The Bloomers

According to last.fm this is the music that I listened to the most in 2009. Of course this isn't entirely accurate as it ignores the radio I listened to (which was a lot) and the music I listened to in the car, but it's the closest I can get to a picture of stuff I liked in 2009.

It's worth stating that Spotify completely changed the way I listened to music this year, having the ability to listen to pretty much any track I wanted on demand is very, very cool.

Tracks

1		Lisa Mitchell – Neopolitan Dreams full track			28
1		Lenka – The Show full track			28
3		The Blackout – Save Our Selves			26
4		My Chemical Romance – Famous Last Words			25
4		Biffy Clyro – That Golden Rule			25
6		Paolo Nutini – Pencil full of lead			23
6		Death Cab for Cutie – Meet Me On The Equinox - Soundtrack Album Version			23
8		The Enemy – No Time For Tears			22
8		Spiritualized – Soul On Fire full track			22
10		30 Seconds to Mars – Kings and Queens full track			21
10		Passion Pit – Little Secrets full track			21
10		Frank Turner – I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous			21

Artists

1		Frank Turner			311
2		Brad Paisley			194
3		Snow Patrol			153
4		Elbow			136
5		My Chemical Romance			93
6		Foo Fighters			86
6		The Blackout			86
8		The Duckworth Lewis Method			83
9		30 Seconds to Mars			80
10		Kings of Leon			69

Albums

1		Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid			131
2		Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed			124
3		Frank Turner – Love Ire & Song + The First Three Years			96
4		Snow Patrol – A Hundred Million Suns			87
5		My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade			85
6		The Duckworth Lewis Method – The Duckworth Lewis Method			83
7		The Blackout – The Best In Town			75
8		Kings of Leon – Only by the Night			67
9		Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up			63
10		Spiritualized – Songs in A&E			48

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that the new year brings everything you want.

So, Rage Against The Machine's song Killing In The Name Of beat the X-Factor's Joe McElderry who has released his version of the Miley Cyrus cover Climb. And beat it by 50,000 copies, selling half a million copies and raising money for the charity Shelter.

My short story Reboot has been published by the webzine Short-Story.me.

Here’s how it starts:

A quantum worm uncoiled itself out of the machine being restored, suddenly collapsing into a specific state and wreaking havoc within the operating system. Alarms sounded and the graphs scrolling across Tom's screen spiked wildly. His laptop was plugged into a large black box of qubits, the liquid hydrogen coolant vented slowly in quietly dissipating clouds. Inside, beneath the desperately stylish matt black metallic exterior, beneath the ultra-cooled chamber, inside the electron traps, sat a countless number of electrons, reduced to acting as quantum bits. The qubit box was plugged into the local network, copying its state carefully in a safe, isolated, two-phase restore of the destroyed machines.

Go and read it and tell me what you think.

Electric Guitar

Today I went to a music shop, Dawsons to be precise. They're a chain and sell all sorts of musical instruments. I knew exactly what I wanted and had done research for prices online. I made a spreadsheet. I took a printout of the spreadsheet into the shop with me.

I've been listening to Frank Turner's music ever since I first heard Long Live The Queen on Radio 1. Because I loved that song so much I bought Love Ire & Song which has some truly wonderful songs on it. Frank's latest album is Poetry of the Deed which was less instant than the previous album, but still great.

So here I am blogging.

I hope everyone has a fantastic and wonderful New Year.