After last night’s disappointment on the football field, regular readers will be pleased to hear that ITV is bringing back Popstars to make our lives better. This time, according to Digital Spy, the show will aim to create the UK’s next male-female musical duet. To make it even more depressing, the same source also reports that ITV are planning an ITV3 show – presumably so we can have Popstars on ITV1; Popstars Xtra on ITV2, and an additional behind-the-scenes-of-the-behind-the-scenes show on ITV3.

While I was reading the excellent Digital Spy, I had cause to update the Man of the Moment entry for Colin and Matt.

On this day…

2005: Stories And Rumours
2004: Why Would You Be Interested?
2003: Shameless

What an entirely nail-biting match that was, and how very, very depressing. I imagine most of the country was watching as Michael Owen scored for us in two and a half minutes. I made the tube and the train, which were – I am certain – much quieter than they normally would be at 7pm. I just made it into the house just in time for the start and for Owen’s goal, and was watching all the way through to Helder Postiga’s equaliser after 83 minutes for Portugal. So everything went to extra time, and we all had to watch for another 30 minutes. Thank goodness for Frank Lampard, who kept us in it at the end of the second half of extra-time, but who on earth would want to sit and watch those penalties?

 [match summary]

Despite the result, it’s games like this that make me enjoy the game of football!

On this day…

2005: Blimey! It’s Early!
2004: Come on Eng-er-land
2003: Turn Off That Alarm

There have been football songs on the radio all day (it’s simply the worst music you can listen to) and there is an excitement outside. Everywhere you go there are English flags which is really quite pleasing to see. Now, all we have to do is win!

Thousands of England fans are gathering in Lisbon ahead of tonight’s crunch Euro 2004 quarter-final against hosts Portugal.

[Sky News]

The only other thing of interest I can come up with is that, apparently, “Simon Le Bon himself has heaped praise on boyband Phixx’s cover version of the 1984 Duran Duran smash hit Wild Boys” [source]. And even I don’t think that’s interesting.

So I’ll leave it at that and go and watch the match.

On this day…

2005: Blimey! It’s Early!
2004: We Wuz Robbed
2003: Turn Off That Alarm

In case you’re searching for an update on this: well, OK, so the extra storage is great. The fact that they haven’t replied to any of my messages sucks. I am a paying customer 😉

Oh, and I didn’t get to see the England game in a pub as I was on public transport. The trains were empty. It was very strange.

And finally, proof that digital downloads can be good for the music industry.

Second, going digital broadens your musical taste, he says. “With iTunes [Music Store], you can sample loads of stuff. A lot of people have said it has opened their ears to new music they wouldn’t have otherwise listened to,” he says.

On this day…

2005: Nightlfe
2005: Summertime In London
2003: Formula One 2003 Race Calendar
2003: London’s Secret Railway
2002: Rod Stewart plays Glastonbury
2002: Paris in the Summer

For England’s next match (v Switzerland today) I may be in a pub with a bunch of die-hard soccer fans. Apparently, while watching the beautiful game, it’s inappropriate to say, “Wow – did you see how far he kicked that?” [BBC News]. Must remember that!

On this day…

2005: Mr and Mrs Smith
2005: links for 2005-06-17

BBC News has an article on camera phones and a backlash against them. I read it, and the main thing that stood out to me was that I have both of the phones pictured, and I don’t think either of them is good at taking photos. Sad, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, they also have an excellent article on the use of weblogging tools as learning aids for schoolchildren, which I think raises some very interesting ideas for the use of software in education.

Meanwhile, MediaPost links to an article suggesting that bloggers are “older and wealthier than what’s portrayed by their stereotype” [source]. I think we all wish we were wealthier, but to be told I am older than other people is alarming!

On this day…

2004: Personal Information Management
2004: Already, it’s mid-June
2003: Show Me Your Bottom
2003: I Capture the Castle

It doesn’t feel like last week since I wrote anything here, but it is. Given that May was possibly the most prolific month on Listen To Musak, I think I am subconsciously giving myself a day or two off. The weather has been wonderful for the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been extra busy in the office, so there has been little time to get into the writing spirit.

Interestingly, the vote is in for the Mayor (Ken is back) and the local council elections. The results of the European elections were announced last night, and it seems the new countries didn’t see a very high turnout, which seems odd given their recent arrival in the community. It also seems that a good number of people in the UK wanted to get the message across that they are not happy with plans to take us further into Europe. I think this is sad and wonder if it’s only a shot across Blair’s bow in the mid-term or a sign of something more powerful. The two main parties all lost, and I watch with interest what their reactions to the recent votes will be. Turnout in the UK was up, which was certainly one good thing to come out of last Thursday’s poll.

Of course, the main news pushing Europe to the middle pages is last night’s football defeat at the hands of France, when it looked so certain that we had the game in the bag. Even I could tell there were some silly mistakes in injury time. And then, I woke up this morning to see Ralf Schumacher was disqualified from yesterday’s Canadian Grand Prix, resulting in a podium place for Jenson Button. And then we beat New Zealand at Cricket. I could almost be interested in a summer of sport.

On this day…

2004: Personal Information Management
2004: Cameraphone Backlash
2003: Show Me Your Bottom
2003: I Capture the Castle

Just re-read yesterday’s post about The Day After Tomorrow and the link to Ian Holm’s page at IMDb. I see he was born on the same day (admittedly, in a different year) as I was. Which, in turn, made me look at who else they say was born on that day. Turns out it also lists those who died on 12th September, which is quite a depressing way to start a new week.

On this day…

No other posts on this day.

So, today is both Memorial Day in the US and the Whitsun bank holiday in the UK. Apparently, Whit Sunday commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit in the form of flames to the disciples (source). I see the cheese rollers of Gloucestershire have been at it again. That must really rank as one of the oddest of the British customs. Honestly, people roll cheese down a hill in the name of sport.

I am having a quiet bank holiday before returning to work tomorrow.

On this day…

2006: links for 2006-05-31