I have CD's coming out of me ears, or falling of my desk more like. My sister has lent me:
James Morrison
Snow Patrol
Razorlight
Justin Timberlake
The Kooks
... and a weird one she said I could have if I wanted: Bloc Party.

The yesterday, I was working in London and had half an hour to kill and couldn't help myself by going into a Virgin Megastore! Came out with:-

The Original Comedy Album
American Roots Music
Babel S/T
best of the Stanley Brothers
The Rare Monro [Matt]
Pour Dowl Like Silver [Richard & Londa Thompson]
Bluegrass Roots
..and the best of all Banjonique by Walt Koken.

The latter makes me feel like throwing my banjo out of the window in one way, but then again makes me realise how it really can sound with constant practice. Practice of course demands time and if I could go and buy 9 CD caes full of that, I'd soon be a millionaire.

Have a weeks holiday coming up so plenty of ipod time with all this new stuff.

Fed up with not being able to listen to my ipod a little more often, I invested some monies and bought myself the Griffin RoadTrip and it's a great bit of kit. Connect it to your car cigarette lighter and tune into an area on your car radio, there's a bit of a thud but then the ipod clicks in and the quality is really good.

Brightened my day.

Spent the evening with my sister yesterday which was fun and FINALLY got her into itunes as she kept saying 'how do I make compilations?'. Been trying for ages but she thought you had to have an ipod! She emailed me this morning saying she stayed up late importing and downloading and making playlists and that she loved, loved it.

Got a ton of new music to listen to now that I have finally finished listening to over 35 cassettes which are all the Christmas programmes which members from the hospital radio did. We judge them and give them awards. Fun but exhausting and there are only so many times to can listen to that Slade track.

Life seems to have been manic since Christams dut to the way my job works and a new attitude of 'making it happen' this year. Be interesting to see how long I can hang onto this attitude.

Brits were dull were they not, and too rock and pop influenced. On the other hand the Grammys were much better and covered every genre of music imaginable. Stunning turns from Christina Aquilera and Mary J Blige.

if you have a DAB radio and you're in need of a little Monday TLC, tune into CHILL RADIO.
It's not your usual drum and bass, monotonous drone. It's real chill and it's almost totally uninterupted. Hits the spot for me.

Saw 2 films this weekend which also hit the spot - The Business, the most testosterone filled one and a half hours I have ever witnessed but very entertaining. Make sure you watch the Special Features if you want a quick flash of the main actors privates.

The saw Notes On A Scandal which made me quite torn as Judy Dench is every bit as excellent as Helen Mirren in The Queen and I have been routing for the BAFTA to go to Mirren [as we now know it did]. The film is intelligent and quite chilling. One of the best in a long time.

New music bought last week, Collaborations by the fabulous Jill Scott. Very mellow.

Apart from all this, the only other news is that I have been cold free for 2 weeks, a record since mid December onwards. Oh, and I really enjoyed the snow .....

My Christmas gift to my partner was tickets to see Trvor Nunn's production of Porgy & Bess at the Savoy Theatre, London/ Both being Gershwin fans we really looked forward to it and so travelled down on Wedsnesday.
The theatre was very small and intimate.The main set was a ghetto and they had extended part of it either side of the stall seats and as we had seats third row from the front, we actually felt as if we were part of the set.
It opened with arguably one of the best songs of the 20th century, Summertime and from that moment on it was totally captivating. The energy and emotion of this adaptation and the utter engagement of every member of the cast, is the key to this being an excellent production. I am not a huge musical theatre fan but I was entranced from start to finish.
I didn't really know the story which helped my element of surprise. The ending though, is very weird. It's as if it leads to another story which Gershwin never got round to finishing.
With a tour round the Globe before the theatre and then dinner in a little Italian restaurant we are fond of, it was a smashing day.

Spring Fair time at the NEC Birmingham which starts tomorrow and ends Thursday, as much as I enjoy it on a professional level, it means I am cut off from my daily stuff which I hate, but hey, gotta earn the money - so no musical indulgence for a few days!