supergrass

And followed up last night with Jack White at Brixton Academy. Wasn't quite as good when I saw him a month or two back at The Forum, the set wasn't as long or as good, and although it's hard to put a finger on the male band doesn't work as well as the female backing band do. Other gripes were the sheer volume he plays at seems to muddy the sound at times - and it would've been nice to be allowed to take photos as I like photography, but that's all very minor. Though it didn't quite match up to the last show in London, he was still very good. The set draws a little something from all of The White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, Rome and solo material, which sits together nicely. And a pair of beetlejuice-ish trousers to top it all off.

It seems suspension is an effective way to solve this particular problem. The more you fine the player, the more advertising for the company who will gladly pick up the cost of the fine for all the attention it garners them. However Bendtner now has a game suspension and presumably won't be doing it again. But then again this was the person tacky enough to do it in the first place, so there's no fool proof plan.

I would guess the words "could be", "suspended sentence" or "successful appeal" to appear where Russia are concerned.

Perhaps it's just personal taste, but surely the amount of money Paddy Power are likely to have paid couldn't have been life changing enough to ruin having just scored for your country in a major Championships by doing that? On the other hand, I'm all for it. Hopefully all this talk of his goal celebration still lingering on will remind people he scored a few goals, which can hopefully earn Arsenal a bit of increased money in transfer fee. Edit - on the racism front aren't they now looking into points deductions? Might be effective, but it still feels wrong to punish the team for the actions of the minority of their fans. All parties concerned in any one incident should have a united front of condemning it then doing a lot more to prosecute and ban the offending parties.

I spent Friday to Monday in Camber Sands at the Rockabilly Rave weekend. Think mostly men and women in their 50s/60s, quiffs and huge ill-fitting jeans. But with the tendency for bands to start impromptu gigs outside their little chalet rooms: Very good it was, and a very drunk time too. And probably enough rockabilly to last a while.

Some people don't deserve hair, real or not. Very Steve McClaren.

The solid bars on the Juve kit are a big improvement on the fuzzy ones of this year. Nike seem to have generally done a decent job this year, which makes it all the worse that they've turned in such an awful Arsenal shirt.

If Oliviera isn't ready to start couldn't Ronaldo move forward with someone else in his old role?

It's just a shame Bert has his shoes on. I assume he'll one day be buried in a nicely carpeted coffin with no need for footwear (perhaps leaving Campbell to be the C in SCDP, or whatever the name is by name).

Nice to see Swansea recycling last year's Real home shirt. Atletico's looks great, but I'm drawn to any shirt without a sponsor all over it, long way it stay that way.

I've read that somewhere as well. I think they also discuss on the DVD that the first half of the film was also considered as a stand-alone "Simon Says" film, which was then worked into being something Hans Gruber and Die Hard related.

I thought the idea of the advert wasn't too bad until I saw the outfit and the set, it all looked quite cheap. Given that the girl who does shoe adverts rarely goes on to anything of note, she could yet end up back in advertising, unless she's burnt that bridge with Don.

I got the feeling at the end we were supposed to think "Oh Don, at it again..." with the same smile he wore. But I like the change in him this season and his marriage to Megan. Although it's been clear for a while that there's work-Don and happily-married-Don who he has to choose between, he can't be both - although thinking about it he rarely truly excels at being happily-married-Don even when trying. Still it was a fitting ending considering the previous two episodes were so eventful. I wonder how far they'll jump ahead for the next season. Long enough for Peggy to land a couple big accounts and be a success, or long enough for Pete to end his marriage? It would be a shame to merely be informed of all this happening off-screen, but I enjoy when they jump a year or two to watch the subtle differences as the 60s progress.

Of course the Malaysian football team are not successful, and I'll assume none too lucky either.

But on Johnson, foul indeed.

On Gerrard? Disagree.

I particularly don't like that Townsend refers to the goal as the goals. It's not plural. Never. I also dislike everything else he says.

4:59, time to leave work and head home. Nothing to happen for at least 35 minutes hopefully.

Yeah, it feels almost like exploitation, even though it's not. He's hard to watch, retire in peace Gazza.

How did he manage to injure himself?

I was suspecting, and hoping, that the dark humour of Lane's failed Jaguar suicide attempt might prove to be what clears his mind and sees him start over. But then the writing and his concerns were too consistent for it to end any other way. Last episode to catch up on tonight, then hopefully a short wait until the next season.

Very dainty waist on that shirt, don't sit down in it.

As our household have decided we don't want to be the only people left not to have seen the Avengers we embarked on a quick catch-up of re-watching Iron Man 1 and 2, and finally seeing Thor and Hulk. I enjoyed both Iron Men as much the second time around, I suspected Thor and Hulk wouldn't so much be my thing - and was not proved wrong. Film watching meant waiting until last night to see the last 2 episodes of Mad Men also, which have been quite eventful. Ahead of the final episode a lot of the loose ends have been tied up, I guess it's just a case of replacing the deceased, seeing if SCDP picks up further and setting up some kind of ending to lead into the next season. Wife and I also saw Moonrise Kingdom over the weekend. We're big Wes Anderson fans, which was an initial bonding point, so rather predictably both thought it was great.

Disregarding the science of the FIFA rankings momentarily, how many of the other 15 teams in the competition would you say England are actually better than? Greece, Poland, Ireland and Ukraine perhaps. I wouldn't feel particularly confident in England to get a win against the likes of Sweden, Denmark, Russia or Croatia. I think we're certainly in the lower half of the 16.

Not that it's a particularly thrilling shot but here they are being rather undeterred by an empty Brixton Academy: I've only managed to catch them a couple of times in the last 2 years, hopefully they'll play another London date soon that won't escape my attention.