This year, my family decided to go with a Secret Santa system for family gifts, so instead of everyone buying everyone 494603437 things, everyone just has one gift to buy each. For me, the eternal poor relation, this is a relief on the level of a piano being lifted off my chest.

( This got longish and contains an embedded video )

Dear Squish,

You know, the singing dog routine rather loses its cute value when I've had to delete a quarter of my playlist because of your excessive musical reactivity. No Ramones, no Nick Lowe, no Led Zep, lose anything with saxophones or a "woo-woo" chorus, lose all my Big Finish Seventh Doctor audio dramas (fortunately it's only the Sylvester McCoy version of the Who theme that sets him off). Also, Spike has picked up the habit and now sometimes starts howling even before Squish notices one of his tunes is playing. It's actually impossible to remove everything that makes him howl, because every week he latches onto one or two new sounds, often things he's been hearing for years without so much as a squeak.

You missed your vocation, my Squishhead. You should have been a hearing dog for the deaf; you would have shone at that, and a deaf person would have been immune to your special powers of sonic annoyance, your earbleeding whine, glass-shattering sudden yaps and that very special sound you make when you see a fox - I've never actually heard a pig being skinned alive, you understand, but thanks to Squish I don't need to try too hard to imagine what it must sound like.

You annoy the crap out of me, you little spotted groove machine. I love you.

I am blown away. I am still shivering inside with the thrill of him. His voice, his musicians, his presence - the power, passion, precision, joy and virtuosity of all of them. They were magnificent. He was magnificent.

I can't tell you. I'll do my best to show you.



First we Take Manhattan - Glastonbury - He did this one better last night than he is here - stronger and fiercer.

Anthem - Wroclaw, September

Famous Blue Raincoat - Helsinki, October

and this person has a whole load more clips.

so damn good. So good I can't even begin to tell you.

( Excerpt from forwarded email. This is what my wonderful family have bought me as this year's Winterthing and birthday gift )

SQUEEEE BOUNCE SQUEEE BOUNCE BOUNCE SQUEEE BOUNCE SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Lou Reed - Perfect Day - Listen Download

Kirsty MacColl with Evan Dando - Perfect Day - Listen Download

Leningrad Cowboys - Perfect Day - Listen Download

Duran Duran - Perfect Day - Listen Download

Lou Reed and John Cale - Nobody But You - Listen Download

Eurovision is only fun if you're drunk and in company, and none of the people I might have been with drink so I'm missing it. In the meantime:

( Themed music dump, for your pleasure and inconvenience )

You know how, if you're depressed or low or whatever, you get stuck on one song and can't stop playing it? Maybe that doesn't happen to you but it happens to me. And when it does, I can never resist passing the misery along. So here you go.

Warning: Country and western.

Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark - Dublin Blues (Live)

Listen.

Share and enjoy.

Foot is still painful and magenta-coloured, but improved to the point where I now doubt it was broken. Just very deeply bruised and a bit punctured.

Right wrist is now giving trouble but that's perennial and regular. It'll be fine by this time tomorrow.

In the meantime, I give you ( a music dump. )

In other news: I loved Torchwood from Day One, but the last episode is the first one I can't pick holes in. It made me sniffle and that doesn't happen easily. Also, I have discovered, while rewatching Firefly for what must be the several hundredth time, that my favourite episode by far is Out Of Gas.