Days 1087 - 1093

Aka Monday 20^th to Sunday 26th January 2020

 

Another quiet week, working and not working and a few drinks with friends on Friday night and pottering about… 

 

…the post man delivered last month’s copy of Scream magazine, which I missed in the shops, but had to have for the feature on ‘John Carpenter’s The Thing’, hence ordering it, but the articles on Hammer House of Horror 'Dracula', ‘The Faculty’ and ‘Jason Takes Manhattan’ look good:

…I also got a second-hand copy of the Hawk Williams tribute album ‘Timeless’ and Volume 2 of ‘Reach Up: Disco Wonderland’:

…I haven’t listened to ‘Timeless’ yet, but the first CD, the mix, of ‘Reach Up: Disco Wonderland’ Volume 2, which is just as advertised, chock full of disco goodness. I also picked up a small, but perfect crop of New Comic Book Day comics:

 

…and some more (six!) DC Lego Minifigures (two of which were copies and I really want to get a Mister Miracle and Metamorpho):

…and I got the new Chuck Palahniuk book ‘Consider This’, which I start reading as soon as I finish the 17 other books I’ve got on my to-read-pile:

…and I had a long walk. The second of the New Year and it’s been too long since Long Walks were a regular thing. I really need to make sure that I at least do one Long Walk a week (I should at least be doing one on Saturday and one on Sunday, but sometimes the late Friday and Saturday nights require Sunday to be a day of rest):

 

…and I (finally) read some comics:

‘Trees: Three Fates’ #1 – 5: Written by Warren Ellis, drawn by Jason Howard, colour flats by Dee Cunniffe and letters by Fonografiks, ‘Trees: Three Fates’ is a great self-contained story about a murder in a small village/community, the detective working the case, her past relationship and it’s link with the ‘Trees’ and the human cost of these things. This is a nice crime story, which, like the best crime stories, covers a lot more than ‘crime’. Using it as a basis to look at the feelings of being replaced and what you’d do to stay where you are, to stay in your position of power. And the feelings of relationship regret and how it affects your present/future. There’s also an explanation of what the Trees may be, which could be true or could just be one persons (poetic) interpretation of what the Trees are. 10/10.

‘Firefly – The Outlaw Ma Reynolds’ and ‘Firefly’ #13:  Both these stories take fairly standard western tropes, put a fresh(er) spin on them and then head out to entertain and explore the ‘Firefly’ universe. And Greg Pak has done a great job of capturing the tone, the voice of the TV show (and film) in these ‘Firefly’ comics, while playing to the strengths of comics. These aren’t just screenplays with pictures. Although it should be noted that the pictures are very, very pretty. ‘Firefly – The Outlaw Ma Reynolds’ is illustrated by Davide Gianfelice and George Lambadais, coloured by Joana LaFuente and lettered by Jim Campbell, and tells the secret origin of Mal Reynolds and how the actions of the Alliance changed Ma Reynolds from an upright citizen into a criminal and how this affected Mal and set him on his path. While #13, illustrated by Lalit Kumar Sharma, coloured by Francesco Segala and lettered by Jim Campbell, follows up on the outcome from ‘Firefly – The Outlaw Ma Reynolds’, with Mal settling into his new role, while not exactly letting go of his outlaw past. 9/10 and 9/10.

‘Once & Future’ #6: Written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Dan Mora, coloured by Tamara Bonvillain and lettered by Ed Dukeshire. In which Duncan, and Rose, save the day, save Gran and except their new roles. ‘Once & Future’ has been a great series and this last issue keeps up the tempo, with equal amounts world-ending cataclysmic events and personal, emotional moments. With everything wrapped up nicely…except for the (excellent and unexpected) post credits sequence setting up the next storyline. 9/10.

…and I watched ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, which almost lives up to my memory of watching it when it first came out. A very skilled mix of film noir/P.I. tropes and cartoons, with some great set-pieces, my favourite of which is when Eddie and Roger have been handcuffed together for a long while and Eddie finally has a hacksaw and is trying to cut through the handcuffs. Roger slips his hand out to give Eddie a better angle and then:

Eddie Valiant: [Roger managed to slip his arm out of the Handcuffs he and Eddie were attached to] You mean you could've taken your hand out of that cuff at any time?

Roger Rabbit: No, not at any time, only when it was funny.

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a pretty good start as we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). The little gey cells have had their day of rest and have come back fightin’, and we learnt that a ‘beadle’ is the title of a poorhouse official, that a ‘Spanish gentleman’ is a ‘hidalgo’ and that a ‘Swiss state’ is called a ‘canton’, a good start to the week…

…and Tuesday’s crossword goes as well, only having to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). It’s like the little grey cells are in the zone and just knocking the answers outta’ the park. And we learnt that, at the time of writing, there have been 13 popes called ‘Leo’…

…Wednesday’s grid tumbles even more quickly, as per 1 across the grid was ‘dead and buried’, and we only had to cheat on one of the 21 clues, 14 down ‘bird that booms’, which is a ‘Bittern’. Well done my little grey cells!!!...

…Thursday’s crossword goes even better, out of the 23 clues we only had to cheat on 22 across, ‘traditional pub game’ and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get the answer, ‘dominoes’, even though I had three of the four intersecting letter, but not the ‘d’, if I’d had the ‘d’ it would have been super obvious that the answer was ‘dominoes’ and we could have had a clean sheet, ah well, onwards and upwards…

…Friday’s crossword went a tad downhill as me and my little grey cells had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (four out of 21). Again, most of the clues were straight forward to get, most of the harder ones got easier once I had some intersecting letters, but those last four I just couldn’t get (but I should have gotten ‘conjugal’ and ‘can-do’), but we did learn that ‘young hens’ are called ‘pullets’ and I’ve never heard of a ‘troublesome child’ being called a ‘holy terror’ (unless Damien counts! But surely he’s an exception that proves the rule?)…

…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on an average note as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (approx.) (four out of 23). Most of the answers just dripped off my fingers, but those four…we just couldn’t crack them (but we should have gotten that ‘lavender’ is a ‘plant used in perfumery’ and that ‘moreover’ is a synonym for ‘besides’), but we did learn that in ‘church in Scotland’ can be called a ‘kirk’ and that the ‘Larch’ is ‘coniferous tree with deciduous bright green needles’…

Days 1080 - 1086

Aka Monday 13^th - Sunday 19^th January 2020

 

A bit of a quiet week this week…although they’re all become quiet weeks. Partly, I guess, because I’m trying to be more financial responsible (although with a few excepts like comics and Lego 😊), watching the pennies and not splashing out on things. Like do I buy lunch from a café/sandwich shop/etc. or do I make lunch at home for half the price. Or waiting for the DVD rather than seeing the film at the cinema. But also, because I’m not putting myself out there. As I write this (16th Feb) it's clear that I really need to start getting out there, reading the local papers and going out to local events, especially the free ones!

Anyway, this week the post man delivered my second-hand copies of Beck’s ‘The Information’ and Bomb the Bass’ ‘Sandcastles’ EP. ‘The Information’ isn’t a bad album, all the songs are pretty good, but only a few of them soar. From the ‘Sandcastles’ EP, Sandcastles and Absorber are okay trip-hoppy tracks, but for me the standouts (and the reason I got the CD) are the Bug Powder Dust remixes. The Kruder & Dorfmeister Session version is an epic number that maxes out the Lalo Schifrinness of the original track and adds gallons of laid-backness. While the Chemical Brothers Mix goes in the opposite direction, turning it into an epic dancefloor killer and one of the Chemical Brothers best tracks/remixes.

…I also picked up these New Comic Book Day gems:

…and a copy of ‘Spook Street’, the next in the Jackson Lamb/Slough House series, to read once I’ve finished reading ‘Keep Music Evil’…

...which I did finish a few days later. ‘Keep Music Evil’ is a biography of The Brian Jonestown Massacre/Anton Newcombe (who is basically the BJM), written by Jesse Valencia. ‘Keep Music Evil’ does a great job focusing on the music and not the more tabloid aspects of the BJM, such as the drug use, fights, band bust-ups, etc., although they are mentioned and discussed and not brushed under the carpet. Describing how great the BJM’s music is and it felt like I was dogearing every other page so I could dig out the album or EP and re-listen to the songs being described. It also does a great job of inspiring artistic thoughts and not letting limitations be obstacles or stop you from pursuing your art. 9/10.

…I also picked up some DC Lego Minifigures:

…and I read ‘Undiscovered Country’ #1, #2 and #3, by Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini & Matt Wilson. In ‘Undiscovered Country’ the United States has sealed itself off from the world. And in the thirty years since then the US has become a mysterious lost land and the rest of the world has gone pretty much to hell, with a global pandemic threatening to kill everyone. But then a message comes from the US, the first since it sealed itself off from the world, claiming to have a cure and offering a trade, so a team is sent into the US to get the cure.

But trouble strikes as the team’s helicopter is shot from the sky and the America the team find themselves in bears no resemblance to the US of thirty years ago. It’s very much a Mad Max style land, with weird creatures and vehicles and weirder people. With some hints that time has passed much more quickly in the US than outside.  There are plenty of hints, mysteries and ground-for-future-mysteries being laid, a  bit like a comic book  version of ‘Lost’, which is more than enough to hook me in, at least for the next few issues. 7/10.

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword got the week off to a bit of a poor start, having to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24), although that was mostly due to my poor knowledge of geography and historical literature. But now I know that ‘Hugo’ was the ‘author of Les Miserables, d.1885 and that ‘Bergen’ is a ‘Norwegian port city’. And that ‘punctilious’ means ‘formal’…

…Tuesday’s crossword went even worse, having to cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 23), the little grey cells found this grid too tough a nut to crack and we missed out on some obvious answers – ‘tumid’ from ‘abnormally swollen’ and ‘nail’ from ‘tack’. But we learnt that ‘piebald’ means ‘marked in two different colours’, that a ‘dingle’ is a ‘small wooded hollow’, that ‘maggots used as bait’ are called ‘gentles’ and that ‘stucco’ is ‘fine plaster for ornamenting walls, etc’…

…and Wednesday’s crossword completely reversed things as I didn’t have to cheat on any of the 25 clues. The little grey cells powered through the clues and trounced the grid 😊…

…and things are back to normal with Thursday’s crossword as I had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). Again, the little grey cells powered through most of the clues but came a cropper and hit the wall with those four clues, e.g. we went for ‘brag’ instead of ‘smug’ for ‘showing excessive self-pride’, but did learn that ‘cirri’ are ‘high altitude clouds forming “mares’ tails”’ and that a ‘Magyar’ is “a member of a people who originated in the Urals and migrated westwards to settle in what is now Hungary in the 9th century AD”...

…and Friday’s crossword flows the other way as we only had to cheat on one of the 22 clues. We didn’t get ‘titanium’ from ‘metal used in strong lightweight alloys’, which we should have gotten and I’m still not sure how I know that the ‘Cresta Run’ is a ‘Swiss skeleton toboggan track’, but it stuck in my brain and every once in a while it proves useful…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a fairly okay note as we only had to cheat on 15.38% of the clues (four out of 26), although it would have gone better if we hadn’t gone for ‘shield’ instead of ‘sheath’ for ‘protective covering’ and for ‘plan’ instead of ‘ruse’ for ‘stratagem’. But we learnt that ‘Shaw’ was the ‘Pygmalion playwright’ and that ‘Lithuania’ is a ‘Baltic country’, roll on next week’s grids…