Scottish Fiction's Words With Friends Cup - Update

Drumroll please!  We have our Scottish Fiction Word With Friends finalists.  Here's how things have been going.

Carlo Acosta vs. Brian Pokora

It was a close one, toing and froing with the lead.  But it was Brian from Trapped Mice / Loch Awe who pipped Carlo from The King Hats by 15 points.  Carlo's patented style of 'playing-with-letters-until-something-works' simply wasn't enough to stop Brian in his tracks.  Congratulations to Brian, and hard luck to Carlo.  Here's what our contestants had to say:

Scottish Fiction - Hard luck to Carlo from The King Hats.  Every great match always needs a loser!
Carlo - It's been a great competition.  I can't wait to see who wins.  This was such a good idea. I'm wining it next year! 
Scottish Fiction - The final proved one step too far.  Do you think you could have done anything different?   Who is your tip for the WWF Cup Final?
Carlo - It's tough to take.  Complacency was my enemy after building such a big lead. Brain is my tip, he pulled out some crackers.

Brian - That was so close, extremely well played!
Scottish Fiction - You're through to the WWF Cup Final.  Is this what you've been aiming for since round 1?  How do you plan to prepare for the big game?
Brian - I think I'll stop playing my other games, save all the words for this one.  Also, I'll play as many dirty words as possible.

Boab Canavan vs. Stu Lewis 

In our second Words With Friends semi final Boab from Campfires In Winter took on Stu Lewis of The Tidal Wave Of Indifference blog.  Things were close pretty much up until the final moments.  Boab pulled it out the bag though with an outstanding final play of 'pimento' onto a triple word score, meaning even Stu's 101 pointer couldn't stop Boab running out as the winner. 

Boab - That was a nail biter.  Couldn't believe my luck I when I saw the letters appear before me.
Scottish Fiction - Your through to the WWF Cup Final.  Is this what u've been aiming for since round 1?  How do you plan to prepare for the big game?
Boab - I was hopeful but wasn't really expecting to get this far.  In preparation, I'll be eating a dictionary every day

Stu - Well played that Boab, I CANNOT BELIEVE that last word you played!!!
Scottish Fiction - The final proved one step too far.  Do you think you could have done anything different?  Who is your tip for the WWF Cup Final?
Stu - I'm backing Boab.  I've played (and beaten) Brian but Boab feels unstoppable.  I don't think I could have done anything more.  Even after my 101pt word, 'pimento' was sensational!

So that's it folks.  We've been whittled our competitors down from eight to the final two.  Our finalists.  Things will kick off this Friday and Brian will battle Boab for the inaugural Scottish Fiction Words With Friends Cup.

WWF Cup - Profile - Stu Lewis

Stu Lewis

Stu Lewis is a 30-something muso, blogger, promoter and feline fanatic who almost certainly has a thousand things more useful he should be doing than playing Words With Friends, among them pouring disdainful scorn over an inbox stuffed full of new tunes.

He describes his first round win over Black International as "up there with my wedding day and the birth of my daughter, but not quite as wonderful as seeing the Flaming Lips live for the first time."

His most ridiculous moment came after shouting numerous expletives at the screen for not accepting an obviously legitimate word.  As it turned out, while it was a legitimate word, it was a legitimate word in French, at which point he returned to being snarky about your taste in music

Check out Stu's blog The Tidal Wave Of Indifference and wish him luck in the semi finals of the Words With Friends Cup where he takes on Boab from Campfires In Winter.

Scottish Fiction's Words With Friends Cup

As The Bee Gees once said, 'it's only words'.  But when you have Words With Friends, then it becomes a competition.  And that's when things get interesting!

Scottish Fiction proudly presents the first Words With Friends Cup.  Over the month of March, eight Scottish musicians and bloggers will be pitting their wits and way with words against each other in a knock out competition to be crowned the WWF Champion!  (Let's hope no giant panda's tries to sue us over the name!)

The format is simple.  Our 8 contestants have been drawn against each other in round 1.  The winners will progress to the semi-finals, and we will whittle those four down to two, and then our winner will emerge.  Each game lasts one week, if there's no outright winner, who ever leads at the end of the week will win.

Here's our contestants:

Shambles Miller
Carlo Acosta from The King Hats
Steve McGillivray writer for Muso's Guide & Glasgow Podcart
Brian Pokora from Trapped Mice / Loch Awe
Dave Wark from Plastic Animals
Robert Canavan from Campfires In Winter
Stu Lewis blogger behind The Tidal Wave Of Indifference
Stewart Allan from Black International

And here is how the draw has panned out:

Round 1                                   Semi Finals                                   Final

Game A
                                                Game E
Shambles Miller                                                                           
vs                                             Winner of Game A
Carlo Acosta

Game B                                    vs                                                Winner of Game E

Steve McGillivray
vs                                             Winner of Game B
Brian Pokora

Game C                                                                                       vs                                    Champion!
                                                Game F
Dave Wark
vs                                             Winner of Game C
Robert Canavan

Game D                                    vs                                                 Winner of Game F

Stu Lewis
vs                                             Winner of Game D
Stewart Allan

I'll be keeping you bang up to date with some cutting and insightful commentary, and providing you with a nice profile of each of our contestants.  You can keep up to date with the whole affair on the blog, on our Facebook page and via Twitter with hashtag #WWFCup.  And I'm sure those who are winning will be none to shy about broadcasting it!

Why Blogger? - Tidal Wave Of Indifference

Joining us this time round on 'Why Blogger?' is Stu Lewis, the brains behind The Tidal Wave Of Indifference.  With regular album reviews, and the regular Bandcrush feature, Tidal Wave are a stalwart of the blogging community.  Stu has been kind enough to answer some of my questions, as we once again delve into the mind of the blogger.  Enjoy!

Hello, how are you?

As it happens, on the sleepy side. I could do with a snooze.

Sum up your blog in 140 character tweet.

Immigrant obscurist waffles on about not just Scottish bands. When he can be arsed.

There's little (if any) monetary gain in blogging. Why do you do it?

It's a cliché, but sheer love of music and wanting to tell anyone who'll listen about why they should be listening to it as well. I've been doing that for about 20 years, but learning how to use the internet gave me a whole new platform for my pontificating.

Allow yourself some self praise, what's your proudest blog related moment?

I was delighted to score a little interview with the Go! Team, but ambling into a pub before a Come on Gang! gig to be greeted by two guys that I barely knew (at the time) who were there BECAUSE I HAD WRITTEN ABOUT IT still makes me enormously happy.

You're on a plane and the only in-flight movie is Maid In Manhatten. What do you take to:
Can't I just watch Maid in Manhattan? Sounds quite saucy...
Listen to: Well, my iPod, which has everything I need on it anyway, but I'd probably flick straight to Deerhunter or Grizzly Bear first. Or old favourites My Bloody Valentine.
Read: The latest Colin Bateman or Chris Brookmyre. Easy reads for travelling and you can't beat a bit of humourous crime fiction.
Watch: Aliens. Game over, man.

What Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?

Too many to mention. But try PAWS, French Wives, FOUND, Admiral Fallow and Meursault for starters and get back to me to if you don't like any of them as I'd then feel it my duty to punch you in the face.

Do you write your blog with an audience in mind, or do you blog about what's on your mind?

I'm never really sure what my audience is to be honest so it's usually whatever takes my fancy, also depends on what albums are incoming as a my 'album of the week' pieces have always been the main event on the blog.

What do you think blogs bring to the music 'scene'?

Hopefully a bit of support and some kind words they can use as a quote. It would be nice if they could also generate some sales too, and I know for sure that my musings have prompted a number of purchases; I just don't know how many.

As a reader, what blog(s) do you frequent?

I flit regularly to Aye Tunes, Song, by Toad, Last Year's Girl and Peenko. I know all these people personally and have enormously respect for them. I rely on my Twitter feed to remind me that other great blogs are out there, so tweets are likely to prompt me to have a look at others for both inspiration and entertainment. There's also Radar of course; while I write for them I'm also interested in what the other contributors are doing.

Thanks very much for talking to us. Would you care to end with a joke?

No thanks, although I was reading recent story which suggest that the Flintstones were banned in Dubai. They just don't like them, but apparently the people of Abu Dhabi do.

Check out The Tidal Wave Of Indifference blog here