Aka Monday 30th May - Sunday 3rd July 2022
As I’m running behind this is going to be a quick run covering five weeks, basically June and the bits of May and July on either side…This month I worked in the office and at home, enjoyed the long weekend of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, a few afternoons out for some lazy drinks and chats…and I got a few comic book gems:
…and a particular highlight was Ben Templesmith’s ‘Original Hate’. It is a self-contained story about a clan of Neanderthals who are resurrected by a team of scientists and things don’t go well…for basically everyone in the story! And it’s a great story, perfectly told, no fat, no flab, no attempt to spin this story out into a trilogy or shared universe. Yes, some characters could have other adventures, but this feels like a complete story, not a first part. I know this is obvious to say, but the art is great, and the book is nicely solid. Highly recommended.
The postman delivered two lots of Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers this month (and a bit):
…and this copy of ’Infinity’ magazine:
…which I got for the ‘Kelly’s Heroes’ article, which is one of my favourite films, which provided a little bit od extra information about the background to the shooting of the film and missing scenes. So, it was kinda worth it. Plus, there was a feature about the ‘70s Top Of The Pops albums (which had covers of the pop hits of the day). But afterwards I found out/read that the editor of ‘Infinity’ is known to have some very backwards view, verging on, and possibly falling over into, racism and sexism, which is a shame as you don’t want to pay money to someone like that. The postman also delivered the latest issue of ’Modern Toss’:
…which still maintains the high standards of humour, real-lifeness and swearing that we have come to expected from the ‘Toss. And as a little treat for myself I got the ‘The Leftovers’ boxset:
…I’ve heard lots of great things about this series and I’m looking forward to getting into it. I also treated myself to a Lego' The Batman' Batmobile (even though I wasn’t greatly impressed with ‘The Batman’ film, but I do like the design of the Batmobile):
…I also got minorly lucky and got these Lotto winnings:
…and I watched a few things. Starting with ‘Stranger Things’ season 4:
…which was good and enjoyable. It’s your typical ‘Stranger Things’ story, an evil is seeming into Hawkins and only our kids can stop it! But having the characters split over three different locations and storylines was a good idea and (mostly) kept things from getting boring. I was a little surprised to see the length of the episodes, each one was at almost feature film length! And you wondered how much padding was in each episode…and I would say not much, the extra time let the different stories breathe and for the characters to be characters and not just mechanisms to progress the story. Although it did get a bit frustrating at points as it felt like somethings, like a certain character’s sexuality, were being hinted at, but the resolve was being saved for the final season. And this was definitely prog-rock storytelling, you could have cut between 10 – 20 minutes from each episode and still have hit all the story beats, but it would have lost that character time. Sometimes you just want to hang with the characters, you’re not bothered but whether the plot is being advanced or not, you’re just enjoying how they interact with each other, the jokes, emotions, the support, all that good stuff. And the two hours plus finale flew by and all that character work pays off when you see where the characters end up at the end. If hadn’t spent so much time with them, we wouldn’t have the emotional pay-offs at the end. I also watched ‘Pistol’:
…about the Sex Pistols and it was…something else! The actors were all good, looking enough like and sounding enough like the real people (or at least how they appeared in the media) and there are some good moments, like Johnny Rotton getting the inspiration for ‘Bodies’, but overall, It felt very much like Carry On Punk. Not a caricature, but an almost panto like retelling of what happened in the late ‘70s. There was no real sense of the drabness of the times, the decay and feeling left behind. It just didn’t click right as a representation of what happened (except for the scenes involving Steve Jones and his family, they did feel real, too real at times). Although it did prod me to rewatch ‘Upside Down: The Creation Records Story’:
…which does do a great job of capturing the feel of the ‘80s and ‘90s and early ‘00s. All through the formation of Creation Records to it hitting it’s zenith and the inevitable crashing and burning. As I this the backdrop and soundtrack to my youth it’s always fun to seeing what those involved have to say and the reason why things happened and what it was like it me in that maelstrom. A great documentary. And changing tack completely I watched ‘Jackass 4.5’:
…which had the same issues as ‘Jackass Forever’ – no Bam, the crew are obviously much older and a little limited in what they can do (or what they are prepared to do and risk!) and the new guys feel a little to fan boyish and respectful of the old crew. But aside from that it was a fun watch, with most of the stunts being funny and/or shocking. Then I watched ‘Untraceable’:
…a by the numbers FBI hunting a serial killer flick. There’s nothing wrong with the film, the cast do a good job, it looks good, but it doesn’t fly. It just feels like a lot of other FBI hunting a serial killer films. I also watched ‘The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’:
…which is a great film, a nice tight horror/thriller about a fashion student moving to the Big Smoke and feeling lost. And then things take a supernatural turn! The cast is spot on, the script is great, the directing fluid, the set-design, costumes, the soundtrack, everything feels just right. It feels like everyone was at the top of their game, there’s no fat, no filler, just all thriller! As was ‘No One Gets Out Alive’:
…which is about Ambar, an undocumented immigrant, who has just moved into a strange shared house. The film does a great job of ramping up the tension and fear until it can’t be held any more and explodes on violence and monsters. And the final new watch this month was ‘Black Mountain Side’:
…which was pitched as being in the vein of ‘John Carpenter’s The Thing’, as it deals with isolation, paranoia and ancient, buried things that cause…havoc on the poor humans! And it’s not a bad film, I will watch it again, but, and I’m not sure if this will make completer sense, it felt like it could have done with a tad more polish. As if it didn’t quite make the most of being a feature film or couldn’t make the most due to budgetary reasons and at times it felt a little bit like watching a TV film. But it was still enjoyable and did a decent job of creating a feeling of paranoia and mistrust.
During this month (and a bit) I also started and finished reading ‘Later’ by Stephen King:
…which is published by Hard Case Crime with a nice noir/pulp-like cover and, as you would expect, it does bend towards a crime story, but with a helpful dollop of the supernatural. In a nutshell Jamie Conklin can see dead people and they talk to him, and then he gets involved with a NYPD detective and it kinda goes sour from there. This is a great read and the further you get into the story the more you want to know what is going to happen next. A fun and engrossing read. I also got a few CD’s. First up was the ’Wild Style’ soundtrack:
…which was okay, but it kinda felt like the music was taken straight from the film, rather than from the recording studio, with some tracks seeming to finish mid-track. But aside from that you do get some nice old-skool hip-hop. I also got ‘Fire Doesn't Grow on Trees’ by the Brian Jonestown Massacre:
…and it maintains the BJM sound and high quality, while sounding more mature, more comfortable…I’m not sure how to accurately describe the album, I just know that it’s a great album, every song is a gem and it’s a perfectly distillation of the BJM sound and that everyone should have a copy in their house. I also got this Elvis compilation:
…I’ve probably got a majority of these tracks before, but there’s enough “new” tracks on here to justifying getting it and it’s nice to have so many great Elvis songs in one place. I also got the latest ‘Mojo’:
…and it was okay. Aside from The Stones I’m not interested in any of the people and bands on the front cover (and The Stones article is two pages of mostly pictures and just about half a page of text about a photobook about the shoot for the ‘Exile on Main…’ cover), but the cover CD intrigued me. Called ‘Break It Up! New York Art, Rock, Poetry and Noise 1956 – 2022’, it features some artists I’ve heard of, but not heard any/much of their music and enough names new to me to give it a punt. And the CD was okay, ‘Lesson No.1’ by Glenn Branca, ‘Basement Contender’ by Sonic Youth and ‘Eternity’ by the Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith were good, but the other songs felt a bit meh or try-too-hard. I also got the latest Lego Minecraft magazine:
…I’m not a Minecraft player, but the Iron Golem figure appealed to me, and it looks cool on the shelf…and I did the month’s first week of G2 Crosswords:
…and the start of this Jubilee week of crosswording gets off to a poor start as we had to cheat on just under a sixth of the clues (four out of 22). Maybe it’s because we did the grid after a full day in the office, which left us feeling knackered and done in. But there were too many clues that we struggled with and too many we just didn’t get. But it does mean that we learnt that a ‘Martello Tower’ is ‘one of over 100 circular masonry forts built to protect the English coast against the French’, that a ‘Roan’ is a ‘horse with, say, a chestnut coat mixed with white’, that Paul Robeson is a US bass singer and outspoken political activist, d. 1976, and that a ‘Bier’ is a ‘coffin’s support before burial’…
…and the poor crosswording continues with Tuesday’s grid as we had to cheat on just under a seventh of the clues (four out of 26). I guess working back in the office is wearing out the little grey cells, they just aren’t fresh enough to give the grid 100% ☹ Like we should have gotten ‘bedridden’ from ‘unable to get up’ and the intersecting letters, we just couldn’t make that leap to the answer. But we did learn that the French for place is ‘lieu’ that a ‘Loving Cup’ is a ‘large vessel that people drink from in turn at a feast’ and that ’episcopal’ means ‘relating to bishops’…
…and the poor crosswording ends with Wednesday’s grid, the little grey cells are back on form, hoorah, and only needed to cheat on one of the 24 clues! I’m not sure what changed, maybe it’s the upcoming four-day weekend (perhaps the only real, tangible benefit of having a monarchy!). Either way, we learnt (or maybe relearnt) that an ‘Oryx’ is a ‘large long-horned African antelope’…
…Thursday’s grid goes almost as well, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). It seems that after a big wobble, we’re back on track and the little grey cells are powering through clues like Wimpy through humburgers! Slightly annoyed that we didn’t twig that ‘speaking parts?’ was a bit of cryptic clue, otherwise we might have gotten the answer ‘mouths’…
…and Friday’s grid goes pretty damn well as well, we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). These extra bank holidays are having a positive effect on the little grey cells, who are powering through the clues like Brian Harvey through cheeky ones! And we learnt that a ‘jardiniere’ is a ‘fancy flowerpot’, although we did forget that a ‘slat’ is ‘part of a blind’!...
…and Saturday’s grid ends the crosswording week on a high note as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 23 clues! A couple of the clues took a lot of chewing over, but eventually the little grey cells Michael Myersed their way through the clues and got us a clean sweep to end the Jubilee week…and 0 out of 23 is a kinda anagram of the crossword week that we’re ending this on (230)…it’s all connected!!!…and that was the end of tweeting the G2 Crosswords out!!!!!
…and I did the month’s second week of G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to pretty fine start as we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). Our health is kinda back on track, kinda okay, not back to normal, but bearable, liveable (for the most part) and our crosswording is back on track. Although we did accidently click ‘reveal’ when 12 across was highlighted, when we meant to click ‘check’ for 2 down and we learnt that a ‘winding sheet’ is also a ‘shroud’…
…and things dip a little with Tuesday’s crossword, we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). We kinda messed up with ‘Roquefort or Stilton, say’ and went straight for ‘hard cheese’ without checking if the intersecting letters matched the other clues, if we had we might of noticed that it didn’t work and might have gotten the right answer of ‘blue cheese’! But we did learn that ‘Orzo’ is ‘rice-shaped pasta’ and that a ‘jete’ is a ‘balletic leap’…
…with Wednesday's crossword the little grey cells were firing on all cylinders, and we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 23 clues. A complete clean sweep! The clues all tumbled all ten-pins and could not withstand the little grey cells…
…Thursday’s crossword goes almost as well as yesterdays, as we only had to cheat on one of the 25 clues. The little grey cells are still flying, still knocking it out of the park! And we learnt that a ‘Rhea’ is a ‘three-toed South American flightless bird’…
…and Friday’s crossword brings us back down to earth as we had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21) ☹ The grid was just a little to chewy for the little grey cells…or the pollen count was a bit higher today and knacker the little grey cells a touch. Which is probably why we didn’t get ‘object lesson’ from ‘action that serves as a warning to others’, but we did learn that Louisa May Alcott was an American author who died in 1888, and that ‘Kirsch’ is a ‘colourless brandy made from morello cherries’…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the crossword week on a pretty fine note, just how the week started! We only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24), only stumbling on not knowing that ‘Abalone’ is an ‘edible shellfish, source of mother-of-pearl’ and that a ‘Lists’ was/is a ‘jousting arena’. A crosswording week that matched any health/wellbeing pretty head on, felt okay at the start of the week, picked up during the week and then dipped down a little at the end, back to okayness…
…and I did the month’s third week of G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword goes pretty well, we only had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (two out of 18). The little grey cells found a few of the clues a little chewy, but we managed to get most of them, aside from ‘ultra’ from ‘exceedingly’ and for ‘skiers take aim in this event’ we knew exactly what this sport is, could see it perfectly in my mind’s eye, but couldn’t for the life of me remember that it’s called ‘Biathlon’!...
…Tuesday’s crossword followed a similar vein to Monday’s, we had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (two out of 19), the majority of the clues were straight forward, but the chewy ones were particularly chewy! And we learnt that Otto Klemperer was a German-born American conductor and composer, who died in 1973…
…and things tumble a little, but not much, with Wednesday’s crossword as we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). A pretty straight forward grid, we know pretty much all of the answers and just stumbled on a couple, we should have guessed that a ‘pitprop’ is a ‘support for coal miners?’ and that a ‘Lay Reader’ is a ‘non-ordained person authorised to conduct parts of Anglican services’. And we learnt that Golda Meir was the Israeli Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974…
…and Thursday’s crossword went excellently and we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 23 clues. The little grey cells were on tip-top form and just blasted through the clues…
…Friday’s crossword went damn well, especially considering that it was the hottest day of the year so far, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 25). Maybe the little grey cells were a little tired from yesterday’s crossword! And the two we missed, we should have gotten – ‘trysts’ from ‘assignations’ and ‘renown’ from ‘prestige’. We did like the clue ‘Dramatic Moor’, we spent a while thinking of the moors with a small m, like Dartmoor or Ilkley, but when we got the intersecting letters, it was obvious that the answer is ‘Othello’, a capital M Moor…
…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a strong note, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). The little grey cells have done a fine damn job this week, coping well with the very hot weather this week (well hot for the UK) and we learnt that a ‘groat’ was an ‘old English silver coin worth four pennies’ and that ‘Nancy Mitford’ is the ‘author of Love in a Cold Climate’…
…and I did the month’s fourth week of G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword goes smoother than silk covered in oil. The little grey cells thrashed the clues and we didn’t to cheat on any of them (there were 22)…
…things dip back down to normal levels with Tuesday’s crossword, I guess the little grey cells were tired after yesterday’s clean sweep, and we had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (three out of 26). I think we were just lacking a little accuracy, which was the clue for 1 across, which we missed and didn’t get that the answer was ‘imprecise’. And we missed ‘maze’ from ‘confused jumble’, because we lumped for ‘mess’ without checking the intersecting clues. But we did learn that the ‘Rand’ is the ‘region of the Transvaal that contains rich gold and coal deposits’…
…things dip even further with Wednesday’s crossword as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 24). I guess the earlier clean sweep really knackered the little grey cells, so much that we couldn’t remember that ‘Elba’ was the ‘island that Napoleon left to meet his waterloo?’ and ‘Israel’ is a ‘Mediterranean country’, but we did learn that ‘Algiers’ is a ‘north African capital’, that a ‘drifter’ is a type of fishing boat, and that a ‘legatee’ is a ‘beneficiary of a will’…
…things pick up a little (at last) with Thursday’s grid, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). I guess the little grey cells are recovering! And we learnt that ‘Swazi’ is a ‘Bantu language closely related to Zulu’, that ‘squeamish’ can mean ‘excessively fastidious’ and that ‘meat eaters’ are ‘carnivora’ (we had gone with carnivore)…
…we had to cheat on a seventh of Friday’s crossword’s clues (three out of 21) and we were lucky for it to be that low. This was a chewy grid, we missed a couple of easy ones – ‘refrain’ from ‘chorus’ and ‘coast’ from ‘freewheel along’, and it took a little while to finish. But we did learn that a ‘buckwheat pancake’ is called a ‘galette’…
…and the little grey cells were back on form with Saturday’s crossword. We only missed one of the 23 clues – not getting ‘swear blind’ from ‘declare emphatically’, but the little grey cells flow through the rest of the clues. A good end to the crossword week…
…and I did month’s fifth week of G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword went pretty sweetly, we only had to cheat on one of the 21 clues. An easy-peasy grid today, except for not knowing that ‘Slovakia’ became an European country in 1993. Will this carry through for the rest of the week???
…might have spoken to soon! As we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23) for Tuesday’s crossword. Maybe the little grey cells were worn out after yesterday’s almost clean sweep? But we did learn that the ‘protective panel behind sink or cooker’ is called the ‘splashback’, that ‘rancour’ means ‘hard feelings’ and that ‘off break’ is a type of cricket delivery…
…things pick up a tad with Wednesday’s crossword, perchance the little grey cells are recovering from their superstar performance earlier this week, and we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23). We are feeling a little tired from work, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting our clue solving ability. And we learnt that ‘taciturn’ means ‘reticent’ and we’re a little unsure that ‘small gnawer’ is an acceptable clue for ‘rodent’, it feels a tad misleading, above and beyond what is normal for crossword clues…
…things to continue to tick up with Thursday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on a thirteenth of the clues (two out of 25). The little grey cells have defo perked up and are knocking it out of the park. And we learnt that ‘Umbria’ is an ‘mountainous region of central Italy’ and that ‘Virginia Woolf’ wrote Mrs Dalloway and To The Lighthouse…
…and things are flying with Friday’s crossword as we only had to cheat on one of the 21 clues. The little grey cells are back on fighting form, taking no clue prisoners! We only stumbled on not getting ‘rub along’ from ‘barley manage’, but the rest of the clues were dealt with in double speed time…
…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a sweet note, as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). We had a little mid-week slump, but the little grey cells bounced back and smashed it. And we learnt that ‘Alsace’ is a ‘region of north-east France, annexed by Germany from 1871 to 1919’ and that ‘recapitulation’ means ‘summing-up’, a damn fine end to the crosswording week…