Brace yourselves, this one's gonna be long. My entries are gonna be a little different, nothing major, just sort of an expansion. Enjoy it, who knows when the next one's comin'.

The past month has been a total pile of dung. Not just cause of the usual holiday malarky (I'll elaborate later, maybe), but continued jaw pain and two bouts of the flu are enough to crush the spirits of a sane person. Though since I'm way past that, and with me already being a crazy fuck, doesn't apply to me.

I'm a little scared about still having the upper jaw pain, even my doctor's baffled that after a month it's still there. That and it gives me serious neck and facial pain, which anti-inflammatories won't even help relieve. So yeah, I've gotta see another dentist he recommended to see what the deal is.

I did feel halfway decent enough to spend the Saturday after Christmas at my aunt's (?) in Mississauga, which was pretty cool, since I got to witness my (niece?) Steph's wicked rendition of The Brilliant Green's Rock N Roll, which I've gotta admit, left me extremely jealous (still can't do G to C Steph...). For those who don't know, I've finally taken up guitar, it's call to me was just too great to ignore anymore. Ail's dad has been generous enough to lend me his, but the eventual goal is to get an acoustic of my own. And no Ail, I will not be going by that name. I refuse.

Our hefty CD Japan shipment arrived earlier this week, along with an even heftier customs fee (there's 25 bucks less in my guitar fund, bloody hell...). Ail's in pretty bad shape right now too, so who knows when we'll get to watch the Puffy tour DVD to see whether or not we've all been made famous, guys. The new TBG and Do As Infinity CD's on the other hand, I listened to (I know Ail, I'm a bad boy). Now with albums, the worst thing you could ever do is hold a band's past work against them. So with that, I got's to say TBG's new album is solid as a donkey's wang. Not perfect like some idiot reviewers would have you believe, but it is a top album, and a rushed one at that, according to the band themselves. While they've strayed somewhat from their 60's/70's influence, the British influence is still there, but if you're gonna generalize, it's still a western sound, so nothing's changed there. And why should it, they're fantastic at what they do, a band in the truest sense of the word.

None of you probably caught it, but that last sentence was a knock at DAI. I still like them, but anyone who refers to them as a band couldn't be more wrong. They're more of an act than a band. As for the album, it's undeniably a DAI album, but oh man, the last track Ai No Uta is just embarassing. If I could I'd erase it physically from the CD, I would. It's sad, because I think the actual vocal is fine, but that instrumental arrangement... I feel like I'm at an eastern Canada lumberjack competition. I'm aware of Tomiko digging The Corrs, which is cool, but if this was her idea... oh yeah, one more thing, they didn't even use the band they've been touring with for over a year for the album, instead using another group of session musicians. How mean is that? If it's their label Avex's doing, then fine, but if they don't even have a say in who records with them, then that's a shitty contract they signed.

I caught a clip of Avril Lavigne announcing the Grammy nominees on TV the other day, and she managed to mispronounce David Bowie (she pronounced the "Bow" as in "take a bow"). Talk about making a boo-boo. Now she's just fueling the fire herself.

I wasn't sure about it at first, but I am now in love with the video for Songbird. Just like the song, it's incredibly simple (simple compared to other works anyway, I only wish I could ever come up with something as gorgeous as this song), and it works, reminiscent of videos from the 60's/70's (aw hell, I'm talkin' about The Beatles). Plus it's funny seeing Liam run, not bad for a smoker. Should you actually amuse me and watch it, that woman with the dog is none other than his wife, Nicole "All Saints" Appleton. So please, watch/listen to the streams that are up, especially Steph's.

So yeah, I'm ending this here. This took way longer to write up than I thought it would, that and my neck really hurts. I'll get into the holiday malarky another time (maybe). Now I gotta sift through Ail's watched stuff on ebay so she doesn't buy the world.