you really shouldn't do your voice down so hard, I actually found it quite soothing, and good (as an ex-pat) to listen to someone from my neck of the wood. Good stuff. A) I always thought that was impossible to answer too, until I discovered last.fm, and that tells me that my favourite artists are, in order, Tom Waits, Radiohead, The Wave Pictures, Sigur Ros, Bjork, PJ Harvey, The Knife and Malcom Middleton. As to why, well, not a freakin' idea, you see technology can only get you so far.