Get yerself sumfink nice

Free festive download from the champs at Big Finish about a missing weekday (we've all been there):

These looks are the bomb

Started watching this reality comp [Prime Video] with one of my nieces who has done a professional makeup course. She got bored halfway through Episode 1. I kept going and am now on Ep. 5. Maybe it's more fascinating to me because I had zero prior knowledge on the topic. Anyway, I have a definite favourite competitor and will continue viewing until the end (10 episodes). If you're worried about it being repetitive, challenges can involve looks from Wedding to K-Pop Video to Grunge to Futurist to Drag to Eastern Beauty... I could go on. There's even a dash of SFX makeup.

Most of the visitors are off to the seaside today, so of course, worrywart that I am, I've been warning them about sunburn, rips and other dangers. Sister AK reminded me how her childhood chum, who was a bit of a wild child, transferred a deadly blue-ringed octopus (don't ever try this!!!) from a rockpool into her home fish tank, where it proceeded to eat all of its tankmates. I was friends with said chum's older brother, who used to keep fireworks and gunpowder extracted from them in his bedroom year-round, so he could construct "bungers" (pipe bombs) when the desire arose.

Fresh peanuts

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Taurin Clarke. Bluntly put, the competition wasn't particularly strong, but this is an image worth exploring.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Sword Of Vigor" by Power Paladin (Iceland). The most selected track on the magical jukebox in Valhalla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4wXxFyE-8

Commended >>> "Kinoko" by Pinponpanpon (Japan).

MOVIE OF THE...YEAR, ACTUALLY

Family, film-making, flaws, failures, fears, painful understanding and liberating acceptance. Made me wanna exclusively watch arthouse flicks.

Not only but also

Visited this local attraction for the first time in years. Highly recommended.

For logistical reasons, spent the night in a hotel in Sydney (free upgrade)...

...and ate a different kind of Christmas lunch. Made up for it on Boxing Day!

Back at the ranch

Last three comics read. "The Circus: Losing Control" has real promise.

Two 2026 annuals materialised. The "Zzap!" and "Fusion" ones are T/C.

New figurino, courtesy of sister AC. Asuka is no longer alone :-)

Moray Eelmas!

Hope you have a lovely day.

Pine cones

Seeing this sign got me thinking about pine cones.

You're not supposed to collect the native variety. Not unless they've opened and released their seeds. Even then, I'm not sure it's legal within a national park.

As infant warmongers, they were the pretend hand grenades that complemented our trusty stick rifles.

Crafty parents/older siblings might spray-paint them silver to make Xmas decs. Plenty of peeps used 'em to kick-start their fireplaces or outdoor wood barbecues.

Especially talented folks transformed 'em into cute hedgehogs worthy of stop-motion animating.

One of sister EM's colleagues created edible pine cones out of Milo cereal artfully fixed around a cake core. She said he told her, "Never again - too much work."

Emerald flames from the rooftop burn barrel

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Ivan Talavera. Silly concept when you think about it. Don't care. Soft spot for Shulkie.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Odelagt Byen" by Olivver feat. Augusta Shackinger (Denmark). Sweet duet. Hip AF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yli-LF_Aj4Q

DEPRESSING DOCO OF THE WEEK

Aging collectors and their mountains of rotting reels. Offers scant hope, despite the title.

Days of future present

This figure of Marin Kitagawa from "M/D/U/D" arrived today. Girlier and less fantasy/scifi/cheesecake than my usual figs. Preordered her months ago. Must have seemed like a good idea at the time :-)

Our first group of Christmas/New Year visitors fly in tomorrow. I'll be collecting them from the airport. In predicted 42-degree heat. In a car without aircon. (It reached 44 here on Friday!)

The festive "University Challenge" begins Monday. Well, Tuesday for us. Unusually, the teams are all returning from past seasons. Don't bet against Val McDermid's mob. She's a trivia gun.

Buttons

"Who" fans like to poke fun at this control from "Genesis Of The Daleks". But given other story titles such as "Planet Of Evil" (all together now: Don't go there!), subtlety has rarely been the program's strength.

When I was in Year 9, a Year 10 lass came to school wearing matching "Panic Button" badges on her regulation green woollen jumper in positions one could only assume corresponded with her nipples.

I don't remember said uniform breach in a pervy way. Suffice it to say that I wasn't her type, nor she mine. However, I do recall being impressed by her boldness. This was a Catholic college in the 1980s!

Fast-forward four decades and Amazon is offering the following device, which spouts various accusatory phrases when pressed, to help call out lies. Stop, don't press it now. I promise the badge-gal anecdote is true. 

Hair salon of Rassilon

Our traditional family Christmas lunch:

* Cold turkey (from boxed roasts, not whole birds - we gave up on those years ago)

* Cold ham

* Creamy potato salad

* Garden salad (dressed)

* Some sort of pasta salad

* Hard-boiled eggs (curried)

* Coleslaw

* Beetroot and pineapple (separate)

* Garlic bread

* Sparkling wine/soft drink/beer, AND

* Trifle^!

Oh, and cheap Christmas crackers!

That may seem excessive, but I should point out we typically eat the leftovers for the next 2-3 meals.

^These can vary a lot. Ours is always sherry-soaked sponge, jelly, custard, peaches, cream, almond flakes.

Laffs

Host Amol Rajan: [Question about facial hair named after Sax Rohmer creation.]

Lincoln Uni captain Samuel Orman-Chan: Looks at team members for help, thinks, guesses, "Fu Manchu?"

Amol: "Well done! I think you're wearing one."

(Not throwing shade on SOC. Just a funny coincidence.)

Oh, Goodman Games, don't ever change -

No new episode of "Chef & My Fridge" this week was a real downer. Consoled myself with the two-part doco "Korean Fried Chicken Rhapsody" - and the knowledge "Culinary Class Wars 2" is about to hit. Based on the trailer, they've somehow taken the ultimate cooking competition to the next level.

Exited stages

This is a rad photobook. Sneaky "urban explorer" snaps of long-empty houses and mansions, schools and hotels, theme parks and power plants, fortresses and mental asylums, trains and shipwrecks, churches and theatres. With the housing crisis currently affecting so many countries, it's weird seeing these abandoned places - especially the larger ones. I'm not saying people should be living in them. They are dilapidated, overgrown. And there are valid reasons why their occupants left never to return... Flooding, earthquakes, radioactivity, shifting sands, severe economic depression, political upheaval, war... It's more that they illustrate how often through history humans have been forced to forsake grand and costly constructions we had imagined ourselves using "forever". On top of that, the photographs (like the cover shot) possess a cool spookiness. Horror LARP, anyone?

Does the world still need more lerts?

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Tonci Zonjic. Ultra-clean, mean shades of green and an unusual scene.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Alive" by The Ssyndrome (Korea). Strong debut that made me an instant fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dFSq6ki8gM

Kenny Hoopla's (US) "Birthday Card" is also great.

LIMP SEQUEL OF THE WEEK?

Disclaimer: am only halfway through. The original felt so fresh. This...doesn't.

Block, punch

In hindsight, I didn't intend my review of "'The New Yorker' At 100" (previous entry) to sound so negative. What was there, I scoffed with butter and salt. I just wish there'd been less fluff and more insights.

Am loving this boxing reality comp on Disney+. It's very "Physical: 100", which is about the best thing such a show can be >>>

Greetings from Akkad

Arrived home in a storm to find the delivery person had safely stowed these in a sheltered corner of the front porch. Three cheers for common sense. If only it applied to my buying habits! I must have a dozen of these retro systems now.

For those who care about the venerable periodical in question, this will be popcorn viewing. (Those who don't won't watch it.) Ironically, though, given the legendary long-form journalism and obsessive attention to detail of "T/N/Y", I thought it could have gone broader and deeper. The famous talking heads added little. I'd have rather heard from the printers, retailers, fanatical collectors, the legal department, the coffee boy... Perhaps the remarks of comedians, etc. were supposed to function like the single-panel cartoons dotted throughout the magazine itself. Didn't work for me.

Sciencing & dancing

Pod rec

Nihoo

This guy is kind of an unofficial ambassador for K-pop - singing, dancing, judging contests and even trying his hand at teaching as he travels everywhere from Mongolia to Gautemala. After I discovered his channel yesterday, my productivity went out for cigarettes and never came back. Along with bringing joy (often euphoria) to fans, he and his gorgeous producer-director, PD Noona*, visit interesting places, eat delicious food and overcome obstacles like still having to perform when the weather/equipment aren't co-operating or you're seriously ill. The lengths to which Nihoo goes to ensure everyone gets their money's worth is so admirable, as is how much he encourages and praises his fellow artists. Champion fella.

https://www.youtube.com/@%EB%8B%88%ED%9B%84Nihoo/videos

*Yes, I know this means older sister.

Finished that, started this

A tad familiar. Did I read it a decade ago? I'm sure I'll realise soon. Perhaps it doesn't matter, anyway. My late father used to joke, as his memory declined with age, that it was a positive development because he'd eventually only require one book. By the time he reached the end, he would have forgotten everything that had come before and could simply begin it again.

Publisher blurb:

Crosswords are not as old as you think. The first one appeared a century ago, with the little square keeping in remarkable shape. Cluetopia is here to toast the centenary, whizzing you through years of remarkable clues, across the world, seeking the inside stories.

Come travel to New Guinea, Venezuela and Metropolis: every destination arising from a clue. Encounter love, murder, hoaxes, propaganda. Visit a Maori funeral, a Bass Strait oil rig, a Russian game show - just some of the side trips locked in a crossword.

With almost 100 mini-chapters, each with a separate clue to crack, this is a book for word lovers and puzzle fans. You'll see how crosswords capture the life around them, from prison cells to outer space. 

A holiday for the head, Cluetopia is as fun, as wild and as wordy as David's previous bestseller, Puzzled.

Proper page-turner

Publisher blurb:

EVERYTHING IN THIS BOOK HAPPENED...

At 17, Anna Broinowski is precocious, naive and convinced she knows how the world works. But O-Week at Sydney University changes that. She's suddenly in a hyper-masculine caste system, where future captains of industry terrorise freshers and invade dorms in naked, screaming packs. 

Nothing is what she thought it'd be...until Anna finds her people. New dreams are made. Playing violin, auditioning for NIDA, losing her virginity. Then Peisley, a gentle giant, talks of a hitchhiking trip up north. And, after agreeing on three rules - never split up, remain platonic, accept every lift that gets them closer to Darwin - Anna decides to go.

Hitchhiking the highways leads her into a dystopian dustbowl, where outsiders must adapt or perish, and women teeter on an existential knife edge. In this flyblown asylum, love and danger collide with the toxic misogyny in the guts of the Australian soul. Anna will learn that the line between victim and survivor can be as cruel as luck and as random as a shiny blue Datsun on a red dirt road.

1729

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

To be honest, I don't think I would read this book, but I do rate the cover. Busily pretty, mixing bold lines and watercolours, realism and abstract patterns, it's unmistakably the work of David Mack. CM and I chatted to him at a convention once. Seemed a nice chap.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Shiver" by Death Bells (Australia). Have seen them labelled as a few different styles. Whatever, Trevor. Personally, I reckon you could slip this into a set at an indie club OR a goth club.

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

BEST FLICK I SAW IN THE PAST WEEK

"Department Q: Boundless" (2024). Sixth adaptation of a series of popular Danish crime novels. They recast the trio of leads for #5 onwards. I prefer the original actors, without *disliking* their replacements.

In summary... An island community, a strange traffic fatality that ruined a career (look closely at the poster!), an Osiris-worshipping New Age cult, suspicious characters, old police rivalries, and our heroes being caught up in death, destruction and a ferry-load of personal trauma.

Nostril-Adamus

Well, I picked that like a crusty nose. Final standings in the Australian Open (golf) were:

1st - Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Denmark

2nd - Cameron Smith, Australia

3rd - Si Woo Kim, South Korea

Fair enough, "picked" is a stretch. Still, it was *almost* the perfect outcome for this viewer. 

Last three items sold/given away online

= Pool-cleaning equipment

= Collection of horse books and mags formerly belonging to sister EM

= Wooden desk (with drawers)

--

We did a session of "Gloomhaven" yesternight. Instead of controlling the monsters, I took over the Human Sawbones for a bloke who was absent. I did OK and the quest was successful. We must be nearing the end of the campaign. It's possible we will then move on to this:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342900/earthborne-rangers

Last three sports spectated

1. Australian Open (golf) - on now! Rooting for the locals first and foremostly, but I'm fine if a Korean or Dane does well.

2. WBBL (cricket) - my Lady Sixers won. Casual 50 runs and three wickets from our X-factor captain Ash Gardner. Finals in sight...

3. NBL (basketball) - my Kings lost. Prior to the game, they showed a stat on how the Breakers keep squandering leads. Not this time, curse our luck.

--

While out'n'about earlier, I was passed by a ute with a bumper sticker that said, "MR WANKER." Why in holy heckfire would you stick that on your vehicle???

Last three TTRPG products purchased

* "Dragonbane" GM screen

* "Dragonbane Bestiary"

* "Dragonbane - Path Of Glory" module.

Already owned the core rulebook and starter set. Love this modern update of the classic Swedish alternative to "D&D". Streamlined, fun and the gameworld just has a strong, consistent feel to it.

May have also backed a related Kickstarter. More like wallet-bane!

Last three correct answers given...

...while playing along with "University Challenge":

Whitney, Hitchcock, auteur.

Only got eight right this morning, compared to a healthy 21 last week.

As any pub-trivia aficionado will tell you, sometimes the questions just fall into your areas of knowledge. Then there are occasions when you sit scratching your noggin, silently promising to study harder.

For a while (six months?), I researched and wrote a weekly trivia quiz for a magazine. That was a real pleasure. I'm proud to say that no reader ever disputed an answer, which was my greatest fear.

Last three results in "Race For The Galaxy"

Win, loss, loss.

--

The Japan Cup was just won by a foreign horse for the first time in 20 years - and at record pace. Well done to all associated with the Irish-bred, French-trained Calandagan. But fix your gaze instead on the grey that ditches its jockey at the outset, Admire Terra. As one poster jokes, "It timed its race to perfection." Absolutely refuses to accept defeat!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5sUW79JlQo