Aka Monday 20th
to Sunday 26th January 2020
Another quiet week,
working and not working and a few drinks with friends on Friday night and
pottering about…
…the post man
delivered last month’s copy of Scream magazine, which I missed in the shops,
but had to have for the feature on ‘John Carpenter’s The Thing’, hence ordering
it, but the articles on Hammer House of Horror 'Dracula', ‘The Faculty’ and ‘Jason Takes Manhattan’ look good:
…I also got a
second-hand copy of the Hawk Williams tribute album ‘Timeless’ and Volume 2 of
‘Reach Up: Disco Wonderland’:
…I haven’t listened
to ‘Timeless’ yet, but the first CD, the mix, of ‘Reach Up: Disco Wonderland’
Volume 2, which is just as advertised, chock full of disco goodness. I also picked
up a small, but perfect crop of New Comic Book Day comics:
…and I got the new
Chuck Palahniuk book ‘Consider This’, which I start reading as soon as I finish
the 17 other books I’ve got on my to-read-pile:
…and I had a long
walk. The second of the New Year and it’s been too long since Long Walks were a
regular thing. I really need to make sure that I at least do one Long Walk a
week (I should at least be doing one on Saturday and one on Sunday, but
sometimes the late Friday and Saturday nights require Sunday to be a day of
rest):
…and I (finally) read
some comics:
‘Trees: Three Fates’
#1 – 5: Written by Warren Ellis, drawn by Jason Howard, colour flats by Dee
Cunniffe and letters by Fonografiks, ‘Trees: Three Fates’ is a great self-contained
story about a murder in a small village/community, the detective working the case,
her past relationship and it’s link with the ‘Trees’ and the human cost of
these things. This is a nice crime story, which, like the best crime stories, covers
a lot more than ‘crime’. Using it as a basis to look at the feelings of being
replaced and what you’d do to stay where you are, to stay in your position of
power. And the feelings of relationship regret and how it affects your
present/future. There’s also an explanation of what the Trees may be, which could
be true or could just be one persons (poetic) interpretation of what the Trees
are. 10/10.
‘Firefly – The Outlaw Ma Reynolds’ and ‘Firefly’ #13: Both
these stories take fairly standard western tropes, put a fresh(er) spin on them
and then head out to entertain and explore the ‘Firefly’ universe. And Greg Pak
has done a great job of capturing the tone, the voice of the TV show (and film)
in these ‘Firefly’ comics, while playing to the strengths of comics. These aren’t
just screenplays with pictures. Although it should be noted that the pictures
are very, very pretty. ‘Firefly – The Outlaw Ma Reynolds’ is illustrated by
Davide Gianfelice and George Lambadais, coloured by Joana LaFuente and lettered
by Jim Campbell, and tells the secret origin of Mal Reynolds and how the actions
of the Alliance changed Ma Reynolds from an upright citizen into a criminal and
how this affected Mal and set him on his path. While #13, illustrated by Lalit
Kumar Sharma, coloured by Francesco Segala and lettered by Jim Campbell, follows
up on the outcome from ‘Firefly – The Outlaw Ma Reynolds’, with Mal settling
into his new role, while not exactly letting go of his outlaw past. 9/10 and
9/10.
‘Once & Future’
#6: Written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Dan Mora, coloured by Tamara
Bonvillain and lettered by Ed Dukeshire. In which Duncan, and Rose, save the
day, save Gran and except their new roles. ‘Once & Future’ has been a great
series and this last issue keeps up the tempo, with equal amounts world-ending cataclysmic
events and personal, emotional moments. With everything wrapped up nicely…except
for the (excellent and unexpected) post credits sequence setting up the next
storyline. 9/10.
…and I watched ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, which almost lives up to my memory of watching it when it
first came out. A very skilled mix of film noir/P.I. tropes and cartoons, with
some great set-pieces, my favourite of which is when Eddie and Roger have been
handcuffed together for a long while and Eddie finally has a hacksaw and is trying
to cut through the handcuffs. Roger slips his hand out to give Eddie a better
angle and then:
Eddie
Valiant: [Roger managed to slip his arm out of the Handcuffs he and Eddie were
attached to] You mean you could've taken your hand out of that cuff at any
time?
Roger
Rabbit: No, not at any time, only when it was funny.
…and I did this
week’s G2 Crosswords:
…Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a pretty good start
as we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). The little
gey cells have had their day of rest and have come back fightin’, and we learnt
that a ‘beadle’ is the title of a poorhouse official, that a ‘Spanish
gentleman’ is a ‘hidalgo’ and that a ‘Swiss state’ is called a ‘canton’, a good
start to the week…
…and Tuesday’s crossword goes as well, only having to cheat
on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). It’s like the little grey cells
are in the zone and just knocking the answers outta’ the park. And we learnt
that, at the time of writing, there have been 13 popes called ‘Leo’…
…Wednesday’s grid tumbles even more quickly, as per 1 across
the grid was ‘dead and buried’, and we only had to cheat on one of the 21
clues, 14 down ‘bird that booms’, which is a ‘Bittern’. Well done my little
grey cells!!!...
…Thursday’s crossword goes even better, out of the 23 clues
we only had to cheat on 22 across, ‘traditional pub game’ and I’m kicking
myself that I didn’t get the answer, ‘dominoes’, even though I had three of the
four intersecting letter, but not the ‘d’, if I’d had the ‘d’ it would have
been super obvious that the answer was ‘dominoes’ and we could have had a clean
sheet, ah well, onwards and upwards…
…Friday’s crossword went a tad downhill as me and my little
grey cells had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (four out of 21). Again, most
of the clues were straight forward to get, most of the harder ones got easier
once I had some intersecting letters, but those last four I just couldn’t get
(but I should have gotten ‘conjugal’ and ‘can-do’), but we did learn that
‘young hens’ are called ‘pullets’ and I’ve never heard of a ‘troublesome child’
being called a ‘holy terror’ (unless Damien counts! But surely he’s an exception
that proves the rule?)…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on an average note as we
had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (approx.) (four out of 23). Most of the
answers just dripped off my fingers, but those four…we just couldn’t crack them
(but we should have gotten that ‘lavender’ is a ‘plant used in perfumery’ and
that ‘moreover’ is a synonym for ‘besides’), but we did learn that in ‘church
in Scotland’ can be called a ‘kirk’ and that the ‘Larch’ is ‘coniferous tree
with deciduous bright green needles’…
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