Stuart

I liked my word. But improvise works. 6 and half a dozen, as my father would say.

I'd say it's being resourceful, but thats just me.

Make bacon and sit about. That is all.

I have a feeling I shall be pressured into some kind of Malfoy of 'Potter' fame get-up.

As far as I remember, that's exactly what I got.

Sam, please do something better with your holiday than sit on the internet.

The Blood Brothers at King Tuts in March. Such a small venue for a gig with so much energy. And they are lovably camp on stage, which made it all the more fun. Rilo Kiley at Cabaret Voltaire in July. Again, the intimacy of the venue helped. Being that close to Jenny Lewis is a once in a lifetime experience. They are clearly more comfortable in a small venue, Blakes little chats with the crowd wouldn't have worked in a large venue. There were heaps of technical problems during that gig, and they way they handled them just made the night perfect (adapting which instruments to use during songs, Jenny sitting swigging Red Stripe at the side of the stage while the techs were working away, Blake telling us we take Belle Italia for granted...) on top of walking past them in the streets of Edinburgh later that night. The road trip there was fantastic, and the other events of the night just made the whole thing a memorable experience. Dresden Doll(s) at Moshulu in August. Amanda Palmer on her own was wonderful, a perfect mix of her own material and stupidly good covers (Bright Eyes and Postal Service/Iron and Wine). Seeing an artist screaming her heart out alone on a piano, with eyeliner running down her face with her tears is another sight that just gets you.

Can't be bothered quoting, this is in reply to Jenni and other such people in Glasgow just now... I've been up to the Murano Street halls a few times to visit Ailsa, they look quite nice, but all of the buildings have very crazy names. Me and Rachel took a very un-student like approach and opted for buying a beautiful ground floor flat off of Byres Road. I recommend this area when all you first years get kicked out of your halls next year.

I currently have 10 bottles of Blossom Hill California White on my mantle piece. I got too set in my ways, and won't buy anything else.

Five for today would be... The Postal Service - Such Great Heights Pretty Girls Make Graves - Ghosts in the Radio Joanna Newson - Bridges and Balloons Goldfrapp - Satin Chic LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations

Jim Shelly's look at 2004 TV moments. I discovered this whilst digging for Madeley classics. Not the same, but still an entertaining read. My favourite part reads: Ricardo submerged in a tank full of fish guts on Back To Reality, with presenter Richard Bacon telling him: "Ricardo, you are submerged in a tank full of fish guts."

Don't get me wrong, Kirsten is fantastic, but I'm not bizzarely attracted to her, she's clearly hot.

I always found my old lesbian boss strangely attractive, though she really isn't. I used to find Supernanny Jo Frost quite attractive, in a "Shut it or I'll spank you" way. Fredrik Ljungberg - I think that its the CK adverts, so pretty. Oh, Julie Cooper from The O.C. Teri Hatcher would also get it.

Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen. It's all you need.

Bleach my hair (If it looks bad, I won't have to live with the shame and pain it caused my head, if it looks good, I die pretty.) I'll also go with the mountain of cocaine. I'd spend some 'quality time' with a few people I want to see before I die. I'd give my possessions and stuff to people who want them, avoiding wills and that crap. I don't really know what else I'd do. I'd choose where I wanted to be when I died, and go there. Who knows really. In fairness I'd probably not tell anyone, and just go to bed and stay there.

I was reading Dracula, and said "I want to call the band Carfax", and the ladies didn't have any complaints. Not too exciting. I guess in the book Carfax actually has quite an interesting meaning, which I suppose we could say was what inspired it, but that would be a lie. I might do it anyway. Doesn't really work when there are only 3 of you in the band though. I just thought it sounded quite nice. Oh well.

Even though I'm 100% sure "can't be arsed" wasn't the reason, after 5 years of touring, rarely being at home, then having to make a cross-atlantic trip to do what I've been doing for 5 years, I would think "can't be arsed" is a perfectly valid excuse. I would have been much more annoyed if they cancelled.

Someone who has just joined Aberdeen Music after Sam has bee banned, even though the majority of people here thought Sam's name was Dan, yet he knows who Sam is.... Pair that with the fact that most of the new people spell 'the' as 'teh' and do that awful thing of spelling with numbers, I'd say "Erase Today" (not a bad band by the way, although the vocalist ruins them) has quite impeccable spelling and grammar. Not that I'm drawing conclusions.

She lost alot of respect for him as a person recently, but she's not shallow enough to change her mind about his music just because she doesn't particularly like him. Anyway, fantastic gig. 'Such Great Heights' was the greatest thing ever, I did not see that one coming but she pulled it off fantastically. She's not used to playing without Brian, which made last night even more special. Fantastic atmosphere. Did anyone see that guy to the left of the stage, in the hat? I beleive it was during 'The Perfect Fit' when she was crying and her eyeliner went everywhere. The guy threw something on stage that landed beside Amanda but she didn't acknowledge it. A bouncer quickly approached the man and was like "Eh, what the hell are you doing?" and the man answered "It's a bottle St John's Wort" to which the bouncer just stared at him. The guy then with a strange obsessive look in his eye told the bouncer "It's for her, she's upset". The bouncer had an eye on him all night, especially after that "Churchill says sorry" comment that came from him. I saw the bouncer take the guy away and speak to him, presumably telling him to stop throwing/shouting things. Well handled by the bouncer, got in there quickly, gave the guy a calm talking to, avoiding any kind of embarrassment. Amanda's stage banter was great too. "He got a first from Aberdeen University" Amanda: "Thats because he is a very clever man. Who writes very clever songs. One of which, I am about to play you" with a little smile.

The Clash - Bankrobber.

I have a photo of one, but without a full explanation and showing the photo, I just look crazy. On an unrelated note, my parents used to own the Brig Inn Hotel in the Bridge of Don, and when we bought it alot of people told us Room 6 was haunted. I went in there during the day once, so I wouldn't know. But I hated going up the stairs to the hotel at night, very very long corridor with a glass door at the end, so when you look along it you see a faint reflection of yourself in the distance. Scared the fuck out of me numerous times. I think that place was haunted actually, I'm sure someone killed themselves there a good few years ago, and to be fair we did have a dead body in the owner's accomodation for a few days. Not quite the hotel itself, but it was near enough. My mother always goes on about how you should fear the living more than the dead, so she must have felt the same chills in the place too before she said that. I currently live in a 4 storey Victorian townhouse, and again, the top floor is a place I rarely venture to at night. Although you do get a beautiful view of the city, I am petrified that a ghost will butcher me to death up there. I don't cope all that well when the dead are concerned. Oh, just read the one about the prison guard which reminded me of a similar experience/experiences. It's a very long story, but the jist of it is that I awoke in the middle of the night and was paralysed, whilst being suffocated on my pillow. I had a really deafening noise right in my ear for about 3/4 minutes and felt myself being tied to the bed. I couldn't make a single sound, but when I managed to, I screamed and felt the ropes breaking around my wrist, turned round and there was a figure dressed completely in black, of about 7 foot tall, at the end of my bed staring at me. It then walked out of my wall. That was a very abridged version. It happened to lesser extremes for a long time after that, getting decreasingly frequent. After a while of not knowing what the fuck was happening to me, and why I regularly thought I was being killed in my sleep, I researched a bit and discovered that I suffer from 'Night Terrors', which most kids up to about 6 years old get mildly, but is very uncommon in anyone older than about 10. They are caused by heaps of things, but 'emotional trauma' is one of the killers. So yeah, thought ghosts were killing me, turns out I was just having really vivid semi-concious nightmares.

From some of the horrific stories I've heard, it counts.

Where is Mintlaw?

Mother tried pressuring me to go to Gordons. I didn't. I was a strong-willed 11 year old.