Answer: only when it's fictional

Welcome to new Follower, wiec?, the living acronym from When Is Evil Cool? ( Answer above. ) The guy in the pic hopefully qualifies as both evil and cool. I wouldn't mess with him anyway.

First day back at work

                                                            When's the next holiday?

Set the controls for Inner Space

So I turned on Channel 4 News last night to hear that JG Ballard had died the day before. Bad news. Ballard was one of the most important writers of the last 50 years, a first-rate SF author who went on to conquer the so-called mainstream with his unblinking view of the modern world.
In the May/June 1964 issue of New Worlds magazine Ballard wrote an article about William Burroughs, called "20th Century Myth Maker", in which JG praised Burroughs for creating "the first authentic mythology of the age of Cape Canaveral, Hiroshima and Belsen." Ballard could very well have been talking about himself. His world of grim tower-blocks, deserted swimming-pools, sterile business parks and rainswept motorways is our world, no need for SF trappings. His lost, self-destructive characters inhabit a recognisable media landscape of the late 20th / early 21st century. I'm sure Ballard would find it ironic and fitting that most obituaries seemed to concentrate on his filmed novels, Crash and Empire Of The Sun, because they were more readily recognisable and assimilated into the culture. Top marks to Martin Amis who spoke eloquently about his friend Ballard on the aforementioned Channel 4 News and managed to sideswipe Jon Snow's dumb, superficial questions.



On a lighter note, a big Hello to new Follower, Continually Spicy. This blog is still in semi-hibernation but I hope you can find something worth reading here. Stay spicy!

Cornwall 2009

We've been down in St. Ives for the last week, hence no posts for a while.
Apart from a couple of wet days ( and I mean WET ) we've had good weather and a great time. We had a beautiful day at Land's End ( complete with Doctor Who exhibition where Sarah and Sophie got er, slightly spooked by some Daleks and Cybermen ) and a ROASTING day on Porthmeor Beach at St. Ives. Loadsa coastal walks, rock climbing etc. Really don't want to go home, but I suppose I need to go back to work to pay for all of this. Bummer, dude. ( Bloody Hell, this surfer lingo is contagious. )

The boys are back in town.

Yay, the Boys From The Dwarf are back!!! It's been a long, long wait but, thanks to Dave ( of all channels ), the original space-bums have returned.

And what a relief to find it all done so well! Co-creator Doug Naylor is onboard, writing and directing, the Boys are on fine form, the new sets and effects look surprisingly expensive and, best of all, the characterisation and humour are spot on. The last two series on BBC2 had seen the show drifting as erratically as Red Dwarf itself, but this first new episode has recaptured the glory days for me. Lister is still a slob with a heart of gold, Rimmer is still the ultimate jobsworth, Kryten is still a fussy but well-meaning bog-bot, and the Cat has been returned to his original characterisation of a narcissistic feline fashion-victim. Unfortunately we're missing the Dwarf's deranged computer, Holly, but that's my only complaint.

The first episode was great fun, featuring a sea-monster in the ship's watertank, a very fit looking possible replacement for Rimmsey in the form of Sophie Winkelman, some great dialogue, and the Cat confusing the word "tentacle" with "testicle".  Two more episodes to watch this weekend ( not to mention Doctor Who and Primeval ).....

Happy smeggin' Easter!

Soundtrack: Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.

I'm still alive!

Still sitting here in blog-limbo ( although a blog-limo might be better ) so posts are necessarily short and possibly sweet. You decide.
Over at the spoiler-tastic ( but wonderful ) Planet Gallifrey there are some new pics of the latest Doctor Who filming, including shots of a certain Ms. Noble. Lots of squeeing and general OMGness in the comments section. Even though it will be great to see Donna again, I'm hoping that the Doctor will not meet her face to face ( as seems to be indicated by the overheard dialogue ) as this will again undermine an emotional parting of the ways from a previous season - as with the Bad Wolf Bay ending. Donna's story seemed to have a definite conclusion and hopefully RTD won't compromise that for a ratings boosting reunion.
Anyway, before that we've got The Planet Of The Dead to explore, only a few days to go...

Hello...

Things haven't changed since my last post: home PC still feeling poorly, posting this from work out of prying eyes of bosses etc.
Welcome to new Follower Kitty, thanks for showing an interest in such a ( currently ) dull blog. Hopefully that will change soon and we'll get back to whatever passes for normality around here.

Intermission time...

My PC has gone down again so I'm posting from work again. Aaaarrrggghhh!!!!

Here's a pic of Billie Piper to be going on with until normal service is ( hopefully ) resumed.

Fingers crossed...

Anyone got a swatter?

This handsome gent is apparently a Tritovore from the Doctor Who Easter Special, Planet Of The Dead. Hmmm. The general consensus on the space we call cyber is that it looks too much like a reject from some 1950's B-movie. Well, yeah, but I'm ready to give it the benefit of the doubt: it does look pretty cheesy but is that such a bad thing? Nine-year olds across the country will probably love it - I'm sure mine will. Russell the T has said that there are two alien races in this Special, so maybe we'll see a spider in a trenchcoat as well.

Soundtrack: 9pm ( Till I come ) by ATB.

Lady ( Hear Me Tonight ) by Modjo.

What's with all those crazy brackets? (?)

So, what's been going down in groove town?

Car boot sale conquests: 

Dinosaur Jr's Without A Sound, home to the fantastic Feel The Pain. What a great song! Sarah and I saw them supporting the Jesus And Mary Chain back in the early '90s ( with Blur and My Bloody Valentine, some line-up! ). I thought they were pretty good, she hated them. The album's typical slacker/stoner/grunge rock with a Neil Young sort of vibe thrown in.

( What's The Story ) Morning Glory? by Manc monkeys, Oasis. I'm not the greatest fan of the Gallagher Bros. but their first two albums are definite classics. I had this one on ye olde cassette tape back in the day but it got wrecked. I was at the '96 Phoenix Festival, left the tape on the car dashboard in the blistering sunlight: when I returned it had warped into a distinctly un-playable banana shape. ( Still, it was a great gig. Glenn and I went up to Long Marston airfield to see The Sex Pistols  -  awesome!  -  The Specials, Echobelly, The Chemical Brothers, Vic Reeves doing high kicks with Ian Astbury, Dreadzone, loads more bands, and free orange juice from the Hare Krishnas. )

Both CDs were £1 each. You can't go wrong.

Two Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 3 VHS boxsets. Yep, I said VHS. Again £1 each, so what the hell, it's cheap entertainment while it lasts. I never really watched Buffy when it was on TV until the end of this third season, so it's good to go back to the days when the Slayer was still a high school student, Willow wasn't yet a witch and Xander still had two eyes. Even though the episodes seem surprisingly cheap, the characters and dialogue shine through. ( Must be getting tired: I've just made 3 attempts at spelling the word "carachtyers"  -  that's right isn't it? )

The Contract With God Trilogy by Will Eisner. I picked up this hardbacked beast for £5. Sarah was aghast that I spent that much at a boot sale on one item, even though it was £19 new. I've had the Titan edition of A Contract With God for many years, but had never read A Life Force or Dropsie Avenue, so it was well worth the price for me. Classic Eisner material with some new illustrations completed not long before his death.

Other news:

On the Friday before last ( the 13th! ) I finally watched the Watchmen. And, I have to say, I loved it! Moore and Gibbon's magnum opus has been one of my favourite comics for the last twenty-something years and I was unsure it could ever be captured properly on film. Obviously, a lot of the incredibly dense detail had to be sacrificed to make a 2 hour movie, but Zack Snyder and the scriptwriters did a great job of keeping the gist of the story and including a hell of a lot of the dialogue from the comic, as well as superbly faithful images. The b-list cast did a fine job of bringing the ageing heroes to life, with a special nod to Jackie Earle Haley who stole the film as a suitably psychotic Rorshach. I went with my mate Glenn who isn't a comics fan and had never heard of Watchmen until recently: he loved it too! I've since lent him the graphic novel and will have to report back with his opinions at a later date.

Last Friday ( 20/3 ) Sarah and I went out for a meal with our friends Kevin and Lyn. We don't catch up with our friends as often as we should, with all the demands of work, home, kids etc. so it was good to have some ( relatively ) adult conversation, a few drinks and some good food. Sod the recession!

Soundtrack: Mykonos by Fleet Foxes. Frankie's Gun by The Felice Brothers.

About bloggin' time, too...

Finally got back on t'internet, courtesy of my mate Glenn. Lots of catching up to do, blogs to read etc. More soon...

Windswept blog desert

No blogging since Sunday. PC feeling ill. Writing this at work, hence not much to say. Getting withdrawal symptoms. Need Tech Support!!!!



Soundtrack: Silence.

Comic Relief 2009

This morning I did a carboot sale for Comic Relief with Sophie and her friend Serena. Even though it was FREEZING cold and ended in a massive hailstorm we had a good laugh and raised over £30 for the cause. ( The girls have also done a "guess the amount of sweets in the jar" competition and raised a further £40.) The "doing something funny" part mostly consisted of the girls sitting in the boot of my car, wearing red noses and giggling whilst I did the bulk of the work. Kids, eh?

...face goes red, looks down at feet, mumbles...

As Pete Doree from The Bronze Age Of Blogs so rightly pointed out, Will Eisner's birthday is the 6th of March, not the 3rd, as stated in my previous post. Duuh! Apologies to all Spirit/Eisner fans. Memo to self: don't rely on Wikipedia, do some bloody homework!

Will Eisner remembered

Today would have been the great Will Eisner's 92nd birthday, had he not taken that final journey to Wildwood Cemetery in 2005.

The above is a quintessential piece of Eisner artwork, featuring many of the elements for which The Spirit is remembered : the noir-ish shadows enveloping the masked hero, the exotic backdrop, the "Spirit" logo worked into the design of the page, the femme fatale enticing the reader into the story.

Eisner, of course, created many innovative and important works such as A Contract With God, Life On Another Planet, Fagin The Jew etc. but The Spirit remains his best-loved creation. Overflowing with humour, drama, humanity and action, it is simply one of the great comic strips.