Marking a milestone

My parents have been married 50 years!

Marriage isn't the right choice for everyone, but it definitely was for them. They remain devoted to each other.

Congratulations, Mum and Dad, from me and some famous fiddies...

Last five movies watched

The third "Fear Street" was weaker than the second, which was weaker than the first. Woulda been better as a two-parter, with the 1600s stuff - which quickly grew tedious, and was always going to compare unfavourably to "The Crucible" and "The Witch" - interspersed through the modern scenes.

"The Tomorrow War" was also too long for what it was, by about an hour.

I found "Jolt" outlandish fun and recommended it to my father, who thought it was stupid. So your voltage may vary! (Note: I love KB in anything.)

The Louboutin burlesque thingy was pretentious, though the routines were generally good.

Pick of the bunch: "The Mystery Of Henri Pick" is the most enjoyable film I've seen in 2021 and would have won even on a much stronger week. Drama with a little comedy and a tiny bit of romance, it's set in the French book-publishing world and concerns a masterpiece discovered in a pile of rejected manuscripts, and seemingly authored by a rather unlikely person.

[Viewed on: Netflix, SBS On Demand, Prime, SBS On Demand (despite me using the DVD cover), Prime.]

Gift of the jab

Had my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday, at a local clinic set up by the state health authority and run with military precision. I'd describe the experience as painless except that the arm where I got the needle was pretty sore by evening. Small price to pay. Very small, since the treatment was 100% free. As I made my way from outside queue to check-in station to waiting area to vaccination bay (where the nurse was thorough in confirming my medical info) to observation area to check-out station and back into the car park in the space of about 45 minutes, I marvelled at what humans can achieve when we put our minds to it.

Please get vaccinated - just not by this guy.

Ever heard of the $7 note?

It was printed by the Fijian government to celebrate its men's rugby sevens team winning gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The news item below will give you an idea of just how much folks cherish the $7 note (which is legal tender) and how big it would be for the country to repeat the sporting feat at the Tokyo Games.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-25/fiji-rugby-sevens-banknote-tokyo-olympics-games/100314032

In Australia, we talk about "rugby" as opposed to "sevens", which I think it's fair to say isn't viewed on the same level. But when I was in Fiji a couple of years ago, I noticed some people saying "sevens" and "fifteens", giving them equal weight. Which is understandable when the Fijians are so good at the variant form of the game.

I'll be rooting for Australia, but I won't mind if Fiji ends up taking gold again. Maybe they can commemorate the double with a $14 note!

Ostrich-ing the truth?

There was a piece about this fellow in the "Weekend Australian". How much of his tale is legit and how much exaggerated/invented to boost tourism - especially the part about the lost treasure - is open to conjecture. What an image he conjures, though!

"He was labelled the most eccentric bushranger in the history of Australia as he was often seen stripped to the waist and wearing stolen gold jewellery whilst brandishing two ornamental pistols and riding an ostrich."

https://coorongcountry.com.au/coorong-bushranger/

The wolf is missing and so are we

Cannot recommend this long-form journalistic investigation highly enough.

https://features.japantimes.co.jp/japan-wolf-search-index/

Last dozen movies watched

"Total Recall" a rewatch (with extras). Enjoyed it even more as an oldster.

Obviously I've only seen the first two parts of the "Fear Street" trilogy as the third isn't released yet.

Pick of the bunch: Bong Joon-ho's "Memories Of Murder" is a disturbing masterpiece about the hunt for a serial killer. However, since it was released in 2003, there was a huge development in the real-life case on which it's based. So consult Wikipedia afterwards.

[Viewed on: YouTube, Apple TV+, Netflix x2, Netflix, Kanopy, Netflix, Kanopy, Prime, Disney, Prime, Blu-ray.]

Ed & Jim, Mr Sim and buying on a whim

My friend DL clued me in to the Cartoonist Kayfabe channel on YouTube, where comic-makers and diehard fans of the medium Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg analyse selected works in an insightfully entertaining manner.

Last night, I watched their May 16 video on the upcoming "The Strange Death Of Alex Raymond" graphic novel, by the controversial yet undeniably talented Dave Sim (assisted by Carson Grubaugh).

What a gem of a vid. As Ed and Jim explained the origins of the GN, then slowly paged through an incomplete early version, I realised I could listen to them praise, technically dissect, question and lovingly poke fun at sequential art for hours. Just as well we have Cartoonist Kayfabe, then.

As for "The Strange Death...", it looks MIND-BLOWING. The promotional text calls it "equal parts 'Understanding Comics' and 'From Hell' ". I'd throw a vintage issue of "Vogue" into that description, too. I immediately preordered a copy from Book Depository.

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF5ykH0uH90

Model behaviour

Philip Segal, who produced the 1996 "Doctor Who" telemovie, has created an awesome website to celebrate his hobby of building (mostly sci-fi) models. Credit where credit's due: I learnt of its existence via the always-worthwhile "Radio Free Skaro" podcast.

https://sprueverse.com/

That mothership from "E.T." on Phil's site reminds me of when I saw the film at the Tower Cinemas in '82 or '83 with my rich pal MG. We'd visited a toy shop beforehand, where - always having spare cash - he'd purchased a little model kit of a red sports car.

In the cinema foyer, M. spotted a pair of girls about our age (~11) and insisted we go talk to them. But he was embarrassed about the model, so stuffed it into the back of his trousers. As we sat chatting to the gals, I could hear faint sounds of plastic cracking.

Apologies if I've told that story on here previously. Or used the same cliched pun of a heading.

Type train

The latest issue of "Wireframe" magazine (#52) has a terrific six-page article by David Crookes about type-in listings for early home computers. It's well researched and well written.

I'd forgotten about this type-in printed in "Mad" -

I *know* I entered the appropriate listing into my Commodore 64. However, my memory is that the undertaking was only a partial success. 

That was often the case with these programs, since the chance of keying an incorrect character was quite high. That or they didn't work at all. But we typed them in anyway, like apprentice magicians desperate to replicate a spell we'd been shown.

You can download the relevant ish of "Wireframe" FREE here -

https://wireframe.raspberrypi.org/issues