I never intended to turn this into some kind of ghoulish obituary site, but when people keep dying, what can you do?
Desmond Dekker, who died today, was best known for his huge hit, "Israelites". He was an inspiration to musicians everywhere and paved the way for artists like Bob Marley.
It would be a shame if he was only remembered for one hit that has almost become a novelty record after being used in so many adverts.
Another one of his songs sent a chill down my spine when I first heard it 20 years ago and still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up now.
So I'll be playing "Fu Manchu" and thinking of Desmond and his family and friends.
Buy his greatest hits on Amazon for £5.99 - I promise it'll be worth it.
Cheers Desmond.

It's been a while since I posted here and it's a bit grim that it's another death that brings it on.
I loved The Go-Betweens and they were another part of the soundtrack to my life.
I was really sad to hear that Grant McLennan had died. He was only 48 and was still writing and performing great songs. Not many people manage to maintain such a high quality of work over career, but I think he did.
So I'll be playing "Streets of your Town" and "Cattle and Cain" for him tonight.
Cheers Grant!

Ivan Noble
"Ivan Noble, the BBC News journalist who has been writing about his treatment for a brain tumour for the past two years, has died aged 37."
I was really sorry to hear that Ivan Noble has died. I've been following his story on the BBC website since he was diagnosed. His articles put a human face on something we often want to avoid thinking about.

He seemed like a really decent guy. I'm sorry for his family and friends. It's maybe a little consolation that he had longer than most thought possible and he was able to say his goodbyes.
Thanks Ivan.

Lost Weekend
I spent most of this weekend watching the DVD boxset of The 4400. The IMDB plot summary says, "These are the stories of 4400 abductees after they are returned to Earth. People dealing with traumatic changes, driven by the mystery of what happened and why. Some of them have been affected in mysterious ways, and some will have certain abilities, both good and bad."

The show is somewhere between "The X-Files" and "Taken" and is slightly confusing as it casts Joel Gretch, a Bad Guy from "Taken" as the lead Good Guy. It also uses the fantastic song ""Worry About You" by Ivy several times. (This was also the theme song to the excellent "Kingdom Hospital") (Ivy feature Adam Schlesinger of the brilliant Fountains of Wayne (Who's song "Red Dragon Tattoo" also appears in Kingdom Hospital.)).

I think my pal Craig would call that intertextuality and I'd smile politely and ask him who United are playing next weekend.
The 4400 is pretty good and well worth watching, however we were slightly put out to discover this was only season 1 - several major story strands are unresolved - and the next season of the show isn't due to appear in the US until summer 2005. That'll be a bit of a wait for the next DVD then.

The good news is I still have several episodes of Kingdom Hospital to watch. heyhey!

oh yeah, and in an episode of The 4400, the girlfriend of the brother of one of the returnees invited him to a gig - the band? Fountains of Wayne of course.

I really love old car adverts. I found a great site that sells all kinds of old auto sales literature - McLellans Automotive.
They have a fantastic quantity of original sales brochures and publicity materials from decades of virtually every motor manufacturer - American, Japanese and European. Loads of great photos on the site.

Public spaces can be quite eerie when they are deserted. Like a scene from "28 Days Later", I half expected zombies to appear at the bottom of the escalator.

Sometimes all you can do when you get a bad haircut is to sit inside and wait for it to grow out.