Right, This entry is going to start with a song, not something I usually do granted but it’s only because I wanted to have 2 songs in this post. Why 2 songs? Well, I was introduced a few weeks ago to some new music; music I wouldn’t normally have found on my own.

Before I explain how I discovered this new music, let me just pop in the first track. It’s a song called Lovelorn by a band called Leaves’ Eyes I’m not sure about you but I think this particular track is perfect for a Sunday morning. It’s also pretty cool for a Saturday night tho perhaps more of a cuddling up on the sofa with a bottle of wine and some chocolate than knocking back 30 shots of vodka and playing spin the bottle, but what do I know?!

So, how did I discover this band? I’m a bit old skool, I continue to keep a profile on Hot or Not. I figure since I’ve had it since I’ve been using the internet that I might as well keep it, I’m actually a moderator who gets to vote on whether the photos and profiles meet the exacting standards of the site…the bar is kinda low. Anyway, the vast majority of the people on it seem to be fake but every so often there are a few ‘real’ people who crop up. One of whom was Lauren, her profile stated she really liked Black Metal.

Well, What a waste of a day, more or less.

The managing agents for my landlord had arranged for an engineer to come round today to do the Gas Safety Check. Sometime between 8am and 1pm, so I booked a half day off work and secretly longed for him not to come battering on the door at 7.55am like he has done the previous 2 years.

So, as soon as the alarm clock went off at 7am I was up and in the shower and by 8am I was washing up the dishes after my breakfast of toast and 2 boiled eggs. Then I waited… 9am came and went as did 10am, 11am strolled by and noon was spotted lurking in the garden… I made lunch and looked at my watch 12:47pm, “Typical!” I thought, “The time I get up before 8am he’ll arrive at 1pm on the dot” he didn’t…

So I called the agents to discover that the guy dealing with it was off until tomorrow, the girl who answered the phone took my number and said she’d call the engineer to find out where he was, that was at 1.45pm…I’m still waiting for her to call me back!! When I called back no one answered the phone, I’m only worried that whoever kidnapped the engineer went back to the HQ and kidnapped the receptionist! I’ll be counting to 100 slowly before calling them tomorrow to impart a piece of my mind…

I guess it wasn’t a complete waste of a day, I sat on OK Cupid and devised a test, why don’t you try it, it’s imaginatively entitled, The Am I Open To Drugs Test

It’s been a while since I wrote about Sellaband. That’s primarily due to me being poor and having to remove a few of my parts in order to pay some credit card bills. However I still believe it is a great way to both discover new music and to help get that new music out into the real world without giving too much of the cash to fat cat record companies.

If I have one gripe it is the long wait to actually get your money back. My request for a refund of a few hundred dollars took 28 days to process, which sort of negated the need as by the time I received it I didn’t really require it. But that’s not really the issue here.

Yesterday the postman delivered my Limited Edition CD of Julia Marcell’s debut album It Might Like You, the first thing that struck me was the CD case, it had lovely rounded corners. It’s weird what I tend to notice.  There are a few other things I like about the album.  The LE edition actually has the album pre-ripped into MP3 format at 256kbps which is a nice touch.  This is in addition to various other goodies such as lyrics, photos, a making of  the album documentary together with videos and teasers.  If anything it reminds me just why I like owning real CD’s.  There are only 5,000 copies of the LE album available (mine is number 283) and to be honest, it is a bargain at only $15.  The regular version is $10 and you can download it for a mere $3.50!  Usually I would include a song at this point but if you click over to Julia’s Sellaband page you’ll find the first 3 tracks are available to download for FREE.

If Latin music is more your thing, don’t forget to check out Lily Vasquez, again, there are free downloads available with copies of her LE album still available, or you can download it for only $5.  It’s one of those albums I like listening to when I’m cleaning, it gets my booty shakin, but thankfully in the privacy of my own home

Well, you knew that whatever the instigators would have you believe, filling a tube train with people hell bent on drinking alcohol to mark the end of our freedom to drink alcohol on public transport was never going to end up as a good news story.

This all relates back to the London Mayoral elections. Old Boris declared that come the 1 June 2008 it would be illegal to carry open containers of alcohol or to drink alcohol on public transport (tube/bus/DLR/trams) the idea being that if people were discouraged from getting drunk on the way to pubs and clubs, they would be a little soberer by the end of the night and less violent, as well as not scaring the shit out of regular travellers who were afraid to get into a carriage with a bunch of drunks. It seemed fair enough, in twenty years I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve drank alcohol on public transport, usually New Years Eve… Yes, I am a goody two shoes however I’ve probably snorted more lines of narcotics on the top deck of a bus, horses for courses

Well, anyway. Some bright sparks decided that they should mark the end of liberty by encouraging everyone to get on the tube and get rollicking drunk in a protest against the law. Can anyone hear disaster waiting to happen? Of course we doom sayers were proved right as stations were closed due to alcohol related incidents, Underground staff were assaulted, police were assaulted and lots of people were no doubt waking up today with very sore heads, caused either by alcohol consumption or the effects of being twatted on the head by a bottle being thrown by one of those liberators of freedom.