29.6.08
44 años de daño han terminado para España
¡Ole! ¡Ole! ¡Ole! ¡Ole! .... ¡Y Viva España!A thoroughly deserved win tonight for Spain in the Euro 2008 final. I don't even mind about the money. It had been 44 years since Spain's football team won anything significant (when they won this competition in 1964), so it's about time and no one will begrudge them their win, as they finally put to bed their reputation as perennial underachievers in football tournaments. The stats speak for themselves; 12 goals scored and only 3 conceded across their six matches, due in no small part to goalie and captain Iker Casillas. That's him holding the cup above - and a bonus picture here, for Adrian, who picked him out as one of the hunks of the tournament.
It's been 39 years since Spain won Eurovision. Perhaps they could have a serious go at that next? In a timely news story, it's interesting to note that the last person who was seen as a serious Spanish hope for winning the song contest, namely Rosa in 2002, last night became the first person chosen to represent their country in both the Eurovision Song Contest and the Eurovision Dance Contest. She won the right to dance for Spain later this year in yesterday's final, with her male partner to be chosen at a later date.
España...¡Baila! ¡Baila! ¡Baila!
Labels: Casillas, Euro2008, Eurovision, Rosa, Spain
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Euro 2008 final - lookey-likey special
I'm watching the Euro 2008 final, torn between emotionally wanting Spain to win and financially wanting my early bet on Germany to go all the way. (I'm already £10 in profit for Germany making the final, but I'll get another £25 back if they win.)
Spanish footballer Cesc Fàbregas and Zachary Quinto (Sylar from Heroes).
Have you ever seen them in the same place at the same time? No, thought not.
Labels: Cesc Fàbregas, Euro2008, Heroes, Sylar, Zachary Quinto
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27.6.08
Sylvia evicted
Considering she was 1-33 with the bookies to be evicted and Mohamed was 12-1, no one can be surprised that Sylvia is out. Perhaps if she'd been a bit nicer to people from the start...? Not pulling faces at the blind housemate would probably have helped too.So that's all the gays and the black women, including one Muslim, gone already. Which minority group will be eliminated next?
It's not very Channel 4, is it?
Labels: Big Brother 9, Sylvia
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Menace
It's hard to believe Big Brother is going to last as long as September, isn't it? It's all falling apart on day 23. Dancing Dennis was removed at lunchtime today, quite rightly, for spitting in Mohamed's face, so we never saw him in his eviction outfit, but we have the photo exclusive (right). It all started after housemates laid into Rex, after he Labels: Big Brother 9, Dennis, Jen, picturegate, Rex
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18.6.08
Gone at last
About time too. The Big Brother producers removed the nasty, vindictive, manipulative Alex from the house after 20:00 tonight, without giving her a chance to say goodbye to the others. Not that C4 has any problem with her being nasty, vindictive and manipulative, of course. As we know from Charley last year, they're quite happy to offer platitudes to the regulators while keeping the appalling people in. But Alex has taken things one step too far, and certainly further than anyone else nominated for eviction has gone in any previous series. She actually made threats about what she would do to people who had nominated her once in the outside world. Now that IS threatening and horribly sinister. Thank goodness she's gone.
This week's eviction is cancelled, so how are they going to fill Friday night's programmes now? Like I care. I'll be at a wedding.
Labels: Alex, Big Brother 9
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13.6.08
Lions Rampant
Day One of the Bingham Cup has ended in Dublin with the team I'm mainly going to see tomorrow (although I know many of the guys from other UK, Irish, Danish and French teams too) off to a storming start. The Cardiff Lions won both of their games; 36-0 against the Danish team Copenhagen Scrum and 41-10 against Phoenix Storm from Arizona.I'm told that the Cardiff Lions' top try scorer, with five tries, is Wee Johnny 'Pocket Rocket' Harris. However, that information came via a text message from the man himself, so make of it what you will. On the left is a picture of Mr Harris from a tournament last year. Try to contain yourselves.
It's good to see the tournament getting some coverage today from BBC News, Pink News, 365gay.com and Irish Rugby.
See you in Dublin tomorrow!
Labels: Bingham Cup, Dublin, rugby
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Go raibh mile maith agaibh
That's a big thank you to the people of Ireland (or the 53.4% of the 53.1% of electors who voted) for saving us all from the Lisbon Treaty.
I will be coming over in the morning to thank you all personally.
Labels: EU, Ireland, Lisbon Treaty, politics
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All that rugby puts hairs on your chest
The Bingham Cup starts today in Dublin. Chig will be there from tomorrow (because I'm not flying anywhere on Friday the 13th!)
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12.6.08
I never thought I'd say this....
but well done David Davis! Something needed to be done about yesterday's appalling Commons vote against our civil liberties, and he has done something. Thank goodness someone will stand up against people being held in prison for six weeks without being charged, when we have so many lily-livered Labour MPs who were prepared to be herded through the lobbies yesterday, aided by nine DUP MPs who proved crucial to the vote.
I always thought that there was no way I would ever vote for a Conservative, but if I lived in his constituency, I would suppport him in the by-election that he has triggered, especially as the Lib Dems have just announced that they will not field a candidate. Excellent.
Thankfully, my own Labour MP, Roger Godsiff, was one of the 34 Labour members who voted against 42 day detention yesterday. If he had supported the measure, he would have been signing his own political suicide note, as far as this constituency is concerned. He nearly lost a safe seat last time to Respect and his future hangs in the balance here.
Labels: politics, Westminster
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10.6.08
Hi-ra-rious and bizarre
I think this woman is going to make our Summer. I think she's already won Big Brother. I love her.
Labels: Big Brother 9, Kathreya
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9.6.08
Quote of the Day
"Who would want to get in the bed with a nearly 43 year-old man?"
Stephanie, disgusted, in the Big Brother diary room.
Posted by Chig, 42.
Labels: Big Brother 9
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Euro 2008 - top totty
The three top reasons so far for keeping a close eye on the footie. Unless you know better. (We'll accept other nominations.)
#1 Mladen Petrić - Croatia
#2 Łukasz Piszczek - Poland
#3 Václav Svěrkoš - Czech Republic
Labels: Euro 2008, football, totty
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7.6.08
The Serbs are coming
Ana Ivanovic's Eurovision appearance must have done her the world of good. She's just won the French Open. She will also climb to be the world's number one woman tennis player when the new rankings are announced on Monday. Her compatriots Novak Djokovic (who started the scoring in the first Eurovision semi-final) and Jelena Jankovic also made the French Open semi-finals, giving Serbia three of the last eight in the singles events.If you didn't see her in one of the Eurovision semi-finals, you were probably watching the BBC version. I haven't seen it, but I don't think they showed Ivanovic's filmed 'Welcome To Belgrade' tourist information piece, which was shown in countries where they don't have adverts, while the other countries were seeing the ads. I'm told that the UK showed Paddy instead. Never fear. YouTube to the rescue! This produced massive cheers from the locals, even in the sparsely attended rehearsal I attended, when it appeared on the screens.
In other sporting news, Curtain Call and Kandahar Run have just failed to make me any money in the Epsom Derby. I've also bet on Germany (realistic) and Croatia (14-1 outsider because I'm in an ex-Yugo kind of mood) as my each way bets for Euro 2008.
Labels: betting, Euro 2008, Eurovision 2008, football, Serbia, sport, tennis
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Who are you supporting?
Euro 2008 starts today, with not one of the five British Isles teams taking part. England joins Bulgaria, Denmark and Latvia as the four countries who took part in Euro 2004 but haven't qualified this time around. The BBC, inevitably, given the amount of money they've invested in covering the tournament, has been plugging it by asking who people will be supporting. But you can't answer the TV and radio trailers, so let's ask the same question here. I'm curious to know what affects people's choices in a competition that's devoid of British and Irish players. Are you supporting a country because a player from your club team plays for them? Are you supporting the team of your parents' country, or digging even deeper into your family ancestry to find a link with another nation? Are you supporting a team based on who has the better looking players? (As if we would ever condone anything so shallow!) Are you taking the Wogan-in-Eurovision line and just having an unfounded prejudice against all of the Eastern Europeans? Or are you just not bothering with Euro 2008 because your country's not in it?
In order to explain who I'll be supporting, I present this highly technical version of my family tree:
So, due to being 1/8 French, I will be supporting France. Allez les bleus!
The only fly in the ointment is that I drew Romania yesterday in the work sweepstake. Unfortunately, France and Romania are both in Group C, the group of death. I softened the blow of drawing the team that will probably finish last in the group (with Italy and the Netherlands also above them) by using it as an excuse to blu-tack this picture of Vlad, my very favourite Romanian in the whole wide world (sorry Cheeky Girls), to the side of my monitor at work, next to the Romanian flag. It will make work just that little bit easier to have his lovely face looking down at me for the next three weeks.Who are you supporting in Euro 2008, and why?
Labels: Euro 2008, family history, football, Romania, Vlad
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6.6.08
Next year's Eurovision: In Kyiv after all
Just as we hoped. Except that it's the kids' version. Ukraine was announced today as the host of Junior Eurovision 2009. (Yes, it is still going, but the UK - in the form of ITV - pulled out after the third contest in 2005.) Can we please have Ani Lorak as the interval act? Then I might watch the damn thing.
Labels: Eurovision, Ukraine
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5.6.08
BB9: First Impressions
An East Anglian-American albino, a blind Scottish radio producer, two refugees from different wars in Africa, a ginger rich kid 'executive chef', a motormouth trainee teacher, an arrogant student DJ, a Muslim teenage Mum, a crazy Thai massage therapist, a student who was in Popstars: The Rivals when she was 13, a geeky politics student, a Vicky Pollard gobshite Coventrian, a Catholic part-time model Mum and Big Brother's first couple, who have to pretend they're not.
What's not to love about Big Brother 9?
Oh, the dancing gay who looks like a pig. Never mind.
I think they saved the best 'til last. Kathreya from Thailand looks like great fun. She certainly had the best quote from the auditions; "I come from a good family, not a ping pong ball family." Class.
Presumably, Mario and Stephanie, who are pretending to be a couple, will have to sleep together in order to fool the others, while Lisa, the real partner of Mario (known to his Mum as Sean or Shaun) looks on in envy and keeps quiet. An intriguing start to the 93 day series. It's going to be a long Summer for some of them when Big Brother gets tough, with the Zero Tolerance policy towards rule-breaking. What fun!
Labels: Big Brother 9
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Chig is....
...wondering if it's really uncool to have your cousins' cousins' Dad as a facebook friend?
Labels: facebook
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Not going out
Tonight: Big Brother 9, until 5 September.
Saturday: Euro 2008, until 29 June.
Weather forecast for next three weeks: irrelevant.
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3.6.08
Proud to be a Villan
At last, a good news football story, going against the grain of high pay and corporate greed which permeates Premier League football these days, and I'm very happy to say it concerns my club. Aston Villa announced today that they are ditching their shirt sponsors and the enormous advertising revenue which they could be receiving, in favour of promoting the Acorns children's hospice charity on next season's shirts. It's apparently the first time a British club has promoted a charity instead of being paid money by an advertiser, but Barcelona have done it too. The Acorns is a wonderful charity that most of us here in Birmingham know about already, but now their logo will be seen on Villa's shirts by fans around the country and TV viewers around the world. Superb.
It's all the better because I have made a somewhat forlorn, principled stand for the last two years and refused to buy the Villa shirt, even though I have the previous five or six versions, with various different sponsors on them. The shirt sponsorship by an online poker company was a step too far for me. I have no moral objection to gambling - indeed I have the occasional bet myself - but the thought of gambling being promoted on the shirts, in a game followed by children, I found quite sickening. Making shirts in children's sizes, advertising a poker company on the front, just seemed very wrong to me. Well done then to Villa for going in the other direction and actually promoting something which benefits children instead.You see, there are advantages to having your club bought by a multi-millionaire who doesn't need the advertising revenue. I shall be buying the new shirt at the first opportunity. Hurrah!
Labels: acorns, Aston Villa
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Eurovision 2011
Düsseldorf, Germany
10th, 12th, 14th May
Eurovision 2008
Semi-Final 1 – Tue 20 May
01 Montenegro - Zauvijek volim te – Stefan Filipović
02 Israel – The Fire In Your Eyes (Ke’ilo Kan) – Bo'az Ma'uda
03 Estonia – Leto Svet – Kreisiraadio
04 Moldova – A Century Of Love – Geta Burlacu
05 San Marino - Complice - Miodio
06 Belgium - O Julissi - Ishtar
07 Azerbaijan – Day After Day – Elnur Hüseynov & Samir Javadzadeh
08 Slovenia – Vrag Naj Vzame – Rebeka Dremelj
09 Norway – Hold On, Be Strong – Maria Haukaas Storeng
10 Poland – For Life – Isis Gee
11 Ireland – Irelande, Douze Pointe – Dustin The Turkey
12 Andorra – Casanova – Gisela
13 Bosnia-Herzegovina – Pokušaj – Laka
14 Armenia – Qele Qele – Sirusho
15 Netherlands – Your Heart Belongs To Me – Hind
16 Finland - Missä miehet ratsastaa – Teräsbetoni
17 Romania – Pe-o Margine de Lume – Nico & Vlad Mirita
18 Russia - Dima Bilan - Believe
19 Greece – Secret Combination – Kalomira
Semi-Final 2 – Thu 22 May
01 Iceland – This Is My Life – Eurobandið
02 Sweden - Hero - Charlotte Perrelli
03 Turkey – Deli – Mor ve Ötesi
04 Ukraine – Shady Lady – Ani Lorak
05 Lithuania – Nomads In The Night – Jeronimas Milius
06 Albania – Zemrën e lamë peng – Olta Boka
07 Switzerland – Era Stupendo – Paolo Meneguzzi
08 Czech Republic – Have Some Fun – Tereza Kerndlová
09 Belarus – Hasta La Vista – Ruslan Alekhno
10 Latvia – Wolves Of The Sea – Pirates Of The Sea
11 Croatia – Romanca – Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents
12 Bulgaria – DJ, Take Me Away – Deep Zone & Balthazar
13 Denmark – All Night Long – Simon Mathew
14 Georgia – Peace Will Come – Diana Gurtskaya
15 Hungary – Candlelight – Csézy
16 Malta – Vodka - Morena
17 Cyprus – Femme Fatale – Evdokia Kadi
18 FYR Macedonia – Let Me Love You – Tamara, Vrčak & Adrian
19 Portugal - Senhora do Mar (Negras Águas) - Vânia Fernandes
Final – Sat 24 May
02 United Kingdom – Even If – Andy Abraham
04 Germany – Disappear – No Angels
19 France – Divine – Sébastien Tellier
22 Spain - Baila el Chiki Chiki - Rodolfo Chikilicuatre
23 Serbia - Oro - Jelena Tomašević ft. Bora Dugić
Chig's Gigs & stuff 2007-2008
Coming Up:
11/12 Steel City Tour: ABC, Heaven 17, The Human League - Wolves Civic
Gone Down:
21/01 Sing Live! - B'ham Symphony Hall
05/02 Mika - Berkeley Square, London
13/02 Shayne Ward - Nott'm Arena
21/02 X Factor - Nott'm Arena
04/05 Scooch-Nightingale, B'ham
12/05 Hosting Eurovision night @ The Nightingale
17/05 Jason Donovan-Nott'm Royal Concert Hall
25/05 Pet Shop Boys - Wolves Civic
26/05 Liberty X - Nightingale, B'ham
27/05 Scooch & Björn Again - B'ham Pride
16/06 Muse, The Streets, Dirty Pretty Things, Rodrigo y Gabriela & Zane Lowe - Wembley Stadium
28/06 Brotherhood of Man & Buck's Fizz - Nott'm Royal Concert Hall
14/07 Sing Live! - Summer in the '60s & '70s - Royal Leamington Spa Centre
14/09 Rise - Leek Wootton Village Hall
16/09 Erasure & Onetwo - Wolves Civic
17/09 The Twang & The Priory - B'ham Carling Academy 2 (private gig - Janice Long's Radio2 show)
20/09 Turisas & Abgott - B'ham Carling Academy 2
27/09 McFly - Wolves Civic
10/11 Buck's Fizz & Futureproof (The X Factor), Nightingale, B'ham
17/11 Vengaboys & Andy Williams (The X Factor) - Nightingale, B'ham
01/12 The Human League plays Dare! - Hammersmith Apollo
10/03 Gary Numan Replicas Tour & Daggers - Wolves Wulfrun
15/03 David Gray - Symphony Hall, Brum
18/03 Russell Howard, Alexandra, Brum
20+22+24/05 Eurovision Song Contest, Beograd, Srbija
10/06 Eurobeat-Almost Eurovision, B'ham Hippodrome
12/06 Yazoo - Wolves Civic
14/06-16/06 Bingham Cup, DCU, Dublin
24/06 Westlife & Hope - Nottingham Arena
07/07 Duran Duran & The Duke Spirit - NIA, B'ham
01/08 kd lang - Symphony Hall, B'ham
Coming Up:
11/12 Steel City Tour: ABC, Heaven 17, The Human League - Wolves Civic
Gone Down:
21/01 Sing Live! - B'ham Symphony Hall
05/02 Mika - Berkeley Square, London
13/02 Shayne Ward - Nott'm Arena
21/02 X Factor - Nott'm Arena
04/05 Scooch-Nightingale, B'ham
12/05 Hosting Eurovision night @ The Nightingale
17/05 Jason Donovan-Nott'm Royal Concert Hall
25/05 Pet Shop Boys - Wolves Civic
26/05 Liberty X - Nightingale, B'ham
27/05 Scooch & Björn Again - B'ham Pride
16/06 Muse, The Streets, Dirty Pretty Things, Rodrigo y Gabriela & Zane Lowe - Wembley Stadium
28/06 Brotherhood of Man & Buck's Fizz - Nott'm Royal Concert Hall
14/07 Sing Live! - Summer in the '60s & '70s - Royal Leamington Spa Centre
14/09 Rise - Leek Wootton Village Hall
16/09 Erasure & Onetwo - Wolves Civic
17/09 The Twang & The Priory - B'ham Carling Academy 2 (private gig - Janice Long's Radio2 show)
20/09 Turisas & Abgott - B'ham Carling Academy 2
27/09 McFly - Wolves Civic
10/11 Buck's Fizz & Futureproof (The X Factor), Nightingale, B'ham
17/11 Vengaboys & Andy Williams (The X Factor) - Nightingale, B'ham
01/12 The Human League plays Dare! - Hammersmith Apollo
10/03 Gary Numan Replicas Tour & Daggers - Wolves Wulfrun
18/03 Russell Howard, Alexandra, Brum
20+22+24/05 Eurovision Song Contest, Beograd, Srbija
10/06 Eurobeat-Almost Eurovision, B'ham Hippodrome
12/06 Yazoo - Wolves Civic
14/06-16/06 Bingham Cup, DCU, Dublin
24/06 Westlife & Hope - Nottingham Arena
07/07 Duran Duran & The Duke Spirit - NIA, B'ham
01/08 kd lang - Symphony Hall, B'ham
Who is Chig?
Contact me: chig at cmdh dot freeserve dot co dot uk
My Wish List
Front page
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Chig is Nicki French's official stalker...but she doesn't seem to mind.
Chig's life can sometimes be a right pain in the balls...
Chig watches...
Dogtown, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Robin Hood, The X Factor, Spooks, Extras, Mock The Week, Popworld, Ideal, Deal Or No Deal, Eggheads, Hollyoaks, Never Mind The Full Stops, Doctor Who series 2 repeats on BBC3, The Bill, Match Of The Day, Ant'n'Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.
Chig has failed at two attempts to watch the whole series of Invasion, so if you have it on DVD...
Chig still fancies Jesse Metcalfe...
...and Brandon Flowers, Roman Sebrle, Jonas Armstrong, Matthew Fox, Stefan Booth, Stuart Manning, Gary Lucy...
49= 49= 48 46= 46= 45 44 43 40= 40= 40= 39 38 37 36 35 33= 33= 31= 31= 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Where I live:
Birmingham: It's Not Shit
icBirmingham
BBC Birmingham
The Nightingale
Club DV8
Interests:
Flickr
gaytimes
Popjustice
The Official Charts Co.
Launch (UK charts)
British Hit Singles
Aston Villa FC
GFSN
Eurovision 2006
Eurovision 2005 in Kyiv
Popjustice Eurovision
Friends Reunited
Mr Gay UK
Eurovision 2007:
Official EBU Eurovision
Helsinki 2007 Official
DotEurovision (News)
ESC Today (News)
Eurovision Songs
OGAE Malta
Norway: Melodi Grand Prix
AsianMissionToEurovision(Blog)
Eurovision 2007 acts:
Qualifier:
Albania: Aida & Frederik Ndoci
Andorra: Anonymous
Austria: Eric Papilaya
Belarus: Dima Koldun
Belgium: The KMGs
Bulgaria: Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankulov
Croatia: Dragonfly ft. Dado Topić
Czech Republic: Kabát
Cyprus: Evridiki
Denmark: DQ
Estonia: Gerli Padar
Georgia: Sopho Khalvashi
Hungary: Magdi Rúzsa
Iceland: Eiríkur Hauksson
Israel: Teapacks
Latvia: bonaparti.lv
FYR Macedonia: Karolina Gočeva
Malta: Olivia Lewis
Moldova: Natalia Barbu
Montenegro: Stevan Faddy
Netherlands: Edsilia Rombley
Norway: Guri Schanke
Poland: The Jet Set
Portugal: Sabrina
Serbia: Marija Šerifović
Slovenia: Alenka Gotar
Switzerland: DJ Bobo
Turkey: Kenan Doğulu
Final:
Armenia: Hayko
Bosnia-Herzegovina: Marija Šestić
Finland: Hanna Pakarinen
France: Les Fatals Picards
Germany: Roger Cicero
Greece: Sarbel
Ireland: Dervish
Lithuania: 4Fun
Romania: Todomondo
Russia: Serebro
Spain: NASH
Sweden: The Ark
Ukraine: Verka Serduchka
UK MYMU entrants
Big Brovaz
Brian Harvey
Cyndi
Hawkins & Brown
Liz McClarnon
Scooch(!)
Artists:
Prata Vetra (Brainstorm)
Marc Almond
Pet Shop Boys
Scissor Sisters
Family history:
Chig is directly descended from the following families. If you have one of these surnames, we're possibly related, so feel free to get in touch: Crowe, Harborne/Harbourne, Higgins, Hutchins, O'Sullivan/Sullivan, Talliss/Tallis.
Above: My Gran with her Gran. Snitterfield, Warwickshire, c.1930.
Shameless exhibitionism:
Chig's January 1999 Gay Times article, behind the scenes filming 'Queer As Folk'
People we know:
After The Boyf
B-Boy Blues
Bitful
Daren & Justin
David Belbin
Glenn Ball
I'm Hip To You
Loobynet
Melodimen
Over Your Head
Poplicious
Quarter Hours
Reluctant Nomad
Schlagerboys
Simon & The City
Thoughts From Fish Island
Troubled Diva
Other people we like:
AceDiscoVery
Come Into My World
Club Contact
Following Adam
Diamond Geezer
My Ace Life
Naked Blog
TheSnowInTheSummerOrSo-So
Welshcake
Zbornak
Archives:
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December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
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December 2007
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