Swingin' Ryan

Nine Lives was the first rock album I ever bought and I absolutely adored them as a kid. Used to tie my mums silk scarves round a toy microphone and pretend I was Steven Tyler. Around the time of all the mid-90's Brit-Pop stuff, looking at old pictures of Aerosmith was like a different, amazing world. Haven't listened to them properly for years, but Steven Tyler leaving is effectively the end of Aerosmith which does make me sad, if only mainly for nostalgia.

Never paid too much attention to them the first time around, then went back and listened to the first album after seeing them at the Celtic Connections thing at Glasgow and really enjoyed it. As much as I like the their normal MBV-esque guitar stuff I really liked the stripped down versions of the songs on 'Here It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did' with all the fan organ and the light percussion. Haven't got the new album yet, it's on my 'next to purchase' list.

I'm not surprised everyone seems to love away days at Somerset Park....five fucking one Airdrie next week at least, looking for that big second win of the season.......

Christ, quite the incentive for her.

It's absolutely stunning isn't it? I liked the first album, had some really good moments but this one is on a different level. The bit where the orchestra kicks in on the last minute of the opening track is almost certainly the most spine-tingling bit of music released this year. Really felt for them having all their gear/equipment stolen the other week

The Decemberists are amazing. They have that rare thing of sounding 'classic' but totally unique at the same time. In a world of sweaty boy-rock bands they're a ray of light. New album is brilliant. I think Picaresque is probably my favourite album they've done, On The Bus Mall is one of the best songs of the 00's in my eyes.

At the cinema I work in a used condom was once found in a screen in the middle seat, of the middle row of a sold out screen. That takes some serious balls (no pun intended).

Faith/Holistic healing and Psychics are two of my biggest pet hates and I've spent a fair amount of time reading about/researching both, so let me save you a bit of money. On the subject of 'alternative medicine', scientists have worked for hundreds of years to finds cures and treatments for every ailment known to man (they haven't found every cure but they've done a lot more than Holistic Medicine). These are treatments that although not 100% effective in every case, are rigorously tested to ensure they have basis in scientific fact and logic. Holistic/alternative medicine is a mixture of guess work, spiritual pseudo-science and pure fiction which is propagated entirely by the 'placebo' effect and sheer desperation. If you have a genuine ailment, be it physical or psychological, see a GP. On the subject of psychics, there is not a single shred of evidence to support anything they do. Ask yourself one question when you watch a psychic...'why do they say things like 'I'm getting name starting with B' or 'Is there something to do with your dead uncle and a hat' instead of giving a full name and address. Why on Earth would the dead be trying to trick the living with cryptic clues? It's all done through a combination of cold reading and linguistic trickery. If you want a Psychic reading, I'll do it for you and charge you half the price of whoever you plan on going to will and I'll probably get a fair amount right through pure guess work. Watch anything by Derren Brown as an example, he does exactly what 'psychics' do yet openly explains it's done by nothing more than trickery and psychology. If you need further convincing watch these documentaries by Richard Dawkins, the first dealing with psychics etc, the second with alternative medicine. Richard Dawkins - The Enemies Of Reason - Part1 - Slaves to Superstition Richard Dawkins - Enemies Of Reason - (Part 2) On the subject of hypnosis, it's a very different thing. Hypnosis is undoubtedly real but it can only be used for a number of very specific issues, so it would depend entirely on what problem you have.

I love Ryan Giggs.

Agreed, few bands have the ability to keep a sustained smile on my face for the duration of their set like Slow Club. Pleased to see a decent-sized crowd as well, last time I saw them in Glasgow they played to a criminally small crowd, but then again they were the support band then. The albums definitely got to be in my top 5 of the year, and thats saying a lot because this has been a brilliant year for music.

Looking forward to this a lot

Yes to Superchunk! Tiny Bombs and Slack Motherfucker are both fantastic Superchunk songs that everyone should listen to. At least twice each.

Agreed, that is magic! It made me laugh out loud twice.

Having to clean up vomit at work because some cultural ambassador for idiocy has decided to go into a public toilet in a public building and void his fucking stomach 4-inches from a toilet bowl and make no attempt to clean it up himself. Call me a neat-freak, but if I were to re-paint a toilet cubicle wall with my bile and remnants of whatever filth I'd been eating the night before I'd at least make some cursory attempt to clean it up. Instead, this shit heap must have proudly swaggered out into the light of day and probably got high-fived by all his friends for being an utterly foul, mindless, cretin.

That would be amazing, that would totally open everything up. I think one of the common misconceptions about Derren Brown is that his stuff is just about doing tricks and illusions. I think the main motivation behind a lot of his bigger stunts are to show fallibility in belief systems i.e The Seance and The System, as he is an outspoken skeptic of psychics/paranormal and an athiest. I think the main point to be drawn from lottery predictions are that people will always try and attach an explanation to something that doesn't fall within their understanding of how the world works e.g the lottery is random and unpredictable. His linking of The Horse-Racing system to Holistic therapy was inspired. Not only has Derren Brown made some of the best television of the decade, he has more or less single-handedly deb unkedPsychic and Spiritualists (my biggest pet-hate) by doing what they do, better than they do it and then telling us it has nothing to do with psychic ability. I actually love him.

Just got the new Noah and the Whale album 'First Days of Spring'. It's fantastic. I thought the first album was good, but I was a bit worried they'd do a Peter, Bjorn and John and just be remembered for one quirky folkish-Pop song that was on the telly a lot. This album is a different thing altogether, it's got bits of Beirut and Sufjan Stevens, the string parts in particular are stunning. They've made a to go along with it but I just bought the album-only version, I might splash out for the film based on the strength of the album.

Agreed, the food at Moonfish is on a different level to pretty much anything else I've eaten in Aberdeen.

Agreed, I think Gordon is a fantastic keeper. Very few keepers as willing to throw themselves as far into a save as he is. That save against Iceland was unbelivable, he threw his whole body onto it and took what looked like a massive blow to the chest. I think having him missing is a pretty vast set-back. Still optimism and all that....

Have a look for a Roland Juno-D, you should be able to pick one up for under 350 and they've got decent organ/clav/analogue synth sounds and an onboard effects processor with good quality reverb/distortion/delay etc. I've been using one for the last year and a half and never had any problems.

Jesus....... I like Girls Aloud. Love Machine, Biology and Can't Speak French are all crackers. Nobody will touch Taller in More Ways-era Sugababes for girl-group genius this decade though. Push the Button is modern pop perfection. Oh and Nadine is my favourite, fantastic accent.

Brilliant song and video, particularly Dan dancing in his pants covered in milk.

Been listening to a lot of The Ramones again recently, people (myself included) tend to forget just how amazing they were at writing simple, brilliant melodies. Half of their songs could have been done by the Shangri-Las or The Ronettes and worked just as well. Also recently been re-listening to Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Grandaddy, Teenage Fanclub and lots of Sarah Records stuff I haven't listened to for a while. In particular the amazing 'Pristine Christine' by The Sea Urchins.

Bingo. A lot of people seem disgusted when I put the milk in whilst the tea bag is in but makes all the difference. Also don't squeeze the tea bag until the milks in. Then you get that little surge of concentrated tea blasting through the milk. Stir for a good ten seconds.

He can't spell it either.

We'll almost certainly get it at Cineworld. Don't think Vue have a 3D screen as far as I know. We showed an extended 20 minute trailer thing for this last week to some competition winners.