"Set on the banks of the River Exe, in the beautiful grounds of Powderham Castle, the Graduation Ball is the way to remember your days at Exeter University..."

Not that I was going anyway of course, but this little promotional whiffle is right on the mark. There is no more appropriate way to remember the University of Exeter than an overpriced ball being cancelled due to rain half an hour before it started.

After four weeks of rain.

Ahh, the old alma mater. All shall know her and despair.

"Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group."

What are the chances, do you suppose, that it hasn't? Still, I was trying to do something particularly complicated this time: I was trying to... sign in. OH YEAH

If MySpace is the third most visited site in the universe or whatever, would it kill them to make the bloody thing work? Anyway the reason I was going on there was to post information at on the 17th of August I will be playing the Flapper and Firkin in central Birmingham. Not a stone's throw away from Symphony Hall, this iconic public house has never been graced with FaceOmeter's presence, but was the site of Will Tattersdill's first LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE at the tender age of, oh, I dunno, 17, I forget. Anyway I'm sure it will be nostalgia city so come on down and get involved!

In other news, preperations for the Princess Bride are underway. I've borrowed some of my dad's waterproof trousers, picked up a copy of Cornish Bears: Defeating Them by Jane Austen and done a montage of pressups on my bedroom floor HARDCORE HARDCORE. The Vibe has stolen Max's accordion and given it back to him, in what I interpret as a gesture of encouragement for the tour. In short, we're all unbelievably excited, I mean you just wouldn't believe how excited we are. Oh and I have a new melodica which I'll probably be getting out for the lads. Enit enit enit.

I know it's before Silly Season #1, but it's certainly worth drawing attention to the 100% beef flame grill which is the annual E3. A quick perusal of the "ganking" and "trolling" on EG will swiftly amuse and appal you.

As I've previously said, it's irritating to me that a group of people who have so much basically in common and who are all essentially on the same 'side' are seperated by such high levels of devisive stupidity. That said, the PS3 is an unholy abortion of a console purchased only by wealthy lepers. Long live Miyamoto! &c.

My EG most wanted list will reveal to you that more than ever, gaming is an exciting thing to be up to. I'm on my twelfth colossus, and have Twilight Princess to finish before getting Okami and Super Strikers Charged. And my PC still isn't entirely worthless. The quest to waste all of our time and have a laugh is common to users of every gaming platform, and it's time we were all a bit nicer to each other.

(Gears of War still blows)

(Shigsy is still the best)

(yup)

Well it's wednesday. The new song (below) is part recorded, with some minor lyric alterations and is sounding quite fun! Meanwhile, my father and I took a road trip to Oxford and had a curry. Good stuff! Here's a game I've been playing lately:

Holy God mother of Christing bastards this is a good one. I mean, seriously. WHOA. WHOA. Whoa.

I was told that this was worth buying a PS2 for. It is.

...and the long awaited fOlk-rap has finally been realised fully. Recording pending.

Are those cicadas or car alarms wending through the night?
Country and the city is a topic one could write about
but meaning must be seeming to be gleaming from the verse
& this subject has a budget which will tax the lyric purse,
& it's not that there aren't things here that it ain't worthwhile to sing
it's more that you're unsure exactly what it is you'd bring
cos this theme's been in the stream of social consciousness for ever
Dickens, Gaskell, Forster, Larkin, others just as clever
have reflected all perspectives, so why inflict your own?
Your attitudes and platitudes concern just you alone.
Come to that, it seems that these days it's not so much what you say, those
self-expectations & vexations futile in a way, because

If you've got the rhyme & the crowd has got the time
they might join you when you chime in "Ooo, la la la"
If some happenstance or other robbed them of a lover
and you go there they might join in "Ooo, la la la"
Sprinkle tunes with contradictions, meaning being no restriction,
slot in lots of dodgy diction "Ooo, la la la"
Ram in the clichés, & when even they run stray
fill the space with another little "Ooo, la la la"

Ooo, la la la
Ooo, la la la

This all sounds defeatist, and although it may be true,
it's also a pretty elitist point of view.
Music's not an art form that's with mere words enamoured,
tunes we swoon to, spoon to, croon to ain't about the grammar.
& language is a filter for our stilted roaming minds, it never
quite possesses thought processes for others to find
and so sometimes it might be better not to sweat a lyric song,
cos art can be escape as well, there Chandler wasn't wrong.
Relaxation, presentation, use them both in moderation,
write for yourself first but there are others in this place and
when you can't express in herds of words the stuff you just concieved,
insert some mental instrumental, have a dance, then leave.

(people don't leave like they used to, yo)

I come home to a different prime minister, a controversial smoking ban and most importantly a very dodgy home internet connection. Updates therefore have an excuse to remain sporadic, but! Please note that if you want to come and see FaceOmeter at the Jug of Ale, Moseley on July 18th, you can save an ENTIRE POUND by buying tickets from faceometer.tk instead of on the door! Should you wish to take advantage of this cheeky deal, reply in this thread or send an email declaring your intentions to my address. Tickets are £4, or £5 on the night! And the Jones will be there, so it should be worth coming ladies...

Well just when I was getting back into the habit of updating the blog semi-regularly, fate has called me to Italy. I greet you from there and will return to shower your eyes with speech words in a week or so! All the best you feeble fools...

A belated happy bloomsday to everyone! It's been a bit of a crazy one for me, with two festivals played and another few hundred miles between them and home racked up on the old odometer. Thanks to everyone who came to both of today's gigs, which were riotously fun! Tomorrow I actually don't have to drive or get the train anywhere! It's going to be good... you may even get a proper blog entry. And I have some new song ideas too... oh my... we've heard this before

/bedtime

Okay this is the funniest one in ages!

Thanks to Parkes for the heads up

My good friend Emily never stops bringing goodness to the FaceOmeter project. First, she brought the sensation artwork for Campfire Songs, but this time she's really topped that by sending me this link to a knitting pattern for reusable pantyliners. Because, you know, you never know...

Meanwhile, Tony Blair has accused the media of being a dirty pack of braying wolves. Nice one. I'll politely refrain from comment on that issue, but I love how channel 4 news saw fit to illustrate the point by getting some footage of Tony Blair, some footage of a press room, and some footage of some braying wolves (I'm serious) and putting it all together on a three-way split screen with a big question mark in front of it. It was the Day Today skit about 'click ting stamps', only they weren't joking.

Who can blame channel 4, erstwhile saviours of intellectual television - they've had a bad week. And I have to give them credit - when they lobbed David Blunkett in with a Daily Mail hack and made them fight about Labour's use of spin, it was really difficult to know who my sympathies were against more. Challenging television there.