In the last week uni has stepped up and then some. Instead of having one project that I’d ignore for a few weeks, I’ve been given 4 at once. Normally this would be quite an easy juggling task, after all I’ve done it years ago at college, but since those days I’ve opted to spend my free time blogging and managing websites. Foolish, I know.

That’s all I’ve got, I’d rather be telling you about Mass Effect 2 or something but that’s all I’ve got. Nothing thoughtful or worthwhile to say about the subject. I guess life is just a constant struggle to find free time.

You see? I shouldn’t do the thoughtful bits, they just sound pretentious.

I’ve kind of fallen off the radar as of late. Bioshock 2 saw to it that my obsession with Mass Effect 2 would wane, and it’s a shame because I didn’t really enjoy the return to Rapture as much as I anticipated.

Then with the impending release of Heavy Rain, I know my time with Mass Effect 2 will soon come to an end. I’m currently seventeen hours and, apparently, on the penultimate mission. If I wanted I could just blow through those final few missions but I know if I do, I’ll never do those extra assignments.

For some reason I want to do absolutely everything in this universe. There’s something really compelling about this game that I can’t figure out, it has to be more than visuals. I guess I’m lucky I’m not actually reviewing this one, mainly because I can take my sweet time with it.

I’ve been playing a lot of Football Manager recently – yeah I know, hear me out – and in the year 2022 the title will be decided between Manchester City, Aston Villa, Arsenal and Basingstoke. Except for the latter, that could happen. Aston Villa are probably the biggest club in the world, with tons of cash and multiple Champions League wins under their belt, Owen Coyle has done one hell of a job.

It’s all a bit far-fetched but it makes you think that few clubs stay at the top of the league for years and that generally the clubs at the top go around in circles. Kind of makes the whole point of Football seem futile… I probably won’t find a shortage of people to agree with me.

Even with that said, I’ll still endlessly rant at the manager’s decisions and enjoy surprise moments from under-appreciated substitutes.

I’ve spent most of today listening to The Alan Price Set, specifically Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear. If you haven’t heard of this song click the video above. Actually go do it now before reading the rest of this post.

Good right? Granted, it isn’t a song about how in-love someone is or how upset someone is, it’s about some bloke and his dancing bear – real life stuff. I wish I could find some more music like this, any recommendations? In return, I had a quick listen to some of the other Alan Price Set and compiled a compilation. See if you can get your hands on the following…

1. Simon Smith and The Amazing Dancing Bear
2. Take Me Home
3. Critic’s Choice
4. Tickle Me
5. Don’t Stop The Carnivale
6. Don’t Do That Again
7. My Old Kentucky Home
8. Shame
9. The Time Has Come
10. The House That Jack Built

Search for them, listen to them, hopefully enjoy them.

I was put in a very awkward situation tonight.

We went to see Stewart Lee at the Hall for Cornwall and as expected he was on top form. The warm-up act however, got a mixed reaction to say the least. The fantastically German, Henning Wehn provided a surprising support act. I’ve only known him from Fighting Talk and was expecting someone else to turn up so it was a pleasant surprise.

He naturally got onto the topic of football and was building towards a tongue-in-cheek joke surrounding how the game, that used to be working class, is now out of the price range of the working class. He was building towards something before he mentioned the McCann story. Now I happened to be sitting on the row with two people, either side of me, who weren’t too pleased and didn’t understand that he was obviously building up to something. They started heckling him and he was visibly taken back by it. Eventually a few more people joined in with the heckles culminating in ‘You’re losing the audience’.

Now that’s not just any heckle, that essentially halts the whole gig. You can’t really come back with many retorts to that. To be fair he didn’t have any retorts to the original heckles and didn’t seem like he knew what to do. He froze up, never really finished that story and fumbled around with some props but he never got to finish what was, up until that point, a good set. It just goes to show how one line, one joke can be taken the wrong way and totally destroy any rapport with the audience.

I felt bad and talked to him afterwards and bought a DVD that he signed. So it worked out alright in the end. Still…

Tough Crowd