Hah, the majority of people I approach online directly respond eloquently, because i don't have the time or patience to dally with idiots that spk lk ths with use of *lols* I'm a puritan for good language it's an English student thing.

Hmm, I first came to Muse - or rather, them to me - via a good friend in 1999, who'd bought the debut album and gave me a listen on her new discman in our school playing field. Rather sneakily, she'd snuck it out in our PE lesson, and we were both feigning inuries to get out of playing rounders, just to listen to this album. I was, and still am, totally blown away by certain tracks - Unintended (which made me go a bit snotty and weepy on first listen - teen hormones, huh) Fillip, Falling Down, Muscle Museum - ambivalent to others (Hate this and I'll love you, Uno, Cave, Overdue.) I discovered that i could like prog rock, and Muse detracted from the growing tide of so-called RnB that the majority of my classmates were soaking up, also fitting in nicely with my growing obsession with Green Day and Offspring. The latter's fallen by the wayside; Green Day still remain dear to my heart, though the last album was more than a little overblown, in length and quality.

It's been good, growing up with Muse. Watching them go from the toilets to the heaving arenas, as it were. When I saw them with my partner last November at London 02, and witnessed the show opening to the sounds of "Uprising" and the sight of hundreds of shadowy figures projected onto three tall columns, as though ghostly people were walking continuously up flights of stairs (so Ballardian), I knew they'd come to fruition; this was their evolutionary peak. That made me feel a little sad, in the way that coming to the end of Lord of the Rings made me feel. All the albums together, cover a great story arc, and when you've got a lyric like "let's start over again ... this time we'll get it right", well, where the Hell do you go from there? I'm rather hoping that they compose a rock/classical album now, since Exogenesis went down such a storm. It's still probably my favourite part of the album.

Absolution ... well, I thought that was it, my favourite album, til I heard Resistance - which seems even more complete, if that's possible. My least favourite album has to be Origins, I'm afraid. Too much screaming on that one in particular, however, Bliss is one of my absolute top Muse songs. The beginning part, I believe, they ripped off an old Nintendo game! My partner, NES nerd that he is, noticed it a little while ago - we went and found a clip of said game on Youtube, to satisfy our nerdiness.

It can't just be me that thinks of Bravestarr, that old cartoon from the 80's, whenever they hear Knights of Cydonia

Mmhmm, it actually made it into the Sun paper yesterday, albeit a month-old picture, of the pair of them wandinerg around NY together, apparently chatting quite cosily. Quite how that makes them to be dating, I don't know, since I saw no held hands or particular intimacy other than he was looking directly at her when she was speaking, but that could've been sincere and platonic interest and courtesy. Still, the rumours now abound online and in the papers, with people scratching their heads as to how a young single mother who happens to be an actress starring in - let's face it - some pretty tame/neutral films to date, aside from the one she's currently in (The Killer within me), could make it with a prog rock star with a penchant for conspiracy theories and customizing his guitars. *shrug* I love reading the reports, more of than not they focus more on what he's wearing ... and half of them can't get their facts right either, despite being apparently professional journalists, stating that the NY photo was taken the day before yesterday ... when he was in France performing a concert

That's enough rumour-mongering. I'm going to take it with a huge pinch of salt, and probably end up flinging it over my shoulder for luck.

Michael Bay x Roland Emmerich = Universal annihilation. Between the pair of them, they've probably decimated the world's major cities at least twelve times. NY, twice that. I still find the best shot of the destruction of the Statue of Liberty to come from Cloverfield though, amazing film.

Evangelion ... Last Exile ... these need properly attending to, with the careful and loving hand of an auteur director. Maybe an ex-animator. I personally can't get enough of Miyazaki, but that's an entirely different genre - very beautiful and bittersweet. Have you ever seen RahXephon? That's a unique combination of lovely animation, voice actors/actresses, mecha and above all, classical music. The mecha are basically conducted via, and a product of, the music - that's the best way I can describe it. It shoots down the harpies that rant about mecha being too masculine, and the whiners who state that no anime can truly capture a good storyline and hold it, without an influx of sweatdrops.

I must say, you're doing very well, considering I just dropped in on you like Leeloo into a taxi

Mmm, you remind me of Wild, Wild West that's unfortunate. I must admit, for a control-fiend such as myself, it's sometimes difficult to comprehend a world where at the flick of a switch something that worked perfectly well one moment, malfunctions and maybe blows your head off the next. I like things to be systematic and functionable, but at the same time, the delirium of cogs and wheels, endless possibilities, appeals to my creative-writer side.

You're right in the sense that once we've moved forward, there's no going back - but how about sideways? That's how I look at steampunk. I love the way certain elements can be grouped together that would never, in a linear world, make the grade in the same universe. Dinosaurs in the London zoo!

A future in the style of Gits - it's not so fantastical to imagine. Forget the mecha of Michael Bay films, too flashy and dramatic - it's already gradually creeping up on us, I mean, warfare is fought in the main via computers; robots perform more and more of our surgery. There's not a day goes by that the intelligence doesn't grow broader and higher. It's when it begins to submerge who and what we are, that we've got to - now, I sound like Mister Bellamy himself.

Speaking of whom - what think you of the Kate Hudson-dating news?

Aah, the basis of the Matrix. The Wachowski's owe it a lot. I personally can only watch the movie, the animation series is no substitute.

I'm more of a steampunker - a bit more giddy, tongue-in-cheek, looking for style as well as substance. Have you seen some of the gadgets people have invented and posted on the internet? This, for example:

http://www.slashgear.com/gallery/data_files/7/4/Steampunk_Watch_1.jpg Gorgeous, if slightly unwieldy. But that's the fun of steampunk. It doesn't always have to work

Muse song to fit GitS - Plug In Baby ..

Cyber-punk - Akira?