Mates of State

You can't beat late night MTV2 browsing for finding music you haven't heard before. Or can you? Anyway, here's my last music recommendation of the year, Mates of State. 'Fraud in the 80s' is the song here, from their latest album.

Bright lights big city

Another successful jaunt into the centre of Manchester last Friday...


Dutton and Jimbo wonder where the beer is.


"I was waiting thirty minutes to get served Ben."


The girls living it up.


The lads living it up.


Back in familiar territory at the Scot for last orders.

50 forgotten films

The Observer has printed a list of 50 great films that have been overlooked for one reason or another. Included in the round-up is David Lynch's weird and wonderful Twin Peaks prequel, Fire Walk With Me. The list is here.

Mod of the year

Modding is the art of turning your computer case into something unique that doesn't look much like a computer case at all. Over at bit-tech.net there's a Mod of the Year competition here, with 12 weird and wonderful entries to choose from.

The Drugs Don't Work

According to a new scientific study by Dr Harry Witchel, a physiology and music expert, The Verve's 1997 hit The Drugs Don't Work is the saddest song. Ever. More here.

Pan's Labyrinth

I finally got around to seeing Pan's Labyrinth on Friday night with the help of Iain "I need no sleep" Playle. Over at Rotten Tomatoes here it's got an unbelievable 100% rating and while it is very good, it isn't quite that good. It's not so much a fantasy story as a war story with a little bit of fantasy around the edges - the fantasy creatures are great (though there should be more of them), the acting from the Captain and the little girl Ofelia is fantastic and it was a lot scarier and more gruesome than I expected. If you like weird foreign films with subtitles, symbolic and allegorical overtones and lots of shooting then go and see it.

More cowbell

One of the classic Saturday Night Live skits starring Will Ferrell.

United top of the league

Three fresh-faced United fans at the match against Chelsea.

Goal line cameras on the way

Doddering old FIFA President Sepp Blatter has announced that the use of goal line cameras will be trialled at the World Club Championships in 2007. More from the Guardian here.

Four word film reviews

Film reviews limited to four words at the imaginatively titled Four Word Film Review site here. "Murray slimed. Marshmallow time!" for Ghostbusters, for example. You get the idea.

The greatest TV show of all time...

...is Twin Peaks - for the murder mystery, the music, the dreams and the cherry pie. Here's a promo video I found on YouTube. "It's like I'm having the most beautiful dream and the most terrible nightmare all at once."

Amy and Greg off to Aus

Today Amy and Greg leave for Australia for five months - only Jack seems to be sad about it (not pictured: Ray Ward). Read all about their amazing adventures here.

Souvenir photos

More on Flickr here.

Cartoon hotel room

Stay in a hotel room that looks like a cartoon here.

'C-List Celebrity Killer' Leaves Police Enthusiastically Guessing Who's Next

"We believe the likeliest targets are R&B one-hit wonders from the late '80s and early '90s, former child stars, and Maxim cover girls."

from the Onion, here.

Firework fun

Manchester by night.


Jimbo stays warm.

Web 2.0

The Guardian has put together a great series of mini-interviews with the founders of some of the leading Web 2.0 websites, including Flickr, Bebo, Wikipedia, Blogger, Digg, Last.fm and more. And they all try and explain what Web 2.0 is. The main page is here.

Bond x20

The Bond film marathon has come to an end after 20 films spanning 40 years and including... 5 x James Bonds, 3 x Ms, 2 x Qs, 3 x Moneypennys and 6 x Felix Leiters. Plus countless vilains, girls, gadgets, chases, explosions and quips. The new one (with a new Bond and a new Felix Leiter, but the same M) is out on the 16th.

Write a novel in a month

Today marks the start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) - the idea is to write 50,000 words before the end of November. The best part is, it doesn't have to be any good, it just has to be more than 50,000 words. And you can pretend to be a writer all month. Go here to sign up.

A gnome in the backyard

New music on Voice of Harold! This is Oh Mandy by the Spinto Band - even if you don't like the music it's a clever video and worth watching to the end.

One More Day

One of the funniest cartoon strips ever... more from the Perry Bible Fellowship here.

Why couldn't Shakespeare have written in a language we could all understand?

Click here for a useful round-up of user comments posted about classic works of literature at Amazon.com.

Greg's 20th birthday

Arriving at the Midland.


The weekend starts here.


Flen sends a text.


Greg the pirate.

Referees are biased

Football refs are biased towards the home side, according to a study and a pile of stats from some researchers at Bath University. More here.

Bond-a-rama

Only 16 days until the arrival of the new Bond film... after three Bond actors and 14 films, there are still two Bonds and 6 films left to watch.

Invisible film stars

The latest Photoshop contest on Worth1000.com involves removing characters from film scenes, leaving only their outfits. Lots of entries here.

Where is my mind?

The Pixies are recording a new album according to the NME... there's no better way to celebrate than to post a video of Pixies frontman Frank Black performing their song Where Is My Mind? with Placebo... "your head will collapse".

Boring football

"Manchester United and Arsenal are the only teams that I'd pay money to watch," says Chris Waddle, who famously missed a penalty to send England out of the 1990 World Cup. Read about his thoughts on the quality of Premiership football here.

People who complain they never appear on Voice of Harold

This week: Chewi.

Next week: Charlie Britten.

Fly Guy

Take to the sky and meet some interesting characters here.

Drawball

Join the rest of the human race (or at least the 3% with an Internet connection) in painting all over a big round virtual canvas. Laugh at what everyone else has painted then add something yourself by clicking here.

Coin balancing photos

"All you need is patience, time and steady hands" apparently - see the photos here.

Paul Scholes

500th game, 90th goal for United.

Harry's 18th birthday

Crowd scene 1.


Crowd scene 2.


Jimbo and Graham enjoying themselves.


Upset to be nearly leaving for Australia for five months.


Dreaming of being 18.

Excuses for not posting

Chewi may be interested to read a collection of the best excuses for not updating a blog here. Includes the classic "I got promoted to an officer in my World of Warcraft guild."

Paintballing action

Focused on the mission.


"Enjoying" "lunch".


Everyone in the Dead Zone.

Photo of the week

Jack Ward the chimney sweep, voted 322nd funniest photo ever posted on MySpace.

TV a-plenty

Links to lots of TV shows online, including every episode of The Simpsons and Family Guy here.

Bond update

After three different Bond actors, countless Bond girls and five different Felix Leiters I'm up to Bond film number 8, Live And Let Die.

Line Rider

Draw out a landscape and then send a little cartoon man tobogganing down it... here.

Nobody's home so nobody minds

The Arcade Fire performing Power Out live on Jools Holland.

More Venice pictures from Amy

Jack, Dave, Greg, Amy, Jes and Pernilla waiting for some Italian pizza.


Jack Ward gets buried in the sand but still wins.


Reading.


Visiting Venice.


More drinks at our favourite campsite bar.


Italian public transport.

"When you are dead you're burn, buried or frozen - get over it."

Trust an article debating the existence of God to produce hundreds of comments (over at the Guardian here). Anyone who has been to church knows that God is only a part of it and the witty banter and free refreshments are just as important.

Magnolia

I first watched this film in Durham waiting for term to start and I've watched it many times since - absolutely brilliant. If you've never seen it and are interested in three hours of interweaving stories about life, death, love, regret, sadness, illness, family, hope, depression, abuse, television, insecurity, peace, fame, hope and frogs falling from the sky then go and buy it on DVD.

No more penalties?

FIFA president Sepp Blatter reckons penalties should be scrapped in time for the next World Cup in 2010, declaring: "When it comes to the World Cup final it is passion and when it goes to extra time it is a drama, but when it comes to penalty kicks it is a tragedy. Football is a team sport and penalties is not a team, it is the individual." Possible alternatives include a replay or reducing the number of players on the field... more at the Guardian here.

Venice video

Amy, Jes and Pernilla having fun on holiday in Venice. No wonder we got so many weird looks.

Bond x20

What better way to celebrate the imminent arrival of the next Bond film than by watching all 20 previous instalments? I could spend all day thinking and not come up with a better idea... so I've decided to try and watch them all, in order, in the two months before Casino Royale comes out. As dedicated Bond fans will know, that means starting with 1962's Dr No, with Sean Connery as 007. As it happens, some of the staff at film mag Empire have had the same idea - see here.

Belleville Rendezvous

I rented out Belleville Rendezvous from Blockbuster and it's well worth a watch if you like strange little films that are a bit different from everything else. An old woman and her dog give chase when her grandson is kidnapped by the mafia, and there's virtually no dialogue at all... which is good.

Tanzplagen

Shortly before he helped form international supergroup R.E.M., Michael Stipe was in a band called Tanzplagen... and they have a MySpace page with some of the old songs on here.

I look to my eskimo friend

After four long years, Damien Rice has finally got round to recording and releasing a new album, as reported on NME.com here. It's called 9 and will be out on the 6th of November.

Inland Empire on the way

David Lynch's latest movie Inland Empire premiered at the Venice film festival and the first reviews are appearing on the Web - The Times calls it "one of the most impenetrable films ever made" so it looks like we're all in for a treat... as yet there's no UK distributor signed up so the three hours of madness might have to wait until 2007.

Holiday in Venice

Greg and I enjoy the sights of Venice.


"Look as though you've just murdered someone..."

A couple of memorable moments from our two weeks in Venice... "TAKE A PICTURE!"

The voice of Harold

This website is a place to post photos, links and anything else that my friends might want to look at and make fun of.

'Voice of Harold' is an old R.E.M. b-side... its lyrics are the sleeve notes of a gospel album called The Joy of Knowing Jesus - "chill bumps appear and I am frozen in the web they weave, as they reveal their innermost selves with the outpouring of their hearts".