Two Short Lists of Not Much.....

2 Things I Have Not Been Doing:
It is very cold indeed. I have not written anything here for a while but am not hibernating.

8 Things I Have Been Doing
I have been running about trying to buy presents with appropriate care and attention but without having to go to a shopping centre on the Saturday before Christmas. I have written about my Christmas preparations before, and this December is proceeding pretty much as expected, although this year I have been making vast quantities of mincemeat.

I have also been telling everyone how excellent leg-warmers are. I have excellent thick, dark red wool leg-warmers. They are MARVELLOUS and I love them. I have also been showing them to people, enthusiastically pulling up my trouser leg and waving a woolly ankle in the air - "Look! Aren't they great! I'm so warm!!". This is not always appropriate.

I have been wondering how much it might snow tonight. If you have a snow day tomorrow I have ideas of what you can do with it here.

I have been listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I have been amused by Christmas perfume adverts.

I have been stalking sydthecat, trying to take a photo of him with a Father Christmas hat hovering above his head. With limited success.

It's the thought [of spending $2640 on partridges and pear trees] that counts

The Christmas CD is playing in Starbucks today and the festive season is upon us. This takes over from their rather pleasing late 70s/early 80s compilation, so rather than being haunted by Squeeze I now find myself humming Dean Martin songs in the afternoon. Or, less pleasingly, Jingle Bell Rock*, which I CANNOT STAND. (In fact Christmas songs that have me fleeing shops or leaping for the skip button make a long list in themselves, so it is just as well I decided long since to stick to non-grumpy lists....).

This year, inspired by spotify playlists last year, we will be filling up on mince pies and sherry to the sounds of Nat King Cole, the Snoopy Christmas CD and James Brown's Funky Christmas. Oh yes.

The best Christmas song is, of course, The 12 Days of Christmas, being a long list of improbable gifts. Apparently it is not, as some had suggested, some kind of Catholic code during years of repression, and the goo-OOOld riiiings are in fact pheasants. From Monday you can check the cost of this extravagent list on the Christmas Price Index, but if you can't wait (or for an examination of the effects of recession on the cost of turtle doves) you could check last year's .

*Although wikipedia lists 56 artists who have recorded this, so it is yet possible that one of these versions will be at least tolerable. The Fall, for example, may have saved this for me, just.

It's not just me....

Who doesn't like lists? Not you, presumably, dear reader, or you wouldn't be reading this. Unless you don't but are overcoming your natural antipathy because you like me. In which case thank you, crazy yet loyal friend (friend, not stalker, let us hope). Or unless you are here by accident, in which case welcome! do stay and have a read, unless you're in a rush, in which case click here for an emergency exit.

In no particular order here are some people who like lists in a music-themed way:

1. Book: Hang the DJ - An Alternative Book of Music Lists, edited by Angus Cargill
Marvellous - an unbirthday present which includes lists as good as The Walruses: The Ten Greatest Moustaches in Rock, Lilac Wine: The Ten Best Albums to Get Drunk Alone To, Deserving but Denied: Thirty-three No. 2s That Should Have Been No. 1 and Teenage Flicks, So Hard to Beat: Ten Songs from Eighties Teen Movies. Fantastic stuff - and by great writers like Laura Barton, Michael Faber and Simon Reynolds.

2. Another book: All Known Metal Bands by Dan Nelson
A book that is one big list. Surely not every known metal band you ask? But yes, apparently so, every one. That secret metal band you have at home doesn't count as it's not known. Except to you. And probably your neighbours.

3. Mark Ronson
Or, more accurately, Kaiser Chiefs, who asked him to make a list of his top 100 bands.

4. Wikipedia LOVES lists.
Here is one of electronic music genres. Who knew there were so many? No wonder record shops are so complicated. Rock / Pop / Dance / Jazz / World / Classical doesn't really begin to cover it.

There are more... I could probably post a link to someone else's music list every day for, well, ever, probably. But that's not my plan. Still, if you spot something good, do let me know (the comment box awaits your wisdom).