viewing pleasure endeavours

hello

well, not sure what (exactly) came over me, but i went on a bit of a bender watching some tapes (discs) of late. as would be usual, then, some comments. this blog of mine is not the only outlet for airing such views, look you see. except, mostly, i suppose, actually it is. 

indeed i opted (or elected) not to use the term "films" or "movies", for at some points i watched different sorts of tapes (discs). as point of fact, also i watched some broadcast ("streaming") stuff too. but, well, if you read on, you will see what's what. or, you know, scroll down and see if any of the images i have chosen to beautify this with take your fancy. 

quite a few of the things what i have watched are in the above image, presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. well, no. i think there's 14 (fourteen) titles below, which sounds like an awful lot of writing i have committed myself to. oh. anyway, mindful of my maths not being too good, i suspect what is shown is a 52% to 48% split of things watched. should the modern world have taught us anything, it is that this is a definitive and conclusive margin. 

just in case, yes, one of them much fabled *** SPOILER WARNINGS *** is in place for all of the remainder of this post. 

no, i am not going to present these in any particular, specific or pacific order. except, maybe, them what i watched on those "streaming" things, because why not. and to start with, then, a disclaimer or maybe even a qualification. often, when i do these things, i wonder why, thinking (or assuming) that anyone what would wish to see any of them would have done so already. and then i go, well, it has taken me somewhere north of 35 years to actually getting around to watching Death Race 2000.

surprising that it took so long, really. i mean, i am to be found kneeling at the altar of the video game that is Carmageddon, which was inspired by this. probably never saw it before now as it was either banned off of the bbfc here in the UK, or shredded to ribbons by same censors. and then likely i just forgot about it. but then there it was, cheap and apparently uncut on a market stall. 

after such a long (but not necessarily intensive) wait, was it worth it? yeah, maybe. the thing what stuck me most was the David Carradine character, being in all black, wearing a black helmet, and being more machine than man underneath. some two (2) years before Darth Vader out of Star Wars. go figure. in terms of the most important part of any film, yes, there is an agreeable and interesting level of nudies in it. also one Sylvester Stallone, pre-Rocky, is in it, as a nasty character. clearly made on the cheap but inventive with resources, it was enjoyable. no doubt the recent(ish) remake is a cgi nightmare. 

on, then, to the murky world of "streaming services". and, as it happens, and believe me by accident, first up indeed there is a (sort of) link to the above, for it is Obi Wan Kenobi what i watched. which wasn't a film, but a series. that maybe they should have made into a film; indeed i am aware that someone has edited it down into one, of sorts. 

back to the realm of the Star Wars prequels, then, which i am delighted are finding acceptance and love in audiences these days. some people were right nasty about them, but at heart they were the pure fantasy escapist entertainment what the films were always intended to be. wonderful to see key members of the cast back, the new additions are great, and the story is amazing. 

with regards to (or in respect of) the story, well, wow. famously, or infamously, them what do these things now, Disney, wildly misjudged what sort of "subvert expectations" Star Wars fans would be interested in or open to. stuff like having the original cast back but not at the same time, and quite a bit of The Last Jedi, for instance. but note perfect here. everyone knew, from the original films, that Kenobi hung around on Tatooine to act as a protector for Luke, and the trailers for this series made it look like that was the direction here. big surprise, to be sure, and a welcome one, when it was all an Obi Wan and Leia adventure in the series. see, Disney, you can make subvert expectations work beautifully. 

the series is six (6) episodes long, and each "thematically" echoes Episiodes I - VI of Star Wars in a subtle, brilliant way. at times the series could have been called Vader and that is not a bad thing. you are left wanting more and more, but you know what, leave this here. some sort of Darth Vader thing, or his presence (felt) in another film or show would be good, but this is the perfect "bridge" story between the much loved original films and back to the growing in love prequels. yes, he says the line in it. 

for many, many years i pretty much avoided watching Breaking Bad. yes, i was aware of the good reviews, and it looked interesting. but, ultimately, it struck me as likely to be too linear. certainly i eventually saw it, and indeed it is (was) brilliant. partially i watched it because of friends and contemporaries urging me to, the celebrated Anthony Hopkins letter was a factor, but mostly it was down to me being intrigued by the sound of a spin off called Better Call Saul. that immediately sounded like my sort of thing, and it was clear i'd need to have an understanding or the parent show before watching. 

in a lifetime of making some poor, or ill-advised decisions, watching both proved to be very wise and very rewarding. true, Better Call Saul might not have followed the path or narrative structure i or others had expected, but the way it went, simply genius. some have gone to the extent of saying that this series is even better than the show from which it spins off, if that is worded right. i would be hard pressed to say which is "better". certainly, absolutely it is so that Better Call Saul benefits from the learning curve of the original, as in what worked well and what didn't work as hoped. ultimately both are very much worth the many hours of viewing needed. 

moving on to the third and final watched by streaming means Prey. which is a Predator film without having the name (or word) 'predator' in the title. bold, brave move to get that past the marketing types, so hats off. a lot of people have gone off on one, declaring this the "best since the original" and complaining that this one really should have been a cinematic release. um........

up to now i have not met a Predator film i didn't like. obviously the original has a special place in the heart for me and everyone else. but the rest have had "moments", and been more good than bad. this is very much the truth of Prey. but that doesn't mean it is "better" than Predator 2, or Predators, or even the wonders of South Park Imaginationland. yeah, likely better than The Predator but still i did like that one, at least until the stupid "uber Predator" turned up. 

lots and lots have been said of the great things of Prey, so i guess i can chip in on the weaknesses. first off, no, this was clearly made for a home audience. absolutely none of the visuals say it should have been a cinematic experience, thanks - it is perfect on a big tele at home. most disappoint was how, well, quite sh!t the Predator looked sans mask. the look in the original Predator and for that matter Predator 2 was iconic, brilliant, scary and also added to the dark humour of the creature. no idea why they went ahead and changed it to one that looks worse. maybe i didn't like this one all that much, for i cannot see circumstances in which i would want to watch it again. the others, certainly i would. 

of what i have watched of late (in terms of this batch), which was the worst? are you asking that? if so then the answer, somewhat regrettably, is an Arnold Schwarzenegger film called Maggie. 

no, me neither, in answer to any (and all) comments about having never heard of it. somewhere on the internet i saw one of them "things" with a picture and text, saying how it was "Arnold's greatest ever acting performance", and how he did it for "free" (the acting yes, the "executive producing" maybe not so much) because he believed in the project so much. indeed i was suspicious about how good a relatively unheard of film with such a big star (i assume he still is one?) could be. especially when one could buy the tape (disc) of it for south of £2 on the internet. but yeah, tried it. 

plot? mindful of this being mid 2010s, some sort of "plague" has decimated the world, turning those infected into zombie like creatures. as it happens, Arnie's daughter (the titular Maggie) gets infected, and the film is him wrestling with this, not wanting to "let her go" in any sense. 

it's sh!t. there really isn't any other review. no, Arnie does not deliver an acting tour de force. the story is tired, and has been done before. pacing is a complete mess, and it drags on in a dreary, dreadful way. further, they do that Game Of Dragons last series ("season" if American) or so thing where they make everything so dark you can't see and are soon persuaded to lose interest. avoid this one.

happy days, then, with Witchfinder General. there was absolutely no way that a film of that name, made in the 70s, and with Vincent Price, could be bad. especially not at (i think) 50p off of a market stall. the plot is something something English civil war, something something witches, something something. for the important stuff, yes, in this "restored" version, a most agreeable level of nudies features, although at times a bit disturbing. 

what i really, really loved about this tape (disc) is in the last sentence, but oddly not the nudies part. it's ace how someone has sellotaped this together from various sources, and those sources are very much of varied quality. a few would find this frustrating, but i loved it when the picture (and sound) quality dramatically dipped for a scene or two; it really felt like you were watching something only unearthed recently, or even better something that you were never supposed to see. leave it dirty and scratch. it was boss when the "restored" The Wicker Man did this on tape (disc), but not when they went and cleaned it all up on the other, other (blu) tape (disc) release. 

but is the film actually any good? well, it kept my interest. don't believe it was made by them, but it certainly has the feel of those classic Hammer movies. also, for a generation of us, it is a bit difficult to take Vincent Price seriously, so perfect was the parody of him on Spitting Image in the 80s. i felt very much like i got 50p value, if that helps. 

pretty sure i have (somewhere) made the point before on this blog (well, i have been writing it for, what, 16 or 17 years), but here it is again. in that screenshot from U2 Zoo TV, what you are seeing with them lights in the audience are not mobile phones videoing it, but cigarette lighters, which were the norm for people to have in general and to wave as such for a "ballad". likely due to it not being practical to take candles to a gig. my, how times have changed. 

kicking around somewhere i have the fancy 2 tape (disc) version of U2 Zoo TV, but then i saw the 1 tape (disc) version in a charity shop and went, oh well. watched it again, of course. quite a tricky one to call, this. just like every concert video which isn't Stop Making Sense off of Talking Heads or Sign O The Times off of Prince, it is very badly filmed, frustratingly so. also, the band aren't giving what you would call one of their top ten performances, not helped by how you can't even just listen to it, for the sound recording is not great either. but it remains a document for an interesting concept. if one takes the premise of it (mindful of it being early 90s) - the sense of so many tv stations vying for viewers that you ended up channel hopping, facing an avalanche of too much information to comprehend or process in a way you would normally do - and applied it to phones and/or social media in the present day, it was absolutely bang spot right on. best U2 live video (disc) in my view is that one which was in one anniversary or another set of The Joshua Tree. recorded in France, to a clearly not capacity audience, just after the album came out. essentially it captures them, arguably for the last time (obviously) at that point where they went from promising band with a growing audience to the biggest thing in the world. for a time, at the least. 

sheer, unbridled merriment was what i experienced, indeed felt, when i found a copy of the tape (disc) of Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man on a market stall. not seen it for a few years, and whenever i have thought to have a look for it on tape (disc) it's always been a bit expensive. on watching it again a quite vague memory of the first time i tried to watch it came back, tearing it out of the video (for it was an actual tape) in disgust at bon jovi being used for the theme. 

in this, my more mature and sophisticated era (by comparison if not fact), i let that slide, and watched all of it again. pretty decent, standard "buddy" action film, of course. within the first twenty (20) minutes one gets two scenes of unnecessary and most agreeable nudies, and you get to see both Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke get their f*****g heads kicked in. do you really need any further review of excellence beyond that? 

for a "critical assessment" thing, my word there is plenty wrong with Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man. all to do with the "baddies". this, as far as i am aware, was one of the first roles what Tom Sizemore had, at least of any prominence. presumably very few casting directors saw it, or chose to generously write it off. worse is Daniel Baldwin, who is absolute junk in this one. oh, you didn't know about the other, other, other Baldwin? he is in this one, showing exactly why he was not in so many other films after this. anyway, the film features smoking, nudies and violence - in particular from some dudes dressed like how people did in The Matrix some 8 years after this came out - so yes, it's really, really good. 

yet another re-watch after a few years next, then, with Perfume being one i wanted to see again. so yes, then, perhaps there is a subconscious pattern to how i am presenting some of these films. quite likely one could find my original (or initial) views on this film somewhere in the history of this blog, somewhere over ten or so years ago. likely more. from what i recall, i was impressed when it came out.

alas, it has not aged well. from the perspective of first watching it, i suspect i was impressed that someone had managed to "pull off" filming Perfume, due to the number of "failed" attempts to do it. once Kubrick was reportedly "interested", and that's what drew me to the novel in the first instance. years later it was circulated that Scorsese wished to have a go, but that came to nothing. 

looking at it again with some "distance" in place, and yes, it kind of more or less gets the essence of the novel, if that is not an unfortunate turn of phrase. also, some of the slight but significant changes work really well to convey the same point. as a constant from then and now, yes, absolutely, Ben Whishaw was perfectly cast, perfection in the role. the same is true of most of the supporting cast. alas, the performances of the two "star names" - Rickman and Hoffman - feel very phoned in. no, i am not happy to write that, but both could have done the roles so much better. 

perhaps the most baffling thing of Perfume is that the notoriously prudish, nanny state, wet nurse ban everything bbfc only gave it a 15 certificate. i would argue, for all the flaws in the film, the first 20 or so minutes are the most distressing and disturbing things possible in a movie. and yes, also there is an absolute pile of nudies in it. no, i doubt i shall watch it again. from what i can gather there's a new, and modern setting, version of it on NetFlix or similar. will give it a pass. 

on watching things again (continuity), i saw the tape (disc) of the complete series of Police Squad, so yeah, bought it. as far as i am aware they never released a "partial" series tape (disc), but just saying what it says on the box. 

should any of you be unaware or unsure, Police Squad is (or was) a tele series done by the brains and quasi star (he is the one you remember, shirley) of the motion picture Airplane!, only doing it with the police instead of airline pilots. exactly the same "out there" deadpan humour and visual gags, yet for some reason (and they talk of why on a documentary on the disc) it failed with audiences. oddly, when they went back to this and made it into motion pictures (The Naked Gun) it was a huge success. maybe some things are not meant for tele. 

but still, i loved it. whether they were arresting a monkey or the bizarre "guest star" for each episode, it is just really, really funny. on procuring this tape (disc) i put it on more or less straight away, thinking i would watch an episode, maybe two. yes, indeed i did end up watching all six (6) binge watching, that is what i think the kids call it these days. although watching all of it takes less than 3 (three) hours. 

yes, then, clearly a pattern has formed, for the next watching experience (pictured above) was also coppers, as in the constabulary, but decidedly not for laughs. i happened to be in a chapter of HMV recently, and they had a sale on. the tape (disc) of Electra Glide In Blue was on sale for south of £2, so i picked it up. mostly i always wondered what the title meant, for when i first heard the name of the film there was no "internet" to look it up. except teletext. turns out Electra Glide is the type of motorbikes what the coppers rode, and the in blue bit references police uniforms. oh. 

rather odd, this one. at times (in particular at the start) it moves so slowly that it might be boring enough to make you think it's a Sidney Lumet film (i checked, it is not). and yet it is always compelling, indeed interesting, thanks to the superb acting. not sure, echoing earlier comments, why this is an '18' as it is not really graphic. also, not sure why over the years some have described it as "fascist propaganda for the police", as the police (overall) do not get painted as looking all that wonderful. fits in very nicely with the other classics of 70s "gritty" or "realism" cinema from America, yet does not feel like a movie one would call "must see". still, glad i got to see it, eventually. 

moving on, then, and another "re-watch". for some reason someone somewhere decided that the world required a fancy blu ray tape (disc) reissue of Whoops Apocalypse, being the film of that name and not the original, very similar but radically different television show. recalling - fondly - a brilliant turn by Peter Cook, an excellent early appearance from Kramer out of Seinfeld and an as usual bonkers performance by Rik Mayall, i clicked order. 

if anything, Whoops Apocalypse is (somewhat) more pertinent to today, or more "relevant" as a parody than it was at the time. absolutely no way in the 80s could we see a PM of the nature that Peter Cook portrays being real, yet here we are. lots (and lots) of the plot really does make it feel like it has been made more recently than the 80s, but i dare not say too much, for, you know, spoilers. surprisingly well is how this film has stood up, especially with the three (3) performances mentioned. go seek it out. 

but, if you wish to save some pennies (and who, today, does not), avoid the blu ray tape and get just the dvd tape. trust me, the extras on the blu variation are, mostly, a disgrace. sure, the section which is an interview with the writers is ace. but then there's one with three people who made the film, one i think was even the director. none of them seemed interested in it, and don't speak kindly. worst is the boom operator, or "man that holds the microphone", who appears to just want to moan about how most of the a-listers (stars, if you like) didn't want much to do with him. go figure. but the biggest disgrace is a section marked as intended as a tribute to Rik Mayall, which features a few minutes of someone saying that they had no wish to talk about Rik Mayall. 

something i had wished to see for many, many years was One Plus One, although these days it is known by the renamed title Sympathy For The Devil. in a comment that would be unlikely to surprise many, then, it features The Rolling Stones, and documents the recording of that song. many note, or observe, that it was made by "that twat Jean-Luc Godard", but that is a little harsh as he is only half French. not sure if "half twat" is a term in common use, but there you go. 

what an utterly, utterly, utterly wasted opportunity this film (documentary, really) is. absolute gold on film, a pivotal moment in the history of the band and the world, but no, the French side of the director came out, all avant garde. essentially you see the creation of the song, one you could argue is of the greatest by the band. but no conventional recording or moment, and no i am not talking about how in it Bill Wyman looks like he would rather be somewhere else and Charlie Watts looks like he wants to be going home for a cup of tea. recording progresses at a time in history when it became necessary to change the lyric "who killed Kennedy" to "who killed the Kennedys". also, you watch Brian Jones just disappear from the band. incredible stuff, ruined by that twat (who might as well be full tilt French) inter-cutting it all with scenes of black panther and then white right wing extremists for no apparent reason at all. i mean, no statement is made. 

famously, or infamously, The Beatles for many (many) years didn't let the original Let It Be film be shown, as in their words it "made it look like band split because Yoko sat on a speaker". the celebrated re-edited version of it, Get Back, tells a whole different (and you have to assume correct) account of it all. it will never ever happen, but it really should be so that someone re-edits One Plus One in a similar way. unlikely, as everything about the twat who made it suggests he wouldn't let someone come and make an actual proper film from it, and the Stones are notorious for airbrushing their history. 

blimey, last film (or bit of watching) for this update. and a bit of a full circle to the first thing featured here, for it features one Sylvester Stallone. when browsing a charity shop i observed, with interest, a tape (disc) of First Blood for sale, for 19p. as it is one of my favourites and i had not seen it in many, many years, i went yeah, go on. 

just a touch south of 40 years since i first saw it, then. in shame and in disgrace i cannot recall which friend, exactly, but they had a pirate tape, and an actual video tape at that, of this and Rocky III, so that was where i saw them first. likely that ten or so year old me was rather impressed with all the senseless violence. nearly 50 year old me is sat in awe, or revelation, at the perceptive brilliance of First Blood. we were really mean to Stallone in the 80s, deriding him when he was clearly a f*****g good actor. looking at this film now and it's all allegorical, metaphor or what have you. brilliant portrays how mental health issues are brushed aside and the dangers of that, the perils of police believing they and they alone define the law, untreated (and/or ignored) post trauma stress, and then some. of course, yes, it is so that the "action" bits are brilliant, but really we should have been concentrating on the other bits in First Blood what Stallone was doing. 

oh. no, hang on. yes, there is indeed one more thing what i watched. quite like some of the above i failed to mention it in the most recently previous post of this sort, so let me not leave it again. 

it was with the mixed sense of curiosity and reluctance that i elected (or opted) to give Pistol, being a telling (or another telling) of The Sex Pistols, a go. on the one side i felt as though i was quite aware of all which could be said, be it via folklore, legend, documentaries, The Great Rock N Roll Swindle, Dead On Arrival, The Filth & The Fury and indeed Sid And Nancy. also John Lydon had tried to block it, well kind of (deny use of music in it), with his comments being they would not let him see the script before he approved it. yet the cast and crew were excellent, and surely it would be a reminder of when music was important beyond just itself; when it could both represent and invoke a change in the world. 

exactly how accurate, being based on one member's memoir, i know not. but yet, truly, it is inspired in its brilliance. Lydon comes across not as evil personified, but a lonely, alienated poet, longing to belong and live in a decent world. far removed from the "genius svengali who planned it all" is McClaren, showcased here as riding of good fortune as well as being horrified (and scared) by what he had ended up unleashing. Jones, unsurprisingly (for it is his memoir) comes over considerably more sympathetic than he has ever been presented; one even warms to him. 

truthfully, i get the wider Lydon concern. perhaps the story should be left to myth and legend, passed on in whispered tales of naughtiness from generation to generation. but, once again allowing for having no idea if it is any more or less accurate that previous tellings, this is excellent. at once the highlight is the most disturbing chapter, Bodies. very brave to select this as showing how their songs came about, yet perfectly illustrates how and why it was the band came to be in society, what they reflected, what they were created from. 

phew. that was quite a bit (as in a lot) of writing. also pictures, and animated stuff. well, let me take a slight break from that sort of thing. 

hopefully some (unlikely all) of this has proven to be of passing interest. 

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

accidental badger encounter

hey there

somewhat inexplicably i do try to "mix up" that of which i write about here. rather strange really, for mostly i just do this out of habit, or more so for me to "get it out of my system", with you all reading it being an unexpected and very much added bonus, look you see. and yet it appears trends form, and of late that has been, to certain ways, watching the wildlife. 

pretty much as the title suggests (or explicitly states) i saw a badger recently, then. quite by chance and indeed accident. this is a matter i have chosen to make perfectly clear, and to do so is for reasons i shall discuss later. many of you, of course, will know immediately and exactly why it is a good idea to stress that you, if UK (specifically England) based, were not deliberately seeking such a creature. 

circumstances of this (most splendid) sighting? once again i was off, far and away, for the purposes or intent of verk. rather than have me travel to and from such for some ten (10) or so hours of each day, they elect, if not opt, to put me in hotels near where such verk shall be. lovely stuff. at various times of any evening in such, i shall have every reason to be outside momentarily, so as to enjoy a cigarette. or two. in one instance of this, i heard a peculiar sound from a grassy like area, so went to inspect. 

yes, i am very much aware that it is not the greatest picture above. and that one was taken with the flash in the "on" position. a lesser (or "fewer") quality one sans flash is somewhere below. no, sadly, i did not take an image in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, for i did not believe it appropriate, and also it would have come out very much "none more black". 

if i have (or had) seen a badger out in "the wild", doing its thing, then it shall be of such a long time since passed (past) that i cannot recall it. so yes, i did consider it quite splendid and remarkable to have been given this chance to see one. quite large, they are, or at least somewhat larger than i had imagined. not that i have spent all that much time considering how big a badger might be, or get. badger size, i suppose, whenever i have given thought to the subject. 

most of the wildlife roaming our land has become wary to the ways of humans. as such, then, i kind of knew it would be skittish and somewhat put out if i overtly disturbed it. whilst i didn't really fear being attacked by the badger (no clue if they do or don't believe they are hard enough to come and have a go) it did feel like i was intruding already, and i had no wish to scare it off. but of course i did end up getting a bit too close, and so the badger noticed me and ran away, at some formidable speed. 

before that happened i was, verily and merrily, able to get a little bit of video (yes, we've got a video) for you, as you can see with a click above. sort of see, i guess, for indeed it was rather well into the business end of the evening. my assumption is that badgers kind of roam around in darker times, for reasons of stealth and not wishing to be disturbed. for all i know they could well be nocturnal by nature anyway, i have not read up on it and if you have well that's amazing, man. 

not all that much of the natural, or indeed introduced, wildlife of our divisive isles is set up or designed to try and kill us. bit peculiar, that, and makes us somewhat different from other countries. there's Australia, for instance, where every living thing has the power, potential and very much the passion to try and slay you where you stand. or sit. at a purely speculative guess American wildlife is going to be something like 50/50. no, not really interested in France. it's probably too dull to have any sort of natural wildlife anyway, and i expect all there just withers and dies of boredom anyhow. 

and so to the very delicate subject of why i stress this was a purely accidental, if not fluke, badger sighting. back a few years ago, say the 80s or early 90s, there was a spate of incidents of gentlemen being found, congregating if you like, in places like heaths and parks, mostly around that there London place. at two, or three, in the morning. a number of these gentlemen were of prominent positions in society, be it members of parliament or senior ranking levels of the judiciary. every now and then it was to be that representatives of the constabulary would be alerted to this, go and investigate (back when the police actually really did so), find the men and ask of them what it is they were doing. routinely the answer would be that they had a concern for the welfare of badgers in the area, and were checking up on them. when asked why, exactly, they were doing so with either their trousers falling loose, or absent entirely, answers along the lines of not wishing to startle the badgers were not accepted at face value. 

let me assure you, as you take in that picture above taken sans flash, that yes, i very much had my trousers on at the time of this incident. also, to the very best of my knowledge, no other gents were around at the time. that said, indeed there was a sort of heath like area close by, but i felt it best not to wander up to it and check. 

do i have any chance or intention of future (rather than past) wildlife spotting? potentially. no real ambitions as such, but i believe i'd like the chance to see further aquatic, or marine (if you like) based creatures of the world. yet to do so without getting wet might be a bit complex. 

until the next instance of my being of a feeling to compose, then. 

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

quite delayed, eventual day of release vibes

howdy pop pickers

for a start, then, or up front if you prefer, it shall be entirely possible for me, or anyone, to discuss this record at (considerable) length without ever mentioning or referencing a single note of music album. i have no doubt that someone, or a few, have indeed done this already, look you see. so, then, let me try and discuss this most recent addition to my collection, The Alchemist's Euphoria off of Kasabian, with at least one or two references to the actual music. 

to the technical side of it all, then. as far as i am aware this is the seventh (7th) album off of Kasabian, coming after a gap of some 5 (five) years from the last, of which one can read here. at last, then, or if you prefer finally, we have an answer. everything of the last album suggested (or indicated) that all future albums would simply be called For Crying Out Loud with the year of release in brackets at the end. last one was For Crying Out Loud (2017) and this one is indeed called The Alchemist's Euphoria rather than For Crying Out Loud (2022). taking (just) north of half a decade to answer this bit of a mystery was unexpected. but then so was the "hiatus" or delay. 

no, of course this isn't the first time in five years we have heard off of the much beloved serge, or sergio, or whatever name you are comfortable calling him. in between the previous Kasabian record and this one we had The SLP (here), way back in 2019. and that record is possibly (perhaps) the best guide to what you will hear here, if for some reason you've not heard the album yet. 

elephant in the room time? sure, and with this certainly unlikely to be the only reference to Spinal Tap here, this is of course the first Kasabian record to feature a whole new direction. a strong argument exists that replacing any member of a band is "difficult", but vocalist is very difficult. certainly it has happened, with the single biggest example of success being Genesis. well, AC/DC too, but that change wasn't really a member being fired or leaving to do something else. and Fleetwood Mac but that was a radical mid-70s overhaul beyond singer. other instances requires defining just what you mean by success. acts to have "pulled it off", and in some instances gone on for a longer time than with the original singer (either temporarily or permanent), include Marillion, The Stranglers, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. none, i would argue, had as much success or as high a profile as they did with the original singer, but absolutely retained a devout following. the absolute, undisputed, textbook example of how not to do this is of course Van Halen, who tried to replace the very much irreplaceable David Lee Roth with.....Sammy Hagar. it's like they went out to hire the worst person they could, not caring what it did not fans or their career, just to spite the great one who left. 

and so Kasabian have a new singer. well, every now and then singer being full tilt always on singer, with serge (sergio) taking entire responsibility for it. no, i am not going to go into the well documented circumstances of the departure (demise, perhaps) of the original singer with the band. it is safe to say, however, that it was in circumstances which could have very much derailed or even ended the band, if not the musicians who are entirely blameless. yet the band survives, possibly from a mix of outright love for serge, an understanding that one individual acted alone and not the band, and let's be honest the band name is just too cool to be disintegrated by one horrible person. 

in commenting on this record i note a lot of people have been saying what i have been saying for some time. and yes, i believe if you search Kasabian on this blog you will see this is to. the loss of the original vocalist is absolutely no loss at all. his dull, flat voice was not suited for rock, and was pretty much, for all their headlining festivals and sell out tours, the one thing holding them back from true, superior rock greatness. surviving without him is no big ask in general, but many of us did wonder would it work with serge stepping up and being the actual frontman, an not just the tacit main lure for us fans anyhow. 

up above, in the image (of non greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode) is what one gets inside the package for the tape (disc). well, when you ordered it off of their official online thing, at the least. and yes, that is a lot of packaging. is having something included signed by the band still a selling point, i wonder? sure, it's a nice thing to have, and i have similar from other artists (it's actually a struggle to buy anything direct from Manics what they have not signed), but it always feels "strange" when you have not, say, met them and got them to sign it. yes, indeed, the massive fold out lyric sheet (poster of album cover on other side) is in an illegible font and written vertically, so pretty much a waste of time. further or also yes, the playing surface side of the tape (disc) is all black. or "none more black", to attract a certain level of comparison. 

perhaps the single most important thing for keeping Kasabian going, and this is a stark, true responsibility of all musicians, is to make sure that Billy Bragg is absolutely not proven right. even if it is by accident. over the years, and i have not read it for a while so don't know if it is true no more, the announcement of a new Kasabian record meant Billy Bragg turning up in NME, deriding them and proclaiming them to be "just Spinal Tap". in this he has forever missed the point that rock can, and should, be a lot of fun, and never ceases to expose how bitter and jealous he is of the success of others, no matter how many "right on" causes he has joined over the years. so, that The Alchemist's Euphoria was released, and i believe (i don't check this either much no more) made it to number one on the album chart, means the record has done what it needed without even playing it. 

how, on paragraph nine (see i told you), is the actual record? well, not bad. as no musician, and just a simple music fan who knows what he (they?) like the sound of without knowing the terms, i can't go on about technical stuff. mostly, then, it's a quality sound. for comparison for the sake of description, it's kind of closer to SLP than any previous Kasabian album, and not just on the basis of vocals. one could offer up the term "psychedelic prog" as a reference, if that helps. but it probably does not. 

whereas chunks of this album are, if by default and design, quite "hope you enjoy our new direction", it is not really that the album is full tilt Jazz Odyssey. i think it would be perfectly fair to describe The SLP as being serge getting most of that out of his system. certainly this record contains, as mentioned earlier, elements of that (ostensible) solo venture, but it's rather more like he took the finest of the more interesting, experimental and perhaps esoteric moments, melding them into something that sounds a bit like what one would expect off of a record with Kasabian written on it. 

stand out, outstanding or highlight tracks? difficult to say, really, with the tracklisting as well as the lyrics being being presented in an awkward, incoherent font. my understanding is that no less that four of the songs here were released ("dropped") as singles, but i can't really recall hearing any of them on the wireless prior to the record eventually turning up. hang on, yes, i think one of the tunes (a sort of slow one) got played off of the band at the end of the women's european football championship. which prompted all sorts of questions of how suitable it was having an all male band play the finale, and of course one recently involved by association in a particularly unpleasant court case. 

most, if not all, of the record all flows as one, really. is that what it is meant to do? can't find too much online about this, but so far as i am aware it's not an outright concept album or rock opera. up to now i have played the album six (i think) times, possibly more. at one stage i played it once again straight away after it finished. so far i really, really can't work out what i "think" of it. certainly i don't hate dislike it, or any other negative. not quite sure how much i "like" it. 

perhaps that's precisely the key or trick here. a true, genuine case of being a challenging album. it clearly and decidedly has a "hook" for the audience, or market (if you prefer), but it's one not immediately or overtly obvious. just something in the sound of the songs latches on to a receptive audience. mostly, i think, whilst clearly "liking" what i was hearing, i was distracted by thinking if serge was going to cut it as the permanent vocalist, and things like that. 

oh, the title of this post. well, as much as i love(d) being able to go to HMV on day of release, or close enough, the way life has taken me since means i am not so free to do so as i once was. ordered it off of the web thing, i did, and it didn't turn up. a replacement copy landed about a week after it was released, and, well, here we are. 

right, that's about that. not the greatest Kasabian album, but probably not the weakest. unsure which one would be that, in truth. very unlikely this will be crowned "album of the year" by the time this year is done, just three (3) or so months from now, too. but, all the same, a worthwhile and ultimately very welcome record, all things considered, to have in the collection. 

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

back when the trains were a thing

ow do

so far as i am aware it remains the case that the various configurations of train service suppliers are unified only in their proclivity to strike. i have not really followed the news so much in respect of this as one gets tired of hearing the same thing on repeat, look you see. mostly, or in short, right now you are most probably not going to get a train because of industrial action, whereas in days gone by you were really very unlikely to get a train because of a whole range of curious reasons. 

certainly, yes, i have indeed mentioned (complained, moaned, whined) about the state of trains in our nation, of how one suffers stress and anxiety at the prospect of even thinking of trying to use them for they just get cancelled, delayed or binned on a whim. my most recent comment was this, which probably didn't go down too well with some. oh dear, shame, never mind. 

anyway this post isn't intended to be a gripe as such, but no doubt will turn into one. if, indeed, it has not done so already with the above comments. more so a look back (rather than forward) to a reasonably recent trip down to that there london (innit). i have not been to london "proper" for a couple of months now, just areas that like to claim they are "london" for marketing purposes. why, beats me, but whatever, as you like. 

i cannot be entirely certain, but i am pretty sure all of these images (animated or otherwise) were taken down at piccadilly circus, which is one of my most favourite places and thus also one of my more preferred tube stations. actually, yeah, on the last picture you can sort of see clearly that this is indeed where i was. making this entire paragraph redundant, i suppose. oh. well, done now. 

this was a time, then, when there were no actual strikes on, and it was just the usual levels of delay one comes to expect and certainly experience with the marvels of the london underground system. it is a network brilliantly planned out and has every chance of being perfectly functional, if it were not for the penchant for staff to not turn up and the proclivity of unions to call strikes. a key consideration of all transport for london (tfl) staff appointments must be that anyone employed must really hate people and really, really f*****g hate london too, wishing to unleash misery on both. for an awful lot of money. 

every chance exists that at the time you are reading this the london (innit) underground is presently not working as intended. this could be out of strike action, or something wrong in general, such as the current state of the weather, or any reason at all they can think of. here, then, in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, is a tube train arriving at a tube station. kind of. 

quite happy with the snipped i caught there, really. well, reasonably happy, i suppose. indeed i did feel somewhat strange stood filming on a tube station platform, and was mindful of attracting suspicious if not funny looks. but hey, know what, i long ago discovered that down there in that london (innit) they look at all so, irrespective of what you may or may not do. 

what, exactly, was i doing down in "the" london to have been in a position to film this? i was in the area for verk purposes, but not at this time. no doubt i would have finished verk concerns for the day, and taken myself off down to piccadilly circus partially to admire the eros statute, possibly to procure postcards off of them weird tourist shops but mostly for some tea. 

very strange how things go, especially with verk. for vast chunks of the commencement of this calendar year it was almost as if i was actually living in the place. yes, thinking back, that probably is as horrific a thought as it would be a reality. the last few months, though, have seen me not head that way. well, not specifically. certainly nowhere near any tube stations, whether they were working or not. 

rather likely, i suspect, that one or two of you will (or shall) have spotted yes, indeed, a Spider Man poster on the go. from what i recall the motion picture had ceased being exhibited for quite some time prior (fewer?) to when i was there, but i suppose they don't rush to update adverts down there. what would be the point if the stations are all closed for strikes or what have you? 

no, i have no idea as to when i shall next be in london "proper", or  making use of any functional train service which happens to be running. probably not for another month (at time of writing) at the least, but one never knows. for now, then, well, hope this was a kind of gentle and in some instances fond reminder of what it was like when the tube and/or trains just did what they were supposed to. 

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

desecration of duran

howdy pop pickers

during each year, be it calendar or just a measured point of month to the following same, i will purchase approximately three quarters of a million tapes (discs) off of charity shops. well, give or take that figure, look you see. mostly, i suppose, i could just write in this blog of finds there, but that might make this even all the more boring that it presently is. yes, think about that. now that i think, actually i have written of such things, recently, kind of. 

every now and then, like now (for instance), i stumble across a disc which must be written of. and not in a particularly good way. recently, rather than in the future the past, i took a chance on a disc called a tribute to duran duran. my focus was the name, for if it were a tribute then surely it would be that they were to praise Simon, Nick and a wonderful variation of Taylors. quite wrong, was i. i was. 

should you have a love, or certain level of affection, for things what are duran duran, you may wish to cease reading. nothing beyond this point shall please you. it may even make you angry, distressed or very possibly quite cross. how someone could have such a dark level of hatred in their heart to have constructed this is rather scary. 

certainly, yes, sure, the main point or purpose of this was to make a financial donation to a charity in return for an item. that's how it works, after someone or other donated the item. i do not wish for any idea that i regret the cost, £1, is begrudged or regretted. actually, rather better that i bought this at whatever price, so that i may destroy it, and prevent others being polluted with this vile slur. 

on seeing the name "mojo" on the back, i went oh, right, ok, this must have been a free cd given away with mojo magazine. which would have explained why i had heard of barely any of the acts paying homage (allegedly) to things of duran, except the one abba tribute act of some note. no, actually mojo turns out to have been an actual, presumably proper record label that went ahead and did this. by that i mean arranged for it to be recorded, pressed, then marketed and sold in the hopes of making money. 

what's the main issue here? as in, why is this so bad, what makes this an obscenity and crime? really horrid, truly awful, darned bad "versions" of songs. near enough all of them sound exactly the same, and that's not good, at all. for some reason "tribute" translated as making all of them sound like rancid, poor man's untalented green day cover band outtakes. a personal favourite, View To A Kill, starts off reasonably well, then a decision is made to screech the lyrics high pitched and ridiculously fast. 

issues with duran duran, i can get. over the years, and you can look for instances on this blog if you wish, i have had reason to quarrel with simes, or simon, or simon le bloody bon, for his futile efforts to borrow (ahem) my look and style and pass it off as his own. but ultimately there is nothing but love for duran from me, and most of the world. everyone in the world except everyone bar the abba tribute act, bjorn again, that was involved in this record. 

just, you know, why? for what reason would you do this? how can you possibly hate someone so much to invest so much money and energy into a false, misleading tribute to express your contempt? surely it would be better for your own health, your psychology and (certainly) the world to just ignore a band you don't like, rather than produce such venom and bile?

there's no way i could see myself doing this to a band, no matter how much i hated them. nearest closest, i suppose, like the overwhelming majority of the people on the planet (including some members of the actual band) would probably be spandau ballet. but, you know, even if i did go and make a horrible record paying "tribute" to them, it would fail, i suppose. it's called the hadley paradox. getting a bunch of people to do awful, tripe, obscene covers of spandau ballet songs would not work as a statement of contempt, for the fact that no members of spandau are on the cover versions means that they are in fact immediately better than the spandau ballet originals. a no win. 

my hope, or wish, is that someone somewhere involved in this monstrosity was arrested. unlikely, of course. the police these days seem only interested in arresting people who "cause upset" on meaningless social media echo chambers. well, no, in america they seem to also kill people in broad daylight and wonder why so many have an issue with this. trust me, i know for a fact that the police certainly don't go arresting cricket players (despite valid treason laws existing) no matter how many times you call the constabulary, trust me. unpunished, this crime appears to have gone, even though the guilty are all listed in the linear notes and on the back of the (hideous) artwork. 

from what i recall, yeah, this came out just after duran duran did thank you, in which they paid homage to various favourites. true, not everyone liked it, but i did. had it been that the bands they covered responded with duran covers, then fair enough. but no valid reason i can see exists for the people what did the songs here to be so cruel to duran. 

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

needle

heya

and so another delve into the realm of commercial expenditure, look you see. or, if you like, a bit of a gander at something what i purchased on my travels. yes, indeed, bourgeois moi. and likely far, far more pictures, videos and animated stuff to share than i have words to go with. 

this all, of course, concerns me purchasing (or procuring) an effigy, or monument if you like, constructed to honour the humble hedgehog. regular readers of this blog shall know that this is a particularly fond passion of mine; one in which i engage regularly. 

except no, that's not quite true. i purchased one, once, and this is now the second. but, still, you know, man, if i ever see any more, like i did in this second instance, i will purchase them. hedgehogs are smart. 

my most recent acquisition of a tribute to a hedgehog is quite similar to the previous, except that it is radically different. whereas the last one, the first one i bought, was a squedgehog, and was all like a squeezy stress ball like thing, this one is solid, hardcore full tilt plastic. as you can probably see in the picture above, presented as it is in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode. 

one concern i have about purchasing these homage to hedgehog things is the predominant structure of plastic. this is not a matter i would have concerned myself with. however, a schoolgirl off of Sweden or somewhere kept having temper tantrums about plastic, and for some reason all of the world decided to feel guilt, or shame, because of this. it gets to the point where one feels as though there is an expectation to hand themselves in to the police when they buy anything plastic these days. 

quite weird, that is. i mean, the plastic has been created and the damage done before i buy the item, so why is it or how come it is my fault? presumably by purchasing these items i am creating the demand for enemies of mother nature to merrily make plastic, but would such not happen still if i declined to purchase? had they made it a symbol of a lesser, more sh!t animal than a hedgehog - a badger, say, or even a squirrel - i would not have bought. yet the plastic would still exist.

so, as you can probably see in the above image, the hedgehog in this instance, called needle or needles as i am not sure (see below), is plastic and comes in a rather smart plastic spherical ball thing. this, the latter bit, is presumably to make it all easier to stock in vending machines. 

provenance and cost of this one? well, the (up to now) usual £1 coin was required to obtain this from a vending machine at a service station somewhere on the motorways of England. i really do tend to lose track of where i am in the world, momentarily. so many places, etc. 

why, exactly, do service stations have vending machines of this nature on the go? presumably to upset parents, really. on any long, exhausting drive - and if you have been on the A1 or A1(M) car park of a road you know this - what parents really, really want when they stop for a break is their children pleading for a pound to purchase one of the toys off of a vending machine. usually the toys are bouncing balls, or something that makes a noise - either way, entirely inappropriate to give to a bored child in the confines of a car. hats off to the service stations for this. 

above, then, is the vending machine what i got this out of. needles the led hedgehog it says, so i am not sure if the brand is needles, the name of the hedgehog is needles or a singular hedgehog is called needle, but the machine refers to a collective. i shall stick to needle for now, although for some reason i think that was also the name of a sword out of that game of dragons show, or whatever it was. the one with all the nudies and violence and the law of diminishing returns. 

further, i suppose, these vending machines could also serve as an ideal source of "f*** it that will do" thinking type of present if one has forgotten someone's birthday, or significant life event, such as a wedding anniversary. makes sense, really, to go "hello, happy [whatever the event], here is a gift", and hand over one of these specimens. let me try it out, some time. 

care for a look at needle(s) the plastic based hedgehog in a regular sort of image? being, or as in, not presented in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode? most unusual, but very well, here you go. 

yes, indeed it is that shade of blue which is impossible to determine. or blue green, i think. one could, at a push, say it was kind of turquoise, allowing for the fact that momentarily i am not at all sure what that colour would look like. regardless, or irrespective, that's not really, or particularly a natural shade for a hedgehog to be. but, also, neither is it natural for a hedgehog to have a keyring ring attached to it. 

not sure that needle(s) the led hedgehog is all that a good idea for an actual, in use keyring. i mean, why would you do so. to me it doesn't look like that chain would last. perhaps, though, the keyring element is not there to add a key or keys to it as such, but rather to allow one to attach needle(s) to something or other. maybe dangle it off a bag, or even a belt loop on trousers. 

on, then, to the business end. so far there has not been all that much discussion, or mention, of the led element to this latest hedgehog artefact. behold, then, one of them animated gif things. 

indeed it is a bit of a bonkers, potentially headache (or worse) inducing light show it puts on. that this comes across in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode is, well, a statement of sorts. 

so far as i am aware, no, it is neither natural nor normal for a hedgehog to emit such fantastical light displays. but, in this instance, it does. to be fair, it's not like if you squeeze a hedgehog it immediately returns to a more natural state, unlike the squedgehog. 

there are, i appreciate, one or two of you who(m) may feel that a "regular" video would give much more better insight into the led wonders of needle(s). i disagree with this feeling, but yes, we have got a video, and here it is below. 

my overall feelings on needle(s) the led hedgehog? well, for what it is, with respect to structure, materials, flashing lights and that, actually feels like decent value for £1 in the present day. i am not sure of all that economies of scale and that, but it does seem that manufacture, shipping and selling all probably (likely) adds up to more than a quid, but that is all the charge. our friends in america would, i have little doubt, say you get "bang for your buck", but that's just them. no, i have no idea if you get actual, real hedgehogs in america. 

finally, then (for this post, at the least), sort of, an unusual rare or "deleted" scene. here, have a look at this one, if you will. yes, another animated gif thing in the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode.  why not. 

personal opinion, of course, but i much preferred the first animated gif thing, which is why i included that one in the "main body" of this. to me this one is a bit spooky, and at one stage it looks like a ghost, spectral skull thing flashes up. not my sort of thing, really, but one or two of you might rather like such things, so here it is, above, for you. 

well, that's that. yes, certainly, as and when i make any other hedgehog related purchasing decisions i shall seek to share them here. 

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

commodore car wash whilst i can

hello there

ok, this is a subject i have now done to death. really, i've lost count of how many posts i have done presenting a car wash in the form of the greater good and glory of Commodore 64 mode, look you see. also i have not bothered to look at the stats of late, for C64 or other format ones, so no idea at all if there remains any interest in them. 

but, that said, there is presently news of a current nature (which i guess is how news is defined) which may well impact on the world of the car wash. we, the UK, as an island (which would traditionally be defined as "body of land surrounded by water") are going to run out of water. or so some reports suggest, and i am relatively certain it's not just media hyperbole. 

i would assume we can expect some sort of rationing of water, then. certainly in some parts of our nation there is already a "ban" on using hosepipes. although i have no evidence or facts to hand, i am pretty certain that a car wash uses a great deal of water, and this is water we can no longer be using to wash cars. not if we wish to continue making tea in a conventional way. 

so, just in case all the car washes get closed, or burned down in protest, here you go. a rare glimpse of what goes on within the car wash in a kind of regular form of picture. 

no, i don't think that is particularly interesting. anyway, let's move on to a bunch of them animated gif things. well, three. here you go, them big floppy soft soapy watery brushes going over the windscreen, for a start. 

and the "classic" shot of the brushes going past the passenger side window. that's passenger side of a real, actual proper vehicle, meant for where people drive on the correct side of the road. you in america or, worse, france, will think this is the "driver" side with your backward ways. 

finally, and for fun, the brush going past the driver side window. which, again, is the driver side on a proper car, in countries where they drive on the correct side of the road. see above, and indeed previous updates (or posts) from the car wash on what the implication is for driving on the incorrect, or if you like wrong, side of the road. 

just one more picture, then, of what looks like loads and loads of soapy water over the windscreen of the vehicle i took through the wash. certainly, it did the job, and said vehicle was left most agreeably clean, cheers. 

uncertainty exists over whether or not i shall ever be able to make a report of a car wash in the future. it all depends, really, on what happens with the water. sure, right now it's absolutely pouring down, and certain areas of the nation are flooded. but apparently still the well runs dry. 

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