The Super-Suburban Site

I've moved...

2006-07-21T17:45:00.000Z

I've buggered off to Wordpress and am now hosting my blog there. I got jealous of Glenn's new blog and could stand it no longer. See y'all there.

Christmas Cheer!

2005-12-20T18:31:00.000Z

Just a quickie to say to those I know whom I may not see over the Christmas period - have a cracking Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! Cheers!

If Music Be The Food Of Love...

2005-12-20T18:24:00.000Z

We (Silverlake) have just completed work on another new tune (our work rate is prodigious, non?) called "Lovin' The Day" which has been duly posted on the Silverlake website. One of our older tracks "Your Power Is Off" was played on BBC Radio Scotland's 'From Be-bop To Hip-Hop' show last week. Well, I know it's hardly earth shaking commercial exposure, but we were played in between Charlie Mingus and John Coltrane so we were in good company. I was chuffed.

Free WordPress hosting?

2005-10-28T17:23:00.000Z

I'm thinking of going over to WordPress to create my blog and have that little bit more control over how it looks etc. Does anyone know where I could get free WordPress hosting? Or is there a hack for hosting it on Blogger? Any suggestions gratefully received (apart from the 'go f**k yourself' variety).

I Lied...

2005-10-20T17:13:00.000Z

I realise in hindsight that my previous posting was a tad optimistic and I lied about an increased frequency in my postings. This is partly down to our old PC giving up the ghost (got a lovely new Dell with a decent 17" LCD now - would have preferred a Mac, but these compromises are forced on us sometimes), and partly due to laziness. So I won't be making any rash promises about my output in future.

For my friends and associates, you may be interested to know that at the grand old age of 38 I finally got my Degree - a 2/1 in Community & Criminal Justice. Yep, I'd never heard of it before I studied it either. But I'm still pleased (as it's a requirement of my job). Wage rise here I come...

Lazy Blogging Bastard

2005-09-13T21:37:00.000Z

I realise I haven't updated this blog for some time now - I have no excuse, I'm just being lazy. But I will post more henceforth, for those who just might be interested...

New Toon...

2005-04-26T17:32:00.000Z

For all you avid fans of Silverlake (yes, that's you mum) there is a new track on the website for your aural delectation called The Color Guns - go on, have a listen and let me know if you like it.

The (yawn) General (yawn) Election (ZZZzzzz)

2005-04-18T17:50:00.000Z

It's time again for the good minions of this fair and emerald isle to go to the polls again and exercise our Cromwell given right to vote, goddamit. The political wags are out in force again, defacing (Tory) election posters (quite right too) and making up their own, my current favourite being the one pictured below. Of course, there are a lot of wet liberals such as myself who despite growing unease at Tony Blair's administration will still vote for the smarmy fucker. Any wet liberal who says they won't is lying and they know it. After all, are you going to let the somewhat sinister Michael Howard in by the back door? Course not - now go and vote, sound in the knowledge that Tony may be bad, but look at the alternative...

2005-04-18T17:48:00.000Z

Duel In The Desert

2005-04-04T16:43:00.000Z

Another thriller this weekend gone as F1 headed to Bahrain for the 3rd race of the season. Alonso raced a beauty as he kept Schumacher behind him from the start, the latter eventually retiring with a box full of neutrals (how sorry are we?!), giving a well deserved 2nd spot to Trulli (Toyota in amazing form so far). Unfortunately, Button and Sato retired leaving BAR with no points again - Button increasingly seeing his championship challenge scamper off into the distance with Renault and Toyota. The race for me was made by De La Rosa (see picture below) who hasn't seen any action since the days of Arrows F1 and a brief spot at Jaguar. What a revelation - his duel with Webber probably the highlight of the season so far and to my mind looked a lot classier than Montoya. It would be interesting to see what opportunities he'll be given while Montoya recovers from his 'tennis' accident. As for Ferrari, well who cares; it's about time they had to struggle for a change - then we'll see what Schumacher is really made of.

2005-04-04T16:42:00.000Z

Knob Twiddling Ahoy!

2005-04-01T15:59:00.000Z

Much to my delight, my Alesis Photon X25 MIDI/Audio controller keyboard (sounds like something you could fly to the moon in) finally arrived. Feverishly extracting it from its box, I was pleased to see that it looks better in the flesh than it does in pictures, is well made and has very tactile rubberised knobs and controllers. But the best bit is the way all the controllers light up red when a power source is attached. Yep, I'm a real sucker for the flashing lights - gets me every time.

Oh Lordy...

2005-03-08T18:44:00.000Z

I see Dramaqueen has been leaving comments again and they appear to be getting more and more eloquent which leads me to believe that she isn't actually a 13 year old girl and may just be an adult posing as one. Perhaps I'm being groomed....?

F1 Grand Prix Season Starts

2005-03-08T18:34:00.000Z

Having just enjoyed a weekend of F1 action (from Melbourne) I have to say how pleased I was that the weather went against Schumacher in qualifying and how well he subsequently stuffed it up when he tangled with Heidfield in the second BMW Williams. I daresay his spell in the boondocks won't last, but at least the season didn't start with him sprinting off into the distance. Fisichella got a well deserved win for Renault, but the revelation for me was Coulthard in the newly formed Red Bull team (see picture below). Some may argue 4th position was a fluke, but in actuality Coulthard in kept in touch with the head of the pack, narrowly missing a podium finish so the car must have a decent pace. I can only hope we have a much more open season this year with the new regulations and a few more surprises.

2005-03-08T18:32:00.000Z

Liberal Flame War! Stand Back And Be Mildly Disconcerted!

2005-03-02T18:01:00.000Z

My fellow liberal chum Glenn has posted a comment on my last entry that goes: "Aha! Just the kind of wishy-washy liberal flanel we expect from a Y-frontoutsidethetrousers david steele apologist like you. Why not publish the comments so we can decide for ourselves." Well, I've published yours, so stick that in your renewable resource pine forested pipe, fill it with Fairtrade tobacco and don't smoke it for fear of inflicting the horrors of passive smoking on your children! Who's the liberal daddy now?

For the rant I received from Dramaqueensdebut, I refer you to the comments attached to my posting entitled 'I've Been Blogjacked' - the kid is evil, I'm sure.

In The Doghouse

2005-02-27T14:26:00.000Z

I was recently chastised by Dramaqueensdebut again, who you may remember from an earlier posting, for my pop at her regarding her spelling and grammar. I must admit I was troubled by my own behaviour - maybe I am out of touch with the 'yoof' of today - she's read The Da Vinci Code which must mean she's "a supurb (sic) reader". Besides which, given the absolute paranoia stalking the dear old US of A these days, perhaps my behaviour could be interpreted as terrorism and God knows I wouldn't wish to end up at Stalagluft Guatanamo Bay with Kamp Komandant Rumsfeld and Oberarbeitkommandant Bush (dodgy German spelling aside).

My innocent birthday celebrations at the local dog racing track also incurred the wrath of another concerned reader. I must plead a degree of naivety with regard to dog racing - I thought greyhounds were lovingly treated and cossetted by their owners, after all the dogs earn money for them. Perhaps this is a rosy view of what goes on and if anyone has evidence to the contrary I'm prepared to listen. I hope that undertaking goes a little way to restoring the respect of the reader in question.

Silverlake on Celluloid!

2005-02-25T19:32:00.000Z

Our old chum and photographer Dominic sent me the picture below taken at Warwick University when we (as Vivarama) supported The Lighthouse Family (very slick, very boring). The line up in the photo is what became Silverlake and while we have been very busy songwriting, we really need to get up under the stage lights again. The thought of humping guitar amplifiers around again doesn't appeal, but it would be an experience to take it out on the road - or at least round some nice pre-club bars, sipping cocktails and kicking out some electronic beats. Very sophisticated, no?

2005-02-25T19:31:00.000Z

Blog Embellishment

2005-02-24T19:02:00.000Z

You may notice the natty new image behind my header and the new strap line. Beautiful, but not an easy process. Fortunately my erstwhile friend Bruce with his knowledge of CSS and my tinkering around in the template code for this blog eventually got it looking how I wanted it. Finally, a triumph of style over content!