Rachael & Andy sent us these AMAZING pictures of a cake they made recently.





Isn't that phenomenal? They claim that they summoned the demon and he helped them out. What a jolly helpful chap he is. Ooooh, doesn't it look SCRUMPTIOUS?

Here is Beth, proudly photographed with her special birthday Wanky Shit Cake!

Hellloooooooo and welcome to the 83rd EVER update from rathergood!

Joel's away on holiday this week, but he left us the keys to rathergood HQ and we've had so much fun! Seadave and I have not been missing Joel AT ALL! So much so, that we constructed a Joel shrine, and danced around it, hourly, singing songs about how we didn't miss Joel. And, do you know, it's worked! We didn't miss him at all In fact, we barely thought about Joel while we were dancing and singing about how much we didn't miss him. BOOHOOHOOHOO!

Anyway, on to the important stuff. We saw a brilliant advert for Japanese noodles a while back, featuring an insane cheese monster who torments his victims by ejaculating cheese out of his fingers; parmesan from the right, and cheddar from the left. It inspired us to do a little remix thing, with a bit of help from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, David Bowie, and some old spectrum noises (together at last!). Drink in its cheesy glory here: http://www.rathergood.com/cheese

Also, we've got a great misheard lyric from an old Public Enemy tune which Joel knocked out before HE CRUELLY LEFT US ALL ALONE: http://www.rathergood.com/noise

Ace, huh? Did you notice that both videos this week had cuckoo clocks in? Isn't that an amazing coincidence? I think we are developing some kind of "hive mind" between ourselves. Curiouzzzzzzz.

Oh, one other thing: Joel asked us to tell you that he loves you loads, and do you know, it's absolutely true. He's always going on about you, you lucky lucky people. I bet he'd never abandon you and go off for a week's holiday, would he? WOULD HE? Oh. Right. So, Joel will be back next week THANK GOD. Not that we've missed him, of course. We've been fine without him. Absolutely fine. Barely given it a second thought.

Anyway, must dash, we're late for our hourly Joel ritual dance. Seeeeeeya! Lord Skankhammer, MSkank (Hons)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 7 Seconds of Love are not the first people to record a song in honour of Laika, the first animal in space. We're in good company: The Arcade Fire, The Divine Comedy and Gorillaz have all had a go, amongst many others, and it's interesting to contrast the musical interpretations and what they reveal about their authors' feelings towards Laika and her mission.

Spanish 80s synth-popster Mecano, for example, leave us no doubt that we should pity Laika - just a normal dog who happened to be in the wrong suburb of Moscow at the wrong point in the space race. Their 1988 single 'Laika' is an earnest piece, with a soaring, heartfelt chorus of "Adios, Laika", and a lot of moithering on about how the awful chaps back at the control tower are popping the champers as Laika is left to drift off into the abyss. Oh boo hoo hoo. She's in FLIPPING SPACE, for god sake! IT MUST'VE BEEN THE MOST FUN ANY DOG HAS EVER HAD! Anyway, here they are on Rockomanía playing it live. Or as "live" as music on TV ever was in the 80s.

The Divine Comedy also leave the listener in no doubt that Laika was a tragic figure - 'Laika's Theme', a haunting instrumental from their 2004 album 'Absent Friends' has a hint of redemption at the end but is essentially another sob-story about a lost dog.

Why can't these people just get over it? HE GOT TO WOOF A BIT IN ZERO GRAVITY!

Worst of all, The Arcade Fire, on their 2005 album 'Funeral', compare the geniunely awful loss of their friend's brother to the luckiest rocket dog of the 1950s in 'Neighborhood #2 (Laika)'. Now, I don't want to trivialise their loss at all, but for goodness sake, enough dog pitying. FOR A PRECIOUS FEW DAYS, LAIKA GAZED AT THE EARTH AS A DISTANT AQUAMARINE ORB! HOW MANY DOGS GET TO DO THAT?

Clearly, all of these musical interpretations missed the point. They're obsessed with the canine tragedy of Laika. Surely if we can pity a dog for suffering, then we can also celebrate her wonderful journey into the abyss? I'll wager 6 days in space was a lot better than a few more miserable years begging for butcher's bones in Khrushchev's Russia.

Which is why our bombastic polska romp 'Rocket Dog' is the best song about Laika ever made. Apart, perhaps, from this wonderful Romainian-sexpop extravaganza which, although it doesn't specifically discuss Laika's mission literally, it definitely captures the spirit of the rocket dog. As you'll hear.

For anyone who has been waiting for us to translate the WSD into Portuguese, the wonderful Tiago Ianuck has beaten us to it! Unbelievable! Have a look:

Also handy if you want to learn Portuguese - although your vocabulary may be somewhat specialised.

Vai um bolinho?

The other day I was round for lunch at Joel's house, and he'd kindly made a chicken noodle soup. After a hard morning's exfoliating with a cheese grater, a wholesome meaty broth was exactly what I needed. Little did I know that lurking below the surface of this innocent-looking broth was a deathly surprise, in the shape of PAK CHOI.

Oh yeah. Lethal Pak Choi. Whole leaves of the stuff, up to 12 inches long, at a temperature hotter than the sun. I don't know its specific heat capacity, but believe me, those fellows pack some serious joules per kilogram, per kelvin. When they hit the roof of your mouth, they burn, baby, BURN.

And it's not like I can splurge the monstrous leafy menace back into the bowl - I'm a polite chap. The only option is to take the heat, all 1000 degrees of it, in my mouth. It was horrific. It was agony. It decimated every bit of my mouth: I think even my teeth were blistering.

Once I'd got the infernal soup finished (with a cheery, if slightly floppy-lipped, "that was lovely, thanks!") the agony continued, for days. Every baguette I ate and every cup of tea I drank reminded me of the time that salad reduced me to tears. Never, never again.

Interestingly, I did some research on my new brassical nemesis, and the Chinese characters for Pak Choi are 白菜, which translate literally as "Cabbage of Exquisite Pain".