By Roy Mathur, on 2024-03-13, at 23:02:59 to 23:48:05 GMT, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
Saturday (2024-03-09) started so abysmally I almost went back to bed, but Mum shoved me out the door. Migraine kicked in on Tottenham Court Road. I went into a musical instrument shop in Denmark Street and said, "I wanted a twang." (I am also fascinated by the Roland shop and will ask for a demo of a sampler next time). It brightened around noon, and I ate a ploughman's sandwich in Embankment Gardens. I enjoyed the sun with happy pigeons. I recorded a Mother's Day WhatsApp for Mum that I sent the next day. I shared a park bench with Sam, a Mauritian ex-British Army chef, who highly recommended the Ritz (where he used to work) for high tea; something I promised my mum we'd do some day. I hope you and your partner enjoyed Bronco Billy, Sam. The Circle and District lines were buggered and a TFL worker sent me off in the wrong direction. I eventually wended my way to my club's meeting, where talk was delightfully geeky. I ate a coronation chicken sandwich on the trundle home. Total distance walked: 9.65 miles.
Related: I am the hole walking man. The constant Randall Flagging about, moreso since the death of my motor, have caused insole holes in the comfortable and expensive Skechers bought only about six months ago. Unlike Traffic or Neil (Nigel Planer), there was no elephant's eye in sky looking at me and they don't let in water. (A black hole was also not involved), but such a short lifespan is absurd for shoes designed specifically for walking. I can't go back to cheaper, less comfortable, Rebook Classics. Suggestions? I walk about 4 miles daily.
Finally, despite what you may hear from the right's wingnut xenophobic stirrers, there are no no go areas in Central London. Take it from someone who walks miles around Central London at least one Saturday a month. The situation reminds me of the alarmist hoo-ha nonsense over the XR protests that I also talked about a few years go.
Starting on World Book Day and finishing the day after, I read Neil Cross's 2009 horror/thriller novel that spawned his 2020 ITV TV miniseries script.
I read it because I wanted to dive deeper into the fascinating monster and ghosthunter, Bob Murrow, than the short TV series could afford. I needn't have bothered as the character is barely fleshed out in either. Seemingly impossibly, he is also even more thoroughly repulsive than his onscreen counterpart, who at least benefits from charisma. Irritatingly, the least interesting character, Nathan, is a boring cypher with no backstory, yet occupies most of the prose. Unlike the miniseries, the novel is twistless. If you must consume this, watch the better TV show. I said, "Embrace the schlock" in my two sentence review of it in 349. I suspect Cross became a better writer in the 11 years between the two.
Cross is a meat and potatoes writer, lightened with the odd sprig of purple, and what I suspect is a lot of 80s Brit horror lit influence and Easter Eggs that drove me through the book. For that much, I'm grateful it re-ignited my voracious bookworm habit that slowed to a crawl over the last decade.
I watched this 2019 Laika animation more than a year ago.
I barely remember it was about an explorer discovering a friendly Yeti and that it mildly amused me. Wikipedia page says it was a happy ending for all the goodies, so maybe give it a try.
Feeling mopey in the last week on February, I indulged in one of the comforts of childhood, BB1's Mr Benn series from 1971. In it, Mr Benn. a bowler hatted and suited chap, seeks a costume for an fancy dress party in a strange old shop. Donning a knight's costume, he steps through a magic door and into a gentle medieval adventure to help a sad but adorable dragon.
It took me back and Mum says she liked Mr Benn too, when she watched it with me on our first black and white set. I don't think we had a colour telly until the 80s.
1970 to 1971 LWT (now part of ITV) children's series about incompetent medieval wizard, who escapes the Normans by travelling to the present day, where he is scared witless by modern technology. Imagine an extended kid-friendly Hammer House of Horror: Witching Time without the hanky panky.
I recently rewatched the first episode on YouTube. It's funny and Geoffrey Bayldon is endearing, but, odds bodkins, one can't help noticing Blaydon's very modern tooth fillings. Curses, HD!
Apple TV+ 2024 sci-fi minseries about astronaut (Noomi Rapace) feeling strangely off kilter following a disaster around the same time as the commander was concluding a peculiar experiment in quantum physics. Hey, Noomi, I feel like that way every day.
I immediately experienced strong intimations of Gerry Anderson's Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969), that morphed into time travel, parallel universes, and perhaps more than a touch of Event Horizon.
I could watch an hour of Rapace or Banks and do crosswords puzzles silently. The moment he mentioned he had a brother, I knew Jonathan Banks would be playing twins. But poor Henry isn't a proper nerd, otherwise he'd know to hit the Print Screen key.
Trivia: the little plastic white kitchen timer velcro'd to the ISS and used by Rapace is branded "Time Check" and was used by John Glenn on NASA's STS-95 1998 Space Shuttle mission. It is currently on display at DC's National Air and Space Museum. Beat that, nerds.
Intriguing series. I trust the denouement isn't an emotional journey cop out, rather than the the hard science fiction resolution it deserves.
If your Shure SM7B sounds muffled and essy, try an EQ curve I use to attenuate those frequencies in Audacity (or other DAWs): -5 dB from 50 Hz and below to 200 Hz and from 5000 Hz to 20,000 Hz and above.
You can find more details on my website
Scientists, I have free algorithmic code for you, e.g. Hardy Weinberg Equation used in Evolutionary Biology, Wilcoxon and Bivariate statistical analysis, a field of view calculator for archaeology and aerial photography, etc.
Should I GitHub it (learning curve, ugh) or I put it on my website + archive.org it?
Got GAS? Snaffle yourself a bargain on my shopping site, Emporia Esoterica, that I'm readying to go back online soon. Details to follow in the podcast.
Includes: The Shop of Merch (podcast merch), The Shop of Books (on Amazon and written by me), and The Shop of NUL (audio gear, electronics, etc. I'm eBaying).
You wouldn't believe how busy I am. There's a lot more to tell you, but only some of which may interest you, even in this geek-life zine episode, so I've restrained myself.
If you want to want to know more about my life in the UK as a geek, let me know. If you'd like to know less, also let me know, as I am well aware that I over-share.