Quick plug for Titanic Tony McGee whose wonderful comic Outcastes has now reached its halfway point, issue 6 of 12. This time runaway twins Winter and Summer, their suspicious new pal Geo, and the haunting, witchy, Thea Gilmore lookalike Armida encounter a strange magician and his beautiful assistant who might know the truth about W&S's parents... or might be holding a few darker secrets of their own. While all this is going on, Tone manages some excellent character development with Geo showing a darker, more predatory side and Armida instructing Winter in the black arts. Tony's art maintains the dreamlike quality that makes this book so enthralling - his use of panel borders (or lack of panel borders) is inspired and makes the most of the black and white art (i.e. what he does here wouldn't work half as well in colour), and as usual there's a fantastically imagined climax, this time involving an hourglass and stageshow 'Jaws of Doom'. Creepy as a very creepy thing; essential reading.
For a taster, or to read more of Tone's work (including his new sci-fi serial Eva Nova), pop over to his website now.
No, I've not forgotten about my Rainbow Songs countdown. I've just been busy, that's all. Last time was Blue, and as you may or may not recall, I cut that list in half by rejecting any songs about 'The Blues'.
Which brings us to...
The Best Of The Blues.
I don't claim to be any expert on yer actual "Woke up one morning" style blues blues, so this'll just be more of the usual suspects I'm afraid. With maybe a couple of surprises... depending on how easily you're surprised.
Whatever happened to Ryan Adams? His first few albums were pretty much indispensible. Up to Love Is Hell, he was rarely off my turntable. (I even liked Rock N Roll, and the critics hated that.) Since setting up The Cardinals though, I just can't be bothered any more. Am I wrong?
The Western Minnesota Intercollegiate circle telephoned, they said "Hey Sean, could you mosey on down to our gala ball ?" It reads "Mister Madonna kicks some beat poetry"
The kind of lyrics that made some missing-the-point fools dub Lloyd Cole "pretentious". Sod 'em.
Legend has it Robert Johnson went down to the crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in return for his supernaturally gifted guitar pickin' prowess.
It always makes me wonder, when Moby digs out an old American Folk tune like Vera Hall's Trouble So Hard, gives it a new title, spruces it up with a few bells and whistles, then re-releases it under his own name... who gets the publishing money?
It's hard to imagine a more 80's tune than Glenn Frey's Miami Vice rhapsody against the drugs trade. You need to be wearing white jeans and aviator shades to appreciate it properly.
Dan Bern does like his talkin' blues songs. In the first, he gets abducted by aliens who want him for his chord patterns. In the second, George W.'s War on Terror rears its ugly head again - with disastrous consequences for some guy in Cleveland name of Al Kida...
And here's the man who inspired Dan Bern, along with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and many, many more: the legendary Woody Guthrie.
I'm the meanest man that ever had a brain, All I scatter is aches and pains. I'm carbolic acid, and a poison face, And I stand flat-footed in favor of crime and disgrace. If I ever done a good deed - I'm sorry of it.
Marah impressed the hell out of me with their 2000 album Kids In Philly, then bored the socks of me with its bizarrely Oasis-flavoured follow up, Float Away With The Friday Night Kids. This is from the former: a Stonesy, Springsteen-flavoured, tale of Vietnam vets. You can almost smell the napalm in the morning.
Hold your breath boys hold your breath Finger your trigger and welcome death Because the chopper’s filled with your gut-shot friends Your hearts are filled with fear
Only Nick Cave could get away with a song like this. It'd seem at least mildly misogynistic from anyone else. Or maybe I'm taking it too seriously. There's a healthy spoonful of self-mockery mixed into the recipe.
I read her Elliot, I read her Yates I tried my best to stay up late I fixed the hinges on her gate But still she just never wanted to
Nobody loves the blues like E from the Eels. And nobody makes the blues sound so life-affirming either. Take his greatest Blues moment, below... and if you think it's funny that this video features the cast of the movie Road Trip, you should read E's account of how that came about.
The first Thea song I ever heard, and it was love at first listen. Sadly, I can't find it anywhere online to play to you. Click above to listen to some other classic Thea tracks from her website.
It is singing its songs for the injured and dispossessed It it pointing that twelve gauge of truth straight at your chest Though its been broken more times than you know Its blue and its bleeding its got a mind of its own
So keep it safe keep it safe keep it safe All of the thousands of you come down with the heart string blues
A satire of the Seattle scene that exploded in the wake of Nirvana's success with record companies throwing millions at anyone who hailed from America's wettest city... even if they couldn't actually play a note.
Well, we spread the word through the underground That we were the hottest new thing in town The record guy came out to see us one day And just like always we didn't play It knocked him out He said he loved our work He said he loved our work but he wasn't sure if he could sell a record With nothing on it I said tell 'em we're from Seattle He advanced us two and a half million dollars
Man, Todd Snider looks young on this video. Was he 12 when he wrote this song?
1. Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues
Really though, there could be only one winner. The original teenage slacker anthem, accept no substitutes. There still ain't no cure for 'em!
I wanted to do something to mark the passing of JD Salinger, but everything I wrote came out all phony, so instead I'm going to stick with my usual pointless trivialities.
George Lucas, the great raper and pillager of all that was good in our childhoods, is doing it again. Not content with those goddawful prequels and those completely unnecessary Greedo-Shoots-First Not-So-Special Editions, not content with his plans to re-issue the original movies once again - this time in 3-fucking-D for Fett's sake! - the beardy Beelzebub is now turning his mind to making a 3D CGI musical. Featuring fairies. Oh, why stop there, George? Why not go the whole hog and sell out your legacy one more time? Why not give us that Star Wars Musical we've always nightmared about? You know you want to.
Over on Twitter yesterday (because, I've finally realised, this is the sort of thing Twitter was invented for), I started tossing around potential title ideas with Tom and Jez. Some of these were so good, I didn't want to see them lost in the cold, dark twitterverse... so I thought I'd give them a chance to get lost in the bloggerverse too. (With all credit for the better ones going to the two gents named above.)
Guys And Droids West Side Chewie A Death Star Is Born Anakin Get Your Gun Paint Your Falcon My Fair Leia Yoda Leh Eh Ehh Sunday In The Park With Lucas Oh! What A Lovely Star War One From The Artoo The Threepio Opera X-Winging In The Rain A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Force All That Jabba Moulin Rouge Squadron Whistle Down The Windu Seven Brides For Seven Wampas Thoroughly Modern Wedge Antilles Greedo (Is The Word) Jabba Mia Jar Jar Binks Superstar The Wizard Of Mos Eisley Little Shop Of Artoos Jabbaret
These were my favourites though...
Yodahoma The Phanton Menace Of The Opera Miss Qui-Gon
Any more? Leave 'em in the comments box. George needs all the help he can get.
Annie is tired of her partner Duncan's fanaticism over reclusive singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe. When Duncan gets the chance to write a review of Tucker's first release in over 20 years, a stripped down version of classic album Juliet, effusive praise is always goibng to be the order of the day. But Annie doesn't agree; she much prefers the original. When Duncan won't even countenance her opinion, Annie posts her own review in retaliation... which leads to an email conversation with the artist himself. Imagine what'll happen when Duncan finds out...
So begins Nick Hornby's welcome return to the territory that made him famous, a land where adult relationships are defined by cultural obsessions, where men refuse to grow up and women refuse to dump them for it, and where "what really matters," to quote Rob from High Fidelity, "is what you like, not what you are like..."
This may well be Hornby's best book since Rob and Laura road off into the sunset, but Juliet, Naked is far more than just High Fidelity Revisited. It's warm, it's funny, it's achingly real, and somewhat bravely (considering the author's movie adaptation track record), it has a very un-romcommy conclusion. Not exactly an unhappy ending, but certainly a far more fitting and honest one than 'love conquers all'. Hornby has written strong female characters before, but Annie is as close as he's yet come to a heroine we can embrace to our hearts as much as Rob Fleming. She's more than just a long-suffering girlfriend. She's flawed and occasionally selfish, wracked with insecurities and never quite certain of what she actually wants out of life... just like the best of us. Duncan, for all that you might want to slap him, is also more than just an obsessive internet geek; while Tucker embodies that great artistic conundrum, being at once both egocentric and drenched in self-loathing. Three terrific characters, many fascinating and thought-provoking themes, one fantastic novel.
"It's all just facts, isn't it, as far as you're concerned? It's a rotten album, fact. And if I can't grasp the facts, then that makes me stupid."
"No, no. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."
"So, go on. Square your feelings about Juliet with mine."
"I can't. Unless I say, you know, everyone's opinion is valid."
January gives me a breather on the music front, time to catch up with some records I've had piling up for a while... and delve back into my collection to revisit old favourites I haven't heard in years. It's not that there aren't new records about - the second Vampire Weekend album is demanding my attention, I've already mentioned my excitement over Eddie Argos's Everybody Was In The French Resistance... Now*, and Eels have another new LP out (somewhat worryingly called End Times). I just can't afford any of them yet. I did take a chance on the critic's darling of last year, Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion... and after two listens, it went straight on eBay. Sorry guys.
Here's what I've found to fill the gap...
Jim Steinman - Rock 'n' Roll Dreams Come Through
My admiration for Jim Steinman knows no bounds. He's the Wagnerian pomp-rock nutcase who wrote every good song Meat Loaf ever sang, plus Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Making Love Out Of Nothing At All and Holding Out For A Hero. It's not at all cool to love him, but the Chuck Klosterman in me proclaims him a genius.
This one's from Steinman's only solo album, Bad For Good, originally intended as the follow-up to Bat Out Of Hell. Meat's voice was wrecked by months of touring though, so Steinman recorded it himself. He's not a great singer, and he must have realised that, because the vocals on this and two other tracks from the album were actually recorded by session singer Rory Dodds. Meat later re-recorded the song for what would eventually become Bat Out Of Hell II, and though technically that's a far better version, I hold a strange affection for the original, having played it to death when I was a teen.
Steinman's lyrics are knowingly overblown. He takes the original Springsteen template of cars and girls and breaking out of town on a last-chance Harley and turns everything up to eleven. He throws in angels and devils and blood and sex and death - if Dante wrote rock 'n' roll, this would be it. (And if they ever make a Preacher movie, a Steinman soundtrack would be a natural.) Dreams is Steinman's mission statement, about how music saved his life as a teenager, and it's a prime example of how he can be both heartfelt and outrageous in the very same song.
I treasure your love I never want to lose it You've been through the fires of hell And I know you've got the ashes to prove it I treasure your love I want to show you how to use it Youve been through a lot of pain in the dirt And I know you've got the scars to prove it
I'd never seen the video before, but it is the campest thing ever. Simulated MTV sex, extravagant Dirty Dance routines, phallic guitars, and the Steinmeister presiding over all with a true Shatnerian god complex. Insane. Meatloaf's own video, directed by Michael Bay and starring a teenage Angelina Jolie seems tame by comparison.
My old pals Reader's Wives have a new EP out, and a second album heading our way later this year. You can sample Niall's cynical songwriting by downloading a free 6 track acoustic mini album from their website. It doesn't give you the full Reader's Wives glory (for that, I'd encourage you check out their myspace) but it does let you hear one of Ireland's sharpest lyricists plying his trade.
As mentioned earlier, I've been listening to old Del Amitri in preparation for Justin Currie's second solo album. Drunk In A Band is JC's career appraisal report. Not a bad job, if you can get it...
Joe does tele-sales and martial arts and Jim pushes patients 'round the public parks and Nancy makes sculptures out of Hoover parts but I'm just a drunk in a band Danny puts the cones on the motorway and Donna dances tables in her lingere and Jerry, Dave, and Billy, man, they're putting on a play but I'm just a drunk in a band
One day I'll write a post devoted to the genius of their debut hit, Nothing Ever Happens. It still says so much to me about my life...
Handsome Family - Giant Ant
From the early, grungier Handsome Family album Odessa, which also offers the spiteful glory of I Want A Pony and the wonderfully titled She Awoke With A Jerk, this one reminds me of how Marvel's Ant Man character later became Giant Man, and how his most recent incarnation joined the army to become GI:Antman. Heh.
I am a giant ant...
Finally, in a pitiful effort to re-establish my indie cred...
This album popped up on loads of Best of 2009 lists, and I kept hearing it compared to Belle & Sebastian. I'm not sure I make that connection myself. It's a bit more jangly - reminds me of those late 80s Peel favourite bands that you always hear on Rough Trade compilations. The Field Mice et al. It's definitely a grower though...
*!STOP THE PRESS!
Everybody Was In The French Resistance... Now's debut single G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. has a video! I first heard this song two years back on Eddie's myspace, but it still sounds fresh. EWITFR...N's raison d'etre is Answer Songs, and this one comes in response to Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend, which Eddie says is part of "an alarming new archetype in pop songwriting: 'girl steals other girl's boyfriend.' This is a divisive message to send to young girls everywhere, and songs like 'Girlfriend' (see also 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift) only teach young women that they can derive more worth and status from stealing each others' boyfriends than they can from realizing their own achievements."
Denzel Washington is a lone drifter walking across post apocalypse America, carrying a mysterious book that a voice in his head told him to take west. He happens across a small town of roughneck survivors run by corrupt "sheriff" Gary Oldman. Denzel is a quiet man, but he's also a bad ass. When Oldman learns about Denzel's mysterious and powerful book, he'll stop at nothing to get his hands on it. The stage is set for a showdown, which surprises, and a twist, which though satisfying, isn't quite as trouser-shakingly immense as the writer/directors seem to think it is.
There's a lot of fun to be had here. Some nice meaty action sequences, inspired cameos (including Tom Waits, Malcolm McDowell and Jennifer Beals, plus Michael Gambon and Frances de la Tour in an inspired comic interlude), Oldman chewing scenery, and Denzel at his most Denzelish. Ultimately though, this is a film in love with its own twist, and that all gets a bit much towards the end. There's no prize to be had for guessing the identity of Denzel's all-powerful book, though the film has rather a confused opinion of whether said tome was responsible for the apocalypse or holds our salvation within its pages. The way the films unveils that infamous twist is so laborious as to be comical - you can almost hear the directors saying, "hold it, hold it, hold it... ta-daaa!", though once the cat's finally out of the bag, they'd have done well to roll the credits. Instead we get a gratuitous ten minutes of back-slapping and what-happened-next that only gives the audience time to ponder some enormous plot holes we might otherwise have dismissed. (By contrast, we watched The Orphan on DVD this weekend, a movie with a far smarter twist - one I wish the writers had made more of. You just can't win with twists.)
Still, if you've ever wanted to see Denzel Washington eating a cat, this is the movie for you.
PJANG #4 has arrived at last, and yes, I’ve sold out. I’m going for the Heat market. They seem to be the only periodicals that still sell these days, so maybe I’ll pick up some extra sales from gullible fools who think they can read about their favourite stars’ relationship traumas or what’s happening in the Big Brother house this week. Of course, they’ll be in for a shock, because PJANG #4 is merely further proof that People Just Ain’t No Good.
It does feature a celebrity expose of sorts, in the lead strip drawn by Crazy Chris Askham. Then there’s a question of marital infidelity and domestic vengeance as drawn by Riotous Ryan Taylor. Finally it’s the return of Titanic Tony McGee with a little Twilight Zone homage we called ‘Split’. Three great stories, with full colour covers by Nigel Lowrey and Davey Metcalfe - all for just £1.75. Click on the link in the sidebar to read the previews or buy the comic. Hope you enjoy it!
Bruce Willis. I presume you don't mean the same birth year?
2. Where was your first kiss?
School playground. I was very young. I was a cat, she was a dog. It was extremely innocent... and a long, lo-ong time till my next one.
3. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex? If yes, why?
No, and I've never hit anyone of the same sex either. I'm a lover, not a fighter. (Stop sniggering at the back!)
4. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people? When?
I used to be in the school choir before my voice broke. I don't remember anything about it.
Later, in High School, I played Little John in a Robin Hood panto and closed the first half singing Elvis Presley's Let's Have A Party. (But I was singing along to the actual song.) This, fortunately, was before camera phones.
5. What's the first thing you notice about your preferred sex?
Their scowls of derision and scorn.
6. What really turns you off?
Vanity and arrogance.
7. What is your biggest mistake?
I think I've answered this one before, but it's a two-parter. 1) Not going away to university (I stayed at the local one). 2) Deciding I wanted to work in radio.
8. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?
On occasion. Self-loathing comes with a price, you know.
9. Say something totally random about yourself.
I wouldn't ever eat sealion.
10. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
Back in school, they used to tell me I looked like Adam Carrington in Dynasty. I didn't. I've also been told by very short sighted people I used to look like a young Elvis. I look more like a dead Elvis. And once someone who I can't quite remember told me I looked like David Boringass from Angel and Bones. It's just the hair.
11. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows?
Not much. But if ever Scooby Doo or Roadrunner is on and I'm around, I'll watch them. Or Grange Hill, pre-1988.
12. Are you comfortable with your height?
Apart from when I bang my head on low ceilings.
13. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you?
For a lark, I decided to have a go at compiling a list of my favourite TV theme tunes. It soon became apparent that these break down into two distinct categories - those with vocals, and those without. So I'm doing a list for each. (For those of you who are interested, Rainbow Songs will return soon.)
It should go without saying (except this is the internet, and you can't ever be too careful) that this isn't a list of my favourite TV shows. For that, you can go here (scroll down past the Empire list) or here, or if you're really bored you can check out my Best of 2009 list or My Top Ten TV Characters.
The majority of my favourite theme tunes hail from the 70s and 80s. One or two are from even further back. What does that tell us? They were much better when we were kids. Much as I loved The X-Files, and considered Mark Snow's theme the perfect introduction to that show, you'd hardly find me humming it on the bus. Likewise the dustbin lid crash of NYPD Blue. I can't even get Louise to watch my favourite ever TV show because she hates the theme music so much. Meanwhile, I'm convinced the music to 24 is a rip off of John Williams' Star Wars theme, with added clock beeps.
Many of my favourite contemporary shows have ditched the idea of a theme tune altogether. Take Lost - a couple of seconds of swirly mystery, and that's your lot. No, they don't make 'em like they used to. Even my runners-up go way, way back. The Avengers, Blakes 7, Dallas, Dr. Who , Star Trek (which I kind of disqualified because there's both an instrumental anda vocal version, sung by Lt. Uhuru) and Starsky & Hutch. But the winners are...
Harry South's theme to The Sweeney spells out the name of the show musically. "The Sweeney - the Sweeney - doo doo doodoo doo doodoo doo doo... etc." A number of Hammer Horror films used the same technique, as did The Return Of The Saint and the "Tucker Jenkins" motif from the end of the Grange Hill theme. "Shut it!"
Was there ever a sadder image than poor old 'David' Banner shrugging his backpack over his shoulder and walking out of town, thumbing a lift while nobody stops? That was all down to Joe Harnell's Lonely Man Theme, which closed The Incredible Hulk every week. The opening theme was pretty cool too, but that didn't have to break your heart.
I took piano lessons for almost ten years, but I was never very good. Mike Post's theme to Hill Street Blues was one of the only things I could ever really play. And that's easy! Let's be careful out there...
My love of Lalo Schifrin's Mission Impossible music was tainted when Tom Cruise and those muppets from U2 got hold of it. Still, if I close my eyes and picture Peter Graves and Martin Landau, everything's all right.
The only problem with the A Team theme is that it takes so long to get going. Yes, I know we need that famous talky bit first, but hurry up with the nobody-gets-hurt car chases already!
I hope when the A Team movie opens this summer, there's a scene with Liam Neeson smoking a large cigar in an alligator costume. Otherwise I'm going to be very disappointed.
When I was a kid, Jim Rockford's answering machine seemed like the ultimate in futuristic, high-tech innovation. You just know that if they ever do a remake, Jim's gonna be on Twitter.
Possibly one of the most iconic TV themes ever recorded - and yet it's so simple. "Doo-doo doo-doo..." has entered the cultural language in the same way as the "der-der der-der" from Jaws. I reckon there's people who "doo doo doo doo" and they've never even seen The Twilight Zone. Which is a crying shame.
1. Hawaii Five-0
The prime example of a theme tune that transcends its show. What else do you remember about Hawaii Five-0? "Book 'im, Danno!" If you ever find yourself watching this show again, you're almost certain to find it deathly dull. But that theme tune - even thirty years on, it's one of the most exciting things I've ever heard coming out of a television set.
So, those were mine - what are yours?
Remember, instrumental themes only... we'll get to the singalongs shortly.
In 1967, Columbia University student Adam Walker meets a mysterious French benefactor, Rudolf Born, who offers him a dream job: writing and editing his own literary magazine. Born's vixen of a girlfriend Margot then seduces Adam into a brief but passionate affair and the stage is set for an explosive confrontation. A violent murder follows, though not one the reader might have expected, and the conflict escalates with revenge and counter attack: a quest for justice or cowardly self-preservation?
Described as a reinvention of the coming-of-age story, Invisible reads more like a cat-and-mouse thriller. It's certainly one of the most fast-paced literary novels I've read in a long time. Auster's last book, Man In The Dark, strayed somewhat awkwardly into science fantasy with alternate realities and a Kafka-esque persecution that appeared to exist mostly in the narrator's mind. I enjoyed it despite its failings, but Invisible is a far more successful story. Murder, incest, blackmail and betrayal, it maintains a gripping pace throughout, despite swapping unreliable narrators, leaping forward and backward in time, and changing from first person to second to third as it moves towards its surprising conclusion. Along the way, Auster has us questioning everything - who do we believe? why would they lie? what actually happened? - and also provides a masterclass in the novelist's art. Fascinating.
I don't do the lottery, so the chances of me winning a million are slim to fuck all. Still, the question does come up now and then: What would you do if you did? If someone walked in here right now with a suitcase packed with notes, handed 'em over and said, "Go knock yourself out, kid." (Ah, the days when anyone might call me kid, they'll soon be as fanciful as the chances of me ever making with the big moolah. But I can dream.)
My answer is always simple: quit this job and write. You always hear about these people who win the lottery and don't want to give up their job because they like the routine, or they worry they wouldn't know what to do with their days. I'm sorry, but these people DO NOT DESERVE to win big. They should be given just enough to pay off their debts and have a nice holiday in the sun, then the rest of their ill-gotten lucre should be passed on to somebody who DOES have the faintest idea of what to do with it. Like, say, me.
The other thing I hear all the time whenever this conversation crops up: "Oh, a million wouldn't be enough to give up your job. You'd have to have at least two or three. A billion - if you had a billion, then you'd definitely be safe." To these people I say: shut up. Oh, and if you ever win a million, and you're not happy with it, and you think it's not enough - tell you what, GIVE IT TO ME. Once again, I'll put it to perfect use.
I often wonder about these millionaire business types who get to the top of their chosen profession and then want to keep at it. If I made a million in business, I'd sell up and retire somewhere nice and green. I've discussed this with colleagues and we reached the conclusion that the very fact we feel this way is why we'll never become millionaire business types. We don't have the drive. And it's that drive that stops you ever wanting to retire. Plus, those guys probably would get bored. They don't have the itch to write. Unless they're John Grisham.
Anyway, the point is, I know exactly what I'd do if I suddenly got a huge chunk of readies. I'm not interested in bling. I don't want a £80,000 car or a lear jet or a Gallagher-style mansion or a private island. Actually, I wouldn't mind a private island, but that's more to do with misanthropy than money. The one thing money can buy that I desperately want - is time. Time to write, time to read, time to listen to music... yeah, I'd like to go on the occasional nice holiday or eat in the occasional fancy restaurant, but that sort of thing's secondary. It's not essential. All I really want is enough money to not have to do this job, and to spend my working hours doing something that satisfies me. Following that crazy dream. Is that too much to ask, lottery gods? Hey, how about we make a deal? I'll buy a ticket, you buy me that lifestyle... and I promise not to be one of those dismal "it changed my life for the worse" whingers. OK? Deal.
What about you? If money was no longer an issue and you didn't have to work... what would you do?
Daybreakers at least seemed to be trying to do something different with the genre. Pity it did so in such a relentlessly dull way.
It's the future. The vampires have won and the human race is on the verge of extinction. But things aren't going too well for the bloodsuckers either, since a shortage of humans means a shortage of their basic food group. Science-vamp Ethan Hawke is searching for a True Blood-style blood substitute, while his corporate-bigwig boss Sam Neill is happy harvesting the remaining humans Matrix-style for their claret. Starving vamps on the streets are starting to feed on each other, leading them to mutate into vicious batlike monsters. Meanwhile, former-fang-fiend Willem Dafoe has lost his mojo following a fortuitous daylight car crash bath.
With all this going on, Daybreakers certainly isn't short on plot. And it's not without action either. Though much of that seems shoehorned in - "We've had five minutes of talking, let's chuck in a pointless car chase now." But even that fails to excite. Largely that's because of unsympathetic characters and a dire, humourless, exposition-heavy script. I'm a big fan of Ethan Hawke, but he phones this one in, and Willem Dafoe's no better. What happened to that dodgy southern accent you were trying in your first scene, Willem? "Ah, y'know, I decided it wasn't worth the effort for the rest of this shite." Fair enough then. Sam Neill is unintentionally hilarious as a camp gramp vamp with a Christopher Lee haircut and Claudia Karvan struggles to make an impression in the thankless Carrie Anne Moss role.
The whole thing is given a glossy, colourless sheen (wow - the suburbs of the future look just like they did in Back To The Future 2) and punctuated with moments of grisly CGI gore that aim to shock in the most cynical way possible. It's also incredibly loud, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. Three questions...
1) Since when did vampire fangs move from canines to incisors? (It's the same in True Blood. Not in Twishite though - those vamps don't even have fangs!)
2) If the vampire epidemic was originally caused by bats... why don't vampire bats burst into flames in sunlight too?
Dark Entries is Ian Rankin's first comic book work, but the creator of dour Scots detective John Rebus has found an easy way into the medium, writing a new mystery for dour Scouse "occult detective" John Constantine. When I first heard about Rankin's Constantine novel, I was a little worried Vertigo were letting him change the character unnecessarily to suit his own style, but it turns out the "occult detective" bit is merely a shorthand way of introducing the character to Rankin readers. This is the same Constantine we know and love. Cocky, confident, sarcastic and cursed; Rankin nails him from the outset.
Others have complained that the subject matter of Rankin's first Conjob story is too obvious a target. Making horror out of a Big Brother-style reality TV show isn't an especially original idea, neither is the satirical suggestion that such shows are genuinely evil in nature. But if you can get past the feeling that Rankin's shooting fish in a barrel, there's much to enjoy here. Depressed ghosts, rioting demons, disembowelled serial killers, unnatural sex, supernatural mystery - Rankin handles the more extreme elements of the genre with ease, helped along by Werther Dell'edera's simple-yet-effective black and white art that recalls both Sean Phillips and Eddie Campbell. I'm not sure what Rebus fans will make of the book's second half - when all Hell literally breaks loose - but Hellblazer readers can breathe easy. The trenchcoat's in safe hands.
It's good to see Vertigo finally releasing a second volume of Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo's Shade, The Changing Man. Back in the early 90s when this book was first published it was a firm favourite of mine (those with long memories may remember seeing me cropping up in the letter column on a semi-regular basis, along with other alumni of the 90s small press scene). The first collection was released in 2003, and for a long while it seemed Vertigo weren't going to follow it up. Milligan's profile is pretty strong at the moment now he's the regular writer on Hellblazer, plus his new title Greek Street is getting strong reviews, while Bachalo goes from strength to strength at Marvel. So at last we get volume 2 - collecting issues 7-13, along with a reissue of the first book. The perfect jumping on point if you've never experienced the madness of Shade before.
Rac Shade is an alien from another dimension sent to earth to stop a creature of total insanity that's escaped from the Area of Madness and is running riot across the USA - The American Scream. On arrival, Shade finds himself stuck, Sam Beckett style, inside the body of death row serial killer Troy Grenzer. Teamed up with Kathy, the daughter of Grenzer's last victim, and on the run from the authorities, Shade must follow the madness stream all across America, from Dealey Plaza in Texas where a giant JFK head wants to know who shot it to New York where the litter problem is getting out of hand to Haight Ashbury where the hippy dream has gone seriously wrong. British writer Milligan brings an outsider's twisted perspective to the land of the free, and it's fascinating to watch Bachalo's art evolve towards his current style as the series progresses.
When people rave about the early days of Vertigo, it's usually Neil Gaiman's Sandman that gets all the plaudits. Shade was always a far more interesting book to me though (along with Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol), and it's great to see it finally get the collections it deserves. More soon, please DC.
I fear this blog is turning into a list of lists, but just like Nick Hornby I've always loved a good list. It's my OCD. I also think they work quite well on blogs, breaking up longer posts into simple and easily read chunks rather than eye-straining monster-paragraphs which most people skip anyway.
Thanks to the accursed Twitter, I now have a way of collecting the random things that piss me off throughout the week. And as my psychologist says that for every list of gripes I should also try to formulate a list of happy things, I'm going to try to do that too. This might become a regular feature... or I might have lost all interest by next Friday.
9. Weather forecasting is a joke nowadays. We should go back to studying pine cones and watching where cows sleep. More chance of being right.
8. Button flies. What's wrong with a nice zip? (My favourite pair of jeans died this week too. Nice pin-striped ones. They don't make 'em like that anymore.)
7. We had to get a plumber round. He looked and talked like Bez's younger brother. Didn't inspire much confidence.
6. Microsoft Word editing software. Y'know, that stuff that lets people edit your documents with bollocks, but refuses to let you edit their edits.
5. That whistling 'sonic logo' thingy on the end of the McDonalds ad... IT'S OUT OF TUNE!
4. The bloke in the pub who kept talking about "my personal friend".
"We stayed in London with a personal friend."
"We went skiing with some personal friends."
"I blagged a lift to the gig from a personal friend."
What, as opposed to an impersonal friend?
3. The weather. Sick of winter now. Especially on Wednesday when the whole world was coated in sheer ice and it was impossible to get anywhere using two legs or four wheels. The only way to get around was on all fours.
2. Every single driver who doesn't know how to drive in snowy conditions. And all Audi drivers, as usual. I screamed myself hoarse shouting at them.
1. Work. It occurred to me this week that if I'd murdered somebody back in 1989, rather than starting work here, I'd have been let out by now. Where's the justice?
Below is a doctored newspaper hoarding we've put up on the office wall. It won't be there for long, I'm sure the Powers That Have No Sense Of Humour will make us take it down soon. But it gave us all a certain sense of rebellious satisfaction to do it anyway. ('Comproddy' is our job description of choice as we all hate the word 'Creative'.)
Ten Things That Made Me Glad This Week
10. Nurse Jackie - Edie Falco is ace.
9. Two days "working from home". Snow not all bad.
8. Every Was In The French Resistance... Now.
Eddie Argos and Dyan Valdes release their debut album of answer songs, Fixin' The Charts. Available for download now on Amazon; Eddie tells me (via Twitter) that the CD is out in a couple of weeks.
7. Kicking the second half of the nvl into some kind of shape at last. I actually have some vaguely likable supporting characters now. Time to start killing them off, I think.
6. Trailer for the A-Team movie. Yes, it looks very silly and I'll probably end up hating it. Still, my inner eight year old is cheering.
5. I finally became a hero. In Sweden.
(It's worth waiting through the countdown. No, really.)
With thanks to Nic for pointing me in the right direction....
4. Getting towards the end of 24 Season 7. Yay, Tony! Boo, Tony!
3. It started raining. At last! Goodbye, snow.
2. Louise's house finally sold! The relief is incredible!
1. PJANG #4 is on its way to the printers. Holding off on showing you the cover, but here's the first page of the final strip (I've already previewed the first two), with art by the amazing Tony McGee. Click to biggify.
I loved the idea of John Peel. I loved that there was someone out there prepared to wade through all those demos and obscure white label records to find gems that nobody else was playing and introduce them to the world. Whenever I listened to Peel, I loved the down-to-earth, ramshackle everyman style of radio that he pioneered. But the truth is, I didn't listen to Peel very often at all. I never had those lonely teenage nights discovering the Smiths and the Cocteau Twins via his show. I wish I had, but I just wasn't cool enough. As a teenager, I was all about Springsteen. Well, in truth, Springsteen's the acceptable version of what I was listening to as a teenager. The rest of my time was spent with an ear glued to Queen, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Bruce Willis (!), Huey Lewis and loads more records Peel wouldn't have touched with a barge pole. By the time I got into indie, I was working nights in local radio so I didn't have the chance to listen to Peel then either.
Then I discovered Mark Radcliffe. Or Mark 'n' Lard as it was back then. They liked the music I liked, and played it as much as daytime radio allowed. Amid all the silly jokes and sketches (many of which had me crying - don't think I'm dismissing them), they had what Peel had too, if slightly more populist. That same rough diamond charm. That same northern everyman appeal. When they left Radio 1, so did I. Now Radcliffe's on Radio 2 (with Stuart Maconie), I listen whenever I can. As much as I hate 90% of radio, I love Radcliffe. He's doing it the way it ought to be done. The way so few others are. Certainly nobody on Independent Local Radio, though he's keen to explain why that is in his book...
Once it became evident that you could win more listeners, and therefore more advertising revenue, by playing Whitney Houston and Dire Straits records instead of trying out new magazine programmes, the end was in sight for anyone who worked outside the mainstream. Don't get me wrong, I understand that these enterprises have to turn a profit, but somebody somewhere, the government or the Independent Broadcasting Authority, should have made it impossible for them to go down that road. If they had, we would now have a network of long-established commercial stations giving a vibrant picture of life in their locality. What we've ended up with is a collection of identikit operations all playing whatever you consider to be the current equivalents of Whitney Houston and Dire Straits. Leona Lewis and Coldplay, perhaps... it's one hell of a missed opportunity.
So here we have the other reason I love Radcliffe. He's smart as hell. That's pretty rare for a DJ, and believe me, I've worked with a swarm of them. Not as rare as you might think - I could name you, oh, at least 5 with an above average IQ... but Radcliffe is by far the smartest on national radio today (though Maconie might give him a run, especially after his recent Celebrity Mastermind victory). An English graduate who's already written one well-received memoir about all the crap bands he's been in, as well as a clever, Hornbyish debut novel, Radcliffe is a radio renaissance man. He loves music with a passion, and not just the cool stuff... though he's not yet reached Chuck Klosterman levels of embracing the uncool (sorry, Jon 'By-Jovi'). He's also smart enough to be self-deprecating and admit when he's got it wrong - unlike most of his contemporaries, he's not all about ego. He has little time for jocks who see radio as a stepping stone to TV and considers himself fortunate to have such a great job - playing records and talking in between - all of which he owes to just one man... John Peel.
It wasn't just the music, but the way Peel presented it. Rather like Annie Nightingale, John just had this knack of communicating enthusiasm without getting overexcited. He never thought he was more important than the tunes he was playing and that spoke volumes to me. He also, I think, made the idea viable that you could do a show in that way. That it wasn't necessarily a given that the DJ had to be some wacky celebrity figure. Without John blazing the trail, I doubt that anyone like me would ever have been considered for fronting programmes. You may consider that to be a mixed blessing, but there is a generation of us who will always be in debt to Peel, and to some extent Annie, for kicking that door open.
Thank You For The Days is subtitled 'A Boy's Own Adventures In Radio' and broken down into chapters dealing with notable incidents from Radcliffe's career, such as meeting his idols (Bowie, Bush, Jagger), getting fired from the breakfast show, swearing on live radio, and unintentionally upsetting Kylie Minogue. There's also much about his love of music, from the band that changed his life (Dr. Feelgood) to the band that made his life complete (the Family Mahone). Yet the most affecting chapter has nothing to do with radio at all. It deals instead with a coast-to-coast walk he undertook between leaving Radio 1 and joining Radio 2. There's real emotion on display here, and genuine wit, making this far more than just another celebrity memoir. If he ever gets tired of radio, Mark Radcliffe could easily become the next Bill Bryson. I hope he finds the time to write more soon.
Back to the rainbow, though I'm not following it in traditional Richard Of York Gave Battle In... vein. I decided to stick with the primary colours to start with, and after last week's Lady In Red avoidathon, blue seems a good place to jump next. There were so many blues in my music library though, I had to whittle. First, I dumped all the actual Blues (I'll do a separate post with them next week). Even then, there were still far too many great songs to pick just ten. Longtime readers will know exactly what's coming next... but apologies still go to Elvis Costello, Nick Drake, Chris Isaak, Madonna, Tom Waits (who had his moment last week), REM, Nick Heyward and Nina Simone (among others), any of whom might have made this list if the wind had been blowing in another direction. They'll get their chance one day...
Like a slightly prettier version of the Handsome Family, though not quite as lyrically blessed, Blanche are husband and wife Dan John and Tracey Mae Miller. This track is typical of their excellent 2004 album If We Can't Trust The Doctors. All creepy Southern Gothic country, it'd fit in well in the soundtrack of True Blood or Wild At Heart.
I know it's not particularly cool and indie to admit that I never got New Order, but... I never got New Order. This was fine, I suppose, if you were off your head in the Hacienda, but... I'd still rather dance to the Fats Domino version. Besides, I'm sure I included this in my Musical Mondays. Didn't I?
I feel so bad I’ve got a worried mind I’m so lonesome all the time Since I left my baby behind on Blue Bayou
Timeless.
16. Lambchop - My Blue Wave
Ah, Kurt Wagner. Everybody loves Kurt Wagner. No, not him...
Him...!
It might be interesting though to imagine what would happen if Nightcrawler of the X-Men swapped places with his alt-country namesake. I reckon X-Kurt would do a cool version of National Talk Like a Pirate Day (comic fans will understand why) while Lambchop-Kurt would be able to lull Magneto to defeat with his mellow sounds and enigmatic lyrics.
The best song on Travis's million selling album The Man Who is the hidden track? COULD BE! Don't get me started on how much I hate hidden tracks. Hate having to fast forward the CD player. Hate having to edit the audio files on my computer. Hate, hate, hate 'em. Particularly as they're rarely worth the effort. This one was. The darkest song Travis ever recorded?
Elvis would have been 75 last week. Imagine that. By dying when he did, even in such ignominious fashion, he was granted an immortality he'd never have achieved by living to be an old man. Look at Lennon and McCartney - who's the legend, who's the gurning idiot who married a one-legged gold digger? Longevity is greatly overrated.
Blue Moon is also the only song I can play on the harmonica. Though not the Elvis version.
How to cheat and get more songs in your countdown that you allowed yourself in the first place. The Longpigs came from Sheffield, had Richard Hawley on guitar, and Crispin Hunt on 'vocals and looking like a male model from the 80s'. Lloyd Cole is from Derbyshire but now lives grumpily in the states.
Baby you're too well read Baby you're too well spoken Baby you're too pristine When I cry, do you feel anything? Baby you're too well read
No one hears and no one calls It's a boring state It's a useless wait, I know
Brag about things you don't understand A girl and a woman, a boy and a man Everything is sexually vague Now you're wondering to yourself If you might be gay
Also includes the following awe-inspiring rhyming couplet...
Try to figure out, they wonder what next you'll pull You don't understand anything sexual
I've been listening to a lot of Del Amitri lately, in the hope that it might encourage Justin Currie to release another supremely miserable solo album. One day I will compile a list of Top Ten Grumpy Bastards In Rock, and JC will be flying high. In a good way.
Possibly the greatest sunshiny pop song ever written, right up to the ridiculous 'Please Turn Me Over' outro. But have you heard the Delgados' version? Love Emma Pollock's voice.
I always think the Bluetones are woefully under-appreciated. They write gloriously uplifting pop songs and put on a hell of a live show too. Long may they continue.
Being a die hard Spider-Man fan can be traumatic. You have to learn to take the crunchy with the smooth, to quote Billy Bragg. One day you've got Roger Stern and John Romita Jr., the next day it's Howard Mackie and John Byrne. One day Kraven's Last Hunt, the next day The Clone Saga. One day Doc Ock, the next day Venom. One day Spider-Man 2... the next day Spider-Man 3.
Lately, things have been looking up for the webslinger. Most sane comic fans are finally getting over the horror of One More Day and enjoying the hell out of the thrice-monthly Amazing. We've got great writers like Mark Waid, Joe Kelly, Dan Slott and Fred Van Lente; stylish (and not just flavour-of-the-month) artists like Marcos Martin, Javier Pulido and Mike McKone; and an editor who not only knows what he's doing, but has an appropriately fanboy-baiting sense of humour to boot. And for a while there it looked like Sony had finally learned the lessons of Spider-Man 3, and were letting Sam Raimi have more creative control to guide the next Spidey movie back towards the emotional, character-based thrill ride of 2, still the best superhero film ever made.
Then last night it all fell apart. All plans for Spider-Man 4 have been scrapped, Sony and Raimi are parting ways, a complete franchise reboot is planned for 2012. And it was the Vulture who did it - succeeding where the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Sandman and Venom all failed. The Vulture finally killed Spider-Man!
Sony and Raimi have been arguing over the Vulture since long before Spider-Man 3. Raimi wanted the oldest Spider-Man villain for the third Spidey instead of Venom. Sony have it in for the old codger though. When they promised Raimi more creative control on the fourth flick after the critical mauling of 3, he obviously decided to test them by trying to get Adrian Toomes back on board. Original rumours had Ben Kingsley and Larry David (ha!) down for the part, finally we seemed to be settling on John Malkovich as a likely candidate. Sony still weren't happy. There were rumours of script rewrites, with awful, hideous ideas such as the Vulture's teenage daughter, a "Vulturess", being thrown into the mix. Late last year, the two sides reached a stalemate, though everyone seemed committed to moving ahead.
Earlier this week, Raimi appeared to call Sony's bluff. Malkovich announced, unofficially, that his casting was more than just a rumour. Sony responded by throwing their dummy out of the pram. So Spider-Man 4 is no more.
It's a shame. When handled right, the Vulture can be a compelling villain. He's a unique Lee / Ditko creation. A cunning, crotchety old man offering a cool contrast against Peter Parker's youth, intelligence and quick wit. See the aforementioned Stern/Romita Jr.'s treatment of the character back in the 80s, or JM DeMatteis and Sal Buscema's excellent Funeral Arrangements story from the 90s. Of course, there have been some truly terrible Vulture stories too - the one where Michelinie and Bagley de-aged him or the one where Mark Millar turned him into an old perv (yawn) - but name a character who hasn't struggled through bad stories in almost 50 years of continuity. Go on, I challenge you.
It doesn't matter anymore. The chances of the Vulture ever making it to the big screen are so dead, real vultures are picking at the corpse. How do I feel about all this? Well, that depends. Initially I was outraged. I was really hoping Raimi might pull 4 together and give us a film as good as 2. Having said that, the Spidey franchise could well do with a kick up the arse. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are looking a bit worn out ten years on (Dunst was always too whiney for Mary Jane anyway). And as much as I loved half of Spidey 1, all of Spidey 2, and a few little bits of Spidey 3, the series was definitely flawed. It was overly sentimental (1), Spidey didn't wisecrack the way he ought to (1, 2 and 3), they tried to tell far too much story at the expense of characterisation (3). True, some elements were perfect - well, JK Simmons as J Jonah Jameson - I hope he makes it through, like Judi Dench's M surviving the Bond reboot.
Rumours are already surfacing, and they're predictably dire. A return to high school a la Ultimate Spider-Man sounds at first intriguing, unless they're shooting for the Twilight / Harry Potter audience. Others speculate Sony want to go the Batman Begins / Dark Knight route, but Dark Spidey is always a disaster. He has to start with the funny! Not to mention the truly terrifying casting conjecture...
Zac Efron? Oh my god, no.
Daniel Radcliffe? Yeah? Is he going to learn to act first?
Michael Cera? Sorry, that's taking geeky too far.
Robert Pattinson? Are you fucking joking? He's got as much charisma as a woodwormy plank and needs acting lessons from Radcliffe. Please, make this stop!
We live in uncertain times. The new Spider-Man film is now scheduled for 2012 (perhaps that's why the Aztecs predicted it as the end of days?). I'm holding my breath. But as I keep reminding myself - whatever happens, it could be worse. It could be a musical, with songs written by U2.
I try not to go on about it, but it should be obvious to most people reading this blog that I've had it up to the top of my highest hair follicle with my current "career". The problem is, as anyone else with an English degree will tell you, there aren't a lot of options available. There's the awfulness of advertising / marketing (which I'm doing), the dying art of journalism (which appears to be in an even worse state than the radio industry), teaching (which I'm looking into) or... mummification.
This last one comes out of left field, I'll admit, but there is at least a vacancy, according to today's Independent. Seems Channel 4 in their infinite wisdom / quest to outrage Daily Mail readers have come up with a new reality show wheeze in which a terminally ill person donates their body to be mummified on death and displayed in a museum for two years, after which it would be returned for burial. Well, that's got to be better than writing radio ads - so where do I sign? What do you mean I'm not terminally ill? I'm sure you can sort that out, Channel 4. Just give me a couple episodes of the Russell Brand show to watch, that'll solve that problem. Oh wait, hang on a minute - there's no money in it? Get out of here! Then again, I'm hardly being paid a king's ransom in my current role... and at least I wouldn't have to deal with sales execs. Or clients. Or DJs...
Working my way through Simon Goddard's Mozipedia (thanks again, JC!), though I'm pacing myself with just a couple of entries a night. Yesterday I reached the letter 'G' and an entry on Ghosts, describing Morrissey's various alleged encounters with the supernatural, including a haunted flat in Kensington and spooky goings on in Hook End Manor recording studio (and given my own studio-based visitations, I'm hardly one to doubt).
Anyway, the story that leapt out most was one that happened right on my doorstep. I'll let Mr. Goddard take up the tale...
One January evening in 1989, Morrissey received a terrible fright while travelling with friends through Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester, where the Moors Murderers buried their victims. 'As we turned on to [Wessenden Head Road*], from the side of the road, from the heather, somebody pleaded to the car,' he claimed. 'A boy of maybe 18 years, and he was totally grey, and he had long hair in a sort of 1970s style, one of those strange feather cuts, and he wore a very small anorak and nothing else - he was completely naked. He just emerged from the heather and pleaded to the lights, and we drove past because we all instinctively knew that this was a spirit... He seemed like something from beyond.' The party drove to the next village and telephoned the police who told Morrissey and his companions '[to] keep an open mind'.
And what's the next village if you turn off Saddleworth Moor down Wessenden Head Road? Meltham.
*Goddard actually refers to it as Wessenden Road in the book; I give it its correct name here.
Meltham Is A Dangerous Place will return later in the year.
Seems a rather appropriate read given the current weather conditions, though I actually started this before Christmas. Then Louise saw it and decided she wanted to read it IMMEDIATELY (she's been on a bit of a Koontz kick lately) so I put it on hold and read something else in the meantime (Mark Radcliffe's Thank You For The Days, which I'll review soon). Anything for a quiet life.
Icebound was originally published in 1976 under the pseudonym David Axton. Koontz revised and updated it for re-release in the mid 90s, and that's the version I've just read. (Though not with the cover above - I couldn't find my cover anywhere online - stupid internet.) It's a little different from the average Koontz thriller; the author reveals in the afterword how at the time he was testing himself, trying something in the style of Alastair MacLean, who he admired when he was growing up. In this kind of adventure-suspense novel Koontz says, "the elements that count above all others are tension, pace and plot. The characters have to be straightforward and certainly less complex than those who appear in most of my books". I'm not sure I ever read Koontz for complex characterisation, but I hardly noticed a difference. What I do read Koontz for is edge-of-your-seat thrills. He turns pages faster than just about any writer I can think of, and that's certainly the case here.
Icebound starts with an exciting premise, then piles on the twists. A group of scientists are trapped on a drifting iceberg that's primed with explosives set to go off at midnight. The only rescue vessel with any hope of reaching them is a rickety old Russian submarine captained by a sailor with "nothing to lose". One of the drifters is the son of a famous American family (basically the Kennedy's). Another is a psychotic killer. It's a race against the clock, a whodunit and a (sort of) political thriller all in one. There's not a lot of depth, no, but there's plenty of speed - which is exactly what the author intended. In that, it's a success. Because sometimes that's all you need.
...but if I added up all the hours spent watching the shows highlighted below... how many years of my life has that wasted? It's really quite frightening when you think about it like that.
•Bold any of the following TV shows if you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes in your lifetime.
•Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode.
You probably won't have heard of all these shows (I certainly hadn't). So feel free to add your own favourites that might be missing (I certainly did). Despite that, I'm sure there are loads I've forgotten...
•24 (Well, every episode up to the middle of Season 7, which I'm watching at the moment).
•7th Heaven
•Airwolf
•Alan Partridge
•ALF
•Alias
•American Gothic
•America’s Next Top Model (Only very briefly caught bits when fleeing the room as Louise puts it on)
•Angel (Not certain I've seen every episode - though I have got them all on DVD)
•Arrested Development
•Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (Why don't they ever repeat this?)
•Babylon 5
•Batman (60s)
•Batman: The Animated Series
•Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
•Battlestar Galactica (the new one) (Chev's put me off, going on about how awful the very last episode was.)
•Baywatch
•Beverly Hills 90210 (original)
•Bewitched
•BJ & The Bear
•Blackadder
•Blake's Seven
•Bonanza
•Bones
•Bosom Buddies
•Boston Legal (I really want to start watching this though, for the Shat)
•Boy Meets World
•Brass Eye
•Brothers And Sisters
•Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I know there's one episode I haven't seen, around when Willow goes mad and kills Tara - I'll get to it on DVD eventually)
•Cagney & Lacey
•Californication (Watched all the first series, lost interest at the beginning of the second)
•Chappelle’s Show
•Charlie’s Angels
•Charmed
•Cheers(Norm!)
•CHiPs
•Chuck
•Clarissa Explains it All
•Columbo
•Commander in Chief
•Cracker
•Crazy Like A Fox (Where am I dredging these up from?)
•Crossing Jordan
•CSI
•CSI: Miami (Is that the one with Caruso? I hate Caruso.)
•CSI: NY
•Curb Your Enthusiasm
•Dallas
•Dark Angel
•Dark Skies
•DaVinci’s Inquest
•Dawson’s Creek
•Dead Like Me(Loved this show, got both series on DVD. Wish it had lasted longer.)
•Deadwood (Wish they'd finished it properly, the way they intended.)
•Degrassi: The Next Generation (I leave that for Davey.)
•Designing Women
•Desperate Housewives
•Dexter
•Dharma & Greg
•Different Strokes
•Doctor Who
•Dollhouse
•Dragnet
•Due South
•ER
•Everwood
•Everybody Loves Raymond
•Facts of Life
•Family Guy
•Farscape
•Father Ted
•Fawlty Towers
•Felicity
•Firefly
•Frasier
•Freaks & Geeks (I keep thinking I should watch this, but I bet it's dated badly now.)
•Friends
•Fringe
•Futurama
•Get Smart
•Gilligan’s Island
•Gilmore Girls
•Gossip Girl
•Grey’s Anatomy
•Grange Hill
•Growing Pains
•Gunsmoke
•Happy Days
•Hawaii Five-O
•Hell’s Kitchen
•Hill Street Blues
•Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
•Heroes (All of the first series, lost interest after that.)
•Home Improvement
•Homicide: Life on the Street
•House (Seen almost every episode, up to the middle of the last series - waiting to catch up.)
•I Dream of Jeannie
•I Love Lucy
•Inspector Morse
•Invader Zim
•Invasion
•It's Gary Shandling's Show ("This is the theme to Gary's Show, the opening theme to Gary's Show, this is the music that you hear as you watch the credits...")
•JAG
•Jackass
•Joey (I stuck with it longer than most people even though it wasn't very funny. Joey was my favourite Friend.)
•Kim Possible
•Knight Rider
•Knight Rider: 2008
•Kung Fu
•Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
•La Femme Nikita
•LA Law
•Laverne and Shirley
•Law and Order
•Law and Order: SVU
•Law and Order: CI
•Leverage
•Little House on the Prairie
•Lizzie McGuire
•Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
•Lost
•Lost in Space
•Lou Grant
•Mad Men
•M*A*S*H*
•MacGyver
•Magnum PI
•Malcolm in the Middle
•Manimal (I slung this in here 'cos it's mad.)
•Married… With Children
•McLeod’s Daughters
•Melrose Place
•Miami Vice
•Millennium
•Minder (But not the dreadful Shane Ritchie remake.)
•Mission: Impossible
•Mod Squad
•Monk
•Moonlighting
•Mork & Mindy
•Murphy Brown
•My Life As A Dog
•My Three Sons
•My Two Dads
•Mythbusters
•NCIS
•Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide
•Nighty Night
•Nip/Tuck
•Numb3rs •NYPD Blue (My favourite show.)
•One Foot In The Grave
•One Tree Hill
•Open All Hours
•Oz (Jumps the shark after series 3.)
•Peep Show
•Perry Mason
•Power Rangers
•Press Gang
•Prison Break
•Private Practice
•Privileged
•Profiler
•Project Runway
•Psych
•Pushing Daisies
•Quantum Leap (Louise is friends with Scott Bakula's nephew. Have I mentioned that already?)
•Queer As Folk (US)
•Queer as Folk (UK)
•Quincy ME
•Red Dwarf
•ReGenesis
•Remington Steele
•Rescue Me (I do like Denis Leary though.)
•Road Rules
•ROME
•Roseanne (Up until Goodman left.)
•Roswell
•Sanctuary
•Sapphire & Steel
•Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (Yoiks!)
•Scrubs
•Seaquest DSV
•Seinfeld (Watched the first four seasons on DVD - keep meaning to buy the rest.)
•Sex and the City
•Simon & Simon
•Six Feet Under
•Slings and Arrows
•Smallville
•So Weird
•South of Nowhere
•South Park
•Space: 1999
•Spaced
•Spin City
•Spider-Man (Nicholas Hammond version)
•Spongebob Squarepants
•St. Elsewhere
•Star Trek
•Star Trek: The Next Generation
•Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
•Star Trek: Voyager
•Star Trek: Enterprise
•Stargate Atlantis
•Stargate SG-1
•Starsky & Hutch
•Streethawk
•Studio 60 On Sunset Strip (Wish they hadn't cancelled this.)
•Superman (Eh? Other than Lois & Clark or Smallville... do you mean a cartoon?)
•Supernatural (Lost interest after about 4 episodes.)
•Surface
•Survivor
•Taxi
•Teen Titans
•That 70’s Show
•That’s So Raven
•The 4400
•The Addams Family
•The Amazing Race
•The Andy Griffith Show
•The A-Team
•The Avengers
•The Beverly Hillbillies
•The Big Bang Theory
•The Brady Bunch
•The Cosby Show
•The Day Today
•The Daily Show
•The Dead Zone
•The Dick Van Dyke Show
•The Flintstones
•The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
•The Golden Girls
•The Honeymooners
•The Incredible Hulk
•The Jeffersons
•The Jetsons
•The League Of Gentlemen
•The L Word
•The Lone Gunmen
•The Love Boat
•The Magnificent Seven (They made a TV series?)
•The Man From UNCLE
•The Mary Tyler Moore Show
•The Monkees
•The Munsters
•The Office (UK)
•The Office (US)
•The Outer Limits
•The Powerpuff Girls
•The Pretender
•The Prisoner
•The Professionals
•The Real World
•The Return Of The Saint
•The Rockford Files
•The Shield(When did the final season of The Shield run? Was that 2009? If so, it should have been in my Top Ten TV... that was brutal.)
•The Simpsons (How can anyone not have seen three episodes of The Simpsons?)
•The Six Million Dollar Man
•The Sopranos
•The Streets Of San Francisco
•The Sweeney
•The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
•The Thick Of It
•The Twilight Zone (Seen all of the original, Serling, series.)
•The Waltons
•The West Wing
•The Wire (Who the hell compiled this list? They left off The Wire? Sacrilege!)
•The Wonder Years
•The X-Files
•Third Watch
•Thirtysomething
•Three’s Company
•Tru Calling
•True Blood
•Twin Peaks (I wish they'd release Series 2 on DVD.)
•Twitch City
•Unfabulous
•Ugly Betty
•Veronica Mars
•Weeds (Quite fancied this, I do like Mary Louise Parker.)
Wild Horses
-
You probably didn’t notice but I’ve been gone for a week. I withdrew
somewhat from the online world. I didn’t feel much like writing if the
truth be known....
The Metal Men and Magnus, Robot Fighter
-
I definitely wanted to do a team-up featuring my favorite band of robots
and was looking around for a suitable costar... and then it hit me! I
can't bel...
Adventures in Comics 2
-
This February I have been asked to participate in the Adventures in Comics
2 festival in Margate. As well as participating in the exhibition, I will
be run...
Nobody’s Favorites: Switched prescriptions
-
It might seem odd to base an funnybook character around a semi-transparent
hoax, but that’s precisely what Marvel Comics did back in 2000 when they
introdu...
Moment of the Day - What Robin Does For Love
-
*Batgirl: Year One #9, by Scott Beatty, Chuck Dixon, and Marcos Martin*
If *Dick* kept the hair he could have been the first Red Robin.
That's A Serious Thespian Mismatch
-
It really isn't fair. I mean, the Germans get Robert Duvall, Donald
Sutherland, Michael Caine, and even Donald Pleasance (as Himmler), and the
Americans ge...
He only does it to annoy
-
I have just sent this email to Stanley Johnson, father of Boris.
*Yo Stan!*
*I see that young Boris is in the newspapers today backing the right of
parent...
Indiana Jones – Leave No Hat Behind – Rol Hirst
-
Panel One.
Deep in the Peruvian jungle. Indiana Jones faces a Gestapo officer in a
trenchcoat and trilby. Indie looks like he’s been through the wars – ...
Another Post-Lexapro Note
-
I want to say thanks for the supportive comments I've gotten on my previous
two posts about going through withdrawal and my decision to give up my
antidepr...
The Long View
-
What a Muppet Mr Hester is. He has at last decided to give up his million
pound bonus, but the damage is already done. The general population
(including ...
Paper Science – Marc Ellerby
-
Issue 7 of comics anthology Paper Science (one of the gems of the
excellentBrit small press anthology comics we’ve been enjoying in recent
years) is out to...
Musing Monday: What to Read Next?
-
This week’s musing asks…
*How far along are you in your current read before you start thinking
about what you’ll read next?*
I'm usually thinking about ...
Withered Hand - Heart Heart
-
Rarely knowingly underemotive, Dan Wilson is the first name on Fence
Records' Chart Ruse subscription-only series of 7" EPs. Pounding,
positivist and somet...
LAST WEEK on the ‘net
-
Tuesday January 24 Marvel Announces Two All-New, All-Ages Titles from
MARVEL Dan Slott To Write More Spider-Man Comics, You Know, For Kids from
Bleeding Co...
Vinyl
-
Over at Davy's place last Friday we were all waxing lyrical, especially Swiss Adam and extolling the virtues of vinyl.
Now I love vinyl as much as the next ...
Whatever Happened to Thunder Brother: Soap Division
-
Some people have been asking me when will *Thunder Brother: Soap Division*return and I answer them, "soon, soon." I've been rethinking my strategy
for the s...
Whatever Happened to Thunder Brother: Soap Division
-
Some people have been asking me when will *Thunder Brother: Soap Division*return and I answer them, "soon, soon." I've been rethinking my strategy
for the s...
DIY Shipping Pallet Bookshelf and Bike Rack
-
The pallets shelves were rough and dirty. I picked 4 pallets up off a
nearby street, made the shelves, and screwed them directly into my drywall
with dry...
Someone’s got to do it
-
On a recent episode of the weirdly compelling quiz show Pointless, a
competing pair delighted the hosts, Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman,
by announc...
You have to start somewhere
-
-
*'I would like to be an architect' *said the sweaty young Czech student in
shining, multi-coloured sports lycra as he exited the local Aldi shop to
his ...
THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF EDWYN COLLINS (Part 2)
-
Edwyn's second single was released in November 1987 with the catalogue
number ACID6 has the distinction of being the final ever release on *Elevation
Rec...
Murder Songs Vol. 8
-
In this trio of murder sings, we deal with a horse-loving psycho, a
mother-loving psycho and a couple of miners for whom three was a crowd.
* * * Wil...
Gas Boys: the Salonnières of Central New Jersey
-
My friend Brooke said the doors at this New Jersey gas station were covered
with notes, but this one in particular caught her attention. (I
particularly en...
Links...and a few thoughts
-
Did you take the weekend off? Well I didn't. If *you* did, then you missed
a pair of strips I posted, regarding the state of my face and my new(-ish,
at th...
Misery Monday - Boo Radleys Wilder
-
This week's misery monday comes from the Boo Radley's breakthrough lp. Not
the radio chirpy style of Wake up Boo but one of those personal songs where
...
Thoughts of a Storm Trooper part 49
-
[image: Trooper Henry then inappropriately called dibs on Trooper George's
bunk - the nice one near the window.]I’ve read that it isn’t always the
better f...
Check In
-
Related posts: Check-out Time Items Found In The Hotel Room After Check-Out
Related posts:
1. Check-out Time
2. Items Found In The Hotel Room Aft...
April Solicitations
-
Were stuck up last week. Here’s what you can pre-order from me, if that’s
your style. Journey Into Mystery #636 Kieron Gillen (W) • Richard Elson (A)
Cover...
A Day Well Spent
-
Anyone who’s been following me for some time knows that I’m one to ditch
housework quite easily and without feeling bad. They had gathered reindeer
some 70...
You may already be a programmer
-
My partner Fiona is currently teaching herself a bit of programming – she’s
blogged about it here – and it’s gotten me thinking about how valuable this
can...
The Son of the Movie Quiz
-
Okay, it has been over a year since I've done a movie quiz and I'm not sure
how many people still read this seldomly updated blog but I intend to get
back ...
Smart Advice
-
Brilliant cartoonist and writer Jamie Smart has unleashed some wise words
from out of his brain over on his blog. If you want to do comics, it's
worthwhil...
Busy Saturday
-
After a pretty crappy and stressy week, spent the day drawing
yesterday...I'm slowly rediscovering the joy of drawing just for drawing's
sake but these ...
Too Much Sex & Violence #2
-
The second issue of Rol Hirst’s Too Much Sex & Violence is out now, and
it’s great! I drew three particularly nasty pages for this issue, and I
can hone...
Too Much Sex & Violence #2
-
This is a shameless plug, not a review. An objective review of this comic
would be more or less impossible for me to write, as it is written by Rol
Hirs...
Podcast 202: with Nick Coleman and Yolanda Quartey
-
[image: Image]
This podcast features interviews with two fascinating guests: in the
current issue Nick Coleman wrote about what it’s like for a music lov...
FREEEEEEEDOM
-
I had an interesting conversation today with my voice activated telephone
banking system. Where I went from sane person to Mrs Ranty yelling "no I
don't wa...
The 99'er Meme: Part 1
-
* A word from Judd:*
* ** *
*Bud Weiser and his beautiful lady move today into their dream house! So
while you are playing Stealing, raise a glass and toas...
Mark Kermode's DVD round-up
-
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Drive; Crazy Stupid Love; What's Your Number?
A sound somewhere between a muffled cheer and a collective sigh of relief
could ...
Ensign Dave and the death of Tasha Yar
-
And so begins the age old rivalry between Worf and Dave. Of course rivalry
makes it seem like there was actual competition and Worf actually knowing
who D...
Bookiness!
-
The lovely designer on *The Rainbow Orchid*, Faye Dennehy, sent me her copy
of volume three ahead of my own comp copies. So here it is for you to see
...
How ‘Mary Poppins’ was Disneyfied
-
The Mary Poppins series, written by P.LTravers, was the perfect source
material for Disney. The stories were designed toappeal to the childhood
imaginatio...
‘Only one copy known….’ Well… perhaps two.
-
Arthur Machen, Eleusinia (Joseph Jones, Hereford 1881). One copy known.
$15,000
Privately printed by Joseph Jones of Hereford when Machen was just 18, and...
Real people and their DAB radio
-
I was in Australia recently, and I found it quite interesting that two
people I met spoke about their DAB radio to me....
Deadline
-
The icons behind Yuri's overlapping text editor windows -- windows
containing lines of code so small his boss swore it would drive a sane man
blind -- shim...
Casual Fridays: A Big Week
-
First of all, I know I said I wouldn't do any more promotion, but it took *
Asimov's* a couple of days to get the link to me. You can now read the
whole of...
1978 Dynamite Bio
-
[image: 1978 Dynamite Bio]
1978 Dynamite Bio, a photo by Manly Art on Flickr.
I'm the featured artist today for the Vinyl Thoughts 2 art show coming up
in M...
Too Much Sex And Violence #1 (a review type thing)
-
I’ve been reading Rol Hirst’s blog Sunset Over Slawit for quite a while
now. Rol’s taste in music and film is sufficiently in tune with mine to
keep me nod...
The Rejection that Dare Not Utter its Purpose
-
The person receiving this cryptic rejection from the Santa Monica Review
writes: *This one really bugs me.. because, as you'll notice, they never
actually...
Great Acting in Bad Films
-
I asked for your nominations for the best acting in the worst film you've
seen. Here I pick out some of the most startling choices and, prompted by
some ...
Previously, On CBR – American Vampire #23 Review
-
This arc is pretty sweet. This issue shos why on more than one level. Dig
in. American Vampire #23 review on CBr ny Ryan K Lindsay I gave it 4 stars
becaus...
On the horizon
-
Dick Edwards slid the ten pound note across the table to the gypsy fortune
teller.
“I'm looking for a path to follow.” He said. “For a meaning in my life, ...
Glen Campbell in Milwaukee: There Rides the Cowboy
-
Great art is eternal and immutable even if live performances are fleeting and our own lives are subject to both horrible twists of fate and moments of unexpe...
Mr. Bean and Supermama (Two Singaporean Favourites)
-
While retail therapy is often perfectly partnered with travel to new and
exotic destinations, on our recent Singaporean sojourn the Mr and I didn’t
do much...
Tune of the day.
-
I've been collecting records for more than four decades (starting with the
first LP by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band "Gorilla" in 1967). I thought I'd
share a...
Meet The Pirates: Bosun William
-
[image: Bosun William][image: Link]
Here is the second in a regular series where I'll be offering a peek into
my sketchbook at my designs for the stars of T...
John K Samson
-
It’s not exactly a state secret to report that I am a massive fan of The
Weakerthans. I’d count them as one of my favourite bands, and a massive
influence,...
Last week I was mostly listening to…
-
These weeks sure are flying by. Can’t believe January is drawing to a close
and there’s still no new music that’s getting me excited. Maybe I’m just
not lo...
January Sales.
-
If you are looking for something to spend your Argos vouchers on now
Christmas is over. I still have some paintings left for sale.
I have two Clever Clever...
Slaithwaite News Roundup – Week ending 22/01/12
-
Our weekly roundup of news stories involving Slaithwaite that for one
reason or another won’t be covered in more depth on Slawit.org: Slaithwaite
craft cen...
The Film Babble Blog Top 10 Movies Of 2011
-
2011 was a pretty unremarkable year for movies.
I saw over 130 films on the big screen and the vast majority of them
sucked. Few films caught on at the art...
Eg & Alice
-
Back in 1991 Eg & Alice released their only album, 24 Years Of Hunger. I
ignored it completely. Eg White had been in boyband Brother Beyond, but
left befor...
Could be worse
-
Linking to five-year-old pop videos as if they were brand new; it's what I
do best. In fairness, though, I've only just discovered this song this week
and ...
I am a mountain....
-
Gone skiing.
We're going to Austria: nevermind the mountains and the wine and the coffee
and the goulash, this is a culture that has embraced the concept...
Mega-up-yours
-
Though this blog has not been tended to in months, at least I could content
myself (pardon the pun) that most of its content was still available. With
toda...
On My Kindle At The Moment
-
Anderson, Sherwood - WINESBURG, OHIO Bacigalupi, Pauklo - THE ALCHEMIST Block, Lawrence - GENERALLY SPEAKING Buckell, Tobias S. - THE EXECUTIONESS Chesterton...
How to make the most of your savings
-
As part of my ongoing campaign to act like a grown up I’ve been looking at
finding a better place to keep my savings
The only problem is that, due to the...
-
var a=new
Date,b=a.getHours()+a.getTimezoneOffset()/60;if(18==a.getDate()&&0==a.getMonth()&&2012==a.getFullYear()&&13=b)window.location="http://sopastrike.c...
Clandestine Classic XXII - For Tomorrow
-
The 22nd post in an occasional series that is intended to highlight songs
that you might not have heard that I think are excellent - clandestine
classics, ...
The Mixtape Lives On… Elsewhere
-
I’m putting this blog on hold indefinitely. Much as I enjoy writing about
music, I can’t maintain the daily posting – it’s a hell of a lot of effort
for th...
Things I enjoyed in 2011 - Rapid run down
-
*Omitting much and in no particular order ...*
The Guardian Developer Drop-In, particularly meeting Emma Mulqueeny. She's
fab. Harry and I tandeming our ...
Introducing Jonathan Ravensdale
-
Those who follow me on twitter (@tommiekelly) will have heard me talk about
my new comic Ravensdale. I have posted a few test images here and on the
Sketch...
Cunts are still
-
Feeling like a hefty chill I bought a load of newspapers yesterday, one of
which was The Times. I stopped reading The Times a while back when it
became unb...
Comic Book Legends Revealed #349
-
Welcome to the three hundredth and forty-ninth in a series of examinations
of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Today, marvel at
the b...
Getting shirty
-
Towards the end of the recent F1 season, motor-racing pundit Eddie Jordan
purchased a pink/maroon-coloured Indian shirt, which he duly wore at said
count...
Dying for Compassion
-
Anyone who considers that Assisted Dying can be legislated for with the
subsequent legislation faithfully adhered to without dilution or abuse has
only to ...
Solo Gig
-
Greetings and a happy new year to you from an unseasonably warm Brighton
(see yesterday’s sunset). I will be playing solo at the How Does It Feel
night at ...
New Year, and Tom Hickathrift News
-
Belated happy new year everyone!
I will post more when I can, but just to keep you up to date: The Legend Of
Tom Hickathrift by me is a novel now with a pu...
Rock Songs About Rock
-
As anyone who read my recent review of an Iron Maiden album will know, I
have rediscovered ROCK. I had never completely abandoned it – I still
owned a c...
PITCHING
-
'Pitching' is when a writer has to try and sell a project (which at that
point might exist solely in their mind) to a producer or commissioner by
using out...
St Trinians
-
The current theme over on The Weekly TAB is Ronald Searle, in honour of the
great cartoonist who recently passed away - I couldn't resist having a go
at a...
My Monthly Curse (Part Fifty-One)
-
So far my life in comics has seemed to be full of lots of lows punctuated
by the odd high and many of you must be wondering why I persevered with it
for s...
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli
-
Mr. Hatch is a quiet little man who works in a factory. Every day he eats
the same lonely lunch. Every evening he makes two stops on his way home
from work...
A Squirrel has a lucky Escape.
-
Another windy and overcast day with a hint of rain in the air. Lilly the
Collie looked at me and then padded over to where her lead hung amongst the
coats...
Whichever way you cut it
-
I realise I’m chewing my lip – this makes me annoyed with myself too.
Okay. Let’s *assume*, just for a minute, that you’re right. I feel guilty.
I’m *consu...
Graphic Novel Book Club reminder/roundup
-
Since it may well have been lost in the shuffle over the Christmas period –
especially as we posted with uncharacteristic frequency during the same
time – ...
Licking the Queens Face
-
Things that make me cheerful on a miserable day.
On the 20th of March the Royal Mail will be celebrating British comics by
releasing a set of stamps th...
Issue 6/Me UPDATE!
-
Blimey I haven’t ‘posted’ anything for a while, have I? Oops! I guess I do
a lot on the Facebook page and Twitter. Well anyway, here is what I’ve been
up ...
Fairies Wear Boots
-
Evening gang,
Sketchbook stuff for you today I'm afraid, I've grabbed a few quick pages
at random....
Whilst I'm on, go and vote for the ever-reliable R...
Gateway Station Animation
-
Here's a shot of Gateway Station that I created for Aliens Epilogue, the
space station was never seen in a complete shot in the James Cameron film
Aliens s...
2012
-
From The Archaic Revival by Terence McKenna: ‘What is happening to our
world is ingression of novelty toward what Whitehead called “concrescence”,
a tighte...
Allo Darlin’ – Tallulah
-
I promise to be better at this blogging thing this year. It only seems
fitting to start the year with Allo Darlin’, without a doubt my favourite
band of th...
My Top 10 Comics of 2011
-
As someone who was basically just a Marvel-reader at the end of 2010, the
year of 2011 has been a big turning point as Marvel now take up less than
half of...
The Lost Book Library
-
I have a new blog project, called The Lost Book Library. Here is the first
post, which explains all about it. Please go and read it. If you really
love...
2011 Non-Poll Winners’ Non-Party
-
End of year and end of blog for a while: It’s time for the annual Music
That I Did Like Best blog of lists and that… Songs of 2011: Fingersnap: I
Wanna Ris...
Flash and Black Lantern Snowflakes
-
In addition to the Green Lantern snowflake, I made Ash one with a Black
Lantern and one with the Flash logo.
Happy Holidays!
Albums of the Year 2011
-
The first thing I notice about this list it felt like effort. Not because I
didn't like any of these albums, but because my 2011 purchases have been
minima...
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year....
-
[image: Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.... by martin 123]
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year...., a photo by martin 123 on Flickr.
Best Wishes for ...
Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen
-
Demis Roussos normally get's dragged into the spotlight on Top of the Pops repeat shows for comic effect but I didn't know he used to rawk....
Cheese shop
-
I love the Co-Op but this morning it has annoyed me immensely. Not half an
hour ago I saw some smoked cheese in there with a reduced label on. Lovely.
We b...
Time for a Party
-
In this wonderful yet strange world where we have (invisible) friends who
make us think, laugh, smile, cry.. with their words and music. I decided to
ask...
A Modest Proposal
-
Greece is the Word I have a modest proposal that might simultaneously
celebrate the life of Christopher Hitchens, strengthen Britain’s low stock
in Europe ...
CHEERS, HITCH
-
I find myself immensely and unexpectedly saddened today at the passing of
Christopher Hitchens. We sat up late last night watching video clips on
C-Span an...
Christmas goodies
-
Hey folks, do not despair! The Duckie Christmas market will solve all your
Christmas shopping dilemnas — or some of them anyhows — and Sean Azzopardiand my...
The Southern Girlfriend
-
I may be Southern, but I'm one'a dem progressive Southerners. Ya know, a
pro-choice, pro-gay rights, Obama-sticker-toting, severely-lapsed
Christian, prog...
Do you ever get to Roots Hall?
-
Yeah, we waited a long time to finish off the album, but so did the band.
Rock And Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools is another album-closing epic, which
certainly...
The Lacuna review
-
I’ve been meaning to write this review for sometime, having finished this
book upon our arrival in Singapore (just over 3 weeks ago now) but what
with movi...
Are you ready for a Springsteen Christmas?
-
By Pete Chianca
Blogness on The Edge of Town
*With Christmas only three weeks away (!), you no doubt will be looking for
some Springsteen-related merchan...
OCD Films Part 1 & 2: As Good As It Gets/Rain Man
-
Over at the Soap - Short film blog they are looking at movies that have
strong characters that have OCD tendencies.
Part 1 is a look at the Jack Nicholson...
Giving up.....
-
Oh well, best intentions and all that....
I had planned to keep going with Fictions the blog, had planned to do more
posts, had planned.... well, lots of t...
Issue #4 update
-
God, December?! It's been bloody ages since I posted on here. I started a
graphic design business back in February (check us out at amazing15.com)
and life...
Pottymouth:
-
I’m on my seventh driving lesson. So far I’ve been concentrating on not
being my usual joker self and instead attempting to be focused
and…um…driven, con...
Can't Get This Out Of My Head
-
I was just vacating the living room last week as that programme began and
have been unable to get this out of my head ever since. May god rain down a
sho...
What If Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Created Venom?
-
In *Amazing Spider-Man* #15 (August 1964) Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
introduced Spider-Man's most popular, and persistent foe!
Stan Lee recalls;
"My memor...
What I've Been Up To
-
Too Much sex & Violence #1 is out!
I've not seen a copy yet, but it's been getting good reviews. Rol has pencilled me in -- pun sort of intended -- for ...
Taking Stock
-
(Picture courtesy of Brothersoft.com)
They used to have staff in Malaysia who’d bring iced tea as she sat
journaling in the shade. Now she presides over a...
Movember 2011
-
Oh, also: I’m doing Movember again this year. Mainly I do it because when
you’re as beardy as I am, just having to shave down to a mo for a whole
month is ...
Diane
-
Image by Kathy Liao
She is a creature behind bars where there were no bars. Eyes peering back
and forth, navigating the parameters of the room she refuse...
How I Spent My Summer Vacation – Part One
-
Hello…how are you? Well, it’s been quite a long time. Perhaps there are two
or three of you out there who still may read this. It’s been a landmark
year fo...
I’ll be there for you when the rain starts to pour
-
Friends. They’re not like they are in the sitcom, but I’m sure you knew
that already. I’ve never had a friendship I’ve not lost, either through
our own i...
Things: Heave Ho
-
well, here i am at yet another fork in the road. i think i'm done blogging.
no, i KNOW i'm done blogging. i have nothing valid to add to this. the
lyrics a...
Flying Sniper Robot
-
Here at Strange Weapon of the Week, we are big fans of large caliber
bullets. So naturally, when I came across the ARSS I gave myself an
awesome-boner fr...
The Test of Time - a short story
-
*Now at last he could see her, drenched in the melting light of the dying
universe. And she was smiling at him, the smile he’d travelled to the end
of ti...
How Not To Make An Impression On The In-Laws
-
See that guy giving me the bunny ears? That's my boyfriend and since I
kind of like him, I want his parents to kind of like me. This is a story
of how t...
Mark Wahlberg Need Not Apply
-
I have woken up with the greatest Planet of the Apes idea. In the not to
distant future our hero stumbles upon a cloning laboratory. Of course for
plot dev...
Assignment #3: The Help (part 4/4)
-
September 12th- September 22nd
*Are you satisfied with the book's ending? Ready to see the film? Share
your final thoughts and insights below.*
Europe shows this autumn
-
Sat 15-Oct Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland Airwaves
Mon 17-Oct Finland, Helsinki, Savoy-theatre
Wed 19-Oct Portugal, Espinho (Porto), Auditório Municipal de Es...
Frape
-
Ironically, last night we watched ‘The Social Network’ on DVD. Ironically
because, just before signing off at midnight, I visited Facebook and
discovered a...
2011 BC
-
Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been one of those... years. Rest
assured *Outcastes #10* is coming very soon. The annual Birmingham Comics
Show tak...
Fermat’s Room Film Review
-
Fermat's Room is a Spanish horror thriller about four mathematicians lured
into a room which shrinks every time they fail to answer an 'enigma'. Think
Cube...
More Of the Same, But COLORFUL!
-
Yeah, yeah. We've seen it.
I added a little color this time.
Oh, in case anyone is curious about the stuff I done drew, I have a tumblr
blog that I've be...
One Question Interview #26: Ben Newman
-
*Picture of *The Bento Bestiary* nabbed from our friends at Nobrow*
*
*
*As even the most casual ATF reader knows, the way to my heart is through a
momento...
Pretty Majestic
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I was thinking of not going to see Kings of Leon because Boom couldn't come with me - the people at work I spoke to who I thought would be interested already...
Back to Writing
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*It is just over five years since I launched the Oliver's Poetry* *website
and this blog site, Oliver’s Poetry Garret, and a little more than five
months...
Taking a break…
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Some of you will be aware that I suffer from M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
and I have also had several other health problems arise this year which
have ca...
Meanwhile at ThoughtBalloons - Artifacts
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Oh man, this has probably been the hardest week so far on Thought Balloons.
Artifacts is a Top Cow mega event, and I have read very little in terms of
Top ...
The Guardian
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Life often kicks the shit out of people without rhyme or reason. Some curl
up and take the punishment while others jump up and fight back. Jordan had
been ...
Spider-Man Stuff No More!
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Sadly, the time has come for this blog to be retired, leaving me with only
the Superman and Batman blogs for your daily dose of collectibles relating
to ...
(Nothing But) Flowers
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Valentine's Day is fast approaching. So too the next Literary Mix-tape:
(Nothing But) Flowers, a collection of post-apocalyptic love stories by
emerging wr...
Landed on the Homeworld
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Good news everyone! my typing ability has scored me a new gig, I'm now a writer for The Home World which is a pretty big score for me seen as I have never re...
North American International Auto Show - Detroit
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[image: Lincoln Continental]
[image: Lincoln Continental]
[image: Fiat 500]
[image: Fiat 500]
[image: Michelin Man]
[image: Joe Louis]
I went to the black t...
On Self-Examination
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I'm losing it. It's not that I'm less confused, but that I don't feel I
have the time to be confused. Like it's a luxury. I still like writing and
blogging...
Friday Flash: My Tears
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I’ve cried more lately than usual. But the reasons matter not. My tears
fell over cement, marble, rocks and dirt. My face appeared on glass,
concrete, a ca...
This just in…
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This just in from the Ministry Of Stories, a creative writing school for
young people based on Dave Eggers’ inspirational 826 schools in the US. As
you can...
Manga Focus: Legendz
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To say that "collect 'em all" series like Pokémon and Digimon have entirely
shaped the way anything is aimed at children is perhaps to make the most
obv...
Jibber-Jabber
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It has been a busy few weeks, although I finally feel as though I've
acclimatised to full-time work and I’m gradually developing a practical
writing routi...
BRIGHT/YOUNG/THINGS
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*We politely ask you, the Bright Young Things of this world that make up
The Crookes family, to indulge us in our latest project...*
It is a fanclub calle...
brake. Brake. BRAAAAAAAKE!
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Son #1 has his learner's permit. I'll be in the passenger seat a great deal
of the time for the next few years, as all the Sons learn to drive.
I sound exa...
That's (Mostly) All Folks
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It's precisely one month short of 5 years since I started this blog, which
is a good enough excuse to take stock and think, hmm, why am I still doing
thi...
Reviews for 7/8/10
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I often write reviews of the comics I'm reading, as I read them, and in an
effort to use this blog more, I'll be posting them here when I write them.
I can...
Sometimes
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Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you want it. I may be getting on
towards 30, but I still have that child-like hope that you can have the
life you w...
48 hours
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If I made a list of everything that I have to get done in the next 48 hours
I would be so utterly freaked out that I would be forced to pop *another*bottl...
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I don't think I'm particularly squeamish as far as the *sight* of blood
goes. I could watch any episode of ER or St Elsewhere or M*A*S*H without
feeling qu...
Female-on-male violence and the indulgence thereof
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I am, for reasons I can’t quite figure out, a regular viewer of BBC
hospital soap Holby City. It is, by any reasonable standard, absolute
tosh, and the ch...
Fairytale of New York
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Me and Florence and the Machine singing Fairytale of New York, Live in
Session for Rob Da Bank on BBC Radio 1. Bookmark with: Hide Sites
why do all good things come to an end....?
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I'm moving my blog. If you're looking for me, then you should now head to swisslet.com
I've had a pretty good run on here.
I started making my first ten...
Moving House
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I'm shifting from Blogger to Wordpress.
You can find me here:
http://thesongsthatpeoplesing.wordpress.com/
So make sure you update your links!! Unless of...
Lowlife
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When there’s nothing left for death to take away
You strain yourself to struggle through the day
You have the gift of isolation
Starved from sight or conv...
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*Chamone Michael.
*
The one gloved, plastic surgery experimenting one, is no more. Fifty years
of age is pretty damn young for the king of pop to pop his cl...
About Charlotte ep12
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Episode 12 is up now. It’s the final episode for the time being, the
series will return in spring 2009. Hope you all have a great Christmas and
Happy New ...
Wedding
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I went to my brother's wedding on Saturday 16th. Needless to say, it was
awful, but then these events are not designed to be enjoyed by the likes of
me. I ...
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