Aka Monday 13th March - Sunday 19th March 2023
Following on from last week, the big-wigs at the BBC (both of whom have strong links with the Tory Party, quelle surprise!) backed down on Monday and confirmed that Lineker’s suspension was ended and that they (the BBC) would be starting an independent review of its social media guidelines and how they apply to non-news presenters and freelancers. Much to the disgusted of the right wing press (which is funny given some of their past history with Nazis and fascism, such as the Daily Mail supporting Hitler!), which strongly suggests that this was the right outcome.
The start of the week was spent working in the office, which I took advantage of to go to the cinema after work (as the cinema is five minutes’ walk away from work) and saw ‘Cocaine Bear’:
…from the film’s premise (a bear eats a lot of cocaine and goes on a rampage) you’d expected something un-subtle, either played for laughs or as a out-and-out horror. But ‘Cocaine Bear’ greatly exceeds these expectations. It is highly entertaining. Very funny, very gory and with some unexpected impactful character moments. It takes the absurdist elements and treats them straight-faced. There’s no nudge nudge wink wink, or forced moments, the comedy, the drama, the pathos, all feel earned and natural. It kinda reminds me of the ‘00s ‘Piranha’ remake, as both could easily have been cheesy movies, but both manage to balance the humour, gore and craziness with believable characters and situations (given we’re dealing with a bear high on cocaine!). Well worth a watch, especially on Friday night with friends. The next day I watched ‘Scream VI’:
…which was the first ‘Scream’ film I have seen at the cinema, and it was great fun! Without giving out any spoilers, I think the change of location and lack of a need to introduce the core characters, meant that the story could get right into it. Get right into the action. At this stage of the franchise, we know what to expect from a ‘Scream’ film and ‘Scream VI’ delivers, while adding a few new spins to keep things interesting…I also caught up with a few other films online, the first was ‘Howl’:
…a nice werewolf film, set on the last train from the station, which has broken down in the middle of nowhere and while the passengers wait, some go missing and strange noises are heard! This film makes great use of small budget, keeping things tight and suspenseful. Until it hits the fan and then we’re on a straight chug to scare town. Then I watched ’Hubie Halloween’:
…which I heard about on a recommendation video from Spookyastronauts (a top-notch Youtube Horror channel) and I’m not sure what I feel about this film. A lot of the time it feels like an update of those great Abbott & Costello and Bob Hope comedy/horrors and other times it feels like one of those ‘90s/’00s gross out comedies where everyone is a stereotype. I guess the biggest bugbear for me is how Hubie acts and is treated, with him verging from being just dim to unself-aware to possibly having a learning disability and it feels…wrong.
…and it was my Birthday this week (but not a big/special number, so I didn’t do much special):
…I also got the new Unloved album, 'The Pink Album':
…which is a nice blend of ‘60s girl-groups, dirty rock ‘n’ roll, funk and modern dance music, that transports you to a dark, smoke laden club in an alternative world here the vibe and aesthetic of the late ’60 carried on…I also picked up this week’s New Comic Book Day gems:
…went for two Morning Walks and got back doing some weights. These are the pics from Wednesday’s walk (which took 49min 12 seconds, covering 3.98km, taking 5,308 steps and burning 373 calories):
…and Sunday’s walk (which took 47min 54 secs, covering 3.75km, taking 5,099 steps and burning 352 calories):
…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and the crossword week gets off to a damn solid start. We only had to cheat on 5.56% of the clues (one out of 18). We only let down by our total lack of football interest, otherwise we might of gotten ‘pep talk’ from ‘motivational speech (for Man City players?). That Man City bit totally threw us, and took us off thinking about half-time talks, tactics, etc, but we now know that Pep was/is the Man City manager and it’s pretty obvious…
…things take a massive tumble with Tuesday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 21.05% of the clues (four out of 19). Which is the worst performance this year, I think. Maybe it was because they were only 19 clues, maybe if they had been more clues, we would have gotten more intersecting letters, which could have spurred some correct answers? Or maybe not! As we missed ‘dextrose’ from naturally occurring sugar’, we tried every other type, but just forgot about ‘dextrose! Either way, we learnt that a ‘musical composition played slowly and gracefully’ is called an ‘Adagio’ and that the ‘Smew’ is a ‘small duck found in northern Eurasia, which nests in tree holes’…
...and things are back on track with Wednesday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (two out of 24). I guess that this morning’s walk reinvigorated the little grey cells. Although not enough to get ‘whoa’ from ‘stop!’! But we did learn that ‘Balboa’ was the ‘Spaniard who in 1513 became the first European to see the eastern shores of the Pacific’…
…and things take a tumble, again, with Thursday’s crossword! We had to cheat on 17.39% of the clues (four out of 23). So far it has been a very up and down crosswording week (like how did we not get ‘oeuvre’ from ‘total body of an author’s work)! But it does mean that we learn new words and facts, such as ‘barcarole’, which is the ‘Gondoliers’ song’ or that ‘Porto’ is a ‘city in north-west Portugal, noted for wine’…
…and there’s not much to say about Friday’s crossword as it was a clean sweep! We didn’t have to cheat on any of the 25 clues! Like I said yesterday, it’s been a very up and down week! Roll on tomorrow, which, if the trend holds should go horribly…
…and Saturday’s crossword does buck the trend. We didn’t do horribly, but we didn’t do great either. A very solid middle of the road performance, where we had to cheat on 12.5% of the clues (aka three out of 24). It was a chewy grid and we had some tricky clues to chomp through, but chomp through we did! Learning that ‘Tbilisi’ is ‘Georgia’s capital’ (although that might be a relearn), that an ‘Oratorio’ is a ‘religious musical composition’ and that ‘Alumna’ means ‘old girl’…and here are the Metro cryptic crosswords:
