…still behind with this diary, but hopefully this will be the last rushed catch-up…at least for a while 😊…main news is that my health is still not back to normal, so I called my GP for a third time (first was a couple days after going to A&E just to see if there was something I should do and the second was a couple of weeks later as I wasn’t getting better) as I’m not getting any better and he suggested that maybe it’s angina and booked me in for an appointment with a Cardiologist. Which I had on Wednesday 29th September 2021 and he confirmed that I would be booked in for a CT Angiogram and a heart jelly scan/echocardiogram, to look at my heart and arteries and see how they are doing and suggested that I start taking aspirin 75mg and take steps to lower my cholesterol (at A&E they said that there was nothing wrong or worrying about my bloods, than during my second GP call I was told that my vitamin D was low and that I should take vitamin D supplements and now the cardiologist said that my cholesterol was high, asked if I had been prescribed satins and suggested that I should take steps to lower it…makes me wonder what I’ll be told next time!)…in related news from Tuesday 21st September 2021 I started doing a full set of weights, but only every other day and where/when time and health permits, so I’ve reduced the number reps, and I’ve felt okay, very little chest pain or heart “hiccups” and I’ve started walking into work, so I’ve kinda getting back to normal. Although I’ve been out for drinks on two Friday’s this month, just for an hour or two, and when I’ve gone to bed, I’ve had a large amount of chest pain and anxiety, which has left me poleaxed for the weekend. Which means spending the weekends resting, sleeping and watching/listening to Youtube videos…and wishing that I was better, not even back to normal health, but just back to how I was in early Summer 2021 ☹. Through my spirit was gladden thanks to the following…
...during this month the postman delivered my copies of the ’Fiends of the Eastern Front’ partwork, Richard Norris’ ‘Music For Healing - The Long Form Editions 9 – 12’ (beautiful ambience and meditative music), Pharoahe Monch’s ‘Got You’ single (from the film ‘Training Day’ and a banger), Modern Toss playing cards and this month’s Kyle Stark's Sticker Club stickers:
…and aside from feeling very under-the-weather I watched a load of things:
‘The Nevers’ – an interesting concept, an alien event in Victorian times gives some people special powers, powers that some people want to exploit, and some want to wipe out. After a slow start (and using a few standard Whedon cliches) this series barrels along at a great pace, leaving you craving more and the twist in the last episode is the icing on the cake
‘The Empty Man’ – a very chilling cult horror (cult as in a group of people and not a classic and underappreciated piece of art) that stays with you and as I don’t want to spoil the fun of watching it, I’ll just say that it reminds me of ‘The Void’ crossed with ‘Angel Heart’
‘The Killers’ and ‘The Lady From Shanghai’ – two great noir tales of femme fatales, crooks, dirty deeds and double crossing
‘Double Jeopardy’- a fun modern noirish thriller
‘Kate’ – mixes elements of ’24 Hours To Live’ and ‘John Wick’ to cool effect. There’s nothing particularly new about the story, but it’s well acted and beautifully shot, capturing the glamour and futureness/otherworldliness of Japan
‘The Night Stalker’ and ‘The Night Strangler’ – two great horror films which still stand up today (horror in the sense of the what the bad guys are, but also in how the human power structure – the police, the press and other City authorities operate and hide the truth)
‘Columbo: Murder By The Book’ – the first episode of the ongoing ‘Columbo’ tv series and a classic of the series, a great murder set-up, a great villain and a perfect turn from Peter Falk as Columbo
‘Malignant’ – a weird film, both in content and execution. At times it feels like a parody of horror films, like an episode of 'Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace', at other times a serial killer flick or a psychological thriller, but if you can get over this mixture of genres Malignant is a fun watch, with some great shots, direction and acting
‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ – defo lives up to it’s title, having great fun in taking the Spaghetti Western formula and setting it in early 20th Century Korea, with action scenes that could have been taken from a 'John Wick' film (even though ‘The Good…’ predates ‘John Wick’)
‘Midnight Mass’ – a great miniseries, beautifully shot (so many great shots of sun rises and sets, coastlines and general island life) supremely acted by a great cast, highly emotive/emotional, with every department knocking it out of the park
…read a few things:
‘The Leopard’ #1 - #3 – the story and art draw you into this giallo version of the ‘And Then There Were None’ plot (with a twist) and psychedelic art, especially towards the end of this enjoyable story
‘Fiends of the Eastern Front’ – a great vampire tale set during WWII at the Eastern Front that barrels along, drawing you in, along with more recent stories of the head vampires past history
‘Swamp Thing’ #5 – more of a John Constantine story with Swampy as a guest star than a Swamp Thing story. It’s okay, but nothing special
’Moonshine’ #27 – the werewolf saga continues, and Lou gets deeper into trouble
‘Superman & The Authority’ #2 and #3 – Superman’s Authority is formed, as we see how they are recruited, and we see the big bad that they have been formed to defeat
‘Time Before Time’ #5 – the first arc concludes nicely with our heroes on more solid ground, but with future threats gathering
‘Firefly: Brand New ‘Verse’ #5 and #6 – and the story concludes and it’s been okay, but the ending feels a little rushed
‘That Texas Blood’ #10 – things get deeper and weirder as Jim Bob recounts the hunt for the missing girl
‘Once & Future’ #20 – and things get worse and weirder for everyone, even for the bad guys
…and brought a few things, this month’s New Comic Book Day gems:
…a few CDs, the reissue of Spiritualized’s ‘Ladies and Gentlemen…’ (which still sounds great), ‘The Lost Boys’ soundtrack (partly due to nostalgia and mostly for ‘Cry Little Sister’), an Aretha Franklin best-off ‘Aretha’ (because how can you go wrong with some Aretha!), a Heaven 17 Best-Of (because it was cheap and the few Heaven 17 songs I have heard have mean pretty great) and the new 'Under The Influence' CD, Vol. 9 compiled by Alena Arpels (which is full of hidden disco/soul/boogie gems):
…a few magazines, Uncut’s ‘Shoegaze’ special, the new Empire, (none of which I have read yet):
…the latest Uncut magazine, which has a fine article on Courtney Barnett and her new album, how she’s been dealing with Covid/Lockdown down under and a quick look back at her past releases, a fine cover CD, focusing on ‘New-School Blues’, with some excellent songs by Cedric Burnside, Riley Downing, Eight Point Star, and plenty of others. It’s almost as good as the Ambient Americana cover CD from last year (or so) and nice obits/articles on Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Don Everly and Charlie Watts. And articles on Siouxsie & The Banshees and the making of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’. Well worth getting…
…and the new Mojo, which has a pretty good cover CD, especially given that it collects Beatles cover songs which are normally underwhelming. Particular highlights are ‘She Said, She Said (vinyl version)’ by The Black Keys, ‘The Word’ by Bettye LaVette and ‘Long, Long, Long’ by Jim James. And a cool orbit for Charlie Watts (with obits for Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Don Everly later on in the issue), a great piece on the making of ‘Screamadelica’ and another on The Meters and another on The Gentle People’s ‘Soundtracks For Living’ and one on the New Radicals/’You Get What You Give’ and a massive article on The Beatles and ‘Let It Be’ and the new Peter Jackson films (yawn, yeah more pages on perhaps the most written about bands in history)…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:
…Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a mildly good start with us only having to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). But we should have done better, in hindsight, if we’d left those three ‘till we had the intersecting letters I reckon we would have gotten them, but I guess we were still a little woozy from the weekend…
…and we must be really woozy as we had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 23) for Tuesday’s grid. Not good going at all! It was just a real struggle to get to grips with the grid. Maybe it’s the heat, sapping the little grey cells of their word abilities? But we did learn that an ‘Oryx’ is a ‘large African antelope with long straight horns’ and I still don’t think that ‘controversial issue that’s the talk of the town’ is a good clue for ‘cause celebre’…
…despite the heat things pick up a little with Wednesday’s grid, as we only had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25). Maybe we’re more used to the heat or the clues are easier today! (although we did miss a couple of easy ones, like ‘psst’ from ‘Listen! and that Kevin Kline is an American actor) But we did learn that ‘fusilli’ is ‘spiral pasta’ and that ‘Cadiz’ is the ‘port where in 1587 Francis Drake ‘singed the King of Spain’s beard’…
…things continue to pick up with Thursday’s grid as we only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21), although we did miss a couple of easy ones, like going for ‘escapee’ for ‘one removed from danger’ and not ‘evacuee’ and I’m sure that there can be better clues for ‘spearhead’’ than ‘lead(er)’…
…the picking up continues with Friday’s grid, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). Although, somehow, we missed ‘frock’ from ‘dress’, but we did learn that a ‘Drambuie and Scotch cocktail’ is called a ‘Rusty Nail’ and that a ‘Shako’ is ‘military headgear with a peak ad a plume’…
…and the picking reaches its zenith with Saturday’s grid as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 18 clues! The little grey cells were on tip top performance, even the answers we didn’t know we were able to work out from the intersecting letters, like for ‘high quality wooden furniture’ we didn’t know the answer was ‘cabinetwork’, but when we had the intersecting letters ‘c_b_n_t_o_k’, ‘cabinetwork’ was the only thing that fitted!
…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:
…Monday’s crossword goes better than expected, after spending the weekend feeling under-the-weather I expected it to be a bit of a struggle, for the little grey cells to be off their game. But no! Their pretty much smashed it out of the park and we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 19). And we learnt that Bergen is in ‘Norway’ and that a ‘loofah’ is a ‘dried vegetable sponge’. A pretty sweet start to the week…
…things trend terrifically with Tuesday’s grid as we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues! The little grey cells are in total smashing form, no crossword can withstand us (unless it’s a cryptic one, they’re mad hard to do!). And it would have been a clean sweep if we hadn’t of rushed ‘hit over the head’ and gone with ‘clip’, if we’d waited for the intersecting letters, we would have gotten the right answer of ‘cosh’, c’est la vie I guess…
…and Wednesday’s grid dips a little as we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23), which isn’t bad, but not quite as good as recent grids. And they were easy ones we missed, like how could we forget that ‘wasabi’ is a ‘hot green condiment’, or not get ‘cement’ from ‘bond’ or ‘awning’ from ‘outdoor canopy’. Maybe the little grey cells have burnt themselves out…
…or maybe not as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 25 clues for Thursday’s grid. The little grey cells were on top form and the answers just fell like rain on an English afternoon…
…and we’re back to normal with Friday’s grid as we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). The grid was a little chewy, but we gave it time and triumphish and we learnt that a ‘mountain lake’ is called a ‘tarn’…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on an okay note as we only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21). The little grey cells are back to their normal, average form. Meaning that we missed a couple of easy ones, like ‘semantic’ from ‘relating to the meaning of words’, but got enough of them to do okay…
…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a solid start. We only had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (three out of 26). The little grey cells were well rested after a chilled weekend and quickly made short work of this grid. Yeah, we missed a couple of straight forward ones, but we did learn that a ‘trivet’ is a ‘tripod placed over a fire for a pot to stand on’…
…and Tuesday goes pretty similar, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). Again, the little grey cells pretty much strolled through the clues, like an easy afternoon on the boulevard. And we learnt that ‘dieback’ is a ‘condition that kills a tree or shrub, starting from the tip of its leaves or from its roots’ and that ‘marquetry’ is the ‘use of wooden veneers to create a decorative pattern on furniture’…
…Wednesday’s grid went almost perfectly, with answers tumbling out like dice at a casino. No snake eyes here! We only had to cheat on one of the 28 clues, just stumbling by not remembering that ‘plaice’ is a ‘large European food fish’…
…and the dice keep tumbling with Thursday’s grid. We only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). The little greys really were firing on all cylinders, answers were going 1,2,3 and when we got a chewy clue, we put it on the back burner, let it stew and then the answer would bubble up. And we learnt that ‘infra dig’ means ‘socially unacceptable’…
…and the tumbling has ceased with Friday’s grid, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 23) and it took a while to get there. A very chewy grid ☹ Like how could we miss ‘eviscerate’ from ‘guts’?!? But we did learn that the ‘Caucasus’ is a ‘mountain range between the Black Sea and the Caspian’…
…and the tumbling continues to be ceased with Saturday’s grid. I guess the little grey cells pushed it too much early on in the week and now we’re on empty, as we had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (five out of 21). Not a good performance, we just couldn’t get to grips with the gird and missed some easy ones. But, on the bright side we learnt that ‘inert’ means ‘unable to resist’ and that ‘applique’ is a type of needlework…
…and I did the fourth week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and the week gets off to an okay start with Monday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 23). It took a while for the little grey cells to get a handle on the grid, we were a little slow getting off the block. Which is probably why we didn’t get ‘lozenge’ from ‘diamond shape’, must have been a case of the Mondays! And we learnt that ‘Chagall’ is a ‘Russian-born French early modernist painter, d.1985’ and that ‘Pasadena’ is a ‘California city, host to the college football Rose Bowl game’…
…things continue to be a bit meh with Tuesday’s grid, we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). The little grey cells still feeling a bit sluggish, which is why we didn’t get ‘tags’ from ‘identifiers associated with a piece of computer [data]’, but we did learn that ‘Queen Boudicca’s tribe’ was the ‘Iceni’ and that ‘elide’ means ‘merge together’…
…the mehness continues with Wednesday’s grid, we only had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25). It’s been a case of cruising through most of the clues and then getting stuck on a few of them, which we just can’t get to grips with. But we did learn that ‘sago’’ is ‘edible powdery starch obtained from certain palms’, that ‘skivvy’ means ‘drudge’ and that ‘natch’ means ‘of course (informal)’…
…but with Thursday’s grid we’re back to our glory days, as we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). With the little grey cells storming through the clues like the Shogun Assassin. But we did drop a couple of easy ones – ‘conjunctions’ from ‘’ifs’ and ‘buts’’ and ‘automata’ from ‘zombies’…
…but we stumble with Friday’s grid, we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues. Not good, a bit bone ☹ Like we should have gotten ‘shallot’ from ‘small onion’, ‘throw’ from ‘material draped over a sofa’, ‘albeit’ from ‘even through’ and that ‘copra’ is ‘dried coconut kernel’…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on a meh note, just how we started, as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (three out of 18). Maybe it’s because we’re still struggling with our health. We’re still not back to normal. And it ebbs and flows. Sometimes we’re almost back to normal, sometimes we feel terrible, “more dead than alive” as the Velvets sang, but most of the time it’s somewhere between the two. Which is why we missed ‘fiend’ from ‘fanatic – monster’ or ‘isolate’ from ‘keep apart’…hopefully things will improve next week…