Caravanserai

Residing near a shopping centre, I've observed a sizeable increase in the number of mobile homes pulling in to refuel both vehicle and humans inside. It suggests #vanlife is on the rise in Oz. In fact, I've seen so many of these nomads in the past year or two that it makes me wonder if there isn't a guidebook or website or app somewhere recommending the parking/petrol (diesel?)/eateries/supermarket at our centre. How many motorhomers are seeking adventure on the open road and how many are merely responding to the cost-of-living crisis is a discussion for another day.

Watching: "The Traitors US" S4. A return to form after S3.

T-shirt over sloppy joe

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By N/A. Something of a protest vote, this. There was so much mediocrity - not to mention downright dreck - that I ended up going with a cov depicting only Poison Ivy's symbol.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Pie N Mash" by The Skinner Brothers (UK) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyRL4edCM1Q

Commended >>> "Mangata" by Chloe Antoniotti (France), "Polaris" by Show-Go (Japan).

BEST BOOK I FINISHED THIS WEEK

Brilliant! Clever and amusing Shakespeare references, "Star Wars" references that go beyond Episode IV, and even tiny plot additions. The B&W illustrations are very good, too.

BEST DOCUFILM I WATCHED THIS WEEK

Worth it for the historical footage/photos alone. All four members of the band get to have their candid say. CC's spectacular rise was almost accidental, while its fall was inevitable.

The centre can hold, as it happens

I've mentioned before that we live near a neat little modern community centre, where we cast our vote on polling day. It also regularly hosts a mums'n'bubs club, an African church group, activities for young folks with intellectual disabilities (hope that's the acceptable term) and their carers, activities for senior citizens, and more besides. A colleague told me about a game-development jam that was held at the centre. I reckon back when proper in-person sci-fi clubs abounded, it could well have been used to stage the monthly meetings of one of those. I'm gonna assume it's the unofficial HQ of "Babylon 5" in this area ;-P

Improv tragedy

It's Tuesday and I'm thinking about the weekend. Not just because I've banned myself from consuming booze and junk food Mon-Thurs. There's a lot of primo viewing imminent...

FRIDAY

High hopes. First series was a blast. Imagine likeable celebs playing it (mostly) straight through a string of escape rooms of movie-set quality that tell an ongoing spooky story.

SATURDAY

Our city's art gallery finally reopens after FOUR YEARS of construction work. Don't get me started on how utterly pathetic it was of the council to leave the community without this vital cultural space for so long. All I can say is: The expanded and remodelled gallery better be effing special!

SUNDAY MORNING-AFTERNOON

(Shame they flubbed the apostrophe.)

SUNDAY EVENING

If I was still living in Sydney with plenty of disposable income and roughly zero responsibilities, I'd be attending the heck out of this competition.

Speaking of release dates, "Warriors Of Athena", the new Mythical Greece wargame from "Frostgrave" and "Stargrave" creator Joseph A. McCullough, should be out around Thursday, depending on your location. Amazon AU was saying today, but that's now changed to "temporarily out of stock".

Famously flat

Milano Cortina was Australia's most successful Winter Olympics. We won three gold medals, two silver and one bronze. That saw us finish in 14th place, right behind South Korea, a country I know from their news programs is obsessed with the W/O. Denmark scored a lone silver, which was actually a good result for them since they only had a single previous Winter Olympics medal! Being a Nordic nation, you might expect the Danes to do better, but along with a relatively small population (six million compared to Oz's 27 and SK's 51), they also have no mountains on which to practice many of the events. Thirdly, I suspect that, like the average Aussie, they simply care more about the Summer Games.

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BEST PIZZA PHOTO I TOOK THIS WEEK

Insomnia's a bitch

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Sean Phillips. Harkens back to my not entirely successful Year 10 Art major work. It presently occurs that I may have taken inspiration from "D&D" action figure Warduke.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Big Bright Burning Sun" by Loose Content (Australia). Timeless, driving indie rock with a perfectly imperfect lead vocal. Would love to hear it smashed out live in a buzzing pub.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1voE2amcobY

LEAST WORST BLOCKBUSTER OF THE WEEK

Caught up with this, "Jurassic World Rebirth" and the 2025 "Superman" over the past seven days. Would rate each of them 6/10. Tied scores aside, "Tron: Ares" is the only one I'd consider rewatching.

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Playing: "Race For The Galaxy" [Steam]. RS2 and I are still enjoying the tabletop version, gradually adding the expansions and adopting the advanced rules. We're both now into the videogame as well.

Burnt fog

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Francesco Mobili. There's enough going on in the pic to arouse my curiosity. I'm a sucker for yarns where former friends reunite to solve the murder of an old chum  - even more so when the victim was a superhero.

SONG OF THE WEEK

The cover of "Wish You Were Here" by Korean girl group Fifty Fifty. The array of beautiful voices (the gal in the grey coat *slays*). The embellishments. Imagine if it kicked off a trend of K-poppers covering prog rockers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYWz7gvKzM

Commended >>> "Lightning Fast" by Sushiboys (Japan). Also "Jol Leszek Ujra" by Nagy Bogi feat. Desh (Hungary). Great song, but how many female singers have we seen draped on horseback like this? Fact: My mate CM, a special-effects makeup wiz, once had to - non-toxically - paint a horse to resemble a zebra for a similar pop clip. 

SALMON BOX OF THE WEEK

DOCUFILM OF THE WEEK

And probably the year.

LEGO KIT OF THE WEEK

Also viewing: "Celts - The Untold Story", fortune-telling survival extravaganza "Battle Of Fates", T20 cricket World Cup, NRL pre-season trials. The All Stars games are on today, hooray!