You danced and dreamed all night

It's Friday! It's about three o'clock! It's time to Boogie At Your Desk!

( You what? )

Today you are invited to Boogie At Your Desk to:

Smoking Popes - Writing a Letter

(This is an mp3 file, but it's a legimitate download.)

Today is a great day. Today, the seven-years-defunct Smoking Popes have got themselves back together and are playing a reunion gig. Now, I've never quite forgiven the Smoking Popes for breaking up at around the same time I first heard of them, thus never giving me a chance to hear them live.

So yes, I'm quite excited about the idea of a reunion gig. Will I be attending it ? Well... er, no, actually, because they've rather rudely decided to play it in Chicago, which was a little far to go on a school night. smokingpopes.net has been intimating the possibility of a forthcoming tour, however.

It's surprisingly common to find the marvellous Born To Quit lurking around in second hand shops for a trifling number of pounds. Failing that, there are rumbling rumours of reissues, so keep your eyes peeled. It's not all head-down-and-go indie-punk, there's some surprisingly thoughtful songs on there too.

Had it not been available for download, I'm not sure that Writing A Letter would have been my choice as their most Boogyworthy record. I've been Boogying to it, despite that recording's somewhat low fidelity. My favourite song is probably the song I knew first; sitting in the middle of a compilation made for me when I was a student is the uncharacteristically cheerful Just Broke Up With My Girlfriend. It still makes me smile everytime I hear it. And if you just go and buy Born To Quit, you can hear it too :)

Holiday Anecdotes #1 - I don't want to change the world

The trouble with going on holiday is that there's a gap in your LJing for around a fortnight or so, and then when you return you're faced with the choice of presenting a neat, sanitised precis of the trip, boring everyone senseless with a blow-by-blow account, or ignoring it completely.

I considered a poll for this, but instead I think I'm going to settle for a series of disrupted, disjointed rambling anecdotes. Anyone who would have voted for option 3 is welcome to ignore them. Here is #1 in the series.

( New England )

Incidentally, I'm pleased to note that by referring to Boston and Massachusetts as New England, I can keep up my 100% record of visiting non-European places only if they have "New" in the name.