Swear Again

Recommendations:

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Q have billed it as the first essential album purchase of the year and I can't disagree with it, best album I've bought this year so far. Bought it last week and have been listening to it all the time since then. It's a great album which improves on their breakthrough album two years ago. The music is still quite chaotic but it has more focus now.
The guitarist has said that listening to the album will make you feel how music used to make you feel which is as good a recommendation as any.

Deadwood
I've been watching the first series on DVD and it's excellent. I heard good things about it and got the box set at Christmas but after the first episode I was starting to wonder what the fuss was about. However it all started to come together in the second episode and it just seems to get better as the series progresses. While the stories and script are good, it's the individual performances that really make the show for me. I wasn't around in the old Wild West but they seem really authentic. Ian McShane (or Lovejoy as most people refer to him in the UK) is a revelation as the saloon owner Al Swearengen, not a sympathetic character but manages to be both funny and menacing at the same time. He also has a gift for swearing which extends to most of the cast. Calamity Jane is also an effective practitioner of this art which is actually quite amusing as long as you aren't easily offended.
The other American import that I like is 24. This seems to rely on cliff hangers and tension to move the plot along rather than the performances (and there are a number of holes in the plot if you are inclined to spent time thinking about them) whereas I prefer the way that it's the performances that are important in Deadwood.

Louise Welsh - The Bullet Trick
This is the best book I have read recently and the author is Scottish which is nice. It's about the conjurer and illusionist William Wilson and the trouble he gets into when he tries to help out an old friend. The story moves between London, Glasgow & Berlin while moving back and forward in time and this works really well. There are hints through the book as to what happens/happened which makes you want to keep reading to find out. The characters are well written even if they aren't always portrayed in a positive light. Welsh's first book The Cutting Room was a very good debut and The Bullet Trick helps to build her reputation.

Don't hire Berti Vogts as your manager.
After the debacle that was Vogts period in charge of Scotland (reached their lowest ever world ranking) he still managed to get the job of managing Nigeria. However it's good to see some things never change. His first squad contained one player who has already played for Israel and is therefore ineligible and one player who has already stated his desire to play for England rather than Nigeria. Great stuff, Berti is as competent as ever.