The mysterious DF has seen me and made my dreams come true with a spot in Venue magazine’s I Saw you. He got all the details right but little did he know there was a Daily Mail inside that Guardian, I was whistling The Corrs version and it was a tin of plums.

I used to think Yesterday was a Wet Wet Wet original. I blame Now 22 and my parents only playing Chris De Burgh and the Cats soundtrack around the house (artists are always talking about the music they were brought up on - I am proud of my heritage, but fear the question should I ever be interviewed). I repeated the mistake yesterday when I started raving about this amazing new song ‘Ruby Tuesday‘by Franco Battiato and got mocked! This version (pah!) is from the Children of Men soundtrack and is slightly marred by an opera singer warbling at the end. What else am I missing out on???

Ruby Tuesday - Franco Battiato

Last year Channel 4 showed a documentary about a New England chorus of pensioners singing contemporary pop songs. Boonbeans and I had to watch Young@Heart in different rooms as grown boys can’t get misty eyed in front of each other (cry like babies). In this clip Fred Mittle has to perform Fix You by Coldplay solo as his duet partner Bob Salvini died a few days earlier. Choke.

I knew Tigercity had to be from New York, this is like the soundtrack from A Beat on The Loose the unmade 1983 bratpack blockbuster starring Judd Nelson and Lea Thompson as two kids straight outta school, trying to start their lives as the Big Apple swelters in the hottest summer since the end of prohibition. It’s also like disco Steely Dan.

Tigercity - Are you sensation?

I got a record player for Christmas that came in bits, with things like little weights on fishing line you had to hang somewhere and weights to balance on prongs. The only record I had to test it with was a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 7″ which made me think something was not quite right. So I visited their myspace to make sure all these sounds were supposed to be there and came across this amazing thing by Windmill:

I managed to find a couple of songs, unfortunately neither are the one in the video. It’s like the Langley Schools Project doing Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, my primary school music teacher used to make us sing pop hits (Bridge over Troubled Water, If I had a Hammer, I Believe etc.) so this sort of thing makes me feel 4 AND ALIVE!

Windmill - Tokyo Moon
Windmill - Racing

It’s Christmas Eve, it’s dark and my cockles are being over warmed by this laptop. To soundtrack your festivities I recommend these tracks from Olo Worms Lionheart and Delifinger - as spectacularly debuted at Mr Wolfs

JOYEUX NOEL FROM HELL - Delifinger & Lionheart - A whispered festive lament.

MILKMAN - Olo Worms - A cold tail of goblins and the mysterious penny nipple, wrapped up in a lighters in the air chorus

To celebrate the end of the year I’m turning jimtendo.co.uk into a super fresh new MP3 blog, joining an already heaving bandwagon. To kick things off I’ve spent literally minutes compiling my Top 10 Blog Finds of 06 (as overall top 10 would mainly be softrock) so ignore the width, feel the quality.

They Shoot Horses Don’t They - Lowlife - The first song instantly breaks the conceit of this thing, as I first came across They Shoot Horses Don’t They when I was living in Vancouver (yah!) unfortunately I never saw them play as I was too scared to go to gigs on my own in East Hastings. I did think ‘nice name’ I’ll name drop them, and now I have. The song is like ska would be if it was any good. myspace/theyshoothorses

The Blow - True Affection - This is a great song to have on your myspace. With cutting lyrics about how hot you are, it sends the perfect message to the objection of your affections who you hope is stalking you. The best opening bleep of 2006. myspace.com/theblowus

My Latest Novel - The Reputation of Ross Francis - A stomping, folk anthem - great for breaking into heaven and righting wrongs. myspace.com/mylatestnovel

Mobius Band - Loving Sounds of Static (Junior Boys RMX) - The NME’s invented Indie Rave (when I read it we had NAM -’The New Acoustic Movement’ - gah!) which is lucky as this songs benefits from some nice throb with indie yearning. myspace.com/mobiusband

Amy Millan - Skinny Boy - Amy’s after a skinny boy, he sounds like a depressed Mick Jagger. She asks nicely though. myspace.com/amymillan

Wild Beasts - Brave bulging buoyant clairvoyants - My housemate walked into my room and asked ‘Is this Kate Bush?’ THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW. Oh, I saw in the Guardian their ‘tipped’, remember I was there second. myspace.com/wildbeasts

Man Man - Van Helsing Boombox - I’ve resisted looking at any pictures of this band as I like to imagine the lead singer looks like the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk crossed with Jack White - which he probably doesn’t. myspace.com/wearemanman

Shearwater - Turn Your Transmitters Off - What’s the Frequency Kenneth? for 2006. myspace.com/shearwater

Marissa Nadler - Diamond Heart - This one makes my speakers go odd during the chorus. myspace.com/songsoftheend

Annuals - Complete or Completing - I’m seeing Annuals peering out from all the usual magazines at the moment, their December’s Arcade Fire if ever I heard one. myspace.com/annuals

So that is 2006. I’m going to try my best to keep this up to date with choice picks from blogland and maybe a few songs from some pals.

Just had a little Hapland style (ripoff) game for Reed (ironic, as they never found me any work when I was on the dole) go live. It’s quite fun, taken far too much time and please don’t tell me about any bugs. If you want me to make you a Flash game I will, but only for a bundle of cash.

Arthur Russel - Keeping Up [192kps 8.8mb]

more to follow…

There’s something enjoyably sinister about this. I imagine someone in a basement scribbling crosswords in green ink whilst surrounded by dolls heads stolen from a skip round the back of BHS. But like the maniac i’m giving up the material for a Midsomer Murdersesque police drama featuring the ‘Crossword Killer’ (I would improve that name though) Just send me 50p via paypal.

I had a day of hijinx in Weston-super-Mare to celebrate my birthday. Here’s the best bits:

I’ve been terribly busy lately but managed to fit in a weekend at the Llama Music Festival in Lynton and Lynmouth. Heres a film about it by myself and OLO pal Delifinger

Oxfam offer a terrifying glimpse into the buying habits of Bristolians. It seems my favourite past time of reading a steamy Mills & Boon with Bach crackling away in the background is not shared. Neither are Bristolians interested in knowledge or condensed stories of real life drama.

I blame the internet.

Bristol Temple Meads station earlier today. Luckily my coffee went unmolested.

My parents live next to a river and at this time of year mother nature is putting on her best slap and getting down the aquatic discotheque to bag herself any fowl worth a fling (see what I did there?).

Whilst my shrivelled black heart is briefly raised by the sight of ten ducklings waddling across the road, unfortunately a disabled swan lives in my parent’s garden and he cannot fly away to find a mate, so has decided to take the reflection in the greenhouse as his partner. This makes growing tomatoes very difficult. After several pecks the men in green polo shirts (RSPCA) have been called in to talk some sense into him.

This has provided some great pics as the swan was literally put in a straight jacket and bundled into the back of a van.

Hilarious Juxtaposition Time