Nope, Cambridge am-dram has put me right off it!

What's yer favourite folk artist?

It used to be Acrobat, and then I saw it live.  So I'll go with Pride Before A Fall.

Favorite non-English speaking band?

Nice one. Well, there's the quote in my sig, and also a nice rambling passage from a translation of Ketil Björnstad's biography of Edvard Munch, drawn from his diaries and letters:

“The ones who are not afraid are those who don't know anything, aren't they? They have no inkling of the values which must not be harmed, the threads which must not be broken, the threads which will link people together, threads which will bind together each link in the chain of generations. Those who do know this become cautious, afraid of doing any harm. They're circles, aren't they? There are those who trample under foot, tear down. Those who have an inkling of eternal values, of a higher meaning, become afraid; they proceed cautiously, they are sensitive and respect the richness of existence. They seek it out.”

And on a lighter note there's a bit in the Old Irish epic the Cattle Raid of Cooley where the young Cú Chulainn wants to prove himself a man (aged 6), so catches a live swan and a live stag and kills some people, then goes to his home town and starts trying to pick a fight with the whole town. The king sees the only way to calm him down is, um, to send out the bare-breasted women. Cú Chulainn is so baffled that they're able to grab him and dunk him into a barrel of cold water to calm him down. He's so hot that the water boils and the barrel bursts, and the second barrel they dunk him in bubbles as though there were fists in the water (wording I think from Ciaran Carson's translation, I love the imagery). Then he spends the rest of the day sitting on the queen's knee sucking his thumb. An exhausting time for a young hero…

 Question: what's the best venue you've seen Maximo in?

not really.

was 2009 a good year?

Tired from staying up too late chatting with current interest. Ugh…long distance relationships!

What do you need to accomplish before the end of the year?

For me it was The Maccabees' “Wall of Arms.”  But it depends on what mood I'm in, I could also answer Brendan Benson's “My Old, Familiar Friend” or Franz Ferdinand's “Tonight.”  Maximo Park make my top ten list, but not the actual top spot.

In a similar vein, favorite track of the year?

Green Day's “Time of your Life” makes me cry (at least when I try to sing it) because my nephew died when it was popular and it reminds me of him.

If you could have anything to eat right now, what would it be?

Edward Scissorhands.

Is there an object that you own that will always remind you of someone?

xxx

It had better be.

Who's looking forward to the Spring?

 I think it's terrible that everybody complains about the weather^^  I love snow^^ Furthermore it's january and a little bit of snow is normal and shouldn't be a problem, should it?!

Will you go to a festival this year?