St Valentine's Day - Sin, Poison, Frog Sex and Elderly Bandits

Hello all. Well, what an excellent weekend. I learned to play Siouxsie's guitar part on the Banshees SIN IN MY HEART. Very badly. Next week - The Cramps' HUMAN FLY. That one involves more notes. Oh dear. This is shaping up to be a disaster, just like the time I had to play the recorder in the school play of The Pied Piper of Hamelyn. Still, at least I have the Poison Ivy boots, even if I can't play the notes.

This weekend's films were a Canadian film called THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS which was so bad we stopped it half an hour in, and Almodovar's BROKEN EMBRACES which was pretty good. Next weekend it's the Glasgow Film Festival so we're going to go to a couple of those - ATTENBERG and NOTHING'S ALL BAD. Anyone seen either of those?

I also had a splendid time looking for eBooks, loads of which are now sitting in my lovely new Kindle. February is Scottish reading month, but March may well have to be Kindle month.

A slew of reviews. First of all Terry Halligan at Eurocrime loves Craig Robertson's RANDOM. And, also at Eurocrime, the lovely Lizzie Hayes really enjoys Val McDermid's TRICK OF THE DARK. The Telegraph also gives TRICK OF THE DARK some ink.

Ian Rankin (amongst others) on the joys of Twitter.

I always seem to be pointing you towards Douglas Lindsay's blog, but that's just because his posts are always so interesting. This one talks about frog sex and testicle grabbing book covers.

Quintin Jardine will be launching his latest book THE LONER at Tranent Library on 31 March.

And, finally, the 'Granddad Bandit'. Some people have a real nerve, don't they? He just waited in line...