Happy Christmas with The Wailers - 'She's Coming Home'

So. It's nearly Christmas and here is one of the best ever Christmas songs.

It's 'She's Coming Home' by The Wailers.. No, not those Wailers. This here is the 60's American garage band who came to nothing. They have a track on Nuggets, and an album that's not any good. But this track is something special. I play it all year long. So if you're reading this in July download it anyway.

Get it here - http://www.mediafire.com/?fgmn30vscdj

Running in December

I have been running. It's been a good month so far. My calf feels good. I can feel it twinge on occasion but I now know how to handle it. Two things - 1) try to never run on consecutive days (I now run every other day) and 2) stretch.

I've not been doing long runs, but that's more due to lack of time than to lack of will. I have however noticed my speed has increased quite considerably since my injury and with the rehab.

I had one of those magical runs on Wed. I was in London and I ran on my own to Brondesbury and back over the High Road. It was bitterly cold. I ran a fast 08:52 (mile) pace and I was flying along. It was hard but my heart and lungs stayed on it matching every step. I kept the pace up. It was wicked.. I don't know what makes some runs so great. The last time I had one like that was back in the summer one night with Morgan; it just feels as though the act of running is the most perfect thing for me to be doing at that time. It's quite special. Those runs are like gifts.

30th Nov - Maygrove to Hampstead Heath (hills) - 4.07 miles / 09:56 pace

1st Dec - Gym treadmill - 2 miles. I was knackered. I'de been biking the day before and had given the rowing machine a thrashing before I got to the tread...

3rd Dec - Woolpit, Suffolk - cat shit path - 2.71 miles / 09:37 pace.

4th Dec - Woolpit, Suffolk - cat shit path twice - 4.64 miles / 09:31 pace. Horrible run. Cold, dark and depressing. Rural England on this afternoon was old ladies in beige coats, men in white vans, headlines about the recession and the vast leaden sky. Somewhat bleak.

6th Dec - Home / Longstomps/ Central Park - an evening run. 4.39 miles. Hard work. Rain. Cold wind and house full of ladies buying xmas decs when I got back.

9th Dec - Home/Private rd/ Hylands Park / Writtle - Great run. 7.17 miles / 09:44 pace. Tried to enjoy run and ignore form.

11th Dec - Treadmill - 3 miles.

12th Dec - Maygrove / Brondesbury with Iain - 2.94 miles / 09:05 pace.

14th Dec - Maygrove / Hampstead Heath - 3.25 miles / 10:05 pace. Hills.

17th Dec - Woolpit, Suffolk - Usual route + new footpath - 4.14 miles / 09:04 pace.

19th Dec - Maygrove / Brondesbury / High Rd - 3.32 miles / 08:52 pace - this was the good one.

20th Dec - Maygrove / Brondesbury / High Rd, with Iain - 3.35 / 09:04 pace.

22nd Dec Home / Longstomps/ Central Park - 4.39 miles / 08:39 pace. Yesterday. Great run. I pushed myself. Really into getting my speed up.

T

A feast of musical greatness - the best music of 2008

One of the true highlights of my year is the summing up of the years cultural events at the end of the year.

For someone like me who cares very little about football, the end of the year lists in NME, Uncut etc are like the FA Cup. This year has been a great year, particularly for music. For the first time in recent memory the best album has been by a British artist, so maybe we just won the World Cup.

I love it when I find something great. It rarely happens.

People use the word genius far too much. People also tend to get excited about stuff that we all know they don't listen to. But me... when I say something is great, trust me, it is. So here is the greatest music of 2007. Read and weep. If you do not know this stuff go and get it now. Download it all. It's out there right now.

A menu for a feast of greatness.

(Music is here now today. The best books, films, TV and other tings will follow when I get round to it, in the next day or so.)

BEST MUSIC - TOP 6...

1. Findlay Brown - 'Separated By The Sea' - an otherworldly album of great songs that chime with love. It sounds both classic and thoroughly modern.

2. Radiohead - 'In Rainbows' - a band in 'full flight'. Free of their guilt, they rattle this album out. It flies at you - pushing and pulling. I feel kinda lost in this album; there always something going on that takes me away from where I think I am with it.

3. Richmond Fontaine - 'Thirteen Cities' - to start by saying another masterpiece by Richmond Fontaine could sound to the uninitiated as a little lame. But to those who know Richmond Fontaine, another great album by RC is as good as it gets. Poetry and country rock, with the sound of the desert in background; it sounds epic in parts. Full of tender despair.

4) Arcade Fire - 'Neon Bible' - better than Funeral. The sound of the apocalypse as per a group of nice Canadian people. BUT, they pull it off. It is dramatic . It takes itself very seriously but despite this it works. I can't fathom it out. It just sounds great.

5) Six Organs Of Admittance - 'Shelter From The Ash' - More end of the world stuff. This time the menace and paranoia sounded real. For me there's poetry in the sound of Ben Chasny's guitar strings buzzing against the frets. The sparse words foretell something coming that is not good. It sounds prophetic and sad. It illuminates the dark corners not to show you what is there but to remind you that you are not alone.

6) Lucky Jim - 'All The Kings Horses' - a lost classic. Great songs. AOR, MOR ? Sounds like Gene Clark fronting Interpol, at times. 'Don Quixote' is truly a song to live with.


There you go.

Happy Christmas

T

The Meaning of Life

Liam Gallagher has always been right. I don't think he has ever told a lie or been wrong about anything.

There's a big difference between talking shit and being full of it.

In this month's Uncut magazine there's a feature about John Lennon's greatest songs as picked by a bunch of celebrities and the writers of Uncut. Liam is in there choosing Beautiful Boy and comes out with this pearl of wisdom -

"People who've got any soul will realise that there's a day when you go home and put your feet up and cuddle your kids. If anyone slags it off, they've either got no heart or they don't know what the meaning of life is."

There you go. He's right. I've spent the weekend just hanging out with my kids. We've not been out (apart from a 7 miler on Sunday morn for an hour) all weekend. We put up the Christmas decorations, and cuddled the kids - perfect.

T