VAR - checking for possible red card

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

The judges have declared it a dead heat between Rick Veitch's trippy depiction of Swampy adrift in time(?) and Zatanna rocking out with her stockings out, courtesy of Adam Hughes. Tnioj srenniw!

SONGS OF THE WEEK

* The country-fied cover of Bomfunk MCs' "Freestyler" by Steve'N'Seagulls (Finland).

* Punk ripper "The Stupidest Animal In The Zoo" by The King Blues (UK).

* "Time For The Needy", more indie-rock gold from Egoism (Australia).

* "Sigui" by Malian-French songstress Fatoumata Diawara. Entrancing. 

* "The Touch" [Reformatted Edition] by Knights Of Unicron feat. Stan Bush (US).

* The beautiful cover of Jaurim's "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One" by Roy Kim (Korea). Only a world-class voice would dare.

* "Junk And Pong" by Asmi (Japan). Appealing sung-spoken pop.

Addster's pick >>> "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8SUXEw5LW4

TWO THUMBS UP

I think I said enough about the previous two volumes... This is just as brilliant, slightly funnier and a tad subversive (e.g. the midichlorians reference). Luke shines. Ironically, in translating the trilogy into antiquated, "difficult" verse, Doescher elucidates the motivations at its heart.

ONE THUMB UP

When next you visit the Delphi Oracle, please ask her why I spent cash money on this. Because I don't know. Ah, well, it's read now. Lovely food shots and a few inspiring ingredients/useful techniques, which is the minimum you want from any cookbook. Outsiders might baulk at lines like, "If they can find them, drow prefer matsutake, though shiitake or maitake will do in a pinch," in a description of a mushroom broth favoured by the dark elves. Let's face it, "Heroes' Feast" isn't aimed at those folks. For us "D&D"-ers, the higgledy-piggledy collection of snacks, soups, meat or veg mains, desserts, cocktails, etc. makes perfect sense when the recipes are grouped by fantasy races and linked to fabulous locations.

Golden joypads

Prime newie "Ghost War" is missing only three things: believability, logic and a single original idea. I gotta get my eyeballs on a French or Korean movie soon, 'cos I honestly don't enjoy shooting these barrel fish. Miller acts circles around the others, even if the defining characteristic of her MI6 operative is that she smokes (at least they make a joke about that towards the end). The music isn't bad. The ol' rogue-element-within-our-ranks plotline is just so lazy and boring; a waste of time. Do some effing research and come up with a topical scenario! Or is it a case of the makers being scared to offend any particular country for fear of losing viewers? Then they should use a fictional analogue like DC Comics does - Bialya, Markovia, etc. - while sticking to themes which are relatable.

What if your Uber...

...was an itasha with underglow and a boot full of thumping stereo? Yeah, that'd rule.

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BEER OF THE WEEK

Smooth. Right level of flave for a lager. No chemical after-taste. Large and in charge!

No string theories attached

When it comes to espionage tales, I am not so discerning. Which was just as well in the case of "The Copenhagen Test". It began silly - the protagonist is a spy whose brain has been hacked - and continued being silly for eight episodes, adding or changing *anything* just to provide frequent twists. Simu Liu's mindfucked agent, Alexander Hale, was likeable enough, as was Melissa Barrera's mysterious Michelle (apart from when she wasn't). I didn't care for the rest of the charas. Or the worldbuilding. I didn't care for the flashbacks. I certainly didn't care for the weak, illusion-of-progress ending. Furthermore, the series had zero of note to say about real intelligence organisations or geopolitics. I'm surprised the reviews I've seen weren't harsher. Gods help us if actual spy agencies waste resources like the clowns depicted in "T/C/T" do monitoring/attempting to control one unlucky dude.

Futterbingers

Apparently this 1982 biopic was a box-office flop. Unless it tried to directly take on "E.T.", it didn't deserve to be. Strong Australian cast, well scripted (satisfying arc), well filmed, impressive period trappings, infectious musical score... On top of all that, it offers a theory on the death of the diminutive gangster, about which the precise details remain unclear to this day. Atkins utterly inhabits the title role, putting his real-life dance skills to good use, and it's wild seeing local acting royalty Weaver play a ditzy "moll" (she nails it). Bisley makes an evil baddie, too. While I generally shy away from media that glorifies criminals, ST's rise to power was so unlikely and his boldness so outrageous - whether addressing a crime boss, copper, reporter or judge - and the film gives such a feel for the time/place, I'd rate this flick as watch-worthy for any Aussies interested in the darker side of our history.

Take two lances and call me at the dawning

A lot of my schooling was rote learning, and a lot of the assignments my classmates and I submitted were little more than pages of text copied by hand - verbatim - from reference works, punctuated with the occasional lame drawing or photocopied image. I'll never forget a fellow student hiding a cheeky message in the middle of such an assignment, asking the teacher to make a mark to show he was still reading. When it was graded and returned to her, there was no mark. In an even cheekier move, she called him on it. His excuse: "I didn't want to mess up that page by writing in the middle of the text." None of us bought that for a second.

Thomas J. Foolery

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

By Tula Lotay (Lisa Wood). Google tells me that, along with having a knack for pretty faces, she founded the biggest comics convention in the UK!

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Spy In The House Of Love" by Exploring Birdsong (UK). Are they progressive? Maybe. Doesn't matter a jot - easily one of my tracks of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM9ZBblQn9o

Commended >>>

* "El Award Es Para" by Aiko El Grupo (Spain)

* "It's For The Kids" by Anthrax (US)

* "Better Than Before" by Pamela (Australia)

* "I'm Out And I Wanna Go Home" by Dadi Freyr (Iceland)

* "Falling Into You" by Tadpole (NZ)

* "Stay" by Seeya (Korea) - if you like clips with dancing, the dancer in this'un is exceptional.

ANNOYING RPG MANUAL OF THE WEEK

Rad concept: A rules-light scifi game of overthrowing an evil galactic empire where the character sheets are modelled after carded "Star Wars" action figures. Shame they go on and bloody on about the parallels to current-day politics. I'm a liberal lefty and I still found it obnoxious. Anyhoo, too simple to run as a campaign but I'd probably play it once at a con.

Righto, time to breakfast and await the Rousey vs Carano MMA card...