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Maybe you’ve read about the campaign to stop X-Factor’s Joe McElderry from being the UK’s Christmas number 1, replacing it with Rage Against The Machine’s very angry anti-US racism expletive-laden “Killing in the Name. Maybe you’ve not?

Anywhoo, I’ve been hearing this a lot on Radio 1 over the last couple of weeks and I reckon this is the hands down winner for Christmas #1, except from what I understand it’s not even for sale. I present the excellent Mumford and Sons “Winter Winds”.

For comparison, here’s the X-Factor-manufactured pop contender:

and Rage’s social commentary (with profanity, beware!):

I didn’t quite get home in time to catch the real rain, but you can see by the flow down the hill that we got a bunch of it (1.25″ at Lindbergh Field).

Rain from Paul Sanders on Vimeo.

On the drive to work this morning I was thinking about things I bought ‘recently’ that so far have turned out to be a waste of money. Off the top of my head I came up with:

• the mandolin
• final cut express
• book on how to use final cut express

I’m sure there’s more but I’m definitely disappointed that those things have yet to deliver me anything.

Since Feb 2008 I’ve uploaded 29 videos to YouTube. Most get 40-60 views, a few have over 100, one has over 400 but really I’m just a pimple on the buttocks of the video giant.

So imagine my surprise today when I got an email saying someone had uploaded a video response to one of my videos. And not a recent one, one from May of this year in fact. Some of you may remember my sad puppet tale of H1N1 in the house – some of you will have taken therapy or drugs to erase the memory.

But somehow, some way, somebody found my video and decided to waste 30 seconds of their life making a retort. Friends, I have arrived.

The original video:

The response:

Can a Best Director be far away??

Another year, another great Cattle Call weekend. There will be pictures from the Parade and the Rodeo on flickr at some point during the week but for now, here’s a little video montage I put together.

Brawley Cattle Call Rodeo 2009 from Paul Sanders on Vimeo.

My cousin Louise seemed to really enjoy herself, I think we made her a rodeo fan. Cowgirl up.

Every year during the Cattle Call weekend out here in Brawley I am reminded of a fact that I would believe if I did not witness it with my own eyes: given enough time, and sufficient bladder capability, it IS possible to get sh*t-faced on Budweiser and Bud Light.

From time to time I come across people who have spent some significant time in the British Isles (ok, Southern England, not met many people who lived in the Hebrides) and claim great knowledge of the place. Also from time to time I come across people who were there for a short space of time and think the same.

I lived in NYC for almost a year but never would I claim to know more about the place than a native, and yet these people want to tell me what I don’t know about the place.

“There are no Citroën 2CVs in England”. Um, there are, I saw ’em, rode in them. “Well when I was there I didn’t see a single one”. How long were you there? “6 months”. Maybe you needed to be there a bit longer, like 30-something years? Just sayin’.

So I do this kgb_ text answering thing as most of you know and starting this weekend we’ll be answering questions from the UK equivalent service, 118 118. The chat room is abuzz, many people are worried but a lot are excited. “I’m going to do so well as I’ve been there!” or “My brother lived there for a year, I so know English information”. And then last night someone claimed to know every post code in the country “because I lived there 3 years”. I was tempted to cry bullshit but satisfied myself with a smile instead; I can’t even remember my Dad’s or my sister’s postcodes let alone the one for Chard or Piddington.

Been a while, and this is, well, a little too obvious but what the heck. Muse, “Uprising”.

So tonight I’ve been watching a concert celebrating 25 years of the legendary writer/producer Trevor Horn, and it’s clear to me that if there is one band that defines my early adult years it is Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Awesome vocals, fantastic production: relax, don’t do it.

Are companies just not trying any more? Recently I bought a GPS from Amazon and now I keep getting emails about gps deals – isn’t it unlikely I’m in the market for another?

And Hotwire, booked a Hawaii hotel with them and keep getting “great” offers from them for another. Not only is their email pointless, it’s also usually rubbish – the “from” rate is never available.

Come on guys try a little.