Albums of the year

My favourite albums released in 2008 are as follows:

1. Foals - Antidotes
2. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
3. Portishead - Third
4. Glasvegas - Glasvegas
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus!!! Dig!!!

6. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
7. dEUS - Vantage Point
8. Blood Red Shoes - Box of Secrets
9. REM - Accelerate
10. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

11. The Faint - Fasciination
12. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
13. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
14. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
15. Lykke Li - Youth Novels

16. Hercules and the Love Affair - Hercules and the Love Affair
17. Mystery Jets - 21
18. Ladytron - Velocifero
19. Miss Kittin - Batbox
20. The Cure - 4:13 Dream

21. Ratatat - LP3
22. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Enderlast
23. Neon Neon - Stainless Style
24. Spiritulized - Songs in A&E
25. Kings of Leon - Only By the Night

Lest we forget:

2007
1. Calvin Harris - I Created Disco
2. Justice - Cross
3. Grinderman - Grinderman

2006
1. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Show Your Bones
2. The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home
3. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain

2005
1. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
2. The Rakes - Capture/Release
3. Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll

2004
1. !!! – Louden Up Now
2. Ikara Colt – Modern Apprentice
3. The Faint – Wet From Birth

2003
1. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Fever to Tell
2. The Rapture - Echoes
3. Carina Round - The Disconnection

Gigs of the year

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Red Sparrowes @ 4th and B, San Diego
2. Crystal Castles @ Hoxton Square Bar, London
3. !!! @ The Independent, San Francisco
4. Morrissey @ Roundhouse, London
5. TV on The Radio @ Street Scene Festival, San Diego

Edit:
And how could I forget -

0. Justice @ Street Scene Festival, San Diego

The 2008 Bus Route of the Year award will be witheld due to voting irregularities.

Comments

Casa de Scaffolding

Portugal is one of my favourite travel and poker destinations, but I have a terrible record of booking accommodation there. During the first time I had played beach volleyball, I received a recommendation of somewhere to stay in Lisbon. Firstly let me say, don't play beach volleyball. It really hurts your hands and you get sand in your face a lot. On my ill adjudged foray into this sandy and painful game, I got talking to my team mate and mentioned I was about to go to Lisbon. "I know a great place to stay" she assured me. We chatted further between points and as I had no writing device to hand, I made a mental note of the B&B she strongly urged me to stay in Lisbon - Casa de Hospedes . It sounded great and just up my street. A couple of days later, with the trip approaching, I still hadn't booked anything. I remembered the beach volleyball tip. A quick google and it popped up straight away. I had a personal recommendation and it was very reasonably priced so ...

Austrian scumbags

I close my eyes. The aroma of cheap hair gel and cigar smoke fills my nostrils. I feel my face being scrutinised. I hear the familiar click clack of poker chips, the drag of a cigarette and then the exhale. Did he just breathe his cigarette smoke on me on purpose? I pull the brim of my hat to cover my eyes further, try to remain still and control my breathing. My opponent is clearly frustrated and I know he is probably going to fold. I want him to fold. I try not to do anything, even to move. I don’t want to give him any ideas about making a hero call . Eventually, after a painfully long time, he folds. *** I had heard the poker games in Vienna were good, so had travelled to the Austrian capital to investigate. A nine hour train ride with Swedish backpackers later and I was in the suburbs of the Austrian capital. The Montesino Card Club is located in a very odd leisure complex, the centre piece of which is four large gas cylinders which have been decommissioned and converted for modern...

Chairs missing

The Thai Park takes place in southwest Berlin every weekend. From spring to autumn a bunch of Thai ladies gather with camping stoves, cool boxes and supplies and make various delicious dishes . It got kind of famous now and there are always rumours that it will close down but each year so far it has started up again with the warmer weather. The 'soup lady' from the park even now has her own Imbiss (small restaurant) called Thai Art and all food there is always tasty. Photo from berlinfoodstories.com On this occasion several years ago the park was busy and buzzing as usual. The crowd sat around the park on the grass and blankets enjoying the food, sunbathing and having a generally lovely time in the sun. Set apart slightly there were a collection of older men seated around a table in a shady spot under a tree. I ambled over and saw that they were playing poker. Texas Holdem in fact. I watched a while longer and it appeared that they were playing for real money and th...

This Bogus Poetry

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