All in All

It's funny how your opinion changes over time.

Way back in the Seventies, I remember watching Sparks doing 'This Town Ain't Big Enough' and being unimpressed to put it mildly. Who were these guys? A camp man in frills and flares with a high voice and a weirdo looking like Hitler. They never went away either, the Eighties came and they were there again, with 'Best the Clock' and 'Number One Song in Heaven'. I was still unimpressed.

Then, back in, I think 2000, I was round a friend's house and he played me 'Plagurism', their album of re-interpretations of their old stuff and I just couldn't believe how wrong I'd been all these years. This re-appreciation continued and Ian and I saw them debut the 'Lil Beethoven' show at Festival Hall and it was without a doubt one of the greatest shows of the year. Two years ago Morrissey invited them to perfrom their debut album 'Kimono in my House' and 'Lil Beethoven' in their entirety at his Meltdown, it was a highlight of the summer and needless to say both albums are on constant rotation for me at home now.

The new album 'Hello Young Lovers' comes out Monday and we are seeing them live mid February. I can't wait, Sparks are great.

George Galloway said that he was entering the Big Brother house so that he could reach a wider audience with his views on Iraq and suchlike.

He didn't really think that Channel 4 would allow him a soapbox for unchallenged political views did he? My understanding is that there needs to be contrasting political views for any televised debate (hence a mix of parties on Question Time), so unless any other housemate wished to challenge his opinions he will always be silenced. And as none of the housemates strike me as being intellectually capable of having a political debate this was a non-starter. Instead, Mr Principles and Credibility has been pretending to be a cat and now wearing a red leotard to act bewilderment with trannie Pete Burns using Robotic dance as a medium.

He is so over.

Absence, as they say, makes the heart grow fonder.

You may be aware from reading Ian Mac's blog (check the link - I now do links too, will wonders ever cease?), Ian has been offered a too good to pass up on job opportunity which will mean that he will be based in Glasgow for the most part of the year. It was only yesterday that Marfa and I drove him to the station laiden down with suitcases and it truly sank in what this actually means and how much I am going to miss him. There's a silence in the house now that is almost deafening.

It's not all bad, and he will be back most weekends, and I plan to visit him and see what Glasgow is truly like as often as possible, and lets face it, time is flying by too fast at the moment so the year will most likely pass in the blink of an eye, but that doesn't mean I won't be missing him terribly.

But we are not the first to be in this position by a long shot, so we can't really complain. How often has my friend Major Bill been away on tours of duty since I first met him? Ian's sister and brother-in-law, Ann and Sid, are based in Australia but Sid spent most of last year in Cambridge, UK, teaching. My father had the opportunity of a 2-year scholarship in the US back in 1959 when he and my mother were engaged and in days before email and when long-distance telephones were expensive and difficult, they wrote to each other every day, and this year will celebrate 46 years of marriage. So frankly, being in Glasgow until December with weekend visits every other weekend and the occasional week working in London is nothing.

So I miss you, Mac, but I'll talk to you every day and see you at the weekend. Love you, boy

So I've just been to the bank to sort out a savings account book which I though I had mislaid, only to discover that someone has stolen it and emptied my account of a four figure sum of money. I now have to report the theft at the police and then give the bank the crime report to see what they can do about refunding my money, if at all possible. This will take time and I am not convinced that I will ever see my money again.

I am so angry at the moment, I am ready to explode. Frankly the electric chair in the photo is too good for them, if they ever get caught, but google images could not provide me with a picture of someone getting his balls cut off with a blunt and rusty penknife whilst having his tackle eaten by rats.

Really, really furious.

And a Happy 2006 to you all.

Originally I was going to do a detailed month-by-month or season-by -season round up of the year but you just know what I'm like, I'd never get round to it.

So instead, I'll do a round-up via the general themes of what I like and talk about, giving my highs, lows and anythign else that comes to mind.

Music

As the year started, the band I was most excited about and had highest hopes for was Kaiser Chiefs. I'd seen them live towards the end of 2004 and they were great. The album came out and I played it to death for the first month or two. Then fatigue set in. Frankly, I now don't care if they ever played again. I despise their blatant hype, marketing and ego. I'm so bored with them. Sorry Boadwee, we'll just have to agree to disagree with this one.

Arcade Fire and Anthony and the Johnsons, however, fully lived up tot he hype. Arcade Fire at Kings College was one of the gigs of the year, despite the attempt by some coked up record company arse to ruin it for us. I hope his peroxided girlfriend cheats on him with all his friends.

Architecture in Helsinki and The Decemberists have great potential to be new bands of the year. It's great to see people enjoying themselves on stage, as opposed to those who take it all too seriously.

The Born To Run 30th anniversary box set reissue was fantastic.

Film

Frankly I don't watch films often so this is a bit of a non starter.

All I can comment on in this box is Star Wars 3 (nice to see how the story all plays out, but strangely, I thought it looked a bit rushed and not to the same level of perfection on production values as the others)

Oh, and I saw the Incredibles and Team America on dvd. Both worth seeing.

Comics

What a year for DC. Identity Crisis concluded and although a lot of people were not happy with what happened in the story, it was well written and it did keep me wondering who the villan was right up to the end almost.

The lovely Donna Troy is back and she's frankly everywhere at the moment, which can only be a good thing.

Infinite Crisis is proving to be a good read and a great thing to look at. Who will die? Plenty have already but we still need a few real big names to go.

Seven Soldiers is eating away at my wallet like nobody's business. But that's good.

We3 was fantastic, but frankly anything by Grant Morrison is always something that I have high hopes for.

Fables just gets better.

The World

What an awful year for natural disasters.

Iraq is still a mess, this will forever tarnish Blair's legacy

No-one has tried to take a pot shot at Bush, surprisingly. is this because Cheney would be even worse?

People

The Royals continue to be a constant source of amusement.

Can't say I like the new Pope, especially his Christmas hat.

I am so fed up of Pete Doherty (sorry again Boadwee). Overrated waster scum in my opinion.

Two new Hitchman's joined the world - adorable babies, not that I'm biased

Gushing finale

Thanks to everyone who made the year the great one that it was.

To everyone who came to our 40th birthday party

To Kieran and Janet - best gig-buddies in the world

To everyone overseas - Daniel in Sydney, Bill in Washingtion, and of course Boadwee and Kennybeans in California. Here's hoping to see each and every one of you this year some time.

To little lady Marfa, we have a lot of quality time ahead of us together this year.

But most of all, to Ian Mac, without whom it all would have meant nothing. Here's to our new year together, to our "wedding" in the summer, to our life forevermore. Love you, boy.

xxx

A