music, music, and... dachshunds?

Firstly, two neato pieces of game music-related news:

- my friend Jake 'Virt' Kaufman, previously bustin' out all sorts of great GameBoy and GBA soundtracks, has been co-opted to do the full orchestral-styled soundtrack for a neat-looking PlayStation 2 title from Germany, Legend Of Kay. There's even a trailer with his music on it available - smart if you like furry StarFox Adventures style platforming. Or just boffo tunes :P

- just about out in the States is the said-to-be-OK videogame version of, well, '70s Huggy Bear-fest Starsky And Hutch. There's even a PC demo out, which it may be worth downloading (haven't tried yet, if someone does, tell me what music it has in it!) for the first new game soundtrack in at least a couple of years from Tim Follin. Heck, I'm such an aficianado of his work that I, uhm, made him a fansite - he's been criminally underappreciated and underused because he keeps such a low profile, but his recent Ecco soundtrack was sublime, and his early Amiga and NES work is so seminal, it hurts.

Secondly, why can't I get these two pieces of music out of my head?

- David Brent's horrific 'Freelove Freeway' from BBC show The Office, which made it so big in America critically that Matt Groening, hardly the most publicity-friendly chap, is raving about it. Second series is coming to BBC America in the next few weeks, btw, and.. tune, begone from my brain!

- One of the idents from the You Don't Know Jack quiz videogames - 'Ain't no loving like Number 13'. Too catchy.

Thirdly, we wandered off to the kinda cool Bay Area botanical garden/theme park Bonfante Gardens this weekend, after picking up free tickets via a mail-in offer - it's a kinda old people/young kids thing, but there's some fun mini-coasters there, and they have nice fries. And we saw someone throwing up after going on the onion chair swingy-roundy ride. Which was fun.

Where was I? Oh, yeah.. I didn't get a free ticket at first because, well, Holly's/Holly's parents' dachshund, the ever-lovable Petie, sent off and got one instead. So _that's_ where all the free tickets go when these offers turn up - people's pets :P Fortunately me and Petie are homies, so much so that my KOTOR character is called Petie Hutt and my Derby Owner's Club horse is Petie Shazam III, so he gave me the ticket out of the goodness of his heart. Thanks, Petie!