Pizza leoparding

RS2 and I recently finished rewatching Season 1 of the remastered "Blake's 7" on Blu-ray. It had been 30 years between viewings for me (last time was on VHS) - even longer for him. The show is considerably darker than I remembered. I think the older and more analytical you are, the darker it probably becomes. The making-of doco on Disc 6 is worth a look. On to Series 2!

DL's new music zine was beaut, natch. His unvarnished concert reports are so entertaining, the singer or band is irrelevant. You always get a feel for the suitabilty of the venue, the composition of the crowd and the atmosphere, the timing of the acts and D.'s personal headspace, along with why the performance succeeded or didn't. His other non-gig articles are also beaut.

Women's State Of Origin 1 is tonight, in my home city. I kind of wish I was gonna be there, even though it'll be cold in the stadium. It's a shame they stage the ladies' Origin ahead of the NRLW season, since it means the players aren't in peak form and the coaches can only pick based on past glories. That said, I'm keen as an edamame bean for this clash. Let's go, Blues!

Eggplant-based diet

Congratulations to the Newie Jets for winning the A-League minor premiership.

Congratulations to me for reading this stout li'l HC. A lot of the information I already knew. Fun to go over it again, regardlesss. The most useful part was his "must see", "must play" and "must avoid" games for each system, a handful of which I need to check out on YT.

Machine wisdom

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Aaron Kuder. I don't mind T&A (I worked in men's mags for 17+ years), but there was just so much of it among this week's covs. Was nice to see someone creating proper art. Worth a zoom in order to admire the finer details.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Axis" by Soen (Sweden). Prog metal that actually deserves to be called prog for the distinctiveness and depth. Love the variety in his vocals. Been spinning this on a daily basis and I like it more with every listen. New fave metal band?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0-kkSUKpW0

Commended >>>

* Live version of "Paiwei Back Alley" by Vinida Weng (China) = missing a hook. Love her flow, though.

* "Small Talk" by Ill Peach (US) = reminds me in a good way of Metric.

* "Summer Again, Sung To The End" by Egoism (Australia).

* "Here Comes That Crow" by Leenalchi (Korea) = imagine if I could see them perform in Copenhagen in November on their world tour! 

DEVOURED THIS WEIGHTY TOME

Read every word of the 440-odd pages. Is it better than "Worlds & Realms"? IMO, no. But it's an incredible collection of swords & sorcery illos, with some fascinating art-related revelations, connections and comparisons across the five editions. (Even if they oversimplify/sanitise the history of "D&D" in places.)

Charge and fine the boo birds

LATEST AUDIOBOOK ON MY DAILY WALKS

Blurb:

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, HH Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.

As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top-secret documents – and, suddenly, what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.

Strength versus power

Wowed me a tad less than "Verily, A New Hope". I liked the way Lando, the Ugnaughts and the space slug spoke. Yoda and Boba were OK.

This combination comic-gamebook works so well. The structure is devilish, and you feel clever when you breach each invisible barrier.

Pot-fondling archaeologists

How chaos in US politics and turmoil in American society led to a revolutionary, industry-changing year in cinema. Convincing! My sole criticism: it wanders off the road (and cheats, e.g. mentioning "Star Wars") a little in the second half. Fab editing - there are moments when films are in a dialogue with each other.

Infodumpster

Another "University Challenge" grand final over. Now, the depressing three-month wait for next season begins. Congrats to Manchester and especially to their MVP, Madgwick. The lovely "Quizzy Lizzy" (from 2013) will always be that uni's #1 contestant, but he's surely earnt the #2 spot :-) I only managed to answer seven of the Qs correctly out loud before any of the students did. The level of play is just too high at this stage of the competition to expect a score of 20+ or even 10+. Sometimes, I look at my scoring answers - in this case, Eugene Onegin, corpse flower, Tarkovsky, Ian Smith, "Grizzly Man", Baron Samedi and Charlie Parker - and perceive the pathetic narrowness of my range of knowledge. Couldn't get a bloody STEM question to save meself. Even when my brain was young, sharp and untouched by alcohol, I don't think I was good enough to succeed on "U/C", but was I good enough to at least qualify for a team (maybe as a reserve)??? I've helped a few pub-quiz sides to glory in my time. Then again, that's likely true for *every* contestant. Madgwick is probably banned from his local trivia night for winning too many prizes. Those poker-machine vouchers are supposed to be spread around, mate ;-P

Looking to get back in the win column

The brand-new "Fist Of The North Star" gets my thunderous gut punch of approval. It's faithful to the original manga, with superior visuals and sounds to the previous anime adaptations. There are four episodes presently available on Prime. Watching 'em has made me realise just how influential "F/O/T/N/S" has been. A couple of caveats: avoid the dreadful English dubbing (which you probs would anyway) and allow yourself time to return to the old-school mindset required to appreciate what is a relatively simple tale.

Matchstick toothpick

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By EM Gist. Call it a Grogu-appreciation pick.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"All 4 U" by INI (Japan). Am far from a boy-band fan, but this is v. slick, catchy and dancey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBBYmYvsbP0

Commended >>> The beatbox/looping cover of "Small Town Boy" by Sxin (Germany). Best version since Paradise Lost's 2002 metal take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9ySXILRFpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf4q2rUc57M

PETITE PAGE-TURNER

Really worthwhile history and analysis once you get past the intro. KL is a champ.

It's WrestleMania weekend, ya turnbuckles.

Nuke-mad pollies going bananas

Played boardgames with four chums. First, "7 Wonders" incorporating the "Leaders" expansion. Loved it.

Then bygone Flying Buffalo release "Nuclear Escalation". Got wiped out almost instantly. Didn't love it.

I don't normally snack. However, since there were mini Kiwi chocs on offer, I had to revisit the Perky Nana after maybe 20 years. I'd forgotten how sticky they are. Will be another 20 years before I eat one again!

Speaking of nuke-mad pollies, I need to go vote in the Lord Mayoral election.

Rainsmeller

LATEST AUDIOBOOK ON MY DAILY WALKS

Blurb:

Poor boy. Dark star. Spy. Transgressor. Genius.

From one of the greatest writers on the Elizabethan era, Dark Renaissance is the thrilling and subversive life story of Christopher Marlowe – Shakespeare’s inspiration and rival, who helped to bring England out of the cultural darkness and into the light.

In brutally repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights and hangings. Into this crude world comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry – which to him is a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire and dangerous scepticism.

What Christopher Marlowe finds on the other side of that door, and what he does with it, brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language and culture, enabling the success of many others, including his youthful collaborator William Shakespeare. By the time of his murder in a Deptford tavern in 1593, the 29-year-old Marlowe will be the most celebrated dramatist of his time.

Stephen Greenblatt grippingly reconstructs the involvement with the queen’s spy service that shaped Marlowe’s brief, troubling life and gave us his masterpieces about power and its costs. And he explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific and cultural power of the modern world – involving Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.

Dropbear take the hindmost

Enjoyed every word of this heavy 350-page hardcover celebration of official "D&D" settings throughout the decades. OK, my interest waned slightly during the Eberron and Nine Hells sections, but those words were still pretty good. Written as if told by the legendary Greyhawk mage Mordenkainen, the book is a nostalgic, elucidating, unifying and inspiring (in a gaming sense) journey that on several occasions prompted me to do extra research on the side. It's chockers with art spanning the history of "D&D", and actually puts dedicated art collections to shame.

Stunning photography - especially the aerial footage - and an unsettling soundtrack drive this meditation on stone-based architecture since ancient times. What survives, what doesn't and how it fits into the natural landscape. From fallen temples to bombed-out apartment buildings, and not forgetting the vast terraced canyons left by mining operations. Interspersed through the documentary are scenes of an architect constructing a "magic circle" of stones in his backyard, the space inside to remain untouched by humans as a seeming offering to Mother Earth.

NEW ANIME YAY OR NAY

After watching the opening episodes...

* "Kill Blue": Yay. As a result of experimental science that might as well be sorcery, a master assassin is unwittingly turned into a shrimpy teenager, then goes undercover at a high school where the heiress to the pharmaceutical company behind the bullshit technology may hold the key to changing him back.

* "Daemons Of The Shadow Realm": Nay. Can't be bothered summarising. It's a mish-mash. Don't believe the hype.

* "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Steel Ball Run": Nay (and also neigh). Big-money horse race across the US in the Wild West era. I know plenty of peeps adore the various "JoJo's" arcs, and I do like some character designs, e.g. Jolene Cujoh of whom I have a figure, but I always bounce off the stories.

Ned Shimmelfinney

THE 7% SOLUTION

Bold flavour. Potent without being harsh. Part-way through, I'd solved a crime for Scotland Yard.

DAD WOULDA LOVED

Toppest-notch gun-fu and other mindless violence. Ana DA is a doll. Hope she does a sequel. The cult village evoked media from "The Prisoner" to "Resident Evil 8".

Fur coat over birthday suit

Credit to the actors: they portray these tech billionaires as so unlikable, I had to fight the desire to switch off the fillum for 30 minutes, maybe 45. The four "friends" reuniting for a poker weekend at a remote superhome are exceedingly vain, greedy, callous, petty and with just enough learning to delude themselves that they are always blameless and their position on any topic is valid. That last trait comes in handy when reports begin arriving that the outside world is descending into chaos (shades of 2024's "Rumours"), due largely to A.I.-assisted misinformation from one guy's social-media platform. Indeed, rather than attempting to solve the problems, the scumbags are soon brainstorming how to exploit them - with no sacrifice too great. To say events then spiral into the farcical would be to deny the believability of the absurd pronouncements and abhorrent behaviour of these tech moguls. I'm not sure the term black comedy works, either, since there's nothing funny about the harm such people have done/are doing to society. It's rare I'll recommend a movie with no likable characters, but here we are.

Ovaltine is mined on Arrakis

Basic-bitch RPG "Dragon Ruins" [Steam] could have been done on the C64. You explore an underground maze and whenever you meet monsters, they and your party auto-battle until only one side remains (or you opt to run away). Back in the starting area, you can pay to level up a character who has earnt sufficient XP for the next level, pay to level up their gear, or buy medicine or a teleporter. That's it. I'm not sure the character classes do anything. For all that, the game loop is addictive. How long will you keep pushing your luck in the dungeon, bagging precious gold, before you return to safety, spend yer hard-earned dough on improvements and save your progress? The next random encounter could be one weak critter or a group of half a dozen tough bastards you've never met before. TPKs penalise you a certain number of days before the adventuring band is resurrected, so there may be an overall time limit. Either that or the ultimate goal is to clear the maze in as few days as possible. I should probably read the instructions :-)

Bare metal

The nudie mag for robots!

Seen on a battered old hatchback: "MY OTHER CAR IS A SNAIL".

Seen on a demotivational poster: "Learn from your mistakes...so you can make even better mistakes!"

Ahem.

--

Bought this 2010 paperback from a secondhand shop. The premise was so wacky, I had to give it a go. Turned out to be a quick-ish, satisfying-ish read, apart from a handful of chapters devoted to the recollections/ravings of lamer/loonier characters. There was one twist I absolutely did not anticipate. I wonder if it inspired the 2017 comic "Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees".

Publisher blurb:

"Film noir-slick meets teddybear-sweet. A highly acclaimed, dark and edgy debut with stuffed animals...

"Eric Bear thinks he has escaped his violent past, but when crime boss Nicholas Dove threatens Eric's beloved wife Emma Rabbit, Eric has no choice but to do what the gangster asks: find a way to remove Dove's name from the Death List. 

"Problem is, no-one knows if the Death List really exists. Nevertheless, Eric gathers his old team together - sadistic male prostitute Sam Gazelle, sweet but dangerous Tom-Tom Crow and wily Snake Marek - and they set off to find the elusive list.

"What Eric learns will forever change the way he thinks about his life, his family and his town."

Wuberg Motiga

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

There were two I preferred, except they were reprints. This bottom-heavy Steve Mannion cov reminds me of vintage tattoo art. Y'know, Sailor Jerry-type gear.

SONG OF THE WEEK...THAT I MISSED HEARING FIVE MONTHS AGO

"Bare Rolig" by Katinka (Denmark). Pop with depth.

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

Commended >>> "I Wanna Rock" by DJ Fong Fong feat. Mart One (France x2). I also seriously dig the music in the sensational 40-year-retrospective PC demo from Razor1911 (Norway).

NEW BREW OF THE WEEK

SPY ACTIONER OF THE WEEK/YEAR

Attic of opportunity

In my early teens, I sat a maths exam to try to win a scholarship to an elite boarding school. My buddy M., known more for banter than mathematical acumen, insisted on joining me in the attempt. On the plus side, his parents drove us to the venue, so my oldies copped a break. As for the test...there were some questions I could answer confidently, some I could only partially solve and some that left me stumped. After the examination, they asked everyone to wait around while they marked the papers. Then, a select few lads (and their chaperones) were invited to stay, while the rest of us were thanked for coming and told we could go home. Obviously, those boys whose names were called had scored the highest and would be further tested and/or interviewed until the scholarship was decided. M. and I simply hadn't made the grade. This was confirmed when we discussed our answers - or lack of. But that didn't stop my chancer of a pal, a day or two later, claiming a representative from the school had phoned him personally to say he'd "only just missed out". You don't have to be a maths genius to calculate the likelihood of such a scenario.

Heart Strings XVIII

Instead of repeating the damning criticisms I made about new 'toon "Maul: Shadow Lord" to RS1 and BS, or the lukewarm review of Oz scifi flick "Occupation: Rainfall" that I gave PG, I present the latest instalment in this babes-with-bows series begun back in 2015.

1. Figure of Atalanta from the anime "Fate/Apocrypha".

2. Chou Tzuyu from K-pop group Twice.

3. Cosplayer Sara Moni as Dani Moonstar from the comic "New Mutants".

4. & 5. Maisy Dunne in the clip for the song "Headlights" by the band In Color.

6. Mystery lass at London Fashion Week in 1964. (Mum wouldn't be living and working there, and into the whole Carnaby St scene, until four years later.)

7. Illo of Scarlett by Harvey Tolibao from the "G.I. Joe" TTRPG...which is excellent, by the way.

Smoke Morleys

Even though I was familiar with the key incident and ongoing controversy/rivalry, this docufilm easily held my attention. And while I remain #teammagnus, there's no real hero to the tale as told. I mean, HN is shown up as highly flawed ("Once a cheater..."?), but there are also times when MC, his father and the ChessDOTcom guys are cast in a negative light. Not saying that's fair - just the way it came across to me.

After a TV news report of nearby servos running dry, I ducked out to fill up the car with overpriced fuel. Swung by the Korean grocery store for "essentials" :-)

Venusian sunrise

Was researching and writing a policy most of yesterday. Did manage to finish that season of "Wheeler Dealers" I mentioned. And this LEGO kit. The three little objects at the front are slides that go into the top of the telescope. It contains a light and can (weakly) project images onto the wall. You can turn a dial to make the orrery revolve. The alternate builds are a microscope and a UFO.

"Write drunk, edit sober"

Neither a worthwhile fighty historical adventure nor an effective "Elseworlds"-style Batman yarn. Tedious and predictable, yet also confused. Give it a miss.

Hardly uproarious, but I just find the dude super likable. His bumbling, wide-eyed, wannabe-hip comic persona has a special charm. The water gag ruled.

Palm trees are loud

7/10 for the importance of the subject matter. Overly stagey and bombastic. Overly massappeal-Hollywood, in other words. Didn't buy the main character or his decline in the epilogue. Brilliant performance from Russell Crowe, as per. Geez, that bloke can act.

Surely one of the oddest BF audios. Athens and Sparta. Tyrants and playwrights. Zombies and alien tourists. A giant beetle and a mystical mask. I think it will require a second listen to get this story straight in my head.

Great man, great piece of cinema. 8/10. If you don't know DH, it's worth reading his Wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dag_Hammarskj%C3%B6ld

Ovda Wi'ik

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Fernando Blanco. How moody and brooding is this image? Growing up, a pal had two siblings around his age and three who were much younger. Once, the young'uns ran away from home together, leaving items on a local beach to create a nasty false impression. They were soon found and I never heard of any further attempts at flight. Just a crazy childhood notion.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Mindwanderer" by Italian metallurgists Konquest. 

Te-RIFF-ic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ-og6BpRqA

Commended >>> "Crater" by US alt-rock legends Sparta (who I was introduced to many years ago by LA, RIP), "Ida" by Dutch pianist Joep Beving, and the cover of Joy Division's "Transmission" by the father'n'son from "Bob's Burgers".

BEER OF THE WEEK

Strong but balanced. Really nice flavour. The grassiness is offset with...a hint of fruit? Ambrosia? E.T.'s weewee?

NEW (TO ME) PODCAST OF THE WEEK

True crime viewed from within a fam, and with a lot of reflection on immigrant experiences. So uniquely weird and considerately told, I had to binge all five episodes.

Blurb:

"For decades, M. simply disliked [their cousin] Allen. They saw him as a fool, a pompous 'international businessman' who bragged about shady deals and drove fancy cars while living in Eastern Europe and Africa. But one day Allen suddenly shows up at their father’s home in Cape Cod with his mother and five-year-old son. He says he has separated from his wife, whom he has left behind in Moscow. M. suspects this could be a kidnapping, but their family seems to disagree. Then, finally, Allen does something so bad that even M.’s family can’t ignore it." 

Awkward orchid, tingly bunny

Played "Gloomhaven" with the lads. The scenario was an escort mission, featuring a plant-man NPC designed to run into trouble. If he'd died, we'd have instantly failed. That almost happened at the very start, then we healed the foolhardy bugger up and kept him safe until the boss monster in the final room of the "dungeon" (actually a series of forest groves) was slain. A fun challenge.

Digital sport declined

A mate was telling me how he used to compete against his father at "Tetris". It made me envious - even the part about his dad's masterful trash talk.

The only videogame I ever got my own father to play was golf title "Leader Board" on the Commodore 64. Thanks to a lifelong passion for the real game, his club selection and shot direction/strength were spot on, to the point where his involvement felt like a cheat code.

Alas, after a single spirited session, he declared, "Nah, I'll get too addicted to this," walked away and never played it - or any other videogame - again.

--

Viewing: "Wheeler Dealers - World Tour" S2, "Ancient Justice" (history), "Truthseekers" (also history, with mystery).

Stay in your space lane

After enjoying the audiobook of Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl" novel so much, I had to buy TTRPG "Xcrawl Classics", which is thematically v. similar. I had to buy it all.

While we're on the topic, here's a list of things that sprang to mind while I was listening to "D/C/Carl". Why? Because I like making lists. One or two inclusions may surprise you.

* "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"

* "Solo Leveling"

* The Denis Leary song "Asshole" (mainly due to the narrator's delivery of the darkly humorous portions)

* "Mad" magazine (or perhaps downmarket imitator "Cracked" would be more appropriate)

* Something with sassy talking animals in a swords'n'sorcery milieu - "Spellsinger"?

* "Beavis & Butthead", AND

* Fan fiction.