Days Seventy-Four to Eighty-Two

I‘ve been doing a bit of job searching, but haven’t found much to apply for. Lots of the jobs I’ve seen are either too junior or too senior (although this isn’t always reflected in the salary!), still, I have a few months left where I can afford to be choosy about what jobs I apply for.

My reading has most been comics or newspaper based recently. Highlights include Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire’s Nameless City Vol. 2The Stone Heart, Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn and Simon Bowland’s Nameless, Chad Fifer, Chris Lackey and LNJ Culbard’s Deadbeats and old Batman stories (part of the British DC piecework series) titled Strange Apparitions.

The Stone Heart continues Rat’s and Kai’s adventures in the Nameless City, things start out happy with the good vibes from Vol. 1 continuing over, but it’s not soon before things take a dark turn, then a darker turn and then an ‘Empire Strike Back’ turn. Vol. 2 is a great read, it’s just a shame that Vol. 3 is the last we’ll see of these characters for the foreseeable future. 

Nameless is kinda the opposite of The Nameless City, a horror comic about God coming back to Earth (sort of) and this is the Old Testament fire and brimstone and anger and smiting type of God! It’s an enjoyable read and kinda uplifting, it kinda reminded me of the Parallax View (the book more than the film), Blow Out, Escape From New York, The Thing, Donnie Darko (and others) where the bad guy/thing doesn’t win, but neither do the good guys at best they can walk away or they’re dead.

Strange Apparitions has this weird story featuring Alfred’s cousin, who has a game changing heart transplant technique, which he will destroy unless Batman is able to catch a murder and in do so prove humanity’s worth!!!

There's also a nice Nick and Nora cameo:

Deadbeats is a fun jazz and zombies romp set in the twenties. The main characters, Lester, Hank and Willie, are set up quickly as fully rounded people who accidently stumble into Lovecraftian zombie outbreak and then kinda stumble out of it! A good fun read. 

And last Wednesday’s NCBD had plenty of great reads:

Psychemagik have a great offer going on their Bandcamp page, 100 great tracks for a fiver (or more), the only downside is that it’ll take a while to work your way through them!

I’ve also got the new Black Angels album, Death Song < http://theblackangels.com/>, which continues the Angels psychedelic shoegazery adventures. Check out the album and then go buy it.

I also picked up a couple of older CDs:

Can’t believe it’s 20+ years since Dig Your Own Hole and Fun Lovin’ Criminals came out, although that does mean that the stigma of liking the FLC is gone (I remember James Lavelle (or it might have been DJ Shadow) calling them Top Shop rap). The Lawless OST has a great country version of the Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat and I hope that there are some other gems on there. The same with the Soft Cell CDs, I’ve liked what I’ve heard, bit I haven’t heard much. And if Ghoststory is half as good as the other School of Seven Bell’s albums it should be a blast.

The medication my GP prescribed, Serc, does seem to be working and I’m feeling less dizzy/faint/about to collapse when I’m out and about, although part of me wonders whether it’s the medicine working or if it’s a placebo type effect. Guess I find out when I go back to the GP to review how it’s working.

And I’m finally getting around to figuring out where to hang my Primal Scream plane:

Which is meant to be like this:

But come out as too purple (so maybe I should re-do the paint job?)

I also made a (Lego) car:

 

Days Fifty-Five to Seventy-Three

I have spent a lot of time pottering about - reading a little, watching a bit of a boxset or two, listening to (and buying) music, feeling a bit sick/under the weather – and occasionally looking for a job.

Since my last post there have been three new comicbook days:

So lots of good new reading ahead/had.

Henchgirl (https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/30-872/Henchgirl-TPB) was a great read and I highly recommend it. Henchgirl has a Scott Pilgrim/Buffy flavour, with the characters and the world feeling real and relatable, even though people have superpowers, there are serums that turn you evil and there are carrot people!  The volume ends of a cliffhanger, kinda like the Angel cliffhanger, which leaves you both wanting more and feel satisfied (that you’ve read a complete story that you can continue in your mind/daydreams/etc.).

Lazarus ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_%28comics%29) has been a really gripping story with a fresh spin on the post-apocalypse/big disaster future, I’m surprised that a TV company hasn’t snapped it up. Forever is a great hero/protagonist, with her certainty about the world starting to crumble, can’t wait to read what happens next. 

I also went to a friend’s retirement drinks, we’d worked together for over eight years, so it was good to toast him on his way (and to catch up with everyone else – it seems that the DH is not coping so well with having cut staff by 30%, with many of those who stayed applying to work in other Departments). One downside was that my hangover lasted for the best part of three days! Which wasn’t helped with a pay day pint (or two) the next day with other friends!

It was a good couple of weeks for TV. <SPOILERS>

The Walking Dead season 7 finale both had loads of action and a few twists, but also felt a bit dragged out – Negan is still in charge of his gang and the real fight with the Saviours hasn’t started! – the while season was building up to the “final” fight between Rick and Negan and we’re left with a ‘…to be continued next year’! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_(season_7))

The new season (season 3) of iZombie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IZombie_(TV_series)) started and the first episode has kept up the high standard of seasons 1 and 2 (which I think is down to the episodes per season being kept down, so there is no need to pad out to meet the 22 episode standard for US TV. Although the great writers, actors, directors, etc. do play a role in this excellence!!!) 

The first episode picks up, more or less, straight from the season 2 finale and sets up the rest of season 3 really well. It’s great that Clive is now in on the secret and that it’s strengthened his relationship with Liv, it’s sad that Ravi is losing Payton (although it’s good for the drama) and Liv & Major seem to be happier/settled  with where their lives are (although I’, sure that life/the writers will test this). The second episode keeps the excellence train rolling with flashbacks to Clive's past (while we see Clive embracing GoT, we don't learn the fate of Clive's mustache).

And the new season (season 8) of Archer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_(TV_series)) started. Archer is probably may favourite show (tied with iZombie) and I hope that it’s on British TV soon (come on Netflixs!!!).

I saw the Ghost In The Shell live action film, which looks really go in 3D, when the camera glides through the city I did feel a little sick (as I can’t really do heights)! I would give the film 7 out of ten and while there has been a lot of controversy about ‘whitewashing’ I think some of the criticism has been unfair/nit picking and kinda ignores the film's in-story reason for why an Asian character is now Western. However, the film doesn't really explore this reason and what it means for the characters and thier family and friends, which kinda reinforces the claims of ‘whitewashing’.

I also watched the director's cut of The Island of Doctor Moreau (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Dr._Moreau_(1996_film)), starring Marlon Brando, which was much better than some reviews would make you think (although the reviews are of the non-director's cut version, so maybe that version is terrible?). I haven’t read the novel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau) but the film has a decent story and is well acted, although the documentary about how it was made, Lost Souls, makes me question if the characters who were dicks or crazy were portrayed this way by the actor's ability or if it was down to the fact that the actor was a dick/crazy!

As it’s the 20^th anniversary of Buffy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer) I’ve been rewatching the series (along with Angel) and it’s as good as I remember. I’ve only watched up to the last ¼ of season three so far as one of the discs has got a nasty scratch on it which stops it from working (so I’ve had to buy a second hand copy of season 3 from amazon), but it’s been fun see little jokes/asides which link to future storylines/character development – Willow, after meeting her vampire doppelganger, saying that she might be a little gay, or Buffy telling Xander that it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye (which he does in season 7).

I’ve also started to watch 11.22.63 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11.22.63), which so far has been really good and compelling, although there’s plenty of episodes left for it to go tits up!

Stand out music for me was the Whitey albums Great Shakes Vol. 1 and 2, great post-punk-discoy indie kinda music, covering all the bases from straight up dance cuts to mellow reflective pieces. Highly recommended (https://njwhitey.bandcamp.com/). And Moon Rocks Vol.4 which is full of beautiful (and modern) ambient music (https://throneofblood.bandcamp.com/album/moon-rock-volume-4)

Last Monday (the 10^th) I went to GPs about my fainting/collapsing episodes and to discuss the heart and blood pressure tests I had had. Basically, the tests said that a had slightly low blood pressure, that there was nothing wrong with my heart and that I should loss a few stones and cut down on the alcohol. Which has led my GP to think that I may have an inner ear problem or vertigo, so I’ve been prescribed Serc for three weeks to see if that helps/solves the problem (so far it is helping, so fingers crossed that when I go back to the GP everything is sorted). 

As I was waiting to pick up my prescription there was a customer picking up some syringes, citric acid and other harm reduction equipment, which was slightly weird, as in my eight and half years working in drug policy I’d never seen this happen “in the real world”. The pharmacy staff handled it as nothing special and it felt good see a real life application of the policy work I used to do. Also, as a treat I brought Rouge One on DVD and it’s as good as it was in the cinema and is probably my second/third favourite Star Wars film.

Got my haircut ready for when I get an interview (hopefully soon) and now it’s Good Friday, so chocolate to look forward too.

Also, I brought this cat to brighten up the place: