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VSX, A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist: Starbuck Powersurge - a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of Viper Squad Ten, a long-disbanded group of stranded timetravelling troubadours, formed to help finance repairs to their time-machine. Now very much stuck in C21... [ Archives ]
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[ Sunday, October 30, 2005 ]Approaching adulthoodStarbuck [22:34] Comments: 8 [] Well, its certainly been a rollercoaster few days. Amongst the dips and troughs there have been some exhilerating peaks. And there were certainly excitement but thankfully not much screaming at yesterday's Main Event, the wedding of our school friend Trish. We all love a bit of wedding photography, so expect a pictorial report sometime soon. Meanwhile, big changes are on track round at the Powersurge Pleasure Beach, moving so fast that we're lucky the wheels didn't come off (to stretch an analogy beyond breaking point). WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE! It would be fair to say we've not been moving too quickly towards this. We'd looked in a few papers over the last few weeks, spent a few Sundays driving round looking at the outside of advertised properties, but we'd not really got into gear. Luckily Mrs Powersurge decided to arrange a couple of viewing appointments for last Thursday, and we went round them to look. I was feeling a tad despondent to be honest, and being an awkward sod I wasn't much looking forward to the experience as the evening arrived. But the very first place we saw we fell in love with. We returned with the parents in case it was just the naieve over-enthusiasm of young first-timers, and they fell in love with the place as well. And two days after we first visited the property - our first ever property - we put in an offer. Two hours later it was ours... I can't describe how exciting this feels. So I won't try. Especially considering how tired I am. An afternoon of playing Hide & Seek with my nephew has taken it's toll - though it was even more fun than I remembered from my childhood! [ Friday, October 28, 2005 ]And there's more...Stuart [13:33] Comments: 1 [] Okay, here goes... Music Kasabian So Starbuck got Jesu and I got Kasabian by way of reciprocity. I still reckon they?re mediocre baggy copyists, but I can get through it without eating my own tongue. That?s the level of enthusiasm I have for it. I HATE those lyrics about making a "getaway through a punched up mirror" - what's that all about? Get back to the Dungeons and Dragons boys. Franz Ferdinand Good, up there with the first; more accomplished but sounds a bit less new (in a done-before-new way) than that. Because everyone else copies them now, presumably. Grandaddy EP A tide-you-over before the next LP proper, and damn fine it is too. They are sounding more and more like themselves as they go on though. Instead of this, I urge everyone to buy "Under a Western Freeway" which is dead old and so bound to be cheap now. The best American lo-fi band ever (after Pavement). Black Rebel Motorcycle Club My contender for second best album of the year (after Arcade Fire, but you knew that). Completely brilliant. Sounded like a huge change of direction on first listen (country twang, rather than JAMC feedback) but if you listen to one and three back to back (on an ipod or similar device, having not bought number 2, on the way to work - just say) then you can hear that it was there all the time, lurking. Films I have done an awful lot of cinema recently (by my standards anyhow) so have a lot to report... Wallace and Gromit Controversially NOT the greatest film ever made, I did NOT howl with laughter throughout and I was NOT so completely bowled over by its wit and charm to make me lose all objective critical faculties. Sorry about that. Still great though, with some ace movie skits throughout. Bombon (El Perro) Very good, charming, nice, little film. The one with the white dog, as SB has mentioned before. The ads seemed to suggest a "me and my dog" road movie and it isn't really like that at all. Populated by some fairly unsavoury characters that are difficult to have sympathy with, but good nonetheless. Sad and funny. Innocence A pretty weird and disturbing French film about life in a girl's boarding school. And not disturbing in a good way. I came out feeling rather perturbed, mostly because of voyeuristic style in which the girls were filmed. Really not sure about this one at all. "Creepy" would suffice to describe it. A History of Violence No messing on this one. Easily the best film of this year. If you haven't seen it DO NOT READ ANYTHING about it ? I read stuff after I saw it that would have ruined it all. Reading reviews is very dangerous (a bit like when I read a review which told me what happens at the end of Don't Look Now - gahhh!!!) Anyway, brilliant performances, quite literally an exploration of violence as an infectious disease, if you will. A strange pace and structure which made it all the better. Intense, brutal, funny and tragic. The final scene alone deserves Oscars all round. Can you tell I liked it? I came out loving cinema, absolutely loving it. That doesn't happen very often. That's it for now, and I've missed the London Film Festival films I have seen as to drone on about those is too much like disappearing up my own behind. ALTHOUGH I am going to see Mirrormask on Sunday, which could be worthy of a write up. Ta ra!!! [ Thursday, October 27, 2005 ]The Late ReviewStarbuck [13:01] Comments: 4 []
[ Wednesday, October 26, 2005 ]Avian NationStarbuck [17:39] Comments: 3 [] As the H5N1 bird flu strain spreads into Europe, inching ever-closer to my home country , I find myself at lunchtime succumbing to the irrationality of fear. Most working days I share my lunch with a gaggle of Canada Geese, a gang of Mallard ducks, and the odd moorhen. As with most of our feathered friends, they tend to get a bit messy (fecescious?) when over-excited, and there's such a riot of them that the air can sometimes be thick with the powder of pulverised faesces, the vector of their infection. Now I know that there's presently nothing for me to worry about in the UK, I know that worry about anything does more harm than good, and that anyway our good friend the Canada Goose isn't too fond of migrating beyond these pleasant isles. But still, today I found myself HISSING at the geese and ducks - hungry for my shami kebab - to keep them at bay. (But then again I was pretty ravenous as well...) Got to get them out of the habit. [ Monday, October 24, 2005 ]Sometimes you just need to take half an hour out to do nothing more than to stare at a candle...Starbuck [21:52] Comments: 3 [] ... tonight watching its smeared, blurred reflection in the black frame of the skylight window... the hydrous impact explosions looking like a symphony of fireworks in the flickering light... [ Friday, October 21, 2005 ]TV QuickStarbuck [23:40] Comments: 3 [] Cutting through the haze of Tesco Spanish Brandy De Jerez Solera Reserva, Cuvée Prestige Vin De Pays De L'Hérault, Ernest & Jullio Sierra Valley, Glenfiddich Special Reserve, oh, and Guinness. It's the TV Quick section.
[ Thursday, October 20, 2005 ]Household updateStarbuck [00:52] Comments: 0 [] I'm happy to report that we've now moved back into our house. After weeks of plumbing procrastination, Mr Blake and his merry crew came to our rescue brandishing a brand new Triton shower. It's good to be back in our cosy (read as: tiny) home. We've missed our independence, and it's lovely being back in our own (or rather, our landlord's) place. One thing I've greatly missed is bedtime. Bedtime under the skylight. Just lieing there after turning off the lights, each night with a different ceiling painted across the sky... whether I'm drifting off amongst the infinity of stars, or whether I'm huddled down below the warm brown glow of cloud-base washed in orange reflected streetlight... the room each night bathed in ambient light unique to that very moment... Yep, it's nice to be back in our rightful place, complete with fully-functioning shower, especially with winter now drawing in. It's just a shame that one of our storage heaters blew out when we tried switching it on yesterday... [ Sunday, October 16, 2005 ]Powersurge Wedding Picture Exclusive (following a disappointing bid from Hello magazine)Starbuck [00:30] Comments: 7 []  A little over 6 months back I was sitting huddled over my computer keyboard, alone in the house and lonely whilst my fiance was out enjoying her hen night, desperately trying to compose my groom's speech (none too succesfully, as chronicled HERE). Now, many months later I am alone again, apart from my wife who is out enjoying our friend Trisha's hen night, and I have sat here, desperately trying to archive some images from our wedding whilst I've got a few moments. And you can see the fruits of my labour at http://andyandlucy.weddingpath.com/       There's a limit to the number of photographs that can be uploaded to each section of the wedding website, which means there have been some difficult decisions to make regarding content, but at least that keeps it focussed. And considering I've had to whittle down 500-odd honeymoon photos for the honeymoon section, that's probably a good thing! Anyhow, there may be some fluidity in the wedding content as and when we receive more photographs of the wedding, and we've been promised a CD of professional photos from a burgeoning wedding protographer friend who used our wedding as practice material; we were promised it 5 months back, but mustn't grumble. Suffice to say he's not getting a free plug until they surface... If I had more time on my hands I'd GIMP up (i.e. photoshop with a small "p") the scans of the proofs of the very nice official snaps that we'd received from Prestige to try to remove crafty watermarks they'd protected them with. But that's not going to happen soon. WeddingPath is actually a rather spiffy and very well presented little website, and one which I'd wished I'd used prior to our wedding for planning & info-dissemination purposes. And I'm not just saying that 'cos writer & editor Salsky is a friend of mine (you might want to check out HER WeddingPath as well, you big soft shites.) Or because their Best Man game cracks a smile right the way throughout me. In fact, rather than writing about gimps and websites whatnot, tonight I was going to finally write a rather verbose VSX report on the Powersurge wedding and honeymoon, as I've not really done it justice on these pages. However, its now 1.30 in the morning, my vision is blurring in, and the only thing my slowing brain can manage tonight is to post up some photos. However I've always been very hesitant of revealing my good looks on Viper Squad Ten, so you'll have to make do with atmosphere pieces and partially-obscured visages that will have by now surrounded these words. If you think you can take the truth of how I actually look, head thee over to our Wedding Path thingey. [ Friday, October 14, 2005 ]Plumbing the depthsStarbuck [16:44] Comments: 0 [] The saga of the stuffed-up shower continues. Since Tuesday's hilarity, we've had one no-show and two preliminary visits from a gentleman who promised to return at a later date with an electrician. No way José, that's double the chances of a no-show. So we'll be (ab)using some connections to The Family instead. No-show equates no-respect equals no-health. Fingers are now crossed for next week. Especially since I managed to break my parents' shower last night... [ Thursday, October 13, 2005 ]KMFGGStarbuck [17:59] Comments: 0 [] What's that all about then? Will Young's new single "Switch It On" sounds like something by KMFDM. Without the distorted germanic vocals. And I rather like it. Whatever next. Gareth Gates doing a single that sounds like Die Krupps? Yeah, alright, I know what you're thinking. Who the hell's Gareth Gates?! [ Tuesday, October 11, 2005 ]Like a kick in the plumbsStarbuck [23:15] Comments: 2 [] OK, so I know there's much MUCH worse things going on in the world right now, but still, there's a tiny little bit of strife within my own little hermetically-sealed pleasure dome that I have to get off my chests. Following Bastard Barry's non-appearance (to recap click HERE), and Tossbag Tommy's utter lack of interest in securing himself a plumbing job, we had arranged for Mr Nunn to come out this very night to get a quote for our shower repair/replacement. Nunn-too-reliable more like. Do you see? I don't want to sound like an utter wanker by ranting about the appalling work ethic that stains this country like a bitch-dog-in-heat stains a lawn, but after our recent experience with plumbers - which has left us sans-douche and out of our home for nearly a month now - I'm beginning to get a little bit frustrated. In fact, I might have to take up an evening course and enter the plumbing business myself. I'll join the Plumbing Trade Union. I want to make a difference. I want to shake the idle sods up. Two millenia back, when the Romans were using lead ("plumbum") within their plumbing, I'm sure that Cornelius et al never ended up with some cowboy plumber doing a botch repair job on their piping to the laconicum. Probably because cowboys hadn't been invented back then. No matter, if they had they'd throw Nunn, Barry & Tommy to the lions, make no mistake. And I want no less than that. Yes, I want to eliminate the slack chancers that are ruining the good name of plumbing. I want to overhaul the whole culture and framework surrounding British plumbers. Yes. I want to change the cistern. [ Sunday, October 09, 2005 ]The weekend in picturesStarbuck [22:58] Comments: 4 []  Sol  Channel Tunnel Service Shaft at speed, plus apparition  Viewpoint over the sea from L'Escale  Thon And Relative Dimensions In Space  Jaws  Jaws 2  A big slug  Croc [ Thursday, October 06, 2005 ]Desperate marketing?Starbuck [17:46] Comments: 7 [] A strange thing happened whilst sharing a pint of Abbot Ale with the Missus last night. Whilst we were deep in conversation sitting alone in a small-town pub, some bloke came over and sat himself down at our table. He made some very small small-talk about where we came from - I could hardly hear him anyway, and had to keep asking him to repeat himself - and then almost subliminally threw into his chat - "Have you seen Revolver yet?" Before I had the chance to riposte, offended, "No, its meant to be one of the shitest films of all times", he moved the "conversation" onto something else and then wandered off. We didn't quite know what had hit us. And then I wondered whether this was some sort of viral marketing. The give-away was the word "yet". Remembering a character (Magda) in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition who was employed to sow the initial seeds of "cool" about new artistic phenomenon amongst the trend-setters. She would "look sorted, go to clubs and wine bars and chat people up. While I'm at it, I mention a client's product, of course favorably." That way the micro-meme can be spread, good word of mouth amongst the "movers and shakers" being more valuable than anything in marketing. Eventually these people would be claiming to each other to have seen something that was still a marketing dream. Apart from the Bear & Ragged Staff is not exactly Covent Garden. And this guy was far from being a hip young thing like Magda. The ugly bastard. Bodger and Bazzer Starbuck [11:24] Comments: 0 [] Just want to fill you in on my current living situation. Myself and Mrs Powersurge are now several weeks of living with our sets of parents on an alternating basis. It's like being a child again, but not in a less-fun more "adult" way. A few weeks back our shower unit melted down - a warping dome of burnt-brown melted plastic began bulging across its top surface, accompanied by the sharp stench of vapourised long-chain hydrocarbons. Against our better judgement our landlords advised to get the plumber who'd fit it in the first place a couple of years again - Barry the Bodger. He came, he saw, he decreed that the previous shower wasn't very a good unit, he gave a quote, he agreed to come back on Sunday to fit a new one. When our landlady reminded him that it was in fact HE who had fit the previous shower, he was apparently taken aback. So taken aback that he didn't turn up as agreed on Sunday despite us having since spoken to him, and now whenever we call his mobile quickly diverts to voicemail when we get through. Barry had installed two showers for us before this. The first didn't work (it either didn't turn off or the hot water didn't work, I think we suffered from both at one point). And the second unit? The second one exploded promptly after he put it in. Yes, exploded, with an almight bang and a splatter of soot. It gave Mrs P a shock (emotional rather than electrical, thankfully) as she was using it as the time! What have I learned from this debacle? You should never entrust your plumbing with a Leamingtonian chap called Barry. (Unless he agrees to bring his brother Paul along. Ho hum.) So for now we cast off the shackles of adult freedom to relive the petty annoyances of childhood. Sometimes you wonder how they think you cope without them around. For example, round at the in-laws this morning there was a knock at the door and a shout of "Are you up yet?" Barry, you've got a lot to answer for. [ Wednesday, October 05, 2005 ]Lineker eyesStarbuck [17:40] Comments: 6 []   Further to t'other day's report from a spanish toilet where Gary Lineker was having photographic demands made of him, I now bring you a VSX exclusive photograph of Mr Lineker.It may look like he's smiling, but just look at that desperation in his eyes... [ Tuesday, October 04, 2005 ]"And its goodnight from him"Starbuck [12:06] Comments: 1 [] Ronnie Barker R.I.P. One of the greatest actor-comedians of our times. 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