alexsarll | It's so time-consuming worrying about how little time one has.

Does anyone else have a Zen Stone MP3 player? Mine is misbehaving slightly, and advice would be welcome.

Never would have expected to attend two clubs on two consecutive nights in 2008 which both played 'Dub Be Good To Me', but it's nice to see Norman Cook's finest hour getting some limelight again after all that Fatboy Slim unpleasantness. Lower The Tone on Friday was, I think, the first time I've ever been to a predominantly lesbian night ~~except for some of the better Stay Beautifuls~~ as against gender-mixed gay nights like Popstarz, Pink Glove &c. Not wishing to stereotype or anything, but I'm not sure I've ever been to such a couply club - however, this was friendly coupledom, not insular coupledom, so it still worked as a club in a way I'm not sure such a couply straight club ever could. Good venue, too, and I'm not just saying that 'cos it's walking distance for me. Though that does help.
And then Poptimism last night, at which

katstevens' History of Bosh set caused me to bosh myself half to death and thus remind me why I never go to proper dance music clubs. Ow.

Foolishly, I had hoped that one bulwark against the neo-puritan attack on alohol might be supermarket competition; they'd never be able to impose the sort of rationing they clearly want if they're relying on Tesco and Sainsbury's to share consumer information. Insufficiently devious of me, of course; what do retailers like more than an excuse to set up a cartel? And while the government normally fights (ineffectually) against such behaviour, it's about to hand them a morally sanctioned cartel on a plate when it comes to alcohol. Apparently "the price of alcohol in shops has halved in real terms in 20 years" - by which they mean that it has remained stable. So in our apparently prosperous society, where everything else from bread to fuel bills has been rising at enough of a rate to wipe out any real increase in purchasing power, one thing has failed to keep pace - and it's something which helps people numb the pain of the world our proud masters have made. Clearly that can't be allowed to continue.

Even before they start in with Mad Men tonight, BBC4 continues to come up with odd little gems; Caledonia Dreaming, for instance, a history of Scottish music from Postcard to Franz Ferdinand. They did their best to re-examine some of the less fashionable stuff, but while I was already coming round to The Proclaimers and Deacon Blue, and can now see some merit in Hue & Cry, two of the bands they looked at will always remain beyond the pale: Wet Wet Wet and Teenage Fanclub. Had no idea how involved people like Deacon Blue had been in independence campaigning, either.
Also, the first World of Fantasy (still up on Iplayer, but I'm not linking 'cos it's been misbehaving for me today), on fantasy with child heroes, which gets points for going outside the usual suspects and doing some very good stuff on Alan Garner. Puzzled by the Susan Cooper omission, but maybe the Dark Is Rising film put them off. Which by all accounts would be fair enough.