Day 599

Aka Friday 21^st September

This morning I did the G2 crossword:

…which went really well, and I only needed to cheat on two for the 24 clues, so close to a perfect go-around, but I couldn’t get ‘scraper’ from ‘hand tool for clearing surfaces’ and ‘misfit’ from ‘oddball’, which seem very obvious to me now!

…then I watched ‘The Rocketeer’, which I really enjoyed. Billy Campbell does a good job as Cliff Secord, who becomes The Rocketeer, the films lead, with great turns from Jennifer Connelly, as Jenny, Cliff’s girlfriend, and Alan Arkin, Peevy, Cliff’s friend and father figure and mechanical genius. But I think Timothy Dalton is best as Neville Sinclair, the baddie of the film, chewing the scenery like he hasn’t eaten in weeks. There’s also, Terry O'Quinn plays Howard Hughes, which is odd as he’s young in this film and I always find it hard to separate other characters he plays from ‘Locke’ in ‘Lost’.

‘The Rocketeer’ is a great pulpy science-hero flick. It’s kinda like the Brendan Fraser ‘The Mummy’, replacing the horror aspects with science-fiction, although there’s slightly less comedy in ‘The Rocketeer, combining the innocence of the past and tongue in cheekiness of the present/’90’s. In the film, Cliff and Peevy find an experimental rocket backpack and have to stop it from getting into the hands of the Nazis. Which involves gangsters, the FBI, Nazi double agents and Cliff and Jenny in a climactic battle with Neville and Nazis in and on a burning zeppelin. Great fun. 7/10.

…listened to Gabriel Gurnsey’s ‘PHYSICAL’ album. Mr Gurnsey is a member of Factory Floor and ‘PHYSICAL’, his first solo album, is a great electronic album that somehow manages to balance being both dancey and relaxed, both dancefloory and sofa-listening, physical and contemplative. 8/10.

...and re-read ‘Blood Stained Sword’, which contains two stories, ‘Blood Stained Sword’ written by Dan Wickline and ‘Demon Father John’s Pinwheel Blues’ by Amber Benson, linked by the art, by Ben Templesmith. 8/10.

‘Blood Stained Sword’ is set in the near future and Kenji, aided by Andrea, is investigating his father’s supposed suicide. Their investigation uncovers that Kenji’s father was murdered to cover-up and Kenji uses his Samurai skills, taught to him by his father, to extract vengeance and recover his fathers honour. I really enjoyed this story, which has echoes of the film ‘Red Sun’, Mr Templesmith’s art is a perfect fit for this neo-noirish story and Mr Wickline has made the characters believable, even though it’s a short story, they aren’t just cut-outs with no personality.

‘Demon Father John’s Pinwheel Blues’ is a vampire story about a young boy, Pinwheel, whose family are killed, and he is inducted into a Fagin-esh gang of vampires. Ms Benson’s story is smaller in scale and is about Pinwheel adapting to his new life and getting revenge., and really captures the language/thought patterns of being a child and has written a creepy villain. And Mr Templesmith’s art beautifully complements the story, Pinwheel and the other children look innocent and cherubic and the villain looks shabby and not dangerous, until the horror comes and it looks truly horrific, all teeth, claws and red.