First and foremost, HAPPY DECEMBER! Right, now that's out of the way, I've been abusing my blog again and haven't written anything in nearly 2 months. I know, I'm a terrible person but there are many good reasons for this.

First I am now not just a DJ, but a bona fide rock star, oh yes I am! Lately I've been doing gigs with my band Lucid Uprising and having lots of fun getting drunk, playing music and breaking guitar strings on stage, but more about that later.

The main reason I've not been blogging like normal is because I've been feeding my World of Warcraft and gaming addictions pretty much every spare hour I have and finally, a few weeks ago I hit the coveted level 80 on WoW. Yes, Villanetta, my warlock is a big girl now, she even has decent gear, a ton of achievements and much more under her belt. So all in all, YAY! Something productive. Other than that the other gaming addictions have seen my beloved XBOX 360 host to lots of fun with the likes of CoD Modern Warfare 2, which is in short, an epic rollercoaster of FPS epicness with lots of guns, explosions and enough twists and turns to make a plate of spaghetti blush. Seriously, it's just beyond awesome. Play it now if you haven't already. It doesn't stop there as recently Borderlands, Batman Arkham Asylum, Wet, FIFA 10 and GTA-Ballad of Gay Tony have all been host to many a wasted hour accompanying tea, crumpets and Monster Munch. Which makes me wonder, if I spend so much time sat on my arse eating junkfood playing video games, why don't I weight over 9,000lbs? A veritable mystery...

So that's been my life. It's been pretty peachy....but I still haven't told you about the curse of Friday 13th. So here goes....

It all started a couple of days before, on the 11th I had a gig with my aforementioned band, my dad was roadie for the day and on the way to Birmingham's Roadhouse Bar we got lost, went the long way, got stuck in traffic and had a general nightmare in the rain trying to get there. I should have known at that point that maybe getting out of bed that day was a bad idea, but I didn't. We finally got there and had a "fun" soundcheck, my guitar wouldn't stop feeding back and it took what seemed an age to get under control, by then I should have known for certain, getting out of bed was a bad idea, but from that point on things looked up. The support, Captain Horizon were decent, they played a good set, went down well with the crowd and left the stage all nice and shipshape for us to perform. Great! Maybe getting out of bed wasn't such a bad idea....until the third bloody song when my top E broke, leaving me one string down for the rest of the gig and without a spare guitar. It didn't turn out to be such a big disaster, we still went down well, still managed to pull it off and still had a good gig and a good time. But by the end of the night and a whole lot of beer later I decided that I'd be buying a new guitar for the next gig a week and a half later. 

Now you're probably wondering what exactly this has to do with Friday 13th, but I'm getting there...honest.

Now, the following day passed with nothing special happening until late on the evening when I got a text message asking if I wanted to see Alice In Chains the following day for half price, and well, of course I did, but had to check finances the next day as I was buying that guitar I needed...on Friday the 13th.

Now, Friday 13th is a day synominous with disaster, unpleasantness, dead teenagers and a nutter with a knife and a hockey mask. And none of this happened, Friday 13th was awesome. Strange, but awesome. First up I went out to buy my guitar and found myself a beautiful blue Les Paul that not only looked but sounded awesome. Not only did I get a guitar that was sexy (in guitar terms) in the same way that Dita Von Teese is sexy but I ended up getting strings, a hardcase and guitar strap free with it. So that was the first part of the day that turned out awesome £80 of free stuff.
Now after that I decided I needed a pint, I'd parted with a lot of money and needed to calm myself down, so I went to my favourite drinking haunt, stood at the bar and started to text the world telling them of my new purchase and also confirm I was going to the AIC gig later that evening. Great stuff!

Except, it gets better.

I was stood at the bar when the landlord of the pub approached me and said that a band had played there a few weeks before and had left an expensive looking guitar stand and strap behind and not claimed them, he gave me the strap and said he'd sell the stand which he insisted I take away on approval and pay him when I have the cash AND asked me to find out a proce on Ebay as he hadn't got a cle what it was worth. Yeah, more free stuff and a cheap stand that a very nice guy trusted me with. So I had a nice couple of drinks, went home to take my goodies to safety and got rained on before having to go back into town to see AIC live and get soaked on the way.
It was a great night, Alice In Chains were amazing, William Duvall had a sensational voice, the band played flawlessly even through technical difficulties which forced them to play part of their set acoustically and a good time was had by all. I went home, played WoW, did a Naxx raid, didn't die once, even though Villanetta is a squishy cloth wearing warlock and ate my favourite Indian food from my favourite takeaway.
Like I said it was an awesome day, but it was Friday the 13th, and with Friday 13th comes a curse. And this curse was an absolute doozy....

It seems Friday 13th stayed in bed and got up a week late. Friday 20th came and I needed to go out and meet a friend and also to buy Left 4 Dead 2....again an awesome game, zombies, vomit and guns in a game. Can't go wrong. Except Friday 20th did, in spectacular fashion. First I couldn't find my phone so that held me up, second, I couldn't find my keys, yet another delay, third a whole bunch of paperwork and mail fell over all over my floor which would have bugged the hell out of me so I had to tidy it up...yet another bloody delay.
It didn't stop there, I caught my sweater on the door handle and had to untangle myself....another....bloody....delay!

So I finally get out of the house, almost an hour late and was crossing the road 10 yards away from my house, thinking to myself that home didn't like me that morning when SMACK! I got hit...by a car. A big green one....And it hurt....A lot!
Yes, I managed to get myself run over, thankfully it didn't require hospital treatment but that held me up even more, so I was even later than I needed to be.
So, after all that I managed to meet up with my friend, managed to pick up L4D2 and managed to get home and start installing the game on my PC. And of course in it's week late, Friday 13th style the PC didn't want to know, I uninstalled, reinstalled, PC wanted to know about that, didn't want to play the game without crashing or without refusing to verify certain files. So, I ended up getting it from Steam and 4 hours later it downloaded and kept crashing. By now I was aching all over, in a foul mood and I'm sure I may have uttered a word that rhymes with duck more than once.
On top of that the takeaway turned up late, I did another raid on WoW and died lots and finally got L4D working at 1am with gore mode switched off....the very gore mode which was one of the reasons I wanted the game for.....And all this the day before my band's next gig and the first gig of my new guitar.

The moral of the story is never trust a Friday.....Fridays lie. Fridays are evil and next Friday I'm staying in bed!

But on the bright side....since then I've got the game working properly now, complete with dismemberments and amputations in glorious HD and I bought a new mobile phone that actually works online, and the gig went fine, and last Friday I was sensible and stayed home.

You can check them out at www.myspace.com/hydrovibe and of course their website at www.hydrovibe.com

It's been a long long time since I last wrote a blog on these here hallowed pages and it's about time to let you know I hadn't forgotten about you all.

First, I'm still alive, still DJing and still being noisy, obnoxious and just, well me!

Lately though, I've acquired myself an addiction, an addiction that afflicts millions worldwide, is growing every day and is as potentialy life-sapping but is still a lot of fun amd shields me from that scary place known as the real world. Yes, World of Warcraft has stepped back into my life and in the last couple of months I have gotten closer and closer to that fabled level 80 only to find that when the new expansion Cataclysm comes out next year I will have another 5 levels to aspire to. Thanks Blizzard, I'm sure if I had a girlfriend she'd kill me for considering spending more money and life on this great game. Talking of which if you're planning on playing the game on the US servers send me an email at villan@siradio.fm  and I'll send you a "Recruit a Friend" mail (I have 3 left) and it gets me free time if I get other people to subscribe.

Other than that I've also been playing the incredible game Wet from Bethesda. You can check out my review of the game  here Believe me, the game is awesome, shooty and just a lot more fun than it probably should be.

Now, aside from gaming and DJing, I've been playing with my band, rehearsing every week and being a good boy for once in my life and we have a gig. Yes! A gig, its at the Inn On The Green in Acocks Green, Birmingham on October 8th, so if you're in the Birmingham area, come see us, we want your attention and money! There, that's my bit of advertising for that done, now nobody can say I spend my entire life gaming.

Other than the usual watching football, watching House and watching movies I have been checking out new and interesting music too. Of particular note are The Arkhams, they're my song of the month for September and are a whole load of Psychobilly punky goodness, well worth checking out and their song Insane is on my profile for now.

Look out for a new song of the month in October and of course, don't forget to tune in to our wonderful shows at Split Infinity Radio especially on Sunday at 9pm GMT for Lock and Load and also every Monday at 6pm GMT for all your console news in Konsole Kontrast. This week find out why I might just declare war on Switzerland ;)

Until then, be good and if you can't be good....don't get caught!

Oh and before I go, this is my 100th blog on here, is it normal to feel warm and fuzzy inside because of that?

Just a reminder to you all that Lock n Load this week will feature a poetry recital of your musings. Yes for one week only I, DJ Villan will be getting cultured and sophisticated for Lock n Load. Well cultured and sophisticated may be a lie, but I'll be reading them out anyway!

Yes I want you, the SI Radio listeners to write a poem about your favourite SI Radio DJ and send them to villan@siradio.fm

Tune in from the usual time 9pmGMT/4pmEST to hear if your words are aired!

Hey everyone, I now have a shiny digg account where you can "digg" my journalistic works and help to make me that little bit more famous.

If you're feeling kind and benevolent then please do "digg" these and do your bit for your favourite charity...well do your bit for Save the Villan :)

http://digg.com/xbox/Prototype_Review_XBOX360

http://digg.com/arts_culture/Books_Have_a_Lot_to_Answer_For

http://digg.com/xbox/Terminator_Salvation_An_Honest_Review_xbox_360

Also, while you're at it please do check me out on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/djvillan


And finally I now have a Facebook fan club, if you feel like joining it then you can find it at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-Villan/90972528911?ref=mf


Hope you enjoy them all, please do tell your friends and please do tune into www.siradio.fm

Every month I chose a new song of the month which I get from Myspace and share with the world.

This month we have Electronica/breakbeat/Rock/Rave hybrid Riot 87 with a remix of Skazi's Hit and Run.

(Please do excuse the "sotm" tag in the track, that just means song of the month and is not any claim to anyone other than Skazi and Riot 87 being the artists)

They have a storming and delightful  remix album where they have remixed such acts as ACDC, Skazi, Gorrilaz and Celldweller, and it's available for free and legal download here

Hailing from Serbia,Riot 87 have a sound that is original, energetic, exciting and fresh, not entirely unlike early Prodigy and old school rave, yet with some metal and other random sounding elements.

This band are not to be missed! Check them out on their myspace page here

And don't forget, thry their remix album out for free too.

Bloody hell! That's all I can say about this week......in fact I'll say it again, only this time...bigger and red.
Anyway, now that's done with I have had a stupid week, a really stupid week thanks to a pair of prats who wasn't watching what they were doing and a certain multimedia company whose name suggests they have never had sex. So now I have a story to tell.

Are you sitting comfortably? No? Tough! I'm starting now anyway.


A long time ago, in a garden far far away.....well actually it was just over a year ago and a garden in Stechford....

I was sat minding my own business after a radio show one Sunday night, this was back in the days when fellow SI DJ Chaotica used to run a show right after mine called The Basement. The Basement was a short-lived geek-a-thon chat show that was about gadgets, shiny things and computer related gubbins, and I was a part of the show too, giving my opinions, learned advice and generally being my normal loud and obnoxious self alongside the usual rabble that used to show up for the show. Anyway, the show was going rather well and Chaotica had cut to music when I noticed blue flashing lights outside, so I promptly made my polite excuses and went outside to investigate.

Lo and behold, the thing that greeted me was something I was not expecting, there was a big red fire engine and firemen putting out the remains of my smouldering garden fence. Yes, my fence had been set alight by someone's carelessly discarded cigarette and I hadn't noticed. So, after finding everything was now  OK if a little damp and smelling of smoke, I retired back to the PC and excitedly told everyone online the following sentance "Fucking hell! You wouldn't believe what's happened! Some twat has set fire to my fence and there's firemen outside putting it out! How could I not notice?" Except when I say everybody...I mean EVERYBODY! It went out onair much to everybodys amusement.

So, the upshot of this was that I had no wooden fence but I did have a series of concrete poles that were originally holding the fence.

Anyway, the year passed by, it rained, it was sunny, it snowed, I had a girlfriend come and go, I went to the pub a lot and DJ'd a lot more, I grew a year  older, I got no wiser and eventually last Tuesday happened.

Again, Bloody hell!

Last Tuesday I was awoken by a phone call from my landlord informing me that I was to get a nice shiny new fence fitted, workmen were on their way and were going to put up a nice shiny metal fence with gothic pointy bits and a nice gate for both me and my neighbours. Lovely! Can't be a bad thing can it? A bit of privacy, no more snotty little chav kids standing in my garden because they can't tell the difference between it and the nearby bus stop, no more litter in my front yard and the bonus of making it look a bit nicer.

Now, you think this would be quick, easy and painless with the minimum of fuss, but that's where it started, the horror of last week.
Sometime around 1pm on Tuesday afternoon the workmen took up the old posts and started to dig holes for the new ones and in doing so cut the cable for my cable TV and internet services as well as seriously damaging my phone line, and as I have no TV ariel was now stuck without TV or internet and a phone line that was afflicted with more interference than a mother-in-law's pool party.

So, I began with the phone calls. And yes, that's calls in the plural. I called up my providers, who as I said earlier their name suggests they've never had sex and told them what had happened. I also told them that as a disabled and therefore "special needs" customer that I was to have my services (or at least my phone) fixed within four hours. I spent 5 hours arguing with them, hearing loads of excuses that were ridiculous, including I'd not paid my bill which automatically comes out of my bank, that there was network trouble in the area and that I was wrong about what had happened, even though it was bloody obvious before they'd even agree for someone to fix them 2 days later because they had lost my records. Numerous phone calls and one incredibly irate me later they finally relented and agreed to send out an engineer. Who didn't turn up and now my appointment was set for the Friday without my knowledge. If that isn't incompetent enough, it gets better.

So, I call again on Wednesday only to be told they've lost the special needs record again, after only having it confirmed the night before and spent another 3 hours arguing unil they agreed to send someone out. By now I was on phone call 17...yes 17! and even more irate than I was the previous day. Again this person didn't show up and my appointment, again without my knowledge or consent was moved to Saturday. I threatened to call head office who they wouldn't give me the number for and then proceeded to tell me that not even the MD of the company would be able to get it fixed any quicker.

By this time I was fuming angry and said a few choice words to the moronic staff of this sex deprived organization and even though this was now phone call number 19 they still saw fit to tell me off for MY attitude. Cheeky gits!

Anyway, by now I decided enough was enough so told them that they owed me rent for storing their non-working equipment in my house and ended up getting £40 knocked off my bill which wasn't too bad and did pay for my copy of Infamous for the PS3 but as you can imagine, as a disabled customer who was supposed to be back with his services within 4 hours, was still without them, and still looked like he'd be without them until Saturday  it was more than excusable for me to be a little bit miffed.

Then came Thursday, I woke up to a now dead landline and had to use my mobile, cue call 24. Yes 24! And this time the mioracle of all miracles had happened. I got a memeber of staff with a brain. One who was coherent, didn't argue, pressed the right keys on her keyboard and assured me that an engineer would be out in 4 hours. Like I'd never heard that before.....

Well, this time the engineer turned up and found that I was right all along and said that they couldn't fix it properly until the 10th June. Yes, this company was willing to let me have no TV, phone or net for 2 weeks and continue paying for it, but as there was access to another connection I could get a temporary repair done.

What really takes the piss is that it took him 17 minutes to fix. Thats less minutes than phone calls I made, and they couldn't do that on Tuesday like they were supposed to?
 
So here ends my story of last week.....the nightmare I had at the hands of people who never had sex, the company who once owned a massive chain of record shops, an airline, a mobile phone company and some islands. A company famous in the annals of British history as a household name, a company that has made billions world wide, has had balloons flying all over the world, a radio station and apparently sometimes provides internet and cable TV services. A company whos name is a common prefix to Mary. And a company whose employees don't like my attitude.

And more importantly, a company who have never ever had sex....ever. No wonder they can't get anything done as they're obviously too busy wanking to compensate.

Blogs have bin a bit thin on the ground lately again, I know...I've been abusing and neglecting my Myspace account. I'm a terrible person, but there are 2 very good reasons for this.

First, I made another shiny purchase a couple of weeks ago and bought myself a PSP, it's a white one, an old chunky one but it's nether-the-less shiny and gives me another option for a)listening to the awesomeness of Split Infinity Radio. (Go  on visit us at www.siradio.fm you know you want to) and also b) a new gaming machine.
Now I know you're all dying to know what I've nbeen playing on there, well probably not but I'm going to tell you anyway, but I've been learning just what the fuss is all about with God of War, and it really is that awesome, GTA Vice City Stories, yeah I'm a glutton for that kind of game and am still playing throgh GTA IV, Lost and Damned and Saints Row 2.
I've also been playing Final Fantasy Crisis Core, which is actually better than I thought it would be, and the OTHER 2 games.
Yes, after many conversations with DJ. Cookie (check out her show on SI Radio, she's awesome too, and that Finnish accent, purrrrrrrr...seriously) I elected to buy Lemmings, which yeah which as a gaming veteran of over 25 years should have known better abouty it's addictive lure but more importantly I bought Patapon for which I shall again blame DJ Cookie. Patapon, in short is pure videogame crack. It's digital crystal meth, handheld angel dust, just....damn I mention it and now I need to play the bloody thing.
It is quite possibly the sexiest slice of gaming genius I have played in a long time. Some may say it's like rythym action Lemmings with it's strange drumming control and guiding your little monochromatic eyeballs to safety, I would concurr, but say this game should come with a health warning. Seriously, nothing is getting done. Blogs, nope! Washing up, nope! Laundry, nope! I'm just grateful that the PSP is portable and I can take my Patapon while I go for a dump.

More disturbingly is, that's not my only new addiction. The other is Peggle. Yes, Peggle. Again, I should have known, but it was released on XBox Live recently and yes, the exploding pachinko hooked me. So now, I have an addiction. 2 addictions, it's not a problem though.....I like it.


Anyway, one thing I have been doing along with the rest of the fabulous news team over at SI Radio is writing news. head on over to the website to check it out and see our musings and our thoughts now that we've all been given our crayons back.

Also a big welcome to the 2 newest members of the SI Radio family, Tarhan and Melody. Check out their shows too.

So, now you know where I've been for the last month or so. Not sure you really cared but I told you anyway. Now I'm off to Pata my Pon and a thousand other Patapon related innuendos.

Be good, and if you cant be good....don't get caught.

So now I  have a Twitter account. Yes, if you feel the need to stalk me and read 140 letters explaining my day then this is the place to do it.

www.twitter.com/djvillan

Also while I'm here, come and check out the Split Infinity Radio Twitter.

www.twitter.com/siradio

I assure you, it's lots of fun! Foolow us if you dare!