Volume 1 by David Lapham. Its a collection of the first 6 issues of his comic book series and is the best thing I have bought this week.
It's about kids, crime, capers, rock music, sex, suicide attempts, art theft, truth and storytelling. If David Lynch directed Kidulthood the comic version would be something like this.

Been there done that, yesterday. I bought exactly the sort of humungous flatscreen TV with all the trimmings that I've spent the last couple of years deriding at every opportunity.

Okay so I'm biased as an Apple user (and am looking at doing my bit for the economy with one of the new 24" iMacs) but I recently got an Apple TV and am loving it. Simple to setup and use, DVD's being ripped to hard drive as we speak, imported to iTunes and voila - lots of movie goodness from the comfort of the sofa. It also does airtunes with the MP3's.

You also get the double whammy of all this DVD ripping means you'll have to go out and buy a bunch of extra hard drives......

Pre-empted the Gordon Darling initiative yesterday to take Mrs B out for the annual tussle with a clothes shop and buy her an outfit for relative's weddng next weekend. Like pulling teeth let me tell you.

My dosh is currently in a post-ISA piggy bank (APR 0%) awaiting the much, er, awaited release (in Beany Arena anyway) of the new CD by Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin (their first since 1991). As webmaster of their Myspace domain I shall be party (it's my party) to a pre-release copy next week of said Green and Blue thingy. My review is imminent.

I had thought of travelling to Tokyo for their 3 concerts later in March, tickets a staggering £100 each, but thought The Green Mandelson would not approve. Wonder if The Word might like to send me? I have my own pen and writer's pad.

www.myspace.com/davestewartbarbaragaskin - samples coming soon.

...I rushed out and bought an iPhone.

A few hours later I got home to discover that there is literally no O2 signal in my flat.

Damn Gordon Brown.

I’d suggest everybody spends some of Gordon’s monopoly money on a copy of Fantasy Island by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson. Published in 2007, just before the economy went tits-up, it predicts the forthcoming catastrophe and explains why it was inevitable.
Meanwhile I’m lashing out about £150 on a new shower pump, which is terrifically exciting.
Anyone know any squirrel recipes?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantasy-Island-Larry-Elliott/dp/1845296052/ref=s...

Started last night, from Amazon UK:

Babylon 5 - The Complete Collection, on DVD, all TV series (including Crusade) and all the movies - £57.17

Keeps me in Mr Mandy's good books AND, by getting rid of acres of his old videos, clears shelf space for more of my books and CDs.

(I know B5 isn't top of every Word readers poll, but for those interested:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Babylon-Complete-Collection-Exclusive-Amazon-co-...

6 left in stock at time of posting)

Approach your favoured book outlet and buy an armful of Wordsworth Classics' "Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural" Series. £2.99 a pop and each one a stone-cold classic. If HP Lovecraft or MR James is your thing - and if not, why not? - then it's worth shelling out for as many as you can lay your paws on.

I've been thinking about a Nintendo DS for some time, also my laptop needs upgrading as it's shortly to become officially obsolete.

However I can't do anything about either this weekend as I'll be spending most of it in the assembly hall of my old high school "doing the sound" for rehearsals of an am-dram production of The King and I.

I'd be going for that Babylon 5 offer if I hadn't already bought the first two series and movie in separate boxes.

not very exciting but it's good to feel I'm doing my bit to drag the economy out of the mire.

It really is suprisingly good reading (only trouble is,I never get time to read anything else aside of course from Word Magazine)

I'm planning to target my spending in the pubs of old Grimsby this evening, thereby both doing my bit for the wider economy and also specifically addressing the concerns off the beleagured pub, beer and pickled egg industries. Will no doubt also target the fish and chip and mushy pea industries and possibly a nightclub or two later on to round of my good work.

My middle name is selfless.

I have recently been devouring the novels of shirley hazzard and overusing my new hard drive video recorder - would recommend both.

I've got a nice day off today, and have done my bit for the country by buying the Alela Diane LP, and will soon be off for a wax.

... the weather is nice today, and when I was out yesterday I had Love's Theme playing on my ipod. The combination of sunshine and music made me think I was in a film. This was far too nice an experience not to recommend to everyone else...

I've been considering one of those little netbook PCs for no other reason than pure whim ... but unfortunately the car insurance is due. Bugger!

but there don't seem to be any decent discs around yet.

Finally giving in and buying one after much research and debate. Saturday, John Lewis will see me do the deed.

Wish me luck.

...we should all be buying property or gold because the expectation is that hyper-inflation follows Quantitative Easing.

I am buying myself a nice pair of shoes.

It's only a tenner (or £30 for the hardback). It's the biography of Robert Oppenheimer, generally referred to as the father of the atomic bomb. He was so much more - a polymath, a complex political man and a victim of McCarthyism. I've just started it so can't really give it a wholehearted endorsement and say it's a brilliant read; but on the other hand you'll be hard pushed to find a bad review. I'm anticipating that it will engross, thrill and enlighten me. I believe it's also very light on the physics of an atomic bomb, so don't let that put you off.
I might buy some of those Sennheiser earphones recommended elsewhere in the blog the other day.

Am I the only who feels weighed down with the tonne of crap we all buy.

Buying a new amp recently meant I did get nice new sounds but I'm also left with several huge boxes, bits of polystyrene, strange cloth bags the thing came in and some cheap cables I don't need.
I also can't see simply buying more stuff on credit (collective credit this time) is really going to help anyone in the long run oh and now I hear the Wire is going to be on normal telly I crossed that off my list.

Getting hit with the new pension Levy this month, that's about €400 a month out of my pay from now until retirement, and the tax rate is going up the following month. So long good times...

Bought this combo amp second-hand from my favourite Norwich emporium on Monday.

Got it for a good price, and they threw in a cheap acoustic guitar, which I've given to my delighted grand-daughter. (This was, nonetheless, much better than *my* first guitar, since she doesn't need both hands and a G-clamp to hold down a chord....)

I`ve just been shown the delights of Spotify by the good people at `The Word`. I would love to stream this to my dowstairs hi-fi. How can it be done. I already have Sky+ and other convetional wired bits. What do I need. Keep it simple so I can keep up though.

I'd read Iceland were struggling, but adding CDs to their frozen food portfolio seems very strange !!

I don't want anything. A bit of peace and quiet to myself would be nice.

Three things
1. I was thinking of getting a new car so as DH has now given me permission I'll focus the mind more and splash the cash.
2. If I call the nearest and dearest "darling" permission is more likely to be overridden!
3. How are we supposed to afford all this when at the same time that GB has put more money in, the Bank of England has reduced my income in the form of interest rate cuts.

My daredevil consumer assualt to save the nation's economy will see me acquiring a Pure Avanti Flow DAB radio, iPod dock, internet radio, space shuttle launcher, etc. Looks great, you can plonk your iPod on it, pick up podcasts off t'web, stream music to it from your PC, oh and err... listen to the radio. Just need to work out how to link it to Spotify and you have the mother of all jukeboxes. Not actually seen or heard one yet but a a couple of gushing reviews on the internet has sold it to me.

... I got a very nice reminder to re-subscibe to The WORD by publisher Jerry P to-day; and at a very attractive rate (My wife went the hairdresser to-day and that was more expensive!)

Will be sending off the form to-morrow.

Hope this helps your economy :-)

Coat i was give at my 21st is getting a little tight, no doubt due to my failure to stretch it properly as a young chap at college. nothing to do with putting on a few pounds over the years....

Actually i was planning to take myself to Brocklehursts for a new coat and perhaps matching trousers, if Gordon is paying where should Isend the invoice?

As far as more music goes I am very tempted to explore more Brad Mehldau after excellent R3 Podcast-heard the radio version
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j0g0b
so don't yet know if his cheeky cover of Wonderwall, or rather more admiring version(s) of Paranoid Android are included in 'cast.

Meanwhile I am starting to think about a media PC etc for my weekday/some weekends (small) flat where I have an Arcam Solo,
http://www.arcam.co.uk/products,solo,Music-Systems,SoloMusic.htm
classic Mission 770 speakers and a Panasonic LCD TV. I'd like uncompressed access to CDs, easy access to things like iPlayer etc.

Based in part on comments on Word site I am thinking one way will be to get one of these servers
http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=67
for putting music and backups on, one of these
http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html
for playing essentially music from the server even when the PC is off, and one of these
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_mini?mco=MTE3M...
to do at least iPlayer/iPod servicing etc, but possibly quite a lot more depending on how well it works with a TV tuner etc.

I know many of you watch TV on laptops, use Spotify a lot etc etc. My query is slightly different, how well do Squeezebox/iMac and their ilk replace good-quality AV equipment e.g. do you notice that you are playing a ripped DVD and not a real one, or a FLAC file and not a CD etc ?