came out around the same time as Be Here Now, a failed cultural landmark if there ever was one - and can't help but think Oasis won't have much difficulty in bettering the Verve's effort. The songs, on first listen, sound expansive and deep, but once again modern production and mastering steps in to squash everything. All the reviews have said this record is a return to their early, psychedelic style, which makes it a little frustrating to hear it come out so modern-sounding. I don't mean that they've adopted the sound of Klaxons (though Love Is Noise comes close!), just that their sound has been dulled and muffled a little. Some bands get away with it, but the Verve aren't one of them. 

Oasis on the other hand were one of the first bands to really thrash and take advantage of the brick wall-of-sound, and it's never really failed them. 

I didn't mean for this entire post to be taken up with arcane music production-speak... so here's a link to my latest Fighting Fantasy gamebook blog post.


FORTNIGHTLY TOP TEN!

1. Metallica - Death Magnetic
2. Scars On Broadway - s/t
3. Portishead - Third
4. Fleet Foxes - s/t
5. Last Shadow Puppets - Age of the Understatement
6. Ryan Adams - Follow The Lights
7. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
9. Jean Michel-Jarre - Oxygene
10. The Faint - Fasciination

We used to get loads of emails at work from disgruntled viewers who complained our coverage was biased towards National. Over the last couple of months, it's been all about how we're so obviously favouring Labour, even down to the red ties. Then yesterday, the emails reverted back to accusing us of not only favouring National, but are in 'lock step' with our 'American/National' backers. Hmmm.

Anyway, I haven't done this for a while: TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST MONTH!!! WOooOOoo.

1. Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
2. Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
3. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
4. Scars on Broadway - s/t
5. Portishead - Third
6. Weezer - Red Album
7. REM - Accelerate
8. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
9. Fleet Foxes - s/t
10. Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles

For the record, I don't really know who anyone at work is planning to vote for, and I'm not sure it's the kind of workplace/industry where it would be wise to ask. Except one woman who's outwardly announced she's voting for ACT, but I don't think it's because she has convictions, she says doesn't care about other people.

Today was one of them days where for the first few hours of the day I'm plodding through news, putting up whatever I can get my hands on in the absence of anything else, then for the next few hours I'm racing like a mad chicken dealing with two fires, a fatal car crash, a surprise drop in petrol prices, the crazed rants of a murderer, the pope, reports the Govt is considering universal student allowances (an issue I once went as far as getting arrested over) and Tony Veitch's resignation. Goddamn world, you could have spread this out over the week.

TOP 3 ALBUMS OF THE PAST FORTNIGHT!

1. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
2. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
3. Weezer - The Red Album

These past couple of weeks I've been listening to my 'classics/driving' playlist on random more than anything else, really. One morning at 4.25am as I left the house, the first song the iPod decided to play, at a loud volume (it was a quiet 4.25am after all, and the neighbours weren't fighting that night) was Master of Puppets. Now that's a way to wake up.

Since Friday I've had a crazy weird headache. I think it's related to lack of sleep, but even after sleeping an okay (not great, but okay) couple of nights, it's still here. And the suck thing is sitting at a computer seems to make it worse, which is suck cause my job is sitting in front of a computer screen for eight hours a day. I've just done three days, and have five more till the weekend - where I'm having people over (perhaps) for a Star Wars ultramarathon (all six movies) on Saturday. And the headache kind of makes it hard to listen to music properly, which is suck cause I'm smack in the middle of recording heaps of cool, loud rock stuff.

And when I'm tired, I can't sleep, and I get awake at stupid times of the day/night. GrrrrrrR.


TOP ALBUMS OF THE WEEK!

1. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
2. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
3. Weezer - Red Album
4. Portishead - Third
5. David Gilmour - S/T

The new My Morning Jacket is brilliant, even better than Z.

Well I've been on lates the past week, but I was getting rides home a la tariqa  last week, and this week I'm not as she has work in the mornings, and it's hard to go to sleep right away once you've walked over half an hour in the night.

Anyway, my Star Wars ultramarathon is going ahead it seems, it's so official I made a Facebook page for it as I don't have anyone's cellphone numbers in my new phone. There's limited couch space, so if you want in, you'll have to wait and see if there is any, which is unlikely.

I'm gonna do Tariqa's meme thingee. I hate calling them memes. It sounds silly and I'm not even sure it's a totally accurate name for them, which is why I tag them as 'internet surveys'. Which sounds even sillier.

1. Name: Dan. It could have been Reece, but mum vetoed it, and let my father the guy who got her pregnant give me my middle name. Yeah, thanks a lot.

2. Age: 27. When I was younger I was convinced I was going to die at 27, just like Kurt Cobain and every other self-disrespecting rock star. I thought it was going to be in a car crash. Well, there are only about 13 days left for this to happen, and one of them is going to be spent in front of the TV watching six Star Wars movies, so it's looking good for 28.

3. Location: Somewhere in this satellite pic.

4. Occupation: News online editor for 3 News. It's not online news, it's news online. There is a difference.

5. Partner: Tariqa - nearly four years now! Wooo.

6. Kids: None yet.

7. Parents: This is a pretty dry 'meme', huh? I'm getting tired. I'm gonna stop now.


TOP ALBUMS OF THE PAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Weezer - The Red Album
2. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
3. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
4. Weezer - The Blue Album
5. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
6. REM - Accelerate
7. Portishead - Third
8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
9. Manic Street Preachers - Gold Against the Soul

I listened to Gold Against the Soul the other day for the first time in ages, and fuck, that album rocks. It gets treated unfairly, really. It's definitely the most polished album they ever did, but the heaviest at the same time, at least musically.

Way back in 2005, the night before I left the city in fact, Hamilton hosted its very own first annual 'Circle Jerk' - Hamilton bands playing covers of other Hamilton bands.

I arrived too late to witness it, but the Clerics did Sleepless, and now, three years later thanks to the magic of the interwebs, I can bring it to you!

I punched 'luna spark' into Last.fm's similar-music player thingee for a laugh (it's like a musician's version of googling yourself), and it played a track by Disasteradio, followed by the Straitjacket Fits. Sweet.


TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Weezer - The Red Album
2. Portishead- Third
3. Wings - Band on the Run
4. REM - Accelerate
5. Andrew WK - I Get Wet
6. Coldplay - Parachutes
7. Supergrass - Diamond Hoo-Ha
8. U2 - Zooropa
9. U2 - Achtung Baby
10. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

On the way to work this morning (which is to say somewhere between 4.25am and 4.59am this morning) I saw two complete baguettes, fresh-looking, just lying in the gutter, 50 metres or so apart. I was a little bemused, till around the 15-minute mark when I came across a footpath chilly bin marked "FREE FRENCH BREAD - HELP YOURSELF" with myriad loaves, all undated and looking half frozen, and half stale.

Just after the chilly bin a man who looked just like a Tibetan monk, except wearing civilian clothes ('cause Tibetan monks aren't civilians?) ran right past me. A few minutes later I had to cross the road to avoid some vagrants. Well, they might just have been backpackers hanging outside a place with a sign saying 'HOSTEL', but I wasn't taking my chances.

I also came across a working Nokia cellphone, which I ditched upon realising it was the kind of brick I used to mock back when I owned a Sagem. That, and it was under a bridge, and so was probably some kind of trap.

My walks to work this early aren't usually this exciting! Except for yesterday when REM's Accelerate was exactly the same length as my walk. I'm not kidding - I'm Gonna DJ ended at the exact moment I hit the stairs and for the last time, knocked on the door to be let in. Yes, I finally got a swipe card, so now if I really wanted to, I could go to work at 5am. Oh wait...

Budget? Um, I'm not going to use it to buy cheese, but I have a few comments. Firstly, although the much touted 'average' worker earns $45k, the median worker - an almost infinitely better gauge of how the everyday person is going - earns about $35k, according to some five-minute-maths I've just done using a simplified income stats table, which I'm 99% sure mirrors reality. CEOs can earn millions, but no one can earn below zero, remember...

I'm bound to remember more and add it later, if not to this entry then to new ones...

Oh yeah. I'm totally excited about the new Indiana Jones movie. I've read a bazillion reviews, and once again, I think it's a case of "even the bad reviews make it sound good!" again... my trilogy DVD set was a casualty of the recent robbery, but the marathon last weekend has got me back going. one thing the reviews seem to agree on is that a) Harrison Ford is the best thing about the film, and b) Shia La Buffet is actually pretty good. I mean, he did a good job in Transformers, but it wasn't like he had to act at all in that, so it's hard to understand how he got the "new Indy" job (let's not beat around the bush) so quickly... but I bet many are happy it wasn't Hayden Christiansen.

In Anakin's defence, I've read some pieces recently that suggested he was supposed to be an angsty teenager the whole time, meaning Christiansen pulled the character off brilliantly, and shouldn't be mocked. To a degree I agree, except that Darth Vader would never have given a shit about sand, and that Lucas could have given him some better dialogue... like, dialogue people would actually speak. But then again, I still think the atmosphere wins out and I'm still totally organising an ultra-marathon, even if it takes a bring-your-own chair policy and extreme drunkenness to get through it all.

WEEKLY TOP TEN (FIVE) OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT!

1.  R.E.M - Accelerate
2. Portishead- Third
3. Supergrass - Diamond Hoo-Ha
4. Radiohead - The Bends
5. U2 - Zooropa

The good: it looks pretty likely there's going to be an Arrested Development movie, just like Ron Howard said in the last episode...

The bad: three visits and two crews down, there's still no solution to fixing our kitchen sink - the water just doesn't go down properly.

The grrr: people who complain about how great it is in Australia but stay here in New Zealand. Seriously, go! If money is that important to you, you'll be doing the rest of us a huge favour by fucking off.

I was going to write more on the 'grrr' but that about sums it up.

Lost was back on tonight, must download for the morning!

I keep seeing people who look vaguely familiar on my facebook 'People You May Know' bar, but I can't place them. I think it's just showing me people from Camp A Low Hum, so something triggers but I've no idea who they are.

Here's a couple of interesting stories I came across and uploaded at work today: smoking bans have had the secondary, bonus effect of lowering teen smoking rates, it would seem (so who's going to argue against them now?) and if Kiwis decided the American elections, Obama would win in a landslide.

And just to make this the most random post I've ever posted, here's a reminder I'm still doing Fighting Dantasy, yay, it's not going to die this time it seems! Probably because I've incorporated it into my Saturday night cold ones semi-tradition. The latest entry is book #11, Talisman Of Death.


TOP 6 ALBUMS OF THE PAST FORTNIGHT!

1. Portishead - Third
2. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
3.  R.E.M - Accelerate
4. Andrew WK - I Get Wet
5.  Anika Moa - In Swings the Tide
6. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Today was the 18th time I've moved flat/house since I left home in early 1998. It wasn't an overly stressful move, I've done it enough times now to know what I have to do, even if it means waking up on the day of the move knowing there's only three hours till the movers turn up, but still having a shiatload of stuff to sort out. It always works out, my instinct kicks in and knows exactly how much I can leave till the last minute, even if I don't even notice it :)

So we're now back in a place of our own, a tiny little flat but as long as we stick to the promises we made to ourselves to stay tidy and whatnot, it should be great. The property managers seem quite hands-off in a good way. I have a little, minuscule 'bedroom' to use as a music room for now, which should be cool once I have new gear to record with. I'm not going to do a luna spark album this year it would seem though, I was doing the re-recordings of an old one one track a month, but that's on hold now that the equivalent of the sheet music for the next song due was stolen (it was on a memory card stolen with the Playstation). I'll be working on the Raid Over Moscow album as soon as I have the gear, which is a not entirely different project, but one that's meant to have a band behind it (four or five practises down, we're making a hell of a racket, loose as hell but so much fun, perhaps the polar opposite of what the album will be!)

Musically, I've been lost in U2 for the past couple of weeks - I'm up to 1993 in reading U2 By U2, re-acquired their first couple of albums (Boy and October), and saw U23D last night. The book is farking awesome, like the Beatles Anthology or equivalent Monty Python book, chock full of detail and hilarious anecdotes - I know, it sounds boring when I put it that way, but really worth it. Despite the common perception of the band being a bunch of doucheheads, particularly Bono, it reveals a darker, funnier side that many people haven't heard about - particularly in their early days and the Achtung Baby/Zooropa period. They were definitely more punk in spirit than many give them credit for. And those first two albums, the production is pretty sweet, but everything they've ever done pales in comparison to Achtung Baby, sonically - surprising when you actually read about the recording/mastering of the record (dubbing over stereo mixdowns, last-minute guitar solos, wanting people to think their record player was broken when they put it on).

I remember reading once when I was younger in Rolling Stone the '90s in music truly began when Nirvana released Nevermind, which I understood, and when almost simultaneously U2 released Achtung Baby, which I didn't really understand. Now I do. For the (actual) biggest band in the world at the end of the 1980s to come back from a critical disaster (Rattle and Hum) with a completely new sound
and not only succeed, but create an album even better than their career-defining high point (The Joshua Tree), is pretty incredible. It's easy to scoff at them now, after two albums which basically refined their classic sound for a modern age, forgetting they once dabbled in hardcore techno, opera and country-dub-electro, but what they did with Achtung Baby would be like if the new Coldplay record was not only a cross between the Klaxons, Battles and Trans Am, but was actually better than A Rush Of Blood To The Head.

I didn't mean for this entry to rave on about U2, but they're on my brain. The best parts of U23D weren't what you'd expect - I really enjoyed Miss Sarajevo, and Bono totally pulled off the Pavarotti part without a hassle. It's not a song I really know that well, being one of the Passengers songs and all. There was a bit of awkward proselytising from Bono, but at least it wasn't too drawn out. The 3D, for me, was really good - at one point I felt a tinge of anger at the dick spraying his water everywhere, and thought for a second the Edge's guitar was going to bash the guy sitting in front of me in the head - but tariqa wasn't so impressed, as her eyes are differently tuned or something - she could see the outlines that are meant to be hidden through the glasses that cause the 3D for much of it, whilst it was pretty much crystal-clear for me, bar during With Or Without You (which only partly ruined perhaps my favourite song of theirs). As an experiment in new technology, it was understandably a little restrained in its composition, but still pretty fucking cool to look at - if only they'd been able to do it when they weren't all old men, haha. If anything it reinforced my view that Adam Clayton is the coolest guy in U2 - he's about 45, looks about 60 but in a good way, still holds his bass like he's in the Sex Pistols, and has this 'I can't believe how fucking cool this is!' grin on his face the whole time. Reading the book reinforces this, seeing as he apparently couldn't actually play to begin with, and had his first lessons in the mid 1990s.

Ryan Adams' blog takes up three or four pages of my friends list every time I look at it.

TOP 8 ALBUMS OF THE LAST FORTNIGHT...

1. Supergrass - Diamond Hoo-Ha
2. U2 - Achtung Baby
3. Duffy - Rockferry
4.  R.E.M - Accelerate
5. Andrew WK - I Get Wet
6. Morrissey - Greatest Hits
7. U2 - Boy
8. U2 - October

The new Weezer song sounds like their first album stuff, it's on their website streaming.