In the last few months I've watched a couple of rock docs that are about 30 years old that I didn't even know existed at the time. One about Rockpile (Born Fighters) and the other about XTC (XTC at The Manor) both based around the recording of a single track. Both were excellent. Both were quite easy to find. There must be lots of these things, originally transmitted, maybe on a regiaonal ITV channel, probably at about midnight.
Anyone got any more examples?

At the start of December I sent back my 6 year old 4G 1st Generation iPod nano because they said it might catch fire.
All the newspaper articles at the time suggested that I would get a refurb 1st gen as a replacement.
Today my nice shiny 6th gen 8G model arrived.
If anyone else has one in a drawer somewhere then perhaps it's time to get on the Apple website and get them to send you a jiffy bag!

I'm sure that, since it was last discussed, a lot of you are now owners of Android tablets. I was going to wait until they dropped to under £200 to jump in but the offers around at the moment (especially on the 10inch Lenovo tablet) are tempting me to press the order button.
Has anyone got any horror stories? Are they really mature enough yet? If I got one, it would mainly be used at home. Don't mention the i-word, I'm really not interested even if they are better for a lot of things.

I was looking for the Graham Parker website and alongside the results, Google gave me this:

I think he should be slowing down a bit but I see he still works 7 days a week... I see that gigs need to be over by 10pm though!
I wonder what info Google used to make up this bit of composite "help".

I used to get an Amazon email around once a week, perhaps less than that. I used to read them all (or most of them). I now get at least one a day. I now don't even download them. Am I the only one that Amazon overload means that they're missing their target completely?

I know this may be a small sub group but any Sparks fans that haven't fully invested in the latest album might like to know that both the English version and the original Swedish version are available now .... for the price of one track each. I' not sure if it's a mistake but I reckon both albums have just cost me a total of 28.3 pence which seems like a bit of a bargain to me!

I'm sure a lot of us will get an email from Amazon to tell us this is available but a Loose records sampler is always a thing is beauty. I've always been happy to pay for them but the latest one is free...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00606L0WA

I know there are people that have been because it's been mentioned before but what's it really like there?
We're considering a few nights in Edinburgh during the festival and, especially as we already know it's going to be quite pricey, I'm looking for tips. Is it best to stay in the centre or is the park and ride a sensible bet to save a few pounds (and possibly be able to justify another night). Is it quite easy to get tickets for things. We're mainly interested in seeing comedy so is there a chance that you can get a bit comedied out? Do you prebook everything or just get the things you really want to see and then go with the flow?
Is it really as good as the performers give the impression that it is or are we better off seeking out a much smaller comedy festival?

I know it seems an odd time of year to be thinking of next summer (assuming we have one next year!) but the hotels are already getting booked up.

How odd. I've been sitting here for the last half hour waiting for the football to start and every record player on the PA has been a bizarre cover version. Some have been well known songs.
but along the way, themes been a Mott The Hoople cover and a cover of Peter Pumpkinhead!! Things have changed at the football.

Now I know that, for some, the answer will be last week but for the rest of us that have mu desire to buy any more vinyl, can you remember what the last vinyl album you bought was? It's one of those things that probably didn't seem momentous at the time so you could be forgiven for not being sure. For me, I think it was the first Carlene Carter album that I bought in a little ship on Music Row in Nashville in 1991. I don't think it had ever been released in England, and I didn't even know it existed (the Internet was still some years away) I nursed it through the rest of my trip and back home before I could listen to it (along with all the cds I bought because I didn't even have a portable cd player back then).

Has the (official) announcement of the new Kindles from Amazon "fired" up your interest or is it a damp squib?
I know that they're not going to be available in the UK from the start but they will be eventually surely and if they're the same price as they are in the States, they will be very tempting indeed. I know it's not an ipad, I know it's not got a big screen but if it's anything like as good and responsive as the colour Nook (which I assume it will be) then, about £130 for a 7in tablet seems quite a bargain.
I particularly like Amazon's swipe, presumably at Apple:

There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.

If you head over to the Nick Lowe website (www.nicklowe.net), instead of the dreary, rarely updated fare you usually get is a link to download a couple of free tracks, one from the new album and an accoustic version of What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding (not sure if it's possible to have enough version of that song).
On top of that there are links to a load of videos of Nick over the years. I'm sure they've all been available elsewhere before but they're nice and easy to find now.. then just one simple click get you to the original dull and boring site.

Earlier today in an eaterie I had a bowl of soup, the bowl was the bread (stick with it, there will be a point to this). When I finished, my plate was clean, no sign of any soup or a bowl. I likened it to the leg of lamb in the tales of the unexpected and the GLW pointed out that everybody seems to know that episode.
Will we ever see the same thing again for a standard television series and are there any other examples of shared memories of a single episode? I don't think its fair to include sitcom because they often seem to be on continuous repeat.

Obviously The Word is the reliable handbook that many people use to help guide them through the modern world but in a bookshop this afternoon I spotted an alternative that some people might like to have a look at
http://www.mingle-mag.com/ .... perhaps not!

More bad news for bookshops. The last Borders bookstore in the US closed yesterday. That really leaves Barnes & Noble with a clear run... I wonder how long they'll last.