Aka Monday 10th
February - Sunday 16th February 2020
What’s new this
week, well, after last week’s “love” Tarot spread I’ve signed up to the dating
app Bumble, which has the USP that while you can swipe left and right to your
hearts contempt it’s only women who can make the first move and start a conversation…which
kinda makes it the ideal site for a male someone who is conflicted or nervous
(nee scared) about dating and dating apps, you sign up, create your profile,
but then you don’t have to do anything until a woman contacts you. So less chance of knock-backs, but that assumes that anyone will contact you…
…and ‘Claremont Editions One’:
…which is chock full
of chilled-house-downtempo-blue-eyed-soul numbers, perfect for relaxing outside
with a cocktail or two, and I loved one or two, as the sun comes down and the night starts…
…and I got the Lego Jurassic
Park magazine, for the Lego T-Rex:
...I have developed a weird tic, when standing
and talking to someone, of holding my arms out at a right angle, kinda like Mr
Burns from The Simpsons...
...or a T-Rex, hence getting the Lego T-Rex):
…I also brought the
new issue of ‘Q’, for the fun and enlightening interview with Stewart Lee:
…and got the new
Tame Impala album, ‘The Slow Rush’ and ‘The Northern Soul Story Vol. 1 The Twisted Wheel’:
…’The Slow Rush’,
which is more synthy and less guitar than the previous albums, sounding much
more current and poppy, but still retaining that psychedelic-ness and shoegazey
edge. ‘The Northern Soul Story Vol. 1 The Twisted Wheel’, was only a fiver has
enough decent tracks (such as James & Bobby
Purify’s ‘Shake A Tail Feather’, Little
Richard’s ‘A Little Bit Of Something (Beats A Whole Lot Of Nothing)’ and Bob
Brady & The Con-Chords’ ‘Everybody's Going To The Love-In’) on it to justify getting it, but it also has plenty of
duff tracks, including one about asking gypsies to make a love potion which
sounds suspiciously more like a date-rape potion…
...and I picked up
my New Comic Book Day haul…
…and on Friday we
had a few drinks after work and as I type this I can’t remember much about them,
but my notes say “…work drinks…much fun, maybe too much fun – loose lips give
too much away, maybe…” which intrigues me and makes me wish (1) I hadn’t taken
so long to write this up and (2) that I could remember what happen! Anyway, the
next day, stilling feeling hungover and a little wiped out from the previous
night’s antics, I had a Long Walk:
…which did clear a
few cobwebs and I had a quick conversation with young KOR, when I was getting the
paper, and she didn’t mention anything, so any “loose lips” mustn’t have been
serious or in my head or happened after she left!!! (and no-one said anything on Monday, so it must have been in my head). When I got back home, I chilled, recuperated
and watched the ninth Tarantino film ‘Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood’:
…which was okay, well-acted
and directed and set-dressed and everything else, but felt slight. The film follows
Rick Dalton, played by Leo DiCaprio, who coming to terms with his leading man
days declining and possibly coming to an end, unless he does something drastic
and agrees to go to Italy and fil Spaghetti Westerns. Rick is best friends with
his stuntman Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, who also doubles as his
golfer/assistant. Rick also lives across from Roman Polanski, played by Rafał
Zawierucha, and Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie, and he thinks that if he
can befriend them, it will revive his career and mean that he doesn’t have to
go to Italy. And we basically follow Rick and Cliff around for the film, as
they film, drink, meet up with Charlie Manson and his family, and foil the
Manson murders.
There’s also loads
of shots of women’s feet, a dodgy scene that plays Bruce Lee as a arrogant goof,
Margie Robbie has hardly any lines and I’m not sure if that’s on purpose, to
represent how little power women had in the ‘60’s or if it’s just bad writing.
I had expected the film to follow the real-life Manson murders, just from the viewpoint
of fictional characters, so I wasn’t expecting it to end as it does. But the
ending does explain the title, e.g. this is the fairy-tale ending where the bad
guys are defeated, and the good guys save the girl and the day. But it just
feels like we are watching a bunch of scenes without an overarching storyline.
None of the characters are particularly changed by the end of the film, just a
little older, but maybe that was the point? That this is slice of life drama
and not a three-act story?
…and I did this
week’s G2 Crossword:
…Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a good start, a few
of the clues were tricky and needed serious chewing over, but we only had to
cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). Although we should have
gotten two of the three – ‘absolve’ and ‘deduct’, but we did learn that a
‘large dark low cloud’ is called a ‘stratus’ (and there have been plenty of
these clouds out and about the last few days, so it’s good to know what their
proper name is)…
…Tuesday’s crossword goes even better and we only had to
cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24) – I went for ‘gabba’ instead of
‘gamma’ for ‘third letter of the Greek alphabet’ (maybe I had The Ramones on my
mind), but did learn that ‘corsage’ means ‘bouquet’. I was a little confused by
12 down ‘one of a set of 20 children have for starters’, I spent too long
wondering what 20 children might have for starters till I realised that it was
a set off 20 things that children have for starters, or a ‘milk tooth’ as it’s
better known…
…and things take a serve nosedive with Wednesday’s
crossword. It was a tricky grid and we had to cheat on a quarter of it (five
out of 21). Not good, not good at all. It’s like the little grey cells were
cruising along nicely but were suddenly slammed into by a lorry. But we did
learn that a ‘Kookaburra’ is a ‘large kingfisher (aka laughing jackass), that the
‘fitteing that serves as fulcrum for an oar’ is called a ‘rowlock’, that a
‘blini’ is a ‘Russian pancake served with caviar and sour cream’ and not a posh
cracker and that ‘Hero’ was ‘Leander’s lover, who committed suicide when he
drowned’. So not a good grid, but an educational one…
…while Thursday’s crossword pulls us out of the nosedive (a
little) as we just had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 23).
Again, there were a couple that I should have got, like ‘squander’ from
‘misspend’ (and if you’ve seen my credit card bills, you’ll know that I know
all about misspending!), ‘arteries’ from ‘blood vessels’, I went for ‘aortaies’
instead (if I’d wait till I got ‘tact’ for the intersecting T I would have
known that it was ‘arteries’). But we learnt that ‘lady fingers’ is another
name for ‘okra’ and that ‘Khartoum’ is the ‘Sudanese capital’…
…Friday’s crossword goes went poorly as well, having to
cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out 21). Most of the clues were straight
forward enough and only needed nominal chewing over, but I did lump for
‘massive’ for ‘huge’, if I’d waited for some intersect letters I might have
changed my mind and gone for the right answer ‘monster’. Que sera sera. But I
did learn that a ‘small pile of soil blighting a lawn’ is called a ‘worm cast’
and that a ‘legislative assembly’ is called a ‘diet’…
…and Saturday’s crossword was a bit of a head scratcher, a
tough one to complete for the little grey cells. And we had to cheat on a fifth
of the clues (five out of 23), which feels like a better result than we
deserved. A poor finish to a pretty poor week. But we did learn that a
‘peccadillo’ is a ‘minor transgression’, and not a weird that someone likes.
Roll on next week’s grids…
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