Thank you for the music - the 30 song challenge

So, that's the 30 Day Song Challenge completed. A mad, epic, exploratory, confessional expo. Choosing songs based on the criteria listed above. Broadcast via a group chat on Twitter, curated by a group of old pals from KPMG's Manchester office, I set myself the target of picking something new if one of the others had bagged that song first. It's incredibly cathartic too, makes you cleanse your playlists and explore more from artists others jog your memory on. I've done my top 100 songs list too, if anyone fancies a go at that, it's here.

1. Orange by Richard Lumsden
2. One Last Love Song by The Beautiful South
3. The Sun Rising by The Beloved
4. Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes
5. The Air That I Breathe by The Hollies
6. Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
7. Driving Away from Home by It’s Immaterial
8. True Faith by New Order
9. Left to my own devices - Pet Shop Boys
10. A Good Day to Die by Sunhouse (Gavin Clark RIP)
11. Union City Blue by Blondie
12. Yes Sir I Can Boogie by Baccara
13. When You're Young by The Jam
14. Mr Rock n Roll by Amy Macdonald
15. La Vie En Rose by Grace Jones
16. How soon is now? by The Smiths
17. Your Love Alone (is not enough) by the Manic Street Preachers and Nina Persson
18. Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks
19. Wide Open Road by The Triffids
20. This is the Day by The The
21. Stan by Eminem with Dido
22. My Sweet Lord by George Harrison
23. All You Need is Love by The Beatles
24. Northern Skies by I Am Kloot
25. Purple Rain by Prince
26. Annie's Song by John Denver
27. You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Dusty Springfield
28. Son of a Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield
29. Waterloo by ABBA

30. Make Your Own Kind of Music by Cass Elliot 

Staying sane on the morning commute

I've had official scientific validation that my morning grumpiness on the commute into Manchester isn't my fault. No, it's not Northern Rail's fault, or my fellow human beings, or the weather. It also explains the almost involuntarily draw towards Rose Hill station, rather than Marple. It's due to my neurological wiring.

I read this piece by Dean Burnett, author of The Idiot Brain, on why commuting is turning you into a bastard.

"The big problem for the brain while commuting is that you’re totally restricted – you can’t change anything. You’re also unstimulated as the journey’s repetitive and monotonous, and you’re trapped in a vehicle. And so, because your brain has no expectation of action, it shuts down. This is why you do stupid things like forgetting to get your ticket out before reaching the gates."

Two months back into the new routine and this all makes astonishing sense.

My ideal commute is a genteel and well timed drive to Rose Hill station. Park up, collect the Metro, sit in forward facing window seat, preference is for a plastic headrest as opposed to metal bus seats, plug in a podcast - New Statesman, Spectator, Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Thinking Allowed, Media Show or The Bottom Line.

While listening to this I do the easy sudoku by the time we get to Romiley, the moderate before Hyde Central, and the fiendish by the time we roll into Piccadilly. If I don't, then I don't.

There are a number of things that can throw me off that routine that have a massively destabilising effect on the rest of the morning. Traffic in Marple can be periodically horrible and I miss the train and have to go to Marple station instead where there are more trains. This is when I remember why I don't use Marple any more. There are simply too many traps: no parking spaces, it can be busy crossing the road, there may be ticket inspectors, then there's the sharp elbows required to get on the train, which may or may not have enough carriages for the sheer number of commuters on the platform. Getting a seat is then a battle.

There can be train delays, but once I'm in my hermetically sealed hunch I barely notice the rest of the invariable factors (other passengers). I also forget something virtually every day. As long as it isn't my phone, earphones, a pen or my Travelcard then the commute is OK.

So here's another thing. Rose Hill fellow commuters are friends, fellows, companions. We are the pioneers, those at the start. Marple commuters are your rivals - for a seat, for space. Then there are the New Mills lot who've already taken their seats further down the line and earlier. Rose Hill stationmaster Tony Tweedie is your friend, welcoming you. The Marple staff are no less friendly, but less well known, less accessible, the relationship is more transactional.

The green shoots of spring will usher in an added dimension - the bike. But for now it's a matter of getting through these first world problems.

Lists and commandments

Here are some very thoughtful lists and commandments.

First, here's former Guardian Science Editor Tim Radford on 25 commandments of journalism. This is inspiring.

Then here's Tolstoy, on 10 pointers to a happy life, here.

And all week I've been thinking about the 8 Beatitudes, here.

Back to life, back to reality

Sleeves rolled up, desk cleared and it's back to work. It was hard coming back yesterday, make no mistake, but we were all straight back at it and Lisa Miles, Neil Tague and our new chap Rupert Cornford knocked out a quality weekly news bulletin. I wrote up an interview I'd done ages ago with this bloke and tried to get my head around the impact of these on the North West economy.

In the manner of many papers and bloggers here are some relevant hopes for 2008.

1. The economy will stutter a bit, but won't crash and burn the way a lot of pundits are saying. In this neck of the woods a correction to overheating property prices and spiraling costs will be welcomed.
2. The government will stumble from one crisis to another and Alistair Darling won't be in office by the party conference season.
3. Liverpool will deliver a great Capital of Culture year in 2008.
4. Blackburn Rovers will finish 6th and scrape into Europe and get to the FA Cup final.
5. The old supermarket site in Marple will be turned into a farmer's market with a banking desk, deli and community noticeboard and drop-in centre.
6. This blog will get more focused. More stuff about where we live, what we've been doing and return to the discipline of a Friday list and a regular book review.

He's here, he's there...

As I work with the comic genius Neil Tague I don't need to be convinced of his attributes. You can find some more of him here. And here. And here too, if you scroll down to the one about MIPIM. He's also had a word with this fellah.

The Green Green Grass of Home

I've done a 20 questions feature in the Lancaster Guardian, the damn fine weekly newspaper of my hometown. Marple really does feel like home, but as the song goes "there'll always be a little piece of my heart devoted to what is known as...[Williamson's] Park life". You can read it here. But take time to look around at the rest of the news and features. I liked this one.

Ten thoughts on...being wrong

Everyone's banging on about the cricket in the office. How Duncan Fletcher should have picked Monty Panesar and that he got it wrong. It's hard to admit you're wrong. There's nothing more nauseating than hearing a "told you so". There have also been calls for people who supported the Iraq war, like Norman Geras and Christopher Hitchens, to admit they were wrong for doing so. They won't, and I agree with them.
Here are ten things I went into print about, or committed myself to, and was completely wrong.

* Joined Labour when they still had clause 4 of the Labour Party constitution - it was nonsense - I was wrong.

* Unilateral nuclear disarmament - as a teenager I was in CND - I was wrong.

* "Blackburn Rovers will never be a big spending club" - When Saturday Comes magazine 1990 - clearly wrong, never saw Jack Walker coming. But I'd say it now and be right.

* "It is unlikely that anyone could now afford to repeat what Jack Walker did and ensure the Premiership title. The entry ticket is too high." - Quoted in The Club That Jack Built by Charles Lambert (Milo Books). Never saw the Russian oligarchs coming. Wrongish.

* "HTV will lose their licence to C3W," - Television Week magazine 1993. Nope, they won it. Press office in Bristol asked me if I wanted the recipe for humble pie. Wrong again.

* I left EMAP to go and work in TV; I thought I'd like it. Wrong move. Awful experience.

* "Quantel's days are numbered, open systems will conquer the world," - Post Update magazine 1997 - still going strong, I was wrong.

* I supported calls for a directly elected regional assembly for the North West. A stupid idea and it was very wrong headed of me to back it.

* "GUS will break up this year and Matalan, JJB and JD Sports will go private in 2005." Wrong, Matalan managed it this year though. GUS left it for another year.

* "And the winner for the North West top technology company of 2003, as chosen by Deloitte and Insider, is...iSoft." Fast 50 technology awards 2003. Strangely, all mention of it has been erased from the Deloitte site. We weren't the only ones, here are iSoft's other awards. Oh dear, that was wrong of us, wasn't it? Didn't see that coming.

Do you mean me?

Nigel Hughes over at Ear I Am has an amusing tale about searching. He's also done a terrific piece about a PR industry round table discussion which strayed into the land of blog.

Here's my version:

Talking to other bloggers, I have been made aware of all kinds of add-ons that make this blogging business even more fun. Blogjuice, technorati, Google analytics - there are all kinds of gimmicks out there that help you track where your readers come from, what they are interested in and even who they are.It seems that The Marple Leaf's paltry readership is drawn from mentions and links on other blogs and from people who seem to know my blog address so type it in directly.

Bizarrely there are also a handful of people who have searched for "Michael Taylor" on Google.What? Why the hell would anybody be searching for me on the Internet?A quick Google search makes it pretty evident they're not. Type in "Michael Taylor" and it's clear that the ramblings of a dullard northern business journo pale into insignificance next to the day-to-day lives of other people stuck with the same name.

Ten other people called Michael Taylor include:

1. A solicitor in Burton on Trent
2. A solicitor in Manchester
3. The leader of the Lib Dems on Calderdale Council
4. The chief executive of Business Liverpool
5. A romantic novelist
6. A contemporary British artist
7. A Missouri prison inmate on death row
8. The professor of Geography at Birmingham University
9. A bloke with a recipe for beef casserole
10. A footballer for Halifax Town

To all those Michaels out there, I can only apologise if potential readers of your sites end up at The Marple Leaf by mistake. In return, if you get anybody asking if you're the Michael Taylor with the big nose then point them this way.

Ten thoughts on... magazines

I work in the world of magazines and have always absorbed the look and feel of the glossy printed word. More enduring than a newspaper and more lovingly produced, they reflect such a vibrant world and aim squarely at a reader's prime passion.

At various stages of my life there has been a magazine that has defined and shaped my world. Times move on, I change, the title changes, the world changes. My passion for magazines never does. This list even has some terrible ommissions. But as with so many other things, this is my truth, tell me yours...

Shoot - Mid to late 1970s - There was NEVER anything about Blackburn Rovers, but I was utterly absorbed by Shoot, pre-match meals, Kevin Keegan's column, Focus On... is still a great device in a profile.

Just Seventeen - My younger sister used to get this, but I read it cover to cover. Great celeb interviews, problem pages, crosswords and a busy layout on the early pages. My excuse is I went to an all boys school so this helped me to understand women. Yeah, right.

NME - For me it had two genuinely golden eras, 1984 and 1989. The first was all about music after the arse had fallen out of my world when The Jam split up: Smiths, U2 and Billy Bragg. The second was how pop met dance music. Electric stuff. Stuart Maconie, we salute you (still).

Off the Ball - I believed in this pioneering football fanzine so much I used to sell it around the campus at Manchester University. It was funny, punchy and more than anything else it was about football when the game was at its lowest ebb. I think it had the edge over When Saturday Comes at the time, but the guys behind it had other fish to fry. Always brings a smile to my face when I hear Adrian Goldberg on the radio. Top chap.

Arena - When Arena launched in 1986 we were students who dressed like Italian football hooligans, but we were growing up as well and realising that the big wide world was waiting. Cover stars were blokes too. It's launch formed the basis for my final year dissertation which missed getting a first because my approach was "journalistic". Thanks for the career tip. It's absolute rubbish now. Never buy it.

Mondo 2000 - An obscure American technology magazine that was way ahead of its time. In 1989 it contained some awesome writing about media, technology and popular culture. Wired, which followed, was tired in comparison. A mention of it in a job interview got me a job and kept me excited about writing on technology for ten years.

90 Minutes - The post-fanzine football magazine written by cheery music journalists in their 20s. Brilliant and irreverant, but good with the news too. From 1993 to 1995 Rovers featured rather a lot. Since folded.

Loaded - Never has a magazine captured the zeitgeist like the first two years of Loaded under James Brown, Tim Southwell and Martin Deeson. You felt like you were part of the gang that were having the best time of their lives. It's absolute rubbish now. Never buy it.

Brill's Content - Another obscure American title that rekindled my faith in journalism and debates about accuracy and fairness. Terrific design, great paper stock, non-standard size, powerful interviews. Since folded.

Private Eye - I have never missed an issue in 17 years. Absolutely love it and look forward to it every fortnight. Schoolboy humour, dense investigative journalism, vicious satire. Superb.

Ten thoughts on...films

A new end of week series starts here. Ten thoughts on...

I don't get to the cinema as much as I used to, but there have been golden eras when I'd go all the time. As a yoof in Lancaster, or when I was paid to review films in Perth and Melbourne, or when in Bristol in the 1990s an 8 screen cinema opened five minutes from my home/office, which was perfect for task avoidance.

In 1998, at a charity bash, I foolishly bid £250 for a cinema pass and a Warner Village leather jacket. Never fancied the George Bush look, but the pass was well-used. Read on...

* First film ever seen at Lancaster Odeon: Gold, with Roger Moore

* Best film ever seen at Lancaster Odeon in the 1970s: Star Wars

* Best British gangster film of the 1970s: Long Good Friday

* Best British gangster film of the last ten years: Layer Cake

* The worst: The Business

* Best British film of last ten years: The English Patient

* Best American thriller: Heat

* Best scene to quote when pissed: Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men
"Son, we live in a world that has walls..."

* Second best: Michael Gambon in Layer Cake
"You're born, you take shit, get out in the world you take more shit, climb a little higher take less shit until one day you're up in the rarified atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like; welcome to the layer cake, son."

* Best kids films: Cars and Finding Nemo (can't decide)

Assorted lists (a bloke thing)

Currently reading: Love, Poverty and War by Christopher Hitchens

Most recent "lost gem" addition to iPod playlist: The British Way of Life by The Chords (1979)

Best thing on TV: Spooks (just gets better)

Morning radio: Today on BBC Radio 4 (posh London FM)

Drivetime radio: Peter Allen and Jane Garvie on Radio Five Live
(the voice of intolerant liberal Britain - "ban it! tax it!")

Best music magazine: Word

Best current affairs magazine: Spectator

Best other blogs - Harry's Place and Dougal

Favourite current Blackburn Rovers player: Benni McCarthy

This week

Another mad one and so rather than trying to be erudite here's another "best of" list.

Best Blackburn Rovers performance in Europe ever
Last night v Red Bull Salzburg, 2-0

Biggest sigh of disappointment of the week
1. Levers was closed (see below)
2. Satterthwaites was closed

Best tour of a working port
Yesterday's awesome tour of Mersey Docks, thank you Mr Leatherbarrow

Best TV series ever
Spooks

Most appalling sense of doom as a friend is hung out to dry
Ruth Turner has been questioned under caution

Best golf course in the North West
Dunham Forest, thank you, Mr Dwek

Best unexpected piece of post
Two slabs of Walkers Nonsuch toffee, thank you, Mr Tighe

Currently reading
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Currently listening to
Blue Nile, A Walk Across the Rooftops

Quote of the day
"We can go to the moon, but we can't get a decent pork pie up there. They don't travel,"
Roger Wilson, Satterthwaites, Crosby

Random thoughts on a mad day

Mad day today, so here are a few things to chew on:

Best chewy liquorice toffees ever
Walkers Nonsuch

Best treacle toffee
Penrith Toffee Shop

Best coffee
Cafe Direct, the 5 strength one in a red packet

Best kebabs ever
Platos, Lancaster 1980s

Best fish and chips ever
Station chippy (RIP), Piccadilly bus station, Manchester

Current kids fave song for playing loud in the car
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

My current album for playing in car
Streets of New York - Willie Nile

Best support band ever
Flaming Lips, Old Trafford 2003

Band I wish I'd seen live, and in their prime
Stiff Little Fingers

Best hotel in Manchester
Lowry

Best place to eat anywhere at all
Three Fishes, Whalley, Lancashire

Best gig for atmosphere
Oasis, supported by Manic Street Preachers at Cardiff International Arena 1996

Best Blackburn Rovers player of all time
Alan Shearer

Most loved Blackburn Rovers player of all time
Simon Garner

Best trainers ever
Adidas Samba

One last thought: European football returns to Manchester next week. United host Scottish champions Celtic. I for one will not be comfortable in Manchester city centre next week. I remember invasions by Celtic fans as predictably hostile occasions. I also consider it in the height of poor taste that a pre-match rally at a local Irish Centre will feature a flute band named after an IRA man killed while planting land mines. And this in a city that has suffered a bombing by his "comrades" 10 years ago.