(Sorry for dragging this out for so long. It was not my intention but things have been busier, and windier, than expected). But, finally….

#1 – THE MORNING NEWS

Probably not a surprise to anyone as I have never stopped going on about how great The Morning News is since I discovered it years ago. It is surprising though that they have managed to continue being fantastic when most of my other favourite websites have disappeared, gone rubbish or turned into ad-filled nightmares. Basically you’ve got a group of extremely witty and intelligent writers with some link to New York with the freedom to write about pretty much anything they choose. It’s updated daily with links to the day’s most interesting stories and wonders to be found on the web and an article or two ranging from in depth interviews and round table discussions to How To guides and illustration galleries. Over the years I have learned an enormous amount about smart dress for men and wedding etiquette and when I do eventually visit New York I’ll probably find I already have an in built city guide buried in my brain. My only gripe is with the current redesign process which has been going on for about 6 months now with no results but from what I hear there are exciting plans afoot and I guess they’ll be worth waiting for. In the meantime go and have a dig about or just go look at my favourite article of 2004, The Bear.

I’m also donating $20 to The Morning News as a prize of sorts. Long may they continue.

www.themorningnews.org

#2 – FREAKY TRIGGER

Changing from an irregularly updated webzine to a frequently updated weblog is becoming a bit of a cliche these days but FT has reinvented itself as possibly the best group blog around. They always had a good group of writers including a fair chunk of freelance music writers but they’ve enlisted lots more people with all kinds of interests and got them writing informally on a range of topics over 7 themed blogs covering music, film and TV, books and art, food and drink, sport, science etc. meaning when one blog gets a bit quiet another will be full of new posts. They also cleverly organise a few long running series of posts to keep things ticking over and prevent the usual posting droughts of other blogs. The recent Top 100 Films voted using drunken pub science was great and they’re now doing the same with pop songs. Also a special mention for linked sub-blog Popular which is one man’s task of writing about every UK number 1 record in order from the beginning.

www.freakytrigger.co.uk

#3 – JGRAM WORLD

So good it got him sacked so maybe it should have been #1. Or maybe JGram World will be all the better for learning those important rules about Google proofing, pseudonyms and not talking about your workmates and boss on your blog (Hi everyone at my work!). V1 is now no longer online as was but instead you can jump straight into the aftermath on V 2.0. What puts this above most peoples’ blogs is Jason’s prolificness and seeming complete lack of shame. Most bloggers post once every two weeks with an edited take on what they’ve been up to, kinda. Jason, on the other hand, posts lengthy daily posts in great detail without worrying about making himself look good. So you can really get into JGram’s World for what it is which is often riveting and hilarious. The changes in tone from the work entries to the days of unemployment have been particularly poignant. If you know Jason it’s twice as fun and if he knows you then beware! You will be mentioned and you may not look cool either. Read it now before he gets a book deal and why not see if you can be the first person to get sacked for reading blogs at work instead of working.

jgram2.blogspot.com

#4 – STYLUS MAGAZINE

This is about the only music website I read regularly. It’s sometimes mentioned as a mini-Pitchfork but I find it much more interesting and fun and so much less horribly indie rock than Pitchfork. There are daily reviews of a wide range of albums from your dull indie rock to your shiny pop and scary noise but these are just the basic content which is overshadowed somewhat, for me, by the other daily and weekly features where their writers use a selection of repeated concepts to great effect from top tens, J-Pop reviews, ‘playing God’ with classic album tracklistings and the hilariously brilliant UK chart commentary. Add round table discussions, in depth interviews and film reviews and there’s not really much else you could ask for to while away a boring lunch break.

www.stylusmagazine.com

#5 – COLLISION DETECTION

A recent discovery for me via the incomparable things. things itself would be on this list if it wasn’t that it is so detailed and so full of content that it becomes quite bewildering at times and so I tend to read it more as a long poem rather than actually clicking on any of the links. Possibly also because I fear being drawn in click by click to millions of previously undiscovered websites and never being seen again.

But Collision Detection is a different beast altogether. It uses a ‘commenting on interesting stories and oddities picked up on other interesting blogs full of links to interesting stories and oddities’ structure which harks back to the internet’s very beginnings. Collision Detection is loosely a science and technology blog run by Clive Thompson who also writes for Wired and The New York Times Magazine and has a strange but understandable obsession with stories about Giant Squid. His writing is always sharp and friendly with an amused tone and the stories range from hilarious to thought-provoking. Recent entries have included tsunami physics, the mental health diagnosis of Gollum, electoral maps, a giant squid so colossal it can’t be described as a giant squid and graphs ahoy. Just think, you might learn something while faffing on the internet. Imagine!

www.collisiondetection.net

Here’s my A-Z so we can squash ChrisH and his politics with our nonsense.

Animal Crossing – living an alternate life in a town called Mogwai

BOXES

Cat shoes, Cow skirt and other great stagewear

diskant

eBay

Fire Engines reforming but evading me

Getting old

Hookers Green No.1

iBook love

Joanna Newsom

Keyphrases, 10. Kitchen Fitter London, Kitchen Installer London, KILL ME

Legwarmers (they keep your legs warm)

Murakami, Haruki

Nostalgia

Old friends

Parasite Pals

Quitting full time work to learn printing

Rollercoasters, going on them for the first time

Simon and Stu’s ace Audioscope event

TK Maxx

Uter gigs

Very tired

Wario Ware insanity madness

X11 + Nicotine = slsk on Mac

Yummy Fur, still

Zelda: Wind Waker

Sooooo…moving on.

I went to see Trail of Dead the other night for the first time in ages. I went along with some trepidation since I had heard rumours the new album wasn’t very great (and thus avoided hearing it til after I had seen them to avoid any difficult conversations, hah). Luckily they played lots and lots of old stuff which sounded better than ever, thanks to new two drummer action (is there any band that hasn’t sounded better with two drummers?). Some of the new songs sounded okay but they seem very unmelodic which has always been TOD’s strong point for me, I’m listening to the new album just now and, well, hmmm. The first single off it is shocking bad. Oh dear. I then managed to get lost in the fog during a 4 block walk home. It was very thick fog and it was dark and I had been supplied with beer, what can I say?

I was more successful going to see The Incredibles the next night, apart from the six hours of adverts and Disney trailers beforehand. Not to mention the horrifically awful short film beforehand which I can’t bear to remember enough to describe. Pixar, what were you thinking? Luckily the proper film was good enough to block out the horror so that I’d forgotten about it until reminded by Nic after. Arrive 30 minutes late and you should be okay to catch the beginning. There was even a trailer for a CGI film called ROBOTS which sadly looked rubbish. What a wasted opportunity.

But, aye, The Incredibles was fantastic fun with some amazing animation. The plotline was pretty good, if a little cliched, a kind of Spy Kids (if it was good) meets Spiderman. And stay for the credits which are brilliantly stylised snapshots of various points in the film. I was agape at them.

I’m now half way through the TOD album and the best thing yet is still the stupidly fun Lord of the Rings epic intro music. Fred Durst, I’m blaming YOU.

Sometimes I feel very lucky and getting a free copy of this album was one of those times. Ever since I finally dared to listen to their demo, having been convinced they were utter mentalists from the letter they sent with it, I’ve been hugging their songs to my heart (not literally). Hookers Green sound like they practice in a barn in the middle of a field, full of chickens and fog. It’s no surprise that they come from Aberdeen; music like this can only be made by people with an understanding of boredom and cold winds and the comedy of Doric. So, yes, there’s a lot of oddness and whimsy in this album. The song titles would give it away if nothing else although these do complement the charming oddities and whimsies of the songs themselves. With sad, mumbled vocals and tumbling melodies the songs are filled with dreams and thoughts and memories. There’s also piano, multi percussion and, best of all, a brass section lending an air of ambition and confidence to these sometimes ramshackle creations, building epics out of passing thoughts. There’s so much going on in every song – time changes, pauses for thought and hidden bubbling rhythms. At the moment I’m in love with The Strobe Adventurer, almost five minutes of skip happy joy where my ears can barely keep up with each new twist of direction, and the title track’s love song sounding both fearful and quietly, secretly happy. Someone please give them millions of pounds so they can develop into total loons and make quadruple vinyl concept albums while buying remote islands to live on.

www.hookersgreen.com
www.snowstormrecords.com

I read this lovely tribute to John Peel on Tangents today at work and it touched me greatly. I expect it’s a story that many of us will recognise from similar experiences but to me it really summed up what was so great about Peel and his shows. Go read and enjoy.

I now feel even more guilty for not having listened to John Peel’s show in at least a couple of years since the radio on my stereo stopped working properly. I thought that he’d be there forever so missing a few (hundred) shows wouldn’t really matter so much. As with everyone I spent my teenage years listening to Peel on a crappy taperecorder; anxiously fiddling with newfangled FM to try and get something listenable, taping all kinds of incredible stuff and sending off for these odd records from friendly people all over the place. He’s certainly been a huge influence on everything I’ve done and I was thrilled when he read out my name on air and said I had a lovely name. As with the recent death of Paul Foot, another personal hero of mine, another man who did everything to help the people who never get heard, we’ve lost someone truly irreplaceable and far, far too early.

Thanks to everyone who’s posted so far. Chris’s post has almost made me cry!