Days 2141 - 2147

 Aka Monday 28^th September - Sunday 4^th October 2020

Still catching up, so this will be brief…Another quiet Covid-19 week, working and not going out, as no way that is open is worth going to versus the risk of catching Covid-19…and no Long Walk this week, as I felt knackered at the weekend…but I did buy the new Lego Avengers magazine, which came with a free Lego Spidey:

…I also got a Lego Dinosaur kit:

…and I got this week’s New Comic Book Day gems:

…and read ‘Savage Dragon’ #252 (great superhero fun for grown-ups, done in the style of newspaper strip comics) and ‘Adventureman’ #2 and #3 (great pulp fun for grown-ups and non-grown-ups):

…I also watched ‘Doom Patrol’ Season 1, which does a great job of capturing the best bits of the ‘Doom Patrol’ comic – the humour, pathos, horror and far-out-there-ness is all there – but the creative team haven’t been afraid to make changes so that they can tell their story. It’s weird how much has been changes, while still staying true to the characters:

…’Diamond Mercenaries’, a fun b-movie about a diamond heist, that barrels along with plot twists, betrayals plenty of action (although the camera cuts away just before the gory/bloody bits), with a great cast – Telly Savalas (who, just on this performance, would have made a great Rastapopoulos in a Tintin film), Christopher Lee, Maud Adams, OJ Simpson (yes, that OJ) and Peter Fonda:

…and ’Berlin 1976’, a nice heist movie (also starring Telly Savalas), which lacks in tension, but makes up for it with a great cast (Telly Savalas, Robert Culp and James Mason) having fun that translates onto the screen. And a bit of a bonkers story involving kidnapping a Nazi from prison, without the authorities knowing. I can’t elaborate further without spoiling the film:

…which means that I now have a Telly Savalas heist trilogy - ’Diamond Mercenaries’, ‘Berlin 1976’ and the magnificent ‘Kelly’s Heroes’…and yes I did have to get the ’Diamond Mercenaries’ and ‘Berlin 1976’ on non-UK region 2 DVDs as that’s the only way to get these films (on region 2)…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week of to a perfect start as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 24 clues. The little grey cells just knocked them all out of the park. Even the words we didn’t know we got! Like ‘abjure’ from ‘forswear’, we had the intersecting letters ’a_j_r_’ and it made sense that it would end as ‘a_jure’ and then it felt right to add a ‘b’ to get ‘abjure’. The crossword gods must have been smiling on us…

…Tuesday’s grid went almost as well, with 23 of the 24 clues knocked out of the ground! Leading us to learn that ‘Donne’ was an ‘English preacher and meta-physical poet, d.1631’…

…Wednesday’s crossword goes pretty well too. We only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). Learning that a ‘Bavaria in German’ is ‘Bayern’ and that ‘pastrami’ is ‘sliced cured beef’…

…and things take a tumble with Thursday’s grid as we had to cheat on a third of the clues (seven out of 23). I guess the good start to the week has drained the little grey cells a tad, but the silver lining is that we learnt that ‘Montenegro’ is a ‘Balkan country on the Adriatic’, that ‘Marc’ is a ‘brandy-like spirit distilled from grape residue’, that ‘vermicelli’ is pasta in long slender threads’ and that ‘grenache’ is a red wine grape…

…Friday’s grid went a bit better, we only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21). The little grey cells were mostly make to full health, although we got stuck with 17 down ‘sedate’, thinking of synonyms for sedated/sleepy and didn’t think of ‘sedate’ as meaning ‘quiet’ or ‘staid’, which was the answer <shaking head emoji>…

…and the week ends on a poor note with Saturday’s crossword, we had to cheat on a third if the clues (seven out of 23), which I think is mostly due to a few too many blue lagoons the night before <shaking head emoji>…but we did learn that ‘Cecilia’ is the ‘patron saint of musicians’, that an ‘ammonite’ is a ‘coiled fossil shell’, that ‘Ilfracombe’ is a ‘North Devon seaside resort’ and that a ‘fantail’ is a type of pigeon’…

Days 2134 - 2140

Aka Monday 21^st September - Sunday 27^th September 2020

Another quick one as I’m still catching up with this blog…no Long Walk’s this week, I just felt too tired, so decided to have a couple of lie-ins instead…but aside from that a pretty normal week, did work for seven and a bit hours and then relaxed, then went to sleep, then woke up and started all over again, with little interruptions to:

…pick up this week’s New Comic Book Day gems:

…and this month’s Mojo:

  

…the Orbital article was a bit short and the CD only had a couple of decent songs on it, and Queen aren’t my cup of tea, so in hindsight I probably should have left this issue on the shelf, as what I liked in it didn’t really justify the cover price…I also brought ‘Supernatural’ Season 14, ‘Gangs of London’ Season 1, the ‘Breaking the Beats’ compilation and ‘The Hives Live at Third Man Records’:

‘Supernatural’ Season 14 is a solid season of Supernatural, clearing up the plot threads from Season 13 and setting up Season 15. ‘Breaking the Beats’ is a solid collection of tunes, although I still don’t understand what a ‘broken beat’ record is, it just stands like house music to me. And The Hives live album is exactly what you’d think it would be like, high energy rock ‘n’ roll. And I haven't watched 'Gangs of London' yet, but have heard good thing about it.

…and I read a few comics:

‘Savage Dragon’ #248 – 251 – fun superhero stories with a little twist, that they take place in real time and all the past continuity is in play,

‘Firefly’ #18 – 20 – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again these are great ‘Firefly’ stories that feel like unaired stories from the TV show, and

‘Buffy’ #16 & #17, ‘Willow’ #2 & #3 and ‘Angel & Spike’ #12 & #13 – which a lot of Buffyverse stories, but they’re solid stories, but they are a little in the shadow of the “proper” Buffyverse. It’s a double-edged sword, if they stick to close to the original storylines, what’s the point of the new stories, but if they go to far away, they lose that Buffy-ness.

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a fairly good start, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). The little grey cells easily knocked most of the clues off six, with just a few misses. We really should have gotten ‘cocoon’ from ‘protective envelope’ and ‘ominous’ from ‘threatening’, but we did learn that ‘beriberi’ is a ‘disease caused by lack of vitamin B1’…

…Tuesday’s crossword dipped down a little, had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (three out of 23). Again, most of the clues were easily batted away, but with a few got to the stumps ☹ Like, we should have gotten ‘ironic’ from ‘dry – wit’, but we did learn that a ‘clear soup’ is a ‘consomme’…

…while Wednesday’s grid was a walk in the park, as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 25). Not sure why we didn’t get ‘forgo’ from ‘waive’, but we did learn that a ‘culvert’ is an ‘enclosed drain under road or railway track’…

…Thursday’s crossword went just as well, cheating on only a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24) and learning that the ‘side post of a doorway’ is called a ‘jamb’ and ‘quarto’ is a ‘book page size’…either the clues are getting easier or the little grey cells are getting better…

…Friday’s crossword took a bit of a dip, we had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 22). It did take longer to complete, but by taking our time we ended up doing pretty okay. We should have gotten ‘squire’ from ‘landed gent’, but we learnt that ‘Ami’ is a ‘French friend’ and that ‘tournedos’ is a cut of beef…

…and things kinda come crashing down with Saturday’s crossword as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 26). I think the little grey cells were a little tired and emotional from the night before and just weren’t up for batting. Like, for example we got stuck with ‘smart’, thinking of synonyms for ‘clever’, so we didn’t get ‘chic’, but we did learn that ‘beekeepers’ are also called ‘apiarists’…