Adam and I have been fascinated by the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. I have vague memories of watching it first time around – although those memories could easily have been of later missions. We’ve spent a lot of time listening to the “as live” broadcasts played on the We Choose the Moon website (although some “as live” telly would have been nicer). An hour or so (+40 years) back the Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility… I was thrilled!

Over the last few days I’ve been randomly using Blip.fm (and The Hype Machine) to post vaguely related songs to Twitter… for no one’s enjoyment of my own and for the same reason I’ll repost here. I was going to create a Spotify playlist but it failed at the first hurdle (ballboy) so I shan’t bother…

• 1:39 PM Jul 16th: Getting ready for the moon launch by listening to the few space related songs I have – Essential Wear for Future Trips to Space by ballboy ♫ http://blip.fm/~a11ub
• 4:12 PM Jul 16th: Two hours to launch ~ psycho helmets on ~ Silver Rocket by Sonic Youth ♫ http://blip.fm/~a15of
• 4:47 PM Jul 16th: Just over an hour to launch – time to load up the Spacemen 3 (sorry!) #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a16tp
• 5:31 PM Jul 16th: 30 minutes to launch ~ Space is Deep by Hawkwind #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a18fv
• 6:08 PM Jul 16th: Off into outer-space you go my friends, we wish you bon voyage. #apollo11 ~ Galaxie 500 – Moonshot ♫ http://blip.fm/~a1a6k
• 6:33 PM Jul 16th: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a1bik
• about 10 hours ago from Blip.fm: “Just to be in space would be the important thing” ~ ballboy – A Day in Space #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a9r38
• about 9 hours ago: “It’s time to fly… into life’s mystery” Jonathan Richman http://hypem.com/track/577181 #apollo11 #hypem
• about 7 hours ago: The colours of the moon #1 – Pink – Nick Drake – #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a9xl1
• about 7 hours ago: The colours of the moon #[2] – Blue – Big Star – #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a9xoj
• about 7 hours ago: The colours of the moon #3 – Red (and Low) – Belly – #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~a9xuv
• about 7 hours ago: “It’s time to go somewhere we’ve never seen” - Luna’s cover of Jojo’s Fly Into the Mystery http://bit.ly/RX7TB #apollo11
• about 6 hours ago: The colours of the moon #4 – White (and Trash) - Kristin Hersh – #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~aa3ct
• about 6 hours ago: The colours of the moon #5 – Blue (revisited) – Cowboy Junkies – #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~aa3im
• about 1 hour ago: Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed (REM) #apollo11 ♫ http://blip.fm/~aaslv

Me @ 45 (rpm)

Everything I wrote when I reached 40 still applies – I don’t feel older, maybe a bit more lethargic… or comfortable… but still happy.

Adam bought me an Xbox game that he’s not allowed to play (Left4Dead), Hazel bought me a couple of lovely prints from Etsy. Elaine & Kiek got me a couple of good looking books. Breakfast was Hot + Buns and chocolate fridge cake. Off for a curry later… today I will put on all the weight I’ve lost in the last six months.

Quite looking forward to 50 now…

Ever since the Internet gave me the opportunity to pretend that my opinions counted for anything I’ve put together an end of year list that almost no one read. In the years before blogging it was the poor souls of the Galaxie 500 Mailing List who had my idle ramblings delivered to their inbox and on to the recycle bin but the last few years they’ve appeared on my blog where they trouble nobody.

I’d habitually reel off my years fave albums and gigs and ponder on what the next 12 months might bring…but this year I couldn’t be bothered. Maybe it’s because there’s been nothing that truly blew me away – certainly not on album anyway – there’s been lots of albums I’ve liked but I’m not sure there’s been an On Fire or a Penthouse or an Ys that can take my breath away. Or maybe because I can count the gigs I’ve been to using my fingers (although Nina Nastasia in Brighton was breathtaking and most of the other gigs didn’t disappoint). Or maybe I’m just a little tired of trying to ‘rate’ music.

My last.fm charts offer lists of the usual suspects but just so I have an end of year list here are the top 12 abums that last.fm thinks I listened to last year…

1. Galaxie 500 – On Fire
2. Nina Nastasia & Jim White – You Follow Me
3. Stereolab – Peng!
4. Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender
5. Damon & Naomi – More Sad Hits
6. Galaxie 500 – Today
7. Galaxie 500 – This Is Our Music
8. Luna – RendezVous
9. The Clientele – God Save The Clientele
10. Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham – Back Numbers
11. Nina Nastasia – Dogs
12. Stina Nordenstam – The World Is Saved

…hmm not one of those was released in 2008.

I read a bit more fiction this year (not a great deal but some) and, off the top of my head, my faves were…

• The End of My Y by Scarlett Thomas
• Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• Stardust by Gaiman/Vess
• Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

And of course there was one outstanding non-fiction book but I’m expecting the paperback version of Dean Wareham’s Black Postcards to be even better (without that mistake!)

That’ll do – maybe 09 will be a bit more inspiring.

More of my idlings.

Depictions in popular culture
One version of the lewd song “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball” places the dictator’s missing testicle “in the Albert Hall”.

Your search – “hitler has only got one ball” site:britannica.com – did not match any documents.

But anyway – here I am – making those 140 character yawns that no one will care about and wondering if I’ll have a Damascus moment…and it’ll all make sense…

(It aditionally doesn’t help that I almost always forget to have my phone with me)

…symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page

I dived in and changed the code a little…

How sad am I? The answer is “very”.

The social networks (with “points”) where you can still find me are…

• Last.fm (music)
• Flickr (photos)
• Library Thing (books) (although I’ve only just tinkered with it and I’m not entirely convinced that I read enough to make it worth while…but I like the idea of having a record of what (little) I do read!

Is there a decent film “network” around? Well…obviously Flixster – as it was one of the few things I discovered on Facebook as being interesting enough to follow up…you can (now) find me on Flixster…

There was a Far Side cartoon from way back when showing parents reading a newspaper where all the ads for jobs were along the lines of “Expert Super Mario player required, 23k plus benefits”.

As a parent now I do genuinely dream that the many hours Adam spends playing World of Warcraft will prepare him well for the future and news stories such as this one are a reassurance…

The formidable organisational skills needed to run a game team or guild, organise raids involving perhaps 40 people and co-ordinate their different abilities to defeat a game’s strongest foes are all relevant to work.

I’m not convinced that the many many hours of text adventures prepared me for anything…

I wish I could find that Larson cartoon online but he threatens (albeit so sweetly) anyone who posts his cartoons on websites – silly man.

So Everything’s Swirling gets a long overdue overhaul – and a new URL (feel free to update your bookmarks, blogrolls and RSS feeds – although the old ones will probably keep working)

Hazel’s blog Let’s Fold Scarves has also had a refit and is whipping my sorry arse in the who’s-blog-is-more-popular competition…if, of course, we cared about anything as trite as popularity. Just like with music – the more obscure the better!