By Roy Mathur, on 2021-10-07, at 17:24:53--18:24:47, for Captain Roy's Rocket Radio Show, Listen
This is the third time I've tried to record this episode. Due to lack of content, then too much misery porn because I'm having a bit of a time lately. (Nothing to do with the thing we communicated about, Mr STW, if you still listen to the show).
It hasn't actually got better, in fact things took a turn for the worse today, but, as I often say, I'm British and the way we deal with stuff is to sweep in under the carpet. Vigorously.
Last week's shows were too stressful that I feel it affected my delivery. So today it's chill time. Expect a more laid back Roy tonight by blithely ignoring the horror of what lies beneath. Ahhh... the sweet smell of avoidance.
By the way, What Lies Beneath (2000) is a bloody excellent Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford movie.
For the first time in many years, relatives from Mauritius popped in around lunch time about half an hour (2021-10-04). I decided the occasion demanded premiering my birthday T-Shirt: Boris Karloff as the monster in James Whale's Frankenstein (1931).
I got some Kraft cheese, which in Mauritian culture is an object of cultural significance that greatly outweighs it's humble outward appearance.
I had a dental appointment to have a filling drilled and refilled. I was scared as hell.
I took my first ever Uber there because I didn't want what little petrol was in the car in case the petrol crisis was not resolved. It was pleasant, the same price as a cab, and the driver was great, but I wasn't keen about the process of dealing with Uber. I thought the star ratings useless, and Uber was heavy handed in the sheer amount of correspondence they sent me for one trip.
Another media job rejection came in through the mail. Lovely. So I also asked the driver about driving for Uber (I'm a writer, so I always need money), but he suggested a new car and since he was driving a late model Lexus hybrid; well, that's a little out of my budget.
Afterwards, I staggered, drooled, and snivelled my way home. Okay, I also jerked around a bit, because the stress brought on my Tourette's, which was extra terrifying for passersby, who also had to contend with my numb and gurning Quasimodo-like face as a result of the local anaesthetic.
...which we missed because I made such a hash of the first taping on Friday.
Isn't that custom cruel? I used to hate it at school, mainly because it was me being assaulted. Apparently, its origin has nothing to do with violence---something to do with George Washington's fruit punch maybe---but this is the UK where we make every sport, from football to Morris dancing, violent.
Tangent: homework: look up the surprising origin of Morris dancing.
I went online and arranged my parent's COVID-19 booster shot appointment last Thursday, then took them to have their appointments on Friday.
Afterwards, I fruitlessly drove around for petrol, but found pancakes---which I could not find at the supermarket---at a petrol station. We ate pancakes drenched in maple syrup and cream that evening.
Tangent: both shortages are being caused by a lack of drivers and there are some really weird shortages like M and S baked vegan sausage rolls from the local petrol station, Tazza Sweets' Boondi Ladoo from Coventry that I buy in the market or speciality shops (Hey Tazza Sweets! Where the hell is my ladoo?), and in Tesco: raspberry jam, multipacks of small bottled water, pancakes, etc.
Low paid workers of the world unite! Post-Brexit Britain needs you! (Until we don't, then you can jolly well bugger off from whence you came... until we need you again).
This is because the UK needs drivers to deliver stuff and, even before the pandemic, there weren't enough of them.
The UK government responded with short-term visas locking workers into specific jobs, then booting them at Christmas. What a bollocks government this is. (Late breaking: apparently length of stay is to be extended to early next year, but I'm not sure how long).
Unsurprisingly, very few foreign driver have leapt at the offer.
No, we've cut the allowance for those, then there's Brexit component shortages and pandemic demand for new cars...
No, because we don't want foreign junk competed with the few electric bikes we make (probably using foregin components), and so the duty on those is high too.
What a great way to completely fuck up the planet.
No, the pandemic is not over. I will not be bullied by celebrities telling me to go back in order to save the cinemas.
Cinemas mean more to me than Craig or Nolan. That sound like a breathtakingly egotistical pronouncement, but going to the cinema probably saved my life. Whenever I felt like the world was stomping me into the ground like a bloody tent peg, that's where I would go and spend the money I didn't have; escaping through the magic of movies. I cannot over-emphasise the importance of cinema to my mental survival.
It's not just people, but companies like Disney and Warner Bros. saying that their new releases are to be theatrical, nor simultaneous of near simultaneous streaming releases on other media. Companies, producers, etc. of Shang Chi, No Time to Die, etc., you suck! I'll go back when it's safe and not one moment before, and no amount of your cajoling and whining will change my mind.
In fact, the whole leisure industry must share the blame for helping the infection spread. I keep hearing businesses criticising the government for restrictions. While I do not like or approve of the current popularist, right-wing, xenophobic morons in charge, the reason the economy is tanking globally is not something made by humans---despite all those baseless conspiracy theories---it is a virus. That's where the blame ultimately lies.
Due to the fact that I pay scant attention to reviews and trailers and big names, I totally credited the 2021 sequel to Jordan Peele, when the director was Nia DaCosta, with whom he shares writing credits for the screenplay, along with Win Rosenfeld. Peeles company, MonkeyPaw Productions did, however produce the film.
The artist protagonist, Anthony McCoy, is played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who you may remember as the cool undersea pirate supervillain Black Manta/David Kane from Aquaman, and the Morphus(?)/-like character from the upcoming The Matrix Resurrections.
Followup: Candyman is trending around 60%, which is about 7% better that my own rating.
Inferno (2016) is the last Ron Howard/Tom Hanks Dan Brown movie before The Lost Symbol TV show that I am very much enjoying. Imagine my delight---while waiting for episode 4 to drop---I discovered a Robert Langdon adventure I can't remember seeing. So that is what I watched on Grandparent's Day; I don't have any living ones, so I had to do something to chear myself up.
In it, Professor Robert Langdon, awakes with Amnesia, is almost immediately assassinated, and goes on the run with attractive ER doctor Sienna (Felicity Jones) to solve the mystery of a biological container he was carrying. Red herrings, madmen, an ambiguos and stabby supervillain... and a dastardly doomsday plot ensue.
Eventually, it occured to me that I have seen this before, but it did not make the cut for CRRRaSh! because it's a silly film that I promptly forget minutes after seeing the first time around. Contrary to popular belief, I do not talk about every single piece of media I consume (or every event in my life). On the other hand, it will tide me over until the next episode of The Lost Symbol. Also, it's nice to see a hero whose superpower is only having an otaku-like obsession about solving ancient puzzles. It's Indiana Jones, if Indy was utterly useless in a fight. You have to admire that.
Jonathan Ross is a celebrity comic book nerd, who in 2007 went on a quest to find the legendary comic book artist and notorious recluse, Steve Ditko (Spider-Man, The Question, Doctor Strange, etc.).
We also get to the bottom of the credit argument between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for the creation of Spider-Man. We hear from Lee that Lee himself came up with the idea, but Ditko Contributed heavily to the development of the concept and wanted to be known as the co-creator. Therefore, I have to side with Lee, however, I also think that Ditko should have been financially rewarded comensurate with Marvels's later monster success.
Personally speaking, I have issues 1--20 from the Pocket Books reprint from 1977. I first got vol. 1: #1--#6 (1977) and vol. 2: #7--#13 (1978) in late 70s or early 80s and I loved those books, until I moved to Canada and moronically left them behind on my return. They were replaced, along with the 3rd volume far more recently and at an unreasonable expense. Let me now get to the point! My interest of The Amazing Spider-Man, starts to wane after issue #38 (July 1966), when John Romita Sr. took over. His art style was so different, as Peter Parker goes from nerd to male model, that it started to make me lose interest in the comic, though not the hero.
Regarding the doc; aside from having to listen to Ross being TV witty, I also had to put up with Neil Gaimans as the sole representative of every geek in the world. I have nothing against Gaiman and I like some of his work, but it annoys me how the media trot him out every single time a geek-related thing must be discussed in front of cameras. More variety in the commentary please. The saving grace was that, as much as these two celebrity chaps chatter annoys me, they do seem genuinely like fanboys, and that sincerity makes the whole enterprise bearable.
I've seen the doc before, but it was a pleasure seeing it again. (It is available in numerous places on YouTube).
Deadline reports a Babylon 5 Series reboot is being developed by original series creator J. Michael Straczynski at The CW.
I don't want a B5 reboot, just a sequel. I've invested too much in the original show and characters.
I recently watched Bloodywood's YouTube rock documentary Raj Against the Machine. Bloodywood are un-geographically named band that's actually New Delhi-based.
It's an inspiring story of young talented metal heads, who, with zero albums and off the back of their YouTube fame, scored an international tour. Also, and I had no idea about this until the doc, they played locally, I mean just up the road from where I live.