Podcasts I've gotten into lately

* "British Invaders" - http://britishinvaders.com/

* "Run The Adventure" -https://www.runtheadventure.com/

* "Writers On Film" - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/writers-on-film/id1567023095

* "FloppyDays" - https://floppydays.libsyn.com/

* "Lexicon Valley" - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lexicon-valley-from-booksmart-studios/id1576564760

All recommended!

Been meaning to link to this article...

The gist: News Corp is ditching comic strips from its newspapers.

No doubt some bean counter calculated that the money saved would be greater than that lost due to decreased sales from angry comics fans walking away - with ZERO thought for artists affected, historical legacy or reader experience.

https://www.chroniclechamber.com/post/has-news-corp-killed-the-comic-strip

Confessions of a nutty eater

Last week, I challenged myself to eat a different type of nut each day. On Monday, I had common ol' peanuts. On Tuesday, the king of nuts: cashews. Wednesday was walnuts. Thursday almonds. Friday hazelnuts. I ate macadamias on Saturday, and pine nuts yesterday.

It may seem obscene to play such a frivolous game when there are terrible shortages of food in other parts of the world. In my defence, I did only consume a modest amount of each nut, as ingredients in meals. (I'm not a believer in and rarely eat snacks.)

Did you know pine nuts can cause something known as "pine mouth"? Here's an explanation of the phenomenon from a NSW government site -

Recent viewing

Gal-power esports comedy "1UP" tries hard with the gaming references (and visual touches), but suffers from weak characterisation and unfunny jokes. From poor writing, generally. It's currently rated at 2.9/10 on IMDb. A 3.9 would be fairer. I've sat through worse. Given more distinctive characters, better gags and smarter plotting, it could have been a cultish 5.4. 

"Bergman Island' is my pick of the week. It sees a married couple travel to the Swedish island of Faro, famous for being the home and inspiration of film-maker Ingmar Bergman. The pair are there to work on their own screenplays, while also taking part in a Bergman festival. The couple's personal drama plays out for a while, then takes a backseat as we see the wife's script brought to life. However, when we eventually return to the "real world", there are many questions raised. I was pondering this uniquely strange and well-acted flick days later. I loved director Mia Hansen-Love's earlier effort, "Things To Come", and can safely say I'll watch anything she does in the future.

"Brian And The Boz" is a 2014 doco about a mega-talented grid iron player who could never be what his father wanted, so he became a larger-than-life figure instead and ended up destroying his career. While definitely not exonerating its subject, it generates sympathy and finds some redemption for him.

I avoided "Don't Look Up" when it was newly released because of the hype. It's a brilliant satire on our media-driven, often wilfully irrational modern society and could easily have been the top pick of another week. Beaut cast who do a beaut job.

"I Came By": Who knew the dad from "Downton Abbey" and "Paddington" could portray such a convincing psycho?

The 1959 "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" was a rewatch, of course. While I remembered all of the action sequences, I'd forgotten the significant amounts of music and humour in this adaptation.

"Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters In Space": Final instalment in a trilogy that just kept getting better. The creativity and sheer variety of the animation woulda absolutely blown my mind in 1982. Nice choons, too. And the shocks! Characters die and they do so suddenly. War is depicted as senseless and horrific, especially in its use of reluctant child soldiers who are forever scarred by their experiences.

I wish studios still produced fright fillums like 1960's "The City Of The Dead", whose old-fashioned charm outweighs its hokiness.

"Thor: Love And Thunder" made me want every second Marvel blockbuster to be helmed by Taika Waititi. (You'd need more serious, less inventive, less sweetly sentimental ones in between to appreciate the contrast.) I usually grow bored halfway through superhero cinema. This might have been the first time that didn't happen since "Black Panther".

"Travelin' Band" is a notable live performance with a history of the musos bolted on to form a full-length documentary. I enjoyed it and was left with a far greater respect for CCR.

[Seen on: Prime, Kanopy, Disney+, Netflix x2, Disney+, Netflix, Kanopy, Disney+, Netflix.]

Walk on the rewild side

"Rewilding" is the process of returning an environment to its natural state, likely involving the reintroduction of key animal and/or plant species to the place in question.

In Australia, there's been a lot of talk about resurrecting the so-called Tasmanian tiger (a marsupial predator) from extinction with genetic trickery, then incorporating it into a rewilding program.

Related to this, India has just taken a major step towards reintroducing cheetahs into its wilderness. You can watch a short'n'sweet Beeb news report about it here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGrLtKlC5Sc

I miss the word electrohum

Heard a podcaster list what each of the role-playing buddies of his youth became "when they grew up". This is me stealing that idea.

There were three groups in my early TTRPG history. I learnt to play "D&D" in primary school (Year 5) with WD, RK and CS. W. served in the army. Now, I *think* he works in IT or sales. R.'s career trajectory is a complete mystery to me. His parents were hotel/motel managers with a passion for sailing. Perhaps he got a gig in one of those areas? C. is a web designer.

The group I played with most as a pre-teen/teen, however, was JH, DP and MD. Except for M., we lived within cycling distance of each other. (M.'s folks were happy to drive him everywhere.) J. is a mentor in a certain discipline for students at a few unis. Last I read on Facebook, D. was seeking a new challenge after running a successful pub for many years. I *believe* M. had a non-lawyer legal role. These days, he's either still doing that or is a pro photographer or both. My info's sketchy.

The gaming group that took me up to about the age of 20 was BP, DB, JL and MG. B. became some kind of council worker (road crew?). Last I saw D., he'd only ever had part-time/casual jobs like delivering papers. J. operates a ski resort. As is often the way, M. was kicked upstairs from programming to the business side of IT. He tells me he's ready to leave the industry.

Their friend AW spent a long time in publishing and now scrapes by doing freelance writing :-)

Recent viewing

Note: The "Laurel Canyon" poster labels it a docuseries. What I saw on Stan was a single-part film.

These were all worth (re)watching apart from "Appointment With Death".

[Seen on: Netflix, Prime, DVDx2, Stan, Netflix, Kanopy.]

I was wondering

I was wondering the other day whether polar bears could be relocated to Antarctica.

So I Googled it.

And I found this fascinating little discussion on the "New Scientist" website - https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg25033411-400-could-polar-bears-be-established-in-the-antarctic-to-save-the-species/

It's amazing how many informed answers are right at our fingertips.

That said, like my friend RS, I would do away with the Internet if I could. (Yes, I am aware of the irony of making such a statement on an online diary.)