The listening booth..... 

Here's the "used" section of the quiver....at the front a Slam City Skates blank deck from 1992, behind it (L-R) a Skull Skates Duane Peters with indys and bullets, a mini Lance Mountain "future primitive", a Bryan Pennington and a Powell Peralta Caballero "Mask" with indys and G-Bones... 

On the left, Beadle "Hi-Torquer" complete, on the right...NHS Lucero "Red Cross" with G&S chromoly trucks and slimeballs..... 

Haven't done any quiver stuff for a while have I? On the left, G&S Doug Smith "Bomb", Aggro Trackers, 62mm Santa Cruz Bullets..on the right, Birdhouse Willy Santos, some new-school trucks whose name escapes me, Serial Killer wheels (Manson!) 

Gah.

I appear to be getting a bit of a cold. Oh well, must soldier on...
It's a sultry afternoon in London, i'm currently recharging itunes: on the positive side for once, the new version of itunes actually seems to be better than the preceding version. The new one has a function where you can rummage through all your albums by flicking through the covers; it's a quaintly retro little feature, but great nonetheless.
Here's my mate Mike's daughter Lulu, singing Abba: how cute is she?
:)
Here's my favourite tech-gadget of the moment......
As a sort of farewell to the summer *looks at the drizzle out of the window* here's a GAZILLION versions of "Girl From Ipanema"
FYI, I went to Ipanema beach, it was lovely. Then, at night when the tide came in, the beach was covered in used condoms, dead fish and syringes :(((((((((((((((
Oh, this is fascinating me at the moment, be careful in those internet forums, people.....

Nick, this one's for you.....

Bashment meets the Surfaris (eeeeeeep!)
And for everyone else, believe it or not, the new Siobhan Donaghy (ex-Sugababes) single is one of the records of the year.....

Another weekend zooms by....

Friday was International Hi-Fi at the Academy, and Saturday was Chelsea v. Charlton followed by Charlie's birthday party at The Purple Turtle. How many people can celebrate by having Nick Oliveri sing them "happy birthday" ? Not many, i'll wager. Also managed to get some pinball action for the first time in absolutely ages; it was an absolute pleasure to brush up on my flipper transfers.
Today, as ever on a Sunday, brought some relaxation, some siesta time, and some cooking: squid with fresh chilli, barbequed whole trout and some king prawn skewers. Now, replete, i'm contemplating sleep and finishing the last of the Riesling.
Oh, here's the latest on Lonelygirl15. The plot thickens.

Coolest video clip of the week.....

Is Everyday, by Noah K....a photo everyday for six years. It's part of a work in progress, he intends to do this every single day of his life.
More info here; including a myspace link to the music :)

Best New Band in the world....

At the moment is Born Ruffians......
Download these two tracks and you'll see what I mean, the first ("This sentence....") is nothing short of GODLIKE.

The end of another weekend....

Kicked off with a DJ set at First Friday, which was a blast (as ever) Still great to see everyone go APESHIT for that Arctic Monkeys remix; but also gratifying to watch the dancefloor go loopy for Jamie T, The Klaxons and Polysics.
Saturday? Well, slightly hungover, as you might expect. Then watched England beat Andorra and slept it all off.
Today was the first of my Sunday shows that I made a conscious effort to think outside the box a bit more and mix things up a little. This will be be a continuing process, so keep listening.
Tonight? Rabbit stew, crushed new potatoes and a glass of Shiraz.
Just the one, mind.

And, for all those people addicted to Youtube...

here's a really interesting piece on the whole Lonelygirl15 saga......
It's been one of the most amazing sagas on youtube over the last few months, and it looks like the fun is just beginning :)
FYI, and if you've no idea what i'm on about: Lonelygirl15 on youtube.

So.....

Reading.
Well, same as ever, really. Enjoy the atmosphere, try not to get distracted by too many bands (!) and sit in that backstage area and get wasted.
Franz Ferdinand as headliners was a mistake, I think: at the end of the album cycle, with no new material, it all felt a little flat. Certainly there wasn't the same level of expectation as there was around Muse on Saturday. I managed to inveigle some DJ time in the VIP tent (partly as an insurance policy against rain) which meant hanging around with The Towers Of London; this was EXACTLY as Rock'n'Roll as you would expect :)
The interesting thing about Reading was the increasing level of corporate involvement: from swanky backstage tents, to targeted marketing, the entire thing seemed more money-orientated than ever before. It's no surprise: we live in an era when physical record sales are plummeting, it was always obvious that the live music market would therefore be squeezed even harder to extract every penny that was being lost to downloads, P2P, file-sharing...Or whatever the major companies were blaming this week. But there was a desperation, a blind rush for profit evident at this years festival that slightly depressed me.

Sunday....

out in the wilds of Kent....
A lunch of cheese-topped foccacia, stuffed with caramelised onion, some mousetrap cheddar and slices of chorizo, juicy sliced tomatoes and whatever half-bottles of wine are left in the fridge. Actually, that meant the remainder of a bottle of cider as well..
Then picked ripening apples from the straining boughs of fruit trees...plump damsons and sweet plums out of the grasp of the wasps...
And settled down to read the sunday supplements as sheep slept in the nextdoor field. The lanes leading home were wet with the ghosts of the showers that were sporadically firing off all over the county, never actually saw any rain, just drove through the puddles; and at one point through the clouds of vapour rising off the shining leaves.
This week? Vines/View tonight, First Friday and the Air Guitar Championships on Friday.

My head hurts....

Reading was as fun as ever....i'll tell you more soon :)

Life goes on....

My sincere apologies for not posting for a while, and also my thanks to those of you who were posting comments to say you're getting impatient for news; well I have some, 'tis not so good. Recent schedule changes at the station have seen me temporarily sidelined- i'm doing weekend stuff at the moment, as well as filling in for daytime vacancies, that sort of thing. Will it be permanent? Who knows? There's no way of knowing just yet. It's nothing to do with my performance, which is rather galling, but on the positive side, it frees me up to look at other things. There are some exciting things surrounding the Xfm website at the moment, so i've got myself deeply involved in that: can't tell you more yet, but I will when I can. Also got a few programme ideas in tentative pre-production with a media company and am DJing as ever (Jet gig this week, Reading festival today, First Friday next week, International Hi-Fi and the Rapture the week after)
But overall, I just kicked back for a fortnight and let it all sink in. That's where I've been. And you?
Anyway, it's Reading today, so expect photos, gossip and other bullshit early next week. I love you all, iain x