Reasons to be excited...

Aside from the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, which I've been looking forward to very much, contrary to the lampooning that Sport received recently courtesy of The Hitch, there are a few reasons to sit forward and take note.

I may have been a little hasty with my referral to the all-new Radiohead Twitter feed; they haven't actually posted anything yet. Nevertheless, a couple of other little indicators have started vibrating in the malaise of Radiohead rumour. First, their website has undergone a revamp, albeit merely facially, displaying a new direction for subsequent artwork, perhaps. Abandoning the black background and the rainbow theme, they've gone for a streamline, black on white look, which is already being heralded as the cut-and-paste revolution.

What's more, Radiohead's resident artist, Stanley Donwood has remodelled his website to coincide with his project in Holland, Red Maze. Is it a stretch too far to point to the rather convenient timing? We already know, of course, that Radiohead were in a studio in LA for a month over January, and Ed, our hero, has already gone gung-ho on the website, whetting the appetites of many a-Radiohead fanboy (myself included).

To cap it all, Thom Yorke has announced he's going to play a benefit gig for Tony Jupiter, the forerunner for the Green party, at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in a couple of weeks. Tom has his tickets. Do you? (Best price on eBay: about Eighty squid for a pair.) I won't stick my neck on the line and propose that he'll test a couple of new songs, but it wouldn't be unheard of.

Other reasons to be excited include: I travel to Phoenix tomorrow to face our rivals, ASWho? That's Arizona State University for anyone back home. At present, they hang, like a ball-bag, precariously on the brink of financial liquidation, and I'd be all to happy play Prince Albert and put the final nail in the coffin.

Also, on a weekend of intense rivalries, what could be more juicy than the South-coast derby: Southampton v. Portsmouth tomorrow at high noon? You think the Manchester derby was tough? You thought the Merseyside derby was tough? This is another level of hatred, dear reader. As the chant goes, There's only one team in Hampshire.

When I was just a boy
I asked my mother
What would I be.
Would I be Pompey?
Would I be Saints?
Here's what she said to me:
"Wash you mouth with soap
And get your father's gun,
And shoot the Pompey scum,
And support the Saints."
We hate Pompey,
We hate Pompey,
We hate Pompey...