With Amy Winehouse. I am not about to sell out and say how much I like her. I cannot stand the woman or her singing. The reason I mention her is that I had the misfortune of seeing a performance from the T in the Park Festival on the BBC. The woman – who still manages to look like a drag queen – was stumbling around, teetering on her feet looking ready to collapse at any moment.

She wasn’t even singing, she was just pushing out sounds, not even enunciating and the crowd cheered every time it sounded like something they’d heard on the radio. Is this really to be encouraged? This cocaine-karaoke? I’d never felt more disgusted. Get help.

Though, on the plus side, it was followed by an incredibly tight and powerful performance by R.E.M who played as if it was still 1995.

What else… U2: friend or foe? It’s easy to hate them thanks to Bono and the stadium bozos they’ve become but they used to make some great tunes. Running To Stand Still? Brilliant. I’ve just done the lone U2 entry on my Essential Albums blog and no, it’s not Joshua Tree.

Let’s see… more fun at work. A week that’s seen our team win the rounders tournament and me bag a 2nd place trophy after a day out that included a morning’s Go Karting.

See:

That’s me in there. Though after hitting the wall of tyres not winning this:

Still, as the man says, I’d rather have more money in the bank than fun at work.

There’s finally a practice session on the near horizon for BrokenOrchestra too. Just in time as I’m not far off leaving for my holiday and I have a good mind not to come back. I’m itching to record the tracks I’ve written so I can build the other layers on them I hear in my head. After the claustrophobic sound of the last album I’m trying to create a more open, lighter sound but one built on melody not just noise. So we shall see.

My mother seems to hold the belief that constant online challenges at WordTwist, Scramble and Srabble equate to communication.

A little while ago I came upon an idea that I then voiced to Linda at my sister’s wedding: Hate Hearts. You know those little hearts that say things like “Wuv U” and other sick-bucket fillers? Well I thought there’d be a market – a novelty one, mind – for a more cynical candy. “Get Fucked,” “Screw Off” and “Choke On This” being my original conceptions. Well, in an unrelated browse of the Google images section I seem to have, once again, been beaten to the punch:

Perhaps, then a line of “Chav Hearts” with “innit” “yeah boi” and “SAFE” inscribed upon them? C’mon sweet manufacturers, buy my idea, I’m cheap!