this is the eeeeeennnnndddd of the woooooooorld

google's broke. how am i supposed to find new stuff to waste time looking at at work when google's bust? yeah, i know there are other engines, but that's not the point (or perhaps it is). regardless, google can't be broken. google's never broken. fuck it. google's broken. 1 hr 40 minutes and counting til i'm out the door. here's hoping for some exciting breaking news story (apart from google going down obviously) to give my refresh button a workout. and in case you think i'm slacking, i'm not. there's fuck all to do anyway. how does factor sound? i'm not sure. might have potential. and you're not sure what i'm on about, and are probably only here cos google's bust and u can't find anything else to look at.

lee in the park - sunday

sunday's line-up was always the more attractive of the two and things were set to get off to a good start with a double whammy of the scissor sisters and franz ferdinand. considering it was the middle of the afternoon the crowd who had turned out was huge. being a sunday, and also having only just returned to 3d after being squished in front of the nme stage last night it was decided we wouldn't squeeze our way to the front. scissor sisters came on and injected a much needed dose of disco into precedings, camping it up in spectacular style. even the weather seemed to be enjoying itself, with the sun putting in a brief experience. their set came to an interesting end when lead singer jake, who'd be sporting a rather fetching tartan toga throughout managed to drop it in front over everyone giving about 30 thousand odd people an eyeful of him naked as the day he was born. next up were returning local heroes franz ferdinand so gave pretty much every act playing that weekend a run for their money, and unlike a few other people genuinely seemed to be having a ball up there. they're set was over all too quickly, with more of less their whole album and a couple of b-sides played, highlights being love and destroy, take me out and michael. what a delight it was to see a load of pissed up scotish holigans singing and dancing along to a song requesting michael to "come all over me". the end of their set meant it was time for my mid afternoon nap, overpriced food break and a trip to the ever delightful portaloo (too much info??). the napping didn't happen so instead it was frisbee time, with possibly the world's worst frisbee (available for 99p from your local wilkinsons). after a while i left my compatriates to their three legged frisbee game to try and find someone who i was meant to be meeting. tho having said that it's not very easy finding one person in a crowd of 60 thousand, when your phones not working and you can't stop thinking they look like beck! so once that had been given up on, i wandered round to the tut tent to catch the end of amy winehouse before mull historical society came on. only thing worth saying is that she should be called whinehouse and she overran. it make no secret of the fact that mull historical society are one of my fave bands, and they show the put on at T was pretty damn good. the presence on stage of a large dog wearing a wig more than made up for the lack of british sea power's big bear. despite a short set, and colin seeming to be pissed as a fart, the home audience who aren't quite as obsessive as me seemed to enjoy themselves. seeing as it was sunday afternoon it was time for some well deserved lazing, in the shape of some ice cream. somewhere in the background the kings of leon were moaning about something or other, maybe it's cos we weren't in quite the right place to hear it properly but they're set seeming pretty uninspired and didn't do much to brighten up a grey and dreary afternoon. the band who were next up on the main stage had been getting quite a few people hot and bothered all weekend. the pixie live is a big deal apparently, cos they've not been doing that sort of thing for a while. personally i'm not an obsessive fan of theirs, i've got myself a nice little selection of mp3s of the usual suspects (which were all present and correct) and i like what i've heard. anyway, the point being i thought they were just a little ordinary and it seemed that frank black (francis... whatever) and co were more or less going through the motions. pleasant enough though. with one of the biggest bands around second on the bill, who would have the pleasure of bringing t to a chaotic end? the strokes, that's who. and they did not disappoint. if you made it throught to the end of my saturday update you would have seen my top 5 all time gigs, well the strokes at ally paly are just squeezed out to number 6, and only by a tiny margin. their two albums are great, and live they're awesome. julian casablancas is clearly well and truely off his face, at one point hiding underneath the drumstand, but that mean's he's pretty chatty, albeit erratically. once the band kicks in the they're a force to be reckoned with. a perfect way to end the weekend really. in case it isn't obvious i kinda got a bit bored of writing this half way thru sunday so i'd imagine you got really bored reading it. normal service will be resumed shortly.....

lee in the park - saturday

saturday started reasonably last. once the initial shock of waking up in a glorified plastic bag in the middle of a field in deepest darkest scotland it was time for a slow meander over to the arena for the first batch of music. second on the bill of the main stage were the beta band, who i have to admit although i'd always been a little curious about had never really listened to. they're 45 minute-ish set proved to be the unexpected hit of the weekend and was inspiration enough for me to get (ie download) a few of their songs on my return to civilization. next up was the zutons, who have only got one song that i'd heard and by the time they were done, i felt like that was plenty for my liking. i'd like to think it was for a reason other than the fact looked like he should be called barney and working behind a fruit and veg stall on a market somewhere. perhaps i could use the excuse that it's often difficult to get into a band for the first time when seeing them live. but i can't, seeing as they were followed by british sea power whose slot supporting the strokes at ally pally last year had made me go on out and buy their album (and in this case i actually parted with some money for it. in a shop and everything). it's fair to say that bsp can be a bit of an acquired taste. at least this time out they weren't in their military uniforms. after a nice little instrumental intro (which i was convinced would erupt into a song sitting at the back of my brain but never did) they rattled thru their set. Highlights had to be the crazy drummer (i should learn peoples makes and be polite but i can't be bothered) wandering thru the crowd in remember me. while i thought they were pretty fab, on a par with the strokes support gig, it would have been nice if they'd played more than 3 songs from their album which would have allowed for more bounciness and singing along. also a minor disappointment was the lack of the big bear, who apparently has danced his last. RIP. a marked improvement on the zutons tho, and i'm looking forward to the new album. that was saturdays first batch of music, and it was time to head back to the campsite for a food break in association with tesco's value range and a quick bit of kip. although the kipping was a little overlong, because by the time we'd treked back to the arena the king tut tent where a last minute addition ash were about to get into action, it was already full and we were forced to improvise. unfortunately in this case, improvising meant heading over to the nme stage to make sure we'd be in a good place for the libertines and muse who was headlining saturday. unfortunately in this case, improvising also meant we were there well before the libertines were due onstage and instead had to dubious pleasure of being in a prime position to witness the wu tang clan. to be honest, the least said about that the better really. evidently it's really not my thing, but the gaggle of kevs who had beseiged the stage seemed to enjoy themselves (tho our resident gangsta in chief ian claims they weren't much cop). following a mass exodus and influx of newbies, the libertines wandered on, minus one mr peter doherty. i've not heard a lot of the libs stuff but what i've heard i liked and was quite looking forward to seeing them. maybe i was expecting too much cos i wasn't that blown away. they were definitely good, but nothing particularly exceptional i thought. maybe i was still in a state of wu tang related shock? one band who could be relied on in the blowing away department were muse. how the darkness (who were headlining the main stage saturday night - why?) can claim to be the best british rock band around when these guys are still in business is beyond me. the whole set was truely amazing. that matt belamy's a clever bunny and he can do things with a guitar and piano, and not to mention his voice, which people really shouldn't be allowed. i can't really explain what was so good about them but they were by a fairly safe distance the highlight of the weekend for me and up there in my top 5 live performances ever i think (the others being: REM @ brixton academy, björk, radiohead and MHS at the ICA (i think)). time for a hike back to the campsite, a bit more overpriced drink and food....

q in the park

come about 7 o'clock friday night i'd successfully convinced myself that t in the park was actually only called that because of an unfortunate typo when someone missed the letter q. getting up at stupid o'clock in the morning and joining rush hour complete with a couple of bags and a big fuck off tent is not an experience i'm in any rush to repeat. the 4 hours sat on a train was pretty harmless enough, but pouring out onto the platform at edinburgh was were the real fun began. in our infinite wisdom we'd decided not to bother booking tickets for the bus from station to site and it would appear we're not the only ones. was our fault for not planning ahead, so can't grumble too much at an hour or so's wait to get the all important piece of paper. bargain, we'll be on site in an hour, tent up in half an hour and down the bar by 6. or not. there's a few people waiting for the buses (which are running every 10 minutes). oh look, a few more. not just a few, in fact, a mile and half long queue's worth. so another couple of hours of queuing and we were on a bus. the festival site is in a nice little corner of scotland called kinross which is about an hour out of edinburgh. off the bus and a bit more queuing and then we were in and searching for a spot to stick the tent, which took an impressive 10 minutes to get up. a while to explore, stock up on excessively overpriced beer and then off to bed with a stomach full of butterflies and anticipation for a weekend's music.

i'll take the rain

you've gotta love british summer time. i think someone should tell the weatherman (where's b*witched when u need em?). i wanted to go see the diana, princess of whales memorial log flume today but it was a bit too soggy. i made it as far as the serpentine gallery (which i decided is now official my favourite 'space' in london) but decided it was too rainy to be bothered to cross the road. 4 galleries in as many hours isn't bad going really. admittedly they were relatively fleeting visits but still. serpentine take longer to get to than to get round but they're always showing something interesting. popping into Tate Brit Michael Landy's Semi Detached and the current Art Now exibit. which i much admit, mainly due to not paying too much attention had me pondering the significant of a stool (of the sitting on variety) by the wall. that was until one of the security peeps went to sit on it. who's to say modern art is obtuse? that's one story i won't be sharing with my family because it'll be the start of the same argument we're argued too many times before. the national gallery was more a stop to shelter from the rain, along with all the opera fans who had been looking forward to an evening of culture. i've never been much of a fan of there to be honest. there's only so many picture of jesus or generic old man on horse i can look at. the usual suspect of turner, monet and van gogh still get a visit though. the national portrait gallery's always worth a visit, tho similar to the national, i seem to spend my time in the same rooms every visit. this time there was the added bonus of sam taylor wood's david, which shows mr beckham having a bit of a snooze. i'm sure it's a nice commentary on celebrity and art or something (i'm think a tenuous connection to leonardo here) but there's a load of her work i prefer. one think i noticed though was a load of little machines similar to what u get in classic b-movies juttering away when there's an earthquake coming. cue much stomping around trying to get it to wobble for me, with no descernable result (apart from a couple of strange looks). so that was london on a rainy wednesday in july. well that, and a couple of hours in strarbucks (boo hiss, i'm a sell out) with a book, some nice food (well, pizaa, but it filled a hole), a film and a beautiful meander back to waterloo in the dark. i make no apologies for the pretentious and overly artistic nature of this post. and i know this wasn't meant to be a today i did this type of thing, but it is what it is, and i'll let it be what it wants to be. expect something on tuesday about mud, tents and a whole load of great music (and a reasonably level of conflict i'd imagine). should make for a good weekend.

the adventure of the unefficient nuggets

who would have thought it? after crashing and burning on last week's music quiz (which we'd all like to think would be our specialist subject), not to mention getting in a fight with the moron running it (and for the record, the right answer was Obviously by Busted), "we've got colin's dog" (the team with the name that only 3 people understand) returned for the tuesday night bog standard pub quiz and didn't they do well! the fatal error of the previous week (saving the ever useful joker for a later round) was rectified and we were well off in the lead. as is all too often the case we peaked too soon and slowly slipped down the board a little, no thanks for rocky (twat) and his masturbating guinea pigs. however, in the end, and thanks in part to some unethical use of a mobile phone's calculator, we ended up in a more than respectable fourth place. and what's more importantly we beat the overly competitive people on the table next to us who were throwing their toys out of the pram because they couldn't hear the sound round (bless). and what, you might ask, did we get for our outstanding acheivment? nothing less than a nice crisp fiver! which, seeing as that's not easily split 3 ways was decided to be invested in some tasty chicken nuggets. more precicely 13 of them, following some extensive haggling and numberous attempts to pretend we were being offered 15. so roughly 39p/nugget which isn't too bad, except when u think u can probably get about 50 from sainsbury's for the same amount. but that's not the point, four each, and an extra one for me for driving and not being able to drink, although ironically the lack of alcohol in the system makes them a little less appetising. still can't complain really, a job well done all round.

my friend the addict

it seems my fondness for quoting song titles or lyrics as post titles hasn't faded, despite not having posted for a while (this one's from the new mhs album by the way). was gonna write something about mull gig last week and a close encounter of the star trek kind but that's all a bit last week now. anyway, the pressing matter today is google. more specifically google and me. as well as my fake plastic incarnation i have a really name with a real surname and a real website. that one's listed on google. which is nice, it's even listed quite highly on google. the second result when u search for my name (without the fakeplastic and with the real bit after) on UK google. which is nice. only problem is the number 1 result. not only is it someone else with my name. it's also a heroin addict with my name. which is hardly the sort of impression i want to give prospective clients for my amazing technicolour freelancing goodness (we'll forget for the moment that this is all dependent on people who are after amazing technicolour freelancing goodness searching for my name - which they wouldn't). anyway, that's why heroin addicts shouldn't have websites written about then cos it ruins other people's google results.