What nicer people do

Most of us, when not actively torturing children and small animals, tend to look after ourselves and our own comfort. My leisure time, for instance, is spent fencing, reading or making sure that my books and records are in the right order. Or ironing, which I find hugely rewarding and relaxing.

Other people - better people - quietly try to improve the lives of others. Take Christine and James, as we'll call them because those are their names. They spent weeks crocheting snowflakes, which they then hung on trees all round their town on Christmas morning before anyone else was up, so that the townsfolk could be delighted by a whimsical, lovely gift with no thought of cash or obligation.

See lovely pictures here.

Anyway, back to the spiders. Those legs don't come off on their own, you know.

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?

Hello carbon-based lifeforms. Out of bed yet? I've done one lecture this morning, and I've another in twenty minutes. Then a short break until 2, followed by another lecture at 3… tired already.

I watched Robocop 2 last night: what a very leftwing film it is, depicting as it does the dystopia which is the inevitable consequence of unrestrained capitalism. Public service is abandoned, individualism and profit dictate everybody's actions and the social fabric is undermined. Let this be a lesson to you all.

Meanwhile, Christine sent me this charming mail this morning. Perhaps you could deconstruct it for me?

Good morning Aidan. I hope the teaching is going well and that you still have a job.

This morning I read the following notice In the payment booth at Broad St car park:

Attendants at this booth will not accept coins that have been in your mouth.

I genuinely don't know why, but it made me think of you.

C

Join the caravan of love

Christine and James have won a 'pimped' vintage caravan, despite having only one car-parking space on their hill. I'm highly impressed, but we need details! Like WHY? And what happens to this wallpaper when it rains?

To win, they needed to write and perform a caravan rap. Hear it here. If you dare. More details of this folly here.

Man Ray (LaMontagne)

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Ray LaMontagne, of whom I'd only read in Word magazine. (Thanks, by the way, for your comments). Why do all American musicians have beards at the moment, except Kelly Deal? Talking of Kelly Deal, she really is the perfect woman: she's designed her own font and it's free! Her band The Breeders have a site called Breeder's Digest, which is rather brilliant.

I went because Christine and James had managed to book an extra ticket in a different area of the venue - so I ended up on my own, in the balcony, directly in front of the singer - brilliant. Less brilliant was sitting next to a yummy mummy and her daughters Portia and India (I'm guessing). Clearly Mr. LaMontagne and his support act, Radio 2-friendly Josh Ritter, are approved objects of middle-class desire. After they sneered at the scruffy fat singleton in a Green Lantern t-shirt, I sipped beer and read my Shakespeare commentary during the intervals. That showed them.

So anyway, the music. It was odd. I'd heard of LaMontagne and Ritter, and assumed that they were middlingly well-known sensitive folk-country artistes, and so they are. I didn't realise that Mr. Lamontagne is the object of freakish devotion - a mostly full hall (probably 2500) at £25 a go in Wolverhampton is truly astonishing. They whistled, stamped and cheered like Mormons at Joseph Smith's resurrection (don't write in - I've no idea if Mr Smith is expected to rise again, though I imagine the Church would like to know the whereabouts of the golden tablets detailing the Semitic origins of America's ancient peoples he 'received from the prophet/angel/time-traveller Moroni' and then 'misplaced' or 'returned to the angel' before anyone else got a look. Actually, Some Chilean Woman could enlighten us). But I digress. LaMontagne's music was good. It was country-folk-blues and the later the set got, the more impassioned he became. The band was beautifully lit in pools of liquid, varying light, and they stood on rugs, which added to the 1970s atmosphere.

Actually, they reminded me of the post-Slowdive band Mojave 3 but more country, which is high praise from me (listen to some here)!

Then home for the glorious, ambiguous and complex ending to The Wire… Here's LaMontagne on somebody's crappy mobile phone from a couple of years ago, in Wolverhampton. There's nothing up yet from last night's gig.

Your critical opinions are valued

I'm going to a gig by Ray LaMontagne tonight, as Christine and her husband James have a spare ticket. Any opinions? I've heard he's good, but never heard anything by him. I'll probably spend the afternoon checking out last.fm and Youtube stuff by him.

To boldly go(rgonzola)

Thanks to Christine, who sent me this article about space cheese! Somerset cheesemakers launched a cheddar cheese 30km up, to the edge of space, on a weather balloon. The idea was for the balloon to burst and the cheese to plummet to earth (surely it would melt on re-entry?) - but their GPS has failed so nobody knows where it is.

So, readers, look out for a massive block of cheese embedded with meteorites. Christine suggests this is a mission for the Map Twats, and I agree. Look to the skies, people, look to the skies!

Pies in our time

Mentioning my upcoming birthday (not for another week yet) is paying off handsomely. Not only have Owen and Bethan presented me with excellent books and stuff, Christine has come to my office bearing fine pie and quality real ales. So that's lunch sorted out anyway.

Chigloo

On another post, Neal and Christine have been debating the merits of cheese-based Arctic scenes. This is a picture from the site to which Christine left a link:

The site recommends adding blue cubes of gelatine for added icy authenticity.

I don't think we're in Wolverhampton any more, Toto

I promised photos of Bridgnorth, where the Map Twats descended on Christine and James, ate their Stinking Bishop (a phrase their ecclesiastical neighbours might misinterpret), drank their Pimms and left. I've added a couple of the conference I was at today. Please note that we borrowed the beer cans to add comedy value when I sent the photo to my boss. More pictures here, or click on the images for larger versions.

Mirror mirror

Thanks to Christine, who has pointed me here: I'll be contributing asap.