Randomiser

Random treats from the visual vaults of The Glass Walking-Stick.....

Steranko Saturdays: The Invaders

I found this artwork on t'internet today but I can't remember where I nicked it from, so apologies etc.

Apparently Steranko produced this for a trading-card company as a triptych of images, depicting the greatest heroes of Timely/Marvel's Golden Age. ( So, no room for The Whizzer or The Fin. Shame. )

Soundtrack: Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite! by The Beatles

Songs of 2009

Now that everyone else has got their Best Of lists out of the way, or refused to write them, or refused and then did them anyway :-) I thought I'd have a go, ridiculously late or not.....

I don't think it was that good a year for the music we call Rock. The UK indie scene has been pretty ho-hum with most hip, NME-stylee bands being underwhelming, and most of the best American bands taking time off. Some memorable songs:

Zero by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs ( the coooool Karen O above )

Dominos by The Big Pink

Fire by Kasabian (no longer content with trying to be Oasis, they now want to be Primal Scream)

Invaders Must Die / Warrior Dance by the Prodigy

The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem ( great live band! )

Outlaw Pete / My Lucky Day / The Last Carnival by Bruce Springsteen ( of course! )

I'm ashamed to say that I own the latest albums by The Flaming Lips and Green Day, but haven't listened to them enough to form an opinion. Must try harder.....

The real action in the pop charts has come, yet again, from female musicians. With artists like Florence Welch, La Roux and Lilly Allen kicking arse on the dance floors the music scene is much more interesting and colourful than in the male-dominated '90s. A small (!) list follows.....

In For The Kill / Bulletproof by La Roux ( so '80s it hurts, but it's a good kind of hurt )

The Fear by Lilly Allen ( her best song yet? )

Rabbit Heart / You've Got The Love / Kiss With A Fist by Florence And The Machine

( What can I say? A fantastic Siouxsie/Kate Bush hybrid who conquers all before her )

Poker Face / Paparazzi by Lady Gaga ( see above for the new Queen Of Pop! )

When Love Takes Over by Kelly Rowland ( & David Guetta )

Please Don't Leave Me by P!nk

Untouched by The Veronicas ( Guilty pleasure alert! )

Halo by Beyonce ( you may have heard of her... )

New In Town by Little Boots

Of course, the pop world is dominated by dance and r'n'b ( Do we have to call it "urban" now? ) Melting the dancefloor are.....

Ready For The Weekend by Calvin Harris

Evacuate The Dancefloor by Cascada

Dance Wiv Me / Bonkers by the bon-bon-bonkers Dizzee Rascal

DOA ( Death Of Auto-Tune ) by the omnipresent Jay-Z, who is also responsible for.....

My Favourite Song Of The Year:

Empire State Of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys

A fantastic performance, a duet that actually works, a wonderful video, the beautiful Ms. Keys, it's all good!

Phew!

Soundtrack: Most of the above.

Updated 05/01/10

Continuing a tradition I started last year when I missed MIA's Paper Planes off my list, this year's How The Hell Did I Forget That? award goes to the wonderful Winter Winds by Mumford & Sons. ( With honourable mentions to Human by The Killers, and White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. )

Goodbye 2009!

This is us last night at my Mum's place, celebrating New Year's Eve by drinking mulled wine and releasing some Sky Lanterns.

The trick is to light their fuel packs without setting fire to the paper. Or yourself.

Note the concentration on the face above. ( Also the double-chin! That New Year's diet is calling!! )

The idea is to make a wish as you send them floating up into the sky. I think we all shared the same wish.

2009 has been a pretty hard year for us, what with my Mum's illness, the constant battle to keep James in education and the bloody recession doing its best to hammer us some more.

It felt to me that we were sending the old year away with the Lanterns: a good feeling!!

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping all of you out there in Blog Land have a great ( and safe ) time this New Year's Eve and best wishes for 2010!

If you don't have a good time, these two will come to your house and give you a wedgie you'll never forget!!

Nearly the end...

.....of 2009, that is.

So, what's happening in cerebusville as the year winds down?

I've just got back from my last gig of the year: another night with the mighty Chinese Burn! The venue was the Cafe Rene in glamorous Gloucester - a cosy, French-themed pub with friendly bar-staff and a decent jukebox. The Burn played two sets which went down well with the fairly small audience, the sound was surprisingly good, Ben's voice stayed in tune most of the time, and a good time was had by all. I made some new best friends in the shape of a couple of Cheltenham pissheads who bent my ear at great length about their lives, drinking habits, ex-wives etc. etc. All fascinating stuff :-)

Anyone interested in Chinese Burn's own brand of melodic Punk can look them up at:

http://www.myspace.com/chineseburntitanic

And yesterday we went to see our last movie of the year, Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are. The kids wanted to see the Jim Carrey version of A Christmas Carol but I convinced them to swap Victorian moral lessons for a boy in a wolf-suit and his feral friends.

It's a brave movie: not the usual, saccharine Disney fare with everything handed to the viewer on a plate. Instead you get the story of a literal wild-child ( Max Records ) who runs away from his single-parent mum ( after throwing a major tantrum which culminates in his biting her ) and finds himself in the land of the Wild Things. He becomes the creatures' king and joins in their mad, destructive games but also tries to keep the group of Wild Things together when their own childish mood-swings threaten to break up the group. The different Wild Things obviously represent different parts of Max's psyche - his loneliness, his anger, but also his caring side and creativity. Sarah found this a bit hard because it's close to the bone for us and our own wild-child, but that's another story.

Although light on plot, Where The Wild Things Are is a beautiful film: the creatures' island is bathed in Autumnal light, the seascapes and forests and deserts contrast well with the suburbs of Max's home, and the Wild Things themselves are a triumph of integrated costumes and CGI - you believe them to be real. This realistic approach to fantasy is what makes the movie stand out for me. From Max Records' wonderfully naturalistic performance to the pathos of the Wild Things' personalities, nothing seems contrived. This isn't just a film about children, or starring children - it's a film about what it's like to be a child, with all the joys and frustrations that entails.

I've been tagged! Take the gun! Go on without me...

I've been tagged by Saranga at http://paiwings.blogspot.com/ to contribute to an End Of The Decade meme. ( I won't go into my thoughts on when the decade really starts and ends, 'cos I've covered that at Saranga's blog, and I could be here all night... ) The meme in question was originated by Ami Angelwings at http://ami-rants.blogspot.com/2009/12/amis-of-decade-meme.html and the idea is to "basically come up with 3 categories and who you think wins that category. Be creative!" I've never been sure if memes are just another form of chain-letter, but this one seems harmless enough. So, here goes:

1. Best Cup Of Coffee Of The Decade.

( I've helpfully posted a photo of two cups of coffee above, just in case. ) :-)

OK, Paris , April 2007. Sarah and I were having a long weekend, staying in Pigalle - near the burlesque theatres and the Sex Museum! - and enjoying some fantastic Spring weather. One evening we walked into Montmartre and had an espresso outside a little cafe, at the foot of the hill below Sacre Coeur ( see below ). The combination of the surroundings, the beautiful weather, the lovely company and the industrial-strength espresso made this my Cup Of The Decade. Sorry Starbucks, you just can't compete with that!

2. Movie Series Of The Decade.

The so-called Noughties has been a great decade for movies, from Bourne and Bond, to Shaun and Hot Fuzz, to Eternal Sunshine and Atonement. But for sheer spectacle, for intelligence and emotion, for beautiful landscapes and ugly Orcs, for hairy Hobbits and flawed humans, for all these and more..... Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings Trilogy is The One Series To Rule Them All.

3. Local News Of The Decade.

This is quite a self-indulgent one ( And the others aren't? ) 'cos it relates to my home town of Gloucester. Like a lot of people, I imagine, I have a love/hate relationship with my local area. It's easy to feel bored and stifled by familiar surroundings and to only see the negative side of things. Also, as I've lived in the country and the suburbs ( did I mention that? ) and not actually in the city, I often feel disconnected from Gloucester itself, and possibly think of it like this:

The above is a view of the arse-end of Gloucester docks; not very pretty is it? Luckily, the city has received a multi-million-pound regeneration package and the docks area is first to benefit.

The above is a view of the new building-work going on. New shops, restaurants and hotels are revitalising this part of the city and hopefully bringing in more tourist-trade. The bloody recession can't have helped but it seems like a first step in dragging Gloucester into the 21st century, with more to follow for the city-centre, and not before time!

So, that's my extremely random contribution to this meme. I'm sure other bloggers can produce much more interesting work than me, so I'm laying down the gauntlet to the following good people:

Cal @ http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/

Edward @ http://lostinbarnwood.blogspot.com/

Baldy @ http://thatbaldyfella.blogspot.com/

Mickey @ http://www.my-silvermac.com/

Pete @ http://bronzeageofblogs.blogspot.com/

Let's see what you can do, guys!

Florence and Karen

Florence Welch: Miss Leggy Red-Head 2009

And.....

Karen Gillan: Miss Leggy Red-Head 2010?

Soundtrack: Embryonic by The Flaming Lips

Steranko Saturdays: Classy Merchandise!

Get your secret agent soft-drinks here! As endorsed by all top SHIELD operatives!

( Please drink responsibly. )

Soundtrack: Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles

Calling Canada

Hi to new Follower Cal from Cal's Canadian Cave Of Coolness!

And it certainly is a cool cave! Looking forward to exploring it...

Soundtrack: Behind Blue Eyes by The Who

Happy Christmas from Captain Christmas!

I've had this picture of a very festive superhero since I was knee-high to a Space-Hopper. It came with some mail-order comics from the SF and Comic Book Co. ( whoever they were - I can't remember them ) and appears to be signed "Brendan 76" - an early Brendan McCarthy perhaps?
Anyway, I've always loved it for the talking lamp-post and the glumly realistic sidekick ( named Snowy? ) as well as the shivering hero. He's here to save Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everybody!

It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank...

Best Christmas song ever.

( Just above Bollocks To Christmas by the Gonads. )
:-)

The future is unwritten...

Joe Strummer ( 21st August 1952 - 22 December 2002 )

( Can't believe it's been 7 years! RIP Joe. )

Soundtrack: Straight To Hell by The Clash

Rage Against The Machine: UK Christmas No. 1 2009

The battle for the Christmas No. 1 single is over and Killing In The Name is - incredibly - the winner.

With a total of 500,000 sales RATM's re-released single is not only the coolest ( and loudest! ) Christmas chart-topper since forever, but also the first single to reach No. 1 on downloads alone and also the new record-holder for most one-week download sales in UK chart history. According to the band £64,726 ( at the latest count ) will be donated to Shelter, the homeless charity. So, if you've bought a copy and been part of this historic victory, you've not only wiped the smirk off Simon Cowell's face but also helped a good cause too.

Congratulations to RATM and a big "Well Done" to the British public for striking a blow against manufactured, middle-of-the-road, karaoke pop. The last word goes to Rage:

"We've shown that we can make a difference and that you don't have a right to Number One just because Simon Cowell says so, especially with a bad cover! We gotta take the power back - Rage Against The Machine - Merry Christmas!"

Steranko Saturdays: Gettin' some shut-eye...

Nick Fury asleep at the wheel in SHIELD HQ.

You know what it's like: one minute you're catching up with some paperwork, then you're starting to drift off.....

The next thing you know, some gold-skinned alien lands on Earth, promising a New Age of peace and prosperity. Earth rejoices! But it turns out he's really a tentacle-y alien and his "Prism Of Miracles" is a world-killing machine, already activated by greedy humans. Earth is doomed!

( Hey, Doctor Who fans - Claws Of Axos? Sounds familiar... )

But you wake up in a cold sweat; it was all a dream. Phew!

But then you're told of a UFO spotted over New York.....

Nick, I know how you feel. That Christmas holiday can't come soon enough!

From Strange Tales no. 168, May 1968.