WEAR YA BIN?

I have been listening to the same 22 songs on my iPod for the last week. They are:

Death Cab For Cutie - Meet Me At The Equinox

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy (single mix)

Brand New - In A Jar

Alexisonfire - Heading For The Sun

Alexisonfire - Young Cardinals

Coldplay - Violet Hill

Train - Drops Of Jupiter

Paramore - Ignorance

Jace Everett - Bad Things

Pearl Jam - Unthought Known

Brand New - Sink

Thrice - Doublespeak

Fall Out Boy - Alpha Dog

Pearl Jam - Just Breathe

Jamie T. - Sticks & Stones

Friendly Fires - Lovesick

Kings Of Leon - Sex On Fire

Alexisonfire - Born And Raised

Kings Of Leon - Use Somebody

Live - Hold Me Up

Coldplay - Lovers In Japan

Friendly Fires - On Board

School starts again tomorrow. I think I'm set for tomorrow; just need to print out the sheets. New start, no shouting just getting attention and stepping out myself. I can't take it personally. I talk a good game but putting it into practice is a bit more difficult. Will be good to see some of the staff too.....

I have such good intentions of using this as a forum for my views, but the only things that I want to vent are so personal that I don't think this is the correct medium. It used to be popular culture but I barely have time for that now. My mind is filled with two things: school and girls. Not school girls. Actually no one knows the person I currently like so I could put it here, but I honestly don't think anything will happen so there isn't much point.

I am looking forward to:

The next holiday

Mad Men series 3

The National's new album

Seeing RB

WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS

At this present moment in time I am not looking forward to going to bed. This is because I am on drugs for an ear infection and last night the side effects kicked in. When I woke up at 4:10am with crippling Kurt Cobain stomach cramps I thought it may have been the mushrooms which are, granted, 4 or 5 days out of date. Then I thought it might be the chilli. 4 hours and 6 trips to the toilet later I read the little bit of paper that comes with Amoxicillin 500mg Capsules. Some patients find that they suffer from an upset stomach or diarrhoea.

Although I don't consider myself a male stereotype, I do possess on trait: I don't read instructions. All I read for these pills were 'take 3 times daily'. If I had known that before I may have spoken to the doctor. Something along the lines of 'do you realise I have the digestive system of a komodo dragon with a sensitive stomach?' The moral of this story: always read the label.

Due to this, I'm quite glad I'm now not going to Reading festival tomorrow. It would have been quite tricky. Not to mention that I haven't drunk anything (alcoholic) for a good week and a half.

I see Kaiser Chiefs are on now, but Fall Out Boy look like they pulled a bigger crowd in the afternoon. Fall Out Boy probably have more fans than Kaiser Chiefs. Have you noticed how Kaiser Chiefs encompass the 5 states of indie. You have the singer who likes to sport a waistcoat, the drummer who wears a pressed shirt done up to the top and a smart haircut, the bassist who wears the tight jeans and vintage t-shirt, the guitarist who looks like he's from 1994 and finally the keyboardist who favours the hat. What other band does that? Unfortunately their music only encompasses on state of indie; that of early Blur (Modern Life Is Rubbish era).

Beatles reissues are out in two weeks. I will try to blag as many as possible but I would like to start with Rubber Soul.

That'll do for now.

SOLO PROJECT

A difficult weekend. All friends are away; some at a wedding, some back to parents, one to Edinburgh. I thought one would be around but that failed and then ukulele practice got cancelled twice. So I have seen no one all weekend. What have I done? Organised my CDs...
Riveting I hear you say, but let me tell you certain things:

1. When you have over 1000 CDs it is impossible to find anything when they aren't in order.

2. Alphabetizing that many CDs tales ages.

First of all I thought I wanted something a little different. I had organised them loosely into genres at my sister's so I didn't want to a straight A-Z as you have to move everything up one when you get new CDs (not that I buy that many anymore). I first of all thought of having them chronologically, that way if I get a new CD it just goes to the end. But that took far too long and got tedious. Then I thought of doing it by the colour of the spine, but then I thought I'd never find anything. Finally I groups the most inportant bands together (Faith No More, Pearl Jam, Tool, The Beatles) and then any connections that take place between bands (Sparta/At The Drive In/Mars Volta).

After that I just grouped any artists together. Having done that I will alphabetize each individual rack (there are 4). It's taken a day and a half.

One thing I have learnt from all this is that CD packaging is too big. Whoever invented the jewel case should be shot. It makes everything so heavy and takes up too much space. Records didn't have a plastic case. In fact CDs should be packaged like records were. A gatefold sleeve with one side for the CD and the other for the booklet. Yes it doesn't have the same durability of the jewel case but you can print it all on recycled paper, and it will take up far less space. And everything in my collection that has a paper sleeve looks so much better than the normal packaging. Take the Pearl Jam albums, all packaged nicely in almost all paper (especially No Code and Vitalogy). The Puscifer album is just one bit of card folded in a way that keeps the CD from falling out. Do CDs need a plastic chair? No they don't.

Every CD should be packaged like the latest Counting Crows album, but shouldn't necessarily sound like it. And if you want something special, go down the Tool - 10,000 Days route.

NO SENSITIVITY

Again, this site has been left to rot like a fat man's fruit bowl due to my obsession with the lives of George and Lynne (what are their surnames? We'll never know). Due to this weekend's non-activity, I have time on my hands to wax lyrical about certain things. Not controversial, but the moment will have passed by the time I get to talk to anyone about them, if anyone cares.

1. I'm not one to join the masses in human bear baiting - I watched Fahrenheit 9-11 last night and thought it was 2 hours of sour grapes Bush hating, and I'm not even a fan of Bush, but if you want to object to war, pick war as a target not a man who won two elections - but the freeing of this Lockerbie bomber, and to some extent Ronnie Biggs, is totally unacceptable. What is the point of sentencing someone to life in prison if they get released before they die? I remember when I was younger seeing front page news of Rudolph Hess dying in prison and, although I didn't really know what it meant, it certainly stuck with me. Do they just release these people just so they don't have to deal with the bodies? It's complete bullshit. If someone is sentenced to life in prison they should die in prison, i.e. they aren't fit to live a normal life. And the less said about the hero's welcome, the better.

2. Is it me or is the start to this Premier League season one of the most exciting in recent history? Everything gets sorted out by Christmas but Tottenham look great, Man Utd look patchy and Aston Villa look awful. Let's have something different this season.

3. Due to that bastard, I'm having to buy new glasses, plates, bowls and so on. And he had the balls to try and contact me asking where we stand. You owe me £2500, that's where we stand. I hope to fuck the courts haven't gone soft.

4. I bought a Thrice song. It's good. It's called Doublespeak.

Favourite songs in the world right now:

ELO - Evil Woman

Thrice - Doublespeak

Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightning

Florence & The Machine - Drumming Song

Bruce Springsteen - Outlaw Pete

WE WILL ALWAYS BE TRUE

After 10 1/2 months, I'm moving back home next week. Not saying that this house hasn't been home, but it's not really home. My flat, even though I have only lived there for 3 years, really does feel like home now. The tenants are gone, leaving me a surprise monetary bonus, and I'm 3 moves away from having everything back. I am doing it very slowly though as I can't really move back in fully until Monday.

Having been away for almost a year, I decided I would make some changes so it felt like I wasn't moving into someone else's place.

1. Stereo and one sofa up one end of the living room, in what I call the music end of the room.

2. Wardrobe and drawers in different places in the bedroom.

3. Pictures moved and 3rd WS going, with a new flyer type display to be made.

4. I was going to get rid of the book case but it is now my nerd case with records and comics going on it until I can maybe put up some shelves.

I seem to have lost this blog over the last month or so. The George and Lynne blog took off for a bit and I'm still getting a lot of hits so I'm doing that at the moment. I have no horrific love life to grieve about and I'm basically on holiday at the moment so I'm moving and watching films. Maybe when school starts I can write some witty anecdotes from a primary school teacher.

ROLL JORDAN, ROLL

Now the summer is here, it's time to bury myself in musings.

1. Alexisonfire - Old Crows/Young Cardinals

This is getting better with every listen. Firstly I thought they're not giving as much bite as on Crisis but one thing they have got is bigger melodies. Dallas Green's voice is a thing of wonder, and it works so much better in AoF than in City and Colour. This, coupled with George Pettit new found soft growl, has the makings of an album of the year. But, without taking anything away from it, there hasn't been much competition so far, but we have Paramore, Editors, Thrice, Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam, Brand New and The Twilight Sad still to come. Speaking of which.....

2. The Twilight Sad - I Became A Prostitute

What a triumph! The first album was a wonderful journey of darkness but this song has so much more, and a chorus! If the songwriting has improved like this the album will be stunning without losing any of the shoe gazing guitars. There's something about scottish bands that draw me in. See also We Were Promised Jetpacks. If you live in America, you get to see those two and Frightened Rabbit all in one show.

3. Manchester City

One of the good things about being into football but not supporting a Premier League team is you get to an impartial view on teams and transfers. Many of the old guard have balked at the inflated transfer prices and new Middle Eastern money, and yes foreign ownership and too many overseas players may be, in the long term, bad for the English game, but let's enjoy it while we can. Something worse for the game is the monopolisation of the so-called Big 4. For the past 6 years they are the only teams that players want to go to. Why can't Manchester City break into it. Lest we forget that Chelsea were pretty much a nothing team until Mr Abramovich turned up. That could have been any team, especially any London team as I'm sure he didn't want to live anywhere else. How long did it take them? A couple of years and £100m. City could do that, and their stadium is big enough. They just need a centre back at the moment, but I don't think it will be John Terry. Go for Jolean Lescott.

4. George And Lynne

Sorry to blow my own trumpet but since being mentioned on Sunday Times writer Bryan Appleyard's blog, the hits have increased by about 500% (or something). Now if I could only harness this power.

BATTLES LOST, BATTLES WON

Well, without wanting to blow my own trumpet, I did it. 2 years on from reading an interview with the giant toby jug filled with hot piss that is Adrian Chiles about his music collection that changed the way I looked at working in music, I am now a qualified teacher.

Here is what I have learned from the past year:

Some kids you will hate, but it doesn't matter if they end up knowing how to use a protractor.

Don't get involved with someone who is in a relationship.

I'm a shit landlord.

I've got quite a loud voice.

I can make children cry.

Don't forget who your true friends are when you're making new ones.

If you're lazy, you get what you deserve.