m_thomp

It changes in places every now and then, but these are the albums I return to most often: 1 Boards of Canada - Geogaddi 2 David Bowie - Low 3 Brian Eno - Another Green World 4 The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses 5 The Byrds - The Notorious Byrd Brothers 6 Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children 7 Brian Eno - Music For Airports 8 Faust - Faust IV 9 Led Zeppelin - II 10 Nick Drake - Bryter Layter 11 Spiritualized - Pure Phase 12 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless 13 Mum - Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today is OK 14 Neu! - Neu 75 15 Panda Bear - Person Pitch 16 Wilco - A Ghost Is Born 17 Kraftw

Good to see word spreading about this: muchos deservos. NP: That new Portishead recording

The best music autobigraphy I've read: Closely followed by:

Apart from the goals, the moment of the match was Hleb's ball to Walcott for the chance he missed just before the opening goal. That was footballing vision to die for.

Preventing him leaving he would have tunred into Le Sulk. He would not have performed as he can. He would have turned the dressing room against him. He would have demotivated the team even further. All of which ain't good for relegation. The bottom line is, as soon as noises are being made and the player, rather than the club, has been approached, his mind will be made, "I'm going to play for Chelsea". There's not much we could do. Now I will admit that we've done eff all to replace him, that is simply down to bad chairmanship/management. And one that could possibly come back to haunt us.

Again. No, we didn't have to sell, but he wanted to leave. Do you think he's now playing at Chelsea thinking, "Aw sh*t, this playing in Cup Finals and Champions League, alongside some of the best players in the world is lame, I'd sooner be a Bolton"? If you do then that's an incredibly naive view. Of course he doesn't, he's ambitious and therefore like 99.9% of players these days are more loyal to themselves and their agent than their club. You've got to be realistic in these situations, which for someone who supports Chelsea - who just seem to think money is the answer to greatness - might

Everton or Blackburn are not fighting relegation. Also, if Chelsea came knocking on Everton or Blackburn's doors for Andy Johnson or Benni McCarthy, waving their billionaire's chequebook around, they'd soon find an amicable selling price. I think you're confusing ambition with the economics of the game: every player has their price. And if we hadn't have sold him, what would that have done? We'd have a player who resents the club, doesn't try, isn't motivated, the kind of thing that spreads throughout the team, destroys morale, etc, etc. Basically a Van Hoojidonk on our hands. Hardly an

And that, my friend, is the key to Bolton's recent-ish success. Polishing turds players who didn't do as well as they should.

How did I get to become a Bolton supporter? Mainly, because I'm from the vicinity of Bolton - my parent's house is about 20 minutes drive from the Reebok. When I was growing up all the kids were into Man Utd, Liverpool (who I have a soft spot for because my family and friends supported them). I wanted to go and watch a team I could actually see - I couldn't drive at such a young age, so I had to go somewhere on the bus. Bolton was my choice, they were languishing in the old fourth division (currently League Two) and playing at the old Burnden Park (we were so financially troubled a corner of

Present and correct.

Neon Neon. One listen catapulted it to one of the best things I've heard this year. And about 200 listens later, this still holds true.

Can't see an all non-Premiership final happening. And even a Man U / Chelsea versus a lower league club in the final would be a complete non-spectacle. Remember Man Utd vs Millwall? The most one-sided contest since British judicial system vs Dr Harold Shipman.

"Those internetters are picking on me again because of my weight issues. If only I could get up and wipe my tears. But I can't because I don't have hands and my legs have buckled under the load. Oh well I'll just die and go to fatty heaven and meet God, sorry, Dog." Happy now? I heard him say that. Or I thought I did when I wrote the photo caption above.

They're tears, you canine fatist!

I dunno if it's landed over in the States yet, but Margot At The Wedding is about to be released in the UK. Has anyone seen it? And how does it compare to Noah Baumbach's previous film, The Squid And the Whale. I was big fan of that, but I guess I'm a little bit worried that it's success may mean Margot loses its way and becomes something of a starry, small scale, low budget, vanity piece (Nicole Kidman, Jack Black).

I think yesterday was a signal of the first nail going into the Premier League coffin. I've been getting a bit perplexed by its increasing commercialism for the last few years but yesterday's unanimous agreement by all Chairmen, to further investigate the possibility of an additional round of matches overseas that all count towards the Premiership, was one step too far. Firstly, it's taking away the random element of the competition to partially oversee, manage and co-ordinate the Premierships destiny. Why? Well, as things stand now, there are 38 games played a season - each team plays all t

I was quietly impressed with last night's England display. The first half was very disjointed, congested and with very little in the way of poise or thought, best displayed by a complete inability to string anything more than two passes together. Wes Brown, in particular, was shocking in the first half. Second half there was a much better sense of purpose, ditching the individualism and actually playing as a team: the variety of passing was better and they were reaching their intended targets this time, rather than attempting to constantly smash 50 yard through balls. Crucially though, the m

Either 2-0 or 3-0 to England. 100% correct to leave him out. He's not match fit for a start, so that makes sense. We should be looking to the future and to someone who can fit easily within a system, and not someone who is in effect an ageing dead ball expert, and who has been something of a liability and concession to the team over the past few years. He'll probably get his 100 caps at some point, probably more to do with the clamour from the press than actual form. I hope Bentley does well enough to secure a long term place.

I'm not sure how they'll pan out either, but let's face it, it's sure to be an improvement on no-quicker-than-a-bag-of-cement Andrei Shevchenko. I originally thought they were signing Anelka to fill the void left by Drogba whilst he was on African Nations Cup duty, and because Drogba had been making noises about moving on after Mourinho left. When you're as wealthy as Chelsea, you can buy players on a whim like that, and to hell with the consequences. I can't see that happening, but the financing of the takeover by Hicks and Gillett is very risky indeed. They've basically mortgaged the cl

^^ ^^ I'll let Gob say thanks to Jason/Michael exactly how it should be said. G.O.B.: Oh, I missed you, Michael! Michael: All right. G.O.B.: Or should I say robot. Michael: What,

The most consistently infuriating thing about Man Utd is that, no matter how badly they're playing, they still know how to grind out a result, be it a draw or victory, against any team. I think this will see them retain their Premiership title. I work with a lot of Arsenal fans and they are very surprised by Eduardo, at the start of the season they didn't think he looked like much of a player, and still don't think he's so handy in the creative build-up play, which is the hallmark of the current Arsenal side. However, in the penalty area, they've told me he's reminiscent of Robbie Fowler bef

That's the El Guincho cover and put simply they/he sounds like Animal Collective. Only more tropical. In Spanish and without Avey Tare's vocal 'style'.