Roll On Arte

So, what are you having for tea? A turkey twizzler or health guru Jamie's pasta sauce? I went right off Oliver, then sort of started to like him again, then went off him when his allotment and cooking programme went out earlier in the year, then I got the book of the programme and half the bloody recipes turn out crap............and the balsamic potatoes one ruined my best pan, and I'm not a man who can afford to be cavalier with his cooking implements.

Two great big cheers. One because the best sporting spectacle of the year has started, and started with a road race, not a boring time trial and the other for Valverde, who has set down a massive marker by winning the stage in a fantastic finish. Bugger it, let's have a third cheer.

I have noticed that in some quarters a Fleet Foxes backlash has begun, whereas I find the album improves with every listen. I suppose that it has been so hyped that newcomers to it believe that they will hear the best record ever made and are inevitably disappointed. All the references to the Band and CSNY and the Byrds and the Beach Boys don't help, because they don't really sound like any of them. I suppose they are old fashioned in the sense that they write songs, with melodies and fantastic harmonies; not that that you will find them on Sing Something Simple anytime soon, as they are utterly of the moment, although I suspect that they will endure. All of which is a long winded way of recommending this appreciation of them.

Regardless of the Fleet Foxes, the album I can't stop listening to is the new Silver Jews.

Talking of enduring, the chap who is sitting in for Iain Anderson this week played some Strokes yesterday. Not as disposable as you might think, it sounded great, although similarities to Tom Petty's American Girl were pointed out.

The Blues. Oh Dear. Pantomime season is continuing well into the close season. We have lost half our backroom staff, the reserves haven't been entered into a meaningful league, two of the buggers were enjoying their holiday so much they forgot to come back for work and our loveable Welsh midget owner has got himself embroiled in a sex scandal. Roll on August.