Day 586

Aka Saturday 8^th September

Back is aching now, rather than hurting, and I’m almost back to normal (fingers crossed I’ll be back to full mobility by next NCBD :)).

In the morning the postman delivered my copy of ‘The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions 1962 – 2012, 50th AnniversaryEdition’:

…I am a big fan of the mid-‘60’s to late ‘70’s Rolling Stones, for me (probably loads of other people) this is their majestic period and I’ve read plenty about what The Stones were up to when recording the albums from this era – the drugs, arrests, tax exile, addictions, love affairs, Altamont, Cocksucker Blues, etc. – but in all these books, magazine articles and documentaries there’s little about the songs themselves, which this book does cover in great detail. Plus, it covers bootlegs of songs that weren’t officially released. Given the nature of this book there isn’t a narrative in the book, so I’ve been dipping in to read about my favourite songs and albums.

…I also did the G2 crossword, which went pretty poorly, pants really. I had to cheat on nine of the 25 clues. Slightly annoyed that I went for ‘told off’ and not ‘tick off’ for 3 across (‘scold (4,3)’), but I did learn that ‘tatting’ is ‘making lace by hand’, that the ‘structure of twining plants’ is ‘tendril’ and that ‘in toto’ is Latin for ‘entirely’.

…and then I binged watched all ten episodes of ‘Iron Fist’ season 2, which I really liked. Unlike other Netflix Marvel series, ‘Iron Fist’ season 2 only has ten episodes, not the normal thirteen, which means that the episodes are much tighter and there doesn’t feel like there is much padding or storylines being drawn out to feel up time.

In a nutshell, Danny has taken over from Daredevil in protecting Ney York city and is trying to stop a Triad war. Meanwhile Joy and Davos have returned to wreck Danny life, in return for Danny wrecking their lives. Joy also wants to get back at her brother Wade. This being Joy’s motivation slightly bothered me as her father worked with/foe The Hand and was responsible for blowing up the plane young Danny and his parents were on, killing the parents and leaving Danny to be brought up in K'un-Lun. 

For Davos it makes perfect sense that he wants the Iron Fist and revenge on Danny, but for Joy it seems a bit of a stretch. Yes, her life went to shit when Danny returned, but that’s because her fathers machinations came to light. My only other gripe is that I am slightly annoyed that I didn’t get that ‘Mary Walker’ is ‘Typhoid Mary’ from the comics. Although, I only know ‘Typhoid Mary’ from her early appearances in Daredevil as an enemy and lover and I think it’s been something like 20 years since I read those issues!

Anyway, aside from that ‘Iron Fist’ season 2 to is a great improvement on season 1 (probably mostly due to the shorter episode length), the fight scenes are better, all the main characters (Danny, Collen, Misty, Joy and Wade) feel like they are living lives, rather than hitting plot points (e.g. Wade seems like an actually person, rather than Mr Ruthless Business Man^TM) and have developed and grown by the end and if you’re familiar with the comics you can see seeds for future storylines from the comics being planted, e.g. Collen and Misty’s partnership. ‘Iron Fist’ season 2 does what every good series should do, it finishes giving you a complete story and leaves you wanting more. 9/10.