These are the ten best popular music albums of all time (alphabetical by artist):

Adele – 19. A heartbreaking voice, purveying inventive and soulful melodies. I got this one as a freebie from my local community radio station. Much thank to them.
Alejandro Sanz – Más. Bought at random when it happened to be the top-selling album in Spain as I visited Barcelona/Sitges. The songs are discursive, catchy and highly appealing once you flick the mental switch from Anglopop – generally you have to wait for a couple of minutes as he builds up to the chorus, but it’s always worth the wait. The follow-up albums also have some points of interest, e.g. Quisiera Ser from El Alma al Aire.
Cheb Mami – Meli Meli. Yes, OK, Cheb Mami is now in prison for wife-beating, but this sunny collection of tracks makes North African raï very palatable. I first encountered Mami following his Desert Rose duet with Sting – the early albums are unlistenable (to my sensibilities), but this French/Arabic crossover is excellent.
Christophe Willem – Caféine. Another random purchase, this one from last year when I was in Paris. He’s a former winner of an Idol-style show in France, with an unusual womanish voice and some funky, singalong tunes.
Kylie Minogue – Light Years. Melodic songs with a camp sense of humour, and a dose of Robbie Williams thrown in. What’s not to like?
Patti LuPone – The Lady with the Torch. My iPod is groaning with Patti LuPone tracks, but this album (plus the bootleg ‘rejects’ album of songs that didn’t quite make the cut) best shows off her extraordinary, emotive vocal ability. I’ve seen her live a few times, most recently when she did a couple of nights in Melbourne supported by Mandy Patinkin (actually they had joint billing).
Prefab Sprout – Swoon. Indie pop from the early 80’s. A very odd collection, with the melodic lines flying off in unexpected directions and some bizarre lyrics. Who else could have song titles like “I never play basketball now”, “Here on the Eerie”, “Green Isaac”? What do they mean?
Sia – Some People have Real Problems. Another gorgeous voice, mainly slow-burning melodies. She has been heavily plugged on my local community radio station, but I first heard her on the Zero 7 track Destiny (see below).
Sparks – Kimono my House. More odd, appealing lyrics twinned with bouncy and unpredictable music. The Mael brothers are a hoot.
The The – Soul Mining. Intense. Feels like Matt Johnson is boring into your head. I can imagine it would go well with a reefer.
Yellow Magic Orchestra – Yellow Magic Orchestra. Japanese synth-pop of the highest quality – need I say more.
Zero 7 – Simple Things. Loungy tracks that send one on a blissful voyage. Destiny is the standout track.

I know that’s twelve, but obviously none of them can be excluded. As for the best song of all time, that would be ‘Every Time We Say Goodbye’ as performed by Ella Fitzgerald.

A call from Michael Tang. Always nice to hear from him - he reminded me that I had promised to write a few words on my Causeway '09 game with Pakorn for The Last Word by this weekend (I think it's an online US-based magazine, but have never seen it). He also marvelled at Joanne's victorious performance in Sydney, wondering why she wasn't able to repeat that form in a Worlds or Causeway. Then asked me who I thought would win the Tournament of Champions he is running after the 2010 Causeway. I don't know, any of them could, except I wouldn't expect Peter Morris to excel.

He said there would be a new announcement shortly, about yet another tournament he will be organising. To my expostulation "You never stop!", he responded "I just thought - it's fun". He's loving the proliferation of higher prizes in international tournaments, e.g. Bangkok is $10k this year.

As for the enormous number of emails flying round on the UK list about the BMSC, he opined "They should get real. Am I being arrogant?" No, I said, they are being conservative.

Back from the City of Sydney International Masters, a bit of a misnomer this year given that all contenders were resident Aussies as far as I know. I had a strange seesawing Saturday, winning 6 out of 11 and virtually alternating 500+ romps with irretrievable losses – at least that’s how I am characterising them now, before doing any analysis (I certainly had a meagre haul of blanks on day 1, though pulled back to secure 16/40). A bit more solid on the Sunday, taking 7/9 and ending up an unlikely fourth, three games behind Joanne who was the first female winner for many years.

It was great to see some of the younger players in addition to Alastair doing well, with Jason Stockdale notching up tenth place and Michael McKenna claiming 11th, even though both of them lost their last games. Actually, Jason had Naween on toast but failed to spot that he could play out in a relatively obscure corner of the board; his wily opponent had relied on this, setting up a huge play involving SYPH which blew Jason out of the water. Apologies for the mixed metaphor, there was no toast in the water.

I had some enjoyable low-prob bingos, including WATCHEYE, PODAGRIC, HAMEWITH (yes, again), SYNDETON, DOOFUSES and TIRRIVIE. I also tried SKIJORS* against Jason, but it came off; the play might have had a slightly higher chance of success, ironically, against somebody who was acquainted with SKIJORER and SKIJORING. Best bingo against me was Naween’s SPETCHES.

Trevor called me up and reminded me that the Melbourne club was restarting tonight, so as I had nothing else planned I popped over for a glass of pinot and a few games. Trevor, fresh from his tournament win at the weekend, vanquished me in an interesting endgame in which I held CFSSTVY to his EEIIPR; in the end the lack of vowels was telling. Then I bounced back with wins over Geoff and Doug (who as usual, counted up my power tiles at the end).

Bingos for: CROSTINO; UPADAISY, JEEPING; UNGULAE, RADIOMEN
Against: ORATORIO; ENDORSE; HERDING, TONTINE

Off to Sydney at the weekend for the Summer Masters; will fly there and back with Naween.

Michael Tang rang this afternoon, ecstatic about his fourth place at iGate in Bangalore. But he had a few worries about the Chew pairings which he reckons cost Pakorn $1,000.

After concentrating on scrabble last year, I am getting back into crossword mode a little more. I just put together a rather nice grid for a new puzzle, including some enciphered answers, and will have to compose the 42 clues in due course. I think it will be a toughie.

Here's the intriguing 2010 program for Gloriana - looking forward to attempting some of these.

Concert 1 Miserere
Josquin Desprez: Missa Pange Lingua
Francis Poulenc: Figure Humaine
Henryk Górecki: Miserere

Concert 2: Spem in alium
Thomas Tallis: Spem in alium
Alessandro Striggio: Ecce beatam lucem
Giovanni Gabrieli: Exaudi me, Domine à 16
Arnold Bax: Mater ora filium
William Harris: Bring us, O Lord God
John Tavener: Two Hymns to the Mother of God
Johannes Brahms: Fest und Gedenksprüche Op. 109
Gustav Mahler/Clytus Gottwald: Die zwei blauen Augen (2001)
Richard Wagner/Clytus Gottwald: Isoldes Liebestod (2006)

Concert 3: TBC (aiming for J.S. Bach Mass in B minor)

Concert 4: Missa Mexicana
Samuel Barber: Agnus Dei
Frank Ferko: Hildegard Triptych
Morten Lauridsen: O magnum mysterium
Eric Whitacre: Water Night/Sleep
Alberto Ginastera: Lamentations of Jeremiah
Osvaldo Golijov: Oceana: Coral del Arrecife
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla: Missa Ego flos campi/Deus in Adiutorium Meum Intende

Finally got through the analysis of my 45 Causeway games. I missed bingos on three racks during the tournament - EXURbIA against Theresa (I think I recall seeing the bingo, but failed to find the overlapping spot for it); HoRNILy against Komol with two blanks; and the lovely SUPERSPY against Nigel, which at 38,000+ was some way below the probability level I studied in 2009. That's a lot better than my wayward 2008 event. There were occasions when I missed superior bingos as well, e.g. KNOTLESS (unsure), SPINALS, SWINGIEST, TROCHITE. Equity loss averaged about 35, but there was at least one game I threw away through missing the best endgame play (Owolabi, who finished one game ahead of me). Other bloomers, not mentioning the various obvious plays I simply failed to find - I overdrew against Komol, putting a blank at risk; I accepted Saidu's REPASTES* (drat - REPASTED, REPASTS and PREPASTE are good); I seem to have accepted an endgame move involving UE* against Marut; Gabriel sneaked KAIED* past me; I played UNGIVE* against Mackay, confusing with UNGYVE, and later tried to D-hook it unsuccessfully; and SKEWERER* against meezerman who must think I phoney in every game (there was REEKERS as a backup though). Having said that I challenged off seven phonies, including two that I did detect from a below-par Saidu. Only one deliberate false word on my part, JAIS* against Quao, which survived and resulted in a narrow win for me.

In one stretch I had a string of dispiriting losses, and Harshan could see it was getting to me. He advised me to play more tournaments internationally, along the practice of Pakorn and Nigel who went virtually everywhere - Bangalore, Nigeria, you name it. Alas I won't be able to do that until I can win the lottery and retire.

It's about 38 today (100 fahrenheit), and I am going to have to turn the oven on shortly for a blueberry tart I promised to our guests. Then maybe another afternoon on the beach. They are visiting from wintry Sheffield, and have heard that their pipes froze over Christmas, resulting in the ceiling caving in and the entire house contents being ruined. Disaster, but they are unable to do much about it from Australia.

Michael Tang called me yesterday. He is still buzzing with ideas for the Causeway - now, the bottom team is going to be relegated (whoever it is) and replaced in the subsequent year with another hand-picked international team. In the end, he wants to move away from the nation-based teams which allows too many weaker players to participate, and just have the toughest 50 players in the world competing in ad-hoc groupings. It's a bit of a shame to remove the national element completely, as the team spirit has been a big part of the event. So maybe the groupings will be loosely region-based in the long term, assuming all national teams are eventually weeded out. He is also exploring links with a major US entertainment company that is setting up in Shanghai. Better not say much more about it here.

A couple of LOL finds from the Decathon tourney yesterday. Here’s a position from a game with Natasha Podesser (she had just played IO):

   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O      N-pod    xxxxxxx   101 
   ------------------------------  -> Andrew   ACEIORU   183 
 1|=     '       =       '     =| 
 2|  -       "       "       -  | 
 3|    -       '   '   E   -    | 
 4|'     -       '   C L U N G '|
 5|        -           E        |
 6|  "       " S h O P G I R L  |
 7|    '       '   '   I   '    |
 8|=     '     J A M   T A X I S|
 9|    '       ' H Y E S   I O  |
10|  "       B R A   "       "  |
11|        -           -        |
12|'     -       '       -     '|
13|    -       '   '       -    |
14|  -       "       "       -  |
15|=     '       =       '     =|
   ------------------------------

First thoughts were the humble OU at 3M, or extending BRA to BRACE. But I did find the better score in the end.

Another one for consideration, this time against Naween after his RAJA:

   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O   -> Andrew   AEFLNTV   306 
   ------------------------------     Naween   xxxxxxx   369 
 1|=     '       Q       '     =| 
 2|  -       P S I   "       -  | 
 3|    -     E T   '       S    |
 4|'     -   N A ' O A R I E R '|
 5|        D E L O U S E   D   R|
 6|  "     I D L Y   "     A X E|
 7|    ' C     A   '       T I P|
 8|=     H O U G H     R ' I   R|
 9|    ' E     E   '   A G O   O|
10|  W O V E "       " J U N "  |
11|M O B I E           A T      |
12|A G I N       '       T     '|
13|U   -       '   '     Y -    |
14|N -       "       "       -  |
15|D O I t K I n S       '     =|
   ------------------------------
Unseen ABCEEFLMNRTZ

Answers in comments.

I dropped three games out of 10, running third to Alastair Richards (10-0) and Naween on 8-2. Naween was watching Alastair in our game, and noted that he carefully chose EDUCE for 35, setting up a good X-spot, rather than spending his X immediately for about 40. Karen reckons he learned a lot at the Causeway, and he certainly seems to be playing well.

The other LOL moment was against Karen, who had poised her mug on the tile bag. When I went to pick it up, tea went flying everywhere.

Not sure whether to post this as I don't wish to appear unhumble*. But everybody's doing it. And most of my games were in Australia, which is not always the toughest crucible.

11 tourneys played since this time last year, including WSC and Causeway. That was 197 games in total, with 155 wins (78.7%, or 88.2% domestically) and a spread of 12,665 (average 64.3, 86.8 domestically). Eight tournament wins, one second place, a 15th and a 10th. Earned about $3,500.

Highlights were winning the Australian Nationals and the Australian Masters with daylight between me and second place. But pretty much every game was enjoyable, in retrospect. Also consorting with my scrabble friends from far and wide at the Zon and elsewhere.
Lowlights - I suppose it was my fade into the teens towards the end of the WSC despite intensive preparation...but as I seem to have gained a couple of unmerited wins on the final day due to opponent errors, perhaps my final ranking was fair.
Tourneys for 2010 - perhaps not so many as 2009, but I will still hit the majors and ensure I fall in with the international qualifying criteria.
Goals - I have temporarily put Zyzzyva aside after a feeble couple of attempts to go through my accumulated cardbox (have already rescheduled twice and will need to do so again). But no doubt I will resume before long. Furthermore I will try and play a bit less like a computer and a bit more like Nigel.

A fun game with Ricky Purnomo (rudely billed as 'x' in the file I uploaded). Here's how you can have a superb early game, survive three successive bingos with strong winning chances, and then succumb at the very end thanks to a skilfully-found setup.

http://www.cross-tables.com/annotated.php?u=5222