Another Day Off (Different Kind)

I was delighted to see the Sudanese released Gillian Gibbons today. It is utterly outrageous she should have been jailed in the first place, and it is totally unacceptable for her to have been treated like this over something that was clearly a mistake. If the Sudanese think they have scored points or won some sort of propaganda war with this overturned decision, they are greatly mistaken. This whole episode has only shown to the world how they enjoy floating in the backwaters of humanity. They have come out as huge losers in this, and done themselves, their religion, and their followers, no good service at all.

A lot of you will already know my musical opinions, leanings, likes and dislikes, but here’s another. I hate Christmas songs. You know the ones; the overplayed ones you only ever here on jukeboxes and TV adverts like Band Aid, Slade and of course, Cliff Richard. The Christmas Number One slot used to be a big thing, now it’s abused by record companies to make more money off the back of novelty songs or to add to the list of plastic awards for the latest winner of Pop Idol.

So why don’t we make NEW Christmas songs that are good? Why don’t we make songs that are original and actually SAY something about this time of year? Normally nobody can because they are squeezed out by the record companies, but there is hope, and this hope comes with a name: Malcolm Middleton.

Malcolm Middleton is a Falkirk lad and a “miserabilist” and he’s about to release his bid for the Christmas Number One spot with his new single, We’re All Going To Die, on December 17th.

Wait, don’t switch off – here me out.

The song is, as stated in Malcolm’s press release, “intended to make people think about being alive and making the most of our time here, which to me are your generic ‘Xmas’ themes.”

It makes sense and it’s a great track. It’s already gone from 1000-1 in the Bookies stakes (the longest odds ever given) to 9-1. Check it out and have a listen here: myspace.com/malcolmmiddleton, and help give those record company execs a kick in the balls. Listen to the song a couple of times, and I guarantee you will find yourself singing it to yourself when you least expect it.

Today’s advent message read:

School is out!
Snowkids can’t wait
to slide and ski
and celebrate.

I took the day off sick today, so I’ve not got a lot to report on I’m afraid. I still have this pain in the ass chesty cough going on. Last night when we got back from the Peacock Inn I thought the cough might have been on the mend, but no sooner were we in the door I had a coughing fit. It’s like a burning in my chest that makes me wish I could stick pipe cleaners into my lungs and force it out.

I did a lot of cleaning around the house that has badly been needing done. My office is getting a cleansing too, as I seem to build up boxes of “research” material, old newspapers and all kinds of little cut-outs that I keep for stories or character building.

I eventually found my carpet and was dismayed to find it has mucky stains on it so they had to be scraped and blitzed with chemicals but I got there in the end. I eventually sat down to the computer after dinner and did some work.

Gatecrash Progress