Blogwatch

Welcome...

Monkey With A Typewriter, the new home of PB Curtis;

Vaguely Dot Org, whose creator is currently celebrating the end of her exams;

Bongo Vongo, another Brum-based blog with a Bangladeshi slant as recommended by Bushra.

Meanwhile...

There's only one thing to talk about in Blogland this week: Big Blogger 2005. The brainchild of Watski and The Long Lost Lagomorph, Big Blogger has just kicked off and will run for the next seven weeks. Housemates include several bona fide Friends Of SWSL to whom I wish all the very best: Mike, Mish, JonnyB and Zoe.

The housemates are currently introducing themselves, Mish with a customary flourish and JonnyB with customarily hilarious self-deprecation: "As ever, I am wearing trousers and a cool T-shirt. I wear cool T-shirts because they make me believe that I am younger and more trendy than I am and not just a fat bloke in a T-shirt that he thinks is cool, sweating and crying whilst with desperation he struggles with the fingertips of his soul to hang on to the last grim tatters of his youth as his life spirals down the shitty eternal plughole of missed opportunities and wasted talent".

Elsewhere...

Pete reports on the weekend's Wychwood Festival - "The first thing I noticed was the bewildering array of hats perched on middle aged, middle class heads. I tried to keep my new found principles of tolerance, love, kindness and friendliness at the forefront of my mind but Rome wasn't built in a day and as the day wore on these hats increasingly got on my wick";

Sarah meets Joe Jackson without realising it (and - whisper it - tries to fleece him subtly);

Willie reflects on ASBOs and the etiquette appropriate to dogowners witnessing their respective canines getting to know each other rather better - "Eventually, our dogs returned as blasé as if they'd just been chasing sticks and no longer much interested in each other. I asked Cato if she wanted a cigarette. Sebastian's owner was a rather humourless man and gave me a very strange look but he did graciously pay for her to have the doggy equivalent of the morning after pill. I felt a bit bad about not letting nature take its course but I talked it through with her and she seemed to understand that it was for the best, what with her being a single mother and everything and that I couldn't be responsible for the offspring of her sluttish and irresponsible behaviour";

JonnyB kicks off his Post 8 Campaign to save the Village Post Office from the (potential) threat of closure with news he's to record a rap single - " tried rapping myself, in the mirror, and I was very good at it. I was even tempted to jump into the audience and shoot people. I know there are some people who say that 'white men cannot rap' but that is just as stupidly racist as saying 'all Asian people own corner shops' or 'all French people smell of garlic' or 'Israeli policy regarding the Occupied Territories isn't absolutely perfect in every respect'";

Bill muses on the disappearance of the bookshop browser;

Dave recalls being at several of Time Out's 100 Greatest London Gigs, including The Jesus & Mary Chain and pre-bollocks Manic Street Preachers;

Mike posts the first installment in what will be a series following his survey of the Troubled Diva reading demographic;

Del is bemused to learn that 'Revenge Of The Sith' is to blame for anti-social behaviour.