X To Excess

Another Theme - X
Yes, it's good Mister, Eastwood!  I didn't really intend to create a theme like this, working backwards from Z, it's just how it happened.  Thank The Mind Of Conrad, a thing that not even he can explain fully*, not that it worries him unduly, either of him.
     Anyway, it's already quarter to seven, and Doctor Who is on at eight fifteen, so let's not hang about wittering, eh?

Xerxes
Pronounced "Zerk-sees" if you must know, and yes, like many a word beginning with "X" it's pronounced with a "Zed".  Don't blame me, I didn't invent alphabets.
     So, good old Zerk.  He was a Persian emperor of the 5th Century, his name meaning "Ruler over heroes" so you have to give the Persian language props for conciseness.  If all you know of him is that disgraceful caricature from "300",

Persian emperors: big on Big Hair

 please go and either Wiki or Goo-fu about him.  The Persian empire was rather less demoniacal than either Hollywood or Frank Miller would have us believe; if you paid your taxes and did National Service, then the rule of Zerk and his court was not particularly harsh.
     If you want a much, much fuller picture, then go read Herodotus.  


X: The Unknown
A fillum, if you didn't know already.  Let us look at the garish and schlocky poster:

"Can anything escape it's terror?"
Well, yes, actually.

     The film itself is rather more subtle than this implies.  Also, how can you not love a film where the leads are Dean Jagger -

Distinguished Yank

     Edward Chapman - 

Honest Yorkshireman

     and Leo McKern -

One of those is a glass eye ...

     These fellers are in there because they can ACT!  Not that they needed worry about being upstaged by the villain, as this is a giant mass of radioactive mud.  It boils out of the earth and stalks the Scottish lowlands, broiling innocent folks into haggis courtesy of it's gamma-ray halitosis.  Genuinely worth watching, especially for a very young Fraser Hines playing a very young boy.

XL-5, Fireball
I know, I know, I'm stretching a little here, especially as Colonel Steve Zodiak was in the "Z" themed post.  Indulge me, after all, whose blog is it?
     Fireball didn't take off in the manner of a conventional rocket, vertically, nor yet in the manner of a jet, horizontally.  Instead it used a giant launch-rail, which it rode via a jet-sled:

This sled - ain't full of lead!

     When doing a VTL it came in rather boringly and landed on a ventral jet.  In a manner that suggests the later, bigger and more complex Zero-X, the forward portion of Fireball was detachable as a complete miniature spaceship capable of landing on a planetary surface.

Something rare - Fireball Junior reversing into a docking manouevre.
Oh, and some story about time travelling back into the past ...

    And once it got there, the crew didn't need to even muddy their boots -

Rocket scooters!
Why don't we have these NOW?

XX
No, do not get your uncouth and perverse hopes up, this is nothing to do with the film rating that generally relates to ladies not wearing a lot and doing - well, as BOOJUM! wishes to remain SFW we shall gloss over that bit.
     No, indeed, we are referring to the "Doublecross" system as operated by British Military Intelligence during the Second Unpleasantness.  It was also known as "Twentyman", since "X" is also the Roman numeral for "10".  I'm sure that the Abwehr would have felt so much better if they'd known that.

Functional schematic of the Doublecross system at work

     Actually they wouldn't.  Under XX, every single German agent that arrived in the UK was captured, and then given a choice: 
     a)  remain loyal to your German paymasters, get tried, get found guilty, get hung.
     b)  work for us.
     Surprisingly, a few chose option a).  Most, however, valuing their neck in it's unstrung shape, went for b).  
     This is to shoehorn an awful lot of British mendaciousness** and subterfuge into one small paragraph.  Suffice it to say that the perception of German military intelligence being all ruthless efficiency and British military intelligence being all chinless idiots is 180 degrees out of true.

"Our - our - our spies - were all working for YOU?!"

The XX
I refer you to the first line of the post above.
     This lot came out with their debut album a few years ago, to the ravings of the music press at the time.  Listening to it again, it's hard to understand why.  Sparse production, lots of echo and reverb***, whispery vocals you can't make out properly, no outstanding tunes.  Their last album, of only two made since 2009, came out 3 years ago, so they might have gone toes up.
     
                                       Their log

X-Dreams
Don't blame me, I didn't come up with a punny title!
     This is an album by the rather gorgeous Annette Peacock, she whom was involved with synthesisers from the word go, and who has cheekbones so sharp that they can be shaved with:

I met her!

     Her output is almost as minimal as The XX, but given her looks Conrad can forgive her that.  Coming more from a jazz than rock background, she has an eclectic and original catalogue.  Did I mention her good looks? I know, I know, I'm dreadfully shallow but now you have a (possibly scary) insight into what Conrad thinks looks great.


* No, I shall not be mucking about with words beginning with "Ex". 
** Lying
*** Generally used as a production technique to enhance weak material