Ymerodraeth Cyflwr Meddwl

On the way here:

we’ll be stopping for lunch somewhere near here: (a little bit of Parental Guidance on this one)

(I have no idea how to pronounce the title, but I doubt I’m ever likely to need to know how to say “Empire State of Mind” in Welsh, so I’m not too bothered)

I’ve been Spotified

In case you haven’t already discovered it, Spotify is the best thing since Amazon MP3.

The downsides:

Occasional adverts, but nowhere near as frequent or annoying as any radio station I’ve ever heard. (I usually wake up to Radio 1, which obviously doesn’t have adverts, but A LOT of talking between songs).

Streaming rather than downloading means I can’t listen on my iPod.

The upsides:

Unlike radio, you get to choose every song.

You get to hear whole songs for free.

So I can listen to whole albums, not just 30-second previews of songs, before I buy. (YouTube is also useful for this, but a pain for listening to more than one song at a time/making playlists)

So I can listen to all the albums I’m not sure if I want to spend money on yet. (So far these have included albums by Fleet Foxes, Maccabees, Parliament, Graham Coxon, Relient K, Polly Scattergood, Damien Rice, Empire Of The Sun, Adele, and John Frusciante.)

Then there’s the ones I can’t quite bring myself to actually own (like Kate Voegele, Taylor Swift, McFly, Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera).

Big Weekend

The Radio 1 Big Weekend is coming to Swindon!

This could be a cool (and cheap) way to celebrate my birthday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/bigweekend/2009/video/launch

Acts confirmed so far: Snow Patrol & N-Dubz. These don’t particularly excite me, but I’m sure there’ll be someone worth watching.

So, if anyone reading this wants to get me a birthday present, but doesn’t want to spend money, all you have to do is register for a ticket for the Saturday.