the stain

A new one. Exciting! I'll listen this evening...

I don't know all the figures, but I shouldn't have thought it cost the BBC very much to show the Super Bowl. A once a year match that Sky Sports have the more comprehensive season rights over, and which the governing body (NFL) are absolutely desperate to push on the British market by any means necessary. Comparative to wrestling the rights to England Test Cricket back from Sky (who paid £220m for 2005-09) it really can be very little. The chances of the BBC getting Test cricket back any time soon would depend on government intervention, which wouldn't go down at all well with the ECB.

Why would he change it? Surely that would only serve to confuse regular users?

Just finished How I Escaped My Certain Fate, by Stewart Lee. Bit of biography, bit of exposition of how comedy works. Really very good and very funny. I particularly like the bits that tie stand-up and experimental music together.

A stain on your conscience.

I just wanted you to notice me

Me! Me! Me!

Not exactly Southampton, but the Phantom Band are playing Winchester's cosy Railway Inn tonight, if anybody likes that kind of thing.

Indeed, there's probably no reason why he doesn't tell expect fear of reprisals from the mob. They're all the same, Pakistani cricketers; no balls.

I see Toby's gone for the popular vote. You'll get nothing from me! You got an 8 from me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HbbM-FG8lQ

Any good? Saw them do a show last year and it was surprisingly motorik, kraut-rock-y. In a good way.

I forgot to score yours, Bert. But I remember liking the 2nd half.

Don't be angry with me, Deppo. You know I'm weak. You know how I cry in the lonely times.

I've got a couple of bingo bonus ones lying around too.

Beaumont Hannant - Texturology

Have you ever met a woman?

It's not banter though, is it? Any more than Big Ron's racism was banter. Neither was it joking as far as I can see. To call it banter is to give it undeserved immunity from criticism. Racism and sexism are governed under the same laws in society. The fact that one is considered more acceptable is entirely the problem here.

Are you suggesting I tried to rig it? I honestly gave myself a 7. If I knew who it was that gave me a 10 I'd be buying them gifts and/or marrying them... Was it you?

If I'd only had one vote, the first one, I'd have an average of 10. And fully deserved.

Haven't some of those top draft picks matured and then retired? Why would it happen this year?

I'll present another selection of popular hits at some point.

I've humbly taken on board the criticism I've received. My next mix will be all comedy punk and quotes from Caddyshack.

I think we're dealing with two things that should be distinct but are often conflated. Music reviewing at its best can help you to discover things you haven't heard and, for those who care about that sort of thing, can provoke thought and debate about tunes and artists in a wider context. I'm thinking about a publication like the Wire magazine, where the music reviewed is the stuff they find genuinely exciting or interesting and which they take a stab at describing in terms of feelings, social and musical context, lineage, success of vision. Good music reviewing takes music seriously and writes honestly and seriously about it. Admittedly not everyone wants to read that sort of thing but some of us do because it takes us in new directions or prompts us to think in different ways about music we already know, which is half the fun again. The above, I'd contend, is not music reviewing at all. It is purely and simply a facet of the record industry hype machine. Certain record companies have decided to push these artists this year. Therefore you will see them on the telly, you will hear them on the radio, and they will (at worst) be moderately successful because that amount of exposure pretty much guarantees it. Unfortunately a lot that purports to be music review is very thinly veiled recycling of this type of hype. Two reviews in different places will contain strikingly similar quotes and facts gleaned from the same press releases, and any genuine thought or opinion is reduced to a *****y pay-off line and a mark out of ten. That is worthless music reviewing, but it's unfortunately the majority.

Yeah, I gave it a 7 too. Not sure the Drexciya track fits.