Applying to work at Radio 1 with John Peel, because, hey, I can. And although the odds are stacked well against me getting it, just imagine if I did! The questions are a bitch, though. Far too interesting, and oh god so difficult. Five-band line-up for an outdoor festival, who would you choose? i'm thinking summer, outside, so it's got to be indiepop all the way... bah. Will scoot off to Selectadisc for the Hope of the States single and think deep thoughts on the subject.

I love my dad. He puts up with me wandering about aimlessly, waving an apple about like it's a rhetorical device, and coming out with such sententious proclamations as "I'm pointedly not having Colin Murray. Colin Murray is a blot on the landscape." It's the attack of the "what run of DJs would *you* have from Saturday 5pm to Sunday 5am" question, and I'm trying to rationalise making it an Indie DJs Best-of. Because, really, if you're a d'n'bhead and you're not out on Saturday night, why would you want to listen to d'n'b on the radio reminding you that you're staying home? Indie types are used to the fact that there's never any good gigs on the weekend, much less indie clubs, so they can be rewarded for their suffering. Really.

I need more UK indie people in my life: the ones I've got are all away and thus I can't fret at them about the great question of how I diverge from Radio 1 format yet play to known DJ strengths, and arrrrgh. This is too fun for words.

Mind you, were they about I'd probably spend my time cooing over my latest purchases - Hope Of The States' "Black Dollar Bills", released as a limited edition of 1000 cds inside burlap bags hand-sewn by their mates (or possible other band members) at type2error. Which is probably one of the reasons for the limited edition. And then the Dandy Warhols' "Ride", a square 7" vinyl picture disc. Square. Genius. The great thing about singles is that they offer the opportunity to mess around with packaging formats - sure, Spritualized did the whole prescription-drug and plastic-moulded-face things on their last two albums, but for the most part it's singles where the fun stuff appears. Even if they're not doing a Blue Monday. Geneva always had lovely packaging on their cd singles - an outer sleeve with a rectangle cut out so you could see part of the image on the inner sleeve, and in bright matt spring colours. They're physically very satisfying in a way that yer bogstandard thin plastic case with shiny paper insert never quite is. GYBE! used to package their records gatefold-style and simplistic, although I think they've changed the style now - comme antennas is proper shabby brown cardboard, very spartan, while new zero kanada is like black-and-red pottery, hebrew letters and italian directions for making a molotov cocktail sunk into the dark matt cover. You get that sense of other, of this band is not like the usual, just from picking it up.

Would do the concerts meme, but have no idea which gigs I've been to and how many by any given band. Was talking to K about this last week: we both used to keep ticket stubs as an aide memoire, threw them away at some point, and now have absolutely no idea. Mercury Rev twice, I'm pretty sure, and Idlewild more times than should be physically possible and Rachel Stamp more times than I'd like to admit to, and Trail of Dead three or four or maybe five times, and Six By Seven, bizarrely, at least three because they kept supporting bands I wanted to see, as did Clinic, and the Dandy Warhols two or three and Ultrasound as many gigs as they played in London before they imploded, and Sonic Youth only once. Hefner twice, Bernard Butler twice (thrice if you count McAlmont&), Feeder plenty because they were the best bet for getting everyone you knew to go, Ten Benson a couple, Ash a few times... My life revolved around gigs from '97 to '00, and is starting to again, but a lot of that was one-shots, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy or Pitchshifter in Paris or the Silver Apples with Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon.

Which reminds me. The Transplants, Diamonds and Guns: Sounds Like Blur. Sounds like the unholy lovechild of Song 2 and the intermission from Modern Life Is Rubbish, actually.

...oh, bollocks, I'll leave the application 'til tomorrow.