Aka Monday 30th
March - Aka Sunday 5th April 2020
…and it’s back to
working in the office…
...in many ways it was business as usual, but there were
only four of us in, with the other nine working from home, and the amount of
post we got in was relatively low – Monday was about 75% normal levels and Tues
to Friday varied between 5 – 50%…so it was pretty quick to deal with and we
normally left at lunchtime (left to go home and work, no point staying the
office when we don’t have to). The only ‘blip’ was on Monday, when we had to
get 1,500 letters out to local businesses. Lots of printing and envelope
stuffing! After work I’d enjoyed the garden, while the sun was still out, with
a nice sausage sandwich and a few Blue Lagoons:
…'Barking' (by Lucy Sullivan) arrived
with Thursday’s post:
…and it’s a
beautiful book. I’ve only had a quick skim through, but the book itself feels
hefty and solid, like it’ll last through the years and decades, and the art is
gorgeous, being both realistic and abstract, often at the same time. It really
captures the sense of being out of control, of being at a slight angle to the
rest of the world. Now I just need to find the time where I can sit down and
properly focus on the story!
(…and my ’How To Be
A Feminist’ fanzines arrived two days later (which I’ll read after ‘Barking’)…)
…I also read
‘Snotgirl’ #15 and ‘Undiscovered County’ #5:
In ‘Snotgirl’ #15
(by Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung, with colours by Rachael Cohen and
lettering by Mare Odomo) we attend Normgirl’s wedding, which contains many
pitfalls, including a forest fire and accidental food poisoning, Snotgirl and
Coolgirl get together and have a heart-to-heart about their relationship, and the
mystery of Coolgirl deepens. A nice issue which resolves some things and
deepens some mysteries (I can’t say more without giving away spoilers). 7/10.
And in ‘Undiscovered
Country’ #5 (written by Scott Synder & Charles Soule, art by Giuseppe
Camuncoli & Leonardo Marcello Grassi, colours by Matt Wilson and lettering
by Crank!) we learn more about Colonel Bukowski, as the rest of the team continue
their escape from the Crawling Palace and we see more of the new United States
of America. A nice enough issue, but one that does feel a tad ‘light’ and inconsequential
compared to previous issues. 5/10.
…I also went for a
Long Walk on Saturday:
…and watched ‘Pennyworth’
Season One over the weekend. I initially I wasn’t going to bother watching
‘Pennyworth’, as a series about the early days of Batman’s butler doesn’t feel
like enthralling viewing. But I saw a tweet which mentioned that Alistair Crowley and the Devil make an appearance in the series and it hooked me. Made
me give it a second chance. And I’m glad it did.
The Batman references
(or at least the ones I noticed) are limited to three of the characters, Alfie
aka Alfred pennyworth, who will become the Wayne’s butler, and Bruce Wayne/Batman’s
parents, Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane. The references are so slim, you wonder
if the show was originally created with no reference to Batman and they were
added in later to secure funding for the show.
The show is like a mash-up
of The Avengers (the UK ‘60’s TV show), The Prisoner, the Harry Palmer films, Minder and Guy Ritchie’s gangster films. Set in an alternative/heighted Britain (where
people are still hung, drawn and quartered. And it’s broadcast live on TV) set
in the early ‘60’s where Alfie (aka Alfred Pennyworth) has left the SAS and set
up his own security firm, employing a couple of friends, also ex-SAS. During
the show, as he tries to establish his business and marry his girlfriend, Alfie
is drawn into a conflict between to underground political movements, the
far-right Raven Society and the far-left No Name League, and ends up rescuing the
Queen and saving the country form a coup. ‘Pennyworth’ manages to walk an odd
line between fantasy (e.g. Aleister Crowley) and realism (the far-right coup)
and feels unique in itself (even while reminding you of various existing shows/stories
and using some clichéd story elements, such as the dead girlfriend and remote
parents, which almost verge on soap opera) and deserves a wider audience. 9/10.
…and I did this
week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a meh start, as
we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 23), but it does give us
an Illuminati score!!! And we learnt that ‘countertenor’ is a ‘male singing
voice’, but we should have gotten the other clues, we just didn’t give the grid
enough time…
…and Tuesday’s crossword almost hits the stratosphere as we
only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 25). This time the
little grey cells and me took our time and chomped through the clues like
Pacman! And we learnt that ‘mother-of-pearl’ is ‘nacre’ and we should have
gotten ‘died’ from ‘pegged out’ but went for ‘tied’ instead. C’est la vie…
…Wednesday’s crossword wobbled a little and we had to cheat
on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21), but that’s mainly because we
didn’t know the answers for two of them – that ‘brio’ is ‘animation (Italian)’
and that ‘Titian’ was a ‘Venetian old master, d. 1575’ – the last one we got
half right, for ‘listen to’ we went with ‘hear’, when we should have gone for
‘heed’…
…Thursday’s crossword takes a bigger wobble and we had to
cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 24). Some we just got wrong –
‘statue’ and not ‘effigy’ for ‘sculpted figure of a person’ and ‘plenty’ not
‘masses’ for ‘lots of lots’, but we did learn that ‘Exmoor’ is a national park
and in the South-West of England, I always thought it was up North! And that a
‘chaplet’ is a ‘garland for the head’ and that a ‘banquette’ is an ‘upholstered
bench’…
…and Friday’s crossword took an upswing and we only had to
cheat on a sixth of the clues (three out of 18), would have done better but we
drop the ball a little, going for ‘Bordeaux’ and not ‘Burgundy’ for ‘French
wine region’, and ‘freedom’ not ‘liberty’ for ‘independence’ ad we didn’t think
laterally enough to get ‘tabulate’ from ‘arrange in order’…
…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a high note as we
only had to cheat on one of the 19 clues, ‘Greek dish of lamb, baked on the
bone’, which is called kleftiko’, the rest of the clues were easy peasy for the
little grey cells to plough through…
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