Right now the Phillies #1 prospect Dominic Brown is playing winter ball to keep in shape for next season.  His ‘08 Donruss Elite Extra Edition card is one of his most popular autographs.  Surprisingly he doesn’t have any autographs in Bowman Chrome.

Siempre me ha gustado hacer metáforas, sobre todo recuerriendo a cosas cotidianas que casi todo el mundo entiende. Entre ellas soy bastante aficionado a aplicar símiles futbolísticos a distintos aspectos de la vida cotidiana, y con la serie que nos ocupa, viene como anillo al dedo. Imagenimos que Flash Forward es un equipo debutante, cuyo primer partido ha sido bastante prometedor, con buenos resultados, alguna jugada espectacular, y tres puntos en la saca. Bien, si a la jornada siguiente el equipo juega regular, se le deja pasar, total, estamos a principio de temporada. Si en los siguientes partidos los resultados son catastróficos, excepto en alguna jornada suelta que vuelve a brillar un mínimo, se empezaría a pedir la cabeza del entrenador. Pues si todo eso se traslada  Flash Forward todo eso encaja. Es más, incluso coincide el típico caso de que un presidente apoya al entrenador de cara a toda la temporada, en este caso firmando una entera debido a la euforia de la aundiencia inicial. Claro, que cuando un equipo empieza a caer estrepitosamente los aficionados se ponen en su contra o le dan la espalda, y en esta serie el decalabro de audiencia respecto a la del piloto está llegando a cotas históricas.

Dejando a un lado los símiles, Flash Forward es un despropósito absoluto. Es un intento de serie coral mal entendida, no por meter muchos personajes vas a conseguir llegar a mucho público distinto, al contrario, algunos son tan testimoniales y ocupan tanto tiempo en pantalla que estorban. La estructura de los episodios es repetitiva, monótona, tramposa y abusa de los cliffhanger de medio pelo. No sabe combinar en absoluto lo que serían episodios con más trama central con otros de tramas secundarias, parece que todo está mezclado en modo “random”, eso sí, todo muy guiadito, previsible y trampeado convenitentemente. A estas alturas de la serie te da igual que experimento han hecho, porque lo han hecho y quienes son los malos, no saben crear intriga, no saben crear expectación, en definitiva, Goyer siempre ha tendido a hacer grandes obras (el guión de The Dark Knight) con subproductos cuya creación merece la pena capital (la TV Movie de Nick Fury con David Hasselhof), y parece que el restultado final de ésta serie se acerca más a la segunda que a la primera. Han querido abrir tantas subtramas que no cubre ninguna, se pisan entre ellas y todas carecen de profundidad, en un momento estás viendo la típica serie petarda de hospitales y a los diez minuto una de conspiraciones, o una moñez onírica, todo termina por formar una mezcla poco digerible. Por mucho que intente remontar el vuelo, el destrozo está hecho, ha perdido más de 10 millones de espectadores en Estados Unidos, y gran parte del público que no la ha abandonado la observa con recelo. Este fracaso es algo que sus propios creadores se han labrado ellos solitos, miento, el reparto también ayuda lo suyo.

Y es que Joseph Fiennes es estático, inexpresivo y transmite pereza como nadie. Sony Walger ha demostrado que sólo sirve como personaje soporte, como en Lost, pero además, como en dicha serie, que no tenga más de 5 minutos en pantalla porque no hay dios que la aguante, es una actriz mediocre, limitada y con un registro de expresiones faciales a la altura de Chuck Norris y Steven Seagal. Dominic Monhagan está sobreaactuado. Brian F. Obyrne, además de tener un personaje poco agradecido, parece que es Ricardo Castella con barba postiza. El resto no llega ni siquiera a ser mediocre. De hecho, el único actor que se salva John Cho, que recientemente apareción en Star Trek y a cuyo personaje en American Pie le debemos la grandiosa expresión MQMF, que interpreta su papel con bastante solvencia, aunque aún así sufre la mediocridad del guión. De hecho, incluso papeles secundarios en momentos puntuales interpretados por actores conocidos, como el que hace Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben en Galactica) consiguen aplastar la mediocre actuación del reparto.

En definitiva, Flash Forward es como las malas gaseosas, que hace mucho ruido al abrir y luego se queda sin gas. Nueve episodios es un periodo de prueba más que razonable para determinar que rumbo va a tener una serie que como mínimo va a contar con 23 o 24 episodios, y a estas alturas la serie dan ganas de abandonarla y que engrose el cajón de esas series que fueron naufragando en el mar de inmundincia compuestos por series que pudieron ser y no fueron, y convivir con Heroes, Prison Break y alguna más hasta el fin de los días en ese océano de fiascos. Lo más preocupante es que esta sensación de pérdida se tenga tan pronto, los productores de televisión deberían saber que no basta con hacer un buen piloto, tienen que tener en cuenta que si los episodios siguientes son malos con avaricia, el interés por la serie, los seguidores, y por tanto los millones, acabarán por abandonarlos, y lo que podría ser un negocio acaba siendo un fiasco. No pido ya que tengan respeto por la audiencia y no le intente tomar el pelo, sino que sean un poco inteligentes y no se tiren piedras sobre su tejado, cosa a la que parecen bastante aficionados.

I hate fucking ABBA. Their music is really only appropriate in two places, at a wedding party and at a New Years Eve party. In other words when people are massively, massively, massively drunk. When our pub had a jukebox I had my own personal ban on ABBA. If one of their songs came on when the Jukebox was on random play I demanded it was skipped. I did let it play if someone had actually paid for it. I may be a dick but I’m not that much of a dick. Besides, those times were thankfully very few and far between.

Which surprised me to be honest because this film, this fucking film, did better at the box office in my hometown of Braintree, Essex than ‘The Dark Knight’ did. Apparently this town is filled with repressed ABBA fans, glad for a film to come out featuring their music so that they could sit there in the dark cinema where people might not recognise them. So yeah, thanks for that Braintree.

In fact a quick check of the internet reveals that Mamma Mia! Is the highest grossing film of all time in the UK. Yep, we had an empire that once spanned the globe and now we’re going mental for films based around the songs of a 70s Swedish pop group. Rule Britannia indeed.

Anyway, back to this movie. It basically tells the tale of a woman and her daughter who run a villa on an island for some reason. The daughter has met the boy of her dreams and intends to marry him. There’s one problem though. She’d really like her father to give her away at her wedding but because her mother was something of a slut in her youth, she has no idea who her father is. She finds her mother’s diary and sends invitations to three potential fathers, without telling her mother, and waits for them arrive. They do and shenanigans ensue.

Now, as I previously stated, I fucking hate ABBA but today I found out that I actually hate something more than their songs. It’s their songs sung by people who can’t sing. This was like watching a bunch of drunk people on a bad karaoke night. A really bad karaoke night. Except that I was watching it at work so I couldn’t drink. Dear God, I’ve never wanted a drink so bad in my life.

Well, I suppose that’s a little unfair. Meryl Streep ain’t bad. Not great but not bad. Still, the worst offender when it comes to aural raping is Pierce Brosnan. What the hell are you doing man? You were James Bond for fucks sake. You were the James Bond I grew up with, for better or for worse and now your singing ABBA songs whilst making a face that makes it look as if you’re trying to cough up a tortoise.

But it’s not just the singing that’s bad either! Some of the actors in this film are the worst I’ve seen outside of a B-Movie in many a year. In particular I’d like to say that the guy who plays Sophie’s fiancée Skye is a terrible actor. He was so wooden and insincere that I thought that he was being played by some kind of sarcastic puppet.

Oh, and another thing. Half the dialogue in this film seems to be delivered in some kind of strange, shrieking language that I’m fairly sure only women can understand. If you are going to do such a thing then you should probably have included subtitles for those poor bastards who got dragged along to see this by their wives and girlfriends.

Now, there were a couple of times when the film elicited a chuckle out of me. One was when a drill was used as a euphemism for a penis, telling me more than I wanted to know about exactly what childish level my sense of humour is at. The other was at the image of Pierce Brosnan dressed as a hippy. That was kinda funny. There was also one scene which I thought was kinda cool for a split second. The guests at the daughter’s hen party are looking over some kind of cliff ledge and a bunch of people are crawling up it. For one sweet second I thought it was some kind of zombie attack and I thought wow, people kept this twist quiet but alas, it was just the bachelor party on some kind of panty raid. I was sorely, sorely disappointed.

Perhaps the point where the movie really stretched the limit of believability was when all three potential fathers figured out the reason that they were invited out of the blue. They all came to the conclusion individually that they were the girls father and she wanted them to walk her down the aisle. However, they had all spent quite some time together at this point and they all knew that the other two had received equally mysterious invitations. How the fuck did they not realise that the other two were there for exactly the same reason and that Sophie hadn’t yet figured out who her actual father was? That’d be the first thing that came to my mind.

Perhaps the best thing about this movie is the fact that I watched Tremors directly before it. Man, Tremors is such an awesome film. Kevin Bacon is at his finest and you really believe that him and Fred Ward have worked together and been friends for quite some time. And who doesn’t love crazy survivalist Burt? And the Graboids still look fucking good even by today’s standards. Sure you can sometimes see the strings used to operate the tentacles in some scenes but it just adds to the charm of the movie. One thing that does confuse me though is the DVD cover. Seriously look it up now. I’ll wait.

Ok, you back? Right, what the fuck is that creature on the DVD cover with all the teeth and stuff? That looks nothing like the Graboids in the film. It just confuses me. Anyway, overall I’ll give Tremors four pints out of five.

Wait, what? Mamma Mia? Oh fine. I give Mamma Mia! one glass of white wine out of five. And you wanna know what the worst thing is? There is one ABBA song, one song that I can kind of stand. That song is Waterloo. Not sure why I don’t mind it. Maybe I’m just OK with songs based on historical events. Anyway, it’s not fucking in the film until the end credits. I kept thinking, oh just suffer through, at least Waterloo isn’t the worst thing in the world and they must have included it and then it turns out you have to watch the entire fucking film to get to it. And it takes place during this bizarre credit scene where Meryl Streep and her two friends yell at the audience asking if they want another song. Waterloo then follows filled with some of the most embarrassing dancing I’ve seen outside of a wedding reception… Which I guess is appropriate. Still, it well wasn’t worth it.

Fuck, this film has put me in a bad mood for the rest of the goddamn day. Still, if people like this kinda thing, and apparently they do, then it does give some hope for my planned film ‘Snooker Loopy’ featuring the music of Chas and Dave. Laterz.

I realized that last night’s post was a little angsty for the holidays, so here are the things about Thanksgiving that I don’t hate!

Turkey:

While yes I hate the food that we stuff inside the traditional bird, I think that the bird itself is one of the best foods ever.  The way that it is cooked so perfectly so that it is just perfectly crispy on the outside, but has that amazingly juicy and tender center just makes me want to sit in front of a turkey and eat the whole thing in one sitting.  Just talking about it now is making me so hungry for some, thankfully it is less than 48 hours until Turkey Time!

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade:

I absolutely LOVE the parade.  I will absolutely wake up obsceneley early on a day where I have no school to plop down on the couch and watch all the awesome floats and balloons stroll down the parade route.  I don’t know what it is about it, I just think it is all so much fun.  In fact I just set my DVR at home to record the parade, even though I won’t be able to watch it at home until the middle of December…

Thanksgiving Themed TV Episodes

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love TV, especially FRIENDS, so when shows that I love have a Thanksgiving episode, I am always more than happy to tune in.  FRIENDS was always one of the best shows when it came to Thanksgiving episodes.  They were always the highlight of the season, and easily my favorite (so much that I am in the middle of a marathon of all 9 Thanksgiving episodes, I don’t count season 2’s “Mocklate” episode).  Now that FRIENDS has ended its run, and its fantastic Thanksgiving episodes, we now have How I Met Your Mother which seems to filling the shoes of great Thanksgiving episodes quite nicely, this season’s “Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap” being the perfect example of this, and hopefully a good example of what will be to come in the future.

Again, these are just a few of the things about Thanksgiving I love, there are absolutely a whole lot more, but now I wanna get back to my marathon!

JAY-Z STIFF ARMS VICTORIA’S SECRET
MODELS

The New York Post’s Page Six
reported that Jay-Z refused to be
photographed with the Victoria’s
Secret models at Thursday’s fashion
show and after party for fear of
upsetting his wife, Beyoncé.

IDRIS ELBA JOINS CAST OF ‘THOR’

Actor Idris Elba has joined the
cast of “Thor,” Marvel Studios’
film centering on the Norse god of
thunder.

NY REPORTER DOMINIC CARTER
CONVICTED

Cable television newsman Dominic
Carter, an influential reporter on
New York politics, was convicted
Friday of third-degree attempted
assault on his wife and could face
up to three months in jail.

Oh My! An update! How CRAZY!

So, the Holiday’s are upon us, and while they may bring up some very nice things, they also bring up a lot of hate in my opinion. Here are some of the things that the Holiday’s bring that really rub me the wrong way.

Stuffing:

Sorry, I know this is like, everyones favorite on Thanksgiving, but I absolutely hate it.  Every year I try a little bit, just to see if my hatred is still there, and it is. I just think the whole concept of it is gross. It is soggy bread and other food parts all mushed together, that you shove INSIDE the turkey, and then pull out and eat…I mean really!? That is not gross to anyone else?

Anything related to Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving:

Ok, this one really bugs the crap out of me.  The last three months of the year all have Holidays at the end of them, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, for October, November, and December respectively, just in case you were unsure.  Let each of those months have their own Holiday! They are all great! I mean, on Halloween you get to put on crazy costumes, girls get to be slutty and all, and you get free candy! Thanksgiving you get to eat until you feel like you are going to burst, and then there’s Christmas.  I mean on Christmas you get to eat again, and you get gifts, so I understand why every one loves it so much, BUT YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR IT!  I am a purist when it comes to waiting for Christmas, I do not listen to any Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving, as it should be…otherwise I just get sick of it.

The worst example of this is ABC Family and their “Countdown to 25 Day’s of Christmas.”  That is right, a countdown to a countdown!  It is really just ridiculous.

Obscene Black Friday Sales:

Kohl’s is opening at 4 AM! Toy’s R Us is opening at midnight! Does no one else find that to be just insane?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love shopping as much as the next gay guy, but at 4 in the morning the day after a huge Thanksgiving meal, the last thing I plan on doing is standing in line at Kohl’s with a bunch of crazed housewives scrambling to get 90% dockers.  I think I will wait until after I have my left over turkey and green beans, and then go out, once all the crazy early birds have gone back to bed.

I am sure that if I tried hard enough, I could think of plenty more things that I hate, but I do have homework to get back to…so while I am doing that, how about YOU tell ME some Holiday things you hate!

Die Band namens Dominic ist schon länger ein Geheimtipp. Mit ihrem zweiten Album “Nord” scheinen die Norweger endlich die Aufmerksamkeit zu bekommen, die ihnen zusteht. Bezüglich eines Artikels für das neue FUZE, hab ich mich etwas mit Øyvind, dem Drummer von Dominic unterhalten. Das volle Interview gibts wie immer hier!

borderline fuckup: How would you describe your new album? And would you agree that it is a lot more serious and grown up than your old stuff?

Øyvind: I would say that “Nord” is darker than our previous releases. The songs are maybe more heavy on this album, but at the same time I feel that we are still keeping a certain melodic melancholy in the whole shebang. The record is a natural progression over the years we have been functioning as a band, and we feel that the songs represent us very good where we are musically right now. Maybe it sounds more serious and more grown up in a way, sure. But, then again, we are a bit older now…hehe.

The record is called “Nord”. Did your homecountry inspire you somehow?

Norway is way up north for sure, and all four of us grew up pretty far north in this distant country. The sound of the album in many ways portraits the wild nature up there. Heavy mountains, extreme weather and a lot of darkness half of the year.

There was an early artwork for ”Nord” that showed a snowy landscape and now the there’s a more friendly landscape on the cover. What’s the reason for that change?

The LP is a gatefold, and what was originally planned to be the front ended up on the inside of the cover. So that’s the reason why it was another artwork posted early on the net. The guy who did the artwork (our friend Kristoffer) changed his mind about the front during the process of making it. We are really happy with the result of the artwork by the way.

Let’s talk about Norway. As far as i know you are originally from Rognan, a small city who is most famous because of its bands. How was it to grow up there?

Three of us grew up there, yes. It is a small place so if you want something to happen you’ll have to do it yourself. The town had this great house where a lot of bands could rehearse and just create whatever they would like to. We spent our youth skating around in the town centre and afterwards we went to “Smia” to make some songs.

Why did you move to Trondheim a few years ago?

This was the summer of 2003 and at the time we all lived in different places. It was a natural time to move because we were all finished with school and was ready to try something else. Trondheim was an easy choice. Eight hours train-trip from home, and it had a good punk/hardcore-scene at the time. Third biggest city/town in Norway, and at the age of 20-21 you are ready to move away from home and try something new.

As far as I know you also wrote and recorded your last album in your hometown. How did that come? And did this somehow influence the feeling of the record?

Actually we recorded the album in Trondheim but the songs were made back home at our first rehearsal-space “Smia”. This was one summer we all were back home. Maybe it influenced the record in a way. Maybe subconsciously.

The “Smia”– is this place just a normal rehearsal room or more like a music venue for young people where you can hang out and listen to music?

“Smia” is a house where at the time we started hanging out there, we could just get a key and come and go as we felt like it. It was equipment there so we could rehearse, but also a kitchen with coffee and a big couch you know. A place we could hang out too. Normally there were no concerts there, but it was possible to put up stuff there yourself. We arranged a couple of things there. So it is basically the place where Dominic started.

And for which reasons did you go back home to write the new album?

I think we were about to play a show up north somewhere, and we were all just taking a couple of days at home before that show.

Let’s get back to Norway. What is it really like to live in that “wild nature”? I mean, does the darkness depress you sometimes? Or are you used to it? Is it really that “fascinating” or more like the daily grind?

Maybe some gets depressed by it, but for me growing up I was so used to it. So yeah, I guess for me it was more like the daily grind.

Cause what’s really strange is that norwegian (and also swedish) people seem to be really positive and outright. And that is the direct opposite to lets say Germany where people are grim at times. I just can’t understand this. Maybe norwegian people are more familiar with each other.

I think that most Norwegians can seem bit enclosed at first. But ones you get to know them they are very caring and friendly people. But for sure Norwegians can be grim too.

Can you ever imagine to move away from norway? Possibly to Germany or Austria or Switzerland? And how much are you attached to your homecountry?

I guess most of the time you are pretty connected to your home-country because your family and childhood friends are there. Very important things which I guess most people feel a connection to. The feeling of a home or belonging somewhere is important I guess. I can only speak for myself on this though. But I could easily live somewhere else for a period. It is healthy and good to check out other parts of the world, and I love to travel. But I would like to come back home at some time. And to answer your question: Germany, Austria and Switzerland could be nice places to live for sure.

Last not least: are there any hc/punk bands in norway that sing in its national language? At least in the german speaking territories we don’t know such bands.

Most bands sing in English, but I guess there are some (Mørkt Kapittel from Trondheim are one). It is very common to write in English in Norway, and we learn it in school from we are eight years old.

Would it be possible for you to sing and write in your own language? Or why do you prefer english?

I don’t see that happening right now. Not with Dominic. With English you express yourself to a much bigger audience, and can get your lyrics through to more people. Not that many people speak Norwegian you know. But I am not a stranger for doing it with another project.

Topic-switch: DIY! How much are you related to the whole ethic?

We have always done things our way, and the people we have worked with when it comes to releases, artwork and so on have always been people we consider friends. It is good to keep things close. Many of the bands we listened to growing up talked about this ethic, and the same with the scene we were (and still is) a part of in the early years as a band. Closest big town to Rognan is Bodø which had (and has) a big DIY -scene, and from early on we connected with the guys there.

We meet a lot of dedicated and cool people when we are on tour which is damn nice and a big inspiration for us. You have to do things yourself. There is no other way. The bonus is all the great people you get to meet through the scene.

Relating to this ethic: could you ever imagine to sign to a larger label? Like some other scandinavian HC/Punk-bands did.

First of all… if that would happen it would have to be absolutely on our premises. But it is nothing we talk about anyway. We are very happy with how things are at the moment and the labels we are on.

What can we expect from your side-projects? Especially from Catena Collapse and Water Rats.

Well, two of  the members from Catena Collapse no longer live in Trondheim. They moved to  Oslo a couple of years ago. Some babies have been born and so the story goes..hehe.  Last thing we said was that we would tour and record every other year, but we blew that last year. Maybe there will be a tour sometime in the future. I don’t know.

Regarding Water Rats it was just a one time thing, and only one song. But the band has not split officially, so it is still open I guess.

There are a couple of other side-projects too, and there might be some releases coming up at some time. But we take those things as they come.

When will you hit the german and austrian stages next time? I couldn’t find anything on your myspace!

Maybe next spring (2010). But nothing is decided yet. We will probably start writing some new stuff pretty soon too.

Anmerkung zum Video: der Song heißt natürlich “Red Lights“.

Dominic auf Denovali
“Nord”-Review

Tusen Takk, Øyvind!

{Cliquez sur le lien “Continuer à lire” pour tourner la page et découvrir le poème qui se tapit sous les pixels zélés}

Une peinture numérique de l'artiste anglais Simon Dominic Brewer

Et cette toile m’a inspiré quelques vers que j’introduis sans fioriture et vous laisse apprécier, ou non.

Le vieil homme et sa canne

Au crépuscule diffus
Un vieil homme et sa canne
Ses yeux au ciel diaphane
Son instrument tendu
Pendu
A une ligne hameçonnée
Frôlant dangereusement
Les nébuleuses grimpantes

Au crépuscule diffus
Des nageoires de plumes
Font l’embrun et l’écume
Bleus nuit du reflux
Pendus
Sous les astres aquatiques
Des bancs de poissons-lune
Luisent en écailles d’argent

Attendant l’aube infuse
Un vieil homme et sa canne
Jouent d’appâts et de ruse
Amusent
Le ciel et ses proies

Alice, Arabella, Bedelia, Clementine, Clover, Cordelia, Daisy, Esme, Eleanor, Flora, Fern, Hazel, Hannah, Imogen, Ida, Iris, Josephine, Jemima, Juniper, Lucinda, Madeleine, Margaret, Nola, Olive, Poppy, Pippa, Polly, Penelope, Primrose, Rose, Sally, Stella, Shiloh, Matilda, Tallulah, Theodora, Thomasina, Violet, Zipporah, Amelia, Annora, Maude, Clara.

Arthur, Bertram, Bartholomew, Baxter, Bruno, Bramwell, Chester, Cassius, Cato, Dexter, Dominic, Emerson, Emmett, Elliot, Fergus, Felix, Gregor, Gulliver, Isidore, Jasper, Ned, Orlando, Quentin, Rupert, Rafferty, Samson, Toby, Thomas, Theodore.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Aniversário do Nick

Chiquita Bacana

August, Edward, Dominic, Henry, Julian, George, Broderick, Dashiell, Quinn, Rowan, Atticus, Barnaby, Benedict, Cato, Darwin, Emerson, Fergus, Harvey, Lucian, Lewis, Malachy, Micah, Maxwell, Oakley, Orlando, Phineas, Rupert, Rex, Sullivan, Solomon, Steven, Willoughby, Winston & West.

Carmen, Daisy, Aurelia, Daphne, Delphi, Eurielle, Flora, Geneva, Hazel, Hermione, Ivy, Linnea, Maddalen, Mirabelle, Nola, Olympia, Olive, Polly, Romilly, Ramona, Rosemary, Sally, Simona, Ursula, Valentina, Violet, Clara, Eulalie, Seraphia, Seraphina, Silvana, Adele, Amabel & Leora.

Here is a quick look at a tiny part of what used to be ‘black death’, now ‘ prism and graded monotony’.

This is getting much closer to what i want to do with my reports.  influenced heavily by greene and arroyo.

Sample 6

Psychological Profile

You were born into life with a primary focus on harmony.  Your journey through life will be described by balance, that is, through you, much that is out of alignment can be brought back into equilibrium.  Your essential nature is geared towards the completion of unions through compromise and diplomacy.  In this way, you are very much the diplomat, gentle of voice, soft of face and replete with a charm that can warm all but the coldest heart.  Your energies are those of beauty, and beauty is the enemy of ugliness.  Your drive is to make all that is unsightly and un-beautiful beautiful.  There is a particular longing for the unity and harmony that the combination of two souls can bring.  Indeed, for you intimate relationships define the ultimate beauty of love, for it is love that you cherish above all else.  You are a true people person and the love that radiates out from you is palpable; all are charmed simply to her your honey voice.  A word of caution should here be proffered: your primary requirement for balance and harmony may make you alternatively shocking or overly complicit.  When in company that is altogether too quite and conservative, you will spark a move back towards the middle ground by creating a stir within the group.  Similarly, in an intimate relationship that has become much too nice, you will seek to add a dimension of nastiness or drama to it.  You will most likely achieve this by breaking something, shocking with a charge of electricity or providing some unique or eccentric oddment to the situation.

Deep within you there is a restlessness that speaks of highly charged individualism.  This is seemingly odds with your strong feeling for love relationships which necessitate harmony, blending and diplomacy.  As strong as your affinity for the path of interpersonal love is, it is equally matched by a heart-felt desire for independence, space and personal freedom.  This will impact ultimately on your relationships until you are able to consciously work openly and comfortably with both elements.  This leads to a further dichotomy – your essential character in this way is both luxuriant and glamorous, loving and aloof, personal and humanitarian, content and highly energised, charming and intellectual.

Luxuriant and Glamorous

You have a naturally artistic temperament, and this shines through in your taste for fashion, jewellery, music and art and fine wine and food.  You like to live well and you enjoy sharing this hedonistic lifestyle with your loved ones.  Generous to a fault, money and time tend to slip through your fingers as you pursue partnership in the good times.  Beautiful, sleek and glamorous, you will not find it difficult to attract admires.  You demonstrate your refined taste with an individualism that shines through clearly as flash – your personal style will possibly set trends amongst your friends as you truly are a trailblazer.  You will have mysterious off-periods however, when all your charm and poise seem to totally desert you.

Loving and aloof

You have a highly charged love nature that operates as much as a matchmaker for others as it does in driving your own romantic approach to life.  You live for love: Valentine’s Day is undoubtedly your day.  But your love is not the simple fairytale kind of princes and princesses that you feel it truly should be, for there is another side to your love force that you do not like and even have trouble admitting exists.  There is an erratic, eccentric side to your love that can at times come across as being too desirous of space, freedom and independence.  Broken love may well be a common theme in your life, at least until you learn to accept that part of you that needs to love beyond a mere partner; you have an instinctual love for humanity that wars with your urge to unite with just the one person.  This can make you cold and aloof at times, and will cause much confusion within your heart as to what you actually want in this life.  It will certainly confuse your partners.  You are likely to be attracted to people who are different in some way.  Or you may choose a partner you have been warned against – rebellion is a strong part of who you are.  Whoever you choose, the path will be a rocky one, as your challenge will be to find a partner who will adore you and romance you, and yet allow you the freedom to be the individual you so desperately need to be.  Unfortunately, at times your fear of love and of being loved leads you into relationships that will hurt you.  Your love can be too controlled, for part of you feels you are not worthy of receiving love.  And so your outgoing nature can take you on journeys into many different beds – some better, some worse – as you seek to find your ‘one’.  Learn to ‘let go’ of your love, value it for its unique nature, and only pursue those who are genuinely worth the effort.  Interestingly, you may have a love of technology and communicating via technologies such as the internet.  You may find love in a unique place such as the internet.

Personal humanitarian

As intimated earlier, you contain much feeling for the people around you, and you are always eager to engage others one-on-one.  Your natural charm and grace immediately relaxes those with who you come in contact.  Always dressed fashionably, with that extra touch of personal style you are invariably popular.  Men particularly will find you attractive and you may have many admirers.  However, part of what makes you attractive is your strong sense of independence.  You may not be aware of it, as you may have chosen to deny it, but there is nonetheless inside you a deep concern not only for those around you, but for all of humanity.  In this way, you may at times feel confused by your urges to ignore those close to you in favour of the larger concerns of human kind.  Although beautiful, charming and generous, you will thus find times when you shock those in your inner circle with disinterest or condemnation of their inability to understand the bigger picture.  Because this larger picture of humanity is very important to you.  In this way, you would make a great relationship counsellor, fashion adviser or designer, as your vast understanding of the human condition allows you to give accurate context for all that concerned with beauty; you intuit the fine details that comprise that human experience of love and beauty.

Content and highly energised

You have two modes of movement – slow and gracefully; and manic and erratic.  Your first type of movement stems from your luxurious nature – you wish to saviour the beauty in the very air as you move through it.  Your second type of movement derives from the high electric charge that can flow through you.  This charge is for you like a/c – an alternating current that moves rapidly and often unpredictably from the ‘off’ to ‘on’ position and then back again. Your mind governs this erratic energy; for it is an intellectual energy.  You might find you have great trouble at times slowing down your thought processes.  Your mind will race with a ceaseless nervous energy that can leave you feeling at times as if you’re on the verge of total collapse.  You rationalise much of what you experience and you are good at justifying almost whatever actions your high energy levels spur you towards.  You will be a person of many original and unique ideas – you should try to put these to good use, as you have much creative ability.  Furthermore, you have the rare talent of being able to make real your intuitions; whatever you see with your mind’s eye, you are certainly one person who can bring that vision into reality.  You may also have a gift for language; writing might be a successful creative outlet for you, as will any art or craft that uses the hands.  You will certainly need to find a way to deal with your abundance of tension and nervous energy – without a proper release (and there is a suggestion that a lot of this energy may be blocked, repressed or denied), your headaches and hypertension will get worse with the years, or you may suffer a mental breakdown or emotional collapse.  Sport may be the perfect outlet for you, as there is a naturally competitive side to your nature, and physically you are quite strong.

Charming and intellectual

 As previously noted, you are both charming and intellectual.  By intellectual, it is not meant that you are book-smart, although this may very well be the case.  What, rather, is referred to is the rational or logical way in which you approach things.  There is, therefore, directness and honesty to the way in which you express yourself.

Behaviour, reactions, emotions

 Emotionally you are quite expressive.  You value honesty deeply, even if sometimes you have great trouble telling the truth.  A lot of your behaviour will be open, spontaneous and adventure-seeking, and often your behaviour will lead you into confusing situations.  You need freedom and space and you do not relate well to petty jealousies and possessiveness in any emotional relationship.  Yet you yourself are exactly that – possessive.  Much of this will stem from the love-hate relationship you had with your mother.  Although she was warm and loving in her own way, her own sense of adventure may have left you feeling confused and angry.  However, despite all this, you still idealised her, seeing her is some way as being a ‘victim’.  In this way, you have identified with your mother and so much of what you feel, and how you behave, is likewise influenced by this notion that you are somehow a victim.  Really though, it is your own selfishness and over-sized ego and lack of discrimination and personal boundaries that have led you to situations in which you feel victimized or used.  This all makes you quite angry deep down, but until you learn to become fully self-reliant and find a deep and lasting self-value, you will not be able to learn to live with the confusion in your emotional life and the confusion your erratic and disparate behaviours elicit in others.

 A dark shadow

Though at heart a bubbly, vivacious and charming person, you nevertheless possess an iron-strong will.  Stubborn, obsessive/compulsive at times and capable of great cruelty and violence, there is a wealth of primal energy stored within you.  The currents of your life will bring you to death from time to time.  This does not mean physical death so much as the metaphorical death that comes with transformation and transcendence.  You are a survivor: having experienced deep change many times, you are not afraid of letting everything go in order to start again from scratch.  This can make you extreme, however, and you might need to temper your intensity in order not to scare those around you.  This often hidden side to you is passionate, secretive and magnetic – it will drawn other people in.  You have a high need for sex, though do be careful this does not become an obsession.  Also be careful that sex is not used in order to possess others.  You should also check your assertion.

Children

 You see children as being essential to your life development.  Your children will make you, you, However, please remember that all children have a right to be loved by two parents.  If you cannot offer them this, perhaps delay having them until such a time as you can.

After much displeasure with the current format of my natal chart reports, I have decided to reformulate the whole package.  From now on, I will be introducing a proper preamble, sections that divide the report up into the different studies, detailed explanations for each section, and a much stronger emphasis of whole chart integration.  The price will necessarily jump from $60 to $100 as these reports will take a lot more time and effort for me to compose.  But they will be worth it!  if your interested in trying one, brainistheweapon@live.com.au

Dominic aus Norwegen sind nun auch schon ein paar Jährchen dabei. Und dank regelmäßiger Besuche in Deutschland und Österreich, sollten sie in unseren Breitengraden auch schon einige Anhänger haben. Nachdem man Anfang des Jahres einen kleinen Appetizer in Form eines Splits mit The Third Memory veröffentlichte, ist seit kurzem endlich das zweite Album draußen. Schon nach dem ersten Durchlauf wird klar, dass Dominic gereift sind und um einiges subtiler ans Werk gehen als früher. Den Opener “End of Man” kennt man schon, war er doch auf dem Split drauf. Und irgendwie höre ich zwischen dem “Nord”-Opener und dem Opener der ersten LP einige Parallelen raus. Ja, eigentlich ist “End of Man” sogar ähnlich strukturiert wie der Überhit “Time to change” – statt auf Power-Chords und pumpende Rhythmen zu setzen, zentralisiert er aber eine immer wiederkehrende, hängenbleibende Melodie. Selbst wenn “End of Man” nicht so tanzbar ist wie sein drei Jahre alter Vorgänger, ist es symbolisch für das ganze Album. “Nord” geht subtiler zu Werke als das erste Album. Die Rhythmusabteilung ist so kompakt wie eh und je, steht aber nicht mehr so sehr im Mittelpunkt. Auch das Geschrei ist gezügelter, dabei aber stets präsent. Der Sound wirkt voller, detailverliebter und im Endeffekt dann auch um einiges atmosphärischer. Dabei ist es überraschend wie düster “Nord” im Endeffekt geworden ist – über dem ganzen Album hängt ein dunkler Schleier, der aus melancholischen bis trostlosen Melodien und befremdlichen Gitarrenarrangements gestrickt wird. Gut ist, dass Dominic, trotz allem künstlerischen Anspruch, nie auf den richtigen Beat, den richtigen Hook oder den richtigen Refrain vergessen. Vielleicht ist es das, was “Nord” so besonders macht – es ist melancholisch und atmosphärisch, dabei aber niemals ruhig, zäh oder ausschweifend. Alles findet hier innerhalb der üblichen drei Minuten seinen Platz, bleibt schwungvoll und dabei trotzdem anspruchsvoll. Die Texte vermitteln ein ähnliches Gefühl wie die Musik, sind aber stets aufrichtig – egal ob Kritik an der Gesellschaft, der Politik oder dem System an sich ausgeübt wird. Interessant ist dabei, dass die Texte fast durchwegs aus gereimten Zeilen bestehen. Statt plump zu klingen, hören sie sich aber äußerst durchdacht an. Wie z.b. in “Get rich and die trying”, indem es heißt: “Pick a side. Fight or hide. Take a stand. Truth or dare. Cuts the air. The End of man.”. Solche Zeilen fließen einfach wunderbar ineinander. Vorallem im Gestamtpaket ist Dominic mit “Nord” ein großer Sprung nach vorne gelungen. Das zweite Album ist nicht nur inhaltlich, sondern auch musikalisch reifer, vielschichtiger und versierter. Ein gutes Beispiel dafür ist auch das spannende Instrumental “Loss of Breath”, das in grandioser Art und Weise mit dem Closer “Ink for Bullets” verschmilzt. Die darin verwendeten Worte sind auch nur allzu passend für “Nord”: “Writing straight from my beating heart for a world gone cold and hard. Raise my voice to a screaming spark to rise truth from the dark. Done with shooting blanks. Now i use ink for bullets.”. 8/10

Got talking to a beardie guy carrying a mandola on the 49A. He’d been out busking – “there’s still tourists about, I made thirty quid!” – and didn’t have a bad word to say about the bus service, apart from the price. “It’s the most expensive city I know to get about on the bus. You can’t fault anything about it other than that, though. It’s like, regular and pretty clean, and pretty reliable. Top marks, I guess.”

And then we spent the rest of the trip talking about The Incredible String Band.

Right – a slightly new set up to these mixes. Based on my radio show Press Selection on rhubarbradio.com, each mix will feature 4 different areas of forward thinking, new, underground and experimental music and play 3 or 4 tracks from each.On this mix there’s recent releases in dubstep and heavy beats , Norwegian hardcore and metal  from the online editorial NoMedia. The label Anticon, playing 3 of their artists producing abstract hip-hop and leftfield beats and finally 3 tracks of ambient and abstract electronica from the Breathe-comp.com compilation Tracklisting below with links.

Dubstep/Beats Recent and New Releases:
1) Encanti - Dubfish (Vermin Street)
2) Chango – Offensive Actions (RogueDubs Records)
3) Fat Pat - Kayhole (Rapidfire Records) 
NoMediaMusic.com
4) Sigh and Explode - To Raise Dead Bodies Belongs to the Blackest Art(Mas-Kina)
5) Dominic - Get Rich and Try Dying (Fysisk Format)
6) Monolithic - Twist of the Knife (Roggbif Records)
Anticon Records
7) Sergenti and Polyphonic - Bon Voyage
Teenage Fantasy - Portofino
9) Odd Nosdam – Wig Smasher
Breathe-Comp.com
10) TSS Tortue Supersonic - K2
11) MAKAC – Obsolete
12) DJrefugeeSW – Disco Dark
 Extra Track:
13) Ras G and the Afrikan Space Programme - Spacewayz

DOWNLOAD: (right click and save) JK MIX OCTOBER 2

Uneventful trip to St. Edwards Street. I pick up the Autumn 09 issue of ‘On Route’, the freebie Brighton & Hove bus magazine.

It’s a fairly humdrum collection of information and random local articles, much like one of those in-flight magazines, but without the adverts for duty-free booze. (Selling booze on the buses? Probably not a good idea.) One thing that flummoxes me is that the ridiculously simple ‘prize crossword’ has an address to send it to, but fails to mention what the prize actually is. Which is a bit stupid.

On the way into work, the bus lurches as we reach the stop in North Street and a pensioner who has risen to disembark next to me falls on her bottom with a muffled thud, wearing a very surprised look on her bespectacled face. Impressively, everyone on all the surrounding seats (all male) immediately leans down and hauls her up again, smiling, checking she’s okay and giving words of reassurance. Something about travelling on the bus makes these acts of humanity more likely to happen than, say, on the street outside.

On the way back I get talking to a girl called Sarah, on her way back from a shop job in Hove, about what she thinks of the buses. “I’m angry about the buses today,” she says, “‘cos every time it’s after six o’clock, there’s no number 49s. There’s 49A or nothing. Yesterday I waited and waited and waited for ages, and it said, you know, only 49A on the board – it doesn’t say anything about a Moulsecoomb bus – so I thought, maybe there’s one coming – what shall I do? Shall I hedge my bets? So I got the 49A, then two stops down, we got overtaken by a bloody 49, which we then followed all the way up, but not with enough time to get off and get onto it… aarrgghh! I had to walk up the hill. I don’t really mind walking up the hill but I’m just annoyed with these rogue displays. I mean, sometimes they’re just not right, are they?” And then, right out of the blue, with no coaching at all, she adds “And then when you’re going to Sainsbury’s on Lewes Road – it’s still not working is it, the display…”

I’ve been mulling over a part of the email I received from buses.co.uk: “I am afraid that badge numbers and name badges are no longer a requirement. The driver if asked can issue what we call an “info” ticket.”

I emailed the bus company back with my experiences today:

“Hello, thanks for the quick reply. Could you tell me, though, why it’s no longer a requirement for drivers to display their number? This morning when disembarking the bus in North Street I asked the driver for one of these ‘info tickets’. His first reaction was to give me a worried, paranoid glance as if thinking, “Have I been driving badly? Have I offended this guy in some way I haven’t noticed? What’s his angle?” This made me feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Also it seemed to have been quite some time – if ever – since he’d been asked for one of these. He spent some time scratching his head, going for the ticket machine, pausing, saying “oh… um….” and pausing again before finally giving me a ‘Free Travel Permit’ ticket which had the bus number and driver number at the top.

All this time there were lots of people waiting to get off, and lots of people waiting to get on, all of whom were visibly displeased at the disruption to their normal service. I held those people up for over a minute. This is how I made the bus late during Tuesday morning rush hour. Now imagine if he’d had his driver number prominently displayed in the driver’s window. I’d have breezed by, clocked it and clambered off the bus in one second. Instead I caused a pile-up and had to endure hostile stares from people waiting to climb on, and tutting from people waiting to get off.

It’s no wonder lots of people think bus drivers aren’t accountable in Brighton: we have to jump through hoops to find out who they are!! Was this the company’s intention? I’d like to know the reason, please, firstly for the decision being taken that drivers were no longer required to display an identifying number, and secondly why this policy hasn’t been re-introduced. Looking forward to hearing from you.”

This response came back a few hours later:

“Thank you for your further email.

It was the Government who stopped issuing Badge numbers in 1991. It is no longer a requirement as advised by the Government of the time.

The driver you encountered may well be a driver who has not had a complaint made against him and has therefore forgotten how to issue this ticket. If you feel strongly enough about a particular situation, your two options are to ask the driver for an info ticket or to obtain the bus number as mentioned previously. If a driver gives you any further difficulty when asked for an info ticket, it is entirely your prerogative to add this to your complaint when emailing and the driver will be advised accordingly.

Yours sincerely

Steve
Customer Unit”

…Well, I’m not going to press it, but I think it’s disingenuous of Steve to claim drivers can’t display identifiers because the government “stopped issuing badge numbers”. Why can’t the bus company re-introduce it? What are they scared of? Do they imagine any comments will be negative? They only need look at these bus diaries to see all the positive comments. I know from experience of working through the years that many employers simply don’t take the time to say ‘thankyou’ to their employees often enough, and the casual bus users’ inability to easily identify their driver is stopping these positive comments getting through and giving a boost to the workforce – as well, of course, as identifying the small minority of drivers who are bad-tempered or, indeed, positively dangerous.

Bring back badge numbers!!

Welcome to the Press Selection Radio Show Blog.

Press Selection is on Mondays, 11pm till Midnight on rhubarbradio.com. Every two weeks PS covers 4 different areas of forward thinking, new, underground and experimental music and plays 3 or 4 tracks from each.  Simple Enough!!!

On this first blogged show we’re covering recent releases in dubstep and heavy beats - Norwegian hardcore and metal bands, with the online editorial NoMedia.  We’ve got the San francisco Bay based label Anticon, playing 3 of their artists producing abstract hip-hop and leftfield beats….and finally, it’s Breathe-comp.com, and their latest compilation featuring ambient and abstract electronica. Tracklisting below with links.

Dubstep/Beats Recent and New Releases:

1) Encanti - Dubfish (Vermin Street)
2) Chango – Offensive Actions (RogueDubs Records)
3) Fat Pat - Kayhole (Rapidfire Records) 

 

Teenage Fantasy - Portofino

This is a copy of an email I sent to Brighton & Hove bus company yesterday. I’ll post whatever response I receive.

“Hello,

In the afternoon of Friday 16th October I got on a bus in Lewes Road, Brighton and sat near the front on the lower deck. The bus drivers were changing over as it was right outside Lewes Road bus depot. The new driver was tubby and had glasses and close-cropped dark hair, perhaps in his late forties or fifties. I watched as for almost the entire journey up into Moulsecoomb he had his left arm resting on the place where customers place their coins. This is unacceptable – two hands are needed on the steering wheel for safe driving, especially on such a twisty route up through hills on narrow roads with a lot of parked cars.

However, by far the worst thing was that when the steering wheel turned and his right hand swung into view, it was holding against the wheel a see-through plastic folder from a clip-file with a blue lining where the holes were. Inside was a sheet of A4 with a heading that may have been “SA16″. The driver was reading this the entire time with only occasional glances at the road. This was at a time when children had come out of school and often play on communal ground or front gardens which border the road. There is absolutely no excuse for such catastrophically dangerous driving – not as the sole occupant of a car, and certainly not as an employee of the Brighton bus company with responsibility for customer safety. I’d had a long day and was stunned into inaction by what I was witnessing, although in hindsight, and for the safety of myself and the other passengers, I wish I’d said something to the driver when I saw what he was doing.

To help you identify who this was, the registration of the vehicle was YN57 FYD, the route number was 49 and the time of the journey was about 4:55pm until after 5pm.

I would like you to contact me as soon as possible and tell me:

1) What action has been taken over this;
2) Why bus drivers are currently not required to display a name badge or some kind of identifying number, and when this will change.”

Received this just now:

“I am concerned to receive your emailed account of the driving behaviour of one of our drivers last Friday.

All of our drivers receive full and concise driver training before they leave the Garage and are therefore fully aware of what they should and should not do. I am very sorry that you witnessed the latter and as a result the driver will be traced and a full investigation will take place. If required, the driver can and will be sent back to the training school and re take further training.

I am afraid that badge numbers and name badges are no longer a requirement. The driver if asked can issue what we call an “info” ticket. This will have the drivers number on it. Alternatively each bus carries a fleet number. This can be found inside the bus where you pay for your ticket or on the outside of the bus under the windscreen.

Thank you fot taking the time to contact us regarding this serious incident. We will ensure that the driver is properly dealt with.

Yours sincerely

Steve
Customer Unit”