[Updated album list, 28th June 2009 -S]

That’s actually a misquotation from Casablanca, but it’s so ingrained in our contemporary ethos that no one really cares (she actually says “Play it, Sam, play ‘As Time Goes By‘, one of the most sappy songs of all time). Bogart’s ‘Here’s looking at you, kid’ wasn’t in the original screenplay either — it was something said from Bogart to Bergman while he was trying to teach her poker in between takes.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about music. A wide, all-encompassing love for every kind of music. Except for death metal, which just doesn’t count as ‘music’. Maybe if they turn their amps down, they might be able to hear the shit they’re pumping out.

I know this is a touchy subject. Everyone has their own taste in music, which they are often irrationally proud of. ‘Yeah, I listen almost exclusively to Norwegian Death Metal, nothing else is even worth listening to.’ Most people firmly believe that their taste in music is approaching some kind of divinity, and anyone that doesn’t like their music (Impossible!!) can go stick it where the sun don’t shine.

The thing is, in general, ‘good music’ can be quite easily defined. There are a few bands and a few genres that are widely accepted as ‘good’. You won’t often find the Norwegian Death Metal lover saying that ‘Ah yeah, that Bacharach song was shit’ — some music is just so perfect. Some songs hit all the right spots, in all the right places, at just the right times. It’s this wide-scoped genre of music that I like to think I am an aficionado of. I’ve spent the last 10 years or so trying to locate, listen and identify all of the greatest albums ever made. I think I’m completely spoilt, being able to listen to some of the best music ever made, at any time. The power of digitising your CD collection!

So what makes music ‘good’? What can turn a piece of mediocre music into something truly ‘awesome’?

• An element of excellence. Be it vocal excellence like Whitney Houston, or an instrument like Ben Folds’ piano antics, or even excellent lyrics (though this is often a subjective measure, so I’m not really going to use it as a metric for measuring ‘good music’)
• Major tonality. This is slightly harder to get your head around, but generally this dictates ‘happy sounding’ music. Most of the anthems that you know will be in a major tonality, with some key-change later in that drives you up to the ‘next plane’ of the song. Pandora actually enlightened me to the fact that almost every song it chose for me was of ‘major tonality’ — sadly it’s a USA-only service due to licensing restrictions. Blah.
• Does the music take you places? Do you feel positively stimulated by listening to the music? More energy? More relaxed? Often a good album (not necessarily a song) will take you on some kind of ride through the thoughts and emotions of the artist. The music needs to appeal on enough levels that it gets you involved — it needs to be intellectual, emotional or spiritual (or all 3!) . I’m not talking about just the lyric here either — the music itself can take you to all of these places too.
• Most importantly, the music has to be so well made and so well engineered that you can listen to it time and time again, each listen-through granting you a new facet of the music, a new understanding and thus more appreciation. I’m still amazed that I can listen to a song by Marvin Gaye for the 100th time and pick out an instrument that I’ve never heard before. The quality of the recording is important here — the mixing and mastering has to be very well done so that it never detracts from your enjoyment of the music. All too often music is mastered for playing in cars — it’s heavily compressed so that you can still hear it over the driving noises, which means you’re probably never hearing what the artist wanted you to hear.

So, given the above attributes, you can start to pick out good albums (I’m not going to pick out ‘good songs’, as it’s pretty easy to make a good tune — look at Burt Bacharach and Hal David, or the Elvis Presley — it’s making a good album that’s the tricky bit).

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I can almost guarantee you will enjoy each of these albums. You’ll even want to listen to them again and again… and again. It is no surprise that they are are also some of the best-selling albums of all time.

In no particular order:

• Marvin Gaye – 1971 – What’s Goin’ On
• Miles Davis – 1959 – Kind Of Blue
• Miles Davis & Gil Evans – 1958 – Porgy and Bess
• Elton John – 2008 – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Remastered)
• Paul McCartney & Wings – 1973 – Band on the Run
• Fleetwood Mac – 1977 – Rumours
• Bruce Springsteen – 1975 – Born to Run
• Ben Folds Five – 1997 – Whatever & Ever Amen
• Michael Jackson – 1979 – Off The Wall
• Michael Jackson – 1982 – Thriller

There are a few other albums which I feel could make the list, but they would most likely be very controversial. My inclusion of Ben Folds Five into a list of ‘historic greats’ is no doubt a bit dangerous, and it’s certainly a lot more ‘eclectic’ than the others in the list. Though, any album which I can listen to once a day, for 3 years, without being bored has to be a prime example of ‘good music’.

And now… I am going to slide my Grado headphones gently over my ears, press ‘play’ on my iPod, and dance around in the rapidly descending snow like a lunatic. It doesn’t get much better.

The first hint you had was that I was watching TV shows and reviewing them, instead of going out to wine and dine some beautiful lady. The second is that I’m actually writing this, instead of in bed, trying to execute a sexual position that requires far more upper-body strength than I possess.

Now, I’m not some kind of militaristic single; I’d love to be celebrating today with a girlfriend, I just don’t have one.

My sister’s with her boyfriend (thankfully they won’t be keeping me up tonight — ugh), and my parents are out having a lovely day together. That leaves me here at home, all alone. But it’s OK! I’ve found 5 things that I can do, while home alone, sighing wistfully for a cute woman to come and whisk me off my feet:

(This might read as ‘5 ways to pamper yourself’ as written by a girl… but men like comfy pleasures too!)

1. Cook yourself something nice. Spend time preparing the food. Prepare it just how you like it. You don’t have to cater to someone else’s tastes, so you can really spoil your taste buds. It’s also rather relaxing to take your time cooking, I find! (If you don’t know what to cook, find a nice recipe online… and give it a go!)
2. Wear something comfortable. Yeah… I’m straight, really! But again, when you’re alone, there’s no need to dress up; so dress down! Put on those comfy jeans that you hope your girlfriend/boyfriend never see you in. The ones that make you look like a heffer. Put on that big wooly jumper that you can cuddle into, the one that makes you look like you have something to hide.
3. Put on some feel-good music. I know this sounds awfully girly, but there’s no reason for girls to be the only ones that enjoy sappy, feel-good music. Right now I’m listening to The Bacharach & David Songbook, 22 of their greatest hits sung by Dionne Warwick (just look at the number of hit singles this guy has written!)
4. Read a book, or watch a magical film. Books and films both have one thing in common — they take you to different places. It’s quite easy for a good book or film to transport you to another world, perhaps a more pleasant place to be until Valentine’s Day is over. I’m not saying it has to be something entirely sappy and romantic — that might be entirely the wrong thing! How about Big Fish, or Amelie? (OK, that’s a bit sappy, but it’s so magical!)
5. Run a hot bath. Okay, I know I’m definitely treading on girl territory here. But why can’t men also enjoy a hot, steamy bath? With bubbles? There’s a huge disparity in this world… why do men hardly pamper themselves? I quite enjoy it when I set little candles around my bath, turn the light out and slip slowly into a hot bubble bath. I’m trying to think of what is customarily the ‘male’ alternative to this is — ‘drink some beers with the lads’ doesn’t seem to quite fit the bill.

That’s probably enough for you to get started with this evening (if you’re in the USA). If you’re in the UK, or out to the East, I guess you’ll just have to try it next year… or the next time you’re home alone!

While we’re on the topic of Valentine’s Day (and this will be the last Valentine’s Day-inspired post, I promise you), I was thinking about ex-girlfriends, as one does, and I remembered a photo I had taken and dedicated to a girlfriend. I haven’t actually done it again since, but I think if I were to get another girlfriend, I would dedicate a lot more photos to her. It’s a starburst lily, if anyone’s wondering!

Continuing my mission to prove that not all gamers are geeks, and not all geeks are gamers (hooray for that introductory course in logic at university), I have decided to analyse — and shatter a few –  preconceptions about gamers. This won’t be the usual ‘male gamers do actually shower’ kind of list! I’ll include some girl gamer (grrrl!!) myths too!

Being both a long-term hardcore gamer and someone who has been ’socially successful’ (OK, obviously that’s subjective, but I mean I can get along with other people… hold down a job… and a girlfriend!), I feel like I am in the prime position to analyse and debunk a few gamer myths. Hopefully by the end of the list you will feel a lot more educated on the topic of gamers… and appreciate that we are in fact human too. Here goes:

Female gamers… get around a bit

I thought I’d start with a contentious one to warm up with. Do female gamers actually go out of their way to date or sleep with every boy in a particular group of gamers? Do they keep a list and cross them off? If you’re one of those lucky male gamers that actually has a female in their group, you’ll probably know the answer to this one.

I’m afraid the answer is definitely ‘yes, they are hussies‘. Obviously, not every girl gamer is the village bicycle, but the vast majority do seem to ’sample the goods’. I’ve belonged to 2 ‘LAN party‘ groups and in both I experienced a certain ‘looseness’ about the girls. At university, I think of about 50 guy gamers, we had all dated the 3 or 4 girl gamers. Do the maths. But hey, us geek guys need to get our loving from somewhere… and we have a lot of love to give! We save it up over a number of years and let it all out in a… torrent… of love!

Gamers hate physical activity

Another popular notion is that gamers really hate to do things. The huge, spotty, chair-overhanging dorks obviously don’t do a lot for our cause, it’s true. But that doesn’t mean that we all hate sports, or other physical activities! It just means that we like to do… geeky activities! Like paintball, or airsoft. Or Live Action Role Play (click at your own risk). Obviously sloth-like people are attracted to gaming because it is a sedate, immobile pastime — but that doesn’t mean that gaming makes people hate physical exertion. This myth is simply not true, it’s just a stereotype that we have to shake off, thanks to our fat, spotty brethren!

Gamers are ugly

This one is fairly tied into the previous myth; we don’t exercise, thus we don’t look after our bodies. Sitting in a chair, surrounded by other sweaty guys doesn’t really inspire one to shower and tend to one’s appearance, correct?

Partially true. Much like lazy people are attracted to sit in front of a computer, those that care little about other people, and social interactions are likely to be drawn to gaming. This doesn’t mean that all geeks are ugly! There are plenty of attractive geeks out there that manage to mix up gaming and social interaction (that’s actually why LAN parties are so popular — you get to mix with people, rather than sit in your bedroom/basement all day). When we set up a gallery for my World of Warcraft guild I was quite amazed at how good looking we were! (If you want to see, I’ll be happy to provide some examples.) There definitely seems to be a correlation between social skills, and the quality of your appearance.

The related myth ‘all gamers eat vast amounts of pizza and crappy food‘ is only partially true. Pizza and convenience food just happens to be very, er, convenient — you can still use your mouse or keyboard with a slice of pizza in your other grubby paw.

Girl gamers are just following their boyfriend around

Ah, the tag-along girl gamer. Most of you guy gamers reading this will know what I mean by ‘that cute little girl at the LAN party that looks far too cute to actually be a gamer’. You know, she has braids in her hair. And she’s chatting to a friend on MSN Messenger, rather than actually gaming. Maybe she’s watching some anime. You blink, thinking this amazing vision will disappear… but she’s still there when you open your eyes. You think you’ve suddenly hit the mother lode! AND THEN… her boyfriend re-appears. Cue way too much affection and touching by the boyfriend just to make sure you really know they are going out. This guy is proud of his catch, and he wants you to be jealous. And inevitably… you are. Because he’s getting some, and you’re not.

Again, this myth is partially true. The number of girl gamers that actually attend LAN parties, or play any game other than Sims or Habbo Hotel, is still very, very small. The vast majority of girl gamers that you see in public will likely be the girlfriends of gamer guys. That doesn’t mean that the girl doesn’t enjoy games though! I know many girls that have become gamers after dating a hardcore gamer. Maybe that cute blonde will be attending on her own at the next LAN party?

Gaming is a valid career choice

Ah, the classic line that all kids tell their parents. Even I’ve used this one a few times. ‘Playing games won’t get you a job, son!’ Well, that’s not entirely true, dad. Whether as a games tester, designer or even as a pro gamer, there are possibilities to make a career out of hardcore gaming. Unfortunately, testing games for a job isn’t as fun as it sounds (it gets very old after a month or two) and it doesn’t pay well. Then of course everyone wants to design video games, but as there’s only 2 or 3 designers per 100 programmers, that’s a goal many will find unobtainable.

That leaves pro-gaming, which is certainly a possibility in today’s climate, but again only available to the very best gamers.  That’s not to say you shouldn’t try (winning £10,000 for a few hours’ work in a tournament has to be pretty good!), but you probably shouldn’t drop out of school or stay up all night playing games (until you get to university, then it’s OK!). Give it a few more years though and gaming will certainly be a career choice.

Gamers are violent

Ah, the favourite of our friends the media — we play violent video games, so we must all be closet serial killers just waiting to murder a prostitute and go on a killing spree at our local college. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Of course there are a few psychopaths that also played video games, but to surmise that ‘all video gamers are violent’ is false. Most gamers are actually very relaxed. We can obviously be competitive (there has to be a winner!), but not to the level that we’re threatening each other’s families. The exception here is that hardcore gaming can stifle the development of social skills; you all know about the geek that encroaches on your personal space — it’s that kind of oblivious nature that could cause a violent issue to arise.

If anything, gamers tend to be peace-loving types. God knows we don’t often have the physical make-up to be physically violent; our aggression tends to be the passive-aggressive type, often with snide words or social manipulation. ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ — replace ‘pen’ with ‘keyboard’ and you will begin to understand a geek’s method of venting pent-up aggression! The associated myth ‘gamers play games as they enjoy killing‘ is also incorrect, it’s just ‘the modernisation’ of the gaming industry — just like modern TV focusing on lawyers or police. There are plenty of incredibly successful games that have very little violence at all — the Zelda and Mario franchises, the most popular franchises of all time, have absolutely zero focus on death and violence (other than to add significance to the plot, anyway!)

It just so happens that, like with most things in this world, games tend to mirror real life. Games are about escapism, or making fun of a popular topic — you can become Rambo, or a member of a Counter Terrorist squad — the measure of your success, then, is how many enemy soldiers you can kill, or how many bombs you can neutralise.

Conclusion

Like most myths there is often a grain of truth in everything you’ve read here. For every humble, peaceful geek there’s going to be one gun-toting maniac that spoils it for the rest of us. Just remember that as gaming becomes more and more popular (and it’s fast overtaking every other entertainment and pleasure pastime in the world today), almost anyone you meet could turn out to be a gamer. It’s only logical that hardcore gaming, and making a career out of gaming will become more popular, and even acceptable!

There I was, looking up the beautiful, soft curves of the female form. She had mounted me in the standard bronco position. She whimpered, I groaned; she gyrated and thrusted, I groaned some more.

It was then, shaking my head to gain a moment of clarity, I realised that sex could become boring. Sure, given a particular moment in time, sex would always be enjoyable, but it would fast become boring unless I kept it interesting.

Though I have only been sexually active for about 6 years, it occurred to me fairly early on that sex, like relationships, has to be constantly created — recreated, even, from encounter to encounter, from lingering glance to lingering, love-sick glance.

They say — wise, old people — that sex stops being exciting and interesting as a relationship goes on. It sublimates to other activities, or the act of just being together, in rocking chairs on the veranda. The reason for this is twofold:

1. Sex is a waste of time — Okay, a really, fun, intimate waste of time, but still, compared to other things you could be doing, it’s a waste of time!
2. Sex stops being exciting – This is probably the main reason people stop having sex (and also why quite-weak relationships might falter and stumble, if sex is the main thing keeping them together). Eventually, you run out of inspiration, and without inspiration you find yourself running out of positions to try out, and eventually… sex becomes a waste of time!

(You don’t have to agree with me by the way, I am just laying the ground for the rest of my argument.)

You need to keep creating fun, exciting, exhilarating sex, or you’ll soon find yourself in front of the TV with your partner watching EastEnders, or American Idol. Your relationship, intellect and health would quickly waste away into nothingness. Worst of all, you’d start enjoying reality TV. Wouldn’t that be a fate worse than death?

‘Yes it would!’

This isn’t going to be a list of possible positions — that would be too graphic, and there are already thousands of sites (and positions!) out there on the Internet for you to browse, if you need some help in that department (even I learnt a few new ones as I was writing this!)

This first list (and there will be others) is a few of the places I’ve had sex, in an attempt to keep my relationships alive and kicking. Well, alive and penetrating. The next list will be a theoretical list of places that would be good to have sex in — i.e. places I want to try out, hopefully before I’m too old and inflexible to make the most of them.

Sex in a field

One of the first adventurous places I had sex was a field atop a hill. It was quite a cold day, but fortunately sex has a tendency to heat you up rather quickly. We’d started off in winter clothes, but after a few minutes of rolling around and fumbling and kissing the clothes were ripped off.

Sex in a field is a great way to end (or punctuate) a romantic stroll in the countryside. It’s quite an intense experience (and memory), so every time you go walking again, your mind will always wander back to that fateful time you rolled around in the hay…!

• Unique Selling Point — The normally-dull missionary position becomes a whole lot more exciting when a gusty, cool breeze blows up your ass. There is also a wide variety of fields that you can have sex in! It is also different each season: summer might mean skirts and no underwear, and laying on the crunchy leaves of autumn (fall) can be a lot of fun.
• Exhibitionist Rating – 3 out of 10 (low chance of being seen), though it obviously depends on where you go, and the time of year. We accidentally chose a spot where people often walked their dogs, boosting the ER up to 8 out of 10. Darn.

Sex on a train

An oldie but goodie, sex on a train is still one of my favourites. I’ve actually had sex, or almost had sex quite a few times on trains, nearly always on the way back from London. In the dark, almost-empty train carriages, you can get away with an awful lot, and make a lot of noise! Place yourself in the middle of a carriage, and you can see or hear people coming from some distance away. If they’re lucky, they’ll hear you coming, too!

Even if you don’t have sex on a train, there’s a lot you can do, just sitting side by side, hands in each other’s laps or with the girl leaning over…

• Unique Selling Point – The chairs! Perfect for the girl to straddle the guy, or if you’re in a little ‘booth’ with opposing chairs, the girl could lean forward, and… well, I’m not going to illustrate it with pictures; you get the idea. If you still don’t get the idea, contact me and I’ll see what I can do.
• Exhibitionist Rating – 4 out of 10. If you do this late at night (which, really, you should — you don’t want young kids to see you!) the chance of being spotted is quite low. Obviously, if it’s a noisy train, and you can’t hear people opening doors, you might get caught out — but perhaps you want to be caught out?! Obviously, if you decide to do this during rush hour (which I have sadly never done), the rating goes up a little… to 10 out of 10 (unless the girl has a short skirt on and is very quiet — but then you’re not doing it right!)

Sex in a dressing room

This one’s a fun one. Every guy hates shopping; he might say that he likes it, but trust me, he doesn’t. The only way I’ve found to make shopping not quite so dismal is to have sex in a dressing room. It’s up to you which shop you choose, but generally posh department stores have nice, large dressing rooms. If it has a chair, that’s obviously a bonus for geeky men with less upper-body strength…

A word of warning: don’t do it in one of your favourite shops, unless there are others in the chain nearby — I can no longer shop at three shops in my local city, but that’s OK because they only sell clothes for girls!

• Unique Selling Point – The woman gets what she really wants (both an orgasm, and clothes!) Plus, there aren’t many places you can have sex when you’re out and about — up against the wall in a dark alley isn’t quite the same (but can still hit the spot!)
• Exhibitionist Rating – 7 out of 10 (10 out of 10 on a busy day). Depending on the time you go (weekdays are safer), you might not get seen at all. The danger comes from being just an inch of wood away from other people trying on clothes, and you can guarantee they’re going to hear your whimpering and panting — and growling, in my case.When I did it, we were obviously too noisy because two girls, at the same time, popped their heads over the top and looked down at me and my girlfriend going at it, up against the wall.At least they didn’t scream or alert the staff. To be honest, I have no idea how long they were watching before we noticed. Hot!

Sex in a theatre, while watching a show

This one’s going to earn me some disapproving looks I am sure, but it’s true: I’ve had sex in a theatre. A big theatre. But don’t worry, we weren’t at the front of the auditorium, and the thousand people behind us didn’t have to watch as she scooted over onto my lap. We were at the back of the theatre.

It became (hah) quite an art, timing the quick thrusts with the passionate full-orchestra ensemble, and then slowing down to gentle, loving strokes during the dialogue and quiet songs.

• Unique Selling Point – How often do you get to mix culture and sex? Not often, I assure you. Again, like a train, you have an abundance of chairs which you can use for either straddling, or a variety of bent-over positions.  You could also just drop down between the chairs, but no one would see you there, and what’s the fun in that? For bonus points, try to time your climax for the er, climax of ‘One Day More‘ — it’ll be a moment you both cherish for years to come. Hah.
• Exhibitionist Rating – 7 out of 10. When we did this one, some damn kid turned around and spotted us, pointed us out to his parents, who in-turn pointed us out to their neighbours. Eventually, a sizable portion of the audience turned to watch us. They all turned back to the stage for the big number though, so we can’t have been that good. Rating is increased to 10 out of 10 if you can’t control yourself during the quiet bits — and you’ll probably get thrown out too, which is a waste of the exorbitant ticket price!It does mean that I have a 30 minute blank spot in my knowledge of Les Miserables though…

Sex in the back of a race-tuned Dodge Viper

I should begin by saying this was in a moving Dodge Viper, and penetration was only temporary because, well… her dad was driving the car. I won’t go into too many details on this one, but I will tell you it’s the same Dodge Viper that I reference in this story about The American.

• Unique Selling Points — Acceleration. Torque. Thrust. G-force. The Dodge Viper accelerates from 0 to 100 mph (160 kph) in about 9 seconds (just about long enough for me to finish); a quarter mile in 12 seconds. It is stupendously fast. The girl — and the penis — will discover places that are impossible to reach under normal-gravity conditions. Not to mention, the affect of quick acceleration/torque on your inner ear is almost orgasmic in its own right!
• Exhibitionist Rating – 10 out of 10. You have a 10-20 second window between protective father’s glances into the rear-view mirror for the girl to hop on and hop off. Of course, you can repeat this as many times as you like, but the chances of you getting caught are quite high. If you’re caught, you’ll probably crash and die, so this is for risk-takers only!

Notes & Further Info

First, you have to remember that in almost all cases and most cultures, having sex in public is generally frowned upon. Best-case scenario, you might get thrown out of the theatre — worst-case, you might have to pay a fine or suffer through community service for indecent exposure.

Secondly, you don’t have to become an exhibitionist to squeeze a little more juice out of your relationship — but a moment of shared excitement and passion does go a long way to briging two people closer together! This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t just invest in a sex swing, or use the dining room table — but I am assuming that you’ve exhausted most normal positions/situations, or perhaps you are just easily-bored like me! You could stick to the ‘in a field’ thing, if you want to play it safe… but where’s the fun in that?

Lastly, remember, if your entire relationship consists of just having sex, it’s probably not much of a relationship — in the long run no amount high-torque Dodge Viper sex is going to fix that.

Following on from part 1, this is a theoretical list of places I would like to have sex. I will use my masterful and infallible analytical skills to deduce which place is, in fact, the best place to have sex (though, I think the back of a Dodge Viper, with a cheerleader, is probably unsurpassable).

If anyone reading this wants to try one or more of these, please contact me. Girls and boys. It will be blogged about though…

Sex, up against the front plate-glass window of a shop

I have this mental image of a TV crew filming a segment on local businesses. Behind the reporter, there’s a shop. In that shop, there’s me, and a girl, going at it, with her face pushed up against the glass in a comical fashion. Doesn’t necessarily have to be naked — just the facial expressions, and the sliding up and down against the glass…

• Unique Selling Point – If you had someone (a friend?) take photos, you’d probably get some great keepsakes. Probably not the kind of photos you could keep in picture frames around the house, though. There’s a slim chance that the shop you’re shagging in will appreciate the extra publicity and give you vouchers too! More likely, you’ll just get banned from ever shopping there again.
• Exhibitionist Rating (ER) – 7 out of 10 on a slow day (some people simply won’t work out that a girl’s face squished up against a window means ‘we’re having sex’). For the full 10 out of 10, make sure the news crew that catch you are broadcasting live. Instant, global (well, maybe, if you do it right) recognition. There’s your 5 minutes (hopefully) of fame, men.

Sex in a Space Shuttle and/or Viper from Battlestar Galactica

I simply couldn’t choose what would be better: the thrust (and I think a Space Shuttle taking off is the only thing with more thrust than a Dodge Viper), or the awesomeness of doing it in the cockpit of a Viper. Now, with space tourism becoming viable, sex in a Shuttle is actually a possibility. I don’t know if you want to unbuckle your seatbelt and clamber onto the guy’s lap during the take-off sequence though. Mind you, if you waited until you were in space, zero-g sex might be quite cool?

But then… the Viper. The sexiest damn space ship ever — sexier even than the Millennium Falcon and Han Solo combined. You could even throw in Chewie to make it a pretty damn hot, hairy threesome, and the Viper would still be sexier. It’d be a squeeze no doubt, but for a geek, it might never get better than this. Don’t forget, now that the series has ended, all of the props are being auctioned off, including the Viper models. I am so tempted…

• Unique Selling Point – For the Shuttle, it’s obviously the thrust. And, walking to the window and looking down at Earth has to be the best post-coital thing ever, even if you can’t light a cigarette up. If you had sex in a Viper, you’d be revered by every other geek until the day you die. You’d be elevated to demigod status in an instant. Queues at comic conventions would part for you, like the seas parted for Moses.
• Exhibitionist Rating – ? out of 10. If you’re having sex while the communication channel is open to mission control, and the whole world can hear you panting and wheezing, then obviously the ER goes up a lot — in fact, Houston, there might just be a problem.

  The Viper could probably be placed in your bedroom — though, out on the front lawn would be pretty wild. Geeky kids would gather to point and stare… at the Viper.

Sex on a desert island

I know. How dull. But hear me out! Imagine an island, with just two people on it — you, and your partner. Perhaps there’s a small tribe of natives on the other side of the island that maintain things and bring you freshly-cracked coconuts. But imagine… a deserted beach, facing westward, perhaps in the Indian ocean. A deep, fluffy towel is laid down beneath you. The sun is setting and the world is drenched in beautiful shades and hues of orange and purple and red. And only then, as the sun slowly slips out of sight, you gently slip it in…

• Unique Selling Point – Ultimately, this is a variation of ’sex in a field’. A beautiful, warm variation of sex in a field without the cold gust of air surprising your nether regions. You can also be as loud as you like; only the birds and fishes will hear you. Plus… well, come on, who hasn’t dreamed of one day being on a deserted desert island?
• Exhibitionist Rating – 0 out of 10. The only way you could ever class this as exhibitionism is if a local tribesman just happened to be up a coconut tree nearby. It would be hard to be heard over the roar of the ocean and the chattering of the birds, though. Imagine the give-away sound of a coconut falling to the ground while you’re having sex — wouldn’t that just be awesome? Stereotypical, but awesome.

Sex in Saint Peter’s Basilica in The Vatican City

It’s OK, stop praying for my soul. Please. I’m already going to hell for some of the other things I’ve done to my girlfriends. I finally visited St Peter’s Basilica in October 2008 and 6 months later words still fail me when I try to describe the sheer scale of the thing. I’ve seen a lot of churches (including the mosques in Istanbul) and I thought I would grow immune to the Keanu Reeves-esque ‘Woah’ that normally afflicts people when they cross the holy threshold. I pushed back the vast vault-like doors of St Peter’s, cautiously stepped inside, walked a few paces forward with my head down and then looked around. It dwarfs EVERYTHING else. It makes the rest of the world feel small. AND they still hold mass there! I can see why belief might come quite easily to Romans when you are floored by such majestic, immense awe.

• Unique Selling Point – Although probably not unique, you would be one of the only people to ever have had sex in St Peter’s Basilica. I can’t imagine a lot of people have tried it. Alternatively, you could do it in the Sistine Chapel under the beautiful paintings of Michelangelo, though there seemed to be a large number of armed guards when I went. If you’re a militant agnostic, or perhaps your parents tried to ram faith down your throat, St Peter’s Basilica might appeal to you — what better way to sock it to God than shaggin’ wildly right under his nose? Bonus points — go straight to hell, do not pass Purgatory — if you manage a little buggery.It’s worth noting that the chances of  ‘divine inspiration’ or being touched by the ‘hand of God’ are vastly increased if you have sex in St Peter’s Basilica. ‘How did you find God, daddy?’ might be an interesting question to answer around the dinner table in a few years.
• Exhibitionist Rating — 3 out of 10. If you prescribe to the ‘God is Omnipresent’ thing, it’s obviously a big, fat 10 out of 10. St Peter’s Basilica is so large that you could undoubtedly find a dark, quiet corner to do the dirty. I would argue though that going to Rome and doing it anywhere other than the main altar, right at the focus of the Roman Catholic God would be a bit of a waste. Thinking about it, the acoustics might carry and reverberate the noises of your frantic antics over quite a distance.

Sex in a lion/large cat enclosure

You could extend this one to ‘on the sub-Saharan savannah’. Ever since I read about those ‘romantic tree houses’ (basically, canvas tents that have been secured to trees) that you can find in the African plains, I’ve thought about doing some serious sexing with lions prowling around. Imagine looking up from your hiding spot, amongst the long, slender grass and spotting a lion proudly perched atop a grassy knoll, or lounging in an ancient, gnarled tree. Imagine the earth shaking — not from your violent, vigorous sex, but from a herd of elephants marching past you. Being a realist, though, I am far more likely to sneak into a zoo with a girlfriend and get mauled by a tiger. A man can dream, though!

• Unique Selling Point – If watching a male lion viciously and unceremoniously mount a female doesn’t get your juices going, there’s always the elephants (a really scary sight, if you’ve never seen it — that poor girl is carrying 6 tonnes of male elephant). If that doesn’t get you going, well, I don’t know what will.
• Exhibitionist Rating – 0 out of 10. This one’s purely for you two; just enjoy the moment! For bonus points though, to boost the ER, get caught on camera by a photographer, or a TV crew. ‘Here, in the dusty, yellowed sub-Saharan plains of Africa we can see two fine examples of Homo Sapiens going about their usual mating ritual with relish and surprising vigor…’ Double points if David Attenborough does the narration when it finally makes it onto BBC1.

That’s all. For now…

Recently, my geekiness was called into question: ‘You’re not very geeky, Sebastian. All you talk about is sex. Sex, sex, sex. That’s hardly wholesome geeky talk. How about some Star Wars talk, or a list of all the comics you own?’

Let me tell you something, Little Miss I’m-a-bigger-geek-than-you : I AM A HUGE GEEK, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

The thing is, like my sexuality, I am so confident in my geekiness that I don’t feel the need to constantly reassure myself, and you lot, that I’m a geek. So, please excuse me if I don’t always talk about a fantastic new range of marbled dice or if the digital Yoda was better than the original wobbly-eared bogey-coloured rubber model.

However…

This weekend I will be attending a LAN party.

A LAN party, for those of you that don’t know — for those of you not geeky enough – is a ‘gaming festival’. It can be small — just 5 or 10 people — or it can be huge. By huge, I mean thousands of people.

Click it for a larger version. Really, click it. It even amazes me.

DreamHack, the largest LAN party in the world, has over 11,000 (eleven thousand) paying attendees. That’s 11,000  people transporting their computers from all over Sweden and Europe. The one I attend, the i-series, ‘only’ has around 2000 attendees — but really, it’s not like you walk around and shake hands with everyone there. The point is: when you stand up — you know, to check if your legs still work — all you can see is computer screens. And towers of consumed energy drink cans. And pizza boxes.

If you were to take a walk around a LAN to check out what the latest ‘case mod‘ fashions are, or what the other gaming areas are like, the first thing you’d notice is just how well everyone gets along. There’s a constant roar of chatter, and regular outbursts of shouting and roaring when a team wins a tournament match. The overall feeling is very much one of friendship and camaraderie. Geeks, ultimately, are still social outcasts. LAN parties are the only place where geeks can be themselves. The ‘cool’ facade drops. Let it all hang out — literally, in some cases.

We geeks are beginning to emerge, but it’s happening slowly. The massive success of video games in the last few years has certainly helped — it is becoming more and more common to hear discussion of video games (like WoW, or COD4) out in the ‘real world’. It’s still mainly in the 19-35 male segment, but girls are catching up!

Until LAN parties become the social norm — and we still have a few years left, trust me — the antithesis, the polar opposite, of LAN partying is clubbing.

I’ve clubbed. At university I clubbed and pubbed. I did the social thing, often 6 nights a week for 3 years. I get it and I understand why people enjoy it; why people enjoy drinking, and dancing, and losing their mind. What I don’t get is why people would club when given an alternative, like a LAN party, or simply going around to a friend’s house.

I’m going to list the pros and cons of each, so I can prove why LAN parties are so much cooler than the alternative:

Clubbing Pros:

• If you’re ugly, you can probably get laid, with enough alcohol (in you, and the unfortunate recipient)
• You can forget about all your troubles and woes — like Cheers, only with worse music — if you drink enough
• The endorphins (the euphoria) from dancing are actually quite good for you!
• A silent disco has a lot going for it but they’re not very popular… yet!

Clubbing Cons:

• If you’re female, you’ll probably get hit on by ugly guys that think they can get into your pants if they ply you with enough cheap alcohol (and date rape is no laughing matter!)
• You’ll get tinnitus, like me, which is permanent. Enjoy the ringing in your ears as you try to sleep. I hope you didn’t like listening to the quiet bits in songs.  Can you tell that I’m bitter?
• I hear the liver transplant waiting list is quite long
• You can’t hear ANYTHING in a damn club. Communication, other than the ‘point at the body part you want licked’ variety (which can be quite fun), is rendered completely impossible
• Often, you have to listen to really shit music (though it does vary)

LAN Party Pros

• You can hear yourself think — perhaps some clubbers don’t like having to hear their own thoughts? Or they don’t have thoughts… Empty, hollow shells…
• Interactive fun! Video games are healthy for the brain.
• Communicative (not, like, diseases) and team-building! Most of the games played at LAN parties are multiplayer games involving a lot of teamwork (read: shouting)
• You can make money doing it! Pro gamers can take home thousands of pounds/dollars. Eventually they’ll take home the girl too! When there is a girl to take…
• Headphones are required! You can even listen to your own music while you game! And then you can take them off to talk to people! How damn futuristic is that?

LAN Party Cons

• Your gear can get stolen (though it’s rare, and security is generally quite good at larger LANs)
• Sleep deprivation is rife (not quite as bad as liver failure though, is it?)

Wow, that’s a very short list of cons, isn’t it? That’s because LAN Parties are awesome. Clubbing only really has one thing going for it (the euphoria), something you could easily get elsewhere — on a roller coaster, or something!

From Thursday through Monday I’ll be at a LAN party. Admittedly, that’s less of a weekend and more of a ‘half week’, but a weekend sounds a little less geeky. Four of us will be going, and we’ll be sleeping in a 3-man tent. One or two of them actually read my blog, and I’m told they are slightly alarmed by my coming out. Wusses.

Ideally, we’d take some girls with us, but guess what — and this will come as a shock — LAN parties are about 95% male. It was about 99% a few years ago, with that 1% being ‘possibly female’ (it’s amazing how hard it is to differentiate between male and female geeks after a few weeks of growth and stagnation — even facial hair isn’t as much of a clue as it should be). Nowadays there are a few girls dotted around — proper ones, without beards — though they tend to be the token girlfriends of geek boys. There is the occasional bona fide geek girl, but they are rare. And coveted. I hope to get myself one, one day.

Geek girls, go to a LAN party! Don’t be afraid! Geek boys don’t bite — they just kinda… grab… when you least expect it. But don’t let that deter you! Even if you’re an anime girl (that’s only one step away from being a furry), you’d fit in at a LAN. LAN parties are like a modern-day Bohemian dream where everyone, no matter how weird and different from the societal norms can hang out and have fun!

I have a dream. One day soon the phrase ‘Hey, wanna go out clubbing?’ will become outmoded, replaced by ‘Hey, come over my place! We’ll crack open a few beers and play some Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft‘. It will be a better world; a world with less alcoholism and debauchery. Imagine, if everyone knew what it felt like to play on a Nintendo and grin like a kid, giddy with the magic of it all — wouldn’t that be a much more fun world to live in?

Sell your dancing shoes. Buy a console (and read my beginner’s guide to gaming!)

No, it’s not a review… I haven’t actually seen the film — I probably should… — but I know enough about it to make my OWN!

The premise: a list of things that you’d like to do before you ‘kick the bucket’ (die, for you non-idiomatic types).

I know it’s a flogged-to-death idea, but the thing is… I want to do a lot. If I don’t write down what I want to do, I’m going to forget something. I’m like a kid that sees a butterfly outside, opens the door, stumbles and shambles across towards the butterfly… and then spots a football on the ground, so I run towards that, pace quickening, but before I get there, I trip and fall, face-planting into the soft grass — but that’s OK, I’m now up-close and personal with an ant hill, I’m watching the ants scurry around, living a completely different life to mine. I crawl around for a while and there are worms, rabbit holes, acorns and dead leaves, each one interesting and magical in its own way.

I smile and pick myself up, still marvelling at the other world I’d just discovered.  The butterfly’s flown off and I’ve completely forgotten about the ball, but the journey wasn’t in vain.

I’m an impulsive guy. I think of something I want to do, and do it. I see something or someone that I want, and go and get it. Incidentally, in the words of my mother: ‘Sebastian, you are the single worst person in the world to buy a birthday present for because you’ve already got everything.‘ (It’s my birthday next week, by the way, and I’ve been kind enough this year to leave a couple of things unobtained, just so my mother has an easier time of it…)

The problem with being impulsive is those butterflies get away. Those footballs remain unkicked. I might have an incredibly diverse body of knowledge tucked away in my head, and a lot of worldwide, well-tested wisdom — but sometimes I let the simple things pass me by. When I die, I don’t want to be the authority on ‘Invertebrates In The Sub-Amazonian Delta’ (actually, that’s a lie, I’d love to be the authority on anything, but hang on). When I die, I want to have experienced everything. No matter how big or how small, how expensive or cheap, how important or frivolous — the world has so much to offer, and I don’t want to pass any of it by.

And that’s what my bucket list is for.

Sebastian’s Bucket List

N.B. I reserve the right to re-shuffle this list at any time. I also don’t have to justify any of my choices, though I might be convinced to do so at a later date. This list is also not exhaustive… I’m sure I’ll come across more ‘Oooh shiny!’ butterflies as life goes on. Lots more.

1. Get married in a large cathedral –  we’re talking St Paul’s Cathedral, or St Peter’s Basilica. May entertain the idea of moving to a state like Utah where multiple marriages are acceptable, if potential secondary wife has contacts that enable use of aforementioned cathedrals… (do I have to marry a Princess/Queen?)
2. Live in a castle, one with turrets and multiple wings – a wing for my parents… and an even more distant wing for the in-laws. A turret that I can stand atop and survey my kingdom, like in The Lion King.
3. Lunch with a comedian — don’t mind which, I just want to see who’s funnier in person: me or them. For the longest time, I wanted to have a date with Eddie Izzard, but his recent Twitterings suggest he might be a bit… dull when he’s not being a comic genius on stage.
4. Hold a tiger/lion cub – don’t judge me. Boys want to do this too! Admittedly, an emasculated boy, but…
5. Go back to Italy and eat more pizza — this will make more sense after I write about my trip to Italy, and my 10-day epic journey full of trials and tribulations in an effort to find the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD.
6. Obtain some kind of super power – a little out there, but I firmly believe I’m of the generation that will live for ever. We can’t, therefore, be that far away from ’super powers’, even if it’s something ’simple’ like heightened empathy. Flight would be neat (personal jetpack might be an easy solution to this one?) but I guess Magneto-like powers are out of the question, right?
7. Get a piano lesson from Ben Folds — favourite musician, favourite instrument. If he then played ‘Emaline’ to me I’d probably swoon and he would catch me. Later, upon waking up in his arms, I would ask him to marry me.
8. Try to make a cola variant that’s better than Coca-Cola – I’m a Coke addict, and proud. But after 24 years of chain-slurping Coke down (yes, my mother was a druggy at the time, so I was even breastfed coke), I’ve begun to wonder if, possibly, there’s something better out there. Maybe… I could make Coca-Cola even better? Unlikely, but I’d like to try.
9. Drive a rally car at high-speed around a mountain track – similar to the previous item, I also love speed. Hah, just kidding. I mean ACCELERATION! G-force! Wild-eyed, edge-of-the-seat, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants break-neck SPEED! If you’ve ever seen the ‘World Rally Championships’ and the kinds of conditions that they do 100MPH in… well, I want to do that.
10. Kiss The American one more time — self explanatory.
11. Dress up in a realistic dog costume, and actually convince someone that I’m a really large dog – don’t ask.

That’ll do for now, I’ll add more as I think of them. I’ll cross them off as and when I do them — and trust me, I’ll do all of them. I told you I was impulsive.

Did I miss anything obvious? (Hah, you all thought I’d miss out the dog-suit one… HAH! I bet you’re all out of suggestions now…)

Yesterday, a massively eclectic list of every album I’ve bought and accrued over the last decade-and-a-half.

Today, as to give you a better idea of ‘where I am’ in the vast expanse of the percussive, chordal and tonal universe, I’ll give you a brief run-down of what I’m currently listening to on a daily basis. In fact, I’m going to listen to all three of these albums as I write this entry so that you get a nice dose of my raw, unfiltered emotions.

Prince – Purple Rain

This, apart from a secret love for Spandau Ballet (all my mother’s fault), is the only album from the 80s that I’ve ever listened to more than once. I’m serious. I hate the 80s. Abi, my 52 Weeks partner in crime, made me listen to it a few months ago. I’ve been listening to it almost day since. Purple Rain is a monumentally awesome album. Sure, it has some synths but it’s OK — they’re actual, honest-to-God good synths. Prince apparently crafted this album with the single intention of catapulting himself — his vast, world-encompassing ego — to stardom. And it worked. There’s something so incredibly sensual about his songs; I think he puts so much of himself into the writing process that it shows

I’ve listened through his entire discography now — and it’s hard work, let me tell you… there’s some real shit in there! — but the first 5 or 10 years of his career were truly awesome. It’s well worth listening to For You, Prince, Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 and Purple Rain — his first 5 albums. If you can make it all the way to Sign of the Times, you’ll be duly rewarded too.

Maria Schneider Orchestra – Sky Blue

Ah, now this one’s meaty. Something to stick your teeth in to. Contemporary ‘avant garde’ jazz is a very, very small genre — in fact, Maria Schneider is really the only active and successful ‘modern classical’ music arranger. Funny, considering jazz used to rule the clubs and airwaves for some 30 or 40 years, but I guess we have the pop industry to thank for that. Maria Schneider is widely considered the protégé and spiritual successor of Gil Evans (she studied under him for a few years) and her music is really the ‘end of the line’ for the entire chain of  jazz orchestrations since their humble beginnings as ragtime and radio big bands. As such, some people might not appreciate Schneider’s ‘impure’ arrangements; they’re really a lot closer to classical than the jazz you might know and love from your childhood. We’re talking really damn epic pieces here — some are 25-minutes long! — but they are nowhere near as eclectic or random or jarring as ‘proper’ jazz, which will suit some people (such as myselF).

Her music is incredibly complicated, but magical and rewarding and uplifting if you stick with it. Her tunes are grandiose and wildly-sweeping, delving you into the shadowy pit of her childhood despair and then later propelling you up high with wings of cerulean clarity (I’m not just word-wanking, honest. One of her songs is called Cerulean Skies…!)

After cutting my teeth on Gil Evans, Mel Lewis and Miles Davis earlier in the year, Schneider’s compositions hit just the right spot when I’m in desperate need of something complicated and sticky.

Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim – West Side Story

Where to begin…? Should I start with its stand-out and steadfast brilliance as one of the greatest film — and musical theatre — scores of all time? Or perhaps I should celebrate it as the musical that launched Sondheim’s stellar and unmatched career as a composer, arranger and lyricist? (And a Jew!!) What about the fact that it’s based on the greatest love story of all time?

West Side Story is a modern day remake of Romeo and Juliet, just as Kiss Me, Kate retold The Taming of the Shrew and My Fair Lady was a musical rendition of Shaw’s Pygmalion. They’re all as good as each other — all as fantastic as each other at introducing new audiences to classic stories that might otherwise have gone unnoticed by younger generations. Only what you have here isn’t merely an adaptation of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy — no, West Side Story is a towering masterpiece of stupendous, dazzlingly protean music and lyrics. And don’t forget the choreography: when you watch it you have to remember that it was produced in 1957! This thing basically invented and popularised the Latin and Jazz dance-and-music sequences that you see on stage and film today.

It also happens to feature my favourite ‘musical triplet’ of all time: Something’s Coming/Maria/Tonight.  ’Musical triplet’ is a phrase I coined, so don’t go Googling it — I did warn you I was a music nerd… (most good musicals have stand-out triplets… go find some!)

I wish I could give you links to the albums in MP3-format without getting into trouble, damnit. Just buy it, it’s easier. And buy Purple Rain too, if you don’t already own it — but I imagine most people are a lot more into the 80s than I… and you probably already own it. I’m such a late bloomer. Soon I’ll be listening to Duran Duran and Mötley Crüe… God help me.

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Tomorrow… some kind of photogasm. More of the kid that featured in yesterday’s 8 of 52.

Elton & Tina

Seb: Unlike Abi, music didn’t enter my life in a big way until Napster and the Era of Downloadable Music. That’s not to say my life was devoid of music! It was always around, either played by my mother in the house, or loudly on my dad’s car stereo, but I never had my own music.

I tried to get into pop music, when I was a teenager. I wasn’t under the duress of peer pressure for long, but for one painful totally-not-being-myself year I listened to the radio. I tried to record songs like Spaceman onto a tape. I even bought Britney Spear’s first album — believe it or not, it was my first ever CD!

Anyway, to cut a long story short: for the first 15 years of my life I only listened to whatever my parents were playing. Today, I look at the list of songs below and simply marvel at how accurately they reflect my current music tastes. God knows I’ve travelled the gamut — jazz, musical theatre, heavy rock — but I just keep coming back to soul, disco and Burt Bacharach.

I suspect I’ve listened to each of these songs at least a thousand times in the last 26 years — each one is a masterpiece, each one is a part of my soul.

For the Europeans: Spotify playlist
For everyone else: Last FM playlist (some of these aren’t the correct versions!)

And the list, in plain ol’ text:
1. This Old Heart of Mine — The Isley Brothers
2. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough — Diana Ross
3. You Make Me Feel Brand New — The Stylistics
4. You Make Loving Fun — Fleetwood Mac
5. Bennie And The Jets — Elton John
6. Somebody To Love — Queen
7. Endless Love — Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
8. Sentinel — Mike Oldfield
9. You Are Everything — Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye
10. Make It With You — Bread
11. The Right Thing To Do — Carly Simon
12. This Guy’s In Love With You — Diana Ross & The Temptations
13. Let’s Stay Together — Al Green
14. More Than A Woman — Tavares
15. That Lady – Part 1 & 2 — The Isley Brothers
16. Under Pressure — Queen & David Bowie

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Abi: I’m not even exaggerating when I say that Music is one of the most important things in my life. I live and breathe the stuff and have done ever since I can remember. I am acutely aware that I can be a musical bore, but somehow that never really bothers me, not when it’s this important. My earliest memories involve music, partly due to my parents highly evolved and eclectic tastes. My Mother jokes I came out dancing and its true, I don’t think I can recall a time when I havent been toe tapping or “wrist twisting”.

This photograph was taken at Christmas, I must have been about three years old when I got my first Sony Walkman. I had had a record player in my room since birth. The Walkman is now an ipod but I don’t think I have been without headphones since.

One of my earliest memories involves sitting on a booster seat in my Dads car, listening to casettes that were stored in a red box. Many of those songs appear on this list, some are a direct influence from my Mother, who would listen to Motown and Disco as she cleaned. My Father, a brilliant guitarist, ingrained artists such as Hendrix and Clapton into my conciousness. “House of the Rising Sun” and “Sultans of Swing”, the reasons I first picked up a guitar. I only have to listen to the opening of “All along the Watchtower” to turn to someone (anyone!) and quote my Dad ” This is as close to perfection as it gets (Abigail)”.Whenever I hear Marvin’s vocal swoop into the menacing beat of “Heard it through the Grapevine” I am watching my beautiful Mother dance around the kitchen like the coolest thing ever. An obsessive list maker, these are the songs I turn to time and time again, they are the reason I love what I love and the spark that ignited my passion. As my list is pretty long, there are also gaping omissions, some of the tracks here represent whole albums, which I urge you to listen to in their entirity and the works of some influencial artists, which shaped the sounds I champion today. I have barely scratched the surface of my musical education, which is ongoing. This list represents who I was and who I have become.

I worry for my kids.

My (extremely difficult to put together) List: Listen in full here

Sultans of Swing — Dire Straits
Karma Chameleon — Culture Club
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting — Elton John
Nutbush City Limits — Ike and Tina Turner
I heard it through the Grapevine — Marvin Gaye
Higher Ground — Stevie Wonder
I just called to say I love you — Stevie Wonder
All Along the Watchtower — Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Show must go on — Queen
Free Fallin’  – Tom Petty
Diamond Dogs — David Bowie
Dirty Diana — Michael Jackson
The House of the Rising Sun — The Animals
Honky Tonk Woman — The Rolling Stones
Chain of Fools — Aretha Franklin
I feel the earth move — Carole King
Piece of my Heart — Janis Jopin
Go Your Own Way — Fleetwood Mac
Layla — Eric Clapton (Derek and the Dominos)
Purple Rain — Prince and the Revolution
Wuthering Heights — Kate Bush
Love to Love you Baby — Donna Summer

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Seb’s Flickr stream / Abi’s Flickr stream