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Post by valdemar on Jun 30, 2016 6:29:27 GMT
I recently re-bought this album - and it sounds as good as I remember. It's worth having for the sublime suite of themes from 'The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe', and the complete version of the theme to 'Red Dwarf' The orchestral themes are by the always top-notch City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, whilst the electronic themes are realised by Mark Ayres, of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The sequel album to this one is 'The Cult Files: re-opened [catalogue number FILMXCD 191]. It's equally as good. If you have tolerant neighbours, both these albums sound fantastic when played very, very loud.
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Post by valdemar on Jun 29, 2016 22:57:39 GMT
Thanks for reminding me about 'Penny Dreadful' ending - it's one of three excellent shows that I love that has been cancelled, or finished, the other two being 'Person Of Interest' - a really great show, and 'Marvel's Agent Carter', which was great, and just getting into it's stride. These three have gone, all shows which require the viewer to pay attention, and yet dreck such as 'S*p*rn*t*r*l' keep going and going. There's no justice. [sigh]
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Post by valdemar on Jun 29, 2016 3:22:03 GMT
I have just now watched the first four episodes of 'Preacher'. Being a fan of the original comicbook series, and owning them all, I'm pleased to report that the show looks to be a winner. What is odd, though, is that five of the main characters are played by British actors. My favourite has to be Joseph Gilgun, as Cassidy, a 119 year old vampire from Dublin. His bewilderment at the reappearance of 'agents' Fiore and De Blanc, after he knows that he definitely killed them, cut them up, and buried them in a trunk, is hilarious. "Clones. That's it" His surprise running them over with a minibus prior to this is laugh out loud funny. It really shouldn't be, but there's a great scene where the two 'agents' get tooled up with almost every light weapon known to man, take two steps from their car, and are run over by a laughing Cassidy. It really is superbly timed and funny. My only slight annoyance is that Jesse Custer's eyes don't shine red when he uses 'The Word'. Saying that, when he demonstrates 'The Word' to Cassidy, it's really funny, especially when he commands him to fly... Looking forward to watching more. Oh, and there's a possible homage to 'Fawlty Towers', inasmuch as the church sign keeps getting altered - the first time it's very rude [and as funny as hell, of course], and Custer admonishes his congregation about it. Well worth a watch.
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Post by valdemar on May 30, 2016 23:31:54 GMT
I love 'The Mummy's Shroud' - I saw it when I was fairly young, and the most horrifying part has to be the moment when poor Longbarrow [the late, very great Michael Ripper]is defenestrated by Prem, the Mummy, and lands, sickeningly hard on his head on the cobbled street. It's almost as nasty as when Baron Frankenstein pushes the nice professor Bernstein down the stairwell in 'The Curse Of Frankenstein [1957], and you distinctly hear his head hit the floor. But that's by the by. Other things to enjoy in 'The Mummy's Shroud' are the appearance of the great Roger Delgado, at his most silkily urbane; Maggie Kimberley's heaving bosoms, and the exquisitely unsettling self-destruction of Prem at the end. Once seen, never forgotten. Another Hammer production I greatly enjoyed recently, was 'Captain Clegg', which sticks very close to it's source material, Russell Thorndike's 1915 novel, 'Doctor Syn'. Although filmed nowhere near Romney Marsh, or indeed the sea, it does evoke the sinister, and creepy tone of the book. Peter Cushing, as the Reverend Blyss, was excellent, [as he always was], in the leading role. A great fun movie. Not strictly horror, but not far off. My current favourite TV show has to be 'Lucifer'. A well made, fun show, with a great premise. The fact that it has greatly annoyed the religious right in America, and still been given a second season, is a bonus. People. If there's a TV show you don't like, the solution is simple - don't watch it. There's plenty of other stuff on.
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Post by valdemar on May 30, 2016 22:38:36 GMT
The solid wood bed - with oak pillows, walnut sheets, and a teak mattress. No sleep. Guaranteed. Plus, the Solid Wood wardrobe; A huge piece of oak carved into the shape of a wardrobe...
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Post by valdemar on May 3, 2016 23:45:00 GMT
The only thing I remember about 'Kinvig' was when 'Starburst' magazine featured an article on it, with a rather nice picture of the very easy on the eye Prunella Gee as Kinvig's fantasy woman [or Venusian], Miss Griffin. She wasn't overdressed in the picture, I seem to remember... As an 18 year old in 1981, you tended to notice such things.
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Post by valdemar on Mar 7, 2016 7:11:10 GMT
After reading the blurb on the back cover, I was immediately reminded of the old bit of music-hall banter, viz: "I don't wish to know that, now kindly leave the stage." Ladeez 'n' Gemmun, Ithengyow.
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Post by valdemar on Feb 25, 2016 23:25:33 GMT
Not collect books? The idea chills me to the bone. Books are an indicator of how people live their lives, a pretty good externalisation of what they think, and, at the very basest level, as physical objects, furniture. I feel extremely uncomfortable if I visit somebody's house, and there are no books visible. I get rather annoyed with people who seem to think that not having read a book since they left school, is some sort of achievement. Finally, to those people that consider an e-reader to be a book - you're so very wrong: it's words on a screen. Books don't need recharging, generally don't break if dropped, and if accidentally dropped in water, can be dried out, or if it's a catastrophic dousing, can be replaced [fairly]cheaply. On an episode of 'Max Headroom', a character described a book to a yobbish young girl as;"A non-volatile information storage/retrieval device." I have always thought of books like that ever since.
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Post by valdemar on Nov 30, 2015 18:42:48 GMT
I notice that you didn't include a 'Do Not Press This Button' Button. I'd have pressed it if you had, though.
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Post by valdemar on Nov 15, 2015 8:06:18 GMT
Penny Dreadful - very possibly one of the finest TV shows ever made. God knows what the Daily Mail thinks of it. Do I care what the Daily Mail thinks of it? No. Back to the show. No spoilers here, just to let you know that if you thought the first 75% of the series was good, Then I can tell you that the finale is astonishing, violent, sad, and will leave you drained... and wanting more, whilst thinking: "How?" Look out also for a withering, and very funny put-down from the always great Simon Russell Beale's character. As you can possibly tell, I'm a fan.
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Wire!
Oct 29, 2015 22:50:12 GMT
Post by valdemar on Oct 29, 2015 22:50:12 GMT
Having liked Wire since 1977, and knowing the mercurial natures of all four original band members, I used 'funny' in it's loosest sense, knowing full-well that it would never, in anyone's wildest dreams, happen.
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Wire!
Oct 28, 2015 4:54:39 GMT
Post by valdemar on Oct 28, 2015 4:54:39 GMT
It would be more fun if Wire were to do what a lot of old bands have done recently, which is to play their best-known album in it's entirety, and yes, well done. If Wire played 'Pink Flag' in all it's glory, the gig would be over in about thirty-five minutes. A lot of great tunes, granted, but thirty-five minutes. Why Wire have never considered this, just to annoy, I don't know. The idea fits their rather perverse sense of humour perfectly. I believe that, in the past, they have played very, very long versions of 'Drill', possibly for longer than half an hour, so why not? I do like their stance, though. I wish more bands would follow them.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 27, 2015 0:44:40 GMT
Pity.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 24, 2015 2:58:55 GMT
The 'Medium' wasn't Derek 'Taking The Piss, Actually' Acorah, was it? Every place he goes to, he encounters the 'spirit' of 'A little lad'. If the 'Little Lad' was Alan Ladd, then it might be entertaining, but no. It must be nice to make a living by talking bollocks, you know. Wish I'd thought of it. As a thought, is the 'Fraudulent Mediums Act' still on the statutes? I believe that's what they replaced the old 'Witchcraft Act' with, in the 1940's. Yes, that recently.
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Post by valdemar on Oct 23, 2015 15:27:28 GMT
Bear Grylls. What a c**t. If his next 'adventure' was that he was going to parachute into the crater of Mount Etna on one of it's grumbly days, then I'd watch it. He is supposed (and I'm sure a lot of his life is supposition) to be a survival expert. I was friends with a bloke who WAS a survival expert - he instructed Air-Sea Rescue crews for a living. He said two good rules for staying alive were (1) Don't jump from things if you are not sure how high they are - in fact, just don't jump from things, period. (2) Try, at all costs to keep yourself and your kit dry. Bear Grylls (what the F**K kind of name is that?) usually jumps from helicopters on to mountain tops, or, as his show trailer demonstrated, off a cliff into water. He has no idea. He thinks he's bloody Action Man. The Cock. No, I'm not a fan. Can you tell? On the other hand, I could listen to Messrs. Betjeman and Korner until the cows come home. I've not seen the Bart and Brown programme, but it sounds excellent. The last four people mentioned are folks who all know stuff. Interesting stuff that needs to be heard, not throwaway toss peddled by the likes of Bear 'C**t' Grylls (I bet his real name is something like Ray Jarvis). Sir Mortimer Wheeler, by the way, was the Archaeologist who can very possibly be credited with making the subject accessible, and indeed, fun. No 'Time Team' without this man. He excavated the huge Maiden Castle hillfort near Dorchester in Dorset, and, to the horror of the Archaeology establishment - let the public in to the dig, to see what was going on. All over the site were uncovered piles of small stones - these were ammo dumps of 'Sling stones', to be flung at invaders. There were millions of these carefully graded stones on site, so what did Sir Mortimer do after collecting some for the museums? Yup. Get them bagged up so that visitors could buy them as a souvenir, and have some ancient British history to take home with them. Inspired. You'll find his shows in the 'Archaeology on the BBC' collection. Most entertaining are a series of chats (and they are chats, easy-going, humourous and warm), with the late, great Magnus Magnusson. Well worth a watch, after which, you will wish that you could have gone out for a swift half with both gentlemen.
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