Remember what Feb 29 means?

This morning in Galway, we're having the first right bit of snow so far this year. As usual, the country has come to a standstill. Most of the rural schools are closed (and some of the city ones) and as of the time of writing the majority of my colleagues who live outside town still haven't turned up for work. Its amazing the disruption a couple of inches of snow can cause.

The story of the computer modem.

Wise words: Lightweight living.

Music news: Cash family blocks haemorrhoid ad.

Would you spend €3000 on a new book about Muhammad Ali? And that's only the collectors edition. The 'Champs edition' is €7,500! Check out the promo website here.

Once again, I and a few compadres attempted the annual Galway Arts festival Rock n' Pop table quiz last night. Although I felt we did quite well in general (I think we finished 9th) we were nowhere near good enough to win the thing - Next year, I think we'll need someone who's familiar with the first 15 seconds of the intro to every song that made the charts in the last year (and who knows the difference between Mary J Blige and Missy Elliott).

Surprise, surprise - not everyone likes living in Galway.

Phew. I'm just back after a weekend in Barcelona - it's a great city; busier at 11:00 pm than at 11:00 am; a place where life's priorites seem to be in balance - Joy before Art before Work. And nice weather too!

How times have changed. 28 years after Johhny Rotten outraged the British TV watching public with his use of the F-word, he manages to do the same last night with the C-word. Don't expect to see 'Curb you Enthusiasm' reruns on UK daytime terrestrial TV anytime soon then.

Congratulations to Miller on the release of not only a new album by his band 'The Ruben James' but also the impending release of a solo album. It's nice to see he has included a song, '3 a.m Galway Bay', which I assume was inspired by his time spent in Galway last year. They're good songs too - something to be proud of Mr. Miller.

More muso stuff. Here's Alan W. Pollack's notes on the complete Beatles catalogue. Via Incoming Signals

'Money, Money, Money' was my favourite song for about a week when I was 10. Little did I know I was merely being manipulated by a cliched songwriting construct; The Truck Driver's Gear Change Hall Of Shame: A muso's introduction.

From The Guardian: Six year olds rate classic guitar anthems.

Send lawyers, guns and money there's plagiarism in the Blogosphere: Tequilamockingbird was a victim.

From the BDSM university: Stern's guide to Slave Training. (Includes some material NSFW). Some weird and kinky stuff here; I mean whats the big deal about keeping the mouth open? :- "While in your presence your slave should never close the fists, the legs or the lips, in private or in the vanilla world. Teach your slave to keep her lips from touching (the mouth doesn't have to be gaping open, of course), to think about the position of her hands (in public, she may not be able to place them palms-up, but they can be relaxed and loose) and, if she has to cross her legs, to do it at the ankles rather than the knees. (This is manageable, even in a skirt. Allow your slave to practice in front of you until she can do this without drawing attention to herself.)".

New adventures in music criticism? Pitchfork's Nick Slyvester reviews the Daft Punk re-mix album with the aid of some natty drawings.

Instant msg conversation I've just had...

Mick: What d'ya make of this...
Smoke: Bloody hell. What kind of leech would fancy a meal of silicone?
Mick: The two legged variety!

From the country that gave us Rasputin, we now have Natasha - a girl with X-Ray vision.

I appears that the Gardai got a bit carried away with themselves over the excitement of having real live EU 'dignitaries' in town last week. A local activist is alledging he was seriously assaulted by Gardai after his 'arrest' on Saturday morning. If true, this is highly disturbing and coming on top of a slew of bad of bad press for the boys in blue, can only add to calls to have the force reformed. Whatever you may think of the EU or globalisation or 'fortress Europe' or the war in Iraq etc. etc. it seem to me that that the biggest threat to our society, it's freedoms and liberties lies with corruption in the very organisations tasked with protecting them.