There's more to me than the words I read, is it a language that's new to you?

Wandering around a rather damp West London on Sunday (judiciously avoiding the worst of the downpours by hanging out in cake shops and bus shelters), ChrisC and I found a rather nice Art Nouveau pub. It's somewhere in the Maida Vale area, and is called The Warrington Hotel. Both inside and out it's graced with the sort of OTT decor that would be sudden death in your own front room, but looks fantastic in a pub.

( But it had a scary, scary menu )

Later research on the interweb revealed that The Warrington Hotel was recently taken over (and, according to many reviewers ruined, rendered atmosphereless and had its drink prices upped to ridiculous levels) by Gordon Ramsay. That might explain a lot.

Mind you I rather liked it, and I didn't think £2.40 for a Coke and a decent half of Broadside was all that pricey for London.

In irrelevant news, tonight I'm going to party like it's 1977 :)

But those people keep a movin', and that's what tortures me

On Fridays this year, though sometimes rather late on the Friday owing to inadvertently spending a large chunk of the day in pubs, we ask...

( What's in the Box? )

Today in The Box we have:

Johnny Cash - The Johnny Cash Collection Vol. 1

(I can't include a link - there seem to be about a million albums and/or boxed sets with similar names, and none of them bear any relation to the tape in The Box. Anyway, the albums with similar names all do broadly similar things. If you want a Cash compilation, I'd recommend this one: The Man In Black.)

Anyway, yes. Johnny Cash. Country.

Oy... come back! Where are you going ? I know I said the C-word, but...

Oh, all right then. Suit yourself. I stick to the theory that if it's in XKCD then it must be cool.

For proper driving music, you can't beat a bit of Johnny Cash. And I don't mean the later, cooler, gone-a-bit-NIN, Rick-Rubin stuff. I mean proper old-skool skiffle-country which seems designed to play while wheels are turning[*]. It's catchy, it's singalong, and sometimes people in nearby cars at traffic lights join in.

Everyone should own something by Johnny Cash. Though you're allowed to stick to the likes of American IV if country really does make your ears bleed.

Johnny Cash - Country Boy [link expired]

[Poll #1254433]

[*] OK, that might be the influence of dodgy US trucking films.