terminator, tin machine and twin peaks

hi there

yes, it is another post of stuff i have found that may be of interest to some. as just about everything is now boxed, you may or may not be pleased to learn that this is likely to be the last such post of this nature for quite a while. to that end, thanks for bearing with me, those of you who have had no interest in discoveries, and nice one to all who have spotted something of interest, even if only in passing.

right, on we go then, and in this age of e-readers, or the kids simply not reading, here's something that might confuse younger members of the internet establishment even more than the idea of paying for music and getting it on a disc. behold, a bookmark. but not an ordinary bookmark.

yes, that is a Terminator bookmark. specifically, a T2 3D bookmark, released to celebrate the 3D show thingie that they had on where they make the movies and that in America. someone going there kindly got me it as a gift, but i do not recall who. i suspect Gillian, but it may have been Mum & Dad, or indeed even quite possibly the sensational Harlo gang. whoever it was, cheers.

the image you see of Arnie is one of them hologram things. when you tilt it, it changes into one of those metal terminators; i think maybe they call it the exoskeleton or something. very smart.

at the great risk of sounding ungrateful, the only problem with Terminator 2 is that in no way is it a proper Terminator film. there were nice smoke and mirror effects which dazzled a few people, but at heart the plot, premise and conclusion were all out of whack with what the point of the films is. Terminator 3 is a far better, true sequel to the original classic.

i appreciate the above is very much against the norm and accepted view of such things, as indeed is my unbridled love for the band featured next. yep, tin machine time.

these are the two apparently rare "in a tin" singles from the Tin Machine II album. things that not too many people bought, and thus missed out on some top quality music. I cannot imagine that these were all that rare if stock made it as far as HMV Middlesbrough, but over time perhaps people have thrown them out or something.

i don't remember these being more than a couple of pounds each. which was a bargain, considering this was 1991 and just look at the quality of the printing on the disc below.

not sure if you can make out the tracklisting there, but in short that's the you belong in rock n' roll cd. the "extended" mix features a good deal more of Tony Sales going "dadingdading" on his bass, and indeed a few more pretty "daddadalilaldaliah" things off of Reeves Gabrels and his guitar. as far as i am aware, and i have the "standard edition" CD single of this too somewhere, this tin version was the only one to feature their pretty good cover of Shakin' All Over.

as for a broader look at the inner workings of the boxes, or tins if you like, here you go.

the fold out thingie with picture came with you belong in rock n roll, with you getting a free sponge with baby universal. nice one boys. the pictures are nowt special, or are they? they are basically head shots (as, yes, i know, you worked out all by yourself) of the images of the boys from the inner of the Tin Machine II album, but as you cannot get that album any more, perhaps they are a bit rare. not long after this Hunt (the one with the hat) bleached his hair, and Reeves (the one on the end who is not David Bowie) has done all sorts of exotic things to his hair ever since he started hanging around with The Cure.

here is a look at the back, or if you like bottom, of the tins.

the three extra tracks on the baby universal one are from a Radio One session. i think that Mark Radcliffe may have hosted it. not sure, i have it all on tape here somewhere - features class interviews and the humour of Hunt. and the vocals of Hunt, of course, on Stateside.

this was all from a time when Radio One was decent, very decent in fact, and downright essential. i am led to believe it went quite bad in the late 90s. for some reason, from what i am told, they decided to place great emphasis on being the station of twats. out went everything decent, in came twats hosting twat conversations about twat "musicians" and music made by twats for twats. quite sad to hear that; it seems as bad as when MTV decided to just basically stop showing music videos in favour of shows featuring pregnant 16 year olds shouting at each other.

onwards, then, to something that has caused great excitement and interest when i have mentioned it in passing to one or two. if you were to ask is there such a thing as a board game based on the magnificence of Twin Peaks, the answer is most assuredly that yes there is,

it looks amazing, doesn't it? actually this thing is a bit of a headache and something of a dilemma to me. the game itself is utter, utter crap - bad to the point that it's all but impossible to actually play it to any sort of conclusion. however, it has Twin Peaks in big letters on the front (and sides as you will see below), so that automatically makes it, as point of fact, excellent, and all the stuff inside it is related to Twin Peaks, making it even more excellent.

the only really plausible way to explain the crapness of the game itself is that human evolution and development has obviously stagnated somewhere in the last 20 years and we, as people, have not developed our minds and brains enough as such as yet to be able to meet the demands of the game.

yes, i agree, that "corner" image i took there is quite stylish.

i will do my best to explain the game without spoilers. actually, i can't explain the game and it probably has spoilers.

i think you are supposed to work out who killed Laura Palmer. to do this you go around the board in a very Dale Cooper way. it is something to do with collecting wedges, and possibly donuts, until something (a circle, maybe) is formed out of all those wedges. or something like that.

the main problem would be that these clues and wedges are overloaded with red herrings. there are lots of characters, but if i recall it is only possible for one or two of them to turn out to be the killer.

a lot of people complained that the Twin Peaks TV series was too confusing. this i have always found strange, as it is the clearest, most linear thing David Lynch has done, beyond that time Mel Brooks hired him to do The Elephant Man, at the least. any accusation that states this game is too confusing, or indeed the personification of confusion, would be spot on, really.

but look! it has loads of Twin Peaks references, and an FBI Agent's Handbook, by Special Agent Dale Cooper himself!

i was partially tempted to read the book again, thinking it to be a good idea. but then i remembered that thing from Blackadder II where Nursie says that good ideas can make your feet fall off so i decided not to read it again.

here you go, then, with a look at the donut things (brown circles), the "wedges", the clue cards and the pretty conventional pieces that you theoretically use to sort of move around the board and progress with the game.

am i likely to ever try and play the game again? maybe. if for some reason i find myself in the presence of three fellow Twin Peaks enthusiasts and they get all eager about it, why not. i might even warn them that it is not as good a thing as it may seem.

thanks for reading!



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