WANDAVISION

 I spent a lot of my childhood reading Marvel superhero comics.  I think the first one I read was the UK weekly Secret Wars comic although I also read Spiderman and Zoids.  Prior to that I read the Beano and Battle Action Force, Star Wars Weekly and Transformers Weekly.  I loved it all and it was all mind rotting garbage but in a good way.  Comic books and punk rock made me who I am today.

I was always a bit of an obsessive kid, always wanting to read more and know more and understand more. I'm still a bit like that which is good and bad.  I was into Marvel in a big way, I read the official handbook of the marvel universe cover to cover and I learned all about the crazy, colourful minor characters of the Marvel Universe including all of the B listers and the C listers, like the Vision and the Scarlet Witch.

Now the Vision and the Scarlet Witch had a couple of limited series published in America in the early '80s and the stories in those comics were very off the wall.  Some of the weirdest comics out there with a mind bending storyline.  Definitely not mainstream and probably the product of some serious drugs.  Bad hippy drugs.

And it seems that Disney have made that mad shit into a TV series.

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.....

The Mandalorian

 The best thing about 2020 is my son.

However, my son doesn't really have the international appeal of The Mandalorian which is really, really good.  A lot of 2020 is bad but The Mandalorian puts the ball at the back of the net every time.  If you haven't watched it I don't want to spoil it but there are some amazing scenarios in it.  If you love Star Wars you should watch it.  Now.

Spiderman - Far From Home

This was the first time I'd been back to the cinema since my film buddy died a few months ago.  He was a big Marvel fan and I'm sure he would have liked this.  I managed to persuade my partner to come along with me but she likes Spiderman and enjoyed the last film so it was OK.  She hasn't seen the last two avengers films so some thing were a bit odd but she did enjoy it.

Far from home features Mysterio, one of my less favoured Spiderman baddies.  Mysterio worked fairly well in the film although the plot was bubblegum, a but dumb.  Spiderman basically goes on a European tour and becomes Night Monkey (a property that should be developed).

There are some nice city scenes and some big fights.  The characters are funny.  It's an 'up', cheery film after the doom and gloom of the last couple of Avengers film.  It's probably the superhero film I needed to see today.

There will be more Spiderman films and they will probably be better but I enjoyed this.

Brave in Concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

I had a good day today.  I did some business in the morning then I met my partner and her mum for lunch in town.  We were eating in the cafe at the Royal Concert Hall when my partner noticed an elderly neighbour.  We went over to say 'hi' and a friend of the neighbour appeared and asked us if we wanted to see the show.  We weren't sure what the show was and then we found out that it was the world premiere of a live orchestral version of the Disney Pixar film Brave.

We are very lucky people.

The music to Brave was written by a man from Uddingston named Patrick Doyle.  Our neighbour knows him well.  He wrote the music for many films including Carlito's Way, East/West, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  He even wrote some music for the last Thor film.  When he was asked to do Brave, the producers hadn't even realised he was Scottish but he was a perfect choice.

He gave a short speech at the show, detailing the genesis of his work on Brave.  He also, touchingly, paid tribute to our neighbour and then the Scottish Symphony Orchestra began to play the score for Brave as the film started.

I thought I had seen Brave before.  I hadn't.  I must have watched the first 10 minutes before falling asleep.  Fairly standard for me.  It's a great film, and I loved it.  Billy Connolly is one of the main voice actors and Kelly MacDonald is another.  The story was good with a lot of the Pixar magic.  The live orchestra was amazing.

Again, I have to say, I'm a lucky bloke.  A brilliant unplanned day.

For any Scottish readers, see this if you get a chance.  Well worth it.

Beastie Boys Book

I've been digesting the Beastie Boys Book for the last month or so.  It's amazing, disjointed and brilliant just like the band.  I've been listening to the audiobook due to my lack of free reading time.  It's one of the best audiobooks I've ever encountered.  They have invited a stellar cast of narrators including Snoop Doggy Dogg, Kim Gordon, Chuck D, Will Ferrell, Bette Midler and Steve Buscemi as well as many many others.

The narrative jumps about from their childhood, through early punk adventures, Bad Brains and Black Flag concerts, New York Discos, career low-points (Def Jam), clothing labels, recording with Lee Scratch Perry and lists of equipment, recipes and mix tapes.  Everything is in this book.

Much of the book is a tribute to Adam Yauch, MCA, who died in 2012 from parotid cancer.  His fellow Beastie Boys clearly and understandably miss him.  In some ways he appears to have been a pathfinder for the band and is credited as being the Beastie who made things happen.

The physical release is beautifully illustrated with photos and comics strips reminiscent of the old Grand Royale magazine from the 90s.  It's a thing of beauty but the audiobook is worth your time too.

A fitting legacy for a great band.  Sadly, I never saw them and I deeply regret it.  I am glad I had their music (and their music videos).

Spider-man - Into the Spider-verse

I first got to know Spider-man through the old cartoons on UK television in the early eighties.  They were a good gateway to the character and Marvel comics.  Over the decades more cartoons have been made, more comic books and also some pretty good live action films.

Into the Spider-verse, is, as far as I can recall, the first animated Spider-man film to make it to UK cinemas.  It's a great film and the cinema is a perfect place to see it.

Spider-verse is knowing and entertaining.  It tells the story of Miles Morales, a Spider-man for the 21st century as well as paying tribute to multiple other versions of Spider-man who have appeared in the past 55 years.  Peter Porker, the spectacular Spider-Ham makes a welcome appearance.

The animation is electric, jumping from style to style.  Kingpin is portrayed in the style of Bill Sienkiewicz, massive with a tiny head and almost photorealistic features, like the Daredevil Love and War graphic novel from the late eighties.  Another character, the Prowler, looks more like a Todd McFarlane drawing.  It's a lively jump cut ride.

There have been a lot of films inspired by Marvel comics over the last decade and Into the Spider-verse is one of the freshest and best.  Worth seeing, even if you would't normally go for a cartoon.  There is also a lovely Stan Lee cameo which provoked a wry smile from me.

I went to see this film with a friend who has been having a difficult time recently and he loved it too.  Marvel characters can certainly brighten up your day sometimes.

Thanks again Stan and Steve.

Stan Lee - RIP

I never met Stan Lee.  I never had a chance.  He did come to Forbidden Planet in Glasgow but somehow I never knew.  Stan Lee did have an impact on my life in many ways.  I've spent a lot of time reading Marvel Comics in the last 40 or so years and Stan Lee was responsible for many of them.

The first american comic that I read/owned was issue number 3 of Super-villain Team Up featuring Namor, the Submariner and Dr Doom fighting some even more evil fish people.  It was a bit crap.  It came from a neighbours house and I read it from cover to cover many, many times.  I still have it somewhere.  I remember all the strange American adverts from the seventies and the slightly yellow paper.  It wasn't brilliant but it was my first comic presented by Stan Lee.

I had probably seen some Spiderman reprints by then.  I was certainly reading the Marvel UK weekly Star Wars comic as a very young child in the early 80s.  The old sixties Marvel cartoons were broadcast as part of Glen Michaels Cartoon Cavalcade in Scotland with Captain america, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Spider-Man.  We also had the seventies Spiderman cartoon as well as Spiderman and his Amazing Friends and the Hulk.

Stan Lee infected every part of our culture.  He reached Scotland from New York and taught us about heroes and trying to be good.  His personality shone through in his Bullpen Bulletin. He had a heart and he tried to do the right thing.  He was cheesy and a bit of a self-promoter.  He didn't give his collaborators enough talent but he changed the dreams of lots of kids.  Like me, those kids are often successful adults and we live in a world that has seen both the Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy on the big screen.  Back in the early eighties this was unimaginable.

My fiancé's niece can name most of the marvel superheroes on a poster in our house and she is 3.  Stan continues to shape young minds.  His imagination lives on in all of us.

RIP

Solo - film review

I wasn't expecting too much from Solo. The history of the production of this latest Star Wars film, with the half time substitution of Ron Howard for the original directors would normal indicate a bad film.  So far, initial box office for the film has not been record breaking.  Initial reviews have not been glowing.  It's an amazingly warm weekend in Scotland (and an amazingly wet weekend in England) so people have not been flocking to the cinema.

We decided to see Solo at fairly short notice so we didn't get our fancy IMAX seats.  Instead we just popped into the local cinema.  I just wanted to get through the film but I am pleased to report that it is very entertaining and I will certainly look forward to seeing it again.

We meet a teenage Han Solo on his home planet of Corellia trying to escape from oppression with his girlfriend Qi'ra.  Problems occur and they are separated.  Han has adventures and makes a good friend in Chewbacca before encountering Lando and obtaining a famous space ship.  The film, as one would expect, is full of easter eggs for Star Wars nerds and satisfaction is almost guaranteed.

In Solo the baddies are bad and the goodies are good.  It's fun and a good balance for the darkness of Rogue One or The Last Jedi.  It's written by Lawrence Kasdan who gave us both the Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark so the script is a dream.  I went in with low exceptions and I saw a very enjoyable movie.  Looking forward to the next instalment.

Avengers: Infinity War - film review

Popped into the cinema after work yesterday to catch this film.  I know I was a bit late but it was worth it.  I'm assuming most people will have seen it buy now so this will be a bit spoiler-y so stop reading now if you haven't seen it.

Infinity War is the 19th Marvel Cinematic Universe film and it helps to have seen several, if not all, of the previous films to fully understand and appreciate this film.  It's an epic, both in length and in
the scope of the story.  The action spreads from Waverly Station in Edinburgh to Africa, New York and then across the universe.  Almost every MCU movie character appears (although there was no real sign of the Netflix characters).

The big bad is Thanos, a character familiar to comic book readers.  I've never been a massive fan of the big purple troll.  He's a genocidal necrophiliac.  By this I mean that he is in love with a physical representation of death (at least in the comics).  He is not a corpse fiddler to the best of my knowledge.  In the film, he wants to improve the universe by killing half the population of reality to reduce overcrowding.  He is logical, in a warped way.

To help commit his crazy crime he needs to track down the Infinity Stones, seeded throughout previous Marvel films to complete the Infinity Gauntlet, as featured in the comics when I was a kid.  Thanks needs to kill a lot of people to have the opportunity to kill more people.  The assorted Marvel heroes do their best to stop him.

Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) features in a prominent role as the only intelligent superhero who actually knows what is going on.  He is supported by occasionally useful idiots, Tony Stark, Spiderman, Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Apart from Strange, the other heroes are brave but fairly stupid.  There are funny moments and laugh out loud moments.

The space action is slightly more fun that the moody Captain America led Earth action.  All the heroes on Earth are more serious and intense and a lot of them are wearing black.  It was nice to see Wakanda and the supporting cast from the recent Black Panther film in prominent roles.

The film was actually slightly less apocalyptic that I expected.  I sort of expected that everyone would be wiped out although that would be an end to the franchise.  I'm looking forward to Avengers 4 which I think will be out next year, as well as the intercurrent Ant Man 2 and Captain Marvel films.

I want to watch this again when I get a chance.  It's better than Avengers 2 and it may even be better than Civil War.  Currently, I think the best Marvel film so far has been Dr Strange but I reserve the right to change my mind.

Accident Man - DVD review

In 1991 a very different British comic was published for a brief period of time.  Toxic! was staffed by writers and artists who jumped ship from 2000AD.  Toxic! was full colour and uncensored.  It also featured Marshall Law, a masterpiece by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill.  However, the best strip in the comic was arguably Accident Man, created by Pat Mills and Tony Skinner.

Accident Man is the story of an assassin, who works with a group of fellow hitmen, all of whom commit their crimes in a signature way.  Mike Fallon, the titular Accident Man, specialises in making hits look like accidents.  He is something of an artist in this regard but stuffers from PMT (post murder tension) and has to release the tension with other dangerous activities.  To me at 13 or 14 this comic was amazingly entertaining.  Luckily a nice collection of the strips was published a few years back and rather surprisingly a film based on the strip has been made.

The film is fairly entertaining and true to the comic.  It isn't a great work of art, it is a dumb action film but it is an enjoyable 90 minutes.

I hope Tony Skinner and Pat Mills have both been well paid for this film.  I think I saw Mills playing a victim of Mike Fallon's PMT in one scene.  This film was never going to be a blockbuster but I'm sure it will warm peoples hearts on Netflix.  Well, maybe not warm their hearts, maybe more raise a grim smile but you know what I mean.  It's good.

writing

I don't write enough.  I should write more.

Writing, at times, can be like throwing words, bouncing words, off the walls of my world.  It can help get it out. It can help work it out.

This evening I watched a DVD.  Man on fire, the 2004 Denzil Washington film (not the 1987 version that nobody has seen).  I found it amongst my fathers stuff yesterday.  My partners younger brother had recommended it to me ages ago and I've been looking for it for a while but I only just noticed it amongst my dads stuff last night.  It's exactly the sort of film my dad liked. Rough justice, guns and a bit of Spanish.  He loved that sort of stuff.

It's been about a year since my dad died.  I do miss him.  My mum misses him a lot.  Life continues but we'd rather he was about.  His illness was difficult and he was fed up with it. He didn't like being dependent and he didn't like the care he received in the hospital.  I understand why.  It was not very good a lot of the time.  Stuff was often done in a half-arsed manner.

Easter approaches but sadly we won't see any resurrections.  We will have our memories which aren't quite as good. Memories are still valuable.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

We went to watch The Last Jedi at the IMAX on a frosty Glasgow night.  As we waited to get in, I did my best not to hear anything about the film from the departing crowd.  I was on spoiler lockdown and as I'm going to talk a bit about the film, don't read too much further before you see it.

The Last Jedi was great but I'm not sure that it was exactly what I was expecting.  This is good because films can often become boring if they are too predictable.  It picks up the story almost minutes after the end of The Force Awakens with the remnants of the Resistance, led by Princess Leia, being hunted down and exterminated by the First Order.  This film very much had a vibe like the successful Battlestar Galactica TV series reboot that was made about a decade or so ago.

In the other major thread of the story Rey tracked down Luke on an island on an isolated planet.  This is a very different Luke compared with my childhood hero.  This is a Luke who in many ways is Yoda-like but also burnt out and cynical.  This is a Luke who has made mistakes, got things wrong and now has to live with the consequences of his actions.  The maturing of the Luke Skywalker character was a bit disorientating but was probably a good decision.

The other big storyline is the interaction between Ben Solo/Kylo Ren and Rey and the evil Snoke.  This was fairly well done and I really didn't know what to expect.  The choices they made worked and there is still a lot of potential for new stories to come.

I liked the use of Laura Dern and Benicio Del Toro in the film, both of whom had interesting characters and roles to play.  This is probably the most female led Star Wars film yet, which is a good thing and the film series has now really escaped the 'white people in space' reputation it was in danger of attracting.

This film is funny.  It's funnier than most of the other Star Wars films, especially Rogue One, which was fairly dark.  It's a slapstick, Marvel type humour at times but there is still the occasional emotional punch.

I need to watch this film again, probably a few times.  I may even go back to the cinema to see it.  Again, I'm a bit sad that my dad died before this film came out as I'm sure he would have enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to Episode 9 now.  After the film ended I was sad that we won't see Carrie Fisher as Leia again, as she was clearly destined to play a big part in Episode 9.  I hope that an appropriate tribute to her will be made in that film.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets - DVD review

I finally managed to catch this film on DVD, having missed it in the cinema.  I've been aware of the Valerian comics for a few years and I've read a few of the recent hardback reissues.  The comics were exceptionally influential and their presence was felt in Star Wars and many other science fiction blockbusters over the past 40 years.  I've loved some Luc Besson stuff over the years, especially The Fifth Element so this film was a bit of a no brainer for me.

Having now watched the film on DVD I do wish that I had seen it in the cinema.  It's visually stunning, as one would expect from Besson.  It has cute aliens, humour and a decent plot as well as some big names.  It hasn't been universally loved by reviewers but I certainly enjoyed it.

Worth a couple of hours of your time.

South Park - The Fractured But Whole

I've never been too big on computer games but I love South Park.  A few years ago I bought a PS3 to play The Stick Of Truth and more recently I've purchased a PS4 for the Fractured But Whole.  I didn't realise that the name was a pun until someone pointed it out to me.

The new game is a South Park take on superhero franchise movies with two opposing teams of costumed vigilantes led by Cartman (the Coon) and Timmy (Doctor Timothy).  There is a main story to play with a funny story as well as a lot of easter eggs and side quests. I'm really crap at computer games and I managed to complete the main storyline after about 27 hours of game play.

The game is like an extended South Park film with you as the star.  As the New Kid you come to town, try to make friends and solve problems.  The special moves are great, the fighting is fairly easy and at one point you take on Morgan Freeman.

There will be a season pass with additional game content that I'm looking out for.  Hope they make another in due course

Bladerunner 2049

I managed to see the new Bladerunner film in the cinema last night and I liked it.  Overall, it was more coherent than the first film, which has now been released in about 7 different versions.  The new film is a sequel and continues the story of the original in an interesting way.

Bladerunner was visually striking and the successor is too.  The colour scheme has changed but it still has the desolate feel of a failed future.  Technology appears to have developed consistently in the 30 years from the first film but everything is still grim.

Bladerunner left us asking if Dekkard (Harrison Ford) was a replicant?  A re-edited version of the film showed us Dekkard being presented with an origami horse, an animal from his dream, strongly suggesting that he was an android.  There is still some debate about this and the new film does nothing to give us a definitive answer.

The main character in this film is a replicant and much of the film is about the search for identity.  Ryan Gosling tries to find out who he is, while trying to solve a mystery or a miracle.  There is no Roy Batty style nemesis in this story.

The film takes it's time.  It stops to think and it plods.  Overall it lasts about 2 hours and 40 minutes but I think it needs that time to breathe, to capture the inhumanity of the replicants.  Some of the behaviour we see is very strange and some is very human.

A good film.

Podcasts

Over the past few years I've started listening to a lot of Podcasts.  I always liked listening to the radio although I didn't always find the broadcast shows to be very exciting.  Podcasts are homemade radio shows that you can download and listen to at a time that suits you.  They also often cover more offbeat or esoteric subjects that appeal to me.

Mostly I listen to real life mystery podcasts, American political podcasts (mainly ones about Trump), Twin Peaks related podcasts and comic book podcasts.  And the Private Eye podcasts.

One of the first mystery style I started to listen to was Thinking Sideways - in this podcast three presenters take turns to present a mystery every week and discuss various theories on what went on.  The first episode that I listened to was on the 'Glasgow effect'.

Another slightly more fantastical podcast that I enjoy is Astonishing Legends - this podcast goes into strange tales in a great degree of detail.  They exude an X-Files type vibe and they are often rather credulous but the production values are good and I enjoy the shows.

From a comic book point of view Fatman on Batman produced by Clerks director Kevin Smith as part of his Smodcast empire is a good starting point (if you like Batman).  The early episodes in the archive are great, often focusing on individual comic book writers or artists and Batman related stuff. More recently the podcast has developed into a general forum for discussion of sic-fi, superheroes and anything Smith wants to talk about.

The Stuff You Should Know network has several good podcasts including Stuff They Don't Want You To Know and Stuff to Blow Your Mind (both of which have a sort of counterculture vibe) as well as the more mainstream, flagship Stuff You Should Know series.  All of these are fairly interesting.

In terms of Trump bashing Trumpcast is fairly funny and a good place to start.  The Pod Save America team have more White House connections and often have serious guests on to interview although they are often pretty funny too.

No Such Thing As A Fish  was one of the first podcasts I listened to, a spin off from the BBC QI series, where strange facts are discussed in an amusing manner every week.  It's good for a smile every now and again.

There are many more podcasts to check out - a few more are below
Page 94 - The Private Eye Podcast
The 2000AD Progcast - some great 2000AD chat
The Politico Nerdcast
A Twin Peaks Podcast

Enjoy

Updates and maintenance of the blog

I've been doing a bit of updating of the blog, I was considering a new theme but I'm going to keep this one for now.

I did update the Cool Stuff section a bit click here to read the updated cool stuff page

Life is busy and I always have a lot going on but I do enjoy playing about with this blog at times.

RIP Harry Dean Stanton

Harry Dean Stanton had a good innings.  He has died at the age of 91 after recently appearing in Twin Peaks: The Return.  I remember him best from great films like Repo Man and Alien.

Listening to the tributes on BBC Radio 4 this morning I realise that he has appeared in many more great films.  Pretty in Pink is a great film but I don't remember Stanton in it.  I don't remember him in Godfather Part II but he was there.

By all accounts he was a great actor.

RIP.

Twin Peaks - The Return

The revival of Twin Peaks has been rather exciting for me.  I've gone to fairly extreme lengths to try and see it on a weekly basis and overall it has been pretty satisfying.  As a teenager I watched the original Twin Peaks as it was broadcast on BBC2.  It fascinated me back then.  I think I'd already seen a couple of Lynch films by then and I did my best to see a lot of his other work after that.

The original Twin Peaks finished on a cliff hanger, with Agent Cooper trapped in another detention while his evil doppelgänger, possessed by the evil BOB entity, smashing his head into a mirror.

The show finished and was followed by the Fire Walk With Me film that was a bit of a box office flop.  Last year Mark Frost released a great book called 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' that added a lot of colour and richness to the Twin Peaks universe without giving away much about the new series.  The book served to whet my appetite for new Twin Peaks.  I was not disappointed.

Lynch is a pretty unique film maker.  His work, from Eraserhead on, is different.  He views the world in a different ways and he expresses himself differently.  In Twin Peak - The Return (TPTR from now on) he has been able to run riot with his creative urges.  The initial 2 hours of the series had little relevance to what had happened before although TPTR is a direct continuation of the original storyline.  Lynch will let scenes run for longer than many film makers would tolerate, creating new and different rhythms in his work.  His use of sound is creative and his solutions for replacing actors who are no longer available (for a variety of reasons) are novel to say the least.  One actor he has fallen out with has been replaced with a talking silver christmas tree and the character of Philip Jeffries, played in the Fire Walk With Me (FWWM) film by David Bowie, was portrayed by a giant talking kettle (with the approval of Bowie before he died).

Kyle Maclachlan, Agent Dale Cooper and alumnus of many Lynch works plays 3 characters in TPTR.  Agent Cooper appears only sparingly although the malevolent doppelgänger, Mr C is a more regular oppressive presence throughout the series.  Maclachlan also supplies comedy relief in the form of a third Cooper variant, Dougie E, thought the series.

Many of the original cast return and the cult status of Twin Peaks has ensured the presence of many talented actors as well as an excellent soundtrack with performances from Nine Inch Nails and Eddie Vedder amongst others.  Lynch himself appears as FBI director Gordon Cole supplying additional comedy.

TPTR made me laugh and cry.  It contains genuinely disturbing scenes as well as amazingly heartwarming moments.  Lynch does not take prisoners and he does not explain his work.  A lot is left open to interpretation and many questions are left unanswered.  Overall I was satisfied but greedily I want more.  The are endings, one good heroic ending and another bleak, potentially apocalyptic ending.  We may have seen the end of the Agent Cooper/Laura Palmer story but there is room for more tales from the Twin Peaks universe.  We would all like to know what has happened to Audrey.

I want to watch this again and see if my understanding changes.  I feel lucky to have seen this and I can't wait for Mark Frost's next Twin Peaks book 'The Final Dossier' which may answer some stuff.

Lynch and Frost have created a masterpiece that people will struggle to understand for years.  Some folk with think it is pretentious bullshit.  I'm not sure what it is but I enjoyed the ride.

For an interesting interpretation of the ending look at https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/

Trainspotting 2

I went to see the new Trainspotting film today.  I remember seeing the original film in the cinema when it came out.  I had read the book as well.  I've attempted to read some of the various sequels and prequels to the book but the film Transpotting 2 is really its own beast.

It didn't really capture the adrenaline buzz of the original film but it still had something to say.  It's a film about growing older, regrets, death and family.  Given the death of my father earlier this week some of those themes really hit home with me.  He liked watching DVDs and I think he would have liked to see this film.

I'm glad I saw this in the cinema although I'm not sure I'll rush to see it again.  Great soundtrack from Young Fathers amongst others.