Well hello again Clash people and thanks for returning to the blog. First and foremost please accept my apology for the gap between updates, it’s been a rather frantic week with a rush to find a new house in San Diego in advance of the impending move to a new town with loads of miles to drive, houses to see and negotiations to be made it’s been a pretty stressful time but luckily we found a place in the end. So effective next month ClashBlog Towers will have a new roof overhead and a new city to explore. I’m pleased as shit for dozens of reasons but getting back near the ocean and living in a city where the bands I like tend to play rather than skip is also appealing. Also we purposefully chose north of the city reducing the commute time to Los Angeles by half an hour. The bloggette’s job transfer cemented the move but I’m optimistic that I’ll find new clients there too and can still retain existing ones – so long as I have a computer I’m good to go. Needless to say the next few weeks will continue to be far more hectic than usual as we pack up our stuff and try and take care of other business but I’ll do my best to keep the blog on a near normal schedule over the coming weeks. Once I’m settled expect high volume if not high quality – the house and location is a blogger’s delight. I’ve included some road trip photos from the last few weeks of driving just for something a bit different.

Road trip photo 1, saw too many Joshua Trees. I blame Bono

I don’t think San Diego has much to offer in terms of Clash history though I could be wrong, the only musical things I know about the town is Jim Morrison grew up on Coronado Island although he’s always associated with Los Angeles. Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads also came from the same part of town.  I know the Zeros came from San Diego but I think most of the better known SoCal punk came from Los Angeles/Orange County. All I know is there are four concerts I need to see within six weeks of arrival including The Beat, The Wedding Present and Los Campesinos which works for me, I also need to explore the record shops in town. If any locals have tips please pass them my way. I previously lived in Los Angeles so this will be a similar but new experience for me. Right then, that’s enough of that – just thought I should explain why I vanished over recent days, far too much driving and looking at houses – simple as that. Now its time to pack.

So what have I missed? I’m somewhat counting on you to let me know but I did want to say thanks for emails and ideas over recent weeks. I’ll get to them and replies to you within the next week. Tomorrow I’ll definitely be back as I’ve got some sad news about one of the more inspiring websites in the early days of internet Clash fandom. I’ll explain that one tomorrow. There’s also some Strummerville news, Coachella lineup to discuss and rumours about SXSW that you might be interested in. For now I’m back in the saddle and checking all the stuff I’ve missed over the last ten days or so. Normal service is forthcoming. Cheers – Tim.

Road trip photo 2, successfully traversed this road four times in the last 3 weeks. Coachella is down at the bottom.