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 pub quiz 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".