Sat, 27 July: Weekly Review 21

I watched The Magic Sword, a film I’d recorded recently on my PVR. It was a silly fantasy film from 1962, directed by Bert I. Gordon, with Basil Rathbone as an evil magician. The hero was played by a young Gary Lockwood, destined to be murdered by Hal in 2001 A Space Odyssey. It was a retelling of the old Sir George and the Dragon story. Lockwood’s George assembles a team of Knights of different nationalities to help him in his quest to free a fair damsel from the clutches of Rathbone’s magician, who wants her as food for his dragon. As the quest goes on the Knights get bumped off one by one via the magician’s seven curses until only the Irish and French Knights are left. There is a wonderfully visceral scene involving the French Knight when he spies a comely French babe and, after some smooching with her, she turns into an ugly hag who has glamoured him. Ugh! The Irish guy (with an atrocious Irish accent) is the last Knight standing before he sacrifices himself when he and George are trapped in a cave. This scene was poorly staged and should have had a better payoff – Basil’s character even mentions almost admiringly how it was the strength of his religious convictions that foiled him. It was interesting and silly how George and the damsel had only ever seen each other via magic mirror before their meeting when he rescues her. But they get all smoochy right away. The whole film was really one step above a pantomime play. The acting was on par with my expectations of such a film. Deliberately hammy, especially Basil and Estelle Winwood, who played Lockwood’s step-mother witch. The sets, music and sound design were actually very good – the screechy sounds of the dragon especially so. I sometimes wonder why I watch these sub-par films, but there is something instructive and entertaining about them. The vision is limited by the execution, but we applaud the effort.

I watched a couple of things on Youtube today. The first was a short animated film called Monday. It was set in the universe of the Alien franchise and featured a hapless heroine’s encounter with one of the exomorphs. It was tense and well-written and well-performed by the MC voice actor. I felt bad for the Captain character, who wakes up from cryo sleep on his mining shuttle only to be confronted by one of the buggers. A well-directed and gory sequence! By contrast, the other thing I watched was a video of Twice Nayeon at the recent Waterbomb event in South Korea. It followed her through the preparation for it, the rehearsals, and then selected clips of her performance at it. She performed one song, Magic, with Julie of Kiss of Life, and afterwards they seemed to have fun doing some dance challenges together. I’m not sure how necessary all this was for Nayeon to do, beside an obvious promotional opportunity for her NA album, but she got through it like a trooper. I prefer it when all nine of them are together.

I picked up a dvd I’d borrowed from my local library. It was the complete series of the old British sitcom, Please Sir, a show I feel very nostalgic about. I watched the first four episodes that night. The first series was in black and white and it was good to be back in the company of the Fenn Street gang of 5C and bumbling though idealistic Mr Hedges, as played by John Alderton. The show’s creators, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, went on to make the even better The Good Life. In this early stage of the show they seemed to be going for a certain realism rather than the broad farce it became. At one point Mr Hedges even mentions the film Up the Junction, a gritty kitchen sink drama from around that time, as if to conjure the milieu the show was aiming at. It was an incredibly raw-looking show, with cheap sets, camera booms in shot, and even the occasional fluffed line from the actors, who were performing live to camera. I plan to watch the lot eventually, if I can keep up the interest. My favourite character is 5C student Dennis Dunstable, a simple but kind-hearted lad ground down by poverty.

I watched four more episodes of Please Sir. These were the last of season one – it was a short season. The Fenn Street gang’s term finishes out with Mr Hedges possibly not wanting to return to teach 5C, and they’re a bit resentful of the fact. But it’s all a misunderstanding, he definitely wants to teach them again, and all’s well. I’m finding it a bit contrived, and it’s hardly an accurate reflection of teaching in real life. Although I recognize the camaraderie of the teachers in their staff room from my own teaching days, some of the things they do or say would get them the sack in real life. Yes, I’m overanalysing, so what’s new?

Not ostensibly much to say about today. I saw Netanyahu on Twitter/X in the US Congress getting 51 standing ovations. Then there was that one congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, holding up the War Criminal/Guilty of Genocide sign looking daggers at Bibi. Good on her.

I read the first volume of Laid-back Camp, which is written and drawn by a mangaka called Afro. It’s basically an Iyashikei about four girls who love going camping. The appeal is in the title. In this first volume they’re camping during winter, so a lot of it is about how to keep warm whilst enjoying the great outdoors. Ultimately it’s about the warmth of friendship. The Japanese do love their comforts, as do I, and this is a comfort read.

I finished off the day by reading another short story from that Sinopticon collection. This was The Heart of the Museum by Tang Fei, a short ten page story. It was a slightly puzzling piece about an alien that is guardian to a child who will grow up and build a museum. The alien perceives past, present and future all at once, so the meaning of this future museum, which encapsulate so much of its thought, is intriguing to it. The story made me think of that other museum that appears in HG Wells’ The Time Machine. It had me meditating on the idea of Museum, what they are for and who can most appreciate them. Can a person (or alien) be a museum?

I settled down to watch the third ep of TTT Tdoong Workshop tonight. The girls had a task to do on the way back on their rail car trip, doing a video based on their song Jelly Jelly. Two of the groups were onto it straight away, but it took Mina’s team, which included Momo and Chaeyoung, a while to twig coz they were too busy chilling. Ah my cool, cool babies. They eventually worked out there was a task to do and quickly got it done; then later, won the Director’s award for best clip. My genius intuitive babies. Then Jihyo had to leave for some unspecified reason. I wonder what it was. Jeongyeon joked they should now start talking about Jihyo; but if they did, we didn’t get to hear the goss. After a delicious Mukbang session, the others got into four speedboats, two a-piece, and went for a joy ride on the river. Scaredy cats Momo and Nayeon seemed to enjoy the ride, but also were seen holding onto the side of the boat and their partners for dear life. The ep was over way too soon.

I bought Volume Two (I already have Volume One) of Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku manga at the local Dymocks while at work. This is the manga she wrote after Urusei Yatsura, and it reads like an updated, real-life and straightforward version of UY. It seems to be based on aspects of Rumiko’s college life as a kind of study of the humour of the mundane. MCs Godai and Kyoko are toned down versions of Ataru and Lum from UY and there are no science fiction elements to it. Godai is a student in love with Kyoko, who is the new landlady at his apartment, which is filled with a cast of quirky characters. Kyoko has her own mysterious tragic past, which she reveals only sparingly throughout the story. It has its own poetic, romantic vibe aimed at a slightly more mature readership. I like it. But I’m not sure if I’ll go all-out like I did for UY and buy the whole damn series.

Whilst out shopping during lunch I also bought a fresh LP copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Mardi Gras album at JB Hifi. This is without a doubt considered their worst album, recorded after Tom Fogerty left the band, and drummer and bassist Doug Clifford and Stu Cook contributed songs to the album. But I’m a completist and Creedence obsessive and have never had a copy. Also, it was a special red vinyl edition, and quite cheap for what it was – and it’s at least a nice album cover design. I know the John Fogerty songs on the album: the excellent singles Sweet Hitch Hiker and Someday Never Comes, his cover of Hello Mary Lou, and the revealing Looking For a Reason (to stay – he didn’t, and they broke up after this); but haven’t heard Doug or Stu’s tunes yet. Will be interested to give them a listen, see if they’re as bad as everyone says they are.

I’ve been listening to Teenage Fanclub’s Nothing Lasts Forever album on repeat in the car. I still find it a bit too mellow and safe, lacking a certain edge, but there are some gems there. It’s Alright is a cool song, though I think the vocal could be better. When I hear it I like to add the higher vocal it needs in the chorus myself. I Left A Light On is classic Fannies: simple, thoughtful, melodic, a feel-good tune. Of the ‘singles’ I think Back To the Light still stands up. Maybe they overdo that patented multiple drum roll thing – nah, it’s good, keep doing it Fannies! The last song, I Will Love You, is by far the best. Yet another meditation on mortality and love, Norman Blake’s lyrics heap up images of superlatives that are surprising because they’re kinda political, not warm and fuzzy. ‘I will love you/Until the puritans smile/At something somebody said/That they can’t reconcile’. It’s only at the end that he gives us a ‘conventional’ romantic image: ‘I will love you/Until the sunlight decides to hide/…Until the planets collide’. Raymond McGinley’s music comes in slow, stately, taking its time, with a fluttery guitar figure that floats there throughout the song. As it gets to the end it hangs around, tentative, not wanting to let go. The word I’m thinking of for this song is Elegiac. It’s a poem, it’s a meditation on death and life, it’s the last song on what might be their last ever album. It feels like it will be a good funeral song. I’d have it played at mine, though the thought of that scares me – knowing what song it would be. There’s something self-serving, or self-aggrandizing about choosing such a song for such an occasion. Music is so emotionally manipulative: using it to provoke emotional responses can be like shooting fish in a barrel. I’m not sure if I want to do that. I’m not sure. But it’s a great, great song. They were a great band.

My library’s got a subscription to the new ComicsPlus resource, and I’ve been checking out their range of manga. It’s a pretty awesome free resource and I had fun adding items to my shelf to be read later, including further issues of Alita Mars Chronicles, Appleseed, Buffy, Firefly and Mass Effect comics and a whole lot more. I was surprised to see they had an Erotica category which included that notorious title, Interspecies Reviewers. I put that on my list too! I’m assuming the site has a way of blocking young users who are using Junior cards from accessing the more adult rated comics. If it doesn’t, that could get a bit controversial!

Still on the manga trail, I finished the thirteenth issue of my Urusei Yatsura manga. This is the one that includes that multi-part Woman Vs Woman story, featuring my fave babe, Benten. She fights with Ryunosuke, the girl who looks like a boy, to prove who is most feminine – clearly a contest neither can win. Both are the toughest women in the manga, but it doesn’t stop the other characters from encouraging the competition, because it’s so entertaining. The school’s Principal comes up with a ludicrous ‘psycho drama’ script that he gets them to play out in front of the student body at the school’s gym to decide the winner. Lum and Ataru, and even the Kotatsu Cat, get featured roles in the production. Needless to say, this leads to more hijinks. I enjoyed it.

One of the things I did today at work was go through what we call our Idles list, where we take items off the shelf that haven’t been borrowed for a long time and decide if they should be thrown out. One of the items was the dvd of Ghost In the Shell: Arise part two, one of my favourite series. I think I might have been the last person to have borrowed that. I remember I made a copy of it at the time, then bought Part One on bluray because we didn’t have it. Of course, I wanted it, and my manager succumbed to my pleading and said I could have it! I love working in the library.

My local library had its fortieth anniversary today and I attended. Why wouldn’t I? I work there, have been a patron there since it opened in 1984, and before then I visited the old mobile library that came every Friday. I have History with that place. I even remember what it was like before the library: it was a soccer pitch with a children’s playground where I used to play. One weekend there was even a circus set up on the grounds there. I saw my first and only circus there. It’s a good old library. The event included talks from some Council mucky mucks, and one more enlightening presentation from a guy who wrote a book about my home town and had many old photos and stories to show and tell. Then, chatting with one of my colleagues, I discovered she was the daughter of a kid I used to know who lived a couple of houses away down the road. I didn’t tell her this, but the kid’s sister (her Aunt), Vicki, was my first crush. I used to visit and she would come out from ballet school still in her little black tutu. Ah, memories.

After the anniversary I took my old tape deck and three-in-one over to the second-hand electronics dealer nearby to hand them in. The guy there, Danny, keeps odd hours and you have to ring the bell at the entrance to get his attention. He was happy to take the units off my hands, and I was happy to give them a good home where they’ll be refurbished and sold on, rather than put out with the hard rubbish. Danny also has one of my old turntables which I sent to him before Covid to get fixed. After Covid I returned with hopes of taking it back, but Danny said it was completely disassembled waiting for the parts I needed. I would need to give him time to reassemble it before I got it back. I guess I wrote it off at that point and have since bought two new turntables, so I don’t need it. Of course, I never mentioned any of this to Danny and I don’t even know if he remembers the incident (or the turntable – it’s probably there somewhere disassembled). Second-hand electronics dudes are wacky.

I listened to Perfume’s Cosmic Explorer album in the car today. Turns out the disc is a little faulty (a couple of songs don’t play properly) and I’m way too far away from Japan to get a refund, so I made a copy on my computer, which played properly. I discovered one of the problem songs, Pick Me Up, has a fantastic couple of verses. The melody is epic. There’s a line in English, I wanna make my life, that makes me wish they’d done an all-English version. They do a performance of the song on the dvd that came with my copy.

At the library I checked out our new eresource, the Pressreader app. A good resource with lots of amazing free print media, but clearly the only reason we got it was so that old codgers can borrow the Herald/Sun. Damn…

I had pizza at my friends Lui and Lisa’s house after work. They showed me a Youtube vid from Nate Hagen’s The Great Simplification series, which explores ‘the systems science underpinning the human predicament’. It was an interview with Casey Camp-Horinek, a Ponka nation elder. Horinek talked eloquently at length about her (often tragic) background as a Ponka nations person and shared much of her hard-earned wisdom, her decades of activism, and her latest project in campaigning for the ‘rights of nature’. It’s difficult to encapsulate all that she said, but I liked a moment when Nate mentioned resources to her and she pulled him up, saying, ‘I’ll have to ask you to take off the ‘re’ – they are a source,’ thus making a stunning point about the way we see what I’ll now call ‘Earth energies’. Her talk about ‘post traumatic growth’ was also enlightening. The idea that people need to get past their trauma, not let it destroy them, and move on to positive growth, to Adapt to their new situation. When asked what message she has for young people, she says, ‘My mom used to say make yourself proud. Make yourself proud of what you do.’ Good advice.

I listened to my Twice Dive album in the car again – it’s on high rotation. I’m really loving the first track, Beyond the Horizon. It’s a song that’s so good it makes me proud to be a Once. Really like the repeated line, I give myself on my own first wave. Nayeon and Jihyo sing the hell out of that chorus, and the other members put in good service, especially Mina and Sana. I watched a line distribution breakdown vid of the song on Youtube. As usual, Nayeon and Jihyo get the most vocals. Mina starts it off, and Momo and Dahyun get the least lines, my poor babies. I like these line distribution videos that the fans put up, because it’s very hard to tell who’s singing what – especially with a group like Twice who have nine members. They’re a good contribution to the fandom, and I’m appreciative.