Tapping away at my blog seems incredibly trite while thousands of people are still missing after the horrendous tsunami, so I'll just use this opportunity to nag you into donating some of your hard earned to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). They'll use your cash to provide clean water, food and shelter.

(The DEC are an umbrella organisation for ActionAid, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision).

There's a harrowing and dramatic tale of survival in the wave-battered Maldives from an urban75 regular who was caught up in the disaster: Our Honeymoon in the Maldives.

Please check out the various aid agencies and charity organisations helping those suffering in Asia - and give them your fucking money!

Festive greetings!

Christmas Eve started in the Deri, a lively pub in Rhiwbina, Cardiff before getting into the spirit of lager at the Butchers Arms, half a mile away.

Christmas Day saw me climbing a very chilly Caerphilly Mountain for a bracing walk and to take some photos of the ruins of a little known castle on a ridge overlooking Cardiff - expect a feature on the site soon!

The rest of the day was spent in the traditional manner, stuffing my face full of veggie treats, chocolate, mince pies and cake. And lager.

It even snowed in the evening too, adding a suitably Christmassy note.

The mighty Cardiff City were entertaining Wolves on Boxing Day, so I went down to Ninian Park for the traditional few hours of disappointment. And they didn't, err, disappoint, throwing a one goal lead with 15 minutes to go....

Ho hum. The pub beckoned. Happy Christmas!

Saw the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players at the Soho Theatre tonight.

Describing themselves as 'an indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop band', the three piece band buy up vintage slide collections from garage sales, thrift stores etc and then write songs based on the contents of the slides.

Naturally, it's quirky stuff, with mum Tina, dad Jason and their talented 10 year old daughter Rachel (drums) making a great lo-fi, early Jonathon Richman-meets-60s trash soundtrack to the visuals.

I particularly liked 'Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959' and the 'six part rock opera' based around a McDonalds corporate presentation!

I'm not so sure if I'd want to buy their records though, but it's a great night out. Recommended.

Talking of buying records, once again I fell foul to the power of Fopp Records and left clutching a pile of records.

Today's purchases included 'The World is Saved' by Stina Nordenstam - a dark, pensive and reclusive album full of stories of naked tales of failed relationships, despair, redemption and hope.

Equally reflective but more upbeat, is the stunningly beautiful, 'Now The Hush Is Over' by my long time faves, The Innocence Mission. Described as a 'wondrous gem' by All Music Guide, it's an album to curl up in bed with on a cold winter's night and fall asleep to. Think Nick Drake meets The Sundays and you'll get the idea.

Other CDs filling my bag included Joanna Newsom, KT Tunstall's 'Eye To The Telescope' (yet to be played) and 'The Ultimate Northern Soul' collection....

Oh, and before I go, don't forget to check out the photos from the last Offline club night at the Dogstar!

Awash with beer
It looks like I'm doing my bit to keep the UK at the top of the World Festive Boozer's list, with a week-long binge that shows no sign of abating.

On Thursday, I was quaffing wildly at my club, Offline after the night turned out to be a good 'un. Friday was a long night at the Albert followed by the Dogstar.

Saturday was the Actionettes at the Water Rats, Kings Cross, and Sunday was an afternoon 'Christmas Tea' at my flat (for 'tea' read 'booze') followed by a night at the Albert watching local band, The Messengers of God'. And then the Dogstar.



Monday, I was determined to have a night in, but an email from IanW offering a free ticket for The Pogues at the Academy soon put paid to that idea. And seeing as it was the Pogues, it just wouldn't be right to remain sober.



And what a fine show it was! The Academy was rammed and despite Shane McGowan's appearance to the contrary, he was in fine voice all night.

And only the most hard-nosed grouch could fail to be moved by their show-stopping rendition of "Fairytale of New York". Fabulous gig.

Feast'o'festive facts!
Brits rule the world when it comes to Christmas partying!

According to a survey in the Guardian, the alcohol consumption of boozing Brits goes up by 41% over Christmas, beating Canada and Germany at 36% each. Killjoy Americans only manage a wussy 29%.

Maybe because of the drunken mayhem at home, more Brits go away for festive holidays than anyone else (189 per 1,000) - more than four times as many as homeboy Americans.

Not surprisingly, the gun toting Yanks also manage to knock off more of each over Christmas too, with 0.74 murders per 100,000 people (0.17 UK, 0.16 Canada, 0.41 France).

When it comes to God-squading, the US has got us well and truly beaten, with a thumping great 550 people per 1,000 attending church - even more than Italy (490 per 1,000). Brits are clearly too busy in the pub, with the lowest percentage in Europe (160/1,000).

Festive Britons lead world for boozing and going away

Offline and beer
After all the work, I'm happy to say that Thursday's Offline was a fabulous success - the place was packed, 13 of the 14 DJs booked showed up and the cabaret room rocked!

As ever, there were a few hitches - Dr Jazzz's electric piano steadfastly refused to utter a single note, the bar became five deep with impatient, thirsty drinkers and I seemed to have spent an inordinate amount of time perched atop wobbly, perilously high ladders, coaxing projectors and laptops into life.

But I finally got to DJ in the big room and managed to get gloriously drunk by the end of the night. And that's a fine night by any standard!

Happily, the verdict from the u75 massive seemed to be that it was one of the best Offlines ever - so bring on the next one! (currently pencilled in for Jan 27th).

Today, I'm aimlessly wandering around town vainly hoping to stumble across shop displays stuffed of witty, clever and economical gifts that will thrill and woo friends and family alike.

Yeah, like fuck. All I'm seeing is the usual tacky nonsense and over-priced bits of fluff.

Truth be told, I'm utterly crap at this present buying lark. I never know what to get people, so usually end up buying a load of cack in a desperate last minute dash on Christmas Eve. And then I have to face the embarrassment of handing over my useless trinket as I receive something clever, witty and funny in exchange.

(three hours later)

Well, after an eternity aimlessly drifting around brightly lit stores pumping out cheesy ho-ho-fucking-ho Christmas songs, I ended up in Fopp Records and bought five CDs for myself.

Not a good start to the Christmas shopping, then!

A long week

Sorry for the lack of updates, but things have been a bit hectic. I've been busy sorting out the next Offline at the Dogstar, this Thursday (16th December),

We've sorted out a great bill of DJs, stand-up and poets, and - for the first time - we'll be showcasing the skills of Dr Jazzz and his boogie woogie mash up!

Thanks to the generosity of an urban75-er, I've now got a laptop for the night, so I'll be projecting a collection of my Brixton photos on the main dance floor walls.

I spent several days creating over thirty brand-spanking-new New York panoramas - check 'em out!

On Thursday, I was DJing at a birthday party for Fruitbat (formerly of Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine) at the fabulous Brixton Windmill.

The DJ bit is unusually situated behind the bar and looks out onto the stage which is a bit strange, but I enjoyed myself and played an eclectic bunch of sounds, from Iggy Pop to Dogs Die in Hot Cars to Ladytron.

When a girl started motioning at me from the bar, I thought she was so impressed by my musical taste that she simply had to know what cutting edge tune I was playing. Sadly, it wasn't my musical taste she was interested in. Or even my body. She only wanted two pints of lager and a glass of wine.

So at least I know that I look more like a barman than a DJ. Time to get some new clothes, methinks....



Saturday, I took a wander around the Photographer's Gallery and checked out the Schweppes Photo Competition in the National Portrait Gallery before grabbing some pics in Leicester Square.



There was an old fashioned funfair filling the square and it was pleasingly quite empty (which made a change from the heaving throng on Oxford Street - a place to avoid throughout December).

Saturday night, I was back up the Windmill for my monthly dose of PROD. I got drunk and danced like a grinning nutter.

Sunday, we checked out the new West Indian restaurant at the ever improving Dogstar and it was fabulous!
They had a Trinidadian live band in attendance who created a lively sound that seemed to mix Mexican music with African sounds. Tremendous stuff!

That last beer...
It's late. I'm having a good time watching The Actionettes at the excellent, 'How Does It Feel To Be Loved" club night in Brixton.

I'm about as drunk as I can get without getting really wobbly. Years of hard-earned hangover experience tells that wolfing down another pint will only make me feel extra-super shitty in the morning.

If I stop drinking now I probably won't feel so bad next day - and I've got lots of things to do. I need a clear head.

So, what do I do?

"Another pint of Stella please, landlord"

...

So, today I find myself in the Photographer's Gallery with a very sore head.

I feel rubbish, but my mood is considerably lifted reading about Robert Kilroy Silk - the smug, patronising, ego bloated UKIP arse - getting a bucketful of farm slurry slopped over his head by a protester.

Rarely has farm waste found a more appropriate resting place.

Checking out the latest version

Just trying out the latest release candidate of w.bloggar, a lean and mean FREE desktop app that lets you fire off blog entries without having to use the beastly Bloggar browser interface.

Hmmm... it's a bit buggy - it decided to ditch the title for this entry (granted, it wasn't that interesting) and just threw a weird "invalid value" error at me....

A feast'o'deadlines
I guess it was inevitable with all my travelling of the past two months, but I'm now face to face with some mo'fo' deadlines that are in danger of seriously impacting on my Quaff Time - and that's not good.

Still, I managed to grab a few beers last night at the Pillars Of Hercules, a fine, old school Soho boozer on Greek St.

We were there for a reunion of the hard-drinking Benidorm Wild Weekend crew.



The fabulous "Wheelie Bin" DJ from the Benidorm cafe was doing his stuff, knocking out top 50s rockabilly tunes from his home made mobile jukebox, complete with weird spinning dolls and 60s style annoucements of each song.

There was also a full contingent of Actionettes and Action Men in attendance, as well as a fair size urbanites mob.

We were rubbish at the quiz but I reckon we were pretty good at the drinking.