The possibilities are endless...

Seriously how good are The Steal? Been spinning Bright Grey constantly for about 3 weeks. Amazing record. Unfortunately most record buying has had to take a back seat till probably after Christmas, which is a bitch because I've found somewhere to get Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie for none-ridiculous ebay prices. They're playing in Edinburgh on November 14th, which I'm definitely going to try and make it.

Set up an international and erasmus student society at Uni and I happen to be the President. I was kinda forced into the role! But I'm looking forward to it - the first party should be on Saturday 15th. We should be having a pub night before then as well, probably the Sunday, Monday or Tuesday of that week. Should be fun yo.

Got a week off next week and I'm going home for it. Meh.

It's been a while

What the hell. I said I would try and keep this blog updated.

6 months and loads changes. Finished Germany in epic proportions - including a trip to Monaco and two to Berlin (one for a Rival Schools reunite show) - both of those were awesome as fuck. Spent loads of money, but I didn't really care at the time. I do now cos I have none.

Went to Barcelona, picked up sweet recs. Postal Service 2xLP was one of them. A sealed Pinkerton was another. Had a great time.

Worked at the castle all summer, which was fun. The shifts were pretty erratic though, and I needed to earn more. But I now live with Abbe in Edinburgh and it's great. We literally have no money though. I'm in the 5th week of Uni - it's tough but good at the same time. Did well in my first assignment so hopefully it'll continue.

I'm winning a Futures 2xLP at £4, with only a couple of hours left - so finger's crossed. Had a massive urge to hear Return Of The Space Cowboy again, so I'm trying to find a copy of that on wax. Shouldn't really be spending but fuck it.

I STILL hurt

This is ridiculous. It's like 3 days after I played Rugby and I still can't really move properly, let alone play any other sport. Fucking rugby. Still, going home was pretty awesome and the perfect amount of time to spend there really as only Edge, Andy and Matty were back, so not really many people to hang out with. I got to play my records again though, if only for just a brief time. Beer in Britain is fucking shit - horrible disgusting stuff.

Went out to Montagskneipe last night which was pretty cool actually, it's in a new place that does quite nice cocktails. Andy was hilarious, I knew exactly what would happen to him when I left to get the nightbus - he'll get off with Slovenia and go and get a MacDonalds. Lo and behold! She told him that she had a boyfriend when he tried to take it further though, ahahaha. Stupid bitch, why the fuck is she kissing him so fucking much? Girls are so stupid. Andy's a good lad though - much ripping will commence when I see him next. He fell asleep in Hbf, like all true drunkards, and finally got to bed after sleeping till the end of the number 7 tram in Böhlitz (exactly what I did two weeks ago).

It's Dad's birthday on Friday, so I got Mum to post my present from England today but there's no name or anything with it so I've got to buy a card and explain, haha. Andrea sent me an email 'reminding' me, cheers for that. Although I suppose my previous record with his birthday doesn't really help matters, it's not my fault that no-one has ever actually told me when it is - Mum can't even remember. I've never known when Grandma's is either, just that it's in 'early May'. I always send a card at around that time and hope that she gets it but no-one has ever sat me down and said 'your Grandma's birthday is on the 7th of May.' Fucks sake.

Curry tonight!

What happened to the good old days, I don't know.

I'm fucking siked cos there's a record fair this Sunday at Werk II, and I will be going along with quite a bit of money hopefully. I've already bought 5 LPs, NOFX - Pump Up The Valuum (blue marble, was cheap as fuck), Ataris - End Is Forever, At the Drive In - Live In Tokyo, Get Up Kids - Eudora and Propagandhi - Less Talk, More Rock and like 6 Get Up Kids 7"s. God I love vinyl. I played quite a few at Silje and Amalie's (AWESOME) party on Saturday, so that was sweet. I cannot wait to actually go home and be able to play these badboys whenever I want. There's some amazing shit available on Ebay, I just fucking hope I win it, especially after some wanker sniped me on a copy of Jimmy Eat World - Clarity for 27 Euros. Bastard, utter bastard. Still, Sunday looks like it's going to be an awesome day if I play it right. Wake up earlyish, record fair at 11, leave at 1pm, home by 1:30pm, win Rival Schools - United By Fate 2xLP at 13:37, Spanish Grand Prix at 2pm, Hundred Reasons - Ideas Above Our Station LP, Midtown/Donots split 7", Saves the Day - Can't Slow Down (maybe) and Saves the Day - In Reverie all ending on Sunday night. Fucking mint.

RIVAL SCHOOLS REUNITE! Jesus christ this news is seriously amazing. What's even better is that they're playing in Germany at a couple of festivals. Please please please please play a headline date somewhere in Deutschland. Fuck, I'll go seriously anywhere. Please. Even supporting Jimmy Eat World (in Leipzig, amazing) would do! I've got the unreleased stuff on .mp3, and it's well good so hopefully they'll be releasing that in the future. That United By Fate LP on ebay is sooo mine. Hands off, wankers.

Not sure if she reads this(!), but Abbe isn't mad at me for buying loads of records, haha. She actually warmed to the idea, which is nice. Next year we'll be spinning vinyl like there's no tomorrow. She seemed to draw a comparison with buying shoes, which I guess I can now understand. It really does take you over and if there's something you want then you just can't help yourself. I have quite an addictive personality anyway, but I really can't wait to get stuff in the post like my Tubelord - Feed Me a Box Of Worms 7" which is incoming. I almost spent 53 Euros on records today but had to drag myself out of the shop with just the NOFX and Ataris. No doubt I will buy the Mars Volta - Scab Dates and Minus the Bear - Highly Refined Pirates that I saw some time in the future. C'est la vie, n'est pas?

Football season's almost over, thank fuck. New fixtures released on June 16th, please give us Aldershot away at some point in the summer!

We set our hearts to self-destruct

Uni has begun. First class was solid. It was Translation from English to German of a text from The Economist, which is impossible for non-native speakers. Anyway, what the fuck does 'to roil' mean anyway? Stupid fucking Americans. The other classes have been way better, as they're from German into English so you can really work at getting something coherent and use amazing words like 'to garner'. Although there's only so much translation about lignite one can take.

Pretty much everyone I know registered for the trip to Berlin, but I didn't. Half deliberately really, but I kinda forgot. To be honest, I can't be fucked to go there with loads of people because I'd want to do my own thing and I think people might piss me off. I'm getting more and more like a miserable unsociable bastard, I guess it's the only child in me. Last Tuesday I went to the Moritzbastei to watch football, but I actually wanted to go alone. Loads of people found that wierd, but to me it's normal. Plus, the Berlin trip is next weekend and Dad's here this weekend so that'll be busy and I want to have a free weekend of not doing anything of note, you know? Obviously I want to do some work, but I also want to watch/listen to the football and stay up late watching QI and drinking beer.


I'm going to Barcelona again this summer and I can't wait! Going with Abbe's family so it should be fun, plus they're going to buying some of our food and everything so it'll all be cool. Looking forward to getting away and chilling out for a bit to be honest.

WE ARE STAYING UP. Seriously what a victory at Brighton. If we win our 4 remaining games I think we've got a chance of escaping, I really do. The tough one is Southend away on the last day of the season, for which I will be in Britain as well. How frustrating! Still, even if we don't stay up, we'll likely not finish bottom of the league, which is nice. I can't find it anywhere, but people need to see Danny Whitaker's goal from Saturday, absolutely outstanding.

Nothing is important to me anymore except for you

Fuck. My vinyl obsession has fucking escalated and moved into dangerous new ground. I'm going to have to buy a £300+ stereo system to listen to records because I've seen the At The Drive-In - Live in Tokyo (which is only available on 12"). Holy fuck, I've just found a guy selling so much cool stuff, including this, this, this, this and this. WANT. Now here's a dilemma, do I stay up all night to make sure that I win them, or do I set a respectable highest bid and hope that I win them. Even though I won't be able to play them, I have most of the songs anyway (all of the Get Up Kids stuff is on Eudora) so it's no big deal. I also want them delivered here, instead of back to the UK otherwise my parents will know that I've spent 30 odd quid on vinyl. Pretty fucking excited.



Also, the new Reuben EP is all kinds of awesome. I got it the other day but it wouldn't play in my laptop until today, but it was worth the wait. I've listened to it 13 times through already! There's nothing new on there from Reuben, just a single edit of Cities on Fire and a (fucking incredible) longer version of Shambles. Seriously one of my new favourite Reuben tracks. Gutted if you haven't pre-ordered online because it's limited to 500 copies and 1000 on sale at shows, so get that sorted out. Also, I know want to buy their entire back catalogue of 7" off Banquet, but I think I'll wait until loan day. The Ghost of a Thousand and Baddies tracks aren't bad either to be fair.

I seriously can't wait to hear all of these records if I win them. Mum's gave me her old stereo when I went to Uni and it's got a turntable so I might just try and use that until I get my own (probably when I go up to Edinburgh). I am definitely going to visit Avalanche Records more often. And start buying singles when they come out, because the B sides are, more often than not, awesome.

Also, note to self, don't keep getting so fucking drunk in front of people you don't even know that well. I think this picture speaks volumes of my state last night:


Fuck knows what happened there, maybe it was a smashed glass or something. I hope I didn't piss Silje off that much!

NO SPINNING

I've decided that table football is the greatest game every created. It's seriously amazing. There's this bar in Leipzig where you can go and have a few beers and play some table football (for free too!). The people that you play against are beyond belief though, they don't just randomly spin the players around, they always have control of the ball and when they score you don't see anything, all you hear is the ball crashing into the back of the goal. Seriously incredible.

So my Sprach- und Orientierungskurse are over tomorrow and I'm pretty glad because I'm fucking sick of getting up at 8am every fucking morning. It's doing my head in. But still, they've been fun and were an awesome way to meet new people. Keith and I met with Beate Herting as well today who was very nice. We've decided on courses we want to do but for some reason the lessons that last for 90 minutes count for 2 hours towards our 12 hour-a-week total. Win. I looked at doing "An introduction to simultaneous interpreting" but it's on Friday morning at 9:15, fuck that. Still, I'm pretty pleased with what's on offer and the facilities look to be pretty wicked, so we shall see how it turns out.

I've been watching quite a lot of British TV that I've stupidly never seen before like I'm Alan Partridge and Darkplace. I've downloaded them and as of yet have watched all of I'm Alan Partridge Season 1, it's absolutely brilliant.



Loving the massively fast internet connection and private trackers, can download at the speed of light. I've got a backlog of things to watch like a whole series of QI and Darkplace. But I have to keep my ratio above 1.0 so need to be careful.

All Midtown albums on shuffle = win.




And todays youtube lols:



(there's a second part to that. Search 'Paul Gascoigne Sky News')