Destruction, defibrillation and, er, Dodgson

COMIC COVER OF THE WEEK

"Alice Forever After #4" by InHyuk Lee.

Fairly original and highly atmospheric take on Carroll's beloved characters. Comic itself is tempting, but I'll wait until it's collected into graphic-novel form.

SONG OF THE WEEK

"Defibrillator" by The Snuts (Scotland).

The kind of jingle-jangle guitar pop I was mad for in my 20s. Smart lyrics. Doesn't outstay its welcome. What's a "snut"? Maybe I shouldn't ask!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GugxzJQdT-o

MANGA OF THE WEEK

"Destroy All Humans...They Can't Be Regenerated", Volumes 1-6.

Sweet romance/heroic rise set amid the combo-heavy metagame of late-'90s "Magic: The Gathering". Not even joking. Loving this with every fibre of my being.

Bring back karate chops!

Expert plate-spinning (water-treading?) from BF. The Axons, while brought to life surprisingly well in the audio medium, were ultimately dealt with too easily. Part 4's twist of a certain being's involvement in the alien invasion of Earth was spoilt by the fact I'd already seen the cover of the fourth box set - but that ain't Big Finish's fault. On to the finale!

Comfort reading you can smash in a sitting, as I did. Whenever I engage with "The Five Doctors" in any form, I'm reminded that Uncle Terrance was a grandmaster of both "Who" lore and clever plotting. Fellow Target novelisation fans will know what I mean when I say that every embellishment of what we saw on screen remains a tiny delight.

A phrase I'm going through

Often, the titles of these blog entries are just arrangements of words that tickled my fancy enough for me to write them down. Could be something I heard or read, or that just popped into my head. Might rhyme like that. Might not. Could be a Q. If I feel it's warranted, I'll wrap 'em in quote marks.

I have too many of these jottings at present. More than I can use. So I'm burning a bunch below, where they still won't be explained. That's right, this is a list of meaningless titles for never-to-be-written blogs! Aren't you lucky?

* Twenty-sided vice

* Umami hunter

* "There are still ghosts feasting at the table all these centuries later"

* Optimistically whistling the theme from "Minder"

* Pattern-matching machines

* The judge won't budge

* How many zen masters does it take to change a lightbulb?

* "She's a whole deck of wild cards"

* Keyclick symphony orchestra

* Robble, robble

* Canon of worms

* I flew to the wrong country

* Onion-wrapped Flying Dutchman

* "We watch the portraits watching us"

* Hoot and/or holler

* A Golden Age of Iron Age archaeology

The threat of mirror bacteria

On the latest episode of "The Doctor Who Show", in their regular series The List Makers (as opposed to "The Myth Makers", casuals), champion Aussie podders Rob and Dave presented their individual Top 5 "Who"-related autobiographies/biographies. It made me ponder mine. In no particular order, I'd go with:

* "Who On Earth Is Tom Baker?" by TB

* "Blue Box Boy" by Matthew Waterhouse (aka Adric)

* "Who And Me" by Barry Letts (producer)

* "Script Doctor" by Andrew Cartmel (script editor), AND

* "Still Getting Away With It" by Nicholas Courtney (aka The Brigadier).

Between them, the lads mentioned all five of those, although I believe NC's was a "just missed the cut" dealio. More interestingly, they both had at No. 1 on their list the bio "The Life And Scandalous Times Of John Nathan-Turner" by Richard Marson, which was later expanded and retitled "Totally Tasteless".

Based on their double rave, I am now on the hunt for a copy!

(I also realise I badly need to read some memoirs by women involved with the program. The above is a literary sausage party.)

"Like judging a beauty contest over the telephone"

COMIC LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK COVER OF THE WEEK

Almost gave the nod to Chip Zdarsky's cov for "If Destruction Be Our Lot #2". The problem is (according to my brain's processing software) that requires another element for balance. Whereas the wonderful illo on the front of this LGB, which was also in the comic store's latest catalogue of offerings, does not.

SONG OF THE WEEK

Nearly wrote SNOG OF THE WEEK. Chance would be a fine thing. Ahem. The contenders, in reverse order of when I bookmarked them, are: 

* "Running Down A Hill" by Dagny (Norway)

* "Gaudete" by Theatre (Ireland) - not a cover of the medieval Christmas carol a la Steeleye Span...'til the final line, anyway.

* "Ritual" by The Warning (Mexico)

* "Fossils" by Thao (US), AND

* "On A Day Like This" by Joalin (Finland) - who usually sings in a mixture of Spanish and English.

All female vocalists. But only because I didn't include Rush playing "Time Stand Still" at the Kia Forum, LA on June 7, with Aimee Mann joining Geddy to sing her album parts - the first time she's ever done so live!

Without further rambling, the award goes to Dagny. Recency bias? Conceivably. Joalin was winning up until this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrA7Ulv3yZM

BEER OF THE WEEK

"Calling Dick Tracy! Thirsty pisshead calling Dick Tracy!"

LEGO KIT OF THE WEEK

There were two possible configurations. I chose the future version, with the Mr Fusion reactor and fold-up wheels. Intricate design for a budget set.

ALSO CONSUMING

* Reality contest "100 Cooks"

* Podcast "Shell Game" at a mate's prompting, AND

* "New Scientist" rag.

AMI - BLA

Is it just me or are they trying harder - and getting raunchier - with the new season of "Rick & Morty", now exclusively on HBO Max?

JC asked who I'm supporting in the World Cup. The Socceroos, of course. Japan and Croatia because I have Japanese and Croatian family. Denmark and South Korea 'cos those are the languages/cultures I primarily study...except the Danes didn't qualify! And Iraq since I want their fairytale under Aussie coach Graham Arnold to continue. C'mon, the Iraqeroos! If you think that list is too long, JC's was even longer :-)

First time I had read this Ami mag (ish #7). Well written and edited compared to other retro pubs. New info worth knowing - the interviews with the four ex-Graftgold staff were tops. Old subjects worth revisiting. Gave me an immediate feel for the "Amiga POV" team. Minimal dud humour. PG is gonna collect it, so I'll hopefully borrow each of his issues.  

Funnily enough, there are notable similarities with the previous flick I saw, "The 4:30 Movie" (e.g. learning to understand friends, the adventure of cinema, the film-making urge). Unlike Smith's picture, "Anaconda" largely succeeds in its aims. Sure, it's Hollywood predictable, but the gags/action sequences/emotional exchanges are properly set up - or earnt, as they say - and generally land. The celeb-guest turns are also waaay more effective. 6/10

This oversized omnibus from the dude behind "Tower Dungeon" reminded me of the work of French artists like Moebius and Druillet that astonished and puzzled young Addster in the late '80s. As with "T/D", "Blame" was initially all about the architecture - grand yet intricate, filled with eerie alien emptinesses... Until, that is, I slowly began to decipher what was going on in the wider tale from Kyrii's brief, significant encounters with other dwellers in the seemingly unending artificial landscape. AMAZING.

The 1h28m wasted?

Should I score this teen comedy 4.3/10? 3.4 would be closer to the truth. While the central romance is sweet, the lead actress has a million-dollar smile, Ken Jeong makes the most of a typical Ken Jeong role, and the cameos from KS alumni aren't unwelcome, the simple fact is it isn't funny. A sudden pro-wrestling move is perhaps the only genuinely amusing moment. I never bought the lead the actor. The situations mostly feel forced. Conversations lack that weirdly fascinating quality of Smith at his best. The fake cinema trailers and film-within-a-film are meh. The soundtrack is like the beginnings of a good soundtrack, but only the beginnings. Even the aforementioned cameos are kinda wasted. Basically, it needed a lot of rewriting and polishing. Don't listen to any John Hughes comparisons. "The 4.30 Movie" has none of the charm of a JH production, replacing it with crude humour I won't call "stoner humour" for fear of insulting stoners.

Disclaimer: It's currently averaging 6/10 on IMDb and 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, so clearly plenty of folks disagree with my assessment. If you're one of them, more power to ya. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man.