Days 2517 and 2518

 Aka Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th October 2021

This weekend I listened a lot of music:

…‘Shake The Foundations’, which is chock full of enjoyable post-punk with a discoy/funky bent tracks, although I struggle to recall the individual tracks (but I am writing this over two months later! Yes, I a behind yet again!)…

…Turin Brakes ‘The Optimist Live’, which recreates the studio album in a live setting, to enjoyable effect…

…the DJ Harvey comp ‘Mercury Rising (Volumen Tres)’, chock full of those mid-tempo Balearicy house/disco tracks, perfect for dancing too, enjoying a drink and chat, or just chilling at home. And Chris Massey remixes of Lindstrøm’s 'Blinded By The LEDs', a classy discoy track/remix, PBR Streetgang’s ‘Trans Pennine Express EP', which is a stunning EP, top-notch electronic tracks, perfect for the dancefloor and the home...

...and Jump - Funkatarium (Bonar B Edit), a nice little dance track…

…and I finished reading ‘The Future Starts Here’ by John Higgs, which was a great, and hope-inspiring, read. Mr Higgs looks at some of the big issues facing us, such as how A.I. will affect us, climate change, the real world vs the virtual world, and how generational changes will affect how the future works out. Taking the common idea that we are doomed and there’s nothing we can do to change things, Mr Higgs looks at how we got here and why things aren’t as bleak as they are painted. One of my best reads this year.

I also invented Nathan, a name I’ve given to the symptoms I’ve been experiencing as a way of dealing with them. The theory goes that by giving them a name, they are no longer mysterious things that are happening to me and are out of my control, but are a know quantity, Nathan, that I can deal with and manage. We’ll see how it works, but so far, so good…and I did Saturday’s G2 Crossword:

…well my physical health might still be in flux, but the little grey cells are firing on all cylinders as we only had to cheat on one of the 22 clues for Saturday’s grid. The little grey cells blitzed through the clues, learning that ‘Thirsk’ is a ‘North Yorkshire racecourse’…

Day 2516

Aka Friday 8^th October 2021

…today was chilled and I watched ‘You Might Be The Killer’, which is a cool take on the Summer Camp/woods slasher starring Fran Kranz and Alyson Hannigan. The nutshell premise is that a cursed mask turns the wearer into a killer and there’s plenty of blood & gore, laughs and a dash of pathos. A really fun watch…

…and I rewatched ‘Constantine’, which just gets better each time I watch it, which might be due to me taking it for its own thing, and not comparing it to the Hellblazer comics. Maybe if they toned down the holy guns/typical Hollywood action set pieces it would have down better and we could have had a series of  Keanu Reeves as John Constantine Hellblazer films…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…and it’s a repeat performance with Friday’s grid, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24) and we learnt that ‘firedamp’ is ‘gas that forms an explosive mixture with air in coal mines’ and that ‘Henry Mancini’ composed Moon River…

Day 2515

Aka Thursday 7^th October 2021

…I saw ‘No Time To Die’ today…and I liked it. I liked the call-backs to previous Bond films (especially the nods/mirrors to 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'), to the way Bond fitted into the world, like someone whose been through the Shit and has had enough, but also knows when to push and when not to, and the way that it ends the Daniel Craig Bond films. That you can either see it as the end of a five-film story, of the Craig Era, or the end of the entire Bond franchise. Setting the scene for a new Bond story, one where the name James Bond could be a codename to strike fear in the hearts of others. But it doesn’t feel like a proper Bond film, we barely see the main villain, he’s almost an afterthought, and his henchmen are just…henchmen, where’s this film’s Oddjob? Or Jaws? There’s too much focus on Bond and his personal story. Where’s the globetrotting fun? The Boy’s Own-ness of fighting for Queen and Country. But I need enjoy it and I think it’s a very suitable last outing for Craig. 7/10.

…I also read ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ #30, which was okay, but nothing special, and I collected my lottery winnings of £2.70, which are also nothing special:

…woo and hoo!

…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…and the little gey cells Pac-Man their way through the clues for Thursday’s rhyming grid (‘batter’, ‘fatter’, ‘natter’ and ‘matter’ are all answers) and we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 25). We did learn that ‘piquant’ means ‘having a pleasantly sharp taste’ and that a ‘choker’ isn’t just a piece of jewellery but also a ‘high, tight collar’…

Day 2514

Aka Wednesday 6^th October 2021

Today I listened to Dot Allison’s ‘Heart Shaped Scars’...

...a pleasurable and melancholic album, which is mostly folky and acoustic, with almost shoegaze touches on some of the later songs. I think this is one of those albums that you keep coming back to, getting more details and truths with each listen…

...and I watched ‘The Kid Detective’, which is a great film about a grown-up kid detective and how we can get stuck in cycles and stuck with our own and other people’s expectations of ourselves, all wrapped up in a top-notch noiry mystery…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…it seems that a little annual leave has rejuvenated the little grey cells, as for Wednesday’s grid we only had to cheat on one of the 23 clues. Only stumbling on ‘snow and rain mixture’, we went for ‘slush’ and not ‘sleet’. If we’d bothered to checking the intersecting letters, we might have gotten a clean sweep…

 

Day 2513

Aka Tuesday 5^th October 2021

A quiet day today, work from home, did some exercise (without hurting myself or making my condition worse), watched some telly, listened to Courtney Barnett’s rehearsal room cover of ‘Never Tear Us Apart’, which is nicely chilled and mellow, but not, and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…Tuesday’s grid continues the okayness, as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). Again, we missed a couple of easy ones, like ‘atomise’ from ‘turn into a fine spray’, but we did learn that ‘Ithaca’ is the ‘Greek island where Odysseus was king’ and that ‘Wharton’ wrote ‘The Age of Innocence’…

Day 2512

Aka Monday 4^th October 2021

…I am starting to wonder if my “condition” is non-physical and is actually my anxiety…’cos some of the symptoms are similar. Is my chest pain due to a dodgy ticker and blocked arteries or is my anxiety causing my heart to beat faster causing pain in my chest? All I definitely know is that I want to be back to, at the least, how I felt at the start of the year or, even better, full and normal health. At least of the heart scans coming up at some point, which should provide some answers, clear some things up…anyway in better news the postman delivered my copy of Buddha Monk’s ‘Got’s Like Come On Thru’ single, featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard...

...which I got for the awesome Prisoners of Technology remix, the song is good and okay, but the Prisoners… remix takes to the next level. Also, it shows how well hip-hop and drum n’ bass go together. Always surprised me that more high-profile US rappers didn’t/haven’t worked with UK producers. I also got this (digital) single from SIDI...

...the original song is an awesome track. It’s so effortless, chugging along on an irresistible beat, drawing you onto the dancefloor and fun times. Set controls for the heart of cosmic disco! And the re-edit/re-mix by Club Paradiso just gently touches up the track for modern dancefloors. A great song and single…

...and I read ‘Die’ #20, which ends the ‘Die’ saga on a weirdly up, but melancholic note. A satisfying end, our heroes get home, things are tied up, lessons have been learnt…but at what price. Be interesting to see if we ever return to soon what has happened to them in a few years’ time…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…and Monday’s grid gets the crossword week off to an okayish start, we only had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (three out of 19). A typical slightly sluggish start to the week for the little grey cells, which explains why we went for ‘gelatine’ for ‘explosive stuff’ and not ‘gelignite’ and didn’t bother to check if we had nine letters like the clue says! But we did learn that a ‘pom-pom’ is a ‘quick-firing naval anti-aircraft gun used in both world wars’…