SPACEPORT: NEW MEXICO HAS ONE

You can thank Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic for that.

It's called Spaceport America. And It looks like this.



Ha ha. No, that’s just the concept art. It actually it looks like this.



Which isn’t quite as whiz-bang. But it could be worse.

And c’mon, hey, spaceport.

Granted, we’re only talking suborbital flights that won’t even start until at least 2013. And a ticket will cost you $200k for a 2.5 hour flight. (Insert “We are the 1%” joke here.) But the Private Space Age was never going to start off cheap, let alone with moon tourism.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic end up in Branson’s “Win” or “Fail” pile.

Here to go,

This is dF

LISTEN TO IT #38: IF I SHOULD EVER LET YOU GO I'LL NEVER WANT TO KNOW WHY

Ladytron also have a new album out, and whether that means anything to you probably depends on yr opinion of icy synth-pop as a sub-genre.

I dig it, personally, though I'll be the first to admit that Ladytron do have their weaknesses – average lyrics and a tendency to follow a similar song template more often than they should. But it does make for a compelling, otherworldly soundscape that I find pretty mesmerizing, though I confess it's more compelling when they lean toward a heavier sound as they did on their last two albums.

The new one, Gravity The Seducer, sports a dreamier space-age sound, though less club-oriented than their older stuff. It's a bit hit and miss (see above weaknesses), but there's some good stuff there.

Like this.

Pistol sirens ring goodbye,

This is dF