now that now have stopped doing now

howdy pop pickers

bit of a peculiar one, this. ultimately, or realistically, i have gone done that thing of spending real coins of money for, mostly, the sake of a blog post, look you see. one may argue it was "only £5", but still. at the time of doing so it felt vaguely interesting, but now i am not so sure. well, you decide, if you read on after me doing a stellar job selling it. 

mostly this relates to the compilation Now That's What I Call Music 18, or if you will Now 18 as it appears to have been most commonly abridged to. it does not feel all that long ago when i got it and did the usual, obligatory post on it. yes, here is the link to it. whilst it wasn't the single greatest compilation of vibes ever to exist it also wasn't that bad, and a surprising reminder that there were indeed some pretty decent songs in the first couple of years of the 90s when memory suggested it was a bit of a wasteland. 

for quite some time - say the last 6 of them, possibly 8 - these Now re-releases on tape (disc) have had a bit of a pointless feel to them. granted the music on them has been occasionally excellent, but they were issued on compact disc at the time. it was great to get the earlier volumes, never put out on disc, and there was some surprise that they just went on and on re-issuing more and more. just for the curiosity of it all, then, i picked up an original issue of Now 18 down the market. 

no less than two (2) major issues have been widely commented on with all these re-releases. the first, and the most disappointing, is that "different versions" (or if you will mixes) have been used. easily the big one here was on Now III, where they used the "standard" 7" mix of Frankie's Two Tribes when the original release had the somewhat different "picture disc" 7". the other issue was that the sets were coming out not as exact Now replicas, for some songs were missing. in one instance it was so that they elected to exclude a not particularly memorable single from Sir Gary Glitter for not unreasonable and somewhat understandable reasons. other than that one it seems tracks got excluded from that pain in the backside of the modern world, "rights and royalties" issues. 

whereas i had not (reasonably) expected to ever play Now 18 again, the lure of getting the original issue of it was obviously irresistible, hence me having something to write of. the re-issued version of 18 excluded (or if you prefer) omitted four (4) from the original release. if you are interested in learning which ones are missing you can play "spot the difference" with the image below, or scroll down a bit more and i shall list them for you.

so, to confirm the difference you spotted, or just to tell you, the missing songs are - 

The Joker off of Steve Miller Band (think it was used in a Levi's jeans ad)

Something Happened On The Way To Heaven off of Phil Collins

Suicide Blonde off of INXS

Fascinating Rhythm off of Bass-O-Matic (no, me neither)

i really have no clue how, exactly, all that rights and permission stuff works, but the omitted tracks are quite strange when compared to what remains. again, no expert, but i would have thought securing the use of songs by the likes of Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, Sting and The Cure (plus others) would be as problematic (and by that i mean costly) as the ones missed off. also i would have assumed that including Nothing Compares 2 U would have been a battle, for a Sinead O'Connor recording of a Prince song doesn't particularly sound cheap to licence. 

a trademark, hallmark or signature move of the Now re-releases and "issued on CD for the first time" experience has been the "cheap and cheerful" nature. up above is that illustrated for you. the booklets with the "new" ones are just one folded thing, with the text below the artist images being so small you can't really read them. for the original issues, as you can hopefully make out, the wisely and kindly went and made proper booklets, so you may read provenance and chart history of the songs.

how does the sound quality differ between the two version of Now 18. to be honest i have a quite decent Sony "ghettoblaster" which does the job but isn't in the hundreds or thousands of pounds area of music equipment you need to tell that much of a difference. also no, i would not know how to do an "analysis" of the discs on a computer. others have claimed that the re-issues have effectively been little better than putting some mp3s on a CD-R, but i don't know. both sound decent. 

if they have indeed cancelled all future re-releases (i believe so but don't have it confirmed as fact) why now? not sure. there were "logical" points at which to stop, being the point at which they reached never before on CD, or when they reached volume 10 (ten), or when they arrived at the end of the 80s. a speculative guess would be the latter is of some relevance, likely that sales dropped off significantly with the last few, as i suspect there's nowhere near the viable size market for nostalgia for the early 90s as exists for pretty much all of the 80s. 

should it really be so and the Now re-issues have ceased, well, that's me not feeling obliged to purchase them any further. they weren't badly priced at around £8 a go, to be fair. also my all time favourite one of the series, Now That's What I Call Music 4, somehow got released more or less exactly as it was the first time around. oh, they are continuing to release variations on compilations, with some new collections being called Now That's What I Call and then whatever the link or year is. every now and then i pick these up, depending on the track list. 

overall, if this really is it for the re-issues, it's been a really fun journey. not just a nostalgia thing, but rather (if there is a difference) a wonderful memory jog, with some stuff being surprisingly better than i would have recalled. unless i am just a bit more mellow in my three quarters life crisis. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

koala endorsement

g'day

i would, truth be told, suspect that it is no bold action on my behalf to suggest that few, if any, of you are even in the slightest interested in what goes on in my bathroom. doubtful there is much concern either, look you see. rather unfortunate, then, that the only thing i have to write of momentarily pertains to the purchase of an item which (conventionally, at the least) is used in the bathroom.

for context, as some of you are (vaguely) aware my verk adventures are of a nature which see me spend quite little time at home, my lodgings in this era of exile. i would not care to speculate on exact numbers, except i shall. at a guess well north of one half of a calendar year sees me away. it may well be closer to two thirds, or if you like 66%. the relevance of this is that i don't usually need or require all that much in the way of "the basics" at home. for example i have just bought a "mega xl" pack of them washing pods which (for some reason) American kids got all excited about eating a couple of years ago. such a pack would likely last a usual household 3 or so months, but for me i would reasonably expect that the number of pods in the pack (north of 50) shall last the year. 

normally i have a reasonably good sense of when i need to stock up on things such as, for example and also specific here, toilet paper. just before the most recent Christmas (2024) it turned out i had oddly miscalculated how much i had. despite not running out (fairly close but still) i made a solemn pledge, or if you will vow, to ensure such was avoided again. which has led to a change in direction. 

yes, i have indeed changed brands. well, no, you would not be aware of what my "usual" brand was, and as per the above i genuinely suspect you are not at all interested. for clarity, though, normally i would have purchased the celebrated Andrex brand. this was not from any particular preference, or any sense of loyalty to the brand. in the days when she was with us and i went to do some shopping Gran had a preference for a particular type of Andrex, and i kind of just always bought the same for myself, since it seemed all right. 

with my penchant for all (legal) things koala, actually i suppose in retrospect (rather than some tales of future legend) it is a surprise it has taken me so long to switch to Cushelle. much like how Iman, EMI and the Bowie Estate have clocked writing "Bowie" on something (anything) is a pretty good way to extract money from me, from a branding perspective putting a picture of a koala on something is quite a good way to get me to buy it. 

there was no general dissatisfaction or argument with Andrex, by the way. just a simple, straightforward economic argument for changing brand. a certain supermarket (it starts and ends with l) gave a generous discount on the Cushelle ones, and then gave an even more generous discount on my shopping entire. in actual and real terms (or possibly either/or) i think the net (or gross) cost (or spend) for me to have a go at some Cushelle toilet paper was south of £2. for that money i got a lot. 

absolutely not is the answer to any question you may have in regards to (or in respect of) exactly how long i believe it shall take me (and the quite rare visitor) to get through 24 rolls of koala endorsed Cushelle toilet paper. for a more general, quasi thumb suck guess, i would be somewhat surprised if i needed to purchase more at any point of the first half of this year (2025). it might be that in the time between the Glastonbury corporate weekend and the Oasis shenanigans i will note a depletion of my stock, but that would (i suspect) be dependent on how much time i am actually at home before then and, well, exactly how much of it i propose to use. 

switching (and this is a rare if not serious then not intended to be humorous observation, yes i know i am rarely funny) brands is a decidedly risky move when it comes to personal, or if we are honest intimate, intended use items. we are creatures always seeking comfort, and that is no criticism. one generally sticks with a brand because they know it and are comfortable with it. outside of companies ceasing to make stuff (i refer you to my Dad and his beloved love bead toothpaste, search away) it would be usual only for people to switch such brands for economic reasons. to evidence that, well, look at my plight with illicit (ahem, sorry, independently imported and distributed) cigarettes. gone is the financial ability to enjoy Marlboro Red all day every day, here is an era of goodness knows what i am smoking on the cheap but it gets the job done. 

once more i state that i would take as a given no one shall have much interest (if any) in this, but then again if you have read all the way to this point my thanks for doing so. as of yet no, i have not actually tried this new toilet paper (i was not so close to running out as i thought), and also no, i shall not be sharing any sort of performance review here. sorry for that. 

be fair dinkum to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

педалі ротманаў

прывітанне

despite being slender in the grander scheme of things (such as the whole world population, look you see) there are a surprising number of people who(m) do not wish me ill. certainly some of you reading that will consider them absurd, but still. if anything they wish me a much (more) better health in this life, and would like nothing more than me to abstain from (as in quit) smoking. up to now, alas, i have not really been able to meet this lovely wish. and no, i am not breaking news of me doing so. 

just a reminder, which very much echoes the above, that smoking is quite bad for you. if you do smoke, seek help, guidance and assistance in quitting, even if i do not. also don't start doing it. there, that shall do as some form of disclaimer. 

a "thing" what people do with the coming of a new year is to make resolutions. for some reason the vast, if not overwhelming, majority of people what do so elect to do so for positive reasons. why does no one ever declare a wish to be more harmful, or eviler, for the year ahead? quite a few end up being this, after all. no matter, and in moving on many, of course, go "new year, new me", and decide that this new year is the year in which they shall quit smoking. such is to be applauded and encouraged. 

well, no, i have done no such thing. i cannot recall ever making any resolution, although now i think i did, a couple of years ago, set myself a target of reaching my bestest ever score on River Raid. having managed to do that really early in that year, the remainder of it was a bit of a breeze. 

on something of a whim, though, i have, it would seem, made a slight adjustment to my choice of smoking product. well, sure, still cigarettes, but different. from an independent distributor, with who(m) i believe i have a good working relationship, i have taken quite a shine to some Rothmans cigarettes. not really "regular" ones, but smaller, thinner ones which have one of them "click balls". that last aspect makes them all the more illicit, then, as for some reason flavoured or "menthol" cigarettes are entirely banned, rather than just taxed beyond any rational level. 

these are not the cheapest independently distributed (ahem) cigarettes available. for a price guide these are costing me £6 a pack, which is £1 a pack more than "regular" independently procured ones. in a sense yes i am paying more for less (or "fewer"), but still paying considerably less than "proper" overtly taxed ones from regular shops. which can't sell this type. 

for scale, then, one of these cigarettes next to a tape. yes, if you are saying that's a really, really smart looking tape, i agree. quite likely it would be (much) more better for me to have put a standard cigarette next to this one for a better scale sense, but, well, i didn't.

provenance of these cigarettes? yes, i know they are "fags", but i get into a lot of needless silly bother when i use the proper name, for our friends in America have a different understanding of that word. going on the lettering (or text) on the packets i had a wild guess that they might be off of Russia or Greece, and it turns out i was somewhat close with half of that. some (quite) small print in the lid of the packs has a vague web address. i didn't visit the site but some research suggests these, despite being branded as Rothmans of London (innit), are off of Belarus. oh. not ideal, since that means i am likely and inadvertently funding some Russian concern, but go ahead and take that up with them what put such ridiculous tax and "duty" on similar products here in England. 

review? they are actually a decent, if somewhat lighter than i would usually have, cigarette. no real insane overwhelming sense of chemicals and toxins when you smoke them, which isn't always the case when indulging in other independent cigarettes. on pressing (or "clicking") the red dot on the filter the cigarette flavour changes to an unexpectedly enjoyable cherry like one. 

up to now these are the only cigarettes what i have smoked this year (2025). well, no, not just four packs, these are showcased purely as they have the "least worse" warning images on them. i suspect that i might have some "proper" (albeit independently procured) sized cigarettes soon, but these are pleasant thus far. 

i would be reluctant to deliver any sort of "hope" or positive signs for those that happen to wish i remained a concern and further would (very much) like me to quit smoking, but these ones have got me giving some consideration to trying all that "vape" thing again. right now i am enjoying inhaling and exhaling this cherry flavoured stuff. isn't that what "vaping" amounts to? let me, at the least, give you assurance that i am considering it. now if they came up with a perfect, spot on Marlboro vape, well, all this would be academic and it would be a done deal. 

once again, in closing, a reminder that smoking is quite bad for you, and if you do smoke then please consider quitting. should you not smoke, really, don't start. 

будзьце выдатнымі адзін да аднаго!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

laundry visit

hello there

my instinct is to say (or write, if you will) that if you were looking to spend some time reading all about something that is mundane or of little interest then you have reached the right place. however, on reflection, i just might try and make this of some vague use, look you see. 

as the title not so much suggests as it does state i made a visit to a laundry service recently. no, this year has not commenced in a way which was quite so exciting as last. the reason for this visit, other than the obvious, was to get some bedding washed. for day to day laundry concerns i have agreeable ways to wash and subsequently dry clothes in my lodgings in my place of exile. it is simply not so that i can do bedding in such a way, for there is no practical means to dry it. 

perhaps some of you are interested, if not intrigued, to know if i went full tilt Nick Kamen since i was in an appropriate place to do so. the answer is a straightforward no. other than me somewhat lacking the physique to do so, i also didn't have any Levi's on, and nor was there any classic music playing. where i reside is reasonably cosmopolitan, but i suspect that had i gone done Nick Kamen then the authorities would have been contacted and i would have been placed on some register or other. sorry.

how much did this laundry adventure cost me? and yes, i appreciate that's a definition stretching deployment of the word adventure. well, the wash element cost £5.50 and the drying element cost me £3.50, so a flat £9 in total. this cost did not seem unreasonable when various factors are considered. such factors would be needing to get the bedding washed, relevant equipment for doing so available, maintenance and business costs, energy use, etc. or not etc, as that's about it. for comparison, of sorts, when i dropped off a similar number of bedding items at a laundry in Ealing the fee, bearing in mind we speak of London (innit) was north of £20. on one (1) instance William agreed to do my bedding for a fee close to what Ealing charges, but he grew tired of doing it. not that i go through all that much in the way of bedding, but still. 

for some form of "practical" information here, on an energy cost basis to do washing and drying at home would be somewhat cheaper. some brisk, quick internet research, and do be mindful of how energy prices are not fixed and we are in some crisis or other, suggests that the wash would have cost around £1, whereas the tumble dryer run time would have cost £1.50. that, however, is reliant on one having both a washing machine and tumble dryer at home. such equipment is not cheap. i would reasonably expect one would have to make an outlay of around a grand (£1,000) to get a decent one of each type of machine. 

just how many loads of washing and drying would one need to do to "negate" (or balance out) the cost of the most modest priced laundry service i could find? not really sure. i could try and work it out but it feels like a bit of a headache, especially when you factor in maintenance and what have you. also fluctuating energy costs over time. hang on, i think i can sort of work it out, but first some video. 

exactly how useless the camera on one of these Samsung A14 (or whatever it is) phones is appears to be rather exemplified by the above, does it not. around ten (10) seconds of footage and it is incapable of staying, or remaining, in focus. oh well, perhaps some of you like such video clips. 

right, is using a laundry (like what i gone done) ultimately more cost effective than doing it at home? let us assume that i would do one (1) load a week, and leave transportation costs out of it since it's all in walking distance. factoring in the cost of washing pods and (likely) fluctuations in energy costs, that more or less (kind of) comes in at £550 a year, or "per annum" for those what like to sound quite posh. ergo, or rather very roughly, it would likely take one north of two (2) years to "break even" on buying a washing machine and tumble dryer and just doing it at home. but then you have to factor in convenience and all that. with this, of course, being based on the laundry of one (1) person, moi. 

to state the obvious (for those who require such) the above is "more the vibe of it" than any sense of a fact based conclusion. still, it enabled me to write of this laundry visit in a more facts and figures, if not particularly interesting, way than i had expected. 

what did i do as the laundry equipment did its thing? read, actually. those of you who(m) for some reason read this blog on a regular basis (thank you for doing so) shall be aware that of late, as in the last year, i have had a "drop off" in interest in reading. merrily the book i have selected to read now is most engrossing and enjoyable. also i nipped in a nearby shop to get a drink (sadly no coffee available, it may well be i take a flask next time) and i think that's about it. 

not entirely sure at this stage if i can commit to making sure any further adventures (or exploits) during the year (2025) ahead will be more interesting than this. well, i have at least 4 (four) gigs booked at this stage, with not a single one of them being Oasis. presumably at least one of them might be a bit more exciting than the laundry. a temptation exists to write here of how, unexpectedly and potentially inexplicably, actually the laundry visit was more interesting than the James gig last year, so probably for the best if i just sign off now. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hope is the future with oceans of cheer

howdy pop pickers

yes, indeed i am aware that there's a certain other event of (significant) music meaning for me which happened on this day, with the date today being the tenth of january. i do, however, believe that Bowie gets quite frequent mentions here, look you see. giving over one day to Frankie doesn't seem all that much in the grans scheme of things. 

once again it was so that i said "no", there's nothing left for me to say or share in regards of the day when i went and gone done saw Frankie live. with my Uncle, of course (no, the other one). but then i got messing about with an older "netbook" device, needing some file or other from it, and there sat the bootleg tape (transferred to mp3) of the actual gig i was at. also sat there was the software to edit it down a bit, so as to present another song from the show. 

due, mostly, to the poor quality of the audio on the below video i am not too sure how much interest it shall be to anyone. for me that the recording exists at all is a happy thing, and that will suffice. i cannot confirm it but i am assuming someone bootlegged it on a very fancy walkman that had a microphone on it. believe me, this was not a standard feature of such devices. 

well, here you go, on the off chance you were at the Manchester G Mex (as it once was) on January 10 1987, behold the sound (on a black screen video as it is the only way i can add it here) of Frankie Goes To Hollywood (very much) doing Rage Hard. 

this song, Rage Hard, was famously the "comeback" single for the band. it came out in 1986, and was just about the first "new" thing heard from them since 1984. well, if you allow for the only release of 1985, the Welcome To The Pleasuredome single, being rather widely heard in the year before. a strange thing, for as exciting as their return was, it pretty much marked the start of the end. not sure exactly when in 1986 the single came out (i vaguely recall late summer), but within a year of it making it only to number 4 (four) in the charts, the band ceased to exist. oh. still, i got the chance to see them.

how and why did Frankie fall, or possibly fail? lots of reasons, with the most prominent and likely ones being related to how members of the band were not exactly keen to work together no more. personal and professional reasons, really, none of which are likely things i am best placed to write of. 

mostly, i think, it was that the fun element of the band had gone. sure, there were a few bits of fun hidden away, like the riotous tour of the twelve inch and Ped swearing on the b-side of the 12" single of Rage Hard, but it wasn't in your face. also, 86 was a time of colourful pop, overall. here came Frankie back with a single that had dowdy coloured fists on the cover, a not too much fun (yet still brilliant) song and a wish to be if not shades of grey then black and white. after four brilliant, iconic and in many instances groundbreaking promo videos, Frankie returned with a video that was effectively them stood on a bit of scaffolding, shouting and looking poignant. 

perhaps it was always meant to be that Frankie would personify the idea of how the light which burns twice as bright burns half as long. they did indeed burn so very bright. rather, perhaps, that the fell and disintegrated than plodded on in mediocrity. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

book reading

greetings

a peculiar thing to have happened over the last year or so is my experiencing a lack of interest in reading. not entirely sure you are interested in such a plight, but then again here you are reading this. moving away from that slight (sorry). can't really understand why. perhaps i have just been too busy, and vaguely social, look you see, to read, yet also i am aware of a lack of motivation to do so. i am not sure this is something to be concerned of, what with various medical concerns being warned of when one loses interest in things, or just me simply not being in the mood for reading. 

of more relevance, and quite possibly the reason you are here, is that i have done some reading, albeit taking far longer with it than usual. not, as i encourage people to see it, that it's a sort of race. as would be the standard for such posts i've finished off reading two (2) novels. and so for the sake of having something on this blog, here we go with my thoughts. 

keeping with the "tradition" or style of how i do these, this is to be the last paragraph which is certain to be free of spoilers. for a brief overview, the long awaited, much anticipated Year Of The Locust by Terry Hayes is sheer brilliance for about 400 pages and then isn't. one that somehow slipped me by on its original publication three (or so) years ago is The Twist Of A Knife off of Anthony Horowitz. it once again features the author himself as a quasi-fictional character and narrator. sadly this one is just a bit too much on the "meta" side of meta, which might well be why i didn't catch it on initial release. 

from here on out, then, one of them *** SPOILER WARNING *** things is very much in place. if you have an interest in either novel yet for some reason have paused to consider my view on either, well, you are best off working out if you should read them or not from the previous paragraph. 

such was the brilliance of Terry Hayes first novel, I Am Pilgrim, i was eager to read his next. just how eager is illustrated by how i very nearly bought the hardback, and then came close to getting the fancy digital "ebook", despite me not enjoying reading either of those formats. but, ultimately, i waited for the paperback of The Year Of The Locust. actually can't recall the provenance. most probably Tesco, and i will have bought it no matter if there was a "card member" discount or similar offer. 

plot? with mercy not a sequel, but a standalone thriller. sometimes i think authors in this weird century overlook that they can write a one off novel with no care or thought for follow ups or "expanded universe" shenanigans. oh yes, plot. 

the narrator / protagonist (of many names) is a "denied access agent", meaning he gets sent off to all sorts of dangerous places where the Americans aren't allowed an official presence but suspect that those places have some quite naughty people who mean to do harm to their way of life. it just so happens they stumble on some disturbing news, that a feared terrorist believed dead (nicknamed The Locust with an initial lack of name) is very much alive and planning a "major" strike on America. so off our narrator is sent to sort it out, kind of, with the plan being to discover what the event will be, stop it and if at all possible actually make sure this feared terrorist is dead. it doesn't all go smooth. 

i can comfortably say that the first 400 pages of this novel are superb. all of it is truly gripping, riveting reading, with some surprise twists and turns in the somewhat generic plot, all presented with some wonderful prose and exceptional turn of phrase. everything about the first 400 (or so) pages is very much something that makes a reader go "yes", and made the lengthy wait for the novel worthwhile. 

not so much the last 200+ pages. you all saw that spoiler warning, yeah? well, i am sure this has all been covered online over the last two or so years. there was a lengthy "delay" in the publication of the novel, and the excitement went away quite quickly when it came out. i would imagine the "delay" was due to publishers begging, pleading and insisting that the part where the novel goes "Hunt For Red October time travel what the f*** is this a rewrite of The Final Countdown film" be changed, and that the novel not become some ludicrous, ineffective science fiction mess. alas, and sadly, The Year Of The Locust becomes the personification of how "subvert audience expectations" can go really, really bad. 

once again i draw your attention to the spoiler warning. the whole "time travel submarine" idea is just completely f*****g stupid, even when allowing for a "suspension of disbelief". it undermines the other parts of the novel. the technology which ("accidentally") lets the sub travel in time was first used on a radar defeating missile. how come that missile worked as intended and did not time travel? leaving aside the bizarre way in which the narrator survives the (conveniently precise timing) time travel in the sub, how on earth could they have set it "back" to present day when they had no idea at all how it managed to travel "forward" in time? i am quite sure i shall not be the first to wonder such. 

the truly disappointing thing is that this farcical, ludicrous "time travel" segment pretty much ruins the novel, and for no good reason. all of the plot points, even (or particularly) the "cosmic space dust accidentally gives super powers" one, could have been resolved without the submarine stuff. rather baffling that a novelist would come up with a work they must surely know was fantastic and the seek out ways to make it a frustrating, unenjoyable mess for readers. 

next up then is The Twist of The Knife, which as i mentioned i must have somehow missed when it came out. that or Tesco did not bother to stock it for some reason, or hid it quite well. anyway, i got my copy off of WH Smith when i spotted it, with a friend very kindly purchasing it as a gift. 

once again this is novelist Anthony Horowitz using himself as a somewhat kind of fictional character, and once again following the investigation work of detective Daniel Hawthorne (who i take as a given is entirely fictional) in solving a murder. the twist with this one, however, is that the primary suspect in the murder (of a theatre critic who was unkind to one of his plays) is Anthony Horowitz himself. 

whilst i can't recall exactly how long it took me to read this i think it took two or three months to plod through it. quite pedestrian and surprisingly dull, to be frank. the other Horowitz / Hawthorne novels were incredibly compelling reading, i think i tore through each of them in two to three days, for they were just irresistible. perhaps it is the plot premise at fault here, as you just know it's not going to be Horowitz that's the killer and also you know that Hawthorne will work it out. with so much of the narrative being about Horowitz taking a most decidedly the English way of doing things approach to fretting about being arrested for murder one doesn't really get all that much to be interested in who the actual killer is, or why they gone done it. 

earlier (rather than later) i mentioned this novel was all a bit too "meta", even in the context of the overall meta concept for these books. it's quite like the author new he had a reasonably good idea for a story but one that was simply not as good as the others. still, the written style remains absolutely superb, and whilst it's disappointing overall it was still a good read. although i did get rather tired of the frequent reminders of other works by the same author cropping up in the novel. 

yes, of course i shall be reading any and all other works by these authors. as it happens i have a more recently published one by Anthony Horowitz sat here, but i imagine it will be one of a few John Grisham novels i appear to have stockpiled next. not quite sure how much "brand damage" Terry Hayes has managed to do with this novel, indeed for all i know many readers may have liked the absurd, yet needless, twist. it might be that he's not allowed to do another one, but as with everything money talks. 

perhaps, or maybe, my year (2024) of global travel, theatre experiences, cinema visits and celebrity encounters just took away all the time i would have usually used to read. oh well. i am hoping to find some novels that are truly engrossing (or similar), though, as it would be a shame if i ceased reading all together, or found myself doing it from a sense of having to. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

agfa horror trailers

hey there

and so on to (another) new year. not sure, to be honest, if i actually have the will, stamina or interest to keep doing updates here. but let me try and plod on, look you see, for what else would i do with what little time i have. quite possibly getting a new keyboard might make writing more interesting, as i really do not care for the one i am presently using. 

oddly i have had (considerably) more time than i would be used to having "off", as in not being at verk. taken annual leave, as it were, or on "holiday". mostly i have spent this kind of laid up doing little, feeling the rather unpleasant affects (or effects if that is right) of a nasty bout of ebola laced man flu, which is the worst kind. 

still, i have at the least tried to watch some of the videos (discs) i have amassed over the year. a problem with doing this was becoming aware of just how many i had picked up, and thus wondering where to start with them all. it might be the case that i don't need to get any new ones for a while, although i very much will be purchasing the video (disc) of The Substance when it comes out. 

in the mean time i watched the one above, called (as it is) The Agfa Horror Trailer Show. my assumption was that the "agfa" part there was something to do with a camera film company (and possibly cameras too) that i can vaguely recall from the 80s. not so, i believe it is initials, or an acronym since (to be fair) it is a kind of pronounceable word, for "American Genre Film Archive" or something like that. 

my purchase of this, as part of some "2 for £15" deal, was purely based on the idea that it was highly likely some of the trailers on the disc would feature an agreeable level of nudies. bit hit and miss on this front, really, as there are a few moments of very pleasant nudies, but perhaps not quite so much as i would have liked for the money. a friend and colleague who was with me when i purchased it commented that it was "f*****g ridiculous", the idea of paying for what essentially amounted to watching some adverts, may well have had a good point. 

there are a few points of interest on the disc. certainly an unexpected highlight was a (brief) advert for cigarettes, as pictured above. yes, indeed i have had the chance to try a few of them, some quite frequently. unlikely that i will play the disc again, though. although who knows. the kind of grainy, rough "real" film feel was most enjoyable compared to the usual smooth, sickly and quite nauseating sense one gets from new "digital" film. but that said the "extras", a set of trailers for films made on video directly for the video market (and featuring far too many Nigerian films) was awful. 

likely it shall just sit as yet another eccentric, off the beaten track volume in my video (disc) collection. perhaps it would have been a bit better if there was some sort of thematic link to the films for which the trailers are included here (if that sentence makes sense), or if there was an idea that the trailers were all set out in some specific order. just randomly taped together and shoved on a disc appears to have been what they went for. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!