#and then today I get online and all I see is george michael

[grigori77]

Celebrating International Women's Day this year, once again I'm giving a shout-out to some of the amazing ladies, both real and fictional, that I really admire, both new on the scene and since my formative years. They all live rent free in my head and I think they're awesome!

COURTNEY LaPLANTE, the incredible frontwoman from up-and-coming new metalcore band Spiritbox, who are ALL pretty amazing, but she is in a whole different league. The way she can switch from beautifully husky, gently angelic clean vocals to bloody terrifying feral demon dirty vocals AND BACK at the drop of a hat is truly astounding ...

VIOLA DAVIS, one of my favourite actresses working in Hollywood today, an undeniable queen and now a bonafide BADASS too thanks to her recent starring role as Naniska, the General of the Agojie, the legendary Dahomie Amazons, in The Woman King. These days she's PROBABLY best known as THE BADDEST BITCH in all of the DCEU, ARGUS director Amanda Waller, but these are just two of a whole CAREER of incredible performances for which she's rightly become a true A-lister ...

ELLEN RIPLEY, as played by the equally awesome Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies. Quite simply THE GREATEST cinematic female lead protagonist OF ALL TIME, Ripley is about as definitive as strong female lead protgnonists get, the scourge of terrifying hostile aliens throughout the galaxy ...

POWER, from the acclaimed new anime series Chainsaw Man. I know, I know, she could SO EASILY have just been another classic teenage boy's wet dream anime girl, but half-demon fiend Power, like many of the show's female characters, is definitely a significant step away from the cliched norms, a total, undeniable force of (super)nature, unapologetic deluded self-promoter and thoroughly adorable chaos gremlin, who's quickly becoming one of my very favourite anime characters.

RINKO KIKUCHI, probably my VERY FAVOURITE Japanese actress EVER, thanks in no small part to her DEFINITIVE turn as Jaeger pilot Mako Mori in Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, although I first discovered her as gloriously idiosyncratic demolitions expert Bang Bang in Rian Johnson's criminally overlooked The Brothers Bloom. Also rightly known for her acclaimed turn in Babel, we most recently saw her in typically fine form in Michael Mann's agreeably edgy new true crime series Tokyo Vice ...

KRISTEN STEWART. Yeah, I know, some folk are STILL likely to be rolling their eyes at this choice, but ever since Panic Room I've ALWAYS thought she was something special, EVEN when she was doing Twilight. Okay, so it's taken her A LONG TIME to shake the godawful spectre of Bella Swan, but she's DEFINITELY pulled it off by now, playing some truly AMAZING characters in a bunch of really great movies, most notably Underwater (see above), the criminally maligned and unjustly ignored Charlie's Angels reboot and her incredible recent turn as the late Diana, Princes of Wales, in Spencer.

DELENN, as played by Mira Furlan (Lost), the ambassador of the alien race, the Minbari, in one of my very favourite TV shows of all time, Babylon 5. From humble (albeit also EXTREMELY mysterious) beginnings, Delenn went on to (rightly) become THE main female lead in the show, carrying the weight of one hell of a sprawling, epic sci-fi saga plot on her more-than-able shoulders.

KATY O'BRIAN. Basicallythe core inspiration (at least in a roundabout way) for the lead character in my ongoing online fantasy novel series Never Split the Party, Kesla Shoon, Katy is 100% what I love in a genuine physically powerful woman - tough as nails, sexy as hell and, paradoxically, an absolute sweetheart. I first stumbled across her as George, the very best character in Syfy's guilty pleasure TV series Z Nation, but she's finally REALLY getting the attention she's long deserved, already earning fast fan-favourite status as Jentorra in Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania.

ZOE SALDANA. Ever since she started to come up in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, she's been steadily growing herself one hell of a reputation playing a succession of strong, frequently badass women in cinema, most notably in The Losers, James Cameron's Avatar movies and OF COURSE as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.

SOFIA BOUTELLA. Ever since I first saw her busting some truly incredible moves in those glorious "Keep Up" Nike ads from the mid 00s, I have always been SUCH a big fan of this incredible dancer-turned-actress. She first REALLY captured our attention in the first Kingsman movie, but she's shone ever brighter since in the likes of Star Trek Beyond, Atomic Blonde, Climax and Hotel Artemis. Personally I CANNOT WAIT to see what she does with THE LEAD ROLE in Zack Snyder's incoming new sci-fi epic Rebel Moon ...

ALISON MOYET. One of my favourite female vocalists when I was growing up, I recently rediscovered her music when I started one of my music fan deep-dives through her entire back catalogue, and I'm absolutely LOVING IT. Starting out in the frustratingly short-lived early 80s electro pop group Yazoo with Erasure's Vince Clarke, she truly came to fame with her dynamite solo debut album Alf, as well as a killer cover of That Ole Devil Called love, but she's been going strong ever since thanks to one of the greatest voices around.

ANNIE LENNOX, formerly of The Tourists and The Eurythmics. Another one of the 80s all-time great frontwomen, Annie is a statuesque Scottish goddess who is rightly best known for her SECOND tour of duty with multi-talented musician Dave Stewart, but went on to have an equally astounding career as a solo singer-songwriter with a string of masterful records from the 90s right up to the present. Add to that her undeniable ICON status in the LGBTQIA+ community and you've got a bonafide androgynous goddess on your hands ...

GRACE JONES. Ever since she played Zula in Conan the Destroyer, Mayday in A View to a Kill and one seriously STRANGE vampire in Vamp, I've been a fan of this Jamaican model/actress/singer and undeniable fashion ICON. She continues to be a wonderfully weird and truly unique individual with her own unapologetically challenging style to this very day, and I love her for it.

DEBORAH CHOW. A fantastic up-and-coming Canadian filmmaker, who made a modest splash with her feature film The High Cost of Living before cutting her teeth on a series of impressive TV directing gigs on the likes of Copper, Reign and Mr Robot before truly coming into her own on The Mandalorian, which directly led to her helming THE ENTIRETY of 2022's rightly acclaimed Obi Wan Kenobi series. I'm really looking forward to whatever she does next.

CHARLIZE THERON. If there's one actress I've become a fan of mainly through her playing GENUINELY UNSTOPPABLE kickass women, it's Ms. Theron. The South African-born actress looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING when she's stalking down a catwalk in her Dior ads, but as far as I'm concerned she looks HER VERY BEST when she's taking roomfuls of men apart with her bare hands in Atomic Blonde or a big fucking axe in The Old Guard, which will soon get a sequel I for one CANNOT WAIT FOR ...

MARISHA RAY, ASHLEY JOHNSON & LAURA BAILEY, the Ladies of Critical Role. Sure, there have been other women who've come and gone in a variety of excellent guest slot roles through the years the live-play TTRPG webcast series has been going (from Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Ashly Burch, Sumalee Montano, Mica Burton and Aimee Carrero to, of course, the legendary Aabria Iyengar), but these three have always been the core, the heart and the undeniable BACKBONE of this amazing ongoing D&D adventure, and long may they all continue to reign ...

[docrotten]

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (1968, 1973, 1976) – Episode 231 – Decades of Horror 1970s

“Ghosts? That’s a rather sticky one, isn’t it? I’m not quite certain what you mean, I mean, I’m never quite certain what we are invited to believe, I mean, when anybody asks me a question like that. I’m not even quite certain what I’m being invited to disbelieve.” Ah, yes. British ghost stories. And on Christmas. What could be better? Join your faithful Grue Crew – Doc Rotten, Bill Mulligan, Chad Hunt, and Jeff Mohr – as they create a makeshift anthology from the 1970s BBC series, A Ghost Story for Christmas!

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 231 – A Ghost Story for Christmas (1970s)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

Decades of Horror 1970s is partnering with the WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL (https://wickedhorrortv.com/) which now includes video episodes of the podcast and is available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, and its online website across all OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop.

A Ghost Story for Christmas

“Whistle and I’ll Come to You,” Omnibus S1.E17 ( May 7, 1968) 

Synopsis: A skeptical professor on vacation in Norfolk finds a cursed whistle.

Directed by: Jonathan Miller

Writing Credits: M.R. James (story “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” ); Jonathan Miller (adaptation)

Selected Cast:

Michael Hordern as Professor Parkins

Ambrose Coghill as Colonel

George Woodbridge as Hotel Proprietor

Nora Gordon as Proprietress

Freda Dowie as Maid

“Lost Hearts” (Dec 25, 1973)

Synopsis: A young orphan, Stephen, is sent to live with his strange, much older cousin at his remote country house. Once there, Stephen experiences terrible dreams in which he sees a young girl and boy.

Directed by: Lawrence Gordon Clark

Writing Credits: M.R. James (story); Robin Chapman (dramatization)

Selected Cast:

Simon Gipps-Kent as Stephen

Joseph O’Conor as Mr. Abney

James Mellor as Parkes

Susan Richards as Mrs. Bunch

Christopher Davis as Boy

Michelle Foster as Girl

Roger Milner as Vicar

Carina Wyeth as Girl – Flashback Scenes (uncredited)

“The Signalman” (Dec 22, 1976)

Synopsis. A lonely Signalman is visited by a stranger.

Directed by: Lawrence Gordon Clark

Writing Credits: Charles Dickens (story); Andrew Davies (adaptation)

Selected Cast:

Denholm Elliott as The Signalman

Bernard Lloyd as The Traveller

Reginald Jessup as The Engine Driver

Carina Wyeth as The Bride

The Grue-Crew assembled their own anthology for this holiday episode and cheated a bit on the decade. They discuss three ghost stories from the United Kingdom. Two are based on stories by M.R. James and one by Charles Dickens; two tales are taken from the 1970s BBC series A Ghost Story for Christmas and the third is the 1968 inspiration for the series. The subjects of this episode are:

“Whistle and I’ll Come to You,” Omnibus S1.E17, M.R. James ( May 7, 1968)

“Lost Hearts,” A Ghost Story for Christmas, M.R. James (Dec 25, 1973)

“The Signalman” A Ghost Story for Christmas, Charles Dickens (Dec 22, 1976)

The 70s crew are divided on one of the shorts but unanimously enthusiastic on the other two. The Brits do ghost stories very well, don’t they?

At the time of this writing, all episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas (1970s) are available to stream from Shudder. They are also available on physical media on six Blu-ray formatted discs contained in Ghost Stories for Christmas, Volumes 1 & 2, from BFI (may not play on most DVD/Blu-Ray players sold in the US due to region encoding incompatibility).  

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror two-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In two weeks, the next episode, chosen by Chad, will be Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), with a script co-written by John Carpenter and starring Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Rene Auberjonois, Brad Dourif, and Raul Julia. Hmmm. What will they think?

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com.

Check out this episode!

[the-firebird69]

We have a few more things to discuss when is this living quarters. We need to increase in income if you're going to increase the rent and that's all it is.

-we are going to have to go to war with you if you refuse to you keep trying to kidnapping we're going to war with you and we're talking to the pseudo empire they just don't want to do anything that's normal either they went to retarded people that work for them. Unfortunately if you step it up the other guys get mad too he says what are we going to do wait until that power breaks because they can't handle it and have to have me in the hospital like George it's true too he screwed up big time and he was doing it and Jim Morrison but it really is mostly George so we have to start the articles of war on this winners who want Chris in the office to regain their stock like that would work and today I have housing and all sorts of s*** so he clings onto the job and what brain surgeons s*** pie s***'s pies with macasses that's what Mac has Mac Daddy and that's what his kids are shit pie. We are producing the documentation now and we're going to get much more strict with them and they're getting kicked out too probably before they finish the diamond mining and they don't intend to move him and they're ridiculous the empire wants to move him and we don't know how well they're going to do because they're under attack but these people led them to to their place and knew about it the long before our Sun did and one of her sit on it until it's built so they can take it over that's what they're saying and their actions are reflecting it I don't have any time for these people anymore this idiots pseudo empire wanted to do it too and they're getting beat up by fours and others but we are preparing the documents and we're going to start a series of them because of they're abuses. And they have ships we need and other things like that and foreigners are going to start fighting them

-right now there yeah and Timmy Doyle AKA Thanos cruises he's just going to sit on the car and it's not a team player now they're all planning on doing it and will eliminate themselves if needed but we need him to be able to move this is going to be quick

-there's a huge band of people trying to get into Florida and it's gigantic and it's a pretty good size crew it's probably 0.5% of the Mac warlock remaining percentage which is still about 19% or 20% or so and that is a lot because they're off Island on island is about 15% on Island and leaving five or six percent off Island there's a giant number and that is a lot of people if they get wiped out there going to come up again they're messing now and Alabama and Georgia in the whole state

-there's other things happening there's a giant Giants problem is brewing with Mac Daddy who doesn't like anything that's happening our son is very uppity he can see why. It doesn't care about it the sun says I can care less because you have everybody annoying me and they do too and you're going down just like the other stupid Max it's your jackass too buddy you got to pay for what you been doing in the past and we see it too he's upset with him every time he comes there and he gets madder and matter is brewing and he needs out of that business at the laundromat he can't handle it he's trying to kidnap him too people are stopping him by force and his crew is getting killed and we don't care she's stupid you want to hold him hostage military Hunta and he tells him I have all of you on me that's to be proof enough. The max are wheel of the top and don't treat us w respect either and they should but they don't. There's a few other things but our son doesn't like the guy is Mike bronder he was attacking him. And Ben Arnold's was to blame and they did figure it out no. Now Mac is taking a look at it and thinking Michael Green could be him who's Mr hand chet. And he's saying this is a horrible experience and I can see his point you're not online either so the empire is having their way with them but we can't stand it anymore let me know they're going to be out of here.

-that brings us to a couple of points about today number one the John remillard is a huge troublemaker. He got everybody in trouble and they ruined their master plan to call their armament and when they had a chance to intercept the empire before their rule was set in stone at the deserts they just sat there and fought Trump and they're still fighting the idiot and now they see what he was doing and he hasn't stopped and he lost last night and it's up to about 65% out getting ready to kill him no matter what he does it's what they said and her son and daughter says finally he's f****** stupid and it's saying it's a mac daddy and back Daddy finally gets it and you f***** her plan up and you want to bother us it's not his fault at all and he's ruining everyday and he's trying to say it's not that bad at the laundromat and doesn't seem to be angry at me and I'm not so he says good is this empire and this idiot can get to people and I'm alone and Mom wants to molest me Dracula doesn't want that. And yeah I was three year old child okay okay we'll go after this idiot again he needs it and he's a hero now and so we'll see about that it's out there now plowing out Tampa Bay think he's going to take advantage of us I guess we're going to become clones or Max that was him and it's better than Ben Arnold who's going to go have to check his work

-they're removing the skeletons from Tampa Bay the outlet and it's a very big one and they're blasting holes all over the place big ones small ones and the water is flowing fast and blowing them out now and they like it and they're continuing to do it they tried to get the ferry the big ship and it wouldn't let him and he didn't have good reasons it's not clothes or the pseudo empire so let's try to get military permission and Byron said I'm afraid to do that crazy and I can get him to do weird stuff and he heard it earlier. And Trump might be surprised but now they're fueling the ship. And Trump is not acting formally but Biden wants to is sick of his assholes the clothes and occasionally the max they should be arrested so we're going to come out and they're going to be surprised. And they're hearing it on the radio they're feeling that video they're feeling that ship up and they are going to hire him and Trump is hearing it he has a call from his Commander it's like what is this is he going to tell him to stop and stuff like that and it's getting the orders in his mouth is dropping and it's saying we have to try and do this so they think they're feeling it but I could be wrong and I also he says oh my God so he's checking and it's turning out to be true and it's going to pull in and they change. And it's going to work so we're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

It's a big opening up there bigger than here and deeper and this will do it and it was just going to build up again I think they take it not me no we do too they're actually going to start doing that pretty soon

Hera

Zues

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #128 (Year 3/Week 24):

Nils Malmros’s Tree of knowledge (”Kundskabens træ”) has always been my favorite Danish movie, and also one of my general All-time Top-Five favorites - Ever. Together with Truffault’s ‘Small Change’, it’s also the best movie about the pains of puberty and the joys of adolescence.

It was hard to find online, and seeing it again after many years, is like meeting an old lover after 40 years apart, and they hasn’t age a day. It’s a perfect masterpiece without a single faulty frame.

A nostalgic trip to provincial Århus at the end of the 1950′s, Malmros spent two years filming a group of teens as they struggle with first loves and heartbreaks. A tragic story of innocent lost. (Photo Above).

Later Edit:

A second viewing the next day confirmed that it is indeed an impeccable classic, subtle and precise. So many Friday night jazz parties where for their first time the kids are allowed to dance in the dark cheek to cheek to Gershwin’s ‘The man I love’.

“You probably don’t get that there’s only has to be very little for people to talk”:  The misery that befalls Erin as she turns from the popular girl into a pariah is crushing. 10/10.

🍿   Lourdes, my 1st film by Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner, starring the incomparable Léa Seydoux as a young nun with a twinkle in her eye. A rarely seen subject of Catholic cripples and handicapped pilgrims who flock to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, searching for a miracle. With priests who look like Cardinal Mahoney, Holy water sprinkled around and piously praying invalids, it feels very much like a blanding of Buñuel and Haneke. It must have been shot with the permission of the church, as much of it looks like part of the real rituals going on there. However, it hides a certain unorthodox subversiveness. 7/10. 

🍿   

2 more by British director Michael Radford:

🍿 “...If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever...”

Nineteen Eighty-Four, the original hopeless dystopia. Orwell’s frightening vision of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, thought-police and total repression was anti-Stalinist when he wrote it, but it became a real-life blue-print for today’s hyper-Capitalist societies too.

Many of the scenes were shot on the days noted originally in the novel. The scene where Winston Smith writes in his diary, dating the entry April 4, 1984, was filmed on April 4, 1984. It was Richard Burton’s final film, and was photographed by Roger Deakins. 9/10.

Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ came a year later and also described a doomed love story in a cheerless bureaucratic nightmare. But unlike Brazil, 1984 had only dark and painful reality to deal with, no flights of surrealism and fancy.

"...Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's.  You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's...”

🍿 Lovable 80-year-olds Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer fall in love in New Orleans in Elsa and Fred. He’s reserved and bitter, she’s exuberant and over-whelming, and there’s a Picasso drawing of her that is used as ‘Chekhov’s gun’.  Also, it was George Segal’s last film. 5/10.

I love it when an unusual musical note in a movie signifys an emotional high-point, and when checking the clock, it’s exactly 47:30 minutes in - the middle of the movie!

Maybe it’s time to watch Fellini’s ‘8 1/2′ again [The Anita Ekberg dive in the Trevi Fountain is the film’s driver].

🍿

The Farewell Party (’Good Death’ in Hebrew) is a tragic-comic story about old age and mercy killing. A group of seniors at an assisted living home develop a machine for self-euthanasia. They reluctantly use it on one of their dying friends, but once the word gets around, more and more people want it. 7/10. 

🍿   First watch: Bergman’s magnetic, early romance film Summer with Monika. It was considered scandalous at the time, because of “frank” nude scenes. Star-making vehicle to young rebel Harriet Andersson (still alive and 91-year-old). 100% score on ‘Rotten Tomatoes’ and no argument from me there. Terrific Mise-en-scène, crisp cinematography and rich visual story-telling.

It featured Åke Fridell (’Plog’ from ‘The Seventh Seal’) as her father. On the official Bergman site, there’s a good list of many of his other collaborators.

[There are some early Bergman’s films I haven’t seen yet, which I have to remedy ASAP] 🍿

2 more with Robert De Nero: 

🍿 Sergio Leone’s last, overrated film, Once upon a time in America, the 229-min. Cut. It’s a crime saga about Jewish gangsters, a Spaghetti Godfather if you will, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Coppola’s. ‘The Godfather’ is perfect in spirit and execution, and every element in it works. Leone’s facsimile is epic and stylish, but most of it feels like a vacant rip-off. Some good performance from De Nero, and some great romantic scenes (Jennifer Connelly reading the Psalms, and reuniting with Deborah again), but the young characters (and many of the others, including wooden James Wood) are bland and unauthentic.

Without Ennio Morricone’s swiping score elevating every scene it plays with, the film wouldn’t get half the accolades it received. And the brutal, unprovoked rape scene was shocking and uncalled for. Not a superb film - 5/10. 

RIP, Treat Williams!

🍿 Ellis, a short (15 min.) poetic evocation of the large hospital complex in Ellis Island. Basically it’s Robert De Nero, “The immigrant”, walking slowly in abandoned corridors, accompanied by some vaguely-moody piano chords, reciting in a somber voice-over some vaguely impressionist lines about dreams and immigrants and yearnings. 1/10.

🍿 

2 very different documentaries:

🍿 Close to Vermeer is a very moving Dutch documentary about the staging and preparation of last year’s Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition, the largest ever mounted. Only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him today, and the museum’s curators were able to bring a total of 28 of them for this magnificent event. Scholars and researchers, collectors and art historians participate in this sober, quiet and passionate exploration of the enigmatic 'Sphinx of Delft‘.

Close to transcendence - 10/10.

(The trailer in inferior to the film itself.)

[This is the 3rd Vermeer film that I’ve seen (after Penn & Teller’s documentary ‘Tim’s Vermeer’ and Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, both terrific!). As a completist, I now discovered 6 more films that I will watch in the near future: ‘All The Vermeers In New York’, ‘Brush with fate’, Dan Friedkin‘s ‘The last Vermeer’ (That one sounds odd!), the Dutch ‘A real Vermeer’, and two more documentaries, ‘Vermeer: Master of Light’ narrated by Meryl Streep, and the newest ‘Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition’, about this same exhibition at the Rijksmuseum. Can’t wait!]

🍿 The art of the prank is a fun 2015 documentary about provocative Culture Jammer Joey Skaggs, who had been staging elaborate media pranks since the 60′s. Like previous hoaxers ‘Coyle and Sharpe’, and later ones ‘Yes Men’ and ‘Improv Everywhere’, he builds ‘Fake news’ performances art events, designed to stir shit and embarrass the inane world of television news. Things like ‘Cathouse for dogs’, ‘Celebrity sperm bank’ and ‘Comacocoon’.

🍿  Hacksaw Ridge, my first film directed by known homophobe / antisemite Mel Gibson. [Watched after encouragement from Ahmad]. I’m not big on war dramas, even when they’re about a real-life conscientious objector. Trying to combine the opening from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ with ‘Full Metal Jacket’ boot camp hysterics. But I still can’t stand Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn is no Lee Ermey, and the war parts were simply not interesting. 4/10.

🍿 

“I Really Don’t Like Netflix” X 2:

🍿 Inside the mind of a cat, a typically-trash Netflix documentary, narrated by a highly-irritating “pleasant” voice. The only way to endure it is by turning of the sound and reading the subtitles. Lazy and un-inteligent, but “Hey: Cats!” - The second most-common reason to go on the internet.

🍿 After years of anticipation, Season 6 of Black Mirror finally dropped. Was it as good as some of the previous ones? An Emphatic No!

Episode 1, ‘Joan is awful’, was awful. An average woman is stunned to discover that Netflix has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life, in which she is portrayed by Salma Hayek, and taking a shit in a church. Inception-like Meta-Netflix labyrinth with an unlikable cast making fun of themselves. 3/10.

Episode 2, ‘Loch Henry’, a meta-making of a True Crime series about a notorious serial killer who tortured his victims in a quaint faraway Scottish village. Unoriginal horror tale. 2/10.

Episode 3, ‘Beyond the sea’ too was sub-par on every level. A sadistic sci-fi, all superficial with no depth of emotions. Using Charles Trenet’s “La Mer” improves any movie immeasurably, from the opening to LA Story to the ending of Mr. Bean. But here, in a typical Netflix appropriation, it felt 100% fake. 2/10.

Episode 4, ‘Mazey Day’: Another hit-and-run thriller + unscrupulous paparazzi + LA Thomas Guide (which means it’s the early 2000′s!) which turns into a gory ‘American werewolf in London’ fantasy-thingy. 4/10.

The set up of Episode 5, ‘Demon 79′ was ridiculous: “A young Indian Sales Assistant accidentally frees a ruthless and handsome demon-in-training who is required to damn a soul to hell in order to become a full-fledged demon. The sales assistant is told she must kill three people for the demon-in-training, with the demon threatening to cause a nuclear apocalypse if she refuses”. But it was the only episode in this season that worked, and the only one that will be worth re-visiting. It was directed by the guy who also did ‘USS Callister’, another absurd concept that he got right. 8/10.

🍿 

2 shorts from ‘Nag:

🍿 Morocco Arise, by nomadic vlogger Brandon Li. His ‘Director Commentary’ was just as captivating.

🍿 Greenpeace takes aim at “fossil fuel party” with Don’t stop, a star-studded Fleetwood Mac cover. Exec-produced by Steve McQueen.

🍿 

Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

1984 Adora.

Adora with the pearl earring.

Black Mirror Adora.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here).

[pazodetrasalba]

Tweeting

Dear Caroline:

A couple of days ago I wrote a twitter thread on your blog's appeal (and indirectly, about yours). As I suspect you have for good reasons avoided that public arena, I am going to share them with you here:

Controversial take: I found @carolinecapital's old tumblr and its related works the *best* Hypertext fiction I've ever read. Come to think of it, it was also the most fascinating faction (creative non-fiction). 🧵👇

If, like most people, you haven't studied Literary Theory at uni, you might be wondering what 'Hypertext fiction' actually is. Putting it plainly, it's just a fancy, academic, hyped-up version of your old 'Choose your Own Adventure' gamebook with a high-literature veneer. When you marry this with poststructuralist theory about the reader as co-constructor of texts and with the hyperlinks which connect the WWW, you get a proposal for a type of open-ended fiction, a bit like Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths. These works were theorized by George Landow, Jay David Boulter, Espen Aarseth and many others, and exemplified by texts like Michael Joyce's "afternoon, a story" or Shelley Jackson's "Patchwork Girl". Today they are a bit passé, and you can find a Wired article explaining why.

Moving on to Caroline's blog: in it you find, in little snapshots like the letters of an epistolary novel, glimpses and pieces of the puzzle of a real-life character that is so incredible and fascinating you couldn't have invented her and have any claim to verisimilitude: as Mark Twain put it, 'Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn't'. 'Caroline as such', like any of us, is noumenically inaccessible. At the same time, she is a real person with a real biography that can be reconstructed from her blog and many other multimedia texts: newspapers (online and offline), wikipedia entries, news reports, written and oral memories, blog and forum posts, all forming an intricate web of (sometimes contradicting) stories from different hands.

For those of you living under a rock, Caroline Ellison is an extremely smart and young woman, a math and economics genius who shortly after graduating from Stanford got involved in the cryptocurrency business and became an accessory of @SBF_FTX's alleged criminal affairs. Like any 4-line summary, though, the previous lines are extremely reductionistic, and her blog allows one to see the many and complex facets of Caroline's personality through 7 years of entries: some are naïve, some bizarre, many wise and illuminating, all of them interesting.

Because of the scandal and predictable cherry-pickings of the yellow press, the weirdest stuff is what has been circulated and caught the public's imagination: Caroline's interest in contrarian and unusual stuff like polyamory, female traditionalism, human biodiversity as well as some more 'conventional' bad things like unbridled ambition and substance abuse. And yet that constitutes less than 10% of her musings! Most of what you'll find are the very intelligent, funny and nerdy ramblings of an insecure and curious young woman. A lot of her entries, for example, are about Utilitarianism and Effective Altruism (a movement that defends using science and reason to fight poverty and promote effective charities and action in frequently overlooked and neglected areas). You get the feeling that she is a deeply moral person whose only interest in money is the way she can use it for doing the most good. It is difficult to doubt her sincerity and her commitment in their implementation (which included donating at least 10% of her earnings to these causes).

The best of classical tragedy is about wise and good people who either get corrupted and/or are led to their doom because of circumstances beyond their control. It feels like Caroline's story would be good material for a modern take of "a noble mind is here o'erthrown". And overthrown it was. Last December, Caroline pleaded guilty to several charges of fraud as a result of her actions as CEO of Alameda research and under the instructions of @SBF_FTX. She is currently a witness for the coming FTX trial, and will be sentenced thereafter.

In the following months and years, more pieces of information will come to light and perhaps fill the pieces of the puzzle of her fall. Enough are available for speculation, and include the usual culprits: hubris, youth, misdirected ambition, 'fake it till you make it', inexperience, an agreeable and influenceable personality (all the more so as her former boss was also her former lover) and the eternal stumbling-stone of the smart and idealistic: "normal rules aren't meant to apply to us, and we are working for the Greater Good".

Caroline is a complex and interesting personality, and in spite of her misdeeds, I feel she is also ultimately good and moral. She might have gotten lost in the way, and her actions have caused an enormous damage which a consequentialist like her will find hard to bear, but I anticipate she will come out of all this as a better (if less agentic, and perhaps unhappier) person. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, and I am pretty sure she will do her best to heal the wounds done and suffered, and wish her the best luck.

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Fri 28 May ‘21

Zayn’s rap EP??? Dropped yesterday???!? “Breaking my silence” says Zayn on Yellow Metal- Cathartic (Zayn is Yellow Metal here) and he DOES in 24 minutes of political, personal, complex and lyrically dense rap zoems! It was leaked/dropped whatever you wanna call it by being posted to Z’s cousin’s account (like the cover the other day); but clearly Zayn is behind these drops and that’s what matters, he is releasing this stuff in a way that will get to the fans but not inspire the media uproar (or contract issues) that posting to his own accounts would. As he says “don’t say I can’t communicate, you know I conversate with you in several different ways”, plus “I’ve had enough of being my own enemy, come a long way since 17, I have a few things to say when I get up on a microphone, I didn’t give up on fame I need this time like therapy it’s just to keep me sane… and to be honest it’s offensive, offensive to my still open wounds, trying to ask me questions they know they don’t have I ever replied, I prefer to sit down be online and respond to fanart,” I LOVE THAT. And the political content?! “What a family needs, and the planet bleeds, the damaged trees, it's never leaving to a real sense so FUCK THE FEDS” (or fuck the fence, not clear, either way, YES ZAYN!), “the snake that’s called Biden, none of them abiding by what they put in writing we should be used to it by now say whatever for the vote and then just chose another route say they’ll never kill another unless that brother’s skin is brown” and “been facing the racists back when I was a kid...kicked me out of the schools, they had a problem with me and the kids that would call me paki still sit in the classroom chilling, and now that I’m older I see they treat us different, got me thinking I was the problem cuz they never dealt with those issues, 20 years later I’m still in the same boat, tryna treat me like my grandpa, say I came up off the boat, came to tell you what I stand for, man I think this shit’s a joke. How can I be civil, when they got me by the throat, ‘Boy your skin is so light’, ok motherfucker take my name up on a flight, try to convince immigration that your bloodline’s half white, my name ain’t on the list unless they label it ethnic.” HELL YEAH ZAYN. PLUS: “never lose me to fentanyl, scared when I take a benadryl,” not gonna lie I LOVE to see this GOOD good good, "just became a dad so now I’m taking all the checks" HA yes get it, "trying to be a better person than the world deserves to see," and, “with a cigarette, sun coming up, write my thoughts on the internet, feeling deep, I'm just bored with the silhouette, get fucked up for the thrill of it,” “I’m just here for the rap then I’m leaving.” AND SO MUCH MORE all in Zayn’s excellent voice and accent, a GIFT that’ll take much more than a day to really unpack and appreciate!

And happy 28th, Louis is writing music! Looks like he is working with producer team Rick Parkhouse and George Tizzard in London (they call themselves Red Triangle Productions and put out music as SuperHi)- they posted a studio picture and tagged Louis. He’s just visible in the booth, singing. Also present- writer/ musician, Paul Whalley and songwriter Robert Harvey (The Music, The Streets) who were both posted and tagged Louis in as well. Louis followed Harvey. Hell yeah, what a line up! Not only that, Jamie Hartman answered a ProjectKMM participant’s question about other songs with Louis-- are they still working on new stuff? He says “I’m sure Louis has been working on new songs with lots of people!” [as we see, yes] “But yes we have done some too- who knows what will make the next album but he’s a top man and I would always write and hang w LT.”

Harry won Best Lyrics for Adore You at the iHeart Awards and Best Cover Song for Juice but failed to take the Artist of the Year or Song of the Year Categories, but more exciting than that- he’s listed as the Director of a new cosmetics and perfume company!!! People have been speculated about him doing something with Gucci Beauty for a long time now (he’s been noted to use their cosmetics, and definitely models their nail polish), and he has of course done perfume ads for them- there’s speculation that this could be for something with them, or it could just be a new thing of his very own. Well the Harry Styles palette would be a damn hit and we all know it, bring it on!

Anne Marie’s Big Weekend performance aired today and yes! She did Our Song with Niall! It’s the performance they recorded last week or so that we saw the pics from, yay first time getting to see them play it, but it was very quickly followed by the next time as their Jonathan Ross show performance also aired! And in case you’re sad about Niall’s previous promo buddies being replaced, there’s no need for that, he’s only adding to the pack; he tweeted Julia Michaels just today, “love ya hules” AWWW. He posted a bunch of cute OS video bts pics too, followed Oprah Winfrey and said he’d like to go to space and that he “would have liked to have been” a godfather to a 1D boy’s baby but “maybe the next one.”

Meanwhile Liam is looking at the fanart submissions he asked for- he retweeted a terrific drawing of himself laughing and said “this is amazing!” and liked a couple of other art posts. Feels like it’s about time for a monthly Liam catch up video, perhaps? Something else to look forward to!

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (February 28/2021) - Birthdays!

Another easy-going day today as Hannah and Sapnap celebrate their birthdays. Antfrost briefly came online to give cryptic messages about the Egg, but other than that it was quite calm.

A brief summary of the week’s total events can be found at the end of the post.

---

VOD LINKS:

Foolish

Ranboo

Hannah

Karl

Sapnap

---

- Foolish works on his Temple of Undying, doing his usual resource-grinding

- Antfrost comes online to give a message in Galactic

Foolish: HELLO

Antfrost: [Translated] The egg will have you soon

Foolish: Okay

Antfrost: [Translated] The egg remembers all transgressions

Foolish: Are you being offensive rn????

Antfrost: [Translated] You have been warned

Foolish: And I think you are dumb

- Antfrost then logs off

- Foolish’s canonical height is still 23′3′’

- Foolish later learns the translations from his chat and responds

Foolish: “I would like to see them try. I would like to see them try, okay? If I’m here, I have no fear of that Egg. In fact, I don’t know if I’m that scared of the Egg in general. I may not have been here long, but I’ve been around for a while, okay? I’ve been around for a while...and I have seen different kingdoms rise and fall...They’re all the same, they’re all the same. Any unnatural being? They’ve come and gone, they’ve come and gone. I’ve seen through them, and this one’s no different.”

- Foolish continues to work on his summer home

- Ranboo goes mining and chats with Tubbo

- Hannah does a birthday stream and goes mining in the Nether!

- Karl logs on in VR at Kinoko Kingdom. Tubbo and Sapnap plot murder.

- Sapnap arrives at Kinoko and Karl gives him a kiss. George, Tubbo, Connor and Bad arrive as well.

- They hang out for a bit.

- Connor hands Karl his very important lore book to read.

- Karl asks them to build a gazebo while he lies down. Tubbo and George come and sit too while Bad builds.

- Connor stumbles upon Karl’s library in the basement

- Everyone tries to murder Karl indirectly

- They continue to prepare for Sapnap’s birthday party

- Sapnap asks Bad for help making a birthday cake. They go off together to get the ingredients.

- They return to Kinoko, now with a cake!

- At midnight, Sapnap takes a bite of the cake with Callahan, George, Bad and Karl there to celebrate!

Upcoming Events:

- Puffy’s origin story lore stream

- Quackity’s lore stream

- Quackity’s business opening

- The prison lore stream

- Tales From the SMP: “The Haunted Mansion” on Tuesday

---

END OF WEEK RECAP:

2/22 - Phil works on home renovations

2/23 - Tubbo builds a sandstone penis on the prison, Sam kidnaps Michael, Tubbo and Ranboo get married

2/24 - Ponk and Sam’s date, Phil bargains with Sam, Ranboo and Tubbo start Bee ‘n’ Boo

2/25 - Tubbo, Ranboo and Jack quarrel about their hotels

2/26 - DreamXD helps George build McDonald’s, Jack’s date with Andrea

2/27 - Nothing much happens

2/28 - Hannah’s birthday stream, Sapnap’s birthday party

[littlelionsloves]

Black Lives Matter

This is a compilation post with information on:

Resources for Black people

How to support the Black community

How to help protests

Donating (even if you have no money to spare)

Petitions

Why the police force needs to be defunded

Educating yourself as a non-Black person

The importance of talking about race with children

Link to google doc that will be regularly updated

---

Resources for Black people

7 Virtual Mental Health Resources Supporting Black People Right Now

Free therapy services

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color (Twitter, IG)

Harriet’s Apothecary (IG)

BEAM Collective (Twitter, IG)

Black Girl in Om (Twitter, IG)

---

How to support the Black community

Support Black brands, companies, organisations, creators & influencers

250 UK based Black influencers

25 books by Black authors

Replace brands by Black owned businesses

Black Nation App, find Black owned businesses

Black owned wellness brands

Black owned bookstores

Black owned restaurants

---

Protests

How to protest

Ways to help protestors if you can’t protest

What to do if you’re stopped and searched (app)

Public Health Experts Say the Pandemic Is Exactly Why Protests Must Continue, by Shannon Palus

---

Donate

Donate even if you have no money: List of YouTube videos loaded with ads, all ad revenue goes towards various BLM organisations. Idea started by Zoe Amira, who posted an hour long video on YouTube with art and music by Black creators.

Black Lives Matter (Twitter, IG): Aims to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

Reclaim the Block (Twitter, IG): Organizes Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety.

The Bail Project (Twitter, IG): Provides free bail assistance to low-income individuals who are legally presumed innocent, and whom a judge has deemed eligible for release before trial contingent on paying bail.

National Bail Funds Network (Twitter, IG): Produces tools and resources for organizers using community justice tactics to creatively tackle multiple drivers of criminalization and incarceration— including, but not limited to, money bail, court fees and fines, probation and parole, pretrial detention & supervision, and immigration detention & supervision.

Unicorn Riot (Twitter, IG): Decentralized, educational, non-profit media organization of artists and journalists. Dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues through amplifying stories and exploring sustainable alternatives in today’s globalized world.

Know Your Rights Camp (Twitter, IG): Aims to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.

Fair Fight (Twitter, IG): Promotes fair elections, brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in other voter education programs and communications.

Black Visions Collective (Twitter, IG): Envisions a world in which ALL Black Lives Matter and aims to develop Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership to lead powerful campaigns.

Campaign Zero (IG): Aims to limit police interventions, improve community interactions, and ensure accountability.

Loveland Therapy Fund for Black Women & Girls (IG): Aims to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls.

Black Earth Farms (IG): Grow, harvest, and deliver nutrient dense and chemical free food to low-income, houseless, and food desert communities.

---

Petitions

Justice for George Floyd (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Justice for Ahmaud Arbery (x) (x) (x) (x)

Justice for Breonna Taylor (x) (x) (x) (x)

Justice for Tony McDade (x) (x) (x)

So many more petitions here

---

Why the police needs to be defunded

Defund the Police (petition)

Email template to defund LAPD

Building A Police-Free Future

What Happened When A White Cop Decided Not To Shoot A Black Man, by Joe Sexton

Slave Patrol and the Origins of Policing, by Jacki Iyamah

The Racist Roots of American Policing, by Connie Hasset-Walker

Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone, by Linda Greenhouse

Why the officers fired for the George Floyd killing could ultimately get their jobs back, by Sam Levin

---

Educate yourself

Free Black History Library, created by Charles Preston

Anti-Racism Resources, compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein

Anti-Racist Resource Guide, created by Victoria Alexander

Pride started with ‘revolutionary riots’, by Tim Fitzsimons

-

Articles:

Being Black in Britain: The Civil Rights Movement They Never Taught You in School, by Jasmine Botchey

Uncovering the brutal truth about the British empire, by Marc Parry

Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People, by Kelsey Blackwell

When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?, by Alia E. Dastagir

In Defense of Looting, by Vicky Osterweil

-

Fiction Books:

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas

Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson

-

Non-Fiction Books:

The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Don’t Touch My Hair, by Emma Dabiri

Women, Race, & Class, by Angela Y. Davis

White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack, by Paul Gilroy

How To Be An Anti-Racist, by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Teacher Got Wrong, by James Loewen

My Grandmother’s Hands, by Resmaa Menakem

So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo

The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein

How To Argue With A Racist, by Adam Ruther-Ford

Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad

Black Minded, by Michael E. Sawyer

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by Beverly Tatum

-

Documentaries:

The 13th

Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap

Time: The Kalief Browder Story

Who Killed Malcolm X?

What Happened, Miss Simone?

I Am Not Your Negro

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

16 Shots

Crrime + Punishment

Afro (German)

Wit is ook een kleur (Dutch)

Trop noire pour être française (French)

-

Films:

If Beale Street Could Talk

American Son

Just Mercy

Selma

Loving

-

Series:

Self Made

When They See Us

Dear White People

---

Talk about race with children

Children see things differently

BBC Bitesize lesson on racism

Resource Roundup

They’re Not Too Young to Talk About Race

31 children's books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance

Diverse kids’ books

---

Don’t stay silent.

[gregsays]

DELL, an excellent and a prestigious computer company that had forgotten one of the most important thing.

I loved Dell, a prominent computer company. I love their notebooks, its capabilities of things like playing games, watching games, communicating with your friends, families, co-workers and et cetera et cetera.

Michael Dell, the founder and CEO recently published a phenomenal book, named, “Play nice but win: A CEO’s journey from founder to leader”. I haven’t really read the book, but the book had gotten phenomenal reviews... and people who read the book told me what’s the book is all about:

1. His personal life

2. Starting Dell

3. Making great computers with great quality

Most entrepreneurs like Gates and you know... These guys were somehow college dropout. They never graduated, but they find their success. And that person, includes Michael Dell himself.

When Michael Dell first started Dell and after he started Dell, he did two really remarkable things;

1. He revolutionized the Personal Computer (known popularly as the “PC”) business. Fun little tidbit: no one even some influential tech journalist, mere mortals that were tech nerds even know that. Some of them do, but some of them don’t. Just think about that!

2. He introduced an online retail store, that also caught Apple’s attention, which was something truly unusual and ridiculous because Apple is not that kind of company that would do things that zillion of their competitors from many countries do. They’re different, ha!)

Those were some of the remarkable things he did. But it seems like nobody knows him. Kinda sad. Steve Jobs introduction the Macintosh, Toy Story, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad happened simply because of the technologies that he sees; the XEROX Parc, the technology at Pixar (that was there before Jobs’ even acquire the division from George Lucas and made it a company and eventually made him a billionaire), FingerWorks iGesture, a device that was sort of like the Apple’s Magic Mouse, that gave us the iPhone, and Microsoft’s 2000s tablet that eventually gave us the iPad. But Michael Dell did these two remarkable things without being a hipster, without being inspired, just nothing. His idea did it. Not inspiration! Small idea that changes the wrong. Ha!

Dell is still a remarkable company. But, you know, this is 2022, 1990s or 2000s notebook design will just make your 2022 notebook look like a garbage. Dell still excels. Their notebooks, desktops are still amazing. But I thing there’s one side of Dell that Michael miss... Software.

As you know, Dell, until today still depends on Microsoft for software operating system. Until the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s. Until today. I think it’s time to Dell to hit the ‘refresh’ button and develop their own operating system. They’ve could create something better out of this! C’mon Michael, you can do better than this!

PS: maybe Dell should execute that now. Great hardware deserves great Software.

One last thing. If Dell couldn’t get off from Microsoft, it’s best that Microsoft product and services like Office, outlook, Edge and etc to be embedded right in to the OS.

[neworderscans]

Electronic - AOL Webchat, 07/30/96 (Bernard and Johnny answering fan questions in a chat using the same handle, I've made minor edits for clarity purposes - archive link in full here)

Max Warner [AOL Webchat host/moderator] : We'll be starting in just a few minutes. We are having some minor technical difficulties.

Max Warner: Johnny and Bernard will be using the screen name Elctrnic.

Max Warner: Just a couple more minutes.... we swear!

Max Warner: We're here with Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner of ELECTRONIC.

Elctrnic: Hello From Bernard & Johnny

Max Warner: Here we go! after a few of those [Online host] Bringing together mainstays of two of the most influential bands of the last 15 years Bernard Sumner of New Order and Johnny Marr of The Smiths. The music of Electronic has exceeded even the high expectations that such a creative partnership undoubtedly engenders.

Max Warner: From Nexland: Question: Barney, Johnny Can U tell me the Story with George Michael. Where Did U meet Him???? it's funny because i saw a picture of Peter Hook with Barry White. That is Cool

Elctrnic: He was cutting his new record at the same studio we were in, hes a nice guy actually

Max Warner: From Embody123: Question: Bernie, what's the nicest thing about working with Marr (Marr: Vice Versa)?

Elctrnic: Johnny never calls me Bernie

Max Warner: From NewOrder3: Question: I would like to know whether any concerts will be scheduled in 1996 and who is the author of the paragraphs in the CD of "raise the pressure"

Elctrnic: At the moment were looking for the right musicians,we'd like to see everybody.

Elctrnic: Bernard wrote the text inside the album$

Max Warner: From SeanJorda: Question: Will either of you be doing any production work in the near future? Barney: I just listened to your SHARK VEGAS, TECHNOTRONIC, and BEAT CLUB tracks today.

Elctrnic: You really know your stuff. I would like to concentrate on Electronic $

Max Warner: From BigBoy666: Question: What do _you_ listen to?

Elctrnic: We mostly listen to European dance music and older good rock stuff, Stones 2000 Light Years, Bowie/Eno Be My Wife$

Max Warner: From APinto65: Question: How did it happen that Neil Tennant did not join up with you on this CD? It's still is fabulous, but I was just curious?

Elctrnic: Electronic is Johnny and Benard.Neil is a guest artist,Johnny is on the new P.S.Bs album

Elctrnic: On this album Karl Bartos from Kraftwek is the guest

Max Warner: From Nexland: Question: Barney, Johnny How are u Tonight???

Elctrnic: Really Groovy

Max Warner: From SeanJorda: Question: How did you guys like TRAINSPOTTING, and Barney- did you like the use of TEMPTATION in the film?

Elctrnic: Its a great film, it opens friday in the U.S. I was proud to be associated with it

Max Warner: From AJ Wells: Question: Hey Barney... how is the jogging coming along? Any Olympic hopes?

Elctrnic: Im meeting up with Ben Johnsons dealer tonight so I should be o.k

Max Warner: From Embody123: Question: Marr: what do you think of MOJO magazine's listing you in the top 25 greatest guitar players of all time?

Elctrnic: Whos this Hendrix bloke ?

Max Warner: From LLabo2909: Question: Johnny, will you ever be joining Morrissey for a reunion tour with the Smiths. Please say yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elctrnic: Sure Boris, do you see any quiffs about?

Max Warner : From AJ Wells: Question: Barney... what ever happened to Section 25? Or Shark Vegas? Or Stexx? Or 52 Street?

Elctrnic: All in mental institutions I think, honestly!

Max Warner: From BBMountai: Question: I've heard that Johnny's been websurfing lately and was wondering if Bernard has also? And what do you both think of the web sites fans create about you?

Elctrnic: Johnny's quite into the web.We intend to make our sites more personal and as informative as possible.we're into it

Max Warner: From Jester000: Question: Johnny I was wondering what gave you hte idea for the whales used in "last night I dreamt...." thanks, glenn

Elctrnic: Bernards getting his browser together when he gets back to U.K

Max Warner: From Embody123: Question: How long did the new album take?

Elctrnic: The sound is actually a protest march sound effect slowed right down.Angry unemplyed.

Max Warner: From PULPTALEN: Question: What is the most succesful song in your career?

Elctrnic: The new album took two years to make but it only feels like one year and eleven months

Max Warner: From Annabel50: Question: hows life in the fast world?

Elctrnic: Slow

Elctrnic: How soon is Monday

Max Warner: From CADS1: Question: are you guys in nyc

Elctrnic: Yes

Max Warner: From Cphel: Question: Bernard- Is New Order no more? Johnny and Bernard-Why no PSB involvement?

Elctrnic: Not quite suree abot that one. P.S.Bs were guests.

Max Warner: From NEXLAND: Question: Do u feel any pressure with an new album??????

Elctrnic: I hope thats not a joke ,

Max Warner: From Femboheme: Question: I love, actually worship the new album. I also love the b-sides, do you have any good instrumentals on any upcomming singles for us?

Elctrnic: Were gonna do some new stuff soon. Were really glad you like the new Album,Thanks.

Max Warner : From CanadaBil: Question: You guys have had awesome careers!! I've been a fan of both since day one. Bernie, is it true that you (New Order) own a bar on one of the islands off the coast of Spain? I'd like to go. Thanks!!

Elctrnic: We dont own a bar in Spain, well not that I know of anyway.We recorded Technique in Ibiza/Spain

Max Warner: From Jcorker: Question: Bernard-Any relation to Sting?

Elctrnic: Hes my great Grandfather actually!

Max Warner: From KCleary: Question: Your music style is not necessarily the most accessible or popular in today's music scene when compared with what's on the charts - i.e. grunge, hard rock. Do you see that as a positive Question or negative when you go into the studio and/or when you tour?

Elctrnic: There should always be a place for someone who is different

Max Warner: From CADS1: Question: at the end of get the message what are you saying

Elctrnic: I am saying "Living on peanuts ain't my scene,shame that word rhymes with mean"

Max Warner: From FBrowniii: Question: do you guys care what radio thinks of your eclectic mix of styles? (we won't tell the record company execs :)

Elctrnic: No

Max Warner: From Femboheme: Question: Who writes the lyrics, who music? Is it a mix or is there a majority-one does more of one thing than the other?

Elctrnic: We both write the music and Bernard writes the Lyrics

Max Warner: From NewOrder3: Question: to Bernard: what do you think of the compilation: Tribute to Joy Division ? are you flattered ?

Elctrnic: I was touched by the gesture

Max Warner : From LLabo2909: Question: Johnny as usual you have great taste in music. is it true that you went guitar shopping with Noel from Oasis? the best band in the world!

Elctrnic: Yeah I did,but in future Noel can take his cheque book

Max Warner: From Lucozade: Question: heard you're both insatiable gossips. any new dish?

Elctrnic: O.K , Prince Charles is Ice T,s lover!, it's true!

Max Warner: From Bridge bo: Question: would you guys consider yourselves closer to christians or zen budhists??

Elctrnic: Were from The Church Of The "Not To Bothered"

Max Warner: We're running out of time... 2 more Questions.

Max Warner : From HammoFam: Question: How do you compare the bands of the 90's w/the bands of the 80's? Honestly, do you miss the 80's?

Elctrnic: We both really miss Flok Of Seagulls and Wang Chung! it's really sad

Max Warner: AND here's the last Question, from SJacobs62: Question: what is your favorite band?

Elctrnic: We dont really have one favourite band.Were going now,thanks to everybody whos supported us in the past and hopefully well be in touch one way or other soon. Take care

Elctrnic: from Johnny and Bernard

Max Warner: Bernard and Johnny, thanks for coming.

Elctrnic: Cheers!

[docrotten]

I, MONSTER (1971) – Episode 226 – Decades of Horror 1970s

“The face of evil is ugly to look upon. And as the pleasures increase, the face becomes uglier.” So, the ugliness of the evil face is proportional to the pleasures? Join your faithful Grue Crew – Doc Rotten, Bill Mulligan, Jeff Mohr, and guest Dirk Rogers – as they mix it up with the Amicus version of Jekyll & Hyden known as I, Monster (1971).

Decades of Horror 1970s Episode 226 – I, Monster (1971)

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Decades of Horror 1970s is partnering with the WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL (https://wickedhorrortv.com/) which now includes video episodes of the podcast and is available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, and its online website across all OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop.

19th-century London psychologist Charles Marlowe experiments with a mind-altering drug. He develops a malevolent alter ego, Edward Blake, whom his friend Utterson suspects of blackmailing Marlowe.

Directed by: Stephen Weeks

Writing Credits: Milton Subotsky (screenplay); Robert Louis Stevenson (from his 1886 novella “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde“)

Selected Cast:

Christopher Lee as Dr. Charles Marlowe / Edward Blake

Peter Cushing as Frederick Utterson

Mike Raven as Enfield

Richard Hurndall as Lanyon

George Merritt as Poole

Kenneth J. Warren as Deane

Susan Jameson as Diane

Marjie Lawrence as Annie

Aimée Delamain as Landlady (as Aimee Delamain)

Michael Des Barres as Boy in Alley

Jim Brady as Pub Patron (uncredited)

Chloe Franks as Girl in Alley (uncredited)

Lesley Judd as Woman in Alley (uncredited)

Ian McCulloch as Man At Bar (uncredited)

Reg Thomason as Man in Pub (uncredited)

Fred Wood as Pipe Smoker (with Cap) in Pub (uncredited)

Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” (1886) by any other name would still be a Jekyll/Hyde story. In the case of this Amicus production, the other name is I, Monster (1971), and it’s a Marlowe/Blake story. It’s always a pleasure to see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing working together and Doctor Who fans will recognize Richard Hurndall.

The 70s Grue Crew – joined for this episode by Dirk Rogers, special effects artist and suit actor – are split on how good or bad I, Monster is. “Vive la différence!” is the Decades of Horror credo, and despite their “différence,” they have a great time discussing this film.

At the time of this writing, I, Monster (1971) is available to stream from the Classic Horror Movie Channel and Wicked Horror TV. 

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror two-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In two weeks, the next episode, chosen by Jeff, will be The Stone Tape (1972), a BBC TV production written by Nigel Kneale and directed by Peter Sasdy. Ready for a good British ghost story?

We want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror 1970s podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com. 

  Check out this episode!

[jgroffdaily]

It took until Frozen II for Anna’s reindeer-loving boyfriend, Kristoff, to enjoy his first solo number, and when that moment comes in the animated sequel, audiences are in for a surprise. The true-blue ’80s ballad titled “Lost in the Woods” is a wild departure from the classic musical-theater numbers and Oscar-friendly ballads that make up most of the Frozen soundtrack, and no one was more surprised about this shift than Kristoff himself, Jonathan Groff. “In the moment they handed me the song, I couldn’t believe that they were going to go there,” he said. “I found it personally—and even when I still watch the movie—to be truly shocking when it starts. Like, Oh wow, we’re doing this. Okay, here we go.”

The song, which is available online today, is paired with even wilder visuals in the movie and gets a reprise over the credits performed by ’90s alterna-rock gods Weezer. Groff and Frozen II songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez took Vanity Fair behind the scenes of Kristoff’s big emotional solo.

For some Frozen fans, this Kristoff song is even more hotly anticipated than Elsa’s next big earworm. The cast of the original Frozen was stacked with talented theater stars like Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana, all of whom got a chance to flex their vocal cords…except Groff. A Broadway star and Glee darling at the time, Groff was left with only a snippet of a ditty called “Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People.” When Groff went on to debut the role of sassy, petulant King George in Hamilton, the retroactive dismay over his Frozen role only grew. “We are ashamed,” Kristen Anderson-Lopez joked, “and will be for the rest of our lives, that he didn’t sing in Frozen.”

“Oh, it was so sweet that people were more upset that I didn’t sing than I was,” Groff said. “It was really sweet that people would express that to me all the time including Kristen Bell who was like, ‘Well, you need to sing more in this movie.‘”

A challenge in Frozen was that Kristoff was a rather gruff, solitary figure, not exactly prone to break out in song and express himself. Even as Frozen II loomed, Groff says, “I couldn’t personally imagine how they were going to get a mountain man to sing. The first one, okay, he’s got a lute, he’s singing a ditty with his reindeer, I buy that. I totally buy that. But how are they going to get Kristoff to sing? I couldn’t even imagine it.” Neither the Lopezes nor Groff wanted to just shoehorn in a song that didn’t make sense for the plot. And, in fact, there was an earlier version of a Kristoff song that didn’t wind up working at all.

“We had originally written a song for Kristoff called ‘Get This Right,’ which was about him putting this huge amount of pressure on himself and it was totally a comedy song, but it kind of fell on the ground for many reasons,” Anderson-Lopez explains. Over the course of the film, Kristoff is trying (and repeatedly failing) to propose to Anna. “[He’s a] a guy that spent his entire life alone in the woods so much that his only friend is a reindeer that he even provides the voice for,” Groff says. “And then in parallel, Anna is a girl that spent her entire life inside the castle walls without ever having any social interaction. It’s like these two socially awkward people come together and of course there’s this inability to express the feelings, and how do I do this, and I want to do it right but I don’t know quite how to.”

For someone as self-consciously closed off as Kristoff, the Lopezes found inspiration in, of all places, karaoke. “There’s nothing better than a man feeling his feelings in a real way at a karaoke bar,” Anderson-Lopez says. “I’ve seen a lot of drunk dudes singing Journey at karaoke,” Groff adds. “And it’s ‘funny’ question mark? There’s also a level of necessity for expression. And Queen is a part of that. Queen was so theatrical and big and when you do something that’s theatrical and big like that and it’s sung by a man, it gives boys the opportunity to really be theatrical and express themselves.”

Kristoff’s unique relationship with his reindeer, Sven, allowed the Lopezes even more musical leeway here. The song is a quasi-fantasy sequence where Sven and a number of other reindeer—also voiced by Groff—provide the backing vocals. This particular element was a stroke of genius from the animators who suggested to the songwriters that they might have some fun with a full supporting reindeer chorus. “That allowed us to go to that stacked Queen-meets-Chicago kind of place,” Anderson-Lopez says. “Bobby laid down like 18 different tracks and then Jonathan Groff did them 18 times. So not only is this a solo for Jonathan Groff, but it’s actually 18 Jonathan Groffs. We gave you 18 Groffs.” Anderson-Lopez is hoping this gift will finally get them off the hook with grumpy Groff fans.

To get Groff in the mood on the day of recording, the Lopezes went down a YouTube rabbit hole of ’80s power balladeers including Bryan Adams. “I don’t think we listened to Journey or Michael Bolton, but it’s like that kind of energy,” Groff says.

For the Lopezes this kind of musical departure presented both a risk and a thrill. “We had never done this before,” Bobby Lopez says. “But where the distorted guitars kick in. I mean, come on. That is the quintessential moment of the ’80s and it just seemed to be perfect.” But the duo were even more delighted by the visual surprises the Disney animators came up with based off one little scribbled note on their lyrics sheet: “Feel free to take this to an ’80s video kind of place.”

“The brilliance of the animators can’t be overstated,” Groff says. “When I saw the hair flip and the singing into the pinecone. The Queen references to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with the reindeer, the sort of emotional walking, even like the supertight close-up on the face. I just lost my mind.” It’s a tonal departure from some of the more earnest musical moments elsewhere in Frozen but Groff suspects that added element of comedy might make the flood of Kristoff’s emotions go down easier, especially with young boys watching Frozen II.

“Normally you’re seeing the girl pining over the guy singing an emotional ballad,” he explains. “And in this one Anna goes off to go on a huge adventure and they’ve inverted it. Now it’s giving the boys the opportunity to feel their feelings and sing about whatever is going on for them, which is so potentially exciting considering how many kids are going to be watching the movie.”

Though it wasn’t written with a rock band in mind, the stacked harmonies of “Lost in the Woods” also makes it perfect fodder for the Weezer cover treatment and that version plays over the film’s closing credits.

[weirdlandtv]

Like the 1960s generation had The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, the Big Three of the 1980s were Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna. Their new albums weren’t just song collections, they were messages uttered by the Oracle up on the mountain, echoing across the valley. They were events, statements, re-incarnations. Each new album presented a new persona for fans to imitate and for critics to evaluate, or, in the case of Prince, decipher. (Artists, back then, had to change with each new release or else be considered irrelevant. David Bowie entered the 1980s a smart yuppie, George Michael in the span of 7 years went from sparkling teen idol to sensitive, searching biker cowboy.)

Michael Jackson and Prince were regarded as rival gods, with the former more commercially successful but the latter preferred by most serious music critics (though in reality, fans, like me, liked both). Michael Jackson played games with tabloid journalists, who in turn responded with growing hostility; Prince played pranks on music critics, who wilfully allowed themselves to be deceived and wowed by this inscrutable prodigy.

Michael Jackson’s Avalon was Neverland, a fantasy dream that always invited ridicule (though not from me); Prince’s Mount Olympus was Paisley Park, a place deemed so mythical that fans constructed their own maps from the few photos and bits of footage that existed of it, and then endlessly speculated on what life was like inside of it: the parties, the concerts, sacred rituals, whisperings, the spontaneous nightly sessions. “Did you know,” they’d say, wide-eyed, “Prince has this huge vault of original masters and unreleased music right under Paisley Park? Only he knows the key code.” Whole albums (all masterpieces of course) had disappeared into that vault, never to be heard by ordinary mortals. And he never slept: nobody had ever caught him sleeping. He just went on and on, creating music. That was Prince, the enigmatic wonder, the living love symbol, and flamboyant question mark.

I still find it strange to realize so many of the artists I just mentioned, who so energetically populated my childhood and early teens, are dead. Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, and George Michael all died within 7 years of each other; but there’s also Whitney Houston, Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, and so many more. (Compare 1960s giants Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, who are still touring and releasing records.)

When Prince died, a little more than three years ago today, I was on Texel, an island to the north of Holland, where I live. I checked my phone, checked the news, like you so stupidly do every now and then, and then saw the incredible headline. A sunny day, clouds seemed to appear that moment. Some people love celebrity deaths and follow juicy rumor sites about who punched who and who stepped out of the limo without their knickers on; me, I get depressed. It’s like having swallowed a stone. The sensationalist cries around every celeb death to me are like a beehive of bad vibes, a pest, and I have to stay away from it as far as possible if I want to protect my mental health, or what’s left of it. Prince’s death made me take things slow for a week or so. I have to mentally chew on such things, change my settings, ease into the new reality, let my heart adjust to its new weight. I’ve often had to deal with death in my life, sometimes it’s as if every high-profile death shocks me back into that familiar feeling of dread and despair.

Though Michael Jackson’s Neverland has turned into a derelict theme park that carries the curse of being unsellable, Prince’s Paisley Park has become a museum. Occasionally, browsing the internet, I see photos of it, and I’m always struck, kind of uneasily, about how soulless it seems. What does the lair of an extravagant hermit look like? What did I expect? Not something that looks like the atrium of a New Age company maybe. Looking at the interior, those sad police photos that were released last year, I can’t help but see the stupendous mundanity of it all. The building itself, somewhere in a suburb outside of Minneapolis, resembles a bunker, and though the pyramid skylights, that vaguely resemble guard towers, provide some natural light, the rest of the building is artificially lit, but dark. The recording studio is just that. Some of the walls have sayings like “Everything You Think Is True”. Stained glass with stars, clouds, and guitars. There’s a potted plant here, and an ugly tangle of phone cords in the corner there. Prince’s bedroom was sparse with empty green walls, and a plastic trash can you can buy at your local Walmart (but he never slept of course). The legendary vault reminds me of the storage room of my dad’s old electronics company, with its disorderly shelves and half-opened cardboard boxes. And everywhere, in every corridor and every space, there’s Prince iconography, but it’s rather bland, like the cover of a cheap unofficial biography.

For Prince, it must have been strange living in your own mausoleum.

The music that came from that place though. I believe PARADE (1986) was the first full album he recorded there, and then everything that came afterwards. My uncle was a real Prince fanatic, taking a slew of albums with him whenever he stayed with us, bootlegs too, so from an early age I became quite well-versed in all things Prince. Bits of his lyrics are as familiar to me as old family sayings. Personal favorites are the albums 1999 (1982), BATMAN (1989), and the LOVE SYMBOL ALBUM (1992). I like the street-smart humor of his early stuff, the raw passion, the in-your-face sex metaphors, with symbols as loud as cymbals, just the wild mercury sound of it; later on, his work became more spiritual, and harder for me to follow. His whole being though was music, every movement was a melody, every step a beat; he created music the way other people breathe. He had more songs in him than a duck has quacks. If you listen to the posthumous release, PIANO AND A MICROPHONE 1983, it’s as if the piano, microphone and artist aren’t three separate things, but one organism, bleeding and generating music; it features some wonderful, loose playing. It seems to me that towards the end of his life, in physical pain and unable to play a piano or guitar unless stuffed with elephant tranquilizers, he started to drift, and drift further, until he fell over the edge.

Like Bob Dylan, whose mystique and inaccessibility he shared, Prince had a habit of frustrating his fans, by deliberately excluding a great song from an otherwise so-so album and storing it in his vault, or by making his music hard to buy or even find (online, before he died, there was almost nothing). That’s one reason I kind of stopped following him; the other is the depressing decline of his songwriting since the 1990s. Looking at his later albums, which I first dutifully bought until I didn’t anymore, there’s hardly anything I really like. None of the best-of compilations collect anything from after the 90s. What happened? Age is part of it of course. A decline in quality is inevitable, most musical artists do their best work in their 20s and 30s. It’s also possible Prince’s brand of singing about his women like they are divine vaginas simply went out of style. Once cheeky and outrageous (his work was why Parental Advisory stickers were invented), his songs no longer shock us 21st centurians. We’ve seen so much already. Dirty sex wasn’t the only topic he sang about of course (far from it), but it’s the one he pushed forward the most as part of his image; his “royal badness” was part of his appeal. (The BATMAN soundtrack originally was going to feature Michael Jackson as Batman, the force of good, and Prince as the Joker, representing decadence, sin, evil.)

But his supposed “badness” was an act of course. The cocky poses, flashy gestures and mean diva looks were an obvious shield against the outside world, a theatrical defense mechanism. An attempt to dazzle people before they can get to you. When you’re shy—and he of course was the shyest—you feel like everyone is constantly watching you, and you become overly aware of how you look, how you walk, how you come across; you are constantly aware of your physical being taking up space. So what do you do when you’re an artist? You perform. Everything you do becomes a kind of performance, a conscious act. It gives you a feeling of control: you know why people are watching, because you’re making them watch you. But the essence of it is always shyness and nerves.

There’s something endearing about that 1983 footage of him being invited on stage for an impromptu jam by James Brown, who a few minutes earlier had invited Michael Jackson up. Ready to upstage his rival, who had just performed some killer moves, Prince takes the stage, struts, plays some random riffs, struts some more, suddenly takes off his jacket and does some tricks with the microphone stand, claps to whip up the audience—and then as he wants to make a fast and sudden exit, he clumsily goes down knocking over a prop, stage hands hastily arriving from all sides to help him up.

He died in an elevator near the lobby, but the spot itself has been covered up by a new wall (it’s near the watchful eyes in the third image). I keep wondering what happened. Was he making his way down to the ground floor from his production offices, or was he going up from the recording studio to his bedroom to maybe sleep? One associate, questioned by police, stated that Prince had told her he “was depressed, enjoyed sleeping more than usual and was incredibly bored”, and that at his last concert, he felt like he was going to fall asleep on stage. Those were rare remarks. An intensely private person, he mostly hid his problems, not just from others, but even from himself. The end, then, was inevitable. As with Michael Jackson six years before, the drugs relieved him of his pain, and then of his life.

He never slept, and when he did, it was 4ever.

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Alternate entertainment timelines...

Something that has always fascinated me is when I read about actors who were originally cast in famous roles, but ended up being replaced. One of the best-known and widely scene examples is Eric Stoltz, best known today for the film Mask, who filmed a portion of the original Back to the Future as Marty McFly before being replaced by Michael J. Fox. Footage of Stoltz as Marty is widely available, having been included on DVD releases of the BTTF trilogy, so we can compare.

One of the most intriguing examples is Elizabeth Shepherd, whose film roles include Kidnapping of the President and Damien: Omen II, as well as the TV series Duchess of Duke Street, was the original actress cast as Emma Peel in The Avengers and she even filmed a complete episode before the powers that be realized she was wrong for the part (possibly because she too closely physically resembled her predecessor, Honor Blackman) and replaced her with Diana Rigg, completely refilming the episode called Town of No Return. To this day only a handful of photos exist of Elizabeth as Mrs. Peel (and I’ve yet to see one of her version of Emma with Patrick Macnee) - the episode itself is either lost or locked away. Here’s a publicity photo of Shepherd as Emma Peel taken during filming of her only episode.

There’s also the case of Tamzin Merchant, who played Daenerys Targaryen in the never-shown pilot episode of Game of Thrones. She was replaced by Emilia Clarke when the pilot basically got a do-over. Apparently it was so poor (not Tamzin’s performance necessarily, the whole project) we may never see the original pilot. Another case of a lead actor getting replaced was Sherilynn Fenn of Twin Peaks fame who became the first live-action actress to play Harley Quinn in the unaired pilot episode of the short-lived (and missed) Birds of Prey series back in the early 2000s. She was replaced in the series by Mia Sara of Ferris Bueller fame. That pilot was circulated unofficially online and at conventions so we could compare the two. (As an aside, I am surprised the original series didn’t get reissued when the Birds of Prey movie came out last year, especially since its versions of the Huntress and Oracle/Batgirl also appeared in the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries on CW.)

And when Star Trek Voyager began filming, Oscar-winning French-Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold was cast as Capt. Nicole Janeway, and filmed for a day and a half before it was decided she wasn’t working out and she was replaced by Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway, so Trek lost out on having its second French-Canadian captain (Shatner is from Montreal), and Jean-Luc Picard would no longer have been the only French captain in (televised) Starfleet. Bujold’s handful of complete scenes have been released on DVD and can be found on Youtube, but I’ll let you go hunting for them. 

Probably the most famous example of a recast was the case of Jeffrey Hunter, who won the lead in the original Star Trek in 1964. He filmed the first pilot, The Cage, as Christopher Pike, but by the time NBC requested a second pilot, Hunter changed his mind and decided he didn’t want to do a series, opening the door for Bill Shatner to become James T. Kirk. This decision had both a wide-ranging creative and personally tragic consequence: because Gene Roddenberry needed to save money on production of TOS’ first season, he repurposed The Cage’s footage into a two-part episode called The Menagerie, which used it as a flashback, establishing that it took place about a decade before the current series. And that established the Star Trek universe timeline that continues to inform the franchise today. The tragic part is, because he didn’t take the series, Hunter went on to make movies (including The Green Berets where he acted with George Takei who took a leave from TOS to appear), and an on-set accident in late 1968 while filming in Europe set in motion a brain injury that may have contributed to his death after a fall in the spring of 1969. It’s a shame he never got to see how Star Trek grew - I could only imagine a Kirk-Pike team-up with Shatner and Hunter would have been perfect for the movies.

Playing “what if” is fascinating. I can only imagine how Audrey Hepburn would have performed as Nefertiri in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, or how Bela Lugosi would have handled the originally planned concept for Frankenstein’s Monster in the first Universal Frankenstein film in 1931 for which he was cast. He played the monster in a later film, but it was based on Boris Karloff’s version, not the one that had been planned originally.

Doctor Who has had it’s share of “what ifs”. Imagine BRIAN BLESSED as the Fourth Doctor (or possibly the Third). Richard Griffiths (Uncle Dursley in the Harry Potter films) was also up to play Four. Both Peter Capaldi and Christopher Eccleston were apparently on a list of potential Eighth Doctor actors - and the favourite for a while wasn’t actually Paul McGann, but his brother! And of course there’s the fact that if the stars had aligned differently, Jenna Coleman’s contribution to Who would have started and ended with her playing Mels, the incarnation of Melody Pond prior to River Song, in Let’s Kill Hitler. Someone else would have likely ended up playing Clara.

Imagine how different our pop culture would be had the original actors been cast in all these shows!

[lockdownuk]

Lockdown Diary Part 4

A personal account during the lockdown in the UK due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

23/03/2020 8:30pm Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister, gives a live address to the nation to, effectively, put the country on lockdown to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus strain, Covid-19.

Many of us have been self-isolating for days but this latest development within the UK in reaction to the pandemic feels very serious and very scary. I decided to keep a simple diary and where better but online.

Day91: I can’t post photos to the sister photo diary and it’s fucking me off. Using this as a place holder- last successful pic was 21/06/2020.

Day 92: Still awaiting Tumblr re: day 91′s entry. Meanwhile looking at other blog/diary sites. Very warm today, like it was throughout May. Boris announced a further relaxation in lockdown measures which includes reducing the 2m distancing instruction which paves the way for pubs, restaurants and other places to open on 4th  . It looks like the Ship will open 6th July, George on the 4th. I await to see the measures put in place before deciding whther it’s a goer.

Day93: Typing on day 94 - I received an email from Deryn from RCI HR concerning placement online module attendance, thanking me for my participation. I was somewhat confused. Was this a mistake or was I erroneously not icluded in the initial communications? I fired off an email to HR and WhatsApp’d Jim. He replied that I should take it up with HR.

I am worried by this. Furlough ends this week and I know not what the fuck is going on.

Day 94: Had a few beers last night, ‘cos I was feeling deflated over work. Finished Homecoming S2, which was very good, and cancelled Amazon Prime before the free trial ends tomorrow. Got up @midday but haven’t done jack shit today as my right ankle is playing up - it was twinging last night - apart from press ups. No word back from RCI but there was a notification that the email from Deryn was attempted to be recalled. Had a spat in Co-Op wth two lads who were ignoring the one way system and social-distancing. It makes my blood boil and I had to say something which ended up making my blood boil even more…especially as one of them asked me to ‘crack on’. It’s a pretty cool response actually, since I had them bang to rights but, at the time, I thought I was going to bust a blood vessel. I walked away having told him to not speak to me like that again and that he was a fucking arsehole! Didn’t make me feel any better though. Fog’s chatting later so I’m going to have a few beers right now (just gone 8pm) - I feel like throwing caution to the wind for some reason (probably work more than anything else).

Day 95: Typing on Day 96. I had a lot of beers with Fog the night before last and felt like shit all day yesterday. Still managed to drag myself up to Foggy’s and have socially distanced beers in his garden with Noel and Lord Irish of Michael.

Day 96: Feeling like shit. Third day of no walking ‘cos my ankle is a little sore although I did walk back from Foggy’s last night.

Day 97: Two walks and my usual stair climb today. Felt good to get back to routine. Plus, no booze yesterday, even tho’ it was a Saturday, feel better for it. I heard from Sue Cockings from HR on Friday, btw, still furloughed until further notice.

Day 98: I discovered, yesterday, that today is actually day 99 of lockdown since it actually begun on the Sunday evening that Boris Johnson announced the measures being in place - I mistakenly thought it began on the Monday. Tumblr still haven’t got back to me regarding reviewing why this blog is deemed ‘sensitive’ and I can’t add any more pics. While I am typing, Northampton are beating Exeter 0-2 at Wembley in the L2 play-off final. It’s funny that their fans can’t be there to see it. Football, in general, on its return after lockdown, without fans in attendance, is shit - like watching women’s football - too many empty seats.

Day 100: I have decided to number the days correctly (See prev’ entry). It’s a good time as I had to export , delete and recreate this blog on Tumblr since they have been non-forthcoming in my request for info as to why they deemed it ‘sensitive’. So, this is a restart, altrough seemless to the reader. On top of all that, I am writing this on Day 101! After restarting the blog diary I forgot to add the day’s entry! Bumped into Roger on my second walk, at the top of Basset Ford Place. We chatted for an hour or so. It was really good to see him and talk. We’ve made a promise to interact more...it seems both he and I allow ourselves to get down in the dumps (easy in self-isolation) and, as such, we shall try to reach out as and when. He suggested a walk together every now and then.

Day 101: I heard back from a charitable services company that Barry Haddon (who, coincidentally, I spoke with today) told me about (Auriga)and answered their email questions. BNarry rates them and told me they got him some decent results like he no longer has to pay Council Tax. I tweeted Chris Hawkes on Radio 6 this morning...he was asking for examples of sames names (’cos he had Dave Gorman on) so I told him about The Redlion and the ad the ‘other’ Tim put in the ET. He read it out! I created a photo album of 101 pics I’ve taken in lockdown and put it on FB including the Oundle Chatter group. The comments were great. My right eyesight is worrying, I cannot make out close up detail i.e. reading is blurred. I am going to start doing 10 press ups after each exercise i.e. three times a day. I decided that during my second walk so today I’ve done 20. Lastly, I have new neighbours I do believe. Hmmm.

Day 102: Emailed dad and Rita to have a rant about what dad thought of the Leicester lockdown and to share a link to my 101 photo album. Had a long Messenger chat with Rog.

Day 103: Typing this on day 104. Dad called when I was out ona  walk so we skyped when I got back. He looks really well! Advided me on how to cutt some branches that are hanging low (I asked him in the email yesterday). I then borrowed a saw, secateurs and green bin from Karen. I walked a long way today. My second walk was 9km.I then had loads of beers! The Co-Op car park seems to be the venue for youngsters to hang out. I was gone 2am before they finished partying. I (re)watched Steve Jobs. Wow....just wow. What a film and what a man!

Day 104: It was gone 1:30pm when I got up feeling the worse for wear. A chilli, chorizo and cheese omelette really sorted me out but no beer tonight. How my Saturday frame of mind has changed from just a few years ago. Elliot and Camilla dropped off a jar of japaenos (that Mil had WhatsApp’d me about) and, among other things, we chatted about a photo Tracie Garrett circulated featuring Ell, me her and a few others who met up to have a drink at The Haycock for Ron Gambling. In it was Cath and someone called Ross (who I don’t remember) who have both passed since the pic (July ‘99). I feel strangely saddened by it all. The pic itself is such a reminder of days past - it conjours up shit loads of different feelings.

Day 105: A few beers again last night so another late one (5ish) but up before noon. Finished watching a series called Condor. Pretty good - bit of a messy ending that is the norm with telly nowadays in that it is a little bit of a cliffhanger.

Day 106: The Ship reopened today. I left a nice message on the Virtual Pub group page wishing them the best plus said thanks to Rach. I think it will be the end of the laugh we’ve had on the virtual site now. I expect to go through a bit of a miserabel time with people now venturing out down the pubs.We were once all united in lockdown - that will no longer be the case. Met Rog for a walk - did over 7km oncluding through Barnwell Picnic Park - I don’t remember it being that pretty. defo going to go there again. Got an email from RCI asking for all furlough workers to join a Zoom meeting tomorrow with Paul (MD) and Deryn (HR). Ominous! Went shopping in Asda and Farm Foods. £100 with NO BOOZE!

Day 107: The zoom call today didn’t tell me much other than we are being furloughed still, until further notice. It was susggested that we have a zoom meeting every 2 weeks and that RCI recognise we’ve be left out in the cold somewhat. I appreciate that very much.There were 30 of us on the call plus Paul and Deryn were in the office since they had to make peopel redundant today. Mark was in the office earlier to take receivership of the IT kits from those that left.

Day 108: I am well on the way to doing 1,000,000 steps in theree months (July, August & September) but at what cost. I’ve done well over 11,000 steps each day in July (actually, a lot of days in June as well) apart from one (8k) and I am feeling it. My right leg/ankle is sore! Day 109: I had another mention by Chris Hawkins on Radio 6. He asked for Brian May moments - apparently when he met Brian May he was so starstruck that all he could say was ‘thank you for the music’. I tweeted my story of telling Felicity Kendall to have a good life. Today, both my walks have resulted in me getting fucking soaked. Hanna S2 is on Amazon Prime. Time for yet another free trial (number 4 or 5).

Day 110: I have walked 144,448 steps in 10 days, well on the way to a million steps in three months. The Heist of the Century - an Argentinian film based on true events - watched it last night (well, over two nights, actually). A real life Ocean’s Eleven (but with 6). Brilliant film, brilliat story. I had issues signing up to another Amazon Prime free trial last night so I set up another gmail a/c just now and I think I’m in. I used Danny’s Gmail (which I created over 15 years ago!) and it didn’t like it - I think I must have used it before. I reckon I have probably had loads more free trials than I care to remember. Anyway, off to watch me some Hanna!

Day 111: Very tired as I type. Bed at around 5am, up at 13:30, normal exercises, cleaning kitchen cupbaords and I’m done in. It’s 10:30pm now, just cracked open a beer and about to watch a new Netflix film “The Old Guard”. I would continue with Hanna but Amazon Prime keeps fucking erroring. I will try to go to bed before it gets light (which seems to be my w/e norm nowadays!

Day 112: I have got into the habit of eating dinner far too late. It’s 10:30pm as I type and I am just about to have something eat. I’m not sure why I feel it’s wrong to eat so late but I do, I shall be trying to address it. Late night again last night (gone 4:30am) so today was a lazy day. Only on ewalk but it was 10km and I get up the above 11,000 steps needed for the 1m challenge. My stair climb, at around 9pm, fucking killed.

Day 113: Boring Monday.

Finished watching The Old Guard on Netflix. A Highlander-esque affair with Charlize Theron kicking ass like she did in Atomic Blonde. It was OK. Haven’t manage to lick the late night eating. It’s 10:05pm and tea’s still cooking.

Day 114: I have been looking at planning persmissions on the ENDC site for questions posed on the Oundle Chatter group on FB. There’s going to be two sites with 130 new houses on each and it’s causing concern. And so it should - the planning docs are very revealing. Objections are dismissed in such an off-hand way. It’s really quite insulting. I was awfully down today, during my first walk. I mean, really despondant (too difficult to describe here), which is a lower version of the norm - it’s been a good couple of weeks since anyone’s even asked how I am! A week since that post on my main blog. But, I powered through and am back to the usual depth! I ate at @9:30 pm tonight. Told ya!

Day 115: I am typing this on Day 116 - I ended up hainga  couple of beers last night and forgot to post. I had the most ridiculous toing and froing on FB and Messenger with Rachel (Harris) - it was piss funny. She is the first person in days, actually weeks, who has asked how I am! I watched ep3 of Hanna S2. Absolutely superb. She kills Marissa! Did not see that fucker coming...mind blown! Day 116: I have finally finished the thorough clean of the kitchen. Fucking drama. I am typing at just gone 10pm, about to eat (curry I made yesterday). It’s been a strange day, timings wise, last night’s drinking meant I wasn’t up until just gone noon which obviously didn’t help. I had a call from DSM group - I applied for an IT tech role, they want to see me tomorrow (Friday) for an interview (in Sibson). Interesting! (Although the contact, Helen, hasn’t sent the promised email!)

Day 117: Despite not getting a confirmation email, I attended the interview at DSM. It went OK (I was there for 90 mins). I went booze shopping in Tesco’s afterwards. Spoke to dad today also - he and Rita are well, as usual! I am feeling really knackered and achy today. I do hope it’s not anything to worry about.

Day 118: Up at 1pm. 9.79 km walk. Cooking meatballs, drinking beer, listening to The Blaze about to watch Deepwater Horizon. All good today!

Day 119: Similar to yesterday, up late, bloody long walk, watching Saving Private Ryan (which I started last night).

Day 120: Typing on day 121. Received an email from someone that works at the BBC for Shaun Keaveny’s show - they want me to do small claims court on August 5th. I’m becoming obsessed with getting my steps in - my second walk was extended to round Barnwell Country Park - over 17.5k steps - not the most I’ve done in one day but, for example, most in one day last month (June) was 14.7k. More importantly, I am finding that I can walk further (and for longer) and not have a hypo; not a great deal further, but over an hour.