Remember Athlete’s first album? Not me. But no doubt we’ll be hearing far more from them now that their new album Tourist is due out in the shops at the end of this month. It’s on iTunes in ‘partial’ form now.

Fortunately it won’t make be making it’s way to my house. If it did, I’m sure every atom of my being would crumble in despair. When I first heard Wires, the single that precedes this album, I was sure that Coldplay were returning with more of their drippy sleepy junkyard of dreary musical gunk. (There are even two CD versions of the single to rake in some extra cash – must be nice for Parlophone.) Anyhow, when I found out it wasn’t Coldplay I was frankly appalled that someone else would happen to sound like them (either intentionally or not). So please, don’t go anywhere near this album. They make Keane sound innovative by comparison!

As I alluded to recently, I’m making my home a bit more homey. There are a lot of blank walls in my house, which means that they need decorating. I’ve got a few framed prints and posters that are currently in my garage. Two of them will be taken out for display: one is a poster promoting Crane’s 1989 Self Non Self EP, the other is the LP cover for This Mortal Coil’s 1986 debut album It’ll End In Tears. Incidentally, if you’ve not heard Cocteau Twin’s version of Song to the Siren [lyrics] you haven’t lived. Really.

The reason for these two being displayed is that they make me feel something. I don’t mean intellectually, or emotionally, I mean physically. In some respects, this is why I don’t display photographs. Photographs of friends and family don’t do anything for me. They’re merely reflections of memories, and if you have the memories, why bother with photographs? In any case, what are they for? Perhaps that’s for another post.

So I’ve been looking for more art that makes me feel. Yesterday I discovered Mini Gallery. This is a place where dozens of artists promote and sell their work online. Many artists allow you to buy direct with PayPal and you can also contact artists about the work or even start negotiating prices or request commissions. It’s main benefit is a complete lack of pretension. No gallery. No sales people. It’s just you and the art.

I’ve written previously about the benefits of PayPal, primarily the instant purchasing mechanism. It’s also very dangerous. I’ve already bought three items from Mini Gallery and I have six more that are living on my web browser, tantalizing me. I must stop buying.

The common factor with all these pieces is that they make me feel something immediately. If something grabs me in this way I’ll add it to my list of potential purchases. Afterwards I’ll examine the work intellectually. Only then will I buy it. However, some pieces bypass the second filter completely, and I end up wanting it straight away. One of the three I’ve bought is in that category. And there’s still plenty of space on my walls for more…

There’s no entry in my 43things list for reorganising our offices. Correspondingly my home looks a bit like a home and and two offices, and the offices look a bit like offices with a some ‘home’ chucked in. We’ve decided to sort out the office and home separation to make both look better. This means that after almost five years of living in Inverness, there are now some plants in my house. Me and my business partner Mark bought them yesterday. I’ve officially named them (left to right) Leafy, Spiky and Twisty. They will be moving to their formal locations shortly.

A couple of weeks back, 37signals launched 43things. This is a free collaborative, blog-style to-do list. Basically you put together a list of things you want to achieve and blog about them. Other people can join in doing the same things and comment on your blog. It appears to reuse a couple of chunks from 37signals’ Basecamp application.

Now 37signals have launched Ta-da List. This is a web application that allows you to keep lists of things to do. You can also share publicly or privately (with selected individuals). Another free application developed specifically to encourage people to start using Basecamp.

There is a slight marketing problem though: There is already a personal (free) version of Basecamp that does much more than Ta-da List.

I get a little annoyed at people who don’t use iTunes properly – or more to the point, don’t know how to use iTunes. I read today a couple of posts from people who keep individual playlists for either each CD they have or each Artist they have.

Isn’t this what the Browse function is for? Or are a couple of clicks to find what you want too much effort compared to the hassle of creating and trawling through playlists? Surely not. And then what happens when you change machine?

Pitchfork is a US-based music news and reviews website. Like NME, but with more intelligence and not targeted to people under 12. Their site used to be a rather monotone blue/grey colour, but the navigation was clear enough.

2005 saw the launch of their redesigned website. Same content, but presented in a new format.

The adverts are the same – the usual promos for new artists or releases, plus the ubiquitous SuicideGirls banner ads. The format of the content is ghastly.

First up, are the section headings, which are now almost as small (and sometimes smaller) than the text that they accompany. The headings don’t stand out on the blue background which makes locating stuff difficult.

What about the content? Apart from some (?) of the dates, which are in red, the rest of the content is in various tasteful shades of grey. Links, body text, heading text, lists, everything is in grey. When is a link not a link? You can’t tell. Some text changes colour (naturally to another shade of grey) when rolled-over, other text doesn’t (even though it is a link).

Now the layout. I have a pretty large main display, but my browser window gives me about 820 pixels deep for a page to display in. I visit Pitchfork daily. It is after all a news website. So what does one see when visiting the site. A Daily Feature, Record Review and Weekly Feature. Lower down Track Reviews and a teasing header for News. So to read the news I need to scroll down! The site should be arranged so that News is the first thing people see. Maybe alongside this the Daily Feature and Record Reviews. Then underneath the Daily Feature, you could have the Weekly Feature.

But this leads to another problem: what is the difference between a Record Review and a Track Review? Clearly Track Review is just one track, and record review is a whole record. I feel that they would be better together, even if they are subdivided to show the distinction.

Due to time constraints I can’t do a mock up of my preferred version, but it would look something like: