My most-listened song of 2011 so far...

...is 'Powa' by tUnE-yArDs. I can remember the first time this came on my iPod: I was walking through the small Cheshire village I seem to have temporarily found myself living in, just coming up to the canal which for some reason is suspended overhead like a watery monorail track - and it made me grin like a local cat. (A similar thing happened when I heard Gablé, incidentally, but that's a different post.) From the pictures I've briefly seen of Merrill Garbus - for it is she, and that name really is hers - I imagine she wakes up with astonishing splashes of colourful paint daubed on her face, with white feathers slowly falling to the floor around her bed, which is quite possibly held off the ground thanks to a delicate framework of twigs and pipecleaners. Here's 'Powa' live: amazing in every way.*



* unless you think her voice sounds a bit silly.

Apples. Lots of apples.

Despite its wrenching pain

Horse and pigs

Snowdon

On my 30th birthday back in April, we sat by the pool and went on a leisurely stroll to a bookshop. On my wife's 30th birthday, we climbed a mountain. It was insanely hard work, particularly because we didn't have enough change for the car park and so in theory had to be there and back in under four hours, a challenge which would have stretched even Tenzing Norgay to the limits. Actually, you can get a train to the top of Snowdon, but as you can see from the pictures I took, the locomotives aren't actually big enough to carry real human beings, so you're better off walking.

Pics were remixed using this site.

Torchwood v The Day Today

The Apprentice v Inception

This sums up The Apprentice boardroom squabbling for me

What's a riff between friends?

Photos from Ireland

All taken during our April trip to Bunratty and Limerick. When did I become so obsessed with signs? Damn you, M. Night Shyamalan!