Aka Monday 11th October - Sunday 31st October 2021
This “trinight” I:
…brought some music, and even managed to listen to some of it!...
...I got the latest reissue of The Rolling Stones ‘Tattoo You’, which I’ve previously not paid much attention too, as it’s outside of the Stones golden era (basically when Jimmy Miller was producing them in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s), but it’s better than I expected. I already knew ‘Start Me Up’ and ‘Waiting On A Friend’, but ’Slave’ and ‘Tops’ are also top-notch. And the outtakes on the bonus disc were also good, especially ‘Fiji Jim’ and ‘Fast Talking, Slow Walking‘. A really enjoyable album…I also listened to some Stones bootlegs, outtakes from the Jimmy Miller and ‘Black and Blue’ era. There’s an epic 11 minutes version of ‘Hey Negrita’ which just grooves like a mother, early versions of ‘Slave’, ‘I Don’t Know The Reason Why’, just loads of extended versions/jammed versions of songs…
…I also got and listened to ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror – A Tribute To The Velvet Underground & Nico’, mostly because Bobby Gillespie sings on Thurston Moore’s cover of ‘Heroin’ and Courtney Barnett does a cover (of ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’) and a chance to check out some other people, like Kurt Vile. The album is fine, but after the first listen nothing really stuck in my head, I was compelled to relisten to it. I don’t feel ripped off get this album, but I’m not sure how much I’ll be listening to it, as a whole album, again…talking of Mr G I also got ‘Demodelica’, an album of demos for ‘Screamadelica’ and shows that Acid House did free up Primal Scream to be more adventurous and that ‘Screamadelica’ wasn’t just the invention of Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicolson. These are pretty good songs as they are, but they also show that Mr Weatherall and Mr Nicolson brought a special something when producing them and elevated these demos into the stone-cold classic ‘Screamadelica’. A definite case of the sum being greater than the parts…
…the postman delivered my copy of Aberdeen City’s ‘God Is Going To Be Sick Of Me EP’, which I only got for the Lo-Fidelity Allstars remix of the title track...
...the songs on this EP plough a kinda mid/late era LCD Soundsystem furrow, sounding not unpleasant but not standing out from the pack, the Lo-Fi’s remix adds a shimmer of punk paste grittiness, aiming it for a sweat drenched basement club…the postman also delivered my copy of the Ninja Tune's compilation ‘Funkungfusion’. Which I primarily got for DJ Food’s ‘The Crow’, which is a different mix to the version on ‘Kaleidoscope’ (or the companion album for ‘Kaleidoscope’) and because it’s a second-hand album it’s cheap and chock full of Ninja Tune goodness! Artists such as Mr Scruff, Animals On Wheels, The Irresistible Force, The Herbaliser, Coldcut and many, many more, how can you go wrong!
…I also got the reissue of ‘Let It Come Down’ by Spiritualized, which still sounds as epic and panoramic as it did when it first came out…I also listened to (a) ‘Music by Ry Cooder’ by Ry Cooder, which is a mighty collection of Mr Cooder’s film score/soundtrack work, lots of plaintive and ambient guitar, steep pedal and bluesy/folky songs, (b) ‘House Masters – Armand Van Helden’, which has some classic dance tracks, like his own U Don’t Know Me and Flowerz, Barbara Streisand by his Duck Sauce collaboration and his remixes of CJ Bolland’s Sugar Is Sweeter and Sneaker Pimps’ Spin Spin Sugar, and (c) Elvis Presley’s ‘Way Down In The Jungle Room’, which collects songs from sessions in 1976 at his Jungle Room in Graceland (which appeared on the last two studio albums he made ‘From Elvis Presley Boulevard’, Memphis, Tennessee’ and ‘Moody Blue’) and it’s a high quality collection of country, rock, soul and pop songs, all with that special Elvis touch which infuses the songs with an extra bit of soulfulness…
…I also watched a few films, including ‘The Conjuring 2’, which was okay. It’s based on the same story that ‘Ghostwatch’ used but wasn’t as scary as ‘Ghostwatch’. ‘No Sudden Move’ is a noir crime story of gangsters and betrayal and twists and was pretty good. For Halloween, as is tradition, I watched ‘Halloween’, which still manages, after forty plus years, to pack a scare or two. I also saw the new ‘Halloween’ film, ‘Halloween Kills’...
...which is pretty brutal and bloody, but also has some cheesy scenes of the locals uniting to take down the Shape (all while chanting “Evil dies tonight”)…I also did some reading:
‘Harley Quinn – The Eat, Bang, Kill Tour’ #1, which is based on the ‘Harley Quinn’ cartoon and does catch the tone and humour of the show, with beautiful Max Sarin art
‘6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton’ #4 and #5, continuing the story of Trigger Keaton co-stars investigating his death, mixed comedy and action in the usual Kyle Starks excellence
‘Superman and The Authority’ #4 which concludes the tale in slightly unsatisfactory fashion, as we’re left we a cliff-hanger leading into a story by another writing in another comic
I also re-read ‘Steeple’ Vol. 1 by John Alison, and it’s still funny with an emotionally true story of new starts and new friends and (possibly) poor decisions
…and I had a little bit of a Chuck Palahniuk binge as I read and finished ‘Adjustment Day’ and ‘The Invention Of Sound’. ‘Adjustment Day’ is about what happens when America’s underclass seizes back power and what happens next. It’s kinda like what if the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol was successful (or what if it had some proper planning behind it!). And it veers between obvious satire and fantasy to being very close to the bone, scarily close to the bone. ‘The Invention Of Sound’ is a smaller story about a sound engineer, who uses dubious means to do her work, and accidently invents a scream that can destroy and kill, a father looking for his daughter and the hidden links between the two. And it’s a tense horror story, looking at the relationships between dads and their daughters and daughters and their dads. If you like Chuck’s work you’ll enjoy these books, but if you’re new to his work, it’s probably best to start with ‘The Invention Of Sound’ as it’s more grounded and easier to get into the book’s world...I also brought the new issue of ‘Scream’ magazine, mostly because it had an article on ‘The Beast Must Die’, one of my favourite films, a glorious horror b-movie. But there’s stuff on the new ‘Halloween’ film ‘Halloween Kills’, and ‘Friday the 13th’ and ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’…
…and the new issue of 'Sight and Sound' magazine, which, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, has an in-depth look at how Anthony Burgess novel was turned into a film by Stanley Kubrick and what happened next…
…I also got ’Tenement Kid’ by Bobby Gillespie, his autobiography up to the release of 'Screamadelica' and ‘Supersonic’, which collects the interviews for the film about Oasis ‘Oasis: Supersonic’ (but I haven’t read either yet). And I picked up this “trinight’s” New Comic Book Day gems:
…the postman also delivered this month’s Kyle Stark’s Sticker Club stickers:
…and my health went into a weird spiral, on Monday (18th October 2021) my symptoms started to come back again, the chest pain, like a sharp stitch in the upper chest mostly in the centre, but sometimes on the left-hand side, and to a lesser extent the right-hand side, and the tiredness/fatigue and shortness of breath. Hooray…not! Nathan strikes back! And through the week it got worse and worse until it reached a peak on Thursday (21st October 2021) and then it started to dull down and by Sunday (24th October 2021), when the chest pain was pretty mellow and practically gone…and then when it had pretty much gone I slightly did my back in (starting on Saturday 30th October 2021), not too bad…I could get out and about, but I didn’t have full degree of movement and bending down was tricky…but at least the chest pain had gone!
…and on Saturday (30th October 2021) I picked up some National Lottery winnings:
…which ever so slightly made up for the bad back!
…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a flying start as we only had to cheat on a thirteenth of the clues (two out of 26). Maybe this is due to us using the old ways, the cunning ways, to name my illness (or at least the symptoms) to give me more control over it or at least the semblance of control. Anyway, I’m slightly miffed that we didn’t get ‘ladybirds’ from ‘coloured beetles’ (but at least we learnt that ladybirds are beetles) and that as soon as we got the intersecting ‘o’ we plumped for ‘monarchy’ for ‘King or Queen’, didn’t even bother checking the other intersecting letters or whether it was the went length, if we had maybe we would have dismissed it and gotten the correct answer of ‘sovereign’! Onwards…
…things dip a little with Tuesday’s grid as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24), so we’re back to more average ground. But at least we learnt that ‘catlick’ is a synonym for a ‘perfunctory wash (informal)’, that ‘ambit’ is for ‘scope’ and that an ‘agate’ is a ‘stone with coloured bands’. Also miffed that we missed ‘obscure’ from ‘not clear’, but the rest of the clues fell easily enough to the mighty little grey cells. Maybe we were a tad too sleepy and should have given it a few more minutes before working on the grid and not dived in pre-breakfast?...
…we must have gotten enough sleep as we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues for Wednesday’s grid. The little grey cells powered through the clues, only stumbling on not knowing that ‘Kirsch’ is a ‘liqueur distilled from cherries’…
…and we’re back to normal with Thursday’s grid, back to having to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21). Not sure why we missed ‘a lot’ from ‘very much’ or ‘strong suit’ from ‘forte’, maybe it’s just being back in the office and exercise leaving us a little tired, but we did learn that ‘prolix’ means ‘long-winded’…
…and we’re back on top with Friday’s grid, we only had to cheat on one of the 23 clues. The little grey cells went gangbusters on the clues, with the only blind spot being that we didn’t know that Vikram Seth was an Indian writer. Not only are the little grey cells back up and chugging, but my physical health is feeling much better, it’s like we’re almost back to normal, back to the good ole days of six months ago…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on a meh note, as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out of 21). I guess it’s been a long week and the little grey cells are just tuckered out, which explains why we didn’t get ‘bucketload’ from ‘large quantity (informal)’ or ‘rifle’ from ‘ransack’, but we did learn that the ‘Main’ is a ‘major tributary of the Rhine, flowing through Frankfurt’. Hopefully it’s just a little bump on our road back to full health and crossword dominance 😊…
…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:
…not much to say about Monday’s crossword as the little grey cells smashed it out of the park and we didn’t have to cheat on any of the twenty-three clues, not sure what we did to achieve this state of mind, but a superb start to the week…
…and we don’t continue that awesome start with Tuesday’s grid, as we stumbled and had to cheat on a sixth if the clues (four out of 23). Maybe the little grey cells were burnt out from yesterday’s clean sweep? Although the chest pain is getting a bit more stinging, so maybe it’s mental health reflecting physical health again? Whatever the case, we still should have gotten ‘echo’ from ‘delta’s follower’, which in hindsight is such an obvious answer, but which we just couldn’t figure out. And ‘breather’ from ‘short respite’! But we did learn that a ‘lugger’ is a ‘small working sailing boat’ and we will go to out grave believing that ‘electric lamp’ is not an acceptable clue for ‘bulb’! Yes, a bulb is part of an electric lamp, but it is not itself an electric lamp! Using that logic, a plug is an electric lamp! So annoyed about this…
…things have perked up with Wednesday’s grid (but not our physical health, so maybe there is no link between how well I feel and how well the little grey cells work?) and we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25). Although we did forget that the maple and sycamore trees are part of the ‘Acer’ family and instead of clicking check we clicked reveal for ‘relatives’, when I’m pretty sure that we would have figured out that the answer is ‘kinfolk’, so maybe our physical health and mental health/ability are directly linked? But we did learn that a ‘Malay dagger with a scalloped blade’ is called a ‘Kris’…
…the perkiness continues with Thursday’s grid. We only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). The little grey cells are back to their best, but our chest is starting to hurt again, so maybe there’s an inverse link between physical and mental wellbeing? Either way, the little grey cells just marched through the clues, and we only stumbled with blanking on ‘turned out’ from ‘proved to be the case’ and not knowing that ‘Paignton’ is a ‘Devon seaside resort’…
…Friday’s grid was a little trickier, it took longer and we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). Or maybe the little grey cells were a little burnt out? Either way, we missed a couple of easy ones and learnt that ‘Garda’ is ‘Italy’s largest lake’ and that ‘Preminger’ was an ‘Austro-Hungarian-born American film director, d.1986 in New York’…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on a high note as we only had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (two out of 18). Although we should have a gotten a clean sweep, as we should have gotten ‘slog’ from ‘work hard’ and ‘vertical’ from ‘upright’, but apart from that mess up it was a pretty straight forward grid for the little grey cells…
…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:
…Monday’s crossword gets Halloween week off to a great start as we only had to cheat on one of the 19 clues. The little grey cells were on top form, well rested, and knocked the clues for six. Only fumbling on not knowing that ‘Boulogne’ is a ‘major fishing port in Northern France’…
…the little grey cells are still knocking them out of the park with Tuesday’s grid, we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. But in hindsight we should have gotten ‘eclipsed’ from ‘was of greater significance than’ and a clean sweep…
…Wednesday’s grid goes almost as well, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23). Although we did miss the easy ‘aqua’ from ‘pale blue colour’, we did learn that a ‘curtain rod covering’ is called a ‘pelmet’…
…and things take a massive tumble with Thursday’s grid as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (six out of 25). A really poor performance, which recently has occurred when I’ve not been feeling with, but health-wise we’re feeling pretty chipper right now, just tired and drained. Like my powerbar is on yellow, getting close to red. Which would explain missing some of the easy ones, but we did learn that ‘pampas’ are ‘grassy plains’, that ‘engraving in low relief on a brooch or stone’ is called ‘cameo’, that ‘Andorra’ is a ‘small west European country’, that ‘swathe’ means ‘bandage up’ and that ‘Osmium’ is the ‘heaviest known metal, Os’…
…but things start to look back up with Friday’s grid, as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). And we’re feeling even more tired than yesterday, which either means today’s clues were easier or yesterday’s poor performance was a fluke? Although we should have gotten ‘numpty’ from ‘idiot’ and ‘toodle-oo’ from ‘see you later! (informal)’…
…and we end the week on a fairly okay, average note, after a pretty decent week we had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 22) for Saturday’s grid. Maybe the tiredness had caught up with us as the three we missed were obvious in hindsight, ‘vast’ from ‘enormous’, ‘locomotion’ from ‘travel’ and ‘imitative’ from ‘modelled after something’…
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