Barometer of Judgement

Love it:

Ugly Megan - After being impressed by their support slot for Tilly and The Wall last October, I was delighted to catch Orlando and Kathi's performance at TAC last night. Their wonderfully weird brand of Waterford hip-hop was made all the better by the sudden appearance of about twenty semi-naked dancers onstage for the closing number. File next to Camille O' Sullivan and Duke Special under 'Artists That Sound Much Better Live Than On Your Ipod'.

The Pope on Youtube - I jest not.

Credit Munch - Spar have sandwiches for €1, Londis have Pepsi Max for 30 cent and Kit Kats for 38 cent. Recession come good. More of this, please.

Skins Season 3 - Although many are still pining for Tony et al., the consensus is that the first episode of the new series exceeded expectations. We got NTL digital today at our house so hopefully I'll be able to avoid snail-pace streaming from the E4 site from now on.

Dressing Up - Costumes make any night out at least 17% more fun. FACT.

Shove It:

Twitter - This looks poised to be the next online social networking fad. I previously 'shoved' Facebook and then had to eat my words so I expect it's only a matter of time before I succumb to this site too.

The Demise of State Magazine - Everybody seemed to love State when it first hit the shelves a year ago so it's a little surprising to see the magazine floundering. After a couple of months, it was downgraded to a free-sheet and now, because of a lack of funds, they've had to ditch the physical format altogether and distribute it as an online PDF. Bad buzz.

Extortionate Gas Bills - Let's just say I'll be reaching for my biggest, ugliest jumper instead of the central heating switch.

Cancelled Nitelink Routes - From Monday 2nd February there is no Monday to Thursday nitelink service. It's things like this that result in CIE getting 'shoved' on here more often than anybody else.

"This Service Is Not Available in Your Country" - Racists.

[Ugly Megan Image: Analogue]