Day 784

Aka Monday 25^th March 2019

Today I walked 4.63km (2.88miles) which took 1 hour 4 minutes and 4 seconds, which burnt 530 calories and took 6,609 steps…while listening to ‘Everywhere At The End Of Time: Stage 1’ by ‘The Caretaker’…

…I first heard the ‘The Caretaker’ on a couple of compilations released by ‘V/VM’ (‘The Caretaker’ was one of his aliases) and dug their sound, which is basically old dancehall (not in the Jamaican sense) and ballroom 78’s which, in tribute to ‘The Shining’ (in which Jack Nicholson plays a caretaker) and the ballroom scene, are then altered and processed to add metallic/computer-like glitches and echo and to retain their dustiness, so that they sound like they haven’t been dusted or cleaned since the ‘20’s and ‘30’s and are being played through a faulty hi-fi. The latest ‘The Caretaker’ albums have used this approach to look at and convey the effects of mental disorder and ill-health, such as Alzheimer’s.

On ‘Everywhere At The End Of Time: Stage 1’ ‘The Caretaker’ takes a restrained approach is to the tracks, with minimal glitchyness, but plenty of dust and echo, which makes sense as this is only Stage 1. My description might make it sound like the album would be hard or annoying to listen too, but the reverse is true. The album has a hypnotic, almost trance like effect, allowing to contemplate on the passing of time and the dying of memories and the mind. 8/10.  

…when I got home, I completed and submitted application for a policy adviser post and I did the G2 Crossword:

…which got the week off to an okay start as I got an Illuminati score for Monday’s crossword (aka I had to cheat on five of the 23 clues). Would have gone a tad better if I hadn’t been so quick on the draw, like for ‘not so difficult’ I assumed the answer was ‘easiest’ and didn’t bother to check if it fitted the squares (it did not, one letter too long!), but at least I learnt that ‘epigram’ means ‘witty saying’ and that ‘Sedge’ is a  ‘grass-like plant growing in wet places’.

Day 783

Aka Sunday 24^th March 2019

Had my long walk today and walked 12.01km (7.46miles) in 2 hour 24 minutes and 01 seconds, which burnt 1,361 calories and took 15,734 steps:

The reason it was a longer long walk today is that I had to go into town to get some nails…and why did I need to get some nails?, because my bed broke at about 3am this morning. A nail holding a 30ish cm long piece of wood in place broke and therefore stopped supporting some of the bed slats…so I needed the nails to hold that piece of wood in place…and once I had done that, I got back to my exercise routine and did some weight work… 

…aside from exercising and working out I:

…watched ‘Lake Placid’, a ‘90’s horror comedy about a lake called Placid, which becomes home to a giant crocodile, who has started chomping down on people. So, a rag tag team of the local sheriff, a Fish and Game officer, a paleontologist and a mythology professor/crocodile enthusiast join up to remove the crocodile to a safer, secure place (safer for him and secure so he’s not chomping on people!). David E Kelly, the writer, does a good job of balancing the horror and the comedy (and the film canbe viewed as a straight horror comedy or a as a parody of these types of film) and it’s well directed (by Steve Miner) and has a great cast, including Bill Pullman, Bridget Jane Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson (who does a great job as the put upon sarcastic sheriff), and Betty White. 7/10.

…and read some comics:

‘By Night’ #9 (by John Allison, script, Christine Larsen, pencils and inks, Sarah Stern, letters, and Grace Park, design) is a fun issue that takes a darker turn as we flashback to when the portal was created and how Chet Charles ended up living in the Other-Side/Portal World. Meanwhile in the present-day forces are moving in on the portal generator and the gang will have to move smartly to ensure that the Other-Side/Portal World stays safe. As it’s a flashback episode, set in 1990, the whole issue has a nice ‘90’s comics (with a touch of 'The X-Files') feel to it, even down to a Marvel style ‘Boom!Box Bulletins’ page of an artist pro-file, hype box and check list. 8/10.

In ‘Assassin Nation’ #1 (by Kyle Starks, writer, Erica Henderson, artist, and Deron Bennett, letterer) mob boss Rankin is being targeted by an unknown hitman/woman and he has barely escaped several attempts on his life, sorry he hires twenty of the world’s best assassins to protect him. And it goes downhill from there! If you’ve read Mr Starks previous work, you’ll know that there is plenty of humour and OTT violence, which co-creator Ms Henderson adds to and depicts in beautiful detail. There are plenty of humour and character moments, and the story barrels along, barley pausing for breath. 8/10.

‘Accell’ #19 (by Joe Casey, writer, Ramon Bachs, DC Hopkins, letterer, and Sigmund Torre, colours) wraps up the multi-villain fight as Danny manages to pull himself together (literally), with a little help from his friends, and defeats them one by one. It also appears to end the first chapter of Danny’s new life as a superhero. It’s not clear if this is just the end of Joe Casey’s run or if the book has ended for now, but the last few pages do give the impression of settling things and tying up some of the loose ends but leaving enough of other people to play with. Which is a slight shame as you can tell that Mr Casey enjoys writing a speedster and the art team (of Mr Bachs, Hopkins and Torre) have done a great job of creating a real world while extraordinary things happen (and still feel part of that world). 7/10.

‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ #3 (Jordie Bellaire, writer, Dan Mora, illustrator, Raul Anguloa, colours, and Ed Dukeshire, letterer) is great, the story has a perfect balance of action, character moments/development and emotion. We get to see Buffy on patrol, Giles playing at the café, the Scooby gang in action, a big battle with a giant bat and Spike and Dru aren’t a couple?!?! (although maybe it’s just that Dru is the boss and not Spike? Is Spike being sarky when he calls her Mistress or is Dru the new 'Master'?). I did have a little trouble following a couple of the panels of the big fight, but that is a very minor quibble and the team do a great job in capturing the spirit of Buffy and putting it in a modern setting. 9/10.

…also, my nephew made this real-life TD Battles green bloon:

Day 782

Aka Saturday 23^rd March 2019

Had a day of rest today, so no long walk and no weights today…although I did watch ‘Awaken The Shadowman’, which is an odd film. It has a promising plot, a man goes back to his home town to find out that things aren’t the same, his mother is missing and there’s a strange, almost cult-like, support group in town.

 In terms of acting, direction, sound, etc. the film is mostly okay and it’s clear that this is a low budget flick with the corresponding limitations, but for me, where the film falls down is that while there are elements of ‘The Stepford Wives’, ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’, ‘Race With The Devil’ and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, the story doesn’t follow through on them. These themes get introduced but are then left hanging and instead of building to a climax, it just ends. It’s almost like the first act or last act are missing – if the man had been shown as submissive at the start of the film then the ending would make thematic sense, as he would be taking change or if the ending was just the ending of the second act you could the last act be the man triumphing over the cult or joining them or being beaten by them. As it stands it kinda feels like they ran out of film and had to make do. 4/10. This is a good review of the film.

…and I did the G2 Crossword:

…which ends the week on an okay note as I only have to cheat on a sixth if the clues (four out of 24), I think my little grey cells burnt themselves out on the earlier hot streak! But I did learn that the ‘river of forgetfulness’ is the ‘Lethe’ and, again, there are some decent band/song/character names in the grid – ‘Toxic Airings’, ‘Telltale Crux’, ‘Rectify Boxer’ and ‘Steamed-Up Sis’.