Same but different

I've posted this before, but I'd quite like to point it out again as I continue to find it bizarre. My blog address is http://www.dawnofthedave.blogspot.com yes?
Take out the S' of blogpsot and you get http://www.dawnofthedave.blogpot.com which is some kind of Jesus Loves You bible site... what kind of address is that for Christian worship?

Spammed

Of all my posts it would seem that this one is the most popular among spammers. Not too sure why... maybe all spammers are big Low Lows fans, or perhaps they have a thing for beards... hell, it could even be that they do keyword searches for Prunella Scales before choosing which blogs to spam. It remains a mystery to me, but 10 spam comments on 1 post doesn't lie.

UPDATE: This is nothing compared to the 177 spam comments that I've just found on this 65dos post. Jeez. Those boys really are popular.

Media Lounge Top 30

This being Christmas Eve, and a Sunday, it is the ideal time to unveil the Media Lounge Christmas Chart (as compiled by YouTube) and find our Xmas Number One for the year 2006.

The Top 30 rundown looks like this:

# 30: Sunshine: Science of the Sun (332 views)

# 29: Media Lounge at Dedbeat Festival (367 views)

# 28: Aqualibrium (369 views)

# 27: The Low Lows - Dear Flies love Spider (371 views)

# 26: Black Cloud (403 views)

# 25: Citizens for Fox News (418 views)

# 24: Plan B - No More Eatin' (Bennig Brooks remix) (432 views)

# 23: Sunshine: Spacesuit (670 views)

# 22: Plan B - No More Eatin' (Hadouken radio edit) (676 views)

# 21: Warren Zevon (And On) (694 views)

# 20: Katrina (1,152 views)

# 19: Straight Outta Compton (1,576 views)

# 18: Death From Above 1979 - Black History Month (1,653 views)

# 17: Clarence Killer (1,773 views)

# 16: Sunshine: Danny Boyle Introduction (1,775 views)

# 15: Can't Get Kylie Out of Dawn Shadforths Head (1924 views)

# 14: Military Uniforms (2,159 views)

# 13: Jacks Beatnik Storytime (2,331 views)

# 12: Kylie: Portals Through Time (2,383 views)

# 11: 28 Hours Later (2,744 views)

# 10: Steven Seagal in Half Past Caring (2,840 views)

# 9: Daniel O'Donnell Goes Wrong (3,260 views)

# 8: I'm Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas (4,110 views)

# 7: Darths Ark (4,326 views)

# 6: Picard Sings (4,404 views)

# 5: Six Days (4,842 views)

# 4: Eeeeeeastenders (5,019 views)

# 3: 2 Stuart 2 Little (5,851 views)

# 2: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (9,570 views)

# 1: Rachel Stevens' Foot Fetish (11,687 views)


I guess that just goes to show that you're guaranteed a hit if your title includes the name of a celebrity and an unusual sexual preference. Duely noted.

Two Things

I have this really vivid memory from when I was about 4 or 5. It was 1982 and the occasion of Charles and Dianas wedding, and the whole street came out to have a street party. There were paste tables down the road, streamers strewn between the lamposts, balloons tied to every tree and food as far as the eye can see. I also remember that the colours of the time were much akin to the washed-out hues that you get in cinefilm from 25 years ago. Strange that.

Anyway. I was very young so there's a good chance that my memory is slightly distorted and, allowing for the child perspective inflation, there's also a good chance that it wasn't as exciting as I recall... but what I'm sure of was the atmosphere. The whole street had come out to celebrate, as was the style at the time, and I really felt like part of a community.

I think that's what's missing from Christmas these days... the sense that it's voluntary. There was no law that insisted we have a street party to celebrate a royal wedding, we just did because we wanted to. Nowadays Christmas feels so much like an obligation I find it very hard to believe that any sane adult over 20 would want to continue it. We're bashed so mercilessly over the head with 3 months of crimbo advertising and seasonal enforcement that when the day comes you just want it to be over with so we can go back to feeling normal again.

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

I got this email from my Dad the other day in reference to the trouble I was having buying my sister a present:

"Just a thought if you're stuck for a prezzie for Kerry.
Use Tesco cos they're cheapest. How about something for the kitchen as she likes cooking - perhaps a bottle or two of exotic cooking oils or a utensil or cool apron or summat like that?"

The next day I get a phone call from my sister asking me if I'd like some nice cooking oils, or perhaps a nice utensil for the kitchen as I'm "into cooking now."

Oh father, never let it be said you're not practical.

Cause for Concern

Definition of out-of-date:
"Seeing an old photograph of yourself and realising you're wearing the exact same outfit as you are now."

I see by the writing on the wall that it's time for the bi-annual trip to TK Max.

Poppies for Sale

Don't see this very often:

Sabbatical

It's been almost two weeks since I last wrote anything here. I was getting a bit sick of the sound of my own typing... the clicks and the clacks began to have an echo of pompousness about them, mocking me and my self importance. Plus the sojourn in Japan had left me way more exhausted than I expected and threw my judgement off... I discovered meaning in everything and wanted to blog about the minute details. This, I decided was a bad idea. Finally I considered it an act of sacrifice to write nothing immediately after my readership increased threefold... what it was a sacrifice to I have no idea, but in my mind I think I imagined it to be the equivilent of doing a freeform jazz album after a rock and roll hit.

Told you I was tired.



So, we flew back from Tokyo on Friday morning on an inexplicably longer 12 and a half hour flight. Being the best part of 6'3" it's rare I fit anywhere anyway, but planes just aren't built for people of my size so I feel justified in saying I suffered for most of the journey. The taxi ride back up to Sheffield was nigh on impossible to survive concious and when we finally got home I blundered my way out the vehicle, muttered cursory goodbyes and had staggered down the street within 5 minutes.

Next day was Dza and Nicki's wedding down in High Wycombe. Dza is one of my business partners in Medlo and Nicki is his beautiful bride - an endlessly patient lady who has more than suffered for the efforts of the Media Lounge over the years. How Dza ever convinced her to marry him is beyond me... the wedding was just how weddings should be - sweet, short, and with drunk teenage celebrities running around. It was a highly stressful day for me, tiredness and jet-lag were at their most prominent and I found all the talking to people in a hot room to be very overwhelming. It didn't help that night when Is and I slept in the worlds smallest bed in the worlds smallest bed and breakfast...

Suffering from extreme fatigue by now, Tza drove us all back to Sheffield via a great Peaks pub called the Three Merry Lads. Here I hilariously bought Isobel a Sunday carvery despite the fact she is a vegetarian. Nice move.

And the so the week continued with a degree of unabashed tired until I found myself sleeping for 16 hours straight on Thursday. The thing is, I thought I was fine... I thought I'd escaped the return jet-lag and was doing just peachy, until Thursday happened. I awoke with just 30 minutes to go until I had to meet Isobel at the station and somehow, including a shower and sandwiche, I made it... we tootled off to Nottingham and watched Rodriguo e Gabriella at Rock City who were better than when I saw them at the Big Chill, and they were really good then.

And so the week turned into two and I still couldn't face writing on this very blog. We had a night at 65s to eat, drink and be merry and say goodbye as they are now holed up in Scotland recording that difficult third album. That very night was also the night of the work Xmas party which I avoided due to my being horribly drunk last year, and so got horribly drunk at 65s instead. Fate had it in for me and my liver that night. Was great to see Andy Digitonal again, even though we only had the briefest of brief chats, and I've learnt that we're off to Poland in May to perform the Shining - that was great news...

This is an old Media Lounge video we made to honour our fallen hero, Warren Zevon:



A few days ago we received an email through YouTube from Crystal Zevon, Warrens ex-wife, thanking us for the tribute. That's about the coolest damn thing that's ever happened to me...

So that's that. This blog is erring dangerously close to an all-purpose email so I'm going to keep an eye on that in the future. More obscure opinions, more hate-filled rants, less day-to-day bullshit... that's the way forward.

Oh, and cats. Mooch (the black one) now thinks he's a dog and loves nothing more than playing fetch with his favourite piece of screwed up foil and Hobbes (the ginger one) has entered a period of depression now that autumn has properly kicked in and he can't go outside as much.

Bless.