It was another Indian Summer day for my meal with Josh at the Chinese. In fact it’s summer hot as well. Josh told me he’s off to Confest again for Easter. This is the same festival up in Moulamein on the Edwards River he went to last year. He said he might run a couple of his Social Dreaming sessions while there. He’s into dream interpretation. He also said he might perform on the stage they have there. Or he’s at least taking up his guitar. His friend Izaak, the drummer and pianist at the Herd Open Mics, and one of his partners (he has two!) will be going up too. Sounds like it will be a good time. And with the good weather forecast there will no doubt be a lot of skinny dipping in the river.
On the way back to Josh’s place I played him a song I thought he’d like. It was FTS by Blackpink Jennie (I’d been listening to the album). When the chorus hit he did indeed laugh, because it goes ‘Fuck That Shit’. Despite the aggressive chorus line it’s actually a pretty mellow slow hip hop. He mentioned it reminded him of a poem he wrote when he was in High School (he went to Uni High – very prestigious). It was actually based on or inspired by TS Elliot’s Love Song of Alfred Prufrock. He actually wanted the line ‘Fuck This Shit’ with his yearbook photo, but they made it ‘Stuff This Shit’ instead. He didn’t like his senior VCE years. I wanted to see this yearbook, but he said he had it somewhere tucked away in the house. I mentioned how I got an A for an essay I wrote on The Wasteland in College. He said his mum had written a thesis on Elliot. So we were all down with old TS. The conversation moved to CS Lewis, the writer of the Narnia stories. We talked about the film, Shadowlands, the story of Lewis’s tragic relationship with his American wife. Anthony Hopkins played Lewis, Debra Winger played Joy Davidman, the wife. A terrific film and amazing true story. I’m always surprised by what Josh has and hasn’t seen since he doesn’t own a television.
Discovered there’s a sequel novel to Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House. It’s A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand and is said to be an ‘authorised’ version. It’s on my TBR list now and god knows when I’ll get to it. Of course I’ve read the Jackson novel, and seen the two films, plus the TV series. I wonder where Hand takes the story next?
I retweeted a few nice Twitter threads today. One from Shitpost 2049 showed a video of a bunch of walker contraptions negotiating various obstacles. It was somehow funny and inspirational watching these plucky guys go through their paces. And big shout out to ‘two-legged walker’ which aced all but one of the obstacles and won overall. Another retweet was from Star9 who posted a tiermaker infographic of all of Twice’s songs ranked from ‘God Sent Hits’ to ‘Literally Don’t Know’ with the prompt ‘What do we think?’ As a Once I’d say it’s an impressive infographic but the rankings are highly dubious. What How U Doin’ and Sweet Talker are doing at or near the bottom I don’t know. I guess the tweet was meant to raise some discussion and controversy, and it definitely did that. Some of the responses were: ‘you can’t be serious’ (accompanied by an adorable shot of Nayeon looking same), ‘delete your account’, and ‘this is blasphemy of the highest order’ (accompanied by ‘We have found a witch, may we burn her’ from Monty Python Holy Grail). And on this topic, my girls Twice are presently performing as the opening act for Coldplay in Korea and killing it.
Borrowed a book called I’d Rather Be Reading by Anne Bogel. I can’t resist books about books and reading and this little tome took my fancy when it came through the chute today at work. I also borrowed a film on DVD called Batman, Gotham By Gaslight, which is a steampunk animated version of Batman with the caped crusader hunting down that villain Jack the Ripper. This also took my fancy. I then read the Bogel book (it was very short) and liked a passage mentioning a game called Humiliation. The idea is you name a famous book or play you haven’t read and, for every other player who has read it, you get a point. You do a few rounds and the one with the most points ‘wins’ – ie, is the most humiliated. I want to play it with my colleagues! The first book I would nominate is To Kill a Mockingbird. Nope, haven’t read it. The film was enough for me. I’ll bet Lord of the Rings and Hamlet makes a lot of people crap out. Me, I’ve read ‘em both (LOTR twice!).
Watched episodes 5, 6 and 7 of To Your Eternity. The March storyline finished tragically but the new story has our shape-changing boy Fushi getting involved with an old couple who run a distillery, and a young boy called Gugu who has been disfigured in an accident and wears a mask. Fushi is able to speak in full sentences now though he still has a lot to learn about being human. Gugu is in love with a young girl who, unfortunately for him, has taken a shine to Fushi. Before all this there was a terrific sequence in episode 5 where Fushi and his travelling companion, the old woman, are attacked by an evil shape-changing plant, and we meet Kansatsusha, the entity that created Fushi. I’m really enjoying this flat animation style the anime employs. It’s very different to the usual styles I’ve seen.
I rearranged some of my albums today. It was just the solo male and female artists. I decided, to make room, I’d take out the ones that are from the Sixties, like Del Shannon and Dusty Springfield, and put them in my Sixties collection. The space gained allowed me to put in the overflow I’d accumulated of new solo artists. But now the Sixties section is chockers! Oh well.
I’m still reading through my Steely Dan magazine and just read the section on Donald Fagen’s Nightfly album. It had me reaching for my copy of the album; but when I did I discovered I couldn’t find the damn thing. Where is it? Do you know?
Watched the fourth of the Daniel Craig Bonds, Spectre, from my dinky new tinbox bluray edition. The opening sequence in Mexico City for Day of the Dead is pretty wow, as is the helicopter fight above the crowds in the square. The story is basically a treasure hunt, with Bond chasing clues to eventually confront the head of the Spectre organisation, Blofeld, who is also a childhood ‘friend’. Christopher Waltz seems to be channelling some of the earlier Bond villains (who include the earlier Blofeld) in his updated portrayal of Blofeld. He even still has the fluffy white cat mascot. Maybe there’s some Mike Myers Austin Powers in there too. One of the Bond girls is played by Monica Bellucci, and she is severely underused, and misused. Her widow character no sooner discovers Bond has killed her husband then she’s having sex with him. It doesn’t say much for her marriage. And we see she’s wearing suspenders and stockings under her black mourning dress. What widow does this? The film’s other Bond Girl, played by Lea Seydoux, fares much better, with more screen time, a back story and a chance to kick some arse. But there’s still the obligatory sex scene with Bond when they’re all pent up after a fight with a major baddie on a train. What’s the age difference between them, anyway? The story gets a little cock-eyed by the end, with Bond shooting down a helicopter with his little Walther PPK gun (from a moving speedboat, yet) and a pretty boring denouement for the villain, Blofeld (Bond to M: ‘Book him, Danno’ – or something like that). Despite that, this was a pretty solid Bond film with some nice opportunities for the support cast, like Ralph Fiennes as M and Ben Wishaw as Q to expand their characters. Based on this viewing I lifted my rating from three and a half to four on Letterboxd.
I watched the last of the Daniel Craig Bond movies, No Time to Die, tonight. It was straight after the fourth one, which seemed like a good idea as they do follow each other narratively. I remembered watching this one back during Covid in 2021. I think I might have been wearing a mask in the cinema. But there’s no sign of Covid in the film, apart from the fact the lead baddie in this one, Safin, played by Rami Malek, is hell bent on killing people with a DNA toxin that can be passed by touch. The film starts with Bond still out of M16 enjoying leisure time with Madeleine in Italy when Blofeld’s henchmen try to kill him again. He takes it as a sign he has to part from the mysterious Madeleine (and she has ‘secrets’), although he loves her, so he does. After the title sequence, there’s a five-year jump and we find Bond lying low in Jamaica, and the Safin toxin storyline gets into motion with the help of Bond’s old pal Felix Leitner, who recruits him for the CIA. Meanwhile, M16 has given Bonds old 007 designation to a new agent, a woman called Nomi. There’s a lot of plot from here and I won’t bother detailing it.
I really enjoyed the sequence set in Cuba, where Bond and a new kickass female Cuban agent called Paloma, played by Ana de Armas, infiltrate a Spectre party to get at the scientist who developed the toxin. At least half the reviews I read for this wanted Armas to play the next new Bond or at least do a Palomo spinoff. I have to say, I agree with them. She’s sensational in her low-cut red dress kicking bad guy arse, then sharing a drink with Bond amidst the carnage. Not having met her before, he pronounces her performance at the end of it as ‘Excellent’.
The story and the lead baddie have their faults (I definitely had issues with the finale, which I won’t go into here) but they’re never really the point of these films. They’re just the McGuffin that allow for all the spectacular action, settings and violent set pieces. This is what Bond has always been about. I liked that this one brought back the bad puns for Bond to utter in the middle of chaos. It felt a little more old-school because of that. It was a surprising way for Craig to go out, but a satisfying one. After these I’m putting him at Number Two in my favourite Bonds list (guess who’s number one). I think making all five of his films connected in story and character development was a brilliant idea.
Picked up some more free grubby goodies at the library today. They were discs of the films Citizen Kane and The Sting. There was also the cd of Close Ties by Rodney Crowell, an album I’ve got on LP, so it’s nice to have the cd version. Rodney used to be married to Roseanne Cash and wrote a bunch of classic songs for Emmylou Harris. I think if I was a young would-be hotshot country musician back in the Seventies I’d be wanting to get with some of them Cash and Carter girls too (Nick Lowe married Carlene Carter, for example). Kind of catch a spark, let some of that rootsy hill country magic rub off. Had another listen to the album and it still sounds good. I especially like It Ain’t Over Yet, where he duets with his ex, and Nashville 1972, a nice profile of those hotshot songwriters of the time. On to Kane, I’ve got a burn disc of the film, but no official copy. Not that this is either, exactly – and there isn’t even the case – but it’s a step up. I probably should go official with this one, because it’s such an IMPORTANT FILM. A good film, one of those things my film teacher showed us in college complete with commentary. Rosebud! I haven’t seen The Sting for a long time, and I think about it occasionally. A good chance to catch up.
Watched The Sting, a 1973 film directed by George Roy Hill, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Fantastic set design and recreation of the depression times in Chicago, but parts of the story didn’t add up. Robert Redford’s Johnny Hooker character plays another role, Kelly, when he’s in the company of Robert Shaw’s Lonnegan, the main mark for The Sting Redford and Newman are going for. His Hooker character is on the run from Lonnegan for a sting he’d pulled on one of his couriers. Yet Lonnegan never notices they’re the same person. He even accompanies Kelly to his apartment entrance, where later, as Hooker, Redford is almost gunned down by some assassins Lonnegan has hired. It don’t add up. The sub-plot of Hooker falling for a waitress who turns out to be another assassin hired by Lonnegan to kill him was an interesting choice. Redford’s so handsome but she (or the actress playing the waitress) is so plain. There’s a nice bit of directing on the train when Newman is showing Redford some card tricks. We’ve just been watching a pair of hands doing said tricks, assuming they’re not Newman’s but a professional’s via some ‘creative editing’. But then the camera pans up, no cuts, to the card sharp and it’s Newman! With its cue card titles and somewhat mannered acting styles, the film could be accused of being a bit artificial. Apart from this, it’s a good film in the classic Hollywood tradition.
Had a listen to my old LP copy of Pendulum by Creedence when I got home, as I’d been planning to do. I used to listen to my brother’s copy all the time back in the day, staring at the people in the crowd from the inner gatefold photo of a Creedence gig. I did the same this time too. They’re still there. There are quite a few cute girls staring up adoringly at Fogerty. Some, right by the stage, excitedly stretch out their hands to touch his boots. Back then you could get that close to the artists. A trio of witchy-looking girls somehow rise out of the crowd to the left of the picture like a three-headed hippy hydra. So many interesting-looking dudes, too. A guy near the stage at right looking up at maybe Tom Fogerty off-screen seems to sprout a giant hunched back, I don’t know what the fuck it is. Another, at extreme left, looks straight into the camera lens as if to say what the fuck are you doin’? They’re an interesting crowd.
And it’s an interesting album. A sort of transitional album where they were going from being a great band with Cosmo’s Factory to a mediocre one (and down to a three piece) with Mardis Gras. As Fogerty likes to say of the album, the pendulum was shifting for them. And it’s reflected in the brilliant cover art – the four faces making up a pendulum shape. All the songs are Fogerty’s, and he plays sax and keyboards as well as his usual lead guitar, giving the album a very different sound. It’s the one that has the great Creedence single Have Your Ever Seen the Rain. I like every song, except maybe Sailor’s Lament. The keyboard playing on the jam section in Born to Move is particularly astounding, with Fogerty getting a tone and style that’s very close to Booker T Jones, whose band Creedence had been playing with. I’ve always wondered if it was actually old Booker T playing that. He’s not credited, and Fogerty’s never said Boo about it, but I wonder. The standout track for me is It’s Just a Thought, a keyboard and rhythm section-led mood piece that’s just Heaven. The thought? A bad idea will take just about a lifetime to explain (and a good one’s gonna be much longer). And don’t give your song away (hmm, but it’s given away). The last track, Rude Awakening #2, divides people for its experimentation. It took me a while to get past the pleasant strummy opening section. The Rude Awakening that ends it was indeed a rude awakening. But now I like it. But I’m weird. I say good on John for trying something different. Yay Creedence!
I read a couple more stories in the Best of World SF collection. One was The Green Ship by Francesco Verso, a good story. It tackles the issue of refugees fleeing from Africa for Europe in the near future. The titled object is in fact an old aircraft carrier repurposed by a UN type organisation to be a kind of floating island and refuge for the refugees it picks up. It’s always nice to see a touch of idealism and positivity in science fiction, instead of the usual dystopian vision. I call this positive version of scifi Freepunk, and I’m putting this story in that category.
I’ve been playing the Playstation 4 game No Man’s Sky a bit this week. I’m very much in sandbox mode, just enjoying creating my spawn’s new home on the planet Calypso. It’s on an island, surrounded by an archipelago of larger ones, very lush with the occasional intense heat rainfall. I added a new roof for my home to help shield it from that rainfall. I also installed all nine of my vaults and placed a solid stone covering over them. I went up in my ship, Focker’s Folly, to do an aerial survey of my island and the surrounding geography. There is a smaller island near mine, and next to that is what appears to be the mainland. Across the bay is another landmass and I flew over there for a visit. There was a Vykeen production station there so I landed and went inside. There I encountered my closest neighbour, a Vykeen warrior, who barked at me. I barked back, astonishing him, and we became friends. It’s a nice set up he’s got there, with two extra green rooms. The site is pretty pleasant too: lots of flora and fauna, and one of them big old plinths that dot this entire area. I flew back to my home and collected some fish from the trap I’ve set up by the shore. I got some starfish, which I haven’t tried before. I put two of them back in the water and kept the other one for a meal. I then did a little field survey of my island, targeting and destroying all the dangerous flora I came across. I plan on weeding the island of all these buggers, but they will no doubt continue to spawn. I put a few bookshelves in my home, but the game doesn’t include books yet. This would definitely be a reading haven. Well, it ain’t real, but it helps me dream.
Twice, who are performing with Coldplay, have just brought out their own version of the Coldplay song We Pray. It’s still mostly the same song, with Chris Martin on lead vocals, but they’ve added their own contributions to the middle rap section. I hadn’t heard the song before or knew anything about it, but it’s quite a nice catchy little number. It’s one of those anthems Coldplay are so good at, inspired by an Iranian song called Baraye (which is used in the song, means ‘because of’). I caught Twice’s performance of the song with Coldplay on Youtube. It’s one of those everyone stands on the stage and sings along kind of songs, and the girls did a good job, although these things always look a bit awkward to me. There was a bit near the end where Chris kneels down as if to pray while singing and the Twice members did the same, although some of them seemed caught off-guard. Their opening set is a stunning medley of their best ofs, including Strategy, the opener. I hope this unusual collab leads to better things.
