Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Feb 1, 2024 18:00:06 GMT -5
I read 23 comics in January, which isn't bad for me.
They were pretty evenly split between re-reads and stuff that was new to me. The stand outs were finally reading the first Blake & Mortimer story (The Secret of the Swordfish), which wasn't the best Blake & Mortimer adventure I've read, but was still good, and my continuing re-read of J. Michael Strazynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man, which I'm enjoying revisiting.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 30, 2024 12:39:13 GMT -5
I'm not sure that "uniform" is the right term in this context (except for the Fantastic Four and some iteration of the X-Men) 🤔 I agree..."costume" is probably a better term. But we all know what the OP meant, so what the hell? |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 30, 2024 12:35:06 GMT -5
Drink beverages at your own peril while watching these shows, unless you like to spew in mid-sip.
Father Ted is probably at the top of my list, but then again I'm not Catholic. For my money, Farther Ted is much, much funnier than Black Books. Mrs. Brown's Boys, on the other hand, is absolutely dire. Sorry TP, but I find it utterly uninspired and unfunny. Just awful cr*p. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 30, 2024 10:37:36 GMT -5
I finished reading the three-part Blake & Mortimer adventure The Secret of the Swordfish last night...  This was an enjoyable extended adventure, which sees a sinister far eastern empire conquering the world and, of course, Professor Philip Mortimer and his dashing companion Captain Francis Blake have a significant hand in overthrowing the "Yellow Peril" menace and saving the world. The story is clearly heavily influenced by the events of the then-still recent Second World War and the Cold War – which isn't really so surprising, as the story was written in the early 1950s. A few weeks ago, over in the "What Classic Comics Have You Purchased Lately?" thread, MDG commented that he disliked the fantastic backdrop of a global war for this story, preferring the Blake & Mortimer adventures that stay closer to "real life". I have to say, I do agree with him. This story (which was the inaugural adventure for the pair) is rather far-fetched and a long way from the gritty crime and espionage realism of, say, the third adventure, The Yellow "M". Nevertheless, Edgar P. Jacobs' plotting and artwork is really good. The story definitely held my attention over the course of three volumes and often had me wondering how our heroes would manage to get out of a particular scrape. Jacobs' art would tighten up and improve over the course of the series, but it's still extremely pleasing to the eye in this first adventure. There's also an inking technique that he experiments with for 50 or so pages in the middle of the story, whereby he leaves some of his pencils un-inked, and I must say that I do rather like the effect that it produces. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 29, 2024 18:18:16 GMT -5
Self-assessment tax returns have to be done and paid by January 31st here in the UK. So, I've actually left it til pretty much the last minute, as usual. Finally got it done and submitted today. This makes me think of episode #1 of "Black Books", a hilarious series starring Dylan Moran. Episode 1 is from 2000, and is all about him doing his taxes for his London bookshop.
I know Black Books well, it's one of my wife's favourite shows. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 29, 2024 15:57:41 GMT -5
Would've loved to make it, but I was bogged down doing my tax return.  In January? Wow are you an eager beaver. I haven't even loaded my tax program yet. Self-assessment tax returns have to be done and paid by January 31st here in the UK. So, I've actually left it til pretty much the last minute, as usual. Finally got it done and submitted today. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 28, 2024 22:22:48 GMT -5
Would've loved to make it, but I was bogged down doing my tax return. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 28, 2024 12:30:50 GMT -5
I found my first grey hair about a week before my 40th Birthday. Hooray...Happy Birthday to me!  I still have relatively few compared to other guys in their 50s, which I'm thankful for. I've had a touch of grey in my beard since my late 30s...and of course its grown to more than just a touch in the interveening decade and a half. But, all in all, I don't have much grey hair at all for my age. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 27, 2024 20:19:01 GMT -5
I’m curious how many might consider remarriage if death separated your marriage. Or would you rather stay alone? I personally would rather have a shorter life if it meant me dying first. If my wife died, I'd definitely consider having other relationships if I wanted to. But I'd never marry again. That was a special one-off thing for a special one-off person. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 25, 2024 20:13:39 GMT -5
I grew a beard for the first time over the 2020 Covid lockdown (though I only shave about once a week anyway, so I usually have some stubble). My wife really liked me with a beard, though it's a little prickly when kissing. I did kinda like how it looked and I kept it for a year or so, but in the end it had to go -- much to my wife's disappointment. What with beard shampoo, trimming, beard conditioner, beard wax etc, it's more damn effort to keep a beard looking decent than it is to shave!
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 25, 2024 19:38:58 GMT -5
Singer songwriter Melanie Safka passed away in Nashville yesterday. She was 76. Melanie was a long-time resident here in the Nashville area. I actually saw her and her son, who served as her sideman, at a few local performances. She was always approachable and appreciative of the audience.
I know that none of us get a free pass in life, but this loss makes me particularly sad as not only was she a smart, creative tunesmith, but she was such a genuinely nice person to friends and strangers alike.
I feel it only fitting to post my absolute favorite Melanie Safka song, and one heck of a killer live performance.
What she may have lacked in vocal range, she made up for with sheer power and emotive delivery.
With the Edwin Hawkins singers-- I've watched this video countless times, but it never fails to give me chills.
Vaya con Dios, Melanie, a beautiful person inside and out.
Awww, that's a shame that she's passed away. I'm a big Melanie fan. I think she's tremendously underrated at this point. I know some people find her music impossibly twee or too damn hippie-dippy for comfort, but I think she's a really clever tunesmith who made deceptively simple sounding music. It's hard to pick a song that I like above all others, as she did so many great tunes. But I think I'm gonna pick "I Don't Eat Animals" because, as somebody who has been a vegetarian for almost 40 years, I think this song really gets to the heart of why I don't eat meat... "I don't eat animals and they don't eat me, Oh no, I don't eat animals 'cause I love them, you see." |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 23, 2024 16:56:01 GMT -5
I mostly like to do my own research...  |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 23, 2024 8:53:34 GMT -5
I find Reuters to be non-sensationalist, so I do check out their site for news. Hopefully, I’m doing the right thing. If you live in the UK (which I know you do), I think the BBC is still the most reliable source of news by far. I know left-wingers complain that it's biased towards the Conservatives and right-wingers complain that it's just a mouthpiece for the Labour party, but that says to me that they've essentially got the balance about right. They also have a policy of not publishing a story until they've independantly verified its accuracy themselves, which does mean that they lag behind other outlets on occasion when a big story breaks, but it's still better than, say, SkyNews, whose policy is "we're never wrong for more than a day." I do also use Reuters, but like shaxper, I find it's coverage is somewhat limited overall. On the other hand, it doesn't have all the magazine-style non-stories like the BBC News website does, which aren't really news at all in my book. But yeah, in terms of actual news, if you're in the UK, the BBC is still your safest bet, I reckon. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 23, 2024 7:20:48 GMT -5
Not being political here, but I so wish that the mainstream media in the UK could learn the difference between Royal Mail and the Post Office. Royal Mail is primarily responsible for the collecting, sorting, and delivery of mail to households and businesses. It operates delivery offices and sorting offices throughout the UK. The Post Office is a separate entity, whose branches offer a wide range of services such as paying household bills, buying stamps, processing passport applications, etc. You can leave mail at a Post Office branch, which Royal Mail will collect, but in 2024, they are separate entities. I know people here know that, but I expect the media to get it right. In the UK, Royal Mail is thinking of abolishing Saturday deliveries. When one news outlet covered this, they kept showing the Post Office logo. On the other side of the coin, the Post Office are under fire over the Horizon scandal, where postmasters were wrongly convicted of fraud, which was caused by a software error (that’s simplifying it a tad). Well, the media are covering it - and conflating Royal Mail with the Post Office. I turned on the TV over breakfast. One presenter was inaccurate on so many levels. She mentioned how Royal Mail no longer did recorded deliveries (mail which requires a signature at the door). They do. They absolutely do. She mentioned TNT doing it (TNT, who are now called Whistl, do not, as far as I know, deliver recorded mail to private households). Then she mentioned couriers, speaking about DFS. What?! DFS is a furniture store. It is not a postal courier. If someone is gonna present a show on TV, and this person is highly opinionated, then learn the difference between Royal Mail and the Post Office. How can anyone trust a TV news outlet when a presenter gets basic facts wrong, and mentions a sofa store in relation to parcel delivery firms? End of rant. Thanks for reading. Royal Mail and the Post Office were the same thing for the majority of the period when the Horizon/Fujistu sub-postmaster scandal was happening though. The Horizon system was implemented in 1999, the first wrongful convictions of sub-postmasters occurred in 2000, and the scandal/cover up continued until 2015. The Royal Mail didn't become independent of the Post Office until 2011. Furthermore, Adam Crozier, who was the Chief Executive of Royal Mail from 2003-2010, was absolutely aware of the problems with the Horizon software and actively hushed it up. He also awarded himself huge bonuses during that period for a job well done, which would been paid for in part by the money that was being wrongly extracted from innocent sub-postmasters' pockets following wrongful convictions for fraud. So yeah, it is absolutely appropriate for the media to conflate the Royal Mail and the Post Office in their coverage of the Horizon scandal because the Post Office was owned by Royal Mail during the period in question. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jan 22, 2024 8:25:41 GMT -5
Stan was a brilliant writer (mostly), when it came to scripting comic books aimed at 8-to-14 year olds. His writing isn't exactly Hemingway, Dickens or Tolstoy -- though as I previously noted a page or two back, he was actually capable of delivering some quite profound writing on occasion -- but Lee knew he wasn't writing an adult novel: he was writing comics for teenagers. Now, perhaps it's true that Lee didn't have it in him to write a truely briliant novel for adults, but he sure as s**t knew how to write great comic books.
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