Swans, Sherbet and Coathangers

No of course not, but here's something to get you in the mood, a mere 6 weeks early.

Today's Music Widget

So who's going to win? Will it be the old one, or the black one?

These labels aren't very helpful, as they don't give us any insight into what the candidates are really all about. One supports a futile war, and one doesn't. One has run a successful election campaign, and one hasn't. One has picked a strange, crazy running mate (honestly, would you want this lady as second in command?!)

... and one hasn't.

It sounds like it's a done deal, and yet there's this nagging doubt that by this time tomorrow the american people might have done something silly. Anything can happen in politics.

In other news, there's an impending sense of deja vu as Jeremy Clarkson takes his turn at being hauled over the coals by the BBC licence paying public. He's had over 200 complaints about a joke he told in which he suggested that all lorry drivers like to kill prostitutes (this was a reference to the lorry driver Steve Wright, who has killed five of them). Some people obviously didn't think this was very funny. Here we go again, then.

Saturday was spent in the carvernous halls of Earls Court London, quite probably one of the biggest exhibition spaces... In The World! It was hosting a car show called MPH, which to be honest I didn't have a vast amount of interest in. There's only so much effort I feel I can devote to staring at car engines and going "Hmm, yes. Large." Naturally, the place was rammed full of petrol heads peering at motor vehicles and wondering if it could possibly be legal to marry one. In the next few days there will undoubtedly be hundreds of photo albums popping up on Facebook with titles like 'Me With a Ferrari! Look, I'm Touching It.'

I was there for cars, but in the slightly more populist and accesible format of Top Gear Live.

This was possibly the loudest show... In The World! Jezza Clarkson, May and Hammond were all on hand to banter and generally insult the audience's taste in cars and fashion sense. They tired o make it as much like the TV show as possible, with many familiar segments like 'Cool Wall' and 'Star In A Reasonably Priced Car' (if you've not see Top Gear you'll have no idea what any of that means, but hey. Tough).

To be honest it didn't quite all hang together, and ended up being lesser than the sum of its parts, which did include some truly spectacular driving in quite a tight space, and many a silly moment featuring the Top Gear team doing what they do best (in their words, 'cocking about').

The best part was the finale, featuring the infamous Stig, who it seems is no longer content with just driving quickly and now wants a real challenge. So, the closing sequence featured Mr Stig battling against some evil foes, including this guy...

... who burst out the top of an oil tanker, breathing fire everywhere. Truly a spectacular end to a hit-and-miss show.