New York New York....

The "Party MP3 CD" is burned - now down to 150 tracks without so much as a hint of Xmas, Jane's Bobby having declared himself tired of Slade and Wizzard. Like many though, he likes the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" and, for some unfathomable reason, the band itself...

There is no way in a million years that The Pogues will ever make it onto anything I compile....

Aqua's "Barbie"? Yup. Kylie? Yup. Hanson, Will Young and Hear'say? Yup, yup and, indeed, yup. Hell, even Steps and S Club 7 are on there. But the Pogues are just shite (in my opinon - and I am "The Compiler")...

Through the door today pops "Master of the Moon", last year's heavy metal offering from Dio. On first listening it's not great but after two more (loud) listens, it is indeed superb. Funny that...

Mr Dio has to be up there amongst the greatest ever rock vocalists and, surprisingly, he's not lost his touch after over 30 years...

The other night, Pam loaned me her copy of Madonna's new CD "Confessions on a Dance Floor". I've copied it to the hard drive for burning at some point but not yet listened properly - although it was playing in the background on Wednesday night at my mum's and sounded like a Trance Mix CD with Madonna's vocals dubbed over the top of it - but we'll see...

Today the Christmas holidays officially started...

I enjoyed Glenn Gould's reading of J S Bach's "Goldberg Variations" (the 1981 recording)...



...whilst browsing through my big "New York Museum of Modern Art" book...



... which I received last Xmas as a present. I was sitting surrounded by tree, fairylights and a roaring fire with Meg the Black Cat beside me while Anne pottered around upstairs on the computer....

Life's actually pretty good...

Merry Xmas Everybody, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday...