When you cut into the present the future leaks out...

I've been getting an increasing amount of spam in the Comments section of this 'ere blog lately and the random collision of words and phrases that spew forth remind me strangely of the late William Burroughs' "cut-up" or "fold-in" writing method. Developed by Burroughs and Brion Gysin as an alternative to linear narrative, the "cut-up" technique can create surreal juxtapositions of language and ideas... or can be a self-indulgent mess. I've never quite decided if I think Burroughs was a genius or a fraud, or maybe both, but his work has a definite fascination for me - especially Nova Express, a satirical novel about power, control, sex and addiction, expressed in Science Fictional terms.

Burroughs:

"With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms - Heavy Metal People Of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes - and The Insect People Of Minraud with metal music - cold insect brains and their agents like white hot buzz saws sharpened in the Ovens..."

Spam:

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And one very complimentary slice of fresh spam:

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Poppies

Yesterday, to take advantage of the miraculous reappearance of the sun ( God bless the English weather! ), Sarah and I headed to Tetbury to have a look at some of the beautiful poppy fields up there...

and to recreate the old Cadbury's Flake adverts :-)

...er, without the Flake...

Update: top blogger and friend of TGWS, Joanne Casey, has re-posted one of the above photos at the legendary I Have Seen The Whole Of The Internet. Check it out...

Woody Allen Season at Gloucester Guildhall

The Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre's first director-themed film season is coming to an end this week with a showing of the classic Manhattan. Unfortunately, I'll have to miss that ( like I did the earlier Purple Rose Of Cairo ) but I did manage to see Sleeper and Annie Hall, two of my absolute favourite comedies. I dragged Sarah along with me ( she's not the world's greatest Woody fan ) and she definitely enjoyed Annie Hall... but didn't think much of Sleeper. And neither did most members of the Film Club - my mate Steve actually called it "terrible"...

Oh, well...

You can read my reviews of those two movies ( if you want to: it's not compulsory ) at the

Guildhall's website here ( for New York neuroses ) and here ( for future farce ) - and you can also check out an overview of Wes Anderson's career too, from friend of TGWS and fellow Film Club member, Tom Wiggins.

BTW These pieces reveal my secret identity, so keep it under your hats...

1970's movie weekend

We had a very retro-themed weekend recently as we saw two classics of 70's cinema. On Sunday the Stroud Apollo cinema showed a beautifully restored print of Jaws, a film I have vivid memories of watching back in those far-off days of 1975. Possibly the first real blockbuster of the modern age, Jaws was one of the few movies you could legitimately call a phenomenon, and was responsible for mentally scarring a whole generation of cinema-goers. It was great to see it on the big screen again after all this time, to revel in the expanded detail of the widescreen image and to enjoy the bloody loud soundtrack...

Before that, on the Saturday, Sarah and I went to the good ol' Guildhall to watch Woody Allen's classic Annie Hall. A delightfully witty and charming love story, Allen's masterpiece is still fresh and funny and fantastic. A more in-depth review may follow soon...

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Pete. Wish you were here...

Ash at Gloucester Guildhall

Last Wednesday, Northern Ireland's finest - Ash - brought their 20th Anniversary tour to Gloucester's good ol' Guildhall.

After a fairly lukewarm reception from the Guildhall audience last time they played here ( in 2009 ) the band this time received the rabid adulation they deserve as the crowd went mental. As seen below...

Yep, that's my mate Glenn and me in the middle of the heaving crowd, having ( in the words of Iggy Pop ) a real cool time. Well, I say "cool" but it was actually boiling hot in there... but a great laugh. Glenn turned to me just after I took this picture to say "I'll never stop doing this!" Couldn't agree more! The bloke behind us in yellow doesn't seem quite as happy :-)

Ash were, as ever, very loud, very enthusiastic and very tight - playing a seemingly endless succession of exciting, singalong Punk / pop classics.

You can read my full review ( if you want to, of course ) over at Louder Than War...

Here we are again, outside the venue, with me looking like a beetroot ( did I mention it was damn hot in there? ), clutching the gig poster I blagged from the girl at the box office.

And Glenn with two of the lovely ladies in his life, girlfriend Sam and his daughter Millie.

Great gig, guys... let's do it again soon!

600 posts / 100 years

It was very thoughtful of these 116 actors, writers, producers and directors to turn out to congratulate me on 600 posts here at The Glass Walking-Stick. You think they'd have something better to do... like maybe celebrate 100 years of Paramount Studios...

Of course, that's exactly what they were really doing, anything else just being a figment of my warped, power-crazed imagination. You can have a closer look here at this amazing assemblage of generations of Hollywood talent ( and Justin Beiber! ), courtesy of Vanity Fair.

See if you can spot Travis Bickle, Spartacus, Lando Calrissian, The Joker, Jonathan E, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Indiana Jones, War Machine, the original Bunny Boiler, Princess Padme, Gandhi... and the entire cast of Star Trek, including two Captain Kirks...

Thinking of you...

It's two years ago today that we lost my wonderful Mum. Still hard to believe, really. Here she is a few years ago with Sophie and James, in happier times. Although you wouldn't know that from Sophie's face :-)

Love you Mum...

Ray Bradbury

Very sad today to hear of the passing of the legendary Ray Bradbury. Mister Bradbury was a true original: a gifted short-story writer and novelist with the soul of a poet, equally at home writing fantasy, SF, existential crime thrillers or all three at once. His best works had a dreamlike, surreal quality often laced with an aching nostalgia for a byegone America. We will definitely never see his like again...

I've previously mentioned two of Mr. Bradbury's works before:

Something Wicked This Way Comes ( here )

and Fahrenheit 451 ( here )

If you've never read his work before I strongly recommend you start with those two famous novels... and then, of course, there are The Martian Chronicles - sublime short fantasies of a uniquely Cold War America Red Planet - The Golden Apples Of The Sun, Dandelion Wine, Death Is A Lonely Business, and so many more...

RIP Ray Bradbury 22nd August 1920 - 5th June 2012

How many??

The numbers have been crunched, the infinite monkeys took a break from re-writing Hamlet to help out, and even The Count put his mathematical / supernatural skills at our disposal...

And these are the figures which emerged from the flurry of data and counting-on-fingers:

Pageviews today

225
Pageviews yesterday
314
Pageviews last month
6,083
Pageviews all time history
150,007

Yep, this insignificant little blog has just passed the 150,000 pageviews mark. Hard to believe, really. So, I'd just like to thank all you lovely people out there in the Blogosphere for your support over the last 3 years and... keep on bloggin' !!

FF Fridays: Fantastic Four 73

This is the most recent addition to my Fantastic Four collection, no. 73 from April 1698. It's a lovely FN copy, bought from Mega City Comics on my recent trip to that there London town. The shop has a small but impressive stock of Silver / Bronze Age comics, which the very helpful assistant brought out for me in a few long-boxes. I could only afford this and two others because they weren't exactly cheap... but they were worth it.

I've wanted this issue for many years partly because of the lovely Kirby cover, and partly because I didn't remember the story, even though I must have read a reprint of it in the days of Mighty World Of Marvel. As it turns out the story is a tissue-thin affair, and basically an excuse for a slug-fest between the heroes on the cover, and that could be why I didn't remember it :-)

After a bizarre body-swap between Daredevil and Doctor Doom in DD #38, the male members of the FF go after Hornhead, believing him to be the monarch of Latveria. Spider-Man and Thor both get dragged into the fight, through some very lame plot maneuvers, and they all have the standard

scrap-across-New-York-rooftops until the Invisible Woman turns up and stops the plot via some clunky exposition.

That being said, it's all still a lot of fun, with some explosive Kirby/Sinnott action scenes,

a de-powered Thor hitching a ride on Spidey's back (!), the unusual sight of the King drawing ol' DD, and some choice, corny dialogue courtesy of Stan The Man:

Thor: "What?!! Thou dost take me for a base impostor?!! Truly there be madness unbridled amongst ye mortals!"
Thing: "Watch yer langwich cornball!! There may be some chicks around!"