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Ira Glass is doing a talk here in Poland in May and I'm so excited about it. The ol' ball and chain (I am referring to him as this as punishment for not remembering his Ab-Mus password) will be visiting at the time, so I'll have to keep my true feelings about Ira under wraps. Anyway, I watched his episode of Ask A Grown Man for Rookie Magazine and it's great. He claims that because he's not a household name, Rookie made him do balloon modelling so that viewers would remain engaged. The end result is him giving advice on how you can sexily offer someone a blow job immediately after he has made a balloon representation of Snoopy. 10/10, would watch again. And have done so.

Utrecht is also totally adorable and only a half hour train ride from Amsterdam Centraal. Usually good gigs on there too.

I enjoyed this post. You're the Metaphor and Simile Champ. But I did read the above quote in the voice of Barry Shitpeas.

I posted this on Facebook yesterday. It's not exactly how I feel, but pretty close to it and a great article. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/14/scottish-independence-referendum-snp-vote-brexit Things that I hope for this potential referendum: -People against it stop claiming that the last one was a 'decisive no', because there was 10% in it. -They can also stop acting as if nothing has changed since the last result and this is just the SNP wanting to hold a referendum every few years until independence is achieved. Anecdotally, my parents who reluctantly voted no in 2014, both said on the day of the EU referendum result that if there was another Scottish referendum, they'd vote yes this time around because they want to remain part of the EU. This time around we have an unelected Prime Minister who is making plans (what plans? lol...) to leave the EU. Bit of a change in circumstances since 2014. -Both sides should stop citing poll numbers to further their cause. By 8am today I had already read an article called "Setback for SNP as Scots reject independence in fresh poll." and another, "Support for independence soars to all-time high." It's almost as if we won't find out for sure what the majority of the country was feeling until the date of the result or something?! Also, polling for the last few big elections has turned out to be bollocks. Remember when Cameron and Miliband were neck and neck and Labour were going to have to do a deal with the SNP to form a majority? And when the UK definitely was not going to vote to leave the EU? And Clinton was going to trounce Trump by about 20%? -People are able to differentiate independence from the SNP. That was the biggest hurdle for me last time and turned me from a "probably not" to a "heck yes". -There's more certainty to what the Scottish government and yes campaign want. Other than coasting on the whole WE LOVE THE EU AND HATE THE TORIES thing, which a number of people in Scotland obviously do not, this time around, they need to have bigger and better arguments in favour of an independent Scotland and also give definitive answers about currency, etc. Don't just Salmond it. -In fact NO SALMOND INVOLVEMENT WHATSOEVER would be nice.

You're almost Surteen?

Books I've read this year so far... The Sellout by Paul Beatty I got given this for Christmas. It won the Booker last year and although I think the Booker is usually very lame and safe, this one is ace. It's about a black guy who gets taken to the Supreme Court for trying to reintroduce segregation and slavery to his hometown in Los Angeles. It's dark and absurd and hilarious, an actual GOOD satire! Who knew those existed? Man In The Dark by Paul Auster I'm attempting to read everything Paul Auster has ever written and even though now I can identify his tropes easily, it doesn't make his books any less enjoyable. This one is about this old dude whose wife has died, whose daughter then moves in with him after she gets divorced and her daughter does too, after her boyfriend is killed. It's a house of mourning and the auld fella can't sleep, so in the dark he makes up stories for himself. This takes up a fair chunk of the book and is a classic Auster self-referential story-within-a-story, which starts off slowly and then ends up becoming intriguing even though it's about fictional characters written by a fictional character. V good. And short! The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George A guy called Jean owns a bookshop on a barge on the Seine and after receiving some heartbreaking news, he drops everything and flees town on the barge. He ends up being joined by a young author who lives in his building, who is going through a mental block and a bit of an existential crisis. It's a good story, but a little too twee at points. Like, the bookshop owner has all these philosophies about the healing power of books, which is a little cringey, even if it is true! I feel like this was written to be made into a film. I'm sure we'll see one before long. Universal Harvester by John Darnielle This is the second novel from JD of the Mountain Goats, so it's obviously wonderfully written because that man is a genius with words. It's about a kid who works in a Blockbuster-esque video rental place in Iowa in the late 90s, who becomes intrigued when people start returning videos saying that there are weird recordings on them. It's very eerie and more instantly gripping than his first book, Wolf In White Van, but I thought the ending was a little flat. 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster I was getting through books relatively quickly this year, and even optimistically thought I might be able to do the 50 book challenge, but then this 866 page beast entered my life and shot that idea down. I basically lived and breathed it for two weeks. I was hoping to have it read by last Monday, as Favourite Guy Paul Auster was doing a talk about it here, but fell 100 pages short. Weirdly, though, the passage he read at the event picked up from exactly where I'd got to reading. SPOOPY! Anyway, there's a lot to unpack with this one. It's more linear than a lot of his other novels, but still high-concept and ambitious. It's the story of one guy called Archie Ferguson, but four different versions of him, so the first chapter is called 1.0 and is about his parents getting together and their family history, then 1.1 is about the first version of Archie's early years, 1.2 is about the second Archie's early years, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, etc etc. To begin with, it's kind of hard to keep track of, plus there are a lot of characters who get namechecked, friends and families, but once you get into it it's great. Mission accomplished. Auster and The Archies share similar characteristics and I would love to know why Archie is born exactly a month after Auster in real life. I guess one half-criticism of it is that all versions of Archie have the same aspiration to become a writer, but then again, maybe it isn't such a bad thing as they do still go off in different directions and that gives us a clue that Auster probably believes in nature over nurture. I felt gutted finishing the book. The whole way through, I thought that it seemed like it had the potential to be a final novel from Paul Auster. It's sentimental and bigger than anything else he's ever written. 8/10, would read again. In many many years time..

Just had a listen, it's ace! Good work, mins!

Alright, Peter Dow...

I saw Brian Wilson in 2007 or 2008 and he was great. I was fully expecting to feel really sad because his voice obviously isn't what it used to be and he seemed quite fragile, but it was so much fun. He's a little awkward, but the songs are still a joy to hear and his band is usually really tight. The Wilsons aren't on good terms with Mike Love, which would make me feel hesitant to go and see that iteration and would take Brian Wilson over him any day.

The new Mountain Goats record will be called 'Goths' and is released May 19th. http://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-mountain-goats-announce-goths-share-andrew-eldritch-is-moving-back-to-leeds/

Jens Lekman's new album is out. The Guardian gave it five stars. I don't think it's as good as his last one which everyone else thought was pretty average. Tim Darcy from Ought's solo album is promising on the first two listens.

Make America White Again? Going by that gent's use of the word 'negro'. MAGA was used as shorthand for Make America Great Again.

I watched a couple of the latest episodes on New Years Day at my pals' place and the ones we picked weren't too bad! I think it's because they were Mr Burns centric. Also we were drinking alcohol. Might've been that. The one where they go to Boston got a few chuckles out of me.

Previously it has been with that one, but the last three New York entries have just been "Date night!" Or "amazing date night!" Poland Is For Lovers.

Someone I know is currently on holiday with his partner in New York and keeps checking into places on Facebook, which is fine, but any post he makes in the evening is captioned "date night". Is it date night or are you on fucking holiday?

All stone cold classics.

Only if Jim McDonald's still in it.

I'm one episode from the end of Boardwalk Empire but can't bring myself to watch until I have something else lined up after it. Any suggestions? I'm preemptively heartbroken for it to end. Please, someone talk to me about it. c u in the spoiler tagz.

Yeah, it gets better with each listen. Now fully onboard with it.

This might be useful in future - https://twitter.com/JustDiedBot

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/john-hurt-dead-elephant-man-9707290 John (fatally) Hurt

I like it and it feels lame to compare it to Celebration Rock, but... it's no Celebration Rock.

This is offensive. My family was killed by a snowflake. Delete your account.

George HW and Barb both currently hospitalised. I wish them no will (they did spawn King of Hearts, JEB!, after all), but if they are not long for this world, it'd be nice if it disrupted the inauguration.

I thought there was already a thread for this year, but I can't see it. Please delete this if I've missed it. New Japandroids album is out next week and currently streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/19/510416955/first-listen-japandroids-near-to-the-wild-heart-of-life I saw them at the end of last year and they played 5/8 of the new ones. Sounded gr8 and just as PARTY ANTHEMic as usual. Also, new Allison Crutchfield is streaming: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/19/510437000/first-listen-allison-crutchfield-tourist-in-this-town I'm sad that Swearin' is dead, but excited to hear this.